What mistakes do sellers make on Amazon, you ask?
Well, for new sellers, it’s a steep learning curve, so the list is endless. But even experienced Amazon sellers learn by trial and error.
Amazon has made it easy for people to leave their mundane desk jobs and become their bosses.
If you are one of them, then you may want to keep in mind some of the mistakes that new Amazon sellers make.
Given that there is a lot of fine print that sellers need to read before starting on the marketplace, it is rather easy to make these errors.
Here, we’ll cover 10 of the most expensive mistakes Amazon sellers make and how to avoid them.
Table of Content
Chapter 1: The Most Expensive Mistakes Made by New Amazon Sellers
Chapter 2: Sell Products Online by Selling on Amazon
Chapter 3: How to start selling on Amazon?
Chapter 4: Amazon Seller Central: Dos and Don’ts
Chapter 5: Frequently Ask Questions About Amazon Mistakes
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: The Most Expensive Mistakes Made by New Amazon Sellers
1. You break the rules
If you decide to sell on Amazon, know what you are allowed and can’t do.
If you violate some rules or violate the Amazon Terms of Service, Amazon can close your account down.
Amazon is an estimated trillion-dollar business. They employ many thousands of workers and some of the most sophisticated technology available.
The company also can oversee Amazon seller behavior and will not suffer substantial financial loss by banning a seller in one place or another.
When you begin selling on Amazon, make sure you know and are aware of their guidelines.
If you’re not sure, make sure you do your homework. We will explain that you need to be aware of Amazon’s terms of Service to guard yourself against these dangers.
2. You ignore the competition
Be sure that when you research products; take a look at the number of competitors within your area.
Concentrate on the number of reviews as well. If the top 10 sellers you find in your search results are rated with more than 100, then the product is a bit too competitive.
It is also possible to use an application such as the Jungle Scout’s Keyword Scout to predict the price of Amazon PPC.
If you’re unable to sell your product, you’re likely to be unable to recover (at the very least) the money you spent to buy the product initially.
It’s typically two or 3000 dollars. If you’re trying to draw attention to your product by paying for ads that cost a lot of clicks, you’ll be losing hundreds of dollars more.
3. You fail to vet your supplier
Other sellers have had similar experiences. To ensure that you are working with reputable suppliers, finding suppliers other businesses have confidence in is essential.
The best way to find out if an organization is reliable is to examine its track record through Jungle Scout’s Supplier Database.
If you want to go a step further, you can input the names of your competition (or the ASIN number of some of their items) into the database to find out the people they’re using.
Inability to thoroughly examine a potential supplier can cost you hundreds of dollars in charges, overcharges, and much more.
Additionally, if the supplier takes your money (a most likely scenario), this could mean losing thousands in dollars.
4. You don’t improve on what’s come before
In the past, when I began selling, you could make products on Amazon which was nearly the same as the one already present on the search page. Today, it’s incredibly inefficient.
In addition, Amazon’s algorithm can recognize duplicates and other similar products, but customers are also more innovative.
If they’re forced to choose between two similar products most likely pick the one with the highest number of reviews.
If your product came on the market in a second place, it’s not likely to be the one that’s yours.
So, before you begin looking into a product or specific particular to your area, be sure to look over the comments made in reviews for the product. Find out what customers’ complaints points.
Find out what’s not working in the current development and then look for ways to improve it.
For instance, if customers complain that the top-selling garlic presses on Amazon are hard to clean, consider adding an easily washable, removable silicon cover or toothbrush to scrub it.
A product featured in a splash on Amazon could cost your entire investment, mainly if it isn’t able to garner higher ratings and reviews over the consequences of competitors you copied.
5. You over-order stock
Most sellers feel that they require more stock to ensure that the demand for their product is very high (no person would like to run out of stock!).
It is also typical to purchase more to ensure that the cost per unit is lower. However, the over-ordering stock could create sellers a significant amount of dollars.
Additionally, getting rid of excess stocks can be expensive and complicated. If you decide to liquidate, then it is likely that you won’t receive the total amount of your investment.
If you choose to transfer the inventory back to yourself, you’ll need to be prepared to shell out Amazon $0.50 for each unit. It’s a lot!
Although sales estimates can help you understand what you can expect to see once your product goes on sale, the most reliable indicator of its performance is always the actual sales (even just a tiny portion from them).
Even if you decide to sell all your surplus stocks, Amazon’s storage costs can add up. Storage fees for long-term storage are incredibly costly.
After the product has been on Amazon for over a year, you’ll be being charged $6.90 for each cubic foot every month at a minimum of $0.15 for each unit.
Additionally, the money you pay for extra inventory could have been used to develop more lucrative, new products.
6. You don’t use Amazon PPC
Amazon Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is Amazon’s integrated advertising system. There is a cost associated with it.
But, paying this tiny amount will guarantee that your product gets before a wider audience.
More customers mean increased sales opportunities. Additionally, if you create a sponsored listing for your product and then make a sale, this tells Amazon’s algorithm that one customer would like to purchase.
This improves the organic rank of your product.
However, if cost is your main concern, consider using tools such as Jungle Scout’s Sales Analytics to keep track of your PPC costs. Also, you can run a lot of reports about your product.
I’d also recommend doubling down on keywords that convert well and reducing those that cost too much.
Take this example. Your product has a conversion rate of 10%. Rating, which means that 1 out of 10 people who see your product’s page make purchases?
Yet, you’re only receiving 1,000 views per month, which translates into only 100 sales. It also has a gross margin of 25 percent.
After deducting costs directly, the profits are your property of yours. What do you think if you decided to take 10% of the profits and put it into advertising instead?
Imagine your product getting 10,000 impressions per month. That’s a total of 1,000 sales with an average of 15% profit.
Compare that to just 100 sales with 25 percent gross profit. It’s a substantial increase in profit, something you’d lost out on if you had chosen not to market.
7. You lack a review plan
Reviews are essential for the success of your business on Amazon. A recent study conducted by G2 and Heinz also revealed an increase of 92% in customers who read positive reviews and can complete their purchases.
When you go on to start your business, you’ll want to have positive reviews for your product as soon as you can.
This is why you must prepare a review plan place. It is also essential to ensure that your review program follows the guidelines.
Utilizing illegal “black hat” practices could cost you more. For more information about creating review plans, be sure to check out our article How to Get Reviews on Amazon.
Consider that the average conversion of an item with a good review is 20 percent.
Utilizing the measurement taken from the G2 research study, this implies that only 1.6 percent of people can be converted with no reviews.
With 1,000 impressions, it’s the difference between the 200 and 16 sales.
8. You use inaccurate sales data
Amazon does not share its sales information. If it would, all could create similar products.
So, Amazon FBA sellers rely on sales estimation tools such as Jungle Scout to determine the demand for their products.
If you make estimates of sales that are far off, this could cause a loss in capital and profit.
Recently, we conducted a test of data with sellers who sell their products to find out how accurate our estimates were compared to our competitors’ estimates. The findings were definitive.
No other competitor can even come as close as Jungle. Imagine having a tool that’s accurate 83 percent of the time instead of one that’s accurate 67 percent all the time. Is it not like an enormous amount, is it?
Let’s suppose that you look up an item using”67% accuracy” and the “67% accuracy” tool that claims to sell an average to be 400 units sold every month.
Another competitor can scope out the same item using an “83% accuracy” tool and claims that the product is sold at an average of 300 units per month.
9. You take shortcuts
A while ago, the Seller complained that they couldn’t sell their product to Amazon because Amazon did not recognize its GTINs (barcodes).
It was no surprise that they said that they had purchased the incorrect GTINs via a third party to save some money.
The barcodes might be a bargain at $100, but they’ve wasted that money in the end. This is just one example of the kinds of shortcuts that new sellers use.
Other common mistakes include failing to label their products properly, inadequate listing optimization as well as rushing through research into their product, failing to check suppliers, and much more. In essence, everything I’ve listed in this post.
10. Poor listing optimization
If you go into a department store and find that the area is messy or you’re having trouble finding what you’re looking for, most likely, you’re not expected to purchase, right? You’ll turn around and leave.
Many new sellers do not realize that their product listings are something like a storefront and an advertising tool for your product in one.
Therefore, you need to ensure that your product description is as flawless as it could be.
This means using professional photos, well-written titles, precise definitions, and supplying competitive prices.
If you’re unsure of how to design a great listing, consult an expert.
Jungle Scout — an all-in-one platform that sells on Amazon, is home to its marketplace of professionals such as marketers, writers, copywriters, photographers, and many more who can help optimize your product.
To do this, we’ll use the impressions model again. Let’s suppose that a fully optimized product’s conversion rate is 20 percent.
Then a poor product’s listing converts just 15 percent of the time. If a product gets 10,000 impressions per month, this is more than 200 or 150 transactions.
With a profit of $5 per product, that means you’re losing the opportunity to earn $250.
Chapter 2: Sell Products Online by Selling on Amazon
1. What is Seller Central?
Seller Central is the portal to log in to your Amazon seller’s account details.
It’s the one-stop-shop for managing your sales effectiveness and the best resource to use to sell on Amazon’s marketplace.
Amazon Seller Central assists you in managing the Seller’s account and developing the business you run on Amazon with valuable tools and resources and all on one easy dashboard.
Log into your account to track your Amazon sales and many more.
2. Seller Central tools and benefits
Seller Central has many features and advantages. Here’s a selection of the tools available to your disposal:
- New products are listed, and you can add or update information about the product.
- Track daily sales for every product you sell on Amazon’s store.
- Maintain track of inventory and make changes to listings.
- Manage and track payments, returns, and refunds.
- You can download custom Business reports, as well as templates for bookmarks to frequently use.
- Monitor customer satisfaction to gauge the performance of your store.
- Reach out to Selling Partner Support, and open support tickets.
- Gain access to growth tools that can increase sales.
- Control your shipping with Fulfillment through Amazon (FBA).
- Manage to sell programs, such as B2B, Handmade, or Amazon Custom.
- Monitor advertising campaigns and manage the performance of campaigns.
- Review and monitor customer feedback.
- Sell internationally using Amazon Global Selling.
3. How do you access Amazon Seller Central?
Amazon Seller Central will be accessible to every Amazon seller. After you sign up and sign up, you’ll be able to access the Seller Central account.
There, you’ll be able to manage the details of your daily business needs and have access to tools to increase sales in one location.
You can control your website run through the no-cost Amazon Seller app.
The first step in accessing Seller Central is to choose the best-selling strategy that matches your goals for your business.
The Individual Selling plan is a pay-as-you-go plan that offers access to the primary listing tools and order management.
You can make listings one at a by matching offers with existing items or adding new things to your Amazon catalogue.
The Professional Selling plan gives access to the most advanced selling tools for the cost of a monthly subscription.
The monthly cost is regardless of whether you sell or list something, and you also don’t have to pay a fee per item if an item is sold (for the two plans, Amazon takes a commission on every sale that is proportional to the amount of transaction and is based on the item category.
These tools are handy for businesses of all sizes, both large and medium.
4. Why sell online with Amazon? Here are three good reasons:
a) Amazon offers online businesses access to millions of customers every day
More than 1.7 million small and medium-sized companies across the globe sell their products on Amazon’s website, and third-party sellers currently represent more than half of the products sold through Amazon stores.
b) Entrepreneurs are earning sales and growing their businesses
In 2019, more than 225,000 entrepreneurs around the world surpassed the threshold of $100,000 on sales at Amazon’s marketplace, while 15000 U.S. businesses broke $1 million.
- commerce is flourishing, and the trends indicate a continued increase year-over-year.
For those who want to become entrepreneurs or grow their businesses, eCommerce could be an effective model to change, whether for the sole purpose of your business in addition as a sales channel.
C) Amazon supports online sellers and entrepreneurs with resources and tools
In the year 2019, Amazon invested $15 billion and introduced 225 new tools and services that aid third-party sellers in their growth and prosperity.
Seller University and Amazon Small Business Academy are where you can look into webinars, sign-up for monthly small business classes, and explore additional tools that can help small business owners.
Chapter 3: How to start selling on Amazon?
1. Before you start selling on Amazon
a) Choose a selling plan
If you choose the Individual plan, you’ll be charged $0.99 each time you sell an item. The Professional goal is $39.99 each month regardless of how many products you sell.
Both programs offer Amazon and charge a refer-along fee for each sale of a certain percentage of the transaction, depending on the product category. Check out the price page to see a list of the selling fees.
b) Consider your selling strategy
Resellers look for popular products that are already available and sell these products on Amazon’s marketplaces.
Owners of brands produce their items or purchase goods from suppliers under a private label to offer customers a unique choice.
A lot of sellers employ both. It is up to you to decide which method is most effective for your needs. If you are planning to sell your product on Amazon, We have a lot of tools and resources to aid you.
c) Perfect Launch: five steps for your first 90 days
The initial 90 days are essential for setting the proper methods to boost performance after the initial launch for the newest Amazon sellers.
2. Product listing details
a) Attracting customers
After your product is on sale at Amazon’s store, there are a lot of options you can take to draw customers.
This is the Amazon Flywheel that describes our method for accelerating expansion. Here are a few ways to think about using “Amazon Flywheel” principles to help your business gain momentum.
b) Provide fast shipping
Customers frequently shop for products that carry their Amazon Prime badge, which you can obtain by using the Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) to ship your items through one of our fulfilment centres.
c) Advertise your offers
Increase the visibility of specific products and increase brand recognition by promoting your brand in the results of searches and on the product’s pages.
Offering a sale or a coupon is another method to advertise your product.
3. After your first sale On Amazon
a) Get customer reviews
Customer reviews of products benefit buyers as well as sellers. Be sure to know the correct and incorrect ways to obtain more reviews and avoid policy violations.
b) Grow your business
Selling on Amazon stores allows you to create a global company using your laptop. Promotions, advertising, and international sales are only a few ways to grow.
We set the bar high for Amazon sellers as we wish to offer an easy, secure, and pleasant shopping experience to our customers
Chapter 4: Amazon Seller Central: Dos and Don’ts
1. Amazon Seller Central Dos:
a) Work On Your Product Listings
Think about if you’ve got an excellent product with the potential to be a success in the marketplace.
But, if you describe your item in a poor or poorly written way, the chances of selling items on Amazon are less.
It is therefore recommended to put in the time and effort in filling up the information fields on your product with care.
Your description of your product should include all relevant keywords from an Amazon SEO point of view.
In addition, the report should be written in bullet points that are clear, concise, and effective.
It is also essential to use all the space available for you to use by Amazon since it is limited space. This is where the best keyword research is necessary.
Creating a solid foundation with the top-selling Amazon keyword phrases for your product is needed.
- Learn How To Read Business Metrics
The account you have on the Amazon Seller Central account holds all of the crucial statistics and information about your business.
Therefore, it is essential to interpret and analyze the key performance indicators. The metrics you should be looking out for include:
- The number of times that people have seen your product
- Sales volume
- Conversion rate
- Sales reports as well as Amazon PPC campaign reports
- Returns to the number
- Customer reviews
It’s a fair assumption that to operate your business using the Amazon platform; it is essential to keep a steady overview of these numbers.
It is vital to monitor these numbers frequently to find areas where your company is not performing and tackle them.
If you’re unfamiliar with these numbers, learn how they function. These numbers can provide important insight into your business and efficiently help you improve your profits and sales.
You can access all of them in the ‘Reports in the Reports section within Your Seller Central account.
c) Contact Amazon Seller Central Support
One of the aspects that determine whether you rank your items highly on Amazon is the level of inventory.
Because Amazon is keen for its customers to experience an exceptional shopping experience, the company generally displays only those results with the item in stock.
In addition, Amazon stands to make a profit from each sale you make. If you run out of stocks, it can affect your company.
It is therefore essential to keep an eye on your inventory levels and make sure that you have adequate time in which to refill your inventory.
For this reason, it is also recommended that you set up a well-defined process to restock your inventory by communicating with your manufacturer/sourcing connection.
d) Monitor Your Inventory Levels
It’s well-known that shoppers who shop online prefer doing business with a company that has a reputation for providing outstanding customer service.
If it’s handling refunds and returns or addressing questions about the product and being you are an Amazon vendor; you must be prepared to manage these situations efficiently.
When using Amazon FBA, you don’t need to be concerned about anything; however, if you aren’t, you must put the infrastructure to manage these logistical concerns.
It is also essential to ensure that your orders arrive promptly to ensure that you don’t receive negative feedback.
2. Amazon Seller Central Don’ts
- Failing to Understand Amazon fees
One of the biggest mistakes sellers make does not comprehend how Amazon costs them to provide the services they provide.
The cost estimation and margin calculations can go off the rails when this occurs. Thus, before you begin your journey through Seller Central, calculate your margins and costs carefully.
Additionally, you should consider other costs like expenses, branding and advertising budgets, referral fees, and so on that may be a factor in your profit.
- Do not Provide Expensive/Late Shipping
There is nothing that turns a customer off more quickly than charging excessive amounts for shipping.
Shipping for online customers is crucial, and as an online seller, you should not set too much in the process.
Studies have revealed that six out of ten customers abandon their carts due to shipping costs. While you’re there, make sure that your purchases are delivered in time.
- Do not Purchase Reviews
Although reviews are essential for influencing future sales, however, you shouldn’t be a victim of buying reviews that are not genuine.
Recently, Amazon has taken strict measures to prevent false reviews and make sure that all testimonials associated with a product sold on the marketplace are authentic and authentic.
It is important to note that it’s also against Amazon’s policy to ask for reviews.
- Operating Under More than One Seller Account
According to Amazon’s policies, you can sell your products through Amazon only with only one account. Multiple seller accounts are in direct violation.
Chapter 5: Frequently Ask Questions About Amazon Mistakes
1. How does Amazon work with sellers?
If you choose the Individual plan, you’ll be charged $0.99 each time you make a sale of an item. The Professional program is $39.99 each month regardless of how many items you’re selling.
Both plans offer Amazon also pays an affiliate fee for each sale of a certain percent of the transaction and varies based on product type.
2. Do you need a business license to sell on Amazon?
Let’s look at this question about the most well-known marketplaces on the internet: The simple answer is yes. There is no need for an enterprise license to sell your products online like Amazon.
This is because most of the items sold through Amazon aren’t federally or State-wide controlled.
3. How much does the average Amazon seller make?
The majority of Amazon sellers earn at least $1000 every month in sales. However, certain super-sellers earn more than $100,000 per month in revenue.
50percent of Amazon sellers earn between $1,000 and $25,000 a month, which is an annual income of $12,000-$300,000.
4. Can I sell on Amazon as an individual?
It is a pay-as-you-go plan that offers access to a simple collection of listing and administration tools.
Individual sellers can make listings at a time by linking their products to their existing pages or by creating new pages within Amazon’s catalogue. Amazon catalogue.
5. Does Amazon collect tax?
It is essential to keep in mind that Amazon is now collecting sales tax on behalf of sellers in all states with the help of an Amazon fulfilment centre.
Conclusion
The most effective way to make the most out of Amazon Seller Central is by taking note of the tips mentioned earlier.
As you move along your way, you’ll encounter additional features that could be or not benefit your business model.
Amazon certainly has a quantity of potential. The web is full of success accounts of individuals who talk about how Amazon has helped them get rid of their corporate jobs.
If you have any ideas or tips for how you can make the most from the Amazon Seller Central guide, send them to us in the comments section below!
You can also check out the SellerApp blog to get you the most up-to-date information and innovations to enable you to make the most out of Amazon as the Seller.
Good luck to the Seller!
