The way we shop has significantly changed in the past few years – and to no surprise. With the rise of digital platforms, on-foot traffic has shifted to digital footprints leading customers in and out of thousands of online stores. Especially after the pandemic, the interest to launch and grow an eCommerce business is rising among entrepreneurs and retailers around the globe.
Being among the most visited websites on the internet – and the largest online market – Amazon is a great place to start an eCommerce business. In fact, Amazon can handle most of the job for you by allowing you to start and grow an Amazon FBA Business by simply shipping your inventory to the company. It then handles the shopping, picking, packing, and shipping – making selling on the platform the most hands-free business model out there.
Photo from Entrepreneur
Starting your business on Amazon is relatively simple, but it does require some necessary steps. To help you get a head start, we have compiled a comprehensive step-by-step guide for launching your eCommerce business on Amazon.
Determine What You’re Going to Sell
Before you open an eCommerce store of any kind, you should have your product and strategy in place.
If you have an existing online business, then you might be looking to expand your products to Amazon. This might entail fulfilling your orders on Amazon or using the Amazon FBA system to fulfill your orders on other platforms. In such cases, you can use an enterprise eCommerce solution to consolidate your orders so you don’t have to process orders from multiple interfaces.
If, on the other hand, you are opening your first store on Amazon, you should dedicate enough time to research and feedback to determine the best product for your idea. A seller can handle everything on the business side, but if the product they are marketing is not successful, their efforts will be of no use.
Choose Your Selling Strategy
Once you’ve chosen your products, there are several strategies you can adopt as a seller on Amazon. The three most popular ones are:
Private Label
Private labels source their products from a supplier, brand them, and sell them on the platform. For this, you have to create a product listing, optimize it, and run pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns and promotions on your own. Although this method may require the heaviest commitment, it is often the most rewarding one as well.
Wholesale
Sellers that adopt a wholesale strategy purchase existing products and sell them by piggybacking on existing listings. This way, you don’t have to create a new listing or manage your brand, but you can still run PPC campaigns if you wish to do so.
Retail Arbitrage
This option is the most hands-on strategy. What you do is find discounted items in local stores that are in the clearance aisle or final discount, purchase them, and resell them on Amazon for a profit. Although your work on the platform is limited, you have to dedicate effort to find items to sell.
Create a Seller Account
You have two options for becoming a seller – you can either use your customer account or create a new Amazon seller account with your business email. Before you sign up, make sure you have the following information prepared:
- Business email address or existing customer account;
- Chargeable credit card;
- Government identification (ID);
- Tax information;
- Phone number;
- Bank account where Amazon will send the proceeds from the sales.
Add Your Products
Before you list your products, make sure they comply with the regulations and product restrictions of Amazon. To start selling, you can create a product listing that will include the following details:
- A product identified that specifies the exact item you’re selling (such as GTIN, UPC, ISBN, or EAN);
- An SKU – a product ID that will help you track your inventory;
- Offer details like price, condition, available quantity, and shipping options;
- Keywords and search terms that will help customers find your products.
If the product is already offered by another seller, you can simply match the listing.
Attract Customers
Once your products go live in Amazon stores, you can do several things to attract customers.
One of the things that online shoppers pay attention to is the shipping options. With Amazon Prime, you can speed up the delivery as fast as the same day. You can get the Amazon Prime badge by using FBA to ship products from one of Amazon’s fulfillment centers.
Another great way to attract customers before they have checked out your products is to improve the visibility of the products and increase brand awareness. You can do this by advertising in the search results and product pages or by offering deals.
Photo from Search Engine Journal
Final Words
eCommerce is becoming the new preferred shopping method for customers around the globe and, with that, an integral part of people’s everyday lives. Being the largest online market, Amazon has never been more attractive for eCommerce businesses.
There are several steps to follow when launching an eCommerce business on Amazon. First, you should determine what you’re going to sell – that will help you choose your selling strategy. You can then open your seller account and start adding your products. Once you have created product listings or added to existing ones, you should focus on attracting customers to achieve and grow your sales.