Now that the COVID-19 pandemic is behind us, online sellers, especially newbie Amazon sellers, should see to it that important preparation checklists are taken care of during this quarter’s holiday season.                                   

Some of the highly anticipated holidays of most eCommerce platforms include but are not limited to Halloween (October 31); Thanksgiving (November 23); Black Friday (November 24); Cyber Monday (November 27); Hanukkah (December 7–15); Christmas Eve and Day (December 24–25); Boxing Day (December 26); New Year’s Eve (December 31).

The Catalyst for Increased Online Holiday Season Shopping

Despite the global economy’s fragility and the looming threat of a recession, the retail and eCommerce industry has been recovering from logistical challenges and inventory issues. As the holiday season approaches, online sellers should anticipate a surge in eCommerce activity along with the challenges it entails.

To address challenges that may arise, those selling on Amazon should pay attention to typical Amazon seller problems. In particular, newbie sellers should get their Amazon listings ready and maximize available Amazon seller tools to enhance customer satisfaction and Amazon business performance during peak consumer spending period.

As per eMarketer, global retail spending for this year is projected to reach approximately 1.3 trillion dollars. Moreover, the 2023 Holiday Shopping Trends Report by Celigo also highlighted that 75% of consumers intend to do most of their holiday gift shopping online. 

It is also worth noting that nearly 50% of holiday shoppers have indicated that they plan to start their holiday shopping no later than October, and the shopping activity will continue through Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the Christmas season.

Top Challenges Amazon Sellers Might Encounter This Peak Season

Since most consumers intend to spend more and shop early this holiday season, online shopping is expected to spike before the year ends. For that matter, Amazon sellers should take precautionary measures to immediately resolve or even avoid some of the potential challenges in retail this Q4 of 2023.

To give sellers a preview on potential shopping issues and other unprecedented concerns during the holiday shopping spree of online consumers, here are some of the challenges to anticipate this Q4 of 2023.  

Communication Overload 

Many sellers encounter communication overload during the holiday season. Communication overload often leads to poor customer service and decreased overall business performance.

Too much information can overwhelm new sellers and their teams, potentially causing them to overlook or neglect critical messages or urgent tasks. One contributing factor to this communication overload is ineffective information filtering or organization.

What To Do:

You can employ several strategies to prevent communication overload within your eCommerce business during the holiday season. Simply organizing and filtering your messages will enable you to readily access and address the most pertinent and urgent communications.

Furthermore, you can mitigate or even eliminate communication overload by effectively assigning and collaborating on tasks with your team. This approach enables the distribution of workloads and leverages team members’ expertise and skills.

Lastly, you can also consider using software tools to help you manage communications and delegate tasks. It helps ease communication overload and enhances the overall efficiency of your business operations.

Supply Chain Disruptions

During the holiday shopping rush, the supply chain can be a nightmare for online sellers, especially in the latter part of the logistic process involving inventory management, warehousing, order fulfillment, and last-mile delivery. 

Amazon sellers have to keep track of many things, and the influx of customer engagements and orders makes it more challenging to manage the business, leading to supply chain disruption. 

What To Do:

It is essential to establish suitable contingency plans to safeguard your business operations from the impact of supply chain disruptions. Prior to the fourth quarter of 2023, you should assess your supply chain and implement any required adjustments.

If you rely solely on one shipping method, such as Amazon FBA, it would be best to create a backup plan in case the Amazon warehouse or fulfillment centers get overwhelmed with customer orders. 

It would also help you secure an additional labor force to enhance your operational efficiency during the peak holiday shopping season. By doing so, you can avoid negative reviews or complaints from Amazon shoppers.

Moreover, choose the logistic method that makes more sense regarding effort, time, and financial resources. Evaluate whether an item and its destination are worth sending via Amazon FBA or FBM.

Increased Competition 

In the holiday shopping season, it is anticipated that competition will increase, making it more challenging for sellers to rank on Amazon’s organic search result page. Numerous sellers will likely venture into eCommerce to leverage the holiday season’s increased consumer demand.

What To Do:

Your primary objective this holiday season is to stand out within the competitive Amazon marketplace. Numerous methods exist to achieve this, including the use of product research tools to help you discover unique and potentially successful products.

You can also enhance your listing’s images and product descriptions to captivate shoppers’ interest. Simultaneously, this optimization can boost the visibility of your listings in organic search results.

Additionally, you can also improve your marketing campaigns. If possible, increase your budget for advertising and promotions to reach more audiences during the holiday season. 

Lastly, you can also optimize your listing price to make it more appealing to customers. Nevertheless, when making price adjustments, it is essential to do so cautiously without compromising your profit margin. Typically, Amazon sellers use an AI repricer to automate price changes while ensuring a sustainable profit margin.                                                                  

Inventory Issues                                          

The Q4 of 2023 could be extra-challenging for Amazon sellers and the rest of the retail industry. With the ever-fluctuating consumer demand and the disrupted supply chain, inventory management can become an issue during this peak season. 

What To Do: 

The best possible holiday preparation and proper inventory management could make a huge difference. Investing in a dependable inventory management software will help improve inventory management and avoid stock-out situations. 

What makes these latest inventory management tools a must are their capabilities to provide online retailers real-time stock levels and shipment locations. 

Former managing partner at Retail Systems Research, Nikki Baird, stated that such tools give retailers “more flexibility and take the pressure off because they don’t have to do as well at making the right guesses about how to allocate stock.”

Customer Complaints 

During a peak season, Amazon reviews or complaints are a normal occurrence, as there are so many avenues for something to go wrong. You should anticipate that holiday shopping may bring the worst out of an individual, which is why it is good to prepare for potential issues and customer complaints ahead of time. 

What To Do: 

Many sellers may not fully realize that the way they handle a customer complaint can significantly impact their business. If a single complaint is handled poorly, the customer may withdraw, give negative feedback, and even encourage others to withdraw from your business. 

By understanding customer rights and responsibilities, sellers can avoid customer complaints or even gain positive reviews. Each platform has its own unique set of guidelines and responsibilities for customers to observe, and these include warranties, refunds, and guarantees.

Moreover, developing your own customer complaint handling policy in consonance with Amazon’s guarantees and guidelines will also help decrease negative feedback and turn potential agitators into loyal customers. 

To know more about Amazon A-Z Guarantee, you may CLICK HERE. 

Price Wars

It is inevitable during the peak season for Amazon sellers to enter into price wars. As sellers try to outbid other sellers for a spot in the Amazon Buy Box, it is normal for sellers to change their item prices in a frequent interval. 

What To Do:

There are various ways to approach an Amazon price war. However, the most effective and efficient method would be using a reliable Amazon repricer, such as Seller Snap. 

Seller Snap is not just your ordinary automated Amazon repricing tool, it is an advanced AI repricer. With the help of an AI repricer, sellers can achieve a dynamic repricing strategy. 

The software will automatically change the price to suit the current market situation and your competitors’ repricing strategies. Since Seller Snap is based on the Game-theory principle, the repricer will attain your fair share of the Amazon Buy Box at a higher price point.

Website Downtime

For Amazon sellers promoting their Amazon store and products outside of Amazon, such as in the form of a landing page, it would be best to prepare for potential website concerns. 

Downtime can affect your sales if you run a marketing campaign via other websites. Every minute your product pages or landing page is offline, your business is losing money. In order to avoid such a scenario, sellers should first check the reliability of their hosting service or hosting plan.

Similarly, upscaling your data infrastructure and investing in uptime monitoring tools may also lessen website issues. Additionally, employing a stress-test on infrastructures also helps in identifying potential pitfalls once peak hours actually happen. 

Prepare for it Today 

Benjamin Franklin once said that “by failing to prepare you are preparing to fail.” For that matter, it is of great importance for Amazon sellers to prepare for the upcoming Q4 holiday season. 

In terms of preparation, you should not only prepare physically (processes & inventory), technically (tools & technology), and financially. You should also prepare your mental state for the upcoming challenges of this holiday season. 

Anticipate all potential concerns to the business, and create a mental outline on how you should respond to any issues. 

In this article, we will discuss 1P and 3P, its pros and cons, and how these terms relate to Amazon.

The Difference Between Amazon 3P and 1P Selling

Both 3P and 1P involve selling items on Amazon, but the main difference is the target customer. With 1P, you are selling directly to Amazon, whereas 3P means selling directly to customers visiting the Amazon website. 

What is Amazon 1P? | Vendor Central

Amazon 1P is a first-party selling option. It pertains mainly to manufacturers, distributors, or brand owners acting as sellers to Amazon. Amazon purchases products in bulk from these sellers through Amazon Vendor Central. 

Your primary role as a first-party seller is to fulfill the purchase order of Amazon. You will be responsible for sending these orders to Amazon. 

Once the inventory products are received, Amazon will take full control of the product, including its pricing and marketing. Amazon will be selling your products under its name, and it will also be the one handling the shipping, customer service, and Amazon returns. 

Amazon 1P Pros

Improved Visibility: Embracing the role of a 1P seller means better product visibility. With Amazon having control of your product, you are assured of better product placement and marketing opportunities.

Less Burden: Since Amazon will be taking ownership of your product, the burden of customer service and sales tax collection will not be your concern anymore. Amazon will be the one to perform such tedious tasks.

Simplified Inventory: Since Amazon orders large quantities, you can sell your products in bulk. Thus, simplifying your inventory management.  

Trustworthy Label: Once Amazon sells your product under its name, it will have a unique label. 1P products get the “Sold by Amazon.com” label which boosts the confidence of Amazon shoppers in purchasing the listed product. 

Image Source: Amazon

Amazon 1P Cons

Uncertainty: Despite having established a connection with Amazon as a 1P seller, you might still be dropped by Amazon for various reasons. Hence, 1P sellers should always abide by Amazon Vendor Central guidelines. 

Limited Control: When you are a 1P seller, you will not have control over product pricing, shipping, and inventory. Amazon has complete control over those things and would sometimes bypass your MAP pricing (minimum advertised price).

Low-Profit Margin: You cannot expect a huge profit margin when you sell directly to Amazon. As an Amazon 1P seller, you typically receive lower profit as compared to Amazon third-party sellers. 

Payment Terms: One of the drawbacks when selling directly to Amazon as a 1P seller is the slow payment method. Amazon’s payment terms can be as long as 30 to 90 days, which makes it challenging for some businesses’ cash flow. 

What is Amazon 3P? | Seller Central

A more popular Amazon selling option for online sellers and retailers is 3P. It refers to the third-party selling option Amazon offers to those who want to sell directly to customers via Amazon marketplaces.

Unlike Amazon 1P, where transactions are made via Vendor Central, Amazon 3P sellers list their products via Seller Central. Under 3P, a third-party seller may choose to sell either under the Amazon FBA program or Amazon FBM.  

Fulfillment by Amazon or FBA is a service offered by Amazon wherein it will be the one to pick, pack, store, and ship your products. Moreover, under the FBA program, Amazon will also be the one to handle customer service and Amazon returns. 

On the other hand, Fulfillment by Merchant or Amazon FBM is a selling method where sellers list their items on Amazon, but unlike FBA, the storing, shipping, and customer support are handled by third-party sellers independently. 

Amazon 3P Pros

More Control: 3P sellers on Amazon have greater control over their Amazon business, unlike 1P sellers. Third-party Amazon sellers have control over their products’ listing, pricing, advertising, and more.

Better Profitability: Since sellers handle product pricing directly, they can choose how much they want to sell their products. In most cases, Amazon sellers use Amazon repricers for price optimization to obtain a more competitive price.

Global Selling Option: Amazon 3P sellers can list their products on multiple Amazon marketplaces via Seller Central. With the Amazon Global program, third-party sellers can sell their products to consumers around the globe, including those in India, Japan, France, Germany, and more. 

Amazon 3P Cons

Amazon Seller Fees: You will be dealing with numerous seller fees when selling on Amazon as a 3P seller. These fees vary depending on the size and weight of your product and how long it will be stored in the fulfillment center. 

More Tasks: 3P sellers are sometimes overwhelmed by the tasks required when selling on Amazon. Unlike Amazon 1P, where Amazon handles almost all business-related tasks, 3P requires sellers to handle tedious tasks from listing, advertising, and inventory management. 

To automate some aspects of these tasks, sellers often use Amazon seller tools, like Amazon Ads solutions for advertising and AI repricers for automated price adjustments. 

Tax Handling: Amazon 3P sellers will have to handle their taxes, including sales tax and VAT. This task can be confusing and demanding for most sellers, which is why most third-party sellers employ the help of tax service companies to handle business tax matters. 

How to Become an Amazon 1P Seller

Becoming an Amazon 1P seller is more challenging than becoming a 3P seller. For one, there is no way for sellers or entrepreneurs to apply directly. Amazon Vendor Central is currently on an invite-only basis. 

While there is no fixed blueprint for becoming a 1P seller on Amazon, many online resources recommend establishing a solid reputation as a reliable third-party seller. It helps catch the attention of Amazon brand managers or vendor recruiters. 

Moreover, it is crucial to cultivate a robust brand identity not only within the Amazon platform but also beyond it. This could involve participating in trade shows or eCommerce exhibits to enhance your brand presence.

Generally, the best way to be invited into the Amazon Vendor program and become a 1P seller is to: 

• Have popular products on the Amazon marketplace.

• Maintain high sales performance on Seller Central.

• Introduce a product capable of attracting consumers and Vendor Central recruiters.

If Amazon finds your products or brand highly interesting, they will contact you via email. Their recruitment team will explain further the process of joining Amazon Vendor Central and the terms of business.

How to Become an Amazon 3P Seller

Becoming a 3P seller is easier compared to becoming a 1P seller. Anyone can sign-up to become a third-party seller on Amazon. 

Becoming a 3P seller on Amazon means having multiple options in terms of business models. You can be an Amazon arbitrage seller, Amazon private label seller, wholesale seller, handmade seller, or even dropshipper. 

If you want to become a third-party seller on Amazon, we have created a step-by-step guide on How to Become an Amazon Seller. 

Amazon 1P vs 3P: Important Things You Should Know

Whether selling directly to Amazon or online shoppers, you must establish a strategy to make your Amazon business more efficient. To help you create a strategy for your Amazon 1P or Amazon 3P business, here are some of the crucial aspects of the business you should take into account: 

Listing Customization and Flexibility

It is worth emphasizing that with Amazon 1P, it is Amazon who controls the product listings. Amazon can change product listing details, including the title or image used and the listing description. 

As for Amazon 3P sellers, they have more control over the product listings. This gives sellers better flexibility when enhancing their brand, for they can customize their keywords, imagery, and other listing content. However, such customization should still align with Amazon product listing guidelines. 

Account Dynamics

In terms of how you will manage your account and interact with your customers, you must familiarize yourself with Amazon Vendor Central account or Amazon Seller Central account. 

For first-party sellers, you will manage your transactional relationship with Amazon through the Vendor Central portal. Vendor Central allows you to manage orders, generate sales reports, and more. 

On the other hand, third-party sellers, be they FBA or FBM sellers, handle their business via Amazon Seller Central. Seller Central is a portal exclusive to third-party sellers on Amazon. They can see and manage their listings, orders, sales reports, fulfillment, relevant metrics, and seller functions. 

Cash Flow

Whether it is an online business or a traditional business, cash flow is of great importance. Advance planning is vital to avoid cash flow problems affecting your business operation and your transactional relationship with your wholesale supplier or manufacturer. Undermining such a relationship with suppliers can decrease the chances of negotiating a better wholesale price for your inventory.

To avoid such a scenario, it will help to know that Amazon 1P and 3P have different payment terms. As mentioned earlier, the typical payment terms for first-party sellers can be 30 to 90 days, whereas fund transfers for third-party sellers only take 14 days.

Knowing these payment terms for each type of Amazon business can help you manage your finances and grow your business exponentially. 

Fees

For third-party sellers, some of the fees to note include referral fees, fulfillment fees, variable closing fees, storage fees, and selling plan fees that vary depending on your chosen plan. Sellers who choose the Professional selling plan will have to pay a monthly recurring of $39.99, whereas the Individual selling plan will come with a flat fee of $0.99 per unit sold.

On the other hand, the standard fees 1P sellers should prepare for include marketing, remittance, co-op, and packaging fees. Amazon may also charge vendors with a penalty in the form of chargebacks that can impact profit margins.

Customer Interaction

Customer interaction is another aspect of the business that requires careful consideration. If you intend to sell directly to Amazon as a 1P seller, your interaction with end customers is somewhat limited, as Amazon’s own customer service team will handle customer concerns for the products they sell under their own brand.

Conversely, 3P sellers interact more with their customers since they sell directly to Amazon shoppers. This leads to better customer service and enhanced online presence. 

Inventory Management

Inventory management is a crucial part of any business. When selling on Amazon, consider how you can manage your inventory efficiently to avoid any delays and mitigate inventory risk. 

For 1P sellers, most of the inventory management tasks are performed by Amazon. However, you should be prepared to deal with potential inventory buyback if the products will not perform well in the market.

As for Amazon 3P, most of the inventory management tasks are performed by third-party sellers. Third-party sellers are encouraged to maintain inventory levels and develop efficient forecasting to avoid stockouts or overstock situations. This, in turn, helps sellers improve the metrics of their Amazon seller account.

Branding

Becoming an Amazon third-party seller means you have a better opportunity to establish and showcase your brand identity to online shoppers. However, if you prefer to become a 1P seller, it is essential to be ready to deal with the potential decrease of your brand visibility, as products are labeled as “Ships from and sold by Amazon.”

Considering all these insights and understanding the limitations of each account type can aid you in devising a more effective business strategy to enhance the overall success of your Amazon 3P or Amazon 1P business.

Choosing the Right Path for Your Business 

Amazon offers a huge opportunity for online sellers and business owners. Whether you engage as a first-party (1P) seller or a third-party (3P) seller on Amazon, each avenue has its own advantages and disadvantages. Considering the outlined pros and cons above, you can better assess the suitable path for your journey as an online entrepreneur.

It is essential to acknowledge that becoming a 1P seller on Amazon can prove to be demanding, mainly due to its exclusivity. On the other hand, if you aim to swiftly launch your Amazon business, opting for the 3P seller route is more viable.

Yes, there is a lot of competition on Amazon, however, according to statistical data, only 30% of those who create an Amazon Seller Central account actually proceed with the selling of products. Hence, more room for those who are truly dedicated to online selling. 

To help you begin your Amazon journey and become Amazon seller, below is an overview of how to become a thriving Amazon seller for the upcoming holiday rush.  

Simple Tips to Start Selling on Amazon This Holiday Season

1. Pre-Registration Phase

This part is the initial answer to the question how do you become an amazon seller?
Included in the discussion the things Amazon sellers should be preparing before fully engaging in the Amazon industry. To help you become a successful Amazon seller, below are some of the things you should do before registering for Amazon Seller Central.    

Evaluate Your Potential Product Selling Strategy

Before you become an Amazon seller, you should first undergo an Amazon Seller Central registration, be sure to identify your product selling strategy. In the context of Amazon Seller Central, product selling strategy refers to becoming either “Brand Owners” or “Resellers,” but still both signifying that you have become an Amazon seller

When sellers choose to become Amazon seller or brand owners, it simply means that sellers manufacture their own inventory items. Alternatively, sellers may also outsource products to sell under a private label.       

On the other hand, becoming an Amazon reseller entails looking for products that already exist and listing them on the Amazon marketplace. This detail should be included on your research on how to become a seller on Amazon. However, such products will retain the branding of the original manufacturers. 

Assess Your Possible Fulfillment Strategy

After choosing the product selling strategy, sellers should now evaluate their potential fulfillment strategy. For new sellers, Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM) are popular options to choose from. 

Amazon FBA simply means that Amazon will be the one responsible for the picking, packing, and shipping of the items you list in your Amazon Store. On the contrary, the FBM program allows sellers more freedom when it comes to handling the storage, packaging, and shipping of their items. 

Create a Business Plan & Find a Niche

To ensure that you are on the right track on how to become an Amazon seller, you should learn to identify your forte. The success of any business, whether it is on Amazon or not, a business plan is essential. For sellers thinking of diving deeper into the Amazon industry, a robust business plan should be created. 

To help you clarify your intention and answer your question on how do you become an Amazon seller, you should have a method. A business plan should include but is not limited to a mission, market analysis, products and services, marketing and sales, and financial plans. For that matter, thorough research is crucial, especially when deciding on which online selling niche to follow. 

Understanding the right niche to fit your skills, interests, finances, location, and target audience will make or break your Amazon business. This should have already been understood upon researching for ideas on how to become an Amazon seller. That is why online sellers should be acquainted with the market and consumer trends while studying its emotional impact, practical value, online visibility, and global recognition. 

2. Registration Phase

Set up Your Amazon Seller Central Account

Setting up a Seller Central account may be a daunting task for new online sellers. To avoid delays and corrections, it is advised  to prepare the following ahead of time:

• Email Address
• Business Information
• Internationally Chargeable Credit Card
• Contact Number
• Tax ID
• State Tax ID

For step-by-step instructions on how to set up your Amazon Seller Central account, you may check on the video below:

3. Post-Registration Phase

This part here will be discussing the things Amazon sellers should immediately do after setting up their account. The following suggestions are geared towards increasing the profitability of your Amazon Store. 

Create Accurate Product Listings

To begin your online selling business with Amazon, you should create a product listing first. The main elements of an Amazon product listing include Title, Bullet points, Product description, Backend keywords, and Photography.

When listing a product on your Amazon Store, utilize high-quality images, and follow other guidelines relating to image use. Be sure to optimize your product listing to avoid conflict with the Amazon A9 algorithm and the standard for Amazon SEO. 

Similar to other online platforms, Amazon has its own guidelines when listing a product. For a detailed product listing guide, CLICK HERE.

Regular Inventory Checks

After listing products in your Amazon store, make sure to check your inventory. You should manage your inventory properly to avoid customer frustration with listed items that are out of stock. Inventory management is crucial for a successful business, which is why it should also be included in your research on how to become a seller on Amazon. 

Ensure that you update your inventory status daily, weekly, and monthly. Top Amazon sellers make use of sophisticated inventory management tools, you might want to check it out for better sales performance. 

Invest in an Amazon Repricer

If you are aiming to increase your Buy Box winning rate, you should check top repricers on the market. For convenience and practicality, automatic repricers are highly suggested by top Amazon sellers. 

Seller Snap is one of the most convenient options on the market. As well it’s AI algorithmic repricer, that is driven by Game Theory principles to apply a cooperative strategy to secure Buy Box share and maximize profit, they also offer other more customizable repricing strategies. These features are designed to provide a dynamic pricing strategy for sellers. 

Consider Amazon Ads

Advertising is one of the keys to success when selling on Amazon. Advertising tools and services are crucial on a website with high-volume products listed. 

Amazon offers Amazon Ads to help sellers obtain a competitive edge in the marketplace. Amazon Ads can help sellers expand their brand and increase their business’s profitability. Some of the popular options for Amazon ads include Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands. 

• Sponsored Products: This Amazon advertising campaign aims to increase sales and attract traffic to your product pages. Using this advertising tool can help you promote specific products by making them appear on shopping results and relevant product pages. 
• Sponsored Brands: If you are a seller or vendor registered in Amazon Brand Registry, you can take advantage of Sponsored Brands. It will allow you to create ads showcasing multiple products along with your brand logo and custom headline. Sponsored Brands aims to boost brand awareness and increase your sales across the entire catalog. 

Maximize Product Videos 

Apart from Amazon Ads, you can also improve your sales in Q4 of 2022 by incorporating product videos on your listings. Product videos influence consumers to stay longer on a website. It is estimated that around 44% of consumers purchase on a website with product videos. 

To maximize your sales performance during peak season, you should start uploading high-quality videos for your Amazon listings. When creating a product video for your listings, you can follow these tips suggested by Amazon:

1. Your product video must be descriptive, demonstrative, and product-focused. 
2. Your product video must be short and concise. Avoid using unnecessary content and lengthy introductions.
3. Your product video must be of high quality, which means it should have clear audio, good product visibility, and proper lighting. 
4. Your product video must be believable, truthful, and accurate. Offer substantiated claims about the product, if possible.

Find More Products That Sell

Take advantage of the holiday season and add more products to your inventory to maximize sales. However, you should be careful when adding products to your listings. Ensure that you only add items that will likely be profitable when listed on the Amazon marketplace.  

Performing product research can help you choose trending items or likely to trend in the Q4 of 2022. With the help of a product research tool, you can quickly identify items with the potential for a higher sales conversion. 

Get in Touch With Influencers

Apart from customer feedback or reviews, shoppers also trust the recommendations of influencers. Hence, you should get in touch with influencers to promote your product.

An influencer can be a group or individual with a dedicated online following or viewed as an expert for a particular niche. Since these influencers already have established followers on various platforms, you can ask them to recommend your products to their followers.  

What makes influencers effective is their ability to reach numerous people, even those who are not frequent Amazon shoppers. They can simply post the link to your listing page in their content’s description section. 

Alternatively, you can also get in touch with influencers affiliated with Amazon through the Amazon Influencer Program. These influencers have their own Amazon storefront through which they can endorse multiple products sold on Amazon.

Follow up Customer Reviews

Whether you are selling on Amazon, eBay, or Walmart, customer reviews play a crucial role. If you want to have a lasting Amazon business, focusing on customer feedback is crucial.

A customer review is one of the key elements of a successful business and it helps distinguish your Amazon store from other online stores. Reviews help build the credibility of your Amazon store. 

Apart from serving as a testimony for your service and Amazon products, reviews are among the metrics being measured by Amazon’s algorithm when it comes to awarding the Amazon Buy Box. For sellers to increase their chances of winning the Buy Box, it is necessary to aim for high-level customer service all the time. 

Go With The Pro

If your goal is to profit during Q4 2022, venturing into the eCommerce industry could potentially be the right move for you. Since Amazon is already a tested and proven platform for online selling, adjustments can easily be made, especially with the help of the tips outlined above. Furthermore, becoming an Amazon seller in 2022 also means access to Amazon’s large customer base.

What is account health and why is it important for Amazon sellers?

Account health is a measure of how well your Amazon account is doing in compliance with Amazon’s code of conduct. It includes factors such as your order defect rate, unresolved policy violations, and general adherence to Amazon’s selling guidelines.

Maintaining good account health is important for Amazon sellers because it helps ensure that your business runs smoothly and that you don’t run into as many problems in Seller Central. Account health affects many facets of your seller account beyond the risks of suspension.

Amazon Buy Box percentage, customer confidence, and a multitude of other subtle areas can be damaged if you aren’t on top of it.

What are the consequences of poor account health?

Having an unhealthy Amazon account can have serious consequences for your business. Poor account health could lead to any of the following:

• Suspension of your Amazon seller account
• Permanent account deactivation of your Amazon seller account
• Suppression of listings
• Loss of customer confidence
• Reduction in sales and profits due to any of the above

The stakes are extremely high. Amazon only brought in strict account health policies in the last couple of years and they’re constantly changing. Bans from breaching their account health rules are often permanent, so monitoring your account health could be vital to the survival of your business.

What are the best ways of staying on top of Amazon account health?

There are many considerations to make depending on your business model, but in this article, we will be focusing mainly on arbitrage sellers. Here are five tips for staying on top of your Amazon account health in 2022:

Keep an eye on your Account Health Rating (AHR)

Your account health rating is one of the most important factors in your account health. Amazon uses this rating to determine whether or not you’re a good seller, and it can impact your ability to sell on the platform.

AHR has a sliding scale of 3 possibilities. ‘Good’, ‘At Risk’, and ‘Critical’. These stages are self-explanatory, but if you reach the ‘Critical’ stage then you need to take immediate action as your account will be disabled in short order.

Make sure you keep an eye on your Amazon account health metrics and take steps to improve them if necessary. You can find the Amazon account health page by logging in to your Seller Central account and going to Performance > Account Health.

Be aware of the different types of violations and how to resolve them

Suspected IP Violations

Suspected IP (Intellectual Property) complaints don’t come from the rights’ owner directly. Amazon has its own system which determines if a seller is violating another seller’s IP rights.

If flagged, they will deactivate the listings or the account which are in violation. To prevent flagging if you’re selling a product that is designed to work with another brand’s products, make sure you update your listing with examples of fair-use phrases like ‘‘compatible with’’, ‘‘works with’’, or ‘‘for’’.

If this doesn’t work, you’ll need to raise a case with Amazon and try to reach the leadership team as quickly as possible.

Received IP Violation

Regardless of where products are being sold, a trademark or copyright infringement is the unauthorized use of a trade or registered mark on goods and services.

When receiving a notice of policy violation due to an IP infringement, whether the notice comes directly from Amazon or a different entity, sellers must take this seriously and address it immediately.

Genuine breaches of IP rights can lead to suspensions or even permanent bans from Amazon as well as legal action from the brand owners.

To prevent IP violations, ensure that the products you’re selling on Amazon aren’t gated or that the brand in question allows other sellers to resell their products.

If you do receive a notice of IP violation from Amazon, you’ll need to complete a root cause analysis (RCA) and raise a case. Make sure you follow up continuously and tick all of the boxes they require to get to their leadership team to take action.

If the notice comes from the brand owner you can respond to them directly to try to have them remove their claim. If you’re actually at fault you may have to capitulate and stop selling, but you can try to make a case with them.

This is a complex issue to solve – if you’re looking for support with complex case management then check out Seller Candy. They have a team of ex-Amazonians who can help you with this and many other issues you may face as an Amazon seller.

Double-check your product sources

Product Authenticity

The sale of counterfeit products is strictly prohibited. You may not sell any products that aren’t legal for sale, such as products that have been illegally replicated, reproduced, or manufactured.

If flagged due to customer complaints, you must provide records of the authenticity of your products if Amazon requests that documentation (eg. invoices and any other documents which prove authenticity).

It may be helpful to analyse your returns data to get additional insights on which inventory may be causing issues.

Keep on top of customer complaints

Customer Complaints – Product Condition

Sellers who receive this form of buyer complaint usually find themselves confused upon receiving notice of it. The majority of high-volume Amazon sellers limit themselves to only sourcing products that are 100% new, unused, and packaged according to both industry and Amazon standards.

Why this type of complaint would become an issue at all for sellers who stick to brand new items tends to be a grey area. If you’re sourcing only new, genuine, unused products and you still receive these kinds of complaints, you can try to disable the Refurbishment option in your FBA Settings.

Stay up to date with Amazon policies

For those readers who already have experience selling on Amazon, you’ll know that they change their policies with shocking frequency, often with little to no warning. Keeping track of changes lets you head off account health issues before they arise.

For example, Amazon made a change so that certain categories require you to provide additional information and/or a supplemental guarantee before listing in those categories. Being unaware of this requirement before sourcing products could lead to either unsold inventory or Amazon account health-based issues.

Those participating or looking to participate in Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) should also review the FBA Product Restrictions page which lists products that aren’t eligible for the FBA program.

To prevent issues, make sure that you thoroughly investigate every product you plan to sell and that you have proper documentation for any products you list on your selling account.

Final word

Maintaining a good account health rating on Amazon is essential for any seller searching for success. In this article, we’ve outlined five ways to stay on top of your Amazon account health and avoid any violations that could lead to suspension or account deactivation. Following these tips will help keep your business running smoothly and ensure that you maintain a good relationship with Amazon.

If you’re struggling to stay on top of your account health or dealing with a particularly complex issue then talk to an expert in operational support for guidance. Thanks for reading!

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About The Author:

Richard Connorton is Seller Candy’s Partnership Manager. His favorite part of making a sale is getting to know people and building relationships. He looks forward to turning acquaintances into long-term pals.

Another report also detailed that 65% of consumers prefer to shop on Amazon than other eCommerce platforms. Therefore, making Amazon a very enticing online selling platform for both Amazon sellers and shoppers alike. That being said, it begs the question, should you sell on Amazon in 2022?

Amazon in Numbers

To put things into perspective, here are some of the key statistics about the eCommerce giant.      

• In terms of site visits, Amazon ranks as the most popular eCommerce site in the United States. Amazon has 3.3 billion visits as of May 2022, maintaining a wide margin over Walmart, eBay, and Target (Semrush: June 2022).
• In terms of global influence, Amazon boasts of its more than 200 million Prime members (Backlinko, 2022).                         
• In terms of Net Profit, Amazon’s net income in 2021 was 33.36 billion, a significant increase from its net income of $21.3 billion in 2020 (Statista, 2022).
• In terms of sellers’ profitability, new Amazon sellers are earning an average profit of nearly $30,000 annually (Jungle Scout, 2022).
• In terms of small to medium business performance, there was an increase of nearly 40% of American sellers that surpassed $10 million in sales (Amazon Small Business Empowerment Report, 2021).
• In terms of motivation for selling on Amazon, 49% mentioned their desire to “be their own boss” is their number one motivation for selling on Amazon (Jungle Scout, 2022).

Things To Consider Before Selling on Amazon     

There is no doubt that selling on Amazon can be profitable for sellers. However, it is important to also consider that Amazon is a highly competitive eCommerce space. Before you dive any deeper into Amazon selling, here are some essential things you should first take into account:   

• Selling Plans

The most common Amazon selling plan is the Individual Plan. This will be your selling plan by default after creating an Amazon seller account. The other option or upgrade would be the Professional Plan. In terms of plan features, the Individual Plan is somewhat limited in terms of access to seller tools and data, which explains why there is no monthly fee associated with it.

However, when you choose the Individual Plan, you have to pay Amazon $0.99 per item sold, plus the Amazon referral fees. In contrast to the Individual Plan, the Professional Plan comes with a $39.99 per month fee. While the Individual Plan is geared towards Amazon sellers who still have little inventory, the Professional Plan is ideal for higher-volume Amazon sellers. 

• Stable Finance

Cash flow is easily one of the major challenges that Amazon sellers face in this kind of business. Even before you start selling, you will incur expenses in the form of fees. Apart from plan and referral fees, you will also have to shell out some cash for your inventory. Even if you succeed in profiting on paper, you still need to have cash on hand to keep your inventory going.

• Excessive Competition

Whether you like it or not, there will always be competition in the eCommerce industry. Amazon, in particular, is a highly competitive platform, which requires effort on your part if you want to see significant results. Competition on Amazon is not only limited to obtaining the Amazon Buy Box. Amazon sellers are also competing to rank on organic search engine result pages. Penetrating the Amazon space not only requires a unique brand and product. Strategic optimization is also needed in order to outrank the competition.          

• Price Wars

Amazon price wars are an everyday occurrence on the platform. With Amazon sellers having the intention of matching or beating their competitor’s price, a retaliatory price slash occurs. In order to maintain and grow your profit margin, you should look into utilizing an automatic Amazon repricer. Automatic or AI Amazon repricers are the go-to pricing tool of top Amazon sellers. Investing in a third-party Amazon repricer like Seller Snap will be beneficial for your business. 

• Amazon Returns

Since Amazon is known for its customer service and consumer-friendly platform, it tends to be less strict with its returns policy in order to guarantee a good customer experience. However, some customers exploit this tolerance to the point of creating bogus reasons to return items they have mistakenly ordered. Although some Amazon categories offer free returns, there are instances where third-party merchants shoulder the return shipping cost.          

• Amazon Fees

One of the considerations to evaluate when selling on Amazon are the fees. Amazon fees vary depending on the fulfillment method you will choose. If you choose to become an Amazon FBA seller, you will have to prepare yourself for FBA fees, including but not limited to:

• monthly storage fees
• long-term storage fees
• removal order fees
• return processing fees
• unplanned service fees
• FBA inventory storage overage fee

On the other hand, choosing the FBM method does exempt a seller from any fees or expenses. Since you will be handling your inventory, you will still incur expenses in terms of logistics, warehouse fees, overhead expenses, referral fees, and not to mention per-item fees. 

• Amazon Global Opportunities 

Selling on Amazon has become more interesting for online sellers with the eCommerce giant’s introduction of over 16 international marketplaces. 

If you plan to expand the reach of your products or brand influence, you can maximize Amazon Global’s selling opportunities. It is a must-check for online sellers looking to expand their Amazon business. 

You can accelerate your internal sales with the help of Amazon Global marketplaces. You can target numerous shoppers in the global marketplace, including more than 200 million paid Prime members.

You can do this by registering your Seller Central account in the Amazon marketplaces that you want to start selling into. This will allow you to link your account across multiple regions, including the following:

Amazon International – Americas

• Amazon.com
• Amazon.ca
• Amazon.com.mx 
• Amazon.com.br

Amazon International – Europe

• Amazon.co.uk
• Amazon.de
• Amazon.fr
• Amazon.it
• Amazon.es
• Amazon.nl

Amazon International – Asia-Pacific

• Amazon.co.jp
• Amazon.in
• Amazon.com.au 
• Amazon.sg

Amazon International – Middle East

• Amazon.ae
• Amazon.com.tr

• Amazon Product Research   

Product research is an integral element of any eCommerce business, including Amazon. Product research can help you understand what products to sell on Amazon, determine possible trends,  and identify consumer demands. 

Amazon product research can help increase your business’s success rate. It can give you a competitive edge over other Amazon sellers, including those huge and more established brands competing for engagement, traffic, and sales on the Amazon marketplaces. 

It is important to consider product research before delving deeper into selling on Amazon. There are many methods and tools that can help you find the best product for your niche, save time, and control your risk. 

Sell on Amazon: Tips for Newbie Sellers     

Despite the known challenges with Amazon, a lot of people who sell on Amazon manage to thrive amidst the competition and minor inconveniences. In fact, 20,000 small and medium businesses managed to reach million-dollar sales on Amazon.

To help you achieve a milestone in your fledgling Amazon venture, here are some tips: 

• Follow the Rules

If you are new to Amazon, familiarize yourself with Amazon’s rules and regulations in order to avoid penalties. For example, when you sell on Amazon, providing accurate information about your product to Amazon and its visitors is just one of the rules that must be followed. Any violation of this seller code of conduct will lead to actions against your account, including cancellation of listings or removal of selling privileges. 

• Be Competitive With Your Pricing          

The secret to being profitable on Amazon is having competitive pricing. It is by far the quickest way to start earning. Pricing plays a critical role when it comes to winning the Amazon Buy Box, which is why top Amazon sellers use repricers for competitive pricing. 

• Excel at Customer Service       

Apart from winning the Amazon Buy Box for increased sales, you should also take into account customer service. Feedback rating score is one of the factors that the Amazon algorithm considers for ranking sellers on its search engine result pages. Consequently, reviews of previous customers will also influence would-be shoppers. Hence, you should always keep your products and services at their best to gain positive reviews.                                                        

• Optimization

If you wish for your listing to rank better or win Buy Box, you should optimize your listing properly. Each individual listing is being crawled by the Amazon algorithm for issues and inefficiencies, which is why you should double-check your listing details before uploading. To help you with your Amazon optimization, you can always take advantage of Amazon optimization services available online. 

To Sell or Not to Sell on Amazon 

When it comes to online selling, Amazon should be on the top of your list for your online retail business. Apart from benefiting from its reputable name, you may also capitalize on the high volume site visits it gets monthly. 

If you intend to reach a global market, you can use Amazon as one of your eCommerce platforms, since it already has an established global influence, as well as established logistics for Amazon global transactions.

However, worth noting that the success of your retail enterprise rests not solely on a digital platform. Arming yourself with accurate industry knowledge and technical know-how on how to use seller tools along with perseverance will generate success.                 

This comes as no surprise as Amazon offers sellers the chance to grab the attention of 89% of customers who say they are more likely to buy products from Amazon than other eCommerce websites. Whether you’re a small company wanting to build brand awareness, or an enterprise company looking to expand into an international market, there is no denying that Amazon is the front and center of eCommerce. 

Before you get started, you should know that there are two options when it comes to selling on Amazon, yes two! You can either join as a seller on Amazon or as an Amazon vendor, as there is a big difference. 

What’s The Difference? 

The first is an Amazon seller, which is the most commonly used option. It allows brands to use the platform as an additional sales channel to sell to customers. 

The other is selling directly to Amazon. This is called an Amazon vendor, or what is known as a first-party seller. This means you are selling your product to Amazon and they sell it to customers. 

The pros that come with being a first-party seller include; 

• Faster pay than a third-party seller who has to wait 46 to 60 days
• Having better inventory forecasting as Amazon makes bulk purchases 
• Having access to Amazon marketing services  (AMS) and A+ content
• Your product is seen as an Amazon product that brings in more sales 

But, there are a few cons that can make selling directly difficult; 

• Being a vendor is by invite only, so it isn’t accessible to everyone
• Amazon has complete control over pricing, messaging, and logistics 
• Vendors may not see the profit margins they were hoping for
• Difficulty getting new product launches 

How to Sell Directly to Amazon 

Earning an invite is no walk in the park. Amazon takes this seriously, as your product will be tied to its brand. Amazon often selects businesses to join their program if they are; 

• Brands that hold a strong presence on the site, resulting in strong demand from shoppers
• Sellers that were noticed for how well their e-commerce site was doing 
• Brands with products Amazon is interested in having, either seen from trade shows or through research

To become a first-party seller, you need to:

Work on Optimizing Both Your Listing And Search Terms 

To get an invite, you either have to hold a strong presence on the marketplace or have a website that is doing exceptionally well. This can be done by improving your search engine optimization (SEO) for your own website, as this will ensure you drive more traffic, improve trust and credibility, support content marketing, rank on the first page of Google (which is said to get over 90% of traffic), and potentially be seen by Amazon. 

Secondly, improve your product listing optimization (PLO) for Amazon. PLO is similar to SEO as the purpose of it is to help you increase visibility, rank high on the Amazon search engine, increase the conversion rate, which helps generate sales and increase customer demand. You need to do keyword research, stick to Amazon’s 60-character limit for product titles, and have accurate product data. 

About 56% of online consumers start their product searches on Amazon. This is the first stage of their shopping journey, so optimizing your listing and search terms can help your product reach customers on Amazon faster. 

You can use PIM for eCommerce to store all of your product data. You can also store your marketing data such as keywords, SEO elements, and more to help you create optimized content that is informative SEO and PLO friendly, and accurate which will help your efforts for both your website and Amazon list. The more you work on this, the more visible your product will be which will increase the chances of you getting invited into Amazon Vendor. 

Keep Your Pricing Competitive 

Nearly 50% of Amazon shoppers listed competitive pricing as the main reason for purchasing off Amazon. You can use this information to gain popularity in the marketplace. You are competing for customers’ attention with many other brands, and you can gain a competitive edge by selling your products at a reasonable price that customers are willing to pay. You can adjust pricing either by; discounts or shipping costs or by repricing. 

Create a Branded Store 

A branded store lets you customize a storefront on Amazon to showcase your brand’s product and story. This can bring in more traffic from Amazon search and detail pages, which ultimately drive shopper engagement and improve brand awareness. 

Make The Buy Box a Goal 

You may have heard about the Buy Box as it is the end goal for most sellers on Amazon. If you make it onto the Buy Box, it means that Amazon has noticed your product, but it’s a win because it helps to drive more sales with customers. To get into the Buy Box, you need to; 

• Have competitive pricing
• Have a good number of positive reviews 
• Ensure fast and efficient delivery
• Low refund and return rates

Consider Amazon Prime 

Amazon Prime customers are known to spend more than regular customers. In fact, more than 100 million Prime members buy nearly double in comparison to non-members due to the Prime privileges. You can use this to your advantage to get your product out there and reach customers that have a higher chance of doing repeat purchases. This will help you bring in more sales, and can be a signal to Amazon that your product is popular thus adding you to the Buy Box and essentially inviting you to be a vendor. 

Now that we have addressed a few ways to help you get a vendor’s invite, let’s get into how to successfully sell there to ensure this is the right thing for your business. 

How to do Well on The Vendor Program

Right, now you have managed to become a successful third-party seller and you’ve received an invite to become a vendor, now what? While there are a number of benefits to becoming a first-party seller, there are a couple of things that may leave you at a disadvantage. Here are tips to help you change that. 

Sell a Selected Amount of Products 

When you get an invitation to sell directly to Amazon, it’s important to not go in with your complete catalog. Why? As we mentioned before, one of the cons is that they have complete control over the pricing, messaging, and logistics of the products you sell, and they won’t be seen as your products but Amazon’s products. 

To avoid this, choose a certain number of products you want to sell as a vendor, and continue with selling as a third-party seller too. And, yes, you can have both accounts. For example, Steve Madden shoes have both accounts as they are a vendor, have an FBA model, and a third-party option. It is dependent on what the customer wants. 

You can achieve this by splitting product ranges, using different SKUs for different programs, and using different models in international markets. 

Avoid Uploading Your Best-selling Products 

While you may want to add all of your best-selling products to the vendor platform, and Amazon would only take those specific products, it’s best to not upload all of your top-sellers. This is particularly important for SMBs. When you take your best products and sell them to Amazon, you won’t receive traffic to your own website; you won’t receive any brand recognition and you won’t be able to price them as you see fit, which can lead you to not getting the profit margin you had hoped for. 

Instead, keep a balanced ratio of selling your best products as a vendor, so that you can minimize logistics and you can enjoy Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) as it helps vendors stand out and has the potential to drive traffic to product detail pages and branded pages. So, make sure you have a good balance.

Consider Amazon FBA 

When you become a vendor, Amazon will give you the option to do your shipping through them. This gives you access to Amazon Prime members, which can ultimately bring in more sales. Amazon FBA does come with fees and costs that you would want to avoid, but doing your own order fulfillment doesn’t market you to the Amazon Prime members so it is something you should consider. Additionally, you can choose Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP), which allows you to have control of storing, packing, and shipping while also allowing you to utilize their Prime option, allowing you to reach Prime members. 

But, like the vendor program, choosing the SFP route won’t be easy. There is a trial period that requires vendors to have a minimum of 300 orders and meet Amazon’s requirements such as; 

• A less than 1% cancellation rate 
• Use ‘Buy Shipping Services’ for at least 95% of your orders
• Have at least a 99% on-time shipment rating 

Amazon is associated with the product and you need to ensure you are able to keep their customers happy and uphold their reputation. This is why it has such strict requirements. 

You May Need to Outsource Inventory Management 

When you join the vendor program, they will have inventory requirements that you need to meet at all times. And considering that most of the products on the vendor program are in high demand, it can cause a strain on inventory management, especially if you work alone. To alleviate the pressure, you may need to outsource production so that you can meet demands. This is especially the case if you’re also managing multiple sales channels. 

Final Thoughts 

Selling on various sales channels can be a challenging task, particularly when you want to move up the ladder and join exclusive programs such as selling to Amazon directly. But, it is doable, when you work on your product data to ensure you have product descriptions, product images, and relevant keywords that help you rank better on Amazon. This is why companies are investing in systems like PIM software to help make things easier to help them grow their brand on one of the most popular ecommerce platforms. 

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About the Author:

Plytix is one of the leading Product Information Management (PIM) tools on the market, specially designed for online retail. It is a single source of truth designed to help you manage content at scale and get your products to market faster. 

Why Should You Sell On Amazon Prime?

Similar to how Google algorithm works, Amazon also ranks the products it sells according to various criteria. One of the best ways for your product to be ranked higher than others is to sell it on Amazon Prime. And that’s one of the important tips for selling on Amazon.

It has been tested and proven by most sellers that items sold as Prime products are ranked higher than those of non-Amazon Seller Prime products. Similarly, sellers with multiple items sold online are also on a vantage point in terms of winning the highly coveted Amazon Buy Box.

To simply put it, when you sell on Amazon Prime you will enjoy increased sales of your business. This is evidenced by the fact that Prime shoppers purchase more items and buy products frequently as compared to traditional Amazon customers.