Proper tracking and optimization is hard, however, when your funnel crosses over multiple platforms and ends up on Amazon. It’s notoriously difficult to get data out of Amazon, so this means a lot of sellers who try external traffic don’t get the best results.

This is good news for you. Why? Because it means if you’re able to properly extract the data you need, you’ll start running more effective and better optimized external traffic campaigns than any of your competitors.

Read on and we’ll show you how.

What is External Traffic and Why is it Powerful?

“External traffic” is a term somewhat unfamiliar to many Amazon sellers.

Speaking broadly, you have two ways you can get traffic (customers) to your Amazon products. Internal traffic – customers already on Amazon. And external traffic – people who aren’t shopping on Amazon.

Internal traffic is from things like organic search, PPC and related products. Some of the most common forms of external traffic are Facebook/Google Ads, organic social media, and email.

Almost every seller on Amazon focuses on internal traffic first, which is the right way to do it. This is the low-hanging fruit, and it makes sense to put your resources into internal traffic before anything else.

But because not many sellers go outside of Amazon to find customers, external traffic is a powerful differential for an Amazon business. You get to a point where you’ve done all you can to grow your business using internal traffic sources. At this point, branching outside Amazon to get new customers becomes extremely powerful.

Here are a few ways external traffic works for you:

• More Sales

The more channels you have to get in front of customers, the more potential sales you can get. It’s pretty simple. If you’re struggling to get more sales from PPC, or from organic search, channels such as Facebook Ads and Google Ads offer a lot more sales, giving you more money you can reinvest into your business. 

• Higher Rankings

More sales doesn’t only mean more money. A boost in sales almost always leads to a boost in search rankings as well. Sales velocity is a powerful ranking factor for the Amazon search algorithm, which means driving more sales from outside Amazon can bring you more organic sales as well.

• Better Outreach for Reviews

While Amazon tightly controls what you can and can’t send customers when asking for reviews, you’ve got a lot more freedom when reaching out to customers outside of Amazon. Driving customers to your products from Facebook or Google also gives you the chance to reach out and ask for reviews using email, Messenger or SMS, which will result in an uptick in valuable reviews. To track customer orders, you may use Amazon order ID. 

• A Chance to Promote Your Brand

As with how Amazon limits what you can say when you ask for reviews, they also limit how much you can promote your brand on Amazon. After all, the lasting image they want for their shoppers is the Amazon brand name, not yours.

Marketing outside of Amazon gives you the freedom to build a unique brand with a unique message, resulting in more trust, more conversions, and repeat customers.

• Building an Audience

Along with building your brand, you can also build an audience. This is the most dangerous thing about selling on Amazon – you don’t own your customers, which means you’re totally reliant on Amazon continuing to allow you to sell on their platform. 

Building a presence and marketing outside of Amazon gives you the opportunity to start building your own audience, through a fan page on Facebook or an email list, for example. This will prove valuable if you ever run into trouble with Amazon TOS, or you slip in rankings for whatever reason.

Why It’s Important to Track Your Campaigns

Tracking and optimization is essential for any kind of marketing campaign. 

Without knowing how your ads are performing, you have very little way of knowing if your campaign is increasing your profit, or you’re losing money by spending more than they’re actually bringing in.

You also won’t know what’s needed to improve your ads’ performance. Most often, ad campaigns aren’t perfect right from the start. It takes some analysis and improvement before they start giving you a profitable return on investment (ROI). But you’ll only know this if you’re tracking results.

This is all pretty basic for digital marketing. Generally you’ve got a lot of tools available to track and optimize your online ad campaigns, such as Google Analytics or the Facebook Pixel. The problem for Amazon sellers is that you can’t install these analytics tools on your Amazon product page. Thus, you’re starting from a place of darkness, as any conversion data on Amazon enters a black hole that only Amazon can see into.

3 Ways to Track External Traffic

Tracking the performance of your external marketing campaigns is a little more difficult when you sell on Amazon, but not impossible.

Unfortunately it’s not possible to enable tracking and optimization to the extent you can with third-party tools and your own website. Ideally, you’d like to be able to retarget people based on their actions on Amazon, such as viewing your product or adding it to their cart but not buying. It’s unlikely Amazon will ever allow you to do this, too, since it opens the door for Amazon sellers to steal Amazon customers away.

However, it is possible to see how many sales you’re getting from different external traffic channels, which is data you can use to measure how well your campaigns are going, and if they’re really making you any money.

Here are three ways you can do this.

• Promo Codes

Utilizing a promo code in your external traffic funnel is a simple way to see how many sales result from your ads.

As part of whatever channel it is you’re using to drive traffic (Facebook, Google, email), offer a small discount code as part of the ad copy (or email copy). If anyone clicks through and buys your product, they’re almost certainly going to use the code.

All you need to do is check your sales reports, filter by the ID of your promo code, and it will tell you how many times this promotion has been redeemed, thus how many sales came from your campaign.

If you want to use promo codes for tracking purposes, make sure you set up a new promotion for each traffic source you’re using, and set up a tracking ID so it’s clear to see where sales from that promotion came from.

• Landing Pages

Promo codes will give you info on how many final sales you’ve gotten. For a deeper understanding of your funnel, you want to use a landing page in combination with this. Instead of sending people from your ads or emails directly to Amazon, send them through a landing page first.

On the landing page, offer a discount code, which you’ll use to track sales (as well as incentivize sales). But by using a landing page, you’ll be able to see drop-offs at different points of your funnel, as well as embed analytics code to give you more insights on your traffic.

• Amazon Attribution

Finally, for brand registered sellers, there is a tool available that can greatly improve your ability to track and optimize your external traffic campaigns.

Amazon Attribution is a fairly new feature, which is designed to give sellers a way to see ad performance from different marketing channels.

It works by creating URLs with a tag on the end, which tracks shoppers’ activity after clicking the link. This means you’ll be able to see how many impressions, add to carts and sales happened from people who clicked a specific URL.

Simply create a tracking URL for each different external traffic you’re using, or even for individual campaigns or split tests within those channels.

You might be running a test on Facebook, with an ad with three different images, to see which one converts best. With Amazon Attribution, you can create a unique URL for each of the three test ads, so you can not only see which variation gets the most clicks, but which (if any) actually gets the most sales.

You can use Attribution together with the other methods too. Just plug this URL in as the destination URL from your landing page to Amazon. Then set up a different landing page for each channel or test you’re running, each with their own unique Attribution link.

Optimizing Your Campaigns

Of course, all the data in the world isn’t worth anything if you don’t use it.

However, most Amazon businesses are already in the habit of using data and making decisions based on data. Things like optimizing PPC campaigns, automated repricing, and keyword research/optimization are commonplace for Amazon sellers.

Once you’re getting solid data on how your external traffic campaigns perform, use this data to improve your results, or cut bait and try a different channel.

A basic analysis you’ll want to make is ROI. Calculate how much profit you’re making from each sale (if you’re using a discount code, take this cost into the equation), and see how much you’re spending on ads for each sale.

Example: if you spend $100 on Facebook Ads for 10 sales, making $9 profit per sale, you’ve lost $10 overall, or $1 per sale.

This is a sign you need to improve the performance of your ads, to get a positive return on your ad spend.

Using the different tracking methods above can help you identify where you need to improve.

Let’s say you got a lot of clicks to your landing page, but not as many sales. This is a sign you want to improve your landing page, or retarget the people who made it through to your landing page.

Example of what your landing page might look like (image source). Some important elements to get people to click through and buy are easy to read copy, a clear call to action (“Enter your email to get your discount code”) and urgency (“valid for 24hrs”, “today only”).

If you’re getting a lot of clicks on your ad, a lot of clicks from the landing page, but few sales, this is a sign it’s your listing that can be improved to convert more people into customers.

Again, you can also use the landing page analytics to retarget people who viewed this page.

It is important to understand that external traffic channels require a bit of optimization before they’re going to be profitable. If you’re losing money when you first start out (like in our example above), it’s not necessarily a sign that the channel is worthless and you need to drop it.

With Facebook Ads in particular, you need to run some tests in order to get to a point where you’re profitable. The things you’ll want to test and improve are audiences (getting your ads in front of people who are likely to buy), and the ads themselves.

It may take a bit of investment and a little time, but with smart testing (based on data), you can get to the point where external traffic makes a huge difference for your Amazon business.

——

About The Author:

Andrew Buck is the Head of Marketing and Customer Success at LandingCube, a marketing tool for Amazon sellers. As well as writing about Amazon and ecommerce, Andrew is passionate about diamonds, cryptocurrency, and Jiu Jitsu.

Becoming a successful Amazon seller requires experience. If you want to somehow expedite the process without sacrificing the quality of the lessons learned, here are some Amazon sellers podcasts that offer valuable insights, lessons, and wisdom to Amazon sellers.

Learn From These Successful Amazon Podcasts 

1. The David Aladdin Show (formerly AmzSecrets Show) 

AmzSecrets considers itself as the fastest-growing Amazon private label podcast. With over 150,000 active listeners, AmzSecrets aims to push Amazon sellers to their limits to help them reach their Amazon goals. 

As one of the dynamic Amazon FBA podcasts, AmzSecrets expand their reach and cover for more entrepreneurial topics To do so, AmzSecrets changed the name of the Amazon sellers podcast. AmzSecrets Show is now called The David Aladdin Show.

This Amazon podcast offers the latest strategies, tips, and secrets to Amazon business success brought to you by successful entrepreneurs, professional sellers, and industry leaders. Rather than just focusing on topics for beginners, the Amazon seller podcast delves into “intellectual subjects” to give listeners deep knowledge into the respective expertise of their guests. 

Some of AmzSecrets’ most viewed Amazon FBA podcasts include “Amazon Greyhat Ranking Secret – Ranking with the Corporate Guys” and “How Eddie Makes 5M+ a year selling Wholesale on Amazon.”

Host: David Aladdin 

Amazon Podcast Website: amzsecrets.com/amazon-private-label-podcast

Key Topics: Amazon Business, Private Label

2. Private Label Podcast

For Amazon FBA sellers wanting to learn more about private label entrepreneurship, Private Label Podcast is another option available online. This Amazon seller podcast was created and is hosted by Kevin Rizer, a former corporate employee turned private label Amazon seller. 

One of the main goals of this Amazon podcast is to bring into light the success stories and secrets of sellers who started from the bottom and reached the top. Private Label Podcast invites both the established brand owner or newbie Amazon sellers to join them in creating an empire.  

Host: Kevin Rizer

Amazon Podcast Website: n/a

Key Topics: Private Label, Amazon Business

3. The Rock Your Brand Podcast  (formerly The Amazing Seller)

The Amazing Seller is indeed an amazing Amazon podcast created by Scott Voelker. However, the brand has evolved and so has its podcast name. After more than 16 million downloads over the past 5 years, Scott has decided to rebrand his podcast into, The Rock Your Brand Podcast. 

The main goal of the podcast is to provide Amazon sellers with help and advice concerning technical and business-related topics. Some of the topics being discussed on this particular Amazon FBA podcast include keyword tracking, Amazon listing optimization, inventory sourcing, and even Amazon repricers. 

The ultimate goal of Scott’s Amazon podcast is to help empower people to take action and change their lives through their “ultimate freedom business.” The podcast challenges the employee mentality to go beyond employment into creating a business. What makes The Rock Your Brand Podcast unique is that it caters to the needs of all Amazon sellers, and not just private label sellers in particular. 

Host: Scott Voelker

Amazon Podcast Website: brandcreators.com/category/podcast

Key Topics: Amazon Business

4. Silent Sales Machine Radio

The Silent Sales Machine Radio is a unique podcast with numerous followers on multiple online platforms. This Amazon podcast boasts of its documented successful entrepreneurs.

The host of this podcast is also dubbed as the “all time best-selling author in the world on the topic of online business success.” Apart from Amazon FBA, the podcast also tackles topics including online marketing, self-publishing, and other online business opportunities. 

In its most recent episodes, Jim provides insight for Amazon sellers with his podcasts entitled “From cutting grass to a $million dollar month selling on Amazon” and ” Over $500K his first year selling on Amazon with great tips for all.”

Host: Jim Cockrum

Amazon Podcast Website: silentjim.com/podcast

Key Topics: Income Strategies, Amazon Business

5. My Wife Quit Her Job Podcast 

My Wife Quit Her Job Podcast is not just your ordinary podcast about business. This particular podcast focuses on small business entrepreneurs, including Amazon sellers. 

This Amazon podcast is not simply focused on success stories of businesspersons, but it also offers technical tips when it comes to the optimization of your listings, including Amazon listings. 

The main goal of the podcast is to educate listeners that there is more to life than work. In his own words, Steve Chou mentioned that “back then, my wife and I used to get up early in the morning, go to work, eat dinner, sleep and then wake up again the next day to repeat the cycle.” 

Some of the most recent titles discussed on the podcast include “Should You Hire An Agency To Run Your Amazon PPC Ads With Edward Ruffin” And Jeremy Crowe and “Spencer Haws On How To Automate Internal Link Building For SEO.”

Host: Steve Chou

Amazon Podcast Website: mywifequitherjob.com/category/podcast

Key Topics: Small Business Entrepreneurship, Amazon Business

6. AM/PM Podcast

The AMPM Podcast has moved on with its new host Tim Jordan. However, despite the new captain on board, this Amazon podcast continued the same platform and approach. Despite making a significant change on their podcast, AMPM Podcast continued to offer listeners fresh, relevant, and informative discussions. 

The podcast website offers fresh and regular uploads including “Taming the Volatile World of Entrepreneurship with the Magic of Relationships and Mentors, with Nick Cavuoto” and “Your Network is your Net Worth – This Amazon Seller and Pro Networker Explains How It Applies in Today’s World.”

Host: Tim Jordan

Amazon Podcast Website: ampmpodcast.com

Key Topics: Entrepreneurship, Amazon FBA

7. Seller Sessions

As the name of the podcast would suggest, Seller Sessions are focused on educating sellers, especially Amazon sellers. As an Amazon FBA podcast, Seller Sessions covers both the Amazon FBA and the private label industry.

The podcast has declared itself as the “first dedicated marketing show for Amazon FBA and Private Label sellers.” Every week, Seller Sessions offers its followers new tips and tricks that are actionable and relatable for Amazon sellers to follow. 

Host: Danny McMillan

Amazon Podcast Website: sellersessions.libsyn.com

Key Topics: Amazon FBA, Private Labelling

8. Seller Round Table Amazon FBA Podcast

This particular Amazon FBA podcast focuses more on Amazon FBA training and coaching for Amazon sellers. Whether you are a new seller or an experienced one, you will surely get some nugget of wisdom from the various guests invited on the podcast.

Apart from the knowledge imparted by its guests, the hosts offer tested and proven tips and tricks when it comes to Amazon selling, marketing, and optimization. Seller Round Table Amazon FBA Podcasts are hosted by Amazon SEO and marketing experts. 

The main goal of the podcast is to help Amazon sellers and other entrepreneurs who are new to the online selling business. The input of the podcast guests and the host serves as a guide for sellers who want to make it big in the eCommerce industry. 

Host: Andy Arnott & Amy Wees

Amazon Podcast Website: sellerroundtable.com/category/full-episodes

Key Topics: Amazon FBA, Amazon Seller Coaching

9.  The Full-Time FBA Show Podcast

If you had enough with Amazon coaching and the technicalities involved, you can tune into The Full-Time FBA Show Podcast. This particular Amazon podcast focuses more on encouraging Amazon FBA sellers to continue their hustle until achieving success.

The core approach of the platform is via interviews of successful full-time Amazon resellers. The guests on the podcast normally share their experiences during their start-up stage and the obstacles they had to overcome before becoming successful in the Amazon business. 

Some of their latest podcast includes “How to Respond to Coronavirus / COVID-19 as an Amazon FBA Seller” and “The Truth Behind Amazon’s Return Policy.”

Host: Stephen and Rebecca Smotherman

Amazon Podcast Website: fulltimefba.com/the-full-time-fba-show-podcast

Key Topics: Amazon FBA, Amazon Seller Experiences

10.  eCommerceFuel

If you are engaged in various eCommerce stores, including Amazon stores, you will like eCommerceFuel. Apart from the Amazon FBA topic, this Amazon podcast also discusses other topics that relate to eCommerce in general. 

Topics concerning leadership, mentorship, and inspirations are covered by eCommerceFuel. They are not simply focused on the “how-to” aspect of the Amazon market, they also offer success stories to inspire online sellers worldwide. 

Some of their all-time greats include Learning to Lead: “Four Powerful Books That Have Shaped My Company & Culture” “The Insane Benefits of Selling True One-of-a-Kind Products,” and “Making Big Decisions in Your Life & Business”

Host: Andrew Youderian

Amazon Podcast Website: ecommercefuel.com/podcast

Key Topics: Amazon FBA, eCommerce

Learn from The Experts 

Achieving success often means that you have to carry the load, especially with an Amazon business. Listening to Amazon sellers podcasts will give you a better overview of how to approach the industry. Everything that you learn can be applied to improve your Amazon store. These learnings can easily complement Amazon seller tools, such as repricers, keyword research tools, and Amazon PPC campaign tools. 

After analyzing the experiences of these Amazon sellers, we have discovered some similarities in their business approaches. To give new online sellers an edge among competitors, newbie sellers can try and imitate these daily, weekly, and monthly activities of the best Amazon sellers that we have outlined below.  

The Daily, Weekly, & Monthly Routines of Top Amazon Sellers 

Top Amazon Sellers Daily Activities 

Perform Daily Inventory Check

With the news of Amazon Prime Day 2020 happening sooner, it’s always advisable for sellers, new and experienced alike to check their inventory daily. Sellers must know their inventory levels to stay ahead of the game.

With daily checks on the availability of stock being implemented, sellers can secure sales and avoid unnecessary business interruption and customer disappointment. 

For sellers who want more sophisticated inventory management tools, RestockPro is an ideal Amazon seller tool to have in any online seller’s arsenal. This particular seller tool will help streamline operations and cut-down time investments involved in tracking inventory. 

Look Into Possible Amazon Suppressed Listings

Product listings are suppressed intentionally by Amazon mostly because of various quality issues or complaints previously raised by an Amazon customer. When a seller’s listing is suppressed by Amazon, customers will not be able to see such a listing in the search result. 

Another reason for suppression is because of lacking information such as department value, size value, or even color value. Similarly, a jewelry listing may also be suppressed simply because the seller did not include the material type specification. 

However, a suppressed listing can easily be fixed. The seller can simply supply the missing values or correct product details. 

To access Amazon suppressed listings, sellers should first log into their Amazon Seller Central account and (1) click the INVENTORY tab, then from the dropdown menu select MANAGE INVENTORY. From thereon, sellers may select the (2) SUPPRESSED tab from the horizontal menu to check suppressed items and begin editing. 

Check Your Buyer-Seller Messaging

If you are a new Amazon seller, you should make it a habit to always check messages from customers. Amazon Seller Central has provided a secure messaging service for third-party merchants to conveniently communicate with their buyers. 

Known as Amazon Buyer-Seller Messaging Service, this type of messaging system provides anonymity for both buyers and sellers. When an email arrives from either party, Amazon encrypts it with an alias like a444d34b546431b@marketplace.amazon.com. Through this, the identity of the sellers and buyers are both protected. 

It is important that if you are aiming to be a top Amazon seller in 2020, you should religiously check the buyer-seller messaging system in order to respond promptly to messages. If sellers delay their response, you could receive a late response mark on your metrics.

Ensure to send prompt responses if you wish to avoid having your Amazon seller account suspended. Moreover, for sellers aiming to win the Amazon Buy Box, replying to buyers’ messages should be a top priority on your daily task list. 

Read Customer Reviews & Reply

One of the factors that Amazon takes into consideration when ranking a product listing is customer reviews. High-level customer service is a must for Amazon.

One way of gauging the quality of service each Amazon seller provides is through Amazon feedback or reviews. In dealing with reviews, you should check on them daily and promptly reply to customer reviews or praises. 

Try to make each response personalized and engaging. Customers will not only appreciate prompt and customized responses, but the Amazon algorithm will also take this into consideration when awarding sellers with the Amazon Buy Box. 

Top Amazon sellers are aware that the more positive feedback received and more negative reviews resolved, the better the chances of winning the Amazon Buy Box. Hence, newbie sellers should take note of this daily activity for better ranking of product listing in organic search.    

For sellers not to be burdened with feedback monitoring and other related tasks, using an Amazon seller tool like this would be helpful. FeedbackWhiz is considered by top sellers as one of the reliable Amazon seller tools for reviews. 

Perform Search Operator Query

Some top sellers consider this activity as a powerful tool to increase an Amazon store’s reach. The activity provides a great opportunity for new sellers to collaborate with influencers in their chosen niche. 

Conducting a daily search operator query will give you more chances of finding the most appropriate blog site or influencer to help market your chosen Amazon niche products. The collaboration is actualized through various means, including backlink swapping for your Amazon product landing page or even a simple sponsored product review. 

For a better understanding of Search Operator Query, our friends from Ahrefs have provided an overview of the topic:

As a daily task for Amazon sellers, a seller should always make it a goal to be in contact with one or two collaborators a day. 

Do Not Stress Out With Repricing

To unload some of the burden, some sellers make use of automated Amazon repricers, like Seller Snap. 

Top Amazon sellers have long transitioned from manual repricing into automated repricing strategies to allow them to focus more on other important matters of their Amazon business, such as product optimization and other Amazon SEO practices. 

Similarly, with the help of an algorithmic repricer, chances of winning the Amazon Buy Box will also increase. Hence, AI repricers are favored by the best Amazon sellers worldwide. 

Top Amazon Sellers Weekly Activities 

Weekly Accounting Check

Top Amazon sellers employ several tips and tricks to simplify the accounting process of their Amazon business. Since this is very important and also taxing at the same time, it is best done weekly.

New Amazon sellers should never neglect the power of weekly accounting. Such an activity will help sellers, new and experienced alike, forecast potential revenue, track business expenses, and monitor business financial health and growth. 

Some of the best Amazon sellers succeded by simply watching crash course videos online and mastering the use of Amazon seller tools, such Amazon FBA Calculator and Fetcher, an online accounting software for Amazon sellers. 

Monitor Buy Box Eligibility

Top Amazon sellers aim not just to appear on organic product searches, the best Amazon sellers aim to appear in the Buy Box. Hence, Amazon Buy Box eligibility is important for every Amazon seller. 

As a pro tip, the Amazon Buy Box is the prime real estate that appears on the right portion of the product listing. 

The Amazon Buy Box provides customers with information including pricing information, Prime eligibility, shipping information, availability, and the “Add to Cart” and “Buy Now” buttons. 

Being Buy Box eligible means that the seller’s product listing is eligible to appear in the Buy Box. Winning the Amazon Buy Box is critical for every seller in order to increase the profitability of their Amazon business.

However, being Buy Box eligible does not automatically ensure a Bux Box win. There are some tips and tricks sellers should apply in order to improve Amazon Buy Box winning rate. 

Inspect Possible Technical Glitches

Similar to other businesses, Amazon still encounters system glitches from time to time. Amazon glitches may affect both sellers and consumers alike, which is why Amazon sellers should be cautious about it. 

Our team at Seller Snap and our growing community of Amazon sellers have reported some of the experienced and observed glitches throughout the first part of 2020, including an alleged Buy Box non-rotation. Such a concern has somehow led the Seller Snap community to question whether or not the company has tweaked its Amazon Algorithm.

Some of the other Amazon glitches observed over the past years which new sellers should be wary of include, Amazon Email Glitch, Amazon Food Delivery Glitch, Amazon Order Glitch. For new Amazon sellers wanting to improve their services, it would be best to incorporate this type of activity into their own weekly activities. 

Top Amazon Sellers Monthly Activities 

Final Monthly Accounting

Some of the practices of the best Amazon sellers extend to their monthly schedule. As previously discussed, accounting practices are important for any business, including an Amazon business.

Monthly Supply & Pending Order Check

For a better overview of the inventory situation of your Amazon store, it would be wise for sellers to follow a monthly inventory check. This will help sellers anticipate potential marketplace place peaks, including holidays and event sales such as Prime Day, summer, spring & Halloween sale events, and Black Friday deals. 

Similarly, a monthly check on orders will also be helpful to update on pending orders. By pending orders, it would not simply mean orders made by customers, but also orders that sellers have made from local and overseas suppliers. 

Monthly Clean-Up

Another monthly activity practiced by top Amazon sellers would be monthly clean-up. For new sellers, a monthly clean-up should include both physical and digital clean-up. 

Amazon sellers should practice tidying up their digital space for improved navigation. Remove unnecessary files and try to organize files according to purpose. By doing a monthly digital clean-up, sellers’ digital workspace will look more presentable, and retrieving files will be much easier. 

Besides a digital clean-up, top Amazon sellers also practice physical clean-up. This clean up includes cleaning up the workstation or table, inventory place, and other physical areas related to the Amazon business. 

Unsold Item Removal 

One of the reasons why monthly accounting matters is the overview it gives sellers with their current inventory status. Inventory accounting in a way lets Amazon sellers know which products are in-demand and which items are not saleable at all. 

When the sales of certain products cannot cover the storage cost and other Amazon fees, the best Amazon sellers tend to start the removal process rather than to incur unnecessary expenses. 

The removal process could be incorporated as one of the monthly activities that sellers should perform. As part of the removal process, sellers may either choose for Amazon to dispose of the non-saleable items or simply have Amazon deliver items to a specified address.

Turn It Into a Habit

Success is not created in one day, for it requires constant repetition of tested and proven actions. When it comes to your Amazon business, you should learn to do things right to avoid costly mistakes. Try to imitate and even innovate some of the aforementioned top Amazon seller activities and you will soon find success.

If you were looking for the perfect product to sell on Amazon, you would certainly have to take the effects of the pandemic into consideration. With that in mind, let’s explore some trends that have shown increased demand since the start of the pandemic that we have confirmed using AMZScout data. The best way to do this is by taking a look at some niches that are good examples of the overall trends:

1. Home Bread Making Kits 

One of the most immediate effects of people being stuck at home was the fact that they started cooking more. You probably noticed your friends and family posting their latest home cooked culinary projects all over social media. It’s hard to purchase fresh bread when you’re stuck at home, so people have taken to baking their own. Amazon sellers in this niche have been making dough since the pandemic started. 

2. Jump Rope

Gyms have been closed during the pandemic. Also, that running outside has not been an option in some areas due to a more strict lockdown or curfew. Because of this, people have found jump ropes to be a very inexpensive piece of home exercise equipment that can give you a sweat inducing cardio workout in a very short period of time. 

Photo by AMZScout

As we can see the sales volume in this niche has skyrocketed and has even settled now on a very high sales average. 

3. Air Purifiers

One of the effects of the pandemic is that people have gotten more health conscious. The fact that this virus is attacking our respiratory system has prompted many people into thinking about the quality of the air that they breathe. Because of this, air purifiers have had a noticeable spike in demand. 

4. Barbeques and Barbeque Equipment

This niche is a great example of 2 emerging trends coming together. We’ve mentioned the fact that people have gotten used to cooking more at home due to the pandemic. Another noticeable trend is that people are shopping for items that make their gardens and yards a more enjoyable place. This is due to the fact that it’s the only outdoor space that you can inhabit safely during a pandemic. Combine those two trends  and you see higher sales for barbeques and all things barbeque related.

5. Toys

Toys are a category that has always been very attractive to private label sellers on Amazon. This niche has so much variety and you can often manufacture products using inexpensive materials. Needless to say, the fact that you have to keep your children indoors and are not able to take them to the park, vacation or on a playdate with other children has left parents looking at toy shopping as one of the only ways to keep their little ones happy. Sales of all types of toys have skyrocketed exactly because of this reason. 

Of course, it’s not all good news in online sales. There are categories that have seen quite the decline in demand due to the pandemic and there are trends moving downwards. 

1. Eyeliner

Selling makeup is one of the most coveted industries for entrepreneurs. There are rarely any other types of items that can sell at such high margins. It’s often the case that 90% of the selling price of any makeup item is just profit. However, during a pandemic people aren’t going out much. Since we aren’t seeing people outside the home, we don’t have to put that much effort into looking pretty as we usually do. Sales for all types of makeup have been steadily declining throughout the pandemic. 

2. Dress shoes

Similar to makeup, just as we don’t have as many opportunities to show off our beauty during a pandemic, we also have less opportunity to get dressed up. Because of this, footwear manufacturers have taken a hit, even more so if they are making trendy or more high end shoes. 

3. Luggage

Unsurprisingly, since traveling is largely non existent during the pandemic, people haven’t really had a need to buy any new luggage. Some companies have reported sales going down by 90%. You can see by the example of this single luggage listing on Amazon how low the sales have been, even during the months of the year when sales should normally be peaking:

Photo by AMZScout

However, we can expect this trend to recover since fairly certain that people will be traveling again as soon as they are able to. 

4. Wrist Watches

Wrist watches are one of those categories that Amazon was hoping to develop more, which is why it has one of the lowest referral fee rates. However, wrist watches, as well as a lot of luxury goods, have seen a decline in sales during the pandemic. This could be due to the fact that people don’t get out enough to show off their bling. It could also be because they are avoiding luxury purchases due to the economic uncertainty of the whole situation. Either way, wrist watches are not the items you would want to be selling online right now. 

5. Party Supplies 

Parties are unfortunately not a common occurrence during a pandemic, and are certainly not recommended. It makes sense that people would not be buying party supplies for parties they can’t hold. Party kits are usually a very good product to sell as they are made from inexpensive materials. They also usually get used up by a single party, so satisfied customers can easily become return customers. However, the current state of things for party supplies can be best described with the sales history of one such listing:

Photo by AMZScout

In conclusion, the pandemic has made people turn to shopping online more now than ever before. This presents a great opportunity for anyone to get into the online selling space or to expand and invest more into their existing business. What you need to keep in mind is the state of the world as it is today and make sure that whatever you intend to sell is something that people are able to properly utilize and enjoy under the current circumstances. 

Successful Amazon sellers tend to run efficient operations. When it comes to using Amazon seller tools, using the best products available on the market is highly recommended. This is especially true if you are planning to utilize an Amazon repricer to implement a successful Amazon automated repricing strategy.

Seller Snap helps Amazon sellers establish a consistent and reliable Amazon automated repricing strategy. What makes Seller Snap unique from other third-party Amazon repricing tools is the fact that it is one of the few self-learning repricers and it’s inspired by the Game Theory principles.

Based on Game Theory tactics, Seller Snap is capable of assessing marketplace situations and competitor behavior in order to deliver an optimal strategy for each listing and specific market scenario. However, despite having an automated default function called the AI repricer, Seller Snap also offers avenues for Amazon sellers to implement specific rule-based repricing strategies to use as an alternative to the default AI algorithmic repricer setting.

Default Setting

Seller Snap’s default repricing method is the AI Repricer seen in the image below. This particular setting is widely used by Seller Snap customers who want to free themselves from constant checking and manual repricing. This automated repricing strategy has been proven effective in helping Amazon sellers capture their entitled share of the Amazon Buy Box at the highest possible price while avoiding price wars.

The default AI repricer is capable of scanning the competitive environment. Seller Snap gathers information based on competitor’s behavior and provides an automatic repricing strategy specific for each situation.

Win Buybox Repricing Method

As with the AI repricing method, the Win Buybox repricing setting is also popular. When your chosen listing is set to Win Buybox, Amazon sellers may select their desired Amazon Buy Box share, the maximum of which is 95%.

This particular method follows a simple yet aggressive strategy of repricing Amazon items. Although not as sophisticated as the AI repricer, the Win BuyBox method shares a similar feature with the basic rule-based repricer in its function to decrease the price of an item to win the Amazon Buy Box.

That is why this type of method is highly recommended for Amazon sellers who don’t have any problem in dropping the price to the very minimum level.

Best Time To Use:

What is unique with this repricing setting is that it undertakes steps to optimize the winning price. Thus ensuring that the Amazon Buy Box price is still captured at a high price, in relation to its competition.

This is best used when you want to liquidate inventory, or even as a more competitive default repricing method.

Fixed Price Method

This is among the simplest type of alternative setting to that of the default AI repricer setting. As its name would suggest, you will be setting a fixed price for a particular item, taking into consideration the listed price and shipping price. The amount of the landed price, which is the listed price + shipping price, will not be set by an algorithm, but rather by the Amazon seller.

Best Time To Use:

This method also works well for liquidating inventory.

Follow Related ASIN

ASIN stands for Amazon Standard Identification Number. It is a form of ID system that uses 10-alphanumeric characters for identification purposes. When you choose this type of repricer setting, the software will check the Amazon Buy Box of the related ASIN and adjust the product price of your Amazon listing according to your specified rules.

Best Time To Use:

This type of repricing method is best used in instances where you are the only seller obtaining 100% of the Amazon Buy Box. This usually happens when you are selling private items or white label products.

To apply this type of repricing setting, you must specify the relevant ASIN you want to follow in order to make pricing decisions on your Amazon listing. You may also CLICK HERE for some ideas of white label products for your Amazon listing.

More Rule-Based Repricing Methods

What makes Seller Snap interesting and reliable is the opportunity it offers to Amazon sellers when it comes to Amazon repricing strategies. Although widely regarded as a top Amazon automated repricing platform, Seller Snap provides an avenue for sellers to apply some rule-based repricing methods if need be.

Apart from the aforementioned Win Buybox strategy, which may be considered as a hybrid rule-based repricing method, other rule-based repricing options are as follows:

• Matching

This type of rule-based method comprises various approaches. This repricing setting will allow Amazon sellers to match, undercut, and even go beyond specific prices laid down in certain categories. When using this kind of repricing approach, users are given the opportunity to match, undercut or go beyond the lowest or highest FBA or FBM and Buy Box price. Similarly, you may also use this setting to match the price set by the lowest competitor.

• Follow Competitor

Another rule-based method Amazon sellers may use in lieu of the AI repricing function of Seller Snap is the Follow Competitor. As the name of this setting would suggest, you will be following a certain competitor, including Amazon itself, and set a specific amount or percentage to compete by.

If you are an Amazon seller with Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) listings, using this repricing method can be really helpful to your Amazon business. With this type of rule-based strategy, you can set a rule to increase or decrease by a certain amount or percentage when the Buy Box winner is FBM, FBA, or Amazon.

If you are thinking of becoming a seller with SFP, here is a quick overview of Amazon’s suggested steps to qualify:

• Qualify for Seller Fulfilled Prime and complete the trial period
• Store inventory in your own warehouse
• Process your orders and buy shipping labels from approved carriers
• Pick, pack and ship your orders same day
• Seller Fulfilled Prime carriers collect and deliver orders in two days to customers

• Set to Min Price/Max Price

As its name would suggest, with this method Amazon sellers can choose to set a listing price either to the maximum or minimum level in relation to factor function. Worth noting, that as with all Seller Snap settings, the listing price will never go beyond your minimum or maximum price range.

Other Non-Pricing Factors to Consider

One of the main reasons why Amazon sellers make use of Amazon repricers is to get ahead of the competition and compete for the Amazon Buy Box. However, you should understand that in winning the Buy Box or appearing in organic searches, there are also other factors to consider apart from repricing. This may include but not limited to effective Amazon listing, proper use of Amazon SEO, consistent positive feedback from consumers or Amazon shoppers, and more.