Amazon FBA represents incredible potential to build your online business. However, running an Amazon FBA business also involves some distinct challenges, especially if you want to stand out from the heavy competition which now exists on the platform.
In this article we will look at 10 bite-sized, actionable tips which you can apply to your business today, and which could be the secret to building a successful Amazon FBA business in 2019.
Determine the Best Keywords Through Competitor Analysis
Keywords are important for Amazon listings for two reasons. Firstly, they help to rank your products and appear in as many relevant searches as possible. Secondly, the correct keywords used well can be crucial in converting users to customers. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel here: find the best keywords by analysing your competitors and taking what is working for them, while leaving what is not. Use a tool like Junglescout or MerchantWords to run potential keywords and see which are likely to be the most profitable.
Be a Brand Not a Product
This is critical, and something many Amazon sellers don’t understand. If you want to build a successful Amazon business, you need to think about yourself as a brand, rather than focussing on each product separately. This means right from the start you need to have a clear idea of your brand and let this set everything from your business name, to the products you sell, and how you present your listings.
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Respect the 7-day Window
As you probably already know, when it comes to selling on Amazon, ranking is everything. The number one thing you can do to get visitors to your product listing and therefore drive sales is to rank your product highly on Amazon searches. Amazon ranks products based on a few factors – keywords, reviews and organic traffic are all factors – but mostly based on sales. After all, they want to promote products with the best potential to make money for them! Many sellers struggle to rank because they can’t make sales, and their lower ranking harms their potential to make sales, and so on. The key to avoiding this vicious cycle is in understanding that the first 7-day window after launching your product are critical to its Amazon ranking.
Drive as many sales as possible in this first 7 days. Go all out on your chosen marketing strategies during this time, whether this is encouraging reviews from your network, social media, PPC advertising, digital PR, or all of the above.
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Use Online Tools
The best Amazon product research tools can help you to deliver results which exponentially grow your business. Selling on Amazon, or more specifically being competitive and successful as a seller on Amazon, can be a complex business. Fortunately, there are some great online tools available to help sellers boost their performance.
SellerLegend is a subscription tool which helps you to track your profits, know which products are making you money, view trends over time, manage inventory and manage customer interactions. Another handy tool is Sellics, which provides similar functions to help you to pick the right products to build a successful business, as well as assisting with SEO and PPC (pay-per-click).
IO Scout is an efficient straight-forward solution for product research and tracking. It has a large database containing over 150 million products with information on revenue, sales, prices, BSR, reviews. It offers instant niche results both in a web app, as well as in Chrome Extension. Ready to start your Amazon product scouting? IO Scout is here for you to start your search! Try IO Scout for free now!
Perfect Your Product Titles
The vast majority of Amazon users make a purchasing decision without reading the whole product listing: deciding based on the title, price and images. The title is doubly important because this will determine whether your potential customer clicks through to the listing at all. It is crucial to have a “clickable” title which contains as many keywords as possible while being persuasive and engaging, and including all (or close to all) of the product’s features and benefits. Use pipes or dashes to break up keywords and increase readability.
Value Add to Your Images
For the same reason, having strong images is incredibly important. Product images which are on a white background work best, and you can add extras to have images which really sell. Because most people won’t read all the information in your listing, include these details in your images: such as details to point out sizing or features, or creating custom graphics which show the benefits or features of the product.
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Have Zoom-able Images
Also make sure you make the most of your images by letting users zoom in for more detail. This means having images which meet Amazon minimum requirements for zoom-able images. This is currently 1000 by 500 pexels, but they change this often so be sure to check.
Maximise Your Key Product Features
Even though not all people read the entire listing, this doesn’t mean you should ignore it entirely. The product description, and more importantly the “key product features” section could make the difference between a customer and someone who clicks away to browse more products. The key product features are the bullet points at the top of your listing: these should be packed with primary keywords, persuasive sales copy, and as much detail about the product as possible. People love detail!
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PPC Advertising
Pay-per-click advertising can be a great way to drive additional organic traffic to your listing, particularly within the critical first 7 days. You may choose one of the many options of PPC which Amazon has within its marketplace, or other mediums such as Google Adwords and Facebook Ads.
Grow Reviews
Reviews are important factors when it comes to both rankings on Amazon and conversions. Research shows that consumers are more likely to make a purchase on products which have a decent number of positive reviews. Be extremely proactive in encouraging reviews: always ask your customers to leave a review, and if they don’t, ask them again. You may like to implement creative tactics for encouraging reviews such as a personalised request in the delivery packaging.
From the outside, running an Amazon FBA business can seem complicated and more than a little daunting. However, with a little know-how, it is possible to build a highly profitable business within a short time, as long as you apply the correct techniques and strategies.