Amazon is one of the most popular and renowned e-commerce platforms in the world, racking up a staggering 885 million visits each month. The retail giant has a huge customer base and, through its marketplace, allows businesses to create their own Amazon store to sell their goods.
And with a ready customer base, as well as the ability to quickly export product descriptions, promote goods and build their brand, is it any wonder that lots of businesses choose to sell through Amazon?
Not to mention that you can become an Amazon seller anytime, so it’s perfect if you need to give your sales a quick boost and continue to grow your brand.
So if you’ve decided that you want to start an Amazon store, but you’re not sure how to go about setting it up, this guide is for you. Below, we’re going to take an in-depth look at how you can set up your own storefront on Amazon.
Read on to find out how.
Choose the selling plan that’s right for you
Firstly, you need to decide whether you need an individual or professional selling plan. If you choose the individual plan, you’ll pay $0.99 every time you sell an item. As such, this plan is best suited to those who sell fewer than 40 units a month.
Alternatively, the professional plan costs a fixed price of $39.99 per month, no matter how many items you sell during this time. This is better suited to those who sell more and want to advertise products and use advanced selling tools like APIs and reports.
Another important aspect worth noting is that you can sell most things on your Amazon page, but some categories require that you have a professional seller account.
For example, books, accessories, clothing, toys, sports equipment and instruments can all be sold on an individual plan. However, products such as alcohol, collectable coins, dietary supplements, medical devices and more can only be sold via a professional account.
You can learn more about restricted products here.
Create a sellers account
Once you know what type of plan is best suited to your business needs, it’s time to set up a seller account.
You can use your customer account to start selling your goods if you wish, or you can create a new seller account with your business email if you’d prefer to keep things separate. When setting up a new business account, you’ll need:
- An email address
- A chargeable credit card
- Some form of government ID
- Your tax information
- Your phone number
- A bank account to receive proceeds from your sales
Now you have an account, you can begin adding and listing your products for sale.
Add your products
At this point, you need to make sure you have a clear idea of what it is you’re going to be selling and that you have the correct seller plan in place. When everything is in order, you can start adding your products.
To do this, you need to create a product listing in the seller centre. You need to make sure that every product you add contains all the correct and most helpful information. This means you need to include:
- A product identifier – such as GTIN, UPC, ISBN or EAN
- The price – and any special offers
- Shipping options
- Product details – including name, brand, quality, category, colours, sizes, etc.
- The availability – and quantity of your product
- Description – highlighting the key features and benefits
- Images – 500 x 500 or 1,000 x 1,000 pixels to increase listing quality
By making sure your descriptions are as accurate and helpful as possible, it makes it easier for customers to use keywords and search terms to help them find your product. Not only this, but it means that customers are more likely to buy from you and leave a positive review rather than buying a product that turns out to be disappointing or misleading.
If the product you’re listing already exists on Amazon, the product identifier will show the existing listing. This way, you can export the existing description straight to your page if you wish to.
However, if you’re the first seller to offer a certain product, you’ll have to create a brand new listing. Your details will be displayed on the product’s detail page, and this is where your customers will find all of the relevant information they need about your item.
You need to repeat the process and create a listing for every product you want to add to your Amazon store.
Start attracting customers to your store
Once all your products have been listed, you need to let your customers know you’re there.
In the first instance, ensuring your product descriptions are keyword-rich, as we mentioned above, makes it much easier for consumers to find your goods. But this doesn’t mean you don’t need to draw attention to your listings as well.
One of the best ways to get your goods out there is to shout about them on your other channels. For example, promoting your products and offers on your social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. You could also send out an email to your mailing list letting them know you’ve opened a store on Amazon.
There are also some other built-in tools that Amazon offers to help you boost brand awareness. You can use Amazon advertising to help your products become more visible; you can also run deals and offers.
Another great way to secure customers is to offer fast shipping and set competitive prices. This can help you to stand out for other sellers, and the more items you sell, the higher your products will appear on Amazon search results.
Secure some good reviews
And finally, once you’ve begun making sales on your store, you should encourage customers to leave reviews. This can be done by sending follow up emails, as well as using social media. You could politely ask for reviews or possibly even incentivise customers to leave them.
The more positive reviews you acquire on your store, the more visibility your products will get. Plus, product reviews benefit customers, not just you as a seller, because they help people to make more informed buying decisions.
