Can You Still Sell Your Products On Amazon
- Is Selling On Amazon Profitable, 2021
In todays markets selling your products can be a challenge in most any verticals. There are many things to consider and implement into your business model when your are coming up with ways to sell your products. There is the product itself and is it marketable? How will I distribute my product in the most effective way and what are the cost? You have done your research and settled in on what your are going to sell and have hopefully deemed this product one that will satisfy a demographic of your choosing. You maybe considering an online solution to getting your products to the marketplace. This is where a major company like Amazon maybe able to help. On Amazon you can test your products markets, adjusting prices to scale your business market with many tools at your disposal. Now if you plan to move forward why not consider what Amazon has to offer. There are factors to keep in mind and one of these factors is expenses. Below I will give you some info on what are some of Amazon's platform for scaling your business. Some of these are not new to most of you but for those looking into online distribution and sales growth let us see what Amazon has to offer.
- Is Selling On Amazon Profitable, 2021
In todays markets selling your products can be a challenge in most any verticals. There are many things to consider and implement into your business model when your are coming up with ways to sell your products. There is the product itself and is it marketable? How will I distribute my product in the most effective way and what are the cost? You have done your research and settled in on what your are going to sell and have hopefully deemed this product one that will satisfy a demographic of your choosing. You maybe considering an online solution to getting your products to the marketplace. This is where a major company like Amazon maybe able to help. On Amazon you can test your products markets, adjusting prices to scale your business market with many tools at your disposal. Now if you plan to move forward why not consider what Amazon has to offer. There are factors to keep in mind and one of these factors is expenses. Below I will give you some info on what are some of Amazon's platform for scaling your business. Some of these are not new to most of you but for those looking into online distribution and sales growth let us see what Amazon has to offer.
- The Amazon Philosophy
Now let us take a look at understanding ways you can sell on Amazon
Amazon has several of four different ways to list and sell your products, they are as follows:
1. Amazon Seller Central: This is physical products you sell on Amazon that are not print-on-demand. We will get to that later on in others products to sell on Amazon. On Seller Central you determine levels you stock on Amazon. This is quite nice because you set the price of your product. Seller Central is for most sellers with products outside of print-on-demand and books. Seller Central accounts can also make offers for Amazon Prime. All thought the offers work differently for other Prime sellers you still can put your self on a waitlist if the Prime badge application is closed. You can also participate in the Fulfillment By Amazon(FBA) program and this will allow you to sell on Amazon Prime. Amazon does charges an additional fee for Fulfillment By Amazon based on size and weight of your product. So, you see that there are flexible avenues to rendering that your product as it gets to the marketplace on Amazon.
2. Amazon Vendor Central: If you have a large brand this platform may work for you as a seller. What you will need to do is make a contract with Amazon that you will agree to and Amazon becomes the reseller of your product. Here, Im afraid Amazon controls the price and determines the inventory to be restricted. This account is also by private invitation or if you have an existing Vendor Central account. Amazon becomes the seller of record. Amazon sells and distributes your product but you may also choose to ship your product independently of Amazon. It is important to remember that you will go into a contract with Amazon and this maybe where you have the most leverage.
3. Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing: Yes, we may have some knowledge of this platform. Formerly known as Createspace, Amazon KDP is for mostly authors and publishers of Kindle products, print-on-demand books, and e-books. This is where authors get paid royalties based on the sales of their books. Digital download books and print-on-demand books royalties are calculated differently based on cost of print-on-demands versus the digital download version. As the author you can select either seventy percent or thirty-five percent royalties. Your book must be within the maximum and minimum price window. Downloads for books under three(3)megabytes the minimum list price is $.0.99 and the maximum price is $200.00. For an author to qualify for the seventy percent royalties they must satisfy the price requirements that are currently listed on Amazon. Kindle books and e-books qualification must be at least twenty percent below the list price on Amazon for physical books. Titles must be made available for sale in all geographies for which the author or publisher has rights.
Print-on-demand books are a bit different once again, Amazon figures these product with there own version of pricing. Authors are not required to hold stock of these books. Amazon will list the book and only print books as they are sold. Royalties are the same as Kindle but the calculations are based on the price and size of the books.
4. Merch By Amazon: This is specially for print-on-demand physical products like t-shirts, sweatshirts, and pop-sockets. The seller must request an invitation to participate in the program. This platform may appeal to some of you and it is something to consider.
Amazon takes a third of the total sale price of an item. A percentage of the total sale price is in referral fee. On products sold through Fulfillment By Amazon(FBA) program there is an additional fee that we mentioned earlier. Referral fees range from eight percent to twenty percent . The important thing here is to remember that if you ship yourself through Merchant Fulfilled or with Seller Fulfilled that is the extent of fees. This is where you must check with Amazon. When you create your account on Amazon you can use the "Continue as Guest" option to find similar products in the search bar and use it as a guide if you do not have your product listed on Amazon. This will give you a leg up on what to expect in the amount of sales and products you can sell on Amazon. As a note, this is also where you can see how your competitors are performing on Amazon.
If you are a manufacturer of your own product The Amazon Brand Registry is a special program that will help you to manage, control, and grow your presence. Any brand with a live trademark can become a part of Amazon Brand Registry. Brand Registry is designed to help you protect your intellectual property and give you access to special tools to market your product or brand on Amazon. If you don't have a live trademark you can still access Amazon Brand Registry program through what is known as the IP Accelerator program. And , if you have been enrolled previously some time ago and can't seem to access Brand Registry, or have an older version you will need to re-register your brand. Once you have connected your Brand Registry to your Seller Central account, new modules will appear in the Seller Central that allow you access to additional data and options.
Here are some of the types of ad products that are available on Seller Central with Brand Registry.
Sponsored Brands
Sponsored Display
Amazon Attribution Program
Access to add +A content to showcase your brand and product, providing you with important behavioral and demographic information from your customers on Amazon
What Can You Sell On Amazon
Amazon has a Restricted Products page that you can browse by category to find out any restrictions applicable to you as seller. There are some products on Amazon that are not eligible to be sold through the Fulfillment by Amazon(FBA) program. These include:
Hazmats
Meltables: Sold from October to May.
Expiration dates must have at least ninety days of self life when they arrive at Amazon
I like to add that no drugs or CBD products are sold on Amazon. This goes along with other rules of selling on Amazon. Amazon has fourteen guiding principles that shape a lot of the rules on the platform and the way that departments interact with one another. Customer Obsession is the first principle and on that Amazon does not take this likely. Amazon is customer driven and you should try to avoid negative customer experiences. Feedback is one of the metrics you should keep a constant eye on as a seller on Amazon. The FBA program tends have less negative feedback due to Amazon's management of these kinds of accounts. Amazon will only remove feedback in the following cases:
Feedback includes obscene language
Feedback includes seller specific personally identifiable information
The entire feedback comment is a product review
Amazon will strike-through feedback in the following cases:
The entire feedback comment is regarding fulfillment or customer service for a order fulfilled by Amazon. A feedback comment is solely related to delayed or not received packages, form orders shipped on time by the seller using Buy Shipping.
Other metrics to consider are Order Defect Rate or ODR. this includes negative feedback ; A-Z Claims; and Chargebacks.
Authenticity and Intellectual Complaints
Shipping Performance to include two metrics of Late Shipment Rate of less than four percent let shipment and Pre-Shipment cancellation rate that should be under 2.5 percent.
Inventory Performance Index; This metric is located under Inventory Planning in Seller Central and shows how Amazon feels you are managing your inventory.
As you can see, Amazon wants you to be alert to customer service and make all sells a great experience for your customers. To be banned on Amazon is not an option. They will ban your IP, your Mac address, your bank account and your physical address! Avoiding suspension should be top priority and keeping your account healthy will ensure you will grow successfully on Amazon.
There are other metrics to consider and Amazon will try and help in most cases . This is your business and you should run it as such and scale it with Amazon as a business partner.
A special note to authors like myself and other content creators. The Amazon KDP program has opened many options for self-publishing for work that traditional publishing agencies do not offer. The chance to publish your books whether they are physical or digital downloads and with Amazon as your distributer gives new meaning to independent publishing. Do diligence when researching Amazon's pricing guidelines. Amazon started out selling books on their initial platform so they seem to know a thing or two about book sales and how to market your product. Take this as your chance to test the waters of your novels and other writing materials on the open market.
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In conclusion, it is up to you to decide if Amazon is the right fit for your business. The many options to scale and present your business on Amazon's platform is worth looking into if you want to be a thriving business and known for managing a team with success. Is it profitable to sale on Amazon? Is there a demand for your product? How much competition do I have for this product? These are the kinds of questions you will have to answer that will help you make the right decision as you move forward whether to sell on Amazon. The kinds of tools that are provided by Amazon are varied and some will help you even understand some what to base decisions on. Take care to gain as much knowledge and information about Amazon's many types of selling platforms and you should be able to solve the answers to these questions with knowledge and wisdom. Thanks for allowing me to share the mysteries of the Universe with you.
The Individual Seller Account
The Amazon Individual Seller Account is perfect for the savvy small business owner that lives for the opportunity of selling their wares and listing on Amazon. This is the most basic of plans on Amazon and you are provided listing and management tools for matching your products with existing pages or creating new pages. Amazon charges you a shipping rate for orders which are determined by the levels of seller offers. You receive payment using Amazon Pay when you start selling. These payments are transfer to your bank account so all that is required is your bank account information. The said bank account must be in a country supported by Amazon. The is no monthly fee for Individual Seller accounts instead you pay-as-you-go based on per-item of $0.99 when the item is sold. Amazon expects you need to sale more than 40 items a month which come out to 40 times $0.99 equals $39.99. As you can see, this is much like the Seller Central account but with a basic plan you can also do your own shipping as well. If you have fewer than 40 items sales per month , or seasonal product fluctuations in your sales, this plan may be for you. As you began to sell orders you will receive an email titled "sold, ship now". This is where you manage your orders in your account. Here you can print shipping labels and packing slips, then confirm your order shipment. Manage your existing listings on the Manage Inventory page of your account. You can also mange inactive listings status as well as active listings. There is a required tax I.D. number for individual seller on Amazon. This can be an account that you can grow as you go forward on Amazon. Some of these individual sellers have started out with as little as $100.00 with Amazon and have gone on to scale their business far beyond what was expected, some in the millions! It is up to you to determine if this a way to go and Amazon has got you covered. Thanks again for allowing me this chance to share the mysteries of the Universe with you.
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