October 28, 2019 Industry news
For those of you who have not attended Amafest before, it is the perfect event for anybody currently trading on or looking to trade on Amazon. It boasts great networking opportunities with other like-minded Amazon sellers, as well as insights from industry experts who provide invaluable advice on how to boost your sales and share updates on the latest industry trends.
On the day, our engagement manager, Pradip Khagram, hosted a panel entitled "Source and build a real successful private label business". We also heard from a variety of speakers on topics ranging from the hidden treasures of the Amazon vendor programme to transition from 1P vendor to hybrid strategy.
We were so bowled over by the quality of the content that we wanted to share some of the key takeaways with you to help grow your Amazon business.
What you should do
Differentiate your product
With so many different products flooding the marketplace, the days of making a quick buck by re-selling products from Alibaba or Chinese factories, have ended. You need to make sure your products stand out from the crowd by playing up their points of difference.
Bundling
If you are looking to offer bundles as part of your promotional strategy, make sure you are providing real bundles, in shared or conjoined packaging, rather than simply throwing two products together.
Create a company Wiki
Running a small business can mean you are responsible for a number of different activities, from stock management to sales promotions. But what happens to the business if you are not there or eventually want to sell up?
Set up a company wiki with key information and all your processes mapped out to make sure your business will still run smoothly in your absence. Here's an entry on Quora about wiki tools that may help.
Boost your Amazon ads
When running ads on Amazon, it is advisable to focus on a small number of best-selling ASINs to maximise your marketing spend. There is little point in promoting your full range as this can be costly and certain products won’t provide the necessary return on investment.
You should also consider the product lifecycle of promoted ASINs and ensure that you have good availability of the products in question – it’s possible to sell a lot of stock in a very short time.
When bidding on search words, make sure you take advantage of auto campaign placements, store spotlights, Amazon posts and sponsored display ads. It’s also important to review your metrics. A common mistake is to focus on profit per sale without taking into account all the other costs, such as Amazon fees, fulfilment costs and advertising spend.
Conduct keyword research and a content audit
Emanuele Arosio, head of SEO at Triboo Digitale, shared his insights on how to optimise content and find the best keywords for your brand. Emanuele’s insights are too intricate to share in this short blog, but you can find his full slide deck from Amafest below.
How to sell on Amazon without product reviews
If you are new to Amazon, or are launching a brand-new product into the market, a lack of product reviews can be a stumbling block to sales. To overcome your lack of reviews, you will need to invest in great content to focus on the consumer benefits of your product’s features.
You can also tap into the Early Reviewer Programme on Seller Central to generate initial product reviews and kickstart some sales momentum.
Get ready for Black Friday and Cyber Monday
We are now in the golden quarter for retail, so if you haven’t set up your ads for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, make sure you get them live soon. This will allow you to build up enough data to help fully push the ads over the last weekend in November.
It is also worth thinking about the types of promotions you are planning to use over this period. Tools like vouchers can be great incentives.
The hidden treasures of the Amazon Vendor Programme
If you are using a traditional B2B2C approach and your product category is not yet that established on Amazon, the Amazon Vendor Programme could be perfect for you.
Amazon is keen to establish new categories across the marketplace to provide a more holistic customer experience, so they will promote products in new categories more than in established categories. You will also benefit from having fewer competitors if you’re selling in a less mature category.
Another benefit of the Vendor Programme is that you can tap into pan-EU sales without registering for VAT in the other countries. You are also protected against suspension as Amazon is the seller and will have access to the Vine Programme.
If you want to attend the next Amazon sellers conference in Manchester, you can register now. The event will take place on Friday 13 March 2020, and will cover a range of topics from turning Amazon data into sales, the why and how of a brand succeeding on Amazon and ‘he perfect Amazon listing: structure and SEO.