We all want to be rich and successful, but if it was easy, we’d all have it. When it comes to Amazon, however, finding success isn’t impossible. All it takes is focus and determination. To start, business owners need to alter their thinking and overall goals. Going from $0 to $100,000 in the first 30 days of a new venture sounds great, but it isn’t realistic.
Instead, sellers should take the time to consider how they want their business to grow and evolve over time, and focus on implementing the necessary steps required to make it happen. Sellers should learn everything there is to know about the Amazon platform and emulate the companies that have achieved success, understanding how those businesses’ internal systems are built so they can develop their own.
Crafting Your Strategy
The Amazon marketplace is growing at an incredible rate. During the last holiday season, more than 100 million prime members in the U.S. alone spent a whopping US$126 billion on purchases. As memberships continue to increase, it is apparent that the platform is here to stay, opening doors to greater opportunities with sellers who want to partner with the trusted Amazon brand.
By taking advantage of Amazon’s marketing services and the sheer volume of daily traffic generated by the Amazon website, sellers can develop a fully automated and location-autonomous business in a quick and efficient manner.
Sellers who want to stand out on Amazon need to implement an Amazon marketing strategy. One way to accomplish this is by working with an Amazon marketing agency. These agencies specialize in crafting strategies that are business-specific, working on each angle and perspective. Sellers can choose either to build their team in-house or outsource the task to a team of professionals who represent an Amazon marketing or advertising agency.
Sellers can really benefit from working with agency professionals who are learning from several different clients at the same time, while learning to adapt to their individual needs. Oftentimes, progress can be observed in a matter of months.
Sellers should stop homing in on a single, targeted monthly sales figure and instead focus on daily revenue, which can really add up by the end of the year. On the whole, it is more efficient to look at a business from a global point of view, working to remove or improve shortcomings and bottlenecks, and enhancing product photos and making content more relatable and visually appealing to users.
5 Smart Strategies
Following are some tips for sellers who want to take advantage of Fulfillment By Amazon services:
- 1. Play the long game — This means that every element of a business should grow in unison. Love him or hate him, Jeff Bezos created a company that has completely changed the face of retail. Amazon’s success has been attributed to Bezos’ long-term vision. Instead of working for a short-term win, the Amazon creator spent 20 years perfecting his business. Sellers who want to replicate Bezos’ success should follow his example, aiming to develop a business that is sustainable over a long period of time.
2. Don’t try to game the system — There’s no point in selling an inferior product on Amazon. At the end of the day, quality matters, and sellers can’t boost their items artificially and still obtain a top ranking. When it comes to shopping, Amazon strives to provide fantastic products, which is why consumers continue to use the platform for their purchasing needs. The Amazon system is designed to reward top quality products and sellers, so it’s crucial to perfect the product before applying any promotional strategies to it.
3. Focus on product and current events — Nowadays, much of product manufacturing takes place in China. Sellers who have a product to offer are also most likely in direct competition with other companies that have a similar item on the market. Sellers who want to be competitive will usually battle on margin, which is an especially important aspect to consider in today’s financial environment.
To maximize cost savings and revenue, sellers should stay up to date with current financial trends and consider the impact that a geographical location may have on product manufacturing. The tax war is alive and well, and has the potential to affect any business that is dependent on overseas manufacturing.
4. Consider products from different countries — Sellers who currently buy goods from China can potentially pay 25 percent more on U.S. imports. Current trade laws may negatively impact a business, especially one that is based on a high-volume, low-margin model. Whereas in the past, this type of business model was highly lucrative, it may not be the case anymore. To negate this effect, sellers should consider moving their imports to another country such as Vietnam, a region that is quickly being recognized as “The New China” by the manufacturing industry.
5. Go beyond the listing optimization — Get creative with the most current promotions. Amazon is also in the business of offering paid solutions for sellers who advertise and promote products. Because Amazon’s advertising platform is still relatively new, some processes, features and functions may be complicated to grasp. By staying fluent and flexible with Amazon’s seller dashboard, sellers can implement the most optimized promotion strategies creatively to save money so they can increase their bottom line.
Understanding the Amazon Ecosystem
To help attain the desired Amazon SEO, sellers can use a service that ensures a target level of inventory for eligible and popular products. Supplying the optimum level of inventory helps ensure that Amazon’s own logistics and marketing services rank the item favorably.
Following is an example of an Amazon inventory promotion:
“The promotion begins on June 1, 2019, and will run through January 31, 2020. Discount eligibility and qualification are based on your Fulfillment Network SKU, or FNSKU. The FNSKU is the unique alphanumeric code we use to identify your inventory in the fulfillment centers. Orders placed on one FNSKU cannot be fulfilled from another FNSKU, so eligibility and qualification are based on this inventory instead of ASIN-level data.”
The discount works in two steps (as outlined by reddit):
- Step 1. Determine eligible products — Products become eligible for the discount in two separate ways:
- Eligible by sales velocity — Products are eligible when 60 or more units are sold for a standard-size FNSKU in the month the discount is earned. For example, once an FNSKU sells 60 units during July, it becomes eligible for discounted storage fees in July.
- Eligible automatically — Each month, Amazon designates automatically eligible products in the Restock Report. For example, July’s newly eligible FNSKUs are flagged in the Restock Inventory report in June. The report includes fields that indicate FNSKU eligibility for the current and following month, and what target inventory levels to hold, respectively.
Step 2. Qualify eligible products by maintaining target inventory levels — To qualify for the discount, sellers need to maintain the target inventory levels on their eligible products for at least 21 days of the month. Eligible products qualify by sustaining either of the target inventory range options.
Forward-thinking strategies combined with a deep understanding of the Amazon ecosystem and Amazon Marketing Services allow sellers to skip the learning curve, helping them to stand out from the rest.
The explosive growth of the Amazon ecosystem has completely transfigured the face of modern retail and presents a golden opportunity for any business to flourish and thrive in the market.
Vincent Vu cofounded
Lab 916 in 2013. In addition to overseeing all client accounts, he teaches and educates on all Amazon marketing services. He is passionate about building legacy e-commerce brands through cutting-edge digital marketing initiatives, an ability cultivated after launching five successful brands from the ground up on Amazon. Currently, his passion project is spearheading the development of Lab 916’s Amazon academy certifications.
