Entering the world of Amazon selling can be an exciting and profitable venture, but getting started can feel overwhelming. With so many steps and details to consider, it’s essential to have a clear and concise roadmap to guide you through the process. That’s where this checklist comes in.
Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, a small business owner looking to expand your reach, or someone simply curious about the Amazon marketplace, this checklist will provide you with everything you need to know to get started on the right foot. From setting up your seller account to optimising your product listings, we’ve covered all the bases to ensure you can navigate the Amazon ecosystem with confidence and ease.
In this comprehensive guide created by Optimizon and GreyScout, we’ll walk you through each step, offering practical tips and insights to help you avoid common pitfalls and make your Amazon selling journey as smooth as possible. So, if you’re ready to turn your Amazon dreams into reality, let’s dive in and start checking off those boxes!
One account for all of Europe
Amazon has streamlined its European online stores, allowing you to sell, manage product offers, and control inventory seamlessly across Europe from a single European selling partner account. This means you can expand your business across borders and access millions of customers on amazon.co.uk, amazon.de, amazon.fr, amazon.it, and amazon.es.
You can also benefit from Amazon’s VAT support services to effortlessly navigate VAT laws in each European country, free of charge for the first year. Additionally, strengthen customer relationships by utilising Amazon’s translation services to present your product offers and information in multiple languages.
1P vs 3P: Which model suits you and why?
You have three options for selling on Amazon:
- Amazon Vendor: Sell your products in bulk to Amazon (1P selling).
- Amazon Seller: Sell directly to individual customers (3P selling).
- Hybrid Selling: Use both Amazon Vendor and Seller methods.
Vendor Requirements: You need a turnover of at least $1 million on a Seller account to be invited to become a Vendor.
Understanding 1P and 3P Selling:
- 1P (Amazon Vendor): You sell directly to Amazon, which resells your products. Amazon handles pricing, inventory, and shipping, but you lose control over pricing and brand representation.
- 3P (Amazon Seller): You sell directly to customers, maintaining control over pricing, listings, and inventory. This method allows for more accessible product launches and greater brand control.
- Hybrid Approach: Some businesses use both methods to maximise profits, selling different products through each channel.
How It Works:
Vendor: Amazon issues purchase orders based on predicted demand, and you fulfil these orders. This approach is low-effort but sacrifices pricing control.
Seller: You manage product listings, pricing, and shipping. This provides more control and flexibility, especially when launching new products.
Brand Registry Set Up
Amazon Brand Registry helps sellers protect their trademarks and enhance their brand presence, offering various tools and benefits to stand out from competitors. Registering with the Amazon Brand Registry is essential for establishing a strong Amazon presence, protecting the brand’s intellectual property, and driving more sales. Secure your brand, improve customer experience, and monitor your progress with Amazon Brand Registry’s comprehensive tools and support.
To enrol in Amazon Brand Registry, you need a pending or registered trademark and must share information about your brand to activate proactive protections against bad listings and actors.
Key Benefits of Brand Registry:
- A+ Content: Create premium listings with images, videos, and multimedia elements, establishing brand identity and building customer trust.
- Protection from Counterfeiters: Utilise tools to prevent counterfeiters from selling fake versions of your products, safeguarding your brand reputation and sales.
- Improved Search Results: Access powerful search tools to optimise listings for relevant keywords, helping you rank higher in search results.
- Advertising Benefits: Gain access to advertising tools, such as Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Stores, to increase brand awareness and drive sales.
Understanding your VAT requirements
What is VAT? Value Added Tax (VAT) is a tax added to the price of goods sold by VAT-registered traders in Europe, which is then passed to national tax authorities.
Requirement: If you sell goods in any European country, you may need to register for VAT in each country where you sell.
Factors Affecting VAT Registration:
- Business Establishment: Where your business is based.
- Fulfilment Model: How you fulfil orders.
- Annual Sales: Your total sales per year.
Building Creatives that Convert
In recent years, brands have revamped their use of Amazon’s creative spaces due to disruptions in traditional B2C models and increased online competition. To maintain sales during uncertain times, brands previously neglecting Amazon sought help and realised the importance of high-quality listings over relying solely on their name.
You can elevate your brand and enhance product visibility with A+ Content, offering rich text, imagery, and videos on product detail pages, potentially boosting sales by up to 10%. Utilising split tests through Amazon’s Manage Your Experiments A/B testing tool will support optimising content and analysing metrics for confident decision-making. Amazon Brand Story lets brands share their journey through scrollable tiles, fostering customer loyalty and repeat purchases. Accessible at no extra cost to brand-registered selling partners, Brand Story is seamlessly integrated into the A+ Content Manager alongside other formats. Mobile Ready Hero Images (MRHI) are also crucial for enhancing the mobile shopping experience.
The Amazon Stores builder simplifies the creation of an eCommerce storefront, offering a drag-and-drop interface and automatic layout adjustments for various devices. Gain access to performance metrics and streamline business management, payment options, and checkout processes for optimised sales growth.
Getting Started with Amazon Advertising
The Amazon Advertising Console offers a user-friendly platform for advertisers aiming to boost sales quickly. Ads reach customers ready to buy, resulting in efficient spending and increased sales. Additionally, advertisers can:
- Target customers based on demographics, interests, and behaviours.
- Easily adjust ad content and track performance metrics.
- Create three types of ads: Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display.
- Sponsored Products:
Ads for individual listings are displayed on search results and product detail pages. These seamlessly integrate into Amazon’s search results, appearing as organic listings. They are effective for newly launched products, achieving high visibility without organic ranking competition.
- Sponsored Brands:
Promote multiple products, enhancing brand awareness with your logo, tagline, and product range displayed prominently atop search results. Video ads are available, boasting a significant increase in click-through rates.
- Sponsored Display:
Sponsored display ads are visible on various Amazon pages, third-party websites, and apps. Unlike other types, they don’t target keywords but rely on shopping behaviours and interests. Like Amazon DSP, Sponsored Display ads convert solely within the marketplace.
Overall, Amazon Advertising Console provides a powerful toolset for advertisers to reach their target audience efficiently and drive sales, with Sponsored Display ads attracting a significant portion of new-to-brand customers.
- Nozzle Analytics:
Retargeting ads have become standard in online marketing, especially for successful businesses, as they significantly boost conversion rates—retargeted customers are 70% more likely to convert. With the Amazon marketplace expanding rapidly, companies must incorporate retargeting strategies to maintain competitiveness.
Amazon provides various avenues for retargeting ads, including Sponsored Display Ads, Amazon Advertising Platform (AAP), Demand-side Platform (DSP), and Sponsored Products. However, having access to these tools isn’t enough without the right insights to leverage them effectively.
Retargeting is crucial for sellers as it reminds potential customers of their interests. Increasing conversion rates—retargeting cart abandoners alone can boost conversions by up to 26%. Amazon’s retargeting extends beyond its website, reaching customers on and off Amazon, expanding the customer base and increasing brand awareness.
To capitalise on retargeting’s effectiveness, businesses need comprehensive insights into their audience and campaign performance. Nozzle, an Amazon analytics and insight tool, provides the necessary tools to maximise the benefits of retargeting campaigns, optimise customer retargeting, reduce ACoS, and drive sales.
- Reviews
Amazon Vine invites trusted reviewers to share opinions on new products, aiding fellow customers in making informed purchase decisions. Selected Vine Voices, chosen based on the insightfulness of their Amazon reviews, are offered free units of products to review. Participation in Vine can increase product awareness, boost sales for slow-moving ASINs, and provide customers with valuable insights.
The requirements for participation include being a Professional Selling Partner, being identified as a brand owner, having eligible FBA offers, and being an authorised brand representative in the Amazon Brand Registry. Once enrolled, Vine Voices can request products to review, with a GBP 140 enrolment fee per parent ASIN after the first review is published. Eligible products must meet criteria such as brand authorisation, fewer than 30 reviews, availability in “New” condition, and having an image and description.
- Analyse Data to Optimise
Boosting Amazon sales requires leveraging the power of data analytics. Data insights are indispensable for growth in today’s competitive eCommerce landscape. Businesses can optimise listings, monitor sales performance, identify profitable products and markets, and streamline operations by analysing Amazon data. Furthermore, data analytics offer valuable insights into customer behaviour, enhancing customer experience and fostering loyalty. Accurate forecasting and efficient inventory management, facilitated by data analytics, mitigate risks and inform strategic decision-making.
Lastly, Protecting your Brand on Amazon
Lastly, brands looking to sell or already selling on Amazon should protect their brand and products on the marketplace. eCommerce Brand Protection ensures that counterfeiters, bad actors, IP and trademark infringers, and unauthorised 3P sellers are not positioning the brands in a bad light.
Some types of brand policy infringing involve grey market sellers, selling replicas and counterfeits, damaged products, expired products, stolen merchandise, suspected parallel imported items, and materially different products. This infringement activity could impact brand perception, brand revenue, and margins, but more importantly, it could be detrimental to consumer safety.
Here is a quick list to safeguard your brand on Amazon:
- Register your brand on Amazon Brand Registry: As mentioned in the blog earlier, the Amazon Brand Registry is a pillar of Amazon’s suite of brand protection tools. It provides brands a defence against misusing their trademarks and allows them to report suspected brand policy infringing activity. Access to the Brand Registry is free and even open to sellers outside the Amazon marketplace. Listing your brand with the Brand Registry provides access to various automated tools to guard against IP infringement and other damaging activities. Read more about Amazon Brand Registry.
- Register on Amazon Brand Protection Tooling: Amazon offers five programs with varying levels of protection for businesses selling on the platform: the Amazon Brand Registry, Transparency, Project Zero, Counterfeit Crimes Unit, and IP Accelerator. Each program provides a different set of features to help protect brands from various threats. Read more about Amazon Brand Protection Tools.
- Utilise Brand Protection Software and Solutions: While Amazon provides a range of basic brand protection programs, such as those highlighted above, brands should take a proactive approach towards brand protection that includes around-the-clock detection, monitoring, and enforcement. Although the development of Amazon’s suite of tools and programs demonstrates a strong commitment by the platform to protect its brands and consumers, they alone do not provide adequate protection. Online brand protection software such as GreyScout, which works alongside Amazon’s brand protection solutions, is needed to succeed as an eCommerce brand selling on Amazon.
GreyScout’s online brand protection platform easily monitors online marketplaces to detect grey market and illegal activity as it happens, staying one step ahead of those looking to damage your brand reputation.
