Recently, different online platforms have emerged that have been providing opportunities to start a business and make profits. You may desire to establish an Amazon store. If so, then you should be aware of the basics of how to sell items on this platform. You may have purchased a lot from this shopping portal. But you need to understand that for sellers, it works quite differently.
Six things to know before selling products on Amazon in 2023
1. How is the merchant order offer list determined?
The Merchant Offers List is a wonderful way to make some money. Most things valued by this platform tend to fall in sync with prevailing e-commerce best practices. A few factors that affect merchant positions in the Offers List include making competitive offers, competitive pricing, the number of customer reviews derived by sellers, and platform selling history. Transactions received through the portal should run smoothly. Your product needs to be delivered on time and customers need to be communicated along the way.
2. About the Buy Box:
How does this platform decide who should be provided with it? A buy box is defined as a box present on the product detail page’s right-hand side. The purchasing process can be initiated by including items in the shopping carts. With Buybox, there is no need to go through the available merchant list. Rather, customers can purchase products quickly from ‘Featured Seller’. However, getting favored by the Amazon warehouse and winning Buy Box is not an easy task.
3. Merchant types are benefiting hugely from selling products on this platform.
Merchants offering used or refurbished products: Market research shows that a huge market exists for such products. It attracts mainly those customers who are concerned about price and can wait for shipping. However, with used products, you will not get a regular spot on the Buy Box.
Merchants offering niche or hobby products: Generally, this portal doesn’t start carrying or unfulfilling niche or hobby products. Hence, there is less risk of competing with this portal.
Merchants offering unique-to-them products: Some companies produce their own products, like jewelry items. Being unique, it faces less competition.
4. About FBA:
This program allows you to send your products to any of the platform’s fulfillment centers or Amazon warehouses to get stock. The platform ships these products as customers purchase them from you. Such an arrangement ensures you can focus better on other aspects, like taking care of business operations. On the other hand, the platform manages different factors involved in customer support and shipping. Other benefits include gaining that additional push to win Buy Box and extending product reach to Prime members.
5. Why am I unable to use certain shipping facilities in the beginning?
New merchants are not allowed by this platform to provide their customers with certain shipping methods immediately after listing with them. This includes two-day shipping methods. The latter can be made possible only after having a history of establishing reliable shipping but at a slow shipping speed. The FBA method of offering products can help bypass this. The reason is that FBA products automatically become eligible for Prime 2-day free shipping.
6. Why do I need to relate any one product I sell to an already-listed product on this portal?
The portal catalog allows the listing of products just once. Hence, for existing products, generating a duplicate product detail page will increase the chances of your listing getting removed. Your offer will have a better viewing opportunity if it matches the product with an already existing product detail page. It will also enhance customer reviews.
Therefore, you should be aware of your business and the kind of products you wish to deal with before deciding whether to use this e-commerce platform. Also, carry out adequate market research.
