Become A Top-Rated Seller On Amazon

Become A Top-Rated Seller On Amazon
Become A Top-Rated Seller On Amazon

What are some of the ways in which you can sell products via Amazon, becoming one of its top-rated sellers?

Did you know that Amazon first began in 1994 as a tiny online retailer of books?

Today, it’s one of the largest Internet stores you can find with many companies and individuals using the platform to sell products.

Unfortunately, some sellers don’t understand how to effectively use the site to make money. 

Make Sure You Have Plenty of Products

While you want to offer several products on Amazon when first starting out, you should have enough of it in case there is a rise in demand, and you see an increase in your orders.

This will help to retain customers and give referral customers something to look forward to instead of finding an alternative seller offering similar products.

Offer Affordable Products That Includes Flexible Pricing

If you’re going to make money through Amazon, you need to offer products at a reasonable price.

This means doing some homework on your competitors.

What kinds of prices are they putting on their products?

Once you see that, you can adjust your own products’ prices accordingly.

You may not see a large profit margin right off the bat, but it’s the best way to attain happy customers and retain them.

Make sure you offer flexible pricing where necessary.

If you’re the only person selling a particular product and there is a rise in demand, you can increase your pricing to boost profitability.

Using Amazon’s Marketing Tools and Seller Central Features

In order to make good money through Amazon, you should make use of its marketing tools like Likes, Tags, and Listmania.

These tools will boost the visibility of your products.

Use the Amazon Seller Central feature, which gives you regular updates and reports about your business.

This includes reviewing your sales, discovering who your prospective customers are, and learning how effective your promotions and advertisements are.

Sign Up to Be A Featured Merchant

If you become an Amazon featured merchant, your products are bound to gain some visibility with customers and prospective customers.

This feature also helps to increase their trust in your business.

Amazon hasn’t announced what the requirements are for the featured merchant component, but evidence suggests that little or no customer complaints, exceptional customer reviews, and good sales.

Make sure to abide by Amazon’s rules, regulations and policies to ensure your business isn’t banned.

Find Out What The Fees and Costs Are

A key way to make good money on Amazon is to understand the fees and costs the website imposes.

You want your asking price to cover all of these fees and costs while also giving you a comfortable bottom line.

You can also decrease your shipping costs by signing up for the Fulfillment by Amazon program, as the company will package and ship your products out for you.

Finding Chinese Suppliers for Your Company Products

Finding Chinese Suppliers for Your Company Products

When looking for a supplier, you should look at Alibaba – one of the biggest Internet marketplaces in the Far East.

The site also offers information about many Chinese suppliers – some novice and top quality. 

You can send suppliers a “Request for Proposal,” but don’t expect a reply from all of them.

Remember, this is a business, and not everybody will acquis to your request.

You can also turn to the “Global Sources” market, which has fewer suppliers available but the quality tends to be much better.

While there are other marketplaces to turn to, most suppliers have signed up with either Alibaba or Global Sources or both.

You can look for other options, but there really isn’t any need.

You can also check out trade shows like the Canton Fair in China, which is held two times a year.

There are also several industry-specific trade shows to check out in Europe and the United States.

At these places, you can meet Chinese sellers and build a business relationship. 

Negotiating with Your Supplier

Your business’ success hinges on negotiating with your supplier.

Talk extensively with the supplier to get a good deal on the products.

However, it’s important to note that you get what you pay for.

Look at the other factors such as:

  • Product efficiency
  • Payment terms
  • Delivery time
  • Supplier relationship

Bear in mind that all suppliers have a bottom price that they cannot go under.

If you press them for lower prices, you could damage your reputation.

How so?

You could be provided with low-cost materials, substandard packaging, low manufacturing quality, etc.

The biggest goal you should have is the establishment of a long-term relationship.

If you can pay a higher price for your initial manufacturing order, the supplier may be more willing to discount you on subsequent orders.

It’s important to note that you’ll constantly be negotiating with your Chinese suppliers.

It’s common in Chinese culture and business to haggle continuously.

How can you successfully negotiate with your Chinese suppliers?

  • The first thing you need to do is find an affordable price, communicating by telephone, Skype or e-mail. The price you negotiate for is for the first order.
  • Second, ask the supplier to provide you with a target price for a long-term relationship. If you can handle it, consider talking face-to-face for the negotiations.

Be sure to visit a Chinese factory or partake in an international trade show.

Usually here, you’ll find the factory owner or be able to talk to someone from the executive management team.

By talking with these people, you’re actually talking to people who make decisions, not a sales rep.

How to Monitor Your Products’ Quality

If you want your business to be successful, you must ensure your product is of the best quality.

While there are all kinds of reasons for problems, you can forgo issues by getting the agreements to do in writing.

You also want to mention as much information as possible – packaging, measurements, supplies, etc.

By doing this, you can address problems by getting a refund or credit on future orders.

Quality control is vital during the manufacturing process, as mistakes can happen anytime – at the beginning, in the middle, and even at the end.

When a problem presents itself, it’ll be cheaper and easier to contend with if the product has yet to be manufactured.

Conclusion

selling on Amazon can be a worthwhile and lucrative venture

As you see, selling on Amazon can be a worthwhile and lucrative venture, but you need to be wise about the decision.

It’s important that you do your homework, studying everything Amazon has to offer in terms of products and services.

Besides learning Amazon’s rules and regulations, you need to understand the customers – your target customers.

What are they searching for?

What are they looking to purchase?

Every single buyer you come across – yourself included – wants to purchase high-quality products.

They want high-quality without paying an arm and a leg for it.

The only way you can do this is to market yourself as a high-quality company at reasonable prices.

There are two kinds of Amazon accounts:

  • Basic Seller – A Basic Seller account is free and has 20 categories you can list your products in.
  • Pro Seller – A Pro Seller account comes with a monthly fee, which also comes with 25 categories to choose from.

Amazon offers a unique service known as Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA, for short).

The service was set up to store and ship a company’s products for them.

The FBA program can be used along with the Amazon Prime and Free Super Saver Shipping services.

Amazon will hold onto the products and, when a person orders them, the company will be responsible for packaging and shipping.

People who see a company in the FBA service tend to trust it more. 

The Fulfillment by Amazon service is helpful to both individuals and small companies, as it enables them to grow.

It allows them to compete with the more established sellers.

Amazon also offers the Fulfillment by Amazon Seller Central program, which is a dashboard that aids in product promotion.

It offers a plethora of benefits such as giving you total control over the warehouse location, controlling how products are displayed and how to list the items you have.

With this program, customers will feel more positive about the company through the products you offer.

Try to become one of Amazon’s Featured Merchants, which helps in boosting the visibility of your products.

This program will increase the chances of your products selling.

The only problem is that there are no hard and set rules about becoming a Featured Merchant.

However, it’s suspected that having a high number of sales with very few complaints helps.

And, once you become a Featured Merchant, you can try to join its Buy Box feature.

The great thing about Amazon is that you can offer any product in the marketplace.

For example, if you have media products you are trying to sell, Amazon has a category for these products.

If you’re a food company offering a particular kind of food, Amazon also has a category for them.

Be sure to take good, high-quality pictures of your products for potential buyers to see when viewing products. 

Amazon makes it easy to sell your own products, a wholesaler product, or used products.

If you decide to offer used goods, you can find your products to sell at various locations such as garage sales, trade shows, auctions, etc.

Don’t forget to consider Chinese suppliers as well.

But, be aware that your quality could be compromised if you don’t do your homework and research.

If you do go with a Chinese supplier, you could haggle for a discount on your products.

The Amazon website is a popular retail site for anything you have to offer buyers – locally and internationally.

But, for you to be successful, you need to make sure you abide by the rules and regulations Amazon has set forth or face a possible banning from the site.

Amazon is one surefire way for your business to be successful.

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