10 TIPS FOR SELLERS JUST GETTING STARTED SELLING ON AMAZON
By Ryan Grant
In today’s post I am going to share some tips that I have learned throughout my years selling on Amazon that I believe will benefit those of you who are relatively new to selling on Amazon. Some of these are things that have worked well for me since the beginning, and others are things I learned along the way that I wish I would have known when I first got started. These aren’t in any particular order of importance.
Let’s get started:
1. Keep your business money and your personal money separate. To do this I highly recommend setting up a separate bank account so that the financials are 100% separate from day one. This will become an even more important requirement down the road if you elect to setup a separate legal entity for your business. If you want to see the entity structure I use for my business, you can read about it HERE. If you keep the money separate from day one, it will make your life easier down the road.
2. Keep inventory in stock. It’s much easier to sell a single item 10 different times than to sell 10 different items once each. Make sure you are reviewing your inventory and sales on a regular basis so you can replenish items that have gone out of stock.
3. Check product restrictions before making a purchase. There have been many times that I have purchased an item at a retail store only to get home and realize that the brand is restricted on Amazon. Using the Amazon Seller App or the Amazon website directly before making a purchase is a simple way to avoid buying items that you aren’t eligible to sell on Amazon. I did a post walking through step by step how to check these restrictions, which can be found HERE.
4. Know your numbers! This one can’t be emphasized enough. Before you make any inventory purchase you should know exactly how much you expect to profit. It is also essential to review your numbers on a regular basis to ensure that things are on track. Many pieces of this business are data driven, and it’s important to make sure you are looking at the numbers you have available on a regular basis. Three to pay particularly close attention to right away are: return on investment, net profit, and cash flow.
5. Pay attention to your expenses. Make sure you carefully scrutinize any money that you are spending on your business that is not invested in inventory. Unless something is 100% necessary, say tape for shipping your boxes to Amazon, it should provide you more in value that in costs. If it is a service or a tool then it should save you enough time that you can invest that time elsewhere to create more value than the service costs.
6. With the point in #5 said, investing in the right places for your business is absolutely critical for growth. There is no way I could have grown my business to the level that it is at today without the team that I have built, and without the tools and services I use to sell on Amazon. Building a team and using strategic tools have been critical, and have freed up large amounts of time that I can devote exclusively to growing the business. Just be careful with investing in too many tools too quickly.
7. Don’t fall into the trap of “analysis paralysis.” When getting started there are often many fears that lead to much analyzing and little to no action. In my opinion it is much better to make a mistake by taking action, compared to making the mistake of sitting idle and letting fear take over. From my experience I have learned a ton more by making a bad purchase here and there, as compared to the instances where I did what was comfortable and didn’t make a purchase that I was unsure about. I like to treat the bad buys as “tuition” for learning how to sell on Amazon. There will be some bumps here and there, but as long as you learn from them, then it will ultimately benefit you in the long run.
8. Login to Seller Central every single day and check for negative feedback that need to be resolved, buyer messages that need responses, and any performance notifications from Amazon. Checking these things daily will ensure your account stays in good standing with Amazon. While you are logged in, be sure to check on your orders and sales too. It’s important to look at the things that are going well in your business too, so you can find areas where you should invest more time.
9. Read through the policies that you agree to adhere to as a seller on Amazon. These can be accessed by logging in to your seller account, and then clicking on “Policies and Agreements” towards the bottom left of the seller dashboard screen. These aren’t necessarily exciting to read, but it’s important to have an understanding of Amazon policies so you don’t lost the ability to sell on Amazon.
10. Learn the “language of selling on Amazon.” There are many acronyms that are used regularly in Facebook groups, and on blogs that relate to selling on Amazon that will be foreign to you when you just get started selling on Amazon. Some of the more common ones you will run into: ROI, MF, FBA, RA, OA, and many others. I have created a page with definitions and explanations of these acronyms as well as over 45 more that can be found HERE.
A final tip would be to checkout my post, What would I do with $1,000 and no prior knowledge of FBA if you haven’t already. Hopefully the tips shared throughout this post will help to make your life a little bit easier as you grow your Amazon business. These are all things that have helped me along the way in some form or fashion.
In the comments, let me know what tips you would give to someone who is just getting started selling on Amazon. If you have any other questions or comments, please let me know below as well. Thanks for reading!
- Great tips! If you're thinking of starting selling on Amazon, we hope this article helped!
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