What's the max no of Amazon sellers you'd compete with? - ASK JUNGLE SCO...

Ask Jungle Scout is a weekly show where we answer YOUR top questions about selling on Amazon, FBA and the private label business!


This week's questions:

1) Should I get samples from china before negotiating price or vice versa?

2) Do you prefer UPC or EAN codes for UK?

3) What would be the maximum number of sellers you would compete with?

4) I think that we got burn with our money. we may order on Alibaba for over $2,000 dollars. And it was on January 24 that's the day that they got the money. 

It's been over 2 weeks and nothing happens. The supplier say to us that the have a 10 days holiday. What can I do with this situation? 

5a) Can I establish more then one brand to sell on but use the same Amazon seller central account? 

5b) How do you go about doing patent research on a product your interested in selling without the use of an attorney? 

Becoming An Entrepreneur Is Hard - 5 Tips To Being A Successful Entrepre...

Becoming an entrepreneur is hard and it will never get any easier. If you want some tips to become a successful entrepreneur then make sure you watch this entire video. 

Revealed: What the average Amazon seller’s business looks like

By Chris Dawson

How do your Amazon sales measure up against your competitors? It’s hard to judge sometimes, but Amazon do give some hints as to what their average seller looks like. Of course there’s really no such thing as average – e.g. some sellers will be 100% FBA, some will be 100% self fulfil and many will be somewhere in between – but today we’re going to try to define what the average seller looks like.

The Average Amazon Seller’s Turnover

We don’t know exactly how many third party merchants there are on Amazon, but two years ago Amazon revealed that there were over 2 million. We’re going to take a guesstimate at 2.25 million although there’s quite a large margin for error in that number.

The next data point we need to know is the total sales value from third party merchants on Amazon. Again we have to take an estimate at this number, but we do know for certain that Amazon took $22,993 million in seller fees. If we factor fees at 10% that equates to almost $230 billion in annual third party sales on Amazon.

Some simple maths ($230 billion divided by 2.25 million) gives us a turnover for the average third party Amazon seller of $115,000 annually or around £92,222 – That’s £7685/month so if your Amazon revenue is in that ball park, congratulations – you are Mr or Ms Average!

The Average Amazon Seller’s FBA Business

FBA delivered more than two billion items for Marketplace sellers worldwide last year. A simple division suggests that the average Amazon seller sells just 74 FBA items per month.

The proportion of sales going through FBA is currently running at more than 55% of total third-party units. This means that Mr or Ms Average will be selling around £51,000 annually through FBA or £4227 per month. The remaining £3431 of monthly revenue will be from self fulfilled items.

The Average Selling Price on Amazon

Knowing that the average seller shifts 74 items per month through FBA generating £4227 of revenue we can estimate an Average Selling Price of just over £57 per unit.

The Average Amazon Seller’s Growth

Amazon increased their seller fees by 37% from 2014-2015 and 43% from 2015-2016. This isn’t a fee increase, it’s simply down to sellers selling more. If fees grew at these levels then it’s reasonable to assume that sales grew in the same proportion.

Of course new sellers will have started selling on Amazon and some will have ceased trading. Until Amazon updates their seller numbers we’re guessing that overall growth is relatively slow and as above allowed a quarter of a million over the last known number, a rough 11% growth in the number of active Amazon merchants.

Allowing for an 11% growth in merchant numbers, this means the average seller should have seen their business swell by around 33% in 2014-2015 and 38.75% in 2015-2016.

If your Amazon business isn’t growing at least 30-40% year on year then something is wrong and you’re falling behind Mr or Ms Average.

How To Accelerate Your Amazon Sales

Amazon have revealed that active sellers worldwide using the FBA service grew more than 70% and that, outside the US, FBA units shipped grew more than 80%. More sellers are using FBA and those do are seeing their FBA unit sales skyrocket compared to sellers who self fulfil.

If you want to perform better than Mr or Ms Average, putting your products into FBA is the sure fire way to succeed on Amazon.

The Average Amazon Seller Summarised

The average Amazon seller will be turning over close to £8000 per month on Amazon and their business will be growing at up to 40% year on year. They will heavily use FBA, probably for their fastest selling lines, and will be selling internationally allowing Amazon to fulfil their orders around the world with FBA.

Mr or Ms Average will be growing their FBA business considerably faster then their self fulfil business and will enjoy an average price per unit of almost £60.

Whilst we acknowledge that some of these number are estimates, and others calculated using assumptions which may not be accurate, they do give an interesting insight into what the average Amazon merchant looks like. Some will have considerably higher or lower turnover both in monetary value and in the number of units sold.

We have only looked at turnover and units sold. Your profit is what really matters an margins between different products will vary wildly. You may have much lower cost products but higher margins and make as much profit as some turning over many times the same revenue as you.

How do you measure up against Mr or Ms Average Amazon seller? Are you performing better, worse, or have we just described your Amazon business?

(SOURCE)

Jungle Scout's Million Dollar Case Study: Session #1: Finding Product Ideas

The Million Dollar Case Study kicks off today with Jungle Scout's Founder/CEO Greg Mercer sharing the exact strategies that he will use to sell one million dollars in physical products. 

You will not want to miss this session. No detail will be hidden--this will be an unprecedented look into the inner workings of a successful Amazon and ecommerce business. 

Beginner Lessons For Selling Shoes on 

Amazon FBA

By Stephen Smotherman

When it comes to sourcing and selling shoes on Amazon, some of the hardest lessons are learned during the early stages of adding shoes to your Amazon business model.

Many of you know that Rebecca and I are a team when it comes to our Amazon FBA business. While I mainly focus on retail arbitrage and wholesale sourcing, she is the specialist when it comes to online arbitrage… and specifically sourcing and selling shoes.

Since my last interview video with Rebecca was so well received, I decided to sit down with her and record another Q&A  interview video with her. Rebecca has such a wealth of knowledge about sourcing and selling shoes and you’ll learn a lot in this video.

In the video below, you’ll learn:

• How our very first experiment with sourcing and selling shoes went (spoiler: it didn’t go so well)
• What we learned from that experiment
• How we almost decided to give up selling shoes – and why we’re so glad we didn’t quit.
• The biggest thing we wish we knew when we started selling shoes
• The mindset shift you need to be successful with selling shoes
• The biggest difference between sourcing items like books/toys and sourcing shoes
• How to overcome not being able to see sales rank history of shoes
• Which is better? Going wide or going deep when sourcing shoes?
• How to find confidence in sourcing shoes
• How customer returns of shoes are not as bad as returns from other categories (despite what other people might say).

(SOURCE)

Help! Where Can I Find Inventory or Products to ebay and Amazon?!?

So you want a list of ideas of places to get inventory?? This video will you get you started on finding that inventory to sell on ebay and Amazon and FBA.

Amazon Product Packaging and Product Inserts: Best Practice Guide

By Greg Mercer

Many Amazon sellers may not realize the benefit of investing in high-quality product packaging and product inserts. But in this article, we’ll cover the numerous benefits, which will result in more sales, happy customers, and fewer in-authenticity claims.

What Will You Learn?

• How product packaging will assist you in:

Getting brand registry
Increasing click-through rate
Expanding to new sales channels
Reducing in-authenticity claims and negative product reviews
Increasing positive reviews and overall driving additional sales

• How product inserts can be used to:

Reduce the number of negative product reviews received
Increase your rate of positive product reviews being left

Particularly since the big TOS change of 2016, there are some key elements here that should get your attention. Product reviews!

Remember that both product packaging and inserts are things that your paying customers will see. Therefore, by making them stand out, you products and you as a seller will also stand out. This is all part and parcel of providing an amazing customer experience.

Benefits of Brand Registry: Increase your sales overnight

According to Amazon Seller Central, the benefits of the program include:

• More control over your listing content, including titles, details and images
• Registering your brand enables you to specify an alternative unique identifier that you can use to list your branded products instead of a standard product ID (UPC, EAN or JAN)

But, there's much more to it than this.

To name a few of the best benefits of brand registry, once you register your private label brand via Amazon, you will be able to prevent others from modifying your listing. As there is no competition, you will always have the buy box.

You will also be able to create “Enhanced Brand Listings”. It’s a new feature that recently opened up. which is only available to sellers who have registered their brands via Amazon. Jungle Scout recently posted an in-depth post about how to set it up which you can read here.

Once you have a brand registry, you can essentially upgrade your product description, insert enhanced images into your description, which in the past was only open to Amazon Vendors with A+ listings (a similar program that Amazon reported increased sales anywhere from 3 to 10 percent).

So with all things considered, this is something that can reduce risk and increase sales.

Why product packaging is important in obtaining brand registry?

To obtain brand registry, one of the criteria is that you must provide Amazon an image of the product packaging with branding visible.

Sorry, folks, that means you can’t get away with just inserting your product into cheap and generic clear poly bags and “slapping on” your Amazon ASIN, which I’m aware is a popular habit with some private label sellers. This saves time and costs, but also does not bring any of the benefits of having awesome packaging.

PRODUCT WITH POLY BAG PACKAGING AND SUFFOCATION WARNINGS

This means you need to have good design and photography, and for many sellers, it means taking this task away from their manufacturers and getting professionals in those fields to do it instead.

Examples of good product packaging

Take notice of the packaging for a pair of barbecue silicone gloves. The brand Ever-Grill is displayed in a prominent position at the top of the packaging and then right below it “Barbecue Gloves” is printed.

Why is this important? Because it’s essential to communicate as quickly and clearly as possible what your product does. If a customer sees your main image and is unsure if that is the product they are looking for, they will move on and buy your competitor’s product.

Next, another clever strategy to use in product packaging it to list the biggest differentiators of your product in a concise and prominent position at the front of the packaging.

We’ll discuss in more depth later in the article the purpose of this. But by properly utilizing the above strategy in your listing’s main image, you will see an uplift in sales.

How to use packaging to increase click-through rate and overall sales

An example can be best illustrated by making you think back to your last visit to a retail store.

Picture this: you are in the supermarket aisle looking for a certain product you need. Staring at the shelf, you see 10 or more products, all essentially meeting your requirements.

What product usually ends up getting purchased? Well, chances are, it’s all about packaging and its eye-catching design.

The product with the visually appealing packaging gives off the impression of high-quality. It plays a big part in the decision making process. There’s a big chance that product gets picked and often purchased by consumers.

Competitor research

So now back to Amazon.

When you are deciding on how to design your product packaging you need to spend time looking at the search results page for the primary keywords you’re wishing to target in your listing. So go ahead and take a moment to search on Amazon.com using broad and generic keywords your product idea. What do you notice? Which colors are all the competitors using? What colors would stand out the most which no one is using?

By making an extensive inquiry into these matters, you gain an edge over the competition. Take a look at the below example. Let’s say we were interested in selling ‘Meat Shredding Claws”. We’ll start by doing an Amazon search to analyze what the existing competitors are all doing, since it will make your job of selling your product so much easier.

After careful analysis of the search results, you’ll notice that all the options for bear claws are black and bearing the same shape.

How to stand out!

Now take a look at the product image below. Not only did the Amazon seller change the color of the product to red to stand better out in search results but they also designed a clean packaging with the main words “Meat Claws” in prominently large print at the front of the packaging. Also, the seller included it in the main photo.

When someone scrolls through the search results, his or her eyes will naturally be drawn to the product option above because:

1. The product itself stands out with its bright color
2. Cleanly made packaging is included in the photo
3. Two descriptive words “Meat Claws” are prominently displayed in the front of the packaging

This technique is focused on making the main image conspicuous and the product label stand out. In the end, this method is designed to draw more attention to your product and away from the competition.

How to use packaging to expand to new sales channels

As we briefly mentioned above, a common bad habit of some Amazon sellers is to toss their private labeled product into clear poly bags and to simply ‘slap’ a suffocation label and an Amazon barcode on the exterior and call it a day.

However, as everyone knows, one easy way to grow your business without having to invest in more SKUs is to expand the number of sales channels you’re on. Which, might I mention will also increase the valuation of your business should you ever wish to sell it in the near future.

But when expanding to new sales channels, an Amazon barcode will not do, and a sticker UPC slapped on some packaging will look unprofessional. So when creating your custom packaging have your UPC printed on the back of the box, and for any units being sent to Amazon directly print the Amazon barcode as adhesive labels and place it over the UPC.

How to use packaging to prevent poor product feedback

Unlike common belief among Amazon sellers, most Amazon customers mistakenly believe they’re buying from Amazon itself, not realizing that the majority of the time there’s a small business owner behind the sale. As a result, Amazon customers have high expectations for quality. They expect products they buy on Amazon to arrive in a similar high-quality standard as a retail purchase.

So if you’re like some Amazon sellers, and you don’t invest in the packaging your product is being delivered in, it may lead to some adverse outcomes.

At the very least, your product reviews will be impacted. Thus your average star rating will be lower than what it could have been if you had higher quality packaging. A more subtle effect will be you will be ‘short handing’ yourself. The number of sales you could have gotten if you had a higher average star rating on your reviews.

What is likely to happen long-term is that you’re significantly increasing your statistical chances of receiving an in-authenticity claim. Which, if you’ve never received one before is good, you don't want these. Too many of these can result in a suspended Amazon account!

How to use packaging to increase customer experience & positive reviews

Put yourself in the shoes of a client. One purchase comes in a poly bag. Another product comes in a cleanly designed product packaging. Or with the signature of the Co-Founder printed on the inside of packaging thanking the customer for giving their product a chance. Which version do you think has a higher customer experience? The latter.

As a result, the customer will be more likely to:

• Talk about the product via word of mouth driving additional sales
• Leave positive reviews
• Increasing your spot in search results (rank)

Take a look at the below for an example of excellent product packaging. Warby Parker is a prime example of a strong customer experience, as soon as you see the packaging anticipation and excitement is created through the phrase “Good things await you” with the inside flap showing the product instructions.

Product Inserts

First, let’s discuss what’s NOT allowed on product inserts…

Product inserts are given a ‘bad rep,' because Amazon sellers will partake in bad habits, pushing the lines of Amazon terms of service when using them. Common bad habits include directing them to your 3rd party website, or incentivizing them to leave reviews.

Non-compliant inserts

See the below for an example of a non compliant product insert:

We know that this is not allowed since the TOS changes in October 2016. This is direct from Amazon: “you may not provide compensation (including free or discounted products) for a review.”

Inserts that will interact with your customers

So what are the allowed and highly beneficial ways to use product inserts?

Here's an example from the barbeque gloves we saw earlier:

This Amazon seller focuses on two main areas:

• They remind the customer of why they bought this product, providing a friendly reminder how these gloves uniquely have 5 main differentiators. This will serve in decreasing return rates, by reducing buyer’s remorse.
• Another clever thing this Amazon seller did was to ask the customer about their satisfaction level with the purchase, while offering assistance with any issues that they may have.

By utilizing this method, they can step in and solve any possible problems the customer may have PRIOR to the customer expressing their dissatisfaction through a negative product review, which will likely result in a negative impact on your product listing conversation rate and overall a negative impact on sales.

This works in a similar way to sending out automated email campaigns to customers using software such as Jump Send.

Another strategy to use with product inserts when you have a product with a low defect rate is to simply go from the stance of reminding the customer to leave a product review. This will increase your feedback rate compared to solely using an email follow-up sequence.

Conclusion

The outcome of strategically made packaging and inserts is a higher click through rate, a differentiator compared to competitors, increasing perceived product value & overall customer experience, higher rate of positive product reviews, and overall increased sales.

(SOURCE)