123 Things to do with your Amazon Seller Central account this Summer – with Vicki Weinberg

Vicki Weinberg: 00:00:08

Welcome to the Bring Your Product Ideas to life podcast, practical advice, and inspiration to help you create and sell your own physical products. Here's your host Vicki Weinberg. Hello. So this episode is really one for the Amazon sellers, if I'm honest, because, um, if you sell your products on Amazon, you probably already know that there's a bit more to it than listing your products, sitting back and waiting for sales to come in. Um, or possibly you don't know that, but there is so much that you can do to get the most in selling on Amazon. But most of us that's basic don't have the time, day to day. So I wanted to record this episode, um, over the summer months while it's a little bit quieter, so that if you find yourself with some extra time over this summer, um, there are some things that you could do to get the most from your seller central account setting on Amazon. Um, I know for lots of us, not all of us, summer can be a bit little bit of downtime. And most of the things I'm suggesting are things that you could do in, you know, half an hour, 20 minutes here and there when you've got a bit of time. So the first thing I'm going to suggest that perhaps you take some time to do this summer is have a look at your reports. So you've probably seen that there's a huge reporting section on Amazon. And, you know, when did you last take a really good look at it? As well as reviewing your sales, you can also see which of your products are the best sellers, which convert best and which, are perhaps moving a bit slower. Um, and remember that best selling products and best converting products might not be the same. So you might have products that convert really well, but aren't selling as many as you like. So that might be an indication that actually you need to do some work on getting more traffic to those listings, whether it's setting up ads or doing something free, like reviewing your keywords, or perhaps just including that product in your marketing emails, whatever it might be to drive some traffic to those products. The second thing I'm going to suggest you do is review your inventory. So if you're selling via FBA, that's fulfilled by Amazon, have a look at your inventory performance. So Amazon will highlight products where you have excess inventory, as well as those that are selling fast and need restocking. If you have excess inventory, which to be honest is probably more of a problem than products that are selling through quickly. Make a plan now for how are you going to sell it through, or perhaps create a removal request to avoid getting potentially large storage fees. So things you can do to help sell through your stock are close setting up deals or discounts. Maybe you're going to have a sale price. Maybe you're going to run some ads to it. And as I said, there's lots of free things you can do as well. I have a guide that I'm going to mention a bit later in this episode, that's full of lots of ideas, most of them free, are ways of driving traffic for your listing. And I should also say that if you need any help with any of this. So if you are thinking, where is the report section or how do I see my inventory health? Remember you can always book in a power hour of me to help get it done together. You can do this via the link of my bio, or you can go to vickiweinberg.com. So the third thing, this is a great time to review your listings and perhaps optimize them if needed. So things you could do include running your keyword research again and see if there are any new search terms that need including. You could review your texts and your images to ensure that they're as good as possible. So take a look at the reviews you're getting for your product. Is there something that's highlighted a lot in reviews. Perhaps it's something that customers really like, that isn't included somewhere in the body for your text. Could you include that? Look at the questions customers are asking you, are they asking questions about your product? Um, which highlight actually, oh, that's if that information isn't actually anywhere on the listing, could you add that? Updating your images and perhaps even just swapping out your main image can also be a great way to refresh your listing. This is also a really good time to have a look at what your competitors are doing, and ofcourse who they are, because they may well have changed since the time you originally started selling on Amazon. So things may well have changed since you first put up your listing. So. Take a look at who your competition is now, um, view your pricing to make sure it still makes sense in line with the marketplace and see if you can find any inspiration for your own listings. And please, please know that I'm talking about inspiration here, so I'm not talking about copying. I just mean, let's say all of your competitors are using a plus content for your listings. And we'll talk about a plus content a bit later. This might be the time for you to do the same or perhaps all of your competitors have some really great graphics highlighting features of their products. And at the moment you are just using images. Maybe this is a good time to get some graphics made. I'm certainly not saying you need to be doing the same as everyone else, but it is good to know that where your product sits in the marketplace and just to ensure you're doing all you can to help your product to stand out. So the fourth thing I'm going to suggest you do is to check your account health. So account health gives a breakdown of your listings and shows any issues that are highlighted by customers. So this could be a simple, something missing pure listing as we spoke about earlier. You know, is the size information on there, what the fabric is or, or something else, or perhaps it means updating some text that's perhaps being misunderstood. So perhaps a customer, or multiple customers have misread something and they don't have a clear idea about what you're offering. That's something you can go and fix, or perhaps your text is simply slightly out of date. Uh, maybe you've changed your packaging, for example. Um, and the listing hasn't been updated to reflect that. So it might be something really small. Um, these aren't always flags, so it's worth checking this every month or two anyway, to stay on top of it. And it's just a way of ensuring that your listings always are as good as they could be. So the fifth thing I suggest you do is review your Amazon advertising because if you are running sponsor products, ads on Amazon, whatever type of ads they are, it can be really tempting to set and forget them. But please don't do this. Your ads need reviewing and tweaking regularly. Daily if you can manage it, or at least a few times a week minimum to get the most out of them. Oh, to be honest, even once a week, if you're thinking, gosh, I haven't got time a few times a week. Um, once a week is fine, but please don't just set them. You know, I hope that the sales are coming in. Even if historically your ads have done really well for you, things can and do change. So at the moment, for example, I'm recording this podcast at the beginning of July, and lots of my clients are finding that their bids are going up, therefore spends going up. So their return isn't as good. A lot of things can and do change. So please do keep an eye on them. Things I suggest you do now over this summer is run reports through advertising and then use them to optimize any campaign you have running. So the main things I do here is to look at where the money for each campaign is going. So, which are the most expensive keywords in my campaign or ASINs if you are targeting competitors and to add anything that costs money, but isn't generating sales into negative keywords. I have a blog post that goes into optimizing your campaigns in a bit more detail. And of course that'll be linked in the show notes. It's also could be a good time to pause any campaigns that aren't doing well for you. Just basically have an over, you know, have an overall check and see how they're doing and whether you're getting the returns that you want. This could also be a great time to experiment with trying new type of ads. So using video, for example, driving traffic to your storefront, rather than your product listings. Um, in lots and lots of niches sales do go down over the summer months. Um, there will still be people advertising their products. Of course there always are, but perhaps there won't be the same volume of competitors, um, using Amazon advertising, which might mean that it's a slightly cheaper time to try doing some ads. And my last suggestion is to think about what you've wanted to do, but haven't got around to, so let's say you haven't yet applied for Amazon's brand registry, or maybe you have done that, but you are yet to set up your storefront or you are yet to set up any plus listings. There is a lot you could be doing to help drive sales. Um, If you're not sure what brand registry is. So in short, if your brand has a pending registering trademark in the country, in which you wish to enroll, you can apply. Um, brand registry is free and it gives you access to some features on Amazon that are only available to brand registered sellers, such as a plus content and Amazon store, which we've just touched on. You also get more advertising options and better protection for your brand on Amazon. Personally, I think because it's free, if you have a pending or registered trademark, it's worth doing. Um, it does mean filling out a few forms. Does take a little bit of time, which is why you may not have got round to it. But you know, if you've got a little bit of time, 20 minutes, maybe this could be a good time to do it. If you already have brand registry in place, um, I suggest try the following. So first of all, set up some, a plus content, um, I'm sure you know what a plus content is, but just in case this is additional text images, infographics towards the bottom of the product listing. So where we used to have just a standard text description now you can have a much nicer description with all kinds of features in there. You can have comparisons. If you sell different products, you can have set up comparison charts. You can do lots more. And I think it's definitely worth doing, I would also say if you set up your plus content a while ago, so let's say a couple of years ago, but even because it has been around that long, um, this might also be a good time to review. What does it look like and can, as I touched on earlier with the listings, can I make it look any better? Um, because it's easy. You know, possibly you put quite a lot of time into that when you did it. And it probably looked really good. But if you refreshed your images since, you might have refreshed your main product images, but have you refreshed, refreshed your plus, um, also the templates for a plus content have changed slightly. So it might be that now there's a better way of displaying your product information. So. This is definitely worth taking a look at. And then also if you have the brand registry and you haven't already, you could set up an Amazon storefront. Um, so, um, again, I'm, I'm sure you know what this is, but just in case, so a storefront is a place where you can build up brand awareness by sharing all about your brand and your products. And you can have everything in one place. It's almost like a mini website that's on Amazon. And you can set, they have, you could have multiple pages. Um, it is just like a mini website. And what this means is when a customer clicks on the brand name in your listing, so they go to your product listing. They like the look of you. They want to find out more about your brand. They click on your brand name and they get taken to your store. So it's definitely again, it's free. So it's definitely worth having. Um, you can also add video to a store, which I think is a great way to demonstrate how your product works for certain products. Some of you might be able to add videos to your listings. Not everyone has the ability to add videos to their product listings. So if you don't having it on a store is a great solution. I definitely think it's worth taking the time, set a store up. And, and equally, as I mentioned earlier, with the listing, if you already have an Amazon store, it could be a good time to review it. Have you got new products that aren't on there, for example, or have you removed product lines? Um, just worth taking a look and just even if it's five minutes, making sure that everything is up to date. And some other things you might look at. So you've got a bit of time this summer. You might look at Amazon vine, which is a great way to get reviews. You might look at setting up subscribe and save if you have a consumable product. So this is where a customer says, yes, I want to receive this product every month, three months, whatever the applicable frequency is, and they get a little bit of a discount and you obviously get those regular sales coming. You might want to run some deals and discounts and promotions. You might even want to think about selling your product in other marketplaces. Um, I guess I should do an episode just on this at some point, but now you can use what's called the European fulfillment network. You don't actually have to physically send your stock into Europe. Um, so for lots of us who may be selling in Europe due to Brexit that option is now opening up again, and that might be worth at least looking into. Finding out more about, and yeah. And finally, I'm going to add that if one of your goals this summer is to improve your Amazon sales. I did record an episode all about things you can do to get more sales on Amazon, or indeed any other marketplace. That was episode.111. And of course I will link to that in the show notes as always. Um, and the final thing I'm gonna leave you with is that if your Amazon sales aren't where you'd like them to be, or expect them to be, or perhaps you'd like some suggestions of things you can do to improve or maximize your sales, you can actually book in a full Amazon audit with me. So I look at all the areas I've mentioned above, um, although in a lot more detail, and what you end up with is a checklist of recommendations for you to take forward. So you literally end up with a tick list of all the things that I recommend you do to improve your Amazon sales. And you can just work through these at your own pace, or you can work with me to get some of them completed depending on what you want to do. And again, I'm going to link to this in the show. So I know this was a really quick, quick episode. Um, I'm well aware of a few things. One is that it's not going to appeal to all of you because, uh, I know not everyone sells on Amazon or wants to sell on Amazon. I wanted to make this episode really short. Really actionable. So you've got lots of things you can go away and do. You know, you might spend 15 minutes listening to this. But you can spend that same block of time on just getting a few key tasks done that will really help your account going forward. As always, if you need any help, you can find me at vickiweinberg.com v i c k i w e i n b e r g. And I look forward to seeing you next week. Thank you so much for listening right to the end of this episode, do remember that you can get the full back catalogues and lots of free resources on my website, vickiweinberg.com. Please do remember to rate and review this episode if you've enjoyed it and also share it with a friend who you think might find it useful. Thank you again and see you next week.