Ready to Sell on Amazon? Start Here!

But whenever you are listening, welcome. So in today's episode I just want to give you a quick run through of what you need to do and have to get started selling on Amazon.

I am going to mention right at the outset that I have a selling on Amazon checklist which is completely free. You can download it from my website that goes through all of the points that I mention here.

So don't feel like you need to take any notes or write anything down at the end of the episode you can just go and get that checklist and I'll make sure it's linked in the show notes. I will also say that a lot of what I've spoke I'll speak about in this episode. I will have covered in depth in previous episodes.

So I try and keep these episodes brief.

I'm not going to go into everything in tons of detail because as I say, if there's something in particular you want to find out more about, you can go to the episode that specifically covers that topic. So I hope that helps. So this will be more of a run through of what you need to do.

So you can hear it from me, you can get yourself a checklist and you can get going.

So the first thing I will mention before we talk about what's even covered on the checklist is a little bit before that, which is thinking about is Amazon the right place for your product before you go ahead and get your product set up? I know you would have heard me say this, that I think Amazon is a great marketplace. I do. But.

But I don't necessarily think it is the best marketplace for everyone. And I want you to think carefully about whether it's right for you and your product and your brand before you go and get started.

Lots of businesses do really well on Amazon, but there might be a reason that your product will sell better somewhere else. So for example, if you sell a handmade product, you may find that they do better on Etsy.

And don't get me wrong, there are handmade sellers that do well on Amazon as well. That's just one example. Off the top of my head, I have loads of podcast episodes and blog posts on how to research search this.

So do go and take a look at those. But if you've decided that Amazon is the right place for your product and you're ready to go ahead, this is what we need to do.

So the very first step is to decide on your Amazon selling plan. So I've done an episode that talks all about this, but also I'll cover this really briefly.

So you can have a professional Amazon selling account which is £25amonth plus VAT. So it's £30amonth in total in the UK.

I think it's well worth it as you can sell your products at higher volumes because the free account is capped at 35 sales a month.

You can also run ads to your products and you can have access to lots of other features such as Amazon Brand Registry, which we'll talk about a bit later. You could, if you wanted, start with the free account or it's called the individual account and upgrade at a later date.

That's definitely possible as well, but I would say for lots of you, if you're selling your products as a business, the professional account would usually be what I would recommend. And if you are looking to sell in the handmade category, you will also need a professional account.

So the next thing to do is to actually create your Amazon Seller Central account.

So if you just type Amazon Seller Central into Google, you go to the site, you will see a big red orange sign up button which takes you to the registration page. What you need to do here is enter your email address and create a new account.

I will say here that if you have a personal Amazon account, so one you use for shopping, for example, on Amazon as a customer, you can use that email address as your on your seller account. However, I would suggest keeping them separate if that is a possibility for you.

And I know that it won't be a possibility for everyone, but it is for you. I would suggest doing that.

Or if you don't have a business email address at the moment, maybe just use a different email address to one you use as a customer, just to keep the two separate. So here's what you need to set up your Amazon selling account. As I've said, this is all on my spreadsheet, so you my checklist. Sorry.

So you don't need to write any of this down, but you'll need a chargeable credit card. You will need valid passport or some sort of national ID that proves who you are.

You'll need your company registration details and VAT details if applicable. It's fine if you're not a company and it's fine if you're not VAT registered. If you are, you'll need those details. You'll need a phone number.

Amazon can contact you on you will need bank account details so you can get paid. And as I say, the checklist details all of this. You don't need to write it down.

And once you've entered all of your personal and billing information, the next step is to name your Amazon store. I suggest just calling it your business name because that will make things a lot simpler in the long run.

So the next thing, and this actually isn't on my checklist because this is something that would just happen. It's not something you have to do, it's account verification.

And this is where Amazon may not always, but they may contact you and to verify your identity when you are trying to set up an account. So you might be invited to a video call, for example, where they can just see you on the screen and then you hold up some id.

If you're watching me on video, you'll see me pretending to do that. So they can just prove that yes, you are the person in the ID that you've submitted. This shouldn't cause you any problems at all.

It might just add a few more days to the process of getting set up. So just be aware of that. Next thing to think about is choosing your fulfillment method.

So whether you are going to fulfill orders yourself, which is called fbm, or whether you're going to send in your stock for Amazon to fulfill orders for you, which is called FBA or fulfilled by Amazon. So I have done a whole episode on this, so I'm not going to go into more details now.

If not sure you're thinking about, you know, which is best for you, please do go back and listen to that episode.

That'll be the best way for you to get my full overview about what each is, the pros and cons, which might be best for you, and also how you can actually do both, which is what I do often recommend. So the next thing on the list is to understand Amazon's policies.

What I mean by this is before you start creating any product listings, it's just worth checking, is there anything additional you're going to need to do to list your products? For example, some categories need approval to list in, some products need approvals to list.

If you're selling a product of alcohol, for example, you need to submit your alcohol license. If you're selling cosmetics, then you will need to. Or food, you might need to submit a safety data sheet. Or food, you need a list of ingredients.

And it's just worth knowing this now so you can have everything ready for when you set up your product listings, which is the very next thing we're going to do.

So you're all ready to set up your listings, and I've spoken a lot in previous episodes about researching and writing product listings, and I have some blog posts and podcast episodes you can go and listen to to get lots of information on how to do this really well. But let's first talk about what you need to list your products. So you need well optimized product description text.

And this is comprised of a title, five bullet points and some descriptive text. I'm saying them descriptive text quite vaguely because it really depends on whether you have brand registry or not.

If you're eligible for brand registry, and I promise we will cover this later, you can have what's called a content.

So you don't really need to think about the descriptive part of your text for your listing in the same in the same way because you'll be able to use graphics and images and all kinds of other things. You also need a string of Amazon specific search terms or keywords which are used in the back of your listing to help with SEO.

So that's the text part. You'll also need some product photos. So you need one main image that shows the products alone.

So not showing anything that isn't sold with it, not in somebody's hand, not being worn by a person, anything like that on a plain white background with no text, no logos, nothing else. That is the app. That is a shot. You absolutely have to have each of your products.

If your product is something that you know would a customer would appreciate being viewed from different angles. So a shoe, let's say as an example. You might also want the white shots from, you know, showing the front, the back, the side.

This is completely up to you. You need that main shot.

But after that you need to think about what information does your customer need in order, you know, to give them the most information possible so they can decide whether to buy your product, remembering that they're going on the photos and the text alone. I also suggest having a variety of lifestyle shops or infographics depending on what your product would need.

And this obviously depends on what you're selling. The next thing you need to do is think about the name you are putting on your product listing. So the brand name.

Now this is often the name you set your account up with, but it doesn't have to be be aware that you may need. It sounds really silly, but you named approval to sell products under your brand name, even if it is your brand name.

This is fairly straightforward and just involves you providing your website if you have one, and some products of your. And some photos, sorry, of your products or your packaging showing the brand name on there brand name is actually really important.

This is an attribute that can't be changed in the future. So do think about the name that you choose to put on your product listings. You will also need a barcode.

So this is an EAN or GTIN for each product you look to sell. And actually I say each product, this is each sku. So for example, if you have a product in five colors, you will need five barcodes.

The only place you can buy barcodes from to use on Amazon is gs1.org UK and if you're. By the way, if you're selling a book, then you'll need an ISBN rather than a barcode.

If you're selling products, then GS1 is the place to go and get your barcodes. You will need them unless there is a reason you can apply for an exemption.

So for example, if you're selling handmade products, handmade products wouldn't be expected to have a barcode on. You could apply for an exemption. So that's one example. You may also need safety data sheets.

For example, if you sell toiletries, cleaning products, perfumes, that's just a few. You may need to submit a safety data sheet before you can list the product.

Or potentially you might be able to list it, but when you're looking to send it in for fba, if that's what you're doing, you might need to send it in at that point.

So coming back to what I said earlier about understanding Amazon's policies, doing a little bit of research before you start listing will really help you out here because you'll understand if this is going to be required or not. So the next step is to configure your shipping settings or set up a plan to send in FBA stock, depending on what you're going to do.

So if you're using FBMS when you're fulfilling your own orders, you need to set up your shipping settings. So Amazon needs to know which shipping methods you'll be using, where you'll ship to, so which countries, which regions and how you know.

And by, by providing that to Amazon, tripped over my words there. Amazon will then be able to calculate when orders should arrive with customers.

So you will see that when you go onto an Amazon Products page, it will often give you the estimated delivery date.

And this is based off the seller of that product telling Amazon, I'm using, let's say Royal Mail 24 and Amazon knowing, okay, that shipping method takes this amount of time to reach this customer who's based in this location. And that's how that works. You need to use a shipping method that Amazon can track.

And if you go into your shipping settings, you can find all of the options.

While we're talking about shipping and shipping settings, I would say I would always suggest offering free shipping if you can, even if the free option you offer is a longer one. And maybe you offer paid for shipping if the customer wants to get it slightly quicker.

Although of course do think about whether you, you know, how quickly you can dispatch orders and how quickly orders can arrive because Amazon will penalize you if you are consistently sending orders out late or you're consistent things are consistently getting delivered later than they should. And one thing actually you can do is tell Amazon the days on which you'll fulfill orders.

So for example, if you won't be dispatching any orders at weekend, you can tell Amazon that in advance. You can also adding a handling time.

So let's say, you know, you need a few days to maybe make your product or finish your product off or package it, whatever it is. You can factor this in so you don't get penalized for shipping orders late.

So Amazon then knows, okay, if someone orders this product then takes up to three days before the seller ships it, and then the shipping takes this amount of time and then the, the shipping, the estimated delivery date the customer is getting is accurate and you don't get in trouble for sending things late.

If you plan on using FBA so fulfilled by Amazon, you'll need to set up a shipping plan to let Amazon know where the stock's arriving from, how many products you're sending, the sizes for each item and the sizes and, and weights for the boxes you'll be sending your products in.

You'll get labels to print and you can arrange for your stock to be collected or you can drop it off somewhere or you can arrange your own shipping, but the shipping plan is essential. Again, I know I keep saying this. I've done an episode just about this topic.

So do go and listen to that if some, that's something that you need help with. So the next thing I'm going to speak about is entirely optional, but I think it's worth doing and that is applying for Amazon's brand registry.

Again, you're going to be sick of me saying this. There is an episode all about brand registry.

But brand registry is basically, it is basically something you can sign up for as long as you have a existing or pending trademark in the country in which you wish to enroll. And you, and it basically is a free service which gives you access to other features on Amazon that are only available to brand registered sellers.

So for example, you can, you can set up AAS content, you can have an Amazon storefront, you can have more Amazon, more advertising options and you get better protection for your brand on Amazon. So it's definitely something worth thinking about if you have a trademark.

And I think, as I've also mentioned in the episode about this, if you don't have a trademark, it could be worth getting and you're looking to sell on Amazon, it could be worth getting one just for this. Because applying for a trademark isn't super expensive, but it will really benefit your business on Amazon.

So if you're looking to make a real go on Amazon, it might be worth considering. And this is where I say about the brand name on your products being really important.

The brand name on your products will have to match the name that you register your brand with as a trademark or word mark and the name in brand registry because if this doesn't match, you end up with issues further along the line. And then the final thing that you need to do.

So you've done all this hard work and getting set up on Amazon, you then need to drive traffic perfect to your listing. And I cannot say this enough, you cannot get set up and then sit back and wait for the sales to roll in, because that just doesn't happen.

I think there was a time it did.

It doesn't anymore as your listing will be brand new, it won't be easy to find and you'll have to do something to drive traffic to it or potentially it won't get found at all. And all of your hard work might have been for nothing. And don't get me wrong, there are exceptions for this.

There will be people who tell you I didn't do anything and people found my listing and bought my product in which those people are incredibly lucky. And, and I would also add they would get more people finding their listing and buying their product if they did something to drive traffic there.

So you have a couple of options if you can afford to spend a little bit of money. And that could be like three to five pounds a day. It doesn't need to be a lot.

You can use Amazon sponsored products advertising, which is paper pay per click advertising. I think it's really good and that could definitely be a good option for you to get some sales from, you know, using Amazon.

You can also drive external ads to Amazon. So Facebook ads, any sort of meta ads, anything you like externally. And then there are also the free things.

So you can use your email list, you can use social media, you can, you know, tell your friends and family. There's lots you can do by word of mouth to get the news out that your product is on Amazon.

And yeah, and it's just a case of doing everything you can really.

And I should also add in here and again this is completely optional, but I think it's worth thinking about is that before you start running any ads on Amazon, doing anything paid to get traffic, it's really good if you can get some product reviews. So there are lots of ways to do this. You can use Amazon, vine or you can use again your contacts, your email list, everything I've just mentioned.

You can be sick of me saying this, but there is an episode about Amazon product reviews specifically which is definitely worth listening to and it does take a little bit of work to get those initial sales and the initial reviews, but I promise it is it is worth it. It's definitely one of these things where the more you put in, the more you get out.

If you would like to go into all of the everything I've mentioned in much more detail, I do have masterclass so that's available via my website and I basically talk through everything that I've talked through here, but in a lot more detail. I have some slides and some visuals for you as well which also might be really helpful.

So you can go to my website and get that and that's linked in the show notes.

If you missed my Q and A session last week that I did for people who downloaded the Master class up until the beginning of January, then I'm going to be doing a Q A session on my podcast in two weeks time. So that will be I am looking up my calendar. The episode out on 28 January is an ask me anything episode.

So if you've listened to this or you've downloaded my masterclass and you've still got some questions, or if you haven't done any of those things, you've got some questions related to selling on Amazon, please do send them to me vickywineberg.com or send them over on Instagram, whatever you prefer, but get your questions over to me and I can answer answer them for you in that episode. So as always I really hope this was useful. I hope you have a great week. If you have any feedback, let me know.

If there's anything else you'd like me to talk about here, let me know the purpose of these mini episodes, although I appreciate this one's a bit long for a mini, is to give you as much information as possible so you can start selling successfully on Amazon. And as always, I am here to help. So thank you so, so much. Have a wonderful rest of your day, week, month, year, and speak to you very soon.