How to start selling on Amazon with Vicki Weinberg

undefined: 00:00:01

Welcome to the Bring Your Product Idea to Life podcast. This is the podcast for you if you're getting started selling products, or if you'd like to create your own product to sell. I'm Vicki Weinberg, product creation coach and Amazon expert. Every week I share friendly, practical advice as well as inspirational stories from small businesses. Let's get started.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:00:29

Hello. I hope that whenever you are listening to this, you are having a wonderful week. I'm recording this midweek, it's almost the end of March. It is still really cold and grey and raining outside, and I can't wait for spring to arrive. So today what I want to talk to you about is getting set up on Amazon because, um, and I know you've probably heard me mention this before, it isn't quite as simple as deciding you're going sell on Amazon, listing your products, setting everything up, sitting back and waiting for the sales to roll in. And I know that if you've listened to any of my podcast episodes, you've heard me say this before. However, I do think it should be easier than it actually is to get yourself started on Amazon. So actually take the practical steps you need to do to begin selling. So today I've decided to take you through everything you need to know, everything you need to do, everything you need to decide to make it as simple and transparent for you as I can, because I know that selling on Amazon might be something that you've, we've been considering because it is a great opportunity for some businesses, not everyone. Um, you can sell all over the world. You can reach customers that you might not otherwise have, you know, heard of you. It's easier to get people to a website. There are so many advantages, but. I don't think you should believe all you hear or necessarily listen to all the hype because it's not necessarily right for everyone. And I always want to start and say that because before you start setting up an Amazon seller account, and which we are going ti talk in this episode in more detail about how to actually do that. Um, I want to say as I've again, you've heard me say before, I don't want you to spend loads and loads of time doing that if it is not going to be the right marketplace for you, and if it's just going to be you spending your time, perhaps some money, if you work with someone to make it happen. Then to find out that actually you'd be better selling your product somewhere else. So first thing I want you to do before you go, yes, I want to sell on Amazon, I'm going to follow all of these steps, is spend some time looking into whether Amazon is the right marketplace for your product. So it is really great for some products. Some businesses you might know, other businesses, maybe other businesses in your area or in the same categories as you that are doing really well. But that doesn't necessarily mean that it's right for you. Um, you can listen to some previous episodes I've done on how to research whether Amazon's right for you. Um, and I'll link to all of these in the show notes because as you're going to hear, there's a lot of work to be done and it's going to take some time. So I think it's well worth spending a little bit of more time figuring out if Amazon is the right marketplace for you, even if it means stopping this podcast episode here, coming back to a previous one and having a listen. Remember, I also offer a service where I can help you work out for amazon is the right place for you. You can also access that via my website, vicki weinberg.com or via show notes. But let's say you are with me so far. You know Amazon is some way you want to sell. You decide it's right for you. You're going ahead. Let's now talk about the practical steps you'll need to take. So the first thing you need to do is to apply to become an Amazon seller. And I will say now, um, because I have this conversation at least once a week, this is something that I won't do for you and I can't do for you. I mean, I could do it for you, but I won't. Even if you book my Amazon launch package, which is where I help people do all of the things I'm going to talk you through to get set up on Amazon. The one thing I won't do is set up your account because as you'll see when we go through this episode, you need to submit a lot of personal information, business information, financial information that I just don't want you to share with me. I do not need to be privy to all of that for your own privacy. Um, I say do this bit yourself. Um, saying that, I mean, if you were to book a launch package with me and you wanted help here, we could absolutely get on Zoom and we could talk through this whole process together, the process of actually applying for your seller essential account. That's the only bit I won't do. Um, but we can do it together on Zoom and you can just tell them. Just turn the screen off when you're putting in your personal information, that's absolutely fine. But what I will never do for anyone is, you know, ask for all this personal information to go and set your account up because you don't need to. This is something you can do. What I can do, however, once your account is set up, is help you with all the decision making, give you advice on what I suggest, write and set up fantastic product listings, everything else I can, and will do. So the first decision you need to make before you go ahead and set up your seller central account is what kind of account do you need? So you can get a professional selling account, which is 25 pound plus VAT a month, so that's 30 pounds. You don't need to work that out, and it is well worth it if you are able to have this sort of account because you can run ads to your listing, and you can sell high volume. If you don't want to spend 30 pounds a month initially, there's also a free individual selling plan, but that's capped at 35 sales per month. So basically, if you sell 35 items in a month, you're listings are then becoming inactive, or you have to upgrade to the paid plan. If you want to, you can start with that, and then you can upgrade at a later date. Absolutely no reason you can't. You can also start with a professional account, so that's the page plan, and then downgrade. So you do have the option there, and if you decide to upgrade or downgrade, that happens immediately, even if you are selling maybe as a hobby or something you're doing on the site. I do usually suggest getting professional account as without it, you won't have the buy box. So what the buy box is, easiest way to explain is when you go onto any listing on Amazon to buy it, and then there's that big orange box that says Buy it Now. Either says Buy it now or add to cart. I forget which it says. Um, and basically depending on what you are buying, so in you're case, this probably won't be applicable because you will probably be the only person selling your products. But let's say a popular product, maybe not a Lego item, lots of people might be selling it. Only one person, when you click add to cart, only one person gets that sale, and that's a seller who has what's called the buy box to see all the other people that are selling that product. And perhaps you want to check out their prices and their reviews and things like that. You would have to click other sellers for this item, which is like a dropdown below the buy box if. To have a free Amazon account, you will never get the buy box. So if you are in a position where you are one of lots of sellers selling a product, that's a bit of a problem because you are never going to get that box. Also, even if you are the only seller of a product, because you're selling your own products, someone will still have to click on the the offers. For that product to be able to add your item to their cart. So basically what I'm trying to say is, in a very long way, if you don't have the buy box, and even if you're the only set of that listing, you're not gonna have the buy now button. There's an additional step someone has to go through to buy. And as we'll know, the more things you ask people to do, um, the higher the chance of them dropping off. So if you can afford it, I would say, get the professional selling account. Um, also you can't do any Amazon advertising without it. And that might not be something you want to do and might not be something you've even considered, but as we'll talk about it later, you are going to have to do something to get initial traffic to your listing. And advertising is a good place as any if you can afford to. And also, finally, I should say that if you want to sell in the handmade category, you need an Amazon professional selling account. You can't sell in handmade with a free account, so that's worth you having. So in terms of how to sign up to Amazon Seller Central, and remember, this is the only bit that I don't do for people. So you'd go to the Amazon Seller central site. This will be linked in the show notes, this episode, and you click on the orange signup button, and this will take you to registration page. What you need to do here is enter your email address and create a new seller account. Um, one thing that's worth knowing is that if you have a personal Amazon account, so maybe the one you use for shopping, you can use that email address, but that will mean that your personal Amazon address and your business Amazon account will be linked. So if you had a problem with one, it would affect the other. I suggest using your business email address for your Amazon selling account, or if maybe you don't have a business email address, just use a different one just to keep the two separate. Um. Perhaps I'm being overly cautious here, but I do think it's a good idea because I do know people who've gone through problems getting their account verified on Amazon, which we'll talk about in a moment. And that actually affected the account they used to to shop with as well. And that's not what you'd want. I mean, I would hate to get locked out of Amazon. I don't know where I would buy anything. So don't, um, don't do that. So what you'll need to select at your Amazon selling account, because I think it's good to have all this to hand when you go in to do it, is a chargeable credit card. So that's, so they can bill you for any advertising, um, for your account fees. If you're getting a professional account, you will need a passport or some sort of national ID so they can verify you are who you say you are. If you are a company, you will need your company registration details. You also need your V A T details if that's applicable for you. It's perfectly okay to be a sole trader, by the way, so don't worry if you are not a company. But if you are a company, you'll need those details handy. You'll need a phone number Amazon can contact you on. You'll also need to provide your name and your address and those kind of details, and you have to provide your bank account details so you can get paid when you start making. Once you've entered all of your personal billing information, the next thing they'll ask you to do is to name your store. I suggest if you have a business setup that you call it your business name. If you don't have a business name, call it something that makes sense. Um, you can't change this down the line, you know, if you just, if you set up, um, I had a client who set, who set up their store in the name of their business, which wasn't the same name as a brand on their products. And, you know, a couple of years down the line he wanted to change to align it. We did manage to do it, but with Amazon, something to know is that it's always better to do what you can at the start, because it's always quicker to do it at the start than it is to go and change anything. Anything can be changed, but nine times out of 10 is a hassle when it takes longer than it should. So have a good think about what you want to name it, right on the outset. So the next step is verifying your account. So what this means is once you've submitted everything you've been asked for, expect an invitation to a video call with Amazon to arrive. So they'll email you with a link, I think we get a booking link to booking the call. And then you just have a quick video call with them and this is what they use to verify that you are who you say you are. You will be asked to bring, um, something along to that call and you'll be told in advance what it is. Um, so for example, they might say, can you bring along your passport so you can hold it up and we can sort of look at you next to your passport. I can't tell you exactly what they're asked for because it does seem to vary depending on what you've submitted already. But basically this is just to verify that you are the person who you said you were when you were setting up the account. So that is the kind of ID you'll be need to bring. Know that it is not uncommon for IDs to be rejected or for your business information to be questioned or to be asked for additional information when you're setting up and verifying your account. Um, maybe they won't like the bank details, maybe they won't like the credit cards you've used, um, just to, you know, let you know this in, in advance. I would say at least 50% of the time when I work with a new client or setting up their Amazon account, we run into these kind of issues. So please just. My best advise, please just provide whatever you're asked for as soon as you can and be patient. It is so frustrating. I, I know it is. Um, plenty of times people say to me, Vicki, I just want to give up. They're just, I don't think I'm going to bother. It's so, you know, so annoying. But honestly, you are so, so close. Um. Just send whatever they need to be sent. If they don't like your, um, credit card details, try a different card if you know, whatever it is. Um, and I have an episode all about dealing with Amazon seller central support, which is well worth a listen. Because even at this early stage, things can crop up. And I would just say that my best advice always is if you can get someone on the phone because the support you get on the phone is, in my opinion, much better than the support you get over email. So if you can get someone on the phone, they're usually pretty helpful with this kind of straightforward stuff and you should get it sorted. And of course, if you run into any big issues, you can always contact me, Vicki, vicki weinberg.com. I'd love to help you out. So once your account is verified and you've got, you have an active account, the next decision you need to make is whether you're going to fulfill orders via fbm, which means fulfilled by merchant, which in, uh, in a simple term means that you handle the shipping and store each of your products yourself, or fba, which stands for fulfilled by Amazon. And this is where you send your stock into an Amazon warehouse and they store the stock and then fulfill your orders. I actually suggest doing both if you can, not to avoid you making a decision, um, but well for a couple of reasons. One is that, um, it avoids you having to send large amounts of stock into FBA first of all, because that's like, you probably know you're going to pay for Amazon to hold your stock and you're going to pay for them to dispatch orders. Now it might be that you're not quite sure what the fees will be because you can get an estimate of this before you start selling, but you might not be sure what they'll be and how it'll impact your margins. So you might not want to send in loads. I I never suggest sending lots of stock into FBA initially because you don't know how fast it'll sell. And that's the other thing, if it ends up not selling, selling as quickly as you thought it might, what you don't want is to be paying the FBA storage fees for stock sitting in an Amazon warehouse, not if you can avoid it. Um, for the first product that I sold, I actually think I sent something like 500 units into Amazon. And yes, they did sell, but I didn't take into account that for you know, couple of months sales weren't quite where I'd like them to be. It does take some time to build up on Amazon, which we'll speak about a bit later. And so I ended up having to pay some long-term storage fees and they are not cheap. Um. So just bear that in mind. I would not suggest sending all your stock into Amazon if you absolutely don't have to. And the other reason I think it's good to have an FBA and an FBM offer is that if you are using, let's say you are using the fba, it's going great, but you know, money side works out, um, you're super happy with it, but you run out of stock because you actually, you know, you have to be sending in your stock to fba, for Amazon to fulfill. Let's say your FBA stock runs out if you have an fbm. So that's an offer where you are fulfilling orders yourself as a backup because the prime offer will always be the default on the buy box. That always defaults to Prime offer. But let's say that FBA stock runs out, it's a busy time of year, so maybe it's just before Christmas, um, and it's going to take a while for your stock to get to the warehouse, get checked in. You'll still be receiving orders because you have an FBM offer and you're not going to lose your sales ranking. And what that basically means is every time you go out of stock and someone buys your product, presumably they may be buying a similar product to yours, which means that other products in your category are going to start ranking higher, which means they're going to be more visible to customers. Um, because Amazon loves products that sell. And obviously if you don't have stock, you can't sell. So that's a pretty long winded way of saying if you can do both. Um, it's actually pretty simple to do. You just set up duplicate listings for all your products. One is fba, one is fbm, and you just make sure you use the same product identifier. If that makes no sense to you, do not worry. Um, if you choose to work with me, I can handle all that for you. And even if you don't, you can always ask me what on earth I mean here, and I can explain it in a much more succinct way. If you are using fbm, one thing you'll now need to do, so now you have your Amazon account set up, is to set up your shipping settings. So you need to tell Amazon which shipping method or methods you'll be using because you can choose more than one and where you'll ship to. So, which countries and regions. So Amazon can use that information to calculate when orders should arrive with customers. So as you'll probably see when you go to buy anything on Amazon, it comes up with an estimated delivery. And that is based on either if, if you know, if it's an FBA order, then Amazon know that themselves. But if it, if that order you've placed on Amazon is fbm, remember you can't always tell at the checkout stage, Amazon will be working out when that order will arrive to you based on the shipping method that seller uses and how quickly they dispatch their products. So this is something else you can tell Amazon is which days you fulfill orders. So for example, you might fulfill orders seven days a week, or maybe just Monday to Friday. So you can, you have those options and you can also add in a handling time if needed. So for example, if you know it takes a few days to make your product or pack your products, add this in so you don't get pe, penalized for shipping orders late. So for example, I work for a company who sells duvets and all of their duvets are hand stuffed as the orders come in. Which is lovely because they're, you know, pretty much bespoke, made to order. They're not sitting in a warehouse. They're actually filled as each customer orders them. So they have to have a little bit of a handling time in because they're not dispatching same day. They can't, because they have to finish off the duvets beautifully ,ready and then pack it ready to send to the customer. My final point I will make on FBM is that if you can, always offer free shipping to match the prime offer, and this is so that if your order, as I say, if your prime order goes out of stock, you've got a comparable offer. It also means for those customers that don't have Amazon Prime, they're not getting penalized for not having Prime because they can still order from you. It might take a few more days to get to them, but they're still not paying for shipping. Obviously, this isn't compulsory. This is just my view. If you plan on using FBA so fulfilled by Amazon, you will need to set up a shipping plan. You'll need to let Amazon know what you're sending them, so how many of each item where that stock is coming from. Because that helps them work out which warehouse they're going to allocate it to, the sizes of each individual item and for the boxes you're sending them in. So you might say, I'm sending in a hundred products, I'm sending five boxes of 20. I had to work out the rest there. And this is, you know, as I mentioned, in a way to each of those boxes. You'll then get some labels which you can print, arrange for your stock to be collected from you, and then it gets delivered into Amazon and goes, gets checked into the warehouse. You can't do any of the b the above without having product listings however. Um, I spoke about shipping now because that's a decision that I think it's worth you thinking about. But to actually get your FBA shipping plan set up, you would need to have some product listings in place. So that's the next thing to do. And I should say we are almost there. So you'll need to create your new listing in Amazon Server Central, which is the seller porter we've been talking about. And this listing will display on the live Amazon site to the one that customers see. Once you have stock in place, and by having stock in place, what I mean is you can either manually tell them the number of items that you have, you can sync with your stock in some way. So for example, if you have a fulfillment center, they may well have some sort of software that syncs with Amazon. Perhaps your website does that. So for example, I know Shopify has plugins. It syncs with Amazon, so your inventory is synchronized or maybe you're going to send stock in via FBA. I've spoken a lot on previous episodes about researching and writing product listings, so I'm not going to go into it in great detail here. Um, you can find blog posts and podcast episodes on this subject, and I'll link to all of those in the show notes for you. So what you'll need to list your products, let's talk about that. So the first thing, obviously, is a complete, well optimized product description. So the format for Amazon is a product title, five bullet points and some descriptive text. As a minimum, if you decide to apply for Amazon brand registry, you have a few more options and we're going to talk about that in a few minutes. You also need a string. Well, you don't need, but I suggest you have a string of Amazon specific search terms or keywords, which are used in the back of your listing to help with SEO. And as I say, I think if you, it's well worth listening to an episode or the writing product descriptions for Amazon, because that will explain all of that in a lot more detail. You will also need some great photos. So the one image you definitely, definitely need for selling on Amazon is the main image, which has to be the product alone. So not showing anything at all that isn't sold with it, even if it's your hand sort of holding the product or anything like that, that isn't allowed on a plain white background with no text and no logos. This is the one image you absolutely have to have. Um, I also suggest a variety of other shots, so life style shots, maybe infographics, depending on your product. The other thing you will need is the brand name for your product. Um, this might be the name you set your account up with, but it doesn't need to be. Do know here that you might need to apply for approval to sell under your brand name. This might sound daft because you know this is your brand. You're probably the only person using that brand name on Amazon. By the way that is something worth checking before you get started. This is a really straightforward process and generally involves providing your website if you have one, to a link to your website and photos of your product showing the brand name. If you don't have this, don't panic. Um, you can get in touch with me. I'll do my best to help you. You can also ask Amazon what else you can provide just to verify that is your brand name, but generally providing that you're not trying to sell under, I don't know, Lego, like as I said earlier, or somebody else's brand name you should have no problem assuming this is your product and your brand, I can't see you're going to have any issues selling under that brand name, but just know it might take a day or two for you to get approval. So do build in a little bit of time. The next thing you need to sell on Amazon is a barcode. So you will need one barcode per skew listed. So what I mean by this is let's say you sell one product in five colours, you will need five separate barcode. The only place you can buy barcodes from to use on Amazon is GS 1.org.uk. So GS 1 is the only place that you can buy barcodes that Amazon will accept. You used to be able to get them on. I think you could probably buy used to buy them on Amazon, but you could buy them on eBay. You could buy them all over the internet. But any barcodes that are not bought from GS 1 will not be accepted. So please, please, please do not try and save money to buy them anywhere else. Um, know that if you're selling a book, you'll need an ISBN rather than a barcode. And if you're selling handmade products, you can apply for a barcode exemption exemption. It's actually called a G T I N exemption, where you just say to Amazon, look, these are handmade products, they're not going to have a barcode on them. Um, and nine times out of 10, if you apply for that, it will be approved. So don't panic as well. If you're selling handmade products and you think, I don't need barcodes, I don't have barcodes, you don't always need them. And then the final thing you may need, and you might not, but you may, is a safety data sheet. I'm only mentioning it here, just so you don't get scared if you are asked for one and you think, oh, Vicki didn't mention that. So what this is, is that there are certain products, so toiletries, cleaning products, perfumes, um, beauty products, for example, that's not that's not a definitive list, require a safety data sheet submitting before you can either, sometimes before you list the products, but usually it's before you send them in for fba. And what a safety data shape is, sheet is, is just something that explains exactly what is within that product. So Amazon can assess whether that's a product for them that's safe for them to have in their warehouses. You can do a bit of research before you set your product up to help you understand whether this is required or not. I would guess if you are selling a product that requires a safety data sheet, you probably already have a safety data sheet. Um, if you don't know what a safety data sheet is, it's probably I, I hope because you don't need one. Um, and so, but again, if you're not sure, you can always, this is something you can always go back to your manufacturer on also note while we're talking about this, that some products and categories also require approval to list. You can check this out before you start because that might be an additional step. Um. Usually if you apply to sell a product under a certain category, you will get approved. It's quite rare that you don't. Um, but I mention it because I just want to make sure that you're building in time to do all of this and know that sometimes things can crop up that you just don't see coming. Um, it always really worries me when someone comes and says, I want my products on Amazon and I need it done within a week, because I have to tell people I, I can do my best to make that happen. In fact, getting your products set up on Amazon, even if it's researching, writing the product listing. In theory, let's assume that I'm doing it for you, um, assuming I'm not, you know, super busy with other work. Yeah, I can do it within that time, but things can come up on Amazon. You might be asked for to go through additional steps, jump through additional hoops that add on a little bit of time, and there is nothing that I or anyone else can do about that. Say, the best advice I can give you here is start before you think you need to, even if you get your listing up on Amazon before your stock is ready or before you're ready to send in anything to Amazon, um, just start the process as soon as you can, is my best advice here. I mentioned Amazon brand Registry earlier, so I'm just going to tell you very quickly what that is. So if your brand has a pending or registered trademark in the country in which, which you wish to enroll, you can apply for Amazon Brand Registry. So this is something that's free and it gives you access to additional features on Amazon, which are only available to brand registered sellers. So for example, the ability to set up a plus content, which is something you might have seen on Amazon listings when you've been shopping. It basically means that when you scroll through the listing, you might see additional images, you might see Q and A's, you might see, um, comparison charts. All of that is a plus content, and then you can only use that if you're brand registered. You can also set up an Amazon storefront. You have more advertising options, and you also have better protection for your brand on Amazon. So if someone else tried to sell your product or maybe try to edit your product listing, for example, you are protected against that better if you have brand registry. So finally, because I know I've rattled through quite a lot on this episode, let's talk about what happens next. I can't say this enough. Please do not do all of this work, sit back and wait for the sales to roll in because you're still only halfway there. Or maybe not maybe three quarters of the way there, not halfway. But as your listings will be brand new, as you've heard me say before, it's not going to be that easy to find and you will still have to do something to drive traffic to your listing or listings, or they won't be found. And all that hard work you've done has been for nothing. If you can afford to, I would suggest allocating a really small amount of money. I mean, even if it's two pounds, three pounds, five pounds a day, and whatever you can afford for Amazon sponsored products, which is their pay for click advertising platform, um, I find that usually works really well. And as I say, you don't have to start by spending a lot of money. You can start on a couple of pounds a day, and as you start getting a return on that, you can maybe put the budget up or you can drive external ads to Amazon if you prefer, or because you might not want to spend any money at all, you can do something for free. So free options are things like using your email list to get people over to your Amazon listing, using social media to spread the word, um, telling friends and family, asking them to share your listings, whatever it is. I guess the bottom line is you need to do something and it can take some work to get those initial sales, but it really will be worth it. Think of all the work you've put in to get your listings set up in the first place. Honestly, it is worth spending a little bit more time and effort on getting those first sales because once you get the first sales, all the others become a little bit easier. I promise you. You know that it is the first sales that are the hardest to get, and if things will get a lot easier from there on in. So obviously if you need any help with any of this, you can reach out. It's vicki weinberg.com. You can also contact me via link in the show notes. I also have a fantastic checklist, which is a completely free checklist to talk me through everything you need to know and have to get us set up on Amazon. So basically everything we've spoken about here, and again, you can get that via the show notes. So thank you so, so much for listening all the way to the end, and take care and I will see you again next week for another great episode. Thank you so much for listening right to the end of this episode. Do remember that you can get the full back catalogue and lots of free resources on my website, vicki weinberg.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.