Is Your Product Ready for Amazon? Let’s Find Out!

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, a 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.

Hello and welcome to this episode of Powered by Riverside fm. If you're watching this episode, you will see that I'm dressed as a lemon. Which is fun, isn't it?

If you're not watching this episode and you're at all curious in what I'm wearing, or you just want to watch me talk rather than, you know, maybe you're listening and actually like to see me and also my fabulous guests. All of my podcast episodes are available in as full videos on YouTube.

So just go to YouTube forward slash Vicky Weinberg and you can find all of them there. So today I want to talk about how to know if your product and you are ready to sell on Amazon. A little bit of context for this.

When I started selling my products on Amazon, which I'm sure you'll know about if you've listened to any previous episodes. I want to say it was 10 years ago now. It was a long time. Anyway, it took me a really long time to actually commit to it.

So if you've heard anything about my origin story, I have my own brand of baby products. The plan always was to sell them on Amazon.

When my first product was ready, the first thing I did was set up a Shopify store, which I still think was a good move because as I've said before, Amazon shouldn't be the only place you're selling your products. It's great to have your own website as well in case anything goes wrong, also to build credibility, all of those things. So that was great.

But what I think I actually did wrong is I, I let. I left setting up on Amazon quite a long time and a lot longer than I should have done. And it was.

It was months, in fact, months and months and months. It took me way too long. I went down loads of rabbit holes, basically selling on Amazon, getting set up on Amazon seemed really, really hard.

I didn't know what I was doing and I procrastinated. There you go. That's in full honesty for you.

But what that meant was that other people, there was a chance then that other people got there first and they did. And I really believe I lost money on sales one, because the sooner I was on there, the sooner I could have started selling.

But also my first product when I was in the development stage and the production stage, it was actually really unique and it was different from anything else that was out on the market. It was some bamboo muslins. So bamboo muslins obviously weren't completely unique. There were things about mine that were.

However, because it took me so long to actually get onto Amazon, by the time I did, my product wasn't quite as unique because there were others a lot more similar because other people had got there first because they presumably hadn't procrastinated. And that was a real shame because I've spoken before about how hard it is to get started on Amazon. It's a real tough place to get going.

But once you have got momentum it's brilliant.

And once you've got momentum, you then are not a new seller or quite as new seller and then you have an advantage over other similar products to yours the list after you.

So there's definitely an advantage to getting going on Amazon as soon as possible if your product and you are ready and that's what we're going to talk about today. By the way. Being ready doesn't mean everything being perfect. It doesn't mean you need to know everything about Amazon.

It doesn't mean you need to be an Amazon expert because there are Amazon experts out there. If you need help with setting up on Amazon, I have got podcast episodes and videos that cover all aspects.

In fact, next week I'm going to take you through how to do a really good setup so don't miss that one. And also I have my membership Amazon Made Easy where you can join and you can get real time support as you're getting started on Amazon.

I have a member right now who's listing her first product. She comes along to our fort nightly calls. She tells me where where she's up to and we help her get to the next to the next step.

And I can do that for you too. But what is most important is that you're sure that A Amazon might work for you and B you know what's involved and you're ready to commit to it.

So let's cover some signs that you might be ready to start selling on Amazon. The first thing is you've proven that your product sells even if that's in quite small volumes on another channel.

Preferably it would be good if you've had some online sales at this point.

The reason I say online sales is because if you've sold a product online, I can assume that you've Got some good images already because that's key to selling products online. And a good description because it's much harder to make sales about those things.

So if you have those things, you have great product description text and you have some good images, you need those for Amazon, so that's really good.

But even if you've sold your product somewhere else, knowing that there's demand for your product is a good sign that it could work on a platform like Amazon. The second sign that you might be ready is you're really clear on who your customer is.

Now, this is important, as on Amazon, we really have to stand out. I recorded an episode a few weeks ago about how to stand out.

Even if your product isn't unique, that's a really good one to go and listen to when you are ready to list.

If at the moment you're not quite sure what makes your product unique, what makes you stand out, you're not really sure who your customer is, who you're talking to, who's buying your product.

Those are definitely things to think through before you commit to selling on Amazon, because these things are absolutely key if you're going to create a great product listing that's going to connect with your customers and help you make sales. The third sign that you might be ready to sell your products on Amazon is that you have the margin to cover all the fees and still make a profit.

So just a quick overview of Amazon fees. You pay 30 pounds a month, including VAT as an account fee. You also pay referral fee for every product you sell.

If you use Amazon fba, then you'll pay them to store and ship your products. But even if you're dispatching your products yourself, then you'll still have to pay a fulfillment fee.

And then also maybe you want to run ads, maybe you want to use Amazon Vine. All of this is optional, but it's really important that you have looked up into what the fees are so you know what money you'll be paying.

And you know that actually you can make a profit if you sell on Amazon, even if it's not right away. Even if your strategy is when you first come on Amazon, you're going to discount your product slightly to get some early sales.

That's not a bad strategy. You just need to know that long term, every sale you make on Amazon is going to make you a profit. I have got a full episode on Amazon fees.

I've also got a great video about Amazon's free fee calculator. Free fee calculator. That's hard to say, isn't it? And I've got a full video about how to use that.

I'm going to link to all of this in the show notes, so it's really easy for you to access any of any of this, especially if you're listening on the go. I listen to all my podcasts when I'm walking the dog, so you rarely get to write anything down.

I don't know where you're listening, but if you haven't got a pen handy, all these links are going to be in the show notes ready for you.

So the next sign that you might be ready to sell your products on Amazon is that you're ready to invest a bit of time up front if this is your first episode. Well, welcome. It's great to have you.

Definitely go back and listen to some of my previous episodes because I really want you to get a sense of what's involved in setting up your product on Amazon.

Not to scare you, not to put you off, but because there is a lot involved, it's going to take a lot of time, a lot of effort, or if you prefer to outsource it, a little bit of money.

And I just want to be really, really clear about that because I think people don't always realize what an undertaking it can be to get set up on Amazon. And this isn't the case always and for everyone. But actually there's for most sellers, there's something that trips you up.

There's something that takes a little bit longer than you'd expect. And I just want you to be aware of that up front.

And maybe if right now is a really busy time in your business or your personal life, you've got a lot of other things going on, maybe it's actually not the best time for you to get going unless you're going to outsource it.

It might be better for you to say, okay, I know I've got a quieter period coming up over the summer, for example, and when I can actually spend some proper time on this, and that's when I'm going to do it. But definitely make sure that you've got some time to invest because the you, you know, that will help you get set up better and quicker.

So getting set up on Amazon is a process. It takes some time, it takes some effort. And even once your account and your listings are set up, you won't necessarily make sales from day one.

So I want to be really, really clear on that too. So it's really good to make sure that you, when you that you are 100% ready and you're ready to commit.

And by the way, I have a free checklist that takes you through everything you need to do to get set up on Amazon. I'm going to link to that in the show notes, as I say, completely free.

You can download it and it's liter, literally a checklist of all the tasks you need to do in order, roughly in order, and you can go through and tick those off. If you feel, you know, you've listened to this, you go, okay, Vicki, I can tick all of these boxes. My product sells, I know who my customer is.

I've got enough margin. I'm ready to, you know, I've got some time now or I've got a little bit of money that I can invest in getting some support with this. I'm ready to go.

So if that's you, definitely download my free checklist. I think you'll find that really helpful. Okay. Signs that you might not be ready to sell on Amazon at the moment.

And this isn't forever, and we're just talking about right now, whenever you're listening to this one, is if you haven't made a sale anywhere else yet, because as Amazon is, you know, is going to be an investment, whether that's time, money, effort, whatever it is, you really want to know that it's going to pay off. And if you haven't managed to sell a single product yet, you know, I don't know if you can go into that with as much confidence.

And if you had been selling your product successfully on your website for a while, you knew people were buying it, you knew people were liking it, you could definitely approach Amazon with much more confidence if that were the case.

If you haven't sold a product yet, it might be good to see if you can get sales going somewhere else, get some feedback from customers, what they like, what they don't like, and just to have that little bit more confidence when you start selling on Amazon. So if that's you, Amazon could still be a really good fit, but perhaps you might want to give it a little bit more time.

Another sign you might not be ready for Amazon is you don't even have another sales channel yet, so you don't have your own website.

As I mentioned right at the beginning of this episode, I think even if you are going to sell your products on Amazon, and even if you plan that you want the majority of your sales to come from Amazon, I know when I had my business, I want to say it was about 80% of my sales that came from Amazon, it was a lot anyway, I still have my own website and I still have my own website first before I even went on to Amazon. As I said, that's part of the reason it took me ages, because you just want one, a little bit of credibility.

So if someone sees your products on Amazon, but then they decide to go away and Google you, there's your website. Also, if something goes wrong on Amazon, which it can and does not to scare you, but sometimes things happen.

You don't suddenly want your business to be taken away from you overnight. However, if you've got a website, all your loyal customers that are buying from you on Amazon, they suddenly can't find you there for any reason.

They can go to your website and they can still buy your product. I think that's really important. Another sign that you might not be quite ready for Amazon is if you don't have some great product photography.

So photography is key on Amazon. You need great images as it is anywhere online.

To be honest, if you're selling your products online, you need some great images that really help to sell your product, help customers understand the benefits, understand how the product will feature in their life. I've covered all of this before, but you want some lifestyle shots, you want some infograph graphics.

If you don't have all of these images yet, I think go and get those before you embark on Amazon because they will be invaluable when you're setting up your listing. You absolutely need great imagery on Amazon. So if you don't have that yet, don't panic.

That's something you can definitely go away and source and then you can think about Amazon. And finally, I covered this earlier.

If you don't know what your product's key benefits are, if you don't know what you your USP is, whether that's a USP or unique selling point of your product, of your brand, basically, if not sure how you're going to sell your product, what angle you're going to go for, why someone would choose your product over someone else's, that's definitely something to go away and think about before you embark on Amazon.

Because you really need to know all of that to create a great product listing that's really compelling and it's going to encourage your customers to buy.

So in summary, you don't need to be 100% ready because when you're embarking on anything new, whether it's selling on Amazon or anything at all, running a marathon, trying a new hobby, you don't. You're not going to be the expert in it straight away.

However, the purpose of this episode is just so you can get a sense of whether you're ready to take the next steps and commit to get to get going. Because if you are, my advice to you would be please don't leave it. You know, you can learn a lesson from me.

I left it far too long and it got harder. And I do think on Amazon that's always going to be the case.

I think it's never going to be something where you're going to say, oh, I sold on Amazon too soon. As long as you're ticking all those boxes we spoke about earlier, it's not going to be too soon for you.

Sure, if you don't have a great usp, if you don't have fantastic photography, then you're not quite ready. But if you do, if you have everything in place, there honestly is no reason to wait. No one ever thinks, oh, I wish I did that later.

I promise, if you tick all of these boxes, but you're not quite ready to go it alone.

I do actually have an Amazon launch package which is for people who want to get set up on Amazon but find it all a bit daunting, a bit confusing, or simply just don't have the time because you're too busy running your business to sort of commit to something else. If that sounds like you, my Amazon launch package takes everything off you, completely off your hands. I do your entire Amazon setup, start to finish.

I even help you get your first sales, we talk launch strategies and I'm basically there the whole way through it with you. So if that sounds like something that would be useful, I'm going to be linking to that in the show notes for this episode.

You can Also contact me vickiweinberg.com if you want a chat, you want find out, find out more. I'm always here. Please just ask and best of luck with it and I will look forward to seeing you next week for another episode.

Thank you so much for listening right to the end of this episode.

Do remember that you can get the Fullback catalogue and lots of free resources on my website, vickyweinberg.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.