If you look at Amazon’s website, you will see that it literally attracts people to become its sellers. It’s not even surprising that almost every American decides to open a seller account on Amazon and try themselves on this platform!
If you look closer, you will find success stories from sellers who once decided to start selling on Amazon and haven’t regretted since!
These are the examples of sellers talking about selling on Amazon:
“Shout out to Amazon for freeing me financially”
“Since 2000, businesses of all sizes have increased sales and reached new customers with Amazon.”
But Is It Really Worth it?
Yes, it is! Selling on Amazon is very profitable, thanks to Amazon’s customer-base! If you want to have good sales and be overwhelmed with orders, then you SHOULD start selling on Amazon! Especially if you’re using Amazon management services, you can enjoy selling on Amazon without even stressing that much!
What’s more, selling on Amazon is worth it only if you know what awaits you in the world of Amazon! That’s why our specialists at Jerome Basilio will tell you what exactly you should know before actually selling on Amazon!
-
Amazon Is Strict, Very Very Strict!
When it comes to selling on Amazon, you have to know all the policies and guidelines that refer to Amazon sellers. These policies are limitless, and believe us, you have to know each of them by heart! So, if you want to sell on Amazon, you need to understand what Amazon expects from you, its future seller.
Sellers who start selling on Amazon without having enough information often get into trouble wit the platform, and usually lose their money-making selling accounts! Remember, Amazon is the most customer-orientated business that you will ever see: if you want to make the best out of it, you need to abide by its rules!
-
Amazon has Many Services That Help Its Sellers!
Amazon is the most ground-breaking platform of our world. This is a platform that never sleeps: a platform that comes up with new ideas, a platform that helps you grow!
The best and most famous service that exists on Amazon is Amazon FBA. This is a service that helps Amazon sellers have a more stress-free and relaxed life! In other words, you just send your product to Amazon and Amazon preps, packs and ships your product directly to the customer.
The best thing about this is that Amazon is extremely focused on customers, which in turn guarantees a more safe and protected shipping! Whatever you do remember that Amazon will never hurt its customers, never!
-
Do You Know What a Listing Is?
Listing contains all the “general details about the product, such as the name and model number.”
However, there’s one thing that you should know! “When more than one seller contributes data to a product, Amazon determines which seller’s product information will be displayed on the product detail page.” This means that if there’s an already existing listing for a product that you want to sell, you don’t have to create the second one! Otherwise, Amazon will just remove your listing and give no explanations to you!
-
Certain Selling Methods Are Not Accepted on Amazon
Many sellers don’t read the policy about acceptable selling methods. This happens quite a lot, especially among sellers whose friends or family members already sell on Amazon and know “everything” about the platform! Sometimes they even know more about Amazon, than the platform knows about itself!
So, if you want to sell on Amazon, you have to understand which selling models are accepted. For example, drop shipping in its traditional concept is not accepted on Amazon. The platform literally says that the following actions are prohibited on Amazon:
- Purchasing products from another online retailer and having that retailer ship directly to customers, if the shipment does not identify you as the seller of record or if anyone other than you (including the other online retailer) appears on packing slips, invoices, or external packaging; or
- Shipping orders with packing slips, invoices, external packaging, or other information indicating a seller name or contact information other than your own.
-
You Just Can’t Take and Sell Every Product You Want
Yes, Amazon doesn’t allow every seller to sell products from categories like alcohol, art, electronics, laser products, jewelry, tobacco and tobacco-related products and so forth. As a solution, Amazon says that certain categories require you to obtain pre-approval from the platform before listing in those categories. What’s more, “certain categories require you to provide additional information and/or a supplemental guarantee before listing in those categories.”
-
Reviews Matter Here!
As we said, Amazon cares only about its customers. Hence, their opinions and their satisfaction matter here! If they want to leave a review, they do it! If they want to fill your listings with negative feedback, they will do that, believe us!
At the same time, if you try to create positive reviews, write them from your buyer account or even remove already existing negative ones, you will lose your account! In this case, Amazon suspends its sellers and take away their selling privileges! So, be careful and polite with Amazon’s customers: they can make you lose your account!
-
Amazon Pays Attention to Product Images
You may think that product images don’t really matter on Amazon, which is NOT true! Amazon regulates everything that is somehow related to photos! For example, this is Amazon’s requirement concerning selling products on models: images that include models that are sitting, kneeling, leaning or lying down are prohibited. Product images should only contain models that are standing!
You think that’s strange? Please! Look at the “shoe” policy: shoes MAIN images should be of a single shoe, facing left at a 45-degree angle.
-
Amazon Competition Can Cause Too Many Problems…
Everyone wants to be an Amazon seller, win the Buy Box and have a crazy amount of orders every single day! For this, sellers are ready to do literally anything! For example, crazy sellers can “accidentally” change your product photo. As a result, your product picture won’t match the product description and the customer will receive something completely unexpected!
What’s more, these sellers can write tons of positive feedback under your products, which is however not good. If there are too many artificial reviews and feedback, Amazon will accuse you of using special review-generating software! So, be careful with these sellers, they can do things!
-
Amazon Pays Attention to Invoices
If you’re a reseller, you always need to keep the invoices that you have from sourcing products! If Amazon asks you for them, you need to provide only legitimate and authentic invoices that show how many products you ordered and how much money you need to pay. What’s more, an exemplary invoice should be dated within 1 year, more specifically, 365 days.
P.S. If Amazon asks you for an invoice, make sure you either send it in pdf or another acceptable format or scan it. Amazon doesn’t accept simple photos taken on your phone. Amazon is a platform where quality really matters!
-
You Can’t Have Multiple Accounts
If you want to operate two businesses at the same time, you need to use completely different information. However, even this should be done after getting a permission from Amazon. This is what Amazon says about having more than one account:
“You may only maintain one Seller Central account for each region in which you sell unless you have a legitimate business need to open a second account and all of your accounts are in good standing. If any of your accounts are not in good standing, we may deactivate all of your selling accounts until all accounts are in good standing.”
These are the ten things that you should know before selling on Amazon. However, “practice makes the master:” you can’t be prepared for everything! Eventually, you are going to face a problem and that’s okay!
If you have questions about selling on Amazon, amazon listing optimization and amazon automation, feel free to contact us at Jerome Basilio! Our specialists will guide you throughout the process and make sure that your business is perfectly working in the eCommerce world!
