Amazon selling, has, over the years, expanded greatly, opening numerous Fulfilment centres and selling millions of different products around the world. But as efficient and attractive as Amazon seems, it still has its problems that sellers face in their day to day dealings.
The five main questions that Amazon Sellers ask are:
- Why is it so hard to start selling on Amazon?
- How do I manage my money on Amazon?
- How do I stand out among the many Amazon sellers?
- How do I handle Customer Returns, Seller Feedback, and Product Reviews?
- What should I do to get consistent communication from Amazon?
Some of these problems can be easily avoided if you take precautions or understand Amazon selling terms and conditions. But for the others, you may have to learn about the solutions as you go.
1.WHY IS IT SO HARD TO GET ACCEPTED AND START SELLING ON AMAZON?
Getting on Amazon and beginning to sell has become complicated with time as the platform takes on sellers who do not always follow Amazon’s rules. Amazon closely monitors who can sell, what they can sell, and how they sell it.
Products like clothing, shoes, handbags, automotive items and phone accessories need approval before a seller can sell them. Yet, still, the list of categories that need permission is growing. But the upside is once you open your seller account, you have automatic approval in a few selected categories.
SOLUTIONS
- Make your products stand out among the sea of products on Amazon right from the beginning.
- Do thorough product research before you start selling. For comprehensive product research, visit Nugetfind.
- Market outside of Amazon. Before you can start selling on Amazon, you can market your product on a personal website that you can set up to encourage positive reviews and word-of-mouth marketing. This method will help set you apart from other sellers and encourage Amazon to permit you to other product categories as you would already have set a record as being a reliable Amazon seller with a unique product.
- If you must sell in a gated category ensure you have all the documents needed to be ungated.
2.HOW DO I MANAGE MY MONEY ON AMAZON?
Every two weeks, Amazon pays third-party sellers; This means that you need to manage your cash flow carefully. Whether you ship by air or sea, Shipping can take anywhere from a week to a couple of months until it reaches your designated Amazon’s warehouse. Meaning that it may be several months before you start to get paid for the inventory that you buy.
That’s a long enough process with one product, but it becomes even more challenging if you have many different products. If you want to grow your brand and launch new products, it becomes more difficult because the new products aren’t generating any cash flow yet.
SOLUTIONS
- You’ll need to keep cash on hand, so you have it when you need to place an inventory order.
- Additionally, getting ready for holiday buying rather than a seasonal peak requires you to put up even more cash to get enough inventory to support higher sales volume. To help you with preparations for different sales periods, have a reorder point and order quantity in place so that you do not run out of stock.
- Finally, you can also take advantage of Amazon lenders, Bank loans and credit cards. But beware of borrowing more than you can pay back.
To try out Amazon lending, please visit: Amazon Loans
3.HOW CAN I STAND OUT AMONG THE MANY AMAZON SELLERS?
Amazon presents sellers with an incredible opportunity for buying and selling, attracting millions of sellers to jump onto the platform. The competition is fierce because so many sellers are competing for exposure in the search results.
Excessive competition makes it hard for new sellers to break in. Buyers tend to choose established products with name recognition and hundreds of customer reviews over new products with very few reviews.
The response of most sellers who are facing a lot of competition is to lower their prices.
However, selling on Amazon and competing based on price is a terrible idea because there will always be someone willing to sell for less. This eventually leads to cutting off costs in the manufacturing process, lower-quality products, negative reviews from customers, and a drop in sales volume.
Additionally, most Amazon sellers don’t sell their brand items; They just resell items they have procured from wholesalers or suppliers in bulk, just like a retail gift or another shop. If one person can buy a particular product in bulk, many other people can do it too, which creates significant competition for the same items.
SOLUTIONS
- Try Private Labeling. Private Labeling is when You buy your products from a manufacturer but then you label and market them using your brand. This will make your product stand out as highlighted earlier.
- Another way you can reduce competition is by creating an Amazon Store. An Amazon Store will set you apart from other sellers and will increase the chances of your products being seen by customers.
To try out other avenues of making money on Amazon visit: Inspectaman.
4.HOW CAN I MANAGE CUSTOMER RETURNS, SELLER FEEDBACK AND PRODUCT REVIEWS ON AMAZON?
Customer Returns
The return policy can vary depending on the category of the product. Some types offer free returns for customers, but as a third-party seller, you’re the one who is paying for that product to be returned.
One of the reasons why Amazon has become so successful is because they are generally very buyer-friendly. As a customer, dealing with Amazon is usually a good experience, and the return policy is more customer-friendly, mostly leaving the seller at a loss.
Seller Feedback and Product Review
Seller feedback and product reviews play a considerable role in the buying decisions of Amazon customers. Some buyers and new sellers may not understand the difference between the two.
Product reviews are supposed to address issues directly related to the product, regardless of who the seller is. Seller feedback addresses things like order fulfilment and customer service.
Amazon, since 2016, has made significant changes to its review policies, no longer allowing sellers to give free products, discounts, or any other incentives in exchange for a review. This was because sellers and reviewers were manipulating reviews, and customers are starting to lose trust in the reviews that they read on Amazon.
Even sellers who want to do everything by the rules may face challenges and confusion related to what they should do to stay compliant.
SOLUTION
Try the Amazon FBA Program. The FBA ( Fulfilment By Amazon) program is a means for third-party sellers to automate their order fulfilment and shipping services. It’s a pretty simple concept: Sellers sell, Amazon ships. Anyone enrolled in Amazon FBA can let Amazon handle all shipping, including returns and refunds, as well as product warehousing in Amazon’s warehouses, picking and packing, and more.
To get legitimate reviews to consider building an audience of amazon.
5.WHAT SHOULD I DO TO GET CONSISTENT COMMUNICATION FROM AMAZON?
In general, Amazon’s communication with sellers could use improvement because they leave much to desire in this area. Most of Amazon’s rules are pretty clear, but the challenges are usually involved with enforcing the rules.
Sellers may have their accounts suspended without a clear explanation of the reasons, or they may not be able to speak to anyone at Amazon to find out what they need to do to get their seller account reinstated. And even when you manage to speak to them, the process or help takes so long you end up getting frustrated.
Additionally, as a seller, you may get a different response from each Amazon Seller Support representative that speaks to you. You may get confused about what you are supposed to be doing to solve the problem or, in some cases, to clear any error.
SOLUTIONS
- Follow all Amazon’s rules and regulations. This will limit the need to talk to an Amazon representative in the first place.
- Do a bit of research using search engines like google where you can find blogs, like this one that you are currently reading, that will answer your questions and provide first-hand experience on how to solve the problem.
- If you still need to talk to an Amazon representative, then don’t just stick to one method. Lodge your complaint via email, voice calls or the chat service on Amazon.
REVIEW
Amazon makes it possible for sellers to build highly profitable e-commerce businesses quickly, but there are plenty of challenges that come along with it. For many sellers, the upside outweighs the challenges. Besides, the challenges are not insurmountable.