Helping Amazon Sellers Source, Launch, and Dominate
Author: Cameron Stewart
Cameron joined the Viral Launch team and 2018 and has worn many hats at the company. Cameron, a graduate of Indiana University - Purdue University in Indianapolis with a degree in Journalism, started off as a Customer Experience Specialist before switching to the creative side as a Product Listing Specialist. Currently, he assists with Viral Launch's copywriting efforts, using his years of knowledge to help sellers achieve their goals.
Pinterest is a social media website and app that works as a visual discovery engine. It provides inspiration on ideas like recipes, home decorations, style tips, and more. With 463 million monthly users, Pinterest ranks in the top-15 social networks worldwide. This presents a tremendous opportunity for online businesses to get their products in front of an active and engaged audience.
The partnership will be implemented over the next few quarters and is expected to begin rolling out later in 2023.
“This milestone partnership will add to the great brands already on the platform and provide more comprehensiveness, shoppability, and a best-in-class buying experience for users, along with greater performance for brands and advertisers. This aligns with our goal of making every Pin shoppable so that we can enable as many users as possible to bring their dreams to life.”
Bill Ready, CEO of Pinterest
Amazon becomes the platform’s first third-party advertising partner, a noteworthy accomplishment that speaks to the strength of Amazon’s reach and the Amazon Ads platform. The announcement also continues the evolving growth of Amazon as an advertising giant.
“Amazon Ads is delighted to partner with Pinterest and make it even easier for customers to discover and buy relevant products through shoppable content, while also providing differentiated value for brands.”
Paul Kotas, Senior Vice President of Amazon
What Does It Mean for Amazon Sellers?
First, the partnership should be phenomenal news for those who sell on Amazon. The potential ability to reach 463 million monthly users is no small feat, even compared to Amazon’s gargantuan reach. If Pinterest were a country and the users were citizens, it would rank ahead of the United States as the third-largest country in the world.
Even better, the Pinterest audience offers a unique advantage regarding segmentation and buyer intent thanks to its primary uses. Whether a user seeks inspiration for home decorations, seasonal fashion, dinner recipes, or virtually anything you might use Pinterest for, they will likely need products associated with their search. Compared to social media networks like Facebook and Twitter where most users aren’t necessarily searching for a product, Pinterest users are almost exclusively looking for products.
For example, the average Facebook or Twitter user might get on the app for news, to check in with friends, or staying up-to-date on pop culture events. However, the typical Pinterest user searches for new recipes, clothes, and crafts. Even after segmenting users, displaying your product in front of an interested customer can be a guessing game on Facebook or Twitter. But on Pinterest, you may soon be able to put your product front and center for a potential customer looking for your goods based on their Pins.
The partnership stays in line with recent trends, as an increased emphasis on advertising on video-based social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels have created plenty of buzz and opportunity in the market. Pinterest features both image and video posts and has prioritized video content and user-generated content since TikTok’s emergence.
Optimize Your PPC Campaigns With Automation
All things considered, implementing Amazon Ads on Pinterest will likely heat up the competitive marketplace. It remains to be seen how the integration will go. However, it’s difficult to imagine a situation where this partnership doesn’t lead to a more competitive advertising market. Sellers who nail their advertising strategy and execution, though, can experience more reward.
With that in mind, there’s no better time to refine your Amazon PPC game plan! And there’s no better way to create, customize, and manage your Amazon advertising methods than Kinetic PPC.
Optimize your Amazon PPC advertising for Pinterest with Kinetic.
Kinetic PPC is Viral Launch’s state-of-the-art tool to automate your advertising on Amazon. The innovative Amazon PPC software improves your campaigns with in-depth reporting of campaigns, keywords, and search terms. Kinetic utilizes artificial intelligence to make data-informed suggestions. It allows you to create customized rules for maximum performance at the keyword and ASIN levels.
For example, you can create custom rules to increase spending on high-converting keywords or shut off spending on duds. Utilize the pre-made templates within the tool to get started or create your own to flex your advertising muscle and accomplish your advertising goals.
Still, if handing over your Amazon advertising to a tool feels daunting, no worries. Kinetic contains built-in safety checks you can set to manual mode, allowing you to see the recommended actions before putting them into motion.
As Amazon Ads move to Pinterest and possibly other platforms, sellers who develop high-performing strategies and tactics will be richly rewarded. Get ahead of the game with a 14-day free trial of Kinetic PPC and see what it can do for your online business!
Every Amazon seller needs to know how to sell in a competitive market, and a top-shelf competitor analysis can give you the edge you need.
Because of the immense potential, it should be no surprise that the Amazon seller competition is fierce. With the convenience of the FBA program, access to a customer base in the hundreds of millions, and opportunity for growth, it’s the premier space for those with an entrepreneurial mindset. Many experience issues dealing with the Amazon seller competition, as it’s out of their control with constantly changing variables.
So how can you navigate a path to success on Amazon? It’s all about maximizing every opportunity made available to you. To identify these opportunities and become aware of what works in your marketplace and what mistakes your Amazon seller competitors are making.
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Tzu made his name as a military general and philosopher thousands of years ago. However, his strategy also broadly summarizes the idea behind performing a competitor analysis and why you should have a deep understanding of your Amazon seller competition.
In a crowded marketplace, selling a phenomenal product is only the beginning. You must know your selling space inside and out to stand out and steal customers from competitors. In the process, you’ll identify opportunities to increase visibility, better meet the needs of consumers, and capitalize on mistakes or shortcomings of the competition.
What is an Amazon Competitor Analysis?
An Amazon Competitor Analysis is more or less a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis for sellers you’re competing with in the Amazon marketplace. Also called a situational assessment or situational analysis, a SWOT analysis is a framework used to evaluate a competitive position and develop strategies to maximize performance.
This analysis allows you to identify opportunities for improvement and areas where you can differentiate yourself from your competitors. If you’re considering selling on Amazon FBA, it’s important to conduct a competitor analysis to understand the market and identify areas of opportunity.
With a proper competitor analysis, you can uncover gems
Here are some steps to help you conduct a thorough competitor analysis for Amazon FBA:
Identify Your Competitors
Sounds easy, right? To a degree, it is, but there are levels to this.
Conduct a keyword search with your primary keyword, and the search results will compile a page full of your Amazon seller competition. And while every listing in your category competes with you, not all competitors are created equally. So first, we must define competitor within this distinctive context.
It’s important to remember the end goal of the analysis will be to make intelligent, actionable decisions to elevate your Amazon business. Considering this, you may be better served to base most of your research on listings with success more comparable to your own.
Monitoring the success of top sellers or brand names can be helpful, but their market share might not be for the taking yet. For newer or lesser established brands, no strategy can overcome a household brand name or entrenched top seller with thousands of positive reviews or a trusted reputation.
For sellers with a Viral Launch subscription, Listing Analyzer’s Competing & Complementary Products tab can help point you toward your closest competitors.
Audit competitor listings
Take a look at your opponents’ listing in great detail. For the most part, Amazon gives each seller in a category an equal opportunity to create their listing with the same amount of space. By analyzing what others are doing with this space, you can implement what works for others into your listing and recognize shortcomings to avoid.
Images
Product images play a pivotal role on Amazon. Unlike shopping in a brick-and-mortar store, customers can’t touch or see the product in person. High-quality product images bridge the gap for customers, allowing them to get a more thorough look at the product and answering their questions through detailed imagery and infographics.
Additionally, do the photos showcase unique features or benefits? Does it show the customer how it works and what settings it may be used in? Taking note of what your competitors are doing right and wrong and taking action with your own photos can be the difference between a standout listing that jumps off the search results page and a generic listing that gets overlooked.
Title
For SEO purposes, the product title possesses the most indexing weight of any section for a product listing. The keywords in a product title should be relevant to the product and with the most search volume.
If you see a common word or phrase thrown into titles to the point where it seems odd, it warrants additional research. Utilize a tool with access to Amazon search volume data, such as Keyword Research, to see any opportunities to capitalize on competitor mistakes.
From the format to the keywords, the product title represents your first opportunity beyond images to get your product in front of customers. Most likely, customers discover your listing via search, surrounded by a sea of competitors. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes. Consider what information you want to see in a product title and what would earn your click to learn more in the product description before adding to cart.
What information are your competitors sharing in this space? Which keywords do they use?
Bullet points & description
The customer saw your photos, read your title, and wants to learn more. The bullet points and product description are your next shot at convince the customer why your product is what they need. Keyword indexation remains an essential part of the bullet points, but you can start selling your product in these sections. Check through your competitors’ bullet points and descriptions to better understand how others in the market speak about the product.
Learn from what information others include in their listings and apply it to your own. If you’re going to miss out on sales, never want it to be due to things you can control and information left unanswered in your description. As you analyze the listings, perhaps make a list of questions for your product and check them off as you go. Hopefully, you can even find more questions to make sure you answer with your copy.
Reviews
Often overlooked, you can learn a lot by skimming through competitor reviews. Unhappy customers tend to voice their complaints and Amazon encourages them to explain why in their reviews.
Within the reviews page, sort through the reviews to see what issues customers experience with the product. For example, you can click on the 1-star and 2-star reviews to see what competitors are doing wrong.
On the positive side, check the 5-star reviews for a more comprehensive look into what customers appreciate about a product. What problems are they solving? Is there any way the competition goes above and beyond that you can replicate? Four-star reviews provide precious insights, as they often entail satisfied customers who have experienced a minor problem or see room for improvement.
Be a keyword sleuth
The most successful Amazon sellers leave no stone unturned regarding visibility. Whether through organic search or sponsored ads, the best sellers ensure their products are seen in high-volume searches and built to turn those impressions into purchases.
Finding out which keywords your competitors are competing for can do wonders for your strategy for overtaking them, in a few different ways.
You can attack head-on by prioritizing the keywords they’re prioritizing. Customers can find your product through various search terms. Most products are found through a few primary keywords, many more secondary phrases, and an assortment of tertiary, low-volume keywords.
While they all provide value, visibility for higher-searched terms can be much more fruitful. Because of this, however, the competition can be intense, with sky-high costs in advertising and costly promotions to climb the ranks. However for sellers without the benefit of a never-ending bankroll, targeting search terms with low-to-medium visibility may be more profitable through advertising and inclusion in your listing copy.
Monitor prices
The hallmark of competitive markets: price wars.
In any market where products are comparable, the cheaper price typically wins. As a result, knowing how low your competition can go and being aware of price changes as soon as possible so you can avoid being undercut can be a lifesaver, especially during high-volume sales events.
Monitoring competitor prices over time presents invaluable information into how they run their business. For instance, tracking prices and how products perform at various price points can consistently give you an edge to optimize your positioning. When you know how low the competition can go and how their performance at each price point, you can exploit weaknesses to climb the ranks.
Streamline your competitor analysis process with Competitor Intelligence
For Amazon business owners, performing these tasks can be extremely tedious and time-consuming. Even worse, the results constantly change as new competitors emerge and existing competitors evolve.
Enter Competitor Intelligence, one of the most helpful competitor analysis tools around! Competitor Intelligence is a reverse ASIN lookup tool that provides a quick and easy one-stop shop for tracking your marketplace rivals across various categories.
Enter a product ASIN to quickly get a massive list of their top-performing and underutilized keywords, alongside the ability to analyze and track indexation, keyword rank, sponsored ad rank, sales, price, reviews, search volumes, notification options and more.
Within Competitor Intelligence, you can enter the ASIN and instantly glean most of the information listed to this point for any ASIN.
Up-to-the-minute and historical data points related to price, rank, sales, revenue and a breakdown of estimated fees are just some of the in-depth details that can be found within seconds. Additionally, if you grant MWS access to the Viral Launch platform, you can compare how your product measures up categorically.
Find out where your challengers rank on a keyword-by-keyword basis for organic and sponsored searches. In the Competitor Keywords tab, a comprehensive list of keywords associated with the product appears. Within the tab, you can find out how the competition stacks up for each keyword. This is sortable by estimated volume, rank, and more.
Get an in-depth look into your competitor’s keyword performance in Competitor Intelligence.
You can even sign up for rank change alerts and hourly keyword tracking. This allows you to stay on top of updates as they happen and never miss a beat when the competition changes.
In summary, a tool like Competitor Intelligence makes analyzing the Amazon seller competition a breeze considering the tedious alternatives.
Conclusion
At this point in the Amazon FBA marketplace, fierce competition in nearly every market appears inevitable. It’s vital for sellers to maximize positioning and offer an enticing value proposition for a realistic shot at lasting long-term success. With this in mind, the importance of analyzing the competition becomes apparent. It’s the most thorough way to uncover advantages in the market.
Whether in competitor analysis tools like Competitor Intelligence or another method, an Amazon seller competitor analysis can uncover the answers to take your e-commerce business to the top. Since the Amazon seller competition is fierce, this type of research has evolved from an elective to a prerequisite.
For this reason, few tasks are more worthwhile than mastering the art and science of competitor analysis.
Sign up for Competitor Intelligence today to take your Amazon seller competitor analysis to the next level and optimize your business.
The tech story of 2023 has been the rapid rise of artificial intelligence technology such as ChatGPT. Find out how to use ChatGPT as a tool for your online business.
Writing an effective Amazon listing is crucial for attracting potential buyers and increasing sales, but it can be daunting for many sellers. Many sellers look elsewhere when writing their Amazon listing, whether due to a lack of confidence in writing skills, language barriers, or a lack of knowledge on creating copy that will be crucial to your Amazon success.
ChatGPT can save considerable time and money by automating a significant chunk of your Amazon listing copy. If performed correctly, you can generate content that accurately describes your product and informs the customer of its key points, ultimately driving more conversions and boosting your bottom line.
Below, let’s dig in on how to use artificial intelligence tools for Amazon listings to advance your online business.
What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is an AI language model developed by OpenAI. It is a deep learning-based model that uses a transformer architecture to understand and generate human-like language. It’s been pre-trained on an extensive collection of text from the internet and can generate human-like responses to a wide range of questions and topics.
ChatGPT is designed to assist and provide information to users, and can be integrated into various chat applications and platforms to provide an intelligent and interactive chatbot experience.
Launched in November 2022, it reached 1 million users just five days after its launch. In the months since its release, it’s generated a ton of buzz thanks to its popularity, concerns about its usage, and the future of tech.
How to get started with ChatGPT
First, go to chat.openai.com. Then, continue with your Google or Microsoft account, or manually enter an email address and password. Upon doing this, you’ll need to verify your email address, and boom, you’re all set up. You may be asked to provide a cell phone number for verification purposes, where you’ll receive a text with a confirmation code.
Due to its popularity and it being a free research preview, you may encounter issues with being unable to sign in or sign up due to servers operating at peak capacity. If this happens, try again shortly as it typically doesn’t remain inaccessible for long.
Before getting down to business, feel free to play around in ChatGPT for a bit. Testing out the technology to find its limitations and see how far it can go can pay off when it comes time to create a prompt for your listing. Since the copy will almost literally write itself, your skill comes not as a writer but as a prompter. The AI-generated copy will only be as good as the prompt you enter.
Take a second to see how ChatGPT responds to vague prompts and how you can be more specific. At this stage of the tool’s development, you’ll likely find there’s a sweet spot between vague and specific that will deliver the best response for what you’re hoping to receive.
Utilizing AI tools for Amazon Listings
Since ChatGPT specializes as an AI language model, it naturally makes sense as a time-saving assistant for writing tasks. While that may not assist with optimizing advertising campaigns or managing inventory (yet), it can save you time and money regarding your Amazon product listing copy.
Your Amazon listing copy serves many purposes, but typically the goals fall under two umbrellas; for SEO visibility and to inform the customer about your product. While ChatGPT won’t check off both boxes to perfection, it can help you save time and tackle most of the basics.
For example, you can prompt ChatGPT to create an Amazon product listing for whatever product you’re selling, and it will provide a solid facsimile of an Amazon product description. You may have to toy around with your prompt and be specific to receive the copy in the desired format.
Before entering the prompt, requests for Amazon product listing copy for teeth whitening strips resulted in a few formats that didn’t match the fields in an Amazon product listing. Once the specifics were included in the prompt, ChatGPT spat out the product description below.
Pretty impressive, right? And it took less than a minute to produce once given the prompt. In essence, the generated copy tackles what teeth whitening strips do. However, you may notice ChatGPT ran with the details quite a bit. The prompt does not mention the number of treatments, ingredients, or price, all directly or indirectly mentioned in the copy. This is where you come in!
The generated copy must be reviewed, edited, and fact-checked to ensure it’s accurate and within Amazon’s Terms of Service. For the teeth whitening strips example, you would want to ensure the treatment details, ingredients, and expectations are accurate to the product you’re selling.
You can enter specifics in your prompt, and ChatGPT will include them in the description. But you may be better served to stick with the generated copy as the technology matures through its infancy. Editing the generated copy may be more straightforward, inserting the product-specific details independently.
Optimizing ChatGPT Copy for SEO
Importantly, ChatGPT doesn’t write for SEO purposes on Amazon. Without access to search volume data from an Amazon-specific search volume tool like Keyword Research, the tool can’t optimize visibility through SEO. For this, you can use Viral Launch’s Listing Builder to cross-reference and edit for maximum visibility.
First, sign in to Viral Launch and open Listing Builder. Next, enter your primary keyword to generate a comprehensive list of keywords for your product.
We recommend skimming through the keyword list and removing any keywords that don’t apply to your product. Keywords like competing brand names, restricted terms, or information that just isn’t accurate for your product, as you won’t want to include them and risk suppressed visibility or lying to customers.
Once you’ve removed unnecessary keywords, copy and paste the copy for your title, bullet points, and product description into the appropriate fields.
Example
The AI-generated product description needs room for improvement but provides a solid start that can be easily optimized with just a few tweaks.
Take a look at your optimization score in the upper right corner. Is there room for improvement? Most likely, yes. From there, find spaces to insert unused keywords into your listing. An easy place to start would be replacing repetitive keywords if synonyms or variations with search volume appear as unused in your listing.
The ChatGPT product description also leaves plenty of space concerning character counts, allowing you to add more copy optimized for search without worrying about losing vital keywords.
After stretching the product title closer to the 200-character limit with the most-searched keywords, the score goes from Mediocre to Exceptional. Also, this is without fully filtering out inapplicable keywords or completing the backend search terms, which would only push the score closer to perfection.
You may need to add a sentence or two to incorporate all keywords, and even move words around to prioritize the title and bullet points due to their higher indexation value. In fact, we highly recommend utilizing all the characters Amazon allows for your product, even if you reach a perfect score with room to spare. In the crowded Amazon marketplace, any opportunity to inform the customer of your product, answer potential questions, and entice the customer to purchase should be used to your full advantage.
Conclusion
ChatGPT offers immense potential to change how we work, but it’s already serving purposes in the business world. While it isn’t a one-stop-shop you can copy and paste without worries, it can save you plenty of time and money spent on a Listing Optimization if you feel confident enough to take these steps.
While this method requires work on your end, it pales in comparison to doing this entire process manually. If you created a listing without ChatGPT, you would’ve had to do these steps on top of the writing process. Or potentially spend hundreds for an SEO expert to handle this for you. Depending on your product and writing experience, utilizing the copy from ChatGPT can easily cut your workload in half.
It remains to be seen how else generative AI applications can streamline an Amazon business. From customer service to Amazon communication, the possibilities appear seemingly endless. Early adopters will likely receive an edge over those arriving late to the AI party. Since Amazon is getting into the generative AI business with Hugging Face, an “Amazon ChatGPT” as some call it, the technology appears to be on the rise and entering the Amazon space.
Consider artificial intelligence as another resource, a new tool in your FBA toolbox. Savvy Amazon sellers comprehend the importance of owning an edge over market competitors. Whether saving money on expenses, expanding your visibility and conversion , or saving time to master other elements of your Amazon business, a tool like ChatGPT can give you that edge to streamline your Amazon success.
Try your hand at creating an optimized listing with ChatGPT and Listing Builder today to boost your visibility and conversions while experiment with a new wave of technology today!
Discover how to build, grow and scale your Amazon business with the Market Intelligence, the best Amazon Chrome Extension for sellers.
Is your Amazon research process fully optimized? If you aren’t using the Market Intelligence Chrome extension from Viral Launch, your product research regimen could likely use a boost! Utilizing Viral Launch’s Amazon Chrome Extension for sellers can save you time, effort, and clicks while still providing the powerful data crucial to your business.
At any stage of selling on Amazon, performing product research stands as a constant task. While the data you value most might change, analyzing market trends and checking in on the competition is perhaps the one commonality all Amazon sellers perform, making it a distinctively important part of the selling process.
Due to the numerous data points, complexity, and tedious nature of digging into the data of individual products and segmented markets, it’s no wonder why Amazon sellers often view product research as grunt work.
The importance of product research regarding an Amazon business’s success is why we created Market Intelligence, packed with accurate sales estimates and virtually every key metric about the Amazon marketplace you could ask for. But why the Chrome Extension? It’s simple: to streamline your product research process for maximum efficiency.
What is the Market Intelligence Chrome Extension?
It’s exactly what it sounds like! The industry-leading Market Intelligence tool from Viral Launch has been a favorite for Amazon sellers for years. The Chrome extension lets you bring Market Intelligence directly to Amazon pages. Once you’ve installed the Market Intelligence Chrome extension and have an active subscription including Market Intelligence, you can skim through Amazon and pull up in-depth insights into the marketplace with the click of a button.
This tool provides real-time insights into competitors’ sales and marketing strategies, including pricing, sales volume, and keyword rankings. Armed with this information, sellers can adjust their approach to remain competitive in the marketplace.
What data can I find in the Market Intelligence Amazon Chrome Extension for sellers?
AI-powered insights and billions of Amazon data points give a seller’s advantage no other tool can provide. Access historical trends, monthly sales, monthly revenue, keyword search volume, and much more, all while browsing products on Amazon.com. You can use this data to make smart sourcing decisions, discover products that haven’t been found, and start or scale your eCommerce business.
Gain a wide-ranging comprehension of a product market in the Sellers tab.
In the Chrome extension, you’ll find five unique tabs: Sellers, Keywords, Trends, Analysis, and Calculator.
Sellers
The Sellers tab stands as the primary section of the Chrome extension, with the data points found in the standard Market Intelligence tool. When on an Amazon search results page or Product Detail Page, the extension populates information for that product that’s been tracked over time. Brand name, monthly revenue, unit margin, monthly sales, and review quantity are just a fraction of the data in this tab. Additionally, you can track products with the push of a button, which will transfer to your Viral Launch account.
Keywords
The Keywords tab integrates the search volume estimates from Keyword Research for advanced accessibility.
The Keywords tab takes information from our Keyword Research tool, showing a complete list of similar or related keywords on a search page. The most popular data point within Keywords is estimated search volume, with the most accurate estimates driven by our innovative data science. You can find the most popular keywords used to find products like the one you’re searching for, along with the average price, sales, and revenues for each keyword market.
Trends
You can find quick-hitting information about the selected market in the Trends tab. You can quickly see any price changes, the best-selling period, and annual sales trends. At the same time, a chart with years of data tracking shows peaks, valleys, and stagnation points.
While performing product research, it’s easy to make mistakes based on outdated data. As any seller knows, things change quickly. If a product generated sales and search volume in the past but is on a downward trend or has increased competition, your research can do more harm than good. The Trends tab seeks to help avoid these mistakes and help you get a better feel for the trajectory of a product or market.
Analysis
Like a great virtual assistant, the Analysis tab offers AI-generated insights into a market. You can find helpful tips, warnings, and alerts to help make you aware of issues such as seasonality, saturated markets, price declines, and more. Consider the Trends tab an extra set of eyes, offering an enhanced outlook on potential pitfalls. For example, the image below details that Amazon sells products in this market, a helpful tidbit when perusing a market.
Avoid blind spots in your product research with the AI-generated details in the Analysis tab.
Calculator
The Calculator tab lets you calculate fees and potential profit per unit sold. This feature uses industry standards from our FBA Calculator and averages to deliver a rough idea about profitability. Since costs may differ for different sellers, you can edit the numbers if you have a more precise and personalized range of costs for a more accurate approximation.
How much does the Market Intelligence Chrome Extension cost?
It’s free, sorta! Technically, the extension is free and available as an add-on to anyone in the Google Chrome browser. However, if you’re not subscribed to a Viral Launch subscription plan, you’ll quickly find the data inaccessible. Once installed and activated, you’ll be asked to sign in with your Viral Launch credentials. After doing so, you’re ready to take your research outside the Viral Launchpad.
Since the extension is free, it’s something every Viral Launch subscriber should add to their browser extensions.
Conclusion
In summary, the Viral Launch Chrome Extension is a powerful tool for e-commerce sellers looking to streamline their research for maximum efficiency and convenience. With real-time data on product sales, revenue, and profitability, the extension has certainly become a popular choice for entrepreneurs looking to succeed in the competitive world of e-commerce.
Whether you’re a seasoned seller or just getting started, the Viral Launch Chrome extension is a tool that can help you achieve your goals and grow your business on Amazon. Thus, if you haven’t already, download the Market Intelligence Amazon Chrome extension for sellers today and incorporate it into your Amazon research tool set!
Amazon announced a massive update to its FBA capacity management system. With inventory limits, fees, and policies coming under the microscope in recent years, the updates seek to improve the existing Amazon Limited Quantity policy and capacity management system.
The updated policies and management system aim to provide greater capacity limits, enhance predictability, and give more control to FBA sellers. Amazon states the changes were made in response to customer feedback regarding FBA inventory capacity limits.
The new capacity management system goes into effect on March 1, 2023, so sellers have some time to get accustomed to the overhauls of the program.
Sellers told us they need more capacity, more predictability, and more control over their inventory. Our teams have been hard at work to create a streamlined system that offers new capacity management tools and resources to better empower sellers and help them grow.
Say goodbye to weekly restock limits! Instead, a monthly capacity limit will take its place.
Additionally, gone are the days of separate storage limits and restock limits. Amazon cites seller feedback and confusion between the two sets of limits and how they’re measured as causes for the change.
The new FBA capacity limits seek to resolve these issues and make it easier for sellers to plan inventory ahead of time. On the third full week of each month, sellers can find their capacity limits for the upcoming month in Capacity Monitor in Seller Central or via email notification.
Notably, Amazon states that most sellers will have access to greater capacity volumes than before under the new system.
#2: Estimated capacity limits to help sellers plan three months in advance
If #1 spiked your stress levels due to concerns over long-term planning, this new addition might cool you down. With a capacity limit set for the current month ahead, Amazon will display estimated inventory limits for the following two months.
Amazon states the estimates will be based on how efficiently sellers utilize their capacity, as measured by the Inventory Performance Index (IPI) score. Similar to how a credit score seeks to measure a person’s likelihood of making an on-time payment, your IPI score measures your ability to manage inventory efficiently.
#3: The opportunity to request a higher quantity limit
Have a problem with your updated Amazon limited quantity? The new Capacity Manager allows sellers to request additional capacity and go beyond their allocated limits.
Of course, not every request for increased limits will be approved. Amazon states that requests will be granted objectively, with a reservation fee applied to sellers once approved.
"When additional capacity is granted, sellers’ reservation fees are offset by earning performance credits from the sales they generate using the extra capacity. Performance credits are designed to offset up to 100% of the reservation fee, so sellers don’t pay for the additional capacity as long as their products sell through."
Amazon clarified the goal is to limit unproductive storage, not to impede or impair any seller. This wrinkle in the system ups the ante on strategizing your inventory management.
#4: FBA capacity limits in volume to better reflect capacity usage
Lastly, the new inventory management system will measure sellers’ inventory in cubic feet instead of numbers of units. While the number of units will also be displayed in inventory limits, Amazon claims the cubic feet usage better represents logistical usage.
Many sellers prefer to manage inventory on units, but the cubic feet measurement provides sellers with a tad more transparency regarding storage.
Overage fees stand as one unchanged element of inventory management. The fees charged for exceeding the allotted on-hand inventory limits remain intact.
Conclusion
Sellers should get familiar with the changes as soon as possible. The updated Amazon limited quantity and inventory management system empower sellers with more control and strategy behind their inventory. Moreover, the update introduces new risks and opportunities for those who masterfully manage their warehouse supply.
Optimizing inventory management has long been critical to running an FBA business. Finding the balance of always having inventory on hand without overstocking to avoid unnecessary fees has been a challenge that significantly affects every Amazon FBA seller’s bottom line.
Amazon acknowledging imperfections in the current process certainly takes a step in the right direction. Over the past few years, disruptions in the supply chain have shined a spotlight on potential issues in inventory management. The new streamlined system appears likely to mitigate these pain points.
Inventory management skills are a fundamental aspect of running an Amazon business, but tracking your inventory limits and performance might be an increased area of focus as the switch to the new system arrives.
Sellers can use the new capacity management system and view upcoming capacity limits within their FBA Dashboard within Seller Central. With added strategy and a new level of risk and reward, the importance of efficient inventory management intensifies.
Making money through writing has never been easier or as accessible thanks to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing!
Do you have a passion for writing that’s gone unfulfilled due to the logistics and concerns with publishing your work? Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing may be your saving grace!
Like how Amazon’s FBA program streamlined the opportunity to create your own full-scale online business, Kindle Direct Publishing, or KDP, works similarly for creators to publish and own their own work without many of the roadblocks associated with traditional publishing houses.
Does this money-making opportunity sound like it might be for you? Let’s dive in deeper to learn the ins and outs of KDP.
What is Kindle Direct Publishing?
Kindle Direct Publishing is a program that allows anyone the option to self-publish eBooks, paperbacks, and hardcover books for free.
This gives anyone direct access to publish on Amazon, including a product detail page for your book and options to expand your book’s availability globally.
A product detail page for a KDP-published book.
What type of content can be published using KDP?
According to Amazon’s KDP Help page, the following content types typically published using KDP include but are not limited to the following:
Book Series
Children’s Books
Comics
Cookbooks
Journals
Novels
Poetry
Textbooks
Magazines, periodicals, calendars and spiral-bound books are prohibited regarding KDP. If you have questions about whether or not a content type would be allowed, you should contact KDP to clarify the subject.
How much does Amazon self-publishing cost?
Publishing through KDP is absolutely free!
In contrast, traditional publishing in the United States typically ranges from $500 to $5,000! Much of these fees go towards editing, book design services and marketing. Through KDP, these costly elements are thrown to the wayside.
While there’s no fee to publish, Amazon does receive a cut of the revenue created with your content.
How do authors get paid with Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing?
Authors receive royalties that are dependent on the type of royalty plan selected. There are two royalty rates: 35% and 70%. Before you do the mental math and choose 70% because you receive a larger cut, you should know there are stipulations to qualify for the 70% royalty plan.
The stipulations for each of the two royalty plans.
As for getting paid, authors just need to verify their identity and include their banking information to receive their monthly royalties.
As for how much do self-published authors make on Amazon? It depends!
At the most basic level, the KDP structure rewards success. If you write the next smash, you can earn royalties well over $1,000 monthly. Most authors earn anywhere from $0 to $500 monthly for their work, which is completely up to the popularity of the created content.
While extremely rare, it can also be rewarding to own the rights to your work, an option that isn’t always the case when submitting work to a publishing house. For example, author E.L. James wrote the best-selling novel Fifty Shades of Grey and actually self-published using KDP.
On top of the revenue generated by its popularity, James sold the rights for what would eventually become a trilogy of movies for $5 million while maintaining some control over the making of the films. Of course, the chances your book becomes a New York Times bestseller and multi-million dollar movie franchise are slim, but it’s equal parts security and motivation to know what the ceiling can be financially if your work succeeds.
Self-Publishing on Amazon Pros and Cons
When weighing the self-publishing on Amazon pros and cons, it’s essential to consider where you’re at with your writing career.
For established authors, the fees incurred by a publishing house may be worth the trouble. After all, these publishing houses offer services such as editing and promotion to help the quality and visibility of the work. Also, publishing houses often offer an advance payment to the author upon completion if the work is likely to earn significant fanfare.
However, this is such a small group that it likely isn’t the case for many with a story to tell.
KDP democratizes authorship by offering to self-publish with zero upfront fees. The speed of publishing (often less than 5 minutes) through KDP is a modern miracle. Additionally, self-publishing on Amazon ensures your book can be promoted and displayed in the Kindle Store. With estimates often ranging around 20 million or so active Kindle readers, this massive audience is alluring for upstart authors.
In short, the pros of KDP are more beneficial for lesser-known authors. The option of publishing work in the first place, visibility from a massive worldwide audience, zero upfront fees, full content ownership, and royalties based on success make it appealing for aspiring authors to get their writing careers off the ground. On top of the digital versions, you can wholesale paperback versions, although you’ll have to pay for the printing cost of each book.
A con for KDP would be the lack of editing and graphic design. If you’ve read books on Kindle and noticed misspellings, poor grammar, imperfect punctuation, or a general lack of professionalism, the lack of editing or approval process can likely be attributed to this. Long-term revenue sharing can also be a drawback, although that’s often a concern with traditional publishing.
How to sign up for Kindle Direct Publishing
Signing up for Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing is a very simple and straightforward process. And once you’ve signed up, you’re virtually 5 minutes away from being able to publish your work.
Fill in the basic information necessary for your profile, payment information, and tax information
Once you’ve completed these steps, you can start publishing your work! The upload process is also quite simple, as Amazon requests information about your work to be visible in the Kindle store and grouped properly to be discovered by readers. In this procedure, you’ll include details about your eBook, content such as a book cover design, and set pricing.
After submitting all this information, your work is ready to be published. Congratulations! You can now update your resume with the accurate claim that you’re a published author.
Your work will be included in the Kindle Store, and you can share your work on social media or advertise with options like KDP Select to boost the visibility of your content.
Once you’ve decided to start selling on Amazon, you’ll quickly be met with your second decision: Which Amazon Seller plan should you choose: Professional or Individual?
Amazon’s created these seller plans to target two general types of Amazon sellers, with fees and perks designed to support your business efficiently. Each plan has unique features and costs, and it is essential to consider your current and projected sales volume and budget when deciding.
Below, we’ll compare the two available seller plans to help you examine the Amazon Professional seller vs Individual seller plans to determine which makes the most sense for you and your Amazon business.
IndividualSeller
The Individual seller plan requires a $0.99 fee every time you sell an item. In contrast to the Professional plan, the Individual seller plan can be considered an option for casual or low-volume sellers.
This plan makes more sense for sellers still deciding on a product or selling less than 40 units per month. Because of the per-item fees, the Individual plan presents a more cost-efficient option for low-volume sellers. The Individual seller plan also makes more sense for anyone testing the waters on Amazon with just a few products. If you’re still searching for a product or not ready to open up for business, choosing this option can help reduce costs as you build your business.
This plan does not provide access to inventory tools, so anyone with a more extensive product catalog or volume of products would be better served on the Professional plan. It’s also worth mentioning that Individual sellers can upgrade to Professional at any time, making it an excellent placeholder account until you’re ready to level up to Professional.
ProfessionalSeller
The Professional seller plan requires a flat $39.99 monthly payment, no matter how many items you sell within the month. In addition to the $39.99 monthly payment, Amazon collects a seller fee (a percentage of the total transaction that varies by product category) on each of your sales.
Additionally, sellers on the Professional plan gain access to Amazon benefits such as Brand Registry, which protects your business from fraud and abuse while allowing additional perks on your listing.
In short, the Professional plan makes more sense for sellers looking to create a brand on Amazon. On top of capping your monthly payment, the Professional program offers access to the Amazon Advertising platform, qualification for top placement on product detail pages, promotions including free shipping, and much more.
If you have a business type or goal in mind, you probably know which plan is best suited for your business after checking the above breakdown. Still, there are a few more specific questions you’ll want to answer for your business before signing up.
How many items do you plan on selling right away?
If you plan on selling 40 or more items a month, the answer is simple: get the Professional plan.
It doesn’t take a math wizard to know the $39.99 plan is more cost-effective than the $0.99/item plan. If you’re hoping to sell 40 or more items monthly, save yourself some money and earn access to additional perks with the Professional plan.
Selling FBA? Get a feel for expected sales volume by examining the competition with Market Intelligence.
Do you need access to restricted categories?
Amazon sellers are free to sell in most product categories, but a select few require a Professional plan to unlock access. Any sellers on the Individual plan will not have access to the following categories:
Automotive Parts & Accessories
Business to Business (B2B) products
Collectibles Coins
Fashion Jewelry
Fine Jewelry
Fine Art
Grocery, Food & Gourmet
Industrial & Scientific
Professional Services
Sports Collectibles
Video, DVD, & Blu-ray
Watches
While Amazon undoubtedly takes product authenticity seriously, these categories require an extra level of authentication and performance checks that only exist within the Professional plan to be sold on the marketplace.
Do you need the Buy Box to meet your sales goals?
Anyone selling on Amazon needs the Professional plan to qualify for the Buy Box.
What’s the Buy Box? The Buy Box is the CTA (Call to Action) that leads Amazon shoppers to purchase the product on the product listing. It’s found on a product page and contains the price, shipping information, seller, and an “add to cart” button, like below.
The Buy Box “owner” earns a sale through the Add to Cart click through on a product.
If you don’t own the Buy Box, customers must find your specific product offering in the “Other Sellers on Amazon” option below the standard Add to Cart button.
Not owning the Buy Box puts you at a disadvantage with lower visibility and increased competition.
Reports suggest over 80% of Amazon purchases are made through the Buy Box, so it’s a non-negotiable, must-have perk for anyone hoping to scale a business on Amazon.
Most Amazon sellers looking to create a sizable income through Amazon will need to own the Buy Box to achieve their goals, so the Professional seller plan would be the easy choice.
Are you going to channel your inner marketing wiz and advertise on Amazon?
Once an elective skill for Amazon sellers, Amazon Advertising has become a significant part of selling on the platform in recent years. Advertising should be on the radar of anyone looking to stake their claim on Amazon.
Currently, the Amazon Advertising console is only available for sellers on the Professional plan.
In the competition for visibility, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising can be a boon for your business with short and long-term benefits. If advertising on Amazon sounds like a tool that could improve the health of your Amazon business, the Professional plan is likely for you.
Do these additional features add value for you?
While the benefits listed above may provide a clear answer for which plan makes the most sense for you, they’re just a few of the perks of the more advanced plan.
In addition to a set pricing plan, access to advertising and the Buy Box, and an expanded range of categories for your business, Professional sellers gain access to an abundance of tools that can play a role in your business’s success.
A comprehensive side-by-side comparison of the Amazon Professional seller vs Individual seller plan.
Inventory management tools, additional shipping options, access to sales promotions and opportunities for enhanced visibility add even more value to the Professional plan.
Conclusion: Amazon Professional Seller vs Individual
The choice of which selling plan to choose hinges on you envision your Amazon experience.
If you’re trying to unload a few items and make some money, the Individual plan perfectly fits those needs. With more than 150 million Prime members shopping on Amazon, there’s nowhere to find a greater audience to sell these items.
However, if you intend to create a significant income and build a business, the Professional plan is a no-brainer. For any high-volume business, the flat monthly fee will pay for itself. Factor in the extensive benefits and tools at your disposal with the Professional plan, and the choice becomes evident for any business owner.
Have you decided on your plan, and are you ready to take the next step with your online business?
Find the product to anchor your Amazon business with Viral Launch’s Product Research tools. With advanced software to uncover winning product ideas and untapped markets, it’s never been easier to find the right product to launch your online business.
Join the thousands of online entrepreneurs and learn how to create an Amazon Seller Account in a few quick and easy steps!
Are you looking to take the next step toward realizing your entrepreneurial dreams by starting an Amazon business? Don’t know where to start? (Here’s a hint: the Amazon Seller Central login page!) Before you start your Amazon empire, you’ll need to create your Amazon Seller Central account.
With e-commerce thriving, Amazon’s status as the dominant e-commerce platform, and their seller-friendly logistics offering, Amazon is prime (no pun intended) online real estate for entrepreneurially-minded individuals like yourself. On Amazon, the sky is the limit for starting a booming online business, and a great place to begin or expand your business.
To get started, visit the Seller Central Amazon login and sign-up page. Then, select the Learn More option near the top-right of the page to create your Amazon Seller Central account. You can either sign in using your Amazon customer login, or create a new login entirely.
Choose your selling plan
Before providing any of your information, you’ll want to do a little homework and decide which of Amazon’s selling plans makes the most sense. For the most part, the Professional plan fits the need of serious Amazon sellers, but it all depends on your goals, resources, and where you are in your selling journey.
Individual
The Individual seller plan requires a $0.99 fee every time you sell an item.
This plan makes more sense for sellers still deciding on a product or totaling less than 40 units per month. Because of the per-item fees, the Individual plan presents a more cost-efficient option for anyone selling 40 or more items monthly. If you’re still searching for a product or not ready to open up for business, this plan saves you a few bucks while ramping up your store.
The Individual seller plan also makes more sense for anyone testing the waters on Amazon with just a few products. This plan does not provide access to inventory tools, so anyone with a more extensive product catalog or volume of products would be better served on the Professional plan.
You can upgrade to a Professional account at any time once you’ve decided on a product or plan on increasing your sales.
Professional
The Professional seller plan requires a flat $39.99 monthly payment, no matter how many items you sell within the month. In addition to the $39.99 monthly payment, Amazon collects a seller fee (a percentage of the total transaction that varies by product category) on each of your sales.
Additionally, sellers on the Professional plan gain access to Amazon benefits such as Brand Registry, which protects your business from fraud and abuse while allowing additional perks on your listing.
In short, the Professional plan makes more sense for sellers looking to create a brand on Amazon. On top of capping your monthly payment, the Professional plan offers access to the Amazon Advertising platform, qualification for top placement on product detail pages, promotions including free shipping and much, much more.
Both the Professional and Individual seller plans provide an opportunity to add new products to the Amazon catalog and to grow your business with the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service.
What You Need
The signup process is quick and easy, but you’ll need a few items to be approved when signing up. First, create your Seller Central Amazon login and begin the signup process.
In addition to the list of items required to provide below, you’ll need to be a resident of these approved countries to be eligible for seller registration without further information.
Business email address or an existing Amazon customer account
Internationally chargeable credit card
Government ID (for verification purposes to protect sellers and customers)
Tax information
A cell phone and phone number
Bank account information for where Amazon can send your proceeds from sales
This information is requested in a five-part signup process in which Amazon takes Business Information, Seller Information, Billing Information, Store Information, and Verification.
While providing personal information online can be nerve-wracking, it’s vital that Amazon be able to authenticate your existence and business for safe and smooth transactions between buyers and sellers.
Business Information
First, you’ll need to provide basic information about your business.
If you haven’t registered your business with your state or federal government, you’ll need to before completing this step. You can register your business and receive a company registration number, or Employer Identification Number within 24 business hours if you’re a United States seller registering with the IRS.
Amazon will send a one-time PIN to a personal phone number for verification before moving on to providing your seller information.
Seller Information
Next, you’ll be asked to provide information regarding a point of contact for your business. In addition to the basics of name, location and verification, the form will ask to confirm if the contact is a beneficial owner or legal representative of the business.
Unsure about these legal terms? No worries. Amazon provides FAQs about the process on each page to guide you through common roadblocks.
Amazon’s on-page FAQs help make these somewhat complicated terms easy to understand.
Billing Information
While making money is on the horizon, you must invest in your selected seller plan first! As with any online purchase, Amazon will need your card number, card expiration date, cardholder name, and billing address before finalizing the purchase. Your information may already be on file if you used the same Seller Central Amazon login as your Amazon customer account.
Store
You’re this close to wrapping up seller registration! Before the final verification, Amazon asks you to include your store name and answer a couple quick questions.
The store name doesn’t have to be your actual store name and can be a placeholder if you’re undecided on a store name. You can update this field later, but if you have your store name ready, you might as well make it official.
Lastly, Amazon will ask if you have Universal Product Codes (UPCs) for all your products and if you’re the manufacturer, brand owner, agent, or representative for any of the products you will make available on the platform.
The Final Verification
You’re just a few clicks away. All that’s left is to verify that you’re a human to Amazon’s standards. You’ll need to upload a document with your name, date of birth, country of birth, and citizenship. At least two sources of verification, such as a driver’s license, passport, or a recent bank account statement are needed to submit your seller registration.
Upload clear, high-quality images of your documents, and be sure your typed information matches to avoid roadblocks that can pop up during the online verification process. If you upload a recent bank account statement, remember Amazon is a global business and larger, more recognized bank accounts are likely to pass verification without issue than smaller local banks.
Conclusion
Once all this information has been submitted in the signup process, you should hear back soon once they’ve verified the information provided. You may be asked to meet with an Amazon Associate to verify your submission if additional verification is necessary.
After all this, you should be set up with your Amazon Seller Central account. Congratulations! You’re ready to move on to the next stage of creating your online business.
If, for any reason, you encounter any errors or issues during your account setup, reach out to Amazon Seller Central support to check the status of any issues standing in the way of taking the next steps in starting your Amazon business. Feel free to sign in using the Seller Central Amazon login and explore all you can do in Seller Central.
There are plenty of ways to make money on Amazon, with opportunities for nearly every budget, time commitment, and expertise level. One of the most popular ways of making money on Amazon’s platform is selling wholesale.
Oberlo defines wholesaling as when a business may buy goods in large quantities directly from manufacturers, warehouse them, and resell them.
Wholesalers act as a middleman between manufacturers and sellers, with a prime opportunity to profit by buying in bulk at a discounted price and selling at a higher price individually.
Also known as reselling, wholesaling is a tried-and-true business model utilized by some of the largest companies in the world. Walmart, Target, and many more buy products from manufacturers in bulk at a discounted price to sell at an elevated price to the end consumer.
Amazon Wholesale vs. Private Label Selling
Private label selling, the most popular Amazon-selling method, involves working with a manufacturer to produce items and add your brand name and logo to the products. Many private label sellers use Alibaba.com to connect with manufacturers, get samples, purchase inventory, and more. An example of a private label business would be creating a company logo and having the manufacturer add the logo to an existing product to sell to customers under the company name.
Brand Creation
One of the main challenges for new Amazon brands is sticking out from the crowd. In a crowded Amazon market, owning a brand that customers recognize and trust can be a powerful selling proposition. Brand creation on Amazon can be a time-consuming and costly endeavor, and even doing so doesn’t guarantee success.
For newer brands, the unfamiliarity with a brand and lack of trust may be a reason for customers to choose another name that rings familiar to them, even if you’re offering a more attractive price or product.
Wholesaling circumvents this step, as they sell an already established brand name. Once your shop has been created with an appealing brand offering, you’ve essentially checked off the brand creation step and avoided the costs and risks of creating your own brand.
Additionally, wholesalers do not need to concern themselves with design or many of the start-up marketing costs that private sellers must make a priority. Depending on the strength of the brand and product, long-term marketing costs may be reduced for wholesalers as customers search for a specific item from a particular brand.
Consider the power of a customer shopping for Apple Airpods vs. Bluetooth wireless earbuds. Even if a generic private label seller goes all-out on PPC spending and marketing materials, a customer searching specifically for the brand name likely has more power without spending a dime on PPC.
Independence
While wholesaling skips the brand creation step, there’s a give-and-take. By nature, wholesaling requires a high dependence on the brand owners. If a partnership with a brand you do business with deteriorates or if they change their strategy, you can encounter significant issues.
As mentioned earlier, there’s also an expectation that you positively present their brand. While wholesalers are in charge of creating copy, product photography, and inventory management, there’s more supervision with an offering for wholesalers.
Conversely, private-label sellers are afforded more freedom with their offerings and presentation without anyone looking over their shoulders.
Scalability
Regarding opportunities to scale, private-label sellers can utilize their independence by offering cross-channel offerings, product extensions, and complete creative control over new product offerings.
For wholesalers, the opportunity to scale still exists, but again is limited to what already-established brands are making. The way to scale while wholesaling is simple — find more wholesale suppliers. This isn’t too difficult with the number of wholesale suppliers, but you’re a bit more limited than a private-label seller.
Generally speaking, it takes more capital at the beginning to become an Amazon wholesaler. Since you’re buying a name-brand product and a bulk quantity, your first order as a wholesaler is likely to be much more pricey than that of a private-label seller.
However, private-label sellers often have to pay more down the road with increased marketing costs for visibility, such as PPC. Keep this in mind when calculating your potential costs, and carefully consider this when deciding which selling method to pursue.
How can you find a product to sell through Amazon wholesale?
Start your product research with a tool like Viral Launch’s Product Discovery or Market Intelligence. If you choose Viral Launch’s comprehensive software, be sure to download the Market Intelligence Chrome extension, available at no additional cost. The Chrome extension helps you peruse Amazon search results pages to find data about the products displayed.
Product Discovery and Market Intelligence help you find and validate wholesale items to sell. When searching for Amazon wholesale products, these tools can streamline your experience by providing crucial data points to help you decide whether they’re a winner.
Ideally, you’ll want to find a product with customer demand but with as little competition as possible. You can infer demand by looking at the search volume data showcased within Product Discovery and Market Intelligence or Keyword Research. Since customers on Amazon search with the intent to buy, we can use this search data as a critical indicator for the number of customers looking to purchase a product.
Of course, you’ll need to crunch the numbers on what it would take to see a return on your investment. While every situation differs, price, monthly sales, and unit margin are metrics every seller should keep an eye on while searching for a product. Also, product seasonality and competition in the market are crucial and require additional research that can be done within Market Intelligence.
You decided on your product! Now what?
After you’ve found your product, you’ll need to find a quality supplier. Fortunately, several resources are available to help wholesalers find products that will elevate their entrepreneurial careers!
SaleHoo, Worldwide Brands, and Wholesale Central represent just a few platforms created to connect those buying wholesale with suppliers globally, with thousands of products across each brand.
Remember that more prominent brands will want their products displayed professionally and effectively. While these brands are happy to work with those who will move the brand forward, protecting that brand comes first. Because of this, please remember to keep it professional when discussing possible opportunities and consider what you can do for the brand, not just what they can do for you. While it’s easy to think selfishly, long-lasting wholesale relationships are symbiotic in nature, and taking the extra step to make sure both sides are happy can make a tremendous difference in the long run.
What else do I need to know once I get started?
Before your first order, you’ll need to apply for a wholesale license, also known as a business license. While not mandatory across the board, many brands will require a business license for wholesaling opportunities, making setting up your shop on Amazon a much smoother process. To be sure, check the wholesale license requirements in your country or state.
You’ll also need to create a business account to begin selling on Amazon. This step only takes a few minutes once you know your plan.
Most Amazon sellers use Amazon’s Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service. This service allows businesses to outsource order fulfillment to Amazon and take many time-consuming elements of owning a business off of a seller’s plate. With this option, Amazon stores, picks, packs, ships and delivers the products to customers while also taking care of customer service and returns.
A key way to maximize your sales would be to optimize your product detail page. You can do this by optimizing your copy for search and having compelling product photography shot by a professional.
Get started with Amazon Wholesale today!
Unsure of where to start? You’re not alone! Whether you choose private label selling, Amazon FBA wholesale, or one of the many other ways to make money on Amazon, starting something new with massive potential can be daunting.
That’s why we’ve created our free How To Sell on Amazon course today to have a step-by-step guide to learning the basics of Amazon from sellers who made the leap from employee to entrepreneur.
With experienced Amazon experts helping you every step of the way, our course curriculum takes you through each step of starting an Amazon business with tips and pointers so you can avoid common roadblocks on the way to successfully launching your Amazon wholesale or private label business.
New year, new you? If you’re pursuing this ideal in terms of you’re career, take a look at these self-employed jobs.
While the saying’s become a meme, the arrival of a new year marks an excellent opportunity to take action on ways to improve yourself and achieve goals.
Since New Year’s resolutions are often made to solve problems, it would be no surprise if many make their resolution related to business. Over the past few years, volatility across a myriad of financial markets has created a chaotic situation where timing, vulnerability, and pure luck have significantly impacted the current and future outlook for millions around the globe.
The continual blows to global markets – the impact of COVID-19, inflation and rising interest rates, and energy vulnerability – have shifted the way we think about our decisions, especially regarding finances.
For this reason, many seek financial independence to end the stress and anxiety of economic vulnerability and start paving a greater path for themselves. Although everyone has individualized goals and purpose, the allure of being your own boss in 2023 is crystal clear for everyone.
No matter your motivation, there are plenty of ways to take control of your professional and economic situation. Below, we’ve highlighted a few popular self-employed jobs that allow you the opportunity to be your own boss in 2023.
Chances are you’ve bought an item off Amazon before, but did you ever think about how it got on Amazon in the first place? Whether a name-brand item like an Apple Watch or Nintendo Switch or a generic product such as a phone charger or heated blanket, it’s on Amazon because someone took a business to Amazon or started their own online business.
And many don’t know just how easy starting your own Amazon business can be with the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program. Amazon uses its world-class logistics platform for FBA, making it as easy as ever to create and manage your online business. In this program, Amazon handles the logistics of your online business (storage, picking, shipping, delivery, etc.) in exchange for a fee, much of which is reliant on the success of your business.
To learn more about how to sell on Amazon, check out our step-by-step guide about how to sell on Amazon.
Find a product to sell, a supplier to make and ship it, and optimize your listing, advertising and overall offering to the best of your abilities to become one of the many who have made their entrepreneurial dreams come true thanks to Amazon and hard work.
Sign up today for our FREE How To Sell On Amazon course for beginners to start your new career on the right foot.
Do you have a way with words and find writing a strength? Turn your skills or passion for writing into a business with one of the most popular self-employed jobs from home (or the coffee shop), freelance writing and editing.
You can find hundreds of potential opportunities to bring home the dough by creating a profile on freelancing networks such as Fiverr and Upwork, which connects freelancers to businesses or people with projects.
With opportunities ranging from translations, articles and blog posts to proofreading and editing, it’s never been easier to flex your writing skills and expand your portfolio while bringing home some extra cash. Whether you aim to be a jack-of-all-trades or master a niche, there are plenty of self-employed jobs in the writing and editing world.
In addition to creating compelling written content, you’ll want to make sure your professionalism, communication, and ability to nail your deadlines are on-point to ensure happy customers so you can garner positive reviews to keep the projects coming.
While it may blur the line of what constitutes being your own boss, driving for a ride-sharing app like Uber or Lyft is technically and legally considered self-employment. After all, these drivers are listed as independent contractors who get to set their own hours, create their work environment (within their vehicle, of course), and provide a direct service for a large market.
Similar to how Fiverr or Upwork connect clients with potential servicers, driving with Uber or Lyft connects drivers with passengers. This option can significantly appeal to those looking to make quick money without the dedication of long, set hours. While it lacks the more typical “sky is the limit” reward of entrepreneurship, this method certainly does have its perks.
At its core, anyone with a car that meets the minimum age requirement with at least one year of driving experience who can clear a background check can get started. At the very least, this self-employed job’s a great way to make a quick buck without a significant time commitment.
If this doesn’t scratch your entrepreneurial itch, it may be an effective method to bankroll your next money-making opportunity!
Whether you have the fashion design skills to make your own gear or an uncanny understanding of the trends, creating a clothing shop could be your calling.
For those with design skills, an abundance of online marketplaces exist to turn your ideas into a profitable business. From cutting-edge fashion designs to mastering a skill in clothing, such as tie-dying or bleaching, to creating graphics for a niche market, making your own clothing business can be quite profitable.
In addition to the money, creating something tangible and potentially seeing it out in the world can be an extremely rewarding feeling.
If you have more of a passion for fashion and are savvy about the markets, but perhaps lack the design skills, thrifting and reselling could be a hit for you. Setting up a resale shop on websites like Etsy and Shopify, or local marketplaces such as the Facebook Marketplace makes it convenient-as-can-be to make the most of your thrifting skills.
In the thrifting world, one man’s trash can truly be one man’s treasure.
If you’re a sneakerhead with an eye for which kicks go for the most, you can spot market inefficiencies by being a regular at thrift spots such as Goodwill and Plato’s Closet. Follow the trends and tastemakers to stay up-to-date on what’s hot and not and scout out your local and online stores for used gear, and you might be surprised at how well it can pay.
Either way, running your own clothing shop provides an excellent opportunity. It ranks as one of the most coveted self-employed jobs from home, especially as more online marketplaces continue to increase accessibility.
Selling Handmade Items
Yet another way you can craft an opportunity to be your own boss is by creating and selling handmade items. From carving wood to sculpting to knitting to creating unique pieces of art, this self-employed job lets you turn a hobby into cold hard cash.
On top of being an incredibly cool and useful skill, the intrinsic reward of visualizing and creating a good that people want never gets old. If you possess the materials needed for your items, selling made-by-hand goods can be one of many self-employed jobs from home that allow you to add to your bank account without leaving the house.
Amazon Handmade and Etsy shops have become increasingly popular in recent years, as people search for decorative art and handcrafted items in place of mass-produced goods from Walmart, Target, and other popular retailers. Whether your artisan skills are already top-notch or you are considering a new skill, being a quality craftsperson comes in handy for anyone who wants to be their own boss.
Conclusion: Self-Employed Jobs
Of course, the options above are just a few ideas for how to work for yourself. If you possess a very particular set of skills that can create value, there’s a way to capitalize on it. At the end of the day, it’s all about finding the method of money-making right for you.
When weighing out the optimal self-employed job for you, be sure to consider the time and money you’re willing to put into your operation. Also, think about your personal risk tolerance to ensure you can move forward in confidence with your chosen direction.
Like many New Year’s resolutions, the challenge isn’t starting, but sticking with it. Once you weigh the best self-employed job for you and your available resources, it’s easy to stick with it and create something long-lasting for yourself.
Congratulations on making it to the new year and we wish you the best of luck as you sift through self-employed jobs on your pursuit of financial freedom!
