amzscout-blog

[amzscout-blog]

“If they could do it, why can’t I?”: Rishabh’s story of success on Amazon

If you ask most people what they want to do for their birthday, they might suggest a fun social outing, a nice meal at a restaurant, or maybe having a slice of cake.

Rishabh had different ideas, to say the least.

When his birthday rolled around, Rishabh had just gotten started selling on Amazon, and he needed to take a few photographs of his newly-launched product.

So instead of enjoying some birthday cake, Rishabh, his family, and friends all gathered around and worked feverishly for hours trying to get the perfect shot of his product and its constituent parts.

It’s that kind of tenacity and can-do attitude that helped Rishabh get started on Amazon in the first place.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

One summer, Rishabh found himself with some extra time on his hands and an interest in earning a little extra money. When he combed through the internet, looking for ways to generate a passive income, everyone seemed to be pointing him in the same direction: Amazon FBA.

So many people do not get past this first step and, after learning what is involved in creating an Amazon business, get deterred and give up.

Rishabh took the exact opposite approach. After watching a few videos on YouTube, similar to those we offer here at AMZScout, the question Rishabh found himself asking was: “If [other sellers] could do it, why can’t I?”  

It is not that Rishabh is oblivious to the challenges of opening and operating an Amazon business. As he told us his story, he counted off multiple instances in which he hit roadblocks.

Initially, for instance, he found that his margins were getting squeezed by the high cost of paid advertising campaigns. After much trial and error, he found an optimal setting for his campaigns and now enjoys much healthier margins.

Rishabh also had to rearrange his product photography to address an infringement violation that another seller unfairly leveled against him. It took a lot of back and forth with Amazon’s customer service department, but in the end, he won out.

Asked whether he ever thought he would fail when he encountered these setbacks, Rishabh said that the thought never crossed his mind, that he always had confidence that he would succeed. As he said to us: “Don’t worry about the possibility of failure. There is no reason you can’t succeed if others have succeeded...No one has a higher chance of succeeding than you. All it takes is hard work.”

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

Having overcome these initial obstacles—and guided by his strong determination to succeed—Rishabh’s Amazon business is now flourishing. 

Rishabh is seeing thousands of dollars in sales per month from his first product and he is already looking to expand his product offerings. Based on the success of his first product, Rishabh believes he can dominate the niche in which he’s operating, and he has a vision for an expanded set of products that will allow him to do just that.

As he does so, he says that he’ll be looking to leverage AMZScout to help guide the way.  When he was first looking for a product to sell on Amazon, Rishabh used Jungle Scout as his primary product research tool. What he found, however, was that their estimates of a product’s sales volume were often inaccurate—so much so that he could have ended up selling a product that no one wanted to buy. As he said, if he had stuck with Jungle Scout, he “could have launched an unsuccessful product.”

Instead, he found AMZScout and now considers it an essential part of his toolkit for running his Amazon business. “I decided that in order to be successful, I needed to invest in the best tools and bought AMZScout,” Rishabh said. “If you don’t have the proper tools, you can’t succeed in your task.”

As Rishabh’s business has grown, so too have his ambitions for it. Initially, he said, he viewed the business primarily as a learning experience, hoping above all that he would not lose money on it. Now, as sales have grown, he has begun to see how profitable it can be. As he adds more products, he reports that the business’s profitability will only grow.

All things considered, if things keep up this way, when his next birthday comes around Rishabh may be celebrating not only turning another year older but also the growth and success of his Amazon business!

[amzscout-blog]

How to Automate Your Amazon FBA Business

Automating your Amazon business enables you to put your cash flow on autopilot and increase your workflow efficiency. By using powerful software for specific tasks and hiring freelancers in emerging economies in true “4-Hour Work Week” style, you can fully automate the routine processes of running your FBA business. This allows you to generate passive income while sipping margaritas on the beach.

Simply by utilizing the Fulfilled by Amazon business model, many of your important business processes are already fully automated. Shipping individual orders, handling product returns and general customer support management are all taken care of by Amazon, saving you countless trips to the post office and endless frustrating customer calls.

However, after using AMZScout to research your niche and select the perfect products, you have the opportunity to take things a few steps further. So take another sip of that margarita and let’s take a look at how experienced Amazon sellers are automating their FBA businesses.

Listing Creation & Optimization

Online platforms such as Upwork and Freeup enable you to find product photographers and Amazon sales copywriters to create professional listings for your products. Hiring experienced freelancers that use a variety of advanced methods and strategies to create optimized listings that resonate with your target customers will boost your conversion rate and increase sales, providing you with greater profits and freeing up your time to automate more business processes.

Continuous optimization is also possible by using split testing software that utilizes automated A/B testing to further increase your conversion rates and profits. At the click of a button, you can test various aspects of your listing such as pricing, images, titles, bullet points, descriptions and back-end keywords. By asking your product photographers and copywriters to provide multiple versions of their work, you can leverage this automated testing so you don’t have to manually rewrite your sales copy. You can also use software that identifies negative product reviews and seller feedback, and contacts the buyers directly to remove it. This means you don’t have to waste time manually tracking orders and dealing with unruly customers!

PPC Management

PPC (pay-per-click) campaign management is another easily automatable process that can be handled by powerful PPC management software. The software will automatically adjust your bids for different keywords, help keep you below your target ACoS% (average cost of sale), and set up your campaigns to find new highly converting keywords. You can even hire a PPC management freelancer to regularly tweak your settings for optimum results, or take a hands-off approach and let the system handle itself. No more scrolling aimlessly through laborious search term reports!

Inventory Management

By using inventory management software that accurately estimates how many units you should order and when, you can avoid stock-outs that significantly limit your profits and damage your organic rankings. You can give software access to a virtual assistant (VA) hired on an online freelance platform to automate the process even further. The VA checks the software weekly, reviews what needs to be ordered, and sends out template emails to your suppliers. This means all you have to do now is process the payments!

Bookkeeping

To automate your finances, it is imperative to use bookkeeping software such as Xero or Quickbooks to accurately record and reconcile your revenue and expenses. This allows you to stay in control of your finances, quickly process your tax returns, and keep track of the growth of your business. You can hire a freelancer to manage the reconciliation process for you, so all you have to do is forward your invoice emails, or better yet, set up auto-forwarding rules from your email client.

In addition to this, you can combine your bookkeeping software with A2X (a2xaccounting.com – an accounting automation software), which fetches Amazon settlements from your seller account and posts summarized settlements to your accounting system. This will save you many tedious hours each month manually recording transaction data.  

To be more in control of your financial data, you can use software to accurately calculate and display your critical metrics, such as total profit, profit margins, PPC spends, ACoS%, FBA fees, and refunds. Having all of this information in one place without manually creating messy spreadsheets is an incredibly useful time-saver.

While all these software subscriptions and freelancer fees add up to a significant monthly expense, the automation process frees up your time so you can focus on what truly matters to your business: making high-level strategic decisions that develop your business and increase your long-term profits. Generally, this means finding more great products with AMZScout, expanding your product lines and implementing carefully crafted launch strategies. But if you really want to ride the automation wave, you can hire a freelancer to do all of this for you, and kick back living the 4-hour dream.  

So now the automation is up to you. Are there any other processes you would like to automate in your Amazon FBA business?

[amzscout-blog]

Amazon Prime vs. Walmart 2-day

Amazon has long reigned king of eCommerce, offering a strong marketplace to reach customers and a Prime program with more than 100 million subscribers.

Walmart has historically dominated the retail industry, and is investing time and money into capturing more eCommerce spend with their new Free 2-Day Shipping program. Their fast shipping program rivals Amazon Prime with fast, free shipping and no membership fees. It opened up to marketplace sellers this past October 2018.

As a seller, participating in either program can have massive benefits. Chances are that if you qualify for one, you’ll also qualify for the other, but it may be a good idea to start with one and then move into the other. Both have pros and cons, and both will have slightly different results in terms of sales boost, audience, and requirements. However, both programs come with advantages your business cannot afford to pass on.

Amazon Prime

Amazon Prime is the largest program designed to offer customers perks in exchange for a monthly subscription. Consumers benefit from over 40 different perks, including free audiobooks and access to exclusive items, but many sign up to take advantage of fast and free shipping.

Walmart 2-Day Free Shipping

Walmart.com averaged 350 million visitors per month for 2018, giving sellers significant incentive to capture as much consumer spend as possible with fast shipping tags. With Walmart Free 2-Day Shipping, you promise free delivery by a guaranteed date (2 days after purchase). Like Amazon Prime, sellers can choose to ship themselves or utilize Walmart’s outsourced fulfillment partner.

Unlike Amazon Prime, customers don’t have to be members and don’t have to pay a subscription fee. Free shipping encourages customers to purchase and helps to reduce cart abandonment.

Why should sellers get on Amazon Prime or Walmart Free 2-Day Shipping?

Sellers need to put themselves in the best position to succeed no matter what marketplace you sell on. The best way to do this is having fast shipping tags differentiate your listings. Since consumers can filter for delivery time on both Amazon and Walmart, it also boosts visibility and can reduce competition.

Comparing the two, both fast shipping programs offer different benefits. Amazon has the potential for more volume with a giant user base and a wide international reach, whereas Walmart sellers benefit from lower ad spend needed and less competition. Ultimately, you should aim to get on both of these programs to give your business the best advantage.

Below we’ll share 2 ways to get on Amazon Prime, and 2 ways to get on Walmart Free 2-Day Shipping.

How to get on Amazon Prime

As a seller, you can choose to opt into Prime by either using Fulfilled by Amazon or Seller Fulfilled Prime.

FBA Prime

Selling products through FBA simply requires moving your inventory into an Amazon warehouse, paying Amazon to store products, and allowing Amazon to handle fulfillment for you.

Fulfillment costs are flat rate and are based on product volume, weight, and duration of time in warehouse, with additional flat rate fees for fulfillment. However, FBA can be expensive when it comes to storage fees, which increase during the holiday season.

Amazon handles every aspect of fulfillment, including order processing, pick and pack, shipping from the warehouse nearest to the customer, and customer support and returns. This can save you considerably in that you won’t need to set up the infrastructure to handle the sort of high demand that owning the Buy Box can produce.

Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP)

Seller Fulfilled Prime launched in 2015 and supports sellers who want to fulfill their own Prime orders. Here, you must commit to same-day and two-day delivery on all products and must complete a lengthy trial period.

To be eligible for SFP, you need a professional seller account and must meet specific account metrics. These include having fulfilled 30+ Premium Shipping orders over the past 30 days, with a >96% on-time delivery rate, <1% cancellation rate, and >94% ID on all orders.

The trial process typically involves a 30-day period, in which you must have a >99% on-time delivery rate, must utilize Buy Shipping Services on >95% of orders, and have a cancellation rate of <1%. You’ll also need a 4.5+ rating on all orders shipped over the preceding 30 calendar days.

While significantly more difficult to set up, and costlier to begin, SFP leaves you in control of your inventory and may eventually reduce costs over FBA if your order volume is high enough.

How to get on Walmart Free 2-Day Shipping

Similarly to Amazon, Walmart marketplace sellers can opt to fulfill themselves or go through Walmart’s fulfillment partner, Deliverr.

Seller-Fulfilled

Walmart allows seller-fulfilled 2-day shipping, which you can request access to from your Seller Central. Walmart will let you know whether you’ve been approved or rejected in 48 hours, and you’ll have to meet certain account metrics.

For example, you must have fulfilled >100 orders over the past 30 days, with on-time shipping at >95%, on-time delivery at >95%, valid tracking >95%, a cancel rate of <1.5%, and a generous returns policy.

Sellers can set the regions and states where they can support 2-day shipping, so only shoppers in certain areas see the fast shipping tag.

Deliverr

Walmart has partnered with Deliverr, an FBA-like fulfillment service that is able to fulfill orders in 2 days. Here, you pay Deliverr’s flat-rate fees plus a storage fee, and they provide discounted rates for sellers fulfilling on Walmart’s Free 2-Day Shipping program. You can calculate your fulfillment costs on their cost calculator.

Deliverr sellers are pre-approved for Walmart’s fast shipping program and can activate it from their Deliverr dashboard. Simply ship inventory to Deliverr, and they will handle the entire fulfillment process from order to doorstep. Another benefit of using Walmart’s official fulfillment partner is they support nationwide 2-day delivery, which means more shoppers will see the Free 2-Day Shipping tag on your listings.

Deliverr also partners with other eCommerce marketplaces, so this may be advantageous if you’d like to get on multiple fast shipping programs across marketplaces.

Overall convenience

In the end, offering fast, free shipping is a wise business idea regardless of which marketplace you sell on. Not only is it convenient for your shoppers, outsourcing to the right fulfillment partner makes things easier for you as a seller.

And as the holidays are approaching, keep in mind that although many sellers use fast, free shipping as seasonal tactics, they are increasingly important throughout the year, and it will help you to boost sales.

About the Author

This is a guest post from Michael Krakaris. Michael is one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 and the co-founder of Deliverr. Deliverr provides fast and affordable fulfillment for your eBay, Walmart and Shopify stores, helping to boost sales through programs like Walmart Free 2-Day Shipping and eBay Guaranteed Delivery.

Deliverr’s FBA-like multi-channel fulfillment comes with clear pricing, easy on-boarding and a hassle free experience so you can focus on growing your eCommerce business.

[amzscout-blog]

The One Secret to Global Expansion Every Successful Amazon Seller Knows

If you’re ready to master the global Amazon sales game, there’s one big secret to growing your business every savvy seller knows... and it has to do with keeping the most of your hard-earned profits.

When you sell on Amazon’s global marketplaces, you’ll receive funds in the local currency of the marketplace you’re selling on. For example, you’ll receive pounds if you sell on Amazon.co.uk. If you live in the US, you’ll need to exchange those pounds into US dollars. Finding the best exchange rate that doesn’t cut into your Amazon marketplace payouts is the key to keeping more of your profits.

In this article, we’ll take a look at the options for bringing your Amazon profits home – and maximizing what you keep. Let’s start with the first place people often look to when they need foreign currency exchange, banks.

Not Everyone Can Get a Foreign Bank Account

While having a foreign bank account can sound pretty cool; it’s not necessarily a practical reality. You may be required to have a business address or office in that country. For Europeans, the process is easier within the EU. For Americans, it’s another story. Many European banks don’t want to deal with the paperwork of compliance with American regulators, especially since the US enacted the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act of 2010.

Traditional Banks Aren’t Exactly Known For Great Exchange Rates

Even if you do jump through the hoops to get a foreign bank account, they may not even give you the best rate. Banks aren’t known for their competitive exchange rates, and they’re not really set up to handle the interests of international e-commerce sellers.

Banks are most likely to reserve their most favorable exchange rates for businesses that exchange millions per month or more. They may even advertise their interbank rate, the wholesale rate they use to transact with other banks, even if they’d never actually offer their customers that same rate.

But many Amazon merchants never even set up foreign exchange with a bank in the country they’re selling on. They use Amazon’s built-in currency converter.

The Amazon Currency Converter Option

For many merchants who sell Amazon EU and Amazon Canada, Amazon Currency Converter is the easiest way to exchange profits from foreign currencies into local currency. But it’s not free to use Amazon Currency Converter, and it’s almost certainly not going to be cheap. Worst of all, you may not even know you’re being charged for currency conversion using Amazon.

Here’s how it works, when you transfer money using Amazon’s currency converter, you’ll be charged an exchange rate not a separate fee. It’s sort of like exchanging money at the airport, where you hand them $100 and you get back the equivalent of $90. They may not claim to charge you a “fee” – they just gave you an unfavorable rate that amounts to a high fee. Although Amazon doesn’t charge fees much higher than most banks, they don’t make the fees easy to understand.

So How Much Does Amazon Currency Converter Cost?

According to estimates, Amazon charges around 3.5%* when you use their currency converter. Yes, 3.5% is a relatively high percentage. No, you don’t have to pay that much of your profits to currency exchange.

 *Estimated rate based on actual transactions using Amazon Currency Converter between 07/09/2016 – 07/23/2016.

If you pick the right cross-border account, you could get that rate down to 1.5% or 1%. That’s an estimated 2.5% savings. While 2.5% may not seem dramatic at first, it sure adds up over time.

Consider what a seller who transfers the equivalent of $12,000 per month would pay. In one year, that 2.5% will add up to $3,600 savings. In three years, that adds up to $10,800 – more than enough for a new top-of-the-line Rolex Submariner, which runs about $8,550.

When you calculate the cost to your business, the toll is even higher. Consider the real cost of taking an extra $10,800 away from your business; money that could be invested in inventory and hiring to grow sales. Over the course of a few years, that extra $10,800 could be worth $25,000, $35,000 or more to your business.

How Get a Better FX Rate

Now that you know the banks and Amazon aren’t the best place to exchange your money, where do you go? For many e-commerce sellers, the answer is in finding a cross-border account, sometimes called a borderless global account. With the right cross-border account, you can eliminate many of the exchange fees and transaction fees – and keep more of your profits!

Finding a Cross-Border Account for E-commerce

A good cross-border account can help fuel global growth in more ways than just currency exchange. With the right cross-border account, you can pay suppliers and make VAT payments without any fees. You’ll also avoid the dreaded double foreign exchange fees when paying VATs and suppliers.

Here’s how double exchange fees work… Let’s say, you need to pay your UK VAT (which you’ll have to do in pounds). Since you’ve already exchanged your earnings from pounds into dollars, you then have to exchange the dollars back into pounds to pay your VAT. That means exchange fees both ways, plus any fees the bank may charge to transfer the money.  

A cross-border account designed for Amazon and e-commerce sellers, like the one from PingPong, gives you the ability to keep your earnings in the currency you prefer. When it’s time to meet your VAT and supplier obligations in the UK, you can pay directly in pounds. No exchange fees!

Now that you know the secret every savvy global seller knows to growing their business, there’s no reason to overpay for exchange fees or making supplier and VAT payments. Just be sure to do your homework. Shop around for rates, and find the best account to help your Amazon business grow.

If you’re not sure what you’re paying to bring home money from Amazon and would like help understanding your current rate, contact PingPong for a free, no-obligation rate comparison.

[amzscout-blog]

Stick-er-ing with It: How Omar Got Started on Amazon

You might say that divine intervention was responsible for Omar’s decision to start selling on Amazon.

That is one way to look at it, at least. Because as it happened, Omar first learned about selling on Amazon at, of all places, his local church!

As he told us, his church, which had invested in a sticker press, was doing brisk business selling stickers and custom decals on Amazon.com. And, having achieved this success themselves, the church was eager to share what they knew with their parishioners. With that in mind, the church began holding weekly seminars that gave individuals like Omar the information they needed to get started with their own business. (You can learn many things about selling on Amazon from our ebook. Download it here!)

These seminars proved to be just the spark that Omar needed. Omar had been speaking with lot of folks who were seeing success with e-commerce businesses, using models such as affiliate marketing, dropshipping, and multilevel marketing. More broadly, business is something that had long been on Omar’s mind - a business administration major in college, Omar had flirted for some time with entrepreneurship, including, at one point, dreaming of opening a restaurant franchise.

But it was not until Omar heard about Amazon FBA that he felt prepared to take the plunge.  The more he learned about Amazon businesses, the more he felt like it was the place that a first-time entrepreneur like him could and should start.  

In particular, Omar thought, an Amazon FBA business was compelling because it:

Did not require a major amount of upfront capital to start

Could be automated with the help of Amazon’s fulfillment and customer service capabilities

Offered entrepreneurs access to an enormous market

Once he made the decision to jump in with both feet, Omar--like all new sellers--faced an important decision: what product should he sell?

Getting Into the Sticker Business

The place to find inspiration for product ideas, he realized, was with niches he already knew well.  And that meant starting from the place where it all began: the sticker press at his local church. With that in mind, Omar began by looking into what stickers were selling well online, both on Amazon specifically and the web more broadly. In addition, his church gave him some helpful advice on the type of stickers he should sell, based on what was selling well and what would incur costly storage fees.

In time, Omar came to find that product research was time- and labor-intensive, and he began exploring whether there were tools out there that could automate his research process. As he did so, he came across a number of Amazon product research tools, including AMZScout. After considering his options, AMZScout, he realized, could not only help him identify underserved product niches but also give him a snapshot as to his expected profit in those niches. In the end, he said, signing up for the AMZScout Chrome extension was a no-brainer.

With the help of AMZScout, Omar’s Amazon business is now off and running. He now offers, through his Amazon storefront, 57 varieties of stickers, including vinyl decals, bumper stickers and stickers for laptop computers. He’s currently grossing $1500 a month and plowing every dollar of profit he earns back into his business to accelerate its growth.

Early Lessons Learned

When you talk to Omar, one of the things that shines through is how much he’s already learned about selling on Amazon in the short amount of time he’s been doing so.

For one thing, the seasonality of an Amazon business can be taxing for sellers, he says.  Products can sell like gangbusters around the winter holidays but suddenly slow down once the new year rolls around. If you’re going to ride that roller coaster, he says, you need to be patient and not allow yourself to get disappointed when times get tough.

In addition, in Omar’s view, running an Amazon business, like running any business, requires real work and dedication. While there are lots of folks on the internet touting Amazon businesses as yet another get-rich-quick scheme, the reality is that success is only possible through hard work and effort. While Omar, for instance, is pleased with the revenue growth he’s seen, he recognizes that he’s going to need to continuing launching new product lines in order to scale up his operation.

Finally, managing the inventory of a physical goods store requires planning and sophistication. After experimenting with different approaches to shipping his inventory to the United States, Omar has figured out a model whereby he sends some inventory by air and some by sea. By doing so, he figures, he is simultaneously able to minimize the cost of air transportation while ensuring he always has some inventory on hand and ready to sell.

All in all, if Omar’s business keeps growing at this rate--and if he keeps learning important business lessons as he goes--it may well be that he’s the one running the seminars at his church sometime soon!  

[amzscout-blog]

Product Research in Home and Kitchen Category: Trending Amazon Niches in Q4

No matter what way you choose to sell, there are a few categories that stand out above the rest. One of such categories is Home & Kitchen. With over 86 million products and counting, it’s no surprise that it’s also considered one of the most profitable categories for 3rd party sellers.

There are so many things you can do to your home and kitchen and people like to spend money on their homes! Because of the sheer volume of products, you can still have a BSR of 8 million and still technically be in the top 10% of the category.

Product volume isn’t the only thing that make this category desirable, it’s also largely ungated and a favorite for new sellers because of the simplicity of most products. Let’s take a look at  a few trending niches and see if they fit your criteria when you perform your own product research.

#1 Smudge Kit

Regardless if you believe in the ritual yourself, this niche averages selling 964 times a month while having average reviews around 194. With these factors, coupled with selling for around $20 and a solid margin of 66%  it’s no surprise this niche calculates to a Potential Score of Eight.

#2 Beach Towel

Largely a seasonal product, if timed right, a beach towel can be a solid profitable niche. It averages over 700 sales a month for about $26 a pop with a 64% margin and still has less than 260 reviews on average per product.

#3 Wooden Picture Frames

It sells for alittle higher than the beach towels and only averages 159 reviews. Even bigger is the amount of sales it averages at 1254 per month. With the condition, and care that has to be taken in when dealing with decorative wood, it’s no surprise that the margin is around 58%, lower than anything we’ve mentioned previously, but still over our goal of 50% margin.

#4 Cotton Stems

A smaller niche, but still a viable option if you are looking for a steady flow of income. The products average 623 sales a month for alittle under $20 and a solid 62% margin. You want to know what makes this product even more attractive? The 23 average reviews rounding out this niche with a potential score of 8.

#5 Bamboo Activated Charcoal Air Purifyer

This one has 1612 sales/month for about $20 a piece 243 reviews and 61% margin, it might be time to dive into this fad as a seller!

#6 Bedside Caddy

This common storage commodity is famous for helping you stay organized with limited space. Like the product itself, you can make the most of selling in this niche. It averages a little under $15/product but sells 274 times/listing on average and still has a margin over 50%.

#7 Burlap Table Runner

Burlap table runners are trending! What stands out the most is the mere 79 reviews it averages and still runs about a 55% margin! With solid sales and a price of $18, it’s not a bad time to time advantage of the cold month trends!

#8 Produce Baskets

Popular during all times of the year, produce baskets sell 391 per month for over $35. It’s potential score of 8 sits strong with a good margin and reviews sitting at around 160 on average!

#9 LED Alarm Clock

With the highest average margin of the video sitting at 68%, its sales sitting at about 436, it’s never a bad time to take advantage.

#10 Dog Water Bottle

With 171 reviews and a 60% margin, it’s potential score we like to see especially when we are not only helping ourselves, but also our favorite pooches!

Are you interested in selling on Amazon? But don’t know how to start? Download our ebook “Why Selling on Amazon Is Right For You?”

[amzscout-blog]

Trending Niches on Amazon in Q4: Product Research in Toys Category

No matter what way you choose to sell on Amazon (if you are new to this download our guide), there are a few categories that stand out above the rest, for example, Toys & Games. With over 6 million products and counting, it’s no surprise that it’s also considered one of the most profitable categories, especially in Q4.

Toys is a hot arbitrage category due to the monopoly established by the toy companies you’ve already heard of, like Playskool, Hasbro, Lego and Barbie but the key is to not try to compete with the big guns here, it’s to dominate where they aren’t.  You still have your classics toys, but also trending fads that take over like wildfire. This is an especially important category to sell in during Q4 because of the holidays.

There are some pains when selling in toys & games. As mentioned before, the category is definitely monopolized, it also has many of the products that require things like batteries. Now batteries can be a pain when you are going through your shipment plans. But, there is a lot of potential and we are going to share some high potential niches that we found using AMZScout Pro Extension.

#1 Sparkles the Unicorn

If you don’t believe in unicorns you should still believe in the profitability in this niche, it averages selling 270 times a month while having average reviews around 38! With these factors, coupled with selling for around $27 and a solid margin of 59%  it’s no surprise this niche calculates to a Potential Score of 8.

#2 Baloon Arch Kit

Largely a festive product, there’s no bad time for a balloon arch! It averages 380 sales a month for about $22 a pop with a 59% margin and still has less than 75 reviews on average per product listing.

#3 Play Sliced Vegetables

Still on the creativity train is play sliced vegetables. Filled with private label sellers, this niche is out in the open for you to find solid profits. It sells for $19 a pop. At 215 sales/month it’s no surprise why there is a potential score of 7.

#4 DIY Water Toys

It’s a great niche to expand your keywords into due to the lack of a singular toy presence in the category. Its stats are awesome starting with 92 reviews and a margin of 59%. A smaller niche, but still a viable option if you are looking for a steady flow of income. The products average 644 sales a month for about $14.

#5 8x21 Binoculars

Binoculars! 8x21 binoculars to be exact! 371 sales/month for $23 a piece and 71% margin, it might be time to dive into this as a seller. To find out more indicators if this product right for you, click on the potential score and see where the challenges might lie when entering this niche!

#6 Slime Kits

This common science project is famous for keeping you entertained as well as your kids. If you can prepare yourself for the strong competition in the niche, you can be looking at some seriously solid profits. It averages over $20/product but sells over 1000 times/ listing on average and still has a margin of 59%. That’s a solid potential score of 8 if I’ve ever seen one!

#7 Squishies Jumbo Packs

What stands out the most is the mere 66 reviews it averages and still runs about a 60% margin! With a high sales reaching over 570 and a price of $15, it’s not a bad time to time advantage of this cute trend!

#8 Nerf Vest

Popular during all times of the year, vests sell 275 per month for over $20. Its potential score of 8 sits strong with a good margin of 62% and reviews sitting at around 84 on average! Remember that as you go into your next nerf gun war without the proper equipment to dominate.

#9 Fingerlings

The wildly popular tiny toys average 1500 sales per month per item and cost about $23, it’s never a bad time to take advantage if you can! A good option for arbitrage.

#10 Magnetic Drawing Board

It’s a little bit of a wider category with more large companies all cashing in. With only 124 reviews, 334 sales, it’s a potential score we like to see when we take a leap into arbitrage!

[amzscout-blog]

Amazon Q4 Selling Guide: Best Tactic for Success

If you are an Amazon seller, thoughts of Q4 brings you goosebumps. Looking more like a mathematical expression, Q4, as far as Amazon is concerned, is a simple term which denotes the last quarter of the year. More specifically, the time spanning from October through December.

Amazon Q4 season wouldn't attract so much attention if it wasn't the busiest and most action-packed season for Amazon sellers. Some sellers have even gone ahead to tag the fourth quarter as one of the most “adrenaline-charged” periods of the year. Some Amazon sellers go to the extent of using the other quarters of the year for stocking goods just for Amazon Q4. No doubt, sales are particularly high during the season and sellers are more likely to make huge profits.

Last year alone, Amazon made a whopping $35.13 billion dollars in revenue from sales during Q4. Being in the first month of the Q4 season, as a seller on Amazon, you don’t want to miss out on the amazing win-win benefits of this action-packed season!

Selling Strategies for Amazon Q4

So as an Amazon seller, you now know that Q4 is a big season for you. But how do you get an edge over your competition in this season? Fortunately, there are strategies which you can utilize to make the most out of the Amazon Q4 season.

#1. Be Conversant with Current and Future Pricing Systems

One major aspect to keep in mind in order to benefit from the Q4 season is the current and future pricing system. Prices generally increase in the season, though the prices of some few products might remain unchanged. As a seller, know the products whose prices generally increase during the 4th quarter so you can judge the best Amazon products to sell. Now, there are a few categories that you can make educated guesses on which will increase, toys being one of those categories. But, don’t forget to check the ranking of these products so you can see during the rest of the year compared to Q4 historical rankings and prices. You can do it using AMZScout. Through this, you can easily plan your inventory and be prepared before Q4.

#2. Switch to Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA)

A Amazon Q4 strategy  FBM sellers should consider is switching to Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA). The major benefit of FBA is the two-day shipping it guarantees. This is a big plus for last-minute holiday shopping, which we all know happens to even the biggest planners out there. Hence, if you are not currently using FBA, Q4 is the time to get started. If you are considering this Amazon Q4 strategy, make sure to do research on the best Amazon FBA products to sell. If you normally sell as a merchant, you’ll want to make sure you are only sending in FBA products that will likely sell.

#3. Get Quality Reviews

Another strategy aimed at for benefiting during the holiday season is to get quality reviews. One major thing that drives Amazon customers away from buying a seller’s product is negative reviews or even worse, the complete lack of reviews. Hence, it is advisable that as an Amazon seller, you respond to all negative reviews and try your best to get the negative reviews removed, or changed before October.

In addition, you may also choose to improve quality of your product description and your sales page. Check the product descriptions of your competitors and search for high ranking keywords which can drive in more sales.

#4. Do Not Forget the January Season

Though it is conventional that the Q4 season spans from October to December, the month of January has gained a lot attention in recent years as per Q4. Some Amazon sellers have revealed that November to December is when the sales really pour in. So if October isn't thrilling for you, there’s need to panic. As evident with many Amazon sellers, January is as profitable as December. So, it is advisable that as an Amazon seller, you should also have plenty of stock for January. It’s all about inventory planning.

#5. Take a Rest Often

Irrespective of how busy and action-packed the Q4 season might be, it’s not wise to dedicate all time to working without at least giving considerable time to rest. You’re not the only seller on Amazon so you can't make all the sales. It's okay to get some rest and enjoy the holiday season. And of course, no Amazon seller wants to fall sick during the busiest season. Hence, take some time, enjoy the holidays, spend time with family.

As an Amazon seller, when you get your facts right and work smart, the Q4 season will surely be one which you will always anticipate for.

You can learn more about selling on Amazon. Download our ebook “Why Selling on Amazon Is Right for You?”

[amzscout-blog]

The Timeline For Amazon Success - Earning Your First $3000 On Amazon In Just 12 Weeks

A Changing Retail World

The world is changing. Retail stores are closing. The money is moving online.

If you're not living under a rock, you would have seen retail stores all over the world closing shop. 

You may not know however, that there is one retailer that's increasing it's facilities. That retailer is Amazon. 

While JCPenny, Sears, Target, Primark, ToysRus, and many other retailers are going bankrupt or closing hundreds of stores, Amazon keeps growing. 

Amazon Expands, while Others Close Down

Amazon is adding fulfilment centers globally while retail stores shut down.

It's still early days however, and the BEST time to get into Amazon. Amazon only claimed 4% of retail sales last year, but over 40% of online sales.

So when the retail world is closing down, guess who's eating up that business. Right. It's Amazon!

You probably know at this point, that if you're not selling on Amazon, then you're losing out big time. 

That's why I'm here. 

My name is Josh Morris, you may have seen my brother Shimmy on YouTube, and together we teach a program called Azon University which teaches people how to sell on Amazon.

The biggest question we get from beginners is "How long does it take to start this?"

That's what we will cover in this blog post. 

I break down the Amazon timeline into 3 months and tell you what you need to do in each month to get you first product earning a few thousand dollars a month.  

The Timeline in Just 3 Months

I'm going to break it down into 3 months because that's the average time it takes our students to get their first product up and selling well on Amazon where the student is making several thousand per month. 

That's the magic moment you want to get to, because once you are there, you can just scale the business easily. 

Let's start with a basic overview. 

IN MONTH 1 you will start by taking some training, doing product research, talking to suppliers and ordering your first batch of inventory. 

IN MONTH 2 you will build your Amazon page, start receiving your stock, and getting your first reviews and sales. 

IN MONTH 3 you will scale up your sales to a few thousand dollars per month, then reinvest the profits in even more inventory so you can grow the business even more. 

At this point in your business it's all fun and growth, and it's a wonderful place to get to. 

Now let's break it down month by month so you know exactly what you'll be doing. 

Month 1 - Training, Research, First Stock

The first thing you have to do is to take training for building an Amazon business. Many people pay $4000 or more for this training (like we did when we started) so that's why we make Azon University affordable for people to begin. 

The rest of this process assumes you are using a training like Azon University. 

Your first month will start with researching potential winning products. This is another reason why training is so important. If you get this wrong, you'll spend your investment on the wrong items, that won't sell and you'll be going backwards from here. 

To find winning products, look at what the bestsellers on Amazon are. Then look for products that are small, lightweight (to save on shipping costs later) and have a good pricing range of around $15-30. 

Then check the demand in the Google keyword tool for your product keyword and make sure that 5-10,000 people search for that product per month. 

Check that the reviews on Amazon are not too high. If people have over 500 reviews, then it will be very difficult to compete. 

It’s easy for us to just say check this and check that, but that’s where using a solid,accurate software like AMZScout. It saves you time, and allows you to view all the data for your potential winning products quickly. This is the best option to help validate your winning product ideas.

When you find a good product, you would contact suppliers on Alibaba, making sure you ask if they can "private label", and what the "lead time" is. These phrases will make you sound like a pro. 

This is the stage where you negotiate with suppliers and make sure you always negotiate lower prices because the first price is never the final price. 

Imagine it's like a marketplace where haggling is welcome and normal. 

At this point you'll be ready to order your first batch of inventory. We recommend buying 100-300 at first to "test" the market. You should use this language when talking to your supplier because many will have a minimum order quantity. When you say it's just a "test" order however, many suppliers will move on this. 

By the end of month 1, you could have researched a product, talked to suppliers and started your first order. 

Remember, the first stage is to take training because without it you'll have no idea what to say to suppliers or even which product to choose. Without training this section may take several months, and some students never get past this stage without training. 

Now let's move to month 2 of the process. 

Month 2 - Your Amazon Page, First reviews and SALES

In Month Two you will be waiting for your stock to arrive in Amazon, and in that time you can build the Amazon page and get used to the back end of your Amazon account. 

This is another place where training comes in handy. Having the right training means you will have the templates and structure for your Amazon page, and you'll know exactly what you need to do and how to do it so you're ready to start selling. 

You will have to take professional photos of your product or get a pro to do them for you. You'll also have to write the copy for your listing so that customers know exactly what the value of your product is. 

When your stock starts to arrive at Amazon, you can immediately get some reviews from family and friends. This will kick start your listing. You can also turn on some Amazon ads and other advertising to kick start sales. 

This month was more relaxed than the previous month, and it only gets easier from here. At this stage you should already start seeing some sales, and next month we will take it to the next level. 

Month 3 - Growing Sales, Reinvesting Profit

In month three you will be improving your Amazon page and your sales as well. You can optimize the advertising, start using outside advertising as well, and increase your budgets as sales start to come in. 

You will eventually start to run out of inventory, so you'll need to reinvest the profits back into more inventory so you can keep growing. 

During this stage of our business when we started, we had a gap between going out of stock and reinvesting the profit. If you have this gap as well, it's totally fine and just a part of the growing process. 

Eventually you will have enough profit to reinvest in inventory and also have enough to take out and pay for your family, rent, holidays or a totally free lifestyle like we have.  

If you're in Azon University at this point, you would be learning all the sales techniques we used to get top rankings, bestseller product, Amazon choice products and growing our sales to $10k per month or more. 

This is the point you all want to get to if you're still reading this, and if you follow this timeline, then you can achieve it. 

Now I'll tell you what can happen beyond this point. Let's look at month 4 since you start taking some training. 

Month 4 & Beyond - Brand Value, More Products, New Marketplaces

This is where you can start to add more value to your brand and products. You might add something that makes you stand out from competitors, or you might want to set up email marketing to your new customers. 

This is also where you can start thinking about adding new products to your product line, or opening up your product in new marketplaces to increase your reach. 

You can keep adding new products and scaling up your business, or you can take time off, travel the world, and do whatever you want. 

This is when all the hard work truly pays off, and you can create a lifestyle of your dreams. 

It's Your Turn To Follow This Timeline

This is the exact timeline we followed when we started our Amazon business, and it's what we've taught hundreds of students to follow as well. 

We are doing a LIVE Webinar on the 22st of October breaking down this timeline in even more detail and uncovering the exact steps you have to follow to achieve these results. 

If you want to learn more about this time line and how you can follow it to achieve this dream lifestyle, then click here to sign up to the Webinar and be there live to learn exactly how to do this. 

Sign up to the Webinar! 

[amzscout-blog]

Wholesale on Amazon: Is it Right for You?

Amazon is the most valuable retailer in the United States by market capitalization. It’s the second most valuable company in the world, trailing only Apple. With that kind of success and volume of sales, it is easy to see why many ask themselves "Can I make money on Amazon?”

There are actually several ways to make money on Amazon. One is retail arbitrage, where you buy items in retail stores and then sell them on another marketplace, like Amazon. Usually, items purchased in this manner are bought at a substantial discount. Another is private label selling. This is when you find a manufacturer to make a new, or improve an already existing product and put your own company logo on it to me sold to the masses under your company name. Finally, there is Wholesale, a process of buying items directly from a manufacturer and then selling them as a reseller on Amazon. This means you do not have to spend the considerable time and money to create, build, and launch a brand of your own. Instead you are buying from already established brands.

All the basics of selling on Amazon are described in details in our ebook “Why Selling on Amazon Is Right For You?”. You can download it here.

How Do I Start Wholesale?

Generally speaking, to sell as a wholesaler on Amazon you will need a wholesale license. Every state and country has their own licensing rules so first check on the requirements in your area.  From there,  spend time building up relationships with manufacturers. Strong relationships with manufacturers will be the lifeblood of your business! Maintaining those relationships is vital in creating, maintaining, and growing your business.

Private Label Selling vs. Wholesaling

The critical difference between private label and wholesale is that with private labeling, you are looking for a manufacturer to make your product concept or idea. That means you need to be able to create a marketable product or enhance one that already exists. Once that is accomplished, you then purchase inventory from the manufacturer and send it to the Amazon warehouse. With wholesale, you simply purchase a manufacturer’s existing products and sell them on Amazon. 

How To Decide What To Sell

With so many products already being sold on Amazon, it can be overwhelming while deciding what product you should be wholesaling. To narrow your potential list down, look for products that:

Are an established brand that have a substantial history

Are products that are not already sold by Amazon

Are not private label products

Have high monthly sales

In theory, you could spend hours trying to research and decide which products based on this criteria. A much quicker and more effective solution is to use software like AMZScout Pro to refine your search. This software lets you do your research directly on the Amazon website while displaying the sales trends for products you may be interested in as well as competitors.

Should I Be Wholesaling on Amazon?

Amazon does over $150,000,000,000 in sales annually. While a number like that may tempt you to think that anyone can make money on Amazon without breaking a sweat, the competition for those dollars is fierce. Like any business opportunity, wholesaling has its own set of pros and cons.

Advantages of wholesaling:

Wholesaling has the potential for scalable growth

You do not need to build your own product or brand

As you grow, you can build a team of employees to free up your own time as the owner

Very easy to control your expenses

You have the opportunity to work with large brands

The potential negatives of wholesaling:

It can be difficult to find brand owners that are not already selling on Amazon

When you are just starting, it can be difficult to get approved for a wholesale account with a large brand

The potential for substantial startup costs such as initial inventory purchases and space to store the products

You may be dealing with low-profit margins and large order quantities

If after you review that list and still feel that wholesaling is right for you, why not give yourself the competitive edge that AMZScout Pro's host of tools and data give you to succeed in this highly competitive marketplace.

[amzscout-blog]

The Story of How Two Broke Brothers Created A £400k Empire In their early 20's Using Amazon

We’re speeding down the Swiss alps on a rented snowboard, laughing my face off, completely free. Shimmy is close on my tail with a snowball, trying to pelt me. 

We had earned over £400k on Amazon, and we took this impromptu trip so we could.... Wait, let's backtrack a little...

I’m Josh, and my brother Shimmy and I have built an Amazon business together that gives us complete freedom.

I started working on my business when I left high school. First doing SEO, then selling digital products earning over 6 figures on my best launch.

Meanwhile Shimmy had sold on eBay, and was doing pretty well. He then sold t-shirts using T-Spring, and he netted 6 figures+ doing that.

Shimmy LOVES cars and photography. He is most comfortable with a top gear magazine or a Canon D-something in his hand. He's gone on trips to Monaco to drive and photograph supercars, meanwhile my hobbies are a little different.

I enjoyed a meditation trip where we would meditate for 10 hours a day, 10 days in a row. Crazy huh!

In 2014 we joined forces and start an Amazon business. We were both broke, so we joined together to afford the huge $4000 training course.

We discovered AMZScout and spent the next few months researching products, ordering inventory from suppliers and getting our first product up online.

Within 3 months we almost hit 10k per month and started talking about adding more products and building the business even more with the help from our trusted software, AMZScout!

That brings us back to the snowboarding story.

We took a road trip to Switzerland, and in between snowboarding we planned to build an Amazon training course. With our computers and gear in hand, we created the version of Azon University that exists today!

  We also started a Youtube channel, including the "Our Story" video with the Swiss Alps in the background with the intent of helping others find the freedom they are looking for...

A few months after this, we began providing free webinars to help teach using the tools that we used to find success with the goal of helping others achieve it to. 

One of the biggest questions we’ve gotten, is “How long to start this business?”, and “What are the exact steps?”

We have a new training webinar coming out soon which will answer these questions and teach you the EXACT timeline we followed to succeed on Amazon.  

==> Sign Up to The Webinar Here And Find Out The exact Timeline to Hit $3000 Per Month on Amazon in Just 8 Weeks <==

We have already taught this timeline to our students who have gone on to hit $10k per month, $50k per month and everything in between.

Within the class we will break down what you must do every week to get your first product up and selling on Amazon.

Click here to register your place on the webinar.

- Josh Morris

[amzscout-blog]

Hijackers, Low Roads: What to Do and How to Protect

It is a recurring nightmare for every private label Amazon seller: the product they worked hard for that is finally succeeding suddenly gets taken over by a hijacker. Typically, these Amazon hijackers are unscrupulous sales chasers selling cheap counterfeits. Often, they create accounts with the frequency and flippantness of a rabid squirrel. In their wake, they leave the wreckage of hard working private label Amazon sellers. But all is not lost! There are ways to combat this problem…

The Background

When selling on Amazon there are a couple of different potential paths. Many of the most successful sellers have created their own brands, and sell items as part of their private label. They go through the process of finding a product with potential, customizing and improving on that product, and creating high-quality listings. Just like you can sell products made by major brands (if you have the appropriate licensing), others can press the ever-so-easy “Sell this Item,” button. Hijackers are those that choose to sell your branded items, while actually selling counterfeits or knockoffs.

The Devastating Effects

Most private label sellers started with their own brand partially to avoid the rat race that is the Buy Box. Basically, they don’t want direct competition on their own listing, for their own products. A hijacker ruins this plan. Because hijackers frequently sell lower quality knockoffs, they can lower the prices substantially, devaluing the product overall. Additionally, a customer that receive this poor quality substitute is apt to be angry, disappointed, and may write a negative review. These negative reviews stay on your product page long after the hijacker’s account has been shutdown. Overall, a hijacker can hurt your brand’s image, destroy a product’s reviews and ranking, and turn that $10,000 a month item into a zero.

How to Protect Yourself

Luckily, there are steps you can take as a savvy seller to avoid these problems. It all starts with establishing your brand through Amazon’s Brand Registry program…

Step 1. Brand registration.

This was once as easy as a flimsy website and name, but the process has gotten more complicated.  A trademarked name is a must, and they now require pictures and proof of a branded product. This means you can’t jump into Brand Registry until you’ve at least received samples of your branded items. Once you have a fleshed out site, a branded product, and an approved trademark, you can apply (and will likely get approved for) the registry.

Step 2. Displaying a trademarked brand name.

Once you have been approved for the registry, you have some modicum of protection. Make sure both your product and your listing prominently display your trademarked brand name. Sadly, this still does not gate other from jumping onto the listing. When they do, the first action is often notifying the seller. A simple cease and desist message will detract many hijackers. While many foreign sellers are willing to burn through accounts, your diligence may show that there are less aware sellers they should attack.

Step 3. Test buy and report to Amazon.

In case this does not work, a test buy will have to be performed. Purchase the product, take pictures showing how it is different from the listing, and submit the report to Amazon. You can file a complaint based on it being a fraudulent product. When this complaint is filed (and the item is returned), the hijacker will likely get kicked off the listing and shutdown.

Step 4. Monitoring and managing.

Once the listing is free of the hijackers, you can go back to the business of managing your Amazon account! One way to quickly and efficiently see if you are dealing with hijackers is to open your seller page and use the AMZScout Chrome extension. Any of your listings with more than one seller (as shown right in the extension) have been attacked! This is just one of the many ways that AMZScout helps you run a successful Amazon sales business. Download today, and take the battle right to the amoral hijackers, and follow the advice above to help keep them at bay!

[amzscout-blog]

5 Myths About Business on Amazon and Amazon Ranking

If you have a mind for business, then you have probably thought about creating an Amazon seller's account. Maybe you went through with it, and maybe your store is successful, having high Amazon ranking. Maybe it isn’t. Maybe you didn’t do it because there were too many uncertainties (in this case our ebook “3 Steps to Start Selling” will help!). That is the case with most people, but there are plenty of misunderstandings about selling a product on Amazon. In truth, there is no reason why you cannot sell on Amazon if you want to. You just have to do a little Amazon research and be a little business savvy.

Myth #1. There are too Many Sellers Already on Amazon to Make a Profit

This is the most common myth that people believe about this particular business. Many people think that because there are so many sellers already on Amazon that the competition will be too high for them to profit. This is simply not true. Your success depends on lots of things, and the number of other sellers really isn’t one of them.

Myth #2. It Doesn’t Matter What You Sell

Some people also believe that any product you put on Amazon has the same probability of selling as others. No. You need to find a market, a niche, that needs a certain product. There is even a program to help you find this niche, AMZScout Pro. AMZScout Pro is a web browser extension that allows you to analyze products in the marketplace using product’s Amazon ranking as well as many other parameters. With this tool you should be able to find a niche that will help you in your business.

Myth #3. Your Prices Have to be Low if You Want to Sell a Lot

Low prices don’t mean anything if your product is no good. Alternatively, high prices are overlooked for a good product. If you find that niche I’m talking about and you have a high-quality product, then you shouldn’t have to worry about lowering your prices. Having mid-range prices is a good way to compromise so that you and your customers both get the most out of the deal, but I’m sure you could have figured that out on your own.

Myth #4. All You Need to do is List Your Product

Some people will simply list their product on Amazon and then leave it to collect money. The problem with this is, it won’t collect money if that’s all you do. You need to get the ball rolling. Advertise your product anywhere you can think of. Ask bloggers and product reviewers to review your product. The quality of your listing also has an impact on how well it sells. You need to have excellent photos, so you may need to hire a photographer. Taking photos on your phone won’t cut it. Creating a demo video is also a great way to get people interested. Post it on YouTube and other social media websites and promote it as much as you can. You could even ask your friends to promote it on their social medias. In the beginning, you need all the help you can get to increase your Amazon ranking.

Myth #5. You Need to List a Lot of Different Products

While this technique can be helpful, as long as you find your niche and have a good product, you really only need one. In fact, it is recommended that you only have one in the beginning, that way you can get the hang of how the marketplace works and what you need to do to be able to sell more. Listing many products might only net you as many sales as one product, especially if they are lower quality. What you actually need to do is list your first product, wait for it to get some positive reviews, and then post your next one once you are a little bit better known. Try to gain followers on social media first, and then when you sell your next product you will already have a following. You might get some sales right off the bat that way.

There are many myths about becoming a seller on Amazon, and these are just a few of them. If you are striving to become an Amazon seller, then the best advice to you is be confident, have a good quality product, and be patient in the beginning. If you don’t believe any of these myths, then you will be able to succeed on your journey to have a successful Amazon business!

[amzscout-blog]

Amazon vs. eBay vs. Your Own Website: Pros and Cons of Different Marketplaces

For those getting involved in online selling, there are three main options for selling: Amazon, eBay, and your own website. Each has its own pros and cons, and it is important for the ongoing vitality of a business that it avail itself of all possibilities. Let’s take a brief look at some of the selling options.

Amazon

Amazon is far and away the biggest online retailer (within the USA). According to MSNBC, it is expected that Amazon will top $250 billion in sales this year, or roughly 49.1% of all online sales. In short, Amazon sales will be roughly equivalent to all other online retail combined. Clearly it is the most important of these marketplaces.

Pros

Easy access to a wide swath of spenders. Forbes states that more than 50% of American households have access to an Amazon Prime membership. This is just subscribers, there are many more that do not have a Prime membership but still shop on Amazon.

Simple to get started. Amazon offers fulfilment by Amazon, or “FBA.” This means you can have items that you sell sent to Amazon, and when customers buy it, Amazon will package and send the item to the consumer, while also providing tracking numbers and other end to end customer service. This makes it easy to start your online store before you have a warehouse and fully fleshed out shipping and packaging operations. It is also relatively inexpensive, often much cheaper than it would cost for an individual to send out on their own.

Advertising is run through the same portal. When advertising on Amazon, one uses what is now called, “Amazon Advertising.” You can use this to setup broad automatic campaigns, or more targeted, specific campaigns. This allows you to have great control over your advertising budget, and you know that you are advertising to customers that are already fairly interested in buying a product.

There are lots of communities of support and tools to support research. AMZScout is widely considered the best extension for evaluating potential products. There are also other tools that help with streamlining advertising, and Reddit and the Sellers’ Forums provide places to ask questions and learn quickly about the Amazon sales opportunity.

Cons

It is a wildly competitive marketplace. There are more than two million sellers on Amazon, which means in many categories the competition is incredibly high. Without careful product selection, you can find yourself toiling away on the eighth or ninth page of a search, never to be seen by customers. Alternatively, you may find that the product prices get lower and lower, cutting into your margins and turning a good idea into a waste of money. Tools like the AMZScout Chrome Extension simplify this process so you can find successful Amazon FBA products quickly and easily.

The return policy is extremely beneficial for the customer. Amazon panders to their customers in a way almost no other retailer has done. The return policy is simple and easy. For most items, customers are refunded before ever returning the items they purchased. To stay on top of getting reimbursed, there are programs available to help track these returns and make sure the product is actually being returned to inventory.

Fees are high compared to many other options. Amazon charges a 15% referral fee on almost all purchases. This can quickly cut into your bottom line. If you are looking for hot selling products on Amazon, be sure to consider this fee. It’s easy when using AMZScout Chrome extension because it comes with an easy to use FBA Fee calculator to help estimate your potential profits.

Amazon can be strict with their rules, and can suspend quickly. There are countless horror stories of successful sellers losing their entire Amazon business because they stepped over one of Amazon’s lines. It could be simple such as logging into the wrong Wifi, and can sometimes be blameless such as a competitor making false accusations to hurt your product.

If you are interested in selling on Amazon, download our FREE ebook “Why Selling on Amazon is Right for You?”.

eBay

Ebay is the second largest online retailer, but only has about 6% of the overall online market. To put this in perspective, it is roughly ⅛ of Amazon’s market. While this can still be a substantial amount, it is noticeably less than the sales found on Amazon.

Pros

Ebay has lower fees. Ebay’s fees are changing at the end of September, and while increasing they will still be lower than Amazon’s fees. Ebay will be charging the higher of .75 or 7.5% for reserve price listings. This is half of Amazon’s fees, which can make a huge difference in your bottom line and the profitability of your products.

Ebay has fewer sellers. While once known for the abundance of different sellers peddling their wares, there are actually more independent sellers that make their primary income from Amazon than from eBay. It is estimated that only 1.3 million sellers rely on eBay for their main income. There are certainly far more ‘amateur sellers’ on eBay, but overall, the competition for fixed price products can be quite low.

Selling on eBay can be a loose environment. Ebay can be looser with the rules, which can allow a qualified seller to really stand out. When there are many poorly made or unprofessional looking listings it can be easy to excel. Use this to your advantage as a seller!

Cons

There are fewer consumers on eBay. As noted above, it can be a less competitive environment largely because there are less buyers than on Amazon. A best selling product on eBay will typically gross far less than a best seller on Amazon.

Customer have less confidence in eBay. Ebay has an association with scams and lack of professionalism among many consumers. This can look bad for your brand when you are trying to make a name for yourself.

It can be harder to fulfil orders on eBay. Unless you fulfil orders using FBA (which is more expensive to use for a third party site like eBay), you will need your own packaging and shipping operation to sell on eBay. This can be a burden on your company, and immediately begins saddling you with overhead.

Your Own Website

As you begin to build your brand, establishing your own website can be an attractive option. It gives a certain weight to your products and brand, and can instill consumers with a higher degree of confidence.

Pros

Establish credibility for your brand. A website can give your products and brand a natural gravitas.

Lowest fees possible. The fees when selling on your own site will be minimal, typically a credit card processing fee and the cost of using a platform like Shopify, or something of the like.

Upsell other products. Once the customer is on your site, they may end up buying several different products. The ability to sell similar or connected products magnifies the need to establish a niche so you can sell multiple items in one fell swoop.

Cons

Must bring customers to you! When you start your own site, you don’t have the benefit of millions of customers already looking on your platform to make purchases. You must invest time, money, and energy to build up your search ranking on Google and other search engines.

Advertising can be expensive. Running ads for a broader subset of the population on a search engine like Yahoo or Google can be much more expensive. Additionally, the conversion rate is often times much lower.

Customer service can be difficult. When running sales through your own site you will need to be constantly cognizant of customer service issues, technical issues, and anything and everything else that may pop up.

Take Action!

As a seller, the question is always, “So What?” How does one apply this knowledge in a concrete way to help with their business model. Here are your main takeaways:

Pick an initial platform for getting started. Amazon and Ebay are great places to start since they come with a vetted customer base. This saves you time and money drawing traffic in the early stages.

Look to expand your business both vertically and horizontally. This means expand by both adding products, and by adding marketplaces. This type of growth will help lead to long term success.

Be cognizant of which products can succeed on which marketplaces. For instance, some technical goods and replacement parts actually do sell better on Ebay than Amazon.

Leverage your success into a private website. Once you see the potential of some products within the same niche, find an appropriate website to help legitimize your brand and begin to make sales with a lower referral fee.

[amzscout-blog]

Trade War: What it Means for Amazon Sellers

For those who have been living hiding under a rock, there are beginnings of a trade war between China and the United States. This can be upsetting to businesses and consumers alike, and in the world of Amazon sellers, where many people buy from China, it is especially distressing.

Typically, the United States has been one of the biggest proponents of free trades. With the exception of North Korea and Cuba, almost all countries have unfettered access to the American marketplace, typically without any substantial duties or tariffs. A break in this was a significant change in the historical United States policies related to trade.

First Shots Fired

In early 2018, President Trump announced the first tariffs. They started on washing machines and solar panels, but soon escalated to include raw steel products. China was hit the hardest, with 25% tariffs on all these goods, but Canada, and even the European Union, were hit with the steel tax as well. There was some public backlash, and China threatened to respond in kind to any sanctions.

Escalation

In response to the American tariffs, the Chinese government created a round of tariffs on billions of dollars of U.S. goods, with an emphasis on agriculture. This impacted both the general American exports, but was considered highly targeted given the proclivity for the agricultural sector to strongly support President Trump.

In July, even more tariffs were announced by the United States, this time on more industrial goods, covering roughly $50 billion in Chinese goods. Up through that point, the United States had tried to avoid any tariffs directly on consumer goods. This still had some strongly negative effects on select American companies that relied on Chinese imports to function efficiently.

Where Things Stand

All signs point toward a long and protracted trade dispute between China and the United States. As retaliatory tariffs take effect on U.S. goods, President Trump has publicly stated that he is willing to advance tariffs, eventually, to all Chinese imports. Given the large trade differential, there is a limited amount of 1:1 retaliations that the Chinese government can make in response.

The most likely response, which will mitigate many of the desired tariff effects, is a change in currency exchange rate. China controls the exchange rate, and they have used this in the past to their advantage. Already, we have seen the Yuan lose 10% of its value compared to the US Dollar. This slight change eliminates much of the increased prices already. After accounting for the 10% devaluation of the Yuan, the practical price increase, including the tariffs, is only 15%.

What it Means for Amazon Sellers

The changes in the tariffs can certainly impact Amazon sellers. But there are potential action items for sellers. First, many importers are bringing product in from China, as there is no significant infrastructure to build some of these products in other countries yet. It is quite possible we will see an increase in prices all across Amazon to account for this.

If you see your competitors raising their prices, don’t be afraid to follow suit. Prices have to be seen as fluid. While usually it is a race to the bottom, sometimes outside pressure causes an increase in prices, so pay attention.

The devaluation of the Yuan must also be carried over to your negotiations. If you have negotiated your prices in Yuan, you will have no issues, just continue paying the same price. If you have negotiated your prices in US Dollars, you should come to the table when ordering more product expecting a decrease in prices based on the change in currency exchange rates.

Not all products are subject to this import tax. The world of HTS codes is one of subjectivity, gray area, and fluidity. It is important to work with your freight forwarder to find codes that are least restrictive in terms of tariffs while being within the bounds of the law. Similarly, most tariffs are not applied to air express shipments through companies such as Fedex and DHL. For smaller shipments, it may be better to use some of these companies rather than a company that will result in tariffs being paid.

In Summary…

Pay close attention to tariffs when doing product analysis. Use these new prices in the AMZScout revenue calculator tool to get accurate estimates even with the new charges. Be sure to negotiate the best possible prices, accounting for exchange rates. Finally, find the best way to import your products using the shipping service and import codes that are most favorable to your company. Like most issues, the sky is not falling, and in reality business will continue as usual for most sellers!

[amzscout-blog]

A Crisis of Confidence: The Current State of Amazon Reviews

Whether a buyer or seller on Amazon, every user recognizes the impact and importance of reviews. Decades ago word of mouth was the main way people verified quality or took recommendations. With the shift to the online marketplace, people’s preferences are shifting, and online reviews are a key decision-making tool for consumers.

Despite long existing problems with reliability, people are generally trusting of reviews. According to a Pew Research study, roughly half of U.S. adults (51%) believe online reviews “generally give an accurate picture.” This number increases dramatically among those that frequently read online reviews (61%). For online retailers, this means that many implicitly trust reviews, and many rely on them to make decisions.

The Early Days of Reviews

When it first started, Amazon allowed ‘incentivized reviews.’ These were reviews where the product was heavily discounted, or given out for free. They were perfectly allowed within their terms of service as long as the review mentioned they had received a free product in return for their review. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of these reviews were five star reviews. In some extreme cases, they would follow a literal script from the providing seller.

Sellers would use subsidized reviews to rocket up the search rankings. As the reviews grew, more and more sellers would be lured into buying a well-reviewed product. Eventually, customers started getting upset with poor products that had great reviews. This trickled into media outlets that ran stories about terrible products, and bad customer experiences. The public outcry forced Amazon’s hand, and in 2016 they issued this statement:  

“..Our community guidelines have always prohibited compensation for reviews, with an exception – reviewers could post a review in exchange for a free or discounted product as long as they disclosed that fact.

These so-called ‘incentivized reviews’ make up only a tiny fraction of the tens of millions of reviews on Amazon, and when done carefully, they can be helpful to customers by providing a foundation of reviews for new or less well-known products.

Today, we updated the community guidelines to prohibit incentivized reviews unless they are facilitated through the Amazon Vine program.”

-Chee Chew, Amazon VP Customer Experience

A New Day

While innocuous sounding enough, this simple statement would turn out to have a ripple effect. Initially, they banned the practice but left the reviews themselves. By 2018, waves of new fake reviews were battering Amazon’s shores. The public was fed up with unreliable reviews, and they wanted Amazon to do something about it.

In 2018, the other shoe dropped. In an event people had called the Review Apocalypse, Amazon went through and systematically purged hundreds of thousands of reviews. There were cases where a product when from 10,000+ reviews to only a few dozens. While many of these were previously acceptable incentivized reviews, others were more nefariously obtained reviews.

Rule Breakers are No Longer Kingmakers

Those that break the rules on Amazon use what are called, “Black Hat,” tactics. For product ranking, some sellers will hire out click farms to simulate buying activity, or pay individuals within secret groups to buy products. Some did this through Facebook groups and may not have even been aware they were violating Amazon’s Terms of Service.

Amazon banned these reviews. In some cases, they banned the reviewers permanently from Amazon. Some seller accounts were shut down for using fraudulent reviews. In the end, the landscape was laid to waste, and sellers were wondering what they were allowed to do in the future, and if they were at risk for their own reviews. They have continued to police reviews since this initial purge, and their algorithm, while hidden, is likely being fine-tuned to recognize review patterns that tip off fraudulent activity (numerous batches of individuals all reviewing the same 10 products would be indicative of a review group, for example).

So far, all this article has given you is a long list of punishments inflicted, and potential consequences, but there is some overwhelmingly good news! Sellers that obtain their reviews organically and without groups or incentives will be in a better position going forward. These new changes should cut down on a new product overtaking your quality product in a few days because of hundreds of fake reviews. Basically, if you are doing everything according to Amazon’s current terms of service you have nothing to worry about, and should be pushing for stricter enforcement of the review rules!

Where do we go from here...

There are some concrete ways to get legitimate positive reviews:

Have a high-quality product which is shipped safely. With a poor quality product, no amount of pandering will lead to a top rated product.

Have excellent customer service which will help to soothe some of the complaints when they do arise.

Respond to reviews! When you see negative reviews, immediately refund the customer if you can figure out who it is. Try to message them about getting them a replacement (do this on a case by case basis, when appropriate).

Check in on the purchase! There are a number of different services that offer to email the customer on your behalf after they have received their item. Use a clever title, and make it as easy as possible by linking directly to the product review page.

Stay up to date on Amazon’s Terms of Service to make sure you are in full compliance and not risking your long-term success.

Following these basic suggestions will help keep your product ranking well. While the allure of instant success can lead some to go after fake reviews, it is fool’s gold. Patience, perseverance, quality, and customer service will lead to successful reviews, and long-term success as a seller.

[amzscout-blog]

The Amazon Success Story: 3 Products to Financial Freedom

Shimmy and Josh Morris started as humble sellers of knick-knacks, and Ebay dabblers, but have grown and blossomed into wildly successful Amazon sellers and coaches. From these meager beginnings, they have seen their sales grow rapidly, and their following has grown as well. In addition to being five figure a month sellers, they now coach and teach others to pursue their own financial dreams. By the way, you can SIGN UP TO THEIR WEBINAR HERE.

Motivation and Inspiration

Shimmy has always been interested in business, and started making sales at 11 years old.  Starting with odds and ends, he was soon exploring the Ebay marketplace. After graduating high school he founded his first company, a t-shirt company. Eventually he decided to give Amazon a try.

Josh had extensive experience in the digital goods world, but there was a uniqueness to Amazon that called to him like a siren. He loved the idea of selling real, actual goods to end consumers, and the simplicity of the business model. He provided things that people wanted, and sold it on Amazon! It was quick and easy to explain his job to others, which was in sharp contrast to his previous work.

When they put their heads together, they realized that Amazon selling was a business with truly infinite possibilities.   

What made you want to sell on Amazon?

S&J: We didn’t want to work for a boss, we wanted to have a business that we could grow and have it be completely online so we could travel freely and work from anywhere. We loved buying on Amazon so it made sense to start selling there too. We knew Amazon was the future of online sales, and we had to get involved. 

How did you search for your first product? How well did business go?

S&J: We spent hours researching  Amazon’s categories and eventually settled on sports and outdoors because we both liked it. We didn’t use any tools because they didn’t really exist at the time, and we just used the data Amazon provided. We also used the Google Keyword Tool to find out how many people were searching for the product. We made about $7,000 in profit per month but it was difficult to manage and track competition and see results improve. 

Growing and Developing

Shimmy and Josh wanted to go into new products and they didn’t have enough time to do all the work manually, so they started researching a tool to help find keywords, go through listings quickly, and help us assess product opportunities and competition level quickly. This is how they got to know about AMZScout… 

Shimmy shared with us that they started using more data before going into a product, like revenue and sales estimates, rather than just BSR and competition. Josh added that AMZScout helped to make better decisions on new products and optimizing their old products.

S&J: We used your tool to find a product. Within a month we were making $2,000 per month in revenue from that product, and we’ve just starting ranking properly for this product. We were using the product calculator to see how much profit we could make, and so far it’s working really well.

Shimmy and Josh optimized their previous products by finding out our competitors suppliers and the prices and they also started negotiating new prices for their items.

S&J: Every new product we research pulls in up to $10,000 per month for us. Without this tool we might be scouring Amazon for weeks or months looking for just one opportunity, whereas with the tool we are given that information is accessible in minutes.

How many products are you currently selling? What are your approximate monthly sales if you don’t mind sharing?

S&J: We currently sell three products and have approximately $15,000 per month in revenue.

What has been the hardest part of the process?

S&J: Finding good product opportunities! We have found lots of products that never worked out. When we researched manually we found a product and niche that we then tried to sell on Amazon. We never knew how much profit the product could make, so we were left just hoping it would work out.

At the time we didn’t have a tool to help us predict profit, so we made this costly mistake. We kept trying to make money from this niche, but in the end we had to stop selling the products because they weren’t making us enough money.

The opportunity cost is huge there, I can’t even imagine what our business would look like if we had utilized better information from the start and could have accurately predicted a niche or a product’s profit potential.

From Selling to Teaching

Immediate success on Amazon inspired Josh and Shimmy to begin teaching others (you can sign up to their webinar here). Rather than just sit back and enjoy their passive income, they wanted to use their experience to help others. They realized that they could begin sharing tools and tips and help thousands of others realize their dreams as well.

How and why did you decide to teach others? What are your results/success in that area?

S&J: We both love teaching even more than selling on Amazon... and some of our students are making more monthly revenue than we are! One student has passed £50,000 per month... we get deep fulfilment from seeing people succeed and helping others grow their business. It’s also fun.

What advice would you share with a new seller getting started?

S&J: Focus on getting one product up on Amazon and getting the revenue to $10,000 per month. Most sellers focus on too many products that don’t have enough revenue and their costs go through the roof and it’s very stressful to manage. 

Learn to find a product with AMZScout with a Step-by-Step training from Josh & Shimmy Morris who make at least $10,000 a month from a SINGLE product!

Time to say goodbye to your boss, earn a passive income. and travel the world!

Sign up to the webinar now  >>

(Limited spaces available!)