According to Forbes, with many shoppers wary of brick-and-mortar visits due to Covid-19 pandemic, shopping has been shifting online in record numbers. Hence, there is a great opportunity for Amazon sellers, following the right Amazon marketing strategy.
But, when we enter any new business domain, we are too passionate and hungry for success at times. The same logic is applied in Amazon marketing too.
As a new seller, we do not mind trying out new things to succeed early.
Therefore, most of the Amazon sellers tend to make common mistakes in the beginning, which may hamper the overall health of their Amazon store.
So, let’s learn about the top 15 Amazon marketing mistakes committed by sellers that can be hazardous for their business:
#1 Selling Only Branded Products – Most of the Amazon sellers believe that selling branded items is a great way to increase the sales on Amazon. It is undoubtedly true, but branded products will not let you earn huge profits. Moreover, there is a lot of competition in selling branded products, as there are existing distributors and online sellers operating in most of the regions.
Hence, it can be cumbersome to beat those experienced players in Amazon marketing.
Pro Tip: You can create your own private label products or import them from various countries to sell on Amazon.
#2 Choosing Very High Value Products: Be it branded or private label items, there is a variable percentage of products that are returned in almost every niche. Product return percentage may vary between 5 to 10% owing to issues related to packaging, broken items, faulty products or any other related problem. Well, addition in this percentage may influence your profit margins drastically.
Pro Tip: Try selling products that are not too expensive.
#3 Picking Up Bulky or Heavy Weight Products – Shipping bulky or heavy weight products can be expensive as compared to light weight products. Besides the expense factor, you may come across other issues related to their handling or getting them back in case of return.
Pro Tip: Select light weight products instead of too bulky items.
#4 Not Sourcing Products Right: New sellers on Amazon usually buy products without even researching the wholesalers in that particular niche. Listing products on Amazon from this type of sourcing does not let you earn enough profits.
Additionally, do not source products in tiny quantity (i.e., one, two, five, etc.), as it may cost you high, resulting in low profits.
Pro Tip: Do a background check of your seller before sourcing products. It will help you get assured that you are sourcing products from a direct manufacturer/ distributer/importer. Source your products from direct importers or distributers to earn more profit.
#5 Not Opting a Unique Product: Well, every Amazon seller wants to choose a unique product, but it is all about choosing it at the best price to make money. If you are unable to source unique products at the lowest possible price, you also have an option to import them at the minimal price.
Pro Tip: Connect with manufacturers and negotiate prices according to your business requirements. You can connect with them through various websites such as Alibaba, Yellowpages, Indiamart, etc. Research the sales trend of your product before its Amazon listing.
#6 Targeting Top Selling or Top 100 Products to Sell on Amazon: New sellers usually browse top 100 products, and find their desired product (s) to list on Amazon. Most of the top selling products in those listings are branded products that have high competition.
In that case, you can search the list of top 300 to 500 products to find your preferred product. Search these kinds of listings from various Amazon marketing software such as AMZ Scout, AMZ Blast, Jungle Scout, etc.
Pro Tip: Find the cheapest and most reliable source of products to keep your margins high. Also, analyze the product’s trend for three to six months before listing it on Amazon.
#7 Overlooking Account Management: Do not merely focus on sales in your Amazon marketing strategy. Keep a track of your sales, direct/indirect expense as well as profit. It will help you streamline the entire workflow management of your Amazon store.
Pro Tip: Maintain a track record of your capital investment, sales, and expenditure to determine the overall profits.
#8 Inapt Packaging: Make sure the product has high quality packaging, which needs to be good at presentation too. Inapt packaging can damage products, resulting in product return. Again, it will hamper profit margins.
Pro Tip: Invest in high quality packaging followed by excellent presentation to retain the customer.
#9 Ignoring Return Analytics: Return analytics is all about the management of products that are returned owing to various reasons. In other words, it helps us reduce the number of products that are returned.
Pro Tip: Analyze from which particular region you are receiving return requests along with the reason.
- If people are not accepting orders from any particular state/region, you can block that state/region on your Amazon’s seller account.
- If you are getting complaint for damaged/missing products, you need to communicate with the respective courier company.
#10 Not Making Combo Deals or Variations: Every customer may have different product requirements. Someone may want to buy a single product or others may buy more than one item. When we analyze customer’s behavior, it is observed that customers do like combo deals. It not only makes them feel that they are saving money, but also fulfills their specific requirements. In fact, if the combo deal is good, it is definitely going to save your money as well as your customer’s money.
Pro Tip: Try to create variations in your product listings on Amazon. You can create multiple listings such as “Pack of 1”, “Pack of 4”, etc. Moreover, you can also add any other product that is related to the main product (e.g., Mobile phone and back cover, Car perfume and dashboard cleaner, etc.). It will also help you in Amazon SEO.
#11 Very Low Margins to Sell More: In order to beat the competition, some sellers make the mistake of reducing their margins to sell more. Most of them do not consider the return rate at the time of profit calculation, which reduces their profits.
Pro Tip: In order to sell more, you can hire a virtual assistant or an Amazon consultant. These Amazon experts optimize Amazon product listings for better visibility of your products.
#12 No Paid Amazon Marketing– Running paid advertisements on your products increase their visibility. Once, they are displayed on the top search results, there are chances of conversion.
Pro Tip: Try to run ads on high margin products, as you need to spend your hard earned money on paid advertising in this scenario.
#13 Poor Customer Service: It is a known fact that efficient customer service is one of the key factors to survive in any niche. Make sure to handle the product related issues, complaints, suggestions professionally, as it can be helpful to add value to your brand.
Pro Tip: Address your customer’s issues immediately and add a blend of sympathy and empathy in your resolution. It can you retain your customers.
#14 No Product Return Management: Most of the sellers dump the returned products instead of considering repackaging or refurbishing them. It can be one of the factors of low profits too.
Pro Tip: You can always try to repack or refurbish the product after verifying its quality. But, do not ever compromise with product’s quality or performance.
#15 Not Hiring Enough Staff: Be it data entry, product listing optimization, image editing or any other Amazon marketing task, everything is time-consuming. And, if you are doing all these activities on your own, you will hardly get any time to make business strategies.
Pro Tip: As mentioned before, you can consider hiring an Amazon VA for better management of your Amazon store.
Your journey to become a pro Amazon seller can certainly be too easy with these Amazon marketing tips, extracted from our years of experience in the industry.
So, keep your spirits high, take calculative risks and sell more on Amazon in 2021.
