Amazon has made it really easy for people to leave their normal desk jobs and become their own bosses.
The thrill of running a business on Amazon and generating six-figure revenues has inspired thousands of newcomers to try their luck.
If you are one of them, then you may want to keep in mind some of the mistakes that new Amazon sellers make.
Given that there is a lot of fine print that sellers need to read before starting on the marketplace, it is rather easy to make these errors.
To help you on your journey, here are some of the most common mistakes to avoid when you start selling on Amazon.
- Picking a highly saturated niche
Most sellers don’t do thorough product research and start by picking a niche and selecting the products that they think are feasible for their business,.
One main reason why this happens is because of a lot of well-established competitors.
When you are starting from scratch, it will be difficult to go head to head with other players who are already years ahead of you with thousands of revenues and millions in revenues.
Therefore, it is a mistake that you should avoid as far as possible.
Example – Men’s T-shirts: With more than 200,000 results for the product, the niche is highly competitive and saturated.
Similarly, you should also avoid going after products that have a rather hard-to-distinguish unique selling point. This will only make it more difficult for your audience to understand what your product is all about.
- Overestimating your Profits
The amount of profit you’re able to generate on each sale will have a big impact on your success. The difference between £5 in profit and £10 might not seem like much, but in the long run that difference will make you twice as much money.
Your profit is calculated by subtracting your expenses from your sales price. The mistake a lot of new Amazon sellers make is that they only consider the price they pay the supplier for their products and don’t factor in all the other expenses that go into every sale.
For example, let’s say you buy a product from your supplier for £10 and plan to sell it for £20. You then build your entire business around the idea that you’ll make £10 on every sale. Unfortunately, this isn’t true. You also have to consider:
- The price to ship your goods from your supplier to you/Amazon.
- The referral fee that Amazon charges you on every sale, which averages around 8% – 15% of the sale price.
- If you choose to fulfill your orders through Amazon FBA you’ll need to consider their fulfillment and storage fees, which fluctuates, depending on the size of your items.
- Your advertising costs. If you choose to promote your product with Amazon Ads that will further cut into your profit margins.
All of a sudden that £10 of profit becomes £5 or even less. If you were expecting to make more this can negatively impact your business.
- Lack of Effort in Preparing Amazon Product Listing
Your Amazon product listing is primarily a sales copy. Once the customer is on your listing page, he or she is going to purchase your product based on the information you provide in the description and specifics.
Buyers will quickly recognize a sloppy job, and your chances of getting a conversion after that will be non-existing.
Classic tell-tale signs include pixelated and low-quality images, shoddy product descriptions, a shortage of keyword optimization, lack of features and benefits, and most importantly, not focusing enough on how the customer would benefit from the product.
On the other hand, a great, compelling product listing will sell your items like hotcakes. You also need to ensure that whatever information you enter here is precise and correct. Amazon’s primary goal here is to provide its customers with a world-class shopping experience, and if your listing is not in line with that, you will have a tough time driving traffic.
- Not managing your inventory properly.
Once your items are live on Amazon your job isn’t done. Too often, new sellers don’t pay attention to their stocks, and eventually, they run out. This is another costly mistake.
The most obvious result of running out of inventory is that you’re not able to make any sales. Buyers might find your products, but if there’s no inventory they can’t buy from you. Every day that you don’t have inventory is a day you’re missing out on possible sales.
But that’s not the only problem. Overall sales impact your rankings in Amazon searches, so if you’re not making any sales you’ll eventually disappear from the search results. Even after you restock your inventory and start making sales again it could take a while to regain your previous position.
Because of this, make sure to keep an eye on your inventory levels. Consider how long it will take to receive a new shipment from your supplier and place your order with enough lead time to ensure your products arrive before your inventory runs out. An inventory management tool can help make sure you never run out of stock or overstock.
- Failure to Fulfill Orders on Time
Amazon customers love it when their orders are delivered swiftly. Generally speaking, they give preference to products that are delivered within 1-2 working days, in comparison to the items that have a more substantial shipping time. After all, who doesn’t like to place an order for an item today, only to have it delivered to your doorstep by tomorrow?
If you want to get ahead of your competitors on Amazon, having a fast shipping option is one of the best possible ways to do so. However, you should be sure that you can keep your word and deliver the orders on time; otherwise, customers may end up leaving you negative reviews, and that will significantly impact your visibility and sales on Amazon. Alternately, you can also choose FBA to fulfill your orders as they are known to be prompt, efficient, and quick.