A-Z of Amazon

If you have multiple versions of the same product, for exampledifferent colour or different size, you’re obliged to sell them under the same listing. This has many advantages, not least that you’ll be able to get more reviews allocated to one product. Note: Not all product categories allow for product variations, but this is becoming less of a problem, as Amazon is constantly increasing/improving variation options.

The main product information, such as images, product description and product features will appear in all variations of the product you want to sell.

In Amazon speak, you’re creating a “parent/child” relationship – all variations include a parent and a number of unique children. The parent is basically a non-buyable “umbrella” that connects the different variation children. For example, your
parent could be T-shirt (note: T-shirt is a generic non- descriptive term) and the children could include: small whiteT-shirt, medium white T-shirt, large white T-shirt, small red T-shirt, medium red T-shirt, large red T-shirt etc.

-The first bullet point should highlight the most relevantfeature/benefit. You should then work your way down the list – the fifth bullet point being your least relevantfeature/benefit.
  o Use your research (primary and secondary) to
find out what’s most important to your customers.
-Give prominence to your Unique Selling Proposition.
-Has your main competitor’s product got an Achilles’
heel? If so, you may want to include a bullet point
starting with, “Unlike..”.
-Make them interesting:

o Boring: “100% leather”.
      o Marginally better: “100% Italian. vegetable.  
         tanned leather
     o The daddy: “100% Italian. vegetable-tanned aged leather. (cowhide). It smells great too – i
the leather seats in a Rolls Royce.”
-Consider encouraging an action – For example, “Roll
over the images to see the quality”, or “Please read the reviews from our customers”.
-Some other things to consider including:
     o Materials (e.g. stainless steel).
     o Size, dimensions and weight.
     o Special care instructions (e.g. hand wash only)
     o Where the product was made (if it was made in
      the UK).
    o Warranty and guarantee information.
-Review and amend your product’s bullet points down the line, in light of customer feedback or questions posed by customers.

This is another case of more is better. Make sure you write a long description – 200 words is a reasonable start point. Describe the product in detail.Tell your/your company story too.And make sure customers know you’re a UK buisness. But, perhaps, your five bullet points are more important. They feature next to the image. Compare that to the product description that’s below all of these things: “Frequently Bought Together”, ” Customers Who Bought This item Also Bought”, “Sponsored Products Related To This Item”and “Coustomers Who Bought This Item Also Bought”,”Sponsored Product Realted To This Item” and ” Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested In These Sponsored Links” – quite often customers have to scroll down four or five pages to get to your description.

Most sellers are convinced that buyers spend more time looking at bullet points (as opposed to the product description). So, you have to nail them.

As an FBA seller, you’ll be asked to choose “FBA Labeled Inventory” (default setting) or “Stickerless, CommingledInventory”. Here’s how they differ:
-FBA Labeled Inventory- You print your product labele
from Seller Central, which must be applied to each
you ship to Amazon’s fulfilment centres.
-Stickerless, Commingled Inventory- Your products
don’t require FBA labels, as they are treated as identical to units of the same product from other sellers (who have also selected Stickerless, Commingled Inventory).When a customer orders one of these products from you, you are the seller of record – i.e. you get for the sale. But the product used to fulfill the order may have been sourced from either another seller’s or Amazon’s own inventory.

As I only sell products that are unique (in terms of branding, design, USP or all three), so I use FBA Labeled Inventory.

The second thing you need is a brand name. Once you have these two you are ready to list your own unique products on Amazon.
To do this:
Go to “Your Seller Account”.
Scroll over “INVENTORY” and select “Manage
Inventory”.
Select “Add a product”.
Click on “Create a new product listing”
At this point, you need to select a product category. If you’renot sure where to locate your item, Google “best selling
<<insert product name>> on Amazon.co.uk“. Once you’ve
clicked on the product, scroll down to “Product details” and
next to the “Amazon Bestsellers Rank” you’ll see the categories and subcategories.

Follow the same ones to put your product
into the correct category. Note: If the exact categories don’tmatch up, you’re not doing anything wrong-sometimes they don’t.

Top tip: If you’re changing from seller fulfilled to FBA, you can do this by selectíng “Inventory” and then “Manage Inventory”.
Tick relevant product (on the left hand side) and then select “Convert to Fulfilled by Amazon” from the “Action on << >> Selected”.
The first section you need to complete is “Vital info”. This is where you add your item title, brand name and barcode number. (More information can be added later.) The barcode number is crucial. If this is not correctly entered, everything else falls apart. The EAN enables Amazon to identify the products in their giant fulfilment centres. When you’ve entered this information, click on “Save and finish”. Once you have saved this initial information, Amazon will
create an ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number) and a SKU (Stock Keeping Number).
When creating your product-heading, make sure you include the brand name, name of product, key words and your Unique Selling Proposition (if you have one). In terms of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), longer is better. You may also consider including such things as: premium, retro, vintage,
modern, material, colour, size etc.
But beware of gaining more views at the expense of “click throughs”. For example, if you include a range of colours in your title (for example, handbag-
red/blue/yellow/pink/black) you will get more views but
almost certainly fewer clicks. Consumers are more likely to
click on the link that more narrowly describes the product they
want (in this case, possibly a black handbag).

The first thing you need is a barcode. These can be bought off-the-shelf from a number of different online suppliers. I use www.buyabarcode.co.uk – but that’s mainly force of habit. You can get them cheaper here:www.barcodesmania.co.uk
Top tip: Barcodes will come with two numbers: EAN = Europe only. UPC worldwide. On Amazon.co.uk you should use the EAN number.
However, you should be aware that, strictly speaking, you are buying a generic barcode. Although it will be unique, it will not identify the country of origin, the manufacturer/supplier or the specific product (nor will it have a “check digit”). This is why EAN codes were initially set up: to help identify this information.If you scale up, you should probably obtain your barcodes from GS1 www.gs1uk.org/. They are expensive though – the initialjoining fee alone is £130.80+.

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When you log in as a seller, your home page is Seller Central – this is the hub of your operation and there’s a wealth of information at your fingertips. To get there, click on “Your Account” and then “Your Seller Account” (sign in using your standard amazon log-in details). Take some time to explore this Aladdin’s Cave. In particular, scroll over each of the tabs
along the top: Inventory, Pricing, Orders, Advertising, Reports and Performance. Click on any of the links that take your interest. As your experience grows, you’ll find new things of note every day.
Seller Central is surprisingly user friendly. Don’t be
overwhelmed by the volume of content; it’s designed with every type of seller in mind. Not everything will be relevant- but finding what is tends to be pretty straightforward. On the odd occasion I’ve struggled, a quick Google search has swiftly brought me to the correct Amazon page. I’ve also found YouTube an invaluable resource. Although there’s a huge US bias, there are thousands of “how to” videos, some of which are excellent. If you’re still stuck, you can click on the “Get support” button on the bottom left of your Seller Central page – this will allow you to email Amazon your query.

Top tip: Mozilla Firefox is Amazon’s “web browser of choice”.
Use it when you’re logging onto Seller Central – sellers using other web browsers have encountered problems, such as the inability to edit product listings.

You need the following things to complete the   registration:

-Credit card.
-Phone number.
-Company registration details (if relevant).
-Primary contact person information.
-Beneficial owner information.
-Bank account information

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Google “setting up a seller account on Amazon.co.uk” and click
on the top link-it will take you to the correct Amazon page.The registration process is pretty straightforward.

For more information visit https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_FFGKMWVLO4

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There are variìous methods for paying for your goods. Here are
the main ones:

Escrow – This is definitely a very reasonable option. A
third party holds your money until you confirm the satisfactory delivery of your order. As such, Escrow protects both parties.
PayPal – This is my payment method of choice. It’s definitely buyer friendly, easy to use and comes with
fairly good buyer protection. However, sellers are not
so keen – it’s harder to withdraw money tends to favour buyers when disputes arise.
Upfront Telegraphic Transfer (TT) Bank Transfer – The
buyer receives all the money before production begins.
As a buyer this can leave you exposed, as there’s little recourse if things go wrong. However, if you have used a supplier before and trust them, it’s an efficient method of payment. Note: your bank will almost certainly charge you for making an international transfer. Mine charge me £25. Robbers!
Western Union – Could someone explain to me why any buyer would use Western Union? It’s not protected by Escrow and there’s no recourse if anything goes wrong.
Only use if paying for small items (e.g. samples) or if you know the supplier very well.

Once you are confident the supplier has been briefed perfect
you should order a pre-production sample. (Some suppliers
will refund this cost when you place a bulk order.) Expect to
pay approximately double your final selling price for this one-
off. This may seem expensive, but it’s not nearly as expensive
as ending up with unsellable stock.
Assuming you’re happy with the sample, you can place your
order. But how many to order? This is a difficult question to
answer as it depends on many factors, including:
-Your cash flow.
-Your attitude to risk. -Your experience.

However, it’s fair to say that most people test new products on
a relatively small scale initially- say 100 units. That’s high
enough to keep the stock purchase price reasonably low and
enough to get a reasonable number of customer reviews (and
traction) on Amazon. Remember, if you can make a profit on
your initial order, you’re almost guaranteed to make more
when you reorder in larger quantities.

How to choose a supplier on Alibaba
This isn’t an exact science, but you can certainly increase your
odds of succeeding. The first thing to consider is the different
levels of Alibaba accreditation:

• Most UK buyers choose Gold Suppliers without really knowing what that means. According to Alibaba’s website, “Through the completion of the verification process, Alibaba.com can only check whether the business is registered in its local business administration region. This verification does not verify the integrity of the business, nor does it verify the authenticity or quality of goods listed by the seller..”In other words, they’re Gold Suppliers in name only.

• Trade assurance offers more protection: “The Trade Assurance Limit is assigned by Alibaba.com to those suppliers who agree to join Trade Assurance and promise to abide by the Trade Assurance service requirements. Based on supplier’s qualification status and their transaction volume from the past year, Alibaba.com will grant the supplier a Trade Assurance Limit, which can be used to protect buyers Payment made to suppliers.”
• Assessed suppliers – This is the highest level of standard that a supplier can achieve. Alibaba checks the company actually exists and that it has all the necessary licences for producing and exporting the products they list on the website. (Checking they exist isn’t as absurd as it sounds-fake companies, replete with photos of factories and employees, spring up on a weekly basis.)

Pay carefull attention to their existing products. If you don’t see anything you like, move on fast. If you like their producta range (or certain items within it), consider the following: How much would they hav eto change to meet your needs? Do they
seem of a high standard? Do they meet EU safety standards
(more on that later)?

You should also take note of their MOQ (Minimum Order
Quantity). Some seem to have ridiculously high minimum-
order requirements. Don’t let that completely put you off-
they seem like a good supplier in every other regard, conta
them too. The can only say “no” (or not reply to your enquiry)
Some people also look for ISO-accredited suppliers. ISO (uie
International Organization for Standardization) is an
independent body that helps facilitates world trade by
providing common standards between nations. Companies
that follow these standards should, in theory,  On that subject, how
long have they been trading for? Less than two years would make me nervous.

You should now have a long shortlist. This is to whom you
send your initial 10-15 emails, the responses to which will help
you whittle down your list further :

Did they respond in a timely manner?
Did they supply the information you requested?
How was their written English? Remember: you may
have to supply detailed and complex manufacturing
requirements. Are you confident these won’t be lost in
translation?

At this point I’ve found that about 60% of suppliers tend not to
hit the mark, which should leave you with half a dozen or
fewer, thus creating your short shortlist. These are the
companies from whom you should request a quote. Below is
an example of a quote-request email:

Dear Magic

Thank you for your email. I hope we can work together. As promised, this email should provide you with all the details you need.