How to Sell on Amazon in 5 Easy Steps

Have you ever tried getting six-pack abs?

I had tried getting it once when I was in college, and it was very hard for a person like me who never did any form of exercise before that.

What interested me to try getting six-pack abs, and how I ended up trying it?

I was in college studying engineering 2nd year. One of my friends who were into fitness and workout got his six-pack abs done during the 1st year semester holidays.

 I was amazed seeing this was inspiring me to get six-pack abs. Unlike my friend, I was not into fitness. I was not even aware of where to start what the steps are involved in it.

I was silently observing his diet, and I used to ask him what workouts he did for the abs.

Then I tried working out for the next three months and saw no six-pack traces in my tummy, but I got shredded and became too lean.

So, why am I talking about a six-pack?

If you don’t know the exact steps of getting what you want? Then you might not end up where you want. ~ Leo Prabhu

Step 1: Niche Selection

Niche Selection is the first step to sell on Amazon

Launching a private label brand is easy when you select a niche and know where you want to compete.

It’s because you know what exactly your target audience under your niche wants.

So, how do I select a niche?

You can answer these questions and find out the most repeated topics. That is one way to find your niche. 

1. Write down the top three topics that interested you in reading when you were in school/college?
2. What do you do in your free time?
3. Write down the best three purchases that you are proud of?
4. Top three things that you are good at?
5. What would your parents say about the top three things that you are good at?
6. What would your relatives say about the top three things that you are good at?

These question will identify what topics that you are inclined towards

You must select a niche where you enjoy working 24/7

Select a product that connects your inner self so that, You don’t feel you’re working too hard.

Your place should be right at the center.

Step 2: Profitability Calculator

Profitability calculator is the most crucial step of all.

We should now look at finding the profitability in that particular niche.

We must know, What are the trending products?

What is the current level of competition in your niche?

We have the following tool that we can use to find out the data from Amazon.

1. helium10

2. junglescout

3. amzscout

4. amzblast

All these tools offer a free trial. You can take a free trial and see what products are trending under your selected niche.

The tools will give you sales data and a profitability calculator to ensure your product research is bulletproof.

You have to consider the following fees charged by Amazon when you do the profitability check.

List of Amazon charges for – Amazon Sellers

Referral Fee – This fee will be some percentage of the product selling price based on the category of the product it may vary – For example, health & beauty product 7% – for Grocery products it 5%

Fixed closing fee – This fee will be set for all the sellers – For example, Rs. 20

Shipping Fee/ Weight Handling – This will vary depending upon where the orders are from, Regional, Local or National

Transportation to FC – This is towards the logistics from your warehouse to the Amazon fulfillment center 

Pick and Pack – This is towards the packaging – outer carton, stickers, and shipping labels.

Storage – This is towards the storage space for your inventory at Amazon FC

Removals – If you removed your products from Amazon FC to your warehouse 

What are the products that you can sell in Amazon India

You can sell items in the following categories:

Apparel, Automotive, Baby Products, Batteries, Beauty, Books, Consumables, Consumer Electronics (including Cameras and Video Games-Consoles), Digital Accessories (including Mobile Accessories, Electronics Accessories, and PC Accessories), Groceries, Home, Jewellery, Kitchen, Luggage, Mobile Phones, Movies, Musical Instruments, Office and Stationery, Personal Care Appliances, Personal Computers, Pet Supplies, Software, Shoes and Handbags, Tablets, Toys, Video games (consoles and games) and Watches.

https://sellercentral.amazon.in/gp/help/help.html?itemID=200390640

Please go through the product guidelines before you select the product.

You must comply with Amazon guidelines right from packaging design.

Step 3: Amazon Seller Account Creation

How to create an Amazon seller account?

You can visit https://sellercentral.amazon.in

If you wish to create an account on Amazon India, of course, you can create an Amazon seller account for the US, UK, SA, UAE.

Amazon marketing place is available in the following region

• North America Region: Brazil, Canada, Mexico, US
• Europe Region: United Arab Emirates (UAE), Germany, Egypt, Spain, France, UK, India, India, Italy, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Turkey
• Far East Region: Singapore, Australia, Japan

Some marketplaces under Amazon charge a monthly subscription fee soon. They will implement it in India as well.

What are the documents that you need to create an Amazon seller account?

You will need the following information to register:

• Your business details.
• Your contact details – email and phone number.
• Basic information about your business.
• Tax Registration Details (PAN and GST). GST Details are mandatory if you are listing taxable goods and need to be provided at the time of registration.

Step 4: Private Lable Packaging Desing

Think about some of your recent purchases and see what influenced your buying decision?

Mostly it will be the ads that you see, leading you to the product and the packaging design of the product helps you speed up your purchasing decision.

I am not talking about the great design or something; I am talking about the information that you can show on the packaging design that should make the buyer get all his questions cleared about the product.

Packaging Design Checklist for Amazon Sellers

1. Maintain a pleasant font paring and use fonts that are very simple and easy to read
2. Crucial pieces of information such as weight, size, flavour, pattern, and all these attributes of the product have to be on the front side.
3. Try to use bright colors because your products will be placed on a white background. So using bright colors in packaging design will help you preventing the packaging design from blending with the default white background.
4. Ensure you read all the product packaging laws and regulations in India or whichever country you’re planning to sell. You will be able to find out with just a google search, for example. If you are selling HDMI cables, you can search “certification to resell HDMI cables,” “packaging guidelines of HDMI cable.”
5. Select a packaging material that you don’t need to buy in lakhs to have a lesser product launch price.
6. Choose the packaging to be suitable for logistics and long travel before it gets to your customer.
7. Choose an outer carton box that can protect your products from getting damaged in transit.
8. Don’t go for glass packaging such as glass bottles, glass jars. Glass bottles work only for a minimal product like a night cream bottle with 50gm of night cream.
9. Try to go for eco-friendly packaging. I know eco-friendly packaging has to grow a lot but try to see where you can avoid plastic.
10. Make sure you have enough white space on the packaging so that you can print the Manufactured date, bath code, and so on. I mentioned white space because most of the batch code printers print only in black.

I understand that packaging design is a vast subject. I cannot squeeze all my thoughts in these 10 points, but these are basics, and if you’re right in this, you can be sure that your products don’t miss eyeballs from your target audience.

Step 5: Listing File Creation

Now, you’re ready with your product it’s time to create your sales pitch.

Now, you’re ready with your product; it’s time to create your sales pitch.

Yes, you heard it right. We will have to create a sales pitch but not in presentation form.

Amazon will let you create a sales pitch in all three forms of the content mentioned below.

• Text
• Image
• video

Text: You will have to create the text content for the title, bullet points, and description.

Product title checklist for Amazon Sellers

1. Titles must not exceed 200 characters, including spaces.
2. Must contain brand name at the beginning
3. Declare the quantity on the title generally. Buyers compare the price and quantity before they click.
4. Titles must not contain promotional phrases, such as “free shipping,” “100% quality guaranteed”.
5. Titles must not contain characters for decoration, such as ~ ! * $ ? _ ~ { } # < > | * ; ^ ¬ ¦
6. Titles must contain product-identifying information, such as “hiking boots” or “umbrella.”

Product images checklist for Amazon Sellers

Image standards

• Images must accurately represent the product and show only the product for sale, with minimal or no propping.
• The product and all of its features must be visible.
• MAIN images must have a pure white background (pure white blends in with the Amazon search and product detail pages — RGB color values of 255, 255, 255).
• MAIN images must be professional photographs of the actual product (graphics, illustrations, mock-ups or placeholders are not allowed). They must not show excluded accessories; props that might confuse the customer; text that is not part of the product; or logos, watermarks or inset images.
• MAIN images must not be multiple views of the same product.
• Images must match the product title.
• The product must fill at least 85% of the image area.
• Images must have more than 72 dpi resolution.
• Images should be 1,000 pixels or larger in either height or width. This minimum size requirement enables the zoom function on the website. Zoom has been proven to enhance sales. The smallest your file can be is 500 pixels on its longest side.
• Amazon accepts JPEG (.jpg), TIFF (.tif) or GIF (.gif) file formats, but JPEG is preferred.
• The product must not be on a mannequin, except for stockings or socks.
• Images must not contain a model unless the product is apparel or an apparel accessory worn by a model.
• Images must not be out of focus, blurry, pixelated, have jagged edges, or be cropped by a frame edge.
• If the product is on a model, the model must be standing (not sitting, kneeling, leaning, lying down, or in other positions).
• The product must be out of its packaging or shown without external brand tags, except for stockings or socks.
• Images must not contain nudity or be sexually suggestive.

Add secondary images

The secondary images can supplement MAIN ideas with additional photos showing different sides of a product, the product in use, or details that aren’t visible on the MAIN image. Follow the image standards listed above to maintain quality and consistency across all of your product images.

Bullet point checklist for Amazon sellers

• Start each bullet point with a capital letter.
• Try to describe the product features, qualities, ingredients, and benefits. Make sure to use keywords that customers use to find your product.
• Bullet points should be written as sentence fragments and not descriptive paragraphs.
• There should be no punctuation at the end of a bullet point. Use semicolons to separate phrases in a single bullet point.
• Do not include promotional information or links.

Product description checklist for Amazon sellers

• Comply with any relevant style guides and refrain from using HTML, JavaScript, or other code.
• Exclude inappropriate content such as obscene or offensive materials, links or contact information, plot spoilers, reviews or requests for reviews, and advertising.
• Accurately categorize and describe your products.
• Create new detail pages for new products or versions.
• Refrain from creating duplicate pages for a product that already has a detail page.

You can use the following link to generate your description HTML

https://www.sellerapp.com/amazon-product-description-editor.html

I would suggest not to use all the characters as per this editor; instead, try to stick to the basics like bold and bullets that should be fine.

Video checklist for Amazon sellers

• You can upload videos to describe and provide more details about your products. You can add up to 10 videos per product. In addition to the guidelines mentioned above (which will also apply), videos should comply with the following guidelines.
• The spoken or written language (subtitles), if included, must be in English.
• All video content supplied must be appropriate for all ages (equivalent to PG-rated) and high production quality.
• Time-sensitive information is not allowed. For example, if you offer a free warranty for the first three months of product launch only, please do not include that information in your videos as it would be incorrect three months later.
• Videos should not mislead the customers in any manner.

You must get your catalog file for your product category and fill in the details as per Amazon requirements.

Which can be downloaded from here

https://sellercentral.amazon.in/listing/download?

You need to sign in to your Amazon seller account to download this.

These steps are straightforward, and I have done it more than 50 times for my clients and me. I can help you navigate this quickly.

Please book a 1 hr strategy call with me. And I am very sure that the value is delivered.