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Amazon Marketplace 2021 Guide

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What is Amazon Marketplace?

Amazon Marketplace is not the same place as Amazon.com. Amazon is an online retail outlet. Amazon Marketplace is a (third-party) online shopping platform where merchants can sell their products from Amazon.com . Amazon Marketplace permits retailers to sell brand new, and used products, but Amazon.com is purely for new items. These new items for sale on Amazon.com come from Amazon’s stock and single merchants. 

What’s the differences between Amazon and Amazon Marketplace?

Amazon

  • Sellers are limited to selling only new goods on Amazon.com
  • Sales are owned by Amazon, and all proceeds are distributed to Amazon.com

Amazon Marketplace

  • Sellers can sell new goods, and also used items
  • Amazon Marketplace and third-party retailers split the proceeds from the products that have achieved sales. 

Your options for selling on Amazon

Amazon Vendor Central

Particularly for professional merchants whose sole aim is to sell stock in large quantities, Amazon Vendor Central is a scheme you need an invite to.

Find out how it works here:

Sellers go ahead and sell their stock to Amazon, at wholesale prices, and then Amazon.com sell them on their platform. The sole possession of these products remain with Amazon. 

Amazon Seller Central

Amazon Seller Central is the preference for sellers who are in the regular realms of selling. Using this route means that sellers sell items on Amazon Marketplace under private labels, and therefore still own their own products, not like Amazon Vendor Central. Then a decision can be made if the seller wants to be a FBM (Fulfilled by Merchant), or FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon).

Let’s delve into more detail as to what it means to be a FBA Amazon seller.

How does FBA work?

Using FBA as a service is a hands off approach to selling on Amazon, and a much easier approach, at that. Basically, FBA takes the work out of the ordering and delivering. When you start to get to the realms of selling lots and lots of products on Amazon’s Marketplace, this may be a service of interest to relieve the burden. 

After all, you want delighted, pleased consumers, and going down the FBA route ensures this happens. 

A walkthrough of the FBA route:

  1. Pre-arrangement of the number of product units are sent to Amazon Fulfillment Centers to be put into storage. 
  2. Your items are then added to Amazon’s inventory. 
  3. People purchase your products via Amazon’s website (yay!)
  4. The sold products are then packed, and shipped to your customers.
  5. FBA takes care of all returns, and customer service queries that occur during the whole route.

What are the Benefits of FBA?

  • FBA vendors enjoy higher conversion rates than those of FBM sellers
  • Zero aggravation, as FBA deals with customer service questions or grievances
  • Zero aggravation in terms of shipping problems
  • Removal of ordering and shipping mistakes
  • Your consumers receive their orders quicker via Amazon Prime
  • Your consumers enjoy seeing the Amazon Prime badge, and feel reassured you’re a trusted seller on Amazon 
  • Buy Box feature in Amazon’s product search
  • More time to spend on other aspects of your online selling business
  • Enhanced authority on Amazon, as FBA sellers are placed higher, so your products are certain to reach a broader audience

What are the Drawbacks of FBA?

  • Various FBA fees associated with the service
  • Limited Brand Awareness 

The key drawback of Amazon’s FBA are the numerous connected fees. They can be pretty substantial! So you can make an educated decision with your budget available, let’s take a look at what fees are involved with using Amazon’s FBA Service:

Amazon FBA Fees and Costs

Retailing through Amazon’s FBA process entails the subsequent charges:

FBA Fees

FBA fees vary on the size and weight of your items. This charge is sustained in place of your own freight, administration, and packing expenses. With this in mind, it’s definitely advantageous to think about selling little, and light weight goods on Amazon!

FBA Storage Fees

Your products are warehoused in Amazon’s Fulfillment Centers, so these are the expenses linked with this storing. You can select between monthly, or long-term storage, dependent on your business constraints. 

Monthly Amazon FBA Fee

This fee is indicted when you are a Professional seller. Professional status operates for businesses who obtain more than 40 orders in 30 days. There is an Individual plan for those businesses who don’t quite reach the dizzy heights of these order numbers!

FBM (Fulfilled by Merchant)

What are the Benefits of FBM?

  • You have complete control over your stock inventory and products.
  • You own your own inventory
  • You’ll incur less fees with FBM

What are the Drawbacks of FBM?

  • You have the sole responsibility of order receiving, shipping, processing, and customer returns.
  • You have the sole responsibility of handling customer complaints and issues

Amazon Marketplace Costs and Fees

The expenses you will encounter is dependent on if you are on Amazon Individual or Professional selling plans.

If you are an Individual seller, there is no requirement to shell out for a subscription fee on a monthly basis. You will however be charged $0.99 every time you sell a single item. You will also be subject to variable closing fees from Amazon, and these vary from around $0.45 - $1.35 at this current time. The Individual plan is based on sellers selling 35 products or less on a monthly basis. 

If you are a Professional seller, the requirement is that you pay a monthly subscription fee of $39.99, along with referral fees, and variable closing fees as above. You have many more perks as a Professional seller than the Individual plan, but it all comes down to how many products you are shifting on Amazon each month. 

Sales Fees on Amazon

Every single sale you make on Amazon’s Marketplace is applicable for a sales fee.

The sales fees are payable whether you are on an individual or professional Amazon selling plan. These particular fees are dependent on a) the price, and b) the product category. 

On average, the sales fees equate to around 15%, but for an in-depth, accurate calculation, you can use Amazon’s Referral Fee tool here .

It will pay dividends to check which category your intended products fall into, and make sure the referral fees aren’t too extortionate, so you don’t end up paying all your profit to Amazon!

Variable Closing Fees

In addition to sales fees, some products are also subject to variable closing fees on Amazon. The product list that these particular fees refer to are:

  • Computer Consoles 
  • Books
  • DVDs
  • Videos
  • Music
  • Video Games
  • Computer Software

So how to you get started with an Amazon Marketplace Store?

You can get going with developing your very own brand easily with an Amazon Marketplace Store.

  1. Head to Amazon Brand Registry and start registering your brand . Requirements for this registration involve entering your brand registered trademark that you use for your items you intend to sell. You will also obviously need an Amazon account for this part!
  2. Next step is to establish your homepage for your Amazon Marketplace Store. You can do this by selecting a template for your Store. Choose between Marquee, Product Highlight, Product Grid or Blank (start from a blank canvas).
  3. Work out where you want your products to appear on your Store pages, and highlight special offers, and any items you want your customers to pay special attention to. You’re going to want to make it easy for your consumers to seek out products, so your conversion rate is high.
  4. Set out tiles and sections for your goods. These include titles, images of your products, galleries, navigation, highlighted special offer products, and videos.
  5. Upload your listings and ASINs – a fairly simple process as it’s just a case of seeking out ASINs that exist as listings already on Amazon’s Marketplace. Check the ASINs with IO Scout FBA calculator.
  6. The Store Preview selector gives you the opportunity to review your listings before hitting live and publishing for the world to see. 

How to Optimize your Amazon Store Listings?

You can optimize your listings by completing the following steps:

  • Conducting research analysis on keywords that are related to your item
  • Then going ahead and adding these researched keywords to all sections of your listing including the title of the item, the description of the item, and the item’s features
  • Consider inserting high-quality, professional-grade images
  • Concentrating your item’s highlights on your item’s uses and advantages, and taking into consideration your customers’ wants, needs and requirements before committing to purchasing your item

You can try your luck with SEO services, if keyword research and listing optimization is not your forte. You can enlist an expert to advise on lists of optimal keywords, and create descriptions for your listings.

Prices for Creating your Amazon Store

As long as you are registered with Amazon, and selling your products, you are able to create your own Amazon Store for free.

Handy Tips for selling on Amazon

To begin with your Amazon business :

  1. Sign up and register as a vendor
  2. List your goods
  3. Decide on your price strategy, and configure your costs to include your associated fees
  4. Manage storage and delivery of your products 
  5. Get paid!

How do I get paid selling on Amazon?

A fortnight after you start your registration process on Amazon, and every fortnight, your profits will be paid to you via direct bank transfer. You’ll be alerted to payments when they are en-route to your bank account. 

How to Earn Money Selling on Amazon – Best Selling Ideas

  1. Strive to constantly elevate your performance 
  2. Adhere to Amazon’s Guidelines
  3. Utilize your Amazon Reviews to the maximum
  4. Learn and implement new methods to help push orders, and therefore, profits.
  5. Focus on providing the best customer service possible 

But what about the issue of which products to sell on Amazon? Read on.  

Top Amazon Selling Categories in 2021

  • Toys and Games
  • Cameras and Photos
  • Electronics
  • Video Games
  • Cosmetics
  • Books
  • Kitchen Equipment
  • Health and Fitness

Methods for Success for Products

The following principles are great for keeping in mind when seeking out potential best-selling products: 

  1. More than 10 connections on a daily basis
  2. Prime Shipping eligibility
  3. Unseasonal product
  4. The item is small
  5. The item is light
  6. Sells for around $21 to $200
  7. Easy to deliver, and uncomplicated

When it comes to maximizing your profits with your Amazon business in 2021, there’s a fair few things you can do:

  • Build your own brand by investing in a brand trademark, and get some brand awareness going for your business on Amazon. 
  • Research online Amazon selling tools. There are a wealth of tools to market, research, and promote your products online, so check them out. You can test keywords, manage reviews, and much, much more.
  • Tools such as IO Scout exist to assist Amazon sellers with their online selling business activities.
  • IO Scout is a well-known Amazon Product Research Tool. Featuring a seemingly simple enough interface, with extremely effective tools at its disposal.

Some of the top features and tools of IO Scout include:

  1. Amazon Product Search Tool
  2. Filter Amazon Products by Categories
  3. Ranges and Sales Rankings
  4. Review Amazon History and Trends
  5. Amazon Keyword Tool
  6. Regularly Updated Database
  7. Easy Google Chrome Extension

  • Enhance all your product listings with professional photographs of your products, and optimizing your content descriptions to make them as appealing as possible to your intended customers. 
  • Keep your marketing on point and relevant. 
  • Stand out from the crowd and your competition – come up with a unique product, and be better than everyone else who is trying to do the same thing. 

Conclusion

Hopefully you will have gained some valuable insights into the deep world of Amazon.com, and Amazon Marketplace.

With statistics like 9 out of 10 shoppers testing prices for products on Amazon before making a purchase decision, and currently with in excess of 12 million products on their inventory listings, Amazon is such a massive player in the e-commerce market. Use tips like those in this article, and you could be well on your way to lucrative selling success on Amazon’s platforms.  

Best of luck with your Amazon selling business, be it on Amazon.com or Amazon Marketplace.