Amazon Marketplace - Why Amazon?

There are various reasons why you should consider selling at Amazon Marketplace. In this introductory chapter, let us take a look at some of the prominent reasons why you should choose Amazon Marketplace.

The Amazon Advantage

Amazon is not just an online store, rather it’s a Marketplace! It is one of the oldest merchants on the web and has over 200 million customers worldwide. There are many potential buyers who put their trust in Amazon and prefer buying products from Amazon only, even if the product costs slightly higher than at other e-commerce sites.

Amazon Marketplace - Types of Account

You must certainly be investigating what choices you should essentially make before starting to sell your product. The very first choice you should make is about the type of account you should hold. Secondly, what product should you sell, and thirdly how should you manage the shipment and return for the product.
Amazon offers two types of accounts − Individual Account and Professional Account.

Amazon Marketplace - What to Sell?

You can find what to sell links on the Amazon webpage. There are huge number of products open to sale for both Individual and Professional account holders except for some marked by asterisk for which Individual account holders need to take prior approval. These are, however, open for Professional account holders.

Amazon Marketplace - Product Listing

Listing is an essential part of establishing your online selling business. It involves creating your product catalog by specifying the mandatory and striking details of your product. Listing your merchandise on Amazon gives your store visibility to countless shoppers online. It can be done in four ways −

Amazon Marketplace - Fees

In this chapter, we will discuss the types of fees that Amazon charges from the merchants who do business using its platform −

• Variable Closing Fees
• Amazon Fulfillment Fees
• Referral Fees

Let’s discuss these in detail, starting with Variable Closing Fees.

Amazon Marketplace - Account Setting

In this chapter, we will discuss the two different types of Account Settings on Amazon Marketplace.

Individual Account

An individual Account is the least essentiality to sell products on Amazon. There is a referral fee attached, and in some cases, there is a variable closing fee. There are FBA charges if you are using the service and the shipping costs if you are shipping the product yourself.

Amazon Marketplace - Buy Box

All Amazon sellers want the coverted Buy Box. This is the same as all website holders want their website to rank on top of Google search. When a buyer searches for a product, there may be many sellers selling the same product with different offers.

Amazon Marketplace - Shipping Methods

The shipping method you use within Amazon is of your choice, considering it meets the customers chosen timeframe. As mentioned earlier, it is beneficial to go by FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) Service. The less time you spend each day arranging for proper packaging, the more time you will have in finding and listing new products.

Amazon Marketplace - Listing a New Product

If you want to list a new product in the Amazon catalog, then you need to follow the steps given below −

• Click the ‘Create a new product’ button.
• Select the category into which you want to list your product. Amazon then displays a list of sub categories.
  

Amazon Marketplace - Pricing Tools

If you want to save your time, do not go into setting the exact price. Set all the prices a little on the higher side − higher than the viable sales price of the product. Then using some pricing tool, modify the same as per the set of rules in the tool.

Amazon Marketplace - Get Highest Profit

Garnering highest profit is the ultimate goal of all the sellers and it should be, for this is something that draws most sellers to Amazon Marketplace. There are two key parameters in the formulation of a profitable business. They are −

• Demand for your product, and
• Margin on the sale.

Amazon Marketplace - Price Calculator

It is quite an effort to know how much revenue you can generate by selling a product on Amazon. Being one of the most popular marketplaces for online merchants, Amazon has a wide array of fees - marketplace account fees, variable cost fees, referral fees, shipping costs, etc.

Amazon Marketplace - Tax Handling

Calculation of Sales Tax

The basic question that comes to mind is how is the sales tax on Amazon calculated?

• If a product is subjected to sales tax in the state in which it is shipped, the tax is calculated on the total selling price of the item.
  

Amazon Marketplace - Shipping Process

In this chapter, we will discuss the shipping process involved when you are on Amazon Marketplace.

Shipping Merchant Orders

When you go for fulfilling orders yourself, you need to ship the products to the customers. Amazon mails you as soon as your product is picked by the buyer. However, it may happen at times that you may not receive the email instantly and it may take up to 20 minutes to get the complete order information. Amazon informs you what you sold and at what price and the fee that you will be charged. Your duty is to ship the product to the buyer in time.

Amazon Marketplace - Seller Central

Amazon Seller Central is the web interface used by merchants to manage their orders. A person selling via the Amazon Seller Central is considered a third-party seller. Smart sellers use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). However, anyone can use the Seller Central and can retain full control of their product listings and pricing. There are four main management areas - Managing your inventory, handling sales, shipment of products, and dealing with returns.

Managing The Inventory

So far, we have discussed how to list a product, raise its sale, its shipment, etc. Let us now discuss how to manage the inventory while it is still in the Amazon system.

• Open the Inventory Menu on the Seller Central. There will be two Manage Inventory options at the top to help you in managing your inventory, be it seller shipped or an FBA inventory.
• Click the Filters button to view the type of item you want to see.
  

Amazon Marketplace - Creating Reports

Amazon provides reports for the sellers about the details of their sales.

• You can find the Inventory report option in the inventory menu and an order report option in the orders menu.
• You can see the FBA items in the active listings report which includes all the active listings.
  

Amazon Marketplace - Managing Reviews

You have now mastered the art of selling on Amazon portal, including how a product sells, how to manage your inventory, etc. However, keeping your customer’s satisfied is equally important.

Customer Feedback

Satisfied customers keep buying from you. You are now tagged as a trustworthy seller. Good customer feedback leads to repeated sales. There are certain things like supplements, household needs, sports equipment, etc.

Amazon Marketplace - Your Amazon Rating

Amazon keeps an eye on the behavior of each seller to ensure they are performing well. If a seller falls too low on the rating scale, he/she won’t be selling on Amazon for long. Performance area has three parameters on the basis of which a seller is rated by Amazon. These are −