In the last few years, there have been enormous waves of online content that are completely based around side hustles, get-rich-quick schemes, and multiple streams of income. Amazon is one of the leading examples that people will use when it comes to making additional income. You’ll find content giving tips on how to do dropshipping and sell it on Amazon, printing such as children’s books or notebooks, and even digital goods as well. There is no denying that you can make a pretty decent buck or two from Amazon. There are thousands, if not millions of sellers on Amazon all across the globe.
While there are plenty of success stories, and tips online such as TikTok on how to get rich from Amazon, aren’t there cautionary tales as well? Since Amazon is such a large platform, there are surely some sellers that don’t have such a happy story. There must be some sellers that have fallen along the way and no longer have an interest in selling on Amazon anymore. Of course, cautionary tales should never discourage someone from trying out Amazon.
Cautionary tales shouldn’t deter you from wanting to start a company online or any sort of business model in general. But it is important to learn lessons that other sellers wish they knew before. This is only going to help you out in driving towards success for your business. If you’re passionate about what you’re doing and you’re willing to put the time, effort, and consideration into the business then there is the potential for it working out.
Get Your Account Set Up Right The First Time Around
A lot of new sellers will get stuck right when making their accounts. You need to understand your seller dashboard. This is going to be the step in the right direction for creating a strong, solid, and stable foundation for your business. Amazon sellers are not allowed to have more than one account.
Doing so will land you in trouble to the point where you may not be allowed to come back to Amazon as a seller. It’s best to thoroughly look into the best practices that an Amazon seller must-have. It’s also going to be very important to audit and refine your seller account. You should do this as you want to avoid violating any policies.
Always Inspect Goods Before Paying For The Supplies
One of the leading business models on Amazon is to buy certain products wholesale and then sell them on Amazon. This can include supplies for crafting creations, unlabeled cosmetics (which your company gets branded), or just random products in bulk. There is a lot of content online such as TikTokkers which will advise people to buy from Ali Baba in bulk and then immediately sell those products to Amazon. The whole business model seems simple enough, right?
While this type of business model is easy, it’s important to think about what the customers will think of the product. If a product is of low quality, it’s going to lead to bad reviews on Amazon, return, and poor sales overall. A bad product is going to be one of the fastest ways to kill your Amazon FBA business. In order to avoid this, it’s best to inspect the goods, purchase one item and see what you think about it.
Don’t Sell The Wrong Product
If you’re wanting to make running your business easier then you have to think about selling the right product. Amazon is a very competitive marketplace. How can you get your product sold on Amazon? There are several things that you must keep in mind whenever you’re doing this, it can include:
- Product demand
- Ease of manufacturing
- Competition level
- Profit margin
These are a few things that need to be kept in mind whenever you’re figuring out what product you’re wanting to sell on Amazon. It’s also important to avoid selling in an oversaturated market. If there are multiple other sellers selling the exact same thing as you, looks the same, works the same, and everything else how will you be able to stand out? Sometimes it is possible to stand out from the crowd but in an oversaturated market it does become far more challenging.
Avoid Fake Reviews And Fishing For Good Reviews
Amazon is currently dealing with the issue of fake reviews. While it’s true that you need to purchase the product before reviewing it, some sellers have found loopholes. One loophole would be finding people to buy the product, telling them to give you a positive review, and then in the end they get a free product as the seller reimburses them for their purchase. Many other sellers will insert business cards into their products for customers to buy stating they’ll get a gift card in exchange for proving that they left a positive review.
Since this has been a major issue for Amazon, there have been start-ups that have created fake review Amazon detectors in order to help combat the issue. Amazon has been cracking down on this heavily, not allowing some customers to leave reviews anymore and making sellers get banned. This is something that you’ll want to avoid doing. Just have a good product, give good customer service, and you can expect the positive reviews to organically some in.
Provide Good Customer Service
When it comes to any business, no matter what it is, there has to be good customer service. Businesses that refuse to provide quality customer service can expect their business to crumble within a matter of time. The customers have the power to make or break your business, you can only do so much. So it’s very important to understand this. Amazon relies on user trust, customers rely on other customer feedback.
Customers rely on other customers for this as reviews will even talk about how good or bad the customer service was from the seller. If you’re wanting to ensure that your business does remain a success then you have to think about the customer. You have to provide a quality experience and a quality product for them or else you’ll face bad reviews and a slowly dying Amazon business.
