Amazon TOP SELLER SECRETS

Insider Tips from Amazon’s Most Successful SellersBy Brad Schepp Debra Schepp

AMACOM

Copyright © 2009 Brad Schepp and Debra Schepp
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8144-1034-9

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS…………………………………………………………….ixINTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………….1CHAPTER 1 AMAZON, AND YOU’RE DONE…………………………………………….9CHAPTER 2 WHICH WAY SHOULD I GO?……………………………………………..35CHAPTER 3 YOU HAVE TO BUY IT BEFORE YOU CAN SELL IT…………………………….61CHAPTER 4 CREATING GREAT PRODUCT DETAIL PAGES………………………………….91CHAPTER 5 AUTOMATING YOUR AMAZON BUSINESS……………………………………..119CHAPTER 6 CUSTOMER SERVICE WITHOUT THE SMILE…………………………………..145CHAPTER 7 MARKETING YOUR AMAZON BUSINESS………………………………………177CHAPTER 8 SHIPPING: THE WORKHORSE OF YOUR OPERATION…………………………….217CHAPTER 9 LIFE BEYOND AMAZON: SELLING THROUGH OTHER VENUES………………………251APPENDIX A AMAZON’S ASSOCIATES PROGRAM………………………………………..285APPENDIX B THE 18 BEST RESOURCES FOR RESEARCHING ANYTHING AMAZON…………………291INDEX……………………………………………………………………..299

Chapter One

Amazon, and You’re Done

Welcome to Amazon! We’re thrilled to be your tour guides on this e-commerce adventure. We believe Amazon is one of the best opportunities ever available for people who want to have their own businesses. Taking your place as an Amazon third-party seller gives you the chance to build a business that reflects exactly what you want out of your entrepreneurial voyage. Sign up for the ride, and you’ll instantly be the captain of the ship. Sail as far and as fast as you decide. Stock the ship with the cargo you select. Build it right, and your business will give you (and someday your employees) a livelihood of your own design. Amazon can be a business incubator rivaled by few opportunities ever available to humans. It’s the best venue for online entrepreneurs since, well, eBay. Many sellers will tell you Amazon is years ahead of its famous competitor.

Surely you know the amazing opportunity that is Amazon, which is why you’re here. Amazon is no longer the Internet’s bookseller—not that it really was ever just that. The Seattle-based company now sells products in 42 categories. It’s the Web’s number-one retailer, with millions of customers. But, you don’t have to believe it just because we say so. Companies that measure website traffic, such as ComScore, consistently rate Amazon the most popular shopping destination—by far. Amazon’s motto and this chapter’s title—Amazon and you’re done—is for real. Consumers know that, and, as a seller, you may find it true, too.

OK, so you already knew Amazon is huge, and hugely popular, in the United States. But it’s also strong internationally. There are Amazon sites for the United Kingdom, China, Japan, France, and Germany. Combined, these vastly popular websites bring in almost as much money as Amazon’s U.S. site. In the United Kingdom, for example, college students have made Amazon’s Marketplace the number-one seller of used books! These international sites are growing quickly, and soon Amazon may become one of the world’s largest online retailers. So, there’s no better time than right now to hoist anchor and set sail. Welcome aboard, Matey.

Amazon: Where It’s All About the Customer

Amazon may owe its success to the goal it set for itself from the start. Way back in 1995, Amazon set out to be the most customer-centric company in the world. With that goal, the company then did everything it had to do to become just that. Amazon customers know the company isn’t satisfied until they are satisfied on every score—the price was right, the product arrived on time, the purchase worked out right.

Amazon’s approach is really a focus on the customer experience. Think about it. Amazon makes payment simple, remembers customers, offers recommendations based on previous purchases, and backs up each purchase with an A-to-z Guarantee of 100 percent satisfaction. It has taken the big fear some people had, and many still have, of doing business “over” the Internet, and sucked the wind right out of it. You’re safe on Amazon. But, the company didn’t stop there.

It may have started out as a place to buy books, but today it seems more like a city of sorts, populated by many people sharing many interests. Through tools such as reviews, Listmania, tags, and blogs, Amazon has continued growing and adapting in its quest to provide customers with the best possible shopping experience. Reviews help shoppers make decisions about which product might be right for them. With Listmania lists, fans can share opinions about books, CD, cameras, whatever. And many thousands do just that! People even create tags (quick identifiers, such as “whaling” as an obvious but accurate tag for the book Moby Dick) to index their favorite books and DVDs. This lets other shoppers find related products. A blog can allow you to share opinions on just about anything with your fellow Amazon shoppers. Just take a look at Figure 1-1 for an example of how Amazon uses its vast database of shopping data to make recommendations to you.

Amazon was creating a “Web 2.0” company, enabling all kinds of networking, before anyone knew there would be a Web 2.0. Jeff Bezos, founder and still boss, has had much to do with the company’s bright reading of the market and its evolution over the years. Bezos also stands alone as the only founder of a big-name Internet company who’s still running things day to day. The man is nothing if not consistent. Recently, he said Amazon’s strategy is simple: “Figure out what customers want and repeat that consistently.” Turns out, customers wanted four basic things:

1. A feeling that it is safe to do business on the Internet

2. Completely trustworthy, reliable customer service

3. Fast delivery

4. A great price

That’s what Amazon provides. As the Internet evolved and customers began to expect to network and share, as well as shop, Amazon was already there. Setting the course for figuring out what your customers want and repeating it is a pretty good strategy for a business of any size, yours included. But it’s not a simple course to follow. A map and some knowledgeable neighbors to guide you would get you there much faster. That’s what we hope you’ve found here with us.

First, a Little More History

Let’s start back in 1995—a monumental year in Web history. That’s when both eBay and Amazon (see Figure 1-2), now two of the Internet’s biggest companies, were founded. For years, things proceeded along just fine between the two pioneering Net merchants. Each had its niche: Amazon specialized in new stuff such as books, videos, and then electronics and much more. Customers bought these things at a fixed price with no waiting for an auction to end. Sellers on eBay sold mainly used stuff—collectibles, antiques, musical instruments, you name it—mostly through auctions. Over the years, there’s been some overlap, of course. Amazon has its Amazon Auctions area, which is a pebble next to eBay’s boulder. And eBay has its fixed-price listings (a success), and for a time even a whole marketplace—eBay Express—where only new items were sold. However, each giant still presided over a particular corner of the market. Everything was fine.

This is not to say that Amazon hasn’t weathered any storms. Surely you’ve heard of the great Internet implosion of 2000. Amazon survived, obviously, but for a time the company’s high-flying stock dropped like a rock. Still, even with the added pressure this brought to the bottom line, the company didn’t worry about profits. Amazon had actually operated in the red for years when it was launching the business, but while it did, it built an infrastructure that supports the company you know today. Of course, today’s success wasn’t guaranteed during those difficult days. Lots of folks worried about Amazon. Stock analysts at times called the company “Amazon.toast,” or “Amazon.bomb” (both plays on Amazon.com), feeling that, with no profits on the books, failure was inevitable. Today, Amazon.com is a Fortune 500 company with more than 17,000 full-time employees in operations covering 12 million square feet (see Figure 1-3).

As the two giant Internet merchants made their way out of the rubble of the burst dot-com bubble, Amazon and eBay each respected the other’s strengths. Neither one tried to change things, until 2006. That was when Amazon started courting eBay’s largest and most successful sellers. Amazon executives started showing up at trade shows. They began calling some of eBay’s biggest PowerSellers, doing whatever it took to get them to come over and set up shop on Amazon. As part of its mission to add such successful merchants to its base of third-party sellers, Amazon went beyond eBay. It also approached sellers who sold only through their own websites, and even those who just sold through regular old bricks-and-mortar stores! These were people without websites at all. Amazon invited them in and helped them all to set up e-commerce businesses.

We’ve asked many of those same successful pioneers to help you. You’ll hear from them many times throughout this book.

Amazon: A River of Opportunity for Third-Party Sellers

Since 2006, when Amazon started to actively court major-league third-party sellers, it has gone on the record praising the efforts and the successes of its third-party sellers. Third-party sellers represent everyone selling on Amazon except Amazon itself (see box). These sellers now sell about 30 percent of everything sold through the Amazon site. Ready to join them?

The most recent count of Amazon’s third-party sellers found 1.3 million businesses. These include everything from giants like the Bose Corporation (see Figure 1-4), to college students selling last semester’s books. We asked long-time Amazon seller and expert Steve Weber how he thought that 1.3 million figure broke down. He thinks that as many as 70 percent of the people selling on Amazon right now are selling items from their closets or bookshelves. Many are people like Deb and I, who sell books and DVDs we no longer need. But that still leaves a huge number of people operating full-blown businesses on Amazon, and we know lots of them. There’s no reason why you can’t join them to build a business that supports your family and employees.

The opportunity for you to start or expand your business on Amazon is there, because Amazon has spent years and plenty of money to create a website that represents a highly efficient, yet massive, online shopping site. Over time, the company has added services such as Super Saver (free shipping on orders over $25) and Amazon Prime (two-day shipping for a flat yearly rate). These have become tremendously popular (even if they hurt Amazon’s bottom line a bit). Amazon continues to innovate by selling digital music, movies, and TV shows, as well as e-books. Hop aboard the Amazon ship, and you’ll become true business partners. Sure, you’ve got plenty to gain from associating with Amazon, but the company also stands to benefit from your success. That can make for a very rewarding partnership, indeed.

Need more encouragement? We’re ready for you:

It’s simple to start selling on Amazon. If you’ve already bought things on the site, you have an Amazon account. That means you can start selling stuff in minutes. Just click on the Sell yours here button in the More Buying Choices box that appears on many Amazon pages (see Figure 1-5).

Amazon wants you to set up shop and profit on its site. If you profit, Amazon profits. As long as you follow the rules, Amazon stays by your side. If you need help, Amazon will provide it. The site is loaded with FAQs and help files, and support is just a mouse click away. Through its click-to-call feature, you need only click the Call Me button under the Phone tab in the Contact Us box, appearing on many seller-related pages. An Amazonian will call you right away. You’ll get immediate live help to solve the trouble and get you back to work.

Niches remain. Although competition grows every day, there are still many opportunities to create a thriving business for yourself, as you’ll find out. It may seem that with all the millions of online sellers, all the good ideas have been taken—that there’s nothing new under the sun. Well, we’ve been following “the online industry” since 1984, and e-commerce specifically since 1997, and you take can take our word for it—opportunities abound. If you couple a good idea with smart sourcing and superb customer service, you’ll be well on your way to success.

Getting Started

You’ve already seen how easy it is to get started selling on Amazon’s Marketplace, and this is definitely the place for you to begin. For those just starting out without deep pockets for marketing, “Amazon is by far the best online marketplace for small businesses who do not have a big advertising budget,” says Bing Yang of Augustina Jewelry. If you’re already selling in an online market, you will be delighted to see how simple it is to move business to Amazon. But, even if you’ve never sold anything on the Internet, you’ll be on your way in no time.

No Up-Front Fees Encourages Experimentation

For a new seller, you can’t beat the fact that listing your items for sale on Amazon is free. That’s right, you don’t pay a thing unless your item sells. Whether you list a single item or start out with dozens, your only cost will be in commissions when your items sell. Then you’ll pay Amazon a flat 15 percent commission on the sales price. Amazon will charge your customers a set fee for shipping and handling, and if you buy your supplies carefully (much more on that in Chapter 8), that allowance usually more than covers your costs. The items you put up for sale on Amazon remain listed for 60 days (unless they’re purchased, of course). After this 60-day period, Amazon sends you an e-mail inviting you to relist for another 60-day period if the item doesn’t sell.

Because you don’t have to pay to list, you can easily test out new items for your product line as you get started. If you think you’ve come across a good item, go ahead—list it and see. You’ll know soon enough whether you’ve found a winner, and you won’t risk much as you lower the sails and look around.

Charise Richards of OneChicBoutique thinks Amazon is the best online selling venue, partly for that very reason. Amazon has just “one price to list as many items as you want, with only a final fee on sales only! Great system,” she says.

No Need to Time Listings to Catch Sellers

Another seller, who sells books from his location in the southeast, told us he likes Amazon because he doesn’t have to bother timing his listings to carefully catch potential buyers when they’re most likely to be looking for what he’s selling. On Amazon he can set his prices higher, because the item stays until the right buyer shows up.

Be Prepared: Bring Your A Game

Amazon customers have been sold on the Amazon philosophy that the customer comes first and that a guarantee is behind every purchase. You should know before you go any further that your customer will expect the very same from you. This philosophy empowers customers and forces sellers to bring their A games when they come to Amazon. Andy Mowery of debnroo has heard people suggest: “I’m an Amazon buyer, so don’t mess with me.” Amazon’s A-to-z Guarantee is virtually bulletproof, Andy says. For Amazon buyers, “It’s like they have a club in their hands.” So be prepared to shield yourself with excellent products, prices, and customer service. If you can’t make this promise to yourself and your customers, you simply won’t thrive on Amazon.

TIP

Be a Buyer, Too

There’s no question that the best, and most risk-free, way to learn how to sell on Amazon is by buying a few things from third-party sellers. Note how they describe their products, how quickly they ship, how they pack their items, and the overall feel you get from the transaction. “As a buyer you’ll see what you expect, and then you’ll know what your buyers can expect from you,” says Rene Klassen of Musicnmore.

The A-to-z Guarantee

Behind all those high customer expectations is the knowledge that Amazon offers an ironclad guarantee. Here’s how Amazon describes its A-to-z Guarantee program to customers:

We want you to buy with confidence anytime you purchase products on Amazon.com. That is why we guarantee purchases from Amazon Marketplace, Auctions, and Merchant sellers when payment is made via the Amazon.com website. The condition of the item you buy and its timely delivery are guaranteed under the Amazon.com A-to-z Guarantee.

No wonder some Amazon customers feel they have a club to protect them! But this guarantee also helps sellers by making buyers more comfortable with doing business on the site.

As long as you’re prepared to meet the standards, you’ll find yourself offering your items to serious and dedicated customers. They’ll trust you, because you’re on Amazon, and you can trust that they simply want to make their purchases and move on. The levels of buyer fraud are greatly reduced when this type of trust is built into the marketplace.

Feedback

Any discussion of customer empowerment must mention feedback. On Amazon, the feedback that buyers leave for sellers is even more important than it is on eBay. The big challenge on Amazon is that buyers are a lot less likely to even leave feedback. Some sellers say only 10 percent of transactions result in feedback, although Amazon is working to raise this percentage. Feedback is extremely important to your success, however, so we’ll be spending a lot of time on it throughout this book.

Keeping Your Head Above Water on Amazon

We wouldn’t be doing our jobs if we didn’t point you toward other great sources of information. You simply must stay on top of all the latest developments. You’ll also have many questions about how to do things (list products in bulk, find relevant reports, become a Featured Merchant). We’ll introduce you to some great learning tools and opportunities, both on Amazon and off.

(Continues…)

Excerpted from Amazon TOP SELLER SECRETSby Brad Schepp Debra Schepp Copyright © 2009 by Brad Schepp and Debra Schepp. Excerpted by permission of AMACOM. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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