Amazon FBA Selling Guide 2022
Amazon FBA Selling Guide 2022
Selling on
Amazon FBA
in 2022
$2022.00
So you want Contents
That’s what this guide will give you. 7 Listing your products
The background, insight, and tools
you’ll need to make an almighty
8 Attracting and retaining customers
Amazonian splash this year.
With ecommerce, that starts with three things: your chosen platform,
its customers, and the other sellers who got there before you.
You’ve landed in the Amazon jungle, what will you find there?
The Platform
In 2020, less than thirty years after its conception, Amazon was
worth a trillion dollars.
• Amazon Prime
• Fulfillment by Amazon and
Multichannel Fulfillment
• Amazon Web Services (responsible
for $45b of revenue in 2020).
• Amazon Associates
• Amazon Vendors
• Amazon Handmade
Here are some of the most common reasons They did it, and from February of 2005, the
that Amazon sellers quit: industry goal posts had changed forever. The
limiting factor of ecommerce shopping - the wait
• Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is too expensive.
times - were slashed.
• It’s time consuming or not making a profit
quickly enough.
The top reason customers shop
• There’s too much to learn. on Amazon is for fast and free delivery
(79.8%).
Section takeaways
5 Dropshipping Listing items that are stocked and fulfilled by another supplier.
Relatively inexpensive and straightforward - you don’t need to start
with inventory, or anywhere to store it. It can take longer to get
started, with margins generally between 11-25%.
• How will you store and ship them, if you handle that yourself?
• What kind of margin would you need to make your business viable?
It’s helpful at this early stage to draft up an Amazon business plan to help
answer these questions. It should shed light on what is a realistic for you
and give you a way to track progress.
Section takeaways
It begins with your account type. If you opt to sell on an Individual account
plan, you’ll be charged fees per sale.
If you opt for the Professional plan, you’ll pay a monthly fee instead. FEES
But the buck doesn’t stop there. Here’s a brief overview of the types of fees
you might come across:
Whilst you do have other options to offer your customers, they’ll come at a
cost too. Amazon Pay may be the quickest and smoothest option for them if
they have it set up.
Changes based on Also changes based This is the same Fluctuates with
Specifications
selling format on selling format for every order exchange rates
For the most up-to-date Amazon Pay fees, always check the official pages.
These start with standard fulfillment fees, based on size and weight,
and whether items are “apparel” or “non-apparel”.
Other
The fees listed above are just the tip of the iceberg.
You might also come across high volume listing fees, optional service fees, transport and
processing fees, and more.
There are fee calculator and preview functions in Seller Central, so make sure you’re well
versed on how those work to avoid any nasty surprises later on.
A2X for Amazon also helps lay all your fees out for you, so you don’t have to manually identify
and calculate them all. We’ll explore this further in the Automation section.
FEES
Amazon will process your inventory and store it across the country. Based
2 on what your products are and where they tend to sell, they’ll be shipped to
various locations. This is how those quick delivery times are met.
3
When an order comes in, Amazon picks, packs, and ships the item to your
customer. Any tracking information will be supplied and you don’t need to
lift a finger.
On the surface, FBA is simple. You can fully outsource your fulfillment to a platform that dominates the
delivery space.
Plus, by using FBA, any eligible items will • Monthly storage fees which change
automatically be available for Prime. In this way throughout the year to reflect busier
you’ll be opening your business up to the maximum seasons.
Amazon customer base and optimum experience.
• Long-term storage fees if your inventory
Of course, all of this comes at a cost. outstays its welcome.
• Sellers keen to outsource fulfillment • Sellers that want more control over
and customer service to Amazon customer experience and fulfillment
• Sellers dealing with small and light • Sellers that have the logistics set up to
products deal with fulfillment
Section takeaways
You may already know what you Do you know whether there’s demand for your supply?
And have you found a profitable niche?
want to sell on Amazon. But if not,
or if you’re keen to validate your In a crowded ecommerce marketplace, niches present
pockets of opportunity. You need to find an untapped,
ideas through some good research lucrative gap in the market.
(smart), read on.
They also help you get your entrepreneurial feet wet
before diving into larger, broader, more competitive
categories.
Find anything that can help you understand what customers are looking for and
asking about similar products. Google Trends is a great place for inspiration too.
3 Search Amazon
Once you have some idea of what you could sell, see what’s already on the platform.
Who’s selling similar things, and what are they doing well/not so well? Are customers
happy with the product? Anything you can learn and do better for your store?
What you’re looking for: products with interest, some level of longevity, and few competitors.
The first choice you’ll make in this process is whether After selecting your account type, follow
to start as an Individual or Professional seller. these steps:
• Click and drag the widgets in your dashboard to customize the layout.
• Create pricing rules to track when your competitors change their prices, and adjust yours accordingly.
• If you set up a brand store, the brand analytics section will be available.
This can help you monitor customers, clicks, and conversions. With these
you may find opportunities for cross-selling and up-selling.
• The Amazon Selling Coach offers business tips and prompts
to professional sellers.
By this stage you should have your inventory How to optimize your
ready to go and your account set up. listings:
When it comes to listing your items, there are the practical Titles: A good title gets all the key
steps and the optimization steps. You don’t just want your information across as seamlessly as
items listed. You want them to stand out. possible. Think about what keywords
you can include that match what your
customers search for. This will help
Let’s start with the practical steps: Amazon sift through relevant listings
and ideally show yours. Here’s what it
might look like:
From Seller Central, open the Inventory
2
You can either search for a product from
Bonus tip: Mobile users see
Amazon’s catalog or click Create a new
50-80 characters.
product listing.
Ok, so you’ve got the basics Next it’s time to learn about how to boost your
performance. This might be organically or through paid
in place. Listings are up, they
advertising.
look good, and you’ve included
Amazon uses rankings to help customers see how certain
keywords that your customers
sellers and items are performing compared to others. Let’s
use to search. check those out first, and then ways you can attract and
retain your customers to boost these rankings.
Keywords
Keywords are words or phrases that people use to search for something
online. It can help your visibility to find out what these are and weave them
into your content. Check out our Amazon SEO Guide for more info.
Just about every item on Amazon has one or Have you noticed that convenient box on
more BSR. This tells customers how the item the right of every Amazon listing with a big
is performing within its category/categories. yellow “Buy now” button? That’s the buy
box. And the chosen listing scores around
For example, a smartwatch could have a BSR 82% of sales.
of third in the “Watch” category. It might also
be tenth in the “Electronics” category. It’s designed to be as quick and frictionless
for customers as possible, so only the best
BSR improves the more sales are made on performing listings will do. You can check
that item. It is updated hourly, and can help whether your items are eligible for the buy
customers visualize how items compare. The box under Inventory > Manage Inventory
only way you can influence a better BSR is in Seller Central.
through increasing sales of your items.
Typical buy box winners are competitively
priced, new items, often Prime eligible,
have consistently positive feedback, and
1
2 consistent inventory levels.
3
4
Section takeaways
Amazon sellers will likely tell you that accounting for their
stores is one of the most challenging parts.
That’s down to a number of things. The numerous and varying fees are a key
culprit. Then there’s sales tax which, for ecommerce, is a minefield of complexity.
Not to mention income tax, which you’ll likely need to be paying too.
Automating the things that could topple your business will not only ensure
accuracy and consistency, but give you the time back to focus on growth.
Accounting
Money is the lifeblood of your Amazon business. In order to keep a healthy, resilient business going,
there are some vital organs you need in place.
Don’t rely on spreadsheets. They may be When it comes time to pay you, Amazon
free, but they don’t come ready made for will send one payout to your bank. This
running a business. You would need to build single number will encompass multiple
them from the ground up, never miss a value transactions, including money that isn’t yours
or make a mistake with a formula, and be to keep (like sales tax). And money you might
constantly updating them. They are useful be receiving from a returned sale, so don’t
tools but should not be used in place of want to count as new.
purpose-built accounting software.
But you won’t know this without trailing
through records and manually separating
everything out.
Our picks: Xero, Quickbooks, and Sage.
A2X was designed by Amazon sellers to
alleviate this problem. Rather than having
transaction data sent in volume to your
accounting software for you to organize
later, A2X intercepts it and does this for you.
• Who has to pay: If you’re eligible to pay, and your products • Listing products
are taxable, then your customer will pay the sales tax at
You can also automate more
checkout.
extrinsic aspects like:
• How to collect it: Some states require Amazon to collect • Social media
and remit sales tax on your behalf. This obligation was
• Advertising
introduced under marketplace facilitator laws. If you are
required to collect it, you need to register in the appropriate • Marketing
states. Then you can manage your tax collection settings in • Feedback
Seller Central under Settings > Tax Settings.
Just ensure that you prioritize
• How to remit it: Each state requires you to file in different where your investment is going.
ways and at different frequencies. Tax apps can help with It should all start with your
this process. accounts (and inventory) first.
• The apps to automate it: Sales tax apps help simplify all of If you created an Amazon
this for you. The correct tax amounts are put aside as you business plan, you could use it
receive them based on each state’s requirements - even as to predict when you might want
they change. (Alaska changed its rate annually from 2019- to add new apps to your stack.
2021). You can also use many of them to file on time and By adding them gradually, you
accurately, ensuring you’re fully compliant. can remove any redundant costs
and keep only what is generating
results.
Our picks: TaxJar, Avalara, and Sovos Taxify.
10 Learn more...
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