Selling On Amazon For The First Time – What You Should Know

Selling On Amazon For The First Time – What You Should Know

Getting started selling on Amazon

Amazon have their guide for this – They hold your hand as you do this! But here are some key points to know

• Make sure you’re not selling in a currently restricted category – clothing, Baby products, beauty, food, healthcare, jewelry, personal care, shoes & watches. 
• Make sure you’re not selling used items in categories they allow (check https://services.amazon.co.uk/services/sell-online/categories.html?ref=asuk_soa_soa_categorydetails for details. ) 
• If you’re selling handmade or homemade items, consider selling in Amazon Handmade 
• If you’re selling refurbished products like laptops, consider selling in Amazon Renewed

Go to Amazon Services – https://services.amazon.co.uk

To sign up to sell, you’ll be required to put in your details – this is fairly self-explanatory. We’ll run through the steps here & provide some guidance on what options you need to select as part of the process. 

Don’t worry if it seems daunting, you only have to do it once!

• Setup & verify your email
• Enter a legal name (registered company & your full name OR just your full name)
• Take a read of the T&Cs – there’s a few important bits in there (I’ll highlight them later)
• Pick a “unique sell name” – this will be what people see when they buy it, so keep it simple & similar to your bricks & mortar store name (e.g. Lingerie Outlet Store). Once you’re done – fill out the rest of the details!
  • If you have a website already, you can authorise Amazon to use your website to get the products you sell on there already. If you don’t – don’t worry! We’ll go through that later!)
• Set up your Billing & deposit method – make sure that the bank account you want the sales to go into to go in here. Billing will be how Amazon charges you for the privilege of selling on their site.
• Provide your tax information – It’s super simple but you’ll need to answer them correctly with no errors. 

You’re almost at the end!

• If you have UPC’s, GTIN’s, ISBN’s etc for all your products (barcodes that are registered nationally, or all the products you sell are sold by others) then click yes in the UPC’s question. If not, you may need to buy some barcodes for your products. 
• If you own a brand & manufacture all your products e.g. if you sell clothes which are made for your store, only your store, and aren’t sold elsewhere, OR you’re the owner of a brand and re-sell to other stores, click yes to this question. If you only own & make some of them, click sometimes, otherwise no. 

As a rule – if you make your own products in-house & buy your own UPC’s (barcodes), then the likely answer is yes, you own a brand. If you simply resell items you buy from wholesalers and don’t customise them (e.g. you sell Dulux paint) then you do not own a brand. 

• If you can sell in bulk to businesses, and can remove the VAT, click on “yes” to the “would you like to sell to business buyers”
• Select how many different products you’d like to sell. This can be changed later, so consider selling only your best products now – Selling products on amazon can be time consuming to setup so a lot of people use a 3rd party integration to speed this up – you may want to do this if you find Amazon is working for you and you have 100’s of items. 
• You need to make sure you select all of your products. Remember – if you select any of the categories listed at the start, you’ll need to be approved – this can take time so do it sooner rather than later!

Hints/Tips for Once you’re set up to & to list on Amazon. 

To make a high quality listing you’ll need to follow these simple rules:

Title – For the title length, you have about 60-80 characters (letters) to use. Titles should be clear & to-the-point and where needed describe what the product is for! Use up characters but don’t pad them out with unhelpful information.

Include Bullet points (features) – aim for 5 points, this seems to be a good number

Photographs are key. On mobile, they take up the vast majority of a screen. On desktop they’re what draws your eye in. 

A few key rules apply here which will mean you can deal with amazon in the long run (and yes, lots of sellers don’t abide by these, but I’ve had one too many sellers kicked off Amazon at their peak for breaking these!

• White Background. No If’s, no buts. White background is needed. 
• Only the product included in the image. That’s no “special offer” nor any photoshop work done to it
• If you don’t have good photos already, lightboxes & a good phone camera can help OR manufacturer images that they provide!
• 5-8 images of the product – any fewer & you’re missing a massive opportunity.

Description – Aim for 400 characters long, really take some time highlighting the problems your product solves and the unique selling points it has.