Net sales increased 15% to $127.1 billion in the third quarter, compared with $110.8 billion in third quarter 2021.
A Thriving Global Marketplace for Sellers
😲It’s one of the biggest names in e-commerce
😲It gives you a viable income stream
😲It’s trusted by hundreds of millions of people worldwide
How to Register
✔️Valid credit card to cover any fees ✔️Government-issued national ID ✔️Tax information ✔️Phone number If you’re worried about making the wrong choice, it’s possible to change your plan any time. However, note that additional selling fees apply when you switch plans.
Costs
❗️Subscription Fees ❗️Selling Fees Selling fees are charged for each item that’s sold. These fees cover referral and variable closing fees. The former refers to the percentage of the product’s selling price and may vary according to its category. Meanwhile, the latter is only applied to media categories. ❗️Shipping Fees ❗️FBA Fees 💯 Manage payments 💯 Access custom business reports 💯 Monitor your seller performance 💯 Communicate with your customers
Chapter 3. Sales Strategies You Can Employ
👉Private label
Private labeling has become a popular and common practice because of the benefits it affords companies. It gives you adaptability and control in many aspects of the marketing process, from production and pricing to branding.
👉Drop shipping
Another feasible and hugely popular sales strategy is drop shipping, which is a relatively low-risk order fulfillment method. If you opt for drop shipping, you’d be partnering with a third-party supplier that fulfills your customers’ orders on your behalf. It eliminates the need for entrepreneurs to have warehouses and do inventory. Plus, you won’t need to put in a big investment for you to start drop shipping. While the process of placing products on your online store with marked up prices and having another company fulfill them for you may seem easy, it can still have its fair share of drawbacks. These include it being a very competitive marketplace and lack of control in your supply chain. With drop shipping, it can also be difficult to establish your own brand, given that you have no control over the products’ branding. However, if you already have a solid e-commerce business, drop shipping may work to your advantage. An established e-commerce business gives you regular traffic and a slew of regular customers, giving drop shipping the potential to succeed.
👉Wholesale trade
👉Online arbitrage
Similar to drop shipping, online arbitrage isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme. However, it does offer an expansive range of products that you can incorporate into your inventory. It’s also easily scalable. Moreover, when done properly, online arbitrage can save you time and effort, since it eliminates the need to go to retail.
👉Handmade products
🧐 Craft a solid business plan
You also need to do your homework. This means conducting research, identifying your target market, finding the right suppliers, and planning how to promote your products. By having a well-thought-out business plan, you’d be able to operate your business more efficiently, mitigate risks, and address challenges better.
🧐 Know your niche
If you find a niche that works for you, you can sell online and stay competitive. However, you need to have an objective analysis of your niche and ensure that your buyer persona is clear. You should also use Google Shopping to get a better perspective of how many sellers are marketing the same product and make comparisons of the minimum advertised price (MAP).
🧐 Start looking for products
When choosing a product, consider these factors: ✔️It should be able to generate sales. ✔️It should make an impact on your customers. ✔️Your product should be easy to sell and ship. ✔️Items should be affordable to source from your supplier. When researching potential products to sell, check out all the other e-commerce platforms, like Alibaba and eBay, and retail outlets that carry your prospective products. You can also use a keyword research tool. Keyword reports can give you an idea of what products people often look up. You can also use them to assess how in-demand your prospective product is. 🔎Electronics 🔎Clothing, shoes, and jewelry 🔎Home and kitchen 🔎Beauty and personal care 🔎Books 🔎Cellphones and accessories 🔎Movies and TV 🔎Pet supplies
🧐Finding a supplier
Finding the right products to market is only half the battle. You also need to find a reliable supplier or manufacturer for your stocks. This can be an arduous process, especially if you want to find a supplier that best fits your needs. When looking for a supplier, you have three options: overseas vendors, local manufacturers, or local trade shows. Now, one of the easiest ways to find suppliers is to go online, keeping in mind that you want access to high-quality products that won’t negatively affect your brand’s reputation. Many FBA sellers source their products from overseas suppliers that they found on online marketplaces, like Alibaba or AliExpress. You can also support local business by sourcing your products from local manufacturers. Meanwhile, local trade shows provide you with the opportunity to communicate with suppliers and learn more about their products. To find the right supplier, you need to get in touch with them. Order sample products and see if they’re up to your standards. Ask questions about the minimum order quantity, order limit, shipping charges, and product quality. Remember that you want to offer products that are worth your customers’ time and money. It follows that you should thoroughly check the quality of the products before selling them.
🧐 Come up with a brand
The next step is to come up with a brand logo. For this, you can look into hiring a graphic designer or going the DIY route. Make sure that your logo would reflect your brand identity and would be easy for your customers to identify. You also need to consider what your brand’s theme and tagline should be, making sure that they’re both unique and true to your brand’s image and messaging.
🧐 Listing Your Products
To create an effective listing, consider adding relevant keywords and exercising your creativity. These make your listings relevant and appealing to potential customers and they’re able to convey a lot of information. When creating product listings, you need to come up with the following elements: 📝Product titles 📝Product description 📝Professional-quality product photos Moreover, product listings should have the following: 📝Global Trade Item Number (GTIN), such as a UPC, ISBN, or an EAN 📝SKU 📝Search terms and relevant keywords To ensure that your product listings are successful, add descriptive titles and concise but accurate and informative descriptions to your items. Moreover, follow best practices, such as: ✔️Considering product variation and whether or not each product warrants a separate listing ✔️Ensuring that images comply with size requirements (at least 500 x 500 pixels or 1000 x 1000 pixels) for high-quality listings and be set against a plain white background ✔️Making sure that your product UPCs and GTINs are consistent Once you’ve listed your products, they’ll be available to both B2B and B2C customers, thus allowing you to extend your customer reach using a single account.
🧐 Delivering Your Products
You first need to consider how you’re going to get the items to your customers before you start taking orders and fulfilling them.
🧐 What to Do After Your First Sale
Making your first sale heralds a number of growth opportunities for your online business. Once you’ve covered the basics, established your store, and observed best practices, here are some important things to consider: 📝Managing your inventory As with any business, it’s crucial to monitor and manage your inventory. You don’t want to be saddled with spoiled products or unfulfilled orders due to poor inventory management. You should track and maintain ideal inventory levels, which allow you to keep up with customer demand while minimizing the risk of overstocking or having depleted stocks. 📝Keeping an eye on your performance metrics ✔️Less than 1% order defect rate ✔️Less than 2.5% pre-fulfillment cancel rate ✔️Late shipment rate that should ideally fall under 4% 📝Monitoring and responding to customer reviews You can ask your customers for reviews as social proof of transaction experience, especially when they’re satisfied with your product. Having a significant amount of positive feedback can help drive sales and conversions. If you receive a negative review, you can use it to your advantage as well. How you respond to reviews, whether positive or negative, can impact the way customers perceive your brand. Do your research on what not to do when it comes to customer reviews to avoid policy violations.
Chapter 5. Opportunities for Growth
🔎Sponsored Products 🔎Sponsored Brands You’re also eligible to offer your promotions and coupons to your customers. You can choose from three types: 🔎Money off 🔎Free shipping 🔎Buy one, get one free ✔️List more products for a better, expanded product selection Alcohol Animals and animal-related products Export controls Lock picking and theft devices Recycling electronics Warranties
