Tips for selling better on Amazon and ecommerce marketplaces

In this post we’re sharing some tips for selling on Amazon. And long time no blog, or so it seems, as we’ve fallen into the common trap of having our noses firmly to the grindstone. As a result, updating our blog has, regrettably, fallen a little by the wayside of late.

However, as the year progresses, it seemed an apt way to mark the milestone of the 4^th birthday of Online Star last month by sharing our 4 top tips for selling on Amazon, and how to make selling on Amazon better. It just so happens that we also apply these every day to what we do, too.

What do we mean by ‘better’? We are talking about integrity, quality, growth, constant improvement (in a kaizen sense) and making sure that such progress, no matter how small the steps may sometimes seem, is continual.

These 4 tips are also formative pillars which underpin everything about Online Star, who we are and what defines our approach: Doing things right, to high quality, enabling growth and seeking constant improvement.

Integrity

There are two aspects to this which stand out the most – what Amazon does, and what us as sellers, support provisions, agencies and consultants can do. Amazon has made large strides in stamping out what, in SEO-terminology, could be described as ‘black hat’ listing techniques. Examples of this would be utilising content from other brands or sellers, cloning products and using the assets and imagery of others, trademark violations and, potentially, trying to get other sellers into trouble.

We always aim to apply best practice, adhering fully to all platform and listing requirements, and will apply the measures Amazon makes available to help to police and protect brand and product integrity. As the number of sellers on Amazon’s marketplaces has shown strong double digit growth in the past 4 years, it continues to be not only increasingly competitive, but also an ever-changing landscape. Continuing to review requirements, compliance and applying best practice forms an integral part of what we do.

Quality

Good quality content on Amazon extends its benefits far beyond the platform. Amazon, like for example the BBC or Wikipedia, is viewed by the search engines as an authoritative source, so product and brand pages tend to index highly on search engine results pages. Ensuring this is catered for when creating content is advisable.

We often work with brands where the aim is best in class content on Amazon, yet they haven’t applied the same approach to their website. There are a number of good practice elements to Amazon’s online shopping proposition – main product image on a white background, up to 7 images per product and a video where available, key product features (bullet points) and a good title and description. The audience also merits consideration, and there are more nuances to this than we can cover in this blog post. We typically recommend a brand’s own direct website is updated first with a view to then emulating that good quality content elsewhere. That way, the direct website becomes the priority for updating first, and remains the oracle of information and content pertaining to the brand and its products – as it should.

Growth

Tips for selling on Amazon and eBay abound, as it isn’t easy and requires time, patience and strategy. A feature not only of online selling, but also of life itself, is that growth tends to engender success. Our approach is to look to contribute to growth for a brand’s presence, product placement and, ultimately sales. Given that Amazon is also a discovery platform for many shoppers, it carries growth potential beyond the obvious millions of visitors monthly. We prefer to manage growth sustainably, keeping an eye on costs to preserve margin and ensure growth (and sales) are profitable. We also advise on minimising margin reduction and keeping the overall cost of sale at an appropriate level to foster that growth.

Constant improvement

Improvement and progress can be measured in many ways. Our view is that improvement, no matter how small, is still movement in the right direction. This is why we apply the principles of kaizen with our work. Continuous improvement is a methodology, a constant direction which helps by avoiding over-engineering at any one time and enabling more lean and agile techniques.

This is one of the reasons why, whilst we consider we have a high level of expertise where selling on Amazon is concerned, we don’t tend to use the term ‘experts’. It’s a relative term and the journey does not stop, so constant improvement means that every day there is at least one learning and improvement opportunity. Whilst this can bring its challenges, it also means that we continue to grow our learning, aptitude and knowledge and this helps to avoid becoming complacent, too.

Many others may also champion some of these tips or precepts of course, but we’re convinced that (as with our Amazon approach) our assembly and application of these makes us different. If you’d like to discuss how we can help to solve problems you may have with Amazon, would like more tips for selling on Amazon, or simply want to develop these 4 principles further, then you’re extremely welcome to get in touch with us.

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters