That doesn’t mean Amazon FBA is right for every brand, or in all circumstances. As you expand your eCommerce capabilities, the Amazon FBA vs. FBM debate can become difficult to resolve.

This post will help by walking you through the details of both options, along with some tips on inventory management and additional automation opportunities you should consider.

What is Amazon FBA Inventory Management?

Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) Inventory Management is a system that allows your business to organize, track, and optimize your store product inventory in their fulfillment centers.

The platform handles critical inventory and order management tasks like:

• monitoring stock levels
• forecasting product demand
• replenishing inventory
• fulfilling orders
• handling returns

How Amazon FBA Inventory Management Works

When a customer places an order, Amazon handles the picking, packing, shipping, and customer service, providing sellers with a streamlined and efficient way to fulfill orders and reach a broader customer base.

Amazon FBA Setup Steps:

Setting up an Amazon FBA account is the first step to leveraging the platform’s fulfillment capabilities. Follow these simple steps and benefit from streamlined order fulfillment, access to Prime customers, and the means for providing excellent customer service.

Step 1: FBA Setup 

Create your Amazon selling account and log in to Seller Central to set up FBA.

Step 2: List Your Products 

Add your products to the Amazon catalog and indicate them as FBA inventory.

Step 3: Product Preparation 

Follow Amazon’s packing guidelines and shipping requirements to ensure your products are prepared safely and securely for transportation to a fulfillment center.

Step 4: Send to Amazon 

Create a shipping plan, print Amazon shipment ID labels, and send your shipments to designated Amazon fulfillment centers.

What is Amazon FBM?

Amazon FBA isn’t the only way to manage the process of getting online orders shipped to consumers. The company also offers Amazon Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM), where sellers either manages or works with a third party to handle areas such as inventory placement, storage, shipping, processing returns and customer service issues.

Key Differences Between Amazon FBA and FBM

Evaluating Amazon FBA vs. FBM requires thinking across a range of business factors, some of which will be more important than others depending on the size of your company, typical order volumes and your strategic goals.

Startup Costs and Fees

Be prepared for a wide range of fees when you get started with Amazon FBA. These not only include per-unit fees but monthly charges for storing inventory, return fees for some product categories, package prep fees and more. In contrast, Amazon FBM only involves paying an annual subscription fee.

On the flip side, fulfilling your own orders means you’ll have to have your own warehouse (or work with a partner with more cost-effective services than Amazon’s) and other in-house resources for picking, packing and shipping your products.

Control Over Shipping and Customer Interaction

Amazon FBA is akin to many traditional outsourcing services, which free up the companies that use them to concentrate on areas like developing better products, marketing and nurturing customer relationships.

In some cases, though, staying close to customer needs and expectations can become harder when you fulfill orders through intermediaries, which is where Amazon FBM might be the better approach. Amazon FBM also means you’re not affected by sudden changes in fulfillment policies and support options that Amazon makes occasionally.

Inventory Management and Logistics

Unless you already have a background or experience in order fulfillment, option for Amazon FBM will require extensive learning and development across your company. This isn’t as big of an issue for companies when they first launch, but the complexity can increase as your volume of orders goes up. Of course, handing off everything through Amazon FBA means you’ll never master these areas, either.

Scalability and Growth Potential

Most brands want to continually add more customers, increase revenue and expand into international markets. Taking the Amazon FBA approach allows you to scale and grow without worrying about the impact on order fulfillment. If you decide to go the Amazon FBM route instead, you’ll just have to develop a business plan that takes into account the potential need for more warehouses, staff and other resources.

Pros and Cons of Amazon FBA

There’s a lot to be said for using Amazon FBA, but also a few tradeoffs:

Pro: Stress-free shipping

The process of picking, packing and transporting products from a warehouse to a customer’s doorstep can be highly complex, time-consuming and expense. Amazon FBA provides an option to completely outsource this area so brands can focus their attention entirely on marketing, selling and developing their products.

Con: Higher expenses

Selling your own products can require significant capital expense. Using Amazon FBA means you’ll be responsible for a range of storage and fulfillment fees, as well as the costs of sitting on inventory if sales don’t reach expected levels.

Pro: Prime shipping

There’s a reason Amazon has managed to develop one of the most popular loyalty programs of all time. Free shipping for Prime members can make all the difference with customers who aren’t sure whether to go through with a purchase. Using Amazon FBA means your products can offer Prime shipping too, offering an immediate competitive advantage over brands that aren’t.

Con: Policy compliance

Selling with Amazon FBA means agreeing you’ll adhere to all its guidelines. These include the way products are added to its database, packaging and other specifications. It can take time to learn Amazon FBA policies and ensure you’re maintaining compliance on an ongoing basis.

Pro: Post-purchase journey management

Customers will remember (and reward) brands that help them with customer service issues and process returns without a hassle. Brands that use Amazon FBA effectively outsource their customer service operation, and the company has a proven track record in bringing efficiency to product returns.

Con: Inventory fluctuations

The flip side of Amazon’s best-in-class returns process is that customers may send more of your products back than expected, in some cases buying multiple versions or styles to try them first. Having Amazon serve as a fulfillment partner can also make it difficult to maintain full visibility into what you have in stock.

Pros and Cons of Amazon FBM

Similarly, companies thinking about Amazon FBM should weigh the following risks and rewards:

Pro: Increased profit

If you’re a brand selling high-value products (like luxury fashion and accessories) with relatively low order volumes, using Amazon FBM could potentially mean a wider profit margin than outsourcing your fulfillment processes.

Con: Greater resource investment

Even a profitable company will have to ensure they offset the absence of Amazon resources to help manage order fulfillment, returns and related tasks. The amount of warehouse space you’ll need to store products can also vary widely during periods like the holiday season, which makes planning how much time, effort and equipment you’ll be investing in these areas even more difficult.

Pro: Flexibility for personalized experiences

When you choose Amazon FBM you retain full control over how your products are packaged, which could allow you to personalize orders for your most valuable customers. You’ll also be able to make judgment calls on whether to waive fees or other policies when a loyal customer needs to process a return.

Con: The lack of Prime status

In most cases products fulfilled via Amazon FBM are not eligible for Prime. This cuts your brand out from a large number of established Amazon customers who regularly make purchases in order to justify their monthly membership fees.

Pro: More opportunities to gather and analyze data

Managing fulfillment on your own could help deepen insights in customer shopping patterns, distribution channel preferences and more. This opens the door to creating customer segments and a more tailored approach to marketing and selling your products.

Con: Greater risk of negative outcomes

If orders arrive slowly, late or the wrong product is delivered, you’ll only have your own fulfillment operation to blame. However those mistakes can add up, having an adverse affect on areas such as customer retention and customer lifetime value.

How the Amazon FBA vs. FBM Decision Can Affect Your Multichannel eCommerce

Many brands are not only selling their products on their own websites and online marketplaces like Amazon but via additional eCommerce channels. These channels can be highly proprietary and a lack of integration can cause problems in taking and fulfilling orders. If your company has reached this level of complexity, Amazon FBA might be the desired option due to factors such as:

Managing Inventory Across Multiple Channels

Amazon FBA includes Multi Channel Fulfillment (MCF) services, whereby sellers can use API plug-ins to connect popular eCommerce channels such as WooCommerce and Magento. Amazon also offers multi-channel listing software so you can making listings from a single location.

If you go with Amazon FBM, you’ll have to address this on your own or with a trusted third party with experience in multichannel eCommerce integration and product listing.

Ensuring Fast Shipping and Quality Control

Regardless of the Amazon FBA vs. FBM question, all customers will want the same thing: to have the right product arrive in a timely manner without any damage or other quality control issues.

Beyond speed of order fulfillment, some of the most common quality control problems stem from a lack of poor inventory management. Here’s how to address them:

• Stockouts: Inadequate inventory management can sometimes lead to frequent stockouts, where your products become unavailable for purchase. This results in missed sales opportunities, dissatisfied customers, and potential damage to your seller’s reputation.> Amazon’s re-stock guide helps to keep your stock up-to-date.

• Overstocking: Poor inventory management may lead to overstocking, where you hold excessive inventory that ties up capital and storage space. Overstocking can increase storage fees, inventory obsolescence, and reduce profitability.>The Manage Excess Inventory page in your Seller Central FBA account helps you maintain the right inventory levels.

• Inaccurate Order Fulfillment: Fulfilling customer orders is only possible with accurate inventory management. You could mistakenly accept orders for products that are no longer in stock, leading to cancellations, negative reviews, and customer dissatisfaction.>Amazon’s Inventory Management Dashboard is an excellent way to track your orders and inventory.

• Inefficient Replenishment: The inability to accurately forecast customer demand and manage inventory numbers can result in inadequate replenishment. Sellers may experience delays in restocking.>Use a tool like Amazon’s re-stock guide to avoid these holdups.

How Suvae.org Can Help You to Simplify Product Inventory Management

The good news is that the right technology solutions can streamline and automate many core eCommerce processes, no matter how your Amazon FBA vs. Amazon FBM comparison turns out. When brands work with Suvae.org, for instance, they gain access to capabilities such as:

Multichannel optimization solutions to ensure seamless order fulfillment

Suvae.org turns product data optimization and product feed development into a managed service. This means you can connect with popular eCommerce channels with ease and have full confidence in how orders are collected and processed for fulfillment.

Inventory management solutions for Amazon FBA sellers

The most successful eCommerce companies have a clear line of sight into what’s in stock and what’s not. Suvae.org’s platform acts like a hub between your products and key selling channels, allowing you to synchronize data between your product catalog and Amazon’s warehouses.

Integration with popular marketplaces like Amazon

Getting set up to sell on Amazon can take a lot of manual work, which increases the risk of errors. Suvae.org’s marketplace integration services handle everything from product listings to category mappings. In fact, Amazon is just one of more than 50 marketplaces where Suvae.org can help brands extend their reach.

Contact us today to schedule a demo and discover how Highstree.io can help you automate and centralize your marketplace workflow.

The post Amazon FBA vs FBM: How Brands Should Decide appeared first on Suvae.org.

Besides manufacturing products, you had to set up a warehouse to store your inventory. You’d need to buy trucks. Then you’d have to hire reliable staff to drive them.

This was all before figuring out how to ship products across multiple countries and currencies.

Then came dropshipping. What is it? For many people, dropshipping is a business model that has made online entrepreneurship possible for the first time.

Dropshipping: what it is and how it works

Dropshipping means you’re outsourcing key areas of fulfilling eCommerce orders. This includes procuring products, storing and shipping them to customers.

How to dropship depends on the partners and providers you use. In the most common scenarios, your focus as a seller is on marketing and attracting customers to your online storefront or marketplace. Then, as orders get placed, sellers confirm them to customers, pass the order information to their dropshipping service partners who fulfill them.

For sellers who master how dropshipping works, eCommerce becomes highly efficient. Instead of making their own products, for instance, they can sell goods from other vendors and take a cut. As long as they can ensure a good customer experience across the entire eCommerce journey, it can be a profitable business model.

Researchers estimate dropshipping will grow on a global level by nearly 24% between now and 2032, becoming a market worth more than $1.9 billion.

That said, sellers shouldn’t be fooled by images of sitting by the beach running an eCommerce business with little more than a laptop. Dropshipping has become highly competitive. You have to keep a close eye on profit margins and other key data points. Supply chain disruptions can grind your business to a halt. There are also a number of legal issues and liability risks to consider.

This post will not only answer the question, ‘Dropshipping: what is it?” We’ll also walk through the essential areas you need to know. We’ll not only cover what dropshipping is, but the differences of dropshipping on Amazon and other marketplaces.  We’ll also look at the technologies you need you have in place for dropshipping and how to get started.

Dropshipping without a VAT number: Is it possible?

Dropshipping allows you to begin thinking about growing your business on an international scale from the moment you launch. While digital channels have made it easier to market and sell to customers in almost any geography, you also have to take into consideration legislation that governs these processes. The United Kingdom’s value-added tax (VAT) is a good example. Read before you try dropshipping without a VAT number.

Having a VAT number is a standard practice for many businesses, but the requirements from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) differ depending on where you operate. This is true for those using dropshipping suppliers as well. If you’re based in the U.K., for example, you’ll only need to register for a VAT number if your turnover exceeds more than £85,000 a year.

For those selling from outside the U.K., however, dropshipping without a VAT number is impossible if your target market includes U.K. customers. This includes those based in Italy or many other countries.

Fortunately, HMRC has simplified the process by offering VAT number registration through its website. Remember to talk to your accountant about whether expenses associated with VAT registration and import fees can be written off as part of filing your business taxes.

ATECO code for dropshipping

One of the most critical steps in getting your VAT number is using the correct ATECO code. First introduced by the Italian National Institute of Statistics in 2008, ATECO codes are a combination of letters and numbers that classify businesses according to the scope of their economic activity. This informs your business in terms of tax rates and social security contributions.

In this case, the ATECO code for eCommerce businesses, including those that use dropshipping services, is 47.91.10. It applies to both online stores that operate as a single brand as well as marketplace entities such as eBay, Amazon and Zalando.

Once you’ve submitted your ATECO code as part of the VAT registration process, you’ll also need to register your business with INPS to determine how much you’ll pay in contributions based on your business revenue. There are also fees you’ll need to pay to the Chamber of Commerce and municipality in which you’re operating. These range from €53.00 to a maximum of € 128.00. Always do your research to check for any changes to these requirements and consult a taxation or accounting expert to field any other questions.

Dropshipping suppliers: Which are the most reliable?

Although dropshipping takes away many of the headaches associated with selling online, you’ll only succeed based on the quality of your partners.

When you’re looking at manufacturers, for example, you may want to order samples to ensure your customers will get quality items. There should be consistency between what they see on your web site and what arrives at their doorstep, for example. It should work or fit as customers expect.

You also can’t afford to sell products that arrive damaged or incomplete. Items should be properly packaged and in a reasonable timeframe. For some product categories, pricing can be highly competitive, and you don’t want to opt for a manufacturer whose prices will cut in too heavily to your profit margin.

Apply the same attention to detail when you seek out dropshipping suppliers who will handle other stages of your customer experience. Depending on your target market, you’ll want to work with those who have warehouses in reasonable proximity to your customers to save on shipping costs. Suppliers should also be able to demonstrate speed and efficiency in every stage of fulfillment and delivery.

Take the time to discuss critical processes that will have an impact on customer satisfaction and your overall reputation. Things can always go wrong with e-commerce orders, whether it’s sending the wrong size or the customer simply changes their mind. Choose suppliers with reasonable return policies and refund policies. Check to see that they have adequate insurance to cover off any unfortunate errors.

Some sellers launch their business by having a network of several different suppliers that handle each aspect of manufacturing, order management and fulfillment. Another option is to work through an online marketplace. These sites may already have the visitor traffic you need to entice the kind of customers you want.

Better yet, marketplaces often operate a range of dropshipping services that make the process far more streamlined. Here are some of the most common examples:

Amazon dropshipping

Amazon is one of the best-known marketplaces in the world, especially in North America. That means there are likely a lot of potential customers browsing for their next purchase, which could include what you’re trying to sell.

Amazon dropshipping rules include making sure you’re the seller of record. This means you’re not only registered to let consumers make purchases, but that you’re setting prices and taking responsibility for returns. Even if you have other dropshipping suppliers shipping orders, you’re accountable to collecting sales tax and recording your revenue.

eBay dropshipping

It may have started as an online auction house, but eBay has become another giant in eCommerce and sees nearly 740 million visitors a month.

The biggest consideration for eBay dropshipping is to ensure you own the product you’re selling. For example, eBay does not allow you to take orders for a product from a listing you’ve posted and then purchase from another party that is also selling on eBay.

As long as you have a dropshipping supplier who can store your products on your behalf – or if you have a wholesale agreement – you can drop ship on eBay, which it also calls “product sourcing.” Other standard eBay dropshipping policies include making sure your items arrive safely based on the timeframe your listing includes, and that you take ownership of customer satisfaction and service.

Zalando dropshipping

With a focus on selling clothing and accessories, Zalando has continued to become a huge player in the European eCommerce market. Its most recent reports showed the overall volume of active customers have grown by 6%, reaching a total of more than 51 million shoppers.

Dropshipping on Zalando can be done through its Partner Program, which provides sellers not only with access to its marketplace but resources such as Zalando Partner University and the ZDirect platform to manage your online presence. Zalando governs dropshipping and other sales approaches based on its customer experience model (CXM), a set of key performance indicators it monitors to ensure it has the right members in its partner program.

What to sell through dropshipping? Discover the most searched products

The dropshipping model works for almost any physical product. You can find sellers who have been successful creating eCommerce businesses around everything from air fryers and camping gear to interior décor and pet toys. Fashion, however, represents one of the most promising dropshipping niches.

In a study that compared categories such as electronics, toys, furniture and food, fashion emerged as the top dropshipping segment. The same research has forecast fashion dropshipping to reach a compound annual growth rate of nearly 25% by 2030.

Signature clothing and apparel is a natural choice for dropshipping sellers. The products are always in-demand among online shoppers and easy to advertise through digital channels such as social media. Luxury fashion and style products also present considerable upsell and cross-selling opportunities, given that footwear and accessories can often complement existing purchases.

A category like fashion also provides a good reminder of choosing the right supplier. Signature clothing may be more prone to competition and returns, which means sellers should aim for providing an experience that is as easy and seamless as possible. Customers will expect to find the items they want quickly, and feel confident they’re ordering what is already in stock.

How much can you earn through dropshipping?

The revenue you’ll generate by operating your eCommerce brand with dropshipping services can be difficult to predict. Research the following areas to inform your calculations:

• Google trending searches: Use keywords that represent your niche and its products and get a sense of how often consumers are using them as they browse online. This can give an indication of current and future demand.
• Average order value: Explore retail industry analyst studies that show how much consumers tend to spend on the kind of products you’ll be selling.
• Average monthly visitors: Estimate the traffic you could achieve through online advertising and other marketing tactics. Alternatively, look at visits to popular online marketplaces where you could feature your brand.

With these data points in place, you can develop a conservative estimate based on a conversion rate of 1.01% and 1.04% and apply it to your expected average monthly visitors based on the average order value.

Successful sellers spend a lot of time in this area, factoring in macroeconomic conditions, tracking regional online shopping trends and ongoing analysis of the top competitors in their respective niche.

Dropshipping and invoices: Step-by-step operation

Managing stock, order fulfillment and other areas bring a lot of value to busy eCommerce sellers, and your suppliers deserve to be paid consistently and on time.

Invoicing for dropshipping services works a little differently than in a traditional physical retail environment, where a customer pays a merchant directly for a product it manufactured itself. The process usually looks something like this:

Step 1

A consumer browses the seller’s virtual store, which is fed with product catalog data connected to all key suppliers.

Step 2

Consumers place orders which are sent by the seller to the dropshipping suppliers, who then fulfill the orders.

Step 3

Suppliers generate a purchase order and invoice the seller for each item. This is where special discounts, dropshipping service fees, returns allowances and other terms are applied.

Step 4

Sellers pay the invoices, often through a business credit card or payment portal.

Step 5

Suppliers sent a receipt to sellers confirming payment.

Sometimes sellers can work out agreements with suppliers to be invoiced on a weekly or monthly basis. Volume discounts may also be available for sellers who manage to achieve high conversions and orders.

While dropshipping and invoicing may look simple at a high level, there’s a lot that can go wrong behind the scenes. That’s because everything in the steps above is predicated upon using accurate and up-to-date data across both seller and supplier eCommerce platforms.

Invoices don’t just been to be dated properly, for instance. Each one needs to be associated with a PO number from the seller’s ordering system. Ship dates, tracking number, delivery method, handling fees, miscellaneous charges – these are all key pieces of the puzzle. The invoice status needs to be recognized too, as either “outstanding” or “paid.”

Besides ensuring all parties are clear on return policies and handling fees, sellers and dropshipping suppliers will need to negotiate whether batch invoicing is permitted. Advertising co-op dollars and rules around paying for single-item orders are just two examples of other variables to consider. When it’s done well, invoicing should be a simple formality that both dropshipping suppliers and sellers take for granted.

Advantages of dropshipping using Suvae.org

The potential upside of using dropshipping to power an eCommerce business brings a lot of new players into the market. When it comes time to find the right tools, however, you’ll want to work with solution providers with a proven track record that you can trust.

At Suvae.org, for example, we’ve created the technologies that can bring greater peace of mind and confidence to sellers who see dropshipping as the backbone of their business. Work with us because:

• Suvae.org is already the product feed management and marketplace integration services platform of choice for some of the world’s leading retailers.
• Our software ensures the product catalog data shown on a seller’s site or within an online marketplace is the most recent and accurate picture of what’s in stock
• We can not only assist with selling through a seller’s web site or marketplaces but through the most popular social media channels, including Instagram, TikTok and more.
• We work fast – many brands have gotten up and running on marketplaces like Amazon and Zalando in a matter of weeks.
• We’re a true partner – our team provides deep expertise in eCommerce to help guide your long-term marketing and sales strategy.
• Suvae.org is constantly evolving with new features and capabilities to keep pace with the expectations of eCommerce brands and their customers.

Ready to take advantage of dropshipping? Connect with our team to learn more about our solutions, and how we can help you move forward today.

The post Dropshipping Guide: How to sell online anywhere, anytime appeared first on Suvae.org.

While the company sells plenty of its own merchandise to eCommerce buyers, for example, as many as 60% of paid units are sold on Amazon by third-party merchants across a wide range of categories.

The size of the marketplace indeed means there is plenty of competition on Amazon. However, the company continues to offer innovations that help other brands stand out. This includes the “Inspire” feed introduced in late 2022, as well as product discovery tools based on augmented reality and visual search.

How to better list your products on Amazon Marketplace

Much like other online marketplaces, getting products listed on Amazon involves some basic steps.

You’ll need to choose the appropriate product category, determine your pricing strategy, select a fulfillment method, and use keywords Amazon visitors will likely key into the search bar.

Some of these steps will involve some manual effort, but to scale effectively and maximize your eCommerce sales opportunities, you’ll also want to harness the power of automation for your Amazon product data feeds.

Benefits of having an optimized Amazon product data feed

Amazon’s marketplace customers have the same expectations as those who discover your brand through your website or any other channel. They want to see accurate product listings, up to date, and reflect what’s available for purchase.

As you begin to list more products on Amazon, however, maintaining the quality of your data can become incredibly difficult. Updating pricing, available inventory, and other aspects of hundreds of listings or more isn’t a great use of employees’ time.

Beyond taking those chores away, the benefits of automating your Amazon product data feeds include:

1. Listings that do your products justice

When consumers walk into a physical store, you only get one chance to make a first impression. That’s why retailers often put out their best products on a table or rack where discerning customers can notice all the key details.

The same principle applies to online product listings. Your Amazon product data feed should be optimized to ensure you’re providing everything from product titles, descriptions, and images that convert visitors into buyers.

2. Product information customers can trust

Without automation, an Amazon product data feed might only be updated once every few days. That poses a risk that customers will not realize the price of an item they’re considering has changed, or that it’s temporarily out of stock.

Your goal should be to provide real-time updates that reflect the current state of every product in your inventory. That way, you can more easily offer promotions and discounts that drive more activity during periods like Black Friday.

3. Can’t-miss visibility in Amazon search results

Much like when they’re looking up information on Google, many consumers probably don’t want to go past the first page of results when they’re searching on Amazon.

When you put in the work upfront to research the right keywords, an Amazon product data feed will maximize the likelihood your items will rank higher than competitors. And of course, with its one-click buy button, Amazon makes it easy for customers to take the next step when they find what they want.

4. Access to a global market

Unlike the limitations of a physical storefront, eCommerce allows sellers to transcend borders and other geographic boundaries. This is especially true on Amazon, which enjoys billions in sales in markets such as the U.K., Germany, and Japan.

No matter where they’re based, though, your customers should have a consistent experience in terms of the level of detail and timeliness of the data in your listings. Automating your product feed on Amazon will ensure that, even if the same customer decides to browse across more than one Amazon regional site.

5. An end to constant inventory worries

It may sound like a nice problem to have, but when a product proves more popular than expected there can be more disappointed customers than those feeling satisfied. Running out of stock can hurt your reputation as a brand, both with customers and Amazon itself (more on that later in this post).

Think of your product data feed as a trusted assistant who makes managing inventory levels both easy and efficient. Stock getting low? You can set an alert to be notified and take action before it’s too late.

6. Out-price the competition

Depending on the product category, there may be little to truly differentiate your brand from your rivals, other than what you’re asking customers to pay.

Instead of treating this as a race to the bottom in terms of revenue, however, you can use Amazon’s Repricing tool or your analytics to determine what will make the most sense for your business.

Then, when you’re ready, you can use your Amazon product data feed to get new prices up with speed, especially amid moments like Black Friday when you know there are likely a lot of people browsing the marketplace for a deal.

7. A stronger partnership with Amazon

Amazon has to manage a slew of seller relationships, and its priority is understandably to ensure its marketplace meets the highest quality standards.

If your listings aren’t properly formatted, for example, or are missing key attributes, it can jeopardize your brand’s future in Amazon’s marketplace.

This is another example of where relying on manual, human effort doesn’t make sense. A product data feed optimized for Amazon reduces the risk of errors. That not only means you’ll avoid being suspended from Amazon’s marketplace program; you could become one of its most trusted eCommerce partners.

8. Greater capabilities to execute data-driven decision-making

Amazon wants its sellers to share its customer-obsessed approach to eCommerce. That’s why the company offers analytics tools that let them track their performance. Having the data is only the first step, though.

As you get a better understanding of what’s selling and why, you can begin to make tweaks to your listings that will supercharge your conversion rate. It might be adding more details to a single product listing, offering a promotion based on a possible best-seller or simply ensuring you hold onto the right level of inventory for seasonal products.

9. An accelerated path to eCommerce expansion

Creating an Amazon product data feed isn’t an isolated IT project that takes up time and resources. It represents the beginning of a multi-channel sales strategy that can continue to offer dividends.

With your product data optimized, for instance, you can begin to look at other digital channels that are likely to attract your target customers.

This can include social media channels like TikTok, for instance, or even one of the growing number of online marketplaces being offered by brands that are already household names, such as Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s.

10. A customer experience that builds brand loyalty

Customers who initially discover your brand on Amazon’s marketplace may decide to visit your website to learn more. They might pay greater attention when your products show up on Instagram or Facebook. Some will even opt-in to receive your e-mail newsletter for additional promotions and discounts.

The product data feed you set up on Amazon will let you build a relationship with these customers based on a positive experience, where they find what they want and get it sent their way. When they’re satisfied, it’s not just Amazon that benefits – your brand will too.

How to create an Amazon product data feed

Setting up an Amazon product data field involves the following:

1. Open an Amazon seller central account so you have access to send your product data feed to the marketplace. You’ll need to provide a credit card, tax identification information, and basic business information such as your business name, address, and contact details.
2. Link your business bank account to your brand’s Amazon seller account.
3. Choose the local marketplaces Amazon operates that are most relevant to your business in terms of your target customers.
4. Choose your preferred billing plan – unless you’re selling as an individual this will be a professional plan aimed at corporate entities for a nominal monthly fee.
5. Complete your tax interview – Amazon needs to verify the professional status of your business.
6. Enter basic product information – This is where you can clarify whether you’re the manufacturer of the products you’re selling or whether you’re reselling on an OEM’s behalf. You’ll also quantify the volume of products you’ll be selling on Amazon and whether or not you use UPC codes for your products.
7. Add all the necessary data attributes such as product title, category, SKU, price, images, and URL of each item. Don’t forget critical details such as shipping costs if you’re not using Amazon’s fulfillment service. Be as detailed as possible to provide the best experience for Amazon customers.
8. Upload your inventory file: Within your Amazon seller account you’ll visit the inventory page and deliver the content in either text or XML format.

Be prepared to make changes to this feed as you manage your stock levels, customer demand, and many other factors.

Managing your Amazon product data feed with Suvae.org

There’s no need to tackle the complications of setting up an Amazon product data feed on your own. Suvae.org has years of experience helping brands reduce their time to integrate with Amazon’s marketplace and focus on revenue generation.

Reach out to us to learn more about the marketplace integration services we provide. We can offer a demo that will show you what’s possible, and set you up for more sales on Amazon today.

Start Selling On Amazon Marketplace

Related Articles

• How to Sell More Using Amazon Keywords
• Your Ultimate Guide to Amazon Pricing Strategy Success
• What You Don’t Know About Amazon FBA Inventory Management

The post Amazon Product Feed Optimization: 10 reasons to start now appeared first on Suvae.org.

Quick Links:

• Understand the Amazon Marketplace for Sellers
• Monitor Competitor Prices on Amazon
• Win Amazon’s Buy Box
• Test and Tweak Your Amazon Pricing Strategy
• Consider the Impact of Your Amazon Promotions and Discounts
• How an Experienced Amazon Marketplace Integrator Can Help

Understanding the Amazon Marketplace

As an Amazon seller, understanding how to choose the right price for your products is essential for your success. It can be a challenge to determine the best pricing strategy for your products, especially for resellers competing with other companies that may be selling the exact same product.

The following tips will help you better understand pricing on the Amazon marketplace better.

• Research Other Amazon Sellers’ Pricing: To choose the right price for your product on Amazon, research your competitor’s offering related products. You can use Amazon’s search function to find products like yours and compare their prices. Look for products with equivalent features, quality, and customer reviews. By comparing your product to other products, you can establish a competitive price range to stick with.

• Determine Your Target Audience: To decide the right price for your product on Amazon, you need to know who your target audience is. Amazon has a vast customer base, and learning who your product appeals to and how much they are willing to pay for it can help you understand the threshold of how high or low you should set your pricing. You can use Amazon’s customer demographics data to discover who your target audience is and their purchasing habits. This will help you choose a price that is appealing to your target market while also providing you with a reasonable profit margin.

• Consider Your Cost of Production: Sellers that manufacture their products need to factor in the cost of production to develop a profitable product price on Amazon, This includes the cost of materials, manufacturing, shipping, and any expenses related to producing your product. Set a price that covers your costs and provides a reasonable profit margin. It would help if you also consider your overhead costs, such as manufacturing, operations, and marketing, which will affect your pricing strategy.

• Choose a Fair Price for Your Product on the Amazon Marketplace: Once you have researched your competitor’s pricing, considered your cost of production, and determined your target audience, it’s time to set a fair price for your product on Amazon.

Aim for a price that is competitive with other sellers, covers your cost of production, and provides a reasonable profit margin. Pricing too high or too low can impact your sales and revenue, so it’s important to find the right balance.

Monitoring your competitor’s prices on Amazon

By monitoring your competitor’s product prices, you can adjust your pricing strategy according to how sellers are pricing their products. If your prices are too high, customers will choose to buy from cheaper options. If your prices are too low, you may not make a profit. By keeping track of your competitors’ prices, you can make an informed decision on how high or low you’re willing to go. Here are some tips on how to monitor your competitors’ prices effectively.

Manually keep an eye on your competitors’ prices

To monitor your competitors’ prices, one option is to manually monitor their pricing strategies by searching for similar products on Amazon. Keep track of any changes in their pricing and adjust your pricing strategy accordingly. By staying up to date with your competitors’ pricing, you can make informed decisions about your own pricing strategy and stay competitive in the marketplace.

Use automated tools to monitor competitor prices and adjust yours accordingly

There are many tools available to help you monitor your competitors’ prices and adjust your prices. Some third-party tools, such as Jungle Scout, Helium 10, and Perpetua, offer pricing automation features to help you stay ahead of the competition.

When using these tools, it’s worth considering:

1. Cost of your production
2. Overhead expenses
3. Desired profit margin

You can use these tools to monitor your competitors’ prices and update your prices accordingly.

Another option is to use Amazon’s Repricing Tool which allows you to automatically adjust your prices based on your competitors’ prices.

How Amazon’s Repricing Tool Works:

• Develop Your Pricing Strategy: First, create your pricing strategy by defining the minimum and maximum prices for your products. You can also set rules for the repricing algorithm to follow, such as a minimum profit margin or a maximum price decrease

• Monitor Competitor Prices: Amazon Repricer then monitors the prices of your competitors’ products in real-time. It analyzes the prices and data points, such as product reviews, ratings, and sales volume, to determine the optimal price for your products

• Reprice Your Products: Based on your pricing strategy and the data analysis, Amazon Repricer automatically adjusts the prices of your products. It can increase or decrease the prices within the price range and according to your rules

• Monitor Your Performance: The tool then monitors the seller’s performance, such as sales volume, profit margin, and Buy Box percentage. It provides reports and analytics to help you optimize your pricing strategy to stay ahead of your competition

Overall, Amazon’s tool automates your pricing strategy and takes the manual work out of adjusting prices. By using this tool wisely, you can save time to increase your sales and profits.

Win Amazon’s Buy Box

Amazon’s Buy Box is a coveted spot for sellers, as it is the default option for customers to add items to their cart.

Benefits of Winning the Buy Box:

• Increased visibility
• Higher sales
• More revenue

Pricing is a significant factor to win the Buy Box but it’s not the only thing that Amazon looks at when deciding what products to feature.

Focus on:

• Maintaining a high seller rating and positive customer feedback
• Fast and reliable shipping
• Having items in stock
• Fulfilling orders on time

Another factor influencing your chance of being featured in the Buy Box is using Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). You have the advantage of guaranteeing fast and reliable shipping, and you can improve metrics like delivery time and inventory management which may lead to a better customer experience and more positive reviews.

Overall, winning Amazon’s Buy Box requires a combination of factors, and it’s wise to continually monitor and improve these to increase your chances of being featured there.

Test and tweak your Amazon Seller Pricing Strategy

As an Amazon seller, the set-and-forget pricing strategy may work for some brands and retailers but to maximize your profits your pricing will likely need to change.

Think about implementing the following activities to inform your ongoing pricing strategy.

• Conduct thorough market research to determine the average price range for other products in your category. This information can help you set a competitive price point that is attractive to customers while still providing you with a reasonable profit margin

• Experiment with different pricing strategies, such as offering discounts or bundling products. You can also try A/B testing by adjusting the price of your product for a short time and monitoring how it affects sales. This will help you determine the optimal price point for your product

• Pay close attention to customer feedback and reviews about their product’s pricing. If customers are consistently complaining about the price of your product, it may be time to adjust your pricing strategy

By constantly testing and tweaking your pricing strategy, it’s easier to stay competitive and profitable in the ever-changing world of e-commerce.

Consider the impact of Amazon Promotions and Discounts

While discounts and promotions can attract customers and increase sales, they can also reduce profit margins and devalue your brand. This is why it’s critical to analyze the impact of your promotions and discounts on both your short-term and long-term profitability.

Another factor to consider when setting up a promotion is the structure of your product feed and the timing of your promotion. If Amazon is pulling the incorrect promotion price or the price isn’t updated frequently enough to display the correct price at the right time, your profitability could be compromised.

To get a good ROI from your promotions, monitor how your discounts affect your customer’s loyalty and product demand. Understanding the impact of these strategies will allow you to make informed decisions that benefit your business in the long run.

How an experienced Amazon Marketplace Integrator can help

The countless hours on product data optimizations and manual price updates retailers spend can sometimes equate to a full-time job, especially when you factor in your technical team’s time to do your initial integration. By outsourcing your Amazon integration and feed management to an experienced provider, you can significantly reduce the time and effort required to manage your listings effectively.

Here are some key benefits to expect when working with a Marketplace Integration Solution provider:

• Streamlined operations: An integrator can manage your pricing updates and product data optimizations across multiple marketplaces globally, reducing your manual effort and freeing up valuable time for other business activities

• Expert support: An experienced provider can help you seamlessly connect your product data to Amazon and additional marketplaces, while also staying up-to-date with continuously changing marketplace interfaces and requirements

• Enhanced exposure: A Marketplace Integrator can help optimize your product listings and increase exposure on marketplaces. They have valuable expertise from working closely with these platforms, allowing you to improve your product listings and gain more visibility

• Scalability: After integrating with Amazon, a Marketplace Integrator can help you onboard with relevant marketplaces to expand your sales. Providers can offer insight into global and local marketplaces to help you make informed decisions to grow your product sales

Next steps

Optimizing your Amazon pricing strategy is a critical component of success on the platform. By using the right pricing tactics and tools, you can maximize your sales, increase your profit margins, and gain a competitive edge in the marketplace. It’s important to remember that pricing is not a one-time activity but an ongoing process that requires constant monitoring and adjustment. Regularly analyze your competitors’ pricing, monitor your performance metrics, and adjust your strategy accordingly. With a data-driven approach and a willingness to experiment and adapt, you can refine your pricing strategy and take your Amazon sales to the next level.

By applying these tips and insights, you can stay ahead of the competition and achieve sustainable growth in the world’s largest online marketplace.
The right marketplace integration partner like Suvae.org, can help to set you up for success and enjoy the benefits of selling on the world’s largest marketplace.

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Looking at summer sales on Amazon, eMarketer expects Amazon’s Prime Day sales event will generate $12.52 billion in worldwide revenues this year, a year-over-year (YoY) gain of 17.0%, per their new forecast.

So how do you get your Amazon Product listings optimized so they’ll be found by vacationers with money to spend?

It starts with understanding what Amazon product listings are and how consumers use the platform to find what they’re looking for. It may sound straightforward, but as you’ll learn in this post, there are many factors to succeed on the world’s top eCommerce search engine.

What are Amazon Product Listings

Before online shopping, customers that knew exactly what product they were looking for could call the store and put it on hold or go into the store and describe the product by referencing the brand, color, name, material, and any other unique features.

On Amazon, your listing contains all the information on your product page. Amazon does the searching, and the products displayed heavily rely on the data you’ve included with your Amazon product listings.

Basic product listing details:

• Product ID
• Model Number
• Title
• Description
• Color
• Brand
• Price
• Image
• Shipping Details

You provide this information either with a feed or an API specific to Amazon’s requirements.

Keep in mind that not all listings are the same. There could be three resellers listing the same product on Amazon, and their product information could be slightly different.

To get more details on how to list your products, check out Amazon’s Product Listing Guidelines.

Benefits of Selling on Amazon

Picture the world’s biggest, most busy shopping center with an endless variety of products: this is what Amazon would be like as a physical marketplace. It’s the largest eCommerce retailer by online revenue in the world. The net sales from Amazon.com alone skyrocketed in 2022 to 162,360 million US dollars.

Here’s how you can benefit from selling your products on Amazon:

• The ability to use Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) to store and ship your products for a low price allowing your customers the ability to use their Prime membership to get deals on free or inexpensive shipping and short shipping times.
• Expand internationally for a lower cost and less labor than setting up global distribution on your own.
• Be where your customers are. If your customers are on Amazon, it makes sense to list your products where they shop.

Keep reading to find out how your customers use the platform and search around the platform to find products like yours.

How Customers Find Your Product Listing

Like browsing in a physical store, the same shopper that was frantically looking for a phone case yesterday could be back today with more time to browse different brands and promotions.

Picturing your customer’s shopping scenarios isn’t the hard part. To get maximum product exposure, you must understand how Amazon’s platform delivers your product listings.

What to know about Amazon Categories

Imagine a perfectly merchandised brick-and-mortar shop where shoppers can find what they’re looking for at a quick glance.
In her ideal shopping experience, a female customer looking for running shoes walks into the shoe section and immediately sees the Women’s section, an Athletic subsection, and Road Running within that section. Within minutes the shopper can make sense of the categories to find what she’s looking for. .

Categories on Amazon work the same way. There are multiple ways to categorize your products, and the more you think like a shopper browsing in a store section, the better chance you have of being found.

You also need to consider the ultimate goal of earning the Amazon Best Seller badge to help boost your sales. For example, carefully selecting a niche category like “Road Running” in the Women’s shoe section will have less competition than “Women’s shoes,” resulting in a better chance to rank higher in sales.

Choosing the right category is a good first step to getting in front of more customers, but there are more factors to consider if you want to achieve the #1 best-seller spot.

Getting your products on the Best Seller Page

Best Seller products on Amazon are like the most popular items at the front of your store that are flying off the shelves. If you don’t buy them now, they may not be in stock when you return. You can find these items on their Best Seller page and see them marked with the coveted “Best Seller” orange label.

Apple’s AirTag Cases are listed as an Amazon Best Seller this summer. They became popular when leisure travel peaked, and travelers dealt with busy airports and the potential for lost luggage.

The orange badge can be challenging for you to attain but not impossible. You can achieve this status if you get the highest sales numbers in a specific category, which is calculated and updated hourly by sales history and velocity.

To help you build your sales and reach this level, you can leverage a few tactics to attract more customers to your listings. One of these methods is keyword optimization.

How to be found using Amazon Keywords

Similar to Google, the more specific information a shopper includes in their search, the better the chance they’ll find what they’re looking for.

For instance, if a travel shopper uses the keyword “sunscreen” but is looking for a “LaRoche Posay tinted moisturizer with sunscreen,” they’ll get two different sets of results.

This is where good Amazon keyword research helps shoppers find your products. There are two types of keywords to use in your product listings:

1. primary keywords
2. hidden keywords (title & description)

Read more detail on how to How to Sell More Using Amazon Product Listing Keywords

Choosing the right keywords is important but optimizing all of the data using Amazon product listing integration will give your products the best chance of being discovered.

Tips for Amazon Product Listing Integration using Product Feeds

Strolling through a department store, you’ll notice that the same item could be in multiple locations based on factors like brand, color, category, promotion, or popularity. Amazon uses your product data to decide where to place your items on its website. To connect your data, you need some technical expertise in marketplace integration.

Here are a few tips for integrating your products and creating a product feed for Amazon:

1. Use the Amazon Selling Partner API to structure your product data to increase your product’s rankings and listings. This API includes a list of your stock and each item’s attributes.
2. Use Amazon’s Product Listing Guidelines and Product Detail Page Rules to ensure you follow the right requirements to be approved
3. Download a Product inventory file template from Amazon to add your product data to create a data feed
4. To sell globally, register through Amazon Seller Central. If Amazon is managing your product inventory, then your Amazon data feed requires a fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) flag

How an Amazon Product Listing Service can help

The difference between hiring a qualified Amazon Product Listing Optimization, and Marketplace Integration Service is like hiring a reputable tour company that takes care of all of your travel details compared to booking everything yourself.

Suvae.org works with big brands and global retailers, helping them optimize their products for Amazon and other large & niche marketplaces across the globe. Knowing each channel’s changing requirements allows us to structure your product data better so you can get the best results from your product listings and boost sales.

Here’s what Suvae.org Amazon Product Listing Service includes:

• Integrating your product catalog with Amazon
• Managing your orders
• Integrating your sales, tax, and shipping data
• Invoice uploading
• Integrate your stock system
• Amazon FBA support

Ensure highly optimized product data for your Amazon Product Listings to maximize conversions. Reach out to us and start selling more on Amazon!

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The first step is to optimize your keywords. In the following blog post, you’ll find tips on:

• How Amazon keywords work
• How to use Primary Amazon Keywords
• How to use Hidden (Title & Description) Keywords

How Amazon Keywords Work

Unlike Google, the Amazon search function can only display results that include all of the search terms the user entered into the search bar. This is why you want to include as many keyword variants in your title as possible.

Amazon has 2 different categories of keywords it uses to rank products:

• Primary (Title & Description) Keywords
• Hidden Keywords

What are Primary (Title & Description) Keywords?

Primary keywords are visible on Amazon. They exist within product titles and descriptions and should be chosen carefully. Ideally, they should reflect the primary way you think people will find your product. The following recommendations are from Amazon Seller Central to help you create better product titles.

Within your product title, use the following elements:

• Brand
• Product line
• Material or key feature
• Product type
• Color
• Size
• Packaging/Quantity

Tips to optimize your product listings

• Titles should be concise. We recommend fewer than 80 characters.
• Don’t use ALL CAPS.
• Capitalize the first letter of each word except for prepositions (in, on, over, with), conjunctions (and, or, for), or articles (the, a, an).
• Use numerals: “2” instead of “two”.
• Don’t use non-language ASCII characters such as Æ, ©, or ®.
• Titles should contain the minimal information needed to identify the item and nothing more.
• Don’t use subjective commentary, such as “Hot Item” or “Best Seller”.
• Titles can include necessary punctuation, like hyphens (-), forward slashes (/), commas (,), ampersands (&), and periods (.).
• Titles can abbreviate measurements, such as “cm”, “oz”, “in”, and “kg”.
• Don’t include your merchant name in titles.
• Size and color variations should be included in titles for child ASINs, not the main title (see below)

What are Amazon Hidden Keywords & Search Terms?

Hidden keywords exist within Amazon’s backend. They aren’t visible on Amazon and they don’t appear within the product listing on Amazon search. Hidden keywords can include different variations of your keywords or keyword phrases for search purposes. Slang words and synonyms keywords could be used in this area.

Best practices for Hidden Keywords used In Amazon searches

The following list includes advice from Amazon on how you should structure your keywords:

• Stay under the length limit.
• Include synonyms
• Include spelling variations, no need for misspellings
• Include abbreviations and alternative names
• You can use all lowercase
• You don’t need punctuation, such as: “;”, “:”, “-“
• Separate words with spaces
• Don’t repeat words within the Search Terms field
• Don’t include your brand or other brand names in Search Terms
• Don’t include ASINs in Search Terms
• No need for stop words, such as “a”, “an”, “and”, “by”, “for”, “of”, “the”, “with” and so on
• Use singular or plural, no need for both
• No temporary statements, such as “new” or “on sale now”
• Don’t use subjective claims such as “best,” “cheapest,” “amazing” and so on
• Don’t add abusive or offensive terms

Optimizing your keywords starts with how you optimize your product data for Amazon. Get the details on what you need to know about  Amazon Product Listing Integration.

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