Creating an eCommerce business feels like the best option for any new product. With most sales occurring online, entering the market with a product sold strictly online can help you start with high-profit margins.
For any new eCommerce business, one of the hardest aspects of starting out is delivering products to customers. Without the massive infrastructure of a large company, your business could take days or even weeks to deliver products. While utilizing a service like Amazon FBA can eliminate these logistics, making a mistake could lead to delivery delays, low sales, and other problems.
Learning about the common Amazon FBA mistakes ahead of time can help you avoid crippling your operation before you gain traction. Streamline Fulfillment provides Amazon fulfillment services and can help manage your business’s product delivery, inventory, and storage concerns from the start.
What Is Amazon FBA?
Amazon FBA stands for “Fulfilled by Amazon.” What this means is that while selling on Amazon, you won’t have to worry about delivering products to customers. Amazon FBA centers take care of inventory storage, packaging, and delivery.
By participating in one of these programs, you reduce your responsibilities and can focus on what matters more: product design, marketing, and customer engagement. With the existing infrastructure to get your products to buyers, Amazon FBA will ensure that your orders reach customers quickly. Many products even qualify for Prime shipping with Amazon FBA services.
Choosing Amazon FBA can eliminate some of the logistical concerns that could cripple your business from the start. Consider fulfillment services to give your small business the best chance at success.
Why Do Some Amazon Sellers Fail?
There are many reasons some Amazon sellers fail. From ineffective products to mismanaged launches, various mistakes can adversely impact your new operation. Additionally, many eCommerce businesses cannot deliver products to customers quickly enough, which is a surefire way to lose potential buyers.
Overall, the dominant reason Amazon sellers fail is that they didn’t prepare adequately before putting a product on the market. Many Amazon sellers will fail within the first few months of starting. As a result, preparing to put your product online is not something to ignore.
By researching the common Amazon FBA mistakes, you’re taking a huge step towards optimizing your product listings and avoiding a grave seller mistake that could lead to failure.
8 Amazon FBA Mistakes That Could Lead to Failure
Although enlisting fulfillment services like Amazon FBA can significantly benefit your operation, you can’t rely solely on fulfillment services to guarantee success. Many eCommerce businesses fall victim to these eight Amazon FBA mistakes, which can impact their sales. By avoiding these mistakes, you can reduce problems and take full advantage of Amazon’s services.
1. Picking the Wrong Niche
Many new sellers believe that designing and launching a niche product will give them an edge and lead to product success. While there is some truth to this, it’s important to avoid picking the wrong niche.
Researching certain market sectors before you begin is crucial. Large companies dominate certain niche markets and benefit from brand recognition, logistical efficiency, and superior product design. As a result, you’ll want to avoid entering a market where you have to go head-to-head with these companies.
Another issue is picking too specific a market or creating a convoluted product. If buyers don’t perceive a value proposition, they probably won’t buy a product. Don’t create a niche product for the sake of uniqueness; design something you think people really want and need.
2. Ineffective Product Launch
Ineffective product launches are a primary way that new businesses fail within their first few months. Getting people excited about your product before you launch is crucial to make it through those difficult beginning times. As a result, some of the key considerations for your product launch include:
- Effectively marketing the product on social media
- Creating discount codes and promotional campaigns to increase sales
- Designating funds for pay-per-click ads to generate new sales
- Working hard on SEO for product listings and Amazon ads
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a major consideration for Amazon products. Not only will effective SEO help your product appear in searches on Amazon, but performing well with keywords will also direct traffic to your product from search engines. Optimize your product name and descriptions with the right keywords.
3. Sloppy Amazon Product Listing
When a customer clicks on your product on Amazon, a sloppy product listing page could quickly turn them away. From low-quality images to poorly written descriptions, these seemingly minor factors can quickly turn many customers away.
Think about your product listing as a showroom. Once you have a potential customer there, you want them to see your product in the best light and understand exactly how they might benefit from purchasing it.
4. Failing to Utilize Brand Sponsored Videos and Ads
Amazon FBA offers sponsored brand ads to sellers who opt-in to fulfillment services. Failing to utilize these ads could limit your market reach and prohibit you from garnering the benefits of affiliation with a major company like Amazon.
Amazon’s brand-sponsored videos and ads appear everywhere, from online to major networks like ESPN. Plan for these ads in your marketing budget to avoid keeping your market too limited.
5. Mishandling Your Tax Liabilities
While selling your products through Amazon FBA can eliminate a lot of considerations, failing to understand your tax liability upfront could cost you a lot. Ensure that you do thorough tax research before your launch so you understand the tax burden of your new product.
6. Launching PPC Campaigns Without Proper Preparation
Pay-per-click (PPC) ads are an excellent way to bring new buyers to your business. These online ads only cost you money if potential customers click on them. While some sellers worry about click costs, if a $5 click generates a $450 sale, this small fee is ultimately inconsequential.
Despite the potentially lucrative nature of PPC ads, launching a PPC campaign without proper preparation could cripple your sales. Familiarize yourself with optimization strategies and targeted PPC to get the most out of your ads.
7. Insufficient Inventory
Although Amazon FBA will handle your inventory storage, packaging, shipping, and delivery, the seller is still responsible for managing inventory levels. In fact, low inventory is one of the top reasons customers choose not to buy certain products. It also hurts where Amazon places you in search results, as they want to provide consumers with a superior buying experience where they can get exactly what they need.
Seller Central is Amazon’s portal where sellers can monitor their sales, inventory, product listings, and other information. Make sure you’re checking inventory levels there frequently. While fulfillment services can store your product, it’s up to you to order more when stocks get low.
8. Asking for Positive Reviews
When you’re first starting out, it might seem like a great idea to ask friends and family members to give you good reviews on Amazon. After all, getting good reviews is one of the top ways Amazon moves your product to the top of relevant searches. However, asking people you know for good reviews can actually be a major misstep that will ultimately hurt your product.
Amazon wants to provide buyers with a superior experience. As a result, the platform actively tracks reviews for authenticity and can detect contrived reviews, like those that might come from your family and friends. If Amazon senses these reviews, they will remove them or bump your product page down on searches.
So how do you generate early traction?
One of the best ways to get new customers excited about your products is to participate in an early seller program like Amazon Vine. This program provides participating customers with new products early to start garnering initial reviews and feedback. Check if your product is Amazon Vine eligible to get the most out of your initial days on the market.
How To Avoid Amazon FBA Mistakes
Researching Amazon FBA mistakes is an excellent way to start preparing for an effective product launch. Consulting experts from Streamline Fulfillment could also help you learn about other important considerations to make the most of your new product.
Get Efficient Fulfillment Services From Streamline Fulfillment
New sellers may struggle to avoid the common mistakes with Amazon FBA. We can help reduce problems by preparing or prepping your product for Amazon FBA.
Our premier Seattle fulfillment services allows us to provide your operation with the custom product preparation assistance you deserve. So stop looking for the best fulfillment services for your product listings and contact Streamline Fulfillment today.
Established on values of trust, personal services, and high-level execution, we aim to help small- to medium-sized businesses eliminate frustration with shipping and inventory storage. Our personal approach to delivering your products to customers has established our reputation as one of the best options in the business. Work with us to get the most out of your eCommerce business and online selling experience.
For more information about Amazon FBA mistakes and how to avoid them, call (508) 888-2880 and request a free 15-minute consultation with fulfillment experts at Streamline Fulfillment.