Amazon Seller Central has allowed many people to leave their boring 9 to 5 jobs and become their boss. Every year Amazon welcomes 1,00,000 new sellers, many will discontinue after a month or two for needless reasons. An exciting 6 figure income has motivated many to start selling on Amazon. If you are one such dreamer and achiever, you must be aware of most common mistakes done by new Amazon sellers.
Amazon has very clear and strict seller policies and guidelines for Amazon sellers within Seller Central. As a beginner, you must have a complete understanding of the Amazon seller account. That is where you will find all the details about your listings, ongoing orders and inventory. If you are a newbie for seller central, you could make some common mistakes that cost you huge before even realizing it. Here we list 10 big mistakes new Amazon sellers can’t afford to make.
Amazon Sellers Common Mistakes:
#10. Having multiple seller accounts:
Creating multiple seller accounts per amazon seller is a violation. If you need another seller account for your business, you can contact seller central help centre and furnish all the required documentation.
#9. Copying from other sellers:
Optimizing your store on Amazon is a difficult task. If you copy another sellers setup, it’s a violation and it will become very hard to rank your store.
#8. Promotional Texts:
Adding promotional texts like “Free Shipping”, “Sale”, “80% off” or similar in title or image is prohibited in Amazon marketplace.
#7. Choosing a seller account type:
If you are creating a seller account for the very first time, it will ask for two options. To choose between an individual seller and professional seller. The difference between the two types of account is the price. For individual account type, there won’t be any monthly subscription fee and you will be charged per item sell. In professional account type, there will be a monthly subscription fee of $39.99 and there won’t be any fee for per item sale. For professional account holders, there will access to inventory tools to manage bulk products.
So, be assured to select the correct account type.
#6. Slow response:
Every Amazon seller will have 24hrs to respond to a customer query. No matter whether its holiday or weekend, you must reply within 24hrs. If you fail to reply within the foresaid time you will be notified from Amazon. If you receive such notification it will affect on your seller ratings. Thankfully, there is external software that helps you respond to customer queries in time. One such software is Nicereply.
#5. Delayed Shipping:
People who shop on Amazon value Amazon’s shipping costs and speed. As a store owner, you must set realistic shipping speed and set shipping price.
#4. Shady product listings:
Users will see your product / featured image and read the detailed description and then they will consider buying your product. So your listing image should be of high quality and should be of the exact size described by seller central. As a newbie seller, you should consider writing your detailed product description and refrain copying from your competitors.
#3. Using un-sanctioned categories
Amazon has listed a few categories, you must list your product listings within the sanctioned categories. You cant create a new category and list your products under the created category. Please consider looking at the overview of categories from Amazon.
#2. Inventory Mismanagement:
As an Amazon seller, you must always keep track of your listings and make sure that the products never go out of stock. ‘Out of Stock’ signs may deliberately make your rankings go down ahead of competitors. You can make use of inventory management software to keep track of your listings.
#1. Running PPC campaigns without a precise strategy
Amazon Sponsored Ads are a great place to increase the visibility of your listings, but without any knowledge of optimization strategies, you might lose your investment without any scalable profits.
Amazon Sellers Common Mistakes: Final Thoughts
Here we have mentioned some of the most common mistakes done by new sellers. We have also listed measures to avoid as well. Make sure you read every sentence in Amazon seller guidelines and policies. As an Amazon rule – “Customer First” always give importance to your buyers by communicating and keep them informed about their orders. Also, don’t delay in responding to your customer queries.
