If you aren’t selling on Amazon, you could be missing out on 300 million active users in 180+ countries. That’s a massive audience that is at your fingertips.
This article is designed to help you integrate your WordPress store with Amazon, and show you how to integrate your products.
Full speed ahead!
Why integrate with Amazon?
You can use Amazon as a platform to promote your entire site, certain products, affiliate links, or more. The first step is deciding how to use Amazon.
Here are some benefits of syncing your products with Amazon.
- Visitors on Amazon are ‘warmer’ than visitors on your site because they are already going there to buy something.
- Ads are much cheaper on Amazon because you only pay a small fee for the goods on-site: 99 cents for small entrepreneurs and $39.99 for those who sell 40+ products a month.
- Buyers don’t pay much attention to seller reviews, therefore, they buy from the newcomers to Amazon as well as those who have been around a long time.
How to create an Amazon account?
All you will need to start an Amazon account is your mobile phone number, password and if you wish, your email address. Go to the registration page for sellers and enter the specified information. Your mobile phone will be verified with a one-time password.
Tips on setting up Amazon account
Before you make out an Amazon account, you should decide what to sell and how to provide the product. One product can be positioned differently for different categories of people. Moreover, product sourcing includes several options and you should pick the one before using FBA services.
If you have your own brand, Amazon will help you promote it and show it to more people.
The next important point is the choice between a business account and an individual one. The difference is not only in how much the retailer makes but also in the flexibility of management and selection of service. Amazon’s individual plan allows you to sell only up to 40 items per month. Can you limit yourself? Or do you sell more than forty pieces in 30 days?
If you have analyzed your business and determined that the number of monthly sales is up to four dozen items, an Individual tariff plan will suit you. Individual fees include:
- $0.99 for an item sold;
- closing fees by category.
If you have more sales, then try a professional tariff which includes:
- subscription fee $39.99 per month;
- referral fees on items, depending on category;
- also closing fees.
About Amazon central and fulfillment
A retailer selects from two programs: Amazon Vendor Central and Amazon Seller Central.
The first program is by invitation only. A seller gives their products to the platform at a wholesale price. Amazon pays for goods and manages sales independently, at its prices and delivery options. The retailer’s worries are over.
In the second case, sellers retain ownership and sell goods under their brand. You list your products on Amazon Marketplace and continue to manage them. Pricing, delivery, customer support, and other details remain on your shoulders. With the last two options, the issue is resolved through two fulfillment options — FBA or FBM.
When deciding which account to create on the platform, take into account all costs, including delivery and customer support.
FBM means fulfilled by merchant, so you handle everything. FBA is Amazon’s delivery service called Fulfillment by Amazon. Sellers send their goods to Amazon warehouses to package and deliver them to the buyers. A member receives:
- discounts on delivery up to free shipping, which encourages customers to take the goods;
- Amazon customer service;
- management of returnable products.
The cost of the Amazon service depends on the size of goods, storage time, frequency of return, and seasonality (the fee is higher from October to December).
You can use a paid extension like WooCommerce Amazon Fulfillment with a subscription from $129 (one site) to $299 (25 sites) to ship orders automatically.
How to integrate
There are countless plugins dedicated to connecting your site with Amazon. That can be overwhelming, so let’s examine the three most common options and you will choose your perfect fit:
- Manually. If you have a small number of products, this can work for you. Otherwise, it won’t be fast and easy and can lead to product shortage. Moreover, it takes 250 hours on average to create 1,000 products on any marketplace.
- Plugins. There are a ton of plugins to help you get on Amazon. For example, WP-Lister Lite for Amazon supports lists of any size, official Amazon feed categories, FBA. It also imports goods in both directions, making life easier for customers.
- Multichannel listing platforms. They usually have more features and integrations, so that you sell on Walmart, eBay, Etsy, and other sales channels simultaneously with no need to switch between them. A good example is Sellbery which has 17 integrations and a 15-min sync interval. For instance, if someone on Amazon bought your last red T-shirt, it will be updated on your WooCommerce store and mentioned that you run out of red T-shirts. In just 15 minutes. So, no overselling and no damaging to your reputation.
How to market your products on Amazon?
Amazon is the global market, which means thousands of sellers are competing with each other for a buyer. Which products will the customer choose among the 12 million products in the range? And what can be done to attract more customers? Here are some of the tips for those who start selling on Amazon:
- Optimize product descriptions to match customer searches.
- Don’t drive the price, along with the value of the listing, into the ground in search of Buy Box domination or short-term revenue. Try to sell the product at a higher price; otherwise, it will become a race to the bottom.
- Do anything you can to make your product different and better. You can hire a professional photographer or copywriter to help you improve your page. You can also try to bundle more value into your package: give a bonus, create a different design, ship faster, offer a better warranty, or bundle different products together to make it a set.
- Find positive reviews for your product by automating your review request process. It will bring in praise and improve the customer service experience.
- While running PPC campaigns, focus on researching your keywords, then placing them in a manual campaign as exact and phrase match. From there, you can optimize your manual campaigns. You’ll get better results faster and with less wasted ad spend compared to running automatic campaigns or broad-match campaigns.
Multichannel selling isn’t hard. It just takes time to set up your accounts and integrate WooCommerce to Amazon or any other marketplace. But we are sure you can do it and see the results soon.
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