Adding my own products to Amazon

[tommo7811]

Hi all,

So I have just started selling on Amazon and have had a fair bit of success by advertising on somebody else's product (i.e. clicking "sell yours here"). However, some of the more popular items I sell are overrun with competition and the prices have dropped way below what I can afford to sell for.

What I have noticed is some sellers adding their own product by using an ISBN they own, then stopping anybody from selling that same product claiming "copyright infringement". This seems like the best way to do it. So I brought a couple of barcodes and listed my products, followed all of Amazons guidelines, etc. etc. I didn't expect the sales to flood in but having had no interest despite being live for a week now, I'm starting to wonder if there's something I haven't done....

So has anybody else had any experience doing it this way and if so, do you have any tips for prompting products/increasing sales.

Any info at all would be very much appreciated.

 

[AndyP]

Not the way forward. The "real" product listing will have acquired a sales rank and they are the ones that primarily get the interest in searches. 20 zillion listings for one product does nobody any favours and the odd person with their "own" listing (which you will not own btw as that is against Amazon policy) will not really get anything other than the occasional sale. Also acquiring the buy button which takes time (90 days minimum) and a good feedback rating makes a difference. Its not always about the lowest price on Amazon no matter what some people will tell you. Of course there are buyers out there looking for the cheapest but there are just as many looking for good service, a retailer that they feel that they can trust etc etc etc and ultimately they do better than the fast buck merchants. Be competitive of course but don't enter the race to the bottom game. It doesn't work.

 

[tommo7811]

My products are my own brand, they may appear the same as other items, as the casings are the same, but the internals are very different as I pay for quality. I have brought items from my competitors and their items do not compare, that's why they can undercut me as significantly as they do!

In addition, many of my items are truly unique to me as I designed them and I believe that entitles me to create my own product listing.

I look at the successful sellers in my industry and they all have their own branded items with their own product listing. So I beg to differ with you opinion on this occasion, however, I would agree under certain circumstances.

Regardless, I was asking if anyone had any tips as to how I promote my own product listings, not whether it was the right or wrong thing to do.

 

[AndyP]

My products are my own brand, they may appear the same as other items, as the casings are the same, but the internals are very different as I pay for quality. I have brought items from my competitors and their items do not compare, that's why they can undercut me as significantly as they do!

In addition, many of my items are truly unique to me as I designed them and I believe that entitles me to create my own product listing.

I look at the successful sellers in my industry and they all have their own branded items with their own product listing. So I beg to differ with you opinion on this occasion, however, I would agree under certain circumstances.

Regardless, I was asking if anyone had any tips as to how I promote my own product listings, not whether it was the right or wrong thing to do.

OK, I misunderstood. If the products are your own brand then of course they should have their own listing. Brand them, create EANs for them and away you go. It's straightforward. I thought you were simply talking about creating your own product listings for products that already exist and are being sold on the Amazon platform. My apologies for any confusion.

 

[AndyP]

...

Regardless, I was asking if anyone had any tips as to how I promote my own product listings, not whether it was the right or wrong thing to do.

There are no marketing tips per se for Amazon...just ensure that you fully populate the product listing details and ensure that you use the search nodes in the product back office. Thats your best, only, way of promoting on Amazon. It does work, however.

 

[tommo7811]

Andy, sorry if my initial reply came across a little rude, it wasn't intentional.

I've been doing some research for a few hours this evening and have a few more things to try.

Decided to put adding more of my own products on the back burner until I get the buy box.

I took on board what you mentioned about not having to have the lowest price and decided to try something on an item I have 500 of and would like to clear. There's around 50 other sellers on this one product listing. Most prices are fair to be honest, average is £3-4. There's three sellers however that are obviously fighting for the top spot and their prices seem to be hovering between £1.80 - £1.90 incl. delivery. I have priced mine at £2.99 with free delivery, which puts me right underneath the sellers undercutting each other. I know my item is top quality and so I've made a point of that and also stated I will honour refunds if they are not completely satisfied (which I would do anyway, but it gives that extra peace of mind). So what I'm hoping is people will go with me as the "safe option". I am going to trial this for a week, see what sales I get (if any!!). If sales are 0/low/mediocre I'm going to trial FBA.

You think that sounds like the right thing to do?

 

[AndyP]

Hi

I would say that a week's trial isn't really long enough. I have no idea why but we find that our new products take 2-3 weeks to embed themselves before they start to sell in any volume (although our products are clearly very different to yours which may also have an influence on buying decisions). With this in mind it might be worth extending your trial period a little or you may find that you end up with skewed results from such a short test.

Whats the product ASIN?

Question....if you can't compete on price as it stands do you have the margin available to you to fund FBA?

 

[Mister B]

Andy's spot on in his advice.

We sell a combination of branded and our own prodcuts on Amazon, with equal amounts of success. The main difference being that our achieved margin on our own brand products is over five times that of the branded comparison.

Avoid fighting these guys on price, let them scrap it out until they go bust. To only make coppers on each order is madness....factor in labour & materials and you will be making a loss. As for FBA, they've been hassling us to use it and having some in depth sums, there's absolutely no way that it's cost effective. For example, your product that sells at £2.99: take 85p off for the FBA fee, 15% Amazon commission and then your VAT and your left with pretty much nothing. On top of that, you need to pay them storage costs, freight charges to get the goods to them and invest in additional stock for them to hold on your behalf.

Still interested in FBA

As Andy said, check your listings, check your nodes, check your metrics, give it some time and see what happens.

Mister B

 

[kulture]

I agree with all the replys. The only thing that has not been meantioned is your product descriptions.

If your products LOOK like your competitors but are better, write good descriptions describing what is good about your product and why it is worth more than the cheap alternatives and why it is great value etc etc. Sell the benefits of spending a few pounds more. Also make sure that any product you create has accurate keywords, nodes, etc. Take the time to fill in every possible detail about the product so that any buyer can see you have taken the time to describe what you sell.

 

[Adam_Watson]

You can also check some e-commerce website you will get idea.

 

[Adam T]

Interesting read, thanks.

2 questions - what are the search nodes and how do you access/amend/optimise please?

And FBA ??

Sorry for the deliquent questions, not my field but am learning..


Cheers

 

[tommo7811]

Interesting read, thanks.

2 questions - what are the search nodes and how do you access/amend/optimise please?

And FBA ??

Sorry for the deliquent questions, not my field but am learning..


Cheers

Can't help with the first question, but wouldn't mind knowing the answer either.

FBA is Fulfilment by Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/gp/seller/fba/fulfillment-by-amazon.html

 

[OffshoreSystems]

Have you considered using a Fulfilment partner in Jersey? We currently fulfil for Amazon Marketplace sellers from our 12000 sqft secure warehouse facility and you may find that your competitors are able to keep their prices so low because they already use a Jersey fulfilment partner.

Aswell has our pick prices being as low as 65p per pick (depending on volumes) compared to Amazon's 85p you also get the added benefit of not paying VAT on any items you sell under £18 due to the LVCR threshold and having your company based in Jersey means 'Zero' corporation tax, also any VAT costs on items you send to us to hold as stock are deferred until point of sale!

If you would like more information please let me know, we can help you with every step!

Thanks

Chris Scott
Director
Offshore Systems Limited

 

[tommo7811]

Just wondering if anybody can help, I'm trying to alter my browse nodes and at present can only seem to select Amazons "recommended" node, which is completely irrelevant to the product I'm offering. Anybody know how I can change this?

And also, I've been looking at the statistics for my product and noticed yesterday I had 8 page views, does anybody know if this statistic is the same as unique visitors, or does it just mean the amount of times the page has been visited? If the latter, those are probably all mine!!

Any help appreciated.

 

[AndyP]

Just wondering if anybody can help, I'm trying to alter my browse nodes and at present can only seem to select Amazons "recommended" node, which is completely irrelevant to the product I'm offering. Anybody know how I can change this?

And also, I've been looking at the statistics for my product and noticed yesterday I had 8 page views, does anybody know if this statistic is the same as unique visitors, or does it just mean the amount of times the page has been visited? If the latter, those are probably all mine!!

Any help appreciated.

Hi

Browse/search nodes are found (as I am sure that you have discovered) on the product detail/edit page accessed via Inventory at Seller Central. If the browse node options that you are seeing are incorrect that can only be because you have chosen the wrong category at the outset. You need to get this correct from the start. As an example, one of our products (a towel rail) is listed as follows:
Home & Garden > Kitchen & Home > Categories > Homeware & Furnishings > Bathroom > Bathroom Fittings > Towel Rails

As you can only use what you are presented with if we had chosen, say, Home Furniture and Decor as our top line category we would have been presented with an entirely different set of available browse nodes which would almost certainly be inappropriate. Do remember, however, that the browse nodes are really to assist with display values for general category browsing. They are important for sure, but more important is the range of search terms that you include (located above the browse nodes on the edit page). Don't use words or phrases that are already in your product title as they get picked up anyway.

I hope that helps.

 

[Page]

Also acquiring the buy button which takes time (90 days minimum) and a good feedback rating makes a difference.

So does just to be sure does that mean if I create a new listing then no-one but myself will have the buy box for at least 90 days - but I assume they can still list on it and will appear below the buy box - and then after that does it just go "out to market" and will depends on price and other factors?