How to increase Amazon sales

[GTL]

I see a very small amount of goods online but would like to sell more.

I use Amazon FBA plus ebay and a 3rd party platform.

In retail, the food products I sell are doing very well. They go on the shelf, people buy them, like them and buy more. It's great.

But online I cannot fathom. The FBA orders I get from Amazon are too small to justify sending. But I would like to work to increase this. I just let the PO's come in, and leave then till they expire. I am uncomfortable with this as in theory I understand the sales opportunities via this platform to be very good.

Question is, what can I do to increase sales on the platform? Are there methodologies or does it come down to advertising?

I have toyed with my own website but, frankly, with everything else going on I am not in a position to focus on this. But perhaps I should be. (comments welcome).

I would like to ask about ebay too, but figure it is best taking things 1 step at a time and dealing with amazon first.

Some ideas would be welcome please!

 

[antropy]

But online I cannot fathom. The FBA orders I get from Amazon are too small to justify sending. But I would like to work to increase this. I just let the PO's come in, and leave then till they expire. I am uncomfortable with this as in theory I understand the sales opportunities via this platform to be very good.

What are you selling?

 

[GTL]

Food products (premium/gourmet biscuits, sweet and savoury, top end). Possibly other stuff too, but I would like to get it right first with these.

 

[Mr D]

What advertising are you currently doing for the amazon products and do you share the pages with any other seller?

Oh and whats a PO in this context?

 

[GTL]

PO - Purchase Order........

No advertising, no sharing. Though i do want to put other products on my vendor page once I have understood the basics.

 

[GraemeL]

Getting the keywords right on Amazon is critically important. Its not mystical like SEO.
Try searching for Gourmet biscuits - do yours appear?
What would a potential customer call each of your products? Have you got those words in your Amazon keywords?

 

[GTL]

Thanks for the comments and help to date.

No, heavens no, they don't appear.

Is there a decent starter's guide anyone is aware of?

 

[billmccallum1957]

To offer any advice, the first thing I would do is look at your products and see what you are offering your customers...but I cant.

 

[GraemeL]

Is there a decent starter's guide anyone is aware of?

Starters guide
1) Decide what search terms your potential customers will use to look for each of your products
2) Include these as 'Keywords'. You can fit a lot of words in the 5 sections that Amazon provide you with for search terms

 

[Mr D]

Advertising the pages would probably help. Your products with low sales will appear low in search results.
Your product has plenty of competition on other pages? You have to overcome the problem of being on a page without other sellers by doing all the work yourself.
Getting noticed, how many customers will go through multiple pages of search to find you? Advertise and the customer goes to that page for your product. May still not buy but the product page is in front of them. The start for any ecommerce sale.

 

[Pish_Pash]

PO - Purchase Order........

No advertising, no sharing. Though i do want to put other products on my vendor page once I have understood the basics.

Amazon only send POs if you are one of their suppliers....but you're speaking of FBA. So what are you...

1. An Amazon supplier.
2. An Amazon seller via FBA?
3. Both?

 

[GTL]

Good question. my understanding is an amazon seller via fba.

 

[Mr D]

So what exactly are you cancelling? The point of FBA is that you send the stock to amazon and your involvement is basically over - they deal with orders, they send items out, they deal with returns.
eg send a stock of 100 BB8 robots to amazon and when they receive an order they send one out.

 

[GTL]

Me? I m not cancelling anything. I just let the PO's (from Amazon) come, and don't bother fulfilling, because I don't make money on it, quantities are too small and occasionally amazon claim for a damaged parcel (which none of my retail customers have in 18 months of trading). The cancellations are automated. There is no point fulfilling at a loss (unless there is firm confidence that sales will grow) and taking the risk that amazon will deduct for damages when it is more than likely they are not damaged.

My point is that, as I hope people can see, I have almost zero knowledge of selling via amazon. I don't even know, until @Pish_Pash kindly pointed out that there were different ways of selling. I have business account, thought it was FBA and that was that.

The whole point of this post was to ask how I should look to drive sales on the platform. I have been too busy last year to do this; but this year I want to focus much more on online sales, with a bent towards Amazon, because I believe there is scope to grow sales.

@billmccallum1957 I don't want to put the brand name on here, but happy to PM you this as long as you keep it confidential You might get case or two of them if you can help/steer me in the right direction!

Perhaps I need to start the whole Amazon selling thing again, from scratch....

 

[Mr D]

So are you using FBA or are you a vendor?
FBA you won't have POs, amazon already has the stock and they send it out - then pay you. You can sit at the seaside and not log in for a week and they'll process all the orders for you and handle customer service.

 

[GTL]

Well, this is the thing. I don't know. ( i thought I did when @Pish_Pash asked).

How do I find out?

The way it works for me is that I get PO's from Amazon right - an order for x cases of this and that. These are not PO's for consumers. The stock supposedly goes in and Amazon pays me for the stock. The products are on the Amazon platform under the Brand name. I don't deal with individual orders from amazon customers. i just supposedly send in bulk stock for amazon, which are sold on and fulfilled by Amazon, under the biscuit brand name.

Does that answer?

 

[Mr D]

Yes. You are not FBA.
You are a vendor. Very different thing.

 

[Page]

I am very impressed that you have no idea what your arrangement is with them

But yes you are a vendor

You sell to amazon - they can then do what they want with it - including chuck it in the bin

But you will still get paid

 

[GTL]

Okay, thanks.

 

[billmccallum1957]

[QUOTE="

@billmccallum1957 I don't want to put the brand name on here, but happy to PM you this as long as you keep it confidential You might get case or two of them if you can help/steer me in the right direction!.[/QUOTE]

Feel free to PM me some info, but I don't see why people don't want to tell others who they are or what they sell, especially when asking for advice on how to increase sales.

Personally, I don't use UKBF as a sales platform, we use Facebook for that as we a micro-local retail operation, we don't get customers coming forty or fifty miles to visit our shops, but when I sell nationally on Ebay, I always let people know where we are and gives all our contact details.

 

[Alexander Sadlier]

We recently joined amazon and find it a lot more difficult than eBay. We got into the top 2 within about a month on eBay but on Amazon we are pages down. From my very limited amazon experience so far it seems like you need to pay for some advertising to get your product noticed. After a few sales you could probably drop the advertising.

 

[Pish_Pash]

If you are receiving POs, then as I said prior, you are a vendor - you can confirm this by the following...

1. If you're logging in as a seller (either FBM, or FBA) then the url with be in this format https://sellercentral.amazon.co.uk/

2. If you're logging in as a Vendor (a supplier), then the url with be in this format https://vendorcentral.amazon.co.uk

...if you are a Vendor & you've been ignoring POs (as you've mentioned), then Amazon don't take kindly to that...they'll have fined you! (indeed they only give you 24hrs to confirm the PO quantities they've asked for & between 4-5 days to deliver those quantities to their nominated FC ...miss those deadlines & you'll be fined)

If you're a Vendor then you can increase sales by advertising (there's a whole heap of Webinars you watch).

It's a bizarre supplier/customer arrangement when it comes to Amazon...they take x% off you for ahem "marketing costs", but then they still expect you to pony up for your own advertising to erhm market the products that they've bought from you (in fact they'll rapidly lose interest in you & your products if you don't ...think of it like a printer vendor...he wants to sell you a printer *only* so he can then sell you over inflated consumables....same with being an Amazon supplier...they want you to sign up as a supplier, so that you will start advertising your products you're supplying...kerching.

 

[Mr D]

We recently joined amazon and find it a lot more difficult than eBay. We got into the top 2 within about a month on eBay but on Amazon we are pages down. From my very limited amazon experience so far it seems like you need to pay for some advertising to get your product noticed. After a few sales you could probably drop the advertising.

Yes...... you could stop advertising after a few sales. The product page will likely drop in search results compared to other similar items that are getting more sales. Or as is more common, the product page moves up a few pages in search results but still not on page 1.
If you create a page and have no other sellers on it then no one would be working to increase sales.
If its a page with a half dozen sellers there may be a couple of sellers still working to improve sales which has a knock on effect.

You do not have to just use amazon methods of advertising. The normal methods that ecommerce sellers use can still be used too.

 

[Mr D]

If you are receiving POs, then as I said prior, you are a vendor - you can confirm this by the following...

1. If you're logging in as a seller (either FBM, or FBA) then the url with be in this format https://sellercentral.amazon.co.uk/

2. If you're logging in as a Vendor (a supplier), then the url with be in this format https://vendorcentral.amazon.co.uk

...if you are a Vendor & you've been ignoring POs (as you've mentioned), then Amazon don't take kindly to that...they'll have fined you! (indeed they only give you 24hrs to confirm the PO quantities they've asked for & between 4-5 days to deliver those quantities to their nominated FC ...miss those deadlines & you'll be fined)

If you're a Vendor then you can increase sales by advertising (there's a whole heap of Webinars you watch).

It's a bizarre supplier/customer arrangement when it comes to Amazon...they take x% off you for ahem "marketing costs", but then they still expect you to pony up for your own advertising to erhm market the products that they've bought from you (in fact they'll rapidly lose interest in you & your products if you don't ...think of it like a printer vendor...he wants to sell you a printer *only* so he can then sell you over inflated consumables....same with being an Amazon supplier...they want you to sign up as a supplier, so that you will start advertising your products you're supplying...kerching.

You mean a bit like how retailers buy products from the makers of say Yorkshire Tea, expect discounts and offers and still expect the makers to pay for advertising?
Who benefits? Obviously the retailer (in your case Amazon). And who else benefits from demand for the product causing sales? The business supplying the retailer?

 

[fisicx]

@GTL, can I buy these products in Waitrose or some other supermarket? If I google the name of the product are there a whole load of places I can buy online?

If so why are you trying to compete? Why not pander to your existing customers and offer a click and collect service. Maybe home delivery of coupons for referrals.

Instead of looking elsewhere for new business use your existing client base to expand the business.

 

[GTL]

Hello @fisicx, thank you, good stuff!

Presently no, they are not available in Waitrose etc (it is likely to take a while) My business distributes them via the speciality, independent, health and to some extent gifting channels, in retail. They are popular with consumers and they repeat sell very nicely.

It's a very good question you ask, and I feel that there is an opportunity to sell them online being as they are not otherwise available in this channel (other than a specialist online gourmet site, for which I do fulfillment) and they are an exceptional, and well priced, bunch of products. And as the sole importer, my margin is/would be if I sold any online(!), pretty healthy. As an example I sell them at a top northern based chain of outlets, and they are performing extremely well, so I have every confidence in the product (but not my online commerce capabilities, as you will be able to tell).

I agree entirely about focus. I am expanding this side of the business, with my client base of mainly wholesalers and this is where my energy is pinpointed (already this year we have picked up more business for the xmas period 2018, which is the top selling quarter in this niche for these products). However, I would still like to explore the online angle. And I have the time to do this now, whereas I did not last year.

 

[Awinner2]

Hello @fisicx, thank you, good stuff!

Presently no, they are not available in Waitrose etc (it is likely to take a while) My business distributes them via the speciality, independent, health and to some extent gifting channels, in retail. They are popular with consumers and they repeat sell very nicely.

It's a very good question you ask, and I feel that there is an opportunity to sell them online being as they are not otherwise available in this channel (other than a specialist online gourmet site, for which I do fulfillment) and they are an exceptional, and well priced, bunch of products. And as the sole importer, my margin is/would be if I sold any online(!), pretty healthy. As an example I sell them at a top northern based chain of outlets, and they are performing extremely well, so I have every confidence in the product (but not my online commerce capabilities, as you will be able to tell).

I agree entirely about focus. I am expanding this side of the business, with my client base of mainly wholesalers and this is where my energy is pinpointed (already this year we have picked up more business for the xmas period 2018, which is the top selling quarter in this niche for these products). However, I would still like to explore the online angle. And I have the time to do this now, whereas I did not last year.

It seems to me that you need to decide whether to continue building up your existing wholesale business or to become an online retailer. That will put you into direct competition with your customer base. If as you say the order books are filling up well for this year I would concentrate on that for 2018/19 and leave the retailing for another time.

 

[GTL]

@Awinner2 I have thought much about this, and my strategy this year does include improving online sales. At the very least so that I can learn. I haven't mentioned this, but I sell some other items (which is importing and selling some 'fairly' unique high margin gift products on a few 'third party' independent merchant sites) which proved very successful in the run up to Xmas, which I did with barely any effort (I didn't have the time, frankly). So the essence of this thread of about developing sales for biscuit products online, ideally through Amazon because my company is already set up on that platform. If it doesn't work, that's no problem, I'll put it down to experience. But I would like to try, because the margin is appealing an in retail, the top sellers are immensely popular.

I should also point out that in food importation, where I have to distribute to other distributors, it results in an okay margin for the biscuit brand I import (for which I have the UK rights). I have found over the last 18 months a few little ways of increasing this (a few customers come direct, but generally I try to work through wholesale, as the volume works nicely for me etc); and in the absence of anyone selling these products online I sense an opportunity.

Last year I was heavily involved in the fulfillment side on these biscuit products (my business operated this) but am outsourcing this now to another party; the strategy being to free up much more time to focus more on sales through wholesale and online (and where possible, larger retailers). The reasoning being that I can directly influence wholesale sales, and online sales, whereas developing a high volume retailer will/is take/ing time and thus on a day to day basis I cannot influence what I don't have, if you see what I mean. So I would like to give it a proper stab, and if it doesn't work, the itch is at least scratched.

 

[GTL]

If you are receiving POs, then as I said prior, you are a vendor - you can confirm this by the following...

1. If you're logging in as a seller (either FBM, or FBA) then the url with be in this format https://sellercentral.amazon.co.uk/

2. If you're logging in as a Vendor (a supplier), then the url with be in this format https://vendorcentral.amazon.co.uk

...if you are a Vendor & you've been ignoring POs (as you've mentioned), then Amazon don't take kindly to that...they'll have fined you! (indeed they only give you 24hrs to confirm the PO quantities they've asked for & between 4-5 days to deliver those quantities to their nominated FC ...miss those deadlines & you'll be fined)

If you're a Vendor then you can increase sales by advertising (there's a whole heap of Webinars you watch).

It's a bizarre supplier/customer arrangement when it comes to Amazon...they take x% off you for ahem "marketing costs", but then they still expect you to pony up for your own advertising to erhm market the products that they've bought from you (in fact they'll rapidly lose interest in you & your products if you don't ...think of it like a printer vendor...he wants to sell you a printer *only* so he can then sell you over inflated consumables....same with being an Amazon supplier...they want you to sign up as a supplier, so that you will start advertising your products you're supplying...kerching.

Thanks @Pish_Pash you are quite right, it is as a vendor I my business is set up. Do you suggest, therefore, that I should simply try out their advertising modules?

 

[fisicx]

My business distributes them via the speciality, independent, health and to some extent gifting channels, in retail. They are popular with consumers and they repeat sell very nicely.

Which is all good. But unless people know about the products they aren't going to be searching for them on Amazon.

So sell them on your own site, it means you have far more control and you get to keep all the money.

 

[GTL]

Which is all good. But unless people know about the products they aren't going to be searching for them on Amazon.

So sell them on your own site, it means you have far more control and you get to keep all the money.

Thanks again, much appreciated.

There are punters who buy online from the third party food focussed vendor I mentioned somewhere in the thread, and consumers in my niche are buying them on off the shelves in the retail shops I have them listed. So my mindset was - rejuvenate them on Amazon, support the listing as best as possible and use that rather than my own website.

So, basically you're suggesting I re-look at my online strategy?

Thanks,

G

 

[fisicx]

So, basically you're suggesting I re-look at my online strategy?

Yes.

People won't be looking for your exact product because they don't know it exists. But they will be looking for posh biscuits (or whatever).

 

[GTL]

Thank you - a reasoned and helpful comment,

G

 

[Page]

How did you actually become an Amazon vendor ??

 

[GTL]

I met an Amazon employee at a trade show I was exhibiting at, and it went from there.

 

[Awinner2]

So if I go to Amazon uk, what term would I enter to find your branded biscuits? Or what name would I enter? I am interested to see how amazon list them compared to other products..

 

[Pish_Pash]

Thanks @Pish_Pash you are quite right, it is as a vendor I my business is set up. Do you suggest, therefore, that I should simply try out their advertising modules?

It's your only option to increase sales as an Amazon vendor.

 

[Benn Smith]

You can increase your product sales with Amazon SEO & PPC. These are the best techniques to boost Amazon sales fast.

 

[fisicx]

You can increase your product sales with Amazon SEO & PPC. These are the best techniques to boost Amazon sales fast.

What a load of old tosh

 

[AlanJ1]

What a load of old tosh

Would say PPC is probably the quickest way in selling a new product on Amazon, depends on your budget and if you actually know how to use Amazons advertising properly.