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What are the most common questions asked by Amazon FBA sellers? The editor has sorted out the following aspects, mainly:
1) Is there a risk of losing the buy box by lowering the product price? Usually, low-priced products are most likely to win the buy box, so lowering the price will not cause sellers to lose the buy box. The reason for losing the buy box may be some other factors, such as inventory quantity and seller performance. 2) Can I run Amazon ads if my product does not get the Buy Box? No. If you don’t have the buy box, you can’t run Amazon PPC ads or headline search ads.
1) How do I determine if my product needs to be inspected or has completed specific testing? Each Amazon site has a government website that specifies which products need to pass inspection and review before they can be sold in that country/region. For example, the United States has regulations, mandatory standards and bans; the United Kingdom requires CE certification. Conducting QA inspections before your products leave Amazon warehouses is a good way to ensure product quality. Alternatively, you can also look for inspection companies to provide inspection certificates or laboratory test certificates. Finally, look at your competitors to see if they display safety certifications on their listings. 2) At what stage is product inspection carried out? Product inspections should be done after the product is made and before it is shipped. They are mainly used to check quality assurance, but you can also ask Amazon to help you check any certifications that may be required for the product. 3) Should payment be made before or after product inspection? The specific situation should be negotiated with your supplier, and the full payment should be paid after the inspection is completed. It is best to state in the contract that if the product fails the inspection, the manufacturer will unconditionally replace all defective products.
1) It took a long time (more than a week) for my goods to arrive at the Amazon warehouse before Amazon replenished the inventory. Is this normal? If it is Q4, it is normal. It takes a while for inventory to appear during the year-end peak season. If it is other months, Amazon will restock faster.
Enterprise qualification issues 1) Do I need to register a company to create an Amazon Professional Seller account? Yes, enterprise qualifications are required to register for a professional seller account. 2) Do sellers need to purchase commercial liability insurance? This is a good idea, and if the seller chooses carefully, he should be able to find a reasonable offer. 3) If a non-US company is registered and products are sold on the US site, do I need to pay US taxes? This situation is more complicated. If you are a one-person company, you do not need to pay taxes, and all income is considered personal income; if it is a company run by multiple people, you must pay taxes according to US law. You can use automatic tax docking tools such as Taxjar to help you handle it. (Taxjar website: https://www.taxjar.com/ ) Platforms that link to Amazon stores 1) Is there any way to create a standalone platform and link my store and inventory to the Amazon store? Yes, Shopify provides such a platform that can be linked to Amazon stores.
1) If I want to list products on the German and French sites, will the system automatically translate the listings into German and French? Sellers need to translate their product listings, and their customer service should also support relevant languages. Now various websites can hire translators and virtual assistants, such as UpWork, to help sellers solve these problems.
1) How should I do brand marketing? You can find resources on Jungle Scout’s Genius series , which contains a lot of useful information about marketing strategies. 2) What are the options for marketing products on Amazon? You can try creating a campaign on Kickstarter to increase brand awareness and sales. Even if you have sufficient funds, creating a campaign on Kickstarter can reduce your financial risk and help you get your product launched.
Product packaging and labeling issues
1) Is there any label printer you would recommend? Or would it be better to have the manufacturer add the labels? If the manufacturer can add labels to the product, that is the easiest way. If not, FBA sellers usually print the labels themselves using Zebra printers. Alternatively, if the seller chooses to purchase a printer, they can go to oCustomize.net to find labels and printer types that match each other and comply with Amazon policies.
1) Do I have to follow the rules for Amazon listing images? (For example, the background must be pure white, the product must occupy 85% of the image, etc.) Many sellers do not upload product images according to Amazon's rules. Amazon's violation detection seems to be automatic, so some sellers are a little clever. But remember, if the product images are not good, sales will also be affected. Therefore, following Amazon's rules is the best strategy. 2) Why is the quality of the product pictures on the listing so different from the ones the photographer sent me? They are exactly the same pictures... Amazon may compress the image quality. Uploading product images in TIFF or PNG format can avoid compression. If you don’t know how to change the format yourself, you can ask your photographer to help you.
1) To increase sales, is it better to lower the product price and then increase the budget for keyword advertising? Or is it better to continue selling at the normal price and then give more budget to advertising? If the seller is already running a PPC campaign and the conversion rate is good, it is better to keep the price higher to get more profit, because lowering the price may not necessarily bring more profit. Instead of worrying about whether to increase the product price or spend more advertising budget, the question should be whether the seller's input and output can make a profit. The best way to solve this problem is to conduct A/B testing . For example, use testing tools such as Splitly and refer to the data results to develop an optimized pricing strategy. 2) When sellers set PPC advertising keyword bidding, is it better for them to bid themselves or use the recommended bidding? The recommended bid is just a reference. Sellers should monitor the performance of the ads and control the advertising cost-to-output ratio (ACOS). If there is a keyword in the ad that converts well and has a low ACOS, then raising the bid will be more competitive. If the keyword conversion performance is poor, then lowering the bid or even suspending bidding on the keyword will be better. 3) Should sellers invest more when they first start using PPC advertising? Yes. It should be noted that a large amount of advertising costs must be invested in the early stage to stimulate sales, thereby improving the ranking of product search results and promoting natural traffic. In the later stage, natural traffic can save advertising costs. During the advertising period, PPC costs are relatively high, accounting for about 40-50% of sales costs. Amazon usually waits until the cost reaches $500 before deducting the fee. You can view PPC advertising costs in the credit card pending transaction record. 4) The ACOS indicator is almost 100%. How can I lower the ACOS indicator? First, make sure your product listing is fully optimized. Your product listing plays a crucial part in converting shoppers into customers. Next, check your product prices. Refer to the prices of your most relevant competitors to make sure yours are not too high. Finally, download your PPC campaign report to drill down and see which keywords in your campaign are consistently performing well, then adjust your ad bids accordingly. 5) How to improve the ranking of products in Amazon search results pages? If you are running a product promotion, continue to do so and stabilize the sales growth rate of your product. As sales increase, the ranking of your product search results will naturally rise. Next, optimize your PPC ads, especially for your most competitive keywords. Finally, optimize your product listing, including keywords. If the exact match volume of your main keywords is low, then you should consider re-analyzing and changing your keywords. 6) Can I use a competitor’s brand name in my PPC ads? It depends on which platform you are bidding on and whether you own the brand. On Amazon, sellers can bid on any brand name. Successful bids can be used in product titles and PPC ads. However, if someone reports it or the seller is a distributor of the brand, there will be trouble. If the seller wants to bid on Google or Bing, it will be even more troublesome. If the brand has a record in Google, your ad will be rejected as soon as it is submitted. You will also be required to provide relevant materials to prove that you are the brand owner or authorized by the brand owner.
1) I am a new seller and used to sell 1-2 products a day. But since I received a 1-star negative review, I have not made any sales. Will this affect my product ranking? How can I solve this problem? First, you need to check the negative reviews (if any) to see if the problem the customer complained about can be explained in advance in the listing. If the customer received a product that does not match the seller's display, this problem must be resolved. Secondly, you can ask your family and friends to buy the product and leave positive reviews (it is best to choose people who live in different areas and in different forms). This is not only to promote sales, but also to remove the negative review. As for whether it affects the search result ranking, in fact, the low sales have a greater impact on the ranking than the negative review. So, solve the sales problem as soon as possible.
2) Will reviews on Amazon US be displayed on other sites? No. Reviews on a product detail page on one site will not appear on detail pages on other sites.
1) All the suppliers I've contacted say their minimum order quantity (MOQ) is 1,000 pieces, how can I get it lower? When purchasing on Alibaba, the minimum order quantity is 500 pieces. But usually the minimum order quantity is 1,000 pieces or more, especially if the requirements are unique. Sometimes you can negotiate with the supplier to lower the minimum order quantity. If you want to purchase less than 500 pieces, it is recommended to choose AliExpress.
Amazon Brand Registry Issues
1) Does Amazon only allow brand registration in the country where the product is sold? For example, sellers on the US site need to register their brand with the US Patent and Trademark Office. Yes, sellers must register their brands with the local trademark office of the sales site. The trademark providers are different for different sites. Unless it is an international trademark, it can be used in all sites. 2) Do I need to have a website to register my brand in the United States? Yes, but a simple business information page will also suffice. 3) Should I register each product individually or register the same brand name for all products? It's a personal choice, but if you want to cross-sell products later, it's more convenient to register all products under the same brand. UPC barcode and FNSKU issues
1) Besides GS1, are there other channels to obtain UPC barcodes? It is not recommended that sellers use third-party websites to obtain UPC barcodes. Sellers must obtain UPC barcodes from GS1, which has been added to Amazon's Terms of Service, and Amazon is cracking down on non-standard barcodes. 2) If the product has been registered for brand record and has brand packaging, does it need a new UPC barcode or FNSKU? No, if you are a product distributor, you do not need to add a UPC barcode. As for FNSKU, it is controversial. To be safe, if you are an FBA seller, you must use the corresponding FNSKU so that Amazon can track your products in its warehouse. 3) Do private label sellers need to use UPC barcodes and FNSKU? Yes. When you create a product listing for your private label product, you need a barcode. UPC for the US and EAN for Europe. Without a barcode, you can’t create a listing and you can’t get a FNSKU, which all products need. You can either apply the label yourself, pay your supplier, or ask Amazon to help you out.
1) Can I sell on Amazon without a VAT number but with proof of validity? Yes, you can start selling as long as you have a sales validity period. When applying for an account, fill in a validity period on the form. If you don’t remember the date, you can get it from HMRC. 2) What is the difference between import tariffs and import VAT on the UK site? Import duties are 12% of product costs and shipping costs, while import VAT is 20%. According to the UK tax authorities (HMRC), each product sold in the UK is subject to 20% VAT, so sellers should take it into account when calculating sales costs and profits. If you have registered a VAT number and paid the VAT in advance, you can get a refund later.
The above is a summary of the problems encountered by Amazon FBA sellers, as well as the answers from experts. This article only selects some popular questions for summary.
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