Members Area
Section C: List Your Product(s)
3. How To List on Amazon
How To List on Amazon
Welcome to this step-by-step tutorial on how to sell sports nutrition supplements on Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon).
Amazon’s remarkable platform is set-up perfectly for launching a supplement business using a private labeling supplier, so if you’re looking to build a profitable online supplement business that generates passive income, then Amazon provides many fantastic opportunities for the average person to get started.
The following guide is designed to walk you through the steps of how to sell supplements on Amazon FBA so that you get an overview and solid understanding of how the entire process works.
STEP 1: SELECTING THE RIGHT PRODUCT FOR AMAZON SUCCESS
The first step is to select the supplement or range of supplements you’re going to sell on Amazon. It can be easier initially to supply an existing market than try to create a desire for a new product, but better still is to capitalize on an emerging trend before the market becomes saturated. Find out what is already selling well on Amazon by visiting the Amazon Bestsellers List. While Amazon don’t reveal actual sales numbers of other products it will give you a good idea of what’s currently popular.
It is also a good idea to think about how your product will appear next to the competition in a search result. Take the time to research the supplement market on Amazon (and more generally in the industry) and try multiple different searches, mixing and matching different terms to see what ranks for each result. Will your product sit at the premium end of the market or target bargain hunters? Will you offer unbeatable value or blow people away with the unrivaled benefits of your supplement? Who are your target audience?
Consider the popularity, profit margin and opportunity for repeat business for each of the product types. For example, a Meal Replacement Shake taken twice a day will need to be replaced more regularly than a Pre-Workout used three times a week but may give you lower margins.
HOT TIP: When calculating predicted margins make sure to factor in Amazon’s cut of every sale. A normal ratio for a healthy online business would be approximately one third to your supplier, one third to Amazon and one third profit.
STEP 2: GETTING YOUR OWN BRANDED PRODUCTS
Once you’ve decided on the supplements you’d like to sell it’s time to start the private labeling process.
Consider carefully how the color and style of your branding will compare with the competition. Great design adds significant value to your product in customer’s eyes, just as poor or amateurish design will make your product appear cheap and untrustworthy.
There are pros and cons to both generic designs (wide appeal with the risk of being ‘lost in the noise’) and targeted designs (narrower appeal but greater potential for brand differentiation). For example, an All-in-One Protein aimed specifically for CrossFitters will immediately grab the attention of that group but will likely alienate more casual gym-goers. Consider both the potential size and spending habits of your target group in your branding decisions.
You also want to think beyond a single product and look at the potential for building and growing a brand on Amazon that sells a wider range of supplements to people. A strong, versatile brand will translate well across a range of different packaging and product types.
STEP 3: SETTING UP A LISTING AND SHIPPING YOUR INVENTORY TO AMAZON FULFILLMENT CENTERS
Now your sports supplements are packaged, labelled and ready to go – the next step is to ship everything to Amazon.
You can set up an Amazon Seller Central Account by visiting this page.
You’ll then want to create your Amazon product listing (you can do this earlier if you’d like), and then set up a shipping plan to send your products to Amazon.
At the time of writing Amazon are offering free transportation of your first shipment (up to 200 units) to a local Amazon warehouse. A great way to get started.
When creating your listing we recommend that you opt in for Fulfillment by Amazon, so that Amazon will handle all of the storage and shipping for you and deliver your product to your customers.
Amazon will give you the details and locations of where to send your inventory. You then need to just arrange for a carrier to collect your supplements from us and deliver them to an Amazon distribution center.
Please Note: Depending on the product that you chose to sell and the category the product is going to be listing in, Amazon may require you to provide them with further information in order to list your product in that category.
STEP 4: START SELLING ON AMAZON!
Once your listing is up, and Amazon have received your inventory, your product is now available for sale!
It’s now time to market and promote your new product. There are many factors involved with generating sales on Amazon. Here are a couple of top tips to help improve your Amazon listing and start climbing higher up the Amazon search engine:
TOP TIPS:
Customer reviews are important. It probably doesn’t need to be said that the quantity and positivity of your customer reviews is one of the most important ranking factors in Amazon’s A9 algorithm.
Answer Questions. Potential customers may ask questions on your listing about your product. Try and answer these as quickly and comprehensively as you can, as they can act as trust indicators and may help make the buying decision easier for future potential customers who have the same questions. You can also use this information to refine future marketing campaigns.
Use the right images. Amazon are continuously tightening their image size and quality polices for product listings. Right now, some categories won’t even display results that don’t have at least one image that is 1000×1000 pixels or larger. Make sure you upload high quality, informative images. Amazon may also request images of the sides of your product too.
Create ‘Parent/Child’ product listings. Many sellers create multiple listings for variations of the same product. For example, if you have lots of different flavored whey protein, don’t list them as separate products, but use Amazons built-in parent-child product functionality. The reason for this is it maximizes your customer reviews, since Amazon will combine your similar products into a single primary product page. It also helps from a user experience point of view; by keeping potential customers on the same page makes it more likely they’ll buy your product.
STEP 5: PRODUCT LISTING COMPLETENESS
Finally, the last thing we suggest you do is spend some time making sure your product listing is as complete as possible. The overall completeness of a product listing has an effect on conversion rates. As a general rule, the more complete you make your listing, the better.
Finally, the last thing we suggest you do is spend some time making sure your product listing is as complete as possible. The overall completeness of a product listing has an effect on conversion rates. As a general rule, the more complete you make your listing, the better.
HOT TIP: Try your best to fill in every single field in the listing setup page to maximize your chances of appearing higher in search results.
Title: With the product title, you’ll want to optimize it around keywords. Don’t use a single keyword, but fit as many keywords as you can into about 80 characters. Look at your competitors product titles and see what keywords they’re targeting.
Features / Bullet points: You’ll want to complete all five bullet points with keyword rich, informative features. Keep these easily readable, but as detailed as you can get them
Product description: Expand on your product features / bullet points in your product description. If there’s anywhere on your listing where you want to put a whole lot of effort into engagement, it’s the product description. Space the description out so that it’s easy to read, and add bolded sub-headers to separate out the content.
Important Information: In this section you may wish to include safety information, for example how to store the product, a full list of the ingredients, or you may also want to talk about the directions for use.
Product Information: The specifications or product information section is different to the product features. This section is where you actually list the technical and physical details of your product, so you may wish to include, ingredients, safety warnings, directions, country of origin, brand, shipping weight, delivery destinations etc.
HOW TO OPTIMIZE YOUR LISTING
1. Make sure to write a keyword rich, informative title for your product. Perform keywords research to get an understanding of which keywords you’d like to target.
2. The more good reviews you have, the better! Consider emailing customers to kindly ask for feedback. We’ve provided an example of the type of email you could send just below in the ‘Bonus Content’ section.
3. Consider offering your product at a discounted rate to get sales flowing. Some sellers launching a new brand or product line will actually allocate a set number of units as loss leaders, where they offer an item for sale at a reduced price in order to either ‘lead’ to the subsequent sale of their other items, to increase awareness of the reduced item or to gain feedback and ratings.
4. Promotions. Customers love promotions because they offer ways to save them money. You can use promotional offers as an incentive for a customer to make a buying decision sooner rather than later. Think carefully about your promotions and make sure the promotion offers sufficient value to favorably influence the customers choice.
5. Amazon offers a built-in parent/child product function that directs all potential buyers to a single page. Helping customers find different versions of a product they’re searching for on one page means fewer clicks and faster check-outs. Use this to your advantage, especially if you have multiple various of you product, e.g. different flavors or pack sizes.
6. There is a five bullet point limit so make sure you create all five features. Each bullet has a maximum character limit of 500 characters, so make sure you pack each one with your researched keywords. Be sure to describe and include the benefit of each feature.
7. With your main product image, make sure it’s clear and looks professional. Keep the product on a pure white background and the product should fill as much of the image frame as possible. Image pixel dimensions need to be at least 1000 pixels in either height or width. For the full product image requirements – click here.
8. For your second image we recommend uploading an image of the nutritional values. We can provide image renders for you.
9. Think of the product images as free advertising space. You can add your own graphics here to add value to the product/brand.
10. If you have a range of products, why not cross promote them here.
BONUS CONTENT – RUN AMAZON SPONSORED PRODUCT ADS
Amazon has a robust advertising platform that allows you to market your supplements to targeted audiences/customers who are using the site. Amazon’s Sponsored Product ads run on a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) model that allows you to promote your products alongside organic search results. Your adverts can appear above, alongside or below search results. Adverts can also be shown on product detail pages.
If you’re not familiar with paid advertising and PPC, we suggest reading up and learning about this area of marketing before jumping in to Amazon Sponsored Product ads. If not monitored or set-up correctly, PPC campaigns can quickly add up to a hefty bill!
For further information you can watch this: ‘Amazon Sponsored Products: Campaign Manager Overview‘ video:
If you are familiar with PPC, here are three simple steps to get up and running quickly:
Step 1: Start with Amazon’s automatic targeting option. This allows Amazon to use its search algorithms to suggest an exhaustive list of potential keywords for you. This option requires you to pick a flat rate default bid across all keywords (not ideal), but the goal in step one is to get data on how various keywords perform for each of your products.
Step 2: Once you have at least a few weeks’ worth of data (the more the better), start evaluating your automatic targeting campaign to determine which keywords are performing the best. You will then want to move those keywords that are performing well over to a manual campaign. With a manual campaign, you have the ability to adjust bids for each keyword.
Step 3: Continue to run through your manual campaigns for keywords and bids. Data is your best friend, but if you feel strongly that you should include additional keywords that haven’t yet performed well, test various bid amounts. Different bid amounts can yield various placements and yield varying results, so continue to test until you find something that works well and provides a strong ROI.
DRIVE EXTERNAL TRAFFIC TO YOUR LISTING
Amazon has a robust advertising platform that allows you to market your supplements to targeted audiences/customers who are using the site. Amazon’s Sponsored Product ads run on a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) model that allows you to promote your products alongside organic search results. Your adverts can appear above, alongside or below search results. Adverts can also be shown on product detail pages.
If you’re not familiar with paid advertising and PPC, we suggest reading up and learning about this area of marketing before jumping in to Amazon Sponsored Product ads. If not monitored or set-up correctly, PPC campaigns can quickly add up to a hefty bill!
The Fulfillment by Amazon Revenue Calculator can give you an idea of your FBA fulfillment costs and allows you to see real-time cost comparisons between your own fulfillment and Amazons offering for customer orders fulfilled on Amazon.
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/hz/fba/profitabilitycalculator/index?lang=en_US
EXAMPLE EMAIL TO SEND TO CUSTOMERS ASKING THEM TO LEAVE A REVIEW
Dear *customer’s name*,
We really hope you are enjoying your *product name* from *your brand*
and that you received it promptly.
If you have been impressed with our product and service, we hope you’ll
shop with us again and recommend us to the world by adding your feedback
on Amazon.com.
Simply sign in to Amazon.com, visit the “Your Account” page, click on
“Your Orders” and select the “Write a product review” link.
If you were not so happy with your order, please reply to this email and
we’ll do our best to quickly resolve the issue.
If you have already left feedback, thank you very much. I really appreciate it.
Thank you again for shopping with *your brand*.
*your name*
*your brand* Founder