Are you thinking about selling on Amazon? Starting an FBA business is a huge learning curve, especially if you have a limited background with business and entrepreneurship.  The learning curve of starting a new business is usually the most expensive part of your business. Today, I will share 5 mistakes new sellers make! Don’t make these mistakes, and your business will go much faster, much quicker.

Mistake #1: Not Understanding Search Engine Optimization

Just like Google, Bing, and Youtube; Amazon is just a search engine at the end of the day.  The goal of any search engine is to be on the top of page 1, where the average user clicks. Amazon is no different.  You need to get your product listing to the top of page 1, for many relevant keywords, otherwise your product won’t get any clicks (sales).

Amazon’s search engine results are controlled by product ranking; the closer to page 1, the lower the rank your product has.  Product ranking is controlled by sales velocity. Sales Velocity just means ‘how fast are you getting sales’. If you are getting sales at a faster rate than your competitors, you will move closer to page 1 and replace their position.  You can increase sales velocity through pay-per-click sponsored ads or bringing external traffic to Amazon.

At the end of the day, your success on Amazon is directly tied to being an SEO expert.  Learn SEO strategies and your business will be extremely successful.

Mistake #2: Not Investing in Software and Tools

Tools are cheap and can prevent extremely expensive mistakes.  Do not try to cut costs on tools to save money, you will kick yourself later on.  If all of your decisions are baseless or based on tools with incorrect data, you will be making very risky business decisions with.  The very first investment you should make in your FBA business is a market research tool! An extremely accurate market research tool is the foundation of a successful business.  How can you pick a money-making product if you can’t see how much money other sellers are making in that market? Egrow’s Market Research tool can help you find profitable products quickly, and with great accuracy.

As a new seller, you should be investing in software and tools that make your business work more efficiently.  Market research tools, keyword tracking tools, email automation; these are all tools that will improve your business. After purchasing your tools, it is just as important to spend time learning the ins-and-outs of the tools; make sure you spend time learning the metrics of the tools and how to analyze the data it provides.

Mistake #3: Self-Inspecting your Product

Many new sellers have their products shipped directly to their house to inspect the suppliers work.  This is a huge mistake! If you ship your product internationally and realize you have a large defect rate of your product; there is absolutely nothing you can do about it.  It would cost tons of money to have the product shipped back to your manufacturer to correct and you would have to trash a lot of your units.

Instead, you should be hiring an inspection agency to professionally inspect the product for you.  Inspection agencies are very inexpensive and an inspection can be set up in just a few days notice.  I simply hire an inspection company and give them my supplier’s contact information to set up a time to go to the factory.  If an inspector notices a defect or issue with the batch, then your supplier can correct the issue on the spot. An inspection company will save you a ton of money and time and assure you that you won’t be getting bad reviews due to defective products.  Overall; a no-brainer.

Mistake #4: Boring Images

Photography sets the tone for your product’s perception; it will tell the customer the quality, how much it’s worth, and if they should spend their money on it.  If you are using your suppliers low-quality images, you need to stop! Hire a product photographer and you will save a ton of money in the long run! Your advertising costs will go down and you will convert more sales if you sell your customer through your images.

You should also make sure your listing’s main image stands out in comparison to competitors. Often, I see new sellers have product photography that looks like everyone else’s, which just makes their listing blend in among the crowd.  Use your Egrow Market Research tool and look at the seller with the most sales in your category, you will most likely find that their product photography stands out from the crowd. When consumers are browsing for a product, they will most likely click on the image that looks most appealing and different from the others.  Try to replace common images with innovative and creative photos to maximize sales!

Mistake #5: Bidding on Irrelevant Keywords

New sellers often wonder why their ACoS is so high and that is due to bidding on irrelevant keywords.  If the keyword you are putting into your manual campaign doesn’t exactly describe your product, you should not put it into your campaign.  For example, let’s say you sell smoothie straws; you should not be bidding on the keyword “smoothie”. Though it seems very relevant, it is not perfectly describing your product and will lead to a lot of spending with low sales conversions.

As a new seller, I would recommend creating an automatic campaign and pulling your proven-to-convert keywords from your automatic campaign and putting them into a manual campaign.  Instead of just mass-importing a list of keywords into a manual campaign, you want to focus on bidding on the keywords that have already generated you sales. This strategy will help you save money on advertising costs and get your listing closer to page 1 for the keywords that convert sales.

As a new FBA seller, the learning curve is steep! It is common for new sellers to make mistakes and don’t beat yourself up over mistakes; but instead, treat them as learning opportunities.  The more time you spend upfront educating yourself, the better off you will be! Definitely check out our other blog posts with additional tips, tricks, and strategies. Make sure you invest your money in tools, photography, and education; and your FBA business will be much more successful!