Selling on AmazonHein Min Htike

What I am Selling.● Mobile phones, tablets, and laptops from Myanmar and Singapore.

○ Identical items with much cheaper prices ■ Top-end surface book (in UK £2 245, in Singapore £1 700)■ Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (in UK £650, in Singapore £400)

● Since products I intend to sell are quite expensive, a substantial start-up capital is required. ○ Ezbob.com - finincial provider for small and medium business. ○ £ 100,000, 6 months loan -> repayment £106,125

Getting Started1. Setting up merchant acount.

a. Easy step-by-step guide. b. Confirming name of business, address, contact info, etc.c. Subscribe to Pro Merchant plan.

2. Filling in Seller Profile.3. List products for sale.

a. Make the products visible to customers.

4. Build-up reputation of the shop.5. Maintain reputation.

Getting Started - Filling in Seller Profile● Add info such as

○ About the seller.■ How long this business has been running.■ How this got started. ■ How this shop is able to offer cheaper prices.■ How this shop is different from others. ■ Link to professionally built 3rd party website.■ Add FAQs about the shop.

● What kind of gurantee is provided.○ Logo - distinctive and recognisable.

Getting Started - List Products● Ways to list products

○ “Add Product” tool from Seller Central - good for small shops (up to 50 items)○ “Listings Loader” - adding many products that are already in Amazon Catalog○ “Inventory File” - adding many products which are not yet in Amazon Catalog○ “Amazon Seller Desktop” - for offline updates

● As new seller, I will use Add Product tool.

Getting Started: Add Product Tool - I● Screenshot of Add Product tool

Getting Started: Add Product Tool - II● Customers cannot purchase what they can’t see. ● Vital to increase the visibility of product by following steps shown below.

○ Specifying correct category (Amazon has extensive categories).○ Provide product information.

■ Item Title: Most important thing is product page.● Add standout features of the item.● Use all available spaces.● Keep it easy to read. (No exclamation marks, no Capitalised words, and so on.)

● Example: Samsung Galaxy Note 4 SM-910G (4GB RAM, 64GB Memory, Removable Battery, Extendable Storage up to 128GB)

■ Good product images. ● White background, show product clearly, no watermarks, no texts, ● Large enough file size.

Getting Started: Add Product Tool - III● Steps to increase visibility of products.

○ Provide concise description of products.■ Too much info will be offputting. ■ Max 200 words■ Use bullet points (5 points)

● High-level details that has broadest appeal.

○ Example - 15 mega-pixel rear-camera and 4 mega-pixel wide-angel front camera.

○ Provide Search Terms■ Use all 5 search terms■ Avoid repeating the words in title.

○ Enable extra options (e.g. gift wrapping, gift message)○ Use Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) service

■ For quick dispatch, customer service, packing, etc.

Building up Seller’s Reputation● Being a new seller, it is important to build-up sale volumes and reputation

as quickly as possible.○ Go for lesser short-term profits (undercut the price to Amzon and other sellers), higher sales

volume.○ Optimise to win the Buy Box.

■ Price■ Sales volume■ Buyer feedback ■ Return rate, etc.

○ Improve customer metrics of seller (Customer Satisfaction).○ Make use of services provided by Amazon to increase visibility, efficiency

■ Fulfilment by Amazon.■ Sponsored Product. ■ Amazon Selling Coach (suggestions about low inventory alert, lower price alert, etc.)

Amazon’s Services● FBA - Fulfilment by Amazon

○ Probably the most useful service.■ Amazon take cares of storage and dispatching of orders.■ Get same visiblity as amazon’s own retail products. ■ Eligible for Free and Prime delivery.■ Amazon’s 24/7 customer service.■ Sell to other countries from UK.■ Handles “payment and refund process” according to amazon’s standard policies.

● Sponsored Products○ Enhance visibility of items greatly. ○ CPC fees (min: £0.02, avg: £0.11), free 1000 clicks.○ Optimise: relevence of keywords and ads and bid amount○ Can get detailed metrics (how many people saw, how many clicked, how many bought).

Feedback Mechanism● 5 star system

○ 4 or 5 stars (Good)○ 3 stars (Neutral)○ 1 or 2 stars (Bad)

● Important aspect to be eligible for Buy Box.● Improving feedback

○ By providing top-notch customer service (FBA will take care of this for the seller). ○ By providing accurate description of the product. ○ Follow up to the customers to provide feedback.

● Resolving negative feedback○ Contact amazon to remove unrelated feedback (e.g. product overview).○ Work out solution by contacting the customer

Feedback 5 4 3 2 1

Rating/Feedback 55 35 5 3 2

More things for improvement● I would also build a professional website for the shop, lisiting my

inventory.○ use amazon’s marketplace web services to exchange data between this 3rd party website

and amazon account.

● When customer make purchase, redirect to my amazon shop and perform transaction there. ○ Benefit: covered by Amazon’s A-Z Gurantee so that customers can buy confidently.○ Improve sales volume of amazon seller account.

● Promote the 3rd-party website on other platforms like Facebook, twitter, and Google’s Adwords.

Amazon Marketplace Web Service● Web service API - allow direct exchange of data between software of

seller’s account and amazon.○ Require developer access to amazon seller account with MWS.

■ Merchant ID, Marketplace ID■ Application name, Application’s developer account number.

● Programmer can write software according to the seller’s needs and current business practices (integrate current systems with FBA systems).

Thank You.