Avoid These Amazon Selling Blunders

There are hundreds of millions of Amazon shoppers and several million Amazon sellers.  New sellers flock to the marketplace each day, but not all that come will actually stay.

Sellers leave Amazon when they aren’t turning a profit.  Some jump ship too soon, not realizing that it takes online businesses a while to gain traction.  Others commit serious blunders that result in lost business.

The best plan for sellers is to adhere to carefully-designed Amazon brand management strategies.  As you strive to grow your online retail business, here are a few mistakes to avoid.

• Failing to comply with Amazon updates – Periodically, Amazon adjusts its policies or metrics. Whenever there are changes, Amazon notifies the sellers so they can make the necessary adjustments. Some sellers don’t even bother to read the notifications, but failure to comply with the changes could have dire consequences.  Amazon could suspend or terminate sellers’ accounts. Avoid this problem by taking time to read and understand the notifications coming from Amazon.
• Responding slowly – Amazon sellers have only a small window to respond to each customer inquiry, regardless of the time of day the inquiry was made. Amazon will notice when you do not respond within the prescribed period, and they could level penalties against your business. Avoid this situation by tapping into software that offers quick or automated assistance in replying to Amazon buyers.
• Fufilling orders incorrectly – If you’re fulfilling orders on your own it’s only a matter of time before you make a mistake. You might neglect to ship an order out on time or fail to provide tracking information. You might let your inventory run out while you still have incoming orders.  Problems like this can be avoided by moving your inventory to Fulfillment by Amazon or having someone manage your Amazon inventory.
• Not collecting sales taxes – Amazon sellers are required by law to collect state and local taxes. Some sellers fail to do this and find out later that they have massive tax liabilities with the state. These taxes cannot be retro-collected from the buyers, so they are forced to pay from their own pocket and end up going out of business. This mistake could easily be avoided by letting Amazon collect the taxes on your orders for a small fee.
• Making inventory and pricing errors – Product listings on Amazon require sellers to indicate the price of the products and the quantities of their inventory. The moment these two details are listed they go live. Many sellers lose money by pricing their products incorrectly. For example, if you were to list a product for $50 instead of 50 cents, you’d be hemorrhaging profits. Word of mouth on your too-good-to-be-true “bargain” could travel fast.  Your inventory could be wiped out overnight without you earning a single penny. Amazon inventory management requires extreme caution when listing the price of a new product to avoid this fiasco.

Avoid these common gaffes for turnkey Amazon selling success.

With many more shoppers getting hooked at shopping in Amazon, being on this e-commerce site can be turned to your advantage. Though thousands of sellers are recruited each year, a lot of them also tend to leave the site in less than a year. You won’t need to leave the site if you follow the tips on the infographic.