The process of starting to sell on Amazon can be divided into several stages.

The first and most important is product selection and pre-implementation analysis, the second is preparation of all necessary product and formal data and finally the third is account opening, product provisioning, parameterisation and commencement of sales.

What products to sell on Amazon?

It seems obvious, but it is not at all. If we are a manufacturer, brand owner, craftsman or distributor the choice is simpler – we sell what we currently have in our own offer and which we offer in other sales channels, online or offline. If we are a distributor and products from our range are already offered on Amazon marketplaces, we can simply become another seller of that product on Amazon (so called Piggybacking). If the product is not there, you need to decide whether or not you will set up a new listing for that product. What should be the basis for this decision? The potential of the product on Amazon. In order to find out what potential a given product has, you should analyse its position on Amazon using tools available on the market or commissioning us to perform such an analysis (here you can find sample results of such Analysis). If your product is unique, exceptional and there is no benchmark on the market you should create such a product.
If you do not know what products to sell on Amazon, you need to find such products first. There are several ways in which we can find such products. One way is to look in your contact list and around you for people or companies who are manufacturers or distributors of products, see if such or similar products are already available on Amazon and create an Amazon listing or plug into an existing Amazon listing (Piggybacking). If you don’t have such contacts, you can widen your search and look for manufacturers, distributors, shops, artisans in the market who can supply you with such products both locally and those offering their products through platforms such as Ali Express or Alibaba.
Apart from the products themselves, a number of other decisions need to be made as part of the pre-implementation analysis, and the necessary data needs to be collected, including
– on which of Amazon’s Marketplaces our products will be offered – in Europe we can choose amazon.de; amazon.co.uk, amazon.fr, amazon.it, and amazon.es
– in which model we will conduct our sales: FBA, FBM, Vendor
– what pricing policy will we implement in this channel? This decision should be based on an analysis of our TKW costs, purchase costs, amazon costs, logistics costs, a buffer for returns, damages or complaints, and our product margin;
– in which product categories we will conduct our sales
– what resources do we have within the organisation to handle orders, customer, returns
– whether we have carriers that will be able to deliver our shipments to customers in a given market
– prepare the necessary documents required to open a sales account with Seller Central
If you already have all of the above data, you can move on to the next stage, which is the preparation of the product database.

Preparation of product data

This is a key part of preparing to sell on Amazon, which is a determinant of our success on Amazon. No ‘shortcuts’ should be taken at this stage. Product data is the element on the basis of which an Amazon customer should decide to buy and choose our product and not a competing product.
The necessary product data that you should prepare before feeding your products on Amazon are:
1) Product Name. It should be the business card of our product, convey the most important product data and encourage the customer to click on the description to learn more about it
2) Product image. Our customer has clicked on the description and is already on the product card. The first element most customers pay attention to is the photo. Amazon allows you to upload up to 9 images for each product. One main image and 8 additional images. Check the technical requirements for images here. Photos have 2 primary functions – to inform and to sell. They should be in good resolution and should both communicate what your product is from different angles, but should also highlight its features, product benefits. Invest in good quality images – this will pay off in sales value.
3) Bullet points
Put together the most important features of the product in a concise form. Most of the categories allow up to 5 bullet points for each product.
– what product differentiators USP we will communicate in our products
– Do we have a complete product database required to set up an Amazon listing, i.e. product names, product descriptions both in the form of a general description and in the form of Bullet Points, EAN codes, logistical data (weights, dimensions), product photos according to Amazon guidelines;
4) Product prices and shipping costs
5) General description of the products
This is a description of the product in a more traditional form, i.e. a collection of information about the products, their features, usage information, technical data of the products.
6) Logistical data of products, i.e. weights, product and packaging dimensions and EAN codes are the minimum required in each product category. Depending on the product category, the amount of data and its scope may vary significantly.

Creating an Amazon account.

This stage completes the process of starting to sell.
To open an Amazon account you will need the following information:
– account name – this is the name under which our customers will see our listing on the Amazon platform. Try to make it easy to remember and best correlate with your product offering. It is not necessary for it to be your company name.
– company documents. Here we need a scan of a document confirming the registration of our business, i.e. an entry in the register or the National Court Register
– a scan of the identity card of the company owner or the person managing the company. If it is an ID card, a legible scan of both sides in one file is necessary
– a scan of documents confirming the registration address of the company or the person managing the company in the form of a copy of a bill for gas, electricity, telephone, water, i.e. the so-called utillity bill
– active credit card
Having all the above data at hand, we are ready to register the account. Once the account is registered, you need to fill in a number of details in the account settings, fund the products and we are ready to take off into the world of Amazon.
Do you have questions or concerns? Be a part of the Go2Market Community. Let us know in a comment on this article or on our FB group and we will respond and maybe this information will be useful to someone else.

Good luck,
Go2Market Crew