Council Post: A Deep Dive Into Selling A New Product On Amazon

CEO at Product Launchers, a company that launches new products into retail, and Unscripted, a firm focused on creative business development.

When it comes to selling on Amazon, there are a dizzying array of factors to consider when posting your product for sale. I’ve written previously about some of the basics to help new sellers navigate Amazon, such as securing UPCs for all products. In this article, I’ll take a deeper look into the complex and intricate online selling platform and discuss which tasks you need to complete before even logging on to Amazon.com.

Securing A Trademark

Selling a product on Amazon is an exciting prospect for any new entrepreneur or inventor. After all, Amazon consistently ranks as one of the top retailers in the world year after year. What sellers need to know, however, is that approximately 95% of new products fail, regardless of where they are available for sale. Proper preparation could keep your brilliant idea from being one of them.

Before even thinking about opening an Amazon account, be sure to obtain an active trademark from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. (Consider a copyright for written content, such as slogans and taglines, as well.) Not only is a trademark valuable in terms of brand reputation and owners’ rights, but Amazon also rewards trademark holders with benefits unavailable to non-holders.

Brand registry on Amazon.com is only available to those with a trademark. With Amazon’s brand registry comes a suite of tools that can improve products’ chances of selling. One example is a clickable video within the photo lineup. In today’s visual content world (think Instagram), consumers look and listen more and read less. Engaging video and photographic assets should provide customers with all the information they need to make a buying decision. Amazon’s brand registry allows A+, or enhanced brand content, to replace written descriptions; additional keywords, graphics and illustrations are available; and brands are given a hyperlink to their own store on Amazon’s site.

Additional advertising options are also available for registered brands such as inline video ads, subscribe-and-save offers, advanced analytic tools including a keyword optimizer and other tools and suggestions. Brand owners with more than one product can also combine products and sell them as a bundle.

Highest-Quality Visual Assets

As competition increases and more sellers and buyers join the platform, Amazon has to find a way to elevate the best of the best. One way it is doing so is by raising the bar on product listings. Our in-house Amazon optimization specialists insist that every client selling on Amazon must have what we call a “designer photo lineup.” That is, visual assets must be of the highest caliber.

A hi-res product photo and lifestyle images are no longer good enough. Images — there has to be more than one — must be the right size and shape. They should be in Amazon’s preferred format and the maximum pixels allowed. Most importantly, images should flow succinctly from one to the next, telling (and selling) the product’s story. Though a well-written description and bullets must be included in the product listing, don’t expect potential customers to read them. A product’s bestselling points should be highlighted and covered within the photo lineup.

The Inventory Catch-22

Selling out the product is an inventor’s dream, right? Not so fast. Sellers need to be prepared to scale up inventory if sales grow quickly or deal with inventory on hand if it does not sell at all.

It is rare that a product sells out instantaneously when posted on Amazon. The chances of that happening increase, however, when a seller engages in promotion outside Amazon such as PR and advertising. For example, when one of our clients was featured on the Today Show promoting a $14.99 product, it was flooded with $17,000 in orders in approximately 2 days. Fortunately, it was prepared for this scenario with a well-stocked inventory.

Unprepared sellers who experience a spike in sales and cannot fulfill orders will suffer the consequences of Amazon’s artificial intelligence (AI). Every product on Amazon is ranked by the company’s algorithms, which analyzes the number of times an item has been viewed and purchased, the conversion rate and more.

When a product sells, its ranking goes up and it moves up in the search results. Momentum is key. But if Amazon’s AI has been directing buyers to a product then realizes the item is out of stock, the software will find a replacement and redirect buyers to competing products.

Time To Get Selling

Run down your checklist: UPC codes for each SKU, trademarks and copyrights, “designer” images, professionally written copy and appropriate inventory and/or guaranteed supply chain.

Now you are ready to log on to Amazon and create a professional seller’s account. Remember that slow and steady wins the race. Take the time to prepare properly before rushing in to list a product. Put your best assets forward and allow Amazon’s AI to find your product, build momentum for it and hopefully make it a must-have item on everyone’s list.

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