How to Increase Sales on Amazon

Location, location, location.

Most people recognize this as a real estate phrase, but it also applies to product sales. Sellers need to go where the customers are. In today’s digital world, that means major online platforms like Amazon. That’s because a large number of the world’s online shoppers will look around Amazon while searching for an item.

Such a deep customer base means there’s the potential for sellers to make a huge profit. However, it’s also an increasingly competitive marketplace. For every seller that crosses into seven figures’ income, there are dozens who struggle along in ranking obscurity. If you want to make money on Amazon—as in real money— you’ll have to overcome common seller challenges with a mixed bag of tools including research, optimized store pages, and other strategies.

• Common Challenges Faced by Amazon Sellers
• How to Increase Sales on Amazon
• Final Notes

Common Challenges Faced by Amazon Sellers

If you’re wondering why your sales are low on Amazon, you have company. It can be tough for new sellers to break into this market. Some of the biggest problems that you’ll be contending with from day one include:

• A market niche that’s saturated with other sellers, some of them highly experienced at the game
• Struggling with Amazon’s sometimes opaque web of rules and regulations
• Difficulty understanding how keywords interact with the search engine’s algorithm
• Implementing a short-term pricing strategy, like getting into a price war, instead of focusing on the big picture
• Putting up listings with photos that miss the mark, amateur-sounding product descriptions, and other issues
• Having few to no reviews can make potential customers mistrustful

However, you can overcome many of these issues by taking into account the steps laid out in the below section. 

How to Increase Amazon Sales

There are quite a few hurdles between you and Amazon’s success, but don’t get discouraged. Every big seller on the platform started out just like you: at square one. You, too, can climb the rankings and improve sales with a combination of research, improving your product pages and sales plans, and going the extra mile for your customers. Here are some specific tools and strategies to look into.

Conduct Keyword Research

Visibility is the quickest way to increase sales on Amazon. How do you get that visibility? Keyword research is king here.

As a starting point, you can brainstorm possible keywords and see what the search engine auto-complete suggests. However, seed keywords won’t get your new store far. You’ll have to narrow them down to more closely target potential customers. Try a keyword research tool like Helium 10’s Cerebro or Magnet. These tools can suggest which keywords to work into your product names and descriptions, along with a wealth of other information like keyword popularity and how competitive a particular keyword may be.

Optimize Your Product Listings

Once you have a list of targeted keywords in hand, it’s time to upgrade your product listings. See what you can do to naturally integrate those keywords into the names and text. If you’re stuck, check out what the competition is doing for inspiration.

Ready to throw that listing up on Amazon? Not so fast! Your first draft probably won’t be polished enough for the marketplace. Try running your listing through an analysis tool like Helium 10’s product listing analyzer, which can point out areas that could use improvement.

Implement a Competitive Pricing Strategy

If you’re offering a product that’s similar to many on the market, customers are probably going to choose the cheapest option. Experienced sellers are very aware of this and tend to play price-shifting games, undercutting each other by pennies to grab a quick sale. It may be a good idea to get an automated repricing tool so you can keep up.

However, there’s another school of thought here. If everybody is doing this undercutting strategy, maybe you’re better served by going against the grain. After all, many Amazon customers have been burned by cheap, flimsy products. They may skip past the wave of lowball offers, hoping that a slightly higher price means better quality. Think it through carefully when you’re developing your pricing strategy.

Run PPC Campaigns

A smart PPC campaign can increase Amazon sales by creating a bump in your visibility. A poorly thought-out one can cost you hundreds to thousands of dollars and barely move the needle.

What’s the difference between the two? Research.

Before playing around with PPC campaigns, you need to figure out what terms to target and which ones to back up with more serious money. Helium 10 can help you on the research front. Its tools don’t just suggest terms to target. They can also help you analyze where to spend your money. For instance, maybe one term is expensive per click but really performs for conversions. On the other hand, maybe a less competitive, more narrowly targeted keyword is a better place to focus your advertising budget.

Consider Using Amazon FBA

FBA stands for Fulfillment by Amazon. In this model, an e-commerce store outsources its order fulfillment to Amazon itself. You create the listings, run the ad campaigns, etc. Once the orders roll in, Amazon fulfillment centers will package and ship the merchandise you’ve stored at their warehouse. Amazon FBA isn’t for everyone, but it can take away the pressure and headache of inventory management. That frees you up to focus on other ways to increase sales on Amazon.

Gather Positive Reviews

Product reviews provide social proof. They build customer confidence in your brand. Potential buyers are reassured that your store is a real one, the products are as advertised, and they will get exactly what they ordered, right on time.

It’s not easy to get reviews in the beginning, but you can try simply asking for them. Hit the ‘Request a Review’ button on the site. Ask your mailing list to post reviews. Slip inserts into the packaging that gently prompt people to leave stars and feedback. Keep in mind, that you can only ask for honest, unbiased feedback. Sending messages asking or urging customers to “leave a 5-star review” is strictly prohibited by Amazon and may result in suspensions to your account.

Use High-Quality Images and Videos

What’s the first thing customers do after typing a search term into Amazon? They scroll down the results page, looking at the pictures and occasionally glancing at titles. Yes, your keyword-enriched product page can get you in the game, but it won’t hook a customer’s interest. That falls on the photos you’ve chosen.

Better product images and videos don’t just boost sales on Amazon. More and more, they’re necessary to make sales at all. Include high-quality images that clearly showcase the product or brace yourself for an onslaught of bad reviews.

Final Notes

The Amazon market is huge and full of potential. However, to build up your seller’s brand and tap into those profits, you’ll have to cross a number of hurdles. It’s a competitive platform for basically every product niche. You’ll have to work with the search engine algorithm and stay on top of market trends and customer feedback to grow.

Helium 10’s all-in-one suite of tools can set you up for success on Amazon. With these tools, you can research keywords, optimize your listings, figure out your sales and fulfillment strategy, and more. The sooner you get started, the sooner you’ll build momentum and start out earning more established competition.

Frequently Asked Questions