Happy New Year! - Succeeding Selling On Amazon In 2021

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I Hope Everyone had a Great New Year's Eve.🎇

Here's to Making 2021 Your BEST Year Ever!

Going into 2021 and Selling on Amazon,

Here are some tips for being successful:

1. PRODUCT RESEARCH - Don’t get impatient during the product research phase - This is the most important step for a reason! You want to use a checklist, and really validate you have a good product and Niche.

DIFFERENTIATE. Solve a problem, and ADD VALUE.

Think:

✅ Why should the customer choose my product over all the others?  Color or price is not enough...

*2 out of 10 launches if you try to sell the same exact product as everyone else = it works.

*8 out of 10 launches if you add value, differentiate, solve a problem = you’ll be successful

2. BEWARE OF HIGH JACKERS - A lot of Black Hat tactics and big Amazon Sellers out there. Try and find an up-and-coming Niche and product and get in there early.

a. Start ranking, getting reviews, building your Brand. Branding your products with logo, use Amazon IP accelerator program to get Brand Registry and Trademark as soon as you can afford to.

b. Or use Trademarkia dot com, Legal Zoom ($300-$400 for Trademark) then apply for Amazon pilot program to get access to Brand Registry as soon as you have a U.S. Trademark office registration # > while waiting for Trademark to be issued!

3. SUPPLIERS - Continuously review research and vet suppliers/ manufacturers. Order samples, even multiple rounds of custom samples if you are changing the product design a lot.

Every Supplier will have their pros/ cons. Ensure your contract/ purchase order is as complete as possible and has EVERYTHING they have agreed to in communication, writing between you two.

✅ The MORE details the better (Color, size, pricing, shipping terms, lead times, logo on product and packaging, DDP shipping included or not, thank you insert cards, all upgrades + improvements, the payment terms, inspections, Etc.)

4. FOCUS ON FBA - FBM has become a great alternative in 2020 due to the 200 unit limits and IPI restrictions at Amazon.

a. Setting up/ using a 3PL warehouse is a great back up option for Etsy, Walmart, and Shopify orders down the road. But focus on Amazon first.

b. However, FBA remains the most passive and scalable, and hands-off (eventually). I've found FBA is the most profitable in the long-run.

c. I believe the 200 unit and IPI restrictions will be REMOVED by Amazon by April 2021. They were just behind for 2020 Q4.

5. BRANDING - Have it on all products and the packaging. Come up with a Brand name that makes sense for the Category/ Market. *First Check: Brand name is available on Trademarkia dot com or USPTO dot gov, get Logo done on Fiverr, send it to Supplier and order a custom sample: (1) product sample unit with Logo on it.

You’ll need this for creating the listing step, and have Supplier put it on all products and packaging.

✅ Brand name should be specific to Category/ Niche, but not too specific to just the product.

6. PROFITS - Sell high profit margin products -

Products that sell and ship easily. Have at least a 125%+ ROI, and 30%+ net margin after all costs and fees. I only sell products that are 5 pounds or under, not oversized, and sell on Amazon for $50-$200 in price. Trying to sell a $10-$15 product - *They quickly become competitive and price war going on.

Plus, Selling at $15, (cost of product landed is $4) + ($5 FBA fees) + (plus storage fees and PPC) = $9 - $15 selling price = $6 profit - PPC and Storage = Now you're down to $3 or $4 profit = cash flow problems

7. USE SOCIAL MEDIA - In 2021, At a minimum to have a Facebook, and an Instagram page set-up for your Brands.

Try posting 1-5 times per week with related & helpful articles, pics, videos, trending topics, related to your target market can really help. You'll start to reach hundreds of customers organically (free). And of course for any new product launches and promotions!

Also, look at Alexa voice ordering, set up a skill and start building up your Brand awareness.

COLLECT customers Email and data - However you can! Building an Email list is super important.

8. KEYWORDS - Keywords are important for 3 main reasons:

a. Are you looking at the main keyword during product research? Seeing and running X-Ray chrome Ext. on all the Sellers out there?

b. Is there enough demand for the product?

c. Product's top 2-5 main keywords all have 3,000 search volumes or higher.

d. There are several keywords in the 1,000-12,000 search volumes range you can go after ranking for first to page 1?

9. REVIEWS + RANKING - Ranking and Reviews are King - Get as many sales and reviews as you can - the first 2-4 weeks after launch (Honeymoon period).

✅ Use Search, Find, Buy for launch, ERP, coupon codes and promotions, social media, Influencers, pricing strategies, split-testing main images, aggressive PPC campaigns all in combination for launch!

-I recommend AZ Rank dot com or RebateKey w/ "Treasure Hunt" feature for SFB purchases and ranking.

-Aggressive PPC after you have 2-7 five star reviews.

Your Mentor and Coach,

Brian Noonan