Is excellence possible on Amazon? Or at the very least, is it possible to differentiate your products from others selling the same products? I think it is possible – in fact, I often sell the identical products that others are selling and I get higher prices! Here are some methods I use to accomplish this:
Sell on Amazon FBA. This is the most obvious first step in differentiating your products on Amazon from other sellers. The benefits of selling with FBA are numerous: you attract Amazon Prime customers, shipping cost is included as part of the price thus giving you a higher listing against others with the same or even lower price, and Amazon ships your item for you – giving your customer a fast and professional service. I joined Amazon Prime a while ago and now I exclusively only buy products from FBA sellers (I’m sure most of the other Prime customers are the same way).
For proof of this, here is a book I sold yesterday (ASIN 0345464060). I sold this book for $8.99 and netted $4.82 after fees. My price was higher than all of the copies listed here – in fact my take home pay was higher than most of their prices!
Once you have your products listed with FBA there are still other ways to differentiate your items and even from other FBA sellers (these methods will help you even if you are not selling on FBA):
Use condition descriptions: It’s amazing the number of sellers and FBA sellers who do not describe the condition of their items at all. While it’s true that a lot of customers do not read the descriptions – for the ones that do, having a good description could be a deal maker for you. This only applies to used products however.
Describe conservatively: I always see FBA sellers in forums complaining about the number of refunds that are issued for their accounts. While it is impossible to avoid issuing refunds, a lot of them can be avoided if you describe or choose your condition conservatively. I describe most of my books as in “good” condition – I describe my like-new books as “very good”. I get a lot of good feedback responses from customers who receive a book in better condition than they expected.
Be the sole FBA seller: The holy grail for differentiating your products is Amazon is of course being the only FBA seller for a particular product. If you can achieve this, you can charge more than all other sellers (besides Amazon itself if applicable). While it is hard to be the only FBA sellers for a lot of products, there are a couple of things you can do to help your odds. One thing is to avoid a selling a product that already has several FBA listings. Another thing you can do is not chase the lowest FBA price. If your book or product has a good ranking, let the low-balling FBA seller sell out, then get the price you want for your listing.
I hope this post gives you some ideas to fine-tune your listings and sell your items for higher prices!
I was listening to one of my favorite podcast’s today – “Internet Business Mastery“. At about the 25 minute mark of the podcast, one of the hosts started going on and on about how much he loved BUYING on Amazon Prime. I agree with him. I also belong to Amazon Prime and will buy pretty much anything I purchase on Amazon from Prime (FBA) sellers. It’s great, free shipping and the item arrives in 2 days!
Since I have joined Amazon Prime I see why other customers like it so much and I now have nearly all of my Amazon Inventory in Amazon FBA so I can target these customers. If you are not selling on FBA you are missing out on Prime customers. With podcasts like IBM touting the advantages of buying with Prime to their massive audiences, the number of Prime customers is sure to continue to grow.
Another couple of factors which may contribute to more people becoming Amazon Prime customers:
- With the Amazon Kindle Fire becoming a huge seller, Fire owners will want to join Prime to take advantage of streaming video.
- With Amazon Prime now offering streaming video such as TV shows and Movies (like Netflix), more people may join Amazon Prime to access this service. I have not tested out this video service yet but I intend to in the next week or so.
If you want to hear what was said about Amazon Prime in the podcast CLICK HERE and scroll to about the 25 minute mark.
Here is a guest post that I did on one of my favorite blogs – Adam Bertram’s Sell Your Books Online. The freedom of location was one of the main reasons I decided to get involved with Amazon FBA and continues to be a huge motivator for me – Let me know what you think of the post!:
“Imagine that you’re an online book seller. You have a profitable business going, but no employees. You have a few thousand books and you sell a few each day, seven days a week. Life is good – you have created a profitable business working from home!
Then one day you decide to take a week vacation. You long into Amazon and Half.com and put your listings on “vacation” setting. You remove your books from eBay. You’re having a good time on vacation but in the back of your mind you know that you are not making any money. Worse than that, you fear that potential customers are buying books that are usually in your inventory from competitors. You try to decide when to end your “vacation” settings – when you return or two business days before returning? Do you really want to get back and have to ship a dozen books as soon as you walk in the door?
This was my experience two years ago. My long term goal was and is to build a business and travel – A LOT. I realized that this may not be possible with selling books online. Did I just waste almost two years learning everything I could about selling books online, finding sources of inventory, and investing in supplies and inventory?
About a year and a half ago I started experimenting with Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon). I have found that not only has FBA made my business more profitable – it has also made it less time consuming, easier, and most importantly, given me more freedom.
With FBA, Amazon stores and ships my inventory for me. I do not need to be chained to my house anymore to ship orders or even to answer customer emails (Amazon does this for me).
A few months ago I decided to experiment with FBA remotely. I found a huge book sale across the country in a city where my brother lives. I packed my laptop and my wife and I hopped on a plane. I spent parts of 2 days at the book sale and the rest of the week I had fun. Before I returned home I bought some boxes, borrowed my brother’s printer, and shipped hundreds of books to Amazon.
I flew back home at the end of the week without taking any inventory with me. I realized that two great things resulted: 1) while I was away I was selling books each day and making money, and 2) the books I acquired while away later sold for more than enough to cover my travel expenses!
For me, FBA has changed my entire business for the better – I have nearly all my inventory in FBA now. Of course there are negatives to FBA – it can take awhile to learn, the fees are higher, and sales rankings are more important than anything (even price). If you are interested in selling only antique or collectable books FBA will probably not be profitable. If your goals are like mine – building a profitable business and being able to travel – FBA may be worth looking into.”
I have recently begun to take this to the next level – if I can find used books to resell while I travel, why not other products? In fact, I have been learning how to sell brand new retail items that I can find at retailers and flip for high profit margins on Amazon! If you are interested in learning about this as well, I highly recommend the new ebook by Chris Green – “Retail Arbitrage”. The price is substantial ($97) but if you are serious about learning this skill it is worth the investment. I will be doing a full review of the book soon on my blog. Another great book is “Barcode Booty” by Steve Weber, available on Amazon.com or Weberbooks.com.
