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Blog / Ecommerce platform guide / How to Get Your First Sale on Amazon

Ecommerce platform guide

How to Get Your First Sale on Amazon: Expert Tips for Amazon Sellers

How to Get Your First Sale on Amazon: Expert Tips for Amazon Sellers
Zoe Amora Iranzo-Lauriņa

By Zoe Amora Iranzo-Lauriņa

11 min read

With over $1.6B in daily sales, Amazon offers endless opportunities for new sellers. But it’s also a highly competitive marketplace. So, how do you break through and get your first sale?

For its 2.5M active sellers, Amazon success hinges on strategy, innovation, and staying on top of trends.

With our expert tips, you’ll learn how to get your first sale on Amazon and kickstart your ecommerce journey. Let’s dive in!

How to get your first sale on Amazon: 9 expert tips

First things first, make sure you have an Amazon seller account. Go to Amazon Seller Central and click Sell now. Choose your selling plan—either Individual ($0.99 per sale) or Professional ($39.99/month regardless of sales number). Then, you’ll register a Seller Central account.

Seller Central is like your hub for selling. You can use it to list and price products, manage your inventory, and fulfill customer orders. Seller Central also offers tools to create promotions and coupons, track payments and expenses, and much more.

We recommend signing up for a Professional selling account to access advanced tools and features that will help you sell.

a screenshot of a white sheet

Source: Amazon

Once you configure your Seller Central account, it’s time to get your products in front of customers. That brings us to expert tip number 1: optimizing your listings to captivate shoppers!

1. Boost your sales with optimized product listings

The more attractive your product listing looks, the more likely people are to click on it (and add it to their cart). Product listing optimization involves modifying your listings to boost traffic and conversions. Below is an example of a successful listing with over 50K reviews and an average score of 4.4 out of 5 stars.

a screenshot of a woman's body

Source: Amazon

Here are several listing optimization tactics every Amazon seller can use, regardless of the type of selling account you have.

  • Identify relevant keywords for your product using tools like Amazon’s search bar and competitor analysis. Use free tools like Ahrefs Keyword Generator to find essential keywords and incorporate them strategically into your listings for better visibility and organic traffic. Remember to avoid keyword stuffing! 

  • Optimize titles with primary keywords, product features, and benefits. This will make it easier for both search engines and potential customers to find your listings.

  • Use bullet points to showcase the product’s key features, benefits, and unique selling points. Write a detailed, reassuring product description with natural keyword incorporation for easy readability.

  • Utilize backend search terms to add keywords that don’t fit naturally in the visible listing. Include synonyms, variations, and misspellings of relevant keywords to improve visibility in search results. For example, if you sell custom tumblers, you can add backend search terms like “beaker,” “carafe,” or even “tumblr” without the e.

By following these listing optimization tactics, you will attract more customers and boost your sales. Find out how to add backend keywords to your product listings on Amazon and more in our article on how to be a successful Amazon seller.

2. Leverage Amazon’s advanced tools to further optimize your listings

a large stack of boxes in a warehouse

Source: Canva

If you have a Professional seller account and are enrolled in the Amazon Brand Registry, you can access Amazon’s advanced tools to make your product listings pop. Here’s how:

  • A+ Content is a helpful tool offered by Amazon for brands. Use Amazon’s A+ Content feature to incorporate enhanced images and videos that narrate your brand’s story. This will improve your listing quality, boost brand awareness, encourage repeat purchases, and increase sales.

  • 3D models and augmented reality allow sellers to give customers an immersive shopping experience. Customers can view a product from all angles or how it looks in their own space. You can even offer customers the option to see themselves in shoes and eyewear in real time. 3D viewing doubles your chances of making a sale.

  • Shoppable videos help inform and empower customer purchases. Add a video to the main image block on your product page and show customers how to use your product.

Now that you’ve optimized your listings, let’s explore how to price products to meet Amazon customers’ expectations.

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3. Set competitive prices for your products

A product’s price directly impacts your online store’s performance against competitors and your overall profit. One of Amazon’s strategies is dynamic pricing. Did you know that Amazon changes its prices 1700 times every minute?

a graph with green arrows and red line

Source: Prixan

To set competitive prices for your products, familiarize yourself with the key pricing concepts that Amazon uses: 

  • Competitive external price. This refers to the lowest price for an item from a major retailer outside of Amazon (for example, Walmart, Home Depot, Costco, etc). To be competitive, your price plus shipping must be equal to or less than this. 

  • Featured Offer. To appear as an Amazon Featured Offer, you must be at the top of the product page, set a competitive price, and have a Professional selling plan. Qualifying your product as a Featured Offer will boost visibility among other sellers.

  • Lowest Amazon price. The lowest price currently offered by a seller in the Amazon store is, by definition, competitive. Amazon shares the price details of other sellers so that you can either match or beat the lowest price.

Use Automate Pricing to adapt your product pricing based on real-time market conditions and stay competitive. Remember to include shipping costs, referral fees, and taxes in your price calculations.

Learn how to price products to ensure healthy profit margins.

4. Help customers find your business with advertising

While optimizing your listings and setting competitive prices is crucial, nothing grabs shoppers’ attention more than ads. When done right, Amazon advertising can give sellers a 3:1 ROI (return on investment). That is, you get $3 for every $1 spent.

Use Amazon Ads to boost visibility and get your product in front of more customers. There are several different types of Amazon Ads to help you start selling.

  • If you have a Professional sellers account, you can use Sponsored Products ads to feature a single product. These ads appear in, alongside, and above customer search results in the Amazon store.

  • Brands can use Sponsored Brand ads to feature up to three products in addition to a logo and headline. You can also create a Sponsored Brand ad campaign with an auto-playing video featuring a single product.

  • Another option is to create Sponsored Display ads. These feature a single product that can appear on and off the Amazon store based on customer browsing behavior. For example, if a customer searches for hoodies or sweatshirts and that’s what you sell, your ad will appear on their Amazon search page.

Amazon ads are displayed visibly on search results and product detail pages within the Amazon store. You can also find them under sponsored products at the end of the page.

a screenshot of a product

Source: Amazon

Use Amazon Ads reports to track ad spending and performance. Focus on what’s effective so you can optimize your advertising budget.

Don’t know what to sell yet? Find products to add to your Amazon store.

5. Create Amazon coupons and special deals

Besides running Amazon Ad campaigns, you can leverage Amazon’s free marketing tools. Use these no-cost promotions to help drive traffic to your store:

  • Create coupons that will appear on the Amazon Coupons page, in search results, and on product detail pages. 39% of customers decide to buy a product sooner than anticipated when they have a coupon.

  • Offer percentage-off or buy-one-get-one (BOGO) promotions that appear as part of a Featured Offer. Customers tend to prefer BOGO deals over a percentage-off, but both are effective promotion strategies.

  • Create Lightning and 7-Day Deals that appear on the Amazon Deals page. This is a popular option around shopping events like Prime Day. (Prime Day is Amazon’s annual deal event exclusively for Prime members, featuring two days of epic deals on top brands.)

Using these promotions strategically will boost your store’s visibility and help convert more browsers into buyers.

Learn how to develop an effective marketing strategy for your ecommerce business.

6. Enroll your brand in Amazon’s Brand Registry

To take your Amazon store to the next level, enroll in Amazon’s Brand Registry. That way, you’ll have more significant control over your product detail pages and access to a suite of additional selling tools.

These tools can help you increase brand awareness and conversions, improve engagement, and build loyalty in your brand—which will facilitate sales. Check out the Build Your Brand page to learn more about these tools.

Amazon Brand Registry also includes IP (intellectual property) protection tools to ensure that sellers offer only genuine products. These tools let you detect and report suspected IP infringement. It’s another way Amazon enhances the customer experience.

Amazon’s high standards and customer-centered approach are among the main reasons people place so much trust in the marketplace. In fact, shoppers rated Amazon the most trusted brand in 2024. Plus, reports show that trust is essential for making sales.

a screenshot of a graph

Source: Infegy

When you enroll in the Amazon Brand Registry, you gain Amazon’s complete trust and, in turn, that of its 310M active users.

To qualify for the Amazon Brand Registry, you only need to meet two basic requirements:

  • Ensure that your products or packaging clearly display your brand name or a logo featuring your brand name.

  • Have a registered trademark for your brand name or logo. In some cases, a pending trademark application or registration is enough.

If you don’t have a trademark, use the IP Accelerator to connect with legal service providers who can assist you.

Learn how to build a brand that your audience loves.

7. Get quality reviews from real customers

This is also crucial for gaining potential customers’ trust (and getting sales!). Reports show that 90.6% of shoppers always check what other customers have to say before making a purchase.

a screenshot of a black shirt

Source: Amazon

Reviews add social proof and create buzz around your brand. But how can you get reviews if you haven’t sold any products yet? Amazon has a solution for new sellers.

You can enroll in the Amazon Vine program to get as many as 30 high-quality reviews from real customers. Once you enroll, you can provide products to a group of trusted reviewers called Vine Voices. They’ll try products they’re interested in for free, and in exchange, they share their honest and unbiased opinions in a review.

As long as your product is satisfactory, you can count on stellar reviews from Amazon’s Vine Voices. This, in turn, builds customer trust and encourages purchases.

[PULL QUOTE] Discover more strategies in our guide on how to get reviews on Amazon.

8. Take advantage of Amazon-specific features to expand your reach

Amazon wants its sellers to succeed because each sale contributes to Amazon’s overall success. That’s why the marketplace offers so many useful tools and features to help sellers out. Besides the above-mentioned strategies, you can generate even more sales by leveraging these Amazon-specific features:

  • Amazon Global Selling. Selling to customers worldwide is a cost-effective way to increase profit margins. You’ll expand your reach and customer base, and take advantage of busy shopping seasons in other countries. Amazon also provides tools to explore customer search patterns and demand.

  • Product Opportunity Explorer. Go beyond general product categories and discover profitable niches. See what customers are looking for. Focus on selling products based on customer demand, search terms, product trends, and other criteria.

  • Amazon Business. Instead of selling only to consumers, expand your reach to business customers. Access features and tools to connect with B2B customers who buy in larger quantities and have lower return rates. This allows you to increase sales with less effort.

Find out everything you need to know about selling internationally.

With these features, the world is your oyster. Global selling will increase your sales (and lead to many more). Be aware of what customers want and try to sell to B2B clients as well. Amazon-specific features will help you do that.

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9. Choose a fulfillment method that helps you sell

Lastly, choosing the right fulfillment method can make or break your sales on Amazon. The quality of your products, packaging, and shipping services depend on it. Here are the main fulfillment options on Amazon and how each one stacks up:

  • Fulfilling yourself: This method allows you to offer a wider range of products not supported by fulfillment by Amazon, but that may be in high demand. However, you won’t be able to feature your products on Amazon Prime, which can affect sales. If you’re an Amazon seller who’s chosen FBM, check out their fulfillment by merchant guide.

  • Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). FBA supports large inventories and helps third-party sellers scale without managing logistics. Using FBA also allows you to provide free two-day delivery to customers through the Prime program. Free and fast delivery is an incredibly powerful incentive for shoppers. Find out more about fulfillment by Amazon.

  • Third-party fulfillment services: Sellers on Amazon can integrate third-party services like Printful to take care of fulfillment. These services can be leveraged just like Amazon FBA to make things easier for you. There’s also the added benefit of customization and minimal upfront costs. In fact, many consumers are willing to pay more for customized products—meaning more profit for you!

With the print-on-demand (POD) business model, you can place your original designs on hundreds of high-quality products like custom t-shirts or custom hoodies. The best part? You pay for an item only when a customer places an order. Plus, you can easily connect your print-on-demand account to your Amazon store.

To learn more about selling without inventory, check out our Amazon dropshipping guide.

If you want to start dropshipping on Amazon, you’ll have to comply with strict regulations. So, choosing a print-on-demand partner that Amazon trusts, like Printful, makes life much easier. Plus, your customers will be coming back for more, thanks to your high-quality product listings.

a screenshot of a screen

Source: Printful

Looking for ideas? Here are trending products to sell in 2024 for your print-on-demand dropshipping business.

From zero to hero

Getting your first sale on Amazon involves strategic planning and using the right tools. With these expert tips, you’re ready to turn your ecommerce dream into reality.

Start by optimizing your listings, pricing competitively, and making the most of Amazon’s marketing and fulfillment tools. Consider outsourcing fulfillment to a print-on-demand service like Printful so that you can offer customized products with added value. Focus on implementing the tips above to get those sales.

Stay consistent, keep testing things out, and know that every successful Amazon seller started right where you are now. You’ve got this!

author

By Zoe Amora Iranzo-Lauriņa on Oct 24, 2024

Zoe Amora Iranzo-Lauriņa

Guest author

Zoe is a creative writer, multilingual translator, and certified yoga instructor with a passion for learning, traveling, and global cuisine. When she's not typing away at her PC, you can find her teaching yoga in the park, reading on the couch with her cat, or plunging in the Mediterranean.

Zoe is a creative writer, multilingual translator, and certified yoga instructor with a passion for learning, traveling, and global cuisine. When she's not typing away at her PC, you can find her teaching yoga in the park, reading on the couch with her cat, or plunging in the Mediterranean.