How to Avoid the 8 Biggest Amazon Mistakes New Sellers Make
Amazon, as one of the biggest e-commerce stores, has some of the hardest selling policies that every seller must follow.
These rules target to improve the shopping experience and protect buyers from misinformation and counterfeit goods.
However, in the quest to utilize the ever-growing marketspace and earn more profits, sellers face various obstacles that may limit their growth.
These challenges include ever-changing market trends, new competition, and gating. How does one overcome such challenges?
The secret to creating a huge customer base and enjoying more selling opportunities on Amazon is to learn what works for every seller.
That means both new sellers and Amazon FBA sellers need to understand all the mistakes they are likely to make and avoid them at all costs.
That is why this article shows the 8 biggest mistakes that most new Amazon sellers make.
By understanding upfront, you can position yourself to avoid these Amazon mistakes.
Top 8 Amazon Mistakes Explained
1. Violating Amazon’s Rules or Terms of Service (ToS)
Being a huge company with millions of buyers and sellers worldwide, Amazon updates its rules frequently to accommodate both new and FBA sellers. For instance, the buyer-seller messaging rules have been redrafted several for the past few years.
While this sounds like a great plan to keep everyone in check, some sellers end up violating such Terms of Service (ToS). The mistake can lead to heavy penalties such as account suspensions and banning, and fines.
Every Amazon seller, therefore, needs to stay up to date with new rules enacted. Reading the terms every time Amazon sends them is vital as it prevents possible charges and heavy penalties. That said, here are some of the ToS that every Amazon seller must adhere to:
- Not to incentivize or use suggestive language when requesting reviews or feedback.
- No use of coupons or promotions.
- No asking for a 5-star rating or positive review from buyers. Ask for reviews using a neutral tone.
- Disable all Order Shipment mails.
2. Ignoring Competition and Using Ineffective PPC Campaign Strategy
Most new Amazon sellers are deceived by luxurious categories such as toys and games, home appliances, clothes, and technology.
However, they are hit by stiff competition, primarily due to many sellers fighting for a small market.
Therefore, new Amazon sellers should avoid picking a niche blindly without doing due diligence.
They should take time to study the market and research products with more reviews.
Remember, the more reviews on products, the higher the competition.
Amazon’s Pay-Per-Click (PPC) strategy is also a good way to promote brand image and position, boost conversion rate and awareness, and overcome stiff competition.
However, when done blindly, it can ruin the brand’s market position, leading to losses.
As such, sellers need to understand the PPC’s potential and effective strategies to use before launching one.
3. Unforeseen or Untrustworthy Supplier Issues
Most new sellers also end up trusting any supplier without doing due diligence. What they forget is that not all suppliers have a transparent supply history.
While some sellers are anxious to get their products on market, they end up trusting their businesses with any supplier who meets their costs.
This leads to loss of opportunities, negative customer feedback, poor delivery services, and overpricing.
To avoid these mistakes, sellers need to vet all suppliers to ensure they have good performance history. This is also another reason to use an ungating service that has reliable sources and also understands how long does it take to get ungated on Amazon.
This may be a one-time challenge but can save the sellers hundreds of dollars to clean the brand’s image.
If they don’t trust their current suppliers, they can easily go for the best alternatives around, especially those trusted by many Amazon sellers.
4. Failure to Read Customer Reviews and Update Products
Even though the healthy competition is crucial in any form of business, copying what other sellers offer can lead to account closing.
That is why Amazon has strict rules and algorithms to point out copycats and remain with only original products.
Also, since most buyers believe that products with the highest reviews are the original ones, it is challenging for new sellers to gain more traffic on the same product offering.
As such, new Amazon sellers need to avoid selling what is already available and look for unique products.
One secret to avoiding copycats is to improve on the current products by reading customer reviews.
Read all the customers’ complaints and try to offer solutions to the new products. For instance, if buyers complain about poor packaging or functionalities, try to introduce new packaging strategies and improve on products’ performance.
5. Poor Stock Management Skills
Proper stock management forms the backbone of any business. After selling on Amazon for a long time, sellers learn how to manage their stock and balance between stock orders and supply.
However, one mistake that most new sellers make is to over-order their stock.
This leads to adverse effects such as poor terms of sales, low market rankings, and business failure. Amazon FBA sellers who store their stock on Amazon also pay Amazon to keep their inventory, which leads to more costs.
To minimize storage costs, it is advisable to order the right stock. Sellers also need to gauge the success of their new products by looking at the actual sales.
They can also secure their demand and supply chains by learning about stock management systems.
Although the process is time-consuming, it saves a lot as it allows sellers to track price changes and market trends.
6. Failure to Promote Products
Another mistake that new sellers make is to forget about product promotion.
While some fear investing in customer awareness, others are afraid to use the latest technology and incorporate the best software to increase their profit margins.
This leads to low profits and poor marketing skills.
One way to promote products is to utilize Amazon Pay-Per-Click (PPC), which is Amazon’s integrated advertising strategy.
Although the system can cost a few dollars, it allows the products to reach a wider market. Amazon PPC improves products’ organic ranking, leading to an increased conversion rate.
For instance, if a product already has a conversation rate of 10%, PPC can easily increase it to 20% within a month. This translates to more sales and profit.
7. Lacking an Automated Review Plan
Lacking a proper and automated review-generating plan is one big mistake that most Amazon FBA sellers make.
An automated review plan helps a business determine if it is growing or not.
However, using unethical ways to generate reviews can hurt an Amazon seller account, generally termed a ToS violation.
Therefore, while it is crucial to ensure products have positive reviews from buyers, sellers also need to use acceptable strategies to get positive feedback.
The best way to generate reviews is using the Request a Review button. Clicking the button manually can give the desired conversion rate.
However, buyers can send reviews too late or too early, resulting in low conversion rates.
Therefore, sellers need to automate the Request a Review button and schedule the time taken for buyers to press the button after receiving the product.
8. Improper Product Sourcing and Selling Shortcuts
Some Amazon sellers are only after the acclaimed selling opportunities and luxurious deals offered by Amazon.
They skip the vital step of studying the market and end up taking shortcuts.
Such sellers face stiff competition in the market due to a lack of competitor research, poor selling strategies, low-quality products, inadequate background information, and poor negotiation skills.
Sellers, therefore, need to execute thorough market research and focus on products with the highest demand. Since analyzing thousands of products based on category, price, demand, shipment costs, and weight is time-consuming, sellers can use Amazon Virtual Assistant or product sourcing experts at a small cost.
Getting a highly qualified product expert can help the sellers stock the right products with the highest demand.
Final Thoughts on Amazon Mistakes for New Sellers
It is quite a challenge to create a brand and offer the best customer service on Amazon without missing a step.
Of course, new and experienced Amazon sellers can make a lot of mistakes, both intentional and unintentional.
What makes the difference when realizing Amazon mistakes is how these sellers workaround to solve the problems or avoid them to protect their reputation and maintain their customers’ trust.
As a rule of thumb, Amazon insists on customer satisfaction and adherence to its Terms of Service (ToS).
To prevent violating these conditions, sellers are advised to utilize the services of highly trained and dedicated Amazon experts to minimize making mistakes.
