SELLING ON AMAZON AMERICA AND EUROPE

1- Determining the Sales Strategy

Before you start selling on Amazon, you need to determine which product or products you will sell. You can analyze popular products, produce or supply products. Developing a separate sales strategy for each product will make your products easier to sell. At the same time, determining the country you will sell to under market research and providing the necessary information for that country will speed up the process. For example, Amazon UK requires a company formation.

2- Creating a Seller Account

To start selling, you must have a seller account on Amazon. The main documents required to open a seller account are;

* Business email address.
* Valid identity or passport documents.
* Company registration information (business type, company registration number, company tax number and company address).
* Credit card statement or bank account statement.
* A credit card open to international and online use.
* A valid phone number.

Once you have access to all these documents, you can begin the registration process in Amazon Seller Central.

1. When you click on create an account, you must enter your name, surname, e-mail address and set your password, which will consist of at least 6 digits. You should only use English characters.

2. You must complete your verification process by entering the code that will be sent to your e-mail address.

3. You must select your business type and enter your trade name. A point to note here is that you should not use special characters such as periods and commas when entering a trade name.

4. You must specify the full name of your business in the official documents, the trade registry number, your tax office and your mersis number.

5. After verifying the documents related to your business, Amazon will send a 6-digit one-time password to your phone, you must verify your phone number using the password.

6. You must verify the identity information of the person who will manage the Amazon account (could be the owner of the company).

7. You must register the residential address approved by the official authorities in the system.

8. You need to enter billing and payment information. At this stage, your credit card must be open for international shopping and must have a balance of at least $39.

9. You need to enter a brand name that your customers will see you while browsing Amazon. The name you choose must not have been used on Amazon before. You can change your store name later.

10. You need to scan your identity document and upload it.

11. Amazon may request a live chat with concrete documents in hand. 

One of the most important issues in creating an Amazon account is the address information. The address information must match exactly with that in the documents. Otherwise, your account may not be verified. At the end of all these steps, Amazon will evaluate your application and contact you, but you will not be able to access your seller account until contact is made. If the information you provide is correct and complete, Amazon will send you an e-mail notification that says you have opened your account.

3- Listing the Products

In order to achieve a good customer experience and a strong seller performance, the products must be listed in the right categories with the right information.

If the product you are going to sell is not available on Amazon, you will need a Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) such as EAN, UPC, ISBN to fully identify it to Amazon. You can also buy barcodes directly from GS1. Using standard item numbers will provide a high-quality shopping experience for Amazon customers. Another information in each product list is the vendor stock code. You will be able to track your own inventory with this code (SKU). You must determine the condition of the product, its price and shipping options. You should make arrangements by uploading details such as name, category and images to the system. In order to make it easy for buyers to find your products, you should define the right keywords for the product and use search terms.

When listing products, you will encounter a maximum of 200 characters in the title section. When evaluating these 200 characters, be sure to provide basic and important information about the product. Capitalizing the entire title, containing HTML, and containing non-descriptive information are among the mistakes you may make in the title.

While making the visual entry, take care to photograph of the product that the buyer will actually reach. Avoid using pixelated, blurry images (images must be at least 500x500px resolution). Make sure 85% of the photo contains the product. Try to use professional photos and make sure the image format is JPEG, TIFF or PNG. It is among the situations that we do not want to use other products that will not be sold with the product as decoration.

If your product has different color, size or pattern options, you must enter a variation. You should use bullet points to highlight the key features of the product. You should create a product description with the help of keywords and present detailed information about the product to the customer.

4- Delivery of Products

There are two methods Amazon offers its sellers to deliver their products. The first of these is Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM) and the second is Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA).

In the FBM method, which means FulFillment by the seller, you take full responsibility for the process. You follow your stocks, send your products yourself, and take care of the customer in cases such as returns.

In the second method, FBA, it is possible to stock your products in Amazon’s warehouses and benefit from first-class customer service. For Amazon FBA, your product must meet the FBA labeling policy. Afterwards, you must send your products in stock to the Amazon warehouse, and then Amazon will scan your products and make them ready for sale. Amazon, which collects the payments from the customer, will pay you the existing money every two weeks. Amazon Customer Service Team will manage customer inquiries, returns and all other requests.

Although Amazon delivers its products to customers in its own bags, you still need to be careful when packaging your products. It should not be heavier than 22,5 kg and its size must not exceed 63 cm. If you are evaluated within the scope of micro export (1,500 euro and 300 kilo limit), authorized cargo companies can issue a customs declaration on your behalf and pass your products through customs. For your higher volume shipments, you will be considered for export and will need to manage the process with a customs broker. Among the companies that ship to Amazon warehouses are FedEx, UPS, Borusan Lojistik, BDP, Navlungo, ShipEntegra.

5- Ensuring the Continuity of Sales

You have completed the steps described above. You have determined the products you want to sell, you have created a seller account, you have provided barcode numbers to the products, you have listed your products and delivered to the Amazon warehouse, you have received your first order. At this point, providing continuity is an important issue.
Things to consider in order to increase sales and gain momentum:

* Ensure that your products reach the customer quickly.

*Set competitive pricing policies.

*Make improvements for your store, considering account customer reviews.

* Grow your business by registering a brand in the future.

*Maintain your success by considering the advice Amazon will give you.

*Track your performance and maintain good brand health in Seller Central.

*Create campaigns and opportunities on your products.

*Expand your range by adding more products to the product list.

6- Advertisement and Launch

If you want to sell your products in a global market like Amazon, you must leave your competitors behind, allocate your advertising budget and manage the launch, that is, the promotion processes. Potential customers who will make the purchase decision on Amazon, after they browse 3-4 pages on average, they decide what to buy. That’s why it’s so important to be on the first page.

The launch and the advertising process are ways to keep us on the first pages. The point that the Amazon algorithm looks for to make us stand out is whether we make sales, so we send our product to the people we mutually agree with by giving Giveaway service and request them to comment on our product. Thus, the algorithm recognizes us and organic customers’ trust in us increases. Increasing our awareness through PPC, that is, pay-per-click, and maximizing our sales by defining coupons are among the other methods we can achieve.

7- Social Media

Amazon is a platform that likes to get traffic from different channels and attract customers from different platforms. Therefore, getting influencers suitable for our sales area on channels such as Instagram and Youtube is a matter that will increase your sales volume. Promoting your products and brand on social media will enable you to create a quality brand perception from the customer’s point of view.

8- Store Health and Seller Policies

Amazon is a platform that wants its sellers to ensure customer satisfaction. Maintaining store health; It means that you can prevent the risk of suspend and meet what Amazon wants from you. In order to protect the health of the store, you must respond quickly to return requests, follow the return processes closely, deliver your cargo as soon as possible, deliver quality products, answer customer questions adequately, minimize the rate of order defect and cancellation, and deal with error-free invoices.

It requires you to abide by Amazon seller policies and seller code of conduct, which allows you to reach hundreds of millions of audiences. For this, you must comply with the applicable Amazon rules, ensure that your account information is up-to-date, do not introduce yourself with false information, do not list misleading products, and must not intentionally harm other sellers.