The Top 5 Things Small Business Owners Need To Know When Selling On Amazon

Whether you’re setting up shop for the first time or expanding your existing sales channels, deciding to sell on Amazon is an important step in broadening your customer base. The service has a strong appeal to platform users–in 2021, roughly 65 percent of all U.S. Amazon shoppers were Prime members.

Small businesses are the backbone of Amazon’s marketplace, contributing more than half of all sales on the platform. The logistics support Amazon provides – from payment processing to shipping – helps small businesses not only find new customers but improve their order fulfillment processes and streamline their sales.

To help you get started on the right foot, check out these tips for making the most of your new Amazon storefront:

1. Get the lay of the land.

With an abundance of resources and tools at your fingertips, it can seem impossible to know where to begin selling on Amazon. 

Thankfully, the Amazon team has compiled a list of resources to make the process easier: 

• This Beginner’s Guide walks you through how to use Seller Central (your go-to resource for selling on Amazon), listing products and shipping. 
• Amazon’s Small Business Academy offers live webinars for small businesses every month, as well as filmed webinars organized by topic.
• This page outlines the plans available to sell on Amazon as well as best practices for attracting customers.

2. Define your brand.

Amazon offers a variety of tools to help your small business stand out, from A/B testing your content to offering Virtual Bundles to navigating a brand dashboard. Check out some of Amazon’s branding tools here.

3. Remember that timing is everything. 

Small Business Saturday. Cyber Monday. Prime Day. Amazon has built-in programming that can be used as sales hooks for promoting your products and growing your business. The proof: this year, small businesses sold more than 100 million items in the days leading up to Prime Day. 

Check out Amazon’s tips for sellers here.

4. Think about fulfillment.

No, we’re not talking about feeling fulfilled in life (although that’s important, too). Amazon allows businesses to outsource their order fulfillment, including picking, packing and shipping orders. (Pro tip: their New Seller Incentives offering will enable you to try FBA and get free shipping and returns.) 

5. Make the rest of your digital portfolio shine.

As a new Amazon seller, you join the 70% of small sellers who use online marketplaces to reach new customers and grow their business. Online marketplaces are highly competitive – not just between sellers, but between platforms as well (for example, 87% of small sellers on Amazon also sell on at least one other marketplace). 

Support your new selling method by ensuring the rest of your digital skills are sharpened. 3C offers a variety of resources to deepen your engagement online and build your skills:

• 3C University (or 3CU) helps small businesses grow via online courses taught by experts.
• See stories of 3C small business members and examples of what tools brought them success.
• Our regular reports keep you informed of policies that may impact your small business.

Want more tips on how to make the most of your digital tools? Join 3C as a member and get access to exclusive content, reports, resources and more.