Top 10 Biggest Mistakes to Avoid When Selling on Amazon

If you want to sell something today, Amazon must be your ultimate destination. No second-guessing is needed.

With a vast prime membership of 95 million users in the US, Amazon has emerged as the world’s largest e-commerce platform.

However, selling online on Amazon is no mean feat. You might commit a few mistakes here and there and drown out your sales and revenue.

In this blog post, we’ll see the top 10 biggest mistakes sellers make while doing online business on Amazon. Go through this post and save yourself some potential mistakes and reduced sales.

Let’s begin!

1. Not Paying Attention to the Guidelines

If I could get a penny for every time I clicked on ‘Accept’ without actually reading the terms, conditions, and guidelines of the subject involved, I’d be living in the Bahamas.

It’s fine. We all do it all the time. We don’t waste time reading big chunks of paragraphs for which we have got no real choice but to accept.

But you can’t afford to do that while selling on Amazon.

Amazon is stringent when it comes to its guidelines. Disobey a couple or more, and you will find yourself banned in no time. Numerous Amazon seller accounts get suspended and restricted every day, with the seller having no idea why.

That’s why as a seller, it’s in your best interest to read the guidelines thoroughly and make sure to abide by them, always!

2. Choosing a highly-saturated Niche

When you initially start your business, you do not have established authority and name in your industry. That’s why making revenue is a challenge in the beginning.

The worst mistake you can make to make this challenge harder for yourself is picking up an overly-saturated niche — a niche that features many big brands with fancy marketing budgets and state-of-the-art technologies and leaves little to no room for your brand to grow and compete.

It’s a trap of hard work that will yield you no result. If you want a successful Amazon selling journey, you need to play smart.

How? Hunt for the blue oceans — ones with very few or no fishes but impressively high vegetation.

Do through product research. If you can’t do it yourself, reach out to an Amazon marketing agency. MMF Infotech is one such Amazon account management service provider worth it’s salt in product research and sourcing.

What’s important is to capture the uncontested market space with low competition but huge potential. This pursuit of differentiation will set you on the right track to achieving glorious success.

3. Taking customer services likely

If you don’t care about your customers, they won’t care about you either. In no time, you will see them flock away to your immediate competitor.

A top-notch consumer experience is the holy grail of a successful business. Gartner’s recent report suggests that more than 60% of buyers give preference to quality consumer experience over the price at the time of shopping.

That’s the power of a sound customer experience!

If you sell your products on Amazon through FBA, you don’t have to worry about customer experience. Amazon will do it for you.

However, if you are warehousing your inventory yourself, you need to tackle customer service with it.

The key is to resolve your valuable customers’ complaints or issues promptly so that they don’t get pissed off by you.

4. Over-stock in the beginning

It’s so easy to slip into the temptations of over-stocking your garage in the initial stages. You think to yourself, the more I’ll stock, the more I’ll sell, and the more I’ll make.

Your math is right, my friend, but your underlying assumption can prove detrimental to your business.

Your brand’s product may be the world’s best product in your eyes. But it would be best if you waited for your customers to confirm that.

That’s why, in the initial stages, it’s best to go for small batches and check their performance.

If you’re an FBA seller, Amazon charges money from you to store your inventory. On the top, if that inventory doesn’t bring sales, getting rid of extra stock can prove to be costly and challenging.

Starting with small batches helps you prevent this expensive mistake. A good indicator to determine the size of the collection can be sales estimates and your previous sales (if any).

5. Poorly Crafted Amazon Listings

You can have the world’s best quality product, but you won’t close any deals if you are not describing it on the Amazon product page.

The product page on Amazon is nearly like a landing page on your website. So if you are plaguing your product page with low-quality images, dull bullet points, and undescriptive product descriptions, you’re throwing away a significant opportunity for conversions.

On the other hand, a concise and informative product page can drive your sales like crazy. That’s why it’s essential and fruitful to put a compelling product listing that reflects your dedication and authority and gives buyers a world-class shopping experience.

6. Not fulfilling orders on time

One of the simplest and best ways to gain a competitive edge is to ensure fast-shipping options.

Amazon customers love it when their orders are delivered quickly. Many people prefer to order products that get paid within 1–2 working days. Hence, there’s a golden opportunity here!

Ensure a fast shipping option for your customers and enjoy sales higher than ever.

7. Not using PPC campaigns or ineffectively using them

Getting visibility is one of the most challenging aspects of Amazon’s selling store in the beginning. But it is also one of the most important factors that govern your sales.

While organic reach can take ages to rank you in your deserved position, Amazon’s in-built advertising campaign is a much faster way to gain visibility and boost your sales.

Because the more people come across your product, the more they are going to buy (provided other factors are adequately ensured).

However, just launching a PPC campaign and calling it a day won’t bring you any results. It would help if you cast a keyword-optimized campaign that is designed strategically to get you results.

And if this sounds overwhelming, you can consider looking into MMF Infotech’s Amazon Sponsored Ad campaign program. With the exceptional industry expertise in digital marketing services, Amazon advertising campaigns by MMF Infotech boost your business’ potential and take it to new heights.

8. Not having a review plan in place

You must be thinking to yourself, “But getting reviews is no mean feat.”

I get it, and I agree with it. But that doesn’t mean you can let it slip through.

92% of shoppers who come across a positive review of the product ends up buying it. That’s why it’s crucial to get as many positive reviews as possible in the initial stages. Because, in turn, builds an exponential momentum to drive higher sales.

But this, by no means, is a nudge to follow unethical “black hat” practices to smuggle encouraging positive reviews from your friends or family. It is one of the worst mistakes because it is against Amazon’s policies.

9. Not improving on what already exists

Copycats can thrive in online exams, but they can’t survive in the eCommerce land of Amazon.

If your product is a mirroring copy of an existing product in the market, you’re honestly shooting your arrows in the dark.

Results? Zip. Zilch. Zero.

It’s important to realize that customers are not fools. So if you don’t offer them any genuine, unique selling point that solves their pain points and showcases your sincerity, then there’s no reason why they should care.

They would straight-up move to your product’s competitor because they likely have higher reviews.

10. Keeping pricing charges too high

People don’t mind paying shipping charges, but you might scare them away when you charge shipping equivalent to 20% of the product’s price.

To circumvent this problem, you should try to figure out your base selling point to make a profit and then reduce the shipping charges as much as possible.

In Conclusion

Selling on Amazon can skyrocket your business’ position if done the right way. Just follow the principle of one person, one account to remain on good terms with Amazon. Make strategies that don’t violate the policies and guidelines of this e-commerce platform. Also, please don’t go overboard and compete for head-on with Amazon itself. It’s improbable that you’ll win.

The bottom line is to offer prolific products and services and add value to your prospects’ lives. And if you feel the need to outsource any Amazon account management services, consider reaching out to MMF Infotech. With outstanding digital marketing expertise and 8+ years of experience in Amazon store marketing services, this digital marketing agency will open numerous profitable avenues for you and help you tap into your real business power