How to start an online business on Amazon in your first year?

How to use coupons to increase your sales on Amazon

Question: Can I do well as a online business on Amazon?

After I started selling on Amazon, I became the best seller in the product category within 2 months!

Question: If I have 2 people managing my Amazon online business, is there any way to increase my potential?

Definitely, we managed to earn more than $5 million in 6 months!

Here are some examples of sellers in small and medium businesses who have single-handedly grow their business on Amazon. The first question was just the tip of the iceberg for them, let us dive deep and learn from their stories below on how to start an online business on Amazon!

Seller A

Previous job: 5 years of experience in a traditional B2B trade company, launched on Amazon Global Selling in February 2018
Business size: 1 person
Product category: Apparel

Seller B

Previous job: 1-year cross border as Amazon Operations staff, launched on Amazon Global Selling in June 2018
Business size: 2 people
Product category: Shower and lights

Question: How was your initial journey on Amazon?

I had a cold start initially and there was no orders for a long period of time. I think my sales in the first 3 months may not even be able to compare to my current orders in 1 hour.

My first account health score was 80 points, which was relatively smooth. After my first few days after listing my products I had my first order.

Question: How did you boost your performance on Amazon?

I invested a lot into advertising as my product is patented and of good quality. However, I had very low sales rank as my initial advertising cost was very little. Within my budget, I increased the cost of advertising and pushed my products to the front of the search page, which gradually accumulated sales and repeat customers. My ACOS was very high at first, but now it is only at a single digit. Hence, for high quality products, I think increasing advertising investment to get traffic is the best way to get over the cold start.

My previous job was in operations so I am able to use my previous experience to accumulate a wealth of experience and resources in supply chain and logistics. Furthermore, I was exposed to cross border e-commerce experience, so I learnt about selection, production, market research and operations. So it was only natural when I decided to leave my job and start selling on Amazon.

Question: How much funds is required to start my online business if I would like to have a good start?

I think it depends on the cost of the product, but I would probably say USD 30K-50K.

My product cost was rather high, so I invested USD 10K-20K

Question: With such a small team size, how does your daily operation work?

Since I am a single seller, it is important to leverage on other resources, so that the core fo the brand is still within your control but other aspects of the business can be done with the help of other professional services company. For example, I partner with a company to help with production, use a third party solution provider for product quality inspection and for delivery and shipment, I make use of FBA to fulfill my orders. Lastly, there are also a lot of free tools that is available on Amazon.

The two of us use the tools and services provided by Amazon as much as possible - all of my products use FBA to provide customers with a high-quality experience without having to deal with logistics. In addition, if you use Sponsored Products, you get to test the product according to different product characteristics. I tried to set up a product with both automatic and manual targeting. In actual sales, we found that the sales ratio of automatic advertising has higher growth than manual, so most of our products use automatic targeting.

Question: If I have 2 people managing my Amazon online business, is there any way to increase my potential?

I have 2 points, pay attention to details so that you can improve the user experience and have product certifications. My exquisite packaging has brought me many repeat customers and I also take into account the process of unboxing the product. Many small details like whether it is easy to open the package, whether the hand will be scratched, what the customers see first after opening, every step is to be perfect. Before launching my product, I will get the relevant certification of the United States. This can help me save the unnecessary troubles when the customs clear the goods; I can then display the certification in the store, not only can I prevent competition, my product will be more credible, and the conversion rate will be higher.

Question: How can small businesses avoid the cold start at the beginning?

It is better to apply for brand registry and product patents as soon as possible. With that, you will reduce competition and increase trust amongst your customers. It also allows you to become more professional and provide reliable service. You can focus on product and branding, so that you can have a smoother start.

I encourage you to use FBA right from the beginning to save money and time. For small sellers like us, FBA is really cost-savings for your online business. It helps you to win the buy box, get more traffic and enhance your customers’ experience. This way you can worry less and get started a lot faster.

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