These are The Market Geek's basic best practices for selling on Amazon, listed mostly in order. This is not an exhaustive list, but rather the most common improvements we find ourselves making to client accounts that have a tested, verified financial benefit. 

 

1. You can’t get rich quick anymore. It takes time and hard work.

The days of being first to market on Amazon are over. Now you have to do battle. The market is flooded with competitors and you must do better than them. This takes time, hard work, and investment. When done properly and intelligently, you will win.

 

2. Nothing is more expensive than cheap images.

It is scientifically proven that images have the most immediate and profound impact on sales. Good images are typically not good enough - you need GREAT images taken by an experienced photographer who is equipped with professional lighting and lenses. Have at least 5 images showing all aspects of the product and include lifestyle images if appropriate. Make sure the image is between 1000 and 1200 pixels on at least one dimension. If you’re higher than this, Amazon may apply too much compression to the image, which lowers its clarity. If you’re less than this, users will not be able to zoom. Limit whitespace around the perimeter as much as possible so the image is large in the search results. If you sell a non-consumer item (like a part, screws, hardware, etc.), images are important, but you have more slack on quality.

 

3. Be an exclusive seller (as much as possible).

Don’t get in buy box wars unless you like diminishing profit. Beyond just a low price war, being in an unsteady position diminishes the effectiveness of several other features, like advertising and elasticity testing. Do whatever it takes to have exclusive control - if you’re a manufacturer, kick your distributors off, if you’re not the manufacturer then private label or seek an exclusivity agreement. 

 

4. Build, and continually improve, your keyword list.

Take time to use your Search Terms Reports, competitors, Google Trends, Google Keyword Planner, and other resources to find keywords related to your product. Deep dive into these keywords to remove non-relevant words and phrases, and to elevate highly relevant ones. 

After this, brainstorm all of the possible audiences for your product and put yourself in their shoes to consider what words may lead them to you.

Do this regularly to compile a database of ranked keywords that can be used in your product listings and ad campaigns.

 

5. Be a data scientist.

Record your performance since the last change. Then implement a new change and make no other changes for 2 weeks (or some appropriate amount of time).