In the process of daily communication with sellers, I always hear some sellers lamenting that it takes a lot of investment to open a store on Amazon and it is difficult to operate. After several attempts, these sellers find that they can’t do it at all, and even close their accounts in the end. Is it difficult to run an Amazon store?
In fact, you have already got the answer from many successful cases around you. But why do so many people not only fail to make money after a lot of operation, but even close their accounts? The reason is that they operate too blindly and ignore those potentially fatal “pitfalls” in operation. Combined with years of operation experience, the precautions for operating Amazon stores are as follows. In terms of funds, we must follow the principles of “how much money you have to do as much as you can” and “don’t put all your eggs in one basket”. We must avoid being overly optimistic, not blindly expanding, taking too big a step, and the result of running out of funds is that all subsequent actions will be restricted, and even new opportunities and good opportunities may be missed in vain. Try to split the available funds in your hands into multiple parts to use, and use the smallest amount of funds to try and error. If you succeed, you can summarize the experience, build a model, and then quickly replicate it. Even if you fail to invest in a certain product, it will not hurt your bones. In short, always keep the last penny, as it may be life-saving money or an important bargaining chip that will help you turn things around.
Avoid the following mistakes when selecting products: (1) Lack of the “must-have” mentality and blindly distribute multiple SKUs; (2) Blindly selecting products without considering available funds, such as selecting large and heavy products, only to find out during operation that your funds and strength are not enough to support the operation; (3) Selecting infringing or potentially infringing products with a speculative mentality; (4) Selecting products based solely on personal preference and ignoring market demand; (5) Blindly pursuing popular, highly competitive, and low-priced products controlled by large sellers, such as the “three lucky treasures” of mobile phone accessories (mobile phone cases, data cables, and chargers); (6) Excessive pursuit of differentiation, exclusive private models, and upgrading and transformation of products that are out of touch with actual needs, which not only wastes time but also causes heavy losses due to large deviations from market demand; (7) Selecting products that are quickly updated or have obvious seasonality.
When posting products and shipping, avoid the following situations: (1) Products are posted in the wrong category, resulting in the removal of products; (2) Abuse of variants, resulting in product splitting and even removal of sales privileges from the account; (3) Wrong product size is filled in, resulting in platform fees higher than actual fees; (4) Frequent deletion of shipping plans when using FBA shipping, resulting in the account’s FBA shipping privileges being restricted; (5) When posting products, fill in the trademark name randomly, resulting in infringement and removal of sales privileges.
When operating a store, avoid the following problems: (1) Violation of regulations on playlists, other reviews, use of tomb-breaking techniques, etc., resulting in removal of sales privileges from the account; (2) Poor product quality, untimely delivery, poor service level, etc., resulting in account ODR Exceeding the target, the sales privilege is removed: (3) The promotion information is set incorrectly, resulting in an instant explosion of orders, causing the store to suffer excessive losses: (4) The advertising setting is incorrect, resulting in the budget exceeding expectations and excessive losses; (5) The initial follow-up of the spiral is poor, and too many orders are placed at the low price stage, resulting in excessive losses: (6) The price increase is too large during the price adjustment, resulting in the loss of the shopping cart or the account is judged by the system to be manipulating sales and the sales privilege is removed.
In terms of competitors, the “pitfalls” that may be encountered include malicious attacks by competitors, follow-selling, negative reviews and advertising, complaints due to quality and safety issues, and the products are secretly changed by competitors to adult products and blocked by the system.
In terms of platform rules and policies, the “pitfalls” that sellers are likely to fall into include (1) infringement, quality problems, certification problems (such as electronic products without CE certification, UL certification, toys without CPC certification, etc.), safety regulations problems (such as mistakenly sending European plugs in the UK market, etc.), etc. These situations may lead to the deletion of products at the least, and in serious cases, the sales privilege may be removed; (2) Changing the payment account midway will result in the account’s sales privileges being removed (if you want to change the payment account, it is best to do so about three days after the last loan. Before changing, contact the platform customer service to explain the situation and ask the customer service to assist in making notes before changing. Changing the payment account in the European station is likely to violate KYC review, so it is generally not recommended to change midway): 3) Sales volume fluctuates greatly, resulting in the removal of sales privileges; (4) The category is reviewed midway (for example, sellers of baby products and children’s toys who are randomly checked are required to submit CPC certification, and sellers of Apple peripheral accessories who are randomly checked are required to provide MFI certification, UL certification, etc.), which will cause the product to be removed from the shelves or the account to have its sales privileges removed; (5) Illegal product merging and review merging will be judged by the system as manipulating rankings, abusing variants, manipulating sales, etc., which will lead to the removal of the account’s sales privileges.
The above examples are common situations encountered in operations. Although not every seller will encounter them, understanding and avoiding them can help us avoid detours in operations and make the operation road smoother.