The Biggest Amazon Coupon Site In The World

Understanding and efficiently managing lead times are critical aspects of running a successful Amazon FBA business. Lead times – the duration between placing a manufacturing order and its arrival at Amazon’s warehouse – significantly impact cash flow, inventory management, competitiveness, and overall profitability. Here are seven reasons why mastering lead times is crucial for your business.

1. Streamlined Production

Reducing production lead time frees up cash flow and accelerates your business cycle. The faster a product is manufactured and shipped, the less cash you need to commit upfront. This also allows for quicker inventory turnover, thereby enhancing the fluidity of your operations and reducing the risk of stock-outs.

2. Efficient Freight Management

Freight time is a crucial element of the total lead time. Products with larger size and weight often necessitate sea freight, which can extend lead times by up to 40 days or more, compared to 10 days for air freight. To tackle this, consider sending a portion of your products via air freight for quick restocking, while the remainder comes by sea. Opting for smaller and lighter products can also minimize lead times, as these can be shipped quickly via courier services.

3. Swift Response to Competition

A competitive edge often lies in the ability to respond quickly to market changes. Shorter lead times allow for quicker product and listing modifications if a competitor shifts their strategy. Faster production times can limit your financial exposure by reducing the amount of money invested in stock at any given time.

4. Optimized Restock Time

Lead times directly influence your restock times, especially during peak sales periods such as Christmas. An unexpected surge in sales can quickly deplete inventory, and lengthy restock times can negatively impact your Best Seller Rank (BSR) and sales. With shorter lead times, you can restock swiftly, minimizing the risk of running out of inventory and losing market share.

5. Improved Cash Flow

Long lead times can tie up cash in inventory, constraining your cash flow even when you are making a profit. By reducing lead times, you can improve cash flow management and avoid having excessive cash tied up in inventory.

6. Quicker Break-Even Point and Growth Cycles

The sooner you can break even on a product, the quicker you can start reinvesting the profits into growing your business. A product with a shorter lead time allows for faster testing, quicker adjustments, and an accelerated growth cycle.

7. Enhanced Return on Investment

Investments with shorter cycles offer higher returns. If you can turn over your inventory within a month instead of two, your return on investment improves significantly. Hence, reducing lead times translates directly into higher profitability.

In conclusion, while lead times are not always within your control, they should be a crucial consideration when selecting a product and supplier. Long lead times can strain cash flow and limit your ability to respond to market dynamics. By mastering your lead times, you can ensure efficient inventory management and stay ahead in the competitive Amazon FBA marketplace.

Discovering profitable product ideas for your Amazon FBA business doesn’t necessitate expensive tools or resources. On the contrary, your path to the perfect product idea might be closer than you think. In this article, we will explore the top seven strategies to identify successful and cost-effective product ideas for Amazon FBA sellers.

Embark on Shopping Expeditions

Don’t overlook the potential of your local mall, favorite shops, or large department stores. As you explore these retail spaces, jot down any products that sell for between $17 and $100 and are smaller than a shoebox – these are often the most lucrative products to sell on Amazon. You’ll be astounded at the abundance of potential items awaiting discovery once you adopt a proactive shopping approach.

Examine Your Household Items

Your home is likely teeming with potential product ideas. Identify items you use daily – be they kitchen utensils, sports equipment, or tools – and list those that are light and small. Pay special attention to items within the $17 to $100 price range.

Venture into Online Shopping

Investigate online retailers like Walmart.com and eBay, noting items that you could feasibly list on the Amazon marketplace. If you’re into sports, peruse eCommerce shops selling exercise equipment. Filtering the product results to show items in the $17 to $100 range can yield a wealth of potential product ideas.

Leverage Your Hobbies

Consider all the items you utilize in your hobbies, passions, and interests. Individuals often spend considerably on the gear and equipment necessary for their hobbies – making these niche markets ripe for Amazon selling. Begin with your hobbies and then expand into other areas, listing essential items for each.

Analyze Amazon’s Top 100 Best Sellers

Amazon showcases the top 100 products for every category. Look through these lists, focusing on items priced between $17 and $100 that are small in size. Remember, if a product is on this list, it is a top seller on Amazon, signifying high sales volume.

Take Note of Amazon’s ‘Also Sold With’ Recommendations

When browsing Amazon, pay attention to the “also bought” suggestions presented on product pages. For instance, customers who bought a yoga mat might also have bought a yoga block or yoga DVD. These recommendations can help you identify potential add-on items to expand your product range and reinforce your brand.

Mind Your Day-to-Day Items

For a day, document every item you use at home, in the office, or on the go. This exercise reveals the plethora of products you encounter and rely upon in your daily life. Some of these items might be niche products with great potential for Amazon FBA sales.

If the phrase “You’ll never walk alone” doesn’t mean much to you, you’re obviously not a soccer fan. It’s the theme song of Liverpool FC, one of England’s most successful teams, and you haven’t lived till you’ve heard a stadium full of supporters belting it out.

Unfortunately, a lot of Amazon sellers do walk alone. They don’t know anyone else involved in the same business. They don’t have a mentor they can ask for advice, and they have no idea whether their experiences are typical for FBA sellers, or whether they’re doing amazingly well (or perhaps, badly).

So how do you get connected? The first step, as so often, is to use the facilities that Amazon Seller Central offers you. Amazon Seller Forums let you chat with other sellers about your business and about how things work on Amazon, or to ask how to solve problems with anything from logistics to recovering your account if Two-Step Verification fails.

The seller forums are worth a browse at least once a week. Amazon announcements drop on the forums, and are usually commented on by members so you get an idea of how others are responding.

Off Amazon itself, you could join an Amazon seller Facebook group. Some of these are closed groups, so you’ll need to answer a few questions first and be approved by the admins. You may find it easiest to start searching for a local group rather than plunge into some of the bigger e-commerce groups. If you get on with a few sellers in the group you can always send a friend request, getting started with your own network.

Reddit also has an FBA subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/FulfillmentByAmazon/) which has plenty of traffic.

Remember, though, many other sellers on these groups may be total newbies rather than experienced business owners, so remember which sellers have provided useful inputs and make a point of following their advice. Don’t take ‘gurus’ at their own word, find out how long they’ve been around and whether they have a sizable FBA business of their own.

Meetup is another great resource, particularly if you prefer meeting people face-to-face rather than chatting online. Plenty of cities have Meetups for FBA sellers, where you can put faces to names and chat about your businesses. Joining a Meetup group can give you a regular and enjoyable event to look forward to.

Remember that most of the people you’ll meet will not be your direct competitors. You’re selling stationery and art supplies, but they’ll be selling dog food, fashion accessories, travel goods or home decor. Sometimes, it’s good to see what someone in a completely different product area has done; it can give you fresh ideas about how to sell your own product. And of course, as far as logistics, marketing, finance, and sourcing are concerned, you’ll have a lot in common.

The best thing about knowing other FBA sellers is the way you learn stuff that isn’t in the textbooks. For instance, you can keep up to date with Amazon and product trends that you might otherwise miss, finding out what’s hot and what’s going rapidly stale. You might pick up some interesting strategies, or learn the rules of thumb that other sellers have found most useful for running their businesses.

You’ll also get a good idea of what aspects of FBA are a problem for everybody, not just for you. If you’ve been struggling with trying to convince Amazon that you aren’t based in China, you just source from there, you’ll find out you are not the only one!

You may even be lucky enough to find yourself a mentor, or create a local network for mutual support. It’s such a luxury to just be able to pick up the phone and say “Hi, is Seller Central down or is it just me?”

Today, we’re going to delve into top-notch strategies for enhancing your keyword rank on Amazon. Given that the entire Amazon search algorithm is built around keywords, your product visibility on the platform hinges on your aptitude for keyword optimization.

Expand Your Keyword Research

First things first, make sure you have a comprehensive list of potential keywords. If a keyword doesn’t appear on your listing title, features, description, or backend search terms, Amazon can’t rank you for it.

You can leverage tools like AMZ Tracker, Google Keyword Tool, or Amazon’s own A9 algorithm to generate an exhaustive list of relevant keywords. Additionally, solutions like AMZ Tracker also offer keyword suggestion tools for more innovative ideas.

Ensure Your Keywords are in Your Product Listing

After collating your list of keywords, incorporate them into your Amazon product listing page or backend search terms. This ensures Amazon’s search algorithm can readily index your product. Add the keywords to your Title, the back end search terms, your bullet points and throughout your listing.

Verify Your Keywords are Indexed

A simple way to check if your product is being indexed for your main keywords is to search your ASIN and “Keyword” on Amazon.com. If your product appears in the search results, you’re being indexed for that keyword. However, if no results are displayed, you need to reassess and enhance your listing. There are also automation tools available to streamline this verification process.

Monitor Your Keyword Ranking

Select the top 10 keywords you wish to rank for and use keyword rank tracking software like AMZ Tracker to monitor your positions. Such tools can provide daily updates and present useful charts to track your keyword performance over time.

Boost Your Keyword Performance

Should your rank for a particular keyword drop, consider using tactics like Super URLs and Amazon PPC. Super URLs are essentially product links tagged with specific keywords. They simulate a customer searching for your product with that keyword and being directed straight to your product page. This technique, used especially for off-Amazon marketing or promotions, boosts your ranking for the keyword.

Amazon PPC advertising, on the other hand, can propel your ranking by associating your top keywords with your ad campaign. Every sale made through the PPC platform boosts your organic rank for that keyword.

Stay Focused

While it’s tempting to rank for every single keyword on your list, it’s more effective to focus on the top 5-10 keywords that promise the most traffic and least competition. You can always expand your keyword strategy later.

In this regard, often, the best keywords aren’t those with the highest volume but ones ranking 2-10 in volume, including long-tail keywords. Many sellers focus on the main keyword, making it fiercely competitive.

In conclusion, invest ample time in keyword research as it’s the primary tool Amazon uses to discover your products. Use a tool like AMZ Tracker to keep an eye on the rank of your listing for your top keywords. Enhance your performance through targeted promotions, off-Amazon marketing, and utilizing Super URLs. Here’s to your keyword-driven success on Amazon FBA!

Step 1: Identifying a Niche

When selecting a niche, consider your own interests, hobbies, or expertise. Selling a product that you’re passionate about makes the whole process more enjoyable and your knowledge and enthusiasm can help attract potential customers.

Once you have some ideas, make sure that the product is lightweight and low-cost, to keep shipping and inventory costs manageable, especially if you’re just starting out. For products like these, even a small increase in weight can significantly raise shipping costs.

Step 2: Conducting Market Research

The next step is conducting thorough market research. Utilize tools such as Google Trends or Keyword Planner to identify popular searches related to your product idea. Look for keywords that have high search volume but low competition.

Search online forums and communities to find out what customers are saying about similar products. What do they like or dislike? What features are they looking for that current products don’t offer? Use these insights to differentiate your product and fill a gap in the market.

Consider looking into platforms such as VIPON or CashCowPro which are specifically designed for Amazon product research. They provide comprehensive data about product demand, competition, average prices, and profitability in a given niche.

Step 3: Analyzing the Competition

On Amazon, you can check the Best Sellers Rank (BSR) to gauge the demand for a product. Products with a BSR under 5,000 in their main category are generally high in demand.

Also, consider the number of reviews and the average rating of the top 10 products in your chosen category. If these products have thousands of reviews and high ratings, it might be difficult to compete. However, if you find products with less than 500 reviews, it means the competition is still manageable.

Step 4: Verifying Sales Volume and Profit Margins

The ideal product should have a monthly sales volume of over 3,000 units among the top 10 sellers. This is a clear indicator of strong demand.

In terms of profit margins, look for products that can be sourced for 25-35% of the selling price, which means a profit margin of 65-75% before Amazon’s fees. This will allow you to earn a substantial profit while leaving room for potential discounts and marketing expenses.

Step 5: Checking for Legal and Regulatory Restrictions

Before finalizing a product, check if it falls under any kind of legal or regulatory restrictions on Amazon. Some product categories are gated, meaning you need pre-approval from Amazon to sell them. Other products may have restrictions due to safety concerns or intellectual property rights.

In conclusion, finding a profitable niche product to sell on Amazon FBA requires a mixture of personal interest, thorough market research, competition analysis, and careful consideration of logistical and legal factors. While this may seem like a daunting task, with the right approach and resources, you’ll be well-equipped to find a winning product that can establish your brand and generate a substantial income on Amazon FBA.

A lot of Amazon sellers have a rather functional attitude to pricing. They set up a repricing mechanism and they say “Let me have the second lowest price on Amazon for this type of product”, and off they go.

Some are not so clever. They set up a repricing mechanism and say “Let me have the lowest price.” And so does someone else. They will now battle to the death, or till one of them runs away.

So let’s look at pricing as something like Game of Thrones, instead. Remember that every price sends a message, and that while customers have one perception of it, your rivals have their spies out and they may be reading something else into that message.

Having the lowest price on the market all the time is a Ser Gregor Clegane move. It says you have the brute strength, the inventory and the product margins to take on all comers and win. But if you don’t, sending that message is a really dumb thing to do. You just have to hope that the real monster fighters don’t want to take you on.

Hovering around the bottom of the market is quite a sneaky move. It’s the kind of move Petyr Baelish would pull, or maybe Varys. You compete quite hard, you’ll probably get good rankings and good sales, but you’re not striding out into the arena to take on all comers.

However, you might decide to price your product a bit higher because it’s better. If you have great reviews and a higher specification product, you may want to do this. Pricing such a product low sends a message that maybe it’s not as good as you think it is. (Remember Sansa Stark before she got smart?) Price a bit higher, and you’re saying “Yes but look at the features”.

(You’re also making a better profit margin, of course.)

There are a few products which price right at the top. These are the Cersei Lannisters and the Margaery Tyrells. If you have a product like this, it has to be top price. If Louis Vuitton or Hermès had a dollar sale, they would destroy their brands completely.

Needless to say, this may not look like a ruthless place to compete, as everyone is being terribly polite and ceremonious. But in fact, it’s probably one of the most ruthless markets of all, and if you watched Game of Thrones attentively, you know that!

However, if you have a product that’s truly exclusive, Amazon is probably not the right place for it. When Sansa Stark got ‘sold’ to Joffrey, it wasn’t in the marketplace, it was in a council chamber.

However, occasionally pulling a surprise tactic can work out spectacularly well. Arya Stark and Tyrion Lannister are your role models here. The surprise tactic on Amazon is the promotion, whether it’s a Lightning Deal, a coupon discount, a Prime Day special, or a limited period offer. If you don’t usually go out swinging your sword for the lowest price, your opponents won’t be expecting it, and you can cut their legs from under them. Carnage!

Or rather, for you, a nice boost to your sales.

It’s a great tactic because you can use it in so many situations. Surrounded by enemies, too much inventory, running out of cash? Pull your surprise tactic, sell the excess stock, get a cash boost, and you’re back in the game. Or doing well but just need to get that bit further, like Stannis Baratheon talking to the Iron Bank? Surprise tactic, boost your sales, move into another league.

Start thinking about your price as both a message and a weapon. It’s Game of Sales on Amazon, today and every day!

Amazon is making a small but potentially important change to product pages. In future, if products have a high percentage of returns, Amazon will flag them up as “frequently returned”.

Returns are a big issue. In 2021, online purchases worth over $750bn were returned, and many Amazon sellers end up throwing away about a third of all returned product.

Amazon isn’t going back on its generous (to customers) return policies. Its customers have the right to return goods within 30 days. However, products should ideally be unopened and unused, and must be in the original condition. You can’t eat one biscuit out of a packet, decide you don’t like them, and return the rest of the packet! (In fact, groceries are an exception to the return process, as are customized items like print-on-demand tee shirts.)

However, it has introduced a $1 per return charge for UPS returns, though customers can still drop returns off at Amazon locations like Kohl’s or Amazon Fresh. Amazon might also  send warnings to customers who have a high rate or value of returns, and in extreme circumstances might even close their accounts.

But that “frequently returned” tag could scare customers off your products. Of course it also means you’re losing money on all those returns, particularly if they aren’t returned in a state that makes it possible to resell them. Fortunately, Amazon is also going to give you a new tool in Seller Central to help reduce returns; Return Insights. This will give you plenty of metrics; returns by ASIN, by return category, by units, by percentage, and over time (eg last 30 days vs last 60 days, so you can see if things are getting worse or better).

Pick the products which have the worst returns record to look at first. Of course, if you have a product with the “frequently returned” label showing up, that’s your first priority.

Look at the reasons why these products are being returned. You might also want to look at competing product pages and see whether the product reviews mention returns, and whether there are details or types of photo on those pages that you don’t have on yours.

Then you want to refine and improve your product listing. For instance,

•      you might to add higher quality images giving a more complete view of the product;

•      you might want to add sizing information, and a guide to exactly where to take particular measurements;

•      you could add technical details;

•      you might add the composition of a fabric (100% cotton or 70% viscose?);

•      you might include details of compatibility with other products;

•      you could show pictures of the product with someone using or holding it, or in a hand, so that potential customers can easily grasp the size of the product;

•      you might add a how-to video so customers know how to unbox, install, and use their new products correctly.

It’s also worth paying real attention to color accuracy. In clothing and accessories, but also home decor, customers who find the color isn’t what they thought they were getting from the picture on the product page will often return it.

If your returns are due to products being damaged in transit, it’s worth trying to redesign your packaging to protect the product better.

Understanding your customers can be tricky, but it’s something you really need to do. A really nerdy example is a fountain pen returned by a collector because it had clearly been inked. In fact, the seller has a policy of testing every pen they sell by writing with it before they send it out. They now make that clear in their product description.