A couple of weeks ago, we discussed common mistakes when listing on ebay. Now, we do the same for Amazon.

Entrepreneur Girl: Tracy’s Tuesday Tips:Dozen Most Common Amazon FBA Listing Mistakes.

Today Tracy teaches us what the most common mistakes that Amazon sellers make and how we can avoid them.

Mistake #1: Not registering as an Amazon “Pro Seller” account.

The first mistake that sellers make is that they don’t register as a “Pro Seller”. There are 2 different types of seller accounts.  First there is an individual seller accounts which are free, but they do charge you .99 cents for each item that you sell. Next, there are the Pro Seller accounts which comes with fees. It is $39.95 a month but has no listing fees. So if you are planning on selling more than 40 items per month, then it is better to go with the Pro Seller account.
Plus, Pro Seller accounts allow you to create your own listings, create bundles and your goal should be to sell more than 40 items a month. If you are serious about this as a source of income and have a job that allows you to be  your own boss and work at home, you should have goals to sell more than 40  items per month.
Also, if you start with an individual account and you get reviews and then you change to a ProSeller account, your reviews will not carry over to the Pro Seller account. So you will lose all those reviews.

Mistake #2: Choosing not to use Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon)

The next mistake Tracy shares with us is sellers not choosing to use FBA (Full-filled By Amazon). Instead they choose to do “Full-filled By Merchant” and ship their own products directly to the customer.
When you choose Amazon FBA, and ship off the products to Amazon warehouses, they will take care of everything for you. They will pack it, ship it, handle customer service and any returns. You can even have them label the items for you, if you want. Plus, if you choose to use FBA, you will pay reduced shipping fees when you ship to Amazon. Also, if you ship  items yourself, you will have to pay for boxes, packing materials and also the time you lose by having to pack and ship the items.
Tracy shares with us that the fees are more expensive than handling it all yourself but it is worth it. Her sales tripled once she started to use FBA.  Prime members get 2 day Free shipping so customers want to take advantage of that. If you do not use FBA, then your listings are not eligible for Prime.  Even if you offer free shipping, your listings will not sell as many as if you are FBA.

Mistake #3: Don’t follow Amazon’s rules and regulations.

The next  mistake that Amazon sellers make is that they don’t follow the rules and regulations. Tracy warns us to follow ALL the Amazon rules! Don’t just dive in and not read the rules and regulations. Go on their website and print all their rules and guideline and read through them and put them in a binder for reference. Know your rules! This isn’t EBay. Amazon has a much stricter forum and the customers have higher expectations. They are willing to pay more, but expect more.
You do not want to have your account closed. It is very, very  hard to get back into the good graces of Amazon,  once you slip up. Remember, it is Amazon’s sandbox. They make the rules and you need to follow them to a “T”.

Mistake #4: Sellers don’t try for the Amazon “Buy Box”

The next mistake that Amazon sellers often make is that they do not even try for the “Buy Box”. According to Amazon, 78% of the sales on Amazon, are from the ” Buy Box”. The ” Buy Box” pops up when someone goes onto the Amazon site and searches for a product and then the buyer can just click on it and add to their cart.
No one really knows the secret of how to get the  ” Buy Box” but Tracy shares that your account has to be in good standing and  have the lowest price (including shipping). Also, if you sell an item that no one else is selling, then you automatically will get the  ” Buy Box”. If you use the Amazon guidelines and create bundles, then you will automatically get it as well.

Mistake #5: Selling items that are not exactly as pictured on Amazon

The 5th mistake that sellers makes is that they sell items that are not exactly like the ones that are pictured or like the description and that will get you into trouble with Amazon, pretty fast. When you are listing and you click on “sell item like this”, they mean EXACTLY like the one in the listing. It has to be 100% identical.
Even if it is the same bracelet but the jewel is a different color, then it is NOT the same bracelet and should not be listed under that listing. You will have to create your own listing. It is not worth getting in trouble with Amazon.

Mistake #6: Sellers making the product sound better than it is

The next mistake that sellers make is to make the item sound better than it is. You never want to give the impression that your item is better, bigger, shinier, better condition, etc than it is. Customers want to know what they are getting and the condition it is in.
If you are selling a book, list the books’ condition and if anything, make it sound worse that what it is so your customer is pleasantly surprised.  You will end up with a happy customer and get a good review.

Mistake #7: Sellers don’t use feedback or review systems.

Tracy tells us that mistake #7 is that sellers do not use feedback or review systems. She will be doing next week’s “Tracy’s Tuesday Tips” to review these systems for you to use in your Amazon business. So stop back next week for a detailed review of the systems available to use.

Mistake #8: Amazon sellers don’t raise average sale price

The 8th mistake that sellers make is that they don’t raise their average sale price. Sellers should strive to increase their average price  or increasing the profit margin. Tracy has other videos on this topic that you can watch to learn more specifics.
With Amazon you will have a handling fee of $1 and you also have a pack and ship fee of about $1, so if you are selling a $10 item, that means that you have 20% going towards Amazon fees. But if you are selling an item for $30 and you have the same $2 fees, then your percentage of Amazon fees are a lot lower. So you will want to strive to increase the price of your inventory product. Tracy now is striving for her average price per sale to be at least $30.

Mistake #9:  Amazon sellers don’t package items correctly

The next mistake that sellers make is that they do not package correctly by making sure that you are using strong boxes and following the Amazon guidelines and not using any Styrofoam packing materials.  Also, if you are shipping individual items, make sure that you are using the poly bags and have the choking hazard warning on the bag or have affixed a sticker with the warning, onto the bag.
Double check your labels and make sure they are correct and you have covered all the barcodes on the original package with the new Amazon barcodes and use only clear bags that you can see through.

Mistake #10: Amazon sellers misspell and no keywords

The 10th mistake that sellers make is by having misspellings, lack of keywords, and not positioning against your competition. This is the same as with EBay. You have to check and double check for words spelled wrong and missing out on the opportunity to use as many keywords as you can. This is how your buyer will find your listing so take advantage by using as many as you think of, without making the listing sound odd from using too many.
You will be able to surpass your competition by using this technique. An example of this would be to use a description  like: ” Family Friendly”, “Luxurious” or ” Healthy”. It will help you stand out from your competition.

Mistake #11: Amazon seller not using a scanning app

The next mistake that is common is that the seller is not using a scanning app. Amazon has a free seller scanning app that you can use or you can use Profit Bandit, which is $10 a month.  There are so many to choose from but no matter which one you use, just USE IT! When you go into a store for retail arbitrage, you need to be scanning so you can make educated decisions. Using a scanning app will help you avoid making mistakes of buying items that you will not be able to make a profit on.  You can’t just go by the items heavily discounted price from what they used to be asking for the product.

Mistake #12: Amazon seller doesn’t do proper research into a product.

Last mistake that you need to avoid is not paying attention to sales rank, categories and competition. Sales rank, for a beginner, should be under 100,000. As you progress it had to be under 500,000. Also, make sure that you are listing your items in the right categories so that they are not being missed when the buyer is searching. Additionally, make sure that you are paying attention to the competition and seeing how many people are selling that item. Are you the only seller or are you one of 1,000? You want to make sure that you are not jumping into a pond loaded with too many other sellers.
Hope this was helpful and don’t forget to subscribe to Entrepreneurgirl.net as well as Tracy’s Youtube channel.
Can you think of other mistakes Amazon sellers make?  Comment below and be a part of the conversation.