This was an episode that I really wanted to record as I know that right now things are a little bit tough. Lots of businesses are seeing less sales, both on Amazon and elsewhere. So I wanted to share some really practical ideas of things you can do to improve your sales, cut down your costs, or both.
Now, these tips are mainly going to be Amazon specific, but some will work in other places. So even if you’re not selling on Amazon, there might still be some ideas in here that you will find useful.
Listen in to hear me share:
USEFUL RESOURCES:
FREEBIE: How to Successfully Launch a Product on Amazon or Rescue One That's Not Selling
Podcast Episode 159 - How to start selling on Amazon
Podcast Episode 68 - How to successfully launch a product on Amazon
Blog Post:
How to optimise your Amazon Sponsored Products advertising campaigns
HOW I CAN SUPPORT YOU ON AMAZON:
Is Amazon Right For You? Mini Strategy Session
LET’S CONNECT:
Join my free Facebook group for product makers and creators
Mentioned in this episode:
Book out soon!
Have you ever had a great idea for a product? Or does creating a product to sell appeal to you? Where do you begin? How do you come up with a product idea? Or, if you have an idea, how do you know if it’s even viable? In my brand new book Bring Your Product Idea to Life, I take you through the process of creating your product, step-by-step. From developing your product idea, to finding suppliers and launching your product, I guide you through every step of the journey. The book includes advice on how to price your product, where to sell it and how to find out if anyone will actually buy it. Designed to help you make real progress, Bring Your Product to Life is both practical and motivational. Every chapter includes clear action steps, so you know exactly what to do and when. This isn’t just a book for reading - this is a book for doing. The book will be released in June 2023 - and I’ll let you know when and how to buy it!
Welcome to the Bring Your Product Idea to Life podcast.
Speaker:This is the podcast for you if you're getting started selling
Speaker:products, or if you'd like to create your own product to sell.
Speaker:I'm Vicki Weinberg, product creation coach and Amazon expert.
Speaker:Every week I share friendly, practical advice as well as inspirational
Speaker:stories from small businesses.
Speaker:Let's get started.
Vicki Weinberg:Hi, and welcome to this week's episode.
Vicki Weinberg:This was an episode that I really wanted to record as I know that right now, um,
Vicki Weinberg:things are perhaps a little bit tough.
Vicki Weinberg:I know lots of businesses are seeing less sales on Amazon and everywhere
Vicki Weinberg:else, and I wanted to record this probably fairly short episode to give
Vicki Weinberg:you some really practical ideas of things you can do to improve your
Vicki Weinberg:sales, cut down your costs, or both.
Vicki Weinberg:Now, these tips are mainly going to be Amazon specific, but
Vicki Weinberg:some will work in other places.
Vicki Weinberg:So if you're not selling, selling on Amazon yet, please
Vicki Weinberg:don't dismiss this episode.
Vicki Weinberg:There might still be some things in here that you would find useful
Vicki Weinberg:wherever you are selling your product.
Vicki Weinberg:So I have heard recently that some people are quitting selling on Amazon.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, and I think that is a real shame because you've probably either
Vicki Weinberg:spent time or money or perhaps both getting set up properly.
Vicki Weinberg:If you've done that, please don't leave.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, before you do that, try doing these few things I'm going to outline today,
Vicki Weinberg:see if you can see some improvements.
Vicki Weinberg:Remember that assuming you have a professional selling account that's
Vicki Weinberg:30 pound per month, including v a t, that actually isn't too much.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, or if you've got the free account, then obviously that's free.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, so you're not spending a great deal and I do think it might be worth
Vicki Weinberg:just one more month to see if you can turn things around a little bit.
Vicki Weinberg:If you haven't spent time or money getting set up properly, so let's say you, um,
Vicki Weinberg:you've got your products, you've got your accounts set up, you've got your
Vicki Weinberg:products listed, but actually you're not sure whether you have done it correctly.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, you're not sure if there's more you can do listen on as well, because I'm
Vicki Weinberg:convinced there will be some things you can do in order to see an improvement.
Vicki Weinberg:And I should also say that you can always put your account in the holiday
Vicki Weinberg:mode when you're doing all these things, um, if you need to as well, if you're
Vicki Weinberg:worried about having your account active while you are working away on it too.
Vicki Weinberg:I have plenty of podcasts that cover how to get set up on Amazon.
Vicki Weinberg:Well, um, and this is sort of, well going through how to do it, but also
Vicki Weinberg:lots of advice on how to do it really, really well and get your first sales.
Vicki Weinberg:So, do go to the show notes for this.
Vicki Weinberg:I also have a freebie that you can get from my website, um, about how to
Vicki Weinberg:get off to a great start on Amazon.
Vicki Weinberg:And this is all free and all linked in the show notes.
Vicki Weinberg:So now I'm going to run through some ideas for you.
Vicki Weinberg:And the first few ideas I want to talk about are ways that you can save money.
Vicki Weinberg:As you'll know, there are costs involved in selling on Amazon.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, and these can obviously vary depending exactly what you are doing.
Vicki Weinberg:So if you can reduce your cost, that will obviously help massively.
Vicki Weinberg:So let's start there.
Vicki Weinberg:So the first thing I'm going to suggest you do is review any sponsor
Vicki Weinberg:products, ads that you have running.
Vicki Weinberg:And right away I want you to stop any that aren't performing um, well.
Vicki Weinberg:Got a bit of a caveat there.
Vicki Weinberg:I guess it depends how badly they're performing.
Vicki Weinberg:So I think you either want to stop them, you want to decrease your budgets.
Vicki Weinberg:Definitely.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, and if you are, if there are campaigns that are not performing
Vicki Weinberg:where you want them to be, as well as decreasing your budgets, I would also
Vicki Weinberg:suggest doing a bit of optimization.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, actually even optimize the ones that are doing well.
Vicki Weinberg:Because that will still save you money.
Vicki Weinberg:And I'll talk in a moment exactly what I mean by that.
Vicki Weinberg:But let's start off with, um, I mentioned, you know, stopping your ads and then
Vicki Weinberg:I stopped myself and said, oh, well maybe you don't want to stop them.
Vicki Weinberg:Let's talk about why I'm, I wasn't so clear on that.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, something I get asked quite a lot is what the ROAS and
Vicki Weinberg:ACOS should be on Amazon ads.
Vicki Weinberg:People say, Vicki, where should I aim at?
Vicki Weinberg:What, you know, do I need to be like 30%.
Vicki Weinberg:This.
Vicki Weinberg:This is ACOs, um, or 25% or 20%.
Vicki Weinberg:And I always say this really depends on you and your business.
Vicki Weinberg:E every single one of my clients has a different threshold.
Vicki Weinberg:They have a different number that they say, yep, this is good.
Vicki Weinberg:And that obviously depends on their own margins.
Vicki Weinberg:You need to know what works for you.
Vicki Weinberg:You need to know what you're working, what you're aiming for.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, you know, you need to know at what point you're losing money,
Vicki Weinberg:at what point you're making money.
Vicki Weinberg:And if you're not seeing the return you want on a specific
Vicki Weinberg:ad, you need to stop it.
Vicki Weinberg:If your ads are performing okay, as I've mentioned, I think it could be
Vicki Weinberg:worth decreasing the daily budget so you're spending a little bit less while
Vicki Weinberg:you're working on optimizing them to get them to perform a bit better for you.
Vicki Weinberg:So when I talk about optimizing, there are two really, really
Vicki Weinberg:simple things you can do.
Vicki Weinberg:So the first thing is have a look at anything you're targeting.
Vicki Weinberg:So I'm assuming by the way that you are running manual sponsor products campaigns.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, if you don't know the difference, manual ones where
Vicki Weinberg:you choose what you're targeting.
Vicki Weinberg:So maybe you are targeting ads to other ASINs, other people's products that are
Vicki Weinberg:similar to yours and you are paying money to be advertising on their listings.
Vicki Weinberg:Maybe your targeting keywords.
Vicki Weinberg:So somebody's going to type a keyword into the search bar and you want to pop up
Vicki Weinberg:at the top of page one for that keyword.
Vicki Weinberg:So you are paying to be there.
Vicki Weinberg:So that's what I talk about when I talk about targets and if you set up a manual
Vicki Weinberg:campaign, you tell Amazon what they are.
Vicki Weinberg:An automatic campaign is where Amazon, based on the content of your product
Vicki Weinberg:listing, decides what's relevant.
Vicki Weinberg:So they will show your listing on what they believe to be relevant,
Vicki Weinberg:relevant, committed products, and for relevant search results.
Vicki Weinberg:So the first thing I'm going to say is, if you are running, any
Vicki Weinberg:automatic ads and they aren't performing, just stop them right away
Vicki Weinberg:because they're costing you money.
Vicki Weinberg:In fact, even if they are performing well, I still suggest running your
Vicki Weinberg:advertising reports and look on a target level, so an ASIN and keyword level, what
Vicki Weinberg:is costing you money but not generating sales or is returning, you know, a
Vicki Weinberg:poor return on investment and just add those as negative keywords right away.
Vicki Weinberg:So that's what I want you to give your automatic ads.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, but I'm hoping that you're running manual ads because you can keep such a
Vicki Weinberg:closer eye on them and you can, you know, you can adjust things so much easier.
Vicki Weinberg:So the few things I want you to stop is if you see a, some kind of target that has
Vicki Weinberg:spend against it and no sales, and what that level of spend is, again, will be
Vicki Weinberg:up to you, but let's say for argument's sake, you've spent 25 pound this month on
Vicki Weinberg:a certain keyword and you've had no sales.
Vicki Weinberg:Stop it.
Vicki Weinberg:In my, in my opinion anyways, in my opinion, I would stop it.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, or maybe you've got some keywords that have had sales, but the ACOs
Vicki Weinberg:or ROAS is well outside of that threshold that you set for yourself.
Vicki Weinberg:Again, stop those.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, that's two really simple things that you can be doing.
Vicki Weinberg:And I suggest doing right away.
Vicki Weinberg:And also reviewing really, really often, once or twice a week, go in, have a
Vicki Weinberg:look what's performing what isn't.
Vicki Weinberg:Also have a look at your search terms and see is there anything
Vicki Weinberg:that you should be adding in.
Vicki Weinberg:So anything that's generating new sales, but perhaps you're not targeting
Vicki Weinberg:directly because your campaign's set up as a broader phrase match.
Vicki Weinberg:Add those in as an exact match.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, and hopefully that will help you too.
Vicki Weinberg:This actually is my next tip is actually a bit counterintuitive because
Vicki Weinberg:it won't necessarily save you money.
Vicki Weinberg:In fact, it probably won't save you money.
Vicki Weinberg:But let's say that you've gone to do this exercise and you're going, well,
Vicki Weinberg:Vicki, my campaigns are performing really well, like they're doing amazingly.
Vicki Weinberg:If that's the case, why not try increasing your budget?
Vicki Weinberg:So, as I say, it's not going to save you money, but by increasing
Vicki Weinberg:your budget, it might be that you also see an increase in sales.
Vicki Weinberg:You might not.
Vicki Weinberg:And if you don't, that's fine.
Vicki Weinberg:You can obviously, um, put that spend back down again.
Vicki Weinberg:But if your campaign's performing well, I do believe it's worth a try.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, especially if you're getting those emails, the ones that you
Vicki Weinberg:might get that tell you that your campaign's out of budget every day.
Vicki Weinberg:If you're getting those and you're making sales and you're getting a good
Vicki Weinberg:return and, and you can afford to, of course, is the final caveat and perhaps
Vicki Weinberg:put a little bit more money behind them.
Vicki Weinberg:So the next thing you can do to save money, and I promise
Vicki Weinberg:this one actually will save you money, is review your inventory.
Vicki Weinberg:So if you are using FBA such Fulfilled by Amazon, um, have a
Vicki Weinberg:look at how long you have your products have been held by Amazon
Vicki Weinberg:and what your storage fees are like.
Vicki Weinberg:Are you paying like, you know, do you have hundreds of units in stock?
Vicki Weinberg:Are you paying loads of money for that?
Vicki Weinberg:Should you get some stock returned to you?
Vicki Weinberg:There are, there is a cost for doing that.
Vicki Weinberg:So it might be that isn't feasible.
Vicki Weinberg:It might be that it's actually cheaper for you to run a promotion
Vicki Weinberg:or to set up some ads to try and sell that product through a bit quicker.
Vicki Weinberg:If you've been using FBA and it's costing you way too much, let's say you
Vicki Weinberg:did what I did with my first order and sending in hundreds of units and they're
Vicki Weinberg:just not selling quite fast enough.
Vicki Weinberg:Is there another option?
Vicki Weinberg:Could you get your stock returned to you and fulfill orders yourself?
Vicki Weinberg:Um, is there another way of fulfilling them?
Vicki Weinberg:Have a think about what your options are and cost everything out because it might
Vicki Weinberg:be, particularly if, depending on the size of your products, um, that actually you're
Vicki Weinberg:paying a lot of money to have it sat in Amazon warehouse and you really need to
Vicki Weinberg:do something to get it moving, to reduce or stop those long-term storage fees.
Vicki Weinberg:If you are fulfilling orders yourself, make sure your shipping price makes sense.
Vicki Weinberg:Again, this may not directly save you money, but hopefully
Vicki Weinberg:it will impact your sales.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, I bring this up because I worked with someone this week and their shipping
Vicki Weinberg:costs made absolutely no sense to me.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, and if they didn't make sense to me, I really feel like they wouldn't
Vicki Weinberg:make sense to the customer either.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, because I'm going to give you my best advice here for.
Vicki Weinberg:Setting your own shipping costs.
Vicki Weinberg:If you are fulfilling orders yourself, if you can offer free shipping,
Vicki Weinberg:offer free shipping, that's great.
Vicki Weinberg:Then it's kind of comparable of prime, apart from possibly your order
Vicki Weinberg:won't arrive at quite the same speed.
Vicki Weinberg:But customers who buy on Amazon are quite used to not paying for shipping.
Vicki Weinberg:Well, you are because you've, you know, it's paid, um, as part of
Vicki Weinberg:your prime account, so it feels like you're not paying for shipping
Vicki Weinberg:and customers get used to that.
Vicki Weinberg:So if you cannot charge for shipping, I always suggest doing that.
Vicki Weinberg:You've probably heard me say that before.
Vicki Weinberg:If you have to slightly increase your product price to factor
Vicki Weinberg:that in, you can do that.
Vicki Weinberg:If it makes sense.
Vicki Weinberg:I'll talk a bit more about product price in a moment.
Vicki Weinberg:If you can't do that, I would suggest sticking with a flat price, a flat
Vicki Weinberg:shipping price for all your products.
Vicki Weinberg:Perhaps you want to charge a bit more for expedited shipping, if
Vicki Weinberg:that's something that you offer.
Vicki Weinberg:If you're thinking, actually this isn't possible, because some of my products are
Vicki Weinberg:really small and only cost a couple of pounds to post, but some of my product
Vicki Weinberg:products are a lot larger, then why not?
Vicki Weinberg:Um, set up tiers based on weight.
Vicki Weinberg:So you could do that.
Vicki Weinberg:So you could say, okay, for orders up to this weight, I'm going to charge this
Vicki Weinberg:much and over for this amount it'll be that much, or set up different shipping
Vicki Weinberg:templates for different types of products.
Vicki Weinberg:So I suggested this to the client I was working with this week that some
Vicki Weinberg:of her products are very small, and I said you could have one shipping
Vicki Weinberg:template that works for those products.
Vicki Weinberg:And then you can have a different template with different pricing for
Vicki Weinberg:your bigger, more expensive products.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, and I think that makes sense because it honestly could come down to the
Vicki Weinberg:fact that someone isn't buying from you because they go, well, why, you
Vicki Weinberg:know, I'm paying this for the product.
Vicki Weinberg:I don't want to pay that on top for shipping.
Vicki Weinberg:Sounds like a really small thing, but think about it because we
Vicki Weinberg:are customers too, aren't we?
Vicki Weinberg:We, we all, I'm assuming, shop online.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, I've definitely not shopped on websites before because, um, either
Vicki Weinberg:something's going to take too long to get to me or because I don't want to pay
Vicki Weinberg:what they want to charge for shipping.
Vicki Weinberg:Especially if, as is often the case on Amazon, you can buy a similar
Vicki Weinberg:product from somebody else and either shipping is faster or it's cheaper.
Vicki Weinberg:So do think about that.
Vicki Weinberg:While I'm talking about price, and I did say I would talk more about this,
Vicki Weinberg:think about the price of your product.
Vicki Weinberg:Does it still make sense?
Vicki Weinberg:Um, can you increase it slightly?
Vicki Weinberg:As I say, this isn't about saving you money, I guess it's about making you more
Vicki Weinberg:money, but it's worth thinking about.
Vicki Weinberg:So I was speaking to a client recently who has been selling their products on Amazon
Vicki Weinberg:for eight years, and in eight years, their product price has not changed.
Vicki Weinberg:Now, I'm not saying it necessarily should change.
Vicki Weinberg:But because the products has been on Amazon for a long time and it
Vicki Weinberg:does well, makes a, you know, decent amount of sales every single month.
Vicki Weinberg:They weren't really looking at the market.
Vicki Weinberg:So they weren't looking at their competitors and what they were doing,
Vicki Weinberg:because they were really confident.
Vicki Weinberg:They've got great product, it's got great reviews, it's sales
Vicki Weinberg:work, they've got great listings.
Vicki Weinberg:So they weren't looking at any of this.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, And I asked a fairly innocent question to do a price, and then we went
Vicki Weinberg:to, had to looked at it together and realized that their product was so much
Vicki Weinberg:cheaper than other comparable products.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, and that's, by the way, that could be fine.
Vicki Weinberg:And that client could say, do you know what?
Vicki Weinberg:I'm happy with my product price.
Vicki Weinberg:But I did suggest to them, actually, you could raise your,
Vicki Weinberg:um, price by a couple of pounds.
Vicki Weinberg:Still be the cheapest by the way, but that just gives you a little bit more per sale.
Vicki Weinberg:And I'm not suggesting increasing your product price just to make you money.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, you've probably heard me talk about price before.
Vicki Weinberg:I feel like the price has to make sense.
Vicki Weinberg:Customers aren't going to pay more just to like line your pockets
Vicki Weinberg:if that's the right saying.
Vicki Weinberg:But if the price makes sense in the marketplace and you've got a great
Vicki Weinberg:product and you've got great reviews and you've got sales history, why not?
Vicki Weinberg:And remember, if you put your price up just a little bit and it does
Vicki Weinberg:impact on your sales negatively, you can put it down again.
Vicki Weinberg:And you know, you know how it is on Amazon.
Vicki Weinberg:You make the change in 10, 15 minutes.
Vicki Weinberg:It's, it's live.
Vicki Weinberg:So it's not something you're sticking with forever.
Vicki Weinberg:So I do think about that too.
Vicki Weinberg:As I say, that's only if it makes sense, but I do think from time to time it is
Vicki Weinberg:worth, particularly if you're only selling on Amazon, this is your only marketplace,
Vicki Weinberg:or perhaps just Amazon and your website.
Vicki Weinberg:It, I think it can be worth actually looking and saying, okay,
Vicki Weinberg:does my price still make sense?
Vicki Weinberg:Particularly if you've been selling for a long time.
Vicki Weinberg:So now I want to talk about a few ideas I have that will help you increase your
Vicki Weinberg:sales and will cost you nothing but time, because I'm aware that some of the ideas
Vicki Weinberg:I've spoken about, for example, ads are going to cost you a little bit of money.
Vicki Weinberg:These should only cost you time.
Vicki Weinberg:So the first thing I'm going to suggest you do is review your product listings.
Vicki Weinberg:Now, if you have a lot of product listings, and some of my clients
Vicki Weinberg:do, you might have some listings that aren't active right now.
Vicki Weinberg:You might have some listings that are actually suppressed by Amazon and you
Vicki Weinberg:don't even know about it either because they haven't informed you, which happens
Vicki Weinberg:a lot of the time, or because they haven't, you've missed an email and often,
Vicki Weinberg:these are really, really simple fixes.
Vicki Weinberg:So this week I have worked on an Amazon account audit for a client,
Vicki Weinberg:which is something that I offer.
Vicki Weinberg:And when I went through this client's listings, I actually found
Vicki Weinberg:24 listings that weren't active.
Vicki Weinberg:My client wasn't aware, weren't active because of really small things.
Vicki Weinberg:So for example, size, information missing, non-compliant image, image missing,
Vicki Weinberg:and all of these things can be fixed.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, I think in an app we could actually fix all of these issues and,
Vicki Weinberg:um, suddenly the client has 24 more products that a customer can buy.
Vicki Weinberg:So that's just one really small example.
Vicki Weinberg:Of course, if you've got a small inventory, this might not apply
Vicki Weinberg:to you, but I do work with sellers who have hundreds of products
Vicki Weinberg:listed, so, this is definitely something that's worth looking at.
Vicki Weinberg:So let's assume that your listings are all active.
Vicki Weinberg:I think that's the first thing to check.
Vicki Weinberg:Next thing to think about is are your listings fully optimized?
Vicki Weinberg:So do you have great text?
Vicki Weinberg:Have you carried out keyword research?
Vicki Weinberg:Are the keywords concluded in your text?
Vicki Weinberg:Do you have great images?
Vicki Weinberg:Do you have a plus content set up?
Vicki Weinberg:I've spoken about all of these things in depth in other episodes, which
Vicki Weinberg:I'll link to in the show notes.
Vicki Weinberg:So I'm just going to give you a brief summary here because I know
Vicki Weinberg:you don't need to hear me say the same thing over and over again.
Vicki Weinberg:Plus, I promise you this would be a fairly short episode.
Vicki Weinberg:Bottom line is everything needs to be well optimized when you
Vicki Weinberg:are creating your listings.
Vicki Weinberg:You need to be using all the text fields.
Vicki Weinberg:So in most categories you have a top where, all categories,
Vicki Weinberg:you have a title in most.
Vicki Weinberg:You also have five bullet points, and then you have some description.
Vicki Weinberg:Use all of these.
Vicki Weinberg:Also use the backend, um, search terms fields as well.
Vicki Weinberg:Make sure all your keywords are in there.
Vicki Weinberg:And of course, carry out keyword research to do that.
Vicki Weinberg:Ensure, you know, ensure you know what people are searching for and that
Vicki Weinberg:those phrases are in your listing.
Vicki Weinberg:And of course in your campaigns as well.
Vicki Weinberg:If you're running any, have great images.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, if your images are a bit dated, maybe you put your listing up a
Vicki Weinberg:couple of years ago and at that time you had, you know, photos, you
Vicki Weinberg:were like, okay, these are okay.
Vicki Weinberg:They'll do for now.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, maybe this is a time to update them, get some new images taken.
Vicki Weinberg:Even if your images are are, are good, it still might be worth
Vicki Weinberg:swapping them around you know.
Vicki Weinberg:If you feel like, okay, I've had this main image for a long time.
Vicki Weinberg:Have you got another great image you could use?
Vicki Weinberg:Um, is it time to get some infographics or other kind of graphics
Vicki Weinberg:created to enhance your listings?
Vicki Weinberg:Speaking of enhancing your listings, I mentioned a plus content.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, if you don't know what this is, this is basically enhanced
Vicki Weinberg:content on your listings.
Vicki Weinberg:It means that when you scroll down and look at your product listing,
Vicki Weinberg:you might see more text and graphics and images and comparison charts
Vicki Weinberg:and all kinds of information about the product and the brand.
Vicki Weinberg:As long as you have, um, a UK pending or existing trademark, you can
Vicki Weinberg:apply for what's called Amazon Brand Registry and get the a plus content.
Vicki Weinberg:It's a fairly quick and simple process.
Vicki Weinberg:Much easier than getting set up on Amazon in the first place.
Vicki Weinberg:And by having this, you can also have a store and access to
Vicki Weinberg:a few other features as well.
Vicki Weinberg:As I say, it's free.
Vicki Weinberg:And if you have a trademark, I definitely think it's worth doing.
Vicki Weinberg:And this could be something another way that you could enhance your listing.
Vicki Weinberg:So perhaps you can you add a little bit more content, perhaps
Vicki Weinberg:that in a video would make a real difference to your conversions.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, as I say, all of this is free to do as if you haven't, it's
Vicki Weinberg:definitely worth thinking about.
Vicki Weinberg:I would also think about, have you listed all of your best selling products?
Vicki Weinberg:Because let's face it, we are all really busy.
Vicki Weinberg:And it might be that you've listed most of your products, but you haven't got
Vicki Weinberg:around to creating all of your listings.
Vicki Weinberg:You know, because we, like I say, you're busy, um, or maybe you just
Vicki Weinberg:weren't sure if things would work out.
Vicki Weinberg:So you only listed a selection of products initially, but I think
Vicki Weinberg:now is actually the time to do it.
Vicki Weinberg:Um.
Vicki Weinberg:Make sure you do it well, as I've already been speaking about.
Vicki Weinberg:But if you have some, some products that you know, sell really well
Vicki Weinberg:elsewhere, and of course you believe that they're a good fit for Amazon,
Vicki Weinberg:why not just get them listed?
Vicki Weinberg:Um, because if they're not on there, you can't sell them.
Vicki Weinberg:It's the bottom line.
Vicki Weinberg:I also would suggest working on getting reviews.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, although I always hate saying this because I know how tricky it is.
Vicki Weinberg:Getting reviews is really, really hard for absolutely everyone, and all you
Vicki Weinberg:really can do is ask because you can't incentivize people to leave you reviews.
Vicki Weinberg:That's against Amazon's policies.
Vicki Weinberg:You can send emails via Amazon via Seller Central to anyone who
Vicki Weinberg:hasn't opted out of receiving these.
Vicki Weinberg:So you can send like automated emails asking people for reviews.
Vicki Weinberg:In my opinion, I don't know how well these work.
Vicki Weinberg:I think a lot of people have opted out of them.
Vicki Weinberg:I mean, I know that I have, um, and we all get so many emails.
Vicki Weinberg:I don't know if that's the right way, but you could put a polite request
Vicki Weinberg:in with your product packaging just saying, if you enjoy this product,
Vicki Weinberg:please consider leaving a review.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, can't hurt to ask right.
Vicki Weinberg:That's what I figure anyway.
Vicki Weinberg:Or maybe you could use Amazon Vine.
Vicki Weinberg:So Amazon Vine is a programme.
Vicki Weinberg:If you haven't heard of it, where Amazon reviewers who have been selected by
Vicki Weinberg:Amazon are offered your product at a reduced price, um, on the understanding
Vicki Weinberg:that they will write a review.
Vicki Weinberg:So there is a cost for Vine.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, so this actually isn't free.
Vicki Weinberg:I said these are gonna be free, but this one is in, but it could be worth
Vicki Weinberg:looking into if you are struggling to get reviews other ways, and you
Vicki Weinberg:think, do you know what, if my product just had some reviews, I feel like
Vicki Weinberg:they'd convert a little bit better.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, other things you can do is work on telling people that
Vicki Weinberg:your listings actually exist.
Vicki Weinberg:So did you get set up on Amazon and then just not tell anyone?
Vicki Weinberg:Um, you might have heard me say this before.
Vicki Weinberg:It's really, really hard to get started on Amazon, so I guess this is different
Vicki Weinberg:to, if you've been on there for a while, you know, if you've been on there for a
Vicki Weinberg:couple of years and you are seeing less sales, I guess this won't be as relevant.
Vicki Weinberg:Although actually you could still remind people that your products
Vicki Weinberg:are available there, particularly if they're available on Prime, for example.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, nothing wrong with letting people know, but if you haven't actually been
Vicki Weinberg:on Amazon for long and you're not seeing much traction, first thing I would do is
Vicki Weinberg:check, you know that your listings are as good as they possibly can be so that
Vicki Weinberg:your listings are really well optimized.
Vicki Weinberg:I mentioned this briefly above, and as I said, I've got episodes specifically
Vicki Weinberg:about this that you can go and listen to as well, that go for exactly what you need
Vicki Weinberg:to do to have a great product listing.
Vicki Weinberg:So once you've done that, I would suggest doing everything
Vicki Weinberg:you can to share your listings.
Vicki Weinberg:So for example, you can share them on your social media, your website, your email,
Vicki Weinberg:by the way, personal social media as well.
Vicki Weinberg:You don't need to share this on your business social media.
Vicki Weinberg:You can text or email or do it however you want to contact friends
Vicki Weinberg:and family, ask them to share it out.
Vicki Weinberg:Unfortunately, especially when you just first get started on Amazon,
Vicki Weinberg:it's really hard to get found.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, and you do need to put a little bit of work in.
Vicki Weinberg:So if you haven't been on there long and you're not seeing the
Vicki Weinberg:sales that you would expect.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, first check you've got great listings, and then get out there and spread the
Vicki Weinberg:word because I promise that'll help.
Vicki Weinberg:So the final ideas I want to share with you do involve
Vicki Weinberg:spending a little bit of money.
Vicki Weinberg:So only do these if you can afford to.
Vicki Weinberg:So the first one is, if you're not doing any sponsored products campaigns,
Vicki Weinberg:perhaps you want to start one.
Vicki Weinberg:You honestly do not need to spend a lot of money on these.
Vicki Weinberg:You can just do a couple of pounds a day and see how you go.
Vicki Weinberg:If you're going to, I would suggest you target your best selling products.
Vicki Weinberg:So the ones that sell well anyway, um, your best converting products perhaps,
Vicki Weinberg:or you could do a sponsored brands ads and highlight a few, or maybe you can
Vicki Weinberg:do an ad to drive people to your store.
Vicki Weinberg:So it really depends on what it is that you're trying to increase sales of.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, another tip is if you have a product that has lots of variations, I would
Vicki Weinberg:suggest either using the cheapest option in your ad, so the one you drive the ad
Vicki Weinberg:to, or your best selling variant, or the best converting variant in the actual ad.
Vicki Weinberg:Something I see people do, um, they have a product say in lots of
Vicki Weinberg:different colours, is often they'll set up an ad and they will target
Vicki Weinberg:every single colour that they offer.
Vicki Weinberg:But actually if you, if you have a black and a blue and a red and a
Vicki Weinberg:white and you hardly ever sell the black, but you know, the blue sells
Vicki Weinberg:really well, just target that one.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, because otherwise you are spending money on listings that may not convert.
Vicki Weinberg:So that's just a little money saving tip.
Vicki Weinberg:If you're going to be spending money on ads.
Vicki Weinberg:You could also set up discounts or promotions.
Vicki Weinberg:You can do lightning deals, prime exclusive deals, discounts, vouchers.
Vicki Weinberg:Again, I have podcast episodes and blogs posted about all of
Vicki Weinberg:these, but something to consider.
Vicki Weinberg:So maybe you're going to do a sale price of 10% off for a week, or maybe you're
Vicki Weinberg:going to do a voucher where people can get 20% off a certain amount of time.
Vicki Weinberg:Multi buy deals are really good as well, especially if your
Vicki Weinberg:products are on the lower end.
Vicki Weinberg:So, you might do a three for two, for example, or you can also
Vicki Weinberg:set up offers where if you buy one product, you pay full price.
Vicki Weinberg:But if you buy three, you get 10% off or whatever it is.
Vicki Weinberg:Just have a little play around here because people like a deal.
Vicki Weinberg:And I do feel that especially if you are actively working to improve your
Vicki Weinberg:sales on Amazon, it's worth trying a few things because you don't know
Vicki Weinberg:what's it'll be, that'll work for you.
Vicki Weinberg:And I don't know what it'll be that'll work for you.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, because I can tell you that what works my clients isn't the same for everyone.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, some people you know, set up sales and do really well.
Vicki Weinberg:Other people set up multi offers and they do really well.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, lots of my clients, in fact, all of my clients are doing really
Vicki Weinberg:well with their ads at the moment.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, so it really does depend and I wish I had one thing I could
Vicki Weinberg:say that'll work for everyone.
Vicki Weinberg:But do spend some time and try a lot of this?
Vicki Weinberg:Um, and certainly don't give up until you feel like, actually I've done everything.
Vicki Weinberg:Only give up then don't, especially as I say, if you've either been
Vicki Weinberg:on this some time and you've got traction or if you're fairly new,
Vicki Weinberg:um, definitely give it your all.
Vicki Weinberg:Although final thing I'll say, and I hate to leave on this note, is that if things
Vicki Weinberg:really aren't working and you do try all of my ideas and you still get no traction,
Vicki Weinberg:particularly if you're new to Amazon.
Vicki Weinberg:This is different, I guess if you've been on there for years and you've historically
Vicki Weinberg:done well and now you're seeing a decline, but if you're fairly new and
Vicki Weinberg:you know, you just can't get any sales and you're trying all of these things,
Vicki Weinberg:one question I want you to honestly ask yourself is whether it's the right
Vicki Weinberg:marketplace for you and your products.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, I never like to say this by the way, and at least once a week I have, you know,
Vicki Weinberg:I have someone come that wants to work with me and I have to really politely say,
Vicki Weinberg:you know, I don't think I can help you because, you know, they sell something
Vicki Weinberg:that I know is not a great fit for Amazon.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, I ever noticed, by the way, from experience or I notice because I do
Vicki Weinberg:some research and I just feel like, oh, actually, um, I obviously want
Vicki Weinberg:people to do well, and I don't want to take on people who, um, you know,
Vicki Weinberg:are prepared to put money behind it, but their product perhaps isn't the
Vicki Weinberg:right fit or perhaps there's tons of competition because ultimately I want
Vicki Weinberg:all of you to do really, really well.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, so yeah, that was, that'd be my final point, that if you just work
Vicki Weinberg:really hard and you just cannot see why you are not making sales.
Vicki Weinberg:First of all, you can reach out to me.
Vicki Weinberg:I offer a, a power hour where we can review everything together and you can
Vicki Weinberg:talk me through what's going on and I can give you some sort of solutions and ideas
Vicki Weinberg:that are tailored to you in your business.
Vicki Weinberg:So that's one thing we can do.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, but if not, I would definitely consider, you know, is your Amazon
Vicki Weinberg:the right place for me, or is there another marketplace that'll work better?
Vicki Weinberg:Um, I said at the outset of this episode, you know, don't just quit.
Vicki Weinberg:Don't just stop right away.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, but you know, I feel like if you've done everything you can and you realize
Vicki Weinberg:that actually I, this isn't the best place for your products to be that isn't
Vicki Weinberg:quitting, that's completely different.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, what I just don't want you to do is to stop without,
Vicki Weinberg:you know, giving it a good go.
Vicki Weinberg:Because as I've said so many times, you'll be, oh, sick to death of me saying this.
Vicki Weinberg:It is hard.
Vicki Weinberg:Amazon is not an easy place to sell.
Vicki Weinberg:It doesn't mean it's not worth it.
Vicki Weinberg:You know, I work.
Vicki Weinberg:As you know, I work with so many sellers.
Vicki Weinberg:I work with sellers who do amazingly on Amazon, but, um, I don't think I can think
Vicki Weinberg:of anyone who does amazingly on Amazon, who hasn't put the work in to get there.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, and I think that's really, really important.
Vicki Weinberg:So I'm going to leave with that.
Vicki Weinberg:If you need any help, you know where to find me, vicki weinberg.com.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, please don't get stuck on this.
Vicki Weinberg:Please don't panic.
Vicki Weinberg:Um, I'm always here to help.
Vicki Weinberg:So thank you for listening right to the end of this episode, and I'll be
Vicki Weinberg:back with another interview next week.
Vicki Weinberg:Thank you so much for listening right to the end of this episode.
Vicki Weinberg:Do remember that you can get the full back catalogue and lots of free resources
Vicki Weinberg:on my website, vicki weinberg.com.
Vicki Weinberg:Please do remember to rate and review this episode if you've enjoyed it
Vicki Weinberg:and also share it with a friend who you think might find it useful.