Amazon is the world’s most popular online marketplace with an ample loyal customer base. As a retailer, Amazon Sellers needs to form and optimize their strategies for boosting sales to make the most on one of the largest eCommerce platforms. The biggest concern for every seller is the cost optimization to sell on Amazon to increase their profit margin while boosting sales on the platform.
Amazon has recently announced a new Amazon fee structure for sellers aiming to offset its operating cost to support its growing workforce in the upward journey. There is no slowing down, and the e-commerce giant is making its moves to define priorities while giving sellers an effective and affordable online marketplace to grow and thrive.
So, if you want to register yourself as an Amazon Seller to start selling online from your store, understanding the Amazon Seller Fees, the cost to sell on Amazon, and factors affecting them is the key to optimizing and boosting your sales. Let’s discuss Amazon FBA seller in 2023 and some simple tips to boost sales by making some adjustments to thrive in a competitive online marketplace.
Amazon Seller Fee and Other Charges
Amazon Seller Fee is the fee that Amazon asks from every seller as a cost to sell to millions of customers on its online marketplace. Sellers are required to register with the Amazon Business Seller program to determine the monthly associated Amazon seller fees that apply to them.
Unlike eBay, which has only one fulfillment option for sellers, Amazon offers several fulfillment options with corresponding fees to give sellers multiple choices to set up and thrive at the Amazon Marketplace:
Basic Amazon Plan
Sellers can choose between Individual Selling Plan and the Professional Selling Plan, depending on their expected monthly sales volume.
It is a good starter plan for smaller retailers to set up their stores on Amazon with a target to sell fewer than 40 products a month. Amazon doesn’t charge any monthly fee in this plan; however, individual sellers have to pay a $0.99 fee per sale.
- Professional Selling Plan
If you are expecting to sell 100 or more items per month, subscribe to Amazon’s professional selling plan with a monthly fee of $39.99 per month.
Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)
If you want Amazon to handle everything in the selling process from storing and packaging to shipping products, then Amazon FBA fulfillment is an ideal option for your needs. It covers the cost of picking, storing, packing, shipping, and customers services for all your orders. Amazon FBA fulfillment fees vary depending on product types, inventory storage you need, and the size tier in your respective categories.
Referral Fees
Amazon also deducts a referral fee on every product you sell on its marketplace. The e-commerce giant takes product prices, delivery charges, product category, and wrapping charges (if applicable) to calculate referral fees. It could be between 8-15% of your total sales.
Advertising Fees
Sellers can also utilize Amazon’s advertising services to promote your products within its marketplace to reach more potential customers who are searching for products similar to yours. There are three advertising options available depending on your promotional needs and purposes:
- Sponsored Products ads
- Sponsored Brands ads
- Stores ads
These ads are similar to other pay-per-click (PPC) ad types we know, and pricing for these ad types depends on your ad placement and chosen format. You can consult with Amazon marketing experts to determine the best advertising option and the Amazon PPC campaign charges for your specific needs to increase your sales.
The overall fees for your Amazon Seller Central Account depend on your fulfillment strategy, selling plan, and product category. You can use the Amazon seller fees calculator to compare the costs of different fulfillment strategies you have to sell on Amazon. It will give you a rough estimate of your Amazon seller central fees and sales margin before getting into the process.
Cost to Sell on Amazon in 2023
Amazon has recently reviewed the Amazon seller central fees. Here’s a summary of changes introduced by Amazon to let you make a guess how much it is going to cost you to sell on Amazon in 2023.
- Amazon has increased the FBA fulfillment fees by 5.2% in 2022.
- Amazon will use the higher unit weight or dimensional weight to calculate shipping weight for all large standard-size products, except clothing/apparel starting January 18, 2022.
- Amazon will also increase the removal and disposal fees. There will be no changes in liquidation fees in the Amazon Central account.
- The monthly off-peak storage fee will increase for the months from January to September. The storage fees will remain unchanged during the months of October to December.
- There will be a surcharge on top of monthly inventory fees for long-term storage in between 271-365 days.
- Amazon has also decided to increase FBA Prep service fees for bagging, labeling, and taping services as part of operating costs. The company had release more information on these in Q1 2022.
Now, you have an idea about the Amazon Seller Fee structure and how much it will be changed starting from January 2022. No matter what changes Amazon has introduced in its pricing and fees for sellers, stick to the basics to boost and sustain your performance.
How To Boost Amazon Sales in 2023?
It is challenging for new sellers to succeed, but at the same time, it is also hard to keep up with your sales and performance without opting for new strategies and store optimization. Every Amazon Seller should make the most of the available opportunities in the platform and make strategies around them for greater performance. Here’re some simple tips on how to boost your sales in 2023 and beyond in a growing and competitive marketplace.
Optimize Your Product Listing for Search within Amazon Marketplace
Product listing optimization is the best way to boost your sales and achieve long-term results by enticing your customers with your listings. Just like Google, the Amazon SEO algorithm is a thing for organic search results within Amazon Marketplace. Amazon is no different than a search engine you know and is a great way for customers to search from millions of products listed.
Optimize your product listings for Amazon’s search engine for keyword relevance to make sure your products appear in top searches. It helps you reach your target customers to drive more traffic to your store through organic search results. Invest in Amazon SEO services to optimize your product listings to increases your visibility and ranking in Amazon searches for relevant keywords. It is essential to boost your sales without any paid campaigns.
To optimize your product listing, you need to:
- Choose relevant keywords based on your product categories
- Select accurate product categories
- Avoid duplicate product pages
- Use effective product titles
- Craft informative product descriptions
- Make sure to specify the brand name, product features, material, color, size, and others in your listings
- Use high-quality product images
You cannot rule out Amazon SEO and product listing optimization from your strategies if you want to gain more targeted sales through searches. It is the most powerful way to drive traffic and boost sales.
Optimize Your Amazon Store
In addition to optimizing your product listing, you should also find ways to optimize your Amazon Brand Store for a broader audience segment. Your Amazon brand store is like a smaller version of a website for your brand, and you need to make sure it is well optimized. Optimizing your Amazon store gives you opportunities to communicate your brand story and showcase your best-selling products to entice your target audience. It also allows your shoppers to browse your full catalog on a single landing page. It helps you provide an optimal customer experience through easy browsing.
To optimize your Amazon Brand Store, you need to:
- Use high-quality images and videos
- Craft a compelling brand story
- Address your customers’ issues with helpful tips
- Provide instructions for product assembly and use
- Optimize your store for mobile devices
- Leverage the Q&A section to answer customer queries
- Keep your design simple
Create Winning Content and Product Descriptions
Creating winning content and product descriptions that convert is the key to success in the competitive Amazon marketplace. Your successful Amazon content strategy could be everything that helps your customers make a well-informed decision. Your language and writing style must be compelling enough to get your potential customers to take an action.
The title of your product page and your product description are the key parts of your Amazon content strategy. A detailed and informative product description can have a huge impact on your conversion rates and sales. So, keeping your product descriptions very clear and specific with scannable product features, specifications and benefits is the right way to let your customers know about your products.
Drive More Reviews
Almost every customer looks for reviews, feedback, and testimonials as personal recommendations to make the right decision when it comes to spending money. Customers trust online reviews and give them a lot of good reviews from your customers by making them visible to your potential customers. It is a great way to build trust and influence your potential customers to take a shopping call. A lot of good reviews on your product pages help you increase your product rankings and visibility to boost your sales on Amazon.
The challenging part here is that buyers hardly leave reviews, and you have to create a constructive strategy for getting positive, authentic, and helpful reviews from your customers. Here’re a few ideas to ask your customers to leave reviews after they purchase a product from your Amazon store:
- Follow up email with your customers
- Include a customized note in the product packages asking your customers to leave reviews
- Remind people on social media
- Automate your review requests using third-party tools such as SellerApp review request chrome extension
Leverage Amazon Advertising
Amazon advertising and sponsored post campaigns are great ways to boost your visibility and sales. Besides Amazon SEO, Amazon PPC advertising is key to quick success and revenue growth. It helps you target a more defined and specific audience who are more likely to make a purchase. Your Amazon advertising strategy should include:
- Defining your target audience
- Choosing products you want to advertise
- Deciding on your campaign budget
- Using relevant and top-performing keywords
- Setting competitive bids
After defining your advertisement goals, Amazon will create high-performing sponsored posts that appear in high-visibility spots to attract your targeted customers. You can continuously monitor and analyze your campaign performance in order to optimize your ads for better results. Amazon ads are a great way to instantly drive huge traffic to your product pages and brand store.
Use Online Marketing to Drive Amazon Sales
You cannot rule out internet marketing on various digital platforms such as social media sites, Google PPC ads, and influencer marketing to drive Amazon sales. Off-channel campaigns, referral programs, and influencer marketing can have a huge impact on your sales and engagement. You can also drive traffic to your Amazon brand store or product landing pages through various online marketing campaigns like Affiliate Marketing and guest posting on relevant blogs.
Leverage Videos
Videos are the key component of your content strategy in Amazon Marketing. You can use videos effectively to stand out from your competitors to increase sales on Amazon. You can create product promotion videos, instruction videos, Customer story & feedback videos, brand storytelling videos, and educational videos to let your customers know more about your products and services.
Stay Ahead of Your Competitors
Analyzing your competitors’ product listings and performance can help you optimize your strategies to attract more customers and increase product sales on Amazon. Most of the customers compare similar products, their features, and pricing before making any purchasing decision. You can capitalize on your competitors’ weaknesses to stay ahead of the curve. There is no exact formula for this, but you can consider the following things to win over more customers:
- Set up a quick and efficient delivery system
- Create a customer-centric refund and return policies
- Set competitive pricing
- Increase inventory volume
In Conclusion
These are some simple tips to enhance your brand messaging on the Amazon marketplace to boost your sales. However, Amazon Marketing is not as easy as it seems. It can be very tricky and challenging when you don’t have the knowledge, expertise, and resources for Amazon SEO services, content strategy, and internet marketing. You cannot risk losing customers to your competitors and spending Amazon Seller Fees without any return.
At Media Search Group, we are an experienced digital marketing company and can help you create an effective Amazon Marketing Strategy. We provide SEO services, e-commerce services, and a range of online marketing services to take your business to next level. We can help you optimize your product listing, brand store, and Amazon SEO practices to drive more traffic and sales. We have a team of experts to help you create and deliver customized digital marketing and advertising solutions to your specific needs and budget to gain more return on investment. Contact us for more details.
