10 important Amazon terms every new seller should know

If you don’t understand the details of your business, you’re going to fail. - Jeff Bezos

The importance of knowing your business inside out to gain success cannot be put better by anyone than Amazon’s founder.

Not knowing your market and starting blindly can be a huge risk that may or may not pay off. It’s always better to start well, meaning, knowing your marketplace, customers, and getting acquainted with all the go-to terms and jargon.

If yes, then it is even more important for you to start off right. You stand at the perfect intersection of starting your business while learning everything about the market. Amazon has some specific terms which every seller must know, terms, and jargon related to selling in the marketplace. Working in the dark, without knowing about these may bring down the speed of achieving your goals.

Now you don’t want to lag behind, do you?

As a seller, you should know these Amazon terms beforehand to move in the right direction and make a great start to your business. So here are the top ten Amazon terms for you to learn about and be a step ahead.

It’s like the menu for a restaurant. Just like a menu includes all the items a restaurant offers, your product listing includes all the products that you sell on Amazon. Once you make a listing, you can keep adding more products to it. You can create your product listing on your Seller Central page. Choose from the categories and subcategories to define your product niche, making it easier for buyers to find your products.

Getting the first order on Amazon can be very exciting for a new seller! That means your business is getting started. But have you figured out your delivery strategy? At Amazon, you get multiple delivery options and you should know which one is the right fit for you. Here are the order delivery options for you:

a. Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA)
~ Storage
~ Packing
~ Shipping
~ Delivery
~ Returns

Sounds like too much work?

Don’t worry. Amazon has got all these covered for you. Join FBA at Fulfillment by Amazon. It literally means getting your orders fulfilled by Amazon. All you’ve got to do is send your products to the nearest Fulfillment Center or schedule a pickup, and Amazon takes on from there. Your product will be packed, shipped, and delivered by Amazon, assuring high-quality service to your customers.

And what do you have to do? Forget about the operational hassles and focus on growing your business.

b. Merchant Fulfilled Network (MFN)
If you’ve got resources and manpower to manage your operations, then you can opt for Self Ship or MFN. MFN is just the opposite of FBA, where you manage the business operations entirely by yourself. You can use your storage space for the inventory and save service fee.

c. Easy Ship

Want to enjoy the benefits of both FBA and MFN?

Go for Easy Ship.

As the name suggests, the program makes shipment easy for you. Under Easy Ship, you manage the packaging of your products and get it ready to be shipped, while Amazon takes care of its delivery. Sellers benefit from low shipping rates, shipment pickup, fast delivery, and automated shipment tracking.

d. Seller Flex
Seller Flex is a fulfillment program for those who have got their own warehouse. Under this, you can keep your inventory in your warehouse while enjoying the benefits of FBA. It is an invite-only program, and you need to fulfill certain criteria to be eligible for Seller Flex, like maintaining minimum monthly sales, seller rating, and units sold monthly.

Transporting your entire inventory to the Amazon Fulfillment Center (FC) can be a task if you do not have sufficient manpower or resources to transfer.

For that, you have the Inbound service to take care of such situations.

The service offered under the FBA program allows you to schedule a pickup for your inventory. An Amazon representative will come, receive and store them in the FC, so you don’t have to take upon the trouble of shipping your inventory to FC.

It is the mystery button that every seller aims to win for their product.

Did we just say ‘win’? Is this some competition?

Yes. You need to win the Buy Box to increase your chances of sales. Buy Box is the ‘Buy Now’ button on any Amazon product page. Most of the products have multiple sellers and only one gets the Buy Box. When a customer clicks ‘Buy Now’ or ‘Add to Cart’ for any product, it means they are buying from that seller. Winning the Buy Box on Amazon depends on various factors like maintaining your order defect rates, performance metrics, customer service quality, and duration on Amazon as a seller.

You might have noticed the Prime tag for some of the Amazon products. This small tag has become one of the major reasons to drive sales to them.
Want it for yourself?

It’s simple. Become a Prime seller. Being a Prime seller adds a Prime tag to all your products that brings many benefits to you. Prime Tag increases the visibility and discoverability of your products and ensures your customers of faster delivery. Prime tag on products also increases the chances of increasing your sales.

Selling your products on Amazon is one thing, but you’ve also got to market them to get more reach.

Sponsored Products is one of the marketing strategies for your products on Amazon. It helps customers discover and purchase your products with ads that appear in search results and on product pages. These ads are Pay per Click or Cost per Click, meaning you pay only when someone clicks on your ad. As a customer finds your product on their search, they click on it to land on your product page, increasing your chances of getting sales.

Stuck somewhere? Need any help with selling on Amazon?

Amazon has got qualified third-party service providers to help you with your problems. SPN will be there to provide assistance with their expertise for your problems with the seller account. You can get any help from listing your products to shooting high-quality images to fulfilling orders. Depending on your problem category, you can find a number of service providers and you can choose the right one to guide you.

Knowledge is the most powerful tool.

The more you learn about Amazon, the better you’ll get at selling. That’s why Amazon has started its Seller University for all the sellers, where you can literally learn the A-to-Z of Amazon selling. From ‘how to join Amazon’ to ‘how to grow and become a brand’, the University covers everything. And guess what? The training sessions of the Seller University are available in more than 150 languages, making it easier to learn anything at your ease.

One of the best ways for a customer to know more about your product is by listening to the previous buyers, and they achieve this through feedback and reviews. It’s a channel for your customers to talk about your products. They can leave ratings and comments for the purchased items. They share their experience with you and other prospective customers to tell if they liked the product or not. You should always aim for getting positive product reviews to build your credibility.

At Amazon, you will find support at every step. Amazon has a strong support network to help sellers get acquainted with the marketplace and start their business. You can reach out to Amazon representatives through calls and emails, or you can try the SPN.

The above are some of the important Amazon terms that you should know about. Knowing and learning more about them will definitely help you grow as a seller and have more wisdom to lead your business. Using these services skillfully at the right time can work wonders for you and propel your business ahead of your expectations. Start leveraging them today to potentially boost your business.

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