Sell on Amazon with Ecwid by Lightspeed

As Amazon continues to grow in worldwide popularity (sales in 2020 were estimated at $386 billion), there has never been a better time for established and beginner vendors alike to begin selling via this particular online platform. 

Amazon offers a tremendous amount of traffic for business owners but can also be tricky to navigate. So we have put together this handy guide for selling on Amazon, softening the learning curve, and helping you earn money through the platform as quickly as possible. We’ll be covering everything from fees to Prime offers to help you get started. 

If you’d like to know more about how to sell something on Amazon, read on for more information.

How to Sell on Amazon: 4 Ways To Do It

Most likely, you’ve visited Amazon at some point in your life. In that case, you already know that you can purchase anything from Kindle books to kids’ toys and even electronic goods on Amazon as a buyer. You can even do your grocery shopping via Amazon these days. But how do you go about selling through Amazon? Well, there are four main ways you can sell on Amazon:

• Seller Central
• Vendor Central
• Kindle Direct Platform (KDP)
• Merch by Amazon

Seller Сentral

This is the most common platform used by sellers who deal in physical products. You set the price for your items and state the inventory level. Anybody can open a Seller Central account — no invitation necessary.

Vendor Сentral

You can only access the Vendor Central platform if you receive an invite from Amazon. The platform itself will determine the price of your product and how much inventory will be listed on their site.

Kindle Direct Platform (KDP)

Kindle Direct Platform is intended for authors looking to sell their ebooks and paperback publications through Amazon. Every sale generates royalty from KDP.

Merch By Amazon

Merch By Amazon is a great option for influencers, musicians, and artists to promote and customize their merch. If your business involves printing on demand. Amazon Merch is a fantastic platform for your selling needs.

What Are the Fees to Sell on Amazon?

Before you can sell anything on Amazon, you must understand the Amazon fee structure. These fees let you know whether or not you will make a profit selling through the platform. For example, if you sell via Sell Central, items with $25 will be subject to a 33.33% selling fee from Amazon. These fee structures will vary depending on which platform you use, the category, and the size of your product.

How much does it cost to sell on Amazon?

Vendor Central

Vendor Central fees are calculated based on your contract with Amazon. Therefore, you should refer to your co-up contract to figure out your fee structure. Amazon will usually ask for a wholesale price for your items when entering into an arrangement. You’ll also incur fees for co-op marketing, shipping, and chargebacks.

Merch and Kindle Direct Platform (KDP)

Both KDP and Merch by Amazon will pay you via royalties. As such, you can expect Amazon to take the bulk of the sale because they supply the platform and materials. You can view currency fee structures here.

Seller Central

Two factors make up fees you will incur on Seller Central:

• Referral fees are a percentage of the cost of the item sold, depending on the item category. This fee is charged whether you ship the item or if you choose Amazon’s FBA program.
• Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) fees are determined by the cost of packing, picking, and shipping your items from the warehouse and delivering them to the buyer. These fees are only applicable if you use the FBA network.

You can calculate Seller Central fees via two methods. The first is the Amazon FBA revenue calculator, which can be found here.

You can also find a Fee Preview Report in the report section of your seller hub so you can accurately determine the fees for any products in your account.

Amazon Prime Offers

Amazon users are crazy about Amazon Prime.

This service means they’ll get their purchases quickly and enjoy a convenient level of customer service from the company. As such, your products are more likely to be bought if they are available for Prime shipping — your sales can increase by more than 300% in some cases.

But how does this work?

How to make your products available on Prime?

Vendor Central, KDP, and Merch

Any products sold through these platforms are automatically available via Prime, and you don’t have to perform any other actions.

Seller Central

If you sell via this method, you have a couple of options to have your products qualify for Prime.

• Using the FBA program, you ship your items to Amazon; the company then sends those items from their warehouse to sellers via Prime.
• If you used Seller Fulfilled Prime as a Seller Central seller in the past, you should already have that on your account and qualify for Prime. If not, you can join the waiting list and wait for the program to reopen.

Is FBA Still Worthwhile?

We understand that Amazon’s FBA program can be difficult to use; they have increased costs, and there are many restrictions regarding what can be sold.

However, it is still worthwhile. For example, if you have a competitor using FBA, they are more likely to get the sale because their product is available for Prime delivery.

This option is effective and can help you grow your business and convert consistently through the Amazon marketplace. That being said, if you only ship very large or expensive items, you may not want to list them with an FBA offer.

Know Amazon’s Selling Rules

Amazon expects you to comply with their rules before using the platform. We recommend reading Amazon’s 14 Guiding Principles to understand how the company culture informs many of its policies.

For example, you need to understand their necessity for positive buyer experiences and know that every policy caters to the audience first and foremost. The company also expects to know these policies before selling, as you will not get your account reinstated if you are flagged for violations because you did not know the rules. 

You should review the Amazon guidelines for your specific category and your program to sell through Amazon, including the restricted product sections. You would also do well to adhere to Amazon’s style guidelines and set your listing page up in a way that adheres to these requirements; the company likes your images to comply with these guidelines.

Luckily, you can use Amazon’s Seller University to learn the basics of selling through Amazon.

Keep an Eye on Your Account Metrics

If you are using Seller Central, we suggest keeping an eye on your metrics via the Seller Central dashboard. This is an excellent way to ensure your sales are performing exactly as you had hoped or if you need to change your strategy.

How to List Your Products on Amazon

Once you’ve considered everything above, it’s time to start selling on Amazon.

The first thing you need to do is create an account and then list your products. After that, you’ll be able to list an offer on any existing listing or create a new one altogether.

You should learn and use some Amazon SEO techniques and use Ads to increase your product sales. However, Advertising on Amazon will negatively impact organic sales, so be careful. You can find plenty of tutorials online to help create your product listings. That being said, you should stick to the Amazon online shopping guidelines wherever possible, as older articles may be outdated and could lead to a violation of terms on your end.

Finally, Link Your Website to Your Amazon Seller Page

If you are thinking about creating an online store, Ecwid can help you sync up across numerous platforms, including Amazon and social media.

Ecwid is an ecommerce platform that makes selling online easier. Build your own store from scratch to instantly sync and sell across your own website, social media, marketplaces, and more. Grow your business with automated marketing tools. And manage it all from your Ecwid control panel. 

We hope this article has given you some useful tips to make Amazon selling a little easier so you increase sales and scale your business moving forward.