{"appState":{"pageLoadApiCallsStatus":true},"categoryState":{"relatedCategories":{"headers":{"timestamp":"2023-02-01T16:01:12+00:00"},"categoryId":34250,"data":{"title":"Sales","slug":"sales","image":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0},"breadcrumbs":[{"name":"Business, Careers, & Money","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34224"},"slug":"business-careers-money","categoryId":34224},{"name":"Business","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34225"},"slug":"business","categoryId":34225},{"name":"Sales","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34250"},"slug":"sales","categoryId":34250}],"parentCategory":{"categoryId":34225,"title":"Business","slug":"business","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34225"}},"childCategories":[],"description":"If you want to be able to sell umbrellas in the desert, look no further than the actionable tips found here.","relatedArticles":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles?category=34250&offset=0&size=5"},"hasArticle":true,"hasBook":true,"articleCount":232,"bookCount":10},"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34250"}},"relatedCategoriesLoadedStatus":"success"},"listState":{"list":{"count":10,"total":232,"items":[{"headers":{"creationTime":"2016-03-27T16:47:01+00:00","modifiedTime":"2022-07-01T13:23:27+00:00","timestamp":"2022-09-14T18:19:45+00:00"},"data":{"breadcrumbs":[{"name":"Business, Careers, & Money","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34224"},"slug":"business-careers-money","categoryId":34224},{"name":"Business","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34225"},"slug":"business","categoryId":34225},{"name":"Sales","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34250"},"slug":"sales","categoryId":34250}],"title":"Direct Selling For Dummies Cheat Sheet","strippedTitle":"direct selling for dummies cheat sheet","slug":"direct-selling-for-dummies-cheat-sheet","canonicalUrl":"","seo":{"metaDescription":"Direct sales models aren't one-size-fits-all. Discover the different types of direct selling and how to set reachable goals.","noIndex":0,"noFollow":0},"content":"Direct selling has come a long way from its humble, domestic roots in 1950s Americana. Today’s top independent representatives run highly efficient, modern businesses that often leave more traditional retailers in the dust.\r\n\r\nThere are three main types of direct sales models: social selling, network marketing, and affiliate/influencer, and each finds its niche in the industry. Being successful means setting and meeting goals. Doing so keeps you on your toes and engaged in your business. Once you get going in your business, there are lots of hard-earned tips and tricks you can apply to really maximize your profit.\r\n\r\nThe following are some resources you can use regularly as a direct seller. You can find helpful information about everything from time management, team communications, social media communication and strategy, money management, and a wide assortment of other topics.","description":"Direct selling has come a long way from its humble, domestic roots in 1950s Americana. Today’s top independent representatives run highly efficient, modern businesses that often leave more traditional retailers in the dust.\r\n\r\nThere are three main types of direct sales models: social selling, network marketing, and affiliate/influencer, and each finds its niche in the industry. Being successful means setting and meeting goals. Doing so keeps you on your toes and engaged in your business. Once you get going in your business, there are lots of hard-earned tips and tricks you can apply to really maximize your profit.\r\n\r\nThe following are some resources you can use regularly as a direct seller. You can find helpful information about everything from time management, team communications, social media communication and strategy, money management, and a wide assortment of other topics.","blurb":"","authors":[{"authorId":9033,"name":"Belinda Ellsworth","slug":"belinda-ellsworth","description":"","hasArticle":false,"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/9033"}}],"primaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":34250,"title":"Sales","slug":"sales","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34250"}},"secondaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"tertiaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"trendingArticles":null,"inThisArticle":[],"relatedArticles":{"fromBook":[],"fromCategory":[{"articleId":271837,"title":"How to Add Your Trademark to the Amazon Brand Registry","slug":"how-to-add-your-trademark-to-the-amazon-brand-registry","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271837"}},{"articleId":271834,"title":"Manage Your Amazon Seller Account with the Mobile App","slug":"manage-your-amazon-seller-account-with-the-mobile-app","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271834"}},{"articleId":271831,"title":"How to Track Your Amazon Seller Account’s Health and Performance","slug":"how-to-track-your-amazon-seller-accounts-health-and-performance","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271831"}},{"articleId":271827,"title":"Selling on Amazon: Manage 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Method","slug":"selling-on-amazon-choose-an-order-fulfillment-method","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271824"}}]},"hasRelatedBookFromSearch":false,"relatedBook":{"bookId":294137,"slug":"direct-selling-for-dummies","isbn":"9781119858652","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"amazon":{"default":"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1119858658/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","ca":"https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1119858658/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","indigo_ca":"http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-9208661-13710633?url=https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/product/1119858658-item.html&cjsku=978111945484","gb":"https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1119858658/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","de":"https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/1119858658/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20"},"image":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0},"title":"Direct Selling For Dummies","testBankPinActivationLink":"","bookOutOfPrint":true,"authorsInfo":"","authors":[{"authorId":9033,"name":"Belinda Ellsworth","slug":"belinda-ellsworth","description":"","hasArticle":false,"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/9033"}}],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/books/"}},"collections":[],"articleAds":{"footerAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;business&quot;,&quot;sales&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781119858652&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-63221b412a3b0\"></div></div>","rightAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_right_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_right_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;business&quot;,&quot;sales&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781119858652&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-63221b412ae45\"></div></div>"},"articleType":{"articleType":"Cheat Sheet","articleList":[{"articleId":141600,"title":"The 3 Types of Direct Sales","slug":"the-3-types-of-direct-sales","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/141600"}},{"articleId":141598,"title":"Setting Goals to Achieve Success in Direct Selling","slug":"setting-goals-to-achieve-success-in-direct-selling","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/141598"}},{"articleId":141599,"title":"Making More Money with Your Direct Sales Business","slug":"making-more-money-with-your-direct-sales-business","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/141599"}}],"content":[{"title":"Time management","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>Time-management tools are a great way to keep on top of your to-do lists. With these apps and resources, you can set up tasks and reminders from your computer, tablet, or phone. You can create multiple lists, set priorities, get push notifications, and even share task lists with others.</p>\n<p>Tasks are important to set for yourself daily, weekly, and monthly. Schedule your Power Hour times using these apps as well as your personal priorities and responsibilities. Time-management tools are also great when planning events with other leaders in your team because many apps give you the ability to share task lists with others.</p>\n<p>Here are three suggestions:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>Any.Do (<a href=\"http://www.any.do/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.any.do</a>)</li>\n<li>Todoist (www.<a href=\"https://todoist.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">todoist.com</a>)</li>\n<li>marGo (<a href=\"http://www.margo.me/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.margo.me</a>)</li>\n</ul>\n<p>marGo is the first invitation service designed specifically for direct sellers. marGo offers mail, email, text, Facebook posting, voice broadcasting, and invitation images. It provides three touches before a party to help ensure your in-home or virtual event is well attended, and two touches after the event to capitalize on post-event orders, bookings, and recruiting.</p>\n"},{"title":"Organization and file sharing ","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>Organization and file-sharing tools help you keep your business documents in one place and easy for you and your team to access. With these tools, you have the ability to take notes, track tasks, and save anything you find online. The app syncs everything together between your phone and your computer automatically, meaning you can access your information from anywhere.</p>\n<p>You can also invite others to view your work. That’s great for sharing your training documents with new recruits and people on your team. You can also store images that you use for marketing and online parties.</p>\n<p>Some great resources worth trying include the following:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dropbox (<a href=\"http://www.dropbox.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.dropbox.com</a>)</li>\n<li>Evernote (<a href=\"http://www.evernote.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.evernote.com</a>)</li>\n<li>Google Drive (<a href=\"http://www.google.com/drive\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.google.com/drive</a>)</li>\n<li>Trello (<a href=\"http://www.trello.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.trello.com</a>)</li>\n</ul>\n"},{"title":"Team communication and online meetings","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>Keeping in contact with your team is important to your success. Many resources are available for you to hold conference calls as well as online webinars. Online meetings work as additions to your monthly meeting, especially if your team isn’t local to you.</p>\n<p>You can also use these resources to hold opportunity calls where you can invite prospects to join to find out more about the opportunity from a top leader in the organization. Here are some suggestions:</p>\n<p>Free Conference Call (<a href=\"http://www.freeconferencecall.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.freeconferencecall.com</a>)</p>\n<p>Fuze (<a href=\"http://www.fuze.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.fuze.com</a>)</p>\n<p>Google Hangouts (<a href=\"http://plus.google.com/hangouts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http://plus.google.com/hangouts</a>)</p>\n<p>GoToMeeting (<a href=\"http://www.gotomeeting.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.gotomeeting.com</a>)</p>\n<p>Skype (<a href=\"http://www.skype.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.skype.com</a>)</p>\n<p>Zoom (<a href=\"http://www.zoom.us/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.zoom.us</a>)</p>\n"},{"title":"Social media communication and management","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>Social media management applications help you view, schedule, and post to all your social media sites. Applications like Hootsuite and Buffer allow you to plan posts in advance with their scheduling options so you can spend less time on your social media accounts.</p>\n<p>They also give you the opportunity to stay consistent with your social media and share content across a variety of platforms in a few simple clicks. You can measure your return on investment (ROI) using their analytics and reporting. These tools are for anyone who wants to take their social media and engagement to the next level:</p>\n<p>Buffer (<a href=\"http://www.buffer.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.buffer.com</a>)</p>\n<p>Hootsuite (<a href=\"http://www.hootsuite.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.hootsuite.com</a>)</p>\n<p>Later.com (<a href=\"https://later.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https://later.com/</a>)</p>\n"},{"title":"Video creation","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>Video is an amazing tool for your business. Video creation apps give you the ability to share videos or post your own videos from your phone to your YouTube channel and social media platforms.</p>\n<p>Share video testimonials, product demonstrations, and training using videos. The following resources allow you to record, edit, and share your videos while on the go:</p>\n<p>iMovie (<a href=\"http://www.apple.com/ios/imovie\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.apple.com/ios/imovie</a>)</p>\n<p>Screen-Cast-O-Matic (<a href=\"http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.screencast-o-matic.com</a>)</p>\n<p>Wondershare Filmora (<a href=\"https://filmora.wondershare.net/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https://filmora.wondershare.net</a>/)</p>\n"},{"title":"Images and graphics","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>You can use many excellent resources for creating free or affordable graphics. With these apps and websites, you can also create many types of images, especially for sharing on social media. You can choose from pre-set images such as Facebook post, Twitter heading, and so on. You can also create custom images of any size.</p>\n<p>And you can create things like postcards, thank-you cards, and posters. Check out some of suggestions:</p>\n<p>Canva (<a href=\"http://www.canva.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.canva.com</a>)</p>\n<p>Pic Collage (<a href=\"http://www.pic-collage.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.pic-collage.com</a>)</p>\n<p>PicMonkey (<a href=\"http://www.picmonkey.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.picmonkey.com</a>)</p>\n<p>Unsplash (<a href=\"https://unsplash.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https://unsplash.com</a>/)</p>\n<p>Pixabay (<a href=\"https://pixabay.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https://pixabay.com</a>/)</p>\n"},{"title":"Newsletters and email","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>Not all direct sales companies offer customer newsletters on your behalf, so it’s important to send monthly reminders to your customers. These newsletters and emails can cover things like the opportunity, monthly specials, product highlights, tips, host benefits, and so on. You can also use these newsletter and email applications to stay in contact with your team and downline.</p>\n<p>Another great idea is to have a newsletter specifically for your loyal customers and VIP hosts. Give them the first sneak peek at new products and specials.</p>\n<p>Here are some resources to try:</p>\n<p>AWeber (<a href=\"http://www.aweber.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.aweber.com</a>)</p>\n<p>Constant Contact (<a href=\"http://www.constantcontact.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.constantcontact.com</a>)</p>\n<p>iContact (<a href=\"http://www.icontact.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.icontact.com</a>)</p>\n<p>MailChimp (<a href=\"http://www.mailchimp.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.mailchimp.com</a>)</p>\n"},{"title":"Business expenses and money management","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>Track your mileage, store your receipts, and keep more of your money! These resources and tools organize your expenses and help you keep more of your money when it comes to tax time:</p>\n<p>Accountable Solutions (<a href=\"http://www.costamesataxreturn.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.costamesataxreturn.com</a>)</p>\n<p>Hurdlr (<a href=\"https://www.hurdlr.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https://www.hurdlr.com</a>/)</p>\n<p>Expensify (<a href=\"http://www.expensify.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.expensify.com</a>)</p>\n<p>Mint (<a href=\"http://www.mint.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.mint.com</a>)</p>\n<p>QuickBooks Online (<a href=\"http://www.quickbooks.intuit.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.quickbooks.intuit.com</a>)</p>\n"},{"title":"Website and blog creation","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>Most direct sales companies offer you a website (for free or for a small fee) where you can set up online events as well as sell products online through an e-commerce system. But many representatives opt to set up an additional website or blog to share content and interesting information with their customers and fans.</p>\n<p>Blog posts work great for sharing on social media and encouraging engagement. You can share video tutorials, interesting facts, and product information through your blogs. Check out three free platforms:</p>\n<p>Blogger (<a href=\"http://www.blogger.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.blogger.com</a>)</p>\n<p>Wix (<a href=\"http://www.wix.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.wix.com</a>)</p>\n<p>WordPress (<a href=\"http://www.wordpress.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.wordpress.com</a>)</p>\n"},{"title":"Attending trade shows as part of direct sales","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>Trade shows and vendor events are amazing opportunities for you to gain clients that you might not have encountered from other areas of your direct selling business. They’re great ways to broaden your audience and obtain new leads for sales, booking, and recruiting.</p>\n<p>You can get involved with many different types of shows — everything from large events like national women’s shows that bring in thousands of people, to smaller community events. Both types of event have their advantages and disadvantages:</p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Large trade shows:</strong> The main advantage of large trade shows is seeing more people. Lots more people. Disadvantages include increased cost, longer time commitment, and development of leads that may not be strong. Because of the cost and time commitment, these types of events are great to involve your team members so that you can all share the costs.</li>\n<li><strong>Smaller community shows:</strong> Smaller community events like farmers’ markets and Chamber of Commerce events bring in fewer people, but require less investment on your part. Leads developed at these events are typically stronger because you have more time to foster connections, and results may be better. Drawbacks include meeting fewer people. Contact your Chamber to see what types of events are going on in your area. You can also check nearby neighborhoods and cities to break out into new areas.</li>\n</ul>\n<h3>Choosing whether you want to be a vendor</h3>\n<p>Another thing you should try to do is attend a trade show or two before deciding to become a vendor. That way you can judge firsthand whether you’re likely to get a return on the time commitment and cost investment. Look for what other types of vendors participate and what the demographic of the attendees are. Could you picture your product and your business there? Would it appeal to guests?</p>\n<p class=\"article-tips remember\">There are plenty of trade shows, craft fairs, and markets available to you in your state, if not your city and surrounding area. Don’t get discouraged if the event you want already has a representative from your company attending. Move on and find another event you can attend.</p>\n<h3>Having a focus</h3>\n<p>The next important aspect when looking at trade shows is choosing what to focus on. It’s good to have one goal in mind, which may change from show to show or event to event, but go into every trade show with one main objective.</p>\n<p>Many direct sales reps go into a trade show and try to obtain sales, bookings, and recruits — and end up feeling overwhelmed. It’s okay to touch on all these things, but when you go in with a tight focus and restrained expectancy, you’ll be more successful.</p>\n<p>If you want to sell off inventory and make quick cash, then focus on that. Bear in mind that because people will be walking away with products in hand, they may be less likely to book an event or join as a team member.</p>\n<p>If you want to sell something to help cover the cost of the booth, then consider having a show special. This special could be one product that’s discounted or bundled. A show special can help you cover the cost of your booth and still create a desire for hosting among attendees because there will be other products that they <em>can’t</em> get at the trade show. Be sure to always have samples of your other products out on the table.</p>\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">Focus on either booking to fill your calendar with events and appointments or on securing recruiting leads. These are the activities that will move your business forward and make you more money in the long run.</p>\n<p>When looking to fill your calendar, focus your efforts on creating a desire for the product and emphasizing the benefits of hosting. Instead of giving away catalogs, which can be costly, make up smaller brochures or flyers (some companies do this for you) that cover the host benefits and highlight some of the benefits of your products.</p>\n<p>To encourage booking on the spot, you can also offer a booking bonus special. This is a gift hosts will receive the day of their event for booking with you (not the day they book at the trade show).</p>\n<p>If you want to focus on recruiting, give out information and recruiting packets. Most companies have already created these materials for you. Focus on the benefits of starting a direct sales business and have posters or banners that say “Start a business for as little as $___” (your kit cost).</p>\n<p>If your company doesn’t offer recruiting materials or other marketing pieces, include a kit flyer (photo of the kit and cost) as well as information on the benefits of starting a business. Some of these benefits are increased income, flexibility, awards and incentives, friendships, and personal growth.</p>\n<p>So before each event, decide what you really want at that particular time in your business (sales, bookings, or recruits) and stick to pursuing that. You may want to offer a QR code that can lead people to your Customer Community Group.</p>\n"},{"title":"Using the power of groups to promote your business","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>Here are some groups you can rely on to promote and build your business as a direct seller.</p>\n<h3><strong>Customer community group</strong></h3>\n<p>Your customer community group is where you’ll lead your customers in order to build ongoing relationships. Here is where you offer value to your customers with product knowledge, educational how-to videos, and any monthly customer specials. It’s also a place for you to have fun, create engagement, and offer support, as well as motivate and encourage others. In this group you’ll find new hosts as well as new team members. This community group is the perfect arena for follow-up and generating ongoing sales.</p>\n<h3><strong>Team group</strong></h3>\n<p>The key to having a continually growing direct sales business, even a multimillion one, is promoting leaders and training your team. But when you look at your organization as a whole, the idea of making coaching calls can seem overwhelming. Where will you start? What will you talk about? How will you keep track of what you’ve talked about with each individual rep? Viewed like that, the task seems almost impossible.</p>\n<p>But the good news is that it’s very possible to handle your team tasks using the &#8220;power hour for leaders&#8221; approach, and one of the simplest ways is to look at your team as groups of reps, rather than as one big group.</p>\n<p class=\"article-tips\">Try dividing members of your team into four separate groups, and handle your coaching calls for the day according to groups. (For example, only coach new consultants on Mondays, business builders on Tuesdays, and so on.)</p>\n<h3><strong>New consultants group</strong></h3>\n<p>This includes those individuals who are new to the business as well as new to your particular company. With this group, you’re helping them master the basics of the business. You’ll introduce and review scripts for parties and appointments, follow up calls for recruiting and host coaching, and help them set goals for their new businesses.</p>\n<p>Much of what you’ll be discussing with members of this group is training, with a dash of coaching. Members stay with this group during their first three months (until after their fast start program).</p>\n<h3><strong>Business builders group</strong></h3>\n<p>This group has been in the business for at least three months, and they’ve proven that they’ve mastered the scripts (opening, demonstration, recruiting, host coaching, and closing). They’ve completed their Fast Start program and are working on their goals.</p>\n<p>With this group, you’ll focus on coaching them to earn incentives, such as trips or special awards, and help them hone their skills and develop great habits. Within their specific goals, you’ll coach them with a focus on reaching their recruiting and booking goals. Calls with business builders are more about coaching than training, but you can expect to do a little training, too.</p>\n<p><strong>Your future leaders group</strong></p>\n<p>These reps have either begun seriously recruiting or have expressed a desire to do so. This group is getting close to achieving the qualifications to advance to a leadership rank in the company. In other words, they’re your potential leaders.</p>\n<p>Talking to reps in this group, you’ll discuss some of the same things you do with business builders, but you’ll also focus on helping them set goals for giving out recruiting packets as well as effectively following up on those packets.</p>\n<p>You’ll ask about how many packets they’re giving out, how often they’re following up, and, of course, how many they’re closing. You’ll take notes on who they’ve talked to and ask specific follow-up questions. (“Carol, you told me you gave recruiting packets to Sharon, Karla, and Alex last week. What did Sharon say when you followed up with her?”)</p>\n<p>It’s a good idea to regularly share the industry standard numbers with members of this group: For every ten packets given, one person will become a team member. For every ten team members, one person will become a leader. You’ll want to continually see where they are and coach them to achieve the qualifications so they can advance in the career plan.</p>\n<h3><strong>Your core leaders group</strong></h3>\n<p>When you have someone who has mastered the basics of leadership and is either preparing to or actually managing their own team, they become one of your core leaders. With the reps in this group, you’ll often have to encourage them to remember the reality of “A third of your team is joining, a third is working, and a third is leaving.” This adage means that it’s absolutely critical that they continue to recruit so they can replace that third, which is leaving.</p>\n<p>You’ll also train leaders how to work with their teams (including their own new consultants, business builders, and future leaders).</p>\n<p>Ideally, reps should advance to the next category within three months. Some may linger longer and some will soar, especially when a rep has expressed a desire to earn top money. With each person who comes into your group, if your goal is to move them to the next level within 90 days, you have a greater chance of promoting more leaders.</p>\n"},{"title":"Finding direct sales business after you relocate","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>Moving to a different city can be daunting if you’re connected in your current community. Although you can continue to do business online effectively, meeting people in your new community is helpful. Think about all of the new connections you’ll already make in your everyday personal life; new hairdresser, new doctor, new gym, new orthodontist for the kids, and so on.</p>\n<p>Remember that there are new connections to be made and let people know you have a business. Let them know you are always looking for some pop-up events (at schools, a country club, and so forth). Find out where things are in your new community and when seasonal or annual events happen. And don’t forget, you can ask your online connections if anyone knows people in your new area!</p>\n<p>The key is to stay positive and look at it as a new opportunity in a different area. The reality is you have the opportunity to expand your business. But no matter what, relocating can be challenging. Because of that, here are some steps to reassure both yourself and your team:</p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Reassure your team.</strong> An important first step you’ll want to take when you decide to relocate is to reassure any team members you work with in person that you’ll still be there for them and won’t abandon them. Let them know everything is going to be fine and put in place some concrete systems for staying in contact.Phone and video conferencing are easy ways to stay in touch with your team. Hop on a Zoom call anytime you want or need to meet face to face. If you don’t have one already, creating a Facebook Group for everyone in your downline is something you’ll want to start. Posting training tips, news, and recognition in your Facebook Group will build confidence in your team that you’re still accessible.</li>\n<li><strong>Reassure yourself.</strong> I hear from most people that they go through a feeling of depression and have a tendency to feel like they don’t even know where to begin when they relocate. First things first: Take it in small steps. Reassure yourself that you can continue to grow your team in your former location and expand your business in this new area.Try to set simple daily goals, like meeting one new person per day or making five phone calls a day. Don’t feel like you have to build a new business in a new location overnight. Also, depending on your level of leadership and the size of your team, you may have been more in the leadership or managing mind-set — meaning less personal business.</li>\n<li><strong>Act as if you’re new.</strong> Perhaps the easiest way to start over is to start from the beginning. This idea can be challenging to wrap your head around, but acting as if you’re a new representative is the easiest way to start your business in a new location. Pretend you’re a new representative and continue to re-promote yourself through the ranks of your company. This exercise can challenge you and get you excited about your business again. You’ll find yourself achieving promotions much faster than you did when you started your business.</li>\n<li><strong>Provide excellent customer care to existing clients.</strong> With the Internet and social media, running a business far away from your clients is very doable. And not only doable but it can still be very successful. The key is to maintain your relationships with your customers through social media, email, texting, or phone. Continue to service them as you would in your previous local area, and they’ll order from you again and again. And don’t forget to ask your existing clients if they know anyone in the area you’re moving to who would be interested in your product or service.</li>\n</ul>\n"}],"videoInfo":{"videoId":null,"name":null,"accountId":null,"playerId":null,"thumbnailUrl":null,"description":null,"uploadDate":null}},"sponsorship":{"sponsorshipPage":false,"backgroundImage":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0},"brandingLine":"","brandingLink":"","brandingLogo":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0},"sponsorAd":"","sponsorEbookTitle":"","sponsorEbookLink":"","sponsorEbookImage":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0}},"primaryLearningPath":"Advance","lifeExpectancy":"Two years","lifeExpectancySetFrom":"2022-04-11T00:00:00+00:00","dummiesForKids":"no","sponsoredContent":"no","adInfo":"","adPairKey":[]},"status":"publish","visibility":"public","articleId":207469},{"headers":{"creationTime":"2016-03-27T16:46:55+00:00","modifiedTime":"2022-04-26T20:28:48+00:00","timestamp":"2022-09-14T18:19:41+00:00"},"data":{"breadcrumbs":[{"name":"Business, Careers, & Money","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34224"},"slug":"business-careers-money","categoryId":34224},{"name":"Business","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34225"},"slug":"business","categoryId":34225},{"name":"Sales","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34250"},"slug":"sales","categoryId":34250}],"title":"Sales Management For Dummies Cheat Sheet","strippedTitle":"sales management for dummies cheat sheet","slug":"sales-management-for-dummies-cheat-sheet","canonicalUrl":"","seo":{"metaDescription":"Identify new talent, run an effective sales meeting, and track and set goals to be a successful sales manager.","noIndex":0,"noFollow":0},"content":"Being a successful sales manager means so much more than being a good sales person (although that certainly is a big part of it). You have to be skilled at identifying new talent, know how to run an effective sales meeting, and set and track the progress of goals for your team. Nobody said the job was easy, but it's certainly never dull.","description":"Being a successful sales manager means so much more than being a good sales person (although that certainly is a big part of it). You have to be skilled at identifying new talent, know how to run an effective sales meeting, and set and track the progress of goals for your team. Nobody said the job was easy, but it's certainly never dull.","blurb":"","authors":[{"authorId":9044,"name":"Butch Bellah","slug":"butch-bellah","description":" <p><b>Butch Bellah</b> is an expert salesperson, trainer, author, motivational speaker, and one&#45;time stand&#45;up comedian. For more than 30 years, he has honed his sales skills and trained others in the fine art of gaining more appointments, winning more business, and retaining more customers. ","hasArticle":false,"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/9044"}}],"primaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":34250,"title":"Sales","slug":"sales","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34250"}},"secondaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"tertiaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"trendingArticles":null,"inThisArticle":[],"relatedArticles":{"fromBook":[{"articleId":141196,"title":"There’s No &#147;I&#148; in Sales","slug":"theres-no-i-in-sales","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/141196"}},{"articleId":141190,"title":"Sales Management: Dealing with the Hard Stuff, Even When You Dread It","slug":"sales-management-dealing-with-the-hard-stuff-even-when-you-dread-it","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/141190"}},{"articleId":141193,"title":"Everyone Needs Training in Sales","slug":"everyone-needs-training-in-sales","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/141193"}},{"articleId":141194,"title":"5 Tips for a Better Sales Meeting","slug":"5-tips-for-a-better-sales-meeting","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/141194"}},{"articleId":141000,"title":"Sales Team Goals Checklist","slug":"sales-team-goals-checklist","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/141000"}}],"fromCategory":[{"articleId":271837,"title":"How to Add Your Trademark to the Amazon Brand Registry","slug":"how-to-add-your-trademark-to-the-amazon-brand-registry","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271837"}},{"articleId":271834,"title":"Manage Your Amazon Seller Account with the Mobile App","slug":"manage-your-amazon-seller-account-with-the-mobile-app","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271834"}},{"articleId":271831,"title":"How to Track Your Amazon Seller Account’s Health and Performance","slug":"how-to-track-your-amazon-seller-accounts-health-and-performance","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271831"}},{"articleId":271827,"title":"Selling on Amazon: Manage Inventory","slug":"selling-on-amazon-manage-inventory","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271827"}},{"articleId":271824,"title":"Selling on Amazon: Choose an Order Fulfillment Method","slug":"selling-on-amazon-choose-an-order-fulfillment-method","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271824"}}]},"hasRelatedBookFromSearch":false,"relatedBook":{"bookId":282556,"slug":"sales-management-for-dummies","isbn":"9781119094227","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"amazon":{"default":"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1119094224/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","ca":"https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1119094224/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","indigo_ca":"http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-9208661-13710633?url=https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/product/1119094224-item.html&cjsku=978111945484","gb":"https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1119094224/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","de":"https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/1119094224/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20"},"image":{"src":"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/sales-management-for-dummies-cover-9781119094227-203x255.jpg","width":203,"height":255},"title":"Sales Management For Dummies","testBankPinActivationLink":"","bookOutOfPrint":false,"authorsInfo":"<p><b data-author-id=\"9044\">Butch Bellah</b> is an expert salesperson, trainer, author, motivational speaker, and one-time stand-up comedian. For more than 30 years, he has honed his sales skills and trained others in the fine art of gaining more appointments, winning more business, and retaining more customers. </p>","authors":[{"authorId":9044,"name":"Butch Bellah","slug":"butch-bellah","description":" <p><b>Butch Bellah</b> is an expert salesperson, trainer, author, motivational speaker, and one&#45;time stand&#45;up comedian. For more than 30 years, he has honed his sales skills and trained others in the fine art of gaining more appointments, winning more business, and retaining more customers. ","hasArticle":false,"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/9044"}}],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/books/"}},"collections":[],"articleAds":{"footerAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;business&quot;,&quot;sales&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781119094227&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-63221b3d169fe\"></div></div>","rightAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_right_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_right_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;business&quot;,&quot;sales&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781119094227&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-63221b3d17262\"></div></div>"},"articleType":{"articleType":"Cheat Sheet","articleList":[{"articleId":140989,"title":"Questions for the Salespeople Hiring Process","slug":"questions-for-the-salespeople-hiring-process","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/140989"}},{"articleId":140994,"title":"Sales Meeting Checklist","slug":"sales-meeting-checklist","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/140994"}},{"articleId":141000,"title":"Sales Team Goals Checklist","slug":"sales-team-goals-checklist","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/141000"}}],"content":[{"title":"Questions for the salespeople hiring process","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>Sooner or later you&#8217;re going to find yourself needing to hire a new salesperson and you&#8217;ll be faced with that daunting stack of resumes or applications. After you work your way through it deciding who to talk to and who to eliminate, you&#8217;ll need to interview the select few to find your next sales superstar.</p>\n<p>Everybody is (or should be) ready to answer the age-old, &#8220;Tell me about yourself&#8221;. Many of them have pat answers that sound so great — but they end up being better at being interviewed than they do at selling.</p>\n<p>Here are a few helpful questions in getting people to open up and talk in the sales interview:</p>\n<ul class=\"level-one\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">(If they aren&#8217;t employed) Most great salespeople seldom find themselves without a job. What led to you being here today?</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">(If they are employed) I see you have a job now, what puts you in the market to find another one?</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">Who was the best sales manager you ever worked for and why?</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">Who was the worst sales manager you ever worked for and why?</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">Give me an example of a time when you had to be really creative to either save a customer or make a sale.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">What&#8217;s the last good business book you read?</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">What type of personal development and continuous education are you currently practicing?</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n<p>As you can see, these aren&#8217;t your run-of-the-mill interview questions they&#8217;ve practiced for over and over. You&#8217;re likely to get a good idea of a person&#8217;s true capabilities when they have to think on their feet and answer honestly.</p>\n<p>If they struggle or squirm, let them. Don&#8217;t throw them a lifeline and skip over the question. These are meant to be tough. But, that&#8217;s the type of talent you want for your department, isn&#8217;t it?</p>\n"},{"title":"Sales meeting checklist","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>Here&#8217;s a quick checklist you can use to help put on the best sales meeting possible. You may have a few more specific to your industry, but this is a good start and will get you thinking. Also, immediately following a sales meeting, have a debriefing with your key people to see what you could&#8217;ve done better to improve your next meeting.</p>\n<ul class=\"level-one\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">Venue booked or room reserved</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">Theme/Content selected and created</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">All department heads notified</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">Vendor partners invited and confirmed</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">Other guest(s) invited and confirmed</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">Food and beverage ordered</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">Product samples ordered and arranged for delivery</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">Hotel rooms booked and confirmed for out-of-town salespeople</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">Schedules arranged to cover sales floor (if meeting is during working hours)</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">Agenda created and provided to everyone</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">Copies of all documents, new item information and data sheets printed</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">Post-meeting cleanup arranged</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n"},{"title":"Sales team goals checklist","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>The following checklist provides you and your salespeople with the opportunity to write down your goals and use &#8220;mile markers&#8221; to make sure you stay on target.</p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/491595.image0.jpg\" alt=\"image0.jpg\" width=\"535\" height=\"417\" /></p>\n"}],"videoInfo":{"videoId":null,"name":null,"accountId":null,"playerId":null,"thumbnailUrl":null,"description":null,"uploadDate":null}},"sponsorship":{"sponsorshipPage":false,"backgroundImage":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0},"brandingLine":"","brandingLink":"","brandingLogo":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0},"sponsorAd":"","sponsorEbookTitle":"","sponsorEbookLink":"","sponsorEbookImage":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0}},"primaryLearningPath":"Advance","lifeExpectancy":"Two years","lifeExpectancySetFrom":"2022-04-26T00:00:00+00:00","dummiesForKids":"no","sponsoredContent":"no","adInfo":"","adPairKey":[]},"status":"publish","visibility":"public","articleId":207448},{"headers":{"creationTime":"2016-03-27T16:54:28+00:00","modifiedTime":"2022-03-01T21:59:47+00:00","timestamp":"2022-09-14T18:19:19+00:00"},"data":{"breadcrumbs":[{"name":"Business, Careers, & Money","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34224"},"slug":"business-careers-money","categoryId":34224},{"name":"Business","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34225"},"slug":"business","categoryId":34225},{"name":"Sales","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34250"},"slug":"sales","categoryId":34250}],"title":"Selling For Dummies Cheat Sheet","strippedTitle":"selling for dummies cheat sheet","slug":"selling-for-dummies-cheat-sheet","canonicalUrl":"","seo":{"metaDescription":"This Cheat Sheet summarizes the keys to successful selling, including making a great first impression to closing the sale.","noIndex":0,"noFollow":0},"content":"With the right selling skills in your arsenal, you’ll have more happiness and satisfaction in <i>all</i> areas of your life, not just in your selling career (although your selling will certainly benefit, too).\r\n\r\nTo start down the road to sales success, you need to know how to make a good first impression, ensure that your prospective clients need what you have, give fantastic presentations, address client concerns, and close sales.","description":"With the right selling skills in your arsenal, you’ll have more happiness and satisfaction in <i>all</i> areas of your life, not just in your selling career (although your selling will certainly benefit, too).\r\n\r\nTo start down the road to sales success, you need to know how to make a good first impression, ensure that your prospective clients need what you have, give fantastic presentations, address client concerns, and close sales.","blurb":"","authors":[{"authorId":9234,"name":"Tom Hopkins","slug":"tom-hopkins","description":" <p><b>Tom Hopkins</b> is the epitome of sales success. A millionaire by the time he reached the age of 27, he is now chairman of Tom Hopkins International Inc., one of the most prestigious sales&#45;training organizations in the world. ","hasArticle":false,"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/9234"}}],"primaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":34250,"title":"Sales","slug":"sales","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34250"}},"secondaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"tertiaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"trendingArticles":null,"inThisArticle":[],"relatedArticles":{"fromBook":[{"articleId":189004,"title":"Meeting Sales Prospects for the First Time","slug":"meeting-sales-prospects-for-the-first-time-2","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/189004"}},{"articleId":188976,"title":"Handling Objections as You Sell","slug":"handling-objections-as-you-sell-2","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/188976"}},{"articleId":188968,"title":"Quick Pointers for Closing Any Sale","slug":"quick-pointers-for-closing-any-sale-2","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/188968"}},{"articleId":188960,"title":"Making Winning Sales Presentations","slug":"making-winning-sales-presentations-2","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/188960"}},{"articleId":188959,"title":"Qualifying Your Prospective Clients during the Selling Cycle","slug":"qualifying-your-prospective-clients-during-the-selling-cycle","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/188959"}}],"fromCategory":[{"articleId":271837,"title":"How to Add Your Trademark to the Amazon Brand Registry","slug":"how-to-add-your-trademark-to-the-amazon-brand-registry","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271837"}},{"articleId":271834,"title":"Manage Your Amazon Seller Account with the Mobile App","slug":"manage-your-amazon-seller-account-with-the-mobile-app","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271834"}},{"articleId":271831,"title":"How to Track Your Amazon Seller Account’s Health and Performance","slug":"how-to-track-your-amazon-seller-accounts-health-and-performance","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271831"}},{"articleId":271827,"title":"Selling on Amazon: Manage Inventory","slug":"selling-on-amazon-manage-inventory","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271827"}},{"articleId":271824,"title":"Selling on Amazon: Choose an Order Fulfillment Method","slug":"selling-on-amazon-choose-an-order-fulfillment-method","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271824"}}]},"hasRelatedBookFromSearch":false,"relatedBook":{"bookId":282567,"slug":"selling-for-dummies-4th-edition","isbn":"9781118967232","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"amazon":{"default":"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1118967232/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","ca":"https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1118967232/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","indigo_ca":"http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-9208661-13710633?url=https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/product/1118967232-item.html&cjsku=978111945484","gb":"https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1118967232/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","de":"https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/1118967232/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20"},"image":{"src":"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/selling-for-dummies-4th-edition-cover-9781118967232-203x255.jpg","width":203,"height":255},"title":"Selling For Dummies","testBankPinActivationLink":"","bookOutOfPrint":false,"authorsInfo":"<p><b data-author-id=\"9234\">Tom Hopkins</b> is the epitome of sales success. A millionaire by the time he reached the age of 27, he is now chairman of Tom Hopkins International Inc., one of the most prestigious sales-training organizations in the world. </p>","authors":[{"authorId":9234,"name":"Tom Hopkins","slug":"tom-hopkins","description":" <p><b>Tom Hopkins</b> is the epitome of sales success. A millionaire by the time he reached the age of 27, he is now chairman of Tom Hopkins International Inc., one of the most prestigious sales&#45;training organizations in the world. ","hasArticle":false,"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/9234"}}],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/books/"}},"collections":[],"articleAds":{"footerAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;business&quot;,&quot;sales&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781118967232&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-63221b275def5\"></div></div>","rightAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_right_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_right_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;business&quot;,&quot;sales&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781118967232&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-63221b275e814\"></div></div>"},"articleType":{"articleType":"Cheat Sheet","articleList":[{"articleId":189004,"title":"Meeting Sales Prospects for the First Time","slug":"meeting-sales-prospects-for-the-first-time-2","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/189004"}},{"articleId":188959,"title":"Qualifying Your Prospective Clients during the Selling Cycle","slug":"qualifying-your-prospective-clients-during-the-selling-cycle","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/188959"}},{"articleId":188960,"title":"Making Winning Sales Presentations","slug":"making-winning-sales-presentations-2","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/188960"}},{"articleId":188976,"title":"Handling Objections as You Sell","slug":"handling-objections-as-you-sell-2","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/188976"}},{"articleId":188968,"title":"Quick Pointers for Closing Any Sale","slug":"quick-pointers-for-closing-any-sale-2","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/188968"}}],"content":[{"title":"Meeting sales prospects for the first time","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>When you meet prospective clients during the selling cycle — or anyone, for that matter — for the first time, your goal is for them to like and trust you. You can accomplish that goal and be on your way to making a sale by completing the following steps, in this order:</p>\n<ol class=\"level-one\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">Smile, deep and wide.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">Make eye contact.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">Offer a greeting.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">Shake hands.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">Offer your name and get the prospect’s name.</p>\n</li>\n</ol>\n<p class=\"article-tips remember\">Long-term relationships begin in the first ten seconds.</p>\n"},{"title":"Qualifying your prospective clients during the selling cycle","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>When you first meet with prospective clients, you need to <i>qualify</i> them — in other words, you need to see whether the product or service you sell meets their needs.</p>\n<p>To help you remember what to ask during this stage of the selling cycle, use this creatively spelled acronym — NEADS:</p>\n<ul class=\"level-one\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>N:</b> What does your prospect have now?</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>E:</b> What does your prospect enjoy most about what she has now?</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>A:</b> What would your prospect alter or change about what she has now?</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>D:</b> Who is the final decision-maker?</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>S:</b> Tell your prospect of your goal to help her find the best solution.</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n"},{"title":"Making winning sales presentations","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>People don’t buy logically. They buy emotionally and then defend their decisions with logic. Your sales presentation must not only capture and hold the attention of potential clients but should also involve as many of their senses as possible.</p>\n<p>These tips can help you make an effective sales presentation:</p>\n<ul class=\"level-one\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">Never give your prospect something to read until it’s time to read it.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">Keep your presentation to 17 minutes (people tend to lose interest in anything after this time frame). It should run longer only because your prospect is actively involved and asking questions.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">If there’s a break in your presentation for any reason, do a brief recap when you begin again to get your prospect back to the same emotionally involved point he was at before the break.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">Let the product be the star by getting yourself out of the way. Don’t stand between your prospect and the product. Get the prospect actively engaged with the product if at all possible. Let him handle it, push buttons, move levers, whatever is appropriate.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">Salt your presentation with your prospect’s lingo. For example, if you’re selling window coverings to an architect, use the industry names for the styles of windows or other features of her home or office.</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n"},{"title":"Handling objections as you sell","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>An important step in the selling cycle is listening to and responding to your prospect’s concerns and objections. Here are the steps to take when a person objects to something about the product or service you’re selling:</p>\n<ol class=\"level-one\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><strong>Hear the prospect out.</strong></p>\n<p class=\"child-para\">Don’t be too quick to address every phrase your prospect utters. Give him time; encourage him to tell you the whole story behind his concern. If you don’t get the whole story, you won’t know what to do or say to change his mind.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><strong>Feed the objection back.</strong></p>\n<p class=\"child-para\">By rephrasing what your prospect’s concerns are, you’re asking for even more information. You want to be sure that he’s aired it all so that no other concerns crop up after you’ve handled this one.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><strong>Question the objection.</strong></p>\n<p class=\"child-para\">This step is where subtlety and tact come into play. Be sure to find out what feeling is behind that objection and reassure your prospect that your product or service is right for him.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><strong>Answer the objection.</strong></p>\n<p class=\"child-para\">When you’re confident that you have the whole story behind your prospect’s concern, you can answer that concern with confidence.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><strong>Confirm the answer.</strong></p>\n<p class=\"child-para\">You confirm your answers simply by saying, “That answers your concern, doesn’t it, Mr. Parker?” If you don’t complete this step, the prospect very likely will raise that objection again.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><strong>Change gears with “By the way. . . .”</strong></p>\n<p class=\"child-para\"><i>By the way</i> are three of the most useful words to move beyond the concern. Use these words to change gears — to move on to the next topic. Take a conscious, purposeful step back into your presentation.</p>\n</li>\n</ol>\n"},{"title":"Quick pointers for closing any sale","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>Most sales are lost because salespeople didn’t clearly ask for the business or asked at the wrong time. If your product or service has proven to be truly a good decision for your client, it’s your obligation to ask them to own it!</p>\n<p>Develop your closing instinct with the help of these guidelines:</p>\n<ul class=\"level-one\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">When you feel the client warming up to the sale by asking more questions, leaning forward, or touching the actual product, take his temperature by saying something like this: “Mr. Barnes, tell me, how are you feeling about all of this so far?”</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">Have at least six closing strategies in your arsenal because most clients dodge making the commitment five times.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">Close with sincerity and empathy for their situation. For example: “Mr. and Mrs. White, I can appreciate your excitement about finally having a backyard pool of your own so you can swim with your family anytime you like.”</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">Be prepared to wait silently for an answer after you ask a closing question. If you start talking before they answer, you may interrupt their train of thought and take them out of the buying mode.</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n"}],"videoInfo":{"videoId":null,"name":null,"accountId":null,"playerId":null,"thumbnailUrl":null,"description":null,"uploadDate":null}},"sponsorship":{"sponsorshipPage":false,"backgroundImage":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0},"brandingLine":"","brandingLink":"","brandingLogo":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0},"sponsorAd":"","sponsorEbookTitle":"","sponsorEbookLink":"","sponsorEbookImage":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0}},"primaryLearningPath":"Advance","lifeExpectancy":"Two years","lifeExpectancySetFrom":"2022-03-01T00:00:00+00:00","dummiesForKids":"no","sponsoredContent":"no","adInfo":"","adPairKey":[]},"status":"publish","visibility":"public","articleId":208701},{"headers":{"creationTime":"2020-06-26T21:00:40+00:00","modifiedTime":"2022-02-22T19:50:03+00:00","timestamp":"2022-09-14T18:19:11+00:00"},"data":{"breadcrumbs":[{"name":"Business, Careers, & Money","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34224"},"slug":"business-careers-money","categoryId":34224},{"name":"Business","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34225"},"slug":"business","categoryId":34225},{"name":"Sales","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34250"},"slug":"sales","categoryId":34250}],"title":"Selling on Amazon For Dummies Cheat Sheet","strippedTitle":"selling on amazon for dummies cheat sheet","slug":"selling-on-amazon-for-dummies-cheat-sheet","canonicalUrl":"","seo":{"metaDescription":"Explore the world of selling products on Amazon—from what to sell and how to source products to creating your own brand on Amazon.","noIndex":0,"noFollow":0},"content":"Selling on Amazon is a broad topic that covers everything from researching products to sell and sourcing products to listing products for sale, fulfilling orders, and serving customers after a sale. This Cheat Sheet highlights a few key topics.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_271692\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"556\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-271692\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/amazon-selling.jpg\" alt=\"selling on Amazon\" width=\"556\" height=\"371\" /> © paulaphoto/Shutterstock.com[/caption]","description":"Selling on Amazon is a broad topic that covers everything from researching products to sell and sourcing products to listing products for sale, fulfilling orders, and serving customers after a sale. This Cheat Sheet highlights a few key topics.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_271692\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"556\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-271692\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/amazon-selling.jpg\" alt=\"selling on Amazon\" width=\"556\" height=\"371\" /> © paulaphoto/Shutterstock.com[/caption]","blurb":"","authors":[],"primaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":34250,"title":"Sales","slug":"sales","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34250"}},"secondaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":33589,"title":"Amazon","slug":"amazon","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/33589"}},"tertiaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"trendingArticles":null,"inThisArticle":[],"relatedArticles":{"fromBook":[{"articleId":271837,"title":"How to Add Your Trademark to the Amazon Brand 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on Amazon For Dummies","testBankPinActivationLink":"","bookOutOfPrint":false,"authorsInfo":"<p><b data-author-id=\"33370\">Deniz Olmez</b> is an Amazon consultant who specializes in search engine optimization, new account setup and management, FBA, and branding services. <b data-author-id=\"8993\">Joe Kraynak</b> has authored and coauthored numerous books including <i>Flipping Houses For Dummies</i> and <i>Foreclosure Self-Defense For Dummies.</i> </p>","authors":[{"authorId":33370,"name":"Deniz Olmez","slug":"deniz-olmez","description":" <p><b>Deniz Olmez</b> is an Amazon consultant who specializes in search engine optimization, new account setup and management, FBA, and branding services. <b>Joe Kraynak</b> has authored and coauthored numerous books including <i>Flipping Houses For Dummies</i> and <i>Foreclosure Self&#45;Defense For Dummies.</i> ","hasArticle":false,"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/33370"}},{"authorId":8993,"name":"Joseph Kraynak","slug":"joseph-kraynak","description":" <p><b>Kenneth W. 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Ideally, you want to sell items in high demand and low supply, so you can sell a boatload of items at a huge markup. That usually happens only for sellers who invent their own amazing products. Other sellers must settle for products that sell fairly well and generate a reasonable profit. Here are some tips for choosing products with respectable sales and profit potential:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>Use a third-party product research tool to identify potentially hot-selling, profitable products.</li>\n<li>Lean toward products that sell for more than $25 and have at least a 50 percent profit margin; otherwise, packing, storage, and shipping costs are likely to consume a significant portion of your profit.</li>\n<li>Steer clear of products with lots of competitors.</li>\n<li>Find products with poorly developed product listings, such as lousy product photos or a terrible product description.</li>\n<li>Look for products with an Amazon Best Seller Rating (BSR) of 3,000 or better in its main product category. This rating identifies the best-selling products on Amazon.</li>\n<li>Avoid product categories dominated by one or only a few brands.</li>\n<li>Lean toward product categories with several competing products, none of which has more than 50 reviews.</li>\n<li>Opt for small, compact products that weigh no more than a few pounds, to minimize your storage, packing, and shipping costs.</li>\n<li>Choose products commonly searched for on Amazon. (You can find plenty of third-party product research tools to help with this.)</li>\n<li>Lean toward products you’re excited about.</li>\n</ul>\n"},{"title":"Your product sourcing options when selling on Amazon","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p><em>Product sourcing </em>is the process of obtaining products to sell at a profit. You can acquire products to sell from a number of different sources, including these:</p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Retail arbitrage:</strong> You buy deeply discounted products, typically from large brick-and-mortar retailers, mark up the price, and list them for sale on Amazon.</li>\n<li><strong>Auctions and liquidation sales:</strong> Local and online auctions (and estate sales) allow you to bid on items and often buy them for significantly less than they would be sold for in traditional retail stores, although you may be required to list these items as “used.”</li>\n<li><strong>Drop-shipping:</strong> With drop-shipping, you select items from a drop shipper’s catalog and list them on Amazon. When a customer orders the item, you pass the order to the drop-shipper who picks, packs, and ships the item to the customer according to your specifications, so it looks as though it came from you.</li>\n<li><strong>Wholesalers: </strong>Traditional sourcing involves purchasing a large quantity of products from a wholesaler, then selling them individually at a significant markup to consumers. You can find plenty of domestic and foreign suppliers, such as <a href=\"https://www.alibaba.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">alibaba.com</a><u>,</u> that offer products at wholesale prices.</li>\n<li><strong>Manufacturers: </strong>You have two options here:</li>\n</ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">You can invent your own product and contract with a manufacturer to make it.</p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">You can buy generic products from a manufacturer, label them with your brand, and sell them as brand name (<em>private label</em>) products.</p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Handmade products: </strong>You can make your own products to sell on Amazon and list them for sale in the handmade category. However, you must register with Amazon as an “artisan,” and your products must be hand-crafted, not mass-produced.</li>\n</ul>\n"},{"title":"10 tips for winning the buy box on Amazon","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>The <em>buy box</em> is the rectangle in the upper right corner of a product detail page that enables a shopper to add the item to her cart. More than 80 percent of all sales go through the buy box, so you want to be the seller who owns that buy box. Here are ten tips for improving your odds of winning the buy box:</p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Upgrade to a professional seller account. </strong>Individual seller accounts are not buy-box eligible.</li>\n<li><strong>Set a competitive total price. </strong>When setting a product’s price, take into consideration what the customer will pay for shipping, then compare that total price with what competitors are charging.</li>\n<li><strong>Ship and deliver products on time. </strong>Late shipment rate and on-time delivery rate are separate metrics Amazon uses to determine which sellers have a chance to compete for the buy box.</li>\n<li><strong>Use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) to ship your products. </strong>Leverage the speed and reliability of FBA to meet your customers’ delivery expectations.</li>\n<li><strong>Maintain a low order defect rate (ODR). </strong>Avoid negative seller feedback, A-to-Z Guarantee claims, and credit card chargebacks. In other words, deliver superior customer service consistently.</li>\n<li><strong>Maintain enough inventory to fill orders. </strong>Amazon won’t award you the buy box if there’s a chance that you’ll run out of stock and be unable to fill an order.</li>\n<li><strong>Maintain a high valid tracking rate. </strong>If you’re using FBA, you don’t need to be concerned about tracking numbers, because FBA supplies them. If you’re fulfilling orders yourself, be sure you have a system in place to provide valid tracking numbers to your customers from your carriers.</li>\n<li><strong>Improve your seller feedback count and rating. </strong>The more positive feedback you receive from customers, the better your chance of winning the buy box.</li>\n<li><strong>Keep your order cancellation and refund rates low.</strong> Avoid situations in which you need to cancel a customer’s order because you run out of stock or for any other reason. In addition, manage customer expectations to keep your refund rate low.</li>\n</ul>\n"},{"title":"How to leverage the power of fulfillment by Amazon","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) boils down to this: You sell it, Amazon stores, picks, packs, and ships it. If you’re on the fence about whether to use FBA or fulfill orders yourself, consider the following benefits of FBA:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>FBA products are eligible for free two-day shipping to Prime customers, which has the potential to significantly boost sales. (This is usually reason enough to use FBA.)</li>\n<li>FBA products have a better chance of winning the buy box — being the featured offer that most shoppers will choose to buy.</li>\n<li>Amazon stores, picks, packs, and ships your products; handles returns and refunds; and provides customer service, so you can focus on higher level activities to maximize your success.</li>\n<li>Although Amazon charges storage and fulfillment fees, these may be offset lower shipping rates Amazon is able to negotiate with carriers.</li>\n<li>FBA ensures reliable, speedy delivery and accurate tracking, and if FBA drops the ball on shipping and delivery, you’re not penalized for it.</li>\n<li>FBA can handle multi-channel fulfillment (MCF), so if you sell products through other channels, such as your own webstore, Amazon can ship your products for you.</li>\n<li>Your products are stored in Amazon distribution centers, not in your home or garage.</li>\n</ul>\n"},{"title":"How to create your own brand on Amazon","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>Selling as a brand on Amazon provides you with numerous advantages. Amazon protects your brand, gives you full control over your product listings, and provides access to several additional marketing and advertising tools, including A+ Pages, Stores, Sponsored Brands, and the Brand Dashboard.</p>\n<p>The easiest and quickest way to register your brand’s trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and add it to Amazon’s Brand Registry is to do it through Amazon’s IP Accelerator:</p>\n<ol>\n<li>Go to <a href=\"https://brandservices.amazon.com/ipaccelerator\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">brandservices.amazon.com/ipaccelerator</a>.</li>\n<li>Click the Get Started button.</li>\n<li>Follow the onscreen instructions.</li>\n</ol>\n<p>IP Accelerator connects you with a reputable law firm that facilitates the process of applying for trademark registration. As soon as you pass that job to your assigned trademark attorney, Amazon invites you to enroll your brand in its Brand Registry, so you can start reaping the benefits of having a brand without having to wait several months to receive your registered trademark certificate from the USPTO.</p>\n"}],"videoInfo":{"videoId":null,"name":null,"accountId":null,"playerId":null,"thumbnailUrl":null,"description":null,"uploadDate":null}},"sponsorship":{"sponsorshipPage":false,"backgroundImage":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0},"brandingLine":"","brandingLink":"","brandingLogo":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0},"sponsorAd":"","sponsorEbookTitle":"","sponsorEbookLink":"","sponsorEbookImage":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0}},"primaryLearningPath":"Advance","lifeExpectancy":"Six months","lifeExpectancySetFrom":"2022-02-22T00:00:00+00:00","dummiesForKids":"no","sponsoredContent":"no","adInfo":"","adPairKey":[]},"status":"publish","visibility":"public","articleId":271691},{"headers":{"creationTime":"2020-07-02T19:39:10+00:00","modifiedTime":"2020-07-02T19:39:10+00:00","timestamp":"2022-09-14T18:17:45+00:00"},"data":{"breadcrumbs":[{"name":"Business, Careers, & Money","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34224"},"slug":"business-careers-money","categoryId":34224},{"name":"Business","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34225"},"slug":"business","categoryId":34225},{"name":"Sales","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34250"},"slug":"sales","categoryId":34250}],"title":"How to Add Your Trademark to the Amazon Brand Registry","strippedTitle":"how to add your trademark to the amazon brand registry","slug":"how-to-add-your-trademark-to-the-amazon-brand-registry","canonicalUrl":"","seo":{"metaDescription":"Learn how to create an Amazon Brand Registry account and add your approved trademark to the Brand Registry, which has a few benefits.","noIndex":0,"noFollow":0},"content":"If you have an approved trademark, as an <a href=\"https://www.dummies.com/business/online-business/selling-on-amazon-for-dummies-cheat-sheet/\">Amazon seller</a> you can create an Amazon Brand Registry account and add your trademark to the Brand Registry, assuming you meet the following program requirements:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>You have an active trademark that appears on your products and packaging.</li>\r\n \t<li>You can verify that you’re the owner of the trademark. (You have a trademark registration certificate from the USPTO or you applied for trademark registration through Amazon’s IP Accelerator.)</li>\r\n \t<li>You have an Amazon Brand Registry account, which you can create using your existing Seller Central credentials.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nIn the following discussion, we list the benefits of having your brand registered on Amazon and provide instructions on how to add your brand to Amazon’s Brand Registry.\r\n<h2 id=\"tab1\" >The benefits of Amazon Brand Registry</h2>\r\nAmazon’s Brand Registry delivers several benefits to brand owners, including the following:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><strong>Accurate brand representation:</strong> The listings you create for your branded products are the listings shoppers see. You’re the only seller who can change the content of your branded product listings.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Brand protection: </strong>Amazon prohibits other sellers from using your brand and provides you with search and report tools to identify potential infringements and report them to Amazon. In addition, Amazon’s predictive protection mechanisms identify and remove any content that’s suspected of infringing on your brand or providing inaccurate content about your branded products.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>24/7/365 support:</strong> As a registered brand owner, you have access to Amazon support teams 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and 365 days of the year to answer questions and address concerns.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Brand-building tools:</strong> Registered brands have access to Amazon’s brand building tools including A+ Pages, Sponsored Brands, Stores and the Brand Dashboard.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h2 id=\"tab2\" >Adding your brand to Amazon’s Brand Registry</h2>\r\nWhen you’re ready to add your brand/trademark to Amazon’s Brand Registry, take the following steps:\r\n\r\n<strong> 1. Go to </strong><a href=\"https://brandservices.amazon.com/\"><strong>Brand Services</strong></a><strong> and press the Get Started button.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong> 2. Review the eligibility requirements and press the Enroll Now button.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong> 3. Select the country-specific marketplace where you want to enroll your brand. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong> 4. After the Tell Us About Your Business page appears, enter the requested details about your business and press the Create Account button. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong> 5. From the Amazon Brand Registry page, press the Enroll a New Brand button.</strong>\r\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Amazon asks you to confirm your brand eligibility, as shown.</p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_271782\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"556\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-271782\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/selling-amazon-brand-eligibility.jpg\" alt=\"Confirm your brand eligibility.\" width=\"556\" height=\"469\" /> Confirm your brand eligibility.[/caption]\r\n\r\n<strong> 6. Answer the following questions and press the Next button:</strong>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Do your products and packaging have a permanently affixed brand name and logo?</li>\r\n \t<li>Do you intend to enroll more than ten brands in the Brand Registry?</li>\r\n \t<li>Do you have a brand name to be registered?</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">After you click the Next button, the Intellectual Property page appears, as shown.</p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_271805\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"521\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-271805\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/selling-amazon-trademark.jpg\" alt=\"trademark on Amazon\" width=\"521\" height=\"600\" /> Enter details about your trademark.[/caption]\r\n\r\n<strong> 7. Enter the requested information, as follows, and press the Next button:</strong>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><strong>Trademark type:</strong> Open the list and select Word Mark or Design Mark.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Mark name:</strong> Click in the box and type the mark name as it appears on your trademark registration certificate.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Trademark number:</strong> Click in the box and type the trademark number that appears on your trademark registration certificate.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Trademark office: </strong>Open the list and select the country or region from which the trademark registration certificate was issued.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">After you click the Next button, the Tell Us More About page appears, as shown.</p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_271806\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"320\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-271806\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/selling-amazon-trademark-characteristics.jpg\" alt=\"trademark characteristics\" width=\"320\" height=\"600\" /> Describe additional trademark characteristics.[/caption]\r\n\r\n<strong> 8. Answer the following questions about your trademark, products, seller and vendor accounts, and manufacturing and licensing:</strong>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Do you products have UPCs, ISBNs, EANs, or other GTINs?</li>\r\n \t<li>If you sell your products online, let us know where (optional).</li>\r\n \t<li>Does your brand have an existing relationship with Amazon? If it does, specify your role: Seller, Vendor, or Both. Otherwise, choose No, my brand doesn’t have an existing seller or vendor relationship with Amazon.</li>\r\n \t<li>Does your brand manufacture products?</li>\r\n \t<li>Does your brand license the trademarks to others who manufacture products associated with your intellectual property?</li>\r\n \t<li>Where are your brand’s products manufactured? Select your answers from the lists provided.</li>\r\n \t<li>Where are your brand’s products distributed? Select your answers from the lists provided.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<strong> 9. Press the Submit Application button. </strong>\r\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Amazon sends an email message with the case ID and another with a verification code to the contact you specified on your trademark application (you or your attorney). If you don’t receive these messages, ask your attorney to forward them to you.</p>\r\n<strong> 10. Log in to Seller Central and scroll down to the Manage Your Case Log section.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong> 11. Open the case message that applies to your adding your brand to the Brand Registry and choose the option to reply to the message.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong> 12. Type or paste the verification code into your reply and choose the option to send the message. </strong>\r\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">The Amazon Brand Registry support team completes the brand registration process and notifies you of its completion within one or two days.</p>","description":"If you have an approved trademark, as an <a href=\"https://www.dummies.com/business/online-business/selling-on-amazon-for-dummies-cheat-sheet/\">Amazon seller</a> you can create an Amazon Brand Registry account and add your trademark to the Brand Registry, assuming you meet the following program requirements:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>You have an active trademark that appears on your products and packaging.</li>\r\n \t<li>You can verify that you’re the owner of the trademark. (You have a trademark registration certificate from the USPTO or you applied for trademark registration through Amazon’s IP Accelerator.)</li>\r\n \t<li>You have an Amazon Brand Registry account, which you can create using your existing Seller Central credentials.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nIn the following discussion, we list the benefits of having your brand registered on Amazon and provide instructions on how to add your brand to Amazon’s Brand Registry.\r\n<h2 id=\"tab1\" >The benefits of Amazon Brand Registry</h2>\r\nAmazon’s Brand Registry delivers several benefits to brand owners, including the following:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><strong>Accurate brand representation:</strong> The listings you create for your branded products are the listings shoppers see. You’re the only seller who can change the content of your branded product listings.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Brand protection: </strong>Amazon prohibits other sellers from using your brand and provides you with search and report tools to identify potential infringements and report them to Amazon. In addition, Amazon’s predictive protection mechanisms identify and remove any content that’s suspected of infringing on your brand or providing inaccurate content about your branded products.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>24/7/365 support:</strong> As a registered brand owner, you have access to Amazon support teams 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and 365 days of the year to answer questions and address concerns.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Brand-building tools:</strong> Registered brands have access to Amazon’s brand building tools including A+ Pages, Sponsored Brands, Stores and the Brand Dashboard.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h2 id=\"tab2\" >Adding your brand to Amazon’s Brand Registry</h2>\r\nWhen you’re ready to add your brand/trademark to Amazon’s Brand Registry, take the following steps:\r\n\r\n<strong> 1. Go to </strong><a href=\"https://brandservices.amazon.com/\"><strong>Brand Services</strong></a><strong> and press the Get Started button.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong> 2. Review the eligibility requirements and press the Enroll Now button.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong> 3. Select the country-specific marketplace where you want to enroll your brand. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong> 4. After the Tell Us About Your Business page appears, enter the requested details about your business and press the Create Account button. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong> 5. From the Amazon Brand Registry page, press the Enroll a New Brand button.</strong>\r\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Amazon asks you to confirm your brand eligibility, as shown.</p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_271782\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"556\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-271782\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/selling-amazon-brand-eligibility.jpg\" alt=\"Confirm your brand eligibility.\" width=\"556\" height=\"469\" /> Confirm your brand eligibility.[/caption]\r\n\r\n<strong> 6. Answer the following questions and press the Next button:</strong>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Do your products and packaging have a permanently affixed brand name and logo?</li>\r\n \t<li>Do you intend to enroll more than ten brands in the Brand Registry?</li>\r\n \t<li>Do you have a brand name to be registered?</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">After you click the Next button, the Intellectual Property page appears, as shown.</p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_271805\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"521\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-271805\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/selling-amazon-trademark.jpg\" alt=\"trademark on Amazon\" width=\"521\" height=\"600\" /> Enter details about your trademark.[/caption]\r\n\r\n<strong> 7. Enter the requested information, as follows, and press the Next button:</strong>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><strong>Trademark type:</strong> Open the list and select Word Mark or Design Mark.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Mark name:</strong> Click in the box and type the mark name as it appears on your trademark registration certificate.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Trademark number:</strong> Click in the box and type the trademark number that appears on your trademark registration certificate.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Trademark office: </strong>Open the list and select the country or region from which the trademark registration certificate was issued.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">After you click the Next button, the Tell Us More About page appears, as shown.</p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_271806\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"320\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-271806\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/selling-amazon-trademark-characteristics.jpg\" alt=\"trademark characteristics\" width=\"320\" height=\"600\" /> Describe additional trademark characteristics.[/caption]\r\n\r\n<strong> 8. Answer the following questions about your trademark, products, seller and vendor accounts, and manufacturing and licensing:</strong>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Do you products have UPCs, ISBNs, EANs, or other GTINs?</li>\r\n \t<li>If you sell your products online, let us know where (optional).</li>\r\n \t<li>Does your brand have an existing relationship with Amazon? If it does, specify your role: Seller, Vendor, or Both. Otherwise, choose No, my brand doesn’t have an existing seller or vendor relationship with Amazon.</li>\r\n \t<li>Does your brand manufacture products?</li>\r\n \t<li>Does your brand license the trademarks to others who manufacture products associated with your intellectual property?</li>\r\n \t<li>Where are your brand’s products manufactured? Select your answers from the lists provided.</li>\r\n \t<li>Where are your brand’s products distributed? Select your answers from the lists provided.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<strong> 9. Press the Submit Application button. </strong>\r\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Amazon sends an email message with the case ID and another with a verification code to the contact you specified on your trademark application (you or your attorney). If you don’t receive these messages, ask your attorney to forward them to you.</p>\r\n<strong> 10. Log in to Seller Central and scroll down to the Manage Your Case Log section.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong> 11. Open the case message that applies to your adding your brand to the Brand Registry and choose the option to reply to the message.</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong> 12. Type or paste the verification code into your reply and choose the option to send the message. </strong>\r\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">The Amazon Brand Registry support team completes the brand registration process and notifies you of its completion within one or two days.</p>","blurb":"","authors":[{"authorId":33370,"name":"Deniz Olmez","slug":"deniz-olmez","description":" <p><b>Deniz Olmez</b> is an Amazon consultant who specializes in search engine optimization, new account setup and management, FBA, and branding services. <b>Joe Kraynak</b> has authored and coauthored numerous books including <i>Flipping Houses For Dummies</i> and <i>Foreclosure Self&#45;Defense For Dummies.</i> ","hasArticle":false,"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/33370"}},{"authorId":8993,"name":"Joseph Kraynak","slug":"joseph-kraynak","description":" <p><b>Kenneth W. Boyd</b> has 30 years of experience in accounting and financial services. He is a four&#45;time Dummies book author, a blogger, and a video host on accounting and finance topics. ","hasArticle":false,"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/8993"}}],"primaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":34250,"title":"Sales","slug":"sales","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34250"}},"secondaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":33589,"title":"Amazon","slug":"amazon","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/33589"}},"tertiaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"trendingArticles":null,"inThisArticle":[{"label":"The benefits of Amazon Brand Registry","target":"#tab1"},{"label":"Adding your brand to Amazon’s Brand Registry","target":"#tab2"}],"relatedArticles":{"fromBook":[{"articleId":271834,"title":"Manage Your Amazon Seller Account with the Mobile App","slug":"manage-your-amazon-seller-account-with-the-mobile-app","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271834"}},{"articleId":271831,"title":"How to Track Your Amazon Seller Account’s Health and Performance","slug":"how-to-track-your-amazon-seller-accounts-health-and-performance","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271831"}},{"articleId":271827,"title":"Selling on Amazon: Manage Inventory","slug":"selling-on-amazon-manage-inventory","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271827"}},{"articleId":271824,"title":"Selling on Amazon: Choose an Order Fulfillment Method","slug":"selling-on-amazon-choose-an-order-fulfillment-method","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271824"}},{"articleId":271821,"title":"Selling on Amazon: How to Source Products from Alibaba","slug":"selling-on-amazon-how-to-source-products-from-alibaba","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271821"}}],"fromCategory":[{"articleId":271834,"title":"Manage Your Amazon Seller Account with the Mobile App","slug":"manage-your-amazon-seller-account-with-the-mobile-app","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271834"}},{"articleId":271831,"title":"How to Track Your Amazon Seller Account’s Health and Performance","slug":"how-to-track-your-amazon-seller-accounts-health-and-performance","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271831"}},{"articleId":271827,"title":"Selling on Amazon: Manage Inventory","slug":"selling-on-amazon-manage-inventory","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271827"}},{"articleId":271824,"title":"Selling on Amazon: Choose an Order Fulfillment Method","slug":"selling-on-amazon-choose-an-order-fulfillment-method","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271824"}},{"articleId":271821,"title":"Selling on Amazon: How to Source Products from Alibaba","slug":"selling-on-amazon-how-to-source-products-from-alibaba","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271821"}}]},"hasRelatedBookFromSearch":false,"relatedBook":{"bookId":282568,"slug":"selling-on-amazon-for-dummies","isbn":"9781119689331","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"amazon":{"default":"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1119689333/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","ca":"https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1119689333/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","indigo_ca":"http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-9208661-13710633?url=https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/product/1119689333-item.html&cjsku=978111945484","gb":"https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1119689333/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","de":"https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/1119689333/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20"},"image":{"src":"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/selling-on-amazon-for-dummies-cover-9781119689331-203x255.jpg","width":203,"height":255},"title":"Selling on Amazon For Dummies","testBankPinActivationLink":"","bookOutOfPrint":false,"authorsInfo":"<p><b data-author-id=\"33370\">Deniz Olmez</b> is an Amazon consultant who specializes in search engine optimization, new account setup and management, FBA, and branding services. <b data-author-id=\"8993\">Joe Kraynak</b> has authored and coauthored numerous books including <i>Flipping Houses For Dummies</i> and <i>Foreclosure Self-Defense For Dummies.</i> </p>","authors":[{"authorId":33370,"name":"Deniz Olmez","slug":"deniz-olmez","description":" <p><b>Deniz Olmez</b> is an Amazon consultant who specializes in search engine optimization, new account setup and management, FBA, and branding services. <b>Joe Kraynak</b> has authored and coauthored numerous books including <i>Flipping Houses For Dummies</i> and <i>Foreclosure Self&#45;Defense For Dummies.</i> ","hasArticle":false,"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/33370"}},{"authorId":8993,"name":"Joseph Kraynak","slug":"joseph-kraynak","description":" <p><b>Kenneth W. 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","hasArticle":false,"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/8993"}}],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/books/"}},"collections":[],"articleAds":{"footerAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;business&quot;,&quot;sales&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781119689331&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-63221ac9a07b8\"></div></div>","rightAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_right_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_right_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;business&quot;,&quot;sales&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781119689331&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-63221ac9a100c\"></div></div>"},"articleType":{"articleType":"Articles","articleList":null,"content":null,"videoInfo":{"videoId":null,"name":null,"accountId":null,"playerId":null,"thumbnailUrl":null,"description":null,"uploadDate":null}},"sponsorship":{"sponsorshipPage":false,"backgroundImage":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0},"brandingLine":"","brandingLink":"","brandingLogo":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0},"sponsorAd":"","sponsorEbookTitle":"","sponsorEbookLink":"","sponsorEbookImage":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0}},"primaryLearningPath":"Advance","lifeExpectancy":null,"lifeExpectancySetFrom":null,"dummiesForKids":"no","sponsoredContent":"no","adInfo":"","adPairKey":[]},"status":"publish","visibility":"public","articleId":271837},{"headers":{"creationTime":"2020-07-02T19:31:57+00:00","modifiedTime":"2020-07-02T19:31:57+00:00","timestamp":"2022-09-14T18:17:45+00:00"},"data":{"breadcrumbs":[{"name":"Business, Careers, & Money","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34224"},"slug":"business-careers-money","categoryId":34224},{"name":"Business","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34225"},"slug":"business","categoryId":34225},{"name":"Sales","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34250"},"slug":"sales","categoryId":34250}],"title":"Manage Your Amazon Seller Account with the Mobile App","strippedTitle":"manage your amazon seller account with the mobile app","slug":"manage-your-amazon-seller-account-with-the-mobile-app","canonicalUrl":"","seo":{"metaDescription":"Learn how to manage your Amazon seller account with the free Amazon Seller mobile app from your iOS or Android device.","noIndex":0,"noFollow":0},"content":"Success as an <a href=\"https://www.dummies.com/business/online-business/selling-on-amazon-for-dummies-cheat-sheet/\">Amazon seller</a> relies on providing superior customer service 24/7/365. It requires being responsive to customer questions and complaints whether the customer tries to contact you during or outside business hours and even when you’re on vacation with your family.\r\n\r\nTo stay in close contact with Amazon and your Amazon customers, consider downloading and installing the Amazon Seller app on your smartphone. With this free app, you can do the following:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Receive Amazon notifications and address critical issues when you’re away from your office</li>\r\n \t<li>Snap, edit, and save product photos using your mobile device</li>\r\n \t<li>Scan products with or without a barcode using visual search, so you can easily create product listings for new products</li>\r\n \t<li>Conduct sale analysis and track your sales growth</li>\r\n \t<li>Manage orders, inventory, and advertising and promotional campaigns</li>\r\n \t<li>Contact Amazon Seller support when you need help</li>\r\n \t<li>Share the app with your team to become even more responsive to customers and have more eyes on opportunities and critical issues</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h2 id=\"tab1\" >Where to get the Amazon Seller Mobile App</h2>\r\nThe Amazon Seller Mobile App is currently available for iOS (Apple) and Android devices, and it’s free to install and use. To get the app, go to the app store for your device, search for “amazon seller,” and, when the Amazon Seller app appears, press the Install button. You can find the Amazon Seller app at any of the following App Stores:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Apple’s App Store</li>\r\n \t<li>Google Play</li>\r\n \t<li>Amazon App Store</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nAfter installing the app, press the button to run it and then select your primary marketplace (country). When prompted to log on, enter your login credentials (username and password), just as you would do to log on to your Amazon seller account from a computer.\r\n<h2 id=\"tab2\" >How to navigate the Amazon Seller Mobile App</h2>\r\nThe Amazon Seller Mobile App has many of the same features and functionality as are built into the version you access via your computer’s web browser; everything is just presented a little differently. Most of the opening screen is dedicated to displaying your recent sales performance over the past seven days. Just above the main area is a bar you can swipe left or right to view key information, such as today’s total sales (in dollars and units), your current Amazon balance, when you can expect your next payment from Amazon, and your customer feedback rating.\r\n\r\nIn the upper left corner of the screen is a menu button you can tap to view a list of options for returning to the Home page, managing inventory, viewing orders, communicating with customers or Amazon staff, getting help, signing out, and more. Near the bottom of the opening screen is another menu with options for performing common tasks, such as adding a product listing, managing orders, and checking your Amazon account health.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">Tap the camera icon in the upper right corner of the screen to scan a product, using its barcode or just a snapshot of the product, and create a product listing from it. This technique is a great way to add listings for specific products when you encounter a product anywhere that you want to start selling.</p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_271794\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"487\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-271794\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/selling-amazon-mobile-app-opening-screen.jpg\" alt=\"The Amazon Seller Mobile App.\" width=\"487\" height=\"600\" /> The Amazon Seller Mobile App.[/caption]","description":"Success as an <a href=\"https://www.dummies.com/business/online-business/selling-on-amazon-for-dummies-cheat-sheet/\">Amazon seller</a> relies on providing superior customer service 24/7/365. It requires being responsive to customer questions and complaints whether the customer tries to contact you during or outside business hours and even when you’re on vacation with your family.\r\n\r\nTo stay in close contact with Amazon and your Amazon customers, consider downloading and installing the Amazon Seller app on your smartphone. With this free app, you can do the following:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Receive Amazon notifications and address critical issues when you’re away from your office</li>\r\n \t<li>Snap, edit, and save product photos using your mobile device</li>\r\n \t<li>Scan products with or without a barcode using visual search, so you can easily create product listings for new products</li>\r\n \t<li>Conduct sale analysis and track your sales growth</li>\r\n \t<li>Manage orders, inventory, and advertising and promotional campaigns</li>\r\n \t<li>Contact Amazon Seller support when you need help</li>\r\n \t<li>Share the app with your team to become even more responsive to customers and have more eyes on opportunities and critical issues</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h2 id=\"tab1\" >Where to get the Amazon Seller Mobile App</h2>\r\nThe Amazon Seller Mobile App is currently available for iOS (Apple) and Android devices, and it’s free to install and use. To get the app, go to the app store for your device, search for “amazon seller,” and, when the Amazon Seller app appears, press the Install button. You can find the Amazon Seller app at any of the following App Stores:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Apple’s App Store</li>\r\n \t<li>Google Play</li>\r\n \t<li>Amazon App Store</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nAfter installing the app, press the button to run it and then select your primary marketplace (country). When prompted to log on, enter your login credentials (username and password), just as you would do to log on to your Amazon seller account from a computer.\r\n<h2 id=\"tab2\" >How to navigate the Amazon Seller Mobile App</h2>\r\nThe Amazon Seller Mobile App has many of the same features and functionality as are built into the version you access via your computer’s web browser; everything is just presented a little differently. Most of the opening screen is dedicated to displaying your recent sales performance over the past seven days. Just above the main area is a bar you can swipe left or right to view key information, such as today’s total sales (in dollars and units), your current Amazon balance, when you can expect your next payment from Amazon, and your customer feedback rating.\r\n\r\nIn the upper left corner of the screen is a menu button you can tap to view a list of options for returning to the Home page, managing inventory, viewing orders, communicating with customers or Amazon staff, getting help, signing out, and more. Near the bottom of the opening screen is another menu with options for performing common tasks, such as adding a product listing, managing orders, and checking your Amazon account health.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">Tap the camera icon in the upper right corner of the screen to scan a product, using its barcode or just a snapshot of the product, and create a product listing from it. This technique is a great way to add listings for specific products when you encounter a product anywhere that you want to start selling.</p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_271794\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"487\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-271794\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/selling-amazon-mobile-app-opening-screen.jpg\" alt=\"The Amazon Seller Mobile App.\" width=\"487\" height=\"600\" /> The Amazon Seller Mobile App.[/caption]","blurb":"","authors":[{"authorId":33370,"name":"Deniz Olmez","slug":"deniz-olmez","description":" <p><b>Deniz Olmez</b> is an Amazon consultant who specializes in search engine optimization, new account setup and management, FBA, and branding services. <b>Joe Kraynak</b> has authored and coauthored numerous books including <i>Flipping Houses For Dummies</i> and <i>Foreclosure Self&#45;Defense For Dummies.</i> ","hasArticle":false,"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/33370"}},{"authorId":8993,"name":"Joseph Kraynak","slug":"joseph-kraynak","description":" <p><b>Kenneth W. Boyd</b> has 30 years of experience in accounting and financial services. He is a four&#45;time Dummies book author, a blogger, and a video host on accounting and finance topics. ","hasArticle":false,"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/8993"}}],"primaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":34250,"title":"Sales","slug":"sales","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34250"}},"secondaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":33589,"title":"Amazon","slug":"amazon","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/33589"}},"tertiaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"trendingArticles":null,"inThisArticle":[{"label":"Where to get the Amazon Seller Mobile App","target":"#tab1"},{"label":"How to navigate the Amazon Seller Mobile App","target":"#tab2"}],"relatedArticles":{"fromBook":[{"articleId":271837,"title":"How to Add Your Trademark to the Amazon Brand Registry","slug":"how-to-add-your-trademark-to-the-amazon-brand-registry","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271837"}},{"articleId":271831,"title":"How to Track Your Amazon Seller Account’s Health and Performance","slug":"how-to-track-your-amazon-seller-accounts-health-and-performance","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271831"}},{"articleId":271827,"title":"Selling on Amazon: Manage Inventory","slug":"selling-on-amazon-manage-inventory","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271827"}},{"articleId":271824,"title":"Selling on Amazon: Choose an Order Fulfillment Method","slug":"selling-on-amazon-choose-an-order-fulfillment-method","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271824"}},{"articleId":271821,"title":"Selling on Amazon: How to Source Products from Alibaba","slug":"selling-on-amazon-how-to-source-products-from-alibaba","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271821"}}],"fromCategory":[{"articleId":271837,"title":"How to Add Your Trademark to the Amazon Brand Registry","slug":"how-to-add-your-trademark-to-the-amazon-brand-registry","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271837"}},{"articleId":271831,"title":"How to Track Your Amazon Seller Account’s Health and Performance","slug":"how-to-track-your-amazon-seller-accounts-health-and-performance","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271831"}},{"articleId":271827,"title":"Selling on Amazon: Manage Inventory","slug":"selling-on-amazon-manage-inventory","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271827"}},{"articleId":271824,"title":"Selling on Amazon: Choose an Order Fulfillment Method","slug":"selling-on-amazon-choose-an-order-fulfillment-method","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271824"}},{"articleId":271821,"title":"Selling on Amazon: How to Source Products from Alibaba","slug":"selling-on-amazon-how-to-source-products-from-alibaba","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271821"}}]},"hasRelatedBookFromSearch":false,"relatedBook":{"bookId":282568,"slug":"selling-on-amazon-for-dummies","isbn":"9781119689331","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"amazon":{"default":"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1119689333/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","ca":"https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1119689333/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","indigo_ca":"http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-9208661-13710633?url=https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/product/1119689333-item.html&cjsku=978111945484","gb":"https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1119689333/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","de":"https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/1119689333/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20"},"image":{"src":"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/selling-on-amazon-for-dummies-cover-9781119689331-203x255.jpg","width":203,"height":255},"title":"Selling on Amazon For Dummies","testBankPinActivationLink":"","bookOutOfPrint":false,"authorsInfo":"<p><b data-author-id=\"33370\">Deniz Olmez</b> is an Amazon consultant who specializes in search engine optimization, new account setup and management, FBA, and branding services. <b data-author-id=\"8993\">Joe Kraynak</b> has authored and coauthored numerous books including <i>Flipping Houses For Dummies</i> and <i>Foreclosure Self-Defense For Dummies.</i> </p>","authors":[{"authorId":33370,"name":"Deniz Olmez","slug":"deniz-olmez","description":" <p><b>Deniz Olmez</b> is an Amazon consultant who specializes in search engine optimization, new account setup and management, FBA, and branding services. <b>Joe Kraynak</b> has authored and coauthored numerous books including <i>Flipping Houses For Dummies</i> and <i>Foreclosure Self&#45;Defense For Dummies.</i> ","hasArticle":false,"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/33370"}},{"authorId":8993,"name":"Joseph Kraynak","slug":"joseph-kraynak","description":" <p><b>Kenneth W. Boyd</b> has 30 years of experience in accounting and financial services. He is a four&#45;time Dummies book author, a blogger, and a video host on accounting and finance topics. ","hasArticle":false,"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/8993"}}],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/books/"}},"collections":[],"articleAds":{"footerAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;business&quot;,&quot;sales&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781119689331&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-63221ac998eba\"></div></div>","rightAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_right_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_right_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;business&quot;,&quot;sales&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781119689331&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-63221ac99974b\"></div></div>"},"articleType":{"articleType":"Articles","articleList":null,"content":null,"videoInfo":{"videoId":null,"name":null,"accountId":null,"playerId":null,"thumbnailUrl":null,"description":null,"uploadDate":null}},"sponsorship":{"sponsorshipPage":false,"backgroundImage":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0},"brandingLine":"","brandingLink":"","brandingLogo":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0},"sponsorAd":"","sponsorEbookTitle":"","sponsorEbookLink":"","sponsorEbookImage":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0}},"primaryLearningPath":"Advance","lifeExpectancy":null,"lifeExpectancySetFrom":null,"dummiesForKids":"no","sponsoredContent":"no","adInfo":"","adPairKey":[]},"status":"publish","visibility":"public","articleId":271834},{"headers":{"creationTime":"2020-07-02T19:26:48+00:00","modifiedTime":"2020-07-02T19:26:48+00:00","timestamp":"2022-09-14T18:17:45+00:00"},"data":{"breadcrumbs":[{"name":"Business, Careers, & Money","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34224"},"slug":"business-careers-money","categoryId":34224},{"name":"Business","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34225"},"slug":"business","categoryId":34225},{"name":"Sales","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34250"},"slug":"sales","categoryId":34250}],"title":"How to Track Your Amazon Seller Account’s Health and Performance","strippedTitle":"how to track your amazon seller account’s health and performance","slug":"how-to-track-your-amazon-seller-accounts-health-and-performance","canonicalUrl":"","seo":{"metaDescription":"Examine the tools Amazon provides from Seller Central via the Performance menu to evaluate and improve your selling performance.","noIndex":0,"noFollow":0},"content":"To a certain degree, Amazon’s success hinges on the performance of its <a href=\"https://www.dummies.com/business/online-business/selling-on-amazon-for-dummies-cheat-sheet/\">third-party sellers</a>. To ensure consistent product quality and customer satisfaction across all sellers, Amazon sets performance targets and policies and provides sellers with tools for evaluating and improving their own performance. You can access the tools from Seller Central via the Performance menu to provide guidance.\r\n<h2 id=\"tab1\" >How to check your Account Health</h2>\r\nOpen the Performance menu and choose Account Health to access an overview of how well you’re doing in terms of complying with Amazon’s performance targets and policies (see the following figure). Overall account health is reflected by three metrics: customer service performance, product policy compliance, and shipping performance.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_271777\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"556\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-271777\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/selling-amazon-account-health.jpg\" alt=\"A sample Account Health page.\" width=\"556\" height=\"276\" /> A sample Account Health page.[/caption]\r\n<h3>Customer service performance</h3>\r\nCustomer service performance is measured in terms of <em>Order Defect Rate (ODR)</em> — the percentage of total orders that result in negative seller feedback, an A-to-Z Guarantee claim that’s not denied, or a chargeback. (A <em>chargeback</em> is a reversal of a credit card payment initiated by the bank that issued the card.)\r\n\r\nAmazon sets a target order defect rate for all sellers of less than 1 percent. Here you can view your order defect rate broken down by Seller Fulfilled versus Fulfilled by Amazon orders and by the three metrics: negative feedback, A-to-Z Guarantee claims, and chargeback claims.\r\n<h3>Product policy compliance</h3>\r\nAmazon has a long list of policies it expects its sellers to comply with. Even a single violation of one of Amazon’s policies places your seller account at risk of suspension. To determine whether you have a clean record, check the Product Policy Compliance section of the Account Health page. Product compliance complaints include the following:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Suspected intellectual property violations</li>\r\n \t<li>Received intellectual property complaints</li>\r\n \t<li>Product authenticity customer complaints</li>\r\n \t<li>Product condition customer complaints</li>\r\n \t<li>Product safety customer complaints</li>\r\n \t<li>Listing policy violations</li>\r\n \t<li>Restricted product policy violations</li>\r\n \t<li>Customer product reviews policy violations</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nAmazon sets a target of zero product policy complaints or violations. If you receive a performance notification from Amazon indicating that you’re guilty of a violation or that someone has filed a complaint against you, respond immediately to address the issue.\r\n<h3>Shipping performance</h3>\r\nAmazon gauges shipping performance by late shipment rate (with a target of under 4 percent), a pre-fulfillment cancellation rate (with a target of under 2.5 percent), and a valid tracking rate (with a target above 95 percent). You’re responsible only for orders you fulfill. Amazon is responsible for Fulfillment by Amazon performance.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">When filling orders yourself, underpromise and overdeliver. Promise a deliver window you’re fairly certain you can beat by a day or two and try to get your products delivered a day or two early to impress your customers.</p>\r\n\r\n<h2 id=\"tab2\" >How to review Amazon customer feedback</h2>\r\nThe Account Health page includes a section for negative customer feedback, but if you’re looking for additional customer feedback metrics, open the Performance menu and choose Feedback.\r\n\r\nThe Feedback Manager page appears (refer to the following figure), displaying your overall customer feedback rating and breaking it down into periods of 30, 90, 365, and Lifetime. Metrics are broken down into percentages of positive (four or five stars), neutral (three stars), and negative (one or two stars). This page also includes all the feedback you received along with a set of actions (on the far right) for responding publicly to the feedback or requesting its removal if you think it violates Amazon’s feedback policy.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_271785\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"556\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-271785\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/selling-amazon-feedback.jpg\" alt=\"A sample Feedback page.\" width=\"556\" height=\"275\" /> A sample Feedback page.[/caption]\r\n<p class=\"article-tips remember\">The Feedback Manager page also has an option to download your feedback report.<a name=\"_Toc35339310\"></a></p>\r\n\r\n<h2 id=\"tab3\" >Monitor and manage your A-to-Z Guarantee claims</h2>\r\nAmazon’s A-to-Z Guarantee ensures customer satisfaction when they buy from third-party sellers by guaranteeing that products are delivered on time and in good condition. If a customer contacts you about a problem with a product or its timely delivery, and the two of you are unable to resolve the issue, the customer can file an A-to-Z Guarantee claim to seek resolution from Amazon.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips remember\">Amazon requires that customers contact the seller prior to filing an A-to-Z Guarantee claim, either via Buyer-Seller messaging or by submitting a return request. If the customer isn’t satisfied within 48 hours of filing the request, she can file an A-to-Z Guarantee claim. Amazon notifies you upon receipt of the claim, and you have 72 hours to respond. If you don’t respond, Amazon grants the claim, refunds the customer’s payment, and takes the money out of your account. Worse yet, because A-to-Z Guarantee claims are a key component of your order defect rate (ODR), which needs to be below 1 percent, not handling a claim increases your ODR, jeopardizing your account.</p>\r\nTo monitor and manage your A-to-Z Guarantee claims, open the Performance menu and choose A-to-Z Guarantee claims. The resulting page includes four tabs for filtering your A-to-Z Guarantee claims: Action Required, Under Review, Option to Appeal, and All. You can also search for a claim by order number.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">When a customer contacts you about an order, respond promptly and do your best to resolve any issues, even if you must take a loss on a transaction. You certainly shouldn’t give into scammers who just want free products, but be open to resolving any issue that seems remotely legitimate. Depending on the A-to-Z Guarantee claim and how it’s resolved, it may or may not add to your ODR.</p>\r\n\r\n<h2 id=\"tab4\" >Monitor and manage your chargeback claims</h2>\r\nA chargeback typically occurs when a disgruntled customer is unable to resolve a dispute with a seller or service provider and turns to her credit card company for help. If the credit card company investigates the transaction, can’t resolve the issue with the seller/service provider, and determines that the customer is right, the company may reverse the charge.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips remember\">As seller on Amazon, you want to avoid chargebacks, because they negatively impact your ODR and overall customer service performance rating.</p>\r\nTo check whether you have any chargebacks and to manage any chargeback disputes, open the Performance menu and choose Chargeback Claims. The Chargebacks page appears, showing any chargeback claims that customers have filed against you. You can click the Action Required tab to view only active chargeback claims or the All tab to view a list of all chargeback claims.\r\n<h2 id=\"tab5\" >Access Amazon’s performance notifications</h2>\r\nIf Amazon’s performance metrics indicate any issues that may negatively impact your account health or ability to sell, Amazon sends you a performance notification via email and stores a copy of it for reference. To access your performance notifications, open the Performance menu and choose Performance Notifications. To view the contents of a performance notification, click its subject line.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips warning\">To avoid having your account suspended, read all performance notifications and reply to any that indicate a response is expected.</p>\r\n\r\n<h2 id=\"tab6\" >Gain additional insight via the Voice of the Customer feature</h2>\r\nVoice of the Customer is a customer experience (CX) dashboard that uses statistical analysis to identify potential issues with product listings. Behind the scenes, Voice of the Customer analyzes your product listings and product and listing feedback from customers and uses the results to rank your listings as very poor, poor, fair, good, or excellent. You can then dig down to review issues with specific listings and address them to improve the customer experience.\r\n\r\nTo access Voice of the Customer, open the Performance menu and choose Voice of the Customer. The following figure shows a sample of the opening Voice of the Customer dashboard. Near the top of the dashboard is a CX Health breakdown of your listings, showing the total number of very poor, poor, fair, good, and excellent ratings. Below that is a table that shows CX details for each product you’ve listed.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_271807\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"556\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-271807\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/selling-amazon-voice-customer.jpg\" alt=\"Voice of the Customer dashboard\" width=\"556\" height=\"282\" /> A sample Voice of the Customer dashboard.[/caption]\r\n\r\nPay special attention to the details in the following columns:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><strong>NCX Rate</strong> is a percentage of orders that received negative feedback out of the total number of orders.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>CX health </strong>is an indication of the average customer experience ranked from very poor to excellent.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Last updated</strong> is the most recent date a sale was made or an NCX was received.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nIf you just listed a product and haven’t sold any yet, the product won’t have an NCX or CX rating.\r\n<h2 id=\"tab7\" >Improve your performance via Seller University</h2>\r\nThe one item on the Performance menu that seems to be out of place is Seller University, which would seem better suited for a Help menu. However, its placement on the Performance menu reflects how valuable Amazon believes Seller University can be in helping sellers quickly optimize their performance.\r\n\r\nSeller University is a collection of brief video clips designed to bring sellers quickly up to speed on the process of selling on Amazon and using Amazon tools and applications to their advantage.","description":"To a certain degree, Amazon’s success hinges on the performance of its <a href=\"https://www.dummies.com/business/online-business/selling-on-amazon-for-dummies-cheat-sheet/\">third-party sellers</a>. To ensure consistent product quality and customer satisfaction across all sellers, Amazon sets performance targets and policies and provides sellers with tools for evaluating and improving their own performance. You can access the tools from Seller Central via the Performance menu to provide guidance.\r\n<h2 id=\"tab1\" >How to check your Account Health</h2>\r\nOpen the Performance menu and choose Account Health to access an overview of how well you’re doing in terms of complying with Amazon’s performance targets and policies (see the following figure). Overall account health is reflected by three metrics: customer service performance, product policy compliance, and shipping performance.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_271777\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"556\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-271777\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/selling-amazon-account-health.jpg\" alt=\"A sample Account Health page.\" width=\"556\" height=\"276\" /> A sample Account Health page.[/caption]\r\n<h3>Customer service performance</h3>\r\nCustomer service performance is measured in terms of <em>Order Defect Rate (ODR)</em> — the percentage of total orders that result in negative seller feedback, an A-to-Z Guarantee claim that’s not denied, or a chargeback. (A <em>chargeback</em> is a reversal of a credit card payment initiated by the bank that issued the card.)\r\n\r\nAmazon sets a target order defect rate for all sellers of less than 1 percent. Here you can view your order defect rate broken down by Seller Fulfilled versus Fulfilled by Amazon orders and by the three metrics: negative feedback, A-to-Z Guarantee claims, and chargeback claims.\r\n<h3>Product policy compliance</h3>\r\nAmazon has a long list of policies it expects its sellers to comply with. Even a single violation of one of Amazon’s policies places your seller account at risk of suspension. To determine whether you have a clean record, check the Product Policy Compliance section of the Account Health page. Product compliance complaints include the following:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Suspected intellectual property violations</li>\r\n \t<li>Received intellectual property complaints</li>\r\n \t<li>Product authenticity customer complaints</li>\r\n \t<li>Product condition customer complaints</li>\r\n \t<li>Product safety customer complaints</li>\r\n \t<li>Listing policy violations</li>\r\n \t<li>Restricted product policy violations</li>\r\n \t<li>Customer product reviews policy violations</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nAmazon sets a target of zero product policy complaints or violations. If you receive a performance notification from Amazon indicating that you’re guilty of a violation or that someone has filed a complaint against you, respond immediately to address the issue.\r\n<h3>Shipping performance</h3>\r\nAmazon gauges shipping performance by late shipment rate (with a target of under 4 percent), a pre-fulfillment cancellation rate (with a target of under 2.5 percent), and a valid tracking rate (with a target above 95 percent). You’re responsible only for orders you fulfill. Amazon is responsible for Fulfillment by Amazon performance.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">When filling orders yourself, underpromise and overdeliver. Promise a deliver window you’re fairly certain you can beat by a day or two and try to get your products delivered a day or two early to impress your customers.</p>\r\n\r\n<h2 id=\"tab2\" >How to review Amazon customer feedback</h2>\r\nThe Account Health page includes a section for negative customer feedback, but if you’re looking for additional customer feedback metrics, open the Performance menu and choose Feedback.\r\n\r\nThe Feedback Manager page appears (refer to the following figure), displaying your overall customer feedback rating and breaking it down into periods of 30, 90, 365, and Lifetime. Metrics are broken down into percentages of positive (four or five stars), neutral (three stars), and negative (one or two stars). This page also includes all the feedback you received along with a set of actions (on the far right) for responding publicly to the feedback or requesting its removal if you think it violates Amazon’s feedback policy.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_271785\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"556\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-271785\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/selling-amazon-feedback.jpg\" alt=\"A sample Feedback page.\" width=\"556\" height=\"275\" /> A sample Feedback page.[/caption]\r\n<p class=\"article-tips remember\">The Feedback Manager page also has an option to download your feedback report.<a name=\"_Toc35339310\"></a></p>\r\n\r\n<h2 id=\"tab3\" >Monitor and manage your A-to-Z Guarantee claims</h2>\r\nAmazon’s A-to-Z Guarantee ensures customer satisfaction when they buy from third-party sellers by guaranteeing that products are delivered on time and in good condition. If a customer contacts you about a problem with a product or its timely delivery, and the two of you are unable to resolve the issue, the customer can file an A-to-Z Guarantee claim to seek resolution from Amazon.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips remember\">Amazon requires that customers contact the seller prior to filing an A-to-Z Guarantee claim, either via Buyer-Seller messaging or by submitting a return request. If the customer isn’t satisfied within 48 hours of filing the request, she can file an A-to-Z Guarantee claim. Amazon notifies you upon receipt of the claim, and you have 72 hours to respond. If you don’t respond, Amazon grants the claim, refunds the customer’s payment, and takes the money out of your account. Worse yet, because A-to-Z Guarantee claims are a key component of your order defect rate (ODR), which needs to be below 1 percent, not handling a claim increases your ODR, jeopardizing your account.</p>\r\nTo monitor and manage your A-to-Z Guarantee claims, open the Performance menu and choose A-to-Z Guarantee claims. The resulting page includes four tabs for filtering your A-to-Z Guarantee claims: Action Required, Under Review, Option to Appeal, and All. You can also search for a claim by order number.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">When a customer contacts you about an order, respond promptly and do your best to resolve any issues, even if you must take a loss on a transaction. You certainly shouldn’t give into scammers who just want free products, but be open to resolving any issue that seems remotely legitimate. Depending on the A-to-Z Guarantee claim and how it’s resolved, it may or may not add to your ODR.</p>\r\n\r\n<h2 id=\"tab4\" >Monitor and manage your chargeback claims</h2>\r\nA chargeback typically occurs when a disgruntled customer is unable to resolve a dispute with a seller or service provider and turns to her credit card company for help. If the credit card company investigates the transaction, can’t resolve the issue with the seller/service provider, and determines that the customer is right, the company may reverse the charge.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips remember\">As seller on Amazon, you want to avoid chargebacks, because they negatively impact your ODR and overall customer service performance rating.</p>\r\nTo check whether you have any chargebacks and to manage any chargeback disputes, open the Performance menu and choose Chargeback Claims. The Chargebacks page appears, showing any chargeback claims that customers have filed against you. You can click the Action Required tab to view only active chargeback claims or the All tab to view a list of all chargeback claims.\r\n<h2 id=\"tab5\" >Access Amazon’s performance notifications</h2>\r\nIf Amazon’s performance metrics indicate any issues that may negatively impact your account health or ability to sell, Amazon sends you a performance notification via email and stores a copy of it for reference. To access your performance notifications, open the Performance menu and choose Performance Notifications. To view the contents of a performance notification, click its subject line.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips warning\">To avoid having your account suspended, read all performance notifications and reply to any that indicate a response is expected.</p>\r\n\r\n<h2 id=\"tab6\" >Gain additional insight via the Voice of the Customer feature</h2>\r\nVoice of the Customer is a customer experience (CX) dashboard that uses statistical analysis to identify potential issues with product listings. Behind the scenes, Voice of the Customer analyzes your product listings and product and listing feedback from customers and uses the results to rank your listings as very poor, poor, fair, good, or excellent. You can then dig down to review issues with specific listings and address them to improve the customer experience.\r\n\r\nTo access Voice of the Customer, open the Performance menu and choose Voice of the Customer. The following figure shows a sample of the opening Voice of the Customer dashboard. Near the top of the dashboard is a CX Health breakdown of your listings, showing the total number of very poor, poor, fair, good, and excellent ratings. Below that is a table that shows CX details for each product you’ve listed.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_271807\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"556\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-271807\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/selling-amazon-voice-customer.jpg\" alt=\"Voice of the Customer dashboard\" width=\"556\" height=\"282\" /> A sample Voice of the Customer dashboard.[/caption]\r\n\r\nPay special attention to the details in the following columns:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><strong>NCX Rate</strong> is a percentage of orders that received negative feedback out of the total number of orders.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>CX health </strong>is an indication of the average customer experience ranked from very poor to excellent.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Last updated</strong> is the most recent date a sale was made or an NCX was received.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nIf you just listed a product and haven’t sold any yet, the product won’t have an NCX or CX rating.\r\n<h2 id=\"tab7\" >Improve your performance via Seller University</h2>\r\nThe one item on the Performance menu that seems to be out of place is Seller University, which would seem better suited for a Help menu. However, its placement on the Performance menu reflects how valuable Amazon believes Seller University can be in helping sellers quickly optimize their performance.\r\n\r\nSeller University is a collection of brief video clips designed to bring sellers quickly up to speed on the process of selling on Amazon and using Amazon tools and applications to their advantage.","blurb":"","authors":[{"authorId":33370,"name":"Deniz Olmez","slug":"deniz-olmez","description":" <p><b>Deniz Olmez</b> is an Amazon consultant who specializes in search engine optimization, new account setup and management, FBA, and branding services. <b>Joe Kraynak</b> has authored and coauthored numerous books including <i>Flipping Houses For Dummies</i> and <i>Foreclosure Self&#45;Defense For Dummies.</i> ","hasArticle":false,"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/33370"}},{"authorId":8993,"name":"Joseph Kraynak","slug":"joseph-kraynak","description":" <p><b>Kenneth W. Boyd</b> has 30 years of experience in accounting and financial services. He is a four&#45;time Dummies book author, a blogger, and a video host on accounting and finance topics. ","hasArticle":false,"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/8993"}}],"primaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":34250,"title":"Sales","slug":"sales","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34250"}},"secondaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":33589,"title":"Amazon","slug":"amazon","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/33589"}},"tertiaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"trendingArticles":null,"inThisArticle":[{"label":"How to check your Account Health","target":"#tab1"},{"label":"How to review Amazon customer feedback","target":"#tab2"},{"label":"Monitor and manage your A-to-Z Guarantee claims","target":"#tab3"},{"label":"Monitor and manage your chargeback claims","target":"#tab4"},{"label":"Access Amazon’s performance notifications","target":"#tab5"},{"label":"Gain additional insight via the Voice of the Customer feature","target":"#tab6"},{"label":"Improve your performance via Seller University","target":"#tab7"}],"relatedArticles":{"fromBook":[{"articleId":271837,"title":"How to Add Your Trademark to the Amazon Brand Registry","slug":"how-to-add-your-trademark-to-the-amazon-brand-registry","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271837"}},{"articleId":271834,"title":"Manage Your Amazon Seller Account with the Mobile App","slug":"manage-your-amazon-seller-account-with-the-mobile-app","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271834"}},{"articleId":271827,"title":"Selling on Amazon: Manage Inventory","slug":"selling-on-amazon-manage-inventory","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271827"}},{"articleId":271824,"title":"Selling on Amazon: Choose an Order Fulfillment Method","slug":"selling-on-amazon-choose-an-order-fulfillment-method","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271824"}},{"articleId":271821,"title":"Selling on Amazon: How to Source Products from Alibaba","slug":"selling-on-amazon-how-to-source-products-from-alibaba","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271821"}}],"fromCategory":[{"articleId":271837,"title":"How to Add Your Trademark to the Amazon Brand Registry","slug":"how-to-add-your-trademark-to-the-amazon-brand-registry","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271837"}},{"articleId":271834,"title":"Manage Your Amazon Seller Account with the Mobile App","slug":"manage-your-amazon-seller-account-with-the-mobile-app","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271834"}},{"articleId":271827,"title":"Selling on Amazon: Manage Inventory","slug":"selling-on-amazon-manage-inventory","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271827"}},{"articleId":271824,"title":"Selling on Amazon: Choose an Order Fulfillment Method","slug":"selling-on-amazon-choose-an-order-fulfillment-method","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271824"}},{"articleId":271821,"title":"Selling on Amazon: How to Source Products from Alibaba","slug":"selling-on-amazon-how-to-source-products-from-alibaba","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271821"}}]},"hasRelatedBookFromSearch":false,"relatedBook":{"bookId":282568,"slug":"selling-on-amazon-for-dummies","isbn":"9781119689331","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"amazon":{"default":"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1119689333/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","ca":"https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1119689333/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","indigo_ca":"http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-9208661-13710633?url=https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/product/1119689333-item.html&cjsku=978111945484","gb":"https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1119689333/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","de":"https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/1119689333/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20"},"image":{"src":"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/selling-on-amazon-for-dummies-cover-9781119689331-203x255.jpg","width":203,"height":255},"title":"Selling on Amazon For Dummies","testBankPinActivationLink":"","bookOutOfPrint":false,"authorsInfo":"<p><b data-author-id=\"33370\">Deniz Olmez</b> is an Amazon consultant who specializes in search engine optimization, new account setup and management, FBA, and branding services. <b data-author-id=\"8993\">Joe Kraynak</b> has authored and coauthored numerous books including <i>Flipping Houses For Dummies</i> and <i>Foreclosure Self-Defense For Dummies.</i> </p>","authors":[{"authorId":33370,"name":"Deniz Olmez","slug":"deniz-olmez","description":" <p><b>Deniz Olmez</b> is an Amazon consultant who specializes in search engine optimization, new account setup and management, FBA, and branding services. <b>Joe Kraynak</b> has authored and coauthored numerous books including <i>Flipping Houses For Dummies</i> and <i>Foreclosure Self&#45;Defense For Dummies.</i> ","hasArticle":false,"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/33370"}},{"authorId":8993,"name":"Joseph Kraynak","slug":"joseph-kraynak","description":" <p><b>Kenneth W. Boyd</b> has 30 years of experience in accounting and financial services. He is a four&#45;time Dummies book author, a blogger, and a video host on accounting and finance topics. ","hasArticle":false,"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/8993"}}],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/books/"}},"collections":[],"articleAds":{"footerAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;business&quot;,&quot;sales&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781119689331&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-63221ac990be6\"></div></div>","rightAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_right_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_right_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;business&quot;,&quot;sales&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781119689331&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-63221ac991449\"></div></div>"},"articleType":{"articleType":"Articles","articleList":null,"content":null,"videoInfo":{"videoId":null,"name":null,"accountId":null,"playerId":null,"thumbnailUrl":null,"description":null,"uploadDate":null}},"sponsorship":{"sponsorshipPage":false,"backgroundImage":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0},"brandingLine":"","brandingLink":"","brandingLogo":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0},"sponsorAd":"","sponsorEbookTitle":"","sponsorEbookLink":"","sponsorEbookImage":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0}},"primaryLearningPath":"Advance","lifeExpectancy":null,"lifeExpectancySetFrom":null,"dummiesForKids":"no","sponsoredContent":"no","adInfo":"","adPairKey":[]},"status":"publish","visibility":"public","articleId":271831},{"headers":{"creationTime":"2020-07-02T19:18:15+00:00","modifiedTime":"2020-07-02T19:18:15+00:00","timestamp":"2022-09-14T18:17:45+00:00"},"data":{"breadcrumbs":[{"name":"Business, Careers, & Money","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34224"},"slug":"business-careers-money","categoryId":34224},{"name":"Business","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34225"},"slug":"business","categoryId":34225},{"name":"Sales","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34250"},"slug":"sales","categoryId":34250}],"title":"Selling on Amazon: Manage Inventory","strippedTitle":"selling on amazon: manage inventory","slug":"selling-on-amazon-manage-inventory","canonicalUrl":"","seo":{"metaDescription":"Learn how to use Amazon's Manage Inventory page to search, view, and update inventory records. Ensure you have an inventory replenishment system.","noIndex":0,"noFollow":0},"content":"Use Amazon’s Manage Inventory page to search, view, and update the inventory records for products you <a href=\"https://www.dummies.com/business/online-business/selling-on-amazon-for-dummies-cheat-sheet/\">sell on Amazon</a>. To access the Manage Inventory page, log in to Seller Central, open the Inventory menu, and select Manage Inventory. The Manage Inventory page appears, as shown in the figure, where you can do the following:\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_271790\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"556\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-271790\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/selling-amazon-manage-inventory.jpg\" alt=\"Amazon’s Manage Inventory page.\" width=\"556\" height=\"321\" /> Amazon’s Manage Inventory page.[/caption]\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><strong>Search for a product: </strong>To search for a specific product, click in the Search box, near the top of the page, type the product’s SKU, Title, ISBN, or other attribute, and press the Search button.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Filter inventory: </strong>Use the options above the table to view all products in inventory or only active or inactive inventory or to view all products or only FBA or only Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM) products. You may also see filters for displaying only those products with suppressed listings, quality issues, or price alerts — product listings that have specific problems you need to address before those products will appear in searches.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p class=\"article-tips remember\">One of the most common uses of the Manage Inventory page is to quickly identify suppressed listings and make corrections to those listings. Click Suppressed near the top left of the Manage Inventory page to display a complete list of suppressed listings. In the table of suppressed listings, check the Issue(s) to Fix box to find out why the listing is suppressed. Press the Edit button next to the listing, choose the option for correcting the issue, and follow the onscreen cues to complete the task. Click Save All to save your changes.</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><strong>Sort inventory: </strong>Select an inventory header attribute such as SKU or product name at the top of the inventory table to sort product listings according to that attribute.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Customize the inventory table:</strong> Press the Preferences button, above and to the right of the inventory table, use the resulting options to specify the columns you want included in the table and other display options, and press the Save Changes button.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Update the quantity available: </strong>In the Qty field next to a product, type the quantity currently in stock and press the Save</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Change the price: </strong>In the Price field next to an item, type the price of the item and press the <strong>Save</strong></li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Edit a product:</strong> Open the Edit drop-down list (to the right of a product listing) to access additional actions, including changing the product’s image, matching to the lowest price, or closing or deleting the product listing. (Closing a listing deactivates it, making it unavailable to shoppers. Deleting a listing removes the SKU, which is best if you plan never to list the product again.)</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">If you sell on channels other than Amazon, look for a third-party inventory management utility that supports Amazon and your other sales channels, such as eBay, Shopify, and your own ecommerce store.</p>\r\n\r\n<h2 id=\"tab1\" ><a name=\"_Toc34747638\"></a>Maintain sufficient stock</h2>\r\nAs long as you have products listed for sale, you never want to run out, so you need to have a system in place to replenish inventory <em>before</em> you get to the point at which you don’t have enough to fill an order. Having enough inventory comes down to math; you need to crunch the numbers to forecast total sales over a given period of time and then place an order to replenish inventory early enough for your supplier to deliver the goods before supplies run out.\r\n\r\nIn the following discussion, we lead you through the calculations and provide additional guidance on how to automate the inventory replenishment process.\r\n<h3><a name=\"_Toc34747639\"></a>Forecasting sales</h3>\r\nTo avoid running out of stock, you first need to know the quantity of an item you sell over a given period of time. Calculating your average daily sales volume provides you with a number you can use to forecast sales for the coming weeks, months, quarter, and even year.\r\n\r\nUse the following equation to calculate average daily sales volume for a product:\r\n<blockquote>Quantity Sold divided by Number of Days = Average Daily Sales Volume</blockquote>\r\nFor example, if I sold 450 items in three months or 90 days:\r\n<blockquote>450 divided by 90 = 5</blockquote>\r\nKnowing the average daily sales volume simplifies the process of forecasting sales for any given period of time — a week, a month, a quarter, or a year. Just multiply the average daily sales volume by the number of days in the period, as shown in the table:\r\n<table><caption><strong>Forecasting Your Sales</strong></caption>\r\n<tbody>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td width=\"64\"><strong>Period</strong></td>\r\n<td width=\"108\"><strong>Multiply Days in Period</strong></td>\r\n<td width=\"186\"><strong>By Average Daily Sales Volume</strong></td>\r\n<td width=\"91\"><strong>Equal Total Sales</strong></td>\r\n</tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td width=\"64\">Week</td>\r\n<td width=\"108\">7</td>\r\n<td width=\"186\">5</td>\r\n<td width=\"91\">35</td>\r\n</tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td width=\"64\">Month</td>\r\n<td width=\"108\">30</td>\r\n<td width=\"186\">5</td>\r\n<td width=\"91\">150</td>\r\n</tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td width=\"64\">Quarter</td>\r\n<td width=\"108\">90</td>\r\n<td width=\"186\">5</td>\r\n<td width=\"91\">450</td>\r\n</tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td width=\"64\">Year</td>\r\n<td width=\"108\">365</td>\r\n<td width=\"186\">5</td>\r\n<td width=\"91\">1,825</td>\r\n</tr>\r\n</tbody>\r\n</table>\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">After forecasting your total sales for a given period, add 25 to 30 percent to the quantity as a buffer. Also, be sure to consider the fact that sales volume of some products is likely to increase during certain periods of the year, such as Christmas, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Amazon Prime Day. Analyze your sales reports (accessible via Seller Central’s Reports menu) to identify and better understand demand fluctuations for specific products.</p>\r\n\r\n<h3>Accounting for lead times</h3>\r\nSuppliers need time to manufacture, pack, and ship products. Be sure to account for the time required, and place your order earlier enough so the products reach you or arrive at Amazon fulfillment centers before you run out of stock.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips warning\">Communicate with your suppliers to identify any potential supplier downtimes or other factors that may impact lead time, such as the following:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><strong>Holiday seasons: </strong>Holidays can impact lead times in two ways. First, if a number of employees take time off, the supplier may not have the workforce required to fill orders. For example, most Chinese suppliers slow down or shut down for at least seven days (and some for several weeks) in late January and early February, in honor of Chinese New Year. Second, suppliers often are busier in the days leading up to holiday seasons, during which period they may need more time to fill orders.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Order sizes: </strong>Suppliers can typically fill small orders faster than large orders, so find out from your supplier how order quantity impacts fulfillment and then plan for these variations in lead times.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Shipping/delivery: </strong>Delivery times vary according to the location of the supplier and how the items are shipped, such as via air, land, or sea.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Customs inspections: </strong>If products need to cross borders, expect delays due to customs inspections.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Inventory processing: </strong>Whether items are shipped to you or to Amazon or other third-party fulfillment centers, they need to be logged in to inventory.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p class=\"article-tips remember\">With inventory planning, you need to think months in advance, not merely days or weeks. From the time you place an order with a supplier until the product is ready to be shipped (from you or an Amazon fulfillment center) generally requires at least 30 days and often longer.</p>\r\n\r\n<h3><a name=\"_Toc34747641\"></a>Replenishing FBA inventory</h3>\r\nIf you use FBA, you can start the process of replenishing inventory from Amazon’s Manage Inventory page:\r\n<ol>\r\n \t<li><strong> In Seller Central, open the Inventory menu and select Manage FBA Inventory. </strong>The Inventory Amazon Fulfills page appears, as shown in the following figure.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong> Scroll down the product list to the product you want to replenish and click the check box to the left of that product.</strong></li>\r\n \t<li><strong> Open the Actions menu and select Send/Replenish Inventory.</strong></li>\r\n \t<li><strong> Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the process. </strong></li>\r\n</ol>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_271784\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"556\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-271784\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/selling-amazon-fba-inventory.jpg\" alt=\"replenish FBA inventory\" width=\"556\" height=\"340\" /> Start the process of replenishing FBA inventory.[/caption]\r\n<h3>Setting up replenishment alerts</h3>\r\nReplenishment alerts notify you via email when the quantity of a product in inventory dips below the threshold you specify. With replenishment alerts, you don’t have to constantly monitor your product listings via Amazon’s Manage Inventory page. You simply set up an alert and then take action when you receive a replenishment notification.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips remember\">Replenishment alerts are available only for FBA products. For FBM products check the low stock alerts on your Seller Central homepage. These alerts are generated automatically based on sales over the past 30 days and the number of items in stock you entered when you first listed the product or most recently updated your quantity in stock.</p>\r\nWhen creating a replenishment alert for an FBA product, Amazon allows you to specify your replenishment threshold in terms of units or <em>weeks-of-cover</em> (the number of weeks’ worth of inventory you have on hand based on sales over the past 30 days):\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><strong>Units: </strong>To figure out when to replenish based on number of units in stock, multiply your lead time by your daily sales volume and add a buffer to ensure you don’t run out of stock. For example, if your lead time is 45 days and you sell an average of five units per day, should set a replenishment alert for when you have a minimum of 225 items in stock. You would be wise to add a buffer of say 50 to 75 units to be sure you don’t run short, such as 225 + 75 = 300 units.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Weeks-of-cover: </strong>To set a replenishment alert based on weeks-of-cover, start with your lead time in weeks and add a buffer of a couple weeks. For example, if your lead time is 75 days, that’s about 11 weeks, plus two weeks equal 13 weeks. Every 13 weeks, you need to order enough items to cover the next 13 weeks.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p class=\"article-tips remember\">Revisit your alerts regularly and make adjustments when necessary. You don’t want to run out of inventory, but inventory can build up over time leading to overstock conditions that increase your storage costs and your risk of getting stuck with products you can’t sell.</p>\r\nTo set a replenishment alert, take the following steps:\r\n<ol>\r\n \t<li><strong> In Seller Central, open the Inventory menu and select Manage Inventory. </strong></li>\r\n \t<li><strong> After the Manage Inventory page appears, check the box next to each product for which you want to set a replenishment alert in the table of product listings.</strong></li>\r\n \t<li><strong> Open the Action menu, select Set Replenishment Alerts, and press the Go button. </strong>The Set Inventory Replenishment Alerts page appears.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong> In the When do you want to be alerted column, open the Apply to All list and select When Fulfillable Quantity Reaches (Units) or When Weeks-of-Cover Reaches (Weeks) to set the same replenishment level for all products listed or select the desired unit for each individual product.</strong></li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Enter the desired alert threshold quantity in the Alert Threshold box at the top of the column to use the same threshold for all items in the list or enter the desired quantity in the Alert Threshold box for each product individually.</strong></li>\r\n \t<li><strong> Press the Save button to save the alert.</strong></li>\r\n</ol>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_271779\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"556\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-271779\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/selling-amazon-alert-threshold.jpg\" alt=\"inventory alert threshold\" width=\"556\" height=\"189\" /> Enter the desired alert threshold.[/caption]\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">Use Amazon’s Restock Inventory tool to obtain recommendations on products to restock, replenishment quantities, and ship dates. To access the Restock Inventory tool, open the Inventory menu, select Inventory Planning, and select the Restock Inventory tab.</p>\r\n<p class=\"article-tips remember\">Although Amazon will notify you via email when your fulfillment threshold is reached, you can check for alerts on Seller Central. Open the Inventory menu and select Manage FBA Inventory. A gold bell appears in the Available column next to the quantity when an alert has been set but not yet reached. A red bell indicates that the threshold has been reached.</p>\r\n\r\n<h3>Avoiding FBA’s long-term storage fees</h3>\r\nInventory that has been in an Amazon fulfillment center is subject to long-term storage fees charged per item or per cubic foot, whichever is greater. To help sellers avoid these fees, Amazon features an inventory planner that enables you to monitor how long your products have been stored in Amazon fulfillment centers. To access the inventory planner from Seller Central, open the Inventory menu and select Inventory Planning. The inventory planner appears with the Inventory Age tab selected, as shown.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_271789\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"556\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-271789\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/selling-amazon-inventory-planner.jpg\" alt=\"Amazon’s inventory planner.\" width=\"556\" height=\"314\" /> Amazon’s inventory planner.[/caption]\r\n\r\nFor each product stored in FBA inventory, the inventory planner displays its name, sales rank, sales (units shipped in the last 90 days), FBA sell-through (in the last 90 days), inventory age, estimated long-term storage fees, your price, and the buy box price. Use these details to make informed decisions about each product; for example, you may want to avoid long-term storage fees by dropping a product’s price to quickly sell any remaining units or have FBA ship any remaining items back to you and then close or delete the listing.","description":"Use Amazon’s Manage Inventory page to search, view, and update the inventory records for products you <a href=\"https://www.dummies.com/business/online-business/selling-on-amazon-for-dummies-cheat-sheet/\">sell on Amazon</a>. To access the Manage Inventory page, log in to Seller Central, open the Inventory menu, and select Manage Inventory. The Manage Inventory page appears, as shown in the figure, where you can do the following:\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_271790\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"556\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-271790\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/selling-amazon-manage-inventory.jpg\" alt=\"Amazon’s Manage Inventory page.\" width=\"556\" height=\"321\" /> Amazon’s Manage Inventory page.[/caption]\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><strong>Search for a product: </strong>To search for a specific product, click in the Search box, near the top of the page, type the product’s SKU, Title, ISBN, or other attribute, and press the Search button.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Filter inventory: </strong>Use the options above the table to view all products in inventory or only active or inactive inventory or to view all products or only FBA or only Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM) products. You may also see filters for displaying only those products with suppressed listings, quality issues, or price alerts — product listings that have specific problems you need to address before those products will appear in searches.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p class=\"article-tips remember\">One of the most common uses of the Manage Inventory page is to quickly identify suppressed listings and make corrections to those listings. Click Suppressed near the top left of the Manage Inventory page to display a complete list of suppressed listings. In the table of suppressed listings, check the Issue(s) to Fix box to find out why the listing is suppressed. Press the Edit button next to the listing, choose the option for correcting the issue, and follow the onscreen cues to complete the task. Click Save All to save your changes.</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><strong>Sort inventory: </strong>Select an inventory header attribute such as SKU or product name at the top of the inventory table to sort product listings according to that attribute.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Customize the inventory table:</strong> Press the Preferences button, above and to the right of the inventory table, use the resulting options to specify the columns you want included in the table and other display options, and press the Save Changes button.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Update the quantity available: </strong>In the Qty field next to a product, type the quantity currently in stock and press the Save</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Change the price: </strong>In the Price field next to an item, type the price of the item and press the <strong>Save</strong></li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Edit a product:</strong> Open the Edit drop-down list (to the right of a product listing) to access additional actions, including changing the product’s image, matching to the lowest price, or closing or deleting the product listing. (Closing a listing deactivates it, making it unavailable to shoppers. Deleting a listing removes the SKU, which is best if you plan never to list the product again.)</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">If you sell on channels other than Amazon, look for a third-party inventory management utility that supports Amazon and your other sales channels, such as eBay, Shopify, and your own ecommerce store.</p>\r\n\r\n<h2 id=\"tab1\" ><a name=\"_Toc34747638\"></a>Maintain sufficient stock</h2>\r\nAs long as you have products listed for sale, you never want to run out, so you need to have a system in place to replenish inventory <em>before</em> you get to the point at which you don’t have enough to fill an order. Having enough inventory comes down to math; you need to crunch the numbers to forecast total sales over a given period of time and then place an order to replenish inventory early enough for your supplier to deliver the goods before supplies run out.\r\n\r\nIn the following discussion, we lead you through the calculations and provide additional guidance on how to automate the inventory replenishment process.\r\n<h3><a name=\"_Toc34747639\"></a>Forecasting sales</h3>\r\nTo avoid running out of stock, you first need to know the quantity of an item you sell over a given period of time. Calculating your average daily sales volume provides you with a number you can use to forecast sales for the coming weeks, months, quarter, and even year.\r\n\r\nUse the following equation to calculate average daily sales volume for a product:\r\n<blockquote>Quantity Sold divided by Number of Days = Average Daily Sales Volume</blockquote>\r\nFor example, if I sold 450 items in three months or 90 days:\r\n<blockquote>450 divided by 90 = 5</blockquote>\r\nKnowing the average daily sales volume simplifies the process of forecasting sales for any given period of time — a week, a month, a quarter, or a year. Just multiply the average daily sales volume by the number of days in the period, as shown in the table:\r\n<table><caption><strong>Forecasting Your Sales</strong></caption>\r\n<tbody>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td width=\"64\"><strong>Period</strong></td>\r\n<td width=\"108\"><strong>Multiply Days in Period</strong></td>\r\n<td width=\"186\"><strong>By Average Daily Sales Volume</strong></td>\r\n<td width=\"91\"><strong>Equal Total Sales</strong></td>\r\n</tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td width=\"64\">Week</td>\r\n<td width=\"108\">7</td>\r\n<td width=\"186\">5</td>\r\n<td width=\"91\">35</td>\r\n</tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td width=\"64\">Month</td>\r\n<td width=\"108\">30</td>\r\n<td width=\"186\">5</td>\r\n<td width=\"91\">150</td>\r\n</tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td width=\"64\">Quarter</td>\r\n<td width=\"108\">90</td>\r\n<td width=\"186\">5</td>\r\n<td width=\"91\">450</td>\r\n</tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td width=\"64\">Year</td>\r\n<td width=\"108\">365</td>\r\n<td width=\"186\">5</td>\r\n<td width=\"91\">1,825</td>\r\n</tr>\r\n</tbody>\r\n</table>\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">After forecasting your total sales for a given period, add 25 to 30 percent to the quantity as a buffer. Also, be sure to consider the fact that sales volume of some products is likely to increase during certain periods of the year, such as Christmas, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Amazon Prime Day. Analyze your sales reports (accessible via Seller Central’s Reports menu) to identify and better understand demand fluctuations for specific products.</p>\r\n\r\n<h3>Accounting for lead times</h3>\r\nSuppliers need time to manufacture, pack, and ship products. Be sure to account for the time required, and place your order earlier enough so the products reach you or arrive at Amazon fulfillment centers before you run out of stock.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips warning\">Communicate with your suppliers to identify any potential supplier downtimes or other factors that may impact lead time, such as the following:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><strong>Holiday seasons: </strong>Holidays can impact lead times in two ways. First, if a number of employees take time off, the supplier may not have the workforce required to fill orders. For example, most Chinese suppliers slow down or shut down for at least seven days (and some for several weeks) in late January and early February, in honor of Chinese New Year. Second, suppliers often are busier in the days leading up to holiday seasons, during which period they may need more time to fill orders.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Order sizes: </strong>Suppliers can typically fill small orders faster than large orders, so find out from your supplier how order quantity impacts fulfillment and then plan for these variations in lead times.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Shipping/delivery: </strong>Delivery times vary according to the location of the supplier and how the items are shipped, such as via air, land, or sea.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Customs inspections: </strong>If products need to cross borders, expect delays due to customs inspections.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Inventory processing: </strong>Whether items are shipped to you or to Amazon or other third-party fulfillment centers, they need to be logged in to inventory.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p class=\"article-tips remember\">With inventory planning, you need to think months in advance, not merely days or weeks. From the time you place an order with a supplier until the product is ready to be shipped (from you or an Amazon fulfillment center) generally requires at least 30 days and often longer.</p>\r\n\r\n<h3><a name=\"_Toc34747641\"></a>Replenishing FBA inventory</h3>\r\nIf you use FBA, you can start the process of replenishing inventory from Amazon’s Manage Inventory page:\r\n<ol>\r\n \t<li><strong> In Seller Central, open the Inventory menu and select Manage FBA Inventory. </strong>The Inventory Amazon Fulfills page appears, as shown in the following figure.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong> Scroll down the product list to the product you want to replenish and click the check box to the left of that product.</strong></li>\r\n \t<li><strong> Open the Actions menu and select Send/Replenish Inventory.</strong></li>\r\n \t<li><strong> Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the process. </strong></li>\r\n</ol>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_271784\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"556\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-271784\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/selling-amazon-fba-inventory.jpg\" alt=\"replenish FBA inventory\" width=\"556\" height=\"340\" /> Start the process of replenishing FBA inventory.[/caption]\r\n<h3>Setting up replenishment alerts</h3>\r\nReplenishment alerts notify you via email when the quantity of a product in inventory dips below the threshold you specify. With replenishment alerts, you don’t have to constantly monitor your product listings via Amazon’s Manage Inventory page. You simply set up an alert and then take action when you receive a replenishment notification.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips remember\">Replenishment alerts are available only for FBA products. For FBM products check the low stock alerts on your Seller Central homepage. These alerts are generated automatically based on sales over the past 30 days and the number of items in stock you entered when you first listed the product or most recently updated your quantity in stock.</p>\r\nWhen creating a replenishment alert for an FBA product, Amazon allows you to specify your replenishment threshold in terms of units or <em>weeks-of-cover</em> (the number of weeks’ worth of inventory you have on hand based on sales over the past 30 days):\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><strong>Units: </strong>To figure out when to replenish based on number of units in stock, multiply your lead time by your daily sales volume and add a buffer to ensure you don’t run out of stock. For example, if your lead time is 45 days and you sell an average of five units per day, should set a replenishment alert for when you have a minimum of 225 items in stock. You would be wise to add a buffer of say 50 to 75 units to be sure you don’t run short, such as 225 + 75 = 300 units.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Weeks-of-cover: </strong>To set a replenishment alert based on weeks-of-cover, start with your lead time in weeks and add a buffer of a couple weeks. For example, if your lead time is 75 days, that’s about 11 weeks, plus two weeks equal 13 weeks. Every 13 weeks, you need to order enough items to cover the next 13 weeks.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p class=\"article-tips remember\">Revisit your alerts regularly and make adjustments when necessary. You don’t want to run out of inventory, but inventory can build up over time leading to overstock conditions that increase your storage costs and your risk of getting stuck with products you can’t sell.</p>\r\nTo set a replenishment alert, take the following steps:\r\n<ol>\r\n \t<li><strong> In Seller Central, open the Inventory menu and select Manage Inventory. </strong></li>\r\n \t<li><strong> After the Manage Inventory page appears, check the box next to each product for which you want to set a replenishment alert in the table of product listings.</strong></li>\r\n \t<li><strong> Open the Action menu, select Set Replenishment Alerts, and press the Go button. </strong>The Set Inventory Replenishment Alerts page appears.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong> In the When do you want to be alerted column, open the Apply to All list and select When Fulfillable Quantity Reaches (Units) or When Weeks-of-Cover Reaches (Weeks) to set the same replenishment level for all products listed or select the desired unit for each individual product.</strong></li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Enter the desired alert threshold quantity in the Alert Threshold box at the top of the column to use the same threshold for all items in the list or enter the desired quantity in the Alert Threshold box for each product individually.</strong></li>\r\n \t<li><strong> Press the Save button to save the alert.</strong></li>\r\n</ol>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_271779\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"556\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-271779\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/selling-amazon-alert-threshold.jpg\" alt=\"inventory alert threshold\" width=\"556\" height=\"189\" /> Enter the desired alert threshold.[/caption]\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">Use Amazon’s Restock Inventory tool to obtain recommendations on products to restock, replenishment quantities, and ship dates. To access the Restock Inventory tool, open the Inventory menu, select Inventory Planning, and select the Restock Inventory tab.</p>\r\n<p class=\"article-tips remember\">Although Amazon will notify you via email when your fulfillment threshold is reached, you can check for alerts on Seller Central. Open the Inventory menu and select Manage FBA Inventory. A gold bell appears in the Available column next to the quantity when an alert has been set but not yet reached. A red bell indicates that the threshold has been reached.</p>\r\n\r\n<h3>Avoiding FBA’s long-term storage fees</h3>\r\nInventory that has been in an Amazon fulfillment center is subject to long-term storage fees charged per item or per cubic foot, whichever is greater. To help sellers avoid these fees, Amazon features an inventory planner that enables you to monitor how long your products have been stored in Amazon fulfillment centers. To access the inventory planner from Seller Central, open the Inventory menu and select Inventory Planning. The inventory planner appears with the Inventory Age tab selected, as shown.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_271789\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"556\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-271789\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/selling-amazon-inventory-planner.jpg\" alt=\"Amazon’s inventory planner.\" width=\"556\" height=\"314\" /> Amazon’s inventory planner.[/caption]\r\n\r\nFor each product stored in FBA inventory, the inventory planner displays its name, sales rank, sales (units shipped in the last 90 days), FBA sell-through (in the last 90 days), inventory age, estimated long-term storage fees, your price, and the buy box price. Use these details to make informed decisions about each product; for example, you may want to avoid long-term storage fees by dropping a product’s price to quickly sell any remaining units or have FBA ship any remaining items back to you and then close or delete the listing.","blurb":"","authors":[{"authorId":33370,"name":"Deniz Olmez","slug":"deniz-olmez","description":" <p><b>Deniz Olmez</b> is an Amazon consultant who specializes in search engine optimization, new account setup and management, FBA, and branding services. <b>Joe Kraynak</b> has authored and coauthored numerous books including <i>Flipping Houses For Dummies</i> and <i>Foreclosure Self&#45;Defense For Dummies.</i> ","hasArticle":false,"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/33370"}},{"authorId":8993,"name":"Joseph Kraynak","slug":"joseph-kraynak","description":" <p><b>Kenneth W. Boyd</b> has 30 years of experience in accounting and financial services. He is a four&#45;time Dummies book author, a blogger, and a video host on accounting and finance topics. ","hasArticle":false,"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/8993"}}],"primaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":34250,"title":"Sales","slug":"sales","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34250"}},"secondaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":33589,"title":"Amazon","slug":"amazon","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/33589"}},"tertiaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"trendingArticles":null,"inThisArticle":[{"label":"Maintain sufficient stock","target":"#tab1"}],"relatedArticles":{"fromBook":[{"articleId":271837,"title":"How to Add Your Trademark to the Amazon Brand Registry","slug":"how-to-add-your-trademark-to-the-amazon-brand-registry","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271837"}},{"articleId":271834,"title":"Manage Your Amazon Seller Account with the Mobile 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on Amazon For Dummies","testBankPinActivationLink":"","bookOutOfPrint":false,"authorsInfo":"<p><b data-author-id=\"33370\">Deniz Olmez</b> is an Amazon consultant who specializes in search engine optimization, new account setup and management, FBA, and branding services. <b data-author-id=\"8993\">Joe Kraynak</b> has authored and coauthored numerous books including <i>Flipping Houses For Dummies</i> and <i>Foreclosure Self-Defense For Dummies.</i> </p>","authors":[{"authorId":33370,"name":"Deniz Olmez","slug":"deniz-olmez","description":" <p><b>Deniz Olmez</b> is an Amazon consultant who specializes in search engine optimization, new account setup and management, FBA, and branding services. <b>Joe Kraynak</b> has authored and coauthored numerous books including <i>Flipping Houses For Dummies</i> and <i>Foreclosure Self&#45;Defense For Dummies.</i> ","hasArticle":false,"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/33370"}},{"authorId":8993,"name":"Joseph Kraynak","slug":"joseph-kraynak","description":" <p><b>Kenneth W. Boyd</b> has 30 years of experience in accounting and financial services. He is a four&#45;time Dummies book author, a blogger, and a video host on accounting and finance topics. ","hasArticle":false,"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/8993"}}],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/books/"}},"collections":[],"articleAds":{"footerAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;business&quot;,&quot;sales&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781119689331&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-63221ac989221\"></div></div>","rightAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_right_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_right_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;business&quot;,&quot;sales&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781119689331&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-63221ac989a81\"></div></div>"},"articleType":{"articleType":"Articles","articleList":null,"content":null,"videoInfo":{"videoId":null,"name":null,"accountId":null,"playerId":null,"thumbnailUrl":null,"description":null,"uploadDate":null}},"sponsorship":{"sponsorshipPage":false,"backgroundImage":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0},"brandingLine":"","brandingLink":"","brandingLogo":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0},"sponsorAd":"","sponsorEbookTitle":"","sponsorEbookLink":"","sponsorEbookImage":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0}},"primaryLearningPath":"Advance","lifeExpectancy":null,"lifeExpectancySetFrom":null,"dummiesForKids":"no","sponsoredContent":"no","adInfo":"","adPairKey":[]},"status":"publish","visibility":"public","articleId":271827},{"headers":{"creationTime":"2020-07-02T18:59:26+00:00","modifiedTime":"2020-07-02T18:59:26+00:00","timestamp":"2022-09-14T18:17:45+00:00"},"data":{"breadcrumbs":[{"name":"Business, Careers, & Money","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34224"},"slug":"business-careers-money","categoryId":34224},{"name":"Business","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34225"},"slug":"business","categoryId":34225},{"name":"Sales","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34250"},"slug":"sales","categoryId":34250}],"title":"Selling on Amazon: Choose an Order Fulfillment Method","strippedTitle":"selling on amazon: choose an order fulfillment method","slug":"selling-on-amazon-choose-an-order-fulfillment-method","canonicalUrl":"","seo":{"metaDescription":"Learn about order Amazon seller's fulfillment options: Fulfillment by Amazon, Fulfillment by Merchant, Seller Fulfilled Prime, and drop-shipping.","noIndex":0,"noFollow":0},"content":"Order fulfillment plays a big role in ecommerce success, especially on Amazon where more than one million Prime customers expect free two-day delivery or faster, and Amazon rewards sellers with higher product placement for satisfying its customers’ delivery expectations.\r\n\r\nOne of your first decisions as an <a href=\"https://www.dummies.com/business/online-business/selling-on-amazon-for-dummies-cheat-sheet/\">Amazon Seller</a> is how to fulfill customer orders. You have four options (not mutually exclusive), as we explain in the following.\r\n<h2 id=\"tab1\" ><a name=\"_Toc32773713\"></a><a name=\"_Toc31012335\"></a><a name=\"_Toc31011831\"></a>Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)</h2>\r\nWith FBA, you send your products or arrange to have them sent from your suppliers to Amazon fulfillment centers in various locations in your marketplace(s) — the United States, Canada, Mexico, wherever. Your customers order from you on Amazon, and Amazon picks, packs, labels, and ships your products from their fulfillment centers to your customers and provides them with tracking information. Amazon’s customer-service team manages customer inquiries and processes returns and refunds.\r\n\r\nWhen considering FBA, weigh the pros and cons.\r\n\r\nHere are the pros:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>All FBA products receive two-day shipping to Prime customers, which improves your chances of closing sales. About half of Amazon’s customers (101 million in the United States alone) are Prime, with each spending on average about $1,400 annually in products on Amazon.</li>\r\n \t<li>Using FBA is hassle-free. All you need to do is get your products to Amazon fulfillment centers, and Amazon handles the rest.</li>\r\n \t<li>You get reduced shipping rates to Amazon fulfillment centers and from those centers to your customers: Amazon negotiates high-volume shipping contracts with carriers, and you reap the benefits of lower shipping costs.</li>\r\n \t<li>An FBA product has a greater chance than a Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM) product of winning the buy box (being the featured offer). Buy box placement accounts for more than 80 percent of all Amazon sales.</li>\r\n \t<li>FBA can also be integrated into your other sales channels, so if customers purchase a product on your own ecommerce site (outside Amazon), FBA can fulfill the order (subject to a higher FBA fee).</li>\r\n \t<li>Offsite product storage is much more convenient. If you’re running your ecommerce business out of your home or garage, you avoid the clutter of having to store inventory onsite.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nMeanwhile, here are the cons:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Amazon charges FBA fees to cover storage, fulfillment, and customer service, plus you pay for shipping products to fulfillment centers. You may also incur a high-volume listing fee on some items and long-term storage fees if products don’t sell through within a year’s time.</li>\r\n \t<li>Preparing and shipping products to Amazon fulfillment centers requires some work. Each unit must be labeled with a bar code, so it can be picked and packed easily with outgoing orders.</li>\r\n \t<li>Access to your inventory is limited because it’s stored in Amazon fulfillment centers.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p class=\"article-tips remember\">We strongly encourage you to use FBA as your primary fulfillment method, especially for high-volume, high-margin products, leveraging Amazon’s industry-leading logistics and customer service to cater most effectively to Amazon customers and simplify the process of scaling your business. Reserve other fulfillment methods for specialty items, such as custom-made furniture that requires special packing or a more personal touch.</p>\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">To compare the costs of FBA and FBM, use the Fulfillment by Amazon Revenue Calculator:</p>\r\n\r\n<ol>\r\n \t<li><strong> Go to the </strong><a href=\"https://sellercentral.amazon.com/fba/revenuecalculator/index?lang=en_US\"><strong>Fulfillment by Amazon Revenue Calculator</strong></a><strong>. </strong></li>\r\n \t<li><strong> In the Find Your Product on Amazon.com text box, type the product name, UPC, EAN, ISBN, or ASIN and select Search. </strong>Amazon presents a collection of products that match your search term or phrase.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong> Below the product you’re interested in, click Select. </strong></li>\r\n \t<li><strong> In the Your Fulfillment column, type your fulfillment costs in the Item Price, Shipping, Cost of Seller Fulfillment, and Cost of Product fields.</strong></li>\r\n \t<li><strong> In the Amazon Fulfillment Current column, enter your numbers for Item Price, the per-item cost to ship the product to an Amazon fulfillment center, and the cost of the product.</strong></li>\r\n \t<li><strong> Press the Calculate button. </strong>The calculator crunches the numbers and displays a comparison of your net profit and margin percentage for your fulfillment costs versus Amazon fulfillment costs.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_271786\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"556\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-271786\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/selling-amazon-fulfillment-costs.jpg\" alt=\"fulfillment costs\" width=\"556\" height=\"371\" /> Compare your fulfillment costs to those of FBA.[/caption]\r\n<h2 id=\"tab2\" ><a name=\"_Toc32773714\"></a><a name=\"_Toc31012336\"></a><a name=\"_Toc31011832\"></a>Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM)</h2>\r\nIf you’re testing a product or selling low-volume, low-margin products, FBM may be the better choice. For comparison, check out the pros and cons of FBM.\r\n\r\nHere are the pros:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Avoiding FBA fees may help to lower your costs, which can boost profit margins. Crunch the numbers, though, to determine whether Amazon’s lower shipping fees offset other FBA fees.</li>\r\n \t<li>Fulfilling orders yourself gives you greater control over inventory, packing, and shipping, which can be beneficial when selling custom products or adding a personal touch to outgoing packages.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nAnd the cons:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>With FBM, you spend more time and effort to pick, pack, label, and ship products and process customer service requests, returns, and refunds.</li>\r\n \t<li>FBM products aren’t automatically eligible for Prime. You may be able to qualify for Seller Fulfilled Prime.</li>\r\n \t<li>You have less opportunity to win the buy box (and be the featured offer).</li>\r\n \t<li>Although profit margins may be higher with FBM, sales volume is likely to be lower.</li>\r\n \t<li>You need to store products in your home or garage or procure warehouse storage.</li>\r\n \t<li>Overhead costs, including shipping fees, are generally higher.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h2 id=\"tab3\" ><a name=\"_Toc32773715\"></a><a name=\"_Toc31012337\"></a><a name=\"_Toc31011833\"></a>Seller Fulfilled Prime</h2>\r\nWith Seller Fulfilled Prime, you store and ship products from your own warehouses, while committing to delivering products to Prime customers within Amazon’s required two-day delivery window. If approved for Seller Fulfilled Prime, you’re allowed to display the Prime badge for products shipped from your warehouses. In addition to other benefits, Amazon provides access to discounted transportation solutions to help meet the two-day Prime delivery promise.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips remember\">During the time of this writing, Amazon wasn’t accepting new registrations for <a href=\"https://services.amazon.com/services/seller-fulfilled-prime.html\">Seller Fulfilled Prime</a>, but you can join the waitlist.</p>\r\n\r\n<h3><a name=\"_Toc32773716\"></a>Recognizing the benefits of Seller Fulfilled Prime</h3>\r\nSeller Fulfilled Prime offers several benefits, including the following:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>You pick, pack, and ship products from your warehouses, so you have greater control over your own inventory and operations.</li>\r\n \t<li>You can list products as Prime, which is very appealing to Amazon’s most loyal customers. Prime customers often filter product listings so as to display only Prime products. To have a chance to win this business, your products must qualify as Prime offerings.</li>\r\n \t<li>Prime listings have a greater chance of winning the buy box.</li>\r\n \t<li>By offering free two-day guaranteed shipping, you improve your chances of repeat and multiple orders.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">Seller Fulfilled Prime is generally best suited for high value items, seasonal products with unpredictable demand, slow moving goods, items with variations, and inventory that requires special handling or preparation.</p>\r\n\r\n<h3><a name=\"_Toc32773717\"></a>Meeting Seller Fulfilled Prime requirements</h3>\r\nBeing able to deliver products from your warehouse(s) to Prime customers within Amazon’s two-day window is only one of several Seller Fulfilled Prime requirements. To qualify for and maintain good standing in this program, you must meet the following requirements:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Offer premium shipping options.</li>\r\n \t<li>Ship more than 99 percent of the orders on time (the same day you receive the orders).</li>\r\n \t<li>Maintain order cancellation rate of less than 0.5 percent.</li>\r\n \t<li>Buy Amazon shipping services for at least 98.5 percent of Amazon orders; for the most part, you buy shipping labels from Amazon-approved carriers, who deliver orders to customers.</li>\r\n \t<li>Allow Amazon to handle customer service queries.</li>\r\n \t<li>Agree to and comply with Amazon Returns Policy.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h3><a name=\"_Toc32773718\"></a>Successfully navigating the trial period</h3>\r\nTo participate in Seller Fulfilled Prime, you must successfully complete a trial period, which traditionally consists of filling a certain number of orders within a set period of time — for example, 50 orders in 90 days or fewer. Products aren’t listed with the Prime badge during this time, and all orders must be processed with a zero-day handling time.\r\n\r\nAssuming you successfully complete the trial period, you’re enrolled in the program, and the Prime badge is displayed for participating ASINs.\r\n<h3><a name=\"_Toc32773719\"></a>Participating in Seller Fulfilled Prime</h3>\r\nTo meet your Seller Fulfilled Prime obligations, take the following steps:\r\n<ol>\r\n \t<li><strong> Maintain sufficient inventory in your warehouse(s) to fill customer orders.</strong></li>\r\n \t<li><strong> Buy shipping labels from Amazon-approved carriers. </strong>In Seller Central, select Orders and then Manage Orders and press the Buy Shipping button for the order you want to ship. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the process.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong> Pick, pack, and ship the orders the same day they’re received, typically by 4 p.m. </strong>Orders will be delivered within two days by Amazon-approved carriers.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n<p class=\"article-tips warning\">Inspect shipping costs closely prior to deciding whether to “Buy Shipping” from Amazon-approved carriers. Seller Fulfilled Prime free shipping options may be cost-prohibitive for certain products or product categories.</p>\r\nFor questions about Seller Fulfilled Prime, email <a href=\"mailto:[email protected]\">[email protected]</a>.\r\n<h3><a name=\"_Toc31012338\"></a><a name=\"_Toc31011834\"></a><a name=\"_Toc32773720\"></a>Managing Seller Fulfilled Prime orders</h3>\r\nTo manage Seller Fulfilled Prime SKUs, log on to Seller Central, open the Inventory menu, and select Manage Seller Fulfilled Prime. The Manage Seller Fulfilled Prime dashboard appears providing the tools you need to manage orders.\r\n<h2 id=\"tab4\" ><a name=\"_Toc32773721\"></a>Drop-shipping</h2>\r\nDrop-shipping is the ultimate in look-ma-no-hands order fulfillment and low-cost, low-risk startups and product testing! You build a store and list products that the drop-ship supplier has available. Customers order products through your store, and the order goes to the drop-shipper, which fulfills the order for you. (Most drop-shippers merely act as a conduit between sellers and numerous suppliers that offer their own drop-shipping services.) Because you don’t have to stock up on inventory, you can start selling without having to buy any products up front.\r\n\r\nAlthough drop-shipping may strike you as the ideal option, consider a couple potential (and significant) drawbacks:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Although drop-shipping is a low-cost, low-risk approach to testing the waters with customers, as your sales and business grow, the costs eat into your profit margins. If you’re selling high-volume or low-margin items, drop-shipping may not be the best choice for selling any product long term.</li>\r\n \t<li>If the drop-shipper drops the ball on an order, you suffer the consequences of disappointing a customer.</li>\r\n \t<li>You’re at the mercy of the drop-shipper regarding inventory. If your drop-shipper runs out of stock or discontinues a product, you’re out of luck.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nEven though Amazon generally accepts drop-shipping to its customers, it enforces certain criteria to maintain a high-quality shopping experience. All the sellers who intend to fulfill the orders through drop-shipping must meet the following criteria:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Be the seller on record</li>\r\n \t<li>Identify as the seller of the products on all the packaging material, invoices, and any other documentation</li>\r\n \t<li>Remove any mention of the drop-shipper from invoices, packaging, products, and anything else sent to customers</li>\r\n \t<li>Be responsible for all the product returns</li>\r\n \t<li>Comply with all other seller policies and Amazon policies</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">Drop-shipping is a great way to test the market for any new, unproven products. You can list the product without investing in inventory. If the product takes off, you can switch to FBA or FBM.</p>\r\nTo find out more about drop-shipping, check out some of the top drop-shipping suppliers:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><a href=\"https://home.aliexpress.com/dropshippercenter/dashboard.htm\">AliExpress</a></li>\r\n \t<li><a href=\"http://www.doba.com\">Doba</a></li>\r\n \t<li><a href=\"http://www.oberlo.com\">Oberlo</a></li>\r\n \t<li><a href=\"http://www.salehoo.com\">SaleHoo</a></li>\r\n \t<li><a href=\"http://www.spocket.co\">Sprocket</a></li>\r\n</ul>","description":"Order fulfillment plays a big role in ecommerce success, especially on Amazon where more than one million Prime customers expect free two-day delivery or faster, and Amazon rewards sellers with higher product placement for satisfying its customers’ delivery expectations.\r\n\r\nOne of your first decisions as an <a href=\"https://www.dummies.com/business/online-business/selling-on-amazon-for-dummies-cheat-sheet/\">Amazon Seller</a> is how to fulfill customer orders. You have four options (not mutually exclusive), as we explain in the following.\r\n<h2 id=\"tab1\" ><a name=\"_Toc32773713\"></a><a name=\"_Toc31012335\"></a><a name=\"_Toc31011831\"></a>Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)</h2>\r\nWith FBA, you send your products or arrange to have them sent from your suppliers to Amazon fulfillment centers in various locations in your marketplace(s) — the United States, Canada, Mexico, wherever. Your customers order from you on Amazon, and Amazon picks, packs, labels, and ships your products from their fulfillment centers to your customers and provides them with tracking information. Amazon’s customer-service team manages customer inquiries and processes returns and refunds.\r\n\r\nWhen considering FBA, weigh the pros and cons.\r\n\r\nHere are the pros:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>All FBA products receive two-day shipping to Prime customers, which improves your chances of closing sales. About half of Amazon’s customers (101 million in the United States alone) are Prime, with each spending on average about $1,400 annually in products on Amazon.</li>\r\n \t<li>Using FBA is hassle-free. All you need to do is get your products to Amazon fulfillment centers, and Amazon handles the rest.</li>\r\n \t<li>You get reduced shipping rates to Amazon fulfillment centers and from those centers to your customers: Amazon negotiates high-volume shipping contracts with carriers, and you reap the benefits of lower shipping costs.</li>\r\n \t<li>An FBA product has a greater chance than a Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM) product of winning the buy box (being the featured offer). Buy box placement accounts for more than 80 percent of all Amazon sales.</li>\r\n \t<li>FBA can also be integrated into your other sales channels, so if customers purchase a product on your own ecommerce site (outside Amazon), FBA can fulfill the order (subject to a higher FBA fee).</li>\r\n \t<li>Offsite product storage is much more convenient. If you’re running your ecommerce business out of your home or garage, you avoid the clutter of having to store inventory onsite.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nMeanwhile, here are the cons:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Amazon charges FBA fees to cover storage, fulfillment, and customer service, plus you pay for shipping products to fulfillment centers. You may also incur a high-volume listing fee on some items and long-term storage fees if products don’t sell through within a year’s time.</li>\r\n \t<li>Preparing and shipping products to Amazon fulfillment centers requires some work. Each unit must be labeled with a bar code, so it can be picked and packed easily with outgoing orders.</li>\r\n \t<li>Access to your inventory is limited because it’s stored in Amazon fulfillment centers.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p class=\"article-tips remember\">We strongly encourage you to use FBA as your primary fulfillment method, especially for high-volume, high-margin products, leveraging Amazon’s industry-leading logistics and customer service to cater most effectively to Amazon customers and simplify the process of scaling your business. Reserve other fulfillment methods for specialty items, such as custom-made furniture that requires special packing or a more personal touch.</p>\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">To compare the costs of FBA and FBM, use the Fulfillment by Amazon Revenue Calculator:</p>\r\n\r\n<ol>\r\n \t<li><strong> Go to the </strong><a href=\"https://sellercentral.amazon.com/fba/revenuecalculator/index?lang=en_US\"><strong>Fulfillment by Amazon Revenue Calculator</strong></a><strong>. </strong></li>\r\n \t<li><strong> In the Find Your Product on Amazon.com text box, type the product name, UPC, EAN, ISBN, or ASIN and select Search. </strong>Amazon presents a collection of products that match your search term or phrase.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong> Below the product you’re interested in, click Select. </strong></li>\r\n \t<li><strong> In the Your Fulfillment column, type your fulfillment costs in the Item Price, Shipping, Cost of Seller Fulfillment, and Cost of Product fields.</strong></li>\r\n \t<li><strong> In the Amazon Fulfillment Current column, enter your numbers for Item Price, the per-item cost to ship the product to an Amazon fulfillment center, and the cost of the product.</strong></li>\r\n \t<li><strong> Press the Calculate button. </strong>The calculator crunches the numbers and displays a comparison of your net profit and margin percentage for your fulfillment costs versus Amazon fulfillment costs.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_271786\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"556\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-271786\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/selling-amazon-fulfillment-costs.jpg\" alt=\"fulfillment costs\" width=\"556\" height=\"371\" /> Compare your fulfillment costs to those of FBA.[/caption]\r\n<h2 id=\"tab2\" ><a name=\"_Toc32773714\"></a><a name=\"_Toc31012336\"></a><a name=\"_Toc31011832\"></a>Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM)</h2>\r\nIf you’re testing a product or selling low-volume, low-margin products, FBM may be the better choice. For comparison, check out the pros and cons of FBM.\r\n\r\nHere are the pros:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Avoiding FBA fees may help to lower your costs, which can boost profit margins. Crunch the numbers, though, to determine whether Amazon’s lower shipping fees offset other FBA fees.</li>\r\n \t<li>Fulfilling orders yourself gives you greater control over inventory, packing, and shipping, which can be beneficial when selling custom products or adding a personal touch to outgoing packages.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nAnd the cons:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>With FBM, you spend more time and effort to pick, pack, label, and ship products and process customer service requests, returns, and refunds.</li>\r\n \t<li>FBM products aren’t automatically eligible for Prime. You may be able to qualify for Seller Fulfilled Prime.</li>\r\n \t<li>You have less opportunity to win the buy box (and be the featured offer).</li>\r\n \t<li>Although profit margins may be higher with FBM, sales volume is likely to be lower.</li>\r\n \t<li>You need to store products in your home or garage or procure warehouse storage.</li>\r\n \t<li>Overhead costs, including shipping fees, are generally higher.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h2 id=\"tab3\" ><a name=\"_Toc32773715\"></a><a name=\"_Toc31012337\"></a><a name=\"_Toc31011833\"></a>Seller Fulfilled Prime</h2>\r\nWith Seller Fulfilled Prime, you store and ship products from your own warehouses, while committing to delivering products to Prime customers within Amazon’s required two-day delivery window. If approved for Seller Fulfilled Prime, you’re allowed to display the Prime badge for products shipped from your warehouses. In addition to other benefits, Amazon provides access to discounted transportation solutions to help meet the two-day Prime delivery promise.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips remember\">During the time of this writing, Amazon wasn’t accepting new registrations for <a href=\"https://services.amazon.com/services/seller-fulfilled-prime.html\">Seller Fulfilled Prime</a>, but you can join the waitlist.</p>\r\n\r\n<h3><a name=\"_Toc32773716\"></a>Recognizing the benefits of Seller Fulfilled Prime</h3>\r\nSeller Fulfilled Prime offers several benefits, including the following:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>You pick, pack, and ship products from your warehouses, so you have greater control over your own inventory and operations.</li>\r\n \t<li>You can list products as Prime, which is very appealing to Amazon’s most loyal customers. Prime customers often filter product listings so as to display only Prime products. To have a chance to win this business, your products must qualify as Prime offerings.</li>\r\n \t<li>Prime listings have a greater chance of winning the buy box.</li>\r\n \t<li>By offering free two-day guaranteed shipping, you improve your chances of repeat and multiple orders.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">Seller Fulfilled Prime is generally best suited for high value items, seasonal products with unpredictable demand, slow moving goods, items with variations, and inventory that requires special handling or preparation.</p>\r\n\r\n<h3><a name=\"_Toc32773717\"></a>Meeting Seller Fulfilled Prime requirements</h3>\r\nBeing able to deliver products from your warehouse(s) to Prime customers within Amazon’s two-day window is only one of several Seller Fulfilled Prime requirements. To qualify for and maintain good standing in this program, you must meet the following requirements:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Offer premium shipping options.</li>\r\n \t<li>Ship more than 99 percent of the orders on time (the same day you receive the orders).</li>\r\n \t<li>Maintain order cancellation rate of less than 0.5 percent.</li>\r\n \t<li>Buy Amazon shipping services for at least 98.5 percent of Amazon orders; for the most part, you buy shipping labels from Amazon-approved carriers, who deliver orders to customers.</li>\r\n \t<li>Allow Amazon to handle customer service queries.</li>\r\n \t<li>Agree to and comply with Amazon Returns Policy.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h3><a name=\"_Toc32773718\"></a>Successfully navigating the trial period</h3>\r\nTo participate in Seller Fulfilled Prime, you must successfully complete a trial period, which traditionally consists of filling a certain number of orders within a set period of time — for example, 50 orders in 90 days or fewer. Products aren’t listed with the Prime badge during this time, and all orders must be processed with a zero-day handling time.\r\n\r\nAssuming you successfully complete the trial period, you’re enrolled in the program, and the Prime badge is displayed for participating ASINs.\r\n<h3><a name=\"_Toc32773719\"></a>Participating in Seller Fulfilled Prime</h3>\r\nTo meet your Seller Fulfilled Prime obligations, take the following steps:\r\n<ol>\r\n \t<li><strong> Maintain sufficient inventory in your warehouse(s) to fill customer orders.</strong></li>\r\n \t<li><strong> Buy shipping labels from Amazon-approved carriers. </strong>In Seller Central, select Orders and then Manage Orders and press the Buy Shipping button for the order you want to ship. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the process.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong> Pick, pack, and ship the orders the same day they’re received, typically by 4 p.m. </strong>Orders will be delivered within two days by Amazon-approved carriers.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n<p class=\"article-tips warning\">Inspect shipping costs closely prior to deciding whether to “Buy Shipping” from Amazon-approved carriers. Seller Fulfilled Prime free shipping options may be cost-prohibitive for certain products or product categories.</p>\r\nFor questions about Seller Fulfilled Prime, email <a href=\"mailto:[email protected]\">[email protected]</a>.\r\n<h3><a name=\"_Toc31012338\"></a><a name=\"_Toc31011834\"></a><a name=\"_Toc32773720\"></a>Managing Seller Fulfilled Prime orders</h3>\r\nTo manage Seller Fulfilled Prime SKUs, log on to Seller Central, open the Inventory menu, and select Manage Seller Fulfilled Prime. The Manage Seller Fulfilled Prime dashboard appears providing the tools you need to manage orders.\r\n<h2 id=\"tab4\" ><a name=\"_Toc32773721\"></a>Drop-shipping</h2>\r\nDrop-shipping is the ultimate in look-ma-no-hands order fulfillment and low-cost, low-risk startups and product testing! You build a store and list products that the drop-ship supplier has available. Customers order products through your store, and the order goes to the drop-shipper, which fulfills the order for you. (Most drop-shippers merely act as a conduit between sellers and numerous suppliers that offer their own drop-shipping services.) Because you don’t have to stock up on inventory, you can start selling without having to buy any products up front.\r\n\r\nAlthough drop-shipping may strike you as the ideal option, consider a couple potential (and significant) drawbacks:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Although drop-shipping is a low-cost, low-risk approach to testing the waters with customers, as your sales and business grow, the costs eat into your profit margins. If you’re selling high-volume or low-margin items, drop-shipping may not be the best choice for selling any product long term.</li>\r\n \t<li>If the drop-shipper drops the ball on an order, you suffer the consequences of disappointing a customer.</li>\r\n \t<li>You’re at the mercy of the drop-shipper regarding inventory. If your drop-shipper runs out of stock or discontinues a product, you’re out of luck.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nEven though Amazon generally accepts drop-shipping to its customers, it enforces certain criteria to maintain a high-quality shopping experience. All the sellers who intend to fulfill the orders through drop-shipping must meet the following criteria:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Be the seller on record</li>\r\n \t<li>Identify as the seller of the products on all the packaging material, invoices, and any other documentation</li>\r\n \t<li>Remove any mention of the drop-shipper from invoices, packaging, products, and anything else sent to customers</li>\r\n \t<li>Be responsible for all the product returns</li>\r\n \t<li>Comply with all other seller policies and Amazon policies</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">Drop-shipping is a great way to test the market for any new, unproven products. You can list the product without investing in inventory. If the product takes off, you can switch to FBA or FBM.</p>\r\nTo find out more about drop-shipping, check out some of the top drop-shipping suppliers:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><a href=\"https://home.aliexpress.com/dropshippercenter/dashboard.htm\">AliExpress</a></li>\r\n \t<li><a href=\"http://www.doba.com\">Doba</a></li>\r\n \t<li><a href=\"http://www.oberlo.com\">Oberlo</a></li>\r\n \t<li><a href=\"http://www.salehoo.com\">SaleHoo</a></li>\r\n \t<li><a href=\"http://www.spocket.co\">Sprocket</a></li>\r\n</ul>","blurb":"","authors":[{"authorId":33370,"name":"Deniz Olmez","slug":"deniz-olmez","description":" <p><b>Deniz Olmez</b> is an Amazon consultant who specializes in search engine optimization, new account setup and management, FBA, and branding services. <b>Joe Kraynak</b> has authored and coauthored numerous books including <i>Flipping Houses For Dummies</i> and <i>Foreclosure Self&#45;Defense For Dummies.</i> ","hasArticle":false,"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/33370"}},{"authorId":8993,"name":"Joseph Kraynak","slug":"joseph-kraynak","description":" <p><b>Kenneth W. Boyd</b> has 30 years of experience in accounting and financial services. He is a four&#45;time Dummies book author, a blogger, and a video host on accounting and finance topics. ","hasArticle":false,"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/8993"}}],"primaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":34250,"title":"Sales","slug":"sales","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34250"}},"secondaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":33589,"title":"Amazon","slug":"amazon","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/33589"}},"tertiaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"trendingArticles":null,"inThisArticle":[{"label":"Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)","target":"#tab1"},{"label":"Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM)","target":"#tab2"},{"label":"Seller Fulfilled Prime","target":"#tab3"},{"label":"Drop-shipping","target":"#tab4"}],"relatedArticles":{"fromBook":[{"articleId":271837,"title":"How to Add Your Trademark to the Amazon Brand 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Inventory","slug":"selling-on-amazon-manage-inventory","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271827"}},{"articleId":271821,"title":"Selling on Amazon: How to Source Products from Alibaba","slug":"selling-on-amazon-how-to-source-products-from-alibaba","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271821"}}],"fromCategory":[{"articleId":271837,"title":"How to Add Your Trademark to the Amazon Brand Registry","slug":"how-to-add-your-trademark-to-the-amazon-brand-registry","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271837"}},{"articleId":271834,"title":"Manage Your Amazon Seller Account with the Mobile 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Alibaba","slug":"selling-on-amazon-how-to-source-products-from-alibaba","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/271821"}}]},"hasRelatedBookFromSearch":false,"relatedBook":{"bookId":282568,"slug":"selling-on-amazon-for-dummies","isbn":"9781119689331","categoryList":["business-careers-money","business","sales"],"amazon":{"default":"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1119689333/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","ca":"https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1119689333/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","indigo_ca":"http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-9208661-13710633?url=https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/product/1119689333-item.html&cjsku=978111945484","gb":"https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1119689333/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","de":"https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/1119689333/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20"},"image":{"src":"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/selling-on-amazon-for-dummies-cover-9781119689331-203x255.jpg","width":203,"height":255},"title":"Selling on Amazon For Dummies","testBankPinActivationLink":"","bookOutOfPrint":false,"authorsInfo":"<p><b data-author-id=\"33370\">Deniz Olmez</b> is an Amazon consultant who specializes in search engine optimization, new account setup and management, FBA, and branding services. <b data-author-id=\"8993\">Joe Kraynak</b> has authored and coauthored numerous books including <i>Flipping Houses For Dummies</i> and <i>Foreclosure Self-Defense For Dummies.</i> </p>","authors":[{"authorId":33370,"name":"Deniz Olmez","slug":"deniz-olmez","description":" <p><b>Deniz Olmez</b> is an Amazon consultant who specializes in search engine optimization, new account setup and management, FBA, and branding services. <b>Joe Kraynak</b> has authored and coauthored numerous books including <i>Flipping Houses For Dummies</i> and <i>Foreclosure Self&#45;Defense For Dummies.</i> ","hasArticle":false,"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/33370"}},{"authorId":8993,"name":"Joseph Kraynak","slug":"joseph-kraynak","description":" <p><b>Kenneth W. Boyd</b> has 30 years of experience in accounting and financial services. He is a four&#45;time Dummies book author, a blogger, and a video host on accounting and finance topics. ","hasArticle":false,"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/8993"}}],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/books/"}},"collections":[],"articleAds":{"footerAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;business&quot;,&quot;sales&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781119689331&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-63221ac980fe7\"></div></div>","rightAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_right_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_right_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;business&quot;,&quot;sales&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781119689331&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-63221ac981851\"></div></div>"},"articleType":{"articleType":"Articles","articleList":null,"content":null,"videoInfo":{"videoId":null,"name":null,"accountId":null,"playerId":null,"thumbnailUrl":null,"description":null,"uploadDate":null}},"sponsorship":{"sponsorshipPage":false,"backgroundImage":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0},"brandingLine":"","brandingLink":"","brandingLogo":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0},"sponsorAd":"","sponsorEbookTitle":"","sponsorEbookLink":"","sponsorEbookImage":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0}},"primaryLearningPath":"Advance","lifeExpectancy":null,"lifeExpectancySetFrom":null,"dummiesForKids":"no","sponsoredContent":"no","adInfo":"","adPairKey":[]},"status":"publish","visibility":"public","articleId":271824},{"headers":{"creationTime":"2020-07-02T18:50:47+00:00","modifiedTime":"2020-07-02T18:50:47+00:00","timestamp":"2022-09-14T18:17:45+00:00"},"data":{"breadcrumbs":[{"name":"Business, Careers, & Money","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34224"},"slug":"business-careers-money","categoryId":34224},{"name":"Business","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34225"},"slug":"business","categoryId":34225},{"name":"Sales","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34250"},"slug":"sales","categoryId":34250}],"title":"Selling on Amazon: How to Source Products from Alibaba","strippedTitle":"selling on amazon: how to source products from alibaba","slug":"selling-on-amazon-how-to-source-products-from-alibaba","canonicalUrl":"","seo":{"metaDescription":"Learn how to source products from Alibaba, where you can search for suppliers of products at prices that enable you to maximize your profits.","noIndex":0,"noFollow":0},"content":"Alibaba is a Chinese ecommerce behemoth serving both consumers and businesses. It has revolutionized product sourcing, enabling hundreds of thousands of businesses across the globe to access millions of products at prices previously available only to big-box retailers. To optimize your success as an <a href=\"https://www.dummies.com/business/online-business/selling-on-amazon-for-dummies-cheat-sheet/\">Amazon Seller</a>, we strongly encourage you to become familiar with Alibaba, where you’ll often find the best deals.\r\n\r\nStart by conducting some basic product research to answer the following questions:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>What kind of products do you want to sell — clothing, tools, toys, household products?</li>\r\n \t<li>Which products have the greatest sales and profit potential?</li>\r\n \t<li>What price are consumers willing to pay for each product?</li>\r\n \t<li>How much will it cost me to sell each product? Consider the product’s cost, Amazon selling fees, and any FBA fees.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nWhen you have a pretty good idea of a product you want to sell, visit <a href=\"https://www.alibaba.com\">Alibaba.com</a>, open the drop-down list to the left of the Search box, and choose Suppliers (see the following figure). Click in the Search box, type a brief description of the product, and press the Search button. (The Search box also has a camera icon you can tap to search for a product by uploading an image of it.)\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_271780\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"556\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-271780\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/selling-amazon-alibaba.jpg\" alt=\"Alibaba\" width=\"556\" height=\"360\" /> Search for suppliers on Alibaba.[/caption]\r\n\r\nAlibaba displays a long list of suppliers that sell products like the one you searched for. Use the filters above the list of suppliers and those on the left side of the page to narrow your search. You can narrow your search by product category, supplier type and location, company size (by revenue or number of employees), and more.\r\n\r\nAs shown in the figure, for each supplier in the list, Alibaba displays its name, how long it has been in business, and other details to help you make an informed choice of supplier. Details about each supplier include the following:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><strong>Badges: </strong>A supplier may have one or more of the following badges to indicate its credentials:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><strong>Trade Assurance</strong> indicates the supplier supports Alibaba’s Trade Assurance service, which protects your order from payment to delivery.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Gold Supplier </strong>indicates the supplier supports Trade Assurance and has passed one or more onsite checks to verify the business type and commercial or industrial capabilities. The Gold Supplier badge gives the supplier more credibility, but it doesn’t guarantee product quality or authenticity.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Verified Supplier </strong>indicates the supplier has been assessed and certified by independent third-party entities via online or offline methods. Again, this badge gives suppliers more credibility but doesn’t guarantee product quality or authenticity.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Transaction Level: </strong>The more diamonds a supplier has the greater the number of transactions it has on the Alibaba platform.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Response Rate:</strong> This metric indicates the percentage of buyers who have received a response within 24 hours of contacting the supplier.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Transactions:</strong> This metric indicates the number of transactions and their total dollar value over the past six months.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nIf you need additional information from a supplier, press the Contact Supplier button for the chosen supplier and use the resulting form to compose and send your question.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">To obtain quotes from a number of suppliers, submit a request for quote (RFQ). Return to Alibaba’s home page, open the Services menu, select Submit RFQ, and use the resulting form to enter the details of your RFQ, including the product name and category, quantity, and terms. Within hours and over the course of the coming days, you’ll receive quotes from suppliers. You can manage your RFQs by going to My Alibaba and choosing Manage RFQ.</p>\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">As you evaluate prospective suppliers, follow these best practices:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Arrange a phone call or videoconference with the supplier before placing an order, so you can get a feel for how trustworthy the supplier is.</li>\r\n \t<li>Ask questions to obtain all the details you need to make a well-informed choice. Legitimate suppliers won’t hesitate to provide the requested details.</li>\r\n \t<li>Visit the supplier’s warehouse, if possible. If an in-person visit isn’t possible, request a video tour of the facility.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">Big suppliers may have warehouses in multiple countries to avoid the hassles and headaches of dealing with customs and taxes. Ask the supplier if it has a warehouse in your country that would be more convenient for you to visit.</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Search the warehouse and business location online to verify their existence.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p class=\"article-tips warning\">Beware of fraudsters, even on Alibaba:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Compare the supplier’s name and address on its website and any correspondence you receive from the supplier with the name and address on Alibaba.</li>\r\n \t<li>Verify the supplier’s email address and website. Reputable suppliers often have email addresses associate with the domain instead of “google.com” or “yahoo.com.”</li>\r\n \t<li>Think twice before moving forward on any offer that seems to be too good to be true; it probably is.</li>\r\n \t<li>Avoid suppliers who ask for early payment, because fraudsters often want to grab the money and disappear. Legitimate suppliers won’t ask for payment prior to signing an agreement.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nAlso, before contracting with a supplier, order product samples. Getting your hands on actual products is a great quality assurance precaution.\r\n\r\nAfter deciding on a supplier, you’re ready to start negotiations and work out the logistics, such as agreeing to payment terms and methods, customs and import process, and any arrangements to ship products to Amazon fulfillment centers.","description":"Alibaba is a Chinese ecommerce behemoth serving both consumers and businesses. It has revolutionized product sourcing, enabling hundreds of thousands of businesses across the globe to access millions of products at prices previously available only to big-box retailers. To optimize your success as an <a href=\"https://www.dummies.com/business/online-business/selling-on-amazon-for-dummies-cheat-sheet/\">Amazon Seller</a>, we strongly encourage you to become familiar with Alibaba, where you’ll often find the best deals.\r\n\r\nStart by conducting some basic product research to answer the following questions:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>What kind of products do you want to sell — clothing, tools, toys, household products?</li>\r\n \t<li>Which products have the greatest sales and profit potential?</li>\r\n \t<li>What price are consumers willing to pay for each product?</li>\r\n \t<li>How much will it cost me to sell each product? Consider the product’s cost, Amazon selling fees, and any FBA fees.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nWhen you have a pretty good idea of a product you want to sell, visit <a href=\"https://www.alibaba.com\">Alibaba.com</a>, open the drop-down list to the left of the Search box, and choose Suppliers (see the following figure). Click in the Search box, type a brief description of the product, and press the Search button. (The Search box also has a camera icon you can tap to search for a product by uploading an image of it.)\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_271780\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"556\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-271780\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/selling-amazon-alibaba.jpg\" alt=\"Alibaba\" width=\"556\" height=\"360\" /> Search for suppliers on Alibaba.[/caption]\r\n\r\nAlibaba displays a long list of suppliers that sell products like the one you searched for. Use the filters above the list of suppliers and those on the left side of the page to narrow your search. You can narrow your search by product category, supplier type and location, company size (by revenue or number of employees), and more.\r\n\r\nAs shown in the figure, for each supplier in the list, Alibaba displays its name, how long it has been in business, and other details to help you make an informed choice of supplier. Details about each supplier include the following:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><strong>Badges: </strong>A supplier may have one or more of the following badges to indicate its credentials:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><strong>Trade Assurance</strong> indicates the supplier supports Alibaba’s Trade Assurance service, which protects your order from payment to delivery.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Gold Supplier </strong>indicates the supplier supports Trade Assurance and has passed one or more onsite checks to verify the business type and commercial or industrial capabilities. The Gold Supplier badge gives the supplier more credibility, but it doesn’t guarantee product quality or authenticity.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Verified Supplier </strong>indicates the supplier has been assessed and certified by independent third-party entities via online or offline methods. Again, this badge gives suppliers more credibility but doesn’t guarantee product quality or authenticity.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Transaction Level: </strong>The more diamonds a supplier has the greater the number of transactions it has on the Alibaba platform.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Response Rate:</strong> This metric indicates the percentage of buyers who have received a response within 24 hours of contacting the supplier.</li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Transactions:</strong> This metric indicates the number of transactions and their total dollar value over the past six months.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nIf you need additional information from a supplier, press the Contact Supplier button for the chosen supplier and use the resulting form to compose and send your question.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">To obtain quotes from a number of suppliers, submit a request for quote (RFQ). Return to Alibaba’s home page, open the Services menu, select Submit RFQ, and use the resulting form to enter the details of your RFQ, including the product name and category, quantity, and terms. Within hours and over the course of the coming days, you’ll receive quotes from suppliers. You can manage your RFQs by going to My Alibaba and choosing Manage RFQ.</p>\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">As you evaluate prospective suppliers, follow these best practices:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Arrange a phone call or videoconference with the supplier before placing an order, so you can get a feel for how trustworthy the supplier is.</li>\r\n \t<li>Ask questions to obtain all the details you need to make a well-informed choice. Legitimate suppliers won’t hesitate to provide the requested details.</li>\r\n \t<li>Visit the supplier’s warehouse, if possible. If an in-person visit isn’t possible, request a video tour of the facility.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">Big suppliers may have warehouses in multiple countries to avoid the hassles and headaches of dealing with customs and taxes. Ask the supplier if it has a warehouse in your country that would be more convenient for you to visit.</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Search the warehouse and business location online to verify their existence.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p class=\"article-tips warning\">Beware of fraudsters, even on Alibaba:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Compare the supplier’s name and address on its website and any correspondence you receive from the supplier with the name and address on Alibaba.</li>\r\n \t<li>Verify the supplier’s email address and website. Reputable suppliers often have email addresses associate with the domain instead of “google.com” or “yahoo.com.”</li>\r\n \t<li>Think twice before moving forward on any offer that seems to be too good to be true; it probably is.</li>\r\n \t<li>Avoid suppliers who ask for early payment, because fraudsters often want to grab the money and disappear. Legitimate suppliers won’t ask for payment prior to signing an agreement.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nAlso, before contracting with a supplier, order product samples. Getting your hands on actual products is a great quality assurance precaution.\r\n\r\nAfter deciding on a supplier, you’re ready to start negotiations and work out the logistics, such as agreeing to payment terms and methods, customs and import process, and any arrangements to ship products to Amazon fulfillment centers.","blurb":"","authors":[{"authorId":33370,"name":"Deniz Olmez","slug":"deniz-olmez","description":" <p><b>Deniz Olmez</b> is an Amazon consultant who specializes in search engine optimization, new account setup and management, FBA, and branding services. <b>Joe Kraynak</b> has authored and coauthored numerous books including <i>Flipping Houses For Dummies</i> and <i>Foreclosure Self&#45;Defense For Dummies.</i> ","hasArticle":false,"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/33370"}},{"authorId":8993,"name":"Joseph Kraynak","slug":"joseph-kraynak","description":" <p><b>Kenneth W. Boyd</b> has 30 years of experience in accounting and financial services. He is a four&#45;time Dummies book author, a blogger, and a video host on accounting and finance topics. 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Sales Direct Selling For Dummies Cheat Sheet

Cheat Sheet / Updated 07-01-2022

Direct selling has come a long way from its humble, domestic roots in 1950s Americana. Today’s top independent representatives run highly efficient, modern businesses that often leave more traditional retailers in the dust. There are three main types of direct sales models: social selling, network marketing, and affiliate/influencer, and each finds its niche in the industry. Being successful means setting and meeting goals. Doing so keeps you on your toes and engaged in your business. Once you get going in your business, there are lots of hard-earned tips and tricks you can apply to really maximize your profit. The following are some resources you can use regularly as a direct seller. You can find helpful information about everything from time management, team communications, social media communication and strategy, money management, and a wide assortment of other topics.

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Sales Sales Management For Dummies Cheat Sheet

Cheat Sheet / Updated 04-26-2022

Being a successful sales manager means so much more than being a good sales person (although that certainly is a big part of it). You have to be skilled at identifying new talent, know how to run an effective sales meeting, and set and track the progress of goals for your team. Nobody said the job was easy, but it's certainly never dull.

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Sales Selling For Dummies Cheat Sheet

Cheat Sheet / Updated 03-01-2022

With the right selling skills in your arsenal, you’ll have more happiness and satisfaction in all areas of your life, not just in your selling career (although your selling will certainly benefit, too). To start down the road to sales success, you need to know how to make a good first impression, ensure that your prospective clients need what you have, give fantastic presentations, address client concerns, and close sales.

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Sales Selling on Amazon For Dummies Cheat Sheet

Cheat Sheet / Updated 02-22-2022

Selling on Amazon is a broad topic that covers everything from researching products to sell and sourcing products to listing products for sale, fulfilling orders, and serving customers after a sale. This Cheat Sheet highlights a few key topics.

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Sales How to Add Your Trademark to the Amazon Brand Registry

Article / Updated 07-02-2020

If you have an approved trademark, as an Amazon seller you can create an Amazon Brand Registry account and add your trademark to the Brand Registry, assuming you meet the following program requirements: You have an active trademark that appears on your products and packaging. You can verify that you’re the owner of the trademark. (You have a trademark registration certificate from the USPTO or you applied for trademark registration through Amazon’s IP Accelerator.) You have an Amazon Brand Registry account, which you can create using your existing Seller Central credentials. In the following discussion, we list the benefits of having your brand registered on Amazon and provide instructions on how to add your brand to Amazon’s Brand Registry. The benefits of Amazon Brand Registry Amazon’s Brand Registry delivers several benefits to brand owners, including the following: Accurate brand representation: The listings you create for your branded products are the listings shoppers see. You’re the only seller who can change the content of your branded product listings. Brand protection: Amazon prohibits other sellers from using your brand and provides you with search and report tools to identify potential infringements and report them to Amazon. In addition, Amazon’s predictive protection mechanisms identify and remove any content that’s suspected of infringing on your brand or providing inaccurate content about your branded products. 24/7/365 support: As a registered brand owner, you have access to Amazon support teams 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and 365 days of the year to answer questions and address concerns. Brand-building tools: Registered brands have access to Amazon’s brand building tools including A+ Pages, Sponsored Brands, Stores and the Brand Dashboard. Adding your brand to Amazon’s Brand Registry When you’re ready to add your brand/trademark to Amazon’s Brand Registry, take the following steps: 1. Go to Brand Services and press the Get Started button. 2. Review the eligibility requirements and press the Enroll Now button. 3. Select the country-specific marketplace where you want to enroll your brand. 4. After the Tell Us About Your Business page appears, enter the requested details about your business and press the Create Account button. 5. From the Amazon Brand Registry page, press the Enroll a New Brand button. Amazon asks you to confirm your brand eligibility, as shown. 6. Answer the following questions and press the Next button: Do your products and packaging have a permanently affixed brand name and logo? Do you intend to enroll more than ten brands in the Brand Registry? Do you have a brand name to be registered? After you click the Next button, the Intellectual Property page appears, as shown. 7. Enter the requested information, as follows, and press the Next button: Trademark type: Open the list and select Word Mark or Design Mark. Mark name: Click in the box and type the mark name as it appears on your trademark registration certificate. Trademark number: Click in the box and type the trademark number that appears on your trademark registration certificate. Trademark office: Open the list and select the country or region from which the trademark registration certificate was issued. After you click the Next button, the Tell Us More About page appears, as shown. 8. Answer the following questions about your trademark, products, seller and vendor accounts, and manufacturing and licensing: Do you products have UPCs, ISBNs, EANs, or other GTINs? If you sell your products online, let us know where (optional). Does your brand have an existing relationship with Amazon? If it does, specify your role: Seller, Vendor, or Both. Otherwise, choose No, my brand doesn’t have an existing seller or vendor relationship with Amazon. Does your brand manufacture products? Does your brand license the trademarks to others who manufacture products associated with your intellectual property? Where are your brand’s products manufactured? Select your answers from the lists provided. Where are your brand’s products distributed? Select your answers from the lists provided. 9. Press the Submit Application button. Amazon sends an email message with the case ID and another with a verification code to the contact you specified on your trademark application (you or your attorney). If you don’t receive these messages, ask your attorney to forward them to you. 10. Log in to Seller Central and scroll down to the Manage Your Case Log section. 11. Open the case message that applies to your adding your brand to the Brand Registry and choose the option to reply to the message. 12. Type or paste the verification code into your reply and choose the option to send the message. The Amazon Brand Registry support team completes the brand registration process and notifies you of its completion within one or two days.

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Sales Manage Your Amazon Seller Account with the Mobile App

Article / Updated 07-02-2020

Success as an Amazon seller relies on providing superior customer service 24/7/365. It requires being responsive to customer questions and complaints whether the customer tries to contact you during or outside business hours and even when you’re on vacation with your family. To stay in close contact with Amazon and your Amazon customers, consider downloading and installing the Amazon Seller app on your smartphone. With this free app, you can do the following: Receive Amazon notifications and address critical issues when you’re away from your office Snap, edit, and save product photos using your mobile device Scan products with or without a barcode using visual search, so you can easily create product listings for new products Conduct sale analysis and track your sales growth Manage orders, inventory, and advertising and promotional campaigns Contact Amazon Seller support when you need help Share the app with your team to become even more responsive to customers and have more eyes on opportunities and critical issues Where to get the Amazon Seller Mobile App The Amazon Seller Mobile App is currently available for iOS (Apple) and Android devices, and it’s free to install and use. To get the app, go to the app store for your device, search for “amazon seller,” and, when the Amazon Seller app appears, press the Install button. You can find the Amazon Seller app at any of the following App Stores: Apple’s App Store Google Play Amazon App Store After installing the app, press the button to run it and then select your primary marketplace (country). When prompted to log on, enter your login credentials (username and password), just as you would do to log on to your Amazon seller account from a computer. How to navigate the Amazon Seller Mobile App The Amazon Seller Mobile App has many of the same features and functionality as are built into the version you access via your computer’s web browser; everything is just presented a little differently. Most of the opening screen is dedicated to displaying your recent sales performance over the past seven days. Just above the main area is a bar you can swipe left or right to view key information, such as today’s total sales (in dollars and units), your current Amazon balance, when you can expect your next payment from Amazon, and your customer feedback rating. In the upper left corner of the screen is a menu button you can tap to view a list of options for returning to the Home page, managing inventory, viewing orders, communicating with customers or Amazon staff, getting help, signing out, and more. Near the bottom of the opening screen is another menu with options for performing common tasks, such as adding a product listing, managing orders, and checking your Amazon account health. Tap the camera icon in the upper right corner of the screen to scan a product, using its barcode or just a snapshot of the product, and create a product listing from it. This technique is a great way to add listings for specific products when you encounter a product anywhere that you want to start selling.

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Sales How to Track Your Amazon Seller Account’s Health and Performance

Article / Updated 07-02-2020

To a certain degree, Amazon’s success hinges on the performance of its third-party sellers. To ensure consistent product quality and customer satisfaction across all sellers, Amazon sets performance targets and policies and provides sellers with tools for evaluating and improving their own performance. You can access the tools from Seller Central via the Performance menu to provide guidance. How to check your Account Health Open the Performance menu and choose Account Health to access an overview of how well you’re doing in terms of complying with Amazon’s performance targets and policies (see the following figure). Overall account health is reflected by three metrics: customer service performance, product policy compliance, and shipping performance. Customer service performance Customer service performance is measured in terms of Order Defect Rate (ODR) — the percentage of total orders that result in negative seller feedback, an A-to-Z Guarantee claim that’s not denied, or a chargeback. (A chargeback is a reversal of a credit card payment initiated by the bank that issued the card.) Amazon sets a target order defect rate for all sellers of less than 1 percent. Here you can view your order defect rate broken down by Seller Fulfilled versus Fulfilled by Amazon orders and by the three metrics: negative feedback, A-to-Z Guarantee claims, and chargeback claims. Product policy compliance Amazon has a long list of policies it expects its sellers to comply with. Even a single violation of one of Amazon’s policies places your seller account at risk of suspension. To determine whether you have a clean record, check the Product Policy Compliance section of the Account Health page. Product compliance complaints include the following: Suspected intellectual property violations Received intellectual property complaints Product authenticity customer complaints Product condition customer complaints Product safety customer complaints Listing policy violations Restricted product policy violations Customer product reviews policy violations Amazon sets a target of zero product policy complaints or violations. If you receive a performance notification from Amazon indicating that you’re guilty of a violation or that someone has filed a complaint against you, respond immediately to address the issue. Shipping performance Amazon gauges shipping performance by late shipment rate (with a target of under 4 percent), a pre-fulfillment cancellation rate (with a target of under 2.5 percent), and a valid tracking rate (with a target above 95 percent). You’re responsible only for orders you fulfill. Amazon is responsible for Fulfillment by Amazon performance. When filling orders yourself, underpromise and overdeliver. Promise a deliver window you’re fairly certain you can beat by a day or two and try to get your products delivered a day or two early to impress your customers. How to review Amazon customer feedback The Account Health page includes a section for negative customer feedback, but if you’re looking for additional customer feedback metrics, open the Performance menu and choose Feedback. The Feedback Manager page appears (refer to the following figure), displaying your overall customer feedback rating and breaking it down into periods of 30, 90, 365, and Lifetime. Metrics are broken down into percentages of positive (four or five stars), neutral (three stars), and negative (one or two stars). This page also includes all the feedback you received along with a set of actions (on the far right) for responding publicly to the feedback or requesting its removal if you think it violates Amazon’s feedback policy. The Feedback Manager page also has an option to download your feedback report. Monitor and manage your A-to-Z Guarantee claims Amazon’s A-to-Z Guarantee ensures customer satisfaction when they buy from third-party sellers by guaranteeing that products are delivered on time and in good condition. If a customer contacts you about a problem with a product or its timely delivery, and the two of you are unable to resolve the issue, the customer can file an A-to-Z Guarantee claim to seek resolution from Amazon. Amazon requires that customers contact the seller prior to filing an A-to-Z Guarantee claim, either via Buyer-Seller messaging or by submitting a return request. If the customer isn’t satisfied within 48 hours of filing the request, she can file an A-to-Z Guarantee claim. Amazon notifies you upon receipt of the claim, and you have 72 hours to respond. If you don’t respond, Amazon grants the claim, refunds the customer’s payment, and takes the money out of your account. Worse yet, because A-to-Z Guarantee claims are a key component of your order defect rate (ODR), which needs to be below 1 percent, not handling a claim increases your ODR, jeopardizing your account. To monitor and manage your A-to-Z Guarantee claims, open the Performance menu and choose A-to-Z Guarantee claims. The resulting page includes four tabs for filtering your A-to-Z Guarantee claims: Action Required, Under Review, Option to Appeal, and All. You can also search for a claim by order number. When a customer contacts you about an order, respond promptly and do your best to resolve any issues, even if you must take a loss on a transaction. You certainly shouldn’t give into scammers who just want free products, but be open to resolving any issue that seems remotely legitimate. Depending on the A-to-Z Guarantee claim and how it’s resolved, it may or may not add to your ODR. Monitor and manage your chargeback claims A chargeback typically occurs when a disgruntled customer is unable to resolve a dispute with a seller or service provider and turns to her credit card company for help. If the credit card company investigates the transaction, can’t resolve the issue with the seller/service provider, and determines that the customer is right, the company may reverse the charge. As seller on Amazon, you want to avoid chargebacks, because they negatively impact your ODR and overall customer service performance rating. To check whether you have any chargebacks and to manage any chargeback disputes, open the Performance menu and choose Chargeback Claims. The Chargebacks page appears, showing any chargeback claims that customers have filed against you. You can click the Action Required tab to view only active chargeback claims or the All tab to view a list of all chargeback claims. Access Amazon’s performance notifications If Amazon’s performance metrics indicate any issues that may negatively impact your account health or ability to sell, Amazon sends you a performance notification via email and stores a copy of it for reference. To access your performance notifications, open the Performance menu and choose Performance Notifications. To view the contents of a performance notification, click its subject line. To avoid having your account suspended, read all performance notifications and reply to any that indicate a response is expected. Gain additional insight via the Voice of the Customer feature Voice of the Customer is a customer experience (CX) dashboard that uses statistical analysis to identify potential issues with product listings. Behind the scenes, Voice of the Customer analyzes your product listings and product and listing feedback from customers and uses the results to rank your listings as very poor, poor, fair, good, or excellent. You can then dig down to review issues with specific listings and address them to improve the customer experience. To access Voice of the Customer, open the Performance menu and choose Voice of the Customer. The following figure shows a sample of the opening Voice of the Customer dashboard. Near the top of the dashboard is a CX Health breakdown of your listings, showing the total number of very poor, poor, fair, good, and excellent ratings. Below that is a table that shows CX details for each product you’ve listed. Pay special attention to the details in the following columns: NCX Rate is a percentage of orders that received negative feedback out of the total number of orders. CX health is an indication of the average customer experience ranked from very poor to excellent. Last updated is the most recent date a sale was made or an NCX was received. If you just listed a product and haven’t sold any yet, the product won’t have an NCX or CX rating. Improve your performance via Seller University The one item on the Performance menu that seems to be out of place is Seller University, which would seem better suited for a Help menu. However, its placement on the Performance menu reflects how valuable Amazon believes Seller University can be in helping sellers quickly optimize their performance. Seller University is a collection of brief video clips designed to bring sellers quickly up to speed on the process of selling on Amazon and using Amazon tools and applications to their advantage.

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Sales Selling on Amazon: Manage Inventory

Article / Updated 07-02-2020

Use Amazon’s Manage Inventory page to search, view, and update the inventory records for products you sell on Amazon. To access the Manage Inventory page, log in to Seller Central, open the Inventory menu, and select Manage Inventory. The Manage Inventory page appears, as shown in the figure, where you can do the following: Search for a product: To search for a specific product, click in the Search box, near the top of the page, type the product’s SKU, Title, ISBN, or other attribute, and press the Search button. Filter inventory: Use the options above the table to view all products in inventory or only active or inactive inventory or to view all products or only FBA or only Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM) products. You may also see filters for displaying only those products with suppressed listings, quality issues, or price alerts — product listings that have specific problems you need to address before those products will appear in searches. One of the most common uses of the Manage Inventory page is to quickly identify suppressed listings and make corrections to those listings. Click Suppressed near the top left of the Manage Inventory page to display a complete list of suppressed listings. In the table of suppressed listings, check the Issue(s) to Fix box to find out why the listing is suppressed. Press the Edit button next to the listing, choose the option for correcting the issue, and follow the onscreen cues to complete the task. Click Save All to save your changes. Sort inventory: Select an inventory header attribute such as SKU or product name at the top of the inventory table to sort product listings according to that attribute. Customize the inventory table: Press the Preferences button, above and to the right of the inventory table, use the resulting options to specify the columns you want included in the table and other display options, and press the Save Changes button. Update the quantity available: In the Qty field next to a product, type the quantity currently in stock and press the Save Change the price: In the Price field next to an item, type the price of the item and press the Save Edit a product: Open the Edit drop-down list (to the right of a product listing) to access additional actions, including changing the product’s image, matching to the lowest price, or closing or deleting the product listing. (Closing a listing deactivates it, making it unavailable to shoppers. Deleting a listing removes the SKU, which is best if you plan never to list the product again.) If you sell on channels other than Amazon, look for a third-party inventory management utility that supports Amazon and your other sales channels, such as eBay, Shopify, and your own ecommerce store. Maintain sufficient stock As long as you have products listed for sale, you never want to run out, so you need to have a system in place to replenish inventory before you get to the point at which you don’t have enough to fill an order. Having enough inventory comes down to math; you need to crunch the numbers to forecast total sales over a given period of time and then place an order to replenish inventory early enough for your supplier to deliver the goods before supplies run out. In the following discussion, we lead you through the calculations and provide additional guidance on how to automate the inventory replenishment process. Forecasting sales To avoid running out of stock, you first need to know the quantity of an item you sell over a given period of time. Calculating your average daily sales volume provides you with a number you can use to forecast sales for the coming weeks, months, quarter, and even year. Use the following equation to calculate average daily sales volume for a product: Quantity Sold divided by Number of Days = Average Daily Sales Volume For example, if I sold 450 items in three months or 90 days: 450 divided by 90 = 5 Knowing the average daily sales volume simplifies the process of forecasting sales for any given period of time — a week, a month, a quarter, or a year. Just multiply the average daily sales volume by the number of days in the period, as shown in the table: Forecasting Your Sales Period Multiply Days in Period By Average Daily Sales Volume Equal Total Sales Week 7 5 35 Month 30 5 150 Quarter 90 5 450 Year 365 5 1,825 After forecasting your total sales for a given period, add 25 to 30 percent to the quantity as a buffer. Also, be sure to consider the fact that sales volume of some products is likely to increase during certain periods of the year, such as Christmas, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Amazon Prime Day. Analyze your sales reports (accessible via Seller Central’s Reports menu) to identify and better understand demand fluctuations for specific products. Accounting for lead times Suppliers need time to manufacture, pack, and ship products. Be sure to account for the time required, and place your order earlier enough so the products reach you or arrive at Amazon fulfillment centers before you run out of stock. Communicate with your suppliers to identify any potential supplier downtimes or other factors that may impact lead time, such as the following: Holiday seasons: Holidays can impact lead times in two ways. First, if a number of employees take time off, the supplier may not have the workforce required to fill orders. For example, most Chinese suppliers slow down or shut down for at least seven days (and some for several weeks) in late January and early February, in honor of Chinese New Year. Second, suppliers often are busier in the days leading up to holiday seasons, during which period they may need more time to fill orders. Order sizes: Suppliers can typically fill small orders faster than large orders, so find out from your supplier how order quantity impacts fulfillment and then plan for these variations in lead times. Shipping/delivery: Delivery times vary according to the location of the supplier and how the items are shipped, such as via air, land, or sea. Customs inspections: If products need to cross borders, expect delays due to customs inspections. Inventory processing: Whether items are shipped to you or to Amazon or other third-party fulfillment centers, they need to be logged in to inventory. With inventory planning, you need to think months in advance, not merely days or weeks. From the time you place an order with a supplier until the product is ready to be shipped (from you or an Amazon fulfillment center) generally requires at least 30 days and often longer. Replenishing FBA inventory If you use FBA, you can start the process of replenishing inventory from Amazon’s Manage Inventory page: In Seller Central, open the Inventory menu and select Manage FBA Inventory. The Inventory Amazon Fulfills page appears, as shown in the following figure. Scroll down the product list to the product you want to replenish and click the check box to the left of that product. Open the Actions menu and select Send/Replenish Inventory. Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the process. Setting up replenishment alerts Replenishment alerts notify you via email when the quantity of a product in inventory dips below the threshold you specify. With replenishment alerts, you don’t have to constantly monitor your product listings via Amazon’s Manage Inventory page. You simply set up an alert and then take action when you receive a replenishment notification. Replenishment alerts are available only for FBA products. For FBM products check the low stock alerts on your Seller Central homepage. These alerts are generated automatically based on sales over the past 30 days and the number of items in stock you entered when you first listed the product or most recently updated your quantity in stock. When creating a replenishment alert for an FBA product, Amazon allows you to specify your replenishment threshold in terms of units or weeks-of-cover (the number of weeks’ worth of inventory you have on hand based on sales over the past 30 days): Units: To figure out when to replenish based on number of units in stock, multiply your lead time by your daily sales volume and add a buffer to ensure you don’t run out of stock. For example, if your lead time is 45 days and you sell an average of five units per day, should set a replenishment alert for when you have a minimum of 225 items in stock. You would be wise to add a buffer of say 50 to 75 units to be sure you don’t run short, such as 225 + 75 = 300 units. Weeks-of-cover: To set a replenishment alert based on weeks-of-cover, start with your lead time in weeks and add a buffer of a couple weeks. For example, if your lead time is 75 days, that’s about 11 weeks, plus two weeks equal 13 weeks. Every 13 weeks, you need to order enough items to cover the next 13 weeks. Revisit your alerts regularly and make adjustments when necessary. You don’t want to run out of inventory, but inventory can build up over time leading to overstock conditions that increase your storage costs and your risk of getting stuck with products you can’t sell. To set a replenishment alert, take the following steps: In Seller Central, open the Inventory menu and select Manage Inventory. After the Manage Inventory page appears, check the box next to each product for which you want to set a replenishment alert in the table of product listings. Open the Action menu, select Set Replenishment Alerts, and press the Go button. The Set Inventory Replenishment Alerts page appears. In the When do you want to be alerted column, open the Apply to All list and select When Fulfillable Quantity Reaches (Units) or When Weeks-of-Cover Reaches (Weeks) to set the same replenishment level for all products listed or select the desired unit for each individual product. Enter the desired alert threshold quantity in the Alert Threshold box at the top of the column to use the same threshold for all items in the list or enter the desired quantity in the Alert Threshold box for each product individually. Press the Save button to save the alert. Use Amazon’s Restock Inventory tool to obtain recommendations on products to restock, replenishment quantities, and ship dates. To access the Restock Inventory tool, open the Inventory menu, select Inventory Planning, and select the Restock Inventory tab. Although Amazon will notify you via email when your fulfillment threshold is reached, you can check for alerts on Seller Central. Open the Inventory menu and select Manage FBA Inventory. A gold bell appears in the Available column next to the quantity when an alert has been set but not yet reached. A red bell indicates that the threshold has been reached. Avoiding FBA’s long-term storage fees Inventory that has been in an Amazon fulfillment center is subject to long-term storage fees charged per item or per cubic foot, whichever is greater. To help sellers avoid these fees, Amazon features an inventory planner that enables you to monitor how long your products have been stored in Amazon fulfillment centers. To access the inventory planner from Seller Central, open the Inventory menu and select Inventory Planning. The inventory planner appears with the Inventory Age tab selected, as shown. For each product stored in FBA inventory, the inventory planner displays its name, sales rank, sales (units shipped in the last 90 days), FBA sell-through (in the last 90 days), inventory age, estimated long-term storage fees, your price, and the buy box price. Use these details to make informed decisions about each product; for example, you may want to avoid long-term storage fees by dropping a product’s price to quickly sell any remaining units or have FBA ship any remaining items back to you and then close or delete the listing.

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Sales Selling on Amazon: Choose an Order Fulfillment Method

Article / Updated 07-02-2020

Order fulfillment plays a big role in ecommerce success, especially on Amazon where more than one million Prime customers expect free two-day delivery or faster, and Amazon rewards sellers with higher product placement for satisfying its customers’ delivery expectations. One of your first decisions as an Amazon Seller is how to fulfill customer orders. You have four options (not mutually exclusive), as we explain in the following. Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) With FBA, you send your products or arrange to have them sent from your suppliers to Amazon fulfillment centers in various locations in your marketplace(s) — the United States, Canada, Mexico, wherever. Your customers order from you on Amazon, and Amazon picks, packs, labels, and ships your products from their fulfillment centers to your customers and provides them with tracking information. Amazon’s customer-service team manages customer inquiries and processes returns and refunds. When considering FBA, weigh the pros and cons. Here are the pros: All FBA products receive two-day shipping to Prime customers, which improves your chances of closing sales. About half of Amazon’s customers (101 million in the United States alone) are Prime, with each spending on average about $1,400 annually in products on Amazon. Using FBA is hassle-free. All you need to do is get your products to Amazon fulfillment centers, and Amazon handles the rest. You get reduced shipping rates to Amazon fulfillment centers and from those centers to your customers: Amazon negotiates high-volume shipping contracts with carriers, and you reap the benefits of lower shipping costs. An FBA product has a greater chance than a Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM) product of winning the buy box (being the featured offer). Buy box placement accounts for more than 80 percent of all Amazon sales. FBA can also be integrated into your other sales channels, so if customers purchase a product on your own ecommerce site (outside Amazon), FBA can fulfill the order (subject to a higher FBA fee). Offsite product storage is much more convenient. If you’re running your ecommerce business out of your home or garage, you avoid the clutter of having to store inventory onsite. Meanwhile, here are the cons: Amazon charges FBA fees to cover storage, fulfillment, and customer service, plus you pay for shipping products to fulfillment centers. You may also incur a high-volume listing fee on some items and long-term storage fees if products don’t sell through within a year’s time. Preparing and shipping products to Amazon fulfillment centers requires some work. Each unit must be labeled with a bar code, so it can be picked and packed easily with outgoing orders. Access to your inventory is limited because it’s stored in Amazon fulfillment centers. We strongly encourage you to use FBA as your primary fulfillment method, especially for high-volume, high-margin products, leveraging Amazon’s industry-leading logistics and customer service to cater most effectively to Amazon customers and simplify the process of scaling your business. Reserve other fulfillment methods for specialty items, such as custom-made furniture that requires special packing or a more personal touch. To compare the costs of FBA and FBM, use the Fulfillment by Amazon Revenue Calculator: Go to the Fulfillment by Amazon Revenue Calculator. In the Find Your Product on Amazon.com text box, type the product name, UPC, EAN, ISBN, or ASIN and select Search. Amazon presents a collection of products that match your search term or phrase. Below the product you’re interested in, click Select. In the Your Fulfillment column, type your fulfillment costs in the Item Price, Shipping, Cost of Seller Fulfillment, and Cost of Product fields. In the Amazon Fulfillment Current column, enter your numbers for Item Price, the per-item cost to ship the product to an Amazon fulfillment center, and the cost of the product. Press the Calculate button. The calculator crunches the numbers and displays a comparison of your net profit and margin percentage for your fulfillment costs versus Amazon fulfillment costs. Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM) If you’re testing a product or selling low-volume, low-margin products, FBM may be the better choice. For comparison, check out the pros and cons of FBM. Here are the pros: Avoiding FBA fees may help to lower your costs, which can boost profit margins. Crunch the numbers, though, to determine whether Amazon’s lower shipping fees offset other FBA fees. Fulfilling orders yourself gives you greater control over inventory, packing, and shipping, which can be beneficial when selling custom products or adding a personal touch to outgoing packages. And the cons: With FBM, you spend more time and effort to pick, pack, label, and ship products and process customer service requests, returns, and refunds. FBM products aren’t automatically eligible for Prime. You may be able to qualify for Seller Fulfilled Prime. You have less opportunity to win the buy box (and be the featured offer). Although profit margins may be higher with FBM, sales volume is likely to be lower. You need to store products in your home or garage or procure warehouse storage. Overhead costs, including shipping fees, are generally higher. Seller Fulfilled Prime With Seller Fulfilled Prime, you store and ship products from your own warehouses, while committing to delivering products to Prime customers within Amazon’s required two-day delivery window. If approved for Seller Fulfilled Prime, you’re allowed to display the Prime badge for products shipped from your warehouses. In addition to other benefits, Amazon provides access to discounted transportation solutions to help meet the two-day Prime delivery promise. During the time of this writing, Amazon wasn’t accepting new registrations for Seller Fulfilled Prime, but you can join the waitlist. Recognizing the benefits of Seller Fulfilled Prime Seller Fulfilled Prime offers several benefits, including the following: You pick, pack, and ship products from your warehouses, so you have greater control over your own inventory and operations. You can list products as Prime, which is very appealing to Amazon’s most loyal customers. Prime customers often filter product listings so as to display only Prime products. To have a chance to win this business, your products must qualify as Prime offerings. Prime listings have a greater chance of winning the buy box. By offering free two-day guaranteed shipping, you improve your chances of repeat and multiple orders. Seller Fulfilled Prime is generally best suited for high value items, seasonal products with unpredictable demand, slow moving goods, items with variations, and inventory that requires special handling or preparation. Meeting Seller Fulfilled Prime requirements Being able to deliver products from your warehouse(s) to Prime customers within Amazon’s two-day window is only one of several Seller Fulfilled Prime requirements. To qualify for and maintain good standing in this program, you must meet the following requirements: Offer premium shipping options. Ship more than 99 percent of the orders on time (the same day you receive the orders). Maintain order cancellation rate of less than 0.5 percent. Buy Amazon shipping services for at least 98.5 percent of Amazon orders; for the most part, you buy shipping labels from Amazon-approved carriers, who deliver orders to customers. Allow Amazon to handle customer service queries. Agree to and comply with Amazon Returns Policy. Successfully navigating the trial period To participate in Seller Fulfilled Prime, you must successfully complete a trial period, which traditionally consists of filling a certain number of orders within a set period of time — for example, 50 orders in 90 days or fewer. Products aren’t listed with the Prime badge during this time, and all orders must be processed with a zero-day handling time. Assuming you successfully complete the trial period, you’re enrolled in the program, and the Prime badge is displayed for participating ASINs. Participating in Seller Fulfilled Prime To meet your Seller Fulfilled Prime obligations, take the following steps: Maintain sufficient inventory in your warehouse(s) to fill customer orders. Buy shipping labels from Amazon-approved carriers. In Seller Central, select Orders and then Manage Orders and press the Buy Shipping button for the order you want to ship. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the process. Pick, pack, and ship the orders the same day they’re received, typically by 4 p.m. Orders will be delivered within two days by Amazon-approved carriers. Inspect shipping costs closely prior to deciding whether to “Buy Shipping” from Amazon-approved carriers. Seller Fulfilled Prime free shipping options may be cost-prohibitive for certain products or product categories. For questions about Seller Fulfilled Prime, email [email protected] Managing Seller Fulfilled Prime orders To manage Seller Fulfilled Prime SKUs, log on to Seller Central, open the Inventory menu, and select Manage Seller Fulfilled Prime. The Manage Seller Fulfilled Prime dashboard appears providing the tools you need to manage orders. Drop-shipping Drop-shipping is the ultimate in look-ma-no-hands order fulfillment and low-cost, low-risk startups and product testing! You build a store and list products that the drop-ship supplier has available. Customers order products through your store, and the order goes to the drop-shipper, which fulfills the order for you. (Most drop-shippers merely act as a conduit between sellers and numerous suppliers that offer their own drop-shipping services.) Because you don’t have to stock up on inventory, you can start selling without having to buy any products up front. Although drop-shipping may strike you as the ideal option, consider a couple potential (and significant) drawbacks: Although drop-shipping is a low-cost, low-risk approach to testing the waters with customers, as your sales and business grow, the costs eat into your profit margins. If you’re selling high-volume or low-margin items, drop-shipping may not be the best choice for selling any product long term. If the drop-shipper drops the ball on an order, you suffer the consequences of disappointing a customer. You’re at the mercy of the drop-shipper regarding inventory. If your drop-shipper runs out of stock or discontinues a product, you’re out of luck. Even though Amazon generally accepts drop-shipping to its customers, it enforces certain criteria to maintain a high-quality shopping experience. All the sellers who intend to fulfill the orders through drop-shipping must meet the following criteria: Be the seller on record Identify as the seller of the products on all the packaging material, invoices, and any other documentation Remove any mention of the drop-shipper from invoices, packaging, products, and anything else sent to customers Be responsible for all the product returns Comply with all other seller policies and Amazon policies Drop-shipping is a great way to test the market for any new, unproven products. You can list the product without investing in inventory. If the product takes off, you can switch to FBA or FBM. To find out more about drop-shipping, check out some of the top drop-shipping suppliers: AliExpress Doba Oberlo SaleHoo Sprocket

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Sales Selling on Amazon: How to Source Products from Alibaba

Article / Updated 07-02-2020

Alibaba is a Chinese ecommerce behemoth serving both consumers and businesses. It has revolutionized product sourcing, enabling hundreds of thousands of businesses across the globe to access millions of products at prices previously available only to big-box retailers. To optimize your success as an Amazon Seller, we strongly encourage you to become familiar with Alibaba, where you’ll often find the best deals. Start by conducting some basic product research to answer the following questions: What kind of products do you want to sell — clothing, tools, toys, household products? Which products have the greatest sales and profit potential? What price are consumers willing to pay for each product? How much will it cost me to sell each product? Consider the product’s cost, Amazon selling fees, and any FBA fees. When you have a pretty good idea of a product you want to sell, visit Alibaba.com, open the drop-down list to the left of the Search box, and choose Suppliers (see the following figure). Click in the Search box, type a brief description of the product, and press the Search button. (The Search box also has a camera icon you can tap to search for a product by uploading an image of it.) Alibaba displays a long list of suppliers that sell products like the one you searched for. Use the filters above the list of suppliers and those on the left side of the page to narrow your search. You can narrow your search by product category, supplier type and location, company size (by revenue or number of employees), and more. As shown in the figure, for each supplier in the list, Alibaba displays its name, how long it has been in business, and other details to help you make an informed choice of supplier. Details about each supplier include the following: Badges: A supplier may have one or more of the following badges to indicate its credentials: Trade Assurance indicates the supplier supports Alibaba’s Trade Assurance service, which protects your order from payment to delivery. Gold Supplier indicates the supplier supports Trade Assurance and has passed one or more onsite checks to verify the business type and commercial or industrial capabilities. The Gold Supplier badge gives the supplier more credibility, but it doesn’t guarantee product quality or authenticity. Verified Supplier indicates the supplier has been assessed and certified by independent third-party entities via online or offline methods. Again, this badge gives suppliers more credibility but doesn’t guarantee product quality or authenticity. Transaction Level: The more diamonds a supplier has the greater the number of transactions it has on the Alibaba platform. Response Rate: This metric indicates the percentage of buyers who have received a response within 24 hours of contacting the supplier. Transactions: This metric indicates the number of transactions and their total dollar value over the past six months. If you need additional information from a supplier, press the Contact Supplier button for the chosen supplier and use the resulting form to compose and send your question. To obtain quotes from a number of suppliers, submit a request for quote (RFQ). Return to Alibaba’s home page, open the Services menu, select Submit RFQ, and use the resulting form to enter the details of your RFQ, including the product name and category, quantity, and terms. Within hours and over the course of the coming days, you’ll receive quotes from suppliers. You can manage your RFQs by going to My Alibaba and choosing Manage RFQ. As you evaluate prospective suppliers, follow these best practices: Arrange a phone call or videoconference with the supplier before placing an order, so you can get a feel for how trustworthy the supplier is. Ask questions to obtain all the details you need to make a well-informed choice. Legitimate suppliers won’t hesitate to provide the requested details. Visit the supplier’s warehouse, if possible. If an in-person visit isn’t possible, request a video tour of the facility. Big suppliers may have warehouses in multiple countries to avoid the hassles and headaches of dealing with customs and taxes. Ask the supplier if it has a warehouse in your country that would be more convenient for you to visit. Search the warehouse and business location online to verify their existence. Beware of fraudsters, even on Alibaba: Compare the supplier’s name and address on its website and any correspondence you receive from the supplier with the name and address on Alibaba. Verify the supplier’s email address and website. Reputable suppliers often have email addresses associate with the domain instead of “google.com” or “yahoo.com.” Think twice before moving forward on any offer that seems to be too good to be true; it probably is. Avoid suppliers who ask for early payment, because fraudsters often want to grab the money and disappear. Legitimate suppliers won’t ask for payment prior to signing an agreement. Also, before contracting with a supplier, order product samples. Getting your hands on actual products is a great quality assurance precaution. After deciding on a supplier, you’re ready to start negotiations and work out the logistics, such as agreeing to payment terms and methods, customs and import process, and any arrangements to ship products to Amazon fulfillment centers.

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