Growing Your Amazon Sales
Below are directions on how to link your PayPal to your eBay account.
1.) Log into your eBay account
2.) Hover over “account name” in the top-lefthand corner and click on Account settings.
3.) Scroll down to the section named “PayPal account information”.
4.) Click on “Link My PayPal Account”. This will take you to the PayPal login
5.) Log into the PayPal you want to be linked. Once logged in, your PayPal will be linked to your account.
If you have ever worked on both Seller Central and Vendor Central, the first thing you’ll notice is that Vendor Central doesn’t offer quite as much freedom as Seller Central. There are a less features and the UI is not so user friendly. This is especially true with more advanced actions such as adding variations and submitting compliance documents. We’re here to makes things a little easier. Below you will find a quick guide on how to create a parentage or add variation on Vendor Central.
How to Create a Parentage on Vendor Central
A parentage is a grouping of product variations. Products that are identical except for one distinguishing feature such as size or color can be grouped together in one listing. Seller Central has a Variation feature that makes creating parentages easy. In Vendor Central, it is not so clear.
#1 – Log into Vendor Central and Click on ‘Support’
Since Vendor Central doesn’t have a variation feature, you will need to submit the changes via a ticket to Vendor Support.
#2 – Click on ‘View Resource Center’
The Resource Center will provide a template document you will need to fill out and upload to Vendor Support
#3 – Click on ‘Download this Document’ under ‘Variation Sheet’
An Excel document will download that you can edit.
#4 – Follow the example template and fill in the Variation Sheet.
Fill in each section within the red box. Not all of the columns will apply to the items you are submitting so you can leave those blank. List each parentage in succession and assign each a number. Apply that number to each Child ASIN within the parentage. You will then choose the variations of each child. A list of valid values is available in the example section. Finally, enter the name of the variation that you have entered, whether it is a size or color or other.
#5 – Return to the Support page from Step 1 and click ‘Contact Us’
Once you have filled out the variation sheet, you will need to return to the support page from earlier. Below the Resource Center link there is a link to the ‘Contact Us’ section. This will bring up the feature where you can submit help tickets.
#6 – Under ‘Manage My Catalog’ click on ‘Variation – Twister’
There are several different categories of tickets you can submit. You will need the ticket that will get you in touch with the team in charge of variations. This ticket is found under ‘Manage My Catalog’. Click on ‘Variation – Twister’.
#7 – Click on ‘Send an Email’
A message will appear explaining how variations are automatically created on Vendor Central. However, the variations they create are not perfect. Often you will need to edit the parentages in order to get the right products grouped together. Click ‘Send an Email’ to bring up the page that will allow you to create a ticket with the support team.
#8 – Fill in the Subject line and enter in list of ASIN
There are certain boxes that are required to fill before you can submit the ticket. You must enter in the list of ASIN that will be editing with you variation sheet. Simply copy and paste the list from your template.
#9 – Fill in the body paragraph asking Vendor Support to create a parentage using the template, attach the variation sheet, and enter your email. Once you’re done click ‘Submit’
Add a simple message in the description section asking them to make the changes you are submitting. You will then need to attach the variations sheet that you created. Don’t forget to enter in your email so that they can reach out to you with confirmation or to ask for more information.
After the ticket has been submitted, Vendor Support will create the parentage using the edited variation sheet that you uploaded. They will respond within 24 hours to either confirm the changes have been made or give you further instructions on how to correctly submit the changes.
For more tips and tricks on navigating Amazon’s complex ecosystem, book a coaching call with My Amazon Guy
My Amazon agency updates hundreds of product detail pages a day. Often, clients will ask us for urgent changes for one reason or another. The timing of which may not immediately reflect.
Our general rule of thumb is that most, about 40%, changes appear within 30 minutes. About 30% of changes take a full 24 hours. And an additional 30% require a physical ticket to be filed to get the change to show. This is often due to retail contributions, or a detail page being locked down by Amazon. A ticket causes a manual review, and then the change goes through if you share manufacturer proof. So when you make changes the best practice is to update the back end of Seller Central, wait a day, check to see if it reflects. If it doesn’t file a ticket.
One additional tip, hold down CTRL+f5 to hard refresh a listing. This clears your cache and lets you see the most recent update. Often images require a hard refresh before displaying on your screen. Other people who don’t have a cache will see the changes, but those that have a cache will see the old version until that cache is cleared.
Per the Amazon help file.
In most cases, changes you make to product information appear on Amazon within 5 minutes. However, some updates can take up to 6 hours. Product descriptions longer than 500 characters are generally updated at 8:00 AM PST the following day. Images may take up to 24 hours to appear on a product detail page.
To edit details for an existing listing:
Europe is the second-largest Amazon market and now you have the opportunity to sell your product in all of the major countries. Amazon now offers a discounted subscription fee of €39.99 by linking all of the EU accounts together. You will no longer have to pay a fee for every region account in the EU. Follow the steps below to set up and link your Amazon EU accounts.
Linking accounts unifies your selling experience across Amazon’s international marketplaces and lets you more easily manage and scale your global business. Along with providing single sign-on, linking accounts gives you a single view of sales, orders, and buyer messages from all of your countries. You also gain access to tools previously restricted to a single country, as well as our discounted international selling plan.
LINK EXISTING ACCOUNTS: If you are already selling in multiple countries or regions — for example, Europe and North America — and you want to link those accounts:
REGISTER AND LINK NEW ACCOUNT: If you are new to selling in a country or region — for example, Europe — and you want to register and link accounts:
Guest post by Robby Stanley, Chief Marketing Officer at FeedbackWhiz.
It’s difficult to overstate the importance of product reviews on Amazon. Recent studies have shown that over 90% of internet-using consumers occasionally or regularly consult product reviews when making a purchase. This makes sense; in a world where most consumers have a smart phone and online reviews on any product are just a few taps away, why not take a moment to get more information on a product instead of buying it blindly?
It becomes even easier for consumers to interact with online reviews when they are built into the shopping platform like they are on Amazon. Every search yields thousands of results, and since customers only have a limited amount of time, trusting product reviews is an excellent alternative to individually vetting out all of their options.
Both the quality and the quantity of product reviews matter. A higher number of product reviews gives the product rating more validity. A perfect five-star rating is nice, but with only three product reviews, it will usually be viewed as less trustworthy than an item with a 4.7 rating that has hundreds of product reviews.
Amazon is committed to making the experience of shopping on its site as easy and customer-friendly as possible. As a part of this commitment, the company wants product reviews listed on the site to be honest and an accurate portrayal of how customers really feel about a product.
In an effort to make this goal a reality, Amazon has cut down significantly on fake reviews and reviews that were given in exchange for incentives. It is illegal per Amazon’s Terms of Service to agree with other sellers on Facebook or on a forum to leave positive reviews on each other’s products, and it is also illegal to offer a free product, a discount, or any other incentive to leave a positive review either.
In fact, it is even illegal to ask for a positive review. When asking for a product review through email, you can only ask for a review on the product; you can’t ask for it to be positive, or mention that instead of leaving a negative review they should let you deal with it instead. The idea from Amazon’s perspective is that the customer should always be leaving a legitimate review.
Taking short cuts to increase your number of product reviews may seem tempting, but is it really worth the risk? Breaking Amazon’s rules can result in review removals, product listing removals, and even account suspensions. It’s much better in the long term to build up product reviews organically through a legal email campaign.
The first email in your sequence will simply be used to check in with your customer. This should be sent as soon as their order has been processed or when it has been shipped out. You could make this email light-hearted with some fun GIFs or informative with some information on how to use the product; it all depends on what you are selling and what your brand is all about.
Taking the time to manually send out an email every time an order is processed would be unrealistic for most sellers who don’t have that kind of time and energy to burn. Fortunately, with an automated email sequence, this won’t be an issue.
A service like FeedbackWhiz allows you to build templates for all of your products that include auto-populating smart tags, so as soon as an item sells the sequence kicks into effect and the necessary details in the tag are filled in automatically. The first email, scheduled to be sent out once the order has processed, might look something like this:
Hello,
My name is (Seller Name), and I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for your purchase of [[ITEM_NAME]].
(Inserted “Thank You” GIF)
The warehouse is getting it ready and it should be shipped out to you in no time! You’ll be able to keep track of its progress using this link: [[LINK_SHIPMENT_TRACKING]]
(GIF of a shipping truck)
We here at (Company Name) are committed to making sure that our customers are always taken care of. You can contact us any time at [[LINK_CONTACT_SELLER]] if you have any questions or any issues with your order.
Thanks again,
(Seller Name)
The second email should be scheduled to be sent out only when the buyer has had enough time to actually try out the product and formulate an opinion on it. A follow-up on a screen cleaning device could probably be sent within the first week as a product like this would probably be tried out right away. On the other hand, a customer might need 2-3 weeks to decide if they enjoy a variety pack of flavored teas.
Each product can have its own automated email sequence, so give some thought to what makes the most sense for each of your products. After an appropriate amount of time has passed, you can send an email like this:
Hello,
It’s (Seller Name) again! You’ve had [[ITEM_NAME]] for about three weeks now, and we sincerely hope that you’ve been enjoying it. Thank you again for your purchase.
(Inserted “Thank You” GIF)
If you have some time, we’d really appreciate a product review! Amazon customers like you rely on product reviews to get honest feedback about the items they are considering purchasing. And sellers like us can use these product reviews to make sure that our products are being enjoyed and to correct any issues that consumers may be having. We value your feedback; thanks for your time! [[LINK_PRODUCT_REVIEW]]
(Inserted “We Appreciate You” GIF)
And as always, please let us know if you have any questions or anything else. We are here to help! [[LINK_CONTACT_SELLER]]
Thanks,
(Seller Name)
Because you are asking for any product review (and not just a positive one), you will occasionally receive a neutral or negative review. This is a natural part of doing business on Amazon, and one that you shouldn’t respond to with anger.
FeedbackWhiz lets you know when a product has received a review, and generally these reviews are left under the seller’s real name. You can set up a template to send to buyers that leave negative reviews; while you can’t explicitly ask them to remove or revise their review, you can insinuate it by helping them solve their issue and then pointing out how important reviews are on Amazon and giving them a link to revise their product review with.
If all else fails, you can respond to the negative review directly on Amazon, explaining that you reached out and attempted to remedy the situation and you apologize for the inconvenience. This will show other shoppers that you are committed to making things right if their order doesn’t work out.
Overall, most of the product reviews you receive should be positive ones if you have a quality product and good customer service. Your increased number of product reviews will build on itself, creating more sales, more product reviews, and so on. Don’t hesitate to get started on your own email marketing campaign as soon as possible.
Having your product show up at the very top of search results is the best way to find success on Amazon, but with everyone fighting for that top spot, how do you make your product stand out? By understanding Amazon’s search algorithm and what factors Amazon looks at when determining search rankings, you can increase your own rankings and gain more organic sales.
A9 is the search algorithm that Amazon uses to determine product rankings. Understanding the A9 algorithm and knowing what Amazon looks at when determining search rankings is the key to getting your products to show up on the first page. Below are the most important factors that influence rankings on Amazon; focusing on these factors will increase your search rankings.
Keyword Matching
Amazon’s search results are based on keyword matching. If a user searches for a specific keyword and that keyword is in your product listing, your product is very likely to show up somewhere in the search results.
Price
Product pricing makes a difference. Amazon knows that competitively priced products are more likely to sell, therefore they end up ranking higher. If your price is significantly higher than your competitors’, your search rankings may take a hit.
Conversion Rates
Amazon wants to promote their best-selling products, therefore products with higher conversion rates typically rank higher. If buyers are viewing your product but never making a purchase, you may have a tough time moving up to page one.
The best and easiest way to increase your search rankings on Amazon is to optimize your listings by using relevant keywords in as many places as you can, including your title, bullet points, and description.
Your Product Title
Your title should contain your most important keywords. Avoid keyword stuffing in your titles, though, as this can hurt your rankings. Amazon has four main criteria for product titles:
1. Titles must not exceed 200 characters, including spaces.
2. Titles must not contain promotional phrases, such as “free shipping”, “100% quality guaranteed”.
3. Titles must not contain characters for decoration, such as ~ ! * $ ? _ ~ { } # < > | * ; ^ ¬ ¦
4. Titles must contain product-identifying information, such as “hiking boots” or “umbrella”.
Titles with 150 characters or more and that include your brand name, product name, keywords, and sizing and color information would be considered fully optimized.
Your Bullet Points & Description
The keywords in your bullet points and descriptions can also help your rankings. You should prepare a list of relevant keywords before writing your product descriptions. You can use keyword tools like Helium 10 to find relevant keywords, or you can do your own research by going through your top competitors’ listings and finding the keywords that they are targeting in their titles, bullets, & descriptions. Try to implement as many keywords as you can in your bullet points and descriptions while still maintaining readability.
Your Backend Keywords
Amazon allows you to enter 250 bytes of search terms in the back end of your listing, where customers cannot see them. The backend search terms are a great place to include spelling variations, synonyms and foreign language keywords. There’s no need to repeat any word, as it doesn’t help your rankings any more than including a word once. It’s important to remain under the character limit, or none of your search terms will be indexed.
Amazon sales have a snowball effect; the more conversions and sales you have, the higher your search rankings become, which in turn leads to more sales.
You can increase your Amazon sales velocity by using PPC advertising or directing external traffic to your Amazon products through social media. Most sellers find the greatest success through Sponsored Products advertising, where they can bid on specific keywords and ASINs. When Amazon’s algorithm notices that shoppers are buying your product, your product will in turn rank higher for relevant keywords.
Ranking on the first page for any keyword doesn’t happen overnight, but if you make sure that your products are optimized and focus on gaining more conversions, your rankings will continue to increase.
The Amazon consultants at My Amazon Guy are experts at Amazon SEO, advertising setup, and increasing conversions. Contact us for expert guidance in getting your products to rank higher on Amazon.
There are many third-party services that can be utilized to increase sales on Amazon. These third-party services often require access to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) of your account. This is usually done during the initial setup of the service. However, the authorization granted has a time limit and is set expire every year. This is why you will often receive a message from certain third-party services asking to renew their software application authorization to your account.
To renew authorization, follow these steps:
#1 – Log into Admin account on Seller Central and hover your cursor over “Settings”, then click on “User Permissions”
#2 – Scroll down to “Third Party Developer and Apps” and click “Visit Manage Your Apps”
#3 – Find the Third-Party Service that needs Authorization Renewal and on the right-hand side click “Renew”
#4 – Verify the third-party service and click “Renew”
#5 – The “Authorization Date” next to the third-party service that you renewed will update with the current date as confirmation that the renewal has been submitted. The new expiration date will be a year later.
And that is all you need to do to renew the software application authorization for any third-party service who you have granted access to your account.
For more tips and tricks like these, key an eye on the blog posts here at My Amazon Guy.
For more personalized guidance, you can book a coaching call here
If you’ve ever wondered how to track Amazon product reviews from customers, it just got easier. Instead of having to pay a 3rd party to crawl the data, Amazon now gives it to you for free inside Seller Central. Click here to access the Brand Dashboard.
To Access Your Product Reviews from Customers on Amazon, follow these steps:
This drop down shows the Brand Dashboard location:
You can now also click into each review and publicly respond. This is a major beneficial update.
This is especially helpful if you have a negative review and you want to help other customers know how you resolved the conflict or issue.
