How to List Your Products on Amazon
Amazon sells enormous quantities of products, and establishing yourself on their platform can yield incredible results! To give you an idea of Amazon's scale, they sold 175 million products on "Prime Day" (Amazon's own promotional day, similar to Black Friday) in just one day!
They are established in many different categories, and you can buy almost anything on their site. From Jacuzzis to heart-shaped plastic cutlery in miniature.
Below is a guide on what you need and how to list products on Amazon. But before you do this, you must register on their platform. This can be very tricky, and many have problems with it, so we have written a guide on how to register on Amazon.
To list products on Amazon, you need to be registered, but you also need to provide certain information about the product. As if that weren't enough, there are many choices you can make, and depending on what type of product you are selling, different choices may be preferable.
Then there is a large optimization aspect to it all. Amazon is incredibly large, and for someone to find your products, you need to make yourself visible. This involves both advertising and appearing in search results. SEO on Amazon, in short.
Registering Products on Amazon
- Identification
- Categories
- Variations
- Product Page
- Additional Info
- Restricted Product Categories
Step-by-Step Guide
1 – Identification
To list a product in Amazon's database, a product identification is required. This is in the form of a UPC, EAN, or GTIN.
Once this is provided, each product is given an ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number), which is also a unique identifier.
2 – Category
Every product needs a category. Given how large Amazon's marketplace is, there are often many products that don't have an obvious category. You simply have to choose the category that best fits the product from the available options.
When registering a new product on Amazon, the category is the first thing you choose.
3 – Product Variations
Products often have variations, such as color, size, shape, etc. On Amazon, quantity can also function as a variation. For example, a pack with one pair of black socks or a pack with two pairs of black socks.
Product variations are a more complicated subject than it might seem. The problem on Amazon is that once you have registered a product, it can be difficult to change afterward, at least without consequences. So you really want to get it right from the start.
In some cases, it is obvious that a product has variations. For example, if you sell a water bottle in multiple models, all exactly the same but in different colors. In other cases, it is less obvious. For example, if you sell water bottles in different sizes and colors, or even shapes.
The advantage of selling product variations is that all products seen as product variations are linked to the same product page. They thus also share the same ratings and reviews. Instead of trying to get multiple product pages to rank high in search results, you can focus on one.
The downside is that you cannot occupy multiple spots in the search results. If these water bottles were fantastic and all colors sold very well and had optimized product pages, they could, in theory, occupy several spots on the first page of search results. This is difficult to achieve with a product like water bottles, but the more niche products you sell, the more this becomes a consideration.
It's also important not to lose customer focus here. Does the customer expect to see these products on the same product page or not?
4 – Product Page
The product page consists of four parts:
- Title
- Bullet points
- Product description
- Images
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Previously, there was a blog post on how to think about product images. When it comes to title, bullet points, and product description, there is a lot to consider and much that can be optimized. See blog post here.
You can optimize for different keywords. Keywords are the words or phrases potential customers search for when looking for a product. SEO is largely about incorporating the keywords you want to rank for on the product page. How do you know which keywords those are? Some are quite obvious, others are harder to find information on. Therefore, there is a blog post on this, on how to conduct a keyword analysis.
Besides keywords, you can and should optimize for conversion. What advantages does the product have? Why do customers want to buy your product? Use your knowledge of this and common sales techniques to optimize for conversion.
Optimizing product pages is really a large subject, and another post focused on this will come, so stay tuned!
Another part worth mentioning is that companies/brands that have completed brand registration on Amazon can use many more tools to build their product page. Amazon describes it briefly like this:
"Enhanced Brand Content (EBC) enables brands to describe their product features in new ways by including a unique brand story, enhanced images, and text placements which may result in higher conversion rates, increased traffic, and increased sales when used effectively."
If you really want to invest in Amazon, optimization is very important! So spend a lot of time on this and learn what works, or get help from a professional. If you have many products and not enough time or money to invest in all products at once, start with one or a few and reinvest the profits from that.
5 – Additional Info
Besides all the info we have gone through, there is some info that must be included and some other info that is optional.
One such thing is price. Not much more to say there. But keep Amazon's costs in mind when setting your price. It's not necessarily that you need to keep the same price on Amazon as in your own webshop; it can be both lower and higher.
Other info includes manufacturer, size, color, material, weight, dimensions, and much more. The information that can be filled in on Amazon depends on the category. Both the required information and other information.
6 – Restricted Product Categories
One last thing that's good to know. There are certain product categories you must apply to sell in. These are protected by Amazon for safety reasons. There are also products outside these categories that are restricted or not allowed to be sold on Amazon.
I hope this was helpful. Both to understand what data is required to list products on Amazon and to give a brief introduction to how to optimize product pages.
Thank you for taking the time to read, and good luck!
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