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Why do I sell so much less on Amazon?
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5:05 PM
July 17, 2012
Offline
Hi Matt
I’m having a bit of trouble with my business which I’m hoping you can help with. I sell 20-30 items a day on eBay. The same items sell about 2-3 a day on Amazon. I know there will always be differences n each sites visitors and customer type, but the difference in sales seems too big to make sense. What do you think?
I have to admit I have spent most of my time on eBay and this is the platform I know and understand. Are there any obvious first steps to take to improve the Amazon sales? I’m trying to make sense of all the new reporting tools at the moment!
Cheers
msfb
8:23 PM
msfb said
Hi Matt
I’m having a bit of trouble with my business which I’m hoping you can help with. I sell 20-30 items a day on eBay. The same items sell about 2-3 a day on Amazon. I know there will always be differences n each sites visitors and customer type, but the difference in sales seems too big to make sense. What do you think?I have to admit I have spent most of my time on eBay and this is the platform I know and understand. Are there any obvious first steps to take to improve the Amazon sales? I’m trying to make sense of all the new reporting tools at the moment!
Cheers
msfb
Howdy msfb,
Thanks for posting, your question has a wider appeal hence the suggestion of popping it over here :)
As I don’t know what you”re selling and what kind of numbers of inventory you have, as 20 to 30 orders from 10,000 listings would be rather poor, but I’m guessing it’s just one or two lines you have on eBay currently and they’ve also been there for some time.
So we know the products sell as you’re making the comparison between eBay which is getting sales and Amazon that is currently a tenth of the sales volume, so at least they are selling!
The general rule for anything, “what ever you focus upon expands”, this is probably the reason why your eBay sales are outstripping your Amazon sales, Amazon needs some focus.
When it comes to the reports, I’d suggest you ignore them for now (they’re important, but we can deal with them later and what information they hold), they’ll confuse things for you.
Again as I don’t know what item(s) you are selling, I am going to need to cover both bases, if you are selling a “unique” product that is only available to you, then the probable reason Amazon is slow in sales is because the product is either missing the extra detail to make it rock (more effective) and/or is missing the sales history and reviews.
(I am assuming the the products you are selling are not suffering from bad reviews, if it is then that’s a serious issue)
So the product(s) need to time to mature and as they gain more sales & reviews the velocity of sales generally increases too, that is true for newly listed product on Amazon by 3rd party merchants.
As some practical pointers for you to follow, I’ve made a quick list for you to go through:
- Make sure the products you have listed are not suffering from really bad reviews
- Coax buyers to leave reviews (maybe ask them on the invoice you send out with the order to leave a review)
- Check that you have the Amazon Blue Buy box. Go to one of the items that you;re the cheapest for and make sure that the buy box on the right has you name in it, like in this image: http://cdn.lastdropofink.co.uk…..-box-1.png (if it does not then selling 2-3 items a day is normally pretty good)
- Search on Amazon and see if you can find duplicates of the same product, if you do, list on those ASIN’s too
- Make sure that your product images are as big and as clear as possible. If there is only one image on the Amazon detail page, add AT LEAST three more. All products can have at least 4 images of them, make sure they’re clear and of excellent quality.
I know you maybe unwilling to post the item/ebay/Amazon links in a public forum, email them over if you feel it would help me and I’ll take a look see at them for anything obvious.
Have a run through those and let me know how you get on.
Mattt
8:24 AM
July 10, 2012
Offline hi msfb, matt,
matt you told me about this, it can take a minimum of 3 months for me to get the blue buy box on amazon, but…. thanks to matt i am now on the red carpet scheme with amazon. i have over 400 products to now list as the supplier gave me access and amazon are going to be help me list and put the products on amazon.
nothing on live amazon yet so early days, ebay will stay my better place for sale for a long time.
andy
2:56 PM
July 17, 2012
Offline Hi Matt
Thanks for your response. I think the forum is a great idea btw, there aren’t enough Amazon and eBay seller forums with enough activity out there.
After reading your response I started to pay a bit more attention to my Amazon account. I believe the low sales could partly be due to my products only being listed on Amazon UK, and none of the other European sites currently. I have check the tutorial videos on Amazon and called seller support but I can’t seem to list my current UK products on any of the other European sites without filling in a whole new flat file in German/French etc.. I am selling my own unique products. Do you know if this is definitely the case or whether there is an easier, faster way of doing it?
2:32 AM
July 10, 2012
Offline
msfb said
I have check the tutorial videos on Amazon and called seller support but I can’t seem to list my current UK products on any of the other European sites without filling in a whole new flat file in German/French etc.. I am selling my own unique products. Do you know if this is definitely the case or whether there is an easier, faster way of doing it?
I have just gone through the process of listing our product on Amazon in Germany and yes it all a bit laborious. Firstly go to Amazon.de from the drop down at the top on your amazon.uk page and then go to HELP on the right then when the HELP page comes up, go to the bottom of page and there is a drop down box next to the “Contact Seller Central” which will be showing Deutsch and change it to English. This will at least change the instructions for the listing process to English. However as far as your actual listing is concerned you have to translate this to German, or the French etc. First off, don’t trust Google Translate as it is really important that the translation reads right to your European customer, similarly to how we fob off anything that has not been translated properly into English.
It is a shame Amazon do not provide a service for doing this, so the only option is you have to go out and find a friendly German to do the translation for you. Try Fiverr.com or Tenrr.com, or eLance.com as there is lots of options out there to do this and they are not overly expensive.
It is easier just to copy your UK listing information on to a text doc. and get them to translate directly from that leaving the English part there so you know what the translation is and where to put it. When you get it back it is just a case of copying and pasting the German translation into you Amazon.de listing and you are ready to go. If you have trouble contact me and I will provide you with a contact name at Amazon.de who will help you out to make sure you everything is okay with your listing. I don’t think he would appreciate if I put his contact information here :-)
I hope this helps
-Peter
10:48 AM
July 17, 2012
Offline Hi Peter
Thanks for the response. I am resigned to translating my listing (would have done this professionally either way) the part I’m really struggling with is actually adding all my inventory. My products are all unique, thus not listed on any Amazon site except the UK one. If I search for the ASIN etc. nothing comes up.
When you say “it is just a case of copying and pasting the German translation into you Amazon.de listing and you are ready to go” what do you mean paste into the listing?
Seller Support have told me that I need to download the German flat file template, and fill this all out with the product info and upload it as I did with the UK ones. Doing the UK flat files took ages and numerous attempts and errors. I really want to know if there is a simpler way to transfer my UK inventory onto the other European sites eithout filling out a whole new flat file in their language?
7:54 AM
msfb said
Seller Support have told me that I need to download the German flat file template, and fill this all out with the product info and upload it as I did with the UK ones. Doing the UK flat files took ages and numerous attempts and errors. I really want to know if there is a simpler way to transfer my UK inventory onto the other European sites eithout filling out a whole new flat file in their language?
Howdy msfb,
There isn’t I’m afraid, as they need to be created, unless you pay for someone one to do the translation for you.
Matt
9:54 AM
July 17, 2012
Offline
Can I just copy all the data from my UK flat file and paste into the new one? Then edit the title, bullet points etc. into German/French/Italian? It’s all the data and general info that I can’t bring myself to re-enter. I notice all the headings on the German flat file are in English anyway.
Lots and lots of my eBay sales come from Australia. Is there an Amazon Australia to list on? What about the American one?
Here’s my response to your other suggestions:
1. and 2. Two of my products have 1 review each, 4 and 5 star respectively, so no problem there. My seller account has a few more reviews, average 4.9 stars.
3. I don’t believe the buy box is relevant to me as I sell a unique branded item that no one else has. Is that correct?
4. Same as above
5. All my items all have lots of high quality images so I don’t think this is the problem either!
So as far as I can tell my problem is with:
a) Exposure, currently only the UK market.
And
b) Lack of reviews on top of that.
I am slightly worried about listing on the othe European sites and the increased shipping time and communication issues may lead to negative reviews. There was a discussion about this on another thread here which is worrying me!
As for reviews, I’m not sure how to increase them as I am not able to add a note to the order at the moment. I’m thinking of getting 3 friends to buy one of all my products and leave reviews for me. Thoughts?
7:48 AM
Howdy msfb,
Try copy & pasting and see how much is a direct copy. Noting to go careful of the browse nodes!
msfb said
Lots and lots of my eBay sales come from Australia. Is there an Amazon Australia to list on? What about the American one?
No there isn’t an Amazon.com.au, see the bottom of the Amazon.co.uk site and you’ll see the available sites to on.
msfb said
1. and 2. Two of my products have 1 review each, 4 and 5 star respectively, so no problem there. My seller account has a few more reviews, average 4.9 stars.
Ah not enough, need more! Feel happy when you have 10.
There is a super tip in this thread about gaining more reviews:
http://lastdropofink.co.uk/for…..ideas-why/
msfb said
3. I don’t believe the buy box is relevant to me as I sell a unique branded item that no one else has. Is that correct?
The buybox is always important. I don;t know if you’ve been given access to it, even if you are the only seller, you may or may not being shown in the buy box and if you are not, the sales are really slow until you are.
Have you been selling on Amazon for over 3 months?
msfb said
5. All my items all have lots of high quality images so I don’t think this is the problem either!
We don’t have an example t work from, so asking the question, are they 600 pixels or larger? If so fab!
msfb said
So as far as I can tell my problem is with:a) Exposure, currently only the UK market.
And
b) Lack of reviews on top of that.I am slightly worried about listing on the othe European sites and the increased shipping time and communication issues may lead to negative reviews. There was a discussion about this on another thread here which is worrying me!
As for reviews, I’m not sure how to increase them as I am not able to add a note to the order at the moment. I’m thinking of getting 3 friends to buy one of all my products and leave reviews for me. Thoughts?
Yep agreed those concerns are valid. Contrary to what we’re being hammered with “Cross Border Trade” getting your own house in order first (ie the UK) and then moving outside should be more manageable for you :)
Hope that helps,
Matt
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