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Brad Schepp and Debra Schepp are the authors of 14 books, including the popular "eBay PowerSeller Secrets." Their work has been featured in publications such as "Newsweek," "The Chicago Tribune," and "U.S. News" "and" "World Report."

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If you’re running an online business, you may have noticed that there is a new phenomenon hitting the world of the Internet marketplace. PowerSellers who have made a fortune on eBay are moving their merchandise over to Amazon in droves. After all, the benefits of selling on Amazon are legion—sellers have found that they can charge more for their merchandise, avoid up front fees, and deal with less demanding customers. The opportunities for selling are endless— Amazon now sells products in more than 40 categories and is the Web’s number-one retailer with more than 81 million customers. As the authors of the popular bookeBay PowerSeller Secrets, Debra and Brad Schepp are experts at making big money selling products on the Web. Now, inAmazon Top Seller Secrets, they show you why Amazon is the marketplace that will bring you more cash and more customers. Sellers will discover everything they need to:

-navigate the Amazon Marketplace

- set the right price for merchandise

- drive more traffic to their product pages

- achieve consistently high feedback ratings

- become an Amazon Pro Merchant

- open more than one Amazon WebStore

- source the best products

- and more

With this priceless advice, you can increase your profits and build your business without constraints and without all the hassles.

Brad Schepp and Debra Schepp are the authors of 16 books, including the populareBay PowerSeller Secrets. Their work has been featured in publications such asNewsweek, The Chicago Tribune, and U.S. News and World Report. They are also longtime eBay sellers and associate members of The Professional eBay Sellers Alliance (PeSA). They live in Middletown, MD.

Advance Praise for Amazon Top Seller Secrets

“There’s much to know about selling on Amazon, and Brad and Debra Schepp’s Amazon Top Seller Secrets is the guide to starting off on the right foot. This is the book current Amazon sellers will wish they had when they started!”— Ina Steiner, Editor of AuctionBytes.com and EveryPlaceISell.com

“The real-life stories are priceless! Learning directly from people who have successfully built their Amazon business is far better than learning the hard way on your own.”— Brandon Dupsky, Managing Director, eCommerce Merchants; owner, OnFair.com

“Amazon Top Seller Secrets is the best guide avail­able to making money on Amazon.com today. It is full of detailed, helpful advice for entrepreneurs from true Amazon.com experts.”— Scott Fox, author, Internet Riches and E-Riches 2.0; www.ScottFox.com

“...an excellent addition to anyone’s e-commerce library and an asset to my own.”— Mike Jansma, founder, www.GEMaffair.com

“This book takes you from the beginning stages of Amazon selling through advanced techniques to benefit longtime Amazon sellers. Easy to read and adapt the ideas to your business. Superb!”— Jody Rogers, President, ShopBeachcombers.com Inc.

“This book helped me understand the inner workings of selling on the Amazon website, and I took my Amazon sales to the next level. Utilizing the ideas in Amazon Top Seller Secrets, the sky is the limit!”— Tom King, owner, Sporting Goods USA, LLC, www.sportinggoodsusa.com

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Amazon TOP SELLER SECRETS

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Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......................................................................ixINTRODUCTION.........................................................................1CHAPTER 1 AMAZON, AND YOU'RE DONE....................................................9CHAPTER 2 WHICH WAY SHOULD I GO?.....................................................35CHAPTER 3 YOU HAVE TO BUY IT BEFORE YOU CAN SELL IT..................................61CHAPTER 4 CREATING GREAT PRODUCT DETAIL PAGES........................................91CHAPTER 5 AUTOMATING YOUR AMAZON BUSINESS............................................119CHAPTER 6 CUSTOMER SERVICE WITHOUT THE SMILE.........................................145CHAPTER 7 MARKETING YOUR AMAZON BUSINESS.............................................177CHAPTER 8 SHIPPING: THE WORKHORSE OF YOUR OPERATION..................................217CHAPTER 9 LIFE BEYOND AMAZON: SELLING THROUGH OTHER VENUES...........................251APPENDIX A AMAZON'S ASSOCIATES PROGRAM...............................................285APPENDIX B THE 18 BEST RESOURCES FOR RESEARCHING ANYTHING AMAZON.....................291INDEX................................................................................299

Chapter One

Welcome to Amazon! We're thrilled to be your tour guides on this e-commerce adventure. We believe Amazon is one of the best opportunities ever available for people who want to have their own businesses. Taking your place as an Amazon third-party seller gives you the chance to build a business that reflects exactly what you want out of your entrepreneurial voyage. Sign up for the ride, and you'll instantly be the captain of the ship. Sail as far and as fast as you decide. Stock the ship with the cargo you select. Build it right, and your business will give you (and someday your employees) a livelihood of your own design. Amazon can be a business incubator rivaled by few opportunities ever available to humans. It's the best venue for online entrepreneurs since, well, eBay. Many sellers will tell you Amazon is years ahead of its famous competitor.

Surely you know the amazing opportunity that is Amazon, which is why you're here. Amazon is no longer the Internet's bookseller—not that it really was ever just that. The Seattle-based company now sells products in 42 categories. It's the Web's number-one retailer, with millions of customers. But, you don't have to believe it just because we say so. Companies that measure website traffic, such as ComScore, consistently rate Amazon the most popular shopping destination—by far. Amazon's motto and this chapter's title—Amazon and you're done—is for real. Consumers know that, and, as a seller, you may find it true, too.

OK, so you already knew Amazon is huge, and hugely popular, in the United States. But it's also strong internationally. There are Amazon sites for the United Kingdom, China, Japan, France, and Germany. Combined, these vastly popular websites bring in almost as much money as Amazon's U.S. site. In the United Kingdom, for example, college students have made Amazon's Marketplace the number-one seller of used books! These international sites are growing quickly, and soon Amazon may become one of the world's largest online retailers. So, there's no better time than right now to hoist anchor and set sail. Welcome aboard, Matey.

Amazon: Where It's All About the Customer

Amazon may owe its success to the goal it set for itself from the start. Way back in 1995, Amazon set out to be the most customer-centric company in the world. With that goal, the company then did everything it had to do to become just that. Amazon customers know the company isn't satisfied until they are satisfied on every score—the price was right, the product arrived on time, the purchase worked out right.

Amazon's approach is really a focus on the customer experience. Think about it. Amazon makes payment simple, remembers customers, offers recommendations based on previous purchases, and backs up each purchase with an A-to-z Guarantee of 100 percent satisfaction. It has taken the big fear some people had, and many still have, of doing business "over" the Internet, and sucked the wind right out of it. You're safe on Amazon. But, the company didn't stop there.

It may have started out as a place to buy books, but today it seems more like a city of sorts, populated by many people sharing many interests. Through tools such as reviews, Listmania, tags, and blogs, Amazon has continued growing and adapting in its quest to provide customers with the best possible shopping experience. Reviews help shoppers make decisions about which product might be right for them. With Listmania lists, fans can share opinions about books, CD, cameras, whatever. And many thousands do just that! People even create tags (quick identifiers, such as "whaling" as an obvious but accurate tag for the book Moby Dick) to index their favorite books and DVDs. This lets other shoppers find related products. A blog can allow you to share opinions on just about anything with your fellow Amazon shoppers. Just take a look at Figure 1-1 for an example of how Amazon uses its vast database of shopping data to make recommendations to you.

Amazon was creating a "Web 2.0" company, enabling all kinds of networking, before anyone knew there would be a Web 2.0. Jeff Bezos, founder and still boss, has had much to do with the company's bright reading of the market and its evolution over the years. Bezos also stands alone as the only founder of a big-name Internet company who's still running things day to day. The man is nothing if not consistent. Recently, he said Amazon's strategy is simple: "Figure out what customers want and repeat that consistently." Turns out, customers wanted four basic things:

1. A feeling that it is safe to do business on the Internet

2. Completely trustworthy, reliable customer service

3. Fast delivery

4. A great price

That's what Amazon provides. As the Internet evolved and customers began to expect to network and share, as well as shop, Amazon was already there. Setting the course for figuring out what your customers want and repeating it is a pretty good strategy for a business of any size, yours included. But it's not a simple course to follow. A map and some knowledgeable neighbors to guide you would get you there much faster. That's what we hope you've found here with us.

First, a Little More History

Let's start back in 1995—a monumental year in Web history. That's when both eBay and Amazon (see Figure 1-2), now two of the Internet's biggest companies, were founded. For years, things proceeded along just fine between the two pioneering Net merchants. Each had its niche: Amazon specialized in new stuff such as books, videos, and then electronics and much more. Customers bought these things at a fixed price with no waiting for an auction to end. Sellers on eBay sold mainly used stuff—collectibles, antiques, musical instruments, you name it—mostly through auctions. Over the years, there's been some overlap, of course. Amazon has its Amazon Auctions area, which is a pebble next to eBay's boulder. And eBay has its fixed-price listings (a success), and for a time...