Today, many people turn to Amazon to run their own businesses, work from anywhere, have more freedom, or earn extra money. Hence, many begin without proper preparation, making mistakes that can be very costly. Selling on Amazon doesn’t have to be difficult, but there are countless things you need to keep track of. The following are six very common mistakes new Amazon sellers often make, find out how they can be avoided.

Breaking Amazon rules

One extremely unfortunate mistake is to break the Amazon rule just because one is not aware of them. Amazon keeps on very strict rules for its sellers. Therefore, breaking them can get your seller account suspended from Amazon. Being suspended or banned from Amazon can lose you a lot of money. The easiest way to avoid this mistake is to go through all amazon rules and get familiar with them.

Choosing the wrong products to sell

Product selection can be tricky, especially for new Amazon sellers. While there are no right or wrong products, there are products that can be sold better or worse. Therefore, several factors must be considered while selecting products to sell. For example, demand, competition, and size. When you search for products avoid the following mistakes:  

Choosing highly demanded products without considering the competition. If a product has a very high demand, there are probably a lot of sellers who sell it. You don’t want to sell the exact same items as others, especially If they are selling those before you and already have many reviews, it will probably be very difficult to complete them. 

Deciding on products without checking their shipping costs, import customs, and taxes. Shipping heavy and big-sized items costs more and that bites from your profit. The same goes with taxes, some item’s customs can be higher than expected. You can find US customs tariffs on different items here. You may also use Ladingo to check for free how much it will cost to ship certain items and get their customs rate estimation. 

Selecting the cheapest supplier

Many Amazon sellers who want to increase their profit, are trying to save money on products. By doing so, they may compromise on products’ quality, which can damage their customers’ satisfaction. This mistake can cost a lot to sellers since Amazon puts a lot of importance on customers’ reviews. For that reason, work with trusted suppliers only and you should also run a quality check on your items before you start selling them. You can run a quality check either by yourself or by hiring a company to do it for you. 

Carelessly listing products

Whether a store is online or offline, it should be appealing and well organized for customers’ convenience. Amazon listing is the same, having a good listing will allow your customers to find what they are looking for easily, otherwise, they will find it somewhere else. Therefore, you should not be easy-minded about your listing and should list your items properly. For good listings, make sure all products photos are of high quality, and all items have good titles and detailed descriptions. A good listing should follow Amazon requirements. 

Neglecting reviews and customer service

Your reviews are one of the most important aspects of your Amazon business; they have a major impact on your sales. For that reason, you should take customer service seriously and make sure your customer satisfaction is high so the reviews will be positive. Remember, unsatisfied customers are more likely to express their opinion rather than pleased ones. You can gain more reviews by emailing customers to thank them for purchasing from you and ask them nicely to leave their feedback. Although, very important to note! It is forbidden to ask customers for good reviews, so avoid doing that! Also, never ask non-customers, such as friends or family to leave fake reviews, it is forbidden as well. 

Lack of inventory management

As an Amazon seller, you should make sure that your products are always available. Running out of stock can cause a noticeable decline in ranking. This is especially important considering the current supply chain situation which slows up the commodity flow. This is why you should track your inventory frequently, and plan shipments on time accordingly. You can save time by using Ladingo to ship products from China to Amazon FBA directly online.