How to become a global seller on Amazon

An online business or eCommerce business is tough to strive on its own, especially at the global level. With a trusted global eCommerce brand like Amazon, selling globally is simplified. To go global, you need international eCommerce market players like Amazon.

With the pandemic at its peak, several businesses decided to go global with Amazon Global Selling to make profits, increase its global reach and potentially increase its customer base. According to GMV Amazon is currently the largest eCommerce marketplace worldwide, in spite of a pandemic!

Why become a global seller on Amazon?

To accelerate your brand on a global movement, it is considered to be a smart move to try Amazon. International sales with Amazon’s global brand can go a long way with 150 million+ paid Prime memberships alongside 300 million+ active user accounts worldwide. This is your opportunity to leverage Amazon.com’s global scale with its resourceful international logistics capabilities. Explore key reasons why your brand must give Amazon global selling community a chance:

• Grow and diversify your sales by becoming a seasonally available brand
• Accelerate international sales with Amazon’s global outreach & resources

5 key steps to succeed as a global Amazon seller

Step 1: Decide where you want to sell on Amazon

As a business owner, it is important to understand the scope of selling internationally with Amazon. Here are some guidelines which can help you sell on Amazon:

• Location guidelines

Amazon effectively operates 16 online stores globally. With 3 key regions including APAC, Europe, and Emerging locations your brand can touch the sky. Explore the opportunity to become a part of the globe’s third-largest economy while you can also benefit from Amazon’s growing and untapped user base.

• Language and support regulations

It is considered to be a plus point when a business knows the local language. Marketing and communications become easier and build trust among local customers. However, with Seller Central Language Switcher, manage operations in English with ease.

Customer support, however, needs to be taken care of in the local language. For instance, if you are selling in France, you need to have basic knowledge of the French language to communicate with customers.

• Taxes and regulations

It is recommended for your business to consult a tax and regulations advisor to learn all about location-based taxes. Environmental, export control, product compliance, and other taxes may apply based on location.

Step 2: Decide what to sell on Amazon

In order to decide what product you wish to sell, explore the 4 P’s marketing framework from the perspective of Amazon. The 4 P’s include Product, Price, Placement, and Promotions.

• Product: To pick the product you wish to sell, you need to access enough data to understand whether your product will be appropriate for the targeted location(s) or not. For instance, feather beds are a popular selling item in the UK but not in the USA due to standard bed size differences. Start slowly by reviewing the best-selling items, new arrivals, and other aspects to maximize profits. Other tips include:

• Get listed across multiple products via broad classifications rather than specializing in one or two subcategories
• Remember your customers’ potential amid the marketplace. That differs across locations and may be beneficial for you

• Price: Keep in mind common potential costs that may be incurred while you become a part of the Amazon global marketplace.

• Shipping costs
• International return costs
• Customer support costs
• Currency conversion costs
• Tax and duties expense

There may be several variable costs associated with Amazon’s global marketplace. However, the profits are unimaginable. Stay strong and you can become huge!

• Placement: Optimizing distribution channels using strategies such as product advertising, multi-channel fulfillment come here. These features come under Amazon, empowering your business to be visible more than your competitors.

• Product ads are pay-per-click ads within Amazon that display your ads on Amazon.com. Each click is all you pay for while your product ad is placed on potential user pages
• Multi-channel fulfillment is a feature within Fulfillment by Amazon that aims towards fulfilling orders which are pipelined from sales channels from locations like your website, third party platforms, and more

Promotion: Amazon offers a range of promotional strategies like Free Delivery, BOGO – Buy one, Get one free offer, and others to attract customers. Keyword targeted ads also boost brand performance on the Amazon marketplace.

Step 3: Register & list your products

In order to sell globally, you need to set up Amazon seller accounts based on location(s). However, in special cases like Amazon Europe, you can hold the same account for European marketplaces. As of now, there are key locations for the Amazon marketplace including Amazon North America, Amazon India, Amazon Europe & Amazon Japan.

• Payment guidelines

• You can open a bank account based on your location to ensure complete control over your income. However, there will be tax regulations that need to be considered as well
• With Amazon Currency Converter for Sellers (ACCS), receive your payment in a single bank account, supported by ACCS. no matter where you get the sales from, the money reaches in one single bank account

• Product guidelines

Amazon product listing comes with components that must be filled in to be a reliable seller with Amazon. Please note, the better the product listing, the more chances of being the best-selling item.

• Product ID: Refers to a globally unique identification number. It may be a UPC, ISBN, or EAN number
• Product title: Refers to a crisp description of the product
• Product description: Listing of product details in a concise & bulleted format
• Product images: Clear photographs of the product with maximum detail. Images must be at least 500×500 pixels in size. 1000×1000 pixels would be ideal. Refer to Seller Central for more information
• Search terms: Keywords that can make the product more widely visible during search

• Listing Guidelines: You can use various tools to register and list your products. One popular tool is the Build International Listings tool (BIL) which synchronizes prices based on location and suggests various offers based on location. In simple words, BIL can manage your business promotions and offers for you with automated updates. Other useful listing links include Gengo, Transperfect Translations, and many others.

Step 4: Ship and fulfill

Amazon can help you do wonders with Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) international solutions. With this feature, learn all about shipping costs based on locations, time taken, and more. Amazon can help you with pick up, package, shipping, and local 24/7 customer service. Based on the location of delivery, follow Amazon guidelines and be rest assured that your product will be imported/exported with safety, without any hassle per se.

Step 5: Manage your business

To deliver the best services to your customers, you need to ensure the practical management of your business. With Amazon, explore various tools and services which can help you boost and manage your business successfully.

Service Provider Network (SPN) your entire Amazon journey is taken care of. Starting from fax to compliance to international shipment and paid marketing, deal with all of it with SPN.

• Customer support: With FBA, get 24X7 customer support in the local language relevant to the marketplace. Customer queries are addressed within 24 hours of the request, implying timely responses.

• Customer returns: FBA plays a huge role here as well. Local returns and refunds can be processed easily with FBA. keep in mind factors while keeping customer returns open for users;

• Using the feature Fulfillment by Amazon to not worry about local returns at all
• Implementation of restocking fee and offer partial refunds which must comply with Amazon guidelines
• Engaging with third-party International Returns Provider which handles inter location shipments in spite of returns

Now you are ready for Global Selling

Keeping in mind this definitive guideline process for Amazon global marketplace selling, you can sell anything, anywhere. It takes effort to go forward with Amazon Global Selling. However, once you sign up for location-based marketplaces, you will see the global reach and profits in no time, at the best prices.

Your ticket to global expansion and international marketplaces lies here. Learn how to expand successfully with Vinculum.