Amazon FBA (Fulfilment By Amazon) is a business opportunity provided by Amazon to encourage business-owners to list their products in its marketplace.
The model works by Amazon providing users with the ability to send their products to its warehouse, and having them "fulfilled" by the retain giant (it sends them out) upon successful purchase.
The reason why Amazon would do this is partly to get free niche products which are both unique and valuable (you own the products - they just ship them for you), and partly to make use of their massive infrastructure (which they would be paying for anyway).
It also adds to their offering as a business, as it gives them an even more diverse array of products to add to their portfolio (which is pretty much their core competitive advantage).
The important thing to consider about the "FBA" model is that it is indicative of the new "digital" business culture that seems to have become even more prevalent after the 2008 crash. Rather than keeping large amounts of stock, overheads and a large team... companies have taken to the Internet & social media to find buyers & create lean enterprises.
Gone are the days when distributors determined the fate of products. Now, new businesses, entrepreneurs and everyday people are able to create $10,000+ a month income streams without even having to own any land. All the infrastructure, marketing and fulfilment is handled by a completely independent company (Amazon) - to which you just do the work of sourcing a successful product.
To determine if you'd like to gain advantage from this method of investment, I've created this tutorial to explain the process of utilizing Amazon FBA. Rather than trying to get by on scraps from a local market, the new "digital" realm with all its promise is one of the best ways to get your foot in the door of the new world of enterprise.
How It Works
All businesses work in the same way - buy/build a product, offer the product to a market and any "profit" you're able to make can either be used to live off, or reinvest into more/better products.
The problem for most people is two-fold: 1) they have no product 2) they have no access to a market.
Whilst both are legitimate problems - which would have been a significant drawback in a time without the "digital" medium - times have moved on to the point that barriers-to-entry are so low that you only really need to be able to invest several $1,000 to have the opportunity of selling to a global audience.
And despite the fact that the "Amazon" opportunity has existed for almost 10 years now (anyone can list products in its marketplace), the "FBA" model (which is truly hands-off) has only started to become popular in the past 24 months-or-so.
If you didn't go to business school, to briefly explain how to run a "successful" business, you basically need to be able provide a product/service to a large audience. You'd typically aim for around 30% net profit margin (after COGS & advertising costs). How you do this is up to you - the key is to buy low, sell high.
Now, just because the "digital" realm is large doesn't mean it's devoid of the way in which "markets" typically work. Competition is obviously a major force, as is the idea that because something is "easy", it can be replicated relatively simply by others (leading to an erosion of your profits).
Selling on Amazon typically works by providing access to products which people either don't have access to locally, or are able to obtain locally but with major restrictions (such as color/size issues), or with problems in reliability of supply. In other words, whilst the Amazon marketplace is vast - don't think you can outwit supply/demand.
The real trick with "digital" businesses is to provide access to unique products (typically made by yourself or your company) which are only available through you. These products have to be focused on providing a solution that most people have no idea about, and thus makes the proposition of buying it through the Internet legitimate.
Obviously, creating a "unique" product is 1,000x easier said-than-done - the trick with it is to work on solutions to your own problems. Work towards sharpening a skillset, which you're able to apply to a wider audience, from which you'll be able to identify "products" which can be created and offered as a means to simplify/solve problems you've experienced yourself.
Steps
To begin selling on Amazon, there are several steps to take:
Sign Up For Amazon Seller Account The first step is to get a "seller" account from Amazon. There are two types of seller account - "individual" and "professional". Individual is free and allows you to "list" items which already exist in the Amazon catalogue. You pay a small fee each time a product is sold. Professional costs $40/mo, and has no extra "per sale" fees (although other fees such as a stocking fee etc may apply). This is the only account which allows you to list new items in Amazon's catalogue.
Sign Up For GS1 This gives you the ability to *create* barcodes. They come in two formats - UPC (Universal Product Code) and EAN (European Article Number). Whilst these can be bought relatively cheaply ($10), Amazon, Google and eBay strongly recommend using GS1 for standardization. By using GS1, you're able to have your products recognized by the likes of Amazon. The downside is the cost, but it shouldn't really matter - we always recommend setting aside ~$500 for admin costs, of which this would definitely be one.
Create A Legal Company (Optional) If you're looking to set up a real FBA operation, you'll need a legal business (and bank account). Apart from giving Amazon the ability to open a business account, it allows you to better manage taxes (which are notoriously bad for investing your own money in a personal capacity). This is very easy to setup, but is only necessary if you want to actually deal with Amazon on an FBA basis only. If you want to just sell products on the system, you're welcome to do it under your own name.
Buy/Build Boxed Products You then need to get a set of boxed versions of the product. If you make the product yourself, you need to get them into standardized boxes. Because thre are so many ways to do this, we'll just say that you should look for a boxing/printing company to handle it for you. There are many capable ones. You must also follow Amazon's guidelines on what types of packaging they accept.
Send The Products To Amazon Once you have the boxed products, you need to send them to Amazon. This is arranged through the Amazon seller system, allowing you to pick a time when the products should receive at the Amazon warehouse. Again, due to the level of variation in the process, it's best to say that you should follow the Amazon guidelines in order to do this.
Start Selling This is the hardest part, which is explained below.
Selling The Products
The last step is to get the products sold. This is the hardest as you're almost entirely at the whim of the market (both Amazon's and any other market you may bring to the platform).
The trick to getting products bought from Amazon is effective marketing.
Marketing comes down to several points - the most notable being that you need to be able to firstly attract the attention of potential buyers and then build demand - giving them the opportunity to buy your product as a means to satisfy that demand.
Whilst there are many ways to do this, you must remember that if you're going to do it effectively, you need to be able to go out and market the product independently of whether it's going to be popular on Amazon. The less you need Amazon, the more likely it will be that you'll actually get people buying through the channel.
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Finally, we must also point out that any sales you make must NOT be counted as pure profit.
Your profit ONLY comes after your other costs have been accounted for (such as the actual products themselves, boxes and marketing). It is a rookie mistake to think that the money you receive from Amazon will actually be your "take home" profit - it's not.
You need to accumulate your initial principle from the gross revenue and then decide what to do with any profits made (as mentioned - this comes in the form of either paying yourself, or putting back into better/more products).
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9870346
Showing posts with label market place. Show all posts
Showing posts with label market place. Show all posts
Wednesday, 30 October 2019
Monday, 28 October 2019
Tuesday, 22 October 2019
Six Leaf | Anthony Lee: Can Messenger Chatbots Make You More Money on Amazon?
It’s a simple question. And no doubt you’ve heard of what a Messenger bot is. So, the question stands: Are you leveraging chatbots to grow your brand?
Often when we embark on the journey that is selling a private label brand online, specifically through Amazon FBA, it can become very easy to focus solely on the marketplace. We become overwhelmed with the new skills we must learn, and dedicate time and energy to mastering them; keyword ranking, optimization, sponsored product ads, promotions, coupons, lightning deals, and so on.
Rinse and repeat this process long enough and one day we look up and, ideally, we see that we’ve built a successful…Amazon business. Not that there is anything wrong with that at all. Quite the contrary, there is a lot of money to be made on Amazon and leveraging the platform makes sound business sense. Success is success.
The problem comes when we start to believe that the Amazon marketplace is the only source of gaining new customers. When we fall into this trap, we leave so much money on the table.
Research and statistics show that the majority of purchases on Amazon started with a keyword search using the platform’s search engine. That simply means the majority of sellers, including your competitors, aren’t doing a very good job driving targeted and directed traffic to their Amazon listings from outside sources. This presents a great opportunity.
The Viability of “Chatbots”
Messenger bots, otherwise called chatbots, represent a marketing strategy still in its infancy. Facebook just allowed Messenger objectives as an option in 2016.
What’s more, there is a good chance your competitors aren’t using chatbots in their marketing yet. While the technology is growing rapidly in popularity, many business owners and marketers still express concerns that the Messenger platform will one day go the way of email and people will simply tune out.
That seems like a viable concern, except that it isn’t.
The reason is because, unlike email, a mostly free service that isn’t heavily monitored and barely any support is offered to, Facebook is heavily monitored, heavily moderated and has a vested interest in ensuring the Messenger platform remains one of the most popular ways people communicate.
Simply put, Facebook cannot allow the Messenger platform to become over-run by bad marketing. It exists to enrich the lives of users, and now businesses have the unique opportunity to engage with that process.
Just take a look at some of these stats:
From the user perspective, according to the 2018 State of Chatbots Report, a large majority of people have plenty of reasons to engage with a chatbot if one is available. Chief among them are things like 24 hour service and getting an instant response.
From the business owner’s perspective, predictions of the growth of chatbots and what they are expected to achieve serve as a clear sign that they can help companies make money, hands down. Just look at these chatbot statistics from Ubisend:
Ok, so now that we are all on the same page regarding how viable a marketing channel Messenger is, what do we do about it?
Using Chatbots to Grow Your Brand
The Facebook Messenger platform, and chatbots that operate within it, are simply communication channels. But that is essentially what we as Amazon sellers lack, isn’t it? The ability to communicate with our customers?
But what can we achieve if we gain the ability to talk with customers?
For starters, we can provide more immediate and more helpful customer service. Sometimes, a sale or even a repeat sale rests on the strength of an interaction with a company.
If you compare side by side the process of interacting with a customer through Amazon’s messaging system, versus through Facebook Messenger, the results are startling. First of all, unless you are already logged into Seller Central, you won’t see that you received a message on Amazon until you get either an email notification, or you log back in.
When you use Amazon’s messaging system, you are limited to only seeing order information if the message is in connection with an order. So, if you are approached by a potential customer, you will only see their profile handle and no other information about them.
Contrast that with the rich and robust experience of Facebook Messenger. It is fast, users are alerted when their message has been read, the experience is seamless and highly convenient as well. Now, if you add a chatbot to the mix, customer support issues can be resolved almost immediately, information can be disseminated quickly and the customer can be moved through a positive experience with your brand in record time. This most assuredly can and will lead to more sales.
And that is just when using a chatbot for customer support. Now imagine you use it to communicate information about products.
To illustrate the potential here, I would like to show you screenshots of my own results. Now, I know my limited experience will not accurately represent the industry as a whole, but industry statistics are very much in line with my personal results.
First, take a look at this. These are the last five broadcasts I sent through one of my Manychat accounts. I use broadcasts to survey my audience, give them pertinent information about my brand, and introduce them to new products.
First, take a look at the open rates. 83 to 100%. That is simply incredible. I’ve never written an email that got those kinds of results (and I’m not a bad writer).
Now take a look at the next column, the click through rate. While those are much lower than the open rates, on the LOW end they hover at 25%. Again, this is an incredible number.
Now let’s compare that to an email list with roughly the same number of people on it. Here is a number of autoresponder sequences I have set up. Notice the abysmally lower open rates and CTR’s.
If that doesn’t open your eyes to the possibilities of chatbots in your marketing, I don’t know what will.
How to Maximize Your Chatbot/Amazon Experience
If you are already doing well on Amazon, that’s fantastic, but you can do even better. One of the best ways to achieve this is to turn on outside marketing channels in a highly targeted way. I suggest that the most cost effective way to get lasting results is through Facebook ads, targeting custom audience lookalikes with a Messenger objective, distributing a deal.
If you upload your buyer information from Amazon into Facebook you can create what is called a “custom audience.” This audience, once it becomes available to you, can be used to target advertisements to. That in and of itself is powerful. However, you can leverage the amazing power of Facebook’s platform intelligence even further by creating a “look alike audience” from that custom audience. When you do this, Facebook will identify millions of people on their platform who most similarly resemble your buyers.
With a pool of millions of potential customers, now you can run targeted ads with the objective to have them engage with your Messenger. Then, by setting up a simple chatbot like Manychat, you can offer people who engage with your ad and bot a deal to entice them to make a purchase.
And now the process is easier than ever.
Bridge by SixLeaf allows you to create a custom audience at the push of a button. With Bridge, you can also filter your buyer information by things like product, brand, amount spent, and more. You can even create an LTV (lifetime value) look alike audience directly from Bridge, so you can laser target only the people most likely to vote for your products with their wallet.
Code Courier by SixLeaf now offers Manychat integration, so you can distribute single-use Amazon coupon codes through Messenger that not only give out promo codes, but also direct buyers to your Amazon listing using our legendary Heatseeker URL. This is the most powerful way to both build your own list of customers and brand advocates AND rank for keywords simultaneously.
Messenger, chatbots and custom targeting are all innovations in advertising and communications technology that are shaping the future of marketing. SixLeaf is perfectly poised to offer Amazon sellers exactly the tools they need to leverage that technology and stay ahead of the curve, and their competitors.
UPDATE: March 2019
While the purpose of this article was to educate people on the potential of what they can achieve for their brand using chatbots, as well as to introduce everyone to features we have to integrate our tools with Facebook Messenger, we’ve gotten many requests for more details on those features.
We will write more extensively on this topic, but I thought I would add some more in-depth information on our Courier and Manychat template and campaign integration here in this post.
Let’s go over campaign setup and features within Courier by SixLeaf.
A Courier campaign offers the ability to distribute single use codes, a general code, or no code at all (for rebate setups). It also lets you add time and/or quantity based scarcity.
Next you can choose an integration (Amazon, Walmart, Shopify, etc). If you choose an Amazon product then you have the ability to use SixLeaf’s proprietary Heatseeker URL in the campaign.
You also have the ability to customize the Courier campaign “widget” fully. You can manipulate the fonts, text, spacing, imagery…every aspect of the offer window.
Analytics allows you to see which codes were taken, when they were taken, and by what IP address.
And you can also choose to install and integrate with our Manychat template, which will allow you to distribute your codes and/or URL through Facebook Messenger.
From there you can tag users, add them to sequences, and followup for a number of exposure-getting, brand-building actions (like reviews, social shares, referrals, etc).
Article Source: https://www.sixleaf.com/can-messenger-chatbots-make-you-more-money-on-amazon/
Often when we embark on the journey that is selling a private label brand online, specifically through Amazon FBA, it can become very easy to focus solely on the marketplace. We become overwhelmed with the new skills we must learn, and dedicate time and energy to mastering them; keyword ranking, optimization, sponsored product ads, promotions, coupons, lightning deals, and so on.
Rinse and repeat this process long enough and one day we look up and, ideally, we see that we’ve built a successful…Amazon business. Not that there is anything wrong with that at all. Quite the contrary, there is a lot of money to be made on Amazon and leveraging the platform makes sound business sense. Success is success.
The problem comes when we start to believe that the Amazon marketplace is the only source of gaining new customers. When we fall into this trap, we leave so much money on the table.
Research and statistics show that the majority of purchases on Amazon started with a keyword search using the platform’s search engine. That simply means the majority of sellers, including your competitors, aren’t doing a very good job driving targeted and directed traffic to their Amazon listings from outside sources. This presents a great opportunity.
The Viability of “Chatbots”
Messenger bots, otherwise called chatbots, represent a marketing strategy still in its infancy. Facebook just allowed Messenger objectives as an option in 2016.
What’s more, there is a good chance your competitors aren’t using chatbots in their marketing yet. While the technology is growing rapidly in popularity, many business owners and marketers still express concerns that the Messenger platform will one day go the way of email and people will simply tune out.
That seems like a viable concern, except that it isn’t.
The reason is because, unlike email, a mostly free service that isn’t heavily monitored and barely any support is offered to, Facebook is heavily monitored, heavily moderated and has a vested interest in ensuring the Messenger platform remains one of the most popular ways people communicate.
Simply put, Facebook cannot allow the Messenger platform to become over-run by bad marketing. It exists to enrich the lives of users, and now businesses have the unique opportunity to engage with that process.
Just take a look at some of these stats:
From the user perspective, according to the 2018 State of Chatbots Report, a large majority of people have plenty of reasons to engage with a chatbot if one is available. Chief among them are things like 24 hour service and getting an instant response.
From the business owner’s perspective, predictions of the growth of chatbots and what they are expected to achieve serve as a clear sign that they can help companies make money, hands down. Just look at these chatbot statistics from Ubisend:
Ok, so now that we are all on the same page regarding how viable a marketing channel Messenger is, what do we do about it?
Using Chatbots to Grow Your Brand
The Facebook Messenger platform, and chatbots that operate within it, are simply communication channels. But that is essentially what we as Amazon sellers lack, isn’t it? The ability to communicate with our customers?
But what can we achieve if we gain the ability to talk with customers?
For starters, we can provide more immediate and more helpful customer service. Sometimes, a sale or even a repeat sale rests on the strength of an interaction with a company.
If you compare side by side the process of interacting with a customer through Amazon’s messaging system, versus through Facebook Messenger, the results are startling. First of all, unless you are already logged into Seller Central, you won’t see that you received a message on Amazon until you get either an email notification, or you log back in.
When you use Amazon’s messaging system, you are limited to only seeing order information if the message is in connection with an order. So, if you are approached by a potential customer, you will only see their profile handle and no other information about them.
Contrast that with the rich and robust experience of Facebook Messenger. It is fast, users are alerted when their message has been read, the experience is seamless and highly convenient as well. Now, if you add a chatbot to the mix, customer support issues can be resolved almost immediately, information can be disseminated quickly and the customer can be moved through a positive experience with your brand in record time. This most assuredly can and will lead to more sales.
And that is just when using a chatbot for customer support. Now imagine you use it to communicate information about products.
To illustrate the potential here, I would like to show you screenshots of my own results. Now, I know my limited experience will not accurately represent the industry as a whole, but industry statistics are very much in line with my personal results.
First, take a look at this. These are the last five broadcasts I sent through one of my Manychat accounts. I use broadcasts to survey my audience, give them pertinent information about my brand, and introduce them to new products.
First, take a look at the open rates. 83 to 100%. That is simply incredible. I’ve never written an email that got those kinds of results (and I’m not a bad writer).
Now take a look at the next column, the click through rate. While those are much lower than the open rates, on the LOW end they hover at 25%. Again, this is an incredible number.
Now let’s compare that to an email list with roughly the same number of people on it. Here is a number of autoresponder sequences I have set up. Notice the abysmally lower open rates and CTR’s.
If that doesn’t open your eyes to the possibilities of chatbots in your marketing, I don’t know what will.
How to Maximize Your Chatbot/Amazon Experience
If you are already doing well on Amazon, that’s fantastic, but you can do even better. One of the best ways to achieve this is to turn on outside marketing channels in a highly targeted way. I suggest that the most cost effective way to get lasting results is through Facebook ads, targeting custom audience lookalikes with a Messenger objective, distributing a deal.
If you upload your buyer information from Amazon into Facebook you can create what is called a “custom audience.” This audience, once it becomes available to you, can be used to target advertisements to. That in and of itself is powerful. However, you can leverage the amazing power of Facebook’s platform intelligence even further by creating a “look alike audience” from that custom audience. When you do this, Facebook will identify millions of people on their platform who most similarly resemble your buyers.
With a pool of millions of potential customers, now you can run targeted ads with the objective to have them engage with your Messenger. Then, by setting up a simple chatbot like Manychat, you can offer people who engage with your ad and bot a deal to entice them to make a purchase.
And now the process is easier than ever.
Bridge by SixLeaf allows you to create a custom audience at the push of a button. With Bridge, you can also filter your buyer information by things like product, brand, amount spent, and more. You can even create an LTV (lifetime value) look alike audience directly from Bridge, so you can laser target only the people most likely to vote for your products with their wallet.
Code Courier by SixLeaf now offers Manychat integration, so you can distribute single-use Amazon coupon codes through Messenger that not only give out promo codes, but also direct buyers to your Amazon listing using our legendary Heatseeker URL. This is the most powerful way to both build your own list of customers and brand advocates AND rank for keywords simultaneously.
Messenger, chatbots and custom targeting are all innovations in advertising and communications technology that are shaping the future of marketing. SixLeaf is perfectly poised to offer Amazon sellers exactly the tools they need to leverage that technology and stay ahead of the curve, and their competitors.
UPDATE: March 2019
While the purpose of this article was to educate people on the potential of what they can achieve for their brand using chatbots, as well as to introduce everyone to features we have to integrate our tools with Facebook Messenger, we’ve gotten many requests for more details on those features.
We will write more extensively on this topic, but I thought I would add some more in-depth information on our Courier and Manychat template and campaign integration here in this post.
Let’s go over campaign setup and features within Courier by SixLeaf.
A Courier campaign offers the ability to distribute single use codes, a general code, or no code at all (for rebate setups). It also lets you add time and/or quantity based scarcity.
Next you can choose an integration (Amazon, Walmart, Shopify, etc). If you choose an Amazon product then you have the ability to use SixLeaf’s proprietary Heatseeker URL in the campaign.
You also have the ability to customize the Courier campaign “widget” fully. You can manipulate the fonts, text, spacing, imagery…every aspect of the offer window.
Analytics allows you to see which codes were taken, when they were taken, and by what IP address.
And you can also choose to install and integrate with our Manychat template, which will allow you to distribute your codes and/or URL through Facebook Messenger.
From there you can tag users, add them to sequences, and followup for a number of exposure-getting, brand-building actions (like reviews, social shares, referrals, etc).
Article Source: https://www.sixleaf.com/can-messenger-chatbots-make-you-more-money-on-amazon/
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