Top Mistakes Done By Amazon FBA Sellers & Tips to Avoid them

Millions of small business owners have earned a thousand dollars a day by just sitting at home. And it all became possible with Amazon FBA. But is Amazon all good and green? Not at all, many sellers have lost their journey in the middle because of just a little mistake. Let's check some of the top mistakes done by Amazon FBA Sellers so that you won't make one while starting out!

The growth of Amazon is quite huge and superficial, all hail to the internet, and of course COVID-19. The marketplace has given customers the strongest purchase power than they have ever had. They quickly decide whether to buy a product from a specific seller or not. And this quick decision making power has unknowingly put much stress on sellers.

Each seller has to stand unique to get attention from the potential customer, either by giving awesome quality products or by just offering the greatest discount. But is it that easy?

Obviously good products sell best on Amazon, and discounts do lure customers, but there's a lot that goes into selling on Amazon.

Coming back to Amazon FBA sellers,

Many claim that they have made big bucks by just sitting from the comforts of their home, but they didn't mention the strategies they have used and the mistakes they have made to reach there.

So, if you are an Amazon FBA seller or thinking about getting into it, in this article, we will walk you through 9 top mistakes most Amazon FBA sellers make. We'll even share some tips on how to avoid these mistakes without wasting thousands of dollars.

Let's get started!

The 9 Biggest Amazon FBA Seller Mistakes! (Mistakes you must not do)

Never Break the Rules

One of the biggest mistakes most Amazon FBA sellers (probably during their early days) is violating Amazon's terms of service. And because of this violation, your account would get shut, and you won't be able to sell anything on the Marketplace in the future.

Before starting out on Amazon, always check out what you can do on the platform and what you can't. Having said that, even if you are a professional seller, always keep a check on terms and conditions, because they are updated quite often.

And always remember this – Amazon is huge and so is its data security system. It knows everything, thousands of employees are working on how to minimize the frauds happening – you will be caught, so better stay true to your journey.

If by any chance you get caught by the team, the first thing they will do is annul your access to all the inventories you have stored. Additionally, in the future you won't be able to sell anything on Amazon, you will be banned for lifetime.

Never Checking out the Supplier Personally

Amazon FBA business is all about the supplier you choose for your products. You can always get in contact with the best global supplier, but that doesn't that supplier is trustworthy enough. And one of the major reasons behind mentioning this is that many Amazon FBA sellers have faced much loss because of their suppliers and not their strategies.

Having said that, you must always be open to using new tools that offer the best and updated database of global suppliers. Tools like Jungle Scout, Helium 10, Sellics, AMZ Scout offer many details about suppliers who are trusted by most Amazon FBA sellers. These tools even offer historical data of each supplier, so that as a seller, you know with whom you are going to deal with and how they have performed in the past years.

Moreover, with tools like Helium 10 and Jungle Scout, you can enter the name of your competitor, or the ASIN of their product, to check who the supplier they deal with exactly.

If as an Amazon FBA Seller you miss out on searching about the supplier, you would probably loose thousands of dollars as overcharges. Moreover, a few suppliers (not the professional ones) gulp down the deposit you have paid, so yet again you would lose much.

Not Keeping a Check on your Competitors

To grow on Amazon as an FBA seller one must outperform competitors, not just once, but constantly. And the only effective way to do this is by conducting a detailed competitor analysis. This analysis will help sellers understand how better they have to strategize their business to box big bucks.

So, at first, you will have to identify the right competitor, the one you are sharing a stage with. For that, you will have to enter the most relevant keywords in the search bar (if you are using any tool) and then shortlist the top 3 products. The reason behind shortlisting only the top products is that these products grab 40-70% of the sales on Amazon. Check out the price range of these products, how long the seller has been selling the product, and lastly the reviews given by customers.

Next, examine every aspect of the product – like its title, image, and description. You must even check out the additional information shared by the seller to examine their USP.

Remember that while selling on Amazon, competitors do play an important role. Hence, you should always keep a check on their footsteps, what strategy they are using, and more importantly the reason behind them succeeding.

Not getting Creative or Original

Now that you have done competitor research, you would have understood the tactics they have been using for long to get on the top – but do you have to copy those blindly? No! You should never, instead you must get more creative to stand out unique in the crowd.

Identical product descriptions, titles, and images would not cost you thousands of dollars, but it can someday become a reason for your account ban.  Amazon algorithm quickly scans such identical items, and next, even shoppers are smarter. When they get an opportunity to choose between two identical products, they will be choosing the one that's cheaper and has more positive reviews.

Hence, while doing product research always check out the comment section of each product. Over there you will be able to find out what exactly the product is lacking. If you find any, make sure to find out ways to improve it.

For example, if someone is selling curtains on Amazon, and it's not of great quality like colour fading off quickly or not of proper size, you can use these main points as a description to your product.

Remember that when a product launches on Amazon and it's completely copied, you could end up burning your entire investment, especially if there's already one seller selling the same product with better reviews.

Not Doing Research, Over-Stocking

Yes, you are selling on Amazon, and definitely yes you would be getting many orders, but does that mean you should always pile up products? No!

A lot of Amazon FBA sellers often store extra stock just because they feel that there would be any demand in the future, and of course no one wants to run out of inventory. Yet another reason why sellers overstock is that the cost-per-unit is low.

But remember that you are an Amazon FBA seller, and you will have to pay Amazon for storing your items. And while your inventory will be sitting in the warehouse idle, you would be paying more and more without earning even a bit.

The only way then left out is – get rid of that extra stock by liquidating. However, liquidation will not always give you back your whole investment. And, if you ask Amazon to return your products to you, you will have to pay $0.50 per unit.

But what's the right stock amount to order?

Sales Estimates!

Helium 10 and Jungle Scout are two best tools offering inventory management features that would help you get a quick insight about what sales you can expect in the near future, and how much you should stock up.

Remember that long term storage fees of Amazon are extremely high, you should never pile up your inventories. In fact, when your products have been at Amazon for more than a year, you will be charged $6.90 per cubic foot for a product. But, if you don't over stock your products, chances are, you will be able to add up more products in your inventory list to earn more in the festive seasons.

Not Creating a Review Plan

While you sell on Amazon, your buyers are looking forward to checking out how you have been performing for days and months now. And this performance is often checked by looking at the customer reviews – hence, a review plan is a must. It does not just build credibility but even helps you stand unique from your competitors. 

Having said that, while making a review plan make sure to stick to the rules shared by Amazon. Using black hat or unethical practices to get positive reviews might hamper your seller's profile on Amazon, or to the worst it can be dismissed.

Not using Amazon PPC

Amazon Sponsored Product Campaigns is among one of the best ways to rank higher on Amazon. It increases visibility of seller's listings but the dollar they burn here is literally so much more. Hence, before launching any PPC campaign sellers must build a proper strategy. They should first explore how PPC campaigns actually work and how best to optimize each.

If by any mistake a seller launches an ad campaign without fully optimizing it, they might end up losing much investment and won't even get sizable returns.

Hence, always keep a track on your spendings while launching an ad campaign, and if it goes out of your budget, please avoid it, and make changes in your strategies instead.

Blindly Trusting the Data on the Internet

Quite lately many sellers have become more dependent on the data over the internet for building their strategy. Remember that Amazon FBA is not so easy, and to crack it, the seller has to do its own research. And more importantly, Amazon never shares its sales data to the public. However, tools like Helium 10 and Jungle Scout do offer sales estimates that's not so accurate but one can still rely a bit on it.

And, if by any chance, a seller use sales estimations from wrong or outdated tools, they can lose a lot of their capital of profits.

For example, if you are using a tool having sales accuracy of around 70% and your competitor is using a tool having sales accuracy of around 85%. Chances are, your competitor would not miss out much on sales because he/she orders less inventory due to lower sales estimate, and you end up purchasing more because your estimate was wrong (or less accurate).

That being said, a slight difference in the sales estimates can cost you a lot, lot!

Not Optimizing the Listing

A place full of mess is hated by everyone, for example, a shopping mall where everything is messy and not kept in an organized way. The same with Amazon, as an FBA seller you must always be organized. Your seller board is your storefront, and it should speak volume for you. Hence, always make sure to add only high quality photographs, highly optimized titles, effective descriptions, and competitive pricing range.

If you are a beginner and are not aware of how to create an optimized listing, you can always take help of optimization tools like Helium 10, Viral Launch, Jungle Scout, Scope, and ZonGuru.

Remember that a fully optimised listing has a higher conversion rate as compared to poor ones. Just a bit of optimization can show a big difference in your sales, try it now!

Top FAQs related to Mistakes Done By Amazon FBA Sellers

Final Verdict: Have you made any Mistake as an Amazon FBA Seller yet?

Apart from the list of mistakes mentioned above, there are many more missteps and oversights sellers make while selling on Amazon. You should always have a strategy pre-planned, and if things are not working out, you should not hesitate to make a newer strategy. 

It's perfectly fine to make a mistake at once, but it's completely wrong to do the same again and again. With that being said, we don't really want you to make the above mentioned mistakes to stay financially strong. Nearly every above mentioned mistake here can be mitigated by just using the right tools and following the right FBA Sellers out there.

So, learn from others mistakes, learn from your mistakes too, pick up the right tools (we have reviewed the best ones for you) and scale up your Amazon FBA business like never before!

Happy Selling!