Today’s guest post is by Nate McCalister, founder of the Facebook group FBA TODAY, creator of the sites and services Ungate Your Account and The Listing Studio, and his amazing new site entreresource.com. Here he talks about some of the finer points of creating a listing of your own, which can benefit all sellers, from PL to bundles to RA/OA people looking to enhance or improve a shady listing, which we’ve all come across from time to time.
Seven Common Easy-To-Make Amazon Listing Mistakes
The first rule of selling on Amazon: play by the rules.
The second rule of selling on Amazon: play by the rules!
(Yes, I did just drop a Fight Club reference in a blog post about listing products on Amazon, I couldn’t help myself.)
Ok, back to
business….
Seriously, you need to follow Amazon’s policies and guidelines when it comes to creating listings. All the keywords and copywriting will be dust in the wind if your listing gets suppressed.
Next, you want to make it stand out and give customers everything they could possibly need to make the right buying decision. If your listings are not quality, optimized and appealing, you are losing out on sales.
A lot of sales!
Here are some common mistakes that sellers can make when creating product listings that you should be aware of and avoid.
Fight the urge to take the quick and easy route on your listing. Investing a little extra time to make sure that you fill in as many details as possible will pay off big time in the long run. If you are allowed to put 50 characters, put 50 characters. Let there be no doubt in the customer’s mind as to what they are buying. This will also help reduce your rate of returns in the long run.
There is a misconception that you have to load your listing with keywords and the more they appear, the better the product will rank for them. This is simply incorrect. You only need to mention a keyword one time in a listing. For example, if it’s in the title, you don’t have to put it in the bullet points. If it’s in the bullet points, you don’t need to put it in the keyword fields. Let the shopper know that you are more concerned with presenting your product in a way that is clear and sensical rather than simply cramming a string of nonsensical keywords together to get maximum views.
This one will kill a listing. When I shop online if I see typos or serious grammar issues, my first thought is “this is probably a fake.” Don’t let bad spelling and grammar ruin a great product. Be especially careful in your product titles. Your product may only get one glance before the shopper decides to buy it or not; make sure that they aren’t pushed away by spelling and grammar problems.
When creating your bullet points, focus not only on the feature but why the feature should make someone desire the product more. What is the benefit that the feature provides?
If only Amazon were that simple! In order to avoid having your listing suppressed, you need to be aware of the rules of listing each product. You can’t memorize them of course, but you can find them in the flat file guidelines or you can contact Amazon seller support if you are unsure. A great listing won’t sell if it is suppressed!
As mentioned in the point above, different categories have different criteria; this is the same for images. Some images need to be only over 500x pixels on the longest side while others need to be over 1001x pixels. To be safe, make sure that your images are hi-res and over 1001 pixels on their longest side. This will provide you with a quality, zoomable image. Also, be sure that your image showcases only the product and is on a perfectly white background. Ignoring Amazon’s product image guidelines is another quick way to get your listing suppressed.
Another easy way to get your listing suppressed: miscategorizing it. Fight the temptation to list the product where you think there will be less competition or a higher sales price. Just list it where it belongs. If you don’t know, contact Amazon. A suppressed listing is a waste of your money and time, don’t let it happen!
The seven points I mentioned above are all part of one larger concept I try and convey,
Work with Amazon and for the customer
When you effectively target your customer in Amazon-approved ways, you will find a lot of success creating your own listings.
Happy Selling!