As a start-up in the supplements industry, you should always look for a unique approach to make and sell your products. Yet, you must always keep track of your competition and the latest trends. Currently, selling supplements on e-commerce platforms such as Amazon is one of the most popular ways to sell your supplements online. So, it is definitively worth a try!
As a trusted retailer, Amazon offers great potential, especially for competitive categories such as supplements. The platform has 90 million Amazon Prime subscribers in the US, and more than 300 million active customers worldwide. It has made many people very wealthy and you can definitely get rich off it. That’s why most entrepreneurs make the mistake of perceiving the platform as a get-rich-quick scheme.
But even though you can make hundreds of thousands of dollars per month on Amazon, you will have to dedicate time and effort to strengthen your brand and increase your sales. More exactly, you should design a complete, wider strategy, as you would for any other business plan.
In continuance, you can learn how to sell your supplements on Amazon, what are the requirements to enter this business, and how to gain competitive advantage, thus increase your profits.
How to Sell Supplements on Amazon FBA?
As mentioned before, Amazon is a set-up platform for launching a supplement business and generating passive income. More exactly, you can take advantage of Amazon’s advanced shipping and fulfillment services by enrolling in the FBA program.
Most people will not purchase a supplement product if it does not have a prime feature. Thus, if you are willing to sell supplements, you must understand the necessity of FBA.
What is Amazon FBA?
FBA, or Fulfillment by Amazon, is based on two main principles.
To be more specific, you will be the one responsible for sending the supplements to Amazon, advertising, and selling them to your customers. The platform, on the other hand, stores the products, packs, ships, tracks, and handles returns and refunds on your behalf.
Hence, the FBA program significantly facilitates selling your merchandise online. Anyhow, all of it comes at a cost. You will have to pay the platform for both storage and fulfillment fees. But you will also be able to take advantage of their 24/7 customer service and spare the cost of shipping to your clients.
After all, approximately 50% of Amazon’s sales come from third parties. What’s more, 66% of the top 10,000 sellers use Amazon FBA for their sales.
The Amazon FBA program is pretty simple. Thus, it can be explained in 5 steps.
Step 1 – Select and Send Your Product
First of all, you need to select the right products to sell on Amazon.
At this stage, it is important to research the market, think of how you will place your supplements, and predict how they will appear on the platform. For example, are you aiming for the premium end of the market or target bargain hunters?
Once you determine your target audience and key features, you should take a look at the competition. You should also determine whether you will supply a product with existing demand, deliver new supplements, or capitalize on an emerging trend.
More exactly, all supplements go in the ‘Health and Household’ category. However, it is your job to select the best subcategory under health and household to garner the most amount of relevant traffic.
Then, you should create your Amazon product listing. Make sure to dedicate special attention to it, as it has a huge effect on conversion rates. When you come up with your strategy, you can send the products to Amazon that has about 100 warehouses across the US. You can also specify where they should ship your products to.
Step 2 – Amazon Stores the Products
When Amazon receives your merchandise, they sort it out and safely store it in their warehouses. Furthermore, Amazon offers compensation if your supplements get damaged on their property.
At this point, you will be responsible for regularly checking your inventory levels and maintaining your stock.
Step 3 – Sell Your Supplements
Finally, it’s time to market your products. When a customer purchases a product from an FBA program, Amazon takes care of the entire transaction. However, you are the one responsible for marketing and advertising your products.
As you already know, Amazon is saturated with a lot of products. Hence, it is very important to go above and beyond to stand out, as it is the only way to take advantage of Amazon’s algorithm to get in front of millions of customers.
Also, you must make sure to target relevant keywords and put them in your product title and description. To find the best keywords for your product, you may use specialized tools such as SEM Rush. Hence, as an entrepreneur, you must always remember that selecting the right keywords can make the difference of success versus failure.
Another thing you should pay attention to is your sales velocity, or the speed with which you are selling your products. Generally, the Amazon algorithm displays products with higher sales velocity. Thus, you must make sure that your products sell more and quicker than your competitors.
To increase your sales velocity, you can either decrease your prices or advertise through Amazon or other traffic providers such as Facebook, Taboola, Instagram, Google, and email lists.
The next factor that is very important in the success of your product is Amazon reviews. But even though the platform frowns upon incentivized reviews, there are still people who successfully pay locals to purchase their product on Amazon and leave a good review for in exchange for $10-$20.
Another great way to get reviews is to create a purchase follow-up message on your Amazon account. This feature will send customers an automatic email from Amazon after they purchase your product. However, make sure to ask or remind the customers to review the product they’ve purchased in the message.
Professional Design for Your Brand
One of the most important tips is to dedicate special attention to your label design. Your brand speaks for the quality of your products. Thus, you need to choose color and style that compares with the one of your competition.
Good design adds value to your supplements whereas amateurish labels appear cheap and untrustworthy to the customers. At this point, you should also choose from generic and targeted designs.
Generic designs have a wide appeal but come with a risk of getting ‘lost in the noise’. Targeted designs, on the other hand, offer a greater possibility for brand differentiation, but apply to a narrower audience.
Test Your Products
Another important advice is to always test your products before you place them on Amazon. For example, if you sell a supplement that tastes bad, you will most probably get a bad review. So, not only you will lose that particular customer, but also ruin your brand reputation.
Customer reviews are extremely important in Amazon’s A9 algorithm. Thus, you should always be careful about what you are selling.
Engage With Your Customers
Finally, you should always try to establish lasting relationships with your customer. For example, potential customers may easily purchase your supplements if you take the time to answer their questions. Additionally, you can take advantage of this information for your future marketing campaigns.
To increase the appeal you have on your clients, you can also work on the quality of your images, videos, and text information. Amazon is constantly increasing its standards concerning product description quality. Thus, you must always satisfy or exceed these requirements.
Step 4 – Amazon Ships Your Product
When a customer buys one of your supplements, Amazon accepts the payment and automatically updates your inventory. Then, a robot or one of the warehouse workers packs the product from storage and ships it to the appropriate address.
Amazon also handles customer service. So, you won’t have to deal with returns and refunds. However, you should take care of the feedback on your product listing.
Step 5 – You Receive Money
In the end, you will get paid by the platform. More exactly, Amazon does the calculations every two weeks. To facilitate the process, they instantly deduct the fees and transfer the remaining finances.
Conclusion
All things considered, Amazon FBA is a great opportunity for selling supplements online. The platform handles a huge part of your obligations but is extremely simple and easy to understand. By leaving the shipping and payment part to a third party, you will be able to better advertise your products. Thus, you can increase your sales and profits.
Manufacture Your Supplements With SMP Nutra
Looking to sell supplements on Amazon? Having high-quality supplements is crucial to the success of this venture. SMP Nutra is a leading supplement manufacturing facility that can manufacture any type of supplement.
We are capable of producing capsules, softgels, tablets, gummies, and more. We also offer design services to make your supplement look professional and attractive.