The Definitive Guide to Selling on Amazon

As a former journalist, the plethora of click-bait headlines across the web is nauseating. I’ve had to draw the line plenty of times in my writing career, refusing to call something “definitive,” comprehensive” or “all-inclusive” if it wasn’t that.

This piece of content required no such moral delineation.

This book’s headline, Definitive Guide, is the only possible way to describe what you will find in the subsequent chapters. It is by far the most complete and actionable information out there discussing how exactly to sell on Amazon.

Here are some things you’ll find throughout the book:

• How expanding to Amazon helped a Water Polo company successfully sell swimwear to Alaska
• Seven skills you must have to win on Amazon, as told to you by the former business head of Selling on Amazon
• How you could lose on Amazon by winning –– and other tips and tricks to avoid a double-sided sword
• Real examples of how to successfully sell on Amazon, when to use which strategies and growth hacking tips that edge on the side of controversial
• Pitfalls that trip up even the best Amazon sellers out there –– and how to avoid each and every one of them
• How to win the Buy Box, as told by Feedvisor, the unencumbered champion of Buy Box wins, where 82% of Amazon’s sales happen
• Why mobile matters most –– 70% of Amazon customers made purchases on Amazon’s mobile site –– and how to optimize for it
• Pricing and repricing strategies for both resellers and private label sellers alike –– plus tips to make you more, faster
• How to use FBA to significantly increase sales
• How to get a 320% increase in sales in less than 10 minutes (hint: Amazon has SEO, too)
• What The Mountain has to do with an Amazon customer review legend –– and how you can jump start your own with a simple email
• A step-by-step guide to determining, once and for all, your actual Amazon revenue –– calculations and exactly what to measure are all included
• Growth hacking tips and tricks that could earn you $5,000 for every hour you spend focused on Amazon

This has been a book eight months in the making –– with the first email sent out to a subject matter expert on January 21, 2016.

The timing is critical.

BigCommerce had just recently published the first ever Amazon Sellers’ Solution Provider Directory –– highlighting more than 200 solution providers across a wide range of Amazon needs and complexities.

It was our most downloaded piece of content to date.

James Thomson, former head of Selling on Amazon, founder of The Prosper Show and an an author you’ll see plenty of times throughout this book, was the mastermind behind that project. His name and proposal landed on my desk in the hibernation days between Christmas and New Years, when most Americans and almost all retailers are in the throes of a rest period following the holiday rush.

“I know it’s the holidays, but please just hop on a call with him,” a colleague pleaded. “You’ll like what he has to say.”

That 30-page book published two weeks later, forcing itself to the top of priority cycles that typically take much longer –– especially with multiple team members out on vacation. It was all hands on deck –- and I had called them there, asking many to spend a few extra hours to help me make this book come to life.

I was putting my neck on the line –– calling in favors before the first day of the new year even began.

It was that good.

Soon, I was sending James emails asking him to review a table of contents for a longer-form, more comprehensive piece on how to sell on Amazon. It’s safe to say that my call with James that late December day was a light bulb moment for me.

“This stuff is complex,” I told him, “but the revenue opportunity for our customers is too ridiculous to ignore. Our merchants need the absolute best, most pertinent information to make this work. I won’t waste their time.”

He agreed, and the vetting process began. That first email went out. This 35,000+ word book had its first heartbeat of life.

Today, there are 16 chapters in this book, featuring the insights of more than 10 Amazon subject matter experts. A few include:

• Andrew Tjernlund, Multi-Million Dollar Merchant and Amazon Consultant
• Andy Geldman, Editor-in-Chief, Web Retailer
• Bryan Bowman, Founder, AMZ Profit Pros
• Eyal Lanxner, CTO, Feedvisor
• James Thomson, Partner at the Buy Box Experts, Founder of The PROSPER Show, Former Head of Selling on Amazon
• Kai Klement, Co-founder and Multi-Million Dollar Merchant, KAVAJ
• Kevin Rizer, Founder, Private Label Podcast
• Lauren Shepherd, Senior Marketing Manager, Teikametrics
• Ohad Hagai, VP Marketing, Feedvisor

We left no stone unturned, nor did we include any information we believed to be superfluous.

You will find everything you need to start selling and winning on Amazon in this book. Fulfillment By Amazon? Got you covered. Pricing? We have strategies from the very best Amazon sellers. We cover everything under the sun (as it pertains to Amazon): product marketing and descriptions, Amazon SEO, shipping and fulfillment hacks, a thorough analysis of Amazon fees, and much more. (Want even more Amazon? Discover its evolution from bookstore to worldwide sales giant here.)

I can also assure you it will be a vital resource you continue to reference as you grow Amazon as a true money-making channel. Even for those sellers already highly profitable on Amazon, there are nuggets of insight to even further increase sales and operationalize your Amazon business.

What are you waiting for? Dive in. Take action. Grow your business and find more customers.

And let us know if you have any questions. This book will be a living and breathing document. We will be updating this Definitive guide, adding or removing information to make sure you have everything you need to sell more on Amazon today and in the future.