Amazon FBA Mistakes: Common Issues and How to Avoid Them. All You Need to Know about Amazon FBA Mistakes

Overview

Nobody’s perfect, and committing mistakes is just normal and may be bound to happen at times. You may commit many mistakes throughout your Amazon selling journey, but it is just a minor bump on the road. You might be a master of something, but you can still commit many mistakes in anything. Will you still be making the same mistakes if you know that it will result in account suspension?

Some mistakes are forgivable but sometimes non-considerable. In a big selling platform such as Amazon, you need to know the common mistakes that a seller usually encounters to avoid them while you are in the process.

When your selling account is approved on Amazon, you must understand what you can and cannot do in running your business account on Amazon. Amazon provided its terms and conditions during the registration process. Being a responsible seller, you need to read and understand everything about the platform so that your account won’t be suspended.

Running a multi-trillion company, Amazon has thousands of employees and machines to detect fraud. They have all the resources to detect if you committed a mistake. 

Here are some common mistakes that the sellers are not aware of at times, and new sellers should be aware of them: 

1. Breaking Amazon Rules

Whether or not you are new to Amazon, nobody has an excuse for suspension if he breaks Amazon’s rules. Rules and regulations are stated on the terms and conditions upon registering.  When you tick that you understood the terms and conditions, it means that you agree and conform to anything written on that agreement. You can always research it and register once you have understood everything.

If Amazon decides to put your account on suspension, you lose access to your inventory inside the Amazon warehouse. When it happens, you will no longer sell your products, which would be a potential loss as a seller.

2. Monitor the competition

If you sell on Amazon, do intensive product research and use tools such as Jungle Scout’s Keyword Scout that may help you see the competition you may encounter in the niche you are selling. This tool will also help the seller to see the Amazon PPCs cost.

Suppose you are an online seller already and plan to expand on Amazon. In that case, it’s better to research first about selling on Amazon and include all the tools that the sellers are using to successfully sell on this platform.

Picking an over-saturated niche means you fail to do thorough product research. If you want to profit from a particular item,  you should choose which you could not see on a well-established seller.

3. Find a reliable supplier

When you want to sell on Amazon, you need to seek a supplier that could supply enough products to your store. A tool known as Jungle Scout Supplier Database is one of your bases where you can seek a reliable supplier.

A fault to find an honest supplier for your store will cause you to lose thousands of dollars. Properly screen your supplier and check on their website if they have.

4. Avoid copycats

If you want to sell something on Amazon, you should avoid selling products that may look almost the same as the other products from the other sellers. Avoid selling items sold by a well-established seller. Buyers tend to pick something that has the most reviews. 

You still have the option to sell these items though you need to research the product and try to dig deeper at the pain point of the buyers who already purchased the product. If you can find a solution to solve their issues, you can beat the competition. 

5. Don’t over order stock

Play your cards very well, especially if you don’t have the basis that a certain product would sell like a hotcake on the marketplace. If you want to try any product for the first time, you should order a few items to monitor the demand on the market. Over-order of your stock will cause you trouble in getting back your investment. Remember that you are paying Amazon for their storage fee, which adds up every month and may charge you per cubic foot monthly.

6. Not using Amazon PPC for advertisement

Amazon PPC is the built-in advertising system that any seller can use when they want to promote their products online. Though there might be a minimal cost in using it, Amazon PPC is still your best choice in boosting the product’s organic ranking.

7. Neglecting attention to customer service

Your customers are an essential ingredient in your success. The quality of customer experience will help you grow your network. A study told us that 60 per cent of the customers prefer good customer service over the price.

As a seller, you should be attentive enough to their customer’s feedback, and addressing their concerns will make you gain their trust and loyalty. A seller should have the ability to resolve their customers’ problems promptly and maintain a positive way of delivering customer support.

8. Delays in order fulfilment

The moment the customer checks out the products on Amazon, he is already counting on days when the product will reach his hands. Customers would love and be excited to see their parcels on their doorsteps. Pleasing your customers through a swift delivery service will be a plus point to your store if you want to be way ahead of your competitors. One day delay of their order delivery may push them to write bad feedback about your store. 

9. Missing out tax liabilities

While selling on any online platform, you have to make sure that you read the state rules to operate your business. You need to be familiar with several tax obligations when you sell on Amazon. You should have to remit the correct figures without discrepancies to your respective state to avoid penalties and future problems that may arise later on.

10. Mismanaged inventory

As a seller, you should monitor your stock inventory closely to avoid the potential of losing sales over your competitors. Inventory software is available online, which will help sellers manage their inventory and ensure that stocks are always available to maintain the rank. 

11. PPC campaigns

Non-strategic PPC campaigns will cost you a lot of money. Planning is crucial to hitting your goal when you run a PPC campaign. Sellers should understand the process and plan an effective strategy to launch a PPC campaign. There are optimisation strategies that will help you get a high product ranking on Amazon.

Usually, you will invest money when you launch any campaign for your product. If you go with the campaign without planning, you will burn your investment to ashes.

12. A wrong turn in taking shortcuts

As we say, there is no shortcut in getting rich. Barcode is a basic requirement for selling on Amazon. Amazon wants to ensure that its sellers get the authentic barcode for their products and register the right one. Many sellers bought their barcodes at a lesser price from the black market, only to find out that they got faulty codes. Buy only from legit barcode distributors, so it will not cost you more later.

Remember that Amazon has the technology to see if you put the proper codes for your product. If you are caught putting on fake barcodes, there might be a great chance that you will be suspended from selling your item on Amazon.

Mistakes you’ve made before

Mistakes will teach you many lessons and should not be repeatedly committed. In selling on Amazon, you must be aware of the Amazon rules and regulations to sell on Amazon continuously. Giant eCommerce platforms like Amazon have their own system to monitor your activities. They will not put the rules and regulations if they are not true to it.

When you want to sell on Amazon, learn first about the platform and the mistakes you should avoid committing. There are plenty of things you should know about Amazon. While waiting for your approval, you can start learning about the strategies you should apply when doing your product listing. 

Here are the frequently asked questions regarding Amazon FBA mistakes and common issues and how to avoid them.

You might also want to check out our blog about Your FBA Shipment Checklist: What Is It About and How to Use It? to help you further with Amazon FBA.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

There are lots of sellers who are committing the same mistakes repeatedly. Awareness will help you avoid committing these mistakes over and over again. The repetitions of these mistakes will result in losses. Constantly study and learn every bit of the process.