By John Miano, Strategic Account Manager

Deciding to take your business to the next level and opting to sell your products on Amazon can be both exciting and a bit overwhelming.

Have no fear, VENDO is here! We help numerous brands grow their brand presence on Amazon by providing guidance and overall support, acting as an extension of their business *excuse the shameless plug 😉 *.

Navigating the wild and unpredictable jungle called Amazon can be difficult, so we’ve provided a list of 5 must-have items a brand needs to make their business journey across Amazon a bit smoother:

1. A Master SKU Sheet

Benjamin Franklin once said, “For every minute spent in organizing an hour is earned.” Believe it or not, this applies to Amazon as well.

When listing products on Amazon, one of the key requirements for submission is to have a UPC code and a SKU for each of your items.

This can get out of hand for a brand if they have dozens or even hundreds of items to list on Amazon.

At VENDO, we provide our brands with a Master SKU sheet which easily organizes all their products and makes it so that anyone from their team can quickly view it when they need to list an item or make changes.

2. Strong Visuals AKA Really Great (i.e. Instagram Influencer–worthy) Product Photos

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, on Amazon it can mean the difference between making a few hundred sales to thousands of sales.

Not investing the capital and time into good product photography is like throwing in the towel during a boxing match.

Sometimes a simple face-forward product in front of a white background isn’t going to cut it. Brands that do well on Amazon are investing heavily into CGI-generated product photos to really add that “wow effect” (see example below).

Lifestyle photos are another good thing to consider adding to your photo library because they allow customers to picture themselves using your product. Selling a gardening tool? You better have a picture of a person using that tool in a garden.

3. Marketing Discovery

Sell me this pen? It’s going to be really difficult to sell someone a pen if the only information you can provide is that it’s blue and comes in a pack of five.

Brands need to have an intimate knowledge of their products—ranging from its ingredients to its special attributes—that set it apart from other products.

Going through the process of doing marketing discovery allows you to immerse yourself in the main benefits, features, and other selling points of the product. It will also make it easier for your Amazon team to create copy that can be easily translated into bullet points on their Amazon listings.

Essentially, brands must answer the following questions about their product:

• Why are we selling our product?
• Why do our customers need our product?
• What makes our product different from what our competitors are currently offering?
• How does our product improve or benefit our customer’s life?
• Why should customers choose our product over our competitor’s? (If your answer is because our product is cheaper, you might want to re-consider going back to the drawing board.)

4. Amazon Market Research + Competitive Analysis

You’d be amazed at the countless brands who start selling on Amazon without really understanding the competitive landscape on Amazon or the overall buying behavior of their Amazon customers.

How does one begin to understand the competition and overall buying patterns of customers on Amazon you ask?

At VENDO, we utilize tools such as Helium 10 — as well as internal strategies developed over years of experience — to help our brand partners understand their competition, market opportunities, and more.. By studying the current market and what the competition is offering, we get a better understanding of what customers are willing to buy. We can then use this data to help our brands generate compelling product offers that are currently in demand on Amazon.

5. Patience

If you made it this far down our list, congratulations. You have a rare trait that not every Amazon seller has, but that every successful brand on Amazon does, and that’s patience.

Every brand when launching on Amazon is going to face some type of roadblock or obstacle, and it’s important to be resilient and stay focused.

Amazon is constantly evolving, and as brands we have to remain flexible and adapt to the ever-changing landscape that is Amazon.

Don’t worry, just know you’re not alone. There are countless resources such as Amazon seller forums and LinkedIn groups that you can turn to when you need help. At VENDO, our dedicated team is always here to provide you with the support you need to grow your Amazon business (dang it, another shameless plug…oops we did it again).

Conclusion

Launching your brand on Amazon doesn’t have to be a scary and difficult task. Just remember to do your market research, keep your items organized, have awesome photos, and lastly—be patient. Also, if you do need support, VENDO is always happy to help J

Do you have any other must-have items to add to our list? If so, we’d love to hear about them!

Reach out to us on LinkedIn to see what we’re doing to help our brands manage their Amazon business. Or head over to our Youtube channel for other helpful tips and the latest trends on Amazon and e-commerce.

Published by John Miano

John Miano is a contributor to the VENDO Blog and a Strategic Account Manager at VENDO. When he’s not helping brands grow their business on Amazon, you can find him watching educational TikToks related to e-commerce or watching the latest binge-worthy show on Netflix, such as Getting Organized with Home Edit.