DROPSHIPPING TOOLS WITH AMAZON: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW
It is likely, especially if you are starting to dropship, that at some point you have considered dropshipping with Amazon.
Although this sales channel may not be as popular as others when it comes to dropshipping, it is indisputable that its great success and global implementation make dropshipping with Amazon an alternative to consider.
For that reason, for more than 2 years, Shopify online store owners have been able to sell on Amazon, as this sales channel is fully integrated into the Shopify platform.
If you want to know how to dropship with Amazon, pay attention to this guide in which you will learn everything you need to be successful in the marketplace par excellence during the year 2022.
The dropshipping model on Amazon
Dropshipping on Amazon has two different modalities that you should know about because the implications of both formats are different:
- Dropshipping through FBA : this acronym stands for Fulfillment by Amazon . This form of dropshipping consists of your dropshipping provider sending the merchandise to the Amazon logistics center, so that the Amazon warehouse itself is in charge of sending it, managing refunds, processing returns and providing direct customer service.
- Conventional dropshipping : Amazon acts as one more marketing channel: it makes sales easier for you thanks to its enormous commercial structure and SEO positioning . When the sale is complete, your supplier can either ship the product directly to the customer or they can send it to you for you to handle the final shipment.
Main advantages of dropshipping on Amazon in 2022
If you are not very clear about the main benefits and advantages of dropshipping with Amazon in Spain, below you will find a list of arguments in favor of this sales channel.
1. When dropshipping with Amazon there are no storage costs
As usual in the world of dropshipping, dropshipping with Amazon will allow you to sell without stock.
It does not matter if you opt for the FBA option or the conventional one. In both cases, it will be Amazon or your wholesaler who will be in charge of storing the products.
Since you don’t have to have a warehouse full of merchandise, your costs are significantly reduced and order management is greatly simplified.
2. You can access a much larger audience
The good thing about dropshipping with Amazon is that you can benefit from their huge business structure.
With more than 244 million active users, Amazon has access to a huge number of potential customers who regularly visit its marketplace to make purchases. And you can benefit from this spectacular audience — much larger than the one provided by the social networks that you should use in your business — by using Amazon as another sales channel.
If you do things right – if you select the products with the most demand and define a pricing strategy accordingly – you can earn a lot of money, since Amazon will give you the opportunity to show your products to a huge number of potential buyers.
3. You do not need to invest so much in advertising
One way to generate traffic to your dropshipping store is by hiring advertising on social networks.
But if you become a seller on Amazon you will be able to pay for ads within the Amazon platform itself. In this way, you will increase your sales and build your positive reputation (something basic to improve the organic positioning of your products within the platform).
And not only that: you can also save money on advertising on Facebook because organic positioning on Amazon will generate a lot of free traffic from customers interested in buying your products.
4. You can test many products with almost no risk
Lacking stock, it’s much easier to know if you’ve hit the nail on the head with your dropshipping niche because if things don’t go your way you won’t have a ton of items you’ve paid for in advance.
In addition, the potential of Amazon allows you to test in front of a huge audience, so you need less time to do the test than if you did the test directly in your own store.
5. You will benefit from the great reputation of Amazon
People have become accustomed to the service offered by Amazon and many customers when they have to buy something, have a habit of accessing Amazon first.
All this makes customers fully trust Amazon. And if you dropship with Amazon you can benefit from that trust, as customers will think they are buying directly from Amazon.
Main disadvantages of dropshipping with Amazon
Although the benefits of dropshipping on Amazon are obvious, not everything is rosy.
In fact, the big problem that you will find if you decide to dropship with Amazon is that the marketplace itself establishes a large number of restrictions on this type of operation. These terms and conditions make dropshipping with Amazon impossible in practice, since:
- When the order is generated, you cannot buy the product from another Internet seller , if this is going to be the one in charge of sending it to the final customer. In fact, you couldn’t buy on AliExpress and sell on Amazon. This is a pretty big deterrent for just about everyone who drops ships.
- Labels, stickers, invoices or delivery notes that are different from yours or those of your business cannot appear on the package that is sent to the final customer. This makes operations even more difficult, since your provider’s data is almost always in the package.
For that reason, we think that the best alternative to dropshipping is through a platform like DSers for the following reasons:
- Simple and intuitive platform : DSers and Shopify are configured in a few minutes, so in a few clicks you will have your online store operational.
- Fast and secure import with any AliExpress product : you just have to choose the products you want to sell in your store and it is directly connected to AliExpress. In this way, it is always synchronized and with the updated price.
- Order automation : when an order is generated in your online store, DSers will directly take care of all the shipping procedures to the final customer.
- Huge variety of products : the catalog that DSers manages through AliExpress is the widest and most assorted in the dropshipping sector.
- You can set up your own store : while on Amazon you have to sell in a marketplace, without your brand, DSers allows you to create your own store, more in line with your corporate image .
How to Sell on Amazon with Shopify in 2022
Although in the previous section we have talked about tools that help manage to dropship on Amazon, one of the best tools that you can use to manage your online business is Shopify.
Shopify has been associated with Amazon for a couple of years so that users of this platform can integrate Amazon as another sales channel. In this way, order management between both platforms is greatly simplified.
Next, we are going to explain how you should configure your Shopify store in order to sell your dropshipping products with Amazon.
1. Sell the right products
Before you start setting anything up, you need to check that the dropshipping products you want to sell on Amazon are allowed by this marketplace.
On this Amazon page, you will find reference information about what products can and cannot be sold. There are also some products that require prior authorization from Amazon before you can market them.
Broadly speaking, it can be said that to sell Amazon niche products such as books, computers, video games, electronic products, and office supplies you will not have problems because in those cases you can open a store without the need for prior approval from Amazon.
If you have doubts, we recommend that you look on the indicated page to find out which products are restricted and which are allowed.
2. Create your Amazon seller account
To sell on Amazon you have two different possibilities:
- Register as an individual seller : in this case you would have to pay a fixed fee of €0.99 for each item you sell.
- Select the PRO seller profile : if you plan to sell more than 40 products per month, it will be cheaper to choose the PRO option, which costs €39 per month, but can be considered a flat rate, since there is no limitation on operations .
Regardless of whether you choose the individual option or the most PRO alternative, you should focus on how to calculate the sale price of your products, because if your profit margin is low, the prices that Amazon charges you will probably end up leaving you unprofitable.
The problem is that to sell on Amazon you have to offer competitive prices. And on top of that, it is convenient to make occasional discounts, making sure that you also get a minimum benefit that at least allows you to earn some money.
With this clear, the first thing you should do is register with your email in Amazon Seller Central.
After that, you have to write your name, your email, and your password.
When you have done this, you will be redirected to other screens that will ask you for more details about your company (such as your address or your tax information).
Once these first steps have been completed, you have to wait for Amazon to approve your store. To do this, they will ask you for some documents that prove your identity and explain what the legal activity of your business is.
The normal thing is that they ask for your ID, along with proof that you are the owner of the bank account in which the remuneration will be paid. It is also possible that they will ask you for a document that serves to prove that the address you have indicated on the form is real. And it may be that they ask you for an extract from the commercial register that proves that your company is legally constituted.
But don’t worry: even if Amazon hasn’t approved your account yet, you can start managing your store now, so you don’t waste time waiting for the resolution.
3. Connect your Amazon and Shopify account
Once your account is authorized by Amazon, you need to connect it to your dropshipping store with Shopify.
In the left panel of your account, you have to select the option “Sales channels”. When you click on the + sign next to it, a pop-up window will open. The first option that appears in the displayed list will be Amazon.
At that time, you just have to click on the “Add channel” option. After that, click on “Connect to Amazon”.
And that’s it: your Amazon account is now connected to Shopify!
4. Create product listings on Amazon with ease
To start selling your dropshipping products on Amazon you have to start creating product listings. To do this, you have to click on the Amazon sales channel link (you will find it in the left panel of Shopify, where it says “Create listing”).
Then, you have to click on “Select Product”. At that time, two options will appear:
- If you are a manufacturer of the product : you have to buy the UPC codes ( Universal Product Codes ).
- If you are a reseller of the product : in this case you have to select the option “This product is made by another brand”.
After that, you can search for the product that makes you a seller of that SKU ( reference number required in the inventory files that are sent to Amazon ). When you have located it, select it.
The last step is to publish the product so that the process is complete.
5. Have Shopify check that you have inventory
To ensure that the product is in stock when a customer places an order on Amazon, you need to ensure that Shopify tracks inventory levels for that product. Failure to do so could result in a customer placing an order on Amazon for which no units are available.
Thanks to the fact that Shopify is in charge of controlling these product levels, you will avoid this type of incident that gives a very bad image and generates dangerous negative opinions. Some negative opinions can harm you not only at the level of positioning on Amazon but also from the point of view of sales volume.
6. Start promoting your store on Amazon
As with the rest of your digital marketing channels, to generate sales you need to drive traffic to your Amazon store.
It is indisputable that the greater the number of visitors, the greater the probability of closing orders.
Even so, it is possible that with a few visits, you will get many orders. For that, you should optimize the user experience of your Amazon store to the maximum and you should also have very persuasive texts that move people to buy.
But the truth is that the highest sales volumes are achieved with a lot of traffic. For this reason, you should dedicate your efforts to SEO and SEM , online advertising and any way to get people to visit your dropshipping store on Amazon (and if those who arrive do so with the desire to buy, then all the better). ).
Amazon dropshipping tools
If you want to do dropshipping on Amazon you will need to use one of these tools:
- Merchant Words : to find out which products are most in demand on Amazon, you should analyze the keywords related to each market niche . Knowing the volume, you can get an idea of the demand. The best tool for searching directly on Amazon—for a fee, starting at $29 a month—is called Merchant Words.
- FeedCheck : a very powerful tool that allows you to see all the reviews of your products in the same dashboard . It is especially useful if you have a large selection of Amazon products in your store, but it also allows you to monitor those of the competition. It is priced monthly on the most basic account at $59 per month.
- Sellery : a tool aimed at positioning your products in the Amazon Buy Box (the summary box that appears on the right on product pages and that generates 82% of sales ). It allows you to experiment with the price of your products to help you stay competitive while maximizing your profits and improving your company’s accounting . Plus, they currently allow you to do a free two-week trial.
- Feedback Express – If you need to get more reviews on your Amazon store, or remove negative reviews that hurt your overall Amazon store rating, you can use this tool. You can even blacklist “destructive” or toxic customers who only leave negative reviews. The cheapest Feedback Express plan starts at €43 per month (€39 per month if you make an annual payment).
- Amazon Volume Listing Tools : so that you have all your order and inventory information grouped in spreadsheets, Amazon has created the Amazon Volume Listing Tools service, with which you can also easily modify prices and quantities.
Strategies to Sell More Dropshipping Products on Amazon in 2022
If you can’t think of how to sell on Amazon with dropshipping, we are going to give you a few tips and marketing strategies that will help you boost your sales and improve your results in this year 2022:
- Position your products in the Buy Box : As we have already mentioned, the majority of sales on Amazon are generated in the Buy Box. Therefore, this section must be optimized to maximize sales. To do this, you must achieve a high rating as a seller (at least above 95%). In addition, you must send the products very quickly, at the most in two weeks. And finally, your product must be cheaper than the competition (including shipping costs).
- Do not depend only on Amazon : you have to keep other channels open. This means that it is convenient that you also have your own online store with DSers in operation , in addition to Amazon’s. In fact, having your own store makes your branding stronger. And that helps sell more on Amazon.
- Get at least a 95% Seller Rating – A good rating will help your products show up in the Buy Box. And it also increases your chances of appearing in organic searches on Amazon. But this is really important because on Amazon buyers only make transactions with the best qualified sellers (since trust is essential in this marketplace). Thanks to that, you will be gaining a competitive advantage over those with lower ratings.
- Research your niche keywords – We’ve already seen tools like Merchant Words let you know what keywords are being searched for the most on Amazon. Knowing those search terms, you can get an idea about the demand for your products.
- Calculate the appropriate price for your products : When calculating the price of your products, you must take into account factors such as the cost of Amazon fees and your profit margin . If you do not do it correctly, you run the risk that your price will be very high and you will not sell anything; or that it’s so low that you don’t make any money. In addition, the price is also important to appear in the Buy Box.
- Offer interesting discounts : on Amazon many sales are made through discounts and specific offers. So you have to be clear about your discount policy so that your product is more attractive. And remember that in many cases a discount that is too high can end up leading to economic losses.
DSers, the best way to dropship
After reading this guide, you may have put off dropshipping on Amazon, since the pros outweigh almost as much as the cons of this marketing channel.
If you don’t want to dropship with Amazon, you can focus on dropshipping with DSers, which you have already seen in this guide that operates through the Shopify platform. That way, you won’t have to go crazy to comply with Amazon’s dropshipping restrictions.
In addition, this application allows you to market a catalog of dropshipping products on AliExpress as wide and varied as that of Amazon. And you won’t have to pay the hefty fees Amazon charges you, which means more money in your pocket.
And finally: you can create your own online store. Thanks to that, you will not be so dependent on Amazon seller policies, nor will you ever lose control of your brand. Not to mention commercial notoriety, something that is only used by Amazon when you choose to sell directly on its marketplace.
We wish you the best of luck, whether you sell on DSers or choose to dropship with Amazon.
Have you already tried it?
We are delighted to read about your experience.
Tell us in the comments!
