Are you thinking of launching a skincare business on Amazon as a way to generate more passive income? Since Amazon is the world’s largest B2C e-commerce platform, with a complete platform supporting services and a good shopping experience for buyers, it has created opportunities for many sellers to make money. I also have numerous clients who have established their own skincare business on Amazon, and I will go over the steps in detail below.
To understand the Amazon store registration process
· Fill in the shop application form: contact person, e-mail address, phone number, company name, company nature, and product category.
· After filling out the Amazon application form, Amazon will conduct a preliminary review.
· Amazon will then send a registration link to the submitted e-mail address for confirmation
· The seller fills in the registration information
· Amazon will then deduct its store fees from your credit card once your application has been accepted. Registration will only be completed if the deduction is successful.
Information to prepare for registration
Before starting the registration, you’d better prepare the information required for registration in advance, which will make your registration process more efficient. I have prepared a checklist below to give you a clear understanding of the requirements.
· Register brand trademarks, view product information, and avoid infringement
To safeguard your rights and interests in the market, you need first register the brand trademark in your target market before opening your Amazon store. Furthermore, you must ensure that your products, brand names, and trademarks do not infringe on the intellectual property rights of others. Review product eligibility and product specific requirements that must be submitted, for some restricted product regulations.
· Your contact information
· E-mail
· Contactable phone number
· ompany full address information
Identity information of the account applicant
· DOB (date of birth)
· First and last name
· Government-issued identification, such as ID or passport, driver’s license
· High-quality images of both sides of ID cards
· Company information
· Business license
· Registration status
· The type of your business structure (sole proprietor, LLC, corporation, partnership)
· Your federal tax ID number (if you are a U.S. citizen)
· Financial account
· Credit card details (Visa/Master card etc., can charge you $39.99 per month.)
· U.S. bank account or bank account in another country
· Other
· Any bills from your primary contact from the past 90 days, including utility, gas, internet, TV, cell phone bills, or credit card bills
· Scanned copy of passport, or scanned copy of front and back of ID card + household register
Start Amazon Seller Registration
Open your computer’s browser and navigate to this link: https://www.amazon.com/, then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the “Sell on Amazon” option.
Click the Register button.
Enter the login interface, log in using your registered Amazon account, or re-register a new seller login account using your email or phone.
Amazon will send a one-time password (OTP) to your e-mail address, complete the OTP verification, and then begin the process of creating your Amazon account.
Choose your company location type, and the third question will change depending on your answer to the second question.
Fill out the information as required by the form.
Next, you will be asked to enter your credit card details, which will tell you the monthly fee based on the country where your card was issued.
Describe your product and store.
· It would be beneficial if you choose a store name that is related to the product you are selling. That way, customers can find you easily.
· Do your products have UPC? ‘Yes’ if selected, ‘No’ if not selected
· Whether you are the manufacturer or a representative selling the product, choose ‘Yes’ as an answer to the second question.
· If you resell certain items on Amazon, you can choose ‘No’ in the second question.
· If you are not sure about the two sales models, you can choose any of them in the second question.
· Are your products trademarked? After answering the questions, click ‘Next.’
Authentication
· The last step is verification. You must provide proof of your previously mentioned details; two documents must be uploaded “Your ID Photo” and “Bank Statement.”
· After submitting all the information, Amazon will verify the details and documents you provided within a few days. You will receive a confirmation message from Amazon, which means that your Amazon account has been successfully registered.
· There may be some variances in launching an Amazon store in different locations, so check the information when you visit the website.
Account settings
· As a beginner, you need to spend a lot of time reading the Amazon platform’s seller introduction carefully because it will tell you everything about selling on Amazon.
· Set up your account credit card information to ensure that you can receive payments. And remember your credit card billing address and zip code, which is helpful if you need to verify your identity when logging in from elsewhere.
· Set up the User Permission in the settings to prevent your seller account from being stolen.
· You must validate and set the receiving country, delivery area, and shipping cost in the logistics background settings. The seller can compute shipping charges based on the quantity/weight of the goods and specify varying shipping fees based on the order price.
Apply for brand registration
After registering an Amazon store account, the next step is to go to ABR (Amazon Brand Registry) to register your brand. Brand Registry can better protect the brand and marketing function. Note: Resellers cannot use the Brand Registry tool.
Here are some other benefits of Brand Registry
· Strengthen your impression in the minds of customers
· Amazon will help you weed out counterfeit sellers and protect your brand
· Brand analytics tools can provide detailed data on many Amazon shoppers to help you analyze consumer shopping behavior
How to apply for brand registration? What do we need in brand registration?
· The brand name or logo must be registered with the target market trademark office or other means.
· Brand serial number registered with USPTO
· The country where your product is sold
· Product Image
· Product Label Image
· Product image with brand name
Choose the right supplier
Before starting your skin care product business, finding the right skin care product supplier is the top priority. You invest a lot of money and time in marketing in the early stage. The quality of the product will determine the experience of your target customers, which in turn results with the good and the bad effects of your business. Before looking for a skin care product supplier, you first need to clarify the following questions.
1. Determine your target market capacity
2. Determine your target audience
3. Identify your main product
4. Determine the capital budget of your project
Next, we will explain how to find a suitable skin care product supplier from online channels. The commonly used platforms are Alibaba, DHgate, AliExpress, Made in China, Global Sources, etc. Here I will list two. One, Alibaba and DHgate.
Alibaba International Station
Alibaba is the largest B2B e-commerce platform in China. You can buy all kinds of skin care products at very competitive prices on the platform. There are both in-stock and customized merchants.
However, there are also trading companies and factories on Alibaba. It would help if you would know how to identify them here. I can teach you an easy way to identify them.
You can look at their product categories, if they focus on a category of suppliers, they are skin care product manufacturers. You can see it in the picture below. On the other hand, if the store has too many product categories, messy, or even cross-industry products, they are trading companies.
Also, skincare factories on Alibaba will set higher MOQs to ensure their profits.
DHgate
· The most significant advantage of DHgate compared to Alibaba is that the MOQ is low, and you can also find suitable suppliers.
· Note: No matter which wholesale platform you buy the product from, usually you can negotiate the price with the supplier. The more you buy, the lower the price. Of course, you can also find Ariel Cosmetic.
Designing the Amazon Store Homepage
Designing the Amazon Store Homepage
· This sounds like a technical job, but the situation is relatively simple. Some already designed templates in the Amazon back office, which makes it more accessible. You can also freely drag and drop elements to customize your template.
· If you want to do your design, Amazon also provides blank templates. Your designer can freely decorate your store.
Optimize store links
· To improve the customer browsing experience, we need to continuously optimize your web links and add more content to product links to gain more exposure, clicks, and conversions.
· Here, I will list the key areas that need to be optimized:
1. Attractive title
2. High-quality pictures include detailed pictures of the product
3. Optimization of product short videos
4. Concise product description
5. Reasonable price and shipping template
· In addition, the setting of the catalog is also critical. Category pages such as “best-selling products,” “new products,” and “discounts” can significantly arouse the interest of customers, help shoppers find what they want in a short time, and attract them to Stores that look more at other products to promote sales growth.
Upload products and submit for inspection
Upload product
·Here’s how to upload products to your Seller Central account
1. Log in to your account
2. Click “Inventory” on the dashboard
3. Select “Add Product” or “Add Product via Upload”
· You should assign ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number) or UPC to each product, which significantly improves the efficiency of managing products.
Check
· After publishing the product, it is strongly recommended that you conduct a thorough inspection before submitting to avoid the following errors:
1. The product title is misspelled, and the price is wrong
2. The picture is missing
3. The product description does not match the picture
·After the final submission, you’d better review them on PC, smartphone, tablet, etc., to see if you need to make necessary adjustments.
Last words
· Thanks for reading. You can also share it with friends who need it. I also have to say that Amazon’s business is not as accessible as it seems, and the key to success is that your products are being sourced from reliable suppliers.