You’ve laid the groundwork, found a reliable product supplier, arranged shipment through a reputable importer, and now your Private Label product is on its way. Awesome! You may think now is a great time to lay back and relax—we know how mentally exhausting the Private Labeling process can be—but a little more hard work now can lead to greater success in this business venture. Here are 3 things you should do while waiting for your Amazon inventory to arrive.
1. Optimize your listing
Anyone can write a so-so Amazon listing, but successful sellers make sure their listings are optimized. What makes for an optimized listing? The title, pictures, bullet points, and description are the four customer-facing components of your listing that you need to make as awesome as possible.
Your title needs to be clear, concise, and attractive. Take a look at this listing’s title:
Now take a look at this one:
Which one is better? Obviously, it’s the second one. The first title is much too long (we actually had to click “Show Full Title” to see the whole thing!), and it’s nearly incoherent in its attempt to jam in keywords. The second title conveys all the product information (brand, product name, and color) without all the extra fuss. When in doubt, think of what the customer might type into the search bar to locate your product, and go from there. (If you’re really stuck on the best way to write an effective title, you can head over to Amazon’s help pages to check the best practice guidelines.)
Pictures will make or break your listing. You need to have high-quality images to make the strongest impact on your customers. Currently, you can upload one main photo and eight additional photos to your listing, so don’t be stingy with your images! Never post anything but high-resolution, appropriate-size (1000-10,000 pixels on the longest side; no less that 500 pixels on the shortest side) product shots. Here are the current style guidelines for photo uploads, as found in the Seller Central listing editor:
Think about it: Would you buy a product that didn’t have good photos in the listing? We wouldn’t!
Write your bullet points not from your perspective as the seller, but from what you would want to see as a buyer. Why should the customer buy this product? List everything that makes your product great, using all five available bullet points. Make sure you use proper spelling and grammar to clearly communicate your product’s strengths to the buyer—anything less looks unprofessional.
A good description will have all the vital information about your product, including size, dimensions, style, and warranty information. How is your product used? What can you do with it? Include all this in your description. You can include suggestive language (“Get one for home, and one for travel!” “It’s great for both home and office!”) to help sell multiples, but don’t include promotional language such as “Free shipping,” or “SALE!”
For a complete product listing style guide, you can visit Amazon’s help pages here. We also go into greater detail on optimizing product listings here.
2. Keyword research
Once you have the customer-facing side of your listing done, it’s time to optimize the back end with keywords. Keywords are a vital component to getting your listing displayed in customer searches, and improving your BSR (Best Sellers Rank). Take some time to thoroughly research the best keywords for your products to get the absolute best results from your listing.
3. Brand Registry
Amazon’s Brand Registry program is a fantastic way for you, as a Private Label seller, to help protect your brand from intellectual property theft. You’ll also have better authority over product listings with your brand name, and you’ll be able to differentiate your product listing from the rest of the competition with the ability to add pictures and graphics right into your detail section.
Keep in mind that to register a brand, you also need a registered trademark. That’s one more thing you can take care of before your inventory arrives, so start working on that right away! These things can take quite some time for final approval, but you can at least start laying the groundwork for your private label brand.
Your inventory will be here before you know it, so use these 3 steps to put your business on the best path to success. We want to hear about your experiences! You can join us, along with other like-minded entrepreneurs, on Facebook. Let us know!
