Mar 11, 2020
Listen to this interview
with Amanda Wittenborn as she shares how to sell products on Amazon
and kill it!
I used to think that selling
products on platforms like Amazon was all about competing with
others on price.
Amanda has taught me that I was
wrong.
She started out selling
printables, but she was struggling to really grow her
business.
So she began selling invitations
on Amazon that she had created and printed, and she has now grown
this into a 7-figure business.
I can’t wait for you to hear
Amanda’s story of how she went from struggling blogger to finding
what worked for her. But first...
I’m excited to announce that
my husband, business partner, and tech genius, David, and I have
started our first blogger coaching
group. I’ve
been mentioning this for a few weeks and I am so excited that it's
off the ground!
This is a 6-week program
that help online entrepreneurs understand all the things they need
to know as they start to build their blogs into a profitable
businesses.
We’re talking about all the
tech stuff for sure, but we’re also covering how to create content,
how to find your audience, what products to sell, how to monetize,
and how to understand SEO.
We also talk about social
media platforms, email marketing, and all the other pieces of
building an online business you need to know
today.
There are live Q&A’s,
teaching sessions, a private Facebook group, and we are there with
you every step of the way.
If you’re ready to get your
business off the ground, email me at jillian@ milotree.com so I can
reserve your spot for our next session starting in late
May.
Creating Products Fit for Amazon
One of the first lessons Amanda
had to learn was that not all products are going to work on Amazon.
She had to figure out the types of products that would work and
focus on creating those.
Prior to Amazon, Amanda created
personalized invitations, with all the pertinent information
already on them. She sold files that a customer could print, or a
customer could purchase pre-printed items.
Once she began selling on
Amazon, she switched to creating fill-in invitations. Amanda
actually doubted that anybody would want invitations they had to
fill in manually, but people loved them.
When someone purchases
invitations from Amanda, they can also purchase
Thank You
cards, stickers, and water bottle
wrappers, and all of these items match the theme of the
invitations.
Will Your Business Work on Amazon?
There are 2 sides to Amazon that
are possibilities for selling your products. There is the regular
Amazon, where most of us shop on a regular basis. And then there is
Handmade by Amazon, which is like the Amazon version of
Etsy.
So, how do you know if your
business will work on Amazon? Amanda gave us a tip to figure out
which Amazon platform you need to be on:
- If
your product is quick to create and you can keep a lot in stock,
use the regular Amazon platform.
- If
you create personalized products that require time to complete, you
may want to sell your product on Handmade by
Amazon.
Isn’t Amazon Too Competitive to Sell On?
Oh my goodness, I don’t know
about you guys/gals, but when I think about selling on Amazon, I
picture a young dude trying to beat the Amazon algorithm to show up
in the Buy Box.
And actually, Amanda says that
is truthfully how the system works...
unless you have a
completely unique product.
If you come in with something
unlike anything else that’s on the platform, you won’t be fighting
for the Buy Box because there isn’t a comparable item to
compete.
Yes, there are other invitations
on the platform. However, the competition isn’t the same as if you
have people ordering generic items from China to
sell.
Amanda takes advantage of
sponsored ads and keyword placement to get her products in front of
more eyeballs, but the cut-throat competition just isn’t a thing
when you have a unique product.
Hitting Income Goals on Amazon
Amanda’s first year selling on
Amazon resulted in $250K in sales. So, the next year she set a goal
to double it.
And that following year, she did
$650K in sales. (Wow, right?!)
Her third year, she decided to
go for a million in sales. I’m sure it’s no surprise that she hit
that goal, too.
And Amanda says that it didn’t
take long at all to hit the $20K sales mark. She recommends being
prolific in your creation and testing things along the way. When
something works, she adds more like it.
Merchant Fulfilled vs. Amazon Fulfilled
For the first 6 months of her
business, Amanda printed all the invitations she sold and shipped
then to her customers herself. This is known as “merchant
fulfilled, "meaning the seller is the one fulfilling the
orders.
At first, it was easy to do.
With 2-3 sales per week, Amanda had no trouble keeping up with
fulfilling the orders. But when it got to be 10-15 sales per week,
and then continued growing from there, it became very difficult to
keep up.
Keep in mind, she had to do all
the printing, cutting, packaging and shipping. And her orders were
ramping up quickly. It was then that she began having her
invitations preprinted and she started building up
stock.
She had 40 designs, so she had
10 packs of each printed. She paid $750 for that first order and
she was terrified at the outlay. What if they didn’t
sell?
But they did sell, and because
Amanda switched to Amazon Fulfillment, she no longer had to worry
about the packaging and the shipping. Amazon held her stock and
when orders came through, Amazon packaged them up and shipped
them.
The other amazing thing about
using Fulfilled by Amazon is that your customers can take advantage
of the 2-day Prime shipping.
Selling on Etsy vs. Amazon and Pricing
Products
Amanda no longer has her Etsy
shop since she started using Fulfilled by Amazon, simply because of
all the extra work Etsy requires.
Amanda also shared with me that
she is not the cheapest price for her product on Amazon, but she
sees that as a good thing. Sometimes, as entrepreneurs, we think we
have to price our products super low so people will
buy.
That’s wrong thinking, according
to Amanda. If you price too low, people will think your products
are cheap and will expect everything you sell to be priced low. The
lower your prices, the more complaints you get.
Amanda found that pricing her
products in a higher price range led to better sales; not as many
sales but more income. Whereas another seller might have to sell
100 packs of invitations to make a certain amount, Amanda only has
to sell 50 packs to make the same amount.
Learning to Sell on Amazon
Just like any platform, Amazon
has a learning curve when it comes to using the platform for
selling your own products. But unlike most other platforms, Amazon
provides all of the education for anyone wanting to use the
platform to sell.
Amanda found everything she
needed right there on Amazon. Their help center provides videos and
articles for every step of the process.
Anything you need to know,
Amazon provides the answer. If you don’t see your issue addressed,
you can call them and get help.
Buying Ads on Amazon
Amanda mentioned that she
purchases ads on Amazon, so I asked her to dive into a bit more of
what that means and how it works.
Amazon has a sponsored ad
campaign system that allows you to set up ad campaigns for your
products. You can set the daily amount you want to spend and you
can also bid for your products.
For example, Amanda may have a
pirate-themed invitation. She can bid $0.20 for her product to show
up when someone searches for a “pirate invitation” on
Amazon.
Amanda no longer runs her own ad
campaigns on Amazon. She recently hired a third-party agency to
manage them for her.
The Flexibility of Owning Your Own
Business
One of the great things about
Amanda’s business is how flexible it is. She can be there for her
kids after school, on school holidays, and when they are
sick.
And she has grown a team of
women who work for her who also appreciate that same
flexibility.
Amanda reaches out to
stay-at-home moms she knows when she needs to hire something out
because their lifestyle matches hers. She likes knowing that the
women who work for her can be there for their families.
And because of the growth of the
business, Amanda can take a lot of time off over her kids’ school
holidays to be with them without worrying about the business
suffering. She and the other women work around 20 hours per week
and for Amanda, that feels just right.
I think that’s the part I
love the most about Amanda’s story; she set a goal to reach a
certain lifestyle, and she not only accomplished it for herself,
but she also provides the same opportunity for other women who want
the same thing.
And I want you to listen in
because Amanda shared a lot about how her blog’s lack of success is
what drove her to start selling on Amazon.
She is a perfect example of what I always tell
clients and bloggers—if you have an idea, test
it.
If you want to see Amanda’s
products, you can go right to Amazon and
see all the amazing things she
offers.
And if you would like to
chat with her about any questions you have, she’d love to hear from
you. Feel free to reach out at amanda@amandacreation.com.
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