Amazon is an amazing marketplace, there’s no question about that. Whether it would be as big as it is today without the support of the sellers who choose to sell their stuff on Amazon, that’s something we can’t quite figure out yet, but even then — is it really worth expanding from your current shop you have in either physical or online presence to the depths of Amazon marketplace?

When it comes to making the decision of expanding your sales through Amazon, you have to be extra careful to take into consideration factors such as the type of product(s) you’re going to be selling, the average competition you have in your niche, and what are the general fees and rules you need to be following, even by taking into consideration just these few factors alone — we can come to a much clearer picture of whether Amazon is going to be the right marketplace for us. You will have to find products to sell. Follow the link for a list of suggestions.

If you feel like you have made the final decision, and feel like you have to go ahead and try Amazon as a way of selling your products, then here is a list of tips to remember and consider not only before you start, but also while you’re in the process of making sure that your sales grow at a steady pace.

1. Individual or Professional

When you first start out as a seller on Amazon, you first have to signup as either an Individual seller or a Professional seller, and the difference is quite significant, so definitely take time to decide on the route you want to take. As a professional seller, you’re still being charged a 15% flat fee, but you no longer need to pay any additional fees, which can end up saving you money in the long-term.

Also, as a professional seller on Amazon, you’re able to use the seller tools to create listings for products that haven’t yet been enlisted on Amazon before, which means that you’re able to begin creating your own mini-market if you will, and given the ability to rank very highly for specific keywords on the Google search engine, this is a very appealing idea indeed.

There are two selling plans available to Marketplace sellers: Individual, for smaller sellers with only a few items to offer; and Professional, for experienced and volume sellers.

2. Let Amazon Ship Your Stuff

There’s a thing called FBA — Fulfillment by Amazon. This is a specifically built system that allows sellers to send all of their products to Amazon, and once something sells — Amazon takes care of shipping that item for you. The most amazing thing is that by doing this (signup up for FBA), Amazon also takes care of any returned items, any customer service questions, and any customer-related issues.

Many people have had immense success with the Amazon FBA program, to name a few — here’s a report of earning $5,000 per month by selling something as simple as toys on the Amazon FBA program, and a more dated report that shows how to make good money by selling used books on Amazon.

Yes, the fees will go up significantly, but the big plus of FBA is that your items are selling three times as fast, and come to think of it — do you really want to spend all that time packing boxes all day? Pay the extra and get the extra back.

3. Invest Your Time in Customers

Amazon has a 24-hour policy where you have to respond to your customer’s questions or otherwise you risk being penalized as a seller, and this is a fair policy in all. If you want to run a business this way, you have to respect the fact that there will be questions and people will get frustrated if you straight out ignore them.

And besides, being prompt with answers is going to yield you some support points, and maybe even guarantee a customer that will not only return back to your products but also encourage his friends to do the same. Make sure you have Amazon on your mobile app so you can keep in touch wherever you are.

4. Acquire Long-Term Customers

The beauty of Amazon is that it works in many different ways, and you can still continue to acquire customers individually, even though every customer is spread throughout the marketplace. The way it works is that once you have secured a purchase, you’re able to use the Amazon seller tools to reach out to your customers and stay in touch with them, through the means of asking for further follow-up questions, or by simply giving them a heads up on your next available deals.

Amazon has become a serious powerhouse for sellers who have taken their time to learn Amazon as a marketplace, but also learn about their customers and their needs, and essentially learning about the things they sell and what makes them sell in the first place. Here’s a report from The Telegraph talking about sellers who make well over a million in sales just on Amazon alone.

It’s sort of like eCommerce email marketing, and there are no restrictions as to what you can advertise and what you can’t, so you can very easily attract new customers to your own store if need be.

5. Treat It Like a Physical Store

Because in many ways, it is. The items you’re selling are physical, and it’s very easy to be forgetful about this fact. To correct the behavior, we need to invest our time and energy into making sure that all of our item listings are properly organized, explained, detailed, and show in every way possible through images.

Answer customer’s questions before they even have an idea that they want to ask them, this is the best way to sell your products on Amazon, there’s no shortage of people who are lousy and generally very unsupportive, it’s in your hands to be the seller that everyone remembers.