Or how you got there? What kind of algorithm are they using? According to Rob Nightingale, in his April 2014 article, “8 Things Most People Don’t Know About Amazon’s Bestsellers Rank (Sales Rank),” few people know how to promote their works through Amazon for sales rank and even Amazon won’t specifically state how the Bestsellers Rank is calculated. Do you think your Sales Rank is achieved through reviews?

The good news: It’s not. (The bad news: It’s not.)

If you’ve self-published your novels and are beating your head against the wall trying to market and promote your book by badgering friends and relatives to post a review, you can relax as it really won’t make a difference.

So then what Is the Amazon Bestsellers Rank? (Remember I’m specifically referring to the sale of books.)

In all Amazon book categories (including Kindle paid and free books–notice I included “FREE”), your title will include a “Product Details” section where all the stats are located. Included in those stats is the “Amazon Bestsellers Rank”. Nightingale, as well as Amazon’s own explanation for rank, is that the “calculation is based on Amazon.com sales and is updated hourly to reflect recent and historical sales… ” Well, updated hourly for those who actively achieve sales per hour (in other words, the top 10,000 books are calculated hourly).

The rank is based on sales, not reviews or ratings. But sales made when or through which outlet? (Because that can change the computation too.)

The common idea about rank is that it takes into account more than sales (and both you and I were hoping it was reviews). But nay, it’s sales. “Sales” though, can mean more than dollar and cents out the door.

Rates and reviews can be good for the soul, of course, and still may help indirectly with your sales through positive, descriptive reviews or recommendations, however achieved. (Word of mouth is a positive sales tool.)

Ready for some additional insight? Books are weighted the same (well, almost) whether they are free or paid (keep reading).

In other words, these are sales relative to other products within the same category. Amazon then splits “paid” and “free” into separate categories. Included in the algorithm is a predictive feature based on historical data. (Huh? It’s becoming as confusing as the algorithm Google uses in their search engine ranking.) What it means then is that their rank is really not a measure of overall sales, but actually sales compared to others in the same category.

If you are experiencing some awesome sales then, how would these compute in sales ranking?

Sales of approx one book a day equals Amazon Best Seller Rank 50k to 100k

Sales of approx 5 to 15 books a day equals Amazon Best Seller Rank 10k to 50k.

According to Teresa Ragan in her calculations, it would take sales of 3,000 to 4,000 books a day to achieve an Amazon Seller Rank of 5 to 20 and sales of 4,000+ per day to achieve a Best Seller Rank of 1 to 5. Something you can really appreciate the next time to see a #1 ranked Amazon book. That’s a LOT of sales per day!

When I investigated the ranking for one of my grandfather’s books, I found on Thursday, December 3rd, the following: #6,281 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Biographies & Memoirs > Reference & Collections. On Monday, December 7th, the same book ranked #317 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Biographies & Memoirs > Reference & Collections.

Apparently, the sub-category ranking change can be attributable to the sale of a single book that week and shows even a small ripple in the pond can create a sizable wave. Watching those stats can begin to give you an idea of when and how the ranking changes. Knowing that–you can be armed with the ability to do something about it. So don’t give up!

The yellow parrot in the Amazon really has many different appearances; the most noted is the Yellow headed Amazon which stands anywhere from 15 to 17 inches tall, with a short tall, yellow head and sturdy body. A sad fact about this yellow parrot is that they are on the endangered list in Mexico and in Central America. The attractiveness of Yellow-headed Amazons continues to increase poaching which is why they have been nearly driven to extinction in the wild. The reason for this is they are so appealing because they make a great pet and are excellent talkers. Their speaking abilities are considered to be outdone only by the African Grey Parrot and matched by the Yellow-naped Parrot.  

The Yellow-naped Parrot or Yellow-naped Amazon is considered to be a sub-species of Yellow-crowned Amazon. It is notable by its green forehead and crown and a yellow band across the lower nape of their neck. The reason this parrot is well-liked as a pet is because they mimics sounds, and when in captivity this includes humans and anything else that they hear plus they have an mischievous personality. During the breeding season males are known to bite because they feel that they are defending their nest.  

The Yellow-crowned Parrot averages about the same size as the Yellow head Amazon parrot their tail is more squares and have mostly all green feathers and dark blue tips which are difficult to see when they are on a perch. The amount of yellow on the parrot varies which is restricted to the crown-region, hence the name. They are usually found in pairs or small flocks and as with most parrots their foods consist of fruits, nuts, and seeds and berries. They like to nest in hollow trees and they lay anywhere from 2 -3 eggs and the incubation time is only about 26 days about sixty days after hatching they leave the nest.  

Amazon parrots such as the Yellow headed Amazon, Yellow naped Amazon, and Yellow face parrot (which is declining or has already disappeared in large areas of its former range in Brazil, are all generally kept as pets because of their extraordinary speaking abilities, mischievousness, and agility with their feet. They can live up to fifty years old and make very devoted pets. Nevertheless even well taught parrots can become hostile dunning mating season.

These Amazon yellow parrots require more attention than our domesticated cats or dogs. Which involve making sure these birds have plenty of chewing toys and branches. They enjoy chewing wood and should be provided with chunks of pine or fir wood. They also love branches with leaves which they benefit from the nutrients obtained from chewing leaves and green bark. Good types of branches to offer include willow, honeysuckle, eucalyptus, palms, bottle brush, and fruit woods.   These parrots can be destructive that is why they need non-destroyable safe toys as well. They don’t seem to have the nervous plucking of their feathers as some species.    

They are very active birds they prosper in an area that allows them to fly and move around, an aviary is a large enclosure for confining birds and would be recommended because unlike cages, aviaries permits the bird to have a larger living space where they can fly. They need a proper diet which would consist of fresh vegetables and fruits, sprouted seeds and grains, and other whole foods that will keep your parrot healthy.  

How yellow parrots or any parrot for that matter has been raised will drastically affect its personality. Parrots vary in their temperament, noise level, talking capability, attraction to people and care that they need. They can be a joy to have in your life.  

Among the Amazon parrots beside the Yellow-headed, Yellow-naped, Yellow-crowned you will also find the Orange-winged Amazon, and Blue-fronted Amazon, which are as well frequently kept as pets. All of these birds along with Macaws and the African Greys are known for their outstanding vocal abilities.  

Amazon got more than what it asked for last Christmas, hence calling the 2016 holiday season the best ever.

The giant retailer shipped more than one billion items worldwide, but the highlight was selling millions of its voice-controlled Alexa devices.

Sales of Amazon Echo and Echo Dot were nine times higher this holiday season than they were during the same period in 2015.

"Despite our best efforts and ramped-up production, we still had trouble keeping them in stock," said Jeff Wilke, CEO of Worldwide Consumer at Amazon.

Orders for Echo and Echo Dot continuously poured into Amazon on Dec. 23, the busiest day for Prime Now deliveries as customers ordered 3x more items compared to the previous year.

However, no other day was busier than Dec. 19 as Amazon claimed it was the peak worldwide shipping day.

Aside from the impressive sales of Echo devices, Handmade at Amazon also made a notable performance a month earlier on Cyber ​​Monday.

Amazon's one-year old category for handcrafted goods saw a 200 percent increase in sales, which is way more than what it made a year ago.

More Amazon Shoppers Mobile Devices

A big number of Amazon customers shopped through their mobile devices over the holidays.

Seventy-two percent of customers engaged in M-commerce, while those who used the free Amazon mobile app to shop grew by 56%.

According to Amazon, 46 electronics and 36 toys were purchased per second on a mobile device throughout Cyber ​​Monday.

Thanks to 45,000 robots who worked hand in hand with the Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) team, these customers got their orders delivered to their doorstep on time.

Record-breaking Sales for Third-party Sellers

Now we couldn't go without congratulating you and other Amazon sellers who made a killing over the holidays.

It came as no surprise that the items shipped by FBA for third-party sellers grew more than 50%.

Based on Amazon's data, its third-party sellers worldwide received orders for 28 million items as early as Cyber ​​Monday-that's a 21.7% increase from what they got on Cyber ​​Monday in 2015.

What's more, the number of sellers on Amazon using FBA jumped to 70%.

"Sellers are choosing Amazon because we help them build and grow their businesses with impactful programs like Seller Fulfilled Prime, and we're proud of the fact that sellers are reinvesting their success into their local communities by creating jobs," said Peter Faricy, VP for Amazon Marketplace.

Many of the sellers knew as early as Black Friday that 2016 was going to end with a bang for them, as they got 10x more online customers than a year ago.

Those whose products are with the Seller Fulfilled Prime program got millions of orders from Prime members, who very happily took advantage of the free two-day or next-day shipping.

Way to go!

Once again, we saw what knowing what to sell and where to sell can bring to one's business.

May you and your business flourish all the more in 2017.

What were your bestselling products during the holiday season?

If you're ever going to make a presentation to Jeff Bezos at Amazon, here's a tip – don't make a PowerPoint presentation.

As noted in an article in Observer about Bezos' approach, "In one episode of The Office, Dwight says of Ryan's flashy PowerPoint slides," PowerPoints are the peacocks of the business world: all show, no meat. "

Bezos is now famous for not permitting PowerPoints, and his approach and demands for substantive meetings is probably why he owns one of the few largest global brands in the world.

• Staff participating in meetings will write or read six-page memos.
• The beginning of the meetings is spent by meeting participants reading these lengthy memos.
• Why does Bezos demand this of his team? In his opinion, PowerPoint:

o Fails to provide sufficient information

o Is prone to audience interruptions.

• A memo communicates well-reasoned thoughts.

Understandably, when you're the CEO of a global brand like Amazon and when your team is meeting and making decisions that can have a substantial impact on the growth of the company and bottom line, it is essential that well-reasoned communication takes place.

Should you and I, as business owners do it?

That depends.

I'm personally someone that likes to provide and receive information in a condensed and concise fashion because I'm the ultimate decision-maker on almost all aspects of my businesses. My businesses are not on the scale of a global brand like Amazon. However, I can see how the Bezos approach is essential.

The Devil's In the Details

I think we operate in a world where most people have very short attention spans. We're all rushing from one thing to the next, and the fact is that most of the time if you can't capture someone's imagination or interest in about 90 seconds, you've lost them.

However, it is a mistake to think that using the PowerPoint approach is the right way to go for essentially – everything. As a business owner, you're looking to expand and develop your business. One of the most important areas for you is your sales team. Let's say, for example, you want to understand why your sales team has projected an increase in revenue for next fiscal year of 10 percent. You're going to make assumptions based on those revenue targets, and you'll craft an operating budget that could potentially reflect that 10 percent increase in revenue.

In this situation, a business leader would be smart to take the Bezos approach and require a well-thought-out, detailed and reasoned memo explaining the who, what, when, where and how of the 10 percent increase in revenue.

Taking Your Team Through the Paces

There are many other situations when it would be wise to require that your team deliver to you a well-reasoned and thoughtful written presentation on their thinking, which will impact the decisions you will make as its leader. For instance, you might be looking to create a new job or department that will be expanded because you've been succeeding and want to reinvest your profit to grow the business. You might also consider making a purchase of thousands of dollars of equipment, starting a new marketing initiative, or be looking to expand the footprint of your business. All of these are excellent opportunities where you should require your team to take a pause and explain their rationale to you as thoroughly and thoughtfully as possible.

As Bezos explained according to the Observer article , "When you have to write your ideas out in complete sentences, complete paragraphs it forces a deeper clarity," Bezos told Conor Neill, a business coach at IESE Business School in 2012. "If you have a traditional PowerPoint presentation, executives interrupt. If you read the whole six-page memo, on page two you have a question but on page four that question is answered. "

While I'm not sure all business leaders need to demand that their teams produce evidence-based memos ahead of each of their meetings, and that's not, candidly, the way I operate my businesses, I do see and understand the value of requiring these types of memos for critical decision-making meetings on critical topics.

Have you heard an Echo lately?

Amazon continues to expand its lineup of Echo products. The company that introduced us to Alexa now has more devices to listen to music, get news and information, and control your smart home all by simply using your voice.

First came the cylinder like Echo. It was followed up by the hockey puck-like Echo Dot. Then Amazon added video into the mix with the Echo Show. Now comes the smaller Echo Spot and the Echo Plus.

For many looking for a virtual home assistant, the question becomes should you buy an Echo and if so which one?

Those who like to watch, as well as listen, should take a front-row type look at the Echo Show.

The Show enables you to watch video flash briefings, Amazon Video and YouTube content, and make video calls to family and friends. All on a 7 inch touch screen.

You can see music lyrics, weather forecasts and your security cameras. Even create your own to-do and shopping lists.

Navigation is easy by swiping left or right. The screen also recommends some commands for Alexa if you don't know what to ask.

The 1024 x 600 screen is nearly identical to the one on the Amazon Fire 7 tablet. The text is legible but not as crisp as your smartphone or television.

The touch screen enables you to adjust settings and brightness levels. You can change a lot of things without using the Alexa app or mobile device.

In addition to the 7 inch screen the Show includes a 5 megapixel camera.

The device has an angular design. Some find it a bit clunky and liken it to a triangle with two shaved points when you look at it from the side. Overall it measures 7 x 7.4 x 4 inches and has a square foot panel facing at an angle that is slightly upward.

Eight microphones with noise cancellation are included. Amazon says you can issue commands from any direction, even while music is playing.

Like all of the Echo line you can stream music, turn on lights, set thermostats and control other compatible smart home devices.

It is easy to use. Once you plug it in it will show you available Wi-Fi networks. Pick a network and log into your Amazon account and you are ready to go.

Speakers include two, 2 inch speaker drivers for stereo audio powered by Dolby.

The Bluetooth capabilities are what many are finding as the real selling point of this device. Functioning as a Bluetooth speaker, as well as a sound source, you can pair the Show with your smartphone or tablet and play music through its speaker. You can use it with a separate Bluetooth speaker or headphones and stream audio directly out of the device itself.

Shopping is easier with the Show than with the voice only devices. Alexa adds items directly into your Amazon shopping cart and even places instant orders. The touch screen allows you to swipe through products if you cannot identify the actual product you want. However you won't be able to check your cart with the Show. You will need a computer to view or edit your cart and / or place your entire order.

Amazon continues to add more "skills" to the Alexa ecosystem such as Uber and CNN, and newer apps with more video capabilities are on the way.

Yet the Echo Show does have its limitations. While the addition of video certainly enhances the Alexa experience, sound quality may not be up to par on all music. The quality of voice and video calls are not up to the standards of Google Hangouts and Skype. Applications are limited by the Alexa-specific system.

Still the device is ideally suited for those wishing to join the ranks of Echo users or for those current fans who wish to take the Alexa experience to the next level. And now, at newly reduced prices, the Echo Show may just be the way to go.

Affiliate marketing is a great way to start an online business for very minimal investment. It’s ideal for those who don’t want to create products and for those who don’t have much start up money for their online business.

You can promote a substantial variety of products and services with the affiliate marketing business model. Your job is to promote products created by other companies. When somebody buys from you, the product owner will pay you a commission.

Two of the most popular places to find products to sell as an affiliate marketer are Amazon and ClickBank.

How To Start Affiliate Marketing With Amazon

Amazon is the world’s largest retailer, selling both physical and digital products. Their primary marketing method is affiliate marketing. In other words, they get other people, called Amazon Affiliates, to sell their products and services for them.

It’s free to become an Amazon affiliate, and you can sell anything on the Amazon website. You start off with a 4% commission rate, which gets more substantial when you sell more products.

4 Stars And Up

As you probably know, Amazon sells a wide range of products. So how do you choose what to sell as an affiliate? As an Amazon affiliate, you can use their search feature to surf the products that you want to promote. Choose your niche, for example, ‘dog training’.

Type that search term into the Amazon search engine. On the left-hand side of your search click on the ‘4 stars & up’ filter. Amazon’s top rating system score is 5. If a product receives a score of 4 or higher, you can be sure that the customers who purchased those products and left those reviews are very happy. These are the types of products you want to be promoting.

How To Start Affiliate Marketing With ClickBank

ClickBank is a well-known online marketplace where the vast majority of its products are digital information products. As soon as the customer buys a digital product, they can immediately download it to their computer.

ClickBank is free to join and is a widely known, highly regarded company in the online business world. Its online marketplace contains many thousands of affiliate products to promote so you’re sure to always find offers that will appeal to your audience. You can earn commissions of 25%, 50% and even 75%.

Gravity Scoring

ClickBank products have what’s known as a gravity scoring. This shows the popularity of the product. A gravity rating for the product that you want to promote should be at least 10 or more. If it’s more than 100, it means that there are a lot of other affiliates selling the same product.

When you have identified the product that you want to promote, ClickBank will give you a unique URL called a’hoplink’. This is the link that you want your prospects to click and how sales are tracked to you.

I recently attended an interesting overview of Amazon Web Services and thought I would share the ‘best bits’… please enjoy…

Amazon’s AWS offering has now become a huge operation compared to its launch way back in 2006… when I say huge, I mean huge. To give you an idea of scale, the comparable infrastructure and computing power that supported the entire AWS offering back in 2006 is now added each and every day to satisfy ever growing demand.

AWS is spread across eight geographic areas, with local edge locations to provide proxy caching nearest to your location. This provides both redundancy, high availability and improved performance.

AWS provides a fairly complete set of services to run almost anything you like and practically on a scale that is only really limited by how much you’re willing to spend. This gives CIO’s and CTO’s options to play with but there is still some reticent about what should or should not ‘go into the cloud’…

So what can it offer you? Well, helpfully AWS provide ‘Reference Architectures’ to help you conceptualize particular architecture scenarios. You can find approaches to help you with Large Scale Processing, Batch Processing, Disaster Recovery, Online Gaming and of course their bread and butter eCommerce approach.

Is it Secure?

Debates still rage over ‘security in the cloud’ and while cloud services are maturing it would be wrong to simply assume that the security aspect will somehow simply go away.

AWS is probably as secure as it can be, at least on paper. AWS will reassure you with Multi-Factor Authentication, Encryption and various security accreditation’s up to military levels. You can even implement your own security models to your own standards. The question has to be answered, though, do you trust AWS to manage and protect your data and services? On the flip side given that AWS have ‘handed over the keys’ to the customer to build their own services security becomes a shared responsibility. For each customer the view, approach and even the decision will be different. Local laws may also effect your decision about what type of data you are allowed to host.

What Technology is Available?

The following are some of the key services and solutions on offer at AWS…

Compute Ec2 – This is the ‘elastic compute’ cloud virtual machine instances which can be ‘rented’ and configured by the characteristic of the workload from mobile phone to large scale cluster systems. Dedicated hardware is assigned for High Instance usage.

Cloud Watch monitoring – This service will auto-scale your environment based on performance monitoring and will add more instances as required based on demand. Transport for London use this service to scale their operations on demand.

Workspace – This is a fully managed desktop environment using the G2 graphics instance supporting desktop products like Windows on Nvidia GRID GK104 Kepler GPU’s

Simple Storage – S3 is a highly scalable storage platform used by the likes of DropBox, Shazam and of course Amazon’s retail business. Objects held within S3 are copied around the availability zones to reduce delays and improve caching.

Elastic Block Store – This provides persistent block level storage volumes for use with Amazon EC2 instances. Replicated across availability zones.

Glacier – Backup for long term archival. Pricing is based on number of requests (metered) Can take 3-5 hours to retrieve objects.

AWS Public Data Sets – These are free to use data sets hosted on a Hadoop platform they include data sets like: NASA NEX, Human Genome, Census Data and PubChem

Kinesis – Kinesis is a managed service that scales elastically for real-time processing of streaming big data and is used in conjunction with EC2 instances.

There’s More?

In addition to these ‘virtual’ services, AWS can even provide dedicated physical connections such as dual 10gig lines into their data centres from your offices should you require it.

If you work in research then AWS can be useful from a grant point-of-view. You can now use a pre-pay solution where you can call off costs/credits as you go.

If you’re a heavy user then AWS also allow you to ‘bid’ for services via their Spot Market. This is a pricing model targeted for batch processing and allows ad-hoc provisioning at a cheaper rate than normal provisioning costs.

The Conclusion

For the average business though, you are more likely to choose a hybrid approach, where you choose to run your tightly coupled development in house and simply use AWS for everything else. The point is you have a choice, and AWS will almost certainly solve at least some of your challenges.

And you shouldn’t forget that other cloud service providers are available, although probably not on the scale of AWS…

ITwaffle.com Copyright © 2014 Gareth Baxendale

Brazil is a huge nation, which accounts for about half of the landmass of the continent of South America. Major portion of the Brazil is covered by rainforests and Brazilian Amazon region include the states of Tocantins, Para, Roraima, Amazonas, Acre and Rondonia. Nearly 45% of the national territory of Brazil accounts to this area. Rain forests in the nation are vital not only for its economy, but also for the economy of the whole world. Even though, the Amazon rainforests are located in different South American nations, they are fundamentally situated in Brazil. Brazil and the Amazon rainforest contribute a great share in keeping the global environment stable and it is also acting as the home for a number of animal and plant species. It is believed that the rainforests still possess a lot of undiscovered medicinal plants that are capable of curing different diseases.

Jungles were preserved in larger number in Brazil, but according to the voting made by the Brazil's Chamber of Deputies in May 2011; decision has been made to ease the limitations on how much land must be preserved by farmers as forested lands. Even though, current law in the nation has made compulsory that 80% of the farm-lands in the region of Amazon must remain forested, this percentage has dipped down to 20% in other parts of the nation. The purpose behind the law is to prevent the farmers from entirely clearing forests to plant crops.

For any family looking for adventurous tours in the continent of South America, the best places to visit are Brazil and the Amazon Rainforest. This place is blessed with tropical lowlands, out of which the green rainforests gain utmost interest of the visitors. For enabling people to visit this region with utmost comfort, there are many companies operating rain forest cruises with comfort class journey in such a way that visitors can explore Amazon with utmost comfort and with best food to eat during their vacation. These cruises are being operated by these tour arrangers under different categories like luxury, fishing, and budget and historical. Therefore, there is something to choose from according to the budget of the individuals visiting this part of the world along with their family members or friends.

These firms ensure that visitors get utmost satisfaction during their visit to the rainforests through cruise ships since the tours are arranged in a professional manner out of the experience gained by these firms in this field.

Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) is about to strike at a new target.

“It’s a matter of when, not if,” David Larsen told clients in a report last Thursday.

Larsen is an analyst at Leerink Partners, an elite boutique brokerage firm that’s an expert on health care stocks.

From my 20 years on Wall Street, I know that Leerink’s analysts are top-notch.

When they say something, you pay attention… which is exactly what many of you need to do now.

Because if Amazon enters this market, it would pose an immediate threat to many of your stocks.

These are popular, dividend-paying stocks that I’m certain many of you own.

And that’s terrible news for you and your portfolio.

See, here’s what happens when Amazon targets your stock…

First, they start going down.

Second, as the business that your stock controls gets “Amazoned,” it keeps going down.

In this case, it’s a business that’s seen as safe. It has many barriers to entry, according to one of the CEOs who’s being targeted.

However, an analyst at a consultancy believes otherwise.

“They are disruptive instantly if they do it differently,” says Linda Cahn at Pharmacy Benefit Consultants.

So, what’s the business that Amazon is getting ready to disrupt?

Ripe to Be Amazoned

It’s the prescription drug market.

You may not have known this, but before you get your drugs from your local drugstore, they go through quite a wild ride.

This convoluted pipeline enriches middlemen. It also makes drugs more expensive by as much as 36%.

This is a big deal. Total prescription drug spending in the U.S. was $457 billion in 2015. And it’s set to skyrocket to $610 billion by 2021, according to recent research.

The current system is a gold mine for the middlemen – companies like Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (Nasdaq: WBA), CVS Health Corp. (NYSE: CVS) and Express Scripts Holding Co. (Nasdaq: ESRX) get rich off of us.

That’s because in the end, all the extra cash comes from you and me, most directly through higher copays at the pharmacy and from rising health insurance rates. Finally, we also pay through our taxes when we pay for government programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

In other words, this group of companies is ripe to be Amazoned.

Transparency and Efficiency

You see, Amazon specializes in bringing price transparency and efficiency to the businesses it goes after. That’s because these are businesses that make their money because they lack transparency and efficiency.

“Amazon could bring transparency into a marketplace that is entirely lacking,” says Cahn.

Amazon poses a real, direct threat to the big drugstore companies, according to Leerink Partners.

I agree. And the stock market is noticing and beginning to price in this threat.

Already, the stock of CVS is down from its high point hit in May 2016. Walgreen is down from its high in August 2015. Finally, Express Scripts is down from its high point in July 2015.

I believe that these companies are going to get destroyed by Amazon. That’s because their only true competitive advantage is information.

It used to be hard to get information about drug prices and pharma spending. However, this is no longer true.

This information is now available widely. And in Amazon’s hands, it’ll become a flamethrower that destroys the profits these middlemen businesses generate.

Death Traps for Your Money

When Amazon enters this business, it’ll cut prices. We know this because of other businesses that have been Amazoned. It’s also the first thing that Amazon did when it got control of Whole Foods, which it recently acquired.

With that, the profits margins of CVS, Walgreens and Express Scripts are going to be crushed. Their stocks will follow.

Now, many of you are going to be tempted to buy these stocks. They are going to look cheap. And they’ll keep looking cheap. But don’t be lured into them.

I believe these companies are death traps for your money. They are doomed. Amazon and innovative companies like it are going to crush them until they are gone.

Small businesses and individuals who are looking for the step-by-step guide to start selling on Amazon India are actually at the right place. Last two decades have seen a rapid and increasing expansion of online market which has significantly covered the buying and selling of goods through third-party platforms and through the personal online stores.

Small businesses that are not abundantly funded look forward to a less-expensive yet result-oriented platform where they can utilize their business skills to attain greater profits.

Amazon in the last few years has turned a lot of eyes both from consumers and sellers. Enormous customer base, worldwide service, huge inventory, extra-ordinary delivery services and high customer satisfaction have made this website the first choice for shoppers and vendors.

The question often arises- how to sell on Amazon? It can be a bit tricky but once you are well-versed with the functioning of this platform, you’ll be making a good sum of money each month. Let’s begin with the steps to follow to start your Amazon seller account in India-

1. Prepare a plan-

The first step toward any successful venture is an apt and realistic plan. Understand your business, its demand, target customer base, inventory life, and transportation from your location. If you have not yet thought of any product, decide it before anything else.

2. Arrange for Photoshoot-

Once the products to sell are finalized, arrange for a professional product shoot. Amazon India strictly only allows the images with a solid white background in categories like- Home and kitchen, apparels, shoes & handbags, electronics, cosmetics, health and personal care etc. Also, the minimum image size should be 1000X1000 pixels. Below this limit, images are often suppressed and get disappeared from your Amazon’s product page.

If you have a good hands-on experience in photography, try clicking pictures on your own, this will save you a lot of bucks. Click at least 5 images of each product- front view, top, side, bottom, and one as per your choice (I would recommend a person’s/objects image along with your article to give a realistic view. Ex- Women holding a trolley bag you sell)

3. Keep the product details ready-

After the completion of a professional shoot, write down all the specifications of your product as many as possible. Color, weight, length, breadth, height, technical specifications (for electronics etc.), material, utility, special features, SKU number (unique code that you assign to each of your product for inventory differentiation).

4. Create your seller account-

In India, there is certain documents requirement at the time of account creation. Keep your PAN card, GST certificate, Bank account details, business name, email address, business address, mobile number, shipping address, and product category information ready. With all the above details, create your account on Amazon seller central India.

5. Take Brand Registry or Apply for GTIN-

If you have acquired the trademark certificate for your brand then go directly to the help box in your seller central account and search for a brand registry. Fill the basic details like brand, category, and the number of SKU’s you intend to sell etc. along with your trademark certificate and proceed.

If you have not yet received or have applied for a trademark, go for the GTIN exemption. Here, Amazon provides you with the unique codes for the number of SKU’s you want to list. Suppose, you have 40 unique products, download an excel sheet for GTIN from your seller central and fill the details like SKU, the title of your products, image link (dropbox link can be used as well), etc. and apply.

6. List your products-

Once brand registry/GTIN is approved, you can list your products on the website. Download flat-file of the specific category you wish to list your products in (file can be downloaded from your account). Fill all the essential details a customer should know about your product. It might, for instance, look like a nightmare to fill almost 60 fields for each product, but once you get a command, it gets easier. Save the excel file in the text-delimited format and upload it.

7. Maintain quality-

Your customers are relying on you for the best quality and experience, make sure you deliver top-standard products with an amazing customer experience. You can insert a personalized thank you note inside the packing to make it more relatable.

8. Opt for FBA-

Fulfillment by Amazon is an initiative started to deliver the consignments safely and faster. You can send your bulk inventory to the warehouses of Amazon built in all the major cities of India. Here, you will be liberated from the load of packing multiple products, their shipping, and returns. Amazon handles all of these on behalf of you with minimal charges.

Tips to sustain in the competition-

1. Invest in the inventory that is moving fast. (Hot selling products)

2. Never compromise with the quality.

3. Do not hesitate to ask the customer for product review through emails and calls.

4. Analysis of reports on a weekly basis will help to monitor the cash flow.

5. Invest in campaigns and advertisements after a stable growth only.

6. Ship on time, reply to the customer’s mail on time (Amazon gives 24 hours to reply back to the customer or it hits your seller metrics)

7. Follow the guidelines of Amazon for long-term business.

8. Keep an eye on the payments received to look for any discrepancy.

9. Remove the unfulfillable inventory from warehouse time to time.

10. No not shy away from competitor’s analysis.

It is an amazing platform to begin your online journey as a vendor. Being easy to use, reliable, and most importantly can be handled from anywhere. Start selling on Amazon today with keeping in mind these crucial tips and suggestions.