If you’ve been wanting to know how to sell more on Amazon Handmade, today’s episode is for you! Dalia Abdalla joins us to talk about three ways to instantly improve your Amazon listings. Dalia made over $600,000 on Amazon Handmade last year and has created a Mastering Amazon course to help sellers just like you succeed on the platform. So here are three tips you don’t wanna miss.

Dalia’s back!

Today, Dalia Abdalla is joining us from The Handmade Mastermind. Dalia is also the creator of the Mastering Amazon course. We are excited to have Dalia on The Jam as a regularly returning guest!

Tips to sell more on Amazon Handmade

We’ve got another fun topic to talk about today. We’re talking about three ways to instantly improve your Amazon sales. These are going to be three hot tips for people, and we’re excited to chat all about this!

Dalia: Yeah, I mean, people sometimes want to start selling on Amazon. They’re intrigued by the platform and it’s a huge online marketplace. If you’re selling on Amazon Handmade and you’ve got some listings up, you may have done some decent SEO and taken some decent photos. Now you’re like, “Alright, when do the sales start rolling in?”

Well, these sales tips are for you! 

Tip #1 to sell more on Amazon Handmade – Photos

Dalia: The first way to easily improve your Amazon sales is through your photos. I think by far photos are the most popular place buyers look to understand what the listing includes and if it meets their needs.

Within the last several months, I’ve been an avid shopper on Amazon. I have a young baby at home. I don’t feel like leaving the house. And a lot of times I am looking for photos to answer certain questions. Then if they don’t, I go down to the description. If I really need this product, I may have to message the seller. This can be problematic because not everybody does this.

These tips are really meant to help you close a sale, meaning from just what you’ve optimized without them having to reach out to you. Some people just won’t reach out to you and they’ll just look for a different seller that they do not have to reach out to.

As handmade and vintage sellers, I like to think we sell unique things, but a lot of our competitors have similar items that still may work for the customer, especially on Amazon. We don’t want them shopping with those other sellers. 

Where it’s at

Dalia: So your photos are where you should start. Starting at the end of June, Amazon now wants all sellers (including Handmade) to have a white background on their main photo, which is great. However, the additional photos are where it’s at and where it helps answer buyers’ questions. 

Increase your Amazon conversion rate

Dalia: You could provide images such as lifestyle photos so people can envision your product in their lives. I’ve seen stylized images before, and I’m like, “Ooh, this is how I feel.” I want my customers to feel the same way when they see the stationary I sell on the desk in an image. I want to show them someone writing on it, somebody holding it, etc. As a seller, you need to think about what images will increase your conversion rate. These would be lifestyle images and images that match your variations. 

Remember your variations and plan accordingly

Dalia: So on Amazon, it’s either variations or customizations depending on which one you choose. If you’re offering options so buyers can change your item slightly (whether it be a color, a size, or whatever) you have to show a photo of what that looks like. For me, it’s ink color and envelope color, so I have a chart.

If you have a font selection, material selection, whatever it may be, if you have a very limited selection, show all the options. It helps them understand what they’re getting as well as reduces customer issues when they receive the product. 

Answering questions with photos

Dalia: Another photo tip is to answer buyers’ questions with your photos. For your product type, what are current buyers and potential buyers asking you? For me, it’s, “How thick is your card stock,” I don’t even know how I would describe that to a customer, because our lingo is kind of particular for paper. Nonetheless, they ask about this specifically.

As an example, when it comes to mugs I would probably want to know if the image is on both sides, depending on how I hold the mug. My sister’s left-handed, so she holds her mug a certain way. If I’m buying her a gift, I want to know if the image is on the other side so you can see it no matter which way you hold the mug. 

Don’t replace, just enhance

Think about what is important to your customers. Somehow explain that in an image, clear cut. You don’t want it to be full of text and craziness. This isn’t to replace a description, it’s a cherry on top. Using visuals will help. Something important to understand is that even I (I’ve been selling for almost 10 years), still to this day have ideas of an image I have to include in all my listings.

What we’ve noticed

Marmalead: We really like that tip about including people’s answers in the photos. People, in general, are often very visual. It’s natural for them to go look at photos to try and find answers. We’ve been shopping on Amazon before and read something in a description that explains this product is meeting the criteria that I’m looking for.

Then later on down in the reviews, we see people complaining about how the description is not accurate, and it said this and this and this and then it ended up being wrong. So if you can show something to them in the photos, that’s a whole other level of confidence that you can give them so they can actually see this product is doing what they want it to do.

Tip #2 to sell more on Amazon Handmade – Ads

Dalia: The next tip is having an ads strategy on Amazon. I know people don’t want to hear this because they’re spending money. But when done properly with any online marketplace it can be great! Paying for ads, once your item (hopefully a great one) sells and sells and sells, can help it stick on the top of search and you can then decide if you want to remove the ads. My stuff is all over the top of search organically. I still run ads because my competitors do, and that’s an extra space I want to take over. 

A different ball game

Dalia: Now, getting found organically is great, but within online marketplaces, when somebody’s searching for something, they have a need. It’s different than traditional marketing where you’re just scrolling through Facebook, looking at your friend’s stuff, and then you see an ad. I didn’t look for that item. And I’m not saying Facebook ads or Google ads are not money well spent, it’s a different ball game than somebody organically looking for something especially in the online marketplace and they see your ad.

Do they even care if it’s an ad compared to organic search? I don’t even know. I know we notice because we’re sellers. But typically, if you have a great product, the return on investment for ads (if done properly) is really great.

Our question for Dalia

Marmalead: How much walking through in your course are you gonna do? So I buy your course, I want to get started with some ads, because hey, I believe you. It sounds fantastic. Organic is great, I want to turn it up even more. But I also don’t want to lose a bunch of money on doing it wrong. So having someone like yourself that could help me through that is pretty nice. So tell us more about that.

Details about ads in Dalia’s course

Dalia: I’m glad that you said that. You don’t want to lose a whole bunch of money doing it. Because I, more than anybody you would meet, don’t want to lose money when not appropriate. And so I’m very cautious on how my ads run and how much I’m spending. In my course, it’s broken down into manageable videos. The first section for ads is setting it all up. It’s not just exactly how to set it up, I actually am showing you in the video.

There are also several videos in the bonus section of me adjusting my ads so you could see what you’ve learned and how to actually apply it and how I do it literally day-to-day. After setting it up (like anything else) setting up listings, setting up ads, setting up whatever, you’ll have to adjust. Nothing’s ever perfect right out of the gate. Everybody’s price is different, everybody’s setup is different, everyone learns differently.

So in the second section, we optimize those ads based on data. You need to at least have 30 days worth of data to see, “Okay, what’s performing and what’s not? Is it spending too much or spending too little?” I walk you through, depending on the issue you’re facing. I’m just so passionate about ads, because a lot of people set it up wrong, and they spend so much money. And I’m like, “No, please.” I tell people, “Please do it this way.”

Tip #3 to sell more on Amazon Handmade – Customizations

Dalia: The last thing, to instantly improve your Amazon sales, is customizations. On Etsy it’s similar, you have little drop-down menus. You can change them to what you want. Put it in the size, put it in colors, etc. On Amazon, you can do the same thing. They give you the option to do more than two options, which is really great. You might say, “Well, duh, isn’t everybody doing customizations?” First of all, you won’t believe the number of people that I see that don’t actually utilize that feature on Etsy and on Amazon, and I’m like, “They must be newer.” Which is fine, we all learn from the beginning.

Think about your customers

But even when I do see sellers using that feature, I’m like, “You’re not utilizing it to the benefit of your customer. You’re not utilizing it to optimize a customer’s experience. You’re not utilizing it to help close the sale.” Think about the last product you purchased that you needed to customize a bit. What was your need? For my customers, it’s ink and envelope color personalization.

Are you meeting the customer’s need with those customizations? Because when somebody’s on your listing, and they’re like, “I need this, but I need this in a bigger size.” If they don’t see an option for size, they’re out of there. Conversion rate? Lowered. Never settle on, “Oh, I have the exact customization people want, clearly it’s size and color.” Never assume you cannot improve. Leave that open, say, “What can I do better?” And let your mind wander. That’s it.

Final thoughts to sell more on Amazon Handmade

These are three fantastic tips to start selling more on Amazon Handmade! We can’t wait to hear what you thought about them, so let us know in the comments below! 

If you wanna learn more about Dalia’s Course, we did a separate Jam on that specifically for you to check out if you haven’t already!

If you want to find out more about Dalia, the best place to go is her Facebook group, The Handmade Mastermind, or hop over to her website thehandmademastermind.com.

Happy selling, everyone!

Take Dalia’s Mastering Amazon course to learn how to sell EVEN MORE on Amazon Handmade.

 

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