How to Sell on Amazon Prime Successfully
Amazon Prime is a membership that offers numerous benefits, including free delivery, exclusive prices, and access to digital content. Prime members are known for their regular shopping habits, and tend to spend over twice as much each year as non-Prime members. To tap into this lucrative customer base, you need to be eligible to sell on Prime.
In this article, we'll provide an overview for beginners on how to sell on Amazon Prime.
Table of contents
Benefits of Selling on Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime offers sellers multiple benefits, such as access to a wider customer base and opportunities to streamline their business operations. The main benefit of selling on Amazon Prime is enhanced visibility, ultimately leading to increased sales volume. This is achieved through several factors:
Amazon’s algorithms: Prime products are prioritized by Amazon and have a higher chance of winning the Buy Box.
Fast and free delivery: To earn the Prime badge, sellers must either use Amazon's logistics or guarantee a free two-day delivery, which convinces customers to buy products featuring the Prime logo.
Credibility: Products displaying the Prime badge are often perceived by customers as more reliable and higher quality.
Selling on Prime is highly lucrative, as it can boost sales and overall business performance significantly. However, many people wonder about the costs associated with joining the program. Let’s explore them below.
How Much Does it Cost to Start an Amazon FBA business?
There is no direct cost to sell on Amazon Prime, though it's important to consider the associated expenses. If you want to become a Prime seller, depending on your chosen method, there might be related fees such as referral fees, the type of account you set up, FBA fees, and more. Additionally, all sellers should consider additional costs related to product marketing and promotion.
Below, we’ll share a detailed overview of how to get the Prime label on your product listing.
Ways to Become an Amazon Prime Seller
Selling on Prime requires enrolling in one of three available programs. Here’s a brief overview of their characteristics:
FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon)
Enrolling in FBA is a straightforward process—you send your goods to Amazon's FBA centers and Amazon handles order fulfillment and shipping to customers. You will incur FBA fees based on storage space, item weight, and shipping costs, along with a referral fee typically around 15% per order. You can join FBA with any account type: Individual ($0.99/sale) or Professional ($39.99/month).
SFP (Seller Fulfilled Prime)
With SFP, sellers handle their own order fulfillment, offering greater control over inventory. This option is especially ideal for fragile or high-value items. You can potentially save on storage and shipping costs by choosing your own courier and warehouse. To enroll, you need to set up a Professional Seller account ($39.99/month) and also meet Amazon's requirements for shipping time, order defect rate, and more.
Amazon Vendor Central
With this model, you sell in bulk to Amazon, and they set the product price, handle sales, and ship directly to customers. Joining this program requires the establishment of a strong brand and high performance. Once these criteria are met, you receive an invitation from the platform. While the program itself is free, Amazon will charge you for storage, shipping, and marketing.
Choosing the best method depends on your business goals and priorities: FBA is optimal due to its streamlined logistics, while SFP offers greater business control, and Vendor Central is preferable if you prefer to delegate retail sales. Once you decide on your method, you can proceed to joining Prime as a seller. Let’s discuss how to do that below.
How to Sell on Amazon Prime
Selling on Prime starts with enrolling in either the FBA, SFP, or Vendor Central program. The next steps may differ depending on the program, but the process of finding a profitable product is universal. Listing a high-demand item with low competition will ensure that you get the most out of Prime’s opportunities.
Choose the Right Product to Sell on Prime
The Prime audience is extensive, so there are likely to be customers looking for any product. However, to ensure significant profits, it's vital to conduct thorough market research and identify items that will be genuinely profitable.
While the ideal product may vary depending on your business model and preferences, some universal criteria for lucrative products include:
High demand: A product with over 200 sales/month indicates stable sales potential.
Weight: Products weighing under 3 lbs help you save on shipping costs.
High margin: Ensure that the product's price allows for a high margin that covers your expenses and supports business growth.
Competition: For resellers, it's best to avoid listings with more than 20 sellers or where Amazon is one of the sellers, as competing with these can be challenging. In contrast, brand owners are the sole sellers of their own brand. However, it's important for them to avoid competing with major brands in the niche.
If you don’t have product ideas that meet these criteria, consider using the Product Database, which provides access to over 600 million products and offers 16 filters to refine your search based on your preferences.
Once you have a potential product idea, further research is necessary to confirm that it's the best fit for your store and goals. Let's explore an effective approach for conducting this type of research.
Ensure Your Product’s Profitability, High Demand, and Low Competition
The AMZScout PRO Extension enables you to analyze each product idea in detail, assessing crucial factors such as sales volume, estimated monthly profits, sales history, and more.
To decide if a product is worth it, follow these steps:
1. Install the AMZScout PRO Extension. Enter your email address to start a free trial.
2. Start your search. Enter a name or a related phrase in the Amazon search bar for the product you want to analyze.
3. Open the Extension. Click the AMZScout icon in your browser extension bar, located in the upper-righthand corner of the page.
4. Check the niche’s performance. Click on the Niche score in the top-right corner of the open window. If it exceeds 7, this indicates that the niche has significant potential for high profitability: high demand for its products and low competition among sellers.
5. Select the items you’re interested in. If the niche appears promising, examine individual items. You can filter them based on criteria that matter most to you, such as product price, weight, highest monthly revenue, and more.
6. Evaluate the competition. Check the level of competition for selling this product based on your business model by assessing the following columns:
Sellers: Displays the number of sellers for each product, which is crucial for resellers.
Seller type: Indicates whether Amazon is among the competitors, as it’s challenging to compete with Amazon on its own platform.
Number of reviews: Shows how many reviews a product has, which is crucial for private labels in order to avoid strong competition.
![How to check the number of sellers in PRO Extension]( "Check number of sellers")
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7. Assess product performance. Click Product History under your desired item to check sales trends and pricing fluctuations. It's crucial to ensure that there are no significant dips, and that the trend is either growing or stable.
8. Calculate your potential profit. Click Profit Calculator under the product. Enter your costs for the item to see whether your margin exceeds 20%. Otherwise, it might not be sufficient to cover essential expenses and support growth.
This approach will help you allocate your resources more effectively, ensuring that you focus on the right product to offer to Prime customers. This way, you can enhance your store's performance and drive growth.
Create an Amazon Seller Account
To sell on Amazon, you need to create an account. Setting up a Vendor Central account requires an invitation from Amazon, while for FBA and SFP, you can simply sign up through the Amazon website.
To set up your Amazon Seller Central account, just follow these steps:
1. Choose your preferred plan.
If you’re selling with SFP, you need to select the Professional plan, which costs $39.99/month.
For FBA, you can start with the Individual plan (at $0.99/sale), but if you expect a large volume of orders, the Professional plan will be more economical.
![Types of Amazon seller account fees]( "Amazon seller central fees")
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2. Enter your personal information (address, name, etc.) and business details. Provide photos of your ID and credit card.
3. Pass verification. This process generally involves Amazon scheduling a verification call where you'll need to have your ID and bank information ready.
The approval process typically takes just a few minutes, but it can vary. Once you’re approved, you can start listing your products.
Choose Your Fulfillment Method
With Vendor Central, you just send products to Amazon. However, if you’re choosing between Amazon FBA or SFP, you'll need to consider their pros and cons carefully. Here are the key differences:
Storage: FBA sellers send products to Amazon's fulfillment centers, while SFP sellers store products themselves.
Shipping: Amazon handles shipping for FBA sellers, whereas SFP sellers are responsible for packing items and organizing delivery.
Returns: Amazon fully manages returns for FBA sellers, but SFP sellers must handle their own return processes.
Inventory control: FBA sellers have limited control over packaging and handling, once products are sent to FBA centers. SFP sellers manage these aspects themselves, allowing for better care of products.
Fees: SFP sellers avoid FBA fees, which can be economically advantageous. However, relying on third-party logistics might lead to higher shipping expenses, and there might also be potential warehouse rental costs.
Another important factor to consider when choosing between these programs is Amazon's requirements. Let’s review them in the next section.
Consider Meeting Performance Requirements
Each of the three programs for selling on Prime has its own participation requirements. Review them carefully to determine which is most suitable for you. Here’s a brief overview:
Vendor Central
Amazon invites high-performing brands to join Vendor Central directly. Aside from waiting for an invitation or opening a support ticket to be considered, there is no other way to join the program.
FBA
For FBA sellers, enrollment is straightforward, but there are a few key considerations:
HAZMAT items, products from other brands, or gated categories: Ensure that your product doesn’t fall into one of these categories. If it does, you’ll need to provide Amazon with additional documentation. Failure to do so will prevent Amazon from shipping your products.
Restricted products: Some products, such as firearms or counterfeit items, cannot be listed on Amazon. Attempting to list restricted products can lead to account suspension.
Packaging: Certain products, like alcohol or perishables (for Amazon pantry), require packaging that adheres to Amazon’s guidelines. Ensure that your packaging meets these standards to avoid issues with your listings.
SFP
For SFP sellers, there are more requirements to meet. First, you must qualify for a 30-day trial period. To do this, you need to meet the following criteria:
U.S. home address: Your residence must be registered within the USA.
High order volume: You need to have shipped at least 100 packages in the past three months.
Fast and free delivery: 99% of orders must have valid tracking and be delivered on time, especially if you’re aiming to offer Prime Now food delivery services (within two hours).
Low cancellation rates: Maintain a low rate of order cancellations by implementing strong inventory management practices.
Failing to adhere to these performance standards over time will result in losing your ‘Prime’ badge. Consistent service quality is crucial, and can only be achieved with the right product and processes.
List and Promote Your Products
The next step is to list your products on Amazon. If you use Vendor Central, Amazon will do it for you. If you use FBA or SFP, you can upload your products on Amazon through your Seller Central account.
If you’re reselling products, join an existing product listing and enter the details for your offer (quantity, sizes, price, and more). If you sell your own products, you’ll need to create a new listing. You can see tips on how to do it effectively type: entry-hyperlink id: 1Omx62lMlfYxyQefppNbSv
To drive traffic to your store, you’ll need to promote your products. Here are a few helpful strategies to consider implementing:
Run ads: Consider running PPC campaigns and ads on social networks to quickly engage with customers.
Use the Amazon Vine program: You can exchange free products for reviews from Amazon Vine Voices to build credibility for your store.
Partner with Amazon affiliates or influencers: Reach out to influencers or bloggers in your niche to promote your products.
Maintain competitive pricing: Monitor your competitors and market trends to stay competitive while remaining profitable.
Offer deals and discounts: Offer deals on your products to attract more visitors, while ensuring that you generate revenue.
These are the steps to launching your Amazon business with Prime. Now let's look at additional strategies that are not obligatory, but can further improve your performance.
Tips for Success and Best Practices
When you’re selling your products on the marketplace, it's necessary to constantly work on adjusting your performance. Here are a few helpful tips from top sellers:
Create a Strong Brand
If you’re going to sell products under your own brand, it's necessary to make it stand out on Amazon. Here are a few areas to work on:
Memorable brand name and logo: Create a compelling, easy-to-remember name and logo. Ensure that they’re unique by checking them on the USPTO website to avoid copyright infringement.
Social media presence: Maintain a strong presence on social media platforms. Consider collaborating with TikTok and Instagram influencers to attract more traffic. By building your community, you will create a loyal customer base.
![social media shopping platforms]( "social media shopping platforms")
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Customer service: Provide excellent customer service by responding to all customer queries promptly (within 24 hours). Enhance the customer experience and reduce returns by including additional information in your listing, such as size charts, quality certificates, or other relevant details.
Unique product: Check customer reviews of your own products and your competitors' goods carefully to identify areas for improvement. Innovate and refine your product offerings continuously to meet customer needs.
![Find a unique product to sell]( "Find a unique product to sell")
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Brand protection: Enroll in Amazon's Brand Registry program, which helps protect your brand from counterfeit products and provides marketing tools, such as A+ content to enhance visual content and attract customers.
Building a strong brand takes time, so it’s necessary to keep working on it by monitoring your performance constantly and adjusting if necessary.
Effective Listings
Customers rarely scroll past the first page, so it's essential to rank high among search results. To achieve this, you need to create effective listings. Here are a few tips that can help you with this task:
Write concise and clear titles: Your titles should be catchy enough to motivate customers to open the product page, while also representing the item accurately.
Use high-quality photos and videos: Ensure that your photos are all the same style and look professional. They should also be high-resolution to allow zooming.
Check A+ visuals formatting: Over half of users shop on the app, so make sure your font is readable, and avoid small elements that are inconvenient for mobile users.
Adhere to Amazon's rules: Maintain Amazon's character limits carefully and avoid using restricted words or symbols.
Highlight your product benefits: Write short descriptions and clear bullet points to highlight the unique features of your product, answering the question of why someone should buy it.
SEO-optimize your listing: Research the most relevant keywords for your item and incorporate them into your text. Do this seamlessly to avoid oversaturation and keep your text readable.
Working on a listing while keeping all these considerations in mind might be challenging, especially for beginners. To save time and streamline your operations, consider using AMZScout’s AI Listing Builder. It generates SEO-optimized, user-friendly text within seconds. This way, you enhance your visibility in search engines and can drive more traffic, which can result in more sales.
Prime Day Preparation
Amazon Prime Day traditionally takes place in mid-July. This is a two-day sales event offering exclusive deals for Prime members. Every year, the revenue of sold products grows, reaching a record $14.2 billion in 2024. This is a great opportunity for sellers to clear inventory and make significant profits in two days. Sellers without Prime can't participate in this event. To make the most of it, there are a few tips sellers should keep in mind:
Create offers: Select the products you are going to discount, and decide on your pricing and discount levels. Create coupons to apply to these products. Consider offering bundles to provide added value to customers.
Run PPC: Prepare and run ads in anticipation of Prime Day to increase customer awareness of your brand and deals. During Prime Day, it's necessary to adjust your bids in real time; otherwise, you might use up your ad budget quickly.
Inventory management: Check inventory stock levels carefully to avoid running out too early. Track your inventory throughout the sales event to update it and prevent canceling orders if you run out of stock.
All of these strategies should be applied together, as they complement each other. This will help you maximize your store’s visibility, ultimately boosting your overall profitability.
FAQS
How do I qualify for Amazon Prime as a seller?
To become an Amazon Prime seller, you need to be enrolled in FBA, SFP, or Amazon’s Vendor Central program. While FBA sellers are automatically Prime-eligible, SFP and Vendor Central sellers must meet Amazon's stringent criteria to maintain their Prime status. Failing to meet these requirements over time will result in losing your Prime badge.
How do I make my product eligible for Amazon Prime?
The easiest way to get your product to be part of Prime is to enroll in the Amazon FBA program. This grants you the Prime badge automatically, increasing your product's visibility among Amazon search results. Another advantage is that Amazon handles all logistics and fulfillment, streamlining your business operations while providing more opportunities for profitability.
How profitable is Prime?
Amazon Prime can be highly profitable, with statistics showing that half of Amazon sellers make between $5,000 and $50,000/month. Amazon Prime offers access to a vast customer base of nearly 180 million users, along with increased product visibility. However, profitability also depends on effective marketing, product selection, and other operational factors.
Is selling on Amazon Prime free?
There’s no specific fee for selling on Amazon Prime, but associated costs vary depending on the program you’re enrolled in. Amazon FBA members pay FBA fees, account plan fees, and referral fees. SFP sellers pay $39.99/month for a Professional account and cover their own delivery costs. Amazon Vendor Central vendors pay for Amazon’s fulfillment and storage.
Conclusion
Being a Prime seller provides many opportunities, but it doesn't guarantee profitability. Success depends largely on offering high-demand, quality products at competitive prices. Use the AMZScout toolkit to find the best-selling products and maximize your ‘Prime’ badge benefits.
