Have you noticed that selling on Amazon is like shooting at a moving target? If you feel like you’re always trying to keep up but never really getting anywhere, you’re not alone. Like most FBA sellers you are probably perplexed by Amazon’s constantly changing seller landscape.
You want to turn a single sale into multiple transactions, but don’t know how. You want to sell more, but somehow people are just not interested in buying.
What can you do?
The secret lies in forging a lasting connection with people, turning prospects into buyers, and transforming customers into loyal fans.
To get you started earning more on Amazon, we’ve put together this list of eight upselling strategies you can leverage to boost your sales. Implementing those strategies might assist you as you take your business to the next level.
1. Tailor your message to your customers
Research your customers. Know their age, gender, income, social status, education level, needs and wants.
Know what stimuli motivate your customers to take action, and focus your messages to address their needs, wants, demands and expectations. The right message will draw your customer’s attention to your products and services, the wrong one will drive them away. That’s why your message needs to be relevant. Whether you’re sending emails, posting a video or promoting a podcast, your main task is to drive relevance with your target audience.
2. Build trust via relevant content
Now that you have your customers’ attention, the next step is to gain their trust. It takes almost no effort at all to upsell your customers once you have their trust.
Write a story about your brand, your products, and how you were able to solve your customers’ specific problems. This tells people that you are a trustworthy business. Testimonials are also great in that it shows others how amazing your brand is.Trust gives your business the leverage it needs to reach out to customers with your unique message, helping you to stand out from your competitors.
3. Leverage scarcity marketing
Everybody wants what they can’t have – that’s human nature. Armed with this knowledge, inject a sense of scarcity into your products and get customers scrambling for your upsell offer.
Here’s how to go about it. Make your message clear as to the exact number of products available. Also indicate that your offer is good while supply lasts. You can also add, especially in your call to action, a sense of urgency (which is discussed below in more detail). For example you can say, “Only 3 copies left. Hurry!”
4. Create a sense of urgency
This one is closely related to the strategy of creating a sense of scarcity. If you happen to be interested in a product that is nearly sold out, your automatic urge is to immediately buy it.
Understand that buyers in general have a tendency to procrastinate. Many buyers want to sleep on it first before pulling the trigger. This is why you need to create a sense of urgency to break through the barrier of procrastination. Urgency is not intended to convince people about how good your product is. Rather it is aimed at people already convinced of your product, but who for some reason procrastinate on buying. That should be your only reason for driving a sense of urgency.
5. Bundle your offerings
A classic approach to upselling is bundling together related items. This acts to enhance the value of your products in your customer’s eyes. It is a subtle but effective way to sell more products. The reason why this strategy works so well is it enhances the customer’s perceived value.
When bundling products, make sure the items are related, work well together and targeted to your customers’ needs. Otherwise customers will see it as just another marketing ploy, and will be ineffective.
6. A picture is worth a thousand words
The right picture speaks volumes about the product you are selling on Amazon. It’s the first thing buyers look at when deciding whether or not to buy your product and engages their emotions as well as their intellect. When you are able to engage the emotion of your audience through your images, a sale is almost always guaranteed to follow.
Avoid generic looking images. Choose the ones that truly resonate with your audience. The idea is to appeal to your customers’ emotion first and then engage the logical side of their brain later. This is best achieved using captivating images.
7. Use color to whet their appetite
Studies show that nine times out of ten the visual appeal of your logo and the colors you use affect buying decisions. This decision is almost entirely based on emotion. For this reason it is important to give your audience the right impression about your brand through careful use and choice of colors.
Take McDonalds for example. Did you think their red and yellow logo was chosen randomly? They specifically picked red because that color triggers hunger. Yellow on the other hand is a good color for catching people’s attention. Their logo was deliberately planned to grab people’s attention and make them want to eat.
Red is a color of passion, urgency and excitement. Use it for messages you want to shout about. For example, “Limited offer!”
Blue is a good choice for links as it is considered a color of trust, loyalty, peace and order. If red triggers your appetite, blue tends to curb hunger.
Green is naturally connected with life, vigor, health and nature. If you are selling health and wellness products, green is a good color to use more often.
Yellow represents positivity, cheerfulness and optimism. If your focus is to bring out these emotions from your audience, then yellow is the color of choice.
A little experimentation is also useful. Try different colors and combinations to see which ones your audience love, and then stick to those colors.
8. Exceed customer expectations
Amazon is a cutthroat marketplace. As an FBA seller, you need to find a way to differentiate your brand and rise above the competition. If you truly want to establish your brand as your customers’ go-to solution then you need to do more than just deliver on your promise. You need to do something that exceeds their expectations.
The most popular way of doing this is offering free shipping. You can also give them freebies or discount coupons on their next purchase.
Final Thoughts
Despite the many challenges and pitfalls of selling on Amazon, the platform is still great. Indeed, Amazon is a viable and profitable avenue for applying the eight upselling strategies for growth.
However, one big problem remains: filing a claim with Amazon for FBA reimbursements is a time-consuming and cumbersome process. Fortunately, Seller Investigators takes away the massive hassle of going through all of the reports and hoops needed for you to file a reimbursement case. Through FBAi, sellers can now receive bi-weekly reimbursements from Amazon credited and deposited into their account, without having to do a thing!
Amazon Exclusive Program members looking to maximize revenue generation and optimize payment flow should use the leading Stripe payment processing solution.
