It’s not Amazon -- it’s Amazon Business. And while the objectives are still the same -- increase sales volume and revenue -- signing up for Amazon Business can help distinguish your brand from your competitors. Most B2B wholesalers and manufacturers see Amazon as only a B2C marketplace, when in reality there are some great tools that create a fantastic B2B marketplace.
Amazon Business is a robust marketplace that has over one-million B2B buyers, and is ideal for small and medium-sized businesses, as they account for over half of all units sold.
Main Event Digital has produced definitive results for our B2B Amazon Business customers. Not only have we helped several B2B companies discover selling channels that they didn’t even know existed, but we’ve increased sales by an average of 20% for all of our clients within the first year.
And we’re out-performing the pack! US sellers averaged $200,000 in sales in a year, which was up 15% from the year before.
Here’s how we did it:
After registering your business, setting up your Business Profile is the first step toward Amazon Business success, and the best profiles are able to differentiate themselves from their competitors. The more your company is able to articulate your unique characteristics, the more pertinent information you’ll supply to buyers.
B2B buyers are more savvy than B2C customers, and they need specific and useful information to aid their proof of concepts. Start with a mission statement, or a page that’s similar to your website’s “About Us” page. Amazon will do the rest, as radio buttons and image inserts (for your logo, and chosen “featured image”) provide transparency about your company, such as annual revenue and number of employees.
Amazon provides simple tools for listing, and there’s plenty of software out there to help, but there’s something far more important:
Without Brand Registry, for example, if you’re selling a product that’s similar to a competitors’, Amazon may default to their product description, leaving you unable to discern your product from your competitors.
But with Amazon Brand Registry, you can upload A+ content to your product pages. That means you can upload a tutorial, or a video of your product in action.
After that, paying close attention to detail on your product becomes essential, as every piece of information (bullets, descriptions, etc…) needs Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Your buyers use specific search terms to find products, and it’s crucial to discover what these search terms are. After all, your buyers have to be able to find your products if you want them to sell!
After Brand Registry, your B2B company should create a Brand Store, providing a unique, multi-page shopping experience for your customers. The objective here is two fold:
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising gives sellers the option to create ads for Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Products. These methods advertise on Amazon itself, while Brand Display, another option, enables your ads to appear on Amazon, and search engines such as Google.
Fulfillment is extremely important for B2B companies, and weighs heavily into the buyer's decision-making process. Companies that have already embraced e-commerce certainly have a leg up, as fulfillment is something that’s already built into their model.
But whether your company has figured out fulfillment or not, Amazon can help. Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) starts at $3.99 per unit, and more importantly, is a trusted fulfillment process by buyers. In fact, sellers see an average of 20-25% increase in sales from adopting MCF.
Optimizing your products and store is a process that separates the e-commerce professionals from the amateurs. Amazon provides many tools to optimize, such as the Sales Dashboard, which provides not only data on your sales channels and competitors, but also gives insights on what products you should be boosting by advertising, and perhaps, what products you’re missing.
With this knowledge, your store will continue to evolve around what works best. In the meantime, B2B companies should be trying to reach their customers as much as possible. Having a store with a brand story is one way, advertising is another, and beyond that, make offers to your customers and connect with them!
B2B companies should enable quote requests, and encourage dialogue with buyers. And if there’s a problem, with fulfillment for example, you need to be Johnny-on-the-spot to help customers. This will build brand loyalty, and also, it helps keep your customer rating up, which will lead to your products ranking higher than your competitors in the Buy Box.
And what better way to create loyalty than offering a discount! Reward your loyal customers who keep coming back, or the ones that buy in bulk, by advertising pre-set discounts based on order size, or top product.
Getting potential customers to your store and converting them into buyers is a multi-step process that requires a number of resources. If you need help setting up your Amazon store, then give us a call.
Are you ready to get in the ring with Main Event Digital?
