With technology advancement, improved delivery logistics, and increased online shoppers, online marketing is now one of the most lucrative sources of income anyone can plug into.
One such online shopping platform is Amazon, founded by Jeff Bezos on May 5, 1994, in Bellevue, Washington. That said, how do you go about selling clothes on Amazon?
Why Should You Sell Clothes On Amazon?
Easy-to-use platform
Amazon is an easy platform to market your clothing goods. You can register your account, including your business details, and start trading with minimal capital.
Large customer base
Amazon has millions of visits from shoppers every day, allowing sellers to meet a wide range of customers’ needs daily and making it one of the most visited websites in the entire world.
It also gives sellers access to an international community of shoppers, which gives you visibility, significantly increases your sales, and covers networking-related issues.
Also, because many people believe Amazon to be credible, people easily trust the products on the platform and are more inclined to buy from you. However, this isn’t a reason to exploit customers by selling fake or low-quality products for people to buy.
Advertising
It’s one thing to list your products online and hope that potential customers stumble on your website and patronize you; it’s another thing to list your products on an online platform where you can intentionally advertise and promote your business to increase sales.
Amazon provides advertising services to increase traffic on your brand page and boost sales. You can use these services when launching special clothing items to increase product sales.
With Amazon’s international advertising services, visibility, product placement, and customer reach become easier.
Convenient shipping option
When you sell an item on Amazon, you have two basic shipping options: Fulfilment By Amazon (FBA) or Fulfilment By Merchant (FBM). Fulfillment by Amazon is the most popular and more convenient option.
With FBA, you first ship your products to the Amazon warehouse. Amazon then, in turn, sends your products to customers when they make orders.
Once the sale of your product is successful, Amazon is held accountable for any customer service issues that may arise from delivery. Using Fulfilment by Amazon requires additional costs, but it is the most convenient shipping option.
Many Amazon sellers use it despite the extra charges. This is because this fulfillment option gives you access to world-class logistics. Amazon handles all the intricacies of shipping, product packaging, prepping, and customer care services. [How To Start A Clothing Business With No Money?]
Here’s A Step-by-step Guide On How To Sell Clothes On Amazon
Selling clothes on Amazon might be easy, but it is a technical process that requires tactful care. You must set up your account in a way that attracts the right customers. Follow this step-by-step guide to start selling clothes on Amazon:
Step 1. Register your account
To sell on Amazon, you first register your account as a seller. Then you enter essential details like your name, contact number, and address.
Usually, Amazon requests your legal name and address, so when filling out the forms, avoid pet names and fake information. Amazon makes the process easy, but you need to carefully read all the instructions to sign up as a seller successfully.
Watch this video to learn how to successfully register an account on Amazon:
Step 2. Enter business details
This is where you fill in your business name and select the “Clothing and Accessories” category. Fill in your address and choose how you want to deliver your orders and the shipping options you want to use.
Read this article to learn more on shipping options available for Amazon clothing sellers.
This is where you also request approval to sell certain types of clothes. To maintain high-quality standards, Amazon requires you to fill out an approval form.
Provide all the necessary information here, and you’re good to go. However, the approval process may take some time to complete.
Step 3. List the clothes on Amazon
Once you get your approval to sell clothes, you list your products. Here are steps to follow to list your clothing products on Amazon:
- Scan your products to list them.
- Match the clothes to the list you already created.
- Click on the ‘prepare your listings’ feature or the ‘custom inventory templates’ to collectively list your products.
- To sell the same clothes in different sizes and colors, create variations by grouping sizes of the same clothing item on one product page. Read this enlightening article to learn more about creating product variations for your clothes. This not only speeds up the listing process but also makes it easier for potential customers to find your products and patronize you.
- Finally, make sure the clothes you want to sell are of standard quality. This helps you get better reviews which ultimately increase your customer base.
Selling Clothes On Amazon: 5 Things To Take Note Of
To properly optimize your Amazon account and your listings to attract more customers, there are 5 things you need to pay attention to:
Use highly-rated keywords
Make sure to use relevant, highly-rated keywords in your titles, product descriptions, and lists. One way to ensure you’re using relevant keywords is to check other sellers’ accounts to know what the average standard of creating lists should look like.
Create well-structured listings for your clothes
In creating your listings, make sure to include all the sizes and colors available. This allows customers to go through all the available sizes and colors at once.
Don’t list the different colors and sizes of a particular clothing item separately so that you don’t leave your potential customers confused.
Variants help your buyers make better choices regarding similar product attributes. Offer essential details such as prizes, quantity, name, product description, category, and shipping information.
Use good pictures
The use of good images to sell clothes on Amazon can never be overemphasized. Make sure to use as many pictures as possible to represent the products you have for sale.
Images reassure the customer of the quality of your clothes. Use a good background, preferably a white background. Apart from the pictures showing different angles of the clothing, have the main image that shows the item.
Make sure that the photos used are of the best quality. Finally, crop the image tightly to give your customers a clearer view of the clothes they’re buying.
Understand the rules of Amazon
To sell successfully on Amazon, you must follow the rules and standards, especially regarding the use of images, product approval, quality of clothes to be sold, and much more.
As long as you follow these prescribed instructions from Amazon, you can run your online business without a glitch.
Leverage reviews
Reviews do a lot in building a solid brand perception. Display as many reviews of satisfied customers as possible. Let other potential customers see that those previous sales were successful and buyers were fully satisfied. Posting reviews attract more customers.
Having Challenges Selling Clothes On Amazon? Here’s A Step-by-step Guide On How To Overcome Them.
Amazon’s rules
As stated earlier, Amazon has its rules and restrictions. While these rules are crucial to Amazon’s success as an online marketing platform, they could be frustrating to a newcomer.
It might be difficult to maneuver these rules and meet the requirements to know what kind of products you can sell and get approval to sell them.
Solution:
- The best way to make the best out of the situation is to conduct extensive research on Amazon’s rules and fee policies. This will guide your actions and save you from pitfalls.
Branding challenges
It might be difficult to promote your brand amidst the myriad of clothing brands available for your customers to choose from.
Also, Amazon’s seller policies do not permit you to capture customers’ email addresses and include advertising materials within shipments. This puts a block on establishing customer connections.
Solution:
- To solve these branding challenges, you can maximize all available brand promotion exercises on Amazon.
- Include proper product descriptions and details, create an attractive ‘About Us’ page and display your frequently asked questions with appropriate responses.
- To maintain good customer connection, ensure to send follow-up emails introducing yourself and asking customers about the smoothness of their transaction and delivery.
- In all, do all you can to promote your brand while staying within Amazon’s policies.
Pricing competition
On a marketplace as vast as Amazon, there is bound to be pricing competition. There are usually varying prices for the same products, and for a newcomer trying to understand the market, this may be tough because you won’t know what retail price to sell at.
Small businesses are mostly affected by competitive pricing because of their low-profit margins. They cannot afford to slash their product prices.
You might continually have to change your prices because you’re not only competing with other sellers, but you also have to pay a portion of your profits to Amazon.
Solution:
- Assess market trends and developments before providing prices for your products.
- Get an average of as many competing prices as possible to get a reasonable price to sell at. You can do this by using Amazon’s automated pricing tool. Here is a video to help you understand all you need to know about selling on Amazon:
Summary
Because of the fast-growing rate of the fashion world, selling clothes online is one of the most lucrative businesses. Of all online marketing platforms, Amazon remains your best bet to sell clothes online and make good money.
Just get registered, list your products, get approval, strategically position your brand, and start making sales!
Jessica Oliver is a fashion enthusiast with more than ten years of experience in the industry. She previously managed her own clothing store in New York before becoming a mother of three. With a passion for sustainability and a desire to share clothing care and recycling tips.