Amazon guide for beginners: How to start an Amazon business and become a successful trader in the rapidly growing online marketplace

Starting an Amazon business – in times of increasing ecommerce presence and almost virtuously preached digitalization, this sounds perhaps more interesting than ever. And indeed, the huge marketplace of the US corporation offers newcomers as well as established traders the chance to set up their own online business with comparatively little effort. The reason for this is on the one hand the already existing customer base, consisting of millions of online shoppers from all over the world who are ready to buy. On the other hand, traders can profit directly from Amazon’s global logistics network and can start selling on Amazon in the form of various programmes.

The difficulty here? Well, just as in many other areas of business, success stands and falls with sensible preparation and a well-considered approach. Starting up an Amazon business that is functioning is by no means rocket science; however, there are a few things to consider that will make life a lot easier, especially for newcomers. In the following article, we would like to take a closer look at precisely these aspects. To achieve this, we will first start with basic characteristics and skills that you as a future online trader should ideally bring to the party. We will then take a look at how to start an Amazon business step by step. On your way to a successful business start on the marketplace we will give you a number of valuable tips that can boost your future business and contribute to sustainable success with Amazon.

As we already covered many of the topics discussed here in separate articles, we have included links to the relevant websites in the respective passages so that you can obtain more detailed information at any time if required.

By the way: If you already have your own online store, this is not an obstacle on the way to starting an Amazon business and successfully selling your products on their marketplace. On the contrary: in combination with our listing tool magnalister, you work under ideal conditions for an easy and smooth start. At the same time, the proactive, simultaneous development of your own online store can contribute significantly to risk minimization, as we will also show you in the course of this article.

You can find out more about the core features of the magnalister marketplace interface and the possibility to test the plugin in a 30 day free trial with full functionality here:

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Table of Contents

Ready for self-employed online trading with your basic route set? The following things you should clarify for yourself in advance before starting an Amazon business

Get down to the nitty-gritty: In order to start selling on Amazon product research and sales structure are the basis of your efforts

After the planning is before sales: How to start trading with an Amazon business step by step

Bonus tip: With magnalister you can link well-known online marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay directly to your own online store – this means in addition to increased sales you also ensure more independence

Conclusion: Starting an Amazon business and becoming an Amazon merchant is by no means witchcraft – just as in brick-and-mortar retail, success stands and falls with the degree of preparation

Ready for self-employed online trading with your basic route set? The following things you should clarify for yourself in advance before starting an Amazon business

To a large extent, decisions when selling online on Amazon depend on your prerequisites, but also on your future plans and ideas. One of the most important acts of preparation therefore begins with answering a few basic questions long before the business registration or even the product research. Many established traders on Amazon and those who dream of starting an Amazon business tend to neglect the absolute fundamentals for any of their further activities. For this reason, we would first like to look at some general aspects in this first chapter and provide some productive food for thought, before we then dive deeper into various tasks relating to your Amazon seller account.

Not everyone is suited to being their own boss: Ideally, you should already tick off these basic requirements

Self-employment – a dream for many employees working in a nine-to-five environment and at the same time the epitome of time and financial freedom as well as independence. However, those who have already gained a foothold in self-employment or who may even have cut their teeth on the project are also aware of the challenges that go hand in hand with setting up and running their own business. Of course, the term business covers a broad spectrum, from small businesses to large listed companies, which means the demands on the individual vary considerably.

Starting an Amazon business respectively becoming a self-employed Amazon merchant and thus maintaining one’s own online store or selling online on Amazon, the world-famous marketplace, is likely to be at the lower end of the scale. This is also due to the comparatively low entry barriers. Nevertheless, even in this case a number of skills are required that can determine success or failure and become increasingly relevant as one’s own business grows.

Among others, the following attributes, which already cover a large part of the prerequisites for entrepreneurship, should at the very least not be absolute foreign words for you:

• Motivation and stamina: What many start-up founders have in abundance at the beginning, often quickly fades again with the first major challenges. In addition to initial motivation, you therefore need a certain amount of stamina to stay on course even in difficult phases.
• Self-confidence: In addition to believing in your own idea, a healthy dose of self-confidence is necessary to conduct successful negotiations and possibly take on responsibility for staff in the future. The chances of success in selling your products also increase noticeably if you are sure of yourself and have the necessary assertiveness.
• Stress resistance and resilience: In self-employment there is always something to do – all around the clock. Especially in the trading business, you are often in contact with partners from all over the world who work in completely different time zones. To say the least, anyone who wants to drop the pen at 5 p.m. or doesn’t want to give up holidays and free time at one point or another will find it difficult to stand on their own two feet in the long term.
• Emotional stability: Along with work independence comes a high level of responsibility – for yourself, but also for your own family or employees, if necessary. Especially if you have to give up a secure income for your own venture, a minimum of mental stability is necessary to successfully master the challenges that arise.
• Commercial knowledge: Both as an experienced Amazon trader as well as when starting an Amazon business and in numerous other areas, the following applies: You will and can only learn many things if you experience them yourself. Apart from these “learning by doing” elements, you should have at least basic commercial skills. These include, among other things, the confident handling of numbers, a basic understanding of economic topics and contexts, and the ability to interact socially with a wide variety of personalities and types of people.

In addition, there are some rather general factors that are partly derived from the above characteristics and are especially relevant for an online trader on Amazon or when asking how to start an ecommerce business on Amazon. For example, particularly successful sellers usually bring good negotiating skills and a sound knowledge of English. In combination, these make it possible to procure your products from abroad at optimal cost and thus form the basis of profitable trade. A certain flexibility also helps to better deal with the dynamic conditions and developments of the Amazon Marketplace. Last but not least, the notorious “nose” for lasting trends and good product concepts should not be completely missing.

In a way, entrepreneurs like you are true multi-talents; generalists who combine a whole range of skills and are constantly developing through inquisitiveness and a willingness to learn. But don’t worry: you certainly don’t have to be a born high-flyer to start a successful business. It is much more important to know yourself and thus your character traits and qualities. Because only those who are aware of their own strengths and, above all, weaknesses can work on them in a targeted manner.

Furthermore, it should be mentioned at this point that the listed requirements can be put into perspective to a certain extent depending on the project, as the initial sale of one’s own products can usually be achieved very well on a part-time basis. Therefore, question your qualities and abilities objectively and honestly against the background of your actual intentions, without being too hard on yourself. Hashtag: Honest self-reflection.

Practical tip: If you are not sufficiently convinced of yourself at the moment, that is no reason to bury your head in the sand. If you nevertheless have a well-founded idea and a corresponding plan for implementation, you can join forces with like-minded people and tackle the project together. In this way, you can not only learn from each other, but ideally also compensate for each other’s weaknesses. Moreover, such cooperation and division of labour gives you the chance to set up larger projects parallel to your main job and thus minimize the resulting risk. Platforms like Founderio offer a great place to start off of.

Prerequisites and goals: A clear roadmap reduces risk and creates the basis for a solid business structure

We already mentioned it at the beginning: The success of starting an Amazon business of your own and even as an experienced Amazon trade stands and falls with a sensible preparation, a roadmap, so to speak, that takes into account existing prerequisites and provides a clear game plan. Even the best product idea is of little use if the implementation is carried out inadequately or one’s own possibilities are completely disregarded. Conversely, a well thought-out plan can realize a vast potential in the medium and long term, for example by systematically building up one’s own brand beyond selling online on Amazon. In the following and building on the first chapter, we would like to take a look at some aspects that are essential.

Basically, you should ask yourself the following questions before you start drafting a concrete business plan:

• What time resources can and do I want to invest in my project? Where is my primary focus, and am I tightly bound or tend to be flexible in my time allocation?
• What are my medium to long-term goals? Do I just want to build a second or third leg to stand on, or do I want to be able to give up my actual job as soon as possible? Is international expansion desirable for me?
• What do my financial resources look like and how do I want to finance my project (equity vs. debt)? And related to this: What risk am I willing to take regarding the realization of my idea? Does my existing knowledge possibly justify accepting an increased risk?
• Do I have other useful prerequisites, such as unused storage space, special contacts or possibly my own online store, which could make it easier for me to get started?
• Do I want to realise my idea alone or as a joint venture? What are the advantages and disadvantages of both options and what suits me better? Do I already know someone who might be a good candidate for cooperation?

At least as important as answering these questions are, of course, the respective implications for you and your activity when you start selling on Amazon. Because these provide important insights and thus form the foundation for detailed planning at the operational level.

Planning example: You do not yet have any special infrastructural resources and have set yourself the goal of gradually building up a second mainstay alongside your primary job that will generate a reliable additional income for you over time without substantial initial investments. In this case, selling an affordable and manageable product that you store and ship using Amazon’s in-house services such as FBA (more on this later) and for which the focus is more on stable turnover than on future expansion may be the best option. Conversely, special requirements and above-average knowledge may well justify a larger investment or a more aggressive market entry with high-priced products.

The infamous business plan and its essential components

After you have crossed off the numerous planning items from your to-do list, the next step before you can start with the actual procurement of the products is to draft a concrete business plan. In it, you record your business idea and internal corporate planning, evaluate the opportunities and risks of your project and, ideally, also analyse the market environment in which you want to operate in the future. If you do not have sufficient equity capital or prefer to use external capital, a mature business plan also serves as a foundation for raising capital.

Of course, a well thought-out business plan also contains calculations on the profitability of the desired product(s). In order to complete the business plan and, if necessary, compare different options with regard to their potential, it is therefore necessary to already have concrete ideas or to have carried out appropriate product research. You will find out what needs to be considered in the further course of this article or in detail in one of our separate articles on the respective topics.

Furthermore, for precise calculations it is advisable to coordinate in advance with potential manufacturers and service providers – for example with regard to storage, shipping and last but not least the procurement of your items. Alternatively, the official Amazon website and relevant portals such as Alibaba can be used to find out more about approximate costs. If you want to make use of additional services such as Amazon FBA, the organizational part of the planning is usually reduced. On the other hand, when starting an Amazon business as a trader you will be more dependent on Amazon and will have to keep a sharp eye on the additional fees incurred.

You can find a free web application from the “Founders’ Platform” for creating a professional business plan here.

Get down to the nitty-gritty: In order to start selling on Amazon product research and sales structure are the basis of your efforts

Up to this point, we have almost exclusively discussed soft factors that can affect your chances of success in the Amazon Marketplace to varying degrees. Some of them are absolutely essential, while others rather belong to the “nice to have” category. With regard to marketplace trading per se, we start with a component that undoubtedly belongs to the former category and at the same time represents the absolute heart of your business: the product.

The heart: What makes a promising ecommerce product

Before we turn to concrete product research on Amazon, we would like to take a brief look at the basic characteristics of a successful ecommerce product. Regardless of whether you already have a very concrete product idea or primarily want to fulfill your dream of starting a business on the booming Amazon Marketplace (with whatever suitable product): successful products typically combine a handful of absolutely fundamental characteristics, the simplicity of which can quickly be forgotten in the course of the research phase. The following core characteristics can usually be observed:

• They solve an existing problem or specifically satisfy a passion.
• They offer real added value compared to possibly already existing offers (keyword: Unique Selling Proposition, USP)
• Taking into account all resulting costs, a sufficiently high profitability can be realized, whereby a constant availability in sourcing is guaranteed.
• They are basically suitable for unproblematic sales in ecommerce (product dimensions, online-affine target group, low seasonal effects, etc.).

Not all that complicated, isn’t it? Admittedly: A few more aspects come into play against the background of starting an Amazon business. Nevertheless, you should never lose sight of these core aspects when you plunge into the dense product jungle of Amazon Marketplace!

Importance and implementation of structured product research

If one were to regard your business as a finished house, the product to be sold would correspond to the shell, so to speak, i.e. the foundation including brickwork and roof truss. Everything that has to be done beyond that for completion – to stay in the picture, for example, the cladding of the facade or the finishing of the interior of the house – are additional tasks that complete the existing basic framework. Or seen from another perspective: If the selected product is unsuitable for selling online on the Amazon Marketplace, even the best listing or the most efficient logistics infrastructure is of limited use.

It is therefore particularly important to be clear about what you are actually looking for and what really matters before you start your research. We have already compiled concrete criteria and a comprehensible guide for you to carry out your own research in detail in our separate article on product research. The most important factors are summarized below.

When conducting your product research, you should focus in particular on …

… the product category: In addition to varying fees, some subcategories are also subject to sales restrictions on Amazon or special verification requirements such as TÜV certifications. Still other areas are characterized by high return rates, strong seasonal effects or (especially in connection with Amazon FBA) disproportionately high storage and shipping costs.

… the final margin: Especially as a participant in the Amazon FBA programme, fees often add up faster than you can imagine. It is therefore important to keep a sharp eye on the margin that you can ultimately achieve with your product(s) as early as during the product research. In addition to sales and additional fees, a sufficient buffer for initial advertising campaigns and possible future price adjustments must always be taken into account.

… the right niche: Starting an Amazon business that is successful also means finding the right balance of supply and demand. Market segments with a very high search volume typically also have a large number of suppliers; conversely, you can only sell sustainably where there is an actual demand. The most promising products are therefore often hidden in niches that have a moderate search volume of potential customers that cannot be served by existing suppliers, or only to an insufficient extent.

… seasonalities and other effects: Building a sustainably successful online business requires a certain degree of planning security and consistency. So you should avoid products with sharp seasonal drops in demand if only because it makes inventory management immensely more difficult. When analysing sales figures, always look at a longer time horizon and also keep an eye out for potential other effects that can temporarily influence sales figures.

In addition, exclusivity is and remains the key to success. You should therefore always ensure that your “raw” products offer potential for improvement or further development so that they can ultimately provide the customer with real added value compared to competing offers. More information on creating USPs, building your own brand and other tips for long-term marketplace success can be found in the article linked at the beginning.

No matter if you are following a local or global sales strategy, a well thought-out sales structure is of great importance

Have you asked yourself the question of how to start an ecommerce business on Amazon? Have you found a promising product and thus overcome one of the most important hurdles on the way to your own online store on Amazon? Fantastic. Then it’s time to start thinking about the distribution and logistics of your products. There are several services and additional programmes in connection with (international) sales on Amazon. But what is really decisive for you is one simple question: Do I want to take care of the storage, shipping and returns of my products as well as customer service myself, or do I outsource the handling of goods to Amazon for additional fees instead?

The first option is called FBM or Fulfillment by Merchant. In this case, you as the seller retain full control and are consequently responsible for the entire handling of your goods – including returns management and customer service. The advantages are obvious: in addition to not having to pay the (sometimes considerable) additional fees, you remain flexible in your choice of business partners and service providers. FBM can therefore be the most suitable option for you if you already have an existing logistics infrastructure, expect only low sales figures and/or want to sell particularly exclusive products that require a high degree of self-determination.

On the other hand, there is Amazon’s well-known service FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon). By using the programme, you outsource your entire goods handling to the company and benefit not only from enormous savings in time and effort, but also from the automatic qualification for the coveted Prime status. This gives your products increased visibility in search results and usually also leads to significantly higher purchase rates. FBA, whose disadvantage obviously lies in the additional fees, is primarily suitable for retailers with limited time resources who plan to sell products of manageable dimensions (size, weight) in large quantities. You can find more information about Amazon FBA in our big FBA guide.

If you are planning to expand to international marketplaces in the future, Amazon’s global shipping and logistics network offers other programmes in addition to FBA that considerably simplify cross-border trade, especially throughout Europe. We have summarized the various possibilities, but also possible hurdles and stumbling blocks of cross-border trade in our guide to international sales on Amazon.

Practical tip: Our listing tool magnalister can provide decisive assistance in the national and international sale of your products. As a webshop plug-in, magnalister acts as a direct interface between your online store and the numerous well-known marketplaces when selling online on Amazon and eBay. In addition to core features such as central product upload directly from your online store, fully automated price and stock synchronization between your shop and marketplaces, further features ensure efficient multi-channel sales of your products. This not only saves you a lot of time and money, but also considerably simplifies the coordination effort for (international) sales. You can find out more about magnalister towards the end of this article.

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After the planning is before sales: How to start trading with an Amazon business step by step

After the most central questions about yourself and your intended business structure have been answered, the first concrete tasks follow – because from business registration and opening an Amazon seller account to product listing and merchandise management, there is still a lot to do before the first customer can hold your product in their hands. On a side note, we elaborate in detail on many of the following points in our big Amazon beginners’ guide. Further helpful tips can also be found in our dedicated Amazon article “Tips & Tricks“.

First things first: Meeting the basic requirements for opening an Amazon Seller Account

Let’s start with the bad news: When starting an Amazon business you will unfortunately not be able to avoid going to the authorities or dealing with legal documents. Nevertheless, the same applies as always: through good preparation and a structured approach, everything is half as bad and can basically be done swiftly.

The following essential items should be at the top of your agenda:

• Business registration: From small businesses and sole proprietorships to partnerships under civil law and corporations such as the Ltd., in theory any legal form can be an option. There are sometimes considerable differences with regards to the effort required to set up a business, the subsequent possibilities and the liability issues. This article of the “Unternehmerkanal” offers a good overview if you do not yet have a more precise idea.
• Specific legal documents: In addition to the imprint and the general terms and conditions (Ts and Cs), this also includes a data protection and a cancellation policy. In principle, the legal texts must always be individually adapted to your own Amazon shop – failure to do so may result in the closure of your account. In addition to law firms and agencies, the German traders association offers support in the preparation of legal documents.
• Credit card and accessibility: Necessary for registration with Amazon and for the creation of legal documents. In addition to a valid address, e-mail address and telephone number, you also need a credit card, which must be stored during the registration process.
• Seller Account: For beginners this refers to the Amazon Seller Account. If you want to sell on Amazon you need a seller account, which entitles you to post and sell your products through the marketplace. In addition to the items listed above, registration also requires valid proof of identity (ID card or passport), a trading licence and a credit card statement. Verification of your details usually takes place in a video call with an Amazon employee.

Basic vs. Professional Seller Account – Which option is the right one for me?

During your initial research – but at the latest in the course of registration – the question which Amazon seller account might be the right one for you and your purposes will probably arise. All the options we have already weighed up against each other in our beginner’s guide, we would like to recap here for you once more.

In order to do this, we must first differentiate between the two plans “Individual Seller” (also called “Basic Seller Account”) and “Professional” (“Professional Seller Account”), which are available to everyone who is starting an Amazon business. Essentially, they differ in the composition of the sales fees. In contrast to the Professional Seller Account, as an individual seller you do not pay a fixed monthly fee of 39.00 USD (as of April 2021), but a flat rate of 99 cents per item sold.

Example: With a sales volume of 25 units in the first month and on the basic plan, you would pay 24.75 USD (25 x 0.99 USD) in actual sales fees, whereas as a Professional Seller you would pay the fixed amount of 39.00 USD – regardless of the sales volume. On the contrary, as an Individual Seller, a quite excessive fee of 99.00 USD would be due for 100 units sold.

You will quickly realize: from a financial point of view, choosing the right plan is by no means witchcraft; from a sales volume of 40 units per month, you are better off as a Professional Seller. In addition, as a Professional Seller you do not only get access to additional features such as sales statistics and performance reports, but also qualify for the so-called “Buy Box”, which can boost your sales figures massively. Sooner or later, as a reasonably ambitious Amazon merchant, you will benefit from the “Professional” plan in any case.

Practical tip: If you just started as an Amazon seller without any previous experience in (online) trade, it is not always easy to realistically estimate your initial sales figures. Depending on the types of products you sell (rule of thumb here: high sales prices and/or high margin = tendency towards low sales figures), a conservative approach can certainly pay off. You can start by opening an Amazon Basic Seller Account without any fixed cost risk and then simply upgrade your plan as soon as it actually pays off for you.

Listing your product on the marketplace: A good listing ensures that customers can easily find your products later on

You guessed it right: We have already dedicated ourselves to the creation of an optimized product listing elsewhere and in detail. In fact, the “Product Listing Challenge” has an entire chapter in our Beginner’s Guide. The article doesn’t only provide you with a lot of information around this complex topic, but also shows its immense importance.

But let’s start one step ahead. What is actually hidden under the ominous term “listing”? Well, basically it’s nothing more than the entry of each product in the Amazon Marketplace catalog of goods. At the same time, the listing corresponds to the product detail page, which pops up after clicking on an offer in the search results, for example. It therefore contains all the important information about the product, including several image elements, in order to give potential customers a sufficiently good impression and ultimately help them to make a purchase decision.

A listing optimized in terms of content and structure is so important for established Amazon merchants and everyone who is planning on starting an Amazon business, because their products are rewarded by the in-house algorithm with increased visibility in the search results. The reason for this is simple: the better the product listing and thus the information provided, the better the user experience of online shoppers as a rule. You should pay attention to the following factors when creating products:

• Product name: Use maximum character length, place the focus keyword (main search term) as far up front as possible; include secondary keywords, synonyms and features, as well as benefits and, if applicable, areas of use in the title; list product variations (if there are any); consider sensible structure with correct spelling and formatting.
• Product images: Always use high-quality images, making use of the maximum number of seven, if possible, and observe formal criteria, especially for the main image (file formats and size, white background, product fills 80-85% of the image area); use secondary images to show benefits and areas of use, as well as different conditions and product details, if applicable.
• Product attributes: Use all five bullet points to summarize the main features of the product; accommodate as many different keywords as possible (no keyword stuffing!) without neglecting structure and readability; design bullet points to be approximately the same length, not exceeding maximum SEO-relevant character count of 1,000; if necessary, introduce attributes with representative adjectives (“Fully waterproof: All materials used (…)”)
• Backend keywords: Place non-visible, general keywords in Seller Central for better thematic classification of the products; use maximum length of five lines of 50 bytes each to deposit keywords and alternative keywords that are not already in the actual listing; punctuation marks or a special order can/should be avoided

When creating the product listing, always remember that at the end of the day, it must replace the customer’s physical appraisal. Look at it, feel it, try it out – Amazon Marketplace can’t offer all that, despite all the technical progress. A good product listing is therefore not only optimized according to formal criteria, but also persuades the customer to buy your item through a convincing online presentation.

Merchandise management systems and customer service – what suits you, what options are available?

Choosing the right merchandise management system is a very subjective decision and depends heavily on your own requirements and plans. Under certain circumstances, you may not even need a standalone software at all when selling your products online via Amazon Marketplace. But when does such a software actually make sense for you as an online seller?

All processes that are required for trading on Amazon can in theory be mapped out manually. This includes, among other things, the entry and processing of your orders, inventory reconciliation or the creation of invoices for your customers. If you only want to be active on Amazon to a very limited extent – for example, to sell a few handmade products per month – the effort required is so little that running your own inventory management system is often not even worth it. If you want to expand your business or are planning to sell through your own online store or other marketplaces in addition to Amazon, things look a bit different. That is because in this case, a suitable system will not only enable you to achieve considerable efficiency gains, but also minimize your potential for errors – for example, when synchronizing your inventory. A proper execution is absolutely essential here to guarantee a reasonable quality of your customer service.

Which brings us to the next topic: As an Amazon seller, you act as the “middle man” between the company and the end customers who browse the Amazon Marketplace. The consequence of this, even as a non-FBA merchant, is that a considerable amount of customer service is intercepted by Amazon. You should therefore use suitable support channels to ensure that you are a reliable contact for Amazon itself in the event of queries from the company. (…) There are several providers of merchandise management systems that are compatible with most of the well-known online marketplaces. DreamRobot or Billbee, for example, offer modern and user-friendly interfaces and a variety of helpful features.

Our own listing tool magnalister, which we will present in more detail in the following chapter, also offers an automated invoice upload as part of the Amazon VCS program (a sales tax calculation service) as well as an invoice creation wizard. The background: Amazon claims it plans to require B2C merchants to make appropriate invoices available to customers in their accounts later this year. Thus far this was only mandatory for B2B merchants. More info on the Amazon VCS program can be found here.

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Bonus tip: With magnalister you can link well-known online marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay directly to your own online store – this means in addition to increased sales you also ensure more independence

As already indicated at the beginning, if you have asked yourself how to start an ecommerce business on Amazon, you might as well consider the parallel development of an independent online store via well-known systems such as Shopware, WooCommerce or Shopify as it goes hand in hand with several considerable advantages. In addition to the enforceability of higher margins on your product sales, you primarily reduce your dependence on Amazon itself, which results from being tied to the in-house marketplace. In addition, you proactively prevent the market entry of financially strong and competent competitors, first and foremost Amazon itself. In short, you combine the best of both worlds while reducing your risk.

This is exactly where our listing tool magnalister comes into play, which can secure decisive competitive advantages for you as a retailer. Regardless of whether you already run your own online store or are planning to do so in the future: as a webshop plugin, it offers everything you need for effective management between online store and marketplace and thus makes it much easier for you to get started and for ongoing product and order management. Once you have set up your online store and configured magnalister, you can connect numerous other marketplaces besides Amazon in no time at all and thus exploit the full potential of your products.

With magnalister you benefit from the following features for efficient multi-channel distribution:

• Central product upload: Time-saving and efficient upload of products to all connected marketplaces
• Price synchronization: Prices are matched fully automatically or individually (per marketplace)
• Inventory synchronization: Current stock levels are synchronized and thus unwanted cancellations are avoided
• Automatic order import: Import and manage marketplace orders
• Attribute matching: Match product variations and features with marketplace attributes*
• Order status matching: Automatically match order status (e.g. “shipped” or “cancelled”) with marketplaces
• Invoice upload: Send invoices automatically from the webshop
• Interface customization: Customize the plugin via so-called hook points as you desire**

* Not supported by all marketplaces

** Requires programming knowledge. Not available for cloud (SaaS) systems, as no intervention is allowed by the manufacturer.

The magnalister plugin is available for many of the well-known webshops and can be tested in a 30 day free trial with full functionality.

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Conclusion: Starting an Amazon business and becoming an Amazon merchant is by no means witchcraft – just as in brick-and-mortar retail, success stands and falls with the degree of preparation

There seems to be no end to the boom in ecommerce, while Amazon presents new record results year after year. And this is certainly no coincidence, as the ecommerce giant offers a whole host of tangible benefits that encourage online retailers all over the world to open their own stores. Especially in the case of an existing product idea, the temptation is great to gain a foothold in the huge Amazon Marketplace and start selling on Amazon as quickly as possible. But just as with other entrepreneurial ventures, a hasty entry into a competitive market harbors numerous risks that can jeopardize your business success in the short or long term.

True to the motto “good things come to those who wait”, you should therefore take sufficient time in advance to plan, prepare and sensibly structure your project. In this article, we have provided you with a guide to help you through the various phases of planning and sales preparation. As we have shown, the whole thing is by no means an eternal odyssey – quite the opposite: with a structured and disciplined approach, you do not only increase your chances of success, but also save a lot of time and effort in the long run by avoiding numerous problems.

To summarize, we have looked at the following aspects throughout the article, which should serve as a guide and orientation for your preparation:

• Determining your own entrepreneurial aptitude
• Preparatory measures for self-employment in ecommerce
• Background and components of the business plan
• Importance of a suitable product, relevance and implementation of product research
• Choosing the appropriate sales structure
• Getting started on Amazon Marketplace: Seller account and fee model
• Product listing as the key to visibility of your products
• Merchandise management system and customer support

In order to reduce your own dependence on Amazon in the long term and also to exploit additional potential, it may also make sense to set up your own online store (simultaneously). In this context, we would like to refer once again to our plugin magnalister: As an interface between your online store and many well-known marketplaces including Amazon, our tool effectively supports you in the area of product listing and order management, so that you can fully focus on selling your products online on Amazon and therewith expand your ecommerce business.

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