Last updated on August 3rd, 2020 at 05:08 am
Running an Amazon business is not for the faint of heart. It requires a lot of work, patience, and dedication to stay in business and grow.
As an Amazon business owner, you want to get all the help you can from people whose skills can help you achieve your business goals. You want to hire people who can take over some of the important tasks that can push your Amazon business to the next level.
Who are they and how do you manage them once they become part of your Amazon business?
Product Research
As an Amazon seller, you want to always be on the lookout for that product that will bring you the most sales over the long run. It’s a never ending process, though, because you can’t bank on one product alone to bring in all the profit.
Even if you already have one, the search for the next big one should always be on a steady loop.
Who should you hire?
An experienced VA who specializes in product research can help your business tremendously. You need someone with a nose for potential best-sellers. Someone who knows what’s on demand or knows how to find them based on current market trends and historical data.
As a business that relies heavily on sales, it’s crucial to be able to find someone with this set of skills. When you do find them, you’ll realize that you’ve made a great decision.
How do you manage them?
Require product research VAs to submit reports so you can verify if the products are sellable and relevant to your brand. A comprehensive product research report should contain possible pricing information, information about your competitors, as well as related products that you can have a look at later.
Great product researchers for Amazon should be able to deliver all this information to you on a weekly basis, but you have to work hand-in-hand with them so you can ensure that there are no stones left unturned.
Your product listing is the heart of your business. It’s how the sales process begins. The moment potential buyers land on Amazon, your chances depend on how optimized your product listings are. And when customers lay eyes on your product listing, it’s either make or break depending on the quality of the images and information you provide.
It goes without saying that this part of the business requires attention and expertise, making a skilled Amazon list optimizer an absolute must have.
Who should you hire?
You need a variety of skills to optimize a product list. You need to find someone who has marketing or sales experience preferably.
This person should understand the psychology of selling. He or she should understand how buyers think and how elements of a product list can push people to click on the Buy button. Elements like product titles, images, product descriptions, etc.
This person should know how all these elements work together to not only capture a potential buyer’s attention but also to get them to take out their credit cards and make the purchase.
How do you manage them?
Once they’re in the fold, don’t just leave everything up to them. Communicate constantly and make sure to regularly monitor the listings they’ve completed. Are the product descriptions detailed enough? Were the images used clear enough? Are the product titles SEO optimized?
Be meticulous, because in the end, the listings they produce will impact your business.
Customer Service
Customer service is essential to any business, whether it’s online or brick and mortar. While Amazon has its own customer service, they don’t always get it right, so having your own customer support VA makes a huge difference.
Getting the services of an experienced freelancer who specializes in customer service for Amazon is one of the best decisions you can ever make. It makes a ton of difference to have someone who can address your customer’s concerns even when you’re not around.
This freelancer should also take a lot off your shoulders in terms of processing refunds and customer complaints, which means a lot considering the amount of stress and headaches that comes with them.
Who should you hire?
It’s important to get someone who’s experienced, patient, and diligent considering the tasks at hand. You’ll need someone who can talk to irate customers without losing their composure. You need someone with a positive attitude and someone who can work under pressure.
How do you manage them?
Once you have them, make sure to constantly spot-check for any prevailing issues they may have encountered. Educate them on how they should be addressing these issues and check how you can best help them in terms of escalations or urgent concerns.
Remember that they are an extension of your voice, so it’s very important for everyone to be on the same page. It pays to have a customer service representative who can assist customers when needed. It’s also a huge help to be in a great position to step in if anything big comes up.
When you’re running a business that resides online, advertising is essential if you want to increase your reach and find new leads in a short span of time.
Ads help people find you, which is crucial considering the amount of competition you have to contend with. Amazon PPC works a lot like Google AdWords in that sellers bid on keywords for which they would like their product to appear. The highest bidder appears first in Amazon search results for that keyword while the second-highest bidder appears next as the list goes on.
Who should you hire?
While Amazon PPC can be learned, it’s still best to hand it to a PPC expert. You need someone who has both the skills and the experience of running PPC campaigns for past clients. You need someone who understands SEO and keyword research. Someone who has a proven track record of producing positive results.
How do you manage them?
Weekly reports are essential in keeping tabs with their performance. You also need to set a budget and make sure that the PPC expert you hired does not exceed it. You also need to establish a set of rules that would keep things transparent in terms of cost per click, daily budget, and advertising cost of sales, to name a few.
Inventory Management
Managing inventory is one of the key aspects of running an Amazon business. It’s a tough balancing act that not everyone is suited for.
You don’t want to be embarrassed in front of your customers for running out of stock on a product they bought. This can impact your rankings negatively and can drive customers away. You wouldn’t want to have too much stock in the Amazon warehouses, either, because that would mean bigger storage costs and products that sit there idle, not generating sales.
Maintaining stock at optimum levels is crucial, and getting someone to do this for you can make all the difference.
Who should you hire?
Inventory management requires someone who has years of experience specifically in Amazon sales. This is important because an inventory manager should understand how the system works and how their job as an inventory manager can impact the business.
The person you hire for this position should be meticulous and have strong attention to detail. They need to be precise because levels always need to be just enough for the business to remain productive without losing out on unnecessary costs.
How do you manage them?
Measuring an inventory manager’s performance requires a set of goals. A weekly report would definitely be required to monitor not only their performance but also the status of the inventory above everything else.
Emphasize the importance of timeliness because there’s a lot at stake if urgent matters like stock running low are not reported on time. Equally important is sound judgment in terms of the levels you need to maintain.
Constant and open communication is required between you and the inventory manager in order to keep everything in balance.
Conclusion
Amazon businesses may look simple and easy on the outside but what people don’t realize is that a lot goes on in the background. Identifying the key tasks you deem crucial to taking the business to the next level is important especially if you’re looking to outsource them to experts.
Hiring a virtual assistant who possess the skills and expertise for these tasks is just the first step though. The next step is to monitor their performance and provide them with everything they need to perform their functions properly.
Leaving them to do whatever you assigned them won’t help your business grow on its own. You need to put on your manager’s suit and run the business by making sure that everyone understands their respective roles in helping meet your business’ goals.
If you haven’t hired the people you need for the key tasks mentioned, there’s no better time to do it than today.
