Guest post by Chris Dunne from FeedbackExpress

According to BrightLocal, 79% of us trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations and 91% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses.

This is why product reviews are so vital for private label sellers on Amazon — they are a silent force that help drive sales and increase conversion rates.

Positive product reviews provide social proof and build consumer trust — potential buyers (and Amazon) can see you’re selling a quality product which people are happy with.

Product reviews on Amazon also help improve your product visibility, making it easier for buyers to find your products and boosting sales.

How to generate more product reviews

Firstly, (as I’m sure many of you are aware) it is against Amazon’s terms of service to offer incentives for product reviews. Don’t do it, it’s not worth it. If you get caught (and you will eventually), you’ll lose your selling privileges.

In Amazon’s words, “You may not intentionally manipulate your products’ rankings, including by offering an excessive number of free or discounted products, in exchange for a review.”

Amazon encourages you to request reviews but any attempt to manipulate reviews is prohibited. This includes asking for a positive review or providing incentives for reviews.

Getting product reviews on Amazon requires patience, but ask for reviews consistently and with the right message at the right time—the rewards can be considerable.

Here are typical engagement rates for Amazon sellers:
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A sales tax resale certificate is a form that confirms a retailer’s right to not pay sales tax on items they are buying and intend to resale. The idea is that even if an item is supposed to be taxable, a buyer who is going to be reselling the product can collect the sales tax during the final retail transaction. This allows resellers to buy more product with less capital. It also streamlines the tax collection process for the state.

How Do I Use One?

To get a resale certificate, you first have to be registered to collect sales tax with your state. (Remember, you’re going to be collecting sales tax when you resell the items.) Each state has its own application process, which you can find on its website. In many cases, there will also be an opportunity in the application process to request a resale certificate. But sometimes, just having a sales tax permit means you also have a resale certificate. Then, depending on the state, you’ll either be given access to blank resale certificates or given instructions on how to request a certificate for each wholesaler you work with.

Resale certificates should be presented to the wholesaler during the transaction. They will take the original and perhaps give you a copy back. Then, they will continue your transaction but your total will not include state sales tax. Depending on your state, you can use one resale certificate on all transactions with that vendor and you only need to update it when your license renews. However, in some cases, you may be asked to present a certificate for each individual sale.

What Do I Do If I Receive One?

If you’re the retailer being presented with a resale certificate, it’s your job to authenticate it. In some states, there are online verification systems but in many cases you’ll be verifying the certificate based on the information on it. It should be filled out completely and match the information of the buyer.

You must accept a resale certificate in “good faith.” This is just means that you have no reason to not believe the certificate is not being used in the manner it’s supposed to be used. So, if you know that buyer doesn’t intend to resell the goods or isn’t buying something they have tax exemption for, you can’t accept the certificate.

Once you verify the certificate, you should complete the sale without the sales tax. Then you should keep the original certificate in your records in case you need to provide documentation that the sale was tax exempt.

What If I Have More Questions?

Resale certificates aren’t super complicated but there may be a time when you need more information about the process. This is especially true because each state handles its own sales tax and can have differing rules. The best way place to get more information is to contact the state in question.

Most have basic information to help you on their websites and all of them will have contact information to have your questions answered by a staff member. This list of state websites will get you started. Just remember that even though it may take longer to get a reply, it’s always best to get your answers in writing for your records.

Do you have questions or something to say about using and accepting resale certificates? Start the conversation in the comments!

About the author

TaxJar is a service that makes sales tax reporting and filing simple for more than 10,000 online sellers. Try a 30-day-free trial of TaxJar today and eliminate sales tax compliance headaches from your life!

Top Amazon FBA Software

You can’t run a real FBA business without bringing on the right FBA software.

Amazon FBA software can help you optimize your listings while you sleep, protect your account while you’re focusing on marketing, or even help you choose your next profitable product.

Rather than give you a list of the best software for Amazon, we’ve done the hard work of picking the best of the best. These tools are at the top of their league and are the go-to for successful sellers.

Did we leave out your favorite? Probably not, but just in case…let us know in the comments below.

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Is it possible to run Facebook ads for your Amazon products? Is it even a good idea (meaning, will it give you 2x or higher ROI)?

In this post, we’re talking about how 7-figure Amazon sellers approach Facebook advertising strategically and how you can model their success.

Is it worth it to run Facebook ads for Amazon products?

That depends!

If you’re looking to run ads to a low cost product (say, a t-shirt or a mug) and you have no items in that brand that a customer would need to buy in the future, it is likely NOT a good idea to run Facebook ads. You might struggle to break even with your costs.

However, if you have a branded product line that encourages customers to buy more products from you in the future (for example, they would need a refill on supplements or you sell gear or materials for some sport or hobby and your customer is likely to need other items), then using ads to bring new traffic from Facebook into your network of customers does have the potential to pay off.

It’s much smarter to think of Facebook advertising as a strategy for your entire business or product line, rather than to sell just one product.
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Ever wanted a more in-depth break down of the FBA fees? In this article, we’re covering the ins and outs of FBA fees and giving you tips on how can pay less of them!

Read on for all of the details.

The value in the FBA fee structure

Before you complain too much about the FBA fees, remember that they are designed to foster entrepreneurship. Across America, there are thousands of people like yourself making a fantastic living on their Amazon sales.
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Have you heard the saying that there’s no replacement for experience? This is largely true, however you can learn a lot from those who have gone before you.

There is no single formula that will turn your business into an overnight success, but there are definitely things you can do to make success more likely.

Let’s take a look at what other successful sellers are doing and what is working for them.

Invest in product development and customer support

The majorly popular Instant Pot is a successful product for a reason. The creator, Robert Wang, didn’t stop at the first iteration of this automatic pressure cooker. Instead, he devoted himself to pouring over customer feedback by reading the Amazon reviews. Though the Instant Pot first launched in 2010, it wasn’t until 2013 that the product really took off, and that’s because he modified the original product based on feedback until he had created something worthy of super fandom.

Today, there are tens of thousands of reviews on the various models and sizes of the Instant Pot, and there are a whole websites devoted to teaching people how to cook with these little powerhouses.

But if the creator hadn’t added in quality sensors to improve cooking quality and reduce the risk of burning (based on feedback), then this breakout success would never have happened. Wang also invests in great customer service, and will replace broken units for customers. This reinforces a positive brand sentiment and really turns customers into fans.

Develop a consistent retail arbitrage strategy

When many sellers start with retail arbitrage, they’re looking for big wins. They want huge ROI on their purchases, as in 50% or 100%.

But it can be challenging to find these items consistently, whether it’s camping gear at Target or shoes from DSW. When a retail arbitrage seller locks themselves down to only very high-ROI purchases, then that person puts a cap on their business growth. Not to mention, sourcing these materials can take more time because you are being choosy.

However, one successful retail arbitrage seller takes a different approach. Marvin shoots for a minimum of 20% ROI on his purchases. He uses a spreadsheet to automatically calculate the potential ROI (the amount that he can likely sell the product for on Amazon, minus the fees, and minus the purchase price) while shopping. The benefits of going for a 20% ROI rather than something much higher are:

• More consistent, reliable strategy
• Faster turnover
• No big gaps in income

By lowering your requirement for ROI, you might be able to experience similar results and build a reliably successful business.

Never settle for low-performing keywords

While it’s true that PPC is a worthwhile investment if you have great reviews and a fully optimized page, it’s certainly not the only way to drive traffic. Everything you spend on PPC eats into your profit margins so you need to be incredibly careful.

Driving traffic organically via search however only costs you a little bit of time and experimentation.

All to often, sellers mistakenly believe they’ve done everything they could to optimize their listings, and when sales aren’t happening, they turn to PPC.

The truth is, there are tens of millions of shoppers on Amazon in the US every day, so if they aren’t finding your product, then you haven’t yet implemented the right keywords.

One Amazon seller was recently able to take his worst selling products and get them to turn around quickly simply by implementing long tail keywords, so don’t give up on keyword optimization. Instead, continue to add and prioritize new, relevant keywords until the sales start pouring in.

Drill down into the details

If you don’t have time for the details, then you don’t have time for running a business.

No matter how busy they get, Amazon sellers who are meeting and exceeding their sales goals always make time to review the littlest details of their seller account, or they outsource this critical component of running an FBA business.

One seller discovered a fee error that was costing over $9,000 per year, and that was just from a fee for one product. With margins being so tight, you need to make sure that you catch each and every error. The problem this seller discovered was with the size categorization. Basically, this seller was being overcharged for the FBA fulfillment fees because the item was marked as larger than it actually was.

Catching small FBA fee errors is time consuming, and if you’re unable to find the time, or aren’t sure where to look for errors, then you need to outsource this process. Refunds Manager personally handles account auditing and claims for Amazon sellers.

Use tools that make it possible to scale

Regardless of the industry, one of the hardest things with running your own business is being able to scale. The task is no less daunting for Amazon sellers. With so many little details to juggle, it’s very challenging to scale.

Paying for the right Amazon seller software is essential to scaling.

There are keyword planners, product research tools, sourcing tools, sales rank trackers, feedback tools and more.

When you first get started, you might be tempted to save the $40 or $100 monthly fee for each tool, but when you realize that most of these tools save you hours a week or hours a month, then it becomes worth it. If you don’t get back that time, then you’re not able to devote time to increasing your product line, which is the smartest thing you can do to scale your business.

What are your top success secrets as an Amazon seller? Let us know in the comments below!

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Have you heard of the Honey app? The one that saves online shoppers lots of money by providing them instant coupons and savings on retailers across the web?

This shopping app is gaining popularity and has some Amazon sellers concerned (or at least curious) about how this affects them and their pricing strategy.

Read on for everything Amazon sellers need to know about Honey.

What is Honey?

The Honey app claims to have over 7 million shoppers who use their tool on Amazon, so this tool should not be ignored. The product functions as a web app that gets added to Google Chrome or other popular browsers, and it affects the shoppers experience.

On sites like Macy’s or Ann Taylor, the app will automatically hunt for coupon codes and apply relevant ones to the shopping cart.

However, Amazon notoriously doesn’t offer coupon codes (or at least very, very rarely), so the app offers shoppers other features to help them save money.

How do Amazon shoppers use it?

There are a few main features that Honey offers Amazon shoppers. The app lets users see price history, easily compare offers from other sellers, and get notifications for price drops.

Let’s take a look at everything this app does on Amazon:

Price drop notifications

Savvy Amazon shoppers know that sellers continually reprice their items. They may not understand the full strategy or the nature of the Amazon marketplace, but they recognize that products’ prices are constantly shifting.
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Like any other marketplace, the key to being a successful seller on Amazon is to stay ahead of your competition. With millions of potential buyers only a click away, the battle to gain their trust, and their dollars, is truly fierce. There are lots of tips and tricks out there that can help you stay competitive but one of the most important things you need to consider is branding.

Branding is the process of giving meaning to a product in a consumer’s mind. By aligning the product with your recognizable brand, name and image, the buyer knows what to expect from the product and it gives them a reason to buy from you when there are other available options. At worst, good branding creates a beautiful looking, well-packaged product that is appealing to buyers. At best, it places you as an industry leader where buyers are searching for, and purchasing, your products on name alone. Either way, you come out a winner.

There is no way around it, establishing and maintaining your brand takes effort. But, these efforts are worth it and can provide massive returns.

Here are a few tips for those looking to get started with branding on Amazon and a few more for those already established.
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