24 Oct How to manage your catalogue on Amazon?

If you are an Amazon seller, there are some things you should know to have a good performance in your account as a seller, and if you still don’t have an account but you are interested in joining this great universe of eCommerce and selling on Amazon, then this post is for you.

We are going to tell you all about how you can manage your Amazon catalogue without dying in the attempt, because one of the fundamental keys to success in this marketplace is concentrated in good catalogue management, believe it or not.

Doing a high-level catalogue analysis is important for many reasons, but mainly because it helps you understand the overall performance of your account on a large scale. Additionally, it helps you identify areas of risk quickly, improve productivity and focus on the most important aspects of your business to use your time efficiently.

 Not only is it important to maintain adequate inventory, but you must also ensure that it does not become obsolete or stagnate in the warehouse for long periods of time. Keeping extensive stock not only has an impact on your Buy Box engagement, but it also affects your profitability metrics. Because if you constantly run out of stock, you risk customers not returning to your shop to buy on a repeat basis which will result in you receiving negative feedback from customers.

With an in-depth analysis you will be able to segment your catalogue into various groups and find a suitable strategy for each item in order to achieve your shop’s maximum potential.

Which products sell best on Amazon and which don’t?

It is important that you know which of your products are selling the most on Amazon and which of your products are getting stuck in the warehouse. When you log into Seller Central and see all the active items, it is obvious that some of them are selling and some are not.

So as your business grows in size your catalogue grows and the percentage of SKUs sold decreases. With a larger operation, it can also become much more difficult to manage the number of SKUs you have. Be sure to ask yourself if all the items in your catalogue are relevant to assess what actions need to be taken and in what order.

Tips for Managing your Amazon Catalogue

1. Once the unsold items have been identified, they should be divided into two groups: unsold items that have stock and those that have no stock. Unstocked items, if you have not sold them in a long time and you know you are not going to replenish them, should be cleared so that the old inventory can be liquidated.
2. You don’t want these products to take up more of your time or take you away from your higher priority business objectives. Therefore, it is advisable to review these products every three to six months to be sure that you are not wasting money on storage costs for products whose activity has reached a plateau.
3. For unsold items that do have stock, it is crucial to get to the bottom of why they are not selling – is it traffic or conversion? Is the product getting enough views or is the conversion rate low? If it’s the latter, this could mean that your Buy Box engagement is weak (potentially due to a changing competitive environment) or that the ad should be optimised with stronger content and imagery.
4. If the cause is a change in competitiveness, adjust your prices accordingly if you can. These items need to be reviewed at least once a month so that you can intervene and identify exactly why items are not selling and take action from there.
5. The 80/20 rule: refers to the industry rule of thumb that 20% of sales items generate 80% of sales, more or less. The number of top-selling items will change depending on several factors, such as the size of your business and product categories.
6. Prioritisation of impact versus effort: Here we recommend dividing your focus and priorities into four areas which would be low effort, high effort, low value and high value. Because it will be important to assess into which bucket your actions will fall in order to prioritise them with respect to your business objectives.

6.1  Low effort, high value: These actions come out of the blue, and are quick wins that must be carried out immediately, such as replenishing the most profitable items.

6.2 High value, high effort: Items that fall into this area are strategic and require extensive planning, such as developing a partnership with an overseas supplier that has a long lead time but high long-term potential.

6.3 Low effort, low value: These are measures that you will want to omit or at least move down the priority list for the time being, such as identifying items at the end of the product life cycle and assigning a liquidation strategy to re-evaluate every two weeks.

6.4 Low value, high effort: These items are time-consuming and labour-intensive tasks that do not always yield results that move the needle. An example of this would be the evaluation of a back-up plan to move items when liquidation manoeuvres are unsuccessful the first time.

You may be interested: How to protect your brand on Amazon?

Are you ready to manage your product catalogue on Amazon, we know it’s not an easy task but it’s not impossible. We are an Amazon agency specialised in catalogue management, Amazon SEO campaigns, Amazon Marketing and much more. We have a team of professionals capable of offering you the best personalised advice for the management of your Amazon catalogue, don’t miss the opportunity to boost your business in the world’s largest marketplace and contact us.