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You may not realize it but if you are selling over 40 items per month, it is in your interest to become a Pro Merchant seller as you will otherwise be giving Amazon too much in fees and commissions compared to the cost of a subscription - so subscribing will ultimately make you money.

Another great advantage of subscribing as a Pro Merchant seller that it enables you to add a product page to Amazon’s catalogue…

Why would you want to do this? Well, you may find that on occasion you attempt to list a product, but your product is not in Amazon’s catalogue - this is, of course, very frustrating.

I often come across items that are not on the system and one of the advantages of adding this item to the system myself is that I can ask whatever price I like without worrying about competition.

Adding a product as a Pro Merchant

In order to add to Amazon’s catalogue, go to your sellers account and click on ‘add a product’ on the top right hand side of the page.

For books click on ‘media’. You can add videos and DVDs in this section too. Just click on the appropriate link.

You have the opportunity to fill in information in sections. I tend to ignore the section in which you make an actual listing, and so do not include a SKU. Instead I wait until the item has been included in the catalogue and then return to the new listing and list in the usual way.

All you do is follow the instructions relating to the product (a relatively simple procedure). You do need to ensure you add the information with a red asterisk at the side, but do not worry if you do not have all the information Amazon allows you to add some retrospectively.

For items such as books you do not have to have an ISBN, Amazon will add its own ASIN number. I usually copy this down so that once I have completed the new product listing, I can paste the ASIN into the search box and, as I said earlier, carry on with the usual listing process.

Make sure you use a quality image, and that the image size fits within Amazon’s parameters, if you do not the image will not upload.

The secret is to ensure that you put a significant amount of information concerning the product to attract buyers into the ‘key information’ boxes. For example if I were to list a book relating to sailing, I would put the writer and title of the book. I would then think of any connection to sailing or other related information that a buyer may search for. E.g. yachts, boats, sail, etc.

Here are some products for which I have created listings recently:

• Games
• Jigsaws
• DVD’s
• Books
• CD’s

Apart from the opportunity to add books etc. that you are unable to currently advertise, you can also use this section to sell totally unique products.

For example, if you produce your own product that fits within Amazon’s categories, you can add it to the catalogue and you will be the only one selling them – and so will have the whole market to yourself!

by Sharon Fussell Amazon Trading Expert Sharon Fussell is the editor of Bookseller's Profit Club and helps people to become successful Amazon pro-merchants You can sign up for her free weekly eletter here: Recent Articles by Sharon Name Email

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