Everything You Need to Know About How to Launch a Product on Amazon

Amazon is home to more than 2.5 million sellers. These days, selling your products on Amazon means competing with other merchants who are already offering the same or similar items. Regardless of what niche you choose, be warned: you’re walking into a highly competitive landscape. 

In the face of fierce competition, setting your product apart from your competitors is all-important. There’s no better time to do that than during your product launch. If you’re looking for decent sales, making sure your Amazon product launch is successful in attracting and holding the attention of shoppers should be your number one priority. 

Whether you’re new to Amazon advertising or you’re a seasoned seller, getting started on Amazon is tricky. For a product to sell, it needs to rank high. The further away an item is from the top of the search results page, the less likely it is to sell. 

Here’s the issue: for a product to rank high, it needs to sell. The solution? You need to generate sales while boosting your rank at the same time. Not sure how to pull that off? We’ve got you covered.

The Best Way to Launch a New Product on Amazon

We’ve broken the process down into a few simple steps. Let’s jump right in. 

1. Wait! Make sure your product listing page is ready to go.  

Before digging deep into the launch process, we need to make sure that your product listing is optimized and ready to go live whenever you are. Can your product listing page successfully persuade shoppers to purchase your product? If you aren’t sure, ask yourself the following questions: 

• Are you using high-quality images? Capture your product from different angles. Try using a neutral background to avoid crowded photos. 
• Is your description informative? Once your pictures snag a potential customer’s attention, your description has to hold it. Describe your product’s features with rich, compelling language. Make sure to explain why your product has a leg up over what competitors have to offer. 
• Have you nailed the keywords? Do your keywords reflect what customers search for? Check out what the common keywords are by taking a peek at competitors’ listings. 

2. Reviews, reviews, reviews.

Would you buy a product that doesn’t have a single review? The truth is, a product without any ratings or reviews seems suspicious. When deciding whether or not to make a purchase, customers almost always look to the opinions of others who have gone down the same road. 

As your first few sales trickle in, try to convince your customers to leave a review. Consider attaching a review request to your packages or shooting your customers an email. Striving for exceptional customer service and making sure your products meet industry standards are both excellent strategies for garnering reviews (and good ones at that!).  

We recommend joining the Amazon Early Reviewer Program if you want Amazon to do the work for you. Whenever someone purchases your product, Amazon will reach out to them, asking them to leave a review for your product in exchange for a gift card. Any customer with a history of abusive or dishonest reviews is excluded from the Program. 

While it might be tempting to find a way around Amazon’s ToS to boost your sales, we recommend avoiding such workarounds. You won’t trick the algorithm, and the only reward you’ll earn is an account suspension. Keep your reviews legitimate. 

3. Create a buzz on social media. 

Putting your product under the spotlight of social media can jumpstart your sales. Try the following on for size:

• Make posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Pair the most attention-grabbing photos of your product with your most compelling captions, then spread the news online. 
• Be creative. Don’t be afraid to use humor in your posts.  
• Create blog posts. Blogging gives you more room than other forms of social media to describe your product in its entirety (features, applications, benefits—you name it). 
• Give discounts and promotions. People love saving money. Discounts and promotions go a long way in driving sales. Use social media to spread the word about your limited-time offers. 

Amazon Product Launch Checklist

Here’s a list of questions you should be asking yourself before, during, and after your Amazon product launch. 

• Do you have a winning product? Put yourself in the customer’s shoes. Are you offering something bigger and better than what’s already on the market? Are you sure that your product will resonate with its target audience? Launching a product without performing market research beforehand is never a good idea. 
• Do you have a unique selling point? Describe your target audience and their needs. What needs does your product satisfy? What problems does it solve? Pinpoint the most distinctive benefits of your product and start from there. 
• Are you equipped to fulfill orders? Are you prepared for an influx of orders? Do you have enough inventory? 
• Is your team ready for a product launch campaign? Have team members available to answer customers’ questions, provide demonstrations, and spread the word about your product. 
• What worked best during your launch? What was less than successful? Analyze the performance of your Amazon product launch and put that information to use in your next launch. 

Hacks for Launching a Product on Amazon

Looking to gain a little more traction? Consider using an Amazon PPC ad campaign to support your product launch. Sponsored Product ads are one of the most powerful marketing tools Amazon advertisers have at their disposal. PPC ads boost your product’s rankings, visibility, and sales in your product’s early days on Amazon. 

While your initial PPC efforts should be strong, make sure your campaigns are optimized to avoid spending money on ads that aren’t as effective as they can be. Understanding the ins and outs of PPC ads can help you run a successful campaign.  

Keep in mind that products with no reviews are considerably less likely to generate sales—make sure your products have at least three reviews before launching PPC ads. You don’t want to pay for traffic that doesn’t end in a purchase. 

Why Continuous Optimization Is the Answer

Once you get the show on the road, you want to keep track of your performance on a regular basis and tailor your marketing efforts as you go along. 

Amazon provides sellers with access to a marketplace where they can build a profitable business. But like any business—improvement should be an ongoing process. 

You should focus on continuously optimizing your marketplace listings and PPC ads to drive more conversions and reduce your costs. 

Are you looking for an easier way to optimize your Amazon PPC ads and marketing campaigns? RevenueWize has created an all-in-one Amazon PPC optimization platform to help you generate actionable insights, assess and tune your keywords, and much more.

Sign up today to get started with our Amazon optimization platform, and see why sellers love using RevenueWize.