Can’t Keep Up? 5 Amazon Seller Tasks to Outsource to Free Up Your Time
Is your Amazon store not earning enough to outsource the customer service and order fulfillment tasks?
Or is your store not making as much as you want to because you won’t delegate some of your tasks?
Yes, you can start an Amazon store on your own but at some point, you have to spend money to earn more money.
Amazon stores earning big money that aren’t connected to major brands outsource many of day-to-day tasks necessary to keep their store running. Here are 4 tasks you can easily outsource to free up your time.
Amazon Seller Tasks to Outsource if You Wanna Scale to the Next Level
1. Product Research and Sourcing
Selling on Amazon isn’t just finding cheap goods you can flip for a profit. You need to make sure there’s a demand for those products, and this step involves a considerable amount of cyber sleuthing, such as:
- Using product research tools like Jungle Scout, Google Trends, or Merch Titans to search trending items
- Conducting market research and product research
- Checking competitor stores to see their best-selling items
- Reading product reviews to see if an item lives up to the hype
Once you find an item to sell, that’s when you find a good supplier, order samples, and negotiate good rates for the item and shipping.
It’s a lot of work. That’s why there are people who do this called Product Sourcing Specialists or Product Researchers. Some of them only do product research, while others can take care of finding and negotiating with suppliers, too.
Yes, it might be a hard task to delegate because each store is different, so some people find it hard to explain the kind of items they want to stock.
To make this easier, just record the criteria that made you pick 5-10 items in your store. Include details about your parameters for supplier price, product category, demand, item dimensions, perceived value, etc. Choose a variety of items so your team understands your upper and lower limits for things like pricing and weight.
2. Customer Service
While Fulfillment by Amazon or FBA has its own customer support system, experienced sellers will tell you it’s always better to have your own customer service team. You don’t want to be reliant on a team that’s not dedicated to your store anyway.
Having a customer service representative for your own store also means you can train them better on how to respond to inquiries and return or refund requests.
Remember, providing good customer support leads to better reviews and more repeat customers so don’t skimp out on this.
3. Order Fulfillment
Yes, a sale! You have different options to fulfill your order if you’re an Amazon seller:
- FBA or Fulfillment by Amazon
- Self-fulfillment where you handle everything from storing, logistics, as well as returns and exchanges
- 3rd Party Fulfillment – You handle inventory but the shipping is handled by another provider
- Dropshipping
Whatever option you choose, there’s a lot of process involved in receiving, processing, and shipping the order to your customer.
While it’s mostly data-entry work, it can still add up especially if you have tons of items in store. Your time is much too important to be wasted on repetitive tasks like this.
4. Product Listing Optimization
Amazon is a huge marketplace with tons of different products from thousands of stores. With that comes an algorithm that influences which products appear on search results or are featured in the top pages of each category. This is why your products need to be optimized with persuasive copy, great images, and the right keywords.
Parts of the listing to optimize:
- Product images
- Product title
- Descriptions
- Pictures
- Product bullet points or features
- Reviews and ratings
- Search terms or keywords
- Product sizes or variations
And that’s just a part of the list… you also have to pick the right category, answer questions about the product on the listing, provide packaging dimensions and so much more.
It’s a full-time job in itself, that’s why there are e-commerce VAs that specialize in Amazon product listing optimization.
5. Bookkeeping
A lot of Amazon sellers forget about bookkeeping, thinking that they’re profitable as long as they’re earning more than they’re spending. Unfortunately, this line of thinking can bring nasty surprises down the line, especially during tax season.
Bookkeeping is crucial for Amazon store owners because it helps them:
- Track and manage Amazon fees
- Manage returns and refunds without going in the red
- Monitor cash flow to ensure profitability
- Comply with local sales tax regulations
- Make informed decisions when buying product stocks
Scale Your Business with Amazon Virtual Assistants
There’s a saying… “As an entrepreneur, you need to be working on your business, not in your business.”
Just like it’s not as profitable for a grocery store owner to man their own cash registers, it wouldn’t be a good use of your time to do some tasks you can easily outsource for your Amazon store.
Hiring an experienced Amazon virtual assistant that specializes in the specific tasks you need can easily double the money you spend on their salary.
