How beauty and wellbeing businesses can increase their Amazon orders

Amazon has a huge demand for beauty and wellbeing products. But you need to work hard to stand out on the marketplace.

We've looked at the basic things that will improve your listing ahead of Enterprise Nation's beauty and wellbeing boot camp for Amazon sellers.

Start with what makes you different

Starting with what makes your beauty or wellbeing product special will help you cut through on Amazon. What makes your business better than the competition? What's your unique sales proposition (USP)?

"You have to be ruthless about what the point of difference is with other people in the market," said Sales Untangled founder Martin Knowles.

It comes back to the basics of marketing. Who's going to buy your products? What problem are you trying to solve? What feeling do you want to give customers?

Customer personas capture details about your customers, such as their age, preferred communication channels and challenges (read a guide on creating personas). Thinking about your USP and customer personas will help you refine your listing.

Martin added that new brands should spend time browsing Amazon and looking at the market positioning of related products.

Successful entrepreneur Sam Farmer is speaking at Enterprise Nation's Amazon bootcamps. The product description for his brand's Complete Teenage Skincare Gift Set focuses on being a "complete solution" and mentions it's a "perfect gift set for teenagers who want results without being patronised". The customer persona could be a parent who doesn't want to have to buy lots of separate products.

Learning from customer feedback and tweaking listings

Amazon reviews help beauty and wellbeing businesses understand how to develop their products and marketing.

"As a start-up brand, it's a great place to gain credibility and start building sales. We've also found it very useful for getting consumer feedback because people are pretty honest in their reviews," said Scrubbington's co-founder Emma Cranstoun.

The business benefits from being able to list products within 24 hours and get immediate feedback. This contrasts with large retailers that can take six months or more.

The importance of photography and video

Wellness products rely on the senses, whether it's the smell, the wrapping or making yourself feel better. Great photos are essential and video offers another way to stand out.

Creating Amazon photography for beauty and wellbeing businesses

Amazon has a set of specifications for product photos. Once you've read those, there are a number of things you can do to improve the quality.

1. If you can't get hold of proper lighting, make sure your product's facing a window. Photo shoots outside work too, just make sure there's no glare.

2. Use a tripod.

3. Adjust the focus and exposure settings on your camera to improve the clarity.

JungleScout has a great guide on DIY Amazon product photos.

Creating Amazon videos for beauty and wellbeing businesses

Having a video in your product listing can be game changing.

Amazon expert Stu Conroy, who runs Activ8, said they've seen sales grow a lot faster for listings that have videos, particularly those that explain a product's point of difference.

Webretailer has a useful guide on creating an Amazon video.

Off platform marketing plays a key role

Building your community and brand awareness off Amazon is crucial to selling on the platform.

"Everyone loves buying through Prime and Amazon," said Formula Botanica CEO Lorraine Dallmeier. "You're going to have to do a large amount of work outside of Amazon just like any other retail partner. You can't expect people just to stumble across you."

Formula Botanica provides training to natural skincare businesses. Lorraine shared her thoughts on how to grow a successful beauty and wellbeing brand on a recent Lunch and Learn. You can watch the 30-minute video here.

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