How to Create an Amazon Storefront

With more than 300 million active customers, Amazon offers a compelling e-commerce solution for your brand if you’re trying to expand your business online. Not only can you become an Amazon seller, but you can also set up what’s called an Amazon Storefront to get more visibility for your brand.

Many businesses use an Amazon Storefront to supplement sales on their own websites and to reach millions of potential customers that might not otherwise find their brands online.

Interested in seeing what this feature could do to boost your sales? Here’s your guide to creating an Amazon Storefront in six simple steps, plus bonus tips to help you maximize your efforts.

What is an Amazon Storefront?

Before we dive into how to set up shop on Amazon, let’s look at what an Amazon Storefront is.

An Amazon Storefront is a page within Amazon where you can display the products you’re selling through Amazon. It includes your branding, logo, and products. You can customize the look or promote products you want to sell more of, or highlight sales and discounts.

Why Create an Amazon Storefront?

So why should you consider taking on more work than you already have and add an Amazon Storefront to your sales mix?

First of all, it can help your products stand out rather than get lost in the sea of competitors selling on Amazon. Shoppers can click from one of your product pages to view your entire store, which is helpful because they might want to buy more than one of your products.

Also, if you aren’t already selling online, selling through Amazon removes the hassle of setting up separate credit card payment processing services and creating a website for e-commerce. Amazon offers many tools to help sellers, so you’re not alone in the process of becoming an e-commerce business.

Important to note: as an Amazon seller, you will pay Amazon fees, including monthly subscription fees, selling fees, shipping, and others. For many, it’s worth paying these fees to boost sales with such a large audience.

Now let’s look at what you need to do to create your Amazon Storefront (sometimes referred to below as a “Storefront”).

Step 1: Create an Amazon Seller Account

You don’t have to have a Storefront to sell on Amazon, but you do have to have a Seller Account. And you’ll also need a Seller Account to create your Storefront.

When you fill out the application for your Seller Account, you’ll be asked a few details about your business and your bank account so Amazon can send you money when you make sales.

You’ll have to choose a selling plan. If you think you’ll sell fewer than 40 products per month or are just experimenting, start with the Individual plan. You can always upgrade to the Professional plan later.

Step 2: Get Your Branding Ready

You likely already have a logo and branding images, but you’ll want to invest time and resources into getting them ready for Amazon. There are asset requirements, such as image size, layout, et cetera, that you’ll need to adhere to. Consider making special banners for products you want to promote on your Storefront. These should be changed regularly to reflect ever-changing promotions.

Also, if you don’t already have high-quality product images, now is a good time to get those taken care of.

Step 3: Join Amazon’s Brand Registry

Now you’ll want to protect your brand and intellectual property through the Brand Registry. You’ll need to provide your logo and information on any trademarks or intellectual property rights you have for your branding.

Step 4: Stock Your Virtual Shelves

Before you create your Storefront, you’ll need products on your virtual shelves! Since you already have your product images, you’ll need to upload them, as well as product descriptions and prices. If you have hundreds of products, there are services that can help you with the upload process.

Step 5: Set Up Your Store

In Seller Central, the tool you’ll use to manage all things Amazon, you can create a store and a Storefront homepage. You can decide which products you want to be featured on the homepage, and you can organize products by category.

Amazon lets you have control over the design of your homepage, so have fun making it shine. Again, if design isn’t your strong suit, you can hire a designer who has expertise in creating Amazon Storefronts that will get shoppers to pay attention and buy.

Step 6: Submit Your Store for Review

Amazon will, of course, want to review your hard work, which it will do within 24 hours of you submitting your Storefront. After that, you’re up and running!

Tips to Maximize Your Amazon Storefront

Keep in mind that this isn’t a “set it and forget it” selling opportunity. Amazon has provided a plethora of tools to help you maximize sales, including guides and webinars on preparing for Prime Day, setting up your advertising strategy, and how to maintain customer loyalty.

Keep an eye on stats for your homepage and products (just like you’d regularly review your business’ financials), and change out graphics to reflect current promotions or seasonal products. 

Also, pay attention to customer reviews because they weigh heavily in the purchase decision for Amazon customers. If you see negative reviews, respond to them and work to resolve the issue by offering a replacement or a refund. Consider also sending an automated email after a purchase encouraging customers to leave a review so that you rise organically in search results on Amazon.

Here are more tips to help you succeed with your Amazon Storefront.

Invest in Advertising

There are several advertising options available to help you get more visibility to your products and your storefront, including Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands, as well as display, video, and personal ads. Determine your advertising budget and keep an eye on results to make sure you’re getting a sufficient return on your investment.

You can also offer customers coupons that are automatically applied at checkout to boost sales.

Check Out Other Amazon Features

Interested in going global? Amazon offers you the opportunity to expand your reach through Amazon Global Selling, which reaches customers in North America, Europe, and Asia.

When it comes to fulfilling orders, you have the option to do so yourself or to use Fulfillment by Amazon. All you have to do is ship products to an Amazon warehouse, and they’ll handle fulfilling your orders. A major benefit to this service is that your products will then be eligible for Prime shipping, which is often a deciding factor for shoppers when buying products on Amazon. Another perk is not having to stock inventory and fulfill orders yourself.

And Amazon has a feature called Tailored Marketing that allows sellers to send customers and followers marketing emails. This can be a great strategy for attracting repeat business and building loyal customers.

Is an Amazon Storefront Right for Your Business?

Amazon offers a compelling way to get your products in front of a giant audience, but keep in mind that oftentimes, sellers have to compete on price. Your profit margins may see a dip after you lower prices and give Amazon its cut.

Speaking of competition, it can be fierce on Amazon. Unless you have a truly unique product, you may have dozens of other companies selling similar products. You’ll need to be on top of your customer service and product quality game to stand out. Even a couple of negative reviews could keep you from thriving on Amazon, so be sure to monitor reviews and amend any issues customers complain about.

Additionally, you’ll need to track inventory management for both Amazon and your website sales since the two won’t be able to integrate. 

Still, if boosting brand awareness is a key objective, then opening a Storefront on Amazon could be a good way to reach that goal. Millions of people around the world trust Amazon because of its customer-friendly return policy and fast Prime shipping, so you can take advantage of these perks to expand your business globally.