How to sell on Amazon in 2025

Article content: 

1. How to start selling on Amazon and avoid mistakes.
2. How to trade on Amazon — tips for successful sales.
3. Amazon business from scratch.
4. Get a free consultation from DiFFreight.

If you opened this article, you already know why Amazon is great and want to try your hand at the marketplace. But where to start selling on Amazon, how to become a seller, what to offer customers, and how to deliver the goods? There are many questions, and today DiFFreight experts will answer them.

How to start selling on Amazon and avoid mistakes

“Selling on Amazon is easy” — this statement has misled more than one beginner in international trade, especially on such a competitive platform. There are many pitfalls at different stages:

• Account registration. The platform will make you go through verification and even an interview! During your work, it carefully monitors your IP address, blocking suspicious traffic. For the slightest violations, you can lose your account forever.
• Sales launch. High competition in the most profitable niches will not let you break through without investments in advertising. Beginners often hope to win by dumping prices, but end up only with losses.
• Logistics. Do not underestimate how much time and resources you will spend. Whether it’s delivery to Amazon FBA warehouses from partners or independent shipments via postal operators — it all adds to expenses.
• Marketplace commissions — this is how Amazon makes money. The multi-billion-dollar company’s fees are not low: businesses pay for listings, placement in search results, advertising campaigns, fulfillment, and each sale (on average 15%).
• Strict moderation. Amazon is popular among buyers partly due to its loyalty: free returns, quick dispute resolution, and compensation. But sellers face the flip side — rating drops, unreasonable bans, losses due to free returns.

And the main mistake entrepreneurs make is underestimating future expenses. Preparation for export takes about 2–4 months, and investments start from $2000 and go up to infinity. Some DiFFreight clients, even before placing goods on Amazon, “froze” $4–8 thousand.

Don’t rush to throw away your business plan for entering the international arena! You can reduce risks and costs if you prepare in advance.

How to trade on Amazon — tips for successful sales

How to organize Amazon sales to pay off in the first months:

Niche and demand analytics

Use the Helium 10 tool: keyword analysis, competitor monitoring, listing phrase search, performance tracking. Available as a browser extension and app. At the start, choose the Niche tab to study market trends and select promising products.

Choosing a business model

We wrote about this in detail in the article on how to make money on Amazon. Here, let’s focus on fulfillment options:

• FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon). The platform (for an extra fee) stores goods in its warehouses, handles preparation, and delivers to buyers. This option suits businesses that want to reduce waiting times but are not ready to rent and maintain their own warehouses in the USA or Europe.
• FBM (Fulfillment by Merchant). You organize the delivery yourself. Usually, it takes longer for buyers if you are based in Ukraine. You have full control over packaging, cost, and returns. The pros — no need to pay Amazon; the cons — lots of organization and high costs for customers.

Still, for beginners, delivery to Amazon warehouses in Europe or the USA is more profitable, even though you have to pay for it.

How to sell products on Amazon correctly

A high rating is your main goal! The platform promotes accounts with good reviews, fast shipping, and a large number of sales. The rating can grow organically, but slowly. From the very first days of your store:

• Take high-quality photos on a white background (another marketplace requirement) from all possible angles.
• Add a full description of the products: dimensions, weight, specifications. Don’t forget about the “sales” part with benefits, key phrases, and words.
• Ensure quick communication with customers.

Selling on Amazon is daily work and a constant investment of resources. Also read the article, "What Will Kill Your Sales on Amazon" to avoid losing money.

Profit calculation

While you are selling some products, you need to supply others — and so on in a cycle. But to understand whether your account on the platform brings at least some income, analyze your profit and expenses. This will help you see whether you are floating at the “survival” level or going into serious losses.

Amazon business from scratch

Ukrainian entrepreneurs actively trade on the platform. Although no one provides exact figures, we know of 60,000 (!) sellers from Ukraine on Amazon, eBay, and Etsy combined (as of December 2024).

Starting a business from scratch is an ambitious task. According to DiFFreight, the key factor of success is preparation:

1. Finding suppliers: local, Chinese, European, Turkish, etc. For branding, delivery from China to Ukraine is suitable, and other products can be shipped from China directly to the EU or the USA.
2. Creating a business plan considering initial investments, niche analysis, product selection, with deduction of commissions, fulfillment costs, and more. Even before registering an account, you should assess profitability.
3. Finding business and logistics partners. International transportation will become routine with all its challenges: from tight deadlines to import clearance at customs. You will definitely need an experienced supplier and customs broker.

Shipping Cargo from Ukraine to the USA

Get more information

Among DiFFreight’s services are delivery from Ukraine to Europe (to enter the European Amazon) and delivery from Ukraine to the USA (for the American and Canadian markets). We also work with FBA shipments, preparing your products for acceptance at the marketplace’s warehouse.

Get a free consultation from DiFFreight

Thinking about starting a business on Amazon, but don’t know where to begin? DiFFreight experts will explain in detail the nuances of cooperation — from obtaining certificates and commission rates to logistics to European countries, the USA, or Canada. We have many years of experience in international trade: enlist the support of business partners to increase your chances of success!

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