Seven Amazon Growth Strategies to Quickly Scale Your FBA Business

As an FBA business owner, it’s crucial that you implement the right Amazon growth strategies in order to scale your business. Not only can the right strategies help you achieve success more quickly, but they also provide you with greater clarity and confidence as a business owner.  

In this article, we share seven proven growth strategies that are used by the most successful FBA businesses. We also offer actionable steps to help you implement these strategies in your business today.

7 Effective Growth Strategies on Amazon

Whether you’re launching your first or fiftieth product, success is never guaranteed. However, there are certain steps that can dramatically increase your chances of generating sales.

To create this list, we spoke with several industry-leading experts at Prosper Show—an expo and conference dedicated to helping Amazon sellers succeed. Here are the top seven growth strategies that we came up with:

• Hone in on advertising
• Use A+ content to index for more keywords
• Drive external traffic to your Amazon listings
• Create superior images
• Launch more products
• Get more repeat customers
• Never stock out

Become a Master at Advertising

There once was a time when you could source a private label product, throw up some generic images, and sit back and let the sales come in. With minimal competition and plenty of traffic, even rookie sellers could launch winning products without investing a dime into advertising.

Over the last several years, opportunities for FBA sellers have increased dramatically, but so has the competition. For better or worse, it’s no longer realistic to expect that your products will take off without investing in advertising. Sellers who ignore the importance of advertising will miss out on sales. Those who effectively leverage advertising can experience significant sales growth.

To set up effective advertising campaigns, one of the first steps is to do thorough keyword research. When discovering buy intent keywords, don’t just focus on the most obvious ones, even though they may have the most traffic. 

“Those who effectively leverage advertising can experience significant sales growth.”

For example, if you’re selling water bottles, don’t just bid on “water bottles” as there’s undoubtedly enormous competition for that search term. Instead, look for longtail search terms that have lower competition. Returning to the example above, perhaps consider “glass water bottles,” “water bottles for kids,” or “32-ounce water bottles.” These are just examples; you’ll want to dive much deeper for your own products. 

Once you’ve chosen keywords and launched your campaigns, it’s important to pay close attention to your ACoS. By systematically testing a variety of keywords, you can constantly refine your advertising campaigns. This allows you to quickly maximize profitability.

It’s important to note that most successful FBA sellers invest heavily in Amazon PPC. Not only does Amazon advertising drive sales directly, but it also helps you rank higher in the organic search results. For that reason, many experts believe that sellers should pay attention to total sales when measuring ROI, as compared to direct advertising sales. 

Of course, Seller Central and Vendor Central make it easy to manage advertising.

Use A+ Content to Index for More Keywords

Most sellers know that A+ Enhanced Brand Content can be used to showcase product features and increase conversion rates. However, a lot of sellers aren’t aware that A+ content plays another critical role: indexing.

According to leading Amazon expert, Steven Pope from My Amazon Guy, A+ content represents an excellent opportunity to index for more high-value search terms. In other words, by including additional search terms (up to 500 of them) in your A+ content, you can appear in Amazon’s organic search results for more queries. This provides you with additional opportunities to drive more organic traffic and sales. 

“A+ content represents an excellent opportunity to index for more high-value search terms.”

Drive External Traffic to Your Amazon Listings

Between Amazon PPC and Amazon SEO, many sellers are able to generate significant traffic to their product listings. However, it’s important to remember that many customers are looking around off of the Amazon platform.

Utilizing ‘Non-Amazon’ traffic sources such as Facebook ads can be a strategic move in any Amazon growth strategy. For many sellers, the process of honing in on external traffic can require some experimentation. To figure out what works for your business, it can be effective to test ads on various social media platforms. Additionally, it’s wise to try content marketing and establish affiliate relationships.

Each product is slightly different, but the principles of driving traffic are pretty constant. Figure out where your ideal customers hang out, and then find a way to get in front of them. 

Create Superior Images

Driving traffic is one part of the sales equation, and the other is ensuring that customers make purchases once they land on your product pages. According to Matthew Atkins from Canopy Management, sellers should be intently focused on optimizing their conversion rates. Of course, providing high-quality images is an important part of that process.

It’s widely accepted that images are the most crucial factor that drives conversions. In fact, it’s believed that up to 70% of all Amazon shoppers make their purchasing decisions based on images alone. 

Given the importance of images, it’s wise to invest in high-quality photography and image creation. Once you have a set of images for a new product you’re launching, don’t just rely on your gut when choosing which ones to use. Like advertising, be sure to test your images in order to optimize your product pages and conversion rate. The higher your conversion rate, the higher your ROI and profit will be. 

“It’s widely accepted that images are the most crucial factor that drives conversions.”

Launch More Products

Launching more products is a great way to help scale your Ecommerce business. In addition to creating revenue growth, a diverse selection of products also minimizes risks in your FBA business. Instead of relying on just one or two “hero” products for a business’s success, a wide variety of products allows you to enjoy greater stability. 

When launching new products, many sellers seek to offer products that compliment your existing products. Not only can new products increase revenue, but they can also strengthen your Amazon brand store. And as in most things, the product development and launch process become significantly easier once you have experience under your belt.

Launching new products can be an intensive growth strategy because it requires ongoing investment and management. However, it also can deliver relatively predictable results.

Get More Repeat Customers

As an Amazon seller, you’ve put a lot of energy into driving sales, so shouldn’t you try to maximize the value of new customers?

Getting more repeat customers is a great way for many FBA businesses to grow. If you can turn one sale into five, you can often spend more to generate sales while enjoying a higher profit margin. 

For some products, Amazon’s ‘subscribe and save’ program is a great way to incentivize customers to make repeat sales. As the term implies, with the program customers can get a discount by subscribing to receive your product each period. 

“Getting more repeat customers is a great way for many FBA businesses to grow.”

Of course, one of the very best ways to earn repeat customers is to provide unique products that customers love! If you can deliver great products that other sellers aren’t offering, many customers will buy more from you.

Never Stock Out

You’ve invested significant time and energy into creating high-converting product pages and getting customers to your listings. Therefore, anytime someone lands on one of your product pages and is unable to make a purchase, you’re essentially leaving money on the table.

While many don’t consider inventory and supply chain management a “growth strategy,” it’s indeed an important part of growth. If you’re stocking out and missing sales, not only will your revenue take a hit, but the health of your listing can also suffer. In short, if you want to grow your FBA business, you should try to never stock out.

The experts agree that effective cash flow management is essential when it comes to growing your Amazon FBA business. Therefore, make it a priority to establish consistent and reliable bookkeeping practices early on. The sooner you start tracking your financials (on an accrual basis!), the sooner you can make data-informed decisions that allow you to scale. 

For some businesses, it may be helpful to establish an Amazon business line of credit to fund purchases. 

“Make it a priority to establish consistent and reliable bookkeeping practices early on.”

Benefits of Having an Amazon Growth Strategy

During the startup grind, it can be easy to jump from one idea to the next without a clear, long-term game plan for your business. Too often, owners are preoccupied with putting out fires rather than implementing effective processes and growth strategies. However, such an approach can lead to confusion and slower growth.

There are a few key reasons why it’s important to implement a clear Amazon growth strategy when scaling your FBA business. 

• Gain clarity
• Generate more revenue and profit
• Increase the value of your business

Gain Greater Clarity in Your Amazon FBA Business

When you establish a clear strategy for growing your business, it becomes significantly easier to make smart decisions and execute quickly. Instead of using guesswork which leads to inconsistent outcomes, you can follow proven strategies that lead to steady growth for your Amazon store. 

“When you establish a clear strategy for growing your business, it becomes significantly easier to make smart decisions and execute quickly.”

Having a clear growth strategy also frees up valuable time and attention. You develop clear systems for developing, launching, and scaling new products, you can remove yourself from much of the day-to-day grind. This allows you to focus on new avenues for growth, or simply dedicate more time to activities in your personal life.

Generate More Revenue and Profit

Of course, an effective growth strategy in the Amazon marketplace leads to increased revenue and profit. With increased earnings, you’re able to reinvest in further growth activities, leading to compounding growth in your business.

When your business grows beyond a certain point, it becomes much easier to divest your profits into other ventures or to cover larger personal expenses. After all, generating income that you can spend in your personal life is one of the principal reasons many FBA owners get started with Amazon selling in the first place. 

Add Value to Your Business

Not surprisingly, investors are willing to spend more to acquire larger Amazon seller accounts. By following a proven growth strategy and increasing your business’s revenue, your FBA brand becomes more valuable in the acquisition marketplace. 

“If you can demonstrate that your Amazon FBA business has a clear roadmap for ongoing growth, buyers will be willing to pay a higher multiple”

In addition to establishing a proven history of growth, buyers look at a business’s prospects for future growth. If you can demonstrate that your Amazon FBA business has a clear roadmap for ongoing growth, buyers will be willing to pay a higher multiple when you’re trying to sell your Amazon business. 

Factors that May Affect Your Amazon Growth Strategy

While a lot of Ecommerce growth strategies can be employed by many Amazon sellers, there are still a few key factors that can determine which specific strategies are best for your individual business. These include:

• What stage you’re at
• Your budget
• Your results

It’s important to consider what stage your business is at when choosing FBA growth strategies. One reason is that newer businesses may want to consolidate their marketing efforts in fewer places. For example, a new business might choose to gain traction with Amazon PPC before dedicating effort off of Amazon.

Additionally, your budget plays an obvious role in determining your Ecommerce marketing strategy. If your FBA brand is at an early stage and you’re limited on funds, you’re likely to focus on just a few products and a more conservative advertising approach. On the other hand, if you have more funds to work with, you can choose to launch many products at one time with higher ad budgets. Just as it’s important to look carefully at both FBA and FBM when choosing a fulfillment method, your growth strategies deserve the same level of attention.

Of course, your measured results are another key factor to consider. Like in all businesses, it’s important to look at the data to determine which growth activities are generating the greatest ROI. By tracking key metrics and optimizing accordingly, you can continually hone in on an Amazon growth strategy that helps you achieve success. Amazon certainly does this by paying attention to its key metrics, including its financial ratios.

Creating your Amazon growth strategy

There are a lot of possible growth strategies out there, so Amazon brand owners need to think carefully about which they want to implement. In general, to craft your strategy, it’s wise to follow a systematic approach. 

A few simple steps to take in order to establish an effective Amazon growth strategy include:

• Establish your budget
• Choose activities to focus on
• Set goals
• Track and refine

By establishing a reasonable budget, controlling the buy box, delivering great customer service, focusing on high-leverage activities, and setting meaningful goals, you’ll be well on your way to growing your Amazon FBA business. Once you start gathering data, you can eliminate ineffective strategies and double down on the activities that are generating the greatest results. 

It’s important to remember that your growth strategy is always a work in process. Over time, it will evolve and mature, just like the business you’re building.