What do I need to get done on the creative side? These are the steps you need to get done, in order.

Here is your checklist to get on Amazon:

You've developed a great product.

Now you need to SELL it.

My creative team amazingcreative.io ​can handle your graphic design & copywriting needs. We build out your product pages and storefront.

Have you gotten professional branding done yet? This means logo, packaging, brand voice, positioning, website, etc.

Make sure to invest in professional branding.

Good branding is essential for long-term success – on Amazon, and on any platform.

If you need branding, I can make a recommendation based on your needs and budget.

What is branding? Here are some examples of great branding:

You will want to invest in the best professional photoshoot (and video) that you can get with your budget. Good photography is the bedrock of a great listing. Yes, you will also use 3D renderings, but you will want real-life photos as well.

Here are some photography agencies specializing in the health & wellness / supplements space.

Soona.co offers the "Amazon A+ Content Premium Pack" for only around $1000. It's a good option. It includes 6 photos and a 30-second video, in a kitchen setting with a model.

Another good option is Micromercial. I used them before for my product's lifestyle photos + video. They can shoot in a modern kitchen setting. Their kitchen photoshoot + video package is around $2k.

How high you rank is basically a factore of how well you convert, and how many units you've sold in the past 180-days. So that's why you want to push hard for sales in the first 6 months.

What to know when launching your supplements company on Amazon – best strategies, tips & tricks, things to avoid.

About Us: Riley Bennett Ryan Logan – Having worked with tons of supplements companies, we've seen what it takes to be successful. We write this guide to help you know the reality of what to expect, what it takes, and how to maximize chances of success.

Think about the first 1-2 years as building your store. The best launch strategy is to aim for a breakeven point for year 1. If you hit that, you're in a good spot. Many Amazon brands, and especially supplements brands, are not profitable in year 1. This is also true with most startup businesses. This is because aggressive pricing, promotinos & PPC is needed to secure a position on page 1, and to build up reviews to a point where it's comparable with competitors.

Launch to growth: think 1-2 years and probably around $100,000 of ad spend as the deepest point of an S-Curve.

The goal is to find the products that will do the best for your brand on Amazon and then to scale and grow year over year data.

Typically ¼ or 1/5 products will actually get traction.

Subscribe & Save (also referred to as S&S, SnS, or SNS) is an important part of successfully selling supplements on Amazon. Here are some things to know.

This chart above shows the growing # of subscribers YoY.

There are inventory limite new launched products and brands with no sell through data (this gets unlocked as your account shows good inventory management.)

Ideally you are shooting for the top 10-20 organic placements. Even if you get some good market share out the gate, Amazon sees it as mere drops in the ocean compared to the bigger brands. It takes time to show Amazon that you have an audience here and you can actually compete.

The cost of testing out the top placement advertisements and getting volume of sales here - AKA advertising funds at an obvious short term loss without knowing repurchase rate yet.

The supplement space is very trendy and can be changed almost over night by the right influencer and celebrity trends and “new secrets”.

Many times influencers will wait to pick up a product until they themselves see that it works for them and that it helps a variety, or specialty group of people. Amazon reviews do help them understand what their audience can come to expect. Offer a 20-30% commission minimum.

Influencers for UGC videos and photos. The goal is to get video content that you can splice together for video or display ads.

Here are the strategies to either overcome or embrace these challenges (Since obviously some of these are not able to be broken through but absorbed as part of the experience to scale)

What type of a brand do you want to be?

What type of price do you want to be?

Do you have a way of differentiating?

Price, count, size - These should reflect your strategy and your brand.

COGS - You need to recognize that your COGS will get better with bigger and bigger orders. Don’t lose sight of what your at-scale COGS will be when sales are low. If you can eventually get to volume you can recoup costs then or on future purchases.

Think of of you # of reviews, and star rating as a reference to the customer experience and social proof.

We are all about review strategies and even giveaways being used to increase review count, but not to change the ratio of the ratings (This is important!!!). Yes, some reviews are fake from competitors or from the person that no one can ever please. But over time you will get enough feedback to understand that your audience is getting the right experience or if your formulation needs to be changed.

Have a review system in place for getting more reviews if possible (we use Helium10), but you must not incentivize a review manipulation until we are sure that feedback is spot on. After that, I believe there is nothing ethically wrong with increasing reviews using alternative strategies so long as the customer experience is the same as that received by the organic reviews.

Amazon search volume has a cap. To scale a product beyond, you'll need external traffic sources.

Here are some bullet points that we frequently discuss with supplement companies in terms of what to expect going into Amazon.

I get asked this a lot, so here the napkin math.

Product Research & Development

This is the most important step. Make sure you do proper research & development. This is where the money is made. Costs for this vary depending on if you're doing it yourself or outsourcing it. Think around $10k-50k.

Inventory Costs

This ranges a lot depending on the product and how many units you order. For most products under $50 retail, you'll want to start out with 1000-5000 units. In terms of cost for your first order, think 5k at a very minimum, more realistically 10-50k, including packaging.

Branding

If you want to compete with top brands, you'll want to invest in a premium Branding Agency to make your brand look like a Million Dollar Brand. What is branding? Logo, brand name, product name(s), color scheme, fonts, look & feel, brand identity, customer avatar, packaging design, etc. Think around 3k a minimum, and ideally invest in the most expensie branding agency you can afford - because the more amazing your branding is, the more customers will buy!

Professional E-Com Branding Agencies typically range from 5-20k depending on the package. This is a no-brainer one-time upfront investment that is a killer ROI – good branding from the get-go is something that will reap rewards for 10+ years. At Amazing Creative, we are offering Compelte Branding Packages for select brands.

Photoshoot

Your photoshoot will be the bedrock of your brand, your Amazon pages, and your website – for years to come. If you want to be a Million Dollar Brand, think around 3-5k for a photoshoot. Ask for a recommendation.

Videos

You already know that videos are extremely important in e-commerce. You'll want to get 3 kinds of videos from the jump.

Shopify Website

You should get a professionally designed Shopify website. Think around 3k at a minimum. If you want to look like a Million Dollar Brand, think 5-20k to have your Shopify created by a professional Shopify Design Agency. This could be the same agency as your branding agency.

Amazon Product Page

If you want to outsell your comeptitors, on Amazon, don't you think that your listing should look as good or better than theirs? Yes. So make sure you get your product pages written and designed by an Amazon expert to ensure your pages look like you're a Million Dollar brand.

A common mistake I see is when brands spend 50K on startup costs then spend $1000 to someone on Fiverr to design their Amazon page. Big mistake! When it comes to products page design, remember this mantra: "Cheap is expensive, and expensive is cheap!"

This is becayse for every 1% improvement in CVR, you'll make an extra $10,000 per year, for example. So by investing in a Million Dollar Page will easily pay for itself because it will convert much higher for years to come. At Amazing Creative we specialize in desiging high-convering Premium A+ product pages. Or as I call them, "Conversion Pages".

Think around 3k per product page for a professional designer. Whoever you choose, here are some questions to ask your designer: Do they specialize in Amazon? Are they a copywriter, or just a graphic desinger? Make sure the copy, headlines, and infographics are written a professional copywriter! This is arguable more important than the visuals! They must know how to SELL the product, and the exact sales pitch that you're going for. On Amazon, a USP-based sales pitch converts best – focusing on your Unique features/benefits, and how you are different from your closest 3-5 competitors.

Amazon Storefront

Your Amazon Storefront is like your second website. Make sure it looks like a millinon bucks. Think around 3k. This should be done by the same expert/agency designing your product pages.

Amazon Management Agency

If you want to outsource the management of your store (Setup, PPC, SEO, Seller Central, Inventory etc). If you want a US-based agency, most good agencies charge around 2.5-5k/mo for ongoing management.

Here are some questions to consider when shopping for an Amazon agency: Are consulting calls included and how often exactly? Who is my account manager, are they US-based? Is creative included in the management fee or is it per-project? (I've seen that when an agency offers free unlimited creative it's usually done by a Junior graphic designer and is very mediocre, so I don't recommend that). Do they charge a percentage of revenue/profit/adpsend? How many clients does the account manager have?

Amazon PPC Ads

We typically start at $100/day and adjust from there. This varies a lot based on keyword competition. Breaking even on ads can take 6-12 months. Think around 3-5k/mo per product that you want to push. That's around 20k-60k set aside for advertising.

The Best Amazon Launch Strategy

Is shooting for a breakeven point for year 1. If you hit that, you’re in a pretty good spot.

Below are some budget examples of what I consider to be the absolute minimum budget, a good budget, and a better budget. Like any business, the more startup capital you have, the greater your chances of success.

FREE Supp Launch Budget Calculator. Make a copy and play around with it.

Subscribe & Save coupons! They are our favorite marketing feature since Subscribe & Save came out!

These are a huge opportunity for sellers. These coupons give shoppers an additional discount on their FIRST eligible S&S order.

This hack is similar to the Subscribe & Save discount hack, but instead you are using a Subscribe & Save Coupon. Try this out when you want to push for rank!

Add a Subscribe & Save call to action image in the gallery images and A+ content! Below is a good example from our client. Make sure it’s large and glanceable.

Pro tip: You can also mention the S&S discount in your videos – but don’t mention a specific amount in videos because that can change.

Say something like “and you can get an amazingly sweet deal via Subscribe & Save on Amazon! Just click order Subscribe & Save!

When you see a review that is legitimately fraudulent or fake for any reason, you can submit a case to try to get it removed. It doesn’t always work, but there are some tips & tricks to maximize your chances.

There are multiple steps, so I'll leave a link below to our full SOP on how to remove negative reviews: SOP | How to Remove Negative Product Reviews on Amazon

This simple hack can boost profits by 10% overnight.

It's simple: For your your best selling products, try adding a 2-pack variation option.

Often shoppers like to buy 2-packs if it’s a good deal, price-wise. Often you can offer a 2-pack for a good deal because of shipping cost savings. Many savvy Amazon brands are doing this.

Benefits:

At the end of the day, by having the 2-pack option, about 10-20% of shoppers will choose this option, and you will end up having higher revenues, and higher profits.

How to: You’ll need to create a fresh ASIN Variation for the 2-pack. Your warehouse will need to package 2 units into a 2-pack and ship it to FBA that way. This can be done by simply putting 2 units into a larger box or poly bag and shipping it in that way.

Pro-tip: Test different price points and keep what’s makes sense (as always).

This is a hack to get more than the maximum 30 Vine reviews if you are launching a product with multiple variations.

Step 1) Keep the variations separate at launch. Enroll each one in 10, 20 or 30 Vine reviews.

Step 2) Wait for the all of the reviews to come in. This can take 2-6 weeks.

Step 3) Combine the variations into one parent family. Boom! Now you have more than 30 Vine reviews under the parent.

Try this out when you want to boost sales & rank. Activate a sale price and a coupon on at the same time. Now you have a red badge and a green badge simultaneously – this catches attention and gets more clicks.

Try this hack to revive sales for slow-moving products, and/or when to pushing for rank.

Start with a low discount like 10% and increase it every 1-2 weeks – monitor results and rank. You need to start with the low discount because coupons need to be the lowest price in 30-days to work. As always, Amazon changes these rules from time to time, so look up the latest info.

Here is a schedule framework to follow:

This is a hack to unlock Premium A+ content, which allows you to add video modules.

Make sure Brand Story is activated for all ASINs (if you don’t have this yet, just whip up a temporary basic one). You must be Brand Registered for this, of course.

The second requirement is you need to have sure you have "at least 5 regular A+ content approvals in the last 12 months."

Here's the hack around this.

Step 1) Just make a tiny change on one A+ content listing (e.g. add an extra space somewhere) and then submit it for approval.

Step 2) Duplicate & make a small change on that version

Step 3) Repeat the same process 4 times.

Step 4) Come back in 7 days, and there should be a button inviting you to create Premium A+ Content!

This is basically a new A+ module where you can compare your own products, and it shows the price review rating summary and add to cart.

Step 1: Go to Premium A+ → Edit

Step 2: Add a Shoppable Comparison Chart Module

Step 3: Add your other products.

Step 4: Add relevant information in the table that would make sense!

Use Huel as a good example

Use Helium 10 Inventory Management tool. It’s easier to use than Seller Central. Just set your lead time for each product and it alerts you when to order more, and how much. That being said, make sure you double check everything yourself and think about seasonality. Inventory is a very important part of your business so don’t rely 100% on software. It’s just a tool to make your life easier.

Adding a comparison chart can significantly improve CVR. Remember, Amazon is a comparison shopping platform. This is one of the most common low-hanging fruit things that I recommend to brands all the time, in terms of how to improve conversion rate overnight.

Tips & tricks

The below examples do a good job of showing the difference.

I got you! I made the ultimate DIY bundle with all my Templates, SOPs, Playbooks, Timelines, Speadsheets & more

Are you searching for your next profitable product? Would you like to know the 1000 fastest growing supplements search terms on Amazon? Well I did the research for you and put together a spreadsheet of exactly this. This sheet will save you countless hours of research. The data is current. You can have instant access to my Google Sheet for a very low price.

How long will it take to be profitable?

What kind of investment will I need?

How many units will I need?

What is the market size potential?

What should I expect in terms of CPCs?

How long should I expect until I turn a profit?

How much do I need to invest in Amazon Ads?

What should I know before developing a new product?

Wondering what you need to get approved for selling in the dietary supplements category on Amazon? Below are the steps.

Here's what you'll need to create the product

With the above info, you should be able to save the product with temporary info. Then, you will get a nofication to provide further information for category approval.

After adding the products, you will be prompted to provide approval documents.

You will need to provide the following documents for each supplement product you want to sell. Prepare these things ASAP ahead of time because testing takes time.

Amazon now requires that you go through Eurofins or NSF for COA testing – and this is done through Seller Central. Get this proces started ASAP because it can take a while. Here's how.

Go to the Manage Your Compliance Dashboard: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/spx/myc/dashboard

Click Request Lab Service → Select Lab → Submit Request.

Follow the instructions to correspond with the lab for the testing process.

They will reach out to you to initiate testing. You are responsible for working directly with the third party testing and certification organization company.

You are responsible for all costs

Here's the compliance policy video directly from Amazon (New April 2024)

When testing is done, you'll see the results in Manage My Compliance.

"If you fail to complete testing, listings may be removed."

Eurofins: Specializes in comprehensive testing across various sectors, including food and dietary supplements. Known for its broad suite of testing services, it emphasizes on nutritional analysis, safety testing, and regulatory compliance.

NSF: Focuses on public health and safety with a strong presence in food and water safety standards. Offers product testing, certification, and develops standards to protect the environment and consumer health, especially noted for its commitment to public health.

UL Solutions: Stresses product safety and compliance, providing quality assurance solutions, regulatory compliance testing, and global market access programs. It supports meeting global standards, including U.S., Japanese, and European regulations, for a wide range of industries.

This is a Legal and Regulatory Compliance Checklist and best practices for Supplement Sellers on Amazon.

Here is a more detailed article on FBA labeling requirements.

Amazon comes down to Traffic, Conversion, Systems & Strategy. This map visualizes all of the components you need in your business.

FREE Download

If you want to be top 1% on Amazon, you need to have an optimization checklist to go over every single aspect of our business. This is our checklist and we use it to optimize your business.

I started as an Amazon sellers in 2014 and formed Amazing Marketing Co. in 2018 by popular demand.

We are a full-service done-for-you Amazon Store Growth Agency. We are a team of 5 in the US and 10 worldwide.

I’ve spoken at 3 conferences about Amazon Launch Strategy and I also run a YouTube tutorial channel called Riley Bennett Amazon.

We have worked with 300+ brands and we are rated Excellent on Trustpilot.

Our bread & butter is working with small & medium sized Ecom companies.

Our specialty category is supplements. We also love CPG, pet supplies, beauty, and home & kitchen.

Riley Bennett

Here is a detailed video all about our strategies and what working with us looks like.