10 Questions to Ask Before You Choose an Amazon Seller Consultant

Last updated on June 5th, 2023

Written by Mohamed Aden

Amazon continues to be one of the biggest ecommerce companies in the world as they make up around 43% of the total online sales. The giant that we now know started as a marketplace for books and soon enough, it bloomed into the world’s most influential online retailer.

As it continues to grow and cater to more and more sellers, more businesses are thinking of strategies about how to gain the competitive advantage. Some learn about the methods of Amazon SEO while others contemplate on working with an Amazon seller consultant.

How to find the right Amazon seller consultant for your business?

Growing your business includes a lot of factors that may affect how you reach your customers and the conversion rates from your product listings to successful sales. People explore different things that they see will help them reach their aspirations for their business. Some find ways on how to optimize their product listings easily. However, working with experts such as an Amazon marketing agency continues to be more progressive than ever.

Now, how do you find the right Amazon seller consultant for your business? Here are 12 questions that you may want to ask when you meet with him.

How extensive is their eCommerce experience?

One of the most important things to do when you want to work with other people is examine and learn about their experience. Doing so informs you on how they will be able to aid you improve your business and strategies. Finding an Amazon agency to work with seems challenging at first.

First, let’s take a trip down memory lane and reminisce about Amazon’s rich history. The great eCommerce platform started in 1994 as a marketplace for books. Slowly, it evolved into a bigger platform that includes products ranging from appliances to books, and even to digital materials such as movies and tv series. When working with an Amazon seller consultant, a number of benefits arise that help you improve your business.

What benefits do you get when you work with an Amazon consultant?

• An increase in sales — This means that when there’s a spike in sales, your revenue increases. Collaborating with an expert lets you utilize various Amazon SEO strategies that help you create and develop tactics that boost the presence of your products.
• Build trust — Through their extensive experience in the industry, Amazon consultants make sure to update themselves with the latest improvements on the platform. Through the years, they learned about the algorithm on how Amazon works. The experience they gathered through the years gives them a competitive advantage that they give to their clients.
• Gain a bigger return — Another main benefit of working with an Amazon seller consultant is they will give advice that has been known to yield a bigger return on investment (ROI). Just remember that if you don’t earn enough, then you collaborated with the wrong person or team.

When you work with Amazon consultants, you witness the quality of service they bring to your business. Even if they have been doing it for years or even decades, observe how the results are doing for your business.

Check the services they offer

Different ranges of services come to light as Amazon continues to grow. Their system continued to update and adapt pay-per-click (PPC) ads to search engine optimization (SEO). This paves the way for the rise of consultants becoming experts on a specific field. They can choose to focus on PPC strategies or aid sellers in optimizing their listings and help their SEO strategies skyrocket.

What services can Amazon consultants offer?

• Amazon SEO services — If an Amazon consultant offers SEO services, they ensure that they give the best strategies to help sellers rank their listings higher on search results. This only means that when product listings rank high on search results, the more it leads to sales for your business.
• Amazon PPC services — When a consultant offers Amazon PPC services, their services mainly focus on ads targeting customers that return or bring sales to your business. They will help you advertise your products through AMS platform. Collaborating with them helps you improve the reach and visibility of your products to shoppers.
• Amazon Review — When sellers get enough reviews on their product listings, it helps them increase their credibility and build loyalty among their customers. Working with consultants that focus on Amazon reviews, helps businesses gather authentic and verified reviews for your products. Plus, it helps increase engagement with your customers. Not only does it help boost your ranking but also raises brand awareness and customer satisfaction. Moreover, you also gain customer loyalty along the way.
• Amazon FBA — By definition, FBA means Fulfillment by Amazon. Consultants that offer Amazon FBA focus on managing the products you have in your store and the logistics involved. They make sure that the orders reach your customers on time without any defect on the products. Moreover, they do everything they can to give your customers a great shopping experience and establish trust too.

Take note that some consultants you see offer a specific service while others offer all of the services mentioned. Make sure that you are not too rash in choosing which services you’ll get. Consult them first about your concerns and then they will help you evaluate the service that you need.

How vast is their knowledge about Amazon SEO?

Amazon consultants provide a broad range of services that encompasses different specializations to choose from. Before choosing an Amazon agency to work with, make sure you check that the consultants know their way around Amazon SEO.

Why should the consultants know their way around Amazon SEO?

Amazon helps a lot of sellers build their business and to earn through product sales. Shoppers search for items that they need and want. Getting results is one of the things that happen when they conduct a search. Then, customers narrow their search by using filters and sort it according to price, location, and even the brand. Amazon SEO consultants help businesses optimize listings so it will appear on the search results and even rank higher than the competitors.

If you’re using Amazon FBA, the consultants you work with must have a grasp of Amazon SEO.

Signs to know if consultants know and comprehends Amazon SEO

• Talk with them — If you know the basics about Amazon SEO, then conversing with the consultant seems easy. Moreover, the exchange of knowledge between the two of you seems easy as they will show their expertise on it after you share what you need.
• Check their portfolio — One of the things that you need to know about working with consultants, check their previous clients and how they did their work with them. This sheds a light on how they will do things with your Amazon profile. Also, it shows if they’re true to their word.
• Browse their reviews — As these consultants gain the trust of people, they build it through gathering client testimonials. You’ll see how they worked with the client and what fields of expertise they shared to help improve their clients’ challenges.

When you research and discover the expertise of certain consultants, always check how their knowledge is about Amazon SEO. As Amazon continues to update their algorithm to fit in with the trends, make sure that the consultants know about these trends and even the major updates pertaining to the algorithm.

Ask them how you can win the Amazon Buy Box

Another vital factor that you need to consider when looking for Amazon consultants is their prowess with winning the Amazon Buy Box. Most sellers know that the Buy Box is one of the most sought-after prizes to win on Amazon. Moreover, this is mandatory especially if sellers want to put up ads on Amazon.

Conversing with a consultant will enlighten you about Buy Box. This refers to the “box” that encases the text “Add to Cart” and “Add to List” in the buttons you find on product listings. Then, the winner automatically becomes the default seller for a certain item. Make sure they have strategies on how to win the Buy Box through product listing optimization and setting the price correctly.

How’s their pricing?

Many businesses are transparent about how much they charge their customers. They visibly put that information on their profiles or websites. The same goes for finding Amazon consultants. Price is a vital element in decision making especially if you’re planning the budget for your fiscal year.

Different consulting companies offer different price rates. Some post it online for everyone to see. Others send their quotes depending on the services that you need for your business. Make sure you communicate clearly with the consulting agency to avoid misunderstandings.

What are the tools that they use for Amazon?

When you work with consultants, you need to learn about the tools that they use to manage Amazon. One important thing to look for is the features it includes. For businesses to learn about the things they need to improve on, they need a report-generation feature among these tools.

Some samples of tools to consider:

• AMZ Tracker — A paid tool that lets you see conversion rate optimization (CRO), product optimization, competitor analysis, and review monitoring. Users get a free 7 day trial. Its price ranges from $50 to $400.
• Keyword Tool (IO) — This tool lets you conduct keyword research for your Amazon store. It will give you bits of information regarding relevant keywords, search volume, competition and cost-per-click (CPC). Moreover, this also helps you optimize your listings and your titles to increase reach and conversions. This is free yet you can always avail the premium version.

Pro tip: Always talk to your consultant about the tools needed to help you improve your Amazon business. Make it a point to learn how the tools work so you know how to use it in case your consultant may not be available to update you.

Have you seen their case studies?

When looking for people to work with, isn’t it that you ask for their portfolio or work samples? This helps you decide well on whether or not you’ll move forward with their services. For hiring Amazon seller consultants, it’s essential to check their eCommerce portfolio to know which areas they’re more experienced with.

When checking their portfolio, make sure to pay attention to these areas:

• Products — If these consultants worked with businesses in the same niche as yours, check the strategies they applied for the products. Also check how they optimized and promoted those products.
• Results — When businesses work with consultants, they always check the results or how did they impact the clients’ businesses. Check how they gauge success and their methodology on doing it.

However, some instances prevent these consultants from adding some clients to their portfolio. They may be tied with a non-disclosure agreement. In order to check if you can trust them, check the reviews on Google My Business page if they have. Also, you can check reviews on their social profiles and even check how long they have been doing business.

What practices do they do with regards to Amazon optimization?

The scope of search engine optimization (SEO) has evolved and there are people who engage in both white-hat and black-hat practices. Some of these practices do not comply with the rules and regulations that Amazon has. Some say that it gives good results however, this may not last forever.

In order to avoid from getting your account banned, make sure to avoid the following:

• Refrain from putting misleading information about the product in the title and description area
• Do not plagiarize content from other listings
• Putting up listings on Amazon but selling it on another platform
• Mandating your customers to give reviews
• Repeatedly not delivering the orders within the allotted time (17 to 28 days)

When planning to work with an Amazon consultant, please make sure that you pick an agency that is trusted. If you see that they utilize black-hat practices for their clients to get reviews for their products, that may be a red flag. These black-hat techniques harm your reputation and your brand.

Ask about their client retention rate

Optimizing your product listings on Amazon is not a one time thing. It’s a continuous process since you will be uploading new listings for your new products.

As you discover new competitors, you are always motivated to do better to increase your sales. You check on new strategies to rank higher. Hence, you’d always want to know about the client retention rate of your consultant.

What do they ask about your Amazon business?

In order to get the competitive advantage in your niche or industry, you work with experts to guide you with optimizing your listings and your product descriptions. But before you move to signing contracts pertaining to this working relationship, make sure to communicate clearly and ask questions to clarify things.

Some questions that you may want to ask:

• What’s the timeframe for this campaign? How long before we will notice the results?
• How do you manage a campaign that has not been doing well?
• Let’s talk about strategies, what do you think best works for my business?
• What information do you share with your clients?
• Should we discuss a meeting about aligning our goals as a team?
• Are there challenges that we need to work on?

On the other hand, the consultant may ask you questions too. Some of those include the following:

• What do you want to accomplish for your business?
• Identify your target market
• Did you previously work with an Amazon consultant?
• What do you know about Amazon SEO, FBA, PPC?
• Which products do you want to promote and optimize?
• What’s your working budget?

Takeaway

Working with Amazon consultants helps you and your business grow, raise brand awareness, and earn profit through sales. Different businesses find their own ways on how to optimize their listings. When you work with us, Seller Interactive, we make sure that you get your goals accomplished.