Creating an Amazon store for your business enables you to reach your current in-person customers online and tap into a new audience of online shoppers. It sets your brand apart from competitors and can also positively impact physical sales, by generating customers’ interest before visiting your store.

According to Statista, eCommerce revenue accounts for nearly 20% of retail sales worldwide, a figure forecasted to keep rising to almost a quarter by 2027. That means establishing your business today on Amazon, the leading retail eCommerce platform, can position it for significant future growth as the eCommerce market share continues increasing. 

With data insights like that, many sellers are looking for resources on how to start an Amazon storefront. In this post, we’ll discuss the ins and outs of this process, including everything you need to know about setup, design, and management.

Key Takeaways

• An Amazon storefront allows sellers to create a dedicated space in the Amazon platform to display their products.
• Using an Amazon store is the most effective way to reach online audiences, especially if you haven’t created an online presence. It can also improve your physical sales.
• Certain eligibility factors are required to create an Amazon store.
• Creating an Amazon storefront can be accomplished in a few steps, but managing it successfully and beating the competition is an ongoing process.
• You can automate some Amazon marketing processes with a tool like Trellis.

What is an Amazon storefront?

An Amazon store is a dedicated space within the Amazon platform for sellers and brands to showcase their products and create unique shopping experiences. You can think of it as a mini eCommerce website hosted on Amazon where you can display all your products without building a website from scratch. It allows you to tap into Amazon’s vast customer base and establish trust in your brand.

Amazon stores were initially available only to Amazon vendors, who are manufacturers or distributors selling directly to Amazon. At first, only they could create stores and showcase their brand and products. Now, any third-party seller can create an Amazon store without significant costs, so long as they are eligible.

Why use an Amazon storefront?

Making an Amazon storefront means you’ll have several options to reach your existing customers online, and tap into a new audience of shoppers. You can sell on social media, build your eCommerce website, or list your products directly on Amazon without a brick-and-mortar store. With an Amazon storefront, you have countless benefits at your disposal, including:

• Complete control over the design. You can customize your Amazon storefront to create an immersive and engaging shopping experience for your shoppers, such as adding multiple product categories and subcategories to make it easier for shoppers to find the products they need. According to Amazon, stores with three or more pages have 83% higher shopper dwell time and 32% higher attributed sales per visitor. That means creating and customizing your Amazon store can lead to higher sales than other platforms.
• Access to Amazon’s vast customer base. Amazon is the world’s largest online marketplace, with millions of active customers. Creating a storefront on Amazon gives you immediate access to this vast customer base, which can benefit new and smaller brands yet to establish their presence in the eCommerce industry.
• Build trust and credibility. Amazon has built a reputation for reliability and trustworthiness among online shoppers. Many prefer to buy on Amazon for its security and convenience, so hosting your products on Amazon allows you to benefit from this trust.
• Drive traffic directly to your storefront. You can create sponsored and PPC ads on Amazon or other platforms to drive traffic to your store. This allows you to funnel customers away from your competitors’ products, increasing your conversion rate.
• An array of marketing tools. Amazon offers several marketing tools to help store owners promote their brands and products. You can use your Amazon store to run ad campaigns to target your audience in Amazon’s vast customer base.
• Detailed data and analytics. Creating an Amazon store gives you access to robust data and analytics tools to track your store’s and product’s performance. These insights can help you make data-driven decisions to increase your customer base and grow your eCommerce presence.
• No competitor ads. Customers who come across your products on Amazon’s Central Listings may be distracted by your competitor’s sponsored product and brand ads. But your storefront doesn’t have these ads, so customers who visit it have no distractions, making them focus solely on your products, and, therefore, easier to convert.

How to make an Amazon storefront (8 steps)

An Amazon storefront is easy to create and customize with predesigned templates or simple drag-and-drop tiles. But before you get to the design aspect of your storefront, you must be eligible to create an Amazon brand store. Let’s get started with how you can meet the eligibility criteria:

Step 1: Create an Amazon seller account

If you have an Amazon seller account, you can skip to the next step. I you don’t have one, you must create this first to be eligible for an Amazon store.

Amazon offers two pricing plans for seller accounts: the Individual Plan, which costs $0.99 per unit sold, and the Professional Plan, which costs $39.99 per month, no matter how many units sold. As a general rule of thumb, the Individual Plan is suitable if you sell less than 40 items per month, while the Professional Plan is recommended if you sell more than 40. The Professional Plan also includes access to advanced selling tools such as:

• The ability to create new product pages in the Amazon catalog
• Access to reports and analytics tools
• Ability to apply for selling in restricted categories
• Eligibility for top placement on product detail pages

To create a seller account, visit Amazon’s website and click the “Sell products on Amazon” link at the bottom of the homepage. Choose your plan, click the “Sign Up” button, and enter the required details.

Step 2: Register your brand

The second step is to enroll in the Amazon Brand Registry program. The program helps protect your brand and products from copycats. Amazon proactively monitors its website for copies of your items and gives you access to search and report tools to find them.

You need a registered and active text or image-based trademark or a pending trademark application to be eligible. You must also clearly mark your brand name or logo on your products and packaging.

To register on Brand Registry:

• Sign in to Amazon Brand Registry using your Amazon Seller credentials.
• Provide your brand information and trademark details like trademark number, type, and registrar.
• Submit the registration form.

Amazon will review your application and send you a verification code you can use to enroll in the program. The registration period can range from 24 hours to over a month.

Step 3: Set up your Amazon store

You can set up your Amazon store now that you meet the eligibility criteria. The process involves the following steps:

1. Log into your Amazon Seller Central
2. Click “Stores” on the left corner of your screen
3. Navigate to “Create Store”
4. Choose your brand name from the pop-up box
5. Click “Create Store”

Only brands approved for Amazon Brand Registry appear in the pop-up box. If your brand name doesn’t appear, ensure that you have fully completed the enrollment process.

After opening an Amazon storefront, you are directed to Amazon’s store builder, where you are required to enter your brand name and upload your logo. In this space, you can hide your logo if you would prefer. However, this is not recommended because it enhances your branding and recognition. 

Step 4: Create a homepage

After entering your brand name and logo, the next step is to create a homepage. You can either design your Amazon storefront homepage from scratch or choose from three homepage design templates:

• Marquee: Uses large images to draw shoppers’ attention to particular products
• Product grid: Displays all products in a grid-like format
• Product highlight: Focuses on your best-sellers using videos or images

You can customize the templates by dragging and dropping various elements. On the same page, you’ll need to create a meta description that captures your brand’s and products’ essence. Keep it short and simple. After creating the meta description and template, click “Save.”

Step 5: Register your products

After creating your homepage, the next step is to upload your Amazon products to the store. To do this, you must first upload them to your seller account via the following steps:

1. Login to your Seller account
2. Click “Inventory” on the dashboard
3. Select “Add a product” or “Add products via upload.”

Selecting “Add a product” is an individual process, while the  “Add products via upload” option adds them in bulk, which can be a faster process.

After uploading your products and creating the listings, go to the store, click on a tile, select “Product,” and search for your product by keyword or ASIN. You can also click on a tile and select “Search” for Amazon to display your entire product catalog. Click “Add,” and the product appears in that tile slot. You can replace a product by clicking its tile and selecting “Replace product.”

The tiles with added products will display their image and price.

Step 6: Build your storefront

After registering your products, creating additional pages and subcategories will provide customers with a comprehensive shopping experience. For example, you can add “Product Showcase,” “Customer Reviews,” and” Brand Story” pages to highlight various aspects of your business and products.

To add a page:

1. Open the Store Builder main menu and click “Add page”
2. Add the navigation title
3. Create a meta description
4. Select your page template from the three options

You can also add pages within pages to help shoppers find your products quickly.

Step 7: Customize your storefront

Your Amazon storefront is a reflection of your brand, and it will often be the first impression shoppers have of your products. Therefore, customizing it effectively helps you create a unique and visually appealing shopping experience for your customers.

You can select various design features for your Amazon storefront, such as the color scheme, fonts, and other elements to align with your brand’s visual identity.

Amazon’s storefront builder uses a drag-and-drop approach, so it is relatively intuitive. At the top of the page, you’ll need to add a hero image which should represent your brand or products, in addition to being visually striking to capture shoppers’ attention.

You can preview your store on desktop and mobile before you finish customizing it to see what needs improvement.

Step 8: Submit your Amazon storefront for review

Once you’re done customizing your storefront and are satisfied with its preview, click “Submit for publishing” in the navigation bar. Amazon will review your store generally within 72 hours. If they approve it, they publish it to make it public.

Some of our favorite Amazon storefronts

Inspiration can be a great resource when opening your Amazon storefront. Seeing how other industries leverage their niche and design can help spark your creativity. With that said, here are some of our favorite Amazon storefronts.

Peloton

Peloton sells fitness equipment and accessories like stationary bikes and apparel. Their Amazon store uses a looping video at the top of the home page to capture the visitors’ attention and convey the movement and energy of their fitness products. It has different categories of products with clear and engaging images and descriptions. The store also includes customer testimonials and FAQs to build trust and credibility.

R+Co

R+Co sells hair care products with a unique and stylish design. Their Amazon Storefront reflects their creative style with colorful images, catchy headlines, and product descriptions highlighting their benefits and ingredients. It highlights new or featured products at the top of the page, followed by different collections based on hair types, needs, or preferences. The store also uses videos and infographics to educate customers about their products and how to use them.

Johnson Hardware

Johnson Hardware sells door hardware and accessories like pocket doors, barn doors, and hinges. Their store uses a banner image with their logo and slogan to establish their brand identity, followed by a brief introduction of their company history and values. It then displays its product categories with icons and labels, making it easy for customers to find what they want. The company also provides helpful resources like installation guides, videos, and customer reviews.

Mother Dirt

Mother Dirt is a skincare brand that focuses on the benefits of good bacteria for skin health. Their Amazon storefront has a clear and catchy slogan, a video that explains their story and mission, and a variety of products organized by categories and benefits. They also use testimonials and reviews to bolster their reputation.

Klik Belts

Klik Belts sells durable and versatile belts. Their Amazon storefront is simple, with a video demonstrating their product quality and functionality and a list of benefits customers can easily read and easily understand. They also use a comparison chart to show how their belts are superior to other brands.

What should I know before building my Amazon store?

There’s a lot to consider before you set up your Amazon storefront. Whether you are an established brand or just breaking into the world of eCommerce, it’ll take time and resources to ensure your store is up to par, and attracts your targeted customers. Here are some factors to account for: 

• Building a successful Amazon store is not a one-time process. You must continuously optimize your content, promotions, and strategy based on customer feedback and insights from the data and analytics tools.
• Understand your options for order fulfillment. You can either fulfill the orders yourself, or use Fulfillment by Amazon. Each has pros and cons, so you should evaluate both options to choose the one that aligns with your needs and objectives.
• Optimize your Amazon store for search engines using relevant keywords, titles, meta descriptions, and tags.
• Familiarize yourself with Amazon’s refund and return policies to avoid violations and be ready to handle them promptly.
• Read up on Amazon Store’s data privacy regulations, especially if you’ll be the one handling customer data. This helps you comply with the relevant legal considerations and protect customer information.
• Follow Amazon’s shipping and delivery requirements to ensure smooth order fulfillment.
• Pay attention to the tax implications of selling on Amazon domestically and internationally if you have operations beyond borders. Consider consulting with legal professionals to ensure proper compliance.

Knowledge in these areas will prepare you to create a successful Amazon store and avoid common challenges and pitfalls.

How to stay ahead of your competitors from the start

The competition within Amazon’s marketplace can be quite fierce. There are likely tens, if not hundreds, of businesses offering the same or similar products as your brand. So, how do you get and stay ahead of these competitors from the time you create your shop? Here are some best practices to implement:

• Conduct a comprehensive competitor analysis to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors. It’ll allow you to capitalize on where they fall short and position your business effectively. It can also help you identify market gaps, differentiation opportunities, and the best pricing strategies for different objectives.
• Ask for product reviews to build trust and credibility. You can use the “Request a Review” button, insert a note in the package, or email your customers after they have received their shipment.
• Online shoppers are very price-sensitive and look for the best deal because it is easy to find. You can use dynamic pricing to offer them great deals. A competitor price tracking tool can notify you when competitors change their prices to change yours if necessary.
• Market on social media to drive traffic to your Amazon store. If you don’t have a wide reach, consider working with social media influencers to reach your target customers.
• Optimize your Amazon store for search engines to improve your brand and product discoverability. It can increase organic traffic and your chances of appearing on top search results, driving more sales.
• Offer complementary or related products to customers already purchasing your products. It can enhance the customer experience and set you apart from competitors by demonstrating you understand customer needs.

Staying ahead of the competition requires varied and flexible methodologies. You must monitor market dynamics, customer preferences, and emerging trends to adapt and evolve your Amazon store over time.

Automate Amazon store advertising with Trellis

You can attract new online customers and serve your existing customers online in several ways. But creating an Amazon storefront is your best chance at expanding your eCommerce reach. It gives you access to Amazon’s vast customer base, offers marketing and analytics tools, and provides you with complete control over your product listings without having to design an eCommerce site from scratch.

As we’ve discovered, making an Amazon storefront involves just eight steps. But running it and staying ahead of the competition is an ongoing process that requires continuous effort. In many cases, it can take your focus away from running and growing your business. That is why you need a tool like Trellis.

Trellis is an AI-powered Amazon advertising platform that can help you automate advertising to free up time to focus on daily operations. It can help you create and optimize multiple campaigns, harvest keywords, and take action on data-driven insights within seconds. It can also engage repeat customers, enhance advertising spend efficiency, and help you maximize your market share.

Schedule a personalized demo to understand how Trellis can enhance the performance of your Amazon store.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How much does it cost to start an Amazon store?

Starting an Amazon store is free; however, there is an ongoing cost associated with the account used to set up the store. An Individual Plan charges $0.99 per item sold, whereas a Professional Plan is a flat rate of $39.99 monthly.

2. Can anyone make an Amazon storefront?

Yes, anyone can open an Amazon store if they meet the eligibility requirements.

3. What is needed to start an Amazon store?

To open an Amazon store, you need:

• An Amazon Seller account.
• To enroll in the Amazon Brand Registry with a registered trademark.
• To sell products under your brand name, which matches the name on your trademark certificate.

4. Can you create an Amazon store without a brand?

No, you can’t create an Amazon store without a registered brand trademark, which is what is needed to enroll in the Amazon Brand Registry.

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