Selling on Amazon with Organic Traffic Only in 2024?
Many years ago it was possible to launch any new product on Amazon and start getting sales relatively quickly. Today the marketplace is very different. According to reports from 2021, there are currently more than 2 million active third party sellers on Amazon. This means a lot of competition.
So is it possible to sell on Amazon without running ads in 2022? If you ask this questions in Amazon Seller Forums, you will see many sellers respond saying they never ran ads and they are doing very well with sales. It is very likely that there sellers got on Amazon failry early and benefited from their listings gaining momentum and reviews over time, especially when there was less competition.
But is it possible for new sellers to achieve purely organic sales and growth? This depends on a couple of things.
1. How much competition is there for your particular product?
For example, let's search for "usb cable".
You can see that the top results have thousands of reviews each, and if you scroll down, you will see many more sellers that have tens of thousands of reviews. Also the fist few pages of products also have beautiful product photos, so clearly they are taking they are very serious about being as competitive as possible. It is fair to say that you won't be able to compete in the generic USB cable category with a new product and organic listings only. In fact you will be lucky to sell anything at all.
How much would ads cost for a USB cable product? Let's check. We head over to Campaign Manager and see that the keyword "usb cable" costs $1.90 - $6.67 per click for a product that costs less that $10 even with ads you will be losing money very quickly.
With these kind of numbers, it is safe to say that competing in the usb cable category even with ads will be extremely difficult. Nearly everyone needs a USB cable, as this product is very generic and demand is huge, so many companies want a piece of the pie.
The good news is that not all products are that competitive, so if you select to a product that has demand, but not a lot of sellers offer it or the products that are offered have a rating of 3.5 stars or lower, you have a great chance to compete with organic listings alone.
2. Can you create a compelling listing?
Once you select a product category you want to compete in, you need to create a product and listing that stands out and is compelling, you can do this by creating a product that is different from your competitors, especially one that solves some problem your competitors' products have, and at a price that will help the buyers select your product over those who already have some reviews. If you same the same product as your competitors without any changes, you won't get very far and also there is always someone who can sell cheaper than you.
A key part of creating a compelling listing on Amazon is getting the product photography right. Amazon photos are a specific category that requires product on white photos, infographics, and lifestyle photos, so you need to get top quality photos if you intend to compete with sellers who already have great visuals and many reviews.
If you choose to go the organic route, be prepared to wait. Maybe you won't get any sales for months and once you start getting sales the listing will only slowly start building momentum over time, your product isn't going to become a top selling item overnight without ads and without outside marketing directing shoppers to your Amazon listing.
One thing you should not do under any circumstances is use banned tactics, like soliciting reviews in exchange for a free product, to help your listing get momentum and reviews. Your account will be shut down. Only is 2021 some major sellers with revenues over $10milllion per year were banned for this, and a new account simply doesn't have a chance with any violations.
So it is still possible to sell without any ads, but you do need a product that is not generic and you need to make a unique offering with compelling reasons to buy.
Good luck.
