If you’re selling natural health products (NHPs) like probiotics, herbal remedies, homeopathic medicines or other supplements on Amazon Canada, it’s essential to play by all the rules or risk your account being removed or penalized – effectively sidelining you from lucrative e-commerce opportunities.
Your goal as an Amazon seller should therefore be twofold: to cleanly navigate and adhere to all NHP rules and requirements on Amazon while competing aggressively to win the Buy Box every time.
As with selling any product on Amazon, walking that line requires careful attention to detail and a solid understanding of Amazon’s policies and guidelines.
Here’s how to manage your NHP products on Amazon Canada to vigorously drive sales without running afoul of the rules:
1. Start with the basics: Understand Amazon’s policies for natural health products
Before listing your NHPs on Amazon, it’s important to understand Amazon’s policies and guidelines for these types of products. Amazon requires that all NHPs listed on its site have an eight-digit Natural Product Number (NPN), used by Health Canada to indicate that an NPH has been authorized for sale in Canada. Additionally, all claims made about these products must be supported by scientific evidence and must comply with Canada’s Natural Health Product Regulations. Make sure to familiarize yourself with these policies before listing your NHP on Amazon Canada.
2. Optimize your product listings
To attract more customers and increase sales, it’s important to optimize your NHP listings on Amazon. This means using relevant and descriptive keywords in your product titles and descriptions, providing high-quality images, and including accurate product information, such as the NPN number, dosage instructions, and any relevant warnings. It is critical to thoroughly vet any claims you are making and ensure you are staying within what is actually listed in the NPN document. You cannot stray from that document.
3. Play by the rules (AND play to win)
NHP sales success on Amazon comes from a combination of three factors: understanding and adhering to NHP terminology and guidelines as detailed above; understanding how to react if an issue arises; and pulling out all the stops to effectively optimize your listings. At Beacon Commerce, we’ve developed a “tripwire strategy” that allows us to aggressively test NHP product titles and descriptions to capture more and more sales while staying within the boundaries that Amazon sets.
4. Monitor your product reviews
Customer reviews can have a significant impact on your NHP sales on Amazon Canada. Make sure to regularly monitor your product reviews and respond to any negative feedback or customer complaints. This will not only help you improve your product’s quality and customer satisfaction but also improve your product’s ranking on Amazon. It’s important to note that because individuals react differently to NHPs, you may get many “didn’t work for me” reviews, and that’s ok. A good NHP typically has a star rating of 3.5 on Amazon due to the complex physiology of the effects of these products.
5. Use Amazon’s advertising tools
Amazon offers various advertising tools that can help you promote your NHPs to a wider audience and increase your sales. These tools include Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display ads. By using these tools, you can target specific keywords and audiences, and optimize your advertising campaigns to improve your return on investment (ROI). Targeting competitive products is a key strategy to expand your NHP’s reach. You want to capture people’s attention with your alternative as they browse for their usual product. Again, be sure to use imagery and messaging that aligns with your NHP claims to stay within the rules on the platform.
6. Monitor your inventory levels
It may sound obvious, but staying in stock is the most important tactic for Amazon seller success. You not only lose sales but Amazon will also penalize you if you are out of stock. They prefer sellers with stock in inventory for shipping via Prime. At a minimum it’s important to regularly monitor your NHP’s inventory levels on Amazon Canada and ensure that you have enough stock to meet customer demand. Running out of stock can also result in negative reviews from customers. To avoid this, consider using Amazon’s inventory management tools to track your inventory levels and set up alerts when stock levels are running low.
7. Maintain competitive pricing
To stay competitive on Amazon Canada, it’s important to regularly monitor and adjust your NHP’s pricing to ensure that it is competitive with similar products in your category. Use Amazon’s pricing tools to help you set competitive prices and track your competitors’ pricing strategies.
Monitoring and maintaining your price point is important for any product. If you have placement in other major digital channels (Walmart, Well.ca, etc.), it is important to manage price parity across all channels as Amazon will compare your price with what is on another digital platform. If you have lost the Buy Box on Amazon due to a lower price being detected elsewhere, do a Google search for your product and see if it’s being sold somewhere else for a lower price; then deal with that issue as needed. (Feel free to reach out and ask about strategies to effectively manage resellers.)
In conclusion, managing your NHPs on Amazon Canada requires careful attention to detail and a solid understanding of Amazon’s policies and guidelines. Play to win by optimizing your product listings while adhering to the rules. Further increase your success by monitoring your inventory levels and using Amazon’s advertising tools to attract more customers to grow your share of the expanding NHP market on Amazon Canada.
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