Whether you’ve selected your first product and want to set up shop online, or have built a brand and want to go global, an online store is a great way to connect with customers and tap the opportunities available through ecommerce.
Building a digital storefront so you can manage inventory and ship goods can be a major hurdle on your way to success. It takes time and resources to create your own direct-to-consumer website, maintain a presence on social media, or sell through other online channels. Luckily, there are resources to help simplify the process, plus best practices you can follow to ensure a smooth experience.
We’ll walk you through how to create an online store, and also cover a suite of Amazon tools you can use to share products with millions of customers.
Building a digital storefront so you can manage inventory and ship goods can be a major hurdle on your way to success. It takes time and resources to create your own direct-to-consumer website, maintain a presence on social media, or sell through other online channels. Luckily, there are resources to help simplify the process, plus best practices you can follow to ensure a smooth experience.
We’ll walk you through how to create an online store, and also cover a suite of Amazon tools you can use to share products with millions of customers.
Creating an online store
Depending on your business model and goals, you might want to sell exclusively on one or more social media channels, create your own DTC website from scratch, or set up shop on an existing selling site like Amazon to connect with different audiences.
Whichever route you choose, the goal is to create a memorable experience for visitors so they’ll return and become repeat buyers.
Here are some steps you might want to take:
Whichever route you choose, the goal is to create a memorable experience for visitors so they’ll return and become repeat buyers.
Here are some steps you might want to take:
- Choose a business model: Will you hand-craft items, source products through wholesale, work with a manufacturer to design custom items, or use another approach?
- Identify your audience: Who are your top buyers? Do you want to specialize in a particular niche? Check out this guide to selling online for a framework to help you decide.
- Zero in on products: What do you want to sell? Explore product ideas or take a look at these examples of successful ecommerce businesses for inspiration.
- Develop a pricing strategy: So you know what you want to sell—but will you be able to make money? Conduct competitor research or use a pricing automation tool to research the right selling price and calculate your margins.
- Set up fulfillment: How will you store products, let alone get them into the hands of customers? You’ll want to have processes in place for managing inventory and fulfilling orders.
- Create an online storefront: Use an ecommerce storefront to list products, process payments, and maintain a digital presence for your business.
- Market your store: Once you’re online, it’s time to share your wares with the world using ecommerce marketing techniques such as digital ads, SEO, and content marketing.
Ideally, an online store will have an easy setup process, require little-to-no maintenance, and provide the basic functions needed to operate in ecommerce, such as setting prices and processing payments electronically. Learn more about how to get started with an online store in this beginner’s guide.
In addition, the right ecommerce solution can give you the ability to reach your intended audience, a smooth and secure user experience to win customer trust, and analytics to track sales and spot opportunities to grow your business.
The good news? An Amazon storefront comes along with all of the above and more.
In addition, the right ecommerce solution can give you the ability to reach your intended audience, a smooth and secure user experience to win customer trust, and analytics to track sales and spot opportunities to grow your business.
The good news? An Amazon storefront comes along with all of the above and more.
Learn the lingo:
Stores builder
The Amazon Stores builder is a tool for creating an ecommerce storefront on Amazon. It uses drag-and-drop tiles to simplify the storefront creation process—no coding or design expertise required. Once live, the storefront layout automatically adapts for desktop, mobile, and tablet browsers.
How to make an Amazon storefront: 3 steps
The Amazon Stores builder allows you to create a multi-page, immersive experience to introduce customers to your business, tell your brand story, and showcase your catalog through customizable rich media such as text, imagery, and video content.
When you create an Amazon storefront, you get a custom web address (amazon.com/yourbrand) to use in your marketing efforts. You can then list products and start to get performance metrics about page visits, traffic sources, and sales so you can continue to optimize the shopping experience for your audience.
Here’s how it works.
When you create an Amazon storefront, you get a custom web address (amazon.com/yourbrand) to use in your marketing efforts. You can then list products and start to get performance metrics about page visits, traffic sources, and sales so you can continue to optimize the shopping experience for your audience.
Here’s how it works.
1. Sign up and enroll your brand
To start selling in the Amazon store, create a seller account and pick a Professional selling plan.
Next, enroll in Brand Registry, a program that helps protect your brand and gives you access to the Stores builder as well as other brand management tools and support.
To enroll in Amazon Brand Registry, you’ll need an active registered trademark in the country where you want to enroll (or a pending trademark application filed through Amazon IP Accelerator) plus the ability to display your brand name or logo prominently on all the products and packaging you offer through Amazon.
Next, enroll in Brand Registry, a program that helps protect your brand and gives you access to the Stores builder as well as other brand management tools and support.
To enroll in Amazon Brand Registry, you’ll need an active registered trademark in the country where you want to enroll (or a pending trademark application filed through Amazon IP Accelerator) plus the ability to display your brand name or logo prominently on all the products and packaging you offer through Amazon.
2. Create an Amazon storefront
Once your brand is approved for Brand Registry, use the Amazon online store builder to craft an online home for your business and convey what your product line is all about.
Here’s a quick tutorial along with some tips for using the Stores builder:
Here’s a quick tutorial along with some tips for using the Stores builder:
- Log in to Seller Central and in the navigation menu, select “Stores” >> “Manage Stores,” then click the “Create Store” button.
- Choose a storefront format. You can pick from three templates, each with adjustable tiles for images, text, video, and other content:
- Product Grid: Display a selection of products with this simple, straightforward, and user-friendly layout
- Marquee: Include a curated product display with additional space for imagery, product descriptions, and customer quotes
- Showcase: Flexibly feature a broad selection of products with space for product information and rich visual content
- Click on Page Manager and select "Add a Page" to build out the storefront:
- You’ll see there’s already a home page for your brand, but you can use this method to add subcategory pages to display all your wares.
- For each page, you can enter the page name and description, and choose a page template.
- Each page can navigate to a different page within the storefront, up to three levels deep. For example, you could have a page to cover different features, product categories, or top sellers.
- Use the Tile Manager to add and arrange content on the page. You can use a combination of images, text, and video content to create an engaging experience for shoppers.
- Check the Preview Window to see how the storefront will appear for desktop and mobile browsers. Click on an individual tile within the page to edit.
- Once you’ve finished building the storefront, click “Submit for Publishing.” The moderation process can take several days, so keep an eye on the Status Bar to monitor progress. To avoid setbacks, review the Stores creative guidelines.
When the storefront is approved, the content will go live and be visible to Amazon customers. To see how the storefront is performing, you can return to Stores builder anytime and navigate to “Insights” to track page views, sales, and more. You can also use the Stores builder to make ongoing edits and updates to the storefront as needed.
3. Add products
Listing products is an opportunity to use enticing headlines, product photos, and other elements to earn clicks.
You can either handpick products to feature in the storefront, or use dynamic widgets to automatically populate different product displays, such as best-selling products or recommendations based on visitor behavior. Dynamic widgets use Amazon data such as keyword search, best-selling products, and recommendation history to help you optimize and update the products that appear on the storefront.
You can either handpick products to feature in the storefront, or use dynamic widgets to automatically populate different product displays, such as best-selling products or recommendations based on visitor behavior. Dynamic widgets use Amazon data such as keyword search, best-selling products, and recommendation history to help you optimize and update the products that appear on the storefront.
Enhance product listings with A+ Content
A+ Content is an Amazon tool for adding advanced features like lifestyle imagery, comparison charts, and more to a product page to help it stand out against the competition and convince customers to place a purchase.
When you add a product to the Amazon storefront, customers will see the offer on a product detail page. The standard version looks something like this:
With A+ Content, you can enhance the product detail page by adding your branding and other flourishes to create something like this:
Here’s how to add A+ Content to a product page:
- Log in to Seller Central and in the navigation menu, select Advertising, then click Enhanced Brand Content.
- Enter the SKU of the product to which you want to add content. If you add content at the parent level, the template will publish to every child ASIN as well (for example, if you offer multiple variations of a T-shirt with different color options). Select from the available modules or choose from one of the pre-defined templates to add images and text to illustrate product features.
- Preview the page and submit it for review.
The review stage typically takes seven business days (or longer during peak periods). After it’s approved, the content status will update on your dashboard and the content will go live, typically within 24 hours of approval.
If your content submission is not approved, select “edit” in your dashboard to modify the page and then resubmit. To avoid having to edit and resubmit your content, make sure the content complies with A+ Content guidelines and:
If your content submission is not approved, select “edit” in your dashboard to modify the page and then resubmit. To avoid having to edit and resubmit your content, make sure the content complies with A+ Content guidelines and:
- Has clear images that are visible on desktop and mobile devices
- Is free of spelling or grammar errors
- Does not contain specific pricing or promotion details
- Does not reference warranties, guarantees, customer service, websites, or contact information
Here are some more tips and best practices for creating A+ Content:
- Text: Provide detailed explanations with specific words and numbers to help customers become experts on the products you sell.
- Tables: Use comparison tables to highlight features across your product line.
- Banners: Use banner images to show the products in use. Add your brand logo and content to provide customers with a consistent brand experience.
- Images: Use professional-quality, high-resolution images that highlight product features or show the products in use. If you add brand text to the images, make sure it’s large enough to be readable on mobile devices. When you use the preview function, make sure all the images load properly.
- Fields: Use text fields—rather than embedding text in images—to improve your visibility in search results.
A+ Content modules offer 100+ combinations of image and text fields you can explore to find the right mix for your brand. Together, they can allow you to tell your brand story and mission, in addition to providing details and data to help customers make informed decisions.
Drive traffic to your virtual doorstep
Once you’ve built an online storefront, take advantage of performance advertising and ecommerce marketing tactics to reach more customers. These can include:
- Pay-per-click product listing ads
- Special deals, coupons, and promotions
- Social media marketing
- Email and blog content
You can use a mix of these and other techniques such as SEO to increase brand awareness. For example, you can use social media to drive traffic to your blog. Then at the end of blog posts, encourage visitors to sign up for your monthly email newsletter. And in your newsletters, offer tips and advice, along with promotions and coupons for products available in your ecommerce store.
Launch and grow a storefront online
Get started with a digital storefront, engaging product pages enhanced by A+ Content, and ongoing support through Brand Registry.
When the storefront is up and running, take advantage of the unique opportunities available in ecommerce to help grow your audience and achieve higher sales, such as:
When the storefront is up and running, take advantage of the unique opportunities available in ecommerce to help grow your audience and achieve higher sales, such as:
- Ecommerce automation – Automate repetitive tasks to simplify your day-to-day and keep your business humming.
- Amazon Live – Host shoppable livestream events where you can introduce new products, make tailored recommendations for customers, and more.
- Seller App – To keep track of business details from the palm of your hand, download the Amazon Seller app for iOS and Android devices.
Explore more apps, services, and tools to launch and scale your operations. You can also learn about resources available exclusively for brand owners in the Amazon store and see how other online sellers have built successful brands on Amazon as part of their direct-to-consumer ecommerce business strategy.
FAQs
How do I create an online store?
In ecommerce, you have options when it comes to choosing a selling channel. For example, you can build a direct-to-consumer website from scratch, sell on one or more social media sites, or create a storefront on an existing selling website like Amazon. To connect with the millions of online customers who visit Amazon stores worldwide, sign up for an Amazon seller account and enroll in Brand Registry to use the Amazon Stores builder.
What is an Amazon storefront?
An Amazon storefront is a designated space within Amazon.com for you to represent your business and showcase products for sale. You can use the Amazon Stores builder to customize a branded shopping experience for online customers. Publish the storefront, list products, and use A+ Content like tables, banners, and videos to enhance product pages. An Amazon storefront also gives you access to tools and other forms of support to help you grow and scale.
How do I create an Amazon storefront?
To create an Amazon storefront, sign up for a Professional selling plan and enroll in Brand Registry to access the Amazon Stores builder in Seller Central:
- Go to “Create Store” and select a template based on how you want the storefront to look
- Go to “Store Builder” and add pages
- Use Tile Manager to design each page with text and imagery
- Use the Preview Window to see the content you create
- Once you’re done building the storefront, hit publish
What are the advantages of building an Amazon online storefront?
Along with access to millions of online customers, an Amazon storefront gives you the ability to:
- Create a multi-page shopping experience for your brand using rich media
- Manage inventory and use fulfillment solutions like Fulfillment by Amazon and Amazon Prime to offer customers fast, free shipping
- Make use of Amazon advertising options
- Access analytics to track sales and spot opportunities to optimize and scale
- Use pricing automation and other apps, services, and tools, including brand owner resources
What are the requirements to have an Amazon storefront?
To operate an Amazon storefront, check out the terms and conditions during sign up for an Amazon selling account (Professional selling plan) and enrollment in Brand Registry. Also be sure to follow relevant guidelines and Amazon policies for listing products and keeping your account in good standing.
Do you need an LLC to open an Amazon storefront?
No, you can begin as a sole proprietor and later register as a Limited Liability Company (LLC) if you desire. However, this isn’t required while operating an Amazon storefront.
