Launching your e-commerce business is an exciting time, especially if you’re able to offer your product listings on Amazon’s website. An Amazon listing can get you in front of new customers around the world. If you leverage your Amazon store right, you may see exponential growth.
Many new e-commerce business owners may not realize that the sales growth they experience means there’s a lot more work they must do on the back end to continue to grow. To maintain the high-quality customer service and products that you wish to provide, though, you may need extra help.
An Amazon virtual assistant may be just what you need to support your Amazon business. These outsourced support workers can help you grow your business and take a lot of the back-end routine tasks off your plate.
What Is an Amazon Virtual Assistant?
First off, the Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) virtual assistant is a real person – not a bot. They provide customized business support for your FBA listing on Amazon’s Seller Central. Their duties are wide-ranging. Duties include answering questions, providing customer support, product research, and supplier relations. Some specialize in helping fledgling FBAs with marketing and advertising, such as listing optimization for their Amazon ads.
These virtual assistants can save you time and money. Their role is to help streamline your operations and take on administrative tasks so you can focus on what you do best. At Peak Outsourcing, we have a talent pool with many specialized abilities, from accounting and inventory to product research, marketing, and customer service. You can find an assistant to complement areas where you’re not as experienced. They also complete routine duties that take away from the active running of your business.
Key Benefits of an Amazon Virtual Assistant
Some of the important benefits that an Amazon VA offers include:
Saving you time
The time you spend on many administrative tasks, like invoicing, shipping, and inventory, can quickly eat up a lot of your day. This can leave you with little time to run your business. Administrative support gives you more time to focus on more important tasks.
Scaling your business
As you grow, your support and infrastructure needs grow, too. With the help of a virtual assistant, you can scale your operations and grow without sacrificing product integrity or customer service.
Preventing you from suffering burnout
If you’re working 10+ hours a day on your business, six or seven days a week, you’ll get burnt out. Your assistant can share the workload and the stress so you can recharge.
Giving you more flexibility
When you outsource your virtual assistant, you can find help 24/7. Perhaps you need help with customer service several time zones away. If you have customers around the globe, a virtual assistant who operates while you’re sleeping can maintain your business overnight.
Saving you money
Booking an outsourced assistant, instead of hiring your own, can be much more cost-effective. You don’t have the expenses of recruiting, hiring, or training or the overhead associated with in-house employees.
What Kind of Tasks Can a Virtual Assistant Provide?
Before hiring your FBA virtual assistant, determine what your business needs are. Audit your daily or weekly schedule and task lists. This can help you determine which items can be outsourced or remotely completed and which ones must be done by you. This can give you a better idea of what kind of expertise you need your Amazon virtual assistant to have.
These are some of the top tasks that FBA sellers utilize a VA for:
Query response
You must respond to customer questions within 24 hours before Amazon flags your account. Your assistant can deliver standard responses to avoid this.
Customer care
You may need additional customer service support beyond answering routine questions. Offering customer service from a “real person” can add an extra touch that can boost your business’s reputation.
Managing reviews
Your assistant can read and respond to reviews and match orders to negative reviews to help you pinpoint where something went wrong.
Managing inventory
Managing the stock available and removing orders are essential parts of FBA sales. You may have to remove unfillable items from your e-store or move your inventory elsewhere. Look for an assistant who understands the policies and procedures for properly managing stock and staying compliant with Amazon FBA requirements. This can help you avoid penalties or suspension of your account. Your VA can also manage your inventory. They help by ensuring you have proper stock levels. Also, they note when specific items suddenly become hot sellers or interest drops off particular offerings.
Handle shipping software
If you use multiple sales channels, your Amazon VA can manage your shipping software, sales channel integrations, and reporting tools to maintain an accurate status for all your merchandise, sales, returns, and timelines.
Confirming and canceling Fulfilled By Merchant (FBM) orders
FBM e-stores are responsible for shipping the items to the customer. You have to confirm the shipment to be paid for the items by Amazon. If you fail to confirm the shipment, then Amazon won’t pay. Continued failure to confirm shopping could result in your account being suspended. FBM must also notify the customer as soon as they can if they do not have stock to fulfill the order. If you fail to cancel the order and inform the customer, you could face negative reviews and fees from Amazon for unfulfilled orders.
Getting Started with an Experienced Amazon Virtual Assistant
Do you need help finding the right fit for your Amazon e-commerce business? PEAK Outsourcing offers remote e-commerce assistance. We’ll work with you to match your needs with our talent pool. We offer full-time or part-time virtual assistance, so you can have as much or as little help as you want. Contact us today to get started!
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