Running a business in the digital age is a daunting task. Managing a store on Amazon, eBay, Shopify, and other e-commerce platforms, for example, can get complicated and overwhelming in a snap. Thus, most online business owners turn to virtual assistant services for help.
Wondering what is an Amazon virtual assistant?
We’re here to explain!
A virtual assistant or VA is a person you can hire to perform administrative tasks in a remote location. They can be anywhere in the world, but they can help you with necessary tasks as long as they can access them.
Hiring a virtual assistant to help manage your Amazon business is especially useful because this business model lets you run your business remotely. You can allow access to your VA and let them do your Amazon tasks for you.
In this article, we listed the top Amazon tasks you can assign to a virtual assistant. Most of these tasks also apply to other e-commerce platforms like eBay and Shopify.
Hiring Remote Or Virtual Assistants For Amazon
Before we get to the tasks, here are some important notes to consider when hiring an Amazon VA.
An Amazon virtual assistant needs specific tasks
It helps to organize and evaluate your Amazon tasks before hiring anyone to do them for you.
Identify which tasks you or your current employees can do and which to transfer to an Amazon VA. It will be easier to look for ideal and qualified applicants if you know what duties and responsibilities you want to delegate.
An Amazon virtual assistant must be flexible
Unlike traditional physical stores, an online business on Amazon evolves or changes faster and more frequently.
The Amazon virtual assistant you hire must be flexible against product changes, target market, and ordering procedures. They must also be open to changing their work hours and work part-time, full-time, or project-based whenever the situation requires them to.
An Amazon virtual assistant requires no experience
You don’t need to look for a virtual assistant with experience in Amazon work-from-home jobs. But you still need to ensure that the VA you get is highly trainable — hence you need to be mindful of the interviewing process. They also need to have a can-do attitude toward new challenges, helping them thrive in an ever-changing digital workplace.
An Amazon virtual assistant is a multitasker
You can assign as many tasks as you want to your Amazon virtual assistant, but ensure that you give reasonable workloads and realistic deadlines. We recommend you sort your business’s tasks by priority and frequency before hiring Amazon virtual assistant services.
An Amazon virtual assistant is an independent worker
You need an Amazon virtual assistant who can work on their assigned tasks independently. But they still need to provide updates, so you’ll have an insight into the current status of their progress or the amount of work done. For efficient and productive results, you might need to set up tools for project management or time-tracking.
Tasks To Outsource To Amazon Virtual Assistants
Below are the top Amazon business tasks to delegate to a virtual assistant. Depending on your needs, you might not have to assign all of them. You can also modify these tasks according to your current process or the future direction of your e-commerce business.
Amazon account support
A virtual assistant can help you perform essential but often time-consuming tasks on Amazon. You can provide access to your Amazon account and let your virtual assistant manage it through available Seller Central tools.
Amazon VAs perform primarily administrative tasks, such as checking orders and shipping status, troubleshooting, gathering updates, and other repetitive tasks. Your Amazon virtual assistant can manage your store through Amazon Seller Central and provide you with information whenever needed.
Customer support services
An Amazon virtual assistant can handle customer support tasks such as answering product inquiries, commenting on positive reviews, and assisting in the order process. These tasks may involve in-depth knowledge of the product and Amazon processes.
For a VA to be effective in customer support service, you, as the Amazon store owner, must provide proper training on your products, online store, and suitable methods. You can also supply your virtual assistant with common customer questions and ideal answers. From this, your VA can create message templates for reference, facilitating efficient customer service.
Product listing optimization
Your Amazon store is nothing without its products and effective product listings. Amazon virtual assistants can help optimize your product listings by coming up with product names, descriptions, images, and other content for them.
You can assign a VA to use high-volume keywords in the listings to increase product search ranking. Similarly, you can ask them to input negative key terms to focus on your target audience.
For these tasks, you can hire an Amazon virtual assistant with experience in optimizing product listings or search engine optimization (SEO) keyword research. But SEO experts come with expensive salaries, so you can choose to train your VA according to your current SEO-related processes and requirements.
Product research
Related to creating and optimizing product listings, performing product research can further increase organic sales and product rankings on Amazon. An Amazon virtual assistant can perform seller analysis and market research to boost sales for your products.
They can also conduct content research and manage headline search ads, improving the content and helping drive traffic for your products.
Product sourcing and logistics
As the business owner, you can delegate product sourcing and logistical tasks to your virtual assistants. This particular task requires an Amazon virtual assistant to look into suppliers and vendors for items to sell on the Amazon store. You need a VA with significant experience in purchasing from B2B (business-to-business) companies and wholesalers.
For your VA to perform this task, you must supply them with a list of items you want to sell so they can search for the best products and suppliers. For best results, identify all the specific requirements like price range, purpose, design or style, color, etc. The VA communicates with suppliers and negotiates for the best deals.
In addition, your VA can create a list of products for your approval, initiate orders, and monitor the logistics. If you need to see vendor samples for your approval, securing samples can also be assigned to your VA.
Data entry and inventory management
Proper data entry and inventory management ensures accurate and updated stocks, prevents issues and errors, and ensures customer satisfaction. Whether your orders are Fulfilled By Amazon (FBA) or Fulfilled By Merchant (FBM), your Amazon virtual assistant can help manage your inventory. You can assign your VA to manage your inventory through Amazon Seller Central, the Amazon app, or any inventory management software of your choice.
Provide ample time to train your Amazon virtual assistant before you leave them to manage your inventory independently. There are many platforms for inventory management available, and the VA you hire may not be familiar with your current system. Managing inventory is a critical role, and it requires proper guidance and monitoring before you can trust this task to your VA.
Order processing and tracking
An Amazon virtual assistant can also manage tasks related to your order fulfillment, from confirming FBM orders to approving delivery and tracking the orders. They can also do the job of requesting customer reviews and even creating removal orders. If you sell through FBA, your VA can monitor orders, assist in manually shipping out FBA units if necessary, and send in FBA inventory.
Order processing also involves managing discounts, offers, coupons, and reward points. Hiring Amazon virtual assistants can help process orders with these details for faster order fulfillment. Your Amazon VA can also assist in matching past orders to reviews to track negative feedback, thus providing the appropriate response and timely customer support.
Marketing support
Marketing is essential in any business, but more so in online businesses like Amazon stores. Promoting an Amazon store and its products can be time-consuming for most Amazon sellers.
Hiring a VA can help run sponsored social media ads, manage Amazon ad campaigns, and execute other marketing solutions. If you manage your marketing through Seller Central, you can easily assign a VA to create ad listings and offer promotional deals or coupons.
Amazon Virtual Assistant Services By Remote Raven
Most Amazon business owners recognize the many valuable benefits of having VAs. But with the many things to consider and the varied tasks to assign, hiring an Amazon virtual assistant can be as complicated as running a business. Nevertheless, having a VA is the critical key to sustainable business growth.
Remote Raven has over a decade of experience in employing VAs. We also have an excellent track record in vetting VAs and connecting them to ideal positions. Here at Remote Raven, we can guarantee that an outstanding Amazon VA is only a 15-minute call away.
Let us know what tasks you need your VA to do, and we’ll do the rest for you. We search and pick the best from our pool of professional and highly-qualified virtual assistants from the Philippines.
From here, we schedule your meeting with only the best candidates for your position. You make the final hiring decision, but we manage your VA’s salaries, track their productivity, and provide hiring support.
Or maybe you have more questions about what an Amazon virtual assistant is and how it can help your business? We’ll answer all of them!
Hire your next Amazon virtual assistant the right way through Remote Raven. Schedule a call with us today!
