What Is an Amazon Virtual Assistant and Should You Hire One for Your Business?

Would you like some help starting and managing your PPC campaigns? Or maybe for more generic, more routine aspects of your private label business, like customer support or order management? These are just some of the things Amazon’s virtual assistant can help you with.

Some sellers decide  to forgo a VA and manage the A-Z of an Amazon business all by themselves. But not everyone is willing—or capable—of doing so. That’s where an Amazon virtual assistant comes on board.

So, where do you find an Amazon virtual assistant? What duties will they perform? And is hiring one the right move? We’re going to discuss this and more in this guide.

What an Amazon Virtual Assistant Can Do

The level of what you can outsource to an Amazon virtual assistant depends on each one's skills, experience, and whether they work as a part-time or full-time employee. In general, a virtual assistant (or VA for short) is expected to work on one or more of the following tasks:

Product/Keyword Research

Some Amazon virtual assistants market themselves as ‘product hunters’, whereas others may boast that they are ‘keyword researchers’. Expect these VAs to have active subscriptions to multiple leading keyword research tools available in the market. 

They are also aware of the latest product hunting methodologies and tasked with finding keywords with relatively high demand,  low competition, and are easy to rank. Most follow a data-driven approach that considers the dynamics of a marketplace and why a particular product niche is potentially better than another.

Finding and Negotiating With Suppliers

Finding the right supplier (for example, on Alibaba.com) and negotiating the best prices is no easy feat. With countless manufacturers producing the same products, choosing a supplier that meets your price point and quality standards can feel like trying to find a needle from a haystack!

An experienced Amazon virtual assistant will quickly spot the tell-tale signs of quality manufacturers and be equally competent when it comes to negotiating prices. Since suppliers are known to turn their backs on agreed-upon terms and conditions (hello, contractual agreements!), hiring a seasoned VA ups your chances of dodging financial disasters.

✍️Note: Keep an eye out for VAs who have links with natives to scout local markets for killer rates and inspect your inventory. To help, look for VA’s with experience dealing with Chinese suppliers and reputable freight forwarding companies.

Create and Optimize Amazon Product Listings

The product listing or detail page is the face of a brand. But don’t think that creating an optimized product listing is just about being fancy with words, oh no. To rank high on Amazon you’ll need to do some strategic keyword placement.

This involves understanding where to place primary and secondary keywords in the product title, bullet points, and description in the most natural way. And that’s just one aspect of listing optimization—never mind the importance of backend keywords.

Regardless of how efficient you are with your keywords, no listing can be considered fully optimized without high-quality images. For this, we suggest hiring a specialized VA that also offers professional photography along with A+ content or, at the very least, can get it done through someone else. 

Sellers should routinely track changes made to their competitors’ product listings. Failing to do so will most likely slow down sales velocity, followed by an eventual drop in the rankings.

If you’d like to understand listing optimization a little more, visit our Amazon listing optimization blog. Otherwise, it might be best to hire an Amazon virtual assistant and leave it up to them

✍️Note: When planning to sell internationally, some VAs can help to translate your product listing. For FBA, you can also check out Amazon’s local customer support services, and the Amazon Build International Listings (BIL) tool does a decent job too.

Help Grow Your Business by Running and Managing Ad Campaigns 

Amazon virtual assistants who know how to run and manage Ad campaigns are highly sought after by small and large-scale sellers alike. Creating an ad campaign is easy (just head on over to the Advertising tab, select Campaign Manager, and choose a campaign type). Here’s the problem, which kind of campaign is best to start with?

The various options you have include Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display. Let’s say you opt for Sponsored Products, is automatic or manual keyword targeting the right option? All in all, running and fine-tuning Ad campaigns can be beyond the scope of new sellers.

Even if you decide to educate yourself on the topic, odds are that you’ll lose money initially while you’re still figuring things out. Suppose this isn’t what you’re looking for. In this case, you can save time and energy by hiring an Amazon VA specializing in creating and managing Ad campaigns.

✍️Note: There is plenty of newbie VAs out there claiming to be Amazon PPC experts. During the interview stage, ask a potential VA to present evidence of how they have helped previous clients run and manage successful Ad campaigns.

Handling Customer Service and Fulfillment-related Tasks 

Customer support can eat up a good chunk of time and is an inevitable part of running an Amazon business. Taking care of customer support-related tasks is the bread and butter of every VA. Some of these include answering customer’s questions, dealing with refund requests, contacting Amazon for negative review removals, managing email campaigns, etc.

The customer service end of things is relatively easy to deal with when it comes to FBA, both for the seller and the VA. In FBM, a virtual assistant is expected to resolve logistics-related issues. These could include managing and processing FBM orders, taking care of refund requests, and creating removal orders to name a few.

Overall, there are VAs who can master multiple aspects of Private Label selling. In some cases, they are established sellers themselves. But expect these guys to cost a pretty penny--well upwards of $1,000.

So, now that we have a clearer picture of what an Amazon VA can do for your business, how can you find one?

Where to Find a Virtual Assistant

There are numerous platforms where Amazon sellers and virtual assistants meet. Still, two of the best places to find credible VAs are Upwork and Fiverr.

Upwork and Fiverr are two digital platforms that connect entrepreneurs and businesses with freelancers. 

How to find a VA on Upwork

After setting up an account, search for terms like “Amazon VA” and “Amazon Virtual Assistant”.  For more specialized tasks, type in “Amazon” followed by “Product Researcher”, “PPC Expert”, or “Sourcing Specialist” depending on what you need. 

Similar to Amazon and Google, a drop-down menu will suggest relevant terms to choose from. After selecting the type of virtual assistant you’re interested in, a list of profiles will appear, with the best-performing ones at the top. Here’s an example:

When recruiting an Amazon VA on Upwork, there are a few metrics to consider:

• Top Rated Badge: Very few freelancers are awarded a Top Rated badge. It’s a sign that the freelancer has consistently provided quality services while adhering to the platform’s ToS. Naturally, such virtual assistants can be a bit pricey. 
• Job Success Score: A percentage-based metric that shows how successful a freelancer has been regarding fulfilling clients’ orders and living up to set expectations. Anything above 80% is great.
• Money earned: The amount of money a freelancer has made thus far. It’s more a sign of experience rather than skill. 
• Hourly Rate: How much the virtual assistant charges per hour.

How to find a VA on Fiverr

Fiverr also features similar metrics that help sellers connect with reputable service providers. If a freelancer consistently performs well, they are upgraded to ‘Level One’ sellers, then ‘Level Two’, and finally ‘Top Rated’,  like those on Upwork. If you want to hire the best of the best, you can set custom filters like below.

Top Rated freelancers are hard to come by. However, those with a Level One or Level Two badge can be pretty great virtual assistants too. Here’s an example of a Level Two freelancer offering professional Amazon photography services.

✍️Note: You can Fiverr’s official page to view the criteria for different seller levels.

Should an Amazon Seller Hire a Virtual Assistant to Save Time and Resources?

Based on all the facts so far, hiring an Amazon virtual assistant will help if you are: a beginner, short on time, or Amazon is your side hustle.

Are you serious about setting up an online business? We offer an all-in-one FBA seller tool suite to make it easy to find a best-selling product, do keyword research, and take your listing to page one. For some product inspiration, check out our free eBook of 80 of the hottest products to consider right now.

ZonGuru was designed to be the quintessential ‘virtual’ assistant. To perform all the tasks of a live VA and, in some cases, outperform VAs. How so?

 Here’s a quick peek at just of our features:

• Product Hunting/Keyword research: The Niche Finder tool lets users zone in on the perfect keyword/product niche, and it’s completely backed by accurate data.

• Getting in Touch with Suppliers: Remember how we mentioned the type of analytical and communication skills needed to secure quality suppliers at the desired price point? Well, with Easy Source, that’s possible with just the click of a button!
  
  

The image above shows the search result for the word keyword “boys cap”. Easy Source only recommends the best suppliers/manufacturers on Alibaba.com based on key metrics like performance, time spent on Alibaba.com, and customer ratings.

• Create Optimized Product Listings: Optimize your product listings thanks to the Listing Optimizer tool that works in tandem with Keywords on Fire and Keywords Spotlight. Using these tools, you can create the perfect product listing based on previous keyword research.
•  Customer Engagement: ZonGuru’s Review Automator tool solicits customer reviews from buyers while remaining within Amazon’s Terms of Services—something a virtual assistant can’t do. 

And that’s not all--sign up today and you’ll get access to a whole range of other tools and resources, like podcasts, webinars, guides, and a customer support team to egg you on. ZonGuru is without a doubt the best bang for your buck when it comes to launching and growing a profitable FBA business with ease.