Sell on Amazon
Currently there are no places left in my schedule to fit in any new clients for the 8 week program. For that I am sorry. You may of course use the eCommerce Forums to ask any questions you may have or if you’d like to speak with me directly you can purchase personal consulting time here. Matt

Sell on AmazonThe Amazon marketplace is by far one of the easiest online marketplaces to sell your products on. There are many factors that influence the sale and I’m sure you’ll be glad to hear, not just the price!

By selling your products on Amazon, you gain access to the Amazon customer base of literally millions worldwide, there are some stark differences between Amazon & eBay and I cover these briefly later on. However for now, understand that the Amazon sites attract 1 in 5 internet users globally and their marketplace for 3rd party sellers, is growing at an astonishing 76%*.

Why Sell on Amazon?

Sell on AmazonBy placing your products for sale on Amazon, opens up a whole new customer base to you, leveraging Amazon’s prestigious brand to sell your products. Selling on Amazon, if done right, can be both exceptionally easy and profitable.

You essentially sell your items alongside Amazon, either directly competing with them, other merchants or if you have unique or new products you can create your own. The listing requirements change between different categories, however if you are selling a previously documented product, then placing your goods for sale can be very quick and very effective.

The Amazon marketplace has seen continuous year on year growth, the last documented results show that in quarter 2 of 2011, Amazon marketplace merchants saw that they account for a 36% increase of paid units, up from the 34% share last year and is growing at some 76%. Also, this growth level is not expected to drop any time soon either. * Sources: Comscore & ChannelAdvisor

In short, if you have products that are within their policies (of which there are a few limitations), in today’s environment, you need to be selling on Amazon, its that simple.

Types of Selling Amazon Accounts

There are two types of Amazon selling accounts. A marketplace account which is aimed at small or private sellers that are likely to sell less than 35 items per month and a seller central account, where the current monthly fee is £25 + VAT per month for unlimited products and various levels of fees depending upon the category for when the products sell.

The Differences Between Amazon & eBay

There are stark differences between eBay & Amazon, the fees differ for one, however it goes deeper than just fees. The core difference between Amazon and eBay is that eBay is a marketplace and does not transact itself, where as on Amazon, they also sell there, as its there marketplace and you can sometimes run up against them on some products.

The standards demanded by Amazon tend to be much higher than eBay, that means fast shipping, great pricing and excellent customer service. Unlike eBay, you are representing their buyers. The Amazon buyer tends to not ask questions, the amount of communications received from Amazon buyers minute compared to eBay, typically only asking questions about lost packages or returns and normally they’re rare as well.

Unlike eBay, some categories are gated. For example the Toys & Games categories are locked down at the beginning of September and no normal sellers are allowed to list items in that category and even then, you must be granted special permission to do so.

Fulfilment By Amazon

Amazon-Super-Saver-deliveryLeveraging “Fulfilment by Amazon”, you gain access to the wealth of Amazon Prime customers. These customers have paid a premium for free shipping for the course of one year and tend to favour Amazon only sales because of the free “super saver” delivery.

By putting your products into FBA, you are able to gain access to this elusive customer base and it can in the right circumstances work out far cheaper for Amazon to fulfil your products for you and gain additional sales.

Amazon Optimisation

There are many ways to optimise your selling activities on Amazon, these include, but are not limited to the following, Matt can help you with all these & more as your requirements dictate.

  • Categorisation
  • Artwork
  • Titles
  • Search keywords
  • Browse nodes
  • Related products
  • Bullet points
  • Descriptions
  • Reviews
  • Data transfer methods
  • 3rd party tools for order management, inventory management & repricing
  • FBA (covered below)

Generally there are no “shortcuts” to the above, to succeed at Amazon you need dedication to work with Amazon for years, not weeks or months. It takes patience, a combination of numerous factors and experience to leverage the platform to its optimum.

Amazon as a Multi-Channel Approach

Amazon should be part of a multichannel approach by you as an online retailer, to either complement your eBay sales, website sales or other sales mediums.

From experience, most businesses tend to weigh heavily in one direction, whether that be towards eBay, Amazon or website sales. In a perfect world, they should all be roughly equal, however that is rarely the case and always a cause of concern when managing risk & exposure to external forces in a business.

Amazon Strategy

Amazon MarketplacesBy working with Matt, you can leverage his years of knowledge with the Amazon marketplace, the other marketplaces and 3rd party tools like eSellerPro, ChannelAdvisor & Linnworks, to leverage the millions of potential buyers to maximum effect.

It does not matter if you are completely new to selling on Amazon or have been selling on Amazon for quite some time. There are always ways of optimising your activities, Matthew can hold your hand through them.

You can find out more information about working with Matt here, or with no obligation at all, simply email me (matt [at] lastdropofink.co.uk).

Currently there are no places left in my schedule to fit in any new clients for the 8 week program. For that I am sorry. You may of course use the eCommerce Forums to ask any questions you may have or if you’d like to speak with me directly you can purchase personal consulting time here. Matt