Why you should be selling on Amazon
So, what does Amazon provide that makes it a logical platform to be selling your product on? The first is access to millions and millions of customers. By simply putting your product on Amazon it can be potentially seen by every person that shops on the site, which let’s be honest how many people do not shop on Amazon today? Many people say Amazon charges huge fees to sell on their platform, which makes it very difficult to sell items profitably, which they do, but you must keep in mind all the marketing power that you are gaining access too by paying those fees. No company has mastered the art of marketing to the customer base better than Amazon, and the fact they already have a ready-made customer base of millions of millions of buyers to market to, I would argue the fees that they charge to sell an item is a bargain in comparison to beginning a marketing campaign of your own. There is no other single platform that you can put your inventory on today that will even compare to the customers that you will be putting your items in front of on Amazon.
Don’t forget about Prime
In addition to the huge customer base Amazon has at its arsenal, utilizing programs within the Amazon seller ecosystem (Mainly the FBA program) you can gain access to Amazon’s Prime program. This program basically breaks out and gives you access to Amazons best customers. These customers typically purchase more on Amazon than other customers and are also more prone to purchase an item for a higher cost than what other Amazon customers will pay for the item to gain access to the benefits of being a prime member (IE lower cost and faster shipping). You can gain access to these customers for an increased cost, and generally make up the cost plus some extra profit through the increased profits you can make by simply carrying the “Prime” tag.
Amazon is simple
Another huge advantage to the Amazon platform is the ease of which you can list items. If you are currently selling products that already exist within the Amazon product catalog there is a very simple 3-5 click process to get your product added to that existing product page. With the use of some of the third-party tools available on the market to assist with listing products (These tools are covered in other blog posts) you can get that listing down 1-2 clicks. If the product does not exist in the product catalog you will need to add the product to the catalog, this is a slightly more in-depth process, but is still more streamlined that most of Amazons competitors (IE eBay, Etsy, Bonanza). With Amazon, you will need to provide, text, images, and keywords, for the item, but unlike other sites you do not need to provide any special formatting or templates to give the listing a polished look.
Groundbreaking Logistics
Amazon has one of the most advanced logistical networks in the world. Utilizing the Amazon FBA program, you can gain full access to that network. This allows you to be able to sell and ship items to Amazon customers at the same speeds as Amazon ships items to the customers. This is a huge advantage over many of the other selling channels people may use to sell their products. This also puts you on a level playing field when selling a product that Amazon also sells. A less known huge advantage is that when Amazon is holding inventory for you, you can also utilize that very same network to fulfill orders outside the Amazon platform. Utilizing the Amazon logistics network can provide a similar shipping experience to customers who are purchasing items from you on your own website or on another selling platform giving you a big advantage on those platforms that your competitors may not be utilizing.
Works for any size and scale Seller
One of my favorite features of the Amazon platform is that when the 3rd party market started it was designed for small scale sellers. In its early days it was designed for college students to sell their remaining college textbooks or other very small scale selling. Over time companies have come on board to the marketplace that are selling thousands all the way to millions of items. Because of this Amazon has built tools to make those sellers successful while still maintaining the infrastructure to allow smaller sellers to succeed. The beauty of this is it allows you as a seller to start as small as you want and scale to as big as you may choose to. Basically, if you are looking to sell 10 items a month or if you want to sell 10,000 items in a month Amazon has everything in place you need for either scale. This means no matter how big or small you might be this is a powerful platform that can work for you and has been built with you in mind.
In Conclusion
These are the primary benefits to the Amazon platform. Keep in mind, that like anything there are a lot of positives to selling on Amazon, but as well there are also negatives. While I think the positives outweigh the negatives making this platform a win for any seller, it is important to understand the negatives so when you approach building a business within the platform, you do it in a such way to protect yourself from those negatives. Make sure to check out our blog posts to understand the negative to selling on Amazon.
