You might be selling your product on your own website. You might be selling on Etsy, or another marketplace. Wherever you’re selling, I hope you’re doing really well! Today I want to talk about 5 reasons it might be worth considering selling on Amazon this year.
1. Lots of people shop there. (In fact some people only shop there!) They trust Amazon enough to hand over their card details. They might have their card details saved already – making it really quick and easy to make a purchase – in just a click or two. Very few of us want to put our details into a random website – but Amazon feels secure to many of us. Plus, most products will be delivered the next day – or possibly even sooner – for Prime customers.
2. FBA and Amazon Prime. Amazon can most likely pack and despatch orders faster than you can. (And that’s if you even want to.) If you use Amazon FBA (Fulfilled By Amazon), then delivery, and even returns, are usually pretty easy for the customer and there’s no quibbling if they want to send something back. On a recent podcast episode Cara Sayer spoke about making the buying experience easy for the customer – and I couldn’t agree more. Yes, it’ll cost you, as a seller, to use FBA, but it might be worth it, if it helps customers to buy from you.
My top tip here is to offer both FBA and FBM (Fulfilled By Merchant) if you can, in case you sell out of FBA stock. Make your own shipping price free (so it’s comparable) and that way you have a back-up if stock runs out and a free shopping option for customers who don’t have Amazon Prime.
3. It’s not the same as trying to get people over to your website. If your product is what people are looking for it can be easier to convert them (than on Google for example), as they’re usually there to shop. Yes, there is some SEO involved, but once people are on Amazon there are strategies and tools you can use to help get traffic to your listing:
The first thing is to have a great, well researched listing. I’d then also recommend paying for Amazon Sponsored Products ads for the first month or two, to get things going and start to build up sales and reviews.
4. You have the opportunity to sell globally, as there are marketplaces all over the world (18 in fact), so plenty of opportunities for expansion. I also suggest starting off in your own country (or one marketplace at least), as the logistics are often simpler. Once things are up and running you can then look at expanding.
5. It’s hard – so not everyone tries and not everyone succeeds! This might sound weird, but it’s true. There are lots of products that would be great on Amazon and sell really well, but they never make it there because selling on Amazon can be hard, scary and complicated. Or some sellers choose to get onto Amazon via a distributor – and lose control in the process.
There are definitely downsides too. Get some pros and cons here.
However, while I do hear (and help!) a lot of sellers having issues on Amazon, there is a solution to 99% of the problems! (Even if it can take a whale to get there You’ll likely have heard me say before that Amazon Support isn’t the greatest and I have a whole podcast episode that talks about navigating this!
A final word…
One caveat here is that Amazon isn’t right for every product. For a few reasons – either because it’s not the right marketplace, or because competition for products like yours is really high and you’d likely need to spend a lot on advertising to get started (which may not prove profitable).
If you need help working this out, I offer a strategy session where I thoroughly research your product, the competition (and potential) on Amazon and produce a report that I talk you through during a Zoom call.
I’ll also talk you through:
- What’s involved in setting up and launching your product on Amazon (including how much time you need to launch)
- My honest opinion on whether you should be selling on Amazon
Not only that, you’ll also get:
- A bespoke market research report (including competitor analysis).
- The Amazon Sellers’ Checklist – which sets out the steps you need to take to get your product on Amazon
- My Amazon launch guide – to help you get off to a great start!