Why should businesses start, or continue to sell on Amazon?

Welcome to the bring your product idea to Life podcast. This is the podcast for you if you're getting started selling products or if you'd like to create your own product to sell.

I'm Vicki Weinberg, a product creation coach and Amazon expert. Every week I share friendly, practical advice as well as inspirational stories from small businesses. Let's get started.

Hi. So I am so excited to be speaking to you on a Tuesday. This is a little bit different. It is just me today, so no guest.

I am going to be trialling something new for the next couple of months, which hopefully will continue forever.

But let's see how it goes, which.

Is a second weekly episode, which will be just on a Tuesday. And this will be all about Amazon. I have done a lot of my.

Amazon power hours recently and I get.

Asked lots of questions and there were things that come up time and time again.

And I thought, you know what?

It would be really useful if I put some of the things that I.

Know I get asked often into these really short mini Amazon episodes for you.

So each one will be short.

So these aren't going to be full length episodes, but they will be packed full of information that will be really useful for you.

Fridays, I should say, will stay completely as normal. I'm not changing anything about the Friday schedule. These are just extra episodes to give.

You even more value.

And like all of my episodes, you can actually watch these on YouTube. So I'm recording this into video. If you are watching me on YouTube, you'll see I keep glancing to the.

Side because I have some notes, but.

If you want to see me talk to you, you can do that.

And there is so much other content on YouTube as well.

So all of the old podcast episodes are up there. There are also some brand new videos on various topics around Amazon.

There are lots of really good shorts with clips of just some of the.

Best bits of advice we've received from our guests. It really is good.

There is hours and hours of amazing content. So do check out YouTube and I.

Will put a link to the YouTube in the show notes for this episode. So something I get asked quite often.

Is why as a small business, would I even consider selling on Amazon? And then sometimes people follow up with, and why would you, as in me, Vicki, help people to do that?

Because I think Amazon can be seen as a bit of an enemy of small businesses, maybe.

And also there are other things, aren't there? So the Amazon fees are high, Amazon seller support isn't very good.

You can quote me on that. It's not an easy place to get started.

You've probably heard me say that before.

Seller Central, which is the system you.

Use to sell on Amazon, isn't very intuitive.

I keep saying it looks like something.

Out of the nineties. Probably it wasn't around in the nineties.

But you know what I mean.

It's not like a really well designed.

User friendly interface in my opinion.

Maybe it was at some point, it's not really now. And also you might be making more money. You probably, possibly will make more money.

Per se on your own website.

So why on earth would you choose to sell on Amazon with all that in mind?

However, with all that being said, I.

Do genuinely think that Amazon is a good marketplace to sell your products on.

And I will put the caveat in.

Here as this isn't an episode saying you, the listener, should be putting your products on Amazon.

I still don't believe Amazon is the right marketplace for every product, for every brand. This episode is more to say, some of the reasons I think Amazon could be worth considering.

But of course, wherever it is right for you is something for you to figure out yourself. And hopefully as I release more of these episodes and you get more information.

On the various aspects of selling your.

Products on Amazon, that will really help you as well.

So some of the reasons I think Amazon is a great place to list.

Your products is that probably most people.

You know, probably including yourself, shops there. There is no work needed to get.

Customers onto the site. Customers know, you know, they know Amazon. Lots of us go there. I mean, I know if I have to buy a present for a kid's.

Birthday party, for example, is often the.

First place I go.

Of course, just because the customers are.

There, they then there doesn't mean they're just going to find and buy your products again. I've spoken about the fact that you need to list your products on Amazon really well to get people to find them. That is a whole other episode.

But by being on Amazon, it does give you the potential to get in front of new customers. And don't worry, we will do an episode about how to do it really.

Well and how to help yourself get found and the Amazon algorithm and all of that. But for today, let's just know that being there can be a way to get in front of new customers, which I also think is important because I.

Think customers who know you. So your customers who already come and.

Shop on your website, they probably won't shop from you on Amazon. Maybe some of them will, because let's.

Say you charge delivery on your website.

But on Amazon, delivery is free and.

Maybe it's a bit faster because you're.

Using prime, which we'll talk about later then. Yes, maybe they will choose to buy.

On Amazon, but for me, I think what it's more about is helping other customers to find you.

So customers who aren't buying from you.

Already, maybe they've never even heard of you.

They come across you on Amazon and remember that all of the people there on Amazon, they're there to shop.

Most of them, I mean, I know.

Speaking to myself again, have their credit.

Card details saved on Amazon.

So it's really easy to buy. And a lot of people, I think.

Might not want to enter their card details into a small business website that they've never heard of.

And I know that I definitely fall in into that as well. You know, you have to do a bit of due diligence before you give away your credit card details.

But on Amazon, it's really easy to.

Shop and it's really easy to shop.

For a brand you've never heard of because you have that confidence that actually.

You'Re buying on Amazon. So as I said, Amazon is a.

Great way for new customers to find.

You and have the confidence to buy from you. And even if ultimately your goal is.

For customers to come and buy from.

Your own website, because you might, as I said before, it might be much.

More profitable for you if customers buy from you directly.

I still think there are ways to do this and we will definitely cover this in another episode as well. So how you can use Amazon as.

A way for customers to find you.

But ultimately lead them to purchasing from your website in future. So I should also say that I.

Think it's 13 million people, probably more.

Because I think that's quite an old stat, have prime.

So they're really used to the fast.

Shopping experience that Amazon can offer.

And if you're unable to match that.

On your own website, it could be.

Yet another reason why people might prefer.

To buy on Amazon. And it might also be the case that if you sell on Amazon and use FBA, in fact, it possibly will.

Be the case that Amazon can get products to the customer faster than you.

Can and for less of a cost as well. And I'm going to do a whole.

Episode, just about the cost of selling on Amazon.

That will be next week. So you've got that coming up. But it does mean that you don't.

Have to do your own fulfillment as.

Well, which is, I think, a good thing. And you might like doing your own fulfillment. That was something that when I ran tiny chipmunk, wasn't my favorite thing.

It was my least favorite thing was packing and shipping orders. And eventually I outsourced that and then also had Amazon do that for me. And I think it's great to have that option.

However, if for any reason you don't want to use Amazon prime, don't think that I'm saying from Maimonide or FBA, which is fulfilled by Amazon, don't think.

I'm saying for a moment that you.

Have to when you sell on Amazon.

So yes, there will be customers who like the prime offer. There are definitely benefits to using it. And again, there's an episode coming up.

On which fulfillment method to choose. If you do decide to sell on Amazon in the future, but you absolutely don't need to use FBA, you can.

Sell on Amazon and do your own fulfillment. And as I say, in a future.

Episode, we'll go into this in a lot more detail. And what else is great about selling on Amazon?

Oh, well, on top of the fulfillment, that also means that you have a.

Lot of opportunity to sell globally. So there are Amazon marketplaces all over the world, which gives you a lot of opportunity.

And depending where in the world you're listening from where you want to sell.

Your products, there are lots of different options for fulfilling orders in different countries as well. So it does open up a whole load of opportunities.

And then you can also use Amazon now to integrate with other platforms.

So you've been able to integrate with.

Shopify for a long time.

I imagine there will be other platforms that you can integrate with.

And what this basically means is Amazon.

Multi channel fulfillment can automatically fulfill orders placed on your shopify site, for example.

From your Amazon stock. Or if you don't want to do that, you can at least sync so.

That your inventory is always aligned across everywhere you're selling.

And actually, now this is a very.

New thing if you're selling on other channels. So say, let's say you're selling on.

TikTok or Instagram or Pinterest, you can actually use your Amazon stock to fulfill those orders automatically.

And it's all integrated. So that's just another thing that's, I guess, more time saving than anything else.

But there's lots and lots that being on Amazon can do that people aren't always aware of. So hopefully that was a little bit of an overview.

And I will say as well that.

I know that you might be thinking, okay, Amazon is not really a great place, small business. I can see people shop on there but actually, I have a small business. It's not quite where I want to be, but I would maybe think of.

It of a way of helping your.

Brand to become visible. And, you know, I think that Amazon, they're definitely far from perfect.

I've said this at the beginning, and it won't be the right place for everyone, but I do think if the.

Pros outweigh the cons, it definitely might be something worth considering. And everyone sells on Amazon for different reasons. So some of my clients really want to grow their Amazon business.

They want it to be a big part of their revenue and that's what they're focusing on.

But then I also work with clients who are using Amazon more as a.

Way to get found by new customers and ultimately lead them over to shopping with them directly on their own websites. And all of this is possible if.

That'S what you want.

And there are different ways. There's definitely different ways to do it.

And in answer to the second part.

Of the question, because I haven't forgotten that, which is why am I helping people to sell on Amazon?

To be really honest, it's because it's hard.

Selling on Amazon is really hard.

It takes work to get set up, it takes work to maintain your account, it takes work to grow your account, and that's if everything goes smoothly. Don't get me wrong, it's absolutely possible.

To sell on Amazon yourself and not.

Use any external help. And I'm hoping that by sharing this.

Sort of information with you and going some way to helping you do that for yourself. So this isn't me saying it's impossible, you can't do it, but just know that it's work. And that might be a reason, you.

Know, that you are not interested in.

Selling on Amazon right now, because if you don't have the time and resources to, to spend on it, then I would say it's one of those things that if you're going to do it, you need to do it and do it well, because when you list a product on Amazon, it's kind of doing it right from the start is a lot better than doing it and then having to go back and redo it all. So if you're not in a position where you think you've got the time and the energy required to get that.

Done, then maybe it's a reason not to.

At the moment, it's not easy.

Things do change all the time.

However, if you are in a position.

Where you're thinking, yes, I actually do.

Want to sell on Amazon, then hopefully.

I can help you. Whether it's via one of these podcast.

Episodes, whether it's you joining my Facebook group, or whether it's us having a chat together about answering any and all questions that you've got, I'm always going.

To be delighted to help you. So I will end that episode here, as I did promise it would be.

Short, and I will listen well. I'll be back again on Friday with the regular schedule, and then in your feed again next Tuesday with another mini Amazon episode.

Thank you so much for listening. Right to the end of this episode, do remember that you can get the full back catalogue and lots of free resources on my website, vickywineberg.com.

please do remember to rate and review this episode if you've enjoyed it, and also share it with a friend who you think might find you useful. Thank you again and see you next week.