If you have an eCommerce business you have probably thought at some point about how you can grow your sales, and one option you may have explored is selling on Amazon. But, is selling on Amazon right for your brand?
Access to a HUGE customer base
Amazon is the largest online marketplace in the world so it is only natural that brands would want to utilise their already large, loyal customer base to try and sell more products. In fact, 86% of people in the UK shop on Amazon, giving more visibility to products.
As Amazon is such a large household name across the world, a seller automatically gains consumer trust and credibility by listing their product on the site, in contrast to a brand with few reviews and that people have not heard of.
There is also the option to expand your reach internationally if you wanted to further increase sales and the process for doing so is not too difficult, simply:
- Decide where you want to expand your reach to
- Register in that market and list your products
- Create a plan for shipping and fulfilment
- Use Amazon’s tool to manage your business and sales
Top of the line logistics and customer service
Currently, around 13.35 million people in the UK subscribe to Amazon Prime, according to recent data from Statista. For some, Prime availability can be the difference between choosing one product over another and what some sellers don’t realise is that it is possible to sign up for the Prime service and offer this market leading logistic option.
There are two ways to do this. The first is Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP). SFP is the Prime program that allows sellers to deliver products to Prime customers from their own warehouses. These sellers are able to display the Prime badge on their products, but by doing so the seller is committing to fulfil orders with approved Prime delivery carriers at no additional charge for Prime customers.
To enrol in this program you need to complete Self-Service Registration and successfully complete their SFP trial.
During the trial period, you must meet the following performance requirements:
- You must ship at least 25 shipments with 99% on-time shipping rate, or have 5 separate collections with a Prime approved carrier (whichever comes first).
- Purchase shipping from approved Prime carriers via Buy Shipping in Seller Central or on the Amazon Shipping website for all of your trial orders after carrier onboarding.
- Have less than 0.5% pre-fulfilment order-cancellation rate.
Amazon also offers FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon) this is where your inventory is stored within an Amazon warehouse and is shipped directly to the consumer. Meaning as the seller, you don’t need to deal with anything after sending the stock to Amazon. This option will see your products automatically qualify for Amazon Prime shipping and Buy Box priority.
In both cases, Amazon will handle post-order customer service.
Product optimisation
Amazon is not only full of loyal customers with a high conversion rate- 90% of the consumers that search on Amazon, convert on Amazon- it is also full of sellers looking to attract these consumers to their products, meaning competition on the online marketplace is fierce. Luckily, shoppers are shown products that match what they are searching for, rather than having to trawl through shops, meaning with a little marketing you can make your products stand out.
Firstly, you can optimise your listings. Amazon gives sellers the ability to customise the product title and description and works as its own search engine, meaning that conducting Amazon keyword research and optimisation of the product’s information can help it appear higher on the sales pages – meaning that you can quite easily compete with competitors on the platform without having to go up against huge brands. It is product vs product, giving the underdog a chance.
Secondly, you can look into advertising on Amazon as it can raise your visibility on the search results page, alongside your optimisation efforts.
These advertising options include:
- Sponsored Products
- Sponsored Brands
- Sponsored Display
- PPC
Are there any cons?
There are of course some negative elements to selling on Amazon too.
Seller fees
Nothing in this world is free, and for the use of Amazon’s globally trusted name, you have to pay nominal fees.
- Professional selling plan: £25 per month.
- Individual selling plan: A per-item fee of £0.75 for each product sold through the UK Amazon site.
- Sellers also pay a referral fee on each item sold.
- FBA fees include fulfilment fees, and monthly storage costs too.
You can find more information on Amazon’s seller fees here.
Restricted consumer interaction
For some this won’t seem like much of a con but by selling on Amazon your customer interaction is limited to the Buyer-Seller Messaging Service. All communication strictly needs to be about fulfilling the order, without opportunity for further conversation. This inhibits your ability to build your brand outside of Amazon, even if your products are a hit.
If you are still not sure if Amazon is right for your brand or you want to know more, get in touch with us today, and our team of Amazon specialists will be