6 Important Questions to Ask to Yourself Before Selling on Amazon
I agree with Robert Louis Stevenson when he said that “Everyone lives by selling something.” But with thousands of ecommerce stores and millions of sellers joining the competition, selling is becoming more and more difficult these days, and so is living.
Competition is a way of life and ecommerce companies like Amazon knows that. Amazon is here to help people who are hardworking and passionate about selling. With over 270 million worldwide customer accounts, more than 150,000 employees, and an estimated $75 billion net revenue in 2013, Amazon wants to make the selling profession easy for the deserving ones.
Here are the 6 important questions Amazon wants you to ask yourself before selling on their platform.
How can I Sell on Amazon?
You can sell almost anything at Amazon. You can sell as a professional or as an individual by simply registering an account at the Amazon Services Seller Central.
After the registration, it’s time to manage your inventory. You can create your product listing one at a time or upload multiple products via an excel file. At this point, your products are live and you’re ready to sell. Amazon will notify you through email or text message once an order is received. Then the rest is about order fulfilment.
What preparations are needed to 100% fulfil every customer order?
If you sell on your own, at home or on a shop, shipping customer orders is not as easy as you might expect it. So be ready for that. Partner with carriers with proven track record near you area. Establish a shipping rate and times guide similar to what Amazon has. If you’re selling electronic goods or other delicate stuffs, make sure you’re following the standard packing procedure.
In order to avoid hassles in shipment, Amazon offers an shipping end-to-end solution, Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA).
How Fulfilment by Amazon works?
First, you have to send your physical products to Amazon with the proper labels. Through Amazon’s integrated tracking system, your products will be safely kept and monitored. Once you received an order, Amazon will do the picking, packing and shipping to you customer of that particular product. Customers who wish to avail free shipping, guaranteed accelerated delivery or other shipping options will all be taken care of by Amazon.
Is it practical to go with FBA?
There is of course a corresponding fulfilment fee for every product shipment. This fee covers the order handling, pick and pack, weight handling, plus storage fees. Amazon has a simple guide on how to calculate fulfilment fees. As an example, a CD can costs at around $1.54 while a hammock is around $25.29.
You can conduct a survey of the shipping costs charged by carriers near your place and then compare it with Amazon. The result of your calculation will tell you if it’s practical to go with FBA. But keep in mind that during calculation, also include the total overhead costs so that you can come up with the right decision.
Why (and how) should a webstore be built?
Building an ecommerce store is about building your own brand and identity. With Amazon Webstore platform, you don’t have to hire a professional web builder or go to another ecommerce platform to create your store. According to Amazon, there are only four steps to build and launch your customized ecommerce site and they are: 1) add you products listing, 2) design your site by adding themes, widgets, and setting up a checkout or payment gateway (ex. Amazon Payment, PayPal, Google Checkout), 3) setup your domain name and other store settings with the help of the setup wizard, and 4) launch your webstore.
Is it really that easy to launch a webstore?
No. It can take you weeks or even months to design and setup an ecommerce site. While Amazon Webstore platform is one of the best in the market, you will still have to pay $79 monthly subscription, 2% transaction fee and additional payment processing and fraud protection fee.
If you really want to leverage Amazon’s world-class ecommerce technology, hiring a professional to build your website can still be the best option. You may also contact Amazon to refer to you their partners in web design and development.
Selling on Amazon can be rewarding. These are just the initial steps. Selling is always a learning process and for sure Amazon have all the necessary resources to provide – to your questions.
