Amazon is a unique eCommerce platform that provides significant support for sellers looking to start or expand their business online. This post explores how sellers can capitalise on these benefits to make the transition to their online business on Amazon a smoother one.
Read more about Expanding to Amazon Europe Markets and Understanding Amazon Platforms.
Amazon Prime
One of the most important features of Amazon that customers benefit from is one that many other eCommerce platforms do not currently have: Amazon Prime. Prime membership provides options for 1-day and 2-day delivery in the EU; in the majority of the US, Prime members also have access to free same-day delivery. According to Amazon, there are over 200 million Amazon Prime users globally, with over 157.4 million Prime users in the US alone. Prime members are some of the most loyal and engaged shoppers in the world. As Amazon is expanding, you can also expect to see growth in the numbers of Prime users in Europe. Read more about benefits with Amazon Prime.
Customers come to you
One of the most difficult tasks of starting a new business or developing and establishing new sales channels is finding new customers. By expanding to the Amazon marketplace, one of the leading eCommerce platforms out there, most likely your customers, Prime members or not, will already be shopping for similar products. If you have the right marketing strategy, the customers will come to you.
Easy to expand globally
There are great opportunities for expanding and making your products available for customers around the world via Amazon Global Selling. As an Amazon Global Seller, you would have access to customers from over 180 countries. The process for keeping track of inventory, customer service and returns makes expansion even easier, as stock, sales, customer satisfaction and business reports are all managed in one place making it easier to compile and organise. Read more about Amazon Global Selling.
Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) = Less stress
Many customers expect free fast delivery, which can be difficult to achieve when you have to send a product to a different part of the world. When you sell through Amazon and use their Fulfillment by Amazon program (FBA), free fast delivery becomes something you can now offer to many of your customers. Fulfillment by Amazon saves you time spent on shipping and money on warehouse space because Amazon stores and manages the delivery of your products. If you already have a logistics system in place or prefer to have a hands-on approach, you could also choose to take care of stock and delivery yourself by using FBM (Fulfillment by Merchant). This means that you are responsible for sales, returns, inventory and stock. Read more about Fulfilment by Amazon and Fulfilment by Merchant.
Customer confidence
When starting a new business, building trust among your customer base usually takes time. They may be worried about making payments without risk, or if the money-back guarantee can be trusted when returning a product. However, when you sell on Amazon, you benefit from brand credibility:, the fact that customers trust Amazon as an eCommerce platform means more of your products are likely to end up being purchased.
Advertising opportunities
Amazon not only enables you to be “found” by more customers, you also get the opportunity to advertise on one of the largest eCommerce platforms. The primary difference between Amazon and Google search engines is that Google is solution-oriented while Amazon is product-oriented. Because of this, Amazon has even overtaken Google in terms of the number of product searches. When customers go to Amazon, they are looking for products to buy. Therefore, Amazon’s advertising platform conversion rates are excellent.
Manage it all in one place
Amazon, currently the #1 eCommerce platform in the US, Europe and Asia, is constantly developing and expanding to new marketplaces. By expanding or launching your business on Amazon, it’s a great opportunity to make your product accessible to lots of new customers while taking advantage of the organised logistics process.
If you would like to know more, get in touch with us to schedule a consultation about your brands’ marketing strategy on Amazon!
Image credit: Megan Rexazin Conde for Pixabay
