If you are a store and you want to sell your products on Amazon, maybe you should read this before, not everything is so pretty.
If you are a company and you have received a call or an email from the Amazon commercial department, you may be considering selling your products on Amazon, that great Marketplace that currently has large traffic and of course a large volume of sales, but you should know that if you enter In this war, the rules are set by Amazon and you must respect them.
And is that the sale of products in Marketplaces seems to continue to rise and we do not know when it will reach its peak, they say that by 2020 40% of sales will be made through Marketplaces, Amazon being the star Marketplace, possibly part of the success It is due to the large number of products it offers, the ease of purchase and above all the great customer service it offers, we are not going to deny it, but to achieve it we must be clear that there is a strategy behind it that is only known when It’s late, but we don’t want to tell you just the bad, we’re also going to tell you the good things about selling on Amazon so you can value it.
Advantages of selling your products on Amazon
- You will be able to reach an incredible number of potential customers, you could never get by your own means, and that will have a significant impact on your sales.
- If you have products with a high rotation and a competitive price, you will get fed up with selling.
- In a short time, you will have all your products online and you will not need any technical knowledge of integration.
- If you are a manufacturer your sales could grow.
And so far the good things, after all, the good thing about selling products on Amazon is that you are going to move money, move money, which is not the same as making money…
Why you shouldn’t sell on Amazon
Of course, all the points that appear in this list of why Amazon does a thousand tricks to sellers, are based on real experiences, on the experience in another company where I am a partner, and on the experiences of many of our clients who have been telling us how Amazon spends them, let’s start…
High commissions, Amazon commissions continue to rise and honestly, I don’t think it’s profitable for a distributor/retailer, I only see sense if you are a brand or you manufacture your own product, and that until now, because now Amazon also copies and manufactures those products which have more rotation.
The monthly commission is €39 per month, with this they only sell those stores that already have a large number of products and sales, first filter, the second commission is per product, you can see the different commissions but as a general rule, it is around 12-15% on the value of the product. What does this mean? that only those sellers where the brand prevents them from discounting products or those products that do not have a discount, such as selling a product that already has a 10-15% discount, and Amazon deducts the commission, I can assure you that your margin will stay at 0, and if not, do numbers…
I forgot to tell you that you will have to add VAT to the total commission, yes, that VAT that in many cases Amazon does not pay when you ask for an invoice, because they are Chinese sellers or from outside the EU, but you do that you have an obligation to apply when selling, your foreign competitors will have that margin that you lose.
Free Customer Service, you should know that the customer is from Amazon, but in the event of any problem you are responsible for that customer, if the customer complains or has any problem, YOU AS A SELLER will have to call him, pick up the product and solve the problem. the problem as it should be, and you already know that for Amazon customer service is paramount, so you will have to offer EXCELLENT customer service, and if you don’t they will block your account and all the money in your account, the balance of your sales will be held indefinitely until you solve the problem and Amazon can verify it, the average process usually takes around 30 days, and I can assure you that I have clients who corroborate it.
It will limit the sale of your star products, YES, that’s right, you will dump all your products to Amazon from all the brands you work with, this will help Amazon to determine which products are sold the most and when they are sold. What has he achieved? Information, and with this, it will prevent you from only being able to sell those products that remain in your warehouse indefinitely or have little visibility.
Let’s put a practical case, we have the Playmobil pirate ship that we all know is a bestseller of the brand, because I can assure you that at Christmas this product can only be sold by Amazon, if you had one on Amazon for sale, it will no longer be because it is a product that has a lot of rotation and the only one that can sell it is Amazon, it is a real case that happened at Christmas last year.
If you are a manufacturer, it will copy your products, if, as you hear, your product sells well, Amazon is already making replicas of those products that are selling at a good rate, so here is something for everyone, Amazon does not care who sells the product, what he seeks is profit.
You should know that those products that are sold the most now are advertised by Amazon, that is, you will see them on Amazon as sponsored products, that is, if several want to advertise the same product, a bid will begin to appear in the first positions, of course at that time. the bid you will have to add the rest of the commissions, and you have to know that you pay per click and not per sale.
Let’s continue on things that will make you see that you should not sell your products on Amazon… we have already told you that for Amazon the opinion of the customers comes first, this means that if you receive several bad opinions, even if you are right, in addition to blocking your account and your money, will negatively affect your sales since your products will be positioned behind the competition.
Continuing with customer service, you should know that responding to your customers quickly and sending products quickly will affect your business, as you are delayed you will notice it in your visibility on Amazon, this point in particular I do not see bad, at Ultimately, it’s about giving good customer service.
Therefore, my opinion about selling on Amazon is that it is bread for today and hunger for tomorrow, it will solve the problem and you will be able to believe that you sell a lot, but when you do the numbers you will realize that there is really no business here, Amazon has the business which takes around 15% of your sales and you as a seller will also put in the labor, in serving the customer, managing incidents, sending packages, etc, etc, you can see another article written on JordiOB’s blog that it is also very interesting.
To compete with Amazon you only have to fight, how? Working your brand, having excellent customer service, and, having a wide variety of products, specializing in your sector.
Amazon is a weapon of mass destruction, it’s your competition, and if you don’t want to see it, you’re blind, no matter how much you tell me you sell, Amazon is studying you, slowly strangling you and taking away all your customers, it’s time to act, stop sell on Amazon.
