amazon seller central - anyone sell on? (not marketplace)

[luckyg]

I have been selling on amazon seller central for about 18 months now.

I dont get much volume maybe 1/2 sales a week as opposed to about 40/50 on my website.

posage is free on my website but i charge postage on amazon to offset the 15% commission amazon charge.

i am toying with removing postage charge on amazon and was wondering if anyone here sells on amazon and charges postage or not? and how you think this affects sales?

i will be down 15% of amount of sale so my decrease in profit will be much more than 15% so the increase in sales will need to make up for this.

[Electro]

mind pming the link?

[lesliedocherty]

I started amazon a while back, at the point of binning it, expensive and i dont generate enough orders to keep at it, another one down to experience

[AndyP]

Yes, we sell on Amazon. I have to say that one or two sales a week is horrendous....something is clearly wrong although in fairness I don't know what product/s we are talking about here, or how competitive your market area is, or how many products you have for sale, or anything other than you sometimes sell the odd product on Amazon so its a bit difficult to draw any serious conclusions I guess.

However, to answer your question, personally I don't think it will be of any major advantage to you to offer free shipping primarily as Amazon just doesn't make a big deal out of the shipping costs and in most cases the buying decision has already been made before your buyer is even made aware of the shipping cost. Yes, they can find out and in some cases it is shown (where there are a variety of sellers of the same product for example) but most buyers do not even look. It is likely that they would have something to say if they were feeling ripped off but as long as your charge is reasonable and cannot be viewed as excessive then there isn't a problem....in my opinion anyway...others may differ of course.

Lack of sales is likely to be more about getting the buy button......and this will depend on your feedback rating, your stock levels, your order turnaround time etc...there are many factors that go towards determining if you get the buy button and that makes a huge (and I mean huge) difference to your sales volumes. Do your monthly sales metrics give you any indication of problem areas? As if so, then you need to look at the areas that you could improve on and address those issues as well....without knowing any real facts about your particular circumstances and standing on Amazon its difficult to say much really but I would point the finger at the buy button or lack of it as the culprit...so look at what you need to do to get it rather than just reducing your margin.

[Mister B]

I agree wholeheartedly with AndyP.

I ran an exercise for a month on Amazon whereby I offered free shipping and it did absolutely nothing to boost sales. With the blue box though, I fell out of it on one particular product and the sales fell of a cliff. So in short, work on your blue buy it boxes.

Mister B

[First in Retail]

Ditto, the last two, we do about 200 orders a day and maintaining position is key, you have to work at it, its not a free ride :) sometimes they can drive you mad.....

[luckyg]

thanks andy for your comments

must look into what you said

[luckyg]

Yes, we sell on Amazon. I have to say that one or two sales a week is horrendous....something is clearly wrong although in fairness I don't know what product/s we are talking about here, or how competitive your market area is, or how many products you have for sale, or anything other than you sometimes sell the odd product on Amazon so its a bit difficult to draw any serious conclusions I guess.

However, to answer your question, personally I don't think it will be of any major advantage to you to offer free shipping primarily as Amazon just doesn't make a big deal out of the shipping costs and in most cases the buying decision has already been made before your buyer is even made aware of the shipping cost. Yes, they can find out and in some cases it is shown (where there are a variety of sellers of the same product for example) but most buyers do not even look. It is likely that they would have something to say if they were feeling ripped off but as long as your charge is reasonable and cannot be viewed as excessive then there isn't a problem....in my opinion anyway...others may differ of course.

Lack of sales is likely to be more about getting the buy button......and this will depend on your feedback rating, your stock levels, your order turnaround time etc...there are many factors that go towards determining if you get the buy button and that makes a huge (and I mean huge) difference to your sales volumes. Do your monthly sales metrics give you any indication of problem areas? As if so, then you need to look at the areas that you could improve on and address those issues as well....without knowing any real facts about your particular circumstances and standing on Amazon its difficult to say much really but I would point the finger at the buy button or lack of it as the culprit...so look at what you need to do to get it rather than just reducing your margin.


can you briefly explain what the buy button is? is it having the "buy new" on your listing?

[AndyP]

Hi again

The buy button is the big gold coloured button immediately to the right of the product where you look at the product and the obvious thing to click if you wish to purchase is the buy button......if there is more than one seller of the same product then there will also be an "also available from these sellers" box....but even if you are less expensive than the seller with the buy button in nearly all cases the seller with the buy button will get the sale...few people bother to look at the other sellers..so if you are an "other seller" then your share of the pie is very small indeed....you need to get that buy button.

And...to get that button depends on the various things that I mentioned previously... mainly quantity of stock available, feedback rating, order turnaround figures etc.... basically "aim for excellence" - or give your account manager a call and ask what you need to do to get that button and he or she should be able to suggest where you might improve things if you are unsure.... but its usually staring you in the face really.

I hope that helps a little?

[luckyg]

Hi again

The buy button is the big gold coloured button immediately to the right of the product where you look at the product and the obvious thing to click if you wish to purchase is the buy button......if there is more than one seller of the same product then there will also be an "also available from these sellers" box....but even if you are less expensive than the seller with the buy button in nearly all cases the seller with the buy button will get the sale...few people bother to look at the other sellers..so if you are an "other seller" then your share of the pie is very small indeed....you need to get that buy button.

And...to get that button depends on the various things that I mentioned previously... mainly quantity of stock available, feedback rating, order turnaround figures etc.... basically "aim for excellence" - or give your account manager a call and ask what you need to do to get that button and he or she should be able to suggest where you might improve things if you are unsure.... but its usually staring you in the face really.

I hope that helps a little?

oh right, i have that, always have. i thought it was standard on all listings.

but i guess that may be down to me having my own brand and no one else can have the ean?

thanks for the advice-i need to spend more time and effort on amazon.

[AndyP]

can you give an example of one of your listings? ....it might be helpful to actually see a real product.

[Page]

Before giving up you should try free carriage just for the learning process.

Maybe it is the winner!

[AndyP]

It won't be, for the reasons already stated.

[sgray42]

hi luckyg,
I know this post is about Amazon UK, and I sell on Amazon US seller central. But, I ran across this thread while I was google-ing. I am no Amazon expert, but I can only share our way of success and hope you can benefit from it! And like I said, I sell on Amazon US, and I don't know if things are different. For us, we can either charge shipping based on an items weight, or on a per item basis. Each industry is different, and I'm not sure what you are selling, but we sell software. With software, packaging constantly changes, therefore an item's weight changes. Considering our Amazon inventory is so large, we decided against doing weight based shipping. So for about 2 and a half years, we charged shipping on a per item basis. It was going ok, we never had any HUGE problems with it. Occasionally we would cheap customer, who would leave a negative feedback...something like "OUTRAGEOUS shipping! Charged me shipping separately for each game, but shipped them all together...what a rip off" I guess those were the people who were used to eBay, where sellers can do a combined shipping discount. What really gets me, is that they were aware of all the charges before they placed the order, it's not like we went and added extra after! Moving on...after a few more of those unfair negatives, we decided to make a change. We thought that not only would offering free shipping eliminate the customers confusion, but it would also give us an upper hand against other sellers.
If you are competing with other Amazon sellers with your products:
$100 product + $10 shipping brings in the same amount of money as a $110 product with FREE shipping. We just adjusted our prices to include our cost to ship. If you are competing for the top spot (lowest offer), remember that Amazon looks at the total price including shipping. Plus...everyone likes something free. It's a psychological thing, a customer would be happy to get free shipping, they don't have to know that you just added the shipping into the item's price.
If you aren't competing with other Amazon sellers with your products:
I don't know what you are selling, which doesn't help me try to help you! If you are selling something that only you have, then the only person you are competing with is your own personal website. If that's the case, I would still add shipping into the item's price. Like I said everyone likes something free, a customer will think they are getting a deal. Then you can raise the price to offset the % for Amazon's commission. Wether they order from you on Amazon, or your own website...you still get the sale.

I hope at least some of that made sense, if it didn't...I'll try again!

Sam

[starsgazing]

Hi Sam.


I know this post is about Amazon UK, and I sell on Amazon US seller central. For us, we can either charge shipping based on an items weight, or on a per item basis.

Sounds the same to me :)
The postage options are silly imho considering that they could let merchants set shipping on each individual item (like eBay).


Occasionally we would cheap customer, who would leave a negative feedback...something like "OUTRAGEOUS shipping! Charged me shipping separately for each game, but shipped them all together...what a rip off"

I understand that but think that if you charge 'per item' - ship each item individually or expedite it, or something. Otherwise some customers feel they've been ripped off.

What really gets me, is that they were aware of all the charges before they placed the order, it's not like we went and added extra after!

Not necessarily. Amazon really need to make their shipping charges clearer. For example, on the buy box, it says 'item x - £10.00 + £1.00 shipping' but it *should* say 'item x - £10.00 + £1.00 STANDARD/UK Mainland shipping'. A # of customers have complained that, 'it said £1.00 shipping on the page, but it's charged me £5.00' then we have to explain that it's because they live in the North Pole etc...


$100 product + $10 shipping brings in the same amount of money as a $110 product with FREE shipping.

No it doesn't. Amazon tax shipping costs (I think around 5% - but don't quote me) differently to the product price (a whopping 15%). So, the person who is selling the product for $100 + $10 shipping gets more 'take home' than the person doing it for $110+ Free shipping.

[PJEI]

How easy is it to get a product on Amazon ?

[AndyP]

Here you go - knock yourself out!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=3149141

[PJEI]

Thanks, I will give it a try.

[edmondscommerce]

I have just completed setting up a client with a full Amazon Feed based system for uploading products from and downloading orders into his oscommerce store.

The feed went live late last night and this morning he had ten new orders...

Not too bad I think :-)

Also - he has loaded his prices to cover the Amazon fees to start off with and that doesn't seem to have hurt.

[PJEI]

Well someone else is actually on Amazon selling the products we make for retailers, so I figure we should sell them ourselves

[AndyP]

well I guess that all depends on if you are a retailer or a wholesaler/manufacturer...its bad practice for wholesalers and manufacturers to compete with their own retailers - how do you expect them to get sales if you compete with them...and your cost price will be a great deal less than theirs.

[PJEI]

they have not asked to buy from us to sell at profit, we think they might have bought the stock of one of our retailers actually.

[AndyP]

OK...thats as may be but if they bought from a retailer they can do what they will with it, asuming that there are no conditions attached to tehe sale. My view, for what its worth, is that it is still very bad form for a manufacturer or wholesaler to compete with a retailer...you can't have your cake and eat it. You have to be either one thing or the other.

[edmondscommerce]

unfortunately though i suspect its becoming more and more common..

the old school reason d'etre for the retailer was to be the presence on the high street.

If the retailer is just box shifting on Amazon then the wholesaler can probably do a better job..

I'm not saying that its right.. but the temptation must be huge..

plus you don't even have to trade on amazon as your company name - you could happily trade under an alias

[luckyg]

Also - he has loaded his prices to cover the Amazon fees to start off with and that doesn't seem to have hurt.


Interesting point.

I started this thread because of that very dilemna. Delivery is free on my main website. But I added enough postage to my amazon items to just about cover the 15% commission.

I was wondering was it hurting my sales. I have the buy button always, and my items come top of search. I havent changed prices but am making more of an effort with my photos etc.

I guess most people cover their amazon costs with higher prices/postage?

[AndyP]

Be aware that your contract with Amazon states that you may not sell on your own website for less than you sell on Amazon and I believe (although I would need to check for sure) that this also incudes the shipping element. That said, I'm not entirely sure that anyone ever checks (they usually have enough problems of their own to deal with!!)

[starsgazing]

Be aware that your contract with Amazon states that you may not sell on your own website for less than you sell on Amazon

WHAT?!! They're "having a laugh" as the expression goes.
Next, they'll be saying you can't stick adverts in your packages! :D

[AndyP]

I think that they already do :)

[starsgazing]

I think that they already do :)

How rude! :D

- They charge a ridiculous fee.
- Protect fraudulent buyers over decent merchants with their "A-Z guarantee" (that the seller will lose the case).
- Have a one-sided feedback system that they do not subject themselves to.
- Put ridiculous expectations on merchants & severely punish them for not meeting targets.... or when they feel like it, refunding more than 2 transactions in a week!

And they have the cheek to say merchants can't have the tiny little left-over crumbs of the slice of Internet-pie by driving repeat business to their websites?!!

Greedy sons & daughters of a word that I don't think I can say for fear of a mod-strike.

But we continue to use them because... they get the sales in :(
*grumble, grumble* , *rant, rant*

[Jonesy]

We have started to sell a good volume through Amazon Central, having 300+ items listed. The commission is high but it's still well worth doing because of the volume and the knock on benefits of branding and website traffic.

We offer free delivery on our website and on Amazon. You get the benefit of the "FREE SHIPPING" text right next to the "Add To Shopping Basket" button, which we have found affects conversions significantly. You can see an example of this here: Pendant listing on Amazon Central (http://www.amazon.co.uk/GmcKenzie-Amethyst-Necklace-February-Birthstone/dp/B001JARL3E/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=watch&qid=1227949936&sr=8-10).

The most important thing we've found is to keep your listings as detailed as possible and get as much great feedback as you can. Next year we plan to use Amazon Inventory, whereby Amazon will hold all our stock and take over the dispatch/delivery element. They even deliver orders taken via our website (Kooqi (http://www.kooqi.co.uk)).

The downside is the commission, which is well over 30%. If you can cope with that then do it, you should get a high volume of sales if you're products are well tagged and photographed/described well enough. If you need more information feel free to PM me.

[AndyP]

LOL...any chance you couild get a couple more links in there? ROTFLMAO!!

[Jonesy]

You've lost me there Andy? Think you might be getting a little carried away.

[AndyP]

OK fair enough....maybe I misread

[Peter Jones]

In about 30 days gross over 9300$ and more than 450 transactions. Amazon works great if you have right product, right price.
The onl;y problem I had was lack of feedback and 2 crooks who steal from me and still give me bad feedback, Amazon do not care and will never halp any seller no mater what.
peter

[Peter Jones]

Yes clients will never understand that we are forced to price each item and add postage, and that is the way it is .
Otehrwise you will not get any sales
Peter