Selling on Amazon

[owas]

As much as I despise them, I am thinking of selling some stock on amazon. The thing is there is another very similar product being sold for much less. This other is a copy, of less quality and cheaper to the consumer, but only when you buy a multipack, (less than half price).
Would it worth listing them, perhaps a little less than the rrp, but not cheaper than the copys, and state, why its unique, how it actually works better than "others" and market it as an upmarket product. If it were ebay you would expect to get cheap and cheerful, but I assume amazon shoppers are a little different?

 

[alwaysinamess]

I think Amazon shoppers are different completely and I think the future is with Amazon as much as I don't want it to be.

In answer to your question, it costs nothing to list on amazon so nothing to lose really

 

[Alan]

I shop on E-bay & Amazon. I'm not sure how different I am.

That said, products I buy on E-bay are what I would class as higher risk (i.e. low value if it doesn't work out I don't care about) than the products I buy on Amazon. e.g. my average purchase price on Amazon is probably around £35 and my average purchase price on ebay is around £7.

 

[alwaysinamess]

The feedback left is completey different, I think people on eBay have a higher expectaion of the product, on Amazon not so, I think on Amazon it feels like you are in a shop, you buy it and checkout, on eBay Its not like that, more bootsale and you've been striped up, with all due respect to you as a buyer we sell on both platforms and customers on amazon, never hear from them, those on eBay are always whinging, thats my view

 

[JoeyCart]

I think going on Amazon is good idea - it is a good way to build trust with new customers. For example I bought a product via an amazon seller and now I just buy direct as it is slightly cheaper - would have never used this seller without the 'they are on amazon' trust factor.

 

[mountrecruitment]

I would recommend selling on Amazon, i was invited to there "red carpet scheme" which basically is a little help and no fee's for a year so i gave it a go and am getting regular sales. I expect those will increase as the ratings etc kick in.

Worth a go!

 

[SillyJokes]

I would recommend selling on Amazon, i was invited to there "red carpet scheme" which basically is a little help and no fees for a year so i gave it a go and am getting regular sales. I expect those will increase as the ratings etc kick in.

Worth a go!

What the heck? A whole year? What the heck is that? Four months might have been barely acceptable. That's a total slap in the face for existing traders. Competing with newcomers many of whom haven't done the maths is hard enough. Boy are you in for a shock when the fees start.

Cynically speaking Amazon don't really care about individual traders.

 

[mountrecruitment]

sorry fired that off quite quickly, there are no fixed fees but still have % taken off each sale if that makes sense.....i can dig out the "benefits" if curious but a quick google search will show plenty of people have listed what that scheme includes anyway. For me it was an incentive and worked! I wouldnt say i am in for a shock though...

Really i was just responding to the initial question and from my point of view amazon is so well trusted that its worth a go.

 

[owas]

thanks for the input all. They do have a three month offer going at the moment but TBH still not 100% sure.
The other option I am thinking about, as I paid half the wholesale price for these products, is to offer them to shops to stock them, and then what they sell, they pay for what they don't sell, I take back. As the cost of selling them on amazon would be a lot more than doing this, and still offering them at a fair price to the shops. If you were to stock a product this way in your store what percentage of the rrp would you expect to pay?

 

[RubixEvolution]

As much as I despise them, I am thinking of selling some stock on amazon. The thing is there is another very similar product being sold for much less. This other is a copy, of less quality and cheaper to the consumer, but only when you buy a multipack, (less than half price).
Would it worth listing them, perhaps a little less than the rrp, but not cheaper than the copys, and state, why its unique, how it actually works better than "others" and market it as an upmarket product. If it were ebay you would expect to get cheap and cheerful, but I assume amazon shoppers are a little different?

You are already listing why your product is different than others, there is no reason why you shouldn't be listing. Especially, if you are selling good quality items, Amazon is a great place to sell.

 

[gr9ce]

If you use Amazon 'for free' you have to piggy back on the listings of others but Amazon set your postage fees. You have to account for any post shortfall in your listing price plus take into account the fees 86p + an average of 17.5% selling fee. If you can cover that and still be competitive on price on Amazon then good luck with that platform.

If you can sell quantity then it is worth opening a pro merchant account. This then allows you to list your own inventory and set your P&P. You still pay fees.

Amazon fees for selling jewellery is a mere 28.5% + 86p

 

[alexlhh]

shopping with amazon is much safer than ebay...

 

[UltraViolet]

I was reading this with interest.

TBH Amazon is not a good fit with the majority of what we sell (high value, high quality audio products) - but my thinking was to advertise a lower value product which is small enough people will buy without demo. The objective being to hopefully generate more visits to our website and generate greater numbers of potential customers for our other products.

However the charges look very steep given the margins we work on.

What have other people found in regard to the advertising benefit?

 

[theRB]

It violates Amazon seller T&C's to direct traffic away from Amazon. The first time they catch you they'll probably give you a performance notification, then it will get more serious.

The best you can do is include a leaflet with outgoing orders and even then the conversion is minimal.

 

[UltraViolet]

Thanks for that, I hadn't dug far enough clearly. Definately not aviable outlet then.

 

[titanicuk]

As much as I despise them, I am thinking of selling some stock on amazon. The thing is there is another very similar product being sold for much less. This other is a copy, of less quality and cheaper to the consumer, but only when you buy a multipack, (less than half price).
Would it worth listing them, perhaps a little less than the rrp, but not cheaper than the copys, and state, why its unique, how it actually works better than "others" and market it as an upmarket product. If it were ebay you would expect to get cheap and cheerful, but I assume amazon shoppers are a little different?

Amazon is good marketplace, why do you despise it, it is the tax issue? if so will you be happier paying higher commission fee or more Tax yourself? Anyway this is not your question.

Yes, Amazon buyer is completely different to eBay, they will pay over 50%, just for the peace of mind. On Amazon product is sort by ranking and rating, on eBay it is all about price.