Is Amazon the right platform for your business and export?
During this challenging time for businesses of shapes and sizes, there has been a huge focus on online sales and brand building activities.
It all sounds easy as during various lockdowns people spend more and more time online browsing and shopping.
The search and browsing market is dominated by Google and Amazon hence these platforms are good places to start and grow your business and export online
These platforms also allow even the smallest businesses to export directly to consumers across the world, providing an opportunity to engage with them directly; listening and learning from them.
But how do you change your operation, brand building and customer service across the online world to develop your direct to consumers (DTC) business model?
To be successful with e-commerce, your company must embrace these channels. You must learn about how it all works and take the time and effort to think all the implications, also for your existing channels and partners.
You must align your current supply chain as the online platforms are open to everyone who wants to offer your products. Your partners/suppliers in, say, Germany or Spain may already sell your products on Amazon, so you must make some strategic decisions as to whether you will want to sell your products there, and if so, how will your relationship with those existing partnerships then evolve.
I strongly recommend that you work on developing strong co-operation to avoid online branding and price differences, which could end up with you competing with your own customers/suppliers, thus bringing down prices.
You must plan for and try to adapt your product offerings for online sales activities perhaps with bespoke products with the right translations and the right packaging that works when being shipped to online consumers.
Of course, if you are new to exporting and do not have existing overseas partners, then this whole process becomes much simpler.
- Amazon ships internationally to over 120 different countries and regions outside the United States and well-established hubs in Europe. Amazon has also just opened Sweden as the first market Scandinavia
- Amazon customers can seamlessly order from any regional Amazon site and also access third-party seller offerings from their local platform. This enables customers to make cross-border purchases without any extra effort and only small shipping costs
- Many exporters operate with country/regional contracts, so if e-commerce is not already incorporated into your contracts make sure they take account for and how to “share” or split possible sales on Amazon
- Do you really want to sell online with Amazon?
- If you have existing overseas partners, have you got a clear plan on how to develop products, prices and partnerships that will help you succeed?
- How will it affect your existing market(s) and your supply chains such as retailers, distributor and wholesalers? Can you co-operate with your existing customers and other channels
- Do you want to only sell locally or selected areas? Or in all the markets? (Amazon do prefer that their suppliers are present on all their sites)
Very important, do you want Amazon to take care of the whole order processing or do you want to ship from your warehouse (Amazon can hold your stock and monitor your stock levels)
Amazon offers lots of training when you sign up to sell your products on their platforms and you can change how and where you want your products listed at any time to suit you
Amazon can in many ways help your export and the complex customs procedures from their different warehousing hubs BUT this is changing for UK sellers after Brexit.
The key advantage is that when entering new countries, they can deliver from their warehouse hubs and take care of the custom side of things and they should have an existing audience for your product category already.
Amazon can in many ways help your export and the complex customs procedures from their different warehousing hubs BUT this is changing for UK sellers after Brexit.
You can research the hits for your product and a general overview of your sales on Amazon. This can give you some great insight and indicators for the market and help you determine how you can further develop and grow.
Use Amazon as a test site for launching into new export markets
I would suggest that you should use Amazon to test both your product offering and prices as your only additional costs are deliveries and warehousing…
- Focus on “filling the brand space” on Amazon
- Decide which products you want to list directly on Amazon.
- Decide on which markets and how to get the product delivered.
- Make sure you complete all the information boxes when setting up your account and keep the information updated and correct at all times. Don’t just copy the main parts when adding more products, the hard admin work pays off when it’s done right when the Amazon listing starts
- We recommend you start with 3-5 key products and see what works best
- A bundle selection and offering can give extra exposure on the Amazon sites supported with strong keywords for searches and descriptions
- You must focus on the maintenance of the account and make benchmarks for the Amazon measurements
- Avoid shortages as that will relegate the listing and directly reduce the Amazon “buy box” shows or even become delisted. Amazon will delist sellers if they do you keep on top of procedures and have regular out of stock status as that goes directly against the Amazon business model
- Encourage Likes and recommendations as that is Amazon’s fuel for having your product listing and ranking in the top 5 products for the “buy box”
- Follow the constant changes and improvements that Amazon undertakes every day
Amazon is a democratic platform which levels the playing field, so give it go.
But avoid out of stock situations and bad reviews yes it does require good planning and 24/7 support and
admin work to become successful.
