Amazon Seller Conference 2008 - Sebastian Gunningham keynote on Amazon’s Roadmap
Filed Under Amazon Events, Seller Insight, Selling Strategies | Leave a Comment
I am attending the Amazon Seller Conference in Seattle and Day 2 is solely focused on updates by Amazon management to the approx. 150-200 sellers present. Yesterday was mostly operations-type of presentations on marketing, taxes, logistics to help 3P Amazon sellers with running their businesses.
First up, Sebastian Gunningham, SVP of Amazon Services and chief over everything third-party selling, is focusing on the buying side of Amazon as “we’re going to see seller-centric presentations throughout the day”. Read more
Along with Randy over at MyBlogUtopia.com I am a big fan of the Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) program. There are significant benefits for both increased revenue (increased buyer trust and search relevance with FBA tag) and reduced costs (low fulfillment costs and “shipping bonus”). However, there is concern among sellers about Amazon’s ability to provide a superior level of customer service. From the Amazon seller forum comes this thread: Read more
Amazon Global Product Imaging
Filed Under Amazon 101, Seller Insight, Selling Strategies | Leave a Comment
Getting images right on Amazon is one of the most important requirements for selling successfully on this channel. A sometimes painful lesson to learn for merchants expanding from eBay to Amazon (note that I didn’t say “migrate” since they each site has its own unique strengths and benefits) where you get away with your products displayed on your pink shaggy carpet in very low light.
Amazon is focused on ensuring a consistent and easy shopping experience that mandates that products are merchandised “clean”. In that spirit they employ an Amazon Global Product Imaging team that encourages merchants to comply with this policy (see below). Read more
“Selling on the River” - The eBay’s sellers guide to Amazon
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Expanding from eBay to Amazon can be daunting especially for entrepreneurs that got their start on the “world’s greatest business incubator” (eBay). Auction vs. Fixed-Price, Free-For-All merchandising vs. strict catalog requirements, listing fees vs. Final-Value-Fee-only.
Steve Lindhorst, a former eBay employee and national eBay University instructor, wrote a book to help eBay merchants with this transition. “Selling on the River - The eBay’s sellers guide to Amazon” calls out key differences between the two leading U.S. marketplaces and pitfalls to watch out for.
I recently spoke to Steve about his book and his plans to expand his line of guides to other channels (add his blog at ww.genuineseller.com to your reading list).
Is Amazon a more profitable channel then eBay?
Filed Under Amazon 101, Amazon Events, Random Stuff, Seller Insight, Selling Strategies | 2 Comments
Just like the eternal epic struggle of “boxers vs. briefs”, the comparisons between eBay and Amazon will never cease among online retailers. At least as long as both command a significant share of traffic and online sales in the U.S..
To fuel the fire, I am focusing for this week’s e-commerce celebrity death match between eBay and Amazon on SKU profitability with two contrarian views from third-party merchants.
No watermarks or copyrights on images. Ever.
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Here’s a real-life reminder that Amazon doesn’t kid around when it says “no watermarks or copyrights in images”. This week I spoke to an Amazon low-ASP seller that had embedded a copyright mark on photos (a number of sellers in this category are doing so — here’s a good example) and received a 48 hours deadline to remove the copyrights from the images or risk an account suspension.
Of course 48 hours are no enough to update thousands of images so the seller had no choice but to remove all product listings, update the photos, and reactivate the products with new images, having not only lost about 10 days of solid sales but also money for a contractor to help with this. Read more
eBay vs. Amazon - Round 2
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Okay, so this doesn’t really count as part of the match, but is more commentary from a media seller that is active on both marketplaces. Courtesy of Scot’s eBay Strategies blog comes this video of Kevin Harmon at inflatablemadnessdvd.com who talks about the opportunities. And they’re significant all around.
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Help! There are too many listings for my products on Amazon!
Filed Under Amazon Challenges, Seller Insight | Leave a Comment
Amazon’s mission is to offer Earth’s Biggest Selection and the best online shopping experience. An important part of this experience is to give buyers great search results with a single, authoritative listing for each product (a challenge eBay is trying to address). Amazon’s UPC / EAN enforcement (required to list) is designed to build this mother-of-all-catalogs but there are legacy problems
Last week I spoke to an Sports & Outdoor online retailer that struggles with duplicate product listings: Read more
I am going to start a Thread Of The Week series to highlight sellers discussions around Amazon that are worth noting for online retailers interested in or active on Amazon (from various seller boards). Most of the times these exchanges are educational, at times disturbing and on rare occasions even funny (unintentionally). To kick this off I have chosen to start with the latter category and present to you the new socialist Amazon North Korean marketplace. Or so some sellers would have you believe. Read more
Top 10 Amazon Seller Mistakes
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This list of Top 10 Amazon Seller Mistakes comes courtesy of William Larson of noble-media from his Amazon Seller Community forum post. While it is somewhat media centric and a lot of common sense, it is still a good read if you’re considering expanding to Amazon or you are wondering how you could become more successful on this channel. Read more