What Amazon services are you currently using?

We are selling only via Amazon Seller Central right now as a “Featured Merchant”.  When you have to drive your own traffic it does not make sense to have an Amazon WebStore right now for me.  And our items are too bulky to make it cost effective for us to use Fulfillment by Amazon. However, we are looking into Amazon Product Ads.

How is your Amazon.com business going and where do you see this going?

It’s actually going pretty good.  We have only been on the site about a year and a half.  Our sales are up about 29% now over what they were when we first started.  Our biggest limitation is getting all our products on the site.  We will only submit items to Amazon that we feel we have a pretty good monopoly on.  There are other sellers on Amazon with little or no overhead that will try and undercut us.  So if we think that will happen we wont list the product.  The worst thing that could happen is if we do all the work, take the picture, create the listing then put the item on the site and then someone takes it over.  Now not only do we not get any sales but Amazon will always outrank your website in SEO.  So if we think that will happen we don’t put the SKU on Amazon and just keep it on our site.

Right now competition is not too bad.  However as eBay goes down and Amazon becomes the new eBay I anticipate that it will become more competitive.

What are best practices a new Amazon.com seller should consider?

I would say customer service all the way.  Accurately describe your item and then really take care of the order and sale on the back end.  The thing about Amazon is you have about 5 to 10% of people leaving feedback and the ones that usually do are the ones that are not happy. Fall below a 95% feedback rating and you loose the Buy Box.  So you really have to take care of the customer.  The thing with Amazon is that if you have good feedback and the Buy Box and some good products the sales can be Amazing!

What are your top challenges on Amazon?

What I mentioned before about someone taking over the Buy Box with price and then out ranking your own website.  So we only list things on the site where we think competition will have a hard time sourcing.  Also since we sell so much used stuff the UPC requirement is making adding new products difficult.

On our new product though I think we will do quite well.  Shortly we are moving to a new warehouse where we can buy more of our new items in bulk and get the best pricing.  I think that will really help us as well with Amazon because then we will be able to offer the lowest price.

Another thing that helps with Amazon on new products is that most suppliers now are requiring MAP pricing.  So what you do is be the first to create the listing and list your item at MAP and you get the Buy Box (don’t forget to offer free shipping).  Then the only way the Buy Box can be taken away from you is if you run out of inventory (and someone has inventory at the MAP pricing, so be sure to always update your inventory so you don’t hit “0″) or if another sellers wants to try and risk selling it below MAP.   Since we have been offering more new products I have actually seen our sales increasing quite a bit on Amazon.

Where do you think Amazon is going to go?

It’s probably appropriate now that I mention that I am long into Amazon.  I bought stock at about 37 dollars a year and a half ago.  I don’t have stock in eBay or Overstock.  So yes I think Amazon will continue to grow and be a great channel and shopping site to be reckoned with.

A lot of that is going to depend on Amazon though.  Every Tom, Dick and Harry eBay seller will try and get on the site.  If they are selective and only let professional sellers on they will do great.  If they let everyone sell I fear it will end bad.

Finally, I hope Amazon is going to make it easier to list new products. As they add more and more SKU’s to the site overall sales will continue to rise (for everyone).

What would you tell Jeff Bezos Amazon should do?

So here’s my chance to give Jeff feedback :)  Well let me share a few things I think should be changed:

• If I am the only seller with an item and it’s in used condition, I should get the Buy Box.

• Amazon needs to be more liberal on the UPC exceptions.  For example, because we sell used items it is practically impossible to get one and the manufacturer is of course not going to help because they don’t want us selling them online.

• I would like to see some control over the product data when we create a SKU on Amazon. If we are going to be undercut significantly by a competitor, I may pull the product from the site and would like my pictures and product information back. Let the leech take his own picture.

• I think we need some price breaks from Amazon on high-end items to increase sales (for us and Amazon). For example, for a Miele Vacuum $899 dollars we are charged $135 in Amazon fees. That is a lot and forces us to offer the product at a high price on the site. And I could be spending this money on AdWords to drive traffic to my own site. So I think there should be some tier pricing for more expensive products.