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”. 

• Reviews Amazon Flywheel model to describe the dynamics of the marketplace and ultimately Amazon’s and every seller’s success on the site. Everyone wins if traffic grows and buyers are happy.
• Key driver: Large selection establishes Amazon as the premier shopping destination.
• Key driver: Low prices for premium goods builds customer loyalty.
• Introduced this week the new Universal Wishlist Toolbar which allows consumers to bookmark products found on other sites and add it to their Amazon Wish List. Original product link will be retained but the hope is that the consumer will first search Amazon for the product. Appears that Amazon is waking up to the power of their wish lists and social networking, encourages sharing of lists via blogs and with friends & family.
• We will see “many more enhanced payment options over the next years”.
• China is a very important market, surpassing 200m Internet users in 2008. Only Amazon Retail today in China but marketplace “coming soon” because of the opportunity.
• Going to build out many more categories (introduced new category of Business and Scientific) but also focused on expanding Product Types (Golf in Sports,  Wheels & Tires in Automotive). There will be many more categories coming (”we want to offer every category possible on Amazon”) — not sure that will include though sensitive categories that have essentially been shut down such as adult products and weapons.

Seller Q&A

• Can we have a single seller account for all countries we want to sell in? There are plans to combine a single seller account for all Amazon Marketplaces. Not today, but recognize the pain since all sellers want to sell everywhere
• When are we going to have Sales Tax in Amazon? Sales Taxes is a big pain. Today no real solution but Amazon is looking at it (”we’re in the same boat”)
• When are sellers going to be able to sell to China and India? Actively looking right now at China and India. India is “great for book sellers”. Looking at it very actively (”Next year we will talk about selling strategies on Amazon India”). Possibly more countries coming online soon. Anticipating categories that are 3P only. Some categories will be retail-only
• Can we get access to buyers’ wish lists to proactively figure out what we should source and list? Great suggestion, something we need to look into.
• What’s the market share for used-media products? Not readily available but should be able to share this.
• Is there a Seller Advisory Team to share feedback with Amazon management? The need is for sellers to talk to Amazon and share feedback. Addressing it with possible Amazon roadshows throughout the country. Also starting category-specific conferences with Consumer Electronics and Baby recently and Home and Garden this year. Send email to seller-suggestions@amazon.com and while there’s no response (only auto-response), all are being read and forwarded internally. Amazon is also looking at idea voting with Dell’s IdeaStorm as a model (looking at the same platform). Referring to AskVille.
• What about selling Used Toys? Possibly opening this up within 6 months.

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