The Dana Guide to open an online shop on Amazon and sell on the marketplace without having proprietary e-commerce. After the boom during the COVID-19 pandemic, e-commerce has continued to grow, despite the reopening of physical stores. According to data from Netcomm, the Italian Digital Commerce Consortium, online purchases in India will reach 45 billion euros in 2022, an increase of 14% compared to last year.
In short, Italians have become accustomed to buying online and never want to go back. We must roll up our sleeves to make the most of new opportunities. Amazon is undoubtedly the essential symbol of online commerce, and small and prominent entrepreneurs are approaching this platform to start selling their products.
To become a seller, you need to access Amazon Seller Central, the platform through which you can create your product catalog, define offers, manage orders, communicate with buyers, analyze sales data, and use Amazon’s advertising tools.
To register as a seller, you need the following:
You are also asked to choose a name for your shop on Amazon, which can also be different from your Registered Brand. Amazon offers two specific sales plans, dedicated respectively to occasional sellers (Individual sales plan) and continuous sellers (Professional sales plan).
Anyone can start selling on Amazon as an Individual seller. In this case, Amazon will retain a prepaid rate of 0.99 euros on each item sold without a monthly subscription. Amazon will automatically set the shipping costs for orders and determine the terms of service sellers can offer buyers.A referral fee is also applied, i.e., a transaction management fee, which varies according to the type of product and its price.
It ranges from 7.21% (e.g., Electronics, Large Appliances, Tires, IT) to 46.35% for Accessories for Amazon devices, with an average of 15.45% for other product types. You can view the complete table on the dedicated page on Amazon Seller Central for more details. If no sale is made, the Individual Seller will not have to pay Amazon fees. The individual sales plan, therefore, allows you to add new products to the Amazon catalog and take advantage of Fulfillment by Amazon, with a sales limit of 40 items per month.
This solution is dedicated to those who may have, for example, a sales volume subject to seasonal fluctuations, to those who want to take their first steps into the marketplace, or to those who intend to use Amazon as a simple alternative sales channel, perhaps to dispose of surplus stock. Discontinued items etc. Also, as described by Amazon, the plan is ideal for an individual seller who doesn’t plan to advertise products or use advanced selling tools.
The Professional sales plan provides a subscription fee of 39.00 euros/month, regardless of the sale or publication of offers. No fixed closing rates are applied to sales, but there are commissions on the item price, precisely the same as for Individual sellers.
A Professional seller has access to inventory features that allow you to upload multiple files at once or manage orders via feeds and reports and is, therefore, best suited for those who:
In addition to being able to add products to the Amazon catalog and use Fulfillment by Amazon, therefore, the professional Seller will be able to:
For brand-owned sellers, Amazon uniquely offers tools to protect their brand, intellectual property, and advertising options to improve traffic and conversion.
To access the benefits, you must create a professional account and meet the following requirements :
You can enroll in the Amazon Brand Registry and enjoy the reserved benefits if you meet the requirements. Further information can be found on the dedicated page on the Amazon Brand Registry.
As we have seen, individual and Professional sellers can use Fulfillment by Amazon. All sellers have two options available for delivering the purchased products to customers: either by personally managing the inventory and shipping of the products (Amazon FBM, Fulfillment by Merchant) or by relying on Amazon Logistics, which will take care only of the packaging, labeling, and shipping of the products, but also the customer assistance and the rendered service. Relying on Fulfillment by Amazon also comes with additional benefits, including Prime eligibility and free shipping.
FBA has two different types of fees:
Among the functions and services offered by Fulfillment by Amazon, we can mention:
There are also numerous other services (e.g., barcode labeling, restoring of return packaging…), all subject to a commission on the single item sold. For a more detailed overview of FBA services and fees, please refer to the dedicated section on Seller Central.
The success of Amazon Prime is one of Amazon’s strengths, which over the years, has reached over 100 million registered customers who make purchases every day, benefiting from discounts, offers, and, in particular, fast and free shipping.
Prime Days also take place every year. According to Amazon, Prime Day on July 12-13, 2022, was the most successful ever, with more than 300 million products sold and savings for Prime members of more than $1.7 billion (source: Amazon press release ). To join the ” Seller Fulfilled Prime ” program, it is not necessary to rely on Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), but it is necessary to meet some requirements, including:
Amazon also offers several advertising solutions to reach and engage users, including ads that appear on the first page of search results or product pages. In particular, through Seller Central, Professional sellers can choose between the following:
Ads involving individual product offerings on Amazon are displayed to users within search results and product detail pages. They are handy for reaching buyers who are highly prone to purchase and actively looking for products related to yours.
Ads showcasing the Seller’s brand and product catalog, with brand logo, custom headline, and product selection. Sponsored Brands ads help you quickly increase consideration of your brand and product collection from shoppers who have shown interest in similar products.
This is a recent self-service advertising solution based on ad placements on and off Amazon. This allows advertisers to reach relevant audiences during the purchase journey with easy-to-create visual ads and manage.
Multi-page, personalized shopping destinations on Amazon dedicated to individual brands, highlighting the brand history and product offerings, allowing professional sellers to build their e-commerce site without coding skills or design. To access advertising services, you must have an Amazon account, be a Professional seller, and be registered in the Amazon Brand Registry.
Amazon Made in India is a unique showcase dedicated to Indian products classified as “Made in India” according to current regulations, made by large companies, SMEs, and artisans. The store’s goal is to help customers discover a wide range of items that best represent India, thanks to a selection of products belonging to the following categories:
To sell in the Made in Italy showcase, authorization is required.
The Amazon Handmade section allows artisans from over 80 countries to sell their handcrafted creations by creating a personalized profile on the market place.
To join the program, you need the following:
Now that we have explained in detail how to open a store on Amazon, here are a few words about the real reasons that should push you to use this platform rather than a site you own. Suppose you want to sell online using your e-commerce, first of all.
In that case, you have to get it found by users and, to do it in an acceptable timescale; you need to invest time and money in rather expensive services such as, for example, positioning and Google advertising (Google Ads) which, however, hardly guarantee equal visibility to that offered, precisely, by giants of the caliber of Amazon.
Opening an online shop in a vital marketplace ensures visibility and indisputable guarantees, but even selling on Amazon as on other platforms can prove tiring. To win the fierce competition, it is essential to sell exciting products at very competitive prices with inevitable repercussions on each Seller’s margin from selling a single product.
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