As a retailer or a third-party merchant, having somewhere to sell your products without renting a physical shop is a plus for your business success. The good thing is Amazon Marketplace has you as a retailer or a third-party seller in mind. You can sell your products on their e-commerce platform. Besides, the Amazon marketplace allows you to connect with millions of customers worldwide. With that said, let's answer the question; what is Amazon Marketplace?
What is Amazon Marketplace?
Amazon Marketplace is an e-commerce platform owned and integrated into Amazon.com. The platform is well integrated with the mother company to the point that most customers don't even realize they're buying from third-party sellers. In addition, this e-commerce platform enables third-party sellers to sell used and new items at a fixed price.
Image Source: tinuiti.com
When you choose Amazon Marketplace to sell your products, you will have access to Amazon's consumer base and be able to advertise your products on Amazon's site without buying additional inventory. In addition, most suppliers usually use the Amazon Marketplace to launch new items with more control over pricing.
Although some customers may not know the differences between Amazon and Amazon Marketplace, the two operate very differently and usually generate millions of dollars annually.
Amazon Vs. Amazon marketplace: What's the Difference?
1. Amazon is a large online retailer of various products and cloud service providers. On the other hand, Amazon Marketplace is a third-party seller where other retailers sell their products from the Amazon site. Amazon marketplace is usually integrated into Amazon itself.
2. Amazon is a customer service provider that usually provides its client with a wide range of products worldwide. On the other hand, Amazon marketplace is a seller service provider that allows small businesses, groups of enterprises, or individuals to advertise, display and sell their goods online at a fixed price.
3. Amazon.com is a catalog of the goods the company sells. Conversely, Amazon Marketplace usually lists Amazon and other participating sites' products worldwide using its retail approaches.
4. Amazon marketplace charges its seller a fixed amount of money for each sale they make, while Amazon has no such requirements since there are no individual sellers involved.
5. Amazon uses Amazon Web Services (AWS), Simple Storage Service (S3), and Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) to continue the process. On the other hand, Amazon Marketplace uses Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) or Fulfilled by the merchant (FBM).
6. Amazon Marketplace usually allows sellers to resell new and used products while Amazon does not.
What Are the Benefits of Selling on Amazon's Marketplace?
Image Source: beehexa.com
1. Increase sales
One of the reasons you should sell on Amazon Marketplace is the volume of their web traffic which leads to increased sales. According to research, Amazon attracts about 85 million visitors monthly. In this case, you can quantify the numbers of folds by which your sale will increase. Besides, the chance of your product reaching potential customers will increase.
2. Wide variety of products
There is a list of products you can sell on Amazon Marketplace (including used items). You can also make small or large sales; besides, Amazon gives you all the necessary resources and expertise.
3. Fast shipping
As mentioned earlier, Amazon Marketplace uses Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) services to ship products. So, when you choose to sell on this platform, your products will be shipped to your customers faster and at cheaper rates than you can. Besides, by including Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) wording or its Prime logo to your product, you raise consumer satisfaction.
Therefore, you can enjoy stress-free and reliable goods shipping with Amazon Marketplace. And the good thing is you are not limited to using a fulfillment provider to ship your product. But you can opt to ship the products to your customers, where you will be in charge of packing the product and the shipping cost.
4. Get potential customers from around the world.
As mentioned earlier, Amazon has millions of different customers from all around the world. And one out of four of the customers usually ends up making the purchase. They go to Amazon Marketplace intending to buy, and while browsing, they might come across your product.
So, the Amazon Marketplace allows you to get potential customers. Moreover, selling high-quality products will increase the chances of securing ongoing customers.
5. Secure payments
Unlike other third-party sellers, Amazon usually provides secure and hassle-free payments. For example, you get a notification through email that money has been received for your product and is deposited into the registered bank account. Besides, Amazon Marketplace only takes its fees when a sale is made.
6. Get professional help service.
Amazon has the expertise that provides professional services to help you with each step of selling your product online, including advice on what to sell and how to market it.
Amazon Marketplaces By Region
Image Source: en.m.wikipedia.org
1. North America
i). United States (amazon.com)
- Language: English
- Traffic: 3.1B
Amazon marketplace was launched in the United States in 2000. Since its debut, it has expanded into a massive online platform. Besides being the largest marketplace, it's the most competitive in terms of seller popularity and traffic.
According to research, 78% of the United States sellers prefer the Amazon US marketplace, while 55% of sellers sell on amazon.com. US Marketplace is ideal for US sellers who are getting started as well as sellers from other nations looking to expand their markets.
ii). Canada – amazon.ca
- Language: English
- Traffic: 231M
Canada Amazon Marketplace was launched in 2003. So it's easy for sellers who are already selling on amazon.com. In fact, 41% of the seller are from the US, while Canadians are only 29%. This makes it a great starting point for United States sellers to expand their business internationally.
iii). Mexico – amazon.com.mx
- Language: Spanish
- Traffic: 89.67M
Mexico Amazon Marketplace was launched in 2015. Like Canada, it's easy to set up for sellers already selling on Amazon US. However, only 12 percent of the population speaks English, a limitation for US sellers who don't speak Spanish. According to research, only 12 percent of sellers sell in the Amazon Mexico Marketplace.
2. Amazon Europe
i). Amazon Germany (amazon.de)
- Language: German
- Traffic: 605.38M
Amazon.de recently launched its marketplace in 2022. By traffic, amazon.de is the second busiest marketplace worldwide after Amazon US. In 2020, it had a revenue of $29.6 Billion. Besides, it offers an interesting opportunity for sellers interested in extending their amazon business to Europe. According to a recent survey, 10% of the German sellers in the German marketplace are from the country, 22% of sellers are British, 18% are Chinese, and 8% are Americans.
iI). Amazon UK (amazon.co.uk)
- Language: English
- Traffic: 569.64M
Amazon.co.uk launched its marketplace in 2017. Amazon.co.uk offers an interesting opportunity for most sellers looking to expand to another English marketplace. A recent survey showed that 43 percent of sellers in the United Kingdom marketplace are from the country, 13 percent from the United States, and 9 percent from China.
iii). Amazon France (amazon.fr)
- Language: French
- Traffic: 269.79M
Amazon France launched its marketplace in 2018. Amazon.fr has 269.79 million visits annually and net sales of $3.6 Billion. The largest sellers on the Amazon France marketplace are from the UK (22%), 16% are Chinese sellers, 16% are US sellers, and only 11% of sellers are from France.
iv). Amazon Italy (amazon.it)
- Language: Italian
- Traffic: 251.72M
Amazon.it was launched in 1995. Between 2014-2018, there was a recorded good growth rate, but later sales became static, increasing by 1%. UK sellers dominate the Italian market with 23%, while sellers from Spain account for 10%.
v). Amazon Spain (amazon.es)
- Language: Spanish
- Traffic: 198.45M
Amazon.es was launched in 2011. Amazon Spain is not very popular for sellers since the country has a harsh VAT registration process. If you want to be a seller, your documents must be validated by a legal official and Hague apostilled, meaning foreign documents are usually verified in a certain way by a legal official.
vi). Amazon Netherlands (amazon.nl)
- Language: Dutch
- Traffic: 32.93M
Amazon.nl was launched recently in 2020. So if you want to be a seller in the Netherlands, we won't recommend using Amazon FBA when fulfilling your orders. Also, keep in mind that the Dutch don't like late deliveries.
vi). Amazon Sweden (amazon.se)
- Language: Swedish
- Traffic: 10.29M
Amazon.se is also a new marketplace launched in 2020. Sweden's market has a lot of potential because of the massive online culture.
vii). Amazon Poland (amazon.pl)
- Language: Polish
- Traffic: 9.5M
Amazon.pl was recently launched on 2021 and currently has over 70,000 sellers globally, making it one of the biggest launches.
3. Other Amazon Marketplaces
1. Amazon United Arab Emirates (amazon.ae)
- Language: English
- Traffic: 21.50M
2. Amazon Saudi Arabia (amazon.sa)
- Language: Arabic
- Traffic: 4.62M
3. Amazon Japan (amazon.co.jp)
- Language: Japanese
- Traffic: 646.97M
4. Amazon Singapore (amazon.sg)
- Language: English
- Traffic: 7.18M
5. Amazon India (amazon.in)
- Language: English
- Traffic: 295.51M
6. China – amazon.cn
- Language: Chinese
7. Amazon Brazil (amazon.com.br)
- Language: Portuguese
- Traffic: 115.31M
8. Amazon Australia (amazon.com.au)
- Language: English
- Traffic: 44.71M
What Are the Major Amazon Selling Programs?
1. Amazon Seller Central
If you are a retailer or a regular dealer, we recommend going for Amazon Seller Central. Research shows that more than half of the sales on Amazon usually come from third-party merchants registered with Amazon Seller Central. Besides, sellers on this program sell items under their brands or stores on Amazon Marketplace and still keep their inventory compared to Amazon Vendor Central.
Image Source: fool.com
Furthermore, if you go for this selling program, you will be free to choose whether to package and ship your products on your own or let Amazon deal with the packaging and shipping of the products from Amazon's fulfillment centers. Under this program, Amazon Marketplace gives customers access to wide product options from thousands of sellers and enables price comparison.
2. Amazon Vendor Central
Amazon Vendor Central is only available to merchants and wholesalers. This invite-only program allows manufacturers or merchants to sell their inventory (such as computers, video games, or game consoles) directly to Amazon at wholesale prices, which is later sold on Amazon.com.
Image Source: sellerapp.com
However, Amazon usually maintains ownership of the items to avoid confusing the items sold on Amazon Marketplace by third-party retailers. Besides, we must acknowledge that selling your products to Amazon through Amazon Vendor Central is a way for you as a manufacturer or wholesaler to sell large quantities of inventory without investing extra time in marketing and shipping.
10 Tips for Sellers on Amazon Marketplace
Image Source: zyro.com
- Offer discounts to attract customers.
- Pay attention to customers' feedback on what to improve on your products. This will promote customer satisfaction.
- We recommend selling with the Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) service rather than having to package and ship the products yourself. This way, you can manage the massive influx of orders without spending your resources and time.
- Set a "Sell Start Date" and a "Sell End Date" when adding a Sale Price to an Amazon listing to specify how long the item will be available at a discount.
- As an Amazon seller, we recommend getting a Pro Merchant Subscription rather than an Individual one.
- Include the tracking number and shipping method if you are dealing with Amazon orders before clicking Complete Order so that the tracking information is sent to Amazon.
- Listing unique products will make you stand out among other sellers. Besides, unique products are more likely to sell well.
- Ensure you have enough inventory to fulfill your Amazon orders within the shipping period.
- Be unique to keep up with the competition with the top-rated sellers and aim at winning the Buy Box.
- Ensure the currency you use in your store and your Amazon seller account is the same.
Featured Image Source: litcommerce.com
