Amazon's goal is to allow anyone with a quality product to sell on its platform. This makes it difficult to gain control and sell products in volume. There is a small number of sellers who beat a long line of "losers" who barely make anything.
The problem is this: everyone is competing for the top spots for their products because that's where customers look first. If you have a SKU on page six of your category, it's a bit like having a website that appears on page six of search results. Simply put, it's not going to get you the traffic you need for a sustainable business.
However, there is a way to get rid of this difficult problem: hire an Amazon agency. Instead of trying to learn everything yourself, delegate the task of managing and growing your account to seasoned experts. These professionals know how to get your products to those coveted first places and help your brand win.
Before we delve into the reasons why you should hire an Amazon agency, it's worth noting that the platform is not as cruel as many sellers imagine. 86 percent of vendors make money on the platform, and 67 percent earn a healthy ROI in their first year. Amazon generated more than $280 billion in third-party revenue in 2019, about half of the company's total revenue, and its 3P percent share of total revenue continues to rise.
Here are some of the reasons why you might need to hire an Amazon agency like ours:
1. Your retail business is successful through other channels, but not through Amazon
If you have a successful retail business, whether it's through your website or through a brick-and-mortar store, it's a sign that consumers are benefiting from what you're selling. In short, you are doing something right.
However, if you're having trouble getting ahead on Amazon, that suggests a problem with your company's approach to the platform, not a flaw in your business model.
For example, one of our clients, was experiencing rapid growth through its website and other DTC channels, but was struggling with Amazon before working with us. It knew that Amazon was a problem spot, but was unable to gain control of the platform. This was not a product problem. That was another problem.
The problem, it turns out, was that the company didn't have the internal expertise to know how to win the Amazon game. As soon as they turned that task over to us, they started winning.
2. You rely heavily on third-party tools
Tools can be very helpful for Amazon sellers, especially those new to the platform. Keyword tracking tools help with Amazon SEO, selling apps make it easy to achieve retail arbitrage, and web crawler scraping tools let you collect data without the need for coding or configuration knowledge.
But tools have an Achilles heel: they cannot help you with a strategic sense. Just like a hammer or chisel, they are only as good as the craftsman who uses them. They don't give you the big picture insights and priorities you need to rule.
The best approach is to combine tools with human intuition provided by an Amazon agency. This is the reason we offer different service offerings that add strategy to your toolkit and resources.
3. Your Amazon support representative does not respond to your questions
Like Google, Amazon is eager to support new businesses on its platform because it knows that working with them is a win-win situation. The more successful they are, the more money Amazon takes.
However, support doesn't last forever, and with so many brands on the platform, you may end up having trouble getting someone on the other end of the line when things get complicated.
This seems like a stiff deal, but it's simply the way the platform's incentives work. The goal of Amazon reps is to increase Amazon's profitability, not yours. So there is no specific reason for them to continue working with your brand once you are already moving forward. The opportunity cost is too high.
With an agency, however, you always have support. If there is a problem with your Amazon account, we solve it quickly.
4. You learn about Amazon policy changes too late
While Amazon is a lucrative platform, it is known to implement the types of policies that burn sellers. Suspension policies and review blocks are constantly changing and can pose a threat to your current business model if you do not comply.
Many vendors on the platform believe they are up to date with what Amazon is doing because they read regular emails with updates, and blogs on the platform. But unfortunately, even this information can be a bit out of date.
Ideally, what you want is the ability to know in advance where the wind is blowing. And that's what you get from Amazon agency. We are constantly researching behind the scenes to determine what direction the platform is likely to take, and provide you with early warnings about changes that could affect your business model.
5. You do not have the internal skills to get your products a high rating As mentioned earlier, you may have great products, but if you don't know how to play the Amazon SEO game, you will struggle to gain the control you deserve. Getting a high rating for your products is something that will always remain elusive. And here too, agencies can help. We know which keywords are likely to help you rank high and we can create strategic copy that converts customers. Remember, as a manager, you probably don't have the time to create styles for all your Amazon pages. And even if you had the time, would you know how to create content that converts customers? maybe not.
6. You failed to migrate from Vendor Central to Seller Central Brands often make the transition from "suppliers" to "sellers" on Amazon. This means they stop selling as a first-party wholesaler to Amazon and instead sell directly to customers as a third-party through the platform. They do this because they want more control over content, inventory, and pricing, and they want to establish direct contact with the end customer. However, this transition can be challenging. There are all kinds of hurdles you have to jump over. Fortunately, we've been through this process before and can help you. In fact, we helped one of our beauty clients with their transition and as a result improved their SEO and product image, and improved their brand content. Additionally, we implemented aggressive PPC and SKU generation strategies to drive demand through their account. The cost of advertising decreased by 28 percent, and customers new to the brand jumped by more than 94 percent.
7. You are not sure how to diversify your SKUs
Many times, brands become very successful in honing individual SKUs and selling them in volume through the platform. But when it comes to diversifying their revenue outside of their best-selling lines, they struggle. One of our customers encountered this exact difficult problem. It wanted to promote some products that were not its core products, but had difficulty doing so.
We answered their request by:
Creating a series of educational infographics that show customers the best ways to use brand products to improve review ratings
Increase product awareness through an aggressive PPC strategy on Amazon assisting in the launch strategy of its products.
Together, these efforts yielded massive results for the brand. Monthly sales volume increased by 455 percent, two new products hit the market, and ad revenue jumped, almost unimaginably, by 1569 percent.
8. You don't have time to devote to managing ads
If you want to achieve success on Amazon as a third-party seller, you need to treat each product as an individual business. You should always consider factors such as pricing, reviews, advertising, and content to ensure that products continue to receive high ratings. Constant vigilance is the order of the day.
But as sellers, you have other priorities. You need to take care of your website, manage employees, and market through other channels. You don't have time to regularly monitor your ASINs. It's madness. Again, this is where amz-expert agency can help. We manually monitor and optimize thousands of individual SKUs on a case-by-case basis, allowing you to avoid this tedious task and focus on growth instead. And at the very least, it makes running your organization more enjoyable.
9. You haven't invested in branding yet Amazon offers a variety of tools that allow third-party sellers to enhance their branding through the platform. Here are some examples:
A+ Content: A feature that allows sellers to decorate their product pages with rich media, including videos, comparison charts, and FAQs.
Enhanced Brand Content (Enhanced Brand Content - EBC): A tool that enables enhanced content, such as images and text placements.
Amazon Stores: A feature that allows you to create multi-page stores to better display your products.
But when it comes to these Amazon branding assistants, many executives are skeptical. Is it really worth investing in them?
The data provide an answer. Estimates indicate that Amazon stores alone have created more than 1.6 million jobs worldwide.
10. You are tired of doing tedious work on your product pages
The whole point of selling on Amazon is to relieve yourself of drudgery. You want a semi-automated business model that allows you to make money, without having to invest so much of your time. But when you finally get into it, you realize it takes a huge chunk out of the week. And worse than that, many of the tasks you find yourself having to do are tedious and boring - not at all what you want.
Transferring these operations to an Amazon agency relieves you of this chore. Once you make the leap, you'll be free to focus on other added values in your organization, such as product development or multi-channel marketing. Managing your Amazon account is no longer a waste of your time.
11. You bleed money, but you don't know where
Approximate calculations can often be misleading. A quick scribble might indicate that a particular product line is going to be profitable, but Amazon comes with all kinds of money leaks you don't expect. And worse than that, you are not always sure how to get rid of them.
Sometimes, customers can get confused when they don't understand how Fulfillment by Amazon works. They think the cost of getting Amazon to stock and deliver a SKU will be manageable, only to find it eats up their entire profit margin, and sometimes more. Other businesses get into trouble when they spend money incorrectly on Amazon advertising or when they fail to understand how the platform's commission structure works. Again, many of these problems can be completely avoided, but they require a thorough knowledge of the market. That's where our agency can help. We examine all the costs included in your goods and make sure that the products reach your customers unharmed while providing a healthy profit margin.
12. You fear the unknown at Amazon Finally, if you are an Amazon vendor, you simply sell directly to the retail giant and then have them manage the rest of the process for you. But becoming sellers requires you to become a much more active partner in the process. You can't just sit back and wait for things to happen. You have to play your part.
Although, doing this can feel like a big risk. You already have a business model that works. The last thing you want is to change your entire business model and survive the risks it brings.
Amz-expert helps take some of the stress out of it by providing you with a comprehensive strategy you can use to succeed, even in an unfamiliar environment. We study your industry, create a winning formula, and implement it for you.
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