How Amazon Could Help Small-Sized Companies Grow

Amazon is an e-commerce giant with millions of sellers and customers across the world. As a seller, if you are looking to scale your business or even launch your brand online, Amazon is a platform not to be missed. Not only does Amazon offer substantial advantages to small-sized companies such as its massive audience reach and existing customer base, but it also provides opportunities for small-sized companies to grow and scale.

Over 197 million people around the world visit Amazon.com every month. Here are some key points on how Amazon can help small-sized companies grow their e-commerce business.

Existing Customer Base

Sellers will have the opportunity to sell their products to millions of active users on Amazon. This giant e-commerce marketplace already has an existing customer base that can be leveraged by small scale businesses.

With an already existing customer base, Amazon sellers will have lower customer acquisition cost upon start-up. Selling on a marketplace like Amazon can increase customer loyalty providing small brands with a competitive edge selling online.

Amazon has a reputation as a trusted brand and a trustworthy site which provides its vendors with instant credibility as well.

According to a study conducted by Small Business Trends, 60% of small businesses are receiving more than half of their online sales from online retail giants such as Amazon. Amazon provides its customers and online retailers with simplified processes providing a seamless shopping experience.

There are over 100 million Amazon Prime users in the US and 64% of households with Amazon Prime memberships. With their extensive reach and wide customer range, Amazon offers its customers with benefits of free, fast shipping and returns which in turn reflects positively for a small brand and provides an incentive for customers to purchase a product from you.

Fulfillment by Amazon Program

For smaller businesses, the difficulty of selling online comes through the challenges of fulfillment and operations.

Customers shopping online have high expectations for quick delivery, free shipping options, and easy returns and refund process.

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program offers third-party sellers distribution, full-service fulfillment solution, inventory prep service, picking and packing, and shipping services. In the US alone, there are over 1 million small to medium-sized businesses selling online on Amazon.

Entrepreneurs can leverage these processes that Amazon has in place to provide for a better experience to their customers.

Small brands can use the FBA program by bulk shipping their products to the Amazon fulfillment centers and paying for their services. Through Amazon’s extensive infrastructure and distribution network, Amazon can ship products to end consumers cost-effectively and quickly.

Third party sellers can outsource tedious tasks such as barcode labeling, order fulfillment, logistics, and also customer service support to Amazon’s experienced teams.

As a small business starting online, Amazon allows entrepreneurs to entirely focus on growing their core business and their supply chain management by outsourcing these aspects of the business to them.

It is always advisable to consult with a Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) specialist.

Expanding to other sales channels

One of the main challenges that small-sized companies face is the challenge of fulfillment and warehousing, which makes it difficult for vendors to scale their businesses to other marketplaces or to launch their websites.

However, through Amazon’s multichannel fulfillment program, Amazon offers services such as picking, packing, and shipping the order directly to the end customer for products sold on other sales channels.

Sellers can link their external sales channels with their inventory in Amazon’s fulfillment centers, providing them with one centralized inventory hub.

Multichannel fulfillment (MCF) offers third-party sellers the opportunity to expand their online retail to other channels beyond just Amazon whether this is through their standalone e-commerce website through Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce or Magento or other online marketplaces.

Expand Internationally

Not only does Amazon provide the tools and infrastructure for expanding your business locally on Amazon.com, but selling on Amazon also opens the opportunities for sellers to expand their brand internationally.

Through the FBA export program and Amazon Global Selling program, sellers can export their products to over 100 countries around the world, reaching millions of customers. These programs make it easier for existing sellers to enter international markets without all the marketing, customer acquisition costs, and extensive exporting paperwork.

Exporting products to global markets has its challenges of import duty tax, product regulation, and formalities.

Through Amazon’s Global Selling and FBA Export programs, sellers can ship their products quickly across borders by relying on Amazon’s fulfillment team to handle the challenges that may arise with international shipping while enjoying the benefits of reaching a broader audience base.

Amazon offers the tools for small sized brands to kick start their online business easily. By taking advantage of all the benefits that Amazon provides to small businesses, sellers can reach out to a broader range audience locally and internationally. Selling on Amazon allows small brands to start selling online with lower risks and start-up costs.

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This post is brought to you by our friends at Elevate.

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Also published on Medium.