In 2020 I decided to try Amazon as a seller. It has been an interesting experience and several thousand sales later this knowledge may be helpful for you if you are thinking about becoming a seller.
There is Definitely Money to be Made
I listed products on Amazon, eBay, my sites, and other product selling sites, including Google Shopping.
By far the most sales came from Amazon.
Surprisingly, though, at least in my experience the sales volume should have been higher compared to eBay.
Amazon is significantly larger than eBay, and it generated more sales, but for some products it did not proportionally generate more sales than eBay given its size advantage - if that makes sense.
You will want to compare actual sales results and not just make assumptions about where most of your sales will come from. Do not omit Amazon, but also do not assume it is the only arena to focus on.
Google Shopping was a complete waste of time.
Google opened its shopping service for "free" listings, which I still somehow got charged for when (the few) sales where made.
Google is only interested in showing paid listings. For sellers using Google Shopping their products only show if Google cannot find a paid product to show in response to a search query. IMHO, Google should just shut down its service. It is a waste of time for sellers and buyers.
The amount of traffic on Amazon makes it an easy choice to put up your products.
The Untold Reasons Behind Fulfillment by Amazon - Terrible USPS Shipping and Dealing With Customers
Amazon sellers can either ship their products to customers directly, or send their products to Amazon's warehouse and let Amazon ship the products and deal with customer support. This is called FBA or Fulfillment by Amazon.
Of course, there are fees for using the warehouse and these fees can eat a big chunk of profit. The FBA fees are in addition to Amazon's 15 percent selling commission.
Amazon says FBA is worthwhile for several reasons, but does not state the real reasons why someone should consider FBA. Probably, because it would be socially improper.
First, shipping by the post office is horrendous.
There are countless news stories online about how in 2020 USPS was a shipping disaster with first class on-time mailings being less than 40 percent. Millions of packages have piled-up for weeks waiting to be delivered.
The number of lost or misdirected deliveries by USPS truly shocked me. I lost count of how many orders I had to redo or refund.
Even tracked orders routinely were lost by USPS or simply disappeared for weeks before being delivered.
I think Amazon delivery started not because Amazon wanted to compete with the post office, but because if Amazon wanted to be successful and have happy customers it needed to take over delivery with its own drivers and tracking.
Amazon Prime with promised fast delivery could not exist if Amazon was relying upon the post office for delivery.
This is probably the biggest lesson, and most unexpected, from my experience: just how terrible USPS has become.
Second, bad customers.
There is nothing like dealing with fraudsters and jerk customers who complain about anything a seller has no control over.
I think the word is out that a buyer can pretty much give any reason to demand a free product and Amazon will give it to them.
It is no fun to be threatened with refunds and bad reviews when a product bought one day as not been delivered by the next day.
Part of the problem is Amazon's system periodically seems to run amok telling buyers deliveries are late or lost, even when they are not, or were delivered weeks before. It can be a big time-suck dealing with this nonsense.
Amazon also seems to let anyone post a fraudulent review, even if they have not bought a product.
I had a product that came in one color - black. The buyer nuked me saying they ordered red and complained in came in black. Appealing to Amazon that this was nonsensical was like talking to a brick wall.
Without question, in my experience the buyers on Amazon are worse than the buyers on other services. But maybe this is due to higher expectations with customers getting used to fast Prime delivery service. By comparison, any seller shipping is going to look worse.
So how to avoid dealing with customers? Let Amazon do it with FBA.
The downside is if there is a problem, or a late or misdirected delivery, you may not be able to save the sale by offering to resend the product to the customer. Amazon will seemingly refund anything for any reason.
There were numerous times a buyer asked Amazon where a shipment was and Amazon immediately said do a refund - but I was able to save the sale by communicating with the buyer.
If you can accept the lower profit from FBA fees, not having to deal with customers is a good reason to use FBA.
Amazon is the Easiest Service to Use
Whether it is creating product listings, responding to customers, printing packing labels, reviewing stats and reports, and virtually anything a seller would normally need to do, Amazon is hands-down, without question far better and superior than eBay, Google Shopping, or any other service I tried.
Google Shopping deserves a special mention for being not just bad, but horrendous. Again, I think Google should get out of trying to be a shopping portal. I cannot emphasize enough how bad Google is.
Amazon Demanded Disclosure of Private and Proprietary Information
Amazon required that I prepare a detailed analysis of how I prepared products, with pictures of equipment used, etc.
It was a shocking request.
Worse, I only had a couple days to do it, with it being due the day after Christmas.
Seriously, who does that?
Due the day after Christmas!
Amazon is the subject of many legal complaints about unfairly competing against its sellers, ripping off products, and I can understand why.
Another reason to use FBA is based on my use of Amazon it appears Amazon shows FBA listings first in its search listings ahead of other sellers.
It is a way for Amazon to discretely force sellers to pay more to Amazon by using FBA to be better seen by buyers to make sales.
Selling on Amazon is not a partnership.
Be prepared to disclose more than you would ever think of disclosing to a competitor - and always consider Amazon a potential competitor.
Bottom Line
You will need to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of selling on Amazon.
Probably the biggest advantage is the amount of traffic. It is there, already on the service, and you do not have to pay for it.
That cost savings - free customer eyeballs on your products - is a major cost savings often overlooked.
It is easy to only look at costs, such as commissions and fees, without considering the cost savings from using Amazon.
For small sellers like me Amazon is a great service to use and is recommended.
