ASD Market Week is becoming more than just a place to source new products. Between all the different social events and conferences, it has become a premier educational experience where retailers can learn how to better their business on top of discovering the latest product trends. Whether you sell online, in store or both, ASD Market Week has got the tools for you to rack in more customers.
Thomas Smale, Founder of FE International, gave a talk at ASD on “5 Lessons Learned from Over Half a Billion Dollars in Business Acquisitions.” While he was at the show, he spoke about Amazon and trends that are particularly important for retailers today.
Amazon’s Looming Shadow
“One thing I noticed was whether or not you have a retail storefront or ecommerce store, more and more people are transitioning to selling on Amazon.” Smale said. “Amazon has become so big that you can’t fight it anymore.”
Selling products on Amazon is nothing new to retailers, and most do it on the side while they take care of their own ecommerce site or physical storefront. It’s a quick and easy way to make some extra cash on the side, and as more and more consumers are signing up for a Prime account, why not sell on it?
Challenges & Concerns
“Those who have been selling on Amazon for a while are finding that it’s getting more competitive and expensive in order to get more exposure on the platform,” Smale said. “You have to be using paid ads or a marketing strategy to drive new customers. You can’t just rely on Amazon to sell products for you.”
In order to compete with the rest, sellers have been getting creative. According to Smale, instead of selling just one product by itself, business owners are combining five popular products that go well together to create a bundled set. This not only increases the average value of your sales, but there is also less competition because other businesses are unlikely to have the same products bundled together into one sale. Bundling products together also helps to increase customer loyalty. Amazon remembers what consumers buy and frequently encourages them to buy again.
One of the other challenging aspects of selling on Amazon is the corporation doesn’t control any customer relationship information. Independent business owners find this especially uncomfortable because it’s what they are used to. The core value of indie retailers is to build relationships with your customers and creating those memorable experiences to keep them coming back for more.
Picking Up The Pace
“Amazon, as a platform, will only get bigger.” Smale said. “More and more consumers have memberships and Amazon just recently expanded their reach to Australia. With a platform like this, I don’t think that this will last only a year and it will definitely continue into 2020.
For small businesses who aren’t used to selling their products through online platforms, Smale advises that you get on board as soon as possible. In order to keep up with the evolving trends with consumers, you have to put your products where they have their eyes, which are going more and more to Amazon.