Many businesses are too scared to take the leap into Amazon’s marketplace, or just haven’t considered even looking at the platform as a way to expand their B2B sales. That’s because although it’s a worldwide sales giant, it’s intimidating to know where or how to begin – but with over 100 billion in annual sales and over 200 million active customers, a savvy business owner will see the value in adding a few products as an additional sales channel and adding Amazon to their B2B marketing strategy.
The three most common reasons businesses give for not jumping on the Amazon B2B bandwagon are that they think the platform is mainly set up for merchants to sell directly to individual customers rather than businesses, lack of time, and a fear of channel conflict that will create a new sales channel that will cause pricing conflicts across their other distribution channels. There is also the fear that committing to selling B2B on Amazon could disrupt traditional sales channels or existing e-commerce. Getting started isn’t as intimidating as some people think.
You Can Reinvent Your Brand
If time and channel conflict are your concern, a good solution is to market your products on Amazon as a different brand. Even if the products are the same, or are bundled, or are a variation only available on Amazon, creating a new brand name will allow you to access Amazon’s massive customer base and test different products, packages, or pricing without worrying about whether your established sales channels, brands and products will be affected.
There are many different types of merchant Amazon listing approaches, including:
- Fullfilled By Merchant Listing
- Fullfilled by Amazon Listing
- Vendor Express/Vendor Central
- Dropship Central
- FBM and VC Cocktail
- FBA and Off-Amazon Cocktail
Fulfilled by Amazon
The Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) listing is the most evolved type of Amazon listing and is the best bet for beginners to Amazon’s listing process. With FBA, your business is the still seller, but your inventory is sent to an Amazon fulfillment center. When your item sells, Amazon will pick, pack, and ship your item automatically (for a fee), as well as handle all the tracking, returns, and basic customer service tasks – which can really be a time saver.
Additionally, FBA listing makes your item or product eligible for Prime Service. Prime users buy more often and spend more money, making them Amazon’s most valuable customers. Amazon’s search algorithm also finds FBA items to be more attractive and gives them more clout in searches, so your products will be seen more often and by more potential buyers. The flexibility of packaging sets or creating brands that can be changed seasonally, and the ability to play with pricing is one of the reasons Amazon should be part of your company’s overall B2B marketing strategy.
