Why launch your business on Amazon?
Read Time: 4 minutes
Overview:
Ask a room of adults in the UK whether they have an Amazon account and the potential is clear, made more apparent by the fact that between 30-40% of all E-commerce transactions in the UK go through the platform. But should your business consider selling their products on Amazon?
With over 8 years' experience working in and around Amazon, The QWERTY COMMERCE team acquired first hand experience as to why certain brands should launch on the platform. We’ve distilled our thoughts below:
1) Online Marketplace Opportunity:
The online market in the UK is expected to grow 15% per year over the next 4 years. For independent breweries and other craft alcohol manufacturers online sales on average contribute 10-20% of total revenue. this is a trend that is expected to continue rising as customer habits evolve in the coming years.
2) Incremental Sales:
Amazon is the largest online marketplace globally, accounting for 30% - 40% of UK online sales, with a whopping 70% of UK adults shopping at Amazon on a monthly basis. With QWERTY Beer Box, an online focused craft alcohol business we founded 3 years ago, and several of our grocery clients we have found that with careful management, Amazon provides an excellent channel for craft brands to reach new customers and drive incremental sales. Amazon sales currently contribute >70% of annual sales for QWERTY Beer Box. You would expect this figure to increase proportionately to the QWERTY Beer Box brand website’s sales, however because of Amazon specific product marketing and inserts we have been able to leverage Amazon sales growth to also dramatically increase sales across our own brand website.
3) Awareness & Consideration:
Online marketplaces are now the starting point of 44% of product searches (Vs 19% via search engines), meaning consumers are 2.3x more likely to start their initial ‘research stage’ for products on the likes of Amazon over Google. Amazon builds on this consideration strength by allowing brands to further express themselves once approved on the Amazon Brand Registry. Such features include brand specific storefronts (micro websites within the Amazon site), additional product listings features and ability to publish your own ‘Brand Story’. This content can then be shown to the 500+ million monthly visits Amazon UK receives per month.
Summary:
Amazon is definitely not for everyone, and in our FREE E-commerce consultation we advise whether we think your business could thrive on the platform. But as you can see from the above, if you can get the right product, in front of the right customer at the right time - the Amazon platform offers an incredible opportunity to increase profitable growth and awareness.
Author: Quinn Leatherbarrow-Stokes (QWERTY COMMERCE & QWERTY Beer Box Co-Founder, extensive E-commerce experience working within Amazon advising brands and on the supply / seller side with FMCG companies).
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