1. Amazon The Disruptor

2. Today’s Agenda
 What is Amazon?
 Where is it?
 What is it?
 How successful is Amazon
 Why/which consumers buy online?
 Starting out with Amazon
 What is Amazon looking for?
 How do I make contact?
 How do I make Amazon work.
 Things to be aware of

3. About Amazon
 Amazon is the world’s biggest online ecommerce marketplace
 $61 Billion 2012 Grown to $138 Billion 2016
 95 Million Product Searches Per month
 Estimated 80 Million Prime Members World-Wide
 310 Million Active Customer Accounts World-Wide
 There are now over 2 Million 3rd Party Marketplace Sellers which
make up almost ½ all sales. “The Third Pillar”
 USA, DE, UK, FR, ES, IT, CA, IN, JP, CN, MX, (AU)
 Amazon is crushing everything in its path (remember book stores?)
and it’s just getting started…

7.  …and it’s not just traditional retail that’s being smashed…

9.  Amazon looks like a big company with lots of employees…

11.  Until you compare it to one of its biggest retail competitors…

13. Amazon
Customers
 It is estimated a third of all product searches globally begin on
Amazon
 There are an estimated 380 million products on Amazon
 Amazon customers are extremely “purchase focused”
 Amazon’s customers have their credit cards on file.
 Amazon’s number 1 priority is, ‘The Customer’.

14. Amazon Prime
Free Shipping on orders over $35 & much more…
Amazon’s Prime
Membership

15. Amazon Prime
Amazon’s Growth Engine
 Customers pay approx. $100 USD per year to join Amazon Prime
Membership.
 It entitles them to Free 2 Day Shipping on all orders over $35 (but
only orders which are Fulfilled by Amazon).
 Also Included:
 Prime Video
 Prime Music
 Prime TV
 Audible
 Prime Now
 Games
 Prime Photo Storage
 And more…
 There are estimated to be 80 Million Prime Members Worldwide…

16. Amazon’s Prime
Membership
Demographics

17. Amazon’s Prime
Membership
Demographics

18. Not all Amazon
Customers are
“looking for a
bargain”

19. Why do
consumers buy
from Amazon?
Trust.

20. How does
Amazon work?
 In ‘theory’ – 1 product, 1 Amazon listing
 Multiple Sellers compete on a single listing

24. 3 – 4 main
types of Sellers
 Who’s selling on Amazon?
 Amazon itself
 Established Brands
 Wholesalers & Retailers
 Private Labellers

25. Amazon Basics
(Amazon’s own
Private Label Brand)
 Amazon Basics

26. Amazon Vendor
Central
Amazon Buys Products
from Brands and sells
them on the platform.
You do NOT want to
compete with Amazon
for the Buy Box!

27. Wholesalers/
Retailers
Companies who buy
Products from
Brands and sell
them on Amazon.

28. Private
Labellers
Companies /
Individuals who
brand products as
their own.
“Alibaba to Amazon”

29. Private
Labellers
Companies /
Individuals who
brand products as
their own.

30. Brands
Brands sell their
own products on
the platform directly

31. Brands
Category
Restrictions

32. Amazon FBA
Fulfillment By Amazon

37. Amazon FBA
 You have 2 fulfillment options when selling on Amazon:
1. Ship products that you sell on Amazon yourself (FBM)
2. Opt to use FBA’s services - you can ship your products to
Amazon’s warehouses...
 Amazon will Store, Pick, Pack and Ship your orders.
 Amazon will provide (nearly) all customer service
 Amazon will handle returns

38. Amazon FBA
 As a 3rd Party Seller:
 You have much higher chance of winning the Buy Box
 You can scale your business exponentially from anywhere in the
world
 You don’t need to have your own warehouse
 Your customer service is greatly reduced
 You can Fulfil Orders from other channels

39. Sales Volumes?
 What sort of sales volume is occurring?
 Quick search for random product ‘coat hangers’ reveals over
$1,130,000 worth of coat hangers are being sold on page 1 every
month…
 (Tool used is Junglescout chrome extension)

40. Amazon A9
On-Page SEO

41. Amazon – my
small personal
presence…

42. Amazon
Australia

43. Amazon
Australia

44. Amazon Australia
 Winners:
 Australian Branded Manufacturers, retailers
 Australian Distributors with exclusive distribution rights from
brands (both domestic & International)

45. Amazon Australia
 Likely Losers:
 Retailers who currently stock and compete with other retailers
without exclusive brand agreements
 Grocery retailers IF Amazon introduces ‘Amazon Fresh’

46. Amazon Australia
 Starting out with Amazon…
 Step 1 - Apply

47. Amazon
Australia  Apply

48. Amazon
Australia  Apply

49. Launch Strategies
 It’ll be a land grab at the beginning!
 All products will be new and have no reviews (some reviews will
come across from the same products on amazon.com if they’re
listed there).
 New products will have no reviews.
 Your job is to get sales and reviews for your products as quickly as
possible.
 Note: very few if any ‘launch’ or ‘customer email follow up’
services will be around to help you! Much the work will need to be
manual…
 Launch products in USA or Europe now to get reviews… Why?
Amazon Australia

50. Launch Strategies
Amazon Australia

51. Known Brands
Vs.
No-name’s.
 Small ‘unknown’ brands compete and beat known brands on
Amazon all the time…
 On the next slide, check out unknown ‘NoCry’ brand’s ‘knee pad’
sales performance, compared to Nike, ASICS, Dewalt…
Amazon Australia

52. Amazon
Australia
Known Brands
Vs.
No-name’s.

53. How do consumers
find products to buy
on Amazon?
They search.

54. Discovery &
Marketing
 You need to ‘rank’ your products for search terms
 Use promotions (discounts codes) to ‘spike’ Amazon’s algorithm
 Get sales through ‘keywords’
 Sales velocity through keywords = high rankings.

55. Discovery &
Marketing – Amazon
Sponsored Ads

56. Launch Strategies
Amazon Australia

57. Amazon Vendor Central
vs
3rd Party Seller Central
 Amazon Vendor Central is Invite only
 Sell yourself (3rd Party DiY) or go with Amazon Vendor Central?
 Bigger Australian brands will be contacted by Amazon directly to
sell to Amazon wholesale.
FBA (i.e. DiY) Vendor Central
15% Referral Fee + FBA Fee Est. 50% wholesale price to Amazon
Paid every 15 days Approx 60 – 90 days to get paid
Need to have a team to manage inventory Need a team to manage wholesale
Cost of prep and shipping products to FBA Cost of shipping products to FBA
No Access to Amazon Vine Access to Amazon Vine (amazon review)
(Almost) Guaranteed MAP (Manufacturer
Agreed Pricing)
No guarantee Amazon will honour MAP
Can be tricky to learn platform and rank
your inventory
Amazon almost guarantees sales of your
products
Full control of your product listings Amazon assumes control (they’re bad!)
Amazon Australia

58. What to do if you’re a
Wholesaler/Retailer?
 Explore Private Labelling popular products you sell
 Learn about Amazon’s ‘buy box’ system so you can compete
 Learn how to ship your products to Amazon’s FBA Warehouses
Amazon Australia

59. In summary…
 Learn about the platform, understand how it works
 Embrace the changes that are coming
 Work out how to leverage Amazon as a channel for your own
success
 Do not stick your head in the sand and hope for the best!
Amazon Australia

60. Amazon
Australia
Resources
 Resources
 www.junglescout.com – product and competitor analysis
 www.jumpsend.com – auto customer email follow-up’s and launch
 www.theamazingseller.com – Scott Voelker’s Podcast
 www.privatelabelpodcast.com – Kevin Rizer’s Podcast
 www.thewholesaleformula.com – How to sell wholesale
 www.bobsledmarketingcom – Kiri Masters (USA & Europe agency)
 www.amaznsales.com – Australian Amazon consultancy firm (for
Australian Businesses)
 Me, Chris Thomas: 0414 986 957, chris@christhomas.com.au