It's no coincidence that Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is one of the richest people on the planet. More than 197 million visitors worldwide visit the webshop every month. Now that a fully Dutch version of Amazon has existed since March 2020, you as a merchant may wonder whether you can also benefit from this success.

In this blog we therefore dive into the world of Amazon. Because what about popularity in the Netherlands, with established web stores like Bol.com en Coolblue as competitors? What would sell on Amazon your costs? Finally, we share tips to realize as many sales as possible on the platform.

Why would you (not) want to sell on Amazon?

Amazon is immensely popular worldwide. Just like with other successful online stores, you can profit from that popularity by offering your products through the website. Buyers who may never have heard of your webshop and / or prefer to buy from a trusted webshop, now choose your product. There are plenty of success stories from merchants who have seen their webshop grow enormously by selling on Amazon.

But of course the sun rises for nothing. Whether it is really attractive therefore depends on a large number of factors (such as your product and the demand for it). In addition, it is good to know that Amazon is a lot less popular in the Netherlands than in other countries because of established names such as Bol.com and Coolblue.

This is how the Amsterdam consultancy investigates Maze One every three months the popularity of the five largest marketplaces: Bol.com, Coolblue, Amazon, AliExpress and Wish. What seems? Bol.com was by far the favorite in the second quarter of 2020. Amazon is even at the bottom of the top five. From another study of capterra it appears that no less than 89% of the respondents would rather order from Bol.com than from Amazon, if the product is for sale in both web stores.

What does it cost to sell on Amazon?

At Amazon you can sell in two different ways. You have the Basic package, where you do not pay a monthly fee, but € 0,99 per sold product. This package is for sellers who plan to sell less than 40 items on Amazon. Do you want to take it more seriously? Then you will have to go for the Professional package. Your monthly fee is 39 euros. This amount is debited by default, regardless of whether you have sold something or not.

Whichever package you go for, keep in mind that you also have to pay additional costs for each item sold. Exactly how much that is depends on the type of product you are selling. You can often count on 15% of the purchase price. On the Amazon website you will find an overview of all costs you have to count on when you sell through the platform.

As a serious merchant you pay a monthly fee of 39 euros at Amazon and a percentage of the purchase price per sold product. This differs Amazon from the Dutch webshop Bol.com, where you only pay a commission per product sold.

Ship products yourself or through Amazon

Exactly how much you have to pay to Amazon depends on another factor: whether you ship your products to the buyer yourself or via Amazon. You call that fulfillment. With Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) you send your products (for example a month's worth of sales) to an Amazon fulfillment center. They package and ship the packages for you to the buyers and also arrange customer service.

Only products sold through this way qualify for Amazon Prime and free shipping. Products with a Prime label are more likely to be purchased by Prime members (i.e. visitors who often use Amazon) and are higher in the search results.

That sounds tempting, especially when you know that Amazon also handles your returns. The big disadvantage is that you have lost control. Amazon customers can return the products within 45 days. Not you, but Amazon determines whether the customer gets a replacement for free. In theory, this does not happen if the items are worn or broken, but in practice this sometimes turns out differently.

You also have to make sure that you sell everything on Amazon. If there appears to be no high demand for your product and you have a lot of products at Amazon, you will no longer have access to them and you can therefore consider these products as lost.

If you want to use FBA, you will also have to pay for this. You can calculate exactly how much money this involves using the FBA calculator. Find a product that is very similar to yours and enter the ASIN (Amazon product number). Based on the sizes and weight of the package, it is calculated how much you spend on FBA.

Do you choose to ship your products yourself and do customer service? Then, in addition to the monthly fee, you only pay the commission per sold product that we discussed earlier. This way you can use the enormous reach of Amazon, but you have everything under control. Keep in mind that this does not qualify you for Amazon Prime.

Are there any other costs to consider?

Finally, it is good to know that you start as a new seller with a low seller ranking. This increases the more sales you make and the more reviews you get. At first you may end up somewhere on page 25 due to the many domestic and foreign competitors. To get more sales quickly, you can use Sponsored Products, the adwords program within Amazon. With this you can place your product at the top of the search results for certain keywords.

Another way to quickly get higher in the ranking is by, for example, first selling your product with a hefty discount. As soon as people buy, your ranking will increase, resulting in more buyers. Note: make sure you have enough stock! As soon as it is used up, you will quickly drop in the ranking and you have to start all over again.

Who is selling on Amazon attractive to?

The biggest drawback to selling on Amazon is probably the fierce competition, which means that products are priced lower and lower. If you can't take part in this price war, you probably won't sell quickly. Selling on Amazon is therefore mainly attractive if you have a strong own brand and a number of USPs that the competitor cannot match.

Amazon is a great way to appeal to millions of buyers who otherwise might never have visited your online store. The webshop can therefore be a great way to sell more. Keep in mind that this will not increase the popularity of your own webshop. It is strictly forbidden to put a link to your webshop with the product listings on Amazon.

Sell ​​successfully on Amazon

You are now fully aware of the costs, advantages and disadvantages of selling on Amazon. Do you want to get started with this? Then follow this step-by-step plan in order not to disappear among all those other sellers on the platform.

Step 1: Market research

Before you invest money in selling on Amazon, it is good to investigate whether there is any demand for your product at all. You've probably already done keyword research on your products when it comes to Google. If you want to specifically research how big demand is on Amazon, you can do so through tools such as jungle scout of MerchantWords.

Step 2: Calculate the costs and your margin

Now that you know which products people are actually waiting for, you can calculate how much it will bring you per sold product. Is the margin enough for all the work that goes into it?

Step 3: Make strong product descriptions

With the help of your keyword research you can also get your product descriptions optimize. This not only ensures that more people find your products, but also that they actually buy them. Some tips when you get started creating strong product listings:

• Use the keyword that people search for a lot, but don't use it as a crazy hundred times. Therefore, use synonyms and see what words the competitors use.
• Write a good title. Amazon advises in any case to include the brand and a description of the product in the title, the material or ingredients and the color, size and quantity. The shorter it is, the better does not work here.
• Make sure the first five words make it clear what you are selling. In Google's search results, Amazon product titles are already truncated there.
• You can enter keywords not only in the title, but also in the product description.
• Post several good and crisp product photos.

Gradually you can analyze your results and adjust titles, keywords, product descriptions, photos and prices to see what works best. This way you can take full advantage of all the benefits that selling on Amazon brings and make as many people as possible happy with your products.