Amazon store

[A. Smith]

Anyone here familiar with Amazon's store? They said it costs $40 per month, and they take a percentage of your sales. Sounded very good, but I'm wondering if there is anything I should be warned about before I make the plunge.
TIA!

[southplatte]

One of my clients did this, shortly after we developed an e-commerce site for her. She then promoted her items on amazon more than her own web site. She would tell people to "search this term on amazon" to find the products. She then didn't understand why her web site didn't have orders rolling in.....and in amazon they didn't do that much volume.

The thing to remember is there are literally hundreds of thousands of products on amazon from people using their zshops and custom solutions....so not only will people see your products there, but they will see your direct competitions also.

I would say to research competing products first, and base your decision on how well you feel you an market against them with the limitations that amazon puts on layout/design issues.

[A. Smith]

I would say to research competing products first, and base your decision on how well you feel you an market against them with the limitations that amazon puts on layout/design issues.

That is exatly what I did, and my primary products have little competition. Only 2 other companies, and one of them seems to have problems (images not showing, items not available). The thing is, that could also mean that many others tried similar products and were not successful lol. I have no way of knowing that, do I?

I'm not too aware of the limitations on layout/design issues. Can you explain a bit?

It's too bad, about your client, and I'm sure that you did a terific job on her web site. It's kind of frustrating, to give your best to a project, and then, they don't do their part.

I guess, it's a bit scary, to a tiny business like mine, to get to "mingle" with such a large site as Amazon. Mainly, though, I wanted to make sure that there weren't horror stories out there that I hadn't heard of. And being such a small business, I would never have the resources (i.e. $ for lawyers) to hold my end should some unfair treatment happen. I'd welcome direct feedback if someone isn't comfortable to post this on a forum.

Thank you for taking the time to answer :).

A. Smith
http://www.keyshomefurnishings.com

[southplatte]

Forgive me for taking so long to post.

If you look on amazon, most any shop on there, is just a plain vanilla layout. They do not have a "custom" storefront per se for each seller, kind of like eBay, all the base is the same.

Don't get me wrong, it can be an excellent vehicle for moving product....you just have to make sure if you get good exposure you can keep up, and that you will get enough to make it worth the effort.

[A. Smith]

Ah, spoken like a professional web designer ;)! Yes, I understand what you mean, everyone's store looks the same. The other side of the coin, is that people (maybe shoppers who are not too computer savvy?) might actually feel more comfortable with the more uniform look? If they're shopping on Amazon, or some other familiar site, they feel that they can trust that site, and a completely different look would undermine that trust? Or am I completely off here?

PS: For some reason, I'm not getting notified when a reply is posted to a thread I subscribed to :(.

[southplatte]

I think are are on the right track in terms of undermining trust with a different look, which is probably one of the reasons amazon does what they do.

It does create a sense of comfort to the users and trust is instilled because many time they think they are actually buying from Amazon, not an independent vendor.

I am not sure why you are not getting emails...you might check your profile and make sure the options are set properly...outside of that email a mod or admin.

[A. Smith]

Thank you, southplatte :). Let's hope the consumer out there will think so too LOL!

As for the notifications, I'll have to look into it, maybe I'm doing something wrong. Seems like belonging to a lot of forums with different s/w gets a bit confusing at times ;).