Amazon – The Biggest Opportunity in the History of eCommerce…and now the Local Enterprise Office is supporting selling on Amazon..
Trading Online Voucher scheme
The Trading Online Voucher scheme was setup to assist Irish SME’s who want to sell online. The effect of the scheme has been dramatic for those companies who have taken advantage of the scheme.
In 2016 the government commissioned a report on the 800 companies who
had taken up the voucher ( at that time ). 70% of SME’s who received
the voucher responded, and they reported that:
- 21% was the average increase in sales
- 84% experienced an increase in customer enquiries
- 73% said that the new online business was additional and did not displace existing sales
- Growing businesses expect to recruit on average 1.4 more employees
- 3 out of 5 businesses begin to export, and
- 89% said that the trading online component of theirbusiness will become more important in the next six months
The well-known global consulting company McKinsey found that SME’s
who adopt internet grow twice as fast and export twice as much as
companies that do not.
What SME’s have used the scheme for:
Up to this year the scheme has been used for the creation of ecommerce websites, or adding ecommerce capability to the SME’s existing site. The vouchers were used to hire ecommerce service providers, who added the ecommerce capability to the SME website.
Creation of an ecommerce website is a software project which requires out
What that means for you
-
- Creation of an additional sales channel – the ecommerce site
- Work with a software provider or ecommerce agency on building ecommerce site
- Operation of the site – founder owned – inquiries, checking orders, shipping
- Maintenance of the site by provider/agency – OR build internal capability
- Total Cost of Ownership typically includes hosting, ecommerce subscriptions, customer acquisition advertising costs
- Customer acquisition – 30% of the voucher was allowed for advertising. Typically the entire amount was spent on site creation with nothing allowed for customer acquisition.
The major downside of this plan
Without a customer migration plan – your existing customers will not hear about your website. Without an email list of customers that are used to hearing from you, an email telling them you are now online won’t have much effect. Without a (paid) customer acquisition plan, new customers will not find your website. Imagine going to all the effort of building an ecommerce site, with a poor return on investment.
In 2020 the LEO changed the rules of the game.
This year the scheme has been extended to allow use of low cost online retail platform solutions – which means marketplaces such as Amazon are now in scope.
Using Amazon instead of building an ecommerce site
-
- Creation of an additional sales channel – Amazon
- Sell your products to a very large audience of potential customers, 67% of Irish people use Amazon
- Work with an expert to load your products on Amazon
- Operation of Amazon – founder owned – inquiries, checking orders, shipping
- Maintenance of your Amazon listings – by expert – ensuring your listings are found
- Customer acquisition or migration to the site – Amazon already has traffic – 67% of Irish people shop on Amazon
The major upside to using Amazon
Amazon has almost 70% of Irish customers,
This year the scheme has been extended to allow use of low cost
online retail platform solutions – which means marketplaces such as
Amazon are now in scope.
Using Amazon instead of building an ecommerce site
- Creation of an additional sales channel – Amazon
- Work with an expert to load your products on Amazon
- Operation of Amazon – founder owned – inquiries, checking orders, shipping
- Maintenance of your Amazon listings – by expert – ensuring your listings are found
- Customer acquisition or migration to the site – Amazon already has traffic – 67% of Irish people shop on Amazon
You may be interested in a presentation I did at the eCommerce stream from the DMX Dublin conference, which helps you in the following ways:
- I give you some eCommerce frameworks to help you understand Amazon
- I explain why Amazon is such a big opportunity for Irish retailers
- I talk about how Amazon fits with your .com eCommerce channels
- I explain what a marketplace is; why its different to eCommerce sites
- I discuss the benefits to you as the brand, and to the customer
- I explain why Amazon can work for your brand
- I show why Amazon is hard to do for Irish brands
- I offer some solutions to the challenges Amazon presents to you
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Helping You make the most of the Amazon opportunity using the supporting 22 page guide – free download here
How we help you realise the Amazon Opportunity
Figuring out the entire Amazon platform is a huge challenge. That’s why brands choose us for our unique expertise and experience with Amazon. Together, we help brands figure out the right strategy, execute effectively, and leverage data to drive excellent results.
Tell you what you need to know before Selling on Amazon: The Amazon marketplace and how it works. I explain how the Amazon flywheel creates more choice for the customer, and how this benefits sellers.
Explain how Amazon works with your existing website – how Irish brands are using Amazon as an additional online channel, and why this is going to be even more important in 2020.
Explain how to sell on Amazon. I explain the concepts you need to understand to effectively sell on Amazon. You need to understand Products, product offers and the importance of the buy box to make sales on Amazon. I explain how seller performance impacts your chance to make sales on the platform.
Amazon Listing Optimisation. Listing Optimisation improves Product Discoverability (a set of best practices to make sure your products are found) or Product Desirability (once a customer has found your product, Product Desirability updates maximise the Amazon conversion rate). I have created detailed Listing Optimisation, Product Discoverability and Product Desirability templates and processes, for you to implement.
Amazon Seller Best Practises: Based on my research for the eConsultancy’s 2020 eCommerce Best Practise guide, I share the best practises that top-performing Irish Amazon sellers use. I apply these best practises to your scenario and market. Best practices include Fulfilment By Amazon(FBA), listing optimisation, pricing strategies and Amazon integration to maximise your returns from selling on Amazon.
