Last week, the SellerEngine team, including Ioan, the founder of SellerEngine, visited Seattle. We were there to take part in the 2013 Amazon Consumer Electronics Summit.
The Summit was put on by the project managers from Amazon. They invited the top 200 sellers in the consumer electronics category for two days of discussion, networking and learning.
We were very excited to take part in this invite-only event and to introduce our software and services to Amazon sellers from all over.
Amazon Insights
Keynote addresses and presentations by Amazon product managers and executives provided some fascinating statistics:
- 1/3 of the US population shops at Amazon.com each month
- 30% of online shoppers begin by searching Amazon, as opposed to 15% who start with Google, Yahoo! or other search engines. And just two years ago, the percentages were reversed!
- 31% of sellers who begin using FBA see sales growth of at least 50%.
- Site-wide Order Defect Rate (ODR)To put it simply, the Order Defect Rate ... More has consistently dropped each of the past 8 years, as shown in the blurry photo to the left (I blame my camera).
The Future of Selling on Amazon
The future looks bright! The sellers we talked to all felt confident that Amazon would remain a huge part of their business for years to come.
But that doesn’t mean that there won’t be any changes.
International expansion was a hot topic at the summit. Amazon themselves was pushing expansion into Canada, but we feel that the Japan and the UK present huge opportunities for sales growth.
Also discussed at the summit was the topic of promotions and sponsored productsPay-Per-Click (PPC) ad platform for Amaz... More. Sponsored product ads allow you to promote the items you sell on Amazon on Amazon itself. You’ll target specific keywords similar to GoogleAds. These could be an excellent way to get your products and offers in front of more shoppers than ever before.
Lessons from Successful Sellers?
A huge part of the summit was spending time with many of the most successful sellers on Amazon. Here are a few tips we picked up from them:
- Watch your margins. Big sellers know all of their costs. They never guess. They know what they’re making money on and how much they’re making. If you’re just starting out as a seller, this is the most important habit to get into now.
- Start selling wholesale. Beyond a certain point, the most efficient way to grow your business will be to start making wholesale purchases. Use your personal network and connection. Sell what you know and start making calls to distributors. You might be surprised at who is willing to do business with you!
- Sell what Amazon can’t (or won’t). Amazon’s retail division stocks millions of items, but there are some items they don’t carry. Specifically, discontinued products, products released first in other countries and refurbished items may be neglected by Amazon. Focus on these products that may have reduced competition and watch your sales grow.
See you next year!
We hope we’ll see you at the summit next year! And don’t forget about other conferences and events, like the Seller’s Conference for Online Entrepreneurs (SCOE) in Seattle at the end of May.
Are there are other conferences or trade shows that you attend? Let us know! We love to travel and would love to connect with more of the Amazon community in person!
