Overview
Amazon offers services to promote your products on Amazon.com. What most people don't understand is Amazon offers two different types of services:
- Selling on Amazon
- Amazon Product Ads
This help page will give you an introduction to both of these services and the requirements to use these services so you can decide which one, or both, is right for you.
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Please read both options carefully so you understand the requirements for both Amazon programs! |
Selling on Amazon
With most people selling their products on Amazon, this is immediately what comes to mind. I suspect because they themselves have shopped on Amazon and have seen their competitors listed there as well. "Selling on Amazon" to Amazon means your products are listed and sold directly on the Amazon.com website. Shoppers place products in their shopping cart on Amazon.com and checkout like any other product listed on Amazon. You as a retailer must login to an Amazon website called Seller Central to fulfill these orders.
Because your products are sold directly on Amazon, Amazon has some pretty strict requirements on how they accept your products. The biggest obstacle to overcome is including a UPC code for every item in your catalog. Without these UPC codes, Amazon generally will not let you sell your products on Amazon.com. If your website is integrated with a Point of Sale (POS) or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, then you're in luck because these systems generally will allow you to enter UPC codes into their system. Once entered into your POS or ERP software, they will automatically flow from these systems in Store Manager and consequently, to Amazon. All UPC codes must be entered into Amazon and cannot be entered into Store Manager.
While your POS or ERP system probably has the ability to show you what products have or don't have valid UPCs, Store Manager also has a report that can help you as well. If you go to Product > Reports and click on the Product UPCs report, you will see all the products that have valid and invalid UPC codes:
Store Manager does the best job it can to validate the UPC codes you've entered into your POS or ERP system; however, it does not check the validity against some sort of international database. Instead, it performs something called a Check Sum. This Check Sum validates that the codes you've entered have the correct number of digits and have the characteristics of a valid UPC code, but the numbers you've entered are not compared to any "master list."
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Amazon requires valid UPC codes for your products! You must enter UPC codes in your POS or ERP system in order for them to come to Store Manager and be sent to Amazon. If you are unable to enter valid UPC codes for your products or if your website isn't connected to a POS or ERP system, then "Selling on Amazon" is probably not an option for you. In this case, your only option is Amazon Product Ads. |
Some of our clients have had some amazing success with the Selling on Amazon program, selling thousands of dollars of merchandise a month, and in some cases, daily. Amazon's commission structure for the program is based on a percentage of the sale and changes based on the classification of products. For example, Amazon currently takes 15% on all shoes sold on Amazon.com. While this may seem like a lot, it also includes the credit card transaction fees because the consumer is making the purchase directly on Amazon.
For more information, please visit Amazon regarding Selling on Amazon:
http://www.amazonservices.com/content/sell-on-amazon.htm
Amazon Product Ads
With Amazon Product Ads, you aren't really selling your products on Amazon. Instead, you are displaying Ads on the Amazon website and directing people back to your site to make their purchase.
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Amazon requires approval for certain product categories before your ads will be displayed. The most common categories are Shoes and Apparel. Many of Modern Retail's customers have not been successful in getting approval for these categories. However, you may be able to sell these products directly on Amazon using their "Selling on Amazon" program described above. |
Amazon has done a nice job over the last couple of years blending these ads with the other products shown on Amazon.com. Many consumers may not even be aware they are clicking on an ad instead of another product at Amazon.com. What's nice about Amazon Product Ads is that all purchases are made on your website and are fulfilled in Store Manager like any other order. Additionally, Amazon Product Ads do not have the UPC product requirements as discussed above.
Many of our customers using Amazon Product Ads have been pretty happy with their return on investment, although some feel the cost-per-click is a little high.
Much like feeds from other Marketplaces such as Google Products and TheFind, Modern Retail can completely automate the sending and updating of your catalog to Amazon. Once we have this set up for you, there's very little you need to do to display your ads on Amazon.
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Amazon Product Ads do not require valid UPC codes on your products! This is your only option (for Amazon) if you cannot add UPC codes to your products. |
Modern Retail can configure your Amazon Product Ads feed for you. Simply submit a Support Request with the e-mail address and password you use for Amazon's Seller Central, and we'll do the rest.
Please visit Amazon regarding more information about Amazon Product Ads:
http://www.amazonservices.com/content/product-ads-on-amazon.htm
Amazon Seller Central
You can login to your Amazon Seller here: