Online Shopping Through Amazon

10 Amazon Facts you Need to Know In 2021

Amazon is one of the fastest-growing and largest growing ecommerce marketplaces in the world. They have captured the attention of millions of customers and the hearts of many ecommerce sellers.

With a rapid growth period due to the high increase in volume traffic in 2020, Amazon is making some changes that will mean sellers will have to adapt or find a way out. For some, Amazon’s convenience and broad net audience are all it takes to convince them to stay. For others, it might be time to look at the ten amazon facts you need to know in 2021.

  1. Amazon has 1.9 Million Sellers actively selling. 

It is one of the easiest ways to get started in ecommerce, which also means you are vying for your ideal customer with all of them as well.

  1. Amazon sells over 12 million different products. 

The beautiful part of Amazon is that it truly is a one-stop-shop. A customer can acquire textbooks to kitchen supplies in a matter of minutes. For sellers, this can be a glorious advantage as it allows quicker conversion of sales and more opportunities to be spotted. The downside is that your product becomes less appealing as it competes with similar products listed right next to it.

  1. 80% of Amazon sellers sell outside the platform as well 

With the high competition of selling on Amazon, Amazon sellers often utilize other shopping carts or marketplaces to promote their products, causing higher overhead cost and, at times, disjointed inventory

  1. Amazon holds a patent on one-click buying. 

This feature has given amazon its 730% growth spurt since its conception. However, this also means that one-click buying is limited to this platform, only forcing your customers to often rely on the convenience and ease of Amazon instead of your shopping cart on hosting sites like BigCommerce or Shopify.

  1. Jeff Bezos, the founder/CEO of Amazon, is the wealthiest person in the world currently.

Jeff Bezos is single-handedly the wealthiest individual globally, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise when Amazon has the highest commission percentage compared to other marketplaces. In addition, free delivery demands cut into profit margins.

  1. Amazon holds more than 49% of the ecommerce market share

Amazon is, well, unavoidable.

  1. Amazon owns over 40 different subsidies. 

Again, amazon can feel unavoidable when the same company also owns over 40 different brands.

  1. Amazon changed its FBA sorting process in late 2020, allowing inventory commingling. 

We have mentioned this in previous blogs, and we stick by our sentiment that Amazon will continue to control your business operations as long as you sell with them. Comingling of inventory means that regardless of the seller, products that use amazon barcodes will be stored together. For sellers, this can be a massive disadvantage to quality control measures.

  1. Amazon does not protect you from “copy cats.” 

A significant downside to sharing a marketplace with 1.9 million sellers is that there are bound to be people who try and knock off your product.

  1. Amazon changed their return time to 90 days.

Previously, Amazon allowed a customer to return items for 60 days. After the most significant influx of sales throughout the pandemic, amazon needed more extended amounts of time to process. These delays could hurt your bottom line big time! 

However, Amazon has its significant perks as well! They are one of the largest, fastest-growing marketplaces there are. They also work towards a triple bottom line and offer incentives for marketplace sellers looking for a hands-off approach. 

Clearinity has time and time again helped Amazon sellers approach omnichannel presence with a focused inventory approach. We know that Amazon has its wins for some of our nearest and dearest clients. We also know that to ultimately scale, you may need to figure out others ways to make a profit.