You want to grow your company fast and selling on Amazon Marketplace seems like a way to introduce your brand to a large audience quickly.
You don’t have to have to worry about having your own website if you don’t want to – which can seem like a relief at first, but how does full reliance on Amazon impact the growth and marketing of your company in the long-term?
Is it better not to sell on Amazon at all? Is there some sort of hybrid solution?
In this article, we'll discuss how to grow your company with and without Amazon. We'll clearly list the pros and cons of each, so you can decide if Amazon’s style of strategic brand management is how you want to grow your company before you make any serious commitments.
What is Strategic Brand Management?
First, let’s talk about what brand management is. Why? Companies often struggle to build a distinct brand and let “Amazon affiliate” become their core identity.
The ultimate goal of brand management is to position your product as a truly unique solution that transcends comparison. When there is no comparable alternative to a brand, it can successfully build a positive reputation, customer loyalty and word of mouth.
Buyers are often willing to pay more for the perceived value of a brand's products or services. In fact, the most successful companies avoid side-by-side comparisons with their competitors because buyers are more likely to view them as a commodity and fixate on price, instead of what they uniquely have to offer.
When your brand is compared side-by-side with others on a platform like Amazon Marketplace, the options to differentiate are limited, and the fundamentals of brand management are skewed in favor of Amazon.
They've built a platform for your product and are willing to give you control over what is said, but not the way it is presented. As a result, Amazon stands out. Not your company.
There are a number of brand management companies specializing in Amazon who can help with store customization options, but at the end of the day, your brand is categorized and commodified with no real way to differentiate from competitors on the same platform.
The Brand Management Strategy of Amazon
The strategy of brand management offered by Amazon prioritizes the growth of their company over yours.
This is okay for some, but when you partner with Amazon there’s no guarantee you’ll be standing out among the competition. It’s as easy to be overlooked as it is to be found – and that’s not the best marketing strategy for long-term company growth.
However, the platform has its advantages. The pros of selling on Amazon marketplace are:
- Sales exposure – With millions of monthly site users, your product is seen.
- Motivated buyers – Amazon users are ready to purchase. They need a product fast and are less choosy about specific brands, which can help level the field for a startup company.
- International appeal – You can grow your company fast in different markets without advertising.
These are great options that can be leveraged to your advantage when executed as part of a comprehensive marketing strategy. Just be careful not to let the goals of Amazon brand management impede the long-term growth of your business.
So, how do you use Amazon and still build a successful brand?
Selling on Amazon Marketplace vs. Selling on Your Own Website Directly to Customers
Many companies don’t see the value of having their own website vs. selling on Amazon Marketplace. After all, one has 300 million users and the other hasn’t been created yet, so it’s easy to see where the hesitation to start a website comes from. How can your startup company website ever hope to compete with Amazon when they are so much larger?
In reality, it’s not about competing with Amazon. It’s about generating your own traffic and leads, and converting them to buyers.
Having your own website can be more valuable than Amazon Marketplace because you can build and leverage customer loyalty through email lists, content creation and other targeted efforts that simply aren't possible on Amazon.
What might start as a small number of motivated buyers coming directly to your website can grow into a much larger following that drives sustainable, long-term growth. With the right brand management strategy, it's all possible.
An unintended consequence of selling on Amazon Marketplace is the forfeiture of valuable user data that could be used to form a customer acquisition plan.
When you have your own website, you are able to use website information acquired from visitors to tap into new audiences and generate more sales leads. When you are on Marketplace, Amazon gets all of the details about your brand performance.
Valuable brand management data includes key performance indicators (KPI) your company can use to measure and improve brand marketing tactics such as lead magnets, landing pages, and blogs (for organic website traffic) – all part of a sound growth marketing system.
Valuable KPIs from website traffic include:
- Lead conversion
- Bounce rate
- Dwell time
- Form submissions
- Pages per session
- Keyword rankings
- New website visitors
Knowing exactly how buyers are engaging with your website is the key to improving its performance. By learning from (and responding to) user data, you'll have the insights needed to improve time on site, repeat visits, positive reviews and other metrics that drive revenue growth.
With Amazon Marketplace, you can’t study these important behaviors to refine your brand strategy . . . but Amazon can, and they can even use this information to make their own products that competes with yours (though strictly against policy, it has happened before).
Should You Register on Amazon?
Selling on Amazon aside, there is also a question of whether you should register your product to have more control over your brand. Third-party resellers can describe your products almost however they want, until you officially register and set informational parameters.
If you are unsure if you should register with Amazon, ask an unbiased (non-Amazon) brand management company for consultation.
Should You Be Selling on Amazon?
The benefits of selling on Amazon vs. having your own website will vary from company to company. Not sure if your product will perform better on Amazon, or on your own website selling directly to customers? Consider a brand management agency that can assess your unique situation. They can recommend solutions for selling directly to customers on your own website, working with Amazon Marketplace, or a successful mixture of both.
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