The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

Amazon's launching in Sweden - upcoming opportunities?

jon.M

Gold Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
343%
Jul 4, 2016
405
1,390
Sweden
Everything's pointing to that Amazon will launch in Swedish market (my home country) anytime between New Year's Eve and summer 2018.

When I read this, my mind started spinning. This is a great opportunity, right?

Here are two thoughts about what I could do in this situation. I'd love to hear your opinions:

1. Specialize in copywriting for Amazon sellers (Sell shovels)
I'm freelancing as a copywriter and have noticed that some people request help with their Amazon listings to make it more persuading and keyword optimized.

Selling products to Swedes would require Swedish copy. Hence, it's not as easy to find the right copywriter through an international freelance site. And the competition would be quite low (my guess) for a copywriter in that field.

So what about establishing a personal brand as the Amazon copywriter in my country?

I've got practically no knowledge of selling on the platform right now:

  • What do sellers in general care about most in their listings? The copy itself or optimizing it for keywords etc.?
  • Are they doing it themselves?
  • Do they hire someone in-house or a freelancer/agency?

Pros I can think of:
  • In time, more and more people will probably start selling in Sweden. Don't they want high-converting sales copy?
  • I'm already a copywriter with some skill and a portfolio. And there's time to get more niche experience with Amazon listings before the launch.
Cons:

  • It's freelancing and you're trading time for money. I can take that for some time, no problem, but it is a con. You could transition it into some kind of agency later, though?
  • Is there a big enough need for outsourcing copywriting in this area? I'm not sure.
  • Will sellers be willing to pay enough? Will enough sellers be willing to pay? Sweden's a pretty small market.
CENTS ANALYSIS

NEED: Yes, some. Don't know exactly how big or small though.
ENTRY: Anyone can write and people can easily call themselves copywriters. Don't think it's hard to stand out from them though. At least if you're decent at selling yourself... :)
CONTROL: Pretty good control, I could find clients through a lot of channels.
SCALE: It's online, but focuses on Swedish sellers. How many of them are there?
TIME: I'd be trading time for money. Could scale by hiring others later down the road.


2. Sell on the platform (Dig for gold)
What about selling products yourself? I imagine the competition will be somewhat less competitive the beginning, so why not grab the soda while it's still cool?

Find a product that's decent and has some barrier to entry...

Let's say kettlebells.

Then find out what could be improved. Better grip? More ergonomic shape? Maybe throw a free video guide to kettlebell training in the package?

***

I mean... all the information about Amazon selling on this forum, WITH a new, fresh market... Isn't that a killer combo?

Pros:
  • It could be a way to get into e-commerce without spending too much on FB or Google ads (?) and setting up your own webshop and payment methods
  • Sure, you don't want it to be an "Amazon business", but it could be a good first channel if you want to get some traction and cash flow at the start.
  • If you come early, wouldn't it be easier to stand out?
  • It's probably the place where most people will shop in a few years
  • It seems easier to automate. Or is it?
  • There's a higher barrier to entry. You need more money upfront. You'll need to source a product. Import it. Store it. Sell it. Send it.
  • There's tons of info about it on this forum
  • I know some copywriting which is beneficial
Cons:
  • There's a higher barrier to entry. :) Need a pile of cash. I don't know how much, but I probably don't have enough right now... Hustling my a$$ off by freelancing and selling old stuff ATM. Don't know if there'll be enough anytime soon, though.
CENTS ANALYSIS

NEED: Well, if you create a good product that fills an unfilled need. :)
ENTRY: Pretty high, and it changes depending on what niche you're selecting
CONTROL: You'd have one channel, and Amazon could ban you for some reason. But if you're building new channels ASAP? Start with Amazon - but later create your own site.
SCALE: It's online, and if you pick the right niche, you'd probably be able to move enough units to set you for life...
TIME: It'd be more detached from my time, compared to the previous alternative.


I'm sorry if it's just brain shit... been a long day. Tried to clean it all up.

But anyway, if you could go back to the time Amazon launched in your country, what road would you take? What would you learn? Is this a good opportunity?
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
Last edited by a moderator:

racyred09

Bronze Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
359%
Nov 28, 2017
97
348
USA
Everything's pointing to that Amazon will launch in Swedish market (my home country) anytime between New Year's Eve and summer 2018.

When I read this, my mind started spinning. This is a great opportunity, right?

Here are two thoughts about what I could do in this situation. I'd love to hear your opinions:

1. Specialize in copywriting for Amazon sellers (Sell shovels)
I'm freelancing as a copywriter and have noticed that some people request help with their Amazon listings to make it more persuading and keyword optimized.

Selling products to Swedes would require Swedish copy. Hence, it's not as easy to find the right copywriter through an international freelance site. And the competition would be quite low (my guess) for a copywriter in that field.

So what about establishing a personal brand as the Amazon copywriter in my country?

I've got practically no knowledge of selling on the platform right now:

  • What do sellers in general care about most in their listings? The copy itself or optimizing it for keywords etc.?
  • Are they doing it themselves?
  • Do they hire someone in-house or a freelancer/agency?

Pros I can think of:
  • In time, more and more people will probably start selling in Sweden. Don't they want high-converting sales copy?
  • I'm already a copywriter with some skill and a portfolio. And there's time to get more niche experience with Amazon listings before the launch.
Cons:

  • It's freelancing and you're trading time for money. I can take that for some time, no problem, but it is a con. You could transition it into some kind of agency later, though?
  • Is there a big enough need for outsourcing copywriting in this area? I'm not sure.
  • Will sellers be willing to pay enough? Will enough sellers be willing to pay? Sweden's a pretty small market.
CENTS ANALYSIS

NEED: Yes, some. Don't know exactly how big or small though.
ENTRY: Anyone can write and people can easily call themselves copywriters. Don't think it's hard to stand out from them though. At least if you're decent at selling yourself... :)
CONTROL: Pretty good control, I could find clients through a lot of channels.
SCALE: It's online, but focuses on Swedish sellers. How many of them are there?
TIME: I'd be trading time for money. Could scale by hiring others later down the road.


2. Sell on the platform (Dig for gold)
What about selling products yourself? I imagine the competition will be somewhat less competitive the beginning, so why not grab the soda while it's still cool?

Find a product that's decent and has some barrier to entry...

Let's say kettlebells.

Then find out what could be improved. Better grip? More ergonomic shape? Maybe throw a free video guide to kettlebell training in the package?

***

I mean... all the information about Amazon selling on this forum, WITH a new, fresh market... Isn't that a killer combo?

Pros:
  • It could be a way to get into e-commerce without spending too much on FB or Google ads (?) and setting up your own webshop and payment methods
  • Sure, you don't want it to be an "Amazon business", but it could be a good first channel if you want to get some traction and cash flow at the start.
  • If you come early, wouldn't it be easier to stand out?
  • It's probably the place where most people will shop in a few years
  • It seems easier to automate. Or is it?
  • There's a higher barrier to entry. You need more money upfront. You'll need to source a product. Import it. Store it. Sell it. Send it.
  • There's tons of info about it on this forum
  • I know some copywriting which is beneficial
Cons:
  • There's a higher barrier to entry. :) Need a pile of cash. I don't know how much, but I probably don't have enough right now... Hustling my a$$ off by freelancing and selling old stuff ATM. Don't know if there'll be enough anytime soon, though.
CENTS ANALYSIS

NEED: Well, if you create a good product that fills an unfilled need. :)
ENTRY: Pretty high, and it changes depending on what niche you're selecting
CONTROL: You'd have one channel, and Amazon could ban you for some reason. But if you're building new channels ASAP? Start with Amazon - but later create your own site.
SCALE: It's online, and if you pick the right niche, you'd probably be able to move enough units to set you for life...
TIME: It'd be more detached from my time, compared to the previous alternative.


I'm sorry if it's just brain shit... been a long day. Tried to clean it all up.

But anyway, if you could go back to the time Amazon launched in your country, what road would you take? What would you learn? Is this a good opportunity?

I have to wonder about copywriting if sellers in other countries wouldn't just hire a Swedish-speaking translator for cheap on Fiverr if language is the only problem? The thing about Amazon Europe (unless Sweden is separate for some reason) is that sellers send their inventory to one distribution center and can then sell to every country so a lot of the sellers will not be Swedish that sell to Sweden. Will many of them want to optimize their listing for Sweden when you've got almost 10x the market in Germany for example? Who knows. My guess is the top sellers in other countries might. It seems like you've already got the experience, so this could be a great way to start and if it doesn't work out, you've still got plenty of time to try being a seller.

That being said...my husband is from France so we decided to sell on Amazon France because we noticed that MOST of the listings had the graphics in English or German, didn't answer their French questions, etc. probably because they didn't speak French comfortably enough. I think you would benefit from being one of the first sellers in Sweden. I know this wasn't terribly helpful...it's a hard decision to make and I don't think either is a bad idea.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

Latest Posts

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top