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A lot of the eCommerce focus on the forum was a group of several that started around the same time. Dozens of us were doing eCommerce, with several different products but the same basic strategies. Amazon has changed a TON since @biophase, @AllenCrawley, @LightHouse, @JAJT, @Kak and several others got started on the platform and found great success in marketing predominantly through Amazon.
My next business will use Amazon as a channel, but will not be an Amazon centric business. I have watched the above guys evolve their businesses over the years to adapt to the changes on Amazon.
At one point, my business had an unhealthy reliance on Amazon, completely violating the commandment of CONTROL.
Amazon is still THE force to be reckoned with, but in building a business from scratch today realize a lot of things have changed since some of the early advice you could read on the forum regarding how to find success on Amazon.
Other venues are starting to take on some traction and prominence, but perhaps @biophase and @AllenCrawley have done the best job of building brands that were significant beyond Amazon. I am sure there are many others here also, but I thought it might be beneficial to introduce a discussion on "the new rules of the road" specifically regarding Amazon for those who are researching business models.
It's not like it was. It's not coming back to how it was. You can still make a business and a life with Amazon as a channel, but I no longer believe that building an Amazon business is a prudent, futuristic decision for someone who wants to build something bigger.
My next business will use Amazon as a channel, but will not be an Amazon centric business. I have watched the above guys evolve their businesses over the years to adapt to the changes on Amazon.
At one point, my business had an unhealthy reliance on Amazon, completely violating the commandment of CONTROL.
Amazon is still THE force to be reckoned with, but in building a business from scratch today realize a lot of things have changed since some of the early advice you could read on the forum regarding how to find success on Amazon.
- PPC costs have dramatically increased in nearly every category
- Views have declined radically for non-advertised offerings
- Feedback rules and methods have changed
- Amazon algorithms have changed
- There's been a huge influx of commoditized international competitors
- There's been changes to policies regarding returns
- There's been an evolution of ways sellers get scammed and listings get scammed
- There's been a relaxing of Amazon's pursuit it IP theft
- There's been a cleansing of many smaller sellers who no longer sell on Amazon
- Customer expectations have changed to adapt to Amazon's "the customer is always right" philosophy
- Customer abuse has changed to adapt to Amazon's "the customer is always right" philosophy
- Retail arbitrage is nearly dead, and the people who paid thousands to learn this "business model" might as well move on to their next MLM investment
Other venues are starting to take on some traction and prominence, but perhaps @biophase and @AllenCrawley have done the best job of building brands that were significant beyond Amazon. I am sure there are many others here also, but I thought it might be beneficial to introduce a discussion on "the new rules of the road" specifically regarding Amazon for those who are researching business models.
It's not like it was. It's not coming back to how it was. You can still make a business and a life with Amazon as a channel, but I no longer believe that building an Amazon business is a prudent, futuristic decision for someone who wants to build something bigger.
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