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Reducing your Amazon Exposure - Getting MORE sales and Making MORE money. Would you be daft not to?

Marketing, social media, advertising

RazorCut

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OK this is graph of third party Walmart sellers on the Walmart.com platform (which operates just like Amazon)

960x0.jpg


You can see how Walmart have been gearing up to take on the might of Amazon and do their utmost to steal sales away. To do that they need as many third party sellers as possible because the more products they have the most customers they can entice to shop regularly with them.

The latest news is that they have just signed a deal with Shopify. Walmart are only testing it with 1200 stores this year but obviously their aim is to make things as easy as possible for sellers to join their program and list their wares on Walmart.com.

And of course just like Amazon Walmart already will store and ship your products for you (FBW?)

So who currently is using Walmart.com as a sales channel? How have you found sales? And if you are not selling there what are your reasons?

If you haven't used Walmart.com here is a link to their WiFi extender offerings. Notice the number of third party sellers.
 
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MoneyDoc

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We use Walmart.ca and are averaging 5-6 sales a day which is amazing considering the low traffic. However, they are investing heavily in Canada as well with eCommerce, so I think we're in a good spot.

Also, according to our Walmart account rep, high volume products on Walmart.ca are reviewed internally for a possible retail placement.
 

biophase

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OK this is graph of third party Walmart sellers on the Walmart.com platform (which operates just like Amazon)

960x0.jpg


You can see how Walmart have been gearing up to take on the might of Amazon and do their utmost to steal sales away. To do that they need as many third party sellers as possible because the more products they have the most customers they can entice to shop regularly with them.

The latest news is that they have just signed a deal with Shopify. Walmart are only testing it with 1200 stores this year but obviously their aim is to make things as easy as possible for sellers to join their program and list their wares on Walmart.com.

And of course just like Amazon Walmart already will store and ship your products for you (FBW?)

So who currently is using Walmart.com as a sales channel? How have you found sales? And if you are not selling there what are your reasons?

If you haven't used Walmart.com here is a link to their WiFi extender offerings. Notice the number of third party sellers.

I used to sell on Walmart but stopped because it just wasn’t worth it and their platform was really annoying.
 

QDF

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I used to sell on Walmart but stopped because it just wasn’t worth it and their platform was really annoying.

Ditto.

Sales weren't terrible, but they clearly didn't have their act together yet.

I plan to get back on it later this year though with a much stronger effort and with hopes that they've improved things.

OK this is graph of third party Walmart sellers on the Walmart.com platform (which operates just like Amazon)

960x0.jpg


You can see how Walmart have been gearing up to take on the might of Amazon and do their utmost to steal sales away. To do that they need as many third party sellers as possible because the more products they have the most customers they can entice to shop regularly with them.

The latest news is that they have just signed a deal with Shopify. Walmart are only testing it with 1200 stores this year but obviously their aim is to make things as easy as possible for sellers to join their program and list their wares on Walmart.com.

And of course just like Amazon Walmart already will store and ship your products for you (FBW?)

So who currently is using Walmart.com as a sales channel? How have you found sales? And if you are not selling there what are your reasons?

If you haven't used Walmart.com here is a link to their WiFi extender offerings. Notice the number of third party sellers.

Are you selling on Walmart's marketplace? What's your experience?
 
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RazorCut

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I used to sell on Walmart but stopped because it just wasn’t worth it and their platform was really annoying

How long ago was that? I remember in the early days Amazon being a pain in the arse to sell on for very little reward.
 

RazorCut

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Primeperiwinkle

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No I’ve never sold on Walmart

... just everywhere else that takes time, blood, guts, and money to turn a profit at except Shopify, I loathe Shopify.”

There I fixed it for you. ;)
 
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QDF

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The latest news is that they have just signed a deal with Shopify. Walmart are only testing it with 1200 stores this year but obviously their aim is to make things as easy as possible for sellers to join their program and list their wares on Walmart.com.

Whether this happens or Shopify goes another direction, I look for them to make the move to a full-blown marketplace and be a huge player in the future.

They're already expanding into the fulfillment business, and a marketplace seems like the natural next step. They could literally have millions of unique products, sellers, and brands on one central marketplace in no time at all.
 

Wil22

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I never used Amazon or Walmart to sell product. Perhaps I am the only one (right or wrong) who sees this as the next shiny object. From what I hear, most entrepreneurs are irritated with Amazon and are moving toward more control. CENTS. Plus third party software can show Product costs/profitability enabling copycats with lower costs and side-by-side placements continue to uncut. Where is the value of shifting to Spotify/Walmart if the same structure exists?
 
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RazorCut

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I never used Amazon or Walmart to sell product. Perhaps I am the only one (right or wrong) who sees this as the next shiny object. From what I hear, most entrepreneurs are irritated with Amazon and are moving toward more control. CENTS. Plus third party software can show Product costs/profitability enabling copycats with lower costs and side-by-side placements continue to uncut. Where is the value of shifting to Spotify/Walmart if the same structure exists?

The issue is one of putting all your eggs in one basket. It is hard to ignore Amazon if you can get enough exposure to get your sales off the launch pad. I've come in to the warehouse on a Monday morning and been inundated with Amazon orders. We had so many orders for one product one day that when we printed the address labels out they stretched the entire width of the warehouse (and that was after all our stock had been stripped bare from FBA).

Those sales didn't go unnoticed though. It didn't take long before Amazon sourced from my supplier and then sold under the listing I had carefully created and nurtured for the best part of a year. That hurt. There was some very nice profit on that product.

The people I personally know who have actually gone under have built up a good business (with sales in the multi million dollar range) but it has been 90% Amazon. When things are going well everything is wonderful. But when they get rough (competitors latching on and driving profits into the floor in order to own the buy button, or just playing dirty tricks) the whole pack of cards can fold. Large warehouses on a long lease. Lots of staff. Bank loans. Business car leases. Nice offices etc. etc. etc.. Not hard to maintain with lots of positive cash flow, especially when your supplier is giving you great discounts due to the volume of stock you shift. But once competitors drive the price down to the point of zero profit. Then its very difficult to keep your head above water. And most of the time it happens within a week or two, not a gradual decline so often you are caught napping if you didn't see it coming.

It will be interesting in the next couple of years to see how Walmart fare.
 

Envision

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You're moving your eggs from one basket into another neither of which is your basket. Sure Walmart could be a good channel to move onto but your best bet is to get vertically integrated on your own site.

Build your own website.
Sell your own products.
Own your own fulfillment.


2 years ago we were 98% Amazon. Today we're 50/50 and by this time next year Amazon will make up 30% of our business (while still doubling our revenue on there).

If you're looking to make more money you open up your margins by investing into your own site and improving your website conversions/traffic/brand.

I take 100% of amazon profits and produce new products for our website, invest it into facebook/google ads, hire more people, or expand our internal warehouse with those funds.

By doing that, my site is now profiting equal or more to what amazon does and we no longer need amazon but are using it to continue expanding our internal operations. That is the only way to truly have control over your business.

What Ive found as possibly the best way to use amazon is for brand recognition. I dont sell my high margin products on amazon because we have a proven and scalable method of maximizing our sales on our website but we still continue to do quite well with other products on amazon that we continue to expand on there.

By doing that, we're taking control of our customers via email, social, and retargeting which further perpetuates our brand into the customers psyche and actually leads you to building a strong brand that lasts.
 

RazorCut

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By doing that, my site is now profiting equal or more to what amazon does and we no longer need amazon but are using it to continue expanding our internal operations. That is the only way to truly have control over your business.

Great strategy.

Nothing wrong with having multiple channels as long as you're not reliant on any one of them. I went from eBay to eBay+a Website to eBay+Websites+Amazon.
 
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Wil22

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You're moving your eggs from one basket into another neither of which is your basket. Sure Walmart could be a good channel to move onto but your best bet is to get vertically integrated on your own site.

Build your own website.
Sell your own products.
Own your own fulfillment.


2 years ago we were 98% Amazon. Today we're 50/50 and by this time next year Amazon will make up 30% of our business (while still doubling our revenue on there).

If you're looking to make more money you open up your margins by investing into your own site and improving your website conversions/traffic/brand.

I take 100% of amazon profits and produce new products for our website, invest it into facebook/google ads, hire more people, or expand our internal warehouse with those funds.

By doing that, my site is now profiting equal or more to what amazon does and we no longer need amazon but are using it to continue expanding our internal operations. That is the only way to truly have control over your business.

What Ive found as possibly the best way to use amazon is for brand recognition. I dont sell my high margin products on amazon because we have a proven and scalable method of maximizing our sales on our website but we still continue to do quite well with other products on amazon that we continue to expand on there.

By doing that, we're taking control of our customers via email, social, and retargeting which further perpetuates our brand into the customers psyche and actually leads you to building a strong brand that lasts.
A fantastic business model. Well done
 

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