Amazon selling everything!?

[josh]

hey guys, i am fairly new to amazon, and have found it to be a great channel to sell some of my range, much easier than eBay...

However, it seems every week that goes past Amazon themselves are selling more of my products, and undercutting me, to a point i cant compete with.

It seems like whats the point of even trying to expand, when eventually amazon will be selling every item we are?

any info/debate, is welcome!

[Callidus]

Yes and that won't change, their business model is there to kill everyone off the market and dominate

[MICKY H]

Originally Posted by Callidus

Yes and that won't change, their business model is there to kill everyone off the market and dominate

Totally untrue, if that was the case why do they have marketplace in the first place, which actually accounts for over 60% of there profits. What people forget, this is amazon's platform and they allow you and me to sell.

[Callidus]

OK, lets compare it to something else. Amazon is there as a beast, it isn't going to change. They are driving the high street into nothing and I promise you, when they start making money because its the only place to buy, you and I most definately will still be able to sell on the marketplace but wont get anywhere their prices. Thats FACT.

[MICKY H]

Originally Posted by Callidus

OK, lets compare it to something else. Amazon is there as a beast, it isn't going to change. They are driving the high street into nothing and I promise you, when they start making money because its the only place to buy, you and I most definately will still be able to sell on the marketplace but wont get anywhere their prices. Thats FACT.

Well I sell cd,dvd,games etc. This is an aggressive pricing category, yet with my buying abilities,supplier relationships I can beat amazon most of the time. Suppliers want independent retailers and give them excellent deal as they don't want the tail wagging the dog.

[Callidus]

Originally Posted by MICKY H

Well I sell cd,dvd,games etc. This is an aggressive pricing category, yet with my buying abilities,supplier relationships I can beat amazon most of the time. Suppliers want independent retailers and give them excellent deal as they don't want the tail wagging the dog.

I've worked in this market for the suppliers you speak of. Unless you're dealing with the bigboys such as distributors and not wholesalers, then maybe. If you deal with wholesalers you may as well give up

[MICKY H]

Originally Posted by Callidus

I've worked in this market for the suppliers you speak of. Unless you're dealing with the bigboys such as distributors and not wholesalers, then maybe. If you deal with wholesalers you may as well give up

No you cannot deal with wholesalers if you need to compete, most of them are also selling on marketplace, you have to go direct to the distributor.

[rsot]

@josh, this is not new for Amazon - how else are you expanding?

[zoneout]

That's why you have to diversify your sales lines and channels. Putting your eggs in one basket is a problem waiting to happen.

[alim]

Originally Posted by MICKY H

Well I sell cd,dvd,games etc. This is an aggressive pricing category, yet with my buying abilities,supplier relationships I can beat amazon most of the time. Suppliers want independent retailers and give them excellent deal as they don't want the tail wagging the dog.

this is very true in some cases.some suppliers dont want to deal with amazon and if you have good relationship with them ,theyll give you prices that amazon can find hard to beat.I sell books and when i see amazon pricing their products cheaper than mine, i can tell that theyre not making much profit and if they beat my price by a big extent i am very certain theyre selling it on a loss or else some other reason
Just saw a book 2 weeks ago that i was the lowest priced seller for and selling at $105 and the next person selling it at 120 (i was disposing my stock since was getting more but still had decent margin) .amazon priced theirs at $60.I instantly knew there is no way they can price it even at $100 and make profit.I bought more than 40 copies and then 5 days later amazon repriced the product at $196.

[Gamefreak]

alim, you can't say what amazon is getting their items for. even if u have the same suppliers amazon is probably buying so much stuff that they can get the item as near product cost.

also keep in mind that as a seller on amazon u also have to pay 5-25% fees to amazon.

[MICKY H]

Our company is also a vendor to amazon, yes we are a wholesaler.I see prices amazon buy for and they sell it below cost on many occasion.

[zoneout]

Originally Posted by MICKY H

Our company is also a vendor to amazon, yes we are a wholesaler.I see prices amazon buy for and they sell it below cost on many occasion.

Good strategy to gain market share. If a buyer gets a bargain once then chances are they'll be back for more.

[alim]

Originally Posted by Gamefreak

alim, you can't say what amazon is getting their items for. even if u have the same suppliers amazon is probably buying so much stuff that they can get the item as near product cost.

also keep in mind that as a seller on amazon u also have to pay 5-25% fees to amazon.

I am talking from my experience with selling books.It could be true for other categories.Ofcourse youre right they have an edge with the high commission rates and they have statistics avalible for items that are performing well and theyll make sure to pursue it and try undercutting other merchants

[Gamefreak]

books yes, amazon loses some money selling a lot of those but of course makes it up elsewhere.

[Callidus]

Originally Posted by MICKY H

Our company is also a vendor to amazon, yes we are a wholesaler.I see prices amazon buy for and they sell it below cost on many occasion.

I've seen what Amazon buy for based on a previous business I worked with, DVDs, CDs & games and especially books are a loss leader, they sell new titles at £4 less than they can buy for! They make no money then at all!

[MICKY H]

Originally Posted by Callidus

I've seen what Amazon buy for based on a previous business I worked with, DVDs, CDs & games and especially books are a loss leader, they sell new titles at £4 less than they can buy for! They make no money then at all!

This has always happened to gain customers. I remember in the old video days supermarkets would sell new disney releases well below cost to to get shoppers through the door. Same with amazon.

[josh]

Originally Posted by rsot

@josh, this is not new for Amazon - how else are you expanding?

im also building my own website, a year ago, i was just using ebay, but now using ebay and amazon, and in the process of building my own website, but with amazon slowly taking over the world, it seems in the next few years, no one will buy off anyone but amazon?

[MICKY H]

If your selling specialised/rare then your website if advertised will do OK. However if your selling mainline product you have no chance. Several years ago our company spent a huge amount of money on a website and even more on google add words etc etc and our sales never matched our marketplace sales.

[rsot]

Originally Posted by josh

im also building my own website, a year ago, i was just using ebay, but now using ebay and amazon, and in the process of building my own website, but with amazon slowly taking over the world, it seems in the next few years, no one will buy off anyone but amazon?

No - there will always be options

[josh]

Originally Posted by rsot

No - there will always be options

ok good , always light in the tunnel then

and my products arnt mainstream Micky H, but they arnt in a super niche, the market place is big, but its nothing like dvds, games, computers or anything.

I know quite a lot about my products and offer full customer support along with the products i sell.

I hope it goes well, im remaining confident, I have a few years experience in selling in this market and have all my invoice from ebay saved in folders, so i was going to create a mailing list and send promotional emails or flyers or something, as they are a very speicifc targeted market. and hopefully just start the marketing that way.. only have around 1000-3000customer details tho..