Many online sellers who aren’t using Amazon yet might ask themselves if selling on that platform is worth it. With a good stream of sales coming in from eBay, Shopify, or other platforms, should you even bother trying to succeed on Amazon?

Simply put, YES! Why? Let’s talk about it!

5 Reasons to Sell on Amazon

1. Amazon is where the majority of people are shopping online

In 2018, 49% of all online retail spend in the United States went to Amazon. That added up to about 5% of all retail sales. To give you a comparison, Amazon’s next competitor, eBay, came in at 6.6% of online retail spend, followed by Apple and then Walmart.

The online bookstore sure has come a long way. Soon, Amazon will receive more online retail spend than all other online competitors combined. And when it comes to users, Amazon has about double the online shoppers as eBay.

These staggering statistics show that more consumers are choosing to spend their money on Amazon than on eBay, Shopify sites, or other online retailers.

2. Third-party sellers are still quite successful

Some sellers might be worried about Amazon taking down third-party sellers as the e-commerce giant sells more of their own products. However, 68% of Amazon’s sales were attributed to third-party sellers, showing that the marketplace is still going strong for third-party sellers.

In fact, new sellers continue to flock to Amazon every day. Each month, over 100,000 new sellers join Amazon to sell their product.

You might also be concerned about Amazon's fees since Shopify or eBay might be cheaper. But Amazon offers a lot more features to sellers which make this cost worth it for many online stores.

3. Amazon makes it easy to package and ship your product

Almost every other online platform requires sellers to be in charge of their own packaging and shipping. However, Amazon offers FBA (fulfilled by Amazon) to sellers. FBA allows sellers to ship their products to Amazon warehouses, where they are shipped out to customers when ordered.

While this service does have a cost, it is often worth it. Sellers can focus on their business and making decisions that matter rather than trying to package and send out orders as they come in.

FBA doesn’t just benefit sellers, but it also benefits customers as well because they know they can trust Amazon to deliver!

4. Customers have high purchase intent on Amazon

Think about why you visited Amazon last time. If you’re like most shoppers, you thought of something you needed (or wanted) and you went to Amazon to look at your options and, ultimately, buy.

Customers who use Amazon have high purchase intent, meaning that they are looking for something specific and are willing and ready to buy. However, not all online shoppers are so ready to buy.

If you have a Shopify site, for example, people might come across your store through Google or Instagram. Their intent is to browse, to see what kinds of products you sell, and to check out your prices. These shoppers are still gathering information; they haven’t necessarily decided to buy yet.

5. Amazon offers an awesome ad platform

If you’re selling on eBay, then you might have some promoted listings, but they’re not even close to Amazon ads. Shopify sellers can choose to run advertisements through Google Ads, but there isn’t a native platform to create ads to promote your store.

Amazon, however, offers a thorough and extensive ad platform that can get your listings in front of the right people. You can create very specific audience targeting so your money is spent most effectively. Plus, the platform gives you a lot of data, which provides insights for tweaking and optimizing your ad campaigns.

At the end of the day, you should always include Amazon in your online selling strategy. This platform is a great complement to the platforms you are already using. As the company continues to grow, we will see more and more of the market share going to this e-commerce powerhouse, so don’t miss out on the potential sales!

For more information on how Amazon can benefit your business, reach out to our experts!