Leading Brands are increasingly selling directly on third-party marketplaces, such as Amazon and eBay. Rather than using resellers, they are turning to specialist Amazon Consultants. Find out how to pick the right Amazon Consultancy to help protect your brand and increase sales.
Story Stages
The rise and rise of Amazon
The Covid pandemic has cost tens of thousands of lives and had a catastrophic impact on the global economy. It has also focussed minds on the need to rebuild businesses, boost profits, broaden the range of income streams, and optimise sales.
For many major sellers, one key to this regeneration is optimising their use of online marketplaces. Normally this points to Amazon, the world’s biggest eCommerce platform.
Astonishingly, Amazon has created over 40,000 millionaires to date, and its unrivalled reach has turbo-charged sales of even the most established brands, as well as new ones.
Amazon’s rapid growth shows no sign of slowing either. However, not every business or brand is taking full advantage of its unique position.
Opportunities for brands
Amazon is aggressively targeting brands to sell on the platform in order to compete with other emerging marketplaces. Namely by offering new brand tools to enhance the customer brand experience on the platform.
When you consider why, it’s easy to imagine how customers get a better brand experience, and sometimes lower prices, when buying directly from brands (via these marketplaces).
Despite this, under 90% of Amazon’s new sellers succeed in creating a profitable Amazon business. Even those selling successfully on Amazon are woefully under-optimised.
Given the potential rewards, it is no wonder that optimising sales on Amazon now requires a team of different specialists working across multiple roles.
It takes specialist knowledge in several different areas to negotiate this complex and fast-expanding platform.
Picking the right Amazon consultants to not only manage and optimise your account, but to deliver the best brand experience is crucial. The internet is awash with individuals and consultancies claiming to be Amazon ‘experts’. Sadly not all of these claims are remotely justified, as numerous disappointed sellers and brands find to their cost.
How to pick an Amazon Consultant
So what should you look for in a top-class Amazon consultants who will make a real difference (and ultimately pay for themselves)?
Experience and success
Effective Amazon consultants should not just be experienced sellers. They need to possess a broad range of skills and specialisms across every facet of Amazon. For big brands, they should have experience of brand nurturing, consumer experience, FBA, DSP, chargebacks, growing into international markets, etc. In other words, they will provide expertise in every area, from creative work to fulfilment and logistics. Good Amazon consultancies will understand your how important your brand is and know the importance of realistic exit strategies too.
Transparency
Honesty and transparency are also central attributes to a top Amazon Consultancy. Marginal gains are what makes the difference in this game. For less professional Amazon agencies, it is easy to over-promise. However, a clear-eyed and honest assessment of the (realistic) potential gains and challenges should be what you are on the lookout for.
Transparent Amazon consultants will take ownership of mistakes and show a readiness to use past challenges to help the client avoid issues in the future.
Recognition
Respect within the industry and a healthy set of genuine case-studies is something to look out for. A good consultancy will be recognised by its peers. Additionally, an effective team of experts will regularly be referenced and quoted, whether in social media or within traditional outlets. This could involve producing compelling and useful blogs and podcasts or featuring on notable media outlets. Reading this material will give potential clients a strong sense of whether the content is professional, useful and perceptive, with key messages they can learn from.
Flexibility & Dynamism
A strong Amazon consultancy puts the client’s needs first. The best should be adaptable and contain the self-confidence to adapt quickly to changes and challenges.
But, how can you tell how dynamic an Amazon consultancy is? The key is to see how well they listen to your needs and requirements. If the agency persists on selling you a set package, without having the flexibility to alter their offer, you’re likely to get an ‘off-the-shelf’ service, rather than a bespoke one.
Choosing the right Amazon Consultant
Whichever Amazon consultancy you choose to guide you through the Amazon ‘jungle’, it always pays to take a close-up look at widely respected, longstanding consultancies with top-notch experience of this challenging marketplace.
Ultimately, your brand is, or will be, your most valuable asset, so choosing an agency that understands, protects, nurtures, and grows your brand, is paramount.
Amazon listings that do not provide customers with a great experience are falling away down the search results, so get a good Amazon agency onboard now, and reap the rewards later.
Choose wisely.
