So You’ve Cracked Amazon. What’s Next?

Drawing on the experience of former Amazon business leaders, seasoned sellers, and other industry experts, The PROSPER Show is currently being held in Salt Lake City, Utah.

If you sell in the US, is this a show you should consider attending next year? Jodi Gaines Pereira, co-founder of ReplyManager which was acquired by XSellco early in 2015, is at The PROSPER Show and exclusively reporting back on some of the sessions for Tamebay:

So You’ve Cracked Amazon. What’s Next?

Diversifying into different marketplaces is key to having a healthy online business, so if you have all of your eggs in one basket via Amazon or eBay, you might want to consider diversifying. But which platform do you use and why?

During the first annual PROSPER Show in Salt Lake City, Utah, a panel of platform representatives (eBay, Rakuten, Yahoo! Stores, Bigcommerce, Shop.com) highlighted some key differences and advantages:

Rakuten Rewards

Rakuten has a loyalty program that offers buyers 1% back on purchases. They partner with merchants willing to participate to put together promotional campaigns to drive more traffic. The program is a little over 2 years old, and, according to Rakuten, doing very well.

Yahoo! Commerce Central

Yahoo! Stores offers a collection of marketing and sales apps that includes catalog syndication and the ability to allocate marketing budget costs where it is needed most.

eBay International Growth

For US sellers, eBay is working on making it easier for sellers to ship internationally with their Global Shipping program. They partner with Pitney Bowes to handle all aspects of shipping. eBay does also allow sellers to fulfill orders using Amazon FBA shipping.

Shop.com

Shop.com is a women driven marketplace. They sell lots of home oriented products from everyday supplies to beauty to travel, etc. But the point is, they focus on a very specific type of buyer. So if you have a product that fits into a niche category, consider.

Tamebay Take

It’s interesting that Rakuten (previously Buy.com) are motoring in the US compared to the UK, but also that US sellers still have an interest in Yahoo! as a venue – we don’t hear from sellers trading on Yahoo! in the UK. eBay International is no surprise as we routinely see US sellers trading on eBay UK, but Shop.com is another platform we don’t hear about much in the UK and well worth considering for expansion.