Amazon more than doubled the number of FBA items shipped worldwide during the holiday season. Sellers using Amazon’s fulfilment service grew more than 70% although Amazon don’t disclose how many sellers that represents. In 2016 FBA delivered more than 2 billion items worldwide.
These are phenomenal figures, especially as FBA is accelerating faster outside the US where FBA units shipped grew more than 80%.
Amazon’s Seller Fulfilled Prime program is also growing with sellers adding more than 6 million new items that are now Prime eligible across the US, UK, France, Germany and Japan. This will increasingly enable sellers to offer slow moving or bulky items not suitable for storing in Amazon’s Fulfilment Centres. It also of course appeals to merchants who sell on multiple sites and prefer to keep control of their inventory in house.
It’s worth noting that almost 50% of items sold on Amazon are now supplied by third party merchants. That means that competition is less about competing with Amazon and more about winning against other independent retailers. That’s why being Amazon Prime eligible is so important, with FBA your product can go in the same shipping box alongside products from Amazon and other merchants, Prime members get free next day shipping and because Amazon control the service they’re more likely to award you the Buy Box increasing sales even more.
Amazon also say that the number of sellers using Sponsored Product doubled in the last year. Sponsored Products clicks worldwide grew by more than 150% driven by expansion of advertising placements on desktop and mobile sites. If you’ve not considered paying Amazon extra for increased exposure then this might be something to consider in your 2017 plans.
New Amazon selling opportunities
Amazon highlighted four areas of notable growth from relatively new business categories:
Amazon Business
Amazon Business generated more than $1 billion in sales in its first year, with sellers receiving over half of the orders. Amazon Business now serves more than 400,000 business customers in the U.S., and includes more than 45,000 sellers with access to the business-specific selling tools. Amazon Business launched in Germany, marking its first international expansion.
Handmade at Amazon
Handmade at Amazon launched in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, expanding its selection of handcrafted artisan-made goods to customers in the EU. In the U.S., the Handmade at Amazon store added six new categories (Accessories, Baby, Toys and Games, Beauty & Grooming, Pet Supplies) and now offers over 500,000 items sold directly by artisans across all 50 states from 80 countries around the world.
Amazon Home Services
Amazon Home Services, a marketplace for on-demand professional services, expanded to more than 50 U.S. metro areas. Home Services now offers over 1,200 unique services from providers across 60 professions. Customer orders fulfilled by Home Services pros grew more than 200 percent.
Amazon Exclusives
Amazon Exclusives, a store that gives customers direct access to innovative new products from 600 up-and-coming brands, with thousands of unique items being added each month. Sales from the Amazon Exclusives store grew more than 250 percent.
2 Responses
Oct, Nov, and Dec were decent. Only because I did not put most my lines EVEN into Amazon till then, lines bought in months before which I planned as it just becomes penny wars beforehand, so I let the others fight it out then fetched a decent price as I was confident in the stock.
Had 2 peak seasons with Prime now.
Margins are the issue and it has become a total battle to the bottom. The problem is Amazon dominate the Web space (even when they are twice as much for the products), and the PRIME offering is good.
Long term it is not good for any business small or large. Plus 3rd part traders are paying for the PRIME service really and the returns.
We are not sending a box in till at least the end of the summer this year. There are more profitable options, never mentioned on Tamebay
Is it any wonder however Amazon’s competition is CLUELESS. If they CUT their actual FEES and adds on’s now they could do it on PRICE.
.