Everything To Know About Marketing & Business Strategy
  • HOME
    • Home Furnishings "STUFF"
    • About Us
    • Commitment To Our Veterans
    • Free Marketing Analysis - No Strings-No Sales Pitch
  • Social Platforms
  • Technologies
  • Marketing Integration
    • Free Marketing Analysis - No Strings-No Sales Pitch
    • How Social Media is Changing Brand Building & Retail
    • Brick & Mortar Retail Touch Points Exposed
    • The Secret to a Good Mobile Website for Retailers
    • U.S. Newspaper Revenues Hit 50-Year Low in 2012
    • Future Retail Trends-2015
    • The Power Of Gen Y in Today’s And Tomorrow's Workplace [INFOGRAPHIC]
    • Brick And Mortar Retailers May Become Extinct If They Do Not Embrace The New Economy >
      • A Retailer's Guide to Webrooming
      • INFOGRAPHIC - Do men and women shop differently online?
    • How Big Is Amazon {INFOGRAPHIC}
    • Why retailers must excel in the 4 Cs instead of just the 4 Ps
    • E-tailers: Tips, Trends, and Reasons E-Commerce is About to Boom
    • Is Texting The New Marketing Engagement Frontier
    • Which Social Network's Users Make the Most Money? [INFOGRAPHIC]
    • 120 Awesome Marketing Charts, Graphs and Statistics
    • What It Costs A Business To Do Social Marketing
    • The NEW Retail Demographics
    • More Shoppers Reach for Mobile to Browse, Buy >
      • Online Reviews Influence Shoppers Most, but Print Catalogs Trump Social Networks
      • How Shoppers Use Smartphones to Save Money
      • Age, Gender Determine 'Go-To' Devices
  • MY RETAIL RANTS BLOG
  • CONTACT US
    • free marketing help desk

THE BIG E-TAILERS: ARE THEY WOLVES IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING?

8/9/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
By Bill Napier
August 9, 2016

Recently I read that Amazon Marketplace was attending the furniture market looking for retailers to place a store and/or products in their market place. My question: WHY?

Here are a few thoughts, or rants if you like, about selling on Amazon, Wayfair and Overstock. First, let’s take a snapshot on what happens when you sell on Amazon.

Selling on these market places requires that you the seller are responsible for everything — defects, damages, delivery, everything — and you hold it all harmless for everything. Plus with Amazon, you must deliver the product to either to its distribution centers or to the consumer, another “real cost.”
And these resellers will not share with you any analytics or information about anything!

But that’s only the beginning. Amazon will charge you a commission of 15%. Yep, you read correctly. This is what my friend showed me that Amazon charges him on an item that he retails at $1,199 on Amazon:

Amazon referral fee - $179.85
Per item fee - $0.99
Sub Total - $180.84

And if you want to advertise it with free shipping, add another $86.99 to the above cost, another 7.2%. That brings the grand total to $267.83 or 22.3% of the sale. Of course, you could add the shipping costs to the consumer at checkout, but we all know consumers HATE shipping costs added to the sale.

​So why would a retailer want to pay a third party 15%-plus of anything when it, on average, only spends 5% on advertising? I know. It’s about that huge marketplace you can now advertise on. But remember this, when someone clicks on your product on Amazon, dozens and dozens of comparable products from your competitors show up, and I’ll bet they are better deals, which sort of takes the wind out of your sails, right? It’s like you offering your competitors products on your website. I don’t get it.

You spend 5% of your retail budget on marketing but 15%-plus on Amazon? Why not spend 15% of your retail ad budget on YOUR STORE and see what happens?

None of this makes sense to me. Because 85% of consumers search for local businesses, and 88% want to buy local. The only reason these huge e-tailers exist is because they know most small medium and even some large retailers have sub-standard websites, and they rushed in to fix that problem … for consumers at a profit for themselves and at YOUR expense.

But the smart retailers, they show everything, everything they have in-stock and everything they have open to buy. Some websites I’ve found have more than 100,000-plus indexed pages on their websites.
Consider this: Amazon, Wayfair and Houzz have, combined, more than 23,784,000 pages indexed on their websites for home furnishings.

Catch my drift here?

Remember what I said, 88% of consumers search and shop local. The reason the big guys show up and sell so much stuff is because YOU DON’T.

So what’s a consumer going to do?

She’ll default to what she wants, when she wants it, where she wants and how she wants it, and you won’t be in the “want” category.

My summation: FIND YOUR TAIL, as in the long tail, and be the wolf, not the sheep.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Write something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview.

    Archives

    August 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Picture

home

About Us

Contact us

commitment to our veterans

social marketing platforms

marketing integration


technologies for retailers

home furnishing's industry

free marketing help desk

our RETAIL rants blog


the beginners guide to marketing

Picture



​​content provided by free

​napier marketing group, inc.


CATEGORY EXPERIENCE

Home Furnishings • Consumer Durables • Retail • Trade • Consumer Products • Printing-Publication • Technology • Entertainment Partnerships • Furniture Stores  •  
​Social • Digital • Business Transformation – Corporate Turnaround • Marketing • Sales & Sales Management • Business Development • Brand Management • Home Furnishing Marketing • Furniture Retail Strategy • Marketing, Advertising & Promotion  • Staff Management • Product Positioning • Strategic Partnerships • Product Pricing • Trade Show Management & Presentations • Strategic Planning • Marketing Communications • Product Differentiation • Marketing Strategy / Execution • Online Marketing ​

​Napier Marketing Group
​is Located In Ft. Myers, Florida
billnapier@napiermkt.com
​612.217.1297


Picture

© 2007 – 2022 Copyright Napier Marketing Group Inc. All Rights Reserved. No use, publication or reuse is permitted without express written authorization.
Website design and maintenance provided by 
Napier Marketing Group Inc.
Ft. Myers, Florida
- www.napiermkt.com - 
- billnapier@napiermkt.com -
- (612-217-1297) -

Picture
Contact Us
  • HOME
    • Home Furnishings "STUFF"
    • About Us
    • Commitment To Our Veterans
    • Free Marketing Analysis - No Strings-No Sales Pitch
  • Social Platforms
  • Technologies
  • Marketing Integration
    • Free Marketing Analysis - No Strings-No Sales Pitch
    • How Social Media is Changing Brand Building & Retail
    • Brick & Mortar Retail Touch Points Exposed
    • The Secret to a Good Mobile Website for Retailers
    • U.S. Newspaper Revenues Hit 50-Year Low in 2012
    • Future Retail Trends-2015
    • The Power Of Gen Y in Today’s And Tomorrow's Workplace [INFOGRAPHIC]
    • Brick And Mortar Retailers May Become Extinct If They Do Not Embrace The New Economy >
      • A Retailer's Guide to Webrooming
      • INFOGRAPHIC - Do men and women shop differently online?
    • How Big Is Amazon {INFOGRAPHIC}
    • Why retailers must excel in the 4 Cs instead of just the 4 Ps
    • E-tailers: Tips, Trends, and Reasons E-Commerce is About to Boom
    • Is Texting The New Marketing Engagement Frontier
    • Which Social Network's Users Make the Most Money? [INFOGRAPHIC]
    • 120 Awesome Marketing Charts, Graphs and Statistics
    • What It Costs A Business To Do Social Marketing
    • The NEW Retail Demographics
    • More Shoppers Reach for Mobile to Browse, Buy >
      • Online Reviews Influence Shoppers Most, but Print Catalogs Trump Social Networks
      • How Shoppers Use Smartphones to Save Money
      • Age, Gender Determine 'Go-To' Devices
  • MY RETAIL RANTS BLOG
  • CONTACT US
    • free marketing help desk