Context: Small business that has been around for 40 years selling parts out of a brick and mortar location, and 4 years ago started an online store with great success. Leaving type of parts ambiguous, but think RV/ATV/Marine type stuff.

We’ve noticed costs from domestic suppliers for basic products go up substantially in the past 4 years, so for this coming season we’ve secured a line of lower cost/better value parts from overseas. We plan to re-brand to our own brand name and offer support/parts, and we can charge 80-100% markup on these and still be incredibly competitive with existing name brands.

When comparing our planned pricing to Amazon listings for comparable products, we are set up to be very competitive. We also have the advantage of warehousing in Canada alongside Amazon so we can offer quick shipping, and play into the Canada-ism in our branding.

The internal battle in my head is that we are trying to push our brand and online store, where we keep 100% of the revenue from. But it’s undeniable the impact Amazon has on the market.

We are wondering if it would be worth it to order additional stock to list on Amazon and compete against the other sellers with our value products. I have no experience selling online, and while it must be worth it with all the people doing it, it also wouldn’t be worth it for Amazon if there weren’t some gotchas. So I guess I am wondering

  • What are the average fees that it costs to list product on Amazon?

  • Does anyone else in a similar position have any experience with this?

  • And much broader, would it be worth it for us to list these products on Amazon?

Thanks for any insight you can provide!

  • LardLad00@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I sold on Amazon for about 10 years before quitting when Covid hit. Through that time I also sold on my own website.

    If you’re trying to build a brand long term, stay away from Amazon. Yes you will get sales but your brand will get diluted and eventually usurped by Amazon if you are successful.

    Riding the Amazon wave and quitting when I did was one of the best moves of my life. Was selling roughly $500k (total) per year when I started. $9M when I quit. $30M now.

    Happy to provide what other insight I can.

    • Tool_of_the_thems@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      This unfortunately is a common business model that Amazon uses. If your products sell well and do good in the market, Amazon will steal your idea and compete directly with you. So many stories of this happening.

      Amazon is evil. Never trust a business owned by a billionaire with defense contracts that works directly with the government. Aside from bezoar, ahem ahem, I’m looking at you Free-Lon Sus (Elon).