Selling on Amazon with Gung
Any manufacturer or wholesaler considering selling directly to consumers must consider leveraging the infrastructure of existing online marketplaces. And the juggernaut of all marketplaces, Amazon, is perhaps the best place to begin. This article focuses on the different strategic approaches you can take when selling on Amazon; the benefits of selling on Amazon; and how Gung integrates with Amazon to enable B2C sales processes.
Leveraging Gung’s PIM module, you can publish selected products to Amazon and keep them updated with relevant data—such as product descriptions, correct color codes, sizes, etc. To get started, you need to choose a strategy. Should you manage inventory and handle customer service yourself, or should you let Amazon handle it?
Fulfillment By Merchant (FBM)
If you decide to sell from your own warehouse, you are responsible for all parts of logistics (shipping, handling, customer service, etc.) An FBM strategy is often a great place to start, particularly for small businesses that want to get a feel for how it works, or start slowly in order to ensure it can manage the demand from the new sales channel. Dealing directly with your new customers may result in key insights that will become critical to your growth strategy down the road.
Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA)
With an FBA strategy, Amazon is responsible for inventory management, product deliveries, return handling, customer service, and more. One of the advantages of this approach is quality and consistency of service. Amazon buyers are used to certain standards, such as fast customer service response times, “Prime”-speed deliveries, and highly efficient return handling. If you’re not ready to operate at the speed of Amazon, it might make sense to take an FBA approach.
If you don't have FBA, it is possible you may get a lower rating on your product page—especially if there are several merchants selling your product. Keep in mind: you probably won't be the only one selling your item on Amazon—your customers will be there, too.
Benefits of being on Amazon
Whichever strategy you choose, it is still a great idea to consider Amazon as part of your B2C growth initiative. Some of the benefits of being on Amazon include:
Amazon’s infrastructure will help you reach and better serve new markets. For example—expanding from the east coast to the west coast.
Amazon is a well-known platform. Customers won’t be calling with questions on how the platform works (especially if you have an FBA strategy).
Amazon comes with a massive customer base that is both loyal and partial to products that can be found on Amazon. They even have incentive to buy your products through Amazon if they are Prime customers.
Amazon decreases your go-to-market investment. They have absolutely cornered the market on e-commerce, inventory management, and distribution. Reinventing their wheel could be a fool’s errand.
Amazon brings great advertising opportunities. According to a 2023 article on searchlogistics.com, Amazon Prime now has over 200 million Prime members and is now available in 23 different countries worldwide. That’s quite an audience, and there is an excellent toolset in place for you to advertise your products there.
Amazon is known for its high conversion rate. Sales on Prime Day in 2022 alone reached over $12 billion.
Amazon’s technology is second to none, so your products will be associated with a high level of service and technology enablement.
How Gung works with Amazon
Whichever strategy you choose, it will be you who makes sure that your product information is always up to date with images, product descriptions, videos, documentation, and so on. It will be important that you leverage all the data in your Gung PIM to ensure that consumers will find it when they type in the right key words and phrases.
Using the Gung PIM, we can automatically and quickly map your data to Amazon. The integration ensures all your data is handed over to Amazon, and that you will properly fill in Amazon’s important and mandatory fields. For example, colors on products must follow Amazon's logic—not necessarily how your designer chose to name the color.
When you’re ready, choose a strategy, create an account, and learn the basics. Gung is here to help you you get your products loaded and updated in the best possible way, and ensure there is a smooth connection across your ERP system, Gung, and Amazon.
