??? Amazon Shop vs. My Own Website ???

[Team2]

Hi guys,

I have a product which I have created and am now in the process of looking for an online store front. I have a friend who is a web designer but really does the front end aspect of web design. I have another friend who specializes in SEO/SEM...so with both of them working together I can open up an e-commerce site and start selling my product.

However, my family has told me to look into Amazon as they have things set up for small businesses that want to sell products. The only problems that I see is that they will take a cut of something around 15% from the research that I've seen. Also I am not sure how great the SEO/SEM aspect would be in terms of pushing traffic to the Amazon store vs. My own web site.

Does anyone have any experience in Amazon shop, or an opinion or talking points to think of?

Thanks for the help.

[Christopher_Biz]

The fees at Amazon are pretty outragous. There are other options out there. In a couple of weeks, the site I work for should launch. We takes a maximum of 3.5% and it's free to post. Though single sales will be common, we expect distributors to use our site as the

The cool thing about Bizglo isn't the much lower rates though; We have noticed some new specialized transportation companies appearing on the scene. Many are small and have specific routes. When a buyer and seller are in different countries, the buy may select one of these companies which saves on transportation costs and cuts the import bureaucracy.

Having your own site can offer some better profit margins but getting the site up and running is the easy part. The marketing of your site can be done but it will take some time to get traffic. I would start by posting on other sites and see how things go from there.

Once we get Bizglo up and running, you can post your products for free.

[tunnelboy]

Yes I agree. Stay away from Amazon if possible. It's a fairly hostile place to sell IMO. And if you sell in a high sales tax state (like CA 9.75%), you'll be eating that sales tax. Amazon does not collect sales tax.

If it's just one single product you're talking about, you (or your friends) could create a simple website and be up and running in no time. You could even use a PayPal button or a Google Checkout cart pretty easily.

[Collabora]

Amazon is a little pricey, but reputable. Having your own site created by web developer will give you more freedom. We have an Ecommerce solution that will give you the best of both worlds. Check out our Quick Shopping Cart for a comparison

[JStetson]

I'd go with your own. Amazon is expensive and the stores (imo) don't look reputable. Having your own site isn't that expensive.

[amygrande]

Amazon takes much too big a cut to be a viable solution. Especially nowadays when there are so many affordable, turn-key hosted ecommerce options. You don't need to give that big of cut away. Yahoo stores is an option. It takes a cut but much smaller. But I'm a fan of solutions where you pay monthly with a bandwidth charge for very high traffic. My favorite solution right now is Volusion. You could have your store up and running in a couple of days and it would only cost you about $50/month for up to 250 products. And it's a good looking, feature rich store.

[mike2016]

Selling on Amazon is like selling on eBay, the fees are indeed outrageous, but you don't have to advertise to get traffic. these big sites have guaranteed visitors and most of them who go there are looking to buy stuff.

Depend on what products you are selling, to promote / advertise a brand new e-commerce site can be very costly and frustrating.

Pay per Click is the fastest and easiest way to get traffic to advertise a new site, however it can be very costly. in the very beginning when I started advertising our site, the monthly cost for our Adwords + Yahoo PPC ads were $8k-10k / month. the sales those ads bring in are about $150k. then you give another 2-3% to your merchant processor for the CC fees, AMEX is around 4%.

To sell $150k on Amazon / eBay, you are looking to get deducted about 10% so that's $15k. which comes out to be about the same %. and you don't have to worry about ads, just post your listings.

my 2cents, I would sell on eBay/Amazon any day.

[amisha]

Nice info, A lot of great thoughts!

[hunter jordan]

Well, if you choose to sell to Amazon then that is one option most would choose, so I'd rather tell you to go ahead with the launch of your own website. Good luck!

[Karylle]

It is true that Amazon can be a bit pricey, but it is within the TOP 20 of the most visited websites globally, and the number 1 online selling website. You can also check for a specific country for a targeted traffic.
It is wise to set-up an Amazon shop and start your own online biz at the same time. Optimizing a new website with competitive terms may take 6 months - 1 year before it pays off (maybe even more.) Placing your website URL to your Amazon page will help you in terms of branding, familiarizing the traffic of your own site, and redirecting them to your shop.
It can start expensive but may benefit you in the long run. When you get enough traffic to your site, you can end your contract with Amazon.

[morkassmith]

The tips at Amazon are reasonably outrange. There are other selections out there. In a copulate of weeks, the site I employment for should launch.

[davidharris789]

The fees at Amazon are reasonably outragous. There are other options out there. In a match of weeks, the site I employment for should launch.

[newbie2010]

Customers always keep search new shop on SE so your site must be optimized to first in SE page.