Ways in which Amazon is reshaping online shopping as we know it
In the rapidly expanding world of e-commerce, there aren’t many things one can be sure of… except for one: Amazon is reshaping online shopping as we know it. And if you sell items on the internet, it’s compulsory to understand the platform’s key areas of opportunity, as well as acknowledging the efforts that come with selling on Amazon.
Statistically speaking, 9 out of 10 consumers make price checks on Amazon, and approximately 55% of consumers begin their online shopping searches on the Amazon platform. Offering highly competitive pricing, extra fast shipping, and reliable customer service, led to potential buyers searching for products on Amazon first.
Picking another platform for price checks only happens in case they don’t find what they were looking for on Amazon, in the first place. Being the go-to platform when it comes to buying or selling online, puts Amazon in the fantastic position of creating trends and transforming them into everyday normal actions.
The best way to see just how much shopping has switched from brick-and-mortar stores to online platforms is by understanding that Amazon has more than 80% market share across the home improvement industry, which was always the turf of classic, physical shops.
“Our vision is to be Earth’s most customer-centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online”, as Jeff Bezos stated in multiple occasions.
This constant saga to bring everything for everybody in one place has turned Amazon into a huge online marketplace with a catalog consisting of over 12 million products and services. If we also include Amazon Marketplace sellers in the mix, the number is closer to more than 350 million products. But this also means that the competitive climate is at an all-time high on the world’s biggest shopping platform.
How does this translate for small and medium-sized business owners? Tougher times selling their products, as competition is stiff and potential clients have thousands of options to choose from. This encourages third-party sellers to be active on other channels as well.
Approximately 80% of merchants who are active on Amazon are also selling on other platforms, such as eBay, Shopify or Magento-based webshops, including their own personal business website.
These sellers can manage their multi-channel business with specialized apps and services that help them run the whole business process, posting ads and listings on multiple platforms or sites, automating their workflow.
Running an e-commerce business is not easy with an ever-growing competitor such as Amazon, but regardless of this, these sellers are not abandoning the platform, just diversifying their activity in hopes to attract more and more potential buyers from sources external to Amazon.
It may seem incredible to many how a company has single-handedly changed online shopping since the beginning of the early 2000s. The competition follows every move Amazon makes and tries to embody it in order to be able to keep up with Amazon’s continuous evolution. The online consumer behavior continues to change on a yearly basis and Amazon is the most popular trendsetter in this area.
