Casual reCommerce Series: Amazon Seller Mini-Review

Welcome to Casual reCommerce, a series of posts on selling your stuff online. I've previously posted an Introduction to Selling your Stuff Online and each day this week, I'll cover each method in a little more detail. On Monday, I reviewed eBay and below I talk about Amazon.com's Seller services.

Alexa ranks Amazon.com as the #1 Top Shopping Site, and #5 Top Site in the US (#16 worldwide).  This may be the number one site you think of when buying online, but many people do not know how easy it is to sell using Amazon's seller services.  All sellers appear on the same product page so it's very easy to add an entry (you only need a more detailed description of *your* item and your price) and to research and set your price.

Fees/Cost: Medium

• $.99 + commission fee when items sells 
• Free to process payment and transfer it to your bank account.

Complexity: Low

• Probably the simplest of my favorites
• Look up your item on Amazon, click a button that says "Sell your here", add a sentence or two to describe the condition of your item and set your price
• No picture taking
• Sellers all "share" a single product page.

Reliability/Feedback: High

• Buyer pays Amazon before you get notified of sale
• Amazon's A-Z Guarantee protects buyers from misrepresented items
• Amazon buyers often willing to pay a premium for mutual reliability and smooth easy transaction.

Shipping: Medium

• USPS shipping option integrated via Stamps.com. 
• Easiest to price shipping options, print labels, and pay online if you use USPS
• Amazon Shipping Credit may not cover your shipping cost...so do your research BEFORE choosing a price to make sure you don't lose money.

Pros...

• Highest Traffic
• Easy Peasy
• Huge inventory...sell just about anything with a UPC, ISBN, and more
• Buyers pay more
• Easy to stay the lowest price
• Always get paid for sales...get your money fast and often
• Easy to research pricing.

Cons...

• Cost
• Flat shipping credit may eat into or erase profit. 
•  "Pro" account sellers can undercut your prices especially on books
• With a basic Seller account, if your item isn't in the database, you can't sell it here.

Best for...

• Casual selling with little investment of time or effort
• Newer and "Like New" items, especially electronics, tend to sell easily
• Recently released, or in demand, CDs/DVDs/Videogames.

See how Amazon's Seller Services stack up to the competition in the series Introduction.  If people are paying over $5 for my item on Amazon and it's not heavy (aka "I won't lose money on shipping") then it's my favorite way of selling because it's so easy.


What do you think? Have you used Amazon's Seller Services? What do you think they are "best at"?