By Kristine Korkotashvili · 5 min read

Last Updated on October 31, 2022

Selling on Amazon can be a great way to grow your brand, reach new customers, and sell more products. While this e-commerce giant is an excellent place for businesses to increase visibility and grow their brand, it’s not right for every company. If you’re just getting started with your business or have been thinking about selling on Amazon as a way to grow your business, there are steps you should take before diving in headfirst.

As a prospective Amazon seller, the first and most important thing you should do is weigh the advantages and disadvantages to decide whether it is worthwhile to sell on Amazon.  Therefore, in this article we will be discussing the risks and benefits of selling on Amazon.

What are the benefits of selling on Amazon?

Amazon offers a massive customer base of over 500 million active customers. With a global reach like that, you can easily expand your business’s reach. If you’re looking for a way to grow as a business, selling on Amazon can help you do just that.
- Visibility - While selling on Amazon is not a magic bullet that will help your product become an overnight bestseller, it can help you increase visibility. By selling on Amazon, you can appear higher in search results, get more reviews, and increase the number of products that are sold.

- Accessibility - Amazon is accessible to anyone in the world, regardless of where they live. This means that you can expand your business by selling to new customers who live in far-off locations.

- Ease of use - Amazon has been carefully designed with the average consumer in mind. This means that your products will be accessible to a wide range of people, from the tech-savvy to the less tech-savvy.

What’s the risk of selling on Amazon?

While selling on Amazon can help you grow your business, there are significant risks involved. All businesses face risks, but Amazon poses unique challenges because of how open and accessible your brand is.

- Competitors - Any product will have competition, and anyone can sell on Amazon. This means that you may be up against fierce competition from sellers who are better established than you or who have a better product. You may be able to overcome this challenge, but it could be a big hurdle for a new business.

- Brand trust and reputation- Amazon is one of the most trusted websites. But when a consumer purchases from your business, they see your products with your Amazon seller account information. Amazon itself is not responsible for your product quality, customer experience, or business ethics. Though the company has a seller feedback system in place, it’s up to your customers to decide whether or not they trust your brand.If there are any issues with your product or service, consumers will see this information. It’s up to you to build trust among your customers and establish a name for your brand.

-Long-term investment: Amazon is a great way to get your business off the ground and get some quick sales, but you may have to make future changes to your business model as Amazon changes its policies.

-Customer service: Amazon requires that you have your own customer service team. This means that you’ll have to hire support staff and train them to manage your customers.

When is the right time to start selling on Amazon?

There’s no magic formula for knowing when to sell on Amazon, but there are a few questions you can ask yourself to help you decide. Before you commit to selling on Amazon, you need to ask yourself a few important questions.

-Are you prepared to commit to the Amazon selling process? - If you’re thinking of selling on Amazon, it’ll be in your best interest to get the Amazon selling process down to a science. It takes a significant amount of time and effort to get your products listed, priced, and ready to sell. If you don’t have the time to commit to the process, you may want to look at other avenues for selling.

-What is your business’s current situation? - If you’re just getting started with your business, selling on Amazon may not be in your best interest. Amazon is a long-term investment, and you’ll need to commit time to the platform and have money to invest. - What are your business’s goals?

-It’s important to understand where your business is now and where it wants to go. If your business is still very new, it may be best to focus on growing with your current sales channels before branching out to other platforms like Amazon.

What to Sell on Amazon?

After weighing the risks and benefits of selling on Amazon, you must decide what to sell on Amazon, which requires extensive research.

There are different types of items that you can sell on Amazon. The main types of items include books, electronics, home and garden items, health and beauty products, and jewellery. The key here is to pick the right item that people will be willing to buy. Another way to make money on Amazon is by selling physical products. For example, you can sell t-shirts and other merchandise. You can also charge for digital products such as e-books or courses. When you choose to sell digital products, you need to take the technical aspect into consideration.

Amazon Digital Services is Amazon's division in charge of digital product delivery, including internal products such as Amazon Drive, Amazon Prime Video, and Amazon Music as well as external ones such as Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and the Kindle reading experience. If you write a book or create a digital experience, Amazon Digital Services is where you sell it.

Despite the recent rise in competition, selling on Amazon can still be lucrative for new sellers. If selling on Amazon seems like a good fit for your business, you will want to make sure to do your homework before you start. This means doing research about what Amazon requires of its sellers so that your customers will be able to have the best possible experience. By taking the time to understand the process and guidelines involved, you can ensure that you are maximising your chances of success.