Expanding into a new sales channel, like Amazon, can seem like a daunting task. It can be a wise investment saving you time and resources to hire an Amazon consultant. An Amazon sales consultant can help you understand the correct business strategy or business model for selling on Amazon; write product copy that is complient, is visually appealing, and is correctly positioned for the Amazon search algorithm to properly index your search terms; and to set up Amazon Marketing Services at a SKU level to understand what products and campaigns are profitable. However, not all companies should hire an Amazon Consultant. Let's explore a few types of businesses to see which companies should hire an Amazon Consultant, and which companies should not hire an Amazon Sales Consultant.
Established Brand - Should Hire an Amazon Consultant
An established brand is a company that is well known within their respective vertical or niche, but may not directly manufacture their own product. An example of this would be a company like the Training Mask 2.0. From the reviews, it seems like customers love this product. However, they are not putting their best foot forward by explaining to the customer the key product features associated with the product. This brand would be a great candidate to hire an Amazon Consultant in order to best share their brands value and share their story on Amazon.com in order to drive more sales. By outsourcing this marketing service to a consultant, they can focus on their core competency of innovating and develop more products to help their customers.
Great Product From Elevation Training Mask but check out those Key Product Features
Established Manufacturer - Should Hire an Amazon Consultant
An established manufacturer is a company that makes, produces, or builds products. Their traditional sales model is to manufacture their product and sell through wholesale channels. What a lot of companies do not know, is that there are different ways to sell through Amazon.com which are directly to the consumer through Amazon Seller Central or selling to Amazon through Vendor Central/Express. An example of a manufacturer that should hire an Amazon Consultant is Rocky Mountain Climbing Gear. They manufacture climbing holds and hardware for rock climbing walls. Their core competency is manufacturing quality holds for the climbing market. Looking at their Amazon site, this company is getting great reviews on their product, however, they are still merchant fulfilling their product. Hiring an Amazon Consultant could help this brand in understanding if they are should continue to sell through merchant fulfilled seller central, or if it would be wise to partner with Amazon and sell directly to them through Vendor Central/Express. An Amazon Consultant can properly set up the Amazon Marketing campaigns in order to reach a wider audience.
Startup Company - Should Hire an Amazon Consultant
Startup companies are new companies that is taking a risk and disrupting an industry and making new innovative tests in the market. Let's look at a company like Harry's. Harry's is a startup that is turning the razor industry on it's head. They manufacture and sell their razors online, and also through a new partnership with Target. What many companies do not know is that even if the company does not sell their products themselves on Amazon, ANYONE can. This can lead to poor experiences with their customer because a customer can purchase the product through Amazon but they may not know that it is sold through a third party company selling the product on Amazon. A startup should look to hire an Amazon Consultant because it is vitally important, especially at the early stage, to put their best foot forward so new customers can have the best experience with the brand, share their story, and control the branding of their product listing on Amazon (even if they decide to not sell on the platform themselves).
Gilette and Dollar Shave Club should be cheering about the brand quality of Harry's on Amazon.
Wholesale Company - Should NOT hire an Amazon Consultant
By wholesale company, we mean a company that is a re-seller of other brands and manufacturers' products. Their goal is to build the largest catalog as possible to sell for at a profit. Wholesale companies generally should not outsource the Amazon sales channel to an Amazon Consultant for several reasons. Wholesale companies can work on razor thin margins so any additional expense may make the channel unprofitable. Wholesale companies try to sell other brands and manufacturers products so there is no value to increase the branding of the brands they sell for. So generally speaking, wholesale companies should keep the Amazon sales channel management in house.
Wholesale company examples
Conclusion
Selling on Amazon can be a scary new venture. Not every company should hire an Amazon Consultant. Goat Consulting exists to help brands and manufactures sell on Amazon.com, if you feel you would be a good fit to hire an Amazon Consultant, we encourage you to fill out the contact form, and we will reach out to see how we can partner together.