To think that Amazon is a total rip off?

[Ifyourawizardwhydouwearglasses]

I have a website selling furniture. It does ok, but decided I would give selling on amazon a go to boost sales.

However, the fees are absolutely extortionate! I can't believe it. £60 worth of fees on one product alone. I would have to raise my prices way above what they are on my website to even break even, as my margins are small anyway. I think this would look awful when you can click on my website and get the exact same thing for £80 less.

Lots of people seem to sell on amazon though so is it just me????

Surplus punctuation there, sorry.

Surely you would get more traffic on Amazon than on your own website and therefore more chance of a sale?

Why do you think someone would go from your Amazon listing to your website?

Buyers feel they have more confidence buying from an Amazon seller as they feel they can always go back to Amazon for redress if something goes wrong with the sale.

Is it not worth trialling for a few weeks/months on items that are slow sellers on your own website?

Would you get away with having the item on your own website for less? I thought Amazon insisted on price-matching, or is that just ebooks? (Books, certainly, can be cheaper off Amazon, so it really is worth checking!)

www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201133150

They don't promise to do it for everything, and I have definitrly seen headline loss-leaders and more obscure items having fatter margins...

I think most people would understand that you have to pay for the service Amazon offers. If they want to come to you direct and enjoy the cheaper prices then they can, but I don't see how that would be a problem?

Any site of that size is going to charge you to use their interface - there might be ways of making it more cost effective to you, but if the figures don't work then it might not be a viable option for you. It doesn't mean it's a rip off though - it's just a service that might not be worth paying for.

Have you tried Ebay? I think that is better set up for small shops and gets a lot of traffic too...

You can't mention your own website on Amazon.

You have to see if the increase in sales would be enough to give you sufficient profit.

Are others selling the same product?

Perhaps you can't name your website on Amazon but if your seller name is essentially the main part of your website name I will look for it to see if I can get it cheaper direct. Done it a few times.

Its worth it for you or its not. That doesn't make it a rip off.

I sell my own products on Amazon- I wouldn't have a business without them, they generate by far the most sales out of my own site, ebay or etsy.

The fees are about 20% on the product and the P&P ( which does annoy me) and not much different to ebay/ paypal fees, it just comes out in one hit rather than split with ebay and PayPal. My product are low value though it might differ with paypal for higher amounts.

Definitely worth for sales generated and when I sell through bricks and mortar shops they all want at least 50% mark up so in that context they are great.