NOTE: This blog has moved to: http://www.HonestOnlineSelling.com
Hi readers.
Nothing to sell to you in this post. Just some inspiration.
Most of you know that I've been pretty successful selling on Amazon. (Just about anyone can sell on Amazon too.) This screen shot shows what I earn on a very 'part time' basis (I run a couple other ventures, as you know.)
In a previous post, I explained to you how I paid $40,000+ for a Boston University MBA, and how I feel I learned more - and earned more - from my ventures online (I'm probably banned from the B.U. campus, now, for saying that).
I'm a fan of education, but not so much when education doesn't teach you how to make money in the 'real world'.
So aside from my 'selling success; on Amazon, I am ecstatic that I also got a free 'real world' education from it, too, in many different 'disciplines'. How?
> I got a free education in retail merchandising by competing with other Amazon sellers pitching the same products; and by learning about UPC Codes (required when you sell your own product or create your own bundle of products to sell on Amazon)
> I got a free education in pricing dynamics. Because of Amazon's extremely large audience, the price of a product can be influenced almost immediately by supply and demand from the consumer, and that phenomena can influence 3rd party merchandisers to compete on price. What you end up with is an economist's dream: product pricing that is very closely aligned with supply and demand.
> I got a free education in customer service. Amazon.com's customer service 'rules' for sellers like me are pretty strict. Sellers have to be very careful how they represent the products they're selling. If you call an item 'new' you'd better mean it. And if you ship the product from home, it had better arrive to the customer on time. And if you tell an aggravating customer to jump in a lake, well, you get the picture.
> I got a free education in social media. I hate the buzzword 'social media' because it's WAY overused. But Amazon (unlike everyone else) isn't 'buzzing' about Social Media at all. It's because they (arguably) invented it with their site's powerful software and algorithms that, among other things:
> recommend products to customers based on their interests and past purchases;
> influence supply and demand of a product based on customers' posted reviews of that product;
> allow customers to create and share wish lists, etc.
> I got a free education in 'eco-friendly' initiatives. One of my e-books explains the tremendous profit potential in selling pre-owned toys and games on Amazon for big profits. Many sellers don't realize that by 'recycling' the product that way, it's one less toy in a landfill, one less new toy packaging to be tossed away.
So, how about you? What did selling on Amazon teach you?
1 comment:
I think Amazon has taught me that you can make money online. This is being very patient and your item will sell. Amazon show me that you can even sell your stuff overseas (which I have sold some). Without Amazon I think I would think online selling was only for the big guns like Target,Toys R Us and not us small guys.... We are the Mom & Pop online watch out Wal-Mart you not going to run us out of business...
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