Take-off Thursday — 28 September 2017
Welcome to Take-off Thursdays, your one-stop shop for the latest news and updates about all things ecommerce and Amazon.
Join me each Thursday in pondering the present and the future of commerce in 2017 and beyond!
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I am approaching my last few weeks in Vancouver before my next destination: Puerto Vallarta. Looking forward to some sunshine and beach days — but exploring what the Canadian landscape has to offer during the weekends here has been great too. 🏔
The travelling life ensures that you get to enjoy different landscapes, cultures and experiences. This was definitely what motivated me to build my Amazon business and become location independent.
Here’s this weeks latest news updates:
US Top Selling Amazon ASINs
My jaw dropped when I saw this. Amazon have published their top selling Amazon ASINs for the US amazon.com store.
You can find the full list of categories on their website, and download the top selling products as a spreadsheet for each category.
If you have a product on this list, congratulations, you’re killing it. If you don’t, you could really use this as a great launchpad for your product research. Just be wary that products on this list may have some strong competition for the most part. So you still need to make sure you are cross referencing your estimated sales, competition levels and so on. Cross the t’s and dot the i’s.
I am going to take a look at these lists in detail and maybe do some data analysis against our huge database to see if there are any opportunities lurking in there. Keep an eye out for updates on this in the future.
→Read more — Amazon Services
Introducing Amazon Stores
Have you seen the new ‘stores’ feature yet? I got an email about this from Amazon this week, but I have actually seen this feature in Seller Central for a little while now.
It’s another new marketing tool for sellers where you can create your own storefront, that has information about your brand and displays your products in a portfolio:
With the ability to get your own page with unique URL, mobile friendly layouts, which is discoverable from Amazon search and detail pages, this seems like a great new way to market your brand.
It might be especially useful for people who have ranges of related products and want to build more of a brand identity and narrative. You can also drive traffic to your store with Headline Search Ads, which may be a great way to get traffic for a range of products from people who are interested in your niche as a whole.
Previously known as “Amazon Pages”, the new Amazon Stores initiative looks to be a direct replacement, as sellers with a page will be able to update to a store and the pages will be phased out.
It was mostly bigger brands who had access to Amazon Pages, whereas now, many FBA sellers will be able to create a branded store page for themselves.
As far as I can tell, you need to be enrolled in AMS (Amazon Marketing Services) to access this feature, or you can access it from Seller Central for any brands that are brand registered:
→Read more —Get an Amazon Store (log in required)
Comparing Sears to Amazon!
An article from The Atlantic compares the early days of Sears to Amazon’s current growth. It’s an interesting take on the similarities and differences between the two, which are obviously different in the sense that Amazon is predominantly online.
“Sears might seem like a zombie today, but it’s easy to forget how transformative the company was exactly 100 years ago, when it, too, was capitalizing on a mail-to-consumer business to establish a physical retail presence.” — The Atlantic
The main similarity between the two was that they both adopt a “do it all” strategy, which in Amazon’s case, involves large investments in cloud technology as well as brick-and-mortar brands like Whole Foods.
The adoption of Amazon and Prime in the US has been huge, and we are beginning to see trends that shift in this direction across Europe now, too.
Another similarity is that both built a “large base of fiercely loyal consumers”. A fun way to look at the history books and consider Amazon’s successes today, and where it might continue to grow tomorrow.
→ Read more — The Atlantic
Amazon Created More Jobs Than 46 States
If you want to feel good about being a part of the Amazon movement, then the growth and jobs created is definitely one positive point to consider.
Time have reported that Amazon has created more jobs than most of the US states. In fact, it would rank fourth in terms of job creation after California, Florida, Texas and New York.
→ Read more — Time
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Quote of the Week
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” — Steve Jobs
Podcast of the Week
This week I have been binge listening again to the Tropical MBA podcast with Dan Andrews.
Have a great weekend and keep on hustling!
