Compared with other e-commerce platforms, Amazon has the following characteristics.
1. Goods are sold only at a fixed price
Amazon does not provide any auction model services. Goods are sold only at a fixed price. Its goods are displayed through display, search and classification.
2. “Loose entry and strict management”
Amazon adopts a “loose entry and strict management” management method. Both individuals and enterprises can open stores on its platform. Except for some categories that require sellers to meet certain conditions to apply to Amazon, other categories are completely open to sellers, and Amazon allows sellers to sell second-hand goods.
Compared to the entry threshold, Amazon’s management of sellers is relatively strict. Whether it is an individual seller or a corporate seller, they must abide by Amazon’s comprehensive protection terms, and the buyer’s rights will be fully supported by Amazon if they are infringed.
3. The platform adopts a product-centered structure
In terms of organizational structure, eBay and other domestic e-commerce open platforms are generally store-centered. Amazon is different from them and adopts a product-centered structure. Amazon does not open up a dedicated second-level domain name for stores. The homepage of most stores is a list of products, which downplays the store and ensures the unified brand image of the Amazon platform.
4. Focus on product details, not customer service
The Amazon platform does not have online customer service, encouraging buyers to shop by themselves. Since there is no customer service to consult, the product details page is even more important. Sellers must make it as detailed as possible, including various issues that buyers may be concerned about, so as to encourage buyers to make shopping decisions as soon as possible and avoid buyers giving up purchases due to incomplete product information.
The practice of unified product details pages saves sellers’ workload to a great extent, reduces the situation where sellers use false introductions to facilitate transactions, and guides sellers to focus their energy and time on services such as price, delivery and after-sales.
5. Focus on recommendations, not advertising
Amazon does not pay much attention to various paid advertisements. Buyers generally see related recommendations and ranking recommendations based on background data after entering the website. The basis for these recommendations is generally the user’s purchase record and the buyer’s favorable comments and recommendation, so sellers can increase the selection of products, optimize the background data, take measures to guide buyers to leave favorable comments, etc., which is in line with Amazon’s “emphasis on recommendation” feature.
6. Pay attention to customer feedback
Amazon pays more attention to customer feedback, including product reviews and customer ratings of the quality of service provided. On Amazon, customer feedback and product reviews are very important, which represents whether the customer is satisfied with the experience.
Because Amazon sellers rarely leave feedback, sellers must take the initiative to ask for it. After the customer leaves feedback, the seller must actively respond and thank them. If the feedback received is negative, the seller must actively communicate with the customer and strive to eliminate the negative feedback. According to Amazon’s statistics, positive product reviews can increase sellers’ sales by 12%. It can be seen how important product reviews are to increasing store sales.