As we all know, Amazon is a platform that “emphasizes products and neglects stores” and “products are king”. “70% product selection and 30% operation” proves the importance of product selection. In 2018, with the influx of a large number of sellers, product saturation and serious homogeneity have occurred, and more and more sellers have begun to turn to product development. Although product development is difficult, it is a good choice to analyze the best-selling products and then develop your own new products. At the same time, a good store positioning can allow the store to break away from the original competitive market and quickly break through: it can also allow products to be sold at a high price and avoid the impact of the low-end market. In the process of operating a store, many people rarely abide by the concept of less is more, but sell everything, but in the end they sell nothing well. Today’s consumers are becoming more and more picky about product selection and have higher and higher requirements. If sellers want to stand out, be professional and unique in the field of professional products, they first need a good store positioning.
1. Two operation modes
For store positioning, the Amazon platform has the following two different operation modes.
(I) Distribution mode
Distribution is a common way for Amazon sellers to operate stores. The so-called distribution model is to sell multiple SKUs and multiple accounts. Especially for sellers who are not clear about their positioning, do not know how to select products, and are eager to place orders, the distribution model is the first choice for promoting stores. The distribution model is not only simple to operate, does not require stockpiling, and has relatively low capital requirements, but also does not require finding logistics or producing products by themselves, which simplifies many operational steps for small and medium-sized sellers. Therefore, the distribution model is more suitable for novice sellers, start-up individuals or small team sellers.
(II) Boutique model
The boutique model is an operating model that focuses on product selection and marketing. The distribution model will also develop towards the boutique model in the later stage. The boutique model requires sellers to optimize product selection and product pages (Listing). This model is more suitable for sellers who test a certain product with good sales after the distribution model is stable and plan to focus on building this product.
Compared with the distribution model, the boutique model has higher profits and higher requirements for operational skills. The boutique model can be understood as a transformation of the distribution model in the later stage, and this transformation needs to be transformed under the precipitation of the distribution model. Any product that can become a boutique requires sellers to spend more energy and time on operational skills such as product selection and product page optimization, so that the product becomes a hot-selling and profitable product.
In general, there is no absolute distinction between the two operating modes of Amazon store positioning, the boutique mode and the distribution mode. The key lies in which mode is more suitable for the seller’s current resource allocation. Usually, the more ideal operating mode is to adopt the distribution mode in the early stage, and then put 80% of the energy on 20% of the products in the later stage, and carefully create the boutique of your own store, that is, to adopt an operating mode that combines the boutique mode with the distribution mode.