Amazon follow-up sales and third-party sellers: coexistence and competition

The Amazon platform was originally an online bookstore. Over time, it has transformed into a large-scale e-commerce platform that allows third-party sellers to enter. This model allows different sellers to sell the same product at the same time to avoid degradation of consumer experience due to repeated postings. Based on this background, “follow-up selling” came into being – that is, under the premise of complying with the rules of the platform, sellers directly link their own products to other people’s product details pages.

Basic rules for following sales

The core of follow-up selling is that the product information is owned by Amazon. All sellers who follow up the sale of the product use the same product details page information, such as pictures, titles, descriptions, five-element characteristics, EAN/UPC codes, etc. This means that the same product sold by different sellers will be merged into one, sharing page exposure and traffic. The only things that the follower can customize are the price, product status (new or second-hand) and inventory quantity.

The importance of the shopping cart

Usually, sellers who occupy the Buy Box (shopping cart) position are more likely to close deals. The Amazon A9 algorithm determines the ownership of the shopping cart, considering factors including but not limited to product price, shipping method, sales volume and account performance. Therefore, competing for the shopping cart has become an important task for the products that are being sold.

The impact of follow-up sales

For those sellers who are being copied, this may lead to reduced sales, reduced profits, and even negative reviews due to poor quality of the follower’s products, which in turn affects the weight and ranking of the products. However, from another perspective, follow-up sales have also become a means for some sellers to quickly start their business, relying on the traffic base accumulated by other sellers’ early efforts to quickly place orders.

The role and advantages of third-party sellers

Amazon third-party sellers refer to independent individuals or businesses that register on the platform and sell goods through its selling tools and services. This type of seller enjoys a high degree of autonomy and flexibility, and can adjust strategies according to market demand, establish a brand, and enjoy various supports such as logistics and advertising provided by Amazon.

The advantages of third-party sellers are:

• Market size and traffic: Relying on Amazon’s huge user base and high-traffic entrances, third-party sellers can quickly increase their visibility and sales;
• Focus on core business: There is no need to deal with complex logistics issues, allowing sellers to devote more energy to product research and development, brand building, etc.;
• Flexible inventory control: Adjust inventory levels as needed to effectively avoid backlog risks;
• Low-cost operation: Compared with the high cost of physical stores, online sales significantly lower the threshold for startup;
• Opportunities for global expansion: Easily reach the global market with Amazon’s international presence;
• Data-based operational decision-making: Use the rich data analysis tools provided by the platform to accurately grasp market trends.

To sum up, whether you are a follow-up seller or an independent third-party seller, they have their own unique survival rules and development paths on the Amazon platform.