The Demerit of Amazon

• You will need to pay for commission

  When your product is sold, you will have to pay Amazon a commission on the sale so we recommend that you calculate the commission to determine the selling price before listing your item. The commission fees also vary on Amazon depending on the product category. Please note that sales and commissions are exchanged in US dollars, so your profits may fluctuate due to exchange movements.

• You can't get customers or repeat customers for your shop

  By selling on Amazon, it is difficult for buyers to recognize it as a "store", and it is difficult to create unique colors and contents. Therefore, the repeater strategy and customer acquisition theory of ordinary EC sites do not work at all in Amazon. Not only is it not possible to get the repeat customers but consumers who buy on Amazon are considered as ”Amazon repeaters."

  If you don't have a "cart box", you will have a very difficult time selling on Amazon. For those who want to create a shop full of originality of their own, Amazon is not suitable for you while eBay is more suitable for this case.

• High sales commission (royalties)

  At Amazon, there is a sales commission you need to pay to Amazon every time a product is sold, and the rate is not cheap at all. For a flat rate of 10% on eBay, Amazon charges a commission of 6% to 20% of the selling price. For example, the commission rate is 17% for accessories and sports clothing, and 15% for shoes and handbags (as of July 2021).

  If you use FBA for products sold from Japan, you can expect to pay around 25-40% commission fee to Amazon. In addition, for products in the media category, such as books, CDs and DVDs, you will also need to pay a category fee of USD1.8 (approximately 200 yen) per product.

  Please note that the “Small Listing Service” may cost you more. Basic contracts concluded fee as a normal large sales commissions of 100 yen per item, it will cost you more on warehouse fee if you use FBA, and if you did not calculate the price with the selling fee, etc. in advance, it may result in a lower profit or a deficit than you thought.

  To give you a rough idea, you should expect to pay 6-20% commission, 15% FBA fee, and 30-40% monthly fees and other costs.

• It is essential to collect the number of reviews and ratings

  In Amazon, the product pages with a lot of reviews are recognized as being trusted by users, which naturally has an advantage for SEO on Amazon. This is because a collection of reviews motivates consumers to buy and helps them understand the pros and cons of the product. At the same time, the seller can analyze problems and needs from the reviews gathered, make improvements and repeat PDCA (verification), resulting in a reliable listing page.

• You must sell your products according to Amazon's policy

  If you violate the rules set by Amazon, you will be suspended from selling (your account will be suspended). You will not be warned, just a one-sided notification that your account will be deleted and you will be asked to withdraw within 48 hours. If you do not comply with this, the sales on hold will be confiscated and the products you have deposited are likely to be destroyed, which is dangerous so you will need to withdraw promptly.

  Amazon has stricter rules than eBay, and since detailed NG rules are not announced, in most cases you may not clear why your account/listings were deleted, so you are required to watch the latest rules and information from those currently operating on Amazon, and list correctly according to the rules.

  Once the account is deleted, it cannot be restored. This is also the reason why Amazon's International sales are said to be difficult for beginners so if you are not familiar with it, it is is better for you to sell on eBay instead.