Amazon – Opportunities
To take maximum advantage of Amazon’s opening and all other opportunities associated with the same as described above we have one year’s time.
While reading an excellent article in Aurora magazine of Dawn, Pakistan, I noticed that “Amazon has agreed to allow a one year trial for 30-40 Pakistani companies as sellers”.
(Source: https://aurora.dawn.com/news/1144079/amazon-comes-to-pakistan)
It is a great positive news. The journey has started. Even the longest journey starts with the first step that has been taken so we cannot undermine the achievement, but we must keep in mind that we are not there yet:
- It is just the beginning
- Currently the sellers list is limited
- There is a trial period involved
- After completion of trial period some evaluation would be conducted, and
- Further opportunities may become available only if performance of selected companies is satisfactory, to Amazon’s standards, during the trial period
The door has not opened yet. Just a small slit has been provided to enable us show casing what we have to offer, what is our value proposition and how prepared we are meeting international, specifically Amazon, standards of quality, service, and support. Feel free to disagree, but in my opinion, we have much to improve in terms of quality, after sale service, customer service and customer relationship.
The above creates a lot of responsibility on the individuals/businesses who register now. They are trail blazers. Their performance will determine the fate of others if allowed at all, if the slit of opportunity would become bigger and the door would open or would be lost and door would be shut down for a long time. Being optimistic, the objective of this piece is to prepare ourselves assuming that the door would open for more suppliers.
The registration process may be simple and can be completed within minutes; the whole process of presenting the products, pricing, promotion, selling, packing, shipping and after sales may not be as simple to succeed. As the saying goes that “the more I prepare, the better I get”. We need to prepare well, prepare beforehand. This whole scenario of Amazon opening and the availability of the world’s market thru Amazon’s platform offers lots of opportunities not only to the direct sellers and manufacturers but to various other industry sectors:
- For IT Service Providers
First train themselves and then offer professional services to potential Amazon sellers for:
- Amazon Registration Process
- Creating and maintaining product IDs, listings
- Utilizing key tools and applications
- Implementing and following product rules and restrictions
- Setting up Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)
- Advertising
- Following Amazon Policies
- For educational institutes
First train themselves and then develop local versions of courses and trainings on the following topics for doing business on Amazon:
- Amazon Registration Process
- Creating and maintaining product IDs, listings
- Utilizing key tools and applications
- Implementing and following product rules and restrictions
- Setting up Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)
- Advertising
- Achieving and maintaining quality products and services
- Amazon Policies
- For individual craftsmen/women, creators, entrepreneurs, and manufacturers
- Use Amazon’s platform to introduce their products to the world
- To learn from Amazon experience and improve their products’ quality
- To learn from Amazon experience and improve their customer service
- Organize and professionalize their business while trying to meet Amazon’s requirements
- For individual manufacturers, creators, or entrepreneurs
- Use Amazon’s platform to introduce their products to the world
- To learn from Amazon experience and improve their products’ quality
- To learn from Amazon experience and improve their customer service
- Organize and professionalize their business while trying to meet Amazon’s requirements
- For exporters
Establish professional, documented, organized and formal front end stores on Amazon to channel quality and competitive products from manufacturers in the informal sector who may not have skills and resources to be successful on Amazon.
- For Packaging companies
- To offer innovative and cost-effective packaging solutions for Amazon sellers and/or exporters
- To learn from Amazon experience and improve their products’ quality
- To learn from Amazon experience and improve their customer service
- For Pakistan Post or Courier Companies
- To offer efficient, innovative,
- and cost-effective shipping solutions for Amazon sellers and/or exporters
- To learn from Amazon experience and enhance and improve their logistics and storage facilities and infrastructure
- To learn from Amazon experience and enhance and improve their customer service
- For Pakistani banks
- To create innovative, easy, and cheap financing packages and credit facilities for authorized sellers on Amazon to facilitate their business
- To work with Amazon to process quick funds receipts by sellers
- To explore opportunities for international online payments system available to Pakistanis
And the beauty is that all the information needed by all above to learn and utilize is available for free at Amazon website. Knowledge is there, for free, we just need to learn, utilize, follow, and succeed. Visit Amazon Sellers’ University at https://sell.amazon.com/learn.html.
To take maximum advantage of Amazon’s opening and all other opportunities associated with the same as described above we have one year’s time. By the time the initial evaluation period completes, and the door opens we should be all educated, trained, and prepared to get into the race and grab our share of the huge export trade opportunity that comes in the form of Amazon platform opening.
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Babar Saeed
June 17, 2021
The writer is a professional marketer and engineer with good work exposure to governments, and businesses and industries in the private sector in several countries. Idea is to take the first step in adding value to anything that one gets exposed to instead of just complaining about the same.