Amazon is one of the stores where sellers can start with little or nothing and climb to the top without having to own a company, website, or business license. As long as you have a good business model, you can start selling on Amazon and succeed without having a local store or warehouse. You can easily start from home. So, if you have been wondering whether you can sell on Amazon without a website? The answer to that is “Yes.”
You don’t need a website to sell on Amazon. Just like eBay, Amazon is one of the biggest online stores where you can easily list your products for sale without having a website. It’s a marketplace where vendors come to display their inventories. So, you are not required to own a website to sell on Amazon or any other web store like eBay, Etsy, etc.
However, it doesn’t mean that a website is not important for your business. Having an online store where you sell your products is one of the essential tools for successful businesses. It’s not necessary, especially when you don’t have the resources to manage it. You have to weigh the pros and cons before you can get one.
We have a lot of retailers on Amazon who have their own websites. But over 50 percent of these sellers record more sales through Amazon. Unless you have a popular and trusted brand, it is not always easy to make sales through a personal website.
Since a website is not required to be a seller on Amazon, you don’t need one if you can’t manage it. Well, a journey of 1000 miles starts with one step, so you can start small and grow the store.
However, it is always better to start with one first. Having divided attention when starting a business is not advisable. If you are starting with Amazon, focus on Amazon until you become successful there. If you are starting your own online store, focus on it until you become successful there.
If you succeed in one, it will be easier for you to diversify or expand. It’s like learning the skills required to succeed in a business. Once you learn the skills, it will be easy for you to replicate the success anywhere. So, stick with one and grow from there.
Is it better to sell on Amazon or your own website?
Selling on your website is better than selling on Amazon because it gives you total control of your business. However, it is easier to start selling on Amazon, especially when you have little or no money.
There are a lot of sellers on Amazon today who are making over $100,000 every month without having a single website. Amazon makes it a lot easier to manage a business. Even as a newbie, you can start as a retailer on Amazon and make a lot of money in a short space of time.
Though it is far easier to start on Amazon and become successful because of a ready market, having your own website gives you an edge if you have an entrepreneurial mindset. Listing your products on Amazon makes you a business owner—you make sales and take profit. But building your website from scratch is an entrepreneurial journey as long as you have identified an opportunity and a problem to solve.
If you are starting with little or no money, it is best to begin with Amazon because it is the easiest route. Then you can start your own website after succeeding on Amazon. But if you have the necessary inventory and resources, building a website for your business is the best path to follow.
Another point to note is that not everybody can be an entrepreneur. When you list your products on Amazon, they manage your business for you, but it’s not like that when you run your business on your website. So, if you can’t go through the stress of managing your business, it will be hard to succeed.
The best thing to do is to weigh the pros and cons of the two options to know the one that is best for you. Below are the advantages and disadvantages of running a business with your website.
Pros
- Total control of your business
Running your business with a website gives you complete control over the business. Selling on Amazon comes with a plethora of policies. If you are not careful with the way you do things in the store, your account can easily get suspended.
Imagine someone reporting your product with counterfeit claims, and unfortunately, you’ve lost the invoice for that product. Of course, Amazon will suspend your account for life. That’s one of the challenges sellers on Amazon face.
But, if it’s your store, you can simply delist the product without any suspension.
- More profit margins
Unfortunately, Amazon cripples some sellers with their fees. There are many fees to pay for when selling on Amazon. Some of these fees include closing fees, selling fees, storage fees (for FBA), monthly subscriptions, per-item fees, etc. It’s too much to bear for some sellers.
If you are not careful with your pricing, you may end up making no profit from sales.
But with your website, no one is charging you for anything. All the profits you make go into your pocket. This is why you need to have a business website because it can make far more sales than you make on Amazon.
- Total ownership of customers’ details
With the Amazon web store, you don’t know who your customers are because Amazon takes control of everything. When your customers submit their contact details, you don’t have access to them.
When customers submit their contact details on your website, that gives you access to get in touch with them. You can easily get feedback on your products and services. Moreover, you can easily pitch more products and promotions to them, which can lead to more sales.
- Personal brand
Creating a website for your business makes it easier for your followers/audience to trust you. They will take you seriously when they notice that you have your own website where they can make purchases.
So, having a business website will help you build a brand faster than when you have a web store like Amazon.
- Easy marketing
Having a business website makes marketing very easy, cheaper, and more efficient. When customers buy items from the website, you can use the opportunity to advertise other related items. This method works most of the time, especially when there is a discount.
Even if you did not advertise, customers can still buy related items. That helps you to sell more than you expected. But Amazon can advertise other related products that belong to other sellers.
Moreover, when you do marketing on other platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, etc, and drive customers to your store, you are sure that they are buying your products. But if you drive customers to your Amazon product page, some of them might end up buying similar products from another seller. So, marketing for your website gives a higher conversion rate than what you get from Amazon.
Another vital point you need to take home from here is that you can easily do free marketing through your email lists. The list of contacts you collect when your customers buy items from your store can be used to do free email marketing when you have new stock or price slash. Amazon doesn’t give you access to these details, so you need to generate your email list from other sources.
Cons
- You need a business license
Every business in the country is expected to have a business license. You will have to pay tax if you are to operate as a business. That’s why it’s not that easy to start especially when you don’t have enough money to run the business.
However, you can compare the tax you will pay to the amount of money you will spend on Amazon fees. If you are running a big business you can easily take care of tax and all that and save more than when you are running your business on Amazon.
But if you are running a small business, Amazon is the best place to start. You can easily start with an individual seller account even when you have very little to start with.
- Inventory management is not that easy
Like we mentioned earlier, being an entrepreneur is not an easy task. There are a lot of things to put in place for your business to run smoothly. If you don’t have the mental strength and resilience to endure the pain and stress that goes with it, your business may not be able to stand the test of time.
With Amazon, you don’t need to do much. They will take care of most of the tasks for you. If you are using Amazon FBA, all you need to do is to send your products to the warehouse, list them on the store, and Amazon will take them up from there.
Can I put my website on Amazon?
No, you can’t put a link to your website or any other contact details on Amazon. Furthermore, you can place your contact details or website link on the product pack. Doing so is against Amazon’s policy and may attract account suspension.
However, you are allowed to place your logo on your seller page or product. This is one of the disadvantages of being a seller on Amazon because there are many limitations. This makes some newbies wonder whether Amazon is still a good place to sell.
Is Amazon a good place to sell?
Despite the limitations and heavy fees, Amazon is still a good place to sell because they have a ready market and the necessary tools to help you succeed as a seller. So, Amazon is still one of the best platforms to sell products.
There are thousands of sellers, both old and new, cashing out heavily every month. So, why won’t it be a good place for you? In this post, we discussed how profitable it is to sell on Amazon and how you can leverage the platform to earn a lot of money from sales. Even as a beginner you can succeed on Amazon if you have a good business model.