
Within the final six months, 83% of U.S. shoppers (and 90% of millennials) made a purchase order on Amazon, in response to a current BigCommerce survey. In truth, 49% of all on-line spending within the U.S. takes place on Amazon, accounting for about 5% of all U.S. retail gross sales.
There’s seemingly no stopping Amazon in its continued domination of retail. What’s a small retailer to do? In case you can’t beat ‘em, be part of ‘em — or copy ‘em — BigCommerce’s report concludes. Right here’s what the survey found about shoppers’ procuring behaviors on Amazon and the way a small enterprise can compete.
Tips about Overcoming the Amazon Impact
Deal with Comfort
Some customers are nonetheless utilizing Amazon to seek out the rock-bottom lowest costs. However that is much less widespread than it was. Buyers within the survey say they now not take into account worth the first motive to buy on Amazon versus elsewhere. For 28% of respondents, comfort is the important thing issue.
Amazon Prime membership offers customers the comfort of free two-day supply on their purchases. Because the variety of Prime members retains rising (final 12 months Amazon surpassed 100 million Prime members worldwide), increasingly shoppers have come to count on that each one retailers — not simply these promoting on the Amazon market — will supply an analogous degree of comfort.
Requested what they like least about procuring on-line, 18% of survey respondents cite transport prices, whereas 15% say ready for the product to reach is the worst a part of the e-commerce course of.
How will you incorporate components of the Amazon expertise? Attempt providing shoppers the choice to purchase on-line and choose up in retailer. That approach, there’s no transport price, and clients can get their merchandise sooner.
Contemplate Making Amazon your Accomplice
The imaginative and prescient of Amazon as an 800-pound gorilla stealing gross sales from small retailers is outdated. Really, Amazon’s 2018 Small Enterprise Influence Report reveals 50% of merchandise bought on Amazon’s market are from third-party sellers. Final 12 months, greater than 20,000 of these third-party sellers had gross sales of greater than $1 million.
Fairly than a competitor, Amazon will be an alternate gross sales channel for your small business. Some 22% of shoppers have visited a model’s web site earlier than shopping for the model’s product on Amazon. If a consumer goes to your web site however then buys your product on Amazon, shouldn’t they be shopping for it from you by way of Amazon?
Use Amazon to Drive Site visitors to your Web site
Three in 10 shoppers within the BigCommerce survey have found a model on Amazon earlier than in the end buying it on the model’s personal web site. That’s another approach that having a presence in Amazon’s market can function advertising and marketing for your small business.
Use Amazon to Drive Site visitors to your Brick-and-Mortar Retailer
When requested about their procuring behaviors prior to creating a purchase order in a brick-and-mortar retail retailer, 32% of customers say they’ve discovered a model on Amazon after which bought it at a bodily retailer. Why would this occur? Not with the ability to see, contact or attempt merchandise is customers’ number-one criticism about on-line procuring, BigCommerce discovered. Shoppers who find out about your merchandise on Amazon would possibly wish to take a look at the merchandise earlier than committing to a purchase order.
Keep in mind Bodily Shops Nonetheless Matter
Regardless of persevering with progress in e-commerce, some 87% of all retail procuring within the U.S. nonetheless takes place offline. Shoppers spend extra in brick-and-mortar places than on-line. On common, survey respondents spend 69% of their discretionary revenue every month in-store.
In truth, retailers with each an e-commerce web site and a brick-and-mortar location have an edge over Amazon, as this mix of on-line and offline choices offers shoppers the best vary of decisions in how they attempt to purchase merchandise.
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As well as, retailers with each bodily and digital retailers have extra alternative to profit from returns. Half of customers who return a product bought on-line accomplish that by mail. However amongst those that go to a brick-and-mortar retailer to return an merchandise bought on-line, greater than two-thirds browse or store in that retailer after making the return. Permitting offline returns of on-line purchases offers your retail enterprise one of the best of each worlds.
Easy methods to overcome the Amazon impact? As this survey suggests, one of the simplest ways to take action is to cease preventing Amazon and as an alternative embrace what it could actually supply your small business.