What is it like selling on Amazon Mexico? [ENGLISH]

Simple answer, Amazon Mexico feels like a “Trial Version” for both consumers and sellers. The full force of Amazon is not felt like it is comparing it to when I visit family in California. Where you can feel the Amazon Brand at your local CVS Pharmacy.

For consumers in México, Amazon its ambitious team have made large gains in having close to 24 hours delivery nationwide. But where we lack is just the number of products and additional services it provides. This is by no fault of Amazon. They are taking large leaps of effort trying to help small business owners upload their products on the Amazon Marketplaces. Teaming up with local state governments and participating in most entrepreneur expo in the nation, they are branding themselves as “friendly” and super accessible, which trying not to sound biased I can confirm they are.

The problem for small business owners is that they lack the necessary requirements to keep their business afloat with physical sales. The bar was set low, and these companies were happy with local sales. These companies are not equipped with the most important key factor of online sales, logistics. 2-Day Free shipping is “make or break” terminology for ecommerce; and these companies lack the know-how. In results, national sales can’t be reached, and Amazon only offers sellers with confidence. Buyers are limited on the variety of products they can purchase. It feels like there are two companies per category selling.

For Sellers we are limited to 2 modes of promotion, couple of software apps that help manage Seller Central and basic form of sales without any creativity.

The 2 modes of Promoting on Amazon are as follow:

1. Deals: (7-day deals or Lighting deals)
2. Sponsored Campaigns

Deals of course is the best way to sell products. In Amazon MX, the deals landing page received 80% of traffic (Amazon Stats). Programming any type of deal on Amazon is sure to produce sales even if your competitor is on there to. 7-Day deals require 15% discount at the least to be attractive while Lighting Deals require a minimum of 20% but perform much better when you boost it to 30% or more.

Software was a big issue, we initially loved working with Seller Central and its Flat File’s. We came to enjoy using excel and challenged each other to see who could work the fastest using shortkeys. But after gained recognition and acquiring more and more clients, administrating so many different accounts and so many different products, became more of a chore tracking down skus. We searched the internet and found that there are thousands of WebApps with each their own software solution from cataloguing to Ads. We tried many and built a hybrid of software solutions to try and control all our accounts. Most of the software company were busy in the US and Canada market as it is and have any interest in reaching Mexico. We found a couple that did but again, it was like having a trial version.  Some of the API`s weren’t available and so most of the software solutions (products tracking, financing, competition analysis and accounting) were not available. We are currently funding our own software solution for the Mexican marketplace but it’s still in the beta version. In the end, we found SellerLabs.

SellerLabs offers Seller Feedback, Financial reporting, Ads Optimization and Product Tracking. It’s the most complete software in the Mexican Amazon Market but sadly it still only offers 75% of its functions in Mexico. Crossing our fingers those numbers change soon.

Even though Amazon is tech leader and giant in many industries, the marketplace in Mexico feels very rudimentary.  You can purchase and sell products on Amazon. You pay with your credit card or can go to a local convenience store (OXXO) and pay in cash. See your product arrived within the stated time on above the buy box. That’s it, simple! Selling on amazon lacks any outside thinking when providing customers with customization of products, brand management & support and outside marketing integration. Of course, I am aware that the 80/20 of purchases on Amazon are of time management and product look up reasons, but this does not mean I wouldn’t love to see the same features as they have in Amazon US and Amazon Canada.

How do you successfully sell on Amazon Mexico?

I’ve seen that Amazon in the US is very sensitive to trending products. Which if used correctly any company or drop shipper can quickly sell its entire stock and come out with a healthy profit. In Mexico, I’ve always stated that selling on Amazon is a marathon and not a sprint. We are limited to promoting with Deals and Campaign ads (product or brand). There are no 3rd party sites where you can post you products for quick reviews and you are limited to selling traditionally on Amazon using your social media to drive traffic.

While my company does a lot of lobbying with Amazon and have built an optimization method, I can state that the best way to sell on Amazon is with 20% discount or more. A seller has the task of promoting that discount and make it visible for any potential customer. You can use Social Media Marketing, eCommerce funneling, Backlinks, Deals, Ads, Newsletter or commemorative days to partipate. We have made our customers very wealthy just focusing on this very simple method. Obviously taking in consideration that our customers have previously complied with our quality check list (see end of this article).

 Who are we?

Cajanauta.com is a Marketplace Agency based in Mexico City. We provide full Amazon solution for all North America.

1. We are certified
2. Provide Spanish & English Customer Service
3. Average upload of 2,000 Sku per month
4. Corporate Training
5. We have our own fulfillment and provide FBA Prep
6. Average a 41% increase in Sales
7. International experience

For additional information please visit https://cajanauta.com/en/marketplace-service/ or email us at amazon@cajanauta.com

Quality Check List:

1. A7 Retail Readiness
2. Amazon FBA
3. Brand Registration
4. Cajanauta.com Full eCommerce Service

The information of this article is of January 2020. Updates on amazon in the coming dates may contradict what was written.