Amazon Prime 101
I thought some of you might benefit from this information.
Why are some products listed as Amazon Prime and others are not? For a product to become eligible for Amazon prime, when a merchant is selling the product, the merchant must ship the products to amazon. Amazon then takes the orders and ships your products out.
Why don't all merchants do this? First, some merchants drop ship. This means, for example, I put my product on Amazon and when you order it, I go to my suppliers website, select the product, pay for it and enter your shipping information and I select the shipping speed based upon what shipping speed you paid for. Your product is shipped, by them, with my corporation's name and address as the return address. The buyer doesn't know that I did this. This reduces my costs, which can be passed on to you and it allows small companies to sell many products.
Another reason merchants may choose to not use Amazon Prime, is the two day shipping requirement. All merchants are required to ship your product within two days, no matter what shipping method you choose. Some products, being shipped from overseas are exempt. If you do not ship within two days, you are penalized by having a mark on your selling status.
Here is why I don't use Amazon prime, even though I purchase my products via amazon prime. Amazon may fail to ship your product, within two days. This counts against MY selling record! If you get too poor of a selling record, you can be banned from selling on amazon. Unfair, huh? Absolutely!
What to watch out for: It might be an IPad issue, but if so, Amazon has failed to fix it even though I brought it to their attention over a year ago. On the item's page, to the right, you can choose two day free shipping (Amazon prime products) or one day shipping for around $3.95. The default setting is one day shipping. So, I select two day shipping, yet it remains stuck on one day shipping. I can not change it! I can only assume the reason. What you can do: Go ahead and add it to your cart and in checkout, select the free two day shipping. If you chose One Click Ordering and it hasn't been set up by you, you will pay that $3.95. Be sure to set up your one click ordering. I would like to know if any of you have problems selecting two day shipping, from the product page.
Lastly, before ordering with Amazon prime, check "other sellers" as sometimes you can get a lower price, including two day shipping. I'm at a crossroad, as I am a faithful Amazon Prime customer. Rarely will I order a product, from a merchant, if it isn't eligible for Amazon prime. So, I know that I could make more sales if I used Amazon Prime. But, I will not let Amazon ruin my excellent selling record when it is THEIR fault! If they would change that, I would at least sell some products as Amazon Prime.
Small merchants, who drop ship are being seriously hurt by Amazon Prime. The more merchants, the lower the product price, due to competition. The profit margin, on Amazon, is small. But, one doesn't need to advertise as you would with your own website.
There is something that Amazon does, not related to amazon prime, that really bothers me. Let's say five merchants are selling the same product. Amazon randomly chooses one merchant's company name to be featured under the product. Some customers never look under "other sellers," so it is a good thing to be featured. However, sometimes directly under my product is the prices at OTHER websites!! Why would Amazon do this to their merchants? Because they make money either way. If that person chooses to purchase from a site other than Amazon, amazon gets a referral fee. I get nothing. That is a very poor way to treat their own merchants.
Now, amazon does inventory and sell their own products, competing with their merchants. I understand that, after all it is their website. BUT, Amazon would not be the giant that it is and would not have the low prices, that they do, without their merchants. So, they should not promote my products on another website!
Now, time for recess kids! Go play.
