Why Small Businesses Shouldn’t Rely Solely on Amazon (& How to Do It)

For small businesses, creating a strong product is only a portion of the journey. You can have the best product but, if no one knows who you are or where to buy your product, your company can easily flop. Many small-business owners in the early years of their company tend to turn to Amazon to help them build a stronger customer base, as well as use the platform to provide a quality customer experience that they might not otherwise be able to achieve with their own resources.

While some small businesses may perceive Amazon as a threat, many understand the value they can achieve by incorporating Amazon into their strategy. Whether a brand starts by solely selling through Amazon or does it in tandem with building up its own branded website or through brick-and-mortar stores, utilizing Amazon’s consumer base and model can have many benefits.

Amazon can handle the background logistics of the company by managing the heavy lifting and time-consuming tasks such as packaging, shipping, inventory and more. This gives small-business owners the opportunity to focus on other aspects, such as marketing, branding and public relations.

However, becoming too reliant on Amazon can be harmful to the long-term success of a company. In order to become and remain successful on the platform, brands often have to pay for additional services and add-ons, which can become costly. Unfortunately, if you choose to forego those additional services, you face the risk of your brand losing visibility and, therefore, becoming overshadowed by other products — oftentimes competitors.

Despite having the reach of millions of consumers internationally, competition can still be incredibly tough on this e-commerce conglomerate. Small-business owners who are successful on Amazon also face the potential risk of other competitors creating copycat products at a lower price that their business cannot personally match — harming their ability to compete for sales.

TruKid, the all-natural skincare line for kids, saw its first obstacle with Amazon during the peak of the pandemic when the company was struggling to have the e-commerce site restock its products on its page, causing the business to potentially lose out on sales. After struggling to fix the problem, the company also realized it had become too reliant on Amazon to generate revenue and created a plan to help gain some independence from the e-commerce site.

One strategy that TruKid utilized was to build up its own branded website to help it become the go-to source for purchasing its products. By investing more time in its website, TruKid was able to perfect the back end to help ensure customers go through a quality online shopping experience. This included making sure all links led to the correct destinations, website content was engaging, photos were up-to-date and the whole process funneled consumers through to the end, helping generate more transactions.

Additionally, TruKid invested in micro-influencers located in niche markets to target the ideal consumer base. By partnering with micro-influencers that focused on family, parenting and new mom content, TruKid was able to hit a specific audience and drive up brand awareness and recognition. To ensure content was engaging on brand and drove traffic back to the website, TruKid’s team worked very closely with each influencer and collaborated on posts and approved content before it was shared.

Throughout the pandemic, the brand has also leaned into the use of email drip marketing to further lead potential customers back to the website. These emails include a variety of coupons, announcements about upcoming sales and new products, newsletters and more. By including a variety of engaging content in this strategy, the team has been able to lead more consumers to its own branded website, as opposed to Amazon’s.

While utilizing Amazon is a great tool to boost sales for small businesses, it’s also important to earn some independence and invest in your own company’s site. By utilizing both avenues of sales in tandem with each other, you will see a greater ROI and will help to ensure the overall success of your company in the long run.

Jennifer Adams Bunkers is a mother of six and serial entrepreneur. She launched TruKid in 2017 after trying to find quality all-natural skincare products for her own kids and coming up empty-handed. TruKid, the national all-natural skincare line for kids, offers a variety of products designed specifically for young, sensitive skin. TruKid features bath and body care, sun care and hair care, and also features a line of unscented products for eczema care. All products are 100% steroid-free and plant-based without any artificial colors, preservatives or fragrances. With planet-friendly packaging, TruKid makes skincare fun for your little ones.