Is The Future Of Amazon Selling Less of More?

One thing we learned at Amazon was not to dip you toe

We'd advise it to every new seller we onboarded

Usually, after they said "I'll trial it with some of my range"

And there was data behind our comments, we weren't just being salesy...

...although we were salesy.

The data showed that if you had 1 product that was doing exceptionally well on Amazon

And you added 99 new products

Even if those 99 products sold 0 units in the first month

You'd see an increase in sales from your 1 product that was doing well.

This same principle applies today

The more products you have on the platform, the better.

Here are a few reasons why:

• An increase in shoppers visiting Amazon to discover new brands. Consumers are actively looking to find something new, more so than before. This means if they land on 1 of your products, they're more likely to browse further to see what else you do.
• An increase in brand features. In 2017 we were just seeing Amazon starting to ramp up brand-building functionality, such as stores and A+ (Enhanced Branded) Content. Working on the premise that consumers are wanting to discover 'brands', it's logical that Amazon allows brands to showcase their brand-ness. Which is why they continue to introduce features; A+ Premium, Sponsored Videos, Posts, etc. My bet is STORIES will be coming very soon.
• Bundles. A new development is Amazon's bundle feature (superseding 'Frequently Bought Together'). A larger range means more bundle opportunities, which leads to increased basket size and further scope to improve your customer lifetime value (LTV). If you've got 1 product, you can't bundle.
• Traffic. Kind of an obvious one but if you've got 1000 products then you have more opportunities to gain traffic to your brand and range than if you have 10 products.
• Amazon customers behave strangely. Ask any internal and they'll tell you countless stories of "we thought this would fly, but it died and another less popular SKU took off". Your website or store sales data doesn't reflect what you'll necessarily see on Amazon. Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.
• Build a larger audience and customer base. At a point in time, 1 customer has a certain pain point they need addressing, so they go to Amazon, find your solution (product), and purchase it. Great. They may never experience that problem again and that would be the end of their customer experience with you. But if you also have solutions to other potential pain points of theirs, then you can remarket them so they know where the solution is when the problem occurs. You'll be front of mind and your LTV increases.
• Economies of scale. Whatever you are investing in for your business, you can get greater value from that investment if it's spread over multiple products. Whether it's consulting on PPC strategies, photography, or shipping. Spread the costs over a range and you stand to improve your margins.

It's getting easier.

The increase in tools, software, and consulting for sellers across the globe has leveled the playing field and is making it easier for them to increase and manage selection.

We're seeing growth in the number of sellers who represent the top earners on Amazon. The number of sellers contributing 10% of volume on Amazon in the U.S. grew by 15% in 2018, 24% in 2019, and 45% in 2020 (Marketplace Pulse).

So my advice for those with 1 SKU, or just a handful, would be to continuously evaluate opportunities to increase your range. As you launch new products ensure that you're learning from your past mistakes, implementing the latest strategies, and taking the attitude of "It's Always Day One".