All of Pakistan rejoiced 2 weeks ago as we heard that Pakistan was going to be added to the official sellers’ list of Pakistan. Today, however, that announcement has become a reality as Amazon has verified itself that Pakistan has been added to the world’s biggest e-commerce markets sellers list.
The news was confirmed by the adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce, Textile, and Investment Abdul Razzaq Dawood, who took to Twitter to make the announcement.
He said, “Further to my previous tweet, today amazon has confirmed that Pakistan has been added to its Sellers’ List. It is a big accomplishment for our E-Commerce & will open up vast opportunities for a new breed of young men & women entrepreneurs. We congratulate everyone involved.
https://twitter.com/razak_dawood/status/1395600168850952195?s=20
The Tweet included a picture of some words from the Vice President of Amazon International Seller Services Eric Broussard, who said, “We are excited to announce that as of today, Pakistani entrepreneurs are eligible to sell on Amazon. We are eager to work with Pakistan’s dynamic business community, including small and medium sized-sellers, and help connect them with customers around the globe.”
The adviser tweeted on May 6th that it is, “An important milestone of e-Commerce policy achieved has been through teamwork by many people across the globe.”
It is also worth mentioning that the government has proposed the national postal service, The Pakistan Post as the official delivery partner for the global e-commerce giant in Pakistan.
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Some Facts about Amazon for Pakistani Sellers
According to Statista, in September 2019 150.6 million mobile users accessed Amazon. It is the most popular shopping app in the United States.
According to a feedvisor survey in 2019, 89 percent of the people trust amazon more than the other sites for shopping, showing consumer trust in Amazon products. This is because Amazon runs a tight quality control mechanism. It will be interesting to find out if Pakistani sellers, who have been more than often accused of low quality on platforms like Daraz, will be able to sustain those high-quality checks.
In the fourth quarter of 2020, Amazon brought in $125.6 billion in sales revenue, an increase of 44 percent year-on-year.
According to bigcommerce, Amazon has built an unbelievable catalog of more than 12 million products, books, media, wine, and services. If you expand this to Amazon Marketplace sellers, as well, the number is closer to more than 350 million products.
By 2020, Amazon prime has 150 million Prime Subscribers. According to Statista Analysis in 2019, Amazon Prime shoppers are more engaged than non-members. In a February 2019 survey, 20 percent of Amazon Prime members said they shopped on Amazon a few times per week, with seven percent saying that they did so on an (almost) daily basis.
Amazon frequently added more features to the Amazon Prime subscription. Just recently, the company extended Prime benefits to include free delivery when purchasing from Amazon Fresh, which would otherwise cost $14.99 per month. For regular online shoppers, the benefits of Amazon Prime are undeniable.
There are so many things that Pakistani sellers need to read and understand about Amazon Marketplace before stepping into the battle of the brands.
As the doors to the world have opened once again for Pakistan via Amazon, we can only hope that it causes social mobility in our populace.
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Here is how you can do it too!
These steps are taken from Amazon’s website and made easier for Pakistanis to understand where needed.
Choose a selling plan
Amazon has different selling plans, for individuals and for professionals. It would be the same for sellers in Pakistan.
With the Individual plan, you’ll pay $0.99 every time you sell an item (as a commission).
The Professional plan costs $39.99 per month, no matter how many items you sell, but the fee is constant even if you don’t sell, which is not the case with the first plan.
For both plans, Amazon also collects a referral fee on each sale, which is a percentage of the total transaction and varies by product category.
You can visit amazon’s pricing page for comparison.
Consider your selling strategy
The selling strategy will depend upon what kind of business you have. Are you a reseller, a brand, or some other sort of business?
Resellers find popular products that already exist and offer them in Amazon’s stores.
Brand owners manufacture their own products—or source goods to sell under a private label—to offer shoppers a unique selection.
Lots of sellers do both. So, as a Pakistani businessman, you need to find what kind of business you want to do on Amazon.
After you have done this, let’s start with the actual steps to selling on Amazon. Be sure to have followed through on both steps above as they will help you increase your business more.
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Create an Amazon seller account
- Business email address or Amazon customer account
- Chargeable credit card
- Government ID (identity verification protects sellers and customers)
- Tax information
- Phone number
- A bank account where Amazon can send you proceeds from your sales
See the Product Category
The new Amazon sellers from Pakistan would have a certain category of products that they are allowed to sell. That would determine if you can sell that product as a second-hand (used) product or not if you can sell it. This can be seen in the product category on the Amazon sellers’ guide.
Product Listing details
As a seller, this is the most important thing, as this would help customers gain trust and allow your product to stand out if it is something new. This would depend upon the category of your product, and for the detailed guide follow this blog.
However, according to the Amazon website, this is what you need to add:
- A product identifier, such as GTIN, UPC, ISBN, or EAN to specify the exact item you’re selling. For some products, Pakistani sellers can request an exemption.
- An SKU, which is a unique product ID you create to track your own inventory
- Offer details, including price, product condition, available quantity, and shipping options
- Product details like name, brand, category, description, and images
- Keywords and search terms to help buyers find your product
and Lastly,
The Product Detail Page
If you have been customer at an Amazon store you know what I am talking about but just in case, this is the product detail page for a book one might buy:
So in essence, Product detail pages are where customers find all of the relevant information about a particular item. It also helps them distinguish between your product and a similar product by another seller.
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This is a stepping stone for Amazon sellers to get started in Pakistan, but you can always read more blogs to help you in the journey.