Hello,

Just in case somebody is wondering about selling on the newly promoted AMAZON HANDMADE, i'm going to talk about my expierence there:

Well, for a start, i've been selling that platform about 1 year. And i've sold thousand $$ there, lots of order, all kinds. Absolutely all i sell is handmade (bracelets, rings, earrings,...). Everything is sterling silver and some minor things on copper/brass.

Requests to open an account:

- send some bills proving you are professional
- some photos showing your work
- handmade

And you are done.

Conditions:

- amazon fee, around a 15%
- there is a "handmade" category

PROS

- You have more visibility. Amazon is promoting now "handmade" stores and sounds good being able to sell to countries where you could find some difficulties on youw own (for example Japan, ...).
- The platform is easy to use, intuitive, Amazon's support helps you in the process of opening your store.
- "Handmade" stores don't pay the 50 USD per month fee for pro-selling there.

CONS

- No ads means you are invisible. Prepare to pay 10-15% in ads.
- Increased prices due to 15% fees per sale and 10% for ads.
- Estimated shipping and processing times: you need to keep up to 1-day processing and 2-3 days delivery, otherwise you wont sell.
- Returns: amazon is the refereer for returns and people is used to "have it fast, try and return if they don't like"

And this last point is the main problem.


Customers can do de following, which i suffered myself a couple times:

- buy in item
- claim the item is defective => your money is frozen here
- leave a negative review=> this basically shuts down your store at the very moment, cos handmade shops have perhaps 1-5 reviews ... AT MOST
- return the item
- the seller will have to pay for the return
- the negative will stay in your shop all this time while this process takes place (weeks, 1-month).

Customers can even damage the material you send and return it. For example, scratch a sterling silver bracelet and return it. And they ACTUALLY return it.

Mind that amazon customer's are use to buy even without reading the descriptions, because they know they can return everything at will, for free just claiming the item is damaged.

Amazon will always favour the customer in the decicions. And the percentage of customers willing to return items for no-reason is VERY HIGH. If you re-sell jewelry, perhaps this doesn't mind. But if you sell truly handmade jewelry, you cannot have this returns ratio. Is not only the lost shipping, but also the time making it and all the phone calls trying to defend yourself while the A-Z claim lasts.

In summary, the

- tendence to return items
- high fees
- high ad's cost (higher than in etsy, btw)
- need to dispatch all within 24-48 hours max

Makes selling in amazon totally POINTLESS ...



This is my expierence. Hope this helps others not to make the same mistakes.

Regards.