Amazon Predictions 2020 – Trends and Tips for Sellers

September 24, 2020
6 mins

It’s hard to believe but a new decade has arrived. What does 2020 have in store for Amazon and ecommerce? For today’s post, we asked a wide range of top sellers and industry experts to gaze into their crystal balls and come up with three Amazon predictions for 2020.

Kev Blackburn from LifeSuccessEngineer offers some invaluable advice for new sellers starting out on their ecommerce journey.

Get started as soon as possible. Amazon FBA is one of the greatest opportunities ever to build something that can create a life where you don’t have to work the traditional 9-5. You can build a business to whatever level you desire.
Learn the fundamentals and the basics so you don’t lose money. It is not as simple as you just finding a product from China and creating a listing. Amazon has changed so much in the last five years and it’s important you learn from up-to-date information and knowledge. I recommend getting started in Retail or Online Arbitrage. This is where you can learn the basics of selling on Amazon.
Once you have started and begin to sell on Amazon, you need to start thinking about systemising and automating the business. Due to the nature of Amazon changing all the time, you have to become a business owner and see your Amazon business as an online asset that works for you. To do this, you have to start to extract yourself from your operations—from sourcing to reviewing to purchasing to shipping.

Luke Filer, Amazon FBA UK seller offers his advice for sellers on the Amazon marketplace in 2020.

During my time selling on Amazon, I’ve realised it’s hard to predict changes. That being said, I envision it will be business as usual in the world on Online Arbitrage on Amazon.
Online Arbitrage is not really affected by product trends, marketing and other factors that can change a lot, due to purchasing decisions being based on historical data and no marketing being involved (in general).
If there is one tip I can give, it’s that Amazon USA tends to make changes that are soon followed by Amazon UK. If you’re an Amazon UK seller, pay attention to what’s going on in the USA.

Devan Jordan, FBA Amazon seller gives his three predictions for Amazon in 2020.

I think FBA is going to take off even more so than it has already. With more and more people seeing the success of what can be possible with this business model I think a lot more people are going to be starting, which means more competition for us sellers and also no doubt an increase in fees as Amazon’s demand goes up.
And my number one seller tip for this year is getting unrestricted in any category you can and diversify your business. Grow in all kinds of categories and get capital together ready for September — then it’s toys season which means bigger spends, but also bigger profits!
I also think, with more sellers coming there is going to be more restrictions put on sellers to gradually get rid of the ‘small sellers’ who just do it to earn a couple of pounds here and there. It’s inevitable that Amazon soon won’t even need to run its own website and the sellers who can access products cheap enough to ensure Amazon doesn’t become expensive will become the forefront of its website. Proven already by them supporting bigger sellers using Amazon Loans.

Ryan Grant is a top Amazon US seller. Below he offers his top three ecommerce predictions in 2020.

I think that in order to compete, existing brick and mortar stores will need to find better ways to combine their in-store inventory with the online purchasing convenience.
Selling on channels like Walmart will become more important and more viable for third-party sellers in the coming years.
Retail and online arbitrage aren’t going anywhere.

Karon Thackston is a copywriting expert from Marketing Words. Here are her top tips to help you optimise your Amazon listings in 2020.

It is my prediction that optimised listings will become even more important in 2020 as Amazon continues to tweak its search algorithm.

Typical keyword research for standard phrases associated with a product will no longer suffice. Sellers will need to be creative and dig deeper to find terms that could drive additional traffic to their listings.

Andrew Maff, Director of Marketing and Operations of Seller’s Choice, offers his expert insight into the year ahead on Amazon.

I think 2020 is going to be crazy! I saw a lot of Amazon sellers be very successful but I saw a lot not survive through the year as well.

Amazon is clearly leaning towards catering to sellers with brands so I think they’re going to start opening up more opportunities for sellers to utilise new tools.

I think we’re going to see:

New tools or features for sellers to drive traffic TO Amazon AND track the success of that traffic.
Remarketing ads for off-Amazon.
New features in the storefront for brand building.

I still don’t think they’ll ever open up anything to get more customer information, out of the fear that sellers direct them somewhere else, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they find a nice middle ground in 2020 as well.

Steven Pope, Founder of MyAmazonGuy, offers his three top predictions for Amazon in 2020.

Amazon is always ever-evolving. Each year, new policies are created within the Amazon eco-space, new features roll out, and sellers are made aware of new guidelines that they need to follow. We imagine that 2020 will be no different.

While unlikely there is a chance that Vendor Central and Seller Central will finally combine!
We predict that Amazon will begin to embrace third-party agencies – in the same way, that other large tech giants do such as Google.
As has been the trend for several years now – we predict that more states will force Amazon to collect taxes on third-party sellers.

All of our predictions could have a significant impact on sellers across Amazon’s platform, large and small. Staying abreast of any changes makes good business sense.

Jennifer Clark is the Content Marketing Manager at TaxJar who looks at tax predictions for sellers this year.

Amazon sellers will be impacted by the new marketplace facilitator laws as they begin to take effect. These will ultimately make sales tax easier for Amazon sellers.

Further, sales tax is going to continue to be complicated and a lot will continue to change. Our sales and transactions checker is one way to help determine where you may have nexus, and ultimately be responsible for collecting sales tax.

Final Thoughts

Ecommerce and Amazon specifically is a fast-moving industry. To stay ahead, you need to be proactive and keep moving with the times. Ecommerce sales are expected to grow again in 2020, and Amazon continues to go from strength to strength.

If you’re an Amazon seller, these are the three key things you should focus on in 2020.

Ensure you offer an excellent customer experience.
Optimise your Amazon listings.
Keep your prices competitive in order to win more Buy Box and sales.

For number 3, we can help you do this 24/7 with the fastest Amazon repricing software on the market. Get started with a FREE 15-day trial today. No credit card needed.

Author

Seamus Breslin

Designer, marketer and all things ecommerce related.