Remember when mashups hit the music scene hard and you’d get combinations like Jay-Z and Linkin Park? Well, the same sort of thing has happened with Amazon Launchpad where it’s special deals-meets-startups and RepricerExpress is all over it like white on rice.
Amazon Launchpad: The Latest Venture from Amazon
Consumers shop on Amazon for a plethora of reasons (cheaper prices, home delivery, hard-to-find products). But every now and then, Amazon does something really cool that helps out people on both sides of the virtual counter.
With Launchpad, Amazon is targeting start-ups eager to break into the online industry and helping them showcase their products to the millions of shoppers already on the marketplace. It’s both a feel-good gesture and a savvy marketing move on Amazon’s part — the start-ups are afforded a bit more time to focus on bettering their brand and product, and shoppers get earlier access to cool and cutting-edge products.
How Well Does it Work in Real Life for Both Parties?
Much of what happens in life, never minding Amazon, is subjective and really comes down to personal taste. So whether Amazon Launchpad will be a good fit for you tends to correlate with the following:
- You’re a creative person: A lot of the products we’re seeing being rolled out by the start-ups on Launchpad have to do with future-y ideas, like mobile projectors, robots, toilet night lights (yes, really), GPS pet trackers and more. These are definitely not the types of things that usually trend on Amazon, which gives us an indication that the start-ups featured here are thinking well outside the box.
- You tend to look closely at ads: Launchpad features more ad placement options for merchants than usual, so if you’re the type of seller or buyer who values this, Launchpad could be for you. Plus, Launchpad is part of the Vine program, which translates into free samples for in-depth product reviews.
- You participate in the Vendor program: For at least right now, Amazon Launchpad is only open to Vendor program participants and not Seller Central ones. We’ve written all about what’s involved with Vendor Central and Vendor Express before, if you need a brush up on the topic.
- You want to broaden your reach in the global network: Amazon has millions and millions of users worldwide, with Launchpad an excellent choice for branching outside of the U.S. market.
And at the other end of the spectrum, you may want to rethink your personality if you check off the following:
- You believe you can make your product work anywhere: With Amazon Launchpad being available (for now?) only to Vendor Central and Express participants, the decision of viability is completely in Amazon’s corner. And if Amazon decides your product won’t sell enough, then you’re out of both a potentially larger audience and the samples you sent them. Bummer.
- You want to maximise profit: If your product has a razor thin profit margin, you may want to think twice about showcasing it on Amazon Launchpad. That’s because you’ll have to take on extra fees, like their fulfilment costs, selling costs, bearing the brunt of the wholesale discount and more.
- You want to be able to reprice exactly how, and when, you want: Unfortunately, you’d become the small fish in this market because Amazon’s primary focus will be on selling to buyers, not on padding your coffers. You just won’t be able to guarantee total control over product pricing.
- You like to get paid quickly: This definitely won’t be happening, as Vendor Express metes out payment up to two months after the order has been confirmed. If you’re a business/start-up that’s in the early stages and/or hard up for money, this could be very lean times for you for the first 60+ days.
