COVID-19: Finding Amazon Alternatives

How to pick the right Amazon alternative

Choosing a new sales platform, you should, first of all, ask yourself five crucial questions:

• Where do your potential customers buy?
• Which marketplace sells the products in your category best?
• Are there any competitors on the platform?
• How can you stand out compared to your competitors?
• Which fees should you give to the marketplace?

Now it’s time for fast solutions and active measures. Firstly, because the situation changes daily. Secondly, markets will inevitably explode after the pandemic, as it is shown in research by Bain & Company. According to their data, online retail active growth is predicted within three months after the outbreak.

But until the crisis is over, let’s look at the four most popular Amazon alternatives to stabilize sales: Walmart, eBay, Etsy, Rakuten.

Walmart

Walmart is one of the top 10 marketplaces in the USA and worldwide. Its stores sell 75 million different products, according to the company’s annual report, and has 100,000 suppliers working with the platform. In 2019, the brand occupied 6% of the online market in the U.S., while sales doubled before the pandemic, according to a study by Expanded Ramblings. Walmart.com receives an average of 45 million visits per month.

Business Insider analysis shows that the average Walmart customer is 46 years old, white, with an average annual income just over $76,000. By the way, the average age of the visitor to Amazon is also 46 years, while his annual income is from 84,000 dollars. Women make up to 60% of Walmart customers.

Walmart allows you to sell products in more than 35 categories. Throughout the decade, from 2010 to 2019, the most popular products in retail remained the computer, home electronics, gadgets.  Moreover, shoes, clothing, food, cosmetics and jewellery are actively purchased on the Walmart platform. Amazon’s competitor provides a comprehensive guide to categories.

Walmart provides only a marketplace for goods. The platform, unlike Amazon, does not charge for product listing. Seller pays only after the sale — the fee is expressed as a percentage of the product value and depends on the goods category. Businesses monitor the delivery themselves or use a Deliverer-like service for a monthly fee.

eBay

Over two decades, eBay has been the most significant auction on the Internet. More than 159 million active users sell on the platform. The seller can be anyone from a large business to a housewife who decides to make some extra money on discarded “junk”. According to Web Retailer statistics, the most represented here are vendors from the regions: U.K., China, USA, Germany, Australia.

32% of eBay users are 35-49 years old. The second most common category (29%) is 50-64-year-olds. More than half (58%) have an average annual income of about $40,000. Men use online auctions slightly more often — 51% against 49% of women.

According to Frooition study, the top five best-selling categories on eBay:

1. Cell Phones & Accessories
2. Clothing, Shoes & Accessories
3. Home & Garden
4. Automotive
5. Sporting goods

You can use the Explore tool to find out what’s currently on eBay in the trend. By the way, as Cedcommerce showed, during the pandemic, the list of top products has changed. The top 5 eBay includes, for example:

• Puzzles
• Strength Training
• Webcams
• Painting Equipment & Supplies
• Cardio Equipment

Providing sales with the platform businesses pay the following fees:

• Listing Insertion Fee — for a listing item (base account receives 50 free listings every month).
• Final Value Fee — a sales fee. Calculated based on the purchase, delivery and storage prices, ranging from 2 to 10%.
• Optional Listing Upgrade Fees — for improved item presentation: you can add more pictures, use HTML design.
• Optional Promoted Listings Fee — for promotion in eBay search results.
• Classified Listing Fees — For this fee, the auction sends buyers’ contacts to sellers so that parties can contact them directly. Classified ads are available in 4 categories: Business & Industrial, Specialty services (artist services, home design, computer services), Travel, Everything else (funerals, info products).
• Punitive Fees — fines if the buyer does not comply with the rules of the site.
• eBay Managed Payments — A fee for using an advanced payment system.
• PayPal — 2.9% processing fee in addition to a set rate of $.30 for each eBay sales transaction.

Etsy

Etsy is known as a market for unique and creative products. It sells unusual things, such as handmade items and vintage relics. In 2019 more than 44 million visitors bought goods here, according to Expanded Ramblings. There are also 2.5 million sellers in the market.

The main buyers on Etsy are women, who account for 86% of the total, while 81% are regular customers. 15% of women are under 25 years of age, and most purchasers are between the ages of 25 and 40.

As for the sellers of Etsy in this market, the vast majority manage the business from their houses. It is mainly a platform where women sell niche products to women — and both sides gravitate towards handmade, vintage, unusual design, cosy things.

The most popular products are:

• Stickers
• Notebook & Journal
• Candles
•  Jewellery
• Home Decor
• Digital Designs/ Graphics Designs
• Posters
• Organic Cosmetics

For sellers there are such kinds of fees:

•  Listing
• Transaction fees
• Payment processing (in case you use a marketing payment solution)
• Fees for optional Etsy Ads and other services

The listing fee is 0,2 USD for every individual position. It is charged to marketplace, regardless of whether the goods have been sold or not. There are some variations of this commission:

1. auto-renew sold — for automatic item relisting when the product goes out of shelf;
2. multi-quantity — for placing the same product in different options;
3. private listing fees — for offering goods for a particular buyer.

Transaction 5% fees are charged if the buyer purchased an item. Etsy also charges 5% commission from the delivery price, if the customer pays the shipping.

Payment processing fees — is a contribution to Etsy Payments. The final percentage depends on the seller’s country of residence.