Top 3 Amazon Challenges in 2024
March 20, 2024
The landscape of Amazon continues to evolve, presenting both exciting opportunities and significant challenges for sellers. In 2024, three key areas stand out as potential roadblocks to success: compromised cash flow, fierce competition, and stringent inventory expectations. However, with the right strategies and support, these hurdles can be transformed into stepping stones for growth.
Challenge #1: Maintaining Healthy Cash Flow: Cash flow is the lifeblood of any business. Ever-changing fees, complicated fulfillment processes, and unpredictable fluctuations in sales can quickly lead to choke points in your supply chain and potential reputational damages with logistics partners or consumers.
To avoid these pain points, embrace data-driven decision-making. The Amazon Seller portal offers insights into sales trends, profit margins, and advertising performance, which can give sellers detailed information for cashflow forecasting. Understanding when there will be surge can also help sellers when they negotiate with suppliers, purchase in bulk, and when to adjust warehouse needs – all of which cuts costs and keeps the rainy-day fund untouched.
Challenge #2: Standing Out in a Crowded Marketplace: Standing out on Amazon is essential for ecommerce entrepreneurs to gain and retain consumer attention. This challenge is especially difficult in a globalized economy, where new sellers are constantly entering the fray often offering similar products at lower prices.
Brands must have a unique voice that resonates with their target audience. A simple first step can be using high-quality product photography and compelling descriptions. However, unless listings are optimized with relevant search keywords, the products may never be found by the ideal customer. Search engine optimizing (SEO) product listing and utilizing advertising tools like Amazon PPC (Pay-Per-Click) are important maintenance methods that can help to increase organic traffic.
Challenge #3: Navigating Strict Inventory Expectations: Amazon’s stringent inventory management policies aim to ensure product availability and customer satisfaction. However, these requirements can be complex and costly to navigate, especially for smaller brands.
Amazon sellers can use forecasting tools and historical sales data to predict demand and avoid excessive inventory costs. If sellers are using Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) but are siphoning money by holding low-velocity products in fulfillment centers, consider Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM) for these scenarios. While this requires managing your own fulfillment, it can offer greater control over storage costs and flexibility in meeting customer expectations.
Forecasting inventory demands can also help sellers negotiate with supply chain partners to manage expectations, build strong partnerships, and ensure customer fulfillment is seamless, even during surge times like the holidays.
How ZQUARED Can Help
While these challenges may appear daunting, they don’t have to be tackled alone. A partnership with ZQUARED offers top-tier support to help you reach the exposure and traction required to thrive on the world’s biggest marketplaces. ZQUARED goes beyond consulting, offering a comprehensive suite of services to clients, including marketing, advertising, and logistics solutions, all of which can empower Amazon sellers with the tools and support they need to thrive in today’s competitive market.