Amazon.co.za will go live in 2024 and businesses around South Africa are feeling pumped. Why? Because this will empower SA retailers to reach the entire country, bringing huge opportunities to this sector. Believe it or not, Amazon started out in the garage of a rented house 27 years ago. When it first began, the business only sold books. Now, it sells almost everything with a market value of over $958.45B. The platform is incredibly desirable for sellers as it can be extremely profitable, and soon, local retailers will be able to take advantage of this exciting business opportunity.
How it works at a glance
Understanding how Amazon works is crucial for South African businesses gearing up for this new venture. There are two types of Amazon.co.za selling plans: personal and business. You can choose to sell one item or a thousand items on Amazon. You need to select the plan that works best for your business before you start the registration process. Go through the various selling plans and figure out what is best for our business. When you register, you will need to have your bank account number, a credit or debit card that can be charged, an ID, tax information, and a phone number on hand. Fees for selling different kinds of goods may be charged to you based on your Selling Plan and the goods you sell.
Selling plans:
These change based on the plan you choose, each with its own fee structure. Amazon.co.za is offering a Professional account with a monthly selling fee of R*1 on the Professional Selling Plan for a short time only. For everything sold on the Individual Selling Plan, there is a fee of R10*. *Make sure you check the local listings for updates on the fee structure.
Pay for referrals:
These fees are a percentage of the selling price and are charged for each item sold. The percentages change based on the type of product. If you want Amazon to ship your items, you'll have to pay additional fees for order processing, storage, and any extra services.
Fees for processing by Amazon (FBA):
If you want Amazon to ship your items, you'll also have to pay additional fees for order processing, storage, and extra services.
Fees for Amazon Easy Ship:
Here, you store and pack your items, and then Amazon will send them to your customers. This service is called Amazon Easy Ship (ES), and there are fees for order fulfilment and other services that you can choose to use.
The bottom line
As soon as you start selling on Amazon, you can start making your business bigger. They have tools to help you take your business to the next level (or the next couple of levels) once you've got it up and running. This is a great option for businesses that want to expand quickly by selling online but don’t want to set up an e-commerce business themselves. The Amazon.co.za platform is really going to change how e-commerce functions in South Africa. It will force other online retailers to up their game and will give smaller retailers a chance to sell their wares online to South Africans everywhere. Check out the local listings for all the details, register and then get ready to start growing.
