Merchants selling on Amazon’s marketplace had a tremendous year in 2013. Amazon recently announced that sellers sold more than one billion units worldwide for tens of billions of dollars, which is a record-setting year for the online marketplace.

The success is due in part to both the ingenuity of sellers and the new services offered by Amazon marketplace to help merchants succeed. For example, the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service saw a massive uptick in seller use this year, growing by more than 65 percent overall during the course of 2013. FBA allows retailers to leverage Amazon as a third-party logistics company and ship products directly to consumers for them. It also allows third-party merchants to capitalize on Amazon Prime benefits such as free shipping.

“It has been an incredible year for Amazon marketplace Sellers including popular brands and businesses of all sizes selling on Amazon. Our customers have told us they appreciate the hundreds of millions of products

listed by Marketplace Sellers that range from all types of apparel to a vast selection of electronics items,” said Peter Faricy, vice president for Amazon marketplace. “Our goal every day is to make selling on Amazon as easy as possible.”

Cyber Monday was particularly big for Amazon marketplace sellers, with more than 13 million units ordered worldwide from sellers on the digital shopping holiday. That marked a substantial 50 percent year-over-year increase, illustrating the growth of both Cyber Monday and the prominent role of Amazon as an online marketplace.

Multi store management with marketplaces such as Amazon
Retailers can leverage marketplaces such as Amazon to great affect. The use of a third-party online marketplace enables retailers to piggyback on the popularity of these websites to sell their products and engage first-time customers. Considering the fact that more than 100 million Americans go to websites like Amazon every month, according to comScore, these marketplaces can be a significant boon to emerging retailers.

However, managing multiple stores and an online marketplace can also place a burden on eCommerce operations. The more points of contact merchants have with customers, the more variables they have to keep track of. Merchants should invest in the appropriate eCommerce software to consolidate data from each store and online marketplace, which will help them manage and automate operations more effectively.