Can Your Business Afford to Overlook Amazon?

Yeah, selling food on Amazon takes a lot of work. Yeah, there are fees involved and algorithms to figure out and rule changes to stay on top of. And yeah, there are always pesky copycats trying to steal your business. Any other complaints? Probably. When it comes to the e-commerce behemoth, small businesses have all kinds of beefs.

While some of these complaints may be justified, here’s the thing: Amazon isn’t going away. In fact, the COVID-19 crisis has catapulted its grocery business to new heights. Today, a huge slice of the U.S. population buys food on Amazon, and most won’t stop shopping there once the pandemic ends. They can find almost any product they want (including your competitors’), discover new foods to try (including your competitors’) and have their entire order (including your competitors’ products) delivered to their doorstep—all from their computer or smartphone. That’s a pretty sweet proposition to walk away from!

So, what does this mean for most emerging food brands? Time to suck it up, stop resenting Amazon and do the work necessary to excel on the platform.

Take it from Michael Zhang, founder and CEO of Fenrici Brands, who joined Tera on latest Edible-Alpha® podcast: “When you have an attitude of no complaining, just do what needs to be done, Amazon has amazing potential. You need to say ‘hey, I’m going to go all in. No matter what the challenges or barriers are, I’m going to face them and stick with it.’”

Michael did exactly this, allowing him to grow his lifestyle company from zero to $4 million in sales in three short years—all on Amazon. Now he’s coaching other small brands, including food producers, on approaching Amazon with the right attitude and strategy to succeed. Tera can attest from her conversations with several small food companies: Michael’s method works. Tune into the podcast to get the full scoop.

But aside from “the how,” let’s keep talking about why emerging food companies should invest in an Amazon strategy, as some are likely still skeptical. The truth is, because this is where America shops and where the competition does business, many small brands can no longer afford to overlook Amazon. There are just too many eyeballs and potential sales sitting there to not try to capture.

There is also just too much excellent, strategy-informing, FREE data available from Amazon for food entrepreneurs to not take advantage of. Wouldn’t you love to know where your best customers live, what times of day the shop, which keywords they use to find your brand and what else they buy? Wouldn’t you love to use that data to direct your marketing, promotions and even new product development?

Again, there is no denying that selling on Amazon has its hurdles and headaches—but it can have a ton of benefits too. And given grocery e-commerce’s astronomical rise over the past year, few food entrepreneurs can afford to ignore the giant.

Amazon is super intimidating for many food entrepreneurs, but Fenrici Brands founder and CEO Michael Zhang believes it’s well worth navigating. After growing his brand to $4 million in sales since 2018—100% on Amazon—he now shares his expertise with other small businesses. In this podcast, Michael breaks down how the platform works for vendors, what mindset entrepreneurs need, how to leverage Amazon data and sellers’ tools, and so much more!

 Listen to the Latest Episode 


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