Over the past twenty years, Amazon has grown from an online bookseller to the largest e-commerce organization globally. In fact, here are some recent Amazon stats:
- 2018 Net sales: $232.9 billion vs. $177.9 billion in 2017
- 2018 Net Income: $10.1 billion vs. $3 billion in 2017
- Retail products were Amazon’s biggest revenue segment in 2018
- Amazon was rated the most popular online store in 2017
- Number of users in 2017: 300 Million
- Number of Amazon sellers: 2 million (2018)
The growth of this company over the past 20 years has been nothing less than phenomenal.
All of these statistics are impressive. However, we’d like to focus on the last statistic listed: the number of Amazon sellers. Opening up Amazon as a platform to sellers has been one of the factors contributing to its growth. Not only has this provided a solid revenue stream for 2 million sellers, but it has also opened a new revenue stream for contact centers. These 2 million Amazon sellers generate millions of Amazon customers requiring service.
Initially, Amazon handled the customer service needs of its online buyers, but the explosive growth has necessitated outsourcing this function to the contact center. Despite the overwhelming need for consistent customer service, there have been some misconceptions to overcome when it comes to outsourcing Amazon Customer Service.
MYTHS OF OUTSOURCING
One of the primary misconceptions that we have encountered as an Amazon customer service provider has been that of sellers believing that their Amazon products need to serviced through Amazon. They don’t! Let’s take a look at this and other myths we’ve encountered as we have on-boarded new Amazon clients here at Centris.
- Only Amazon employees can provide Amazon customer service: Amazon has very high marketplace standards which is why many sellers wrongly believed that only Amazon employees could service their (the sellers) customers. However, as we mentioned earlier, Amazon’s growth has necessitated the move to outsourcing this function.
- It will be expensive to outsource this function: Outsourcing for Amazon sales is no more expensive than outsourcing for anything else. Here at Centris, our near-shore contact centers offer superior customer service at 50-70% less than a US based contact center.
- It will be more complex than normal outsourcing since it’s Amazon: This has been a very common myth that we’ve encountered as we’ve added this service; it’s not. Amazon does have a very high market standard, which is one of the reasons it has been so successful. However, servicing the Amazon seller is just a matter of learning and implementing this standard. Here at Centris, this is part of our Amazon Customer Service on-boarding process.
AMAZON CUSTOMER SERVICE WITH CENTRIS
So what is it about Amazon that creates these misconceptions? Well, because it’s an e-commerce platform, Amazon has an algorithm that impacts everything on the site. There are a number of metrics Amazon uses to drive searches to a certain page. These metrics make it essential for sellers to closely monitor their pages. This can get overwhelming for a seller who is trying to run a business, serve their customers and stay on top of the digital metrics impacting their business. This is why many Amazon sellers are outsourcing their customer service to contact centers.
Below is a list of the specific services that Centris agents provide for Amazon sellers.
- Negative review monitoring: A negative review can adversely affect a product’s search rankings. Closely monitoring and responding quickly to any negative reviews will help maintain a product’s rankings.
- Brand Protection: We monitor our clients’ pages as well as those of competitors to ensure that product images and descriptions are not being plagiarized and that all information is accurate.
- Business Intelligence Reporting: Centris agents closely monitor Amazon’s many metrics including keywords that drive sales, product reviews and reasons for any returns of products.
- Product List optimization: We provide a weekly report as well as back-office support to help Amazon sellers keep product pages up-to-date.
When one considers all that goes into selling on Amazon, one soon realizes that outsourcing is not an “expensive luxury” but a necessary component to your Amazon success.
Contact us, and let us help you succeed.
