Today, I have interviewed an Amazon seller to share her experience of selling on Amazon. Personally, I enjoyed her answers a lot.
I hope you will learn a lot from this interview. I am super happy to introduce Shruti Dugar, who has launched her 50+-year-old family business on Amazon which is now contributing 35-40% of their overall business revenue.
My questions are in heading form, her answers (in her own words!) are below each question.
Let us jump in.
Tell us about yourself & your business
Hi, I’m Shruti Dugar. By education, I did my graduation in Journalism and Mass Communication. I hail from a family-business background. Ours is a fifty-plus-year-old store dealing in traditional women’s apparel, specifically Bengal sarees, suits, and handmade silk scarves in Kolkata.
Why did you choose to sell online & on Amazon?
We were considering expanding to a new outlet so I thought why not give online a try? My brother bought a DSLR and I thought I’d better utilize it efficiently, so one day I took the camera to our store and started clicking pictures of the sarees.
I took the pictures and edited the white background and thought I’d upload it on either Amazon or Flipkart. I’d prepared all the essential documents and went on to update them on these portals. I chose to sell on Amazon because their rules were very liberal and clutter-free.
What is it about online selling that excites you most?
What excites me the most is, of course when I get notified of the new order and all that can happen only when I can deliver the product which is unique, different, and in demand. One thing that keeps me motivated is our products are traveling places, even to the remotest part of India.
My happiest day was when our product was shipped to Canada, our first international sale online. Comments from my customers are what excites me to upload new stocks every day!
How much money did you have to get started with?
As I said, I had stocks but no capital. So my initial investment was only the DSLR.
How many products do you have today?
We have over 1000 unique products live now.
How did you get your first order?
It took 15 days since we first went live on Amazon to get our first order. I wasn’t aware of the nitty-gritty like how the buy-box functions, how SEO works in Amazon so every day I would thoroughly go through Amazon Seller Central and read more about it and apply it to my inventories.
What percentage of your total business revenue comes from Amazon?
Now, 35-40% of our business revenue comes from Amazon.
Do you think there is any mentality difference when it comes to offline & online?
Yes, there’s a lot of difference in mentality when one shops online. Online buyers have a plethora of options to choose from but offline it is still restricted. Offline, they are focused on their needs but online is vast and sometimes the buyer gets overwhelmed with so many options and sometimes does not even purchase any item altogether!
What are the top challenges you face when selling on Amazon? Did you overcome any? How?
The most obvious challenge when dealing with apparel is obviously the return. To be honest, we can take only precautions and package the product diligently and follow up with the customer taking their feedback. Now, I package all the products personally and see if there are any discrepancies, I fix them.
How has your amazon business grown and changed over the years?
Yes, my business has grown considerably over the years. Through Amazon, we made a good customer base and now they contact us directly if they need any product in bulk or want customizable products. Many people living in Kolkata from far off places come to our store and also recommend others so that’s genuinely very good.
Do you encourage more people to sell on Amazon?
100%. If you can offer uniqueness, you are going to be a hit on Amazon.
What’s the biggest piece of advice you could give to somebody about selling on Amazon?
Don’t wait to have a perfect or life-changing product. Just grab a phone with good camera quality and click good angles of the product you’re offering.
Do your proper research obviously but just start with whatever you have right now. Your failures will teach you automatically.
It will be a rollercoaster ride with lots of returns and positive feedback and everything will be worth it!
I hope you enjoyed this conversation.