{"id":1156,"date":"2020-04-12T04:43:54","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T18:07:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/?p=1156"},"modified":"2025-09-05T07:09:43","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T07:09:43","slug":"start-selling-on-your-own-ecommerce-store-amazon-fulfillment-vs-woocommerce-in-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/blog\/start-selling-on-your-own-ecommerce-store-amazon-fulfillment-vs-woocommerce-in-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Start Selling On Your Own Ecommerce Store? Amazon Fulfillment vs. WooCommerce in 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One piece of advice that\u2019s thrown around most in entrepreneurship communities is that before you can succeed, you need to start &#8211; and you need to start today. But that\u2019s not so easy, is it? At least, traditionally, if you wanted to sell something you would need to build your own store, spend money on marketing and advertising, manage logistics of shipping and handling orders, and very slowly, build a reputation. But all of that work was cut-short with online <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/blog\/connecting-your-marketplaces-to-aihello\/\">marketplaces<\/a> like Craigslist, eBay, and most importantly, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/blog\/what-is-search-term-isolation-and-how-does-it-work\/\">Amazon<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Seeing it\u2019s been <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/2014\/08\/the-next-big-thing-you-missed-thanks-to-amazon-tiny-sellers-can-now-reach-across-the-globe\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">13 years<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> since Amazon launched its revolutionary Fulfilled by Amazon program, we thought it\u2019d be useful for our readers to know if the FBA program is still as viable as it was in a decade ago. Or is there a better alternative &#8211; your own <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/blog\/ecommerce-pricing-strategies\/\">eCommerce<\/a> store?&nbsp;<\/span><\/p><h2><b>Benefits of Amazon FBA<\/b><\/h2><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Working with the world\u2019s largest internet company by revenue has its benefits.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p><ul><li><h3><b>300 million active customers (and Prime users)<\/b><\/h3><\/li><\/ul><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can\u2019t ignore the fact that Amazon is the biggest online marketplace on the planet and by signing up for the FBA program, you\u2019re putting your product in front of millions of active users &#8211; something that a new manufacturer\/brand isn\u2019t typically able to.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You also unlock the perk of being able to sell to the 90 million Prime users by utilizing <a rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/fba-calculator.html\">Amazon FBA<\/a>. Fun fact: Prime users spend more than double the amount of money <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/2017\/10\/18\/amazon-prime-customer-spending\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">($1,300<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) compared to non-Prime users.<\/span><\/p><ul><li><h3><b>Start-to-end logistics<\/b><\/h3><\/li><\/ul><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After dropping your products at the nearest fulfillment center, Amazon takes care of everything from packaging, shipping, and processing returns. If you\u2019ve shipping products yourself, you will know that timely shipping and delivery is a huge burden and source of stress among retailers.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Amazon is renowned for its efficient logistics and timely delivery schedule. Though <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2019\/jan\/01\/amazon-fulfillment-center-warehouse-employees-union-new-york-minnesota\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">warehouse workers <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">seem to be paying for that efficiency.<\/span><\/p><p>&nbsp;<\/p><ul><li><h3><b>After-sales service<\/b><\/h3><\/li><\/ul><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Like everything before the sale, Amazon FBA will help you with the after-sales service. Providing 24\/7 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/blog\/importance-of-customer-service-for-e-commerce\/\">customer service<\/a>, easy and free returns for customers, and of course, a sense of safety during checkout.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After-sales service is arguably the hardest to garner organically, especially if you just started and also why Amazon works well with small retailers.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p><h2><b>Cost of Amazon FBA<\/b><\/h2><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For some, Amazon\u2019s FBA ticks all of the right boxes. But if you\u2019re like me, you\u2019re always on the lookout for something better. Something more solid and more long-term. And FBA isn\u2019t long-term.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For one, storage fees and fulfillment fees will rack up over time, making you question if it\u2019s actually worth it. There are other costs as well. If your product sits in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/blog\/how-to-enable-order-fulfillment-using-aihello\/\">FBA warehouse<\/a> for too long, you\u2019ll get billed. A lot. Since Amazon makes returns free and easy, you might see a sudden rise in the number of returns despite having made no changes to your product.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You\u2019re also putting all of your eggs in one basket by relying on Amazon alone. Not saying that Amazon is going anywhere, but Amazon CAN ban you and if Amazon\u2019s the only place you sell your goods &#8211; you\u2019re out of business, just like that.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Amazon\u2019s AI can also force you to lower your prices and not raise them if it thinks competitor websites have the same product priced much lower &#8211; leaving you little to no control in certain cases.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a nutshell, listing your goods only on Amazon means you\u2019re taking a lot of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mywifequitherjob.com\/the-dangers-of-selling-on-amazon\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">unnecessary risk.&nbsp;<\/span><\/a><\/p><h2><b>Your Own eCommerce Store: A Viable Alternative?<\/b><\/h2><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What makes your own eCommerce store a viable alternative? Well, here\u2019s a list.<\/span><\/p><p>&nbsp;<\/p><ul><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You get <\/span><b>more control <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">over what you sell when you sell, and how you sell. Amazon, on the other hand, may not allow you to sell at all.<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You also get <\/span><b>better profit margins<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and if you play your cards, the profit margins can be a lot better. You get to experiment with ads, write more convincing copy, and generally have more space and freedom to get creative with your marketing strategy.<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can also better cater to the needs of <\/span><b>B2B customers.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> B2B companies don\u2019t like buying through Amazon, instead, they prefer dealing directly with the vendor and buying in bulk. If you\u2019re only selling on Amazon, you\u2019re leaving a lot of money on the table.&nbsp;<\/span><\/li><\/ul><p>&nbsp;<\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is no question about it &#8211; building your own brand is the better long-term approach to selling. But despite the benefits, moving from a known and established platform to your own is a big move and requires long-term planning for it to work and become viable. However, contrary to popular belief, you don\u2019t need a whole lot to <a rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/schedule.html\">get started<\/a> with your own eCommerce store &#8211; in fact, you don\u2019t even have to cut all ties with Amazon FBA. Amazon has an extremely large customer base that you can always benefit from. All you need to do is slowly move a part of your inventory away from Amazon. We recommend using WooCommerce, more precisely, WooCommerce\u2019s Amazon Fulfillment Extension.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p><p>&nbsp;<\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">WooCommerce already has an <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Amazon Fulfillment extension<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and we found it the most user-friendly and easiest to recommend for the following reasons:&nbsp;<\/span><\/p><p>&nbsp;<\/p><ul><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Easy integration<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: You can use the extension to integrate your Amazon listings into your own eCommerce store.<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Store management<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Easily manage Amazon orders and stock directly from your store.<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Automation:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Once you install WooCommerce on your eCommerce store, you can use the Amazon Fulfilment extension to automate order fulfillment through FBA.&nbsp;<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Manual control<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: You can also manually ship special items if you\u2019d like.<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Verification &amp; Safety:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Before shipping out the order, the extensions verifies the payment so add an extra layer of security.&nbsp;<\/span><\/li><\/ul><h2><b>Wrapping up\u2026<\/b><\/h2><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Amazon has helped millions of users get started in the world of eCommerce. However, eCommerce is much bigger than Amazon and you shouldn\u2019t limit yourself to one platform. Instead, if you\u2019ve got a steady income from Amazon, it might be time to explore your own eCommerce store to increase sales, decrease dependency, and most importantly, build a brand. There are plenty of tools already available out there that can help you do this. <\/span><\/p><p>&nbsp;<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Considering Amazon FBA? We weigh its viability against building your own eCommerce store, exploring pros, cons, and long-term success for sellers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,89,110,163,185],"tags":[47,60,56,58,57,59,81,48,49,55,80,74,70,79],"class_list":["post-1156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advertising","category-amazon","category-brand_website","category-resources","category-woocommerce","tag-amazon-fba-restocking","tag-amazon-inventory-forecasting","tag-amazon-inventory-management","tag-amazon-listing-optimization","tag-cloud-based-inventory-management","tag-fba-restocking-automation","tag-forecast-to-fulfill","tag-inventory-planning","tag-inventory-restocking","tag-restocking-with-ai","tag-woocommerce-fulfillment-by-amazon","tag-woocommerce-fulfillment-by-amazon-shopify-fulfillment-by-amazon-ebay-fulfillment-by-amazon","tag-woocommerce-inventory-forecasting","tag-woocommerce-to-amazon-woocommerce-integrate-amazon-woocommerce-fba-integration-amazon-demand-forecasting-woocommerce-3pl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1156"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12531,"href":"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1156\/revisions\/12531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}