When Amazon.com first launched in the mid-1990s as the world’s largest online bookstore, no one could have imagined how it would grow to become the retail giant for just about everything under the sun. However, this is how online e-commerce has evolved in the last 2 decades.
E-commerce sales at Amazon.com this year are poised to reach a staggering $1.2 TRILLION, making it one of the largest and fastest growing business sectors the world has ever seen. Millions of online sellers build their own amazing vending machines on the platform every day and take advantage of the massive crowd of shoppers Amazon has added on its platform to sell a whole host of different things.
And we’re nowhere near slowing down. In fact, most experts tell us that we are on the cusp of a powerful expansion in capacity that will dwarf anything we have seen so far. The good news is that this creates an excellent opportunity for any entrepreneur, business owner large or small, to take advantage of this book.
Many vendors, including those with 6-figure annual revenues from internet e-commerce businesses, began their careers as affiliate marketers. They offered products and services created by other companies and saw that there was potential in the niche. They then went on to build businesses in these areas and fulfill orders themselves.
Amazon was one of the popular options for affiliates to learn the basics of e-retailing. And as they grew to offer products to wide swaths of the online marketplace, millions of affiliate sellers flocked to the portal to register as associates and promote these products to their own audience of buyers.
They could deliver the world’s best brands and well-known products directly to their homes by ordering them over the Internet. Online retail affiliates didn’t even have to touch a product or ship it to shoppers. They just made a healthy referral income by referring new clients to the service.
Anyone who already comes from a retail background will find this very appealing as you can now attract new audiences through the internet and by advertising on social media such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. It’s even possible to develop a nice add-on to an existing offline retail chain, where your website and online customers become additional assets to your business that complement regular in-store shoppers.