As 2025 comes to a close, you might be wondering if 2026 is finally the year to start selling on Amazon. In this episode, I share an honest look at when Amazon is a brilliant opportunity and when it might not be the right move just yet.

We talk about the pressure many brands feel to be on Amazon, why timing matters more than most people realise, and what you really need in place before taking the leap. I also explore when waiting is the smartest strategy and how that can actually set you up for success later.

This episode is for anyone weighing up their next step, whether you’re brand new to Amazon or still sitting on the fence.

LET’S CONNECT

Join my free Facebook group for product makers and creators

Follow me on YouTube

Find me on Instagram

Work with me 

Buy My Book: Bring Your Product Idea To Life

If you enjoy this podcast, and you’d like to leave a tip, you can do so here: https://bring-your-product-idea.captivate.fm/support

Mentioned in this episode:

Amazon Made Easy is now open

My membership, Amazon Made Easy is now open. It’s a membership for people who are selling on Amazon (or planning to) and want regular access to support, somewhere to ask questions and talk things through, and a bit of structure and accountability as they grow. Inside, there are live Q&A calls, optional co-working sessions and a small, supportive community. Find out more: https://vickiweinberg.com/membership

membership

Welcome to the bring your product idea to life podcast. This is the podcast for you if you're getting started selling products or if you'd like to create your own product to sell.

I'm Vicki Weinberg, a product creation coach and Amazon expert. Every week I share friendly practical advice as well as inspirational stories from small businesses.

Let's get started. Hello and thank you so much for joining me for another episode.

I want to mention the beginning of this episode that I've previously recorded. An episode. It was actually episode, let me check 317, which was all about to check before you decide to sell on Amazon.

So that was about making sure Amazon is the right marketplace for you. But this episode is actually about when to take the leap and what I believe you should have in place before you start selling.

So these episodes will work really, really well together. So I want to start by acknowledging the pressure that I sometimes see to sell on Amazon.

Because everywhere you turn you can see someone saying, you must be on Amazon. Everyone should be on Amazon. Everyone shops on Amazon.

And I think the thing that makes me different from some other amaz and consultants out there is I don't actually believe this is the case. I think that Amazon is a great marketplace. I think there are lots of customers there. They're obviously there to shop.

There are lots and lots of great things about Amazon. I won't go into them now. In fact, I think I've recorded a whole episode on this.

However, being successful on Amazon depends on a lot of individual factors. So it depends on the products that you have. So is Amazon the best fit for your. For your products or not? It depends on your margins.

Is Amazon going to make you any money? Is it going to lose you money? And it depends on the goals that you have for your business. So I don't believe that it's right for everyone.

Despite being a great place. And the place that I always start when I work with anyone new is, is this the right place for you? Because it is a bit of an undertaking.

So I just want to start by acknowledging that because I've seen both sides.

I've seen brands that struggle because either because they got on Amazon a bit too soon and they weren't ready, or, or because they went through all of the effort of getting set up only to discover that actually it probably wasn't the right place for them. And I've said this so many times, I hate to see that. And so I always start from the place of is this right?

And not only is Amazon right for you and your brand and your products, but is the timing right for you as well? Because timing matters a bit more than you think. Amazon isn't just something you can sort of add on.

It's not something you can get set up in an afternoon. Like, I'm not saying that there's not much, I guess you can get set up in an afternoon.

Maybe, you know, you can get some ebay listings up or something. I know that many things aren't straightforward to set up, but Amazon is more than not straightforward.

It to get set up on Amazon and to do it really well, which is important. Now, I don't think you can just, you know, put some products on Amazon, hope to sell.

You actually have to put some time, some effort, some resources into doing it really, really well. And that doesn't happen quite quickly, nor is it something you want to rush. So therefore the timing really matters.

Because I've seen brands sort of, you know, they decide they want to jump on and get onto Amazon in the beginning of quarter four, for example, because they want to make the most of quarter four sales. But actually that's not really the best time to do it if you're going to be rushing to have your products up.

You'd be much better either, ideally doing it sooner. So I'm thinking about doing it in September or waiting and doing it the following year. So you've got a long time. Was it a little flight there?

So you've got a long time to get set up, start getting some reviews, start getting some sales in and building some traction for quarter four the following year. So this isn't me saying you shouldn't be getting on there for quarter four, but what I am saying is it's not something that you want to rush.

There isn't really a good or bad time to go on Amazon, by the way. You can absolutely set yourself up on Amazon during November, December, if you have the time or the resources or the support to do that.

However, I wouldn't suggest doing that thinking that it's going to, you know, you're suddenly going to get lots of sales in that quarter because unfortunately, that isn't how Amazon works. There is no good or bad time as I've said.

But the best time to start is when you can give it consistent attention or you can outsource it to somebody else to take it on for you.

So, for me, at the moment, I am working with some brands who want to launch on Amazon in February or March and I've started working, so I'm recording this in November and we've started work now. It doesn't actually take all of that time. I'm not going to be working consistently between now in February, say, to get these brands set up.

We're just starting now, so we've got plenty of time.

We can know it's all done and then, you know, we're going to have a few months to think about launching and strategy and then we're going to go live then. And you don't have to do it that far in advance either.

I mean, if you want to be live on Amazon in February, March, like this brand do, you could start at the beginning of January and you would still have plenty of time.

The key is really to plan it out and make sure that you've got the time and you're building in extra time for all the things that can sometimes occur when you start to sell on Amazon.

So, you know, being asked for extra information to validate your account, all these kind of things can happen and they just add a little bit more time. And if you're already working to really tight timescales, that can obviously be quite stressful.

So let's talk a little bit about what you need to have in place before you start selling on Amazon. So this isn't about your product really. It's more about business readiness and the things that I think are important before you get going.

So I think to do well on Amazon, which I mentioned earlier was really important. So getting a listing up on Amazon technically is, you know, not that hard. I mean, it's not straightforward as other marketplaces, but you can do it.

But in terms of doing it really, really well, I think it's really important to have a really clear brand identity. I've spoken before about product listings.

I won't go into great detail now, but I think having really clear branding, having great product imagery, having a usp, whether that's for your brands, your products, is something that sets you apart from your competitors on Amazon is really, really important.

Think you need to have that and think about that before you start, because there will likely be other products in the category that you're listing in, and you need to think about how you're going to Stand out. If you are, you know, if you're thinking I'm going to sell, I don't know, baby.

I use baby products as examples a lot cuz I used to sell baby products.

If you're thinking I'm going to sell a baby blanket and you're, you know, you've got a generic baby blanket from a wholesaler, for example, it's unlikely to do well on Amazon now because there are so many brands in that category who are doing really well.

They've got clear brand identity, they've got some sales, they've got, they've got some reviews, they've got great product listings, they've, they've got all of that already. So if you're starting now, these are things you need to be thinking through for yourself. And of course you're not going to have that.

You're going to have a great unique product that you've come up with. But it's really important that you have all of those basics behind you. You also need to have stock available. So that's something else.

Sounds really obvious. But you know, if you're going to get set up on Amazon, you need to do it at the right time.

So if perhaps your products are in development phase, you might want to hold off until you know when you're going to have stock available to actually sell. And you're going to have to think about fulfillment. So you either need to have fulfillment in place yourself, whether that's.

You're going to fulfill all the Amazon orders that come in initially, which by the way is entirely doable. Maybe you've got a fulfillment centre, maybe you've got someone helping you, maybe you plan on sending in your stock for fba.

All of these, absolutely fine. But you just need to have some kind of plan for what you're going to do and that plan can change. I spoken before about it doesn't matter.

You know, if you decide to launch on Amazon, filling your own orders and then you decide you want to switch to fba, and then maybe that doesn't work for you and you want to switch back, all of this is fine. At least have some sort of plan for what you're going to do in the outset.

You're also going to need time or support to manage the setup and to get those early sales. So as I've said, there is a bit of work that goes into setting up one on Amazon and of course that's going to take some time.

So you either need to have to clear the time to do that yourself and depending on when you want to launch will depend on how much time you need to dedicate. So if you say, right, I'm going to do this within a month, you're going to have to be putting a lot into it.

If you're saying, now I want to launch for Easter, you've got a bit longer.

You know, you can spread it all out a little bit because setting up on Amazon, like anything else, is a process and there's different steps to go through. But think about how long that you have to do it to do it.

And if you don't have the time to do it, then you might want to think about getting some support because it is going to be time consuming. And as I mentioned, it's not just that setup stage, it's then getting the sales.

So getting set up on Amazon is one thing, but then the next thing is, okay, where are the sales going to come from? Because it's not a case of you launch, you know, you list your products and suddenly you start getting sales. Unfortunately, it's not as easy as that.

You want to start thinking about getting reviews.

I've done a whole episode on how you get reviews on Amazon and you're also going to think about driving traffic to your link listing and you're going to have to have the time or the support to manage those things as well. And you're also going to have to be a bit of patience because. Be a bit of patience, Have a bit of patience. Be a patient person.

Because it does take a while to get traction on Amazon. It can take a few months for things to really get going.

So it's best to do this at a time when you know that you have that, you know there's no rush, you're not desperate for the sales to come in. You can afford to give it time to start working for you. And let's talk a little bit about the reality of selling on Amazon.

It's an incredible platform, as I've said, and I can give you lots of reasons why I think it's great. But one thing about Amazon is it isn't instant.

And I do want to reiterate that things won't work straight away and you will have to be prepared to learn a lot because it's a brand new platform and it's not an intuitive one either. You might have to do a bit of testing to find out what works for you.

And you might need to, over time, keep tweaking and making improvements to see the sales and the growth that you want.

It's certainly Not a passive channel, but once systems are in place, it can become, pardon me, semi passive and it can also become a really good sales channel. So let's talk about wait.

Whether it's whether it's good to wait now or whether it's the right time to get started, I would say I wouldn't suggest you go ahead and start getting set up on Amazon.

And if cash flow at the moment is really tight and you can't invest in stock or you can't invest in setup, so you can, by the way, you can do the setup yourself, you don't necessarily need to invest in it. But if things are tight and you're thinking, when am I going to find the time?

I'm so busy, I don't have any spare hours in the day, I'd say it's probably not the right time. If your margins are really tight or your product's really niche, it also might be best to wait.

So when I say if your products really niche, I mean if you're selling something, something that's quite unique, quite new to Amazon, I would give it some extra thought about what category would your product go in, for example, what other similar products are on there? How might you differentiate your product? How might you explain your product so that people understand what it is and why they buy it?

So that's not to say Amazon isn't the right place for you, but I would say you need to give these things a little bit of extra thought before you get going.

If other channels, so for example you've got a wholesale channel or direct to consumer, are performing really well and they need more of your attention, As I say, Amazon is a big time suck, so you might again want to hold off for a while. And by the way, I should say that I don't think that waiting is failing or bad in any way.

It's a really smart strategy because you might want to focus on your direct to consumer sales. You might want to focus on growing your email list. You might have so many other priorities that Amazon just isn't right for you that now.

And it's not a missed opportunity because you don't have to be doing it now, today, this month, next month, you need to do it if you are going to do it when it's right for you based on all the factors that we're speaking about. So I just want to reassure you on that as well.

While obviously I help brands sell their products on Amazon, while that's what I do, I never ever would push anyone into a doing it because it might not be right and B doing it at a certain time, I can definitely advise.

So if someone came to me and said, oh, Vicki, I really want to have my products selling for summer because maybe it's something really seasonal, I could definitely advise on the time, the timing that I think would be best to get set up and how long that might take. However, it's obviously your business and ultimately your decision and I would never push someone into that.

And if you're prepared to see Amazon as a long term sales channel so you're not desperate for it to work, it doesn't have to work overnight, I would say that this could be a good time for you.

If you're leaning towards giving it a go, I would take some time now to research the category you're thinking of listing in, have a look at other brands, see what's working for them and just sound it out a little bit. And when you're ready to move forward, I can help you plan set up properly so you don't waste any of your time or money.

Remember my free checks as well. So that was episode 317. Have a look at whether you can sell your products on Amazon.

Have a look at whether it's going to be profitable for you and whether there's a market out there.

So make sure you do all of these checks as well as thinking about whether it's right for your business because I think these two episodes really do go hand in hand. And I would definitely think spend some time to think about your goals, like what you want out of selling on Amazon.

So do you want it to be your primary sales channel? Do you want it to be a way to get more visibility, to drive customers eventually to your own website?

Is it just going to be a supplementary sales channel to sit alongside your website? Have a little think about that. Also have a think about your capacity for next year. So you know, how much time can you invest in this?

When can you do that? How do you have any budget to invest in support for someone to help you do it? Have a think about all of these things.

As a next step, I'm going to have an episode coming in January on which sort of Amazon seller account to use, whether it's a free or a professional seller account. So that might be a really good thing to listen to as a first step in the new year.

And I just want to say that whether you decide that Amazon is right for you, whether you decide that it's not, whether you decide it is, but not now, these are all really, really good decisions.

And I just think the most important thing is you take some time to think all of this through and you kind of have an understanding of what's involved before making any kind of decision.

And of course, if you have any questions or anything I've said about anything I haven't said, if you're still not sure whether it's right and you just want some guidance, do please get in touch and I'd be really happy to help you out with that. So have a lovely week and I will see you again this Friday with an interview and next Friday it will just be me with another Amazon focused episode.

Thank you so much for listening right to the end of this episode. Do remember that you can get the full back catalog and lots of free resources on my website, vickywineberg. Com.

Please do remember to rate and review this episode if you've enjoyed it and also share it with a friend who you think might find it useful. Thank you again and see you next week.