A few years back, Amazon was criticized and accused of undermining small retail enterprises. In an interview with CNBC, former US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin stated that:

“I think if you look at Amazon, although there are certain benefits to it, they’ve destroyed the retail industry across the United States.” 

However, Amazon refuted such allegations and cited some of its efforts to help small business owners reach their full potential. Pursuant to such a goal of helping small businesses, the tech giant introduced Amazon Explore as a new service that allows business owners to bring customers into their stores virtually. 

Amazon Explore | Overview  

Amazon.com: A screenshot (cropped) of Amazon Explore Shopping Experience, Date Retrieved: May 05, 2021; Retrieved From: https://amzn.to/3gZc041

The idea of virtual tours has been around for quite some time. However, retail companies like Amazon have just started leveraging the power of virtual reality to benefit both their customers and sellers during the pandemic. Amazon Explore serves as a unique platform for sellers to offer virtual Livestream experiences to customers. 

Amazon sellers will serve as informed hosts for a predetermined amount of time. They will serve as learning instructors or guides offering classes or tours, and most importantly, as sellers of small local businesses. 

What makes Amazon Explore unique from other virtual tours is the one-on-one experience per customer. Furthermore, this Amazon service is delivered with advanced integrated graphics and high-tech features, including interactive maps, labels, and one-touch buttons.

The Amazon Explore Shopping Experience 

With the COVID-19 pandemic changing the retail industry landscape, Amazon introduced Amazon Explore as a digital lifeline for small business owners. The Explore platform serves as an avenue for alternative means of selling products. 

With the Explore platform, sellers can highlight products from their physical store while providing a one-on-one shopping experience with customers. This, in turn, provides a customized experience and repeat business. 

Simply put, Amazon Explore extends the reach of your physical store to various communities worldwide. With the help of virtual reality, it is as if shoppers are actually shopping inside your store. 

As a host, you have the ability to shop and ship items from your location on behalf of the customers. You can set your own prices for the unique items that shoppers cannot get hold of anywhere else. The item price range starts from 10 USD to 200 USD. 

Each session with a customer generally lasts around 30 minutes to an hour. The bookings, payments, and other logistics involved during the session are coursed through Amazon, but items are shipped directly to customers.

Shoppers may scan through various experiences being offered by the region. Areas included are North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. However, as the platform expands, more hosts or sellers from other regions will be able to participate. 

Make Shopping Experiences Hassle-Free 

Although customers will be shopping virtually, this does not mean that it will be devoid of fun. Since you are mainly offering an experience to customers, you should see to it that each session with them is engaging, accessible, and convenient. Here are some tips for offering a delightful shopping experience:

Master Your Presentation

Since you are not just selling an item but also providing an experience, when conversing with shoppers, be sure to have the answers to potential questions concerning your product.

Prepare Apparatus

To provide the best experience during the Amazon Explore session, hosts should prepare the necessary apparatus ahead of time. The essential things needed for such a platform include a gimbal, SIM card, headphones, and a designated smartphone. 

Prepare The Environment

If you are streaming in your store, make sure to declutter your area. Clear any trash, dirt, or other miscellaneous stationery that could obstruct the view of shoppers. You should also prepare the lighting in your store to make your presentation more appealing. 

Follow Guidelines 

Be sure to follow the guidelines set by Amazon. In particular, avoid selling products that do not comply with import/export restrictions and other governing laws and regulations. To know more about Amazon Explore guidelines, you may CLICK HERE. 

Know The Conversion Rates

To help customers easily understand pricing, be prepared with the conversion rate from your currency to US Dollar. Take note that there is a combined purchase limit of 800 USD for each session.  

Don’t Pressure Customers

Amazon has emphasized that with Amazon Explore, sellers or hosts should not pressure the customer into buying products. Customers should also be informed that they can cancel their orders should they change their minds.  

Frequently Asked Questions – Amazon Explore  

• How to Register as a Host for Amazon Explore

To register as a host, Amazon sellers may Apply Here. Amazon will ask a series of questions in order to know more about the business you offer for the Explore platform. 

• Can Sellers Present a Pre-Recorded Video?

Pre-recorded videos are not allowed under the Explore platform. Every session happens in real-time through one-way live-streamed video and two-way audio. 

• What Language is Used During Explore Sessions?

The language to be used for every Amazon Explore session is English. 

• Can Explore Sessions be Cancelled?     

As a host or seller, you should anticipate the possibility of a booked session being canceled. A customer may cancel or reschedule an experience up to 24 hours before the session with no penalty. 

• Is the Host Free to do Anything During the Session?           

No, the host is bound by Amazon Explore Community Guidelines and Amazon’s conditions of use. The hosts may only do things within the guidelines set by Amazon. 

• How do you Access Explore Sessions? 

As of the moment, customers may only access Explore sessions via laptop or a desktop computer, with at least 5 Mbps or a faster internet connection.  

Explore Your Options Today     

Amazon Explore offers a new and unique avenue for sellers and entrepreneurs to grow their business amidst the pandemic. As Amazon would put it, with Amazon Explore, “the world is at your fingertips.”

In order to improve international services, Amazon has introduced the Build International Listings tool (BIL). This is one of the many Amazon seller tools, such as a repricer,  that aims to simplify sellers’ backend activities.        

In Brief: The Amazon Build International Listings Tool   

To easily and quickly reach global customers, the tech giant introduced a helpful self-service tool called Build International Listings or BIL. The primary goal of Amazon Build International Listings is to assist sellers in maximizing their global outreach.                                                            

With the help of this Amazon seller tool, Amazon sellers can streamline the process of creating and updating offers for various Amazon international marketplaces. Based on predefined settings, sellers can update eligible offers and prices in the target marketplaces with the help of the BIL tool.      

This particular seller tool, according to Amazon, works within a region with multiple marketplaces, including North America and Europe. Synchronizing inventory across the marketplaces can be automated with the help of BIL, especially “where the offers result in a Pan-European FBA offer.”

Essential Requirements to BIL and Its Dynamics

For sellers who have not tried BIL and want to understand the advantages of the Amazon seller tool, certain requirements need to be met first. 

The first requirement is that sellers must be registered as a “Professional Seller” in all the marketplaces the Build International Listings tool will be targeting. Secondly, the seller’s account should also be in good standing in those marketplaces.

Amazon emphasizes the importance of complying with all the applicable rules and regulations for both source and target marketplaces.  

BIL Account Type Compatibility

Another additional step to take for sellers to use BIL is to verify whether they have a Unified Account or Linked Accounts. Getting to know the type of account is necessary for sellers with Unified Accounts to use the BIL tool in adding and managing offers in the same region.   

Alternatively, sellers with Linked Accounts can utilize this Amazon seller tool to add offers and synchronize price offers across regions.                                      

For example, if you are an active Amazon.com seller with a Unified Account, you can use BIL to select Amazon US as your source marketplace and add offers to Amazon MX as your target marketplace.                  

Amazon US sellers with Linked Accounts may use BIL to add offers to any of the 5 European marketplaces as the target market, while making the United States the source marketplace.                

For easy account type identification, Amazon suggests “to click the marketplace switcher at the top of your selling account and see whether other marketplaces appear”.                                         

BIL Important Operational Requirements  

To make sure the BIL tool successfully connects the source marketplace with target marketplaces, important requirements should be met. Sellers should see to it that the product listing from the source marketplace is existent in the target marketplace. 

Secondly, for Amazon sellers to create a listing offer via BIL, they should also have an active offer in the source marketplace. What makes BIL convenient to use is that it synchronizes prices of the offer recently added on the source marketplace to those of the already existing items in the target marketplace. 

Thus, making this a favorable Amazon seller tool to help sellers fast-track their product listing and optimization tasks.        

Tolerable Limitations of BIL

Although the Build International Listings tool is packed with effective features and functions, it still has some limitations. For example, this Amazon seller tool is unable to create listings that are not available in the target market, albeit present in the source market.    

However, as a workaround, for product listings in the source market whose ASINs are not listed on the target marketplaces, a manual creation can be used. 

Similarly, as detailed on the Amazon Seller Central page, the BIL tool does not automatically remove offers in the target marketplaces, despite the product listing in the source marketplace being inactive. 

To know more about the functions that the Build International Listings tool does and does not perform and other features, CLICK HERE. 

Room for Improvement 

As an Amazon seller tool, BIL still has some room for improvement. While international product listings update is one of the key strengths of this tool, it may fall short in terms of other aspects of its operation, including translation of listings.       

Although the BIL tool synchronizes prices across target marketplaces based on the actual product price of the source market, the highest margin for a specific product is not always guaranteed. 

With that in mind, using a separate tool for repricing, such as Seller Snap, will be a great complement for your Amazon international expansion.              

The majority of Amazon sellers aim to go international because of the various advantages it offers. In general, business owners and entrepreneurs are able to grow and expand their operations with the help of the Amazon global selling program.                                      

However, not all Amazon sellers are keen on participating or focusing their resources on Amazon’s international marketplaces or becoming an Amazon international seller. Although taking their brand and products overseas can be appealing, especially with the possible revenue increase, some sellers are still hesitant. 

Here are some of the important discussions to help you evaluate the Amazon international selling opportunity that the leading eCommerce site offers.    

A Better Understanding of the Amazon Global Selling Program

Amazon started its Amazon international selling program for online sellers back in 2015. Since the inception global selling Amazon, the program has attracted more than 30,000 sellers worldwide. 

With Amazon Global, the eCommerce giant aims to streamline international online selling activities by providing Amazon sellers with a convenient and easy to use platform. What makes Amazon’s international program attractive for online sellers is the comprehensive solution it brings.      

Selling to other countries normally entails a lot of tasks, including but not limited to paperwork, customs duties, payment obligations, and logistic undertakings. However, with Amazon Global opening its doors to Amazon FBA sellers, all aspects of global selling Amazon responsibilities are taken care of by the tech-giant. 

Considering the monetary benefits and the practical value that Amazon Global Selling brings, Amazon sellers thinking of expanding their business operations overseas should highly consider this program.     

The Opportunity that Amazon International Offers

As previously emphasized, Amazon Global makes it easier for a would be Amazon international seller to expand their business operations abroad. Taking part in this program would also mean tapping into the huge number of Amazon international customers. 

As of current, it is estimated that there are more than 300 million active Amazon customer accounts worldwide. On top of that, there are also 150 million members of Amazon Prime globally.

The multitude of Amazon customers is scattered all over the world. That is why Amazon has developed state-of-the-art international logistics to deal with customers shopping around the world.  

With just a single Amazon seller central account, online sellers can participate in consumer activities in various Amazon stores worldwide. To give you an idea of the substantial business opportunity, here is a list of Amazon regions and its active Amazon stores. 

Amazon International – Americas

• Amazon.com
• Amazon.ca
• Amazon.com.mx 
• Amazon.com.br

Amazon International – Europe

• Amazon.co.uk
• Amazon.de
• Amazon.fr
• Amazon.it
• Amazon.es
• Amazon.nl

Amazon International – Asia-Pacific

• Amazon.co.jp
• Amazon.in
• Amazon.com.au 
• Amazon.sg

Amazon International – Middle East

• Amazon.ae
• Amazon.com.tr

Requirements for Respective Amazon Global Regions

Since Amazon operates in international territories, Amazon must abide by the rules and regulations of a certain region when it comes to eCommerce activities. To help you avoid delays in achieving your goal of dominating the Amazon global market, we have outlined some of the requirements needed by each region. 

1. North America Marketplace 

Countries: US, Canada, and Mexico

Documents To Prepare: 

To be able to participate in this region, the initial requirements sellers should prepare are tax information, bank account, valid credit card, and phone number. In some instances, a credit card statement, bank account statement, national ID, or passport may also be required as additional documentation. 

Register Your Seller Central Account Here: Amazon US, Amazon Canada, and Amazon Mexico

2. Europe Marketplace

Countries: Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands

Documents To Prepare: 

Similar to the North American marketplace, the European marketplace also requires Amazon sellers to submit their phone number, tax information, bank account, and valid credit card. The same goes for additional documentation if prompted.  

Worth noting that you will only need to register once on any of the Amazon European marketplaces to be able to sell on other European marketplaces. 

Register Your Seller Central Account Here:  Amazon Germany, Amazon UK, Amazon France, Amazon Italy, Amazon Spain, Amazon Netherlands

3. Pacific-Asia Marketplace 

Country: Japan 

Documents To Prepare: 

The initial requirements for the Japanese marketplace are similar to the aforementioned two regions. However, for the verification process, sellers will need to submit either a passport, driver’s license, or a basic resident registration card with a photo as part of the photo identification process.

Similarly, a bill or statement issued within 180 days is also required. This could be a credit card statement, internet banking statement of account, savings account passbook or balance certification.

Country: Australia

Documents To Prepare: 

For the AU marketplace, sellers will be required to submit initial requirements mentioned in the North America marketplace. For additional documentation, scanned copies of national ID, passport, bank or credit account statements may also be needed. 

Country: Singapore

Documents To Prepare: 

Sellers wanting to participate in the Amazon Singapore will have to prepare similar requirements mentioned in the AU discussion. 

Register Your Seller Central Account Here: Amazon Japan, Amazon Singapore, Amazon Australia

4. Middle East Marketplace

Countries: United Arab Emirates & Turkey

Similar to most countries or regions, setting up your account on Amazon United Emirates will require you to submit a valid credit card, phone number, and tax information. In addition to that, sellers will also have to provide documentation such as scanned copies of a passport, national ID, bank or credit account statement, passport, or national ID.

Register Your Seller Central Account Here: United Arab Emirates, Turkey 

If you wish to know more detail about the registration requirements by the marketplace, you may CLICK HERE. 

Simple Steps Towards Amazon Global Success      

The Amazon international marketplace is supported by various tools and services to help Amazon sellers participate in the global retail industry. To serve as an overview, here are some simple steps to begin your Amazon Global selling journey.

• Determine Products to Sell and Where You Want to Sell Them

Amazon offers a wide market opportunity for online sellers. To increase success, you should decide where you want to focus your resources and what items you want to introduce into a particular market. 

Strategize your approach and research what products are trending and what items are saleable in a particular Amazon international marketplace. 

• Prepare Your Listing 

Once you have decided which marketplace or region to sell on, you should then list your item on Amazon. If you are selling a brand item, you should register the brand first to avoid branding issues later on. 

When listing, make sure to keep your listing brief and concise. If necessary, try to translate the listing to the language of the region. 

• Get Your Products Ready for Customers Worldwide

Since you will be delivering products to customers overseas, you should secure a reliable shipping and fulfillment method. In most cases, Amazon FBA is the ideal fulfillment for international orders.

• Prepare For Returns

Returns are a normal occurrence in any eCommerce business. For that matter, you should provide shoppers with reliable customer support along with local country returns service. 

Since the Amazon international marketplace is filled with competitors, you should always remember to add extra value to your services to make your Amazon store stand out. 

Optimize Listings for Global Marketplace Competence 

Indeed Amazon is a unique and versatile platform for online users to capitalize on. Similar to local FBA campaigns, you may also optimize your global listings through reliable Amazon seller tools, such as Amazon repricers. 

With the help of an Amazon repricer, you will be able to automate your repricing strategy and compete with other sellers in the Amazon Global marketplace.