Branding vs selling on third party sites

[sun818]

I received a sales call from the "River" today wanting me to list on their site. Certain widgets I have listed there in the past have sold for a good price. Unfortunately, the issue is that all the "branding" goes to the third party site and not my web store. For long term, am I doing a disservice to my own web store by selling on a third party site? Or should it not matter if my return on investment is what I want from the third party site?

[eWhisper]

If 'river' was suppose to imply a site - I missed it.

Do you ship the items to the customers where you can include a discount if they go directly to your site next time, or some other informational flyer - or does the 3rd party ship the product?

There might be a way to get the best of both worlds, as you don't want to lose those sales, as won't the visitors to the 3rd party site just buy from someone else and not find you anyway?

[sun818]

> Do you ship the items to the customers where you can include a discount if they go directly to your site

Yes discount coupon code is included with every invoice.

Part of me thinks the fees I pay goes toward "advertising" traffic, and another part of me thinks it is short term vision. It is like having a little booth at WalMart without an individual identity. Who really benefits in the long term?

[eWhisper]

One of the advantages of using 'river' is the trust factor involved. People do trust them, and will order from partner sites like yours - which does grant you exposure.

People who make it to that site who want to buy a product, are probably not going to leave it to buy somewhere else - so those sales would goto a competitor if you're not there.

It seems that to continue with them selling your products would help to supplement your income while you build a stronger brand on the rest of the web.

[wackal]

there's nothing in the TOS that says you can't post a company name, so how about making it a little easier for all of us by posting the company name next time? What's the big deal?

BTW, I'm assuming "the river" refers to Amazon.com, please post back if this is incorrect

[CernyM]

Is your merchandise branded or just your store?

The most likely answer though is that listing on Amazon will increase your overall sales, rather than cannibalize sales from your web store.

Assuming that's the case, then your actually increasing your brand awareness a tiny bit because those Amazon customers probably wouldn't have bought from you in the first place. At least now you can ship some collaterals in the box.

[sun818]

> What's the big deal?

Yes, it is Amazon. Its not a big deal - just not particularly important who it is. It could be any third-party site that offers auctions or fixed priced listings.

It may be against Amazon TOS to include your company invoice with comissioned purchases, but what customer would complain their TOS was not followed?

[CernyM]

Last time I ordered something through Amazon that was from an third party, Amazon sent me an email explicitly stating that it was coming from a third party.

It seems that they wanted me to know it wasn't from them, BUT that they expected Amazon service levels (in shipping, etc) to be honored.