I think Amazon's too big and broad to describe any experience as typical, but there are certainly differences in the type of business.
You are 100% right that my products are niche and premium, and that definitely makes a difference. But on the other hand, if you're a startup selling a commodity product, you're in a bad position for a whole lot of reasons other than Amazon.
From an advertising standpoint, you're right - I have the advantage of selling a product that has a high repeat rate, and that's helpful. On the other hand, my AOV is fairly low and my margins are okay but not extraordinary.
I think that the points you're raising here are what matter - not Amazon. If you're in a business that is one of: high AOV, high margin, subscription/frequent repeat customers then you're okay. If you're in a low margin, commodity business and you aren't operating at a huge scale, you're not in a great spot.
Ultimately, I think the actual value added by Amazon for startups is trust - I know that if I order from them, your product will arrive on time, and if there's an issue it'll get fixed ASAP. All of the other stuff, like two-day shipping and customer-friendly return policies, is doable off of Amazon. Even trust is achievable in other ways, though - my company was featured in an Associated Press article that was broadly syndicated, and when I slapped "AS SEEN ON USA TODAY, FOX, KTLA AND MORE" on the top of every product page and the top of my FB ads, it made a huge difference immediately.
And actually now that I've typed that I'll add one more thing in Amazon's favor - ease of use. If you don't know a lot about ecommerce, it's pretty easy to get set up and ship them product. It's also easy to advertise, simply because their advertising is much, much simpler than Facebook. There's no copy and limited ability to use creative outside of your product images, so you don't have to constantly test stuff. While my sales on Amazon aren't high margin, they're also extremely low effort.
You are 100% right that my products are niche and premium, and that definitely makes a difference. But on the other hand, if you're a startup selling a commodity product, you're in a bad position for a whole lot of reasons other than Amazon.
From an advertising standpoint, you're right - I have the advantage of selling a product that has a high repeat rate, and that's helpful. On the other hand, my AOV is fairly low and my margins are okay but not extraordinary.
I think that the points you're raising here are what matter - not Amazon. If you're in a business that is one of: high AOV, high margin, subscription/frequent repeat customers then you're okay. If you're in a low margin, commodity business and you aren't operating at a huge scale, you're not in a great spot.
Ultimately, I think the actual value added by Amazon for startups is trust - I know that if I order from them, your product will arrive on time, and if there's an issue it'll get fixed ASAP. All of the other stuff, like two-day shipping and customer-friendly return policies, is doable off of Amazon. Even trust is achievable in other ways, though - my company was featured in an Associated Press article that was broadly syndicated, and when I slapped "AS SEEN ON USA TODAY, FOX, KTLA AND MORE" on the top of every product page and the top of my FB ads, it made a huge difference immediately.
And actually now that I've typed that I'll add one more thing in Amazon's favor - ease of use. If you don't know a lot about ecommerce, it's pretty easy to get set up and ship them product. It's also easy to advertise, simply because their advertising is much, much simpler than Facebook. There's no copy and limited ability to use creative outside of your product images, so you don't have to constantly test stuff. While my sales on Amazon aren't high margin, they're also extremely low effort.