You are thinking about buying clothing items from your own or a third-party brand. for sale on Amazon? In this article, I will therefore focus exclusively on the sale of clothing on Amazon. To do this, we will first take a look at the different categories, the sales fees and the competitive environment.
Sale of clothing items on Amazon
When I talk to apparel business owners, Amazon is often not even perceived as a relevant platform for selling apparel items, even though Amazon is now the primary place to go for product research in general.
In contrast to other product categories, Amazon is not the obvious online market leader in clothing, but competes with companies such as Zalando, AbouYou and the brands' online stores. As a result, the focus is not necessarily on Amazon as a sales channel.
The main advantage of Amazon as a sales channel is that it is an open marketplace on which the seller can decide on prices in addition to product presentation and can track sales promotion measures from external channels on Amazon. Platforms such as Zalando and AboutYou are closed marketplaces that do not accept every seller. The content requirements on these marketplaces are also much more restrictive than on Amazon.
Categorization of clothing on Amazon
The main category "Clothing" at Amazon is divided into the following subcategories, which in turn have their own subcategories:
- Ladies
- Men's rooms
- Girls
- Boys
- Baby
- Special occasions & workwear
- Sportswear
Styleguides in the Clothing category on Amazon.de
The style guides are Amazon's specifications for the product information provided by sellers. Each category has its own style guide, and the specifications are increasingly strictly controlled by Amazon, whereby non-compliance can sometimes be penalized. As the clothing category is strategically relevant for Amazon (competition with Zalando and Co.), compliance with the quality guidelines is particularly strict here and should therefore be followed at all costs.
Image guidelines in the Clothing category
Main images for all parent ASINs (parent items) and child ASINs (child items) are the minimum that sellers must provide. However, it is advisable to also provide images for the detailed view. In addition, the background of the main images must always be white - products may be hidden by Amazon if this is not observed.
As far as image quality is concerned, a minimum size of 1000 x 1000 pixels should be achieved to enable the zoom function for the images.
EAN & GTIN
As with almost all products (handmade products etc. may be an exception), an EAN or GTIN must be assigned to each product offered in the clothing category. For existing listings, it is sufficient to enter the ASIN to be able to offer the same product.
The most important title guidelines at a glance:
- The parent title should not be longer than 60 characters
- The child title should not be longer than 150 characters
- Capitalization for all words is prohibited
- Repetitive words are not allowed
The structure of the product titles is as follows:
Parent product:
[Brand] + [name of department] + [style/shape] + [product name] + [model name]
Child product:
[Parent title] + [Color] + [Size]
Overview of guidelines for search terms:
- No indication of false or misleading attributes or competitor brands
- Common misspellings of the plural do not have to be listed as a search term
- Fashion trends, special occasions, synonyms or product details should be mentioned
- The entire space (249 bytes) should be used
- Search terms should not be mentioned more than once
Fees for the sale of clothing items on Amazon.de
As usual, the Professional sales tariff costs €39 per month. The additional sales-based fee is 15 % of the sales price.
If the products are sold via Amazon FBA should be shipped, additional shipping costs as well as storage costs will be charged, currently in the following amount (per cubic meter per month):
January - September: 26 €
October - December: 36 €
Amazon private label brands in the apparel category
Amazon has a total of 188 own brands in the clothing & jewelry categories, which accounts for approximately 48 % of all Amazon own brands. Around 70 % of all Amazon own brands in the clothing category fall into the women's clothing sub-category. The best-known own brands in the category are Amazon Essentials and Goodtreads.
Conclusion - Selling clothing items on Amazon
The special feature of selling clothing on Amazon is that the online retailer's style guide is very strictly controlled and enforced by Amazon. The number of Amazon's own brands in this category is also particularly high.
In addition to Amazon, Zalando and AboutYou are particularly interesting as sales platforms for clothing manufacturers, although Amazon places more responsibility in the hands of the sellers.
