Looking for some insight into the coming year? Here are our predictions for the Amazon marketplace in 2021.
Tommy Beringer:
What's up, you data-hungry Amazon sellers? This is your host, Tommy Beringer of the Sell. Rank. Win. Podcast from MerchantWords. And in this podcast, we give you the answers to your most burning questions, actionable insights that you can take away and implement into your business today. So let's go ahead and dive right into today's episode. What do you say? Let's go. What's going on, everybody? Thank you for tuning into the Sell. Rank. Win. Podcast. I'm your host, Tommy Beringer. And today, in this episode, we are going to be giving you guys out Bold 2021 Amazon Seller Predictions. What is Amazon going to do to help you? And then maybe, what are some sellers going to do? What are the predictions there? What are these bold predictions that are going to be happening in 2021?
So we're going to give you three bold predictions, and then number four is going to be extra bold. So you're going to get four bold predictions, so three plus one bonus, and we're making these predictions based on some of the data we're seeing inside of MerchantWords, and then also other partners that we're dealing with. And then also inside of our own Seller Central accounts. So we have some data to back these predictions up, but hopefully, they will be going that way. We will see. And so yeah, let's go ahead and get into it.
So the first bold prediction is streamlining account reinstatement. So what does that mean? So, basically, Amazon is going to want to help you to solve your issues a lot quicker, mainly the suspended account and deactivated account issues. We have been seeing this as they have been outlining a form for you within your POA that you're supposed to submit, your plan of action.
So, basically, the form is now, if your account has been deactivated, some of the issues will give you a form asking you a question like, did you do this? And then, a blank text box for you to answer. So it's pretty straightforward for some of the issues, and then some do not have that yet. So, basically, you just have to contact the Seller Performance Team and just, as you usually do, or if you guys don't know, what you need to do is just grovel to the Seller Performance Team saying, "I will never do this again," and so forth. But, basically, that's what you would have to do, is just send them an email back. And sometimes it's hard trying to get in touch with a person that you actually need to get in touch with to get your account reinstated, and then sometimes you don't know what to answer with. You don't know what they want to hear or what documentation. They eventually will tell you either within a message within Amazon or an email, but sometimes it is not that straight forward. It was pretty vague sometimes.
And also, it's pretty slow sometimes to get that account reinstated. So what we've been seeing, for an example, one issue that I've seen is an account being deactivated for an account being related to other multiple accounts. So, basically, Amazon is saying, "Hey, we see that this account is related to some other accounts," just check the other account and then respond there, and so forth. So it's just basically taking you through a process on how to get your account reinstated for different deactivation issues. I think that we're going to see more and more help from Amazon and more and more clarity from Amazon on why your account has been down and what you need to do to reinstate it immediately. I think Amazon is moving in that direction on helping sellers out, believe it or not. I think that's a really good thing that Amazon is doing. So thank you for that, Amazon. What we've been seeing so far, and I think they're going to continue on that within 2021, making it more straightforward for these sellers to get their accounts reinstated if they have been taken down.
Now, number two. Bold prediction number two is more and more Amazon sellers are going to expand over to Walmart and Etsy. Some of you might not think that this is a bold prediction, but I think that at least a quarter to half of the revenue now is going to be coming from Walmart and Etsy from these Amazon sellers come 2021. I know that's a bold prediction. It might not get there, but we will see. From what we're seeing over here at MerchantWords, is that buyer searches in Etsy have grown 128% since January 2020 to December 2020. That's a huge jump. And Walmart has grown 176% from January 2020 to December 2020. That is pretty big, so expect more growth there from Amazon sellers to start selling on those other platforms, especially Walmart rolling out the Walmart Plus, and also, making it a lot easier for sellers to sell on their platform.
And at the moment, you don't have to pay per click. It's basically if you do advertisement on Walmart, you just pay for the conversions. So if someone clicks, clicks, clicks, clicks, does not buy, you don't have to pay for that click. You just pay for the conversion, which is pretty, pretty dang cool. And then there is no monthly fees at the moment that I'm speaking about this. That could change. You're only paying for referral fees, which is between 6% and 15% currently. So that is my bold prediction, more and more Amazon sellers are going to expand to Etsy and Walmart, and that could start increasing their top line, the top line revenue.
All right, bold prediction number three, many successful sellers will be bought out by large investors and various firms looking to grow, get into the Amazon space by acquisition.
So some of you sellers out there, if you're doing pretty good, believe it or not, some people are looking at you and might want to buy your company. So be ready. Possibly that could definitely happen. More and more Amazon businesses are being acquired, and these large firms have investors that want to come in and just gobble up some of these Amazon spaces, some of these Amazon companies, to just increase their top-line revenue. And it's going to happen. It's going to happen more and more. We're seeing it, by large, some of the companies that we've been talking with asking us for big data. We're working with them and some of them are investment companies looking for big data for their clients. So their clients are looking at all of these keywords in all the data that we have basically to see what is going to be viable and what is going to be smart for them to go ahead and what market to get into.
So, basically, we're helping them out with their due diligence on possibly acquiring some companies and getting into certain spaces. So we are seeing that here directly from some talks that we have been having with other companies requiring large sets of data, that big data. So you're going to see more and more and a lot of more Amazon companies being bought up by larger firms. So continue to build those Amazon brands and Amazon businesses so you can get bought out for a 10X multiple, maybe. That'd be awesome.
All right. And our fourth and final bold prediction for Amazon for 2021 is that they're going to get into the commercial airline space. What do you think about that? I know they already have their Amazon Air, which is their cargo airliner. They're flying packages all around the world. Why not put some people on that plane and start flying some people around there? So I know that could be another vertical that Amazon could be thinking about getting into.
I miss Virgin Airlines with the purple lights and all the cool, "cool airline". Maybe they can come in and fill that void. I think it'd be a great idea. And maybe this isn't a 2021 prediction, maybe it's 2022, 2023, but I could totally see myself jumping on an Amazon plane, flying around wherever I need to go, and I think they would do a great job of it. And as Jeff Bezos has said, "Your margin is my opportunity." So no market is safe out there, guys. Believe that. All right. So that was our fourth and final bold prediction. I hope you all have very happy holidays out there or have had happy holidays, and a very happy new year, a very successful 2021. From all of us here at MerchantWords, we wish you all the very, very best, a very successful and fruitful 2021. Stay healthy. Stay happy. And until next time, guys, stay awesome and be awesome. Thanks so much.
All right. Thank you, guys, so much for listening. And if you got any value out of this podcast at all, please let us know at the place that you listened to it at. Whether it be iTunes, Stitcher, whatever it is, give us some love, give us an awesome review, and let us know maybe some things you want us to talk about on the next podcast. Until next time, guys, stay awesome and be awesome.