Here's my take on it and someone can chime in if I'm wrong on the details...<p>Imagine you're a startup/inventor that manufactures a widget that you'd like to sell to the mass market, you could either (1) try to sell direct from your website (2) get on the shelves of national stores like Best Buy, Target, Walmart, etc. The "shelves" include the real ones at their brick & mortar stores and the virtual shelves on their online websites.<p>(1) is hard to attract shoppers since nobody knows about your low-traffic website. Also, you'd have to handle the hassle of fulfillment yourself. Amazon Launchpad leverages their competency in global logistics to do this for you.<p>(2) is difficult to get meetings with corporate retail buyers and convince them to carry your product. Sometimes, there are also "slotting fees" (sometimes aka "bribes") to get prime shelf locations (eye level vs the floor.)<p>What Amazon is doing is opening up their "shelves" which includes the prime pixels real estate on their front page to promote startups' products. They are <i>actively marketing</i> your product. This is a different initiative from passively showing the 3rd-party marketplace sellers on amazon product pages.<p>However, to filter out the low quality junk and avoid every garage warrior trying to sell their flavor of homemade barbeque sauce, the products have to come from "the approved network"[1] that includes firms such as a16z, Accel Partners, etc. If we scan that list of affiliates, we'd expect the products vetted by them to be "cutting edge" and "innovative".<p>What's not specified in all the press releases and FAQ about Amazon Launchpad is the type of payment structure Amazon expects. Is it negiotiated on a product-by-product basis? Is it flat percentage?<p>[1]<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/launchpad/network" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/gp/launchpad/network</a><p>[2]<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slotting_fee" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slotting_fee</a>
Some notes:<p>1. Amazon Launchpad will ask for a few sample units to test. What they actually mean is that they sell these units. So, don't send Amazon units until you're ready to part with them and put them in your customer's hands.<p>Here's Vendor Express (their vendor management system) on that topic:<p>> We'll sometimes request a minimum sample of free units of your product so that we can evaluate the demand from our customers before placing an initial purchase order. After your product sells, we may start issuing purchase orders.<p>So, if you're a Kickstarter or Indie-go-go project and you want to sell your product on Amazon as well, you'll likely be going through Launchpad. This can get... uncomfortable for you if you send them test units before your Kickstarter backers get theirs.<p>2. Amazon's ToS for Vendor Express specifically states that they can rescind/change their Purchase Order at any moment before the product physically arrives at their fulfillment center. I've heard stories of startups having their P.O. reduced by half and having to eat that cost. When you're a young startup, capital is everything.<p>Other resources for understanding more about manufacturing costs: <a href="https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-go-about-budgeting-manufacturing-costs-for-a-startup-technology-product" rel="nofollow">https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-go-about-budgeting-manufactur...</a>
<a href="http://www.andrewjdupree.com/blog/2016/8/3/how-long-does-it-take-to-manufacture-a-hardware-product" rel="nofollow">http://www.andrewjdupree.com/blog/2016/8/3/how-long-does-it-...</a>
My take on this is that it sounds an awful lot like a sensing network for Amazon to discover which products are taking off and if it's viable to produce a low cost clone. At which point Amazon will not only have cloned your product, but also own your main distribution channel. Approach with caution?
It's not evident what's new, but this initiative was announced a year ago, here's the article: "Amazon Takes On Product Hunt, Shopify With Launchpad, An All-In-One Marketing And Sales Portal" [1]<p>[1]<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2015/07/28/amazon-takes-on-product-hunt-shopify-with-launchpad-an-all-in-one-marketing-and-sales-portal/" rel="nofollow">https://techcrunch.com/2015/07/28/amazon-takes-on-product-hu...</a>
I've been using this for my dog toy that I launched on Kickstarter and it has worked out amazing. The only downside is you don't have control over what they price at since you're selling products wholesale to them. But for the amount of work that it takes (very little), it's a great trade off.
Why is their logo so degraded [1]?<p>[1] <a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/boost/landing/img/FormLogo._CB314969857_.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/boost/la...</a>
This looks like a site that someone in a foreign country who was trying to pretend to be amazon would make to trick people.<p>Did they fire all of their designers or something?
I'm sure I'm not alone in having concerns about how ruthlessly centralizing Amazon is making the shopping experience for just about everything but groceries (because I will never trust anyone to pick my meats and produce for me), but if Amazon Launchpad works as well as this advertisement claims it will, then I cannot for the life of me think of a better means and marketplace to trial new products.<p>Maybe if your product does really well they'll set you up with a Dash button.
This is an interesting idea in that it basically becomes the store for post-kickstarter projects that had traction but not enough to negotiate a contract with major retailers. Great idea -- I hope it takes off (no pun intended).
Blackbox.cool [1] just got run over by a tank.<p>[1] <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12356218" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12356218</a>
I used to sell hardware to amazon. Here's my take on this.<p>This boils down to a whitelist which allows companies to skip the traditional sales/retail-contract process required for a manufacturer to become a vendor.<p>This is not a service that Amazon will sell, essentially a loss leader to get vendors into the network.<p>Normally for brands that are new, Amazon requires a unique product line or price or some differentiator. A well established rep can easily get them in the door.<p>I typically recommend that brands:
1. Start selling online ASAP
2. Start selling on Amazon ASAP
3. As sales grow, become an Amazon vendor
Although, amazon is saying they welcome all startups but looks like this launchpad is only for companies having a physical product. I think you can't apply if you have an app to launch.
Your product has to be absolutely extraordinary to pass such an extensive list of vetting partners [1], in which case there's a good chance you would do fine selling on your own and generating your own word of mouth buzz if you ask me. If you invent the next iPhone you are <i>probably</i> going to do well even if don't sell on Amazon.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/launchpad/network" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/gp/launchpad/network</a>
I'm interested in the flip side of this. How, as a consumer, can I discover cool new products from startups that Amazon thinks are noteworthy? I wish the also announced an section of the website like amazon.com/launchpadproducts where I could see a list of qualified products.
Interesting. I've just been reading about using alibaba with freight forwarders and shopify to create online shops where you can sell on Amazon. This might make it even easier.
One thing to note - they started out taking pre-orders but decided they didn't like this as they realized the startups have no control over their shipping schedule...
when I saw the word "amazon launchpad", I thought it has something to do with amazon web services.<p>later, I found that both are completely different from each other.