As one of the world’s major e-commerce platforms, Amazon lets you reach thousands of customers daily. However, it’s not the only path to building a successful online business. Trusted by major brands like Red Bull and Staples, Shopify empowers you to create a fully branded storefront, giving you full control over your customer experience, pricing, and marketing.
While Amazon helps you get in front of ready-to-buy shoppers, Shopify helps you build long-term customer relationships and brand loyalty. Used together, they can be a powerful one-two punch for growth. Keep reading to learn how to set up your Shopify site and start selling there as an Amazon seller.
Why Sell Amazon Products on Shopify?
You may already have your hands full with selling products on Amazon, so why add another platform into the mix? While it seems like more work to add a whole new platform to your online selling portfolio, selling your Amazon products on Shopify provides extra benefits for your brand, like:
- High customizability that helps you create an online store that fits your needs. Additionally, you can customize your Shopify site to fit your brand without having to adhere to Amazon’s rules.
- Amazon integration that simplifies inventory management and fulfillment.
- Scalability that allows you to improve and refine your online shop as your business grows.
- Wide range of support apps to add features that may not be available on an Amazon page.
So, if you ask yourself, “Should I sell on Amazon or on Shopify?”, the answer can be “both.”
When to Start Selling Amazon Products on Shopify
While there’s no minimum threshold to setting up a Shopify store for your Amazon products, it’s a good idea to establish a foundation on Amazon first. An Amazon revenue of about $3,000 a month should be enough of a foothold before you can safely try expanding to Shopify.
At this stage, moving to Shopify makes more sense because:
- You have predictable cash flow to support website development, marketing, and order fulfillment infrastructure.
- You’ve built brand awareness on Amazon, which can help drive traffic to your Shopify store via cross-promotion.
- You gain more control over your branding, pricing, and customer relationships on Shopify, which is something Amazon limits.
- You’re ready to own your customer data, which is essential for long-term growth strategies like email marketing and loyalty programs.
Starting a Shopify store too early, without traction on Amazon or another marketplace, often leads to unnecessary costs and slow sales. But once your Amazon business is generating consistent income, Shopify becomes a powerful next step for scaling your brand
Selling Your Amazon Products on Shopify With Multi-Channel Fulfillment
Managing inventory for two stores simultaneously can be challenging and time-consuming. Fortunately, Amazon offers the Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) service. Simply put, MCF is like Amazon FBA for non-Amazon marketplaces, offering easy integrations with other e-commerce platforms.
One great benefit of using MCF to sell on Shopify is that you can utilize your FBA inventory to sell there without maintaining an additional “basket” specifically for Shopify products.
Amazon MCF offers four ways to link Shopify with Amazon:
- “Built by Amazon” app: Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) has a free app that connects MCF with your Shopify store. However, the Amazon app only works for orders placed in the US.
- Third-party applications: Third-party apps can connect your Shopify website to Amazon MCF and may offer additional features like real-time inventory updates.
- Inventory and order management solutions: Inventory and order management solutions are similar to third-party apps, but they generally handle more complex order routing, such as when you need your Shopify site to draw stock from Amazon MCF and other 3PL providers.
- Custom API: If you want to customize your MCF and Shopify integration fully, you can build a custom API. However, building APIs requires technical expertise, and you may need to hire an external developer to accomplish this.
How to Sell Amazon Products on Shopify: A Step-by-Step Guide
Before integrating Shopify with Amazon, you need three things:
- An active Amazon Seller Central membership. This can be an Individual or a Professional plan, depending on your sales needs.
- A Shopify account, preferably with an online store set up and ready to sell.
- An understanding of Amazon’s API and how to integrate it with Shopify. While there are tools that can help you do so, it’s still a good idea to know the basics of Amazon-Shopify integration.
With the prerequisites in place, let’s examine the steps required to sell Amazon products on Shopify through MCF. In this scenario, we’ll integrate our Amazon stock with Shopify through the MCF app.
Step 1: Connect Amazon to Shopify
First, you need to connect your Amazon account to Shopify. You can do so on the Amazon MCF app and log into your Shopify account.
Step 2: Map Product SKUs
MCF needs to be able to match up your Shopify products with your Amazon offerings to fulfill customer orders. To make this easier, the app can auto-map your products if the SKU names match between Amazon and Shopify. However, if their SKU names differ, you may need to map the products manually.
Step 3: Enable MCF Location on Shopify
Next, you want to enable MCF as a shipping location for your Shopify SKUs so the platform can route orders to an Amazon fulfillment warehouse. You can either change the shipping locations of a select few products that you want fulfilled by Amazon, or update the locations for all your products on Shopify.
If you want to change everything you have on Shopify, you can use the Shopify Bulk Editor instead of changing each product manually.
Step 4: Create MCF Shipping Profile
Lastly, create a shipping profile for Amazon MCF on your Shopify site and apply it to your products. You can create multiple profiles that correspond to the different types of Amazon shipping speeds, providing shoppers with more options.
Once the shipping profiles are set up, you’re all set to sell Amazon products on Shopify.
Best Practices for Selling on Shopify and Amazon
Selling on both Shopify and Amazon can be a powerful way to scale your e-commerce business, but it requires a thoughtful strategy to manage both platforms effectively. To get the most out of your Shopify-Amazon integration, follow these best practices:
Encourage and Display Customer Reviews
Having a Shopify and an Amazon store means you have two places from which to gather reviews. Always encourage your customers to leave a review after they have purchased your product.
When you have a Shopify page, reviews serve a dual purpose. They can increase product visibility on Amazon and build trust on both Shopify and Amazon. When you’ve just created your Shopify site, you can import some of your Amazon reviews there to populate the review section, signaling to potential buyers that you’re a trustworthy seller.
Build a Consistent Brand Identity
With a Shopify store, you have more leeway in deciding how the store looks since you’re not bound to Amazon’s rules. This means you can build a cohesive, consistent brand identity that helps your brand become instantly recognizable. Consistent branding is an all-encompassing effort, so ensure your site visuals, social media presence, and other customer-facing touchpoints all look and feel like part of one company.
Optimize for SEO
On Amazon, you’re optimizing keywords to catch the attention of its search algorithm. On Shopify, you also need to optimize for search engines like Google so your store is easily findable. With good SEO optimization, you’ll boost your chances to attract organic traffic and potentially land more sales.
Sync Inventory and Fulfillment Systems
Managing two storefronts means managing two sets of inventory unless you connect them properly. Use multi-channel fulfillment tools or inventory management software (like Shopify’s built-in Amazon integration, or third-party options like Sellbrite or Inventory Source) to ensure accurate stock levels across platforms.
This helps prevent overselling, backorders, and customer dissatisfaction. It also makes it easier to scale without adding unnecessary complexity to your operations.
Conclusion
Selling your Amazon products on Shopify is a great way to expand your store, reach new audiences, and further strengthen your brand. Shopify’s high customizability and Amazon integration capabilities help you build the online store you want, while still utilizing Amazon’s robust fulfillment services to deliver products to customers.
Part of creating a good Shopify store is populating it with customer reviews that are helpful and insightful. Unfortunately, some people leave fake reviews that damage your brand and make your store look untrustworthy. With powerful AI-powered tools, TraceFuse can sweep and remove fake reviews within days. Schedule a demo today to learn how we can help you.
