I love Amazon shopping for many reasons. They offer free shipping, the subscription service saves money and you can literally get all your needs and wants in a single marketplace. But there’s one unique platform not many people know about. What is Amazon Launchpad? You will want to read this if you are a startup or an Amazon associate.
Why Join Launchpad as a Startup?
The Amazon Launchpad was initiated in July 2015 for the purpose of helping startups to market their new products. This is a huge opportunity to put your innovation in front of more than 300 million customers in the US and across the globe, clearly a benefit not to be missed.
ONE of the biggest perks is that you get a full page on the Amazon marketplace to describe and promote with more images and videos which other sellers don’t have the privilege of. This feature clearly distinguishes yours with all the other 200 million products that are all cramped up in the listing.
As a Launchpad vendor you will be working closely with the Amazon marketing team to boost your company’s product on the homepage listing and get qualified candidates on Amazon Vine to write reviews for your product.
What To Expect
Some people might call this as disadvantage, but as part and parcel when partnering with a giant eCommerce portal I think that understanding these facts will help you to be better prepared in achieving your timeline goals.
1) Since this is a whole selling process you actually need to ship your first batch of products to the Amazon for feeling centers even before receiving any orders. The team would use this Esther benchmark to determine if there’s any market demand for them before approving your program application.
2) Amazon is quite stringent with who they accept into the program and only approve certain panel of crowdfunding platforms. If your company isn’t part of those networks, it’s going to be tricky to get approved for the program, but not impossible as Amazon has mentioned that they would consider in some cases.
3) Your product’s selling price has to meet the expectations of the Amazon Marketplace. If it’s a figure that they do not accept, you don’t get to join to program.
4) Like anyone else, you’ll be charged with certain seller fees for every order, so this is something you need to sacrifice in exchange for a bigger market audience.
What Can Launchpad Offer Affiliates?
Launchpad products are mostly unique and offer values to the audience and those are criteria for writing a good product review that sells. Speaking of conversion, these items are also innovations that usually sell at a higher price range. Hence, you can expect a bigger commission rate if you choose to feature those brands under your blog.
New products on Amazon aren’t usually visible to shoppers during the early periods, therefore by blogging about them, you are bringing exciting experience to the consumer market as well as fresh content for your business. In addition, most of them are highly rated by real customers, which will make your recommendation more convincing.
Do you know that people are always searching online for new products to improve their lifestyle choices? These are opportunity keywords that you can tap into. Inspired by what I see in Launchpad’s listing earlier today, I’ve come up with some great keywords that you might find helpful, using my favorite Jaaxy tool.
Keyword lists;
- Skybuds Ⓡ – Wireless headphones for mobile
- Protein2o Ⓡ – How to build lean muscle for women
- SmartyPants Ⓡ – Best gummy vitamins for adults
- Hello Oral Care Ⓡ – Fluoride free toothpaste for kids
- Quell Ⓡ – How to relieve foot pain from standing all day
- Rocketbook Ⓡ – The best notebook for students
- Canary Ⓡ – How to burglar proof your windows
- Garden Tower Project Ⓡ – Indoor vegetable gardening systems
- Link AKC Ⓡ – GPS tracker for dogs
- GrowlerWerks Ⓡ – How to keep beer fresh after opening
As for startups, the good news is, you can also leverage these long tail keywords in your online marketing efforts such as blogging and social media to attract the type of customers that you desire from every corner of the world. If you have a keyword in mind, just enter it in the search below and see the results yourself.
Is Launchpad Worthy of Your Time?
I’ve always been intrigued by innovative ideas and have been following several crowdfunded projects for some years and even bought a few items myself. In fact, most of these products didn’t even exist five years ago and from a business standpoint, these are all new and exciting niches that hold a lot of possibilities.
The way I see it, Launchpad is bringing online marketing and selling to a whole new level as we seek for better solutions in life as modern human beings. It truly allows a passion to thrive in the eyes of millions of people – a feat that can’t be accomplished by any other eCommerce sites besides Amazon.
So, startups and affiliates, now that you know what the Launchpad is all about, go to the site and see how you can utilize it to your best advantage.
If you want to learn more about starting or growing a successful online business, check out my recommended training platform here.
Have any questions or thoughts about this article? Please leave them in the comment area below and I will get back to you as soon.
You may also be interested to read;
How to Become an Amazon Associate
Vic Lees says
Hello Cathy,
Great article. I never even heard of Launchpad before.You seem very informed on the startup side of things, but as an affiliate marketer can you tell me how I can find these launchpad startups to affiliate with on Amazon? Or are they just a part of Amazon as a whole and included in our affiliate program with them. I’m very intrigued.
Cathy says
Hi there Vic.
This platform is kind of hidden within the Amazon marketplace. I only knew about it because I was following some crowd sourced project online. But the details are there. If you look at the product information section, way at the bottom of the page, you should be able to find the ranking of the item within certain departments.
For example, this protein drink is listed as top #20 in Launchpad. That’s one way you can discover them. Alternatively (now that you know they exist), just type Amazon Launchpad on the product search bar to get instant access.
Enjoy your search!
grace says
I am one of the Amazon Affiliates but this is the first time that I heard of Amazon Launchpad. Thank you for a very interesting and informative article. I will have to spend additional time gathering information of how Launchpad assists affiliates before I make any kind of decision on what products to promote. Once gain, I learned something new today.
Cathy says
Yeah, definitely do your niche research first before jumping into using Amazon Launchpad. Most of the products are pretty new and people might not be familiar with those technology yet. Some are also in the prototype mode so you may want to wait a while and see if the product layout changes.
Cynthia says
Very interesting article. I really have not heard of Amazon Launchpad before. I would like to find out more about it. I could possibly utilize and blog about some of the products that fit in with my niche. How do you follow the products that are launched? I haven’t noticed a link when I go to the Amazon site.
Cathy says
Hey Cynthia, if I haven’t been following a Kickstarter project, I wouldn’t know about Amazon Launchpad either. You are right, the link cannot be found (or maybe I missed it) on the main site. But they can definitely be located using the product search bar. Let us know if you discovered anything exciting for your niche.
Wendi says
Thanks for this review on Amazon Launchpad. I had certainly not heard of it before, so it’s nice to learn about a new platform designed to help new sellers. Amazon is such an amazing site, and can offer great opportunities to make money, and it’s nice to see that they know the difference between new sellers and old, experienced sellers. One size does not fit all. I am looking into a product to sell on Amazon for my next project and I will keep this platform in mind.
Cathy says
Hey Wendi, glad you found this article useful 🙂
Kenny says
Hey Cathy,
Thanks for the info about Amazon Launchpad. I just got myself started as an Amazon associate. Reading your article is a breathe of fresh air. I didn’t thought it would work for new affiliate marketers, but I guess I am wrong about that.
Cathy says
Hey Kenny, this start up platform is every bit useful to both bloggers and inventors. New products need reviews and who’s better to write about it than affiliate marketers. A new company can benefit from the extra online exposure so it’s a win-win situation for all.