克麗絲·伯爾納住在西雅圖，是一家藥品收納盒公司的銷售主管。和許多有智能手機(jī)的人一樣，她看手機(jī)的次數(shù)遠(yuǎn)高于正常水平。不過，她并不是用手機(jī)在Facebook上灌水，或者給朋友發(fā)信息。

讓伯爾納總是忍不住查看的是一款移動(dòng)應(yīng)用，是電子商務(wù)龍頭亞馬遜今年8月份悄悄上線的一款產(chǎn)品，面向的是亞馬遜網(wǎng)上商城賣家。該軟件可為伯爾納等賣家提供實(shí)時(shí)庫存和銷售信息，還能就定價(jià)和補(bǔ)貨時(shí)間提出建議。

亞馬遜接受《財(cái)富》雜志獨(dú)家采訪時(shí)透露，近幾個(gè)月來，亞馬遜在這款移動(dòng)應(yīng)用 Seller中向賣家推出了不少新功能，其中就包括Selling Coach。這些工具的作用是為賣家提供更多信息，從而幫他們提高銷售額。

亞馬遜有自營商品和存貨，商城里也聚集了眾多外部賣家。該公司表示，第三方賣家目前占亞馬遜商品總銷量的45%以上，今年以來同比相比增加了5%。

伯爾納2013年決定銷售藥品收納盒系列產(chǎn)品，她只用了幾個(gè)小時(shí)就成立了公司并建起了網(wǎng)店。但除了親朋好友，真正吸引到網(wǎng)絡(luò)用戶才是更艱巨的挑戰(zhàn)。

伯爾納說：“當(dāng)時(shí)我對(duì)建起來的東西感到非常自豪，而且認(rèn)為這些藥品收納盒用不了幾個(gè)小時(shí)就會(huì)銷售一空。但并沒有出現(xiàn)這樣的場(chǎng)面?！?/p>

她研究了各種方案，決定參加亞馬遜為賣家提供的代發(fā)貨項(xiàng)目，具體流程為伯爾納把藥品收納盒發(fā)到亞馬遜的倉庫，然后由亞馬遜負(fù)責(zé)剩下的工作，包括打包、收款和發(fā)貨。當(dāng)然，每做一單伯爾納都要向亞馬遜繳納服務(wù)費(fèi)，金額從1.5美元到100美元不等，具體取決于訂單規(guī)模和商品重量，還有一部分標(biāo)準(zhǔn)費(fèi)用。

代發(fā)貨項(xiàng)目是2006年推出的，在過去兩年中出現(xiàn)了井噴式增長。據(jù)亞馬遜介紹，2014-2015年，使用這項(xiàng)服務(wù)的賣家增加了65%。雖然亞馬遜沒有透露簽約商家的具體數(shù)量，但電商軟件開發(fā)公司ChannelAdvisor估算，在亞馬遜商城銷售的3億件商品中，有3000萬件來自第三方簽約賣家。

ChannelAdvisor執(zhí)行董事長斯科特?溫戈解釋說，對(duì)外部賣家來說，能向亞馬遜的約5000萬名Prime會(huì)員銷售很有吸引力，Prime會(huì)員的年費(fèi)為99美元，享受的服務(wù)是無論購買何種商品，從廁紙、尿布，到書籍，都可以在兩天或更短時(shí)間內(nèi)收到貨。只有參加亞馬遜代發(fā)貨，又名FBA項(xiàng)目的賣家才有資格使用Prime快遞服務(wù)。

亞馬遜負(fù)責(zé)代發(fā)貨業(yè)務(wù)的副總裁馬克?米特契克說：“通過FBA項(xiàng)目，賣家的商品可以到達(dá)Prime會(huì)員群體，而且會(huì)員的數(shù)量一直在迅速增長。對(duì)Prime會(huì)員來說，第三方賣家和亞馬遜沒有什么區(qū)別，用戶覺得方便就行?！?/p>

眾所周知，亞馬遜一直相信自己的競爭優(yōu)勢(shì)在于送貨速度比其他零售商快。該公司最近披露說，正在探索用無人機(jī)在30分鐘內(nèi)完成快遞的方法（當(dāng)然前提是這個(gè)項(xiàng)目能真正落實(shí)），而且還為快遞業(yè)務(wù)配備數(shù)千輛印有亞馬遜商標(biāo)的卡車。相應(yīng)地，想更快收到商品的顧客也越來越多，特別是在節(jié)假日前后。米特契克說：“大多數(shù)買家現(xiàn)在都希望兩天內(nèi)送到貨?！?/p>

今年9月，亞馬遜還調(diào)整了所有外部賣家的商品展示頁面，這樣潛在顧客就能了解到預(yù)計(jì)快遞需要多長時(shí)間。以前，買家只有在結(jié)賬時(shí)才能看到此類信息。此舉旨在鼓勵(lì)消費(fèi)者買更多東西。

雖然Prime快遞服務(wù)目前只限于加入FBA項(xiàng)目的賣家，但溫戈透露，亞馬遜還在測(cè)試一項(xiàng)“由賣家發(fā)貨的Prime”服務(wù)。具體來說就是亞馬遜開始和規(guī)模較大的經(jīng)銷商合作，因?yàn)檫@些經(jīng)銷商通常在美國各地都有自己的倉庫，而且有能力按Prime服務(wù)的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)在兩天內(nèi)完成商品投遞。溫戈解釋道，這些賣家不需要代發(fā)貨，所以不需要使用FBA服務(wù)。但他們可以享受UPS等公司為亞馬遜提供的快遞協(xié)議價(jià)，一般都遠(yuǎn)低于常規(guī)費(fèi)用。

溫戈說：“如此一來，亞馬遜既可以為Prime會(huì)員提供更多品類的商品，又省下了建立更多物流中心的費(fèi)用?！?/p>

對(duì)亞馬遜來說，貨運(yùn)成本很高。今年第三季度，該公司運(yùn)輸費(fèi)用增長了22%，達(dá)到32億美元。

和第三方賣家合作的零售商不止亞馬遜一家。對(duì)手沃爾瑪現(xiàn)在也可以讓第三方賣家在自家網(wǎng)站上開店。賣家還可以通過eBay出售商品，只是eBay不提供代發(fā)貨服務(wù)。

今年早些時(shí)候，亞馬遜推出了一個(gè)名為Exclusives的項(xiàng)目，目的是鼓勵(lì)賣家與亞馬遜網(wǎng)站建立獨(dú)家合作關(guān)系，由此可以獲得亞馬遜搜索導(dǎo)流以及其他推廣資源。伯爾納說，她本打算在一家“大型知名零售商”的網(wǎng)站上開店，但最后她選擇了亞馬遜的Exclusives合作項(xiàng)目：“公司業(yè)務(wù)出現(xiàn)了巨大轉(zhuǎn)機(jī)，得益于亞馬遜的推廣，銷售額上升了80%。”

米特契克指出，就連大賣家也能從亞馬遜提供的一些賣家服務(wù)中受益，特別是在海外銷售方面。TechArmor在亞馬遜上出售手機(jī)、iPad和計(jì)算機(jī)屏幕貼膜。該公司表示，亞馬遜在幫他們進(jìn)入墨西哥和印度等市場(chǎng)方面起了推動(dòng)作用。

TechArmor創(chuàng)始人埃里克?董說：“在亞馬遜上，我們可以面向各國市場(chǎng)銷售產(chǎn)品。如果只靠自己，我們可能永遠(yuǎn)也打入不了那些市場(chǎng)?！苯衲辏琓echArmor通過亞馬遜售出了300萬件商品，銷售額接近3000萬美元（當(dāng)然是扣除亞馬遜收取的費(fèi)用之后）。董指出，銷售額中將有近兩成來自海外市場(chǎng)。

今年9月，亞馬遜為賣家推出了商品頁面翻譯服務(wù)，還能用當(dāng)?shù)卣Z言幫賣家提供網(wǎng)上或電話客服支持。

米特契克稱，亞馬遜還為賣家提供新的數(shù)據(jù)服務(wù)。今年5月登陸Selling Coach下新增了庫存管理面板，可以告訴賣家各種商品的銷售速度，并且指出哪些商品銷路不暢。亞馬遜還在應(yīng)用里指導(dǎo)賣家何時(shí)漲價(jià)或降價(jià)，依據(jù)是亞馬遜網(wǎng)站上類似商品的銷售數(shù)據(jù)。在改善產(chǎn)品展示以推動(dòng)銷售方面，亞馬遜也向賣家提供建議。舉例來說，賣家可以選擇自動(dòng)實(shí)時(shí)調(diào)整商品售價(jià)，以保證相對(duì)亞馬遜上類似商品具有競爭力。

對(duì)亞馬遜來說，推出新工具提高了賣家的忠誠度。如果覺得亞馬遜的服務(wù)更有價(jià)值，賣家轉(zhuǎn)投沃爾瑪或者自行建立網(wǎng)站的可能性就會(huì)低一些。

溫戈指出：“亞馬遜集中力量重點(diǎn)在做的就是我說過的基本服務(wù)，那就是選擇豐富、分類明確、有價(jià)值、收貨便利和信任感。為了向買家提供這些基本服務(wù)，而46%的銷量都來自第三方賣家，因此亞馬遜一直在改進(jìn)賣家使用的工具，以鼓勵(lì)賣家拿出更多的商品?！保ㄘ?cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

譯者：Charlie

審校：夏林

Like many smartphone owners, Chris Boerner, a Seattle-based marketing executive who sells a line of pill holders, checks her phone far more frequently than she should. But she isn’t using it to post on Facebook or to text friends.

Instead, Boerner is addicted to a new app that e-commerce giant Amazon debuted quietly in August for merchants who sell on its marketplace. The app lets Boerner and other sellers get real time information about their inventory and sales along with suggestions about pricing and when to restock.

Selling Coach, which is part of Seller mobile app, is one of a number of new features that Amazon AMZN 2.81% has rolled out over the past few months to merchants who sell in its marketplace, Amazon told Fortune exclusively. The goals of these tools is to give sellers more information to help them increase their sales.

Amazon, of course, sells and stocks its own goods. But merchants also flock to Amazon’s marketplace to sell their own products. Outside sellers now account for over 45% of total number of items sold on Amazon, a 5% increase since January, said the company.

When Boerner first decided to sell a line of pill holders for organizing medications in 2013, she was able to set up a business and an online storefront in a matter of hours. But actually drawing Internet traffic to the site beyond friends and family was a more formidable challenge.

“I was so proud of what I had developed and I thought I was going to sell out of pill holders in a matter of hours,” Boerner said. “That didn’t happen.”

Boerner researched her options and decided to sign up for e-commerce giant Amazon’s fulfillment program for merchants. As part of the program, Boerner ships her pill holders to an Amazon warehouse, and Amazon takes care of the rest including packaging the items, processing customer payments, and shipping. Of course, Boerner must pay Amazon anywhere from $1.50 to $100 per order, depending on size and weight, for the service — plus a standard fee.

The fulfillment program, which originally debuted in 2006, executive chairman, has seen a growth spurt in the past two years. The number of sellers using the service grew 65% from 2014 to 2015, according to Amazon. While the company declined to reveal how many merchants are signed up, ChannelAdvisor, a software maker for e-commerce, estimated that 30 million of 300 million items sold on Amazon’s marketplace are from third-party merchants enrolled in Amazon’s fulfillment program

The allure for many outside merchants is to be able to sell to Amazon’s estimated 50 million Prime members, who pay $99 annually to get anything from toilet paper to diapers to books delivered to them in two days or less, explained Scot Wingo, ex of ChannelAdvisor. Merchants are eligible to be part of Prime delivery only if they are enrolled in the fulfillment program, also known as FBA.

“FBA offers the ability to sell to the Prime customer base, which has been growing fast,” said Mark Mitchke, the vice president of fulfillment at Amazon. “For Prime members, they don’t see a difference between a third-party seller and Amazon, and customers appreciate the convenience.”

It’s no secret that Amazon believes its competitive advantage is in getting products to its customers faster than other retailers. The company recently revealed that it is exploring using drones to deliver packages to shoppers in 30 minutes (assuming the project ever gets off the ground), and is also deploying thousands of Amazon-branded trucks to make deliveries. In turn, more customers are seeking faster shipping, especially around the holidays. “Most buyers now expect things to be delivered within two days,” said Mitchke.

Amazon also tweaked product listing pages in September for all outside sellers so that they could show potential customers the estimated shipping time rather than only doing so at checkout. The goal is to better entice shoppers to buy items for sale.

Although Prime delivery is currently restricted to FBA sellers, Wingo says that Amazon is also testing a service called “merchant fulfilled Prime eligible.” Amazon is working with a set of larger merchants that already have warehouses across the U.S. and are able to deliver within the Prime two-day window. Because these merchants don’t need fulfillment services, they don’t need to use FBA, explained Wingo. But they do get access to Amazon’s negotiated shipping prices with companies like UPS, which are much lower than standard rates.

“This saves Amazon the cost of creating more fulfillment centers, while still adding more products available for Prime,” said Wingo.

Fulfillment is costly for Amazon. In the third quarter, Amazon’s shipping expenses increased 22% to $3.2 billion.

Amazon isn’t the only retailer that works with third part merchants. Amazon rival Walmart WMT 1.42% now offers the ability for third-party merchants to sell on its online store. Merchants can also sell through eBay, although eBay EBAY 0.98% doesn’t offer fulfillment services.

Earlier this year, Amazon introduced a new program called Exclusives, which incentivizes merchants to only sell on Amazon in exchange for promotions in Amazon search and help with merchandising. Boerner said she was about to create an online store with a “l(fā)arge, well-known retailer,” but at the last minute, she chose to join Amazon’s Exclusive partner program. “It was the biggest turning point for my business,” she said. “Sales have gone up 80% since because of the promotion.”

Amazon’s Mitchke said even larger sellers can benefit from some of the features Amazon offers sellers, especially when it comes to international sales. TechArmor, an Amazon merchant that sells screen protectors for mobile phones, iPads, and computers, says that Amazon has been instrumental in helping it enter markets like Mexico and India.

“Amazon allowed us to sell to markets we could never have entered by ourselves,” said founder Eric Tong. TechArmor sold 3 million products through Amazon this year, representing nearly $30 million in sales (minus Amazon’s fees of course). This year, nearly 20% of those sales will come from international markets, Tong said.

Amazon also premiered a new tool in September for sellers that translates their product pages for shoppers overseas. Amazon will also provide online and phone customer service for sellers in local languages.

Mitchke says that the company is also adding new data-focused features for sellers. A new inventory control panel that debuted in May on Seller Coach gives sellers data about how quickly certain items are selling, and points out which items aren’t selling as well. Amazon also tells sellers through the app when they could increase or lower prices, based on data of similar items sold throughout the site. The company provides recommendations on how to improve listings in order to generate more sales. For example, sellers can chose to automatically re-price products in real time to make sure their prices are competitive with similar products sold on Amazon.

For Amazon, launching new tools makes selling on Amazon stickier. Merchants are less likely to head to Walmart, or even create their own sites if they find more value from Amazon’s services.

“Amazon is really focused on what I call the fundamentals: selection, assortment, value, convenience and trust,” explained Wingo. “To provide those fundamentals to buyers, since 46% of the volume is from third-party sellers, Amazon is always improving the seller tools to encourage sellers to put up more product.”