Amazon Accelerator 101: How to Know if It’s Right for You

Every product starts with an idea. But many people have innovative product ideas that never actually make it to market. Taking an idea from conception to production, to marketing, and then to sales is a very difficult process. It requires a lot of work and the right resources.

While you can find help just about everywhere nowadays (including right here!), Amazon itself has a program targeted toward assisting manufacturers with the product creation process.

Keep reading to learn more about the Amazon Accelerator program, including who is eligible and how to get started.

What is Amazon Accelerator?

Amazon Accelerator is a program for manufacturers interested in selling their products under the Amazon brand. If you prefer coming up with product ideas and creating them over marketing and branding, Amazon Accelerator might make sense.

Participating brands receive onboarding and marketing support to help bring new products to market. Any products you sell through the program will be exclusive to Amazon. And, the program can also put you on the path to becoming an Amazon Private Brand supplier, which means you would only supply products to Amazon's own brands.

5 Amazon Accelerator Program Questions Answered

Before you decide whether the program is right for you, you need to understand some details on how it works. Here are some of the main things you need to know.

1) Who is Amazon Accelerator for?

Amazon Accelerator is for established manufacturers and brands that already have the infrastructure in place to create new products. Amazon won’t approve every brand that applies to the program. It looks at a few main factors to decide who will be a good fit:

• Projected Annual Sales: More specifically, are you likely to hit $1 million in annual sales?
• Amazon Advertising Budget: It wants participants to commit 5% of revenue to paid advertising on the platform.
• Inventory Management: You must have healthy enough inventory levels to regularly meet consumer demand.
• FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) Participation: Amazon expects program participants to offer FBA for 100% of their products, with merchant fulfillment options available only during periods where FBA inventory sells out.

2) What are the benefits of Amazon Accelerator?

The main benefits for participants are the resources Amazon provides to support brands in marketing and onboarding. Amazon will offer guidance in the initial branding of new products, as well as a suite of marketing tools.

For products that do well in ratings and reviews, you can also receive better placements on the platform—a coveted benefit. And finally, the program gives you a way to test out new products with relatively little risk. You can gain data that helps you figure out if new products are viable, get customer feedback, and learn who your target market is.

If you're looking to ramp up your ratings, FeedbackFive can automate your feedback and review requests to reach more buyers with much less work. Simply set up a campaign through Buyer-Seller Messaging or Amazon's Request a Review button and watch your ratings climb.

3) What does the Amazon Accelerator program cost?

Sellers in the program are charged a program fee that’s an additional 7% premium on the referral fees described on the Amazon fee schedule. Fees are applied at the account level to all sales associated with the account.

4) What are the downsides of Amazon Accelerator?

The higher fees are an obvious potential downside, but for some brands, the increased sales will make up for them. Another downside is the exclusivity required. The products you sell through the Accelerator program can only be sold on the Amazon marketplace. If your typical sales strategy depends on multiple marketplaces and distribution methods, that may be too limiting.

In addition, joining Amazon Accelerator means giving up some control over the branding of your products. Your branding will still exist in some sense, but it will partially be subsumed by the Amazon brand. If you’ve worked hard to build up brand recognition and consider it important that people associate your products with your brand name, that could be a big disadvantage.

Finally, according to the Wall Street Journal, the contract for Amazon Accelerator also includes a clause that gives Amazon the right to acquire participating brands at any time, typically for around $10,000. If that sounds concerning to you, it may be another good reason to reconsider if Amazon Accelerator is worth it.

5) How do you sign up for Amazon Accelerator?

Applying to join the program is easy. Simply click the sign up button on the Amazon Accelerator page and fill out the form. From there, it will be up to Amazon to decide whether or not to accept you.

Is the Amazon Accelerator Program Right for You?

The Amazon Accelerator program is not a good fit for every brand. Sellers that want more control over their products and branding shouldn’t sign up. Smaller brands and resellers won’t qualify and likely aren’t looking for the kind of benefits the program offers anyway.

For the specific type of sellers Amazon Accelerator is meant for though, it can offer an edge on the platform that leads to increased sales.