Amazon is one of the largest marketplaces in America and is continuing to expand worldwide through various industries, from technology to e-commerce. The ever-growing company understands that in order to stay on top of their competition, they need to improve their digital footprint.
Arjun Mahadevan, the CEO and Co-Founder of doola, explains that, “The shopping scene has changed dramatically in recent years due to the technological advancements of the digital age. If you want to be successful in the 21st century, you not only need to be online, you need to be everywhere online. Having your own store isn’t enough to penetrate the market. You need to be seen on Amazon, Instagram, etcetera.”
An alum of the Wharton School of Business, Mahadevan definitely knows what he’s talking about and it’s also one of the reasons why he founded doola, a company that helps entrepreneurs and potential business owners set up their own businesses, but in order to become more relevant in today’s market Mahadevan launched their new services that’s catered to a very specific niche of clients: those who are looking to break into the Amazon market.
With 300 million active customers in more than 180 countries, Amazon is a market leader by a long shot and by becoming one of “Amazon’s seller-ecosystem, you as a seller are running with others that range from Fortune 500 organizations to local companies. And despite this contrast, third-party sellers who have joined Amazon since 1999, have grown to 58% of Amazon’s sales. In fact, their sales on Amazon are growing at a rate of 52% a year.”
Some countries are not eligible to become an Amazon seller but those that are eligible and want to become an Amazon seller will need to decide whether they want to take the Individual or Professional plan. For Individual plans, $0.99 will be taken per sale but those on the Professional plan, the fees are capped at $39.99 a month.
“The good news is that sellers have the option to switch between plans, but before jumping off the deep end, there are a few things to consider, all of which are included in our guide to becoming an Amazon seller,” Mahadevan was quoted as saying.
Setting up a company can sometimes be overwhelming due to the amount of information and knowledge that one needs in order to set up a company, from setting up Amazon Jobs on WhatJobs to getting a business running, or creating an Amazon seller account.
“It can be extremely tedious,” Mahadevan said, “There are so many steps and forms to fill, and many business owners are just interested in marketing their products and getting their merchandise out there onto the market.”
Instead of spending time on figuring out the forms and the whole process of setting up a business, doola can do it for just a nominal fee. The company has helped launch hundreds of companies, regardless of whether their clients were based in the U.S.
“As a founder based in Europe, it’s hard to navigate US bureaucracy – The team at doola guided us through the process of incorporation and handled everything for us. This allowed us to keep getting work done and not get slowed down in this initial and vital phase of our company. We considered using Stripe Atlas or Clerky. But those services aren’t of any help with things like getting an EIN without a US social security number or filing an 83b election,” says Ferruccio Balestreri, a founder that used doola’s services.
The same thing can happen with Amazon, which is what doola is currently pushing for and will be providing services which include providing essential information needed to open an Amazon store.
“doola can provide everything, from a chargeable card, American phone number, bank account number, tax information, even an LLC.” The company has partnered up with TruLease Plan and offers it’s own banking service through doola Banking in order to bring ease to their clients that want to get on board the Amazon plan.
“Many of our clients are concerned about getting verified and one of the most common questions we get is about utility bills. While we are unable to provide utility bills, our partnership with Virtual Post Mail will ensure that it doesn’t become a problem.”
The experience that doola has with helping companies find their footing on American soil has awarded them numerous positive reviews on the web and countless more hopefuls are applying for an American business through doola, but now that their doors have opened to provide access to Amazon, the company is treading where no other startup has gone before. By doing away with paperwork, doola empowers potential business owners to start their own business without the hassles associated, which in turn, will facilitate bigger growth in the e-commerce industry.
