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。和許多有智能手機的人一樣，她看手機的次數遠高于正常水平。不過，她并不是用手機在Facebook上灌水，或者給朋友發信息。

讓伯爾納總是忍不住查看的是一款移動應用，是電子商務龍頭亞馬遜今年8月份悄悄上線的一款產品，面向的是亞馬遜網上商城賣家。該軟件可為伯爾納等賣家提供實時庫存和銷售信息，還能就定價和補貨時間提出建議。

亞馬遜接受《財富》雜志獨家采訪時透露，近幾個月來，亞馬遜在這款移動應用 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品，她只用了幾個小時就成立了公司并建起了網店。但除了親朋好友，真正吸引到網絡用戶才是更艱巨的挑戰。

伯爾納說：“當時我對建起來的東西感到非常自豪，而且認為這些藥品收納盒用不了幾個小時就會銷售一空。但并沒有出現這樣的場面。”

她研究了各種方案，決定參加亞馬遜為賣家提供的代發貨項目，具體流程為伯爾納把藥品收納盒發到亞馬遜的倉庫，然后由亞馬遜負責剩下的工作，包括打包、收款和發貨。當然，每做一單伯爾納都要向亞馬遜繳納服務費，金額從1.5美元到100美元不等，具體取決于訂單規模和商品重量，還有一部分標準費用。

代發貨項目是2006年推出的，在過去兩年中出現了井噴式增長。據亞馬遜介紹，2014-2015年，使用這項服務的賣家增加了65%。雖然亞馬遜沒有透露簽約商家的具體數量，但電商軟件開發公司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執行董事長斯科特?溫戈解釋說，對外部賣家來說，能向亞馬遜的約5000萬名Prime會員銷售很有吸引力，Prime會員的年費為99美元，享受的服務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間內收到貨。只有參加亞馬遜代發貨，又名FBA項目的賣家才有資格使用Prime快遞服務。

亞馬遜負責代發貨業務的副總裁馬克?米特契克說：“通過FBA項目，賣家的商品可以到達Prime會員群體，而且會員的數量一直在迅速增長。對Prime會員來說，第三方賣家和亞馬遜沒有什么區別，用戶覺得方便就行。”

眾所周知，亞馬遜一直相信自己的競爭優勢在于送貨速度比其他零售商快。該公司最近披露說，正在探索用無人機在30分鐘內完成快遞的方法（當然前提是這個項目能真正落實），而且還為快遞業務配備數千輛印有亞馬遜商標的卡車。相應地，想更快收到商品的顧客也越來越多，特別是在節假日前后。米特契克說：“大多數買家現在都希望兩天內送到貨。”

今年9月，亞馬遜還調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計快遞需要多長時間。以前，買家只有在結賬時才能看到此類信息。此舉旨在鼓勵消費者買更多東西。

雖然Prime快遞服務目前只限于加入FBA項目的賣家，但溫戈透露，亞馬遜還在測試一項“由賣家發貨的Prime”服務。具體來說就是亞馬遜開始和規模較大的經銷商合作，因為這些經銷商通常在美國各地都有自己的倉庫，而且有能力按Prime服務的標準在兩天內完成商品投遞。溫戈解釋道，這些賣家不需要代發貨，所以不需要使用FBA服務。但他們可以享受UPS等公司為亞馬遜提供的快遞協議價，一般都遠低于常規費用。

溫戈說：“如此一來，亞馬遜既可以為Prime會員提供更多品類的商品，又省下了建立更多物流中心的費用。”

對亞馬遜來說，貨運成本很高。今年第三季度，該公司運輸費用增長了22%，達到32億美元。

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

今年早些時候，亞馬遜推出了一個名為Exclusives的項目，目的是鼓勵賣家與亞馬遜網站建立獨家合作關系，由此可以獲得亞馬遜搜索導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”的網站上開店，但最后她選擇了亞馬遜的Exclusives合作項目：“公司業務出現了巨大轉機，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中受益，特別是在海外銷售方面。TechArmor在亞馬遜上出售手機、iPad和計算機屏幕貼膜。該公司表示，亞馬遜在幫他們進入墨西哥和印度等市場方面起了推動作用。

TechArmor創始人埃里克?董說：“在亞馬遜上，我們可以面向各國市場銷售產品。如果只靠自己，我們可能永遠也打入不了那些市場。”今年，TechArmor通過亞馬遜售出了300萬件商品，銷售額接近3000萬美元（當然是扣除亞馬遜收取的費用之后）。董指出，銷售額中將有近兩成來自海外市場。

今年9月，亞馬遜為賣家推出了商品頁面翻譯服務，還能用當地語言幫賣家提供網上或電話客服支持。

米特契克稱，亞馬遜還為賣家提供新的數據服務。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。亞馬遜還在應用里指導賣家何時漲價或降價，依據是亞馬遜網站上類似商品的銷售數據。在改善產品展示以推動銷售方面，亞馬遜也向賣家提供建議。舉例來說，賣家可以選擇自動實時調整商品售價，以保證相對亞馬遜上類似商品具有競爭力。

對亞馬遜來說，推出新工具提高了賣家的忠誠度。如果覺得亞馬遜的服務更有價值，賣家轉投沃爾瑪或者自行建立網站的可能性就會低一些。

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

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 “large, 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.”