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Product Strategy: Choosing Amazon's Next Build for Third-Party Seller Pain Points

AmazonProduct Manager · Other
MediumProduct ManagerOtherProduct Design & Strategy

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A product sense question asking an Amazon product manager what to build next to make selling on Amazon better for merchants. It tests tying seller experience to Amazon's selection flywheel, segmenting merchants and their journey, scoping one product with a prioritized first version, and setting seller metrics with shopper guardrails.

You are a product manager at Amazon, and your mandate is to make selling on Amazon better for the merchants who sell through its store. Decide what you would build next: choose which merchants and which problem to focus on, describe the product, and explain how you would judge whether it worked.

Clarifying Questions

  • Does "merchants" mean independent third-party sellers on the marketplace, brands, vendors that sell wholesale to Amazon, or all of them?
  • Is there a target country or store, or should the answer apply across Amazon's marketplaces?
  • Which outcome matters most for this mandate: more sellers joining, existing sellers growing, seller retention, or fewer seller support contacts?
  • Can the solution reach beyond seller tools into fulfillment, advertising or payments, or must it stay within the seller account and its tools?

Hints

Hint 1

Narrow the merchant first: Merchants on Amazon range from someone listing their first product to large brands with their own operations teams. Pick one group and one stage of their journey, then look for the pain that costs both them and Amazon's shoppers the most.

Follow-up questions

  • Your product makes it easier for new sellers to launch. How do you keep counterfeiters and policy violators from benefiting too?
  • How would you show that the product added selection and sales to Amazon rather than just shifting sales between sellers?
  • Which major seller complaint would you deliberately leave for later, and why?