RESPONSE Magazine - March 2018

AMAZON: A SNAPSHOT

use on the backside analyze against those keywords about who else is arriving, and we find that competitors are often sitting on all your keywords and they’re scraping your sales. So, not only must you protect your keywords, but you must understand the market share you have and how you’re affecting it,” says Latimer.

Walters adds, “The one lesson we’ve learned is that because Amazon is such a customer-first platform, they always side with the customer on disputed claims and returns. Also, Amazon sometimes does a poor job checking the quality on returned items. We had customers complaining that Amazon sent them dirty, hairy Shed Defenders because they were returned items that were not washed or put through any quality control process. We learned that it would be best to do all the returns ourselves so that we could

Surviving Amazon

Establishing a successful presence on Amazon is great, but how do you ensure continued success?

“While there is no magic bullet to
guarantee continued success on Amazon,
taking advantage of any number of avail-
able third-party tracking tools, as well as
advertising vehicles offered by Amazon
Marketing Services and Amazon Media
Group could be greatly beneficial,” says
Weinstein.

Walter’s long-game strategy involves making sure he’s the only one of his kind in the e-commerce ecosystem. “One tip for success if you have your own brand, or unique product, is to enter it into Amazon’s brand registry. This helps ensure that you will be the only seller of the product and can help detect red flags when dealing with knockoffs or someone who shouldn’t be selling your product on Amazon. We are the only seller of our product on Amazon, and that’s because we don’t allow other wholesalers to sell on the Amazon platform. It can drive down the price and create unnecessary competition,” argues Walters.

Creative seems to be another factor
where DR marketers often misstep. “A lot
of people will take their short-form com-
mercial, cut off the offer and throw it up
on Amazon,” Latimer says. “That’s nice,
but not as effective as video that’s prop-
erly tailored for the Amazon audience.

That consumer is already there to buy.

You don’t have to sell them. You’re not trying to drive a response, you’re trying to close the sale. At that point, you’re about validating, educating, and confirming their interest — and giving them the rest of the pieces you need. You’re pushing them over the line. The video should be a deeper dive to convert.”

The Everything Store

“You can have the best technology,
you can have the best business model,
but if the storytelling isn’t amazing, it
won’t matter. Nobody will watch.”
— Jeff Bezos

“Every product is different. First you
need to understand the competitive land-
scape. Second, make sure you have price
protection, and the best way to do that is
going to a third-party Amazon reseller,”
Latimer says. “If your media or creative
agency doesn’t understand the intrica-
cies of what’s going on with Amazon,
you’re messing with 20 to 40 percent of
your direct sales. It’s the difference be-
tween campaign success and failure. On
a daily basis, as you start to go through
it, make sure you have documentation
for your trademark, and make sure you
have the copyright on the images you’re
going to place on Amazon. What may
happen is someone will steal your image,
make a listing, and start selling a product
that they’re bringing in from another
manufacturer. If you’re not establishing
and protecting your brand, you will not
survive on Amazon. You will be cannibal-
ized, you will be knocked off, your images
will be stolen, and you will have no pro-
He continues, “But, you cannot run
away from Amazon. You have to run to
it. And you have to manage it the right
way. Someone is going to get those sales.
They’re going to go to Amazon, because
people buy where they want to buy. You
do not have control over that or over
consumer purchasing. You only have con-