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-
COMMERCE SPOTLIGHT
Amazon is the world’s
fourth-most
valuable
company.
One of every four U.S. adults has
an Amazon Prime membership.
Amazon ships
1. 6 million
packages a day.
45,000 autonomous robots
roam the floors of Amazon’s
warehouses to fetch
packages for employees.
Amazon’s
$356 billion
valuation is so
big, it’s larger
than Walmart,
Target, Best Buy,
Macy’s, Kohl’s,
JCPenney, and Sears
combined.
Source: Inc.
Amazon
accounts for
43%
of all U.S. online
retail sales.