This Issue's TLDR...
👉 Did someone forward you this newsletter? First of all, give them a crisp high five when you see them. Second, head over here to subscribe and read past issues. 🗣 Programming Note: Best@Amazon will be off next week due to the 4th of July holiday. Go eat some food, drink some drinks, and try not to lose an appendage from a fireworks incident. BEST From MeIt's the most wonderful time of the year for the Amazon service providers, gurus, and content marketers: Prime Day! They get to post about the event date as if they are breaking news! They get to push out surface-level strategies and tips to win on Prime Day (which were probably recycled from last year) and solidify their status as Amazon thought leaders! What a wonderful time. Anyway, I'm not here to offer my Prime Day strategies for success. Instead, I want to share some anti-advice. Or, maybe, my "contrarian tips" for winning on Prime Day. You see, for many of us that have actually sold on Amazon, and are NOT big, massive, omni-channel brands, Prime Day can often be a let down. Sales might only spike a little. Or, sales may spike, but you lost money, and the "halo" of post Prime Day sales at higher margins that everyone promised didn't appear. I get it. I've been there. It turns out, Prime Day *is* a bit of a middle finger to the average Amazon seller. But, be that as it may, I still want to arm you with some unconventional, perhaps contrarian, advice for Prime Day. Tip 1: Prioritize Inventory Management Over Marketing SpendSome brands and sellers aim to sell-through most, or all, of their stock in the days leading up to Prime Day, and on Prime Day. My approach is to throttle my sales. I want to participate in Prime Day, but in a more measured way such that: 1) I'm generally holding my BSR relative to key competitors, 2) I'm winning some NTB customers, and 3) I'm not making too many sales to pure discount shoppers, who are unlikely to repeat as my customers. Every brand and product will be different, but I try to cap my Prime Day sell-through to 30% of my on-hand stock, so I have 70% to sell in the post-Prime Day period at higher margin, and to give me a buffer for the FC receiving delays that always happen following an event period. (I've talked about this before on social media, but Amazon FCs balance inbound "But, Jon, how can you throttle your sales when you have stock at FBA?" Well, for the past two Prime Day events, I've throttled my sales by intentionally price suppressing my own listings. (If you don't know how to do this, you set a max_price guardrail in Manage Your Inventory below your current price.) In doing so, I've been able to capture sales post-Prime Day that are 1) higher margin and 2) available to me simply because my competitors stocked out. Tip 2: Prioritize AOV Over Sales VolumeThe game changed with virtual bundles earlier this year when Amazon moved them above-the-fold on detail pages. Because of that, here's a strategy that you can employ with them for Prime Day:
Tip 3: Protect Your DownsideIn this case, I'm talking about a few downsides:
BEST From Me BONUSESI've been feeling a bit snarky lately. Or, rather, exhausted from a lot of the disinformation and posturing that happens in the Amazon ecosystem. Some of which is from Amazon directly (see my tweet about the potential customer impact of Amazon's gating of Clinique); some of which is from various service providers in the space. BEST from Everyone ElseBest From XThis thread is SUPER important if you're building your brand off-Amazon and/or looking to leverage off-Amazon marketing to gain an edge on Amazon. I'm not going to waste your time commenting on this here, because I want you to spend time reading this thread. Go.Do.It.Now.
Best From LinkedInA lot of Prime Day advice is some variant of "optimize your product listings." It's not bad advice, per se, it's just...more of a "what to do" vs "how to do it." I hate that kind of advice. So, I'll give you (some of) the "how"... Use these time-tested copywriting frameworks from Neal O'Grady to make your product listing copy more compelling. NOTE: I wouldn't touch the bullets or descriptions, so as to avoid indexing issues before Prime Day; instead, build out your sales copy in your images using these frameworks.
Updates to Amazon Private Label PathwayNo updates this week. * Back Story on the Amazon Private Label Pathway, ICYMI... A few months back, I had a small group of coaching clients that were at the same point in their Amazon seller journeys. I found myself answering the same questions, and pointing them to the same resources, so, in true Amazon fashion, I asked myself "What's the 1-to-Many solution here?" and built a Notion page of helpful resources, which I've called "Amazon Private Label Pathway." You can get access to it here: https://auxo.gumroad.com/l/amazonpathway (it's free; but if you want to buy me a beer, I won't object) |
I'm a former Amazon marketplace leader and current 8-figure seller. I write about advanced strategies and tactics for Amazon brands, that you won't read about anywhere else. Not for beginners.
This Issue's TLDR... I have a rock in my shoe. And the name of that rock is "FBA reimbursement provider bullsh!t" A comprehensive list of the best outside traffic sources for Amazon sellers in 2024 ASMR for Amazon 👉 Did someone forward you this newsletter? First of all, give them a crisp high five when you see them. Second, head over here to subscribe and read past issues. HIRE MY AGENCY ($$$) SPONSOR BEST@AMAZON ($$) GET AMAZON ADVICE ($) ACCESS AMAZON PRIVATE LABEL PATHWAY (FREE!) SPONSOR...
This Issue's TLDR... I found Amazon's secret database of suppliers, and I'm sharing it with all of you Q4 dates that matter How to take a brand concept and put it into words 👉 Did someone forward you this newsletter? First of all, give them a crisp high five when you see them. Second, head over here to subscribe and read past issues. HIRE MY AGENCY ($$$) SPONSOR BEST@AMAZON ($$) GET AMAZON ADVICE ($) ACCESS AMAZON PRIVATE LABEL PATHWAY (FREE!) SPONSOR Riverbend Consulting Click In Case Of An...
This Issue's TLDR... I'm giving away a list of lenders that can offer *non-predatory* debt capital for your Amazon business A new way to use Search Query Performance data The current market for Amazon business exits 👉 Did someone forward you this newsletter? First of all, give them a crisp high five when you see them. Second, head over here to subscribe and read past issues. HIRE MY AGENCY ($$$) SPONSOR BEST@AMAZON ($$) GET AMAZON ADVICE ($) ACCESS AMAZON PRIVATE LABEL PATHWAY (FREE!) SPONSOR...