This Issue's TLDR...

• Your product went viral. How did it happen?
• I'm telling you now: Invest in beautiful packaging.
• There's one less Amazon Automation scammer out there.

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So, uh...what's new with you all? 🙃

Sort of a slow news week, amirite?

I'm kidding, of course.

Hopefully you all had a great Prime Day.

I'm not here to write about Prime Day though, because everyone else is already doing that, and none of you are here to read about how I smashed sales records for my brands or my clients.

Instead, I want to dive into a topic that I've been sitting on for some time, but recently became timely due to a LinkedIn post from the Amazing Amy Wees.

That topic is...

How to determine the source of virality

For context, in case it's not obvious from Amy's LinkedIn post, Amy owns a brand called SiftEase, and her cat litter sifter unexpectedly went viral a few weeks back, causing some long days in her warehouse to get the orders out. Good problem to have!

But she raised the question that any smart brand owner would...How TF did that happen?

Smart brand owners ask that question because successes that can be root caused can often be repeated.

I've had this happen exact ONCE for one of my brands, but countless times for client brands (admittedly, we had "engineered" some of these viral cases).

Here are the threads that I pull on to determine the source of the virality:

➡️ Search for traffic from Amazon Associates

• HOW: In Google, search "amzn.to" plus either your Brand name or ASIN. This is the Amazon-owned shortened URL path that all Amazon Associates use. (Relatedly, search "amzn.to" plus a relevant KW to identify Amazon Associates that would be good potential influencers for your Brand or product)

➡️ Search for traffic from Deal Sites

• HOW: In my experience, the Top 5 deal sites that frequently pick up Amazon deals are: Clark Deals, Brad's Deals, DealNews, GottaDEAL, Slickdeals. Copy this Google search: YourBrand site:clarkdeals.com OR site:bradsdeals.com OR site:dealnews.com OR site:gottadeal.com OR site:slickdeals.com.

➡️ Search for traffic from Publishers

• HOW: There are A LOT of publishers, but these are there are a handful of heavyweights. Copy this Google search: YOURBRAND site:buzzfeed.com OR site:huffpost.com OR site:forbes.com OR site:mashable.com OR site:techcrunch.com OR site:theverge.com OR site:cnet.com OR site:wired.com.

➡️ Search for traffic from Facebook Deal Groups

• HOW: I shutter sometimes thinking about how much $$$ the admin of a Facebook Deal Group makes simply by re-posting deals and collecting Amazon Associate commissions. Once you have a large group, it's incredibly low effort, high impact. The one time I had my own product go viral was through a Facebook Deal Group (and I've since built a relationship with the admin). Copy this Google search: YOURBRAND site:facebook.com.

➡️ Search for traffic from Forums

• HOW: I've never had a client go viral from Reddit (it's really hard to "engineer"), but I've heard of it happening more and more. Copy this Google search: YOURBRAND site:reddit.com OR review OR blog OR forum.

For all of the queries above, if YOURBRAND doesn't get any hits. Try repeating the searches using your actual ASIN.

In my experience, an ASIN-based search will sometimes hit based on embedded URLs.

PS: In case you were wondering, Amy's product went viral due to a Buzzfeed article.

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BEST from LinkedIn

When I worked at Amazon, there was a team within Selling Partner Services that would annually research 3P seller pain points and write a 6-pager called "Seller Paper Cuts."

Despite what we all tend to believe, Amazon *does* pay attention to data and anecdotes around the Seller Experience.

Whether Amazon actually ACTS on the pain points in the Seller Experience is an altogether different question.

I won't get into the reasons why Amazon might be slow to fix things (or not fix them at all).

Instead, I want to shine a light on the yeoman's work that folks like Thai Nguyen and Ed Rosenberg have done for for years to collect, collate, curate, and elevate consistent "Seller Paper Cuts."

Thai recently published his 2024 edition of Amazon Seller Problems, and it's worth a read (and a lot of head nodding in agreement).

BEST from X

Repeat after me:

MY PACKAGING IS PART OF MY PRODUCT.

Let that sink in.

Your packaging is the first thing that a potential customer sees.

Whether in a physical store, or on Amazon, your packaging is what customers interact with FIRST, before making any buying decisions.

This is why "main image hacks" and an emphasis on click-through rate have been trending in the Amazon ecosystem for the last ~2 years.

Amazon sellers, as a whole, neglect their packaging.

It all gets shoved into a brown Amazon box anyway, right?

I mean, why even bother creating a thoughtful unboxing experience, in the same way that a DTC brand that manages its own fulfillment would?

Well, times are changing.

Amazon is reducing its use of packaging materials (for both environmental and economic reasons).

Amazon is allowing brands to opt-out of Amazon packaging through programs like SIPP (I'm doing this with my largest brand).

If you want to set yourself apart in the "sea of sameness" and truly become a Big Boy Brand...

...Invest in beautiful packaging.

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Ashwinn @Shwinnabego Designing packaging for retail 10:11 AM • Jul 16, 2024 0 Retweets 69 Likes Read 5 replies

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Quick PSA:

Amazon isn't passive income. Amazon Automation is a scam. Don't invest with anyone that promises otherwise.

Rob Freund @RobertFreundLaw Here's another class action lawsuit against sellers of an "ecom automation" automation service. Plaintiffs say they found Ascend/Accelerated eCommerce, who offered turn-key Walmart and Amazon store automation, via Instagram. They paid $93,000 and received "next to no revenue." 8:26 PM • Jul 16, 2024 2 Retweets 14 Likes Read 2 replies

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I thought the tweet below was an April Fool's Joke when I first read it.

Look, I have a TON of respect for Moiz.

He built Native Deodorant into a MASSIVE company.

But, man, I can't help but think he's catching a falling knife here.

Ignoring for a moment that a Board role typically has zero operational responsibilities and often is just a cushy, low 6-figure gig that requires you to sit in one 3-hour meeting every quarter...having Thrasio on your CV isn't exactly a badge of honor at this point.

To be clear, I hope Thrasio makes it. I hope Moiz helps change its trajectory.

But I don't think the odds of that happening are high.

Moiz Ali @moizali I'm excited to announce that today, I've joined the Board of Directors at @thrasio! I love e-commerce and I'm excited to do more! AMA! 11:17 AM • Jul 17, 2024 0 Retweets 187 Likes Read 38 replies

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