Exploring the Amazon – Marketplace, That Is!
Amazon is so important now… everyone has at one point bought or sold something on Amazon. That’s why this week we’re thrilled to welcome Erin Gary of Accelerazon. She’s an amazing part of the Pet Industry Network… a group of marketing creatives dedicated to helping those in the pet industry. Join us on our expedition as we trek through the ins and outs of promoting your products on Amazon!
Listen to Episode #9 Now:
BIO:
Founded by the dynamic husband-wife duo, Stephen and Erin Gary, Accelerazon is comprised of young, energetic, and nimble doers.
Co-founder and CEO, Stephen Gary has been working in eCommerce for a decade and has a wide variety of skills and experiences. Co-founder and CFO, Erin Gary has been working exclusively in the Amazon space for over 5 years. With over 15 years of combined Amazon expertise, they have seen the platform change dramatically over the years and enjoy keeping a strong pulse on Amazon and adapting to the constantly changing environment.
Knowing that change is inevitable, Accelerazon is structured to emphasize constant learning, improvement, and growth. We are also guided by a belief that technology (integration, automation, and artificial intelligence) can improve service levels above and beyond what can be provided manually. We’re always trying to grow and improve by leveraging technology to improve efficiency and effectiveness. We are committed to ongoing-learning and being on the forefront of new opportunities for our customers; we are excited to be thought leaders in the space. We’re committed to providing our team every opportunity to learn, grow, and adapt to better serve our customers.
Transcript:
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Announcer: This is Pet Life Radio.
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Erin Gary: Let's talk pets.
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Mary Tan: Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Whisker Report.
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Mary Tan: We are the podcast dedicated to helping anyone in the pet industry, whether you're an animal welfare non-profit or a for-profit pet company or a pet service company looking to get some PR and buzz for your business, organization or non-profit.
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Mary Tan: I'm Mary Tan, one of the hosts of the show, along with Alexane Ricard, who hails all the way from France, but she travels the world.
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Mary Tan: She's like a resident of the universe.
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Mary Tan: So I think I want to say bonjour now, Alex.
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Alexane Ricard: Bonjour
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Alexane Ricard: Yeah.
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Alexane Ricard: I'm in Italy right now.
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Alexane Ricard: So yeah, definitely a citizen of the world.
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Alexane Ricard: We're so excited about the show today.
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Alexane Ricard: And if you've always wanted to know how you can start selling on Amazon, well, we do have an expert with us today.
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Alexane Ricard: But first, let me introduce you to our producer, Mark Winter of PetLife Radio, the man who gets us to you each and every week.
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Alexane Ricard: Hi Mark.
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Mark Winter: Bonjour, Alex.
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Mark Winter: How's everybody doing?
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Mary Tan: We're good.
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Mary Tan: Super Zoo was crazy, wasn't it, Alex?
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Alexane Ricard: Yeah, we're still recovering.
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Mark Winter: You have to tell me all about it.
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Mark Winter: I haven't heard anything from you guys yet.
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Mary Tan: It was amazing, wasn't it, Alex?
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Alexane Ricard: No, it was really great.
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Alexane Ricard: We met really good people.
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Alexane Ricard: We made great connection and it was nice.
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Alexane Ricard: It was very intense, but I did like it better than last year.
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Alexane Ricard: I think the more I'm going, the more I'm going to like it and appreciate it.
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Mary Tan: Cool.
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Mary Tan: Yeah.
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Mary Tan: So we both met Erin at Super Zoo, which was last week, depending on when you listen to this.
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Mary Tan: So Alex, aren't you impressed with Erin and Steven, Gary and what they do?
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Alexane Ricard: Oh, I love them and I love the fact that they're also citizens of the world.
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Alexane Ricard: So just to tell you a little bit of the background, guys, we met Erin and Steven through Pet Industry Network, which is a group of marketing creatives in the pet industry and we help others in the pet industry to thrive.
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Alexane Ricard: So Erin and Steven have a company called Acceleration.
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Alexane Ricard: And Erin, you were just in Portugal last week, right before Super Zoo, right?
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Alexane Ricard: So where are you talking to us from today?
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Erin Gary: Yeah, thank you guys for having me on today.
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Erin Gary: Yeah, that's correct.
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Erin Gary: We are also full-time travelers.
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Erin Gary: So Kindred Souls with Alex over there.
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Erin Gary: And we did, we spent this summer in Madeira, Portugal, which was just a beautiful island, highly recommended it.
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Erin Gary: And then we had, you know, something I would recommend less, which was a 25-hour travel day, straight from Madeira to Las Vegas for Super Zoo.
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Erin Gary: But then Super Zoo was super fun.
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Erin Gary: We're glad to have been able to go.
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Erin Gary: And now I'm actually chiming in from Connecticut, which is where I grew up.
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Erin Gary: We're a visiting family for a couple of weeks because we've got a wedding in New England.
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Erin Gary: So that's where I am today.
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Alexane Ricard: And can you tell us a bit more about your company, Accelerazon, how did it start?
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Alexane Ricard: Like where did the idea come from?
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Alexane Ricard: What are you guys exactly doing?
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Erin Gary: Yeah, absolutely.
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Erin Gary: So my husband, Stephen and I co-founded Accelerazon, which actually started last year in 2023.
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Erin Gary: But prior to that, we had both worked at a full scale digital marketing agency.
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Erin Gary: My husband, Stephen had been there for almost a decade and I had been there for five years.
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Erin Gary: We did everything for clients in terms of e-commerce.
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Erin Gary: So we would help them build their websites, we would help them do their Google shopping, advertising, their social media, their email marketing, and we'd also help them run their Amazon business.
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Erin Gary: And my husband and I decided that trying to be all things for all people left a little bit to be desired.
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Erin Gary: We were heading to the Amazon department, but we kept getting pulled on to other sides of the business.
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Erin Gary: And we felt like we really needed to niche down in order to do a really good job for our clients on Amazon, which is its own ecosystem and a giant beast by itself.
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Erin Gary: So we spun off into just an Amazon-only, pet-focused business, and that's been going really great.
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Erin Gary: We launched October 1st last year, and coming up on a year now, it's been a wild ride.
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Mary Tan: Yeah, I just want to bring this up in terms of niching.
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Mary Tan: So your business, like Whisker Media, is very niched.
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Mary Tan: We all only do the pet industry, and that's all we do.
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Mary Tan: And you know, I heard a lot of negative feedback when we started Whisker Media.
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Mary Tan: Like, oh, you can't just survive on the pet industry.
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Mary Tan: And that is so wrong.
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Mary Tan: Wouldn't you agree, Erin?
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Mary Tan: Like, the pet industry is an amazing growing, a lot of times they say recession-proof industry.
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Erin Gary: Yeah, I mean, especially in America, pets are part of your family, right?
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Erin Gary: So there's so many things that we do for them as for parents.
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Erin Gary: And I think there's a lot of industry that's been built up around it.
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Erin Gary: And like you said, you know, there is this line that it's recession-proof because they're members of the family.
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Erin Gary: And you know, you might not be going on vacation or traveling to Italy or Portugal, but you're going to be home and your dog or cat or whatever pet you have is there with you.
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Erin Gary: And you might be spending more time at home because you have less money to go out to dinner, but you're still going to spend money on them because they're there, they're constant, you know, they're your companion.
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Erin Gary: Yeah, so we actually do work with a couple brands outside of Pet, but we are very preferential to Pet because on Amazon specifically, there's certain categories on the platform and the data that's required and the rules and regulations that Amazon has for products and sellers varies greatly from category to category.
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Erin Gary: So we just know that Pet category so well that we really, really, I mean, 90% of our clients are in that category because kind of trying to learn another category is a huge learning curve.
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Erin Gary: So that's where we like to stay, for sure.
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Alexane Ricard: So there are so many products on Amazon, even for pets, you know, there are so many, like Cat Tree, for example.
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Alexane Ricard: How do you choose the Cat Tree?
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Alexane Ricard: Because there are so many Cat Trees.
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Alexane Ricard: So how, when you have your clients, how do you make them stand out on Amazon?
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Alexane Ricard: What is like your marketing strategy or your strategy to make them stand out compared to their competitors?
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Erin Gary: Yeah, that's a really great question, Alex.
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Erin Gary: So, and we can kind of, I wanted to kind of dive into the nuts and bolts of how Amazon works and how PR could really play a great part in that.
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Erin Gary: But it is, like you said, really hard to kind of stand out from the noise because everyone and their mom is a seller on Amazon, right?
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Erin Gary: There's so many products.
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Erin Gary: So the key is really knowing how the platform works and being able to take advantage of the search algorithm and exactly what it is doing when a customer types in, you know, dog chew toy.
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Erin Gary: How do you get your customer's client or I'm sorry, your client's products to show up in those search results?
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Erin Gary: It's a bit of a game, right?
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Erin Gary: Like we have to make sure that their titles and their bullet points, all of that content is really optimized for keywords.
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Erin Gary: And when we onboard a client, we spend probably a month doing this deep dive analysis and we try and focus on three keys.
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Erin Gary: So we try to find the keywords that are related to their product that we can rank for on Amazon so that when customers are searching for them, we show up.
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Erin Gary: And then we try and like do a deep analysis of the market.
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Erin Gary: So, you know, if you said cat treats, like we go and we look at a full bunch of Amazon competitors that sell cat treats and what are they doing?
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Erin Gary: What are they doing well?
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Erin Gary: Let's make sure that we're hitting everything that our competitors are doing.
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Erin Gary: And then we really do a lot of meetings with our clients and kind of learn about their specific product and what are their key product differentiators?
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Erin Gary: And how can we communicate that to potential shoppers on Amazon?
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Erin Gary: Like, why our cat treat?
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Erin Gary: Like, what sets us apart?
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Erin Gary: What are we doing as a brand?
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Erin Gary: Or what have we designed in the product that makes us the one you want to buy over everyone else?
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Erin Gary: So that is kind of our secret sauce is our three keys.
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Mary Tan: So let me ask you, is it possible?
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Mary Tan: So when I search Amazon, a lot of times like the big companies come up and like as a small to mid ranged pet company, how do you beat that?
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Mary Tan: Is it completely SEO, which search engine optimization?
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Mary Tan: And keywords?
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Mary Tan: Is that really the golden ticket?
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Erin Gary: Yeah, that's definitely an important part of it.
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Erin Gary: So this is actually a really good segue.
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Erin Gary: If you guys wouldn't mind kind of letting me maybe dive into how the search engine on Amazon works.
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Mary Tan: Absolutely.
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Erin Gary: Okay.
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Erin Gary: Also, I know it's the, you know, a podcast about PR, but like I feel like in order to explain how important publicity and buzz really is when it comes to making Amazon sales, I think I'd like to explain a little bit about how it works.
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Mary Tan: Yeah, absolutely.
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Erin Gary: Okay, cool.
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Erin Gary: In the interest of time, I'm going to try and kind of gloss over some things and not get too technical.
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Erin Gary: You know, we just kind of need like a high level understanding to give listeners some context into why PR can be a really powerful tool.
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Erin Gary: So let's see.
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Erin Gary: First off, Amazon is a product search engine.
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Erin Gary: And, you know, I'm sure most of us have used Amazon as shoppers.
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Erin Gary: So let's kind of start with what we know.
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Erin Gary: Imagine you go to Amazon and in the search bar, you enter dog chee toy.
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Erin Gary: You know, a page of search results then gets populated.
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Erin Gary: And this page usually has like a big headline image followed by rows and rows of products.
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Erin Gary: And at some point while you're scrolling down the page, you know, you might encounter a video.
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Erin Gary: And then there are more rows and rows of products.
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Erin Gary: If you're for detail oriented, or you know, maybe you have eyes like a hawk, you might notice that a fair number of these results have this teeny tiny gray text below the image that says sponsored.
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Erin Gary: So this means more or less, again, not getting too technical here, that these results were populated based on sellers who were advertising on the search term dog chee toy that you entered as the shopper.
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Erin Gary: So Amazon kind of picks which ads end up on a search result page based on a couple of factors, but again, not to get too technical.
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Erin Gary: It's mostly based on how much a seller is bidding in their advertisement to get placed on that search result page.
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Erin Gary: So in my example, I said the headline is there, there's a first row of products, and then there's a video further down the page.
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Erin Gary: Most of those are usually ads.
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Erin Gary: They have that little sponsored text on them, and you'll usually see maybe another row or two of products that are also sponsored throughout that page.
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Erin Gary: The rest of the products that end up on the search results page are what is called organic placements.
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Erin Gary: So these products, the sellers that sell them may not have been running advertising, but their products still show up on the Amazon search results page because Amazon thought it was a good fit for what the customer was searching.
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Erin Gary: And Amazon picks to show these organic results based on a number of things, but it boils down to two things really, how relevant the product is to the customer's search query and how likely it is that the product will sell, right?
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Erin Gary: Because Amazon, they just want to sell you stuff.
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Erin Gary: So to do this, the algorithm in Amazon looks at the content on a product's detail page to see how relevant it is to the search that the customer entered.
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Erin Gary: And there's also some back-end metadata that as a seller, you can put in there to further inform the algorithm of like what exactly your product is to get it in front of the right people.
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Erin Gary: But that's only kind of half, maybe not even half of the equation for Amazon's algorithm.
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Erin Gary: The other half is historic sales volume and the conversion rate of a product and other things like ratings and reviews and so on.
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Erin Gary: Because Amazon really wants to know, like, hey, if I put this in front of a customer, how likely is it that they're going to buy it?
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Erin Gary: Mary, this is probably why you see a lot of big brands pop up, because they have that historic sales volume that Amazon is like, I know that this is likely to sell, so I'm going to put it in the search results page.
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Mary Tan: They're buying an ad on Amazon, they have to pay extra, right?
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Mary Tan: Is that what you're saying, to be seen in the sponsored section?
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Erin Gary: Yes, to be seen in the sponsored section, well, I should say this.
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Erin Gary: To show up in the sponsored section, it's called a bid auction.
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Erin Gary: So any of those placements that have sponsored on them in the search results page, that means that when a search was entered into Amazon, like dog chew toy, everyone, big brands, little brands, resellers, they like raise their little paddle in the auction.
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Erin Gary: And they're like, this is how much I'm willing to bid, to show, I say this loosely, because Amazon will be like, okay, you bid $2 to show up here, and then let's just say a big brand bid $2.10.
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Erin Gary: So the big brand's gonna win.
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Erin Gary: They will get charged $2.10.
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Erin Gary: Amazon will put it at like $2.01, because that's all it took to beat out the next highest bidder.
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Erin Gary: And then the big brand will only be charged that amount if someone clicks on that.
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Erin Gary: So you're not even bidding really to show up.
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Erin Gary: I mean, you have to bid to show up, but you only pay if a customer clicks on the ad.
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Erin Gary: But yeah, these bigger brands who have a lot more advertising dollars and bigger marketing budgets, they can definitely kind of rule those sponsored sections, which is why it's really important to make sure that your product listing is super optimized so that you can kind of snag some of those organic spots.
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Erin Gary: Or, you know, as an agency, we like to tell smaller brands or newer brands, like it's gonna take some investment in advertising to kind of help get the ball rolling.
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Erin Gary: Because you don't need to continually invest in advertising because half of the organic reason that Amazon will show you is if you have historic sales.
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Erin Gary: So, you know, if you invest in a bunch of advertising and you get a ton of sales, kind of back off because then you will have moved up the organic breaking enough that Amazon might show you without you having to pay.
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Erin Gary: And then you just keep making sales and it's kind of like this snowball effect.
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Mary Tan: Got it.
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Erin Gary: Yeah.
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Erin Gary: But so all of this is like kicked off when a shopper enters a search into that Amazon search bar, right?
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Erin Gary: So to kind of circle back and bring it back to PR, because that's what people listening to the podcast really want to know about.
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Erin Gary: If you're a shopper on Amazon, you know, you at least have to have a general idea of what you want to buy when you enter something onto Amazon, right?
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Erin Gary: So Amazon sellers are bidding on keywords that they think shoppers will search for that are specific to their products.
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Erin Gary: And Amazon is also showing organic results of products that are relevant to customer searches.
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Erin Gary: So it's such a search focused platform that customer education for market building or garnering awareness for a new brand is hard to do on Amazon.
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Erin Gary: To have a lot of people searching for your brand on Amazon or searching for your super new unique product, they need to already know about your brand or your product.
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Erin Gary: And this is where PR is super helpful for a brand's likelihood of being successful on Amazon because the magic of what you guys do, Mary and Alex, is you can help a brand, like a new brand or even a brand that's starting to see a plateau, kind of get its name back out there or help educate people on why they need this brand new unique product that solves a need that no other product on the market is currently addressing.
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Erin Gary: Because Amazon is not a research tool, right?
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Erin Gary: People are searching to buy things.
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Erin Gary: So you guys, we love partnering with you guys to help our new brands or to help our unique products, kind of get their name out there so that they have a better shot.
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Mary Tan: Well, we love working with you too.
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Mary Tan: And what fascinating information, you know, all of us that just search Amazon, put in a few keywords, we have no idea about all the background in it.
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Mary Tan: You know what?
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Mary Tan: We have to take a break because we got to pay for the show because Mark makes a ton of money.
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Mary Tan: He's a millionaire.
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Mary Tan: And so we're going to be right back with Erin, who's going to talk a little bit more about VR and Amazon sales.
00:17:17.378 --> 00:17:21.238
Announcer: Here's Daryl Michelson, owner of Purniture Cat Furniture.
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Announcer: That's P-U-R-R-N-I-T-U-R-E.
00:17:47.538 --> 00:17:50.638
Announcer: Let's talk pets on petliferadio.com.
00:18:00.325 --> 00:18:04.385
Mary Tan: And we're back with Erin to know a bit more about Amazon.
00:18:04.385 --> 00:18:05.865
Alexane Ricard: So Erin, a question.
00:18:05.865 --> 00:18:14.905
Alexane Ricard: So you said that PR is really useful for you guys because we get the word out about a new product or a new brand and then people can search for it on Amazon.
00:18:14.905 --> 00:18:19.285
Alexane Ricard: But I know that smaller business can be a bit wary on Amazon.
00:18:19.285 --> 00:18:26.065
Alexane Ricard: They don't know if they should sell on Amazon or if not, especially when their strategy is to sell in brick and mortar stores.
00:18:26.065 --> 00:18:28.665
Alexane Ricard: So I was just wondering, what are your tips on that?
00:18:30.085 --> 00:18:33.545
Alexane Ricard: What are the benefits on selling on Amazon when you're a new business?
00:18:33.545 --> 00:18:34.225
Alexane Ricard: Some tips.
00:18:34.225 --> 00:18:36.345
Erin Gary: Yeah, that is a wonderful question, Alex.
00:18:36.345 --> 00:18:48.205
Erin Gary: So generally, our response to this question, and we get it a lot, is that unfortunately not being on Amazon doesn't solve the problem.
00:18:48.205 --> 00:18:51.685
Erin Gary: So Amazon is a marketplace.
00:18:51.685 --> 00:18:55.505
Erin Gary: It's not restricted to the brand owner or the manufacturer.
00:18:56.105 --> 00:19:01.565
Erin Gary: So anyone can sell almost any product on Amazon.
00:19:01.565 --> 00:19:15.365
Erin Gary: So if you're a brand that's like, we don't want to sell on Amazon, we don't want to make our retail partners angry, or we just think it's a kind of a hassle, or whatever the reason may be.
00:19:15.365 --> 00:19:20.245
Erin Gary: I know a lot of people who have big distribution networks, their biggest reason is price, right?
00:19:20.245 --> 00:19:29.305
Erin Gary: We don't want our products to be on Amazon, and it be a lower price than customers can get it in store, because that's just, it's not good for the brick and mortar stores.
00:19:29.305 --> 00:19:44.365
Erin Gary: Unfortunately, because anyone can sell anything on Amazon, they might just order a pallet of your products from a distributor and put them on Amazon as a reseller, and then you don't have any control over the price.
00:19:44.365 --> 00:19:50.105
Erin Gary: So our general response to questions like, this is the best offense, is it good defense?
00:19:50.625 --> 00:19:59.485
Erin Gary: So even if you don't really want to be on Amazon, the best way to resolve a lot of the pain points around Amazon is to lean into it.
00:19:59.485 --> 00:20:20.345
Erin Gary: And I've always said to brands like, hey, you can sign up for Amazon, you can try your best to protect your products from being sold by anyone else, and you don't even have to settle your whole catalog on Amazon, you can maybe keep some skews that are, let's say, exclusive to retail stores.
00:20:20.345 --> 00:20:42.605
Erin Gary: But this way, you have a presence on Amazon, and you know if other people start selling the product, you can see like, oh, someone's picked up a bunch of inventory here or there, figure out what distributor they got it from, start enforcing like map policies and ask your distributors not to sell it to Amazon or sell it to sellers who are going to end up on Amazon.
00:20:43.765 --> 00:20:53.185
Erin Gary: It just ends up being almost a bigger mess if a brand or manufacturer ignores Amazon because the pain points almost get worse when you're not the one selling it, right?
00:20:53.185 --> 00:21:03.485
Erin Gary: Because you're going to honor your map agreements and you're going to put the effort into making your brand presence the way you want it to be on Amazon, but a reseller is not going to do that.
00:21:03.485 --> 00:21:13.065
Erin Gary: And unfortunately, by not being on Amazon, you're opening up the possibility for someone else to control your brand presence and pricing on the platform.
00:21:13.065 --> 00:21:13.805
Mary Tan: Wow.
00:21:13.805 --> 00:21:18.745
Mary Tan: So I hear so many complaints that the margins are so thin.
00:21:18.745 --> 00:21:22.685
Mary Tan: This is kind of getting away from PR, but it's really, really critical.
00:21:22.685 --> 00:21:26.005
Mary Tan: So Amazon controls the pricing is what you're telling us.
00:21:26.005 --> 00:21:27.265
Mary Tan: Is that correct?
00:21:27.265 --> 00:21:28.265
Erin Gary: Well, it depends.
00:21:28.265 --> 00:21:37.445
Erin Gary: So if you are selling your product directly to Amazon Vendor Central, they do have a bit or control over the pricing.
00:21:37.985 --> 00:21:43.385
Erin Gary: If you're selling it as a seller, like if you're the manufacturer brand and you're selling it.
00:21:43.385 --> 00:21:46.205
Erin Gary: So let's say it's Joe's Pet Shop.
00:21:46.205 --> 00:21:54.685
Erin Gary: Joe's Pet Shop is selling it and they can fulfill it using Amazon warehouses or they can fulfill it themselves, but then you are in charge of the price.
00:21:54.685 --> 00:22:08.605
Erin Gary: My other example earlier was that if Joe's Pet Shop is not selling it, and my mom buys a bunch of Joe's products and she puts it on Amazon, as the seller, she decides what the price is.
00:22:08.605 --> 00:22:12.885
Erin Gary: So you have lost that control by not being the seller yourself.
00:22:12.885 --> 00:22:17.465
Erin Gary: So yeah, Mary, it's definitely, margins is a big topic on Amazon.
00:22:17.465 --> 00:22:18.705
Erin Gary: There's a lot of fees.
00:22:18.705 --> 00:22:23.905
Erin Gary: There's just a 15% fee of the product for being on Amazon.
00:22:23.905 --> 00:22:28.645
Erin Gary: It's like the black for fee for being there because they brought the customers, right?
00:22:28.645 --> 00:22:30.725
Erin Gary: That's their just black fee.
00:22:30.725 --> 00:22:35.365
Erin Gary: And then there's a whole bunch of fees if you've used their fulfillment services.
00:22:35.365 --> 00:22:47.165
Erin Gary: Yeah, if Amazon is going to be a part of your distribution strategy, you definitely need to price it in because, unfortunately, Amazon is also very picky about the price.
00:22:47.165 --> 00:22:55.045
Erin Gary: So if you are selling it on your website for less than you're selling it on Amazon, Amazon will take your listing down.
00:22:55.045 --> 00:23:03.085
Erin Gary: They'll say, no, until you match the price you have on your website or Chewy has on their website, you can't sell it on Amazon.
00:23:03.085 --> 00:23:05.325
Erin Gary: So you definitely have to be really cognizant of it.
00:23:05.325 --> 00:23:11.145
Erin Gary: Just like your two or three step distribution plan, you'd have to build in your margin to fit that.
00:23:11.145 --> 00:23:13.685
Erin Gary: You kind of have to think that through with Amazon as well.
00:23:13.685 --> 00:23:15.625
Mary Tan: Wow.
00:23:15.625 --> 00:23:24.625
Mary Tan: This is why you need to hire Stephen and Erin because this is so much to learn.
00:23:24.625 --> 00:23:29.685
Mary Tan: I have another question about, is Amazon mean to its businesses?
00:23:30.645 --> 00:23:37.185
Erin Gary: I'm going to sidestep that question and answer it with, they are very nice to their customers, right?
00:23:39.165 --> 00:23:44.225
Erin Gary: Amazon loves their shoppers, so they're very customer centric.
00:23:44.225 --> 00:23:46.885
Erin Gary: Returns, sure no problem.
00:23:46.885 --> 00:23:50.085
Erin Gary: You broke it, sent it back, full refund, right?
00:23:50.085 --> 00:24:03.945
Erin Gary: So yeah, it can be tough as a seller on the platform because Amazon's focus is 100% on the customer experience and less so on your experience selling, which is why it's a really hard platform to navigate.
00:24:03.945 --> 00:24:19.185
Erin Gary: And a lot of people who know they need to be on Amazon sell to Vendor Central, which is Amazon's first party arm so that they buy your inventory, they store it in their warehouses, they fulfill everything, they take all their returns, they handle all the customer service.
00:24:19.185 --> 00:24:23.205
Erin Gary: It's almost like you ship it off to another distributor and your hands are clean.
00:24:23.205 --> 00:24:31.425
Erin Gary: The one problem is Amazon Vendor Central isn't always the best about honoring manufacturer resale price.
00:24:31.425 --> 00:24:34.845
Erin Gary: Oh my gosh, fried pay brain, can't even remember the acronym.
00:24:34.845 --> 00:24:36.505
Erin Gary: But your pricing agreements, right?
00:24:36.505 --> 00:24:39.005
Erin Gary: They're not the best at honoring those.
00:24:39.005 --> 00:24:51.225
Erin Gary: If they have a palette of your inventory that's been sitting in their warehouse and they haven't sold it, they'll just slash the price on Amazon, which obviously makes all of your other partners really angry.
00:24:51.225 --> 00:24:56.905
Erin Gary: Because a customer can sit in a brick and mortar store and say, oh, this is a great product, I'm in a price shop.
00:24:56.905 --> 00:25:00.325
Erin Gary: Look at Amazon and go, it's $10 cheaper, I'm going to buy it there.
00:25:00.325 --> 00:25:12.745
Erin Gary: That's why we always suggest trying it out, maybe yourself first before selling it to vendor, because you lose a little bit of that price control and you also lose some control over your brand presence.
00:25:12.745 --> 00:25:14.545
Erin Gary: There's no easy answer here, guys.
00:25:14.545 --> 00:25:20.705
Erin Gary: It's just what works for our clients in terms of their business goals and how their business models work.
00:25:20.945 --> 00:25:21.705
Mary Tan: Wow.
00:25:21.705 --> 00:25:24.305
Mary Tan: What about adding, getting more into PR?
00:25:24.385 --> 00:25:29.745
Mary Tan: Alex and Mark, jump in here if you have a question, because I'm really bossy and I talk too much.
00:25:29.745 --> 00:25:31.525
Mary Tan: So I kind of lost my train of thought.
00:25:31.525 --> 00:25:36.625
Mary Tan: But say we get a client, tons of PR, tons of media hits and stuff.
00:25:36.625 --> 00:25:40.185
Mary Tan: Can you put that on your Amazon page?
00:25:40.185 --> 00:25:40.525
Mary Tan: Yeah.
00:25:40.525 --> 00:25:58.985
Erin Gary: So there are ways you can throw it into an image gallery that's got a little graphic that's as seen on USA Today, or in your A plus content section, which is if you scroll down a product detail page, it's a bunch of images and text that give you more detail about a product.
00:25:58.985 --> 00:26:06.065
Erin Gary: Now those kinds of tools are only available to brand owners or manufacturers, which is why we like to work with them instead of resellers.
00:26:06.065 --> 00:26:22.165
Erin Gary: But in addition to being able to kind of add that as an asset to a product's detail page, when a product gets featured in these popular media outlets or blogs or social media, you guys know it attracts attention.
00:26:22.165 --> 00:26:27.825
Erin Gary: This buzz can drive more people to search for the product on Amazon because they trust Amazon.
00:26:27.825 --> 00:26:33.485
Erin Gary: There's something like 70 percent of consumers in the US say that they find Amazon to be really trustworthy.
00:26:33.485 --> 00:26:44.005
Erin Gary: So they're not going to buy a new brand's product from their website if they're like, well, I don't know if I've ever bought from this, I might not get the customer service I want, I might not get the return policy I want.
00:26:44.005 --> 00:27:05.905
Erin Gary: So if you guys are able to generate a bunch of PR buzz, this can drive a lot of people to search for the product on Amazon, which can lead to a bunch of increase in traffic to a product detail page, and more traffic means more sales, and a higher number of eyeballs on a product detail page increases the likelihood of conversions.
00:27:05.905 --> 00:27:15.985
Erin Gary: If you guys remember back when you were talking about how Amazon works, this kind of increase in sales and traffic can really help your product show up more often organically.
00:27:16.465 --> 00:27:24.605
Erin Gary: You know, Amazon picks those organic results based on a big factor of sales and conversions, and that moves your product up the search rank.
00:27:24.605 --> 00:27:30.565
Erin Gary: So the more traffic and sales a product gets, the higher it tends to rank in the Amazon search results.
00:27:30.565 --> 00:27:54.805
Erin Gary: So PR can create this huge surge in both of our traffic and our sales, which not only helps in the short term, because once Amazon knows that you have this historic sales and you have this traffic, this initial news from PR can really have a lasting impact on a product's position in the search results, which makes it easier for future customers to find too.
00:27:54.805 --> 00:27:57.345
Mary Tan: Wow, that's amazing.
00:27:57.385 --> 00:27:58.185
Mary Tan: You know what?
00:27:58.185 --> 00:28:03.485
Mary Tan: We've still got a few more questions, so we're going to take a break and we'll be right back.
00:28:07.205 --> 00:28:09.465
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00:29:19.685 --> 00:29:21.025
Announcer: That's cfacatexpo.com.
00:29:26.665 --> 00:29:31.025
Mary Tan: Let's Talk Pets on PetLife Radio.
00:29:31.025 --> 00:29:33.245
Erin Gary: petliferadio.com.
00:29:42.291 --> 00:29:47.351
Mary Tan: Okay, and we're back with Erin for a couple more questions before we have to say goodbye.
00:29:47.351 --> 00:29:57.091
Alexane Ricard: So Erin, I'm sure you've seen a lot of small business and even bigger business start selling on Instagram, and I'm sure you've seen a couple of common mistakes.
00:29:57.091 --> 00:30:07.171
Alexane Ricard: Can you give our listeners just two little tips on what they should be doing when they just start selling on Amazon, just like two little things to help them start?
00:30:07.171 --> 00:30:18.051
Erin Gary: Yeah, so I think my biggest suggestion to brand owners and manufacturers is when they start selling on Amazon is to register their brand with Amazon.
00:30:18.051 --> 00:30:26.631
Erin Gary: So if you have a trademark for your brand or some product terms or patents, you can register that with Amazon.
00:30:26.631 --> 00:30:57.511
Erin Gary: Amazon will not proactively protect your brand and your products, but if you are able to register your trademarks and your patents with Amazon, and you find instances of people using your trademarked terms or ripping off your patented design, you can report them to Amazon, and then Amazon will look at the information that you have previously submitted and say, yep, this breaks your trademark, it breaks your patents, and they will kick those people off of Amazon.
00:30:57.511 --> 00:31:06.671
Erin Gary: So I know one of the biggest complaints by brands and manufacturers is, oh, if I'm on Amazon, then I open myself up to knockoffs.
00:31:06.671 --> 00:31:14.451
Erin Gary: But there is some protection available, and it's not necessarily something that Amazon, again, proactively does.
00:31:14.451 --> 00:31:20.871
Erin Gary: So that's my biggest suggestion for people selling, is get those things registered so you protect your brand.
00:31:20.871 --> 00:31:29.611
Mary Tan: Kind of getting a little bit off topic here, but I wanted to ask you about Tmoo and all these, Aliexpress and all of those kinds of sellers coming from China.
00:31:29.611 --> 00:31:36.451
Mary Tan: I read, I think, in one of the business newspapers that Tmoo is just so popular in the US.
00:31:37.211 --> 00:31:42.391
Mary Tan: Of course, it's a Chinese company, but is Tmoo a threat to Amazon?
00:31:42.391 --> 00:31:48.191
Erin Gary: I think that Amazon is so innovative in the things that they roll out.
00:31:48.191 --> 00:31:58.471
Erin Gary: It's one of the reasons why Stephen and I niched down because we, as a full service digital marketing agency, couldn't keep up with all of the changes that they were rolling out.
00:31:58.471 --> 00:32:07.411
Erin Gary: So I think there's a big enough consumer market in the US to kind of handle multiple platforms like this.
00:32:07.411 --> 00:32:13.191
Erin Gary: So I would say, sure, you know, Tmoo offers a bit of competition, but I think that's not a bad thing.
00:32:13.191 --> 00:32:24.111
Erin Gary: It might make Amazon better in terms of what it's able to provide to its customers or it might make it better in them focusing more on helping the seller's side of things.
00:32:24.111 --> 00:32:26.691
Erin Gary: But additionally, it's forcing them to innovate.
00:32:26.691 --> 00:32:30.531
Erin Gary: So, you know, we talked about how the search results page is populated.
00:32:31.091 --> 00:32:33.911
Erin Gary: And at this moment, it's all products.
00:32:33.911 --> 00:32:38.651
Erin Gary: But I will tell you they are beta testing ads for local services.
00:32:38.651 --> 00:32:44.471
Erin Gary: So, like, if you search for, say, like, I need a hinge trimmer, right?
00:32:44.471 --> 00:32:46.851
Erin Gary: So, you'll get a bunch of product results.
00:32:46.851 --> 00:32:49.831
Erin Gary: But then you might that top bar that's a big image.
00:32:49.831 --> 00:32:58.271
Erin Gary: In the future, it might be Joe's Lawn Care down the road that's located in your zip code, your billing zip code, right?
00:32:58.371 --> 00:33:01.971
Erin Gary: So, it's forcing Amazon to kind of innovate and change and adapt.
00:33:01.971 --> 00:33:05.191
Erin Gary: And I think in the end, you know, competition is really good for everybody.
00:33:05.191 --> 00:33:08.971
Erin Gary: So, I'm excited to see how Amazon responds to it.
00:33:08.971 --> 00:33:14.011
Erin Gary: It certainly encroaches on the market, but I don't see it as like a huge threat.
00:33:14.011 --> 00:33:17.311
Mary Tan: This is why we all want to be Jeff Bezos.
00:33:17.311 --> 00:33:19.611
Mary Tan: We wish we could have been him.
00:33:19.611 --> 00:33:19.911
Erin Gary: Yeah.
00:33:19.911 --> 00:33:21.811
Mary Tan: My goodness.
00:33:21.811 --> 00:33:25.971
Mary Tan: Any other questions, Mark and Alex, to close out the show?
00:33:25.971 --> 00:33:27.751
Mark Winter: How different is Amazon from Chewy?
00:33:28.271 --> 00:33:33.011
Mark Winter: In the pet world, I would say that would be Amazon's biggest competition.
00:33:33.011 --> 00:33:34.191
Erin Gary: Yeah, absolutely.
00:33:34.191 --> 00:33:34.851
Erin Gary: It is...
00:33:34.851 --> 00:33:38.171
Mark Winter: They operate in the same way as far as search and everything else?
00:33:38.171 --> 00:33:40.511
Erin Gary: Yeah, they are very similar.
00:33:40.511 --> 00:33:48.411
Erin Gary: And I will say, we've never worked directly with Chewy, so I can't give you a specific technical comparisons.
00:33:48.411 --> 00:33:51.051
Erin Gary: But yeah, it is a platform.
00:33:51.051 --> 00:33:55.191
Erin Gary: And like you said, it's just pet, which is obviously different than Amazon, just everything.
00:33:55.651 --> 00:33:59.331
Erin Gary: But it does very much work just like a marketplace.
00:33:59.331 --> 00:34:04.171
Erin Gary: Tons and tons of different brands and sellers offer their pet products on Chewy.
00:34:04.171 --> 00:34:11.411
Erin Gary: When a customer goes and searches for a dog chew toy, they're getting a bunch of results, some which are sponsoring, some which are not.
00:34:11.411 --> 00:34:14.551
Erin Gary: Yeah, it's a very similar situation.
00:34:14.551 --> 00:34:21.871
Erin Gary: So it's definitely something that pet brands and manufacturers in particular need to consider.
00:34:21.871 --> 00:34:32.551
Erin Gary: We work with a lot of clients who are on both and managing the pricing on both of them is tricky because they acknowledge that they do similar things.
00:34:32.551 --> 00:34:42.751
Erin Gary: If your price on chewy for a product is lower than it is on Amazon, Amazon is much quicker to take that listing down than say if it's on your website for a little cheaper.
00:34:42.751 --> 00:34:48.971
Erin Gary: So Amazon definitely recognizes that it's a direct competitor to their pet category.
00:34:48.971 --> 00:34:57.971
Erin Gary: But I think you can succeed on both and you can be on both and just hit different customer segments.
00:34:57.971 --> 00:35:03.751
Erin Gary: So I think it's a good part of business' strategy to try and be on both marketplaces.
00:35:03.751 --> 00:35:08.431
Erin Gary: And we don't discourage clients from being on Chewy or PetSmart or Petco.
00:35:08.431 --> 00:35:09.771
Mary Tan: That is amazing.
00:35:09.771 --> 00:35:16.491
Mary Tan: There's so much more than just putting your product, like writing up a little blurb and that sort of thing.
00:35:16.491 --> 00:35:17.711
Mary Tan: Final question.
00:35:17.711 --> 00:35:27.371
Mary Tan: I have noticed that sometimes I'll compare, and I can find it cheaper on walmart.com or target.com than Amazon and Chewy.
00:35:27.371 --> 00:35:32.311
Mary Tan: Those are other platforms that are also growing that people should consider as well, correct?
00:35:32.311 --> 00:35:33.431
Erin Gary: Yeah, absolutely.
00:35:33.431 --> 00:35:37.111
Erin Gary: And to Mark's question, is Chewy similar to Amazon?
00:35:37.111 --> 00:35:38.331
Erin Gary: Yes, but it's just Pet.
00:35:38.331 --> 00:35:44.151
Erin Gary: Well, Target Plus and Walmart are direct competitors to Amazon because they are doing essentially the same thing.
00:35:44.151 --> 00:35:46.911
Erin Gary: They are marketplaces for any and all products.
00:35:46.911 --> 00:35:51.991
Erin Gary: Target is pretty limited in terms of they don't allow resellers, which is great.
00:35:51.991 --> 00:35:53.771
Erin Gary: They only allow brands and manufacturers.
00:35:53.771 --> 00:35:56.111
Erin Gary: You have to apply to be on the platform.
00:35:56.111 --> 00:36:00.591
Erin Gary: I'm surprised to hear that you say that you've found cheaper options on Target.
00:36:00.591 --> 00:36:17.291
Erin Gary: I think it's just a testament to the necessity of brands and manufacturers to have a really tight control on their supply chain and their distribution chain, and have that map agreement in place and make sure you are enforcing it.
00:36:17.291 --> 00:36:30.891
Erin Gary: Because the reason that these big market places end up lowering the price or giving customers a coupon is because their algorithms are finding it other places online for cheaper, and so they knock the price down.
00:36:30.891 --> 00:36:38.271
Erin Gary: Or if you have a reseller who has enough margin on Amazon or Walmart, they'll knock the price down.
00:36:38.451 --> 00:36:43.011
Erin Gary: So it's just a really big deal as a brand and manufacturer.
00:36:43.011 --> 00:36:50.831
Erin Gary: If you're interested in being in e-commerce and you're interested in being on these big platforms, is you have to have a pricing strategy.
00:36:50.831 --> 00:36:56.411
Erin Gary: And it needs to be enforceable with all members of your distribution chain.
00:36:56.411 --> 00:37:03.371
Mary Tan: And speaking for cat rescuers, is Amazon Smile still in existence where you can donate to a nonprofit?
00:37:03.371 --> 00:37:07.551
Erin Gary: Last that I knew as a shopper on Amazon, it was.
00:37:08.031 --> 00:37:10.691
Erin Gary: But I don't actually know the answer to that question.
00:37:10.691 --> 00:37:11.011
Erin Gary: Okay.
00:37:11.011 --> 00:37:14.471
Mary Tan: Yeah, I had heard that they had made some big changes on there.
00:37:14.471 --> 00:37:20.311
Mary Tan: And I saw a lot of rescues that I volunteer with have like changed to the other platforms.
00:37:20.311 --> 00:37:27.771
Mary Tan: Like most, I think most of them go through Chewy, but Amazon Smile, like the neonatal kitten rescues always have like the heat.
00:37:27.771 --> 00:37:32.011
Mary Tan: They need the heaters and little cuddly things and stuff like that.
00:37:32.011 --> 00:37:33.651
Erin Gary: Yeah, it definitely used to be a thing.
00:37:33.651 --> 00:37:39.171
Erin Gary: Like as a shopper, I knew I could pick like what smile organization I wanted to donate to.
00:37:39.171 --> 00:37:42.511
Erin Gary: I haven't seen it in recent shopping excursions.
00:37:42.511 --> 00:37:43.731
Erin Gary: That doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
00:37:43.731 --> 00:37:47.731
Erin Gary: I just, I full transparency do not know the answers to that question.
00:37:47.731 --> 00:37:48.171
Mary Tan: All right.
00:37:48.171 --> 00:37:52.571
Erin Gary: That's more on the shopper side and less on the seller side.
00:37:52.571 --> 00:37:56.011
Mary Tan: Well thank you so much Erin.
00:37:56.011 --> 00:37:56.731
Erin Gary: Of course.
00:37:56.811 --> 00:37:59.051
Mary Tan: I just enjoyed having you.
00:37:59.051 --> 00:38:16.511
Mary Tan: And you know, the point of this podcast is to really educate people and have great content so that you as, of course, this show is focused on the pet business owner, but there's so much to learn and, you know, of course, we want to send people your way.
00:38:16.511 --> 00:38:22.111
Mary Tan: Erin, how can people reach you to learn a little bit more about your services?
00:38:22.111 --> 00:38:23.071
Erin Gary: Yeah, absolutely.
00:38:23.071 --> 00:38:24.851
Erin Gary: Thank you guys first off for having me.
00:38:25.311 --> 00:38:39.111
Erin Gary: You can reach my firm, Acceleration, at theamazonmarketingagency.com, or you can email me directly at erin, E-R-I-N, at Acceleration, which is spelled funny, so I will spell it for you.
00:38:39.111 --> 00:38:40.511
Erin Gary: It's A-C-C-E-L-E-R-A-Z-O-N.
00:38:45.511 --> 00:38:48.711
Erin Gary: Erin at acceleration.com with accelerazon.com.
00:38:52.271 --> 00:38:55.191
Erin Gary: Guys, Friday is just after SuperZoom.
00:38:55.191 --> 00:38:58.351
Erin Gary: My brain is an egg, scrambled egg.
00:38:58.351 --> 00:39:00.531
Mary Tan: Well, that is a wrap for the show.
00:39:00.531 --> 00:39:05.191
Mary Tan: We're so excited to be doing this and bringing on people like Erin.
00:39:05.191 --> 00:39:11.391
Mary Tan: All of us are making life better for animals because in the end, that is what it's all about.
00:39:11.391 --> 00:39:14.691
Mary Tan: Do you have a question that you want us to answer?
00:39:14.691 --> 00:39:19.151
Mary Tan: Reach out to us on Instagram or Facebook under the Whisker Report.
00:39:19.151 --> 00:39:25.711
Mary Tan: You will chat with Alex, and we're going to try to answer your questions in a future podcast episode.
00:39:25.711 --> 00:39:31.951
Mary Tan: So we're going to say goodbye and as we always say, Park Loud and Purr Smart.
00:39:31.951 --> 00:39:33.371
Mary Tan: See you everybody.
00:39:33.371 --> 00:39:34.691
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00:39:34.711 --> 00:39:36.711
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00:39:36.731 --> 00:39:39.371
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