The Amazon Jungle. Rick Cesari

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СКАЧАТЬ and according to some analysts such as Scot Wingo, co-founder of ChannelAdvisor, Third-Party Sellers contribute more profits to Amazon’s bottom line than the Amazon AWS cloud computing division.² And with Mr. Bezos’s obsession for the end-customer, they are trampling the folks that helped build the business and for which he is still dependent upon for future growth.

      Yet in the time it took me to say that, thousands of Third-Party Seller accounts will have been suspended, sometimes indefinitely, due to no fault of their own. Thousands will have had their listings suppressed because Amazon found listings for less on other sales channels. And thousands of U.S. Sellers’ high-quality, good-selling product listings will be overrun by a flood of illegitimate and otherwise unsafe products from Chinese factories. How is this okay? I would then beseech Mr. Bezos to meet with a small group of Top Sellers, as any CEO would be convinced to do when a majority faction of their business or a top group of customers is disgruntled. I would urge him to talk with Top Sellers about what is really going on because the total disregard of a company’s most productive group of Sellers is unimaginable in the first place. But the ill-treatment, including the deliberate shutdown of Seller accounts and profitable product listings, would not likely be tolerated anywhere else.

      The intensity with which I delivered my outburst surprised the host and his crew, and it has since led to deeper conversations about the controversy on a national level. I got my first taste of playing the advocate role for Sellers when my good friend James Thomson, the Godfather of all Amazon Sellers, invited me to speak at the very first Prosper Show. James’ first-hand experience as the former business head of Amazon Services and first FBA account manager, primed him to create the Prosper Show, an annual conference bringing thousands of discerning and established Amazon Sellers together once a year to share best practices.

      It was at this conference in 2016 that my career path took an unexpected turn. James invited me to join a group of panelists for a session on Amazon selling. But it was what happened after the presentation that was so pivotal. A large group of Sellers who’d attended the talk followed me and a few of the other panelists out of the room and into the hallway. It was like a spontaneous support group, swapping war stories, sharing solutions, trading business cards. This was exactly what James envisioned—where the conference and the networking that followed could be a useful resource for Sellers who face crippling obstacles in their tireless struggle to make a profit on Amazon. Mission accomplished, James.

      Since then, I’ve shifted my focus from seller to advisor. The switch has been profoundly gratifying, using my years of experience on Amazon to help Sellers avoid the same traps that snared my brothers and me; then helping them build winning brands, in spite of Amazon’s aggressions. Third-Party Sellers dominate the Amazon retail market, with nearly $43 billion in 3P Seller service revenue, up from $32 billion in the previous year.³ Even Mr. Bezos noted the trend in his 2019 letter to shareholders, where he acknowledges that Amazon is a smaller player in global retail. “To put it bluntly,” he wrote, “Third-party sellers are kicking our first-party butt. Badly.”

      As a Marine Officer, I learned how to shape my ambition for constant improvement, and I developed the mental toughness and life skills required to bend and adapt under the most difficult of circumstances. I don’t expect Amazon to offer 3P Sellers a free lunch, but selling on their platform, while also contributing generously to the company’s bottom line, shouldn’t be analogous to war.

      I wrote this book as a strategic guide for 3P Sellers who want to survive and thrive—on Amazon. The steps laid out in these pages are inspired by the 7 Steps to Amazon Success, around which my marketing agency was created. This book goes deeper, providing the kind of detail that is meant to help Seller’s navigate the Amazon platform without retaining a consultant. While success on Amazon is not as easy as it used to be, there are literally millions of Sellers on the online platform, growing every day. But the percentage of Sellers succeeding on Amazon is surprisingly low. Of the 2.7 million U.S. Sellers, for example, only 6% (approx. 168,000) are generating sales of $100,000 a year or more, while fewer than 1.5% (approx. 40,000) are at $500,000 a year in sales.⁴ As a former Amazon Top 200 Seller, I have the battle-scars and experience to help Sellers climb in the rankings and the humility to admit it’s not that easy.

      Being an Amazon Seller is hard, really hard, but together with my brothers, we found creative ways to adapt and, ultimately, thrive. But it wasn’t until I met billion dollar brand-maker Rick Cesari that we reached the “next level,” incorporating his merchandising magic into our Seller’s Survival Guide. It was Rick who taught me how to put the customer at the center of every product decision—authentically. And it is here where we 3P Sellers have Amazon beat; where the little guy actually has the advantage.

      While Amazon retail and 1P sellers are limited in the information they can share through product listings, 3P Sellers have greater freedom to create a strong presence beyond Amazon. I can’t stress this enough. Rick and I both like to say that we’re sales agnostic; that a sale is a sale, regardless of its point of origin. While listing your products on Amazon should be a fundamental feature of every product marketing plan, limiting yourself to Amazon hinders your chances of creating an enduring brand. Furthermore, your success off Amazon will enhance your performance on Amazon. In Chapter 10, Rick goes into great detail about the value of expanding your business off Amazon, with helpful tips from his favorite omni-channel approach to marketing.

      Throughout this book, you’ll learn more about the sizable opportunities available to Amazon Sellers, as well as reliable sales and marketing strategies designed to safeguard you from the digital quicksand. Rick and I will share our years of experience both on and off Amazon, with the goal of equipping you with the same knowledge and winning strategies that helped us create brands and consistently grow sales for our clients. The Amazon Third-Party Seller is the lifeblood of Amazon.com and my dream, Mr. Bezos, is for 3P Sellers to have a meaningful seat at your table. Amazon would not exist as the retail e-commerce giant it is today without 3P Sellers, nor will Amazon have a bright future without them. The more that Amazon Sellers succeed today by doing things the right way for their customers, the more I believe my dream will come true.

      Jason Boyce

      Princeton, New Jersey

SECTION I

      Chapter 1:

      FROM NOWHERE TO EVERYWHERE

      “AMAZON IS AN UTTER PHENOMENON AND THERE’S HARDLY BEEN ANYTHING LIKE IT IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY.”

      CHARLES MUNGER, LONGTIME BUSINESS PARTNER OF WARREN BUFFET

      My journey on Amazon started in 2003, long before Jeff Bezos realized his vision of the Everything Store we know today. Amazon offered products in multiple categories, like books, electronics, even clothing, but it wasn’t anything like it is now. After the dot-com bubble burst in 2001, Amazon was hurting and relied on a deal it struck with Toys “R” Us in August of 2000 (among other deals) to keep it alive. Under that agreement, Toys “R” Us paid $50 million a year for 10 years, plus a percentage of sales, for an exclusivity provision with exceptions that made them the sole seller of toys on Amazon.

      But in 2002 Amazon started allowing other businesses to list their goods on the Amazon.com platform, including toys. I know, because in the holiday season of 2003, I was making daily trips in a U-Haul Truck to a Los Angeles distribution center to fill orders for the Razor Scooters I’d sold on Amazon the night before—thousands upon thousands of them. My brothers and I were selling the same scooter on Amazon that Toys “R” Us was selling, and we were killing it! Not surprisingly, Toys “R” Us was not pleased, and they СКАЧАТЬ