A Sampling of Success on Amazon - John Willkom - Amazon Legends - Episode # 142

09/06/22 • 59 min

Everyone loves a free sample, but did you know that you can use the power of Amazon to get samples of your product into consumers' hands? John Willkom is an omni-commerce expert, the Senior Vice President & Head of Ecommerce at The Mars Agency, and the author of the Amazon best-selling basketball book, Walk-On Warrior. John explains his unique approach to building brand awareness on Amazon, what’s on the cutting edge of ecommerce, and which two metrics you need to stay on top of to grow on Amazon.

Takeaways:

Amazon uses a company called Send Me A Sample so that consumers can ask Alexa devices to send them a sample of a certain product and Amazon will ship it to them automatically. This is a great way to get your product out there and get feedback in.
Using digital sampling through Amazon, you can replace the traditional, in-store demos with something that converts better, creates massive brand awareness, and doesn’t require a huge budget.
Send Me A Sample operates as a fulfillment service and they are where you send your sample inventory. Amazon’s role is just to feature the currently available samples on a webpage and when asked about samples through Alexa.
A great way to get the most from your sample campaign is to simultaneously run digital ad campaigns that entice consumers to order the free samples. You will see more accurate results with a larger sample size of people trying your product out.
The potential of voice is just beginning to come into view and it offers perhaps the most frictionless buying experience available.
You’ll never find one solution that will generate tons of orders in perpetuity. You need to have a test-and-learn mentality to find what works for your product and speaks to your customers, and when this changes over time, you need to keep testing.
Amazon is currently beta-testing a new tool in Seller Central called Search Query Performance which allows brands to see the total number of impressions, clicks, add-to carts, and purchases for the brand.

Quote of the Show:

“There's no reason why voice isn't going to usher in the future of TV shopping” - John Willkom

Links:

Ways to Tune In:

Amazon Legends is sponsored by Argometrix, the authority on, and leading supplier of, competitive intelligence for online retail. To learn more, head over to https://argometrix.com/

Takeaways:

Amazon uses a company called Send Me A Sample so that consumers can ask Alexa devices to send them a sample of a certain product and Amazon will ship it to them automatically. This is a great way to get your product out there and get feedback in.
Using digital sampling through Amazon, you can replace the traditional, in-store demos with something that converts better, creates massive brand awareness, and doesn’t require a huge budget.
Send Me A Sample operates as a fulfillment service and they are where you send your sample inventory. Amazon’s role is just to feature the currently available samples on a webpage and when asked about samples through Alexa.
A great way to get the most from your sample campaign is to simultaneously run digital ad campaigns that entice consumers to order the free samples. You will see more accurate results with a larger sample size of people trying your product out.
The potential of voice is just beginning to come into view and it offers perhaps the most frictionless buying experience available.
You’ll never find one solution that will generate tons of orders in perpetuity. You need to have a test-and-learn mentality to find what works for your product and speaks to your customers, and when this changes over time, you need to keep testing.
Amazon is currently beta-testing a new tool in Seller Central called Search Query Performance which allows brands to see the total number of impressions, clicks, add-to carts, and purchases for the brand.

Quote of the Show:

“There's no reason why voice isn't going to usher in the future of TV shopping” - John Willkom

Links:

Ways to Tune In:

Amazon Legends is sponsored by Argometrix, the authority on, and leading supplier of, competitive intelligence for online retail. To learn more, head over to https://argometrix.com/

Previous Episode

Creating Ecommerce Kings - Mark Thomann - Amazon Legends - Episode # 141

Successful Amazon brands are a hot commodity for investors, but in order to successfully exit or scale, you need to approach it the right way. Mark Thomann is a kingmaker, a lifelong entrepreneur, and the managing partner of Spiral Sun Ventures. Mark gives a peek behind the curtain to explain what investors are actually looking for when assessing a company. Mark also shares retail best practices, how to pitch your company to investors, and what selling on Amazon can do for business.

Takeaways:

The first thing venture capital firms look at before investing in any business is the entrepreneur leading the business, their personality, and their values. If that person is a fit, then they will look at the category.
Many investors prefer to invest in blue ocean companies with very innovative products while avoiding niche products in a highly-competitive red ocean market.
It’s crucial for founders to be extremely self-aware and cognizant of their own weaknesses. It really helps to surround yourself with people that are better at certain things than you.
It’s more important to establish a personal connection with investors and ensure there is alignment before having them look through your slide deck and financials.
The founder of a company is so important because they are usually the source of innovation that keeps the company fresh. This is part of the reason that investors focus so much on aligning with the right founders.
Truly successful entrepreneurs will never quit on their vision instead, they will take that vision and pivot to a different approach that offers greater opportunities.
Selling on Amazon provides companies with better feedback and gives them a greater understanding of their customers than they would get from trying to fight for shelf space in a big box store. It’s also much easier to educate customers by selling on Amazon.

Quote of the Show:

“Amazon has changed the way early stage companies and consumer products can build and scale” - Mark Thomann

Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-thomann-0626815/
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiverWestBrands
Spiral Sun Ventures website: https://www.spiralsunventures.com/
Pacas website: https://www.pacas.us/pages/meet-paca

Ways to Tune In:

Amazon Legends is sponsored by Argometrix, the authority on, and leading supplier of, competitive intelligence for online retail. Learn more

Next Episode

Tell Your Brand Story on Amazon - Ila Byrne & Catherine Harpe Neal - Amazon Legends - Episode # 143

Selling on Amazon from the start of a company’s launch provides unique perspectives because of the unique challenges and opportunities it comes with. Today we have two great guests, the first of which, Catherine Harpe Neal, is the Director of eCommerce at Parch Spirits Co and also runs a foster home for dogs. Along with Catherine, Ila Byrne is the Co-Founder of Parch and has some amazing experience from leading innovation at Diaggio. You’ll get some great advice on the process behind launching on Amazon, how to build out your brand story using Amazon, and what it takes to assemble a great team.

Takeaways:

One of the most important aspects of building a lifestyle brand is educating consumers and much of that comes from working with partners in existing industries.
Deciding to sell on Amazon is not just something you can do on the side of your business. It is a massive sales channel and adding that to your company requires you to adopt and implement an entirely new set of standard operating procedures (SOPs).
Some of the SOPs you need to introduce to hit the ground running on Amazon include how you package orders, ASINs, and FBA and FBM decisions.
Amazon is putting massive amounts of effort into promoting all 3rd-party sellers to use their FBA fulfillment service.
Even though you may use FBA, it’s imperative to have everything in place for FBM in case of an inventory or supply chain issue.
Although you might be using an agency to help with your Amazon operation, you also need someone internally that can own everything to do with Amazon.
Building out your brand through Amazon means that you can reach customers across the US while also telling your brand story through the pages of Amazon that can match the brand world that you have created through all of your other channels.

Quotes of the Show:

“Amazon has incentivized 3rd-part sellers enough to, in a positive way, force your hand to fulfill via FBA” - Catherine Harpe-Neil
“You can’t really launch a brand, especially a CPG brand, without Amazon these days” - Ila Byrne

Links:

Ways to Tune In:

Amazon Legends is sponsored by Argometrix, the authority on, and leading supplier of, competitive intelligence for online retail. To learn more, head over to https://argometrix.com/