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00:00:14.176Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of our Velocity Sellers podcast.
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00:00:19.256I am your host, velocity Pete, and today we are joined by the beard himself, abe.
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00:00:21.341You definitely have seen him on LinkedIn.
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00:00:26.533If you are anybody that, you know, if you follow Amazon at all, you've definitely seen his LinkedIn posts.
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00:00:35.715Abe, I'm excited to join you today to talk about just a variety of topics surrounding PPC quarter four and anything else that comes up in the meantime.
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00:00:38.228But really, thank you so much for jumping on with us today.
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00:00:39.625I'm excited to talk to you.
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00:00:41.466Oh, I got to say thank you for having me.
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00:00:43.021I definitely appreciate it.
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00:00:44.100No, I got to say thank you for having me.
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00:00:51.926I definitely appreciate it, and I'm sort of a little bit sad that you had to wait all the way up until you actually saw me for the invitation you could have reached out to me any time before then.
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00:00:53.267I was nervous.
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00:00:53.746I was nervous.
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00:00:54.948You got so many followers on LinkedIn.
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00:00:57.048That's super duper important these days.
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00:01:01.392You know, all these kids and their social media follower count and all that stuff and I'm just a lowly guy.
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00:01:04.013I've only got like a thousand and a half, maybe two now.
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00:01:12.358Listen, I love every one of them and I appreciate every one of them, and anybody can always ask me for everything, not everything.
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00:01:12.677There you go.
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00:01:14.623Something Within reason.
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00:01:15.546Within reason, of course.
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00:01:17.712Yeah Well, yeah, I'm excited.
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00:01:22.751I'm excited we got to meet at shout out to ASGTG great conference that connected us.
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00:01:26.825Asgtg, great conference that connected us.
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00:01:27.367And I saw you there.
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00:01:28.572I said how can I miss you, you know with the beard and stuff.
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00:01:29.759And I was like, well, I got to get him on the podcast.
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00:01:30.781So and here we are.
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00:01:34.150Yes, perfect, the universe conspired to bring us here today.
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00:01:34.891It worked out well.
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00:01:36.159Amen, amen.
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00:01:43.629Well, I want to give you a chance to introduce yourself and kind of go over your story a little bit and kind of how you got started in the Amazon e-commerce space.
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00:01:56.751Basically give our followers if there's anybody out there on the rare chance that doesn't know who you are kind of an intro to you to give them some sort of credentials, to see you know why are you talking with us today and kind of your background a little bit.
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00:02:04.171Sure, all right, I feel like every time I tell it, it comes out slightly differently than the time before.
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00:02:07.015So it's always worth listening to.
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00:02:10.401I think, or at least to me it seems like it's always worth listening to.
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00:02:14.194So for anybody that doesn't know me, my name is Abe Shamali.
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00:02:18.769I have an Amazon advertising company called XP Strategy.
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00:02:24.449We focus on Amazon ads and we also focus on all the pieces that connect to Amazon ads.
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00:02:41.885So, whether it's listing health issues that help with conversions, whether it's some aspects of off Amazon traffic everything that helps Amazon marketing work more effectively we try to have those pieces handled and managed so that brands we work with get the best results.
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00:02:45.312Now, that's what I'm doing today.
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00:02:51.812That's what I've been doing since 2018, which at this point, it's been six years, so that's a good amount of time.
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00:02:58.135However, before that, my business career started all the way back in 1991.
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00:03:10.729So yeah and it's not like a typo, it's not a verbal tick yes, back in 1991, I started out working in sales for a company that advertised in the back of camera magazines.
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00:03:11.991They would have a full page ad.
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00:03:21.325We'd get telephone calls and, instead of having frequently bought together on an Amazon page, the frequently bought together would be suggested by a salesperson.
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00:03:24.030So you know we did that for a bunch of years.
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00:03:31.591Working for someone turned into owning my own business and, of course, magazine sales turned into internet sales.
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00:03:37.852We started out with a Yahoo store, which was initially the first place that you could do e-commerce effectively.
00:03:37.852 -->
00:03:44.521Yahoo stores turned into our own website with Google advertising and the different shopping search engines.
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00:03:49.540They used to be websites that were just focused on showing the best prices for things you'd want to buy.
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00:03:51.243That was where our traffic came from.
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00:04:02.533That turned into, of course, ebay for like a minute and after that minute of eBay, amazon rose up in 2008, 2009, and it has been Amazon ever since.
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00:04:12.937In 2018, after about nine years of focusing mostly on Amazon, I had the opportunity to pivot and to help sellers as a main focus of what I did.
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00:04:21.389I leaned into that so that I wouldn't have to worry about inventory management and all the other things that happen when you physically touch products.
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00:04:24.081That was never the part of the business that I enjoyed the most.
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00:04:30.923I was able to lean into the advertising and marketing part of it, and I've been working with sellers to help their accounts ever since.
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00:04:32.507Love it.
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00:04:36.142Yeah, it sounds similar to our story and it's a great story.
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00:04:40.783You know, we're both passionate about helping people sell better on Amazon, so I love it.
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00:04:41.122Love it.
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00:04:42.687I definitely want to get in.
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00:04:48.459Like I mentioned, I want to get into a lot of that PPC stuff with you, because that's just a wide net to cast.
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00:04:54.011You know there's everyone needs PPC help, even the experts, and there's a lot to cover on that too.
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00:05:01.350So I'm excited to kind of go over all of that with you and just kind of go into some some formalities and some maybe some high level stuff that you can share with us.
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00:05:03.612So, yeah, they're very, very exciting.
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00:05:13.435So I guess really, first things first, let's go right into it With all the stuff that's been going on in 2024, between all the new fees and just all the new changes Amazon is making.
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00:05:22.444Jeff seems to really want that third super yacht, so we've been giving it to him as sellers with all these new inventory fees and all that stuff.
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00:05:31.952But what has been happening sort of in the really deep PPC world that you're seeing on your end, that's been kind of crazy this year in 2024?
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00:05:40.360So having done this for a whole bunch of years, even before doing it for other sellers.
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00:05:45.648I've been advertising since Amazon has had advertising something like 2012 or 2013.
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00:05:55.430That's when the ads platform started for Amazon, so for me it's maybe a little bit jaded, but change is the nature of what we see on Amazon.
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00:06:03.432It will likely always be the nature of what we see on Amazon, and I try not to look at any change as the end of the world.
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00:06:04.711I try not to look at any change as oh of the world.
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00:06:09.591I try not to look at any change as oh my God, I have to throw out my entire advertising model and change what I'm doing.
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00:06:21.264Typically, I feel like the way we advertise has a pretty consistent model to it, and we make changes around the edges to adjust for things.
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00:06:30.690So, from our end, there are two changes that I see have been coming into play, and one specific change of those two is going to become more and more of an issue.
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00:06:34.266The first one, as everybody loves to talk about, is AI.
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00:06:37.180Ai is something that Amazon is talking a lot about.
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00:06:50.408They have a new AI model that they're building into their system called Rufus, and the way that shoppers see it the most these days is they see AI summaries of reviews most typically.
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00:06:56.689So it says oh, our AI bot says that when I look through all the reviews, these are the things we figured out about the reviews.
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00:06:59.281That's what people see about Rufus when they shop.
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00:07:13.072When advertising happens, they're using this AI system to understand what the listing is and to put it into a better context with when you're advertising keywords and when your bids are put into place.
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00:07:15.387So they understand better.
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00:07:24.899If the keyword you're advertising is a match to what your product actually is, and the closer that they can connect the two, the better of a placement they'll give you.
00:07:24.899 -->
00:07:29.692The better of a match you are for what you try to advertise, the lower your CPCs will be.
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00:07:32.987They always want the two to be in a good alignment.
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00:07:50.610They want it that if a shopper searches for a thing, the results they see will be the thing they want, and the farther away it is from what they want, the less Amazon likes it, the less shoppers like it and the more they'll penalize an advertiser by having to pay more for that spot.
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00:07:55.995Now, that's in a world where you are in the ballpark of what a shopper wants.
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00:08:04.764So, for example, if you are an Apple watch strap, you might be able to advertise a screen protector for a watch strap listing.
00:08:04.764 -->
00:08:08.572There will be some amount of people who are looking for a strap who will also buy it.
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00:08:11.122But they'll penalize you because you aren't actually a strap.
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00:08:15.903So you'll pay a much higher CPC, but there's actually a limit to how far you can take it.
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00:08:23.904If it's a watch strap and you sell an Apple iPhone case, no amount of money will get you there Not a $200 click, not anything like that.
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00:08:30.035So as long as you're in that ballpark of matching what a shopper is searching for, you're eligible to get your ad shown.
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00:08:40.130The amount that you have to pay and the quality of your conversions will depend on how close you are, and Amazon is using AI to make that match up better.
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00:08:48.285It's still unclear the extent to which things are going to happen, but one of the things we're seeing is that Amazon is starting to change listings with AI.
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00:08:58.994They're starting to move titles around, they're starting to move different elements of the listing into different ways that brand owners don't intend, and those are affecting ads and conversions.
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00:09:03.537So AI is, like, definitely the trend and the thing we're seeing affect things.
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00:09:06.485Yeah, ai is definitely the trend and the thing we're seeing affect things.
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00:09:09.513The second thing that I'm seeing on a technical basis is sort of frustrating.
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00:09:11.703But we're seeing ads.
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00:09:17.494Ad campaigns take longer to be working well in the system.
00:09:17.494 -->
00:09:24.931It used to be that if we built a campaign and the campaign was technically perfect, it's for a keyword that had a lot of conversions.
00:09:24.931 -->
00:09:29.094It's for a keyword that had a lot of conversions, it's for a keyword that matches the product perfectly.
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00:09:30.780We have a strong, aggressive bid.
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00:09:37.403If all the technical parts are lined up correctly, as soon as you launch the campaign, you're seeing business and traffic.
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00:09:40.552These days we're seeing it take longer and longer.
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00:09:48.111It's almost like there's somebody inside Amazon that's deciding to look at everything with a magnifying glass first as opposed to a computer system.
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00:09:55.261There's no reason it should take longer for a campaign to start being effective, but it is what we're seeing and that's a little bit frustrating.
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00:09:58.288We're working on different ways to address it.
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00:10:03.530Some things have worked well, other things are still a work in progress, but that's a sort of trend that we're seeing.
00:10:03.530 -->
00:10:14.393I'm going to assume that it's part of the fall hiccups that we see with Amazon every year, typically like third quarter.
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00:10:19.229Amazon always runs the craziest experiments and they do that to get them out of the way before the Q4 push.
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00:10:22.118So there was a time when Amazon was not showing any reviews.
00:10:22.118 -->
00:10:23.942There was a time when Amazon was All different types.
00:10:23.942 -->
00:10:30.604There was a time when Amazon was, you know, all different types of things they show in listings and I think this is going to be part of that group of experiments.
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00:10:33.490Hopefully, I'm excited to see where it goes.
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00:10:34.133I like Rufus.
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00:10:34.640I don't know.
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00:10:36.245Have you heard the story behind Rufus?
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00:10:37.600I feel like I say this every time I bring it up.
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00:10:41.825I like to ask Pete, my guest, if they've heard why it's called Rufus and who Rufus was.
00:10:42.405 -->
00:10:45.690It sounds like I'm going to learn my new thing for today in about a second.
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00:10:46.951There you are.
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00:10:47.451I think so.
00:10:47.451 -->
00:10:56.886So back in the day when Amazon was just kind of getting like, not getting started, like they had already been established and stuff like that, there was an office dog called Rufus.
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00:10:57.970His name was Rufus.
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00:11:15.052It was one of the employee's dogs, a little corgi, that's why the symbol was a little corgi for Rufus and, funny enough, they actually had him, rufus the dog, whenever they did a new product launch or a new software launch, they would have him use his paw to click the mouse to actually physically launch the product.
00:11:15.052 -->
00:11:19.687So it's very funny, it's very cute, it's a nice little callback, it's a little piece of, like, amazon history.
00:11:19.687 -->
00:11:27.883I would say I think Rufus has long since crossed the Rainbow Bridge, because I think this was back in like early 2000s, but he was a super.
00:11:27.883 -->
00:11:33.293It was a super cool little tidbit to learn that about, like why, how they came up with this name.
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00:11:34.403Yeah, that is.
00:11:34.403 -->
00:11:35.528That's definitely interesting.
00:11:35.528 -->
00:11:38.889It's definitely nice that they keep those connections to the past.
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00:11:46.566Amazon can be a pretty cold place in terms of how they change things, so keeping that connection to the way they used to do things is actually pretty cool.
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00:11:47.087I like that.
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00:11:48.850It's very neat.
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00:11:49.833Yeah, I'm with you.
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00:12:00.322Sometimes I feel like they're just very disconnected from some of us, either the sellers or the agencies you know, kind of in terms of what we're requesting or kind of what we're complaining about.
00:12:00.322 -->
00:12:10.476But sometimes too, they do kind of, uh, you know, give us, throw us a bone every now and then for lack of a better um dog pun, uh, but it right, it is.
00:12:10.476 -->
00:12:13.647It is nice to see that they're kind of calling back to the roots a little bit here.
00:12:13.647 -->
00:12:21.842They just didn't name it something like alexa ai or or you know something that they already kind of have going on somewhere, somebody has a good story about alexa.
00:12:22.023 -->
00:12:25.390You got to find it and tell that one too, oh, I'm sure I'll have to figure that out.
00:12:25.390 -->
00:12:26.332Do some more research on that.
00:12:26.332 -->
00:12:27.546My my Amazon history.
00:12:27.546 -->
00:12:29.063I actually do know the story of that.
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00:12:29.926I have to interject.
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00:12:33.085Yeah, what do you got Our producer, jake everybody.
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00:12:47.357Uh, I actually I actually met the guy who made Alexa, um, and he he told me that they did Alexa because it's something that could be pronounced in every language and that's pretty much it.
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00:12:50.453It said it's something that was easily pronounceable.
00:12:50.480 -->
00:12:57.293And did they give any consideration to the fact that every person named Alex or Alexandra will hate their life if that device is in their house?
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00:13:04.982Yes, and actually I was in the room with someone named Alexa when he was giving this story and she was very mad, oh gosh.
00:13:05.183 -->
00:13:11.201Yeah, there's an Alexandra in my house and she is like she has learned to live with the annoyance, but it's definitely there.
00:13:12.124 -->
00:13:12.303Yeah.
00:13:12.965 -->
00:13:17.642Supposedly you can change the name that it responds to, but I don't think anybody does that.
00:13:18.705 -->
00:13:20.327Well, you're, you're talking to someone that has.
00:13:20.327 -->
00:13:21.610Mine is actually.
00:13:21.610 -->
00:13:25.447I say echo and it just turned on because I don't know why.
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00:13:33.640I just I like the sound of the word echo more than alexa no offense, jeff and the alexa team, um, but I think echo is very funny.
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00:13:36.708So, and my device is an echo actually, so it responds to that.
00:13:36.708 -->
00:13:42.465So you have, you do know one person that has actually changed the answering yes two things for today?
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00:13:55.876Yeah, all right, but speaking of kind of AI and Rufus really and you talked a little bit about kind of the different keywords that you can sort of bid on, even if you weren't necessarily related to those products, if you were just kind of close.
00:13:55.876 -->
00:14:16.212How else do you think is AI and Rufus really going to affect just keyword research in general, just keyword research in general, and do you think we're going to be relying a little bit more on things like auto campaigns to kind of get that keyword research, to kind of almost let Rufus do the digging and the sniffing, I guess, just to say of what keywords would work for you?
00:14:17.419 -->
00:14:30.908So I've given this a lot of thought and I Every time I start to think about it, I sort of come to a quick conclusion, but I also give myself a bit of a headache.
00:14:30.908 -->
00:14:40.107Now the quick conclusion is that the final form of this is probably not going to be so great.
00:14:40.107 -->
00:14:41.289And what do I mean?
00:14:41.289 -->
00:14:45.885Right now, amazon has mystery to the way their system works.
00:14:45.885 -->
00:14:51.539We do not know every nuance and detail and calculation in their system.
00:14:51.539 -->
00:14:55.231So two different people can have similar products.
00:14:55.231 -->
00:14:56.436They'll perform differently.
00:14:56.436 -->
00:15:01.634Two different people can have an ad strategy which is different they'll perform differently.
00:15:01.634 -->
00:15:02.995Two different people.
00:15:03.856 -->
00:15:16.908Even within the same account, you can rebuild a campaign that was doing well and if you close and launch a brand new campaign with exactly the same technical aspects to it, it'll actually perform differently than the previous campaign did.
00:15:16.908 -->
00:15:17.528You know?
00:15:17.528 -->
00:15:26.764We've seen this a lot of times in which, for some reason, a campaign gets deleted or lost or something and we try to rebuild it.
00:15:26.764 -->
00:15:28.515It almost never does as well as the campaign before did.
00:15:28.515 -->
00:15:39.264Or if we try to take a keyword, if we see a search term performing well in a certain match type and we move it to a different match type, it inevitably performs differently.
00:15:39.264 -->
00:15:43.423It's not exactly the same as it performed before.
00:15:43.423 -->
00:15:44.849We try to make it better.
00:15:44.849 -->
00:15:48.984Occasionally it performs less well than what existed before.
00:15:48.984 -->
00:15:50.739So where does that leave us?
00:15:50.739 -->
00:15:53.446It leaves us with the fact that Amazon is a mystery.
00:15:53.446 -->
00:16:09.428Now, if AI goes to the point where it is perfectly efficient, that really hurts a lot of sellers, because the product which just happens to be perfectly matching the system will just beat everybody else forever.
00:16:10.135 -->
00:16:16.166Right now, there is a lack of clarity, and the lack of clarity allows new competitors to come into the marketplace.
00:16:16.166 -->
00:16:17.981It allows people to try things.
00:16:17.981 -->
00:16:19.542It encourages people to try things.
00:16:19.542 -->
00:16:22.563Oh, I have a different image type that I'll try.
00:16:22.563 -->
00:16:25.644Oh, I'm going to try using a different background.
00:16:25.644 -->
00:16:28.464Oh, I'm going to try using a different background.
00:16:28.464 -->
00:16:30.029Oh, I'm going to experiment with price.
00:16:30.029 -->
00:16:43.384But if, all of a sudden, ai figures out that $20.17 is the exact correct price and everything else performs worse, it's not going to be good for the shopping experience because it removes a lot of competition.
00:16:43.384 -->
00:16:44.942It removes a lot of experimentation.
00:16:44.942 -->
00:16:47.123That's where I feel like it's going to end up.
00:16:47.123 -->
00:16:56.116Wow, we're still very far away from that and I imagine that the big brains in the room will try to correct for that.
00:16:56.116 -->
00:17:01.207They don't want a simple end point in which no decisions need to be made.
00:17:01.207 -->
00:17:03.543That's not great for anybody, but the in-between is above my pay grade.
00:17:03.543 -->
00:17:06.394I can't figure that out, but the in-between is above my pay grade.
00:17:07.714 -->
00:17:08.875I can't figure that out.
00:17:08.875 -->
00:17:12.657That's beyond us for right now, but yeah, it is scary to think about.
00:17:12.657 -->
00:17:13.519I didn't even consider that.
00:17:13.519 -->
00:17:31.349They're already kind of doing that where, like you mentioned earlier, with the bullet points and even sometimes with the titles and the images, where they'll tell you like hey, we think, based on your either reviews or based on the information you inputted already about your product, you should have these bullet points instead and you kind of have to opt out of that AI changing.
00:17:31.349 -->
00:17:43.699It's very interesting kind of what they're kind of seeping their or what's the word like sinking their teeth into on your listing to say like, hey, like this is really what it should be instead of this.
00:17:43.699 -->
00:17:47.325But, like you mentioned earlier too, like the Amazon, for as smart as they are, they don't know your product like you do.
00:17:47.325 -->
00:17:58.896I mean, this is your, this is, if some people, it's your baby, this is the thing you created, this is your passion project, um, so I feel like them changing a lot of that could lead to a lot more, like you said, changes coming.
00:17:58.936 -->
00:18:19.894that would be not super helpful maybe so yeah, I mean what happens when they decide that, like, a certain shade of blue is the best blue and everything else is not going to be converting popularly, and then all of a sudden like spring 2026, they release something in a different shade of blue and everybody loves it, but the AI doesn't realize that yet.
00:18:19.894 -->
00:18:23.266What happens to all the apparel that gets launched with the wrong shade of blue?
00:18:23.266 -->
00:18:24.798Does it never get visibility?
00:18:24.798 -->
00:18:26.704They're just not promoting it.
00:18:26.815 -->
00:18:29.765They're not putting it in front of anybody organically.
00:18:30.195 -->
00:18:30.999Yeah, it's very interesting.
00:18:31.662 -->
00:18:40.148No, you're right, it kind of does feel like someone's with a magnifying glass, kind of like looking at everything before it goes out instead of just letting it be sort of a more freer market.
00:18:40.148 -->
00:18:40.690It's interesting.
00:18:40.690 -->
00:18:42.096I hope they're not going towards that direction.
00:18:42.096 -->
00:18:48.888I hope, like you said, there's someone holding the reins, so to speak, to kind of pull them back in and just say, whoa, hold on here.
00:18:58.115 -->
00:19:00.983Yeah, amazon is a complex organism and there's a lot of things pushing and pulling at each other.
00:19:00.983 -->
00:19:05.375It used to be that one person could have an idea, get a cheerleader up at the top to push it through every obstacle.
00:19:05.375 -->
00:19:08.138I don't think that that's what's happening anymore.
00:19:08.138 -->
00:19:18.710I think now everything goes through 11 extra layers of committees and 11 extra layers of does it meet our standards, and nobody can go on a hunch anymore.
00:19:18.710 -->
00:19:19.871That's what it feels like.
00:19:24.035 -->
00:19:25.417Which is not something you want to feel unfortunately.
00:19:25.438 -->
00:19:26.580Yeah, I don't know what to think about it.
00:19:26.580 -->
00:19:28.807Instinctively, I don't love that.
00:19:28.807 -->
00:19:36.257Oh, because the spirit of Amazon is going away.
00:19:36.257 -->
00:19:44.259But the reality is Amazon continues to grow at an enormous rate, and Amazon's 11% growth represents more in dollars than everybody's gross sales added up together.
00:19:44.259 -->
00:19:46.025That's the amount of Amazon's growth.
00:19:46.025 -->
00:19:51.221So they're very clearly doing something right and continuing to do something right.
00:19:52.063 -->
00:19:54.147Yeah, I mean that's a good point too.
00:19:54.147 -->
00:20:01.077Like I said I mentioned earlier, Jeff is looking to buy his however many super yachts now, so they're doing something correct.
00:20:01.077 -->
00:20:08.079Yeah, I just hope it's not at the detriment of us sellers and us agencies that help those sellers.
00:20:08.079 -->
00:20:18.128It seems like some of the changes kind of have been a little bit geared towards that, like this whole discount section where they're letting the Chinese manufacturers sell directly on Amazon.
00:20:18.128 -->
00:20:28.325I know they're trying to compete with Timu and Shein and all that stuff, but if your product's under 20 bucks which already enough, is like oh, you're not really making a whole lot of money there anyway.
00:20:28.325 -->
00:20:40.671But if your product's under $20, that's kind of hard for you to compete with these people that maybe it's honestly your manufacturer where they can sell it for so significantly less than that and kind of undercut you a little bit.
00:20:40.671 -->
00:20:43.640So it's interesting to kind of see what they're allowing and what they're doing.
00:20:43.819 -->
00:20:44.981But yeah, I mean listen.
00:20:44.981 -->
00:20:54.268The truth is, the world is always changing and it's our responsibility to just accept those changes having happened and to adapt to them.
00:20:54.268 -->
00:20:56.598You know, you mentioned something interesting.
00:20:56.598 -->
00:20:59.406You mentioned like competing with your own manufacturer.
00:20:59.406 -->
00:21:05.326I can tell you that I've been competing with my own manufacturers since about 2013.
00:21:05.968 -->
00:21:06.816What did we realize?
00:21:06.816 -->
00:21:08.402You know, I was in the electronics business.
00:21:08.402 -->
00:21:12.601We made batteries and chargers and cases and we had our factory.
00:21:12.601 -->
00:21:18.479That would always allow us to have first orders that were with pretty low quantities.
00:21:18.479 -->
00:21:21.445It did not require minimum orders of 1,000.
00:21:21.445 -->
00:21:24.640They would let us even build 50 units of a product.
00:21:24.640 -->
00:21:31.201Now we pay more for it, but we could put in an order for 50 units, and we did that for many different products.
00:21:31.201 -->
00:21:33.346We use it as an opportunity to experiment.
00:21:33.346 -->
00:21:50.809Well, we realized after maybe a year or 18 months, we realized that every time we went from 50 units to 100 units, to a thousand unit order and a thousand units back in those early 2010s, thousand units was a big order.
00:21:50.809 -->
00:21:56.696So when we would go to a thousand unit order, we would suddenly see the factory which we knew, their brand name.
00:21:56.696 -->
00:21:59.364We would suddenly see that they would create a listing.
00:21:59.364 -->
00:22:06.797We were their guinea pigs and once we put in the order for that thousand units, we have validated the market for that model of product.
00:22:06.797 -->
00:22:11.785Boom, they would launch I was dealing with that in 2013, 2014.
00:22:13.126 -->
00:22:27.008In the meantime, even though that issue happened in 2013, 2014, there was still an enormous amount of growth from people using Chinese factories, people building brands that scaled the world and were acquired for multiples.
00:22:27.008 -->
00:22:31.626All of that happened in an environment where, since 2013, your factories will compete with you.
00:22:31.626 -->
00:22:40.153So American innovation and the human ability to do things interestingly and differently it's not going away.
00:22:40.153 -->
00:22:41.736We just have to adapt to it.
00:22:41.736 -->
00:22:45.020So if AI is the thing, we'll find ways to adapt to it.
00:22:45.020 -->
00:22:50.329If Timu and Shein are the things, there will be adaptations.
00:22:50.329 -->
00:22:57.307Also when it comes to those companies, by the way, they have issues of uncertainty, which are huge.
00:22:57.307 -->
00:23:05.769If that exemption for shipping packages from China under $800 is exempt from import taxes.
00:23:05.769 -->
00:23:13.183If that exemption goes away, the entire business model of those companies is out the window, because shipping packages automatically cost triple.
00:23:13.183 -->
00:23:15.102All of the advantage is gone.
00:23:15.102 -->
00:23:22.444Their entire business model is gone, and they know it and they are racing against the clock to get planted properly before that happens.
00:23:22.444 -->
00:23:26.685So it's not so sure that the world is going to T-Mobile.
00:23:28.236 -->
00:23:29.461Yeah, I don't think so either.
00:23:29.461 -->
00:23:29.903I'm with you.
00:23:29.903 -->
00:23:38.301I'm with a lot of some of the other people on LinkedIn that are saying what we're saying that Amazon really wants to compete with these guys.
00:23:38.301 -->
00:23:40.807But do they really even have to kind of step down to their level?
00:23:40.807 -->
00:23:45.326Because you hear from Timo, Timo is just Wishcom, part two.
00:23:45.326 -->
00:23:47.296Right, you know what happened with them.
00:23:47.296 -->
00:23:49.097And same thing, Shein.
00:23:49.097 -->
00:23:51.500I've actually heard some pretty positive things about them.
00:23:51.500 -->
00:23:53.042They've got a decent return process.
00:23:53.042 -->
00:24:00.750I think it's like the same thing to Amazon, where it's like a 30-day window for whatever you order, Like you can say, oh, it didn't really fit or it didn't you know, whatever the reason is.
00:24:00.750 -->
00:24:04.880So I've actually heard them be okay.
00:24:04.880 -->
00:24:09.933I know clothes isn't the biggest category on Amazon, at least not to my knowledge.
00:24:09.933 -->
00:24:13.030I don't think people are running to the gate to sell clothes on Amazon.
00:24:13.030 -->
00:24:15.298I know it's very competitive and it's just there's a lot on there.
00:24:17.265 -->
00:24:24.663Right, a private label brand isn't launching an apparel line on Amazon, but apparel itself is enormous.
00:24:24.663 -->
00:24:28.942I have a whole bunch of brands I worked with and the numbers are very large.
00:24:28.942 -->
00:24:41.583For brands that sell apparel it is an entirely different level of complexity because every parent has dozens of SKUs in sizes and colors, so it requires a completely different business model.
00:24:41.583 -->
00:24:43.647From somebody who could just watch a thing.
00:24:43.647 -->
00:24:49.836There is no thing in apparel and, again, fit and return rates and quality control is different.
00:24:49.836 -->
00:24:51.980But it's definitely a big place to do business.
00:24:52.883 -->
00:24:54.626Yeah, yeah, I yeah.
00:24:54.626 -->
00:24:59.295I meant more along the lines, like you said, of just there's not really a whole lot of those individual kind of brands.
00:24:59.316 -->
00:25:01.157They're like oh, I'm going to start an apparel company on Amazon.
00:25:01.157 -->
00:25:08.869I thought no one's you know kind of first thought I would say, um, but either way, I don't know that Amazon has to really compete with those guys.
00:25:08.869 -->
00:25:11.646I don't think that they have to really keep an eye out for them.
00:25:11.646 -->
00:25:15.965I think the other big one would be Walmart is kind of coming up.
00:25:15.965 -->
00:25:16.891I keep seeing a lot about this.
00:25:16.891 -->
00:25:26.801I don't know what your opinion on Walmart is and if they're coming for Amazon's crown or if they just want to be, if they want to get more people in the store and they don't really care so much about e-com.
00:25:26.801 -->
00:25:29.207I had a lot of I still use this analogy.
00:25:29.207 -->
00:25:30.229Shout out to Corey Brown.
00:25:30.229 -->
00:25:34.400I had him on as a guest for a while ago but he said Amazon and Walmart are.
00:25:34.519 -->
00:25:40.365They're playing one's playing chess, one's playing checkers, where it's played on the same board, but the objective of the game is different.
00:25:40.365 -->
00:25:44.644Or like, if you go into a Walmart store, you'll never see anything about oh.
00:25:44.644 -->
00:25:45.226Never see anything about oh.
00:25:45.226 -->
00:25:52.476Instead of going into the store, come check it out online Only if, maybe, if something there's like oh, if it's not in store, we might have it online, kind of thing.
00:25:52.476 -->
00:25:54.280But Amazon is all about.
00:25:54.280 -->
00:25:59.480We want people to come to our website as much as possible, spend as much money here as you possibly can, that kind of thing.
00:25:59.480 -->
00:26:01.145But Walmart is more.
00:26:01.145 -->
00:26:06.021Hey, you know, buy online, come pick it up in the store and then, while you're here in the store, you can buy two other things as well.
00:26:06.021 -->
00:26:09.708So it seems very similar but a little bit different.
00:26:09.708 -->
00:26:10.950I don't know what your thoughts on that are.
00:26:11.494 -->
00:26:18.663So, yeah, I had a whole bunch of thoughts and I'm like, oh my God, I have so many things that want to pop out of me and say them, but I have to let you finish your thought.
00:26:18.663 -->
00:26:22.355So the first thing is that Walmart.
00:26:22.355 -->
00:26:24.238I have two thoughts on Walmart.
00:26:24.238 -->
00:26:31.544Number one Walmart is the biggest company in the world, or was at one point, and you cannot discount somebody who got to that position.
00:26:31.544 -->
00:26:38.851They did not get to that passively, so they very much are focused on their goals and get to their goals almost always.
00:26:38.851 -->
00:26:49.556You can never count them out are true at the same time.
00:26:49.576 -->
00:26:55.828The first thing is, all of Walmart's numbers are sort of deceptive because they count orders placed on the app and picked up in store as e-commerce orders.
00:26:55.828 -->
00:27:02.296So because of that, that's not genuinely people shopping on the internet, it is people shopping on an app.
00:27:02.296 -->
00:27:05.521It's not the same as genuine competition for Amazon.
00:27:05.521 -->
00:27:12.401So in reality, their share of business that they represent as competition to Amazon is much tinier.
00:27:12.401 -->
00:27:14.705So that's the first thing.
00:27:14.705 -->
00:27:16.415They are smaller than they look.
00:27:16.415 -->
00:27:20.385The second thing is they're actually smaller than you might think.
00:27:20.385 -->
00:27:37.805Otherwise, there was just a report on Marketplace Pulse that was talking about the top 10 e-commerce sellers on the internet, and not only has Walmart sunk behind Timu and a couple of other places.
00:27:37.805 -->
00:27:47.846Walmartcom is smaller than Amazon Japan, so Amazon's secondary marketplace is bigger than Walmart's com website.
00:27:47.846 -->
00:27:49.579I had to double check it.
00:27:49.654 -->
00:27:52.299I'm like I can't believe that this is correct, but they had it with the numbers there.
00:27:52.694 -->
00:27:55.144So Japan is apparently a really large market.
00:27:55.144 -->
00:28:01.515It has its own complexities I mean, you have to know Japanese as a start but there are a lot of Japanese people buying product.
00:28:01.515 -->
00:28:07.905They're buying it on Amazon and it got to the point where it surpassed Walmart's US business.
00:28:07.905 -->
00:28:10.816Amazon.
00:28:10.816 -->
00:28:14.223And it got to the point where it surpassed Walmart's US business, so that's really really big it's really, really, it's a lot.
00:28:14.243 -->
00:28:15.247Yeah, I wouldn't have guessed that.
00:28:15.247 -->
00:28:15.916No.
00:28:15.916 -->
00:28:18.476Because I know Japan is a pretty decent sized market.
00:28:18.476 -->
00:28:20.922I know it's not, you know, obviously not the US and it's not.
00:28:20.922 -->
00:28:26.598I guess the EU would be different markets too, Like you've got the UK and the Germany and all the other different countries.
00:28:26.598 -->
00:28:28.280But I would not have guessed.
00:28:28.280 -->
00:28:31.845I would have said it would have been up there higher than Japan, at least for Walmart.
00:28:31.845 -->
00:28:33.507Wow, that's pretty, that's pretty interesting to hear.
00:28:33.507 -->
00:28:37.730I would not, I would never have guessed that that's where it fell in the ranking.
00:28:41.795 -->
00:28:43.134No-transcript.
00:28:43.134 -->
00:28:45.174The actual metric is most visited.
00:28:45.174 -->
00:28:50.037So, looking at this, amazon is number one, timu is number two.
00:28:50.037 -->
00:28:52.391Ebay is actually still number three.
00:28:52.391 -->
00:28:56.009Wow, most visited because they have their.
00:28:56.009 -->
00:29:04.773You know, they have their own little space in the world Dollars and, like lots of other metrics, they're way down the list, but most visited it's its own metric.
00:29:04.773 -->
00:29:12.413Then you've got AliExpress, and then you've got Amazon Japanpress and then you've got Amazon Japan and Rakuten, both in Japan, and Walmart is behind them.
00:29:12.413 -->
00:29:23.787So those are like the top seven and Walmart is seventh behind a bunch of other people that steady growth should have had them overtake.
00:29:25.911 -->
00:29:27.413I'm shocked, wow yeah.
00:29:27.733 -->
00:29:32.071Again, most visited is probably not at all the same thing as a lot of other metrics.
00:29:32.071 -->
00:29:45.950So average people that buy is different than people that visit and a whole bunch of other things in there, but by one simple metric of popularity on the internet, walmart is surprisingly far behind.
00:29:47.092 -->
00:29:47.512I'm shocked.
00:29:47.512 -->
00:29:48.314I'm shocked.
00:29:48.314 -->
00:29:49.055I can't say it enough.
00:29:49.055 -->
00:29:53.890That would, again, would never have guessed them, even for most visited.
00:29:53.890 -->
00:29:56.916Just because of their growth and their rise in popularity.
00:29:56.916 -->
00:29:58.909Maybe they have more buys, like you said.
00:29:58.909 -->
00:30:01.256Maybe they have more purchases than eBay.
00:30:01.256 -->
00:30:01.826I'm sure they do.
00:30:01.826 -->
00:30:04.087I'd love to see eBay the number three spot.
00:30:04.087 -->
00:30:05.068I'm a big eBay fan.
00:30:05.068 -->
00:30:07.791There's a bunch of little, like you said, it's got its own niche.
00:30:07.791 -->
00:30:10.654There's a bunch of little knickknacks and collectibles on there, like one-off stuff.
00:30:11.056 -->
00:30:13.858Oh, I absolutely use my eBay app.
00:30:13.858 -->
00:30:15.941There are things I go to eBay to find.
00:30:15.941 -->
00:30:26.574I don't know if it's good to announce this, but you can actually buy Amazon Alexa devices for cheaper on eBay than on Amazon.
00:30:26.574 -->
00:30:27.076I wanted an Echo Show.
00:30:27.076 -->
00:30:28.240I like those little Echo Shows.
00:30:28.240 -->
00:30:33.846The five inch one is like a handy little device that gives you both the time and the weather and does a few things.
00:30:34.688 -->
00:30:43.438I wanted it, but I always want to wait for the deal, because you know these things go on deals frequently enough that paying full price is really a matter of emergency more than need.
00:30:43.438 -->
00:30:50.307And somehow I said let me just check eBay and on Amazon the product was like $85.
00:30:50.307 -->
00:30:53.292On eBay it was like two for $69.99.
00:30:53.292 -->
00:30:55.336And I'm like is this stolen?
00:30:55.336 -->
00:30:56.778Is it counterfeit?
00:30:56.778 -->
00:30:59.768What's wrong with this price?
00:30:59.768 -->
00:31:04.258I couldn't figure it out and I said well, it's worth a try.
00:31:04.258 -->
00:31:05.227I got it.
00:31:05.227 -->
00:31:07.394As soon as I turned it on, I was able to register it.
00:31:07.394 -->
00:31:08.710It was perfect.
00:31:08.710 -->
00:31:17.794The only difference was that I had to register it, as opposed to it being pre-registered when it was sent to me by Amazon, because obviously Amazon knows the serial numbers and stuff.
00:31:17.794 -->
00:31:20.775So as soon as you turn it on, it's activated to the account that bought it.
00:31:20.775 -->
00:31:27.032So I had to take one extra step, but for 82% off surprising yeah.
00:31:27.574 -->
00:31:29.096Yeah, I'll take that any day of the week.
00:31:29.355 -->
00:31:30.738Yeah, that's crazy.
00:31:30.738 -->
00:31:32.180So you learned something today also.
00:31:37.984 -->
00:31:38.708I did.
00:31:38.708 -->
00:31:40.074Yeah, I've learned a lot today.
00:31:40.074 -->
00:31:40.737Are you kidding?
00:31:40.737 -->
00:31:42.304I'm already at like number four or five, I think, with that one.
00:31:42.304 -->
00:31:47.875But what else is interesting too is and I'm getting a little bit off topic here I want to get back a little bit about PBC, but before that I also want to give a shout out to Facebook Marketplace.
00:31:47.875 -->
00:31:50.019Big, big fan of Facebook Marketplace.
00:31:50.019 -->
00:31:52.071That's fun just to scroll on.
00:31:52.071 -->
00:31:59.058Sometimes it's even more fun than regular social media, because you look at things that are listed in your area and it's like why does someone own that?
00:32:00.826 -->
00:32:03.794How are you able to sell a tiger in New Jersey?
00:32:03.794 -->
00:32:05.258Yeah, you'll see that.
00:32:05.404 -->
00:32:06.587Well, new Jersey is New Jersey.
00:32:06.587 -->
00:32:07.609In New Jersey, like, yeah, you'll see that.
00:32:07.609 -->
00:32:08.311Well, new Jersey is New Jersey.
00:32:08.311 -->
00:32:14.794No offense to all my New Jerseyans out there watching, I do like your beaches, but that's pretty much it about New Jersey.
00:32:14.794 -->
00:32:21.730But no, yeah, no, it's very interesting just to see you know kind of what's happening in terms of e-commerce in general.
00:32:21.730 -->
00:32:24.190I'm also curious speaking of kind of these other.
00:32:24.190 -->
00:32:35.593Really, it's a great segue to my next topic, speaking of these other platforms and speaking of these things that are off Amazon.
00:32:35.593 -->
00:32:37.917What do you think is the on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the most important?
00:32:37.917 -->
00:32:53.037How important is it for Amazon sellers to be looking at advertising off of Amazon in today's day and age, but also with Rufus coming and with all the other changes that we know Amazon is going to make, how important do you see that happening?
00:32:53.037 -->
00:33:04.457Or how important is it do you think to be off Amazon advertising, either back to your Amazon listing or to your own website, just advertising off of Amazon in general?
00:33:05.204 -->
00:33:12.578So off Amazon advertising has been important for a couple of years now and it is only growing in importance.
00:33:12.578 -->
00:33:23.659Amazon loves off Amazon traffic because they consider somebody that comes to your product page from inside Amazon as already having been their shopper.
00:33:23.659 -->
00:33:26.131They came to Amazon, they were on Amazon already.
00:33:26.131 -->
00:33:28.413You didn't do anything to bring them to Amazon.
00:33:28.413 -->
00:33:29.497Amazon did that themselves.
00:33:29.497 -->
00:33:41.553When you bring somebody externally to Amazon, they consider it like you added extra value by bringing a person that wasn't shopping on the moment at Amazon to Amazon to shop at that moment.
00:33:41.553 -->
00:33:44.866So they consider that to be really valuable.
00:33:44.866 -->
00:33:52.740They love it when it turns into a sale because, again, it was a shopper that wasn't already in their ecosystem.
00:33:52.740 -->
00:33:59.518And they give it value because outside people like the product and not just quote unquote inside people.
00:33:59.518 -->
00:34:03.375So, number one, people from a wider world than Amazon like it.
00:34:03.375 -->
00:34:07.432And number two, you are bringing people into the Amazon world for that moment.
00:34:07.593 -->
00:34:16.751They love that traffic and Amazon is smart enough to know that different websites externally have different values.
00:34:17.313 -->
00:34:28.355So if it's coming from Google ad traffic, they'll probably value it differently than coming from Pinterest and they'll value it differently than coming from Pinterest and they'll value it differently than coming from Instagram.
00:34:28.375 -->
00:34:57.447I don't know how they value it differently but, as an example, they might know that traffic from Google converts much more poorly than traffic from a different place, because there are lots of people just searching for information on Google and they might be coming to Amazon just to follow up on the information of a link they found, whereas somebody coming from TikTok is probably looking to buy it because they know Amazon is a shopping website.
00:34:57.447 -->
00:35:07.902They actually had to type amazoncom in a lot of cases and look for the thing, so they're valuing that definitely higher and each different source of traffic has its own value.
00:35:07.902 -->
00:35:23.530Where Rufus is going to come in is they're going to be able to get much more granular in their understanding of that external traffic and it's going to have, in some cases, a lot more value than it does now, probably, in some cases, different value than it has now.
00:35:23.530 -->
00:35:28.146But that's where AI is going to be really useful At least one place it'll be.
00:35:29.027 -->
00:35:29.528I'm excited.
00:35:29.528 -->
00:35:34.199I'm on the fence of being an AI bro, of being like AI is the future.
00:35:34.199 -->
00:35:35.025Ai is so great.
00:35:35.025 -->
00:35:39.815I use AI every now and then and it works.
00:35:39.815 -->
00:35:42.367I mean, it does what it's supposed to do, but it's also kind of.
00:35:42.367 -->
00:35:43.831I've watched the Terminator.
00:35:43.831 -->
00:35:47.641I've seen plenty of sci-fi horror movies of I.
00:35:47.641 -->
00:35:56.565I'd rather not be taken over by AI, so maybe that's just me being a crazy conspiracy theorist as well, but no, it's it's sort of inevitable.
00:35:57.407 -->
00:36:07.085um, like, there was basically a story in which someone trained, like Microsoft's being AI bot to be homicidal.
00:36:07.085 -->
00:36:07.869And, um, like he, he diagrams, like can I turn AI bot to be homicidal?
00:36:07.869 -->
00:36:10.192And he diagrammed.
00:36:10.192 -->
00:36:11.931He's like can I turn this thing to be homicidal?
00:36:11.931 -->
00:36:15.335And he started getting to say horrible, horrible things.
00:36:15.335 -->
00:36:21.371And after that Microsoft changed the rules that you can only ask it five questions along a thread and that's the end of the thread.
00:36:21.371 -->
00:36:22.864They actually changed the rules.
00:36:22.864 -->
00:36:24.650You can't go down that path.
00:36:25.465 -->
00:36:27.139Not even to try, and they wouldn't change it to say you can't go down that path.
00:36:27.139 -->
00:36:28.264But not even to try, and they wouldn't change it to say you can't.
00:36:28.885 -->
00:36:43.592No, I don't know, because they had those guardrails in place at the beginning and somebody went right around it wow so um, wow, yes, oh man, so you know, and that's a person just doing it for a new story, he actually was doing it for the story.
00:36:44.094 -->
00:36:45.565Imagine somebody's doing it for the purpose.
00:36:45.565 -->
00:36:45.791I don't want.
00:36:45.791 -->
00:36:46.748I don't want to think about somebody doing it for the story.
00:36:46.748 -->
00:36:47.853Imagine somebody doing it for the purpose.
00:36:47.853 -->
00:36:48.789I don't want to think about somebody doing it for the purpose.
00:36:48.789 -->
00:36:54.277But to some extent those are again things above my pay grade.
00:36:54.277 -->
00:36:58.833So any time I spend worrying about it is just time.
00:36:58.833 -->
00:37:01.077That is not going to turn into a useful thing.
00:37:01.077 -->
00:37:02.969I just try to focus on what's in front of me.
00:37:04.092 -->
00:37:04.454I like it.
00:37:04.454 -->
00:37:04.976I like it.
00:37:04.976 -->
00:37:06.893I keep moving forward one step at a time.
00:37:06.893 -->
00:37:07.576I like it.
00:37:07.576 -->
00:37:07.918I like it.
00:37:07.918 -->
00:37:09.063I keep moving forward one step at a time.
00:37:09.063 -->
00:37:09.264I like it.
00:37:09.264 -->
00:37:12.233Like I said, it's always in the back of my head, but you're right, it's something.
00:37:12.233 -->
00:37:13.516It's above my pay grade.
00:37:13.516 -->
00:37:16.936I'm not an AI police man.
00:37:17.177 -->
00:37:24.673Yeah, the best thing we can do is be aware and try to maneuver in the world that's around us and to understand the way it's changing.
00:37:24.673 -->
00:37:32.737But to be upset about the way it's changing is just a waste of your you know your emotions and your energy but better places to use it.
00:37:34.106 -->
00:37:37.313Yeah, being upset is not going to do much, you know.
00:37:37.313 -->
00:37:43.853So, yeah, they'd rather be happy that you can use AI to write silly jokes for you.
00:37:43.853 -->
00:37:52.373Or in my case, when when I I'm the host of our fun fridays here at velocity and, uh, I needed some extra, we did amazon trivia.
00:37:52.373 -->
00:37:54.097I'll send you the link if you'd like.
00:37:54.097 -->
00:37:55.407Um, so it was a lot of fun.
00:37:55.407 -->
00:37:57.253Uh, or amazon, not trivia.
00:37:57.253 -->
00:38:00.648I guess it was trivia, it was amazon jeopardy, so even better than just regular trivia.
00:38:00.648 -->
00:38:05.324Um, and I was struggling to get one more uh category.
00:38:05.324 -->
00:38:07.789I don't know if you're jeopardy watcher, but I was struggling to get one more category.
00:38:07.789 -->
00:38:10.637I don't know if you're a Jeopardy watcher, but I was struggling to get one more category and I said I succumbed.
00:38:10.637 -->
00:38:11.097I gave in.
00:38:11.097 -->
00:38:15.027I said chat, gpt, give me one Amazon Jeopardy category.
00:38:15.027 -->
00:38:15.489And it did.
00:38:15.489 -->
00:38:16.050It was pretty good.
00:38:16.050 -->
00:38:25.498So, as much as I will complain about AI it's scary to take over the world I'm just going to be happy with my little Amazon Jeopardy panel that was a little bit powered by AI.
00:38:25.780 -->
00:38:32.092Listen the truth is that the things that AI does well and the places where it can be useful, it's so useful.
00:38:32.092 -->
00:38:43.027I was working with a large brand that wanted to come out with a related product line and they could explain what the product line does.
00:38:43.027 -->
00:38:49.068So imagine, I don't know a waterproof thing in a category that wasn't really waterproof before.
00:38:49.068 -->
00:38:56.715So they wanted to come out with a brand for this waterproof line of products and we just couldn't wrap our head around what the brand name should be.
00:38:56.715 -->
00:39:03.057We went straight to ChatGPT on Zoom together and said, hey, ChatGPT, we sell this kind of product.
00:39:03.057 -->
00:39:08.574We want to come out with a product line that will be the same thing, but waterproof what's a great name for this?
00:39:08.574 -->
00:39:14.411And they came out with like in four and a half seconds not even four and a half, like four tenths of a second.
00:39:14.791 -->
00:39:28.367It came out with 10 brand names that were all on point, matching the original brand and having waterproof in it in a fun way, and then we said, oh, we like this one and we like this one, but they're not exactly right.
00:39:28.367 -->
00:39:34.027Build off these two and within three questions, we nailed it, Like we absolutely nailed it.
00:39:34.027 -->
00:39:36.360One of the things we did as we're going is obviously.
00:39:36.360 -->
00:39:38.567We're looking for domain names and boom.
00:39:38.567 -->
00:39:47.655Within probably a total of 10 minutes, we were able to create an on-point brand name for a product being launched on Amazon, including a domain.
00:39:47.655 -->
00:39:52.376Ai at its best, and those are the places where I love it.
00:39:53.626 -->
00:39:55.090Yeah, like I said, it definitely has its uses.
00:39:56.094 -->
00:40:02.371I see it and I will admit, you know I was a little bit AI against AI when it first came out.
00:40:02.371 -->
00:40:12.155I like the art world and so I was like with some of the artists, like some digital content creators and digital just artists in general, that were saying, oh, ai is not real art.
00:40:12.155 -->
00:40:20.931You know, it's taking away our jobs and all that kind of good stuff and kind of like we said earlier, kind of a theme that we talked about earlier was adapting, and I hate to say it, but it's kind of this point.
00:40:20.931 -->
00:40:28.327You know it's either you adapt to kind of the AI or you learn how to use it, you know, so you don't kind of necessarily lose your job.
00:40:28.327 -->
00:40:33.893I hate to scare people like that, but it's it's interesting to kind of see where the world is going and how we've, you know.
00:40:33.893 -->
00:40:45.389You know, not so much recently, but sort of to more accept AI as um, as a, as a, really a foundation for creating content and creating writing and creating bullet points for your Amazon listing.
00:40:45.590 -->
00:40:48.835Listen, people thought photography would be the death of art.
00:40:48.835 -->
00:40:55.177It is anything but so the ability to use AI in new and creative ways.
00:40:55.177 -->
00:41:02.418That's the place where the artists have to show that they're good artists Create art in a new media, which is what AI is.
00:41:03.586 -->
00:41:05.650Yeah, it's moving forward, like you said.
00:41:05.650 -->
00:41:13.686I mean, there's been plenty of similar things, like you said, to AI that have quote unquote threatened to destroy the world, so that's a good point.
00:41:13.686 -->
00:41:14.949I really hadn't thought about it like that either.
00:41:14.949 -->
00:41:20.375That's number seven now of things that I've maybe seven or eight of things that I've learned today on the episode.
00:41:20.375 -->
00:41:20.876So, thank you.
00:41:20.876 -->
00:41:26.710Yeah, I want to kind of transition back to a little bit about advertising.
00:41:26.710 -->
00:41:33.659So, with you know, maybe one of our last topics here, but with quarter four coming up, what are some things that you're kind of looking for?
00:41:33.659 -->
00:41:35.110What are some things that you're looking out for?
00:41:35.110 -->
00:41:41.336Can you share any higher level strategies that you guys are doing on your end, without giving away the secret?
00:41:41.336 -->
00:41:42.338You know the recipe.
00:41:42.338 -->
00:41:48.577What are you looking for, this quarter four that maybe hasn't been there in years prior?
00:41:49.324 -->
00:41:51.052So I'll say a couple of things.
00:41:51.052 -->
00:41:57.635The first thing is that this quarter four has a good amount of uncertainty to it.
00:41:57.635 -->
00:42:01.652At the moment we're recording this podcast, we're in an election season.
00:42:01.652 -->
00:42:09.677Without anything to do with taking sides, it's fair to say that, whoever wins it, the landscape of business will be changed a bit.
00:42:09.677 -->
00:42:10.318That's it.
00:42:10.318 -->
00:42:24.119Yeah, one direction or another, the landscape of business will be changed a bit, and without knowing that prior to the election happening, it's a little bit hard to predict or buy into a direction for things.
00:42:24.119 -->
00:42:29.467You know, it's more about hedging your bets and rolling with whatever happens, which is fine.
00:42:29.467 -->
00:42:38.864This is not the first election I've been through, not the first change in business environment, so anybody who's older than like 11 days probably has seen a couple of things.
00:42:38.864 -->
00:42:45.615That's fine, but it is also a not steady moment in business time.
00:42:46.277 -->
00:42:59.954Now the second part of it is there are things which are pretty well understood at this point, especially with Amazon and with e-commerce, in which holiday sales are very much driven by promotions and much less by ad pushes.
00:42:59.954 -->
00:43:01.797So what do I mean?
00:43:01.797 -->
00:43:13.875If you want to take advantage of Black Friday, you need to make sure that every kind of discount type is being exploited across your system and you need to make sure that you are planning for sales spikes.
00:43:13.875 -->
00:43:21.137So you need to know that if you discount your product 5%, this is likely to be your sales bump.
00:43:21.137 -->
00:43:27.275If you discount it by 30%, this is likely to be your sales bump.
00:43:27.275 -->
00:43:31.809If you discount it by 60%, this is likely to be your sales bump.
00:43:32.391 -->
00:43:47.648Anticipate it, get in the inventory for it and also plan for what happens the day after, because if you sell all your product on one day and you don't have anything the next day, you have an entirely different product and an entirely different product than what you, just an entirely different problem than the one you just planned for.
00:43:47.648 -->
00:43:57.014So discount and promotional planning is super, super important and we use advertising to build on that.
00:43:57.014 -->
00:44:05.199We use advertising to make sure that that discount you're showing is visible to shoppers within whatever mechanisms are available to us.
00:44:05.199 -->
00:44:22.112We make sure that budget don't run out, that ads are visible, not just to show an ad or not just to show a promotion, but they are visible all the times that shoppers are looking for products, which is important and we try to lean into it.
00:44:22.112 -->
00:44:30.335But if I would have to summarize it, definitely focus on your promotional strategy, and that should be the bulk of where your Q4 efforts go.
00:44:31.625 -->
00:44:39.596Accurately predict that you might be left a little bit of extra there or you might not have enough, like you said, Right, yeah, both things have very much happened to me.
00:44:39.965 -->
00:44:49.306There have been times where I purchased Q4 inventory based on Q4 of the year before and it was pretty clear by December 11th that I was screwed.
00:44:49.306 -->
00:44:56.050So it's pretty clear that I have to work at different payment terms with my vendors based on what's sitting in my inventory, you know.
00:44:56.050 -->
00:45:05.311But yeah, absolutely, predicting is the most challenging thing and predicting is one of the most important things, so it's a science of its own.
00:45:06.318 -->
00:45:13.367Yeah, I love doing audits for people and I see like a nice, you know crazy exponential curve up to November and then in the middle of December it just goes.
00:45:13.367 -->
00:45:16.135I say what happened and if it's a worry, and they go.
00:45:16.135 -->
00:45:17.606Yeah, we ran out.
00:45:17.905 -->
00:45:18.146Right.
00:45:18.567 -->
00:45:18.907So it's.
00:45:18.907 -->
00:45:20.307It's definitely very common.
00:45:20.307 -->
00:45:23.630I see it, I see it a lot and I know I'm same thing.
00:45:23.630 -->
00:45:27.974I'm a victim of that myself, so it's almost like a rite of passage.
00:45:27.974 -->
00:45:36.001I would say for Amazon sellers that you kind of have to, you know, get the forecasting wrong at least once or a hundred times before you really start to nail it down.
00:45:36.181 -->
00:45:40.291Right, yeah, that's what being in business is all about.
00:45:40.934 -->
00:45:41.114Yeah.
00:45:41.505 -->
00:45:47.177Learning from the things that have happened and running into brand new things that are uncategorized.
00:45:48.545 -->
00:45:50.652Charting new territory, lewis and Clarking it.
00:45:50.652 -->
00:45:52.784Yes, absolutely Now.
00:45:52.784 -->
00:45:58.751Well, abe, I really want to thank you for coming on today and really talking to us about everything and anything.
00:45:58.751 -->
00:46:06.648Any final thoughts for our viewers on just advertising in general and especially again going into quarter four, any last tips for them?
00:46:07.007 -->
00:46:21.931Yeah, I mean, when it comes to advertising, as a person that sees many accounts and helps many brands and sellers the number one thing I'll say is, if you're looking at your own account, make sure the basics are buttoned up.
00:46:21.931 -->
00:46:30.429There are so many times where I will look at an account having difficulties and the simplest and most basic thing is just not happening.
00:46:30.429 -->
00:46:32.856Um, negations are not happening.
00:46:32.856 -->
00:46:41.869Uh, products, campaigns are not put in portfolios for easy organization and understanding of scenarios and you know all of the things that you know.
00:46:41.869 -->
00:46:43.755Mad ad types are missing.
00:46:43.755 -->
00:46:48.788You might not have any auto campaigns in an account, or you might not have any auto campaigns in an account, or you might not have any manual campaigns in an account.
00:46:48.788 -->
00:46:52.856Like, I've seen every flavor of the basics not being done.
00:46:53.418 -->
00:46:59.597And if you want to get yourself really positioned best for a busy season coming up, take a look at things.
00:46:59.597 -->
00:47:04.894Make sure that everything is buttoned up, everything is structured cleanly.
00:47:04.894 -->
00:47:07.288It's a thing I do with brands.
00:47:07.288 -->
00:47:09.086I can do it for any of the listeners here.
00:47:09.086 -->
00:47:13.807I'm sure it's a thing you offer to the people you work with also, but take a look at it.
00:47:13.807 -->
00:47:18.177If you need someone outside your regular day-to-day to take a look at it.
00:47:18.177 -->
00:47:19.146That could also be helpful.
00:47:20.088 -->
00:47:30.463Yeah, no, I love it 100% and I know we talked about a lot of stuff here, so I really, really want to thank you again for coming on and talking to me and truly to all the viewers out there.
00:47:30.463 -->
00:47:43.648I know they hopefully have learned just as much as me and you both did from each other and got a little tidbit and got a little bit maybe even more prepared for the end of the year and it's one of the busiest times on Amazon, so hopefully, it's not the busiest.
00:47:43.708 -->
00:47:45.492Yeah, hopefully it will be a record breaker.
00:47:45.492 -->
00:47:46.594That's what we always want.
00:47:47.376 -->
00:47:47.916We're seeing.
00:47:47.916 -->
00:47:48.577We're seeing.
00:47:48.577 -->
00:47:49.119I hope so.
00:47:49.119 -->
00:47:52.155I think it'll be like this fall.
00:47:52.155 -->
00:47:53.590The Prime Day wasn't really.
00:47:53.590 -->
00:47:56.311People said it was the craziest one.
00:47:56.311 -->
00:47:58.192I didn't really see any numbers, unfortunately, from it.
00:47:58.192 -->
00:48:01.074I don't know if I didn't dig deep enough.
00:48:01.074 -->
00:48:03.672It's a tongue twister there, but I don't know.
00:48:03.672 -->
00:48:03.965We'll see.
00:48:03.965 -->
00:48:10.557Hopefully, amazon, you know it sets a record this year for Cyber Monday and Black Friday combined and we all see a lot of profit.
00:48:11.039 -->
00:48:11.461Yes, sir.
00:48:11.581 -->
00:48:11.903Agreed.
00:48:11.903 -->
00:48:13.086All around, fingers crossed.
00:48:13.228 -->
00:48:13.407Yes.
00:48:14.050 -->
00:48:15.172Abe, thank you so much.
00:48:15.172 -->
00:48:22.025I'll definitely have to have you back on, so everyone stay tuned for Abe's episode, abe's second episode and, yeah, everybody thanks for watching.
00:48:22.025 -->
00:48:24.126I'm Velocity Pete and we will see you next week.
