Selling on Amazon

To help you better understand the eCommerce world and selling on Amazon, we invited Brian Beck to the manufacturing eCommerce sales series today! Brian is the CEO of Beck eCommerce. He is also the author of “Billion Dollar B2B Ecommerce.” His book, very elaborately, explains about B2B eCommerce businesses and how they’re run. In this week’s episode, Brian talked about selling on Amazon in detail.

 

Have you ever had the experience of selling on Amazon? If no, what is that’s keeping you from it? maybe the challenges of selling on Amazon

To help you better understand the eCommerce world and selling on Amazon, we invited Brian Beck to the manufacturing eCommerce sales series today!

Download our free business valuation guide here to understand more about business valuations and view our business valuation FAQs to answer the most common valuation questions.

Brian is the CEO of Beck eCommerce. He is also the author of “Billion Dollar B2B Ecommerce.” His book, very elaborately, explains about B2B eCommerce businesses and how they’re run. In this week’s episode, Brian talked about selling on Amazon in detail.

The conversation started with Curt giving a brief introduction to Brian. After this, Brian started by sharing the earlier experience of his field and when he got into E-commerce. He was 20  years old when he went to New York to work for an eCommerce consultancy and since then he has attached himself to eCommerce.

Brian likes this field because it is a continuously evolving area of work. Furthermore, Curt asked Brian regarding various myths that people face while selling on amazon. To this Brian responded that amazon is now more of a search engine than a place people buy products. According to his calculations, approximately 70% of product searches are made on amazon.

Do you want to know if your business is ready for your exit or what you should do to prepare? Learn this and more with our business exit assessment here.

This is to say, that the product market where mostly eCommerce sales happen is Amazon.  After this, Brian discussed conversion rates. He said that generally when a market hits 3% it is considered well, whereas amazon now has a 74% conversion rate with over 600 million products. Their initial target was to be the everything store, which they have now achieved.

Lastly, talking about selling on amazon, Brian shared a few other things about amazon. He says that apart from other manufacturers, amazon also has their own amazon businesses according to industries. For example, he stated that amazon has medical manufacturing, where they sell FDA-approved medical products to medical professionals.

The medical professionals simply add their details on the site and purchase the devices or products they want. This is how among the vast industry of selling on amazon they have their own products and other manufacturers as well.

Get the most value for your business by understanding the process and preparing for the sale with information here on our Selling a Business page.

In the end, Curt and Damon thanked the guest for his time.

Check out the entire video by clicking on the link below.

Thanks to Brian for sharing his time and knowledge with the group.

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42:39

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

amazon, manufacturer, product, e commerce, b2b, brian, book, buy, customer, marketer, categories, greg, question, kurt, big, channel, distributors, advertising, company, talk

SPEAKERS

Damon Pistulka, Brian Beck, Curt Anderson

 

Damon Pistulka  00:01

All right, awesome. Welcome once again to the manufacturing ecommerce Success Series today with us we’ve got Brian Beck is going to be talking about Amazon. So you people have been considering Amazon. And we’ll let him talk about that a little bit. And I’m gonna let Kurt Anderson take it away from here. But if you’re listening here in person on email, thank you for being here, or if you’re live on LinkedIn, and we’ll be watching the chat there. So I’m gonna back out you guys take it from there.

 

Curt Anderson  00:31

Guys, thank you. So Kurt Anderson, Damon, thank you, our friends at exit your way for being the host with the most Damon, thank you for everything, everybody that joined us, Gene, Greg, Kevin, Matthew, who else we got here. David from Buffalo, Jeffrey Stern, Dan, bigger. Thank you, everyone. Thank you for everybody joining us on LinkedIn live. So I am so honored. I am so thrilled to introduce my dear friend Brian back. So Brian, you guys sit back, this might take a second. So Brian, back is an e commerce pine, you’re going back to 1999 is I encourage you to drop to his LinkedIn profile his book and his company and see both in the chat box.

So feel free to connect with Brian. Folks, I want to tell you if you are I don’t care where you are in your e commerce journey. You have to read billion dollar b2b. This book is a game changer. It is the authority on helping companies with their e commerce journey. So Brian, with all that, thank you for taking the time to join us today. Welcome to our show, stop being the best kept secrets.

Hey, Kurt, thanks so much. And Gosh, man, you’ve got so much energy. I love that about you. And just I’m thrilled to have this conversation with you today. Thank you for the introduction there. I just follow music means a whole lot. So I don’t know can be people see this. So I’m backwards. But I’m an author of the book where you please show me something of a library and I’m not sure how that sounds are coming across librarian and a digital mind. He’s got his copyright there.

Damon has his copy. And so my mother when she ended her career, she turned transition all the books to digital. So I’m a digital guy, but I’ve read this book twice. And what’s funny, Brian is like I was rereading it preparing for this week. I like I need to buy two highlighters when you read this book, so holidays are coming. You’re getting the commerce. So Brian, let’s kick things off after 1999 it’s for those of us that go back that far. And I’m you know or dude myself 1999 grand the costs of the internet bubble? Yeah. Brian back is young and his career MBA from Rutgers University’s a jersey guy. What What attracted you to e commerce? Well, great.

Question. Kernan. Yeah, 99 was interesting time. I mean, that was that was a time when it was really the first wave of e commerce right. It was when this was brand new models happening. And what was so exciting to me at the time about it was it was really just the the fast pace, the intellectual challenge to change. And really the just the whole notion that the world was changing with this sort of internet thing, and that, you know, that that I could be a part of that and I was Yeah, I was in my 20s I was working in New York City.

I was I had a I went to work for an econ consultancy way back then called science. Some of you who are old might remember that funny. But the Anyway, it was it was a it was a real great experience. And I stayed in the industry since then. So Gosh, 2022 years. And and it was it was quite a it’s been quite a journey. And it’s lived up to my so what why why I got into the field, which is always changing and evolving. So exciting. So tons of cover here. We have our new yorkers here on the crowd. We’ve got Dan bigger, who’s a manufacturer gene on?

Andrea. So we have so this topic is perfect for these folks. Okay, great. Again, too. I’m a manufacturer, okay. And e commerce is new to me. And what’s you know, you hear a lot of the myths with e commerce maybe over time, some of them have gone away, but either confirm or dispel some myths for manufacturers. Are there challenges for me, as far as I, you know, I put my products online, is Amazon going to steal my products? All right, well, I’m going to talk about channel conflicts. But let’s start with like, what are some of the risks that I have as a manufacturer and I want to put my products on Amazon?

 

Brian Beck  04:36

Yeah, great question, Kurt. I mean, there’s so what a lot of folks don’t realize is Amazon in addition to a place where you can buy product it’s really become a search engine. So I you know, that I’ll flip the question around the a little bit. There’s there’s a, there’s a relevancy issue here, right, whereas in the past, a lot of b2b buyers and consumers.

They’ve learned about products in other ways, either through in the b2b world The physical sales force in the consumer world through searching Google or other places or go into stores, like Amazon has become sitting now 70% of product search in the United States, right increasingly abroad. And so you got a credible fact you think about it, 70% of people are starting their searches on Amazon for products, not on Google, not in traditional ways. And so there’s a relevancy risk, I often cite.

And I talked about this in the book, no relevancy risk to manufacturers who are not represented in some way on Amazon, not only for your brand name, right, but also even for your product category. One of my favorite exercises to do Kurt is to go to, with with with, you know, senior folks at manufacturers This week, we’re gonna go online, and we’re gonna look at Amazon, and we’re gonna look at a category search term for their products. You know, I did this the other day with a with a big producer of safety equipment.

And we looked at some of their, you know, some of their search terms related to hardhats and other things. And outcome, these products that are selling good tools that can see this millions of dollars from products from manufacturers they’ve never heard of, right. And they’re and these are companies that are created specifically for e commerce and Amazon. And they’re taking share today from these traditional manufacturers, and the manufacturers don’t even realize it.

And so the competitive landscape has changed. So if you think about risk, I mean, to me, the risk of not being there is pretty great, right? Because you’re risking your very relevancy to the customer, as more of the search volume shifts there. Now, there’s other risks too, and we can dive into channel conflict. I mean, look, you can ignore your traditional channels, if you’re, if you’re a manufacturer, you may have a lot of revenue coming from a direct Salesforce and distributors or retailers that are buying your product and reselling it.

My my, my recommendation suggestion is never to ignore that. I mean, you’ve got to pay attention to that. And you have to respect it. You also have to know what’s happening in the market with your ultimate customer, the people buying using your product, right? Absolutely. And so, the perfect segue, let’s go into this so that you know that 70% you know, every time I talk to you every time I read the book, again, folks to highlighters when you buy Brian, yeah, yeah. like crazy.

But you know, and when you look at your background, you’ve been part of Inc 500. Companies, internet retailer. 500, you know, 100 years ago, my e commerce business, we’re in the top 1000 for internet retailer, I know how hard it is, you’ve been in the top 500 you’ve dealt with like top, I think top 50 fortune 500 companies what was staggering to me two things, what you just said, you know, was it 50 cents of every dollar i think is ecommerce dollars, Amazon now you’re saying 70% of product search.

That’s a new, that is scary. So that alone, why need to be on econ on Amazon. But here’s another thing back in my e commerce days, when I had my my company, you know conversion rates. Man, if we got to three, you know, I remember one product line where we’re hitting 7%. We’re familiar popping shampoo, a threat? If I if I read this correctly, in your book, you talk about prime is set. It’s over 70% conversion rates that I read that right. You did. It’s crazy,

 

Damon Pistulka  08:16

right? Yeah. I

 

Brian Beck  08:17

mean, so 20 years of my career is spent trying to optimize conversion rates, like, you know, occurred for and if we got to 3% we were we were celebrating. Exactly. Amazon’s prime conversion rate is 74% 74%. Yeah. Okay. So the intention to buy when someone goes to Amazon and everybody in the room here, David, Jeffrey, Greg, Jean, all you guys, you know, raise your hand virtually. If you’re if you’re an Amazon Prime member, guess what all of you just raised your hand. Great. Excellent. We can do that with a school platform.

Yeah, we can. Right. So. But the point is, guys, that when people go to Amazon, there’s a high level of intention to purchase, right? And why is that? Well, Amazon, number one has created such an assortment, the 600 million products are on Amazon. It’s a pretty easy number to add in your next 100 million pesos when he added this thing he said, we’re going to be the everything store, right. And if you want a great book to read, by the way, there’s a book called The everything store and it’s all about the history of Amazon is a fantastic read if you want to study them. But they also said I’m going to you know, we’re going to be the everything store and he says he’s accomplished that.

 

Damon Pistulka  09:35

Yeah, if you think about

 

Brian Beck  09:37

it, they just want pharmacy guys there and there are a lot of categories, right? And so, um, so So number one is assortment, but also its ease of is a focus on the customer removing all the friction from the process of making it easy for the customer to buy. Now, they’ve done that with consumers for 20 years, they’ve done a great job. Guess what they’re doing now in b2b, they’re applying the same principles. Yep. The traditional b2b process and guess what the b2b process right now is not very well served by the traditional distributor.

In some cases, you know, it is but a lot, there’s a lot of categories where it’s not, there’s a lot of distributors that have a long way to go to level up to meet the customer expectation for digital. So Amazon, you know, is made it easy for the consumer. Now they’re making it easy for the b2b buyer. And I can give you lots of examples of that, if you want to dive in on it. But the point is, this is all here coming in here for the b2b category as well. Yeah, there’s direct search. And so in like Damon I’ve talked about like, so client I’ve worked with we talked about like using configurators.

And trying to break those barriers, making make it making life easier, make it all about the customer, you know, making it all about them, making it easier for them to buy. And so the thing is what you’re talking about, so again, that custom manufacturer or that job shop, or they don’t have that purchase product and have left out of that e commerce party. Now this is even more scarier staggering. To say like, boy, now I can’t find your product or preparatory process or your services on sir on on Amazon, I’m going to find somebody that figures that out.

That’s even more of a driving driving force. Then let’s talk about that channel conflict. Our buddy Dave up in Buffalo. He has a question, the manufacturer goes direct from their website, will that alienate your distributors, and I’m sure you have tons of examples. In Brian’s book, I love the example you give a great example I believe it’s a three products however, you ubiquitous You know, I’m lobes, we’ve seen them everywhere for forever. And you give a great step by step. So again, when you buy Brian’s book, check, you know, read the whole thing thoroughly.

But check out that one session and every great, can you talk a little bit about that? How did how does that manufacturer prevent void or embrace their channel partners to prevent that as well? It’s, yeah, I have a whole chapter on that. Right. And it’s an incorrect it’s not an easy question, right? For a lot of manufacturers who have these traditional every being a good example of this, where they have traditional retailers, they’ve sold to distributors, etc. You can’t, you don’t want to ignore it and disintermediate them, what you need to do is respect the channel.

And I lay out a multi step process in the book in that chapter talks about how do you do this? Look, ultimately, my first piece of advice to anyone who’s dealing with this is you’ve got to understand manufacturer, the ultimate buyer of your product and user, this is the person in the field, using the product and how they’re using it. And what’s important to them. I was having this conversation two hours ago with a with a big manufacturer of lawn mowers, okay, you know who they are, if I if I told you, but the point is that they are they need to as everyone does need to understand how these folks are using the product in the field and then work backwards.

And then you want to understand, you know, how they traditionally bought the product? Why have they bought the product from these different channels? Right? So if they bought the product from a retailer or distributor, what value did that retailer distributor add to that, that that customers journey? was it was it expertise in the in the application of the lawn mower or whatever, you know, use of the equipment, that sort of thing is a real value there.

And if there’s not real value there, guess who’s there who’s disintermediating that? Well, it’s Amazon, right? If it’s really just about a transaction, and your channel is just all about price and selection, get and convenience or purchase, guess who does that better than anybody in the world. So, you know, you also got to understand that that end customer is using is using the using Amazon as a transactional vehicle to research vehicle. So then it’s about managing your price and your assortment, and your channel strategy.

And so this gets down to understanding specific products, product lines, and even brands within your product line. That you can you can then use those those tools to make sure that you’re looking at each of those channels, feeding them the right kinds of products. But it also it also ties into your foundation, right? You need a foundation of channel control, you need distribution agreements, many manufacturers have mat policies, many of the minimum advertised price policies where you’re, you’re asking your channels to adhere to certain pricing, you have to do that carefully and within the scope of the law and all those things.

But there’s best practices around this this is I can’t remember which chapter number is any good, maybe five or six. But it’s, there’s a whole there’s a whole strategy to this. And it works. And when it’s done well, you’re managing your pricing, you’re limiting the channel conflict. Many manufacturers are saying I want Amazon to be only for me, right? I’m going to be the only one on Amazon. I’m going to take all my distribution and retail out of it because I want to control the price and my presence on this very important search engine.

Yeah, right. So it’s, there’s a couple different strategies. It’s not all or nothing but point is it can be managed and can be managed effectively and respecting your channel at the same time. You, Charles, that’s, that’s fantastic. And my dear friend Andrew, a friend here in New York, she’s a small business development advisor for advisor for the Small Business Development Center here in New York. And she’s a thriving entrepreneur, she has this incredible Coffee Company. So we were just having recently a nice conversation about, you know, a company like that.

So, um, you know, entrepreneurs, she has this incredible coffee product, it’s a gourmet high end coffee, and tipping her and we were looking at Amazon, we’re seeing some different companies are selling her product on Amazon about so the question she asked in the chat box, that 70% is that advertising within Amazon? So let’s talk about that for a second about, you know, the organic search versus, or combined with spending advertising dollars that paperclip model with Amazon, and then someone like an Andrea who’s maybe just tipping her totals for the first time, you know, how, what would you what’s advice for Andrea to get her name?

Yeah, so take take those in turn here. So for the first the 70%. Andrea, what I’m referring to there is the number of people that go into, on the on the web monster browser, they have the intention of finding a product. And where do they go first? Do they go to Google and type in the product? category? Let’s say it’s coffee, you know, dark roast coffee, right? Five years ago, 70% of people went to Google and did that dark roast coffee. And then now 70% of people go to the pop up on Amazon and go dark roast coffee.

 

16:34

So that’s,

 

Brian Beck  16:36

that’s what I’m referring to in terms of restaurant growing. Yeah, yeah, that is mind blowing. So again, so with the pay per click model, or like advertising, and again, you’re getting a lot of large companies, Cardinal Health, so on and so forth. That solopreneur solopreneur, the smaller manufacturers, how do you advise like dipping your toe into like that advertising dollar? You know, getting in?

So yeah, so so advertising is, so if you think about Amazon, you have to think about Amazon almost as an ecosystem of sort of levers you have, right. And if we think about it that way, advertising is one of them. The others are things like content, and Amazon Prime fulfillment, and making sure you have the right breath in stock on products, right. So there’s a number of things. And there’s also some brand elements, rights and brand tools you can use. advertising is one piece of it.

And what you’re doing with advertising is you’re helping to build momentum on your product and your brand inside of inside of Amazon. So you’re starting, the starting point for a company like like Andrew is, is making sure you have great content, making sure you have the good brand protection pieces in place, your brand should be registered using something called Amazon Brand Registry, you want to you want to set up a storefront and use some of the brand enhanced content settings that you have available to. So when you have the foundation, and that by the way, that foundation also includes making sure your products are prime eligible, right? So again, raise of hands, how many of your Prime members and using Amazon Prime to sort and look for products that are only prime eligible?

That’s most of you, by the way? That you want to make sure your foundation is right with all those elements I described? Then it’s time for advertising. So how do you what is advertising and Amazon, it’s really similar in a lot of ways to Google. And that is Pay Per Click right. So you’re finding keywords that work for you, you’re you’re bidding on those keywords, you’re directing the searches to very specific products, it’s different than Amazon or Google in some ways. They don’t give you as much information or visibility. Amazon doesn’t. Unfortunately, to have it, they don’t reveal. But but they but there’s there’s ways to be used the data they do provide to be effective.

So it’s, it’s keyword advertising. Now where do you start, you don’t have to start with the enormous budget, you want, you want to give yourself enough budget to test and learn. So 500 or $1,000 a month to get started to understand what keywords are going to work for you. There’s some structured structural things you want to learn about, you can find some of the stuff on YouTube, there’s instructional videos, things like this, there’s also instructions on best practices, Amazon provide some on their, to their site, etc. So you want to learn, but testing and learning is the right approach for for our testing. Right, perfect.

So that’s extremely helpful for that small manufacturer. Now, I think, you know, you’ve talked in the past about sometimes a knowmia somebody possesses that proprietary product and then we’re gonna we’re gonna dig into a question from my did my friend Dan bigger in a minute for those contract manufacturers, but when you have a proprietary product and you find your your product is on Amazon, and you’re not familiar with that company, what what’s your experience been with that? Or like, how are these companies selling your product as a manufacturer on Amazon and you didn’t really even know you had a relationship with that? You may not right. So Maybe that’s sort of the extended family there.

 

Curt Anderson  20:02

Do you find that free? So

 

Brian Beck  20:06

okay, Kurt. So we did a study and see, but it was it was about six months ago with some partners, and we we asked manufacturers this question. So how many of your items or your products are on Amazon? 70% of them say, Yes, my product is on Amazon. And then we ask the follow up question, how many of you know who selling your Amazon?

 

20:30

And 70? All the sellers? and 70% of them said, we have? No we have, we have sales reps out there that are representing our product? We have no clue they are. So what how do you mean? Like, is there an opportunity to like create chips, strange relationships with your clients?

 

Brian Beck  20:47

So yeah, it depends. So couple. First, you know, knowing So typically, what happens is these folks are, they’re buying from a distributor, or they’re buying from a retailer, or they’re buying some other way, where you sold the product to someone and they’re re buying it. So that’s sort of, you know, they’re buying it from another source. It’s not always from you, sometimes it is from you.

And they set up other seller names on Amazon, and you may not recognize them, right. So what do you do about if you’re a manufacturer? Well, first, and first and foremost, inventories and right, understand who they are, in terms of you know, who the seller names are, and get a sense for, how big is this issue, sometimes we see 40 5060, sellers, on large, you know, well known brand names.

So you want to start by inventory them, then you want to understand if they’re actually adding value to your business, your brand, your products that are beyond just selling on Amazon, because what I what I argue is, a manufacturer has a very compelling case to sell their own product on Amazon, right?

To sell it and get the whole retail price for the product. And if these folks who are reselling aren’t doing anything other than selling on Amazon, you’re giving away margin, you have to take it for yourself. And and and the way to do that there’s some techniques you can you can use to capture you know, those sales for yourself, you can go in there as the manufacturer, you could use Brand Registry and other things to take control of your content on those listings, you take control of your brand, name, your brand, storefront, etc.

So you want to you want to use that, but it’s not the only place. So you have to do things outside of Amazon to gain control of Amazon. And that includes things like distribution agreements, you know, making sure that when you sell your product that the people you’re selling it to have a clear understanding of where they’re authorized to sell your products. And there’s best practices for that.

So these are, there’s a number of sort of elements to the, to the strategy there, Kurt, where you have to, you know, you have to do a couple of things together to gain control of it, but it can be gained. And I argue that for many manufacturers like, like, like Andrew, I mean, there, there may be is no real reason to have these folks selling your product on Amazon, you should get those sales, or you may authorize them to sell on Amazon, because they’re doing a lot of other stuff.

They’ve got it in their stores and their distribution centers or whatever. So right. So let’s talk about that one second. Again, we’re going to get to that custom manufacturer question. So So say that manufacturer, so like, you know, Andrea, small manufacturer, my friends and bigger, you know, we’re off stretch sofa, you know, time is limited in what’s common with manufacturers for you know, their legacy, not strong marketers, right?

They’re not the retailer on the corner, that’s the guerrilla marketer, it’s a little bit new to them, especially right, plenty trade shows are gone. So when if you have that the OEM that has that finished goods departure product, they’re seeing it on Amazon, and they just don’t have the bandwidth, or the marketing that guerilla marketing, or they just didn’t want to deal with it. But they would look at their presence on Amazon. Is there value or benefit to tag team with those guerrilla marketers that are on Amazon and then just pull it you know, there’s a value to them capturing that margin and just pull it off their plate? Yeah, why don’t use self serving leads just hire us. Yeah, exactly. Thank

 

23:58

you. Yeah. Hire.

 

Damon Pistulka  23:59

Alright. My dear friend, Brian, back. So wrong. Okay, so

 

Brian Beck  24:05

but let me let me answer your question, because a strategic question, right. So one way you one path you can take is to hire us, right to help you build your own program, remove sellers from Amazon, the people you don’t want and own it for yourself. I know. It’s a common sense. And some very large manufacturers are doing that by the way that we’re working with, and some are smaller. But the other path is to do what you said. And these aren’t also mutually exclusive. But strategically you could say to some of those resellers. Hey guys, let’s partner up. I’m going to I’m going to pick one or two of you.

And I want you to do a great job for me on Amazon. Here’s my criteria, what that means I want you to put great content up there, talk about my brand, I’m going to give you some videos to use or whatever, you know, I’m going to give you a product I’m gonna give you maybe a special pricing. And, and I’m going to I’m going to go and then you know, give you make you basically my Amazon partner. I’m gonna take everybody else off, you know, one or not depends on your situation.

But you could you could, you could then try to remove the rest of the of the field. And they’re going to do it because Gosh, I have this great pricing, I have this connection to the manufacturer, I’m going to be able to lift myself because these other people are going to move off the brand, maybe I get some exclusive products. So yeah, that’s definitely a path. And that path, by the way, can be for a small manufacturer, but there’s also really big manufacturers that do the same thing. So it can it can apply to many different business models.

Exactly. And I think if Greg michou is Greg misuse, so he’s still with us. So Greg Mitchell from Madison, Wisconsin owns a firm with bound, he’s speaking next Friday, and he talks about the digital twin. And what I what I feel that you’re describing is really that perfect opportunity for the manufacturer to align themselves with these digital sales reps, if you will, and support them, given the content given that, you know, they’re doing it anyway, let’s give them an incentive.

So you know, motivate them to you know, focus on your product, not your competitors. So let’s dig into that. The the costume manufacturer, we’re, we’re we’re doing good on time, we’re coming in and top of the hour. But Dan bigger he great guy. He’s a custom manufacturer and marketer for a custom manufacturer, they will love this, maybe you should be a guest some time they do a Twitter chat group, every Thursday, 11 o’clock Pacific, two o’clock here in East Coast. And what they’ve done is they have manufacturers and manufacturer marketers from all over the country.

And Paul from New Jersey, Paul’s in there. He’s a fellow in New Jersey and right there, they do this Twitter chat, and I hosted a few weeks, man, it’s like a fastest hour of my life. And they’re just going rapid fire. So anyway, so I wanted to put that in your radar. But some of there’s a lot of custom manufacturers that don’t have that particular product with what you’re describing with the 70% search like that. You just blew my mind. I did not I didn’t know that. That’s that scares me that motive honestly scares it motivates me more my preaches kind of helping that made that custom manufacturer create that e commerce presence. That’s kind of my sticker. We’ll also if you will, yeah.

What do you call a costume manufacturer? doesn’t have that finished? Good? How can they get into how can they exploit their property? They have a competitive process. Mm hmm. On the e commerce party, and how can they take advantage of Amazon? Well, you know, Amazon has a program for private label manufacturer and other where you can actually build products for Amazon, Amazon has about 450 private label products, and many of those private label products are sourced. In partnership, most of them actually with, with with manufacturers like that, that can produce produce components or perhaps a finished good for for Amazon.

So I think that’s one way to do it. Amazon, though, is not a, you know, you think about other channels occurred like Alibaba and others where there’s more of a component tree, you know, more of a supply chain type solution. It was not as more of a finished good solution for for b2b. Just for e commerce in general. I’d encourage you know, Dan and others to also take a look at you know, other other marketplaces too, like like Ali Baba, because that may be a good fit for them. Right. And that’s, that’s a perfect segue, who’s speaking first to Greg misuse speaking next Friday, Kate, our dear friend, Kate Anderson is speaking from Alibaba, that she can do weeks from today.

And so Ali Baba, you know, we’re here to talk about Amazon. And Brian has done a great job for Alibaba, you spoke over the summer. And, and that’s how Brian and I met. He was a keynote speaker at a conference then like, early COVID, I think was like, I can May. And we just we we became fast friends. And just I can’t respect you and admire the work, you’ve done more. And so the for the customer manufacturer, but what I’ve been talking on dandy, we can talk offline, is I tried to help them they have that proprietary process.

They make widgets for other people, are there opportunities to scale that proprietary processor for other manufacturer other these other? I mean, the other thing current is, you mean Gosh, Amazon is so large in the reaches so big that, you know, if a company has a process and can produce something in a category, you can also identify areas in Amazon where there are opportunities and gaps in profit for products to sell. And you could create something specifically for the Amazon Marketplace. And so there’s tools that you can use as a as a as a marketer to figure out what those niches are.

And so that can be helpful in a Jungle Scout and some of the others that are in the market today to do that. Absolutely. Not just in my dear friend Sherry. I think Sherry I think she’s in Chicago, I think yes, I’m trying to find a digital twin for my first product to free up time to focus on my second item. So that is awesome. Sherry And so Brian to wrap up. I’m a CEO, I’m a manufacturer I’m a den bigger. I’m a marketer and a busy man manufacturer. What’s your advice to them like how from you know And we’ve had no marketing and our you know, we’re a 30 year manufacturer, we’ve never had a marketing department.

How do you you know, and I know, that’s a pretty broad question, but how do you attack the market? And how can you get that footprint into Amazon as quickly as possible? If that question makes sense? Yeah. So again, a couple different paths there. I mean, if speed to market is important, you know, when it when I talk to manufacturers, there’s a couple about their e commerce strategy in general, you know, that you got, you got e commerce, your own e commerce, you can get into which 50% of manufacturers don’t have e commerce today. So it’s a big opportunity.

Yeah, a lot of them are launching it, though, right? So, so that Windows closing a bit there. But you know, that I view that often as a second step, the first step being Amazon. And the reason for that is that there’s, you know, you’re preparing data, right for Amazon, you’re preparing your product, your information, and you can use a lot of your learnings from that Amazon program to then launch your own e commerce now accelerating Amazon itself, the the results from that, really, you’re going to look to either leverage one of your existing resellers as you were describing, or some of them, or you’re going to, you’re going to hire a company like us to get you started fast, because hiring people to do this internally, it can be done certainly happens all the time.

But but they’re also hard to find, we know we hire them, and they’re expensive, because we know we hire them. So there’s the there’s a set of things you need to do. And it’s really about learning and not messing up the best practices for launching a program. Making sure you get off to a clean start is easy to screw up. So you want it you want someone by your side to walk you through that and help you.

Exactly And again, you know, for that b2b plug, billion dollar b2b e commerce or you guys you know, the holidays are coming. Perfect. Fair stuffer, put it on your list. A couple quick comments. You know, again, Greg, Misha was speaking next week. Brian, you and Greg Connect, he is phenomenal. So he dropped a little note on so anybody wants to click that link for his digital twin? We were talking about it last night. It is mind blowing. David, our friend in Buffalo as Amazon is a mass marketing platform. Are they good for products that are industry specific? Ah, great question.

 

Curt Anderson  32:18

You’re just the right man for that.

 

Brian Beck  32:21

It depends on the industry. Yeah. So if you look at Okay, so let’s look at what Amazon is doing. And b2b, which is Amazon business, right? They have created some experiences in Amazon business, which are specific to industry categories. So depending on the industry you’re in, you have to consider you have to look at what they’re doing in that industry. I’ll give you an example. The Amazon business team has created an experience for medical professionals to buy through Amazon by an A, and they can buy regulated FDA products type two type three regulated devices. And they’re doing some volume in it now.

The so it allows a doctor or dentist or some kind of credentialed medical professional to upload their information through Amazon, and then an unlock that unlocks an assortment of regulated devices they can then purchase through Amazon. We’ve got clients that make stuff that’s used in dental procedures in the mouth, you can’t buy this stuff and do this at home.

Yeah. So. So that’s just an example. So and what’s amazing to guys is just from a data perspective, there’s a misconception that Amazon’s b2b volume is all office supplies. It’s not. In fact, it is the selection and that the volumes that they’re doing in these categories like MRO, industrial products, medical products, dental products, all these other categories that you wouldn’t think are doing volume, they’re doing volume, and they’re projected to do get this $70 billion in b2b volume, within three years by 2023. We’re going to see them as one of the largest industrial distributors and just distributors in general, in the world.

They’re they’re they’re penetrating these categories. Very quickly, and many companies don’t realize it. So manufacturers again, to get back to the first thing I said, Kurt is about relevance and staying relevant to your customer. And part of your assortment, right. Yeah, exactly. And there’s a lot of options with you know, like Zorro is a great marketplace, Digi key. I think it was at your book that you talked about Honeywell launched, where the error was, right. And so again, I want to be respectful of everybody’s time because we’re at a time but we’re getting a lot of nice questions here. On as Greg, Greg s. People are coming on Amazon with the intensive buy.

How are these retailers getting on the radar for customers to get them on Amazon? That’s it. I love that question. What do you what do you think on that? Right? So how do they make sure I understand the question. So how are retailers getting on the radar for customers to get them on Amazon? There’s one thing I want to share. It’s so close friend client mine, Jeffrey stern owns voice Express. And I think I think I saw he’s in our in our group today. And phenomenal company, if you go to build a bear, and bought a bear for child, and that bear speaks to you, he manufactures that little device that that voice technology that’s in there, and then my son’s room came. So thank Geoffrey for that.

Thank you, Jeffrey. Um, you know, so now what he’s done on his website is he’s put Amazon a big broad Amazon button and Alibaba button to lend that credibility. And now would you say that 70%? I think you were talking about that. In your book, you’re talking about that trust factor? Yeah. So if I do the Google search with this is just mind blowing. To me. 70% of product search is now on Amazon. Just I mean, everybody, please let that sink in. You know, we’re, we’ve been thinking about Google Google, we’ve got optimized for Google, you certainly do. However, look what’s happening now on Amazon. So as you do that, to make that conversion in the optimized for Amazon, you know, what does?

What does that manufacturer do to? You know, kind of time with Greg’s question, or what Jeffrey stern is doing. They’re, they’re trying to solidify that trust on their website by by, you’ve landed on my website. So you know, I’m gonna, first if I’m going to build that trust by saying, Hey, I’m also on Amazon, in case you’re more comfortable, you have prime, you, you just go safer going to Amazon. And by that I’m starting to encourage my clients to have that Amazon button. And I think Greg is asking here, well, I think ultimately, guys, you who are trying to sell product in the marketplace, ultimately,

 

Damon Pistulka  36:38

you know,

 

Brian Beck  36:38

let the customer choose the channel, right?

 

36:41

Don’t let it

 

Brian Beck  36:43

or the customer buy or they buy, you’re the manufacturer, look, if I’m a distributor, the story’s different, right or the retailer. But if you’re a manufacturer of product, let them buy where they want to buy, give them this control, you know, it’s and and so to correct your point, absolutely. Give them given different options on your own site. You know, how quick the question was, you know, also how, you know, how do these, how is Amazon getting all this traffic? Well, ultimately, it’s it’s the it’s the best way, right?

It’s, it’s because customers are opting to use it. Naturally, they’re not, they’re not going to Google and going to Amazon, that happens. But, you know, it’s really people going right to the place where they feel like their need is being met, which is finding a product very quickly, within almost 600 million products, buying the product you want very fast, and then having the trust that you’re going to get that product once it’s ordered, without an issue. And if there is, in the rare cases where there’s issues with your order, guess what Amazon takes care of you, the customer first like nobody else does, guys, I mean, they do a great job.

This is the reason they’re getting all this traffic. You know, it’s it’s, it’s the relevancy of the product of the search. It’s the ease of use, it’s all those things together, that make it the customers voted for it very clearly. And b2c, and increasingly now and b2b, right there speaking with your credit cards, and that’s the thing is now as consumers, you know, there’s not a separation at all. I’m a b2b buyer, it’s human to human, you know, it’s not business business, not business to consumer, it’s as consumers, we now have a higher expectation of that level of trust, we want to buy, we want three clicks, and I’m done.

I’ve got 1000 other things to do today. I want the product delivered within a couple of days. So I’m gonna wrap up on this, you know, back that custom manufacturer, what’s interesting, that concept, so client, Damon, I’ve talked about numerous times, I had a client, they were wire harness manufacturer, and they just kept niching down and they found a product that they had that was in their wheelhouse that they make, and they’re like, hey, let’s convert this prepared proprietary process and turn it into a proprietary product, but it’s on it on their website, awesome.

Boeing starts buying from Halliburton starts buying from the public. Hey, I know when like, let’s put the product on Amazon. They’re now doing 10s of 1000s of dollars on Amazon, they have the Amazon’s choice button off purely on a whim. And now both some fortune 500 companies are finding them on Amazon and now coming to their website and then email emailing calling and saying hey, we have a special project I saw that you’re selling that particular product I need something different. Can you make this now I’ll give you a CAD drawing and but account they had the presence on Amazon.

Now they’re engaged with Boeing, Virgin Hyperloop some major companies because of Amazon, you know, it’s a great example current I mean, that is a perfect example of what Amazon is in terms of a search and research engine. And and if you’re not there to be discovered, right, then you you’re risking that that wouldn’t have happened what you just have been never it would have never happened you’re in and I don’t know, you know, being a search guy that Greg misuse a big SEO guy Paul’s a marketer in New Jersey, like you know, we can’t always tell you know, did they find us on Google?

Did they find us on Zorro, Amazon they find us but boy when we can create an engagement for as marketers for our clients. Or, again, bigger for his manufacturer to open up a new door? And how can we do this as Enix? You know, you know, 2020 has been so tough, our budgets are super tight, but there’s great opportunities for like an Andrea for bigger, how can we do this as inexpensively as possible, you know, and minimize that risk.

We’re like, if it doesn’t work? Well, you know, as marketers, man, we’re constantly so I don’t want to hear laughter like we’re always going back to the right. So anyway, trying any closing thoughts that you want to share with us? Again, your book, what you were amazing job with, you want to share it? I the only the only thing I’ll leave people with is, you know, in particularly b2b and manufacturing, right? I find that a lot of folks are very conservative, and they’re afraid to take action. So I encourage you all to if I can leave you with anything, even if you don’t understand every aspect of this take some action get started. I have some great case studies.

Like the first case study in the book is a company that 15 years ago took action in the face of not knowing what they were dealing with with e commerce and Amazon. And they did and today their business is about half digital and they’re benefiting from it guys are doing great in COVID Why? Because they took action. So I leave is one thing. It’s it’s not bought by book which would be great if you did or hire a CFO, which would be great if you did but take action guys. That’s that’s my main mantra for for 2020. And I’m sorry, like I know we really hammered the book. I just I can’t I what’s the word I can’t support your book.

Recommend your book strong enough and reported on this in his book he says with e commerce you want to future proof your business I just like future proof if there’s one takeaway today out of everything, future proof your business and bright I love this quote your current business today. Well, you’re gonna feel like it’s the rotary phone. Once you make that plunge into e commerce down. God. Yeah. So everybody on LinkedIn live anybody out there live. Thank you. Thank you for taking your time for joining us everybody here on Remo. Thank you. We’re going to go back to the tables. You can talk about Brian one on one. Brian, dude. You’re my brother from another mother.

 

Damon Pistulka  42:17

Your friend, man.

 

Brian Beck  42:19

I really love our relationship. Love. Thank you for taking the time to join us today. I know Damon appreciates it.

 

Damon Pistulka  42:25

Thank you very much. Happy Holidays.

 

Brian Beck  42:27

You say back at you, man. I’ll be out here for the table.

 

Damon Pistulka  42:31

All right, we’re gonna go we’re gonna be shut down on LinkedIn live. We’re gonna be back at the tables here on Remo

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