Are you ready to scale beyond Amazon and dominate the e-commerce space? In this episode, Todd Welch sits down with Andrew Morgans, the founder of Marknology, to discuss strategies for leveraging omnichannel opportunities to grow your business. Andrew shares his journey from eBay pioneer to Amazon expert while revealing tips for expanding into platforms like Walmart, TikTok Shop, and Chewy. Don’t miss this insightful episode packed with actionable takeaways for every seller!
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Andrew Morgans’ Entrepreneurial Journey: From Africa to Amazon
Andrew’s unique background—growing up in West Africa and transitioning to e-commerce—has shaped his approach to business. Discover how his experiences with PayPal, eBay, and music inspired his entrepreneurial spirit and led to the founding of Marknology, an agency helping over 300 brands achieve $2 billion in combined sales.
Diversifying Beyond Amazon: Walmart, TikTok Shop, and More
Learn why Andrew believes diversifying sales channels is critical for long-term success. He explains:
- Walmart: A must for Amazon sellers—especially if your products fit Walmart’s categories.
- TikTok Shop: Perfect for viral, creative products and offers untapped potential with low competition.
- Chewy: Ideal for pet brands, offering direct access to a niche audience.
The Importance of Omni-Channel Efforts
Andrew emphasizes the need to approach new marketplaces with the same effort and strategy you applied to Amazon. From mastering Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS) to leveraging TikTok’s creator-driven platform, consistency is key to replicating success.
Why Every Brand Needs a Website
Andrew explains why every e-commerce brand should have a website, not necessarily for sales but as a trust-building tool. Showcase your brand story, certifications, and credibility to convert cautious buyers and reinforce your presence across platforms.
Resources From This Episode
Platforms and Marketplaces:
- Marknology – Andrew’s agency offering Amazon and omnichannel optimization services.
- Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS) – Scale your Walmart presence with their logistics solution.
- TikTok Shop – Leverage the viral potential of TikTok to drive sales.
- Chewy – Best for pet brands looking to expand.
- Amazon International Expansion – Diversify into Canada, Germany, Japan, and beyond.
Tools and Technology:
- TikTok Ads – Drive traffic and conversions with affordable ads on TikTok.
- Buy With Prime – Integrate Amazon’s checkout solution into your website for seamless sales.
- Google Ads for Walmart – Use Google’s tools to drive traffic to Walmart listings.
Books:
- The Lean Startup by Eric Ries – A must-read for entrepreneurs scaling their businesses.
Websites:
- TeetherPop – An example of a successful baby brand built on trust and quality.
Guest’s Social Media:
- Andrew Morgans on LinkedIn – Connect with Andrew for insights on Amazon and omnichannel growth.
- Andrew Morgans on Instagram – Get a glimpse into his entrepreneurial mindset.
In Conclusion
This episode is packed with practical advice for Amazon sellers looking to diversify and scale their businesses. Whether you’re exploring Walmart, TikTok Shop, or international marketplaces, Andrew’s tips can help you navigate the complexities of multi-channel selling. Remember: success comes from consistent effort and the willingness to adapt to new opportunities. Start implementing these strategies today to stay ahead in the ever-changing e-commerce landscape.
Transcript
[00:00:00:00 – 00:00:00:27] TEASER
I do think that depending on what products you have, Walmart, Chewy, Target, to me, the big ones are eBay, Walmart, TikTok shop, and Amazon. Uh, those are the big four. And then there’s auxiliary ones that are like more specified, like michaels. com and Nordstrom and, um, you know, Home Depot. These are all brands that you can list your products on without even being in store. You can be listed on homedepot. com for example.
[00:00:00:27 – 00:00:00:47] INTRO
Welcome fellow entrepreneurs to the Amazon Seller School podcast, where we talk about Amazon and how you can use it to build an e-commerce empire. A side hustle and anything in between. And now your host, Todd Welch.
[00:00:00:48 – 00:00:01:59] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
What’s going on everybody. Welcome to another episode of Amazon seller school. I’ve got Andrew Morgans on today. Andrew is the founder and CEO of Marknology, which is a full service Amazon and marketplace agency. He also owns and co owns several DTC brands, including, uh, waggedly. Landlocked axle, parch, felt like sharing and more, uh, also invests in, in several different brands. And Andrew is also a real estate investor and is launching e com pulse. ai, a new SAS tool for omni channel sellers. In addition, he operates a 3PL warehouse in Kansas city. And since founding Marknology, he’s worked with. Over 300 brands achieving 2 billion in combined sales, which very impressive. Andrew, Andrew also hosts the startup hustle podcast, which ranks in the top 20 entrepreneur podcasts with 15 plus years in e commerce. He’s passionate about building brands and driving innovation in the space. So welcome to the show, Andrew. Appreciate you coming on.
[00:00:1:59 – 00:00:02:13] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
Thank you, Todd. Thanks for having me. It’s always strange to hear it. Read back sometimes, um, little imposter syndrome. Is that me? I’m not sure, but been doing this a long time and still passionate about e comm. So I’m excited to be here.
[00:00:02:13 – 00:00:02:54] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah, for sure. Yeah. You’ve got a really impressive background for sure. So I really, uh, definitely expect you’re going to know what you’re talking about when it comes to the Omni channel, which is what we’re going to focus on today. Uh, so. Taking Amazon sellers and launching on, say, TikTok shop or Walmart, eBay, Chewy, Target, lots of different platforms like that. So I think that’s going to be really intriguing to a lot of people. But before we dive into that, let’s talk a little bit about your background, I guess. So let’s start with, uh, you know, where did you grow up and get going?
[00:00:02:54 – 00:00:07:43] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
Yeah. Uh, I’ll try to keep it quick. Um, I feel like I’ve lived a few lives. Um, I actually was born in Montreal, Quebec, um, and then from a very young age, uh, moved to West Africa, um, and grew up in Africa until I was 16. So, um, I think in some ways that’s really shaped me. Uh, and into the entrepreneur and the way, I just think, uh, kind of just being outside the box in a lot of ways. Um, was in Congo, went from West Africa to Consta Congo, uh, for most of my teenage years, which is a crazy place. Um, and you’re left. There’s not a lot to do.So you’re left in your imagination. I’ll put it that way. You use your, your imagination a lot. Um, moved back to the us. Started chasing music, um, hadn’t been playing music since I was a kid and, um, was like, this is how I get out of Kansas city. This is how I can travel. Uh, that was my first probably attempt at building a brand. Um, and did that for four or five years full time. Like I really was all in on, on music. Um, but I got to a point where I was tired of being broke and I had been going to school, uh, for computer science along the way. And, um, graduated the degree in, uh, just computer science, general computer science, networking and security. And got a, got a job, uh, at MasterCard Global Networking year in, I was, I felt like I was crushing it at work, got raised, uh, got a raise in kind of a permanent position, but I just hated the work. And, um, so I was like, if this is what my degree can do for me, like, I’m, I’m not going to make it. Like, I just don’t enjoy waiting on stuff to break. And, um, I took a chance at a startup, uh, uh, It was a website selling car parts online in Florida. I actually moved from Kansas City to Florida for the job and, um, never looked back. I just fell in love with e commerce. Like right from that startup, I was like employee number three, putting. Uh, trailer hitches, ball mounts, trailer wirings, harnesses and stuff, um, into combo kits and, and putting them on eBay. Let’s see, like contacting manufacturers and taking huge part lists and concatenating descriptions in Excel and putting those on Amazon. And, um, that was probably about 15 years ago was my first. with e commerce and Amazon. And, um, you know, I really haven’t looked back. I went from that startup to became an e commerce manager for a couple of years at a medium sized retailer.
And that really here back in Kansas city. And that really was like the foundation for what is now Marknology just being inside a company of like 300 people, eight retail stores, maybe like, you know, 15 million or so if you’re looking at top line and um, they were just struggling at e commerce. They had been a catalog toy company. Um, and I was hired as this e commerce manager. I sat in between the technology team and the marketing team. And I just went through all the struggles with them to make their, their, uh, their company more modern from images that weren’t made for catalog to real product descriptions, to. You know, attribution to affiliate marketing at the time. Even I was, you know, as the e commerce manager, I was sitting in the middle of all that, but marketplaces and Amazon was really are, are a shining light at the time. And we grew sales by a couple million across several brands that they owned. And, um, I did that for two and a half years. Um, got small raises that just weren’t going to get me to where I wanted to be. And so I started looking outside of that and that’s really where Marknology Came to be, I started freelancing on the side. I think I was very early, maybe one of the very first doing services or Amazon as a business, Amazon as a service for other brands. And, um, that’s when I, I, 11 years ago this year, 11 years ago, I founded Martinology and, and, uh, left that company. And, um, Martinology is a reflection of that. I think the first few years were. Very much like a consultant really didn’t even know what I was doing. Just trying to help people on the side, do Amazon, trying to figure that out. But maybe the last six years or so have felt like a real agency with a real team and really building something. So, um, yeah, let me pause there. Like that’s kind of, uh, as fast as I can go through origin story a little bit, but, um, Yeah, I just kind of found, I found e commerce and, and just love that it was your creativity is really like, that’s what limits you or not in e commerce. And if you, it wasn’t really a boy’s club or a girl’s club, it was if you’re the best. You, you can win and you can stand out and you can sell and you don’t have to have these inroads to Walmart rep or, or someone in retail to get you in. And you have to have like, it’s who, you know, in e commerce, it really was what, you know, and I think at least for the time at the beginning and, um, from humble beginnings. And for me, that was like, this is an area that I think I can, I can do something in and, um, just fell in love with it.
[00:00:07:43 – 00:00:08:01] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Awesome. Yeah, that, uh, I’m curious, uh, the move from Quebec to West, West Africa, it was, that’s, that’s probably not a move that very many people make. So I’m curious how that came about.
[00:00:08:01 – 00:00:09:50] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
Well, obviously wasn’t my choice. Um, my parents were in Quebec for seven years learning French. They were, they went to seminary, both of them went to seminary and met in seminary, got married, um, and moved to Quebec and, uh, me and my sister were born there and, uh, they were studying French, their passion, their, uh, their heart was always driven toward, uh, French Africa.They wanted to travel and see the world and, and give back. And so they taught at. Um, if that makes sense, fairly sponsored with Christian curriculum or whatever, like private schools. Um, and so Cameroon has, um, a part of the country is French. They have an English side and a French side. Um, as same thing as Congo, uh, Congo is a French country as well as conquered by the Belgians a long time ago. So that’s their, that’s their business language. Um, so that’s, that’s kind of the thinking behind, uh, why we went there. And, and, um, My dad was He’s kind of like the Christian Indiana Jones, uh, at least like when he was taking us across the world and, um, you know, not looking for treasure, but maybe, maybe he sees people as treasure and souls and things like that, if you believe in that. And, uh, he took us to crazy places in the world that no one else was going. There were no missionaries in Congo at the time. It was a country in civil war. Um, We were really there on our own. We landed on our own. No one there to greet us. No one there to help us carve out our, our, our life there, you know, so those are some of the things I think that I didn’t see as value from, from my dad and my upbringing. But later in life, as I took this entrepreneurial journey and really saw how many times he went somewhere and created something out of nothing and, um, build translatable skills into, into business.
[00:00:09:50 – 00:00:09:58] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah, and that takes a lot of guts because not only is that hard, but it also could potentially be dangerous.
[00:00:09:58 – 00:00:10:00] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
Very dangerous.
[00:00:10:00 – 00:00:10:24] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
You know, my, my church here in Tampa has a missionary who took his entire family over to Egypt and, you know, they’re, um, working with people and educating them on the Christian faith and stuff like that. And, you know, going to countries like that, it’s not always that welcoming, uh, to do that. So.
[00:00:10:24 – 00:00:12:28] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
Very much. I mean. So just for a little history lesson, like, you know, um, Cameroon was a safe country at the time. Like I played, like I was a jungle boy, like truly a jungle boy, uh, growing up, like, you know, just running through the running through the jungle. Uh, we call it the bush, uh, at the time, um, you know, stone cement hut. We lived in like truly, um, Kinshasa was a city of 12 million. One used to be one of the wealthiest cities in, in the world. Uh, under certain, uh, dictators that they had. There’s just so much wealth in the country of Congo. And for people that don’t know, the country of Congo is, is the size of half the U S the, the, the maps that we look at, the modern maps just shrink.They shrink it cause they’re made, made by white guys, um, back in the day. And they didn’t want it to seem, you know, so much bigger, but Congo is actually like the size of half the U S if you were to compare it. So it’s just a massive country. Second biggest river, longest river in the world. Next to the Amazon, everything, every phone, all the like items that come from your phones are, are mined in Congo, you know, diamonds and all of that. There’s cobalt and uranium and just a very, very rich. Uh, mineral country. Because of that, it’s also a rainforest. Uh, it’s in the middle of the country or the continent of Africa, and it’s surrounded by other countries. As those countries have had wars, those losing armies run into the jungles of Congo and hide out in there and fight back into their countries. Their civil war. So, um, you know, there’s the genocide in Rwanda. Really, it was like, I think four years before we went three years before we went. So we went right after that. And those losing armies were in Congo. It was, I’m saying all that to say it was a crazy place, like another planet, I think, 90 something percent unemployment in a city of 12 million. Um, very dangerous. Uh, you know, had friends get shot, um, had, you know, abductions and all that type of stuff happening. And, um, so learn courage and fear all in the same, all at the same time.
[00:00:12:28 – 00:00:12:42] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
For sure. Yeah, that’s a, that’s a heck of a journey. And I did just actually measure it on Google Maps. The Republic of Congo is about 1300 miles across and the United States is about 2700. Yeah.
[00:00:12:42 – 00:00:12:45] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
Fact check me. Fact check me. But I was pretty close, right? Like.
[00:00:12:46 – 00:00:12:55] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah. About half. I mean, I might not, I’m not measuring like perfectly across necessarily, but it’s a lot bigger than I would have would think it was.
[00:00:12:55 – 00:00:13:13] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
Yeah. The maps, the map, the modern maps, like if you’ve ever seen a real map, like I guess like I’ve seen them kind of laid out and the continent of Africa is like the size of North and South America combined. And it’s just like. For purposes of the map, they shrink everything up, right? But, um, just a massive country.
[00:00:13:13 – 00:00:13:33] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
For sure. Okay. Very good. So yeah, lots of cool travels and you’ve worked your way back to the the States, started an eBay, which I think a lot of people, uh, at least OGs in e commerce started somehow on eBay. I did. as well. Um, so that’s cool.
[00:00:13:33 – 00:00:14:34] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
It was the process of, you know, selling something to your, to your neighborhood or selling something to the kids at school, making, burning CDs. But this was just online. And that was like, eBay was like the first version of I’m doing that. But with people, I don’t know necessarily, you know, and. My dad worked at PayPal. He, uh, it was like in between Africa trips, he took a job in Omaha. We lived in Kansas city and he would commute to Omaha and worked at PayPal and PayPal was like, just a thing. It just became a thing. And, um, some of that exposure from my dad, I think was like important for me. As a kid getting exposed to like online selling and e commerce and like, you know, safe transactions. And Oh, then my dad works at PayPal. Okay. It was like, it was like the Tesla of our time, right? It was the Elon Musk company too. I think so. Um, PayPal was what made eBay a thing was this ability to, to, to process payments securely that someone would back up, you know, um, and really was the precursor for, You know, for all marketplace selling.
[00:00:14:34 – 00:00:15:00] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah. Yeah. I remember the days when eBay first came out, it was a lot of fun doing those auctions and you really felt like you were winning something, you know, like you’re almost winning a prize when you won those auctions and it wasn’t nearly as, as competitive like it is today. We now you got automated softwares for sniping and all that nonsense and why it exists, but it just kind of ruins the experience, unfortunately, a little bit.
[00:00:15:01 – 00:00:16:07] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
Yeah, I miss it. I miss like, I remember just trying to buy video games or little things like that and just clicking like add 10 more cents at 50 more cents. Like, you know, trying to get those auctions, whatever they were, comics or, um, There is a gamification to it that was, um, fun and, and really like to bring it full circle, there’s like, I really approached like marketplace selling in general, like as a game, kind of, there’s a gamification to it, you know, uh, level up your characters, level up, you can. Constantly optimize if you want to, if you want to. Um, and that was the fun part. And eBay really was where I had my first success of like, um, combining bundles and like kits together in a way that created a new product. Um, and I was doing like paint way back then, uh, you know, where I was making borders around the images and just doing that kind of stuff that we do today, much more sophisticated. But, um, you know, those were the things that like, you have a whole, you know, Page full of listings. Well, if you have a blue border around your images, like it stands out, you know, and, um, so eBay allowed some creativity like that.
[00:00:16:07 – 00:00:16:19] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah. Yeah. They do. They still do quite a lot more than Amazon for sure. Their, their guidelines for what you have to make your listing look like is much looser than what Amazon’s is.
[00:00:16:19 – 00:00:17:22] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
I think similar to Etsy too, like Etsy too. But both of those I think of as like eBay is like So your dad can sell his stuff in the garage, like generally speaking, like, right. And then Etsy is like for maybe your mom that’s into arts and crafts or makers. And I’m not saying it has to be male or female, but it’s like this makers. And then like dad selling like collectible cards or his old BB guns or like stuff like that, right. Or like car parts. And then, but Amazon, I think was the first marketplace that was designed for the customer, not for the seller. And so instead of making it easy to post all your stuff in the garage, cause you’re just taking, we didn’t all have camera phones back then. You had to like legitimately borrow a camera, a digital camera from someone that had, that was pretty costly at the time. And at least when my dad was doing it and take pictures and then, you know, move them over to your computer, you had to have all this stuff. Um, And now you can run it right from your phone, right? We all, it’s people, people under, um, appreciate how we’ve all turned into photographers when it used to be a very select number of people that had, that had camp.
[00:00:17:22 – 00:00:17:43] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah. I feel like I remember taking photos. Going and getting the photos developed and then slapping them on a flatbed scanner, scanning them into the computer to use them on eBay listings. That’s how much work we used to have to do to make a product listings.
[00:00:17:43 – 00:00:18:56] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
And we thought it was easy because it was easier than having a garage sale. You know, it really, it was like, it was different in that regard. Um, but I think Amazon, and I really see Amazon as the one that had all these rules and that’s why my technology became a company was like trying to navigate all these rules, but it created a standard and it was a better customer experience. And it was like, it forged the way for the rest of the web to get in line of creating some. Two day shipping and now Amazon doesn’t stick to two day shipping anymore, but they used to, and it used to be, if it was more than two days, they, they refunded at times. It was like, um, I think I’m waiting on a TV I bought on black Friday and it’s been like. You know, what, two, two and a half weeks now or something. Um, so it’s not like it used to be, but it was this like standard of trust with the review, like eBay started the reviews, but Amazon jumped on top of that with the reviews being a huge part of selling online, the transactional stuff, the shipping speed, you know, It was all about customer experience and they didn’t care about the brands.
They didn’t care about the sellers, I think for years on Amazon. And then, you know, the last few years they’ve made big strides and partnership programs and agency programs and trying to care about the brands. But for the longest time, Amazon was customer centric only.
[00:00:18:56 – 00:00:19:25] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah. Yeah. And I think that’s why they’ve been so successful. Uh, because they kind of pioneered that. And the other big thing I think between eBay, Etsy versus Amazon is that you could have the same listing on eBay like a thousand times where Amazon, technically it’s only set to be listed once. And then the sellers are on that one listing instead of every seller having their own listing. And that made it easier for customers as well.
[00:00:19:25 – 00:00:20:49] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
Way better customer experience, way better customer experience. Now. Then the buy box became the Holy Grail, right? Of understanding the buy box and how to change price and do whatever. Um, but those eBay listers, um, that was my first experience with horrible e comm software. If you remember, like, you know, I’ve spent, I probably spent 10, 000 hours on eBay listers. I don’t know. It’s just felt like a lifetime. I’m trying to get them to work in the descriptions. They’ll have some HTML and look sharp and have some photos in them. And, um, you know, that was also the first time where I learned that I, about item specifics. For anyone that’s sold on eBay, listen to the show items. Specifics were like an area in the description that you could put in keywords in there, kind of like the back end of Amazon or whatever. You can put keywords in there that then your product would show up for like if someone searched a part number or whatever, and it, you know, you started keyword stuffing a little bit, the item specifics to rank better. And, um, they also had like bonuses for off. eBay traffic coming to eBay and they gave commissions on those. Um, which was something that as I moved into Amazon, I started even way before they came out with brand referral, you know, refunds and different things like that for driving off Amazon traffic, I knew that there was juice that the algorithm gave you because eBay was doing that a long time ago. Um, eBay just has some of these things, um, that I think really did pave the way even for Amazon, even though we don’t think about it like very much so.
[00:00:20:50 – 00:00:21:02] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah, they were, they were the first big e commerce platform, eBay for sure. And then eBay kind of, or Amazon came and stole their launch and.
[00:00:21:02 – 00:00:21:45] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
Cause no one trusted the internet. Like, I mean, if I, I can even order off a website today and they might take a month to get it to me. There’s no recourse other than canceling the transaction with my bank or something like that. Who cares if you leave a bad review, they’ll remove it. If you, you know, it’s, it’s a website, right? Um, but eBay had this review system and PayPal disputes and like a way of protecting you that like, let the brave people try to buy online and see stuff show up. And then, um, Amazon just took that a step further. I think with the trust, the shipping time and the reviews, then no question to ask for refunds. If anything goes bad, they were like willing to comp it for you or get it. And that’s what got people. I feel like a much greater scale buying online.
[00:00:21:45 – 00:00:22:36] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yep. Yep, for sure. Yeah. And I think that, uh, it’s, it’s eBay and Etsy have been going about it the wrong way in that they, they keep trying to be more like Amazon instead of honing in on the niches that they can really win in like, you know, Etsy should be. The local farmer’s market, no mass produced stuff, nothing ban, all that stuff. Anything that’s made in a factory, get rid of it, you know, keep that niche. And then eBay should be, you know, used parts and really get good at that and trading cards and stuff like that. That’s where they still thrive. Uh, but they, they always keep trying to become Amazon. It seems, especially Etsy lately.
[00:00:22:36 – 00:00:25:15] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
I agree. Um, I think there’s been a little shift recently, like which we’re going to be talking omni channel, but I think eBay can still do well in automobile parts. I think they lead like they lead the marketplaces and automobile parts, um, new use old and other, right? Like, I just really think they do. I think, um, they’ve always had the, that partnership with that, uh, The car matcher, right? Like I didn’t trying to think of what that term is. There’s like actually a term for it, but the, the fitment, um, alignment and then, you know, but also vintage stuff, games, like you said, trading cards, like, uh, you can do well there. So we have a couple of brands that are in those categories that like they do well on eBay. And we also were putting brands on eBay in the past simply to protect their brand and their images. Cause we saw people buying product on. Amazon and marking it way up on eBay or, you know, drop shippers and things like that. So if you want to protect your photos, your brand presence, you sometimes you’re on eBay just to protect the brand. Etsy and eBay has released advertising recently. We’re actually an eBay partner agency. Um, Etsy. Um, I think exactly like when I go to get a gift like, you know, it’s Christmas time buying gifts for people. I buy a lot on Etsy. Like I really do. Um, it’s longer ship times and all of that. But if I’m looking for something unique, like I play a lot of board games. Um, so I buy some like, you know, no, like gifts, like maybe 3d printed stuff or like, uh, what’s aftermarket type of game pieces and things like that. Like Etsy is the place to go. If I’m looking for Halloween costume, Etsy is the place to go. Like, uh, just has like really unique stuff. I think exactly what you called out is what they just need to double down on. And just stay in their lane. Um, Amazon has tried to do Amazon handmade and Amazon custom and Amazon refurbished and Amazon, all these things, but, um, I have yet to work with a brand that’s like primary thing is, is, is handmade or custom. And, and they’re just like, you know, crushing it. It’s usually like a hybrid of like, they have some custom and then regular traditional Amazon that’s, that’s doing well. Um, but yeah, like, um, I think that this is a time that the marketplaces, the um, The omni channel of all of the different marketplaces deserve, uh, e commerce brands attention, um, right now, because I think that they’re starting, some of them are really starting to find their niche, um, and as more customers, even from the pandemic pushed into having to buy online, those loyal customers that would always go into their retail chains, um, I think everyone got a little bit more comfortable buying online. And so those loyal customers are now even buying from their favorite retailers online.
[00:00:25:15 – 00:00:26:16] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah. Yeah. And I, I think that is a big thing in the top of mind of a lot of Amazon sellers, especially right now. How can I diversify? Away from Amazon because of all the, the increased fees lately. Um, just yesterday they announced that they’re going to start reimbursing product that they lost at cogs, and they’re going to guess those cogs. If you don’t upload them, and so you’re going to have to upload them probably, or they’re going to really give you a low ball offer. I can imagine. Um, so I think a lot of people are getting frustrated at Amazon. A lot of sellers, I should say that has a lot more than in the past. And so people are looking at other options.
Um, so why don’t we dive into that? Like what are the best options for sellers to start diversifying away from Amazon?
[00:00:26:16 – 00:00:27:55] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
Well, um, for the longest time, up until a few years ago, if you would have said if we were on amazon. com and we were doing well, and you came to me and you said, drew, like, what should we be thinking about next? Should I look at Walmart? Should I look at? Should I be looking at Wayfair? I’d have said no. And I’d have said, uh, let’s look at Amazon international is what I would have said. And I still believe in Amazon international very much. Um, Amazon Canada has been great to me through the years with brands. Um, Amazon Australia, Amazon, Japan, Amazon, UK, Amazon, Germany, had a lot of success in all of those marketplaces. Don’t get me wrong. Um, but I do think that, Depending on what products you have, um, Walmart, Chewy, um, uh, Target, um, to me, the big ones are eBay, Walmart, Tik TOK shop, and Amazon. Uh, those are the big four. And then there’s auxiliary ones that are like more specified like michaels. com and Nordstrom and, um, you know, Home Depot. These are all brands that you can list your products on without even being in store. You can be listed on homedepot. com for example. Right? So, um, there’s the main ones. And I think there’s these auxiliary ones that if you have a very specific product, those marketplaces can do well for you. I own a pet brand. You mentioned it named Waggedy and, um, Chewy is more than a quarter of our business, our annual revenue. So, you know, we’ve been on Chewy, been on Chewy a while and, um, we, we do, we do really well there. It’s more of like a 1P relationship with Amazon.
[00:00:27:55 – 00:00:28:08] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Well, we’ve got the, the dog food that we use. I got set up on a subscription through Chewy.
So I, I definitely use them. But that, uh, that’s really cool that that’s a quarter of your sales. That’s impressive.
[00:00:28:08 – 00:00:29:57] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
Yeah. Like, um, man, it’s probably half a million dollars just for context for people. Like, well, you know, what would a half a million dollars, your Amazon brand do to you from a different channel? You know, it’s not, it’s not always about just finding the next Amazon. I don’t think. And I think that for the longest time it was, if I’m doing Amazon, I want to diversify. I need to think Shopify. I need to think DTC. I need to think website. Well, let me just be frank with everybody listening. And some people know this and some people might shake their head, but, um, I disagree. My Building a funnel, a true sales funnel for a website from your Facebook ads, your landing pages to like enough product catalog to make people want to come to your store just for your store. And a high enough AOV because you have product selection to cross sell and up sell and, and customer lifetime value is a huge undertaking. Okay. And it is a huge hurdle for most people that have gotten started on a marketplace where a lot of that is provided and built in. Right. It’s your fulfillment method built in. You don’t need a 3PL warehouse. Your customer, they’re already bringing customers into the store. You just have to work on converting them and ranking for your keywords and doing things like that. Um, it’s like selling in Walmart versus having your own store. That’s where if you. Traditionally done well in marketplaces and you don’t, if you’re already doing well in DTC, that’s a whole nother conversation. But if you haven’t done that and you’re thinking about how can I grow and diversify and expand, sticking to the marketplace is going to be something more that you understand. It’s going to be very similar. They all have their own nuance. Don’t get me wrong, but those marketplaces are going to be much more similar to what you’ve experienced on Amazon than going and creating a website and creating a full funnel for all of that. And customer retention and post purchase follow up and, and attribution and all of those things, um, is that land a little bit with you?
[00:00:29:57 – 00:00:30:17] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah, it’s, I’ve built websites and it’s a lot of work, uh, just to create the website and get all your products loaded, depending on, you know, how many products you have. But then, like you said, you’ve got to create that funnel of driving traffic because there’s, there’s no such thing as build it and they will come.
[00:00:30:17 – 00:00:32:05] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
That’s right. It’s two lifts. It’s one building the website, however you want, which I think with AI, it’s getting a little easier and a little easier to make like, you know, pretty templated websites than it used to be. Yeah. Absolutely. But it’s really the marketing arm of it. Um, and understanding, do you have a product that someone’s going to take a, go get in their car, take a drive to your store just to buy your product and go home? Or is it a product that they’re going to grab along with a whole bunch of other products at the Walmart or at the super center? Right. What you have to be realistic with your product and what you have, you know, if you’re selling a Peloton bike, sure. Maybe they’ll come into your store and buy a Peloton bike. It’s a big purchase. You’re specialized in that, you know, all of those things. But if you’re selling protein shake shakers or silverware or certain things like that, I just don’t see people leaving, getting in their car and going to your store just to grab that, you know? And so, Okay, where would I sell?
Well, well, the TJ Maxx is of the world and the GNC and the vitamin shops and these other types of, you know, stores would be a better fit than a standalone store. And that’s us trying to make a metaphor for people to kind of think about their product and think about do I have a product that’s like unique enough and a wide enough selection for people to want to leave the house and You know, start the car and drive and handle people and humans and traffic and all that just to come to my store because that’s what they’re doing in a simpler way digitally when they’re adding their car to your checkout and getting emails from you and going there just to purchase and, you know, all of that. And so that’s something that I’ve learned over the last few years, too, is really being able to almost. more easily identify what products I think can be, can have a chance at DTC and do well, and which ones just, you know, we shouldn’t even spend money and invest there and like, let’s stick to marketplaces.
[00:00:32:05 – 00:00:32:31] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah. Yeah. You got to make sure the work that you’re going to have to put in is worth the return for sure. You don’t want to set up, you know, let’s say you set up on a Chewy. And then you get, you know, a handful of sales per month might not be worth going through the whole process. If your, your product doesn’t exactly fit there to get a good amount of sales.
[00:00:32:31 – 00:00:34:20] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
Yeah. One thing I figured out with Walmart. Um, one, we became a, we’re a partner agency with Walmart in the last year, which is cool and exciting because we’re getting more support and more features and more access for our brands and all that, but we’ve been selling on Walmart for a while now, um, probably since they bought jet somewhere around there when they acquired jet and that like really brought them up. Um, but we’ve been pushing brands in there and I never really realized what would make a one product go well on Walmart or not because on Amazon, I really almost believe I can sell anything. Like I just been, I just really do almost feel like I can sell anything unless it’s an invention in which you need like a tick tock shop, that would be great or something like that. Right. But, but on Walmart, if you grew up. Not even grew up, but if you like, if, if there’s products that you would traditionally buy at a Walmart and category categorically, then that product can do well at Walmart is what I generally think like, so let’s say lawn fertilizer, yeah, there’s a lawn and garden department in Walmart and. Lots of people go there and buy lawn stuff, lawn mower, lawn bags, rakes, shovels. They have a walmart department, right? They have fishing supplies, they have clothing, they have, uh, home and home decor, they have sporting goods, they have toys, they have, um, sometimes food, right? So if those are like, if your product fits in these categories that are normally there, I do feel like a lot of people are very comfortable with walmart. And they have their brands that they like, or they’ll, they’ll even try new brands on walmart. com if it’s in one of those categories, if you happen to be like in a, in a different category, let’s say high end men’s suspenders, I like 140 a pair or something like that. I feel like you’re a little out of your lane. At Walmart, you know, because no one’s going to get dressed clothes at Walmart. Not really.
[00:00:34:20 – 00:00:35:20] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah. Yeah. That that’s one of the things Walmart, I think struggles with is their, their image, you know, their, their images, uh, cheap stuff, you know, good prices, uh, uh, cheap prices and that kind of products that you get with that, where, you know, Amazon and, and Target are more. You know, higher end or not necessarily higher end, but quality stuff at decent prices, not necessarily cheap stuff. And that, so that sometimes I, I wonder if it would have been better for Walmart to keep jet. com and just load all their products in there. But yeah, I think a lot of products will sell decently on Walmart. Uh, what, what do you see though, in terms of, let’s say, take a product that’s selling maybe a 50, 000 a month on Amazon and is a fit for Walmart. What kind of sales can you anticipate on Walmart?
[00:00:35:20 – 00:00:38:22] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
Well, with any channel, you need to think of it like a launch and have expectations for that. Just cause you’re doing 50, 000 a day. I know you didn’t get there overnight. On Amazon, right? You didn’t get there overnight. You got to think about the same thing as Walmart. And what were all the things you did on Amazon to get your sales to 50, 000? Were you getting reviewers? Is it back in the day when you used to give away product? Has it been up there? Have you been building brand awareness offline on Facebook, growing Amazon, all these different things. Take that into. mind whenever you’re going into any of these other marketplaces and be patient with, be patient with them to get them up, to get them growing. Um, some of them also are seasonal, like depending on what you’re selling. And so you might not have been through a season yet and wait for that, you know? Um, but you know, I’ve even seen 50, 000 on Amazon, 50, 000 on Walmart. I really have. It just kind of depends on, uh, what niche you’re in, what product you’re in, you know, what’s your, what level of quality have you given it? Are you doing launch strategies like you did on Amazon where you’re running PPC after main keywords and doing all of the things to optimize that most brands that are having any level of success on Amazon are doing if, you know, Walmart just came out with a plus pages. So they’re continuing to like come out with new features and new ways to optimize, but you need to be doing all the same things, which is like trying to get them on, subscribe and save. Remember the first time, like if a brand launched with just FBM and we’re not talking the pandemic or we’re not talking like it’s a product that goes out on a pallet or something like that, we’re just talking about other competitors are in FBA and you’re not type of product. Um, you’re going to struggle as a new store in FBM. Straight up. Same thing with Walmart fulfillment services. Okay. Like if you go and use their Walmart fulfillment services, I have a 3PL and warehouse. So I fulfill for Walmart. We have some brands doing WFS. I’m not, we’re okay with just kind of that FBM model on Walmart and selling what we sell. But if you really want to get the most out of a channel, I do feel like you have to go all in just like on Amazon and embrace every feature that they’re giving you before you make judgments. You know, of, is this channel working for me or is this channel not? Um, cause I just think there’s a lot of, um, brands out there that say we’re doing Walmart, but they don’t really know what their team’s doing or what they’ve done or like, what’s the last thing they tried fixing or optimizing on there, do they have images that are selling, are they doing all those things that they do in promotions and coupons and, um, That’s been a focus of ours is to like, let’s lean into it at a level that’s like, like, as if it’s not just an auxiliary one, it’s like we’re one we’re leaning into to really try to optimize. And, and, um, you know, if I launched three brands, one of them takes off, like one of them is crushing it, you know what I’m saying? Just probably one out of three is a home run. Um, so just more attempts. More attempts as we go and getting more insight on what works and what doesn’t work there. Um, but if you’ve already done all the work to be up on Amazon, to me it makes no sense to be on Walmart where you can use almost the same images and the same price points and the same type of copy and things like that. Tick tock shop quite a bit different eBay, quite a bit different, but you know, Walmart, or if you get an invite to target plus or any of those things are very, so very similar to Amazon that it just doesn’t make sense not to, not to, not to push your brand there.
[00:00:38:22 – 00:00:39:04] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah, I think a lot of people, you know, duplicate their Amazon listing over to Walmart, and then they don’t see any or very many sales. And they’re like, yeah, Walmart doesn’t work. There’s no, there’s no customers there. And so they kind of give up on it. And so I like what you said there that you gotta You know, think about what you did on Amazon to get to 50, 000 in sales and expect at least some kind of similar path on Walmart to be able to build your sales there as well.
[00:00:39:04 – 00:00:40:44] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
Yeah. I have like, if you look up my store, like landlocked Kansas city on Etsy, it’s like one of the only, it’s one of my Casey apparel brands in the early days that I put on Etsy and it’s just Casey shirts and things like that. But it was one of my first experiences. with creating my own brand. And, uh, I went my, I made my second tweet tweet on Twitter and it went viral with a Arrowhead pride, a Kansas city chiefs blog that kind of picked it up and was like, look at this local guy’s shirts. Like these are cool. He posted on his Facebook is they’re tied into ESPN somehow. So it’s like, you know, sponsored. And I had 300 orders in a day, uh, which was, I was not ready. I was getting one or two a week, you know, so I was just like, well, it’s happening. This is amazing. Um, but I was all in on that Etsy store. That’s my point. I was, if someone wanted to pick up a shirt from me locally, cause I was kind of trying to promote it, blow it up. Can you buy it from me on Etsy? Can you buy it from me on Etsy? Can you buy it there? It helps me. Can you leave a review? Same thing with the Amazon, you know, not saying leave me a five star, but you do the shit in person. Like everything you can do a friend’s trying to buy it from me. I don’t want to give it to you. Go buy it from my store. It helps me. Leave a review. You just like your Google review. If you’re a service based business or anything else. And if you put those that type of energy into your Walmart or in these other channels, getting the reviews on them, getting out some outside traffic driving there from a blog or like, Doing those types of things, giveaways, YouTubes, influencer marketing, like, and you’re pushing to Walmart because all those things work on Walmart, too. Um, then, then I can say that you’ve truly tried it and you’re doing all the things you should be doing and like, you know, you’re giving it a real shot, um, to be successful.
[00:00:40:44 – 00:00:40:55] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah, for sure. You gotta, you gotta put the work into it to expand those different marketplaces, you know, just like you did on, on Amazon. It’s not going to be easy.
[00:00:40:55 – 00:00:42:57] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
We were talking about like Shopify and knowing if it’s a good fit for you to like push a lot of marketing into your website. I do believe everyone should have a website for their brand. I just don’t know if you should have. You’re driving traffic on Facebook and stuff for conversions there.
Right. Um, but maybe it redirects redirects to Amazon or redirects to Walmart or it says all the places you’re listed in retail stores, whatever that looks like. Um, you know, a lot of times we have a shop, a simple Shopify site that redirects to Amazon, whether it’s buy with prime or it’s just like a redirect. there. Um, you can do this, switch it up for a while and switch all that traffic to walmart. Start sending traffic to walmart if you’re doing that or or linking out to walmart and run your google ads to walmart. They connect now and you can do those types of things. So, um, I’m just saying you won’t know until you really give it a true effort. And I know amazon sellers, there’s a lot of amazon sellers that just aren’t. They just don’t really believe in it that much yet. And I think that they should. And as an agency running multiple brands, I’ve seen enough of them hit to be like, Whoa, this is worth my attention. More so that I’m pushing it before I’m pushing Amazon Canada. I’m pushing it before I push international expansion, um, which I just absolutely love on Amazon. I think international expansion is just a huge way to diversify with in a way that you already know. What you have to learn is the admin and the new logistics and the new, you know, currency conversion and things like that. But as far as like the process of selling you, that’s omni channel too, right? Because they’re all separate channels really when you’re selling internationally. Um, but those can be huge ways of diversifying yourself as well and staying in your lane. And I say staying in your lane as a marketer. Not as your brand, because every brand owner is a brand owner. Like they know pet or they know fishing or they know clothing or they know whatever, but they’re also wherever they found success has to do with their marketing. Is it in retail? Is it in DTC? Is it in marketplace? And if it’s in marketplace that you found most of your success, well, I encourage you to double down there and, and, and really try to stay in your lane.
[00:00:42:57 – 00:00:43:56] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah. Yeah. I think, uh, you know, it’s definitely important to have a website, especially if you have a product that people may be encouraged to look you up and, uh, in my, with my own experience, we’ve got, you know, nine month, uh, baby girl. So we’re buying tons of baby stuff and. I want to make sure the product that I’m getting, I can trust it. You know, it’s not some Chinese junk with lead paint or something like that. So if I’m shopping on Amazon, a lot of times I’m looking up the brands, finding their websites. Look at the about us page, make sure they’re based in the U S and learn a little bit about them so that I can hopefully trust their products, that they’re not going to be harmful in any way. So, you know, in a situation like that with baby stuff, a website I think is very important, but any product you should have some kind of basic website for your brand about us and things like that, for sure.
[00:00:43:56 – 00:00:45:54] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
Yeah, in the early days, at least to even get the results you wanted on Amazon with brand registry or things like that, you had to have a website to really like get your brand going. And so a lot of people threw up websites that were really more for show than anything else to say, Hey, Amazon, I’m legit. Here’s my, My brick and mortar, but, um, you’ll have to check out one of our brands. We’re working with that. I think is really cool in the baby space. American made manufacturer, uh, has all the certifications. It’s called teether pop teether pop. Um, uh, a great, a great founder Renee. Um, but it’s just like, uh, um, a binky. Uh, so to speak, um, that you can, like, freeze, freeze all types of stuff in. Yes, I feel like my wife showed me something like that. This is the original, so I think there’s some, you know, there’s some knockoffs or some other stuff out there since she came out with hers, but, um, this is, this is one of the good ones, and we’ll have to connect after the show, just get you one, you can have one, so, um. But that’s, that’s a fun one. Then exactly that. That’s exactly what the website, you know, solves for. We have the website, it’s operational, but it’s really, um, to show people like, you know, everything else about the brand, tell the story, do all those things that you can’t. People forget that like selling is relationship. People buy from people, not from, um, businesses. They buy from people. And what are all the things, the little things you can do, just like you feel in a human relationship. Yep. There’s a lot of things that good friends or a partnership or husband and wife or, uh, you know, parents and kids, there’s lots of little things that we do to have good relationships that are way past just like, you know, hugs, so to speak, you know, it’s the way and I think if you’re doing all those little things in, in digital marketing or in brand building or community building within e commerce from the post fall to the quality of your packaging to, to all that, um, you know, those are the ones, those are the brands winning.Yeah. Um, when they’re doing all those little things,
[00:00:45:55 – 00:00:46:01] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
I sent the link to that, to teether pop to my wife and she says, we already have one.
[00:00:46:01 – 00:00:46:02] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
Yeah. All right. Cool.
[00:00:46:02 – 00:00:46:03] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
There you go.
[00:00:46:03 – 00:00:46:07] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
So we did our job. Well, we did our job. Well,
[00:00:46:08 – 00:00:46:32] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yes. Uh, you, you got her with your marketing, so that’s good. So tick tock shop obviously is kind of the big, uh, one that everybody’s talking about. I read that they, they’re going to do about 50 billion in sales this year in 2024. Um, so I guess, where do you stand on that? What are your thoughts about the potential upcoming band and where that’ll go as well?
[00:00:46:32 – 00:00:51:46] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
Well, it’s definitely, um, hypothesis. Right. And a little bit of gut in my opinion, because that’s all it is, is opinion Um, but we’re a tick tock shop agency partner. I’ve been pioneering the tick tock space before tick tock shop came out for the last two years, cause I’m building my own brands. I worked with a couple of mega. TikTok stars that were pushing brands and their companies hired my company to launch them on Amazon, like Kevin Hart, Nikita Dragon, Bobby Parrish, the healthy food guy, um, some other brands you probably wouldn’t know as far as like influencers, but had big TikTok accounts. And that’s what really just got me like. Okay. I’m paying attention now. And I feel like I missed the big Facebook, like being a good operator at Facebook. I went all in on Amazon when people were going all in on meta ads and DTC and, um, kind of missed the train a little bit on the, on being just like in the heyday of Facebook ads and being great at it and all of that. So when Tik TOK came out, I was like, I’m not missing this round too. And all I need is one good. Sales channel, one good funnel, one good, one good medium to really master to be able to do all the things I want to on the marketplaces or on DTC. And so I’ve leaned into TikTok. That’s just my reasoning for getting involved. And as someone that does a long form podcast, I can tell you that thinking and researching and digesting content that’s, 10 seconds long or 15 seconds long has been like the biggest challenge of it all is really just like going from, you know, uh, higher level combos like this to like bite sized bits of info, you know, and TikTok and how to sell that way has been the biggest challenge. But, um, you know, TikTok made some big partnerships this year with both Meta and Amazon. Where Right in a TikTok ad or in a TikTok post, you can, you can buy from Amazon with one click right inside the app. You don’t have to go what we call deep linking, um, uh, which will pull you out of the app. And like, you know, it was really hard to push TikTok to, to push to an Amazon listing or to buy, because once people get to the link, it makes them close the TikTok app, open their Amazon app sign in. Like there’s so much friction to purchase that it was like, this is really only for brand Halo. Um. Then TikTok shop came out, which, okay, it was hard getting traffic to Amazon to do it. We were doing it, uh, cause I always think Amazon first, personally, um, we’re getting good results with like TikTok to a landing page, landing page to Amazon and really boosting rankings in that way.
And really locking into traffic, super, super low CPC costs or CPMs. Um, in comparison, they were just trying to get people on the platform. Then TikTok shop comes and that friction’s removed. And, um, and then they’re rolling out the red carpet to get brands on Tik Tok shop, like subsidizing shipping costs and matching discount offers and just doing so much stuff like that, that it was like free money in comparison to Amazon fees going up, up, up, up, up. So it was like diversify. Okay. Let me pay attention. Um, but just knowing that they’re doing 50 billion, knowing how hard they’re pushing, I think it’s bite dances, the parent company, you know, uh, for growth. Um, And just like, you know, the, the U S market, uh, the partnerships with Amazon had made me think like, maybe, you know, what’s a, what are some of the bigger companies big enough to make a purchase or a partnership like that, that they need, and those are the ones that come to mind and they’ve kind of set themselves up for that. Like Amazon, just like Walmart acquired jet, you know, there might be some kind of play here with Amazon. Amazon has the vertical videos. Amazon has Amazon influence now. And these like shoppable videos and that sounds very convenient to me. Um, and maybe that’s just Amazon trying to be smart with what’s going on, or maybe that’s them setting up the infrastructure to be able to have a partnership go a little more smoothly. So that’s a little, just fun food for thought. But I think, um, I personally don’t think they’re going away. Um, you know, we have several clients now. Um, I think, uh, before January 17th, much like these, some of these tax laws, they pass like the BOI reporting and different things that up in the last minute, they, they canceled them. Um, I just think there’s too much money, uh, at stake to, to not grease some palms or like get the Supreme. I think it’s the Supreme court or someone to, to, to stop this and figure it out and delay it. Um, I’m not sure if they’ll have a resolution by January 17th, maybe just a delay, right? If I know the US government at all, um, but, uh, I’m hoping that we, they stick around. I’ve just invested a lot of time in it, you know, regardless we’ll pivot and, you know, just like there’s been so many fears in the Amazon community over the years of what happens if this happens, what happens if this, I’ve survived all of those, right? It’s like, you know, if you’ve been doing this a while, there is a lot of fear around all the changes, the tax nexus that came out and all that crazy stuff. You just pivot and you figure it out. And that, that, that 50 billion in the U. S. is going to go somewhere else. Maybe it goes back to Amazon. Maybe there’s a new marketplace that pops up that’s U. S. based. I don’t know. Um, but I’m just, you know, we’ll handle it when it comes. I think it’s going to be delayed. I’d almost bet you a hundred bucks on it type of thing. Um, but only time is going to tell if it wasn’t January 17th.
[00:00:51:46 – 00:00:51:49] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Uh, 19th is the deadline.
[00:00:51:49 – 00:00:51:54] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
January 19, uh, you know, I’ll either be having some beers or having some beers.
[00:00:51:54 – 00:00:52:21] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah, for sure. It’s TikTok shop has had a, an amazing meteoric rise. The TikTok in itself is just.
Taking the world by storm. So it’s definitely going to be interesting to watch. Uh, do you think TikTok is a platform for, for every brand or does it particular tailor to brands that can have kind of that viral effect?
[00:00:52:21 – 00:00:59:16] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
So you set me up for that one, uh, Todd, uh, because I like that question. And I think that a lot of Amazon sellers specifically, this might be a hot take, but I think a lot of Amazon sellers are approaching TikTok. Um, and some of that is the mentality and personality types that are the most successful Amazon sellers. Okay. So what I’m trying to say is, and this is a general statement, but you can’t keyword research and product categorize, like choose your products and keyword rank, all the technical things that all the best Amazon sellers are doing and pick your, you know, Ops is not going to get you there on Tik TOK. It’s not just your operational proficiencies or excellence or whatever. That’s going to get you there. Um, whereas on Amazon you can do all these things, you know, you can take courses and learn keywords and pick a product niche and do all of your research and calculations and be like, this is a product I want to launch. And you don’t really have to be a creative person, uh, or a creator to be successful on Amazon. It was pioneered by a lot of like nine to fivers that didn’t want to be nine to fivers. They wanted, you know, for Tim Ferris, for our work week, they wanted to be entrepreneurs. They wanted to leave their job. And that was what pioneered the Amazon space. In my opinion. Um, there’s a new level of entrepreneurs and nine to five and stay at home moms and all different types of people in the tick tock space that I want to create my, you know, make my living with creation and like. You know, that type of thing. Um, but really it’s like just the affiliate marketing community, the has grown, and that’s, what’s really like here. And, and there’s a big mix of a lot of people creating that shouldn’t be creating. Um, you know, they’re, they’re not all good. And it’s not all, it’s not all equal, but it is a creator first platform. Okay. At the end of the day, like, and anyone can be creative and anyone you can make the, you know, think about storage wars and some of these TV shows that we watched that are like, Kind of boring things or, or, uh, you know, the fishing shows, the reality TV, like, well, we watch them because we’re like, this is so interesting. And I think that TikTok can make boring trades or boring products or boring things. If you have a good creator can make anything. Interesting. And right. And so I think if you can have an educational, uh, content, you can have entertaining type of content. Um, there’s like several categories that like, you know, uh, demonstratable or whatever. Um, but I think that like what they need to do is you need to create product. Think of it relationship again, as the brands and sellers doing this, you need to create your Tik TOK and you need to be the voice of your brand for several months. Okay. You, even if you’re working with creators, it can’t be, can’t have a hundred different people be the voice of Andrew Morgans. It needs to be Andrew Morgans. It’s doing the voice, so to speak, until you have like a base, until you have a personality as a brand out there. Then when you go to reach out to make friends, to build a community, to get influencers or affiliates to create for you, because that’s what a lot of Amazon sellers are doing is giving away free product in exchange for, for content or affiliates or commissions. But if you have no base, no one wants to come to your party when there’s no one there, right? No one’s like, that’s, they’re looking at your brand. They’re like, you haven’t even made your own brand. Cool. Why am I going to think it’s cool? Right. It’s just like, uh, and the next thing I just want a free product and you’re going to get that type of, you’re going to attract what you put out, so to speak. And so I think what brands need to do first is they need to create, you know, 30, pieces of content, whether it’s working with a few select creators, it’s kind of how we do it. And we, we create like a big, um, pool of content out of those few, like five or six creators, and we’re posting organically. Then we take the better ones. That did well organically after we’ve kind of got a base and we run ads on those and build the community, then you’ll start to see. Influencers just want to be a part of it. You’ll, you’ll be able to reach out and you’ll get yeses instead of nos, because it looks cool over there. We want to, we want to be on your side of the yard, so to speak. So I say all that to say, Amazon sellers, please just don’t go the way of just outsourcing all of your content to, to other creators. Please have a base. for, for yourself or I don’t think you’ll be successful. So that’s step one. Step two is test, test, test. Um, it’s a creator led, you can’t templatize this stuff. This isn’t just like an SOP type of thing that you can do the best creators. The best ones going viral, um, are ones that not everyone loves. It’s not, if it’s super branded and super posh. You’re not going to get virality. Okay. It just doesn’t work that way. Um, it’s like the ones that really go viral, the ones that have some controversy or they’re super entertaining or super relatable or things like that. So that branded approach just won’t work. You have to test, test, test, like in the early days of Amazon when we were pioneering and testing, testing, testing. Um, but also I think this is the side for like the products that don’t do well on Amazon, meaning like invention products. So if there isn’t like direct response. Search like there isn’t people typing in black outside grill, you know, or whatever, like there’s not that keyword search, um, tick tock and tick tock, just like Facebook when it was more affordable can be this way of introducing people to products that they don’t know about. And I think that that is like, it kind of is like treasure hunting on when the people are looking on tick tock, their treasure hunting a little bit, they find something new they didn’t know about. And those types of products can do amazing on tick tock. Other parts can do well. As well, but if I’m like, there’s one specifically made for tick tock, I think it’s these, like, these really cool products that no one’s heard of that they just see and they want, and it creates that like FOMO effect. Um, but we’re killing it with laundry detergent. We’re killing it with pet supplies. You know, we took a brand, um, this year in September, we made five. 5k in our first month and 275 K in our second month. Right. And I was making that, that example of you probably didn’t get to 50, 000 on Amazon overnight. But in this case we did, I mean, it was, it was like month three of, of posting, you know, of content. And then we just, we absolutely crushed it with this laundry detergent brand. Um, and those are heavy liquid products, right? So it’s like, well, but, um, I think for the right brands doing it the right way, Uh, it can be a huge, huge, huge, huge opportunity. I just like to speak. As directly and authentically as I can to listeners and be like, you just can’t approach it in the same way that you’ve done Amazon all systematically. And, um, you’re just going to crash and burn and spend a lot of money, you know, I think doing it that way. So fingers crossed that we still have a TikTok going into 2025 because I’m having a lot of fun and, um, it’s brought out this like creative side of my team. Uh, you know, the last, uh, The last year or so that like we had just kind of missed getting really into the operational side of Amazon and you know, we’re creating content and stuff, but it’s not the same as like creating videos and really getting back out there with the community and, and, and creators and making stuff. And, and I, I enjoy that side of it. So I’m, I’m having a lot of fun right now.
[00:00:59:16 – 00:00:59:23] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah. Getting back to your, uh, you know, your musical creative days.
[00:00:59:23 – 00:00:59:52] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
Yeah, and that’s what e commerce was when we were trailblazing it. We were just coming up with ideas of things to try and bundling and kits. And it’s all, it’s all trained stuff. Now it comes across in courses or experts or agencies, but in the early days it was, it was trailblazing and just. Trying new things and innovating and, and figuring out, uh, what can you, can you make this sell online? Like, you know, what’s, what’s a way of selling this. And, um, anytime that I’m, I’m trailblazing and I’m not managing, uh, that’s when I’m, that’s what I’m at.
[00:00:59:52 – 00:01:00:14] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
For sure. Yeah. The first thought, uh, that, that came to me is, you know, how the, the garlic press was always the example that everybody used in Amazon. So you got like the most, the strongest garlic press in the world. Then you make a series of videos, like Will it press and you’re like squeeze and stuff to see what comes out of it. And, you know, something creative like that.
[00:01:00:14 – 00:01:01:40] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
Yeah, I think of that blender. There’s that one that famous guy that did like he put all these different things in a blender. It was like, and it would just like, blend them up, like, no matter what you put in there, you know, and he was just trying all these different things. Um, you know, and the thing is, is I’m meeting 18, 19 year olds that are driving millions of views. Uh, some of them even for free organically without paid, without, you know, paid being added to it. Um, and it just, it’s leveling the playing field. And I love that about e commerce. It’s like, if you’re good at it, it doesn’t matter who you are, what you know, or where your education came from, or this or that. If you’re good at it, uh, it’s where the tension is. As Gary Vee says, like, you know, that’s where the money is. It’s like, where’s the attention? TV has lost it. The movie theaters have lost it. Sports have lost it. You know, they go to different places and, um, it’s there, it’s there for the taking. And if you’re a brand that’s really trying to think about how to make money. Bootstrap stuff or how to get eyeballs on your stuff. Like you might want to start on tick tock and tick tock shop, maybe wait until the middle of January before you get too excited, but that same type of work and effort can, can, um, you know, a lot of the work we’re doing on tick tock, we’re actually turning into vertical videos on Amazon or Instagram reels or YouTube shorts or LinkedIn, LinkedIn shorts. Um, so depending on what the brand is, we’re repurposing them as well. So, um, Have you bought anything from TikTok? Are you messing with TikTok at all, Todd?
[00:01:01:40 – 00:01:01:54] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
I don’t, I don’t really use it or I post some of my videos on there. Well, I should say my, my virtual assistant posts them on there for me. Um, but I don’t really use it, but you’re making me want to dive into it more for sure.
[00:01:01:55 – 00:01:02:31] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
For me, it’s always been about the e commerce. Like it wasn’t. For me, but once I saw the value of it, then I got excited. I’m like, you did what for free? Like, you know, you drew, you drove what kind of traffic in a world where everything costs, it was just, uh, it was a little exciting. Um, but thinking about how to make my content in the short form, like I said, has been the hardest part. That’s just like, um, as you can tell them a little long winded, but. How do you take this concept and like really shrink it down into bite sized nuggets that people can, can relate to or share or move? Um, that’s, that’s the fun that is e comm, right?
[00:01:02:31 – 00:01:02:46] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah, absolutely. It definitely is a lot of fun and learning new things is, is always fun. At least for me, I guess not for everybody, but, uh, if you’re not learning new things and growing, then you’re. Dying as the same.
[00:01:02:46 – 00:01:03:07] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
You’re in the wrong field. You shouldn’t be an ecom I think if you if you get tired of learning and learning new things and don’t get me wrong everybody can get tired and be like It’d be nice to work in a factory honestly where i’ve done something for 10 years and i’m amazing at it And I just like really know everything about my job and role and that’s just not going to be the case in e commerce I just it’s not the career
[00:01:03:07 – 00:01:03:13] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Ever changing and what’s awesome right now 10 years from now. It’ll probably be completely different
[00:01:03:13 – 00:01:03:17] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
We’ll be talking about the good old days like we were eBay when we started, right?
[00:01:03:17 – 00:01:03:31] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Good old days of TikTok shop, yeah, for sure. All right, Andrew, this has been fantastic. I think we can wrap it up there. If people want to reach out to you and connect with you, what’s the best way for them to do that?
[00:01:03:31 – 00:01:04:17] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
Yeah, so, Andrew Morgans on LinkedIn or Instagram. Just my name, Morgans with an S, so that’s it. That’s what makes me unique. You won’t find too many of us out there. A website is mark knowledgey. com. Uh, M a R K N O L O G Y. com. So I’m on YouTube. I’ve got a pretty good channel there on YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, website, you name it. I love chatting with anyone in the community. Um, That’s passionate about e com and brand building and storytelling. I’d love to connect. Um, you know, Instagram is a little bit more of my daily life and fun and mindset and kind of just entrepreneurial thinking and, uh, LinkedIn and YouTube is, is more, uh, focused on, on Amazon and e com. Um, but happy to meet anybody where you are.
[00:01:04:17 – 00:01:04:22] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
All right. Very good. Awesome. Well, I appreciate you coming on the show again and, uh, you have an awesome one.
[00:01:04:22 – 00:01:04:23] ANDREW MORGANS | CEO & FOUNDER OF MARKNOLOGY
Thank you, Todd.
[00:01:04:24 – 00:01:04:38] OUTRO
This has been another episode of the Amazon Seller School Podcast. Thanks for listening, fellow Amazon seller. And always remember, success is yours if you take it.
