Discover the key to building long-lasting relationships with brands as a reseller and the insider secrets to navigating the Amazon marketplace like a pro. Robyn Johnson shares her invaluable insights from over a decade in eCommerce.
Listen:
Watch:
Why Brands Often Struggle with Resellers
Robyn Johnson delves into the friction between brands and resellers, explaining common pain points such as liability issues, compliance concerns, and loss of control over listings. Learn how to address these challenges and position yourself as a trusted partner rather than a headache.
Building Trust as a Reseller
The importance of transparency and adding value cannot be overstated. Robyn shares actionable strategies for resellers to prove their worth, including running data-driven ads, improving listings, and helping brands optimize product strategies for Amazon.
Diversifying Beyond Amazon
Amazon might be king, but Robyn discusses other marketplaces like Walmart, eBay, and Target, along with the emerging trends shaping the future of eCommerce. Understand how to hedge your bets and prepare for changes in the landscape.
Working with an Agency as a Reseller
For resellers looking to level up, Robyn explains how partnering with an agency like Marketplace Blueprint can amplify results, streamline operations, and solidify your position with brands.
Resources From This Episode
- Marketplace Blueprint
- Website: MarketplaceBlueprint.com
- Resources for Amazon sellers: MarketplaceBlueprint.com/show
- Books Mentioned
- Amazon Tools and Software
- Helium 10: Essential for product research and optimization.
- Jungle Scout: Another top tool for tracking trends and managing products.
- Emerging Marketplaces
- Walmart Marketplace
- Target Plus
- eBay
- Faire: Wholesale eCommerce platform.
- Mercado Libre: Leading marketplace in Latin America.
- Additional Learning
- Robyn’s book: The Unlikely Entrepreneur
- Conferences and Speaking Events: SMX London, PubCon, and Prosper Show
In Conclusion
Whether you’re a seasoned reseller or just starting out, this episode offers a treasure trove of insights for building meaningful brand partnerships and thriving on Amazon. Robyn Johnson’s balanced perspective—supporting both brands and resellers—highlights the potential for collaboration in a maturing eCommerce marketplace.
Transcript
[00:00:00:00 – 00:00:00:32] TEASER
When you look at like wider digital marketing, um, they’ll talk a lot about like search intent or the intent of the user. So the kind of question that you ask Siri versus the kind of question you ask Google versus the kind of a question you ask Alexa are all different. And they’re, you know, we have a different intent when we use those different search engines. Right. So when we’re using Reddit, we ask a different question than we might ask. So where is your customer and where is their buying intent? And that’s kind of where you, so there’s not going to be a one size fits all answer.
[00:00:00:32 – 00:00:00:52] INTRO
Welcome fellow entrepreneurs to the Amazon Sellers 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.
[00:00:00:58 – 00:00:03:34] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
What’s going on, everybody. Welcome to another episode. Today. I’ve got Robin Johnson on the show, and we’re going to be diving into understanding why. Brands don’t like resellers. And if you are a reseller, what you can do to make yourself stand out and maybe like, make them like you a little bit, or if you’re a brand out there, maybe some of the upsides of why you should work with the reseller, why you shouldn’t work with a reseller. Uh, but before we dive into that, let’s go ahead and read through Robin’s bio here. She’s got a. Lot of experience in the background here, but, uh, Robin is heralded as one of the country’s foremost leaders on selling and marketing products on Amazon. She’s been a guest on shows like entrepreneur on fire, which is really cool. I’d love to be on that show and confessions of a marketer. And speaks regularly at events like SMX, London, PubCon, and Prosper as the co founder of Marketplace Blueprint. Since June, 2015, she has driven the agency’s profitability, managing high volumes of Amazon advertising spend as part of the Amazon advertising verified partner program, her expertise extends to being an Amazon business coach and consultant since 2013. And she has worked with businesses from startups to grossing over 18 million, helping them navigate and succeed in e commerce. Robin’s journey as an Amazon and e commerce consultant expert since January 2013 includes founding the unstoppable Amazon Academy, authoring the Amazon bestselling book of the unlikely, unlikely entrepreneur, something I’d definitely like to do, write a book here at some point. So congrats on that. Yeah. And hosting the unstoppable entrepreneur show. She also started Robin’s nest resale in April, 2011. So definitely an OG in the e commerce space. Uh, but you grew that from just a hundred dollars starting to becoming a notable Amazon seller, which leds to special recognition from Amazon for For her sales volume with over a decade of experience selling on Amazon, eBay, and other e commerce platforms. Robin is a seasoned expert in the field. So lots of experience, Robin, congrats on all that. And I appreciate you joining the show.
[00:00:03:34 – 00:00:03:45] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
Thanks. It, it, it’s been a crazy fun journey that I could never have expected or anticipated. And I’ve met some really amazing people on the way, so I’m, I’m just overall grateful for everything.
[00:00:03:45 – 00:00:03:56] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Absolutely. I, you know, like I said in there, writing the book is awesome. I’d love to do that. And uh, Entrepreneur on Fire, I’m curious how you got onto that podcast.
[00:00:03:56 – 00:00:04:15] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
So it’s, it’s a longer process. Um, but it was, it was a lot of fun being on that show. Um, it was really fun to record and, um, I, you know, it’s definitely something that, uh, that holds a place in my heart, you know, and we definitely, it was, it was definitely worth the time, so.
[00:00:04:15 – 00:00:04:31] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Awesome. Yeah. I’ve definitely listened to my fair share of those episodes and definitely a fun, fun podcast to listen to and very cool to be on there. So where, why don’t we just start a little bit on your background? Where’d you grow up at?
[00:00:04:15 – 00:00:05:04] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
So I grew up in, um, Southern California, um, and, um, anybody that grew up in California has to designate cause they’re like two different countries. And then I moved out to Arizona in my high school years. And so, uh, that’s where I met my husband. I’ve lived in Arizona since like 1995. And so we’ve, um, we’ve like. We’ve just, I love it here. I love the sunsets. Um, and I, you know, went from, you know, doing some things that were very not entrepreneurial to where I am now.
[00:00:05:04 – 00:00:05:20] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah. Arizona is kind of a cool place. You know, most people just think of Phoenix in the desert there, which is Phoenix is pretty cool. Uh, but you just go a little North of there and you’ve got beautiful mountains and lots of different landscapes in Arizona.
[00:00:05:20 – 00:00:05:32] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
Yeah, we, we love it. We’re, we’re in Phoenix, but we, we, we go visit lots of other places and it’s a short ride to Disneyland, short ride to the ocean. So it’s, it’s a pretty great place to live.
[00:00:05:32 – 00:00:05:38] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah. And, and house prices are pretty decent there as well, which is nice compared to California.
[00:00:05:20 – 00:00:05:44] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
Yeah, they’ve gotten a little more expensive, but they, you know, but it’s definitely still, it’s still a great place.
[00:00:05:44 – 00:00:05:44] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah, for sure. So you moved to, over to Phoenix and you’ve been doing, you know, Uh, you said in 1995, you moved over to Arizona?
[00:00:05:44 – 00:00:06:10] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
Yes. Yes. So, uh, I went in Scottsdale for a while and then I lived in a small town on the border between Arizona and California for a couple of years. Um, but I’ve been living in the Phoenix metro area. For my entire adult life.
[00:00:06:10 – 00:00:06:19] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Okay. Very good. And so in 2011, that’s when you got started in e commerce, right? Or were you doing anything before that?
[00:00:06:19 – 00:00:08:41] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
I mean, I had done stuff, you know, I had done websites and I was the webmaster from my school district in high school. I mean, like I had played with internet, but I’d not done any commerce to, so, you know, much, Uh, but I was working at a church and I was a youth minister and when they work for a church, they say the benefits are out of this world because the pay is not. Uh, and, um, my son got sick and it wasn’t like do whatever it takes to get him better. It was like, how do I keep this kid alive and not lose the house? And, you know, we were just scared all the time. You know, the air conditioner would break or the car would make a funny noise and I would just pull the blanket over my head and cry because, you know, when you work for the church, it’s just not like you can go to another company. To get a raise, you know, it’s kind of stuck, you know, so, um, my friend took me to the Dave Ramsey thing and I couldn’t even afford the 100 financial peace university. Um, we started doing that. We got our emergency fund and then I can still remember the five twenties in my hand. Cause I had listened to the episode where a lady was, you know, Buying things at garage sales and selling them on Craigslist. And I was like, I could do that. I could do that. And so I took the five twenties out and we started buying things. I was a great time to start a business cause I had a toddler and an infant. Um, so I was taking them with me going from garage sales to garage sales, cleaning up while I still was working my job at the church. Um, we grew that, we started selling on Craigslist, then eBay, and then Amazon. Um, we sold on eBay and Amazon for a very long time. Um, And we grew that to, you know, a million dollars in just a couple of years. And that was before, you know, selling at high volumes was as easy as it is now. Um, there was no advertising. There was a lot of like trudging uphill in the snow both ways, but it was also the wild, wild West. And, um, so we got to try a lot of things and learn with the platform. Um, and so in like about 2014, I started speaking and coaching high volume focusing on profitability. Um, we started, you know, moving more from an arbitrage model into wholesale. And then about 2015, we started focusing on building up the agency. And that’s what our primary thing that we do now is, is we are full service agency that works with brands from brand new emerging all the way we’ve worked to, uh, up to publicly traded companies and a variety of Shark Tank companies.
[00:00:08:41 – 00:00:08:51] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Very good. Yeah. 2015. It’s crazy to think that that 10 years. You’re going to have your 10 year anniversary this year, 2025. So how time flies.
[00:00:08:51 – 00:00:09:01] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
Feels like it’s been a lifetime. And then I remember that my, you know, when we got the idea to do this, my daughter was little itty bitty. And so I’m like, Oh, it has been a lifetime. It’s been my daughter’s lifetime.
[00:00:09:01 – 00:00:09:51] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah. I’m about the same. I started in 2014. Uh, so about the same time as you started your agency, I really started getting going selling, you know, wholesale and, uh, Being exactly what we’re going to be talking about today, being a reseller of other people’s products and still doing it, still having a lot of fun, definitely a lot of changes in that time on Amazon. Um, but I like that you mentioned, uh, Dave Ramsey. I’m definitely a fan of his as well. I’ve got is, uh, the total money makeover book right behind me here. So he’s a great guy to, for people getting started, uh, you know, trying to get their, their life in order and figure out finances and everything else. He has a lot of really good advice.
[00:00:09:51 – 00:00:10:06] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
Yes. Yes. There’s definitely, especially if you’re an employee and you’re trying to manage that, uh, you know, specific amount of income and it, it, it, it, it was definitely a big help and a big. Part of how we got to where we are now for sure.
[00:00:10:06 – 00:00:10:27] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah. Yeah. He’s great If you’re out there listening, you’re struggling with finances Definitely check out Dave Ramsey, total money maker, or a lot of good tips in there. Uh, as you get bigger and bigger in business, there’s some of them that you can kind of move away from. Um, but it’s great for, you know, somebody just getting going or the average person out there for sure.
[00:00:10:27 – 00:00:10:53] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
For businesses, I really recommend Mike Michalowicz’s Profit First. Uh, it’s basically the envelope system for business. And if you’re not analytical and you know you’re not, if you’re very analytical and you check QuickBooks every day, don’t bother with it. It’ll just annoy you. It’s not worth it. If you are a creative, visionary entrepreneur that doesn’t like to get in your books every day, I, it, it, I wish I had found it sooner. It really transformed our business.
[00:00:10:53 – 00:00:11:10] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yep. I’ve got that one behind me here somewhere as well. So definitely a good book as well. I would recommend the same. So with Bluebird, um, you guys, what, what all different services are you guys providing at Bluebird?
[00:00:11:10 – 00:00:12:08] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
At Marketplace Blueprint, we offer full channel management. So, we do everything from creating the listings, to running the advertising, to, hey, Amazon, this is not a sexual wellness product, this is a baby spoon. It’s always been a baby spoon. Um, things like, you know, How planning out with brands, how they’re going to incorporate influencers or, uh, like how we’re going to manage being on Oprah’s favorite things. Uh, we’ve also managed some other marketplaces like Walmart and things for specific brands. Um, so we, we basically, our goal is to help make, Amazon more tenable for brands that, you know, even if they do a lot of DTC, Amazon is a whole different place and a full time job. And so we try to make that lift a little easier, but we also work with a bunch of resellers or some resellers that have hired us. Uh, and we basically handle the advertising, the listing optimization, uh, for the brands that they have access to brand registry with.
[00:00:12:08 – 00:00:12:24] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Okay. Very good. So a little bit of resellers, uh, a lot of brands, I’m sure. Do you work with a lot of non Amazon first brands or brands that maybe don’t know much anything about Amazon?
[00:00:12:24 – 00:00:13:04] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
That’s kind of where we specialize is we help make, we take non, non Amazon native brands is what we call them and help them manage it because it, you know, a lot of things, you know, You know, I always tell them that selling on Amazon is a little bit like Alice in Wonderland. It looks like a butterfly, but it’s actually a bread and butterfly. You know, everything’s just a little different. And so we help them navigate that and explain why, you know, we like, we have a government owned company that has a physical product that works with us and trying to explain why Amazon needs a driver’s license to upload their insurance requirements and things like that. Uh, that’s kind of where we help them navigate those things.
[00:00:13:05 – 00:00:13:30] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Okay. Yeah, for sure. Those are my favorite brands to work with myself. I don’t have an agency per se, but I do brand partnerships. So I partner with brands and do very similar things as you do. So those are always the best ones to work with because you can do a lot of good stuff for them and really help them sell their products better.
[00:00:12:30 – 00:00:13:30] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
Yes.
[00:00:13:30 – 00:00:14:00] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
So, I guess, uh, let’s dive right into the question. As a reseller, obviously, I want all the brands to work with me. Every brand should, uh, work with me. No, just kidding. There’s a lot of reasons that brands wouldn’t want to work with resellers. So why don’t we go ahead and dive right in. Dive into them as to, you know, why would a brand maybe want to work with a reseller or why they wouldn’t?
[00:00:14:00 – 00:00:18:05] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
Well, I think the first elephant is the room. It seems like I’m playing both sides, right? Cause I’m helping brands, you know, control resellers, but then I’m also working with resellers. And in general, when we’re on both sides, you know, if we’re working with a reseller and somebody bought in good faith, they bought authentic goods. You know, we’re not in the habit of trying to litigate that, you know, we have the brands handle that off Amazon. Um, But the, the, where Amazon can be a hassle for reseller with reseller, how resellers can be a hassle for brands are, uh, let’s say we have a brand that they really want to focus on growing on Amazon. And sometimes, especially, you know, post COVID, maybe they hired a bunch of people. They’re, they’re not having that anticipated growth. So if they don’t get that anticipated growth, somebody’s going to get laid off. So, you know, or a group of people will be laid off or the company might even fold. So they need to get the, you know, the revenue up to a certain point.
And, you know, they, in order for them to kind of manage the channel, um, and to grow that channel and get that customer acquisition, we’re going to need to run ads and we need to be able to control the listings. Um, you know, Before we talk about how it impacts growth, one thing that it can be is it also can be a liability, not because resellers ever intended to be, or I’m sure that there are some somewhere, but dining, all the resellers I know and love, um, would never do it intentionally, but they might say a product is gluten free when it’s technically not, or they might say that it’s good. This medication is good for ear pain when it’s technically not. And so that can become a big issue, especially if a company has a big legal team, um, It can be an issue if they’ve been creating a bunch of like bundles, and then there’s a recall and that recall gets missed on Amazon because the UPC isn’t tied to the UPC that has the recall, you know, so it can come a safety and liability issue. And I will be honest, most of the non Amazon native brands have no idea. Even Amazon, even though they know, right, they don’t really believe that people do reselling at the scale that, you know, that really is happening. And so, you know, a lot of times brands will be like, why would they, you know, these are, you know, horrible people that are stealing our stuff or they’re getting a fix and, and we have to kind of explain that, no, this is just, it’s just a different model. And, um, we have to explain that, you know, they’re probably not getting counterfeit items. They’re probably buying it. Oh, you’re in Walmart and that spike happened at this time of year. And you’re this kind of product that was a seasonal reset. So they probably got it there. Um, so helping them to kind of understand that or understand, um, you know, cause there’ll be like, there’s no way they could have gotten this. The number of times where a brand has said there’s no way they could have gotten this legitimately. And then after we dig into it, we’re like, this way, this way, this way, this way, right? Uh, so it’s helping them to understand because if you don’t understand, you know, we’re eating and breathing this space all the time. So we totally see, but for them, it, it feels dangerous because it’s unknown. Um, so, you know, being up front, with them. Um, yes, it can lose you the sale, but it can also make it so you become a really trusted partner. And a lot of the resellers that we work with, they did the brave thing and they had those conversations with the brands and they were upfront with them and they’ve developed a skillset to offer those brands, which makes them really valuable because For a lot of brands, they don’t have the, the time, the resources to really manage Amazon effectively. And so if a brand is in that position and, you know, they don’t want to pay for a full service agency or their margins just don’t allow that, then they might decide that a reseller is a better option, but we have other brands. Say like these hero products, we really need to control the growth of, but we don’t have enough ad spend resources to really cover all of these.
So we’re fine with resellers carrying these groups of products. So there are lots of ways to work with brands and have them be joyful in the way that partnership works.
[00:00:18:05 – 00:00:19:34] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Unfortunately. For good reason, resellers have a very bad rap on Amazon because there’s so many out there that just don’t care anything about what they sell or how they sell it or anything. Um, I’ve never, um, Tried to be that I always try to sell products that I have some kind of connection with and, And I care about and have moved very heavily into the brand partnerships that you talked about And working with brands that you know, they don’t know amazon They don’t want to know amazon and so I can just do it all for them. And that’s helpful to brands that are, are looking for that. Um, but then at the same time, the brands who do want to do it, you know, working with someone like you guys can go a long way to be able to get everything set up because, you know, you and I have been doing this for, A decade or more. And so Amazon it’s, it’s easy to sell on Amazon, but it’s not simple. It’s very complicated. Things always go wrong. Um, so having someone in their back pocket that can help them is kind of required at this point. I’m not sure you could even do it without. Either having a reseller help you have an agency help you or hiring someone internally to be able to do it.
[00:00:19:34 – 00:00:20:29] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
Yeah. Cause there’s so many weird quirks in, um, you know, there’s things that they’re going to run into that are completely unexpected or things that are unique to Amazon. So, you know, like everybody’s been to the grocery store and seen comparable with Tylenol. Well, for a brand to understand, you’re not allowed to say that. Yeah. On Amazon, but you are allowed to say it at Kroger, uh, it can be a little difficult, right? So we kind of help them be like, oh, I know that antimicrobial sock is antimicrobial. We can’t say that, uh, because then we need an EPA registration number, right? So it’s all the weird quirky things, you know, like, yes, your item is a action figure, but it’s for adults. If we put it into, to dolls that will trigger a CPSC certification, we can, if it’s for adult people over. 15 or 14, we can definitely fight that, but this is what we’re going to need in order to fight that to get you in that category. If that, if that documentation is triggered.
[00:00:20:29 – 00:00:21:00] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah. Yeah. That documentation stuff has, has really thrown a wrench into a lot of stuff. Um, there was, uh, a brand that, uh, wanted to sell their products themselves and, you know, started updating the listings and this was in the, like the supplements category and.All of their listings got taken down for a very similar reason to, you know, antimicrobial or something like that. Those little keywords that trigger the takedowns of the listings.
[00:00:21:00 – 00:00:21:54] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
We had a pet company that came to us and they said, they brought on like somebody from Fiverr to help them optimize their listings and they sold cages for like rabbits and hamsters.
And so the person who did it. Did the keyword research and just wrote them from there, but there’s different widths of bars for different kinds of those creatures. And so they were all mixed up. And so it just devastated their reviews. People were angry that, you know, like my, my, my hamster died because of you, you know, it was, you know, so having somebody that really knows what they’re doing is important because it’s not just like 10 years ago, it was basically like. You know, if you build it, they will come. Um, now it is a lot more complicated. There’s a lot more nuance to think about. Um, and Amazon cares a lot more about things like compliance than they ever have before.
[00:00:21:54 – 00:00:22:44] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah. Well, the government’s really starting to crack down on them for some of that thing. If you look at any of the, the, the areas where Amazon cracks down on, typically there’s some kind of push, you know, by the FCC or the F Uh, FCA, no, FDA, FDA, or, you know, there was some bad press or something where an Amazon jumps on it. So Amazon’s feeling a lot of heat. They’re the, they’re the monster business out there now, you know, they’re like the Microsoft that got broken apart back in the day. That’s Amazon now. And so they’re having to fight and put out all these fires. All the time. And a lot of legitimate people get hit with that as Amazon tries to take down the bad actors.
[00:00:22:44 – 00:00:23:06] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
And, you know, it, it, and that’s causing brands to change. And because Amazon has grown and matured, there’s a lot of brands that wouldn’t have given Amazon to two minutes of notice that are now using it as, you know, one of their top three distribution channels. So there’s a lot more eyes and a lot bigger brands that are on here, which changes the game overall for brands of all sizes.
[00:00:23:06 – 00:00:23:30] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah. So for the resellers that are out there, and since you have a lot of experience working with brands, uh, and resellers as well, some, what kind of things do you see that sets apart the resellers that are successful at partnering with brands and growing them versus the ones who are not?
[00:00:23:30 – 00:00:26:44] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
So because, you know, I’m sure you guys have noticed the tightening around UPCs matching in GS1 and the brand matching personally, I would say that you want to focus on brands that you can have access to brand registry. As they tighten these compliance things, you might find that, Oh, maybe that word was fine before, but now they’re asking for a change, or maybe they’re asking for something else. Uh, and so without the ability to change those listings, my concern would be, are you going to get stuck with a bunch of inventory you have to try to sell? On another marketplace. And let’s just face it, you know, there’s no other marketplace. You’re going to be able to move things at the same velocity. So that would be something that I would suggest the brands that really love their resellers. They’re handling a lot of helping them handle and navigate that strategy piece of it. Uh, and they’re having us run their ads. Uh, and one of the things that can be difficult for a brand, if they have unauthorized resellers is let’s say they’re like, we really need to grow this channel. And we have these products. If we try to run ads and there’s resellers on there, it becomes really unpredictable because if we don’t know how the brand doesn’t have the buy box, we can’t run sponsor products. And it also makes it complicated for the agency. So if we’re being held to, you have to have like a 18 percent tacos or 8 percent tacos, then. We can’t even say well, you know that reseller only has five let’s run some sponsor brands and like try to lift all boats and get them to sell through because there’s no way for us to prove to the brand that actually helped the acceleration, right? So that can be a really big issue as well. Um, you know, but in order to get these products to where they can sell at the rate and start to outrank some of the private label sellers that maybe are, you know, kind of knocking off their products or have a similar product, they really have to funnel that and focus on ranking those products for their most important keywords. And without the access to ads, it becomes very, very difficult to do. And a lot of these bigger corporations, they have specific KPIs that need to be met to match the KPIs that are. That are, they’re being, uh, held accountable in Google and Meta as well. So, you know, trying to navigate that becomes really difficult with resellers. And the other really big issue is reference price. So we have a big, uh, OTC medicine company that we work with. And they have a bunch of resellers that are on the listing. And so they were selling, they were trying to get rid of it. Cause it was the items that they had were close, getting close to the edge of that expiration. So they all lowered their price really low. They all sold out. So you think that, okay, now it’s not a problem for them. It’s been a couple of months now we’re still dealing with the fact that because, um, you know, they also that over a period of time, so it wasn’t like all at once. Um, but. Resellers, if they’re selling well below MSRP, they can change the reference price. So we haven’t, we weren’t able to run deals for that over the holidays because of the resellers. And then that can make it, and trying to explain that to somebody that’s, you know, the CEO of a large company, uh, can be a little bit difficult.
[00:00:26:44 – 00:00:27:30] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah. We had a situation with the brand that we work with that, uh, we had a hijacker. On the listing and you know, it took about a month to, to really get them off permanently and they were selling about a half of the, the price that it was supposed to be sold at. And so come black Friday, we couldn’t really run the black Friday deal unless we went really low on the price because they were selling it at 1499 when it was supposed to be sold at 3495. And, you know, so it just kind of ruins your marketing plan, you know, that’s where the hijacker, but the same kind of thing can happen with resellers, uh, clearancing out products and things like that.
[00:00:27:30 – 00:00:28:30] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
Well, and you know, like it’s, you know, like, um, if you remember pillow pets, you know, there are so much clearance that went on. They had to completely redo their line. Um, we’ve worked with smaller companies at like, you know, like trade shows, more like Astra. And, um, there for a couple of years ago, there was a couple of really big wholesalers that would buy pallets and pallets of stuff, but if it didn’t move as expected, they would just. Like slash the price. And this was before a reference price was really a thing, but what happened is the next trade show, they would go, they’d spend the 000 to be at that trade show. And then people would look it up on Amazon and be like, I can get it on Amazon for 2 more than wholesale. Why would I buy this to sell it in my store? And so it would actually, it took several of the companies that we worked with completely out of business. Uh, because they weren’t able to, you know, a small company doesn’t have the cash reserves to, to sell it. Wait that out. Uh, and you know, they, you know, it, it, it can be a really, really big issue. So yeah.
[00:00:28:30 – 00:00:30:35] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah. We, we reported on the news a couple of weeks ago. Um, every Friday we do do the week’s news, but there was a, there’s a company fly catchers that make a smart sketcher toy where it like, Puts the image on the paper and you can sketch. Um, but apparently they had three truckloads full of their products stolen. And then resellers were buying these products, hopefully unknowing that they were stolen, reselling them at a significant lower price, uh, in Q4. So it basically wiped out their sales for Q4, uh, pretty much completely because they, if they match the price, they’re basically losing money on that. Uh, so, you know, That’s another thing that gives resellers a bad name, selling stolen products. Um, you know, I had a coaching call where someone got their account shut down for selling stolen products and he didn’t know it and he was trying to figure out, you know, what went wrong essentially. And so basically in moral, that story was. Don’t find your suppliers and buy on, on Telegram or WhatsApp, something like that. But yeah, all these things, it drives brands insane. And as resellers, uh, if we don’t put ourselves in their shoes, we don’t necessarily think about these things all the time. We’re just trying to sell and make money, you know, or it’s kind of like a distributor, right? I say distributors sell. On, uh, you know, logic where brands sell on emotion and, you know, we’re as resellers, we’re just logically trying to sell more products where brands are, are this emotional connection to their product. They want to make sure everything’s perfect, everything’s running good and maintain control and all that good stuff. So we got to walk a mile in their shoes, so to speak.
[00:00:30:35 – 00:00:33:07] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
And one thing on that note that resellers can do to provide a big value is, you know, a lot of established brands, they’re not doing it the way that private labels. So they don’t, you know, run the numbers on a tool and determine how many units to sell. They say people like this. So let’s make this and, you know, the first time I saw the big company, I was like, but what, you know, um, but one thing that you can provide as a reseller is helping them to do that research to see, you know, yes, that makes a logical product extension, but on Amazon, that space is really saturated. So if you’re doing it for Amazon, this isn’t going to launch well, uh, and, you know, like this is really competitive or, you know, there’s not enough volume for that, giving them that data and providing that data. Can be really valuable. Yes. Helium 10 is out there for everybody, but helium 10 can also be pretty overwhelming for a new user because there are so many tools. So, you know, I’m always very upfront when we’re like, this came from a tool, like, you know, I don’t have magic. Uh, you know, so you be honest with that, but I think that that really helps. And then the other thing you can do is if you like, let’s say that a brand is really focused on trying to grow a specific product line that you would like to sell. You see that they’re not running ads and you know that you could provide a lot of value. Offer to ask if you could have an Amazon exclusive for a specific group. Now it’s important to do this. If you want to do this, you can’t be selling on the variation. If they’re selling ads, if they’re doing ads, because if they’re doing ads on the variation, it will mess up the ad numbers because like, you know, people will click through blue and buy purple. And so you actually won’t even be able to prove even if you are running ads that you are making that difference. But if you kind of create like a separate product, it can be a separate size. Uh, it can be a different pack, you know, get something with the brand’s approval. They buy the UPC, you’ll have to have a higher MOQ. Um, minimum order quantity. Uh, if you, if you really feel confident in your skillset, that can be something to, you can demonstrate that you can provide value. And then after that, you can say, well, now can I take over some of these slow moving skus for you? And then halo into the, like, like sometimes people just want to go, like. Get engaged right away. Like, you know, any brand that’s going to be fun to work with in my experience does not want to get engaged on the first date. Inevitably every client that I’ve brought on as an agency, that’s like, look, it started today. And I was like, wow, that’s the easiest close ever three months later. I’m always like, why did I not follow my process? Because it’s there for a reason, you know?
[00:00:33:07 – 00:00:33:46] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah, for sure. It’s, uh, yeah, it’s important to, uh, to put yourselves in their shoes, like I mentioned, and understand what they’re going through. The, the ads thing is, uh, is, uh, Super important thing is we battle with that for some of the products that we sell For brands as well if there’s other people that are selling on there Sometimes I think you know that the ads are supposed to shut off if you don’t have the buy box But I don’t think that’s always the case. I think there’s some bleed through there where you know The ads will still be running even if you’re not in the buy box.
[00:00:33:46 – 00:00:34:53] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
One sponsored brands and sponsored display will 100 percent keep going even if you’re not in the buy box. And so that’s what makes it a little harder with a rotating buy box because you could think, Oh, well, they’ll just run when I have, when they have their turn. But one, like we have to turn on and off and turn on and off. Uh, which isn’t really possible because of Amazon’s delayed reporting, um, for us to do that. And then the other thing is, is that if we’re, if we’re, like, let’s say a brand hadn’t been focused on Amazon and a competitor was winning for their brand name. What we have to do is we have to outsell that competitor on that brand name. So if we don’t have consistent ads to be able to drive that ranking, we’re going to lose. We’re just setting their ad money on fire. And so it, it’s not a good experience for anybody in, we can’t get the results that they need in order to keep going. And that can be a great proposition for you as a reseller, say, you know, if you see a, a brand that’s not winning for their own branded search, you could say, we can run some, uh, some ad campaigns that will help you gain that spot back because right now people are coming to Amazon looking to buy your product and they’re going someplace else and they might never come back.
[00:00:34:53 – 00:00:35:51] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Ads are super important for your big products. And if the resellers are messing that up, it’s just gonna anger the brand. So don’t be one of those resellers if you’re somebody trying to build brand partnerships. And I like what you said about, you know, don’t contact a brand and be like, Give me a complete exclusive for your product that’s selling 5, 000 units a month. You know, on your first phone call, it’s like when you get a sales phone call on the phone, are you like, okay, yeah, here’s the deed to my house and everything else. No, you’re hanging up most of the time. Uh, but yeah, start with the slow selling one. You see one that’s selling, you know, 10 a month or 20 a month that should be selling a hundred. Prove yourself. Quadruple the sales and then be like, Hey, now maybe let me try some of these other ones as well.
[00:00:35:51 – 00:00:37:18] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
And, you know, if you, if you’re honest and upfront, then that, that helps kind of build the relationship and you can kind of take credit for the work that you’re doing, um, and then having that access to brand registry really protects your investment in their products, right? So, you know, that’s, you know, you’re able to help them through those listings, suspensions or all of that stuff, right? Um, and then the other thing is that, you know, as you’re working with these brands, you know, if you’re up front right away, you don’t have the, you don’t have to worry about getting found out, right? So You know, especially when I first started wholesale, like I wasn’t always like, I didn’t come out and say I sell on Amazon right away. It took me a while to to start the conversations with that. And you know, there’s I think there’s a video for me somewhere saying don’t do that, right? Because at the time, it there was just We didn’t understand things. The marketplace was very different. Um, but I will tell you that now having been on the other side of the table, I can hear the sense of betrayal and disappointment. When they’ve had eight conversations with you, they thought you were friends. And then they found out that you were selling even though their agreement says not on Amazon and that you’re the problem. And that’s the reason why Like Suzanne had to be let go. Now, whether or not that was the reason Suzanne had to be let go or not, like that’s their experience of it. And so it, they can leave, it can leave them very hurt. And then that hurts the whole industry, right? Cause it perpetuates that, you know, you can’t trust resellers.
[00:00:37:18 – 00:00:38:09] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah, it’s, uh, the reputation. I mean, I’ve preached that all the way back to when I first started doing the podcast and trying to help people, you know, be, be honest, be upfront and build relationships, don’t be in it for the short term, be it in for the longterm. And you’re just, if you can get. You know, on a first name basis with the owner of the company and get to know them, connect on a level other than just reselling their products, you know, that’s a relationship that you’re going to be able to sell their products for, you know, a decade or more.
Perhaps and continue helping them grow their business. You got to be someone who’s helping that business, not just reselling products.
[00:00:38:09 – 00:00:39:10] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
And there are lots of agencies besides mine that will work with resellers to help manage ad spend. Ad spend for resellers is very different than running an ad spend for a private label company or an established brand. So as long as somebody has had experience I don’t have the skill set to do do creative or listings, or I don’t have the skill set to do a plus content or ads. There are places that you can help. And then oftentimes, we find that brands are more than happy to subsidize that cost, especially if it means that That they can kind of get that uniformity across platforms and have the consistent branding and experience that will help them. Because most brands do know that customers do window shop on Amazon. It’s not, it’s not just the one way, it’s both directions. Sometimes people will do product research on Amazon and then buy in store. So having that is something that oftentimes you might be willing to subsidize and provides a lot more value. So the next person can’t just come on, right. You know, out front underneath you for like a store lower margin.
[00:00:39:10 – 00:00:39:50] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah, that’s one thing that I thought was pretty cool when we first talked before the podcast that you guys are actually are working with resellers and Helping resellers who have brand partnerships because yeah, you’re right Like we like we said we’ve both been doing it for 10 years. So we’ve learned a lot of stuff It’s not easy to learn all that. So Especially if you’re just getting started and, and, or you don’t want to learn all that, I guess, uh, working with someone like you guys and bringing those connections with the brands with the other beaks basically become their agency, uh, kind of through you guys and keep growing their business that way.
[00:00:39:50 – 00:00:40:32] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
Yeah. And you know, it, it, it, that those things can be kind of added to your portfolio and your case studies and all those things can really help as you start to work with larger brands. Um, yeah. I know that it is hard to find a good reselling partner, um, harder than it was 10 years ago. And, uh, you know, so I’m not trying to minimize how difficult it is to do that. And honestly, I was a little nervous about this episode. Cause I don’t want to seem like a hypocrite, like I’m playing both sides, but I have really seen both sides of it. And I can understand that. And so I do my best to translate, um, and to make sure that, you know, people are treated fairly. Um, so I hope that’s coming across.
[00:00:40:32 – 00:00:41:07] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
For sure. I mean, it, it depends on the brand and how involved the brand wants to be. Right. If, if the brand wants to be semi involved, working with an agency is great. If the brand is someone that, you know, I don’t know how to use a computer. I don’t want to know how to use a computer. I just want to sell my products to retail stores and stuff like that. Then that’s kind of a situation where it’s perfect for a reseller to partner with that brand and just take care of everything for them.
[00:00:41:07 – 00:00:42:02] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
And you know, that you’d be surprised. There are some brands that you might think are really big brand, but it’s, you know, because they’re using co packers or because of a licensed dean deal or something along those lines, they might, this might not even be their primary occupation. It might be a side thing. So they just don’t have the resources to go all the way across and handle all of these pieces. So, you know, if they’re not able to really focus on it, that’s what you can really offer. And then if they are ready to really focus on it, Then working in tandem, say like, you know, even if somebody is ready to go full force on Amazon, it’s rare for us, even with the publicly traded companies that we work at very large companies for them to have enough allocated ad spend right out of the gate to handle all of their skews. So, you know, you can, you can always try to start things if you’re working together and you’re not causing an issue and you’re building up kind of that relationship with them, that’s, it’s still a possibility.
[00:00:42:02 – 00:00:42:39] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah, for sure. It’s a. It’s a balancing act for sure. And finding out, you know, what the best way to handle the brand is and what exactly the brand needs and just go from there
I have a ton of fun with it. You sound like you have a ton of fun with it as well. Uh, is there, what else are, how are we, haven’t we talked about for. Not only resellers, uh, but brands that are possibly looking to deal with resellers or hire an agency or something like that.
[00:00:42:39 – 00:00:44:16] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
So when we’re talking with brands, what we want to do is we want to make sure that we’re stopping any distribution leaks. So if people are getting things from one place and they’re buying authentic goods, we need to not be focused on getting them to stop. We need to focus on. Like making sure, let them sell through what they purchase in, um, in good faith and focus on stopping the leaks going forward. Now, sometimes that’s really easy. You know, we can handle it pretty quickly. Maybe it’s just, you know, they never vetted resellers out before. We just need to change some policies, giving those resellers time to adjust. Um, you know, maybe it’s, you know, that people are getting it primarily through arbitrage, that becomes a little more complicated, uh, where maybe we need to create an Amazon only SKU, or we need to create something else in a way that allows them to have a SKU that they’re able to control that buy box, that add price, that reference price. Uh, and so sometimes we’re even able to kind of, like, Put the resellers, uh, thing aside, but it really depends on the company, what their lead time is for production, uh, if their products are made in the U S or if they’re made in other countries, you know, what the molds are like. So it can be a pretty complicated thing. Um, sometimes we’ll look at changing packaging so that it’s clear. You know, that, um, you know, maybe to discourage your reseller, to make it a little less profitable for them. So P things that people are buying in good faith, uh, it just, you know, doing things to discourage without taking anybody’s investment and turning it into dust. Cause we don’t, we don’t want to do that either. We want to try to find fair ways. Uh, and those people are customers too. So we want to try to find fair ways to make it work.
[00:00:44:16 – 00:00:44:50] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah. Yeah. And that’s the, that’s the thing to keep in mind is that, you know, technically. The resale sellers are not doing anything wrong per se, right? They’re well within the law to resell the products that they get. Uh, obviously a lot of brands don’t see it that way. You know, they, they go the route of trying to say that the warranty or something is not valid, which I’m surprised that hasn’t really been tested in court yet with the, the number of. You know, legal letters and stuff that go around with that.
[00:00:44:50 – 00:00:46:41] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
That’s not something we really encourage man’s to do that. We have we kind of avoid that altogether because it’s it. I feel like there’s more effective and more fair ways to handle it. There’s always a solution. It’s just but it has to be in a case by case. There’s not like if you have a reseller problem, you should do X. It’s there are. 16 different things, and the first thing is to identify where the inventory is coming from and what is your ability to change that. So if you are in a really, if you’re Lego and you’re having a problem with arbitrage sellers, you could say, Hey, Walmart, we’re changing the UPC on this. We’re gonna do this, and you’re gonna take it and you’re gonna like it. If you’re a small brand that got into Walmart and you’re just counting your blessings. You know, changing the packaging or the UPCs might not be an option from where you’re sitting. Um, that shelf space is hard to get, so, you know, we might have to find something else, but it’s, you know, the first step is always identify the distribution link, but identify the distribution, um, gap, um, and then figuring out, What can we do to stop that inventory going forward? Or what can we do to create an Amazon only SKU? Um, and then working with the resellers that you already have relationships with to help you as you are kind of trying to build up your focus and try to get your products to rank. And there are some brands that say, Look, we’re willing to do the investment to get the listings up and running. You know, stood back up to get them in compliance, to get them, you know, to be a match for the rest of our brand and, you know, even to get them to rank, but we don’t want to monitor, we don’t want to do this indefinitely. And so once we get to a certain point, we’d like to bring those resellers on and have ads be run at a regular level. Um, or like a maintenance level, just using sponsored brands kind of as a defensive piece. So there can be opportunities, but it’s making sure that brands are able to see you as a potential partner instead of an impediment.
[00:00:46:41 – 00:00:46:52] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah. That’s interesting. Do you see that very often brands doing that where they’re optimizing their listings and getting them going and then handling, handing them off to resellers?
[00:00:46:52 – 00:00:47:55] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
Yeah, there’s a lot of companies that we don’t even manage their ad spend. All we’re doing is fixing the listings, helping them with compliance issues, and then they really want their resellers to handle it. Um, because there’s a lot of things with Amazon, you know, storage fees and inventory placement and all of that stuff that can be a little complicated if they don’t have a lot of resources. So even if you have a full channel management agency, there’s still a lot of fulfillment and logistics and resellers are amazing at that. So it can still be a good place. We’ve had big brands that have said, you know, we really need to get these resellers off, but leave these guys alone because we have a longstanding relationship. They, they believed in us when we were nothing. And so we, we, it’s important to us for us to honor those relationships and we love Those kind of the working with those kinds of brands and that have, you know, that commitment to, you know, to the people that believed in them early on in their, uh, their growth. Um, so it does happen, but you know, it, I’m not going to say that that is every brand by any way, shape or form.
[00:00:47:56 – 00:00:48:38] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah. There is a, a cashflow benefit. To selling to resellers as well, because you know, you’re, you’ve got that invoice that’s out there. You’re going to get paid most likely on X date. And that cash is just going to come in. Um, maybe even they’re, they’re paying up front for, for some brands. Um, hopefully for the reseller side, hopefully you’re getting that 30, net 45 and at 60 or longer. Um, but. You know, that cashflow can be easier just selling in bulk than selling, you know, individuals on Amazon and getting that disbursement every couple of weeks and not knowing all the time what that’s going to be.
[00:00:46:52 – 00:00:50:37] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
Yeah. And, you know, so when we have brands that are like, let’s say they’re coming from 1P and they want them, you know, they’re coming from vendor central and they need to move to seller central, or, you know, they’re going to cut off resellers You know, so a group of resellers, one thing we like to remind them on that cashflow side is you’re not going to get the sale from, you know, Amazon purchasing or these resellers from purchasing for a little bit, then you’re gonna need to let them sell out and then you’re going to start selling, but there’s still going to be another gap where you haven’t. You know, where you have, you know, you have money in reserve or you haven’t hit your distribution payout, so they need to have enough money to handle that whole arc, and so for them to do that cold turkey for everybody is really, really scary. So working with some trusted partners, we can say, like, let’s, you know, some of the, the. Best relationships we’ve had with brands is they’ve been like, I burned with, from been burned with three agencies and two resellers. I, you know, I, this is the last shot I’m giving it. And what we’ve been able to do is say, let’s start with something small. Let’s start with, you know, two of your, you know, with five of your slowest selling skews, we can show that we’re making progress and then you’ll trust us with the top five. And then we can kind of work from, you know, the outside in, um, working on experience. And expanding those skus over time. Uh, and expanding that contract in the scope of work. So they’re not, you know, it makes me nervous when I pay for marketing services and somebody’s like, Oh yeah, 15, 15, 000. All your product problems will be solved. It’s like, well, how do I know, how do I know it’s a lot of money? So starting, you know, if we’re able to partner with a reseller, especially if they’ve been burned a couple of times, that can help ease things a little bit, as long as the reseller is willing to honor and willing to understand that at some point they might determine that, you know, they, you know, they might not have room for that reseller at some point. In the future, but you know, you get to make Kayla listen, sun is shining. And use that as a great case study for a brand that you’ve worked with in the past.
[00:00:50:37 – 00:00:51:27] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yep, for sure. Now, especially this year, the second half of this year, uh, there seems to be kind of an a little bit of an exodus from Amazon when it comes to resellers, um, and even some brands that have been outspoken about. Trying to get off of Amazon. I don’t know what percentage is actually doing it, but a lot more people are talking about it moving away from Amazon. So I guess the first question there is what do you see as the future for resellers and then number two, where do you like to send brands outside of Amazon to kind of hedge their bets as Amazon just keeps ramping up the fees and trying to take more and more of your margin.
[00:00:51:28 – 00:00:56:39] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
Well, you know, so Amazon is maturing as a marketplace, which means, you know, more thoughtful, more strategic ad strategy. You have to have your compliance. There’s a lot of things that made it fun and wild, wild west. And those are going away as this is becoming a more traditional marketing channel, which is means that it’s bringing more marketing professionals in who know things about pro programmatic ads and, you know, attribution and all of those things.
Right. So, uh, even as a full service agency, And my husband and Nate and I run their agency together. And we were just talking about how scope creep is such a big issue for agencies like ours, because there’s, there’s always something else. There’s always a new program. Well, we offered a plus well now a plus premium. We are, you know, there’s, there’s just so much, right. Um, but. When people are looking to diversify, first thing we need to do is be honest. So there is no other marketplace at the point of this recording that matches Amazon for a majority of sellers. You can sell on Walmart. You can sell on Target. You can sell on Shoei. Um, and depending on the kind of brand, you know, there’s eBay, there’s fair, there’s You know, Mercado Libre, if you sell items in, um, South America and, and Mexico and those places, there are a lot of different options, but very few of them are going to completely replace. So part of that is self insuring, building up your cash reserves. Um, part of that is maintaining. And staying current with Amazon’s policies, keeping your eye on the blue ocean. Anytime your, your interests do not align with Amazon’s interests, you need to be very nervous because Amazon will run you over. They will not feel bad about it. So if you can’t keep your interests aligned, that’s when you need to say, how am I protecting my, my team? How am I protecting my personal assets, right? To make sure something bad would happen. But all of that being said, you know, Walmart is. Probably the marketplace that we’re seeing the most growth and adoption. And, you know, five years ago, there are companies I never would have ever suggested Walmart for. Um, but I’ve been on a couple of like private consulting calls, uh, where things are shared and, um, that, you know, not, not anything that’s not allowed to be nothing confidential, like internal numbers, and there’ve been some earning calls that Walmart has had where they’re really seeing a shift and increase in, in. Six figure income earners moving to Walmart. In fact, I’m one of them. I always use Instacart because my Costco is like 20 minutes away. And so by the time I get there and back, it’s like two hours. Uh, but I’d recently switched to Walmart now, partly because I get it. Well, I get Walmart plus with my Emacs platinum. And, um, you know, there was something actually, it was actually the luxury product that brought me over there. We went seat at the St. Regis. in Venice and it was amazing. My husband really loved the soap there and I found it a lot cheaper on Walmart. And so then we started grocery shopping on Walmart. Um, they’re also seeing that, you know, some of the new medications that are in the pharmacy are bringing in a different clientele. So there’s a lot of options there. Target’s been working on their marketplace for a long time. Um, you know, it’s, and then eBay, you know, depending on how things go, eBay could be positioned, uh, you know, could have a resurgence depending on how things go with tariffs and supply chains, you know, things get a little wonky again, you might see, be able to see some positioning moves there. Um, but you know, you got to think about, so when you look at like wider digital marketing. Um, they’ll talk a lot about, like, search intent, or the intent of the user. So the kind of question that you ask Siri, versus the kind of question you ask Google, versus the kind of a question you ask Alexa, are all different. And they’re, you know, we have a different intent when we use those different search engines, right? So when we’re using Reddit, we ask a different question than we might ask Google. Um, Siri. So where is your customer and where is their buying intent? And that’s kind of where you, so there’s not going to be a one size fits all answer. And it might be that direct to consumer is where you want to go. It might be that retail, retail, um, the grass always seems greener, but there can be a lot of complication. Um, when things go badly, it can, Really hurt your bottom line. So you need to go in that with caution. Um, you know, there’s licensing deals. There’s a lot of different options. It’s about really looking at what is realistic for your brand, what your resources are, uh, and where your ideal client profile is. Um, and I think the biggest thing too is not to shoot yourself in the foot on Amazon. Um, we had an oil diffuser company that they just kept launching every two weeks. They had a different diffuser. And so they were all compete, all those listings were competing against themselves. And so they were diluting and diluting their sales and other people started to take over on that keyword. So, you know, it’s not only about diversifying off of Amazon, But it’s also looking at if you diversify, how much are you really protecting? So we don’t have, we’re, we’re based in reality. And then how can we do our best to make sure that we hold that spot on Amazon by and that that’s partly strategy. That’s partly compliance and that’s partly on, you know, just staying up to date with what’s in Amazon’s interest in the direction that they’re moving.
[00:00:56:39 – 00:00:57:45] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. There’s, there’s nothing out there that. Can compete directly with Amazon yet. Um, Walmart, like I said, I think has the best shot, uh, depending on your product. Uh, you know, I was talking to a past guest and he said that, um, if your product would fit well on the. shelves in Walmart, then it’ll probably will sell well on walmart.com. So I think that’s a good way to, to kind of judge, you know, it’s not a be all end all for sure. Um, but I, I think with Amazon, it’s going to kind of be death by a thousand cuts, so to speak. There’s not going to necessarily be one marketplace that. Comes up to rival them. It’s going to be, you know, 20 different marketplaces that start stealing 1 percent here, 5 percent there, 10 percent over there. And, uh, slowly, um, you know, bringing them down a little bit, but I think they’re going to be the behemoth for a long time.
[00:00:57:45 – 00:00:58:57] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
Yeah. And, you know, sometimes things do change faster than anticipated. You know, when I started in 2010, 2011, like eBay, like, you know, Why would you even, we, we, they would call selling on Amazon, selling on the river. Um, and so they’re like, why would you even sell on the river? eBay is the king and will always be the king. And like a year and a half later, like all of the eBay sellers, it’s like, tumbleweed rolling through. Now there’s some people throughout that have made a ton of money selling on eBay whole time. So, you know, it, there is, we never know when those disruptions are going to happen. And that’s where it’s helpful to have somebody for a brand. They don’t have time to read 18 linkedin things and to check the news alerts and all of that. So that’s where a brand, a partner or an agency can say, uh, you know, Walmart just launched this thing. We think it’s really going to impact things. We should really look at accelerating the Walmart timeline or, you know, and that as a brand reseller, I will tell you expanding into other marketplaces to build up trust first could be a really great way to start, uh, because most agencies like ours will charge an additional fee per agency just because there’s a lot of manual work that goes in managing those other marketplaces. So that can be an option as well.
[00:00:58:57 – 00:00:59:05] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Very good. Well, we’ve gone over quite a bit, Robin. Any other last things that you want to touch on and then we’ll wrap it up.
[00:00:59:05 – 00:00:59:53] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
I think the biggest thing is if you are trying to save a relationship as a reseller, I would look at what impact are you having And how can you outweigh that with the good that you bring and being really clear on that before you get on that call. And if you’re a brand, before you say, you know, off with their heads, and that might be the right solution maybe, but more often than not, there is a happy medium. Or at least there’s a way to treat people in a way where there’s a way to taper things. So it’s, you know, you’re not hurting somebody else’s business. Um, but more importantly, so that your products are feeling really well represented that you’re only having to focus on inventory for the products that you’re working on pushing and ranking. And it allows you to get that laser focus that you really need to be successful on Amazon.
[00:00:58:57 – 00:01:00:00] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
I agree a hundred percent. Uh, Robin, uh, where can people connect with you and reach out to you?
[00:01:00:00 – 00:01:00:24] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
Yeah, so you can find out more about me and our company at marketplaceblueprint. com. Uh, if you go to marketplaceblueprint. com forward slash show, we have like a listing PDF and, uh, ways to like follow us on, you know, on social media and, um, all of that good stuff. So, uh, feel free, feel free to reach out. And I really appreciate you having me on the show today.
[00:01:00:24 – 00:01:00:28] TODD WELCH | HOST OF AMAZON SELLER SCHOOL
Absolutely. I appreciate it as well, Robin. You have an awesome day.
[00:01:00:28 – 00:01:00:30] ROBYN JOHNSON |FOUNDER OF MARKETPLACE BLUEPRINT
All right. Thank you.
[00:01:00:30 – 00:01:00:44] 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.
