Brand Fortress HQ: Amazon FBA Success Strategies

064: Tactic Tuesdays: Big Opportunities For 2025

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Discover the secret to turning your Amazon venture into a thriving business. We tackle the pressing question: How can U.S. sellers distinguish themselves from robust international competition in 2025? Join us for insights into capitalizing on the changing e-commerce landscape, where customer loyalty and integrity set you apart, and dive into the implications of political shifts and the expanding influence of platforms like TikTok and Walmart.

In our latest episode of Brand Fortress HQ's Tactics Tuesday, we unravel the complexities of optimizing Amazon listings amid evolving trends. Learn the art of crafting product titles that appeal to both human shoppers and AI-driven algorithms, maximizing your visibility with Amazon's Rufus tool. Ethical review practices and a strong post-purchase process are essential as these elements increasingly influence product rankings and customer engagement. The landscape is shifting, and with Amazon promoting Rufus for search, strategic adaptability is your key to staying ahead.

Later, we shift to the boundless opportunities beyond Amazon, with TikTok and Walmart emerging as formidable players in the e-commerce arena. Explore the potential of TikTok’s viral impact coupled with its lower fees, and uncover the strategies for engaging with content creators to boost brand visibility. We emphasize an enduring truth: Success is rooted in steadfast brand principles, prioritizing customer care, and delivering unmatched value. Join us to prepare for an e-commerce future where adaptability and integrity lead the charge.

🚀 Transform your brand on Amazon by building a powerful customer list with the After Purchase Funnel Blueprint course. Click here to get the full course for free.

➡️ Ready to go deeper into your Amazon FBA journey to accelerate your success? Get your hands on ALL of the Brand Fortress HQ resources, mentorship, and knowledge base by visiting us at BrandFortressHQ.com

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Speaker 1:

Welcome everybody to another episode of Brand Fortress HQ. Today, in this Tactics Tuesday, we're talking about big opportunities for 2025, what we're most excited about as we kick off the new year. We just did an episode on, you know, reflecting on 2024. And now we want to take a look at what we see coming up in 2025, some of the predictions, some of the opportunities and just what the landscape looks like. So we were talking a little bit before we hit record on the podcast, so I'm going to start just kick it over to you, mike, about what you are excited about for 2025 and what you see in the e-commerce and, specifically, amazon landscape.

Speaker 2:

I think one of the things that to me seems like the biggest opportunity for, let's say, those individuals who see their business as a business. Right, it's not a series of hacks. You know that, you know they're gaming the system or things like that, but they're really looking at it as a genuine business, which means you build it on actual business principles good business. You know how are you treating your customers, are you building out a list? Are you building loyalty? Are you doing all of those things that a good business should do for those individuals?

Speaker 2:

I think that 2025 is going to be able to come away from and separate yourself from. I think Chinese sellers, for the most part, fall into that category. I think there's a lot of things coming up in 2025 that are going to be that opportunity to really start setting yourself apart and giving you an edge over those Chinese sellers and over some of those sellers that really are just coming in and trying to hack the system rather than actually build a business. And one of those big things, I think is really Trump getting elected and like him or hate him, whether you like what he's going to do or you don't like what he's going to do, he's going to do it, and some of the things that he's going to do, I actually think are going to be a really big help to those sellers who really are looking at it as a true business.

Speaker 1:

Matt, what about you? What are some of the maybe one or two things that you're looking at for big opportunities in?

Speaker 3:

2025 and are excited about. For me, looking at your Amazon business as a true business. What that looks like to me and what I've been focusing on with the brands that I work with is taking those Amazon blinders off and looking at other channels and not just not just focused on that one channel, which continues to get more expensive and more competitive. You know, tiktok is one of the big things that came of last year. That is driving sales for a lot of brands. I'm really excited about that.

Speaker 3:

You know, I think social selling I don't think that we've even seen a fraction of how popular that can and will be. I mean, that's how most people shop in China and other countries and we're just kind of now starting to scratch the surface of what that looks like to drive traffic, which, you know, focusing on pretty much any area off of Amazon ends up having some sort of a spillover effect to Amazon. I've seen so many brands in the past year, in 2024, that had a viral video go viral on TikTok and that ended up in actual legitimate search volume on the Amazon platform. So you know, that's that's kind of the big. The biggest thing that I'm the most excited about is exploring all of these other platforms, which will then obviously have an effect on your Amazon business with. You know, amazon loves external traffic and that's going to naturally happen as you start to find these other channels to get your products on.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think there's a lot of change that's going to happen, like there is every year, and I think you know we were talking about a little bit before we hit record on the podcast happen, like there is every year, and I think you know we were talking about a little bit before we hit record on the podcast, and you know there's always a couple of ways that you can look at that. Is that okay? Here's another thing that I have to do, or have to adapt to, or a change that I have to make, or looking at as an opportunity. And so you know, one of the things that we were specifically talking about before we hit record was new title policy that Amazon has come out with in the last couple of days that they have said that they're going to put into effect starting in about two weeks, which really doesn't give sellers a whole lot of time in order to see if they're compliant. Now there's a lot of different questions about how that will be enforced and what it'll actually look like when that policy goes live.

Speaker 1:

But I think you know before we hit record, Mike, you were talking about this and I think it's a great point of because what they're basically trying, what Amazon is trying to do, we think based on this policy, is kind of clean up the titles on product listings to make them more customer friendly and look more reputable, so they don't look like a whole bunch of just keywords stuffed into a title, so they look more legitimate and so there's more of a trust factor for customers. And, Mike, you were talking about how that actually gives US and North American sellers an advantage in the sense of being a native speaking, the means that you can make that title more effective, Whereas if you're just relying on ChatGPT or some sort of tool in order to do that for you because you don't speak the language natively and you can no longer keyword stuff, that process is actually going to make it be some good news for US sellers that are facing some pretty strong Chinese competition.

Speaker 2:

I think so. I mean, I really feel like that is one of the things that I've been really trying hard this, probably the last few months, but moving into this year is moving away from this idea of I have to do something to I get to do something, and I think there's an aspect of that here. You know, like, like you were saying earlier, that you know you could look at this as a oh, now I have to do all these things and adjust my titles and do all this stuff right, and, rather than looking at it as this process that you're going to dread, looking at it as an opportunity to set yourself apart, and this is a really good opportunity. I mean, one of the things that's hurting American sellers the most is the combination of high fees on Amazon and the influx of Chinese sellers, because the influx of Chinese sellers has lowered the price point in most categories, so that there's a lot less margin available. And then when you, at the same time, see Amazon hiking their fees, well then your margin is squeezed even more. So if you're not a brand that has really set yourself apart as one that has a lot of brand loyalty and that commands a higher price point, you're losing on both ends. And so one of the things that will be that value component is being able to make yourself look far more legitimate and having an edge in doing that.

Speaker 2:

Because, let's get very specific, the change in the title requirements that Amazon is suggesting is that essentially, no word outside of, like prepositions and things like that, no key phrase, you know like. So for us, we sell, you know, let's say, a pool poll. I can't put pool in my title more than twice. I can't put pole in my title more than twice. Well, that gets really sketchy if you know, if you have in the past and, as Chinese sellers often do, if you've just simply been keyword stuffing, where I've got pool pole, telescopic pool pole, pool pole for cleaning, you know I've got it four different ways, you know in my title, but I've got pool in there four times.

Speaker 2:

I've got pole in there four times, I've got. Well, now you can't do that right. So you have to find creative ways to be able to embed one key phrase inside of another key phrase inside of another key phrase. Well, if you know the English language well, then you have an opportunity to be able to do that and intuitively think that through and come up with creative titles that make sense to the buyer but also allow you to embed multiple key phrases that you're looking to target while not repeating those words more than twice. That's going to be really hard for a Chinese seller, and although I would argue that ChatGPT certainly gives them a better opportunity to do that than they would if they didn't have it, it is still not going to do nearly as good a job as somebody who has at least a relatively good understanding of the English language, which means you're American or.

Speaker 2:

UK or whatever. So I do think there's an edge there. It gives you an opportunity to set yourself apart and I think they're going to have a hard time competing with that to set yourself apart, and I think they're going to have a hard time competing with that.

Speaker 3:

There are some things that Amazon does that feel like they're against the seller. Inbound placement fees, I think, are a good example of that. Let's be honest.

Speaker 1:

Some of the things that you are against sellers? Yes, they are, they're just being that way.

Speaker 2:

They really are.

Speaker 3:

They are true, and there are some things that they do that are to make the customer's lives better or to increase conversions for them through the customer.

Speaker 3:

I think this one falls into the category of.

Speaker 3:

To be honest, I think it makes sense and I think that changing your title to not allow the same word twice, essentially what's going to end up happening and I think why Amazon is making this change is that it's going to make the titles actually human readable and for us and the products that I manage and list on Amazon, I want that anyways and I've been moving towards more of contextual language in my titles far before this rule came out.

Speaker 3:

Because if you think about who, yes, it's important for Amazon to know what your product is, so it knows who to show it to, but it's essentially the customer that's clicking on your listing in the search results and if they don't understand what your unique selling proposition is in the title, then you're in the sea of same with a whole bunch of other Chinese competitors selling the same thing. So I've been using my title to show how I stand out, which makes my titles more human readable, which I don't use the same word 16 times because I know that that's not going to make it human readable. So I've been doing this for longer than just Amazon forcing us to. I think it makes sense from the buyer standpoint. I think having clear, concise titles that talk about the product and why they should buy that one, I think it makes more sense than the keyword stuff.

Speaker 2:

Well, I also think, reasonably speaking, if you are a brand, a true brand, like you've been trying to build an actual brand, then I think the likelihood is you probably have already been doing this. Because, let's face it, you can't sell you know, like selling a pool poll if you're selling that in a category where every other seller is selling it for 30 or 40 bucks and you're trying to sell it for $100 or $200 in the case of our pool, because of the quality differential and the warranty. You can't just throw up a keyword stuffed title that makes no sense and think that a person who's willing to spend $200 for a pool poll is going to buy your prop. That is not going to happen. So if you are already building a brand that sets you apart and allows you to sell in that premium price point, I can almost guarantee you are already doing what it is that Amazon wants you to do. You might have to make a tweak here and there, but ultimately your titles are not going to change much based on this new rule.

Speaker 2:

I don't think it's going to be a big issue. And again, same thing. We've been doing it for years. I'm not really concerned about it. You know. It's really not going to be. It's going to be a blip and I think it's actually going to be a positive one. So you know, from that standpoint, I can't I really can't see this as a bad thing. I think everybody should be looking at it.

Speaker 1:

At least those of us who aren't keyword stuffing should this as really just an opportunity to again separate yourselves more than you were able to before.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so switching gears a little bit.

Speaker 1:

I think one of the other things that I'm really excited about this year is the expansion of Rufus and, specifically looking at you know, I think we'll see an ad, some sort of ads capability for Rufus roll out this year, and so I've purposely been using Rufus as part of the shopping experience just to get more familiar with it when I buy things on Amazon, and I think that there's Again I don't think, if we look at this year what's the adoption across the entire Amazon customer base?

Speaker 1:

I think it's going to be single digit percentage of customers. However, right now, rufus shows three or four products. So compare that to if I'm putting in a search for a certain product where there's only three or four options that are coming up. Now compare that to if I put that into the standard search bar, where there's 25 products that are coming up and half of those are ads. I think that there's an amazing opportunity, even if it's only a single digit percentage of customers that are coming up and half of those are ads. I think that there's an amazing opportunity, even if it's only a single digit percentage of customers that are actually using Rufus right now in order to what's probably going to be a fairly cheap ad, in order to capture those customers.

Speaker 2:

Well, I also think that it's. I think that sellers are going to have to pay much more attention to Rufus, in the sense that if you type in pool poll and Rufus comes back with you know three products, if you're not one of those three products, then over time that's going to become problematic. Over time that's going to become problematic. Right now it makes no difference because, as you said, it's single digits, right, you know, in terms of percentage of users that are actually looking for products in that way. But Amazon is big on this. They're pushing hard on moving in this direction of having more shoppers using Rufus in this way. So you know that adoption is going to grow using Rufus in this way. So you know that adoption is going to grow and as it does, it's going to become way more critical that you become one of those few products that are showing up there. If you don't want to have to spend money to have an ad placed within Rufus which is going to happen, that's going to be a thing. So it's not as if you won't have the opportunity, but it'd be way cheaper if you happen to be one of the three that Rufus is recommending. And so I think you're onto something, john, in the sense of one making sure that you're starting to use Rufus so that you understand how is it thinking? What kind of products is it listing? Why is it listing those products versus other products? So that you can start to adjust how you're operating on Amazon so that hopefully, you are showing up as one of those few products.

Speaker 2:

I also think it ties back to the conversation that we were just having about titles, because if you think about AI, if you keyword stealth and you don't actually have a title that makes any sense, then it's a lot harder for Rufus to figure out what is your product. And not only what is your product, but how does your product stand out from other products in your category? Like, why would I want to show your product if somebody says heavy-duty pool, pool versus some other product in that category? Well, if all you've done is just kind of keyword stuff and you haven't given it context to know, then it may not show your product, even though yours might be the one that's the most relevant product for that specific search. So writing those titles that actually make sense not only to a human being but also to AI and gives it the context that it needs, is going to be critical to having the opportunity to show up in those top three listings.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I well, and I would add, you know, just based on, again, my experience anecdotally using it, is that I think that, or at least what I saw from the results in using Rufus, is it actually weighted the summarized customer reviews more than the title. So if you're saying, hey, I'm looking for you know, so I was looking for a case for my new phone. Hey, I wanted to have this feature and I want it to be, you know, good protection for my phone, et cetera, et cetera, like I forget exactly what you know keywords I put in there. But the interesting thing to me was is that it's it seemed like more of that data was actually coming from.

Speaker 1:

You know the summarized reviews that it has actually coming from. You know the summarized reviews that it has. Like if you go down this, the review section, and it gives like a review, you know, summary of the reviews of. Like you know checkmark customers have said that this is a high quality product. Customers have said this has protected their phone. Well, you know and have said that it has this feature. Like that appear to wait more than things like the like the title, which is very different from what we've seen in the past.

Speaker 2:

There's something I want to say about that, but I want to give Matt an opportunity. I don't know if he's got anything he wants to add to that.

Speaker 3:

I don't. Actually, my brain is spinning of what I'm going to do after we get off this, because I haven't played with Rufus anywhere near as much as I should have, based on this conversation. So no, I'm making a checklist.

Speaker 2:

So go ahead and say what you're going to say, mike. So the thing that comes to mind for me is you could, on the surface of that, say that, especially if you're building a list, right, and a list gives you opportunity to request reviews. But I think, just ethically, you do have a responsibility to not, let's say, force or significantly manipulate customers into giving you a particular kind of a review versus something else. Right, you know we're going to pay you for good reviews. Things like that. None of us likes that. If you're a good seller and you're really trying to build a good business, you don't like that model.

Speaker 2:

However, I would say that, because that's true, and I have seen that I haven't used Rufus as much as I think you probably have John, but I have used it and that is something that I noticed about it. And so one of the interesting things there is we've all seen this in the past, I'm sure is you know either these shows or these clips. You know video clips, things like that, where you use I don't know what the terminology is psychology is not my thing but these primers, let's say, right, like in a conversation you prime somebody psychologically to be thinking in a certain way by the things that you do and the things that you say you know right.

Speaker 2:

So, as you're thinking about your post-purchase process with your customer and, by the way, you need one If you don't have a post-purchase process, you're already screwed. So you should be working on that, but in that post-purchase process. So you should be working on that, but in that post-purchase process leading up to any of those specific points in the process where you know customers tend to be in that space where they're going to leave a review right. So for us, when we fulfill on a warranty and the process is super easy and super fast and they don't have to jump through hoops and everything we know, that's the moment at which a lot of people are going to go leave a review for us, because in that moment they're like holy crap, that was as easy as a warranty has ever been. I'm going to leave these guys a five star review right, which is great.

Speaker 2:

But if we don't prime them to some degree in terms of some of the phrasings that they might use or the ways that they might describe the process to Amazon or describe the product to Amazon, then we're leaving. I think, an opportunity on the table Because if we know they're going to leave review, if we craft our messaging to them in such a way that we can prime some of that, we're putting some things in their mind about specific things about the product that we know we want Rufus to hear, or things about our warranty that we know we want Rufus to hear. If we're priming them in those last moments before the review, we've got a much better chance that the reviews they leave are going to positively impact Rufus the exact way that we want them to. So be thinking about that.

Speaker 3:

You know in that post-purchase process with your customer, so be thinking about that you know, in that post-purchase process with your customer, John, as you play around with Rufus like how, I'm still having a hard time because I haven't played with it as much, how, how is it going to influence a buying? So when they ask a question, let's cause. I see it pop up every once in a while when I'm actually shopping on Amazon, and if I'm if I I'm pretty brand loyal though, so so I tend to not look around the page very often, but if I'm shopping for an eye cream or something along those lines and it asks me a question, so if I say looking for a men's eye cream, I type it in the search bar and I have a question down here that it asked me about an eye cream. Does it do this or does it do that? Is that when I see the three choices, or do I have to go through a tree of different questions before I get to where it's actually suggesting brands for me?

Speaker 1:

No, what I've so, what I've done, or what I've seen recently, is that, like you can type in something like hey, I'm looking for an eye cream for men, so it's as general or specific as you want, and then it'll show you, hey, here's a few really popular eye cream for men. But then what it'll also do is say it'll prompt some additional questions for you. Or like, hey, here's some popular questions that customers have asked and you can just click essentially on that pre-populated prompt and then it'll show you the products that show that prompt. So, going back to like my phone case example, like I wanted a case, I wanted a soft case, I didn't want a hard case. So you know it would show like, hey, are you looking for a hard case or a soft case? And so then I could click on the soft case. Are you looking for, you know, something that also protects the screen? Are you looking for, you know, this feature, that feature?

Speaker 2:

So I mean it and here's the most qualifying the customer by walking in through that process. Yes, yes To a certain extent.

Speaker 1:

Now, what I experienced out of that was, every time that you would like, if you asked a question or you clicked on one of those pre-populated prompts as it was kind of guessing what you were looking for asking you more questions about what you're looking for, it's showing you three or four products each time.

Speaker 1:

So if I would have clicked on, hey, I want a soft case. Well, okay, now here's, you know, three or four more products, and some of those products might be the same as what it showed me before, based on the information, and some of them might be different or they might be all different, depending on. You know how it answers that question, gotcha. I mean I would say I use it most recently on desktop and I will say the one thing that I didn't like about it was is that the screen is super small, like it only takes up like a quarter of your regular screen on the browser, so it was a little bit hard to navigate. But I think, you know, for people that are you know, half of people are are mobile shoppers at this point, for them it's probably pretty intuitive and pretty native and you did.

Speaker 2:

You say have you tested on mobile yet, or only on desktop?

Speaker 1:

I have tested it on mobile. I haven't used it as much on mobile as I have on desktop, because I'm more of a a desktop when I'm buying things, as opposed to mobile. Yeah, hmm.

Speaker 3:

So I don't know that.

Speaker 2:

I've ever. I'm almost entirely the reverse.

Speaker 3:

I don't know that I've ever bought. Yeah, I don't think I've ever bought on my desktop, ever ever bought something on Amazon on my desktop? No, my wife always buys on desktop Like she's.

Speaker 2:

She's kind of the same way as as you, john, as you, john, like she's. Like no, I want the full screen, I want to have you know, like I'm just like nah, this is right in my hand, I don't. Why do I want to?

Speaker 1:

just like because I want to compare, like you know, usually three to five products, and then, if I pull up you know three to five products in the browser, I can look at them all kind of side by side, as opposed to kind of one at a time.

Speaker 1:

Yeah for sure. So, yeah, I think it'll be really. I mean, I think most people at this point, though, are using the mobile experience, and so I think it'll be interesting to see what that looks like, I think, as we kind of wrap up. I think the last one I want to talk about as far as opportunities, that I'm excited about is, you know, assuming that it doesn't get shut down, which I don't think it will but TikTok, I think, just the rise of TikTok and the improvement of Walmart, because I think that's going to be great for brands in the sense of, you know, hopefully it'll keep some of these fees and other kind of silly policy changes that Amazon has made in check, and it'll also give, I think, brands an opportunity. It's already given brands an opportunity in order to diversify beyond the Amazon platform.

Speaker 2:

I think there's a chance that Walmart will be able to increase their market share in that space, and, as they do, I do think it is highly likely it's going to have an effect on how Amazon fees are assessed to sellers. On how Amazon fees are assessed to sellers.

Speaker 1:

Who knows?

Speaker 2:

if Walmart grabs enough of market share, maybe some of the fees start getting reduced or reversed. Difficult to say In the moment. Amazon still has such a massive percentage of the market that they're reasonably the only game in town, but I think there's a chance that that becomes a different play. I also think that to some degree TikTok does play into that, because now that TikTok shop does exist, a lot of these products that traditionally would have been Amazon products, many of them now are starting on and maybe even staying exclusively on TikTok, because the fees have traditionally been less on TikTok. But also they have the opportunity for this kind of viral nature and if it's a product that really is conducive to that, then they're almost better off there in some respects than on Amazon. So I do think TikTok and Walmart both have, you know, make it a good opportunity potentially for for sellers to start seeing we'll say, better, better relationship with Amazon if we're lucky.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean again, I don't expect any sort of. I wouldn't expect fees to come down anytime soon. I think it's probably more likely that the increases will just not be as big as what they've been in the past. But I wouldn't expect any Amazon to come along and lower fees in a significant way for sellers anytime in the near future.

Speaker 2:

So, matt, what are you seeing? I know that you've been doing a lot of research on TikTok lately and I know that beyond our brand, I know there's other brands that you're also working with. What are you starting to see in that space, as far as TikTok goes, in terms of you know real world, you know tires to the road, kind of thing?

Speaker 3:

Well, I think, first of all, the working with content creators and and affiliates, I think, is I enjoy that more than just feeding the Amazon advertising beast. To be honest, I think that I think that there's a the. The fact that you the virality part of this makes things very exciting, cause I mean, if you can figure out, like a lot of these content creators have figured out, the virality part of the TikTok algorithm, and you don't need very many followers for your brand in order for your product to go viral, and that's what I love about that opportunity and that's why a lot of brands are focusing their attention on it. I think that what I'm seeing specifically on TikTok is that, first of all, there's a lot of content creators now and the ones that are good, that you can see in like these tools using like CaloData or FastMoss, where you can actually see how much GMB they're driving, how much revenue they're driving. The good ones typically they're getting hundreds and hundreds of emails a day, so it's hard to kind of break through the noise for the ones that actually know what they're doing and have an audience. The smaller content creators there seems like everyone and their mom is a content creator now and they're kind of reversed. They're reaching out to brands saying, hey, can I do videos for you? So I think you have to have some sort of traction on TikTok in order to attract the influencers and content creators that actually know what they're doing. So that's kind of what we're working on now. There's a couple of other brand new brands that I'm helping to launch on the TikTok platform that we're getting there seems to be about a magic number of anywhere between five to 800.

Speaker 3:

Once you reach that five to 800 units sold, then you start to become attractive to a different tier of content creators that actually that are kind of attuned to what that algorithm looks like. So that's really the biggest thing is getting a start getting some purchases as fast as you can, using an audience to get some purchases. Once you hit that couple hundred of sales, then really start kind of putting that influencer outreach on steroids, and it's really a numbers game. There's tools that you can kind of automate the outreach. One of the other things that TikTok does is kind of gamify different. It unlocks different things that you can do. So I add a certain number of sales that you can then send an unlimited number of messages to affiliates on the TikTok platform where, if you don't have that number, I think you're limited to 500 a month or something like that.

Speaker 3:

So you know things like that where it's just understanding how to reach the right influencer that is a good fit for your product. So that's what I've actually found. So there's a lot of brands that have had success with the spray and pray kind of method of just reaching out to as many as you can. I've the brands that I've seen succeed faster with their influencers and content creators are the ones that go through and talk to the ones that really make sense with their audience, as opposed to just throwing it out there to just everybody. That will create a video for you. So really targeted, knowing who your audience is and knowing who has an audience that overlaps with that is where brands are seeing the highest success.

Speaker 2:

So would you say, matt, that if you're a brand, let's say I mean, because many of our listeners are established brands on Amazon whether they have gone the extra mile to build it into an actual brand or not maybe is somewhat questionable but they have a presence, let's say, which means they have inventory. Some of them have built a list and have some post-purchase process in place where they've got subscribers and whatnot. So if you were a brand that has sufficient inventory to support it and has a list that you could direct to a TikTok shop to place orders, it strikes me that you are actually in a really good position where you could push through. You know 500 to 1000 sales. You know at or slightly above cost, let's say, on TikTok to your list and instantly basically put yourself in that position of not only having better access to the better creators on the platform, being able to send more emails, you know, getting more traction, that sort of thing, you know. It feels like you're almost in that sweet spot where you really could I don't want to say game the system, but in a sense you really have a good opportunity there.

Speaker 2:

And on that question I have one additional, and that is when you say 500 to a thousand orders. It's for your entire shop, right Like it's not for a specific product. So in other words, you could have one low price product that you have really good margins on, that you could easily sell at a slight markup over cost and run 1,000 units through in a hurry and not really care about it. But all of a sudden now your entire shop and all of your products end up now being able to be exposed to those better creators. Is that an accurate representation of the situation?

Speaker 3:

Well, it actually depends on how the content creator is looking at your. If you're reaching out to them talking about a specific product, then you know there are tools that they can see your overall store sales, but it's mostly at a SKU level that they're seeing those Because you can without using any tools, at a SKU level that they're seeing those Because you can without using any tools at all. You can go to TikTok shop right now and, similar to how Amazon showing X amount sold in the last 30 days, tiktok has that as well. So your overall brand totals are a little bit more hidden than individual SKU totals. So I was actually talking more about one for one particular product, a thousand sales, or about a couple hundred sales. I think five to 800 is really that sweet spot. But what was the other question that you asked, mike oh, about what that has an audience, about brands that have audience.

Speaker 3:

Actually, you know we all used to quote unquote game, the system on the Amazon side when we could do those search find buys and people were doing those campaigns, those many chat campaigns where it was going out running a Facebook ad getting people in to make a purchase, then reimbursing them and asking them to go search for a particular keyword. Tiktok is kind of still like the days of the wild wild west on the Amazon side and there are some kind of gray hat types of things. Now I've always operated on the side of a risk reward type of a decision tree. Right now there's not really a whole lot of risk for those types of things, for those types of things that we used to do on Amazon. So you know, one of the methods that we're seeing have a lot of success is kind of quote unquote fake buys, where you have your list, go out and purchase X amount you know, say 15 units per purchase but then also only sending them one.

Speaker 3:

Amazon or TikTok only cares about a shipping label being created against an order. They don't really know what's going on inside of that box. So that's kind of one of the gray hat tactics that people are using now is to have people make a purchase of more than one unit but then just sending them one unit as opposed to sending them whatever the number is. So that's kind of a gray hat kind of. Maybe leans more on the side of black hat, but it's still things that Amazon or TikTok is still in the early stages of. It's the maturity of a platform to where things like that are effective, and if you're not gonna use it, competitors are going to. So you know, if there's something that you can do to get to that thousand faster, that's what some of the brands that I see are using as a tactic.

Speaker 1:

So, as we wrap up with the last couple of minutes here, you know what you know. What final thoughts would you guys give the listeners as they think about, you know, fortifying their brands in 2025?

Speaker 2:

I just think I would come back to the same thing that that I've said previously, both in this episode and in previous podcasts, and that is anytime there's a significant change on the horizon. You know, instead of seeing it, as you know, the sky is falling. Looking at it as this is an opportunity for me to set myself apart from other sellers, because if I'm willing to put in the effort and get good at whatever this thing is that I need to be able to do, there are going to be other sellers that won't be willing to put in that effort and they're going to lose and I'm going to win, and it's just the nature of the game, right? So you know, when Amazon is changing fees, okay, how can I adjust, you know, my products. Maybe I change the product size, maybe I change whatever. You know, other sellers maybe aren't going to make those tweaks.

Speaker 2:

You know Trump is going to institute tariffs, you know, or whatever. Well, okay, that's the case. Then do I have an easy opportunity to move into someplace else for manufacturing, or do I have enough margin in my product that I can afford to pay for that additional tariff, whereas everybody else in my category can't? So you know, six months or a year from now they might not even be there. And so now maybe I'm number 20 because I'm priced at, you know, 50 bucks, but maybe by this time next year I'm number three because all those other competitors, you know now they can't compete. So I just say look at, look at this as opportunity. All of these changes that are coming are just opportunities. It's just a matter of changing your mindset about it and making sure that you see it that way and figure out where is that space? How do I fit through that groove to make this an opportunity for me that other sellers aren't going?

Speaker 3:

to see talked about a lot in this conversation is diversifying off of Amazon and knowing that any efforts you put off of Amazon at some point are going to end up back on Amazon, because most purchases involve Amazon at some point in the cycle, whether it's not for product research and they start there or they end there and actually make the purchase there. I think any focus you put off of Amazon is going to be time well spent because it will affect Amazon in the end anyways.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I'll just leave with. You know, I think, as much as there's a lot of things that I'm excited about for 2025, that at the end of the day, it comes down to you know first principles and building a strong brand, and those don't change. So it's just a matter of you know what that application looks like, whether that's you know growing on Amazon or on a new platform like TikTok, or you know somewhere else that if you're applying those first principles to a strong brand of taking care of your customers, offering them more value than what you're charging them, and kind of those things that we know, and applying them effectively and executing that, you're going to see a lot of success in 2025 and beyond. So, all right. Well, that wraps up our episode for 2025. Thank everybody for listening and we'll see you next time on another Tactics Tuesday.

People on this episode

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Jon Stojan

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Matt Atkins

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Mike Kaufman

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