Podcast transcript
Introduction
This live episode of Marketplace Masters is sponsored by MerchantSpring, the leading analytics platform for Amazon vendors and their agencies. Determining profitability as a vendor can be challenging, but now MerchantSpring's new vendor profitability makes it super easy. By integrating COGs, rebates, chargebacks, and advertising costs, it provides a clear view of profitability at both the vendor code and ASIN levels from both the sell-in and sell-out perspectives. Head to merchantspring.io to take our new vendor P&L analytics for a test drive.
Paul Sonneveld
Hi, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Marketplace Masters, the podcast dedicated to uncovering the strategies that drive success on Amazon. I am your host, Paul Sonneveld, and today we're diving into a very critical and timely topic, how Amazon vendors can prepare for and avoid the risk of account closure. This is a growing concern for many vendors, and we'll be exploring strategies to really safeguard your account, plan contingencies, and maintain commercial growth.
Now, joining me for today's discussion is Alex Carmody, the VP of Brand Strategy at FrontRow, a leading e-commerce agency and accelerator specializing in beauty, health, wellness, and consumer brands. With a global presence in New York City, San Diego, Hamburg, and Bratislava, FrontRow partners with top brands to drive holistic e-commerce growth leveraging proprietary technologies called Catapult and Robust Capabilities, Front Row designs, markets, distributes, and scales brands worldwide.
Alexandra, or Alex, has over five years of experience leading strategy at Fortress Brands, which has now become FrontRow. Today, she works across all marketplace partnership brand partners, guiding her teams to deliver best-in-class services and insights for success on Amazon. Alex, welcome to the show. It's an absolute pleasure to have you today.
Alexandra Carmody
Thanks, Paul. I'm excited to chat.
Paul Sonneveld
Super interesting topic, right? There's been a lot of conversation going on, particularly on LinkedIn. It's been really lit up. I can't wait to get into it. Just before we do, a quick reminder before we dive in, a quick note for our live audience. Alex and I would love to hear from you. So if you have a question, please submit it in the LinkedIn comment section during the course of this episode, and we're going to do our best to answer them live during the show. All right, let's get started. Now, let's start, Alex. What are the recent trends that you are seeing in respect to Amazon's decisions on vendor counts, especially for smaller vendors?
Alexandra Carmody
Yeah, so I mean, candidly, a light bit of panic. For smaller vendors in particular, I think they're feeling a little bit lost at sea. The time of year in which some of these notices went out was pretty alarming. Going into Q4, going into holiday, major promotional time periods to have such a structural change that they weren't aware was coming down the line. It has sort of put some folks on the back foot trying to figure out what their options are.
And I think part of that in terms of trends and what we're seeing is people are uncovering that opening up your own seller central account as say, an option as you're moving out of vendor, it can be kind of a tricky and extensive process with a lot of layers of approval built into it. And it's not as easy as just kind of turning something on.
So I think people are getting hit with realizing the amount of operational burden that will now be on the seller or on the brand side of things, and figuring out really, what do they need in terms of overhead? How can they process manage this? And how can they do it quickly as they go? And then I think another trend that we're seeing, you know, from brand partners and sellers that we're talking to are people considering what other sorts of partnerships within Amazon are there to consider outside of just owning and managing a seller account top to bottom.
So partnerships like 3P Premium Beauty, things of that nature have come up for some of our brands to figure out, does this make sense for me? Do I qualify for these programs? Really so that they still have someone on the Amazon side who can help them handhold as they go. And it's less of a you are inheriting all of this now, good luck sort of a feeling that they had.
Paul Sonneveld
Yeah. Just, just going back to your, your point around like panic in the market. I mean, there's certainly LinkedIn's been lining up and I'm sure other forums too. Are people overreacting right now or do you think Amazon is making a big shift here in terms of moving a whole bunch of vendors to off the vendor platform to, you know, we've seen kind of announcements like this in the past. There was one last year around distributors.
I think I remember the one from a year before. And, you know, we sort of, from what we were seeing, we weren't noticing like massive drops, drop offs. It felt like there was a lot of noise, but not a lot of follow through. And maybe this is unfair if you were listening to this and you were impacted by that and like, well, you know, you don't know my situation, which is probably true and I apologize. But is the amount of panic justified?
Alexandra Carmody
Yeah, so I think this feels maybe a little more, for lack of a better word, panicky because of the time of year. But I do think as people who are in a kind of a vendor relationship already and as they have to take a step back, evaluate their options, it's good to just kind of like take a beat, take a breath and realize that there are options.
And I think that's part of kind of the difference that maybe we have seen is when this got announced, the reaction was, there's nothing left for me to do here. I need to think of other channels that I can sell in. But then Amazon really took the stance of saying, no, we want you to move into a seller relationship with us. And a lot of that goes down to the fact that they still want you within the platform.
So I think once you get over that initial shock, brands did realize, you know, there are hybrid options that you can consider, other partnership models. And then, in some instances, brands are maybe not hitting that revenue threshold for a vendor relationship long term, but they might have the overhead internally to support a team that they can build and really manage this top to bottom.
So I think as brands have taken a beat, the shock of it being Q4 was not great, and that's really hard to process manage. But really leaning on your vendor manager and figuring out what your options are, which sounds almost silly to do, has been something that some brands have found beneficial. What are my options? What else should I consider? And then really trying to game plan for what does 2025 look like? It was just, I think, a shock because I think a lot of brands do 2025 planning as early as August, and this just wasn't on their roadmap at all.
Paul Sonneveld
Yeah, I know. Get it. What we're getting to sort of what can you do about it in a sec. But I just wanted to sort of put ourselves in Amazon's shoes. You know why is Amazon doing this? I mean it sounds like why is Amazon doing this. But you know really from from their strategic agenda what are they looking to achieve?
Alexandra Carmody
Yeah, I think it's always improving profitability by having a smaller subset of say, you know, high value or high revenue driving relationships within the vendor relationship that they can focus on from almost like a core perspective. I think they've seen that over the last year. They've gotten some major brands within the space that were never on Amazon before to do large launches, you know, front page splash, big launches within the platform.
And I think they've realized that there's better profitability by doing that. Plus, we all know that, you know, the vendor team is a lot of overhead for Amazon to manage. So being able to pull back that team, maybe reallocate out resources into other departments that they need, I think it all just kind of rolls up into profitability.
And they don't want to lose the revenue within the channel, which is why they kind of pivot everyone to seller. They want you to keep selling. They want you to kind of own that operational risk because as we all know, for anyone that's gone through the last 12 days of deals, the fulfillment process with FBA and all the bottlenecking within the warehouses, I think Amazon did need to kind of take stock in the way that they're demand planning within vendor accounts and figure out how do we get through some of that inventory as well.
Paul Sonneveld
So do you see this as a long-term shift? I mean, clearly this year has been all about cost focus for Amazon. They've gone pretty hard at lots of parts of their business, particularly around the vendor piece. Do you see this as a long-term shift or do you think there might be a U-turn, maybe not a complete U-turn, but a loosening of criteria around the vendor program in the future?
Alexandra Carmody
Yeah, I do think it's going to be long term. I think that reallocation of resources and just the overhead within the vendor team was probably one of the biggest pieces that they wanted to shift. But in terms of taking a partial U-turn, I could see Amazon coming back to some of those 1P relationships and maybe pivoting them into a different partnership model like a 3P premium beauty or you know, thinking through how can you cohort into a certain market and figure out a different service model based off of that.
But I do think it's long-term. I don't think it's situational. And I do think a big part of that is Amazon has realized that they can really get more bang for their buck for those larger enterprise type clients like, you know, Samsung, Apple, things of that nature. So I think it really does kind of shake out into Amazon doesn't want to leave you entirely. They still want you to invest in the channel and for that revenue to come through. But at the end of the day for them, it's really just profitability.
Paul Sonneveld
Yeah, got it. So let's talk about vendor perspective here. And I think we can probably put them into two different buckets. There are those that have already received the notice, right? The dreaded email. I think we've seen versions of that. And there's those that are concerned that they might get the email, right? Let's talk about that letter group first.
Alexandra Carmody
Yeah.
Paul Sonneveld
What being a vendor, you know, what are some of the actions if you have not received the email yet? You know, what are some of the key actions or top actions a vendor can take to really reduce that risk of being flagged for account closure?
Alexandra Carmody
Yeah, I think one of the biggest ones that we were hearing across the board from some brands that we've, or vendors we've talked to, brands we've talked to, just people within the space, is a lot of inferences around, was it my in-stock rate? Not just did I hit a revenue threshold, did I hit that number that they're looking at, but did I really remain in stock on the SKUs that the vendor demand planning team cares about, or the PO team cares about.
I think that's the first one to really take a long pause and think through. Vendor and the way that they process manage POs, it's still that really core 80-20 rule. So if 20% of your SKUs are driving 80% of your business, you need to make sure that there's consistent stock within the Amazon channel for it to not be at risk. So I think that's really, really key. And we all know supply chain has been a really big hurdle across the globe in the last year. So I'd be willing to bet some of the people who maybe have gotten that notice probably did have a tough year getting their goods to where they needed to be in a timely manner and out of stocks probably popped up.
I think another thing to consider is, you know, brands don't always necessarily have a strong new product launch calendar year over year. Some brands launch a lot of products within a calendar year. Other brands and vendor partners maybe they aren't entering any new products within the platform in a given timeframe. And really understanding that assortment expansion or making something exclusive to Amazon, that can really move the needle from a vendor relationship perspective because it's core dollars that remain within that channel.
But there will be that sort of, you know, co-op from Amazon to say, this is an exclusive kit. We want to put it into a top deal. We want to put it here. We want to kind of, you know, really make it a splash. And they support you in those decisions. So I think those are some kind of key things to really keep in mind that feel very timely just given the time of year we're in, but really do need to be part of your strategy for an entire calendar year. And it does help you to increase your AOV, increase your sales velocity, and helps you kind of weed through maybe SKUs that you do want to discontinue or don't make sense for the platform anymore.
And then I also think one of the things that Seems like a no-brainer, but from talking with vendor partners and brands pretty consistently in the last year, a lot of budgets from off-channel promotional marketing to drive to platforms like Amazon have been pulled. And I think a lot of that is vendors or brands that are trying to figure out what's their overall omni-channel strategy, really by pulling back some of those off-channel marketing efforts, I think that that can also be somewhat of a risk in terms of driving that traffic to Amazon and having it be consistent in terms of getting your organic rankings up, making sure you're playing within the space and really earning that market share.
So I think that's another key piece is really making sure that you can't just be solely focused on advertising within the Amazon platform. You also have to think through how am I driving traffic and building that brand awareness off-channel to get consumers to be those lifelong Amazon consumers for your client, for a vendor account, for a brand.
Paul Sonneveld
That makes sense. The thing, I mean, some really interesting things around, you know, doing business with Amazon around supply chain, making sure it's kind of easy for Amazon, giving them like attractive products, right? Exclusives, things that they want, they're going to want, right. Create that sort of demand piece, off traffic.
What about the broader just sales and profitability? Like, and I'm always conscious as well around the piece that, advertising, advertising spend, even on Amazon doesn't sit within the vendors P and L, right? Any just short term tricks that you can apply there, you know, shifting some dollars around from top line advertising to maybe more deal support,
Alexandra Carmody
Yeah.
Paul Sonneveld
Stuffing the net PPM rate, you know, I'm sort of being, you know, being very kind of technical here. Any value in thinking about that? Or is that you know, what, we're just this is a long term piece?
Alexandra Carmody
No, I think it's actually a really good call out. And it's always that kind of tricky game, too, because, you know, if you're in multiple brick and mortars or big box retailers, vendor is always going to be matching the pricing off channel. So knowing that you need to be maybe a little more promotionally heavy than you probably have been in the past is really key in terms of keeping your sales velocity up.
And there's some key things that Amazon has rolled out in the last year, things like brand tailored promotions, that new first time subscribe and save coupon. Those sorts of levers and programs have really helped brands to increase not only their visibility within cohorted audiences, but also figuring out, are people driven by the discount? Are they looking for it consistently for the brand? And are they viewing Amazon as a place for their replenishment when they come back?
So being able to nurture that consumer when they are new to brand, but understanding their first touchpoint was by way of a promotional holiday or promotional push. What's the best way to get them to come back to purchase multiple products or other products within your assortment? So from an ads perspective, it is thinking through what tactics are you using? Sponsor products are great. We know that, you know, you're going to have really good return if you have consistent and really efficient campaigns. But how do you go beyond that and find your new target audience or a niche audience that you haven't been able to see within the marketplace yet and really what's working?
That's a key kind of strategy that brands should definitely consider outside of, let me just own my brand, own my branded terms. You really have to think through how are people who are engaging with content in market on, say, TikTok, how are they searching once they come to Amazon to see if a product is available? Or what are they searching for something that's in market within my category? And that can be expensive.
Paul Sonneveld
Yeah. Yeah. Very interesting. So in terms of the threshold, I've sort of got a bit mixed up here between what's happening in the US and in Europe here. But did Amazon communicate a revenue threshold or a PO threshold in terms of if you fall below this, You're kind of out. Is it as hot and fast as that or is it a little fuzzier?
Alexandra Carmody
Yeah, I mean, it's a little fuzzier, but the general consensus from what people have seen or some of the notices people have received is anything under 10 million as kind of like the threshold. And I do think that that does create kind of a pause for people in a vendor relationship to remember that they need to keep Amazon as a core channel, not a supplemental channel. And that can be really tricky and dicey for those large enterprise type clients, or for those kind of middle of the road emerging clients who came into a vendor relationship with Amazon to really grow, but maybe did have to pivot and move into brick and mortar and other big box retailers.
And those are some, you know, I wouldn't necessarily call it a mistake or a risk, but those are things that, you know, because it's always scraping, you can always see the pricing and everything off channel. You have to really still have Amazon be core to your overall omni-channel strategy. And if it's not number one, it should probably be number two in order to kind of keep up with that within vendor.
Paul Sonneveld
Yeah, no, that makes sense. What about the aspect of around, as you know, Amazon may just source from you as a vendor, but they may also source from distributors or source stock from other markets. You know, and obviously you can get some insights into that comparing kind of your sourcing views versus manufacturing views and all that. Are there any, have you come across, I'm just sort of interesting here is, have you come across any opportunities there for a vendor to increase the amount of business they do with Amazon by really kind of closing down on some of their wider channel distribution strategy and sort of trying to ensure that they only stop for Amazon to source products? I mean, is there anything like that or is that more of a theoretical kind of point?
Alexandra Carmody
No, I think I think there have been a lot of brands that have reevaluated what their distribution looks like when it comes to smaller distribution channels, not necessarily, you know, big box retailers as much because those are core to their business, you know, existing for longer term.
But really understanding if you have a distributor network, or you're selling to a lot of mom and pop stores or a lot of local stores, those stores often can create some friction within kind of the space because those goods can end up on Amazon, regardless of what sort of relationship or partnership you're in with Amazon.
If there's not that kind of need or demand or people don't know how to connect with your brand and we have seen those distributors open up accounts and then sell within the platform. And knowing that it's a really good idea for brands, whether they are exiting a vendor relationship, considering one or moving into a seller environment, really evaluate your distribution agreement so that there are clauses built in that say, we do not prohibit you or we prohibit you from selling on Amazon because we want to be that exclusive seller and we really want to own the brand.
And that can be tricky when you're in a vendor relationship. But we also know, too, within that sort of vendor environment, there are instances where you can get gating and things of that nature. So those brands that are exiting are now experiencing that within the channel, maybe for the first time. And that can be a hit to their own internal P&L, trying to figure out, how do I service this? How do I get some of these bad sellers down? And is there even a process to do it?
Paul Sonneveld
Yeah. Yeah, it makes sense. So actually, that's a really good segue to get into that second group of vendors who have received the dreaded notice, maybe they're just getting over the panic stage, their heart rate is back to normal, perhaps. Now that kind of the emotions are sort of have subsided, you know, what are the first steps they should really think about as they seek to transition, right, to an alternative arrangement? You know, what's your counsel?
Alexandra Carmody
Totally. I think for brands in that instance where they've already gotten the notice, they kind of know the date in which they're going to be exiting off, really taking the time to and I kind of mentioned it at the beginning, but taking the time to realize it can be a little while until you get a seller account up and running. That is one option, managing your seller account as the person who's selling and really learning and leaning into what those operational kind of hurdles look like. It's not much different when it comes to things like fulfillment, because ideally you want to try and still send in and ship via FBA. You're just not getting POs on a weekly basis that just tells you what to send in.
So knowing that, one of the other pieces that I think can be overwhelming as you move into that sort of environment is the demand planning aspect of it. You know, we never really know what the algorithms like for a vendor account and how they demand plan, but understanding that you have that wealth of data, you can take a look at what your inventory turns have looked like, and you can make some calculated decisions from there. That's something that's, I think, really key as kind of like a first step to figure out.
If you're opening up a seller account, what's the right amount of inventory to keep on hand? And what do those fees really look like as well? Factoring in things like excess inventory as time goes on, anything kind of under that umbrella. So all the things that your vendor manager might have been process managing for you and just giving you updates along the way, you kind of have to learn that entire process on the back end. That's a really good first step, though, is knowing it could take some time to get it up and running, but also start thinking through what does your inventory look like so you're not out of stock.
And then I think one of the positives behind that are where people who are exiting that partnership can get excited is you kind of have more control in a seller environment when it comes to things like pricing and also just like telling your overall brand story. And there are some key kind of fun, different brand analytics and reports that you get within a seller environment that do take some time to learn and kind of understand what the data really means.
But I will say, you know, it can be beneficial for a brand. A brand can actually scale and potentially grow a little bit quicker when they are controlling their map pricing and they don't have to price match against, you know, off-channel promotions or things that are going on automatically. But also really just understanding, like, what does the space, how does the space function and how is it that I now have to interact with it where I didn't previously.
So that's always kind of the good first step is you're considering or thinking through it. But it all goes back to like, don't get overwhelmed. A seller account, a positive there too, is, you know, you have 24-hour access to seller support. Whether you get an answer the first try or the third try, you know, varies. But it is something that, you know, at the end of the day, Amazon wants to keep you within their flywheel. They want to keep you within the platform and spending within the platform. So really making sure you don't have that loss of sales as you go.
Paul Sonneveld
Just two short follow-up questions for me here. One, a very technical recommendation. In terms of the ratio, right, demand planning you spoke about, if I generally have done, you know, let's ignore kind of peak trading, but like, I don't know, I'm selling a hundred units a week for a particular ASIN on the vendor program.
I'm now a seller using FBA, so still shipped by Amazon, sold by someone else. Is there a rule of thumb or, you know, maybe not a rule of thumb is too hard, but in terms of what have you seen in terms of the rate of sale, the difference between transitioning from a vendor to a seller, you know, is there a substantial, I mean, clearly there'll be a temporary drop off, particularly if the transition isn't managed properly, but if you sort of ignore that sort of transition phase, is it one for one or do you see, Is there some softening of underlying demand just because you're no longer Amazon that's selling it even though you're shipping via Amazon?
Alexandra Carmody
Yeah, I think it's a good question. You know, there's always theories about that. You know, if you're if it's ships and sold by Amazon, is it ranking better? Is it indexing higher? You know, it's hard to say because you can never really know. But I mean, our experience or my experience and working, you know, here with a lot of different partners across different models as they go, there really isn't a significant drop off as long as you are remaining in stock.
That's, I think, the big one is Amazon, because it's this weekly cadence of getting things in, it's very efficient. You know, in a vendor relationship, they are going to be prioritizing your POs getting processed. So understanding that a typical seller account, maybe it's a two to three week turnaround time for the full order that you're sending in of a certain size to actually be processed. Building that into the way that you think about actually putting inventory into the channel, and then also factoring in things like, nowadays, you probably need two to three weeks of safety stock on top of that. And depending on the time of year, if you're already pre-planning a promo, you need to then also be proactive with that.
So I think it's kind of twofold. It's really about the keeping in stock to keep everything up and running at the highest rate. But you might see a light softening if there has been heavy promotion and price matching going on within the vendor relationship, because ultimately your goal as you move into a seller relationship is to get your products back up to map just so that you can increase your AOV as time goes on.
Paul Sonneveld
Yeah, that makes sense. So my second question was, there are some other options here as well, of course, and I think you mentioned some at the start of it, which is, yes, you can open up your own seller account. You can also maybe work with a partner who has their own seller account and get them to sell the products for you, like a distributor model via 3P or even 1P, potentially.
Alexandra Carmody
Exactly.
Paul Sonneveld
How, I mean, it's a much bigger topic and we can do a podcast on it by itself, but top line, What are the considerations and how do you think about at least these two options or two and a half options?
Alexandra Carmody
Yeah, two and a half options. Yeah, so within a distributor kind of relationship and we at FrontRow work with brands really heavily within that space. It can help, you know, internally, it can help because you are offloading product, it's being sold to a trusted source, you can be the exclusive distributor within the channel and kind of enforce against that. But again, that pricing control is really, really key. So as long as your distributor agreements are clear, even if it's a distributor agreement that's agreeing to actually list on Amazon, making sure that that pricing compliance is built in is really, really key to kind of keep things up and running.
Plus two, I think there's a control lever to actually scale your business a little bit more quickly when you are using either an agency partner or a distributor who is doing a full suite of services on behalf of your brand. It will also be less expensive for you to have to staff out an entire team who would probably have to run your seller account. Because it's not as simple as someone who's maybe worked in vendor before, maybe sort of knows how the orders work.
All of the backend operations that go into it and working with seller support and everything else on top of that, there's a lot of product flags, a lot of things that can go wrong from the inventory processing perspective. Depending on the category you are within, things can get flagged for ingredients that need lab testing. All of those sorts of things are really overwhelming for a brand to take on.
So a distributor partner can be really key to an overall strategy. But this idea of sort of like a hybrid of, and actually it should have been a recommendation of how can brands kind of combat risk, doing an analysis of which products within your vendor assortment maybe weren't as profitable, they might be profitable in a 3P environment and having a kind of hybrid relationship.
And there have been, you know, vendor clients who have had conversations with their vendor manager saying, Hey, we might not hit this threshold. We want to continue working in this environment because we feel really good about it and we want to keep these SKUs in. But these other ones that you're not even buying anymore, we still want to be selling them within the channel. And we're considering, you know, more of a 3P relationship. And those are conversations that can feel a little awkward or feel a little weird bringing to a vendor manager. But, you know, vendor partners have been successful in having them and just being proactive and bringing it up.
Paul Sonneveld
Yeah. If you do decide to go to that distributor model, right? You say, look, seller is too hard, too difficult, or maybe I'm going to do most of it through the distributor, particularly maybe in the short to medium term, because the transition's easier. There's always this question that comes up, and I know the sort of the really big players in the space, like a patent will insist on this, which is, you know, brand registry rights, right? Do you give your distributor ownership of your brand on Amazon?
Alexandra Carmody
Yeah.
Paul Sonneveld
Love to hear your thoughts on that.
Alexandra Carmody
Great question. I think there's twofold to that. You can work with a really core distributor partner who's more of an extension of your brand. They understand your brand's ethos. They understand your storytelling. They're kind of an extension of your internal team already. Those sorts of relationships that maybe already exist in some capacity, whether it's another channel or maybe a different core competency that they're working through with an agency partner, it's a comfortability. If the brand or the former vendor partner is comfortable with that, they can kind of go that route. There are also people who are exiting that vendor relationship who do want someone to own it top to bottom, and brand registry is a really easy way to do that.
Secondarily to that, though, because we run into this quite a bit on our side here at FrontRow, there are ways where you can get seller benefits that help with content contributions, making sure that you have access to seller support, but maybe will isolate out certain areas on the back end around financial reporting and so forth. So you just don't have access to those areas. Similarly, if you, you know what, there's different levels within brand registry, as we all know. So depending on really what you are looking to accomplish and your full suite of what you're offering in this distribution relationship, there are a lot of ways where you can actually kind of, you know, just carve out certain things that you know your distributor partner needs access to and leave everything else to the brand to keep kind of closer to them or closer to the chest.
But seller benefits, I think, is like a really easy one. It's not full brand registry access. You don't have access to the financial reporting, but you can kind of tinker around and do everything operationally on the back end without really causing any sort of issues.
Paul Sonneveld
Great. Great tip. All right, we unfortunately are out of time already. We're over time. So it's gone really, really quick. I wanted to just maybe ask you one last question, which is as vendors transition, whether it's forced or voluntary, what are the biggest mistakes that you see vendors make as they go about this transition process? What are the things I call them the banana skins that vendors should avoid as they seek to do this, just as we close out.
Alexandra Carmody
Yeah, I think overstuffing the channel and just having too much inventory on hand or ordering to the same rate that maybe the vendor or partner was on a consistent basis, that's kind of a key mistake that I think a lot of brands make.
Another one is, I would say, from sort of like a baby step perspective, understanding that some of the offerings and some of that support that you had previously maybe won't be there any longer. It is worth the time and it is advantageous for people who are exiting those vendor partnerships to really invest in understanding what the channel looks like. Whether that's looking at different resources within forums, seeing how people are talking within the space. It's a pretty large mistake if you think that you can just go in there, list your products and get up and running. And then I think, you know, on the back end of things, really making sure that you're still being true to the products you're selling or the brand that you are putting out there.
So that idea of brand storytelling and there being limitations in a vendor relationship, how can you take a look at review data and see how consumers are talking about your product on Amazon and bridge some of those gaps in terms of how do we make this PDP even better? How do we actually increase sales velocity since we're a little afraid that we're not going to be able to ramp back up without a promotion? And find out what consumers are really saying about your product to make it make sense for the Amazon consumer.
If you overlook those small things, which all brands do or all partners do, but then you enter the Amazon space and it feels like you can't do those things, there are a lot of ways that you can within a seller environment to really tell that brand story and also make it make sense to the consumer and have that emotional component really kind of pull them in.
So I think if you don't kind of take the time to realize that you can do that within the platform, and there are a lot of key ways that Amazon actually supports that within a seller environment, That's a key thing that I think some brands overlook or don't even think through.
Paul Sonneveld
Awesome. Great, great summary. Thank you so much, Alex. I'm generally sorry that we have to wrap up because there's always more to talk about. Maybe I should start thinking about doing those long-form podcasts where we go for three hours and we can talk about everything else as well. But thank you so much, Alex, for joining me today, your insights and just advice and your perspectives really just to help, you know, clarify some of the challenges, right, and uncertainties around this whole quite, you know, highly emotionally charged topic for many, many vendors.
You know, I, obviously, we're talking about it sort of lightly, but I know that there's probably many vendors out there that are feeling a high degree of stress associated with this topic. So I just acknowledge that. Now, For those that are either tuning in live today or watching this afterwards, for those that are interested in maybe learning more about what you do, how you can help them, or even just getting some advice, what is the best way to get in touch with you?
Alexandra Carmody
Yeah, the best way to get in touch with us is frontrowgroup.com.
Paul Sonneveld
It's easy. One word, right? Frontrow. There we go.
Alexandra Carmody
One word.
Paul Sonneveld
Excellent. All right. Well, thank you so much, Alex. Really appreciate it.
Alexandra Carmody
Yeah. Thanks, Paul. This was great.
Paul Sonneveld
All right, everyone. That is a wrap for today. Thank you so much for tuning in. Now, of course, if you are looking, if you are a vendor, if you're looking for more insights, please to ensure to check out our entire video on demand library at merchantspring.io for a whole wealth of Amazon vendor specific content. I really encourage you to check it out.
Of course, if you are looking for analytics, whether you're looking for agency level analytics for Amazon or Amazon vendor analytics, feel free to reach out to me or the team here at MerchantSpring. And of course, last but not least, we're almost at the end of 2024. I'm on the lookout for topics that are of interest to you when it comes to the Amazon vendor platform. So if you have an idea or a suggestion or you know of an excellent person for me to invite on this podcast, please drop me a message and I'd love to follow up with you and that person. All right, until next time, take care.
