Podcast transcript
James Dihardjo
So Omar, thank you so much for making time for me all the way from Spain. I just wanted to hand it over to you and maybe you can introduce yourself, what you do, who Margin Business is, and, and give us a bit of background.
Omar Angri
Okay. Hey, thanks James for having me today. It's a pleasure to come on to the MerchantSpring podcast and yeah. My name is Omar Angri. I'm the CEO of Margin Business. We are a listing optimisation and localisation company, so we are very niche. We really only do this. We’re not do it all. a service Amazon company. We really do, and it's only for Amazon, actually. We are looking into other marketplaces, but for now, we are really focused, on Amazon.
So listing optimisation and localisation. Localisation, how can I explain it? The best is kind of if you have a customer, for example, in Spain or in Italy and he's looking at a listing. He wants to connect with the listing. He wants to be spoken to in their language. So this is what we do very, very short. If we take it very short, this is what we do.
If you have a German customer, who wants to read his listing and understand that assessment written by a German native and take him by the hand through the listing and then through the buying process. Looking at the picture. They want as well to see their culture in there and understand what can they do with the product best within their country. Because, for example, Germany is a rainy or snowy or a very it's not like 365 days of sun in the country. So, we have a tendency of have to put other pictures in as, for example, in Spain or in different countries. So yes, this is, in a nutshell, what we do.
James Dihardjo
Fantastic. And just my understanding, you say you only do this for Amazon, but you'll do the localisation and optimisation for any Amazon around the world. Is that correct?
Omar Angri
Yes, we can do it for any Amazon around the world. We have clients around the world but we try to focus on the European Union and on the markets a bit around it. Like we have seven European countries at the moment. We have four major markets: Spain, Italy, France, and Germany. And we have three emerging markets: Netherlands, Sweden, and Poland.
James Dihardjo
Yeah, makes sense. Okay, cool. It's a good segue into my next question. So, cause your service kind of covers most of the globe in terms of localisation of content and all that, what type of trends will we see with global selling on Amazon in 2022? What's you’re thinking there?
Omar Angri
What I think is right now, anyone who has not looked into localisation and optimisation, maybe I didn't explain as well the word optimisation before. Optimisation is keyword research and as well optimisation in terms of photos and optimising the complete listing and make it adaptable to the country.
What I see the trends is everything is going super professional. So, anyone who has like, a mindset of, I have a hobby, I'm going to sell on Amazon, it won't work. You're going to lose money. You're going to lose your time and it's really right now you go all in or you wait, or you associate yourself with others or something. But make it a hundred percent professional business.
There is companies out there who have a lot, a lot of funds who can buy, for example, companies like ours, maybe as well, MerchantSpring, just like that in order to make their listings or their Amazon presence more professional and cut corners, with data. So really you are working against giants right now. Make sure that you're professional, that you stay stable, even if you're small, it’s not a problem. But be a stable and small and fully professional business. This is what I think where Amazon is going in 2022 and beyond.
James Dihardjo
So you think, just to be clear that the days of hobby selling or having it as a side business are gone, it's like you have to be all in or not. Is that kind of what you're saying?
Omar Angri
Exactly. That's it. I definitely would say that.
James Dihardjo
Interesting. I think someone from the UK, Jim from Thrasio actually said the exact same thing. His prediction was professionalization in 2022. But anyway, onto my next, next thing. I want to run past you. So away from like, I guess Amazon only. Big picture predictions. What changes do you think we'll see on Amazon, perhaps from a content perspective? Like, what are the kind of new changes that, or challenges I guess, that sellers or brands will have to face into? What do you think is around the corner?
Omar Angri
I mean, right now because there are so many sellers. Because there are so many different companies, when we look, for example, I not talking about the US. The US has their own, I mean playground. Let's call it a playground because it's very big keywords and everything is different from the European Union. But let's talk about the European Union. When we look at the European Union, If you don't understand what you're doing in the European Union, you won't sell. Maybe before you have been selling, but not a problem.
Right now, you really need customers are getting spoiled. Let's say it this way. They're getting spoiled by Amazon's policy, by different prices of sellers, by different images, by different textures, by different qualities of product. So if you put all of this into consideration, you really have to step up your game at everything that. So this is like, I'll go even deeper into this. Now as well the customer, the customer wants different products. He wants to be addressed.
So before it was less, I mean, obviously the customer always wanted to be number one, but right now we are really looking at a customer that gets his products in 24 hours. So if you're not Prime, first of all, then it's already, I mean, it's for you and me, it's the same. If I'm looking on Amazon. If I don't find it on Prime, I want it tomorrow. You know? I don't want it in one week. I want it now even, why don't the drone come and brings it here? So this is, it's definitely a very, very fast, business right now.
And it's really, the faster it gets the more competitive it gets.
James Dihardjo
Yeah. Interesting. Very interesting. I mean, yeah, I'm hearing a lot of the same kind of sentiment from everyone I've interviewed. I guess as a last thing I want to run past you, Omar. Now, I know you mentioned you only specialize in Amazon, but what is your thinking about marketplaces other than Amazon? Like, do you think they have a place? How do you see that impacting in the landscape?
Omar Angri
I would say definitely, I mean, we are looking at other marketplaces. We are in Germany, for example. We have been on Reality E which is now Kaufland. There is a discount for the European marketplaces. I mean, there is definitely a development and Amazon will give down the market share to these companies and they will grow because Amazon cannot be a monopoly, that's for sure.
But all of these other marketplaces need to step up their game. And they do it at the moment, like Walmart, for example. They are coming, they're taking slowly, slowly, slowly, they're part in the markets. And we are looking definitely at a complete digitalization, of shopping which goes from the malls, from everything else into e-commerce. So from what I see, we are just at the beginning. There will be other marketplaces. There will be big, very big, and strong marketplaces. Amazon may not be number one within a few years from now. But for now, they’re definitely the biggest, but like I said, they will spread down the market share, and we will see other big marketplaces in the future.
James Dihardjo
Yeah, very interesting. Maybe in a couple of years’ time, we'll be talking about you localising Walmart content in England. Who knows? Who knows.
Omar Angri
Exactly. Exactly. Exactly.
James Dihardjo
But yeah, very interesting thought indeed. But look, I'll leave it there, Omar. I know we have to keep this short and sharp for the various social media channels. But yeah, thank you for your insight and yeah, let's have you back later in the year.
Omar Angri
Thank you so much for having me. James.
