June 27, 2024 • 43 mins
Ever wondered how to crack the code of Amazon Marketplace success? Join us as we sit down with Dan Brownsher, the mastermind behind Channel Key. Starting from humble beginnings selling men's accessories on eBay, Dan’s journey is nothing short of inspiring. He shares his evolution from reselling to private labeling and ultimately founding a full-service agency that helps brands thrive on Amazon. Prepare to uncover the secrets behind his success and gain invaluable insights into navigating this dynamic marketplace.
Managing a remote team can be challenging, especially in the ever-evolving world of Amazon retail. Dan walks us through the trials and triumphs of operating a 100% remote company, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. From resolving account issues and IP claims to fostering team alignment and engagement, Dan emphasizes the pivotal role of experienced partners. Learn the best practices for maintaining high performance and delivering consistent, quality service in a remote setting.
Selling on Amazon isn't just about having a great product; it's about strategy, precision, and adaptability. Discover the multifaceted approach required to succeed as we examine the essentials of demand planning, retail readiness, and inventory management. Dan sheds light on common pitfalls and the importance of timely account management, including the role of third-party specialists. As we wrap up, we express our gratitude for the wealth of knowledge shared and look forward to our next conversation. Don't miss out—visit Phelps United's website for more tips on accelerating your Amazon sales!
For more information about Channel Key, please visit: https://channelkey.com/
Want to chat with us about this podcast? Send us a text message here
The Planet Amazon podcast, brought to you by Phelps United, addresses all things Amazon and other eCommerce marketplaces. In each episode, we talk with Brands, Agencies, and Sellers about Amazon news, new features, policies, brand policies, logistics, marketing, issues, and challenges, among other topics.
To watch all Planet Amazon Podcast episodes, visit our YouTube channel.
To learn more about Phelps United, visit our website.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Planet Amazon podcast with Adam
Schafer, where we explore theworld of Amazon and other
e-commerce marketplaces.
Join us as we delve into thelatest strategies and tactics
for successful selling on theworld's largest online
marketplace.
Adam Shaffer (00:19):
Hello everybody, I'm Adam Shaffer and welcome to
the Planet Planet Amazon podcast, where we talk about all things
Amazon Today.
On the podcast, we're excitedto have a real Amazon
Marketplace veteran.
His name is Dan Brownsher.
I'm sure many of you have heardof him.
Dan is president CEO,co-founder at Channel Key,
(00:41):
advising multimillion-dollarcorporations at fast-paced
entrepreneurial startups on howto navigate the complex
landscape of Amazon retail andthe broader world of e-commerce
in general.
Dan is also the co-founder ofTrend Nation, a top 200 global
seller selling $1 billion inrevenue.
He is a national thought leaderin Amazon retail strategy and
(01:03):
emerging e-commerce trends.
Welcome to the Planet Amazonpodcast, dan.
Thank you, adam.
Thank you for having me.
Wow, what an amazing backgroundyou have.
I definitely need to learn more, but, holy cow, you've done a
lot.
Dan Brownsher (01:20):
It's been a fun journey, Adam.
It's been a fun journey, Adam,where you know Amazon's a really
amazing ecosystem that hascreated, I think, opportunities
for a lot of different types ofentrepreneurs.
So very fortunate to have foundAmazon in the early days and
it's, I think, it's still early,it's still really early.
Adam Shaffer (01:40):
Well, I know, kind of maybe boring to you, but
interesting to people that arelistening.
Dan Brownsher (01:55):
What got you started to start ChannelKey and
get involved in this crazy,large, enormous Amazon
marketplace?
So it's a good question, adam,and I can give you the Reader's
Digest version or I can give youthe deeper version For the ADD.
Perfect, okay.
(02:20):
So I let's see.
I graduated from Ohio Stateearly 2000s and started a side
hustle e-commerce business withsome buddies, slash business
partners, like in 2008, 2009.
And basically what we weredoing was sourcing goods on
Alibaba.
We picked a random categorymen's accessories so cufflinks,
money clips and we startedselling them on eBay and it was
a total side hustle side projectfor me.
(02:41):
I like creating multiplestreams of revenue and income
and this was one of those things, uh, so I did a day job where I
was, uh, you know, sellingspine implants to surgeons and
then, by night, I was takingphotos of cufflinks.
Uh, we were sourcing cufflinks,listed them on ebay and
packaging orders in my basementin my house.
So, uh, that uh turned into, uh, my partner moving to vegas, my
(03:05):
, my partner starting to attendtrade shows and buying branded
merchandise like from, you know,big brands like Tommy Hilfiger,
kenneth Cole, to then startingto sell on Amazon, to then
becoming a massive reseller, and12, et cetera, to us pivoting
(03:25):
to creating an exclusivereseller model on Amazon,
similar to a quiver or a patternor an e-tails.
To pivoting to private label, tothen bifurcating the businesses
and saying, hey, listen, we, weknow how to create these best
in class Amazon businesses forourselves and we know these
brands are all struggling withhow to do it, so why don't we
(03:47):
create a service or an agencythat helps these brands do do
Amazon at a high level?
So that was like the genesis ofof channel key.
So two businesses, one Amazonprivate label.
We sold it in 2021.
Private equity, which is againlarge.
Amazon PL business, and thenI've been running channel since
uh january of 2017, so so theproduct business is now gone and
(04:11):
you're focused 100 on theagency.
Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah so it'sso when we split right, we
created we created channel keysa separate company with owners,
uh, and my two partners ran thatbusiness, uh, and I ran the
agency.
So, uh, so, yeah, so, channelI'm sorry, trend nation still
exists, but we're not involvedanymore.
(04:32):
Um, and I've been solelyfocused and dedicated on on
channel keys since, uh, januaryof 2017.
So, uh, we're up to about 85people now and we're fully
remote and, uh, full service,full service shop and I work're
some of the biggest brands inthe world.
Adam Shaffer (04:50):
What's interesting is we kind of compete, but we
don't.
I mean it's such a huge market,like I talk to all the
competitors.
You mentioned a few and thereare others.
I mean there's millions ofpeople that sell on Amazon and
we all still help each other outand talk to each other and
sometimes we share clients andwe help each other with clients.
So when people say, why do youwant a competitor on the show,
(05:13):
it's like, first of all, I'mhere not really to talk about us
and what we do, but we are anagency.
But we do buy and sell to helpour brands.
Instead of selling to Amazon,they sell to us.
But with you you have such anincredible experience.
You just bring more to thetable.
To me it's like you're part ofthe community.
People come and ask questions.
I don't care if you're acompetitor or you're not a
(05:34):
competitor.
Everybody seems to help eachother out in this place.
I've never seen that outside ofthe Amazon world.
Dan Brownsher (05:41):
Yeah, it's so interesting.
It's still a small community,right, it's certainly getting a
lot bigger.
But you're right, I talk to ourcompetitors all the time and
have personal relationships witha lot of our competitors and
it's okay, which is fun andinteresting and allows us to
(06:02):
kind of see the growth and thetrajectory of a lot of different
types of businesses in theecosystem.
But yeah, I don't know.
My experience is people want toshare Not always, but in most
cases they are willing to share.
It's it's moving so fast andit's we're all dealing with a
(06:26):
lot of the same types ofproblems and challenges that
come with running these types ofbusinesses and playing in
amazon sandbox, um, but it'sstill, I don't know.
In my opinion it's still reallynascent, like obviously
amazon's massive, but as a totalpercentage of retail ecom's
still small.
It's growing.
Amazon's got what half of allus marketplace, uh, um, but
there's like so much blue skyahead.
Adam Shaffer (06:44):
So I don't know Still early $640 billion of
merchandise that gets sold.
There's so much, there's somany.
Like I was just saying, I thinkwe have a little bit of a break
and um hearing each other, but$640 billion in merchandise that
gets sold, if you're a billiondollars in sales, you're still
(07:06):
nothing.
I mean, it's amazing how bigthis pond is.
Dan Brownsher (07:13):
Correct.
And the pond is getting muchbigger right, bigger and bigger,
and I don't see it slowing downanytime soon, you know.
Adam Shaffer (07:24):
I have a softball question for you, but it's
something that's near and dearto my heart, and that is you
know, we meet brands.
We meet brands every day, smalland large.
We love them all and they'relike I think I need help, but
I'm not exactly sure why I needhelp.
But I think need help, but I'mnot exactly sure why I need help
.
But I think, tell me why youthink most, if not all, brands
(07:54):
need help selling andunderstanding Amazon and why
there's a place for agencies,because I think that without the
help of an agency, you're goingto fail.
So that's just my twisted viewof things.
What do you think, dan?
That's just my twisted view ofthings.
Dan Brownsher (08:05):
What do you think , dan?
Yeah, and Adam, you cut outthere for a second, okay, but I
think I got the gist of it and Ithink it's.
Why is there a place foragencies right in our world,
especially with dealing with Idon't know any size?
(08:26):
I don't know.
We're a service business, right, and there's so many other
types of service businesses outthere that exist, and whether
it's an attorney or whether it'sa cleaning crew or whether it's
a Shopify shop, businesses anytype of business needs to decide
(08:48):
what they want to be good atright.
And so do you want to be goodat building a brand and
developing products and being anexpert in every single channel
you sell through or not?
And the answer is some brands doand some brands don't, and I
think, from my perspective, thisis all we do and we are in it
every single day, and it'smoving so fast and it's only
(09:13):
getting more complex.
There's only more technologytools that exist.
There's only more ad types thatexist.
There's so much, there's somany challenges that brands
experience or will experienceevery single day.
And to hire a group that hasthe people, the experience, the
technology, the resources, therelationship with Amazon, the
(09:34):
access to certain things likeDSP or whatever to flatten the
learning curve for brands.
It's basically, in my opinion,impossible to replicate it.
If you're a brand, it's.
It's basically, in my opinion,impossible to replicate it if
you're a brand, unless you aremassive and you've got a ton of
resources and you want to becomean expert on the platform.
It's really hard, um and it andit changes every single day.
So, uh, I don't know.
(09:56):
We've got experience acrossmultiple, multiple categories,
multiple years, multiple issuesresolved, multiple ads and
multiple everything that wemultiple ads and multiple
everything that we can leverageand, you know, pinpoint
solutions for our clients reallyquick.
Adam Shaffer (10:12):
What I think is you have to be so damn good at
everything if you want to besuccessful on Amazon, and it's
hard because, like you said, itchanges and it's really
competitive.
So if you're not really good atcontent and understanding how
to test competitive, so ifyou're not really good at
content and understanding how totest your content, if you're
not good at the logistics andmaking sure you don't run out of
stock and the issues with that,you're not going to compete
(10:38):
with the guys that are all overthis every minute of every day,
and that's why you need somebodylike you mentioned, a lawyer.
It's like you need a lawyer forthis.
You need somebody that's aspecialist in managing every
aspect of your Amazon business.
You might be good at the brandand understanding your brand,
but making it work on Amazon isa challenge, I think.
(11:00):
So I'm a believer in that.
You need professional helpwherever you can get it, and
some people go to a company likeyours that could do it all, and
some take pieces and spread itout.
Dan Brownsher (11:13):
I like to work with a group of people I like
and enjoy working with yeah,we've used this analogy over the
years that running a properAmazon business, or a
best-in-class one, is likeflying a plane.
Right, like everything's got tobe happening in concert for it
to make sense, and that's ouroverall thesis.
Right, like we built our ownyou know large private label
(11:36):
business.
Like we've done it, we've doneit all.
Like we've sourced theinventory, we've got stuck with
the inventory, we've labeled theinventory, we've shipped it.
We've done all this stuff andwe know what it takes.
And, yeah, it is complex.
It is complex and it's allgoing to be working together.
And Amazon is not like otherchannels.
(11:58):
We do a lot of vendors orvendor central clients, and it's
like negotiating AVN with yourvendor manager is hard and it's
specific and it's unique andit's not like any other channel,
right, but it's incrediblyimportant.
And so to have that purview andability to touch every part of
the business, in our view, isimportant and it's critical.
Adam Shaffer (12:22):
What's funny is you mentioned shipping products.
I mean it's important and it'scritical.
What's funny is you mentionedshipping products.
I mean God.
I mean you're going to, at somepoint of your life at Amazon,
make a mistake.
That's pretty costly, whetherit's a reconciliation issue or
something you did wrong thatAmazon comes after you for and
hits you with a chargeback orwhatever.
So if you haven't made yourmistakes, you're going to make
(12:47):
somebody coming into this space.
They're going to make a mistakeand, like somebody like you has
made that mistake or thosemistakes already and you know
what's going to burn yourfingers.
You know, tell us about any ofthe the burn your finger moments
you've had.
If you want, you don't have toshare, but if you have any good
ones, give me your favorite.
But I mean we.
(13:07):
We know brands that have gottenfine a hundred thousand,
$200,000 from Amazon, gottenproducts held at Amazon for a
year and haven't been able toget them released.
You know all kinds of crazystuff.
Dan Brownsher (13:20):
It's so crazy I'm like trying to think that
question spurred immediate PTSDfor me, but I don't know.
Let's see, we've dealt with somany issues over the years, from
faulty uploads to where Excelspreadsheet one of the columns
(13:41):
got accidentally deleted andyou've uploaded the wrong data
into the pricing field andchanged all your prices on
Amazon to brands and this issuper common and has been common
for years trying to figure outways to generate more reviews
and leveraging QR codes to tryand get more traffic to their
(14:01):
listings and or generate morevolume and reviews.
We've had accounts shut down.
We've had so many listings shutdown you name it like.
We've dealt with it and seen it,and whether that was at our
product company we owned ordealing with our clients, you
know it's a constant battle,right, it's a constant battle
(14:25):
and it could be super nuanced,like, hey, if this type of issue
happens, you have an ip claimor whatever.
Like, how do you resolve thatissue?
Right?
Who do you talk to specifically?
Because you can't just pick upthe phone and call amazon, right
, it doesn't necessarily workthat way.
So knowing how to triage anissue and do I go left or do I
(14:45):
go right is important because itcan save days, weeks, months or
perhaps your entire account ifyou make the right decision
versus the wrong decision.
Adam Shaffer (14:55):
And getting through them.
Sometimes you go left, rightand center because you try
everything and you see whateverbreaks through, you get lucky
and you try something.
Somebody says no, somebody saysyes and you get lucky that way.
But it's not.
I would say it's an art morethan a science.
On that, it's playing it right,saying the right things,
getting the right words to theright person at the right moment
(15:18):
.
So it's interesting, but Ithink the big point of that is.
But I think the big point ofthat is, if you're a brand,
you're going to make a mistakeand then you're going to make a
mistake again and you might aswell work with people that have
made the mistake so you don'tever have to make them again,
because they could be costly.
And even if you think you gotit dialed, there's something you
(15:40):
just don't know and you'regoing to step into a pothole and
it's good to have a partnerwith you along the way.
So I am a huge advocate changingthe topic to something more
about business than Amazon.
Now you mentioned you're inVegas, but your company is 100
(16:02):
percent remote and during COVID,I think we all learned for the
most part how to work remote.
But you remain remote and youlike that model, I like that
model.
How do you make that work foryour company?
Because you see all these CEOs,I want everybody back in the
office and then the employeesare not happy and then a lot of
people are more productive athome than they are in the office
(16:24):
.
So what's your take and how doyou make it work for Channel Key
?
It's a good question.
Dan Brownsher (16:30):
And we've had offices Right, when we first
started, we had an office Ithink we had three total offices
in Vegas.
Over the years we were toyingwith remote and then COVID hit
and we pulled the plug Right andactually I owned it.
I was a part owner of abuilding downtown.
We hit and we pulled the plugright and actually I owned, I
was a part owner of a buildingdowntown, we were a tenant in
the building and we didn't wedidn't renew the lease, right,
that's how much we believed inin, in remote, for this business
(16:52):
type.
Not for all business types thatyou can do it, but for this
business type, uh, it makes alot of sense.
Right, like I don't know we're,we are in the people business,
that's it.
Like I don't, we don't have youknow a manufacturing facility
or trucks or we're not makingstuff.
Right, it's people and andcomputers and software and
(17:13):
contracts, like that's it and so, uh, which can make it even
harder.
I think to your point, adam.
Right, it's like, how do youand we've got 85 people on our
team how do you create a servicemodel that is delivering a
service with human beings andtechnology, and do it at scale
and do it, and do itconsistently, so you're
producing a repeatable outcomefor your clients at a at a high
(17:35):
level.
It's really hard and it onlygets harder as your team grows.
For me, the key is from anexecutive perspective, and my
perspective it's we need tocraft a vision for our team that
is crystal clear, and we needto reinforce that vision over
and over again.
We need to reinforce what ourvalues are and what we stand for
(17:59):
.
We need to reinforce wherewe're at today and where we're
going to be in three years andtalk about it so everybody knows
what is happening.
So we're all rolling in thesame direction.
Okay, so from a and we use EOS,by the way, traction EOS to
operate our business, and wehave for years and so I think it
starts with that as creatingalignment and transparency
(18:19):
around the foundation ofbusiness and where you're
heading, then in a remoteenvironment.
In my opinion, the key iscreating OK and making sure that
the team is working togetherand they're engaging with each
other.
So there's some things we'vedone, like I don't know.
One of the core rules thatwe've had in the business since
day one of going remote is anymeeting we have, internal or
(18:43):
external, you must be on camera,right, and people talk about
Zoom, fatigue and all of that,and I don't necessarily, I don't
necessarily buy into it.
Now, it's hard to stand infront of your computer all day
and be in meetings all day, but,in my opinion, okay, I'm
talking to you, adam, right now.
You're in your office or yourhome or wherever I can see your
background.
I can see the beautiful, youknow, palm leaves in the
(19:04):
background, and you're in myhome too, like you're in my home
right now, I think it's veryintimate, okay.
So, additionally, you can seeme, you can see my facial
expressions, you can see whatI'm wearing, you can see, you
can see all that.
And if I'm on calls all day andI can't see you, that would
drain me, okay.
So I believe that seeing peopleon calls is it creates
(19:26):
connectivity and createsintimacy.
And then it's about creating umthese collisions digitally on a
recurring basis.
So we do, we do.
We have recurring huddles wherewe get all staff together.
We have recurring all staffmeetings where we're sharing.
We have a, a team that we callour act team that is creating
(19:47):
events.
Uh, that our team does bevirtual painting.
It could we've got somethingtoday actually where we're doing
.
Uh, you know, we everybody's,we send out baby pictures of
everybody and then everybody hasto guess.
You know who the person isinside the company, right, so
that we're creating these eventsand ways for people to interact
(20:07):
with each other and to collidewith each other.
So, um, I don't know, in myopinion, it's just, it's not any
different than running abusiness in an office.
You just have to make space forpeople to connect with each
other.
Adam Shaffer (20:19):
Yeah, I mean, and the reason I ask you that is
because, if it just in businessin general, right now it's a big
topic and you've made it workand so, hey, you know, you know
great work, congratulations, youmade it work.
But I just think there's a goodfor certain companies, there's
a place for it, and I thinkthere's a place for hybrid also.
But I think it's opened up awhole new world where your pool
(20:43):
of talent is worldwide.
Dan Brownsher (20:46):
It's an absolute competitive advantage from a
talent set perspective.
We've got people all over theworld.
So, yeah, absolutely we canhire the best and brightest and
we can do it very efficiently.
We've got 30 people in thePhilippines that are amazing
members of our team that hey,listen, if we were in office we
couldn't necessarily do that.
So it creates a lot offlexibility to your point.
(21:06):
And if you can do it at scaleand do it and maintain a culture
of connectivity, it works.
It absolutely works.
And I love real estate, adam,and I've never understood why a
lot of these business CEOs orwhatever want to bring everybody
back into the office.
I think it's based in fear andI think perhaps they want to get
a return on their investment ontheir real estate.
(21:27):
So I love real estate, but Iwould not own office space right
now.
I just wouldn't, because Idon't necessarily believe in it
fully at this point.
Adam Shaffer (21:37):
Yeah, it's good for restaurants and barbershops,
maybe, yeah, so okay, well,thanks for breaking away from
the Amazon topic for a minuteand talking about biz, but let's
get back to Amazon biz.
(21:58):
But let's get back to Amazonand the question is for you what
is the most challenging part ofAmazon?
We talked about a bunch ofdifferent things before, but
what do you think is the mostcomplicated but important part
of Amazon to master?
Dan Brownsher (22:11):
That's a really good question.
That's a really good question,um, and I want to be thoughtful.
My answer, adam, uh, becausethere's so many different
complexities and I think itchanges every day.
Like you asked me, today it'sone one answer, and ask me
tomorrow it's somethingdifferent, just based upon what
we're dealing with.
Um, I don't know.
I think the most complicatedpart about Amazon is trying to
(22:38):
think about a brand and wherethey're at today and where they
want to go and build a strategicbusiness plan for them.
That encompasses their demandplanning how their product is
distributed, encompasses theirdemand planning how their
product is distributed, whotheir competitive set is, what
their margin profilerequirements are, and whether or
(23:00):
not they want to growprofitably or they want to take
share, right, and then to createa multi-layered traffic driving
promotional strategy campaignaround some sort of calendar is
a really hard challenge, andthat's what we try to do, right?
So I think at a macro levellike that's, that's a big
(23:20):
problem to solve.
So, hey, you, you and we, wehave a, we have a, a company
that we're talking to right now.
That's a $300 million Amazonbrand, like 300 million, right,
it's like, okay, we want to growthe business, okay, okay, what
does that look like?
How do we do that?
You have a sure business in acompetitive category.
How do you do that?
And it's not a single thing,right, it's a multitude of
(23:43):
different incremental thingsthat are going to happen to
yield that outcome.
So I think building those typesof plans is super complex.
If I look kind of more micro, Iwould say running trap, like
everybody wants to talk aboutadvertising on Amazon's like the
super sexy topic their adbusiness is growing so rapidly
(24:03):
and it's so cool, and there'sprime video and there's Thursday
Night Football is all reallycool stuff.
That's super important and butit's hard right, and it's
getting harder right.
And you've got to now thinkfull funnel for these brands
around how we're going toleverage all the traffic on the
platform and now off theplatform.
So piecing that, that matrixtogether and you know,
(24:28):
leveraging all of this datathrough AMC and piecing and
stitching this client personatogether and the journey for the
consumer based on the producttype and how you want to
advertise and drive traffic, Ithink is a really hard problem
to solve.
Adam Shaffer (24:41):
I'm taking you on my next client call.
That's great, I need that.
So no, you're right.
I mean it's hard, but it'simportant and it's not just let
me put in some money and let itride on the Amazon platform.
It's everywhere, it's offAmazon.
Let me put in some money andlet it ride on the Amazon
platform.
It's everywhere, it's offAmazon, it's video it's
influencers.
It's everything, it's everything.
What a pain in the neck man.
God bless you.
That's great.
I'm glad you're doing that.
(25:03):
It's fun, right, it's fun, it'sfun.
And you know you talk to brandsall the time and many of them
have been doing it themselves orthrough Amazon.
What do?
Dan Brownsher (25:27):
you find is like the most, maybe maybe not the
most common.
But what is the biggest mistakeyou see that brands make
selling on Amazon?
Man, it's honestly the basicsRight.
I think they, in a lot of cases, fail at the basics, right.
I think they've, in a lot ofcases, fail at the basics.
And in my opinion, the basicsare retail readiness right.
Are you using all the images inthe carousel?
Do you have videos?
How's your store look?
Are they plus content?
Are your titles optimized?
(25:47):
How many reviews do you have?
How good quality?
Like the basics, like retailreadiness.
In our opinion, which is anAmazon term, it's like table
stakes.
At minimum, you have to beretail ready and we see so many
brands that just aren't Right.
And then the other component tothat, I think, is managing the
operations of their businessRight and more specifically,
(26:17):
around their inventory and themanagement of their inventory
and the control of theirdistribution of their products
to the world.
Because, again, running aproper business on Amazon is
like flying a plane.
You can have the most badassproduct videos and content and
ad structure and DSP campaigns,all this stuff, but if you can't
keep your product in stockright or you or you have
challenges with the buy box.
It doesn't matter, like none ofit matters, and so I don't know
(26:41):
.
I think that it's this.
It's still the basics, like thefundamentals of operating a
business controllingdistribution, keeping products
in stock and maintaining a baselevel efficacy around.
You know how your PDPs look, Ithink is what we find very often
, regardless of lifestyle orlife cycle or size of brand.
Adam Shaffer (27:03):
It's interesting you talk about distribution.
The biggest issue I think wesee is that the brands.
Biggest issue I think we see isthat the brands.
They want to be successful onAmazon.
They want everybody to be kindto their brand and not lower the
price below minimum advertisedprice, but yet they don't want
to put in place a channel policythat helps protect them because
(27:26):
they're afraid they're going tooffend somebody, to lose sales
or something like that, where,if they did it right, they would
get more sales at a higherprofit by having rules in place
to not let anybody on the planetsell their stuff on Amazon.
Dan Brownsher (27:40):
Yeah, amazon.
Like to become a professionalseller on Amazon.
It costs you $40 a month, right?
So it's not.
The barriers to entry areridiculously low.
And so it's right for for graymarket.
It's right for for, you know,companies that maybe have a
(28:01):
retail store dot com that justwant to push out the back door
and list it on Amazon.
It's right for that, it'salways been right for that.
Yeah, and you're right, like,people or brands need to treat
Amazon not like any otherchannel.
Right, because it, because,because that opportunity exists,
(28:22):
and we see this a lot of timeswith B2B customers.
I have a big B2B businessesthat, hey, listen, I don't want
to upset my, my businesscustomers, right, but what?
What they're doing is they'reintroducing competition to
themselves on the platform, andso they need to make a choice
Like who do you want to be?
Like, what do you want to begood at?
(28:43):
And we're not saying don't havea B2B business or don't sell to
your B2B customers.
No, if you want to grow a realAmazon business and control it,
you've got to control thedistribution on the platform and
or the buy box, Because if not,it will inevitably get out of
control.
Assuming there's good volumefor your products, somebody will
(29:07):
latch on to it in some way,shape or form.
So our opinion has always been,from day one, is if you want to
be successful on Amazon, youshould control it, whether
you're a three-piece seller or avendor, control it.
Own the buy box, own thecatalog, own the content, own
the traffic driving strategy.
Adam Shaffer (29:25):
Otherwise somebody else will we'll talk to a brand
and we'll say this store, xyzstore, is buying it from that
distributor and they're sellingapproximately this much a month
on Amazon through all the toolswe have, and they'll go that
store is that company.
(29:45):
I didn't know that.
Oh my God.
That's like.
That's my best, that's my bestretailer and they, they're your
best retailer because they'reselling it all on Amazon.
They're not selling it throughtheir mom and pop store, they're
an Amazon seller and they'reselling it below map and they're
destroying the rest of yourchannel business.
Don't you understand?
Either put a rule in place thatthey can't sell it below
(30:07):
minimum advertised price or stopthem from selling on Amazon.
But I don't want to hurt theirfeelings, but you've got to do
something.
But you're just going tocomplain all day and you're not
going to solve your problem.
So it's a tough conversationsometimes to have, but it's
reality.
Dan Brownsher (30:22):
And it's been like that for since I started,
right, I mean we started as areseller, right, like we know
how it works, you know all thetricks, don't you.
I mean, yeah, absolutely Notthat we ever did anything
nefarious.
But yeah, like we, we saw itover the years, right,
especially when we had a.
(30:42):
You know, we pivoted from beinga reseller to being an
exclusive reseller.
So we go these brands who say,hey, listen, let us be your
exclusive seller on Amazon.
Who say, hey, listen, let us beyour exclusive seller on Amazon
.
In exchange for that, we'll doyour catalog work and we'll do
your ads and we'll provide youthese services.
Right, but we're still going tobuy your inventory.
Oh and, by the way, we're goingto hold price.
We're not going to violate math.
(31:05):
And where that broke was man.
We bought the goods.
It's sitting in my warehouseand I can can't sell it.
I have an exclusivity agreementwith you, but you can't control
your distribution, so I'm stuck.
I got stuck, um, and so it'sbeen a problem forever.
Now it's probably it's gottenbetter over the years because
it's just more talked about andamazon's become bigger.
But like, this is not a newissue, you know.
(31:27):
So we've seen it.
We've seen all the crazy stuffwith the fake addresses and like
it's just, I don't know, it'swild, but yeah, pretty basic
thing.
You know you'd think you'd wantto control this channel and
platform.
Adam Shaffer (31:42):
That's cool.
So I have like a surprise.
I just got this piece of papertoday and it tells me and I said
I wouldn't get into anything,super in the dirt, but this is
kind of high level.
So it's a kind of a contest.
You have to pick what thelargest complaint or fear that
Amazon sellers it's the greatestfears Amazon sellers have and
(32:04):
I'll give you the multiplechoice and then see if you can
get it right Other.
So don't go with that one.
It's account suspension, risingfees, asin suspension, black
hat attacks or counterfeit goods, which is 3P seller's biggest
(32:25):
fear.
Dan Brownsher (32:28):
Okay, so what is a third-party seller?
That is, a brand owner or not abrand?
Adam Shaffer (32:33):
owner.
It's generic, so let's say it'ssomebody selling anything on
Amazon.
Are they concerned more aboutaccount suspension, rising fees,
ASIN suspension, black hatattacks or counterfeit goods I'm
going to go with yeah, I'mgoing to go right now with
(32:54):
rising fees.
I would have done the same, butit's account suspension.
So they're 63.3%, and I wish Icould tell you what report this
is from, but it's from somethingthat I printed out and of
course I didn't take the source,but there's a bunch of coffee
beans on it, so maybe it's thecoffee bean report.
But it's what is your greatestfear as an Amazon seller.
(33:16):
So account suspension 63%.
Rising fees is 17.7.
I would have thought it'srising fees because not just
this freight been going upalthough Amazon's freight rates
are still better than most butjust their fees in everything
they do.
Plus you're, you now have topay for more space if you want
to get more space.
So I would have thought that'sit.
But have you run into accountsuspensions before?
(33:38):
Oh yeah.
So oh yeah.
How have you dealt with that?
We had one recently.
Dan Brownsher (33:45):
Oh no.
How do we deal with it?
Adam Shaffer (33:49):
I mean that could be fatal, right?
Oh yeah.
Dan Brownsher (33:52):
It's not good for business?
Yeah, it's bad.
So let's see how do we dealwith it.
It depends, it depends on thesituation and what happened.
Right, a lot of our clients,vendors uh, it's more rare to
have a vendor account shut down.
But for a seller account, uh,do they have a sas core rep?
Right, are they paying amazon?
(34:12):
They have a rep that they theypay.
And if the answer is yes, we,we get those folks involved
quickly and we've had somerecent um wins, like we.
For a while.
There we were like sas core we.
We were generally not pro sascore for a while, but I think
that flipped recently whendealing with some of these
(34:33):
issues.
Um, so, if there's a sas corerep, get involved asap.
Clear documentation, clear,clear, everything.
And again, it depends on whatthe issue is, okay, um, and then
we always pull in.
We'll pull in specialists too,right, so, like, we'll pull in
the, you know, the riverbends ofthe world if needed, or or some
(34:55):
other companies that can helpus resolve those very specific,
like niche type issues, right,so, like I also.
So what I've said is we're afull service agency, right?
Um, for and for for brands onAmazon.
Uh, there's a few things wedon't do, um, but in certain
nuanced scenarios we becomegeneralists, right, and
(35:18):
sometimes we have to bring inthe surgeon, you know, to help
us.
Right, we'll triage an issueand we're the general care
physician, but sometimes you gotto bring in the surgeon and for
those types of issues we'llbring in a third party to help
us.
Adam Shaffer (35:33):
Yeah, no, and Riverbend's great.
We had them on our show too.
They're excellent, so good,call on them.
You know, what I found a lot oftimes is it's account health
Like.
Sometimes people aren'trealizing they're getting dinged
every day by being late orsomething's not right, or
they're getting complaintsthey're not answering.
Everything is on the timer,everything is on a clock and you
(35:53):
have to understand that.
Whether it's you're managingthe brand, somebody's managing
it for you you got to get backand answer the questions or
you're going to have an accounthealth problem.
If you're not shipping theproducts on time, you're going
to have an account healthproblem and ultimately, you're
going to get shut down.
Dan Brownsher (36:08):
There's so many different booby traps, right,
and yeah, it's time sensitive.
And then the POAs you writehave to be written in a certain
way and have to, you know, acertain length and a certain
structure, and so it's a.
You brought this up earlierlike if you've not dealt with
this issue before and you're abrand and all of a sudden your
account is gone and you have tofigure out how to resolve it.
(36:31):
It's hard, it's really hard,and you can step in a pothole
pretty quick if you make thewrong choice.
Adam Shaffer (36:39):
Now ASIN suspension.
That is better than suspension,but you could have millions of
dollars of inventory tied upsitting at FBA and they take
your ASIN off.
I mean, that is a nightmare too, and that we've dealt with.
(37:04):
You know quite often where wehave to provide paperwork and
receipts and testing and, yeah,all sorts of stuff.
It's a nightmare, but that youknow.
These are things that everybrand ultimately runs into.
So I it's a fear, but it's areality.
Like you just have tounderstand that.
Do everything in your power tokeep your account clean, make
sure that you have all yourpaperwork, and there'll be that
day when it happens and you gotto have your stuff together.
Dan Brownsher (37:25):
You got to have it, yeah, and sometimes it's you
can.
You can try to stay ahead of it, but other times it's like
again.
It's like Amazon tells you whenthis is going to happen, right,
like a box can come through andscrape something and pull you
down immediately.
There's some word in your copyon your listing, or a bullet
point or whatever you know.
There's that whole pesticideissue or products we can take,
(37:46):
take down requiring pesticidetesting.
It's like it's it's just not aset it and forget it.
Environment, right, and it'sthere's no, there's no.
Like playbook that works allthe time and it can be perfect
today and your account can beshut down tomorrow by surprise.
You know so it's hard.
It's hard, yeah.
Adam Shaffer (38:08):
So, with all the competition, with all the
complexities, we all still lovethe Amazon marketplace because
we see so much opportunity in it.
And you know, do you still?
Do you think it's too late nowfor people to start on Amazon?
Do you think that it's justevery category is is so loaded
(38:30):
with competition you couldn'tbreak through?
Dan Brownsher (38:33):
I don't think so, but I do think that I do think
that the playbook on how to doit has changed.
Right, like in the past and wedid this ourselves.
Creating an Amazon only brand,I think, is certainly still
doable, but I think thelongevity of it is challenge,
and the way that you need toconsider it now is it cannot
(38:56):
just be Amazon, right, you canstart it on Amazon, but you need
to have a social strategy.
You need to build a brand,right.
You need to build a brandbecause if it's just based on
Amazon and just based on reviewsand it's just based on winning
on that platform, somebody isgoing to take your lunch, right.
(39:18):
Somebody is going to build abetter mousetrap.
They're going to come in with acheaper cost.
They're going to come up withsomething to deter traffic away
from you.
So I still think it's absolutelydoable and you can make
products to market really quickand the research and the data
that you can get to findopportunities still exists.
But those holes in that whitespace closes super quick and
what doesn't change, or what isa good hedge against that, is
(39:40):
creating awareness of your brand, or what is a good hedge
against that is creatingawareness of your brand right
and branded search right.
Let's win on branded search andlet's create some sort of
connective tissue with ourconsumer, and I think the way
you do that is through socialcertain product types.
Tiktok is important right now,so finding ways to drive traffic
into Amazon and build a brandon top of the Amazon platform, I
(40:05):
think, is the way you have todo it.
Otherwise, I think there's alot of risk.
Adam Shaffer (40:09):
Would you do your own Shopify site too?
Dan Brownsher (40:11):
Yeah, I would.
Yeah, shopify site drop a buywith Prime widget on there.
And yeah, why?
Absolutely, absolutely.
Adam Shaffer (40:21):
I mean, I'm really into the Shopify platform at
this point too.
Dan Brownsher (40:24):
Yeah, Now where would I drive my traffic?
Adam Shaffer (40:27):
Yeah, that's a question.
It might convert better onAmazon.
Dan Brownsher (40:30):
Might convert better on Amazon right, but if I
can activate that customer onShopify and create some sort of
continuity around that, that'sinteresting.
Adam Shaffer (40:36):
You want the customer.
Dan Brownsher (40:37):
Yeah sure.
So I think that's how you haveto think.
Okay, In the old days, justbuild an Amazon only brand and,
you know, start ranking andmaybe throw some advertising up
and put an FBA, get a primebadge.
It's like, hey, this is notthat hard, you know, but it's
not like that anymore.
Adam Shaffer (40:54):
No, and plus there's.
There's just a commitment ofadvertising dollars.
Like you're, like I know peoplethink they could do it all
organically, but you got to putthat into your cost of goods.
Dan Brownsher (41:07):
It's ridiculous.
Adam Shaffer (41:12):
And it's only going up and the fulfillment
costs are only everything'sgoing up.
Well, that's scary.
So but there's good to knowthere's still a place to start a
product anyway on Amazon.
It's a good launching pad,potentially for a product that
you want to get out there intoother channels.
So that's good to hear.
And so you know, kind ofwrapping this up, what advice do
you have for not just somebodytrying to start up, but a brand
(41:33):
that's already selling on Amazon?
What's your advice to them?
Knowing what you do and howcomplicated things are, knowing
what you do and how complicatedthings are.
Dan Brownsher (41:46):
Man, that's a really good question.
My advice for a brand that'sperhaps already selling or
established on the platform isto leverage data that allows you
to fully understand thecustomer journey and how your
(42:10):
customers are engaging with yourproducts at various stages of
the buying platform or thebuying funnel.
Right, that's what I would say,because if you can see that and
you can unlock that, whichrequires AMC, the map becomes a
lot more clear and the playbookand strategy becomes more clear
around customer acquisition, ltvand then how far my advertising
(42:36):
dollar is going.
That's my one piece of advice.
Adam Shaffer (42:40):
Good, advice and if I'm a brand and I want to get
in touch with you, dan, andchannel key, how do I do it?
Dan Brownsher (42:47):
Yeah, good question.
So go to you.
Go to our website, channelkeycom.
You can find me, dan Brownshire, on LinkedIn very active.
I post multiple times per weekso you can follow me and engage
with me on LinkedIn.
You can follow channel Key onLinkedIn.
You can sign up for our blogposts.
On our website we push out alot of content so you can just
(43:11):
easy Google search us, searchChannel Key, search me and find
us on LinkedIn or find us on ourwebsite.
Adam Shaffer (43:16):
Thank you very much.
I mean I get a lot of yourcontent.
It's really good.
So thanks for pushing that out.
It's really good, so thanks forpushing that out.
It's really helpful.
With that, let's wrap up fortoday, and I wanted to thank you
again for joining Planet AmazonReally enjoyed talking with you
.
Dan Brownsher (43:30):
Likewise, Adam.
I had a lot of fun and Iappreciate the conversation.
I'll see you in.
Adam Shaffer (43:37):
Miami man, I'll be there, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
Thank you for watching another episode of the
Planet Amazon podcast, where wetalk all things Amazon.
If you want to learn about howto accelerate your sales on
Amazon, visit Phelps United'swebsite at phelpsunitedcom.
Welcome to the Planet Amazon podcast with Adam
Schafer, where we explore theworld of Amazon and other
e-commerce marketplaces.
Join us as we delve into thelatest strategies and tactics
for successful selling on theworld's largest online
marketplace.
Adam Shaffer (00:19):
Hello everybody, I'm Adam Shaffer and welcome to
the Planet Planet Amazon podcast, where we talk about all things
Amazon Today.
On the podcast, we're excitedto have a real Amazon
Marketplace veteran.
His name is Dan Brownsher.
I'm sure many of you have heardof him.
Dan is president CEO,co-founder at Channel Key,
(00:41):
advising multimillion-dollarcorporations at fast-paced
entrepreneurial startups on howto navigate the complex
landscape of Amazon retail andthe broader world of e-commerce
in general.
Dan is also the co-founder ofTrend Nation, a top 200 global
seller selling $1 billion inrevenue.
He is a national thought leaderin Amazon retail strategy and
(01:03):
emerging e-commerce trends.
Welcome to the Planet Amazonpodcast, dan.
Thank you, adam.
Thank you for having me.
Wow, what an amazing backgroundyou have.
I definitely need to learn more, but, holy cow, you've done a
lot.
Dan Brownsher (01:20):
It's been a fun journey, Adam.
It's been a fun journey, Adam,where you know Amazon's a really
amazing ecosystem that hascreated, I think, opportunities
for a lot of different types ofentrepreneurs.
So very fortunate to have foundAmazon in the early days and
it's, I think, it's still early,it's still really early.
Adam Shaffer (01:40):
Well, I know, kind of maybe boring to you, but
interesting to people that arelistening.
Dan Brownsher (01:55):
What got you started to start ChannelKey and
get involved in this crazy,large, enormous Amazon
marketplace?
So it's a good question, adam,and I can give you the Reader's
Digest version or I can give youthe deeper version For the ADD.
Perfect, okay.
(02:20):
So I let's see.
I graduated from Ohio Stateearly 2000s and started a side
hustle e-commerce business withsome buddies, slash business
partners, like in 2008, 2009.
And basically what we weredoing was sourcing goods on
Alibaba.
We picked a random categorymen's accessories so cufflinks,
money clips and we startedselling them on eBay and it was
a total side hustle side projectfor me.
(02:41):
I like creating multiplestreams of revenue and income
and this was one of those things, uh, so I did a day job where I
was, uh, you know, sellingspine implants to surgeons and
then, by night, I was takingphotos of cufflinks.
Uh, we were sourcing cufflinks,listed them on ebay and
packaging orders in my basementin my house.
So, uh, that uh turned into, uh, my partner moving to vegas, my
(03:05):
, my partner starting to attendtrade shows and buying branded
merchandise like from, you know,big brands like Tommy Hilfiger,
kenneth Cole, to then startingto sell on Amazon, to then
becoming a massive reseller, and12, et cetera, to us pivoting
(03:25):
to creating an exclusivereseller model on Amazon,
similar to a quiver or a patternor an e-tails.
To pivoting to private label, tothen bifurcating the businesses
and saying, hey, listen, we, weknow how to create these best
in class Amazon businesses forourselves and we know these
brands are all struggling withhow to do it, so why don't we
(03:47):
create a service or an agencythat helps these brands do do
Amazon at a high level?
So that was like the genesis ofof channel key.
So two businesses, one Amazonprivate label.
We sold it in 2021.
Private equity, which is againlarge.
Amazon PL business, and thenI've been running channel since
uh january of 2017, so so theproduct business is now gone and
(04:11):
you're focused 100 on theagency.
Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah so it'sso when we split right, we
created we created channel keysa separate company with owners,
uh, and my two partners ran thatbusiness, uh, and I ran the
agency.
So, uh, so, yeah, so, channelI'm sorry, trend nation still
exists, but we're not involvedanymore.
(04:32):
Um, and I've been solelyfocused and dedicated on on
channel keys since, uh, januaryof 2017.
So, uh, we're up to about 85people now and we're fully
remote and, uh, full service,full service shop and I work're
some of the biggest brands inthe world.
Adam Shaffer (04:50):
What's interesting is we kind of compete, but we
don't.
I mean it's such a huge market,like I talk to all the
competitors.
You mentioned a few and thereare others.
I mean there's millions ofpeople that sell on Amazon and
we all still help each other outand talk to each other and
sometimes we share clients andwe help each other with clients.
So when people say, why do youwant a competitor on the show,
(05:13):
it's like, first of all, I'mhere not really to talk about us
and what we do, but we are anagency.
But we do buy and sell to helpour brands.
Instead of selling to Amazon,they sell to us.
But with you you have such anincredible experience.
You just bring more to thetable.
To me it's like you're part ofthe community.
People come and ask questions.
I don't care if you're acompetitor or you're not a
(05:34):
competitor.
Everybody seems to help eachother out in this place.
I've never seen that outside ofthe Amazon world.
Dan Brownsher (05:41):
Yeah, it's so interesting.
It's still a small community,right, it's certainly getting a
lot bigger.
But you're right, I talk to ourcompetitors all the time and
have personal relationships witha lot of our competitors and
it's okay, which is fun andinteresting and allows us to
(06:02):
kind of see the growth and thetrajectory of a lot of different
types of businesses in theecosystem.
But yeah, I don't know.
My experience is people want toshare Not always, but in most
cases they are willing to share.
It's it's moving so fast andit's we're all dealing with a
(06:26):
lot of the same types ofproblems and challenges that
come with running these types ofbusinesses and playing in
amazon sandbox, um, but it'sstill, I don't know.
In my opinion it's still reallynascent, like obviously
amazon's massive, but as a totalpercentage of retail ecom's
still small.
It's growing.
Amazon's got what half of allus marketplace, uh, um, but
there's like so much blue skyahead.
Adam Shaffer (06:44):
So I don't know Still early $640 billion of
merchandise that gets sold.
There's so much, there's somany.
Like I was just saying, I thinkwe have a little bit of a break
and um hearing each other, but$640 billion in merchandise that
gets sold, if you're a billiondollars in sales, you're still
(07:06):
nothing.
I mean, it's amazing how bigthis pond is.
Dan Brownsher (07:13):
Correct.
And the pond is getting muchbigger right, bigger and bigger,
and I don't see it slowing downanytime soon, you know.
Adam Shaffer (07:24):
I have a softball question for you, but it's
something that's near and dearto my heart, and that is you
know, we meet brands.
We meet brands every day, smalland large.
We love them all and they'relike I think I need help, but
I'm not exactly sure why I needhelp.
But I think need help, but I'mnot exactly sure why I need help
.
But I think, tell me why youthink most, if not all, brands
(07:54):
need help selling andunderstanding Amazon and why
there's a place for agencies,because I think that without the
help of an agency, you're goingto fail.
So that's just my twisted viewof things.
What do you think, dan?
That's just my twisted view ofthings.
Dan Brownsher (08:05):
What do you think , dan?
Yeah, and Adam, you cut outthere for a second, okay, but I
think I got the gist of it and Ithink it's.
Why is there a place foragencies right in our world,
especially with dealing with Idon't know any size?
(08:26):
I don't know.
We're a service business, right, and there's so many other
types of service businesses outthere that exist, and whether
it's an attorney or whether it'sa cleaning crew or whether it's
a Shopify shop, businesses anytype of business needs to decide
(08:48):
what they want to be good atright.
And so do you want to be goodat building a brand and
developing products and being anexpert in every single channel
you sell through or not?
And the answer is some brands doand some brands don't, and I
think, from my perspective, thisis all we do and we are in it
every single day, and it'smoving so fast and it's only
(09:13):
getting more complex.
There's only more technologytools that exist.
There's only more ad types thatexist.
There's so much, there's somany challenges that brands
experience or will experienceevery single day.
And to hire a group that hasthe people, the experience, the
technology, the resources, therelationship with Amazon, the
(09:34):
access to certain things likeDSP or whatever to flatten the
learning curve for brands.
It's basically, in my opinion,impossible to replicate it.
If you're a brand, it's.
It's basically, in my opinion,impossible to replicate it if
you're a brand, unless you aremassive and you've got a ton of
resources and you want to becomean expert on the platform.
It's really hard, um and it andit changes every single day.
So, uh, I don't know.
(09:56):
We've got experience acrossmultiple, multiple categories,
multiple years, multiple issuesresolved, multiple ads and
multiple everything that wemultiple ads and multiple
everything that we can leverageand, you know, pinpoint
solutions for our clients reallyquick.
Adam Shaffer (10:12):
What I think is you have to be so damn good at
everything if you want to besuccessful on Amazon, and it's
hard because, like you said, itchanges and it's really
competitive.
So if you're not really good atcontent and understanding how
to test competitive, so ifyou're not really good at
content and understanding how totest your content, if you're
not good at the logistics andmaking sure you don't run out of
stock and the issues with that,you're not going to compete
(10:38):
with the guys that are all overthis every minute of every day,
and that's why you need somebodylike you mentioned, a lawyer.
It's like you need a lawyer forthis.
You need somebody that's aspecialist in managing every
aspect of your Amazon business.
You might be good at the brandand understanding your brand,
but making it work on Amazon isa challenge, I think.
(11:00):
So I'm a believer in that.
You need professional helpwherever you can get it, and
some people go to a company likeyours that could do it all, and
some take pieces and spread itout.
Dan Brownsher (11:13):
I like to work with a group of people I like
and enjoy working with yeah,we've used this analogy over the
years that running a properAmazon business, or a
best-in-class one, is likeflying a plane.
Right, like everything's got tobe happening in concert for it
to make sense, and that's ouroverall thesis.
Right, like we built our ownyou know large private label
(11:36):
business.
Like we've done it, we've doneit all.
Like we've sourced theinventory, we've got stuck with
the inventory, we've labeled theinventory, we've shipped it.
We've done all this stuff andwe know what it takes.
And, yeah, it is complex.
It is complex and it's allgoing to be working together.
And Amazon is not like otherchannels.
(11:58):
We do a lot of vendors orvendor central clients, and it's
like negotiating AVN with yourvendor manager is hard and it's
specific and it's unique andit's not like any other channel,
right, but it's incrediblyimportant.
And so to have that purview andability to touch every part of
the business, in our view, isimportant and it's critical.
Adam Shaffer (12:22):
What's funny is you mentioned shipping products.
I mean it's important and it'scritical.
What's funny is you mentionedshipping products.
I mean God.
I mean you're going to, at somepoint of your life at Amazon,
make a mistake.
That's pretty costly, whetherit's a reconciliation issue or
something you did wrong thatAmazon comes after you for and
hits you with a chargeback orwhatever.
So if you haven't made yourmistakes, you're going to make
(12:47):
somebody coming into this space.
They're going to make a mistakeand, like somebody like you has
made that mistake or thosemistakes already and you know
what's going to burn yourfingers.
You know, tell us about any ofthe the burn your finger moments
you've had.
If you want, you don't have toshare, but if you have any good
ones, give me your favorite.
But I mean we.
(13:07):
We know brands that have gottenfine a hundred thousand,
$200,000 from Amazon, gottenproducts held at Amazon for a
year and haven't been able toget them released.
You know all kinds of crazystuff.
Dan Brownsher (13:20):
It's so crazy I'm like trying to think that
question spurred immediate PTSDfor me, but I don't know.
Let's see, we've dealt with somany issues over the years, from
faulty uploads to where Excelspreadsheet one of the columns
(13:41):
got accidentally deleted andyou've uploaded the wrong data
into the pricing field andchanged all your prices on
Amazon to brands and this issuper common and has been common
for years trying to figure outways to generate more reviews
and leveraging QR codes to tryand get more traffic to their
(14:01):
listings and or generate morevolume and reviews.
We've had accounts shut down.
We've had so many listings shutdown you name it like.
We've dealt with it and seen it,and whether that was at our
product company we owned ordealing with our clients, you
know it's a constant battle,right, it's a constant battle
(14:25):
and it could be super nuanced,like, hey, if this type of issue
happens, you have an ip claimor whatever.
Like, how do you resolve thatissue?
Right?
Who do you talk to specifically?
Because you can't just pick upthe phone and call amazon, right
, it doesn't necessarily workthat way.
So knowing how to triage anissue and do I go left or do I
(14:45):
go right is important because itcan save days, weeks, months or
perhaps your entire account ifyou make the right decision
versus the wrong decision.
Adam Shaffer (14:55):
And getting through them.
Sometimes you go left, rightand center because you try
everything and you see whateverbreaks through, you get lucky
and you try something.
Somebody says no, somebody saysyes and you get lucky that way.
But it's not.
I would say it's an art morethan a science.
On that, it's playing it right,saying the right things,
getting the right words to theright person at the right moment
(15:18):
.
So it's interesting, but Ithink the big point of that is.
But I think the big point ofthat is, if you're a brand,
you're going to make a mistakeand then you're going to make a
mistake again and you might aswell work with people that have
made the mistake so you don'tever have to make them again,
because they could be costly.
And even if you think you gotit dialed, there's something you
(15:40):
just don't know and you'regoing to step into a pothole and
it's good to have a partnerwith you along the way.
So I am a huge advocate changingthe topic to something more
about business than Amazon.
Now you mentioned you're inVegas, but your company is 100
(16:02):
percent remote and during COVID,I think we all learned for the
most part how to work remote.
But you remain remote and youlike that model, I like that
model.
How do you make that work foryour company?
Because you see all these CEOs,I want everybody back in the
office and then the employeesare not happy and then a lot of
people are more productive athome than they are in the office
(16:24):
.
So what's your take and how doyou make it work for Channel Key
?
It's a good question.
Dan Brownsher (16:30):
And we've had offices Right, when we first
started, we had an office Ithink we had three total offices
in Vegas.
Over the years we were toyingwith remote and then COVID hit
and we pulled the plug Right andactually I owned it.
I was a part owner of abuilding downtown.
We hit and we pulled the plugright and actually I owned, I
was a part owner of a buildingdowntown, we were a tenant in
the building and we didn't wedidn't renew the lease, right,
that's how much we believed inin, in remote, for this business
(16:52):
type.
Not for all business types thatyou can do it, but for this
business type, uh, it makes alot of sense.
Right, like I don't know we're,we are in the people business,
that's it.
Like I don't, we don't have youknow a manufacturing facility
or trucks or we're not makingstuff.
Right, it's people and andcomputers and software and
(17:13):
contracts, like that's it and so, uh, which can make it even
harder.
I think to your point, adam.
Right, it's like, how do youand we've got 85 people on our
team how do you create a servicemodel that is delivering a
service with human beings andtechnology, and do it at scale
and do it, and do itconsistently, so you're
producing a repeatable outcomefor your clients at a at a high
(17:35):
level.
It's really hard and it onlygets harder as your team grows.
For me, the key is from anexecutive perspective, and my
perspective it's we need tocraft a vision for our team that
is crystal clear, and we needto reinforce that vision over
and over again.
We need to reinforce what ourvalues are and what we stand for
(17:59):
.
We need to reinforce wherewe're at today and where we're
going to be in three years andtalk about it so everybody knows
what is happening.
So we're all rolling in thesame direction.
Okay, so from a and we use EOS,by the way, traction EOS to
operate our business, and wehave for years and so I think it
starts with that as creatingalignment and transparency
(18:19):
around the foundation ofbusiness and where you're
heading, then in a remoteenvironment.
In my opinion, the key iscreating OK and making sure that
the team is working togetherand they're engaging with each
other.
So there's some things we'vedone, like I don't know.
One of the core rules thatwe've had in the business since
day one of going remote is anymeeting we have, internal or
(18:43):
external, you must be on camera,right, and people talk about
Zoom, fatigue and all of that,and I don't necessarily, I don't
necessarily buy into it.
Now, it's hard to stand infront of your computer all day
and be in meetings all day, but,in my opinion, okay, I'm
talking to you, adam, right now.
You're in your office or yourhome or wherever I can see your
background.
I can see the beautiful, youknow, palm leaves in the
(19:04):
background, and you're in myhome too, like you're in my home
right now, I think it's veryintimate, okay.
So, additionally, you can seeme, you can see my facial
expressions, you can see whatI'm wearing, you can see, you
can see all that.
And if I'm on calls all day andI can't see you, that would
drain me, okay.
So I believe that seeing peopleon calls is it creates
(19:26):
connectivity and createsintimacy.
And then it's about creating umthese collisions digitally on a
recurring basis.
So we do, we do.
We have recurring huddles wherewe get all staff together.
We have recurring all staffmeetings where we're sharing.
We have a, a team that we callour act team that is creating
(19:47):
events.
Uh, that our team does bevirtual painting.
It could we've got somethingtoday actually where we're doing
.
Uh, you know, we everybody's,we send out baby pictures of
everybody and then everybody hasto guess.
You know who the person isinside the company, right, so
that we're creating these eventsand ways for people to interact
(20:07):
with each other and to collidewith each other.
So, um, I don't know, in myopinion, it's just, it's not any
different than running abusiness in an office.
You just have to make space forpeople to connect with each
other.
Adam Shaffer (20:19):
Yeah, I mean, and the reason I ask you that is
because, if it just in businessin general, right now it's a big
topic and you've made it workand so, hey, you know, you know
great work, congratulations, youmade it work.
But I just think there's a goodfor certain companies, there's
a place for it, and I thinkthere's a place for hybrid also.
But I think it's opened up awhole new world where your pool
(20:43):
of talent is worldwide.
Dan Brownsher (20:46):
It's an absolute competitive advantage from a
talent set perspective.
We've got people all over theworld.
So, yeah, absolutely we canhire the best and brightest and
we can do it very efficiently.
We've got 30 people in thePhilippines that are amazing
members of our team that hey,listen, if we were in office we
couldn't necessarily do that.
So it creates a lot offlexibility to your point.
(21:06):
And if you can do it at scaleand do it and maintain a culture
of connectivity, it works.
It absolutely works.
And I love real estate, adam,and I've never understood why a
lot of these business CEOs orwhatever want to bring everybody
back into the office.
I think it's based in fear andI think perhaps they want to get
a return on their investment ontheir real estate.
(21:27):
So I love real estate, but Iwould not own office space right
now.
I just wouldn't, because Idon't necessarily believe in it
fully at this point.
Adam Shaffer (21:37):
Yeah, it's good for restaurants and barbershops,
maybe, yeah, so okay, well,thanks for breaking away from
the Amazon topic for a minuteand talking about biz, but let's
get back to Amazon biz.
(21:58):
But let's get back to Amazonand the question is for you what
is the most challenging part ofAmazon?
We talked about a bunch ofdifferent things before, but
what do you think is the mostcomplicated but important part
of Amazon to master?
Dan Brownsher (22:11):
That's a really good question.
That's a really good question,um, and I want to be thoughtful.
My answer, adam, uh, becausethere's so many different
complexities and I think itchanges every day.
Like you asked me, today it'sone one answer, and ask me
tomorrow it's somethingdifferent, just based upon what
we're dealing with.
Um, I don't know.
I think the most complicatedpart about Amazon is trying to
(22:38):
think about a brand and wherethey're at today and where they
want to go and build a strategicbusiness plan for them.
That encompasses their demandplanning how their product is
distributed, encompasses theirdemand planning how their
product is distributed, whotheir competitive set is, what
their margin profilerequirements are, and whether or
(23:00):
not they want to growprofitably or they want to take
share, right, and then to createa multi-layered traffic driving
promotional strategy campaignaround some sort of calendar is
a really hard challenge, andthat's what we try to do, right?
So I think at a macro levellike that's, that's a big
(23:20):
problem to solve.
So, hey, you, you and we, wehave a, we have a, a company
that we're talking to right now.
That's a $300 million Amazonbrand, like 300 million, right,
it's like, okay, we want to growthe business, okay, okay, what
does that look like?
How do we do that?
You have a sure business in acompetitive category.
How do you do that?
And it's not a single thing,right, it's a multitude of
(23:43):
different incremental thingsthat are going to happen to
yield that outcome.
So I think building those typesof plans is super complex.
If I look kind of more micro, Iwould say running trap, like
everybody wants to talk aboutadvertising on Amazon's like the
super sexy topic their adbusiness is growing so rapidly
(24:03):
and it's so cool, and there'sprime video and there's Thursday
Night Football is all reallycool stuff.
That's super important and butit's hard right, and it's
getting harder right.
And you've got to now thinkfull funnel for these brands
around how we're going toleverage all the traffic on the
platform and now off theplatform.
So piecing that, that matrixtogether and you know,
(24:28):
leveraging all of this datathrough AMC and piecing and
stitching this client personatogether and the journey for the
consumer based on the producttype and how you want to
advertise and drive traffic, Ithink is a really hard problem
to solve.
Adam Shaffer (24:41):
I'm taking you on my next client call.
That's great, I need that.
So no, you're right.
I mean it's hard, but it'simportant and it's not just let
me put in some money and let itride on the Amazon platform.
It's everywhere, it's offAmazon.
Let me put in some money andlet it ride on the Amazon
platform.
It's everywhere, it's offAmazon, it's video it's
influencers.
It's everything, it's everything.
What a pain in the neck man.
God bless you.
That's great.
I'm glad you're doing that.
(25:03):
It's fun, right, it's fun, it'sfun.
And you know you talk to brandsall the time and many of them
have been doing it themselves orthrough Amazon.
What do?
Dan Brownsher (25:27):
you find is like the most, maybe maybe not the
most common.
But what is the biggest mistakeyou see that brands make
selling on Amazon?
Man, it's honestly the basicsRight.
I think they, in a lot of cases, fail at the basics, right.
I think they've, in a lot ofcases, fail at the basics.
And in my opinion, the basicsare retail readiness right.
Are you using all the images inthe carousel?
Do you have videos?
How's your store look?
Are they plus content?
Are your titles optimized?
(25:47):
How many reviews do you have?
How good quality?
Like the basics, like retailreadiness.
In our opinion, which is anAmazon term, it's like table
stakes.
At minimum, you have to beretail ready and we see so many
brands that just aren't Right.
And then the other component tothat, I think, is managing the
operations of their businessRight and more specifically,
(26:17):
around their inventory and themanagement of their inventory
and the control of theirdistribution of their products
to the world.
Because, again, running aproper business on Amazon is
like flying a plane.
You can have the most badassproduct videos and content and
ad structure and DSP campaigns,all this stuff, but if you can't
keep your product in stockright or you or you have
challenges with the buy box.
It doesn't matter, like none ofit matters, and so I don't know
(26:41):
.
I think that it's this.
It's still the basics, like thefundamentals of operating a
business controllingdistribution, keeping products
in stock and maintaining a baselevel efficacy around.
You know how your PDPs look, Ithink is what we find very often
, regardless of lifestyle orlife cycle or size of brand.
Adam Shaffer (27:03):
It's interesting you talk about distribution.
The biggest issue I think wesee is that the brands.
Biggest issue I think we see isthat the brands.
They want to be successful onAmazon.
They want everybody to be kindto their brand and not lower the
price below minimum advertisedprice, but yet they don't want
to put in place a channel policythat helps protect them because
(27:26):
they're afraid they're going tooffend somebody, to lose sales
or something like that, where,if they did it right, they would
get more sales at a higherprofit by having rules in place
to not let anybody on the planetsell their stuff on Amazon.
Dan Brownsher (27:40):
Yeah, amazon.
Like to become a professionalseller on Amazon.
It costs you $40 a month, right?
So it's not.
The barriers to entry areridiculously low.
And so it's right for for graymarket.
It's right for for, you know,companies that maybe have a
(28:01):
retail store dot com that justwant to push out the back door
and list it on Amazon.
It's right for that, it'salways been right for that.
Yeah, and you're right, like,people or brands need to treat
Amazon not like any otherchannel.
Right, because it, because,because that opportunity exists,
(28:22):
and we see this a lot of timeswith B2B customers.
I have a big B2B businessesthat, hey, listen, I don't want
to upset my, my businesscustomers, right, but what?
What they're doing is they'reintroducing competition to
themselves on the platform, andso they need to make a choice
Like who do you want to be?
Like, what do you want to begood at?
(28:43):
And we're not saying don't havea B2B business or don't sell to
your B2B customers.
No, if you want to grow a realAmazon business and control it,
you've got to control thedistribution on the platform and
or the buy box, Because if not,it will inevitably get out of
control.
Assuming there's good volumefor your products, somebody will
(29:07):
latch on to it in some way,shape or form.
So our opinion has always been,from day one, is if you want to
be successful on Amazon, youshould control it, whether
you're a three-piece seller or avendor, control it.
Own the buy box, own thecatalog, own the content, own
the traffic driving strategy.
Adam Shaffer (29:25):
Otherwise somebody else will we'll talk to a brand
and we'll say this store, xyzstore, is buying it from that
distributor and they're sellingapproximately this much a month
on Amazon through all the toolswe have, and they'll go that
store is that company.
(29:45):
I didn't know that.
Oh my God.
That's like.
That's my best, that's my bestretailer and they, they're your
best retailer because they'reselling it all on Amazon.
They're not selling it throughtheir mom and pop store, they're
an Amazon seller and they'reselling it below map and they're
destroying the rest of yourchannel business.
Don't you understand?
Either put a rule in place thatthey can't sell it below
(30:07):
minimum advertised price or stopthem from selling on Amazon.
But I don't want to hurt theirfeelings, but you've got to do
something.
But you're just going tocomplain all day and you're not
going to solve your problem.
So it's a tough conversationsometimes to have, but it's
reality.
Dan Brownsher (30:22):
And it's been like that for since I started,
right, I mean we started as areseller, right, like we know
how it works, you know all thetricks, don't you.
I mean, yeah, absolutely Notthat we ever did anything
nefarious.
But yeah, like we, we saw itover the years, right,
especially when we had a.
(30:42):
You know, we pivoted from beinga reseller to being an
exclusive reseller.
So we go these brands who say,hey, listen, let us be your
exclusive seller on Amazon.
Who say, hey, listen, let us beyour exclusive seller on Amazon
.
In exchange for that, we'll doyour catalog work and we'll do
your ads and we'll provide youthese services.
Right, but we're still going tobuy your inventory.
Oh and, by the way, we're goingto hold price.
We're not going to violate math.
(31:05):
And where that broke was man.
We bought the goods.
It's sitting in my warehouseand I can can't sell it.
I have an exclusivity agreementwith you, but you can't control
your distribution, so I'm stuck.
I got stuck, um, and so it'sbeen a problem forever.
Now it's probably it's gottenbetter over the years because
it's just more talked about andamazon's become bigger.
But like, this is not a newissue, you know.
(31:27):
So we've seen it.
We've seen all the crazy stuffwith the fake addresses and like
it's just, I don't know, it'swild, but yeah, pretty basic
thing.
You know you'd think you'd wantto control this channel and
platform.
Adam Shaffer (31:42):
That's cool.
So I have like a surprise.
I just got this piece of papertoday and it tells me and I said
I wouldn't get into anything,super in the dirt, but this is
kind of high level.
So it's a kind of a contest.
You have to pick what thelargest complaint or fear that
Amazon sellers it's the greatestfears Amazon sellers have and
(32:04):
I'll give you the multiplechoice and then see if you can
get it right Other.
So don't go with that one.
It's account suspension, risingfees, asin suspension, black
hat attacks or counterfeit goods, which is 3P seller's biggest
(32:25):
fear.
Dan Brownsher (32:28):
Okay, so what is a third-party seller?
That is, a brand owner or not abrand?
Adam Shaffer (32:33):
owner.
It's generic, so let's say it'ssomebody selling anything on
Amazon.
Are they concerned more aboutaccount suspension, rising fees,
ASIN suspension, black hatattacks or counterfeit goods I'm
going to go with yeah, I'mgoing to go right now with
(32:54):
rising fees.
I would have done the same, butit's account suspension.
So they're 63.3%, and I wish Icould tell you what report this
is from, but it's from somethingthat I printed out and of
course I didn't take the source,but there's a bunch of coffee
beans on it, so maybe it's thecoffee bean report.
But it's what is your greatestfear as an Amazon seller.
(33:16):
So account suspension 63%.
Rising fees is 17.7.
I would have thought it'srising fees because not just
this freight been going upalthough Amazon's freight rates
are still better than most butjust their fees in everything
they do.
Plus you're, you now have topay for more space if you want
to get more space.
So I would have thought that'sit.
But have you run into accountsuspensions before?
(33:38):
Oh yeah.
So oh yeah.
How have you dealt with that?
We had one recently.
Dan Brownsher (33:45):
Oh no.
How do we deal with it?
Adam Shaffer (33:49):
I mean that could be fatal, right?
Oh yeah.
Dan Brownsher (33:52):
It's not good for business?
Yeah, it's bad.
So let's see how do we dealwith it.
It depends, it depends on thesituation and what happened.
Right, a lot of our clients,vendors uh, it's more rare to
have a vendor account shut down.
But for a seller account, uh,do they have a sas core rep?
Right, are they paying amazon?
(34:12):
They have a rep that they theypay.
And if the answer is yes, we,we get those folks involved
quickly and we've had somerecent um wins, like we.
For a while.
There we were like sas core we.
We were generally not pro sascore for a while, but I think
that flipped recently whendealing with some of these
(34:33):
issues.
Um, so, if there's a sas corerep, get involved asap.
Clear documentation, clear,clear, everything.
And again, it depends on whatthe issue is, okay, um, and then
we always pull in.
We'll pull in specialists too,right, so, like, we'll pull in
the, you know, the riverbends ofthe world if needed, or or some
(34:55):
other companies that can helpus resolve those very specific,
like niche type issues, right,so, like I also.
So what I've said is we're afull service agency, right?
Um, for and for for brands onAmazon.
Uh, there's a few things wedon't do, um, but in certain
nuanced scenarios we becomegeneralists, right, and
(35:18):
sometimes we have to bring inthe surgeon, you know, to help
us.
Right, we'll triage an issueand we're the general care
physician, but sometimes you gotto bring in the surgeon and for
those types of issues we'llbring in a third party to help
us.
Adam Shaffer (35:33):
Yeah, no, and Riverbend's great.
We had them on our show too.
They're excellent, so good,call on them.
You know, what I found a lot oftimes is it's account health
Like.
Sometimes people aren'trealizing they're getting dinged
every day by being late orsomething's not right, or
they're getting complaintsthey're not answering.
Everything is on the timer,everything is on a clock and you
(35:53):
have to understand that.
Whether it's you're managingthe brand, somebody's managing
it for you you got to get backand answer the questions or
you're going to have an accounthealth problem.
If you're not shipping theproducts on time, you're going
to have an account healthproblem and ultimately, you're
going to get shut down.
Dan Brownsher (36:08):
There's so many different booby traps, right,
and yeah, it's time sensitive.
And then the POAs you writehave to be written in a certain
way and have to, you know, acertain length and a certain
structure, and so it's a.
You brought this up earlierlike if you've not dealt with
this issue before and you're abrand and all of a sudden your
account is gone and you have tofigure out how to resolve it.
(36:31):
It's hard, it's really hard,and you can step in a pothole
pretty quick if you make thewrong choice.
Adam Shaffer (36:39):
Now ASIN suspension.
That is better than suspension,but you could have millions of
dollars of inventory tied upsitting at FBA and they take
your ASIN off.
I mean, that is a nightmare too, and that we've dealt with.
(37:04):
You know quite often where wehave to provide paperwork and
receipts and testing and, yeah,all sorts of stuff.
It's a nightmare, but that youknow.
These are things that everybrand ultimately runs into.
So I it's a fear, but it's areality.
Like you just have tounderstand that.
Do everything in your power tokeep your account clean, make
sure that you have all yourpaperwork, and there'll be that
day when it happens and you gotto have your stuff together.
Dan Brownsher (37:25):
You got to have it, yeah, and sometimes it's you
can.
You can try to stay ahead of it, but other times it's like
again.
It's like Amazon tells you whenthis is going to happen, right,
like a box can come through andscrape something and pull you
down immediately.
There's some word in your copyon your listing, or a bullet
point or whatever you know.
There's that whole pesticideissue or products we can take,
(37:46):
take down requiring pesticidetesting.
It's like it's it's just not aset it and forget it.
Environment, right, and it'sthere's no, there's no.
Like playbook that works allthe time and it can be perfect
today and your account can beshut down tomorrow by surprise.
You know so it's hard.
It's hard, yeah.
Adam Shaffer (38:08):
So, with all the competition, with all the
complexities, we all still lovethe Amazon marketplace because
we see so much opportunity in it.
And you know, do you still?
Do you think it's too late nowfor people to start on Amazon?
Do you think that it's justevery category is is so loaded
(38:30):
with competition you couldn'tbreak through?
Dan Brownsher (38:33):
I don't think so, but I do think that I do think
that the playbook on how to doit has changed.
Right, like in the past and wedid this ourselves.
Creating an Amazon only brand,I think, is certainly still
doable, but I think thelongevity of it is challenge,
and the way that you need toconsider it now is it cannot
(38:56):
just be Amazon, right, you canstart it on Amazon, but you need
to have a social strategy.
You need to build a brand,right.
You need to build a brandbecause if it's just based on
Amazon and just based on reviewsand it's just based on winning
on that platform, somebody isgoing to take your lunch, right.
(39:18):
Somebody is going to build abetter mousetrap.
They're going to come in with acheaper cost.
They're going to come up withsomething to deter traffic away
from you.
So I still think it's absolutelydoable and you can make
products to market really quickand the research and the data
that you can get to findopportunities still exists.
But those holes in that whitespace closes super quick and
what doesn't change, or what isa good hedge against that, is
(39:40):
creating awareness of your brand, or what is a good hedge
against that is creatingawareness of your brand right
and branded search right.
Let's win on branded search andlet's create some sort of
connective tissue with ourconsumer, and I think the way
you do that is through socialcertain product types.
Tiktok is important right now,so finding ways to drive traffic
into Amazon and build a brandon top of the Amazon platform, I
(40:05):
think, is the way you have todo it.
Otherwise, I think there's alot of risk.
Adam Shaffer (40:09):
Would you do your own Shopify site too?
Dan Brownsher (40:11):
Yeah, I would.
Yeah, shopify site drop a buywith Prime widget on there.
And yeah, why?
Absolutely, absolutely.
Adam Shaffer (40:21):
I mean, I'm really into the Shopify platform at
this point too.
Dan Brownsher (40:24):
Yeah, Now where would I drive my traffic?
Adam Shaffer (40:27):
Yeah, that's a question.
It might convert better onAmazon.
Dan Brownsher (40:30):
Might convert better on Amazon right, but if I
can activate that customer onShopify and create some sort of
continuity around that, that'sinteresting.
Adam Shaffer (40:36):
You want the customer.
Dan Brownsher (40:37):
Yeah sure.
So I think that's how you haveto think.
Okay, In the old days, justbuild an Amazon only brand and,
you know, start ranking andmaybe throw some advertising up
and put an FBA, get a primebadge.
It's like, hey, this is notthat hard, you know, but it's
not like that anymore.
Adam Shaffer (40:54):
No, and plus there's.
There's just a commitment ofadvertising dollars.
Like you're, like I know peoplethink they could do it all
organically, but you got to putthat into your cost of goods.
Dan Brownsher (41:07):
It's ridiculous.
Adam Shaffer (41:12):
And it's only going up and the fulfillment
costs are only everything'sgoing up.
Well, that's scary.
So but there's good to knowthere's still a place to start a
product anyway on Amazon.
It's a good launching pad,potentially for a product that
you want to get out there intoother channels.
So that's good to hear.
And so you know, kind ofwrapping this up, what advice do
you have for not just somebodytrying to start up, but a brand
(41:33):
that's already selling on Amazon?
What's your advice to them?
Knowing what you do and howcomplicated things are, knowing
what you do and how complicatedthings are.
Dan Brownsher (41:46):
Man, that's a really good question.
My advice for a brand that'sperhaps already selling or
established on the platform isto leverage data that allows you
to fully understand thecustomer journey and how your
(42:10):
customers are engaging with yourproducts at various stages of
the buying platform or thebuying funnel.
Right, that's what I would say,because if you can see that and
you can unlock that, whichrequires AMC, the map becomes a
lot more clear and the playbookand strategy becomes more clear
around customer acquisition, ltvand then how far my advertising
(42:36):
dollar is going.
That's my one piece of advice.
Adam Shaffer (42:40):
Good, advice and if I'm a brand and I want to get
in touch with you, dan, andchannel key, how do I do it?
Dan Brownsher (42:47):
Yeah, good question.
So go to you.
Go to our website, channelkeycom.
You can find me, dan Brownshire, on LinkedIn very active.
I post multiple times per weekso you can follow me and engage
with me on LinkedIn.
You can follow channel Key onLinkedIn.
You can sign up for our blogposts.
On our website we push out alot of content so you can just
(43:11):
easy Google search us, searchChannel Key, search me and find
us on LinkedIn or find us on ourwebsite.
Adam Shaffer (43:16):
Thank you very much.
I mean I get a lot of yourcontent.
It's really good.
So thanks for pushing that out.
It's really good, so thanks forpushing that out.
It's really helpful.
With that, let's wrap up fortoday, and I wanted to thank you
again for joining Planet AmazonReally enjoyed talking with you
.
Dan Brownsher (43:30):
Likewise, Adam.
I had a lot of fun and Iappreciate the conversation.
I'll see you in.
Adam Shaffer (43:37):
Miami man, I'll be there, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
Thank you for watching another episode of the
Planet Amazon podcast, where wetalk all things Amazon.
If you want to learn about howto accelerate your sales on
Amazon, visit Phelps United'swebsite at phelpsunitedcom.
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