The (Ecommerce) Corner Office

• How to convert Amazon buyers to your customers (without breaking the rules)

  April 16, 2018 • Phil Masiello

  An ecommerce brand has to decide whether to sell its products on Amazon's Marketplace, which is the dominant buying resource for today’s consumer. Independent brands can use Amazon as a tool to obtain customers. Through proper merchandising of their products, brands can turn Amazon buyers into their own loyal customers Read Full Column »

• Protect your brand on ecommerce marketplaces

  February 23, 2018 • Phil Masiello

  Marketplaces can help brands add incremental sales — and build awareness. The more avenues on which the consumer sees your brand, the more recognizable it becomes. As your brand gains recognition, consumers will remember it and will be more likely to purchase. But selling on marketplaces could backfire if you don't utilize the tools correctly Read Full Column »

• How to benefit from Amazon ads

  February 1, 2018 • Phil Masiello

  Amazon Marketing Services offers three advertising options, for vendors and sellers: Product Display Ads, Sponsored Products, and Headline Search Ads. To win the Buy Box and build your brand, the key is to know which type of ad to use and how to use it — whether you sell on Seller Central, Vendor Centra Read Full Column »

• Align with Amazon’s strategy for marketplace success

  December 13, 2017 • Phil Masiello

  Sometimes it seems that Amazon doesn’t support sellers in its marketplace. Seemingly nonstop restrictions on what can be sold in each category make it difficult for some sellers to list ... Read Full Column »

• 4 ways to get legitimate Amazon reviews

  November 13, 2017 • Phil Masiello

  Merchants on the Amazon marketplace realize the importance of product and seller reviews. Products with more reviews and better ratings appear higher in Amazon’s search results. Buyers also tend to ... Read Full Column »

• My favorite strategies, tools for selling on Amazon

  October 18, 2017 • Phil Masiello

  Amazon is a bridge between buyers and sellers worldwide. For business owners, Amazon can provide an excellent sales and awareness channel without incurring the high costs associated with branding or ... Read Full Column »

• 6 ways to optimize Amazon listings

  September 20, 2017 • Phil Masiello

  Amazon has a huge catalog of products from around the world. Consumers rely an Amazon’s site search to find those products. But it doesn’t mean they will find the best ... Read Full Column »

• 3 new Amazon tools for brands

  August 13, 2017 • Phil Masiello

  Amazon continues to improve the experience of brands selling on the marketplace. There are a few new tools that are worth noting, for Fulfillment-by-Amazon sellers in Brand Registry. One tool, ... Read Full Column »

• 2 new marketing options for FBA sellers on Amazon’s Brand Registry

  July 9, 2017 • Phil Masiello

  There have been many articles and discussions over the past few weeks about Amazon’s Brand Registry. We’ve addressed it here, at “Will Amazon’s Brand Registry restrict marketplace sellers?” and “Why ... Read Full Column »

• Will Amazon’s Brand Registry restrict marketplace sellers?

  June 26, 2017 • Phil Masiello

  There are two types of Amazon sellers. Both can be successful. The first type is a reseller of other brands. This is a highly competitive type of selling with very small profit ... Read Full Column »

• 2 strategies to boost Amazon sales

  May 26, 2017 • Phil Masiello

  Amazon is a great additional sales channel for any ecommerce company. Not only will it provide incremental sales, but it also provides brand exposure. In my prior posts, I have focused ... Read Full Column »

• Can ecommerce marketplaces expand a brand?

  April 23, 2017 • Phil Masiello

  It’s funny how ecommerce brands fear established online marketplaces. When I discuss with those brands selling on Amazon, Walmart.com, Sears.com or any of the hundreds of online marketplaces, I often ... Read Full Column »

• Advertising options for Amazon marketplace sellers

  March 15, 2017 • Phil Masiello

  In “To drive sales on Amazon, optimize keywords,” my previous post, I discussed the importance of keywords on the Amazon marketplace, especially for sellers using Fulfillment by Amazon. Keyword optimization ... Read Full Column »

• To drive sales on Amazon, optimize keywords

  March 4, 2017 • Phil Masiello

  There are three ways to sell on Amazon. First, you can become an Amazon vendor, a first-party wholesaler of your products to Amazon, to resell. There are marketing opportunities for this ... Read Full Column »

• For success on Amazon, sell your own brands

  February 15, 2017 • Phil Masiello

  I have been selling on Amazon for many years. I have learned a few things about how to use the marketplace to expand and enhance my ecommerce efforts. In this ... Read Full Column »

• Using Amazon to launch NuPeptin, my new brand

  February 4, 2017 • Phil Masiello

  Launching a brand or ecommerce business is risky and expensive. You can do all of the research in the world, but until the rubber hits the road, you really don’t ... Read Full Column »

• Using Amazon to build an ecommerce brand

  January 27, 2017 • Phil Masiello

  I love Amazon, both as a consumer and as a seller. There isn’t a more effective place to launch a brand and learn about consumer behavior than the Amazon marketplace. In ... Read Full Column »

• 7 tips for building your YouTube channel

  April 10, 2015 • Jamie Salvatori

  My company’s YouTube channel has roughly 1.2 million subscribers. Here are seven pointers that have helped us reach that number. 1. Determine Your Goals for the Channel First, it’s important to decide ... Read Full Column »

• Should merchants accept Bitcoin?

  September 1, 2014 • Jamie Salvatori

  I was recently asked if ecommerce merchants should accept Bitcoin. My answer is a resounding “yes.” I can think of only a few minor downsides and many major upsides to ... Read Full Column »

• 7 ways to lose less money on shipping

  June 27, 2014 • Jamie Salvatori

  Shipping sucks. It’s expensive, time consuming, fraught with peril, expensive, undervalued by your customers, and did I mention that it’s getting more expensive by the day? You can thank Amazon for ... Read Full Column »

• You’ll always lose a price war

  May 6, 2014 • Jamie Salvatori

  Competing on price is a stupid tactic because it’s easy. Any idiot can undercut his competitors. Making money with this tactic, however, is rare. Only a few companies can pull ... Read Full Column »

• Beware retargeting

  March 5, 2014 • Jamie Salvatori

  Advertising is a pain in the butt. It’s expensive. It requires constant maintenance, and it’s not always measurable. In our industry, though, we tend to think that we can determine ... Read Full Column »

• Please start shipping internationally

  January 17, 2014 • Jamie Salvatori

  Our international orders represent approximately 15 to 20 percent of our total sales. That’s huge. We achieved this level of success through a variety of simple tactics, which I’ll outline ... Read Full Column »

• Are you using social media all wrong?

  October 30, 2013 • Jamie Salvatori

  Social media is probably the worst advertising vehicle for small ecommerce merchants I’ve found. Well, perhaps advertising on a park bench would be worse, but social media is pretty darned ... Read Full Column »

• Sell banner advertising? Yeah. Sell banner advertising.

  September 19, 2013 • Jamie Salvatori

  You should sell ads on your e-commerce site. I’ve yet to find evidence that putting banner advertising on your e-commerce site to be a bad thing. I know it sounds counter ... Read Full Column »

• Content is King and Time is Your Queen

  August 23, 2013 • Jamie Salvatori

  In your business, you must focus on two things: content and time. They are both equally important and inextricably intertwined. Great content will never go out of style. Seriously, there’s a ... Read Full Column »

• Thinking of starting a business? Think again!

  July 31, 2013 • Jamie Salvatori

  I’ve been running my own small business for over a decade and I often speak with people who are thinking about starting their own business. Listening to their expectations usually results in my shaking my head later and thinking, “They have no idea what they’re getting themselves into!”... Read Full Column »

• Credit Card Processing Sucks

  June 20, 2013 • Jamie Salvatori

  Credit cards are cool. They make online shopping possible. But credit card processing, the system by which money moves from a customer to a merchant, totally sucks. It sucks for three reasons: cost, liability, and security. Let’s outline each in their stunning absurdity. Credit card ... Read Full Column »

• Internet Sales Tax Isn’t About Fairness

  April 26, 2013 • Jamie Salvatori

  If you listened to the politicians tell it, the story of main street retailers needing online stores to charge and collect sales tax is all about fairness. To again quote McEnroe, “You cannot be serious!” Here’s the “argument” presented by stupid politicians as proxy for the main stree... Read Full Column »

• Why we abandoned Amazon and eBay

  March 26, 2013 • Jamie Salvatori

  In business, you must always be on the lookout for so-called Black Swan events. This may seem a bit illogical, but the point is that everything you rely upon in business has the potential to completely upend or destroy your business. Many years ago, my business sold a driver’s educatio... Read Full Column »