Channel Mastery - Ep. 110: Pete Kearns, 180 Commerce
180 Commerce
four things specialty brands must do in the run up to black friday, cyber monday & the 2019 holiday shopping season
“Social media is really important because that's how you can drive awareness for your product. You can drive awareness for promotions. There's also e-commerce that's coming. It's there in Instagram. They're testing out new things. It's kind of clunky still, but you can buy through Instagram. I think that there's only a matter of time when they have a built in click and buy it now button on Instagram. So that's really important and also it gives you the ability to inject energy into your brand's flywheel.”
- Peter Kearns, Vice President of Business Development at 180Commerce
EPISODE PREVIEW:
Well, we’re in it - welcome to Holiday, 2019 Channel Masters!It’s not just around the corner, it’s literally here. My inbox has been flooded already (as of this writing in mid-November) with ‘door-buster’ deals and so many subject lines about Black Friday that I’m afraid to open my email. Cyber Monday promos are on their way, this I’m sure of. Holiday 2019 will be telling, that’s for sure. As a Channel Mastery listener, you’ve been ready for this time of year for some time now. But no matter how ready you are, there are always things to jockey, monitor and care-take while you’re in it with your teams. That’s where my guest on today’s show, Peter Kearns of 180 Commerce, comes in. Peter’s slipped us a cheat sheet of sorts in this episode, with the top four areas of focus every specialty brand leader must care take before, during and after the make-or-break business window that is the Holidays. Peter serves as the Vice President of Business Development at 180Commerce and actively works daily with specialty businesses and brands to hone in on their direct to consumer (DTC) strategies. And you’re getting a bit of free advice today - actually, quite a lot of it! I hope you get a ton out of this episode as I know how much is at stake in your business at this time of year.As a quick aside, Peter found in a 2019 study from Feedvisor, that 74% of consumers are now heading straight to Amazon when they have a product in mind. This figure is absolutely mind blowing and as a specialty retailer, you can't afford to ignore it. It was an honor and pleasure to yet again speak with Peter and hear his expertise on the subject. Listen to the episode and chime in with your thoughts on my Linkedin Page. This episode is co-produced by Verde Brand Communications and SNEWS.com.
FEATURING:
Peter Kearns
Peter Kearns is an Amazon brand expert spending nearly four years on Amazon’s Seller Services team working in the sports & outdoors and consumables categories. He’s helped hundreds of brands ranging from global IR-100s to small DTC start-ups make $500+ million in gross merchant sales. He’s now the Vice President of Business Development for 180Commerce, a brand management and advising agency specializing in helping brands succeed on Amazon
SELECT QUOTES:
“...But I do think that having that strong direct-to-consumer site, that really good experience is vital. And I think that customers are confident with that.”
“No one can tell a brand story better than their own brand. So the brand has the ability to connect with that consumer. And I think one of the things that Amazon was able to do so successfully and quickly and why they were so successful was that they were able to nail this fulfillment aspect of it. Whereas e-commerce 10 years ago was still a little like, "Hey, am I going to get it when I'm supposed to get it?" And then Amazon came out with, "Hey, we're going to get it to you in two days. We guarantee it."
“I call them pillars because I really think that this is what a brand needs to have to stand on with today's digital fragmented kind of brick and mortar, e-commerce economy or industry.”
“Social media is really important because that's how you can drive awareness for your product. You can drive awareness for promotions. There's also e-commerce that's coming. It's there in Instagram. They're testing out new things. It's kind of clunky still, but you can buy through Instagram. I think that there's only a matter of time when they have a built in click and buy it now button on Instagram. So that's really important and also it gives you the ability to inject energy into your brand's flywheel.”
“When you start to think about what it is, it's a shopping search engine, and it's also a shopping platform. So the brands that are doing it well on Amazon, they're taking a very similar approach in that they're treating Amazon standalone and that they're saying, "Okay, let's make sure that our content is the same. As good as our direct consumer. Let's make sure a messaging on there is as good as our social channels." And then they're saying, "Let's make sure that all the other retail readiness, that the most fundamentals are in place so that the consumer, if they are going to purchase their products on Amazon, they're going to get what they expected and then it's going to be a good experience."
“You definitely can and should have a segmentation strategy if it makes sense for your brand and your consumer experience so you don't necessarily have to have your entire catalog on Amazon. And you certainly don't have to have your entire catalog in local brick and mortar stores or on specialty websites. But I think it's important that you have a strong distribution strategy with those retailers so that if that segmentation strategy is something that you are going down, that you ensure that where those products are intended to be sold, they don't find their way onto Amazon. And that's I think one of the things that some people say, "Hey, you can't. Segmentation strategies don't work anymore."
RELATED LINKS:
180CommerceAmazon Seller CentralShopify Reports 45% Growth Last QuarterShopifyStudy from Feedvisor: 74% of consumers go to Amazon first
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