Last updated: September 2, 2022
Last week I helped facilitate an all-day business meeting – a mastermind – of large Amazon and e-commerce brands.
My friend Chad Rubin asked me to support him in organizing the schedule and in keeping energy levels high.
Chad has sold tens of millions of dollars of vacuum filters on Amazon.
He’s famous in the e-commerce world for his blunt communication style mixed with specific, tactical advice. He’s a “Do this, don’t do that” kind of guy.
This mastermind day was part of a conference he founded called Skubana Accelerate. Forty attendees each paid $1,500 to attend the full-day VIP workshop the day after the main conference was over.
Amazon Brands Mastermind
I got to meet people who sell a variety of products— things like face wash, garlic presses, men’s fashion accessories, generic electric toothbrush heads, paleo loaves of bread, garage door openers, and of course… vacuum filters.
In total, the people in the room sell over A BILLION dollars a year of products on Amazon.
It was an excellent day. And I liked working with my friend Chad.
But the best part for me was all the new stuff I learned by eavesdropping.
After facilitating activities, I was allowed to listen to the private conversations of these major Amazon sellers.
I was reminded that e-commerce is extremely cutthroat. When you’re successful, other sellers try to undercut or steal from you every day.
What I Learned
These were new ideas to me:
ASIN HIJACKING
Extremely controversial topic. Each product on Amazon has an ASIN, or an “Amazon Standard Identification Number.” People were yelling and boo’ing those who talked about it. I think ASIN hijacking is when a competitor can find who manufactures your product. They buy it direct from your Chinese factory, submit it to Amazon as an identical product, and then usurp your own brand and product page to take your customers.
HOW TO COMBAT FAKES AND IMPOSTERS
To judge brand ownership disputes, Amazon asks sellers to use an invisible sticker. They will monitor which sellers use the sticker, and which do not.
NEGATIVE PURCHASE INTENT
If you as a customer click on a product on Amazon, but then don’t buy it… that’s bad for the product seller. Amazon will know that you searched for “garlic press,” you looked at that garlic press, but you determined it was not good because you didn’t buy it. It counts as a small negative vote for the product.
THE COST OF NEGATIVE PRODUCT REVIEWS
One seller said that “I would pay $1000 to remove each negative review of my product if I could.” He said it costs him at least that much in lost sales.
PRODUCT LISTINGS
I never imagined how much thought and time go into each product listing. From photo selections, titles, emojis in the product description bullets, and bundling: wow. This stuff is complicated, measured, and highly optimized by the best sellers.
LISTING TEAR-DOWNS
One of the most active and insightful sessions of the day was when sellers volunteered for a public audit of their product pages. Sellers who volunteered got immediate and insightful advice on how to improve. For example, while 3D product models are technically illegal or an Amazon TOS violation, many companies (including Anker, a gold standard) use them. The benefits of using a 3D product photograph are better control of shading and reflections.
FAKE REVIEWS
“Amazon is now better than the CIA” at determining bad actors in the review ecosystem. A seller told me that Amazon employs spy agency-level data scientists. Each customer who leaves a review on Amazon (including you and I) has a secret reviewer score, like our Uber rating. Amazon knows who is getting paid or incentivized to write fake reviews based on past review history, timing, product type, etc. They are discounting these reviews rapidly to fix the perception that Amazon reviews are too spammy.
Skubana Accelerate Photos
These are pictures that I took the previous day, at the Skubana Accelerate conference.
Conclusion
It is a wild world in the long tail of Amazon e-commerce. But I believe this competition ultimately brings better prices (and sometimes better products) to consumers like you and me.
- Profasee is Chad Rubin’s newest project and helps with dynamic pricing for Amazon brands
Related: Watch my Amazon Factory Tour in Shenzhen, China.