SAN DIEGO (August 1, 2014) — Reflecting and capitalizing upon Amazon’s emerging role as the search engine of choice for online shoppers, retail marketing specialist CPC Strategy has launched a new program to advise and assist retailers as they navigate and maximize their presence on the competitive Amazon Marketplace.
“What we’ve found again and again is that while there are many tools and platforms that assist retailers when listing on Amazon, very few of them offer anything meaningful when it comes to strategically maximizing sales on the channel,” says Rick Backus, CEO of CPC Strategy. “We have been doing this long enough that we feel confident many retailers will welcome the opportunity to share our experience and expertise to improve their Amazon results.”
To make that reality, CPC Strategy has hired former Amazon Seller Services and eCommerce expert Pat Petriello to become director of its new Amazon Sales Acceleration Program [ASAP].
“There is still a black box around selling on Amazon, even for the most sophisticated online retailers,” Petriello says. “By adding Amazon to our areas of expertise, which already include traditional online retail channels like Google Search and Product Listing Ads, we’re poised to better provide a complete search solution for retailers.“
Petriello says every retail business could benefit from the agency’s Amazon Sales Acceleration Program, whether they’re currently on Amazon or new to it.
According to Forrester Research, by 2017, 60% of all U.S. retail sales will involve the Internet in some way, either as a direct e-commerce transaction or as part of a shopper’s research on a laptop or mobile device. Approximately 10.3% of total retail sales in the U.S. will be online purchases, or $370 billion in web sales compared to $3.6 trillion in total retail sales. Amazon is increasingly the dominant player: According to The Motley Fool, Amazon claims to have 244 million active customers, with more than 20 million Prime members. Access to this customer base is hugely valuable to any online merchant.
Services offered by CPC Strategy’s Amazon Sales Acceleration Program include:
- An Assessment of current inventory to determine which products will be profitable to sell on Amazon
- Advice on fulfillment services and Buy Box Influence
- Optimizing Buy Box Share for Amazon sellers to determine maximum session share and product profitability
- Evaluation of solution providers fit based on client data and fulfillment needs
- Guided Onboarding Services for sellers new to the marketplace
- A triaged framework to tailor data attributes for Amazon submission and search relevancy
- The creation of a comprehensive marketplace approach and strategy that not only considers unique selling propositions but the competitive landscape to maximize retailer profitability on the channel.
“Amazon is the largest retail marketplace online, but no one is teaching major retailers how to use it effectively,” says Dr. Sean Carton, Director of the Center for Digital Communication, Commerce, and Culture at the University of Baltimore.
“The dirty little secret is that while Amazon services over two million sellers it doesn’t really provide good human support and guidance to those sellers,” Dr. Carton continues. “Skilled specialists who really understand what works on Amazon should have a field day playing savior for frustrated retailers. After all, with Amazon.com selling more than its 12 largest competitors combined, there’s bound to be a heck of a lot of them!”
Citing a recent study that shows Amazon is consumers’ best-perceived brand, CPC Strategy CEO Backus emphasizes that it is extremely likely Amazon’s influence over the online retail market will only increase in the years to come.
“If you’re in ecommerce, you have to understand how Amazon is influencing your business, every minute, every day,” Backus concludes. “You need to have an Amazon strategy, most likely better than the one you have now, because if you’re not experiencing smooth sailing on Amazon over the next couple years, you will drown.”
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