[Podcast] Amazon vs Shopify

Audio file

Transcript

00:00:00 Daria Rose

Hello and welcome to E com stand up with Dorian Bell happy Friday, Belinda.

00:00:06 Belinda Anderton

Happy Friday and.

00:00:09 Belinda Anderton

Kind of a red letter day or I don't know if that's the right phrase in in America with the signing of into law that Juneteenth is now a federal holiday. Also, day us to commemorate UM?

00:00:27 Belinda Anderton

So yeah, perfect day for us to record our podcast.

00:00:33 Daria Rose

Well, I think we we we took. We gave the team the day off today. The entire company is off to kind of honor this big day. And you know before we we even start off, you know?

00:00:47 Daria Rose

There I've been seeing a lot.

00:00:50 Daria Rose

An online today about how.

00:00:54 Daria Rose

And I don't think I agree with this, but basically how like a lot of people can't believe they just made it a holiday, but they're not doing any of the things in between, right?

00:01:04 Daria Rose

It's still there's still voter inequality. There's still so much to do, which I 100% agree with. There is, but I very much also believe in.

00:01:14 Daria Rose

It's still a big step that Juneteenth is now a national holiday, especially and. And maybe this is just my ignorance, but.

00:01:22 Daria Rose

Last year I AM 30 years old. I'm 31 years old now, with my birthday last week, but last year was the first year. I even knew about Juneteenth.

00:01:32

Right?

00:01:33 Daria Rose

And obviously, again, that's saying a lot about our education system and so many other things, but I think we have to take any victories that we can.

00:01:42 Daria Rose

And while yes, I agree that there is a lot, there are many more steps that need to be taken. I am thankful that.

00:01:51 Daria Rose

This one was taken. I think it's a big deal.

00:01:53 Belinda Anderton

Correct and now awareness can be raised. Now they can be we we we start the conversation really.

00:02:00 Daria Rose

Well, exactly it being a federal holiday means it's going to be the day off for schools. So now kids will all around will know.

00:02:08 Daria Rose

What Juneteenth means? You know, the official emancipation of slaves, so I think that come again, it's it's. It's very important because that's also something that any.

00:02:20 Daria Rose

Any public school is going to now have to give children the day off, so that's going to start open conversations and hopefully raise awareness which is important, Yep.

00:02:31 Daria Rose

All right, well, it's also Father's Day weekend, so really quickly I'm very excited. I don't know if anyone else does this, but I was thinking about gifts I I come to my in-laws a lot for Father's Day.

00:02:42 Daria Rose

They almost always have a pool party and I my father in law has everything he needs. Nothing. So I was trying to think about it.

00:02:50 Daria Rose

Gift that I could get.

00:02:52 Daria Rose

Him and I was like well.

00:02:55 Daria Rose

What do I wish the House had?

00:02:58 Daria Rose

Right, and they have a Keurig and they have some sort of like fancy pour over Chemex, something or other.

00:03:06 Daria Rose

I love Nespresso machines. Alright, they are my favorite. My friends who live in Italy all have them, so it's it's definitely not. It definitely makes a really good espresso.

00:03:17 Daria Rose

I drink.

00:03:18 Daria Rose

Two to four espressos per day, which is maybe a touch high but I was like I feel like my father in law would like a nice espresso from time to time so I got him a nice Nespresso machine and I got him the virtual line so it can make both espressos and larger black.

00:03:37 Belinda Anderton

Coffees nice yeah.

00:03:39 Daria Rose

And I got him a milk frother. If he ever wanted to make a nice little cappuccino, or like an iced latte or something like that. And we're like unwrapping it and setting it up and he's like.

00:03:48 Daria Rose

You realize you really got this for yourself.

00:03:51 Belinda Anderton

Well, at least everyone knows.

00:03:51 Daria Rose

So I was called out.

00:03:55 Daria Rose

Yes, but I already did I I made myself 2 nice little one cappuccino one cortado both excellent. The milk frother is fantastic.

00:04:05 Daria Rose

Uhm and.

00:04:08 Daria Rose

Guess where I bought said gift?

00:04:11 Belinda Anderton

Do tell.

00:04:13 Daria Rose

Amazon.com.

00:04:16 Belinda Anderton

Do we call you a traitor?

00:04:16

Which is which?

00:04:19 Daria Rose

No, but that's the exact topic.

00:04:21 Daria Rose

Of this conversation, and actually I think Father's Day is a really good framing for this because I bought my father a gift and I bought my father in law gift to the two main fathers in my life.

00:04:22 Belinda Anderton

It is.

00:04:32 Daria Rose

So for my father in law I bought him. We already said the Nespresso machine on Amazon. I knew exactly what I was going to buy, and I actually I could be wrong here, but I, well, I know nespresso.com is definitely not on Shopify.

00:04:47 Daria Rose

Uhm, so I knew I wasn't going to check out on their website. They may not even have direct to consumer.

00:04:53 Daria Rose

They may direct everyone to Amazon. That is, some companies tactics, and if you haven't gotten it yet, dear listeners, we are going to be talking about Amazon versus Shopify and whether it even is versus or what you know kind of our opinions.

00:05:07 Daria Rose

On it so Nespresso Machine purchased on on Amazon right?

00:05:13 Daria Rose

For my father, again very difficult man to shop for. I asked my brother. I asked my mom I was like what what can I buy the man who has everything?

00:05:21 Daria Rose

And last time I was at my parents house, I think it well. We had gotten there pretty early and my dad came downstairs after waking up.

00:05:32 Daria Rose

And he sleeps.

00:05:34 Daria Rose

In his united pajamas like United Airlines pajamas that you get in for God. That's what he sleeps in and he works out.

00:05:43 Daria Rose

And like he's like shirtless. And I think he wears the pajama pants to work out. So, anyway, I was like.

00:05:51 Daria Rose

I need to get in and he like the the old, the old clothes he has are such dad clothes like he has closed from 1980, nineteen 70 that are just like old shorts and T shirts.

00:06:01 Daria Rose

So I was like OK.

00:06:03 Daria Rose

What about nice workout gear? And I asked my brother what about nice workout gear for him and he goes well.

00:06:08 Daria Rose

He actually has really nice, like sick Lululemon gear. He just wears it to walk on the beach and not to workout it.

00:06:15 Daria Rose

And I was like, OK, so if he's not wearing his cool clothes to work out and I'm not going to do that.

00:06:19 Daria Rose

And then I ask my mom and I go. What about pajamas? And she goes, Oh my God, that's an amazing idea.

00:06:24 Daria Rose

I can't stand his united pajamas really. You're getting me a gift so it's like the gift I got for myself.

00:06:30 Daria Rose

So anyway, now I'm thinking OK, I have to find men's pajamas and this is Father's Day. I don't just want to get, you know $20 flannel pajamas. I want to get something nice maybe.

00:06:38

Write nice.

00:06:39 Daria Rose

Something embroidered, something like.

00:06:41 Daria Rose

That so here is where I did a Google search for men's pajamas and used content marketing. I looked at blogs for kind of the top luxury men's pajamas. Nice, and I found eberg.com which is hosted on Shopify. So I think we can really use these two.

00:06:45 Belinda Anderton

Mm-hmm right?

00:07:01 Daria Rose

Examples as kind of cornerstones of.

00:07:05 Daria Rose

Our discussion today. Yeah, so most people listening to this podcast probably know, but we have Amazon. We have Shopify, Blender, why don't you tell us?

00:07:15 Daria Rose

The difference what is Amazon? What is shopping?

00:07:16 Belinda Anderton

Well, yeah, and that's a really good place to jump off, not just for the consumer but but also for for entrepreneurs, small startups who say you know, wow, maybe I should just go on Amazon. All of my friends are having success on Amazon, but we need to establish.

00:07:36 Belinda Anderton

Just OK what the difference is.

00:07:39 Belinda Anderton

Amazon is an ecommerce platform.

00:07:43 Belinda Anderton

I mean Shopify snapped by Oh my goodness. Shopify is an E commerce platform and Amazon is an online marketplace.

00:07:53 Belinda Anderton

So Shopify gives you tools.

00:07:57 Belinda Anderton

To build your own online store portal front end to display your wares, yeah?

00:08:03 Daria Rose

It's really build your own experience. I think that's the the key or entire and not even just online experience. It allows you to build your entire customer experience.

00:08:13 Belinda Anderton

Now Amazon allows you to sell your products through its marketplace.

00:08:20 Belinda Anderton

Alongside other online sellers.

00:08:20 Daria Rose

And then.

00:08:23 Daria Rose

Including Amazon itself, so uhm.

00:08:26 Belinda Anderton

Amazon is like having a store at a flea market.

00:08:30 Daria Rose

Right exactly where the mall.

00:08:32 Belinda Anderton

Loads of people coming in. Browse and buy.

00:08:36 Belinda Anderton

Well Shopify is like renting.

00:08:42 Belinda Anderton

A building to put your store in right? It's your own building.

00:08:46 Belinda Anderton

And you're going to. I mean, it may have like through through Shar Pei.

00:08:51 Belinda Anderton

And through the shopping app, you aren't getting passing foot traffic, but there's no real marketplace where all the Shopify stores to any great extent where all Shopify stores are listed. So correct flea market, buy your own building.

00:09:08 Daria Rose

And I think again, yeah. So so with the flea market example, the main. But there's there's a couple of main benefits, one to Amazon.

00:09:18 Daria Rose

One is it's extremely low cost to get set up. There is a monthly charge, but it's it's fairly low I believe I believe.

00:09:28 Daria Rose

Most of it is actually a percentage of sales that Amazon takes. Yeah, and then again, mainly what? Yeah? And they're they're of course sponsored.

00:09:37 Daria Rose

Product links so you can sponsor your post against specific search terms, but really the main benefit of Amazon is that you're getting your product in front of hundreds of millions of people.

00:09:47 Daria Rose

Daily it's hard to say. I don't even know what Amazon traffic is, but it's wild. You're you're getting your.

00:09:50

So yes.

00:09:52 Belinda Anderton

But also.

00:09:54 Belinda Anderton

Competing with hundreds of millions of online sellers so.

00:09:56 Daria Rose

Oh, of course, but then you're you're competing against it. Unless I mean we have a client, for example.

00:10:01 Daria Rose

That had a very unique product that people did search for on Amazon. It was dog house heaters and there actually are not a lot of dog house heater competitors, so he did fairly well.

00:10:13 Daria Rose

But point being.

00:10:14 Daria Rose

You're you're listing your product on a marketplace where you're going to have tons of people. Etsy is kind of like this as well, right?

00:10:20 Daria Rose

Where you can list your product, people are going to search for it. Any marketplace is like that. Again, Amazons value add is just the sheer quantity of people going there. I I would say the other.

00:10:35 Daria Rose

Kind of main component is that Amazon is not really for browsing. There is a high intent when people are looking for something, so.

00:10:46 Daria Rose

I would say.

00:10:48 Daria Rose

You know we talk about conversion rate a lot on an ecom stand up and I would say Amazon I I don't know top of mine but I would say Amazon conversion rate is in.

00:10:59 Daria Rose

The high like 50% or more, potentially because people are coming not on each product obviously, but per session and people log into Amazon looking for something.

00:11:09 Daria Rose

The percentage of times that they check out. For me personally, it's probably 95%. Yeah, I would say it's very rare that I I'm looking for something that I end up not buying.

00:11:19 Daria Rose

That being said, most of the things I'm buying on Amazon are either things I've already purchased or are things that I know. So for example.

00:11:27 Daria Rose

Nespresso pods, vitamin refills protein powder refills paper towels dish. Like all these kinds of products that I may go to the store for or whatever are things that I'm kind of buying on Amazon. An example of a time I didn't check out on something is I was looking for a A.

00:11:47 Daria Rose

A hair brush to blow dry my hair like a round bristle brush and I was actually overwhelmed with the number of options and how the reviews were all positive and I was like I can't. I don't know I need to ask my hairdresser which.

00:12:00 Daria Rose

I should get.

00:12:01 Belinda Anderton

So also at this point I'm.

00:12:01 Daria Rose

Uh, our type 3.

00:12:03 Daria Rose

Don't kick out, but I would say that's that's pretty a good example.

00:12:07 Belinda Anderton

Yeah, now I'm in Brazil and we of course have Amazon here and there are a lot of local listings. I have never bought on Amazon.

00:12:15 Daria Rose

In Brazil you have never bought on Amazon.

00:12:17 Belinda Anderton

No, because some of the products come in from overseas and we have very high.

00:12:21 Belinda Anderton

Import and taxes. Well, I I you know I buy my digital books. I buy, you know, for my Kindle.

00:12:28 Belinda Anderton

So that's fine. And and it's so easy to check out. You know it's just the one click, but I use Amazon for price.

00:12:38 Belinda Anderton

No, I'm looking.

00:12:38 Daria Rose

Oh interesting, OK.

00:12:38 Belinda Anderton

For something and then I will go to a Brazilian or a local. We have local marketplaces that I mean rival. Obviously Amazon here.

00:12:46 Belinda Anderton

Yeah, very, very similar, but I will use it just to get an idea of the price. So I'm looking for a round bristle brush.

00:12:53 Belinda Anderton

It's kind of good 'cause you can see it. You can get a $20 one or two $120.00 one and then and then I can and then I can start my search. So sure I find that quite interesting as.

00:13:03 Belinda Anderton

Well, but from a vendor.

00:13:05 Daria Rose

And I think one thing that.

00:13:06 Daria Rose

We should add is that you know over the past couple of years, Shopify had not Shopify.

00:13:13 Daria Rose

We're really confusing ourselves there. Amazon, Amazon has allowed you to create a bit of a branded experience over the past few years.

00:13:14

Right?

00:13:22 Daria Rose

They now have. You can visit the Nespresso store which will allow you to have like an espresso page and you can have some image and text situations going on, but it's it's, you know, not that great.

00:13:34 Daria Rose

Uhm, I know.

00:13:35 Belinda Anderton

It's going to get better.

00:13:36 Belinda Anderton

It's going to get that up.

00:13:37 Daria Rose

Yeah, they're they're releasing more there.

00:13:39 Belinda Anderton

Yeah so.

00:13:41 Daria Rose

But then I would say the main drawback on Amazon is customer experience.

00:13:48 Daria Rose

So and and when I say that I don't mean the shopping experience. I mean, the post shopping experience. So Amazon always says that they're a customer centric company.

00:14:01 Daria Rose

Everything they do is about the customer experience, but what they mean is the online customer experience. Ease of checkout. One click checkout.

00:14:08 Daria Rose

Prime toggles filter. It's easy, easy to find what you're looking for, reviews, etc.

00:14:12 Daria Rose

App host purchase. You don't get all that much from Amazon. No, I actually don't even think you get the customers email address when they check out on Amazon.

00:14:22 Daria Rose

That's all Amazon's data. They get everything. You get the money, Amazon gets everything else. And and especially if you're doing FBA slash prime, which most people are doing, 'cause that's such.

00:14:32 Daria Rose

You know, I would argue that most people buying on Amazon are.

00:14:37 Daria Rose

More likely to buy a prime item if they're prime members than not, UM.

00:14:43 Daria Rose

And you know you lose the shipping experience, right? Because you can't include. You can maybe include some inserts depending on how you send your items to Amazon.

00:14:52 Daria Rose

But you know, everyone got in that Amazon Box. That's 10 feet long. That has, you know Chapstick in it.

00:14:57 Belinda Anderton

Yeah, that's right.

00:14:57 Daria Rose

And it's like what is this and the prime tape is falling off and you can't like control that.

00:15:02 Belinda Anderton

Customize that.

00:15:04 Daria Rose

And then obviously you have all your email marketing. Your retargeting all of.

00:15:08 Daria Rose

That you lose, yeah.

00:15:10 Daria Rose

So it's really kind of a benefit.

00:15:12 Daria Rose

Like an analysis, you have to run for your business traffic and kind of low startup costs versus competition and not having data on your customer experience. And then of course the big one.

00:15:25 Daria Rose

That I don't know if everyone knows, but the big one is if you're successful on Amazon.

00:15:32 Daria Rose

They will copy you.

00:15:34 Daria Rose

Even if you're successful, even well, no. All birds is a great example where all birds is not on Amazon, but they were so successful that Amazon copied them anyway.

00:15:40 Belinda Anderton

Correct, but they.

00:15:46 Daria Rose

But if you're on Amazon, it's going to be even easier for them to get to you. So because they have that like they guessed that all birds was successful.

00:15:54 Daria Rose

They don't have those numbers, but if you're successful otherwise they know who's selling. They know what people are clicking on, they can see their reviews, they have the data they they take over.

00:16:03 Daria Rose

So, so now let's pivot to Shopify. Quickly Shopify ecommerce platform. It empowers you to create your own brand experience.

00:16:12 Daria Rose

You can create a completely custom front end. We've talked about this a good amount and you know that's very important to your brand, right?

00:16:23 Daria Rose

Uhm, so now let's turn to the the pajamas I bought for my dad.

00:16:28 Daria Rose

One great example. I wanted them to be personalized. I wanted his initials embroidered on the pajamas.

00:16:34 Daria Rose

That is something Amazon cannot do. Amazon does not offer any sort of personalization service, they are all about getting the order and shipping it out. So any sort of kind of luxury custom option like that you can't really do on Amazon.

00:16:50 Daria Rose

You know, yeah? I mean, I mean, I think that's the main thing. So if you want your customer experience too, if you want to control your customer experience.

00:16:57 Daria Rose

If you want to control the brand experience, and I think Belinda you made a good point about the the the stall at a flea market versus renting a building up.

00:17:10 Daria Rose

Have you ever been to a Nike store? Yes.

00:17:14 Daria Rose

So Nike is a great example. They are not on Amazon, they've never been on Amazon and I think if you look at the Nike Online store and then if you look at a Nike in person store like Nike Town, I mean they're all about that in store experience, correct?

00:17:28 Daria Rose

Low lights around the shoes, the escalators, the this, the celebrities. It's like it's like going into it it's it's insane.

00:17:35 Daria Rose

And a lot of people, a lot of tourists come to New York, go to the 5th Ave Nike town just to experience it and then come out with you know six pairs of trainers.

00:17:45 Daria Rose

Yeah, so that's a very good comparison. And again, if you think about it, you're looking at cost. How much do you think it takes Nike to operate and build that store tons?

00:17:56 Daria Rose

I can't even consider it up, so it's kind of the same thing with your online store. If you want to create that experience, you're going to have to spend a lot on marketing.

00:18:05 Daria Rose

Again, using New York as an example, subway ads are huge. You see direct to consumer brands just taking over entire subway line.

00:18:15 Daria Rose

Me undies, all birds, all of these, all of these brands who are our direct to consumer are doing that.

00:18:22 Daria Rose

You don't really see. You know Amazon hairbrushes taking over subway ads. They're really relying on that direct to consumer traffic.

00:18:31 Daria Rose

So I guess, uhm, you know ultimately.

00:18:34 Daria Rose

We don't believe it's either or, but it comes down to a business decision, right? So we have a client that sells like smart cookers and air fryers.

00:18:44 Daria Rose

And they believe in a multi channel.

00:18:47 Belinda Anderton

English yeah.

00:18:48 Daria Rose

Meaning that they want to have their own website. They do want to control traffic. They want to be able to run marketing campaigns.

00:18:54 Daria Rose

They want to have all of that, and anyone who wants to check out on their website is welcome too, but they're also going to have links to all of the marketplaces that they're available on. Yeah, target, Amazon, eBay, Walmart, etc.

00:19:07 Daria Rose

And you know the main consideration there. And again a multi channel experience is also a way of like diversifying your risk because.

00:19:16 Daria Rose

There was a time around and the pandemic started that Amazon just wasn't shipping a lot of brands, they were only shipping essentials and what they considered to be essential.

00:19:26 Daria Rose

So hundreds of thousands of products and brands were just all of a sudden had no income. Had they diversified and had their own direct consumer?

00:19:36 Daria Rose

Store they could have pushed a little bit more money into marketing and traffic there they could have, you know.

00:19:41 Daria Rose

Dealt with that in a in a better way.

00:19:42 Belinda Anderton

And we think we had people coming to us, saying, you know help FBA fulfilled by Amazon. Since they're not shipping my stuff 'cause it's like get barbecue tongues or something like that. Yeah, whatever.

00:19:56 Daria Rose

Dog house heaters.

00:19:58 Belinda Anderton

Exactly, you know, and setting up a store as fast as possible.

00:20:02 Belinda Anderton

I would argue.

00:20:05 Belinda Anderton

Yeah for me with Shopify it is it's exactly it's control over your data.

00:20:13 Belinda Anderton

A really powerful inventory system.

00:20:16 Belinda Anderton

There's no doubt about that. Yeah, multi channel selling as well with the you know with what you can link to on Shopify.

00:20:24 Belinda Anderton

Right taxes and like abandoned cart and that email marketing. It is so powerful don't.

00:20:33 Belinda Anderton

Don't think that just because FBA and your Amazon setup can sort of be done in 10 minutes.

00:20:39 Belinda Anderton

It makes it better and FBA is a big draw.

00:20:45 Belinda Anderton

For you know, startup vendors and therefore it's you know.

00:20:49 Daria Rose

It's big also, you know. And and I I I do get it right because I sometimes get so frustrated when direct to consumer companies are, you know.

00:21:02 Daria Rose

And I think actually something something I say is that if you're on Amazon, the experiences have to match somewhat.

00:21:08 Daria Rose

Yeah, you're shipping time on Shopify. Redirecting consumer site cannot take 10 days when your Amazon product is prime. Yeah, that's just cannibalizing everything you have to try and match the experiences, and I do get frustrated. I buy my razors.

00:21:22 Daria Rose

From from Billy.

00:21:24 Daria Rose

And I do think they are the best razor I've had. The case is great, the razor itself is great, the handle is great.

00:21:31 Daria Rose

I don't cut myself so I am kind of loyal to them, but every time I need to order renewed blades it takes 11 days to ship to me and I'm just like I don't understand how it's so light.

00:21:44 Daria Rose

I don't understand what shipping provider they're using that takes 11 days, so it it is frustrating. When I'm like I don't even think you're saving much money doing this and you're just making me upset, but I think that you you know your experiences have to match.

00:21:58 Daria Rose

And then I think we should talk about and I think you should also consider that if you are shipping on like multi channel, yeah you should expect a lower conversion rate on your online store right?

00:22:13 Daria Rose

And the reason for that is kind of similar to what Belinda does when she price checks. People who are loyal.

00:22:19 Daria Rose

Amazon or loyal marketplace. Shoppers who have their information saved on these platforms are very likely to see an ad for your prod.

00:22:28 Daria Rose

Ducked go to Amazon to search for it and see if they can get it there instead, so I think it's very important that when you are considering your analytics in your KPIs that you are at least considering that you're cannibalizing some of your own traffic to Amazon or to the other marketplace, so don't be down if it's a little bit lower.

00:22:48 Daria Rose

Just something to consider because you might also be increasing your revenue 'cause there are people I don't know many of them, but there are people who might just not checkout at all.

00:22:57 Daria Rose

If you're not on Amazon, they might only want that, so it's very important to to consider that as well.

00:23:04 Daria Rose

So let's talk a little bit about Shopify only because there are plenty of brands we just talked about Nike.

00:23:09 Daria Rose

All birds is another one. I think Meundies is another one. Bamba is a lot of these really large Pangea probably would be my guest direct consumer companies.

00:23:19 Daria Rose

Refused to sell on Amazon and again business decision and the reason they are doing that is to own the entire experience most likely and to own the data and be able to run the most effective business that they can through.

00:23:39 Daria Rose

Marketing and.

00:23:40 Daria Rose

Politics because they have a fairly pure view as to how.

00:23:45 Daria Rose

Effective, their marketing is does that make?

00:23:48 Daria Rose

Sense Belinda it does.

00:23:49 Belinda Anderton

I would also argue that and I don't want to get into this because we are nearly out of time. The transaction fees, right?

00:23:57 Belinda Anderton

It there's there, there's a lot.

00:24:01 Belinda Anderton

When it comes into transaction fees, especially in my opinion for for small vendors 'cause it's like $0.99 for every product you sell.

00:24:11 Belinda Anderton

Storage fees, you know, FBA, I don't know. Spend up to 120 per unit for fulfillment fees and I know if you're professional seller those go down, but.

00:24:25 Belinda Anderton

That business decision also has to be based on on the entire process, the end to end, the kind of the supply chain from end to end.

00:24:35 Belinda Anderton

Come back though.

00:24:36 Daria Rose

I feel like I'm not fully following that. That train of thought. So you're saying which one has different fees? I feel like that so.

00:24:43 Belinda Anderton

Amazon, there are many different little add-on fees.

00:24:51 Belinda Anderton

That seem very little their sense.

00:24:54 Belinda Anderton

At first

00:24:56 Daria Rose

But they add up, but they add.

00:24:57 Belinda Anderton

A and the fact that I don't have control over my data over my customers in my store that are coming into my store and I can get them to fill in something if we're going back to the rental building.

00:25:09 Daria Rose

Well, you make it. You make a really interesting point. So again, going back to the Nespresso, I so we opened the box today for my father in law.

00:25:16 Daria Rose

We're setting it up inside the box that we got from it, but inside the actual packaging box, so it's like they put it in from the factory line. There is a save $10 on your next order if you buy from Nespresso.

00:25:21

Right?

00:25:29 Daria Rose

Dot com.

00:25:30 Belinda Anderton

Oh nice oh good OK try again please.

00:25:32 Daria Rose

So I do see a lot, a lot. A lot of companies doing that, and I've gotten. I mean, I've seen all I've bought vitamins I've bought face oils, all sorts of things where I'll get something like little.

00:25:45 Daria Rose

Either there will be a sticker on the box, yeah or inside the box and it's I don't think Amazon technically allows it, but they they can't do anything.

00:25:52 Daria Rose

About when things are inside the box.

00:25:55 Daria Rose

Uhm, where they'll try and use Amazon to get that initial purchase. That initial traffic, then give you a discount on their site to convert you there and then.

00:26:05 Daria Rose

Once you've purchased on their site, it's chances are your information saved, so they're hoping you'll come back to them for future purchases. So it's like almost using Amazon as that initial marketing reach and then.

00:26:15 Daria Rose

Trying to convert them to a direct consumer customer.

00:26:18 Daria Rose

So I think.

00:26:19 Daria Rose

Let's let's, I guess, summarize our points really quickly so one I don't necessarily think it's Amazon versus Shopify, right?

00:26:28 Daria Rose

They're not mutually exclusive. You have one marketing platform. You have one, sorry, one ecommerce platform, and one that's a marketplace really good for visibility. Really good.

00:26:39 Daria Rose

For and again, another example is if if you're a brand new business and you have 0 market.

00:26:45 Daria Rose

It might be.

00:26:46 Daria Rose

Interesting to kind of test a product on Amazon and see if people are searching for it and see what.

00:26:50 Daria Rose

You can do with it it.

00:26:54 Daria Rose

Ideally, and a really good customer strategy that we see a lot is using both and that's the example we just said with Nespresso.

00:27:02 Daria Rose

A lot of people are going to be searching on Amazon to get their Nespresso. They have saved accounts. They have prime.

00:27:07 Daria Rose

They can get things very quickly and then they're going to do something with the customer experience using cards using stickers.

00:27:13 Daria Rose

Using coupons to get someone to then convert on espresso.com? Yeah, so use both to expand your reach, but ultimately the best option depends on your business, right so?

00:27:25 Daria Rose

Like we said earlier in the call, if you have a fairly unique product with not all that much competition, but you think it's something people are searching for.

00:27:34 Daria Rose

Again, doghouse heaters being a really good example of like that's something people are certainly searching for, and it'll come up on Amazon on. So go ahead, go on Amazon. It's a great. It's a great way to get your product.

00:27:46 Daria Rose

In front of a lot of people, on the other hand, if you really want to control the customer experience, you want your data.

00:27:54 Daria Rose

You want to run retargeting campaigns, marketing campaigns, subway marketing campaigns and you don't want to cannibalize your conversion rate or your data.

00:28:03 Daria Rose

Stick with direct consumer and if you and again Nike being that example of Nike has never sold on Amazon.

00:28:10 Daria Rose

If you see a Nike product on Amazon, it's not absolutely Nike or it's a reseller and they do that because they want to control the experience they want their data. Similarly to Nike Town on 5th Ave they want to control the experience that people are having.

00:28:12 Belinda Anderton

It's not right.

00:28:23 Daria Rose

With their product on their store and with their brand, and that has to just be a a business decision.

00:28:31 Daria Rose

And then I think the last point like we said before, is channel ownership and diversification. So I do think that.

00:28:37 Daria Rose

Being just direct consumer is is fairly safe in terms of.

00:28:43 Daria Rose

Risk, but being just on one of these marketplaces, you're kind of.

00:28:50 Daria Rose

At the at the will.

00:28:51 Daria Rose

Of what the marketplace wants to do. If they want to kick you off, it can kick you off if they want to scale your product and create their own version, that's a dollar cheaper and put it at the top of every listing.

00:28:54

Alright, thank you.

00:29:01 Daria Rose

They can do that if they want to pay people to write 5 star reviews, they can do that. So you're always going to.

00:29:06 Daria Rose

Kind of be at their whim. I think I'm using.

00:29:08 Belinda Anderton

Mercy yeah yeah.

00:29:10 Daria Rose

Their mercy. What were the will they win their mercy? I couldn't think of the word.

00:29:15 Daria Rose

Uhm, so that decision you'll have to, you'll have to figure out what makes sense for your business and just make the best business decision.

00:29:20

I thank you.

00:29:23 Daria Rose

And we don't. Again, I think that the final point is that it is not Amazon versus Shopify, it is what combination of the two best serves your business.

00:29:34 Daria Rose

Your goals, your customers.

00:29:35 Belinda Anderton

Agreed, agreed. I'm going to add in though.

00:29:39 Belinda Anderton

Uhm 4.

00:29:39

00:29:41 Belinda Anderton

For the vendor coming up this just talking about like I'm a startup.

00:29:48 Belinda Anderton

Again, it might seem easier to go on Amazon, and I think it's a great decision for all the reasons that you've mentioned, you get great customer support from Shopify. You really do pump no from Shopify.

00:29:59 Daria Rose

From Shopify or Amazon?

00:30:02 Belinda Anderton

As a vendor as a vendor as someone if I signed up as a merchant.

00:30:08 Belinda Anderton

Uhm, you know. Basically it's 24/7 support. I can reach out to someone at Shopify and they will put me in touch with Shopify expert, someone to help me.

00:30:17 Belinda Anderton

They're not going to help me build my store, but they are more approachable. Amazon it's very much submit a ticket and they will get back to you when and if.

00:30:29 Belinda Anderton

They want to so it perhaps easier.

00:30:31 Daria Rose

On the feed side, though, just because just because you said customer service, now I'm just going to flip it back a little bit on the customer side though.

00:30:40 Daria Rose

Correct, Amazon handles your customer service and I feel like I almost always like I often go to Amazon customer service when I have a problem because I'm just like I know I'm going to win.

00:30:42 Belinda Anderton

They do.

00:30:52 Daria Rose

I'm not gonna have to argue with anyone, whereas if you're running your own store you have to do everything you have to deal with people. If you don't respond to someone for 12 hours.

00:31:00 Daria Rose

When they get upset that's on you, Amazon is going to have someone ready all.

00:31:04 Daria Rose

The time every set up here.

00:31:04 Belinda Anderton

All the time, so that's that's very, very true, uhm?

00:31:10 Daria Rose

I mean, we could talk for hours and hours and hours. I think again just kind of going back to the the main point that it's not either or and the best decision is what aligns with your business goals, your product, what you're trying to do, and I think ultimately consider diversification.

00:31:30 Daria Rose

Consider the customer experience and if you ever have any questions about these, feel free to email us at ecom.

00:31:38 Daria Rose

Stand up at Dot NYC. More than happy to have a call with with anyone interested in discussing their Amazon or Shopify.

00:31:46 Daria Rose

Oh, Gee.

00:31:47 Daria Rose

And I think with that Belinda.

00:31:49 Daria Rose

We can call it a wrap and I will let you enjoy. Well. It's a beautiful day here 75 degrees. We have the day off. I'm going to go lay by the pool. I don't know about you.

00:31:59 Belinda Anderton

I am wrapped up here with my.

00:32:02 Belinda Anderton

Willy Willy jumper on.

00:32:04 Belinda Anderton

It's probably also about 75 degrees, but I'm.

00:32:07 Daria Rose

Belinda is cold. If it's under 90 degrees.

00:32:10 Belinda Anderton

Right, insane so, but?

00:32:12 Daria Rose

I can't live.

00:32:14 Daria Rose

Over 80 degrees I.

00:32:15 Belinda Anderton

Hate it, but I make myself a coffee from my meth Grasso machine now.

00:32:20 Daria Rose

Do you have an espresso too?

00:32:22 Belinda Anderton

We have no. We have a Brazilian version of an espresso that takes an espresso pod, so we buy all the symbols. OK, cool.

00:32:28 Daria Rose

Oh nice.

00:32:31 Belinda Anderton

Again, I go. I go direct to the site to do that and and yeah, I'm going to go.

00:32:38 Belinda Anderton

I'm I'm now inspired, I'm feeling like.

00:32:40 Belinda Anderton

A little cappuccino.

00:32:42 Daria Rose

Enjoy and have a great weekend and we'll be in touch next week.

00:32:45 Belinda Anderton

You too.

00:32:46 Daria Rose

Bye talk soon.

[Podcast] Amazon vs Shopify

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