Blog Posts by this Author

• March 11, 2019

  The Great Amazon Panic of 2019 Enters Week 2

  The level-headed response to last week’s lack of Amazon purchase orders for many brands was a ‘wait-and-see’ attitude – putting off any major evaluation until the following Monday to see if the trend would continue into its second week. That second Monday has arrived, and by all accounts, it could be time for brands to begin taking the situation more seriously. As of midday Eastern Time Monday, many brands were...

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• September 11, 2018

  Grow Your Food Brand On Amazon, If You Constantly Optimize

  Tera Johnson, founder, and director of the Food Finance Institute and founder of teraswhey®  interviewed our very own Jeff Walcoff, Vice President of Sales & Marketing on his Edible-Alpha™ podcast. Listen below for Jeff's thoughts on how Amazon can impact your food brand. [embed]http://player.blubrry.com?media_url=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.blubrry.com%2Fediblealpha%2Fcontent.blubrry.com%2Fediblealpha%2F_38-Grow_Your_Food_Brand_On_Amazon_If_You_Constantly_Optimize.mp3[/embed] If you are experiencing trouble listening to the podcast: listen directly from Food Finance Institute's website.  In Edible-Alpha™ podcast #38, Tera interviews Jeff Walcoff, Vice President of Sales...

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• April 25, 2018

  Goodbye, Steak Dinners: Amazon is the Ultimate Game of ‘What You Know’

  It’s Sunday morning and you’re walking in the park with a friend on the way to lunch. You come upon two elderly men setting up a chess game. Your friend turns to you and offers a challenge: Pick the winner and he’ll buy lunch. If your player loses, the meal is on you. He’ll even let you pick which competitor you’d like to back. It’s a nice day and you’re...

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• March 14, 2018

  Three Observations from 2018 Expo West

  Marketplace Strategy planted its flag in Anaheim last week at Expo West, one of the largest natural foods conferences in the world. Amongst rows and rows of endless kombucha, jerky, cold-pressed coffee, and beef broth brands, we had our fair share of conversations with grocery and personal care companies, and came away with a few standout trends: Amazon is no longer sneaking up on anyone. Even a year ago, it...

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• August 30, 2017

  Amazon’s New Technical Expectation

  A simple browse through just about any product category on Amazon will clearly show that more brands than ever are taking an active role in controlling their customer experience on the channel. Aside from ensuring a positive reflection of the brand, they’ve also have focused on tackling any issues that could negatively affect the consumer experience and subsequent conversion rates. The third-party marketplace (combined with Amazon’s bare-minimum approach to info upload...

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• July 31, 2017

  Boring Brand Page No More: Introducing Amazon Stores

  No longer will brands be confined to the simple constraints of an AMS Brand Page to showcase themselves on Amazon. Amazon recently announced the creation of Amazon Stores: a free, self-service tool allowing brands to create single and multi-page “stores” on Amazon to showcase their brand and collections of their products. Amazon Stores is designed for web on desktop, mobile, and tablet, allowing consumers to shop a brand across channels....

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• July 19, 2017

  New Research Trends Positive for Amazon

  Amazon’s potential acquisition of brick-and-mortar grocer Whole Foods is, at this point, old news. Yet Amazon has managed to maintain the momentum generated by the announcement through some newly released third-party research further validating its massive push into the grocery category. Let’s take a look at some highlights. The Future is Bright Especially relevant in terms of the acquisition is a poll by ChargeItSpot, which found 62 percent of consumers...

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• July 7, 2017

  Merry Prime Day! 3 Tactics Vendors Can Use To Make The Most of Amazon’s Epic Day of Deals

  What happens when the world’s largest e-commerce company creates its own holiday? Lots and lots of shopping. In 2015, Amazon celebrated its 20th anniversary with the firstPrime Day, with the goal of driving Amazon Prime memberships and stimulating shopping among existing prime members. The following year, Prime Day 2016 produced Amazon’s biggest sales day ever, with more than a half billion dollars in sales, according to FBIC. With a reported...

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• June 30, 2017

  Amazon’s New Fitting Room & How it Compares with the Competition

  As far as e-commerce has come in growing consumer confidence when it comes to purchasing a product prior to seeing it in person, there are a few categories where the in-store experience has been far more difficult to replicate. This is especially the case in the world of fashion and apparel, where consumer desire to touch and feel the product is more relevant, and where size and fit can vary...

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• June 23, 2017

  Amazon’s Acquisition of Whole Foods – Return of the Milkman?

  Just when you thought the good old days of daily delivery from the milkman and fresh bread brought to the doorstep was becoming a story from your grandparent’s past, Amazon’s quest to be everyone’s grocery store may well, in some sense, make that a reality again. On Friday, Amazon dominated pre-weekend headlines by announcing its plan to acquire supermarket chain Whole Foods Inc. for $42 a share, a cash value...

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