Ecommerce Braintrust

In this episode of "The Ecommerce Braintrust" podcast, Kiri Masters and guest Armin Alispahic delve into the major changes coming to FBA fees in 2024. They discuss the intricacies of these changes and explore how they will impact sellers on Amazon's platform. Armin is a Retail Team Lead at Acadia. He's been at the company for almost 7 years. Internally he’s known as Armin.com for his encyclopedic knowledge of Amazon. Over the years, he has gained great experience in working directly with Amazon representatives to support brands in scaling up on Amazon and achieving their goals.  Make sure you tune in to find out more! In this episode, Kiri and Armin discuss:  Introduction of the inbound placement service fee to cover the cost of transporting shipments. Amazon's shift from national fulfillment to interconnected regional fulfillment networks and the resulting impact on sellers. The impact of the inbound placement service fee on different types of brands and products. Changes in FBA fees and the impact on sellers' costs and savings. Introduction of the low-level inventory fee and its implications for sellers. The ship in product packaging program and its potential to create savings for sellers. Reduced referral fees for apparel products priced below $20.

In this episode of The Ecommerce Braintrust, Kiri Masters, Head of Retail Marketplace Strategy at Acadia, and Damiano Ciarrocchi, Retail Media Manager at Acadia,  talk about the newly launched Kroger precision marketing retail media network (KPM). They delve into the unique features and capabilities of the self-serve ad platform, as well as the interesting aspects of Kroger's advertising platform. From the reduction in fees for brands to the potential integration of a demand-side platform (DSP), Kiri and Damiano explore the possibilities and predictions for the future of Kroger's advertising offerings.  Make sure you tune in to find out more! Kiri and Damiano discuss:  Launch of Kroger's advertising platform and reduced fees for advertisers. Contextual targeting within categories and subcategories for audience targeting capabilities. Ad placement options and store selection for targeted advertising. Precise and modifiable creative capabilities for sponsored brand ads on Kroger's platform. Predictions for Kroger and the retail media space, including potential integration of in-store advertising and the impact of potential mergers with Albertsons.

In this episode of The Ecommerce Braintrust, Kiri Masters is joined by Tsege Gebreyohannes, Sr. Manager of Digital & Experience from Nature's Way Canada. They talk about how Nature’s Way battles random factory brands on Amazon. Tsege shares her experience of noticing the emergence of factory direct brands and the impact they had on Nature's Way's business. The episode provides insights into the strategies employed to combat these new competitors and how the organization adapted its approach to tackle the challenge. Make sure you tune in to find out more! As the Sr. Manager of Digital & Experience, Tsege manages both the Ecommerce side of the business as well as overall digital strategy and execution for the organization. She now manages a varied team made up of ecommerce salespeople, digital content including social media, and our customer service experience, her background has been in traditional CPG brand marketing, and before that she came from an advertising agency background. Tsege has been with Nature’s Way Canada now for almost 8 years. In today’s episode, Kiri, and Tsege discuss: Impact of factory direct brands on traditional CPG brands Underestimation of smaller brands in the ecommerce space Adapting content, advertising, and messaging to counter the competition Evaluating competitive strategies across different sales channels The importance of understanding the retail ecosystem and the role of Amazon Lessons learned and advice for brands facing similar challenges  

In this episode of The Ecommerce Braintrust, Kiri Masters is joined by Emily Peterson, Team Lead at Acadia, and Damiano Ciarrocchi, head of Retail Strategy at Acadia. Kiri, Emily, and Damiano share insights on the trends and performance of the Black Friday/Cyber Monday event this year, including the significant increase in online spending and the observations made on Black Friday versus Cyber Monday sales. The conversation covers early promotions, advertising strategies, client outcomes, and lessons learned, providing valuable takeaways for navigating the peak selling period through the end of the year.  Make sure you tune in to find out more! In today’s episode, Kiri, Emily and Damiano discuss: - Black Friday/Cyber Monday event predictions and figures, Adobe predicted that the spend would be $12 billion on Cyber Monday and nearly $10 billion on Black Friday. - Observations that Friday saw more action than Monday on retail marketplaces like Amazon, despite traditional data showing Monday as the bigger volume day. - The trend of earlier and earlier sales and promotional activities by DTC brands and retail marketplaces, with brands launching holiday sales as early as November 1. - Strategies and outcomes for clients during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday period, including a client in the apparel category doubling down on promotional activities in early October and achieving a 36% increase from the previous year's sales. - The impact of proactive ramp-up periods on organic ranking and ad performance, resulting in more sustainable outcomes and less expensive advertising. - Observations of Black Friday as the standout day in terms of sales, with Saturday being the largest decline in sales and Cyber Monday being comparatively lackluster. - A minor operational issue with setting up Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals on Amazon where a specific checkbox had to be selected for the deals badge to appear on the product page. - Insights into ad spend allocation and impressions during Black Friday, including a slight decrease in ad spend compared to other events, but a higher ratio of impressions to cost. - Observations about trends and peak sales times during the event, as well as strategies for budget management and proactive budget adjustments based on hourly peaks. - The reminder that every day until December 21 is a peak selling day and the importance of maintaining momentum and managing budgets for continued success throughout the holiday period.

In today's short episode announcement, Kiri Masters informs the listeners that this week's episode, covering the recap of Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the entire November holiday selling season, will be available on Wednesday, November 29. Considering the 24-hour timeframe needed for episode production, your understanding is appreciated as we strive to deliver valuable insights. This slight delay is intended to ensure that each episode remains actionable and beneficial to you as a listener. Thank you for your patience, and stay tuned for the new episode tomorrow.

Once again, Kiri speaks with Russ Dieringer, founder of Stratably, a company dedicated to elevating the digital IQ of leading consumer brands. Just like last year, Kiri and Russ share their predictions in ecommerce, for 2024. Make sure you tune in to find out more! Russ Dieringer is the founder of Stratably, a company dedicated to elevating the digital IQ of leading consumer brands.  Each week, Russ creates impactful, practical, and easy-to-digest research that speaks to all layers of an organization, helping them see further around the corner of what’s coming in retail. In this episode, Kiri and Russ go back to their predictions for 2023, and recap what predictions came true. The results are mixed, listen to hear what they were right about. They also share their predictions for 2024: It's predicted that brands will continue to maintain their spending on retail media. Both Amazon and Walmart Connect are expected to experience increased spending from brands. Marketplace and retail media will attract a new generation of talent native to the industry. Russ predicted Amazon's rapid growth in general merchandise categories and foresees its continued double-digit growth rate in 2024. Brands are expected to demand proof of incrementality for their retail media ad spend and marketplace investments. Walmart will likely respond to Amazon’s AMC success with their own significant data clean room announcement and partnership. Russ controversially predicts Amazon's complete closure of Fresh physical stores, with a shift in focus to existing online fresh business. Amazon will make Prime Video ad-supported for all Prime users, offering brands a significant advertising opportunity. Amazon is expected to lead in streaming TV advertising with larger reach and superior measurement capabilities. Walmart and TikTok will potentially enter a significant advertising and commerce partnership.

In this episode of The Ecommerce Braintrust, host Kiri Masters shares a special replay from "Unpacking the Digital Shelf," presented by our friends over at the Digital Shelf Institute, Peter Crosby and Lauren Livak. They’re diving into the realm of Amazon Marketing Cloud, an open database that provides deeply insightful data for advertisers, with Ross Walker, the retail media team lead at Acadia, joining them to unfold the complexities of AMC and, more importantly, how to use it to our advantage. Whether you're an executive, an e-commerce manager, or a budding data analyst, get ready for a knowledge-packed session. Make sure you tune in to find out more! In today’s episode, Peter, Lauren and Ross discuss: - AMC offers the ability to positively target customers based on specific behaviors, which includes customers who added items to the cart but didn't purchase. - Use of the AMC in remarketing to customers who were previously exposed to a campaign. - AMC helps brands identify their prime products for generating new customers and aids in making wise marketing decisions. - Introduction to the ASIN Overlap report aiding in predicting customers' future purchases. - Differences in the adoption and usage maturity of the AMC among clients, ranging from unawareness to sophisticated usage. - Successful clients often have internal abilities and use AMC data for informed marketing decisions. - Importance and significance of the 'New to brand' metric for Amazon sellers and vendors. - Insights offered by AMC allow a better understanding of marketing performance from a new-to-brand perspective.  - The emergence of the incremental ROAS concept for assessing sales lift and ROAS due to increased ad spending. - Potential improvements for Amazon Media Console, such as AI capabilities for natural language queries. - Recommendations for incorporating AMC into future strategies by tracking new-to-brand campaigns. - Challenges in effective utilization of data when outsourcing AMC insights to third-party tools. - The bystander effect of very few brands using AMC to upload and anonymize CRM data to target customers through Amazon DSP. - The importance of the 'New to brand' metric surfaced by AMC in evaluating the effectiveness of campaigns in attracting new customers. - Possible shift towards a focus on acquiring new customers rather than upselling to existing ones in uncertain economic times. - Features of AMC being complex and requiring understanding of writing SQL code. - Explanation of the queries AMC offers for various stakeholders to get insights into their advertising performance.  - The use of AMC in providing broader picture of a brand's performance on Amazon.  - Use of AMC to target audiences based on shopper behavior, location, and other factors.

In this episode of The Ecommerce Braintrust, host Kiri Masters talks with Chris Perry, co-founder of firstmovr. They delve into the concept of "smarter growth" and how it can help brands and retailers achieve incremental growth in the e-commerce space. From driving households, baskets, and trips to leveraging category management principles, they cover a range of strategies and tactics.  Chris Perry is the Chief Learning Officer at firstmovr, a Satellite Center of Excellence (COE) for CPG Omni Education & Change Management on a mission to help empower first movers — both people and organizations — to win in a disruptive marketplace. Make sure you tune in to find out more! In today’s episode, Kiri and Chris discuss: - Introduction to firstmovr as a center for omni education and change management in e-commerce. - The "smarter growth framework" as a means to organize and drive incremental growth. - Drawing principles from brick and mortar to leverage them for e-commerce success. - Moving beyond tactics to focus on the "why" of growth and driving incrementality. - The importance of understanding household penetration, buy rate, and the four quadrants of growth. - Applying the SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) framework for more strategic and measurable growth goals. - Emphasizing the need for intentional content optimization and leveraging levers at scale. - Examples of best practices in basket building, including stocking up, trade up, and bundles. - Strategies employed by Procter & Gamble (PNG) and L'Oreal in driving growth through advertising and product differentiation. - Harnessing shopper purchase data for targeted personalization in advertising. - Practical ways for brands to deploy investments and gain more control over their growth strategies. - The upcoming "smarter events" by Firstmover, offering education and support for implementing smarter growth strategies.

In this episode of The Ecommerce Braintrust podcast, Kiri Masters is joined by Damiano Ciarrocchi, head of Retail Strategy at Acadia. They discuss the Chewy Retail Media Network and how pet brands can advertise on Chewy.com. Acadia just launched an advertising management capability for the Chewy retail media network, adding this platform to the roster of retail media networks Acadia now supports. Damiano highlights the uniqueness of Chewy as a retail media network, its hyper-specific focus on the pet category, and the potential for brand loyalty among pet owners. They also explore the advertising opportunities on Chewy, including conquesting, and the technical aspects of the platform, such as the current use of Promote IQ and the future launch of banner ads. Additionally, they touch on the importance of campaign tagging and the audience targeting capabilities on Chewy. In today’s episode, Kiri and Damiano discuss: Introduction to Chewy Retail Media Network and its comparison to Amazon advertising - High-level observations about Chewy RMN, including its hyper-specificity and the loyalty of its pet product shoppers Positive results and efficiency of sponsored ads on Chewy RMN Importance of considering Chewy as a viable retail network option for pet brands  The possibility of brand conquesting on Chewy and its significance for competitors  Discussion on Walmart's stance on conquesting (uncertain, but potential loophole) Technical aspects of the Chewy Media Network, including its use of promote IQ and the availability of product listing ads (PLA) Mention of future plans for launching banner ads on Chewy RMN Overview of additional features provided by Pacvue, including campaign tagging and budget management Importance of campaign tagging for retail media allocation and comparing performance across platforms Audience targeting capabilities on Chewy, focused on contextual targeting rather than specific audience demographics. Learn more about Acadia's Chewy advertising capabilities at https://acadia.io/services/retail-media-marketplaces/chewy-retail-media-management/ About Chewy's Retail Media Network: Chewy's retail media network is still quite new, having only opened up to advertisers recently. But it offers interesting potential, especially for brands in the pet care space looking to find new customers. As background, Chewy is solely focused on pet products, so their shopper base is very loyal and niche compared to mass retailers like Amazon or Walmart. Pet owners tend to stick with brands their furry friends like, making it a great channel for customer retention. How the Chewy Advertising Platform Works The self-serve platform Chewy uses is called PromoteIQ, by Microsoft. It's fairly basic - you get a simple dashboard to launch campaigns and view reporting. Right now Chewy only offers one campaign type, product listing ads (PLAs), similar to Amazon's sponsored products. But they plan to launch sponsored brand campaigns soon. Acadia partners with the ad tech platform Pacvue to enable enhanced campaign management and reporting beyond what PromoteIQ provides. Bidding and Targeting Capabilities Here's where Chewy differs from Amazon - you bid at the individual product (SKU) level rather than on keywords. So you can set a higher budget for your higher priority items. The ad targeting is contextual, meaning products show for shoppers browsing related categories or searching relevant terms. You control bids by product category and subcategory. Chewy does allow keyword bid modifiers, but you lack visibility into performance by keyword. So optimization can be more challenging than in Amazon. Why Chewy is Worth a Look for Pet Brands While the platform needs development, there are compelling reasons for pet brands to consider Chewy: - Early adopters can gain an advantage before competitors join - Conquesting competitors' shoppers is possible here - Loyalty means getting trial can lead to long-term buyers - Chewy incentivizes brands who help them grow revenue If you’re a brand in the pet category that sells on Chewy.com, it’s a no-brainer to get started with ads.

In this episode of The Ecommerce Braintrust, Kiri Masters talks with Todd Hassenfelt,  Global Digital Commerce Sr Director of Strategy & Execution at Colgate-Palmolive, to discuss Amazon Inspire.  As a leading figure in the global digital commerce space, Todd brings his expertise and insights to the table as they explore whether Amazon Inspire has the potential to challenge social media platforms like TikTok.  They dive into the details of Inspire, its features, user traction, and its impact on brands. Tune in to gain a deeper understanding of this emerging platform and its potential implications for the ecommerce industry. In today’s episode, Kiri and Todd discuss: - Todd shares his experiences and insights from working in the digital commerce industry.  - The main topic of discussion is Amazon Inspire, a social media-like platform on Amazon.  - They explore whether Amazon Inspire can compete with social media platforms like TikTok.  - Todd discusses his initial reaction to seeing the light bulb icon of Amazon Inspire on the Amazon shopping app.  - He highlights the evolution of the platform, including the shift to a sparkle icon and the addition of features like content sharing.  - The seamless user experience of Inspire is emphasized, with the ability to toggle between images, visit product detail pages (PDP), and make purchases without leaving the platform. - Todd suggests that Amazon Inspire is currently still in its early stages and may not have garnered much attention yet, but brands should keep an eye on it.  - Brands can post content on Inspire through Amazon Brand Stores or by working with influencers. - Todd mentions the growing presence of user-generated content (UGC) on Inspire, particularly video reviews, which brands should pay attention to and address any concerns.  - Kiri expresses her disappointment in Amazon's missed opportunity to engage with brands more effectively on Inspire, similar to their earlier program called Spark.  - She believes that brands could create engaging content on the platform, enhancing the user experience and contributing to discoverability.