Introduction to Working with a Garden Spray Company
We were working with this one company that sells garden sprays, and they came to us, I think we’ve been working with them for a long time. They’re really just kind of starting out doing some amount. I can’t remember how much they were doing per month. Let’s say 20K. And they were just like, you know, we’re struggling, we need some help.
Handling a Large Number of Cases Over the Years
Basically, year over year, we were dealing with a lot of cases. We actually tracked. And in the last two years, we’ve opened a thousand cases for them. Seller support is something that not a lot of people coming into the Amazon world really know about. Sometimes you run into so many issues, and you have to open up so many cases to get these things resolved, because it’s like a simple catalog issue. Then you have to go to SAS core and get a representative.
Exemption from Pesticide Regulations and Other Issues
Aside from the cases and dealing with their issues, they are a company that is exempt from pesticides and all these types of regulations because of the ingredients. But they are technically, you know, this type of spray where it’s like an insecticide, fungicide, and fertilizer spray. Everybody had the pesticide issue—even metal spatulas were getting flagged as pesticides. So imagine an actual pesticide that’s a natural one. So we had to prove the exemption.
Bio Box Issues and Buy Box Challenges
That’s something we deal with consistently. Then also, we got over buy box issues with them where Lowe’s and Home Depot were selling their product. Sometimes they were trying to flush out inventory, so the price would drop 50%, and boom, you’re kicked out of your own buy box, and you can’t advertise.
Continuous Content Testing and Product Launches
We dealt with these issues, and that’s where all the cases came in. But over the years, we’ve been split-testing their content, making minimal adjustments, getting ready for their peak season, and launching new products. They’re always in research and development, so we were able to take off that load on the Amazon side, allowing them to focus on research and development and build great products that we could roll out together.
Optimizing Content and Advertising Strategy
We continuously optimized their content, split-tested it, and improved it. It was just a matter of advertising consistently and researching new keywords that made sense for their product. For example, if we see their product being compared to another ingredient in the market, XYZ oil, we’ll say “better than XYZ oil” and put it in the content and ads. This type of testing over the years led to huge growth in that account.
Growth and Success Over Time
In year one, they were doing six figures. By the second year, they had reached seven figures. The following year, we doubled that, and this year we’re expecting another 70% growth. We’ve already passed what they did last year, and we haven’t even hit the fourth quarter yet. So it’s a huge success story.
Lessons Learned from Failures
At the beginning of the conversation, we were talking about what makes a good entrepreneur. It’s someone with experience who knows what Seller Central looks like. Along my journey, I’ve seen more failures than success. Sometimes brands don’t make it, and that’s on us as an agency. Even with my own brands, I’ve had failures despite doing everything perfectly. For example, you may face a patent issue or other obstacles that cause the business to fail. Overcoming those challenges has given me a lot of experience to pivot when needed.
Rinsing and Repeating Strategies
With many of the cases, like the one I mentioned with the garden spray company, we’ve seen similar processes in different categories. That’s what I love about Amazon—it’s formatted in a way where there’s a formula. Amazon likes to see things done a certain way in pictures, descriptions, and advertising styles. We just rinse and repeat those strategies, adapting and growing as we go.
Leveraging AI for Advertising and Management
Moving on, what role does AI play in our business? A lot of people may talk about GPT for product ideas or machine learning for PPC, which crunches a lot of numbers. But I think AI has existed in the Amazon space long before the term became popular. For example, machine learning has been used to monitor patterns over time.
Testing with Deep DPM and Future of AI Integration
One exciting thing we’re working on is with a company called Deep DPM. They take millions of data points from your listing and competitors and provide actionable reports. They’ve reverse-engineered Amazon’s A9 algorithm to give insights on how to improve advertising, pricing, and other areas. We’ve been testing this with one of our brands and are seeing good results.
The Future of AI and Automation
AI is expanding rapidly, and by 2027 or 2028, we’ll see robots and automation playing significant roles. For instance, in the future, a Tesla butler might restock your household items by ordering directly from Amazon. It could even choose products based on specific preferences, making automation even more integrated into daily life.
