New to Leading the Amazon Function Within a Brand? Where to Start, with Afton Kenyon - Episode 88

INTRODUCING THE MARKETPLACE INSTITUTE

 

DESCRIPTION

Today, Kiri is interviewing Afton Kenyon, the director of Ecommerce at Thirstystone Resources Inc. Afton is at the start of her Ecommerce and Amazon journey. She started out at Nature Nate's Honey, as an all-rounder with operations, marketing, and Ecommerce. Afton, by her own admission, was not very knowledgeable about Ecommerce at first, however, she dug in and fell in love with it, becoming really passionate and eager to learn more.

The challenge with this approach for a small or medium-sized business is that professionals need to figure things out on their own. Afton spent a lot of time doing online research and making mistakes along the way with her trial and error approach. In today's episode, she talks to us about her career background and how she came to be with Thirstystone. She also talks about Thirstystone, what they sell, and what her vision is for the company, going forward. Tune in now to find out more.

“Probably 50% of my time was spent scouring articles, and blogs.
Bobsled, being one of them, was a huge part of my learning experience.”
— Afton Kenyon

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • Afton talks about her background and how she arrived at Thirstystone.

  • Before starting out at Nature Nate's, Afton only had experience as a buyer, and never as someone behind the scenes. 

  • Afton learned by spending time researching different resources on the internet and calling people.

  • Thirstystone was looking for someone who had come from a smaller company but had an appropriate knowledge level.

  • Afton shares some of Thirstystone's background.

  • One of Afton's missions for the next year is to stretch Thirstystone's wings, as their own brand, and show people what they are capable of.

  • Afton explains how she got up to speed with what she needed to know about Amazon, and she discusses what she would do if she had to do it all over again. 

  • Afton really wanted to understand the ins and outs of Ecommerce.

  • LinkedIn and Amazon seller boards were fantastic resources for Afton.

  • Some of the most surprising things that Afton had to deal with.

  • It was challenging knowing where to go for a solution when an issue cropped up.

  • Amazon is a bit like the wild west for Afton because there aren't many rules and people tend to do what they can get away with.

  • Afton talks about the various channels that she's overseeing.

  • Data is the name of the Ecommerce game.

  • There's always something new and something changing in the Ecommerce game, so you have to constantly keep ahead of things.

THE MARKETPLACE INSTITUTE

Kiri is working on a new project called The Marketplace Institute, which is the first holistic Amazon capability development platform for brands & agencies. It offers you access to a real Amazon helpline, tools and processes used daily by the leading Amazon agency Bobsled Marketing, and to a mastermind of peers to learn from.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Season 2Kiri MastersComment