New research: the Amazon Maturity Matrix - Episode 223

INTERVIEW WITH CAROLINE ADAMS

DESCRIPTION

In today’s podcast, we are talking with Caroline Adams about the new research by Bobsled Marketing that is coming out on January 27, called the Amazon Maturity Matrix. What are the really smart and active brands doing to counteract the internal pressures that hold them back in the ecommerce space? How can you create meaningful, long-term change for your company?

Make sure you tune in to find out!

Caroline is a Project Manager at Bobsled Marketing where she manages clients who trust Bobsled to grow and manage their Amazon sales channels. Caroline has spent the majority of her career as a product marketer across various industries from consumer product goods to publishing to not-for-profit. As a true proponent of learning, she morphed into the ecommerce world and was trained by an ex-Amazon employee. She joined the Agency side of the business about five years ago and loves working along clients to help them reach their Amazon goals.

“It wasn’t really just the size of the brand or the longevity of the brand, but it was really more about how they viewed that particular channel and whether they were getting behind it.”

— Caroline Adams

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Caroline is a co-author of the report which is coming out on Jan 27, called the Amazon Maturity Matrix.
One of the brainstorm sessions happened prior to Q4. Then a lot of clients struggled to get inventory into Amazon warehouses, and at the same time Amazon reduced storage capacity for some clients. The advice we gave them was to ship smaller parcels because Amazon would process them quicker. A drawback is that sending smaller shipments is more expensive.
Unfortunately, even now we are seeing a lot of clients that struggle with inventory because of production problems as well as supply chain issues.
A teaser on some of the features of the Amazon Maturity Matrix:
- The 2x2 matrix that defines all stages of Amazon maturity for retail brands;
- What your brand’s Amazon “Power Animal” might be, and what changes are required to be more successful on Amazon;
While working on this project, the Bobsled team culled a lot of data and insights gathered from over 100 brands at Bobsled Marketing. This meant looking at internal data from both internal resources (how our internal team viewed their brand and how they approached their Amazon channel) as well as outside avenues and data that was pulled from clients themselves. The next step was analyzing the data and digging deeper into really seeing what type of insights bubbled up from this particular data.
The 2x2 matrix has 2 levels of dimensions: engagement and execution. Where you fell on this level of engagement vs execution determined where you would be in terms of an archetype, the “Power Animal”.
Based upon the archetype we are then able to decide which areas you’re weaker and/or stronger in. For the areas you’re weaker in we devised the next steps to improve those areas in order to become more mature on Amazon.
Some of the most surprising things that cropped up in the project:
- The size of a brand and the longevity of it do not matter. The approach to the channel is important.
- The same attributes that came up in the research, regardless of the category, the budget, and the size of the brand.
One message to take away from this report - you have to go into the Amazon channel with the tools for success (an agency like Bobsled to help, internal resources, budget). Simply listing products is not enough.
Caroline recently changed her mind about inventory - she expected the supply chain and production line issues to be on track by now.
Caroline is excited about looking ahead to what’s waiting in ecommerce in 2022, seeing how shoppers are going to consume products this year and if consumer behaviors will revert back to the pre-pandemic state or continue in the digital space.
Next steps for listeners: Sign up for the webinar and learn more about the research - links below.