Non-Amazon Marketplaces From an Expert’s Point of View - Episode 137

INTERVIEW WITH RICK WATSON

 

DESCRIPTION

In this episode of eCommerce Braintrust, a true industry maven Rick Watson joins us to share a bit about his career background, his take on Amazon and its contenders, their place in the eCommerce world, and much more. 

Tune in to find out what he has to say about Target, Walmart, Shopify, and others.

Rick Watson is the CEO and Founder of RMW Commerce Consulting, LLC, a boutique strategic eCommerce consultancy based in New York City. He provides advice and guidance to firms across the eCommerce industry, primarily in the areas of Direct-to-Consumer operation build-out for investors and the C-Suite, B2B marketing for software and service firms, and overall strategy regarding eCommerce marketplaces.

“Amazon advertising has got ahead of the consumer search experience.”
— Rick Watson

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • Rick started early, approximately 20 years involved in eCommerce related companies. 

  • In 1999 - during his employment in Channel Advisor, he worked with the eBay marketplace before they had an API, worked with Yahoo! Auctions before Amazon had a marketplace.

  • He was recruited in 2011 to build out a 3rd party marketplace for barnes&noble.com

  • Rick talks about one of his most contentious posts from the past 5 months.

  • Walmart is slower with their marketplace than anyone else. 

  • eBay is stuck at neutral for the past several years - for brands it’s good for overstock in some categories.

  • Target is the most intriguing, they made smart investments in retail and eCommerce in the last 3 to 5 years.

  • With their invite-only politics, Target is trying to avoid fraudsters and “too much selection” problem that causes pollution of the catalog and search results.

  • Rick shares his opinion about Amazon Transparency Program. 

  • Zalando - focused on fashion, testing new ideas to fulfill demand.

  • Does Shopify have a future as an official marketplace?

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

  • Win a copy of Kiri's book, Amazon for CMOs! All you need to do is write a review of this podcast in iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to this podcast, take a screenshot of the review that you wrote, and email it to Kiri at kiri@bobsledmarketing.com or send it to her on LinkedIn.

Season 3Kiri MastersComment