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Amazon is a wildly popular platform for sellers and shoppers alike. The Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) platform makes things even more interesting.

You sell it, Amazon ships it. What’s not to like? Taking full advantage of Amazon FBA, many sellers have made quick work of scaling their businesses.

Over the last few years Amazon’s marketplace has really begun to mature. It’s more important than ever to have an Amazon marketing strategy in place.

Are you wondering why your Amazon store isn’t getting the kind of traction that you had hoped for?

Increasingly, sellers on the Amazon platform are relying on account management agencies and Amazon PPC consultants to help them to continue to grow their businesses.

Unfortunately, as befitting the e-commerce-money grab that the Amazon marketplace has become, a lot of inexperienced management marketing services have rushed in to fill the void.

It’s a little like how the e-commerce explosion led to large numbers of Amazon aggregators buying up Amazon businesses (often with the help of Fintech investments).

Unfortunately for those same investors, many Amazon aggregators have a lot more enthusiasm than they do Amazon-selling experience. That’s part of the reason why so many of those same aggregators are struggling right now.

E-Commerce Enthusiasm Will Only Get You So Far

Getting started selling on Amazon (and buying up Amazon brands) is relatively easy. What’s complicated is making sure that you’re profitable. The rapid maturation of the Amazon marketplace and the increasing number of sellers is forcing everyone to level up their business game and take e-commerce seriously.

Just because you’re working from a laptop doesn’t mean you shouldn’t treat selling on Amazon as seriously as a “brick and mortar” business. If anything, given the rapidly-changing nature of e-commerce, it’s more important than ever to follow procedures and develop solid SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures).

That’s why a lot of sellers might reach out to an Amazon marketing agency for help.

At the same time, software has become a big part of our everyday lives. Whether it’s making sure that you have the latest security patch installed for your computer, or an app stopped working because you forgot to install an update, we’re bound to the whims of these technological marvels.

That’s why we’ve become so dependent upon them to solve our every need. Ecommerce isn’t any different. Entrepreneurs have come to rely on SaaS (Software as a Service) companies to answer many of the questions that seem to stand in the way of success.

Are they really to be trusted?

Software to the Rescue?

At the end of the day, it comes down to time.

Selling on Amazon, like parenting, studying at night for a college degree, or keeping in shape, is all about time management.

An Amazon account management agency usually deals with this through a bunch of automated software. I love cool new software as much as the next guy. Every time I upgrade the firmware on my iPhone I’m halfway expecting the latest update to allow my phone to make my morning cappuccino for me.

Admit it, with a world full of people willing to put their lives in the hands of Tesla’s autonomous driving technology, we’re clearly fans of advanced software.

Why Do Amazon Sellers Need to Use Software?

Amazon sellers might not really NEED software for their first product. It’s when business picks up and they begin to scale, that e-commerce technology becomes their friend.

Let’s say you had success with your first product. A lot of Amazon sellers might be tempted to try to use software to take a closer look at their digital marketing wins to try to repeat them.

Are you seeing your sales start to drop? Software can help you investigate your competitors, to see who, and why they’re cutting into your profits. Then, it might be time to run offensive targeting ads to siphon off a little of their business.

Or, you can use A/B testing to determine better images or copy in your Amazon marketing efforts.

Let’s not forget about Amazon PPC (pay per click) advertising. For a lot of new sellers, trying to fine tune their Amazon PPC management, automated ads give them the confidence to get started and hit the ground running.

Automated PPC Advertising

PPC automation allows sellers to control their Amazon advertising campaigns with e-commerce software. The software takes advantage of machine learning and algorithms to do a lot of the entrepreneurial heavy lifting. It’s a big time saver for Amazon sellers.

Amazon PPC management software makes it easier for new sellers to optimize their digital marketing. It also saves them the time that they’d otherwise need to put into learning the finer points of bids, timing, and ad campaign strategy.

You know how important it is to launch your Amazon product with a lot of momentum. A lot of very smart Amazon sellers say that Amazon-selling software makes it possible for newer sellers to get a head start with their PPC.

Are Amazon Listings Written by AI Software a Good Thing?

If you spend enough time listening to e-commerce experts, one of the first things that you’ll hear is that as you begin to scale up your Amazon business, you need to learn to delegate. Work smarter, not harder. What’s your time worth? You don’t want to be the smartest person in the room, etc, etc.

These are all nice catch phrases, but when it comes to Amazon SEO, is it true? Should you delegate this to a robot?

An AI-optimized listing might be fine for an Amazon seller just starting out. However, as the e-commerce ecosystem grows, search engine optimization battles will only become more competitive. That’s why human input will continue to be the difference between a brand that makes money, and one that falls by the wayside.

What a Lot of Agencies Get Wrong

Many agencies that have jumped into the e-commerce space do so with the same degree of excitement as newer Amazon sellers. In doing so, they end up taking advantage of many of the same tools and strategies that brand new Amazon sellers use to get started.

Artificial intelligence copywriting, Upwork photographers, and fully automated PPC account management allow Amazon agencies (many of them new to e-commerce) to get up to speed quickly.

Levi Strauss became one of the success stories of the late 19th century gold rush with well-built work clothing for those working in the mines. Now, Amazon has become a sort of 21st century gold rush.

SaaS companies such as Helium 10, Jungle Scout, CopyAI, and Anyword have made a lot of money equipping Amazon sellers and Amazon management agencies alike.

But, here’s the big problem with this.

Amazon’s Marketplace is Reaching Maturity

That maturity has made it a little harder for everyone to be successful. If you listen to e-commerce podcasts, you’ll often hear the phrase, “treat selling on Amazon like a real business.”

This is a good thing.

The old, ‘everything goes,’ wild-west days of Amazon when sellers could simply buy reviews are thankfully (for the most part) in our rearview mirror.

What’s happened now is that everything from your Amazon listing optimization to your PPC advertising requires an increased level of sophistication to scale past a certain level.

This is where SaaS software can be a double edged sword. Amazon management agencies (and sellers) need to have the depth of experience to know what part of the work they should trust a robot to do.

Unfortunately, newer agencies have a habit of trusting artificial intelligence a little bit too much.

CANOPY Does Amazon Agency Differently

Don’t get me wrong, CANOPY Management isn’t technology adverse.

The difference is this: CANOPY uses software to free up the bandwidth of our Amazon-selling experts. To lapse into a football analogy, most agencies are in deep zone coverage. CANOPY Management isn’t simply man-on-man, we have entire teams monitoring individual Amazon brands.

We love a good piece of technology as much as the next person. But, it’s a tool. Our most extraordinary resources are our teams of e-commerce experts that are producing amazing creative assets, fully optimizing listings, and closely monitoring custom PPC and Amazon DSP advertising campaigns.

Expert Skills are Required for Amazon DSP Advertising 

Amazon DSP (Demand-Side Platform) uses mined data to target (and retarget) shoppers once they’ve left Amazon’s marketplace.

Amazon DSP allows advertisers to really drill down to identify a specific audience. But, it takes a true Amazon expert with the ability to know how (and what) to track in order to effectively utilize the global implications revealed by this shopper data.

Only a limited number of Amazon advertising agency experts are entrusted (by Amazon) with the privilege of working privately with their own high-level digital advertising option. CANOPY Management is one of them.

How CANOPY Management Can Help You In 2022

CANOPY Management is a full-service marketing agency for Amazon sellers. Our team consists of former Amazonians, multi-million dollar sellers, and award-winning experts. When you consider the many ways that CANOPY Management can help you grow your business, you’ll see why selling on Amazon is much easier “under the Canopy”:

• Strategic Growth Planning
• Listing Copywriting Optimization
• Listing Photography
• Product Videography
• Advertising Management
• Customer Service
• Demand Side Platform (Amazon DSP)
• Amazon Posts
• Full Service Management
• Amazon Review Aggregation