77. From Aerospace to E-commerce: Vincenzo's Journey to Building a Multi-Million Dollar Amazon Agency

77. From Aerospace to E-commerce: Vincenzo's Journey to Building a Multi-Million Dollar Amazon Agency Speaker 1: Hello, good morning, evening, afternoon, wherever you are, and whatever time you're listening. I have the great pleasure of introducing my good friend Vincenzo to our podcast, whether you're listening in or watching. Yeah, it's an honor to have you. So thank you, Vincenzo, for joining us. Speaker 2: Thank you, George. So, you know, nice to be here. And, you know, I also had the pleasure to have you on my podcast. So now it's my turn to pay back. And hopefully, you know, I can give you a ton of insight, share my story. And let's, you know, just have some fun time. Speaker 1: I think it would be rude for me not to invite you because you've had me on your podcast twice now. So it's only right to have you on here. So what I want to do, we'll start with this Vincenzo. I know you have your ad agency, you do it, you help brands across the world with full service. Is that right? Speaker 2: Yes, that's right. So just to give you a quick intro, yeah, founder and CEO of Ecomcy, where we specialize in doing full brand management across Amazon, Walmart and TikTok. And yes, we do everything in-house effectively, you know, the PPC, listings, branding, the backend, everything. Okay, great. Speaker 1: And Vincenzo, what I want to do now is I want to rewind a bit. I want to go before your introduction into the e-commerce world, because you have quite an interesting background. So just let all the viewers know, what did you study at university? Speaker 2: Yes, so my background is actually a completely different I'm actually an aerospace engineer and the reason why I decided to do the major is since I was very young, I always had the dream to work for NASA. That was my biggest dream back then. And everything that had to do with space, still now, I love everything that has to do with space. And I felt like aerospace was the closest, you know, way for me to get into the industry. Then potentially I wanted to also be an astronaut. Like I was really too much into that kind of, you know, industry. And yes, I did my major in the UK, essentially doing my undergraduates. Then I did my master's. And then from there, you know, I found the opportunity to start working for Rolls Royce, which is one of the top kind of companies in the UK when it comes to the aerospace industry. And this, that's where I started doing, you know, everything around, you know, especially airplanes. I was in their division when it comes to the airplanes, and specifically, which I'm sure you have been on their plane, is the A380, the plane that's a two-floor airplane. So I was actually part of the team that essentially designed and kept the maintenance and updates on the engines for that airplane, which Rolls-Royce actually is in charge of. And then eventually commerce knocked on my door. And then, of course, we can go more in depth when it comes to that. But that's a little bit about my background. Yeah, incredible. Speaker 1: And you've got a first class honours degree just to throw that out there. You seem like you had this clear idea of where you wanted to go, right? You went to university, you got the grades, you were working for Rolls-Royce, which in itself just holds so much weight. What was the moment that made you go, oh, hold on, there's something interesting going on here that swayed you into e-commerce? Speaker 2: Yeah, so just to build on that story, like the thing is, My family comes from a very entrepreneurial kind of background. So actually, I was born in Italy. When I was around three years old, my family found an opportunity back then in Venezuela. So Venezuela in the 90s was meant to be like the Dubai of Latin America. There was a lot of investment coming to the country. The currency was super strong. And effectively, anything that you would do in terms of business would be profitable because the country was going so fast. So that's why my family decided to move there. And essentially what started to happen there is that, you know, I grew up there, I went to school and so on. But as that happened, I also saw the whole journey of my family of, you know, having their own business. So that was always something in the back of my mind. Like, I definitely want to pursue my passion for space and engineering and everything, but I always thought to myself, one day I want to have, you know, my own thing. I want to have control of my time. I want to have control of, you know, how much money I make. I really want to be the one that makes the decision in terms of, you know, What I do with my life, right? I'm not being conditioned by a job. So when I started working for Rolls-Royce, of course, it was a huge accomplishment. I was super happy. But then over time, I started to encounter the conflict within me that, yes, I'm having this job. Everything looks great. But then by having conversation with people that's been in the company for many years, like people that's been in Rolls-Royce for 20, 30 years, it's like, OK, I see where they are right now. I see the lifestyle they're having. I see how much money they're making. It's like, do I really want to give 30 years of my life to get to where they are? And that's where the disconnect started to happen because they were not where I wanted to be financially. They were not where I wanted to be in terms of time management or location. And then that's where I started to say, okay, maybe I should start doing something on this side because a If I keep going down this route, I'm not going to essentially achieve what I want out of my life, right? And that's where e-commerce knocked on my door because I started doing research, started looking online for options. And back then, Amazon ABA was very big. And I was looking for something I could do after my job for my laptop, you know, because I was constrained to being on In this case, Darby. I don't know if you've ever been to Darby, but that's where Rolls-Royce headquarters and most of the manufacturing happens. So I was there and then it's like, yeah, I need to find a way out potentially. Maybe not now, but long term. And then, yeah, I started selling on Amazon. Things started to go very well. And then, of course, we're going to go deeper into the story, but that's how, you know, the interest into e-commerce essentially started, yeah. Cool. Speaker 1: And how long were you selling into Amazon before you segwayed into the agency world? And what made you segway into it? Speaker 2: Yeah, so I was selling close to two years before I segmented into the agency. And the reason why that happens is When I started selling and effectively, which is what made me quit in the first place, I was doing well with my selling and I started to eventually do so much better with that financially than my engineering job. I said, okay, maybe, yeah, this could be something that's just luck, but why don't I take a year gap? At the end of the day, I already have a restaurant, I see my CV, I have good grades, like I'm sure I can find another job. It's not going to be difficult, right? So I just quit. I take a one year gap. And then essentially went all in. Now, effectively, if the business was growing without me being there 24-7, because just to give you some context, when I started selling on Amazon, the way I would do that is I would be on my Rolls-Royce kind of job. Then I stop at five and then I go home and from six to one in the morning, I will focus on my selling. So I did that for pretty much two years. When I started to reach the point I quit and then I went 24-7 because now I only had Amazon, the business started to go even faster and the agency comes into the question because I started to go deeper into masterminds, meetups, events and all of that and then by talking to people and showing what I was doing and helping a few people started to meet, I said, oh, not only I can You know, make money as a seller, but I see actually there's an opportunity here to leverage my knowledge and what I've been learning with my own selling to people who have great products, great brands, but they're actually lacking really the knowledge and the technicality to make Amazon work for themselves. And then, you know, one conversation led to another. I started to be more of a one-to-one kind of consultant back then. That was like six years ago now. And then six years later, now we're a team of over 60 people where, of course, now they help me with a lot of the internal processes in terms of, you know, PPC, leasing optimization, DSP, the whole thing that you also experience on a daily basis. But yeah, that's a little bit about how everything started. Speaker 1: Amazing. And that's great. Thank you so much for sharing that. I'd love to hear now more about what has been some of the biggest challenges you faced in the last year? Because I know a lot of the brands that we work with, you know, Amazon isn't growing as fast. So, you know, they're not able to grow as they have done in the years before. But yeah, I'd love to hear a bit more about that. Speaker 2: Yeah, so I would say When it comes to Amazon, definitely it's been getting more and more complex as time goes by. Like when I started the Amazon game, it was very simple in the sense that if you had a kind of average good product and you only need to do some basic PPC, sometimes you didn't even need to do any PPC, you could get away and make some good money. Now it's not the case anymore. Now you really need to put your thoughts into making a brand, making something unique that's going to allow you to differentiate, right? And that's where most people struggle. And that's why, unfortunately, the Amazon way of doing a business is being getting so much negativity because people start to essentially compare themselves against the OGs like started 10 years ago. And they are thinking, oh, if anybody could make millions selling a garlic press, that means I can also do it. And then they do it and they lose a ton of money. And they don't understand that's because a lot of these people just got lucky. That doesn't mean that's the reflection of what Amazon really is. In terms of potential. The conversation we've been having lately is you really need to now put a lot of thoughts into creating something unique, especially from a branding perspective, and what the product actually is bringing to the table. Because if you just keep doing what a lot of people unfortunately keep doing, especially on more emerging markets, like, you know, I've spent a lot of time in Latin America, so I still see what people do in Amazon Brazil, Amazon Mexico, or even Latin American people that sell in the US, they keep doing the same mistake. They just go to Alibaba, Take a water bottle, put a logo on the thing, they're going to make money with that. And that doesn't work anymore. So I think that's where the complexity now is really laying down. It's like understanding that you now really need to make a brand. You really need to make something unique in terms of offering. If not, you're not going to succeed in the Amazon ecosystem. Speaker 1: Yeah, so as well as those going out and trying to find those MeToo products on Alibaba and bringing them over to sell in the different marketplaces, what have you seen as the most common issues when you're auditing an account? So what are the big problems you see? Speaker 2: Yeah, so the first thing is they get the cost of goods wrong. So a big mistake is like people, OK, I want to sell this garlic press for $15. And I'm paying $5 for it. It's like, man, even if I'm the wizard of Amazon and I know all the tricks, you're never going to be profitable because the margins are just not there. So a lot of people start Amazon by already failing, right? So it's understanding that you need to make an in-depth analysis of your economics and understand if I'm paying X for a product, I'm actually going to have the margins to make this work on Amazon or not, because I'm sure maybe you're aware of this, but there are certain markets that sometimes even by having a good cost of goods, even by having perfect conversion, And even by having a good product, the economics just don't work because what the cost per click is currently at, and even comparing that against a good conversion, it just, the market is so situated, you're not going to make any money. So that's another conversation you also have to have is, it's not only about sometimes also, you know, having the right product, it's making sure the economics work. So that's the first mistake, understanding your margins. And the second thing, would be the typical assumption, which is what makes most people lose a ton of money. They say, okay, yes, it's true. The garlic price market is super saturated. But at the same time, it makes $5 million per month. So what if I only get 5%? And people think that getting that 5% market share is easy. But the reality is that in a lot of those niches that we're talking millions of dollars per month, you find out that five of the top A's, they're taking 60% of the traffic. So effectively, even if there's a ton of revenue out there, it's going to be super difficult for you to even get 1% or 2% of the total revenue. And if you do, most likely you're going to burn a ton of money. That's not a mistake. I mean, there are so many others, but just to keep it brief and the ones I see more prominent, those are definitely some of the ones I see. Speaker 1: Amazing. Speaker 2: OK. Speaker 1: And what would be some of the biggest opportunities that you see coming in the next year? Speaker 2: Yeah, so I would say one of the biggest opportunities is a few things. The first one is I feel is easier than ever to go omnichannel. Because now, before, one of the biggest struggles when it comes to Go Omnichannel was the fact that logistics was super difficult to really be able to, you know, multipurpose your inventory. Now with AWD and the multichannel fulfillment network of Amazon, especially in the States, it's easier than ever to integrate your Amazon inventory with other third-party, you know, offerings in terms of your own website or other marketplaces. So now you have it very easy in terms of scaling to marketplaces. And I think that's really what is going to allow a lot of brands to navigate the complexity and saturation of Amazon. That's the first thing. And the second thing, which I feel is something that Especially medium to bigger brands are going to leverage significantly this year. It's going to be understanding how we start transitioning or advertising from only being search-based to actually being contextual and based on behavior, which is where Amazon Marketing Cloud and DSP comes into the picture. In fact, there's been a ton of people lately inquiring about this because it's blue ocean compared to sponsor ads, and a lot of people are having a lot of return on that. So I would say that's another opportunity. And the third one, which I would say is something that is not even about this year, it's something that for the last two, three years has been significantly helping a lot of brands, if you do it correctly, is understanding the importance of having a presence in terms of influencers outside of Amazon. So a lot of the brands that we manage, the ones that have been the highest success on Amazon, it's because they focus a lot on creating a strong foundation within their kind of niche. In terms of, you know, through content, through influencers, through ambassadors, through events, creating strong communities. And I think that's really what is going to allow you to essentially stand out against sellers or brands that maybe are coming from China with 50% lower price than you. But because you have that strong awareness in the space, that's going to allow you to maintain your authority. So I would say those are some of the ones. Speaker 1: OK, and out of everything that you've just mentioned, what areas have you seen growth and success in these last few months? Speaker 2: Yeah, so I would say the ones that has been growing the most out of the ones that I mentioned is especially in terms of the initial brands that we work with, which is more like, you know, half a million and up. It's a DSP, Amazon Marketing Cloud sort of things. Because a lot of the conversation, which goes back to my initial point, is that Amazon is getting more and more competitive. But at the same time, advertising is getting very expensive. A solution such as that, given that before they had such a high barrier of entry, and on top of that a lot of people don't really know even how DSP looks like or how to set it up, there's a lot of essential uncertainty around the kind of feature which allows for people who have mastered it to really leverage it so much faster than traditional ads. So I think This year is really the year where things such as, you know, going beyond sponsor ads, specifically DSP, AMC is going to explode because people are just looking for ways to maximize their dollars in terms of investment. And I think those are going to be some of the type of ads that for some brands, if they match them, it's going to be the solution. Speaker 1: For those who might not know what AMC is, could you just explain it as though you're explaining it to a 10-year-old child? Speaker 2: Yes, for sure. So Amazon Marketing Cloud essentially is a data room, right, where you can effectively input data from multiple sources and you can essentially manipulate that through what we call queries. The reason why this is super interesting, and that's why I'm so passionate about this because as an engineer, data is really something that we love, is that if you know how to essentially read this data, you can make so many smart decisions when it comes to advertising because with Amazon Marketing Cloud, You as a business owner now will know effectively who is the right person buying your product, essentially to the detail of age, gender, location, how much money they make, what are some of the interests. And with that information now it's so much easier to scale certain targeting because now not only you can focus on that kind of avatar, but you can create what is called lookalike audiences, which for those that have the meta ads, it's usually one of the fastest ways to scale your ads. And the second thing to conclude on this point with Amazon Marketing Cloud that you really get, that is going to allow you to maximize your understanding of what is happening around your brand, is the touch points attribution. So now you know exactly where people are coming from. If people are coming from a DSP ad, or they're coming from a sponsor ad, or they're coming from organic, and now Amazon Marketing Cloud is even allowing third-party data to be combined into this data from your website. So now you know even how your website might influence the whole funnel experience. So what I'm trying to say here is that we are transitioning into an era that is all based on search, which is keywords. Into an era that now smart advertisers are going to be able to know exactly in what touch point throughout the journey is the most effective for us to actually show them an ad so we can convert them and essentially make the buy or pros against the competition. Speaker 1: So, yeah. Amazing. And Vincenzo, I want to ask you, how have you seen The introduction of Amazon Marketing Cloud to sponsored product ads impact brands that you're working with. What are some practical ways you've used it where it's improved? Speaker 2: So yeah, now the good thing of Amazon Marketing Cloud is that you can also combine this with traditional sponsored ads and the way you get access to this for those that want it either through your agency, you need to ask them to escalate this To open the program for you because it's beta or you have to have DSP, your own seed. So once you have that access, the beauty is now effectively what Amazon allows you to do with sponsor ads is that once you start creating audiences that you have identified with Amazon Marketing Cloud that are most effective for you, you can embed that within your traditional sponsor campaigns and effectively, in a sense, say, okay, I'm looking to target a garlic press as a keyword. But on top of that, if the audience that is searching for that keyword or clicking on it is matching the audience in terms of age, gender or whatever, Then increase my bids by X. So effectively now you can say to Amazon, based on the audiences that have created an Amazon Marketing Cloud that have shown performance, if those audiences overlap with a keyword search, make sure I'm actually more aggressive only on those people that are matching that criteria. So now you start to segment it effectively, not only the fact that they have to look for a specific keyword, but if they're looking for that specific keyword and we know by insight from Amazon that they are a person Matching my criteria that I already have analyzed for Amazon Marketing Cloud, I want to increase my bids. And then that is going to essentially unlock a different tier of seeing sponsors, because now it's not only about keyword, but it's making sure the intention behind is stronger than ever. Speaker 1: OK, and this is great. Is there anything that you think those listening should know that I haven't asked a question about? Speaker 2: Yeah, so I would say another thing is very important when it comes to Amazon is I just want to briefly touch on how AI has been significantly affecting the way Amazon is evolving in terms of search and also it's going to affect advertising. Because the way Amazon is going by all the things that they're bringing by things such as Amazon Marketing Cloud and essentially giving us insight around the audience is clearly they want to put as much focus as possible around understanding the intention of the consumer when they are jumping into the platform. Therefore, I advise everybody to go back to their listings I make sure that all your images and all your copy is actually conveying the intention that you want in terms of the message, the tonality, the relevance. Because if you don't, what is going to happen is Rufus, which is essentially the agent that Amazon has created as an assistant for people to shop, and they're pushing that very heavily. It's not going to recommend your product because if your images, for example, let's say you're selling a garlic press, but a person is looking, just as an example, garlic press for barbecue and just making something up. And on your images of the garlic press, you don't have any resemblance of a lifestyle or as a background of somebody doing a barbecue. Effectively, AI is not going to relate your garlic press with a barbecue as an activity, right? So therefore, now we need to be smarter and make sure that your images and also what we convey on the message of our text is actually making the intention very clear to the AI so it recommends your product. And the way you do this to find out my idea, Usually we use AWS tools, both of them, which is one, Amazon Recognition, which is to do with everything that has to do with the images. Amazon Comprehend, which is everything that has to do with the text. And this is essentially the engine and the technology they are using for Rufus as well to understand and listen. So that's the last thing I would give as a piece of advice and people to have a look at this year. Unknown Speaker: Cool. Speaker 1: I'm going to ask you a bit of a random question. So feel free to pause a little bit to answer this one. But as a business owner, you never switch off. Your mind is always going. In the last week or two, what's been on your mind? And that's just kept you going. So that's true. Speaker 2: Especially as CEOs, I mean, not only you have the weight of your clients, which you always want to deliver, but it's the weight of your people. Then on top of that, you may have your personal issues, your personal ambitions. So your brain is always, you know, in the highest gear possible. The engine is always driving, right? So I agree. When it comes to this week specifically, something that has been really on my mind It's how do I make sure, at least from an agency perspective, I keep bringing things to my clients to ensure they are on top of the game. So I'm putting a lot of effort internally to figure out how do we bring more trainings to our team, how do I make sure our proactiveness towards our clients is at the highest level possible by showing them always the latest trends and make sure their brands are on top of that so they can maximize their return on investment. And when it comes to me personally, how do I cope with all the pressure? Because another day, having all that plus meetings, plus life and everything is very difficult. I think what really allows me to keep going is always going back to the reason why I'm doing this in the first place. The reason is very simple for me. I mean, I have two motivators that are really my engine, especially during tough times. The first one is when I took the decision to become an entrepreneur is because I really was looking forward, especially in the long term, to be able to provide a certain lifestyle for me, for my family, for people around me. And every single time I visualize those goals, all the pain goes away. So that's the first one. And the second one is when I really Remember all the impact that I've been giving to my clients, my employees, and my family. Thanks to the journey I decided to pursue, which was my decision, and I decided to go through all this pain, it makes it all worth it. So every single time I feel, oh, man, this is too much. I can't handle anymore. Then I go back into the past and say, OK, because you were willing to pursue that pain, that's why you were able to provide this experience to this person, this relative experience. Yeah, so that's a good way of seeing things. Always stay grateful and keep pursuing the things that you want to achieve in life. Speaker 1: That's amazing. And actually, I'm going to ask you a few follow up questions, but you answer them. How long has your agency been going now? Speaker 2: So now six years, yeah? Speaker 1: Six years. So, you know, it does take a certain type of persistence to keep going because there's going to be times, you know, like, why am I doing this? Or is that 10 fires all at once? And where should I start in terms of putting these fires out? Another question I actually want to ask you is, Vincenzo, you've been in this for six years now, right? What is keeping you interested and engaged in this industry? What is it that's keeping you going? Yeah. Speaker 2: So, yeah, that's true. I mean, especially in the Amazon space, it reaches a point that it can become more open, especially if you're going to the same events here and there. So I understand where the question comes from. I think for me, what it really has allowed me to stay engaged And I stay proactive. The first one is I'm the type of person that try to learn new things every single time. So I try to I'm very risk adverse when it comes to that, so I try with my team crazy things in terms of marketing, in terms of tools, in terms of that. So I try to always incentivize trying things, even if I'm going to lose a lot of money, because that's just going to allow me to not stay stagnated into the same kind of processes. That's the first thing. And the second thing that I have done, which to some extent that's what I'm a bit famous for, is networking. I love to travel and I think that's also been one of the reasons why I love this industry because beyond the technicality and everything we've been discussing today, something that I really enjoy of this model is being able to shake hands, Have a nice time with a person, you know, a different location. And then on top of that, seeing how the relationship eventually evolves into a business kind of partnership that then adds value to both of us. So keeping that kind of engagement just essentially allows me to, every single day I wake up, have a different fire to put off, which just keeps the adrenaline up, I guess. Speaker 1: No, that's incredible. Thank you, Vincenzo. Firstly, Vincenzo, if anyone wants to reach out to you, what's the best way to get in touch? Speaker 2: Yeah, so you can find me on all the social media channels as Vincenzo Doscano, so I should be only one in the industry, so very easy to find. And if you want to find Ecomcy, just go to our website, ecomcy.com. I'm more than happy to explore ways that we can value to you. Speaker 1: Amazing. The final points is always the one that people are going to hang on to when listening to a podcast like this. If there was one actionable point that you would recommend to e-com brands, or just a business piece of advice that people can go away and do something about, what would that recommendation be? Speaker 2: So I would say usually the tougher conversations and actions that you don't want to take because you're afraid of are usually the ones that are going to bring the biggest impact to your business. So this is something I learned by essentially going through the pain is like sometimes you don't want to make a decision about an action, about a hiring, about a strategy, about something because you're just afraid. But most of the time when I look back and see the decision that I took sometimes just out of gut, I didn't have the data, I just had the gut that I had to do it even though I was afraid. It's usually what has allowed me to be where I am right now. So what I say is avoid fear to really tap into your decision-making because when it comes to decisions, it's much more expensive to take fast decisions and fail fast than essentially not make a decision and allow that failure to prolongate for a long period of time. So I'd rather make a decision fast Have a fast failure, learn from it. And the more you do that, effectively, you are going to overcome so many things faster than maybe a person that is going to be all analytical, three months to make a decision, and then they make a decision, they still fail. And then three months went by when you in three months failed, maybe two times, but by month three, you did a third thing, and that was the success. I make decisions fast and of course ensure the fear doesn't paralyze you, which I know sometimes can be a difficult thing as an entrepreneur to overcome. Amazing. Speaker 1: Vincenzo, I've really enjoyed this conversation. Thank you so much for joining me and I'm sure I will bump into you at some events somewhere very, very soon. I'm going to be a bit more active. I'm going to try and follow in your footsteps from just where you were around the world last year. It's been a pleasure having you and I hope you have a great day. Speaker 2: Thank you, George. It's been a pleasure. Speaker 1: Have a good one. For those listening, I'll see you on the next one.