EP #321] [ENG] - New strategies to scale your brand on Amazon - Silvia Vendraminetto

EP #321] [ENG] - New strategies to scale your brand on Amazon - Silvia Vendraminetto Unknown Speaker: Welcome to The Ecommerce Lab By Ecomcy. This is the place for everything related to Amazon private label and e-commerce. Learn exactly what you need to start or scale your business. Get insights from the top industry experts who will discuss the latest trends and best practices in the world of Amazon. From choosing products and sourcing from a supplier to setting up your Amazon account and marketing your business, you will hear it here. Let's get started. Here is your host, Vincenzo Toscano. Speaker 2: Hello, guys. Welcome to another episode of The Ecommerce Lab By Ecomcy, the place where everything related to Amazon, FBA, private label, and ecommerce. My name is Vincenzo Toscano, founder and CEO of Ecomcy, and today we bring another special guest. Her name is Silvia, and she's the founder of Ecom Hero Academy, which is one of the top communities out there in the UK. And she's also a top consultant and an Amazon seller. And that's why I wanted to bring Silvia today, because we actually met around two to three weeks ago in seller sessions. For the first time in person, and I got to know more about, you know, her background in the Amazon space and what she does with her community. And she's also Italian like myself. So there's definitely some preference there. And that's why I wanted to bring Silvia today to my show. I just wanted to have, you know, a conversation about what is happening in this space, what are some of the things that is working for her, for her I'm here to talk to clients and hopefully share some wisdom with you guys to navigate this year. 2025 is definitely not an easy year for us Amazon sellers. So Silvia, welcome to the show. How are you doing? Speaker 1: Vincenzo, thank you so much for having me and for the lovely introduction. When you said, are you coming on the show? I said, yeah, absolutely. I'm so looking forward to speak to you and share as much value as possible from my experience. So thank you for having me. Speaker 2: Thank you. It's a pleasure. And as I told you when I met you in person, I think especially, you know, me being Italian, I feel there are not many Italians out there, you know, that actually are spreading wisdom when it comes to Amazon. And I know we then have another pending I'm going to do a short episode in Italian because I feel that's another community that's definitely in need for strategy and knowledge when it comes to Amazon. But yeah, I've been seeing your trajectory and why you've been added to the space. So I guess, you know, give us a bit of that background for people who might not know you. And then, of course, then we can dive into the topic. Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. So basically, very much an immigrant, came here in 2014. Then I started with eBay because I was like, you know, like I don't come from money. I don't come from a lot of opportunities. I was like, I need to do something. And nobody ever taught me like you can multiply your money. So I started with eBay. I got my first sale and never looked back. 2018, I got into Amazon. I was sharing house with nine people and I ended up hitting six figures, six months with a granny trolley traveling across the country. Doing retail arbitrage, literally by bus, Uber, from home bargains, you know, in August, looking at people, they were looking at me like I was crazy. I was like, Christmas is here, guys. Christmas is here, like in August. Then we moved to more online arbitrage and wholesale did my private label bit didn't really succeed, not because of the product, but more for mindset. And because Amazon took nine months, like a full pregnancy, to verify my second account. So I was like, it's not a comma, literally. So Jesus could fix it. It was insane, Vincenzo. But anyways, that taught me so much. So, so, so much about private label. Um, I started the academy and we have mainly been training on wholesale. We have people going from zero to, you know, 5k weeks. Selling within their own country, reselling brands. And then, you know, once they really smash down with their own niche, they can get into private label. Last year, always because it's always about when something happens in business, I'm a fan of asking yourself, like, where's the opportunity? You know, when really bad things happen, you know, they happen all the time as business owners, let's be honest, you're like, where's the opportunity? And I literally helped one of the brands I've been selling since 2019, 2019, 2019 to, they got 85 Asians removed from the catalog overnight, wrong GT number. They didn't want to sell to me directly because they didn't want to, they're very, very loyal to their distributors. And that's why I love making business with them because it's just the way I am as well, you know, and they didn't want to steal a client from their distributor. But then I got, look guys, you're going to lose, you know, 500k in the next month, minimum. And now they're my clients. So that's the agency side of things and I'm loving the pieces. So we're all in one brand management. We managed to, I have a very strong tech team. We managed to bring back, fix wrong G-teams and bring back six figures assets for them. So yeah. Excited. Speaker 2: Wow. What a background. And I love the hustle part because I'm a strong believer that when you're having those tough moments, that's where you learn the most because you become very resourceful and you actually figure out ways to do things. Even if you don't have the money or you don't have the time, you figure out you're in survival mode. Right. And that's why sometimes you come up with solutions that otherwise you wouldn't come up with. And that's what creates you as a consultant. So that's very nice. And I guess a lot has changed since then, right? I'm sure now that you're comparing Amazon to back to those years, I'm sure you're seeing like night and day, the way you launch a product, the way you get reviews, the way you find opportunities to advertise it. So I guess we can start there. I think the reason why I want to touch on that topic very quickly is because I feel some of the reasons why a lot of sellers are struggling this year They keep doing things that are obsolete, right? In the way they find products, the way they advertise. The way they optimize them. So I guess let's start with a very simple kind of area, which is, I guess, product research, right? I think that's something that is a topic that a lot of people are struggling in this year, especially how do I find a product that's unique? So what do you think is one of the main things that have changed, like comparing Amazon 2025 to when, for example, you started, like what things you shouldn't be doing and all of that, you know? Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a great question. It's a great point, actually, Vincenzo, because I've been always a great advocate. For wholesale, I've created the Niche in Dow method. So while everybody was advocating the buying and selling everything, right? Otherwise, you keep money on the table. And don't get me wrong, I still have, I give discovery calls and I have a lot of very small brand owners, private label sellers. They sell a bit of everything. They have like three products, for example, one is a sofa, one is a toothpick, and one is a sheet of material. And I'm like, all right. So what are we doing? It's a little bit like hit and miss. Let me try this. Let me try that. And one of the main things I've learned the hard way I always say I've made so many expensive mistakes in this business. And I can tell you right now, one of the things that does not work is being half pregnant. You cannot be half pregnant when you launch a private label on Amazon. Also, another thing that I would say is that don't just go with the things I love, things I use, things I know when it comes to private label, but go with something that is replenishable. The people can just keep coming back and buy every month, buy weekly. Speaker 2: Those are the best businesses because cash flow is king. If you have a product they only can buy once, it's like you have to find clients every single time. Speaker 1: Exactly. One of my first PL products was Like a duffel bag. And I've made one of the best foldable duffel bags that you can still find anywhere. I have them a lot here. Speaker 2: Send me some after. Speaker 1: So cool, you know, proper Italian style and the material and all the details and the logo. Cool. But then it's like, how many times someone will buy a duffel bag? Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: You know, just get into something that It's repeatable for buyers. So they just go back to their orders and keep buying. So you can scale it up faster. Another thing that I would say is that people like think about not what you love, but what you are actually buying and go with something that is not as expensive to start with. I would definitely look into the cost of good and Don't go crazy right away. I know you're smiling. He's smiling. He's listening. I can see you have seen this a lot as well. Speaker 2: Yeah, I know. I know. So I say another thing I want to add here and I want to hear your take because this is a topic People are bringing a lot to pro research and I'm keen to hear your take. People these days say that because of how competitive Chinese sellers are getting and how aggressive are we pricing, these days you really need to come up with something that can be protected. From a trademark perspective, from a patent perspective, like is that something a potential also exploring moving forward? Are you seeing clients focusing more into having things that can be protected to avoid people that can sell it cheaper? What is your experience with that? Speaker 1: I mean, if you look at Birkin, You know, they can be as patented and trademarked as they want. But the truth is, if someone wants to, you know, copy you and copy your product. And this is how I was thinking before, right? It's like, oh, my God, you know, if I'm more out there, then people is going to find out about my product and then they're going to come and copy it and so on and so forth. And that is comes from a kind of a scarcity mindset. Now, don't get me wrong. If you have like something that is like, And today we're going to talk about revolutionary, like drag on then kind of, right, you get straight into a niche. And I was just talking about this last, last weekend, I was speaking on a summit. And look at the niches, like riches are in the niches. Ordering, which is not a re-plan, but if you look, I think Rod has just closed a contract where she sold the brand for like a billion, I don't know, crazy numbers. If you look at Ring, which again, is not very re-planned. If you look at Scrub Daddy, for example, right? That is really re-planned and then he built all a series of products around the main product. Some products, I mean, if you are a genius, definitely go with a patent. But let's be honest, most of us are not really geniuses. Yeah, I know. That is not my forte, come up with products that is like, oh, you know, it's like an invention. Speaker 2: Yes, for sure. Now something else as well is Beyond the protection and all of that, another conversation I hear a lot is like, given that social commerce is becoming such a big thing, like with TikTok and all of that, I also see lately people having the question, like, maybe I need to, when it comes to product research, not only find a product that is good from an Amazon perspective, but a product that can be friendly on the camera is actually fun to make a video about. It's good for lifestyle, it's good for making unboxing kind of a content because they are seeing a lot of the shift is going towards social commerce. So what I'm trying to say is that now people try to make sure the product can be friendly for social media to have like a more future-proof approach. Is that something that you also kind of Experiencing, do you actually also believe in that, like making product can be multi-platform or you think going more towards Amazon? Speaker 1: I would definitely say one of the mistakes that I see a lot is just not thinking when you build your private label, not think three meters ahead of your nose. That's what I see a lot. And it seems to be like you don't think about the certificates. I'll give you a quick example. I was helping a client. They're like brand new in private label. They said, Silvia, they were my clients for the whole day. They really wanted to get into the cosmetic things and doing their own things. Fantastic. But then they kind of stopped being with me for the mentorship side of things. And they went out there and they really got hyper focused on building their own product. Then they came back to me to help them because the product was not moving, right? No, it was already launched, but it was not moving at all, even if with PPC, etc. They have a beautiful, like, very, like, gift box eyelash, fake eyelashes, DIY thing. And the first question I asked them is, I look, This looks fantastic. The quality, I can see how much, which is the same thing I've did back in the day. The quality, you probably have paid so much, is in a gift box. Now, what if I just want to buy again the lashes? Can I, like, why I don't see the variations in your patent? Like, where are the lashes? Like, okay, I now buy your kit. Now, every time I finish the lashes, I need to buy the tweezers. It doesn't make sense. And then it's like, okay, they were talking about the glue. Yeah. How strong is the glue? How good is the glue? How hypoallergenic is the glue? I say, where's the glue? Like, now I need just, I finished the glue. I need to buy the whole box again with the tweezers. So people is not going to do that. Yeah, you need to and the problem now is like because they haven't thought five meters ahead of the their nose without it's not an insult. It's literally just the way it is. I made these mistakes times. Now, the problem is that all the ingredients and the stuff that has to be on the product by law is in the box. It's not on the glue. Speaker 2: Yeah, I know. Speaker 1: Small details that can actually change the game completely around. Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree. I agree. I think making sure your product has a long lifespan is very important because that's exactly what you're trying to describe. You know, it's not only about what you're selling now. It's like how I create a product, then I can upsell an accessory, an ecosystem, a whole lineup, right? Because if your whole idea is going to get fixated to only one SKU, It's very risky. And then if something happens, competition comes in, prices drop, or the product is not trendy anymore. Yeah, that's it. Speaker 1: Yeah. And I mean, what if people complain about the tweezers because your supplier didn't glue them properly, but the glue is like top tier. Yeah. Maybe you could have been making a million just by the glue. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: So I think like five meters ahead, I would say. Speaker 2: Yes. Now, on all this conversation of pro-research, pro-development, how do you think AI is changing the game? Because I feel when we started, oh my God, I had to do so much work manually with Excel and trying to do some more things on my own and all of that. Now, with a few seconds, you can have a prototype pretty much. So how do you see that changing and how are you using it for this? Speaker 1: I mean, it's insane. I feel we haven't even started scratching the surface of what it's going to be. It's definitely not taking me a couple of seconds. I'm pretty sure that's why I'm not concerned because I know that there are things that we can do as, you know, humans for our client that They're not gonna get from AI for now. We'll see, yeah? We'll see because I think nobody really knows. What I'm seeing is that I've been playing with a lot of prompts and I've given a lot of bonuses to my actual clients because these allow me to be better and experiment and also make them happier, right? So it's not like I do this in my own time and, you know, around trying to create something and prompts with No, I already give the bonus to the clients and they're super happy and one of the clients I got, he has got so excited that literally he called his dad. The dad is like in his 70s plus and he was like, dad, come, look what Silvia's done. I've done a stack of like a gallery stack for them to give to their graphic designer who has been on payroll for 20 years. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: And they didn't like the graphic designer work. They liked mine. And I was shocked, Vincenzo, because I'm not a graphic designer. Speaker 2: Yeah. They just put in some prompts and that's it. Yeah. Speaker 1: I'm like, I know what is gonna have an impact visually. And I love a nice click-through rate. That's the thing I'm really good at. Understanding pain and pleasure of your buyers and just make... Speaker 2: Emotions. All of that. Speaker 1: Images. That's what I love the most. Right. I just want you to dominate your niche. That's my reason. And it's like I'm going to smash everybody. Speaker 2: I know. It's crazy. I know. And this is something that is not only affecting pro research and pro development, it's like also From a PPC perspective, so many other areas, so it's something that's affecting a lot of pillars, you know? Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm pretty sure that there is. I know that so many, I feel so many in the industry are getting a bit concerned somehow, you know, and I understand it because my ChatGPT prompts created better babies than the client's photographer with the real babies. I know there is still so much for us humans to do and to bring on the plate, but at the same time, if you don't action right now, if you don't start getting on with everything, you're just going to get smashed, you know? You're a brand, you're not like optimizing for UFOs. Investing in agencies right now, in people who know what they're doing to get ahead of your company, you can make such a dent compared to that competitor that is not doing anything different right now. Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree. I agree. I think the reason why a lot of people is scared about AI as well is because a lot of people are only looking on top of the surface at the situation in the sense that Let's be honest, a lot of people that sell on Amazon don't really have a brand. They don't really have something that is outstanding or they don't really have a strategy. A lot of them sometimes got lucky. That's the reality of it. Yeah, and when AI comes on board, now people are actually paying attention to the strategy, looking at the data, combining all that to make a decision now with the help of AI and be able to move 10 times faster than what you could be doing manually. All those people that were kind of And we could say just in the bare minimum to succeed on Amazon, you're not going to survive. Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. And how cool is it? Yeah. I mean, at the end of the day, Vincenzo, we have seen it also for eBayers. Yeah. When I started eBay, There were just people that were doing eBay for 15, 20 years, 10 years. And when all the new things came, when Amazon really picked up, picked up, then they saw the sales going down. And when you are adverse to change, either you change or you die in e-commerce, especially in e-commerce, in any business. But come on, e-commerce is so fast moving. And now I already feel like 50 years behind. I don't know if you have the same feelings. Unknown Speaker: What is going on? Speaker 2: I feel the same. I know, I know. But at the same time, I think it's an opportunity. I think we are living I'm here to talk to you about how to grow your business on an age that it's never been easier to have your own business scale a business because before you had to have, you know, a lot of time, you had to have a lot of resources, you had to have employees. Now some people that only with ChatGPT, they're able to create a whole organization, right? So I think that's why you have to see the positive side and embrace it because if you don't, you know, competition is definitely going to. Jumping to our last part of the conversation, which I also want to bring to a tail before we conclude is, you know, what a seller should be aware of beyond Amazon, because I feel with everything going on with Amazon, a lot of people are now chasing the shiny object like TikTok, I want to have my own Shopify. And all of that. But the reality is that most people actually don't know how to do that. And most of the time it's more negative. Try to go against those shiny objects that try to actually optimize Amazon operations. So what is your take on that? Speaker 1: OK, my take is I've had this conversation quite a lot. So I love to hear your take, too, in this sense. And my take is Whenever, wherever you're going to bring yourself or your products to, you're also going to bring yourself to. So if your reason to, you know, dilute from Amazon is because you get easily frustrated and you easily give up, yes, getting to TikTok shop can be It's a low barrier right now, but then you're going to get into the same cycle. You know, they're going to have terrible seller support. Speaker 2: It's a mindset issue. Yeah, it's a mindset issue. Speaker 1: So for me, it's always like before expansion, I'm always about diversification. I've learned the hard way, 2019, all right, let's diversify. It took nine months to verify my second account. So yeah, that's my lesson. But 100% is like, yes, okay, let's, let's diversify. But at the same time, it's like, how can you take what you have and make it 10 times better, you know, it's always about for me. In business, you have to go for the lower hanging fruit first. And yes, opening TikTok shop and going like that, you can definitely as a business owner, you have to design, you have to take the time during your week to separate yourself from any maintenance, any team bugging you and stop the micromanagement and just Focus on growth, expansion, marketing and anything that is going to bring it to the next level. So you can definitely, you know, if you just sell on Amazon, 100 percent use specific time during the week to work on expansion and design. However, you also need to work on refinement because otherwise you're just going to dilute your resources, which is your money, your time. And then you're going to be average on everything instead of something. Speaker 2: Yeah, I think my take on this is very similar than you, but to add my two cents as well is that I feel the issues are A lot of people do this kind of implementation not because they think it's the right thing for the business, but it's because they're trying to find the silver bullet to get them out of the hole they already are into. And when your decision making is done from that and you are just out of survival mode, most of the time you're going to act out of emotions and those emotions are going to lead you to do things that maybe are not the right thing for your business. And on top of that, you're going to the mindset that, you know, you're just trying to find a lucky shot. That's going to get you out of sometimes what you should be doing, which is maybe just putting more effort on finding a better product or just optimizing your images or just working behind your PPC. But given that maybe you don't have the will or you just don't understand it, you think, OK, I need to find my next lucky charm. Right. So that's my issue. You see what I mean? Yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. And this always goes to the mindset, isn't it? And I love your take on it is the scarcity. If you Try to escape something with like fear, like scare money, don't make money. We know that, right? Like you need to take risks. And if going to a different platform is not like in terms of expansion and design and, you know, keep trying things and refining things. Then it's not, you're going to bring yourself in it anyway. And you're going to end up, you know, somehow giving up there as well. That's what happened to me with a private label. You know, I was coming from a moment of extreme frustration and fight with Amazon. Then you get into, you know, okay, let's go into TikTok. And I smash it, but because I brought myself in that state, then I let it go. And that was really stupid. But at the same time, I, you know, you also need to learn how to tap yourself on the shoulder as a business owner. I mean, you know what, that was not the right time, probably. Speaker 2: I know, I know. But anyway, Silvia, it's been a pleasure to have you and I guess before we conclude, is there anything else you want to share with us in terms of you know, any last advice, any last piece of wisdom, just trying to, you know, get as much as possible out of your brain. Speaker 1: 100%. So thank you so much, Vincenzo, for the opportunity, for having me. It was a very nice chat. Definitely, no matter what happens, you're always going to have life happening, you know, and business happening. You just Find different ways and you never give up. And until you don't give up, it's just all a learning curve. It's never a failure. So my biggest take is it doesn't matter how you're feeling, what's going on in your business, just pick yourself up. You're not alone and just keep going. And if you guys need any support for wholesale or you want to get in touch to really, really dominate in your niche, I'm more than happy to help. You can just visit our website, ecomheroacademy.com. Sorry, without the day, www.ecomheroacademy.com or send us an email info at ecomheroacademy. Speaker 2: Awesome. I'm going to make sure to put everything down in the description so people can find it. And other than that, Silvia, pleasure. Thank you so much for being on the show. Thank you. My pleasure. Bye bye. Take care. Unknown Speaker: Thanks for listening to The Ecommerce Lab By Ecomcy. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode. While you are at it, we would appreciate it if you could leave an honest rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. That will make it easier for others to find out about the show and benefit from it. Want more? Visit our website at www.ecomcy.com where you can get your first consultation for free or find us on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn at EcomCy.