Episode Overview

In this rare interview, former Amazon executive James Thomson shares his valuable insights and advice to private label entrepreneurs. Kevin takes full advantage of this opportunity to uncover some truly incredible golden nuggets of information:

How Amazon views private label sellers

How sellers differentiate themselves; the good, the bad and the ugly.

What Amazon is doing to help private label sellers.

The most common mistakes made by private label sellers and how to avoid them.

Best practices for new product launches

New terms of service and how Amazon views product promotions and reviews.

Why sellers should fully understand Amazon terms of service.

How to improve search and discoverability.

What Amazon expects from a brand owner.

How can Amazon help deal with hijackers and best practices for avoiding them.

The value of brand registry and the secret weapon to lock down your listing.

How flat files can make your brand more secure and streamline your listings.

How Amazon's Vendor Central and Vendor Express programs can help or hurt your business.

Using sponsored product advertising (pay-per-click).

Best practices for communicating with and getting results from Amazon.

Most common causes for suspension and what to do about it.

The importance of using tools and service providers to streamline and optimize your business.

What can the Amazon Marketplace do for you.

How to prosper through furthering your education as a seller and create maximum results.

Some terms in the episode:

P1 - First party platform where Amazon buys products from wholesalers and offers them as retail products.

P3 - Third party platform for private label sellers offering their products as retail direct to the customer.

MAP - Minumum Advertised Price

About James Thomson

James Thomson is president of PROSPER Show, a continuing education conference focused on developing training and best-practice materials for early-stage online sellers. He is also Partner of Buybox Experts, a consultancy supporting brands struggling with their strategy selling on Amazon and other marketplaces. In previous roles, James was the former head of Amazon Services (that part of Amazon that recruits 100,000 new sellers to the Amazon marketplace each year), the first FBA account manager, a banker and management consultant. He earned an MBA from Vanderbilt University and Ph.D. in Marketing from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University. He is a regular contributor to Practical E-Commerce.

James's Recommendations