In this episode, your host Ben, the Head of Partnerships at Seller Candy, is joined by Liz Saunders, a seasoned Seller, Affiliate, and more recently an Influencer. Liz is the brain behind Fluencer Fruit, a platform empowering both sellers and influencers to thrive in the competitive realm of influencer marketing.
The podcast kicks off with Ben and Liz diving headfirst into the burning questions frequently asked by e-commerce sellers, entrepreneurs, and influencers. They decode the ins and outs of the Amazon influencer game, giving you insights that could reshape your strategies.
But the excitement doesn't stop there. Liz takes a daring leap to challenge the e-commerce norm. She unveils her most provocative stance yet, centered around the highly anticipated Amazon event–Prime Day. Get ready to absorb her unique and thought-provoking perspectives on Prime Day that would really get you thinking.
If you're an E-commerce entrepreneur seeking to explore affiliate or influencer marketing, or an influencer on the hunt for high-potential products, this episode is a goldmine of fresh insights you can't afford to miss. Tune in now and unlock the strategies that will propel your Amazon venture to new heights of success! Remember to subscribe for more valuable episodes on "The Amazon Strategist Show."
Key Takeaways:
Fluencer Furit - https://fluencerfruitconnect.com/sellercandy
7 STeps From Operator to Business Owner - https://sellercandy.com/7steps
Save up to $400 monthly on your Seller Candy Subscription: https://bit.ly/3YLosIk
Never Talk to Seller Support Again.
Seller Candy is the expert operations arm of your Amazon business. We provide outcome-driven support for time-consuming and challenging Seller Central issues so you Never Have to Talk to Seller Support Again! With Agency-Level security practices and an experienced team who’s been through the thick of it, we give sellers bandwidth on demand without the hassle of hiring, training, or managing.
#amazonsellercentral #amazonsupport #ecommerce #amazonbusiness
In this episode, your host Ben, the Head of Partnerships at Seller Candy, is joined by Liz Saunders, a seasoned Seller, Affiliate, and more recently an Influencer. Liz is the brain behind Fluencer Fruit, a platform empowering both sellers and influencers to thrive in the competitive realm of influencer marketing.
The podcast kicks off with Ben and Liz diving headfirst into the burning questions frequently asked by e-commerce sellers, entrepreneurs, and influencers. They decode the ins and outs of the Amazon influencer game, giving you insights that could reshape your strategies.
But the excitement doesn't stop there. Liz takes a daring leap to challenge the e-commerce norm. She unveils her most provocative stance yet, centered around the highly anticipated Amazon event–Prime Day. Get ready to absorb her unique and thought-provoking perspectives on Prime Day that would really get you thinking.
If you're an E-commerce entrepreneur seeking to explore affiliate or influencer marketing, or an influencer on the hunt for high-potential products, this episode is a goldmine of fresh insights you can't afford to miss. Tune in now and unlock the strategies that will propel your Amazon venture to new heights of success! Remember to subscribe for more valuable episodes on "The Amazon Strategist Show."
Key Takeaways:
Fluencer Furit - https://fluencerfruitconnect.com/sellercandy
7 STeps From Operator to Business Owner - https://sellercandy.com/7steps
Save up to $400 monthly on your Seller Candy Subscription: https://bit.ly/3YLosIk
Never Talk to Seller Support Again.
Seller Candy is the expert operations arm of your Amazon business. We provide outcome-driven support for time-consuming and challenging Seller Central issues so you Never Have to Talk to Seller Support Again! With Agency-Level security practices and an experienced team who’s been through the thick of it, we give sellers bandwidth on demand without the hassle of hiring, training, or managing.
#amazonsellercentral #amazonsupport #ecommerce #amazonbusiness
How much should we be using AI in e-commerce right now? Right? It's kind of like everybody's question is how much can we get away with and how much is good practice?
Speaker 2:Hi, I'm your host, ben, and welcome to season two of the Amazon strategy. To show the show. That is all strategy, with no hacks, no silver bullets and no magic pills, just real, practical strategy. And this is for serious Amazon tellers, whether you're just getting started or you're well along the way on your journey. Today, we have the pleasure of being joined by the incredible Liz Saunders. With her wisdom and hands on experience, liz is here to spark fresh ideas Can't wait for those and innovative approaches to conquering the Amazon marketplace.
Speaker 2:So, liz, I've got a quick bio about you. Hopefully this is all accurate. I know we're going to be leaving a few things out, but Liz has been in the Amazon space since about 2016, which is about 72 years and internet years. So she's been both a seller and affiliate, and now she's been diving very, very deep for a while now, actually into the influencer space and now also the founder of fluencer fruit, which we're going to learn a little bit more about today. I'm really excited for that. She's fascinated about the Amazon ecosystem, as I'm sure many of you watching are as well, and the way that the different parts of the Amazon world interact. She enjoys sharing all the things that she's learned along the way with others and helping them just figure things out as she does. So, liz, welcome to the Amazon Stratus show. Thanks for being here. Really appreciate it. How are you doing?
Speaker 1:Thanks, I'm doing great. I am excited to join you.
Speaker 2:And nice. So I was Liz, and I were joking, before starting this, that I was asking if she remembered where we met for the first time. Liz, what did you? Where was it?
Speaker 1:OK, my guess was the Christmas party for Amazon sellers in Austin. I think I had a flannel theme of sorts, and I think I was a sweater right.
Speaker 2:Well, I had an ugly sweater on. It was Amy Weiss's event.
Speaker 1:Yes, I did. I have an ugly sweater on. I think probably most of my sweaters I feel like are inherently ugly, but I think that's possible because I don't like sweaters.
Speaker 2:The Christmas. The Christmas one was just extra ugly maybe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we were upstairs and it was very loud. Those are the things that I remember.
Speaker 2:That seems to be a similarity I've noticed in all that I haven't been to a ton, but every Amazon event I've been to any of the kind of networking things they're always way too loud so that you have to be screaming and then, as people get more and more intoxicated, like it just kind of devolves from there. So, but somehow, I don't know, we've stayed in touch and it's been awesome to kind of get to know you and watch what you're doing now with influencer fruit. So I guess, to kind of dive in, can you give us your backstory and kind of how you wound up here where you are today?
Speaker 1:Absolutely. So let's go back to like 2014 and I'll try and do this like concisely, or at least keep it interesting. I was a single mom. I had three kids and I was looking for you know, of course a way that I could make money during nap time. And so I was looking around at my friends who I knew were doing six figures or better, and I was like, oh, e-com. And so I went with a friend of mine to a conference, got introduced to the world of e-commerce, took a course on creating a profitable online store and then got introduced to selling on Amazon through that, because, of course, if you're in e-commerce, you probably touch Amazon at some point in your life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so was introduced to how to sell on Amazon in 2015 and launched my first product in 2016. And for anybody following along at home, it was disposable rain punches for children, which is now like a really fun story. At the time, it was like how are we going to make money selling these small plastic items, right? And so we did that for a little bit and from there I was doing a lot of traveling and kind of like freelance side hustle stuff in addition to selling on Amazon, and decided that I needed a little bit of a change of pace. So I reached out to Jungle Scout and applied to work there at one of the seller, softwares. And then I worked at Jungle Scout for six years and have been there working with sellers, working on, you know, with the team there. I hesitate to say like I work with the seller, I feel like you're downplaying it quite a bit.
Speaker 2:You do a lot with Jungle Scout Liz. For anyone watching this who doesn't know is like quietly very plugged in and knows, like everyone in the Amazon space. So she's being very humble right now.
Speaker 1:Thank you, ben. I was going to say like I feel weird saying like I worked with the product and dev team and also the marketing. I did do all of those things, but not like I don't. Code is where I'm going with that. So then, about I guess December of 21, a friend of mine was like you love all things Amazon, you should check out the Amazon influencer program. And I was like cool, I do love all things Amazon.
Speaker 1:And so started doing the influencer program, got approved, got approved for onsite placement, and it very quickly became apparent to me that this is kind of like an area that Amazon is pouring money into, spending a lot of time on, and kind of like an up and coming part of the Amazon ecosystem. And so from there, like I started creating content, started observing like how passive is it if I don't touch it for two months? How many videos do I need to make? What makes a product like successful for a shoppable video? And then, after identifying some patterns patterns call it the Jungle Scout in me but like developed a tool to help people automate that process for picking better products in the Amazon influencer program. So that brings us up to today and where we're at and just kind of the conversations that you and I have been having.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, I feel like you're definitely the best possible person probably to create a tool for the influencer program based on, like, your last six years of experience with Jungle Scout. So it makes sense. I'm curious have you left a video like created a video review of Children's Ponchos yet then, since that was like your OG product, like, have you ever had to try to go back to your roots a little?
Speaker 1:You know what? That's really funny. I haven't even thought about that, I think maybe in some ways I've like blocked it out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, fair enough.
Speaker 1:We had that account or that listing get suspended after a competitor reported us for authenticity concerns and then, like, I fought that battle for a little bit and then I was like, is this really the best use of my time in this exact moment? And the answer for that season of my life was no. So we shut down that listing, but yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, that sucks. That's a bummer. I mean, that happened. I didn't have the same thing. But I always say, my first private label products, which was like my first foray into like truly doing Amazon for myself, was webcam covers, which I actually have one on this MacBook, and when I looked at it at that time it was like I don't think Jungle Scout gave an opportunity score back then, or like scoring. I think that was pre pre that. You know, you just had the basics.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But it was like, it was like a really good like niche to get into. But then by the time my product landed flooded, it was just like destroyed and my offer was horrible. So I still threw my units and moved on, but anyway, I'll give a shameless plug.
Speaker 1:If I had had seller candy at that point in time, I probably could have gotten up and going like much faster than me trying to fight that battle. So, like you know, we I just I want to say that was probably before you guys and before I knew. Oh yeah for services that were available to help sellers in that way. So it was still when you had to Figure it out and get in there and, yeah, you figure it out yourself.
Speaker 2:I feel like they're just we're not as many YouTube videos or anything else, but thank you for the plug, appreciate it. I also wish that this service existed back then. So, yeah, yeah, I feel like the path that you've kind of taken is you know, that's honestly, most people get on this and they've always. They've either started as a seller or, like you know, they always kind of have the same kind of winding path. Somehow that ends up in one place.
Speaker 2:But I think the thing that really interested me from our discussions you know, I knew you and you were like pretty heavily involved and I know still with Jungle Scout, I'm in the team there but is that you started telling me more and more about this influencer space, and my knowledge about Amazon influencers was pretty minimal.
Speaker 2:I knew about the when I'm gonna ask you about the difference but I knew about the Amazon Associates program which I had gotten into two times and then got kicked out of because I didn't refer anyone through. I've, you know, I know about kind of Amazon live streams, posts, and to me those are the only components that I really understand as a on-site Amazon influencer. So I thought it was really interesting that you were talking more and more about this and then the more I talked about it, the more I realized one I don't see as much information there yet, but I do see these kind of little hints that Amazon's really making a big push in this direction, especially with inspire and I don't know, some of the other updates recently. So I guess my first question, kind of before we get into I know we have a couple of questions We've written down, but is you're an influencer yourself? Right you got approved to? How many videos have you actually created and what that? What has that process actually been like?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I think I'm around 200 right now okay, and how long and what time period is that? Like just in the last couple months? Is that in the last few years?
Speaker 1:No, that's over like a year and a half. So I I joke that I'm like a true side hustler testing this for the average man. You know what I mean. Like what can you do if you don't have 40 hours a week to just create shoppable videos? You know, I obviously work with other influencers for like the heavy data stuff and those types of things, but when it comes to like, you know, can I do this if I have like lunch times or if I have weekends or if I have like I took two or three months last summer and didn't upload any videos intentionally To just see how passive it was. Like do you have to be actively uploading? So I do a lot of testing with my account, but the way that looks is like you just take anything that you've ever bought off of Amazon and talk about it.
Speaker 1:Right, like the things that we know and that I believe are driving the vision for Amazon influencer content because it lives on Amazon and specifically has the ability to live on product listing pages is that we know Video converts better than written text. We know that UGC user generated content, content, which is basically what influencer content is converts better than brand content, and we know that Amazon continues to put it at the top of the page if your brand registered and have that upper carousel, which, to me, even though we have a hard time like connecting the dots, because we're all very siloed and so therefore all of our data is very siloed but we all know that Amazon wants more sales, wants a good shopper experience, so if that wasn't helping conversions, they would have pulled us off there already. So those are the things that I think like, why we sit up there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so and I think there's, you know, in this conversation we're only gonna have time to go so deep, but there's so many other things. I know that I'm gonna have that come to me after this, but we kind of have two prongs, I think, just in terms of, like the audience that might be listening to this. You have kind of people that are on the side of, hey, I want to sign up and be an influencer myself because I maybe I want to make that passive income or semi passive income. And then the kind of opposite side, which you know we work with a lot of Amazon brands, agencies, aggregators and everything in between. So how can those brands, where those agencies go and roll this out to kind of be beneficial and ultimately drive more sales, I suppose? So I want to try to tackle kind of both angles. So my question, kind of leading off of that, is how do Amazon sellers actually go and work with Amazon influencers?
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Well, let's talk first about why Amazon sellers want to work with Amazon influencers. Because there's so, every time I talk to sellers, there's always a lot of people who haven't even heard about what the program is yet, and so I think, just like a little bit of context. So the Amazon influencer program is an offshoot of the affiliate or the associates program right, but For the purposes of our conversation, to talk about Amazon influencer, it's a little bit of a misnomer, right? So when you think of influencer, you think of tiktok driving an audience over to amazon, but the Amazon influencer program lives specifically on amazon, so it's not driving traffic from somewhere else to amazon. It's content that we upload and that amazon then places in different, you know, locations on the site to help with conversion, basically, right.
Speaker 1:So, um, from 2016, when amazon banned incentivized written reviews, which was, you know, a very sad day for a lot of us um, we can watch the journey where amazon has tried to pull Basically like that social proof in the house. So we went from there to like coupon sites, and those don't work. They're still terms of service compliant, but they don't work like they used to. We went to rebates right, amazon killed that last fall Um vine voices, which was amazon's kind of first in ongoing attempts to bring that kind of social proof in house. But as a seller, how much contact can you have with a vine voice?
Speaker 2:Yeah none.
Speaker 1:You're not allowed to talk to them, they're not required to do a review.
Speaker 1:You just have to send them the product and basically say a prayer that they Review it and that they understand what they're reviewing, right Like right some of the vine voice reviews are my favorite things in the world to read because they're funny, quick, yeah, sometimes they're spot-on, and sometimes you're like, did you get the same product? What was happening here? Um, but as a seller you can't reach out or contact them at all. Right? So the amazon influencer program is actually kind of what I believe to be the culmination of like all those things over the last seven years, because it's social proof. We have what I call slightly incentivized UGC for the brand, so we make between one and four percent commission off of traffic that's landing on your listing anyways, not that we're driving. You can talk to influencers where fTC and amazon terms of service compliant, and so if you have like Questions that are commonly asked about your product or a feature that's very specific to your product that differentiates you from your, from your competitors, you can talk to the influencers about like hey, you know I have this pretty unique product.
Speaker 1:Can you like focus on how this class works, or whatever the case is. And so I always tell people like, as with any type of content creation, you never want to tell them what to say Because that takes away from the authenticity of the content being created. But you can talk to them about problems you're trying to solve. And since it lives on your product listing page, depending on where amazon places it, and all the disclosures, um, you know, answer is questions for Shoppers in the moment that they are making a decision about your product. So it's pretty unique. So just to kind of give like a broad context just as we get started talking about like how to work with influencers, now we know why. So back to your original question.
Speaker 1:Yeah which is how do you work with influencers? Did you want to add something there before I jump into?
Speaker 2:that Well, no, I'm just, I'm trying to stop myself because there's so many, there's so many questions, so continue, I don't want to yeah just keep going, you got it.
Speaker 1:So how to work with influencers. There's a couple agencies. One specifically is logie, which is logie I think he's got a waiting list right now, but he basically can connect the brands With influencers and has like an ai component where he's taking influencers, um that convert the best for your category of product and matching you Very cool Um. There's a couple others. Uh, if you want kind of like, I do One on one, kind of like I have a group of influencers that I work with and so if you have very specific things Like you can work with me. And then there's the, you can DIY it right. So, like, if you have influencers already on your listing, or I'll put some of this on the landing page for your audience so that they can see what it is right.
Speaker 2:Yes, please.
Speaker 1:You can find amazon influencers either on your listing or on competitors listings and you can click through Our information. You'll know it's us because it says earns commission next to us in order to be compliant. Um, amazon places that there. But then you can click through and on our profile or our storefronts. There are our like other socials instagram, facebook and you can reach out to them on those locations. Is the easiest way to get them.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, that makes sense. And so, um, a couple just clarifying questions for just for the audience and for me selfishly. But when we're talking about Influencers, so first of all, like the main component right now, where you have the opportunity as an influencer, let's say, to get your, your videos placed in earned commission and for a seller to have ugc stuff show up, is You're uploading videos to through the amazon influencer hub, right, and those are you tag and ace and they're going to show up. Ideally, if the the listing has it in two locations the top carousel, which is pretty much with it that the video reel that shows up kind of in the main image queue, yep, and then the mid carousel, which is it under a plus content, I can't remember above one of the two right above it's right above the reviews, I think.
Speaker 1:Usually I'll have to check that they've been playing with it recently.
Speaker 2:Yeah, gotcha, and so cuz in previously. I don't know if it changed, but because previously I know that they would kind of have if there's customers who've directly reviewed your product in upload their video, cool, it's gonna show up for some of the maybe four videos that are that are those customer review videos, and then it's gonna start showing related videos which could be your competitors and actually I think almost are all your Competition right now. If you, where do these videos fall in that mix? Or they kind of done away with that in favor of showing these Amazon influencer videos?
Speaker 1:So in the upper carousel, that like main image carousel that is controlled by the seller. So if you have brand registry and you have a product video Uploaded, that basically what we call unlocks the upper video carousel and then that video carousel there are six open spaces and those spaces are only available to the seller and to influencers.
Speaker 1:So if your Web camera cover right, if you've uploaded a product video and you have that, and then I do a shoppable video talking about the cover, I tag your asin and I can't guarantee it, but 99 times out of 100, if there are open slots in that six Slots of the video carousel, amazon will place me right there. So in the upper carousel, true to Amazon form, it will say basically like videos for this product, which is you the seller, and then underneath that it will put related videos. Those are all influencers for that product, even though it says related in that upper carousel.
Speaker 1:Got it down in the middle carousel to be totally confusing, amazon has videos for this product and that's going to be brand and influencers specifically for that product, and Then they have a related videos in that middle carousel. That's all competitors. So it gets a little confusing because they name it different things in the upper and the lower, but basically like, wherever the brand video sits is usually where the influencer videos sit for that product.
Speaker 2:Okay, totally makes sense, and then do. They currently are those videos, and I know they also have an option, I think, to upload photos and whatnot. So right now are those things only being displayed on the product detail pages in the two Areas we just talked about, or do you know if they're starting to show them elsewhere? I don't I haven't messed around with inspire very much, but I'm guessing if they're not already starting to display them elsewhere. I'm sure that's something they're gonna roll out, but do you know if any, any other placements?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so Amazon has requested of the influencers Vertical shorts, and they've defined those as 30 seconds or less, more like social shopping. Think tick-tock Instagram, real kind of like trendy 10 things that Amazon told me I need for my car, you know and then it flies through like the 10 things. So they've asked for that type of content and they are currently surfacing that in the Amazon inspire feed, which was rolled out some per second and throughout the spring. But then there's also now the Amazon discover feed, which is under the fashion and beauty section, which is similar to inspire. It's that like scrollable, shoppable experience, but it's it's supposed to cover like different categories. I I'm not super clear yet because it's all so new, but those are the two kind of like streams. But then they are Using shoppable photos, which is another type of content we can create, which is literally just a picture of your product Somewhere, right?
Speaker 2:So it's kind of like would that be like similar to right? I know as a brand owner? You can upload, you get, you can unlock Amazon posts. Yeah, essentially it's the Instagram feed that shows up on your store, but also on mobile at least, and sometimes desktop. Those images will show up on Competitor listings and other placements for free, and so it's a great way for you to easily capitalize on extra traffic, obviously for your listings. So do you think that? Are they mixing in influencers with the actual brand?
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, that makes like if you scroll inspire, like you'll see my my current like feed is about 40% Brands, 40% influencers and about 20% customers, and so, to your point, like, if you're a brand and you haven't started doing posts, please do that immediately. It's like I'm sure at some point Amazon's going to have brands pay for those placements, but currently they don't have enough content yet to populate all these places that they're opening up, and so you're getting a lot of free additional placements from Amazon by doing those things. So shoppable photos Honestly, like they don't tell us. Like oh hey, this shoppable photo was shown and inspired six times yesterday and your click-through rate is one. Like they don't give us any stats around that yet.
Speaker 1:So the only way I can tell you like how they're doing is that I have like a couple clothing outfits that I don't have videos about, I only have them in a photo and they seem to do pretty well. So, like shoppable photos for clothing is like the one area that I can point to and be like those seem to convert.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I really hope that if anyone from Amazon's listening, I definitely I know I know they will, but the reporting for like even for Amazon posts for the longest time was so basic. I was like, come on, give us like click-through rates or like some other metrics here, like so I know how I'm actually doing, but yeah, I'm sure they'll roll that stuff out too you know, it's kind of like most things with Amazon and I just kind of assume it's coming right.
Speaker 1:It's like they launched something really cool for us to like play with now. We wanted them to launch it with like a to z reporting and they were like here it is, we're gonna get there. Yeah, I'm with you. Like, I just kind of assume it's coming and for a while we're just gonna have to put up with bad metrics, but I'm making money on it. So, like, am I really gonna complain that I don't have the metrics? Probably not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, probably not yeah so that's kind of a segue to me, the to another question I want to ask, which is and then we'll get to kind of the products research and how to actually the mechanics of this but how big of an opportunity is this right now, since it is, you know, we see the same thing always with, like when they released Um video search ads as like another ad type that you can run, that was huge Right, because you could one get that video in front of shoppers for the first time. Really low CPCs at that time, really high Click-through conversion, all that stuff. Now, obviously it's become much more competitive. But how big of an opportunity is this right now, both for anyone that wants to become an influencer but also for brands to really capitalize on and leverage this, I guess, before it gets too saturated or commonplace?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I kind of like think about this as if you were launching a product on Amazon in like 2015,. Right, so it's maybe not like 2012, where it was the total Wild West, like they're starting to implement, like you know, terms of service they're going through and basically like Improving content and those sort like right and but it's not also like 2023, where you know you have even more structure and some of those things in place. I'd say like it put us back at like launching a product as a seller in 15.
Speaker 2:Okay, Wild West with like two sheriffs in town instead of one like yeah, exactly a little bit of governance.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like a blue ocean with a couple boats.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:It's not the harbor where everybody's like anchored to the same post. It's like there's still a lot of opportunity and for influencers, shoppable videos are still only available in the US Marketplace, the comm. So when I think about, like how big is Amazon Compared to? Like how much we actually have available to us yet, like we're still at the very beginning of the influencer journey, and just to give like a plug, because you're a great example of this, I there are a lot of people who play in the Amazon space and are, like, og affiliates for a long time and used to do KDP and have played with merch Right. Like every time I talk to a seller, they're like oh, I also want to be an influencer. How about? Like I have this other account? Right, like those of us who live and breathe in the Amazon world, like if you're wondering, just go apply for influencer. Right, cause that's what you did. You just went and applied and then immediately got approved for onsite placement. Like, if anybody's interested, it's worth applying.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree. I mean, that's kind of how I've always seen Amazon programs is like when they launch them, there's a short window where just go like, try to get in, because worst case you get in and don't do anything with it. You know, like merch by Amazon, something that I've been involved in, as you mentioned, and it used to be that you could just go and do whatever you wanted. Now it's really really hard. It's an application only program and I know people get rejected left and right. So, yeah, liz helped me for anyone watching Pretty much, I won't say bullied me, because that's way too strong of a word she she was like, hey, you should get your first three video reviews up. I was like, okay, yeah, all right. And then I did it and now I'm apparently approved to be an influencer on Amazon. So, yeah, thank you Liz.
Speaker 1:You're welcome. Well, you know, it is interesting because there are a lot of people who have been affiliates for a long time who actually were just I don't know if they were automatically rolled in. I don't have visibility into, like what that transition was in 2017 or 18 when they initially opened the influencer program, but there are a lot of people who are in the influencer program who are not approved for onsite placement because they aren't aware that that transitioned. So if that's, you maybe just go check it's because once you get approved for that onsite placement especially those people who are already content creators and live in the Amazon world like it happens fast and then you can add another revenue stream, Like, and it's relatively passive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so pretty much, you just upload three videos that don't violate the terms of service and then wait four or five days. Amazon reviews them. They're like 45 to 90 seconds, I think is kind of the average length which. Liz has way more information about.
Speaker 1:We don't have to cover on this, this podcast, today, but I do want to say you got super lucky because you applied for onsite placement when they're doing approvals in like two to five days, like when I applied in January of 22,. It was a four week wait to get that onsite placement and this spring in 23,.
Speaker 1:it was six to eight weeks from the time you uploaded your three videos before you heard anything, whether you were approved or denied. It was six to eight weeks, so I just want to give caution. Right now it's like two or three days, but yeah, so anyone watching don't walk, run to go become you know, set up your influencer thing.
Speaker 2:So just kind of to take it a little bit beyond that and kind of talk a little bit about the mechanics, like, can you talk to a little bit about the? So, as an influencer, how do you find good products? So the product research component, which I guess as either a seller or an influencer. How do you do the research to figure out kind of where there's a good opportunity to do these review videos or leverage them maybe on if you have a huge catalog and you're trying to identify which are the best products to go and run with this?
Speaker 2:how do you do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So you know, it's relatively similar to researching a product. When you're looking to launch a product on Amazon, right, you're looking for something that has high sales and low competition. But the competition I'm looking at is how many influencers have already created content for your product and do you have the sales velocity to warrant? Basically, if I'm buying this with the intent to review specifically like, is there going to be people looking at my videos?
Speaker 1:I really like when sellers sponsor their listings, right, because then I know that you're paying for traffic that possibly will convert for me as well as for you, or that I can help you convert. So when you think about like pretty basics around, what makes a listing have good quality for sales often has the same qualities for an influencer. The differences I would say are if you are a brand and you have not yet uploaded a product video, this is your run. Don't walk like, go upload a product video immediately, because you're not only up, like opening up video for yourself which converts better than text, but you're also opening the ability for influencers to live at that top spot on your listing which helps conversion, right, yeah, it's a really good point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's one of the things and maybe you can shed some light on this for me, actually, because it was for the longest time that you had to be brand registered in order to upload a product video. They've opened it so you don't have to be brand registered, but in looking at it it doesn't look like if you're not brand registered. It doesn't give you the carousel, it just gives you a video in that upper like main image area, but not that pop-up. Yeah, good question.
Speaker 2:I don't really know the other thing that I always wonder Amazon just changes the way that the product detail pages are displayed so often and it's very so widely across categories. Yeah, so I'm not really sure, but yeah, I mean, like I know, in the past it used to be as a brand. You had to be brand registered to upload those videos. But then I know there were also people that were gaming that whole system back in, like even three, four years ago, where they would maybe be the brand to upload videos. But then you know how there's that more related video section. Essentially, I know that there are also people that would then go from their customer shopper account upload videos to products as well.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I'm sure Amazon cracked down on that kind of thing. But yeah, I know there's all kinds of ways that you can get around it, but I think that's a really important call out just in general is that I didn't realize if you, as the brand don't upload a video, you're not unlocking that entire video section. To be honest, I had no idea. Correct, yeah, so that totally makes sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yep. It's pretty interesting when you think about it because, like, visibility across from influencer to seller too, like this is part of one of my goals with influencer fruit and doing all of these conversations is because there's so little known from side to side. So, like I spent a lot of time talking to influencers where they're like the seller kicked me off their listing and I was like that's actually Amazon.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:The seller doesn't have any more control than you do. And then for the seller is like hey, the reason that we're showing up at the top of your listing is because of the Amazon influencer program and so kind of like cross educating, because there's just so much, like you said, like there's always something new. The product listings change every day, depending on the category and everything else. So sharing the information, I think, is the best way to succeed as a whole.
Speaker 2:Right. Well, yeah, and I think that's kind of the one of the, you know, a big reason that I was really excited to have you on, among others, I was also excited just to talk to you, liz, but is because, like you know, I've been in the Amazon space since about the time you have, and I, you know, I've seen a bunch of different programs, but I've heard so little about that influence or thing. You know, and maybe I'm in the wrong circles, I don't know. I'm pretty active on like LinkedIn and whatnot, but I think that it's one of those things. Truly, that's kind of a golden opportunity right now and it's something that you as a seller, brand owner or as an agency kind of advising your clients, really should kind of at least look at and consider and try to see if it's something that fits in with the type of products that you're offering.
Speaker 2:And you know, I'm sure there's specific products and categories that this is, you know, working extremely well with, versus others that maybe not as good. But yeah, I, that's all stuff to consider which is probably for better for another time. But I do want to ask kind of specifically with fluency or fruit, and you know, I know you're rolling out tons of new features, but can you just tell us a little bit more about, like, what it actually is? I know it's a research tool. I've personally used it, so I'm going to just play dumb for a little bit. But if you could kind of describe like what it actually does when you've opened it up and you're doing that research process, yeah.
Speaker 1:So fluency or fruit is a Chrome extension and it works on the Amazon search pages, product pages, and basically Helps you, as an influencer, narrow down the product listings. That will be the best opportunity for you. So I tell people, the extension is directional, not decision-making. So if you start with a hundred thousand items on Amazon, I want to bring you to the point where you can make an educated decision as fast as possible. So I Joggingly say, but it's really true, like I developed to this to scratch my own itch because, like I could tell you what made the listing Successful, but I had to click in and out of every listing in order to find that and then remember which one had a carousel, how many influencers, and I was manually counting. So the extension just basically, like pulls all of that information forward to the search page in Cards and in a drop-down and then it has a scoring system. So basically, like it's a proprietary weighted score that tells you how well that product listing Performs for the factors that I'm looking for as an influencer.
Speaker 1:So does it have that upper carousel? How many other influencers are on there? How many open spots are in that upper carousel? Right? So, like, as a brand, you can Upload six videos and kill that entire carousel just for yourself. Right Now I know that we Don't have a lot of cross information but statistically speaking, like UGC converts better than brand videos, so I don't recommend that. But I want to know how many open slots there are, so, like there's a listing that I have lived on for probably the better part of 18 months now. I, you know, I believe it's because I convert well for that, because there have been multiple influencers Kind of come through that carousel.
Speaker 1:But I'm looking to see like how long do I think I can live in that spot and can I establish myself as a Shoppable video that provides enough value that it's converting regularly? So Amazon will keep me there, right? So if you, as the brand, have one video and there are five open slots, I feel fairly confident that if I create the right kind of content that I can live on that carousel For a while.
Speaker 1:Yeah and so those are the things I'm looking at what your ratings are, what your sales velocity is, how long you've been around, when the you know when you launched the listing kind of all of those things. But your price point is and what your commission category is for me. So those are things that are kind of like included in that score and put it all in the search page or in your browsing history or wherever you're doing bestseller pages, because people do a lot of like product research there as well.
Speaker 2:So that's what the extension does?
Speaker 1:it pulls it all together for you.
Speaker 2:Love it and I just just a couple other questions. But if I am a brand, like if I own a branch, can I also sign up to the influencer program and upload UGC content to my own listings, or is that, do you know? Does that violate terms of service? I'm just wondering if that's. I would think that will at some point, but there's this gray area. We shouldn't even go into this conversation.
Speaker 1:The truth is, I don't know right, and so that's one of the areas where it's like, even if you read through, like, all of the terms are pretty separated, so it's like there. I haven't yet found, and I hope if somebody else has read this, please email Ben or myself so that we also know. But, like I haven't yet found Information where it talks about, like, if you have multiple types of accounts and and how to use them. Now I do have a couple people that I work with where they started as affiliates and Then, from their affiliate links, figured out which products were selling the best on Amazon and then created private label products and then Replace the links to their products as affiliates, which is totally doable.
Speaker 1:But the piece that I don't know about is, as a, if you are an influencer and you own a brand, if you can upload Influencer content For your own brands. I kind of think the answer right now is yes. Please don't anybody quote me on that, but that's kind of like where I think we're at. But to your earlier point, my guess is, even if the answer is yes right now, that that probably won't be long-lived.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, be cautious, but it's a yes. You can probably get away with it right now, but you know, be careful.
Speaker 1:It feels like they haven't quite gotten to writing that part out yet. It's just kind of like right feel like we might be at yeah so you can take advantage.
Speaker 2:For now, how, how do you these sellers and you kind of answered this a little bit earlier, but I think last kind of two questions about one is how do you kind of sellers, influencers, how they connect? I know you mentioned a couple, a couple different options and I guess when is it too early for them to? When should you be going out to find influencers or, you know, reach out to them?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I think if you're looking at your product listing, you have that upper carousel and you're like I Don't have any influencers here. This is an opportunity for you to Go find somebody to work with on filling that carousel, right? So there's that. I think when you're launching a product Is a great time because you launch with UGC at the top of your listing. I've kind of started thinking about it. Since that upper carousel is specifically available for brand registered Brands, I've kind of started thinking about it as an investment in your brand registry content, right. So like when you're working with a marketing firm and they're creating all of that a plus content for you, this just feels like an extension that content, right. So that's kind of when I think about it being like the most natural fit is when people are Putting that initial like marketing budget towards all of this content. Obviously, once you're running, adding those in can only help. But yeah, that's kind of what I think about. It Is that a plus content?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it makes sense. Yeah, I mean definitely now more than ever, with product launches like the investment in all those really high quality assets is, you know, so, so, so important so that totally makes sense. Yeah, any other ways that you know sellers, influencers can connect, or is it just the things I think you might have mentioned earlier, would tell me a little bit more?
Speaker 1:So there's Facebook groups, there's reddit threads like if you look up Amazon influencer on Facebook or on reddit or there's a number of other places but, like you can find it, I think the hardest thing for the brands who will probably be listening is Influencers are approached by so many agents who have no budget and are representing 10 to 200 Brands or asins. That, basically proving that you are a real brand owner or somebody who works on a team of three, four, a specific brand, that will probably be your biggest hurdle is talking to influencers and being like I, this is my brand, I do not agent for multiples, and I think that will help One because influencers really want to work directly with brands and sellers and they're asking the same questions like Can I reach out to the brand on their website if I go through Amazon and find their contact information? Like, who do I Reach? So there is kind of like this gap where people are trying to work together and there's like not quite enough bridging so you can also do Creator connections.
Speaker 2:So is that a website or a company?
Speaker 1:No, sorry, that's an Amazon product.
Speaker 2:Oh, it is yes.
Speaker 1:So it's invite only for brands and it's invite only for influencers. But as a brand, if you're invited, you can put together campaigns and Influencers can come and say like, I would like to take part in this like, and then you can send your product and it's an additional percentage, I think, for the time of the campaign that you pay.
Speaker 1:So that's one way. If you've gotten an invite to creator connections, it's a good way to meet influencers. I've met a couple brands that I work with now outside of creator connections because they launched it, I think, within the last year, and it works great in way of like being able to talk to people but, for example, when I was working in it regularly, like I wasn't getting a notification if a brand messaged me back. You know, there's just still a couple tweaks that may have even come along since then, but that's a way for a brand if you've gotten that invite. And then Logie is the one I know that works specifically with influencers.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much. That's awesome. I want to shift gears a little bit and go to our controversial take. I call this like the should pizza have pineapple on top or not? I'm personally a believer that pineapple belongs on pizza, but what's your most. You are too Awesome. What's your most debatable, controversial opinion related to the commerce industry or just something that's, I guess, kind of out of left field? Anything that you've got.
Speaker 1:So I think my actual most controversial is how much should we be using AI in e-commerce right now? Right is kind of like everybody's question is how much can we get away with and how much is like good practice, and so in that, in that vein, last night I asked chat GPT what chat GPT is most controversial or a debatable e-commerce opinion was. And chat GPT came up with on Amazon Prime Day every seller should have a panic button that when you hit it, if something goes awry, when you hit it, it pops up like an emergency or a crisis room that can be your headquarters and there are streamers and there are people that can solve PPC problems and it like handles all of the things that could go. It use the word arrive, but then also had streamers and confetti.
Speaker 2:So I feel like maybe our party, but at the same time an emergency.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like, hooray, we're here to help you with this terrible thing, you know so hey, you're losing money. Your day party didn't work, shut it down, you know. So yeah, so I thought that was cool.
Speaker 2:Love it. Then I think also to your first point. That is a really valid concern. There's just a, you know, being that I'm in the KDP space. I just saw there's a times or I don't have some article one of the big publications about all these a I travel guides that were coming out on Amazon and how that's. I mean there's just so many implications and issues that are going to crop up. So interesting stuff for sure.
Speaker 2:Let's see, liz, I think we've covered just about everything, so I want to turn it back to you in a second, but I just wanted to say to everyone who's watching this that was an amazing discussion. I hope that everyone who's here watching this whenever definitely learned something from this and maybe got inspired to go become an Amazon influencer or reach out to Liz, her team, or to an influencer and really explore this, because I do think this is going to be a very big thing over coming years, just for the way that we're seeing a lot of the trends on tick tock and my VAM is already investing, and so we just went super deep. I want to just turn it around really quick. I've enjoyed this episode, but I want to give you a chance to kind of tell people where they can find you, how they can connect to the you and, I guess, maybe anything that you kind of have right on the horizon that you want to mention.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely so. If you want to reach out to me, if you have follow up questions are around if you're a brand and how you best work with influencers. My email is Liz at fluencer fruit calm, like. I answer all of those, so feel free to send questions my direction For us. I will put together fluencer fruit calm slash seller candy so that there's like a centralized place for information. I do have a course that is launching, so if you're one of those OG Amazon people and you're looking to get from where you're at to up and running, monetized, I'll put a link to that there and more information on the sellers. I think that's it. Yeah, that covers both sides of it there, so perfect and also influencer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll put. We'll put all that stuff show notes. If you're watching this soon, I would recommend now is a good time to reach out to Liz because she's so helpful and they're building, but growing very, very fast. So definitely go check fluencer fruit out. I personally am using it. It's awesome so far.
Speaker 1:So plug a release that we've got going, can I?
Speaker 2:yes, please.
Speaker 1:So one of the biggest issues that influencers have is knowing if their shoppable videos have lost placement. So, like, obviously, that upper carousel is the promise land where we all want to be and in one of the upcoming releases we have like centralized video placement management where you'll be able to look at your creator hub and tell if that video is placed or not placed, and so really excited about that because people are doing it manually right now through hundreds and sometimes thousands of videos like click, click, click to see like where their videos living. So this is gonna be a huge time saver for influencers.
Speaker 2:That's awesome, yeah, and I know you're gonna roll out a ton of new features going forward to, so that's amazing, Liz. Thank you so much. That brings us to the end of this episode, so just want to say thanks again for on behalf of my team and everyone watching. But thanks, liz and fluencer fruit for being here today. I appreciate it and we hope again that some of these insights you get you can take and run with, whether you're an influencer brand or anything else. And, as always, thanks again for tuning into the Amazon strategy show. We will see you in the next episode. All right, bye, thank you.