How to Get Started in Amazon Europe - Insider tips and trends you need to know

Have you ever wondered about tapping into the European market with its millions of consumers? We dive into this opportunity, shedding light on the potential of expanding businesses to Amazon Europe and the UK with Stef van Boekel from Operator One, an expert with over 17 years of e-commerce and Amazon experience. 

In this episode, we talked about the growth rate of Amazon Europe and explored the benefits of being a pioneer in the new countries added to the market. The conversation gets even more fascinating as we explore the world of B2B e-commerce and the vast opportunities that await in this market sector. 

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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

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Don't hire an agency, because an agency only solves part of the problem. Secondly, don't hire an Amazon manager.

Speaker 2: 0:07

All right, Hello, I am your host, ben, and welcome back to another episode of season two of the Amazon Strategist show. The show that's all strategy, with no hacks, no silver bullets and no magic pills, just a real, practical strategy for serious Amazon sellers. All right, I just finished an amazing episode with Steph van Bokel from oh one dot E. We talked about all things expanding to Amazon Europe and UK, I guess but the European markets, all the craziness that goes into that process, which is quite complex. So you're definitely going to want to listen to this episode because not only do we talk about kind of the complexities of getting into the European markets, we also talk about the opportunity which, to be honest, is way bigger than I remember it being, and we also get into some fun stuff talking about B2B and the opportunity for Amazon sellers doing B2B, and much Hope you guys enjoy this episode. Watch, listen to the end. There's a lot of fun stuff all the way throughout and let us know what you think in the comments. Questions reach out. We love hearing from you.

Speaker 2: 1:07

So, without further ado, let's dive into the episode. Today we are in for a treat because we have the pleasure of being joined by the one and only Steph van Bokel of it used to be a different name, but now it is operator one Really excited to hear a little bit more about what exactly operator one does. But before we get into that, steph, I'm going to read off a quick bio about you and the company. So Steph has been active in the field of international business for over 17 years and since 2011, he's been specialized in international e-commerce and operations that obviously come with that. So he's helped a number of B2B B2C organizations position themselves internationally, from SMEs to Fortune 500 companies, and today he's the managing director and operator of for operator one, which specializes in building brands on marketplaces such as Amazon Europe and a strong focus in B2B e-commerce and seller management. So, out of the millions of Amazon suppliers, operator one is within the top five, which is a pretty big deal Catalog suppliers for Amazon EU.

Speaker 2: 2:03

And last but not least, steph I think we got to mention this, but you've worked in over 20 different European countries. You've lived in five, and today you're joining us from somewhere in Italy. I'm going to turn around to you because you were telling me something about a market that you were just out at. So where in Italy are you right now?

Speaker 1: 2:18

I'm. I'm in Luca. That's a small city in the Disney that's actually close to Pisa and Florence. So, yes, indeed, I was just telling you about the nice food that I had, and that's not something let's say, that's quite common here that I always eat good food and also drink good wine, but for this specific podcast, I decided not to drink wine.

Speaker 2: 2:43

Okay, well, maybe afterwards to celebrate.

Speaker 2: 2:46

I just wanted to say real quick again thanks so much for joining us. Stay really happy to have you here on the show and just excited to talk about all things really wherever the conversation takes us. But specifically, I definitely want to dive into kind of the Amazon opportunity in the European markets because you know, I'm here obviously on the other side of the pond in the US and I hear a lot of in my echo chamber about how great the US and North American markets are. But the reality is a lot of Amazon sellers are either starting in the UK or European markets or they're looking to expand to those marketplace, so there's a really big opportunity there. But before we go into all that, I want to take us back a little bit and just ask maybe if you could kind of tell us and get us up to speed on how you got into this whole e-commerce world, this Amazon space. You know where you a seller. Take us through that journey and we'll see kind of if I have any questions that come out of it.

Speaker 1: 3:34

All right. Well, thanks, ben, for having me, and I'm very happy to share some of the insights. After being in the industry for 10 years, you know I've seen the thing or two, so hopefully I can bring some value to the listeners. So yeah, I'm from the Netherlands, was made in the school form of Italy. So why is a Dutch company also located in Italy? Because we attract people from all over Europe and if you say, come live and work in Tuscany, you know people are interested in joining a team.

Speaker 1: 4:03

I've always been working, since 2011,. Always been working with e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, but also other marketplaces, always on the operational side of things, and then from Italy to Norway, from Switzerland to Ireland, and my main focus was always making sure that the local consumer has a local experience. So the client from Denmark or Spain or Italy's thinking is buying something locally. Why is that important? Basically, at the end is all about sales, and because people have more trust when it's being delivered locally, and the customer experience, which impact on the reviews, also is important for that reason. So the majority of those times, I was actually working as an interim manager, working inside companies to look at their setup.

Speaker 1: 4:52

I know your customer support with language. Do they speak your logistical network? To which condition? In 24 hours? How easily can they return, etc. And Europe is obviously a very big market. So we have over 700 million consumers. That's one. Then, second, we have the highest average spending per person online. I mean. So it's a big opportunity, but it's also a very complex opportunity because if you look, for example, at Amazon, there are eight languages, nine logistical borders, of course, 27 tax levels for different currencies.

Speaker 1: 5:29

So there is no such thing as a European strategy. So if you want to start, for example, in Germany, you need a German customer support, you need an accountant that was the local registration. You need a warehouse locally, otherwise you can't deliver Next day, which is again important for that local experience, etc. And if you know a small company, it requires a lot of budget. If you're a big company, it's difficult because always you have, let's say, local sales offices or distributors that don't have an Amazon strategy yet. So the result is that almost nobody sells successfully on a per unit level. Also, us brands only less than 2% of the US brands that do more than a million in the US should be also able to do, let's say, 800k in Europe are actually selling in Europe because of that complexity.

Speaker 1: 6:16

So yeah, log story short, after going for project to project to project project and being very, let's say, frustrated about the loss of opportunity, because you know people don't want to set up a local team in Germany when there's no revenue, because there's no revenue, there's no money to pay the salaries or give them work. So that's why I decided to design the infrastructure from zero. We call it IELTS and was an infrastructure as a service. So we have people from Germany, france and Spain, and then those local teams focus on the local markets, but the companies is that of hiring a team of 30 people. They pay for a half FTE to get access to the whole, let's say, infrastructure and all the hands behind it. So that's basically how we got started. In a summary, how we developed and becoming a European marketplace operator.

Speaker 2: 7:11

Yeah, thank you. That's I was going to say. That's definitely a mouthful, and you're taking me back to my days when I worked previously as an account manager and you know most of the brands that I was working with were, I would say, us first, like the US market was kind of the primary one, and part of that's just self selection bias, right like I was working out of the US. So those are a lot of the clients that I was meeting an interface with. That being said, a number of those and some very large brands that we worked with started to dive into that world of expanding to the European markets, and so I would worked with them quite a bit.

Speaker 2: 7:42

This was before Brexit, though, so you know there, I know there's a lot of changes that happened right after I stopped kind of doing that side of the business.

Speaker 2: 7:50

So I'm kind of having flashbacks of all the challenges. You know, when we talk about things like that, we think about things like localization for the individual markets and the different ways that people shop. You know, I always hear kind of the classic one of the German marketplace shoppers treat, you know, the shopping experience very, very in the review experience very, very differently than, let's say, the US consumer. Those are things that without having the expertise of someone like you and your team, are really hard to know ahead of time, right? So I guess kind of the first question that I have on my mind really is how big is the opportunity that's, you know, present really in the you know various markets over there versus, let's say, the US marketplace or the North American market places? Because I think that's one thing that I've always just wondered, and I hear stats here and there about how you know the UK and Germany are kind of the next two largest markets, but just curious if you have a take on how big is this opportunity?

Speaker 1: 8:44

Well, it depends on its perspective. So let me give a few different perspectives. So Amazoncom is a larger market when it comes to, let's say, the average visitors per month, but Amazon Europe is growing 40% faster than the US markets. So right now it is the largest Amazon market, but Amazon Europe is speeding up. Then, secondly, what you see is that, for example, the last two years Amazon launched for European countries Poland, sweden, netherlands and Belgium reaching up to 100 million of over 100 million consumers. That's one third of the US only for those four new countries.

Speaker 1: 9:25

So that you need to look at it from a first movers advantage, that you are now able to go into Amazon, like when Amazon was launched 27 years ago. So, from a market opportunity perspective, that's obviously in a very interesting position to be in, especially when you're already experienced with selling on Amazon, I can tell you from the moment it goes live in Sweden. On Belgium, nobody has experienced from those countries. There are also no agencies in those countries, or maybe one that has some experience. So that's why we often see that the non-local companies are actually the ones that are most successful, simply because they know how Amazon works.

Speaker 1: 10:13

Then, on the last part is that you have indeed Germany 80 million people and you have UK, france, italy and Spain all around 60 million people. So those five countries alone are already 30% bigger than the US market. So at the end it is the largest market, also the fastest growing market. But when I talk to brands I say, okay, within five years you should be talking, 80% of your Amazon book come revenue in Europe. So yeah, those are the different perspectives, let's say from a market size and market opportunity perspective.

Speaker 2: 10:50

Yeah, no, that's great. And also I definitely think, yeah, the two big things that I pull out of that right the growth rate 40% they say year over year. What was the 40% start 40%?

Speaker 1: 11:02

faster than Amazoncom is growing when it comes to revenue users. But I think what the most interesting part is and I'm going back to that later is okay, everybody goes to amazoncom, and I mean everywhere. So if you look from all Chinese sellers let's say, non-american companies also go to amazoncom, resulting there are 2.5 million companies selling daily on Amazon in Europe. It's 1.1 million shattered over nine countries.

Speaker 2: 11:31

So I mean from a competitor's perspective, it's obviously an massive opportunity, yeah, so I think you've kind of told us why it's important to consider these markets. You know if you're either not selling yet on Amazon or you're maybe selling in a different market the US or somewhere else and looking at this opportunity in general, I guess, kind of. The next feasible question, though, is how do you choose which market to enter first, or can you tell us a little bit more about, like the actual? Let's say, I'm at a US brand and I'm like I want to go into the either the UK or European markets. How do I actually what's the next step and how do I actually select which, or am I going into all of them? What's kind of the framework there, I guess because I know there's so many different pieces once you actually make that commitment right.

Speaker 1: 12:16

Exactly now it's, I think if you look at our client base, I think one out of three clients that we now have brands, let's say companies that want to enter the UMP market, and what we always do is start with an analysis. So we check okay, the portfolio category doesn't exist. One, two what kind of reviews are we doing? Is the is the category? Doing then, to check who are your main competitors? Are you? And then are you able to compete with those competitors based on product specifications, quality, content, price or combination overall, and based on that we start recognizing okay, from those nine countries.

Speaker 1: 12:57

We envision that these are the top three and our approach is always to go live in multiple countries. But that's also because we have a setup that gives us the opportunity to immediately go live in nine countries without too much hassle. But if you are doing it independently and you have limited budget, then at the end you're valid to choose one country, but again with pre-work, where you're able to relatively easy recognize where you have the biggest chance of succeeding. But do not go because what we used to saw in an after Brexit that luckily changed, is that, okay, I'm familiar with. Let's go to the UK because they speak English, but I mean, for example, in the Netherlands, where I'm from, 98% speak English.

Speaker 2: 13:47

So focus on your largest margin maker, a largest revenue maker, instead of what plazent from your comfort zone perspective makes sense, and that also kind of remind me of another question that has come up in another podcast we did when we were talking kind of in a similar vein about hey, I'm selling on Amazon, I'm starting to hear these things about you know Walmart or these other, you know different marketplaces or channels out there and knowing when the right time from like a revenue and resources standpoint, to actually go and invest in expanding to those right because, like at the end of the day, it's like in an ideal world, me as an Amazon brand, I would like to get my products everywhere that I possibly can right.

Speaker 2: 14:29

The more places, the more real estate, the more eyeballs, etc. That being said, it's not as easy as point and click. No matter what anyone tells you or any software companies. There is a lot that has to go into it, and so I guess my question is like there's you know, if you're maybe a smaller brand or a smaller company just getting started, you might not, maybe you you shouldn't yet consider the European markets because it's going to distract you from crushing it in the US or the North American market or whatever your local market is. I guess. Do you have kind of a rough framework or kind of guideline for like this is when you should start really from maybe a revenue standpoint or resources start looking into hey, this is a realistic opportunity and I know it's going to be different for every brand, so maybe that's the answer.

Speaker 1: 15:08

But curious how that, how that works for you guys um, well, let me look at, I think, what's going to be. Let me look at from again from different perspectives. So if you are a brand that we assert a maturity when it comes to an Asian product that's reaching almost no growth, then the next step what you can do is or we launch a similar item, which you then need to invest in marketing and so on, etc. Or you start looking at a new sales channel. Then it's depending on which capabilities you have in-house how easy you're able to open up that new sales channel. So, from Amazon to Walmart, maybe it's more easy than going from Amazon US to Amazon UK, as an example.

Speaker 1: 15:54

So I think it's about your in-house capabilities if you have limited budgets, but in general, once you have a successful ascent and you have 105 star reviews, then it makes sense to start launching their product in multiple Amazon countries. Why? Because then you immediately launch in that country with 105 star reviews. So for the consumer that sees a product with 100 reviews, they immediately think this is an interesting product. So let's say, all your learnings and reviews are able to much quickly get success. Yeah, well done.

Speaker 1: 16:34

So that basically means, if you're a small company or a big company, it is basically the next step.

Speaker 1: 16:38

If you want to grow, and also it's important to diversify basically an opportunity. So if you want to make sure that you still have a business from 10 years from now, you need to start, let's say, launching the same product in multiple countries. If you are a company that didn't do anything with Amazon yet, I think there are also a lot of statistical reasons to be present on Amazon. For example, in almost all Europe if you look at Italy, Spain, Germany, France and the UK more than 65% of the product searches start on Amazon. The other 30% goes to Google, YouTube, etc.

Speaker 1: 17:25

In Q4, for example, in Germany last year, it was 92% of the product searches start on Amazon. So if you want to reach the future consumer in those countries, that needs to be a statistical reason to be present there. Maybe you're not going to make money because there's too much competition or you need to invest in marketing activities, but at the end it's going to make sense and I will explain also why. 90% of the product searches started on Amazon, but 50% of the total e-commerce revenue went to Amazon, so that means that the half of the product purchases actually went outside Amazon.

Speaker 1: 18:09

So people like to buy for the first time at Amazon and then the second time. You prefer to buy from a local dealer or direct from the web shop. So maybe it's not profitable immediately, but if you then look at the long term it is. So it has different ways of approaching it.

Speaker 2: 18:25

Yeah for sure. So the brand Halo Effect is huge and, just you know, still more or less. I feel like what people used to quote a lot in the US and just Amazon is actually really great for discoverability in terms of people that connect and find their new brand, but they might then come back to your direct consumer or retail and buy that second or third, fourth purchase, which is a big deal and definitely a big consideration. So that's good to know.

Speaker 1: 18:48

That's a remark to that. So, for example, if you look at the Netherlands, where I'm from, amazon is not the largest marketplace. It's bolder, bolder commerce business. In the last 20 years, amazon just two years, but they're not already the fourth largest player. But what is really interesting to see, if you look at the buyer persona, the buyer persona from Amazon in the Netherlands are people below 30. So what they are actually doing is focusing on the young buyers that eventually grow up and on this way they are slowly getting more and more control of the market. So that also shows quite an interesting strategy how Amazon is entering new countries.

Speaker 2: 19:32

Yeah, they're in it for the long run. Love it. Okay, so you got me hyped up. Now on expanding internationally, we've talked a lot about the opportunity. If we can shift gears a little bit and talk about some of the nuts and bolts, I'm curious to ask and I know this is kind of digging into your guys' specialty but can you just talk a little bit about how you actually go and develop your brands in the European markets, whether it's an existing brand you already have Again, maybe you're coming in from a different place or you are new to, maybe, e-commerce you have maybe an existing retail brand. How do you develop it for kind of the European Amazon world and then the operational piece to that's obviously a whole other side of it, but both of those topics I want to dive into.

Speaker 1: 20:12

Yeah, but this is an important part In Amazon in the US is a marketing game. The best move, the best in content and the best in, for example, ppc are the ones that are really thriving Well in Europe. It's an operating game. So because you need to give that again, that local experience, and what basically nobody knows is that 98% of the Amazon sellers only sell in one or two or three countries. Nobody is going actually on a pan-UMP level because of that local setup. So what?

Speaker 1: 20:47

To understand the local setup, if you want to start selling in Europe, for example, it first starts with order compliance. You need to make sure that your product is compliant by law with the local regulation. For that you need to have an agency or, let's say, a company that helps you with that registration. Once you have that, then you need to have a local entity. So because you need a local entity to be able to import, because there needs to be a natural person that access import of records. And then, secondly, you need a VAT number, because you cannot store a product in a country without having local taxes. So it starts with a fiscal and legal entity setup and then it starts with a warehouse. Obviously that also has a logistical network with also a return network. You need the customer support in the local language and then once you have that operational setup that's basically the hands behind the day-to-day activities then it becomes all.

Speaker 1: 21:46

The thing that is really important, also in the US, is the performance and marketing activities Making sure your product is visible, making sure you're testing product. Picture one goes to location three. What does that do with the traffic? What does that do with the conversion? So in the beginning you need to be looking at it from a very practical point of view. But once you have that operational setup then it becomes much more easy because if you have one product or 50 products, they all need to go to the same. Let's say they have the same route to market. Then it becomes really on using your budget with a target market. So you are again focused a little bit on the short results.

Speaker 2: 22:27

Yeah, I like that distinction on that.

Speaker 2: 22:29

I haven't heard or thought about that, but the US is definitely at this point just because of the maturity and everything of the marketplace.

Speaker 2: 22:36

I definitely echo that in saying that it's a marketing game in the US but a logistics game for the European markets. And honestly, listening to you, I've gone through the process of helping brands expand. But even just listening to you list off all those things, I'm sweating just thinking about it. So if, for anyone who's watching this, you might be feeling the same way, I'm curious do you talk to a lot of brands who have tried to go through this process just on their own, without, let's say, leveraging an agency or something else? Because that's a question I'm a little biased because I've worked in an agency before and even here at my world seller candy. I'm a big proponent of paying for that expert knowledge. But I guess, having said like, do you have any examples or have you seen brands that are doing this successfully on their own, or is it one of those situations where you really would be struggling without, I guess, paying for a team like you guys to pretty much be on hand?

Speaker 1: 23:28

Yeah, I'm just gonna take it. So all you work with five different service providers, a warehouse, an account to see customer support, etc. Or you want to set up in-house, so, but you need to have something because also Amazon forbids it to do customer support in English, in Germany, as the other way around, right.

Speaker 1: 23:48

So if you were to have a customer support from Germany active on Amazoncom, I think the consumers would not be so happy. So you have to. It's like you know. It's not say maybe we're going to do it, or you do professionally or you don't, because if you don't do professionally it's going to be visible again on the reviews.

Speaker 1: 24:05

But again, to go a little bit to the opportunity and then I'll further answer your question, I told you 98% of the companies don't sell on a pan-UMP level. So there are a lot of local heroes, but the ones that are actually investing on the UMP market, they are at the end generating a lot more resources and reviews, for example, to be able to conquer quite relatively easy those local heroes. So the majority that we see that actually do the pan-European level do it on an unprofessional level long delivery times, customer support with a lot of issues etc. Or it are really the bigger companies that already have an establishment that that would make it relatively easy to open up the market. But then I'm really targeting companies that do a few hundred million in the general revenues. Those are the ones local sales offices, local marketing offices, etc. But yeah, unfortunately the majority of the Amazon sellers just see the complexity, which I understand, and then decide not to do it.

Speaker 2: 25:11

Sure, thanks for sharing that. Okay, let's talk about B2B e-commerce. So my only experience with the B2B side is doing bulk pricing, discounts on Amazoncom or some of these other options that we have to appeal towards the business buyers. But in terms of the European markets, are the opportunities similar or what's that actually look like for the Amazon seller in terms of the B2B side of the equation?

Speaker 1: 25:35

Well, some people talk about Amazon business as a sort of a niche market, but nobody is I think too little people are recognizing this is the largest online revenue shift, larger than the consumer.

Speaker 1: 25:50

So this is like the biggest opportunity for any e-commerce entrepreneur. Why? Because 15 years ago, 20 years ago, we also are e-commerce happening and we will, let's say, standing on the side seeing what's happening and like, oh this is crazy, this is going to become big. And then, while the market is developing, we are trying to, let's say, I just exploit the opportunity Now the B2B market and then a product marketing, for example, professional brands or products for the catering equipment or products for a hospital, but products for our children's daycare, right? So really, the products that are professional buyers using, they are in the same position as the consumer market were 15, 20 years ago.

Speaker 1: 26:33

But, now we don't have to look at it and seeing it happen. You can actually be in front of the trends. So the one that are now investing, making sure they have a good solution for that market, are going to have a very big growth opportunity for the next 10 years. Even Amazon says and I believe me, I know the B2B revenues on Amazon will outgrow the consumer revenues. So now Amazon is massive, doing over a billion revenue per day. That Amazon business was launched about five years ago and they're now already growing towards about 50 billion or something like that. So for any listeners here, what product category is the next opportunity? Is not a product category, is any product category within the B2B segment.

Speaker 2: 27:25

And how do you? What actually does the seller have at their disposal to take advantage of that, I know. So, again, going back to the ones I know are right, or you can do the tiered pricing, discounts, but that could also be are you going to actually advise a brand to create a unique, let's say, larger bundle size? Like maybe you've been doing an individual, one, two unit, but maybe you're going to say, hey, we need to go create a larger bundle size? And I know Amazon is now, at least in the US, I believe they have a bulk package, a way to do bulk packaging internally. But what are actually the opportunities? Or is it uploading certificates to say I am a different?

Speaker 1: 27:58

thing. You need to think differently. You need to think about it. There are 25,000 companies clicking every day. I want to start selling on Amazon. So there are millions of products continuously being added because also there's a lot of behavior there.

Speaker 1: 28:11

But so do you think it's possible to have 10 products on product page one in the consumer market? No, it's almost impossible, unless you're like a very large brand. But the B2B segment is completely open. So you have now the opportunity to have a first movers advantage to have products already there on Amazon while Amazon is growing, because the traditional B2B brands are not selling on Amazon. They don't, they just don't.

Speaker 1: 28:38

And believe me, I talk to a lot of B2B brands continuously that do, I would say, over a billion revenue. They say what's your e-commerce strategy? And they say we're busy with hiring an e-commerce director. Well, if you go to a consumer brand, they have obviously complete department set up, so you can now all the larger companies that in the traditional market have a really big foothold have no foothold at all within Amazon. So you're now having your first movers developers to launch your own products on Amazon business. In five years from now, when this market is massive, you can have a lot of products on product page one for relatively small investment. So I think you need to look from that perspective. Obviously, there are some things you can do, both discount and you can sell in different ways, but that is not too different from the consumer sales. So you will learn while doing, I think when you really think about opportunity, I think it's more about making sure you have a brand in that segment.

Speaker 2: 29:42

Yeah, 100%. You got my wheels spinning a little bit up here because I've just been talking to a couple of brands recently about some of the things that they can do in ways they can capitalize on this. But yeah, definitely seems like there's a huge opportunity there that I think I've personally just kind of been like, oh yeah, that's there. It's not going to be a huge like needle mover, but for reality is that's from based on my perspective from a couple of years ago, and they just launched the business, the B2B side, of the whole Amazon world. I think, from what you're saying, it sounds like that's really become a starting to become a bigger opportunity, if you're able to really be there. I mean that's a lot. I think a lot of the brands you know I talked to a lot of brands and a lot and I know that a lot of them that's an afterthought. Right, the business side of the equation is something that is very much so an afterthought and a lot of them don't even think about it. So definitely for anyone who's listening, that's huge.

Speaker 1: 30:36

I want to just better understand the opportunity. Why the average shopping cart for a B2B buyer is 10 times bigger than the consumer? Simply because it completely spends a lot more and there are no trends. So if somebody is having a construction worker who has a work shoe and that work shoe is no longer fitting or is broken, do you think he is looking for a new trend? No, he wants the exact same model, right. So keep that in mind.

Speaker 1: 31:04

If you have a good product, you can exploit that product for years and years and years to come. So that is a completely different market than the consumer business, where you always need to be ahead of the rest, always needs to come with new, let's say, launches or relaunches of products. Within the B2B segment that's not happening. So you're going to have just a few products and for the next 10 years actually exploited and keep it on product page one, because people only want to have that single item. Another thing that you need to realize is that Amazon is investing a lot in the B2B segment. So, for example, in the US, I think the largest buyer is, I think, the military why they are removing all facility. They just say to a large company okay, give all your users, all your staff, access to your Amazon account. Each user has, let's say, 500 euro per year to spend for the keywords and the stuff. So you remove all facility departments and all the staff members are buying the racks from Amazon.

Speaker 1: 32:02

So they are targeting very large companies, but the other market, targeting all the small companies, let's say, less than 10 people. Because if you have, if you maybe buy 10 working shoes per year, you're not going to go to a brand to go into negotiation, because you know what's that to negotiate. You buy 10 pieces per year. Yeah, so all the larger companies are targeting the, not the startups. They're targeting the 50 and 100 staff type of companies, so that all those small companies together actually make a huge market. And that's again the benefit of the online. If you do it correctly, all those small buyers will come actually have a very large market.

Speaker 2: 32:41

Love it. Thanks for breaking that down, steph. You know I'm going to ask you next. We were talking about this beforehand, especially you being in Italy. I know this is kind of a heresy for me to even ask you this, but does pineapple belong on pizza?

Speaker 1: 32:54

It's the absolute most forbidden.

Speaker 2: 32:57

Okay, would you ever eat pineapple on a pizza? Or do I need to, like, bleep this section out so that your Italian friends don't hear you admitting that you might have one pizza?

Speaker 1: 33:08

A few times per year.

Speaker 2: 33:10

Okay, okay.

Speaker 1: 33:11

It's twice per week, so that gives an insight.

Speaker 2: 33:14

Okay, good to know. So the reason I'm asking obviously we're transitioning into kind of the controversial take section, which essentially we like to kind of ask you you know what is a debatable or controversial take that you might have, that maybe you believe in other people in the Amazon space, don't believe or just haven't thought about. So do you have anything that you can kind of give to us today?

Speaker 1: 33:33

Yeah, I think two things, specifically on the UMP market, not the US market don't hire an agency, because an agency only solves part of the problem, which then obviously you're still unable to do your business. Secondly, don't hire an Amazon manager, because there's no Amazon manager that can do all the activities within that's necessarily with operating in Amazon business.

Speaker 2: 33:56

That's a very controversial take. Yeah, that's good though. I like that a lot. So what do you recommend people do? Are you seeing kind of a trend of people bringing on fragmented, different teams or looking or bringing on more internal parties, or yeah, I guess, like, what are you seeing trend wise in that case?

Speaker 1: 34:13

Well, in my. So obviously, when I was working as an Instagram manager, I went from project to project to project and what I normally did if you want to start redo with Amazon is okay. You set an internal project group with different expertise, you have a backup team, you have a finance team, you have a Rails manager and then we look at it together. Yes, you need external experience because otherwise you're probably not going to do reviews in the first six months. It's only going to cost you money and that for sure you're not motivated to invest in, but I think that's the best way to approach. On the long term success, or my marketplace like Amazon, I love it.

Speaker 2: 34:50

No, that's great. Is there anything I haven't asked you today that you feel like I should have asked you, because I feel like there's so many different things in terms of opportunity and challenges, you see. So, are there any questions? I haven't asked you that I should.

Speaker 1: 35:03

No, I know that we touch a lot of subjects, a lot of complexity and also opportunity. I think the thing that is important for most people is, let's say, even though you need to go outside your comfort zone, it is the most, let's say, a logical reason. When you're successful on Amazoncom, then the next step should be go Amazon Europe, but you need to go to a learning phase that is going to be, for sure, different than the US market. I think that's the bit that would take a while.

Speaker 2: 35:37

Yeah, I know that's great. I guess I want to turn it around to you and just say or I'd kind of give you the chance to tell us where people can actually find you, because I think there's a what you guys do. There's clearly a need. I mean, there's legal reasons for people to need an operation like yours, but there's also so many kind of nuts and bolts that go into this process, and so I know that you're going through this. So, stuff, where can people actually find you? Are you active on LinkedIn website? Tell us a little bit about that.

Speaker 1: 36:05

Yeah, so we are European operators. We act as import bracket, merchant of bracket and everything between. So we do have the whole shebang in house, making sure that US brands don't need to have any local set up in Europe. And you can reach us through our website with super simple two characters, or one dot EU, and otherwise people can find me on LinkedIn, but you know it's stuff from book or probably the difficult to remember. So all one dot EU is, I think, the most easy one.

Speaker 2: 36:37

Love it. Steph, thanks so much for that and for anyone who is watching, listening. Of course we'll put links to everything down below and show notes or, if you're on YouTube, in the description. So make sure you check those out and any comments you leave anywhere we'll try to either answer them or get them over to Steph to answer to. But definitely go check out. Oh, and then the number one dot EU. That's steps website. I'm checking out. Connect to this team there.

Speaker 2: 36:58

Steph, thank you so much. You've got me thinking outside the box. You got to hopefully everyone else who's watching, listening, thinking outside the box and about the big, big opportunities we've talked about today. So I want to thank you again. We'll definitely probably have to have you come back on for another episode. All right, so that brings us to the end of another amazing episode, this one with Steph from 01. Eu.

Speaker 2: 37:18

Thanks again to Steph for joining us today. I hope that for those of you watching, listening, wherever you might be in the world, that you got some kind of insight or strategy or big takeaway from this episode. As always, we thank you for tuning into the Amazon strategist show. If you found some kind of value, please let us know by either rating, reviewing this episode, or, if you're watching on YouTube, give us a thumbs up. Let us know if you have any questions down below in the comments, or feel free to reach out to our team. Last but not least, don't forget to subscribe and follow us on social media channels. We post updates behind the scenes stuff, a lot more content and just upcoming things, so make sure you follow us there, and all the links we talked about are mentioned in either these show notes or in the description, again if you're watching on YouTube. So that is it for today's episode. Be sure to mark your calendars because we will be back next week with another exciting one. Until then, I'm Ben, your host, and happy selling.