How to Fight the Amazon Beast

January 2023 Issue – By Travis Wilson

With the massive increase in participation from everyday people in online marketplaces such as Amazon and Walmart, direct sellers are scrambling to prevent the erosion of their brands, lowering of price expectations, and reputational risk that comes from the unauthorized sale of their products online. Companies are facing billions of dollars in losses as marketplaces continue to profit from the enablement of gray market sales.

Direct sales companies are feeling the pinch across all categories, and are scrambling to stop these sellers and remove listings. Unauthorized sellers battle with companies for consumer dollars, and customers look for the least expensive way to get the product they want on their doorstep with free two-day shipping. This severely impacts a direct seller’s bottom line and hurts the field, as they often cannot compete with the cut-rate prices found online.

Understanding the customer and prioritizing empathy can create harmony that fosters customer loyalty and positive word of mouth

By: Terrel Transtrum

If Brand Experience is about making promises, then Customer Experience is about keeping them.

Over the past few years, customer needs and expectations have dramatically changed. Digital technology has become a significant part of the customer experience, forcing organizations to adapt quickly. However, while technology is essential, it’s not the only factor. Understanding the customer is crucial to creating engaging digital experiences that contribute to the overall customer experience.

It’s no surprise that many organizations prioritize technology over customer empathy and focus on customer understanding later in the process once they set technology plans into motion. Operational efficiency, for example, typically prioritizes automation over empathy toward the customer. This back-to-front approach might explain why some leaders view customer service teams as “mop-and-bucket” crews paid to hear complaints and clean up boo-boos.

Social selling companies struggle to protect their businesses from online marketplaces while keeping the field happy

By:  Travis Wilson, Momentum Factor.

Selling through Amazon is actually the opposite of selling through a networked direct selling workforce.

With the massive increase in participation from everyday people in online marketplaces such as Amazon and Walmart, direct sellers are scrambling to prevent the erosion of their brands, lowering of price expectations, and reputational risk that comes from the unauthorized sale of their products online.

Indeed, the problem snowballs each year as more and more end-user customers search out direct sales companies’ products at the best price. Experts estimate that companies are facing billions of dollars in losses as marketplaces continue to profit handsomely from the enablement of gray market sales.

Direct sales companies are feeling the pinch across all categories, and are scrambling to stop these sellers and remove listings. As the number of product listings and sellers become overwhelming, many direct sellers are spending a fortune in time and money to try to meet the challenge.  

Latest tech trends reveal the evolution of buying and selling in the modern marketplace

By:  John Lietsch, Bloo Kanoo

The emergence of e-commerce in the ’90s and its subsequent meteoric rise had many people believing if not predicting that physical retail (“brick and mortar”) had met its demise. The introduction of the World Wide Web in 1991, the launch of web browsers shortly thereafter and the start of a little, no-name online bookseller named Amazon in 1995, all painted a bleak picture for the future of the in-person shopping experience (now known as IRL or “In Real Life”). 

Fast forward just 30 quick years, and that no-name bookseller now accounts for nearly 40% of all online sales in the United States, while the internet, with its many tributaries such as e-commerce, social media, and livestreaming to name a few, is dominating the conversation. 

Ironically, “e-commerce” still accounts for less than 20% of total global retail sales—even after all the predictions of supremacy, the forecasted demise of physical retail, and the “apparent” massive and irreversible shift of commerce to the web because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

By:  Eddie Gonzalez, i-payout

Digital banking is not a new concept, nor is it unusual for consumers to conduct their banking digitally, but what is true about digital banking, especially for businesses, is that the industry has not accelerated at the same pace as demand. Trends in the payments industry tend to follow innovation that is happening in the consumer market, but if consumers can make safe and low-cost instant payments, why has it not been available sooner for businesses to do the same?

When the pandemic made its way around the world, digital banking was introduced to millions of new users. Just in the first half of 2020, the volume of digital payments increased by 21% among American consumers, according to Statista. Today, only 1 in 5 Americans prefer going inside a physical bank. For businesses, the pandemic also led to an influx of supply chain shortages, and having the ability to move money quickly was an important value-add to mitigate any further disruptions. 

By:  Jordan Zommick, DirectScale CIO

Whether you’re a startup or established Fortune 500 company, making the ‘Buy vs. Build’ decision for your company is one of the most important decisions for you to make. To start, it may be beneficial to look at the decision more holistically rather than focusing on any one particular driver. 

Strategy and Competitive Advantage

Build when the capabilities are core to your business and differentiate your company in the marketplace. If it doesn’t give you a competitive advantage, you should consider buying that capability and integrating it into your overall strategy. 

By:  Lauren Mason Carris, Penny AI

Create lasting behavior change with ongoing results

In the wake of direct selling’s “digital transformation,” one area remains largely underserved, yet has incredible potential. (And it’s probably not the most obvious one.) It’s learning design.

True learning isn’t just the acquisition of knowledge. It’s a behavior change.