“I tell my clients, if you’re not on Amazon, your product isn’t really online.” — Jason R. Boyce
If you’re in charge of a brand, or simply the advertising for a brand, there’s no getting around the need to interact with Amazon on some level. Amazon is far-reaching and opaque. Yet by working it properly, brands and third-party sellers of merchandise can be very successful. Jason R. Boyce and Rick Cesari lay out the entire picture in The Amazon Jungle: The Truth About Amazon, The Seller’s Survival Guide for Thriving on the World’s Most Perilous E-Commerce Marketplace.
Boyce is a longtime seller of sporting goods and other recreational items on Amazon, so he has a solid command of what it takes to build a product from scratch and sell it on Amazon, along with experience reselling other brands on the platform. So there are good lessons on how to get started, build the brand, and ensure that supply chain and distribution channels can be properly maintained. Most importantly, he and Cesari talk about advertising on the platform itself, how reviews play a role in success (or failure), and how the Amazon algorithm can affect product placement on the site.
The Amazon Jungle, while it celebrates the idea of doing business on Amazon, doesn’t sugarcoat the company’s power over its sellers. They explicitly state, “Amazon is NOT your friend.” And that’s why the book is so valuable. Readers get the full picture of what’s needed to operate on the platform.
While I’d recommend The Amazon Jungle primarily to entrepreneurs and small businesses looking to build their brand on Amazon, I’d also recommend it to advertising professionals. Because every brand needs an Amazon strategy of some sort, as well as a keen awareness of how it can make or break our clients’ bottom lines.
Special thanks to Smith Publicity for providing me with a review copy.
