Thought Leaders in E-Commerce: Jungle Scout CEO Greg Mercer (Part 3)

Greg Mercer: There are two different scenarios that I am going to give you. There is one that is a brand new startup that launched their first brand and then I will do another example of how a larger company would use it. Let’s start with the former one.

Let’s say that I am an entrepreneur and I want to start one of these digital-native brands. I am going to start on Amazon. Where do I begin? You use Jungle Scout to identify the different opportunities that are best opportunities for you. What makes a great opportunity? These are things that customers are either searching for and cannot find.

Thought Leaders in E-Commerce: Jungle Scout CEO Greg Mercer (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: We just did a piece on Amazon that starts to look at Amazon’s forays into advertising. Amazon is becoming quite a force in advertising. One of the things that we have observed in that piece is that, unlike Facebook and Google that are starting to lock horns with Apple because of data collection, Amazon doesn’t have to fight with anybody.

Amazon’s data is first-party data. They have deep data on consumers. They are not doing anything that anybody else can interfere with. As such, they are building quite the advertising business. Now based on what you are saying, I wonder if there is more data that Amazon is starting to reveal because there are now foraying into advertising. 

Thought Leaders in E-Commerce: Jungle Scout CEO Greg Mercer (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our free Bootstrapping course and the Investor Introductions page.

How do brands operate on Amazon? A fascinating window into a fast-growing world.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to yourself as well as Jungle Scout.

Greg Mercer: I’m the CEO and founder of Jungle Scout. It is a platform to empower entrepreneurs, small businesses, and brands around the world to do better on e-commerce. We do that in a number of different ways. We provide analytics and insights to help them manage and optimize their business. Right now, we are primarily focused on Amazon. We are also supporting sellers and merchants on Walmart and have a goal of doing it throughout e-commerce.

Thought Leaders in E-Commerce: Solid Commerce CEO Eran Pick (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: At which point does it make sense for merchants to start working with a player like you? 

Eran Pick: I think it’s a matter of your role and the type of seller you are. If you are a professional seller, this being your full-time job, then you need a solution like Solid Commerce to manage the business so that it will enable you to grow.

Thought Leaders in E-Commerce: Solid Commerce CEO Eran Pick (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

Solid Commerce sits in the middle of the multi-channel e-commerce ecosystem. Read on to learn more about the segment.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the beginning and introduce Solid Commerce as well as your own background.

Thought Leaders in E-Commerce: Gooten CMO Mark Kapczynski (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Talk to me about what is happening on the backend. You said you work with a lot of on-demand manufacturers. These are not your own manufacturing facilities but rather third-party manufacturers. 

Mark Kapczynski: It is based on the products that we are going to support on behalf of our merchant platforms. We source manufacturing globally. We go in and vet the manufacturer. We have to ensure quality and consistency so that we can get the same products with the same quality delivered all around the world.

Thought Leaders in E-Commerce: Gooten CMO Mark Kapczynski (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Are Shopify stores your largest customer base?

Mark Kapczynski: Most of our customers use Shopify stores, but we also have merchants that operate on places like Etsy, Amazon, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce. The bulk of them do use Shopify or a custom solution.

We have a raw API solution that people can tap into. It’s the full gamut. At the end of the day, we are more of a tech platform. Our goal is to integrate with whatever commerce platform that someone is using. 

Thought Leaders in E-Commerce: Gooten CMO Mark Kapczynski (Part 1)

A deep dive into the custom e-commerce world.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by having you introduce yourself as well as Gooten to our audience.

Mark Kapczynski: I’m the Chief Marketing Officer here at Gooten. I’ll first say that Gooten has now entirely moved to working virtually. We used to be headquartered in New York. Now we are completely virtual with our entire executive team spread throughout the United States. We have embraced the situation that we are in.