Head of Buy Box Experts Speaks on CNBC About Covid’s Toll on Amazon Sellers

As the former director of Amazon Services and a current partner at Buy Box Experts, a leading private consulting firm for Amazon sellers, James Thomson has a unique perspective on the different players in the Amazon marketplace. With covid-19 raging, CNBC invited Thomson to share his predictions for the future of those players in the coming months.

Buy Box Experts provides Amazon marketing services, helping sellers control their brand and increase profits on the Amazon channel. Through private consulting and specialized software, they help companies reduce overhead, digitize processes, optimize product listings, decrease counterfeit listings, and run effective ad campaigns. To date, they have managed over $2 billion in revenue for more than 10,000 Amazon sellers.

Thomson is uniquely positioned to help clients because of his insider perspective gained from serving as both the head of Amazon Services and the first Fulfillment by Amazon Account Manager.

He is also regularly consulted for industry publications, like Web Retailer and Practical E-Commerce, and news outlets on the topic of Amazon trends. In light of the recent covid-19 outbreak, Thomson was featured in a 16-minute CNBC News segment discussing the future of Amazon and its third-party sellers.

Many have raised questions about Amazon’s resilience amidst product shortages, delayed deliveries, and a depleted workforce, but Thomson expressed confidence in Amazon’s ability to stay strong and profitable in spite of the churn.

“When consumers don’t want to shop at a traditional brick and mortar, more of them are going online to Amazon, and Amazon takes a piece of every one of those sales,” said Thomson.

Thomson explained that many Amazon warehouses operate with robots, allowing them to continue at full speed in spite of a dwindling workforce. He also said that Amazon has prepared well for a rainy day with shrewd inventory distribution.

“There are so many warehouses in place, and Amazon has done such extensive inventory balancing across those warehouses that even if a warehouse burns down or everyone gets sick, Amazon can still move inventory around fairly quickly or already have it in place elsewhere to ensure that customers get the products they want,” said Thomson.

Thomson, however, predicted a much grimmer future for some third-party sellers. “For anybody who is getting products out of China, quite frankly, unless these companies are able to find secondary sources of supply very quickly, which is quite unrealistic, I think we are going to see companies having a very hard time keeping things going,” said Thomson.

He also predicted that challenges will not likely let up anytime soon.

“For a lot of these companies to be in an out-of-stock situation, it’s not just one to two days, but it’s a month, two months, and I’ve heard worst case situations where it could be as many six months, before some of these small, private-label sellers get back in stock.”

Thomson urged merchants to use their downtime to think of ways to streamline and improve their business where possible.

“Even though many sellers are feeling powerless, there are a lot of things that they can do to regroup,” said Thomson. “Among other things, they can use this time to map out a catalog strategy for the next year, find ways to make processes more efficient, and read blogs and books by industry leaders for improving their marketing strategies.”

Thomson and Buy Box Experts’ founding partner, Joseph Hansen, will continue to work on growing their Amazon seller clients, helping them to adjust their strategies to survive the pandemic and come out stronger.

To learn more about Buy Box Experts’ brand management services and best practice recommendations, visit www.BuyBoxExperts.com.

About Buy Box Experts

Buy Box Experts specializes in Amazon account management, including A+ content detail pages, Amazon product SEO, and brand equity management. Amazon sales consultants and branding strategy managers at Buy Box Experts help businesses sell more on Amazon and protect their brand equity.