MerchantSpring Marketplace Masters

MerchantSpring
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  • Business

Marketplace Masters is about going deeper into the challenges brands and agencies face to lift performance via practical actions and insights.

  1. Sep 18

    Amazon Vendor | The Amazon Vendor 90-Day Turnaround Plan: Fix the Catalogue, Recover the Margin

    In this episode of Marketplace Masters, Paul Sonneveld is joined by Gregor Leopold, CEO and founder of Global AMZ in Munich, for a practical walkthrough of the first 90 days after taking over an Amazon vendor account. The brief was deliberately specific: not top-line strategy, but sequence. What do you do first, and what comes after? Gregor starts with the audit he insists on for every client, including the ones convinced everything is already running well, and the things it consistently uncovers: high-volume ASINs turning no profit, duplicated listings, missed reimbursements, and advertising KPIs that look excellent because the spend is sitting on branded keywords. From there, he walks through the sequence: pull the data, run the 80/20 on both your best and worst ASINs, then work the catalogue and the ad audit in parallel. They also dig into why Gregor argues Amazon is now a media platform with a store attached rather than the reverse, and why that makes catalogue work ten times more important than it was five years ago, now that AI models and search engines are reading your product data. Plus the uncomfortable internal conversations, the "little kingdoms" inside mid-sized and large brands that cost them double and triple investment, why ROAS is interesting but not the most important number, and how to hold your ground when Amazon tells you a product has gone CRaP. If you've inherited a vendor account and don't know where to start, this is your running order. For more vendor-focused episodes, the full library is at merchantspring.io.

    Amazon Vendor | The Amazon Vendor 90-Day Turnaround Plan: Fix the Catalogue, Recover the Margin

  2. Sep 10

    Agency Best Practice | Client Onboarding and the First 90 Days: Why Retention Is Won in the First Fortnight

    In this episode of Marketplace Masters, Paul Sonneveld is joined by Scott Ohsman, VP of Digital Commerce at Quickfire, for a candid look at the first 90 days of an agency-client relationship. Scott has 30+ years in the game and over 200 Amazon brand launches behind him, and his premise is uncomfortable: by the time a client tells you they're leaving, they decided months ago, usually in the first couple of weeks. Scott walks through where those weeks go wrong. The handoff gap between sales and account management, and why the kickoff call is where it surfaces badly, in front of senior people on both sides. The "amnesia" problem, where documented caveats vanish from the client's memory. The seniority mismatch when a client sold by a strategist meets a junior AM, and how to have the conversation when you've assigned the wrong person. Why account load isn't just about volume but complexity, and why the overloaded Ad manager juggling twenty accounts is the industry's quiet failure point. Then reporting, and Scott's test for every report you send: what does it mean, and why should I care? Plus the client who goes dark after signing, and the extreme escalation Scott used that turned into a long, happy relationship. If you own account management or sales at an agency, this is the systematisation conversation most owners have never had. For more sessions like this, the full on-demand library is at merchantspring.io.

    Agency Best Practice | Client Onboarding and the First 90 Days: Why Retention Is Won in the First Fortnight

  3. Aug 13

    Amazon Vendor | The End of 1P vs 3P: Building a Hybrid Portfolio That Works

    In this episode of Marketplace Masters, Paul Sonneveld takes on the oldest debate in the Amazon world: 1P or 3P. Joining him are Sebastian Barrios and Stephan Putter of Leadsphere, a Mexico-based agency and certified Amazon Commerce partner running hybrid vendor and seller setups for brands across Amazon and MercadoLibre. Their argument: the best brands stopped choosing. 3P is your risk, experimentation and demand-creation channel. 1P rewards proven products. The real work is deciding, SKU by SKU, where each product belongs. Sebastián and Stefan explain why hybrid became urgent (Amazon's ongoing waves of vendor terminations, the most recent just nine days before recording, and 3P unit share declining for two consecutive quarters for the first time on record), the four-step allocation framework covering forecastability, velocity, price point and MAP sensitivity, and why running the same ASIN on both sides invites conflict with your vendor team. They also cover one content standard but two completely different advertising strategies, upper funnel on 1P and lower funnel on 3P, how distributor leakage (not Amazon) breaks your pricing, when hybrid is the wrong answer, and live audience questions on seller account gating and how to get Amazon to stop ordering an unprofitable ASIN.

    Amazon Vendor | The End of 1P vs 3P: Building a Hybrid Portfolio That Works

  4. Aug 10

    Agency Best Practice | The Compounding Catalog: Optimize Listings for Better Ranking, Ad Efficiency, and AI Shopping

    In this episode of Marketplace Masters, Paul Sonneveld sits down with Alasdair McLean-Foreman, one of Amazon's earliest third-party sellers and founder and CEO of Teikametrics, to unpack Amazon's July 27 listing overhaul: titles cut from 250 characters to 75, a new 125-character Item Highlights field, and AI rewrites that went live automatically if brands didn't respond in time. Ten days in, the results are a mixed bag, with some sellers reporting sales drops and even brand names stripped from titles. Alasdair explains why this is much bigger than a formatting change: it's Amazon restructuring its catalogue into machine-readable content for Alexa for Shopping and the agentic commerce era. They cover how to split titles versus item highlights, why your ads data is now your best content optimisation signal, where the biggest wins sit (long-tail catalogues, with lifts up to 135% on reactivated SKUs), and how the same shift is playing out on Walmart's Sparky and TikTok Shop. If your content and advertising teams still operate in silos, this episode makes the case for tearing that wall down before Q4. If you're getting value from Marketplace Masters, hit follow and forward this episode to whoever owns your content and retail media.

    Agency Best Practice | The Compounding Catalog: Optimize Listings for Better Ranking, Ad Efficiency, and AI Shopping

  5. Jul 24

    Agency Best Practice | The Third Shelf: How Amazon's AI Assistant Is Rewriting Product Discovery

    In this episode of Marketplace Masters, Paul Sonneveld talks with Christian Umbach, co-founder and CEO of Autopilot, about Amazon's "third shelf": the AI Shopping Assistant. Christian's team studied 2,000 non-branded queries and around 70,000 ASINs to decode how Alexa picks products, and the results break the rules brands optimise for. The headlines: 64% of top Alexa picks sat outside the organic top ten, 40% appeared nowhere on the traditional results page, and advertising won't buy you in. What does matter: 4.0+ ratings, availability, sales and review velocity, and catalogue quality. They also cover why apparel showed the most diversified AI results, how ChatGPT sources 45% of its shopping carousel from Google Shopping, and why your Amazon data discipline is now an asset across every AI search surface. If your Amazon strategy stops at organic and paid, this is your wake-up call.

    Agency Best Practice | The Third Shelf: How Amazon's AI Assistant Is Rewriting Product Discovery

  6. Jul 3

    Amazon Vendor | Inside Amazon Direct Fulfillment: The Operational Playbook for 1P Vendors

    In this episode of Marketplace Masters, host Paul Sonneveld goes deep on the operational side of Amazon Direct Fulfillment with Chris Khoo, founder of KhooCommerce and one of the most experienced operators in the Amazon vendor world. Most vendors treat Direct Fulfillment as "FBM for 1P," backup inventory, or a chargeback eraser. Chris explains why the reality is more demanding, and more valuable. Amazon calls it dual fulfillment internally, and used well it protects the buy box, bridges out-of-stock gaps, and captures demand spikes that traditional PO cycles simply can't respond to fast enough. Paul and Chris covered: Which products are built for DF: bulky, high-value, multi-part, and seasonal items, and why small, low-value products rarely justify the handling costThe real disqualifier: whether your warehouse can actually run direct-to-consumer fulfilment alongside palletised PO shipmentsA day in the life of a well-run DF operation: order sync, batch picking, label automation, and carrier cutoff timesHow Amazon measures DF performance, why on-time shipping compliance is the metric that can get you removed from the program, and who really controls the carrier (AOC vs VOC)EDI vs SP-API integration, and why the inventory feed is the link most vendors overlookHow to think about margin and cost recovery when Amazon pushes DF in your annual vendor negotiationReal cases: the vendor who went from one order a day to 400 in 48 hours unprepared, and the glassware brand shipping millions per month through a fully automated DF flowIf you run a Vendor Central account, this is a serious upgrade to your operational playbook.

    Amazon Vendor | Inside Amazon Direct Fulfillment: The Operational Playbook for 1P Vendors

  7. Jun 25

    Amazon Vendor | Canada First: The 2P / Account-as-a-Service Model for Brands Entering Amazon North America

    Is Canada the smartest—and most overlooked—gateway into North America for Amazon brands? In this episode of Marketplace Masters, Paul Sonneveld is joined by Sebastien Masson, Founder of Account as a Service (AAAS), explored why Canada offers a compelling opportunity for brands expanding internationally. They discussed the advantages of lower competition, cheaper Amazon CPCs, stronger review generation, and how a 2P/Account as a Service model can simplify market entry while reducing operational complexity.  Topics Covered:  Why Amazon Canada is an attractive expansion market  Canada vs. US: competition, profitability, and CPCs  1P vs. 2P vs. 3P explained  How the Account as a Service (AAAS) model works  Managing bilingual requirements and Canadian compliance  Building momentum before expanding into the US  Common mistakes brands make when entering Canada

    Amazon Vendor | Canada First: The 2P / Account-as-a-Service Model for Brands Entering Amazon North America

  8. Jun 17

    Amazon Vendor | Direct Fulfillment as a Strategic Lever: When Amazon Vendors Should Use It (and When They Shouldn’t)

    In this episode of Marketplace Masters, Paul Sonneveld sits down with Jason Linscheid, Founder of The Vendorist and former Amazon Senior Vendor Manager, to explore the strategic role of Amazon Direct Fulfillment for enterprise vendors.   Topics Covered:  Amazon Direct Fulfillment vs. traditional Vendor Central fulfillment  How to evaluate DF at the ASIN level  Profitability, cash flow, and working capital implications  Direct Fulfillment’s role in Annual Vendor Negotiations (AVN)  Hybrid fulfillment strategies for Amazon vendors  Common DF misconceptions and operational considerationsTogether, they discuss when Direct Fulfillment makes sense, how Amazon evaluates DF programs, the impact on working capital and customer experience, and why leading brands are increasingly adopting hybrid fulfillment strategies.

    Amazon Vendor | Direct Fulfillment as a Strategic Lever: When Amazon Vendors Should Use It (and When They Shouldn’t)
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Marketplace Masters is about going deeper into the challenges brands and agencies face to lift performance via practical actions and insights.

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