#481 - This Amazon Seller Built 2 8-Figure Brands In Competitive Niches

In this episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast, we feature the awe-inspiring journey of Elizabeth Rivas, the operating mastermind behind two remarkable 8-figure brands. Discover her captivating backstory and how she soared to greatness in the Amazon space from humble beginnings. Unravel the secrets of 1P and 3P seller programs, and gain valuable insights into killer PPC and listing optimization techniques.

Dive into the fiercely competitive niche of supplement brands and learn how to thrive in a crowded category niche in the Amazon marketplace. Brace yourself for game-changing marketing initiatives and innovative strategies for Amazon brands who want to crush it. Elizabeth’s serial beta testing approach and her favorite Helium 10 tool will leave you inspired. Learn and take advantage of her ingenious launch tactics using Helium 10’s Market Tracker 360 data and the joys of an 8-figure seller while using the all-new Insights Dashboard. Plus, learn how you can grab a free demo of MT360!

In episode 481 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Elizabeth discuss:

• 01:30 – Elizabeth’s Backstory
• 02:57 – How She Got Started In The Amazon Space
• 03:43 – Started From Nothing To 8-Figures In Sales
• 04:46 – Amazon 1P And 3P: What’s The Difference?
• 09:05 – 1P Seller PPC And Listing Optimization
• 09:49 – Which One Is Best? 1P Or 3P Seller Program?
• 14:00 – Talking About AlgeaCal’s Amazon Brand
• 15:58 – Competing In A Very Competitive Niche
• 19:41 – Talking About Amazon PPC And Their CPC
• 25:59 – “You Don’t Have To Be The Cheapest In Your Niche”
• 29:26 – Marketing Initiatives And Strategies Inside Amazon
• 33:31- Serial Beta Tester And Other Creative Strategies
• 36:43 – Elizabeth’s Favorite Helium 10 Tool
• 37:33 – Launching Products Using MT360 
• 39:05 – Why She Loves The New Insights Dashboard
• 39:26 – How To Get A Free Demo Of MT360
• 40:48 – Elizabeth’s Healthy Habits Outside The Grind
• 43:46 – Elizabeth’s 60-Second Tip

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Transcript

Bradley Sutton:

Today we’re gonna talk to a seller who’s already brought one company on Amazon to eight figures of sales. And by next year. She’ll bring another company to over 10 million in sales. And it’s through using a lot of cool strategies she’s gonna share with us by opening up her products and listings to us. How cool is that? Pretty cool I think.

Bradley Sutton:

Are you an agency enterprise-level seller or an eight or nine-figure seller and need advanced analytics market Tracker 360 might be the product for you to get a demo of Market Tracker 360, go to h10.me/mt360. That’s h10.me/mt360. Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers podcast by Helium 10. I’m your host, Bradley Sutton. And this is the show that’s a completely BS free unscripted and unrehearsed organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. And we’ve got a serious seller here from not too far away from me, but coming from Canada. We’ve got Elizabeth. How’s it going?

Elizabeth:

Hi Bradley. How are you?

Bradley Sutton:

I’m doing just delightful. Thank you. Now where in Canada exactly are you at?

Elizabeth:

Yes, so I’m located in the province of Quebec about an hour from Montreal. It’s called Mirabel. So I’m near the mountains here.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay. Now is that where you were born and raised, or did you go there at a later stage in life?

Elizabeth:

So my parents are originally from El Salvador in Central America and my mom came into the States and stayed there for five years in the 1980s. And I was born there. I was actually born in Long Island in New York. I

Bradley Sutton:

I hear a little bit of New York there in the accent.

Elizabeth:

Maybe because of my cousins, but I’ve never lived there actually, I came here to Quebec and I was like a year and a half. Okay. So I’m mostly Canadian although I have my two passports there. But yeah.

Bradley Sutton:

That’s kind of amazing, you know, like, Hey, you can be in New York when you’re seven months old and then it just sticks with you? So somehow I guess I lived there for a year only or two years. I still feel like, and I was like, more than 20 years ago, I still feel like a little bit of like a New Yorker, but anyways, been in Canada most of life. So then I’m assuming English, Spanish, and French? You speak?

Elizabeth:

Correct. Yes. So my mom talked to us at the house in Spanish. French came at school and English too. But I did have the opportunity to study at the HEC Montreal, which is in European university here in Canada.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay. What was your major?

Elizabeth:

It’s a marketing and international in business.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay. And then upon graduation, did you enter that field?

Elizabeth:

Yes. So part of of my career path here is a bit different because I didn’t really touch e-commerce before like 2018. Prior to that, I was actually selling to big companies in pharma, like Thermo Fisher, VWR 3M. I was a marketing sales director, so I have always been in the business field, but it was more B2B, it was not digital.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay. Alright. Interesting. Now, how, then, you know, in the late 2010s, I guess Yeah, you could say, how did you discover Amazon e-commerce?

Elizabeth:

Yes. so in 2017, I started working at a company called Pelican International. They’re the Canadian company, which is actually the largest manufacturer of plastic kayaks. And I had a particular mandate, which was to develop an accessory product line for them to sell online. So they usually sell out all of their products through big stores like Sporting Goods Costco, and Walmart. And they didn’t have any real presence with e-commerce direct to consumers didn’t exist at the time, and they wanted to start it with Amazon. So because it wasn’t an existing channel, I just like actually just arm myself with my enthusiasm, and curious mind, because I didn’t know anything about Amazon. Okay. and, you know, like even after now it’s been like five, almost six years that I am within this ecosystem, it always continues to surprise me every day.

Elizabeth:

It changes always. But at the time, just to go back there we were set up as an Amazon 1P. So we were not doing 3P seller. And after 18 months we lounge a full accessory product line in 2020 for paddles dry bags and many different accessories for nautical outdoor activities. And it was a whole process because Amazon helped out during the process of the lineup. I’ve actually read through it, like at the time I didn’t use Helium 10. So I’ve actually read a lot of all the reviews of different competitors and based off those reviews, we came out with the different models and concepts with our RND company I’m sorry, the department outsourced these models in China. And that’s how we came with, you know, like when I left in 2022 the brand alone was selling eight figures across a hundred different ASINs, and it started from nothing.

Bradley Sutton:

And what in particular were you responsible for

Elizabeth:

I was responsible for everything, so from A to Z.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay. So then, you can take most of the credit then from that increase in sales?

Elizabeth:

Yes. Most of it, of course, I had like a team, you know, with me helping me out. Like just RnD and graphics and content and everything. But like the strategy, like the go-to-market strategy. Yeah. It came from,

Bradley Sutton:

Did you launch products as well, or just take their existing listings and, and, and try to just, you know, market it in a better way on Amazon? Like where did a lot of most of that growth come from?

Elizabeth:

We launched products, like all of them. For instance, we used to have five different models of paddles. When I left, we had five different categories and each of them have three to five different variations. So it was mainly like taking the small, small category of accessories that they had and just broadly coming with different subcategories and how do we sell these to the Amazon customer.

Bradley Sutton:

And a hundred percent of the products that were launched were all 1P or like through Vendor Central, where it says, shipped and sold by Amazon.

Elizabeth:

Yes. It was all through 1P.

Bradley Sutton:

Now, for those who might not be familiar, you know, we’re not gonna fast forward yet in your journey to the 3P side, but what are some of the biggest differences like things you might not have control over, things that are completely different on the process when you’re a 1P as opposed to 3P?

Elizabeth:

Yeah, so I feel like 1P it’s good when you have a good relationship with your vendor manager if you get to talk to him. The first year we didn’t have this relationship, so it was kind of hard. But basically what is different is that you don’t control demand. You don’t have all this access to different promotions that you do with the 3P seller side although I’m not really familiar of the changes that have been made in th