There's no doubt that Amazon and Walmart are two of the most powerful retailers in the world. With millions of customers shopping on their platforms every day, selling your products on Amazon and Walmart can help you reach more potential buyers and grow your business.
But what are the benefits of selling on Amazon and Walmart? And which marketplace is right for your brand? In this video, Chad Selvidge, President of beBOLD, explores the pros and cons of direct selling for beauty brands on Amazon and Walmart.
Video Transcript:
Chad, thank you for making time in your,
what I believe is your evening.
I wanted to kick off real quick
and get you to explain
who you are and what it is you actually do.
Fantastic. Thank you, James.
My name is Chad Selvidge,
and I am President at BeBoldDigital.
BeBold is a boutique marketing and sales
agency helping
brands, beauty brands,
sell more on Amazon and Walmart.com.
Awesome, and ...
you know, you actually come from a from a background of,
you know, from Sally Beauty as an example.
So tell us in your words, like,
why is the beauty category
so hot on platforms like Amazon and Walmart?
You know, I think there are at least
three factors that I can think about, right?
One, in general,
trust in e-commerce, right?
So beauty is one of those things
where you learn about beauty from someone trusted.
Usually it's somebody like family member
or a friend, right?
Some trusted resource, right?
So you learn from your sister,
your mother, your father, your uncle, whoever.
And so it had this very personalized
feel to it, right?
With technology and the rise in social media
and influencers and this whole thing,
they've kind of found a way to make the category
more personal via technology.
And so I think that's part of it, right?
I think the second thing is beauty is a frequent
purchase and most people are pretty brand loyal
and once they find what they like,
they stick with it. And so
sites like Amazon and Walmart dot
com make it super easy to keep replenishment
and keep things coming to your home
without much effort.
So that's good.
And I think the third thing
that's equally important on the brand side
is that beauty brands are really understanding
now the role, the positive role
that sites like Amazon and Walmart.com
can play in their overall go to market.
And understanding how
that's an important piece. When you think of,
what is the statistic, something around
starts on Amazon.com.
So it's a really great place
to make sure your brand is well represented
as a place to go to do where people go
online to start shopping.
So I think all those factors really
are driving what's happening right now.
The fact that social media and influencers
and TikTok have leveled the playing field
for all kinds of brands to play now,
is just really leading to some
pretty cool innovation.
And innovation drives the market.
Interesting, very interesting.
And just with all that, market growth
and being a hot space, you know,
what challenges are you seeing for beauty brands
in the short term on these channels?
Much like other spaces,
the supply chain is still an issue,
whether that's supply chain
and getting the raw materials
or getting the bottles,
there's some bottle lack there, so to speak.
But also, I think as more and more retail
physical retail locations have opened,
there's a challenge now between how do you
satisfy all the demand that's there?
So I think that's one thing
and I think the second thing is really
how do marketers
decide to balance their marketing budget
when it's spread across multiple channels now?
And trying to figure all that out,
I think is a challenge.
Interesting.
And that's a good segue way
into my next question for you is,
you know, I think you mentioned
the state of retail search is starting on Amazon.
What is the relevance of something
like a Wal Mart for beauty brands?
You know, should they be on it?
Should it be on their roadmap? Why?
Why not?
I'm going to say yes.
I think they should and here's why.
First of all, Walmart,
largest retailer in the United States, period.
And that's not the world.
The something like 130, 140 million
people pass through their doors every day
while they still lag way behind
e-commerce on Amazon.
Versus Amazon they're catching up
and they're not afraid to spend
hundreds of millions of dollars
to maintain relevancy
that their website is updating.
They did a deal recently with Space NK
out of UK to put stores in stores.
So they understand the power of beauty
to drive traffic
and Walmart may take a while to get there,
but they always get there.
I'm always recalling a story,
back when Walmart first tried to get into grocery
and they didn't do very well at it.
So rather than be kind of the typical number one
arrogant retailer
in the world, they turned around, said, all right,
who knows how to do it better than we do?
Oh, these guys are in the grocery industry.
Let's go get them and bring them in.
And now they're the number one grocer here, so
you know, they know how to win.
So I think the relevancy
is that the millions of shoppers,
the fact that they're committed
to beauty over the long term and then this
idea of their mentality or mindset
when it comes to serving the customer,
I think are all things that beauty
can take advantage of.
Interesting.
And, you know, obviously, as you say, Walmart
so new, it's still growing.
Do you see a level of reluctance
from brands of you know,
when you say to them, oh, you should consider
Walmart, you know, do you see reluctance?
And then internally,
how should people think about,
you know, overcoming that reluctance
or convincing others in the business
to actually, you know,
this is a good idea?
You know, I think I it's a really great question.
My first and foremost
impression is Walmart is
every day low price, right?
And so a lot of the prestige brands are
very concerned about going on to an environment
that's like that.
You know, and I,
my answer to
that is just kind of watch what they actually do.
You know, I think they've seen the success
that Amazon has with beauty
is one of the better categories on Amazon.
And they're wanting to figure out
what Amazon did right.
And I think there's a mentality and in Bentonville
that says, all right, let's get it figured out.
Let's do what we need to do to make it right.
So I think there's more to
come on what they do in the future. But
I think they understand that the model
has to function a little bit differently.
Interesting point.
Onto my final kind of question for you, Chad.
Global marketplace channels,
so what I mean by that is,
you know, you've got your Amazon US, obviously, but
from where you are, Amazon UK, Amazon Australia,
you've got those other things.
What is your view on that
for the beauty space?
Is it, you know, obviously
there's a compliance and the gating that you and I
have talked about separately.
But what is your view
on other global markets
you know, through the likes of Amazon.
Is it worth exploring for brands out of the U.S.?
Why or why not?
I absolutely think it is, right.
And a number of reasons why that is.
One, there's an ease of use, right?
Once you understand the system,
it pretty much replicates.
It's a very quick way
in terms of penetrating international markets.
It allows you to get in quickly
without going through the process of either
setting up your own infrastructure
or working through a distributor
that you may or may not know.
So there are tremendous amount of advantages
from just the execution point of view.
I think when we look at the platforms
and social media
and how global the reach is. In terms of
think about something like kicked out
that global reach is, that social media is
having tremendous impact on the beauty industry and
so why not follow, right? The marketing is there,
the awareness is there, I think
for brands and also builds
brand identity and brand awareness
when they can go into these international markets.
And they've got a platform
that will help them do that quickly.
And it's easier to scale
when you move like that.
As someone who spent a few years
managing beauty businesses in South America
and in Europe, I can
I can tell you that
brands are really looking for a way to grow
and looking for a trusted way to grow,
one that they know
that their brand will be taken care of
and represented the way they would like to be.
And these platforms really offer that opportunity.
I think it's kind of a no brainer. Once
you get your
distribution figured out
and you're pretty sure you've got your U.S.
market covered, I think brands should be looking
to grow globally and this is great way to do it.
Yeah, for sure.
For sure.
And just one little bonus question for you on the
the global expansion.
MercadoLibre, right? What is your,
what does that look like for you?
What is your opinion on it?
You know, does that fit the mould of
you know, it's a great way to kind of enter
the South American region?
Absolutely, I do.
I think it's a great way to do it.
Particularly if you don’t
have your own infrastructure.
And the reason I think it works
really well, is they were kind of first mover
and they've got already got a lot of a pretty
big lead in a lot of the marketplaces.
So I think it is something
that you definitely consider.
And it's growing very quickly, right?
Obviously, on a small base but it’s growing,
the e-commerce is growing very, very quickly
in South America and the markets
next to it, like Mexico as well.
Fantastic, I'm glad to hear that.
I'm looking forward to releasing that
with you guys.
I’m looking forward
to that as well.
I think that could be very big.
Yeah. Well, look, Chad,
I don't want to take up your whole evening.
I know you and I could talk for hours,
but thanks again for doing this.
James, thank you
for the invitation, I really appreciate it.
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