Last week, I had the opportunity to speak with Karen Hershenson, a product consultant for Titan Network, a company that provides education, mentoring, and software tools for Amazon sellers. Karen's insights into using data to drive e-commerce success offer valuable lessons for entrepreneurs and product managers across industries. Here's what we discussed:
Last week, I had the opportunity to speak with Karen Hershenson, a product consultant for Titan Network, a company that provides education, mentoring, and software tools for Amazon sellers. Karen's insights into using data to drive e-commerce success offer valuable lessons for entrepreneurs and product managers across industries. Here's what we discussed:
"I'm currently a product consultant for the Titan Network. Titan is primarily an education company that provides group mentoring and coaching for all stages of e-commerce businesses. They teach people how to find their first product, how to source it, and how to differentiate in the marketplace.
Titan also builds software using Amazon APIs to forecast demand based on keyword search volume. There are various tools in their software suite that help sellers understand their profit margins better, as Amazon's fees can be complex and the reporting is often fragmented. They also offer advertising optimization tools.
As a product consultant, I help Titan understand how they should be prioritizing their product development based on company objectives. I have access to data that shows who continues to stay on as a member and what tools are being used by different segments of the user base."
"Titan segments users primarily by their stage of business and revenue thresholds. For more established sellers, we also consider the number of products they're selling. We hook into their Amazon store, so we know the number of products, categories, and other relevant information.
In terms of data, we look at a variety of metrics. On Amazon, everything is based on rank. There's the Best Seller Rank (BSR), which shows how a product ranks within its category and subcategories. We also track how sellers rank on specific keywords, as Amazon is essentially a shopping marketplace driven by keyword searches.
We also look at qualitative data like reviews. We track the overall star rating and use AI to analyze positive and negative reviews for common themes. Return rates are another important metric, as high return rates can negatively impact a product's visibility in search results."
"Most sellers start as solopreneurs, managing everything themselves through Amazon Central. As they grow, they often hire offshore virtual assistants to handle repeatable daily tasks like pulling reports.
As businesses scale, we start looking at different data points. We consider user permissions - who should have access to what information. We might have financial-specific users who need access to P&L data, while virtual assistants might only need access to competitor tracking and sales monitoring.
For larger sellers, Titan offers agency services through Titan Ignite. They manage everything from keyword management and online advertising to supply reordering and brand feedback monitoring."
"One of the biggest challenges is understanding the true profitability of their business. Amazon charges various fees - advertising fees, long-term storage fees, return shipping fees, return handling fees - and these are often reported in disjointed reports. There's no holistic view on Amazon Seller Central that shows the overall health of your business from a financial standpoint.
That's why one of our key tools is a dashboard that consolidates all this information, showing sellers exactly how much they're making after all these fees are accounted for. This helps sellers realize that even though they might be doing a certain amount in sales, their actual profit might be much lower due to all these additional costs."
"Amazon does have A/B testing built in, so sellers can test different elements of their listing. The main image is usually the primary focus for testing, as it's the first thing potential customers see in search results. Sellers also often work and rework their product titles, as these carry a lot of weight in Amazon's ranking algorithm.
Price is another factor that sellers frequently adjust. When launching a new product, many sellers start with a lower price to attract initial sales and reviews. As they build up their sales history and review count relative to competitors, they can start incrementally increasing their price."
"When I joined Titan, I realized they didn't have a formal feedback loop in place. So I implemented a process to understand how our tools were impacting membership renewals, what objections the sales team was hearing from prospective members, and what trends the group coaches and mentors were seeing across different revenue tiers.
We gather feedback from various sources - the mentors and coaches who work directly with members, the sales team, and the marketing team. We look at how different issues are affecting overall membership renewals and what kinds of objections we're hearing from prospective members.
It's also important to note that the feedback and data can vary significantly depending on the product category. Someone selling candlesticks might care about very different metrics than someone selling toys, for example."
Karen's insights highlight several key principles for leveraging data in e-commerce:
1. Understand your ranking: On platforms like Amazon, your visibility is largely determined by your rank in various categories and for different keywords. Tracking these metrics is crucial.
2. Monitor qualitative and quantitative data: While sales numbers are important, don't ignore qualitative data like reviews and return rates, which can significantly impact your product's success.
3. Consider the full financial picture: In e-commerce, particularly on platforms like Amazon, there are many fees that can eat into your profits. Make sure you have a clear view of your true profitability after all fees are accounted for.
4. Segment your users: As businesses grow, different team members may need access to different types of data. Consider implementing user permissions to ensure everyone has the information they need without compromising sensitive data.
5. Continuously test and iterate: Use A/B testing to optimize your product listings, focusing on key elements like the main image and product title.
6. Adapt your strategy as you grow: The metrics and strategies that matter for a solopreneur may be very different from those that matter for a larger, more established seller.
7. Gather feedback from multiple sources: When developing tools for e-commerce sellers, it's important to gather feedback from various touchpoints - users, sales teams, mentors, and more.
8. Recognize category-specific needs: The data and strategies that work for one product category may not work for another. Be prepared to adapt your approach based on the specific needs of each category.
By applying these principles, e-commerce entrepreneurs and the companies that serve them can create more data-driven, successful businesses. As Karen put it, "Everything is very specific to each individual business on Amazon because everything is dependent on category." This focus on understanding and leveraging category-specific data is key to success in the highly competitive world of e-commerce.