Selling on Giants: The eCommerce Marketplace Podcast

Do Less Better: The Amazon Strategy Most Brands Avoid

Selling on Giants: The eCommerce Marketplace Show Season 3 Episode 54

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0:00 | 14:33

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Most Amazon brands do not need more traffic. They need fewer distractions.

In this episode of Selling on Giants, Mr. Will breaks down why many brands stall on Amazon not because they lack SKUs, campaigns, keywords, tools, or traffic, but because the account has become too bloated to scale efficiently.

The core idea is simple: everything you think you “have to do” on Amazon may actually be optional unless it helps the customer click, convert, buy, review, and keep the flywheel moving.

Using Elon Musk’s “algorithm” framework, this episode looks at a better way to approach Amazon catalog optimization:

  • Question every requirement
  • Delete anything you can
  • Simplify what remains
  • Accelerate
  • Automate last

Most Amazon accounts get this order wrong. Brands jump straight to speed, tools, automation, and campaign expansion before asking whether the catalog, listings, variations, or ad structure deserve to exist in the first place.

Mr. Will shares a real operator example from a dog leash and harness brand doing around one million dollars on Amazon. On the surface, the business looked healthy. Revenue was steady, the catalog was full, and the team was constantly launching new colors, styles, and ideas. But underneath, the account was carrying hundreds of variations, aged inventory, storage fees, wasted ad spend, underfunded winners, and cash tied up in products that were not moving.

The answer was not more traffic.

The answer was focus.

In this episode, we cover:

  • Why more SKUs often create more drag, not more growth
  • How aged inventory quietly eats margin
  • Why top-line revenue can hide catalog and inventory problems
  • How too many variations can confuse customers and weaken conversion
  • Why ad spend should be earned by performance, not spread evenly across the catalog
  • How pausing underperforming spend can improve Tacos and growth
  • Why automation only works after the account is clean
  • How to separate real growth opportunities from catalog noise
  • Why Amazon catalog optimization often starts with deleting
  • The one question every seller should ask before adding anything new

The leash brand’s breakthrough came when the account was simplified around the products that were actually driving demand. The catalog was cut down, listings became cleaner, ad spend was concentrated around proven performers, and budget moved toward top converting SKUs, high-intent keywords, and proven placements.

That is the bigger lesson: Amazon growth does not always come from doing more. Many times, it comes from doing less, better.

At BellaVix, we help brands turn marketplace complexity into clear operating plans. That means cleaning up catalogs, rationalizing SKUs, tightening listings, restructuring campaigns, focusing budget on what has earned it, and building feedback loops that help teams make better decisions with less noise.

BellaVix has helped brands sell over five hundred million dollars on Amazon and is a Verified Ad Partner, but the real work is helping brands stop scaling complexity and start scaling what already works.

The question worth asking:
If you cut your catalog in half tomorrow, would your business suffer, or would it finally focus?

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