Sean Stone Advocates a Two-Pronged Strategy for E-commerce Growth: Building a Branded Site and Leveraging Amazon’s Spillover Traffic
Sean Stone, a seasoned Amazon consultant and founder of the newly rebranded agency Spillover Commerce, is urging e-commerce merchants to adopt a dual-pronged approach for sustainable growth. His strategy, encapsulated by the agency’s name, centers on two core pillars: first, cultivating a profitable, branded direct-to-consumer (DTC) website, and second, strategically capitalizing on the significant traffic that naturally flows to Amazon. This "one-two punch," as Stone describes it, aims to empower brands to maintain control over their identity while still benefiting from the immense reach of the e-commerce giant.
Stone, who has been managing Amazon advertising campaigns since 2017, initially launched his agency as Stone’s Goods in 2021 before rebranding to Spillover Commerce in January of this year. His evolution from a purely Amazon-focused consultant to an advocate for a diversified approach reflects a growing understanding of the e-commerce landscape’s complexities. "Brands should focus on their own domains while selling Amazon-only items secondarily," Stone explained in a recent conversation, emphasizing that this model allows for brand building on owned platforms while utilizing Amazon as a powerful, albeit secondary, sales channel.
The agency’s clientele includes Shopify brands that may be experiencing challenges on Amazon but recognize its indispensable presence in the market, as well as Amazon-first sellers seeking to diversify their revenue streams and mitigate platform dependency. "Consumers love Amazon shipping. They trust it," Stone noted. "If something doesn’t work out, they’ll be taken care of and made whole. And that trust is insurmountable for many brands." This inherent consumer trust in Amazon’s fulfillment and customer service is a key factor driving Stone’s recommendation to treat the marketplace as a strategic, rather than primary, destination.
The "One-Two Punch": Bridging the Gap Between DTC and Marketplace Success
The core of Stone’s strategy lies in recognizing that success on Amazon and success on a DTC platform like Shopify often require different skill sets and approaches. "What wins on Amazon is the opposite of what wins on Shopify and Meta," Stone stated. However, he believes that many merchants can excel in both arenas, creating a potent combination that avoids being "trapped by one platform over another."
This duality is crucial for brands aiming to build significant revenue streams from both their own websites and Amazon. For instance, a direct-to-consumer brand launching a new widget might aim for a revenue split where their primary domain drives 60% of sales, with Amazon contributing 40%. Stone’s advice for achieving this involves creating platform-specific offers. "Don’t sell the same thing in both places," he urged. "Whatever you sell on Amazon will be price-compared against similar items. Create an offer that makes sense for that environment. Perhaps it’s a lesser version of what you sell on your domain."
Strategic Differentiation: Beyond Commoditized Offerings
The challenge for many brands, particularly those dealing with commoditized products, is differentiating themselves on a crowded marketplace like Amazon. Eric Bandholz, the interviewer and founder of a DTC brand himself, expressed a common sentiment: "The only people making money on Amazon are selling cheap, junk products. The shipping is good, but the entire experience trashes my brand. I don’t see how merchants can build something of value on Amazon." This concern highlights the perceived conflict between Amazon’s volume-driven environment and the brand-centric approach favored by DTC businesses.
Stone acknowledges this perception but argues that it’s possible to build value on Amazon through strategic branding and external traffic. He pointed to Gymreapers, a company that generates approximately $10,000 in monthly revenue from wrist straps on Amazon, despite competitors selling similar items at half the price. The success of Gymreapers, Stone explained, is not solely due to Amazon’s inherent advantages but rather a testament to their robust branding and their ability to drive external traffic.
"Gymreapers’ strategy is obvious," Stone elaborated. "They get huge sales on Amazon from roughly 200 Facebook ads. I checked last week in the Facebook Ads Library. They also use TikTok influencers." These external marketing efforts, primarily for higher-priced powerlifting bundles sold on Gymreapers.com, indirectly drive customers to their Amazon listings. Shoppers searching for "Gymreapers" specifically, even if initially seeking only wrist straps, discover and purchase the product on Amazon. This demonstrates how a strong brand identity cultivated off-platform can command a premium and generate significant sales, even for commoditized items, on Amazon. "So they sell the same product for 50% more than Chinese competitors by having a strong brand and external traffic sources."
Optimizing for Amazon: Conversion Rates and External Traffic
When it comes to Amazon, Stone’s agency focuses on maximizing conversion rates for individual product listings rather than relying heavily on bundling. "Bundling on Amazon doesn’t really work," he stated. "What drives organic ranking on Amazon is the conversion rate. In our experience, the best play is to have a high-converting offer on a product detail page and drive as many organic sales as possible." While bundling is possible, Stone suggests it often dilutes the conversion rate of individual, high-performing items, which is a key metric for Amazon’s algorithm.
The emphasis on external traffic is a cornerstone of Spillover Commerce’s approach. Stone advises sellers to focus on three key areas for building a brand beyond the Amazon marketplace:
- Amazon Product-Market Fit: This is the foundational understanding that a product resonates with consumers on Amazon, often evidenced by established sales history.
- Meta Market Fit: This refers to identifying products that are well-suited for advertising on platforms like Meta (Facebook, Instagram). Stone uses the example of a "cool robot vacuum cleaner" being more suitable for Meta advertising than a basic mop, suggesting that visually appealing or innovative products tend to perform better.
- Platform-Specific Offers: As previously mentioned, this involves tailoring product offerings and presentations to suit the unique demands and consumer expectations of each platform.
Identifying Offsite Opportunities: The Role of the DTC Website
For Amazon sellers looking to expand beyond the marketplace, Stone underscores the critical importance of having a dedicated website, regardless of their primary sales channel focus. "All sellers — on Amazon or otherwise — should have a website," he asserted. While direct sales from a brand’s own website might not initially match Amazon’s volume, it provides an invaluable platform for direct customer engagement and data collection.
"People will buy products from the site (even if your priority is Amazon), just not a lot of them," Stone conceded. "Then engage with those customers. Ask about their preferences, such as likes and dislikes on Amazon as well as product suggestions. Just think creatively." This direct interaction allows brands to gather qualitative data, understand customer sentiment, and identify potential product improvements or new offerings that can then be strategically leveraged across all sales channels. This feedback loop is essential for refining product-market fit and building a more resilient, customer-centric business.
The Broader Impact: Diversification and Brand Resilience
The strategy advocated by Sean Stone and Spillover Commerce is indicative of a broader shift in the e-commerce industry. As reliance on single platforms, particularly Amazon, can create vulnerabilities due to algorithm changes, policy shifts, or increased competition, diversification has become a critical survival and growth tactic. By establishing a strong DTC presence, brands gain greater control over their customer relationships, data, and brand narrative.
The "spillover" effect from Amazon, when managed strategically, allows brands to tap into a massive existing customer base without compromising their core brand identity. This dual approach fosters resilience, enabling businesses to weather market fluctuations and build a more sustainable, long-term trajectory. As the e-commerce landscape continues to evolve, the ability to master both the high-volume, competitive environment of marketplaces and the brand-building opportunities of owned digital storefronts will likely define the most successful merchants of the future.
For those interested in learning more about Spillover Commerce’s strategies or seeking consultation, their website is SpilloverCommerce.com, and Sean Stone can be reached on LinkedIn.
