Podcast Summary
In this Prime Talk Podcast Video Sponsored by GETIDA – David Dayon – Co-Founder & CEO – AmazonXperts – A leading management agency for Amazon sellers, shares his personal journey into eCommerce and provides insight as to how to seize opportunities when selling on amazon.
Selling in the Amazon marketplace can be challenging at times. You may get frustrated or quit altogether. But that doesn’t always have to be the case! PrimeTalk host Yoni Mazor discusses the ins and outs of Amazon sales and marketing consultancy.
In today’s episode, PrimeTalk has an up close and intimate conversation with David Dayon – the co-founder and CEO of AmazonXperts, a boutique sales and marketing consultancy providing individualized and custom services for new and veteren Amazon sellers. AmazonXperts offers two tracks of services: pay as you go and full management.
David Dayon shares his business experience and divulges how they shaped his career path. He also shares with the audience how his agency, AmazonXperts was created and how it can help all kinds of marketplace sellers, big and small, to improve and develop their businesses. So if you’re stuck in a marketplace rut, or have a budding interest in developing your ecommerce business, tune in today for some sound advice and interesting stories!
For more information on AmazonXperts check out their website: https://amazonxperts.com/
Get more info about GETIDA’s Amazon FBA reimbursement solutions.
Find the full transcript below
Yoni Mazur 0:06
Hi, everybody, welcome to another episode of PrimeTalk. Today I’m really excited to have a special guest. Today I’m having David Dayon. David is the founder and CEO of AmazonXperts, which is a leading Management Agency for Amazon sellers. So David, welcome to the show.
David Dayon 0:22
Yes, Yoni. Thank you for having me.
YM 0:24
Our pleasure, really. So today’s episode is really going to be all about you: the story of David Dayon. So you’re gonna share with us, you know, who are you? Where are you from? Where’d you grow up? Where’d you go to school? How did you begin now? Your professional career?
DD 0:36
The origin story?
YM 0:38
Yeah. So without further ado, let’s jump right into it.
DD 0:42
Let’s do it.
YM 0:43
Alright, go ahead.
DD 0:45
Ok, so I guess to start the story properly, we got to go back to the retail arbitrage days on Amazon.
YM 0:53
No, no, no. Where did you grow up, even before that? The story about you! Not just the businessman, we’ll get to that.
DD 1:00
Ohh ok, I grew up in Oakcrest, New Jersey. On a road called Old Farm Road.
YM 1:09
Sounds like you, you lived the farmer’s life.
DD 1:12
It used to be a farm for hundreds of years before we got there. But yeah, we grew up on Old Farm Road in Oakcrest, New Jersey, otherwise known as Deal, New Jersey.
YM 1:23
Ahhh Deal, New Jersey.
DD 1:23
Yeah, it was like five towns or six, seven towns and then, it’s just the most popular one is Deal, and everyone knows Deal.
YM 1:30
But what makes it special? What’s special about that area? Besides the farms 100 years ago? What makes it famous now.
DD 1:36
I guess the wonderful SYs we got living down here. We got the Jersey Shore. It’s
YM 1:41
SY? What’s SY for the audience that’s not familiar…
DD 1:45
SY is for the Syrians.
YM 1:47
Yeah, got it. So yeah, so it’s a very affluent Syrian Jewish community that lives in the Deal, New Jersey area, it’s on the beaches. Many, you know, Syrian Jewish people come in the summertime, they have beach houses on the beach. So it’s very popular destination. But you live there, you know, all year long.
DD 2:04
We’re one of the select few, not few anymore, we’re growing, but we’re one of the select few that you know, live here all year round, and we get our peace and quiet in the winter months. You know, we get to stay in the office and work late and float away and then and we get plenty of action in the summertime, plenty of parties and like you said beach, beach houses and you know, boats and know anything you can think of.
YM 2:29
It’s an amazing place. It’s the perfect combination of, you know, working hard and playing hard. Hard day at work, especially in the summer, you reach out to the beach and see the sunset, sunrise or sunset? What do you get over there?
DD 2:39
You get both. You get both.
YM 2:40
Nice, beautiful, yeah. Okay, so this is, uh, you know, where you grew up? That’s where you went to school? Did you graduate?
DD 2:48
Graduated? Yes. Went to college in Brooklyn, New York. Those are some fun times, went to college for psychology, actually. Nothing to do with Amazon.
YM 2:59
And what year did you graduate from Brooklyn College?
DD 3:03
Graduated from Brooklyn College, I didn’t graduate. I got my associate’s degree and I left in, I think 2014.
YM 3:09
- About six years ago, after you got your associate’s degree. You moved on to the next station. But during, you know, during high school or even college, were you doing any jobs? Any work? Anything professional?
DD 3:22
Yeah, so yeah, so I was telling you about arbitrage. That was actually my first job. Before I was in college. I worked with the family business, we pretty much were running, you know, Amazon business, for fashion accessories, mainly watches. We did some nice numbers. We had a very successful business. But then arbitrage slowly got less and less until I think all together it kinda died.
YM 3:47
And what the year that you got into the mix? You know, of you know, of this business, especially on Amazon.
DD 3:54
I actually started out as soon as I was old enough. I would get…my summer internship was in this company. My brother was one of the owners. And I just started out in the summers, every summer for a couple years.
YM 4:08
So instead of going to the beach and partying, you actually took the liberty of…
DD 4:11
It was actually, it was a great job though. If I could have stayed there, that would have been awesome. But it was a, you know, summer, a summer internship, temporary. It was great. But that was my…
YM 4:21
What was your first summer there? Which summer of which year? What was your first summer there?
DD 4:27
I don’t know. I’d have to, I’d have to look back. I went to probably 10th grade or I don’t know I’d have to…
YM 4:32
10th grade is what? 1995? Or like 2015?
DD 4:37
No, like, 2000s…I don’t even know. I have to check. It’s great. It was a long time ago.
YM 4:43
Fill out that resume, you know, we’ll check it out. No, no worries. So how many years did you do there? I guess until you say you did it all throughout college. That was kind of the dynamic.
DD 4:52
So no. So I was basically working for this internship. I quit the job mid-college, so I was still doing college and this job. I ended up saying, alright, this is what I want to do. It wasn’t what I wanted to do. I ended up coming back to Amazon. But that’s part of it I guess, what happened here. So. So yeah, so I mean, I went to college. And then after I went to college, I was looking for a job, I ended up saying, I don’t want to graduate and become a psychologist, I wanted to just go back to Amazon and just get a regular job. So I went out and I got a job for an Amazon seller. I was brought in to help increase the business, I was able to do that. And then after I was there for about six months, I got another opportunity…
YM 5:34
And this is the same year that you graduated, in 2014?
DD 5:38
Yeah, from college to this job. And then after I was at this job for maybe about six months, I basically went to a consultant agency, this is the I always consider arbitrage selling, you know, helping one amazon seller, that was one business. And then you have consulting and that was a whole nother business. That it’s, you know, helping multiple people advance their business on Amazon. I mean, I started out for one company in New York. And it was an amazing opportunity. It was an amazing experience. I started out as an account manager, I quickly climbed the rank. And then, you know, we had hundreds of Amazon sellers as clients, and we were doing great work for all of them and definitely helped me shape a lot of what I do today. I was there for about a year and seven months to be exact.
YM 6:27
So you started, which year did you start there?
DD 6:30
Let me just get you some info for me. I’m not good at stuff. So like, I’m pulling up my official, official resume, give me two secs…
YM 6:38
Haha, you got to pull up the LinkedIn for us live?
DD 6:41
Yeah, I can’t believe I don’t remember it. So I have to just… sorry.
YM 6:43
That’s alright, that means you’re busy in growth, that’s really good. If you, if you’re not even looking back, it means your full, full gear, you know, moving forward. That’s okay, in almost two years, a year and seven months, and you said you felt that there’s a clear distinction between helping an Amazon seller, either with arbitrage, or you know, a private label seller and or running their own brand.
DD 7:03
So yeah, so we actually don’t do arbitrage. Like I moved away from arbitrage. And I took a very, very big turn against it. I don’t believe in it.
YM 7:10
Consciously? Or, you know, looking back, you realize, yeah?
DD 7:14
No, consciously.
YM 7:15
What was your, what was the dynamic internally for you? What did you realize that made you feel like, you know, what? I see my future in building brands and in private label, as opposed to moving big volumes, and tremendous volumes with top, you know, top-aligned brands.
DD 7:28
So you probably remember this, but there was a time when you would search for any popular product, and you would get multiple products you’d use. For example, type in G shock watch, and a specific, you know, ga 100, or one on one of those numbers. Anyways, you type in sku and you would get 5, 6, 7 offerings sometimes on the product, as soon as…
YM 7:49
Meaning on the listing? When I go on the listing? And when I go on the listing?
DD 7:51
No, no, you type results, you type in the search results, you type in a search term, and you’re going to get seven different listings, the same thing, essentially, but just seven different people got there and offered the product. Then Amazon started to look, to get more, you know, series and the crackdown on those guys. And that’s kind of when arbitrage started to die a little bit. You know, more and more people were being forced into one listing, Amazon was actually locking out anybody who didn’t have invoices, or you know, it was a lot of paperwork you needed. A lot of the people doing arbitrage ended up going out of business or just, you know, moving into another business. And as soon as that happened, and we realized, hey, private label sellers have so much more control. You know, we realized that that was the future. More importantly, I mean, there are people who are still doing arbitrage and maybe it’s not completely dead, but at least us, at least as a consultant agency, we did not want to be, you know, fighting a losing battle. We wanted control over the brand, we wanted control over the products, control over the future. And then I would say the same thing as Vendor versus Seller Central. We’ll get to that I’m sure, but we also have the same mindset. Vendor Central is a thing of the past, Seller Central is a thing of the future, and if you argue that. Right now, where are most of the sales happening? And the answer to that is Seller Central so it
YM 9:08
Yeah, the sales grow the sales momentum, the opportunity to really control your destiny, but get a fantastic amount of return on your investment in terms of time, resources, money, and just you know, yield because there’s so many nozzles and tweaks you can do on your listing, on your account, on your marketing, that will create tremendous growth as opposed to obviously reselling. We’re just reselling brands and how much you can do to market it. Right? It’s already, because you’re feeding off the marketing of the big brands, or Vendor Central where usually Amazon buys inventory from you in bulk, you know, wholesale, and then they really control the flow of the marketing and it’s very hard to optimize your presence on the Amazon Marketplace as a brand. So you’re able to see all these components and you know, make a clear decision. I see where the growth is, where the future is, and I’m, you know, I’m full gear into that position. So let’s help you with the, you know stationing or the visiting stations. When did you transfer to the next station after doing a one year seven months with, as I know, with the consulting agency?
DD 10:12
So yeah, I’m looking now on my LinkedIn. So it looks like I was there from December 2016 till April 2018. And then in April 2018, I moved over to another management firm, I actually made a partner there. That was a wonderful experience as well. I was there for seven months. And then in October of 2018, I left that company for creative differences. And AmazonXperts was formed. I knew my partner Jake Shweky for my whole life. We’re family friends and grew up together in Deal, New Jersey. Yes, actually, we both live in Oakcrest, New Jersey, but otherwise known as Deal, New Jersey. So yeah, we grew up, he lives literally around the corner from my old house on Old Farm Road. And basically, he was looking, he was in between things, looking for something. And it was just a good opportunity. We, we… together we formed AmazonXperts.
YM 11:06
But AmazonXperts, the way you spell it is Amazon, and then instead of E X, P E, R, T, S, it’s just X, a big X.
DD 11:15
And there’s actually a funny, there’s a funny reason why we called it AmazonXperts. We call it for short AX. I don’t know if you know the TV show, Billions AXE Capital. We kind of try to emulate that a little bit. Bobby Axelrod.
YM 11:30
So A, X, AX. Yeah, yeah. Bobby Axelrod, if anybody hasn’t seen the show Billions, on Showtime I believe, it’s a great show for entrepreneurs to see how, how do you, you know, deal with challenges and pressures on very high levels? Great acting and great performance. So yeah, yeah, it’s about money, about the hedge fund. How do you, you know, make all these marketplace beds? And, you know, deal with the pressures from law investors, stuff like that? You know, I guess organizational politics, a lot of drama. You know, it’s Hollywood style, but it’s very effective. In terms of entertainment. So yeah, AXE Capital is the hedge fund that they’re running over there. But I believe it’s spelled a x e, right? So you took a little twist on it and said, you know, AmazonXperts, A X, so you’re not gonna be able to, it’s not Amazon, and then experts with EX.
DD 12:20
So, also Amazon owns Amazon experts with an E, like, amazon.com. So
YM 12:25
Yeah, so if you go to Amazon experts with an E dot com, it takes you straight into Amazon. But if you didn’t, Amazon, yeah, Amazon experts omit the E that takes you to your website.
DD 12:33
Just shows you Amazon’s one day planning on doing management too. That’s what, that’s what I
YM 12:39
Yeah I know, I know, they bought a lot of domains. So amazon books, 60amazon.com. And sometimes when they bought other websites or other companies, and they’ve essentially swallowed their activity. So if you will Google or Google these companies, or put the domain name, it takes you straight into Amazon. So I read about it. You know, so throughout history, they bought a handful of companies and businesses. So the ones who kind of faded away never survived. And then they swallowed into Amazon. So would you, you know, but the domain name and just go straight to Amazon. And some people think, sometimes it’s an issue with their browser, but they don’t realize it’s Amazon funneling the business right into whoever owns it, which is, in this case, Amazon themselves. Okay, so you meet Jake, your current partner, and I guess to share with us a little bit of his background experience. You know, I understand the momentum was good, the opportunity was good for you guys to team up. And you know, set up a new track. I know, both you as partners and as entrepreneurs, managing your own destiny and helping others. What was his background?
DD 13:37
So yeah, so his background, he worked at a company called the Moret Group…
YM 13:43
How do you spell that?
DD 13:45
M O R E T group, the Moret Group. And, and he basically, he was there for maybe seven years, as far, as a partner there as well. And he pretty much dabbled in Amazon a little bit, we definitely had a little bit of an Amazon boot camp when we, when we first started our first couple months, because it was some things that you just learned from the consulting world, his, the company he worked for, had one Amazon account, but like I said, having one Amazon account and managing multiple Amazon accounts, it’s great you have like a very good solid foundation. And ultimately, I was able to do well at the consulting firm, because I had experience selling on Amazon, but it was really, you know, there’s a whole new set of skills that you have to pick up, you have to, you know, look at an account and more of a have a, you know, alike a further level, like maybe not so in detail, you can get lost in the detail sometimes. So it’s kind of enough to be able to, to kind of just step into each account every day and see what you can do to make things better. That’s, that’s definitely part of the process, part of the training, and part of what we need to do here in order to do our job for our clients. So it’s just, you know,
YM 14:53
It makes a lot of sense, a different approach. How do you really, you know, as soon as possible, as efficiently as possible, you know, our daily input, you know, move the needle up, you know, for these classes as opposed to have one account, we’d dive in and dive in, dive in, dive in. And like you mentioned, get lost and really not moving the needle, because we’re just lost into all these corners, where you’re just keeping the effectiveness and the highest level and managing modular amounts of accounts. So what was Jake’s experience with the other firm? What was his I guess, point of strength? How do you guys compliment each other?
DD 15:26
Yeah. So he has a very strong attention to detail. He was involved in the logistics, which is something that he heads up right now, he was involved in inventory management, which is something he heads up right now. And pretty much he oversees a small team. Right now he’s overseeing a big team, very, very, very much complimented what he’s doing now. And he, I mean, I go out every day, and I talk to the clients and I make sure that everyone’s you know, being dealt with, and I and everyone has an audience, and everyone has a strategy that’s being planned and followed. And then ultimately, Jake is the one making sure that it’s being executed. He’s always in the office early, right, way before me, he’s always in the office late, you know, after me sometimes, you know, I’m more of a night owl, he’s more of an early morning person. But for the most part, he’s entrenched into his world of operations, we’ll call it. And in order for me to be able to do my part, he’s doing a very good job at his part, which, which allows me to do my job.
YM 16:25
And you focus mainly on, I guess, the growth and business development for your agency, but also for your clients, of course, in general?
DD 16:33
Yeah, I would say my main focus is growth of my clients. I definitely take, my agency takes a second seat to that, my main concern is growing my accounts. Thankfully, we don’t have many, we’re more of a boutique firm, we try to, you know, reserve a partnership for what, you know, the true cream of the crop, the people who…
YM 16:52
Right, it’s interesting, because you, as you just mentioned, you, you call it a partnership. And then when you take a client in, you don’t see that just as you know, a service or something like that, it’s you really, as you mentioned, it as a boutique you, you realize there’s a level of partnership here, not that you own the business, but on the marketplace management level. And in creating a sustainable growth over time, you see it as a partnership, because you’re going to need the inputs from the seller, whatever resources that are needed, whatever resources are needed from your organization, and both organizations are, you know, a partner together to, to supply those resources, and synchronize in the best level to create, you know, growth momentum, you know, over time. So that’s an interesting approach that I do find, you know, from your words, you know, just now, with this, I guess the nuanced difference between how you see your structure and position, you know, I guess compared to maybe others out there that who are more about, you know, we need as many accounts or clients as possible, we’re servers them, you know, make cookie-cutter approaches, stuff like that, you know, even for yourself, it’s more, it’s intimate, is deep is long term. It’s all about really moving the needle every day, but long term, and create some sort of sustainability and the partnership level. And like you mentioned, a partnership,
DD 18:11
It is a partnership, and everybody that we work with, on a full management level is getting me to talk to so there’s no other account manager, everyone we work with, gets my time, we set up, you know, meetings throughout the week, or phone calls throughout the week. And we make sure to, like we sit to follow up strategy, we plan a strategy, we implement a strategy, the most important thing is to stick to the plan. If we want to tweak the plan, that’s okay. But we have to stick to the plan. That’s something that I could say until I’m blue in the face. But yeah, I mean, it really is a partnership. And it’s in its truest form. Because we are partnering up with the client to make sure that they get what they need for the business. They give us what we need for the business, and that they’re growing. I always tell my clients if we’re not growing month over month, then I’m not doing my job. And of course, we need certain things in order to succeed, we can actually boil it down to four things. The four things we need from our clients are as follows: We need obviously some information. So we’re going to ask them not, Amazon has a whole big flat file, they ask you for hundreds and hundreds of data points. We boil it down to maybe seven or eight data points, we ask you for UPCs, product dimensions, product weights, material types, any available product and features, you know, some very, very basic information and then we’ll take that basic information and build out a full flat file that Amazon actually needs. So again, number one is product information. Number two is inventory. So we don’t actually touch the inventory. We just tell the client “Hey guys, we’re sending in for the first time this item, send an X units of each color, each style, its size”, whatever it is, and they shouldn’t they send it in and then every week we’re going to revisit their inventory levels and let them know replenish the following styles based on your sales based on your inventory levels.
YM 19:52
When we say replenish, you mean the FBA model, fulfilled by Amazon, and where the your client, the brand, the seller, the manufacturer
DD 19:58
If I woulda spoken to you a year ago, I would have told you another thing. I told you, we push very much away from arbitrage. We push very much away from vendor. And I would have added another third thing to that list: FBM. Then Coronavirus happened. And now all of my clients have a hybrid model. That’s just the way it has to be today. But yes, I would have..
DD 20:19
A hybrid model means there is FBA, fulfilled by Amazon, and FBM, logistics and then fulfilled by merchant logistics. So it’s a hybrid model. So on the marketplace, you’re, you always have a backup in case each one of them, you know, has a little bit of inefficiencies. But okay, so you mentioned there’s information, you mentioned that you need, inventory. The third thing is?
DD 20:42
Third thing is approvals. Becau
