By Joe Waynick
For the past three years I’ve attend the annual SCOE conference held every July in Seattle, WA for online entrepreneurs. And every year it just keeps getting better and better.
The conference is designed for all online sellers using Amazon for a sales platform regardless of product category, including consumer products, books and media, automobile, and apparel. Each year Amazon category managers from several different product groups address specific concerns of sellers in public and pre-scheduled private meetings.
Humble Beginnings
SCOE was originally a small group of 25-30 local Internet booksellers gathered in the home of conference organizer Rhonda Schneider. Somehow, she managed to catch the attention of the big brass at Amazon and they started sending a representative or two to offer advice and selling tips. For a number of years the meetings were known simply as the “Amazon Sellers Conference” and focused almost exclusively on books.
Over the last 10 years the conference has grown quite a bit. In 2011 more than 450 registered attendees participated along and 30 vendors. Amazon personnel still attend; sending nearly 150 employees to support the crowd. What makes this years conference so spectacular is that there was a waiting list of nearly 150 additional attendees that were unable to attend because the event was sold out.
Amazon Day
The four day event is typically broken up into themes for each day. For example, Day 1 is called “Amazon Day” and this year keynote speaker Joseph Sirosh, Vice President of Transaction
Risk Management gave a presentation on the benefits of selling on Amazon and what the company was doing to help sellers increase their business.
Afterward, Amazon employees Tim Liberman and David Dang did a great job explaining how sellers can get approved for selling toys & games. The pair took turns explaining the requirements for qualification to sell children’s toys on the site. In a nutshell, here are the major criteria:
- The seller’s first sale must be prior to September 2011.
- Defect rate must be less than 1%.
- Seller must have shipped more than 25 units in the prior 30 day period.
- Seller must have a pre-fulfillment cancel rate of 2.5%.
- The seller must not have a late shipment rate greater than 5%.
Breakout sessions covering all product categories and seller support appointments followed the speakers for the rest of the day. I might add that the seller support representatives were a big hit with attendees because you’re able to get long standing issues resolved face-to-face with real live Amazon personnel.
Vendor Day
Day 2 is called “Vendor Day” where registered vendors give 50 minute presentations about their products. Just about every conceivable support product was represented including discount online postage services, inventory management software, book scouting tools, shipping manifest systems, add-on services for brick and mortar bookstores, media wholesalers, and others.
Between presentations attendees get to mingle with the vendors on the showroom floor, get one-on-one attention from sales reps, load up on freebies (like the very nice 8GB Jump Drives I received), and even get some hands on time with the products. It’s a very busy day for participants.
Peer Education Day
The idea of having breakout sessions lead by successful booksellers and other category sellers was a new addition to the conference. Last year I made the suggestion to conference organizer Rhonda Schneider and she promptly volunteered me to be one of the speakers. I did a presentation on “The Future of Internet Bookselling” to an audience of about 200 spread out across two 50 minute sessions.
Other peer education speakers included Skip McGrath who gave presentations on the Amazon Associates Program, Jon Jessup who delivered a talk about “Customer Communication Secrets,” and Cindy Shelby who presented on two different topics, “FBA Jumpstart,” and on taking “Amazon Catalog Photos.”
In addition to peer education, more vendor presentations were also held, giving attendees to see detailed demonstrations of all the products in case scheduling conflicts prevented anyone from attending a particular presentation the previous day.
Feedback Day
The last day of the conference is a half day session devoted to providing the organizers with feedback about what attendees liked and didn’t like about the event. Attendees are free to suggest ideas that will make the conference more informative and enjoyable the following year.
In addition, the feedback session is also attended by a senior member of Amazon’s management team. Attendees are free to give Amazon’s representative feedback on how Amazon can do a better job of supporting sellers. This year Amazon was represented by Dave Scott, a Seller Support Senior Manager.
Finally, many of the vendors attend the feedback session too. They often get additional suggestions from conference attendees on how to improve their products and customer service.
Good hunting!
Joe Waynick is author of “Internet Bookselling Made Easy! How to Earn a Living Selling Used Books Online” (ISBN 978-0983129608). You can contact him at: http://www.internetbookselling.com/contact.html.