Table of
Contents Our Brands Brand Highlights
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Informational Resources Walmart’s Competitive Edge to Amazon
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Amazon A+ Content
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Navigating Case Management on Amazon
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ZQ Community
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ZQ 101
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Charlie’s Corner
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Join Our Team
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Get in Touch
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A letter from the CEO As we’ve entered into the summer months, we continue to look for ways to cultivate the “we not me” mentality we strive to have at ZQUARED. Investing in our employees who work hard to make ZQUARED possible is a great way to put this mantra into practice. We’ve begun hosting monthly internal “Lunch & Learn” sessions designed to provide an opportunity for department collaboration, fellowship and relationship building. Co-Founder Chad Cornett also generously shares his grilling talents for the team lunch! Our commitment to leading and empowering our team starts with a foundation of communication, trust and intentional investment. We’re equally committed to building this same type of rapport with our Brand Partners. We strive to develop solid partnerships supported by a strong team that’s committed to continuous growth.
Zach Cornett
Co-Founder & CEO, ZQUARED
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Our
Brands 5
Brand Highlights For the months of July and August, we’re highlighting Syntratech, ThorneVet, The Smokist and Amazing Herbs. We’re honored to be a part of the journey alongside these incredible brands.
Year Founded: 1999 Category: Supplements
Year Founded: 2011 Category: Pet & Animal Health
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FUN FACT Syntratch has sold over 1 million bottles and counting of their blood sugar support product.
FUN FACT ThorneVet has a line of more than 40 integrative and holistic animal health products.
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Year Founded: 2008 Category: Grilling & Outdoor Cooking
FUN FACT The Smokist is family-owned and operated in Georgia, USA.
FUN FACT Year Founded: 1990 Category: Supplements
By 2010, Amazing Herbs had expanded to more than 6,000 retail stores in the U.S. carrying their nutritional supplements with over 30,000 individual customers. Their success continues today.
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Informational
Resources 9
Walmart’s Competitive Edge to Amazon
Walmart Challenges Amazon, Leverages Retail Infrastructure for E-Commerce In recent years Amazon has spent millions building fulfillment centers across the country to allow for quick, same-day delivery to their customers. Walmart, however, already has a vast network of brick-and-mortar retailers positioned for delivery, which grants them a head start as they challenge Amazon for e-commerce dominance. Already, Walmart can reach 80% of the population with same-day delivery services. They are working to increase this percentage with drones, along with adapting more of their brick-and-mortar retailers to delivery centers. Though Walmart has seen growth in this domain over recent years, Amazon is still the outright e-commerce leader. Amazon has 39.5% of the online market share in the U.S., compared with Walmart’s 7%, according to the research firm, eMarketer. Although Walmart’s e-commerce has increased, recent quarters have seen a steady decline in profits as inflation soars and more customers return to in-person shopping. Despite current economic challenges and a steep climb to challenge Amazon for online market dominance, Walmart executives see a clear future in their e-commerce strategy
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and continue to invest in delivery service expansion. Walmart plans to roll out its drone delivery services to 37 stores across six states by the end of 2022, reaching 4 million households. Even though drone delivery flopped with Amazon, Walmart sees an opportunity. Walmart also plans to woo more thirdparty sellers onto Walmart Marketplace. Currently, Walmart offers delivery services to sellers and charges no monthly seller fees. Additionally, Walmart’s referral fees generally range between 8% and 15%, which are comparable to Amazon’s rates. Soon, Walmart will offer highly popular items sold on their Marketplace at physical Walmart stores – a prospect the retail giant hopes
will attract more third-party sellers looking to build their businesses. The goal, according to Walmart e-commerce chief Tom Ward, is to build trust with customers and allow customers to shop however they choose. Harvard Business School professor James Heskett sees Walmart’s omni-commerce strategy as a winning formula: it helps them both solidify their dominance in retail, expand their delivery reach, dodge inventory issues that choke Amazon today, and ultimately find an edge to compete with Amazon in e-commerce.
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Amazon A+ Content How to Create Enhanced Product Descriptions that Set Your Products Apart from the Competition In a highly competitive marketplace, Amazon sellers are constantly searching for the latest edge to elevate their brand, products, and sales. Amazon’s A+ Content (also referred to as Enhanced Brand Content or EBC) is a great way to highlight your product’s differentiators in a visually appealing way, helping you to further optimize your detail page. What Is Amazon A+ Content? Amazon’s A+ Content provides sellers with a multitude of ways to present their product description using modular templates to showcase brand story, enhanced images, and text configurations. It’s an obvious visual upgrade from utilizing only a plain-text, unformatted description. Overall, it increases the real estate available to showcase your product while simultaneously providing a better experience for your customer. Who Can Use A+ Content? Amazon A+ Content is only available to brand owners who have completed the Brand Registry process, as well as emerging brand owners who are part of certain managed selling programs, such as Launchpad and Amazon Exclusives.
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Once a professional seller has been approved, they will be able to choose from a variety of modular templates that best suit their product and brand. What Are the Benefits of Amazon A+ Content? Customized Amazon A+ Content templates allow brands to establish brand consistency through their template configuration, content voice, and image selection. Additionally, an enhanced product description allows for more details to be conveyed to potential customers. Arranging content in varying forms, from long-form product descriptions to feature and bulleted content to banner images, allows sellers to visually display their content and images in manners that appeal to all types of customers. A+ Content allows customers to make purchase decisions through a unique combination of text and images, formatted in a manner that sellers believe will best portray their brand and products. A seller may also choose to create “About the Brand” content that’s focused on helping a customer learn about the company, its values, and its product lines.
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Amazon A+ Content Best Practices That Increase Conversions Referencing Amazon’s guide for creating A+ Content will be essential in properly formatting the template with text and image requirements. Maximizing the effectiveness of Amazon A+ Content comes from establishing strong, consistent branding. Selecting a modular template that conveys relevant, concise information through a combination of brand logo, product features and benefits – in the form of text and bullets – and utilizing professional quality lifestyle images that convey the intrinsic benefits of a product will help influence customers’ purchase decisions. Throughout the entire listing, sellers should be sure to portray their product’s features in a way that resonates with their target audiences and shows the added benefits of purchasing their product as opposed to competitors.
THE ZQUARED ADVANTAGE ZQUARED provides our brand partners with custom Amazon brand guidelines that drive brand optimization through marketing and strategy execution. Additionally, we can create customized A+ content for your products and brand, designing the proper template, images, and content for successful product positioning. We leverage the experience of our dedicated experts to create, monitor, and audit product listings to ensure compliance, effective keywording, and company branding. To learn how ZQUARED can help you stay ahead in the Amazon game, request a comprehensive assessment of your Amazon channel from our Amazon Investment Partnership Team. You will receive audit results focused on your listings, category, competitors, reseller landscape and more with an individually-tailored strategic plan designed to capitalize on opportunities.
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Navigating Case Management on Amazon When a seller has an issue pertaining to their Amazon Seller Central account, they may be required to open a case to resolve the problem. There are a variety of common issues that would require a case to be opened with Amazon, such as account error or warning messages, issues with listings, compliance violations, inventory issues, returns, and more. For these reasons, case management is a vital, yet complex part of selling on Amazon. What Is Amazon Case Management? After a seller experiences an issue with their account and they open a case to correct the problem, that case is received by Amazon Seller Support and a ticket is created. This dedicated team within Amazon can be reached by email, phone, or chat, and will work with sellers to address their needs. Open tickets can be found within the Seller Central Help section under “Case Log”.
Certain issues raised with Seller Support may require escalation to specialized teams that handle complex and time-critical situations. Just like any large company’s Customer Service team, the frontline workers often have scripted responses, so escalation to the next level may be necessary for issues requiring more advanced support. What Seller Support Can and Can’t Help With Seller Support will typically be able to provide guidance or rectification for: Detail page updates FBA and Inventory issues Damaged customer returns Delayed or failed disbursements Compliance violations Customer disputes Feedback removal Account security breaches Error messages
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Depending on the complexity of the ticket, Seller Support may not be able to handle the ticket request and will need to escalate the case to Performance Support for further assistance. For example, if a seller’s account or ASIN is restricted, Seller Support will not be able to help rectify the issue by appealing the action or reinstating the account. Rather, the ticket will need to be escalated to Performance Support, and they will need to review the ticket and reasoning for account or ASIN restriction. After review, they will then decide on how to proceed by either confirming the restriction or by asking the seller for a Plan of Action to rectify Amazon’s reasoning for restriction. Challenges of Contacting Seller Support As one of the largest online retailers, it is not unreasonable to surmise that Amazon Seller Support is receiving thousands of seller cases on a daily basis. With such a large influx of seller issues to rectify, Seller Support often has challenges that hinder their ability to provide complete solutions.
Many times, an open case with Seller Support will take days, weeks or sometimes even months to resolve depending on the nature of the issue. To minimize the amount of time spent opening and re-opening support requests, it’s important to follow a few best practices:
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Provide all of the relevant information in as much detail as possible in your original case.
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Attach relevant documentation or screenshots that support your request or help explain the issue.
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When relevant, make sure to include detailed product information, including ASIN, FNSKU, product detail page link and product name.
THE ZQUARED ADVANTAGE ZQUARED provides brand partners with complete Amazon platform management that helps minimize challenges associated with Case Management. Even experienced Amazon sellers frequently encounter issues, which is why having a dedicated team of experts is invaluable to any seller. We have a close relationship with Amazon representatives and are able to navigate the complexities of Seller Support and Seller Performance quickly and efficiently to rectify issues and maximize sales results. Our teams manage all aspects of the Amazon platform: design, fulfillment, product listings, enhanced brand content, headline and sponsored ads, MAP violations, and more. Though understanding all aspects of this sales channel can be overwhelming, we break down every aspect of a brand and create a plan to help you achieve success on the Amazon platform. To learn how ZQUARED can help you stay ahead in the Amazon game, request a comprehensive assessment of your Amazon channel from our Amazon Investment Partnership Team. You will receive audit results focused on your listings, category, competitors, reseller landscape and more with an individually-tailored strategic plan designed to capitalize on opportunities.
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ZQ
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Founded in 2010, ZQUARED is ranked as a top 125 AMAZON SELLER with over 75k reviews, 100% of which are positive over the last 12 months. OUR PURPOSE ZQUARED invests in brands who sell on online marketplaces and are poised and ready for growth. WE-COMMERCE Putting the “we” in e-commerce. ZQUARED, we are a team of professionals At who understand the opportunities, risks and challenges of selling online. With nearly 40 years combined experience of e-commerce sales, our primary goal is helping you multiply your success by serving as an extension of your team to maximize results. From distribution to advertising strategies, we have solutions proven to grow your brand.
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YOU GROW, WE GROW—TOGETHER Built on the belief that all boats rise with the tide, our services are based on this principle. ZQUARED invests time, money, effort and energy into brands poised for success with the expectation of a worthwhile result— because we go all-in, growing together and winning when you win.
OUR MISSION Our mission is to invest in brands who sell online and are poised and ready for growth by forming partnerships built on trust and rooted in relationship to maximize value and achieve results.
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OUR VALUES UNPARALLELED CULTURE ZQUARED’s motto is “we—not me”, and we strive to build an unparalleled culture by incorporating this attitude into every aspect of our workplace, empowering a team built on communication and trust with a service-based mindset to get the job done. FIRST-RATE EXECUTION We strive to provide unmatched quality when servicing each of our Brand Partners. By intentionally being proactive, prepared, and in constant pursuit of improvement, our promise hinges on delivering top-quality results in all aspects of our work. ENTHUSIASM Our partnerships are more than transactions—we invest in people and brands who share our drive and enthusiasm, deepening partner relations while collaborating to execute expert-level growth strategies.
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OUR HISTORY With more than a decade of experience, we’ve learned what it takes to win on Amazon: ultimately, people matter more than products, and investing in people first leads to growth and profitable Amazon brands.
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Originally named Advantage Nutrition, ZQUARED brothers and Co-Founders Chad and Zach Cornett set out to establish a brick-and-mortar retail company with an emphasis on health and wellness. They pivoted when they realized e-tail, particularly Amazon, was taking off, recognizing brands needed help navigating the everchanging e-commerce landscape.
Charlie Meyer was ZQUARED’s first official hire, and he’s been with us ever since. Our people are our foundation.
ZQUARED three time its origina basement footprint w and growi 50+.
WORKING OUT OF CHAD’S BASEMENT
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HIRING OUR FIRST EMPLOYEE
PLANT IN ST.
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2019
D has moved es since leaving al spot in Chad’s t, doubling its with each move ing to a staff of
Inc. recognizes ZQUARED as one of the fastest-growing privatelyheld companies in the United States, while the St. Louis Business Journal names ZQUARED on its “Fast 50” list.
TING ROOTS LOUIS
HARD WORK PAYS OFF
2021
AND BEYOND
ZQUARED hires Jeff Bush as President, positioning the company for continued growth.
READ MORE!
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OUR PEOPLE
A united team is always behind something big. We work hard, laugh a lot, push the brainstorming boundaries, and have the best holiday parties in town.
JUL Carter Soberg Carter Soberg has been with ZQUARED since 2018, starting at an entry-level warehouse position. Today, he oversees multiple key components of our Logistics team as Assistant Warehouse Manager. He manages our warehouse personnel and outbound product sent to Amazon FBA channels. Recently, Carter has been focused on improving the number of units our operation can ship to Amazon on a daily basis. He is always looking for ways to streamline our outbound process. Carter is also a HUGE Dallas Cowboys fan!
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OUR CULTURE Founded by brothers, ZQUARED’s roots as a family-oriented company run deep. Our “we—not me” team works together to achieve common goals while supporting one another individually, both professionally and personally. We intentionally invest in what matters most, and people are our greatest investment.
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MEET THE TEAM Meet the people at ZQUARED and share the vision and values of our community. We’re driven by the idea that results are driven by relationships, diligence and enthusiasm.
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Charlie’s Corner WHAT IS LEAN? At ZQUARED, Lean has become a way of life. It’s not something we simply do at work anymore. As a team, we have adopted the mindset of getting “two percent better” every day – which over time, has added up to profound changes!
ABOUT CHARLIE General Manager Charlie Meyer joined ZQUARED as the founders’ first full-time hire in 2010. Charlie shines brightest when making investments in ZQUARED’s most valuable asset - its people. Charlie’s Corner offers a glimpse into his world, sharing his favorite Lean Improvement insights while offering a peek behind ZQUARED’s curtains.
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JULY & AUGUST LEAN IMPROVEMENTS
ZQUARED LEAN In 2016, Joe Byers joined our team from General Motors Automotive facility. He and I took a tour of GM to learn from their finetuned efficiencies and productivity workflows. Around the same time, a workplace neighbor shared “2 Second Lean” with me – a book about one piece flow, fixing what bugs you, and eliminating waste. These two events propelled our team into a new mindset, as we began to implement daily “Lean Improvements”. Making daily two-second improvements continuously add up, and over time can have exponential results.
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ONE PIECE FLOW Setting up your daily processes so that each step connects to the previous one can save time and energy. Begin making efforts to avoid any form of backtracking, and focus on a continual workflow without interruptions. Step 1 should seamlessly lead into step 2, which flows into step 3, and so on.
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FIX WHAT BUGS YOU A critical component of the Lean mentality is addressing the little things that irritate you and potentially slow you down. For example, at home, where do you keep your favorite coffee mug? Is it conveniently stowed in the cabinet by the coffee pot, or do you have to walk to the other side of the kitchen to find your cup? Fix what bugs you!
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ELIMINATE WASTE Are you spending your time, energy, or money on things that boil down to a waste of time in the long run? Are there things you can outsource, reconfigure, or eliminate altogether to improve your efficiency? Look for ways to “cut the fat” and eliminate the tasks and items that are wasting your resources.
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JOIN OUR TEAM
We’re looking for enthusiastic team players to help us continue building the industry’s leading investment-minded Amazon partner.
Open Positions WAREHOUSE ASSOCIATE If you’re interested in joining our fun, unique and energetic warehouse team, we are actively seeking hardworking Warehouse Associates. Job responsibilities include preparing customer orders, receiving and counting incoming products, and inventory reallocation. Must be able to lift up to 45 lbs routinely throughout the workday.
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Reach out to Charlie Meyer for more information: charlie@zquared.com
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We provide solutions for managing all aspects of the Amazon platform • Multiply Your Brand’s Success
ZQUARED / [skwaird] (noun)
Get in Touch!
Events! SuperZoo
August 23-25, 2022 Las Vegas, NV partners@zquared.com
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NASC Show October 2-4, 2022 Las Vegas, NV
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Check the Website If you’re attending either of these upcoming events, let us know! We’d love to see you there. 27
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