ccording to online statistics, 92% of those who have ever bought anything online have purchased an item from Amazon. While it might be interesting for you to learn what motivated you to purchase one item over another, the people who are most excited about finding out what listing on Amazon gets customers to purchase an item more quickly are Amazon sellers themselves.
Enter Mark (Chaim) Casey, an Amazon listing and branding maven.
After Mark built up a beauty brand on Amazon and gave a “surprise” speech at an Amazon event, people started asking him to help them with their Amazon listings. He soon went out on his own and founded the House of AMZ, an agency that helps brands create the perfect listing and branding on Amazon.
Today, Mark’s clients include well-known companies such as Clorox, Land’s End, Sony and Magic Mill. Mark’s services cover the full spectrum of a solid listing, from photography to design, branding, packaging and SEO copywriting.
After this deep dive into the world of Amazon listings, you’ll probably look at an Amazon purchase a little differently. Enjoy!
—Nesanel
Both my parents are Sefardi, born in Iran. They moved to the US, and I was born and grew up here. I went to yeshivah at Darchei and then the Mir in Brooklyn. For beis midrash, I went to Tiferes Torah in Monsey, where I learned for about six years; I learned and worked part time until I got married.
“I speak Farsi; I even gave a speech all about Amazon in Farsi, which was a very cool experience. My father is in real estate development and art development for buildings. He was always in the business world. My mother works in a store that sells fur coats and different types of high-end clothing.
“I was always hustling. I wasn’t involved in my father’s business, I would call his clients and ask if they needed a printer; if they said yes, I’d call Best Buy, order a printer sent directly to them using my father’s credit card, and collect the money from them in cash with a slight markup. After a while, my father caught on.
“I gave driving lessons to make a couple of bucks. I grew up with money, baruch Hashem, but when I started my career, I was very much on my own, without my father’s money.
“My first job was working for a beauty brand, building up their Amazon business. Though I had no experience on that platform, I rebuilt their entire presence on it. I was hired because of my creativity and outside-the-box thinking. The person who did the hiring said that it worked very well on Amazon. He was a random connection through a family friend. He’s a frum person from Los Angeles, and all his products are in CVS, Walmart and Target.
“I learned about algorithms on Amazon and what people look for in a click, what makes something stand out on a product page, and the psychology behind it—what shoppers look for, how they think, where their eyes look first, second and third. I took these ideas and applied them to Amazon. I thought of every single way we could put products up and talk to the end consumer.
“Another factor is putting different sets together. You have to look at what people buy at the same time. Take, for example, essential oils. You group together the top three essential oils and make them into a relaxation package, or you can create a cold-and-flu package: Others may be selling lemon, eucalyptus and mint separately. We put them all together and marketed it for people with colds. We were able to charge more, because someone who has a cold will buy all three at once if that’s what’s going to heal his cold.
“The next step in my career was real siyata dishmaya. Even though I was only working at one company, I was immersed in the Amazon world. I was active on every frum Amazon group, blog and forum. I would share my ideas on these Amazon groups on how to make listings stand out. It turned out that my ideas were working for people. For example, everything is made in China, so as a way to get the consumer’s attention, I wrote ‘Designed in USA.’ People who copied that saw their conversions shoot up.
Then I was asked to speak at an Amazon event run by the Hope Organization. I wasn’t a public speaker, and I originally said no, but my boss told me to do it. At that point people had already had begun hearing about what I was doing on Amazon.
“We were expecting about 40 people at the event, but evidently people wanted to hear what I had to say, and 120 people showed up.
“After the event, my career really picked up. People wanted to hear more, and they wanted to hire me to help their Amazon businesses. I realized I’d be better off working for myself. So I parted ways with the branding company and started my own agency, offering my services to others. I’m still very good friends with the people at that company and still do some projects for them.
“I reached out to designers; they were a good source for recommendations. They referred us to their clients as a company that could help them with their overall listings and branding.
“We slowly started building a team of designers, copywriters, people who did photography and videography, and other creative people, making us a creative agency that fills in the gap between graphic design and Amazon. You can hire a designer and a photographer to work on your product images, and you can ask anyone to work on the wording and layout of your listings, but there aren’t many companies that combine all these services.
“That’s something we’ve worked really hard on, and baruch Hashem, we’ve built this amazing team that understands both sides of the transaction.”
Did you do anything entrepreneurial as a teenager other than the things you mentioned earlier?
I’ve been a graphic designer since I was 12 or 13. I created menus, flyers and designs. I’d walk into restaurants and ask if I could design their whole menu at no charge. Who would say no to such an offer? Once the design was done I’d tell them, “Okay, now you need to print it.” I made all my money on the printing job. Then, if they needed more design, I locked them in. I always got continued business that way.
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