Chris Yadon is the Executive Director of The Younique Foundation, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public charity, funded through a combination of public donations and private donors, who holds offices in Lehi, Utah and in Alpharetta, Georgia.

Chris has previously held leadership positions in the startup tech and nonprofit industries and his expertise centers on heightening awareness to the epidemic of sexual abuse, as well as educating the public on best practices for prevention and the healing services available to survivors. He has been featured across several media platforms where he is often requested to contribute as an industry thought leader and expert.

A few months ago, the Buy Box Experts team had the opportunity to visit The Younique Foundation in Lehi, Utah. The Younique Foundation is an organization that helps women and kids who have undergone childhood sexual abuse. They also help parents become more educated about such kinds of issues to protect their kids. 

The Buy Box Experts team helped in making blankets which are used by the women in their retreats, and they were also told about the foundation's Defend Innocence project. 

Eric Stopper invited Chris Yadon from The Younique Foundation to talk about their work in addressing sexual abuse issues among women and children. Chris shares grim statistics on sexual abuse in the US, how the foundation helps the victims, success stories from the women they have helped, and what parents and the broader community can do to prevent and address sexual abuse. Stay tuned.

Hasan Hasmani is the co-founder and CEO of Underdog Games. The company's flagship product is a game called Trekking the National Parks which takes about 60 minutes to play. The game is a perfect mix between board games and the outdoors, and has been the winner of several board game awards and boasts of over a thousand 5-star reviews on Amazon. 

Hasan holds a Bachelor's degree in Accounting from the State University of New York at Binghamton.

One of the toughest categories on Amazon to break into is the one for board games. A good number of people go in and drive sales through PPC, but Hasan Hasmani and his business partner chose to go a different route. They chose to focus on national parks as the niche for their board game and this has allowed their brand to grow organically on Amazon and get more than 1,000 reviews.

In addition to organic searches, Hasan and his business partners have learned the best Facebook Ads strategies through which they engage potential customers and drive sales for their board games.

On this episode of the Buy Box Experts podcast, Hasan Hasmani gets interviewed by Eric Stopper about starting up his board game business and growing it on Amazon. He explains how he and his business partner, Charlie Bink, came up with the idea of a board game involving national parks, their marketing strategies, how they scaled the business on Amazon, and the next game up their sleeve. Stay tuned.

Gene Zelek is a Partner with Taft Stettinius and Hollister Law Firm. Right after graduating from Law, he practiced as a marketing lawyer at a big law firm prior to working as an in-house at Quaker Oats where he also became a brand manager. When he went back to practicing law, he focused on Marketing Law including antitrust, pricing and distribution, and brand protection. Since 1989, Gene has helped design, implement, and enforce more than 470 successful policies addressing minimum resale price, minimum advertised price, and their variants in diverse industries for both consumer and industrial products. 

Gene is co-author of the seminal 2003 antitrust article Establishing and Maintaining an Effective Resale Price Policy: A Colgate How-To, as well as the 2020 Harvard Business Review article, Pricing Policies that Protect Your Brand: How to Prevent Unauthorized Discounting.

There has been rapid growth in the use of online selling channels by brands over the last 20 years. While their views and management of online channels have evolved, there is still work to be done to ensure brand policies are followed across these channels. And these online channels offer greater transparency in pricing which poses benefits and disadvantages to brands and to an extent, to consumers as well.

In this episode, James Thomson interviews Gene Zelek of Taft Stettinius and Hollister Law firm about using pricing policies that solidifies channel management both online and offline. They talk about how pricing transparency brought about by online marketplaces has impacted brands, the various challenges brands face due to pricing discrepancies, and best practices for enforcing pricing policies. Stay tuned.

Justin Meats is the VP of Product at PriceSpider, a SaaS firm that offers manufacturers and brands the necessary reporting to attract their performance across multiple online marketplaces, including customer conversion and brand integrity. Justin has been building online brands and software products for more than 20 years, and has seen many changes in the way that brands address their businesses online. 

Justin graduated summa cum laude from Quincy University with a Double Major in Computer Science and Broadcast Communication.

Many companies have started to embrace online marketplaces and distribution channels over the years and a lot of them face one common challenge: getting accurate information of their product's performance and branding online. These vital information can help them zero in on where to best sell their products and how to improve pricing and marketing strategies which is why having the capacity to get access to this data is crucial to their success in the ecommerce space.

Adequate and accurate information can increase a brand's ability to grow and scale. It can also help a brand better understand its customers' purchasing behavior and preferences which ultimately helps increase product conversion rates and drive more sales.

Justin Meats is an ecommerce & SaaS expert and he joins James Thomson in this episode of the Buy Box Experts podcast to talk about the best practices for tracking products and branding online. Justin gives an insider look on how PriceSpider can help brands address their concerns in the ecommerce space, how to best avoid the common mistakes brands make in their distribution strategies, and he also shares top tips on product pricing and alignment of brand activities online and offline. Stay tuned.

Dale Majors is the Founder and CEO of Venture Anyway, a unique coaching program that he developed while working and consulting with business owners all over the United States. He is an accomplished entrepreneur, e-commerce guru, adventurer, and personal development influencer who has built an e-commerce company, Bikewagon, and grew it to $10 million in revenue before selling it in 2016. 

Dale Majors has created and moderates a mastermind group course for entrepreneurs which helps them overcome the obstacles that block their success. He helps them own their businesses instead of the other way around. 

Entrepreneurship is a difficult journey, and founders are often met with different kinds of challenges every day. But with the right skills and mindset, and from learning from peers in the industry, it's not impossible to see your venture become a success story. Dale Majors, CEO of Venture Way, knows this firsthand from his own experience as a business owner who grew and sold his company that was generating over $10 million in revenue.

Dale has since moved on to provide consulting services to other businesses in order to help them make their own ventures successful. He has created a mastermind group that provides an avenue for business owners to meet and learn from fellow entrepreneurs. He believes in having systems and processes in place to successfully run a profitable business.

In this week's episode of Buy Box Experts, Dale Majors joins Eric Stopper to talk about the importance of focusing more on processes in business to achieve great results. He also talks about the successes of his businesses, why entrepreneurs need to create free time for themselves everyday, his mastermind group course, and his coaching strategy. Stay tuned.

Amy Stellhorn is the Founder and CEO of Big Monocle, an award-inning, socially-minded creative and branding agency headquartered in Silicon Valley. She describes her team as a multi-platform problem solving team. She is a designer, a creator, a marketing expert and a friend.

Amy is also the co-founder of the Sego Awards™, Utah's first awards for female entrepreneurs, and an official member of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC).

Your business' brand is not your logo or trademark. It is what customers feel towards you and your brand the moment they see your name. See, you are not in control of what your brand is; your customers are. But what you can do is shape your brand's image in the eyes of your customers and make it more appealing to them. 

But according to Amy Stellhorn, branding and even rebranding involves a number of steps to make sure that there's a need for it and that it is suitable to what you need as a company, what your customers' needs are, and how it compares to those of your competitors.

Join Eric Stopper in this episode of the Buy Box Experts podcast as he interviews Amy Stellhorn, a branding expert and founder of Big Monocle, about her thoughts on how companies should brand themselves in the digital age of Amazon. She will be talking about what branding means, the importance of first product impressions, how brands in saturated markets can stand out, and how to increase product conversion rates. Stay tuned.

Paul Jarrett is the CEO and Co-Founder of Bulu Group, the industry authority in creating private-label subscription box businesses for the world's largest retail brands. He has worked with brands like Disney, Discovery Channel, and GNC, as well as dozens of smaller brands that have used the service to expand distribution and create higher customer awareness. 

Paul has more than 15 years of online experience doing everything from working at ad agencies, renting textbooks online, and building his own online brands. Recently, Bulu Group was featured on PBS as a startup program.

Starting up a subscription box business comes with a lot of challenges ranging from finding the best model for your business to managing inventory, pricing, marketing, all the way up to supply and logistics. And probably the biggest cause for concern is how to find the right team to help manage your inventory.

However, brands don't have to do everything by themselves because they can get outsourced help with fulfillment and inventory management that will not only save them time, and resources, it also helps them have the capacity to focus on other aspects needed to grow their business.

Join James Thomson in this episode of the Buy Box Experts podcast as he interviews Paul Jarrett of Bulu Group about how brands can leverage the power of subscription boxes to become more relevant to consumers. Listen to their conversation about why customers love getting subscription boxes, the difference in the subscription box preferences of men and women, customer acquisition costs, and the best tips on how to manage your inventory. Stay tuned. 

Ben Rohr is the CEO of Meluka Australia, an Australian health and wellness firm that grows and manufactures tea tree oil, honey, and probiotic concentrate. Prior to Meluka Australia, Ben has been an investment director, a strategic property consultant, and co-founder of a successful retail coffee and roasting chain in Australia. He also worked in New York at Mezco, a family investment company and DTZ in Australia (UGL Services).

Meluka Australia and Buy Box Experts work together on Meluka Australia's Amazon US channel. 

When the company that supplies Australia's tea tree honey decided to promote its products in the US market, one of the first distribution channels it went for was Amazon. Meluka Australia produces premium organic products and despite the perceptions Australians have about Amazon US, the company decided to give it a try.

However, Ben Rohr, the CEO of the company, soon realized that his team did not have the necessary skill set to effectively manage this new distribution platform. He sought advice from Buy Box Experts and now, their products have broken into the US market like wildfire.

In this episode of Buy Box Experts, James Thomson interviews Ben Rohr of Meluka Australia about what sets their tea tree honey apart from other products in the market, why they decided to enter the US market through Amazon, the challenges they faced in the process, and why he believes that if you want to establish on Amazon, you need someone like Buy Box Experts to help you navigate the process seamlessly. Stay tuned.

Jim Knight the Vice President of e-Commerce at Spangler Candy, the company that supplies America's favorite giveaway candy. For nearly 25 years, Jim has been with Spangler Candy leading marketing and ecommerce initiatives to sell bulk candy. The company's well-known brands include Dum Dums, Saf-T-Pops, Spangler Candy Canes, Spangler Circus Peanuts, Necco Wafers, Sweethearts, and Canada Mints. Spangler Candy and Buy Box Experts work together on Strangler's Amazon channel.

Jim holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Management Systems from Kettering University and an MBA from Indiana University - Kelley School of Business.

Spangler Candy has been in the business of selling candy for many years and their decision to enter the Amazon marketplace was the logical next step in growing their company. Consumer behavior has evolved through the years and companies need to stay on top of the game in order to remain competitive and relevant -- and this includes embracing ecommerce.

Being in charge of ecommerce at Spangler Candy, Jim Knight has had his fair share of challenges. But he managed to push the envelope and drive sales for their company despite the initial hurdles; they now have a strong following in the ecommerce space and he says, there's a thing or two you can learn from their experience.

Join James Thomson as he interviews Jim Knight of Spangler Candy in this week's episode of Buy Box Experts where they talk about the growth and evolution of  Spangler Candy, how selling on Amazon has impacted the company's business, how Jim ensures that the company maintains its branding and reputation in the candy industry, and what other businesses who are looking to join Amazon can learn from their experience. Stay tuned.

Liz Fickenscher is the Industry Liaison at eComEngine where she gets to interact with clients and thought leaders in the eCommerce world. She is an eCommerce specialist, a collector, writer, speaker, and a friend. She also hosts eComEngine webinars on YouTube, writes blog posts, and attends various industry events.

Liz holds a BA in English and MA in Literature from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Amazon sellers are aware that good reviews for their product listings can potentially drive large volumes of sales. But for new sellers and those who have been in the market a while but have yet to make a single sale, getting reviews and that elusive five-star rating doesn't come easy. Some sellers end up soliciting reviews illegally just to gain traction on their channel, but should Amazon catch up with them, they risk having their accounts suspended and product listings taken down.

So what is the best way to get relevant reviews on Amazon the right way? 

Liz Fickenscher is an eCommerce specialist and she is this episode's featured guest on Buy Box Experts. Tune in as Eric Stopper interviews Liz about the best strategies Amazon sellers can use to get product reviews, how Amazon's Request a Review button works and why they open packages before sending them out. Also, discover the power of a single review and the best tips on how to retarget buyers after they've made a purchase. Stay tuned.