The Surprising Duo Powering Explosive Ecommerce Growth You Didn’t See Coming

Ever wonder why your Amazon sales are trickling in while your website traffic feels like a ghost town? Sean Stone, the brain behind Spillover Commerce, throws down a knockout strategy that might just shake up your ecommerce game. It’s a savvy one-two punch: first, build a profitable, branded Shopify site that’s unmistakably yours — then, cleverly capture that spillover traffic buzzing on Amazon. Sounds simple, right? But here’s the kicker: Amazon isn’t the villain dragging down your brand; it’s that trusty but tricky backdrop you’ve got to learn to play alongside. Sean’s been in the Amazon trenches since 2017 and now preaches balancing your domain’s soul with Amazon’s massive customer trust, treating the marketplace not as a main stage but a powerful side gig. Intrigued about how to juggle platform-specific offers or why Gymreapers is crushing wrist strap sales despite insane competition? Let’s dive into the playbook of blending branding with marketplace savvy—because in today’s ecommerce battle, if you don’t work both fronts, you’re missing the knockout punch. LEARN MORE.

Sean Stone advises ecommerce merchants to adopt a one-two punch for growth. Punch one is developing a profitable, branded site. Punch two is converting the likely spillover traffic on Amazon.

That tactic inspired the name of Sean’s latest agency, Spillover Commerce. He’s a longtime Amazon consultant who now says brands should focus on their own domains while selling Amazon-only items secondarily.

In our recent conversation, he addressed one-two strategies, commodity goods, traffic sources, and more. The entire audio is embedded below. The transcript is edited for claryiy and length.

Eric Bandholz: What do you do?

Sean Stone: I’m the founder of an Amazon-focused agency launched in 2021 as Stone’s Goods and rebranded in January of this year to Spillover Commerce. I’ve managed Amazon advertising campaigns for clients since 2017, starting as an agency employee and then, again, with my own firm.

The best way to grow an ecommerce business is to launch a profitable Shopify website and then leverage the spillover traffic that inevitably occurs on Amazon. It’s a powerful one-two punch.

We work with Shopify brands that struggle on Amazon but know it’s too big to ignore. We also work with Amazon-first sellers that want to diversify.

Consumers love Amazon shipping. They trust it. If something doesn’t work out, they’ll be taken care of and made whole. And that trust is insurmountable for many brands.

We recommend treating Amazon as a secondary channel, where shoppers can purchase a version of a product, not the full solution, or maybe only one of many items that you sell. Regardless, merchants need to have something on Amazon. People trust the shipping too much.

Bandholz: It makes sense. But the only people making money on Amazon are selling cheap, junk products. The shipping is good, but the entire experience trashes my brand. I don’t see how merchants can build something of value on Amazon. Many Amazon sellers are data- and spreadsheet-savvy. They aren’t trying to build a brand.

Stone: We try to bridge that gap. Success on Amazon and on Shopify comes from different skill sets. What wins on Amazon is the opposite of what wins on Shopify and Meta. But many merchants excel at both. That’s the one-two punch that can dominate, not being trapped by one platform over another.

Bandholz: Says I own a direct-to-consumer brand launching an ABC widget. I want my domain to drive 60% of revenue, with Amazon generating 40%. What’s my strategy?

Stone: Create platform-specific offers. Don’t sell the same thing in both places. Whatever you sell on Amazon will be price-compared against similar items. Create an offer that makes sense for that environment. Perhaps it’s a lesser version of what you sell on your domain.

Provide incentives for shoppers to buy directly from your site. Maybe it’s a full bundle with the full experience.

Take weightlifters’ wrist straps, for example. It’s a commoditized product. Shoppers have many choices on Amazon, all more or less the same. Yet a company called Gymreapers generates $10,000 in revenue from wrist straps on Amazon each month. That’s a ton of wrist straps, even though competitors sell the same thing for half the price.

Gymreapers’ strategy is obvious. They get huge sales on Amazon from roughly 200 Facebook ads. I checked last week in the Facebook Ads Library. They also use TikTok influencers.

But the Amazon sales are indirect. The Meta ads are for high-priced powerlifting bundles, such as belts, knee and elbow straps, and deadlift straps, all sold on Gymreapers.com.  People seeking only wrist straps are searching for “Gymreapers” and landing on Amazon.

So they sell the same product for 50% more than Chinese competitors by having a strong brand and external traffic sources.

Bandholz: What about bundling on Amazon to acquire customers?

Stone: Bundling on Amazon doesn’t really work. What drives organic ranking on Amazon is the conversion rate. So in our experience, the best play is to have a high-converting offer on a product detail page and drive as many organic sales as possible. You can certainly bundle on Amazon, but it won’t perform as well as a single item with a strong conversion rate.

Bandholz: How should Amazon sellers prioritize building a brand beyond the marketplace?

Stone: This is our sweet spot. The sellers should focus on three things.

First, they need Amazon product-market fit, which they presumably have if they’ve been selling there for years. Then they need a Meta market fit, which is our way of saying a product that benefits from Meta advertising. Don’t advertise a mop on Meta, but do advertise a cool robot vacuum cleaner.

Third, the sellers need platform-specific offers.

Bandholz: Without data, how can Amazon sellers identify offsite opportunities?

Stone: All sellers — on Amazon or otherwise — should have a website. People will buy products from the site (even if your priority is Amazon), just not a lot of them. Then engage with those customers. Ask about their preferences, such as likes and dislikes on Amazon as well as product suggestions. Just think creatively.

Bandholz: Where can people follow you, hire you, or reach out?

Stone: Our site is SpilloverCommerce.com. I’m also on LinkedIn.