We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Andrew Morgans. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Andrew below.
Hi Andrew, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start big picture – what are some of biggest trends you are seeing in your industry?
The ecommerce industry is always changing so fast, that your approach to ecommerce also has to be adapting just as quickly. I have been working in the e-commerce industry and building brands for the last 15 years. What started as e-commerce as an industry, has now grown into the Amazon marketplace industry for me. And after the Amazon marketplace, the industry of “marketplaces” – plural is now a term as well. Brands and online sellers are now looking at marketplaces all of the different channels for online selling. It’s gotten more depth every year since its conception. Brands now need to think about their customers not just being online, but where are they shopping and where should they reach them. The marketplaces contains the likes of: Chewy, Etsy, TikTok Shop, Walmart, Target, Amazon, eBay, Wayfair, Home Depot, Instacart, and even more recently the additions of Temu, and Shein.
A brand needs to consider which marketplaces are the most important for their brand, and getting marketplace support or experience to truly market well on each of these marketplaces. They each have their own nuances, and learning curves. I started my company Marknology nearly 10 years ago to solve for these very pain points. Brands are finding growth, but expanding their product reach, to where their customers are.
Currently the hottest trend that online sellers and brands are focusing on are TikTok Shop, and right behind that Temu and Shein. At Marknology, being an Amazon first agency, we have been spending a lot of time, and having even more success with brands on TikTok Shop.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
With 15+ years in online retail and eCommerce consulting, me and my team specialize in building a strong presence across Amazon and other marketplaces like Walmart and eBay. We create consistent brand pages, tailor product offerings by platform, and implement dynamic pricing strategies to stay competitive.
Our expertise includes leveraging marketplace-specific advertising to boost visibility and traffic, while streamlining inventory and fulfillment for fast, reliable delivery. We continuously analyze data to optimize performance, ensuring compliance with platform regulations and driving profitability across all channels.
I am a bootstrapped entrepreneur that just wanted to travel and experience the world and that drove me to really want to win at entrepreneurship. In the beginning, I started freelancing on the side, as I worked as an ecommerce manager in my 9-5. I happened to be at the very start of a trending industry called Amazon. 15 years later, I’m a speaker and thought leader, and teach at conferences around the globe. I have a team of 30 at Marknology, and together we’ve built 7 brands that we continue to manage and grow, and have worked with some of the best brands in the world on Amazon. Brands in the top fortune 50, but also with the mom and pop brands that helped us sharpen our skills.
I’m proud of the fact that I am an ethical businessman. I’m proud of the fact that I’m the first to get a college degree in my family, and that I was given two masters certificates along this ride of entrepreneurship. I’m proud of my team, and their committment to being excellent, and kind. I’m proud of all the people out there that dream big and follow through. The people that are carrying mountains of stress, and still greet the world with a smile and kindness. I’m proud of the work we do at Marknology, and all of the brands we have helped grow and thrive on Amazon
Can you talk to us about your experience with buying businesses?
Yes I have acquired several businesses and have quite a few stories, I’ll keep it to just one!
The business I bought this year was a pet supplement company. It’s 7 years old, and I was hired originally to build this brand with the owner Ben. At that time I was just a consultant hired to do it. Fast forward 7 years, we have a brand with thousands of followers on social media, we’re selling in three countries, have hundreds of monthly recurring customers, and a business doing over 7 figures on Amazon. Ben is in a point in his life where he wants to step away from the business day to day and approached me about preparing the brand to exit. I suggested that I buy the brand from him as it was an easy decision. I have been pouring my heart into the brand for the last 7 years and know all the ins and outs of the business. The acquisition was built around already established trust, and a love for each other as partners and friends. I brought cash out of pocket, but a minimal amount to the deal. As Marknology is already running every aspect of the business at the time of acquisiton. Warehousing and fulfillment, D2C, Marketplace management like Chewy, TikTokShop, Walmart and Amazon and social media and content creation across all channels. Outside of the cash up front, we agreed on terms that centered around payments for the brand over time as we sell through current inventory (Using Profits from managing it to pay back Ben). It made the burden of the acquisition painless, and allowed us to instead focus on improving the brand and applying fixes to certain areas of the business (Like product development) instead with our capital. Overall my favorite acquisition as this brand and its founder are very dear to my heart. Ben was one of the first customers, and people to believe in me and my team, and this story brings it all full circle for me.
Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?
There has been several times where I almost missed payroll. Thankfully each time by some miracle I was able to make payroll each time. One time that comes to mind was in 2019. It was in Q4, somewhere around thanksgiving. I was moving to a more automated bookkeeper software, and team. My first bookkeeping team was great, but they lacked modern software and I wanted to be more systemized and automated so I made the move to a software called Gusto. What the team didn’t tell me was all of the differences I should be expecting. For example, it would take payroll out of my account, nearly a week before actual payroll and hold those funds. Additionally around holidays, it would take it out even earlier to account for the holidays. To make matters worse, it was around the holidays. If you’ve ever had billing to companies in Q4, you’ll notice that they take all of their holidays and vacation time toward the end of the year. So you have long holiday weeks, you also have people out of town, and I had this new payroll company that was taking essentially 2X payroll each time around these specific weeks. I was in a perfect storm. A few things happened, and old client that owed me 15K, reached out randomly and said they were going to get that resolved. As well, I pressed on AR and messaged clients asking if they could help me out with invoice (transparently just said I’m in a cash flow situation and need help). On top of that, I leaned on my credit cards, to help me take as much of the cash burden as I could on certain recurring expenses in the business that could go on a card versus out of pocket cash. It was a super stressful time but taught me a lot around cash flow management.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://andrewmorgans.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewmorgans/?hl=en
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amorgans/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Marknology
Image Credits
Marknology