4 ms·

What is your target audience and what do you sell them?

j2kun 12d ago
From their blog [1] "I acquire e-commerce brands that sell on Amazon" Honestly it sounds like the OP is part of the machine that makes Amazon such a trashy marketplace these days. [1]: https://theautomatedoperator.substack.com/p/15-ways-im-using-ai-to-manage-my https://theautomatedoperator.substack.com/p/15-ways-im-using...
- dools 12d ago
  One step up from “vending machine” as far as business complexity goes.
  - idopmstuff 12d ago
    I suspect you mean this as an insult, but it's not too far off. That was one of the main points of the business - each one is simple to run, so I can manage a lot of them. And that was before AI got really good. Anyway, I'm sure the app you makes that lets you get a phone number that can send image messages is very complex, and I think that's very nice.
- idopmstuff 12d ago
  Well that's not very nice! And for the record, I only buy brands that sell high-quality products. Marketing and operations I can fix, but if the stuff they sell is no good, there's no point.
  - deleted 11d ago
    [deleted]
  - cellu 11d ago
    How do you identify them and choose what to invest in? I guess you do not really have access to their technical specifics or sales volumes.
    - idopmstuff 11d ago
      Of course I do. No one buying a business would do it without that information. I get their P&L before I even get on a call with them, and during the due diligence period I get access to Shopify, Amazon, etc. to get first-party data to validate their claims.
  - j2kun 11d ago
    How do you inspect the quality of the products you're selling? From your blog it appears you just read through their sales information, and don't ever see or handle the product. And yet we all know Amazon sellers juice their sales metrics and ratings with scammy practices, and now I see selling their brand is part of the incentive. And more, you are AI-generating listings and images for your acquired brands. You're filling Amazon with slop, and automating the process. You should seriously reflect on your role in polluting these marketplaces.
    - idopmstuff 10d ago
      > How do you inspect the quality of the products you're selling? I buy them off of Amazon. But that doesn't really matter that much compared to the history of reviews. > And yet we all know Amazon sellers juice their sales metrics and ratings with scammy practices, and now I see selling their brand is part of the incentive. You just read that online and have the most superficial understanding possible. I know what I'm doing, and it's trivial to avoid this kind of thing. > And more, you are AI-generating listings and images for your acquired brands. You're filling Amazon with slop, and automating the process. Bad criticism. There's nothing wrong with an AI-generated listing if the content accurately represents the product. I have purchased brands that had horrendous images because the seller tried to Photoshop them but wasn't good at it. Replaced those with high-quality AI images, and everyone wins - the customer better understands what the product is, and I get more sales. It's only slop if you just think everything AI-generated is slop regardless of what it is or how it's used, and if so that's too intellectually lazy of a position for me to try to disabuse you of. > You should seriously reflect on your role in polluting these marketplaces. Help me out with that. What's my role? I buy brands that sell high-quality products, increase the quality of the content and marketing, and make money selling them. The sellers of these brands are frequently people who started them on the side but don't have the time to continue, and I get them a fair price in exchange for their businesses. So what is the pollution that I'm causing?

j2kun 12d ago

From their blog [1] "I acquire e-commerce brands that sell on Amazon" Honestly it sounds like the OP is part of the machine that makes Amazon such a trashy marketplace these days. [1]: https://theautomatedoperator.substack.com/p/15-ways-im-using-ai-to-manage-my https://theautomatedoperator.substack.com/p/15-ways-im-using...

dools 12d ago
One step up from “vending machine” as far as business complexity goes.
- idopmstuff 12d ago
  I suspect you mean this as an insult, but it's not too far off. That was one of the main points of the business - each one is simple to run, so I can manage a lot of them. And that was before AI got really good. Anyway, I'm sure the app you makes that lets you get a phone number that can send image messages is very complex, and I think that's very nice.
idopmstuff 12d ago
Well that's not very nice! And for the record, I only buy brands that sell high-quality products. Marketing and operations I can fix, but if the stuff they sell is no good, there's no point.
- deleted 11d ago
  [deleted]
- cellu 11d ago
  How do you identify them and choose what to invest in? I guess you do not really have access to their technical specifics or sales volumes.
  - idopmstuff 11d ago
    Of course I do. No one buying a business would do it without that information. I get their P&L before I even get on a call with them, and during the due diligence period I get access to Shopify, Amazon, etc. to get first-party data to validate their claims.
- j2kun 11d ago
  How do you inspect the quality of the products you're selling? From your blog it appears you just read through their sales information, and don't ever see or handle the product. And yet we all know Amazon sellers juice their sales metrics and ratings with scammy practices, and now I see selling their brand is part of the incentive. And more, you are AI-generating listings and images for your acquired brands. You're filling Amazon with slop, and automating the process. You should seriously reflect on your role in polluting these marketplaces.
  - idopmstuff 10d ago
    > How do you inspect the quality of the products you're selling? I buy them off of Amazon. But that doesn't really matter that much compared to the history of reviews. > And yet we all know Amazon sellers juice their sales metrics and ratings with scammy practices, and now I see selling their brand is part of the incentive. You just read that online and have the most superficial understanding possible. I know what I'm doing, and it's trivial to avoid this kind of thing. > And more, you are AI-generating listings and images for your acquired brands. You're filling Amazon with slop, and automating the process. Bad criticism. There's nothing wrong with an AI-generated listing if the content accurately represents the product. I have purchased brands that had horrendous images because the seller tried to Photoshop them but wasn't good at it. Replaced those with high-quality AI images, and everyone wins - the customer better understands what the product is, and I get more sales. It's only slop if you just think everything AI-generated is slop regardless of what it is or how it's used, and if so that's too intellectually lazy of a position for me to try to disabuse you of. > You should seriously reflect on your role in polluting these marketplaces. Help me out with that. What's my role? I buy brands that sell high-quality products, increase the quality of the content and marketing, and make money selling them. The sellers of these brands are frequently people who started them on the side but don't have the time to continue, and I get them a fair price in exchange for their businesses. So what is the pollution that I'm causing?