Retail got Amazoned. Is that GOOD news for microbrands?

Amazon is the beast, the bear, the devil that controls over half of digital retail in America. And they've copied successful products for Amazon Essentials ... because they see all the data. But could that be a great thing for brands? Perch has raised over $900 million to buy, build, and grow microbrands, mostly on Amazon. And executive Mike Frekey is pretty pumped about it, calling Amazon the largest platform brands have at their disposal for growth. We chat about the future of retail, e-commerce, direct-to-consumer (DTC), and what Amazon is becoming. Also about shadow ratings on Amazon, advertising on Amazon and if that's pay-to-play, microbrands and their future, and much, much more. Links: Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/ Guest: Perch https://www.perchhq.com/ Sponsor: Serial Marketers https://serialmarketers.net  TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/ Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/  Subscribe to the podcast: https://anchor.fm/techfirst  Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1 Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier 0:00 Largest platform for growth 1:31 Microbrands at scale 3:57 Sponsored by Serial Marketers 4:30 Future of retail 6:10 Retail employees = engineers 8:15 Invisible Amazon product ratings 9:38 What is Amazon for brands? 13:50 Amazon Ads: Pay to play? 18:44 The future of brands