Blog
My 80/20 Twitter Approach
You can’t pick up an Ecommerce magazine or read a blog nowadays without being told that you need a social media strategy. At this point you’d think that every online store has one, but over the last few weeks I’ve been collecting data on hundreds of online stores (who we’ll be contacting soon to pitch our product to) and I’ve been stunned with the amount of stores that don’t have a Twitter and Facebook account. If that’s you, i’m not here to judge you. Even after reading Gary Vaynerchuk’s book The Thank You Economy, it still wasn’t until I...
read moreBook Review: The Start-Up Of You, By Reid Hoffman & Ben Casnocha
Although The Start-Up Of You is primarily directed towards those trying to advance in their career, I was interested in what Reid Hoffman, the co-founder and chairman of LinkedIn would have to say in a book. And even though I’m not looking to land a job with someone, there were still some really useful tips in here, as well as some very interesting stories from his Silicon Valley experiences. The authors try to draw parallels between start-up companies and you as an individual, and then show you what to focus on in order to succeed. There are...
read moreFirst Impressions of Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, and Amazon.it From a US Seller
I recently wrote a post about my first impressions of selling on Amazon.co.uk. My initial plan was to just stick with the UK and eventually translate all my listings once the UK site had really become established, but then Amazon.fr reached out to me and made it so easy that I went ahead and launched them all. I’ll break them down below country by country. Amazon.fr An Amazon France representative reached out to me weeks after the UK launch and supplied me with a list of ASINs that I had listed in the UK that already existed on Amazon.fr....
read more3 Simple Yet Powerful Ways To Gain An Edge During Your Day Job
Lot’s of tasks in e-commerce are very mundane. Processing orders, packing boxes, plugging in tracking numbers, and other daily tasks can become so repetitive that if you can feel like you’re wasting away. When I first started working in e-commerce these tasks took up 90% of my day, so I would go crazy out of boredom, these are my 3 top ways to not only fight the boredom, but to actually grow and learn while you do these repetitive tasks. 1. Listen to financial radio shows. Thank God for the fact that I was bored enough to start looking for...
read moreBook Review: Quitter, By Jon Acuff
Normally acknowledging that you read a book called “Quitter, Closing The Gap Between Your Day Job & You Dream Job” is not a good thing to do on the world wide web. At least while you’re still employed. Luckily, my current employer is also a partner so there is no conflict of interest. I also mainly picked this book up because I’m a fan of Dave Ramsey and Jon Acuff is an employee there, I also follow him on twitter and he’s pretty hysterical so I thought it’d be an enjoyable read. This book is intended for people that have some sort of...
read more5 Simple Steps To Grow Your Amazon Feedback Rating
Any serious marketplace seller understands the importance of not only keeping a positive feedback rating, but also having a ton of feedback. Your ability to appear reputable rests entirely on this little score unless you are a nationally known brand. If you started out on Ebay and then migrated over to Amazon like I did, then you’ll also notice that customer’s on Amazon are much less likely to leave feedback for you, so what can you do? Ensure that every customer is satisfied and perhaps even overjoyed by your service. It usually takes more...
read moreBook Review: 18 Minutes, By Peter Bregman
I’m currently flying through books due to the Christmas break, and I think I’m on a hot streak of great ones. I heard about 18 Minutes and Peter Bregman on a Podcast I like to listen to which you can check out here. Anyone who reads this blog knows I’m obsessed with time management, so I was eager to read this book. The timing couldn’t have been better. I was in the midst of putting together my new years goals and this book helped me think it out more clearly. I’d say out of all the time management books I’ve read and spoken about on this...
read moreBook Review: Getting Real, By 37Signals
For those of you that haven’t heard of 37Signals, they are a software company that has created revolutionary software such as Basecamp, Highrise, and Campfire. These tools are a breath of fresh air in the software world and it’s worth your time to check them out. They also have an excellent blog that can be found here. We’ve modeled much of Marketplace Partner after the 37Signals philosophy, and this book could be considered the outline of what that philosophy is. Around here it’s our software bible, but it’s a useful read even if you’re not...
read moreFirst Impressions of a US Seller Selling on Amazon.co.uk
Several months ago representatives from amazon.co.uk reached out to me and asked me if I’d like to sell on amazon.co.uk. They were willing to convert all my existing amazon.com data for free so I couldn’t refuse the offer. We’ve been up and running for some time now and it’s thrilling to see its growth rate. I’ve compiled a list of the things I discovered while getting established that may be useful to you if you’re considering trying it out. 1. Amazon.co.uk requires a UK return address. Initially I thought this was a deal breaker, but then I...
read moreWhy You Need To Start Selling On International Marketplaces Today
Like the majority of Amazon sellers I was too busy trying to grow my existing amazon.com store to look into the international opportunities. It wasn’t until they actually reached out to me that I seriously considered it, and boy am I glad I did. The UK store is already huge considering how long it’s been live, and Italy, Germany, and France aren’t far behind. Here are my top ten reasons why you need to make this a priority if you haven’t already. 1. Fewer sellers offering American products = higher demand. If you look at the UK and...
read moreAbout Me
My name is Tom Fougerousse and I'm Co-Founder of Marketplace Partner. I have been working in e-commerce since college, where I sold kegorators on Ebay to support myself. Since then I've sold over a million dollars worth of product on third party marketplaces. 
