Innovation Room in Ecommerce with Ashley Pearce - a podcast by Michael Veazey

Learn how Ashley Pearce implemented the Innovation Room in E-commerce. Find out the strategies that come with it and how you can use it too.


Why do something more than pure eCommerce?Ashely and his team had learned a lot about Google SEO and mimicking from the Amazon affiliates.
While doing Pinterest more scientifically for their own Amazon business.All the way through to using  SEO to warm up audiences; then using retargeting ads to actually get sales.

Strategy ledSome of the tactics and strategies they have developed are big picture and have taken a lot of R&D.
They would at home in an 8- or 9-figure business.They are strategically-led and not just tactics/scrappy.

IC/FC - intellectual capital vs. Financial Capital Ashley’s team had generated all the Intellectual capital and know-how and Ashley is commonly acquainted with how this gets evaluated in a corporate environment.

Then the question became: how do we turn our know-how (IC) - google, Pinterest SEO, high ROI ads -  into capital? (Ie how do we monetize our knowledge?)Why go the agency route rather than the capital raising route?
Ashley has become quite good at using credit cards and loans to get through cash peaks.It does come down to particular days in fact.

However, to take on higher-risk capital in an organization where you are trying to run quickly - there is an underlying feeling that an Amazon account suspension could trip you up. If they took on a high-interest bank loan with security, they don’t understand the Amazon space - they wouldn’t have a clue how to react eg repayment within 90 days.Venture capital - Rand Fiskin - founder of Moz
When one of his friends says they just raised capital, he says well done - but your business is finished!So Ashley is wary of outside capital investors.

Download Worksheet Engine Room/Innovation RoomHow did you arrive at Future State Media as an idea?  (It’s a change of direction)
MICAS Framework - briefly, IC and FC, hence FSM, Mention 2 RoomsMICAS means: Monetise Intellectual Capital Assets SystematicallyJust because the business model is different, doesn’t mean you’re not using the same skills/knowledge.
FC/IC - Financial Capital/Intellectual CapitalThe whole idea is to be able to unlock FC eg assets and IC and monetize those
Sometimes you need to do more with what you already have.It’s doing a stock-take of both the IC and FC.

The mechanism for unlocking IC: There’s a mechanism - the 2 rooms: Engine Room and Innovation Room for eCommerce.

The engine room generates cash and moves FC.The innovation room for eCommerce isn’t necessarily a function that is alive in all businesses.

Financial innovation or product innovation for example for Innovation Room in eCommerce.This is very applicable to an eCommerce business

Download Worksheet Engine Room/Innovation RoomHow would someone apply the 2 rooms in their eCommerce business - and why?
Why does it? Mentality, long term view, stay ahead of the competition who are innovating (newcomers are doing nothing but innovate whilst you're busy running your business).

In Ashley’s eCommerce business, they had a great innovation room and were deployed back into the Engine room.Used small cash to develop innovations and short time - in some cases 9-12 months.

In the innovation room, still healthy - doing things that wouldn’t offer to clients yet.Surely these conflicts and contrasts with simplifying and focus? 
Focus and simplifying and shorter-term thinking is a helpful mindset for the Engine RoomHowever, different rules of physics apply in the innovation room! That’s where the conflict and contrast come in.

Misapplication of the 80/20 in the innovation room is a particularly big danger. If you just focus on what's performing now, you miss out on what will perform in the future. It doesn’t account for the future - eg Amazon ads, Google Ads,

Further episodes of Amazing FBA Amazon and ECommerce Podcast, for Amazon Private Label Sellers, Shopify, Magento or Woocommerce business owners, and other e-commerce sellers and digital entrepreneurs.

Further podcasts by Michael Veazey

Website of Michael Veazey