Episode Number:

76

June 8, 2026

In this episode of The eCom Growth Show, Danan Coleman interviews Dr. Drew Littlejohns, a fractional eCommerce leader and Amazon growth operator, to break down what it really takes to scale a brand on Amazon today. With 20 years in eCommerce, a background in SEO, and deep experience building Amazon systems for D2C brands, Drew shares a practical playbook for growth: build a real brand, protect your IP, hire the right operators, and stop treating Amazon like an infinite scaling machine.

Meet Drew: The Amazon Growth Operator Behind Multi-Million Dollar Systems

Dr. Drew Littlejohns has spent the last two decades in eCommerce, starting in SEO before moving into Amazon and brand growth. Today, he works as a fractional brand manager for Amazon, helping D2C brands build the systems needed to scale profitably.

He has helped take brands from early traction to multi-million dollar run rates, including one brand that grew from roughly $500K in annual revenue to tracking toward $28 million. His work focuses on aligning traffic, conversion, inventory, PPC, and operational discipline into one growth engine.

Amazon Is Powerful, But It Is Not Infinitely Scalable

Drew makes one thing clear: Amazon is still one of the best places to validate and grow a product, but it cannot be treated like a dial you can turn up forever.

  • Ranking number one for your keywords does not automatically create more brand demand.
  • Once you capture the available demand, growth requires new traffic, new products, or stronger brand awareness.
  • Amazon works best when it becomes the conversion engine inside a broader omnichannel strategy
Big Picture: Amazon can capture demand incredibly well, but your brand has to create demand beyond the marketplace.

Why Omnichannel Growth Creates the Amazon Halo Effect

For Drew, the best Amazon growth does not happen only on Amazon. It happens when off-platform marketing builds awareness and sends qualified buyers back to the marketplace.

  • D2C channels, email lists, social media, and community can all support Amazon growth.
  • A strong off-Amazon presence helps branded search and bottom-of-funnel conversion.
  • Your Amazon listing must reinforce the same claims, positioning, and trust signals customers see elsewhere.
Smart Move: If your ads say you have the best product in the category, your Amazon reviews, listing, and content need to prove it.

The First Scaling Mistake: Forgetting You Have a Brand

Drew’s first major warning for Amazon sellers is simple: too many sellers build products, not brands.

  • A brand should have a name, voice, personality, and recognizable identity.
  • Customers should know the difference between your product and every generic competitor.
  • If you ever want to expand beyond Amazon, weak branding becomes a serious bottleneck.
Key Lesson: If your product could be swapped with anyone else’s and no one would notice, you do not have a brand yet.

Brand Assets Matter Before You Launch

Danan adds his own hard-earned lesson from building a brand without locking down the right assets first. Before launching, sellers should check whether the brand name can actually be owned and used everywhere.

  • Secure the domain before committing to packaging or inventory.
  • Check social handles across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and other relevant platforms.
  • Make sure the brand name is available and protectable before investing heavily.
  • Avoid choosing names that are too generic, hard to trademark, or already taken.
Practical Reminder: A great product name can become a costly problem if you cannot own the domain, trademark, or social presence around it.

The Second Scaling Mistake: Ignoring IP Protection

Drew’s second warning is about intellectual property. He shared how one missed trademark opportunity may have cost his business millions in potential revenue.

  • Trademarks should be part of the early launch checklist.
  • IP protection gives brands leverage on Amazon, Walmart, and other channels.
  • Without proper protection, a brand can lose opportunities with retailers and marketplaces.
  • Fixing IP mistakes later can be slow, expensive, and sometimes impossible.
Growth Rule: Do not wait until the brand is working to protect it. Protect it so the brand can keep working.

The Third Scaling Mistake: No Plan for AOV or LTV

Selling one product one time is not a scaling strategy. Drew emphasizes that brands need to understand how they will grow average order value and lifetime value before they are deep into expansion.

  • Build bundles that make ads and marketplace traffic more profitable.
  • Create product ladders that give customers a reason to buy again.
  • Understand your customer personas, pain points, and next logical purchase.
  • Use email and owned channels to continue the relationship after the first sale.
Operator Insight: The goal is not just to win the order. The goal is to build a customer journey that makes the brand more valuable over time.

Why Shopify Still Makes Sense for D2C Brands

Danan and Drew also discuss where brands should build their D2C presence. Drew still sees Shopify as the strongest starting point for most ecommerce brands.

  • Shopify is easier to use than many alternatives.
  • Its app and development ecosystem can support most growth needs.
  • For brands under roughly $15 million in revenue, Shopify is usually more than capable.
  • At much larger scale, custom infrastructure may eventually make sense.
Takeaway: Shopify is not perfect, but for most growing ecommerce brands, it is still the cleanest path to building a real D2C foundation.

How to Vet Agencies, Freelancers, and In-House Talent

Drew’s hiring advice starts with one question: what exactly are you hiring this person to fix?

  • If PPC is underperforming, first understand why it is underperforming.
  • Some agencies are better at D2C strategy, while others are stronger at Amazon ranking or catalog management.
  • If you do not know how to manage the skill internally, an agency or freelancer may help diagnose and build the system.
  • Great hires should create clarity, not more dependency.
Hiring Filter: Do not hire someone just because something feels broken. Define the problem first, then choose the right operator for that problem.

Beware of Outdated Agency Fee Models

Drew is skeptical of agencies that charge more simply because ad spend increases. In his view, modern ecommerce brands should look for partners who care about profitability, not just media spend.

  • Percentage-of-spend models can reward the wrong behavior.
  • Agencies should understand COGS, contribution margin, and actual profit.
  • Selling more product does not matter if the brand is losing money to do it.
  • A strong agency should protect the business, not just scale the ad account.
Sharp Point: Revenue is not the same as profit. A good partner knows the difference and acts accordingly.

What Great Freelancers, Agencies, and In-House Operators Actually Do

Drew breaks the difference down clearly:

  • A strong freelancer builds systems that can eventually be handed off.
  • A strong agency keeps a constant eye on margin and business health.
  • A strong in-house operator follows SOPs, maintains consistency, and keeps the machine running.
  • A healthy Amazon department often combines internal ownership with outside expertise.
Team-Building Insight: The best people do not just do tasks. They build systems the business can rely on.

Search Query Performance Reports Reveal a Lot

One of Drew’s quick ways to evaluate Amazon performance is through search query performance data, especially around branded terms.

  • Weak branded impression share can signal missed demand.
  • Poor branded click share or order share may reveal listing, PPC, or positioning problems.
  • If your own brand terms are leaking sales, something in the system is not working.
  • Agencies should be able to explain these numbers clearly.
Diagnostic Move: Your branded search data can show whether your Amazon team is protecting the demand your brand already created.

What Brands Should Expect to Pay for Real Amazon Expertise

For larger D2C brands moving seriously into Amazon, Drew says real expertise is not cheap, and it should not be treated like a minor admin task.

  • A serious Amazon operator or agency may start around $5K to $10K per month.
  • As Amazon revenue scales, that can move into the $10K to $15K per month range.
  • Brands scaling quickly need someone who understands compliance, catalog risk, inventory, PPC, and operational complexity.
  • One day of downtime can cost a high-volume brand hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Reality Check: If Amazon is expected to become a major revenue channel, it needs experienced leadership at the helm.

A Healthy Amazon Department Has Clear Roles

Drew outlines a simple version of what a strong Amazon team can look like:

  • A dedicated Amazon lead overseeing the channel.
  • Support for forecasting and inventory planning.
  • Customer service support separated from operational planning.
  • A graphics or catalog team handling creative and listing execution.
  • A PPC agency or specialist working alongside the internal team.
System Note: Amazon growth becomes much easier when each function has ownership and the team is not improvising every week.

When You’re Ready to Scale on Amazon

Drew specializes in helping D2C brands understand Amazon, build the right structure, and avoid expensive mistakes. For brands that are nervous about launching or scaling on Amazon, his work focuses on making the channel more predictable, profitable, and operationally sound.

To connect with Dr. Drew Littlejohns:

Final Thoughts

Scaling on Amazon is not just about more PPC, more SKUs, or more reviews. As Drew explains, profitable scale comes from building the right foundation before growth exposes the cracks.

That means owning your brand, protecting your IP, understanding your numbers, hiring the right operators, and treating Amazon as part of a larger ecommerce ecosystem, not the whole business.

The brands that win are not just the ones that sell more. They are the ones that build systems strong enough to keep growing.

Stay tuned for more episodes of The eCom Growth Show, where eCommerce operators learn how to build stronger brands, protect what they own, and scale with systems that actually support profitable growth.