Teikametrics helps thousands of sellers and brand owners grow their businesses on Amazon and Walmart.com through the combination of data, AI-powered technology, and marketplace expertise.
Sandie Hawkins, President at Teikametrics, shares details on the company and what it’s like to work there.
We discuss:
- Details on Teikametrics
- The evolution of media and commerce
- Sandie’s background
- The latest at Teikametrics
- The culture at Teikametrics
- Why people should join Teikametrics
Video Transcript
Sandie, thanks so much for joining us.
Thanks for having me, Keith.
I’m excited to talk to you because we’re going to talk about Teikametrics, which is the AI marketplace optimization platform for leading brands. So, let’s unpack that. What is Teikametrics?
Teikametrics was built to help sellers across Amazon, Walmart, and other marketplaces really understand where they’re seeing profitability from, which products, what inventory is in stock, and helping them to run their business smarter.
Now, the industry is going through a lot of change. I wanted to definitely talk about this. So, how are things evolving between the combination of media and commerce?
It’s a great question, Keith. I think that line is becoming more and more blurred. I do believe that TikTok really started to blur that line between media and commerce because as people were talking about products, folks wanted to buy it. And that’s where the idea of social commerce came together.
That’s really where the blur comes from, which is what is really media and what is commerce or what is shoppable. The distinction exists between the two, of course it does. I think the difference is:
- If you’re going to a media platform, you may not know you’re looking for something, and so if you see a product that you like, you could be inspired to buy it.
- Versus if you’re going to a platform where they’re selling you things, you’re going there for a specific product and you’re going to buy that specific product.
But the lines are going to continue to be blurred because at some point in time, people might go to a media platform and say, “You know what, I’m going to buy batteries also because I’m already here.”
It’s just changing constantly. You recently joined the company as its president. So talk about your background and why did you join?
My background: I come over recently from being over at TikTok, where I helped to launch our North America ad sales and then launched TikTok Shop in the US. Prior to that, I worked at companies like Adobe and demand-side platforms.
What really interested me about what Teikametrics was building is that, first of all, they’re a product-first company. And I loved what the product was. What the product really does is it helps to take all of a seller’s data that sits within the marketplaces and bring it into one central location, one central screen. So, as a brand or as a seller, you can log into the Teikametrics platform and you can see how you’re performing against all of the different marketplaces that you’re selling in. So you can:
- Move inventory around.
- Change pricing.
- Update your listings.
- Run your advertising all in one spot.
You can truly manage your business in a way that you can’t do uniquely in the separate platforms.
There’s so much happening at Teikametrics. So let’s just get our audience up to speed on the latest of the company. What’s what’s going on?
I’m really excited about a new product that we’re just launching, which is our Gen AI Smart Catalog. What it enables you to do is it takes your product listings that you already have in Amazon and in Walmart. It brings them into our product and it uses generative AI to rewrite the listings using the keywords that you want to target to help drive the success of those listings. And then you can comb through them and see which ones you actually want to publish or which ones you don’t. But it’s taking a lot of the human element out of a lot of the test and learn that you have to do today.
Since you’ve joined the company, what’s it like working there? What’s the day-to-day culture like?
It’s an interesting question. We’re a remote-first company, but we have a lot of our leadership based up in Boston. I’m in Connecticut. And so, we’ve started doing in office on Wednesdays. Not as a company mandate or anything, but just to get together. I think you work better with people when you get to know them personally. It’s been inspiring to see how well we’ve all come together in person. I think there’s such a huge part of that. We do have a large component of people that are in the Boston area, so we started doing happy hours. What’s interesting is you kind of have to take the best practices of being remote, but also the things that people liked when they went into an office and weave them together.
Top tier talent, regardless of market conditions, they always have different opportunities in front of them. So why is now the ideal time to join Teikametrics?
The e-commerce space, I think there’s never been more attention on it in general. You have all these companies spinning up retail media networks. You have a ton of brands that don’t know how to navigate all of this new commerce space.
What I love about what we’re doing at Teikametrics is we’re really putting our product at the center and we’re really building with a seller-first mindset, which is how can our product truly help our sellers save time, save money, drive profitability, and gain market share. That is the goal of our platform. It’s a great time to join the company because we’re building these products right now. We’re going to continue to invest in the products that we’re building. I think that really puts us in a different position than some of our competitors, which are more focused on the advertising side of the marketplace business.
It’s also a great time to join because we’re building and we’re growing. I think a lot of companies right now with the economic environment are at a place where maybe they’re holding off, but we’re investing in our team now. So, it’s a great time to join as our company is continuing to grow.
Well, if you are interested in exploring opportunities at Teikametrics, you need to go to their company page on VentureFizz, which has all their job listings there. Go to venturefizz.com/teikametrics and you’ll find their jobs. Sandie, thanks so much for taking the time to walk us through all the great things happening at the company.
Thanks so much, Keith. I’ve enjoyed our conversation. And yes, please apply for our jobs.
