Hey, thanks for tuning in to another Partner Interview at EcomBalance. At EcomBalance, we’re all about creating win-win partnerships where we are able to grow with other companies in the ecommerce space.
In this exclusive interview, we have a conversation with Carrie Miller from Helium 10.
Carrie has been an e-commerce seller since 2016 and a Helium 10 user since 2017. She started selling on Amazon.com and then quickly expanded to Shopify and now Walmart.com. She is also currently a Senior Brand Evangelist for the Walmart.com tools at Helium 10. She is passionate about sharing strategies, tips, and tricks that will help other e-commerce sellers succeed.
Connor: Hey Carrie, thanks for taking the time to chat with us today. As a company, one of our goals is to highlight our partners so that our clients can benefit where it makes most sense. To get started, can you give us a high-level introduction to Helium 10 and a little bit about how the company got started? 
Carrie: Helium 10 is a software company that provides a suite of tools and solutions for Amazon sellers to manage and grow their businesses. The company was founded in 2016 by Manny Coats, a successful Amazon seller and entrepreneur.
Manny Coats began selling on Amazon in 2015 and started documenting his success on his AM/PM Podcast. He quickly became a 7-figure seller, and as a software developer, started to develop some tools that he could use for his business.
He wanted to grow the podcast, and so decided to offer a couple of those tools for free. The demand for the tools after he released it to podcast listeners was overwhelming, and thus Helium 10 was born.
Today, Helium 10 is the leading software company in the Amazon seller space, with over 1 million active users and a suite of over 40 tools and solutions that help sellers with everything from product research to inventory management and advertising.Connor: Thanks for sharing that! Can you dive a bit more into the array of software/tools you provide Amazon sellers? Our audience is always looking for reputable companies that they can lean on for specific parts of their eCommerce businesses. Carrie: Helium 10 offers a suite of more than 40 tools and solutions for Amazon and Walmart that are designed to help Amazon and Walmart sellers manage and grow their businesses. Here are some of the most popular tools:
Black Box
A product research tool that allows sellers to find profitable product ideas by filtering and analyzing data on Amazon.
Magnet: A keyword research tool that helps sellers find relevant and high-traffic keywords to optimize their listings.
Cerebro
A reverse ASIN/reverse product ID lookup tool that allows sellers to see what keywords their competitors are ranking for and the estimated sales associated with those keywords.
Insights Dashboard: Helium 10’s Insights Dashboard is a powerful analytics and data visualization tool that allows Amazon sellers to track and analyze key metrics related to their business performance on the Amazon marketplace. The Insights Dashboard is designed to help sellers make data-driven decisions and optimize their strategies for success but automating processes and delivering the results to the seller.
Listing Analyzer
Listing Analyzer compares the seller’s listing to those of their competitors, providing valuable insights into areas where the seller may be falling behind or missing opportunities for optimization.
Follow-Up
An email automation tool that allows sellers to send automated follow-up emails to customers to increase customer engagement and reviews.
Adtomic
A tool that helps sellers to manage and optimize their Amazon and Walmart advertising campaigns.
Listing Builder
A tool that uses AI to help amazon sellers create SEO optimized listings from scratch.
Keyword Tracker
Keyword Tracker allows Amazon and Walmart sellers to track their keyword rankings and performance. The tool provides real-time data on keyword rankings, as well as insights into the competitive landscape for those keywords.
These are just a few examples of the tools and solutions that Helium 10 offers. We also provide educational resources, such as educational courses, webinars, blog posts, and Facebook Groups to help sellers maximize the benefits of our tools and succeed on Amazon.
Connor: Jumping off of that…when you’re thinking about your ideal customer, who is that? Where are they selling online? Where are they located in the world? How much sales do they typically have in a year? If there’s any other qualities, please include them as well. We’re all about making introductions where it benefits both parties. Carrie: Helium 10 has product research and keyword research tools for people who are just starting to sell on amazon and Walmart and we also have a variety of management tools for PPC, keyword tracking, profits management and more for more established sellers! We have sellers who have never sold on Amazon and join in order to learn from our training program Freedom Ticket, we have 7,8 and 9 figure sellers, agencies, aggregators, and even huge brands such as Lego who use Helium 10. We have something for everyone! Connor: For our audience to truly understand what makes you stand out from other SaaS companies, can you share a story of how Helium 10 truly helped one of its customers?Carrie: Here is a case study of Solo Stove who was able to increase their sales 50% year over year using Helium 10 to achieve over $400 million in revenue in 2022. They used Helium 10 to optimize their listings and strategy and they used our PPC platform Adtomic to perfect their ads strategy. Connor: As you and your company think about the next year ahead, what does it look like? Are there any specific initiatives that you’re working on as a team to better your products and services for your customers?Carrie: We are very excited to see Amazon opening up more data points over the last few years that have helped validate our data, and provide more things such as brand analytics that we can incorporate in our tools. We will continue to add the things Amazon has on the roadmap as soon as they add them.
We are excited to continue to expand on our new Insights Dashboard… an AI powered hub where you can automate some of the processes you were doing in Helium 10, and only get the results of what you were doing as opposed to having to do every step. In addition, you will get insights into things you might not know are happening to your account.
We are expanding functionality in our class-leading PPC Software, Adtomic, to help more Amazon and Walmart sellers. And we continue to invest a lot of resources into our Market Tracker 360 tool, which is specifically made for agencies, and brands doing over 10 million a year on Amazon. We are excited about integrating more AI into Helium 10 to expand on what weve had, and our latest Listing builder that works off of AI as wellConnor: How about this…everyone loves a company’s growth story. We all naturally go through ups and downs as a company. What was one of the biggest challenges that the company faced in its growing stages? Carrie: This is before my time, but Bradley tells me about the times in the early days when Helium 10 was just a team of only about 10 people working out of a WeWork in Orange County, CA. This team was trying to handle over 1000 new customers to the platform a week, and everyone was stretched thin.
There was a time when Bradley was in charge of the affiliate team, the customer service team, the podcast, and was doing all of the training videos by himself. Everyone was working crazy hours, which was not sustainable for having good work done and people not getting burnt out.
Such is the life in a startup. Over the next couple of years, the team rapidly expanded and now that small group in WeWork has expanded to hundreds of employees worldwide. Connor: Thanks! Let’s talk some eCommerce! Where do you see the industry heading in the next 1-2 years? Any big changes that you’re predicting for the industry? How can eCommerce companies prepare for it?Carrie: I think that the use of AI will become a lot more prominent in the industry. Sellers will now be able to push out content quickly and efficiently so we will see how well the consumers are going to be able to digest the influx of ai generated content. I also think that a lot of Amazon sellers need to diversify and sell on Walmart and their own websites.
Walmart is growing quickly so it’s a great time to start selling on their marketplace!Connor: Changing gears a little bit…When it comes to bookkeeping and accounting, what do you think the biggest pain points for eCommerce business owners are? Feel free to speak from personal experience as well.
Carrie: One of the biggest challenges is understanding what they need to do in order to prepare their books for an exit. A lot of sellers are just starting out as entrepreneurs so accounting is very new to them. They usually need to hire someone who can help them with their bookkeeping and accounting to keep everything in order.
Connor: Okay, here’s an open mic opportunity. If there’s one thing that you’d want the EcomBalance community to hear from you, what would it be?
Carrie: Helium 10 is the best suite of tools that not only provides sellers the technical tools they need to grow their sales on Amazon and Walmart but we also have a very strong community with lots of resources and strategies to help you grow your sales on Amazon and Walmart.
If you don’t know where to start, Helium 10 has great resources to get you started! Also, I want to let everyone know that if they haven’t thought about selling on Walmart they need to get started soon before they miss out on the opportunity. Connor: As we close this out, I just have one more question. Where is the best place to find and follow you and the company online? Also, if you have one, is there any special offer that you’ll be offering to the community today? Carrie: Your audience can check our Facebook group, Instagram, and Serious Sellers Podcast, our podcast, hosted by Bradley Sutton.
