April 11, 2024
GREENBRAE, CA – When David Hewlett (pictured) acquired SmartLabels back in 2022, he already had an extensive tech background. However, he lacked some of the specialized tools and tricks that could make him a better seller on Amazon.
He went to Prosper in 2023 to find vendors “that would be good at showing me my data in one place—better than what Amazon does” and to help him keep a better eye on performance metrics.
“I walked by the Kapoq booth and I saw they had all this data and information displayed in the way that I was looking for,” remembers Hewlett, a resident of Marin County with experience as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. “They had a bunch of extra tools that I wasn’t even expecting. At the time, I was looking to find somebody else to do the bidding on my keywords. I saw they had that capability as well, and it was something I could easily switch to.”
The Prosper Show Newsletter sat down with Hewlett to learn more about his business, as well as the specific ways that Prosper Show vendors helped him to expand, organize, and improve overall operations.
Prosper Show: What’s the origin story of SmartLabels?
David Hewlett, CEO, SmartLabels: I acquired SmartLabels from an engineer. He started it in 2021 and had it for about a year. I was happy to buy it, and for the last two years I’ve been running the company. The idea was not mine originally, but I recognized it was a very good idea with a lot of potential.
Prosper Show: What is SmartLabels?
Hewlett: At its core, SmartLabels is an inventory management system for consumers. Let’s say you’re in the garage, and you want to put stuff away in plastic storage bins. You take one of our QR code labels that you would buy on Amazon—or on our website, or on Walmart.com—put that on the bin, scan it with the SmartLabels app, and that creates a digital container.
As you put each item into the storage bin, you can catalogue it by name, description, and take a picture of it. All of that stuff is searchable down the road. So when you have the kids’ soccer practice coming back around and you say, ‘Where are the soccer cleats?’ You type that into the app, and voila, it says you stored that in the garage—this shelf, with a yellow sticker and a four character code on it. You know exactly where to go to get your stuff, so you never lose your things again.
Prosper Show: Why did you go to the Prosper Show in 2023?
Hewlett: I wanted to get a little more education on the industry—general strategies about how to be a better seller on Amazon. I hoped I would be able to come away from it with a lot of good insights. By the time I got home, I was ready to start the conversation with Kapoq and start working together. I was ready to use their bidding algorithm to get my business back to where I wanted it to be. It was great to get a chance to work with them.
Prosper Show: What other companies did you meet at Prosper?
Hewlett: I signed up with another company last year called Sifted. They help me look and see that what I’ve shipped to Amazon is actually getting there. As it gets distributed, they make sure Amazon is not losing it. If Amazon does lose my inventory, then I get paid back for it.
Prosper Show: Why did you end up going back to Prosper Show 2024?
Hewlett: When I thought about going back, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to get a bunch of new information, be able to meet new vendors, and justify the cost of the travel and conference. However, I ended up meeting quite a few more companies that were so fantastic. I signed up with one of them while I was at Prosper, and another one signed up with directly when I got back—after having a conversation with their team at the booth.
Prosper Show: Which vendor did you sign up with at the show?
Hewlett: The one I signed up with at the event was Levanta (Ari Gemza and Greg Potts from Levanta pictured right at Prosper Show 2024). They work with affiliates to expand your affiliate network advertising. They manage the flow of information back and forth between Amazon. In terms of showing me the performance the way I want to see it, and also making sure affiliates are getting paid—it was fantastic and it was a no brainer for me to sign up with them. It felt like free money to get access to all these affiliates. Since then, I’m already starting to see traffic from those and sales, so that’s very exciting. I’m excited to see where that goes from here.
I also signed up with SellCord and Ampd this year. SellCord I had met the year before, and I had decided to try a different vendor that was not at Prosper. That did not work out well, and I even said to SellCord, ‘I wish I had signed up with you guys the first year because I had somebody else at the conference recommend that I go to SellCord for service with Walmart—but I went with someone else.’
Prosper Show: How did you come to learn about Ampd?
Hewlett: Ampd was one I hadn’t even heard of, but I walked by and talked to them. I was looking for a way to leverage Google to drive traffic to Amazon for my product. The connection between Google and Amazon in terms of sharing, in terms of whether a keyword was converting, was where the problem was—because I can’t put a conversion pixel from Google onto Amazon. Ampd kind of sits in the middle and is able to see when the conversion happens on Amazon, and where that keyword click came from. They pair those together and then adjust bids on Google to increase performance. We’re just getting started with that one, and I’m excited to see where it goes, but Google being the largest search engine out there, that’s where I want to be. I can’t track that stuff, so this was my first chance at being able to access that as another place to drive traffic to Amazon and make sales.
Prosper Show: Are attendees fairly free about sharing information?
Hewlett: It depends. I attended in-person sessions where you’re sitting at a round table and discussing with sellers problems you’re coming across. I really liked those sessions because you get to learn from other sellers and what their troubles are. It did seem like some people were a little worried about you encroaching on their business. I’m not too worried about it with mine, because mine pairs with an app that makes it much more difficult to copy. My software is one of the earlier ones to the marketplace. We are much farther ahead in our app development than the competitors who are trying to come in now. I’m a lot less nervous about sharing what’s going on with me because it is a little harder to compete in my space because of the barriers to entry.
Prosper Show: What would you say to sellers who are on the fence about attending Prosper in 2025?
Hewlett: You have to know what you want to get out of it. If you want to meet a group of vendors that are high quality to solve a business problem, I think it’s a great way to get in front of a lot of people and to see competitors in the same space. You can feel them out and get a sense of who you want to work with. Prosper brings a great group of vendors.
Prosper Show: What’s your opinion of the educational sessions?
Hewlett: Every time I’ve gone, the different break-out groups and speakers are all talking about very relevant things that are up to date. I only heard one speaker who I had already heard at a different show. It was great to get updated information—talking about the way AI is being used, the way video is being used—these were new insights that I did not have from the year before. All of that, and the fact that I keep meeting new vendors who are doing new and innovative stuff, means that I’m coming back next year. That would be three years in a row, because I think I’m going to get a lot of great value out of Prosper, and I’m excited to make the return trip [March 25-27, 2025 at the Las Vegas Convention Center].
Prosper Show: What’s your professional background?
Hewlett: I have a background in tech marketing. I have worked on both B-to-C and B-to-B type marketing. Being in the bay area we have plenty of tech companies to work for. I worked my way up to leading marketing teams. I have had a few startups every now and then, all in the technology space. I’ve always had an entrepreneurial bug.
Prosper Show: Why did you buy an existing business?
Hewlett: The reason I bought a small business, as opposed to starting one, is that you have a product market fit before you even start. You take a lot of the risk out of being an entrepreneur from day one. It becomes more of an optimization and growth challenge, as opposed to trying to find a product market fit and then doing the optimization and growth. I understand the technology side of things, but I had to learn a lot about paper logistics with getting labels over to Amazon. I went to business school, so I have an understanding of operations. So far it is going well and I’m excited for the future.
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