The Spillover Strategy: How Ecommerce Brands Are Navigating the Dual Realities of Shopify and Amazon to Scale Profitably

In an era where digital shelf space is as contested as physical real estate, Sean Stone, founder of Spillover Commerce, is advocating for a strategic pivot that moves away from platform dependency and toward a holistic brand ecosystem. Stone’s methodology, which he describes as a "one-two punch," suggests that the most resilient ecommerce businesses are those that cultivate a profitable, branded presence on their own domains while strategically capturing "spillover" demand on Amazon. This approach marks a departure from the "Amazon-first" gold rush of the mid-2010s, reflecting a maturing market where brand equity and customer ownership have become the primary drivers of long-term valuation.

Stone, a veteran Amazon consultant who has managed advertising campaigns since 2017, recently rebranded his firm from Stone’s Goods to Spillover Commerce to better reflect this philosophy. His thesis is built on a fundamental observation of consumer behavior: even when a brand successfully captures a customer’s attention through social media or direct advertising, a significant percentage of those customers will instinctively migrate to Amazon to complete their purchase. Rather than fighting this "spillover" traffic, Stone argues that merchants should embrace it as a secondary fulfillment and discovery channel, provided they maintain a distinct value proposition on their primary website.

The Evolution of the Marketplace: From 2017 to the Rebrand

The timeline of Stone’s career mirrors the broader shifts in the ecommerce landscape. In 2017, when Stone began managing Amazon advertising, the platform was largely viewed as a standalone profit engine. For many sellers, the goal was simple: find a high-demand product, source it from a manufacturer, and optimize Amazon’s internal pay-per-click (PPC) system to dominate the search results.

However, by 2021, when Stone launched Stone’s Goods, the marketplace had become increasingly saturated with commoditized goods, primarily from overseas manufacturers who could undercut domestic brands on price. This led to a "race to the bottom" in several categories. Recognizing that sustainable growth required more than just marketplace optimization, Stone rebranded his agency in early 2024 to Spillover Commerce. The new identity emphasizes the synergy between a merchant’s Shopify store and their Amazon presence, focusing on brands that use their own domains for storytelling and Amazon for logistical convenience.

The One-Two Punch: A Dual-Platform Framework

The "one-two punch" strategy is designed to solve the dilemma faced by modern Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) brands. On one hand, selling exclusively on a branded site allows for higher margins, better customer data, and total control over the brand narrative. On the other hand, ignoring Amazon means forfeiting a platform that accounts for nearly 40% of all US ecommerce sales.

According to Stone, the "first punch" is the development of a profitable Shopify website. This is where the brand lives. It is the destination for Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and TikTok advertising, where customers can experience the full range of products, educational content, and loyalty programs. The "second punch" is the Amazon presence. Instead of trying to replicate the full website experience on Amazon, Stone advises merchants to treat the marketplace as a secondary channel designed to convert shoppers who prefer the trust and speed of Amazon’s shipping infrastructure.

Data from industry reports supports this necessity. A 2023 consumer survey indicated that approximately 61% of U.S. online shoppers start their product search on Amazon. Even when a consumer discovers a brand via a social media influencer, the "Amazon Prime effect"—the expectation of free, two-day shipping and hassle-free returns—often drives them to search for the brand on the marketplace before clicking "buy."

Platform-Specific Offers: Maintaining Brand Integrity

One of the most significant challenges in a multi-channel strategy is avoiding the "commoditization" of a premium brand. Eric Bandholz, founder of Beardbrand and a prominent voice in the DTC space, has frequently expressed concerns that Amazon’s environment can "trash" a brand by surrounding high-quality products with cheap alternatives and data-driven sellers who lack a long-term brand vision.

Stone’s solution to this is the implementation of platform-specific offers. He suggests that merchants should not sell identical catalogs on both platforms. Instead, the branded domain should offer the "full solution"—bundles, exclusive items, and a premium experience—while the Amazon store features "lesser versions" or entry-level items.

"Create an offer that makes sense for that environment," Stone explains. "Whatever you sell on Amazon will be price-compared against similar items. Provide incentives for shoppers to buy directly from your site. Maybe it’s a full bundle with the full experience."

The Gymreapers Case Study: Brand vs. Commodity

To illustrate the power of this strategy, Stone points to the fitness equipment brand Gymreapers. In the highly commoditized category of weightlifting wrist straps, dozens of competitors sell nearly identical products for low prices. Despite this, Gymreapers successfully generates significant revenue on Amazon while pricing their products up to 50% higher than their competitors.

The strategy behind this success is a masterclass in spillover management. Gymreapers runs a heavy volume of advertising on Meta and TikTok, focusing on high-priced powerlifting bundles—items like belts, knee sleeves, and specialized straps—sold exclusively on their own website. This top-of-funnel marketing builds brand recognition. When a consumer who isn’t ready to buy a $150 bundle decides they just want a pair of wrist straps, they search for "Gymreapers" on Amazon.

By driving external traffic that results in branded searches on Amazon, Gymreapers maintains a high organic ranking and conversion rate, allowing them to command a premium price even in a crowded marketplace. This demonstrates that Amazon success is often a byproduct of off-platform brand building.

Technical Realities: Why Bundling Fails on Amazon

A common mistake among Shopify-first sellers is attempting to bring their complex bundling strategies to Amazon. Stone warns that the technical architecture of Amazon’s search algorithm does not favor bundles. The primary driver of organic ranking on Amazon is the conversion rate of a specific Product Detail Page (PDP).

"Bundling on Amazon doesn’t really work," Stone notes. "What drives organic ranking is the conversion rate. In our experience, the best play is to have a high-converting offer on a product detail page and drive as many organic sales as possible."

While Shopify allows for dynamic bundling and upsells at checkout, Amazon’s interface is designed for the "single-click" purchase of a specific item. Therefore, Stone recommends that sellers focus on a "hero product" for Amazon—one that can stand alone and maintain a high conversion rate to satisfy the algorithm.

Bridging the Data Gap

A perennial complaint among Amazon sellers is the lack of customer data. Unlike Shopify, which provides email addresses and detailed customer behavior analytics, Amazon keeps the customer relationship at arm’s length. Stone argues that even "Amazon-first" sellers can mitigate this by maintaining a basic website to act as a data collection hub.

By engaging with the small percentage of customers who do buy from the branded site, sellers can gain qualitative insights that inform their Amazon strategy. "Ask about their preferences, such as likes and dislikes on Amazon as well as product suggestions," Stone advises. This creative thinking allows sellers to identify "Meta market fit"—determining which products are "scroll-stoppers" worthy of social media ad spend versus those that are purely utilitarian "mops" that should remain as search-based Amazon items.

Broader Industry Implications and the Future of Ecommerce

The shift toward the spillover model represents a broader maturation of the ecommerce industry. The era of the "Amazon Aggregator"—firms that raised billions to buy up Amazon-only brands—has largely cooled, as many discovered that without true brand equity and off-platform presence, these businesses were vulnerable to rising ad costs and platform changes.

Stone’s advice suggests that the future of ecommerce belongs to the "hybrid" merchant. These are businesses that understand that Amazon is not just a marketplace, but a massive logistical utility. By treating Amazon as the "fulfillment arm" for spillover traffic and Shopify as the "emotional arm" for brand building, merchants can insulate themselves from the volatility of any single platform.

As digital advertising costs on Meta and Google continue to fluctuate, the ability to capture "indirect" sales on Amazon will become a vital component of a brand’s Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). The "one-two punch" is no longer just a growth tactic; for many, it is becoming the standard operating procedure for surviving in a fragmented digital economy.

Stone’s Spillover Commerce continues to work with both Shopify brands looking to master the Amazon "beast" and Amazon-native sellers looking to build a lasting brand domain. His transition from a simple advertising manager to a strategic consultant highlights the necessity of a multi-dimensional approach to modern retail. In the current landscape, being "too big to ignore" is a reality for Amazon, but being "too unique to be replaced" is the requirement for the brands that sell on it.