Overview

How can a solo Amazon agency operator drive global, multi-channel growth without drowning in overhead? This question lies at the heart of this Marketplace Masters episode featuring Catherine Bolich, founder of Bolich Consulting. Catherine’s story is proof that Amazon agency professionals can manage cross-border complexity and multi-channel expansion while staying lean. In just over one year, she scaled to 11 clients across North America, Europe, and Australia as a one-woman operation – delivering results on Amazon, Walmart, and TikTok without a large team. Her approach to Amazon international expansion and multi-channel retail media is rich with strategic insights for boutique agencies, solo consultants, and any lean e-commerce practice aiming to grow globally.

In this thought leadership piece, we’ll synthesise Catherine’s key lessons on Mastering Multi-Country, Multi-Channel Growth as a Lean Amazon Agency. From rapid client acquisition through quick-win strategies, to managing cross-border Amazon marketplaces and emerging platforms like Walmart and TikTok, to structuring an efficient one-person operation augmented by AI tools, Catherine’s playbook offers a roadmap for lean agency growth. Below, we break down her approach into strategic guidance and practical takeaways that can help solo operators and small Amazon agencies scale globally and efficiently.

The Challenge: Global Complexity Without Added Overhead

Expanding an Amazon services business into multiple countries and channels is typically associated with growing headcount, rising costs, and operational complexity. Many small agencies fear that going multi-country or adding new retail media channels will overwhelm their limited resources. Catherine Bolich’s success story turns this notion on its head – demonstrating that global and multi-channel growth is achievable without a large team or heavy infrastructure.

In the Marketplace Masters interview, host Paul Sonneveld framed the challenge clearly: How do you serve clients across multiple Amazon marketplaces and various retail platforms “without just drowning in complexity and cost?”. Catherine’s career and business model provide an answer. A former Amazonian with five years at Amazon Ads, she left to start a boutique agency precisely because she saw brands craving deeper strategic partnership from leaner providers. By positioning her practice as both an advertising agency and a strategic consultancy, Catherine offers clients end-to-end value – executing campaigns while also guiding high-level strategy. This dual model has been central to delivering impact without needing layers of specialized staff.

Delivering Quick Wins to Grow a Client Base (Fast)

One of Catherine’s first takeaways for lean agencies is the importance of quick wins and measurable impact – especially as a means of client acquisition. Starting from zero, Catherine grew to 11 clients in ~12 months as a solo operator. How? By delivering fast results that fuel word-of-mouth. “I think it really comes down to fast results and referrals,” she says. Early in her agency journey, she made a point of identifying opportunities to drive rapid sales increases, conversion lifts, and ROI improvements for new clients. The outcomes speak for themselves:

“I’ve helped brands grow their sales 400% in 60 days, increased conversion rates 38% in 30 days, and achieved the highest ROAS in Walmart for their whole category. When you’re able to deliver that kind of performance really quickly, it leads to trust. And trust leads to growth…”- Catherine Bolich, Founder Bolich Consulting

This impactful quote underscores two things. First, quick wins create client trust. Second, trust leads to growth – not only by retaining clients, but by generating referrals and expanding existing accounts (e.g. adding new channels for those clients). In a lean setup, you might lack a big sales team, so your results become your salesforce. Catherine notes that trust brought her both “net new clients and also depth with the clients that [she] had,” often expanding into more retail partners with them.

So, how can a lean Amazon agency consistently find quick wins? Catherine shares a few practical tactics: focus on simplifying complex ad setups and optimising the fundamentals. “Although advertising is complicated, the fundamentals aren’t,” she explains. She approaches each account with a critical eye for wasted spend or low-hanging optimisations – for example, checking if the brand has multiple campaigns competing on the same keywords, or if ad placements (like top-of-search) are fully optimised. One “key to success is segmentation,” Catherine says. By laser-focusing campaigns on priority products and aligning each ASIN to specific target keywords or competitor products, a solo operator can eliminate internal competition and quickly boost performance.

Another advantage modern agencies have is data and AI. Catherine leverages tools like Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) to gain multi-touch attribution insights. “We now know conversion rates for every different path to purchase,” she notes, which allows her to reallocate budget to the most efficient customer pathways. For example, analysing AMC reports to see which ad touchpoints drive the highest conversion can inform quick budget tweaks for better ROI. This data-driven agility helps a lean agency deliver wins in weeks, not months.

Going Global for Resilience and Growth

A core theme of Catherine’s approach is expanding into multiple Amazon marketplaces globally. Unlike many agencies that start local and expand cautiously, she “went against the trend” by embracing multi-country expansion early. Why? Because global diversification isn’t just about chasing extra revenue – it’s about building resilience. “I really saw firsthand how fragile a brand is if they’re overly reliant on one market or one channel,” Catherine explains. A business concentrated only in the U.S., for example, is vulnerable to any local downturn or policy change. Expanding internationally spreads risk and can future-proof a brand’s sales.

Catherine gives a compelling example: Canada. Its population is roughly 10% of the U.S., so selling on Amazon Canada offers a straightforward way to boost US-based sales by ~10%. “Expanding into Canada is an immediate opportunity to grow your US sales 10% incrementally,” she notes – a proposition almost any CEO would find attractive. And Canada is just one “easy next step”. Each additional Amazon international marketplace (UK, Germany, Japan, Australia, etc.) represents incremental growth that can cumulatively be game-changing. “That’s exactly what any international market represents – international growth,” Catherine says, “so my goal with international markets is really to help my clients future-proof their sales and make their businesses more resilient.”

Equally important, Catherine had the background to navigate this cross-border complexity confidently. At Amazon, she led an international team and worked with sellers across the US, Canada, China, Japan and more. This gave her a deep appreciation for local nuances. For instance, success in Amazon Mexico might hinge on mobile-first creatives and sensitivity to price, whereas in Japan, building consumer trust through softer calls-to-action is more effective than aggressive CTAs. Catherine shared specific examples: in Quebec, Canada, you must use French-language creative to earn trust; in Japan, subtlety in advertising messaging outperforms a hard sell. Each market has its own cultural and consumer-behaviour context, which means localisation is critical in advertising strategy, creative, and even keyword choices.

How can a small agency practically manage these differences? Catherine’s advice is twofold: focus on strategy localisation, and leverage local expertise for everything else. For example, she intentionally does not take on compliance or logistics tasks for international expansion – those remain with the brand’s internal teams. This keeps her scope lean. She concentrates on what she’s best at: localising ad strategy and creative. Additionally, she stresses the importance of cultural understanding. If possible, spend “boots-on-the-ground time in that country”. But even without travel, you can “virtually” immerse yourself. Catherine suggests a clever tip: use a VPN and explore TikTok or local e-commerce sites in the target country.

TikTok’s content, for instance, varies wildly by region, giving insight into local trends and consumer humour. By observing a country’s TikTok or social media sphere, an agency can quickly glean cultural nuances to apply in ad creatives. “Leverage a VPN, hop on the app and voyeur around” to see what resonates in that market, Catherine recommends. This kind of culturally tuned research helps adapt campaigns for each locale without needing a full overseas team.

Deciding on New Channels: A Strategic Framework

Beyond geographic expansion, Catherine also ventured into multi-channel retail media – incorporating platforms like Walmart and TikTok alongside Amazon. Multi-channel expansion can introduce even more complexity than multi-country, since each platform (Amazon vs. Walmart vs. TikTok) has different consumer behaviours and ad systems. Catherine acknowledges this: “Expanding to multiple channels has inherently more risk than expanding globally, to be honest, because there are more nuances between shopper behaviour on different channels.”. So why do it at all?

For Catherine, offering multi-channel services made her an indispensable partner to clients and actually streamlined their experience. “Their entire e-commerce system works better the more channels I’m able to help integrate and manage,” she says. By handling Amazon and Walmart for a brand, for example, she can apply learnings across platforms and ensure a consistent strategy.

It also makes the client “stickier” – less likely to bring in another agency for the other channel. In fact, Paul Sonneveld noted that offering additional channels is a great defensive move: if you don’t handle them, the client might hire another agency who eventually tries to poach the Amazon business. In Catherine’s case, being multi-channel is both a value-add for the client and a competitive moat for her agency.

However, not every channel jump is worth it. Catherine applies a clear mental model to decide if a new platform makes sense for a particular client. Her three criteria are:

1. Where is your audience already? – Focus on platforms where the brand’s target customers naturally spend time, so you’re not paying heavily to acquire attention. Go where the eyeballs already are.
   
   
2. What is the brand’s margin structure? – Ensure the economics can support the channel. Some platforms or retail partnerships have fees or discount expectations that only work with healthy product margins.
   
   
3. What is the platform’s media efficiency? – Consider the advertising cost vs. return on that platform. Is it efficient to reach people there, or will it drain budget for little ROI?
   
   

Using this framework, Catherine weighs the incremental complexity against potential gains. She shared a success story on Walmart: one client (a publisher) had dominated Amazon but wasn’t on Walmart at all. Catherine’s market analysis showed the competition on Walmart had fewer than 50 reviews (while on Amazon competitors had thousands) – a classic white space opportunity. With low competition and lower cost of entry, expanding to Walmart was a no-brainer, yielding quick market share and sales growth.

On the other hand, TikTok often comes up as the hot new channel, but Catherine doesn’t automatically say yes. “I’ve had brands come to me and say, ‘Everybody’s on TikTok, should we do this?’” She evaluates their content capabilities honestly. If a brand isn’t willing or able to create TikTok content at least five times a week, she advises against it. “If they don’t have the content production capabilities to make that amount of videos, it’s not worth their time,” Catherine tells them bluntly. In short, chasing a trend like TikTok only makes sense if the client can commit to the platform’s unique demands (high-frequency, engaging video content). Otherwise, that energy is better spent elsewhere.

Lean Operations: Efficiency Routines and Playbooks

Running a global, multi-channel agency single-handedly requires extreme efficiency. Catherine has engineered her workflow and habits to maximise output while maintaining quality of life (and sanity!). Agency owners wearing many hats will find her approach to time management and processes very relatable.

Firstly, Catherine emphasises creating modular playbooks and reusable strategy frameworks. “I like to build playbooks at the channel level,” she says. While each client’s strategy is personalised, Catherine notes that “the high-level advertising strategy across retail media platforms is honestly very similar”. For example, every platform will have a set of “cash cow” products that drive the bulk of sales, and the overall goal is to maximise profitability and market share. What changes are the tactics – campaign structures, targeting options, bidding nuances, etc.

So Catherine developed modular strategy blocks that she can “plug and play” for each platform. This prevents reinventing the wheel for each new client or channel. By standardising repeatable processes (like how to structure a Walmart campaign vs. an Amazon campaign), she frees up time to focus on more high-level work for clients. The message is clear: systematise the repeatable 80% so you can customise the 20% that truly matters for each client’s unique situation.

A weekly rhythm allows her to maintain client delivery and agency growth in tandem. Paul Sonneveld pointed out that without such boundaries, many owners never find time for proactive planning or business development. Catherine’s solution is to “be protective of your time” and set a recurring schedule that balances in-the-business and on-the-business tasks. She also mentions life hacks like leveraging flexibility to manage personal responsibilities – in her case, walking her energetic puppy between work sprints. The big picture is an organised, yet flexible routine that prevents burnout and keeps the business moving forward.

Another area of efficiency is pricing and client management. Catherine made a bold move by rejecting the common agency pricing model of taking a percentage of ad spend. “I don’t take a percentage of Ad spend as my fee,” she says, because it can create misaligned incentives. Instead, she developed a flat fee model with performance bonuses. This was not without its challenges – she had to experiment to get the bonus structure right for different categories.

For instance, with author clients, Amazon’s attribution (due to Kindle reads) was tricky, so she adjusted how performance bonuses were calculated. The key point is that her pricing model is designed for transparency and trust. By decoupling her fees from ad spend, she positions herself truly on the client’s side, focused on efficiency rather than just encouraging more spend. This innovative approach can resonate well with brands and is another way she differentiates as a strategic partner rather than a typical agency.

Augmenting Human Capacity with AI and Tools

No modern agency can ignore the power of artificial intelligence and automation – especially a lean one. Catherine Bolich wholeheartedly embraces AI to extend her capabilities. In fact, when asked about tools for efficiency, she lit up about her favourite helper: “Honestly, probably the premium version of ChatGPT.” As a solo practitioner, she uses ChatGPT as if it were her “in-house creative production team” and brainstorming partner.

This AI assists her in generating ad creatives, copy hooks, taglines, and even in analysing data at a granular level. For example, ChatGPT can quickly help segment keywords or suggest campaign ideas tailored to a brand’s voice, which saves her hours she’d otherwise spend writing or researching. It’s like having a copywriter and data analyst on call 24/7, for a fraction of the cost.

Catherine also acknowledges the broader impact of AI on agency life: “AI has changed the entire world… It’s magnified the impact that one person can have.” This statement rings especially true for small agencies – AI tools can automate reports, optimise bids, create imagery, and more, effectively allowing one person to do the work of many. Aside from ChatGPT, Catherine leverages analytics tools (such as the aforementioned Amazon Marketing Cloud reports) and likely other software to streamline operations.

While she didn’t list them all, one can infer use of project management tools or advertising platforms that consolidate multi-channel data (MerchantSpring, the host’s company, for example, provides a SaaS dashboard for agencies to manage Walmart, Amazon, TikTok analytics in one place – a useful tool for anyone following Catherine’s model).

However, Catherine also balances tech with a belief in human value. She notes that as she looks to scale beyond herself, she will invest in hiring people who are strategic, analytical, and customer-obsessed. AI can amplify output, but for certain high-level strategic thinking and client relationship aspects, having the right team members remains crucial. The ideal approach is combining the two: use AI to handle the grunt work and pattern-finding, while humans focus on strategy, creative judgment, and relationship-building.

Inspiring Scalable Growth – Depth Over Breadth

As Catherine’s agency enters its second year, her mindset on growth offers one final lesson: focus on depth with existing clients as much as (or more than) adding new clients. While it’s tempting to equate “scale” with sheer number of accounts, Catherine views scale in a more nuanced way. “I really prioritise depth with my clients,” she says. If she starts managing Amazon for a brand and then also takes on Walmart and maybe TikTok for them, that is significant growth – for the client’s business and her own – achieved without onboarding a brand new client.

Expanding services within the current client streamlines operations (since you already know the product and team) and increases revenue per client without a corresponding increase in sales efforts. Catherine sees this as a “win-win”: the client gets a more unified, synergistic approach across channels, and the agency grows profitably by deepening the partnership. “It streamlines their internal operations,” she notes, and it allows her to deliver a holistic brand experience to consumers, which ultimately benefits performance.

Of course, Catherine isn’t shying away from net-new business – she mentions she will still pursue new clients opportunistically. But her point is that scaling a lean agency doesn’t mean you must chase dozens of clients. It can mean growing alongside your clients: entering new markets with them, adding new channels for them, and gradually expanding your team in a measured way when absolutely necessary. Catherine does foresee hiring in the future, but will do so carefully, looking for talent that mirrors her hybrid skill set (strategic + analytical + customer-obsessed). This ensures that when her agency is no longer a solo act, the ethos of efficiency and high-impact service continues.

For agencies reading this, it’s a reminder that bigger isn’t always better – better is better. You don’t need 50 clients to have a thriving business if you have 10-15 great clients whom you service across many areas. In fact, many boutique agencies deliberately keep client count low to maintain quality (something Paul Sonneveld noted some do by design). If that aligns with your vision, it’s a perfectly valid strategy.

Conclusion: Thriving as a Lean, Global Amazon Agency

Catherine Bolich’s journey offers a powerful narrative for agency owners and consultants in the Amazon and e-commerce space: you can achieve global, multi-channel success without a big team or heavy overhead. By delivering quick wins and building trust, you can accelerate client growth and fuel referrals. By expanding into new countries and platforms strategically, you future-proof your clients and make yourself indispensable – all while enjoying incremental revenue streams. By systematising operations, structuring your week, and leveraging AI, you amplify what one person can do. And by focusing on client depth and true partnership, you create a sustainable business model where your success is tied to your clients’ success.

In the Marketplace Masters episode, Paul Sonneveld wrapped up by praising Catherine’s “honest, practical insights”. He noted that her ability to “deliver high-value results across regions and channels while keeping [her] model so lean” is “inspiring and highly relevant for agency leaders” facing similar challenges. Indeed, Catherine’s story is a template for mastering multi-country, multi-channel growth as a lean Amazon agency – not by brute force scaling, but through smart strategy, efficiency, and innovation.

For solo operators and boutique agencies, the message is uplifting: you don’t need a massive operation to have a massive impact. With the right playbook, even a one-person agency can drive international Amazon expansion, conquer new retail media channels, and become a trusted advisor to brands worldwide. Take these lessons, adapt them to your context, and you too can build a thriving global e-commerce consultancy that’s lean, agile, and remarkably effective.

For those inspired by Catherine Bolich’s journey, don’t let the conversation end here – connect with her on LinkedIn to exchange insights and ideas. If your agency is also striving to master global complexity without scaling overhead, MerchantSpring’s platform can be your secret weapon – schedule a personalised demo to see how we help lean teams excel across Amazon, Walmart, TikTok, and more. And before you go, be sure to check our Watch-On-Demand, for more inspiring episodes and actionable strategies from e-commerce leaders.