POPULARITY
A big Walmart policy change might have made it easier for you to start selling on the platform. Amazon cut sellers' FBA capacity limits again, and Helium 10 launches a new TikTok influencer finder tool. These and more buzzing stories in this episode! ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's VP of Education and Strategy, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. Big Amazon Walmart Policy Shift https://marketplacelearn.walmart.com/guides/Policies%20&%20standards/Shipping%20&%20fulfillment/Shipping-and-fulfillment-policy Amazon Ads Summit: Prep for Prime Day https://h10.me/primeads Nike to return to Amazon, raise prices https://www.retaildive.com/news/nike-amazon-marketplace-raising-footwear-prices-tariffs/748986/ Helium 10 launched the Expansion Ticket course inside Freedom Ticket to all members to help sellers expand to global Amazon marketplaces with guidance from Avask experts. FBA Capacity Change https://sellercentral.amazon.com/inventoryplanning/manageinventoryhealth?ref_=xx_invplan_dnav_xx Helium 10 just launched the new TikTok Influencer Finder tool, which allows users to bulk search and message influencers for TikTok Shop collaborations! Sponsored ads and Stores launch in Ireland https://advertising.amazon.com/en-us/resources/whats-new/sponsored-ads-and-stores-launch-in-ireland/ Helium 10 Size Tier Alerts Feature https://youtu.be/0zKf-czW2q8?si=ls9ZzCvXFz2NqKXE&t=2028 Helium 10's Alerts tool can flag products close to a lower Amazon size tier. Bradley saved $5,625 by shrinking packaging and reducing FBA fees by $3.75/unit. Amazon FBA $4 billion investment in rural delivery https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHUTNXUDNMSkFBQVU1S01X Join us as we explore these dynamic shifts in the e-commerce landscape and equip you with strategies to stay ahead of the curve. In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers: 00:45 - Big Amazon Walmart Policy Shift 03:23 - Prime Day Ads Prep 03:59 - Nike Back on Amazon 05:22 - Expansion Ticket 07:26 - FBA Capacity Change 09:06 - Influencer Finder 12:56 - Ireland Sponsored Ads 13:34 - Size Tier Alerts 17:32 - FBA Rural Delivery 19:16 - Estonia Event
Amazon's new small business report reveals exactly how the marketplace is doing for independent sellers, TikTok users reveal who's really shopping on TikTok Shop, and Amazon is issuing surprise refunds dating back to 2018. These and more buzzing news on this episode! ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's Senior Brand Evangelist, Shivali Patel. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. New Amazon report shows small businesses have created millions of US jobs and built thriving communities https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/small-business/amazon-2024-small-business-empowerment-report Are US TikTok users turning to TikTok Shop? https://business.yougov.com/content/52193-are-us-tiktok-users-turning-to-tiktok-shop Got a Surprise Amazon Refund? We Now Know Why https://www.pcmag.com/news/got-a-surprise-amazon-refund-we-now-know-why EU plans 2 euro fee for low-value parcels in setback for Shein, Temu https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/eu-eyes-2-euro-handling-fee-online-parcels-customs-reform-2025-05-21/ Shopify launches AI tool that builds complete online stores from keywords https://www.reuters.com/business/shopify-launches-ai-tool-that-builds-complete-online-stores-keywords-2025-05-21/ Boost sales with Memorial Day Outlet merchandising https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHMjlOQ1RLUUIyVEZFSzJQ Manage shipments easier with new Send to Amazon features https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHSEFZSzlLRkszTFI5S0hG Change to Buyer-Seller Messaging options https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHNENSQUpOSzJENkQ0VFJO For our new feature alerts, Helium 10 has introduced a powerful update to its Helium 10 Ads Campaign Builder, now supporting Sponsored Display Audience Targeting with options to optimize for impressions, visits, or conversions, along with expanded audience targeting and multiple ad formats, including video. Additionally, the revamped Ads Academy. Hosted by Bradley Sutton and Destaney Wishon, offers a comprehensive, beginner-to-advanced course on Amazon advertising, accessible to all Helium 10 paid subscribers. This week's strategy highlights how sellers can use Helium 10's Search Query Performance Analyzer tool to identify every keyword that generated a sale over a specific period directly from Amazon data. Unlike Amazon Seller Central, this tool allows for efficient filtering by product, keyword, and time frame, offering a faster, clearer view of what's truly driving sales. As we wrap up this episode, we invite you to stay tuned for the latest trends shaping the e-commerce landscape, equipping you to thrive in a rapidly evolving market. In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Shivali covers: 00:50 - $2.5 Trillion Milestone 02:52 - TikTok Shop Truth 05:23 - Refunds from 2018 06:52 - EU Hits Back 08:50 - Shopify Builds Stores 10:08 - Amazon Adds Audio 12:08 - Homepage Outlet Push 13:34 - Send-to-Amazon Updates 14:50 - Message Marked Gone 15:38 - Helium 10 New Feature Alerts 18:29 - Training Tip: Search Query Analyzer by Helium 10
China tariffs were slashed—but what about de minimis? Plus, how to fulfill Amazon Ireland orders without local inventory. All this and more on today's Weekly Buzz episode! ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's VP of Education and Strategy, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. U.S. and China Agree on Tariff Pause in Major Trade War Rollback https://time.com/7284765/us-china-trade-war-pause/ US slashes 'de minimis' tariff on small China parcels to 54% https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-cut-minimis-tariff-china-051520824.html US-China trade reprieve buys Shein and Temu time to restock US inventory https://www.reuters.com/world/china/ecommerce-packages-left-out-us-china-tariff-reprieve-2025-05-12/ TikTok Shop brings pre-owned to continental Europe https://ecommercenews.eu/tiktok-shop-brings-pre-owned-to-continental-europe/ Amazon Remote Fulfilment with FBA is now available from UK to Ireland https://channelx.world/2025/05/amazon-remote-fulfilment-with-fba-is-now-available-from-uk-to-ireland/ Upcoming changes to Seller Fulfilled Prime https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/GXCRLXHNJNPE2DHM Amazon Fee adjustments for partnered carrier shipment measurements https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHUjlRUFJDQ1FNN1o4V1c3 Amazon signs up FedEx for residential deliveries https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-strikes-partnership-fedex-ups-204255139.html Amazon Drops 3 New CTV Ad Formats Ahead of Its Upfront Presentation https://www.adweek.com/commerce/amazon-drops-3-new-ctv-ad-formats-ahead-of-its-upfront-presentation/ Catch Bradley at the following events: Worldef Istanbul 2025 - https://h10.me/istanbul Amazon Ads Korea Event - https://h10.me/adskorea Tech Partner Day Tokyo 2025 - https://h10.me/tokyo
You might not be able to send inventory to FBA next month. Tariff surcharges could appear on Amazon listings, and TikTok Shop expands again. All this buzzing news and more! ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's VP of Education and Strategy, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. Amazon Slashes Your FBA Capacity! https://sellercentral.amazon.com/inventory-storage/storage-request/limit-increase Create deals for Amazon Pet Day https://sell.amazon.com/blog/announcements/pet-day Amazon denies plans to list tariff prices after President Trump calls Jeff Bezos to object https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/04/29/amazon-tariff-costs-trump-white-house/83340801007/ Grow With US: How Walmart's New Program Aims To Help Small Businesses Go Big https://corporate.walmart.com/news/2025/04/29/grow-with-us-how-walmarts-new-program-aims-to-help-small-businesses-go-big France urges fees on cheap e-commerce parcels in EU https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/france-urges-fees-cheap-e-121540875.html Walmart to Offer 3-Hour Delivery to 95% of Americans https://www.pymnts.com/walmart/2025/walmart-to-offer-3-hour-delivery-to-95percent-of-americans/ Exclusive: Some Amazon sellers are pulling out of Prime Day amid Trump tariffs https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/some-amazon-sellers-are-pulling-out-prime-day-amid-trump-tariffs-2025-04-28/ Walmart, Target resume business with some Chinese factories after tariff-related halt, suppliers say https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/29/business/walmart-target-chinese-orders-tariffs-hnk-intl/index.html TikTok to enter Japan's e-commerce industry, Nikkei reports https://www.reuters.com/world/china/tiktok-enter-japan-e-commerce-nikkei-reports-2025-04-26/ Did you know Helium 10 has a forum? While our Facebook group gets more traffic, we want to grow the forum community too! It's a great place to ask questions and join discussions about e-commerce, Amazon strategies, and more. Remember, it's not for Helium 10 customer support—that's available 24/7 through our website. To participate, sign in to your Helium 10 account and head to forum.helium10.com. Helium 10 has rolled out several powerful new features this week, starting with the brand-new Tariff Analyzer tool in Profits. This feature gives sellers a detailed breakdown of how tariffs impact their net profits on a product-by-product basis. By inputting the country of origin and cost of goods sold (COGS), users can instantly see pre- and post-tariff profit margins, estimate the price adjustments needed to maintain margins, and even compare how switching manufacturing to another country, like Vietnam or Uzbekistan, might improve profitability. It's a game-changing tool for sellers looking to stay agile amid rising import costs. Another major upgrade is the expansion of Managed Refund Services, now available to both Platinum and Diamond users. Previously reserved for Diamond subscribers, this service helps Amazon sellers recover funds owed by Amazon due to lost, damaged, or mishandled inventory. Helium 10's team handles the tedious claims process, scanning accounts, filing cases, and staying compliant with Amazon's policies. Sellers only pay a small percentage of successfully recovered funds, making it a zero-risk way to reclaim potentially thousands in lost revenue. On top of that, Helium 10 has added support for Cerebro and Magnet in the Amazon Saudi Arabia marketplace, with built-in translation tools to help sellers understand foreign-language keywords and rank data, opening up new international expansion opportunities easily. Tune in for a wealth of knowledge and strategies to keep your Amazon business thriving.
Temu & Shein hike prices on April 25. Amazon 1P offers more to tariff-hit vendors. TikTok Shop sales dip in US before the de minimis loophole ends. All this and more on this week's Weekly Buzz! ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's VP of Education and Strategy, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. Temu and Shein are increasing prices starting April 25: Here's what shoppers should know https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/04/21/temu-shein-prices-tariffs/83194905007/ Amazon makes urgent move to avoid US-China trade war impact https://www.thestreet.com/retail/amazon-makes-urgent-move-to-avoid-us-china-trade-war-impact TikTok Shop's sales in US plunge as Trump's tariffs hit Chinese imports https://www.msn.com/en-xl/news/other/tiktok-shop-s-sales-in-us-plunge-as-trump-s-tariffs-hit-chinese-imports/ar-AA1D3hzz OpenAI and Shopify poised for partnership as ChatGPT adds in-chat shopping https://www.testingcatalog.com/openai-and-shopify-poised-for-partnership-as-chatgpt-adds-in-chat-shopping/ Walmart makes nationwide delivery change https://www.al.com/news/2025/04/walmart-makes-nationwide-delivery-change.html Amazon 2025 Force for Good application is open! https://sell.amazon.com/blog/force-for-good Maximize Impact with Amazon DSP bid adjustments https://advertising.amazon.com/en-us/resources/whats-new/maximize-impact-with-amazon-dsp-bid-adjustments/ Cargo freight forwarding services made easy with Amazon Freight https://www.aboutamazon.eu/news/transportation/cargo-freight-forwarding-services-made-easy-with-amazon-freight Lastly, we deep dive into tools that could redefine your selling strategy. Meet the Influencer Finder, a groundbreaking feature for Helium 10 users, simplifying how sellers can discover and collaborate with influencers. Plus, Helium 10's historical Cerebro tool is empowering sellers to mine past keyword data, uncovering trends that can inform future product launches and optimizations. This episode is packed with actionable strategies that are bound to sharpen your competitive edge in the ever-evolving e-commerce landscape. Don't miss these essential insights to stay ahead and seize new opportunities! In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers: 00:49 - Tariffs Trigger Prices 03:07 - Amazon Absorbs Tariffs 05:13 - Forced Seller Discounts 06:58 - TikTok Sales Slide 08:40- Chatbot Becomes Store 10:40 - Faster Walmart Delivery 11:50 - Get Featured on Amazon 12:51 - Smarter Ad Bidding 14:02 - Freight Goes Global 14:50 - Helium 10 New Feature Alerts 21:01 - Strategy of the Week: Cerebro Historical Trends
A popular Amazon Vine hack was just killed by Amazon. Tariffs are causing lots of changes on most E-commerce marketplaces, a special workshop for Amazon Search Query Performance. These buzzing stories and more on this episode! ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's VP of Education and Strategy, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. Clarification of Amazon Vine review policy https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHU1NZVlVHVEhDUTZYR01L Report: Amazon Cancels Orders From ‘Multiple Vendors' After Tariffs Announcement https://www.pymnts.com/amazon/2025/amazon-cancels-orders-from-multiple-vendors-after-tariffs-announcement/ Shein and Temu Face Massive Roadblock With New Package Duties https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2025/shein-and-temu-face-massive-roadblock-with-new-package-duties/ Temu pulls its U.S. Google Shopping ads https://searchengineland.com/temu-pulls-us-google-shopping-ads-454260 TikTok Shop flags US risks, promotes EU market as Trump triples tariffs on small parcels https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3305864/tiktok-shop-flags-us-risks-promotes-eu-market-trump-triples-tariffs-small-parcels Amazon launches inbound-only LTL service https://www.freightwaves.com/news/amazon-launches-inbound-only-ltl-service Sponsored Display updates all existing campaign to optimize for Conversion opportunities https://advertising.amazon.com/en-us/resources/whats-new/sponsored-display-reach-and-page-visit-campaign/ The most valuable datapoint that Amazon has ever given sellers is their Search Query Performance reports! Join Bradley + Destaney Monday at 11AM for a workshop to learn about how this data can grow your business. h10.me/sqptraining We wrap up with exciting updates from Helium 10, featuring new tools and features like the translation feature in X-Ray Keywords and a Helium 10 widget for bestseller pages. Listen in as we provide actionable strategies for sellers to optimize their Amazon presence using Helium 10's latest offerings, including understanding the crucial difference between indexing and ranking. In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers: 01:01 - Amazon Vine Hack Dead? 04:35 - Amazon Tariff Repercussions 06:46 - Temu/Shein Tariff Repercussions 10:56 - TikTok Tariff Repercussions 13:02 - Amazon LTL Freight 14:56 - Sponsored Display Update 15:45 - SQP Workshop - h10.me/sqptraining 17:16 - Helium 10 New Feature Alerts 20:05 - Strategy of the Week: Index Checker
The new tariffs announced this week have Amazon sellers up in arms. In this episode, Bradley will show you some numbers on why it might not be as bad as you think and things that you can do to keep your profitability and avoid issues on Amazon. ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's VP of Education and Strategy, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. Can a new set of tariffs reshape the landscape for Amazon sellers, potentially leveling the playing field and offering unexpected opportunities? Join us as we explore this complex and rapidly evolving situation, where countries like China, the EU, and Vietnam are hit with varying rates, and the de minimis loophole is no more. As sellers grapple with these changes, we highlight the need for strategic approaches to maintain profitability, such as re-evaluating HS codes and collaborating closely with suppliers and freight forwarders. Listen in to hear insights from our community, who are finding ways to stay resilient amidst the upheaval. Let's break down how these tariffs are impacting product pricing and profit margins, using real-world scenarios to illuminate the path forward. From a $10 item to a $25 item, we reveal the calculations needed to keep your business thriving despite increased production costs. The message is one of optimism and adaptability—while the road may be bumpy, it's not the end. Embrace this opportunity to reflect, adjust, and strategize, ensuring your business not only survives but thrives in these challenging economic times. Tune in and become part of our community navigating this journey together. In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers: 00:00 - New Tariffs' Impact on Amazon and E-commerce Sellers 04:36 - Navigating Tariffs as Amazon Sellers 08:07 - Navigating Tariff Impact on Profitability 12:48 - Maximizing Cost Savings in International Trade 19:51 - Global Tariff Impact and Adaptation
Ever wondered how some of the biggest names in Amazon FBA got their start? In this episode, we sit down with Bradley Sutton, a legend in the e-commerce space, to uncover his incredible journey—from humble beginnings (including sleeping in a rental car during a conference!) to becoming one of the most trusted voices in Amazon selling. What You'll Learn: How Bradley stumbled into e-commerce 20+ years ago (thanks to Fast & Furious?!) The biggest Amazon algorithm changes that reshaped the game Why Helium 10 became his go-to tool (and how YOU can use it to dominate) The #1 mistake sellers make today (and how to avoid it) AI's role in Amazon's future—should you be excited or worried?
This week on The Weekly Buzz: Amazon's new AI helps shoppers find products by interest, Prime Day deal details revealed, and how AI images are reshaping e-commerce. ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's Principal Brand Evangelist, Carrie Miller. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. Amazon's AI-powered ‘Interests' feature automatically finds new products that match your passions and hobbies https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/artificial-intelligence-amazon-features-interest Get ready for Prime Day: Deal scheduling is now open for our longest US Prime Day event ever https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHUDNTNVRVU05QWUJITUJN Walmart Seller Summit 2025 https://www.walmartmarketplacesellersummit.com/event/adb13902-f010-48fe-96c0-64f9d165dba5/welcome Drive business-to-business growth with new Business Price action panel https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHWFpCWVRQSkJIRU5ERlk1 Major Temu move announced for millions of Australian businesses from today https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/major-temu-move-announced-for-millions-of-australian-businesses-from-today-211318441.html Then, we explore the latest updates from Helium 10, with Shivali Patel introducing four new feature alerts. The search query analyzer now supports multiple marketplaces and offers the ability to save filter presets for efficient business management. Integration with Helium 10 Ads allows for enhanced PPC metrics visibility. Lastly, the product launchpad tool is enhanced with adjustable rules, enabling users to tailor the tool to better fit their business strategies and preferences. This week's strategy highlights Helium 10's new Search Query Analyzer tool, which simplifies filtering and analyzing Amazon search query data. Unlike Seller Central, this tool allows users to compare multiple products, track high-converting keywords, and assess conversion rates against market averages. Additionally, Bradley Sutton will be speaking at two upcoming conferences: Amazon Business Know-How in Warsaw, Poland (April 24-25) and Amazing Days Summit in Sofia, Bulgaria (April 25). In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Carrie covers: 00:54 - Amazon's AI Interest Feature 02:54 - Schedule Prime Day Deals Now 06:00 - Walmart Seller Summit 2025 06:56 - AI Images 09:20 - New B2B Price Panel 10:36 - Temu Open to Australian Sellers 11:03 - Helium 10 New Feature Alerts 16:04 - Strategy Of The Week: Search Query Analyzer Data Imports
Amazon is raising fees again. The Amazon big spring sale is now live. These buzzing stories and more on today's episode! ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's VP of Education and Strategy, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. Amazon is making it easier to try using deals and coupons to create additional demand for your products https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHM0EyTUgyRjQ1S1lZRzY2 Amazon's Big Spring Sale 2025 starts March 25 https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/amazon-big-spring-sale-2025 AI startup Perplexity confirms interest to buy TikTok https://techxplore.com/news/2025-03-ai-startup-perplexity-buy-tiktok.html Catch Bradley Sutton at the Prosper Show! https://www.linkedin.com/posts/h10bradley_see-you-guys-at-prosper-this-week-here-activity-7310218411182026752-m4Al? For our new feature alerts, Helium 10 has introduced two highly requested features in Blackbox. The first caters to wholesale and arbitrage sellers, allowing them to search products using UPC, EAN, or GTIN codes, even by uploading bulk lists of 200–300+ identifiers. This streamlines the process of evaluating wholesale opportunities by quickly identifying which products are on Amazon and their estimated sales. The second feature is designed for Amazon influencers, enabling them to find high-ROI products for video content. By switching to “Influencer Mode,” users can filter products by category, price range, reviews, and the number of videos in the carousel, helping them identify listings where they have a strong chance of earning commissions. Lastly, our strategy of the week features Helium 10's Keyword Sales Estimate feature, which goes beyond search volume to show the actual sales estimates a keyword generates. This helps sellers prioritize high-converting keywords instead of just high-traffic ones, ultimately improving ad efficiency and product targeting. For instance, while two keywords may have similar search volumes, one might convert at a much higher rate due to buyer intent. This level of insight, exclusive to Helium 10, ensures sellers focus on terms that drive actual sales. If you're headed to the Prosper Show in Las Vegas, don't miss out on the chance to meet us and share your story—there might even be a spot for you on the Serious Sellers Podcast! In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers: 00:38 - Coupons/Deals Skyrocket? 17:25 - Big Spring Sale 18:31 - TikTok Buyer? 19:31 - Prosper Show 20:22 - Helium 10 New Feature Alerts 24:24 - Strategy of the week: Keyword Sales Estimates
Ready to launch your Amazon product? In this episode, we discuss the essentials of optimizing your listings and the best ad strategies for driving more sales immediately. ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Join us in our monthly TACoS Tuesday episode, as we explore the essentials of launching Amazon products, featuring expert insights from Destaney Wishon. We start by discussing how to make your product retail-ready, emphasizing the importance of indexing your listing for the right keywords to drive sales. From match types and targeting to effective keyword research methods often overlooked by sellers, we cover fundamental Amazon advertising strategies for 2025. With Destaney's extensive expertise in Amazon PPC and Bradley Sutton's experience launching over 600 products, they provide valuable guidance for both new and seasoned Amazon sellers. Listen in as they navigate the ever-changing landscape of Amazon advertising. They recount the evolution of strategies from two-step URLs and giveaways to modern methods that are currently non-compliant with Amazon's TOS. By sharing Bradley's recent success story of achieving top keyword rankings within three weeks, they provide practical insights into adapting to market dynamics while leveraging core strategies for sustained success. They also focused on optimizing keywords for seasonal products, using mason jars as an example to illustrate the need for specificity in targeting audiences and identifying seasonal trends and opportunity keywords. Finally, let's tackle the art of optimizing Amazon PPC strategies, focusing on understanding customer feedback and incorporating emotional touchpoints into product listings. They discuss bid management strategies, the importance of balancing profitability and scalability, and how successful bidding can enhance organic ranking. Additionally, they cover the significance of tailoring marketing strategies to fit specific product niches and maintaining brand loyalty amidst the shift from organic to paid search on Amazon. Throughout the episode, we aim to equip you with actionable insights and strategies to boost your product's visibility and success on Amazon. In episode 650 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Destaney discuss: 00:02 - Amazon Advertising Launch Strategies Workshop 01:22 - Navigating Amazon's Ever-Changing Advertising Landscape 10:08 - Optimizing Keywords for Seasonal Products 13:12 - Keyword Research Using Helium 10 18:41 - Optimizing Amazon Advertising Strategy 24:49 - Importance of Keyword Research in Advertising 26:52 - Effective Bid Management for Targeting Types 28:50 - Finding Balance in Amazon Bid Management 35:37 - Bid Management for Sales and ACoS 38:23 - Mastering Amazon Bidding Strategy 45:41 - Discussion on Algorithmic Love and Relaunch
Upcoming spring day events, Amazon ads integrating with Adobe Photoshop, and Walmart's got an AI guy of its own. These and more buzzing news on this week's episode! ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's VP of Education and Strategy, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. Amazon, Walmart to host spring savings events https://chainstoreage.com/amazon-walmart-host-spring-savings-events Amazon Spring Deal Days 2025 is coming March 25-31 https://www.aboutamazon.eu/news/retail/amazon-spring-deal-days-2025-is-coming-march-25-31 Prepare for Prime Day: Send your inventory to AWD by May 15 https://sell.amazon.com/blog/awd-prime-day-prep New Product: Exciting news from the AdobeSummit! Amazon Ads announced it's expanding your creative possibilities through a new partnership with Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Express. Soon, you'll be able to access your Amazon Creative Assets library and leverage our pre-moderation capabilities directly within these Adobe tools. Via Jeff Cohen on LinkedIn Walmart Develops GenAI-Powered Assistant for Walmart Merchants https://corporate.walmart.com/news/2025/03/18/walmart-develops-genai-powered-assistant-for-walmart-merchants Amazon launches Amazon.ie in Ireland https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/amazon-ireland Request to remove meltable FBA inventory by April 15, 2025 https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHUTZGWExSWUhXUlhFWEFV Forever 21 store closures accelerated by competition from Shein and Temu https://www.foxbusiness.com/retail/forever-21-store-closures-accelerated-competition-from-shein-temu Join the TikTok Shop Sellers Group by Helium 10 - https://h10.me/tiktokgroup Enhance your competitive edge with Helium 10's new powerful tool, the Search Query Performance Analyzer, offering an in-depth look into Amazon's SQP data and more. Discover how monitoring keyword fluctuations inside Cerebro, such as with "emo decor" and "coffin decor," can be pivotal in maintaining or boosting sales momentum. By understanding the link between keyword trends and sales, you'll gain invaluable insights for forecasting and strategy adjustments, ensuring you stay ahead in the competitive e-commerce landscape. In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers: 00:45 - Spring Deal Days 04:42 - Amazon Ads x Adobe 06:28 - Walmart's AI Revolution 07:59 - Amazon Expands to Ireland 10:17 - Meltable Inventory Purge 11:38 - Goodbye Forever 21 13:01 - TikTok Shop Sellers Group by Helium 10 13:39 - Helium 10 New Feature: Search Query Performance Analyzer Tool 23:41 - Strategy of the Week: Cerebro Historical Trend Monthly Comparison
Join us for an exclusive webinar featuring Helium 10's Bradley Sutton and VENDO's Delaney Del Mundo as they unveil next-level keyword research strategies to elevate your brand in 2025! Topics Covered: - Keyword research and strategy - Decoding brand SOV - Understanding product innovation opportunities - TikTok Shop listing strategy Speakers: - Bradley Sutton, VP of Education and Strategy, Helium 10 - Delaney Del Mundo, Director of Amazon Account Strategy, VENDO Want to stay up to date on topics like this? Subscribe to our Amazon & Walmart Growth #podcast for bi-weekly episodes every other Thursday! ➡️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr2VTsj1X3PRZWE97n-tDbA ➡️ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4HXz504VRToYzafHcAhzke?si=9d57599ed19e4362 ➡️ Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/vendo-amazon-walmart-growth-experts/id1512362107
Amazon is giving sellers a credit for FBA. Another Chinese marketplace is gaining market share. There's a new way to make money with Helium 10. These buzzing stories & more on this episode! ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's VP of Education and Strategy, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. New return credits for Remote Fulfillment with FBA https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHWFpKODlZQUhLSjRQRjha How to get free delivery on Amazon https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/amazon-free-delivery New recommended product groups for Ships in Product Packaging program https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHSjQ4SkdTRjNWNVlBQUYz TikTok To Integrate More 'Local Services' Into Its US Commerce Push https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/403951/tiktok-to-integrate-more-local-services-into-its.html Goodbye Amazon and Temu – Aliexpress is ahead of the game in bringing these incredible deals to technology https://eladelantado.com/news/aliexpress-spring-tech-sales-2025/ Plus, we talk about Helium 10's affiliate program, offering lifetime commissions for those who refer new users, and our new Facebook group for Amazon & TikTok influencers to foster community and knowledge sharing. To wrap things up, we highlight the latest features of the Helium 10 Chrome extension, including a new visual search tool that uses images to find similar products on Amazon, enhancing your product research and discovery efforts. Don't miss out on these insights and strategies designed to elevate your e-commerce skills. In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers: 00:59 - FBA Return Credits 02:35 - FBM Pricing Hack 05:12 - SIPP Program 06:19 - TikTok Local 08:00 - Ali Express 09:15 - Helium 10 Referral Program - h10.me/crushit 10:55 - Influencer FB Group - h10.me/influencerFB 11:49 - Helium 10 New Feature Alerts 13:52 - Strategy of the Week: Child ASIN Variation Sales Performance
There are new changes to how Amazon agencies and service providers can access client accounts and a new date change for FBA reimbursement policies. These and more buzzing news on this week's episode! ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's VP of Education and Strategy, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. Amazon's Solution Provider Portal (SPP) is a dedicated gateway for third-party developers and service providers to onboard and manage their offerings for Amazon seller and vendor customers. https://developer.amazonservices.com/solution-provider-portal You can now use a credit card as your Walmart Marketplace billing method. https://marketplacelearn.walmart.com/guides/Taxes%20%26%20payments/Billing%20Information/Billing-Methods:-Add-a-credit-card New effective date for FBA inventory reimbursement policy https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHVkYyU0M5NldVQ1BWQ0NO Track and prevent product return badges https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHMlZVVzZXTkc4N1Q0OEtD TikTok Shop welcomes merchants in Germany, France, and Italy https://ecommercenews.eu/tiktok-shop-welcomes-merchants-in-germany-france-and-italy/ Amazon eyes global expansion for its Temu, Shein competitor https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/28/amazon-eyes-global-expansion-for-its-temu-shein-competitor.html Amazon Introduces Alexa+, the next generation of Alexa https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/devices/new-alexa-generative-artificial-intelligence 4 ways to shop faster on Amazon using Amazon Lens https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/how-to-use-amazon-lens Helium 10 has been recognized as a Walmart Connect Partner Program - Premium Partner! In our new feature alerts, Helium 10's new eBay Price Checker lets you instantly compare Amazon vs. eBay prices to prevent buy box issues and spot unauthorized resellers. Lastly, Helium 10's Keyword Tracker with Boost checks your keyword ranks 24x daily, showing real-time fluctuations across browsers and locations—crucial for tracking launches and ad performance. Stay ahead by monitoring your most important keywords hourly! In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers: 00:52 - Solution Provider Portal 02:51 - Now You can use WM CC 04:10 - FBA Reimbursement Update 05:31 - Amazon Return Badge 07:06 - TikTok Shop Europe 08:16 - Amazon Haul Global Expansion 10:39 - Next Gen Alexa 13:07 - Amazon Lens Updates 15:00 - Update Emergency Contact 15:50 - Walmart Connect Update 16:36 - Helium 10's eBay Price Checker 18:07 - Keyword Tracker with Boost
A change for the Serious Sellers Podcast, Walmart has caught up fast to Amazon in something, and Is Amazon Rufus meaningless? These and more buzzing news on this episode! ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's VP of Education and Strategy, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. Walmart CEO delivers alarming news for Amazon https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/walmart-ceo-delivers-alarming-news-for-amazon/ar-AA1zHNTw?ocid=finance-verthp-feeds Amazon Alexa event live - Alexa Plus officially announced, with more news still to come https://www.techradar.com/news/live/amazon-alexa-event-2025-live TikTok Shop eyes 100% growth in 2025 https://jingdaily.com/posts/tiktok-shop-eyes-100-growth-in-2025-amid-us-uncertainty Is Amazon on course to upend LTL industry? https://www.freightwaves.com/news/is-amazon-on-course-to-upend-ltl-industry Online marketplace Temu allowing Canadian businesses to sell through platform https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/online-marketplace-temu-allowing-canadian-151954793.html Launching sponsored ads for authors: India, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands https://advertising.amazon.com/en-us/resources/whats-new/sponsored-products-and-sponsored-brands-ads-expansion/ We also take a closer look at the advanced features in Black Box and Helium 10 Ads, emphasizing new strategies for keyword harvesting that allow you to fine-tune your targeting criteria and adjust cost per click to boost your campaigns. Learn how utilizing these features can maximize your impressions and improve efficiency. Moreover, discover how Helium 10's Alerts tool can help you identify opportunities to save on fulfillment costs by making small adjustments to product dimensions. These tweaks could potentially save or earn you significant extra profit over the year. This episode also explores the controversial Amazon Rufus AI and its impact on Amazon listing optimization. While Rufus shows potential, it has limitations, particularly in generating accurate search suggestions for niche products and identifying deals. We highlight the importance of ensuring that product descriptions are comprehensive to improve customer experience and sales. Listen in as we analyze Rufus' keyword suggestions, examining their current relevance and potential future significance as more users adopt these recommendations. Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next week! In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers: 00:42 - SSP Schedule Change 02:47 - Walmart Same Day Delivery 04:36 - New Amazon Alexa? 06:07 - TikTok Growth 06:57 - Amazon LTL? 09:43 - Temu For Canadians 10:30 - PPC For Authors 11:06 - Helium 10 New Feature Alerts 15:22 - Strategy of the Week: Size Tier Alerts 18:55 - Hot Take Of The Week: Rufus is Meaningless? Enjoy this episode? Be sure to check out our previous episodes for even more content to propel you to Amazon FBA Seller success! And don't forget to “Like” our Facebook page and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you listen to our podcast. Get snippets from all episodes by following us on Instagram at @SeriousSellersPodcast Want to absolutely start crushing it on Amazon? Here are few carefully curated resources to get you started: Freedom Ticket: Taught by Amazon thought leader Kevin King, get A-Z Amazon strategies and techniques for establishing and solidifying your business. Helium 10: 30+ software tools to boost your entire sales pipeline from product research to customer communication and Amazon refund automation. Make running a successful Amazon or Walmart business easier with better data and insights. See what our customers have to say. Helium 10 Chrome Extension: Verify your Amazon product idea and validate how lucrative it can be with over a dozen data metrics and profitability estimation. SellerTrademarks.com: Trademarks are vital for protecting your Amazon brand from hijackers, and sellertrademarks.com provides a streamlined process for helping you get one.
How do Amazon sellers adapt to the relentless changes in policies and fees? In this episode, Chris McCabe speaks with Bradley Sutton from Helium 10, exploring effective strategies to handle Amazon's unpredictable environment. They discuss utilizing comprehensive data analytics and equipping sellers with the necessary tools to succeed amid frequent shifts.
Amazon announces its second-ever big spring sale. TikTok shop is opening in Mexico this week. Amazon is actually sending traffic off the platform. These buzzing stories and more in this episode! ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's VP of Education and Strategy, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. Submit your deals and Prime-exclusive discounts for the Big Spring Sale https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHNkwyM0xXSDRFOURZM0RL TikTok Expands In-Stream Shopping Push to Latin America https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/tiktok-shops-expansion-mexico-latin-america/739717/ Helping customers discover even more selection on Amazon https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/search-products-amazon-shopping-feature Automatic minimum thresholds for order handling capacity https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHVDlDMlEzTTJTTlFNWUtE And don't miss out on quick updates through the Serious Sellers Podcast Instagram, where we share more bite-sized content. Helium 10 New Feature Alerts talks about Helium 10's new Listing Converter for TikTok Shop. Now available for Helium 10 Elite members. Lastly, understanding the intricacies of Amazon's recommended rank can be a game-changer for your product visibility and sales. We've got real-life examples of how correcting irrelevant keyword associations can enhance PPC impressions, using tools like Helium 10's Cerebro for effective keyword optimization. For niche markets, such as coffin and Gothic-themed products, learn how to use data insights to improve your marketing strategy while maintaining a balance between business growth and personal well-being. Join us to unlock the full potential of these e-commerce strategies! In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers: 01:13 - Amazon Big Spring Sale 02:45 - TikTok Shop Mexico 03:48 - Amazon Sending Customers Off Platform 06:36 - FBM Order Capacity 08:48 - Follow Bradley on Instagram 09:43 - Helium 10 New Feature Alerts - Listing Converter for TikTok Shop 10:05 - Join Helium 10 Elite 12:49 - Training Tip: Amazon Recommended Rank
Is this the end for Temu, Shein, & Amazon Haul? Secret Amazon pilot programs hint at big changes. Plus, Amazon may edit your listings next week! All these buzzing stories on today's episode! ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos. We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's VP of Education and Strategy, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. Shein, Temu, Amazon Haul set for price hikes as US shuts trade loophole https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/shein-temu-amazon-haul-set-price-hikes-us-shuts-trade-loophole-2025-02-04/ What New U.S. Policies on Imports From China Mean for Shein and Temu https://time.com/7212903/shein-temu-usps-china-hong-kong-tariffs-trump/ Secret Amazon Pilot Programs Apollo pilot program https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/GA263VSD6RXPYBMC StockSmart pilot program https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/GLQWZVYJH5K6X6HE Review Amazon Listing Updates https://sellercentral.amazon.com/selectiongaps/review-listing-updates Upgrade to a higher Amazon Vine enrollment tier within first 30 days https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHS1RVRVNCQjlVTFc2NjNE Amazon Prime members enjoyed fastest-ever delivery speeds in 2024 https://www.aboutamazon.eu/news/retail/amazon-prime-members-enjoyed-fastest-ever-delivery-speeds-in-2024 Amazon Prime members enjoyed fastest-ever delivery speeds in 2024, and US members saved on average over $500 on delivery fees https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/prime-members-us-savings-fastest-delivery-2024 Amazon announces February product event The long-delayed smarter version of Amazon's Alexa could launch at the event this month. https://www.theverge.com/news/606622/amazon-february-event-announced-alexa Create bulk listings with your own template format https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHUE5BQjlFQ1A1NENDWkVY We wrap up with exciting updates on resources like the Amazon Influencer Bootcamp inside Helium 10's Freedom Ticket course to help Amazon influencers maximize their success. This week's strategy highlights Helium 10's Black Box feature for Amazon Brand Analytics, see verified sales by keywords over weeks or months, not just estimates but verified sales numbers for any product or group of products. Whether you're a seasoned seller or just starting out, this episode is packed with insights and strategies to help you navigate the rapidly changing world of Amazon and the e-commerce world. In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers: 01:15 - Temu, Shein, Amazon Haul Dead? 07:50 - Secret Amazon Pilot Programs 17:31 - Amazon Changing Listings 19:15 - Amazon Vine Change 20:13 - 2024 Prime Delivery Stats 21:48 - Amazon Alexa Update 23:01 - Bulk Listing Update 23:35 - IDR For EU and JP 24:30 - Helium 10 New Feature Alerts 26:11 - Training Tip: Helium 10 Black Box x Amazon Brand Analytics Strategy
Is Microsoft buying TikTok? Amazon Ads Brand+ launches for DSP users. A UPS change may impact how much you have to pay to send inventory to Amazon. These buzzing news and more in today's episode! ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's VP of Education and Strategy, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. Microsoft in talks to buy TikTok, Trump says https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g3z55zz7xo Amazon Ads Launches Brand+, A Way For Marketers To Leverage Shopping, Browsing And Streaming Data From Amazon's Total Footprint https://deadline.com/2025/01/amazon-ads-launches-brand-plus-tool-shopping-browsing-streaming-data-1236269306/ NEW PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT: Amazon Ads launches Brand+ in beta for the Amazon DSP, an industry first AI-driven optimization capability for brand awareness campaigns https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jeffreycohen_amazonads-aiadvertising-streamingtv-activity-7289739667539668994-m1US UPS announces major cutback in Amazon relationship https://www.ajc.com/news/business/ups-to-cut-amazon-partnership-by-more-than-50/IP7G7JFWUJDWVCBAB4YE53M5AI/ Flip, the TikTok Shop rival, launches a creator fund that grants up to $100M of equity value https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/24/flip-launches-a-creator-fund-that-grants-up-to-100m-of-equity/ Freedom Ticket By Helium 10 - Amazon Influencer Bootcamp: https://learning.helium10.com/products/freedom-ticket-4-0/categories/2156270528 Listen in as we uncover the latest tools for Amazon influencers using Helium 10, offering valuable insights into enhancing their earning potential. This new Helium 10 feature allows influencers to track video placements on Amazon, optimizing their strategies for maximum visibility and income. Switching to influencer mode on the Helium 10 Chrome extension provides further advantages, with data on existing influencer video placements. In our training tip of the week, we clarify the distinction between indexing and ranking on Amazon, highlighting the importance of these concepts for improved searchability and strategic planning. Discover how influencers inside the Amazon Influencer Program can harness Helium 10's tools to boost their content's performance and thrive in the Amazon Influencer Program. In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers: 01:06 - MicroTok? 02:59 - Amazon Brand+ 04:47 - Amazon / UPS Cutback 06:53 - Flip Marketplace 09:18 - Freedom Ticket: Amazon Influencer Bootcamp 10:27 - Helium 10 New Feature Alerts 14:01 - Training Tip: Check if Your Indexed for Keywords
TikTok Shop sellers are looking at backup plans in case it's banned. Temu is now going to start charging for advertising. Amazon discontinues two programs. These buzzing stories and more on today's episode! ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's VP of Education and Strategy, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. Tech war: China's TikTok sellers eye Amazon and Shein as US ban looms https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-war/article/3294719/tech-war-chinas-tiktok-sellers-eye-amazon-and-shein-us-ban-looms Temu Trials Amazon-Killer Search Ad Business https://www.tipranks.com/news/temu-nasdaqpdd-trials-amazon-killer-search-ad-business Updates to packaging requirements for sharp products https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHM0EzVzhSV0ZGQ1VQSzla Amazon to shut down ‘Try Before You Buy' rival to Stitch Fix https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/10/amazon-to-shut-down-stitch-fix-competitor-prime-try-before-you-buy.html Boost sales of more sustainable products with Climate Pledge Friendly https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHTERTQUJEUktKQ0NTOVFB Amazon's 360-degree image experience to be discontinued https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHQkVLSzJKWTZRTEtGU1hD Amazon Autos launches online sales https://www.automotivedive.com/news/customers-can-add-vehicles-hyundai-shopping-cart-amazon-autos/736716/ In the final segment, we shift our focus to cutting-edge tools and events that empower sellers. Discover how Helium 10's newest feature enhances keyword research, helping sellers identify high-converting keywords and uncover lucrative market gaps. We share strategic insights for manufacturers, like those in the bamboo niche, to capitalize on market opportunities. Don't miss the details about our upcoming Helium 10 Elite workshop and AMZ Hacking Live Event in Berlin, where industry luminaries like Kevin King will provide indispensable insights into the e-commerce world. Prepare to elevate your e-commerce game with the knowledge and strategies shared in this episode. In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers: 01:01 - TikTok Shop Alternatives? 03:42 - Temu Ads 05:57 - Amazon Sharp Products 09:58 - Try Before You Buy Gone 10:54 - Climate Pledge Friendly 12:11 - 360 Images Gone 13:27 - Amazon Cars 14:25 - Helium 10 New Feature Alerts 22:58 - Strategy of the Week 27:36 - Germany Events for Sellers
Amazon changes the game for retail advertising. TikTok Shop is opening in a surprisingly new country. eBay makes a move to join a popular social media network. These buzzing stories and more on this episode! ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's VP of Education and Strategy, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. Amazon aims to expand advertising business by letting retailers use its ad tools on their stores https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/09/amazon-to-expand-ad-unit-by-letting-retailers-use-ad-tools-on-stores.html Title Rule Clarifications https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-forums/discussions/t/3c9f0b3c-4594-4efc-a05f-0f8d371fa466 How TikTok Shop is changing the way brands reach customers https://www.retaildive.com/news/how-tiktok-shop-is-changing-the-way-brands-reach-customers/736726/ EBay shares soar after Meta allows listings on Facebook Marketplace in U.S., Europe https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/08/ebay-shares-soar-as-meta-allows-listings-on-facebook-marketplace.html Conversion Path Reporting (beta) https://advertising.amazon.com/en-us/resources/whats-new/ad-touchpoints-drive-sales-with-conversion-path-reporting/ TikTok expands e-commerce operation into Mexico amid potential US ban https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tiktok-expands-e-commerce-operation-093000468.html Switching gears, we explore the new features in Helium 10's Magnet and Cerebro keyword translations, designed to aid sellers operating in multilingual marketplaces. The training tip of the week highlights Helium 10's exclusive Amazon Recommended Rank feature in Cerebro, which evaluates how relevant Amazon considers specific keywords for your product, scoring them. This tool helps sellers identify potential ranking, indexing, or advertising issues, especially for new products, by analyzing the top 20 keywords and ensuring Amazon correctly understands your product's relevance. Listen in for these crucial updates and insights that will help you stay ahead in the competitive world of e-commerce. In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers: 00:54 - Amazon Retail Ad Service 02:27 - Title Rule Clarifications 06:46 - TikTok Shop Stats 08:50 - eBay x Facebook 10:02 - Amazon Conversion Path Reporting 11:07 - TikTok Shop Mexico 12:24 - Helium 10 New Feature Alerts 14:19 - Training Tip: Amazon Recommended Rank Transcript Bradley Sutton: Amazon changes the game for retail advertising. TikTok shop is opening in a surprising new country. eBay makes a move to join with a popular social media network. These stories and more on this week's Weekly Buzz. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I'm your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show that is our Helium 10 Weekly Buzz. We give you a rundown of all the goings on in the Amazon, TikTok shop and e-commerce world. We give you training tips of the week and let you know what new features that Helium 10 has. That will give you serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. Let's see what's buzzing All For serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. Let's see what's buzzing All. Right, this is the first buzz of the new year, or second buzz of the new year, I should say. Let's go ahead and hop into it. Bradley Sutton: The first thing we're going to talk about is an announcement they made at CES this week. The one who's reporting on it is actually CNBC, and the article is entitled Amazon aims to expand advertising business by letting retailers use its ad tools on their store. So some of the TLDR here is that Amazon is letting other retailers now use its own homegrown advertising tools to run sponsored ads on their own website. The service is designed to make it easier for other retailers to run targeted ad campaigns on their online stores. All right, so, as we know, ads has been big, you know, for Amazon over the years. We know that as Amazon sellers. But this is this is different. All right, so basically, like, let's say, I've got my own retail website, I can now use Amazon's advertising console to use the ad tech or the technology the advertising technology that Amazon has to run ads on my product pages on my website, on search, and this is going to help Amazon. You know like build it's like and how it can anticipate buyer behavior and things, but it's going to help. You know retailers as well, because you know, obviously, amazon's advertising system is very robust and you don't even have I believe you don't even have to be selling on amazon to take advantage of this service. So, uh, this is going to be interesting to watch as it rolls out and how this this changes the game for retailers. Perhaps you know, like, how many are going to adopt the amazon advertising um, as opposed to whatever they were using before. How many might start advertising more because of what's going on be definitely worth taking a look at. Bradley Sutton: Now, last week we talked about the new title requirements and there was an Ask Me Anything in the Amazon forums a few days ago that kind of clarified some things and even some things that I was confused about. I'm not sure if I said it wrong last week, but like I probably read it right, but for sure I understood it wrong last week. But like I probably read it right, but for sure I understood it wrong. All right. The way I understood the title was that you can't duplicate words in the title. Did some of you guys get that too out of what their announcement was? But actually the fine print says you can't have more than two. All right, it's not, it's not. You can't have two or more, it's more than two. Little bit of dyslexia there, um. So basically that means if I have the word in the title you know, coffin shelf uh, for home decor, something, something coffin, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's okay. Last week, when I read this, I thought that wasn't okay, um, because I just must've switched the words when I was looking at it. Bradley Sutton: But that's the first big thing that came from this AMA, but let's go ahead and open up some more of the questions and answers. There's some things that you guys might have had that I think are notable. Here is one question that I know a lot of us had. It said are the plural and singular versions of a word considered the same and count towards the maximum? And this seller said for example, if I had cake pan, loaf pan and muffin pans, is the word pans counted as the same as pan? And then that would make it three times, meaning that it's above two, meaning that that's against Amazon terms of service. And Jim from Amazon replied plural of the same word would be considered redundant. In the example you provided, pan and pans imply the same and thus it would be considered duplicate. All right, so there's the. I know people are asking about that. How are plurals considered? That's the answer, right there. Bradley Sutton: Another question was from what impact will it have if we don't update? Changing the title like this could significantly affect our search traffic. And Jim says if the title is not updated, amazon will modify the product title to comply with a new policy, while retaining all relevant information. All right. So there you have it? It like you're not going to get your listing suppressed per se, but amazon's going to go in and change your title. Sounds like Another question by PTC Tim Do words that are part of the brand name count towards the count of reusing a word? Bradley Sutton: For example, if the brand name is Muffin King, could they have a title such as Muffin King Beginner's Kit includes chocolate chip and banana nut muffin mixes and a 12 muffin pan. All right, so muffin is there three times in singular version. So you might think, oh, that can't be allowed. But Jim from Amazon says no, this will not be considered a policy violation, because the word or phrase is considered duplicate only when there are three or more instances in the same context. But muffin, the first instance is a brand name and the other two describe the product. So if you have a word that's part of your brand like maybe my brand was Manny's Coffin Shelves that first coffin doesn't count as the use of the word coffin in the title. That makes sense. Bradley Sutton: Another person asked a question and says you know, there were some punctuation marks that were listed, like dollar sign, question mark, underscore, et cetera, and it says are these the only special characters allowed? What about dash colon, open parentheses, close parentheses, et cetera, and Jameson actually answered. He said hyphen, colon and regular brackets are allowed as they often have functional value. Uh, there actually were some other uh characters not allowed that Amazon didn't announce. And these are the tilde, you know, like the little ñ that goes over the N in Spanish when you say baño right. The greater than and less than symbols, those are not allowed. The semicolon is not allowed and the I don't know how you describe it, but it looks like a top of a house, the roof of a house. That symbol is not allowed. There were more different kind of like specifications and questions that people had that you might want to look at. So make sure to check the link in the comments to see some of the more the other clarifications on this new title policy. Bradley Sutton: Next article we have here comes from Retail Dive and it's entitled how TikTok Shop is Changing the Way Brands Reach Customers. All right, so there's I brought this up because there's a lot of just interesting kind of like factoids here, and one of them it says 70% of TikTok users say they discover new brands and products on the platform 70%, that's crazy and 83% report TikTok playing a role in users' purchase decisions. I guarantee you we're not seeing that kind of stuff on Temu, right? The company also reports that three in four users are likely to buy something while using TikTok. Think about that, guys. How many users of TikTok are there? And three in four are likely to buy something. You might think, well, that's not something that you know. All marketplaces everybody should be buying something. But remember, TikTok is not a marketplace, TikTok is a social media. If you think three out of four people on Instagram are buying something, three out of four people on YouTube are buying something, it's like I don't know what the number is. It's probably like less than one in 10, one in 20. So this is like kind of an astronomical number. Bradley Sutton: Now, why is TikTok so powerful? One reason is here. It says nearly three in five Gen Z consumers say they trust recommendations by local or micro influencers. Per a survey, over a quarter of US consumers who responded to the survey reported buying a gift directly based on an influencer's recommendations. That's kind of crazy and that's what drives, you know, TikTok shop sales is influencers and micro influencers. So, guys, if you're not selling on TikTok shop, you know, get out and do it. We have some, uh, some training on how to get started. We're going to have some more training. We're going to have, like, different tools that, uh, you guys might ask for that that would help you sell on TikTok shop. But, um, I was trying to. I'm starting to ramp up. I launched a couple more products on TikTok shop last night. I'm going to keep launching some products and let you guys know what I find, but I really think that TikTok shop is going to be one of the major marketplaces moving forward. Bradley Sutton: Speaking of different marketplaces, let's switch gear and talk about a marketplace that I barely ever talk about but I actually personally sell on. That's eBay. All right, so this is articles from CNBC. It says eBay shares soar after. Meta allows listings on Facebook marketplace in US and Europe. All right. So in Germany, France and the US. What's going to happen is eBay listings are now going to be able to show up in Facebook marketplace. All right. So like that's going to give eBay listings a lot of visibility. So let's say I'm browsing on Facebook and I go to the Marketplace or maybe, who knows, maybe there'll be some way to put ads like in my Facebook feed. I'm going to be able to click on that product and then purchase it by signing in on eBay, I believe right there on the Facebook app still. So imagine being on Facebook, going to the Helium 10 members Facebook group, because you're getting all the good information there, and then you see an ad or something for an eBay product and while still on Facebook, you go ahead and purchase. I mean, if that's the way it's going to work, that's going to be, I think that might be a little bit successful for eBay. I'm definitely going to look into it for my eBay listings that I have. How many of you guys sell on eBay out there? Let me know in the comments below. Bradley Sutton: Going back to the Amazon marketplace, last week, in case you missed it, there was a new conversion path reporting, a beta program that Amazon has. It kind of like reminds me of how AMC is set up, but now you're going to be able to see the ad touch points on a customer's 30-day path to conversion, starting with the purchases. All right, so this is available in sponsored ads and DSP. Make sure to check the link in the article below for more links on where you can find it, but like you'll be able to see oh, they saw the streaming TV, then they went to a sponsored display ad and then they went to a sponsored video ad. They saw a sponsored product ad. Now, this is good information, but there's definitely some things missing. Like you can't see the ACOS, like all right, great, I see that this kind of ad is what drove my sale, but my ACOS on that exact ad was like 400%. It's not exactly viable, right. So I mean, it's not perfect, but this is great, you know, step in the right direction as far as visibility goes with your advertising. Bradley Sutton: Going back to TikTok, now guess what? TikTok is opening up a new marketplace and it's right here in North America. It is opening to Mexico. Per Yahoo Finance says TikTok expands e-commerce operation into Mexico and it says that they've already started inviting merchants to open stores on the platform ahead of the expected startup transactions in February. Now, who can sign up for Amazon or TikTok shop Mexico? Merchants with a locally registered entity are eligible to sign up. Now, that's interesting, because what's the requirement for USA? As we know, you could have a local entity being a US corporation, but if you're a foreigner with no US employees and nobody with a social security number, you can't sign up. But if this is to be taken at face value, you maybe can be a foreigner, but as long as you have a Mexican entity or business, it looks like you might be able to sign up on the platform and the first 90 days of activity for TikTok shop Mexico zero commission, zero commission fee in Mexico, or have a Mexican entity. Make sure to go ahead and consider starting up on the platform. Bradley Sutton: All right, let's go into our new feature alerts now. This one is going to be for, I believe, all plans, Platinum and Diamond. It's been for elite for a while because it was actually elite members who first asked for this, but this is going to be in Magnet and Cerebro, um, at the start. It might be in other tools, but what sellers were looking for was a way to translate keywords. All right, like this could be, for, let's say, you're in the US marketplace and you see a whole bunch of Spanish keywords and you're just curious what it means. Well, what people were doing is that they would copy the keywords from Helium 10 and then put it to Google Translate or something like that. Bradley Sutton: Or let's say you're doing keyword research in a marketplace that is not your native language, like maybe you're trying to make a listing for Amazon Japan. Of course, you can use Helium 10 Listing Builder to make a listing in Japanese, but you want to make sure you're feeding it the right keywords and you don't know what the keywords mean in Japanese. Well, this is what you can do. If you go into Listing Builder or into Cerebro, there will be a translate button right here, all right. So if you got the results in Magnet or Cerebro, just hit that and then you can go from, like English to Spanish, to German, to Chinese, et cetera, and you're going to have an option Like I'm going to pretend that maybe I'm somebody from China and I'm not. I don't speak English that well. Well, I'm going to go ahead and translate these English results into Chinese by default. It's actually going to show up right underneath the actual English keyword or whatever keyword or language you're looking at, but I can also change it where I can have it in a separate column, all right. So here now, all of a sudden, side by side, I've got the English keyword and the Chinese translation side by side. So this definitely helps English speaking people who are doing research in other languages or are curious what kind of meaning some of the keywords that are coming up in your own marketplace that are in different language, or if you speak a different language and you need just some quick translations, this is going to help. All right. Bradley Sutton: Now let's talk about the training tip of the week, and this is actually. I'm still going to stay right here in Cerebro, actually, and I want to show you guys something again. Only Helium 10 has this, and what it is the Amazon recommended rank. So actually here in Cerebro, I've got my coffin shelf here Now. This is especially helpful if you ever start getting ranking issues like you start losing your rank, or if you maybe like lose indexing somehow, or maybe there's some keywords that you know you're relevant for in your index for, but you just can't get PPC impressions. This is especially helpful when you are first launching a product. As a matter of fact, you know, like this is what I've been teaching for the last two years, where if you launch a product, I say that you almost should always do a test listing first that you're not really going to sell, but just to check this metric and this is Amazon relevancy. Bradley Sutton: Everybody always uses the term relevant and we can kind of insinuate hey, what is relevant for a product due to the keywords that are ranking for it. But until Helium 10 had this, you never knew what is really relevant to Amazon. What does Amazon think the product is? This Helium 10 is the only tool that's tying directly to Amazon to give you how relevant Amazon thinks a keyword is for your product and it's called Amazon recommended rank. It's listed from like a score of one to 900. The number one means it's the most relevant according to Amazon, et cetera. Bradley Sutton: Now is the number one and number two and number three keywords always the top keywords for your product? No, but looking at the top 20, I always sort it in helium 10. And I look at the top 20 ones and it will tell me is Amazon confused about my product, especially if it's a brand new product, right? So let me just show you, for example, this is my coffin shelf here and if I go to this column of Amazon recommended rank and I hit it, it's going to sort it by the top ones and like look at this number one keyword that Amazon says I'm relevant for coffin shelf wall Manny's mysterious oddities coffin shelf coffin shelf small. So just by looking at these top you know 10 keywords, top 20 or so. Um, I can tell that. Hey, amazon pretty much knows what my product is. Now, something concerning is the actual keyword. Coffin shelf is the only the 28th keyword, so you know what that tells me. I might have some issues with advertising on my product. I might have to look at what's going on, but at the very least Amazon isn't very confused about my product. Bradley Sutton: Now let me give you a contrast here. I went to the search results of coffin shelf and obviously my product is on page one. But here I scrolled all the way down to page four and then I saw just some random coffin shelf. Where did it? Here's a coffin shelf very similar to mine Pachyon floating shelves, coffin shape, shelf, wall mouth. This is a terrible title, but you see, their BSR is like 7 million. They are not selling any units at all of this, and they are right, even though this is one of the few coffin shelves. I mean, page two and three and four don't even have that many coffin shelves, because there's not even seven pages worth of coffin shelves. Bradley Sutton: So you might be wondering why in the world is this product ranking so low? Well, outside of listing optimization, one of the reasons is the relevancy. Take a look when I run this product in Cerebro and I sort it by Amazon recommended rank. Let's go to that column right here. Look, do you remember what my mind was? Let's just look back here. Remember the top ones coffin wall shelf. Coffin shelf small spooky hanging coffin shelf Halloween decor indoor home. Look at the top keywords of what Amazon thinks is relevant for this poor. Selling coffin shelf. Floating shelf wall. Floating shelf. Selling coffin shelf. Floating shelf wall. Floating shelf. Wall shelves, room wall. Do you notice something? These are just generic keywords. So, for whatever reason, they must not have their listing optimized. Or maybe there's a category issue. But Amazon is not even picking up the word coffin in the top keywords that it is saying it's relevant for. So this product is probably never going to rank very well for coffin shelf. Nor are they going to be able to advertise if they wanted to. Bradley Sutton: You can see right here with Helium 10, they're not advertising. But this just kind of like illustrates what can happen if you, if Amazon, gets confused about your product, you're going to have some issues. So make sure to check that out. All levels of Helium 10 can access that platinum diamond and above. Go into Cerebro. Run it on your own product, especially your brand new products. Or if you ever have trouble ranking or indexing and check sorted by the Amazon recommended rank, take a look at those top 20 keywords and see hey, does Amazon kind of like have a good idea about what your product is, or is it confused? And then you can take action from there. All right, guys, that's it for this week's Weekly Buzz. Hope you enjoyed these articles and also these new features and training tips. We'll see you next week to see what's buzzing.
Serious Sellers Podcast en Español: Aprende a Vender en Amazon
¿Qué estrategias de venta podrían redefinir tu éxito en el 2025? En este episodio especial de Ciro Ciro's Podcast en español, nos acompaña el experto Bradley Sutton para compartir su sabiduría sobre cómo las plataformas como Amazon y Walmart están evolucionando y qué acciones debes implementar hoy para prosperar en el mañana. Nos sumergimos en el mundo de la inteligencia artificial, explorando cómo asistentes como Rufus y Cosmo están revolucionando la experiencia de compra y qué significa esto para la optimización de contenido. No es solo adaptar las palabras clave, sino también hacer que tanto clientes como algoritmos sientan una conexión auténtica. Además, descubre cómo herramientas pioneras como la "máquina del tiempo" de Helium 10 pueden ser tus aliadas para triunfar en mercados estacionales. Celebramos emocionados nuestro tercer aniversario con el invaluable apoyo de Bradley Sutton. A pesar de su apretada agenda, él nos honra con su presencia una vez más, reflexionando sobre el camino recorrido y compartiendo su visión para el futuro. Este episodio es tanto un homenaje a la complicidad y logros compartidos, como una guía práctica para quienes buscan mantenerse a la vanguardia del cambiante mundo de las ventas online. Prepárate para un festín de ideas, aprendizajes y estrategias que garantizan mantener tu negocio un paso adelante. ¡No te lo pierdas! En el episodio #161 de Serious Sellers Podcast en Español, platicamos de: 00:00 - Estrategias De Venta Para 2025 09:38 - Estrategias De Venta en Amazon 23:55 - Celebración Tercer Aniversario Con Bradley
In this episode, we're giving you the best Amazon and Walmart strategy clips of 2024 so that you can start off 2025 with a leg up on your competition. ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Welcome to this special annual recap episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast, where we bring you the most impactful strategies from the past year to give your e-commerce business a competitive edge in 2025. Join us as we explore the essentials of selecting verified manufacturers and the importance of third-party verification in ensuring accurate information. We'll discuss the advantages of trade assurance for payment protection and the significance of management certifications like BSCI and ISO, which indicate high-quality factory standards and social compliance. Additionally, we touch on regional manufacturing specializations, exemplified by the production of egg dispensers, and the importance of measuring the halo impact of ad strategies on total sales and rankings using metrics like TACoS and cost per customer acquisition. Listen in as we discuss strategies for international Amazon success, highlighting a thriving American brand's expansion into Amazon Japan. We'll explore the strategic benefits of entering the Japanese market, such as lower PPC costs and favorable tax conditions, which contribute to higher profit margins. Patience, quality products, and strong supplier relationships are emphasized as key differentiators from competitors. We also explore optimizing Amazon PPC campaigns with lifecycle-based rules and the power of using index images with numbered benefits to effectively communicate value in product listings. Discover effective strategies for online marketplaces as we recount past challenges and successes in sourcing and selling products in the U.S. market. Learn about creative approaches to finding less visible suppliers and the importance of clear communication and relationship-building. We also highlight the effectiveness of Target's marketplace and the strategic advantages of being indexed on Google to enhance Amazon rankings. Finally, we'll cover the critical importance of using correct HTS codes to avoid costly import tariff mistakes, sharing a personal experience that led to significant cost savings. Tune in and equip yourself with these valuable insights to kick off 2025 strong. In episode 628 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, we discuss: 00:00 - SSP Top 20 Strategies of 2024 02:02 - Selecting Verified Manufacturers for Trust 09:53 - Keyword Analysis and Visibility Tracking 12:25 - Strategies for International Amazon Success 19:36 - Effective Strategies for Online Marketplaces 20:06 - Leveraging Google for Business Growth 23:43 - Optimizing Amazon Listings for Google Images 25:40 - Optimizing Amazon Listings for Sales 32:12 - Enhancing Amazon Listings With COSMO 33:29 - Avoiding Costly Import Tariff Mistakes Transcript Bradley Sutton: Today we're giving you the best strategy clips of the year so that you can start off 2025 with a leg up on your competition. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I'm your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show. That's a completely BS-free, unscripted and unrehearsed organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. And, like we do every year and we have been doing this since we started in what was it 2018, 2019? we do a recap episode where I handpick some of the best strategies of the entire year. Every year, we go through about 100 episodes a year, not including the weekly buzz, where we have a lot of guests and everybody has great strategies. It's really hard to pick some of the top ones, but what I did is me and the team got together and pulled out some of the top strategies that you guys had talked about in social media and such that you liked, and we put it together so that you could get a leg up on the competition now that we're at the beginning here of 2025. Bradley Sutton: And so these are strategies that are not out of date. They're still valid. There are some that already, within a few months, became out of date. They're still valid. There are some that already, within a few months, became out of date. We're not including them here. So, guys, I hope you enjoy this episode. Get your pen and paper out. I want each and every one of you to make it your homework to pick five, at least five of these that we're about to get. I think we're doing about 20 here, but do five that most apply to you and your business. Not everything applies to everybody equally. Pick five out of these and implement it this month in your business, or at least make a plan for it. All right, so let's go ahead and see the top strategies of the year. Kian Golzari: So the first thing you did was you selected verified manufacturers. And what's that for? It means any information that they provide on their listing, whether it be number of years in business, how many staff they have, what certificates they have, what patents they have, what products they have, what does their production line look like, the images and videos in the factory. That's all been verified by a third party, meaning InterTech, SGS, TUV. One of these very reputable companies have gone in and verified all the information is true, whereas if we didn't work with verified suppliers, then whatever information they want to put there, we just have to sort of take their word for it. So verified is the most important thing to search for first. Then, on the left-hand side of the page, you'll see trade assurance right, I would always click that as well and trade assurance just means that your payment is protected. So if you've ordered an egg dispenser which holds, you know, 20 eggs and you do the production and you receive one which only holds 10 eggs, then the trade assurance will protect you and it will refund your order because you've selected that right. That's just a little bit of a safety net important for, like you know, new sellers, right. And then, as you scroll down on the left-hand side of the page, you'll see something that says management certification, right. And if you scroll down a little bit more, yeah. So you see like BSCI and you see Zedek, you see ISO. I always like to select BSCI and ISO. So BSCI is your business social compliance initiative and ISO is just a really high-quality standard and this just basically means these are factory certificates that they have. So, uh, BSCI will go in and they'll check, like you know, um how many years you've been in business. Do you have, like, fire extinguishers? Do you have adequate lighting? Do you have safety exits? Like we've checked the dormitories, we've checked like the canteen where the workers eat. So it's kind of like gives you confidence that you're working for a very, very good factory, right. So now, if we go back to the top of the list, right, we've. Now we've searched by manufacturers, we've got verified manufacturers, we've got trade assurance and we've got factories which have, you know, BSCI and ISO certification. So now, as I'm scrolling down the list, like if you zoom in on the company names, like the first word in the company name is always the city or the province in which that factory is located. Kian Golzari: So sometimes, like the factories, like electronics are made in Shenzhen, backpacks are normally made in like Shenzhou. Like furniture, like steel tubing for furniture, chairs is made like Yongkang. So I'm just trying to get familiar. Is there an area which specializes in egg dispensers? Maybe not because it's such a niche product, right, that maybe you could make it, make it anywhere. But as I scroll down, I'm trying to see, like, is there one name that pops up more frequent than others and in that area which specializes in that product? But I see Ningbo has probably popped up a few times, right? So, but anyway, it doesn't matter. If Ningbo had popped out like eight out of nine times, I would say, right, well, that's the region we need to be ordering from. Bradley Sutton: Interesting. Gefen Laredo: You know ACOS is great, but obviously this is TACoS Tuesday and TACoS is the metric of your total sales. Carrie Miller: Yes. Gefen Laredo: And so when we're looking at total sales something that we brought in and I know it's a little vague, but we really looked at the halo impact of ad strategies and how they impacted ranking and total sales, right. And so when we focused our ad strategy, maybe on a cost per customer acquisition model, maybe on a TACoS model, and we look to really prioritize, hey, where are we showing up, right? So, if, if, if we're driving all this traffic and we have a 20 percent conversion rate, let's say, on this keyword, are we tracking using, using uh, using a Helium 10, of course, um, are we tracking that ranking properly? To say, hey, we started running these ads aggressively on August 1st and if we have been tracking ranking on that keyword for the last two months since going aggressive on that term, where are we ranking now and how have sales changed? and are there broader KPIs that we're measuring outside of just direct ad revenue? And that worked really well for us because we centered that around tentpole events and this is a really big strategy of ours. That is incredibly complex, it takes a whole village to actually execute. But when we focus our customer acquisition and ranking models around major times in the year so think Prime Day, think Fall, Prime Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, holiday and then, of course, if you're a one-off brand, if you I don't know are ski related, then obviously your season is January to March. You know like there are differences, but really peak seasons. If you're able to focus your growth model around the times that are going to give you the most reward, then that worked really well for us last year and we expect to see a lot more of that this year, especially as we all expect people are going to be more deal oriented. It's a constant battle for margins, so the better rank you are, the more organic sales you drive, the better your TACoS is. Ben Webber: Several years ago we were about to stock out of as you know, we sell a lot of fourth quarter products and kind of joke toy products and we're about to stock out of one that we sold between 800 and 1000 units a day of which is a fairly substantial issue. So we actually loaded up a cargo van and drove the cargo van to Amazon, talked our way through the front gates to deliver it and they took it, and so we did that once, then we did it again and we got through again. The third time they're like no, you can't do this, and so like okay, but somehow, like no, you, you can't do this, and so like okay, but somehow, we have to be able to do this. So we looked into carrier central and figure out how we could become a last mile rider, which is incredibly easy it takes about 15 minutes to fill out a form and then you have to show that you can back in and out of a parking spot incredibly, incredibly easy. But so in that January we bought a truck and the rest is history from there. But it came about because we were about to stock out and panicked and we're like, well, what's the worst that can happen? Silas Moestrup Pedersen: And one of the things that I recommend to every time that we have a new client or meet someone is to narrow in on fewer skills. It sounds quite simple, right, but what we do every time is that if you have a big catalog A, B, C and D products and then A products they get a special treatment compared to B, C and D. It could even be, if your catalog is massive, you only focus your ad spend on A products. Same thing from a content perspective. Those are the ones that get the most love in terms of title, bullet point, backend attributes, et cetera, descriptions. So it's just having that focus on fewer products, I think, is number one. Then, if you can automate your reporting, we have that in Looker automated so that you don't have to necessarily sit and look at the data and pull Excel spreadsheets et cetera it just saves you so much time. If you're capable of doing it and spending time on it, then I think. Thirdly, we talked a little bit about it, but I think taking the time to do super solid keyword research from the get-go Like get into Magnet, get into Amazon's data sources, get into Cerebro, look for all your competitors' keywords et cetera understand what those A keywords are, and those A keywords are the only thing that you focus on in the start. Those are the ones that go into your rank campaigns, that they go into your manual campaigns, et cetera, and that those are the ones that just like where you track everything through Like a little hack could be for your A products. Every week you use a repro. Every other week you put in your A product and then you export all the data for that. You take a spreadsheet. In column A you say this is the date when I pulled the. This is the date of either. I pulled the data, this is the ASIN you put in the ASIN that you pulled the data for. Then you make a formula. Silas Moestrup Pedersen: You can just ask ChatGPT where, based on the paid and organic rank, you say whether you classified the keyword as being on page one, two, three or four, and then you pull this data in this way every single week for maybe two months when you're running a new test or something like that. You take all the data, you put it into a pivot table and boom, then you would have an overview and a graph of how many like your all your page one, two, three, four positions across your entire catalog and you could even put a filter on up in the top and then you can sort by ASIN and then you basically have your own visibility tool where you can see your paid on your organic visibility on a weekly level at an Asian level. And you can use that to take all those keywords If you're ranking let's say page three or two or something like that put them into a rank campaign. If you feel like they're good, you can take all the keywords where you're on page two, maybe put them in the title, et cetera. So, like building those systems, that allows you to scale something consistently. Bradley Sutton: What was your gross sales yesterday, last week, last year? More importantly, what are your profits after all your cost of selling on Amazon? Did you pay any storage charges to Amazon? How much did you spend on PPC? Find out these key metrics and more by using the Helium 10 tool Profits. For more information, go to h10.me forward slash profits. Cara Sayer: So one of the biggest things was the fact that I do think a lot of Amazon sellers don't really have a brand. They just have a name for a business or a name for something that they use and they don't really have a what I'd call a true brand. And they don't always. I think sometimes also, existing only on Amazon makes you lose perspective on you know how normal businesses work, like businesses that aren't based on Amazon, and so you know a lot of businesses. I mean, I think throughout life, people buy from people and I think that's so important to remember that, even on Amazon, one of the reasons why Amazon focuses so heavily on A plus listings and now they're bringing in the premium A plus and all the rest of it because Amazon knows right. You know me quite a few years now and I've always banged on about brand. I've always banged on about having a story. Tell your story. It doesn't have to be your story necessarily, it could be the product story, but you need to have something that differentiates you. And even then, I was chatting to someone at the conference earlier on and I was saying the thing is that sometimes it's not even the fact that you're selling different products, it's the way that you curate them right. So it's the collection of products that you've chosen to sell under your brand name says something. Nick Katz: So one of our clients is an international brand. They're an American registered company and they last year they cleared seven figures and we're definitely looking to do a lot more this year. That's in two years. They're doing very, very well in America, they sell in Europe and they sell in Canada. But the Japanese sales are now almost comparable to the to the us sales, but the profit margins are a lot higher. Bradley Sutton: That was about my second question. Nick Katz: Yeah, because you know things like the PPC is a hell of a lot cheaper. The ACOS for the account is about uh, I think it's about eight, nine percent now. The TACoS is about three or four percent. It's the kind of figures you can't really get in the US. So actually in theory you could sell a lot less in Japan and still end up with the same kind of profit as you could in the US. But obviously if you're getting sales close to the US you're probably going to have much, much higher margins. Japan generally is cheaper. It's cheaper tax as well if you are off the threshold to pay tax. But if you're under 10 million yen, which is probably about 60,000, 70,000 US, if you're under that in sales, you don't have to pay consumption tax. There is no tax. So anybody like me selling in Europe who gets absolutely lost by the tax authorities there, paying 19, 20, 21, 23% in some of the regions in Europe, you could be selling 50, 60,000 US in Japan and not have to pay any consumption tax whatsoever. So there are definite advantages to selling in Japan. Bradley Sutton: What are some of the things that set you apart from maybe the 10 other matcha people who maybe have started and gone out of business, you know, because they didn't have your strategy? What do you think set you apart from others? Sam: Well, I think a handful of things. The first one is okay, so I think you can use. You can rely on Amazon PPC. You can look at your search term impression share reports, you can look at your keyword ranking and all that kind of stuff and that will help you in the short run. But honestly, the thing that really helped us the most was patience and making sure that your product is on a sensory level it's actually good and people like it. Once you have those two things covered, then you just need to get people to try it, get them to tell their friends, and then their friends who are interested in Marchable buy. Then they are buying again and then this whole thing kind of grows by itself. Your PPC and all of these other tools that you have are really just like fuel that you add to this engine. Singchuen: And on the other side of things is, obviously you kind of need to make sure that you treat your suppliers well as well. Make sure that they understand what you're going through and make sure that you try to understand what they're going through. If language is a barrier, hire an interpreter, right, it's not too difficult. Decency goes both ways. So you may be pressed, but you've got to recognize that the factories themselves, they are pressed as well. So working together for a compromise, understanding each other and not throwing too much Just to be a little bit more understanding towards each other, goes a long way. A bit more understanding towards each other goes a long way. I think what tends to happen is that if you're not patient, as Sam has mentioned, you may cut off communications with factories that may help you in the future, and you don't want to do that. Destaney Wishon: I think the biggest things that we look at is we create rules for the different outcomes we want. If we're launching a brand-new product, then we're creating rules that are based off sales. So we're going to be taking a deep dive into, hey, what is the conversion rate and what is the sales? And we're going to build rules for maximizing that increased bid when I have a certain conversion rate. On the flip side, if our goal is profitability, we're going to work backwards from our ACOS or RoAS goal. We're going to say, hey, let's build rules that are based on lowering bids when our ACOS is too high, and maybe layering in our conversion rates also low, let's go even lower, right. So those are the two simplest ones that we look at, but it really needs to be strategic. You can create rules that are based off the phase your product's in, whether it's launch, consistency, profitability, organic rank. You can create rules based off your overall business outcomes. Which is always an important one is what is that key RoAS that you're going to optimize for all of your campaigns, but just making sure not to overcomplicate it in the beginning, right. Once you start to understand the correlation between CPC and RoAS, then you can start building in a little bit more customization around lifecycle and things like that. Kevin King: This is how you been converting like crazy with what? what do you call an index image? This he calls it the uh, it's the image in your listing that will be the top reasons why your product is the best. This is not your main photo. This is not your photo number one. This is what he calls this photo number two and it's an index of of your products is why I think it's why he calls it the index image, and what he says is you need to number the benefits. A lot of of people are using call-outs, they use infographics, but they don't number them. So you want to actually have numbers like this. So this should be something like this should be your second image the five reasons you love, or the seven reasons or the three reasons. Odd numbers are always better than even numbers. Three, five or seven or nine always work the best. But here he's got the five and look, there's big, there's numbers. That's important. He just doesn't list them. People like order and when they see numbers, their mind can sort it and they can read it quickly and it makes sense to them. So the numbering system here is critical, not just the fact that he put the main point, the main benefit and capital, and then explained it in. I mean in bold and a little bit larger than explained everything else below it in light blue, but he's got these numbers. That's the critical thing is numbering it. Bradley Sutton: Maybe this is a little bit of the sexy side of patents, but you've talked before about how patents doing patent searches can actually be a form of product research and finding a product to sell on Amazon. How in the world is that possible? Rich Goldstein: Yeah, absolutely it's true, because the way that the patent system works, once a patent expires, it's fair game for anyone to use it. So a utility patent lasts for 20 years and a design patent lasts for 15. But once that patent expires, anyone can make that product and, at the same time, keep in mind that a lot of people have an idea for a product, they get it patented, but they never do the research, they never learn about the process enough to actually get that product launched, and so there are a lot of great ideas that have been patented that are just in the patent archives and they've never actually been put on the market. There are some lousy ideas, but there are also some great ideas, and so if you know how and you search the patent record for expired patents, you can find ideas for really great potential products. Tom - Honest FBA: We dabbled with the US a few times in the past and Thomas Net is really popular. You see, it's spoken about quite a lot as a place, as a resource. Honestly, we never had any success there. There was a time when we were the MOQs are always insanely high and there was a product previously that we agreed to the MOQ. It was something like 10 or 20,000 units. It was pretty high. And there was a product previously that we agreed to the MOQ. It was something like 10 or 20,000 units. It was pretty big. And we were like, okay, we'll go for it, but can you just repackage them into a different kind of mix? And they just said, nah, nah, don't fancy it. And we were like, right, okay. So we kind of banged our head against the wall. So now a little-known site called Google is honestly the best bet, so like, but I'm not talking page one at Google. You've got to dig. So put on a VPN. If you're somewhere like we are, like in Spain, put on a US VPN and then get down to like pages five, six, seven, eight, get in there. And then I just hammer a lot of emails out, but a lot of the websites that you find down in those stages or those pages. They're not good at SEO, they're generally kind of old sites, but you're finding older, established businesses so and often you'll find a phone number. So one of the best lessons I say is like get on the phone and just ring them up and you can save months of time, like the guy who ended up. Tom - Honest FBA: One of the guys who ended up working with had a phone call with him on the first day. I found it and we ended up. We're now doing two products with him already. We've got another three lined up and he had nothing to do with the niche we're in. He was in so we're in pets. He was in humans. He was in food. I just gave him a call, explained the brand vision, what we're trying to do. He got really excited. He's now helping us source new ingredients. He's coming to me with product ideas. He's now going to do a whole range of products for us. So that was one of the beauties is like having that communication line and being able to really explain yourself has been massive. We are still sourcing in China, by the way. We still think it's a really viable option, but having this US option as well, there's so many benefits to it. Grace Kopplin: In terms of Walmart, that's always been a strategy for us. Transparently, Walmart just hasn't been a volume driver for us. It's been steady but it hasn't really been a place that's warranted a ton of focus for us. But another marketplace that has been great for us is actually Target's marketplace, target Plus and that's been a key, key piece of our success, especially with working with brands who are looking for store placement at Target. For example, we've had a few items that we've listed on Target's marketplace that have done really well, that have gotten the attention of a buyer and actually got store placement, which is really exciting. And, at the end of the day, getting an item placed on shelves most of the time can drive more volume than a mid-tier listing on Amazon. So we tend to try to use that strategy. Bradley Sutton: How do you get on target these days? Wasn't it invite only back in the day or now that Target is adding that 360 or some kind of like yeah. Grace Kopplin: I think it might still be invite only, but I know they've been actively adding a lot of sellers. I know that their backend is still quite archaic compared to what Amazon is. It's probably what Walmart was like four years ago. But I think it is still invite only, but definitely something to reach out to your connections and see if you can get a connect with a Walmart e-comm buyer. Leo Sgovio: So there are a few reasons why you want to be indexed on Google, and for the most, let's start from the most advanced ones, right? Advanced sellers they normally try to send traffic to Amazon, especially during the launch period, using external traffic, right? So Google, we know, is a good referral that tends to help your rankings, and so Amazon tends to reward you if they see traffic coming from Google. So if you're not indexed, you lose a chance to show Amazon that you are getting traffic from Google. Now, I have a theory that paid traffic has a little bit more weight than organic, but the reason why you want to be indexed and the reason why you might want to be indexed for certain keywords is so that when you drive traffic through the URL to Amazon, you can actually give attribution to that keyword. That's number one, right? So you can actually use these URLs as your two-step. Leo Sgovio: Number two if you do a good job with your indexation and your listing is optimized, you actually also appear in the images, right? And so if people are looking for specific products, sometimes I search on Google using images because I'm looking for specific products that might be hard to find on Amazon. But if I look through the Google images and I find the product, then I go to Amazon and so if you're not indexed, you're also not going to be able to be found there, and Google images actually gets a ton of traffic. So here are some of the reasons why, two of the reasons why. I can think of many more, but the most important are these ones. Google is still one of the largest search engine, and so missing out on that opportunity search engine and so missing out on that opportunity, I'm afraid it causes a lot of missed visibility for an Amazon seller at a listing level. Carrie Miller: I think one of the things that sets us apart is that when I've created our listings, or whenever I create our photos, I think about what are the main benefits of the product, the main selling points of it, and I realized this isn't something that everyone can easily do, and so the way I kind of have been teaching it is that you can take your competitor's listing, download their reviews, download their best reviews, their five-star reviews, and say ask ChatGPT, like, what do people like most about this product? What are the benefits of this product according to reviews? What do people like? Basically, ask a bunch of questions to ChatGPT and you'll get a bunch of kind of selling points and you'll kind of see a trend of like the top selling points or top benefits of your product. And that's what you want to focus on is like what's in it for the customer? You've got to kind of appeal to their emotions. How is it going to make their life better, easier, are easier, are they going to be more beautiful? Are they going to you know what? What is it, what's in it for them? Carrie Miller: And I think that that is going to be the key that sets you apart, and I know it's. It sounds pretty basic, but I've actually been doing some looking at different listings. People have been asking me hey, can you take a look at my listing? And when I look at the listing, I'm like, well, these aren't, these are not actually selling points or benefits. Like, these are features of the product. Right, you can always put the features in right later on, but how are you appealing to the person when you were? If you're telling somebody about your product, are you being like oh hey, the dimensions are 14 by 14. Like that's, that's like an afterthought, right? You, you want to. However, you would even just sell to a person, like talking face to face. That's how you're going to do that. Your first image shouldn't be a dimension photo. It should be a selling point, your main, like best selling point, main benefit in that first image. So I think that's a huge thing that a lot of people are kind of missing. Bradley Sutton: What would you say is the most actionable things from search career performance? That kind of closes out like, hey, this is actually something that is not just, oh, it's good to know, but hey, I'm actually going to take action, uh, on this. Mansour Norouzi: Taking action. I would say, even when I look at my own brand one is that for the main keywords, what I actually I do this on a weekly basis I have a list of the main keywords which is for my, for one of my aces are like 10 uh, 10 uh keywords and actually I go into the detail of week over week what is happening to my click share for those keywords, because they are very important for me and I want to be on the top and like top five for these turns. I want to be aware of what is going on with my competitors and what's my need. So if I see I have a track of my click share for the keywords, if I see it is going down, right away I'll figure out what's going on and maybe push with my advertising, for that for me would be our main keywords and what's going happening for my click share rate, conversion rate and click share just on my top keywords. Honestly, I will go, I think, by myself going with all for all the keywords, just like top five to 10 keywords, what they are, and I'll keep it very close overview and monitor them to see exactly what's going on, because you see that search volume going up or down, but I want my click share and my conversion share that I have I'm generating. Either they are consistent or going up. So if I see this trend is down, right away I start doing maybe I run coupon code or I push with my advertising to make sure I'm getting them back into track. Bradley Sutton: What is your favorite? Helium 10 tool Ksenia or function of a tool. Kseniia Reidel: Probably the audience. That's the one that I use all the time. Is it called audience? Bradley Sutton: Yeah, the split where you ask the questions to the people and say, how are you using that Like for your images, or just for product ideas, or what are you using that? Kseniia Reidel: Honestly for everything. For both for the product ideas, for your images, or just for product ideas or what are you using that? Honestly for everything. But both for the product ideas, for the images, because I just think it's so easy. You know, when you're thinking about like the product we find, then I usually do um, like the drawing and uh, 3d, you know the 3d image of the product that doesn't exist yet. Then usually all my products are like, really designed differently, that's what's on the market right now, and I just upload the image there and I see what people say and ask them would you buy this product? And if you wouldn't buy this product, why, why not? Or what would you change in this product? And sometimes I see the things that I didn't even you know, I didn't even think about that. Bradley Sutton: So you're launching just the 3d rendering and just asking a question on that image, or you're launching it like, or you're launching it, you're putting it in a poll next to like existing products and asking them, or which one are you doing? Kseniia Reidel: I'm doing both. Actually, the first, I just do the rendering and ask them would you buy this product? And if you would not buy this product, what would you change Like? How would you make it better for you? And then sometimes I also compare it to the other products that are on the market and ask them which one would they buy? Bradley Sutton: Interesting. Kseniia Reidel: And a lot of times I do the changes on the product based on what the people say. Bradley Sutton: What was the results of those search, find, buy in order to send those relevancy signals? Again, not for rank, but to send those relevancy signals to Amazon. Take a look at this when I ran in Cerebro on June 19th, just three days after they did that relevancy single, you know, push those three coworkers here at Helium 10,. Take a look now at the Amazon recommended rank. Remember how it was only showing two keywords for Amazon recommended rank. Now it was showing multiple ones and it put that keyword that I sent the relevancy signal for egg holder countertop. It had Amazon recommended rank number three, which basically means that that was the third most important keyword according to Amazon for this product. Now do you remember what I was getting for impressions in PPC? Like 200 total impressions over three days. What did sending those relevancy signals to Amazon do for my PPC impressions? Take a look at this. To amazon, do for my PPC impressions. Take a look at this. The next three day period from June 19th when my relevancy got fixed to June 21st instead of 200 impressions, 5 000 impressions, 4 000 of that. How? What keyword was it for? Egg holder countertop, that one that I sent those relevancy signals to Amazon for? This works, guys. Ryan King: So Walmart has the equivalent would be brand portal, and I would absolutely recommend, if you're the seller, if you're the brand, to register through brand portal, and the main reasons are there are certain advertising opportunities that are only available to brand registered brands, so sponsored brand videos, sponsored brand ads that go across as banner displays. Another major one would be brand shops, brand shelves we can talk about later as well and then IP protection, and so the advantage of being registered in Brand Portal is that you can file IP infringement claims, and in this case, the most successful one to do is to file claims against those alternate listings for using your copyrighted imagery, and so we see success of getting those pulled down within 48 hours, typically when that happens. Now you can still file that IP claim even if you're not registered through Brand Portal. There's a link to file that claim, but you can't track its progress, you can't see the history, all those kinds of things. So it just gives you greater credibility in those and greater ability to look back at the progress. And the last one I'd say is if you're a registered brand, it's going to give you the highest content ranking for your listing. So even if there are other sellers that have tried to change that listing content. You're going to outrank them as the registered brand and chances are you're not going to have to deal with things changing on your listing in that regard. Kevin Dolan: Cosmo is a specific tool and I think that the function that it performs is valuable to enhancing Amazon's understanding of a listing. So I certainly would not be surprised to see Amazon implementing this in a production capacity on a large swath of searches. That would not be surprising to me, but it's not as massive as the shift that we've seen into semantic-focused search. Cosmo in particular discusses essentially a mechanism for enhancing Amazon's understanding of a product by taking into consideration things that aren't expressed in the query and things that aren't expressed in the listing. The example that they use in the paper, the canonical example, is if you're looking for shoes for pregnant women, a listing might not literally say shoes for pregnant women. It might produce a specific type of open toed shoe that has good support, good comfort. That might not literally be listed as a keyword in the listing, but it might be something that the system can infer based on its knowledge of the universe, about what it's like to be a pregnant woman and the types of products that they might benefit from. Norm Farrar: Out of everybody that we've looked at, it was up to 80. But 70% of Amazon sellers do not have the proper HTS code. They let their Chinese seller set an HS code and it's wrong. So when they get in here and guess what, nobody, nobody is calculating that as a part of your cost of goods. So they're going out, they're sourcing in China, they're not calculating, and this could be as high as 400%. Now, I've never seen it that, but it can be. So you know you're 25, 40% of your cost of goods. Is that not something that should be calculated? And like for me, I was doing natural soaps and I was paying 17%. So we were taking a look at it and Afolabi says can you consider this Castile soap? And I said yeah, it's olive based. And he goes well, how about I give you some good news. Pay zero. I just stuffed 17% back in my pocket. So out of the 70% of people that are missing the boat, they don't have the proper tariff code and the average person that gets the proper tariff code on an order the average that we've been able to calculate has been $7,800.
Amazon makes a big title policy change that could cause some of you to have to update up to half of your listings. Is this move that Amazon is about to make, essentially not allowing sellers to sell on Temu? These two buzzing stories and more on this episode! ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's VP of Education and Strategy, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. New Amazon product title requirements effective January 21, 2025 https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHNEJGOUZIUUs4SFBXWkRV Amazon effectively bars sellers from Temu marketplace https://channelx.world/2025/01/amazon-effectively-bars-sellers-from-temu-marketplace/ TikTok Shop Order Cancellation, Return and Refund Update https://channelx.world/2025/01/tiktok-shop-order-cancellation-return-and-refund-update/ Prime-exclusive discounts are moving to the Price Discounts tool https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHQzRCMkFMNkdLNTZSRVNT Mexico unveils new tariffs, popular e-tailers like Shein, Temu may be in crosshairs https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexico-unveils-new-tariffs-popular-e-tailers-like-shein-temu-may-be-crosshairs-2024-12-31/ APEX – An Alternative Patent Resolution Procedure on Amazon https://natlawreview.com/article/apex-alternative-patent-resolution-procedure-amazon Get more details on image issues with Compliance Issue report updates https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHODdFWE1BQ0pTREVCQVpG The Year (2024) in Amazon vs Walmart, and a Look Into 2025 https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2024/the-year-in-amazon-vs-walmart-and-a-look-into-2025/ Lastly, we share insights from Helium 10 on product misclassification alerts and provide upcoming training tips on how to use our Amazon Inventory Heat Maps to maximize your e-commerce success. In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers: 01:19 - BIG Amazon Title Policy Update 08:48 - Amazon BANS Temu? 11:24 - TikTok Shop Refund Change 13:56 - Prime Exclusive Discounts Moving 14:50 - New Mexico Tariffs 16:32 - Amazon APEX Procedure 18:11 - Image Compliance 19:03 - Amazon V Walmart 20:56 - Helium 10 New Feature Alerts 23:23 - Training Tip: Amazon Inventory Heat Maps
In this episode, we discuss the top 10 newest strategies for leveling up on Amazon, including one brand-new one that maybe only 10 people have used so far. ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's VP of Education and Strategy, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. In this week's episode, Join Bradley as he explores the latest strategies and features designed to supercharge your Amazon selling experience. This special episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast highlights the top 10 innovative strategies and tools released by Helium 10 in the second half of 2024. We kick things off with a groundbreaking PPC strategy that can enhance your campaign management by focusing on optimizing auto, broad, or phrase campaigns. By negative matching keywords that generate clicks without resulting in sales, you can prevent unnecessary spending and ensure a more efficient budget allocation. This approach is not limited to Helium 10 users, as even those employing other tools can benefit from these actionable insights. As we continue, discover how Amazon influencers can seize new opportunities by leveraging video reviews to earn affiliate commissions. By utilizing Helium 10's Chrome extension and influencer tool, content creators can identify chances to get their videos featured prominently on product listing carousels. Additionally, we delve into the revamped keyword tracker that offers advanced features like heat maps and keyword harvesting. These tools, along with Cerebro, allow sellers to track competitor keywords and optimize their listings effectively, saving time while maximizing sales potential. With these insights, you can uncover valuable market dynamics and boost your Amazon performance. Finally, explore the exciting updates from Helium 10 that enhance product analysis and sales estimation. With features like keyword sales estimates for European Amazon sellers and detailed insights into sales at both parent and child item levels, you can strategically target high-converting keywords and identify top-performing variations. Learn about the reintegration of Adtomic into the Helium 10 Diamond plan, which offers AI-driven advertising capabilities to streamline campaign management. With accurate sales estimates and superior competitive analysis, Helium 10 equips sellers with powerful tools to navigate the ever-evolving Amazon landscape. Don't miss this opportunity to gain practical strategies and make the most of the latest features available to you. In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers: 00:45 - Top 10 New Helium 10 Features 06:19 - Automating Helium 10 Adtomic Strategy 08:55 - Amazon Influencer Program and Profitability Calculator 14:17 - Keyword Tracker for Competitor Analysis 19:23 - Keyword Value Comparison in Amazon 23:15 - Helium 10 Sales Estimates Accuracy 29:11 - Amazon Brand Analytics Key Features
In this episode, our expert guest answers your Amazon PPC questions. Learn how a seller scaled from $200K to $4M during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Get actionable tips to optimize holiday sales and achieve remarkable growth! In this episode, our expert guest answers your Amazon PPC questions. Learn how a seller scaled from $200K to $4M during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Get actionable tips to optimize holiday sales and achieve remarkable growth! ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos What if you could transform your holiday sales from hundreds of thousands to millions? Destaney Wishon of BTR Media, our expert guest, reveals the art of crafting your own demand and skyrocketing sales with strategic off-platform investments, such as TV and video ads. We dissect the tactics that took one brand from $200,000 to a whopping $4 million, focusing on differentiating branded and non-branded sponsored product campaigns, and structuring these campaigns based on search intent to maximize their impact. We also break down Amazon advertising strategies for those looking to boost performance and profitability. Discover how to make the most of tools like the Search Query Performance report and Amazon Marketing Cloud for comprehensive insights into conversion rates. Learn to balance profitability with traffic through dual campaigns, explore the potential of DSP for bigger budgets, and navigate the nuances of keyword targeting. With Destiny's insights, you'll be equipped to optimize your strategies using metrics like TACoS and tools like Helium 10 Adtomic for periodic assessments. As we explore the intricacies of Amazon PPC campaign optimization, we cover everything from keyword volumes to match types. Learn how to effectively manage budgets with keyword volume, and understand the importance of automatic and manual campaigns, especially for new product launches. We also touch on the importance of influencer collaborations and product targeting to improve conversion rates in high window-shopping categories. Join us as we conclude with a special Q&A, where Destiny continues to share her expertise and engage with our community. In episode 625 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Carrie and Destaney discuss: 00:00 - Strategies for Amazon Holiday Sales Success 00:35 - Welcome to TACoS Tuesday 06:17 - Optimizing for New Product Launch Strategies 10:26 - Optimizing Amazon PPC Campaigns for Higher Sales 16:56 - Amazon PPC Campaign Optimization Strategies 17:57 - Optimizing Keyword Match Types in Campaigns 21:14 - Influencers and Organic Sales on Amazon 27:02 - More Q&A and Follow-Up Questions Transcript Carrie Miller: In this week's episode of the Serious Sellers podcast, we have expert Destaney Wishon with us and she's answering all of your questions, and we're going to be talking a little bit about Black Friday and Cyber Monday and how one of her clients actually went from $200,000 to $4 million this holiday season. This and so much more on today's episode of the Serious Sellers podcast. Bradley Sutton: How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think, think. Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers podcast by Helium 10. I'm your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show. Well, that's a completely BS-free, unscripted and unrehearsed organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world, and this episode is our monthly live TACoS Tuesday show, where we talk about anything and everything Amazon and Walmart PPC and advertising related with different guests, and today's host is going to be Carrie Miller. So, Carrie, take it away. Carrie Miller: Hello everyone, Welcome to TACoS Tuesday. We have our expert guest here, Destaney Wishon. Thanks so much for joining us, Destaney. Destaney: Happy to be here. Very excited. I mean the chaos of the holidays Black Friday, Cyber Monday, what better time to get all your questions in? Carrie Miller: Yeah, exactly. Destaney: On our end, almost across the board, we saw Amazon's extending this holiday period, you know, taking some pressure off of their shipping for two days. So for the first time ever. You know, if we're just comparing Black Friday to Black Friday, year over year, this Black Friday was a little bit lower, but the overall holiday period was up. I don't know if consumer sentiment around shopping is higher, but sales were almost incredible and I would say our ROAS was pretty in line. We had one brand go from $200,000 to $4 million in sales month over month. It's obviously a giftable item, but it was pretty crazy to see that. So it's been really strong now. Carrie Miller: Oh, that's amazing. Destaney: Didn't run deals whatsoever. You did nothing for lead-in CPCs are up and your sales weren't that much stronger. But for the brands who leaned in, they did fantastic. Carrie Miller: That's amazing, was there a specific strategy you think that they changed, because that's a pretty substantial jump. Destaney: They did a fantastic job. And this is kind of the new topic I've been coining in my training is when you list on Amazon, you're just capturing the demand. Amazon's doing all the work. They're driving the people that are searching for your product. You're just, you know, you got a little bucket and you're capturing it. Carrie Miller: Yeah Destaney: What they did incredible was they created their own demand, so they went off platform, they invested in TV and video and they educated their customer based on why they need to buy their product. So when Black Friday, Cyber Monday came along and they typed in their search term, they stood out in the page because the customers were already familiar with their products. Carrie Miller: Wow, that's, that's pretty incredible. Yeah. Destaney: Yeah, it was insane to watch. Carrie Miller: I was. I've been curious about the tv ads and how. You know how those are going for people, so that's sounds like they. You can do a really good job with them, depending on- Destaney: 100%. We're seeing a lot of success. It's also just like rewiring your brain. I think a lot of brands are spoiled because sponsor products are so successful. But I'm like, of course they're successful, a customer's already planning on buying you. You didn't do any work, you just fit on a keyword. Like Amazon did the work of bringing people on the platform. Carrie Miller: Very true, so would you like to get on and start answering some of the questions from the audience? Destaney: Let's do it. I mean, typically these run over, so we might as well start strong. Carrie Miller: Well, yeah, okay, this is from Spencer, and he says What is considered best practice for branded sponsored product campaigns. Do you make a separate campaign for each SKU or do you make one campaign and put all the SKUs in it? Destaney: It kind of depends. Your branded searches aren't always the same, right, if someone's typing in Coca-Cola Diet Coke versus regular Coca-Cola, you can change your strategy. So we segment based off search intents. We almost always separate branded versus non-branded, like that is table stakes. You have to separate branded versus non-branded campaigns. But when it comes to lining up your SKUs, we depend on search intent. But also from a reporting perspective, it's sometimes nice to break out into single SKU campaigns because then you can look at your TACoS per brand and you can say you know SKU A is doing really well. Maybe I should increase my branded search investment on this SKU and increase my budget on that campaign while pulling back on my branded investment for SKU number two. Breaking out into single SKU campaigns as a whole just makes it really easy to control your budget distribution if you have good naming and good organized campaign structure. Carrie Miller: Daniel says afternoon. Is there a I think it's morning for me, but afternoon probably for you guys Is there a golden ratio of CTR to CVR for measuring effectiveness of ad campaigns? Destaney: I'm not going to give a golden ratio per se because it's really dependent on category. Click-through rate's also really difficult because it depends on things like pricing and reviews. So your advertising is going to be influenced by that. Same for your conversion rate, but your conversion rate. You can figure out what your category is converting on really easy using tools in Adtomic or using the search query performance report and clearly see using brand metrics. Hey, my category is converting at 20%. You should be converting better than category average, like that's kind of the standard. If you're going to increase your ad investment, you need to be converting better than category average. That being said, again, it's also dependent on search intent. Probiotics is going to be a lot more expensive than probiotics for kids back to school, right? So you can't just blanket look at your conversion rate across the board. You have to understand intent. Carrie Miller: Awesome. Okay, let's go to Joshua. He says if you came to Helium 10 from an agency and had hundreds of their old campaigns in your account, what is the best practice? Should I delete all of the non-performing campaigns and start over? I am not sure how to proceed. Destaney: Great question. No matter what software you're transitioning to or an agency you're transitioning to, we don't ever recommend just pausing everything and hard stop. It's really bad for relevancy and it's difficult for the transition. What we do recommend doing is pulling your search term report for the last 60 days. Pull out all of your keywords that are successful and build them out into the new structure that you want to move forward with using the new software and then slowly rolling those out at the same time. As your new campaigns pick up traction, you can slowly pause out your old campaigns that are maybe a bad structure or maybe they're a weird single keyword structure that you don't want to move forward with. You slowly transition them over. First thing pull all your good keywords. Second thing pause all your bad keywords. Third thing slowly launch and transition your budgets over from old to new. Carrie Miller: What are the best practices for 2025 for new product launches. What's changed? I mean, I don't know if that's in regards to that's what I would put it, as I think. Destaney: I mean I don't know if that's in regards to me, but I would put it as yeah, I think quite a few things have changed. In terms of product launches, I would say driving external traffic is still doing really, really well and something that I think needs to be leaned into. A lot of brands cannot afford the CPCs in the category on a product that has zero reviews, so any way you can use external traffic that's maybe a bit cheaper to get your reviews up before leaning really heavy into Amazon advertising is a little bit more profitable. I would also say we're seeing this transition to creative matters so much more. So, making sure your click rate and conversion rate is good with your main image, but on the Amazon advertising side, really focusing on your sponsor brands, your sponsor brands video, your headline search ads, anything that makes you stand out on the Amazon advertising side. Really focusing on your sponsor brands, your sponsor brands video, your headline search ads, anything that makes you stand out on the page, because when you're launching, you don't stand out on the review perspective, so find unique ways to stand out within the search results. Carrie Miller: My product launched in October and I'm struggling to get sales. I've been using auto and manual campaigns, spending between 30 to 50 per day on a $20 product. I've launched the product in another territory where it's selling well. So feel confident with the product and listing. Any suggestions? Destaney: Yeah, so I would say the first thing is to look at the keywords and really make sure they're the right keywords. Type them into Amazon. Do you see similar products? Once you see similar products, are those products priced at the same as you or are they cheaper than you? Do those products have a lot more reviews than you? Figure out the competitive advantage that they may have over you and improve your listing in that way. On the advertising side, it's really as simple as again looking at the keywords and trying to expand the keywords in which you have that competitive advantage and then optimizing your bids to make sure you can be profitable. The biggest thing, though, I would say, is understanding that competitive advantage. When you type in your main keyword, what do your competitors look like? What's the price? What's the reviews? Is the main image different? Carrie Miller: And the next question is from an Elite member of ours. Hi, Andrew. For SB product collection campaigns we find basically all our sales come from top of search. Is that common? Also, is it worth spending time bidding on other placements for those campaigns? Great question. Destaney: In general, I would say it is common. If you think about how the search results are set up on desktop and mobile, what is the biggest ad on the page? It's the sponsored brand top of search ad. The headline ads, the sponsored brand ads on the product detail page are typically video. It's not typically product collection, it's sometimes store spotlight and video. The only other sponsored brands that show up on page one are way down in the middle of search, sometimes the bottom of search. So this is very typical, not surprising. You can bid on the other placements. It's not going to drive a huge difference. Just know that the majority of your traffic and visibility comes from top of search because that's where all of the customers are clicking and viewing before they scroll down the page. Carrie Miller: All right. The next one is from Keith. He says my BSR is improving and my PPC is converting. However, the organic ranking for my main keywords are not improving much. Any advice on how to improve rank? Destaney: Yeah, the two biggest factors that you can then break down is sales velocity or conversion rate. So again, figure out your category conversion rate. That's super easy with brand metrics, insights and planning or Helium 10 Adtomic, it's Amazon given data, it's first party data. So look at brand metrics. If you're converting lower than your category, you're going to need to drive a lot more traffic to your category, so you're probably going to need to spend more in order to improve that organic rank. On the flip side, let's say that you are spending more than the category or driving more in the category. Then it comes down to again like improving that conversion rate. It's traffic or conversion. Those are the two levers you really need to consider. So again, traffic the easiest thing to do is spend more it's not always the best answer or improve your listing and convert better, so that way you can easily spend a little bit more. Bradley Sutton: Did you know that just because you have a keyword in your listing, that does not mean that you are automatically guaranteed to be searchable or, as we say, indexed for that keyword? Well, how can you know what you are indexed for and not? You can actually use Helium 10's index checker to check any keywords you want. For more information, go to h10.me/indexchecker. More information go to h10.me/indexchecker. Carrie Miller: Hello, 80 to 90% of my PPC campaigns coming from SBV. I see the CPC and SBV a lot lower than sponsored. I am thinking to double down on I'm assuming that's sponsored brand video and let the SP sponsored on the second plan. Would that be a good way of going? Destaney: This is. I'm not going to say this is wrong, but this is really really unusual to see because on page one there's one sponsor brand video ad, so it's very limited in terms of advertising inventory. On page one there's 15 to 20 different sponsor product camp placements, so almost actually across the board. As an agency with over $100 million in spend, 70% of sales almost always come from sponsored products because they have more real estate and inventory on the page than anything else. Very unusual. Also, sponsored brands view can get competitive really fast because since there's only one placement on page one, when everyone starts increasing bids for that placement, you can kind of lose control as CPCs go up and you're going to lose a lot of your sales velocity. So I love sponsored brands video. It's a great format, but it's very, very limited in terms of advertising inventory and you should be investing more in sponsored products. That is, across the board, the highest sales driving tactic because there's so many more sponsored product placements than anything else. Carrie Miller: Keith says or asks what is the best way to check my conversion rate versus competitors on keywords? Destaney: I would say your search query performance report is probably like one of the easiest ways as a whole to look at search query performance. It's not specifically related to advertising. When you're specifically looking at advertising, you can't compare directly on the keyword level. You can look at it at the subcategory level but you cannot see directly on the keyword level. You have to use SQP and then overlay it with the rest of your data. Carrie Miller: How can you measure the effects of having a loss leader to help bring in additional traffic into your brand or variation listing? Destaney: Great question. I would probably dive into AMC for a lot of that. AMC is going to help you understand if someone clicks on one product, do they then end up buying another product? That's the easiest way. Without that, you could probably use depending on where you're advertising the sponsor product to advertise product report to see if people are clicking on one and then buying another. That's a really easy way to justify. It's just limited to only your advertising data where, if you use the appropriate AMC report, then you're gonna be able to see all of your organic data and that's gonna help you understand much better. Carrie Miller: My sponsor campaigns are doing well when I have a lower bid. Whenever I raise my bid to try and get more juice out of them, my budget gets blown and they become unprofitable. Do you know what I should do in order to make this work for me? Destaney: There's really no perfect answer here. I mean is the balance that is Amazon advertising. One of the things that we do to help this is we'll create two campaigns with the same keywords. One of our campaign will be lower bid, focused on profitability, and the other campaign will be higher bid, with focus on sales, and we'll shift our budget back and forth. You know, 70% of our budget is going to go to profitability, 30% of our budget is going to go to the high traffic. That way we're not having to constantly fluctuate our bids. This kind of allows us to move the budget from both to maximize profitability and then, when we're done with that, it's okay, we can shift more and turn on higher sales. It's just easier budget distribution. The other things that you could look at is your bid management strategy. Maybe there's a better middle ground. Are you optimizing for placements? Are you moving broad phrase and exact? Sometimes your long tail keywords are going to be a little bit cheaper from a CPC perspective, so you're going to be able to drive more profitability from your long tail keywords. All of those additional measures are going to be hugely beneficial for the strategy. Carrie Miller: The next question is what's your take on DSP and data from AMC? Destaney: I'm going to start with data from AMC, because it is now available for everyone. Brian Lee asked later on in the chat who can use AMC. Helium 10 has actually rolled it out, so you first need to request your instance being set up, but you do not need to run DSP ads to get access to AMC now. AMC is basically analytics and audience platform that just gives you a ton of insights into your Amazon advertising data. If you're not incredibly familiar with Amazon ads, it's gonna be probably a shiny object syndrome and I don't recommend you dive into it just yet. But if you understand sponsor brands and sponsor display. The second part of this question is what's my take on DSP? DSP has a bad reputation in the space because agencies and or Amazon managed services haven't been running it well, but DSP as a tool is incredible. It's one of the most powerful Amazon advertising tools out there, I would say, if used appropriately. You do need to be spending at least $10,000 on DSP a month for it to make sense, but DSP is incredibly, incredibly powerful for brands that are ready for it. Carrie Miller: What do you recommend for Ad campaigns when you have separate listing variations. Do you recommend to merge or manage in each campaign?? Destaney: Again, it depends on search intent. In my opinion, if I have a black t-shirt versus a red t-shirt, and that's how they're variated, I like to separate out my campaigns so I can create search terms based off the variations. So I can create search terms based off the variations. If my only variation difference is size. No, not size price $20 variation, $10 variation I may not segment them. I would typically put my lowest price first because that's going to have the highest click-through rate and then lead customers to my other variations. If it's flavor variations, weight variation, something with different search intent, I recommend segmenting campaigns so you can curate your keyword experience. Carrie Miller: What is a good way to determine keywords that you are ranking for, then comparing them to PPC campaigns to determine which keywords you may not be advertising for? Any quick way to do this. Destaney: Quick way is the fun part of this question. So the biggest thing I would say is to 100% 80-28. We kind of look at if we're ranked in the top four. We're going to pull back on sponsored product spend and move budgets to our sponsored brand, so we're winning the top of search and showcasing our brand. That's our overall strategy. You can use TACoS correlation to do this. If you have a TACoS objective, you'll see that when you spend on a sponsored product ad that you're ranked for, your TACoS is going to increase because you're cannibalizing your organic sales. So you can almost use TACoS as a lever to push and pull. It's not a perfect solution but it will help. The second thing to do would be to dive into you know, using Helium 10 and on a monthly, quarterly basis, pulling probably those terms, that on average you're above number four, number eight on, and then we create segmented campaigns for ranking that we can turn on and off as needed. So I don't want to turn off that keyword as a whole, I just want to lower the bids. So I'll shift my budget for my ranking campaigns to my profitability campaign. So I'm still running, but I'm not showing up in the top four sponsored ad placements. Carrie Miller: Jason says what is an optimal amount of keywords per exact campaign. I started with 15 or so, but as keyword harvesting creates new targets, the list has grown quite a bit. Break them into new campaigns question. Destaney: Absolutely I personally don't love harvesting new keywords into an old campaign because it's going change the performance of your old campaign right. If you have 10 new keywords that aren't proven, then your overall campaign may stop, start performing worse. So 15 is a great number. This is one of those fun like depending on what influencer you follow in the space, you're going to get a different number. It's really dependent on your budget. You know we've had brands that are spending a million dollars a month and they're able to have 100 keywords in a campaign because their campaigns had a thousand dollar budget. So we could afford from a budget perspective to drive traffic to every keyword. If you don't have that budget and you're only at $100 a month or a day, then you're going to need a lot smaller group of keywords to make sure you're collecting data on those keywords. So start with 15, maybe go to 20 to 30, depending on how high you want your budget to be, but then always break them out to new campaigns past that point. Carrie Miller: Are exact keywords generally expensive than broad? What, according to you, is the right mix of keywords, match type within a campaign and how many can should be added? Destaney: This is a fun one. There's a ton of misconceptions around this. In my opinion it just depends, because it's an auction model. If someone is bidding more on their exact match term than they are their phrase match, then maybe your exact match keywords are more expensive because your competitor is bidding more. We test all three match types across the board. They all three run in a very similar ACoS or ROAS because we control the bids to what's converting best at that certain point in time. I think for us, phrase match is one of our highest selling match types right now because broad sometimes goes too broad and doesn't convert as well. Exact match typically converts the best but can be the most expensive. If we're in a category where our competitors are bidding a lot more on exact, highly recommend running all three. Later on, someone asks can you put them all in the same campaign? You can. It's not necessarily going to hurt. We break ours up most of the time. There's instances where we won't, just so I can control again where my budget's going. But we continue to test every single keyword and every single match type and then just negate and or pause or lower bids depending on the performance in the CBCs. Carrie Miller: I recently launched, about two weeks ago. I'm running an automatic and manual campaign. Is there any other campaigns I should be running? Destaney: No, I'd say that's fine unless you have a really high budget and look at maybe video or sponsored brands. Those are going to do really well for you. It's unique advertising inventory but considering it's only been two weeks, I think an auto and a manual is good. An auto is going to be used for keyword research and data collection for you. Use your manual campaign to really control where your traffic's going and then just continue adding those automatic keywords you're finding into your manual campaign. Carrie Miller: Mike says, I'm in a category where there's a lot of window shopping, so my advertising spend is high as lots of clicks, no and low sales. Long tail keywords have low traffic and the keywords with higher search volume are very general, expensive and saturated by competitors. Any other strategies to consider? Destaney: Yeah, I would say, like the home decor, apparel, puzzles those categories can be really difficult because of the window shopping. So you got to think how do you stop someone from window shopping? Video does really really well because then you're educating them on why your product's better and why they're interested. And the good thing with sponsor brands video is if they're just watching the video you don't get charged. You only get charged if they clicked, and if they click they're interested. But again, I'd put this back on you to ask why are people clicking on your listing but not buying? Like even in high window shopping categories, you need to have a competitive advantage. The second thing I would say is product targeting, sponsor product product targeting, sponsor display product targeting can do really well. Target all of the competitors who have lower reviews than you, a higher price point than you, worse reviews than you. These do really well in window shopping categories because, as you mentioned, people are looking at competitors and then clicking on other listings and other listings. So this is a good opportunity to kind of take advantage of that mentality. Carrie Miller: Would you also say influencers are probably really the best way for those particular categories. Destaney: Yeah, I think influencers do really well because they're again, it's the same as the video concept. You don't want to just capture the demand and be compared to every other product in your category by price or reviews, which is what Amazon's known for. How do you educate a customer on why they need your product before they even click? Influencers, video ads, off-platform traffic does that job. Carrie Miller: Do you think Amazon rewards or gives more ranked juice for organic sales more than PPC sales, or do they treat them the same? Destaney: I would probably say more to organic sales. This is why your big retail brands your Johnson and Johnson's, your Pepsi or Coke's can get away with having listings that maybe aren't as fantastic because their organic conversion rate is so much higher, right? Even before they were spending a ton like seven years ago when I got started in this space those brands did so well because their conversion rate was higher. Customers were searching for their brand name and buying right, so their organic is already inflated and doing much better. Nowadays, PPC of course plays a role, but Amazon knows that they're going to max out on how much PPC opportunity they can have within the search results, so I think organic is weighted a little bit heavier in terms of conversion rate and click-through rate. Carrie Miller: Do you ever increase budget on a PPC campaign, even if it isn't maxing out? Destaney: It doesn't hurt. I don't think it necessarily helps. It can. I've seen a few people kind of make statements like I ran a campaign at $50 a day budget and it did nothing. When I increased it to $500 a day it did something. I've never really seen that, but it doesn't hurt anything. Carrie Miller: Joshua says wait. So I thought it was best practice to segment campaigns, as in keywords and such, to determine the performance. So is it best practice to clump keywords together for campaigns in groups of 10 to 15? Destaney: It doesn't really matter. Single keyword campaigns are okay, they don't hurt, but they're a pain to scale. We have brands that have 500 keywords doing well, so I'm not going to create 500 campaigns when it doesn't drive that much added value. We do 10 to 15 because it's controllable, it's easy to scale, it's easy for us to build out. Because it's controllable, it's easy to scale, it's easy for us to build out. In an absolutely perfect world, single keyword campaigns could be the best solution, the most value added, because you can do your placements at the same time, but they're not scalable for most people. Most people don't have the operations to run it appropriately and the software's out there that are recommending single keyword campaigns have a really terrible bid management strategy that doesn't make sense for them. So I would say if you're a small brand, only have one product, go ahead and run single keyword campaigns if you want. Just make sure you have a good system for naming and structuring. Carrie Miller: This is a good question. If you're new to Helium 10 Adtomic, what's the best place to start? I feel overwhelmed by the complexity of the system. Destaney: I would start by saying that that is the nature of Amazon and Amazon probably going to feel overwhelmed. So the biggest thing is to actually go through, like the videos that are directly within Adtomic. Like that's what I would say one of your best bets and start learning each piece individually. That's something that I kind of got overwhelmed with, like in the beginning. Keyword research and bid management that should be our core focus when it comes to advertising. So go through those segmented videos and help yourself understand the system that way. Do you have anything else, Carrie? Carrie Miller: Yeah, I mean we do have kind of a PPC Academy. If you are a paid subscriber to Helium 10, you can go into that course. But Bradley also has done some. He did some masterclasses on Adtomic and then there's also kind of learn videos, like you were saying, just like watch those little videos for each different thing within the actual tools. There's kind of little training videos. I would suggest doing that. We also have it in our academy. We have videos in our academy that show you how to use Adtomic. Destaney: General, it just takes time and, to not get overwhelmed, you have to hop in and you have to test and learn. By the time you learn something Amazon will change some button or some switch. So don't get overwhelmed by like. We have incredible comments and questions that are being asked that I would say are pretty advanced here. So, like, don't get overwhelmed by all of that. Just start simple, start small and you'll figure it out as you go. Carrie Miller: I think we'll do maybe one more here. I think this is a good one. I use Cerebro to extract keywords from competitors ASINs and then include those as exact and phrase match within the same campaign. As a result, my campaign sometimes ends up with 500 plus keywords. Is this approach okay, or should I create smaller, more segmented campaigns? Destaney: I'm going to assume what's happening with your 500 plus keywords is only 10 of them are actually getting impressions and clicks. That is the problem with that strategy. Unless you have a thousand dollar a day budget, you cannot afford the data across all those keywords. And what I mean by that is the industry standard is you need anywhere from 10 to 20 clicks per keyword before knowing whether or not it's a keyword that can be optimized right. So let's say 10 clicks at a $1 bid across 500 keywords. I can't do that math. What is 500 times $10? Like 5000? Carrie Miller: Yeah. Destaney: Please, you guys I just got the zeros. This is one of those memes I was like what is the most embarrassing thing you typed into your Amazon or your calculator this year? I was about to say you cannot afford to collect data on all those keywords. You're going way too big and you're going to have campaigns that only have 5 to 10 keywords getting clicks, because that's where all of your budget's going. Your budget's only going to go to those keywords. Amazon's not going to spread it across all of your keywords. So there's no point in doing any of that keyword research when 480 of those keywords you cannot afford to get impressions on. That is why we break them out in a segmented campaign. So I can have a $10 campaign focus on one to two keywords, collecting data. I can turn on and off as my keywords are successful versus your 500. Again, you can't necessarily afford it unless you're going to be spending 5 to $10,000 to collect data on all of those terms. Carrie Miller: All right, I think that's the last question. I think you've done an amazing job for pretty much 45 minutes straight answering questions. So thank you. And Andrew says Destaney is the GOAT. And then Cory said “Agreed, this is awesome!”. So thank you so much for joining us for TACoS Tuesday and thank you to everyone in the audience. We had lots of I mean, we still have questions we haven't answered. I'm sorry about that. We just don't have time to do all of them every single time, but if you join next time early, you can get your questions in early, right when we start and get them answered. But thanks again for everyone who joined and also Destaney. If anyone wants to reach you, where can they reach you? Destaney: Facebook or LinkedIn is probably the easiest. I see a few like good questions that came in last minute. Cory Benson, like all of my content is pretty much on LinkedIn, based around your question, so feel free to follow me on either of those platforms or reach out in the Helium 10 groups. I'm pretty active in those groups, so if you have any questions that we missed, we'd love to hop in and help. Carrie Miller: Yeah, if you're not following Destaney on LinkedIn, you're missing out, so you got to go go follow her there. So, all right, thank you again, and we'll see you all again next time on TACoS Tuesday.
Learn how to audit old Amazon listings to uncover new keywords, drive sales, and gather valuable customer data that can help in listing optimization to boost your conversion rates. ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Could Amazon listings that you haven't touched in a while be the hidden goldmine you've been overlooking? In this episode, Bradley Sutton reveals his tried-and-true method for breathing new life into overlooked product pages and uncovering keywords that boost sales and conversions. As 2025 approaches, it's vital to stay ahead of trends and search habits to refresh your listings. Using the Project X egg trays, he demonstrates how to effectively audit and optimize your Amazon listings using tools like Search Query Performance and Helium 10. We'll explore how examining new reviews and tweaking your advertising and product images can align your listings with consumer trends, ultimately driving profitability. Keyword optimization isn't just about throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. Instead, it's an art form, and Bradley is here to guide you through crafting a keyword strategy that resonates. With a focus on a wooden egg tray example, we'll uncover unexpected opportunities by analyzing platforms like Etsy and Search Query Performance. Discover how an overlooked keyword like "porcelain egg holder" can unlock new potential. By analyzing click-through rates and impressions with Helium 10's Cerebro tool, you'll learn how to capture untapped markets and expand your advertising reach. Understanding sales dynamics is crucial for any Amazon seller. By leveraging BSR history, we can pinpoint sales spikes and identify the keywords that fueled them. Bradley will show you how to use Helium 10's historical data tools to track keyword sales and ranking changes over time and outsmart competitors. It's not just about finding what works but creating a Standard Operating Procedure to efficiently manage the process across multiple products. Get ready to unlock hundreds of dollars in additional sales by strategically optimizing your keyword usage. Let's make tangible financial gains a reality. In episode 624 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley talks about: 00:00 - Auditing Amazon Listings for Optimization 00:56 - Refreshing Product Listing for Project X 02:34 - Market Analysis Tools for Sellers 04:43 - Analyzing Keywords for Optimization 08:36 - Keyword Research for Wooden Egg Tray 14:14 - Utilizing Historical Data for Product Ranking 15:19 - Analyzing BSR and Keyword Data 17:40 - Organic Ranking Improvement Analysis 20:49 - Analyzing Keyword Performance Through Sales 25:33 - Analyzing Feedback for Product Improvement 28:24 - Optimizing Amazon Listings for Sales 28:41 - Discovering Profitable Keywords for Increased Sales
BREAKING NEWS: Amazon sellers are angrier than I've ever seen them before because of this move that Amazon made that could be costing sellers millions. How crazy is that? ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's Chief Brand Evangelist, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. Update to the FBA inventory reimbursement policy https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHTU4yV1c1M0xMQlNKWlRB Is Amazon's new FBA inventory reimbursement policy a game-changer or a nightmare for sellers? Recent changes have sparked a significant uproar, and many sellers feel misled and worried about potential financial losses in the millions. We dissect this contentious shift, highlighting the importance of transparency and fairness in Amazon's communication while recognizing its right to shape its own policies. The discussion also provides strategic insights into managing these upcoming changes. TikTok Shop US Sales Surpass Shein, Sephora https://www.silicon.co.uk/e-marketing/ecommerce/tiktok-shop-us-593031 Return Rate and Star Rating features on Voice of the Customer Dashboard https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHWEw1VEZNWTI2WFc0WTdO Temu Leaves Amazon in E-Commerce Dust, Topping Apple's Most-Downloaded Apps List https://www.inc.com/kit-eaton/temu-leaves-amazon-in-e-commerce-dust-topping-apples-most-downloaded-apps-list/91067132 Account vacation settings and support for the holidays https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHN0w1UkNRQlZQR0E5SjJW TikTok asks Supreme Court to temporarily halt a law that would ban the app in the U.S. https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2024-12-16/tiktok-supreme-court-temporarily-halt-ban Enhanced display placement targeting features on Amazon DSP https://advertising.amazon.com/en-us/resources/whats-new/enhanced-display-placement-targeting-amazon-dsp/ Join us for a comprehensive exploration of these pivotal shifts, equipping you with the knowledge to thrive in the Amazon space. In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers: 00:52 - Amazon Drops Hammer On Reimbursements 23:28 - TikTok Shop Passes Shein 24:01 - Amazon EU FBA Fee Update 27:46 - Voice of the Customer Update 28:30 - Temu Most Downloaded 29:21 - Amazon Vacation Mode 29:52 - TikTok - Supreme Court 30:31 - New DSP Features
In this episode, we'll discuss helpful Amazon advertising strategies, Amazon Marketing Cloud, Search Query Performance, and even some suggestions for the best Ethiopian restaurants. ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Join us as we welcome back George Meressa of ClearAds Agency, to the Serious Sellers Podcast, where we talk about Amazon advertising and e-commerce strategies. We discuss how tightened margins and increased competition from Chinese products are impacting sellers. The conversation covers the role of AI in leveling the playing field for non-native English speakers and the significance of external traffic sources like TikTok and Google Ads. We also examine the rising influence of larger brands on Amazon and the higher entry barriers that are discouraging new sellers. Our transition to using Pacvue for Amazon advertising and the emphasis on improving listings to enhance conversion rates are also key highlights. In our discussion on Amazon PPC campaign optimization, we focus on strategically reducing wasted ad spend and reallocating resources for better performance. George and Bradley share insights on identifying inefficient ad campaigns and leveraging tools like the Hemingway app and Pacvue to simplify language and automate bid adjustments. We explore the importance of enhancing listings through effective keyword use and optimizing Q&A and reviews, which are crucial for ranking. This conversation emphasizes how strategic budgeting and allocation can uncover easy wins and growth opportunities for Amazon sellers. Listen in as we explore modern advertising strategies and data utilization on Amazon. George discusses optimizing sales through effective keyword analysis and the benefits of using Amazon Marketing Cloud for insights into new-to-brand sales. We also touch on the value of Amazon's B2B reporting and the challenges of sponsored TV ads for ROI-focused clients. The conversation highlights the enduring effectiveness of sponsored product ads and the importance of maintaining advertising spend on high-ranking keywords. Finally, we share a lighter moment, connecting over a shared appreciation for unique ethnic cuisines, with a particular focus on Ethiopian food. In episode 622 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and George discuss: 00:00 - Amazon Advertising and E-Commerce Strategies 04:42 - Optimizing Amazon PPC Campaigns 09:48 - Automated Bid Adjustment Strategies for Success 14:41 - Amazon Advertising Strategies and Data Utilization 15:09 - Understanding Amazon Search Query Performance Keywords 19:03 - Advertising Strategies and Best Practices 21:26 - Benefits of the Amazon Bestseller Badge 26:17 - Shifting Focus to Organic Sales 29:55 - Discussing International Cuisine Preferences 30:29 - Exploring Unique Ethiopian Cuisines Transcript: Bradley Sutton: Today we've got George back on the show for the first time in a couple years and we're going to talk about a wide variety of subjects, including general Amazon advertising strategy, AMC, Search Query Performance and even some suggestions for the best Ethiopian restaurants. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I'm your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show. That's a completely BS-free, unscripted and unrehearsed organic conversation about serious strategies for Serious Sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. And we're here in Milan, Italy, at our Avask and Helium 10 workshop, and just fresh off the stage is George. Now I'm going to be asking him a little bit about what he talked about, because I was in here recording another podcast so I didn't get to hear him. But, George, it's been a little bit since you've been on the podcast. Welcome back. George Meressa: Thank you so much for having me. It has been a while yeah. Bradley Sutton: Yes, yeah. So now you flew in here, you're still based in London. George Meressa: I am, yeah, I'm in London. Bradley Sutton: Excellent, excellent. So I'm going to need some restaurant advice. I'll be going there two times in the next couple of weeks, so you'll have to give me some great local eats. George Meressa: Absolutely, I'll give you my advice. I've been told I have horrible advice, but there's one or two winners, so then I'll get you with them. Bradley Sutton: Excellent, excellent. Now we're not just here to talk about culinary things, were here to talk about you know what, what your specialty is, which is, you know, Amazon advertising, just Amazon in general. And so I remember the last time you were on the show. You know you talk a lot about DSP. Dsp obviously has come a long ways, but just in general, what are the biggest things that have changed in the last couple of years that advertisers are dealing with now? Or you know some new feature that they have access to? That wasn't around the last time you were on the show. George Meressa: Yeah, it's a good question. So I think the biggest thing we've seen is just how margins are being tightened for sellers. So there's been costs that have increased in so many different areas, like warehouse costs. The cost per click just has increased in general, and not only that, but we've also seen a whole range of competition come within Amazon, so a lot of cheaper products coming directly from China and I think AI has had a massive impact on that where now Chinese sellers are able to have content that matches up with those who speak the native languages, like English in the US and other marketplaces and Temu has been one as well. It's just been a competition where you can find products at such a lower rate. So there have been a few big components. Outside traffic as well has played a big part too. So getting viral stuff coming through TikTok, people really homing in on Google Ads they've had an impact and also the bigger brand as well. I think a lot more bigger brands are putting their products on Amazon and because they have the awareness, the conversion rates are just naturally better and they're coming in and just sweeping in and taking a considerable amount of market share. So there's a whole sea of things happening. I think one of the biggest things we've noticed, though, is there's less newer sellers, because just the barrier of entry is a little bit higher than it was when we first uh, when we last had the conversation. Bradley Sutton: Now you guys, uh, I know, um, in the last couple years you know, switched over to Pacvue, uh, for software, another one of our companies. So you know Pacvue is not just Amazon, you know, it's a really a lot of multi-channel. So are you guys leveraging advertising now on other platforms at all? Are you strictly still pretty much Amazon advertising? George Meressa: So we're mainly Amazon advertising now. I think the biggest change that's happened since we last spoke is, uh, we're now working within the listings too, so leveraging some of the skill set we brought in from outside um, those who've run amazon brands and done really well and they've been able to help us to grow the conversion rate, because ultimately it comes down to the conversion rate and the sales. So and sometimes it's quite straightforward fixes it could be standing out with images, it could be keywords in the back end that most people forget to put in descriptions, titles, and just really working with that, and other times just that product is kind of hitting the end of its life cycle and that's one thing we've noticed is the life cycle of products are kind of diminishing more and more since last being here. Bradley Sutton: Yeah, I imagine that's kind of a benefit for you guys, because if you're only an advertising agency, you know you can only control the advertising. But if they've got a crap listing or they don't even have the right keywords, it's a little bit hard to change things. But if you're able to go in there and help people from a to z, then it just makes the advertising, I imagine, much more effective too. George Meressa: Exactly that. So it's a kind of massive flywheel effect. When you get the listings right and you have a kind of superior product or product that stands out, it just makes everything else flow better. So you could, you know, um? On extreme examples, we've seen exceptional products of high barrier or high barrier to entry products, where they have very basic PPC campaigns, but they just rank, they just do well, and on the opposite side you have other products that are similar to what's out there and it's very difficult to get that edge. I think when I first started doing Amazon pay-per-click, you know you had the auto campaigns. Manual campaigns were just introduced. There wasn't much data. I mean there wasn't much competition, so it was easy to run it. But now I mean the data that we have access to with Amazon is unbelievable. It's unbelievable what information you can get right now and I think that is still probably the biggest edge a lot of people can have against their competitors is actually taking advantage of the data and knowing what to do with it. Bradley Sutton: Now what is one of the most common I don't know if I can say mistakes or things that you're changing like now you take on a new client and now you do have the ability to go in and modify some things, both on the advertising side of what they were doing, but both on also on the listing, you know, side or keyword side. What are some things that are like oh my goodness, like we've had so many customers who have done this wrong and this is like the first thing that we check for to change. Does anything stick out in your mind? George Meressa: Yeah, it's very simple. So we look at what can we bring down, what can we bring out? I mean, what can we bring down? What can we bring up? They're the two simplest ways of putting it. So what can we bring down? Where in the campaigns that we're looking at is there wasted budget? Where that, where the resources haven't been allocated well right? So this could be campaigns that are getting a very high amount of clicks but not any sales. So that's a. That's just a more straightforward basic um, um kind of uh example. But on the other hand, you can also have keywords that have a decent a cost, a horrible conversion rate, and that's where most of the budget's been distributed. So the more budget and ad spend a company has when they come to us, the stronger the chances that we will find something to improve. So that's the first thing we do is okay, what can we cut back? If someone's got, you know, you know, 10 000 a month ad spend or 100 hundred thousand a month, and we can reduce it by 10%, 15%. Then we got opportunity with that additional budget to put it in places where it is working, or untapped opportunities. That is going to be an easy win. So where is the easy wins, is the quickest thing, and reducing that spend and cutting the cost is the first place we go. So that's the first thing. And then the second thing is what can we bring up? Where is there potential for growth? And this is where we kind of dig into Search Query Information. Where are certain listings organically positioned well or getting a good proportion of sales that you're just not pushing through PPC right? And when we got that information, we can then create campaigns to then test okay, what would happen if we put some campaigns behind this? Would their positions improve? And most of the time the conversion rates are strong, as strong as they and they are shown on Search Query Data. Then they move and it works well. So, from a PPC side of things, that's where we see the quick wins. Um, on a listing side of things, it's very basic things that get missing. I mean the amount of companies we look at where they just haven't got back-end keywords and they don't have, uh, their descriptions fleshed out and their, their, um, their bullet points haven't been reviewed since they first launched the products because they've got so many products. Amazon is looking at the listings to look at what is this product relevant to what is. What is the search terms that are most likely to entice a sale. So we go a little bit further as well and kind of work on um Q and A as well. How can we maximize the, the amount of questions that are answered around the products and making sure that the type of answer that's given is what amazon's looking for. So, especially with Rufus so there's a science paper that uh was recently published where amazon actually say they, they give more um, they put more weight in terms of ranking to the questions and answers and the reviews as opposed to the product description. So really making sure that all of the content it works well. I think one of the things I've just shared downstairs as well is um using simple language, right. So a lot of people things I've just shared downstairs as well is using simple language, right. So a lot of people forget that, just using the US as an example, the average reading age is of a seventh grader, right? So if the average reading age is of a seventh grader, why not use this much more simple language within your listings to really convey the message? Because then, ultimately, you're reaching 100% of your audience as opposed to reaching, you know, 40 or 30%. That in itself could have just tremendous impact and it has, we've seen in our clients in terms of the conversion rates. So I just spoke downstairs a really cool app to use is Hemingway, the Hemingway app. So with that app, you can just put your listing title in there and it will teach you to just use more simple language. Right, there's no, there's no, there's never any issue in doing that, and actually you could reach a much, much larger audience, especially if you're selling a complex product. That is the art. If you sell a complicated product to complicated ingredients, you know, really conveying the um, the benefits. And just moving back to what you mentioned, Pacvue that's been a game changer. One of the big things that it's allowed us to do is allowed us to put in rules so that we can automatically make bid adjustments that humans just can't do as well, right? So just to give you a few examples, we can put in rules which say, okay, if, uh, the position in organically is X, make X change within the bids, right. So if this and if the conversion rate threshold is above this, increase the bids, right. Doing this is just one layer, right, and that's helped a considerable amount in terms of ensuring that it's done in real time. That's the first one. The second thing is doing um, increasing bids, budgets during certain times of the day and week, right. So we found out, all of the tools we've used, patfuse being the most superior in terms of getting that right and homing in. You know, you can ask someone, a VA, you can ask a special, a specialist account manager who's been doing it for donkey's years, to manually sit there and do that, but it's not going to meet the human, it's not going to meet, uh, the tool's ability to do it at such a rapid rate. There's so many things that we do within those tools now where we're now focusing more on a strategy and we're allowing the tool to do the mundane clicking and ensuring that the campaigns are given the best possible, uh, chance of succeeding. So, um, that's kind of how we use the tool and I think, is getting to a place now. If you're not using these tools, you're going to fall behind, like you cannot. It's not like those old days where you could just click and make the budget adjustment. Amazon is checking all of the position and ranking every time a search is made for your products, right? So you want to take advantage of that, especially if you're doing good volumes. You're getting good traffic, getting good impressions. You really want to be on top of it. Bradley Sutton: Want to keep up to date with trending topics in the e-commerce world, make sure to subscribe to our blog. We regularly release articles that talk about things such as shipping and logistics, e-commerce in other countries, the latest changes to Amazon Seller Central countries, the latest changes to Amazon Seller Central, how to get set up on new platforms like Newegg, how to write and publish a book on Amazon KDP and much, much more. Check these articles out at h10.me forward slash blog. Now, one thing you mentioned a couple minutes ago was about the Q&A. So let's say, you know, just organically, nobody has left that many questions and so obviously that means there's not that many answers to. So does this mean that you're just getting like some Amazon customers to write some questions so that the seller or the account manager can answer them, or how do you get the right questions and answers on there? George Meressa: Very good question. So I'm going to step a bit back, Bradley. So you can use a tool like AHREF, right, and you can ask a question about a product, right, and it will give you the most asked questions on Google, right. So that's where you can do the research and be more data focused. So I'll give you an example there was some sort of nail varnish that one of our clients sold. When we put that product into AHREF how to remove the nail varnish it was the biggest question I was asked. It was getting like 20,000 to 30,000 searches a month. So, firstly, it's about finding the right questions. Where is the itch right? What are people asking? Right? And then, when you find a few of these questions, then we encourage friends and family and there are some other ways you can do it. I just would need to speak to a team about how to do it, but in the day-to-day of the business. But what we find is, when you do that and then you answer the question as well, there's Amazon Comprehend. So Amazon Comprehend is a tool that allows you to ensure you answer the question in the right way. So you're not neutral. So either positive or negative, and it's about being as black and white as possible, and we've noticed that Rufus picks up on this as well. So, um, you want to make sure that you're answering those questions. Um, well too. So, um, don't be vague. Um, try and be yes or no. Um, does it answer the question is this a product that removes? Uh, you know how does this product remove nail varnish easily? Yes, it does it. Does it X, does it X, Y and Z? And actually what we did is, when we actually did the research on some of these tools like AHRef, SEMrush, we found that when you go to the listing, you can actually put some visual aids of showing step-by-step how easy it is to remove it. So there's a whole range of ways you can find it but this has been really, really useful for it. Bradley Sutton: Um, you, you also mentioned, you know, Search Query Performance and I think that's just a great data point, that that Amazon. I think none of us really ever could have predicted that Amazon would, would, would give. Um, I think you touched on it. But, like, my main thing is, I'm looking at keywords where I've got a better conversion rate for purchases, that, then the overall and then yeah, you know, checking. Maybe I'm not advertising for it or maybe I'm not ranking high. I need to double down and then maybe the ones I'm not converting as well, maybe I even dial back on the spend because I know, you know, it might not help me much with my organic ranking. Uh, because I'm converting poorly for it. What other uses other than just those, those two that are using the search performance data for? George Meressa: That's a good question. So, as well as looking at conversion rates, looking at what is the potential on that keyword, if you're getting three sales a week from that keyword and there's 25 sales, is it gonna be better use of your time to go for another keyword that you may be getting free sales, but there's 400 sales a week, right, so it gives you the potential that keyword has for you to grow in it and make more sales. So that's the first thing. Another thing as well is Amazon doesn't make this clear, but there's two types of keywords that you have within search query, so you have more discovery keywords and you also have more kind of intent based keywords. Right, and you can figure out where these keywords lie by just looking at their kind of um, the click percentage share, and you can also look at it from the add to cart share as well. So there's going to be certain keywords where people just are more likely to buy quicker, and so they're the keywords really good to really understand as well, because effectively, this is going to be better use of your money. So if you can find those keywords where the conversion rate is higher, then you're likely to kind of do more with that. So there's some of the ways we use search query and I know they've gone a step further with my team as well where you can actually reverse, engineer and figure out, ok, depending on how many sales there are for a certain keyword and how much competition there is. There are for a certain keyword and how much competition there is, if you get X amount of sales for that keyword per day, this is how much it's likely to cost you per click on average to see what it would look like to move you up organically. So that's what search queries can do if it's in the right hands. Bradley Sutton: What other new Amazon data points you know, like brand metrics or things like that, are you guys leveraging to help you make decisions? George Meressa: Good question. So I think one of the I was just speaking to Ben just last week and I think one of the big things we noticed recently is just the B2B reporting through the child ace and so you can see now how many sales you'll get in from B2B customers. So I think that's been interesting. So I think anyone who uh is sales on amazon and they should just apply to and have b2b pricing. So if people wanted to buy uh larger units we're still quite early on into this, but we started to see certain trends of search terms where it's more targeted towards b2b customers and really taking advantage of those search terms as well and probably spending a bit we spend a bit more on them. So uh tape, some sort of tape for plumbers we kind of saw that. Yoga supplies we saw that. So there's gonna be a lot more we can do with it, but that's kind of one of the latest things that we've seen that we've taken advantage of. Bradley Sutton: Are you guys leveraging AMC? I mean, AMC has been around for a while, but now it's kind of more getting a little democratized. It's not just for people with DSP. Have you been leveraging that at all for your clients? George Meressa: Yeah, we've been using AMC for some time now with DSP clients, so there's a whole, there's a bunch of really cool things that AMC gives you in terms of data. So the first and most obvious way is you can now start to see how many new to brand sales you get through sponsored product ads. Uh, within the interface, you can only really see that for responsive brand. So it really, especially if you have, um a consumable product, you're able to see, okay, um, which, which keywords are responsible for bringing in new purchases where, um, they've never they've never seen your product I haven't bought within a certain time period. So that's been really useful. Um, and leveraging that information, um, there's been. How else have we used it? Uh, we created custom audiences as well. So, um, you could exclude. So, within dsp, you can exclude those who may have seen your product 15 times, because they're less likely to buy after 15 times across the whole account as opposed to uh, as opposed to one um. So there's yeah, there's been a few ways, and I think this is going to be really good for uh, e-commerce brands now, the fact that we have it at our disposal within seller central, because before it was, you know, you had to go for an agency. Bradley Sutton: So have you guys dabbled at all with any of your clients with a sponsored tv? George Meressa: uh well, we haven't seen it work. We have, um, it just seems to waste a lot of money, um. So most of the clients that we deal with they're kind of more ROI focused. They want to grow. We haven't really had anyone yet with us. I know Matt has his previous agency that want brand exposure and are prepared to spend 20, $30,000 a month on that. So we haven't. We haven't. We've tested, we've not seen the results. So we haven't, we haven't, we've tested, we've not seen the results. So we've kind of moved away from it. Bradley Sutton: Um, what's maybe the best kind? You know, obviously there's a million kinds of ads now before, back in the day, say, there's auto campaigns, or there's broad campaigns, and then there's ASIN targeting and then now all of a sudden there's, you know, sponsored brand headline ads and video ads and throughout different times, you know different ones have been the most profitable or drive best ROI. It's a general thing to ask, but anything like any type of ad you see nowadays in 2024, 2025, going into 2025, that are just working better than others, that you're like, hey, everybody needs to be making sure they've got a good strategy with this type of campaign. George Meressa: I think it's been sponsored product ads from the get go and I think they're still kind of the number one. If you can get your ads to appear, your products to appear at the top of the search results for the right keywords, that is always going to outperform anything else. So that's the first place is to kind of find those keywords that you're likely to convert better with, or you have been converting better with, and pushing them top of page placements through sponsored products. We tend to find that 70 of our budget goes to sponsored product ads and then if we start to see, okay, there's common themes across certain keywords where we do convert well through sponsored product ads, then we would take those keywords and put them into sponsored brand ads on exact match to really push them that way. So they tend to and have done so for a while perform the best. Every now and again you get ace in target campaign and category targeting. That works really well, especially if a particular product is superior across the category. So if you have that kind of product where your average rate and count is a lot higher, then that's another option as well to kind of really push and with those kinds of terms, if someone has searched for your competitor and they end up buying your product, then Amazon's gonna favor that a great deal more too. Bradley Sutton: So the question I have is kind of like, I'm not sure if there's one right answer, but everybody has differing opinions, so I just want to get yours is a common one that people have is like hey, I'm on a key keyword that's relevant to my niche, but now I'm already ranking high organically. You know, like, like, should I pull back on my, my spend? You know, like, maybe before I was always going for top of search for, for sponsored ads. But you know, like, my philosophy in the past has been I want as much real estate as possible. You know, I want to go ahead and have that sponsored brand headline ad. I want it to be the one of the first sponsored ads. I want the organic rank. You know, maybe I'll have a video on the page just because now it's pushing competitors. But you know, is it, is it possible that I'm maybe cannibalizing some organic sales because they clicked on the sponsored ad when they probably would have bought my product anyways? Where do you sit on this, on this kind of debate, I guess? George Meressa: Good question. So, um, if you have the bestseller badge, you want to do everything within your power to keep that velocity of sales up. You want to make sure that you have more sales within that category than anyone else, because when you get that badge, amazon also already knows that you are the best in that category with what you sell. So there's going to be places that Amazon will show your products that you just would not have access to otherwise. So there's a whole range of benefits that you see would not have access to otherwise, right, so there's a whole range of benefits that you see. Not only that, but when you're positioned and you have the best seller badge, you actually have a much higher advantage compared to your competitors in terms of the price you pay per click. So we tend to also find that the cost per click is lower. So when one of our clients actually cuts back or when they lose that bestseller badge, it's so hard to get it back. It's really, really difficult. Effectively, what you've done is you've created a moat. So if you've got those number of sales in, you're making a profit. You do really want to work hard to keep that momentum of sales. If it's working to cut back, it could be dangerous. I would probably consider encouraging people to look outside of Amazon. If it's working to cut back, it could be dangerous. I would probably consider encouraging people to look outside of Amazon to kind of compliment what they have. But I mean, there's been just too many horror stories I've heard and seen where people have, like, positioned really well, doing great sales, and then a few people with VC-backed money come in, really push PPC, run their campaigns that are lost for a while, and then, um, they take the best seller badge and they just can't get it back. They don't have the resources like some of the other companies do. So if you're in that fortunate position, you should be doing everything you can, and I think one of the key metrics you should be looking at is how many units of sales are you pushing compared to some of your main competitors? Um, just to make sure that? uh, yeah, Bradley Sutton: Somebody's just getting started and they want to start budgeting. Uh, you know, maybe it's tacos or maybe it's like, hey, how much should I put aside? You know, like because the worst thing they can do is just budget for the product, for shipping and getting started, and they have no budget for PPC. But nowadays I think the amount of advertising we kind of have to do is more than ever. But you know you can't do it to the point where you lose money. Is there a number where you're like, hey, you should budget this percent of, like, your initial order or this amount of money weekly or something for somebody so they can really make sure that they've got enough budget where they don't run out and then now they can't run advertising. George Meressa: So somebody, so they can really make sure that they've got enough budget where they don't run out and then now they can't run advertising. So what we look at, especially when someone's launching a product, is okay, what terms are you going to want to go for to begin with and work backwards in that way? So if you have a product, strongly encourage you. Well, try and get brand registry from the very, very beginning so you have access to brand analytics. Get the products in. You're doing a variation; it's going to be easier to get this information. But what we tend to do is look backwards and go okay, what are the keywords that we're going to target and what impressions and clicks and conversions do they get a week? What do we need to achieve to begin with? And then how much do we need on average, working on some scenarios, to have more of an educated guess, and we work backwards in that sense. And then we have phases as. So we might have four or five phases. So at the lower end of the phases, we've got those search volume keywords. I'll get in maybe 5,000 searches a month and we start there and then we kind of go right. Here's five keywords in phase four and what we're going to do with these keywords is start off with that and we're going to have X amount of budget. So we do have a tool in-house where we kind of figure out what we, what we need to spend and then we kind of move up the phases. The moment we start to see movement in organic positioning, um, but at the beginning is going to be, you know, I mean you obviously should probably going to sign up for vine and get those reviews coming in it's going to all factor in at the beginning. If you're getting really good reviews, you're getting really good conversion rate, then then you're going to have to have some budget, additional budget, to just help you with that momentum Bradley Sutton: Another question I had was I think in the old days you know, I don't know, maybe six years ago or so a lot of, if not the majority of sellers, when they're trying to optimize their advertising, is like strictly ACoS, like hey, I have a cost goals at the campaign level, at the keyword level, whatever. Nowadays that that's not enough. You've got to be looking at ROAS and different things like that. What is your suggestions out there as far as managing your advertising in a more holistic way, instead of just strictly looking at that one ACoS metric that we did for so many years? George Meressa: ACoS is certainly an important metric to look at, but that shouldn't be your key KPI. I think the conversion rate should be ultimately right at the top and TACoS then comes in later, should be prioritized more than ACoS, because there may be some sacrifices you have to make with ACoS for the benefit of organically getting ranked better and start to get more sales. I think the biggest shift that we're seeing is more sales across every. Well, most accounts we're looking at is coming from paid ads compared to organic ads from the past. So trying to reverse engineer that where you're having more coming from organic, is going to be key because that's going to give you a stronger moat compared to your competitors, if you can master that. So and there's been some extreme examples where we've had one or two clients where they have a higher price point when it comes to their product, but the conversion rate has been um, not as good, right. So PPC they have additional margins compared to their competitors where they can rank higher than them, I mean where they can position behind them on paid ad, but organically they're not running the moment. Moment their ads stop running, their listings go down, right. There's no history there organically. So it's heavily reliant on PPC. So, and that's why ACoS can be a dangerous game, if you're constantly measuring ACoS and you're going with the terms with the lowest ACoS and you're pushing them, every ACoS is just going to continue to climb and climb, and climb and climb. And for someone who's a little bit more strategic, um, and using data to their advantage and they're focusing more on the keywords where the conversion rates are higher and they're positioning better, they're going to come in and they're going to take those positions off you. They're the ones that are going to come and start to slowly win. There's one example of one client where we didn't want the main competitors to even know that we were competing for those terms. So we went for those slightly obscure keywords that get maybe a number like 20 sales a week, 30 sales a week, and we pushed those keywords to get the velocity and we started ranking and we started to understand what kind of keywords relevant to us and then we went for those core keywords that everyone else goes for, right, and then that way we were able to then easily kind of come in and take organic position and rank, and that's how you should be thinking now. So a few years ago ACOS was our main KPI. Now it's just something we look at and it's really difficult actually to share with people. That way of thinking now is such it's so short term it's not going to allow them to kind of really see this for a year good points. Bradley Sutton: Now before we get into our last questions. If people want to reach out to you to get more, information on what you do and how you can help them out. How can they find you on the interwebs? George Meressa: So clearadsagencycom is the URL. Just search George Meressa on LinkedIn. I've got an obscure last name M-E-R-E-S-S-A. I think there's no one else with that. I'll just say George Meressa, so you'll find me. Connect with me there. But yeah, that's probably the best place. Bradley Sutton: Favorite Helium 10 tool of all time. George Meressa: Cerebro. Bradley Sutton: And something that you know. Maybe you don't know if we have or not, but you're like man, I don't think Helium 10 has this. If I was in charge of Helium 10 or this is the task I would give them that would give me more value. George Meressa: I mean, you've got a Genie in there. Now we need the reverse, what helps you get money back. So that's what's, and it's free. So that's probably one I would have suggested, but you've already done it, so that's a box already ticked. I can't really think right now of anything I want. I think you've got the package. I think the data that we found has been, um, it's been so solid over the years. I think you, you're one of the very few companies who've had this data for so many years, and I think that's always been important to us. Um, but yeah, Bradley Sutton: As you know, I'm going to Ethiopia for my first time. Obviously, I'm ordering lots of injera, but what's a couple of dishes that you recommend? Maybe even a dessert? I've never had Ethiopian dessert, so what are some things I should be looking for in some uh restaurants? I can call it by name and they'll be impressed that I know. George Meressa: Okay so first, what you gotta do is you gotta find those little places where they're making coffee. There's like an old lady wearing all white and she's she doesn't have to be old, she could be young but like, um, like, and they're just making some coffee, the freshly brewed coffee. Get some of that, you're gonna love it. So that's the first place to go. And then, um, when it comes to India, the India is actually quite different to what you get in the uh, in the states and in the UK it's they use that. It's that really brown sourdough. I don't know if you've had that version. It's usually kind of white flour they use in in your kind of Europe and the western world, but that's quite sour, so it's going to be interesting for you. I mean, you can take spice, right? Yeah, so I love ASAP. That's like the red sauce with the egg and the chicken and that is not my favorite, but, um, yeah, I think that's probably in Jera is like the most common thing to have there. So that's what I recommend. Bradley Sutton: Love it, love it. That's the. It's a top three cuisine for me. Like I'm all for Mexican food, Korean food and then Ethiopian food is there, so like it's always been on my bucket list to go and I'm finally going only for a day, but maybe next time I'll be able to go for more. George Meressa: That was the most random thing, though, and I think you told me three years ago. I was like George, do you have Ethiopian food? I was like yeah, and he's like I love it. And I was like what it was? Bradley was the last person food. It's like crazy. Anyway. I don't have many people that come up to me and tell me that and this is like an intimate cuisine for me, like I have it at home. I grew up with it, like growing up, and it's just there and um, and now you know you absolutely love it anyway. Crazy. Bradley Sutton: Love it, love it. I will people know I march the beat of a different drummer. I don't like to go with what's the norm and that's definitely not the norm and I love it. So if you guys look up, uh, Yelp, if you have an Ethiopian restaurant near you, and give it a try and trust me, you're going to love it. George Meressa: Thank you so much for having me, Bradley. Bradley Sutton: Thank you for being on here, and we'll bring you back next year to see what you've been up to. George Meressa: Sounds good.
Chinese sellers on Amazon and Temu struggling? TikTok Shop opens in two new marketplaces. Amazon is about to open in a new country. These buzzing stories and more on this episode! We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's Chief Brand Evangelist, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. No Black Friday windfall for Chinese sellers on Temu and Amazon as competition rises https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3289727/no-black-friday-windfall-chinese-sellers-temu-and-amazon-competition-rises TikTok Shop Goes Live for Spain, Ireland in Europe Rollout https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tiktok-shop-goes-live-spain-094457160.html Countdown to Amazon.ie as businesses are invited to register and new Country Manager is announced https://www.aboutamazon.eu/news/retail/countdown-to-amazon-ie-as-businesses-are-invited-to-register-and-new-country-manager-is-announced Create percent-off price discounts with minimum discounted price floor on Amazon How Gen Z Fashion Brands Shein and Temu Exploit a Legal U.S. Tariff Loophole https://www.forbes.com/sites/gregpetro/2024/12/09/how-gen-z-fashion-brands-shein-and-temu-exploit-a-legal-us-tariff-loophole/ Amazon and Intuit expand their strategic partnership https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/aws/amazon-seller-central-quickbooks-aws-partnership Amazon launched new seller-fulfilled customer service quality insights on the Feedback Manager page in Seller Central. Generative AI tools in the A+ Content Manager are now available to all Brand Registered sellers in the US. Lastly, we discuss some game-changing Helium 10 new features for Black Box ABA top search terms and provide valuable insights into calculating profit margins on TikTok Shop with the all-new Helium 10 TikTok Shop profitability calculator. Whether you're looking to optimize your sales strategies or stay informed on the latest e-commerce trends, this episode offers a wealth of information to help you succeed. In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers: 00:46 - Chinese Sellers Struggling 03:06 - TikTok Shop EU Opens 04:01 - Amazon Ireland Opening 04:40 - Price Discount Update 06:00 - Why Temu/Shein Are So Cheap 06:39 - Amazon x Intuit 07:11 - Customer Service Quality Insights 08:54 - Gen AI A+ Content 09:29 - Check Out Helium 10's Latest Blogs 10:12 - Helium 10 New Feature Alerts 13:08 - Training Tip: TikTok Shop Profitability Calculator
Master Amazon keyword tracker strategies: learn why keyword tracking matters, how to act, and link keyword ranks to PPC spend, holidays, deal days, and more in this masterclass! What if you could revolutionize your Amazon-selling strategy with just a few clicks? Join us in this episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast: Seller Strategy Masterclass, where Bradley Sutton, Helium 10's VP of Education and Strategy, explores the transformative power of Amazon keyword tracking. He dives into the Helium 10 Keyword Tracker tool, unlocking its potential to not only monitor your organic and sponsored keyword positions but also to outsmart your competitors. This episode is packed with insights on how mastering keyword tracking can be your game-changer in boosting product visibility and sales on Amazon. As we navigate through the complexities of keyword tracking, Bradley emphasizes the importance of optimizing your Amazon keyword tracking frequency. Imagine having a comprehensive understanding of your product's visibility by monitoring keywords more than once a day. He guides you through the setup process, from tracking individual product variations to employing Helium 10 Keyword Tracker's boost feature for hourly updates. You'll learn how to fine-tune your tracking preferences, allowing for precise data collection and informed decision-making that can elevate your Amazon game. Visualize your rankings like never before with the new Heat Map feature, offering a clear picture of keyword trends over time. In this episode, Bradley also discusses the significance of competitor analysis and the strategic use of automated keyword tracking. By adding competitors' ASINs and tracking them diligently, you can gain a competitive edge and refine your Amazon PPC campaign's bidding and pricing tactics. Listen in to discover how leveraging Helium 10's advanced keyword tracking tool can empower you to make smarter decisions, ultimately leading to increased sales and enhanced Amazon product visibility. In episode 621 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley talks about: 00:00 - The Importance of Amazon Keyword Tracking 01:24 - Introduction & Overview to Helium 10 Keyword Tracker 11:33 - How to Track Your Amazon Keyword Ranks Daily Or Hourly 19:01 - How to View Keyword Ranks On A Heat Map 23:51 - How to Track Competitor Keyword Ranks 26:45 - How to Add Notes and Tags To Keywords 29:41 - How To Automate New Keyword Suggestions 33:00 - How to View PPC Data On Your Keywords ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos
In this episode, we will discuss how to expand your Amazon brand with translations using AI & the human touch, cultural insights, global marketplaces, and strategies for crafting high-converting listings. ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Join us for an engaging discussion as we sit down with Jana Krekic of YLT Translations, an expert in translations and e-commerce strategies, to explore the transformative role of AI in the world of translation and localization. Recorded live from Milan, Italy, Jana shares her expertise in optimizing Amazon listings, shedding light on the limitations of AI in delivering high-quality, culturally nuanced translations. Through vivid examples, she illustrates the crucial role of human touch in understanding cultural contexts, such as the importance of local references like "nonna" in Italian culture. Discover why relying solely on AI could mean missing out on potential sales and how balancing technology with human expertise is key to successful e-commerce strategies. Explore the nuances of expanding into new markets with insights into evaluating marketplaces for product expansion. The conversation emphasizes not only the importance of assessing sales but also the significance of comparing profits across regions. Uncover strategies for beating competitors through superior content and keyword optimization, especially in areas where local language content is often neglected. Learn about typical expansion routes for US and European brands, and gain insights into emerging markets like Japan and the UAE. We also touch on the growing curiosity among US businesses about platforms like Walmart and TikTok Shop, despite uncertainties in their operational dynamics. Finally, we emphasize the importance of optimizing Amazon listings by focusing on context and customer interaction. Hear about the ever-evolving nature of Amazon's rules and algorithms and the necessity of adhering to local regulations in international marketplaces. With AI playing a significant role in product visibility, an effective keyword strategy is crucial for reaching the right audience. Listen as we highlight successful global brand localization strategies and share tips for enhancing engagement and profits by tailoring content to resonate with local audiences. Plus, don't miss a valuable travel tip on saving money through tax-free shopping while abroad, making this episode a must-listen for anyone involved in the e-commerce world. In episode 620 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Jana discuss: 00:00 - AI Translation and Listing Localization Strategies 01:22 - AI Advancement and the Translation Industry 05:59 - Localization of Images for Amazon Listings 10:33 - New Emerging E-commerce Marketplaces 12:37 - Product Market Research in Germany 17:09 - Optimizing Amazon Listings with AI 20:14 - Understanding International Food Standards 25:42 - Challenges of Brand Localization 26:38 - Global Brand Localization Success Strategies 31:22 - Airport Tax Refund Travel Tips Transcript: Bradley Sutton: Today we've got Yana back on the show we're recording live from Milan, Italy, and she's going to talk about a wide variety of subjects, such as preparing your listing for Amazon AI translating your listing, other marketplaces and much more. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Sellers have lost thousands of dollars by not knowing that they were hijacked, perhaps on their Amazon listing, or maybe somebody changed their main image or Amazon changed their shipping dimension so they had to pay extra money every order. Helium 10 can actually send you a text message or email if any of these things or other critical events happen to your Amazon account. For more information, go to h10.me forward slash alerts. Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I'm your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show. That's a completely BS-free, unscripted and unrehearsed, organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. And speaking of the e-commerce world, I am on the other side of the world right now. I'm in Milan, Italy. and we are at the Helium 10 Elite and Avask Workshop, and one of the speakers for today is somebody who is no stranger to the show, Jana. Jana, welcome back. Jana Krekic: Thank you so much. Bradley Sutton: Now, this is the first time we've seen Yana, because she's been uh, creating life, you know, uh out there, uh, how's that for you? How's that going for you? Jana Krekic: um, it's a struggle, but it's something that I'm really grateful for, honestly. Bradley Sutton: I got an early start. You know she were just talking about how my kids are in their 20's already. But then again, you know there's advantages of waiting. You know like you got to, you know you and Lazar got to have a. You know just pretty much, go wherever you whenever you want. You see now that it's a little bit different. You can't just go up and like, hey, let's go to Ibiza today. Jana Krekic: huh yeah, well, I mean, I could go to Ibiza, but I have to be uh home by 9 pm, so that's the small difference. Bradley Sutton: So we're not here to talk about parenting. Where're here to talk about what Yana is an expert at, and that's mainly translations and things. And I think one thing that's been on the mind of many people is wait a minute, with AI do I even need professional translators anymore? I could just go ahead and click a button and now I can have a perfectly optimized listing, thanks to ChatGPT or thanks to AI. Now can you tell us? Is that a true statement? Jana Krekic: Well, honestly, Bradley, I use AI on daily basis and I think it has changed our lives and made our lives simpler in some ways. But I would disagree with the part where you said to get your listings optimized. I would say it's great to do a summary of your reviews and maybe to help you understand how a product works, maybe to describe what you see on the picture if the image is blurry and you can't tell. But I would stay away from AI when it comes to optimization, keywords and, most importantly, localization, because AI is still it's getting better, definitely, but I still we are years away from this being a fantastic tool that will replace human brain and human touch and human understanding of context. Bradley Sutton: Yeah, so you actually had some examples of what the drawbacks are. Because, yeah, you know, maybe if, if you have zero budget and you want to have something better than just the Amazon auto translates, sure, maybe you know ai is not is going to put you on the right track, but what's an example of kind of like money you're leaving on the table if you just 100 rely on AI for translation? Jana Krekic: yeah, I would, I would agree. I would say that you can get it translated. It will be probably mediocre at best. A lot of things will be maybe translated very confusingly, will be poorly translated, but you know, if you're on tight budget, yeah, sure, go ahead and you know, see how that works, because probably it will not be as efficient as something else. But since we're here in Italy, I have a really good example, and this is a pasta machine, whatever clients were selling. So she was selling this in the States and then she was branding is as pasta machine, like in Bella Italia. Now, like for an American like you would probably think that, wow, this is something very authentic, something that will make me help make great posts at home. But what if you want to sell this product in Italy? So what if you tell Italian hey, buy this product because it's in Bella Italia? And you, being an Italian, would be like, what do you mean Bella Italia? I don't understand. We're already in Italia and it is Bella, but I mean I don't get it. So, -like using AI, I tried to play around a little bit with this example and so the first thing I wrote out really nice prompt and I said can you make it sound more localized so that Italians want to buy this machine because it's really top quality and will make amazing pasta. So the AI came up with make pasta in a traditional way, which is better. It's not a literal translation, but it's still so far away from like. What is like when you say Bella Italia in English and to an American. It doesn't send the same message and it doesn't have the same warmth as like. What you would get is, for instance, if you said make pasta like your Nonna or like your grandma used to make. So when you say Nonna to an Italian, it automatically triggers that childhood memories great pasta, warmth. It sells emotions and this is what will sell us your product and it will make it closer to your local audience and Italians will be like well, let me try this because I really want to make you know like pasta like my grandma used to make, because this is probably one of the best memories I've had of my grandma and then they will buy this product. But then AI will not come up with this because AI is not uh, doesn't have. This lacks human touch, literally like. That translation is okay, it's decent, but it lacks that something that will connect you with the target audience and sell your product and convey the same message you'll have back in your home marketplace yeah, so that's. Bradley Sutton: That's a one good example, and almost in any language there's going to be, you know, similar one thing like that, even in English. So maybe somebody who is an Italian person trying to make an American listing, you know might try to translate an American listing. You know might try to translate some words that just you know, like American or English or American slang that you just can't always just translate from an AI. I mean, definitely, I think AI is better than Google translate. You know that's one of the worst things that you could do for your listing, but it still has a little way to go. Now, um, something interesting we've been seeing lately from Amazon, something that Amazon sellers have been asking for a while is the ability to localize your images easier. You know, in the past sometimes, hey, you have your US ASIN and then you're using the same ASIN in Italy or Spain or wherever, and it would pull in those images and then you try and rewrite the image and then now all of a sudden, your Spanish infographic is showing in US. But now they have this kind of like cool image manager where you can make the images for each marketplace. What are some best practices for how you can quote unquote localize the images. It's not just about the words. Obviously that's a no brainer, you know, don't have Japanese writing in your Amazon USA listing but like even some lifestyle images like would you suggest changing like base to make it more look like you know you don't want, you know, like maybe to have Jap Asian looking models for Japan market or things like that, or what can you talk about? Localization of images? Jana Krekic: So this is a really good question, but unfortunately, maybe 1% of the brands would actually do that. 90% of the brands would just change the text on images. The images will stay the same, but they will just translate it into different languages, which is fine. It is also one step forward compared to how it used to be. But what is really important depends on the category that you're selling. For instance, if you're selling doorknobs or if you're selling anything that has to do with anything you can find in your bathroom, maybe like a shower organizer or a shower curtain or anything like it. You have to keep in mind that bathrooms in Europe are quite different than bathrooms in the States, and all the brands selling anything like that like from the States to Europe they leave the American doorknobs, they leave the American shower heads, which is fixed to the ceiling. In Europe we have, like this completely different thing, and also this is something that really catches like my attention every single time, because like then these customers will say, well, well, maybe this works like in the states, but like it doesn't fit really well into my shower cabin. I don't have it. I also have a really big bath which you don't get like in the States and like there are like a lot of things that are very, very different also. For instance, like in in Europe, like I want to have a bidet in my bathroom, which is quite usual to have in your home. Uh was in the States, like I have never seen a bidet except the international chain of hotels Bradley Sutton: My house has one from living in Japan. I was like I need a bidet in my, so I custom uh, imported one and I'm using one in my house well. Jana Krekic: You're one of the 1000 people I probably have like that smart uh toilet as well, which is my favorite. Um, yeah, so this is like something that brands don't really pay attention to. So, for all the other things, I think you can get away with. For instance, if you're selling something like a I don't like a office supplements, sports, outdoors, all of that, maybe yes, maybe switched with like different models, but I would say that for most of the cases, you can keep the same models. But when you're selling a home appliance or anything that has to do with something which is in your home, keep in mind that homes are very different and people would not be able to relate with this product, understand where to put it, how it works, because they'll have different things in their home. And then, in these cases, I would recommend changing the images, because I think that this would bring you so much more and this might be a deal breaker for your product. Bradley Sutton: Good point, good point. Now, going back to your topic of listings and things like that. Now I'm going to miss. I'm not going to be able to see your presentation this afternoon because I'm going to record another podcast and we're not going to go over your whole thing here. But can you give some of the main points of what you're going to talk about this afternoon? Jana Krekic: Right. So I'm going to try to answer the question like where to sell your product next. So a lot of people ask me this, so I decided to dig a little bit deeper into this topic and try to, um, just do like a short summary of like what you should pay attention to. For instance, like you should check, like, what, how much money is this product making on your marketplace? Then I would compare the profit that, for instance, my competitor is making my home market versus what is making. What are they making on the new marketplace? So this is really important. So not only the sales matter, but also profit. If they're making less profit, then they're making their in your home marketplace and selling more than maybe you should. You know, think again of like if you want to do or not. And then, of course, you want to know if you can beat them on the content level, using keywords, using optimization, using a bunch of different things, strategies. This is really important because, like, if you have 10, 15 different top competitors, from my experience and from all the analysis I've done, you can land in top three, four, even in the top best-selling categories on the content level. So that for me alone is worth going there because you can organically be indexed very easily, because a lot of brands that come from the States that sell in Europe they don't really care about their content because their team does not understand it, so somehow, they think it's irrelevant when it isn't. I mean, if it's relevant in English, why is that relevant in another language, right? So if you ask me, like content is really easy to get positioned, like very well in Europe, and then, of course, very important, which a lot of people don't understand the importance of is actually your audience. And then asking your audience, will they buy your product? For instance, we had PickFu also build our international polls for us, and so you would want to like test out, let's say, like you want to go to Spain, you think it's a great product. All the numbers add up, it's fantastic. But will your buyers buy it? Will they be excited about it? So you ask, let's say, 100, 150 people you can target them women, age 40 to 50, amazon Prime, whatever high income and then you ask them would you or somebody you know buy this product, yes or no? Because we had a situation where we had one of the clients wanting to sell something in Germany and everything added up nicely, but the product was just not selling. So I went to my German team and asked them like would you buy this product? It was some sort of like a Mr. and Mrs. thing, like a cup with that. And then I have 12 German team members and every single one of them said no, we're never, never buy this product. And then I'm like why? And they're like because, Jana, it's like such a not a German product to buy. It's like so, not something that we would want to have in our kitchen. And I was like, wow, this is insane. So I went back to the client and I'm like well, I'm sorry, I think the audience hates this, this product. Like you should come up with something different or maybe try another country. So this is something really important. You know the Vox Populi. It's very, very important. All the other parameters are, but this also adds to like to a really big, important part whether you should expand to this country or not. Bradley Sutton: Where are you seeing a lot of people from US and then, conversely, from Europe. Where are they expanding to? Like, historically it's always been vice versa. All right if I'm in US, you know, obviously if I was doing Canada and Mexico already, but then now I go to Europe. If I'm in Europe, I'm either already selling in US or that's the next one. Is that still the case? Or are you seeing more people go to newer places, like maybe Japan or Middle East or other places? Jana Krekic: Right. Well, when we're talking about us brand, it's always going to be first Mexico or Canada, because of course geographically it makes no sense. Then it's Europe and then we've seen people try to go to UAE. I think people are very interested in the marketplace. They don't know what to expect but there're like let me try, because usually like you would not need translations or any like it's not a big of a deal to go to UAE. You can keep your lessons in English, especially if you're targeting expats. That's really important because then they don't do like Arabic keyword research. And then some of the brands they're brave enough they go to Japan. We've seen a lot of crazy products be really successful in Japan, but not all brands are ready for it because of the alphabet and unknown universe and everything. They're really, really afraid of that. But we've seen brands do Japan, especially in the last year. We've seen the increase in Japan and a little bit of like showing interest for the UAE. I think Saudi Arabia is going to be also really interesting. We've talked about this earlier and yeah, but I would say still Europe number one and then more than like. If I compare it to like three years ago, definitely more Japan and more UAE, but still I would say that they want to go to Europe a lot and I'm not sure if any of them, like from the States, would be interested in Australia. Honestly, I think Australia has grown bigger, but because of the Australian sellers, not because of the brands that actually want to expand there. Bradley Sutton: Are a lot of your US customers expanding to both Walmart and TikTok shop, or do you see more going to one or the other? Jana Krekic: Yes, I would say Walmart definitely, especially in the last year, year and a half. And then TikTok shop a lot of people want to but they don't know how it works honestly. And then this is I get a lot of questions like we've heard amazing things about TikTok and they've never sell with, like influencers, ugc. They haven't used it a lot, so they're kind of really afraid to test the waters. But I know that the ones that have already sold on TikTok shop had amazing results and it's like completely different universe and of course, you don't know how long it's gonna last. So I'd say, like you know, hop on that train and, just you know, do it. It's really, it's really yeah. I think it's going to be a good ROI, really. Bradley Sutton: All right, now, switching gears a little bit. Something that I was talking about in my presentation was for me. You know, I I'm not doing too much differently nowadays, even though there's new AI things like Rufus, but there's a lot of people who maybe weren't doing best practices for listing, but now those people are going to be even farther behind because of what Rufus is. And so what are you know? Like you as a company, when you're making a listing for somebody, I believe you probably have in mind things like Rufus, right, even when you're making the listing, what are those things that you guys have in mind? And how are you you're doing things um to make sure that somebody's listing is ready for, for Amazon's AI things? Jana Krekic: Right. That's also a really good question. Uh, because, um, as you said, a lot of things that you were doing the right way maybe six, seven years ago. They are still relevant, some of them. So we were also. Whenever we're doing listing, we always pay attention to context and how it sounds to the target audience. Uh, so it's not only like when you have your bullets. It's not only like when you have your bullets. It's not only about your key features, how this product and that product. It's also like how you would like talk to the customer. So let's pretend that you have a customer on your page and then you have, like this hello, how we can help you. Like chat box saying, hey, so what do you wanna know about this product? And then maybe let's say this this customer wants to buy something for their daughter, let's say a diaper bag. And then you know, like, maybe ask, like do you travel a lot? Oh, you may be traveling a lot, so maybe put this in the bullet. Or you know, you can go to your reviews and like see what people are talking about, their situations where they use these products, locations where they use this product, because this will make your bullet sound more real and like as if someone wrote the bullet who was your customer. I would think, from a customer standard customer point of view, write things as if you were using this product but and get ideas from the reviews and actually like you are talking to a real person. I think this is like really important. So not just like random sentences like buy a product because this, this, this and this, because it sounds like you're reading a manual. So you're not buying things from like a manual, buying from a real person that loves and enjoys your product. So I would have this mindset with writing listings and, of course, not just using keywords in the title, which is really important. So keyword stuffing has all like been dead for a long time, but even now, like today, I don't see a title that reads nicely, that's also filled with just like random words, maybe like random phrases, but definitely not and this can hurt a lot the algorithm and like actually the power of AI to recognize what your product is about and to offer it to customers, because it will not understand the true value of what your product is bringing and solutions it's offering. So I think it's really important to today sit down and optimize your listings as if you were a customer. I think that is really important To make it more human. I think that is the actual approach you should take. Bradley Sutton: What else is new in your world as far as things like? One thing I mentioned also is that one of the constants in Amazon is change. Rules are changing. Algorithms are changing, best practice changing. You know fees might change the way you have to do things. Things are always changing in Amazon. It's never a dull moment. So in the last you know couple of years, since maybe the last time you've been on this podcast, what are some other things that you're having to do differently for clients or that you've had to adapt due to something that maybe changed on Amazon? Jana Krekic: Well, definitely, you always have to keep up with the forbidden words, and we do a lot of supplements, so that's always a very big challenge. Every supplement is different. Every country is different, so, more than ever, you have to really pay attention to that. It's really important Now. When you say bio, for instance, like in Germany, it does not have to mean that it is 100% organic. Earlier it was organic, but now it doesn't have to mean. It means that you have a certificate, but it doesn't mean that it's an organic product. So you can't say and use the word organic actually to make this be like a bio product or vice versa. It's really now, it's really like fine print, uh, what you should read really, really carefully. Um, because I think it's getting more refined of what is allowed and what is not. A couple of years ago it was like, okay, you can't have a health claim, sure, let's just, you know, let's just figure it out like just, uh, you know, come up with a different sentence, but now you're gonna have to use it as a health claim, but you have to be really refined about it because you have to have it in a listing. So I would say that even on European marketplaces, there are lighting years behind us market. It is getting more refined and more difficult to get away with things that you could use like three years ago. When it comes to keyword research, it's now pretty much the same as like. If you use long tail keywords, as you've used for the last six years, you'll be good. Helium 10 now covers all the international marketplaces, which is amazing. It's always the best choice for all of the search volumes, relevancy and all of that. And I would also just add that when you choose a keyword do you want to use in your listing, you shouldn't only pay attention to the search volume, because a lot of sellers would be like, oh okay, 70,000 search volumes, this is amazing, but it's not because the relevancy is what matters. So you need to combine those two because sometimes, like the top on the top list of the search volume keyword is not going to be best to describe what your product actually is. And now more than ever, talking about the AI, it's really important to use relevant keywords and related keywords to your product, because then the AIO will better understand what your product is about and how your customer is typing to get to this product. Maybe sometimes you will think well, maybe this is too broad, but then type it into Amazon and see what is going to be in that search result. Maybe this is where your product should be and this is why you should think of like putting it into your listing. So I think now you should kind of use more of your strategy and brain power like to put it like in your listings than before, when it was like a no-brainer, being like okay, this doesn't describe my product. Next, now, maybe this is something. It's a related search term that people use in order to get to your product because it's like broader but it's still not. Let's say, if you're selling um fitness, like um yoga mat, maybe you're not gonna put like sports equipment. Maybe this is too broad search for you, but maybe something narrower, but even like a little bit broader than what you thought put in a listing, will help ai connect the dots and like to put it all together. It it's also I love SEO. It's like my bread and butter and I know a lot of like Google SEO. So when you also have a Google and you have like that knowledge panel of your company on Google and then on your about company page, or if you have like your own page about me. You should have all of the, let's say, LinkedIn, Facebook, everything that helps Google connect the dots and put it in your knowledge panel so that you're relevant for one thing. This is literally what AI on Amazon will do, just more like a niche, because Amazon is a niche, like in Google, is much broader and it will help AI, or anything that is inside of the search engine, connect the dots and make them realize that your product is relevant for x, y, z things. Bradley Sutton: Are you guys mainly just doing translations or do you also do things from scratch, where somebody just comes with a product, they don't have a listing in a certain marketplace and you're creating it from scratch? Jana Krekic: Yeah, absolutely. We do copywriting in all the non-English for our non-English marketplaces, uh, and we do this from scratch and this is also the, the strategy that we have thinking as a buyer and then putting the our you know thoughts and experience into words and selling it to the target audience with localization. So I would say that we are I mean saying that we are translation agency is very simple. It means just like translating words by word, but we actually translate it into emotions and, like you know, we're translating into the sales actually of the product. So, basically, localization is much more different than translation, because you need a little bit of copywriting in that as well, because if you have a sentence like in Bella Italia, if I would translate it will be just like the same sentence in Italian with the Bella Italia, but then you might add something or recreate that single sentence to achieve the same effect as you have in English. So it is a little bit of transcreation, as I would say. Bradley Sutton: Okay. So then when somebody does come with a new project um, you we've mainly today been talking about listings and maybe some images and titles what's your strategy as far as A-plus content or premium A-plus content, brand story, in the case of making something from scratch, or when we're talking about translating like, maybe they've got a brand story, they've got A-plus content in one, are you completely telling them to completely change it in the other marketplaces? Or what are some strategies for these things you can talk about? Jana Krekic: That is a really difficult one we have with our clients, because every time when a new client comes like we send them our onboarding questionnaire, we ask them a couple of questions. So we are 100% sure that we are on the same page with the brand and the brand voice. But you'll be surprised how many brands are really scared of changing anything and localize, localizing their A plus, content, brand story, storefront, anything. They're just like translate it, but please make sure to have all of the important, important information there. And then you tell them like, yeah, we're gonna have all the important information, but maybe we change the contest a little bit. And they're like God, no, don't change it. And I'm like but this will resonate better with the target audience. They're like well, maybe just like 10%. So brands are actually afraid of localizing, which doesn't mean that their brand is going to get butchered, it's just going to get a little bit adapted to a new marketplace. And this is what I suggest to all brands to do. You would be surprised of the conversions and everything when someone reads something which is closer to them in German, in French, in Italian, versus a big, gigantic US brand that speaks to Americans in a salesy, fluffy voice. You don't want to sell that type of brand in Europe at all. So that's really really important. Very few listen to what I say, but a lot of them are really, really afraid of doing that. This is a true case study. But those that do really have good results. And we've had one baby brand selling fleece jackets for babies. They had about 60% increase in visits on their webpage because they changed their images and they changed the tone of the voice in their storefront, which was absolutely amazing, and of course, with that followed increase in profit. So don't be afraid to localize your storefronts. Nothing is going to change. The only change we'll see is probably positive change. Bradley Sutton: For people who want to reach out to you. How can they find you on the interwebs out there? Jana Krekic: You can find me on LinkedIn. I do a lot of video analysis I really enjoy just like helping brands scale and just pointing out to what they could do better. So LinkedIn, definitely number one. And then definitely you can reach out by email at Jana@ylt-translations.com. Bradley Sutton: All right, so a few more questions here. Your favorite Helium 10 tool? Jana Krekic: I think the new Keyword Tracker really I absolutely love it and it's so easy like it's so straightforward, like even I think my seven month I absolutely love it and it's so easy, like it's so straightforward, like even I think my seven month old baby could use it. It's very easy and I love how you can like find out new keywords, you can be ranked for and track all of the competitors like in all different marketplaces. It is really really important for us as from what we do, so I would say that that is like the my probably latest favorite update. Bradley Sutton: And then something that maybe we don't have, that you're having to get from somewhere else, or some new feature that nobody has, and you've always thought, oh man, this would make my life so much easier If I were to let you be in charge of the Helium 10 product team, what would be your first job for them to make some new tool or some new feature? Jana Krekic: Yeah, well, first of all, I really have to say big thank you to Helium 10 because they've always listened to what I said. All of the you know, like suggestions, like, for instance, like when you do keyword research, usually it was to put number two as a default for the keywords. And then I went to Boyan, who was then a CEO, and then I told him like look, you need to change this to number one and two because of the big compound words in German that do not come up in the lists. So that was amazing. So I don't have anything like that, like as amazing as that suggestion was, but I'm really happy to see that all international marketplaces are available in Helium 10. And then I would maybe want to see, yeah, like if new marketplaces show up, I would want to like see, like, all the updates for that as well. And then maybe, like you know how you have an opportunity explorer, like for a product. I think that may be combined into like one thing so you have like a better overview of like, of like the statistics, with like numbers and lines going up, because I think sometimes it's kind of visually difficult to visualize how everything is working together when you want to scale to a new marketplace. You do have all these amazing numbers, but I think that visual graphics would do amazingly well because a lot of people get lost in these numbers and then once you have something visually presented for you, you're like wow, this is actually gonna work versus wow, 1000 numbers, 3000 excel sheets, like I don't even know what I'm doing. So like this will like stimulate people into wanting to expand more by having it visually clear for them that this is going like top sales competitors, you know, following all of that, just like in like visually pleasing display, like screen. I'm a very visual type, so this for me is really important. For instance. Bradley Sutton: Awesome, awesome. All right, what's your last 30 second tip or 60 second strategy you have for the audience? Could be about parenting. It could be about travel. It could be about travel. It could be about Amazon. It could be about anything. Jana Krekic: Oh, I have a tip about travel for all the US citizens out there. So when you travel to Europe and I know that this year and last year has been an insane number of US Americans, I think only because, like Taylor Swift's concerts, like people going to Europe and Paris, I remember that, because, like Taylor Swift's concerts, like people going to Europe and Paris, I remember that. So, like, when you buy, especially luxury goods they're very expensive you can get tax free at the airports. I know a lot of people don't know about this, but if you buy, let's say, something that costs 1000 euros, you get, in Italy, 12% back, cash back. So if you buy that you get a receipt and then you take it to the airport and then before you hop on a plane, you show the item you bought. So don't put it in your checked-in bag, you have to show it and then, on spot, you will get cash back. That there can be a lot of money sometimes. Bradley Sutton: Awesome, awesome. All right, a cool travel uh tip. I just recently did something like that. I think I was in Japan or or Korea, uh, and even a couple services I had paid tax, but then there was like a machine in Korea and I was able to get it back. Jana Krekic: I was surprised because a lot of people that really do travel a lot they didn't know about this. So I'm like you know what I'm going to say. It maybe some of you know, but I'm sure a lot of you don't. So I think, free money, why not? Bradley Sutton: Awesome, Awesome. Well, Jana, it's good to connect with you again. I look forward to again you know seeing you at conferences, like we always used to in the past, and wish you the most of success. Jana Krekic: Thank you so much for having me always a pleasure to catch up.
In this week's buzzing episode, new updated Amazon FBA fees for 2025, the results of Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2024, and reimbursements for coupons for sellers. e're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's Principal Brand Evangelist, Carrie Miller. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. Updates to 2025 fees for Buy with Prime, Multi-Channel Fulfillment, Amazon Warehousing and Distribution, and Supply Chain by Amazon Managed Service Amazon's Black Friday Week and Cyber Monday deal event was its biggest Thanksgiving holiday shopping event ever https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/black-friday-sales-results-amazon-online-shopping Walmart Marketplace Records Record Black Friday-Cyber Monday Sales https://www.pymnts.com/walmart/2024/walmart-marketplace-records-record-black-friday-cyber-monday-sales/ New Feature to Edit Coupon Discounts Sellers are now able to increase discount amounts for active coupons without the need to recreate the coupon. This feature makes it easier for you to manage your promotions and helps you to adjust to changes in inventory levels. Limited-time coupon fee reimbursement for new FBA selection From now through January 31, 2025, sellers will receive an automatic reimbursement of the $0.60-per-redemption coupon fee for coupons on newly launched Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) selection. The promotion applies to FBA offers on products that first became buyable after November 2, 2024. Reimbursements will be automatically disbursed to your Seller Central account by February 28, 2025. Amazon's note on the recent Product Bundling Policy update This episode also introduces new features from Helium 10, including updates to our Profitability Calculator for TikTok influencer promotions, which could be a game-changer for sellers looking to expand their reach. Additionally, we discuss the innovative Listing Builder AI's keyword performance feature, which offers in-depth insights into keyword usage and optimization strategies, empowering sellers to enhance their Amazon product listings effectively. Tune in again next week to stay ahead in the ever-evolving landscape of Amazon, Walmart, and the E-commerce world. In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers: 00:45 - 2025 Amazon Fees 04:04 - Biggest Ever Black Friday-Cyber Monday 06:22 - Walmart 3P Record Growth 08:21 - Edit Coupon Discounts 09:05 - Coupon Reimbursements 09:55 - Bundling Policy Update 12:20 - Helium 10 New Feature Alerts 14:01 - Training Tip: Listing Builder - Keyword Performance ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Transcript Carrie Miller: New Amazon fees for 2025, the results of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and reimbursements for coupons for some sellers. All of this and more on this week's episode of the Weekly Buzz. Bradley Sutton: How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I'm your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show. That is our Helium 10 Weekly Buzz, where we give you a rundown of all the news stories that are going on in the Amazon, Walmart and e-commerce world. We highlight the latest new feature alerts from Helium 10, and we review a training tip of the week that'll give you serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. Now, today, our host is going to be Carrie Miller. So, Carrie, take it away and let us know what's buzzing. Carrie Miller: All right, let's go ahead and get into the first article, which is about Amazon fees that are starting in 2025. So there's some more fees that have come out and there are some increases and there are some discounts in fees. So let's go ahead and go over what was posted in Seller Central. Now, in this first section here, they actually talk a lot about all the things that they've done to improve all these different services over the last year, and so you've got all that information. But then, if you scroll further down, it gets into the nitty gritty details, which is what I wanted to share with you today. And so the first thing that they talk about is AWD, which is Amazon Warehouse Distribution, which they seem to want to incentivize sellers to use AWD. And so here is the update A new AWD smart storage option will provide a 10% discount on your AWD storage fees If you maintain sufficient levels of inventory. This discount brings fees down to as low as 43 cents per cubic foot per month, and Amazon will also separate the AWD processing fee into inbound and outbound processing fees, rather than the current approach, which is charging both together. So these changes are effective April 1st of 2025. And for details you can actually go and there's a link there, and so this should be in your seller central. There's a link to more of details about the fees, all right, so the next one is MCD, which is multi-channel distribution. Okay, so MCD outbound transportation fees will move from a fixed fee to a distance-based fee, and this will lower fees for shorter distances and increase them for longer ones. So inventory replenished into Amazon, though, will not be affected by this change and will continue to be charged a fixed transportation fee that they were before and it will not be distance-based. So these changes are going to be effective April 1st of 2025. And then there's also a link still in seller central that will give you a little bit more details on all of that, if you need more information about that. Carrie Miller: Okay, and then the next part. Here it says we're updating the discounts for sellers who choose the supply chain by Amazon managed services to include 20% off of AWD storage fees and 10% off of AWD storage or transportation fees from AWD to FBA. The managed option for supply chain by Amazon provides a simplified experience where Amazon coordinates the end-to-end supply chain logistics, warehousing and fulfillment and these changes are going to be effective April 1st 2025 also, and then you can go in and get more details on that as well. And then MCF, multi-channel fulfillment. I know a lot of people use this. They're actually going to increase their fees by 3.5% on average and they say this is less than the average of 5.9% that some other carriers use. For units with shipping weights of one pound or less. The fees are actually going to remain unchanged for standard delivery speed and for units that exceed one pound, the fee increase will vary depending on the unit size and weight, and these changes are effective January 15th, so a lot sooner of 2025. And for details about the changes, you can actually go to the little link there that they give in uh, in seller central as well. And then the finally, we're going to talk about buy with prime and any fees there, and it looks like buy with prime there's going to be no increase to the buy with prime service fee and fulfillment fees. For some large standard size units it actually is going to decrease. So they're going to continue to offer the one to two day delivery at rates that are comparable to the three to five day standard delivery rates on other carriers, and so it'll still kind of all be the same, but maybe there will be some discounts, so that change is going to be effective January 15th. So you can check for more details in the link that they provided in there as well. Carrie Miller: All right, so let's go ahead and get into the second article of the day, which is about Black Friday, cyber Monday. For Amazon, this is pretty exciting news and I'll just go ahead and share this article and that is that Amazon's Black Friday week and Cyber Monday deals. It was their biggest deals event ever and if we scroll down, we can see a little bit more details in this actual article and it said Amazon announced that it's Black Friday week and Cyber Monday holiday shopping event from November 21st through December 2nd was its biggest ever compared to the same 12 day period ending on Cyber Monday in prior years. The deal event saw record sales and a record number of items sold. And then it actually, if you go further down in this article, it says the black Friday week and cyber Monday holiday shopping event was also the largest ever for independent sellers in Amazon's store, most of which are small, medium sized businesses. More than 60% of sales in Amazon's the Amazon store during the event were from independent sellers, so third party sellers anyone out there who sells on Amazon. Carrie Miller: Was this the story for you? Did you see a huge increase this year in your sales? I think that's pretty interesting to take a look at. And then, if we go further down, it goes to talk about some maybe contributing factors that might've contributed to this being kind of one of the biggest events ever, and it basically has to do with their AI features for customers. They're a powered assistant, rufus, that helps, you know, helps you kind of ask questions and find things quickly, and then they also have AI shopping guides that may, you know, make the decision-making process a little bit easier by the by consolidating the details of the products and breaking down technical terms. And then also Amazon lens, a visual shopping tool that allows you to just identify products with a photo, a screenshot or a barcode, and then Find on Amazon feature that lets shoppers discover comparable products while browsing online. So I think that you know they're pretty happy about the things that they did here for you know, just boosting Amazon sales during this time. So I'm really interested to know, if you're an Amazon seller, was this Black Friday and Cyber Monday your biggest sales year ever? For me, it certainly was. We actually did 32% more than we did last year on Black Friday, Cyber Monday weekend, so we really just calculated that timeframe. So I'm curious to know if you put it in the comments, that would be great. Did you do better or worse this year in for Cyber Monday and Black Friday? Carrie Miller: Okay, so let's go ahead and go to the next article, and that is actually kind of related, and it's Walmart Marketplace. So Walmart Marketplace actually also had record sales in this last Black Friday, cyber Monday, Walmart Marketplace saw its highest ever sales day and also set a single day conversion rate record during the period between November 25th and December 2nd. Walmart goes further on and they say in this article if you can scroll and see, it's at the top here. Walmart says that this record comes as the company's e-commerce business is experiencing substantial growth. During its most recent quarter, that side of the business grew 22%, with Walmart marketplace sales increasing 43%, marking the fifth quarter in a row with more than 30% sales growth. So they're definitely growing. Carrie Miller: I'm curious to know if any of you are actually selling on Walmart and you've seen this growth as well, and you saw a huge increase in what happened on Cyber Monday and Black Friday. In addition, the company if you can just scroll down a little bit more. The company says that the marketplace is also gaining more high income shoppers. During its last quarter, around 75% of the company's market share gains came from households earning upwards of 100,000 annually, and that's actually interesting to note, because I do have people ask me quite often if they should put a higher priced item on there, and it looks like the demographics might be changing, for the online portion at least, so you might be able to sell some higher priced products as well on Walmart. So that should be something to keep an eye on. So for any of you who have kind of like those premium products, it looks like they are selling some of those, and then they further kind of said into this article they said that the these gains create exciting opportunities for premium brands and categories on our marketplace, because higher income customers are showing a higher propensity to spend on both discretionary and grocery purchases, and I think that's really, you know, kind of convenient for a lot of people. They want to buy things kind of all at the same time. So very, very good on Walmart's part to kind of work on combining those. I think it's only a matter of time and you'll see a lot more sales there. All right. Carrie Miller: So the next thing is was also kind of a feature update in seller central, and this is the coupons. Okay, so now the new feature update is that you can actually edit coupons and you weren't able to do this before, but you're now able to increase the discount amounts for active coupons without the need to recreate the coupon. This feature makes it easier for you to manage your promotions and it helps you to adjust to the changes in inventory levels. So if you're selling out, you can kind of work on that. But you have to note, to maintain customer trust, you can only edit coupons to increase discounts. So I don't know how helpful that is for some of you, but that's really the way they made it, so you don't have to kind of recreate the whole thing. Carrie Miller: So the next thing that we want to share about and this is also in Seller Central, that was talked about in Seller Central and it is a limited time coupon fee reimbursement for new FBA selections. So from now until January 31st 2025, you're going to receive an automatic reimbursement for the 60 cent per redemption coupon fee for coupons on newly launched fulfilled by amazon selection. So this is especially helpful for anyone who's like seasonal and you launched a bunch of new things and you did some coupons on there, so you can get reimbursed for those. The promotion applies to FBA offers on products that first became viable after November 2nd 2024 and reimbursements will automatically be dispersed to your seller central account by February 28th of 2025. So anyone who is seasonal and kind of just launched products in this last November, this would be a great thing to take advantage of. I think it actually is. So that's pretty cool information right there, okay. Carrie Miller: And then the next thing and this is the last kind of piece of news, but not the least this is about the Amazon bundling clarification. They kind of put a clarification out because when they announced this in October of 2024, there was a lot of confusion around it. So basically, during that time, amazon updated the product bundling policy for consumables to ensure bundle products are safe, authentic and meet stricter handling standards, and this change reflected the higher safety requirements for items like food, skincare and products for children or pets. And Amazon heard a lot of feedback from sellers that the new policy was really confusing. So we're gonna go into the nitty gritty details of this, all right. So the first thing clarification that they're clarifying is all bundles must be product configurations packaged by the original manufacturer for the brand. For example, you can list a bundle that includes Dawn dish spray and display refills, which was originally packaged by Dawn. However, you cannot list a bundle of Dawn dish spray and dish spray refills that yourself have repackaged. Okay, you also cannot create your own bundle combining Dawn products with gloves, sponges and anything else from other manufacturers. Carrie Miller: And then the next one is about products. Products may be reconfigured and repackaged as bundles if you have a letter of authorization from a brand owner or manufacturer granting permission to repackage. All products in a bundle must belong to the same brand and the bundles must be branded with the same brand name as the products. Okay, so that's something to note. Now we actually had Ashlyn had an insurance. She did a module in our Freedom Ticket 4.0 where she talks more in detail about this topic and you know what not to do because it is a liability and some somewhat against the rules. So if you want to learn more about repackaging stuff, you can actually go check out our bonus modules in Freedom Ticket 4.0 in that course, or actually it's in our regular modules in there, so you can actually see that. Carrie Miller: And then the last thing, but not least, in here that we wanna point out about this bundling is that gift items listed within the gift basket category may contain products from multiple brands that are physically bundled together for customers in a manner suitable for gifting. So there are some exceptions, and so I can see how this could potentially be a little bit confusing. So definitely good to kind of check out this information if you are bundling. This is especially helpful for anyone who's kind of a wholesaler or reseller. Um, so you know what the rules are. So the next thing that I want to do is I'm actually going to show you, uh, some feature updates. So Helium 10, we're always improving and always coming out with new tools and new, new support for sellers, and one thing that we are recommending is that sellers diversify to other platforms. So we have a lot of Walmart content and a lot of Walmart tools. We obviously were Amazon, but then also we wanted to give you some tools for TikTok, and so I'm going to go ahead and show you in here this is our actual, our coffin shelf listing right here. Carrie Miller: But say, you wanted to actually start selling on TikTok shop and sometimes you want to know what the data is for TikTok shop, and so what we actually did is we created a Profitability Calculator for TikTok shop and this is going to help you to take your Amazon products and kind of calculate and see if you could be profitable on TikTok shop. So when you go onto your Amazon listing and pull this, you can see that it pulls in the price and all of the dimensions here and then you can put in your manufacturing costs, you can put in your freight costs and then it gives you a spot here for the commission. So this is what you would pay for influencers to share your products within TikTok shop, and so we put it at 20%. But you know it depends. Sometimes people start at 30%, some people will give 10%, and so you just put that in there to calculate your profitability. You would also want to put your estimated time in storage and kind of storage fees for fulfillment by TikTok, and then you can put any duties and tariffs in here and other costs and you can calculate pretty easily your profit on TikTok. So that is something that you should check out if you haven't started on selling on TikTok, or even if you are and you want to kind of add more products and you want to just see how they would do on TikTok shop, that is a great place to take a look. Carrie Miller: And finally, we are getting into our strategy of the week and I wanted to do the strategy of the week in the Listing Builder AI. We have a lot of really cool features that are in the Listing Builder AI. So I've actually already pulled it up here for you to see, and this is just an example of all the amazing stuff that we have. Just kind of one example and that is keyword performance. So we put in our list here and you can see that you have the root words and then we also have keyword phrases. So you put in the keyword phrases and then it kind of automatically kind of divvies out these one root words to kind of show you what those are. Carrie Miller: But if you want to go in even more detail to see what the keyword performance is, you can actually pull up the keyword performance by clicking on that and it's going to show you all the root words here, so you can see all the root words there. And then you can also see over here. Say, for example, if we check, we want to see all the keyword phrases that have Gothic in it, and so we can kind of check that and hit the filter button and then what you're going to see is all the phrases with coffin in it, and then you can see exactly where it is. It's in the exact phrase exact phrase. You can see it's plural, singular field, field, broad. So it's kind of a broad match there, so not in the exact phrase form. So you can basically check any of these and kind of filter any of these different words that you want to see more details about and how you've used it and where you've used it, and you can also. Carrie Miller: What's something that's great about Listing Builder is you can also go ahead and you know you can pretty much put any listing in here, and so you can put your competitors in here and you can analyze their, their keyword performance and see where they're putting their most important keywords um, in the exact phrase and all that. So, um, it still gives you search volume here, the keyword sales, the click share, the title density and the organic rank of that listing. So it's definitely very helpful and just a good place to kind of see where all of your placements are and it gives you just kind of a good overview to see how well you're optimizing your listing. I think this is an amazing tool that you can use and filter and kind of just see where everything's at. So if you haven't tried it out, you should definitely trust uh, try out our Listing Builder AI. That's just one of the amazing features. There's some other competitor kind of comparison features in there as well. Carrie Miller: All right, so that is all that I have for you this week on the Weekly Buzz. Hopefully this was very helpful. I think we have a lot of great information in here today that you can kind of take a look at and just monitor, but next week Bradley Sutton should be back, so we'll see you again next week to see what's buzzing. Bye, everyone.
Amazon announced FBA fee changes for 2025. Did they raise fees for our sellers again? TikTok is testing something that could be game-changing for sending traffic to Amazon. These and more buzzing news on this week's episode! We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's Chief Brand Evangelist, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. Update to US referral and Fulfillment by Amazon fees for 2025 https://sellingpartners.aboutamazon.com/update-to-us-referral-and-fulfillment-by-amazon-fees-for-2025 TikTok is quietly testing product links in posts as it looks to boost its reputation for shopping https://www.modernretail.co/technology/tiktok-is-quietly-testing-product-links-in-posts-as-it-looks-to-boost-its-reputation-for-shopping/ Amazon announces the launch of Rufus, a new generative AI-powered conversational shopping assistant, in beta across Europe https://www.aboutamazon.eu/news/retail/amazon-announces-the-launch-of-rufus-a-new-generative-ai-powered-conversational-shopping-assistant-in-beta-across-europe Sponsored Brands forecasting for impressions and clicks is now available in the advertising console https://advertising.amazon.com/en-us/resources/whats-new/sponsored-brands-forecasting-for-impressions/ eCommerce Growth Outpaces General Retail Sales, Hits 15.6% https://www.pymnts.com/news/ecommerce/2024/ecommerce-growth-outpaces-general-retail-sales-hits-15percent/ Amazon DSP launches contextual keyword targeting GA in US, UK, CA, AU. https://advertising.amazon.com/en-us/resources/whats-new/amazon-dsp-launches-contextual-keyword-targeting/ Helium 10 vs. Jungle Scout Accuracy: Amazon Sales Data - h10.me/h10sales Don't miss the opportunity to learn about these powerful resources that can give you an edge in the competitive e-commerce and Amazon-selling market. In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers: 00:50 - 2025 Amazon Fees Update 04:56 - TikTok Link Testing 07:51 - Rufus in EU 09:11 - Sponsored Brand Forecasting 10:02 - E-Commerce Gains 10:48 - DSP Targeting Update 12:25 - Helium 10 vs Jungle Scout Sales Data Accuracy 16:57 - Helium 10 New Feature Alerts Transcript Bradley Sutton: Amazon gives its annual announcement of fee changes for the following year. Did they raise fees for our sellers again? TikTok is testing something that could be game-changing for sending traffic to Amazon New updates to Amazon-sponsored brand and DSP advertising. These stories and more on today's Weekly Buzz. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Bradley Sutton: Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I'm your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show. That is our Helium 10 weekly buzz, where we give you a rundown of all the goings on in the Amazon, TikTok shop and e-commerce world. We also give you training tips of the week and let you know what new features Helium 10 has. That'll give you serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. Let's see what's buzzing. Bradley Sutton: We got a few news articles today and the biggest one, I would say, is something that I think a lot of us sellers look at each year around this time of year, around November, with anticipation, but I would say frightful anticipation. What is that? That is the announcement of what's going on with Amazon fees. Now, we've been doing this weekly buzz for like four years and you can look back and we always have this episode right where Amazon announces it. And you know, two or three years ago you'd have seen things like OK here, there's a 15 cent increase here, and a 20 cents increase here, and blah, blah, blah, blah. Last year was like the worst we've ever had Fee increases. But then the big things was brand new fees. Like three big whoppers were announced around this time last year, which was the inbound placement fees which have affected all of us this year, the low inventory fees right, and the high refund rate fee right. Those are all announced in this annual announcement. So a lot of sellers were like, oh no, what is Amazon going to announce this year? Let's go ahead and show this article from Amazon and it says update to US referral and fulfillment Amazon fees in 2025. And, spoiler alert, here it is we will not increase US referral and FBA fees. I can't remember the last time they said that. And here's the more important one we will not introduce any new fee types and, as a matter of fact, we are decreasing some fees and offering new benefits. Bradley Sutton: So talk about music to sellers ears. Right, because if we would have gotten squeezed any more on the fees front, you know it'd have been pretty hard for us to keep you, because if we would have gotten squeezed anymore on the fees front, you know it'd have been pretty hard for us to keep, uh, you know, selling for some of us. So, they had a note to sellers here. They're like hey, we're trying to simplify things. You know, we heard sellers and we want to make sure that, um, you know, we're providing the best service and not, you know, complicating things with a bunch of new fees. And so that's what they said hey, our focus is on continuing to partner together to delight customers and providing our seller selling partners a great value that helps their businesses thrive. Bradley Sutton: Now they actually mentioned that some fees. Not only is it not being raised, it was actually being lower. For example, if you are doing a large, bulky sized product, you're actually going to see lower inbound placement service fees on average 58 cents per unit for minimal shipment splits. In addition, they're going to waive inbound placement service fees for new parent ASINs that qualify for the FBA new selection program. I'm not going to go into too much depth what that is. You're going to have to search that in seller central. Bradley Sutton: We could talk about 10 minutes about that FBA new selection program. But if you are eligible for that for a new product and you create a shipment between December 1st and March 31st, uh, it's, the first hundred inbound units will be exempt from inbound placement. Now again, remember what you have to do to be completely exempt from inbound placement fees is send at least five identical shipments to five different places, um, or three plus different places that Amazon specifies. Then you won't have to worry about email placement fees. But let's say you've got a full container. Actually, a full container probably wouldn't qualify as maximum 100 units, but let's say you had a container of a thousand units, right? Well, those first hundred units, obviously your containers are going to one place. Those first hundred units are not going to have a fee. If you qualify for this Right now, it does have a fee. So maybe wait to create your shipment until December 1st if this qualifies for you. Bradley Sutton: In addition, this article mentions that they're introducing more incentives for adding certain new selection in our store. We're going to enhance the new seller incentives and FBA new selection programs with greater fee discounts. All right, so take a look at the link. This is going into effect on January 15th, so a number of weeks still to go for this, but the seller benefits page and seller central will have a little bit more information. Some might ask well, does this mean that absolutely under no circumstances will there be any new FBA fees in in 2025? Amazon says no, hey, we do things in a dynamic way and who knows what might happen that might cause us to change stuff, but as of right now, no new fees. So I think everybody is very happy about that. Uh, switching marketplaces. Bradley Sutton: The next article is from modern retail.co and it's entitled. TikTok is quietly testing product links in post as it looks to boost its reputation for shopping. Now, to me, this is, I don't know if I would say, flying under the radar, but I think it's more important than it might seem because, as you know, obviously traffic from other websites is big, but when you have influencers talking about a product on a different platform right, like if it's on Instagram um, how can they put links? I'm influencers talking about a product on a different platform, right, like if it's on Instagram, how can they put links? I'm not talking about, you know, reels and stories where you can put like links there, but if you just have a regular post, you cannot put a clickable link usually in the post right, what, what, what do you see influencers say when they're trying to send people to a product, like on Amazon, another website? What do they say? Link in bio? Bradley Sutton: I'm sure you guys have seen that. Right, hey, link in bio. Because in the bio of like TikTok and Instagram, you can actually have links and then a link tree comes up and you got to pick which product it is, et cetera, et cetera. It's kind of you know, the conversion rate's not going to be great with that, and the reason why these platforms, social media platforms, do that is because they don't want necessarily people going off. Right, like, if I'm, if I'm Instagram, I want people to stay on Instagram. The whole algorithm is designed to keep people on Instagram. So then I don't want people clicking a link and now maybe their Instagram journey ends because now they go down a rabbit hole on Amazon, right? So TikTok has always been like that. Bradley Sutton: This doesn't mean that they're going to go forward with this. This is according to this article. This is a beta test that they've been doing and it says TikTok hasn't posted about this anywhere, but it was spotted by expert marketing consultants who wrote about it and basically it allows creators to add shopping links from other affiliate partners, including Amazon, Walmart, target, Rakuten, impact, et cetera, et cetera, even Temu, and they're going to be able to add these links to the actual post. It says with this new integration, product links show up at the top of a post comment section, reducing the number of steps a shopper has to take to navigate to a creator's recommended products. Now this, potentially, is huge Game-changing, I should say I don't use that term lightly. Bradley Sutton: Something to be game-changing has to change the game. Right now, the game is influencers absolutely promote products, but how many of them drop off customers because they don't want to click on their bio? Try and find the link, and let me just figure it out now. Forget it, you know, or maybe they'll search for it, right? But imagine if, right at the top of the post, they could actually click with one click and go right to the Amazon listing. That's just going to open up a lot of affiliate marketing potential for TikTok influencers and we Amazon sellers. It's going to help us out too. And then, you know, who knows, maybe Instagram might follow and that would be pretty big as well. Bradley Sutton: But right now, all just speculation, because this is just a beta test that TikTok is doing, going back to the Amazon platform, an announcement by them and says and Amazon announces the launch of Rufus in beta across Europe. So Rufus has been now for us here in the US, for consumers in the US, for a while. They launched in UK in September. Now it's going to be available in Germany, France, Italy and Spain. So you know, for those who, for whatever reason, have not been using the Amazon app or maybe you are in one of those countries you've never seen it. You know, rufus is this AI assistant that allows consumers to like ask questions about the reviews or, you know, talk about different topics, what are different types of running shoes. It's almost like searching Google, doing your product research for what kind of product you're looking for, without having to go to Google. You're doing it all on Amazon. So now this is going to come up in Italy, Spain and those other marketplaces I talked about. I have not seen any huge changes in the way people shop here in the States yet. I've tried it before and, as with many things with AI, it doesn't work that great yet, but I think the possibilities are kind of endless for this. As the algorithm and the AI learns, it could theoretically have an impactful effect on sellers, how consumers find their products, how they can read the reviews, etc. So keep an eye on anything Rufus related, regardless of which marketplace it's in Going to Amazon advertising. Bradley Sutton: Now an announcement from Amazon says sponsored brand forecasting for impressions and clicks is now available in the advertising console. So this new feature it says it provides forecasts of impressions and clicks based on your campaign settings. Basically, this means it's forecasts of impressions and clicks based on your campaign settings. Basically, this means it's an estimate of the number of times your ad is going to be displayed and it's going to forecast the number of clicks, or the estimate the number of times your ad will be clicked. Makes sense, right, and so this was not available before for sponsored brand ads. It also mentions hey, this is not a guarantee of actual performance. If the forecast is 100 clicks, it doesn't mean that, hey, you're going to get 100 clicks. It's just a forecast based on historical campaigns with similar budgets according to Amazon. So take a look at that, if you have access to that, when you're setting up your sponsored brand campaign. Bradley Sutton: Next article is just a general one from Payments.com campaign. Next article is just a general one from payments.com says e-commerce growth outpaces general retail sales and hits 15.6% All right. So, again, a shift towards paying online through computers, mobile devices, remains firmly entrenched. E-commerce sales hit $288 billion $388 billion a 2.2% increase, and is up 7.5% since last year. Other news in this report says hey, Walmart's got some momentum. It says Walmart reported that e-commerce sales in the United States surged by 22% in the most recent quarter, but Walmart said that their e-commerce marketplace sales were 42% higher. All right, so that's pretty impressive increases from Walmart. Bradley Sutton: Going back to Amazon advertising DSP, amazon DSP launches contextual keyword targeting for US, uk, Canada and Australia. All right, so this is pretty interesting. So now, before, if you were doing DSP, you can target category or product retail based approaches. But now you can put something in. The example that they give here is, you can put something like 4th of July, right, and now, when you hit 4th of July, it's going to give you contextual keywords based on that Right. So, so that's going to be interesting. So that's going to be interesting. Bradley Sutton: We've talked about contextual search, meaning that, hey, you might show up for keywords that aren't necessarily that you're indexed for, right, like 4th of July. What would come up? Maybe like 4th of July outfit women. Maybe you don't have the word outfit for whatever reason, in your listing, right? But you know, if you're, contextual, search means that somebody could search for the July outfit women and your product would show up, right, because it's. It's kind of like say, hey, they're probably looking for this and even though this product is not indexed as keyword, let's go ahead and show it. Now, this means that with DSP, you can just target, like, like a season or a general theme or something, and it's going to show you to a lot of keywords that you cannot manually target with like keyword targeting ads, because normally if you target a keyword that is not in your listing or that you're not indexed for, amazon's not going to give you impressions for it. So, those of you who use DSP, this could be pretty cool. Let me know if you've gotten into that, all right. Bradley Sutton: Next up, let's go with our training tip of the week, and it's actually kind of like an exercise I want you guys to do and kind of like a study that is going to give you guys some confidence. And this is about sales estimation, right. So I want you guys to take your product and look in to what your actual sales were. You know, either using Helium 10 profits or maybe your business reports for the last 30 days, through yesterday, all right, not through today and then compare it to the Helium 10 numbers, even down to the child level. Because remember, as Kerry announced last week, you can now see estimates in x-ray for products. Before, if you had a red, blue and green product you were looking at on Amazon, part of variation, Helium 10, like other tools, would just show you the same exact number for each of those and what it meant was hey, this is what overall you're selling. Remember now, Helium 10, just like Kerry said last week in the buzz, it's showing at the child level. So it'll say, hey, red sold 50 units, the blue sold 23, and the green 17, whatever, right, so check your sales versus that. Bradley Sutton: And then if you're wondering, hey, who's got the most accurate sales data? Is it Helium 10? Is it tools like Jungle Scout or Data dive, which uses Jungle Scout information? Or maybe I don't need Helium 10 10, I don't need Jungle Scout, I'll just use the amazon bought in the past month metric, right? Well, I did a deep dive, guys, uh, into this in this blog, and you can see this blog at h10.me/h10sales. You can watch a video, uh, or. Or look at this, this document, and we did a deep study with over 29,000 listings that we had actual sales on, and basically you know, long story short, you guys should read this whole blog or watch a video so you can understand the science behind this. Helium 10 had an 89.59% accuracy rate, basically 90% accurate. Jungle Scout had 60%. You couldn't even compare the Amazon one because, remember, amazon is so limited with what it shows, just 50 plus 100 plus 500 plus 1000 plus, so there's just so many numbers in between that the accuracy is just kind of off the charts, bad, as it were, because it's not showing you exact estimate. So, anyways, in this case study, we just pretty much compared Helium 10 and Jungle Scout, since we couldn't really compare the Amazon bot in the past metric. It was just so far off. So make sure to check this out. Bradley Sutton: And then, at the end of this, I actually did a live case study, all right. So I did a live case study during this video where I took products that I actually have access to the Seller Central account on, and so watch the video, because what I did was instead of just like saying, guys, all right, believe me that our data science team did this. You know, like I've always said that you know, if we came out with a report like that, you guys would probably just take it with a grain of salt. Like, of course, Helium 10, data scientists are going to show information that shows Helium 10 is the most accurate. But no, guys, I did a live case study right when you can even see the timestamp on my computer so that you know, you could see I wasn't trying to like edit stuff out or fake, uh, do fake things. But I did it over like 30, 40 products across three different accounts, um, and showed uh, when jungle scout was more accurate, when Amazon was more accurate, when Helium 10 was more accurate, and I had very similar results. As a matter of fact, let me just show them to you. Bradley Sutton: The Amazon bot metric only had five estimates out of these 37 that I tested. Helium 10 had 34 out of 37 estimates, including the child items. Jungle Scout had only 21 out of 37. The Amazon bot metric was the most accurate of the three estimates Only one time out of the 37 ASINs. Jungle Scout was the most accurate four out of the 37 ASINs and Helium 10 was the most accurate for 28 out of 37. All right, the biggest that Amazon was off was 72% off. The biggest Jungle Scout was off was 650% off. The biggest Helium 10 was off was only 50%, and that was when it was like we said three. It was actually two or something like that But anyways, watch this video, h10.me/sales and then do the exercise. Guys, take your own sales and then compare it, um, and then see how close the sales are. So we did this just to make sure that, hey, uh, some, some sellers are like wondering how much can I trust Helium 10 sales numbers that I see in Xray, Black Box, et cetera. You can trust it a lot. All right, everybody. That's it for this week's Weekly Buzz. Thank you for tuning in. Make sure to tune in next week to see what's buzzing. ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos
New Amazon coupon change? Is live shopping finally taking off on TikTok shop? and a new way to update images by marketplace. These buzzing stories and more on this episode! We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's Chief Brand Evangelist, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. How TikTok Shop is ‘reimagining' Black Friday-Cyber Monday https://www.retailbrew.com/stories/2024/10/31/how-tiktok-shop-is-reimagining-black-friday-cyber-monday Alexa is now available as a new supply source for online video ads for self-service advertisers https://advertising.amazon.com/en-us/resources/whats-new/online-video-ads-on-alexa-home-screen/ Explore Amazon's new Virtual Holiday Shop—an immersive 3D shopping experience that makes it easier to find the perfect gifts https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/amazon-shop-holiday-gifts How livestreams are taking over TikTok Shop https://www.modernretail.co/technology/how-livestreams-are-taking-over-tiktok-shop/ But that's not all—we've got some exciting updates from Helium 10 to share! Grab the chance to join us in Milan, Italy, for an empowering workshop co-hosted with Avask. Helium 10 Elite Milan, Italy Amazon Seller Workshop https://h10.me/milan - Use Code HELIUM50 to get 50% Off Your Tickets Plus, we're rolling out next-level tools like the enhanced Follow-up for bulk review tracking and the Managed Refund Service for Diamond members, ensuring you maximize your reimbursements from Amazon. And let's not forget the mighty Helium 10 Market Tracker tool—essential for honing in on specific keywords to boost your product group's market presence. Tune in to equip yourself with these serious strategies and gain a competitive edge in the Amazon-selling arena. In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers: 00:48 - Amazon Coupon Update 02:29 - TikTok Shop Exclusive 04:24 - Country Specific Images 06:19 - Amazon DSP x Alexa 07:42 - 3D Holiday Shopping 10:20 - TikTok Shop Lives 13:06 - Helium 10 Italy Workshop 14:10 - New Feature Alerts 17:42 - Training Tip: Amazon Market Share Tracker ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Transcript Bradley Sutton: New Amazon coupon change? Is live shopping finally taking off on TikTok shop, a new way to update images by marketplace. These stories and more on this version of the Weekly Buzz how cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I am your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show that is our Helium 10 Weekly Buzz, where we give you a rundown of all the goings on in the Amazon, TikTok shop and e-commerce world. We give you training tips of the week and we also let you know what new features that Helium 10 has that will give you serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. Let's see what's buzzing All right, let's go ahead and hop directly into the news. We've got what's buzzing. All right, let's go ahead and hop directly into news. We got a few news articles to go over today, some of them pretty interesting. Now, this first one is going to be from, actually, your Seller Central dashboard, in case you missed it, a pretty cool update that they are doing on coupons, which may be relevant to you, especially with Black Friday coming up. Bradley Sutton: Cyber Monday, maybe you've got some coupons plan. It's entitled percentage off coupons can now be applied on up to five items per order. So what's different? Well, before, if there was a percentage off coupon we're not talking about the dollar off, you know, like $5 off but it was the ones where you can save, like 10% off. 15% off, the customer could only use one coupon per order. So let's say you know they had, you know from your store, three different items that they wanted to get, but each of them had a 10% off coupon. The customer would have to order that three times, like three separate orders. They couldn't add all three to the cart and have that coupon work. Now, when you create a coupon in seller central you can select no for limit redemption to one per customer. Now that means the percentage off coupon can be applied to a maximum of five items per order. All right, if you select yes in that section, only one coupon is going to be allowed to order, all right. So again, for example, it gives an example here If a customer clicks a 10% off coupon, let's say the offer price is $50. Okay, and then they buy three of your items. They're going to be able to use the coupon on all three items in one shopping cart for a $15 discount total. Why is that? Well, if it's 10% off, it's a $50 item each one. That means it's $5 off, but again, we're talking about three items total of $15 off. So again, a pretty cool update here. You'll keep that in mind as you're creating your coupons here in this shopping season and beyond. Bradley Sutton: Next article, switching marketplaces. Now is an article from retailbrew.com and it's entitled how TikTok shop is re-imagining Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Now, this is interesting because they're doing something a little bit different. Now, historically, a lot of the sellers maybe I could say most who are selling on TikTok shop they're probably selling on Amazon the same product as well. Right, very rarely do you see larger sellers launching TikTok shop only products that you know they just came up off the top of their head and they're not selling it on other marketplaces. But now TikTok, it says, wants to offer US shoppers products from lesser known, smaller DTC brands that may not have the resources to operate on rival platforms like Amazon. All right, so that's interesting, ok. Now it's saying that new product launches, exclusively for Black Friday, will be on TikTok shop shelves in November. Now this is like some special new promotion that some TikTok shop sellers are going to be able to participate in. However, according to this article, it seems like you're only going to be able to participate in it if you have a product that is TikTok shop exclusive, in other words, not on Amazon or Shopify or Walmart or other websites. Now this article goes on to say how there still will be special ways to participate in Black Friday, Cyber Monday, even for bigger brands or ones that are across platforms. But how many of you guys are shipping or selling on TikTok shop these days? I've started it on a couple of my accounts and it's going pretty pretty well for not that much effort my accounts. So I think it's definitely something that you guys should consider starting on, especially if you are based in the United States. If you're based overseas, it's a little bit harder to get a TikTok shop open. But let me know in the comments below how many of you guys are selling right now on TikTok shop and how many of you are going to participate in some kind of Black Friday, Cyber Monday deals. Bradley Sutton: Next article is going back to Seller Central. It's entitled Image Managers'. Country-specific Features Give you More Control Over Visuals. All right. So we announced something like this before, but it's kind of like a reminder by Amazon In case you didn't know. You know, historically a lot of sellers had problems when they're selling a product, you know, maybe, let's say, in USA, and then they expand to the Mexican marketplace, or they expand to Amazon Germany, right, or they expand to Amazon Japan. Well, amazon would pull in the listing information right, the images right, and maybe the rest of the listing is translated okay. But the images that share across the platform and sometimes you change your image in US well, it changes it across. You know the platforms. Bradley Sutton: Now, for those selling in marketplaces with other languages, you want you know the images to be for that marketplace, especially if you're using infographics that have you know words on it. You don't want you know Japanese words, you know coming up in your Amazon Germany marketplace. So now Amazon's like saying, hey, we've got new country specific features in the image manage tool. Right, you can view and delete localized images that display in a specific country, such as images that contain text in the local language. So the new features in this tool are country specific image views, so you can view both global and country specific images in separate sections, and now an image deletion capability, where you can delete country specific images directly from image manager to keep your library organized and up to date. So those are two like mini features, but perhaps this whole feature of of this, this page, is new to you and you were just thinking that you could only edit your images with flat files or in the edit listing in each marketplace and you're worried that the same image would publish across marketplaces. Make sure to check out your image manager tool, especially for those of you selling in multiple marketplaces. Bradley Sutton: Next article is from Amazon itself and it's entitled Alexa is now available as a new supply source for online video ads for self-service advertisers. All right, there's been rumblings that that there's going to be more of an emphasis on shopping on Alexa, especially if Alexa goes the generative AI route. But even before that happens, you can now, if you're advertising with amazon DSP, you can now select Alexa as a video supply source. All right, so those advertisers, if you're running self-service online video ads on amazon DSP, you are going to be able to see Alexa as an additional inventory supply that is checked by default for video line items. Now one question you might have is well, amazon is cost per click pay per click right. When is a click recorded? Well, it says here it's recorded when the customer clicks on the autoplaying online video ad on the Alexa home screen to launch the video ad in the full video screen view. So it sounds like if the ad just plays and maybe the person in their house is across the room, they just listen to it, and maybe the person in their house is across the room, they just listen to it. They're still getting that view, but you're not going to have to pay for the click unless they actually go to their Alexa device and click it to expand the video out to full screen. For now, this is available only in the United States. Bradley Sutton: Next article, also from Amazon, and it's entitled Explore Amazon's New Virtual Holiday Shop an immersive 3D shopping experience that makes it easier to find the perfect gifts. That's literally the for those listening in their cars or on the radio and not seeing this on YouTube. That is literally the entire title for this article, and it's you know. We've talked about this before and shown you how. You know, some big, huge sellers have access to these like 3D storefronts, right? So that's what's happening, where there's going to be these virtual holiday shops. That has 3D technology powered by Amazon Beyond that will showcase different products that buyers can buy All right Now this is mainly right now for huge companies. Bradley Sutton: It says items from sought after brands like Beats and Kim Kardashian, Kate Spade, Bumble and Bubble Coach, et cetera, et cetera. So you can kind of like you know, for those not watching this on YouTube just it's like you're going into this virtual reality for a shop and you're looking at shelves and different. There's like Easter eggs where products, their product offers, are going to come up if you find the Easter eggs on the top of the shelf somewhere or something like that. But it's this kind of like virtual reality shopping experience. Now, the reason why I mentioned this even though it probably doesn't affect 99.9% of us who aren't beats by Dre and Kim Kardashian etc. Is that again, this is kind of like a preview of what could be the future for even just regular sellers. Remember, before you know, prime video and different advertising on TV and stuff was only available to like humongous you know sellers. Services like AMC was only available to bigger sellers who are using DSP. A lot of the things that start off at the top level of Amazon sellers and brands eventually trickles down for the rest of us, and so, you know, I could absolutely imagine a world where these virtual reality based shopping experiences are going to eventually be open to the rest of us and then maybe we're going to be able to make a virtual reality like shopping kind of mall or mini room where we can have our products. Like, imagine a spooky one where I can design it and then there's coffin shelves on the wall that people can buy and bat-shaped bath mats and all of our other spooky, Manny's Mysterious Oddities products. What about you guys? How's your creative mind Like? Can you start thinking about how you would design your virtual shopping mall? Those of you who want to get a preview of how it's going to look, make sure to check out your regular Amazon app. Go to some of these big brands and maybe you'll be able to see these virtual holiday shopping centers. Bradley Sutton: Next article is from modernretail.co and it's entitled how Livestreams Are Taking Over TikTok Shop. You know, for literally years now the four years we've been doing the weekly buzz we have been talking about articles and articles about how live shopping. Different marketplaces keep trying to make it a thing you know Amazon, et cetera and it just doesn't seem to take off in this country, like it has in China, for example, where it is huge, booming business. But now more and more we're reading about perhaps you know things are shifting and it's mainly because of TikTok shop. So this article here talks about a brand called BK Beauty. They hosted an eight-hour live stream. Remember we did a seven-hour Meganar, a live webinar, in Helium 10 a few weeks ago, where they're like, hey, we can do one better, we'll do an eight-hour live stream. And they did it at the brand's headquarters in Austin, texas, and the eight-hour live stream ended up getting them $100,000, over $100,000 of sales in eight hours. Is that worth the eight hour live stream? All right, that is pretty amazing. All right, $100,000. Now, a couple of weeks later, it says that TikTok flew the BK Beauty staff members to their own studios, the TikTok studios in LA, to do more live streams. And then now TikTok gave them like this whole big fancy setup in order to live stream again and then they ended up doing a 10 hour live stream and that was so successful that it says BK Beauty has now made live streaming a key part of its e-commerce strategy and they're going to go to the LA studio again for TikTok this month to do even more. Bradley Sutton: You know Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaigns for, for live selling. But again, you know, does this mean that finally, you know, live streaming is going to take off? I'm still a little bit hesitant to say that I need to see more success stories, but I have been hearing a little bit more rumbles around live streaming lately than, like, say, last year. Um, thanks to Tik TOK shop. Uh, those of you selling on Tik TOK shop, are you doing live streaming? You don't have to do it in a fancy studio or go eight hours live. Um, you know, give it a test, uh, sign up for it. And you know, do a test, sign up for it and do a test, maybe just in your own home studio. Or you don't even have a studio, just do it in your bedroom. See how it goes. Sometimes TikTok shop buyers are kind of like open to genuine streams and videos. They don't need fancy setups all the time, but it's worth a try. I don't think you'll be able to get $100,000 in eight hours, but let's see what you can get if you do live streaming on TikTok shop. Bradley Sutton: All right, last up, last call, all right for next week, just in a couple of days, on Monday, myself and Shivali and a bunch of other top speakers from around the world will be in Milan, Italy, for our first ever Helium 10 workshop there in Italy, all right, so it's going to be on the 11th Monday and it's going to be co-hosted by Avask, and you can get there by going to h10.me forward slash Milan, h10.me/milan, and it's going to be an all day event. We're going to have lots of networking. If you want to save 50% on the tickets, the tickets are already cheap it's only like 89 euros, I think but if you want to save another 50% off, use the code Helium 50, helium 50 upon checkout. It would be great to be able to meet you guys out there. I just talked to somebody last night on Instagram. He's like let me book my flight and get over there, I'll see you on Monday. So if you guys are in Europe, I would love to see you in Milan, Italy, on Monday. Bradley Sutton: All right, that's it for the news this week. Let's go ahead and hop into our new feature alerts from Helium 10. Now, the first one is about follow up. All right, so, first of all, follow-up is a tool that every Helium 10 platinum member and above has access to, all right, so it's not like something that's gated at a very high level. You can set up, guys, uh, your, your follow-up for all your products to send automated review requests using either the Amazon request review or even your own custom email. But an important aspect of this is being able to measure hey, how are your review requests working? Like, what kind of engagement are you getting? Like, how many ratings and reviews are you actually getting as a result of your outreach campaign? Well, the new feature is now you can do that in bulk, all right. So how this works is right here in your follow-up dashboard. These are the rating trackers that you can actually see. You can see how many reviews requested and then how many uh ratings you received, and so you can see your request and rating conversion rate, right. So now the new thing is, go to your product ratings tab right here, and then you can do bulk the ones that are not active. So, for example, I'm going to go ahead and select the united states marketplace and I'm going to be like, hey, here's, my egg tray is not active. I see here, my large coffin shelf isn't active, so I just select as many as I can. Uh, you guys should select all in opinion, that all of your active products and then hit enable product rating tracking. All right, so if you're new to follow up, you're not going to be tracking any of them, all right, so make sure to go ahead and hit enable product rating tracking and that will go ahead and start tracking so you can see how many reviews you're getting week by week, month by month, et cetera. Bradley Sutton: Next new update is going to be, for some of you, diamond members All right, so we've been rolling this out little by little. Uh, check your account. All right guys. So if you have a diamond account, check your account on the very top. Do you have something that says manage refund service? All right, so this is a new feature that is coming out to diamond members. Before it was only our supercharger counts, but this is the Helium 10 version of being able to get you reimbursements and refunds from Amazon, but where Helium 10 is the one that's actually going to go in and set everything up for you. Like, we have refunding. You guys know about refund genie, where we'll give you the reports for loss and damage items and then you submit it to Amazon in order to get the money back. Well, with MRS or managed refund service, we're the ones who are going ahead and fighting with Amazon for you, filing those claims and arguing with Amazon, trying to get your money back, and then Helium 10 takes a percent of whatever we find for you, all right. So, those of you who have diamond plan, you're not automatically entered into this, but let me show you what you can do. You hit manage refund service. Now mine is going to be already active, but what you're going to want to do is, if you have that, just go here. You can see in one of my accounts I got 400 bucks already back and you're going to hit set up account, all right. So hit set up account and it will like run you through the system. Again, we're only taking 15% of whatever we find. So, like, if we can't find any money that you're owed and we can't win any money for you pay us nothing, all right. So this is a new feature for some Diamond members. Eventually, all diamond members will have it later. So if you want to see if you have access to it, just go to your dashboard and see if you have managed refund service there, all right? Bradley Sutton: Next up, let's do our training tip of the week, and this is a tool that sometimes I think people sleep on. It's been. We've had this tool for maybe four years now. It's called market tracker, all right, and this is available at all levels of Helium 10. Even if you have Platinum, Diamond, doesn't matter. I highly recommend setting this up for every single one of your product groups you have, all right, for example. Uh, I've got a product that is a bat shaped bath mat, all right. So I set it up, and the first thing that I did was I set up the very specific keywords. Don't do broad keywords like bat bath mat. Um, you know, I'm sure I get some sales from the keyword Gothic decor, but that's very broad right. I pick very, very specific keywords. It doesn't have to be your best keywords or the highest search volume. You want to pick the keywords that really define your product. So I did bat bath mat. I put bat rug and bat bath rug right, and then you put in your own products and those who you already know are your direct competitors, and then we set up the market. Bradley Sutton: And then the reason why this is cool is the kind of things that you are looking at. First of all, is your market volume, right. So many people sometimes say, oh hey, is anybody sales down? Or I'm not sure if I'm doing really good, my sales are down. This is terrible, but sometimes, if your sales are down, there's nothing wrong with that why? And your sales are going to go down. Well, you're just staying with the market, all right. Your market share, your piece of the pie, is what matters, all right. Your percentage of how big your pie is? Now, if the whole pie gets smaller, as long as your piece of the pie stays about the same percentage, you're not doing too bad, all right. So that's what Market Tracker can do is telling you, hey, what's the size of the pie, and then what is your market share? So, like, my market share of the Bathmat market is 7.8%. And then, over time, how is your share changing? I used to have 15% of the market, look here but now I'm only at 6.9%, 7%, so I'm losing market share, right? Bradley Sutton: The other thing that this tool does is it gives me a heads up if there is a new mover and shaker that it detects in my niche. So, for example, it's saying hey, look at this, um bat bath mat. You know, do I want to track? I'm like, yeah, that looks like a bat bath mat. I'll go ahead and track it. I don't have to be like trying to look for new products that are popping up in the in the niche. I don't have to be constantly refreshing my keywords hey, is there a new mover and shaker in my niche? No, market Tracker is going to tell me. Sometimes it's going to throw me some products that it's suggesting that could be in my niche but it's not really like. Bradley Sutton: Look at this one here's a Halloween bat or bath rug, but it looks like ghost or something. Is this my direct competitor? Is this a bat shaped bath mat? No, so I'm going to hit ignore, right. But before I do that, I'm going to go ahead and copy this ASIN and I might want to go ahead and either. Number one, think about it as a potential expansion to my product line, like if I'm selling bat-shaped bath mats, maybe this ghost-shaped bath mat would hit my target market, right. But number two, I might test this in one of my ASIN targeting campaigns in PPC, you know, maybe a sponsor display campaign or a product targeting ad. Bradley Sutton: Here's another one, a coffin shaped bath mat right Again, that could be a potential new product for me or at the very least somebody who might be interested in a bat shaped bath mat. They could be interested in a coffin shaped bath mat. Maybe I want to go ahead and target this product in a PPC. So again, this tool is super cool. It's been around for years, but I think a lot of you haven't been utilizing it. Make sure for each and every one of your product groups. Go into market tracker, create your market and start tracking how you're doing in your niche. Is your size of the pie increasing or decreasing, who are the new movers and shakers in your niche and what are some potential product line extensions and what are some potential targets for product targeting ads? This tool can do all of that and more, but only if you use it. So make sure to get in there today and start using it. All right, guys. That's it for this week's news. We'll see you next week to see what's buzzing.
Amazon warehouses on the West Coast are full. More details about the potential Amazon Team Wish service have leaked. These buzzing stories and more on this week's episode! We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's Chief Brand Evangelist, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. Amazon sets ultra-low pricing plans for Temu rival store, The Information reports https://www.reuters.com/technology/amazon-sets-ultra-low-pricing-plans-temu-rival-store-information-reports-2024-10-22/ Amazon to shut down speedy brick-and-mortar delivery service https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/22/amazon-to-shut-down-speedy-brick-and-mortar-today-delivery-service.html Amazon Announces New Fuel Savings Offer for Prime Members https://press.aboutamazon.com/2024/10/amazon-announces-new-fuel-savings-offer-for-prime-members Amazon's enhanced homepage features make shopping easier and more personalized https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/amazon-homepage-redesign-features One man's mission to save his sick dog sparked a thriving pet probiotic business on Amazon https://sellingpartners.aboutamazon.com/one-mans-mission-to-save-his-sick-dog-sparked-a-thriving-pet-probiotic-business-on-amazon Lastly, we also introduce the latest features from Helium 10, including enhancements for our Chrome Extension for Amazon Influencers and a revamped Keyword Tracker tool. Tune in to discover all the exciting developments and strategies designed to help you succeed in the Amazon marketplace. In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers: 00:49 - Big Amazon Logistics Problems 06:20 - Amazon Temu Clone Details 08:08 - Deferred Transactions 09:00 - Amazon Today Closing 10:23 - Image Manager 11:03 - Amazon Gas Savings 12:08 - FBA Shipment Notifications 12:44 - Amazon Homepage Update 14:05 - Amazon Seller Story 15:33 - X-Ray For Amazon Influencers 18:50 - Keyword Tracker Heat Maps + PPC Data 24:45 - Sydney Australia Event 25:17 - Milan Italy Event ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Transcript Bradley Sutton: Amazon warehouses on the West Coast are full. More details about the potential Amazon Team Wish service have leaked. Find out how, if you have Amazon Prime, you can get up to $70 of free gas. These stories and more on this week's Weekly Buzz. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Bradley Sutton: Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I am your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show that is our Helium 10 weekly buzz, where we give you a rundown of all the goings on in the Amazon TikTok shop and e-commerce world. We give you training tips of the week and also let you know what new features Helium 10 has. That will give you serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. Let's see what's buzzing. We've got tons of news articles today, lots going on, so let's go ahead and hop right into it. All right, the first news article of the day actually starts off from Amazon Seller Central. I've got some additional information that Amazon sent over that you sellers need to know. It's kind of like important, especially those of you trying to get inventory in here in q4. Uh, it's entitled updates to support us. FBA peak inventory shipments says we understand this is from amazon that many of you are experiencing longer receive times that are affecting your shipments. High demand has led to longer receive times at some of our west coast inbound locations and for palletized freight. It says they're trying to actively take steps to resolve the situation, including rerouting shipments to other regions. So, effective immediately, they're making the following adjustments to inbound requirements. Number one they've extended the automatic closure window to 90 days for shipments created after August 7th through October 31st. Okay, you know, usually it's a little bit shorter where they automatically close a shipment that hasn't been received and they're extending the abandoned shipment window from 30 to 45 days for shipments in that same time period. All right, so now that's kind of like the official notice that went out to sellers, you know, on your Seller Central dashboard. Bradley Sutton: But I got my hands on some other information here that Amazon wanted sellers to know about and it was kind of like a frequently asked questions about what's going on. So maybe some of these questions you've actually have actually had and maybe this answers it all right. So the first question is why is this happening? Well, it says hey, there's an increased demand to send inventory to the West Coast facilities and it's resulting in longer p times or lead times. Right, so, so we already got that. But then they said, hey, is amazon rerouting non-partnered carriers to inbound locations? The answer is no. So if you're not using an amazon partner, they're not telling, like your own freight company, hey, you need to go to Texas or something you know to deliver. No, if you're shipping your inventory with a third-party carrier and you have longer receive times, you could actually still reach out to your carrier, amazon says, and get a new appointment through Carrier Central. Bradley Sutton: What changes are you making to the inbound placement service fee? Inbound placement service fee? Amazon says hey, effective immediately, where we've temporarily reduced the rate range for the inbound placement fees for minimal shipments into the East region by 5 cents. Better than nothing, guys, right, 5 cents per unit, okay. So you know, like, if before you had to ship to the East coast and you had to, you know, have certain placement fees that were, you know, 30, 40 cents each, you get a 5 cent discount. Now, because of these issues, what are the temporary fee changes to help move out of the West? Same thing 5 cents in reduction in fees for the minimal shipment split option to the East region. Next question says if inbounding to the east region still is the most expensive, even with this five cents difference, what should I do? Amazon says we recommend that you use the Amazon optimized shipment splits or select central or east regions under the partial shipment splits or the minimal shipment splits options. Bradley Sutton: Another general question that some are asking hey, my shipment is still showing delivered status, but the inventory has not been received. What should we do? It says most delivered shipments are received within a week of delivery to ensure placement of your inventory. Now, if you're using a non-partnered carrier, communicate with the carrier to get progress reports. If you're using Amazon Freight, they can help locate your shipment by submitting If you submit a carrier, missed pickup request to Amazon and that'll help you get more information. Bradley Sutton: Another question are fulfillment centers equally affected by the long receipt times? In other words, we know the receipt, the inbound is having trouble, but are my customers going to start having issues on the West coast because of what's going on? The answer no. These longer receipt times are mainly affecting the West region because it's a popular location for inventory shipments, but fulfillment centers are not experiencing that issue. Why do I still not see the partial shipment split options to the West? Answer. The partial shipment splits inbound option will be provided if your shipment qualifies, but due to the busy holiday season and high demand, partial shipment splits to the West may not be available on send to Amazon. So you might be like wait a minute, how come? You know, normally when I create my shipment I usually see this the shipment split to the West available and now it's not like showing up at all. Well, this is the reason why, because of this, this issue that that we're talking about now. Hopefully that's not the case for you, but this is the answer If that is happening to you. Bradley Sutton: Now here's a funny one. Are there alternative shipping methods, ship mode, when possible, of course. Where'd that be? I mean, how do you use air all the time If it didn't cost five times as much as ocean shipping? So for most of us that might not be an option, but hey, at least Amazon's giving you an alternative. In case you didn't realize that you can ship your product via air. All right, so that's most of the information there about what's going on with Amazon West Coast. Let me know in the comments. Have you been affected by this? I actually haven't. Thankfully, knock on wood, I haven't had to ship anything in the last week and a half or two weeks I got most of my stuff in early. I'm about to send a shipment in tomorrow for my warehouse, so let's see how it goes. What about you? Let me know in the comments below if you guys have been affected by this. Bradley Sutton: Next article is from Reuters.com says Amazon sets ultra low pricing plans for Temu rival store. The information reports Now this is something we reported a couple of months ago how Amazon might be launching like a Temu-ish kind of service for sellers from China, where it's going to ship directly from China to customers might take 10 or 12 days. Well, some more information has come out. Supposedly there's going to be caps on what they can charge, uh, in the categories. So if it's jewelry, if it's going to be part of the service, it's $8. If it's a guitar a guitar it's 13. If it's a sofa, the most expensive sofa you can ship is $20. I mean a Lego sofa, like what in the world sofa costs under $20. Now I saw other reports that said, hey, the total price is $20. I saw some reports that said, hey, it had to be less than a pound or less than 14 inches long. If it's less than 14 inches long. How are you going to have a sofa even in there? So there's so much information and misinformation out there right now, like I'm not sure what to trust yet. I'm just throwing out information as I get it. This is an actual article in Reuters. Bradley Sutton: Now, what do you guys think about this? I know the last time when we first announced this, people were upset. They're like man, this is not good. So, like, my biggest question still is are US-based sellers European-based sellers? If we have a factory in China, will we be able to use this service to at least have an equal playing field, or only Chinese manufacturers are going to have access to this shipment? So let's see how things go. I think a story I saw where it said maybe somebody said hey, only you can't even have branded products here and it's going to be separate from Amazon's websites like a sub site. Who knows Can't have branded products, you only can say generic. There's all kinds of stories, but as they keep coming out, we'll let you know and hopefully there'll be some clarity on what exactly is going to happen with this program soon. Bradley Sutton: Next up is article from the Seller Central and it's called view your reserve payments in the new deferred transaction report. All right, so if you get a sale, you don't get the money from that sale right away. Like, let's say, your disbursement is every two weeks and it's on the second Monday of the month or whatever. Well, if you've got an order on the second Sunday of the month that those orders, you're probably not going to get that money the next day. All right, because there's usually kind of like a reserve Right In addition to your account level reserve, take a look at this article because now they're saying that, hey, you're going to have more visibility into which exactly which orders exactly are being deferred until the next pay period. You're going to be able to see this in your payments reports repository. If this is something you're curious about I'm not going to go too much into detail Go into your Seller Central News. You'll have the link right there of how you can find this new deferred transaction report. Bradley Sutton: Next article is from CNBC. It's kind of interesting because we've been doing the buzz so long, that stuff that we broke as stories about what was going on amazon before. It's like now being defunct, like we announced the release and now, a couple years later now it's going away. So CNBC says amazon to shut down speedy brick and mortar delivery service. This was called amazon today and if you remember that weekly buzz years ago. Basically what it means is like if there's a amazon seller who actually has a brick and mortar store, kind of like. Bradley Sutton: I think what the example gave was like GNC and if it's sold products, it would allow fulfillment of the products directly from the local GNC, like a neighborhood. So if somebody orders from GNC on Amazon and they have inventory at that local GNC, then Amazon would hire these local drivers to go pick it up at that GNC and then deliver it to the customer down the street. Whatever, you might not even know that existed. Good for you, because now it doesn't exist anymore anyways. In reality. So Amazon's laying off all the employees that were part of that system. It would have been interesting to see if that played out more Like. I could have seen how you know. Maybe it could eventually roll out to you know sellers who have warehouses in certain you know localities. You know, maybe they could have just delivered to local customers on their own, but that service is gone. Bradley Sutton: Next up, an article from seller central fix image issues fast with a new image manager feature. All right, so this is a new feature that you can go in your seller central. You go to catalog and then manage your images and then you're going to come up to this page and basically, if there's image issues, you're going to see in the bottom left like a, like a red flag, and then, instead of having to go one by one into your listings and edit the listing and then try and fix your images from this one page the image manager any issues that Amazon has with your images you can just fix them directly on this interface here. So if you want more information on that, check your seller central news dashboard. Bradley Sutton: Next article is a press release from Amazon. It's kind of interesting because this is not really for sellers. But if you're an Amazon member, guess what? You can now save up to 10 cents a gallon at Amoco or AMPM locations, all right, so I'm assuming AMPM is like Arco, right, like that's what Arco, that's what AMPM is here in California. But anyways, you can save 10 cents a gallon, which averages like $70 a year on gas. Again, maybe this doesn't affect you. It does if you live in America and I just got you $70 right now. But I always like reporting on any benefits that, like Walmart Plus or Amazon Prime give, because it's just going to make our customers more sticky to Amazon Prime, right? Because if they're getting this $70 of free gas, if you want to see how to activate this, real easy, if you're an Amazon Prime member, go to amazon.com/fuelsavings. It's a one-time setup and then next time you go to an ARCO or AMPM you'll save 10 cents a gallon. Bradley Sutton: Next article, again from Seller Central. This is called New FBA Shipment Notifications for Better Visibility. So if you are using a partner carrier pickups and you're experiencing FBA shipment delivery disruptions, you're now going to get an email from Amazon. So this is something that you are going to need to opt in or opt out of, depending on if you want a whole bunch of emails about what's going on with your partner carrier deliveries. So make sure to go into settings and to notification preferences and then go to FBA inbound shipment status notifications and make sure toggle on or off if you want to get these notifications or not. Bradley Sutton: Speaking of Amazon and the website on the front side of the website, not seller central, amazon has been testing new homepage new homepage on amazon.com. Also on the app. This is an article from about amazon.com and it says improvements include personalized recommendations, improve browsing and streamline reordering in time for the holiday shopping season. Now, I did not see any of these updates on my personal Amazon that I use for my Prime account, but they showed some pictures here where there's kind of like a new interface with big images, kind of like tailor-made, I guess, supposedly for the people who are buying, and more intuitive design. It says here it's called a window display, like there's these big tiles or windows of products that it's showing. Um, the other addition is that there's a improved buy again hub. All right, so you're going to see this buy again section, or amazon buyers are going to see that and then products they bought before real easy to almost kind of like one click and get it in the shopping cart. So it'll be interesting to monitor this because, like, is this going? You know, like those of us with replenishable products, could this potentially help increase our repeat orders? You know could be so. So let let's see uh, how this, this new Amazon website and app, uh might help or hurt some of our sales. Bradley Sutton: All right, last article of the day. It's from Amazon's website. They're selling partners website. It's funny because Helium 10 members a lot of times are featured on Amazon's ad page and I was like, wait a minute, I know this guy. So if you go to the link is in the comments below. But if you go to this Amazon website, it's entitled. One Man's Mission to Save His Sick Dog Sparked a Thriving Pet Probiotic Business on Amazon, and some of you might recognize this. This is Santiago Galvez. He's a Helium 10 member. He comes to our elite workshops, he's been at a lot of our events and he's actually been on the Helium 10 Serious Sellers podcast en Español. All right, so take a look at the link here. It's a really cool story about how he came up with his brand. It has to do with his pets and everything. And then if you speak Spanish and you want to hear more of his story, check out episode 147 of the Serious Sellers Podcast en Español. That's not this one. You can search it on whatever you have Si habla en Español. And his podcast title was Así Lance Mi Marca en Amazon. So it sounds like it's the same kind of like story he talked about in this one, as he told to Amazon. Bradley Sutton: So pretty cool to see Helium 10 members being featured on Amazon's main website. All right, that's it for the news this week. Let's go ahead and hop into some new feature alerts. All right, we're not going to do a training tip of the week this week, because the new feature alerts kind of doubles as a training tip. It's going to be pretty cool. Now you're going to see a lot more content from Helium 10 about the Amazon Influencer Program. All right, amazon Influencer Program is a really cool way for Amazon sellers to get some money initially to build up to be able to do private label. It's a great way for maybe your family members to kind of like get involved in Amazon, or even you yourself, if you want to make some extra money. Bradley Sutton: So one of the first things that we are going to have in the for Amazon influencers, if you have updated the new version of the Helium 10 Chrome extension, go to any search result page or any product page and then run X-Ray like normal. Ok, so once you hit X-Ray, it'll pull up on the page, just like you know any other time. And now what's going to happen, though, once you pull up x-ray, is that there is a toggle on the very top right. You're going to see, and I'll say standard. That's the default for Amazon sellers. But let's say you wanted to dabble in the influence. If you're a Amazon affiliate Amazon influencer, you hit the button on the top right and then select influencer version. Now what happens is X-Ray now is going to show some data that is interesting to Amazon influencers, who? Those are the ones who create videos that go on listings and then those videos end up showing up in the carousel in the bottom row and then if a buyer watches the video, right, and then they buy the product, guess what that Amazon influencer has? The video is going to go ahead and get commission on that. Bradley Sutton: So now the kind of things that you can see in Helium 10 Chrome extension x-ray is you'll be able to see stuff like what's the opportunity score for an influencer? How many videos are in the upper carousel, like look how many products on the coffin shelf page have no videos? I mean that could be interesting to Amazon sellers at all. I just want to see who's got videos in their carousel right. How many videos are in the lower carousel, the one that's kind of like at the bottom of the page? That's also where influencer videos, customer review videos, can go. How many of these videos are influencer videos on the page. The one that's opportunity for Amazon influencers is when there's like one or zero influencer videos. That means you're kind of have a better chance perhaps at getting your video featured in that upper or lower carousel, meaning that if you're the only video there, every time somebody watches the video and then they buy the product, you're getting commission on that product. This shows how many brand videos All right. Bradley Sutton: So again, this is for Amazon sellers or influencers. You want to know the brand itself. How many videos did they put on their own page? You can see here. There's some here that have six and even eight, oh my goodness. And some have two and some have zero. What is the commission rate for an influencer for the product? The commission rate for Amazon influencers varies across different categories. You can now see that right here. And then, even if it's your product, maybe you're curious how much is Amazon giving to influencers who are promoting my product? Well, here you can see that. You can also see the affiliate commission. Affiliate commission is different than influencer commission rates. And then the affiliate commission actual dollar amount. So some cool information here now is showing up in the Chrome extension. This is just the first of a lot of things we might have for Amazon influencers out there, but some of it is still relevant to Amazon sellers as well. Bradley Sutton: Another update that Helium 10 Elite members have had for a while but now it's being released, even all the way down to the platinum plan is some new features inside of keyword tracker. All right, so in keyword tracker you probably noticed that a few weeks ago the new interface already, but now you are going to have additional features. All right, so here's a new interface. You can see the keywords here, and I've done videos before I talk about how now you can add competitors and kind of see where your competitors are ranking, like all on a certain grid, so that you can see for each keyword you know who's got the best rank with those keyword harvesting, where we're going to like follow up based on what you're saying and tell you what keywords that your competitors are ranked for in the top 10 that maybe you're not ranking for, or keywords that you weren't even tracking that you're ranking for because you didn't even know that you're ranking for. Right. Bradley Sutton: But some of the newest things this week, uh, one of them is a heat map. You know we've always had uh in market tracker 360 heat maps for our keyword tracker there for like two years and users were like man, we want this to be in the regular keyword tracker. And it took us a couple of years, guys, but now we have it. So we brought the Market Tracker 360 feature of heat maps into the regular keyword tracker and you're going to be able to also not only see the day of week like maybe you want to see, hey, every Sunday does my rank change? But also there's going to be little gift boxes that you see on some dates on this keyword tracker graph. This is indicating like a holiday. Like maybe you want to kind of like eyeball in and say, hey, did something happen to my rank on if there was a holiday? So here on October 14th, I can see that was Columbus Day. I can take a look at my ranks. I can change this to go from left to right to right to left. I can also change like hey, maybe I don't want to see the exact rank, but I'm just curious what page am I showing up? Page one, page two, page three, page four. Bradley Sutton: Don't forget that helium 10 is one of the only keyword trackers that actually checks all pages. A lot of popular keyword trackers out there, you'll notice it only goes up to like 100 or 150. That means it's only giving you two page of search results. We're giving you all pages of search results, all 306 locations or or positions. Seven, the full seven pages that appears in search results. You can see in helium 10 keyword tracker. But this is the heat maps. It's kind of like a different way to visualize what's going on. And then, don't forget, if you see this red dot in any of this, that means that you had boost on during that time. Again, that's another thing that only helium 10 has. Well, we're checking in one day, if I have boost on, 24 different browsing scenarios 24 times a day. It's checking different browsing scenarios in Edge or Chrome or Safari. And then what if the zip code is over here? What if the address like even in the same zip code it's an address across the street over here, an address over in Florida or whatever, like it's doing a lot of random things, so that you can really have an idea about what is going on with your rank and then you'll be able to see what happened throughout the day if you have that boost on. So that's the heat maps. Bradley Sutton: And then now, if you have. For those of you who have Atomic remember Atomic is now in the diamond plan You're going to have access to this ad section. That means we're ready to have you all your PPC and your advertising information and now you're going to be able to see some super cool things about what's going on with your keyword rank as it relates to your advertising. So, for example, I can see hey, how many campaigns did I have active where I got at least one impression or a click of coffin shelf? I've got four exact match campaigns where it came up. I've got zero auto campaigns where it came up. Bradley Sutton: I can change the date range. I can see all right, how many PPC sales did I have during this time? How many units did I sell? What was my spend during this time on this keyword? What was my ACoS? What was my ROAS? How many PPC clicks did I have? What was my impressions overall? Like here, I got 8,000 impressions in PPC for the word coffin shelf. But then, guys, the reason why this is in Keyword Tr tracker is it's now tying in all of this information. Bradley Sutton: So if I hit this graph next to coffin shelf, now all of a sudden I can start graphing different metrics where I can say let me graph my organic rank and graph it versus my cost per click, right? So now here I'm looking at this graph and I'm like, okay, here's my cost per click. As it decreased, my impressions increased somehow, and then, as my cost per click increased, my impressions, for whatever reason, went down on that same day. However, that's just one way to look at it. The other way to look at it is no, things don't happen exactly on the same day. However, that's just one way to look at it. The other way to look at it is no, things don't happen exactly on the same day. But look, every time that my cost per click increased, the very next day, my impressions increased. My organic rank. Maybe I want to you know what? I want to see how it changed my sponsored rank. Take a look at this. My cost per click was 55 cents. I increase it to 55 cents. What happened to my sponsored rank the next day? Uh, it started going up from 17 all the way to five. Take a look over here. My, you know, I decreased my, my bid, potentially, or just whatever Amazon was giving me as cost per click, and my rank increase. Uh, my, my rank decrease. So this is really interesting to kind of see what effects does what you're doing in PPC have on what is going on in your organic and sponsored keyword rank. So make sure again, if whatever plan of Helium 10 you are on, make sure to dive into keyword tracker and play around with some of these new functions. Well, I'm going to have some more detailed training in the future podcast where I'm going to go deep into tracking keywords and all the new features that Keyword Tracker has. Bradley Sutton: One more thing, guys, A couple events in the next couple of weeks. Next week I'll be in Australia. So if you're anywhere near Sydney, come to the Amazon advertising event. I'll be speaking there. There'll be a Helium 10 booth. We can come hang out, maybe the night before. I know a lot of you are already coming out, h10.me/sydney for information on that. And then also the following in a couple of weeks we're going to be in Italy First time. We're doing a Helium 10 event in Italy and I would love to see you guys go. I'm going to go ahead and throw out a discount code too for you. Anybody is open to this. It's normally an elite workshop but we're opening up to everybody h10.me/milan. It's on November 11th, if you want to save 50%. So it's going to be less than $40 to even attend for a full day of great training and networking, h10.me/milan. Use the code Helium50, no spaces, and save 50% off your registration. I would love to see you either in Sydney or in Milan, Italy. All right, guys. That's it for the news this week. Uh, don't forget to tune in next week. I will have Shivali back here to let you know what's buzzing.
In this episode, we do a live case study as we compare Helium 10, Product Opportunity Explorer, Jungle Scout, and Data Dive for Amazon keyword research. See how Helium 10 uncovers more keywords and boosts potential sales by $6,000! Can unlocking the true potential of Amazon keyword research tools lead to a significant boost in your sales? In this episode, Bradley Sutton dissects, with a live case study, the Amazon keyword research capabilities of tools like Helium 10, Jungle Scout, Data Dive, and Amazon's Product Opportunity Explorer, revealing why Helium 10 might just be the game-changer you've been searching for. Through a live case study, Bradley showcases how Helium 10 stands head and shoulders above its rivals by uncovering a staggering number of relevant keywords that could translate into thousands of dollars in additional sales. With a focus on transparency, we promise an unfiltered look into how effective keyword research can transform your Amazon SEO strategy. Our journey into the art of keyword research begins with launching a Tamago Yaki pan on Amazon. We guide you through the crucial steps of identifying top competitors and selecting the right keywords to ensure success, even if you don't have access to advanced tools. You'll learn how to interpret search volumes and conversion rates to identify purchase trends and refine your keyword lists by exploring related niches like "square pan" and "omelet pan." With personal anecdotes and insights sprinkled throughout, this episode offers practical advice for sellers at every level. As we peel back the layers of keyword analysis, discover how tools like Helium 10 can help you sift through the noise and focus on keywords with true potential. We emphasize the importance of aligning with Amazon's algorithm and the role of sponsored ads in securing product visibility. By exploring tactics like creating comprehensive keyword lists and leveraging Helium 10's unique features, you'll understand why our Amazon keyword research tools are an indispensable ally for serious sellers. So, let's enhance your product's visibility and sales potential on Amazon, one keyword at a time. In episode 607 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley talks about: 00:00 - Amazon Keyword Research Tool Battle Royale 07:41 - Amazon Keyword Research Strategies Using Tools 13:28 - Amazon Keyword Research Tutorial 16:41 - Amazon Keyword Research Tools Comparison 19:23 - Product Opportunity Explorer Niche Research 25:16 - Data Dive and Jungle Scout Keyword Research 26:42 - Amazon Keyword Research Tools Analysis 33:42 - Keyword Ranking Analysis and Competitor Evaluation 39:03 - Amazon Keyword Research Tactics and Strategies 41:35 - Keyword Research and Analysis Strategy 49:32 - Keyword Analysis for Listing Optimization 52:45 - Keyword Research Comparison and Analysis 56:05 - Keyword Research for Amazon Products 1:00:55 - The Importance of Getting Enough Keywords 1:08:14 - Keyword Analysis Comparison POE, Jungle Scout/Data Dive, & Helium 10 1:14:57 - Amazon Keyword Research With Helium 10 1:18:02 - Conclusion: What is the Best Keyword Research Tool For Amazon Sellers? ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos
In this episode, our guest is an expert on AI and Amazon Science papers. He'll talk about Rufus, COSMO, Project Amelia, and all other AI advancements from the Amazon side and beyond. ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Join us for an engaging discussion with Kevin Dolan from Pacvue AI Labs as we explore the cutting-edge advancements in AI and Amazon's pivotal role in shaping this dynamic landscape. We'll unravel the mysteries behind intriguing names like Rufus, COSMO, and Project Amelia, representing Amazon's ongoing AI initiatives. Kevin shares his expertise on the evolution of AI from its early conceptual roots in the 80s to the transformative impact of transformer models around 2019, which paved the way for groundbreaking applications like ChatGPT. Discover how Amazon's increased investment in AI research is manifesting in published papers and sophisticated models that are revolutionizing customer interactions. We also explore Amazon's integration of AI in tools for sellers, highlighting the launch of advertising AI that optimizes campaigns with precision. The potential of AI in enhancing tools like Helium 10's Adtomic and Cerebro for more efficient Amazon PPC campaigns and keyword filtering is discussed, along with the impact of Amazon's Rufus on the shopping experience. While Rufus aims to improve customer interactions, we critically assess its current limitations and ponder its potential to shift some search activities directly to Amazon from platforms like Google and Pinterest. Additionally, we dive into Amazon's transition from lexical to semantic search, emphasizing the importance for sellers to align their product listings with customer needs for visibility and success in an AI-driven environment. Lastly, we examine AI-driven tools like Project Amelia in Amazon's Seller Central and their potential impact on brands and sellers. While chat-oriented interfaces may translate vague intentions into useful actions, skepticism remains regarding their revolutionary potential. We emphasize the importance of exploring third-party tools like Helium 10 for added value and addressing the hype surrounding changes in seller practices, reassuring listeners that successful strategies remain largely unchanged. Kevin's insights and our conversation shed light on the future of AI in e-commerce, leaving us excited for what's to come in this rapidly evolving field. In episode 606 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Kevin discuss: 00:00 - Advancements in AI and Amazon Science 00:41 - Decoding the Amazon COSMO Algorithm 08:42 - AI Model Cost Efficiency Advancements 09:48 - Amazon's AI Innovations and Rufus 14:59 - Implementing AI Chatbots Inside Online Marketplaces 20:29 - Enhancing Amazon's Semantic Search Capabilities 21:12 - Leveraging Rufus and COSMO for Selling Success 26:59 - Impact of Science on Amazon Practices 28:10 - Enhancing Amazon's Product Understanding With AI 30:01 - Customer Preferences for Pregnant Women 35:22 - Amazon's Data and Product Listings 37:30 - Amazon's Project Amelia in Seller Central 38:42 - Amazon's AI Recommendations for Sellers Transcript: Bradley Sutton: Today we talk to the person who knows more about AI and Amazon science papers than maybe anyone else in the world, and he's going to talk about all things Rufus, COSMO, Amelia and all other AI advancements from the Amazon side and beyond. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Series Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I'm your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show that's completely BS-free, unscripted and unrehearsed organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. Bradley Sutton: I'm not exactly 100% sure what I'm titling this episode, but I might have done something kind of clickbaity and say something. There is no such thing as the COSMO algorithm or something to get people to click on this. But let me just quickly explain that. Now. I don't mean that there's no such thing as Cosmo. There's a lot of documents out there from Amazon that talk about it, but there's nothing that says, hey, Cosmo is the new A9 algorithm, or there's nothing official from Amazon that says, hey, Cosmo is now in full effect across 75% of searches, or anything like that. Contrast that with all the articles from Amazon that talk about Rufus. I mean, Rufus is a thing you can actually see in everything. So I just wanted to do a clickbaity title like that and we'll definitely get into Cosmo and things like that later. But I've got back on the show probably one of the persons who's the highest expert in the world as far as AI and also what Amazon has been doing as far as on the AI front, and that's Kevin from our own Pacvue AI Labs. That's why I'm wearing this. It's actually a Brazilian soccer team, Palmeiras, I think. Bradley Sutton: I wanted to get something with a P on it. Yeah there you go. Bradley Sutton: I have a Padres P hat too, but since I'm a Dodgers fan, it hurts every time I even wear that hat. So I was like, no, I'm not going to do it, considering the times that we're in right now. But anyways, Kevin, welcome back. It's been a little over a year since you've been on the show. Kevin Dolan: Yeah, thanks for having me back. Last year was a lot of fun and we've been seeing a lot of things happen in the last year in AI, especially around Amazon's implementations of AI, so excited to talk about those updates. Bradley Sutton: Cool. Now let's just talk about AI in general, general. You know, like AI is kind of like, I guess, like about two years, I mean, people have been talking about AI for years but as far as the, the more recent trendy version of the topic, AI, um, it's really been, you know, like you know, ChatGPT and things like that over the last couple of years. And let's just talk about what's happened in general over the last year. You know the improvement Kevin Dolan: Okay, sure, yeah, I mean, like you said, AI has been around forever. We've been using the term at least since the 80 s in terms of technologies that we can actually use for actual production purposes. As we're using the term today, its meaning has shifted to largely refer to this current generation of models that we're seeing. That began in around 2019 with the introduction of what was called the Transformers model. This led eventually to a variant of that model called Large Language Models, popularized by Open AI's ChatGPT, and we've been seeing a sort of explosion in AI technology and investment into hardware, investment into research as a result of some of these findings. That has become sort of the current modern label of what is AI. We're talking primarily about transformer-based models that perform language or other modalities, including image generation, and we're talking about basically whatever is that front line of research that's happening right now. So you see this explosion happen with the release of the paper around 2018, 2019. And then you see the proliferation of training hardware that led to innovations like ChachGPT, where we're starting to see these emergent behaviors, where these models do start to exhibit something that you can really call intelligence. These models do start to exhibit something that you can really call intelligence. I came on here last year to talk about all of the different papers I had read from the prior four to five years at Amazon Research. You can tell, when you look at the number of papers that Amazon is releasing, that around that time around 2021, 2022, they started to invest a lot more in their research department. When they started releasing papers in Amazon Science in 2018, there were five papers about search. The following year, in 2019, there were 18. By 2021, there were 40. And then the next year there were almost 70 papers. That seems to have leveled off at this point. We saw about 70 papers last year and so far in this year we've seen about 60 papers. So we're probably going to end up in the same realm. So the number of papers that Amazon is releasing isn't really changing. What is changing is the complexity of the models that they're using is much more sophisticated and they're being targeted for much more practical use cases. You're seeing larger A-B tests where they're being run on material percentages of traffic on Amazon. You're seeing Amazon release actual AI features that are customer-facing, like Rufus, and we're seeing investments in hardware that make some of these models that used to be impossible to run in production now very conceivable. So I think we are seeing confirmation that Amazon is taking these technologies seriously. They're implementing it in production and it is starting to impact customer behaviors. Bradley Sutton: What about non-Amazon AI Like what you know? ChatGPT, imagery you? Know, like a couple of years ago it was just hallucinating nonstop, and then last year a little bit better. You know images. You could not create humans, you know, or products in there without seven fingers and stuff in the general world of AI. How has that come along in the last year? Kevin Dolan: Yeah, so I mean we are seeing continued investments in research and continued improvements on these models. The transfer model really revolutionized things, but the initial results that we were seeing out of those transformer models were a little disappointing. For the first time, we were starting to see computers understand language, computers being able to generate images, and our initial reaction was holy cow. We didn't know computers could do this, and then, as we started to use it a little bit more, we became really disappointed, because we're like, oh you know, all the people have six fingers. It's making up facts. You know, the things that it's saying don't really make sense. And so there's been a lot of people who have looked at this potential and started to invest material dollars in improving it to basically get to the point where now these technologies produce more reliable, more consistent results. There's still really major shortfalls, there's still issues, and I think you're going to see continued investment in this. The optimistic projections that you're getting from OpenAI. You know I'm personally a little bit cold on those, but who can predict the future? Who could have predicted that this would have happened? Yes, you are seeing improvements in image generation models, where the images that they're producing are now closer to reality. We're starting to see these used widely in industry, especially in fields like advertising, where you need to produce high volume creative. If you look at the features that Photoshop has released related to their Firefly AI image generation model, we're starting to see not only improved models but improved workflows for creatives to actually be using these tools in a way where, instead of just somebody typing some random prompt and getting whatever the system decides to give you now, people are actually able to control the output and get the output that they're looking for. So, between all of these things, you're seeing a lot of development to make these tools more practical to use. I'd say the biggest and most recent news is OpenAI's release of its strawberry model, which they call O1 in their release vernacular. The O1 model from OpenAI is performing thinking steps before it answers the question and hiding that thinking from you, the way that if you're asked a question, you might think about it a little bit before you answer it, and they're seeing really, really impressive results from that. You know we're getting closer to the place where these AI models might be able to do something that's a little bit more functional, a little bit more capable of actually interacting with real life data and real-life processes, you know, but we're still a little bit far away. Another issue that we keep running into is the dollar cost of running these models. Towards the end of last year, at Helium 10, we developed a review sentiment analysis model that basically would read thousands and thousands of reviews for your Amazon products and produce some analysis and produce an analysis of what people are saying about your product. You know Amazon has a similar product. Ours goes a little bit deeper than that but the idea is essentially the same. You know what are people saying about your product, what can you learn about it in order to improve your product, improve your listing, etc. And one of the things that we ran into with that model is just how prohibitively costly these models can be to run on large sets of data, and so we're starting to see investments in making models smaller and more special purpose, and we're also seeing improvements in hardware that make running these models more cost effective. This is really going to start to unlock production capabilities, and that companies will now be able to run AI models profitably. Bradley Sutton: Interesting, interesting. Now, yeah, we're always looking to add things that can utilize AI that helps Amazon sellers. You know we are launching this week advertising AI on our Atomic side, which is allow somebody to just enter in an ASIN and then our AI engine will kind of just create all the campaigns on its own and optimize them on its own. That's something that we've been using at Pacvue for a while, and we're integrating some AI things into tools like Cerebro, where you could have a prompt that allows you to filter out keywords or say, hey, can you please remove any Spanish keywords from the results? Or, hey, can you remove any branded? You know search terms, you know things that you know you could probably do on your own, but it just takes a lot longer. So, so, definitely, we're, we're keeping track of what AI can do, because anything that is doable. We want to go ahead and bring it into Helium 10. Bradley Sutton: We know that getting to page one on keyword search results is one of the most important goals that an Amazon seller might have. So track your progress on the way to page one and even get historical keyword ranking information and even see sponsored ad rank placement with Keyword Tracker by Helium 10. For more information, go to h10.me forward. Slash keyword tracker. Bradley Sutton: Now going back to the main topic, amazon. Before we get into the science more detailed, into whatever science documents have been released and things this year, let's talk about what is 100% already out there or talked about, which is like the Rufus and so Rufus, Cosmo I've got some personal opinions on it and that's all. A lot of this is, you know, until Amazon actually publishes something for sure, like you can't even say that, oh, a science document said this or that, because the great majority of the content of science documents actually doesn't actually get into production on Amazon. You know per se. You know so just because Amazon talked about in a science document. It's just a research paper, you know. But let's first about talk about the stuff that you know Amazon announced at Accelerate or has already rolled out to customers, like Rufus. And then my general thought on that and again I could be wrong and I'll be happy to switch my thinking when Amazon does make some different announcements is that Amazon is always about the customer. Right, they want to give a better result for the customer. And then I don't feel that, like Rufus, for example. Fyi, in my opinion it's terrible as a buyer where I'm like, hey, what did the review say about this product and it gives me an answer. And guess what? There's no reviews on that product. So, as a consumer, being kind of skeptical about some of these AI things, I just can't use it. And now the other part of it is I don't think anytime soon the traditional way of searching on Amazon is going to be improved in that if I know I want to buy and I talked about this in a previous episode recently if I want to buy a coffin shelf, there is no better process than me opening my Amazon app and typing the word towards coffin shelf and looking at the results like there is nothing unless amazon connects my brain to, to the app. That is going to ever be better than that where? In other words, I am not going to go and have a conversation with Rufus with my thumbs, you know, like taking typing in a whole bunch of I used to be a secretary. I type like a hundred words a minute. So like, let's say, I was on the desktop app, I'm still. I'm a lazy person, as all human beings are. I am not going to say what do you think, Rufus, about coffin shelves out there? Like, like, no, I'm going to type in nine letters and then. So that part. I almost don't think Amazon is necessarily trying to change that part, because they know that it's already the most optimized experience for people who know what they're looking for. Now here's the thing, though how did I get to that decision that I wanted a coffin shelf, like maybe I just knew it. But another thing is, maybe I'm just browsing like, hey, I want to uh, search on google what are trending, um, trending gifts in 2024 for teenagers with a gothic inclination, or something like that. Like, right now, I'm not doing that in Amazon, or, historically, I'm doing that like in Google, maybe Pinterest, you know, or maybe these other websites where I'm trying to get ideas. And then, all of a sudden, I read a blog, or I arrive on a TikTok or whatever, and I see, ooh, Coffin Shelf. I didn't even know that existed. Now let me go and type in coffin shelf on Amazon. So I think the potential of, of a fundamental change in the way we shop could be that maybe some of these searches that people would normally start on a Pinterest or on a Google, maybe now you can start in the Amazon app, where what I would have typed for the Google AI or things like it's just going to go ahead and, and, and I can start the Amazon app where what I would have typed for the Google AI or things like it's just going to go ahead and I can start, you know, just browsing, browsing things, and at the end of it, you know like Amazon might, or Rufus might, tell me yeah, you know, like we see some spooky families by coffin shelves, and then here are the coffin shelves Now. Anyways, I normally don't talk very much when I interview somebody, but I'm very passionate about this. But are we on the same page here, or what? Correct me if I'm wrong or if you have different ideas. Kevin Dolan: I mean totally with Rufus. You know Rufus is out, it's public, it's something that anybody can interact with. So we know it's been implemented and if you've actually used it, I'm sure you found the experience a little bit disappointing. You know it does two main things it helps you to figure out what search you might have wanted to type in if you weren't completely sure, and it answers questions about a product once you're looking at a particular product. I think that those two things could be useful. You know, I think that it's certainly early in the implementation of chatbots to say that these things are fully capable, but I think what you're seeing with Rufus is mainly two things here. The first is there's intense industry pressure to implement AI in a visible way that all companies are feeling. After ChatGPT was released, no major tech company wanted to fall behind on that trend, and so you started to see these types of very visible generative AI features implemented in tech platforms across all industries. If you've got a website, there's a good chance you've got a chatbot at this point, and so it's hard to imagine a world where Amazon was not going to release something like this. They really, really had to because there was so much pressure to at least try it, see if it works, see how customers respond to it. Also, we know that Amazon looks towards other retail experiences to try and understand what ways they can improve the e-commerce experience. It was not always the case that Amazon's primary vehicle for finding a product was a search bar. When Amazon was first released, it was largely node browse based. You would search through a series of categories and get to the product you're looking for, which is much akin to going to a store, looking at the different aisles, walking down the aisle that has your type of product and getting there. It was a major innovation for them to create a search engine that could search through any type of product and understand at some level what a person was looking for, and they've been making continuous improvements to that over the entire development of their company. I think with Rufus, the corollary in real life retail is going to a store and talking to an associate. If you go to a nice store where they have a more curated shopping experience, you might want to go and just talk to a person and ask them questions about the products that they're experts on. I think that's a sort of natural corollary to try to implement in an online context, but when I go to a store, if somebody comes up to me and starts telling me about their products, I'm personally not the type of person to respond to that, and so you know it's natural for me to look at Rufus with a little bit more skepticism than you know somebody who might enjoy that real life experience. I think that there are shortcomings with Rufus. I don't think it's going to materially impact the majority of purchase paths for the majority of customers. I agree with you. There is no easier user interface that I can imagine. When you are looking for something, you want to just go to Amazon, type it in a search box, a brief description of what you're looking for and then yeah, all right, I've got a list of things to look at. I've got some pictures. I can scan some results. I do find some utility with Rufus with respect to answering questions about products. You have to take it with a grain of salt because it can hallucinate. It can produce unactual information. However, I have used it in some context to ask a specific question about you know, can this product be compatible with some other product? And it will give you some kind of information that you can then verify using the listing, using the questions and I think that's helpful in order to use Rufus to come up with search ideas and things like that. I found that those features are a little bit less useful but, like you're saying, if they start to integrate the experience of asking these questions in a more core way, in a way that feels less bolted on and gives you more than just a text output with links if it were to give you, say, a sort of a Pinterest board for product discovery, help you to better understand how to get to the listings that you want to find. I could see a world where those user interfaces become material for less targeted searches, where you aren't really sure exactly what you want to buy off the bat. One of the things that they point out in the blog post about Rufus because they haven't released a scientific paper about it detailing the implementation. But one of the things they point out is, if you are going to involve yourself in some kind of activity like, let's say, ongoing camping in Joshua Tree, I might use a tool like Rufus to answer the question of what types of things do I need? You know the kinds of things that you might talk to a store associate at a camping store about and it can start to give you some ideas about this. But I think we're pretty far from the point where you would give it the same kind of trust as you would give as somebody who has put their body in a camping experience routinely. Bradley Sutton: I agree. I think Rufus definitely has some potential to help things if the hallucinations stop, because there are things that as consumers, we do that takes time. After I land on a couple of products, I might start looking at the reviews. I might start looking at details of the bullet points and descriptions to see use cases and try and find out material. I might look at the images to see the stats and the ingredients of something, and these are all things that can take a lot of time, especially if I'm not sure where to look. Like I don't know where a seller has put in their listing. You know which material to use, so I can definitely see Rufus helping there. But then, you see, my thing is then you know and this kind of goes now into the Cosmo discussion is I materially do not believe that sellers should be doing anything differently right now. To me, the people who Rufus and Cosmo might help, if anything, is the people. It's kind of like maybe leverage or leveling the playing field a little bit for some of the people maybe who are not doing the best practices. You know, maybe I didn't put all the right keywords in my listing and so I wasn't indexed for it on day one, but then Cosmo or whatever, over time recognizes that the people who are buying my product are actually looking for it for this certain use case. It's kind of like what you and I showed last year on the podcast where noodle camera. Right, you know, noodle camera was not that keyword, was not at the time, I don't know about now, but was not in any listings on Amazon and it didn't have much search volume. So it's not like it was a big loss. But Amazon learned and we don't again. We don't know if this was Cosmo that did it or it's just Amazon algorithm, you know but Amazon learned that, hey, these people who are searching a noodle camera, they're actually looking for this stethoscope kind of camera that looks like a noodle, and so who don't? We don't know how long it took for that to actually become indexed as something, butthat's a benefit you know like. But at the end, if noodle camera was an important keyword, I, if I would have put that keyword in my listing from day one, I would have been the only one searchable. I wouldn't have had to wait for Cosmo or whatever A9, to kind of learn about that. And so again for the person who only keyword stuffs right, you're like, hey, I'm going to pull all my keywords from Cerebro and Magnet and just throw it in my listing and try and get it, each keyword four times. Yeah, you know what? You probably should change your, your methodology, because that's not. That hasn't been the best way of doing things for years. But we've been teaching here at Helium 10 that you have got to talk about pain points to your product solves in your listing. You've got to show it in the images. You know what use cases. If you have collagen peptides, you've got to show people using it in their coffee. Not that they use the keyword coffee to search for collagen peptides, but that's how they are searching for it. They want something that is going to dissolve well in their coffee, and so you've got to be indexed from day one. You've got to talk about what pain points your product solves, and then that's what's going to put you on the radar of these Amazon AI things. And so in that sense, I don't think a seller's you know, most sellers should be changing their methodology at all because of any of these new things. What are your thoughts on that.? Kevin Dolan: Yeah Well, I mean, I think it'll first be helpful to talk about what Cosmo is and what Cosmo isn't, because I've been reading a lot of the blog articles, watching the videos and I'm seeing something that tends to happen in tech sometimes, where a word or a technology is being used as a stand-in for some broader movement within the space. I'm seeing a lot of people conflating Cosmo, which is a specific research paper, a specific tool that was built and was tested. It's described very specifically in a scientific paper. Cosmo is this tool, but I think it's being used more broadly to capture a shift into focusing more on semantic search and less on lexical search, which is exactly what I had come on last year to talk about. Amazon has been working on this for years and years, improving their search algorithm to not rely on a listing creator to actually put a specific keyword in their listing and then find it based on the existence of that keyword in the listing. Instead, try to understand the meaning of a product, how people use it, what people think about the product and all of these kinds of details, so that when somebody types in a search, it can effectively find the product that they're going to want to buy. That is a shift that's been happening for years. That predates transformer models, but we have started to see for sure an increased ability to actually do these things on Amazon. I think that what you're saying is correct. You know the best practices and what sellers should be doing with their listings hasn't changed. But that really depends on what they were doing, whether they were following the best practices to begin with. You know like you said, if they were keyword stuffing trying to find as many keywords as people might type into a search box and stuff it into their listing in as literal a fashion as possible to make Sammy-looking listings that cover as much search volume as possible yeah, that's a bad practice, and as we move into a more semantically focused search world, that becomes an even worse practice. Semantically focused search world that becomes an even worse practice. What it also tells us is that some of the efforts that are required today to create listings that do involve inserting specific keywords and things like that. You may be able to shift your focus to what would actually be more helpful to customers, which is accurately describing your product, accurately describing how your product will be used and targeting specific customers and specific pain points. The more specific you are and the clearer and more accurate you are, amazon wants you to be in front of the customers who want to buy your product. So that's always going to be a good practice and that's ultimately what Amazon is trying to do when they're doing these types of experiments. Now the Cosmo paper is interesting. The Cosmo paper was tested on a really large chunk of Amazon traffic using a very heavy, large language model. Compared to prior research, which does tell us that Amazon has made investments in the server capabilities to be able to run these models in production and keep searches within their tight latency expectations, so that, I would say, is certainly significant, it tells us that Amazon does have the hardware capacities to run some of these more advanced models and it tells us that we are going to see an increased focus on semantic search. I think that does affect consumer behaviors, it does affect the way that we rank for keywords, but what it doesn't affect is that best practice of describing your products accurately. Bradley Sutton: Based on those scientific documents. What are some of the things where, again, just because it's in the science document doesn't mean that it's going to be implemented. But, you know, based on the results and sometimes you can kind of tell like, wow, this one had some pretty amazing results, so it's probably for sure going to be implemented. Can you talk a little bit more about the kind of things that maybe you've seen already implemented or you think will be based on all you know? Again, nobody has read more Amazon science documents than Kevin here. So what would you predict as far as the future, the next year or so? Kevin Dolan: I mean, Cosmo is a specific tool and I think that the function that it performs is valuable to enhancing Amazon's understanding of a listing. So I certainly would not be surprised to see Amazon implementing this in a production capacity on a large swath of searches. That would not be surprising to me, but it's not as massive as the shift that we've seen into semantic focused search. Cosmo in particular discusses essentially a mechanism for enhancing Amazon's understanding of a product by taking into consideration things that aren't expressed in the query and things that aren't expressed in the listing. The example that they use in the paper, the canonical example, is if you're looking for shoes for pregnant women, a listing might not literally say shoes for pregnant women. It might produce a specific type of open-toed shoe that has good support, good comfort. That might not literally be listed as a keyword in the listing, but it might be something that the system can infer based on its knowledge of the universe, about what it's like to be a pregnant woman and the types of products that they might benefit from. Cosmo is essentially a mechanism for enhancing listings with additional information to get closer to the user's intent based on a particular search. If you zoom out and you look at the broader task of semantic search. That's always been the focus. The goal is something might not be said in the same language in a query as it might be when it's written in a listing, when it's answered in a question or when it's written in a review be when it's written in a listing, when it's answered in a question or when it's written in a review, and so the domain of language that's used for these two different ways of expressing thought aren't the same, and so we need to create algorithms that better understand what a user actually means when they type in a search, and what a product actually does and what functions it performs. This idea of understanding deep intent and the actual composition of a product is essentially the goal, and we are seeing for sure that Amazon is making these changes. We're seeing more results come back for listings that do not literally have the keywords typed into search and better match what is a user's real intent on shopping. Bradley Sutton: But for it to learn that something is a good shoe for pregnant women, it basically would have to have some context, like maybe the reviews. Like somebody said, oh, I was in the second trimester and this was great. It's not going to pull that out of nothing unless, no, I was going to say maybe it knows that. Like, maybe somehow it knows the customer is pregnant and then, without even a review, it's a wow. We see an abnormally large number of pregnant women who are buying this. But I don't, I don't know. I mean, I think I big dad. Kevin Dolan: I could tell you that, Cosmo, the paper itself does. You're talking about what's usually called avatar personalization, based on your purchase history. I know some things about you. I can kind of put you in this category of person, and I know that these types of people tend to buy these types of products. The Cosmo paper doesn't actually explicitly discuss testing avatar personalization. Doesn't actually explicitly discuss testing avatar personalization. What it does talk about is using recent Search Queries to better contextualize later Search Queries. So like, for example, if I'm searching for camping gear and then I search for mattress after that, there's a good chance that I specifically mean a camping mattress or an inflatable mattress rather than a mattress for a bed in your home that weighs 200 pounds. It can better contextualize a particular search query based on the searches that you've been performing in the recent past. Avatar personalization is another thing that Amazon is always investigating and we have yet to see any really material evidence that it's been implemented. Almost all of the studies that I've read relating to that type of personalization they talk about the potential of it, but in practice they tend to perform pretty poorly. They either reduce sales or they don't materially impact sales, which is a major problem. They don't materially impact sales, which is a major problem, especially considering that cost of performing that personalization. Amazon does a lot to make sure that the searches that come back are within a very tight latency. They need to come back as quickly as possible and that's very important to the shopping experience. The more personalized search results are, the more expensive those search queries are going to be to run and the longer it's going to take, which materially affects your experience as a purchaser. Yes, hardware is improving. Yes, technologies are improving, but if you can just reuse results, it's always going to be a lot faster than if you compute it on the fly. Bradley Sutton: But then, still, using the same example, I think, if you knew that, hey, your shoes have good cushioning and you designed it actually for pregnant women to be able to use, the best practice still is to put that keyboard in your listing for day one, so that at least you have a. You know, you don't have to wait for the AI to learn based on activity, you know. But then, if it's not something that's readily like, maybe you had no idea that people were using your shoes for gifts for people who are pregnant, like, maybe you had no idea. That's where, like, I think Cosmo, Rufus and stuff is going to help to uncover these sub-niches of people who are getting your product. But again, at the end of the day, this scenario, I don't think there's anything different that the seller needs to do as far as with their listing that we haven't already said. Now, at the same time, maybe they learn. I think this is going to open up some new potentials down the road. Like, let's say, Helium 10 starts seeing what the common Rufus things are being said about the product or what's the common queries. Maybe Amazon will make that available for sellers through some API that says, hey, this persona is buying your product. Well, maybe I would go into my listing and change one of my images to show a pregnant person walking around with these shoes. But again, that's what you should have been doing for years. You know, like when you read your reviews and you notice like I used to sell this or I still do sell this egg tray, and I was reading the reviews one day and people were using this egg tray, this wooden egg tray, to as a serving platter for like sushi and also these chocolates, because you know the holes for an egg tray is very similar I was like I never would have thought that so in that situation, who knows, maybe Rufus would have seen the reviews and saw these images and now, all of a sudden, even though I don't have chocolates or sushi in my egg tray listing, I would be searchable for those keywords. But again, as soon as I would have seen that review or known that people are using my product in a way and this is what I did years before AI. You know cause this was years ago that I did this I went in and I did a reef photo shoot showing other use cases of it and I did one image, or like a quadrant of four images that showed somebody putting sushi in it, somebody putting chocolate in it, somebody putting this and that's, and then I put it in my listing too. So, I was like I didn't want to wait for Amazon to hopefully index me for these keywords. So again, I just go back to the point that what Amazon is doing is not really making things where sellers are going to have to do something completely different, but they they're helping maybe the sellers who haven't been doing the best practices to get indexed for keywords that maybe they weren't smart enough to put in their listing. Yeah, I mean, I think so. Kevin Dolan: What you're ultimately seeing with Cosmo is taking information from Amazon's entire catalog, which includes billions of products, billions of product listings, billions of questions, billions of answers, billions of reviews. There's a lot of information contained in all of that data, which starts to build a picture of how the universe works, and so, in a sense, you could think of it as Amazon using the information it's learned from existing listings to enhance all listings and build a more comprehensive picture of their catalog. I totally agree with you that it doesn't change the best practices, and still, I would say it's now even more critical that you are taking into consideration the use cases for your products, the people who might be using it, and accurately describe these in your listings. I think that that is still absolutely the best way to rank for products. I think what it does is it shifts focus from some of those old school techniques that we were probably recommending 10 years ago. It's no longer necessary for you to enumerate all possible customers of a product, but instead focus on the key use cases and the key customers to your products, describe these things as accurately and as naturally as possible. It's not required for you to think of all the ways that you could possibly say pregnant woman. Instead, you can just describe the fact that this is useful for a person who is pregnant. Bradley Sutton: Outside of Cosmo, Rufus. Obviously, they announced a lot of things at Amazon Accelerate, like Amelia for Amazon sellers. Any comments on other things that Amazon have been working on the AI front? Yeah, I mean I would say Amelia is Amazon sellers. Any comments on other things that Amazon have been working on the AI front.? 0:36:59 - Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean I would say Amelia is certainly interesting. Amelia is Amazon's internal chatbot for Seller Central. You know, I've yet to play with it. I've yet to see anybody who's actually had access to it, so I think it's just an early announcement. Maybe some limited people have access, but I would imagine it's going to undergo the hype cycle that we see for most chatbots, including Rufus. There's going to be a lot of excitement. The initial version will be pretty terrible. It will slowly get better over time. The question is whether it will continue to receive enough investment to make it into a chatbot product that is useful for people, and whether chat is as natural an interface. As you know, Seller Central is in and of itself. You know, I think we've spent a lot of time over the past 30, 40 years developing software interaction paradigms, so we have a good idea of what is easy to use software. There is potential that we could be using these more chat oriented interfaces to get to our vague intents that we have in our head a little bit more quickly, but we haven't really proven that out yet, and so I would say Amelia has a very similar potential to Rufus in that it's something that I believe could be useful if it is properly invested in, but the jury's still out on whether or not it's going to be a material impacting to people's workflow as you start to get access to it. I do recommend that sellers give it a try, just like with any of these tools see if it's useful for their workflows, but I'm not really holding my breath on it being revolutionary. Bradley Sutton: A lot of the recommendations that Amazon gives in Seller Central is. I think a lot of sellers have learned to just ignore them because they're not exactly that useful. And then. So, if this is, it's like putting lipstick on a pig, you know like sure you could put the AI word up, but if it's being based on something that you don't trust in the first place, you know, might be a little bit of time before we can implement it, but I think that Amazon is definitely moving in the right direction and that Amelia has nothing to do with the customer. You know, like we always say, Amazon is all about the customer, which is true, but I think that's just in itself is a step in the right direction, that, hey, Amazon is doing things that are going to try and help the seller, and that's a trend I've been seeing over the last few years. I think it's a very nice step in the right direction. Kevin Dolan: On that front, we've definitely been seeing Amazon release features in Seller Central using AI that are more seller oriented, that help sellers to understand their products. They've released their own features for review analysis, which does get some basic, surface level summary statistics that could be helpful for people. I think Amazon is making investments there. However, they're always going to be a little bit step removed from the customer. They're always, at the end of the day, competing with sellers to some degree. There are certain things that they can do, certain things that they're limited on in terms of where their interests lie versus where the sellers lie, and so that's where tools like Helium 10 become much more valuable to customers, and so I do recommend that you look at the full suite of tools that you have available to you, because there's going to be things that Amazon will implement and there's going to be things that they're going to be hesitant to implement, for whatever reason. Bradley Sutton: All right. Well, Kevin, thank you so much for riffing on this with me. It's something I'm passionate about because I'm all about. I'm not like Amazon, I'm all about the sellers, not about the customers, and so anything that affects sellers or you, you know, if there's going to be some big inherent change in the way that sellers need to do things, then I get very passionate about it. And especially when I hear I don't want to, you know, use the word misinformation, you know out there, but almost like scare tactics or just clickbaity stuff, which I just did in this very podcast with the title of it but with at least, if you're in a clickbait, at least let people know that what the real situation is, because I don't want I've had so many sellers come up to me because of just hearing things where it's like, oh, my goodness, I've got to change everything I'm doing for my keyword research. I've got to change everything I'm doing for my listing optimization. And right now, the fact of the matter is, no, I'm still doing the exact same things I did last year. There are some slightly different things because there's new rules at Amazon of what you can and can't do and of course, I've switched, but as far as the way I make my listings and I structure it and how I do my keyword research. Not one iota different am I doing it now, and I have had the exact same success with getting to page one on all my main keywords and getting sales for the keywords I think I'm relevant for. And so I think that's just important to know, guys, that as AI evolves, I'm sure I'm positive there's going to be new things that we might have to do as sellers and stay tuned. We'll let you know what those are, but right now, as long as you've been paying attention to our tutorials the last few years, you're not having to do anything different, in my opinion. So, anyways, thanks, Kevin, let's definitely bring you on in 2025. And you know, who knows, maybe AI will be we'll be driving all of our cars and we're driving like the Jetsons or something. I don't know what's. What's going to happen, but we're going to find out with you next year. Kevin Dolan: Super excited. Thanks for having me.
This week's buzzing news: The Project X account was booted from Etsy, Amazon bundling has changed drastically, and 15 updates were announced at Amazon Unboxed this week! We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's Chief Brand Evangelist, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. TikTok wants to turn millions of Americans into paid shopping influencers https://restofworld.org/2024/tiktok-shop-influencers-us/ Amazon bundles online shopping of groceries and nonfood items https://www.retaildive.com/news/amazon-fresh-whole-foods-ecommerce-delivery-pickup-automated-micro-fulfillment/729619/ Amazon Unboxed Updates: Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) eligibility expanded to sponsored ads advertisers (through partners) https://advertising.amazon.com/en-us/resources/whats-new/expanding-amc-eligibility-to-advertisers-and-partners/?ref_=a20m_us_wn_gw Increase engagement through audience bid boosting for Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands https://advertising.amazon.com/en-us/resources/whats-new/unboxed-audience-bid-boosting/?ref_=a20m_us_wn_gw Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) Audiences can now be used in Sponsored Ads https://advertising.amazon.com/en-us/resources/whats-new/amc-audiences-for-sponsored-ads/?ref_=a20m_us_wn_gw Increase engagement through audience bid boosting for Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands https://advertising.amazon.com/en-us/resources/whats-new/unboxed-audience-bid-boosting/?ref_=a20m_us_wn_gw New Sponsored TV releases make it easier than ever to reach relevant audiences and measure performance https://advertising.amazon.com/en-us/resources/whats-new/amazon-ads-new-sponsored-tv-releases/?ref_=a20m_us_wn_gw Deliver more relevant ads everywhere, independent of ad ids, with Ad Relevance https://advertising.amazon.com/en-us/resources/whats-new/ad-relevance/?ref_=a20m_us_wn_gw Understand the top combinations of ad touchpoints that drive conversions https://advertising.amazon.com/en-us/resources/whats-new/ad-touchpoints-drive-sales-with-conversion-path-reporting/?ref_=a20m_us_wn_gw Build a holistic first-party data strategy with Ads data manager https://advertising.amazon.com/en-us/resources/whats-new/ads-data-manager-beta/?ref_=a20m_us_wn_gw Amazon DSP launches Performance+ tactics into beta https://advertising.amazon.com/en-us/resources/whats-new/amazon-dsp-launches-performance-plus-tactics/?ref_=a20m_us_wn_gw Create impactful interactive audio ads in just a few clicks with Audio generator https://advertising.amazon.com/en-us/resources/whats-new/audio-generator/?ref_=a20m_us_wn_gw Create high-quality AI-generated videos in minutes https://advertising.amazon.com/en-us/resources/whats-new/create-high-quality-ai-generated-videos-in-minutes/?ref_=a20m_us_wn_gw Make creative development a breeze with AI creative studio (beta) https://advertising.amazon.com/en-us/resources/whats-new/unboxed-ai-creative-studio/?ref_=a20m_us_wn_gw Interactive ads expand availability across streaming TV into Prime Video https://advertising.amazon.com/en-us/resources/whats-new/interactive-ads-expand-across-streaming-tv-into-prime-video/?ref_=a20m_us_wn_gw Understand the value of new-to-brand shoppers beyond immediate sales https://advertising.amazon.com/en-us/resources/whats-new/long-term-sales/?ref_=a20m_us_wn_gw Maximize your campaign impact with the new Amazon DSP experience https://advertising.amazon.com/en-us/resources/whats-new/new-amazon-dsp-experience/?ref_=a20m_us_wn_gw Don't miss out on the details of upcoming online and in-person events designed to sharpen your e-commerce strategies: Freedom Ticket Webinar - http://h10.me/ftoctober Meganar - http://h10.me/meganar Winning Amazon Advertising Strategies - http://h10.me/adsoctober Sydney, Australia Event - http://h10.me/sydney Milan, Italy Elite Workshop - http://h10.me/milan Dubai, UAE Event - http://h10.me/dubai Whether you're new to Amazon or running large-scale brands, these updates are sure to provide valuable insights and opportunities for growth. Listen in as I break down these developments and what they mean for you as a seller. In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers: 01:07 - Etsy is THE WORST! 05:38 - Amazon Bundling Change 06:44 - TikTok Influencers 08:23 - Amazon Shopping Test 09:59 - Compliance Fast Track 10:31 - FBA New Selection Perk 11:30 - Large & Heavy Returns 12:15 - Online Events 15:19 - Sydney, Australia 15:49 - Milan, Italy 16:30 - Dubai, UAE 16:51 - Amazon Unboxed Recap ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Transcript Bradley Sutton: The Project X account was unceremoniously booted from Etsy this week. There's been a huge change. For those who do bundling on Amazon, a complete guide of the 15 updates announced at Amazon Box this week. This and more on this week's Weekly Buzz. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Bradley Sutton: Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I am your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show that is our Helium 10 Weekly Buzz, where we give you a rundown of all the news stories and goings on in the Amazon and e-commerce world. We also give you training tips of the week and give you serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. Let's see what's buzzing. Today is going to be almost all news, guys, because we've got like 24 different news articles to talk about due to the Unboxed conference that was held this week, and we're going to get to pretty much every single announcement that was done at Unboxed. And also we got some cool online events that you guys might want to participate in, so make sure to stay tuned for that. Let's go ahead and hop right into the news. Bradley Sutton: I wanted to tell you a story. I got this email this week from Etsy for the Project X account. So you guys know Project X is where we sell coffin shelves and egg trays and you know these. Actually, most of the products qualify for Etsy. All right, because you've got to either design it in the USA and slash or it's not. It doesn't have to be both. Or have you know a member of your own shop is the one who is putting it together and it's not like you know mass production, you know line and the products on project X that qualify. Bradley Sutton: Um, I've been selling on Etsy for like five years. You've probably heard me talk about it, sold maybe a hundred thousand dollars worth over the years, and so what happened was I got this email this week and it said the following hey, how cool is that store? We've reached out that you've got listings that were not in line with eBay's creativity standards. All right, blah, blah, blah, blah, your account has been permanently suspended. I'm like what? Like? First of all, you guys should know who we are. We're Helium 10, guys Like we're not trying to like game the system or something. We're trying to like actually promote Etsy by having an account. We're not trying to make money, we're trying to like, promote people to sell on Etsy Now, of course, and so you should let us do whatever we want. No, but we're 100% in compliance. Bradley Sutton: And they just send this list like nonstop or this just like big long thing of can't sell on Etsy anymore. You can still ship pending orders. You may see a delay of getting paid up to 180 days and at the very end it says if you think there's a mistake, duh, you may be able to file an appeal with Etsy. Here's how it works. So, of course, I filed appeal and then I went through the questionnaire. I send them video proof. I'm like, guys, we have not violated one policy. I mean, there's thousands, tens of thousands of products on Etsy that are clearly not in policy. Not how, not how cool is that project X stuff? So, uh, you know, I I showed them details, like showed that it was our shop making it. Bradley Sutton: You know, like even videos of myself. Uh, you know, I showed them details, like showed that it was our shop making it. You know, like even videos of myself, you know, helping to make some of the products. I actually showed the original Project X videos. I was like, hey, we actually did a reality TV shows that shows when we're designing this product in the USA. You know, kind of like your policy says got to be designed in the USA. Here's some proof of that. Bradley Sutton: And then I told them I was like no, maybe you didn't know, but like we're an educational platform here, we don't make tools for Etsy at Helium 10, but we liked helping people to sell online, submitted it and then two days later get this message. It says this is Etsy's trust and safety team and we're like Etsy's dumb and dumber team. But anyways, we appreciate you taking the time to file an appeal. No, no, you really don't. After careful consideration, no, I'm pretty sure you did not carefully consider anything. We've determined your account does not qualify for reinstatement. We performed a comprehensive review. No, you did not and we're unable to further reconsider. You know they don't allow me to say anything. I can't talk to anybody. There's like no, but no customer support to reach out to discuss I mean this whole process of this, not one person to reach out. So, anyways, my point is yeah, you're not going to see me here promoting etsy to for you guys to sell on etsy. I've done that before. But then also those of you who are selling on ety and you do get, like these notification warnings. You know, maybe do a little bit more than me as far as trying to get somebody on the line to talk to you to see why in the world you're getting these notifications when you're if you're fully in line with their requirements. Bradley Sutton: Who have bad? You know, I hear bad experiences all the time with Walmart, amazon customer service. Everybody always has complaints. Guys, it could be worse, right? I've not seen a worse experience with customer service than Etsy. It was kind of funny. At the bottom of the email it says their address and I was like wait a minute, 117 Adams Street, Brooklyn, new York. I looked it up Sure enough. Coincidentally, 27 years ago when I lived in New York, I actually worked down the street there in Brooklyn Heights and in that building, 117 Adams, where Etsy's headquarters is I used to give tours at that building. That was part of my job. It was a printery in those days and I'm like, wow, what are the odds of that? I live in California, that's on the other side, anyways, I digress. Wow, what are the odds of that? I live in California, that's on the other side, anyways, I digress, that doesn't even matter, I'd love to give a tour there. Now, look at this here we have customer service representatives who have no idea what Etsy's policies are. No, I'm sorry, I'm just a little bit bitter here, but anyways, let's move on to other news here, the first article of the day. Bradley Sutton: This is kind of big actually for a lot of people who do bundling. It says updated product bundling policy for consumables. All right, so, effective October 14th, you can only list bundles that are created and offered by the original manufacturer. So what does that mean? Let's say I've got a blue diamond almonds here and I've got Wetzel's pretzel nuts or pretzels, something right. Well, what you could do in the old days was you could go and put them and make a new bundle, all right, like Blue Diamond Almonds and Pretzels, and this is my Bradley's Amazing Snack Box brand, and there's no problem, I can have products. But now you can no longer do that going forward. All right, this was a big strategy by people who do bundles and didn't want to like have to compete with just the blue diamond. You know, uh, the blue diamond brand, right, you just put under your own brand and differentiate yourself by maybe offering other products. But you are no longer going to be able to do that. So check your seller central dashboard. That's kind of going to affect a lot of people out there who do, uh, certain kind of bundling. Bradley Sutton: Next article is from restoftheworld.org and it's entitled TikTok wants to turn millions of Americans into paid shopping influencers Super interesting article that talks about the promotions that TikTok is doing to get more influencers out there. And guys, let me just tell you that this thing works from sellers. It was funny. I was talking to my family the other day. I had set up a TikTok shop account on the Project 5K Not even the Project X one, my Project 5K Amazon account or products and I only put one on there and I just wanted to go through the process. It was like a month ago and I sent our product like a sample to some influencers. I chose maybe like a maximum of like eight different people, maybe it was only five and then I forgot about it. Right, I was just like, okay, whatever. Now again, as you guys know, I don't ship my own products for my factory, my family or my factory, my warehouse, my family handles all of that. And then I was just looking at some report and the TikTok was like what? We sold 23 of these products in the last couple of weeks. I didn't promote it at all, other than sending it out to these influencers on TikTok. So again, that is, the way to success on TikTok shop is through influencer marketing. It's kind of an interesting article that talks about that. There's going to be stuff you know from Helium 10. Look forward to that. That might help with that in the future, not only for TikTok but also Amazon influencers too. It's a great way to make extra money yourself as sellers or newer sellers trying to make extra money, or you're an experienced seller and you want to. You know you should want to reach out to these influencers that are on Amazon. They can make unboxing videos and things and other UGC for your products, all right. Bradley Sutton: Next article is from retail dive.com and it's entitled Amazon bundles online shopping of grocery and non food items. All right, so this is a test that they're doing. I think it was in Arizona where you could like actually order Amazon fresh products, whole foods and your Amazon in one shopping cart experience and then get like everything like a couple hours. Now, you know you might think, well, how does this? How is this going to affect me? I don't sell in Whole Foods, right, but it's an interesting advantage for Prime members and another benefit of being a Prime member. You know, in the past you'd have to physically go to Whole Foods perhaps. Maybe use the Amazon Fresh subsection to make just an Amazon Fresh grocery order. And then your third thing would be hey, let me order a couple of things from the Amazon Prime app, and then now there's three different deliveries and so Amazon is testing. Hey, can we give Prime members who live in certain regions the ability to just do it all in one shopping experience, saving customer time and money? This, I think, would be good for us Amazon sellers. Obviously, we're not selling Amazon Fresh or Whole Foods, but how many of orders maybe the person decided you know what? I'm just going to go in person to whole foods and let me just get my other items, like the snacks that maybe they could have gotten on Amazon, that maybe you carry. Or you know what? I'm going to go to a whole foods and let me go next door to Walmart to pick up. You know the toilet paper I need, right, maybe you sell toilet paper, but now your Amazon Prime order might get the order because people are trying to buy in this little bundle. So you know, this is not a hashtag game changer or anything like that, but I think, a good move by Amazon that will help sellers down the road if it's picked up by customers. Bradley Sutton: Next article is from your Seller Central dashboard and it's entitled Make Product Compliance Easier with Compliance Fast Track. We talked about this. This is one of those announcements at Amazon Accelerate, and now this is one of those ones that's now available. So check your dashboard, because now in such product categories as electronics, arts and crafts, you are now going to be able to get your compliance documentation in a more automated way instead of having to one by one do it. So for more information, if you're in one of those categories, make sure to check that on your dashboard. Bradley Sutton: Another program that you might not be aware of is called the FBA New Selection, and now there's a new benefit from this program and, effective last month, they're going to offer now a 25% discount. I don't know why they're just mentioning it now it was available last month, but it just got announced yesterday or day before where you can get a 25% discount on Vine for your eligible new products If you are in FBA new selection. Now I would go into that article and it actually links to the knowledge base about FBA new selection, like wait, who qualifies for FBA new selection? What are the other benefits? There's actually a lot of other benefits, more than just a discount on Vine. You can actually get a 10% rebate for sales on eligible ASINs. You can get free monthly storage, and so this is a program. If you have not heard about it, check your Seller Central dashboard. Go through to the knowledge base article on Amazon Seller Central about that and get some more information. Next article going back to the seller central dashboard, again, a seller fulfilled prepaid returns are now offered through UPS for large and heavy items, right, so that wasn't available to do UPS before, and so if you are selling a large and heavy item, make sure to check this article on your dashboard. This is like a product that weighs more than 90 pounds, et cetera. Check this article on your dashboard. This is like a product that weighs more than 90 pounds, et cetera. Amazon has some new programs in place that you need to be aware about, because now buyers are going to automatically be able to trigger some of these returns, and so you might all of a sudden start ending up with, you know, with like 50 refrigerators. If you sell refrigerators in your warehouse, you're like, where did all these return refrigerators come from? I never got returns before, but it might be part of this new program, so make sure to check that out if it affects you. Bradley Sutton: Now, before we get into Amazon Unbox, a few on and offline events I think are really good for you guys to know. About the online ones, obviously, anybody can register for All right. The first event is actually tomorrow, the 18th, at 11 am. It's going to be a our monthly freedom to get workshop where Kevin King brings on an expert to do an advanced training for Amazon sellers, and this one is going to be entitled why Branding has Always Been your Biggest Marketing Problem and how AI Will Solve it All right, so, completely free workshop. If you guys want to register and watch it live, completely free workshop. Um, if you guys want to register and watch it live, uh, you can go to h10.me/ftoctober. F T for freedom ticket. Bradley Sutton: Next online event is something I haven't done in years. How many of you guys out there remember Meganar? You guys remember that I did like a Meganar. It's like a mega webinar years ago. It's probably been like five years where I went live for 16 hours straight. It was insane. They wouldn't let me go live 16 hours again. But this Monday I am going to go live, this time with the help of Carrie and Shivali and others, and I'm going to have maybe 10, 20 guests on the show. We're going to go live from 7 am all the way into 2 pm Pacific time. So we tried to pick some times where different people can hop in, hop off, and the basic theme of it is tips from top sellers that we're going to be inviting on on how to really have a great Q4, have a great Black Friday to Cyber Monday, cyber Weekend, cyber 5, and some tips that are really going to help you in the coming weeks. I've invited a really wide variety of sellers with different experiences that they're going to be giving their top tips throughout that. We're also going to be trying to get money live back from Amazon because, remember, the deadline is going to be in a couple of days for that. So we're going to be doing some of that, like we're trying to get up to maybe $500,000 back. We're going to have prizes, like like trivias and giveaways with swag. It is going to be a fun time. So to register for that, go to h10.me/meganar. Bradley Sutton: All right One. The very next day, on Tuesday, we are going to have a special workshop with Destiny about AI advertising, something new that Helium 10 has, and Destiny has helped optimize a little bit and she has some cool templates that are going to help for Q4. So it's kind of like continuing the conversation about Q4 and how to get your advertising ready coming up, how you can now set up campaigns in seconds with a new tool that you might not know is available to you without even having to buy this tool separately. So it's going to be pretty cool. That's going to be Tuesday of next week. If you want to join that, go to h10.me/adsoctober. Bradley Sutton: Now some in-person events that I think are, uh, you should go to. I'll be at almost all of these and would love to meet you guys and hang out. The first one is coming up is going to be October 31st this month. I think that's Halloween. I'm not sure if they do Halloween in Australia, but it's October 31st in Sydney, Australia. Uh, I would love to see you guys there. It's an Amazon event, all right, this is like made by Amazon corporate in Australia, h10.me/sydney. If you guys are interested in going, I think it's a free event, all right. So would love to meet and hang out with you guys there my very first ever trip down under, so it'll be great to go there. Bradley Sutton: Next event will be in Milan, Italy, November 11th. This is an elite workshop, but it's open to everybody. Elite members go free, but instead of $400, we are doing a special where anybody can go to this high-end elite workshop for only 89 euros. It's going to be in Milan, Italy, h10.me/milan. It's going to be with Avast. We're going to have some great speakers. I'll be speaking there my first time speaking at Elite Workshop this year. We'll have Mansour from Incrementum Digital coming from Canada, We'll have George from ClearAds coming from the UK, Jana from Serbia we have a very international speaking group and I definitely think you guys, um, should make it out to that one. And then last will be a December, the 4th I believe and fifth in Dubai. I'll be speaking at a pretty big event over there and that is h10.me/dubai. It's called World EF, Dubai event, so there's going to be a bunch of people speaking there. It'd be great to meet you there. Bradley Sutton: All right, now let's get into Amazon Unboxed and this is probably going to be your biggest or the most comprehensive recap. I hope so. I wasn't even there, but I really tried to read up on all the articles and what people were writing to get a good kind of like picture of what happened at Amazon Unboxed. I was able to go last year, but this year didn't make it. So let's go ahead and hop into it. Some of this stuff, guys, is a little bit in the weeds. It's a little over my head, like I'm not a professional advertiser. Obviously, I spend $100,000 a year on advertising, but I don't consider myself, like you know, some advanced person who does DSP and all these things. As a matter of fact, I don't think I spend a hundred thousand dollars more. I'm probably down to like $70,000 this year. But anyways, let's go ahead and hop into it. Bradley Sutton: The very first announcement was Amazon Marketing Cloud, AMC. The next few ones are going to be all about AMC. That was like a big theme of. Unbox says AMC eligibility expanded to sponsored ads advertisers Me I have never used AMC Before. You would have to have DSP to be able to use that or work at an advanced agency and things. That wasn't me. Helium 10 didn't have AMC before. Helium 10 is going to have AMC, so be looking forward to that. But basically, what AMC is? We're going to have some training on it at that Destiny workshop for PPC next week. Bradley Sutton: It says AMC is a secure, privacy, safe and cloud-based clean room solution. Like you might be a clean room solution, what the heck I? My room is clean. It's not that kind of clean room, all right, so this is like I said. It's going to get into the weeds here for some of you, but make sure to stick through all of these announcements because they're important. A clean room solution in which advertisers can easily perform analytics and blind audience across. They're using like fancy language here pseudonymized. I love it. See, is that a word, guys? Pseudonymized. Come on, amazon, with your press releases. You got to use better words than this. Like us, illiterate, not well-educated people like myself don't understand words like pseudonymized signals, including Amazon ad signals as well as their own input. Bradley Sutton: But this is going to be interesting, guys, because, like here in this article, it says why is this important? It says with this launch, we're democratizing AMC insights and actions, because before it used to only be available in DSP, but now, basically, you guys are going to understand the buyer journey a lot more and it's going to allow you for different targeting. Speaking of AMC, another article that they announced was AMC marketing cloud audiences can now be used in sponsor ads. So that's critical. Like I said before, you could only use it for, like, DSP and things like that, or just, just, you know, like for data gathering, but now, uh, you're going to be able to take the audiences that come from AMC and actually use it as a target audience in sponsored ad campaigns. All right, so make sure to check, by the way, every single one of these articles I'm doing. I have linked in the comments below to the specific article where Amazon goes a little bit deeper into it. So make sure to read it. Bradley Sutton: But why? Amazon says it's important, says, with AMC, advertisers are going to get an in-depth understanding of customers journeys across Amazon ads, media and channels. This launch helps advertisers take action on these insights across Amazon ads versus media and channels. This launch helps advertisers take action on these insights across Amazon ads, versus previously only in Amazon DSP. It says, for example, an advertiser can build an audience similar to their high value shoppers to expand the reach of their campaigns or to re-engage audiences reached through Amazon streaming TV campaigns. Through this launch reach through Amazon streaming TV campaigns. Through this launch, advertisers can leverage granular AMC insights to more efficiently move customers along their journey down the funnel. Bradley Sutton: All right, so, again, like I said, some of this stuff might be a little bit over your head, some of it's over my head, but this is something that we're going to break down for you guys. We're going to be educating you guys a lot about what exactly is AMC, how can it be used, even by, you know, smaller sellers out there, where before it was only used by, like, very big companies? Next, unbox release increase engagement through audience bid boosting for sponsored products and sponsored brands All right, so this will allow advertisers to reach and engage audiences that they define and create. So, for example, you are going to be able to create custom audiences that you were not able to do before, such as shoppers who have not previously purchased their product, shoppers who are exposed to a streaming TV campaign. You're going to be able to adjust bids just like you would like in a regular campaign, and so this bid boosting is going to again be tapped. This is another one of those AMC announcements. This is part of this whole AMC. Remember, AMC is not just about this clean room thing, but it's about it's about, you know, seeing people throughout the funnel. All right, so I'm not going to go too much more in depth in this article. If you want to learn about all of these AMC stuff, make sure to check out the article that's linked to below. Bradley Sutton: Next one is introducing new product campaigns from Amazon ads now available in the U S. All right. Uh, it says brands selling on Amazon now have full funnel advertising solution to quickly introduce their latest product innovations to customers. So another way they referred to this, I guess that unbox was kind of like. This is a like a product launch, kind of like a campaign, and it says this managed service provides data driven media plans leveraging a curated set of 1P and 3P audio video device and display inventory. All right, so this is not for the faint at heart or for me. Maybe you know launching a coffin shelf that I want to sell maybe 10 units a day of no, this is obviously for bigger customers. Bradley Sutton: Now look, if you just look at this visual example those of you watching on YouTube you'll see here, here is this kitchen smart coffee maker, and then you see a huge ad, like on the Amazon homepage, right, and then now you see a ESPN app where you're going to see an ad. You can you can barely see it there, but you can see there's Caitlin Clark doing some kind of highlight right, and then right above that, you see an ad for this coffee maker. And then you see the ESPN desktop app on a computer and the customer is seeing that same ad. And then now it looks like somebody's watching streaming TV maybe Amazon Prime Video or something and then they see a full 15 second ad of this kitchen smart ad. And then to the right, now you see this Alexa device and that same ad is coming up there. And then, uh, the last one here. This looks like I guess it's like Twitch or something, so maybe they're watching a Twitch streamer and then they see that same ad. So now this is going to like be this, this, this thing that Amazon is like providing as a solution where you don't have to come up with. Hey, what, what's my strategy for getting my initial push out there. We're going to go ahead and handle all of that for you. So, again, if you want more information on that, make sure to check the article that is linked to below. Bradley Sutton: Speaking of sponsored TV, a new sponsored TV releases make it easier than ever to reach relevant audiences and measure performance. Was this next announcement All right? So last year at Unbox, they really talked about sponsored TV a lot, and now we're about a year into sponsored TV and now there's more features that are coming up here. So the new thing is that now there's going to be lifestyle and life stage audiences that advertisers are going to be able to use, audiences that advertisers are going to be able to use. So it's not like hey, let me just make an ad and let me just target replays of the walking dead or something like that. No, like, amazon has all these audiences that they have based on all their information. For example, a couple of things that they give here is like outdoor enthusiasts or environmentally conscious shoppers they give us an example of, and so it's not just a matter of like, hey, let me just throw up this TV ad and target TV shows. But then it's like let me target these TV shows, but then only the people watching it that are outdoor enthusiasts, right, so there's gonna be some really interesting stuff, as Amazon kind of like makes media advertising digital media advertising, uh, tv media, uh a little bit more accessible to the common folk like me. I'm still not sure I'm ready for that yet, but Amazon's getting it closer to make that more accessible to me. Bradley Sutton: Next one is deliver more relevant ads everywhere, independent of ad IDs, with ad relevance All right. So it says ad relevance. What is that? It's an innovative approach to deliver relevant ads for all products and services advertised through the Amazon. DSP All right. So since this is about DSP and I don't know too much about DSP and not many of you are using it, I'm not going to go too in depth here, but anybody who is using DSP out there make sure to check the article about some of the details on this one, because there are some new enhancements, definitely for you. Bradley Sutton: Next one here I think a lot of you might find interesting. It says understand the top combinations of ad touch points that drive conversions. All right, that's something I think everybody wants to know about. All right. So conversion path reporting shows the ad touch points on the customer's 30 day path path to conversion, starting with purchases. It's going to be available in both sponsored ads and DSP, all right, so it's going to be able to allow you to see the most frequent and efficient customer paths. Bradley Sutton: For example, some of the examples it gave was maybe the first time somebody got exposed to your brand was through a streaming TV ad, and then they happen to see next the display ad, and then they saw a sponsored brand video ad and then they saw a sponsor brand video ad and then they saw a sponsored product ad, then they saw a sponsored video display and then they purchased the product. Right? Maybe another kind of like flow is something different. Maybe it was a they only saw a sponsored video ad and then an audio ad from like audible or something, and then boom, went to purchase. Now let's say that that one was working a lot better. Well, that all of a sudden means like hey, you know what? I'm not going to go spend all this money trying to get that customer through that six stage step of the customer journey. Let me double down on this sponsored brand video to audio DSP ad, because that's like my quickest way to get to that purchase. Bradley Sutton: I mean, that's just a random example there, but before could, could we see this? No, like we, we we speculate, right, like sometimes, uh, we have sponsored brand video ads or display ads that you know, maybe, uh, RoAS or ACoS and things like that are not that great, right, but we still do it because it's more of a branding play. We're like no, I need to get in front of customers more. I want them to see my brand so that by the time they see my sponsored product ad or some like on page ad or just an organic purchase, it makes them more likely to go ahead and purchase my product, because they've been conditioned to kind of like, see my brand and think about purchasing it before, right, so, but you didn't really have visibility as a regular seller, at least we haven't had visibility to see how that purchase journey works through the ads, and so this is going to be something cool. I think that will allow us to do that. All right. Bradley Sutton: Now the next few. I'm just going to kind of skim over a little bit, because once I got to this stage, maybe your head is hurting as much as mine with some of this, how deep some of this stuff goes. But the next announcement was entitled build a holistic first party data strategy with ads data manager. All right, so ADM ads data manager is a new standalone offering that simplifies and streamlines the process of first party data management through Amazon ads tech. All right, um, this is going to be for DSP or AMC. Um, again, most of that doesn't affect you guys yet, so if you're interested in that, make sure to check out the article. Bradley Sutton: Speaking of DSP, one more article that they had talked about is entitled the Amazon DSP launches performance Plus. It's a little fancy name. Almost sounds like something that helium 10 would call something. This is your new Performance Plus Cerebro tool, but anyways, amazon took it before us Performance Plus Tactics into Beta. Now, for those of you who are doing display online video or streaming TV, with a conversion KPI of ROAS for endemic advertisers or CPA for non-endemic advertisers, you're going to have this performance plus tactic available, and if that was just sounded like a whole bunch of gibberish to you, this article is probably not for you, like it's not for me, but for those of you, I know we've got some nine figure sellers out there that are really into this stuff. Make sure to check out the article link to for that I wanted to make sure to include everything, because I know we have listeners out there that are brand new on Amazon. Keep listening, guys. We got stuff for you too. We have listeners who are nine figure sellers. I want to make sure I give stuff that is relevant to everybody. More unbox announcements. Bradley Sutton: Now, this was interesting and something I hadn't considered. I alluded to a little bit earlier about audio ads, right, so this is entitled Create Impactful Audio Ads in just a few clicks with Generator. So these next couple announcements have to do kind of like with AI. So Audio Generator leverages generative AI capabilities to turn products into interactive audio ads in minutes for the ad to cart call to action. All right, so you might not have thought about audio ads or thought about adding, you know, like, maybe, fancy audio to your, to your video ads. But with this audio generator, there's a cool demo here that you guys make sure to click on the article and then go watch this demo here. But you're going to be able to choose your product and then use AI to generate audio including, like you know, add copy, like you can get somebody with a British accent to read some kind of script that you have and you not have to go like go hire a professional voice actor for some of this stuff. So really interesting stuff. Bradley Sutton: Speaking of AI, another thing that Amazon announced uh, this was something that was actually originally announced at Amazon accelerate, so I'm not going to go too deep into this, but it says create high quality AI generated videos in minutes. And it says Amazon ads has introduced a new powered video generator, currently available for use in sponsored brands campaigns. You guys already heard us talk about this at Amazon Accelerate, but another cool demo is on this video in our link below, so make sure to check that out. The last AI update for Unbox is called make creative development a breeze with the AI creative Studiobox. Is called Make Creative Development a Breeze with the AI Creative Studio, which is in beta. So this is AI Creative Studio is a centralized experience that combines AI functionality with expert level controls All right. Bradley Sutton: So this is a new kind of like homepage where you're going to have the studio, the sandbox and the inspiration gallery In the studio. It says you're going to gain access to a suite of tools that can be used to transfer your concepts from in progress to design complete. You know, you can like start with a picture of a cup and then, all of a sudden, you put it in this like crazy background and choose different backgrounds you can have different effects and different lightings and then you're going to be able to generate that image. Now, with the sandbox, you're going to be able to test out new features, like, maybe you take one of those things that was just an image before and then now you're going to be able to animate the image. You know, like, if you remember, in Accelerate they showed how you can make smoke coming out of a or not smoke, but like steam coming out of, like a teacup or or coffee, right, so that's kind of cool. And there's also going to be the inspiration gallery where you're going to see examples of AI generated content. Uh, and then you can actually like, click these If you like, like, hey, like, I like this vibe right here. I like, I like this, the way that they did this headphones here I want to be able to do that to my product. And then you're going to be able to like, choose these kinds of like templated things or examples and then apply it to your own products. All right, so this is one of those ones. Guys, you do need to click into the article where this was announced, because I got the link for you in order. If you want to join the wait list, all right if you want to join the wait list for this AI creative studio, because not everybody's going to be able to get into this right away. So make sure to find whatever article this is about the AI creative studio in the comments below and check it out. Bradley Sutton: Only a couple more uh unbox announcements. Uh, the next one is called interactive ads expand availability across streaming TV into prime video. Right, this was, uh, we had an article about this before in the weekly buzz. But you know, sometimes you might think of when you see commercials on TV regular TV, right, that's all. It is a commercial, like a Superbowl commercial. You see a GoDaddy website, or you see you know, chips, or Michael Cera showing his CeraVe lotion, or whatever, right, but what, what does? How does that help the advertiser? Well, the only way it helps lead, leading to an immediate sale, is maybe they go on Amazon or they go somewhere else to the store later on the day and they go buy that product. Right, but now, on prime video, you still can do just generic ads, but now there's going to be shoppable ads, all right, so you can see a 15 second ad on prime video as an example here, and then it'll be like you know you're not in your computer but it'll say, hey, just hit OK on your TV remote and you're going to buy the product, like if it's connected to your Amazon account. So now, all of a sudden there's going to be like a direct connection where somebody doesn't have to go and pause the video to go buy a product. Just by hitting like OK on the remote they're going to be able to buy some products that you're advertising on Prime Video. So make sure to check this article. That could make streaming TV a little bit more lucrative for some of you. Bradley Sutton: Last couple, I'm just going to breeze through here. There's a couple new metrics here. One is called long-term sales, and long-term sales RoAS, is the acronym LTS RoAS. I guess they're getting crazy with these. These acronyms are already, like you know, 10 letters long here. But anyways, this is going to be interesting because it's a historical 12 month return of a given customer engagement with your brand, right, you know, like there's an attribution window right when you know like, let's say, something has a 14 day attribution window. Bradley Sutton: Somebody clicks on something on Monday and a week and a half later they buy it. That original click gets attributed with that sale from that ad. Right, but let's say somebody clicked on it but they don't buy it in two weeks, maybe they four months later or something. They buy the product. Have you ever had any visibility into that? That purchase can be tied all the way back to that original click. No, you have not been able to do that until now. All right, so this is going to be something cool. This LTS ROAS uh is going to be able to allow you to take a look back even, uh, throughout a year to see, like, how your ads are doing. So make sure to check the article for more information on that. Bradley Sutton: And then, last one is DSP has a new experience. So if the whole DSP page for those are like UI of their homepage has been completely redone, I guess I wouldn't know the difference because I never saw the old DSP page part. But for those of you who use it, go ahead and check it out and see if you like their new UI. That is it. Believe it or not? Guys, for Amazon, unboxed and all of the news and events this week. Obviously no time to do our normal training tip of the week or our new feature alerts. We'll have to save that for next week. We actually got some pretty amazing things coming for you guys. By the way, as guys hope, you enjoyed this in-depth coverage of all the goings on in the news this week. Make sure to tune in next.
Join us for an insightful journey with Joe Sanhanga, a remarkable e-commerce entrepreneur generating millions annually through unique and high-priced products. Listen in as Joe shares his inspiring story from his roots in Zimbabwe to his educational pursuits in the UK and the US, ultimately landing in Las Vegas. His journey began on platforms like Shopify and WordPress, selling distinctive items such as African-style swimsuits and nano tape toys, before discovering the immense potential of Amazon's FBA and FBM models. Through their conversation, Bradley and Joe emphasized the transformative power of networking at conferences like Amazon Accelerate. Explore the strategies behind Joe's successful transition to selling on Amazon, starting with assisting a soil business during the pandemic and leading to the creation of "Wonder Soil," a private-label product on Amazon. Joe's ventures into innovative products like tanning lamps, vitamin D lamps, and seasonal depression lamps highlight the importance of team collaboration and strategic Amazon sales optimization. With aspirations to surpass a $30 million run rate, Joe shares valuable insights into leveraging Amazon's platform to achieve extraordinary growth in niche markets. Discover the challenges and tactics involved in marketing high-priced products, like a $599 lamp, in a competitive landscape dominated by lower-cost alternatives. We discuss the advantages of having larger margins for experimenting with keywords and bidding strategies, alongside the creative approaches necessary to maintain product visibility amidst Amazon's policies. Joe also shares his experiences optimizing advertising strategies, managing warehouse transitions to Amazon's Warehousing and Distribution system, and utilizing tools like Helium 10's Adtomic to automate and enhance PPC strategies. This episode provides a comprehensive view of the perseverance and innovation required to thrive in e-commerce, offering inspiration and actionable advice for sellers at any level. In episode 604 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Joe discuss: 00:28 - E-Commerce Strategies and Global Perspectives 04:54 - Amazon Product Sales Success Story 05:41 - Amazon Brand Growth During COVID 11:37 - Strategies for High Price Point Products 11:50 - Product Pricing and Brand Strategy 15:23 - Optimizing Keywords for Product Sales 18:21 - Amazon Advertising Strategy Discussion 19:14 - Managing $120,000 of Ad Spend With Adtomic 23:49 - Amazon PPC Management Strategies 27:52 - Optimizing Ad Placements to Lower ACoS 30:51 - Pricing Strategy Impact on Sales 32:45 - Warehouse Cost Savings and Amazon Advertising 34:28 - Inventory Management for Amazon Sellers 38:14 - Optimizing Amazon Listings for Conversion 41:17 - Online Presence and Networking ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Transcript Bradley Sutton: Today we talked to a $30 million a year seller who is selling, and has sold, some of the most unique products I've ever heard of, including one at a $600 price point, when everybody else is priced at only 40 bucks. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Bradley Sutton: Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I'm your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show that's a completely BS-free, unscripted and unrehearsed, organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. In my travels recently, one of the things I like about going to conferences and it's what I always tell people about is that you know you can meet different people, network with people and find out about their story, and that's kind of like how I structure this whole podcast. But then I actually did that recently at Amazon Accelerate and I'm glad I did it, because I'm glad I did it. As I went to this one mixer that they organized and I was at first, I was like, oh man, I was so drained after that day and I'm like, oh man, it's gonna be a crowded place. I don't like to be in crowded places, but you know what? I'm going to hop on this little lime scooter from my hotel and go over to this restaurant where the event was and I was sitting down talking to some people at the table and then I met today's guest there, Joe. How's it going? Joe: I'm going good. Thanks for having me on. Bradley Sutton: Awesome, awesome. Now, you said you're in Vegas right now. Right? Joe: Yes, we're in Las Vegas, Nevada. Bradley Sutton: Now, that's not a typical Vegas accent you've got. So where were you born and raised? Joe: Yeah, so I was born in Zimbabwe, raised as well in Zimbabwe, then I moved out to England where I spent a lot of my time there doing some education and stuff and then I got tired of the cold being a Zimbabwean. Bradley Sutton: You went to the opposite, then if you went to Vegas, I cannot imagine a more opposite than cold place. Joe: Oh yeah, 100%. I just went on to Google and I was like okay, I want to go somewhere in America, but I need to find somewhere warm. And I think the first thing that came up on the search was Death Valley, but there was nothing over there. So the second thing was Phoenix and Las Vegas. So, I eventually found myself in Las Vegas just because of the ease of doing business. Ability to meet people here is really good. Bradley Sutton: And did you go to university uh over in UK or in the US? Joe: yes, I did university in the UK as well as in the US, so I got an accounting degree back in uh UK um and then in the US, I did a um was a business management degree with some entrepreneurship uh additional to that Bradley Sutton: was it like a unlv or? Joe: I know this was in um in Phoenix in ASU, yeah. Bradley Sutton: ASU, uh, Sun Devil right? Joe: yes, sir, okay, there, you see it. Bradley Sutton: I always test my I don't know. I'm not going to ask you any kind of mascot because from England I don't know anything about England schools, but I know most of the US schools have mascots here. Actually, I'm wearing a. We'll talk about this later. I'm wearing a mascot from a minor league baseball team is my hat. This is called from nearby to Arizona is Albuquerque Isotopes. But the reason I use this today was because this is very similar, this logo, to our Helium 10 Adtomic logo. I know you and I were talking about Adtomic, doesn't it look like the A from Adtomic yeah, Joe: it actually does. Now I see it when you mention it. Bradley Sutton: So that's why I wore this on purpose. There's a method to my madness, but anyways, before we get to Adtomic, talking about Adtomic, I just want to talk about your e-commerce journey. So when you graduated from, after you know, there at ASU, did you get into e-commerce at all, or at what kind of? Joe: So this was actually still back in England , around 2017 is when I kind of got first into my e-commerce kind of journey, which was on Shopify. Specifically, Shopify and WordPress was where I started out and I bought a random course of somebody online, learned all about basically advertising from like Facebook, from Instagram, from Google, sending it to this website and landing pages that we used to do. And then, within being in that realm, I started hearing this FBA term being thrown around. Bradley Sutton: What were you selling on Shopify in those days? Joe: Oh, so I remember we had to go at, we did these other swimsuits that we did African style print swimsuits, and then we also went on and started doing it was like these little tape toys, sort of like double-sided type tape. Yeah, exactly so we were doing those. It's called nano tape, um, so, yeah, that's basically how, how that started and then, Bradley Sutton: and then that's when you, when you kind of like, learned about the amazon, uh potential. Joe: So I heard, obviously, being in that space, I started hearing this word FBA being thrown around uh, the acronym, and you know. Then I went on Google, searched up, okay, what is FBA? And it's some sort of Amazon selling thing. Okay, and then there's FBM as well. So now I'm like, okay, there's these two terms, what is this all about? And that's basically when I started doing my research and I was like, okay, this Amazon thing seems to actually have some stuff to it. And at the time I think the platform is not the way. It's so different now, because sometimes I've got screenshots of my old dashboards and it just looks completely different. So, yeah, that's how I basically then started with Amazon. Bradley Sutton: Did you start selling like your own account, you know, on Amazon, start selling your own products, or did you just start working for other companies that were selling on Amazon? Joe: Yeah, so to begin with I was working with this other lady. She basically had soil and the way we actually started working together was I created a website for her, put on Shopify, to sell the soil, and then she was bagging up the soil to try and get it to consumers, because her business was mainly sending thousand-pound totes to farmers. But she said, how can I get this you know three-pound bag to people that are at home and want to grow some plants and what actually it was? This was around 20. Bradley Sutton: Soil on Amazon, man, when you think you've heard it all. Joe: It's called Wonder Soil. It's actually one of the rivals to Miracle-Gro and we actually I actually raised it to get the Amazon choice badge. We were on Business Insider as one of the top growing brands on amazon too, um, but basically the cool thing about it was we've tried to find a way to get the soil to consumers and everything worked well, because this was during covid, so people were at home, people had nothing to do, and you know people are growing stuff at home, people. You know we're just trying to, yeah, so the product hit at the right time uh, what year is this 2020. Bradley Sutton: Okay. 2020 okay yeah. Oh yeah, I mean that was a good time. Yeah, during covid, people were always are really trying to make their own gardens and stuff like grow their own vegetables and stuff like that okay yeah this is a private label brand or you're reselling um others? Joe: oh, so we actually have manufacturers in China. Uh, that we get all that product for We've actually gotten rid of our warehouse Now. We've gone full into AWD, so we're getting. Bradley Sutton: Let's talk about that a little bit later in the show too. I haven't talked to many people who are doing that, so I'll be interested in that, ok. Joe: Yeah, so that's, that's what that one. And then there's another lamp company, which is pretty funny, is tanning lamps and vitamin D lamps, so we run through those on Amazon as well. Those are actually the only there's a lamp that can give you vitamin D. Bradley Sutton: It's the only lamp the same like the sun. Joe: Yes, you spend five minutes every other day in front of it and it'll give you. And there's studies on YouTube. People use this lamp, where this lady her name is Carnival Doctor on YouTube. She did a study with a lamp for six weeks and her levels went from 20 something to 40 something vitamin D. She feels healthier than ever and it's perfect. It stopped her from having to buy, you know, vitamin D pills and, of course, all those sorts of things. So, yeah, it's the only one, and you get tan at the same time. So now, that's the difference. So, there's two lamps One gives you vitamin D and one gives you a tan, because there are some people that don't want the tanning effect. So that's what it is. So, it's-. Bradley Sutton: Now what if you put this tanning lamp over your miracle magic soil? Are you going to create some like hybrid plant? Oh my, you sell the most interesting things. All right, there's a third account too, Joe: yeah, so it's basically the third account is also in lighting, but this one is seasonal depression lamps where basically you look at it so that one is its own brand. Bradley Sutton: Did you say depression? Yes, depression lamp Like as in I'm very depressed and I'm sad like that word depression. Joe: Yeah, depression, you're sad. What does that have to do with a lamp? So, you look at this lamp for 30 minutes and you become happy. I know it sounds stupid, but minutes and you become happy. I know it sounds stupid, but that one doesn't give you vitamin D. Bradley Sutton: That one doesn't give you vitamin D. Nor a tan. Yeah, you see. Hey, there's a product idea. You got to combine all three and then, oh my goodness, you'd have the most amazing. Joe: That would be powerful. We've had people that have requested you know, do you have one that does both, or this, this, this? But because of FDA regulations, we've had to separate a lot of the things. Bradley Sutton: Is these three separate companies or is it like the same group of people who's all owning all three of these? Joe: So two of the companies is one group of people and the other one is one person. Bradley Sutton: And then, what do you do in these? Joe: So I run just an Amazon account. So I run just an Amazon account. So running the ads, running the listing optimization, making sure the account is obviously hitting the sales numbers, everything that just literally goes through Amazon and inventory everything. Bradley Sutton: What's the overall projected sales for all three combined on Amazon? Joe: So for all three combined, we're looking at 28. We're on pace to do 28 million this year on all three. Bradley Sutton: Will that be your best, our biggest year yet. Joe: Yeah, this would be our biggest year yet. We've seen record numbers in previous months. In previous, like this past quarter, we'd had record sales as well. I know we had our biggest. We had, I think, our first. We had two days in September where we had 100K sales days, which was the first time we've done that. We also had our highest sales days in the past two years. Nine of those days in our top 10 sales were all in September. So we've had record sales. Especially Q3 was really, really amazing. I think we were up about 800K across the board in Q3 alone. So we're on pace to do a really good year and it sets us up for our plan is to do a 2.5 million month at least once this year in total and that will set us up for a run rate for next year. We want to push over to that 30 million stage. Bradley Sutton: If you're like me, maybe you were intimidated about learning how to do Amazon PPC, or maybe you think you just don't have the hours and hours that it takes to download and sort through all of those sponsored ads reports that Amazon produces for you. Adtomic for me allowed me to learn PPC for the first time, and now I'm managing over 150 PPC campaigns across all of my accounts in only two hours a week. Find out how Adtomic can help you level up your PPC game. Visit h10.me forward slash Adtomic for more information. That's h10.me forward slash A-D-T-O-M-I-C. I'm just curious, before we get into some more details about, like, your advertising because I know that's one of the things that is your specialty these lamps that you're doing like, were these kind of like inventions, or? Or there was an existing market of vitamin D lamps or an existing market of lamps that make you happy Like was that an existing keyword or is this something that you're you guys invented and kind of like created the demand for? Joe: So it's actually crazy. You say that is because the first vitamin d lamp started in 1924. It was a guy by Dr. Sperti is his name. He's the guy who made it. He invented it and he started selling it throughout the US. It was a company in Kentucky, um, but he was just selling it out of his own like little warehouse and then eventually he got old um and then sold off for business and then basically that's where we put it online, um to run it through Amazon, and we first were going like, for example, the vitamin D one it's the only lamp that's there. The only competition are these vitamin D pills that you'll see on Amazon. But our price point for the lamp is like 599. And we're competing against people that can buy a bottle for four bucks, five bucks on Amazon. So it's been a pretty interesting game competing against people that can buy, you know, a bottle for four bucks, five bucks on amazon. So it's been a pretty interesting game. But it moves. It moves um on amazon. What's the price of the product? Bradley Sutton: you said 599 599, 599, yeah, wow, uh, I want to. I'm trying to look at, look for it on amazon right now. What's the brand name called? Joe: SpertI s-p-e-r-t-i, and then you'll see vitamin d we got to show the audience this. Bradley Sutton: Okay, oh, my goodness gracious, here it is. Hold on, this is incredible. All right. Joe: That's it and it's right. That's the first one that's popped up against our competition. All those are competitors on the right. Bradley Sutton: So 500 and Sperti. So that was what the doctor's name was. Who? Joe: made this up. Bradley Sutton: Yeah, Dr. Sperti, that was his name yeah, there was a ready demand for this out there. Joe: Oh, huge, because, if you think about it, vitamin D pills are basically the same target market as us. Yeah, so this is just a non-invasive way that you buy and you keep this for a very, very long time. So that's that. So something interesting. As you go through this, this listing, you're not going to see the word vitamin d anywhere on the listing and you'll notice our carousel images, our images on there. we have our box images because amazon actually took us down because our lamp has the word vitamin d on it. Bradley Sutton: ah, yeah, yeah, I see it in the video there, so you don't have vitamin d anywhere in there, but you probably got indexed for the keyword by Amazon. Joe: Exactly so. That's why we use UVB, which is basically the term for vitamin D. So Amazon is not allowing us to use it, even though we're FDA approved and everything. Amazon is just not letting us go for that. Bradley Sutton: I see some of your main keywords. Yeah, vitamin D lamp. Joe: Oh yeah, we can use them in the back. Vitamin D light. Bradley Sutton: Vitamin D therapy lamp, vitamin D light therapy. Now, I'm just curious. I don't talk very often with people who have this high price point. What is different about having a product that's in the hundreds of dollars? Like, do you approach advertising differently, cause it's not like where I mean. You might now you know you, you might get a hundred clicks with no sale, but still you just get one, the 101st click. All of a sudden, that's $600 of revenue. So, so, like, how is it different, uh, with something like this, compared to your, your other products, which I'm assuming is like more you know, regular pricing 10, 20, 30 bucks. Joe: So the cool thing about it is that across all the catalog that I, that I that I run, I have products starting at like five bucks, all the way to this one that has $5.99. So the landscape with this one is totally different. Like you said, you can set up an ad, you'll get 50 clicks at $1.20 CPC and, based on our margins, we're still clean on a sale. If we get one sale, we profit. So the cool thing about it is you just have to be a bit more patient. However, because we have such kind of should I say a big space for those clicks, it allows us to test a lot of keywords in this space and we really kind of exhaust any keyword that's there without having to really be careful, unlike if I was selling a smaller, less priced product, I can't just throw in all the keywords and just you know it'll go crazy if it's like a $60 product. So with this, it gives me that comfortability to go out and bid higher and also it allows me to, like I said, like if you saw on that page where you searched, my competition were those pill bottles that are like five bucks, six bucks, seven bucks, so I can bid above all of those guys. So I ensure that every time you search the keyword I'm going to be first, because there's no way they're going to bid the same amount of dollars. I'm going to bid because their price points are different. However, they can take a loss on a sale because they have repeat products. So people finish that bottle, they come back and buy another With ours. That person buys a lamp and is done. So we obviously have to gauge it to a point whereby, okay, this is our ACOS target and at this A-cost target we're profitable. So that's now how more I manage that one. It's more ACOS targeting, but I'm basically trying to make sure I stand out for every single eyeball that's there because I have the room. Bradley Sutton: So this is interesting because, regardless of the price point, there are similar kind of scenarios where it would be like this they're probably actual keywords of how somebody who's searching for this exact thing is probably very limited Vitamin D lamp or lamp for tanning, you know for your other product, or it's not. Like oh there's you know 5,000 way, you know 5,000 ways that are going to come up in Cerebro to search for this one thing. You're like it's kind of like that way with coffin shelf. If you're looking exactly for a coffin shelf, that's pretty much it, that's it. Coffin shelf or shelf shaped like a coffin, like there's very limited number of words. The other keywords I get sales from is more like the, you know, gothic decor or spooky things. So how are you doing your keyword research? Like using Helium 10 or amazon, for you mentioned you do a lot of testing for targets. So like, where are you coming up with these keywords to test to see if any of them stick? Joe: So that's. It's more like said, I run Cerebro on a lot of those vitamin D bottle and pills and basically a lot of my. So, like I've said, I've exhausted the keyword vitamin D and the more you get long tail with this product, the less traffic you have. You know, for some of the products you can get long tail with a bunch of keywords and you still have traffic. Like, for example, if it's like a Ziploc bag, I can put Ziploc bag for Legos, Ziploc bag for sandwiches, Ziploc bag for this. You know the list is endless and you have traffic with this. Not many people even know this lamp exists. So what I've actually done is sometimes I go and target competitor company names and key names. So if it's like some company that sells a bottle of vitamin D lamps or vitamin D pills, I'll actually target their brand because when I look at their keyword, it's people that are repeat purchases, so it always has traffic. And but because I can bid high on their own company name, I'm going to show up first and I have the room with my price point to show up consistently and eventually, if you're somebody that is very hooked on buying these products, for vitamin D pills, you're going to see my product and think, okay, what is this? Because it's coming up. I've seen it so many times when I come and buy this product that when you read about our process, you then be like, okay, so this is something that actually can benefit me and can work as an alternative for ingested pills and all the other disadvantages that come with that. So that's basically how I find other keywords and start going for those. Bradley Sutton: You know, price game is something nobody ever wants to play, and you're not playing at all, you're doing the opposite. You know, like on some of these keywords I do see some like people ranking for, like vitamin D lamp, but they're, just like you know, $20 products and they're selling thousands of units. But then are you going after those people too, Like the people who are going after that or how? How, how do you still get sales when people can technically get something one 10th the price? People you just got to like, make sure that they know the value of what you, that yours is different. Joe: Yeah, so that's where we have to communicate that through the listing, and it's because a lot of those $20 lamps that you're seeing there, those are not actually vitamin D lamps, those are seasonal depression lamps. So if you're looking at, can you see that Alaska Northern Lights big box on the right where your mouse is? Yes, that's one of the lamps that I sell. That's for seasonal depression. Bradley Sutton: Okay, I was about to click on that, but no, I'm not going to click on the sponsored ad and charge you $3 right there. So good thing I didn't. Joe: But then if you look at to the left, you've got that product. That's 19 bucks. Those are actually seasonal depression lamps, so they don't give off vitamin D. So somebody would purchase that and then they'll realize that doesn't give you vitamin D. So they'll probably return it and then come back to ours. But if they're looking for seasonal depression those would be those ones. Bradley Sutton: This is just an interesting niche. This is kind of fascinating to me. So then, overall, almost $30 million. What are you spending per month? Or what are you paying Amazon for advertising per month? Joe: So monthly. Right now we're spending total across the board with about 120K a month on advertising budget. Bradley Sutton: Advertising. And then, what's your TACoS then? At kind of, is it different per account? Are you looking at your TACoS? Joe: yeah, so the lamp TACoS are, like, I think, close to two percent um, and then uh, because that ACoS is really low, um. However, with uh, with the one that's got the majority of the products, our tacos right now we are sitting at a 5.38. That's what we just closed out at, okay. Okay, our ACoS is at 15 point. I think it was 15.5 is what we ended on in September. We brought that down from a 20 ACoS down to a 15. Our goal was to bring it down to 10, but obviously we've done about 50% of that target. Now, which is hard, you know, if you're spending, you know, over a hundred K. To bring down a cost by 5% is really difficult. So that's, that's where we are. Bradley Sutton: Are you using Adtomic for all of this spend, all of this $120,000 spend? Joe: We've launched. So with Adtomic, we've put in some rules for some SKUs and we're watching that and I actually had a call with Travis, like I said before, to try and we've got different rules for different products and we're trying to see how we can build out those rules in Adtomic. Bradley Sutton: Like rules that you were just using manually, like downloading search term reports. What are some of the rules? Tell me how you run your PPC. Joe: So most of my rules would come into the shipping product, one where basically first rule is identifying the product, pricing. So if it's a bag so let's say Ziploc bag, right, we've got a Ziploc bag, a four by six size. We have different variations. So we have a hundred pack, five hundred pack, thousand pack. The hundred pack could cost maybe 19 bucks, five hundred pack 50 bucks, other one 99 bucks. So based on those, we make rules where if it's the $19 one, we want to start our bids at $0.40 or something like that. Somewhere it makes sense. But then if it's for the 1,000-pack one, we can start off our bidding at $2, $3. And that's because if somebody then buys it it's $99. So it's more of guiding based on that price threshold of the product and getting that rule in. And then, as we keep going, we want to make sure that if it's not getting any spend after two weeks it'll look back and add, you know, 10 cents to it if it's getting too many clicks. And if it gets like 10 clicks at that price, at that um, 44 cents, uh, whatever, 40 cents, um, and no sales, it'll dial it back by five cents or something like that, just to just to start, you know, bringing it back to see what we can get. So those are. Bradley Sutton: So then, instead of basing your rules in Adtomic, like, necessarily on ACoS, you're like doing it on the, the performance, like clicks and. Are you doing impressions at all, or just mainly clicks? Mainly clicks and then sales? What about your keyword harvesting? Did you set up any keyword harvesting rules on your auto or broad campaigns? Yes, and what's your thresholds there? Joe: So with there we do have our keyword harvesting set up and we usually just go in when it shows us. Then we'll add and accept whatever we want to Others we don't and we basically just throw them in. So we have one that right now has some rules and we've been working with the one that keeps the ACoS threshold in different margins. That's been looking good. So we've actually decided that when we've got launch ASINs because we're planning to launch another 42 products, I think it was soon is put those into the ACoS threshold, get those spending. Then, once we've gotten some traction with those, we start messing with the bids ourselves because we look at these in different silos as well in terms of market share. So if it's like tapes, we might not be the biggest player in tapes, so we can't really go out the income on the market. But if it's like Ziploc bags, Celo bags, we have tons of market share. Our brand is known. The moment you see our packaging on our default listings, you know it's us. So we bid higher on those ones to really just take up and kill anybody that's coming in. And we're happy to take up that high bid because people repeat purchase on those ones so we can lose money on the first sale because we can look at the lifetime value of those customers and it makes sense. Bradley Sutton: How many targeting type, different targeting types are you doing per product? You know for me, sometimes a lot of some. I'll have three main keyword ones, at least, obviously, to start, because then I'll cap it and start new ones, but I'll have an exact, you know, like, like atomic calls, a performance campaign. I'll have a broad campaign with broad targets. I'll have an auto, but then I'll also a lot of times have an ASIN targeting campaign, product targeting campaign. I'll also do a sponsor display campaign. I might do a video, two video campaigns, like a keyword video campaign, an ASIN video campaign and then maybe, if I have, you know, three products in a certain brand, I might have a sponsor brand that's feeding a few of those. Like, are you doing all of those or just you're just keeping it to the basic keyword targeting campaigns? What do you guys do so? Joe: So for every ASIN we basically have five different ads and it starts off with broad, which is obviously our broad keywords, and then we'll go to exact keywords where basically we don't start off by putting keywords in the exact. We let you know, get it from helium and atomic and then we put those in uh based on what it's telling us, and then we've got auto testing. So we uh, or it's called a auto cam, just normal campaign, which is obviously we let that run in the order category. Then ASIN testing, where basically we're running targeting that specific category of that product. And the cool thing about those ascent testing is it helps us identify new markets. So let's say we have a variation in poly and plastic packaging and let's say this product is sitting at number two. We might actually take that product. And then let's say we have other products that are like three, four, five, six in that category. We might take the number two product and move it to mailbags. It'll drop the BSR because of its historical performance and its ability to perform. We might actually start testing a different category just to gain more market share in a different category because we know we've kind of succeeded in that one. So that's more for ASIN testing. Then we have ASIN targeting, where we actually we use our Cerebro to get competitors, Black Box to get competitors Then we obviously target those competitors depending on how many reviews they have. So if it's somebody that's got anything less than four stars, what they're targeting you, because most of our products are sitting within the 4.5 to 4.89 range. So anybody below four stars we're targeting you, and then we also use what's it called. Then those are basically the five that we do per ASIN and then we also use what's it called. Then those are basically the five that we do per ASIN. And then we have started testing some display campaigns. We had VCPM running, which was a waste of money really. It was just the attribution was wrong. So what we're doing now is some display campaigns to actually do some retargeting and basically that's where we've got started going. We haven't done much sponsored brands. Things have just really been working in sponsored product for us. Bradley Sutton: Or the auto and maybe broad campaigns. Did you set any atomic rules as far as when to suggest a negative match or like a poor performing search term? Or how are you managing the spend on your auto campaigns? Because you know, sometimes if you just let Amazon do what they want, they'll just show you for all kinds of crazy stuff and they don't care about how much your spend is. So what are you doing to keep your auto campaigns under control? Joe: Yeah, so what we basically do, obviously we have the loose you select the loose substitute compliments and all that type of stuff. We have those like basic keyword rules that we set our bids at where, and we do that based on our pricing. So, depending on the product's price, we'll add in those rules and then basically when Adtomic starts showing whatever negative is in there, we'll go in and either accept the negative and or reject it. And I remember I don't know if it was Travis who told me we don't want to is it reject the negative or something, because it will completely kind of block it out forever or something like that In Adtomic. If you were to do that on a negative, I think it was if you fully approve a negative. So we kind of just watch it and see if it's really a negative and then we test it out. But that's how we kind of do it. So we haven't really put much rules on that side. It's more depending on the price of the product. Bradley Sutton: And then you said for like keyword harvesting, like if an auto finds something like is it just one for you? And then you, hey, I'll go ahead and move it to one of my manual campaigns. Or do you want to see like two or three orders of some new keyword before you put it to your exact campaigns, or what's your threshold there? Joe: Yeah, usually we try and get up to about five, five orders. Um, cause, that's that we've, we've, cause we've had keywords where you might get an order or two, and then it just starts burning money after that. So, yeah, um, we let whatever's winning win and then if something shows promise and you know it comes up with like five orders, uh, that'll be cool and then we'll add it back in. And the cool thing about it is, if it was obviously like the, the lamps, five orders is a bit too many for a keyword. But if it's the Ziploc bags, we know we can easily get those five orders and it justifies because you know that the, the traffic on those is way more than the people that are looking for the lamps. So it just depends on the product as well. Bradley Sutton: What is what brought you from, I forgot what you said like, from 20 to 15 a cost, like? What specific strategies you think? Like, was it something different? You were doing um, or, or you just change the rules, or what. What can you attribute that lowering of ACoS to? Joe: Okay. So basically, we started a KPI where we looked at the number of ACoS campaigns that are above 100% in our account, because I think we have about 4,000 something campaigns running. So basically, when we sorted that out, we would start off with, like, let's say, 40. Then of those 40, that's our priority for the month and basically, we'd look at what the ad type is. We'd look at what the ad type is, we'd look at where the you know impression share is going. Is it top of search, is it product key, is it product pages or is it in the categories? And then basically sometimes we would notice that, let's say, if it's product search for this specific ad, it's showing a way better ACoS but it's not getting as much spend and impressions as this one. But you know, the product page is just spending money. So what we'll do is we'll change the percentage on the impression share to show more on that specific placement that's actually performing the best. And what we realized is a lot of our ACoS started just, you know, dropping for those campaigns where we doubled down. Yes, it might not spend as much, you might not as much traffic, but if our ACoS drops, you know, by 50% on that campaign, that's a win. So that's what we're doing. And then sometimes it's actually where you're getting a bunch of sales at like 60, 70% ACoS from top of search, but this product page placement is at 20% ACoS but it's not getting as much spend. So now we'll move our spend and our impression share more on that product page and reduce the top of search. Even though it cancels out some sales, the profitability of investing in that product placement on the product pages makes more sense. So that's how we've been kind of juggling the placements and it's been helping really well to cut ACoS. Bradley Sutton: When you launch new products. What's your strategy? Is it strictly I mean, like do you have this big audience that you're able to promote to and then they send a lot of traffic that way, or is it 100% with PPC that you're launching products? What's your strategy? Like? Joe: So 100% of PPC. We have been talking about, you know, starting to get an email list together, but, as you know, with Amazon you don't get that information of your customers, so it's very difficult. If we had like a website, then maybe we could leverage that side of it. But, like I said, 100% of all sales is Amazon and unfortunately, we don't have the customer data. So what we usually do is set up our PPC. Sometimes, depending on the market or the product, what we'll use are the deals, if it's promotions, and sometimes we've actually, you know how you can now put price, the strikethrough pricing. So sometimes when we launch a new product, we launch about a few bucks higher than we're actually planning to sell, and that's because we just want to get the featured offer pricing going. And then, once the featured offer has registered onto Amazon, we'll set a strikethrough price at the intended selling price that we want to and then we'll pump up our PPC. Why? Because now our product is showing amongst everybody else to have this discount of like 20% or whatever it is, and that increases our conversion rate because obviously people are seeing this discount. And then sometimes you might actually get the badge that says lowest price in 30 days and on a new launch. That helps quite a lot and basically that's what we do. Then we start pumping PPC and then, once that ends, we actually noticed with another product where we were averaging about, I think it was 0.78 run rate so which is basically close to a sale a day on that product at 24 bucks. We raised the price to 28 bucks so that we could make a strike through at 24. And then at the end of the strike through because after 30 days when you set the strike through it stops the deal, we actually realized that our run rate went to 0.68 at 28 bucks. So we started noticing that the difference in sales were not actually bad from the price going back to four bucks. That's because we just had forgotten to change it back to that 24. So it actually helped us realize like wait, we were still selling at that 28 bucks, so now we just drop it back and when we drop it back to 24 with that strikethrough it just increases the sales and obviously the conversion rate and the ACoS, which allows us more dollars to spend on that product. Bradley Sutton: Before you switched to AWD, did you guys have your own warehouse? Did you have multiple 3PLs, One 3PL? What were you doing? Joe: So we had our own warehouse and basically obviously we're shipping it from China to our warehouse and then from our warehouse to Amazon, and then basically with AWD, and the fees just got out of hand. It kind of priced us out of obviously doing that route, which is why we went with AWD. And it's kind of been our first kind of-. Bradley Sutton: The new fees you're talking about, like the inbound inventory placement fees and things like that, Joe: all that type of stuff, yeah, it kind of really hit us hard. So we realized, and we priced everything up in Seoul, it's way more lucrative to go with AWD, and you have to have Bradley Sutton: Is that AGL too? Or just like? Are you actually having Amazon ship from China or you're shipping it into AWD? Joe: We're shipping it into AWD. Right now, we haven't fully gone into Amazon shipping it from China, but we're shipping it into AWD. And that's basically where we just noticed that economics-wise it just made way more sense to go with AWD. So we took that big step of obviously getting away with our warehouse and now just sending product into AWD. How big was your warehouse? It was pretty big. It was pretty big. I don't know how many square feet on the top of my head. Bradley Sutton: Do you know how much it costs per month? About? Joe: Yeah, it was close to about. I think it was like 25 grand. Bradley Sutton: Oh my goodness, yeah, so we're talking probably 20,000 square feet or above. They're in Vegas. Yeah, it was pretty big. And then how many full-time employees had to run it? Joe: So we had four people there Bradley Sutton: and then now you had to let them go after you close the warehouse. So then it's not just $25,000 a month, but then probably another $10,000 of salary you're saving. Joe: yeah, so there's a big saving, when you look at it, from everything. And we've kept one person I think it was that basically helps us with inventory forecasting and just helping manage kind of the inventory side of AWD. Because right now we've moved into AWD. But some issues we've had with AWD is when FBA goes out of stock there's like a two-week period we've seen that it takes for that transfer of inventory to go into FBA and that's because AWD hasn't learned our sell through rates yet. So right now, for example, Bradley Sutton: you can't control that at all. Like you can't just force AWD to say, hey, I know I'm going to sell more, send more to FBA. Like you have to wait for them to be able to see it. Joe: Yeah. So you can manually send more. But because we have a catalog of 900 products, it'll be very tenacious to look at FBA for all these products and then go to AWD and manually click one. So what we've done is we put the auto replenishment. But because Amazon hasn't learned our products yet, literally, we had a product that had a sell-through rate of I think it was it'll go through about 300, 400 products a month. We ran out of that product and AWD transferred 10 units to FBA and it took two weeks to get those 10 units and those sold out within a day. So it was just the worst and the worst. Bradley Sutton: I got to start you on Helium 10 inventory management, because helium 10 inventory management is created for people who have three PLs and then and then we tell you, all right, set up a new shipment. But theoretically somebody just asked me to say the other day we don't integrate yet with AWD. I know that's on the roadmap, but like a third-party warehouse, like you know how much inventory is there, so you put the number in and then you know what you know. Helium 10 knows what your inventory is in Amazon. And then so we would just tell you the same way hey, it's time to trigger, you know. So I know you said before like hey, yeah, you might not have time to, you know, be checking 800, but that's the whole point of inventory management where you just you know you better send, you know, 500 units in from your warehouse and so, yeah, we'll get you started on that. Joe: Yeah, that would be a lifesaver because this is how it's impacting my ads now. So you know back in the day, if you run out of stock on FBA, your listing is not showing anymore, your ads are not delivering. However, with AWD, if you've got stock, what it's done now is it changes our seller delivery date. So we realize that with this duct tape, Bradley Sutton: and you're conversion like tanks right, because it says like oh, delivery in three weeks or something crazy like that. Joe: So this duct tape product had delivery in two months. I'm not waiting two months to get duct tape. Bradley Sutton: So instead of the listing going dead, it still shows available, but then two months. Joe: So people are clicking on this sponsored ads and they're like, yeah, I'm not waiting two months to get a duct tape, I'm going to the alternative person which is their competitor. So, I'll add just hitting, hitting, hitting, hitting, no sales. And you're like what's going on? And then now when you look at it and it's fine detail, delivers in two months. You're like that's so. Now we've had to end the crazy thing about when you've got 4,000 ads, because you've got five ads SKUs, you can't go and manually turn all those off and then wait until it comes back in stock to turn it back on. So that's been a nightmare as well. Bradley Sutton: Now Interesting, okay. So yeah, it looks like AWD, like overall pretty decent. You save all those fees, probably thousands and thousands of dollars of fees. You're saving tens of thousands of dollars in warehouse, tens of thousands of dollars in warehouse. But on the flip side, you almost have to, you know if, if you're not using Helium 10, um for inventory management, you almost have to like hire another full-time employee just to manage that, depending on how many SKUs you have, or else, or else you're going to lose, you know too much money. It's not just the lost sales, what's advertising, like you said, very good, very good, uh, very good point. Um, if I were to ask you like, all right, hey, end of the day, not everybody can, can have a business that does 30 million a year. What set? What has set you guys, uh, apart? Obviously, you know you have some cool patent and some product. You know for one of them that that nobody else can get. That's been around since 1920, but it's anybody you know. I'm sure there's billions of or millions of businesses that were made a century ago, that that technically you could sell, but that doesn't mean you're going to be a 30 million dollar seller. So what sets you guys apart, would you say? Joe: I think it's that consistency and never give up mentality when you start off a product, because a lot of things that I've seen with other sellers is they're quick to write off a product because they're not profitable with it within the first kind of initial launch phase. And what I've noticed is we stick out with the product and our launches are in strategies here. So we start off with a launch. So, let's say, we're doing zip bags right and we have these zip bags. They're heavy duty, so it's four mil size. When we start off with a zip bag, we're happy to lose some money on that because we know it's repeat purchases. So we now have to calculate and understand okay, this is the frequency of those sales, this is what we expect to come in, what sizes are winning, and basically having the consistency to keep pushing, even though it might not be profitable to start. Eventually, when you start getting those repeat sales, you'll see the profitability come in and that's where those products, when they start winning. You do the exact same thing with new launches and it's, like I said, that consistency to keep doing that with new launches and new launches and new launches has been a game changer. And then also just not being afraid to test Amazon. So you know, like I said with our vitamin D one, we've thrown different keywords in there, we've thrown different words in there, even at times where you get delisted because Amazon said these things don't work or this is, you can't put that writing, so it's. It's helped us push our listing and appear in different places and we always do tracking to see if it's click-through rates, if it's the title. So, for example, some of our titles have our brand name, which is spot and industrial. That's a pretty long brand name and if you look at our uh, a product of ours on mobile devices, our brand name takes up should I? I say, 40% of the title. So a lot of our keywords and use cases don't actually show on mobile. So what we did test was removing the brand name and leading with the use cases and the product keywords and it started converting better because nobody cared what our brand name was. But if they're seeing that zip bag for Legos, for this, for this, and it's heavy duty and it's waterproof, that's what people want to see and it increased our click-through rates, which increased our conversions as well. So stuff like that and they're minute tests. But if you do that on a catalog and with products at a volume, it can be a massive scale. And when you realize that from a potential of okay, we have 800 ASINs, 50% of them increase in conversion rates by just 10, 20% I mean in click-through rates you're bringing in even way more traffic and if you hold your conversion rates, that increases your sales without having to do any change in bids and anything like that. So those key changes allow you to save your dollars but still gain on all that traffic. Bradley Sutton: Now, if I were to ask you your favorite Helium 10 tool, is it Cerebro, is it Adtomic? Is it Magnet? Chrome extension, what is it? Joe: I would say I love the Chrome extension because it helps me. If I go onto a competitor, straight away I see what they're lacking If they don't have 150 characters in their titles, if they don't have enough bullets, if they don't have, you know, enough bullets, if they don't have enough images. So the moment I see a competitor that doesn't check all the boxes that the Helium tool shows, I'm targeting them. Why? Because if you look at my products I have 10, you know most optimized on your thing. Then at the same time I look at keywords and it gives me a breakdown of how much revenue is in this keyword, how much revenue is in this industry. So before we go launch a specific product like we were launching an anti-slip tape because we want to add to our tape ranges so just looking at that, you'll look at that keyword anti-slip tape. It brings in 600 million a month from all these different competitors. Now I can run those competitors through Black Box and I love Black Box as well because it helps me really fine tune what I'm targeting and who I'm looking for. So, I can say they get X amount of revenue monthly with X amount of reviews. Like I said, if they have anything below four, Black Box shows me those people. Those are easy people I can add to my product targeting campaigns and I know, because our listings are optimized, we'll easily take some sales from those people. Campaigns and I know, because our listings are optimized, we'll easily take some sales from those people. So, I would say the listing Blackbox and also the Chrome extension will be my two favorite. Bradley Sutton: All right. If anybody wants to find you on the interwebs out there, like on LinkedIn or somewhere like you open to saying how they can find you guys out there. Joe: Oh yes, of course, on LinkedIn obviously it's just Joe Sanhanga, my name, and then on Instagram it's j.sanhanga, which is my last name, s-a-n-h-a-n-g-a, and that's mostly where I am on social media. But any questions or whatever I can on LinkedIn, you can just pop it in and I'll try and help where I can. Bradley Sutton: Awesome, awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show and hope to see you at an upcoming event soon then.
We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's Principal Brand Evangelist and Walmart Expert, Carrie Miller. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days was the company's biggest October shopping event ever https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/prime-big-deal-days-amazon-fall-october-prime-day Amazon's new AI Shopping Guides make it easier to research product types and buy smarter. https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/amazon-ai-shopping-guides-product-research-recommendations TikTok Rolls Out Automated Ad Targeting Options for the Holidays https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/tiktok-rolls-out-automated-ad-targeting-options-holidays/729142/ You can now reward customers for engaging with your Amazon ads https://advertising.amazon.com/en-us/resources/whats-new/reward-customers-for-engaging-with-your-ads/ Exciting news from Helium 10 includes the integration of Adtomic into the Diamond plan, offering efficient PPC campaign management with Advertising AI, and introducing a new feature that Helium 10 customers have been asking for for years is finally here! Variation Sales Strength is basically showing you which of the variations have the most sales. And lastly, don't miss our training for the Inventory Heat Maps tool to optimize sales strategies during the holiday season In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers: 00:54 - Oct Prime Day Success 02:22 - AI Shopping Guides 03:47 - VISA Verification 04:40 - AWD Too Full? 05:30 - TikTok Auto Ads 07:24 - US-UK Shipment Rates 08:05 - Customer Reward Ads 10:21 - 2024 Holiday Returns 11:01 - Sponsored Display Depreciation 11:45 - New Feature Alerts 14:14 - Freedom Ticket Webinar 14:42 - Elite Workshop in Milan, Italy 15:26 - Training Tip: Inventory Heat Maps ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Transcript Carrie Miller: A new feature that Helium 10 customers have been asking for years is finally here. There is a new VAT tax policy that you need to pay attention to. Amazon warehouse distribution might be too full and TikTok rolls out new automated ad targeting this and more. On this week's episode of the Weekly Buzz. Bradley Sutton: How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I'm your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show. That is our Helium 10 Weekly Buzz, where we give you a rundown of all the news stories that are going on in the Amazon, Walmart, e-commerce world. We highlight the latest new feature alerts from Helium 10, and we review a training tip of the week that will give you serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. Now, today, our host is going to be Kerry Miller. So, Kerry, take it away and let us know what's buzzing. Carrie Miller: Let's go ahead and get into the first article. That's October Prime Day Big Deals, and we have an article that was released by Amazon and they announced that prime big deal days was its biggest October shopping event ever. Okay, so that's pretty exciting, especially going into Q4. Here. They said that more prime members shopped compared to last year and took advantage of early holiday deals, marking the kickoff to the holiday season with higher sales and more items sold during the two day event than any previous October shopping event. So that's very good news, I think, for a lot of us sellers. Globally, prime members saved more than $1 billion across millions of deals, including on seasonal merchandise and gifts, so it was definitely a good time for shoppers as well. And if we scroll down a little bit more in this article, it goes on to talk a little bit about the role that AI actually played in this event. So Rufus, which is the generative, ai powered conversational shopping assistant, helped millions of customers in the US answer questions on a variety of shopping needs and products in the Amazon store. Rufus can now help make tailored deal recommendations, making it easier to discover great gift ideas at a discount, and customers also use something else called inspire, which is an in app mobile experience that helps you discover new products with a personalized feed, amazon lens, which is a visual shopping tool that identifies objects and finds similar items on amazon, and then also they have something called the ai shopping guides, which basically leads us into our next article, which is amazon's new ai shopping guides that make it easier to research product types and buy smarter. So let's go ahead and talk a little bit about this. Carrie Miller: So Amazon has actually introduced AI shopping guides to simplify product research by consolidating key information and recommendations for over 100 product types. These guides use generative AI to deliver relevant details and product options quickly, making it generative AI to deliver relevant details and product options quickly, making it easier for customers to make informed purchase decisions. The AI guides are available on Amazon's mobile app and the website and are powered by Amazon's Bedrock large language models, enhancing their ability to offer personalized shopping results. So if you want to go ahead and take a look with me so we can see what this actually looks like, you can see right here that there's actually some recommendations to help shoppers to make better decisions. So, for example, if we go over to this one on the right, it says you know factors to consider the display type, the resolution, all of that great information so you can click on that and get more information about that. Or you can also go down. You can see that you can shop by popular brands, so you can click on the types of brands and then they'll also kind of have overview of the actual product. So this is quite interesting, making it, you know, kind of an interesting AI backed approach to this year's October event. So we'll probably see a lot more of this AI playing a part in the whole finding products, you know, on Amazon for customers. So we'll see how this goes and see how it improves our sales. Carrie Miller: So let's go ahead and get into the next thing and this is kind of word on the street Maybe there isn't really an article about it so I don't have anything to share with you but there are some changes to Amazon VAT or the Visa program. We do have some sources that say that Amazon has actually updated its VAT compliance requirements for sellers. So if you're part of the Amazon VAT information sharing agreement or visa program, amazon is no longer handling VAT compliance verification and now, even if you've already switched over to another provider, which I'm sure many of you already have. Sellers must actually inform Amazon about the change or you're gonna risk suspension, and this affects both US and European sellers, and it's similar to last year's seller verification process, where, when you fail to update the details, it led to account suspension. So you definitely want to take some action. If you need some more information about this, you can actually contact Avask. They're in our partner hub. You can find them at h10.me. Forward slash Avask and they can help answer any of your questions. Carrie Miller: All right, the next story is about Amazon warehouse distribution and whether or not it's actually full, and we're going to say AWD for short, which stands for Amazon warehouse distribution. We have heard from multiple customers in Amazon seller groups that they are getting messages from AWD saying things like this Sorry, this time we don't have enough space available for your inventory. We are unable to accept your shipment due to capacity limit. Try reducing your shipment volume or try again in seven days. Now I think this is a very big issue for AWD if they want sellers to start moving all of their logistics to AWD Now. I know a lot of sellers are trying to take advantage of this and Amazon maybe went pretty quick to market with this, but we really want to know in the comments if you've seen this message and what you're doing about it, and are you going to wait and send an inventory to the warehouse, or what are you going to do? What are your plans? Let us know in the comments below. Carrie Miller: All right for this next story, we have TikTok launching new automated ads. They're rolling them out for the holiday season, so let's go ahead and take a look at the article. So TikTok has announced a new fully automated ad solution called Smart Plus, which will take care of the whole creation from ad creation, placement and bidding process for you. So if we scroll down, you can see a little bit more about what actually the Smart Plus automated ads program is, so you can get more details there. But basically, tiktoks explained it as Smart Plus automates the performance advertising process across targeting, bidding and creative to deliver the right ad to the right person to offer the best performance. Advertisers simply input their assets, budget and targeting goals and smart plus automatically creates or selects the best creative asset. Okay, so basically they're kind of doing everything for you AI run, ai generated. I'm not sure how many of us feel about all this being kind of AI generated and not having any involvement in it, but it is kind of interesting to kind of run some of these ads in addition to the other ads that you might be advertising, and so let's go ahead and look at some of what they're saying. So advertisers using smart web campaigns to optimize for value have actually seen a 52% improvement in the return on ad spend. So that is actually really good news as well. And if we scroll down a little bit more, tiktok is also rolling out GMV Max, which automates TikTok shop campaign creation with the aim of increasing your TikTok shop gross merchandise value. And they further go on to say a little bit more about this down below here. They said GMV Max considerably simplifies ad operations, cutting campaign setup time in half, and allows sellers to reach their audience across all shoppable placements on TikTok, including the for you feed, shop tab and search within a single campaign. So go ahead and check those out. If you haven't checked out the TikTok ads. I definitely think it's a game changer and something you should really be taking advantage of in this Q4 season. Carrie Miller: Okay, next up, amazon global selling. Send rate rejection is happening for the US to UK shipments, so, in a bid to make international shipping more affordable, amazon has actually announced a reduction in send S E N D rates for FBA shipments from the US to the UK, and sellers can now save up to 15% compared to what it was in July. The program offers seamless seller central integration, custom support, competitive rates, door-to-door delivery and shipment tracking, and this move is set to streamline logistics for sellers looking to expand to the UK market, making it easier and more cost-effective to grow their business globally, so might be a really good time to think about expanding to the UK. Okay, this next article. It's from Amazon, and now you can actually reward customers for engaging with your ads. This is quite an interesting and exciting new kind of announcement and I will definitely answer some of your questions that you probably have about this. But Amazon is basically introducing a new feature that allows advertisers to reward customers for engaging with their ads, so now sellers can create campaigns that actually offer incentives like discounts or promotions when customers interact with their ads, making it easier to drive engagement and conversion. Now this innovative approach aims to enhance the customer experience while boosting ad performance, and the integration is designed to be seamless within the Amazon ads platform. Carrie Miller: So if we actually scroll down, you are going to be able to see what this creative looks like, and I'm going to just scroll. There's a little bit about the setup and I want to show you what it looks like. So, basically, what's going to happen is you're going to see within the searches or on your stores, there's these previews where you can get a $5 Amazon credit. So that is going to be kind of a big bold red thing on the actual. You know where people can click and you're going to be able to give that as an incentive for your products. Carrie Miller: And there are probably some questions, like I had. I had I said well, who's going to pay for the $5 credit? Well, the answer is definitely you. So at the very bottom, where it says where do I access it, it says the rewards ads experience is currently available via the Amazon DSP within a component-based creative ad template. Advertisers will be billed for the cost of the distributed or rewards. So there you go, you're going to be paying for those $5 credits or whatever it is that you're going to do. Advertisers also have access to two net new metrics, which is reward grants the number of rewards distributed and reward costs, which is the cost of rewards distributed. These metrics are currently available within the ADSP campaign builder dashboards, but are not available via public API. So definitely go ahead and check it out. That's where you're going to really find all that information. So I am really actually curious to know how many of you think you would use this and do you think you might raise your prices to be able to take advantage of this. It's kind of an interesting thing, especially with margins kind of being a lot lower for a lot of people. So we'll see how that actually turns out. So go ahead and check that out, if you haven't already checked it out. Carrie Miller: Okay, the next story is very important to know, and that is the returns window for Amazon is going to be extended for the 2024 holidays. So Amazon is actually extending its holiday returns window for 2024. Items purchased between November 1st and December 31st of 2024 can be returned until January 31st of 2025, except for Apple products, which have a return deadline of January 15th of 2025. This extended policy applies to all seller fulfilled FBA and Amazon retail orders. Now, while the returns window is longer, eligibility rules remain unchanged, and this extension is aiming to make holiday shopping more convenient for our customers. Okay, and the next piece of news there is a depreciation announcement reminder Sponsored display version two reporting endpoints will shut off October 31st 2024. So Amazon is set to depreciate its sponsored display version 2 reporting endpoints, with a complete shutdown planned for October 31st of 2024. Advertisers should transition to the new version 3 reporting endpoints to continue accessing sponsored display reports. Until then, expect increased throttling on the old version, and amazon encourages feedback on this change through its ads API support page on by October 15th of 2024. So for more details on all that, you can go to amazon's migration page. Carrie Miller: Okay, so all those news stories were very exciting, but I think we have even more exciting news within helium 10 with our new features now. This next feature is something that a lot of people have been asking for, and I am very, very excited to announce it, because I've been asked this question for years actually, and we've been working on it for a long time. So I'm going to go ahead and share my screen. So this is just a search of coffin shelf and what I'm going to do is I'm going to actually go ahead and I'm going to pull our x-ray extension. Okay, so what I want to show you, which is already kind of clearly here, is I basically take this is our Manny's Mysterious Oddities product and I'm just going to expand this down and it's basically going to show us the variation sales strength with a graph. Okay, so this is basically showing you which of the variations have the most sales. So, for example, variation sales strength for this black one is obviously the big seller for us, and then you can see that there's a very, very tiny sliver of the pie here for purple, and then also a very sliver piece of the pie, maybe a little bit more, for the pink. So we can see that the top seller is the black one, then the pink one and then the purple one. So this is some great news and it's really kind of actually a teaser. Really, this is going to be a teaser for something that we're even getting for you even more data. So stay tuned for the launch of that. But in the meantime now you can see which variation, or child variation ASINs have the most sales. Carrie Miller: This next feature announcement for Helium 10 is very exciting, and that is that Atomic is now included in the diamond plan. So now you don't have to pay separately for it, it's going to be all included with the diamond plan, and with that we've actually launched advertising AI. So you know, if you don't know a bunch about PPC or you don't feel very strongly about it, you can actually give Atomic your ASIN and your ACoS goals and that's it. And Helium 10 will create your campaigns and optimize them by itself. So I'm going to actually show you how this works by sharing my screen. Okay, so if you go into Atomic, you're going to click on Atomic and go down here to the bottom, where it's the AI advertising very bottom icon and all you would do is you would click on your product goal and you're going to select your ASIN, say, you're going to do this one, you're going to set your ACoS goal and your daily budget and, if you want to, you can add some keywords in there and then you're going to basically go ahead and launch that campaign. So we're going to go into detail on how sellers can use Adtomic and save time and money in a live workshop with expert Destiny with Sean on the 22nd of October, so mark your calendars for that. We're going to be doing an in-depth PPC webinar, you know, for beginners, to help you to understand and use ad atomic better and more efficiently. Carrie Miller: Next, we actually have an announcement. That is, our monthly freedom ticket training with Kevin King. So Kevin King is actually bringing on Mark Degrassi I'm not actually sure how you say his name, but Mark Degrassi, I think, is how you say it he's going to be actually talking about why branding has always been your biggest marketing problem and how AI is going to solve it. I actually did see him speak at one of Kevin's events and he's very, very good. So to register for this special training, you can go to the link below. Carrie Miller: Okay, and another announcement that we have which is very, very exciting is that our next Helium 10 Elite Workshop is going to be in Milan, Italy, on November 11th. Bradley is going to be speaking there, Mansour is going to be speaking, Jana, who also does kind of listing optimization in other languages, and a few more top level speakers are going to be in attendance and speaking at this event. Elite members actually can go for free. So elite members just need to check the Facebook group for their free code, but everyone else you can actually attend, still for a fee. So just go to h10.me forward slash Milan to get your tickets before it sells out Right now. We have it on an 80% of the regular price special right now. So if you want to buy those tickets. You can go ahead and get them for a reduced price. Carrie Miller: And, last but not least, I'm very excited to go into our training tip of the week, which is our inventory heat maps. Okay, so inventory heat maps are available in helium 10. I'm sharing my screen now and this is actually in profits, and what you would do is you go to the heat maps and you're going to click on inventory heat map. You can change what to whatever product you want. So this is our coffin shelf, so we have our coffin shelf selected and you can actually see where our inventory is located in every single part of the United States right here. So this is a really, really helpful tool, especially going into the holiday season, where you can actually, you know, see where your inventory is. Carrie Miller: And something else that we do have in conjunction with that is the sales heat map, so you can actually see where the majority of your sales are in this heat map and you can go back and say is my inventory kind of matching up with those areas? Or maybe there's some areas where your sales are kind of up or have been in the past, but maybe they are not stocked with inventory. So you can go ahead and stock them with inventory, but go ahead and check out this inventory heat maps. Maybe, if you need some more distribution, you can figure out ways to kind of push inventory to other areas of the US and so that you can expand your reach. That is basically all that we have for this week's episode of the Weekly Buzz. Carrie Miller: So what I would actually like for you to do if you have not done this, we do have a YouTube channel, and so we would love for you to go ahead and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We do lots of great updates, we do the Weekly Buzz on there, but we also have a lot of great training for helium 10 and just selling on Amazon in general. Lots of incredible information. So subscribe to our YouTube channel so that you can be the first to know the up-to-date information about selling on Amazon and other platforms. We look forward to seeing you next week again on the Weekly Buzz. I do believe Bradley will be back, so we'll see you again next week to see what's buzzing.
In this special episode, a couple of key players from Amazon Corporate join us to discuss some brand new functions released for sellers, including one that gives us unprecedented ability to identify and target our repeat customers. What if harnessing the power of Amazon's vast data pool could revolutionize your e-commerce strategy? In this episode recorded live from Amazon Accelerate, we introduce a couple of cutting-edge tools, Amazon Business Planner, Customer Loyalty Analytics, and Customer Journey Analytics, designed to transform Amazon brands' approach to their operations marketing. Our special guests, James Casazza and Wei Li, prominent figures from Amazon Corporate, share how these new tools offer brands the ability to set goals, receive personalized action plans, and effectively manage their business data with self-service capabilities. This episode unpacks how brands can gain confidence and clarity amidst the overwhelming flow of information, aligning their strategies seamlessly with their business objectives. Discover the magic of artificial intelligence as we explore a revolutionary business planning tool that's setting new standards in the e-commerce landscape. This tool provides brands with AI-generated plans, pinpointing impactful goals like boosting ad-attributed sales and enhancing profitability. By offering step-by-step recommendations—from campaign strategies to keyword optimization—the tool updates dynamically, suggesting fresh opportunities and strategic enhancements beyond advertising. Join us as we dissect its ability to deliver transparent progress tracking with detailed visualizations, historical comparisons, and a focus on profitability through cost-reduction strategies and content optimization. Get ready to dive into the world of customer analytics with Amazon's latest tools aimed at understanding diverse shopper behaviors. We spotlight the Customer Loyalty Dashboard and Customer Journey Dashboard, key innovations that offer brands deeper insights into customer behavior. Our guest Wei, shares her role in developing tools like the Search Query Performance and Product Opportunity Explorer. These analytics resources empower brands to tailor promotions, prevent churn, and boost loyalty among customer segments. By leveraging predicted customer lifetime value and promotional strategies, brands can enhance engagement, conversion, and ultimately, customer loyalty. In episode 602 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley, James, and Wei discuss: 00:54 - Amazon Accelerate New Tools Announced Overview 02:00 - Amazon Launches New Business Planner 05:07 - Simplifying Data for Amazon Business Planning 11:16 - AI-Powered Business Planning Tool 12:39 - Dynamic Business Planner Features and Benefits 16:42 - Data-Driven Amazon Customer Loyalty Analytics 20:08 - Amazon Department Provides Key Seller Tools 23:20 - Understanding Customer Audience Types 28:26 - Understanding Buyer Behavior and Cart Abandonment 35:13 - Unlocking Valuable Amazon Data Insights 37:29 - Thanking Amazon for Launches at Accelerate ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Transcript: Bradley Sutton: Today's a special episode, as a couple of key players from Amazon Corporate are with us on the show to talk about some brand new functions released for sellers, including one that gives us unprecedented ability to identify and target our repeat customers. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think Sellers have lost thousands of dollars by not knowing that they were hijacked, perhaps on their Amazon listing, or maybe somebody changed their main image, or Amazon changed their shipping dimension so they had to pay extra money every order. Helium 10 can actually send you a text message or email if any of these things or other critical events happen to your Amazon account. For more information, go to h10.me forward slash alerts. Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers podcast by Helium 10. I'm your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show that is a special episode recorded live at Amazon Accelerate. This was done in Seattle a few weeks ago and, as you probably have seen from other episodes, we had a lot of new releases, of new data points and new functionality that Amazon is releasing. Shout out, first of all, to Addy from Amazon, who helped us hook us up with some of these interviews but we had the privilege of being able to interview a couple of the key people that are involved in the ideation and implementation of some of these new tools, and so in this episode, we're going to go over a couple of things in from Business Planner, which is something new, and also customer loyalty analytics, which might blow your mind as far as the kind of targeting ability and being able to understand, you know, how your customers go through the funnel. I think it's going to be interesting because, you know, a few years ago we would have never thought that Amazon would release this kind of data to sellers, so it's really awesome that they're doing that and we get to talk to the person responsible for the creation of this. So let's go ahead and hop into the episode Bradley Sutton: So I'd like to first start off with just getting your background. We're obviously here in Seattle right now. Where were you born and raised? James: So I'm from New York originally. I grew up about an hour outside New York City, really close to my grandparents' dairy farm. But for the last 20 years, I've lived outside Detroit. After college, I moved up there. Bradley Sutton: Hold on a quick second. This is an important question. Somebody who lives in New York. They move somewhere else. Are you a New York sports fan or a Detroit sports fan? James: So I've kept loyal to my New York teams. It's a little difficult because especially now the football season started, keeping up after the Giants and Jets is keeping your head low and the Lions finally have something to be excited about. But I'm a proud father to three boys and I will say they all have their Aiden Hutchinson jerseys on. We're really excited last season and looking forward to this one. Bradley Sutton: Awesome, awesome. So you were talking about. You graduated university. What direction did your career take you in that? James: So early in my career, I worked in automotive, digital marketing, and then in the social media industry, and I really found a passion for using software and technology to help independent businesses reach their consumers, really connect, and ultimately drive their success, and that led me to Amazon. So I've been with Amazon for just over six years now. I'm currently a senior manager of product management in the Selling Partner Experience organization, and, while that's a bit of a mouthful, what it means is that I'm really working on building the tools that sellers are using to run their business and ultimately thrive in the Amazon store. Recently, my team worked on a complete redesign of the Seller Central homepage, which rolled out late last year, and today I'm excited to join you and talk about the next exciting tool that we're building, called Business Planner, which brings self-service capabilities to sellers to plan their business, set goals and objectives and receive a personalized action plan that will help them attain their goals in the store. Bradley Sutton: Awesome. Now, I think that most brands would agree with me in that there is no other mechanism of selling whether we're talking brick and mortar, whether we're talking online that provides as much data as Amazon does to its brands. It's really incredible. I think sometimes we're spoiled, those who start on Amazon. They don't know how it is or how it used to be when you're trying to make money, and so I can totally understand that. Hey, with all this data, there's going to be some insights that can come from it. So what about the timing? Why did you decide, hey, now is the right time to go ahead and launch this new tool. James: Yeah, so the idea for Business Planner actually started at Accelerate in 2023. I was talking to a number of different sellers and really this theme came out about the data that you're talking about. One seller likened it to being dying of thirst they're just so hungry to know what to do, and yet they're standing next to a fire hydrant. It's just spouting all this data at them. And so the question they had was like help me organize this, help me decide what's most important so that I can act confidently and know that that's aligned with the goals that I have for my business. And so, while Amazon is providing plenty of reports and recommendations, it's really difficult to summarize or interpret that and get to an action plan. And we know that because sellers are working with account managers or even finding really productive partnerships with third-party software providers to help make sense of this data. And so our goal is to help democratize this access to data and bring the type of planning that sellers do offline when they're setting quarterly or yearly objectives and then want to track that and some may have teams that are doing customer acquisition or operations. They might be the individual's performance goals. We want to bring that offline planning into our tools so that sellers can easily keep track of where they're at and act confidently to drive their success. Bradley Sutton: You know, obviously, as brands, we have a lot of our own data, but I believe that this tool is also bringing in aggregated data from other sources, not just what's happening with your own listings. Is that correct? James: That's right. So throughout this process we've talked to so many sellers and I've just been impressed with the passion they have and the interest and the different opportunities that they're taking to bring insights and data analysis to really help them decide how to act. So with Business Planner, we're bringing together the power of data from thousands of different listings and all the customer activity in the Amazon store to create personalized action plans that will help sellers to achieve their goals. So they'll have a single place to go to benchmark their performance, identify their largest opportunities and then to generate a step-by-step action plan that aligns with the things that matter most to them. So, whether you're a new seller just getting started out in the Amazon store or you're an established brand with a healthy business that is ready to go to the next level, they can get a personalized plan that's specific to them and the goals that they want to achieve in the Amazon store. Bradley Sutton: Now, you mentioned you worked on the Seller Central homepage. Now on the homepage there's already kind of like recommendations that might come through. There's a whole growth opportunity section. So how does this new feature here compare to what's already out there, and is it better? James: So we're trying to take a best of both worlds approach. So when I think about the recommendations on the homepage and growth opportunities, it makes me think of a buffet where there's so many different options and there'll be like lots of tasty treats and plenty of nourishment there. So there's lots of good things there. But if you're trying to take like a structured plan, maybe instead you work with a nutritionist who's going to first ask you some questions about what's important to you. Are you training for the Olympics? Are you trying to slim down by a few pounds, like what is really your goal here? Bradley Sutton: That's what I'm going to say. I'm going to say, hey, I'm training for the Olympics. That's why I'm eating so much food at this point. James: Exactly, exactly, no-transcript in those other experiences and then also providing you with detailed tracking so you can see as the days and weeks go by, are you actually getting towards that goal? Bradley Sutton: Let me piggyback on something you just mentioned there pulling data from some of those other recommendations. What exactly is driving other than just raw data? That's what does a lot of data there. I'm assuming maybe AI has some component of it, absolutely so. James: I think AI is a really powerful tool because it can crunch massive amounts of data and identify patterns and discrepancies. So perhaps the seller is underperforming in their ads campaigns. We might be able to come back with specific keyword optimization recommendations and then they can increase their ad attributed sales and grow revenue. Or we might spot a change in demand for key ASINs that would require a different inventory strategy and it might be an opportunity for the seller to reduce their FBA fees and reduce costs of maintaining their current business. And so by applying machine learning and AI to that massive amount of data, we can kind of slim that down into a specific plan of action for the seller and by starting with the goals that they set. We're no longer in this business of kind of predicting what the seller might want. We start by asking the question and then we have a lot more confidence that, because the seller has set the goal, that when we come back with an action plan it's actually right for them and where they want to take their business. Bradley Sutton: Awesome, awesome. Now for those who maybe haven't seen it yet in their Seller Central dashboard, where can they find this? Walk us through a little bit of a scenario, maybe, how they can see yeah, absolutely. James: So Business Planner is going to be rolling out in the US store in just a couple of weeks. So later this month you'll start to see a tile on the homepage in that recommendation section that you talked about. It'll also show up on the left side menu of growth opportunities. From there you can access Business Planner, which is your dashboard for action planning. When you first visit, we'll have some recommended goals. So that's where we've assessed how the seller's performing, set some benchmarks and looked for the strongest opportunities where they can improve their performance. We'll rank those based on how big the impact is. So the most impactful goal will be at kind of the top left of that page and if that goal aligns with the objective that the seller has, they can click on it and see details about the plan. So maybe it's a four-week plan or a 12-week plan to increase their ad-attributed sales, because we see that as the largest opportunity and they'll be able to review the details and if they want to move forward, they just click to create a plan. And this is where the really exciting part happens. That's where the AI steps in and kind of scans across all those different recommendations, opportunities, and where we see the most potential to achieve that goal. So in this case seller is trying to increase their ad-attributed sales. We might come back with some specific product level ad campaign recommendations or keyword optimization. We put that into like a step-by-step plan and so the seller from the Business Planner can then look into that plan. There'll be graphs right on the page where they can see their current performance, what the target's going to be, and then a list of those recommendations that's organized and sorted for them. One of the special things about Business Planner is that it's constantly updating as much as once a day. It'll pull in new recommendations or reprioritize what's there because of progress that the sellers made, new opportunities that emerge Perhaps all of a sudden keyword traffic and customers are searching for new products on Amazon and that might change. The order of recommendations will reflect that in the business plan. So it's a it's a living thing that they can check back to and and going to show them that next best action they can take to ultimately achieve that objective. And then you know, once we've reached the end of the plan, we'll show that completed goal right and the experience with a record of all the things they did, and I think that's really important to sort of earn trust with the sellers that you know some of these things might require a little bit of an additional investment or might go against the common knowledge of how to be successful in the store. But I'm confident that, as we, you know, offer these plans because we're starting from what's most important to the sellers, that they'll see that that's helping them achieve their unique objectives and make their business as successful as possible in the store. Bradley Sutton: Okay. Now, when I was looking over some of the notes on this new tool, you mentioned a scenario with advertising, but I believe there's also another scenario where even it could get to something that has nothing to do with advertising, but like your A+ content. So I was trying to wrap my head around how that would work. So if I already I mean obviously, if I don't have A+ content the suggestion would be hey, get A+ content going. And now there's AI tools that help with that that we've talked about here at Amazon Accelerate this year. But if I already have A+ content, is this AI detecting like, hey, this might not be the most optimized and you need to tweak it, or what's it doing then? James: Yeah. So it's going to look throughout the sales funnel that you might see for a product. It might look at search activity glance views at the detail page and then I think a key lever for sellers is are they converting those views and visits to their products into sales? And so it might come back with a recommendation to tweak that content to better align with the search terms that customers are using. Or it might see a strategy where they could increase their featured offer win rate and ultimately convert more of those customers into buyers. And that's where the AI is powerful. It's going to look across those different opportunities and see where can we create the most leverage, and it was important to us as we were building Business Pointer. It's not just going to come with recommendations that might require some additional investment from sellers. So at launch, one of the things that we're including is a set of cost reduction goals, and that's where we might look at inventory levels and fee structures and recommend either promotions and deals or a different stocking strategy to the seller that can help them reduce their costs to serve and be more profitable in the similar All right, excellent. Bradley Sutton: So, regardless of what it is, whether we're talking A+ content, whether we're talking advertised I set a goal, I implemented it. You mentioned tracking the progress. How can I see how I'm you know my road to that? James: Yeah, absolutely so. This is where we want to bring in some like detailed data visualization. So when you come back to Business Planner, you click into the goal that you're tracking against, we'll have a big chart on the page with your progress, the projection of where you're going to end up, and also allow you to do some comparisons against a historical period so that you can see am I really outperforming, am I getting the gains? So back to your training for the Olympics. We want to see that your sprint times are coming down or your weight lifts are increasing in weight, and it's the same thing here. So if we're trying to improve our ads attributed sales we want to make progress on that metric. If we want to reduce our costs, we should expect to see our inventory performance index improve and by providing that granular view into the metrics, we can show that the seller is progressing towards their objective. Bradley Sutton: Excellent, all right, so now I'm inspired by listening to this podcast and I'm ready to go in. Maybe by the time they're listening to this, maybe it is available already in Seller Central. If I'm just getting started, what's maybe the first thing I should do, or what's the best way to get started with this? James: Yeah. So we want Business Planner to be a regular thing and we think that sellers will start to use it as it aligns with their monthly or quarterly business planning. So my first recommendation is check it out. Either go through the recommendations on the Seller Central homepage or go to growth opportunities and look for Business Planner in that left menu and you can start browsing those recommended goals. Those will update at least once a week with the latest and greatest opportunities that we see for you as a specific seller and based on, like your business and your opportunity, and then, once you find the plan that makes sense to you and you kick that off, you know, check back regularly. Those action plan items might update as much as once a day. So we want this to be a kind of like a regular part of your journey as a seller and a regular part of the tools that you might use on Seller Central. Bradley Sutton: Well, thank you so much for bringing this tool, thank you so much for coming on the show and talking about it, and I'm excited to use it myself, and I'm sure a lot of the brands out there will be excited. And I can empathize with you about the New York teams. I mean, I'm a Chargers and Clippers fan, so I'm a glutton for punishment myself. So thanks a lot for doing it. Yeah, thank you so much for being here. This was fantastic actually. This she doesn't know I'm going to say this, but this was the highlight for me, for actually Amazon Accelerate was being able to interview our next guest, who I am super excited to meet her, not only her, but also especially what she's going to be talking about. So, Wei, welcome, welcome, thank you. Thank you for meeting with me. Wei: Thank you for having me. Bradley Sutton: Now let's what I do with all of my guests. I like to get the backstory a little bit, so where were you born and raised? Wei: Definitely. I was born and raised in Beijing. I moved from Beijing to Chicago actually in 2003 for graduate school, so before Amazon, I worked for some of the big names like Merrill Lynch, KPMG. I have also worked for a number of startup companies in the fintech, pharmaceutical and supply chain companies. I joined Amazon in 2011. I have spent most of my time here with a selling partner services organization. Currently, I lead the selling partner growth analytics team, and our team built a few that I was on. Our team built a few seller-facing applications in Seller Central and your comment earlier. I actually I'm a mom of three outside of work and I have a seven-year-old, a six-year-old and a baby under one. Bradley Sutton: Yeah, wow, that's awesome, awesome. I miss those days. My kids are both. My kids are both in their twenties now and so, like I talked, when I talked to parents, when I talked to parents who still, I was like, oh man, you don't know how lucky you are to have kids at that age, because I wish I could go back in time Now, going back, one thing you said. You said you came to graduate school in Chicago. Which school did you go to? Wei: Yeah. So I got two masters, one from Illinois Institute of Technology and got my quantitative finance degree there. Bradley Sutton: And that's also Quantitative. I don't even know what that means. Wei: And then I received an MBA from UChicago. Bradley Sutton: Okay, excellent, excellent. You talk about your career there and on Amazon. You're very humble about the department you work at, but, guys, this is the department that I think not just me but every Amazon seller is so thankful for, which you're responsible for things like the search, career, performance and all these other amazing things that I think is so important, because brands, I think, have been spoiled by Amazon in the last couple of years with all the data that they get. They don't realize that if you were selling on Amazon, maybe like five, 10 years ago, some of the stuff that you guys are providing, you actually had to pay like thousands and thousands of dollars and most didn't even qualify to get it. So, first of all, again, thank you so much for what you do at your department. Now let's just talk about that a little bit Like how do you guys approach, what kind of analytical tools, what kind of information you're going to provide brands in? Wei: a few different domains. So, first of all, we provide a traffic and sales data through Business Report, which is one of the most visited tools in Seller Central. Additionally, we also provide this tool called Opportunity Explorer. So Opportunity Explorer is a selection analytics tool. It helps sellers identify new selection to sell in Amazon store. Additionally, we also provide this tool called Search Analytics Dashboard. That is where we can provide some of the data on traffic, with an emphasis on search keywords. Lastly, but not the least, is the Customer Analytics Dashboard. For Customer Analytics Dashboard, I'm actually very excited to announce some new launches here. So we started out by building dashboards about customers and their purchase behavior. We have demographic dashboards to tell you who your customers are. We have repeat purchase dashboard that tells you how often customers purchase from your brand. Additionally, we have this third dashboard called Market Basket Dashboard. It tells you what products your customers would purchase together with your brands. It unlocks some of the cross-selling opportunities. Since then, we have also received feedback from your brands. It unlocks some of the cross-selling opportunities. Since then, we have also received feedback from the brands. They want to take a customer-centered approach. So last year we launched a customer loyalty dashboard. It gives the brand a segmented view to understand who are your existing customers, from top tier to promising to at risk and hibernating customers. And then this year we're launching customer journey dashboard that allows a brand to understand your customer's entire shopping journey, from first moment they start to search for your brand to the moment when they make that final purchase. With these two dashboards, our goal is to lower the customer acquisition cost as well as increase the customer lifetime value. Bradley Sutton: This is really important because actually, this part of all the analytical tools I probably know the least about. I'm so obsessive about search query performance and search volume and keyword data, but I think now 2024 and then going to 2025, brands really need to understand the customer and people are thinking too much just about the algorithm or things like that, but at the end of the day, we're not selling to the algorithm, we're selling to a human being, and so some of these data points that you're talking about is really important. I'm happy to, I'm really excited to learn about them today. Now, one thing you mentioned, you know, about different customers, like you mentioned, like top tier and things you know, like this might be familiar to some out there and I know you're probably going to talk about it, but we had the brand tailor promotions and we could see some of these different audience groups, now, those who might not be familiar with it. Can you talk a little bit about these customer audience types? You mentioned top tier, but there's a lot of other ones out there too. Wei: Absolutely so. We help brand segment your existing customer base and we actually use a pretty standard methodology, is called RFM. R stands for Recency it describes when did your customer make the last purchase from your brand. F stands for Frequency it describes how frequently customers purchase from your brand. And lastly, m stands for Monetary Spend it talks about how much does the customer spend purchasing your products. We use a quantile-based approach and equally divide your customers into groups along these three dimensions recency, frequency as well as monetary spend. This allows us to group your customers into four segment top tier, promising, at risk, as well as a hibernating. By top tier customers those are the customers who purchased from your brand recently, but they may be purchasing at varying frequency and they spend varying amount. At risk customers they made a purchase but they don't purchase frequently. They also spend varying amount of money on your brand. And hibernating customers are those customers who have already churned. Equipped with this knowledge, brand can then deploy different promotion and marketing tools to re-engage these customers and thereby encourage repeat purchase and drive customer lifetime value. Bradley Sutton: Interesting.First of all, I was today years old when I heard the word quantile, so you're already teaching me new vocabulary lessons. I realize how not smart I am when it comes to math and this kind of things, but what you know, I think the main thing that people can take away is how important it is to kind of like bucket your customers into these different brackets, because you know, somebody who's hibernating is obviously a different kind of customer, a different value to one as one who is at risk or some of the others that you mentioned, and so it's important to be able to just not consider all of our brands customers. Hey, they're exactly the same, and I think that's what a lot of brands, or especially newer brands, might be doing. Like, all my customers are the same, but no, not all customers are created equally. Let's talk about the new and potential customers. We've got the ones we've had existing, like Hibernating and things like that, and who have been part of your brand. But I think all brands are really especially concerned about hey, how do I bring new customers into the fold? And so talk to us about the new and potential customers. Wei: We show the new and potential customers in the brand view of the customer loyalty dashboard. New customers are the ones who have made the first purchase in the last 12 months and potential customers are those customers who have not made the purchase but has engaged with your brands in some ways. For example, they may have viewed your product detail page, read customer reviews or added your products to their shopping cart or save them for later. The idea there is we want to allow brands to set up uh promotion tools to target these potential customers and convert them all All right Now, about 40 years ago. Bradley Sutton: if we use this term cart abandoner, somebody might think of somebody who went to the grocery store and then took the cart home and then left it in the street. But when we're talking about cart abandoners on Amazon completely different meaning it's actually my favorite group of customers. For those who aren't familiar with that term, can you explain who that refers to? Wei: Yes, absolutely. It is actually one of the new audiences that we launched this year. Cart abandoners are those customers who added your products into their shopping cart but has not made the purchase in the last 90 days. Bradley Sutton: Now it's amazing, because this is why I think it's so important that somebody thinks, uh, more holistically about customers, because we can't think that everybody's like us as a buyer, like me, as an Amazon customer I am. I am never a cart abander, like if I add something to the cart, I buy it, like I add it to the cart and then I check out. But then I thought everybody was like me, but actually not. You're not like me, probably I'm the opposite. Wei: I actually, I actually added to the cart and I observe uh, when does the price drop? Bradley Sutton: and so many people are like you. Yes, I heard other people. You tell me if this is you too, but other people they're searching for like a teacup or something like that, and they'll actually add five different ones to the cart and then make the decision about do you do that one too? Sometimes, see, I don't do any of this, and so I was thinking when I first saw the numbers of this, it was just flabbergasting. I was like I cannot believe how many people are cart abandoners. And then I just started asking friends and family and I guess I was the weird one and you guys are the normal ones. But yeah, that is a huge audience and a very valuable audience. So all of these audience types, at the end of the day, what we're talking about here is we're trying to send promotions to them in different ones. So how do we send promotions to these different audiences? Wei: Absolutely so. Today, you're able to send tailored promotions to these different audiences, and promotions are then become available to customers through search result page. I do want to share with you that as a team, we're constantly thinking about new tools that sellers can leverage or brands can leverage. So in the future, we might incorporate new tools such as coupons, Amazon buying, A+, detail page, and Manage Your Experiments, so that brands can leverage different tools to engage with their customers and help them convert. Bradley Sutton: Excellent, excellent. Now I think one question I've gotten a lot before from different brands is hey, if I set up a promotion that's going to one of these audiences being the cart abandoners or some other audience, how do they actually see the promotions? Wei: Promotions will show up for these customers in the search results page or the product detail page. Bradley Sutton: Okay, so now we're looking at an example of one of these graphs here, and there's a part here that says trends. So can you explain what is this representing? Wei: Definitely. The trend graph actually allow you to compare different metrics, for example, your total customers, total sales, new-to-brand customers, new-to-brand sales. Brands can then compare and contrast and observe how these metrics change over time. Bradley Sutton: All right, next question. Here I can see we have a Segment view and a Brand view. Can you explain the difference between those? Wei: Absolutely so earlier we mentioned that we will share with brands about their existing customer base top tier customer, promising, customer at risk, as well as a hibernating customer. Brand view gives you data for the entire brand, and segment view actually allows you to dive deeper into each segment. On both brand view and segment view, we will provide recommended actions that you can take to drive conversion and increase repeat purchase. Additionally, one thing I would love to call out is segment view actually gives you a predicted customer lifetime value. We use a science model to predict how likely a customer is going to purchase from your brand again and we further segment each segment based on whether the customer lifetime value is going to grow, maintain or decline. Bradley Sutton: Wow, that's interesting. Let's talk a little bit more about this, because I think there's some brands out there who might have a product where you know what it's a vacuum. Maybe they're just going to buy the one vacuum and 10 years later maybe they'll buy another vacuum. There's others who have maybe are in the supplements, the health and household category, the beauty category, where they're very reliant on repeat purchases. So this, this lifetime value, is definitely something near and dear to their heart. But you're saying that using uh models, you can actually kind of predict some of the potential lifetime value. Can you talk a little bit more about that? Wei: Absolutely so. We use this size-based model, and the model input considers a variety of features such as customer's profile, their browsing behavior, how they have interacted with your brands or product in the past, and then the output of the model is how likely they're going to purchase from your brand again in the next 12 months, and we will then be able to say whether the customer lifetime value is going to grow, maintain or decline as a result of that. Brands will then have further segmentation within each customer segment each customer segment. So now brands can actually launch tailored promotion specifically targeting, for example, the top tier customers, those top tier customers where their lifetime value is predicted to decline. This will allow brands to prevent these customers from churning. Bradley Sutton: Interesting is that available already or that's coming later? Wei: This is available already today. Bradley Sutton: I've been missing the boat on that one. I need to go ahead and start implementing that, because that's very definitely invaluable. So what are the actions that brands should be doing that we do have available? I'm obviously missing that last one, but what are some more things that we need to be leveraging right now? Wei: So brands can achieve a number of different goals through customer loyalty dashboard, for example, if you're a brand who are trying to drive conversion and acquire new customers, it would be a good idea to think about advertising campaign and boost awareness. You can also launch a tailored promotion, as we talked about earlier, focusing, say, on cart abandoner to encourage customers to convert and make their purchase. And if your goal is to drive loyalty and encourage repeat purchases, it would be a good idea to focus on top tier customers as well as promising customers. And, additionally, we have these promotion tools where you can focus on those customers whose lifetime value is predicted to maintain or decline and encourage them to purchase more from your brand your brand. Bradley Sutton: Now I just want to take a moment to talk to the listeners out there who might not understand how crazy it is that this kind of data is being available. This is the kind of data that companies who are selling on other channels are paying a lot of agencies, tens and hundreds of thousand dollars and it's not even that great of information, because a lot of it is just trying to predict things where they might not have that information. It's just based on perhaps some surveys and things, but this is Amazon itself, who has access to all of this data and it's giving you firsthand this kind of information. Guys, if you are not leveraging this information, you are missing out on a ton of valuable information, so make sure to use this Now. This has been great. A lot of what you just mentioned is available as of now, but right here during Amazon Accelerate, you actually even announced some new and exciting more things that are coming to the platform. Can you talk about some of those launches coming to the platform? Wei: Can you talk about some of those launches? Absolutely, I am super, super excited. So customer loyalty dashboard the goal there is to help brands understand their existing customers so that brands can engage with these customers at the right time with a right product. However, brand frequently ask for information about what's happening in the upper funnel. We are launching this new dashboard called the Customer Journey Analytics. So Customer Journey Analytics allows brands to map the end-to-end customer journey with data and analytics, as well as recommendations. It allows brands to visualize how customers go from becoming aware of your brand all the way to consideration, maybe intent to purchase, to finally making that purchase and become a new customer to your brand. Bradley Sutton: Wow, I'm excited to see how that's gonna work, because I think that's what we would always have always wanted that kind of information, kind of guess about it, like, all right, that's how you know, that's why I'm doing my advertising in this sense, and it's going to pay back, uh, you know in this sense, and that's why I need to have them see it this many times but to be able to actually have real data to see, that's going to be, I think, a game changer for, uh, Amazon brands out there. Well, thank you so much for launching these things. Like I said, your department is my favorite. I was about to say the best, but then I have a lot of friends at Amazon so I can't completely say that or else they might get mad at me. But my personal favorite tools definitely come from your department, and so please, please, keep giving us brands this great information. We really, really appreciate it, and thank you so much for what you've launched this week at Amazon Accelerate. I'm sure all the brands are really gonna appreciate all of this data. Wei: Thank you.
We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's Senior Evangelist, Shivali Patel. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. Amazon Multi-Channel fulfillment (MCF) can now automatically fulfill orders placed on social commerce channels like TikTok, Instagram, and Pinterest using your FBA inventory. You can now offer Subscribe & Save and Reorder coupons on an ASIN at the same time. With this change, you can now offer both Subscribe & Save and Reorder coupons on an ASIN at the same time. Effective September 30, 2024, if Amazon requires you to submit product compliance documents, these must be submitted and approved before you can list the product. Amazon Pharmacy customers can have their medications pre-sorted into packets using this new PillPack feature https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/amazon-pharmacy-pillpack-feature Inbound shipping is now easier with the Amazon Partner Carrier Program's smart carrier options https://sell.amazon.com/blog/announcements/partner-carrier-program-smart-carrier-options Amazon marketplace sellers sue Walmart https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2024/oct/01/amazon-marketplace-sellers-sue-walmart/ Amazon seller-fulfilled heavy and bulky returns https://channelx.world/2024/10/amazon-seller-fulfilled-heavy-and-bulky-returns/ Amazon's recyclable packaging push https://www.packaging-gateway.com/news/amazons-recyclable-packaging-push/ Digital Domain Teams Up with AWS to Scale Autonomous Virtual Human Technology and Introduces Generative AI-Powered Features https://press.aboutamazon.com/aws/2024/9/digital-domain-teams-up-with-aws-to-scale-autonomous-virtual-human-technology-and-introduces-generative-ai-powered-features Amazon is launching its own Shark Tank where winners get to be Amazon sellers https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/30/24258276/amazon-buy-it-now-show-trailer-shark-tank-jb-smoove With the holiday season approaching, we arm you with strategic insights to capitalize on events like Prime Big Deals Day, including essential tips on using Cerebro for effective keyword research. Tune in and stay ahead with these buzzing news and strategies that help your business thrive in the competitive e-commerce landscape. In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers: 00:49 - MCF Expands to Social 02:04 - Dual Coupon Boosts Promotions 03:28 - Compliance Deadline Approaching 04:17 - Holiday Peak FBA Fees Set 05:48 - Pharmacy PillPack 07:00 - Smart Carrier Options Introduced 08:19 - Sellers x Walmart Lawsuit 09:54 - Updated Returns for Bulky Items 11:51 - Sustainable Packaging 12:58 - AWS Powers Autonomous Virtual Humans 15:04 - Shark Tank but for Prime 16:30 - Training: Finding Keywords Your Competitors Top Keywords ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Transcript Shivali Patel: Amazon's MCF fulfilling orders for popular social channels, incoming holiday peak fulfillment fees and, finally, that dual coupon feature you've requested being implemented. This and more on this week's episode of the Weekly Buzz. Bradley Sutton: How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I am your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show. That is our Helium 10 Weekly Buzz, where we give you a rundown of all the new stories that are going on in the Amazon, Walmart and e-commerce world. We highlight the latest new feature alerts from Helium 10, and we review a training tip of the week that will give you serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. Today, our host is going to be Shivali Patel and so Shivali, take it away and let us know what's buzzing. Shivali Patel: First up, we have a few news pieces directly from Seller Central News To start. An exciting enhancement to Amazon's Multi-Channel Fulfillment, or MCF. Amazon's MCF now enables sellers to automatically fulfill orders from popular social commerce platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Pinterest using your Fulfillment by Amazon inventory. This means, for those of you that were perhaps manually fulfilling orders up until now for TikTok shop can now transition to more effortlessly expanding your brands, maintaining accurate inventory tracking and quicker order processing. Or imagine just running a promotion on Instagram knowing that your orders are being handled seamlessly through Amazon's system. This can help you capture even more sales opportunities across different channels, keeping you ahead of your competitors. To streamline this process, amazon recommends that you utilize tools like Webby LingSing or Connector by Silk. These platforms can help you connect your social media accounts to your Amazon Seller Central with ease and, in my opinion, a great strategic move to enhance your order fulfillment capabilities, position your business for growth and encourage you to meet customers where they're most active, and that is social channels. Shivali Patel: Then we have Amazon actually just announced its new dual coupon feature that many of you have been requesting. You can now offer both subscribe and save and reorder coupons on the same ASIN. Previously, sellers could only use one coupon per ASIN, which limited promotional strategies, and now eligible customers can choose between a 10% off free order coupon for a one-time purchase or a 20% off subscribe and save coupon for those who want to subscribe for regular deliveries. I can see this making a dent in impacting the quantity of repeat purchases and facilitating brand loyalty, as well as, if you are a seller, the ability to now cater to different purchasing behaviors. This will help you effectively engage your audience. For instance, if a customer is hesitant to commit to a subscription, that reorder coupon can persuade them to try your product without long-term commitment. Meanwhile, customers who value convenience can opt for the subscribe and save option, benefiting from a greater discount. Remember, guys, at the end of the day, promotions are a really great way for you to attract new customers and retain existing ones. By leveraging these dual coupon offerings, you can enhance your marketing efforts, drive sustained sales growth and, at the end of the day, it's about making your customers feel valued and giving them the options that suit their needs. Shivali Patel: Okay, moving on, let's talk about an important compliance update that you need to be aware of, effective September 30th 2024, which is already passed, amazon will now require that any product needing compliance documentation to have these documents submitted and approved before it can be listed in order to uphold the highest safety standards for products sold on Amazon. This is just one additional way for them to ensure that customers are really receiving safe and compliant items. While existing product listings will remain unaffected, new listings cannot go live until the proper documentation has been approved. So make sure that you guys manage this process through your manage all inventory dashboard on seller central and, since they can ask for additional information to verify product safety and compliance at any time, you'll want to check back time to time. Shivali Patel: Speaking of time, as we gear up for the holiday shopping season specifically, there are upcoming 2024 holiday peak fulfillment fees for FBA that you will need to be aware of. From October 15th to January 14th of 2025, you're going to see these seasonal fees applied to all products, reflecting the increased fulfillment and transportation costs during this busy period. This fee structure is similar to what other major carriers charge and it will be consistent across items within the same size band, and this will affect US FBA, Canada FBA, north America remote fulfillment, us multi-channel fulfillment and buy with Prime. I recommend that you guys factor these fees into your pricing strategy. Okay, and especially during the holiday season, when consumer spending typically peaks. The average holiday peak fulfillment fee will remain consistent with last year. However, a new peak fee will apply to products priced below 10 USD. This is for US FBA specifically. While these fees might seem like a hurdle, I want you to keep in mind that Amazon's average FBA fulfillment fees are still about 70% lower than the comparable two-day shipping options offered by third-party logistic providers. And, if needed, the new section does have the detailed rates linked by size and weight on the relevant help pages. So check it out to plan out your inventory and maximize sales during the holiday rush, if you have not already. Shivali Patel: In other news and in an exciting expansion of its services, amazon Pharmacy is enhancing the way that customers manage their medications with the introduction of a new pill pack feature. This service allows customers to have their eligible medications three or more pre-sorted into convenient pill packets, which will then be delivered straight to their door. This updated offering continues the service from PillPackcom acquired by Amazon in 2018, but introduces new savings and a simplified sign of process. Each PillPack is organized and labeled by date and time, making it easier for individuals to adhere to their prescribed routines without the hassle of multiple pill bottles. I don't think any of us like that. Plus, customers can enjoy fast, free delivery right to their homes. I wanted to mention this as part of this week's buzz because, while perhaps it's not directly relevant to you as an e-com seller or service provider, this new service from Amazon Pharmacy could open avenues for partnership or product integration, especially if you offer health-related products. Later down the road, by keeping an eye on how the service evolves, perhaps you'll be able to identify opportunities to align your offerings with Amazon's growing healthcare initiatives. Shivali Patel: What else we also have? Amazon introducing new smart carrier options for sellers using FBA and Amazon Warehousing and Distribution, known as AWD, giving sellers more choice and flexibility when sending inventory to the Amazon network. Available through the Amazon Partner Carrier Program, these options allow sellers to choose their preferred partner carrier and transport method based on dynamic freight-ready dates and cost estimates. This update aims to help sellers like you and I optimize our logistics and expenses, and these new features are integrated into step four of both the send to Amazon workflow and send to Amazon warehousing and distribution workflow. That is a tongue twister when you're trying to say it all in one sentence For less than truckload and full truckload shipments. The Amazon partner carrier program, known for offering reliable shipping services, includes small parcel delivery, LTL, FTL and intermodal shipment options, with savings of up to 25% lower compared to alternatives. So sellers can benefit from lower costs, while those delivering to AWD received additional discounts of 25% on storage and 15% on processing and transportation. I hope that you guys can see this as a valuable opportunity to streamline your inventory management and reduce costs, improving efficiency. Shivali Patel: Okay, then, we have a significant legal development. Four Amazon Marketplace sellers have filed a class action lawsuit against Walmart, seeking $5 million in damages. The lawsuit alleges that Walmart has enabled organized retail crime and racketeering through its third-party vendors by not sufficiently vetting its Marketplace sellers. The complaint filed on September 17th, as written here in US District Court for the District of Delaware, claims that certain third-party sellers on Walmart's platform are engaging in fraudulent practices, buying and reselling products from Amazon vendors in a sophisticated scheme. This practice harms legitimate sellers and allows Walmart to profit from the fees that it collects from these sellers. So I think that this case really underscores the ongoing challenges in maintaining marketplace integrity and the responsibilities of platforms and managing selling ecosystems. So I hope that you're able to recognize, with this case, the importance of just being transparent and ethical in your business practices. It's vital that you guys keep up with the guidelines that these platforms have, and this way you can really protect your brand but also contribute to a healthier marketplace overall. Walmart has until October 10th to respond to a summons that was issued on September 19th and in their statement they indicated they're reviewing the complaint. So, regardless of the outcome, the lawsuit serves as a reminder of the potential risks and the need for the platform to maintain a robust vetting process. Shivali Patel: Reporting hot from channel x. Starting on October 30th 2024, we also have amazon updating the seller fulfilled returns policies for heavy and bulky items in Germany, France, Italy and Spain stores. This aligns with changes already implemented in the UK since August of 2024, and heavy and bulky items are defined as those that weigh over 31.5 kg or have a longest side exceeding 175 centimeters when packed. Sellers will now be required to offer a prepaid return label and home collection service for these returns, along with issuing refunds to customers, while the responsibility for covering return shipping costs remains unchanged. The refund amount will depend on the return reason and timeline, in line with Amazon's existing returns policy. So the introduction of home collection for heavy and bulky item returns aims to provide a consistent returns experience for customers across all those stores. As the service is already available for FBA and seller flex returns, amazon recommends that we review our carrier contracts to ensure that home collection is included and make any sort of necessary updates. Shivali Patel: As a seller, you may want to offer partial refunds or part replacements as an alternative to home collection, provided that it's shared the tracking ID of the replacement part with the customer and that you close out the return request with the reason code return request canceled. To avoid A to Z guarantee claims or impacts on order defect rates, sellers must authorize or deny return requests within 48 hours where the auto is not auto authorized. You also have these additional things to keep in mind, but as you can see here, you can just pause the screen and have a read. Otherwise you can reference this channel X article. I'd love to know do you guys think this will help reduce unnecessary customer claims and improve seller performance across amazon's European stores? Let me know in the chat. We do have just a few more things here. Shivali Patel: It's been a packed week of news as the e-commerce industry continues to expand. Concerns about packaging waste have come to the forefront, prompting amazon to take significant steps towards sustainability. And, in response to the mounting pressure from environmental groups and regulatory bodies, amazon's introduced various recyclable packaging initiatives, one of those being the Frustration-Free Packaging Initiative, designed to ship products in easy-to-open, recyclable packaging, often eliminating the need for additional boxes. Since its launch, amazon reports having removed over 1.5 million tons of waste. I mean that is impressive and it shows a tangible effort for them to reduce waste. Amazon has shifted towards recyclable materials, introducing paper-based mailers that can be easily recycled, curbside, and this shift is part of Amazon's broader commitment to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2040. As a seller, you can adopt sustainable packaging practices to align with Amazon's initiatives, but also appeal to eco-conscious consumers who prioritize environmental responsibility. Shivali Patel: Up next, we have an article directly from Amazon. According to Amazon's press center, digital Domain, a leader in visual effects and virtual human technology, has announced a collaboration with Amazon Web Services, AWS, to migrate its autonomous virtual human AVH technology to the cloud. This partnership aims to expand the reach and capabilities of AVH technology across industries such as entertainment, gaming, healthcare, hospitality and commercial applications, leveraging AWS's advanced cloud infrastructure, including Amazon's Bedrock for high-performing foundation models, amazon Polly, amongst others, for voice enhancements and for facial recognition. Digital domain is really poised to enhance real-time interaction with virtual humans. Aws's robust security and compliance features will also ensure the integrity and scalability of the AVH platform. This collaboration represents a significant milestone for digital domain following the success of Zoe in 2022. And, with the support of AWS and its cloud infrastructure, I think it's really going to offer AVH technology greater speed, efficiency and global accessibility in many sectors. Shivali Patel: This collaboration does offer potential relevancy for Amazon sellers, particularly in enhancing customer engagement and support For sellers who operate in industries such as e-com, hospitality or any customer-facing business. Integrating virtual human technology can revolutionize how we interact with customers, and so Amazon sellers can really leverage AVH technology for real-time, ai-driven customer interactions, offering personalized and immersive experiences similar to virtual concierge services. This can help improve the efficiency, manage inquiries, provide product recommendations, offer after-sales support. Even so, by utilizing this advanced technology, we can really, as sellers, go in and enhance our brand experiences, boost customer satisfaction and stay competitive in this growing market where AI and machine learning are really taking on a very pivotal role in customer interaction. Lastly, I figured you guys could also appreciate some fun news how many of you have ever watched Shark Tank and how many of you have seen the new trailer for Amazon Prime videos, buy it Now, hosted by JB Smoove? Shivali Patel: The Verge reports that in this unique competition, you're going to have contestants having the opportunity to present their product ideas to a panel of investors and an audience known as the 100, representing potential customers. If a contestant's product is well-received, it's going to be featured in a new section of the Amazon store called Buy it Now. The panel actually includes celebrity guests like Gwyneth Paltrow, Jamie Siminoff, who's the CEO of Door.com, serving as the resident judge, and others. Each episode features a $20,000 prize for one contestant, adding an exciting incentive to the competition. Viewers can access the buy it now store via a QR code shown during the episodes, allowing them to purchase featured products directly. The first three episodes will premiere on October 30th, with a total of 13 episodes airing weekly until January 8th of 2025. Additionally, a companion podcast this is Small Business Behind the Buy will be available starting the day after the show's launch. This initiative not only engages viewers, but also aims to drive sales on Amazon, showcasing products with greater transparency about their origins, their names, their brand story, and creating buzz and excitement around new product launches as the holiday shopping season approaches. Shivali Patel: With that. That is it for this week's news. And, by the way while I didn't mention it, since Bradley's already talked about this in a previous episode Amazon's Prime Big Deals Day sale is also coming up on October 8th and 9th. So I hope that you guys are all squared away to rank at the top of all the keywords you hope to generate sales from. In case you're not, let's just run through one strategy that you can use to capitalize during this time. Let me show you how you can find keywords where your competitors are outranking you. Let's say you're ranked on one of the lower pages, like pages four, five or even just the bottom of page one. Sure, customers searching for niche specific items like coffin shelves underneath the keyword gothic decor may ignore irrelevant results and focus only on the similar products. But also, most people don't even really scroll to page two, which is a clear indicator of why you would want to pay attention to the keywords where your direct competitors might be outperforming you and where you may want to tweak your strategy if you care to be listed at the top half of page one, where all that traffic is. Here's how You're going to want to pay attention to your relative rank against competitors. You can find this metric inside of Cerebro, which is our reverse ASIN keyword research tool, and you are going to begin by putting in a multi-ASIN search. So find a bunch of the Amazon standard identification numbers inside of your niche and go ahead and click get keywords. Shivali Patel: The second thing you're going to do is set a minimum for search volume. I went ahead and inputted in 300. Now the product I'm looking at is actually this automatic chicken water cup. In doing so, I can now filter out those keywords that don't have a lot of search volume associated. There's no right or wrong number for search volume. You can put in something that you feel is good for your niche. The next thing I'll do is input in a relative rank. I went ahead and added in three for minimum, and this is telling me that and this is basically saying that I'm at least number three amongst my competitors. Then go ahead and input in anything else you want and click apply filters. I actually added in a minimum for word count as well as the phrases containing chicken, because I was seeing some additional terms here. Shivali Patel: In doing so, I had a output of 38 filtered keywords and you guys can scroll all the way over to the right hand side and check out the relative rank. If you hover over the number for relative rank, it's actually going to showcase to you where you are stacked up next to your competitors as well as what ranking you are at. For example, for this particular keyword, which is automatic chicken watering system, you can see that our relative rank is position number six compared to our competitors. This means that your product ranks sixth in relative rank for this keyword, and this is the sort of thing that can help you identify keywords where competitors are ahead and make adjustments like increasing sponsored ad spend to improve your ranking, or adding that keyword to your title to rank a lot faster, to prepare for a day like Prime big deals day, or even just put in a CPR campaign into motion where you're selling those products at a discounted rate to rank. Happy sales, you guys.
Join Bradley Sutton, as he explores the intricacies of Amazon product launches with the updated Maldives Honeymoon Launch Strategy. He'll walk you through optimizing your product launches during Amazon's critical honeymoon period, sharing his hands-on experience and the latest insights from his recent testing. Learn how to utilize Helium 10's Blackbox tool for effective product research, identifying opportunities with low title density to give your product a competitive edge. We address the evolving landscape of AI and algorithm changes in Amazon, reassuring you that the fundamental principles of successful launches remain robust. Discover advanced keyword research strategies using Helium 10's Cerebro tool to enhance your product's visibility from day one. We explain how to identify crucial keywords by examining competitors' rankings and uncovering hidden opportunities through niche keywords. By focusing on keywords where top competitors are already advertising, you'll ensure comprehensive keyword coverage and improve your product's relevancy signals on Amazon. Additionally, Bradley shows you how to leverage thematically related products frequently bought together with your competitors' items to optimize your listings and advertising efforts. Finally, he'll guide you through creating compelling Amazon listings that resonate with potential buyers. Learn to prioritize relevant keywords based on competitor performance, avoid keyword stuffing, and craft emotionally engaging content. Bradley emphasizes the importance of customer reviews and the effective use of images and bullet points to highlight product benefits. Plus, he shares his experiences with test listings to ensure a smooth launch and offers strategies for balancing expenditure and maximizing ranking during the critical launch period. Whether you're launching a new product on Amazon or optimizing an existing one, these insights and strategies are designed to help you succeed in the Amazon marketplace. In episode 600 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley talks about: 00:00 - Maldives Honeymoon Amazon Product Launch Strategy 08:33 - Keyword Research for Amazon Launch Success 16:16 - Utilizing Cerebro Historical Trends for Keywords 20:30 - Identifying Related, Non-Competing Products 20:37 - Strategic Keywords for Amazon Product Optimization 23:57 - Effective Amazon Listing Optimization Strategy 28:04 - Optimizing Amazon Listings for Success 28:54 - Launching a Test Listing Strategy 34:04 - Setting List Price Strategy for Sales 36:13 - Amazon Product Launch Strategy and Pricing 37:10 - Amazon PPC Strategy and Optimization 41:18 - Strategies for Amazon Discounts & Price Management 45:13 - Amazon Listing Relevancy and Ranking Strategy 49:36 - Product Launch Success With Amazon Relevancy 53:26 - Annual Amazon Launch Strategy Review ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Transcript Bradley Sutton: All right, guys, it's episode 600. You know what that means. It's time for another Maldives Honeymoon Launch Strategy. I'm going to be giving you guys, step by step, what you need to do in order to have the best launch that you can have for your Amazon products. How cool, is that? Pretty cool, I think. Black Box by Helium 10 houses the largest database of Amazon products and keywords in the world. Outside of Amazon itself. We have over 2 billion products and many millions more keywords from different Amazon marketplaces, from USA to Australia to Germany and more. Use our powerful filters to search through this database for pockets of opportunity that you might want to get into with your first or next product to sell on Amazon. For more information, go to h10.me/blackbox. Don't forget you can save 10% off for life on Helium 10 by using our special code SSP10. Bradley Sutton: Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I'm your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show that's completely BS free, unscripted and unrehearsed, organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers, as of any level in the e-commerce world. All right, and for you guys watching this on YouTube. You saw me do a dramatic transition from the pool. I'm here in the Maldives at a new resort that I've never been in, and I'm recording this as I do every year the Maldives Honeymoon Launch episode. This is now like the eighth version, I think. We used to do it every 50 episodes on the on the like the hundred and the 50. Uh, now we only do it every 100 episodes. So about once a year I come out here to the Maldives on my own dime I'm paying for this myself, and then I just take a couple of day's vacation and also record the episode for Maldives Honeymoon Launch Strategy. All right, so if this is your first time listening to one of these, you don't need to go back and listen to the others, because every year I update it. Bradley Sutton: But basically, just a brief history is I started really focusing on what can give you the best bang for your buck for launches, and we all know about the so-called Amazon honeymoon period, where you get a little bit more bang for your buck when your product is just coming out. But then I started noticing things that gave me like that extra oomph, like a very special honeymoon, which is how I came up with the name Maldives Honeymoon, and that's why I am here and, for dramatic effect. I always come here to Maldives. I'm here at a resort I've never been it's the Huvafen Fushi Hilton, I believe it's called, but really great resort out here. And I'm here on my last day and I wanted to go ahead and share with you guys the new strategy. Bradley Sutton: So what we're going to be going over today is I'm going to go over, first of all, this is like version 6.0 of this strategy, where we are going to just break down what are the steps. And this isn't just me coming up with these steps. I've been testing it the last year. I've been testing stuff this month, last month, the previous month. I'm constantly doing tests to make sure, hey, what is the best strategy? And guess what, guys, if you listen to episode 500, the last time I did one of these episodes it's different than what I'm going to talk about today, because things on Amazon do change over time and that's why I do these every 100 episodes. So we're going to first go over the list of what makes up this strategy right now and then I'll give you guys, I'll show you guys, some examples of some things that I did, you know, show how I even came up with this, why it works. All right. Bradley Sutton: So first let's talk about product research. You know, the Maldives Honeymoon Strategy actually can doesn't always have to, but it can start with your product research when you're finding a new product to operate. I don't always just have the Maldives Honeymoon Launch Strategy in mind, but it's something that allows me to kind of like, pick the cream of the crop. Okay, so one of those features that I look for is a low title density. In Helium 10 Black Box, you use the filter under keywords for a title density. That means how many listings on page one, um, have this exact search keyword in the title? Uh, now, first of all, hold on. Bradley Sutton: Let me just back up really quick, and one elephant that's in some people's rooms, not in everybody's, is hey, wait a minute, isn't launch and creating listings and things completely different now, here, towards the end of 2024, because of Cosmo Algorithm and Rufus and this and that. And first of all, just spoiler, no, 100% the same. I'm not doing anything differently, differently. That being said, I'm going to go deep into I might have already been dependent on when I'm recording this, but I'm going to go deep into another episode where we talk about, uh, what the future holds because of you know, AI and different things. But the beauty is that don't listen to people who are trying to say that, hey, everything has changed right now because it hasn't, I am not doing anything differently because of AI and I'm having the exact same successes now. Bradley Sutton: The reason is because I have never been one somebody just focusing on keyword stuffing or keyword relevancy as the be all filter and stuff. If you're doing that, yeah, your launch strategies would have gone out of fashion years ago, because Amazon searches evolved before AI, before so-called Cosmo or Rufus and things like that. No, you got to do more than just stuff your keywords or your listings with keywords. Right, we've been teaching that you have to have the customer in mind when you guys are coming up with your listing, when you're choosing keywords, and not just have the Amazon algorithm in mind. Okay, and that's what we've always, even though the kind of strategies have changed. That's what we've always focused on in the Maldives Honeymoon Strategy is you're balancing Amazon algorithm with the customer and, again, nothing has changed, even though there's Rufus now and there's, you know, develop algorithms. If you're still doing that, you are a hundred percent fine. So don't get confused with people telling you that, hey, you've got to completely change everything you do or else you're completely irrelevant to the Amazon algorithm. Now, that being said, I hope nothing changes in the three weeks that from the time I'm recording this to the time I am releasing this, because I actually am recording this before Amazon Accelerate. Who knows, maybe something will come up from Amazon Accelerate that completely changes this. Bradley Sutton: I was teaching the Maldives Honeymoon Strategy to do refunds and giveaways for a year, year, for like two years. So the Maldives Honeymoon Strategy, you do a giveaway and you rebate them. Why? Because that was allowed by Amazon until the. I was teaching that till the very day it wasn't um. So, like I don't like to be the one who speculates about what could change, what does change. I'm going to tell you what's working, and you know we can, you know, kind of have in mind, hey, well, what could, but not to the point where it distracts you from what is working. And so that's what I'm always going to do. I'm going to give you the facts, guys, without speculation or things about what might change. And then the instant that something does change, or Amazon announces some policy shift or they announce something that you know the different way that you have to make your listings, we'll go ahead and shift them all these honeymoon strategy, right. So just keep that in mind. Everything I talk about right now has nothing to do with AI and different things, because these strategies are working right now, even though there's, you know, Rufus and different things like that. All right. Bradley Sutton: So again, going back to the product research, low title density is something I look at because that gives me an idea. If some of the main keywords in a niche have a low title density number, that means it's going to be really easy for me to get to page one of those search results, because that's just one of the ways that Amazon algorithm works. How it says that something is relevant for a keyword is like hey, is that keyword in the title? And if there's not that many listings that have that keyword in the title, well, it's like okay, well, maybe this listing isn't that important for this keyword, all right. So that's one of the factors I look at. Another thing I could look at again, not like I'm only looking for this, but it's just stuff that gives me more confidence when I do launch, especially if I have like five or six options and I'm like all right, I only want to launch one or two products, which are the one or two that I'm going to do first. Well, these are the things I'm looking at. So another one is I look at Brand Analytics and I'm looking total domination of one or two products, you know, because they're getting the majority of the clicks, the majority of the purchases, or, on the flip side, is the top three clicks. Do they only make up like 10% of the conversions, meaning 90% is wide open. I can go either way and it'll give me some confidence. It says, hey, if just one listing is dominating the clicks and the purchases, that that and I don't think that listing is that great or that product is that great that gives me some confidence that, hey, maybe I can go in right away and from day one, maybe dominate a little bit. Right On the flip side, maybe, if it's wide open, I'm like, oh shoot, people are just buying all kinds of products here on page one, the top three click products only make up 10% of the sales. That could give me some confidence too that, hey, I can have a lot better conversion share than these top three click products. That's just one of the things I look at as well. Bradley Sutton: Another thing I like looking at is in Amazon not even Helium 10, but in Amazon product opportunity explore. I look at the conversion rate for the keyword. All right, so in the conversion rate, if it has like less than 1%, I'm like, wow, this is great. That means that out of every 100 searches, less than one person actually buy something when they search at that could be an indication that there's opportunity, that people aren't finding what they're looking for. I can actually I said not in Helium 10, but for those of you who don't have Helium 10, yeah, use Product Opportunity Explorer. You can do that inside of Helium 10 with the keyword sales metric. All right, so we have estimated sales, and so if you have a huge differentiation between search volume and keyword sales, guess what? You found a keyword where it not many people are seeing what they're looking for and thus people aren't buying it. And so that means, if you can figure out what's the gap, why are people searching for this, but why aren't they buying anything on the page? Now, all of a sudden, you've got a huge advantage and that could be a great opportunity to get in a certain niche. So these are some of the things I look at, even before we're talking about launch, even though I know this is a launch episode. Those are some of the things that help me decide which keywords I'm going to launch. Bradley Sutton: Second step, before we even get to the launch, is the keyword research, and this is the key right. This is super key, and this is where I really think that you know, even though you can do launches without Helium 10. Guys, if you're using another tool that doesn't have these things I'm about to mention, you are leaving lots of money on the table with potential keywords, and so let me go over those. Now. The first thing I like to do is I'll put in 10 or 15 of the top competitors into Cerebro. Okay, so I'll take a baseline product, throw in 10 competitors, 15 competitors, minimum five, unless I'm in a brand-new niche where there's not much to look at. Let's just pretend that we're talking about something where there are at least five competitors that I can look at. Bradley Sutton: First thing I do is I just hit the one click button top keywords in Cerebro. That gives me all of the keywords that most of the top competitors, or most of these top competitors are all ranking for, and they're ranking highly for, instantly. These, I know, are my keywords and so I'll take that, put it to you know, like a keyword list, that I have my keyword list. Next thing I do is I look at the opportunity keywords. It's another one click button. I hit opportunity keywords and now that shows me, hey, where the keywords were a maximum of only one or two products are crushing it and the others, like, are not even in the ballgame. Because that gives me a list of keywords that you know I'm going to go ahead and not have some. You know as much competition. You know those top keywords, everybody's competing for it. That's great. I need to know that. Those are the most relevant keywords, usually to a niche. But these opportunity keywords the reason why we call it opportunity is because, hey, these are getting sales for maybe one, max, two products. The others might not even know about this keyword. They're not even ranking for it really. So that could be an opportunity for you to come in. Bradley Sutton: Instead of having a keyword that you're competing with all 10 or 15 top competitors You're just competing with, you know, like three or three, one or two, right, all right, so that's another one, Now, by the way, guys, I like setting up two different keyword lists. I put everything into a main keyword list, all right, inside of Helium 10. But then I set up a second keyword list. Now, this is something new, I haven't done this in the past but where I'm putting in some of my like outlier keywords, where I'm like hey, this is not going to be one of the top keywords, but I want to make sure I have this in phrase form, all right. So, like I'm looking for another like 10, 15 keywords that I'm going to put in this special list, 15 to 20, maybe even more, maybe I can go up to 30. I still want to put my main keywords in phrase form, but these are the ones where it's not going to have a highly competitive performance score. I'll talk to you a little bit about that later, but I still want to make sure it's like making a mental note hey, these are the keywords I want to put in phrase form, even though they might not be one of my main keywords. I'll explain a little bit more why later. Bradley Sutton: Now the next step I do in Cerebro again. I do in Cerebro again, we're still looking at those keywords where I did 10 to 15, is. I want to look at where one competitor is ranking in the top 10, at least just one. Forget about what the other guys are ranking for. What are all the keywords where one guy is ranking the top 10 out of those 5, 10, 15 competitors? Copy those keywords to my keyword list because hey, those are keywords getting sales for one of my competitors. Why can't I get sales for it? It's not always going to be the most relevant keyword, right? So some of them are random. Obviously, a lot of brand names are going to come up. I'm not putting in brand names, keywords into my listing. I would obviously exclude those. The next step is hey, where is just one competitor ranking in the top 50? It's making it a little bit more broad, like it's not going to be hated for it. And, by the way, the more keywords that you put in your listing that you share ranking with these other competitors, it's setting you up for success from day one as far as relevancy to the Amazon algorithm, because Amazon remember, if you have a brand new product, amazon doesn't know what your product is, it just can go by what's in your listing, and so the more that you can relate yourself to other products with established histories. It means from day one it's going to be like, okay, we're going to give a shot to this product for these other keywords, because it looks similar to this other listing, right, but uh, you know it, or because it has the same keywords, but you know, we're not exactly sure it's relevant for this. But let's give it a try. That's. That's kind of like how the honeymoon period even works. Bradley Sutton: Uh, the next step is I'm going to go for, uh, something new-ish I've been doing just to get more keywords is 75% of the top competitors are ranking for a keyword, just ranking at all, all right, so obviously this is some keywords. I could have some completely off the wall keywords here, but here's the thing 75% of the top competitors. That means if I had 10 competitors that I put in Cerebro, I need at least seven or eight competitors all ranking for it, anywhere between one and 306. And the reason is maybe people aren't getting sales for it, but there's a reason. Most keywords have 1,000, 10,000 products indexed for the keyword. That means searchable, but only seven pages of search results come up. Right, only 306 listings come up. Now, if you can find keywords where maybe nobody's even ranking that high for it, but they're all in the top 306. Now, all of a sudden it's like, hey, this is probably somewhat relevant. Maybe it's not to the customer yet, but to Amazon. There's signs that Amazon has said, hey, this deserves ranking. Bradley Sutton: Now there's where Helium 10 comes in. You use other tools like Jungle Scout or Data Dive, which is driven by Jungle Scout. They're only looking at the top, I think, 100 or 150 ranks, so you're going to miss out on tons of keywords. I'll be doing another podcast later where I talk a little bit more about how many keywords you miss out if you're using another tool. But that's one of the main advantages or not one of the main, but one of the many advantages I should say of Helium 10 is we're looking at all the ranks, all right. So if you're only looking at the top 150, you can miss out on some valuable keywords, on some valuable keywords. Bradley Sutton: Next thing is another Amazon or Helium 10 only metric of Amazon recommended rank. Remember, Helium 10 has a direct connection with Amazon for the relevancy score, which we call Amazon recommended rank. It's because it's what Amazon recommends that you advertise for due to relevancy, all right. So I want to see what are the keywords that 75% of the listings again, seven out of 10, three out of five, you know, 10 out of 15, uh, 11 out of 15, actually I should say are all have or are all on this Amazon recommended rank. That means they're all on Amazon's relevancy radar and it's a top 200 average. All right. In helium 10, you can pick the Amazon recommended rank average. So that means across the board that on average it's one of the top 200 keywords that Amazon thinks is relevant, all right. So again, these are keywords that you're not going to find in other tools, but these can help you get these little sales, like one or two sales here or there. With some of these keywords. That's really going to help you get ahead of the competition. Bradley Sutton: The last thing I'm doing in Cerebro with those top 15, 10, 5, 10, 15 listings is I'm looking for where 75% of the competitors are all advertising for the keyword. Now I might go take it a little bit narrow and say, hey, show me where at least three competitors are advertising in the top 10 positions. Then I know they're spending money and sure I'll run that. But at the very least I want to see where, hey, at least seven out of 10, at least 11 out of 15 of my top competitors. They're all showing up in the sponsor results, right up to 105 locations. Again, this is not something that all tools have. Some tools are only showing you where the top 40 or top 50 sponsored ads, but again, I'm looking, I like to look at the top seven pages, because if they're showing up in the top seven pages, their bid has got to be somewhat high, where it's even in the in the ballpark, and so if you're not looking at all seven pages, you could be leaving money on the table. So by now, at this point, I've got like a good two, three hundred or even more keywords. Not all I'm gonna be able to get in my listing, not all, definitely in phrase form, but this gets me on a good start. Bradley Sutton: And one more thing that I like to do is I like to look at the historical trend. All right, this is another Helium 10 exclusive where, like, let's say, I'm doing looking into egg racks. Maybe, I think that in February, march, when Easter is coming, a lot of people are searching for different keywords. So I can hit this show historical trend and then I could look either at the product level or the entire niche level. Hey, what's going on in like February of the last couple of years and where were these products getting sales in February? And then it's kind of like taking a time machine in Cerebro, going back and looking all right, let me go ahead and pull all the important keywords in February and then I can see, oh, there's a whole bunch of keywords maybe that are not showing up right now. So, super important. This is something that is going to get you a lot of the historical keywords and the seasonal keywords that other tools just aren't going to show you, because it's only showing you what's going on now. Bradley Sutton: Now the next thing I do is I'll take maybe three or four of those top keywords, the ones that had the highest competitor performance score in Cerebro. What I'm going to do is I'm going to go ahead and throw those one by one into Magnet and then I'm going to filter down for Smart Complete. Smart Complete is showing me the long tail versions of that keyword in various forms. So in other words, for example, coffin shelf. All right, so that's for my coffin shelf. That's the main keyword. I put that in Magnet. Hit Smart Complete. It's going to show me probably not that many, because coffin shelf is in a huge keyword, I'm going to get a good 15, 20 keywords where it'll be like coffin shelf for men, spooky coffin shelf, Halloween coffin shelf, whatever things like that. But those ones might not have a lot of ranking yet for whatever reason. But I'm going to go ahead and copy those keywords. A lot of it probably came up in my Cerebro, but there's always going to be like two or three keywords that probably didn't come up in Cerebro but that there's searches for, especially if I'm using a search volume filter, and I want to get those in my listing too, because, hey, if my product is a coffin shelf, I want to know what are the different forms of coffin shelf that people are searching for. Let me get those in my listing as long as they're relevant. So I'll go ahead and do that in Magnet. Bradley Sutton: Next step is I can do this either in Helium 10, which is actually easier, or I can do this in top search terms Brand Analytics in Amazon. I'm going to take some of those top competitors all right, those top five, those top 10, and I am going to go back in history and I want to see any time that they were one of the top three clicked and they had purchases. It's not just a matter of being one of the top three clicked. They could be one of the top three clicked forever, but if they never had purchases, well, is that really a valuable keyword for them? Most of the keywords I'm going to come up with here are going to have already been what I found in Cerebro, but every now and then you'll find some random keyword because maybe they just randomly were ranking for it one day, or they just randomly got shown in an auto campaign. They never even realized it, so they never had you know, other sales again other weeks. But I'm going to go back and look a week by week for the past six months or so. Now this is kind of a tedious task. Now, soon, Helium 10 in our Brand Analytics Black Box tool, you're going to be able to look at multiple date ranges, so it's going to be just a couple of clicks, a button. But right now, whether you're using Helium 10 or Amazon, it's going to be kind of tedious. You're going to have to go week by week over the past six months. If you really want to do this right and just look at all the keywords where they were one of the top three clicked your top competitors maybe only your top five and where they actually had more than 0% conversion share, meaning they actually had purchases for it. I'm going to put that to my keyword list. Some of those I might actually put to that special keyword list where it's my top keywords. Bradley Sutton: Next thing here is something that's been in my Maldives Honeymoon for a while very unique once again to Helium 10, is you want to look at the frequently bought together of some of your top competitors? I'm not going to do this to all 15, but I'll put in my top five competitors into Black Box product targeting. Now, what this is going to do is it's going to show me for these products I can do it one by one or I can put them all in where what other products have shown up in the frequently bought together for these products. Remember Amazon, frequently bought together is showing you products that people bought in the same purchase experience. So, for example, it's not like the old metric that was customer also bought, you know where. Like maybe Monday I bought a coffin shelf and Wednesday I bought diapers, right, you know like, yeah, sure, that's one competitor or one competitor, one customer who bought those two things. But are those relevant? No, but then if something is frequently bought together in the same shopping cart experience, it's usually because they're kind of relevant towards each other, like maybe it's a coffin shelf plus like a spider web shelf or something like that, or it's a coffin shelf plus some spooky decor item, because somebody's you know like decorating their Halloween haunted house or something like that. Right? So what I'm looking for is not other coffin shelves and other coffin shelves are going to come up, because sometimes people buy two of the same products or whatever your product is. Bradley Sutton: I'm looking for what are the products that are showing up and frequently bought together with my competitors or my future competitors that are completely different? Not, I don't want to say completely different, but I mean it's not a coffin shelf. So, in other words, I want to look for a product that's like a coffin shelf with a you know, bat shaped bath rug or something, where it's like oh yeah, obviously this person is buying this kind of themed stuff, but it's not a competitor. You know, a bat-shaped bat rug is not a competitor with coffin shelf. All right, it's two separate products, but there's relevance, there's a history of people buying the two. Now, the reason I'm doing that is because now I'm going to take those products. Maybe there are five products that are commonly showing up with my competitors, maybe it's 10. It's up to you, and then I'm one or two keywords of each of those products, all right. Bradley Sutton: So let's say that, to my coffin shelf, one of the other top products that showed up in frequently bought together was a coffin-shaped light cover, like a light switch right, or a coffin-shaped toilet paper dispenser, whatever. It is right. What is the main keyword of that? Well, it's going to be coffin-shaped light cover or something like that. Right, I want that keyword in my listing. They're number one and they're number two keywords, like the most relevant keywords. If I were to flip this and somebody had a coffin bath mat and my product is a coffin shelf, what keywords are they going to choose for me? Well, they would choose coffin shelf, right, you know for them. Now, why is this? This is something unique. All right, I want to be related to these products from day one. I don't I'm not making some wild guess that people who are interested in coffin shelves are also going to be interested in this coffin shape, like I know Amazon is telling me people are buying these products together. Bradley Sutton: So how does it benefit me by having this kind of, this other product, which is doesn't describe my product, being indexed for that keyword? Well, it just sends that little relevancy signal to amazon saying, hey, Amazon, you know this, this product has this keyword in here. You know when I'm doing now, when I'm doing my product targeting, from day one usually I'm going to be able to target that other product. You know those are the products you want to target. If you just have, if you, if I have a coffin shelf and I don't have any of those, uh, coffin, you know light cover keywords in my listing eventually will I show up pin product targeting. You know sponsor display ads and things like that probably. You know when I went in an auto campaign, you know Amazon might one day just show it or you know, in some other kind of product targeting maybe you know I'll get impressions. But I want to start getting those impressions from like day one of my list and then, if I actually am indexed for that keyword, it's like it's going to give me a lot better chance from day one to start showing up in product targeting and then, uh, you know, I I'm hopefully going to get sales from those product targeting ads because I see a history of frequently bought together. So that's another uh set of keywords that I'm going to go ahead and want to put in my listing. Bradley Sutton: Now another part, uh that doesn't have to do with Helium 10 is using Product Opportunity Explorer. Probably 98% of the keywords I'm going to see in product opportunity to explore I already got from Cerebro or Magnet or Brand Analytics or one of these others, but every now and then there's maybe some new up and coming keyword that might not be in the other ones. So this is kind of like a nice little bookend. And obviously, for those of you who don't have Helium 10 for whatever strange reason out there you're one of the few top sellers who don't use it Well, you kind of have to use only Product Opportunity Explorer. But I'll put my competitors into Product Opportunity Explorer and check what niches they're in, or if my main keyword has a niche on Product Opportunity Explorer not all main keywords do. I'm going to look at the other niche keywords and I'm going to get that and go ahead and put it in my keyword list as well. Bradley Sutton: All right, next up is the Listing Optimization. This is key. All right, all those keywords from my two lists I'm throwing into Listing Builder. Okay, it could be 300, 400 phrases, I'm not sure. Well, Listing Builder immediately is gonna break down my phrases with my individual keywords. Now, remember the top keywords. By the way, at the same time I'm gonna bring in all of my competitors, those 10, 15 top competitors. I'm importing them into my Listing Builder. I think this is only a diamond in a plan so that you can see those competitor performance scores that you see in Cerebro. So now I know what are the most relevant keywords. What are those top keywords is because those probably have a CPS score of like eight, nine or 10. And how I'm going to prioritize this now is hey, even though it says 400 phrases or 300 or 100, there's no one number that's right or wrong. But however, many phrases I have, now I know, hey, I'm only picking, like a top 10 or 15 phrases, the ones that are the most relevant with that high score, to make sure I have in phrase form, plus any of those other keywords that I'm like. Bradley Sutton: Hey, I you know, maybe I found this keyword in Brand Analytics, or maybe it's one of those opportunity keywords, or maybe it's something I'm going to go ahead and, you know, make sure those get in phrase form. The rest of it, guess what? All I have to do is make sure that those individual keywords are in there once. And where am I listening? Because if I have 300 phrases, they're probably you know, that's probably. You know three, maybe let's just say they have three words each. There's probably 900 words in those 300 phrases, right? It doesn't mean I have to put 900 different individual words. Those 900 words. There's probably only like 200 or 300 individual words that are unique. The rest are just duplicates of each other, right? So then what I would do is, hey, the Helium 10 Listing Builder is already taking out those duplicates. I just got to make sure each of those individual keywords I have somewhere in my listing. Now, at this point I can have AI and Listing Builder, kind of just like you know, make me a rough listing, or I could just write the listing. Bradley Sutton: A couple things, remember when you're making the title all right, pick, put your best keyword in the title for me Coffin Shelf. Coffin Shelf is going to be there. If it's an egg holder, maybe egg holder countertop. But then what I'm going to do is there another top keyword like Gothic Decor? I'll stick that. It's the Coffin Shelf and Gothic Decor. They're not even nested keywords. But if I've got two top keywords I can usually find a way to put two top keywords in my listing. But here's the thing Once you do that, now use the helium 10 to see what are those root phrases. That, if it's a two-word root or more, now what happens is now I'm going to be like hey, what are some nested keywords I can use? You know, an example I've always used is maybe I have my main keyword is egg holder and then additional keyword egg holder, countertop. Egg holder, countertop for kitchen. Rustic egg holder, rustic egg holder, countertop for kitchen. If I put the keyword in my title rustic egg holder, countertop for kitchen, I've got like five, six phrases in phrase form right there, because Amazon is not making me you know it looks at those phrases just in the order of the words that it's at. It's not. It's not making me put those phrases all separately. So that's what you should do. Pick your two top keywords and then see what other nested keywords can you put in there, so you can kill a couple birds with one stone, for you know, sending those relevancy signals to Amazon that, hey, this is what my product is about. Now the rest of my listing again, I'm focusing on trying to get those key phrases in phrase form in my listing. Bradley Sutton: But again, do not just keyword stuff. It's not just about, hey, I need to put these keywords this many times, et cetera. Listing builder we have some tool or some scoring that will help you to know what kind of score you have, but you have really got to write to connect to the customer when you're ranking your listing. This doesn't have to do with the launch per se, but again, this isn't necessarily about it. This is nothing new, guys. We've been taught. I've been talking about this for six years since I've worked at Helium 10. You have got to use review insights in Helium 10 to look at your competitors, reviews. What do people like about it, what do people not like about it? Talk about it in their coffee, right? Is that a keyword? No, but I'm going to write about that. I'm going to put that in my image. I'm going to show if I had collagen peptides, somebody at a kitchen table, you know, pouring it into their coffee, because that's how people are using. I'm going to talk about that in the bullet points. Bradley Sutton: Again, not to send a relevancy signal for a certain keyword or to rank for in my coffee. I'm not trying to rank for in my coffee, but I'm trying to connect with the customer. And, by the way, guys, going back to what I said before, if something changed, you know, as things change with AI and Rufus and things like that, you know somebody might ask a question like hey, how can I find the best you know collagen peptides that'll fit in my coffee? Well, guess what? You're going to be the one that has that in your listing. So the Amazon AI is going to relate it to your product. But again, that's not the reason to do it. It's not because, oh yeah, Rufus is out there now. That's why you should put this. No, I've been talking about this for six years, even before there was a such thing as Rufus, right? So, again, make sure you are talking to the customer in your listing as well. Make those emotional connections with your customer. What problems does your product solve? What are the use cases? And I'm talking about images, I'm talking about your bullet points, your description, your A plus content. Speak to the customer, then you don't have to worry about fancy stuff, about AI and whatnot, because you're already covering your basis. Bradley Sutton: Now the next aspect here is something I just released last year in episode 500, which I hadn't talked about before, and that's making a test listing. The reason why I want to make a test listing nowadays is because I don't know what's going on, but there are so many times where it seems like Amazon gets confused about products from the get go. I've talked about this before, but how this came up or how I discovered it, was because I was launching these coffee socks. And then what happened was, when I say coffee socks, it's socks that had a message on the bottom where it says hey, if you can read this, bring me coffee. And so I wanted to rank for coffee gifts for women or gifts for coffee lovers and things like that, and I couldn't even get impressions in PPC. Bradley Sutton: And then when I ran the relevancy test that only you can get in Helium 10 with Amazon recommended rank, the coffee keywords were not even in its top 20. All the top 20 keywords was like oh, you know, black sock and pink sock and black shoe. And I'm like, oh man, amazon is completely confused about this product and I was like, well, it kind of makes sense because you know coffee is in the grocery category, right? My product? It's a sock, it's in the fashion category. Amazon probably thinks that. You know why does this product need to be relevant for the coffee related keywords, right? So this is what happens sometimes when you just launch a listing and then you usually have to like all right, I need to opt to reoptimize my listing. I need to send traffic. Bradley Sutton: By the way, one of the best ways to get relevancy for keywords you are indexed for is using the old school two-step field ASIN URLs. All right, you can. You can pull one of those eight field ASIN two-step URLs by using index checker and then just give that to like four or five people. This is not against Amazon terms of service. Am I trying to rank? Am I trying to increase my ranking for a certain keyword? No, that's against Amazon terms of service. We used to do that all day long, you know, five years ago, that used to be part of them all these honeymoon strategy. The reason why this is not against terms of services I couldn't care less about ranking. I mean, maybe later I want to rank is just get a couple of orders for using one of those URLs to send that relevancy signal. Bradley Sutton: I'm going to show you some examples about how amazing that works, where, in two days, I can get that Amazon relevancy for that keyword. That I didn't, and so that's what I did for my coffee listing. I do it for other listings. But anyways, these are things that you're testing. Maybe that doesn't work, maybe you have to do send a search find by which, again, is against Amazon terms of service if you're trying to rank. But if you're just trying to send relevancy, there's nothing against terms of service for that for now. But anyways, if you're trying to launch a product and you're in the honeymoon period and you're trying to figure stuff out and test and like, all right, let me check back tomorrow. Did this affect my relevancy? Do I get PPC impressions? Now you're losing days of your honeymoon. Bradley Sutton: You want to hit the ground running from day one of your listing, right, and so it's important to make a test listing to see, hey, if, is Amazon confused? Oh, yes, if, yes, well, now what steps do I have to take to fix it? And then now you know, when you make your real listing, you know exactly on day one, exactly what you have to do, instead of trying to run these experiments. The other reason to do test listings is you can test your PPC. Are you getting PPC impressions from day one on all your keywords? If not, again you might have to do some relevancy switches on there. What PPC bid gets you in the top four positions? If you launch your product without this, it's fine. You'll know within four hours thanks to Helium 10's keyword tracker that has boost. You'll know in four hours. Oh, I need to raise or lower the bid, but since you're doing this anyways, might as well figure out what that exact bid is. That gets you to the top of search, right. And now, once you've got that bid, hey, when you make your real listing and you make your real PPC campaign, your launch campaign, you'll know from day one exactly the bids. That's going to get you at the top of the. Bradley Sutton: A throwaway ASIN. I use similar images. I don't want to use the exact same images. All right, I have to use a throwaway UPC like throw a, fulfilled by merchant listing up. All right, you know, put one inventory in, I'll put a high price, cause I didn't want to get purchases, maybe, right, and then? And then I just start playing with these things and testing. You know I run it through Cerebro. What is the Amazon recommended rank? Start my PPC campaign for it. Where is it showing me? You know I run my keyword tracker. I get all of this data so that when I make my quote unquote real listing from day one I have all my ducks lined up in a row where I know exactly what I have to do. Bradley Sutton: When you make your real listing but your product isn't ready to in Amazon yet, you know, make sure to put a future date. All right. Now be careful, though. All right, be careful. There's some listings that have this thing called street date, all right. So if you see four different dates, be very careful which dates you do. Before I used to just say, oh yeah, wherever you see a date for listing launch date and merchant, go live date or whatever just put some random date in the future and then, once the product actually gets there, then go ahead and change the date. But there's one of these things I'm going to talk a little bit about it later when I show you some real-life examples there's one of these dates that you can't change unless maybe use like a special flat file, which I haven't tested yet, but you can't change it, so you're locked into a pre-buy until then. So just be very careful when setting the date in the future. Bradley Sutton: But you don't want to just create your listing and have your listing potentially active where other people can find that ASIN and like make it active in their, in their Seller Central, and now it's like counting days against your honeymoon period for you. You don't want to do that. So put your date in the future or just create the listing the same day. You're going to launch it. Those of you who have warehouses in the United States, like me, that's what I do. I don't put a future date always because I got the product in my warehouse. I turn on my Fulfilled by Merchant listing the same day and then I send the inventory to Amazon and I'm getting orders from day one. All right, you got to do one of those things. You've got your regular listing, everything is set up. It's launch date, all right. Bradley Sutton: What do you do? I keep my product at what I want my list price to be. Maybe I want my list price to be above what my regular price is going to be. Um, let's just say your regular price. You want to target a 39 99. I want to maybe set a list price at 43 99. Just give me some leeway down the road price, set that as a baseline price and give me the best chance to get that strikethrough pricing. Okay, so if it's going to be $43.99, I have five people lined up, not giving them, like you know, search, find, buy. I'm not giving them, you know, URLs to try and rank for, unless you know it's to send those relevancy signals. Maybe I can do it as a combined thing, but I get five people to buy at a full price and then that sets that baseline price. It gives me the best chance to be able to have that strike through price because I want to do a big discount in the beginning. Bradley Sutton: Now, other things that don't work to get the strike through price. I tried once to use a social media coupon code. I did a social media coupon code and I was like all right, $43.99. And then I had people use the social media coupon code, do it. Five of them didn't work to get the strike through price and it doesn't set that off and on. When it does work, is doing a coupon, all right, I can do a coupon, um, you know. Or a promotion, promotional price, where it's a clippable coupon, uh or uh, a promotion, that's on the page right when they click it. That sometimes works. But if you're just worried about like, oh, I'm not sure it's going to work out, the best thing to do is just get the full price. Uh orders five of them. Bradley Sutton: Now, once that's ready, I immediately go ahead and start my PPC campaigns. Now, what I've been doing is I have one PPC campaign. It's going to be a throwaway campaign, as in. It's only going to last for maybe one month. I call it my launch campaign and in there I put my top five or 10 keywords that I'm trying to rank for. Again, it includes maybe only two or three main keywords that I'm really trying to rank for and then six to 10 of the supplementary keywords, using that same principle about how you make the title having keywords nested together, like, if the keyword is egg holder countertop, then I'll have large egg holder countertop, egg holder countertop, kitchen, et cetera, et cetera. I'm launching all these at once and I'm doing a fixed bid, no bid modifiers, just a fixed bid down only. No, just a fixed bid. Bradley Sutton: And then what I'm doing is I put that PPC bid that I know is going to get me those first four PPC positions. And if I didn't do that test listing, no problem. I just put those keywords in keyword tracker, turn boost on. Within four hours I'll know did it get me that top ranking or a sponsored rank or not? Now what I'm doing here? The whole point of this is I'm trying to get enough orders for the CPR number that's in Helium 10, which is how many products you have to sell after the search of a keyword over eight days to give me the best chance. Now do you have to do all of the CPR number to get on page one? No, sometimes I'll do it with even half or even 25% of that CPR number. I'll go ahead and be on page one already, but the full CPR gives you the best chance at sticking on page one afterwards. All right, and now I've got that PPC campaign set up, I'll go ahead and set up in Helium 10 Adtomic my other campaigns as well, but with lower bids. That's my exact match campaign my research, which is a broad match campaign. My auto campaign, my sponsor display targeting campaign, my sponsor brand video campaign. Sometimes I start from day one, two, just with lower bids, just because I want to get some residual sales, but other people don't like to do those right away. Either way works. Bradley Sutton: There's reasons to do it and not to do it. The reasons to do it is like, hey, when you're in your honeymoon period, you just get so much love from Amazon, it's going to show you across the board for all these keywords, right? So that's why I do it. But then the drawback is, if you have this huge, huge discount on your listing, you don't want just a random keywords where your product is showing up and then you're getting conversions and it doesn't even really. You're not even trying to rank for those keywords per se. Right off the bat. You know you're focused on those five 10 keywords. So then you know, maybe you don't want all your spend going to there. So that way I've done both ways before. You guys choose what works best for you. Bradley Sutton: Now one thing as since I'm doing, you know I'm losing, but you're going to lose money, guys. I lose money my first month of selling, that's just that's for six years of launch. You lose. It takes money to make money, right? So you, you don't want to be losing more than you need to. So let's say, the CPR number for a keyword is 80, meaning I need 80 over eight days. That's like an average of 10 a day, like if I get 10 orders in one day for one keyword I'm monitoring those PPC numbers I'm going to go in and pause that bid for the rest of the day and then restart the next day until I get 10. All right, so that's just something to keep in mind that it's not going to help you rank. Stick your leg in anymore. If you get 25 orders that first day, right, and then that's not giving you a better chance. All you need is those 10, and then I'm going to pause it because I don't want to keep losing money when I've already done what I need to do to rank for that keyword. When I'm losing money on every order right Now, how do you do that big discount price? Bradley Sutton: Well, what's the thought process here? The thought process of even doing a huge discount at the beginning? It's for two reasons. Number one is your product has no reviews. People might not even know your brand. You're trying to compete with products that do have reviews, even if they only got 50 or a hundred or more. Maybe you're doing a competitive niche. What reason would somebody have to buy your product if your price is the same, zero reviews. Maybe you had something in your image. This isn't guaranteed that you have to do it like this. Maybe you're the only product that has a laser that everybody needs on the water bottle or some weird thing like that. Well yeah, you don't even need to do any discount If everybody wants that because that's what they saw on TikTok, it went viral they're only going to buy your product. Bradley Sutton: You can have your product more expensive than others. Those have thousands of reviews. You've got zero reviews and you'll get all the orders because you've got some special thing. But if you don't have that special thing, if you're just kind of similar, you just got a little bit better product than everybody else you've got to give incentives to people to buy your product without that trust, without that social proof of reviews, and to do that usually it's finding that price where it's like a person might not trust you yet but they're like shoot at this price. I'll go ahead and get it. All right for a couple of my products. You know like I had one product that my target price is going to be 24 bucks. To me that was like 12 bucks. It was like an egg tray for my coffin letter board that I was doing. My target price is going to be like $39. I had to launch at 17 because I just wanted to like make it a no brainer for people to get it all right. The other reason to have this low price, uh, is that's when I start my Vine, which is the next step of the honeymoon period is, start your Vine as soon as your low price goes active. Bradley Sutton: Now, the reason is because the Amazon Vine reviewers there's two reasons, there's two reasons of this reason. Right, Amazon Vine reviewers, they only have so many products they can get for free before they have to start declaring tax or something like that. So, even though they're not paying for the product, they sometimes prioritize the lower price products so that it doesn't count so much to that monthly total that they have to hit or that they can't hit unless they hit that tax threshold. The other reason is it gives you a better chance to have a positive review from Vine. The Vine reviewers can see the product price and so if your product is full price $39, and they just a little bit kind of don't like the product, well, they might give you three or four stars when you're trying to get five stars because they're like ah, the value is not that great. I was expecting more. But now think about it. If they had the product, maybe they, they, they didn't like it too much. But then they remember oh shoot, this product is like $13. And I'm going to go ahead and give it five stars because it was $13. You like, like that, it's still a good value, all right. So you see how it could be a difference not always, but it could be the difference of you getting a three and a four star or a four and a five star, right. So those are the two reasons why I do a low price. Bradley Sutton: Now the question is how to do low prices. All right, there's different ways, but you got to be careful because nowadays Amazon change again. This year we'll have you lose the buy box If you had a certain price using the sale price and then later you keep trying to raise it up. Like, at that price, I want to raise the $34. I started at 13. Maybe I go to 15. Once I hit like 22 or something, there's like no, no, you're you number of purchases at that new price point before I can go to something else. All right. So that's where you got to be careful. So there's different ways to do discounts. You can do a big coupon when you first launch, so you might want to do the coupon first, see how it works. You can just do a promotional price. All right, now you got to be careful. Bradley Sutton: Sometimes those don't show up that that noticeable in the search results. You could just do a sale price on the product, right, especially that works if you get that strikethrough. Or you could do the discount. That's like something newish that Amazon just launched this year, the price discount section. But here's the thing If you're going to be doing this in phases, right, if you're doing a price discount, you're locked in at that discount and then the next thing you have to do is just go to that regular price, because you cannot go and say, all right, I'm going to do a 50-price discount now, in two weeks let me make that a 40. No, you can only go the other direction with price discounts. Amazon sets that as the cheapest price in 30 days and you can't just keep going a little bit higher. It's gonna say no, it's got to be at least 51 discounts now or something, something like that if your discount was 50. So then that's why sometimes maybe the first thing you do is a coupon and then the next thing you do is the price discount and then the next thing you do is like the sale price and then hope that Amazon gives you your buy box. But sometimes it doesn't. You're going to have to just grin and bear it and start raising that price up, little by little by getting those orders and raising that average price velocity. That whatever sets off Amazon's price. Um, you know, price matching, a buy box suppression that they do. Bradley Sutton: Now, again, the whole reason of this, of this big discount whether it's 50%, 60%, whatever you're doing is you're trying to get that sales velocity on those keywords, on those PPC keywords, those launch PPC campaign that you're doing, you're showing up at the top of the search results. Somebody searched that keyword. They see you at the top, they click it, they buy it. That's going to help your organic ranking. All right. So just keep doing that until you can get reach organic rank that you're trying to reach. Now, once you hit that eight-day CPR mark or once you're just happy with your organic ranking, you turn off that fixed bid, turn off that target for that keyword, that you reach your ranking, that you like it. And then that's when I switched to that keyword, to my down, my down, only, my down only regular performance campaign. Because you know that fixed bid, I'm paying a lot of money for that position I want to dial back a little bit and just kind of, like you know, find what my evergreen bid is going to be. So you want to do that, one by one as you start achieving your organic ranks or your CPR number, until all of those in your launch campaign are finished, and then you just close, not archive, but just pause that entire launch campaign with all of those individual targets that are paused, all right. So that's pretty much the Maldives Honeymoon Strategy. Bradley Sutton: Now let's go ahead and hop in and show you some of these things in action and what kind of results I had. Here's an example of one of the products I launched an 18-egg rack launch, all right. Here's my PPC campaign that I did, my launch campaign, and you can see that now they're all paused. But I had put a fixed bid and I had a very high bid here. Now look at this problem. This was like all the way back in June 14 to 16, three days. This was on my actual listing. I didn't do a test listing on this. Look at this for some of my keywords I was getting no impressions almost in three days. And for egg holder countertop my main keyword only 131 impressions in three days. I got this shows when my listing actually started was 614. All right, so this was terrible for the first three days of my listing. So I took the listing, I threw in a Cerebro, I ran it and I checked Amazon recommended rank. It only had me relevant, for whatever reason, for two stinking keywords. All right, kitchen decor and kitchen rack. Not even what my product is. And so now it's like okay, there's no doubt. Like obviously Amazon's confused. Bradley Sutton: So then what I did was like I sent in my little Slack on June 16th. I'm like all right, I sent this to a couple employees here at Helium 10. I'm like hey guys, tomorrow, tonight or tomorrow can, can you guys do something for this case study? And it's also about my release date. You know I was testing something on my release date and I said hey, search egg holder countertop and then you'll see this product in the sponsored ads. Hopefully it's not. It's not showing you impressions. So it's like way down the line, you might have to go to another page because it's not giving me many impressions, but try to find it, click on that sponsored ad and purchase it. All right, and so that's what they did. Bradley Sutton: Now, meantime, I had other issues with this listing Again. This is why I'm like saying you've got to do these test listings. Is, the pre-buy wasn't even like allowing me to launch this product and so, like I had to, I had this whole case I had with seller support, where I was trying to get that fixed, all at the same time that I was messing with my relevancy. So this, all of this, I should have done on a test listing if I had followed my own advice, but I was doing this on a live listing. Now, as you guys can see, right on June 16th, as soon as they started doing those orders, now, all of a sudden, I started showing up at the top. On June 14th and 15th, I was barely showing up, I was barely getting impressions. I was showing up in like number 50, number 55 for sponsored rank, right Now. Finally, I got my relevancy fixed, but then that's when I had this other problem where my listing just completely went dead and I had to fight for like two or three days to even get it working. And then I finally got it working back on June 16, June 17, around there, and so that's why you can see the sponsored rank increase. Bradley Sutton: Now what was the result of those search find by? In order to send those relevancy signals Again, not for rank, but to send those relevancy signals to Amazon. Take a look at this to send those relevancy signals to Amazon. Take a look at this when I ran in Cerebro on June 19th, just three days after they did that relevancy signal push those three coworkers here at Helium 10. Take a look now at the Amazon recommended rank. Remember how it was only showing two keywords for Amazon recommended rank. Now it was showing multiple ones and it put that keyword that I sent the relevancy signal for egg holder countertop it had Amazon recommended rank number three, which basically means that that was the third most important keyword according to Amazon for this product. Bradley Sutton: Now do you remember what I was getting for impressions in PPC? Like 200 total impressions over three days? What did sending those relevant signals to Amazon do for my PPC impressions? Take a look at this the next three-day period from June 19th when my relevancy got fixed to June 21st instead of 200 impressions, 5,000 impressions, 4,000 of that. What keyword was it for? Egg holder countertop, that one that I sent those relevancy signals to Amazon for. This works, guys. Now what happened to my organic rank now that I was able to finally start getting some impressions in PPC and really doing my Maldives Honeymoon Strategy? Look at my organic rank Now that I was able to finally start, you know, getting some impressions in PPC and really doing my Maldives Honeymoon Strategy. Bradley Sutton: Look at my organic rank. I was on page two, you know, on the first few days of my listing, by June 20th, I was already on page one only one day later. And then by June 23rd, I was like in the top five on page one for my main keyword egg holder countertop. Uh, remember I was targeting other longer tail versions of that Fresh egg holder countertop. June 23rd in the top six positions. Another keyword fresh egg holder. All right, so that's part of egg holder countertop fresh egg holder. By June 23rd in the top 10 positions for that keyword. And I was able to stick the landing there Because of some of those sales velocity that I got. I got this new arrival pick badge. Sometimes I'll get the new arrival pick, sometimes I'll get other badges like the top new seller. These kind of will help your conversions as well. If you can get these badges, you can also see because I got those five orders at regular price Amazon gave me a strike through price and it said list price $33.97, my price $24.97. Bradley Sutton: I did the same exact thing for a very similar product that was a 36-egg holder. I did now one for 24 egg holder. I was like pick the same exact keywords like a month or two later, do the same exact thing, just to make sure. Hey, I got to make sure this strategy wasn't just a fluke. Can I reproduce these results? And sure enough, the same thing happened. Before doing anything, I launched the product. I only had Amazon relevancy for kitchen rack, kitchen holder, kitchen decor, a little bit more, but still no egg holder countertop. But this time I was ready. So from day one I had more employees
We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's Sr Brand Evangelist and Walmart Expert, Carrie Miller. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. TikTok Search Ads Campaign launch in U.S. https://searchengineland.com/tiktok-search-ads-campaign-launch-us-446927 Tariffs Targeting Chinese E-commerce Brands https://www.freightwaves.com/news/tariffs-targeting-chinese-e-commerce-could-dampen-demand Google Search Tests Shopping E-Commerce Card https://www.seroundtable.com/google-shopping-e-commerce-card-card-38105.html Experience Amazon Accelerate 2024 on demand https://sell.amazon.com/blog/announcements/amazon-accelerate-on-demand-content Target Circle Week 2024 https://www.today.com/shop/target-circle-week-details-dates-deals-2024-rcna171858 Lastly, in our training tip of the week, Carrie walks us through how you can take an FNSKU and create a custom barcode labels to give to your factories. In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Carrie covers: 00:51 - TikTok Search Ads 02:48 - New Chinese Tariffs 05:59 - Google Search Tests 07:09 - Accelerate on Demand 07:50 - Target Circle Week 09:39 - Walmart Lending 10:14 - Walmart Repricer Dash 11:14 - Helium 10 New Features 13:07 - Easy Barcodes ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Transcript Carrie Miller: TikTok shop ads launch in the US new potential tariffs targeting Chinese e-commerce sellers, and Amazon, Walmart and Target are battling it out for deals in October. All of this and more on this week's episode of the Weekly Buzz. Bradley Sutton: How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I'm your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show. That is our Helium 10 Weekly Buzz, where we give you a rundown of all the news stories that are going on in the Amazon, Walmart, e-commerce world. We highlight the latest new feature alerts from Helium 10, and we review a training tip of the week that'll give you serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. Now, today, our host is going to be Keri Miller. So, Keri, take it away and let us know what's buzzing. Carrie Miller: Okay. So the first story is that TikTok search ads campaigns have launched in the US, and I'll go ahead and show the article here. It's basically allowing for keyword based search ads that target users directly in the search results. Now if you're a TikTok user, you know a lot of the ads actually come on your For you page when you're kind of scrolling. So it's kind of a more generic approach. But now sellers can actually target keywords when consumers are actually searching in TikTok for something specific. So this is potentially stepping up competition with Google Ads, as TikTok is becoming a go-to search engine, in addition to becoming a social media platform. So let's go ahead and take a look at this article. If we scroll down a little bit, it says previously ads on the TikTok search page were more generic, but now brands can tailor their ads to align with specific search behaviors. Now it goes on to further say why this matters. It says that TikTok has a growing role as a search engine for younger users. 57% of users use the app's search function, according to internal TikTok data, and this new feature lets you capture attention at critical moments of intent. TikTok's move could threaten Google's dominance, as younger users are increasingly using social media for search instead of traditional search engines. So, if you recall, last week Bradley actually did talk about this on the Weekly Buzz and he said that there's a report that says over 50% of Gen Zers are going to be shopping on TikTok for the holiday season. So that's very interesting and very good numbers if you really wanted to start targeting on TikTok. And let's talk about the actual numbers of these actual ads. TikTok's testing shows that combining search ads with in-feed ads boost conversion by 20%, with users who don't engage with an ad initially more likely to interact with after seeing a related ad in the search. So that's very interesting information. So definitely something to consider when you are going into Q4 and wanna really boost your sales this holiday season. Carrie Miller: Okay, so let's go ahead and get into the next article Now. The next article is interesting and it's titled Tariffs Targeting Chinese E-commerce Could Damp Demand. Okay, so this is definitely something that is gonna be very interesting for a lot of e-commerce sellers because, as I don't know if anyone remembers if you've been watching I actually mentioned that Amazon is launching a direct-to-consumer program for Chinese sellers to sell directly to consumers in the US through the Amazon platform, and I mentioned this might make some US sellers a bit upset, you know, because a lot of the small parcels they're not taxed the same, you don't have to deal with the same logistics charges and things like that. So you know this basically gives Chinese sellers a much higher margins because of the lack of tariffs. You know, no warehouse and distribution costs associated with the traditional kind of container imports. There's a lot of other things that kind of go in with these small parcels. I know, for example, me as a consumer, I did order something on TikTok that I thought was gonna be great quality and it was actual garbage. It actually was shipped directly from China through customs. So really kind of is an interesting you know thing that we should really be considering for consumer protection as well as well. As you know, for US sellers, when you're providing quality, then it's going to help boost you a little bit more because it's going to kind of close off this way of kind of things that are come low quality coming into the US without having to even pay those taxes or being searched. Carrie Miller: So in this article, if I scroll down here, it says the White House this month said it would soon tighten eligibility and increase information requirements for low value imports that qualify for duty free status in an effort to prevent businesses from evading duty payments. It goes on to say a little bit further down it says the proposal is expected to result in higher consumer prices for small shipments. So that actually could be a better thing for US sellers who are offering the quality. But then if we go down further, this is really where it gets interesting for the consumer. Let's scroll all the way down. It says. Over the last 10 years the number of shipments entering the US claiming the de minimis exemption has exploded from about 140 million to more than 1 billion a year, according to the CBP figures, and the US is on track to import nearly 1.5 billion parcels in the current fiscal year, 4 million per day, and that is actually going to end on September 30th. Carrie Miller: The overwhelming volume of parcel shipments has made it difficult for us customs and other agencies to enforce trade laws, health and safety requirements, intellectual property rights, consumer protection rules and to block illicit synthetic drugs such as fentanyl and clothing made from forced labor from entering into the country illegally. That's kind of an interesting thing to to take a look at, especially as a consumer. You know, like I said, I actually it was like a hair oil that I ordered from TikTok and the quality was just garbage and it smelled funky. So you know, this is a consumer protection issue. You think should you know that shouldn't be coming into the US, are coming into the US because there's just an overwhelming amount. So this is definitely something that you know hopefully will happen and you, you know we can continue as our. You know, other sellers who are providing quality products can kind of beat out these sellers that are not doing the high quality products. Carrie Miller: Okay, the next article that we have here is about Google. Google is doing search tests in the shopping e-commerce card. So if we take a look at this article, you can actually see a little bit of what they're kind of testing. So the article is really stating that you can actually see a little bit of what they're kind of testing. So the article is really stating that you know Google's testing. It's using its top card format for shopping and ecommerce related queries and information and this shows product results with pricing on the left, with popular stores on the right and then some review content in the form of content and videos on the right side. So they're kind of moving maybe towards more video content and I'll scroll down a little bit more in this article because this is what it usually looks like, and you can probably Google this right now and still see this. But we've got, you know, the actual, the product with a picture and the price, as well as the reviews, whereas I think they're kind of moving more towards the kind of video reviews, since a lot of people are into seeing that kind of stuff on social media, so they might be kind of testing this out to see how they can compete with social media, and I think that's a really smart move on the part of, you know, Google's, you know, just for Google, just because they are competing with these other social media platforms that are becoming more like search engines. Carrie Miller: All right, let's go into the next article, and that is basically, if you missed out, on Amazon Accelerate. I know a lot of people had FOMO because they didn't make it to Amazon Accelerate. You can actually experience it on demand. They are actually making all of the different sessions and everything that was recorded is available for on demand and it's for free. So you can just register, you can just download, you can just download all that stuff and kind of watch it as you're doing other things and, you know, just to kind of keep yourself up to date on the latest and greatest announcements from Amazon. So go ahead and register for that if you wanted to see some of those sessions and take advantage of that great content. Carrie Miller: And then next is another interesting thing and that is that Target is just launched their circle week Target Circle Week and it's going to be for seven days in October, from October 6. Okay, so it's starting October 6. And this is basically, you know, a seasonal seven day sales event that is going to feature holiday essentials, seasonal favorites, all this, that kind of stuff. What's really interesting is that you know, because of the dates, you know, this is going to be competing with Amazon, which is the eighth and the ninth, and then also Walmart that is going to be starting up that that week as well. So it's going to be interesting because Walmart starting up a little bit after Amazon. But if you're selling on target could be kind of interesting Because you might not get the buy box if you are selling at a discounted rate on target the few days before the big Prime Day event happens. Carrie Miller: So that's kind of an interesting thing to consider how you're going to be balancing out the pricing. And then there's also Walmart, because everyone wants to make sure that we have, you know, price parity along, you know, on all of the platforms, and that could cause you to lose the buy box. So could maybe be something to consider if you want to tighten up your strategy with any discounts or make sure you have the same exact discount across the board, kind of even before the Prime Day deal event starts. That could be a strategy. So I'm curious to know if anyone knows a strategy to deal with this and what you maybe did last year. If you want to put that in the comments below, I would love to hear your thoughts on that, because I think that's going to be kind of a big issue, especially as more sellers are in on Target, on Walmart, on Amazon, on TikTok, on all the different platforms. So really need to strategize when it comes to these big deal days. Carrie Miller: Okay, and the next thing, I actually don't have an article to share, but Walmart actually has announced that they have some cash advances with discounted fees going into Q4. I think mostly to help prepare for the holiday rush and to help with working capital. Especially, you know, cash flow is kind of a really challenging thing for sellers. So Walmart is going to be making some capital available through Capital by Paraffin and Payoneer and so, if you're eligible, you can actually go into Seller Center and you can, you know, figure out how to kind of get access to that funding. I think it will actually kind of pop up in there if you are eligible for it, but if not, you can also message seller support and see if you're eligible for some of their funding. And then they also have a pricing insights dashboard and I think that this is going to be very helpful going into the holidays. It's basically going to help you regularly monitor your pricing throughout the holidays and that is, you know, just to make sure that you stay competitive, and it's going to help kind of give you an insight on the pricing insights dashboard. That gives you, you know, pricing metrics, metrics at the SKU level, to help you make good decisions If you need to kind of discount your products further or, you know, if you're in, you know, in good competition with other sellers. Um, the dashboard is actually going to be refreshed regularly so that you can act quickly to update an item pricing, either individually or in bulk, and the dashboard also gives you flexibility to add items to the repricer or make price updates in the dashboard without having to submit spec files. So they're making it easy and fast for you to kind of see what you need to do in terms of pricing and then make those changes as quickly as possible. So that's kind of the latest and greatest updated news for Walmart. Okay, so we have a new Helium 10 update, which is very exciting. Carrie Miller: If you are in France, Germany, Spain, Italy or the UK markets, we are releasing keyword sales data in Cerebro, magnet, listing Builder, listing Analyzer, keyword Tracker, insights Dashboard and Product Launchpad for all of those countries. So again, those European countries are France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the UK. So I'm going to show you what that actually looks like. So here is a picture of. This is actually the US market, but this is what it'll look like in any of those markets that I just mentioned. You're gonna be able to see the keyword sales in the dashboard. So in your insights dashboard, right when you log in, you'll also be able to see them in Cerebro. So this keyword sales data for, again, all those other markets in Europe the France, Germany, Spain, Italy, in the UK, you'll also be able to see it in Magnet, as you can see here. So we've got magnet right here. You can see the keyword sales right here and then listing. So this is listing analyzer and at the very bottom, where you see the keywords, you can now see the keyword sales there as well. At listing builder, now when you go to open competitor comparison, when you actually look at this, you can see the keyword sales here. So that's really helpful for you to kind of like basically decide which are the most important keywords based on the keyword sales when you do that little competitor listing comparison there. And then you can also see it in product launchpad. So when you have your product launchpad open, you can actually see the keyword sales for all those different keywords that you added into your product launchpad idea. There's definitely a lot of really good stuff in there If you are in those markets. Those are. Those are huge updates for us to give you that data, especially because it's going to help you to kind of make sure you're targeting the most important keywords that have, you know, the higher keyword sales, maybe lower search volumes. So definitely take a look at that if you're in those markets. Really, really helpful information. Carrie Miller: Next, I'm going to be showing you portals in Helium 10, I'm going to show you how you can take an FNSKU and create a custom barcode label to give to your factory in China or other you know countries, and I'm going to walk you through the flow and show you how to do this. So the first thing you want to do is you want to log into Helium 10. And then you're going to go to this tools button at the very top and then we're going to go down and we're going to click on portals and then, once you're in portals, you're going to be able to see a bunch of different things, but what we're going to show you today is this barcode labels, and this is going to be how we're going to be able to create these labels for our factories. So click on new barcode and what you want to have in here is you want to have either an FN SKU, an ASIN or UPC code. I have a FNSKU here. Carrie Miller: I'm just going to paste in there, and then the next thing you want to do is you can put the product URL if you already have it launched, or you can create a custom product URL so you can put the product name, you can upload an image, you can say the condition, you can put the ASIN and the SKU in. But I'm just going to go and take our URL from Amazon here and I'm just going to go ahead and do it that way because it makes it a lot faster and then it's going to pull up all the information here so you can see it has the picture of the actual product it has, and then you can fill in the SKU. If it doesn't show up with the SKU, you can fill in your SKU there. But I'm just going to go ahead and hit save and continue and then we're going to look at the size. So you can actually choose the size, how you want to show it. You want to show it in inches, centimeters, millimeters. You can choose the different sizes here, and then you can do either portrait or landscape, and then hit save and continue and then you're going to choose the template. So I'm just going to choose this generic black one and since I already have I actually, in portals, have uploaded my logo here. Carrie Miller: You can see that we have all that information in here already and you can actually provide more information right here if you wanted to. Whatever it is that you want to type in there, if you need to, and then what you can do is hit save and finish, and then, if you want to download this, you can just hit the download button and then they we always recommend that you, you know, test these out before you send them. So make sure you test it out with a smartphone or you know any apps that you can scan any of these just to make sure that it's it works properly. And double, you know, always test before your mass produce, and then you can just download it and you'll see that as you download it here and there, it is right there. So that is basically super easy. How you can just create those little barcode labels. We made it super easy for you to do so go ahead and check that out If you haven't ever done that before. It makes it super fast and easy. Carrie Miller: Thank you all for joining me this week on the Weekly Buzz for all the latest and greatest news stories, as well as the Helium 10 updates and the training. We look forward to seeing you again next week. I do believe Bradley will be back next week for the Weekly Buzz, so we'll see you next week to see what's buzzing. Bye, everyone.
Can your brand truly stand out in the crowded Amazon or e-commerce marketplace? This episode features Kevin King, a master of product differentiation, marketing, and branding, who shares game-changing strategies to elevate your business beyond the basics. Kevin walks us through the creation of his innovative Basecamp Apple Watch charging dock, illustrating how identifying market gaps and blending functionality with aesthetic appeal can help you craft a premium product that demands attention. We then uncover the critical role of visual storytelling and emotional appeal in successful product marketing. Kevin shares compelling real-life examples, including a groundbreaking product launch during Christmas 2015 and the branding triumph of Liquid Death. We dive into the challenges and rewards of rebranding, drawing lessons from Kevin's experience with his dog product line transformation. The conversation underscores the importance of innovative packaging and impactful imagery in driving sales and maintaining a brand's identity. Finally, we explore unconventional marketing strategies that can turn an ordinary product into a thriving brand. Kevin recounts the phenomenal success of a hand sanitizer brand during the 2020 pandemic, revealing how creative tactics like catchy jingles and engaging public interactions led to remarkable sales figures. Whether you are an aspiring Amazon seller or a seasoned seller, this episode is packed with valuable insights and strategies to help you achieve a standout presence in a saturated market. In episode 598 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Carrie and Kevin discuss: 00:00 - Product Differentiation Secrets With Kevin King 04:36 - Multi-Functional Charging Dock Design 06:57 - Product Development From Scratch 10:16 - Illustrating a Product's Transformation With Cartoons 10:54 - Product Innovation and Differentiation Strategies 14:33 - Brand Identity Success Through Innovation 15:48 - Premium Bully Sticks Differentiation Strategy 16:50 - Researching and Deciding on Bully Sticks 21:35 - Listing Strategy for Niche Keywords 27:09 - Differentiating Products for Marketplace Success 27:36 - Pet Product Influencer Partnership 31:24 - Building a Brand With Differentiation 35:19 - Hand Sanitizer Market Frustration and Innovation 41:52 - Unconventional Marketing Strategies for Brand Success 42:45 - Successful Million Dollar Marketing Strategy Transcript Carrie Miller: In today's episode, Kevin King is going to be sharing his secrets on how to differentiate your products so that you stand out from the competition. Bradley Sutton: How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Are you a six, seven or eight figure seller and want to network in a private mastermind group with other experienced sellers? Or maybe you want to take advantage of monthly advanced training sessions with Kevin King, an expert guest? Do you want to come to our quarterly in-person all-day trainings at Helium 10 headquarters? Or do you want the widest access to the Helium 10 set of tools? For all of these things, the Elite program might be for you. For more information on Helium 10 Elite, go to h10.me/elite. Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of the Serious Seller's podcast by Helium 10. I am your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show. That's a completely BS-free, unscripted and unrehearsed organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. Kevin King: You know, a lot of times people don't in the space, don't like to share their products. They're afraid people are going to copy them. I'm afraid like, oh, if I share this, this cool thing I found, I'm going to have a hundred different copiers on it. And that does happen. You know, Bradley's had that with the coffin shelf, you know, here at series, and now there's I don't know how many coffin shelves that are A lot, a lot. Yeah, so it does happen. But I'm going to show you some ways to make that almost impossible today. I mean not to say that someone can't mimic you, because sometimes when people copy, that's a nice way of flattery. But there's a lot of things that you can do to differentiate your product and it's becoming super important. You know the days of when I first started. I know you've been doing this for a while 2015, 2016. You just go to Alibaba. You'd find a product look at Helium 10, see where the gaps are and just stick a different name on there and maybe create a logo, put it on there and put that up and sell it. Those days are long gone. I mean, can that still happen? Occasionally, someone can have success doing that, but it's extremely, extremely difficult. And branding true branding and true product differentiation is where it's at. And some people think, well, I'll just add a warranty or I'll add an eBook to my product or I'll bundle it with something else and that'll make it different enough. And that's usually not enough. And in today's world, you got to change your approach and that's what I'm going to show you today with real-life, real-world examples of my actual products. Some of these I'm not selling anymore for different reasons. Pricing got priced out of the market with raw supplies or something like that. But I'm going to show you exactly what I do and to try to give you some insights and some perspective on how you can approach this differently for what you're doing. Carrie Miller: Very nice, I'm excited. Kevin King: When it comes to business, there's really only two things that matter, and when you cut it to the core, that's innovation and marketing. I mean, yeah, there's all the details of finance and money and all this kind of stuff, but really, if you look at any business look at Apple, you look at Microsoft, you look at Tesla, you look at any of these. It's innovation and marketing. Those are the two fundamental things that you should be focusing on first. So, I'm going to start off with innovation. So the first thing I'm talking about is innovation. This is a product on screen called Basecamp. This is an Apple watch charging dock. It also charges your iPhone, charges your iPad. It has a night light on it. This is a really, really cool product that came out in 2015. It was launched in 2015. Kevin King: So almost nine years ago, right when the first Apple Watch came out, and where this product, how this originated. This is a product that I sold and I actually created this product from scratch. This was my actual product and I created it from scratch right when the first Apple Watch came out. And what happened is I went on Amazon to try to find some ideas for products and I saw that Apple Watch charging docks were trending at the time and most all of them were like these cheap bamboo kind of wooden docks for 15 to 20 bucks, all coming off of Alibaba, with just different names on them. Each one looks exactly the same, just had a different name, and I was like, if I'm going to spend 500 bucks for a watch or whatever the watch costs back then. I don't want some cheap, cheap stand to put it on, I want something that looks cool. So I developed this that I would want and I was like I don't want something where there's cables hanging across my desk, cables hanging across my nightstand, so I want to hide all the cables and I want to be able to charge like three things at once. And so that's what I developed, and so this particular product you can see here has a little light on it. Kevin King: I later added a Bluetooth speaker to it in a version two. It put the watch up on top, the phone would sit on the side and it had a. The charging was buried inside all the cables. Um, the back actually had two additional USB ports so that you could actually charge an iPad or put something else on the back of it. It had. The cables were all hidden underneath, so you'd wrap the cable around underneath so it's not like just all messing up your, your desktop or your, your nightstand or whatever the night light there you can see it. You can hit that button a few times and adjust it up in different levels. I created a really nice box for it and I had all the different adapters. I was prepared to sell this in the US market, and so I created one charging dock and then had them make the different adapters that go in the end, depending on if it's for the UK or for Europe, or for the US or for Australia the bigger markets. I later added a Bluetooth speaker to it. I changed that nightlight to not just a nightlight but actually a Bluetooth speaker so that you could this is the days before there was beats or any of that kind of stuff so it actually was a cool, cool thing to be able to have your phone sitting there charging and have a little speaker that would play your sound music or your wake-up call or whatever. You can see there are the little nightlights turned on. As an example, these are actually some of my listing photos that you're seeing on this. You can see that it would fit all kinds of different watch bands. I created a really nice box for the outside of it to differentiate it so that when you got it felt like you're paying 80 bucks for this thing. Kevin King: This was a little video that I had made. I found the way I got this made is I came up with the idea. I found a factory on Global Sources Comm. So I didn't even use Alibaba. I use a company called global sources comm, which is another alternate sourcing place. It's not as big as Alibaba, but you can find some better factories sometimes on there. So if you haven haven't checked that out, check it out. And I found a factory in Shenzhen, China, that would do this and I ended up paying them a thousand dollars for the design and so they had their internal guys do all the design and then the molding and everything. It was expensive. It cost me about 30 grand to do all the molding because it's electrical parts and USB and there's a chip in there. So this is not for everybody, but I spent about 30 grand on that. Kevin King: We've created all kinds of prototypes and they would send me these files, these 3D rendered files and these like SFP files, I think they're called. And then I took that actual file. So before this was ever manufactured, didn't even exist, there wasn't even a prototype yet. I sent it to a guy in Eastern Europe and he made this rendering from me from those files and this is a video. He made this entire video, this. The product did not exist so I could see it exactly as it was gonna be. He made these 360 degrees, basically before there was AI. AI video of the actual product. You can see this one only has one charging dock on a USB on the back. Kevin King: I had a second one, but I did this and then I sent this out and did some testing, like what do you guys think of this? And I was able to get the people at one of these big Apple insider blog posts. They're like, when this comes out, let us know, we'll publicize it. So right there I was, like they thought it was cool. So, I had my launch ready to go. Like I said this didn't come from Alibaba, this didn't come from the Iwo market or the Canton fair. Kevin King: The idea for this, this came from my head, and so I created this from scratch from my head. I've done that for a dog bowl and for some other products as well, and so I also. At the same time, back in 2015, I launched five different brands at once. Some of them were the traditional find something on Alibaba, change it up a little bit, change the packaging, put your logo on it and then send it out. But this one I actually designed from scratch. I think that's where you need to start thinking more and more about is designing things from scratch, and it's not always about a better mousetrap, it's about what the people want. Kevin King: With today's technology and with the AI, you can do so much that I couldn't do nine years ago when this was launched. That you can do now with iterations and these renderings, that you could have 20 different types of this and do all kinds of testing on PickFu. You can do so much more now with this. So this was the renderings that they would send me. So I would open this up, these EASM files, and I could play around with it on my computer and spin it and everything and say, oh, let's modify this or let's change this, or I don't like where this is positioned, put the logo over here. So this before we even made a prototype. Kevin King: And then what I did is I did 3D printing. So I had there's a guy in Austin where I live that had like 30 different 3D printers in his garage, literally, and so he had all kinds of different sizes and machines. I just took it. They followed him and he made this. This is a 3d printed uh sample. And then I took this to the Apple store in Austin and I said can, can you open up the drawer of all the watches. Uh, I want to make sure every watch, every band, fits on here and doesn't touch the light, and we'll make sure the cable fits through the, the fits through the, the channel on the back and everything. So, I had a total like piece of crap, basically, but 3d printed, but it's actually at least something that's I can hold and touch and feel, kind of get an idea of how it's going to be. And then we made modifications. So after I tested it with this, then I went through and I made modifications oh, we need to make the cable doesn't quite fit, it's not quite snug enough or it's crimping in the corner. So we went back and I, I, we made some modifications to it and then this was a prototype. So then they do what's a machine prototype? Um, there's a specific name for it, but it's a machine Like it's. They make like 20 of them before they make the mass run, and then I could actually test it and so I took it and that's what we created. Kevin King: This is one of the product photos for the actual that I used on Amazon that I had taken. This is one in my guest room and so we just put it on a nightstand and just showed it. They're actually charging three different devices and how it works. It works like magic. And for the listing also, I actually showed. You know, I create cartoons. I found someone on Upwork.com that would do this for 50 bucks and I had them actually said I want a before and after. I could shoot this with photography and it would be expensive. So I just had them make a cartoon and say, look, show the before. Because every product you need to be trying to solve pain points. I mean there's three or four different things you want to focus on when you're developing a product. One of those is solving someone's pain point. So you want to show them what it's like before your product and what it's like after your product. So that's what I did here. Instead of using photos, I used these cartoons. Kevin King: So I show on the left how you got all these cables everywhere and stuff all over the place taking up your whole nightstand just a mess. You're having trouble sleeping over there, the person you know. There're all kinds of little hints all throughout this thing. You got a light that's flashing on it instead of a night light. That's all bright, keeping you up. And then then you got the one on the right. That's like you having a peaceful sleep, everything's organized, everything's nice, and so these are things that you want to think about when you're actually creating your images is show the before and the after. You can do it in photos, you can do it in, or you can do it in cartoons and like this one and this, it worked really, really well. You're going to see another example of this in a minute. So this is the way you can do an example of how you can do innovation. Kevin King: This product on 2015, Christmas of 2015, I was selling about $30,000, $40,000 a day of it at $89. And then what happened is the reason. I and I did a second version, I did a version two with feedback and put the Bluetooth speaker in, did some other changes, and then in March or April of the next year this is before there was Gatita, before there's any or Helium 10 that had the refund ability, and someone posted on a Facebook group, on the FBA High Rollers Facebook group on Helium 10, saying, oh, did you know that Amazon will refund you for damages and lost items? And so, I was like, oh, that's cool, they lost some of these things when I shipped them in. So, I filed a claim. And when I filed that claim for like 10 missing units, amazon suspended the listing and said, oh, we're going to do what's called a bend check. And they went and they actually said we're going to stop all sales. And we got to do a total inventory across all of our warehouses and I was like no, no, no, don't do that, don't do that, I don't care about the 10 units, just forget it, forget the claim. You're killing, you're crushing me on my momentum. Well, I was down about 10 days while they did this quote unquote Ben check worst decision I ever made and that basically killed the momentum of the product. But I was able to bring it back up, but never back to that level, because there's all kinds of other competition coming in. Um, and I sold this on uh, uh I forget the name of the website. Now it's kind of like a sharper image uh, website for dudes. I sold this in the best buy. I sold it a lot of places, but then the market started changing and I was able to ride this for a couple of years and it was good. So that's a way that you can think about doing innovation. That's an example of one that I did. Kevin King: Now let's talk about something on the marketing side. On the marketing side, you can differentiate with your packaging. A lot of people do that, you know. You could have just a generic bottle that you see on the right or a really nice bottle on the left and put your differentiating bullet points in your image how they're showing one's made from bamboo and no plastic or biodegrade super-fast. The other one's going to take hundreds of years, and so on. These are great ways you can do it in your, in your image, in your image stack, to actually show the difference. Because it remembers, on Amazon, people, people buy, buy photos. They don't buy products. My buddy, Perry Belcher, is actually the one that actually said that. But they can't touch the product, they can't hold it in their hands, so they're buying based on the photos. So you got to remember that so many people skimp on their photos or they don't spend enough time creating the right photos to create the right emotions. People buy on emotion and they buy on photos, and so by differentiating like this, you can do a lot of cool stuff in your infographics and your stack. Kevin King: Look at another one. I mean this is someone selling a commodity Liquid Death is water, it's just water. But look what they did with the branding and the way they actually packaged it. They put it into a can instead of a bottle. They had this liquid death name. All the graphics it's just most of the cans are actually oversized. Liquid Death is a great case study if you want to go and look at how someone actually has developed a brand on something that everybody else is selling and actually stand out. Now it's over a billion-dollar company and there's crushing. It's a really, really good case study. At some point I'll go into deep detail on this, but I want to show you one of my products where I did this. I had a brand that was originally called Tailwaggles and I made a mistake on this brand. I filed for trademarks to get brand registry and all that kind of stuff and about three months into the trademark process I get a note from the trademark office saying oh sorry, your name, Tailwaggles, is too close to something else. This is three months after filing and I'd already done the homework, but they found something in the system so I had to change it to Wag Haus. So I had to. Actually, I was already in production on some dog bowls and I actually had to call the factory, said throw away all those old molds and those imprints. We got to change the logo and logo and to change the whole name mid-production. It cost me a lot of money to Wag Haus, but one of the products that I sold under this this is the Wag Haus logo. Here it wore bully sticks. Kevin King: If you're not familiar with what bully sticks are, they're still popular today. It's a dog treat. It's made out of the penis of a cow, so they use every part of a cow to maximize the value when they when they butcher it for meat and they take the penis and they actually make bully sticks for dogs. It's a very popular dog treat. So, there's six inch versions, there's 12 inch versions. Those are two typical sizes, and it in 2016, 2017. I was doing some research of what's selling on Amazon. I saw that these things are just crushing it. I already had a dog bowl out, so I was looking for another type of product to accentuate my slow feed dog. Well, and bully sticks came up and back then there's Helium 10 didn't have what was just getting going, so they didn't have Magnets and they didn't have Cerebro and all that stuff. So, I had to use this old program called amazing product validator. And so, I punched in bully sticks and look there, I was like boom, big green result thing saying that's a really good keyword, excellent BSR. You know, look at that search 359,000 search volume. I was like, all right, I'm going to do bully sticks. Kevin King: So I started researching bully sticks and I looked at these. This is another tool back then where it was popular, called merchant words, and these are results from Merchant Words. They showed these search volumes actually are probably not right but it's the best we had back then. We didn't have much more accurate stuff like Helium 10. So it showed 7 million. I was like, all right, all the different keywords are based off of that free range and those are beef bully sticks and bully sticks for dogs and all had some decent search volumes. So I like, all right, I'm going to go into bully sticks as my next product on this brand. So I pulled up and did a search and I see that, um, there's all these different brands that are selling bully sticks and a lot of them, this are selling for around 20 to 30 bucks and it's a pretty much a package like a plastic bag full of 20 30 bully sticks, all for around 30 bucks, so somewhere around a dollar and a half a stick is basically the cost to the consumer for these. And I was like, okay, that looks good. So I started calling some factories and I was like I need to differentiate. I don't want to be just another guy selling 30 bully sticks for 30 bucks. What can you do? What can you make special? Kevin King: And I started reading all the reviews on all the products and the reviews were coming back with like, oh, these bully sticks stink because you can just imagine it's the part of the cow that you know that area stinks sometimes and so people the it. My house has an odor to it. After my dog chews it or some liquid drips out onto my couch, my dog jumps up on the couch. It's just. And then people were worried about where are these bully sticks from. Is it US cows or is it some? There's a big scare of like Chinese beef back there. Are they Chinese cows? Are they from Brazil? Where are they from? And so, I was like I need to differentiate this product and I don't want to just put it in a plastic bag either. I want to put it in something really cool, and so the way I differentiated the product is I found this through tracking down. I wanted to make sure it was US made US beef, not imported, and I wanted to set it apart. And so, I found this guy who was a classically trained French chef, like worked in Michelin star restaurants and he was up in the New England area and I got in touch with him and said you make bully sticks. He's like oh yeah, I don't, but I don't do them on machines, I hand carve them, we smoke them in a certain way. We have a 15-step organic process that we do. I'm like this sounds perfect. This is like I can differentiate this from all these little cheap bully sticks. Kevin King: I was like, well, they cost. He said you're not going to like this part, they're very expensive. So, I ended up having to sell three bully sticks, three 12-inch ones for $54 and 95 cents, so 55 bucks for three bully sticks. Now remember everybody else on Amazon selling 30 for 30 bucks roughly. So, I'm like way crazy overpriced. I was like I don't know if this is going to work. You know everybody, everybody always says on Amazon it's all about the price, all about the value. And I'm like I don't know if this is going to work. But I'm like you know what? I think there's people on Amazon that don't care about the price. If you know the avatar of your customer, you know that there's a lot of pet owners that a pet is just a farm animal. You know they keep the dog out in the backyard and it's just a farm animal. But for other people a pet is part of their family, it's their best friend, it's their compadre. I just saw a story my dad just forwarded me a couple days ago about how people take care of their pet's health better than they take care of their own health. And it's true and I was like I can market to that. There's people that have dogs that are willing to spend really good money for their dogs to give them the best. So this is classically trained French chef. That's a good story. It's organic. I'm solving all the problems of the juice because the way he cooks these and he does the smoking and stuff. They don't have all that extra liquid in them, they don't stink. They're organic. It's from the US, I can solve all the review pain points, and this is before all the AI tools existed to analyze reviews. Kevin King: I was having to read reviews, so I was looking at how can I package these different, and so these were some of the packaging ideas I came with. But what I ended up doing is putting them in a cigar box. So I had a custom cigar box. I found a company in Brooklyn, New York, that's close to this guy, so I didn't have to pay shipping across the US or across the world. They'd make these boxes for me. I'd put a sticker on the outside with, like a cool textured label on the outside of it, and then we put them in the cigar boxes. So this is the six inch version. So there's five, six inches and those sold for 40, uh, 44, 95, I think it was. And the 12-inch version was only three sticks and sold for 54, 95. But I packaged it. So when you got it, you felt confirmed. You're like, if you just spent 44 bucks for five of these bully sticks, you're like, did I just get ripped off? But when it comes in the, in the, in the Amazon box, and you open it up, you're like, oh, this is a cool box. It's got a cool texture to it. It's all about the sensation when you feel the box. There's like a little edge on it, like a texture. The label had like a texture on it, so like, oh, this is kind of nice. So it helps justify in the mind that I'm getting value here. These are premium. Kevin King: I created the listing. This is actually the bullet points and the title for the listing. All the keywords are in there and what I focused on is I couldn't compete on the word bully sticks, because the word bully sticks, as you saw earlier, was super popular and almost everything on that page is cheap, and so I could do a launch. Back then you could do all these coupons and all these giveaways and rank to the top within a day or two. It's crazy stuff you could do back in the day and I would get there. But then as soon as I stopped doing these promotions, I would fall off to page two, page three. But on long tail keywords like bully sticks made in USA or bully sticks no odor or premium bully sticks, those I could stay on page one for and there was enough keyword depth on all those where I could stay ranked for those and it worked because there's enough niche, enough variation in the keywords where it actually worked. Kevin King: And so, then I created pictures. I went to a dog place, a dog kennel, where my dog would stay, sometimes like hey, can you get permission from some of the owners, I want to come in here and do a photo shoot with dogs? So we did a little cute little dog with a chef hat on, did another dog holding it. So actual, real pictures, not my iPhone, because a lot of other bully stick people were taking their iPhone, just taking a picture of a dog sitting on the ground or something. Just horrible pictures. So I create all these kind of cute pictures. Remember, selling is about emotion and so this creates emotion of oh look, how cute he is. And then I did a whole series of image stacks to show the difference. Because if you see something on Amazon for 50 bucks, you're like and it's three sticks, and you're like this guy's out of his freaking mind, $50, $55 for three sticks. I can just go buy 30 for 30. So I had to show the difference. Remember what I said people buy photos on Amazon, they don't buy products. And so, I showed them in the box to show that these are big. You know these aren't little skinny little things, they're like big honking sticks. I listed all the reasons people wouldn't buy, all the objections basically, and all the things that were important in all my research. You know these are kosher. You know you don't think about that, for a dog, I mean, but some people. That's important to them. So everything that was important I put on here. These are kosher sticks. Kevin King: I showed the comparison look, ours are full. The other guys they stretch theirs. That's how they can sell 30 for 30 bucks because they're stretched and they're hollow. I showed look, ours are wide, the other guys are skinny. I showed look, ours has no odor, it's glossy and smooth, but the other ones stink. I showed look, ours are with a knife and there's something sitting on the table there. They're hand cut. The other ones are on some nasty ass machine that's never cleaned. So I showed all the reasons why you don't want these cheap ones and why you want mine. And then I showed a comparison of ours versus others just to keep. Kevin King: I kept driving at home Like you're going through this image stack. You're like, all right, all right, all right, I get it, I get it. I showed them on a scale, like look, this is what they weigh. Don't just trust my, trust me. I mean, yeah, you could Photoshop this, but don't. I showed them. It validates it. So I showed everything. At the top here's some dogs driving through like a fast-food place and they're just getting some cheap, cheap, you know happy meal type of cheap hamburgers or something. And then I show in the bottom if you want Wag Haus sticks, you'd like go into a nice steakhouse where there's a maître d' with a bow tie on a serving these on a platter and just connotates that image and creates that emotion, creates that feel and helps justify why you should give these a try. And then I did another cartoon. I tested different cartoons, so I had another one go from fast food to Wag Haus Premium similar concept. Now it's still in a car, they're inside the restaurant and you look at the sign there. If you look at it, there's all kinds of details. If people blow this up, I know you can't see it very good here on the screen, but on Amazon if they blow it up, they would see. You know other, all these kinds of like making fun of the other sticks all in the menu and stuff. It works. Kevin King: And then I created, you know a put back. Then I was called EBC but now it's called a plus content. So I created a plus content and I used pretty people. You want to use pretty people. You want to use faces whenever you can, even though you have the dog use and faces. There's science that shows that's a 35% lift in conversion rate when you use faces. A lot of people don't use faces in their photos. They just show the hands or they show the dog. But you need to have people and showing that they're having fun, their dogs happy. You're creating that emotion. I went out. This is before. It was popular to find influencers, influencer. The whole influencer UGC game was just getting going at this time. But this guy I found him on I think it's called Fame Kit. I forget the name of the website. I don't even know if it still exists, but you could go and you could hire people to create UGC. Kevin King: I'm just going to play you a little bit of this video. I did not script this. I sent this to the guy. I sent him my bullet points to say, hey, this is kind of what I'm looking for. Can you do something? But I'm just going to play the first part of this because it's pretty cool what he did and you're going to see where he actually sniffs these things. He actually pulls them up to his nose yeah, they're right there. He actually pulls them up to his nose and does a demonstration of showing, look, there's really no smell, and I mean it just creates that trust and that yes, it's true. And then he's got playing with his dogs and he just did a really good job. Then I take a look at my reviews. Now these are some of the real reviews that were coming on the products. You know I was getting some fives and fours highly recommended. I would get the occasional one-star review. Someone like this is the biggest rip-off ever Three sticks for 50 bucks. You've got to be freaking, kidding me. But look, I got constant reviews. I had a 4.6, I think, average overall and it just worked really well. And I had one guy I subscribe and save. It had just begun back then, so I was on subscribe and save. One guy I think he did 86 or 87 times on subscribe and save Just kept buying them over and over like every, every. Every time that he would get renewed, he'd buy them. And he'd buy them in between too because he needed more. It just this work. Kevin King: This is how you differentiate a product, uh, and how you approach a market where it's saturated differently and don't always think it's always about the price. As long as there's long tail keywords, you can do some amazing stuff. There's just a few more the lifestyle pictures the on the right there's my actual dog, Zoe, when she was a little much younger, and what happened is the guys that owned the best bully sticks, which is the biggest brand on Amazon. They saw what I was doing and they're like how's this guy, this guy in Texas, selling $50 for three sticks? We need to reach out to him. So they reached out to me and they said hey, why don't we partner up? Why don't you actually sell some of our stuff? You can basically private label some of our other treats. We've got duck feet and we've got, uh, pig's ears and we've got all these, uh, you know, antlers and all this other kind of stuff. Why don't we, why don't we partner up and you just, you just use your brand and private label from us. We manufacture here in the States, we'll ship it to you. So I tried it and it didn't work. I actually I need to package it differently. So, instead of putting in a plastic bag. I had these custom bags made and we tried this. It just didn't work. But my other bully sticks because of differentiation, the way I marketed it, the opportunities there and appealing to the rabid pet owner wanting to take care of their best friend, their member of their family it worked. This is an example on pets. Kevin King: Now, if you want to get some ideas, if you're trying to ideate this oh, Kevin, this sounds good, but how do I do this? This is a really good link here that you can go to actually get an idea on how to position. This is a positioning, marketing positioning. I'm positioning the product against everybody else and this five-step process it's free at aprildunford.com that link there. Take a screenshot of this or maybe someone can post it in the chat. And this is a good five-step process to help you brainstorm through and to know how can you truly differentiate your product. So, I recommend you at least take a gander at that or have someone on your team take a gander at that. So, when you're trying to come up with your next product or differentiate what you've currently got, maybe something's kind of on the down and outs right now, but if you just re-engineer that product and come up from a different positioning point of view. You can do really well. So that's a resource for you there. That should be really good. Kevin King: Now let's take a look at another thing on differentiation how do you turn a commodity into a brand, a commodity? You got Temu coming in that's selling all these cheap things on Amazon. You got Amazon now going to start allowing factories to ship directly from China under this Amazon whatever. It's called Amazon Direct there's a name for it but where they're going to basically have their own version of Temu on Amazon. That is going to kill some people. You're going to see some people go out of business on Amazon because of this, because they're not differentiating. They're just another me too product. There's no differentiation other than maybe the price, and it's who can sell the cheapest price is going to win, and if you're competing on price, you you're playing a losing game. You're going to lose against these Chinese factories. They're going direct because they're going to sell it on Amazon for less than you're buying it from them for. Let me repeat that when Amazon launches this section, which is basically a Temu type of section, your factory will sell it for less on Amazon direct to the consumer for less than what the price they're willing to give you to buy it from them. That's going to happen. Kevin King: So if you don't differentiate your products or you're not thinking in terms of some of these examples I've given you, you're going to be. You may be in some high water and maybe going out of business, or if you're just starting, you may not have a chance to actually succeed. You've got to approach this game differently now. It's more complicated, it's harder, it's a real business. It takes thought, it takes effort. In some cases, it takes money, but this is how you can do it with a commodity product. This is a periodic table. It's a really good thing take a screenshot of this that when you're creating a brand, it's a periodic table of branding. You always remember most of us from school, you had to learn the periodic table of elements. This is a periodic table of branding and this is some of the things that all go into creating a brand. Kevin King: A brand is not just a logo. A lot of people think, well, I've got my brand on Amazon. You don't have a brand, dude, you have no brand. This is no brand. This is a logo and a name. A logo and a name does not make a brand. A brand connotates a feeling. It connotates a message. It connotates an identity, an affinity for people. There's a lot more to it, and these are some of the things. Does the type of type style you use matter? Yes, that's part of it. Does the logo matter? Yes, that's part of it, but every brand has a voice, every brand. The name is important yes, but that's not a brand. You've got to go way, way beyond that, and this shows you some of the elements in a really nice, concise way that you need to focus on when you're truly building your brand, and I'm going to show you an example of this right now on how to do this with a commodity product, with one of mine. Kevin King: We all remember the pandemic of 2020 and hand sanitizer was going nuts on Amazon. It was booming worldwide. Everybody's freaking out need to buy hand sanitizer. Around April of 2020, this was the SQP report, the Search Query Performance report on Amazon. It had just come out as a brand-new kind of thing on Amazon and hand sanitizer was number six, and some partners of mine and one of my other Amazon companies saw this and they're like we should do hand sanitizer and I'm like no dude, everybody and their brother's going to be doing hand sanitizer. This is going to be like hoverboards, going to be like fidget spinners. Everybody's going to be doing it. And they're like, no, we can do it. We got this, this company in India that can make this stuff for us. Yeah, I started doing homework on it. I'm like, well, okay, maybe there's something to it, but let me look into it. So I looked into it and I used some other tools. This is not Helium 10, it's a different tool. It's a private mastermind tool that shows showed me last week's sales volume and on the hand sanitizer it showed this was in April. It showed 129,000 units on Amazon on the word hand sanitizer alone just that single keyword. And then other ones. I was like all right. And then there's all these. Kevin King: The Polaris, this big market research company, came out and said this hand sanitizer thing, even if the COVID goes away, people are going to change their habits. And yeah, you're going to have a huge bump because everybody's now using hand sanitizer but a lot of places are going to install hand sanitizer machines. It's going to become more pervasive in society. And I was like, yeah, okay, so if this has a big boom, boom up, it's going to go down when COVID goes away, but it's going to probably be higher than what it was before COVID started, just because people have changed their habits or they're more aware of it. That's basically what this Polaris study said. So, I'm like, all right, let's look, let's look school. Kevin King: Then there's a story came out of this this kid that was in, uh, in in the middle of the United States I think he's in Tennessee or Kentucky or somewhere and he was going to all the dollar stores, uh, and buying out their hand sanitizer and then arbitraging it on Amazon for those crazy amounts. He ended up getting sued by the, by the uh, the state, uh, for price gouging and stuff. But I'm like, all right, and he's just crushing it. And so, you're all this stuff coming out. And then I look on Amazon and this is what was selling, because hand sensors, all the Perel and Germ Sharks, Germ X the two big brands in the US were hard to get. Kevin King: And then what Amazon did is they created something called the COVID store and they gated, basically Perel. They said all the first responders, all the hospitals need to have access to this, not you people at home. We need to save this for the people that really need it, that are dying in the hospitals. So in order to buy the big hand sanitizers, you had to go into the COVID store and get authorized, and so it took a lot of the competition away on Amazon. I saw that and I started seeing all these like weird hand sanitizer people are making almost like felt like in their backyard coming up on Amazon. Some of it was long shipping times is coming from China and you'd order it and take a month to get to you and it's just garbage. And you look at, look at the reviews on they're just bad and they're selling for like crazy amounts it's $11.59 for these little bottles. Kevin King: And so I was like, alright, guys, let's do this. We're not gonna use this company in India. We're gonna get proper FDA approval, we're gonna. There were some rules where you could at the time, where you could actually make this without going through all the steps of FDA if you did certain things. We figured out all that's figured out, all the legal side. We came out with a brand name of germ shark. We came out with and this logo. So this is where the name Germ Shark and we started this company. It was me and four other guys. I was handling them Amazon side of things and all the branding and all the marketing. And there's other guys handling all the sourcing and dealing with the factories and all that. And then the other three guys were the money guys and these guys put in about a million and a half bucks, before it was all said and done, of their own money. Kevin King: Luckily, crypto was doing really well at the time. One of these guys was just making bank selling NFTs and on crypto, so he had a lot of extra cash just sitting around doing nothing. So he threw a bunch of that in and we started this brand, Germ Shark, and I was like, okay, if we're going to sell hand sanitizer in this super competitive commodity, hand sanitizer is like one to three ingredients, it's nothing. Anybody can do it. How do you differentiate a product that everything is basically the same? Yeah, you can put a smell in there or you can do a few things, but it's basically the same thing. How do you differentiate it? So, we came up with some bottles. We said we're gonna do a three pack of these small bottles and I tested it on Pick Fu and so I took R3, the ones that says winter there with the green box around it. Those were R3. Kevin King: And I tested against these no-name brands, like these Chinese no-name brands, and we won, hands down won. Everybody said we would buy this one. This one looks legit, the others are sketchy. And then I tested against the top brands, like Perel, which is a number one brand in the US, and I got my butt kicked. Perel beat me because that's a bigger brand, people trust it more. So I was like okay, as long as Perel is not on the main Amazon site and they're locked away in this COVID store where nobody can get in there, I can crush it, I can be number one on Amazon until Perel comes back. And when Perel comes back onto the normal Amazon website, I'll be okay in spot number two or spot number three, because I've positioned myself, I've gotten my rankings, I've gotten my reviews. There's still enough depth in the market share that even if I'm spot two or three or four, I'll still make some good money. So we're like all right, let's go forward with this. Kevin King: So then we create a whole line of products. We ended up going. We saw that there's wipes. We're having trouble. We had the big bottles to refill, like the canisters at, like the restaurants and malls and airports and stuff. We create little toys we actually created with our brand. We created like a little stuffed toy you see the little stuffed shark there. We create little holders. That little kind of turquoise looking thing in the middle is a holder for the clip onto your purse or onto your backpack or something for the small bottles, and then, oh, there's a better picture of it, these little guys here. Kevin King: We created this kind of stuff, and why did we create this? Not to sell it, but for branding and for promotional purposes. So what we did with it is we went out and we did a campaign to hospitals, and so we reached out to hospitals and we said, hey, we'd love to send you a free gift. Thanks for your service, thanks for everything you're doing. We'd love to send you a free gift. So we made this little brochure here thanking them for everything. And then we sent a package of like 25 in a nice like four-color box, like a gift box. We put some of that little like shredded paper in there that makes it all look kind of fancy. Put them all in there and then we included, like you know, there's some kids and stuff in the hospital. So here's some stuffed toys. You know along the branding. And then what did they do? These are the actual ones getting it. You can see the box there and they started posting it all over social media and we started actually getting sales and this legitimized us. It showed like, look, this is legitimate, doctors are using this and they're showing this stuff off. Kevin King: We create our A-plus content page and actually did some really good stuff with A-plus and we showed how, for every bottle, every package you buy, we donate a bottle. So we had a cause with it, too is we donated a bottle to charities. We created memes and graphics for social media that would actually show play off of different things. During that time, we ran huge campaigns on this. We did actual physical postcards in the mail. A lot of people was like, oh, the mail is dead, nobody checks the mail, bs. We did these physical postcards through the mail and sent them to hospitals, sent them to people that previously bought sanitizers. We got some lists. We got editorial recommendations because of our branding. People love the branding and the mission that we're giving a bottle for every three sold. And then we did stuff like jingles. We actually created a jingle for the brand because, remember I said, selling is emotional and this is a really good study here. You should take a look at this sometimes. But sound is the most important thing to our brain, not visuals. So you can be watching a YouTube video and if the YouTube video is grainy or jumping around a little bit, then you might accept it, but as long as the sound quality is good. If the sound quality is good, you can deal with lesser quality video, but if the sound quality is bad, you're going to skip this. You're going to move on to something else and it's an area of your brain called Broca's area, and it's an interesting science. If you take a look at this from a branding point of view, if you can reach Broca's area, you can do things, really amazing things. Think of old jingles like the Oscar Mayer Wiener jingle, if you're old enough to remember that, or some of the old jingles that you see on TV now you know the State Farm jingles or some of the other ones that are out there. That's all branding and marketing and it's creating these visual images. There's a really. There's a lot more to this. Kevin King: We could go and do a whole presentation just on this, but so we dialed in on Broca's area and to use influence, and so what we did is we created a jingle and then we created a video. I had, uh, one of the amazon companies that does these nice videos. I had a couple of them actually do it. I actually had a contest with pick food to be to be on water. I had four different companies doing and competing and we create these jingles and just this is not the best singing, so don't worry about the singing, but the music in the song. It will stick in your head. I'm here to help you, uh, keep your germs away. I'll bring the bottle to you. I've got the germ charge for you. Rub it, rub it, rub it, rub it. Germ charge protection. Peel your hand, catch the germs away. Brother, strength, the best protection, no matter where you are. It can't be too far. Kevin King: Anyway, this was a really cool jingle that had all these lyrics to it and I sent this to Bradley here at Helium 10, and he watched it and he was like damn, dude, I can't get that out of my head now. I was like that's the point. So the next time that you want to get hand sanitizer, that comes to your mind. And it worked really well. So we had a couple of them. We also went out man on the street, we had these costumes and we would go down to a park and walk around, give them out and we'd go mess with people and we'd create all this stuff. We went to a grocery store and grabbed grocery carts and had like 10 of these sharks walking into this grocery store and freaking people out and just, we did all this kind of marketing to help differentiate and it didn't sell a lot locally but it helps us create the content that we could put out there worldwide. And it really worked really well. Kevin King: These were our sales on seven, you know, $40,000 on one single skew on that day. And you can see, we just started crushing it and we started standing out, and this is how you take a commodity and you truly make it into a real brand. These were some sales, the first we started selling in July of 2020. We went live so this is basically the first month. Sales was a million bucks on a brand-new product, and so this stuff works, but you got to come at it from a different point of view. So, what I'm trying to do today is just show you a different way of thinking of this. Can you do everything I did? Maybe, maybe not, but you can start thinking in this direction and start moving in that direction, and that's what we have for you today. Thanks everybody for joining us.
We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's Chief Brand Evangelist, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. Amazon just announced dates for its October Prime Day sale — here's what to know https://www.nbcnews.com/select/shopping/amazon-october-prime-day-2024-dates-rcna171355 Walmart announced an anti-Prime Day sale and it's no joke—learn about Walmart Holiday Deals now https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/reviewed/2024/09/19/walmart-holiday-deals/75289574007/ More than half of US Gen Zers are headed to TikTok Shop this season https://www.retaildive.com/news/gen-z-tik-tok-shop-social-media-holiday-purchases/726139/ Amazon small oversize FBA fee reductions https://channelx.world/2024/09/amazon-small-oversize-fba-fee-reductions/ Maximize your brand goals efficiently with goal-based bidding in Amazon DSP https://advertising.amazon.com/en-us/resources/whats-new/amazon-dsp-goal-based-bidding/ 5 new generative AI tools to accelerate seller growth and enhance the customer shopping experience https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/innovation-at-amazon/amazon-generative-ai-seller-growth-shopping-experience In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers: 01:07 - Prime Big Deal Days 03:31 - Walmart Holiday Deals 05:14 - Gen Z Shopping on TikTok 06:25 - FBA Fee Reductions? 07:23 - Goal-Based Bidding in DSP 08:16 - Amazon Supply Chain Updates 09:50 - Buy with Prime Integrations 12:33 - Amazon Shipping App 13:00 - Faster MCF Shipments 13:37 - New Amazon AI Tools 22:11 - New Amazon Analytics Tools 23:24 - More Accelerate Updates 28:17 - Meet Bradley in South Korea 28:30 - More Upcoming Events ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Transcript Bradley Sutton: Prime Big Deal Days has been officially announced for specific dates. In October, amazon Accelerate had more than 20 new releases and announcements and we're going to go over almost all of them today. This and more on this week's Weekly Buzz. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Series Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I am your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show that is our Helium 10 Weekly Buzz, where we give you a rundown of all the new stories and goings on in the Amazon, Walmart, e-commerce world. We also give you training tips of the week and let you know what new things that Helium 10 has that will give you serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. Let's see what's buzzing. As a matter of fact, today I don't think we're going to be able to get to any new releases or training tips, because this was the week of Amazon Accelerate. I just got back a couple hours ago and I want to try and like get everything out there while it's fresh in my mind. Hopefully I'm not going to miss anything, but we have got tons and tons to go over today. Bradley Sutton: Let's actually first hop into just non-Accelerate related news. All right, let's go ahead Now. The first news story is from NBC News and it's entitled Amazon just announced dates for its October Prime Day sale. Here's what to know Now. You guys remember a while back, a few months ago, I had predicted when the regular Prime Day was going to be. Somehow, you know, I like use some just I used some just common sense and mathematical things based on dates that Amazon had, and I hit the exact date two months in advance, actually, three months in advance, I think. I hit it Now again. A month ago, I was like you know what, I'm going to go out on a limb and try and guess when Prime big deal days are. Take a look at what I said in August. If, again, I had to pick a date, it would be around October 9th. Now let me show you why. I noticed here that one of my products was eligible for prime big deal days window. So when I went in there, you'll notice and you guys probably have seen this yourself is that there's weeks for regular deals right All the way up to October 6th. Okay, and then the very next one it says is prime big deal days window. So first of all, it pretty much guarantees that prime big deal days is not going to be before October 6th. Bradley Sutton: Now, historically prime big deal days, I think there was another it was called something different in 2022. It was kind of like on the second Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday of the month. So that's why I'm thinking that, hey, it could be around October 9th, 8th, 9th, 10th, around there We'll see. You've got a lot of time to plan, but at least, again, it is now confirmed. There is another prime big deal days coming. Well, guys, Nostradamus Bradley back at it again, because, look at this prime big deal days was. Well, guys, north stardom is Bradley back at it again, because, look at this prime big deal days was announced on October 8th and 9th. Guess what? I'm gonna make another prediction. I think I know when Black Friday is gonna be hint, hint, wink, wink. That's not a great, uh prediction. I think my prediction days are over two for two, that's it. But anyways, prime big deal days, guys. Bradley Sutton: It's kind of like the second prime day of the year is coming on October 8th and 9th and hopefully you have gone ahead and applied for some deals. If you're going to do it, this might be the time to do Prime Exclusive Discounts. Don't forget, prime Exclusive Discounts aren't free anymore, as we reported on the Weekly Buzz. But whatever the case is, there's going to be a lot more traffic shopping online, and when I say shopping online, it is not just shopping on Amazon for this special day, because take a look at this new story from USA Today. It says Walmart announced an Anti-Prime Day sale, and it's no joke. Learn about Walmart holiday deals now, all right. Bradley Sutton: So this is a new or special kind of discounts that Walmart is putting on. What date is going to be for these deals that will have up to 70% off? You guessed it starting October 8th. So it's kind of funny. Sometimes this Amazon and Walmart are going back and forth, trying to one up each other and make sure they don't have special days. But I think this is actually good for sellers that it's on the same day, because if you're doing deals on one site, you almost have to do deals on the other site because of price matching and things like that. So when Amazon and Walmart dates coincide, it allows you to go ahead and put the same discounts on both, and now you don't have to worry about things like buy box suppression and things like that. Now one difference, though, between prime big deal days and Walmart holiday days is this article says that it starts on the 8th, but it's set to continue through Sunday, October 13th. Now, this is important because, just like I just said, while the first couple of days are going to coincident have to worry about buy box issues. If you keep your Walmart deals going after the 9th and you have like the same maybe product identifier, like a UPC or something like that, it's possible that your buy box on Amazon might suffer if Amazon is price matching Walmart or price checking Walmart, I should say, and they could see that you have a special going on a Walmart but not on Amazon. So something to keep in mind. First couple of days you're good to go. It's kind of good that it's coinciding, but after the 9th, definitely check if you're going to stop your deal on Amazon but not on Walmart. Bradley Sutton: Speaking of holiday deals, there's an interesting article from retaildive.com I guess they did this kind of survey and it says more than half of US Gen Zers are headed to TikTok shop this weekend. It said about 43% of Gen Z shoppers are planning to spend more for their holidays this year compared to 37% of millennials. However, going down deeper, it says, in the US, nearly 54% of Gen Z will find gifts on TikTok shop alone. A third of US respondents will shop for gifts seen on Facebook and Instagram ads. I don't know how that's a poll Like. Do you actually answer a poll saying yes, I plan on buying stuff from ads? So that was kind of weird for me. But however they got this information sounds pretty exact. So they're putting it out there and it says almost a quarter 24% of US Gen Zers will make their purchase through influencer recommendations. So just you know, it's kind of interesting how much the whole landscape of holiday shopping has changed. You know, a couple years ago there was no such thing as TikTok shop, right, you know. So the fact that a lot of people are going to be you know, more than half of a certain demographic are going to be looking on this platform that literally didn't even exist last year is just kind of interesting to me. Bradley Sutton: Next article is coming from Channel X World. It actually has to do with Europe and it's an FBA fee reduction. All right, yeah, I did not say that wrong. It is an FBA fee reduction, not an addition. You know, usually when you hear me talking about FBA fees, it's about some new fee that we're going to have to do. That we're going to have to do. But if you're in selling in pan EU fulfillment, you're going to be able to save from 1.60 pounds up to 1 pound 87 for small oversized products across UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. So in those locations, what signifies a small oversize? So Amazon's definition of small oversize is 61 by 46 by 46 centimeters and unit weight has to be less than 1.76 kilograms. And then in Germany there's another set. But hey guys, take a look at this If your product is in this small oversize, you might actually be getting a reduction in fees, believe it or not. Bradley Sutton: One more non-accelerate announcement this week was done by Amazon Advertising, so entitled Maximize Brand Goals Efficiently with Goal-Based Bidding in Amazon DSP. All right. So now when you're doing your brand awareness campaigns, you're going to be able to specify reach and frequency goals and DSP is going to optimize bids automatically in real time to maximize these goals. So, for example, how you get started is you set the goal in DSP to awareness, you set your KPI to reach or frequency, and then you're going to choose a weekly target frequency and then you set your optimization strategy to prioritize spending, full budget and then you hit save. So now you're going to be able to, you know, test out this goal-based bidding. So, um, I know not too many of you are using DSP, but something that maybe talk to your amazon rep to get more information on. Or, if you're using an agency, talk to them to see if this might be good for you all. Bradley Sutton: Right now, let us get into amazon accelerate. Uh, this was my second accelerate um, and there was just tons and tons and tons of things that were released over the three days. Now, on some of these, we're actually going to get a little bit more in depth. I was able to interview some of the product managers at Amazon responsible for some of these, so we're going to go in depth on things like the customer loyalty dashboard and gen AI videos and different things like that in future episodes, but for now, let's just give a brief overview of a lot of the updates. Bradley Sutton: Now, first up, we had supply chain by Amazon updates, all right. So first they were talking about hey, they're unlocking faster delivery speeds that increase sales an average of 20%, they said and now there is an Amazon fully managed option for US sellers to automate the entire supply chain process, so I'm not going to go too much into detail about that. We've talked a little bit about this in previous episodes. Now, multi-channel distribution for Amazon warehousing and distribution, also known as AWD it says it now offers the ability to do custom labeling, allowing you to distribute products in bulk to different sales channels, including other marketplace services. All right, so you know this is something that before you know, like you might not have thought that Amazon would be down to do like helping you, kind of basically like drop ship to other channels, and they're cool with it, with it going to other marketplaces. That's going to be a kind of a theme on some of these announcements I'm going to talk about from Amazon Accelerate. Bradley Sutton: Now, speaking of Amazon logistics and supply chain, there is a lot of MCF and buy with prime announcements. All right, a lot of different enhancements. First of all, if you are using buy with prime on your website, now you are going to be able to accept PayPal payments. All right, you can't do that yet in Amazon, but if you're using the Amazon Buy With Prime, like on your Shopify, WooCommerce, you're going to be able to accept PayPal checkout. So that's going to be pretty cool. And then, actually, starting next year, if you're a Prime member, they're going to be able to link their Amazon account to their PayPal account so that Prime free shipping benefits are available automatically. Another update was, if you are doing Amazon DSP, like we just talked about, you're going to be able to now run ads on Google Shopping ads and TikTok ads all right to drive more traffic to your Buy With Prime enabled options. All right. Bradley Sutton: So here's how this works, if I'm understanding this correctly. So let's say you've got Buy With Prime listings set up. Now, if you recall, buy With Prime it's been around for a while. It's so you can have on your website a literal Buy With Prime badge and you are able to see the shipping time. So, basically, your Shopify customers, if they purchase on your website, they're going to get it delivered from your FBA inventory or MCF inventory. But now if you're running DSP ads the cool thing is they showed a couple examples of this is like in the Google shopping. You know what? You can't link directly to an Amazon listing, all right, you can't put Amazon listings per se into Google shopping. But if you've got your Shopify or WooCommerce or whatever listing there that has the buy with Prime, which basically goes your Amazon inventory. Anyways, you're going to be able to see the shipping time, all right. So, like you know, two, three days shipping. It's going to actually show up in Google Shopping Right, which has not been done before, and also in TikTok advertising. All right, not TikTok shop. We're not talking about buy with Prime inside of TikTok shop. We're talking about that. If you run a TikTok ad, it'll overlay onto a TikTok right. You're going to see that Prime badge right there where it'll say like two days, three days shipping and people can just go ahead and buy it right from that TikTok ad and again, that's going directly to your Amazon Prime inventory. So, pretty cool enhancement. Bradley Sutton: You know, like a few years ago you wouldn't have thought that Amazon is down to like help sellers. You know, sell on other platforms and things like that. You know, like last year, amazon accelerate. The big announcement was how you could have, you know, Shopify integration. You're like that was would have been unheard of just two years ago, you know. And then now we're talking about, you know, integrations now with google shopping, integrations with TikTok shop. So this is, I think, a move in the good uh, in a good direction here. Bradley Sutton: Another supply chain announcement. You know we've talked on the weekly buzz before about how amazon's really pushing their own shipping methods, and so now Amazon has released a new Amazon shipping mobile app. So you know, with these you're going to be able to schedule pickups from your warehouse, oversee inventory across multiple warehouses, receive real time updates on delivery, delivery vehicles and everything. So that's like for those of you who are kind of like using Amazon now, as like you maybe have used UPS or something like that before. Another update was if you're using MCF multi-channel fulfillment you know, historically I think that like the fastest shipping was like four days, but usually five days or more. Now MCF is going to qualify for three day shipping, so pretty cool. If you're using MCF is going to qualify for three day shipping, so pretty cool. If you're using MCF to maybe run your TikTok shop or for your Shopify website, and that's how you're shipping you can now get three day shipping, which is a huge update. Bradley Sutton: Now, that was the main announcements for day one. Let's go skip to day two now, which had a lot more announcements. Go skip to day two now, which had a lot more announcements, and the first one was like five new generative AI tools that are going to be designed for sellers. Let's go over them Now. The first one was a Amazon code name. Right, it says Project Amelia. It says adds a personalized Amazon selling expert for every seller. Bradley Sutton: Now what this new app is going to be doing inside of Seller Central is it's going to be a generative, ai based tool where you can like have conversations with it, like you can say, hey, amazon or Amelia I'm not sure if you have to call it Amelia or you call it Amazon, or whatever the case is. You can be able to ask simple questions like how is my business doing? Which products of mine have sales been down year over year? You can be able to ask simple questions like how is my business doing? Which products of mine? Have sales been down year over year? You're going to be able to ask questions like what is the status of the shipment that I sent to Amazon yesterday? So basically, the things that you would normally do in Seller Central that you would just have to go around on menus to find, and things. A lot more of it now over time. You know it's not going to be rolling out all these things at once, but you're going to be able to start asking this Amelia, uh, project Amelia app, uh, these questions that it's going to go ahead and respond just like generative AI does. Now, not everything is something that I think that all sellers are super excited about. But hey, I'm, I'm, I'm here to just report the news and let's you know, let's give some honest feedback on it and let's see how things play out Now. And let's give some honest feedback on it and let's see how things play out Now. Bradley Sutton: The next thing it was entitled Expanding Generative AI Product Listing Capabilities to Get More Products in Front of Customers Faster. So this is nothing new per se. Amazon had announced last year generative AI ability to just get a picture from a picture or from a brief description, make a listing. Now, the last time I tested it, let's be honest, let's keep it real. Well, this is a no BS podcast, right? Well, it was not that great and I would never actually recommend somebody using that, because you know, like we know, how important keyword optimization, listing optimization with the right keywords is for getting indexed, for being able to run ads, and you're you know the ai back then when it started. There's no way it was going to be able to ever get all of the right keywords from day one in your listing if you're just using it right now. That being said, that was a while back that I use it. Bradley Sutton: I'm very curious as to how it has uh, perhaps improved over time. I still don't understand. I guess can't picture any world in which you, uploading just a picture or two of a product and maybe even one line of text, is going to make sure that Amazon gets all the right keywords. I just can't imagine it, you know, knowing what the status of Gen, you know Gen AI is now, but I got to give it a fair shot, so I'm going to go give it a try in like a little mini case study soon. But anyways, what was released yesterday at Accelerate was now you're going to be able to, even if you do trust the Amazon AI listing creator, instead of just making one listing, you can like have some minimal information on a bulk upload file, and then you can create up to like 10, 20, 30, 50 listings or more, all with generative AI. Bradley Sutton: The next gen AI thing that they talked about was A plus content automatically creates brand storylines that attract customers. So with this, it's actually allowing you to take, like, maybe just your images or your listing, and it's gonna use gen AI to create a plus content just from an image, so like, for example you can see here those of you watching this on YouTube it just took a couple of pictures of some shoe and then now it like put it in these lifestyle setting kind of images, automatically designed directly for your a plus content, for your listing. Not only that, it's generating the text that comes in on the captions inside of A-plus content. So you know, like for people like me, who you know, I use agencies like professionals like AMZ One Step, to make my A+ Content and you know, some people might not be able to afford that. So if you're not able to afford professional agencies to shoot specific content, now you might be able to dabble into this A-plus content. Don't forget that even in Helium 10, we have an A-plus or not an A-plus content generator, but an image generator that you can output in the format of different A-plus content modules as well. But now Amazon is going to have this completely for free. So this is kind of like a cool update that Amazon is going to offer Now. Bradley Sutton: The next one I think most sellers I talk to, and myself too, are the most skeptical about basically it's an announcement where they're saying, hey, they're going to use gen AI to personalize product recommendations that part is cool and descriptions for customers including the title. So, as far as the recommendations go, you know that that's totally fine. Like, like, I don't think that's going to affect us negatively. I think it might be a positive thing. Like, for example, it's going to start basing more things off of the customer shopping activity instead of just offering customers more, like this. Like you've probably seen that when you're shopping on Amazon, it's going to give more specific recommendations, such as gift boxes for Mother's Day or cool deals to improve your curling game. That's the example that they give. Who in the world outside of Canada needs improvement on their curling game? But anyways, this is something that's going to be interesting for their recommendations. Bradley Sutton: But as part of this, there was a kind of like a demo, given that Amazon is going to kind of like redo titles in the search experience. Okay, so it's not necessarily rewriting your titles. You know that that was an announcement done before how Amazon is going to sometimes, you know, change up your title if it doesn't think it's, it's good enough and you can opt out of that program. But this is different. It's like if somebody searches a certain keyword, the way that it sees your title in the search results. Again, this is just the way it's displaying in the search results. It's not actually changing your listing. It could change some words around based on if it thinks that it could cause the customer to be more likely to purchase. Bradley Sutton: Now, this is the one where people are like I'm not sure if we can trust Amazon, you know, to change the title of my product that I spent a lot of work on. So this is one I think we're definitely going to have to see an action, start tracking it to see you know once this starts rolling out. Is this going to negatively or positively affect sellers? Is it going to help your conversion, your click-through rate, or could it potentially hurt it because it just starts putting these random, hallucinating AI words there? This is one of those ones that we're going to have to wait and see the A+ Content. I'm like, hey, go ahead and start using that right now. Guys, I think it's available in most people's accounts. Let's start playing around with that. But anything that has to do with changing titles and keywords, obviously I think a lot of us sellers are a little bit more skeptical about. So let's see how that one works out. Now, another cool thing that you know maybe you're skeptical or not, but I think it's pretty cool because I saw some of it in action is the fifth thing that they're using. Bradley Sutton: Ai is creating highly engaging video ads. So it gave a couple examples, like there was just like a speaker and then it put it in this crazy background with, you know, like a beach, and then not only that, it actually made a video like with waves crashing on the shore. The other example that I really like that it gave was it showed a cup of tea, a pitcher just a pitcher of a cup of tea, with steam coming out of it. Showed a cup of tea, a pitcher, just a pitcher of a cup of tea, with steam coming out of it. But then it totally made it a video Like the background was dynamic and the steam you could actually see it coming out of the cup. So you know, for those of you doing like special video ads sponsor display, sponsor brand ads this is going to be cool. You know like videos work better than just still images. It really conveys emotion better. And now, instead of having to pay tons and tons of money to an agency or have some special 3d modeling. You're going to be able to use generative AI to generate these ads, so that's definitely going to be pretty cool. Bradley Sutton: One thing I neglected to mention from day one I forgot was the drone delivery. All right, so that was a pretty cool announcement where they're like hey, by the end of this decade I'm assuming 2029 or 2030, whatever they assume is the end of the decade they said they expect to have done 500 million drone deliveries. I mean, there hasn't been barely any yet because it's not fully launched, but they're aiming for one hour drone deliveries and to be able to make 500 million of those in the next five years or so. So that's going to be pretty cool to see your you know, maybe coffin shelves being delivered by drone to people's porches. All right, that's going to be pretty cool. Release Next up is something that I'm not going to go too in depth today on, because I actually interviewed the product manager for this tool and it's going to come out in a future podcast in a few weeks. Bradley Sutton: But there's a few new analytical tools that Amazon is launching. You can see some of this information in your dashboard. But one of the cool things is customer journey analytics. It says it helps you spot trends and pain points so you can create strategies to optimize the shopping experience. It says this tool maps an end-to-end view of the customer journey, from awareness to consideration, to intent and purchase. Right, there's going to be enhanced audience tailoring. Right, we've been doing brand tailored promotions for, like you know, abandoned cart customers and different things like that, but now there's going to be even more opportunity to tailor make your promotions to certain audiences. And then the last tool that they announced under this was business planner, an AI power tool that helps you identify opportunities for sales growth. And again the first two like hey, let's go for it. This next one is probably the one that some sellers are a little bit more skeptical on until they actually see it in action, the one that some sellers are a little bit more skeptical on until they actually see it in action, but it's basing it off of what Amazon is going to recommend, that for actions that you might take to help your account. Bradley Sutton: Now there's some other various announcements made after this. I don't have a bunch of slides on it or news articles, but there was somebody who talked about. You know how the counterfeit crimes unit are really cracking down on a review. You know manipulation and sellers who are, you know, opening up fraudulent accounts and attacking other sellers and fake reviews, and it was really cool. A lot of people were applauding over some of the announcements that they made about how they're really trying to crack down on a lot of these black hatters out there, so that was pretty cool. Bradley Sutton: Another department that came up on stage was the customer service department. You know the for seller support, the support department, and you know, at the first part, you know, I think a lot of sellers like, oh, brother, you know what are these guys going to say? This is like the one of the most I hate to use the word, but almost hated departments at Amazon. But I think they got probably some of the most applause during their presentation because they launched a few things where, like now, you can 100% of the time do these chat customer supports where you can get resolution right away instead of going back and forth making emails all the time, and this is going to be pretty cool. Along with the live chat, you're going to be able to share your screen, even live, with an Amazon customer support rep, instead of them asking you to take a screenshot, then you send it and then five hours later you get a reply and they ask for another screenshot. You're going to be able to take care of that stuff live, because it is going to be right there with a share your screen. So that's going to be something I think pretty cool. Bradley Sutton: A lot of sellers were excited about that, and then probably one of the biggest announcements was that there's going to be the ability to connect to specialists. All right, so from what I hear from people that have had a bit in the beta, it's almost like going to Amazon Accelerate and having a seller cafe appointment. By the way, that's like one of the reasons to go to Amazon Accelerate. You can get some of your issues solved in real time with like a specialist, like somebody who really knows what they're doing, as opposed to somebody who I'm sure we've all had experience with, where they're just copying and pasting answers from a knowledge base or something right. But you're going to be able to connect with a specialist and it's going to be able to connect with a specialist and it's going to be way more likely that they're going to know what you're. You know how to fix your problem, because that's like all they deal with, as opposed to they're trying to be jack of all trades. They're going to be specialists with a certain thing, like maybe compliance or something else. By the way, there's a lot of announcements based on compliance too, but that I think a lot of sellers were really applauding about, because you know how many of us have had that frustrating situation where we're trying to get our point across to a customer support rep and it's obvious they have no idea what the heck we're talking about. And then we're having to, like go back and forth over days where now you might be able to get your stuff resolved in minutes with just one person from start to finish. So that was something definitely really cool to look forward to. So that was something definitely really cool to look forward to. Bradley Sutton: Other things is like generative AI, where there's going to be potentially again I talk about good things where it's like, hey, show me the money, like this is great, let's start on this right away. And then there's, you know, some things that are kind of like hey, we maybe need to take a wait and see approach, but there's going to be some generative AI things where you might be able to get stuff solved with just a bot, kind of right, and I know that kind of like is a turnoff for some people. But you know, ai is helping bots get a lot better. But one of the examples they gave was you could like say, hey, I need to change the product dimensions on my product to this by this, by this, and then that gen AI bot, as it were, is going to say, oh yeah, let me go ahead and take care of that for you, all right, without even having to open up a case, without even having to maybe go into your listing to change it there. So that could be pretty cool, but let's see how that works, all right. So that's about it. Bradley Sutton: I probably knocked out about 15, 20 of those announcements. Like I said, in the future, two or three podcast episodes, we're going to go a little bit more in depth on some of these. I also did a recap video with Andrea Marquez, who is the host of the this Is Small Business podcast that's the Amazon hosted podcast and we went over a couple more of these in depth. And then I brought on some Amazon product managers, thanks to the Amazon team, and we're going to go a lot more in depth on some of those analytical tools and some of the gen AI tools. So a lot of exciting things coming to the podcast, a lot of exciting things coming to Amazon. Bradley Sutton: Right, highly recommend guys, if you've never been to an accelerate, mark your calendars. I'm sure it's going to be around the same time next year, maybe around September. You have got to go to this event to like be the first to hear about these, to hear about these special things that are being released by Amazon, to be able to network with 4,000 other sellers. It's kind of like a really unique experience and I had a great time thanks to the Amazon team and thanks to all of you. I met so many of you out there at our Helium 10 booth, and just walking around is really great to connect with a lot of you. So I hope to see you at some future events. Bradley Sutton: Don't forget, next week I'll be at the seller kingdom event in Seoul, Korea, h10.me/sellerkingdom. You'll be able to register for that event at the at the end of October. October 31st, there's going to be an Amazon advertising event in Sydney, Australia, so make sure to come out to that. And then November 11th, we're doing an elite workshop in Milan, Italy. So mark your calendar. If you're in Europe, that is another event you can go to. So, guys, thank you so much for joining us this week. We'll be back next week to see what's buzzing.
innovative strategies from Gulsen Berkin Cinar and Michelle McLean, who are back after five years to share their secrets. From capitalizing on Amazon influencer opportunities to selling seasonal products, they reveal methods where people are earning up to $70,000 a month with no investment. Join us as we explore the incredible journey of a family-run Amazon business that skyrocketed from modest beginnings to a seven-figure revenue before being sold. Gulsen shares the thrill of launching a new brand and expanding into platforms like Shopify and Walmart. Michelle, driven by her passion for seasonal products, recounts her success with Amazon products during Christmas, illustrating the excitement of spotting and profiting from trending items. Dive into the world of Amazon influencers and affiliates with Michelle's expert tips on maximizing commission potential by reviewing higher ticket items. Discover how you can earn substantial income through Helium 10's affiliate program, even if you're just starting out. We'll also guide you on signing up for this lucrative opportunity and highlight the benefits, including lifetime recurring commissions and other rewards. Don't miss this episode, which is packed with actionable insights and real-life success stories designed to help you thrive in the e-commerce world. (Time Stamps) - In episode 596 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley, Gulsen, and Michelle discuss: 00:00 - Boss Ladies Making Money Online 03:09 - Amazon Influencer Affiliate Program 03:47 - Amazon Business Exit and Brand Scaling Success 10:23 - Influencer Program and Earning Commissions 14:17 - First Amazon Product Review Videos 20:08 - Product Sourcing and Market Research 22:48 - Amazon Affiliate and Reviewer Earning Potential 29:02 - Helium 10 Affiliate Earning Potential 32:47 - The Power of Consistent Growth 34:29 - Helium 10 Affiliate Discount Opportunities 38:01 - Affiliate Program Sign-Up and Benefits ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Transcript Bradley Sutton: Today we've got a couple of boss ladies on the show who haven't been in the podcast in five years and they're going to be talking about cool ways that they're making thousands of dollars in their spare time by being either an Amazon influencer or selling seasonal products, along with a way that some people with no investment are even being paid $70,000 a month from Helium 10. How cool is that? Pretty, I think. Important message, guys. On October 23rd, Amazon is changing the window for which you can look back and claim that they owe you reimbursements for lost and damaged products at FBA warehouses. It used to be 18 months, but now it's going down to only 2 months. So, if you have never used a reimbursement service or Refund Genie, now is the time. Last week, I ran Refund Genie on two different accounts and got a total of over $5,000 back for those sellers. And don't forget, unlike a lot of services out there, Helium 10 doesn't take any commission on what we get back. If we say you're owed ten thousand dollars and you get back ten thousand dollars from amazon, you keep ten thousand dollars with no commission to Helium 10 at all. Refund Genie is now available to anybody who has a Helium 10 Platinum Annual Plan or higher. So, to get an estimate about on how much money you could get back, go to h10.me/refundgenie. If you've never used a Helium 10 coupon, use the code SSP10 to save money if you need to upgrade to a Platinum Annual Plan. Bradley Sutton: Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I am your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show. That's a completely BS-free, unscripted and unrehearsed organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world, and we've got a couple of people here that are super, super old school here at Helium 10, including the one person, the only person who has been at the company here in United States side longer than me, and then another person who was one of my first hires here at Helium 10 just a couple months after I got started. So, Gulsen and Michelle, welcome back to the show. Michelle: Hello Gulsen: Hello Michelle: wow, I feel so old. Bradley Sutton: Well, hey, that's why I'm also I'm wearing the old school Helium 10 logo shirt here to kind of like reminisce about our old days, you know, way back then in the WeWork. Now I say welcome back to the show because there's been a huge gap since Michelle and Gulsen have been on the show the word now in episode I don't know like 580 something or 590 something. Their first time on the show was episode 86, way back in December of 2019. So, if you want to get a little bit more of their backstory, go ahead and see if you can find I don't even know if you can find such an old episode, but episode 86, where we had them and some of the other members of our crew all together on one episode. But I was like you know what? It's been years since you guys have come on and each of you have interesting things to talk about. So, let's go ahead and have you guys uh back on. So, first of all, um, let's start with uh, Gulsen. Now what about you? And you know you've since before you even worked at Helium 10. You know you've had like a family Amazon business. Um, ven offline, obviously you're my co-worker, but we've never really talked about that in a long time. Like, are you guys still selling on Amazon? You selling on other market? What have you guys been doing with that side of your things? Gulsen: Yes, so you don't know this, but you know we were running that Amazon business with my husband and last year December we sold that one and the first call I received. Now my husband is building another brand. Bradley Sutton: Well, hold on. I want to talk about that. I didn't know that you were right, I had brand and I want to talk about that. I didn't know that. You're right, I had no idea. So how did you find a buyer for the business? What was it like through an aggregator? Did you use a service or just networking? Gulsen: Yeah, he was with a partner and um, he was always getting those questions like, um, if he ever likes to sell his shares and stuff, but at the time it was very good season to do that move last year December. So yeah, and it. You know it was very stressful and long journey for years but I'm so happy that we came to that ending and he took like a few weeks refresh and now he's on top of it another brand by himself right now. Bradley Sutton: Okay, so what did he scale that brand to like? what was the peak yearly sales like approximately? Gulsen: Yeah, so by the time he started it was about four hundred dollars per month. Bradley Sutton: Four hundred thousand dollars ? Gulsen: Four hundred Dollars. Bradley Sutton: Four hundred. Oh, when he started, you said yeah, okay, I was like about to say well, who is buying an amazon business that grosses $400 a month, like good grief? Okay, that makes sense now. So that was when he started, and then he scaled it to what? Gulsen: Yeah, the time he moved out that they were at monthly six figures. Bradley Sutton: Oh wow. So definitely a seven-figure brand, oh yeah, that is pretty cool and then and then. So now he's starting from scratch or like something similar, or, and he's already launched, or he's just in the planning stage right now. Gulsen: From scratch it's already launched and now, um, this time we just wanted to want it to be more on like brand side. We still use, of course, amazon and we will try to start selling on Walmart as well, but now we're just trying to be so heavy on Shopify, building the brand awareness, and then, of course, the goal is the goal again, selling it. But to me, you remember my Amazon account. I was so like a Grand Bazaar Amazon account. I still have it and still is my passion to find those seasonal items. Bradley Sutton: But you're not still. Have you been off and on selling products on that account? Gulsen: Yes, yes. Bradley Sutton: Oh okay, I didn't know that. Okay, cool, but only seasonal. Gulsen: Only seasonal and I know you don't really like it when you do Amazon for patient. But that account you saw that it's such a passionate account only the products I really like to spend my time on and not really that profitable, but still nice. And I feel like I still like to spend a lot of time on Black Box trying to find products and then search them on Alibaba, even if I'm not going to invest. I think it started to be like a habit for my life. And, yeah, the last time I found something it was a toy product. I never recommend anyone to, you know, join a toy business, but this one was crazy because, like it was selling on Amazon about like $26, the price to import and everything was about 450. So now it's just, you know, um, making my mind so busy like should I really launch a toy product? But it's so competitive and, yeah, I might be needing to pick your brain about it very soon. Bradley Sutton: Okay, I thought you were saying you already did this. I was waiting for the results. This is what you're planning. What is something you've already done in the last year or so that really was a good experience? When you just found some random product and then it was able to sell during the season. Can you give an example? Gulsen: Yeah, I can give you an example. What's so funny is I really like to look around a lot while shopping, like actual shopping, Like I'm touring the Costco, Sam's Club, these places and like Bluetooth Beanies. I don't know if you remember them. Bradley Sutton: It's like you have a beanie, but then there's like headphones or something inside. Oh, okay. Gulsen: Inside the beanie there were headphones and the first time I saw them like we were shopping on Sam's Club. The first time I saw them, we were shopping on Sam's Club and Charlie, my husband, he was telling me you know what? This product will go viral. And then we sourced it and, oh my God, it was such an amazing experience because that product really went viral. Bradley Sutton: So, you sourced it, not to piggyback on the listing, but you made your own listing a brand new. You just found it in Alibaba. So how much did you sell of that product? Gulsen: Yeah, during Christmas time we sold close to 1,000 units Bradley Sutton: 1,000 units at what price? Gulsen: I believe it was about $14,000, $14,000, $15,000. Bradley Sutton: Okay, so a nice little five-figure a month there on one product or two. Gulsen: yeah, it was amazing but, like I said, it was seasonal and now like I don't even think anyone is going to search for Bluetooth beanie, but we were one of the first listings on amazon selling that product. Bradley Sutton: Nice so finding products at Sam's Club in Costco. I just go there for like free samples and a dollar 50 hot dog and stuff. But now, now I know I need to start looking out for products. All right, let's switch to Michelle now. So, Michelle, you know, in the beginning at Helium 10 and the last time you were on the podcast you like, like your experience with Amazon was pretty much just interacting with Helium 10 and interacting with, interacting with our customers. But now you're not necessarily an Amazon private label seller. But tell us what you are now in that definitely has to do with the Amazon ecosystem. Michelle: Yeah, of course you know really quick. I wanted to say how far back I've been, you know, just to give some clarity for people listening. When I first started Helium 10, my daughter was eight months. She's going to be seven years old in November. So, this just goes to show like how old I am. Bradley Sutton: I don't need any reminders for that. Michelle: Yeah, I was just thinking about that and I was like, oh my gosh, it's been almost six going on seven years, so that's insane. Bradley Sutton: That's crazy, that's great. And then I remember how it was like your desk was like behind mine, so I need to check on what you're doing. I just like turn around, we're all in that little, we work there. And then I got to move to like this little, literally a closet. You know, the affiliate team office was like this little that used to be a storage closet and then it became my office. Michelle: And then what? Six or been very exciting, and I honestly love building relationships and speaking with different people around the world. It's awesome. So now what I'm doing is I've learned and I've kind of just jumped on ships with the Amazon. Influencers program is something that you don't need to really invest money in. It's more of just investing your time and basically you are reviewing products and then when you review them, you upload them to Amazon and Amazon does all the work for you and you just earn commission off anyone that watches your video. Bradley Sutton: How do you even find out about that people are doing that, because I think nowadays some more and more people know about it, but like I didn't really know about it until somebody like I don't know maybe I saw a video on it or something but how do you even know that this was something that people do? Michelle: Yeah, it's actually really funny. So, I was just searching, looking for new influence affiliates to join Helium 10 and you know, the algorithm just picks up and all of a sudden, you're seeing like people selling you courses and it's like, hey, the Amazon review program. And I was like, what is this? So, I dived into it and I just started following and I was like you know what? I've never been one to just like jump and, you know, spend a lot of money on products, but this seems like something I can do. And I did it kind of just more of like as a test and, um, it was, yeah, I got like approved right away and then I did the second approval and I got approved in that and now it's just putting videos up on Amazon and the more videos you put there, the more commission you make. And you know it really just depends on the type of video you make as well, of course, the quality and everything. But it's really fun and I feel like for me being like a really busy full-time mom um, and you know, working full-time this is something that I can do, that I don't have to just like run a business. It's just more of yeah fun on the side. Bradley Sutton: yeah, like even us, you know amazon sellers, like we all have families, like this is something, and maybe your daughter is a little bit too young still, but you know this is something, is something that you know you got like teenagers or even, um, you know, maybe preteens a little bit. You could almost have them like make some of these uh videos and it's like something super simple. Obviously, you know adult needs to set it all up, but it's not like rocket science where you have to be a pro influencer. Uh, you know, in order to make these review videos, a lot of them are just like kind of like unboxing and how you're using it right. Michelle: Yeah, you know what Funny thing is? My daughter got her first brand deal. Bradley Sutton: Oh well, okay. Well, maybe she is old enough, I guess. Okay, my bad. Michelle: Yeah, so there's. There's Amazon sellers looking for people to or, you know, other people to review their product. And one was a mom who just came out with a kid's face wash and she was like hey, I saw your daughter on Instagram. I would love for her to review my product. My daughter is all about skincare because of YouTube and she absolutely loved it. She did it and I just got another email yesterday from another seller who saw her video on that listing asking if they can review her skincare product now and I'm like wait, she's starting to get all these deals, she's only six. Bradley Sutton: Wow. Michelle: It is really cool. Of course, you know you need to be in it as a parent, but it is really fun and I've seen a lot of married couples, even like a husband will have his own and then the wife has her own and they just capitalize on that extra income. Bradley Sutton: Interesting. Now, what's the? I mean, there's a difference, necessarily, between like, almost anybody can sign up to be an Amazon affiliate but then to be an Amazon influencer. Do they still require that you have some kind of social media account that has X number of followers? And then, if so, like what is that requirement? Michelle: Yeah, so that's a great question. So many people get confused between the Amazon Associates program and that is basically offsite commission. You have to have a website; you get the affiliate link and then you basically drive traffic from your website to Amazon with the Amazon reviewers' program. That's onsite commission and you necessarily don't need a huge following on social media. You just need to have good engagement for the first two steps. So as long as you get engagement, you build your, your engagement, you sign up and you get approved, you don't even need to worry about that social platform anymore. It's just like building up that reviewer's videos and then just letting Amazon do that for you. Bradley Sutton: Okay, excellent, excellent. Now, um, what was the very first video that you did Like? What was it for? Do you remember what it was? Michelle: Yeah, so, amazon. In order for you to get approved for the second step you actually need very first video that you did like what was it for? Do you remember what it was? Yeah, so amazon. In order for you to get approved for the second step, you actually need to submit three product review videos. So, it's not only one, it's three. So, I did a dog uh feeder, so it's basically a dog bowl but like it has a puzzle inside for your dogs, um, to slow their feeding. And then then I did a Spanish book, and then I did a I don't want to say dupe, but I did a smart watch that you know looks like a brand name like Apple, and that actually got approval. So that got me three. That got my first three approvals for the Amazon reviewers' program. Bradley Sutton: Your style of doing Amazon business, like why do you think this is kind of good? Like it's obviously not for the kind of person who's like trying to build up a brand and, you know, be able to exit like your husband did with his brand. But what kind of person is what your model is of? Like these seasonal products in here or there? Like are you even putting it on a brand registry or you're just doing generic brands? Or how are you doing these listings? Gulsen: No, no brand. How are you doing these listings? No brand registry. And I think that what I'm doing is great for who is working like typical 9 to 5 that would like to get extra site income. And also, like you know, before working at Helium 10, I did supply chain my entire life, so I'm so close to those sourcing agencies or the places in like. I'm originally from Turkey. I know a lot of Turkish manufacturers. Plus, I have very good experience in Far East so it's so easy for me to source products. So, I feel like it is mixed for me. If you really like sourcing trying to find new people on the manufacturing end or sourcing end and if it's giving you pleasure, then that's great because then the money comes itself. But it's not something that you can quit working on your corporate and rely on those seasonal items. Bradley Sutton: now, for example, that, what do you say? beanie, Bluetooth, Bluetooth, beanie, whatever it's called? Um, you know, you, you grossed I don't know fifteen thousand dollars, twenty thousand dollars or whatever from it. Yeah, was that all one order from the manufacturer and you only did one? And then, if so, like what was that initial investment? Like landed to amazon, like the price of the products and then the importation, and landed to Amazon, like, how much did you invest in that project? Gulsen: It was like we created two orders the first order, it's like it was gone like in the very first month and a half, and then, since we foresee it, we had to place another order and we did the same quantity and I think we invested about maybe $7,000 in total. Bradley Sutton: In the first order and both orders together. Gulsen: The first order, like both orders together, could be around 14K, but it includes everything. Everything like it's includes about two thousand of those Bluetooth beanies and the import and the shipping. So, we had to act quick so we couldn't really do a vessel. Bradley Sutton: Wait, the first order was 2,000 units Gulsen: It was 1,000 and 1,000. Bradley Sutton: Okay so you have, you sold all of them? Gulsen: yeah, so the first. Bradley Sutton: I thought you only sold 1000 units. You actually sold 2000 units. Gulsen: it was during Christmas time. We sold about 1000 and that's why we were so high and excited. We ordered the second order and then those um the remainders. I think we have left about like 300 pieces left and then we started to get orders, maybe once a week and like bi-weekly. Bradley Sutton: No, not so yeah you sold way more than like 20. You know like we're talking more like 20, 30 000, so seven thousand dollars to invest. And then are you just doing the regular private label ways to get on page one like, hey, I'm gonna run some PPC and try, I mean like that's how you did it. Gulsen: Yeah, we were so lucky because we were one of the first listings, as I said, and organic, we were already on the page one for that Bluetooth beanie. But then of course you know how it goes Competition comes so crucially and we had to run PPC but still it wasn't that competitive because we were there at the beginning and we sent all inventory to FBA but then we had to take some inventory back and started to sell the rest as FBM. Bradley Sutton: You should see me about those. I'll start shipping them for you. You can pay my kids to do that. Okay, so then I mean, that's fascinating. I don't know how I didn't know all of this stuff that you're doing. Yeah, you know what. Gulsen: Funny enough. Actually, it's not about me, but again, like with my husband. Do you remember those fidget spinners? Bradley Sutton: Yes, yes. Gulsen: Yeah, he was also like one of the first listings with those fidget spinners on Amazon. Like I think he has a good sense of finding what will come to be a buy. Bradley Sutton: Well, how did you and he validate that thing? Because you know like it's different when you're trying to be the first kind of like we were kind of like the first coffin shelf. You know there's not like a bunch of data where it's like oh, I know all the main competitors and what they're ranking for and stuff. So, what did you guys use to validate? Like, did you buy some from Costco and just put it up and do a test listing to see how it goes? Or how did you have the con? I mean, cause $7,000 is still $7,000. You know that's a lot of money. Like you got to have some kind of confidence that you're going to be successful. So, if you couldn't see other beanie uh, Bluetooth, Bluetooth beanies, people having confidence what numbers or what were you looking at that made you go ahead and pull the trigger on that order? Gulsen: Yeah, the thing is I can source those products so quickly because of my connections. So, with that fidget spinner we didn't really do any drop shipping. We just found the manufacturer and I still doubt it was the manufacturer. I still feel like we were talking to a trader at that time. But we got the products in like in 10 days when we decided to go. Bradley Sutton: Oh, no, the beanie, though that's the one I'm wondering. Yeah, the beanie, you saw it in Sam's Club. It's not like hey, let me go to. Oh, there's a nice product Sam's Club, let me go ahead and drop $7,000. I'm sure you must have done some kind of research or something to take a look. Gulsen: Yeah, so, uh, what was really very surprising to me when you go to Alibaba or like, let's say, DHgate, and search for some products, you would see tons of manufacturer putting the same picture of the product and selling them. That time, when we check for the Bluetooth beanies, we only sold two, two manufacturers on Alibaba and at that time I was like wow, like this is amazing, because the manufacturers are not just saturating the market. Yes, so it was one of the insights for me. And the second one was it was I believe it was right before the Halloween and you know, like during Christmas times. It's amazing product that you can put in those stockings and not very expensive, but still, it would make your grandchildren so happy to have a gadget like that. It's great if you're like, if you do ski, snowboarding and stuff, you don't really worry about you. So, we believe in the product too. Bradley Sutton: But was there a search volume at the time, like was anybody searching that at all in Helium 10? Or there wasn't even search volume for that keyword yet. Gulsen: I don't remember that we saw a huge amount of search volume. Bradley Sutton: interesting, all right. So, hey, like that's really getting ahead of the, you know, similar to like what we did with the wooden egg tray in project X, where there was nobody searching for wooden egg tray but we're like, hey, I think this is going to be a hot product. All right, that's very interesting, I like that method. Now going back to Michelle, um, let's say I start my, my um influencer account. Would you suggest the first thing to do which actually is me I've had, because, I don't know, I'm lazy, I guess, but like should is the first thing I should do is just go around my house and look at stuff that I bought from Amazon or that stuff that exists on Amazon and start making videos of those things? Is that like a good first step for somebody just getting started? Michelle: yeah, so not a lot of people know this, but Amazon has it. Use your phone, the Amazon scanner app, and you can go around your house and scan anything and then you find stuff that are actually being sold on Amazon. And I do that. And when I first started, I did a lot of my higher ticket items. So, like my bed frame I got on that wasn't on Amazon and I checked and it was. I'm sorry I didn't get it from Amazon, but when I checked it was on Amazon and so I reviewed it. And then I reviewed like my sofa. My couch was there. I got my couch from an outlet and my couch was also on Amazon. So, I would say to focus on like your higher ticket items, but then also mix it up and do some mid-level, like $20, $30, $40, because those are what's going to give you commission. And if you start a lot of people focus on like really small items, like $10, $12, you're only going to see change. So, you want to have a mix of both and the more videos you bring in, the better. I would also say to look at your like how many influencer videos are there right? Like you don't want to review a product and there's so many review videos that you're not even going to be seen, so that's something else to look out for. Bradley Sutton: Like what's the best opportunity? Like obvious, it's like, is it something that's selling really well, so that you know there's a lot of you know people getting on that page, and at the same time, maybe like there's not that many influencer videos on that page? Like, is that how you prioritize it? Like, let's say, you could do like 30 things and you're like, okay, how do I know which ones I should do first Because I can get the most money? Would that be what you're looking at, or is there other factors involved too? Michelle: Yeah, so I try to see how many product listings there are. So, I'll give you an example. Like the smartwatch that I did, that was one of my like it's still actually selling really well and because there's multiple, actually there's only like 50 or 100 people buying it per month from what Amazon showed, but there's a lot of sellers that had it as well, and so I realized that people were watching my video and then they were going on to another listing and then they were like, okay, I really want to get this watch, and then they were just purchasing it. So that's one way. So, you also just want to make sure that there's demand for it, like people are buying it. Right, if you have a rug and you're going to review it and you go in and like there's bad reviews, it says from Amazon, this product is most likely going to get returned, probably not the best one you want to start with. Bradley Sutton: My next question, uh, would be is just, you know, to give people an idea of the potential here? um, what are some success stories you've heard about, like how much money people are making? And then you, your exact example. You obviously work full-time for Helium 10, so it's not like you're just sitting in your house all day doing video I hope not, otherwise our boss might not be happy about that but you're just doing it here and there in your spare time. Since you already have a full-time job, how much are you grossing every month from this? Michelle: Yeah, so Amazon's commission is uncapped. You can basically make as much. I just recently started, June, and I'm already about last month I made $600 and then all together it's probably about a thousand, but it hasn't even been a full three months. So, you know, with and I only have a hundred and like 60 videos on my Amazon storefront. So of course, the more videos I'm going to have, the more I'm going to be able to make. I I'm in a lot of Amazon reviewer groups and people make who've been there for like 12 months a year two years can make at least three to $6,000. So, like my goal is to put as many videos as possible and I'm trying to get to like 500 videos for Christmas, because I know that during Christmas time it's going to be really busy. So, I'm really excited to see if I can get at least up to two to three thousand dollars by Christmas in a month. Bradley Sutton: How much time does it take you to make these videos? Because I know like they actually don't necessarily need like super crazy professional video production and seven different scenes and Steven Spielberg quality. But it's like you just use your cell phone, if I'm not mistaken, right, and then and then what program are using for like cut it up and then put some like captions, and is that basically it? So, what's the time constraint? And then, what are the tools you're using to, to, to put it all together? Michelle: So that's a great question. Because I'm such a you know I'm busy, everything. I try not to put as much time into this and you really don't because people want to see reviews that are very authentic. They don't want to see like commercials or advertisements, they want to see real people making reviews. So, I just scan it. If I see that it's on Amazon, I will quickly get my water bottle, or if it's a product of a water bottle, quickly get it. Put my phone, place it so I can see myself in it and make a quick 30 to 45 second review video. Make sure the audio is good and I use CapCut. Capcut is free. You can also purchase it and I purchased it because you can enhance your audio, you can clean it up and you can also slice it up. So, in all, it takes me maybe like five minutes per video per product, because you get better as you go and then you just float. Bradley Sutton: Awesome, awesome, okay, cool, I'm going to get my kids started on that then. Now let's switch gears and talk about what you guys do here, because this is another way that people can make money without having to invest too much money and that's being an affiliate. And so, let's just talk about the extreme, just to get people excited here. Some affiliates here at the company how much money are they grossing? How much money is Helium 10 paying them per month in additional things like cars and stuff like that? So just like get people excited about this subject. Gulsen: It's really crazy, because some affiliates are making about $70,000 per month. Bradley Sutton: From Helium 10? Okay, I might be in the wrong position here. What in the actual heck? I had no idea. Gulsen: But it's not that, so we also pay for their cars. Bradley Sutton: What are some cars that we're paying for people. Gulsen: What I remember, we have like one, I believe, Tesla Model S and G-Wagon and a Mercedes, RV minibus and yeah, these are the ones. Bradley Sutton: In addition, making tens of thousands, even up to 70,000, that okay. Now I think we have you got my attention already, like I didn't even know that we were at that level yet, and so okay. So, what about you know what? What are the ways that that that people are getting to that level? Obviously, no, we're not going to sit here and say, hey, anybody can just make $70,000 a month from Helium 10. But basically, how are they doing something like that? Either of you can answer this. Gulsen: Yeah, it is. If you have an audience this is only what matters engaged audience you can be a very popular YouTuber, you can be running a course, you can be a great blogger, or you're just someone spreading the word about how to sell on Amazon and the software that's helping with it. Because we pay lifetime recurring commission 25% and on top of the commission we have extra rewards. I'd like Michelle to talk about them yeah. Michelle: So I will say, some of our top affiliate, like producers, that we pay out high commission, it's because our program is so lucrative and, again, it's 25 lifetime commission. So, some of our affiliates have been here for three, four years and they're still making commission with us on top of the extra bonus program rewards that we're paying for their cars or we're paying for their restaurant dinners, like we pay for so many things. And I also want to clarify, like we don't only pay out top affiliates, like we have a bonus reward program that also pays our smaller guys, like if you're just starting out, we're actually going to update our program, so you're going to receive $500 just for bringing in 10 new subs. Bradley Sutton: I think what you know, one thing that I want to double click on right there that you said is like the lifetime commission. So, theoretically, you know, let's say, I have this channel where I'm talking about Amazon, but, for whatever reason, I'm like you know what? YouTube shut me down. I no longer have a YouTube channel; I'm just going to stop this. But I had signed up 100 people to Helium 10. Let's just say it's the cheapest plan, so they're paying Helium 10. Those 100 people are paying Helium 10 100 times $100. Okay, all right. So hey, wait, wait, hold on, I'm going to. I'm about to do some advanced math here. So those customers are paying helium 10, $10,000 a month, but every month the affiliate is getting 25%, right? Yeah, so then that's a wait 0.25 times 10,000 is they're getting a check for $2,500 a month. But let's say, today my YouTube channel shut down and it shut down for a year, next year. Let's just say, if those hundred people are still paying Helium 10, they never even did anything, they didn't make one more video, they didn't like help these people at all. They're still getting a check for $2,500 a month, every month from now until infinity, as long as those members. So that that that's that. That that's what I think is really good about our, our system. Bradley Sutton: Now, uh, Michelle, you know, we obviously talked about one side of the spectrum where it's big influencers or people who have this big course or big YouTube channel or something. Obviously, it's a no brainer to sign up, you know, to be an affiliate, because instantly they're probably going to start making tons of money just because they're going to be able to sign up people. But again, we're talking this episode is kind of like about making money without too much investment. What if I'm just an average Joe? Maybe I'm just an average Joe Helium 10 user out there I know Helium 10 well or I'm just listening to this podcast somehow and I don't have a YouTube channel. I don't have a big popular blog or, you know, Instagram, with a hundred thousand followers. What's a way that I can scale up? I mean, I can still be an affiliate even if I have nobody just at least get started. But how can I scale up my platform in order to start building up? How much Helium 10 is paying me? Michelle: Yeah, so that's a really good question. I would say consistency, and that goes for everything that you do, right. If you are an average girl, like we've seen this. Like we have people sign up and they don't have like a big platform. However, like they're consistent with growing their audience, whether they you know what I decided I'm going to be a YouTuber. Now I'm going to start posting YouTube videos consistently and on top of that, I'm going to start posting Helium 10 demos, because I am a Helium 10 wizard, so why not share my knowledge? Or I'm going to start my own community on Facebook. Um, and they're consistent with growing their audience. They can eventually start growing commission, because all it takes is one person to get inspired and sign up for Helium 10 with your affiliate link and then, all of a sudden, it's three months in, you're like 10, 15, 20. And you're already, like you said, grossing like $2,500. And you haven't even done much. And you know, like I said, it's really about consistency and it's really fun, because I enjoy speaking with a lot of these smaller affiliates and encouraging them and then seeing their growth. It's insane. Bradley Sutton: Maybe I don't even have plans for making a community, but I mean, I guess theoretically, hey, I'm in, I'm in Facebook groups or uh, I post in in in X, uh, you know, like threads about, you know, formerly Twitter and as far as Amazon, I'm on Reddit and stuff like I could just share the coupon code here and there when people talk about it, and even without either, like being an influencer, I could be making commission. I just sign up. One person sees that code. You know that maybe my Reddit post is indexed by Google and then somehow somebody lands on it and I never even touched that person or had anything to do with them. They thought they use my code. I've got that revenue for life. So that's, that's something guys out there. You know you don't have to be some big influencer. If you're just a regular Helium 10 user and you know you have friends interested in Helium 10, give them a discount. You know, get a discount code Affiliates get discount codes that other people can't get and you're helping your friend out and now you're going to you know what. Michelle: Let me just join, for instance we just had a webinar and Riley was in it and he taught, talked all about q4 and how to you know create a good listing for q4, how to prepare. That was a webinar and now they have the opportunity to share an affiliate link with their friends or family there and who, anyone else that they know who's selling on Amazon. And if that person decides like hey, this was a really great webinar, I, I really need Helium 10 now because I want to make sure my listing is great, like, oh, now there's a coupon code attached, so just like that, just by sharing a resource and how Helium 10 can help, they can easily earn and make money with it. Bradley Sutton: that's a good point because it's not like, oh, I need to be a Helium 10 expert or an Amazon expert. If you've got the audience, like actual evangelists like myself, Carrie, Shivali, we'll go on the channel like, hey, we'll do a video and you don't even need to bring the expertise, because we've got it and you just provide the audience. And then I wish I need to arrange something. These affiliates are making so much money and I'm the one who's doing these videos and I'm not seeing any part of this. Something doesn't feel fair there. But anyways, take advantage of it guys. Take advantage of it. I'm not getting any money, but I'll be supporting there. Gulsen. Anything else to say about our affiliate program? Gulsen: Yeah, I think our affiliate program is offering money and also offering a bunch of information and the trends. So, we're like at Helium 10, we are not just like, hey, promote us and get the commission. We are helping a lot for our affiliates to grow. So, some real-life experiences like one of our affiliate's accounts get hacked and he was having hard time dealing with Google so we were there for him and we helped him to get his account back. Or I was on a call with one of our affiliates chief marketing officers because he was curious about the latest trends and I was giving him my two cents about what they should be else doing to boost their reach, like getting more students. Bradley Sutton: Haven't some like giving you access to like their YouTube channel and you go in there and optimize. Like you're literally in their YouTube and fixing for them and stuff like that. Gulsen: I didn't want to talk about that one, but yes, this happened as well. Yeah, so, like Helium 10 is the only platform where you have your dedicated account manager. We are not a platform like your account is managed by a team of VAs or you're just talking to some AI generated chat box, so it's like you work with us and you also have a marketing manager that you don't need to pay. So that's why I really find it very beneficial for our affiliates. And the other thing is we work with thousands of affiliates and we know we see what's working, and we see what used to be working before but not anymore, or what's failing. So, it's good that we have this experience without really facing the actual work. So, it's always good to share what's working with our other partners to help them grow and win together. Bradley Sutton: So, if you guys want more information, want to sign up right away there's no sign-up charge or no entry fee or anything like that. Just go to h10.me forward, slash, crush it, crush it. Two words, but it's together, no spaces. H10.me forward, slash, crush it and sign up. If there might be a little box that says, how did you find out about this or something, make sure to say that you heard about it on the podcast. Right before I started at Helium 10, I actually had signed up to be a Helium 10 affiliate and then Michelle was like my affiliate manager and stuff. So, yeah, we've come full circle here, but I want you guys to go ahead and crush it as well on there. So that's super cool. And then remember, guys, it doesn't matter where you are in the world. You know we've got affiliates in in Pakistan and Tajikistan and Japan and Korea, and I think the only country we don't have affiliates is North Korea. So, every other country in the world we've got affiliates because you know you've got an audience everywhere there and obviously Helium 10 works in so many different countries. So, make sure to sign up, all right, guys. Bradley Sutton: So, uh, one more note is where you know Michelle is actually going to be doing like a little mini course in helium tend to help people learn more about being an Amazon influencer, so be on the lookout for when that, uh, when that comes out, and Gulsen is going to be working on the course of Turkish cooking for Helium 10. I'm just playing, but, uh, we'll have to think of a course that you can, uh, you can make for us too. But, thank you, thank you both, so much for uh coming on here. It's great to see, uh, you know people who were there from almost day one, uh, from when I started here at Helium 10, and, and we're the, we're, we're going to be like the trio here who keeps on going to, are doing. Michelle: Thanks, Bradley, thank you for having us.
Amazon launches new Amazon Saver private label to help shoppers save, take on Walmart, Target https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Food/amazon-launches-new-amazon-saver-private-label-shoppers/story?id=113581546 US seeks to slam shut Shein, Temu trade loophole https://asiatimes.com/2024/09/us-seeks-to-slam-shut-shein-temu-trade-loophole/ Brand Registry Protection https://brandregistry.amazon.com/protection/dashboard?ref=brnav_to_impactdashboard Etsy Offers Subscribers Free Shipping While Aiming for ‘Tremendous' Growth https://www.pymnts.com/news/ecommerce/2024/etsy-offers-subscribers-free-shipping-while-aiming-for-tremendous-growth/ Finally, maximize your Amazon FBA reimbursements with the newly revamped Helium 10 Refund Genie tool — a resource that could potentially reclaim thousands of dollars for your business. In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers: 01:00 - 1P Account Termination 02:13 - Ads in Amazon Rufus 03:25 - Amazon / Temu Brushing 05:10 - Amazon Coupon Update 05:37 - Etsy Seller Updates 07:14 - Amazon Export Central 08:47 - Amazon 3D Images 09:54 - Amazon Saver Groceries 11:35 - No More Cheap Chinese Imports? 13:24 - Brand Registry Protection 14:55 - Etsy Insider 16:10 - Walmart Ads Update 17:12 - How To Get Reimbursed By Amazon FBA ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Transcript Bradley Sutton: Amazon is terminating a lot of one-piece seller accounts, rufus is going to start showing Amazon ads, Esty is adding new features to its Prime-like service. These stories and more plus State of the End, to find out how I'm getting $6,000 back on a couple of accounts from Amazon for free how cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I'm your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show. That is our Helium 10 Weekly Buzz, where we give you a rundown of all the new stories that are going on in the Amazon, Walmart, TikTok shop and e-commerce world. We also give you training tips of the week and let you know what new features there are at Helium 10 that will give you serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. Let's see what's buzzing. I'd said a few weeks ago that, leading up to Accelerate, usually there's not much articles and, yeah, for a couple of weeks there were slim pickings for news, but today, all of a sudden, a bunch of stuff coming out of the woodwork. So we've got a number of stories to get into. Let's go ahead and hop right into it. Bradley Sutton: First story is just something you probably saw on LinkedIn all over the place the last week. I'll go ahead and highlight a previous podcast, guest LinkedIn, right here. Grace, she talked about it here where it's hey, there was a message that went out to a lot of 1P sellers that said hey, we're going to stop sourcing products. This is from Amazon. You know the way that 1P works. You know like Vendor Central is. Amazon actually buys product from vendors and then you see it says shipped and sold by Amazon. So, effective November 9th, our vendor relationship will be terminated. So a lot of people had noticed and gotten these messages. So that means it might be time, as Grace says here, to hey start getting your ducks in a row for those who want to keep selling Amazon and move to three P. You know seller central. Um, you know some of you might reach out to an agency to do that or just start on your own. Obviously, hey, if you, if you're going to be controlling more of your own stuff instead of Amazon, definitely going to be really intense help. So make sure to utilize our tools to help you with that transition to controlling more of your own listings and things like that. Did anybody out there get a notice? I'm just curious Were your sales down or why do you think Amazon sent that notice? Bradley Sutton: Next article up here is from Amazon Advertising, a little message that came out early last week and it said sponsored ads may begin appearing in Rufus-related placements. Okay, rufus related placements. Okay, rufus, is that AI tool that it's still tripping out for me? Like I don't think I can use it as a buyer. I saw a couple listings this week where it says the reviews state this and I'm like there's only one review here. It doesn't even say anything, it's only a rating. Like how could the review state something? But anyways, that's a side note for now. It says Amazon ads might start showing up in Rufus related placements. It says Rufus may generate accompanying text based on the context of the conversation. But here's the kicker your campaign reports won't include Rufus metrics. I guess you won't even know what's showing up in Rufus or not. So just you know, I haven't seen it in the wild yet. Again, I'm not using Rufus too much as a buyer, so maybe it is showing up out there, but that's going to be interesting. What part of this is going to be showing up in ads? And, like, how is it going to display if this is supposed to be an organic experience to help the seller or to help the buyers. We'll see, I'm sure, in the coming weeks. I'm sure Amazon Accelerate some things might be announced about that in the future. Bradley Sutton: Now, you know, a common thing that comes up every couple of years is brushing. So for those who don't know, brushing is what happens when all of a sudden you start getting these Amazon packages or other packages and you didn't even order it. And usually what happens is these you know sellers out there on Amazon, other platforms. They want to build up the reviews. So they get, like these you know fake buyer accounts. They have addresses and they just send to you know free product, to, to to people out there so that they can, you know, set those accounts up to leave them fake reviews. Right now this seems to be making a case, or a comeback. Bradley Sutton: This news nationnow.com article says that, hey, more Americans are receiving delivered package containing goods they didn't order and this is a scam known as brushing. Now something interesting says here in Illinois, one family told a local TV news station they receive one or two packages a day from Temu. So it looks like Temu is now getting in, or Temu sellers are getting in on brushing and so they said at first the constant deliveries were like experiencing Christmas every day. But then over time the family said the daily delivery simply became too much. Another customer, like a woman in Minnesota it says she received a box full of baby reveal balloons that she didn't order Packages delivered from Amazon and also included cupcake stands she didn't order. So like people are just getting random products here and there, didn't order. So like people are just getting random products here and there. Now you know sellers or amazon has said, hey, if you get brushing packages, first make sure that it's not just like a friend or relative giving you a gift you didn't know about, but says, hey, report the delivered package to the company, include the number of packages were delivered, along with the tracking number from the shipping label and any other information that could be pertinent, and that amazon investigate this. So I'm not sure how you can report it with Temu, but Amazon has a availability to report brushing scams. So something that came up early last week on your dashboard, if you in case you missed it, is the duration for coupons is going to be updated, all right. So, starting in last week, the maximum duration of three different kinds of coupons are going to be changed from 90 days, which is previously the max you could do, to now for standard coupons 30 days, reorder coupons 180 days, subscribe and save coupons 365 days. Bradley Sutton: Next article is actually from payments.com, from Etsy says Etsy's new search tools aim to elevate quality listings and enhance seller success. All right, so now you know, Etsy has been trying to make a push to become a little bit, I guess, more relevant in the, the e-commerce game. And now that they have, uh, it says we are optimizing our search results to showcase a broader range of items for more sellers. We also want to make it easier and more fun to explore the depth our marketplace has to offer. And they say, hey, these changes that they've been making for Etsy listings have led to approximately 70% of shops on Etsy having more visibility in search. And sellers also now have a Etsy search visibility page and this basically gives sellers more insights into recommendations on how they appear in search. And they said, hey, you know, sellers have told us they want more transparency into what goes into Etsy search. So, guys, if you haven't, if you're selling on Etsy like myself, I haven't looked at this thing you probably should go in and look for your Etsy search visibility page. Get more information on this link to this article here that we have in the comments below. But you know you got to keep up on whatever platform you're selling on. Obviously, with Amazon you've got Helium 10 at the forefront giving you all kinds of tools, and Amazon itself is giving you tools for how to show up and search better. But don't sleep on these other platforms as well. You got to go on these other platforms to make sure that you still stay relevant and Etsy is trying to make some moves out there in e-commerce and so you can benefit from it. Bradley Sutton: Going back to Amazon, actually going to Europe, now there's an article released by Amazon says Amazon launches Export Central, allowing sellers to export to 39 countries in Europe with just three clicks. All right, you know. So Amazon is not in. There's not an Amazon marketplace in every country. You know you've got Spain and UK and France and some of the major ones and some of the newer ones like Sweden and Netherlands, Belgium, et cetera, but now you can ship to those other countries, all right. So this article says sellers can reach millions of customers even in countries without an Amazon store. Today, amazon announced the launch of our Export Central tool, which allows sellers who are part of MFN Merchant Fulfilled Network to expand their reach to customers in 39 countries in Europe. Now, some of these you know places that don't have Amazon stores as mentioned here, like Austria, Portugal and Greece. Now you're going to be able to ship there from your inventory, that is, in your existing marketplaces, like UK and Germany, et cetera. Now this is going to be available to all sellers, even if they're not even FBA. If you're just part of the Merchant Fulfilled Network or FBA, you'll be able to utilize this service. Now FBA sellers are automatically enrolled into this program at no extra cost, and says that, hey, sellers who have enabled export from their EU stores have seen an average sales uplift of up to 10%. So if you guys are selling in Europe, take a look at this article that I have linked below and check your own Seller Central to see if you're enrolled in it and the implications if you're not, and, if you are, and see if it's right for you and let me know how it works out for you. Bradley Sutton: Now, going back to the Seller Central dashboard, there was another update last week. It talks about uploading 3D models to help drive conversions. All right. So in some categories, such as home furniture, consumer electronics, shoes and eyewear categories, it actually supports 3D content and so you can go to Catalog in your Seller Central, hit Upload Images and then go to the Image Manager tab and then now there is going to be those products you have eligible for 3D. You can select your product and then check for the Register Brand Owner icon and then on the right page it says go to 3D models and select upload 3D model. All right, so you know, for some of these categories, you know having a 3D image there is very good for helping you know drive conversion. So take a look in Seller Central if you are eligible for that, and then obviously, your next step is you know there's a button there that talks about well, what are the 3D model? You know requirements for getting you know these images up there and you'll be able to get that information. Bradley Sutton: Next article is from ABC News and at first glance it might not seem like it's impactful for Amazon sellers. Let me explain why I'm including this article. It says Amazon launches new Amazon saver private label to help shop shoppers save. Take on Walmart and Target. So you know how Walmart and Target have like their own brands. You know, like Costco's got Kirkland right. Well, amazon now is going to have Amazon saver right. Almost looks like Target products because it's all red here, but basically what the definition is it says Amazon's new private label brand, amazon saver, will offer an array of grocery staples, from crackers and cookies to canned food and condiments, and most Amazon saver items will be priced at $1,000. Under $5 and prime members will get an additional 10% off of these products. Bradley Sutton: All right, so you might be wondering like well, that's terrible. Like, if I'm selling in this category, I'm never going to be able to sell again with these cheap products. But here, here's why I put this is Amazon historically has not done great in the grocery category. You know, like Walmart, I think, has them beat there. But then if Amazon is providing more of these cheaper products, you know like some of the products here is pancake syrup and sweet peas and coffee creamer and things like that for cheap, if more people are looking, are going to, you know, go ahead and start buying those things. Well, maybe you are in the grocery category and you have some other products, like some Korean snacks or Vita cup coffee out there, and, and maybe the people who wouldn't have bought your product just by itself. But now they're like, hey, I'm buying groceries anyways, let me go ahead and add these others to the cart. That's how I think it could potentially help Amazon sellers who are selling in the grocery category. Bradley Sutton: Next article is from asiatimes.com and it's entitled us seeks to slam shut sheen and Temu trade loophole. So this is talking about the, the uh de minimis trade loophole hole that allows Chinese e-commerce firms like sheen, Temu and others to not have to pay tariffs. And then, you know, it allows them to just like ship stuff to the us where sellers are paying like three, four dollars and there's no tariffs, no, nothing, and that's why team machine are so popular, that's why Amazon is even opening this up, but there's some, uh, us representatives uh who are calling on us president to try to end this loophole. All right, so you know, check out this article if you want to go into into details. But a lot of us-based sellers probably would like that, because they're like man, how are we going to compete with some of these Temu products where it's just factory shipping direct? They don't have to ship their item to FBA? Temu has like minimal fees, and so that's why you know like you'll see a coffin shelf for like 10 bucks. I haven't seen my sales go down. You know too much, but you know other sellers might be affected by it. Bradley Sutton: But an interesting thing that this article said was it quoted a professor at Shanghai University who said that if this is tightened, this loophole it actually could long-term benefit Chinese manufacturers by pushing them up the value ladder, it says. It said hey, if they tighten this rule in the future, they're going to have to change their strategy from selling low-priced items to high-quality ones. This is going to create new opportunities for many Chinese consumer brands. So what do you guys think out there? Do you want the US to close this loophole or do you feel like this Chinese professor says? You know what that actually could cause Chinese companies to up their game and be even more competitive in the future? I'm kind of leaning personally on the let's just close this loophole and make it a fair playing ground between US sellers and foreign sellers. But curious to see what you guys think. Let me know in the comments below. Bradley Sutton: Next article is not really an article but it is again highlighting a former podcast guest here, leo Segovia. In his LinkedIn post he said he reminded sellers hey, you guys can actually see how many infringement and copycat attempts are on your listings, all right, so he showed some of them. He had like 2,000 attempts in the last six months on his products and 151 in September. This is like what's happening is like people trying to do something to your listing or create listings that copy yours, et cetera, et cetera. So he gave a link here that you guys can go to in order to see this. Like, this is not some special link. Everybody has access to it, but most of you probably didn't even realize you had it. So check the links in the comments section of this podcast and you'll be able to go to your dashboard. All right, it says it's called the Impact Dashboard, proactive Protections. Bradley Sutton: Here's one of my accounts, the how Cool Is that? For Project X. I stay under the radar and I don't sell in niches that are super, highly competitive and that kind of keeps me away from some of those attempts. You know like, right, like if I'm trying to sell a product that's selling 500 units a day, I guarantee it's probably like Leo is going to have thousands of people trying, bad actors trying to attack me. But take a look, you know, like for me, from April to September, I've only had 110 cases, total for 2024. I've had 410, but still that's kind of crazy. For just my coffin shelves and an egg trace, 410 people have tried to do something. But that probably pales into comparison to some of you out there who have much bigger accounts than the. How cool is that account? Bradley Sutton: Next article, going back to payments.com and going back to Etsy, it says Etsy offers subscribers free shipping while aiming for tremendous growth. Like I said, you've been seeing signs that Etsy is trying to like, you know, like hey, I see Amazon, Walmart, TikTok shop pulling away. We got to, we got to catch up Now. First of all, the funny thing is, if you read this article, it says CEO and CFO of Etsy said at a conference that Etsy seeks to distinguish itself from rivals like Amazon. But one of the company's recently launched initiatives is Etsy Insider, a paid subscription that will provide free shipping to members. I don't know how that's distinguishing. You're literally doing the exact same thing as Amazon, which is fine. I mean you should do free shipping, but it's funny that that statement came right after. Oh, we're trying to be different, you know, um than amazon. But one thing they are unique on is check this out something that does distinguish them from amazon, says. Other new efforts include an Etsy gift mode that lets shoppers send a message to the recipient before the gift even arrives. A plan to raise the percentage of shoppers using the Etsy mobile app from 40 to 75. All right, so take a look at this article. There's more interesting things, but, yeah, Etsy's trying to go ahead and up their game. Bradley Sutton: Next article for those of you selling on Walmart.com you probably got this email from Walmart connect and it says unlock new brand term strategies to help increase your share of voice. So Walmart connect brand term targeting is now available for sponsored search automatic campaigns, in addition to exact match keyword campaigns, which launched earlier this year. Says that brand term targeting helps you to increase brand visibility by empowering you to strategically bid on keywords associated with your brand and those of your competitors. All right, so take a look at that email. If you guys are selling on Walmart and do Walmart advertising, I guarantee you've got that email somewhere. Check your junk if not, but make sure that you know what's going on. What's the new features? Walmart is always adding new features to its advertising platform and we implement as many as possible as well. For those who want help with Walmart advertising, we have atomic for Walmart, we have, obviously, research tools for Walmart, but make sure you're taking advantage of these things to you know. Keep your share of voice high on the Walmart platform. Bradley Sutton: All right, that's it for the news this week, guys, but now I've got a question for you how to get reimbursed by Amazon FBA. This is a question that a lot of sellers are asking, because they got that notice they heard here on the Weekly Buzz. That window is closing could cost you thousands of dollars. All right. So you've probably seen ads from different services from saying, hey, we'll, we'll help you get those. You got to take action now, which is true, but almost all of those ads are for companies that are going to take 20, 25% or more of any money they find for you. Bradley Sutton: How would you like to know how to get your money back for free? Now, don't get me wrong. Even Helium 10 has a service where we'll do the work, like all of the work, for you. It's called MRS, and if you're a big company who's owed maybe tens of thousands of dollars and you don't have time to submit all the claims yourself, yeah, we'll go ahead and do it for you for a fee. Go to h10.me/mrs, and you'll get a quote on that. But what I'm about to show you is 100% free for Helium 10 Platinum annual members and above, and this is the best way to get Amazon FBA to reimburse you money that you are owed. And it's your last chance to do it, because in October 23rd, that timeline is going to go away, costing you potentially thousands. In October 23rd, that timeline is going to go away, costing you potentially thousands. Bradley Sutton: Let me show you a couple of the accounts I have access to and how I'm going to be able to get over $6,000 in just a couple of counts back from Amazon FBA, how I'm getting them to reimburse me, all right. So, first of all, the next time you sign into your Helium 10 dashboard, take a look at this banner on the top. All right, it'll say, hey, it's your last chance to claim. I look at this. This is one of my accounts here. I got $5,000 because I haven't been keeping up to date with my Refund Genie. So for those of you who have never used a FBA reimbursement service, you're going to see probably a big number right there. All right, so go there and hit open Refund Genie. Now, when you hit that it's going to go up to your regular Refund Genie dashboard. But you need to look at the stars, all right. So in this account I've actually got a few accounts connected and actually I had more than $6,000 original. I've already refund. I've already got a lot refunded by. I kept a few here's just so I can show you guys the process. But I've got like three accounts connected here. So let's go ahead and open up this first one creative, lg, household and healthcare. Bradley Sutton: But what you guys need to do is look for the ones that say loss and damage and has a star next to it. Forget about all the old ones. If you see that there now really, really quick. If you guys don't have access to this, it means you're probably on like a like a Helium 10 free plan or starter plan or maybe just a platinum monthly. All you need this it's this is a completely revamped Refund Genie tool. So that's why this is like actually our training tip of the week and our Helium 10 new feature request. This is a newly revamped tool to get this. You can have access to it now if you're a platinum annual above. So if you're on a platinum monthly um. You can just upgrade to a platinum annual and you'll get instant access to this. Bradley Sutton: So, anyways, what I'm going to do right here is click on this EU one. So I'm going to show you one from EU. I click details on one of these ones that have star, and then now I have all the marketplaces show up in this account. I'm selling in Germany, Spain, France, Italy, UK, Sweden and Poland, and so let's go right here to the UK one. All right, so now I have to open up seller central into the UK account. So go ahead, I'm going to go ahead and do that right now. Bradley Sutton: And then what I need to do is I'm going to hit help and then go to get help and resources, and then now this is different for different people, but sometimes on your page you'll see a widget that says inventory lost in FBA warehouse. All right, that's what you have to click on to get your amazon reimbursement from Amazon FBA. But if you don't see that, you can just hit my issue is not listed and then just type in investigate inventory missing in FBA warehouse, and then it's going to come up. What's about to come up right here? If I hit this button, it's basically just a FN SKU button and then now all I have to do is copy the ASIN or the FN SKU. I should say, and this one is going to be a potential refund of 600 euros, I'm going to get 600 euros back in like a couple seconds here, and then I'm going to hit continue. Once I paste the ASIN or the FN SKU into, I either get the money back instantly or I have to open up a case, and so in this one I'm going to open up a case because this was 600 euros worth and so they require a case to be open. So I hit create case and I create the case and they're going to get me back that money probably within a couple of days. Bradley Sutton: I go back to Helium 10 and then I hit processed. And then let's go ahead and go on another one. Let me just find one of these smaller ones Like here's, one that is only three items and 28 euros, all right, so let's go ahead and copy this one. Let's go to Amazon. I'm going to go back to get help with a new issue. I hit inventory loss and FBA warehouse paste the FN skew. I hit continue and let's see what it says. Boom goes a dynamite right here. You remember how Helium 10 told me that I was owed three units and 28 euros. Well, look what Amazon just told me. In this case, yes, you are right, three units reimbursable. These items have been processed for reimbursement. I'm going to get that money. I just made 28 euros in about five seconds here. So I'm going to go one by one on all of these cases and I'm going to get hundreds thousands of dollars back on this one account. Bradley Sutton: Let me just show how it looks in a US account. So I'm back here on the Refund Genie page and here's one of my North American accounts. It says Dial Cash let's go ahead and hit the details here and here we go. And it says US I got nine lost items, potential refund of $1,223. Oh, my goodness gracious. Again, I need to go to the correct seller central account and then I hit the help button and I hit get help and resources. And then how do I ask for reimbursement from Amazon FBA? Let me go ahead. And oh my goodness, let me open up this one. Here's one where there's five conference chairs that looks like Amazon lost and that's a total of $1,100. Oh, my goodness gracious, I'm going to copy that FN skew and go ahead and paste it over here. Bradley Sutton: Inventory loss and FBA warehouse. Let's paste that FN skew, hit continue and let's see what Amazon says. I almost like want a drum roll right here or something. Boom, it says, hey, this you know, probably cause it's a thousand dollars I'm about to get back in one click. It says here well, we opened up a case and this can be transferred to an associate and there's a case already open, but I guarantee I'm going to get that money back. Bradley Sutton: I everything that the new Refund Genie has been showing, I've been getting it back a hundred percent of the time. Sometimes even more I'm getting back than Refund Genie. Let's go ahead and do one of these smaller ones that they can refund me instantly on. Here is one product that is for $29.99. Let's go ahead and copy this FN SKU over. I'm going to hit get help with a new issue Inventory loss in FBA warehouse. I paste the FN SKU, I hit continue and let's see if Amazon instantly refunds me. Boom, there it is. Bradley Sutton: Remember Helium 10 said I was owed one unit and Amazon says you are absolutely correct. Allow four to five days for this reimbursement to come into this account. So, as you can see I've got a lot more I have to do. I said $6,000. It's actually going to be across all my accounts about $8,000. And that's in two of my accounts. I've already been keeping up with the Refund Genie so it probably would have been been over $10,000 for me if I wasn't. But, guys, this is money in your bank account. Bradley Sutton: Now, how much can you possibly get? It depends. If you've only been selling for a couple of months and you've sold maybe $20,000, amazon might owe you $20 or $100 or something like that. Probably not that much. But if you've been selling for 18 months and you're a six figure seller, you could be owed thousands of dollars. You know, potentially we are a seven figure seller. It's almost guaranteed If you've never done a audit, you it's almost guaranteed that you're owed thousands of dollars by Amazon of what they owe to you. And Refund Genie can help you know what that is. So if you have never used Helium 10 at all and you want to do a free calculator to see how much potentially you might owe, just go to h10.me forward slash Refund Genie h10.me forward slash Refund Genie. We've got a calculator here where you can just enter in your you know rough estimate of your sales and then we'll calculate how much could be owed for you. Bradley Sutton: But again, how to get reimbursed by Amazon FBA? It is super easy. You just have to open up a case with Amazon, copy and paste the FNSKUs that were lost. There's also another thing that Refund Genie does is allows you to see the transaction IDs of damaged items. All right, so if products have been damaged at Amazon FBA warehouses, you can enter in all the transaction IDs and get reimbursed for those, for the ones that Amazon hasn't reimbursed for you. So you could get thousands of dollars back from Amazon FBA reimbursements on stuff that they have lost and they didn't reimburse you, just by submitting these reports. But you don't have to go searching, hey, what could you be reimbursed on or not? Helium 10 is doing all that work for you. And again, remember, this service is 100% free. We are not taking any commission on it because you're the one who's doing half of the work. All right, if you want Helium 10 to do all the work for you, like some of the other services, go to h10.me/mrs, and you know for the. Bradley Sutton: You know I saw some. I was looking at a report. There's a lot of you guys out there who are owed potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars, like literally, like I'm like looking at Helium 10 customers like, guys, you are owed hundreds of thousands of dollars and you haven't asked for reimbursement yet. So you have like thousands of transactions and maybe you want you don't want to do one by one what I was just showing you how to do go to h10.me/mrs, we'll take care of all of it for you and, uh, you know we'll charge your fee, but for what I showed you today, guys, there is no fee at all. So make sure those of you who have a Helium 10 Platinum annual account or higher get in there and start getting your money back. And then let me know in the comments below how much did you guys get back Thanks to Helium 10 Refund Genie from Amazon FBA reimbursements. All right, guys, that's it for today's episode. We'll see you in the next one to see what's buzzing.