Podcasts about fba amazon

Welcome to our in-depth exploration of marketplace expansion in e-commerce, featuring insights from David Cikanek, a Head of Global Sales and marketplace expert from EXPANDO. In this episode of the EcomOps podcast, David shares his extensive knowledge and experience in connecting local stores to global marketplaces and helping brands navigate the complex world of online sales platforms.

In this episode, Dave discusses how to reduce inbound placement fees with Amazon, how placement fees are calculated and who the winners and losers are since these fees were implemented.  Today's episode is sponsored by Clearco, a company that provides ecommerce businesses with working capital to fund inventory, marketing, shipping and logistics, and more! Check them out today!  It's been a few months since Amazon implemented their new Inbound Placement Fees.  The amount of increase varies, depending on the product, warehouse location, and other factors. But the good news is that you don't always have to pay the fees. In this episode, we'll explore the 3 ways you can use to avoid or reduce your Inventory Placement Fee when sending products to Amazon. The Big Takeaways Shipping to four or more locations can help avoid placement fees. Shipping to Amazon Warehousing and Distribution (AWD) can also help avoid placement fees, although it may come with other fees such as receiving and warehousing fees. Choosing a more centralized 3PL can help minimize placement fees and partner carrier fees. Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction to Placement Fees 02:20 - Amazon Warehousing and Distribution (AWD) as a Solution 10:53 - Ship into AWD to Avoid Placement Fees 13:48 - Consider the Location of Your 3PL 17:09 - Impact of Placement Fees on Profitability As always, if you have any questions or anything that you need help with, reach out to us at support@ecomcrew.com if you're interested.  Don't forget to leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoy our content. If you have any questions, send us an email at support@ecomcrew.com. We'd love to help you in any way we can.  Thanks for listening! Until next time, happy selling!

Mike interviews Ajoy Krishnamoorthy, the CEO of Cin7, about the importance of software in e-commerce businesses, the challenges of managing inventory across multiple channels, and the benefits of using AI to forecast inventory for your business.   Today's episode is sponsored by Clearco, a company that provides ecommerce businesses with working capital to fund inventory, marketing, shipping and logistics, and more! Check them out today!    Branching out into another marketplace can make things more complicated than you think, inventory and accounting wise.    Having an inventory management software can make things easier, but how?    Ajoy Krishnamoorthy, the CEO of Cin7, an inventory management software, is on the podcast today to explain and talk about how an inventory management system can help simplify selling in multiple ecommerce platforms.   The Big Takeaway Managing inventory across multiple channels can be challenging and requires a centralised system. AI and machine learning can improve forecasting accuracy and help make informed inventory decisions. Data-driven insights are essential for optimizing inventory and improving business performance. Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction & Sponsorship 01:29 - Introduction to Ajoy Krishnamurthy and Cin7 04:46 - Challenges of Managing Inventory Across Multiple Channels 10:39 - The Importance of Accurate Forecasting in Inventory Management 20:48 - Streamlining Financial Processes with Accounting Integration 25:24 - AI as an Enabler for Business Growth Resources Brain Dead brand case study Ajoy's LinkedIn Get 50% off Core Plan for Cin7 for 3 months!   As always, if you have any questions or anything that you need help with, reach out to us at support@ecomcrew.com if you're interested.  Don't forget to leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoy our content. If you have any questions, send us an email at support@ecomcrew.com. We'd love to help you in any way we can.  Thanks for listening! Until next time, happy selling!

Join Steven Pope, founder of My Amazon Guy, as he dives into a detailed, first-time review of Sellerise, an all-in-one Amazon seller tool. Steven explores various features from review management to keyword tracking, providing insightful commentary on each functionality. This review is perfect for Amazon sellers seeking a comprehensive tool to streamline their operations and boost their marketplace performance. Discover if Sellerise is the right tool for your Amazon business!-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Join My Amazon Guy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28605816/Follow us:Twitter: https://twitter.com/myamazonguyInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/stevenpopemag/Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/myamazonguys/Please subscribe to the podcast at: https://podcast.myamazonguy.comApple Podcast:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-amazon-guy/id1501974229Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4A5ASHGGfr6s4wWNQIqyVwSupport the Show.

John Di Giacomo joins us on the podcast today to talk about the most common lawsuit claims that he's personally seen in the past few years in the ecommerce industry, and how you can avoid them.    John Di Giacomo is the founding partner of Revision Legal, a law firm with expertise in Internet law, copyright & trademark law, and related areas.    Today, he's on the podcast to talk about the most common cases that have been on the rise recently. Specifically, we'll be talking about ADA Cases and CIPA claims, and how ecommerce sellers can protect themselves from these claims.    The big takeaway here is to make sure that you're protected from these false claims.    Because it's not a matter of if it happens, but a matter of when it happens. The best way to protect yourselves is to take preventive action before these claims ultimately kill your business, because it can definitely happen.    John, thanks for coming on the podcast! It was nice having you back on after several years since your last episode and I hope to hear good news from you in the future.    If any listeners would like to have a discussion about this, let me know by emailing us directly at support@ecomcrew.com.    Also, if you have any questions or any topics you'd like us to discuss on the podcast, you can email us directly as well! We would really appreciate it if you would leave us a review on iTunes.    Thanks for listening!

John Terry joins Mike in today's episode as a follow up from his Under the Hood Episode 417 where he talks about how COVID & the political climate affected his business, and how going into retail ultimately killed his consumer packaged goods (CPG) business.   Today's episode is one that left me absolutely speechless during recording.    It's a hard topic to talk about when listing down a bunch of mistakes, but it's infinitely more difficult to talk about when the list of mistakes eventually lead to the death of your business.    Nevertheless, I commend John for coming on today to talk about how his business ended up this way, the "trap" of going into retail, and advice for those looking to expand into selling in any big box retailer.    Here's some timestamps to help you along:  0:00 - Introduction  2:47 - Podcast Start  3:03 - Under the Hood Overview 4:31 - Meeting with Walmart 7:16 - The Second Mistake  7:48 - Kroger Reaching Out  9:13 - Ordering Inventory for Retail  11:34 - Kroger Privacy Around Logistics 12:35 - Kroger's Costs  13:41 - Backing out from Kroger 14:42 - First Warning  15:10 - Skyrocketing costs 18:27 - Poor performance in Walmart 20:24 - The goal moving forward 21:36 - Buying back inventory from Walmart  22:25 - Why the product failed in retail 25:39 - Where to go from here 28:00 - Mike's advice 32:02 - John's advice to entrepreneurs  37:21 - John's public adjusting business    John, I can't thank you enough for coming on the podcast and sharing all of the painful things you went through. I hope that someone listens to the episode and knows not to get into retail for the prestige of it.    We hope today's episode was useful to you. If you want to get in touch with John, you can find him at Linkedin or you can check out his company, Crossroads Insurance Recovery. If you want to check out John's previous episode, click here.   If you have any questions or any topics you'd like us to discuss on the podcast, you can now email us directly at support@ecomcrew.com! Also, we would really appreciate it if you would leave us a review on iTunes.    Thanks for listening!

Welcome to our in-depth exploration of marketplace expansion in e-commerce, featuring insights from David Cikanek, a Head of Global Sales and marketplace expert from EXPANDO. In this episode of the EcomOps podcast, David shares his extensive knowledge and experience in connecting local stores to global marketplaces and helping brands navigate the complex world of online sales platforms.

Mike and Dave reflect on 2023 and discuss the various wins and fails that Dave experienced this year, including traveling to China, Hong Kong, and India, the impact of COVID on business growth 3 years in, and how Dave lobbied to change policies around government taxation on digital advertising.   The Ecomcrew Podcast is back after the holidays!    In this episode, Mike and Dave are back to discuss the year in review, and the eventful things that happened in the past year, like traveling to China again after 3 years, visiting Hong Kong and India and the stark differences between the two, and how the Government has knocked on Dave's door for the money that was given during COVID.    Here's some chapters to get you to the most interesting parts:  0:00 - Introduction and Reflection on COVID 2:01 - Traveling to China and Hong Kong 7:13 - Government Financing and Repayment 11:28 - Impact of COVID on Business Growth 18:28 - Government Taxation on Digital Advertising 37:27 - Impact of Sales Tax Laws on Small Businesses 39:28 - The Slow Progress of Bureaucratic Institutions 40:02 - Go and vote! 41:28 - Year in Review and Rating 42:14 - Adapting to Change in Ecommerce 45:12 - The Changing Dynamics of Business   I want to thank everyone for supporting the EcomCrew Podcast. Whether you've been with us from the start or are just tuning in, I appreciate your time and feedback. I'm sure 2024 will be another year of insightful podcast episodes, and I can't wait to unpack which ones top the charts next time around.    As always, if you have any questions or anything that you need help with, reach out to us at support@ecomcrew.com if you're interested.    Don't forget to leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoy our content. If you have any questions, send us an email at support@ecomcrew.com. We'd love to help you in any way we can.    Happy selling! 

Mike catches up with Aaron Hughes from Ecommerce Wala after the visit to India to talk about Aaron's background, how he got started in Ecommerce, and the differences between working with a team vs. online.    Today, we're joined by Aaron Hughes from Ecommerce Wala.    Aaron and I met during the India Sourcing Trip, and he was by far, one of the most different while still being from the US.     I wanted to invite Aaron over to the podcast today to talk about how his ecommerce journey ended up in India, the cultural and ecommerce differences between the US and India and his company Ecommerce Wala.    Audio Timestamps:  Introduction - 0:00  How Aaron Hughes' life lead to India - 2:47 Getting over the differences between US & other countries - 5:32 Aaron Hughes' Ecommerce Background - 9:12  Going all-in on Ecommerce - 11:32 Working in-person vs online - 16:52 Upcoming technology worries - 19:52 How Aaron and his wife met - 22:46 Adopting in India - 24:12  Growing a team to 60+ people - 25:35 Ecommerce Wala and what they do from India - 27:15   Aaron, thank you again for coming on the podcast. We'll definitely meet up when you're in Las Vegas for a holiday.    If you're interested in hiring from India, or hearing more from Aaron Hughes, you can check out his LinkedIn profile here.    As always, if you have any questions or anything that you need help with, reach out to us at support@ecomcrew.com if you're interested.    Don't forget to leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoy our content. If you have any questions, send us an email at support@ecomcrew.com. We'd love to help you in any way we can.    Until next time, happy selling! 

Opening an FBA Amazon store can be challenging, especially when you're trying to decide what to sell. With over 300 million products on Amazon, conducting thorough product research is essential. Without proper research, you risk venturing into uncharted waters, putting your time, money, and effort on the line for a project with uncertain prospects.

How do businesses turn strangers into loyal paying customers?  Navigating e-commerce takes more than just business acumen; it demands a keen understanding of your consumer's psyche. In this episode I talk with Dano Falk, a Serial Entrepreneur and Marketing Consultant. Central to his philosophy is the idea that businesses should prioritize passion, continuous learning, and adaptability. When consumers need an average of 30 touchpoints to make a purchase decision, being omnipresent becomes crucial. We discuss how to overcome challenges when converting strangers to loyal customers, how to nurture relationships, and understanding the correlation between product value and the required touchpoints. Tune in as we talk with Dano on the intricacies of consumer engagement and the importance of trust-building. [00:00 - 07:08] From Global Travels to E-Comm Mastery: Daniel's Digital Journey[07:10 - 12:19] What is a Conversion Rate? Touchpoints and Building Trust in E-commerce[12:19 - 16:58] Leveraging E-commerce Platforms for Growth Beyond Amazon[16:59 - 21:05] The Best and Worst Advice Dano Has Recieved [21:09 - 21:35] Closing Up!   Connect with Dano on LinkedIn. Check out his website: https://danofalk.com Key Quotes: “There is no failure. There's only learning and success.” – Dano Falk “You have this very simple equation of sending traffic to your store, which doesn't come free most of the time, and how much of this traffic sticks and converts into a sale or at least into a subscriber – That's called a conversion rate.” – Dano Falk “The biggest challenge is selling to strangers. The solution to this dilemma is to build a community of repeat buyers and to not have to sell to strangers.” – Dano Falk  Let's get connected!You can find me on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook & YouTube. Head to Voltage Digital Marketing to boost your brand and sales exposure!If you liked the show, please LEAVE A 5-Star REVIEW, like, and subscribe through your favorite streaming platform!

Today, my guest is Kelcey Lehrich, a prolific entrepreneur running a thriving portfolio of ecommerce enterprises. We dissect the opportunities and hurdles in operating multiple ecommerce ventures, extending hands-on counsel and strategic guidance to listeners.    We delve into the key attributes of a successful business, the significance of revenue quality, and the untapped potential within distressed assets.    This episode reveals essential facets about business expansion, creating competitive edges, and strategizing future objectives, providing a comprehensive overview of the e-commerce landscape. We also talk about the start of Holdco Conference, an annual gathering aimed specifically at multi-business operators.   Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction 00:38 - Personal Experiences as an FBA Aggregator 01:47 - Deep Dive into Kelcey's Strategy 03:11 - Journey and Growth of Kelcey's Holding Company 04:42 - Striking a Balance between Aspirations and Capitalization 07:05 - Guidelines for Business Expansion 08:01 - Identifying High Quality eCommerce Businesses 10:34 - Tactical Approaches for Business Growth and Exit Strategy 12:59 - Valuable Lessons Learnt from Running eCommerce Businesses 26:45 - Holdco Conference: A Premier Event for Multi-Business Owners   Kelcey shares a few nuggets of wisdom about managing multiple e-commerce businesses. His experiences provide a unique perspective for those keen on owning multiple business, underscoring the balance between aspirations and resources, the maturation of a holding company, and the prerequisites for business scaling.    Although owning multiple businesses presents its unique challenges, the payoff and rewards at the end of the road can be life-changing.   Kelcey stresses how important it is to learn from acquiring businesses that have survived the early startup phase. Learning specifically about optimizing business structures, managing costs, and leveraging existing vendor relationships for building a lucrative eCommerce venture can be the most useful lessons to learn.

Mike and longtime China-based seller Cameron talk about the reality of the pandemic situation in China and how ecommerce sellers can plan their trips back to the factory of the world this year.   Whether you're only just starting out or are running an established ecommerce brand, there's a good chance that your business is tied to China one way or another. I myself visit Hong Kong and China to attend trade shows, speak at seller conferences, and get some facetime with my factories every year—at least before the pandemic hit.    Fast-forward a couple of years and ecommerce sellers are now itching to go back to China to optimize their supply chains and scale their businesses. That's why in this episode, we'll be talking all about the current COVID situation in Hong Kong and China and everything sellers need to know before visiting in 2023.    Joining me for this episode is Cameron. He is a returning guest on the podcast and a longtime ecommerce seller who is currently based in China. If you're planning a trip down south this year, you'll definitely get a lot out of this episode.   Timestamps:  Cameron's life in China – 2:03 The reality of the COVID situation in China – 6:11 How safe is it to travel to and from China today? – 20:13 What the current protocols are for visiting China in 2023 – 23:45 Are old business Visas to China still valid? – 28:27 Which big trade shows will be returning this year? – 31:50 The ideal time of year to visit China – 38:23 Do you see foreigners in China right now? – 40:01   I wanna thank Cameron for taking the time to do this episode with me. I'm excited to have him back on the podcast down the road and hopefully talk about something other than the pandemic.    As always, don't forget to leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoyed this episode. Happy selling and I'll see you on the next one!

00:00 Introduction12:31 slither.io was played by everyone inside My Amazon Guy initiated by Steven Pope15:47 Is there a threshold for Amazon's pending orders for the customer to purchase or cancel? Check if you have the subscribed and save buttons.17:35 Bought a brand without an Amazon account. All information is tied up to ASIN level19:58 How should we allocate our PPC for a great launch of a new product and new brand?22:51 Special Black Friday lightning deals for overstock items, but Amazon doesn't allow this because it doesn't have Amazon sales velocity.27:01 SEO strategy for 2 variations of one product28:33 How do Placements work for product targeting campaigns?31:18 Parentage: Used a flat file to group 6 variations.34:27 How does FBA Amazon refund/return or replacement option work?37:58 What is the best way to set up hidden search terms when creating new listing?43:20 How does the BSR disappear?51:00 What is the Case pack limit for “individual items”?52:46 Amazon can your competitors with lower FBA fees (sold by amazon & fulfilled by amazon)56:08 Creating a listing to Amazon and then syncing it to Helium 1057:53 Do coupons help organic position? Ask if coupons increased your sales velocity59:34 Never go out of stock; create a second SKU for FBM.1:00:46 Raise your price, cut your ads spend and never go out of stock1:00:54 How to get my listings to come up on top of the search even though I don't have a Brand registry yet?1:02;21 Does Amazon handle all tax payments to the States?1:03:19 How do you deal with counterfeit sellers in your ASIN? Report via test buy.1:06:57 Does the Honeymoon period repeat if you launch in another country?1:10:17 Will Amazon accept the invoice of their brand-recommended distributors?1:11:21 Before creating your own brand, try retail arbitrage or online arbitrage because you learn a lot of basics in them.1:12:09 Where do the Sponsor Display Video Ads show? Answer: On Mobile1:14:30 Best software to list on Walmart, especially WFS?1:14:44 Do we need to optimize the parent, too, when optimizing the children? The answer depends on your category.1:16:35 What should I do if I deal with low-cost products and shipping costs are usually higher than the costs of the products. Answer: sell thru packs1:19:24 Suspended account after opening the account1:21:09 Issue with the new manage FBA inventory screen1:23:42 Go to the partner network and check manager app might have some rogue app that turned back on and see what has access or disabled1:24:20 Are we allowed to use the words “bonus,” “free gift,” and “gifts” in the title?1:25:09 You're more than welcome to send bundle stuff and bonus item but be careful how you word them.1:25:16 Don't put bonus or free gift on your title; you're probably gonna be yanked, and this makes your listing look cheap.1:25:38 Brand your product, make it look premium and make it better in the competition1:26:11 Keywords not indexing issue1:29:38 Check your listings once a week and get a bird's eye view of the overall of that week1:31:58 Got a review from an old customer through the mail. Can it be redirected to the product detail page?1:33:05 How to remove/appeal permanent restrictions of proactive messages.1:33:52 Any advice on running ads on children's books1:38:44 Is there a report showing which ASINs have the brand story?1:40:35 How to resolve indexing issues1:41:20 How to get out of stock alert from the Amazon detail page?1:42:33 Is Shipstation good if I want to fulfill my own orders?1:44:03 How to improve our Click thru Rate (CTR)1:44:09 Make your image relevant, make your price bearable to your competition, and make sure that your images show that you are a premium pSupport the show

Mike and Dave talk about the current environment of software tools in the ecommerce space; how it's grown, the leaps and bounds made throughout the years, and the pitfalls of some of these changes. As an annual tradition, we ask thousands of ecommerce sellers from around the world what software tools they use to help grow their businesses and optimise their processes.  The poll was aimed at determining the most popular Amazon software in 5 categories: Keyword and Product Research PPC Management Reimbursement Management Repricing Tools Product Launches and Giveaways Software Today, Dave and I discuss the current environment of software tools in the ecommerce space; how it's grown, the leaps and bounds made throughout the years, and the pitfalls of some of these changes.  The good news is that you can take part in this survey, and after answering just five questions, you can get a chance to win a full year of EcomCrew Premium subscription! That's a prize valued at $2000 for a few minutes of your time.  Just head on over to ecomcrew.com/softwarepoll, and don't miss your chance to enjoy EcomCrew Premium for free! If you like this episode, please don't forget to leave us a review over on iTunes. It helps our channel a lot and also allows us to reach more e-commerce sellers who can benefit from our content. Until the next one, happy selling!

Ist E-Commerce zurück? Was macht Amazon mit FBA? Könnte der Kollaps von Cryptobuden auf Fintech überschwappen? Macht ein Biotech VC Basket Sinn? Wie waren die Zoom Earnings? Was ist Revenue bei SaaS Firmen? Wie läuft Zoominfo? Philipp Glöckler (https://www.linkedin.com/in/philippgloeckler/) und Philipp Klöckner (https://twitter.com/pip_net) sprechen heute über: (00:00:00)

Mike is joined by 101 Commerce founder RJ Jalichandra as he talks about the growing pains of being a pioneering FBA aggregator and where the industry might be headed in the coming years.   If you're well versed in the wider ecommerce landscape, you'd know that the FBA aggregator or acquisition industry have become a lucrative business in recent years.   RJ is the founder of 101 Commerce, which is considered the first FBA aggregator with institutional backing. Before names like Thrasio went big, there was 101 Commerce.   RJ's been on the podcast before, when 101 Commerce was just getting started, and so I thought RJ would be a great resource person to talk about the ins and outs of being an FBA aggregator, how the business works and the current environment of the industry.   If you want to listen to our first episode together, you can find it here.   Learn about the FBA Aggregator Space in these highlights: Intro - 0:00 The genesis of 101 Commerce - 5:16  What kind of businesses do aggregators look for? - 12:17 Challenges of being an aggregator - 14:20  RJ's retiring and unretiring - 16:00 Getting back into ecommerce - 15:27 The aggregator business model and its challenges - 19:41  The learning curve - 23:28 The future of the aggregator space - 26:05  What's next for RJ? - 31:19  Connect with RJ - 33:16   Thank you so much for your time, RJ. It was nice to catch up and chat a bit about the inner workings of the aggregating business.   If you need advice on how to sell your brand, you can message RJ on LinkedIn. You can also check out Incline Capital's website for more information on their services.   As always, don't forget to leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoy our content. Happy selling and we'll see you in the next one!

In this yearly review episode, Dave gives an update on how his brand's been doing the past year, from feeling the fallout of a post-pandemic market to increased competition in the niche.   I did the first one of these annual reviews on July 17, 2017. It's kind of surreal how fast time flies. I've always enjoyed these because it makes me take an objective look at my brand.   Businesses in certain niches certainly benefited from the lockdown, us included. With people choosing to do more outdoor activities then, we saw a spike in our sales the first two years into the pandemic.   However, as the world slowly opened up again and travel resumed, our revenue went down. I'm sure other businesses in this niche are experiencing this as well.   The past year wasn't all that bad though. We had our losses, but we had awesome wins too. I've also set some goals for the company that I hope will come to fruition in the coming months.   Check out the highlights from this episode:  Intro - 0:00 June 2022 revenue - 2:52 The Covid bump - 3:31 Increased competition - 6:17 Decline in TACoS - 8:56 Our massive hit product - 12:29 Finding a good fulfillment system in Canada - 15:30 New hires from the Philippines - 16:30 Developing a custom inventory software - 17:40 Our losses the past year - 19:20 My goals for the next 12 months - 21:25   That's it for my year-in-review podcast episode. Thanks for tuning in and I hope you were able to take away a thing or two from this brief discussion.   I also did a blogpost where I elaborate more on these points in detail over at ecomcrew.com. Go check it out and leave a comment. I'd love to know what you guys think.   As always, don't forget to leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoy our content. Happy selling and we'll see you in the next one!

Robert Ferreira is the Co-founder and Business Development at Seller Investigators, a company that provides global FBA auditing and reimbursement services. An entrepreneur since 1998, Robert created his first ecommerce business in 2001 and was an early adopter of bringing products to market on the Amazon platform. Robert is the President at Atlantic Horizon Inc., Chief Revenue Officer at Evotech Software Solutions Inc., Co-founder at Food For Thought Philippines, and the VP of Sales at Verseo Inc. Robert splits time between Asia and New York and is happiest when his wife and four kids are all together.In this episode…Are you finding and tracking your reimbursements from your FBA Amazon account? To better position yourself for reimbursements, you must advocate on behalf of your brand. What if there was an easier way to find out if Amazon owes you money?Robert Ferreira and his team at Seller Investigators have helped recover over $15 million on behalf of their clients. Keeping up with the grind of running a business can be challenging — organizing spreadsheets, receipts, shipping, and skews. But Robert suggests that with appropriate account management, it's an attainable goal for brands to get back what they earned. So, how can you start your Amazon FBA claims process?In this episode of What Do You Do Next?, Martin Zerrudo sits down with Robert Ferreira, Co-founder and Business Development at Seller Investigators, to discuss unlocking your brand's reimbursement potential. Robert talks about why you need to advocate for your own reimbursements, ways to improve your audits, and the importance of inventory management to improve your reimbursement recovery.This Is The DayA podcast about moving forward with your dreams, being brave and making big things...Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify The Personal Finance PodcastSubscribe now and Master Your Money in Less than 30 Minutes Per Week! Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

My guest today is Gianmarco Meli, the host of The Seller Process Podcast. After interviewing a large number of people, he has learned that everyone succeeds in a lot of different ways with their own strategies.However, he has found that the 7 & 8 figure earners are very strong in systems, processes & SOPs and have a very strong understanding of the fundamentals. As he says, it's important to understand that you must treat Amazon as a business & have the skills of an entrepreneur in order to manage your business effectively. Let's dive into this episode with Gianmarco and the Seller Process.Additional sources:Check out Gianmarco's podcast at: https://www.thesellerprocess.com/systemizeIf you're a passionate business builder yourself, visit http://voltageb2b.com to get in touch now.

Welcome to the podcast edition of Brand Report! In this series, we share with you our revenue across all our brands every month, so you can see what we did wrong and what we did right.    In February, we raked in a total of  $621,816, compared to March's revenue numbers, where we broke past the $700,000 barrier. IceWraps continues the upward trend in sales, but one thing remains to be a source of difficulty: logistics.   All in all, several factors played into this outcome, but the increase in freight rates continues to be a headache.   That's it for our Brand Report for March 2022. While we're certainly hoping for better days, March was definitely the best so far.   If you want to see a more detailed and comprehensive breakdown of our revenue numbers for the past few months, check out the blog post up on our website.   Don't forget to leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoy our podcast. Tune in next month for our April Brand Report. Till then, happy selling and we'll see you in the next one!

A lot has happened since the big announcement about Knitting.com. It went viral, but not for the right reasons. In this episode, Mike and Dave set the record straight.   Shortly after we released the blog post and podcast about Knitting.com, we got into hot water with members of the knitting community.   While we've gotten some pretty harsh comments, we've also received helpful advice from knitters that we will definitely implement as we grow this business.   Looking back, we realized that there were certainly points we could've articulated better, but there's no point in dwelling in the past.   In this podcast, we hope to shed light on our business plan and hopefully, clarify some details.    Timestamps:  Intro - 0:00 What happened after we announced Knitting.com - 0:38 How our message was interpreted - 3:26 What we could've done better - 7:03 The significance of local yarn stores in the knitting community - 10:57 Our approach to Knitting.com - 12:47 The business plan - 17:45 Our goals for the business - 25:11 What we've been up to lately - 30:12 The impact we hope to make with Knitting.com - 31:53   When we launch Knitting.com later this year, we hope to put out a content website and a lineup of quality products that hopefully novice knitters will find useful and beneficial.   That's it for this week's episode. Feel free to leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoy our podcast. Happy selling and we'll see you in the next one!

Today we’re sharing some knowledge about the latest book from our guest Brad Stone - “Amazon Unbound”. The book is a story of a hard-hitting CEO who created such a fertile corporate culture that even at massive size, it repeatedly shocked its own bureaucracy to invent exhilarating new products. It's also the story of how a leading technology company became so omnipotent over a course of a single decade.  Make sure to tune in to find out more!   MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Connect with Kiri Masters Connect with Brad Stone Learn more about Bobsled Marketing Learn more about Brad’s work Learn more about Bloomberg Request A Consultation With Our Amazon Experts

This past year accelerated the digital transformation of many B2C and B2B companies. Tommy chats with Toni Njim, CEO of Yobi Partners, a global venture firm, about emerging trends, new technologies, and industries brought about by the pandemic. He also shares what he might sell on Amazon if he became an FBA seller.

Haven’t had a chance to listen to our first 50 episodes yet? Never fear, you’ve got time and they’re not going anywhere. In the meantime, we’ve created an epic recap episode to keep you up to date with this ever-changing world. Throughout the first 50 episodes of Up Next in Commerce, we’ve chatted with some of the fastest-growing startups - like Thrive Market and Haus - to the more well-known companies like Puma, Rosetta Stone, Bombas, and HP. Our guests have shared everything from their toughest lessons, to their secrets to success, to the must-know advice for every ecomm leader. And while every company is different and every story unique, over the last 50 episodes, several common themes have emerged. On today’s special episode of Up Next in Commerce, host Stephanie Postles is joined by Albert Chou, the VP of Operations at Mission.org, to dive into some of these top trends.The two discuss the supply chain shakeups companies have had to face this year, and they do a deep dive into the world of influencers and how brands can work with them in a way that leads to lasting ROI. Plus, they look into their crystal balls to try to predict how DTC companies will work with and compete against Amazon, debate on how voice search will impact shopping, and discuss what the future of shoppable worlds might look like. Main Takeaways:Supply Chain Shakeups: Everyone is competing against the hard-to-match expectations set by Amazon — but it’s not all about fast shipping. Processing returns effectively and managing every step of the supply chain so you are left with margins that actually allow you to grow are the main areas that all retailers are, and will continue to be, focused on. I’ll Take One Order of Influencers: Because influencer marketing has become so in demand, there are more strategies than ever to try to get the most ROI out of influencers. What is likely to happen in the future is the creation of a marketplace where brands can buy verified influencers, who are themselves driving the demand for more upfront payment.  Make It Worth It: Building an omnichannel strategy is about more than just offering a brick and mortar location for people to buy your products. Today’s shoppers are looking for experiences that are memorable and entertaining. But it’s important that while brands create those memorable experiences, they don’t forget that little goal of converting potential customers into real buyers.Turning Virtual Into Reality: Shoppable video and the increased offerings of digital products is going to set the stage for future commerce. The next generation is already using real cash to buy virtual products for their avatars in various games. In years to come, not only will you have the option for your avatar to have that virtual product, the real-life version will be offered in tandem for the user behind the screen.For an in-depth look at this episode, check out the full transcript below. Quotes have been edited for clarity and length.---Up Next in Commerce is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Respond quickly to changing customer needs with flexible Ecommerce connected to marketing, sales, and service. Deliver intelligent commerce experiences your customers can trust, across every channel. Together, we’re ready for what’s next in commerce. Learn more at salesforce.com/commerce---Transcript:Stephanie:Hey everyone, and welcome back to Up Next in Commerce. This is your host, Stephanie Postles, co-founder of mission.org. Today, it's a new and interesting episode where I have our VP of ops, Albert Chou on the show, where we're going to go through the previous 50 episodes and talk about highlights, and then talk about future trends that maybe no one has talked about on the show so far. Albert, welcome.Albert:Yeah, thanks for having me. But to be clear, we're not going to go by the 50 episodes one by one because-Stephanie:We're doing one by one.Albert:No, that's terrible. We can't do it. Cannot do it.Stephanie:So, Albert, tell our listeners why did I invite you on the show?Albert:Well, I do have my own ecommerce business, www.[inaudible 00:00:41].com, I've also helped out on a couple others. The biggest one got to 10 million a year. And I worked for an ecommerce startup. One of the co-founders was a guest on the show AddShoppers. So, been working in the game of ecommerce probably since 2016 and still operating today, so learned from painful mistakes, as well as seeing other people have great success.Stephanie:Yeah, you always have some really good feedback and comments on our prep docs. Our amazing producer, Hilary, will put together an awesome prep doc for every episode for me, and then you come in along with all your other job responsibilities at mission, with the VP of ops, you do everything here, but you also come in and add some good questions and comments, and that's why I thought it would be fun to bring you on. So, thanks for hopping on here with me.Albert:Yeah, let's do it.Stephanie:So, to start, I thought we could kind of go through just some high level trends, because through all the episodes that I've had and all the guests we've had on the show so far, there's actually quite a bit of similarities that I heard. And starting with the first one, I think talking about supply chains is really interesting, because so many of the guests who've come on have talked about the shake up in supply chains that they've seen and how they're kind of pivoting and what they're experiencing, and I think that might be a good place to start.Albert:Well, when they talk about supply chain, everyone's competing against what Amazon has created, right? Amazon has created this expectation that you can get what you want, when you want it pretty darn fast. And so if you're any direct consumer brand, or any brand out there, if you're a retailer, that's what's becoming the now norm, right? Can you send it to your customer really fast, and can you take it back? That's like probably the most painful part of ecommerce is the fact that you do have a percentage of tolerance for returns. So, the tighter your supply chain is, the more margins you can create in the process, the more able you can take a return without losing everything. So, it makes total sense that every business is trying to figure this out, how to get closer to the consumer, how to make things closer to the customer, how to make sure that they can take back whatever is being sent back. So, it's just matching what the new customer expectation is.Stephanie:Yeah. I think it was also very interesting, talking to the ShipBob guy where he was talking about how you can basically tap into different fulfillment centers by using them, whereas before, everything with COVID, a lot of people actually were shipping all the way across the country and not really looking at maybe location based ordering. Maybe some people were, but I found that kind of a good shake up that now people are starting to think about how to do things more efficiently and how also not just to rely on one supply chain, because a lot of them maybe are going out of business right now, a lot of the warehouses are having issues, there's a lot of inventory issues. So, it's good to have not all your eggs in one basket.Albert:So, it's not just that. So, there's companies out there that are investing into logistics infrastructure specifically for other people to share. So, similar to ShipBob, there's other competitors in that field. But it goes further than that. If you take a look at some of the publicly traded companies, one of the larger ecommerce platforms, they have invested heavily in infrastructure and warehousing. I know that ChannelAdvisor did the same exact thing. They literally bought a warehousing logistics company. And ChannelAdvisor, for the longest time, has been a company that helps you as a merchant, list your products across the different marketplaces. So, if Stephanie's t-shirt company wants to list their product across Amazon, they want to list it across Rakuten, they want to list it across eBay, and maybe some others, she would still have to ship and fulfill from her own store.Albert:Now, why did ChannelAdvisor build that tool so you can list one product and get it plugged in everywhere? So, why did they invest in all these warehousing companies? Now, it hasn't come to full service yet but you can kind of see it down the road like the supply chain is where the innovation is going to occur. And I think you're going to continue to see that, you're going to see more entrance in it, and it's just non stop, that race will never stop. Basically, a customer can never get something fast enough. You know what I mean? There's always going to be this push to get it there faster.Stephanie:Yeah. It's also interesting hearing about certain companies trying to compete with shipping models against Amazon and trying to have one in two day shipping. It feels like such a hard thing to create from scratch now, but if you can figure that out, you're going to win.Albert:So, I don't know if you know this, Steph. I've also sold through FBA Amazon.Stephanie:I think you told me that?Albert:Do you know [crosstalk 00:05:37]?Stephanie:What did you sell, first of all?Albert:It was an adult card game.Stephanie:I don't want to hear anymore. This is a kid friendly show.Albert:It was not kid friendly. But how it worked is, so I got my order in China, and I had 5,000 pieces, literally shipped it to an FBA Center in New Jersey, never touched the product, and then Amazon automatically redistributed it across as its fulfillment network. And I would get updates like, "Oh, we're moving two boxes to Texas." "Why?" Because we predict, in Texas, someone will buy this, and therefore by moving it closer to the customer, we can reduce the shipping with our internal [crosstalk 00:06:20]."Stephanie:Do you have an influence over that prediction model.Albert:No.Stephanie:Because now more than ever, I'm like, how can anyone predict anything? I mean, there was a really good quote about like, should we be preparing for more people to buy Inkjet printers because they're all working from home, or extra freezers to prepare for the worst? It feels like there's no way to predict for that, so how do they even know that there's a couple in Texas who might want that?Albert:So, add to cart. I think add to cart is what they're doing, right? They're looking at how many people are adding to cart and then they're also looking at the percentage of conversion over time of people who do add to cart. So, if you see a bunch of cart adds for this product or a bunch of search volume increasing for a product in a specific area, you can automatically assume that that product is going to be in demand in that area. They've probably gotten it down to a super exact science.Stephanie:Yeah, I'm not going to question them. I'm sure they got it.Albert:Yeah. And since they're always moving products within their own fulfillment network everywhere, they see that there's a probability that this is going to happen, they just move it closer to you so that when they finally rely on last mile logistics, they've got it as close as possible so that they don't have to pay so much.Stephanie:Yeah, that makes sense. All right. So, the next one I want to kind of move into is influencers. So, first, we did a survey of our audience and a lot of people wanted to hear about influencers. How do I use influencers? What's a good way to actually get a good ROI on it? And a lot of our guests actually mentioned influencers as well. Some people were trying it out and were like, "I don't actually know if this is even working." Other people were having great success but were trying different models. So, I don't know if you've listened to the fancy.com CEO, Greg Spillane episode.Albert:I did.Stephanie:Okay. Well, first of all, that guy's a badass. I mean, making that company his stories. Like did you hear about how he went into a warehouse or a storage locker and found a bunch of credit cards that the founders were giving away with like $1,000 on it, and they were just giving it away to influencers just to try and get them to use fancy.com? Did you hear some of the stories that he was going through about what he experienced when coming into the company to try and turn it around?Albert:I mean, it's the classic, right? It's the classic problem in marketing, right? You're pretty sure some of it is going to work, some people say it's up to half, you just don't know which half, right? And so you're just blowing money trying to get more movement, but I get what they were originally trying to do makes total sense. I mean, you read about the stories of businesses like Gymshark, which built their whole business model off of influencers, and I think they just got a private equity valuation into the billions, so everyone wants to jump on that train.Albert:The problem is influencers themselves have created this marketplace, right? So, if you claim you're an influencer, and you have hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram, now influencers, they don't want to work on commission, they want to work on upfront fees. So, there's this new network which you're now going to see tools come into place of helping merchants buy influence. And so that's the next wave, right? Because I mean, there's a lot of influencers that are frauds or they have no influence on their audience whatsoever, they just have a big Instagram following for whatever reason.Stephanie:Yeah. They just [crosstalk 00:09:30].Albert:That's why the merchants are so frustrated.Stephanie:Oh, yeah. I mean, it's hard to know. You can see someone with a million followers, and something that I saw that was actually a good reminder for anyone with a small business was they're talking about how you can see if those followers have an intent to buy. So, if you have some influencer on there and they're showcasing some purse, or some lipstick, or whatever it might be, and the people in the comments are like, "Oh cute," or, "Pretty" or just liking it, they actually don't have followers who have an intent to buy. Versus you might see more micro influencers, like people that follow from around the area or something, and the people in those comments are like, "Where do I get that jacket from?" Like, "Please link up your shirt."Stephanie:And those are the kind of influences you want to go after because you actually know that if you're in front of their audience, they're ready to buy because they trust that person, which seems like it's kind of shifting, whereas before it was like just get the big name, the big followers, and now it's more like, "Let's make sure we get an ROI. How do we make sure to track this stuff and see some good conversions from it?"Albert:Yeah. I mean, you don't know what you don't know, so all you're looking at is what you assume is a big audience. And so that's the biggest misconception in social media, it doesn't determine their purchasing behaviors. It's just, "I like this person because I think she looks good, or I think he looks good, or I think he's funny. I'm not going to buy anything.Stephanie:Yeah, I can definitely see tools coming out soon, or maybe they're already out in the world, showing like here are kind of the demographics of this person's followers. So, you can sign up with an influencer and also see the income level, the job title, so you know that what you're getting with that influencer is going to have good results because you can see the profile of their followers.Albert:So, interesting, right? Platforms now that are creating marketplaces of influencers. So, I'll name one. We have not had their CEO on the show, but grin.co, you should join the show.Stephanie:[crosstalk] here.Albert:Yeah. GRIN is pretty fascinating, because they've built this marketplace where you as a merchant can then log in and you can see all the influencers, you can search by category. Let's say I want surfing, or you want food, or you want outdoor, whatever it is you want, it'll pull up a list of influencers and then it'll show the basic vanity metrics. But it also has ratings of probability of sale, because they've already maybe done a campaign for another brand, so you as a brand kind of see those numbers. Now, the problem always is, as a consumer is, you kind of always get drawn to the big numbers, right? So, you'll see like, let's say, the superstar TikToker, girl Charli D'Amelio. How do you pronounce her last name? D'Amelio?Stephanie:I don't know, and I'm surprised you know anyone on TikTok.Albert:But Charli D'Amelio, you'll see her name and it'll show you significant likelihood to influence dollars, it'll be significant, right? But then as a brand, you have to determine can you afford her, because she doesn't tweet or TikTok for you for nothing, right? It'll be hilarious. It'll say her agency, and of course, she's repped by a huge agency. So, that's where even tools like that, the problem is, let's say, the signal to noise ratio is still overwhelmingly noise and the ones that have tremendous signal, well, the problem is you can't afford it. So, I think the tools have to try to figure out by budget, almost, like how much ROI are you going to get per $1,000 of spend or something like that? That's probably going to be the next wave of measurement.Stephanie:Yeah, I agree. I mean, I think also the platforms are trying to catch up to be able to actually attribute sales to these influencers. I know TikTok is trying to do that right now. Instagram's been trying to do that, but I think they are still implementing a lot of features to actually allow the influencers to get paid. So, I think with that, you'll see a whole new wave of new influencers and micro influencers as well because now they can actually get paid.Stephanie:I mean, I saw someone, they were talking about some... I think it was some coffee mug or, I don't know, a cup or something on TikTok, and it was on Amazon, but didn't have any links or anything, and it sold out on Amazon because this one girl was talking about the functionality of it and how much she liked it, and people were like, "Oh, how do I buy through your link? I want to make sure you get a cut of it." And she was like, "I don't need that. I just review stuff because it's fun." And so it's interesting seeing how you have influencers who really do care about that attribution and won't work without it versus the people who maybe are big influencers but aren't actually looking for that, at least not right off the bat, or maybe because there's friction right now, with setting up that model.Albert:Well, I think the bigger you get as an influencer, the more you could charge for your time than results. So, if you're a superstar, like, let's go with professional athletes, the original influencers, right? If you're LeBron James, you're Michael Jordan and someone wants to buy your name, you just charge them for the name. Like you're like, "I don't know if you'll get $1 of sales, I'm just telling you right now that I'm not repping your product unless you pay me this much money." Right?Albert:So, it's still this push and pull where brands want all this information, they want to know your audience, they want to know all that stuff, and then influencers themselves are getting so big. Like, we're reading about how these people on TikTok, kids, I call them kids, I'm old, but they're making 100 grand a month, and that's considered an average influencer. What are talking about? 100 grand a month to make TikTok dance videos, and yeah. So, I can see a brand wanting to be like, "Well, how much will I get for sales," and I can just see how tough it is when the kid on the other end says, "Well, I won't TikTok dance for you for under 100,000."Stephanie:I just read that the next generation is getting paid more than ever right now, not just for being influencers but just for a lot of things. They're demanding higher payment than any other generation before them. That's good, good intense though.Albert:Yeah. Listen, ask for whatever you want. If you can get it, you might as well ask for it. Why not?Stephanie:Very, very true. So, I think the high level summary for that one then it's just that most brands should be exploring influencers in your market, but also making sure that you're setting up the ROI and tracking it correctly, and maybe looking for those new tools that are coming out or that are already out to make sure that wherever you're devoting your budget to you actually can track it, where in the past maybe it wasn't as required by your company or yourself to have that many metrics behind it, but now you actually can, so I think it's worthwhile.Albert:Yeah. I actually think some of our other guests that really talked about investing significantly into the product and making sure that the customer experience from the moment that they sign up, to buy it, to they receive it, that that experience is airtight, because that's where you're going to find your influencers, right? I think a couple of the men's shaving companies like Supply and Beard Brand talked about how they built a community of people who move these products. Well, that's the ultimate influence right there, right? Constant good reviews of your products. And if you get lucky enough to find a Dogface 208, then you win. Albert:Dogface is the guy that skateboarded while singing Fleetwood Mac and drinking cranberry juice.Albert:Well, cranberry juice sales, all time high. So, this wasn't a paid campaign or paid activation, sales are at an all time high. They're talking about it might see Wisconsin cranberry farming industry. That's how much in demand cranberry juice is right now. So, if you have a great product, your likelihood of catching a wave I think is much greater than if you're just constantly paying influencers.Stephanie:Yeah. And I like that idea of make sure all your other ducks are in a row first before you start going after influencers. I think we've had a couple of guests who talked about you really need to make sure everything from start to finish, to unboxing, to follow up, that needs to be airtight before you start trying a bunch of other things, because then you are at risk of getting distracted and actually not being able to focus on, not only your core product, but also your customer experience.Albert:You got it.Stephanie:All right. So, the other thing that I think was interesting that a lot of people have talked about is, of course, like omnichannel, and one of our guests is talking about the reinvention of brick and mortar stores, and talking about how it's now turning to be more about experiential experiences instead of just going there to buy something, because so many people now are shifting to a place where they're actually very comfortable buying online, even if they never did before, and going into the store is more about having a good experience and something to draw them in there versus actually making a purchase in store. I think it's all about experiences now and people are going to expect something very different going forward than they ever expected before.Albert:Yeah. I mean, that's the magic question, right? People are trying to... I've read articles about re-envisioning the mall of the future. If I think about current present retailers that are doing a pretty good job, I mean, obviously, Apple Store seems to be like one of the leaders where I had not admittedly walked by an apple store recently, but I do remember back when I did, six months ago, there were a lot of people in there, a lot of people in there touching the products, getting a feel of the products, they made it a very hands-on experience. I can think of other businesses that have done a really good job. Like, why does every Bass Pro Shops have a giant aquarium in the middle of the store? Because they want you to go and look at it. You know what I mean? To pull you in. They know you're a hobbyist. So, I don't know how good businesses are going to be at doing that, but I know that they're all trying. I mean, they have to.Stephanie:Yeah, yeah. I mean, when we had little burgundy shoes on, they were talking about how they were actually partnering with other people, other shops or people that are on the same street as them, even if it was a bank they're partnering with, and they were kind of doing giveaways or doing just different social business events or things like that, to make sure to get people in the store because they're like, "We don't really mind if you buy, but just coming in and getting that customer experience that we have, and being able to get in the vibe of the music, and actually experiencing our brand, even if it's only for a moment, is worth so much more than... Buying online is important, but we also want you to know who we are, and if that means partnering with other brands around us to give you an added benefit..." I mean, that's where I can see a lot of other brands doing that partnership strategy to try and get different customers that you would maybe never touch before in the same place.Albert:Yeah. Really, it remains to be seen that it'll work, because I always think, when I hear about the people with the rain experience, I don't question it at all, but I think also to Borders Books or Barnes and Nobles books, I felt like those are really inviting places. They got nice couches, good coffee, it smelled great, there's always baked goods there, you can read whatever magazine you wanted, or check out books, and they never kicked you out or nothing if you're hanging out there, but it didn't work. There weren't enough people buying the books, they were just chilling, I guess. So, I guess that's the real delicate balance, which is how do you educate, entertain and inform but also do it so much in a way that a person purchases the product versus, I don't know, coming in there and staying all day long?Stephanie:Yeah. That makes me wonder just about the business model, though, of like, are you encouraging people to buy, because... I mean, I don't know how the Amazon bookstores are doing now, but when I went in to them when we were in Seattle, it was just a very different experience because what you could get in the store was not what you can get online, not what you would get at any other bookstore, because there was actually, "Here's a review that we picked out," so you can kind of get a feel for this book, or, "Here's some of our top charting books right in front of you."Stephanie:So, it was kind of like it was bringing an online experience offline as well but in a very different way where I wanted to go in there, I wanted to hang out, but then I also found myself buying online afterwards. I was taking pictures of books and then I was just going on Amazon and buying. So, it seems like they figured it out there, and they don't have too much inventory to where they're holding a bunch of books and expecting them to sell, but it seems like it needs to move more to that model instead of thousands of books hoping someone comes in and buys.Albert:I can see that in a more curated... I know Amazon's experimenting with their five star stores where it's only physical products that have earned an average of four and a half, five stars. So, it's more of a curated experience, which is what we're more used to online, instead of looking at your whole catalog of crap, we see exactly what we're looking at what we want to see or the best stuff right up front.Stephanie:Yeah. And that's also something a lot of guests have mentioned, it's about that personalized experience and making sure that what you're showing the new customers, what they want to see. And I think the idea of curation too. I mean, people are trusting, not only these influencers, but also just people that they trust in general, where it's like, "Oh, my friend likes this." So, making sure that you can kind of show that or have that curated experience I think will be important going forward.Albert:Yeah. So, this is interesting, because I think this is actually a self-fulfilling prophecy of what's happening with consumer behavior and curation, which is, the more curated things become, the more likely or the lower the tolerance a person's patience becomes for browsing. Because I've read stats about how the average web browser, or consumer, whatever, spending less time on pages, clicking through less links, because they're constantly being served, let's say, what they want sooner, faster, so then they react that way. So, it's like feeding itself, right?Stephanie:Feeding the beast.Albert:Yeah. The consumer expectations. Like, if you don't know what I want within two clicks, I'm bouncing.Stephanie:You're done.Albert:I don't got time for those three clicks. I'm out.Stephanie:Yeah. That's tricky. I mean, it is kind of like building up a monster in a way where everyone's going to have to keep leveling up their game with how their new customers or current customers experience their shops.Albert:Yeah, it's going to be painful for merchants to do this, I think, it's going to be very painful. Or they can look at it the other way. There's an opportunity for a technology vendor that can do it. You know what I mean?Stephanie:Oh, yeah. Anyone who's got those good recommendations, yeah, they're already ahead of the game if they're implementing that.Stephanie:All right. So, the next trend, which actually no one really talked about, but it's more around partnerships, but I saw a very interesting partnership. I don't know if you have heard of that show on Netflix called Get Organized. Have you? Where they were going into homes, Reese Witherspoon, and they're organizing her house, and it's very popular now. Maybe your wife watched it. Have you heard of that?Albert:I can conceptualize what it is but I have not seen it or heard of it.Stephanie:Okay. So, they partnered with a Container Store, and they did it in a really good organic way where, of course, they're putting everything in containers and organizing it, and it made the container sales jumped by like 17% after this series went out, and I thought that's a really good example of not just product placement, but doing it in a way that wasn't annoying, and having, not only a partnership from the product perspective, but they also partnered with Netflix in the marketing aspect.Stephanie:So, it's like a good, well-rounded approach, but it also didn't make the content suffer. And I haven't seen a lot of companies do it that well. You always can think of other companies... I mean, there's product placement in almost everything, but you don't walk away being like, "Oh, I really need that to complete my experience." And I can just see a lot of more or a lot more unique partnerships forming like that in the future, where people are thinking outside the box and are not just doing the typical like, "Oh, let's just try this and see how it works." I can see more people experimenting with this, maybe not on that large of a level, but I thought that was a really unique partnership, and especially being able to see the sales jump right afterwards, it shows that it paid off.Albert:Do you think that was because they were actively solving a problem? Right? You're disorganized. I'm going to show you how to get organized. So, inherently the audience that watches it is looking to solve that problem, so inherently they then go purchase those products, or source those products.Stephanie:Yeah. I mean, they definitely, of course, nailed the perfect person who would have an intent to buy as someone who's also trying to get organized, but I think the way they did it just wasn't like hitting you over the head with it, it was kind of like, "Well, here's what we use." It was like, "No big deal, if you want to use it too, this is what we use."Stephanie:And I think that's actually the perfect strategy of like, "We're not going to push this on you, and we're not going to be annoying about it, this isn't an ad, but this is just exactly what we use to make this look perfect." And I think there's a lot of opportunity for other brands to think about that, like, how do you do it in a way where the content is still good? It's not making you feel pressured, but it's in the back of your mind of like, "Oh, this is what I could use to be like Reese Witherspoon," which she's the best.Albert:It's the classic, like, is this a threat or is this an opportunity, right? Because it just depends on the eye of the beholder. But one of the things, to your point, that makes it a threat to existing brands is if they're not good at it. One of the opportunities influencer see is that it's now easier than ever to make and source their own products under their own brand labels, right? Think of the power that Chip and Joanna Gaines have gained, right?Albert:Now it's to the point where it's like they're going to be almost impossible to buy because Magnolia products is coming, and it's already here, and it's going to keep getting bigger and bigger, where they're going to... You already know they know how to organically insert their products into all their content of you already think their style is the best, you already think their builds are the best, you already think their personalities are the best, now they're not even doing the partnership deal, right? Now it's not like, "Oh, go to Target to get the Magnolia collection?" No, go to Magnolia to get the Magnolia collection, right? They're going to cut the distribution network out and just be like, "We're the distributors of this." And that's always a challenge, I think. I do think that's something that the brands get nervous about is because like, if you sponsor somebody and they do a really great job, well, what stops them from cutting you out of the equation?Stephanie:Yep. Which is also what a lot of brands are scared about with Amazon. I mean, we heard mixed messages about that where some people were very excited about partnering with them, they were getting championed on that platform, Amazon was promoting them, and they weren't really worried too much about it, they're like, "Why wouldn't you be on Amazon, because that's where everyone said you should be selling on there?" And then we heard quite a few other ecommerce leaders who were like, "No way would I get on there. You're not going to make as much money. You can't control the experience. You can't control where it's being seen. And I want to make sure my DTC company is being portrayed how I want it and I don't want it to be knocked off on Amazon." So, the same kind of thing there.Albert:Yeah, that's it, and that's never going to stop. Constant threat market share takeover.Stephanie:Oh, I know. Constant battle, but interesting to watch. I think those people should be on Amazon, though, because I do think that is where so many people are. It seems like, yeah, it's where you need to be.Albert:Yeah. Here's what's interesting. The biggest players have kind of stepped off, but like Nike, Nike has got so much... Nike has enough power, I think, to step off that platform, but if you're trying to be discovered, I mean, it just does seem overwhelmingly hard to do it without that distribution network. I think it's just tough.Stephanie:Yeah. When we were talking about ShoppableTV, I'm also thinking about... I mean, you might know this better since your kids are on some of these gaming type of platforms, but having Shoppable worlds, whatever that may be, seems like something that could be coming in the future but we're not there yet, probably. I mean, I know we are when it comes to virtually shopping for things, that like, "Oh, I want to make sure to get this. Whatever this is in this world, I want to buy it," but it seems like there could be an opportunity as well for implementing your products into those worlds that are being built up right now.Albert:Yeah. Personally, I'm not as bullish on that because I still think people want to... I don't know. I don't really know, maybe because I just don't do it myself, because I definitely see my kids being drawn in when they're playing games, like they recognize products. What's weird is, when kids. To me, it's what's weird. So, for anyone who has kids that play Roblox, my kids see things on Roblox and they want to buy them, and they're digital products.Stephanie:Yeah. What are they? What are they buying?Albert:Like the new sword? They're like, "I want this sword." It's like, "What sword?" It's like, "The digital sword." It's like, "What do you mean digital sword." It's like, "My character can carry this sword if I buy this with real cash." And that makes no sense to me. What are you talking about?Stephanie:Exactly. I think it could be transitioning eventually. I mean, yes, people will always want those digital swords, I heard that people are buying t-shirts in there. I want to make sure my little avatar guy is wearing the coolest t-shirt. I don't really understand that, but then I don't know if you heard about Fortnight had Travis Scott do a virtual concert and was watched by millions of people.Albert:Yep.Stephanie:There's a very big reason why people would be like, "Whatever he was wearing, I want to wear."Albert:Now, did you hear about Travis Scott's McDonald's deal?Stephanie:No. What's that?Albert:It was like the number one selling meal for the last couple months.Stephanie:Just McDonald's in in general or what's his meal?Albert:The Travis Scott meal. I don't know. It's literally his meal. You know what I mean? You can have a number one, you can have a number two, you can have a Travis Scott.Stephanie:It says the Travis Scott meal is a quarter pounder with cheese, lettuce, and bacon.Albert:I'm just saying that's the power of you talking about a digital world. Yeah. There's the power of influence too, but he's already a mega celebrity, right? But I view it as this, it's like, what people are into, and this is why, like I was saying before, I feel like I age out of this stuff very quickly, and we're talking about ever evolving change. I came from a time where if I didn't have a physical product in my hand, I didn't think was real. I remember when mp3s first came out, I was like, "Why would I buy an mp3?" It's like, "It's a digital version of your songs." "What if I lose it?" They would be like, "What if you use your CDs?" "But at least I'm in control of my CD." You know what I mean? Like, that's my CD. I know where it is. I take responsibility for it. I was slow to convert there.Albert:And I feel for me, I'm always slow to convert to digital products, but when I watch my kids, it's just unbelievable. I don't even think they're interested in physical products. They keep wanting digital things. They want more games, they want more currency for their players, they just want this stuff. So, that's why I kind of didn't answer that because I was thinking simultaneously in my head, this is never going to work, but I think I mean this is not going to work on me but this is going to work on my kids, because it's happening right now. I get things all the time on my Google Play app, iTunes account, like, "What is this?"Stephanie:Why don't you buy one more virtual sword?Albert:So, will company start integrating like t-shirt... All right. So, let's take one of our t-shirt clients, right? We've kind of asked our guests on Up Next in Commerce, we've asked this to all of them. How do you convey that your product is soft, silky, whatever their product descriptors are, to someone without them touching it? And so it makes you wonder, in the future, is someone going to see a yellow hammock in their virtual world and be like, "Huh," and it'll pop up a ding like, bing. "Not only can your character have a yellow hammock, you can have one too." It's like, "Oh, okay, cool."Stephanie:Yeah. Especially if you can kind of see it blowing in the wind, or you can see that shirt like, oh, that's form fitting on this person in my virtual world that I really like. If you can kind of see things and details about it that mimic it. I mean, it seems like there's an opportunity there, it might not be here just yet, and you definitely have to figure out the demographics behind it, because, yeah, I mean, like you said, you might not be interested in that.Stephanie:However, I was listening to a pretty good interview with this guy, Matthew Ball, he was the former head of strategy at Amazon Studios, and he had a really good episode talking about how he was the same as you like, "Oh, this just isn't my world, however, I see actually a lot of companies, they will start being able to adapt these same types of technologies to where the older generation will actually start adopting as well, they just are trying to figure that out right now like, what will they feel comfortable with and what are they looking for? Like, what problems can you solve to get them there?"Albert:It's going to be pretty fascinating when someone's upsell customer journey path is actually get the digital avatar to consume this product first and then offer the physical. You know what I mean? When we talk about the hammock, can you imagine that, like, "Oh, my avatar really likes this hammock. He seems great. I think I might get one for myself in real life." What?Stephanie:I mean, I kind of would. I would do it. You need to get in these worlds to really experience it, but I mean, it does just seem like that is where the world is trending right now, around these games. I mean, a company I follow really closely is Epic Games, I think they're-Albert:They're in out neighborhood. [crosstalk 00:35:26].Stephanie:I think their leadership team is brilliant around what they're doing with their platform and how they're essentially giving away almost all the underlying technology that other companies have been charging for for a really long time, and they're kind of building this really big moat to be able to expand in a bunch of different ways. So, I kind of keep tabs on them, and that also, of course, influences my commerce hat when I'm thinking about too like, "Oh, wow, these two worlds could blend together in a really unique way and whoever gets there first..." Usually, the first movers are the ones that can get that arbitrage. So, seems like an interesting spot to watch.Albert:Yes, the Unreal Engine, for our listeners that are not familiar. Epic built a platform called the Unreal Engine of which you can build your gaming world on so that you could use... think of it as less code, you had less code, less character development, it's all built for you, you just add your characters and they can build worlds for you. How they do it is they charge you a royalty fee, I believe it's like 5%, but only if your sales are over a specific number.Stephanie:Yeah, it's very beneficial to creators, and that's why a lot of people are moving to that platform now because they're used to having these apps where certain stores, they're taking like 30 and 40%, and if you move to Unreal, you're essentially keeping the majority of your sales.Albert:Yeah, and you don't have to pay until you reach a certain number. So, by the time you're paying Epic, you've already made it, and then you're fine with it, I guess. The number is tolerable. By the way, if you follow Epic Games founder, Tim Sweeney, on Twitter right now, he's in a constant fight with Apple over [crosstalk 00:36:56].Stephanie:Oh, I know.Albert:He does not like it.Stephanie:I wouldn't either.Albert:It's a fun follow, though. It's a great follow.Stephanie:Go, Tim. I'm going to follow you right now.Stephanie:All right. So, the last one that I want to talk about is... I think this is interesting. You might be like, "That's weird." But I think there's such a big opportunity for optimizing, not only your website for voice searches, but also potentially building out custom Alexa skills to solve a problem. I see people doing that right now, but not really in ecommerce as much, but think about having an Alexa where you're like, "Hey, Alexa, tell me what wine goes best with this kind of recipe." Or, "Hey, Alexa, suggest some outfit for me based on the weather today." And you kind of build a tool that's actually helpful that's also you know, of course, very close to your brand. And so you can become top of mind by building out those skills or just implementing voice search in general. I just think the world is headed in that way because the technology is starting to get better, but I don't see a lot of brands jumping on that right now.Albert:I think the ability for AI to understand intent and meaning isn't quite there yet. I'm trying to think of myself using my own consumer behavior, right? Do I use voice to text right now to enter searches? Yeah, because it's a lot easier than typing it in or swiping it in, right? So, if I want to ask Google a question, I will just click the mic button and talk. Would I do that to solve problems? I don't know, but I think I haven't yet because contextually, it's very difficult, but it won't be far, right. So, right now, I think a lot of people Google best. Do you know what I mean? Like you said, best way to do X for Y, right? And then the next level is going to be can NLP technology, AI technology, whatever it is going to be that understands the nuance and intent and meaning start making it super personalized recommendations?Albert:So, can you imagine if you went to Home Depot, because what you're talking about would be super cool, if you go to Home Depot and say, "Hey, my garbage disposal broke. How do I replace it?" And it just comes up with like, boom, "You're going to need this, this, this, this," and then it gives me a how-to guide of how I buy a garbage disposal, I'm going to need these tools, I'm gonna need the sealants, and getting them-Stephanie:Can you imagine saying that, like, "Here's exactly how you're going to fix it. Let me send you a video to your phone." And like, "You need like Albert's brand of screws." Like, they're literally dropping your own products in there like, "This is how I would fix it, and also, here's a how-to video," and you walk away being like, "Wow, I not only bought that brand stuff, maybe, or I didn't, but they're top of mind now. They actually helped me fix my garbage disposal." How cool would that be?Albert:So, speaking of this, there was a while ago where I believe it was the president of O'Reilly, I'm pretty sure it was. The O'Reilly Auto Parts basically came out and said that Amazon was not a threat because buying car parts is very complicated. I'm not saying he's wrong, right? Right now car parts really aren't bought on Amazon because you have to know what model you have, you have to know the year, the make, the model, you actually have to know something about fixing cars to even begin to find the part. But can you imagine a future where you can ask it a question like, you go to O'Reilly or wherever you go and you say, "My air conditioner is not cold," and it remembers your car models, "Oh, you're going to need X, Y, Z. Would you like me to book you an appointment if you can't do this yourself?" Like, "Yeah, book me one. I don't want to do this?"Stephanie:Yes, please. Yeah. No, I mean, that's where I think the world is headed. And I mean, we did have a good interview, it wasn't our first 50, it was one of our more recent ones, talking about the world of identity and how you should be able to go places and you shouldn't always have to refill in your info, it should know maybe what's your brand of car if you put it somewhere else before. I'm trying to think of what episode that was.Albert:Fast.Stephanie:Oh, yeah, Fast. Yeah, that was such an interesting episode. I mean, now it's coming up right after this one drops, but [inaudible 00:41:10], so interesting where he was going through. Not only are they doing payments and identity, but where the world was headed around you should always have a Buy Now button on every single one of your products and that you shouldn't just make people add stuff to cart and then do the shipping and all that, you should let them buy when they want to buy it. And he was talking about the conversions behind that. But all that gets back to the identity piece, which is what you're talking about, going into an auto part store, you should be able to say, "Here's what I'm looking for," and it should know, "Okay, based on the information I have about you, here's what I'm going to recommend for you," and make it seamless and frictionless.Albert:Yeah, everyone wants that.Stephanie:My future. I don't know what yours is, Albert?Albert:Well, I think it's going to get there. It's not a matter of if, but when, but I still know that NLP... for anyone that's used an AI chat bot yet and been frustrated because you asked a simple question and it's like, "I don't know what you're saying," it's like we're not there yet, but I think it's coming, for sure it's coming. The technology providers, though, are going to be the ones focusing on that the most. I don't know when the merchants can start tapping into that resource.Stephanie:Yeah. That's why it's interesting to kind of keep an eye on these new startups and new tech companies that are launching around this stuff, like Fast, or even like the technologies like GPT-3. When that came out, I was just reading a whole article about how this guy created a program where you essentially can just talk and it'll build a website for you. So, you can say, "Create a red button, have the drop down say this, have the picture do this, grab the picture from here." And it is no code. You are speaking and it is coding for you in the background.Stephanie:I think the world is headed there but you just have to try and stay on top of those trends or the companies and try things out, honestly, experiment with it and see if it could work without bogging things down. I know you have been the first to say that the amount of plugins that you add on your website are just going to bog it down, and website speed is number one, so there is that balance, but I think it's interesting to stay on top of the trends outside of just your current industry.Albert:Yeah. Are we going to get to the part where we all have our own Jarvis? I don't know. But if that happens, it will be cool. Jarvis from Iron Man, for anyone that's not familiar with what I'm talking about, right?Stephanie:I was actually familiar with that one.Albert:Yeah? There you go. Look at you watching movies and stuff.Stephanie:I know. Look at me. I'm so trendy.Albert:It's not trendy. It's definitely very old. I think it's like a decade old now.Stephanie:Yeah. Still great, though.Albert:Yeah.Stephanie:All right. Are there any other forward looking trends that you think are interesting right now. So, we essentially covered the things that were in the 50 episodes, which were awesome and really cool, high level themes, but all the episodes had really good, juicy nuggets in each one. And then we looked at some of the forward thinking themes that maybe weren't covered, but I just think are interesting. But anything else you can think of where you're like, "I think a lot of people aren't thinking about this or aren't paying enough attention to this world that could help an ecommerce store owner"?Albert:Well, we got to do a big shout out to my awesome producer, Hillary, who loves Peloton.Stephanie:She does.Albert:Because Peloton is a very fascinating-Stephanie:[crosstalk 00:44:23].Albert:So, I bought stock in Peloton, and here's the reason why. I've never encountered a brand that I can think of where people so emphatically talk about it. Peloton and maybe CrossFit. Everyone says, "The first rule of CrossFit is you can't stop talking about CrossFit," I think that's also applicable to Peloton, because people who have Peloton love Peloton. So, I think this concept of building community so that your product extends beyond the purchase of the product, meaning like you buy a physical bike but you would stay subscribed to Peloton services. Because I think every brand, or not every brand, because could you do it with a ball? I don't know.Albert:But brands and products companies are probably trying to figure out how do I create a subscription community? I think that is going to be a trend that you can capitalize on now because it doesn't require, I don't think, as much technology that doesn't exist, but it's more like how do you build ongoing services at a price point where customers never want to leave you? So, like, I don't know. Let's use my example of kitchenware. Should fork, and knife, and bowl companies have active cooking communities? I think they should.Stephanie:Yeah. I mean, that was our interview with Food52, Amanda Hesser, that's exactly what they did. They built up this huge online community first and then they started reselling other people's products, drop shipping them, and then they created their own brand, and they did it in a way where they're like, "By then we had this huge community that we were doing cooking things together."Albert:Yeah. They could already forecast their sales. They were like, "Oh, we can automatically assume how many people are going to buy this."Stephanie:I know. And that was a long haul for them. I mean, she was the first to say that, however, I'm like, you essentially are launching to an audience that trust you, trust your content, you have this love for just anything that you're doing after you build this community, but trying to figure out how to do that right or figuring out what actually keeps people coming back and how to keep them engaged I think is really difficult without being annoying and without pushing your product too much. When you start in a more content focused way, it seems like it can be a lot more organic to build up those followers to then shift into a product where you have that trust. But it does seem hard when you're launching a new like DTC company and also trying to do content at the same time, it seems hard to figure that piece out.Albert:Yeah. And if we go back in time, right, Michelin figured this out. Michelin figured out that people weren't driving enough, so they created their star review system because they wanted people to drive and experience things all over the world, to the point now where here we are today, people still talk about Michelin star ratings for restaurants. It's still that important. People can't put two together and say, "Why would a tire company create that?"Albert:So, if you have that today, I think that's probably the next biggest trend, and you can already kind of see it happening. I think more products are going to try to create worlds or problems that their products and services solve, or whether it's exploratory or problem solving, I don't know. But when it comes to Peloton, I just think about the community that they've built, the fact that people just rave about the product. We got our buddy Hillary here, she's got a bike, it's not broken. She says, "They launched a new bike. The screen tilts so I can do yoga and then get back on the bike." It had a price point, a really high price point. I mean, Hillary was considering getting a loan to get this thing, which, by the way, they offer, they offer financing.Stephanie:We're going to put Hillary's... her like affiliate code, I don't know if she one. She needs one.Albert:Well, I'm telling you, the brand love that she has... But it's not just her. I say Hillary because, Hillary, we obviously work with her, but people love this product.Stephanie:There you go. Are you looking at our prep doc? She says h_tag24. Peloton all the time.Albert:Okay. If you want to buy, h_tag24. If you want to follow our buddy Hillary on Peloton, not only will she kick your ass in all these calories, or I don't even know what you guys measure.Albert:However you score points, she's scoring all the points.Stephanie:I don't know if that's a thing.Albert:Outputs. I don't know.Stephanie:Okay, outputs got it. This has gone into a bad hole. I'm not sure what we're talking about here.Albert:Well, we were saying like, what's the next thing to be aware of? I mean, I think that is closer than all those voice searches and things like that that you talked about, which I think are coming, I think you're going to see more companies build communities, and I also think you're going to see more companies burning out customers by trying to make everything like SaaS. Because one of my favorite Twitter handle to follow, everyone check it out, it's called the Internet of Shit, it's just non stop products that don't work if you aren't subscribed to their services. So, businesses out there that try to make me subscribe to make my refrigerator work, I'm anti-you. All right? Definitely anti-you, don't want to hear about it. So, follow the Internet of Shit, if you guys are curious.Stephanie:I have follow that one.Albert:But that's the delicate balance, right? How do you build a community of value that you charge for versus, I don't know, putting someone in entrapment where you're forcing funds out of them every month just to use your product?Stephanie:Yeah. I especially think after everything with COVID, people are also going to be dying for that community, even if it has to be online, I think it's going to be bigger now than it ever was before, because people have been cooped up and haven't been able to have that community like they may have been used to or they're actually maybe cherishing it in a different way now and they're trying to look for that. So, I think it'll be a big opportunity.Albert:There you go.Stephanie:All right. Anything else on your mind? If not, I think this was a fun episode. It was a good one.Albert:I hope so. I can never tell.Stephanie:You're really not, yeah. You're almost like, "I'm not sure." But yeah, I think this episode was awesome, it's really fun just kind of reminiscing through all the episodes we did. I can't believe we've already had 50. If you have not given us a review and a rating and subscribed, please do, because that helps spread the word, and we would love to hear how we're doing. We also have some really good interviews coming up, like we were mentioning earlier, the CEO Fast is coming on, we have a really cool company, Handwrytten coming on with [inaudible 00:51:04], Sheets and Giggles, Ring. We've got some big names coming up here, and yeah, I'm excited to do this next recap after the next 50.Albert:Until then.Stephanie:Right. Thanks, Albert.

Prime Day is Bullshit Day Across America Are you getting excited to search the Deals on Prime Day?   This year Prime Day was moved from June, a great time to clear out the FBA (Amazon) warehouses to make room for the holiday inventory which typically starts in June.  How do I know?  Well, I've been a Registered Brand Seller on Amazon for 7 years and as such, I have a deep inside look at the ever-changing, behind-the-scenes of Amazon.   Statista.com  Amazon Prime is constantly growing in the United States: as of December 2019, there were an estimated 112 million U.S. Amazon Prime subscribers, up from 95 million in June 2018. On average, Amazon Prime members spent 1,400 U.S. dollars on the e-retail platform per year. March 2019 data also states that non-Prime members only spent 600 U.S. dollars annually. Amazon Prime  In 2019, Amazon generated 19.21 billion U.S. dollars in revenues through its subscription services segment. Subscription services do not only include Amazon Prime revenues, but also audiobook, e-book, digital video, digital music and other non-AWS subscription services. ...during a February 2019 survey, 20 percent of Amazon Prime members stated that they shopped on Amazon a few times per week, with seven percent saying that they did so on an (almost) daily basis. In 2019 Amazon Prime Day grossed 7.6B USD world-wide But you can't shop a DEAL if you are not a Prime Member It is only about increasing subscriptions - this is from  The New York Times - Wirecutter From now until October 12, Amazon is offering Prime members a $10 credit to use on Prime Day when members spend $10 on items sold by select small businesses. From now until October 14, Prime members can spend $10 at Whole Foods Market online or in-store to get $10 to spend on Amazon during Prime Day. Prime members who spend $10 in an Amazon Go store through October 14 get $10 to use during Prime Day. Prime Members can use the QR code in the Fresh In-Store section of the Amazon app to get $10 to use on Prime Day when they spend $10. Use your Prime account to spend $10 at checkout at an Amazon Books or Amazon Pop Up, and you get $10 to use during Prime Day. Why should you care as a consumer? Listen to my perspective in this episode. Wendicooper.com WendiCooper@mac.com 

★★★ How to Sell on Amazon for Beginners★★★

Today on the show, we give you a behind the scenes look at The Full-Time FBA Amazon business journey: How we got started doing FBA, how we’ve progressed to working part-time hours with a full-time income, and the key decisions, tools, and systems that have had the biggest impact on getting our business where it is today. We start from the very beginning before we were even married! From browsing thrift stores and garage sales to hunting clearance items, to mastering retail arbitrage, online arbitrage, and outsourcing, to selling via wholesale, automatic-repricing, and much more – get ready to go down the many paths that have guided our business toward success. We’re all different, and so our journeys will be different too! This is just our story and since many of you out there have asked us to tell it, here it is! The high notes, the low notes, the things that have made the biggest impact on the business and could help yours to expand and improve too!

The E-commerce Leader is for leaders of thriving online businesses. We take a strategy-down look at how to grow, protect & strengthen your business Resources Click here to be kept up to date with our podcasts Topics discussed in this episode: Who we are Who this is for Who this is not for... What over-arching themes we'll be covering Resources mentioned in this episode: Jason And Michael's sites: Winning on Shopify (Jason's site for Shopify & E-commerce business owners) Pixie Faire (Jason's and Cinnamon's Shopify Store) The 10K Collective Mastermind (Michael's mastermind for 6, 7- and 8-figure Amazon sellers) The Amazing FBA Podcast (Michael's podcast for UK Amazon Sellers) E-commerce platforms mentioned Amazon.com eBay Shopify Episode transcript: Transcript Email Download New Tab Michael Veazey 0:03 We are Michael Veazey in London, England. Jason Miles 0:05 Jason miles in Seattle, Washington. Michael Veazey 0:08 More importantly, you are the owner of a thriving online business. And you want to become the best ecommerce leader you can be. We're here to get you there. Let's jump in. So Mr. Jason miles in Seattle, Washington. Yes, sir. Hello, sir. How are you doing? Jason Miles 0:29 I'm well, how are you, man? Michael Veazey 0:30 Yeah, amazingly surviving cobit 19. Just to keep it really topical and make sure that this isn't evergreen down the line. I'm just getting over I still got a nasty cough. I was sort of slightly, you know, doing podcasts with a high fever on a lot of drugs for a week and only legal drugs I have to say. So. Yeah, back to the whole and really excited about our new podcast, man. Thank you for suggesting it. I'm really excited about this. Jason Miles 0:55 Yeah, happy to do it. And just to be clear, you didn't have Cova 19. Did you are you Unknown Speaker 1:00 test you may have done but haven't been tested. So like us the Michael Veazey 1:03 UK has been really terrible at testing people. So you know, who knows, man, you know, cold as a cold. But you're you're alright. I'm okay man. Yeah. So let's, let's get into how this all came about. So yeah. Do you remember how we first met? I think it's probably a couple of years we've known each other right? Jason Miles 1:20 Yeah, I was just thinking about it. I was I had a book launch. And then I had pod, a podcast, you know, press team that was helping me get on podcast, and I think they reached out to you, and asked if I could be a guest on your podcast, and then we went from there those couple years ago. Yeah. Then we work together since in different ways. And so yeah, I think that was the initial concept. And then of course, in just the last few weeks, I've approached you and said, Man, I really want to get into podcasting. What can we Michael Veazey 1:50 what can we do, man? Jason Miles 1:52 Yeah, the thoughts emerged here. Absolutely. Michael Veazey 1:54 Yeah, we've had a lot of fun. I mean, one of the reasons that I wanted to get you on amazing FBA my pockets originally, and which is, you know, still branded around me here is because I thought it was important for the Amazon seller community to hear more about alternatives. And in particularly Shopify as a famously, you know, a solid alternative business model. And when you approached me about doing an entire podcast, I thought, well, actually, there's never been a more important time for people to start considering things in days when FBA Amazon is not allowing you to ship half the products, categories into their warehouses. And if they are, they're not guaranteed to fulfill them in very any kind of timely manner right now. So March, April 2020. And I saw one, there's never been a more important time to diversify,

コヒ蔵とひまちゃんのライト回。メルカリがクロネコヤマト（正確にはヤマトホームコンビニエンス）と提携して始めた「梱包 発送 たのメル便」はクロネコの配達員さん達を直撃するのか？実はそうじゃ無い、三方良しの仕組みを解説。フルフィルメントby アマゾン、通称FBAはAmazonの在庫管理で出荷から配送まで便利に行える小売業者向けのサービス。型落ちのビデオカメラをを「新品」で購入したら、「新品じゃない新品」が来た！ポッドキャストの音声ファイルを配信しているINSTのVPSサーバー。ウェブサイトは早々にSSL（HTTPS）対応していたが、VPSは手を抜いて放置していました。すると、ウェブ上のプレーヤーなどから再生出来ない問題が発生！？慌てて配信サーバーをSSL化した話

Amazon FBA, Amazon FBM, PANEU und Amazon Business - all diese Begriffe haben etwas gemeinsam: VARIO kann es! Doch wie bildet VARIO die steuerlichen Komplexitäten - gerade wenn es um internationales Steuerrecht geht - ab? Wird beispielsweise Tee von Deutschland nach Großbritannien verfrachtet, wie wird das dann von VARIO abgebildet? Erfahrt mehr dazu im aktuellen Video. Link zum Video: https://youtu.be/vGahqJ1gnMY

Au menu de ce 7ème épisode du Café de l’e-commerce, Laetitia et Adrien repassent l'actualité du e-commerce et du digital marketing de la semaine du 9 au 13 septembre 2019.  On commence cet épisode avec quelques précisions sur le programme FBA d'Amazon.  On enchaîne avec les chiffres du e-commerce en Europe, publiés par la FEVAD, l'occasion de revenir sur la croissance toujours à 2 chiffres du secteur.  Brandlalley ne fait pas de bons chiffres et est placé en redressement judiciaire.  Adrien nous fait un petit focus sur Libra, la cryptomonnaie de Facebook, qui fait débat.  Laetitia nous parle d'un nouveau service de Facebook : Facebook dating, qui devrait arriver en France en 2020. La fin des Tinder et Meetic ?  Laetitia poursuit en évoquant plusieurs levée de fonds : Rihanna et sa marque de lingerie qui vient de lever 50M$, AKENEO, le spécialiste du PIM poursuit son rêve américain et lève 46M$.  Alibaba rachète KOALA et se diversie ainsi dans le secteur du luxe.  Le zoom Amazon : le géant expérimenterait le paiement palmaire. Aux US, on réfléchit à un RGPD.  En bref : Jack Ma prend sa retraite d'Alibaba, le e-commerce atteint des sommets en Inde, Adobe Indesign fête ses 20 ans, Le Bon Coin a fait une bonne trouvaille et s'offre L'Argus.  Les sources de l'épisode:  https://www.engadget.com/2019/08/14/amazon-fba-donations-program-for-unsold-products/  https://www.fevad.com/exclusif-le-bilan-complet-des-chiffres-du-e-commerce-en-europe/  https://www.lsa-conso.fr/exclu-lsa-brandalley-place-en-redressement-judiciaire,327191  https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/12/france-says-it-will-block-development-of-facebooks-libra-in-europe.html  https://www.forbes.fr/technologie/facebook-dating-le-nouveau-pari-de-mark-zuckerberg/  https://www.ecommercemag.fr/Thematique/retail-1220/Breves/Paris-Retail-Week-2019-attaque-problematiques-business-marchands-342297.htm#725cgPQdPtwr2tMW.97  https://www.akeneo.com/press-release/press-release-akeneo-raises-46-million-to-expand-its-leadership-in-product-experience-management/  https://fr.fashionnetwork.com/news/Savage-x-Fenty-realise-une-levee-de-fonds-de-50-millions-de-dollars,1131635.html#.XXkFg5P7RTZ  http://snip.ly/f4q41q#https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3025998/alibaba-buys-neteases-kaola-us2-billion-create-chinas-biggest-cross  https://www.rakutenintelligence.com/blog/2019/amazon-logistics-has-arrived-early  https://www.clubic.com/pro/entreprises/amazon/actualite-868530-amazon-teste-paiement-empreinte-palmaire.html  https://www.challenges.fr/media/gafa/france-amazon-condamne-a-4-millions-d-euros-d-amende_672509  https://www.lebigdata.fr/amazon-rpgd-americain  https://www.lesechos.fr/industrie-services/conso-distribution/une-nouvelle-page-souvre-pour-alibaba-apres-le-depart-de-jack-ma-1130374  https://www.lebigdata.fr/cloud-energie-chine  https://www.ecommercemag.fr/Thematique/management-1225/Breves/Leboncoin-acquiert-Argus-342178.htm  https://ecommerce-news.es/el-crecimiento-del-comercio-electronico-supera-al-crecimiento-offline-y-rozara-los-230mm-en-2028-en-india-105299  https://jai-un-pote-dans-la.com/adobe-indesign-fete-ses-20-ans/  Pour nous contacter Tout simplement avec ce lien le site http://lecafedelecommerce.fr/  la newsletter https://mailchi.mp/01844e2a63fb/lecafedelecommerce  Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lecafe_de_lecommerce/   

hr verkauft nach Frankreich oder bekommt immer mehr französische Kaufanfragen? Dann solltet ihr euch definitiv das heutige Video anschauen! Wann ihr mit FBA (Amazon) besser fahrt und wann Cdiscount eine bessere Alternative wäre, erklärt euch Marc Costea - Inhaber der Firma marcos software - im eBakery Interview!

Dieser Podcast soll euch dabei helfen, keine Angst mehr vor dem Thema Steuern zu haben. Leider ist das immer noch ein Thema, was viele davon abhält mit dem Geschäftsmodell Amazon FBA zu starten. Hier geht's zum Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbLNY9qlfpA Rechnungssoftware: https://www.easybill.de/ Kleinunternehmerregelung: https://www.kleinunternehmer.de/ AccountOne: https://www.accountone.de/de_DE

Nick Young and Fernando Cruz, a perfect duo taking on the world of Amazon and E-commerce. They've been running private label selling on Amazon FBA channels and have been able to scale to a healthy 8 figure business. They are hosts of one of the largest Amazon Sellers facebook group and provide a ton of value into the community and space. Take a dive into why these two best friends partnered up with each other and have been able to achieve the same goals and dreams together. In near perfect synergy to dominating the Amazon world, learn about why they started their journey and hearing about the ups and downs that they had to go through. Thanks for tuning in! Check us out at yfactorpodcast.com IG: chenericeric --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/yfactor/support

GFAE006. It is getting hot in here, and I’m not talking about end of August heat in Shenzhen - I’m talking about our new e-commerce Amazon FBA business! This week’s episode I have a 1 on 1 call with each of our FBA business partners to get their feedback and perspectives on the product selection process so far. We are going to talk about FBA Amazon product selection. For full show notes, check out GlobalFromAsia.com/ecommerce006. The post Strategy For Our Amazon FBA Product Selection appeared first on Global From Asia.

These Ask Scott episodes are the highlight of the week for Scott. He just loves brainstorming problems to find solutions, and this is your chance to get your specific questions answered. You can listen to find out how. But Scott’s not satisfied with only doing these Friday Q&A episodes. He’s going to be doing a LIVE event as well! It’s coming up soon in Denver, Colorado and the space is limited due to the type of event it is. You can find out how to get yourself on the list to attend that live event by listening to this episode! The Amazon stats dashboard is not all that great. Any suggestions for finding daily product stats? A listener is a bit frustrated by the lack of usability of the Amazon stats dashboard inside his seller account. Scott agrees, the Amazon dashboard is not exactly user friendly. He’s got a great little hack to help you discover your daily product sales rather than seeing only the total sales of all their products. You’ll want to know how to do this, especially once you have more than one product in your Amazon lineup. Get all the details on this Q&A episode. When should I promote my seasonal product? A listener called in with a question about his seasonal product. It’s based around students, so the time of year it will likely sell more is right around the middle of August or the end of September when school is starting up. He wants to get his products ready and his listing live, but isn’t sure when he should begin promoting the product using Amazon PPC (pay per click) to drive traffic to the product. Scott loves the question and has a very specific answer for this listener, so be sure you check out what he’s got to say. Once my products got to Amazon, the MSKU changed? How can I correct the problem? A caller just shipped in his first set of products in two different boxes. When the boxes arrived they were checked in to the Amazon system, he can see that from his seller dashboard. Since both boxes were identical products with the same SKU numbers, they should look identical in the Amazon dashboard, but they don’t. One has a different MSKU number assigned to it and he’s being told that it’s a problem that he needs to fix. What’s he supposed to do? Scott’s got a simple solution for the guy, so be sure you listen to find out what he suggests. Could my product idea be too soft? There’s not many products or reviews. A listener who’s been doing retail arbitrage on Amazon is considering giving private label sales a try. He’s doing his product research and has found a product in the “hobbies and sports” category that he thinks might be a good one. But there are very few other products in the niche, none that have many reviews, and the sales rank is only average. He’s curious if the market for this product on Amazon is too soft, or if it’s a winner waiting to happen. Scott’s insights on this situation are very helpful, so don’t miss this one! OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER [0:05] Scott’s introduction to this Q&A episode. [0:59] Details on Scott’s upcoming live event in Denver, CO. [3:36] QUESTION ONE: How do you keep track of sales of products individually instead of having them all lumped into one total in Amazon? [11:13] QUESTION TWO: When should a seasonal product be promoted for a launch? [14:50] QUESTION THREE: Once my products got to Amazon, the MSKU switched. What’s up with that? [20:34] QUESTION FOUR: How can I tell if the market for a potential product on Amazon is too soft? LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE www.TheAmazingSeller.com/live - Scott’s upcoming event! www.StitchLabs.com - inventory control and management Scott’s free workshop  - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/workshop www.TheAmazingSeller.com/FB - the TAS Facebook Community  

Today’s show starts out with a great testimonial from a TAS listener who’s rocking it on Amazon with private label sales. It’s proof not only that this show is helping people take action every day, but also that Amazon private label sales is the real deal! You CAN make more than just a decent living, you can make a VERY NICE living selling on Amazon. This is the podcast that teaches you how to do it, step by step. Nothing is held back. Nothing is hidden. This particular episode is the weekly “Ask Scott” episode where you can ask your own private label questions. You’ll learn a lot from listening to these Friday episodes, so sit back, grab a pen and paper, and get ready to take notes because you’re going to learn a ton about Amazon Private Label.   What is the easiest way to figure out taxes and customs on imported products?   One of the places new Amazon sellers often make mistakes is in cutting their margins too close. One of the main things that goes into figuring out those margins is the “cost” of doing business. What goes into that cost? Lots of things: taxes, Amazon fees, shipping, customs fees, etc. On today’s episode a listener is trying to understand those margins before hand (a very smart idea) and asks Scott how he goes about determining the costs of his import fees and duties when importing products from China. You’ll learn a ton from Scott’s answer.   What determines your pricing changes throughout the year?   Pricing is one of the most undefinable things in building an Amazon private label business. How do you determine a good price? Does that price stay the same throughout the year? If it changes, when should you make those changes, and why? None of these question has easy answers and no one answer will fit all businesses and products. But there are some general approaches to pricing that prove to be helpful for most people. On this episode, Scott’s asked about how he prices his products and he shares a handful of helpful principles and tactics that most Amazon sellers find work most of the time. I bought an Amazon business with 4 existing product lines. How should I proceed?   Wow, this listener has his work cut out for him. He bought an existing Amazon private label business that has 4 different product lines already on the Amazon catalogue. How should he proceed? It’s a great question, and Scott’s answer centers around discovering which of those product lines will get the biggest bang for the buck. He walks through how he’d go about doing that on this episode, so be sure to listen - you’ll learn a lot! Do you use product management software?   A listener asks Scott if he uses any product management software to keep his product lines, vendors, invoicing, etc. straight. Scott’s simple answer? No. Scott doesn’t have anything against project management software but he finds that given what he’s doing, there’s only one tool that he needs to keep all of the things for his private label business organized: Google Drive and it’s suite of tools. You can hear how Scott uses Google drive on this episode.   OUTLINE OF THIS INTERVIEW EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER   [0:00] A testimonial from a listener! [0:36] Introduction to this “Ask Scott” episode. [2:44] Shout out to a TAS user who took action on building his own meetup group. [3:47]  Your invite to Scott’s life video workshops. [4:30] QUESTION ONE: What is the best and easiest way to figure out taxes and import duties on products from China? [12:03] QUESTION TWO: How do you go about deciding your pricing, and what impacts your decisions? [19:10] QUESTION THREE: I bought an Amazon business with multiple products already in existence. How should I proceed? [24:22] QUESTION FOUR: Do you use any product management software?   LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE   www.TheAmazingSeller.com/ask - Ask Scott your question.   www.TheAmazingSeller.com/150 - Episode on mindset and success.   www.TheAmazingSeller.com/32 -  Scott’s $8000 customs mistake.   www.TheAmazingSeller.com/135 - Tools Scott uses daily.   www.TheAmazingSeller.com/126 - Episode where Scott discussed pricing.   Scott’s free workshop  - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/workshop   www.TheAmazingSeller.com/FB - the TAS Facebook Community   www.TheAmazingSeller.com/live - Let Scott know your interest in a possible event.

Welcome to the Ask Scott session of the Amazing Seller Podcast. This is where you, and sellers like you are able to ask their practical questions about private label sales on Amazon. Scott Voelker has learned stuff the easy way, the hard way, and by interviewing experts on Amazon and related issues. He’s got a lot of advice regarding a variety of issues surrounding Amazon sales and would love to answer your question. Find out how you can ask your own question on this episode of The Amazing Seller!   When should I decide it’s time to give up a product due to competition?   On this episode a listener asks a question that almost everyone faces at some time. He created a product, got it listed and was making decent sales, then temporarily ran out of funds. When he was able to get back to the product, he found a ton of competition and his product is far down in the search rankings. He’s wondering if he should just give up on this product and try another, or are there ways to test a comeback of sorts? You’ll love to hear Scott’s “can do” answer to this question, on this episode of the show.   I love books and hear that selling used books on Amazon is pretty profitable. Could you talk about that?   This is a great question, and from what Scott has heard, selling used books on Amazon is still a pretty profitable way to make some cash. But it’s not the private label model that Scott focuses on. That approach is called arbitrage and there are lots of great podcasts and resources that teach how to effectively do retail arbitrage. On this episode, Scott recommends a great resource for learning about selling used books on Amazon, especially textbooks, coffee table books, and others.   How is promoting a product off of Amazon different than promoting on Amazon?   Scott often recommends that Amazon sellers also expand their brand to places other than Amazon, for the sake of stability and reach. A listener asks about the ways Scott recommends promoting and marketing products that are not on the Amazon platform. It’s amazing to hear Scott riff on this subject even though he doesn’t do any sales off of Amazon currently. He’s got tons of knowledge about the online space overall and gives some very practical, actionable things this listener can do.   The next Private Label Workshop is going to start soon!   If you’re new to Private Label sales on Amazon, the best news in the world is that you don’t have to figure it out on your own. Scott regularly holds private label workshops where he walks through the details (yes, the details) of the 5 steps he takes to launch every one of his new products on Amazon. He includes finding the right product, dealing with suppliers, promotions, product listings, packaging - everything you need to get started doing your own Amazon private label business. If you’d like to attend one of these interactive video workshops, be sure to listen to this episode to find out how. And yes, it’s free!   . OUTLINE OF THIS INTERVIEW EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER   [0:05] Welcome to this “Ask Scott” session of the podcast! [1:16] Follow Scott on Periscope. [2:00] Join an upcoming workshop! [2:53] QUESTION ONE: At what point do you decide your product is no longer viable due to competition? [9:36] QUESTION TWO: I’d love to know more about selling books on Amazon. [14:21] QUESTION THREE: How would you go about promoting a non Amazon product?   LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE   www.Periscope.tv - find Scott on Periscope - @ScottVoelker   www.FreePrivateLabelCourse.com   www.TheAmazingSeller.com/56 - Greg Mercer and the Jungle Scout interview   www.CamelCamelCamel.com - A sales tool for Amazon sellers.   www.AWebber.com - Email service Scott uses.   www.AskJordan.net - Jordan Malik’s podcast about FBA arbitrage (for book sales)   Scott’s free workshop  - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/workshop   www.TheAmazingSeller.com/FB - the TAS Facebook Community      

Scott loves the way these Q&A episodes encourage action taking in relevant, practical ways. Taking action on your Amazon Private Label business is the most important thing you can do to see success happen. As you listen today, carefully listen for the things that Scott’s suggesting in his answers that you can do. Today. Now. To get your Amazon private label business moving forward in a new way. You can make changes now if you’re just willing to take action and put things to work for you. So don’t just be a consumer, be an action taker! It could be the difference between huge success and none at all. Done is better than perfect, so don’t wait to take action. One of the most crippling mistakes Amazon private label sellers make is to try to get all their ducks in a perfect little row before they take any action. That’s a mistake. You won’t know if what you’re investing all your time in is actually worth it until you start taking action. That means that it’s possible that all the work you’re putting into getting things perfect are wasted efforts. You won’t know if that’s the case until you get things out there to start testing the market. Done is better than perfect. Scott’s got lots of passionate things to say about that topic at the beginning of this episode, so be sure you give it a listen to get your dose of inspiration for the day! Why am I not getting enough impressions on my Amazon PPC campaign? A listener called in to ask Scott about a PPC campaign because the impressions being received were not as many as expected. What are the reasons a PPC campaign could NOT be driving traffic? Scott’s got some insightful things to share about this issue and one of the main things has to do with keywords in your listing: where you use them and how you use them. You’ll get all the details on how to maximize the money you’re investing in PPC and how to make sure the keywords you’re using are the right ones, on this episode of The Amazing Seller. Amazon Seller Support tells me not to do PPC for variations? Is that right? A listener has a few products that are similar, but are slightly different (color, size, etc.). Those differences are what Amazon considers to be “variations.” This listener wants to drive traffic to all of his variations using Amazon PPC but is having trouble doing it. The seller support folks at Amazon have told him that setting up PPC campaigns on products that are variations of each other will cause him to compete with himself for those keywords - costing him money and cutting down on his effectiveness. Is that right? Hear Scott’s answer and how you can tweak things just a bit to get the most bang for your PPC buck, on this episode. What are the pros and cons of starting with a minimum budget? One of the strategies Scott recommends often is to set a minimum budget and get started with a private label project in order to prove to yourself that the model is real and can work. It’s worked for many people who are now successful at Amazon private label sales, but is it the right way for everyone to get started? On this episode a listener asks a question about that approach. She wants to know the pros and cons of starting that way VS a traditional product launch approach. You’ll want to hear Scott’s response. He’s got lots of good stuff to share. OUTLINE OF THIS INTERVIEW EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER [0:05] Scott’s welcome to this Q&A episode. [1:02] A word of inspiration from the TAS Facebook group. [5:57] How you can connect with the TAS Facebook group. [6:30] QUESTION ONE: Keywords and PPC? [14:25] QUESTION TWO: PPC for variations? [20:58] QUESTION THREE: Pros and Cons of starting with a minimum budget VS a more traditional launch. [28:40] How you can ask your questions and how you can get the free private label course. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Scott’s free workshop  - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/workshop www.TheAmazingSeller.com/FB - the TAS Facebook Community Amber’s episode - www.TheAmazingSeller.com/140 www.TheAmazingSeller.com/ask www.FreePrivateLabelCourse.com NEW To The Blog and Podcast? I created a Page Just for You called…START HERE! If you enjoyed this episode share the love with your friends…Click To Tweet the show. Subscribe To Be The First To Receive Updates and NEW Podcast Episodes

If you are at all interested in learning how to sell private label products on Amazon, you’ve found the right podcast! The Amazing Seller is all about Amazon private label, and Scott Voelker leads the way teaching and sharing everything he knows to help you get your business rocking and rolling. On this episode you’re going to hear Scott’s weekly Q&A session, which he does every Friday. On this episode you’re going to hear questions and answers about Amazon PPC, Product research and selection, logos and branding,   Can my Pay per Click (PPC) campaigns wind up competing with each other for keywords?   The short answer: Yes. If you use exact keyword matching on more than one campaign you could wind up competing with yourself, costing yourself money. If you’re using other forms of PPC, it’s possible you won’t be competing with yourself, but to make sure, there’s a simple little tool you can use to ensure that you’re not competing with yourself. It’s called “negative keywords” and on this episode Scott is going to share how to use them to maximize your keywords in your pay per click campaigns.   I found 4 or 5 versions of a product in Jungle Scout that all look like the very same product. One of them has lots of reviews and sales, the others hardly have any. Why is that?   If you’ve spent any time at product research you’ve likely seen a similar situation. Many of the products can wind up looking the same simply because the same suppliers are being used. But one of them always seems to pull out in front to be the dominant product. There are lots of reasons for this, but rather than focusing on what that one product is doing, Scott wants to know how the others are doing. Can you guess why? Scott’s going to tell you all about it on this episode in answer to a listener question, so be sure you stick around to hear the details.   I think it’s time to design my product/brand logo. Any suggestions?   When it comes time to put a “look” to your brand or product, there are no easy avenues to getting it done. You’re typically going to have to spend the bucks to hire a professional designer to produce the look and feel you’re looking for. On this episode Scott mentions some of the places he’d go to find that kind of help, but he’s also going to put the focus on something else you need to make sure you nail down far ahead of your logo. Care to guess what it is? You’ll hear Scott’s words of wisdom on this episode.   I think one of my competitors is doing something against the Amazon terms of service. When is it OK to report them?   It’s not supposed to happen but sometimes Amazon sellers do things against the rule to try to game the system and gain an advantage. If your competition is doing that, it can cost you some revenue at times, depending on what it is they’re doing. This listener thinks his competition is listing the exact same product with the exact same UPC multiple times. He’s curious if it’s OK for him to report this seller, or if he should. On this episode you’re going to hear Scott’s candid reply based on his own ethics and experience. It should serve to guide you in your decisions of this nature. OUTLINE OF THIS INTERVIEW EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER   [0:05] Welcome to this “Ask Scott” episode! [1:04] An inspiring from to the TAS Facebook community! [4:30] How you can learn to do private label selling. [5:47] QUESTION ONE: PPC keywords: Can they compete with each other? [11:00] QUESTION TWO: Can you help me understand the differences I’m seeing in products within Jungle Scout? They seem to be identical products but one is selling much more than the others. [17:45] QUESTION THREE: I’m struggling how to go about designing a logo for my product. Can you help? [22:06] QUESTION FOUR: Why am I seeing duplicate listings on the very same products? I thought Amazon didn’t allow that.   LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE   www.FreePrivateLabelCourse.com   Scott’s interview on Entrepreneur On Fire - http://www.eofire.com/podcast/scottvoelker/   www.TheAmazingSeller.com/119 - The episode on PPC with Chris Schaeffer   www.TheAmazingSeller.com/56 - Episode with Greg Mercer about Jungle Scout   www.TheAmazingSeller.com/JS - Scott’s affiliate link for Jungle Scout.   www.TheAmazingSeller.com/141 - The episode on finding an agent.   Scott’s free workshop  - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/workshop www.TheAmazingSeller.com/FB - the TAS Facebook Community

The most amazing part of having an Amazon Private Label business is that it allows you to build your own real business to support your family and the lifestyle you desire. And there’s a huge community of people making their living this way, and most of them are inside Scott’s TAS community on Facebook. On this episode you’re going to hear Scott’s congrats to one of the members of that community for the great success he’s beginning to see in his business. Be sure to listen to this “Ask Scott” episode to hear that shout-out and to hear some very practical questions answered.   What kind of budget should I have to get started with an Amazon private label business from scratch?   A listener to the show asks a very important question today regarding the beginning stages of beginning a business like Scott has on Amazon. It’s all about budget. How much money should you expect to put into the launch phase of your new Amazon business? Scott says “it depends,” on your product, your niche, and lots of other things - but overall he thinks you should try for around $5,000 to get started, even though there have been some very successful sellers who began with much, much less. Listen to this epiosode to hear Scott’s full answer and to get your head around the steps involved in finding a product, producing it, and getting it into Amazon to sell.   I want to double check the quality of my products before sending them to Amazon, but I live in Sweden. What do you suggest?   International Amazon sellers definitely have some unique hurdles to get past in order to build a successful business that sells on the U.S. Amazon store.One of those has to do with assuring product quality when it comes from an overseas supplier. Scott typically recommends that you have your products sent to you before sending them to Amazon, exactly SO you can check the quality before it goes to Amazon. But for international sellers that requires an extra shipping step and therefore an extra expense. There are some creative ways current international sellers have dealt with that issue, and Scott highlights some of those things on this episode, so be sure to hear his explanations.   I’m new to this Amazon private label thing. What’s a UPC code and what is it used for?   Ahhh...the mysterious UPC code. What is it that’s encoded into that numeric and striped barcode? It’s not really all that difficult and Scott’s going to cover it on this episode. Basically, Amazon uses the UPC code to ensure the proper identification of your product. For that reason, every product or variation of a product has to have its own unique UPC code. That means that a bundle of products would need an individual UPC code that is different from each of the products inside that bundle. It sounds confusing but it’s not. Listen to this episode to hear Scott’s run down of how Amazon uses UPC codes and how you can get UPCs to go on your products.   How do you determine what product supplier to use when they all are vying for your business by dropping the prices on each other? A listener has a very good problem. He’s been researching his products from a handful of suppliers and each of them keeps dropping their prices based on the quotes the others are giving him. He’s trying to decide which supplier he should use and feels bad to turn down these suppliers that he’s had such long conversations with. Scott’s got some great insights into this issue and points out that it’s not only a pricing issue. There’s also supply issues, turnaround time, shipping methods and times, and more. For some powerfully important things to consider when sourcing your products, you should make sure you  listen to this episode!

Your Amazon sales question are answered here! Yes, it does seem too good to be true but just give this episode quick listen and you’ll see that Scott Voelker doesn’t hold anything back. He takes your real life, honest questions and applies his vast knowledge of product research, selection, modification, listing, marketing, and sales, and puts it to work by answering your questions. This episode features questions about Best seller rank (BSR), getting custom products created, and using PPC data to optimize results. Sit down, grab something to take some notes, and get ready to learn how to take your private label business to the next level.   Connect with Scott on Periscope for live interaction!   Scott’s having a great time using Periscope, have you connected with him there yet? Periscope is a live video streaming app that enables you to watch and interact with Scott live anytime that he has something to share (and he’s got a lot to share throughout the day). His thoughts might be on Amazon sales or just business in general, but you’ll get something actionable out of every conversation Scott has on Periscope. To get the app for your phone head over to www.Periscope.tv and then search for Scott Voelker once you’ve got it installed. It won’t be long before you’ll be “scoping” with Scott!   What is BSR (Best Seller Rank) and how can I use it in my product research?   One of the key stats you want to discover when you’re researching a potential product niche is what Amazon calls BSR (Best Seller Rank). It’s the number that shows how well a certain vendor’s products are selling on Amazon and it tells you whether or not a product niche is one that is worth your time and effort to get into. In this episode Scott’s going to run through the bare bones way of figuring out best seller rank and also show you how you can use software to automate that aspect of your product research process to speed up the time it takes you to decide on a product and get it to market. You won’t want to miss it.   I found a great product niche but I can’t find it on Alibaba. How can I get a custom product made?   A listener called in to ask Scott about a product niche that he’s very excited about, but he can’t find anything even similar on Alibaba from wholesale companies. What should he do? Scott’s idea is that he can use Alibaba to provide a drawing or description of what he’s looking for and find out how much a supplier might charge him to create the product from scratch. It’s a great way to differentiate yourself in a busy market and also a sure fire way to keep your product listings from being hijacked. Scott walks through the specifics of what he’d do if he was in this listener’s shoes so take a little time to pick up some tips. Using your PPC data to tweak your campaign for better results.   Wow… the listener who called in this question has some amazing things going on in his Amazon pay per click campaign. He’s making tons of sales at great margins, but he wants to know what he should do next to optimize things even more. You won’t believe how detailed Scott gets with this, taking the guy through the Amazon dashboard step at a time to get him to the exact report he needs to look at to find out how he can optimize his returns even more. If you’re curious about a practical way that PPC can be used to increase profits, you’ll want to hear Scott’s explanation on this episode of The Amazing Seller.   OUTLINE OF THIS INTERVIEW EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER   [0:05] Welcome and introduction of this episode: Ask Scott! [1:18] How you can connect with Scott on Periscope. [3:00] The TAS Facebook community and how you can get involved. [5:39] A shout out to Phil, a TAS community member! [6:34] QUESTION ONE: I’ve got a couple of questions about product research, can you help? [18:57] QUESTION TWO: I’ve found a product I want to offer but can’t find it on the supplier websites. How can I get someone to create it for me? [26:37] QUESTION THREE: Can you help me tweak my PPC campaign given the numbers I’m receiving? LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE   www.TheAmazingSeller.com/ask - Get your questions answered!   www.Periscope.tv - get on Periscope to connect with Scott live!   www.TheAmazingSeller.com/book - Scott’s new book - go get your copy!   Scott’s free workshop  - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/workshop   Jungle Scout - www.JungleScout.com OR use Scott’s affiliate link at www.TheAmazingSeller.com/resources ($10 discount)   www.TheAmazingSeller.com/FB - the TAS Facebook Community   www.TheAmazingSeller.com/56 - Greg Mercer’s episode about Jungle Scout   Chris Schaeffer episode on Amazon PPC Updates - www.TheAmazingSeller.com/119    

If you’re doing Amazon Private Label sales and are just getting started, you’ve just stumbled onto the best resource you could have found… Scott Voelker’s “Ask Scott” episode! Every Friday Scott answers questions from listeners who have submitted them through his website at www.TheAmazingSeller.com/ask . You’ll hear all kinds of questions from brand new sellers and veterans, all seeking advice on how to do their Amazon business wisely. So grab a pen and paper to take some great notes because you’re going to hear some real-world scenarios with Scott’s real-world advice to go along with it. Enjoy! Customs fees and tariffs: What should I plan on for my product? Scott often gets questions about customs, which makes total sense, since most people have never ordered a product from overseas before. Most of the time customs are not concerned with one or two products at a time, like the samples you should order to check out potential products. It’s when you start buying in larger quantities that customs will become an issue. So what are the customs fees and what should you expect? Honestly, it depends. It depends on the exact product you are shipping, what niche it is in, it’s weight and quantity, and many other variables. Most of the time Scott lets his shipper (DHL) handle his customs issues but not always. There’s really too much detail to type out right here, so be sure to listen to this episode to hear Scott’s detailed answer. Amazon just lost my products! How often does that happen and what can I do about it? It’s not really common, but it does happen that Amazon itself will lose or damage one of your product shipments. But thankfully, the Amazon representatives are usually very helpful in resolving these issues and Amazon policies themselves are in your favor. If Amazon loses a product or damages a product that you’ve sent in, they will pay you for the listed sales price of your product, minus all the Amazon fees, naturally. But they won’t do so unless you ask them to do it. So pick up the phone and call a seller support representative to get the ball rolling. They will be able to verify that the product is lost and issue the money for the products to your accounts. Find out how Scott goes about doing this himself, on this episode. I’ve only got $700 to get started on Amazon. What should I do first? This is a common question that Scott fields from newbie sellers and it’s very understandable. It’s wise to mitigate your risks as much as possible, so asking is part of how you learn to do that. What would Scott do if he had $700 and was starting all over? The first thing he’d do would be to prepare for his monthly Seller Account fee. It’s part of what you’ll need to pay in order to have the privilege of selling on Amazon. Next, he’d either do retail arbitrage to turn that $700 into $2000 over the holiday season, or he’d follow the steps a TAS community member did in his “TAS $500 challenge.” You can hear all of Scott’s advice about starting from scratch by listening to this episode. I have 3 great products according to the numbers, but would like to get some advice from an expert without having my ideas ripped off. This listener has done his product research and feels he has 2 or 3 products within a niche from which he can build a brand. Way to go! But before he moves ahead he’d like to run the numbers by someone who’s experienced in the Amazon world to make sure he’s looking at everything correctly. His main concern is that the person who looks at his numbers might steal the idea and begin offering those products themselves. How can he find a trusted advisor? As you might imagine, Scott’s got some thoughts about that conundrum and you’ll hear his answer if you listen to this episode. OUTLINE OF THIS Q&A EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER [0:03] Welcome and introduction to this Q&A episode and how to submit your questions! [1:00] A shout out to a TAS Facebook Community member: Yassar Mack [3:52] QUESTION ONE: What kind of figures should I plan on regarding tariffs or customs fees when sourcing products from China? [10:49] QUESTION TWO: Lost products: How common is that? [15:07] QUESTION THREE: What should be my first step in getting started on  Amazon with only $700 to start? [22:13] QUESTION FOUR: How could I get expert advice about potential products without fear that the expert would take my product idea? [27:46] Scott’s wrap up of this episode. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE The TAS $500 challenge - www.TheAmazingSeller.com/68 Shark Tank TV show Scott’s launch process: www.TheAmazingSeller.com/launch www.TheAmazingSeller.com/100 - the episode with a conversation about the launch process Ask your question: www.TheAmazingSeller.com/ask Scott’s free workshop  - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/workshop www.TheAmazingSeller.com/FB - the TAS Facebook Community

Would you like to have your questions about Amazon FBA answered by someone who’s been successful on the platform?   This is your chance. Every Friday Scott Voelker answers questions that have been left on the voicemail app on the website. They could be about product selection, dealing with negative reviews, pricing, sourcing products from China, or anything else that has to do with selling your private label products on Amazon. You can ask your question by going to www.TheAmazingSeller.com/ask - and Scott just might provide an answer on a future episode of Ask Scott!   I’ve got a handful of negative seller feedbacks and want to get my seller ranking to improve. How can I do it?   If you’ve had issues where the people who have bought your products were not happy for some reason, there are some things you can do to deal with the negative feedback they may have left on your seller profile. First, contact them and offer to rectify the situation. You may need to simply refund their money and allow them to keep the product regardless. But either way, you’re building good will about you and your brand, which could result in those people adjusting their seller feedback. You want your customers to be happy so do whatever it takes. But what can you do about the impact those reviews have had on your seller feedback? Find out by listening to Scott’s response on this episode of The Amazing Seller.   I have a competitor who is slamming my products on their own product listings, saying that I don’t have the right to sell the products myself. What can I do about this?   It is frustrating when your competitors seem bent on sullying your brand or products in order to try and get a leg up on you in the Amazon marketplace. Is there anything you can do about it? Yes, you can contact that seller and ask them to show you proof of the claims they’re making or even send them a cease and desist letter to add a bit of pressure. You can also contact Amazon seller support to ask them to force the competitor to stop. But Scott recommends something else that you may not expect. Listen to this episode to hear his answer.   All of my products use the same basic keywords. How can I use Amazon PPC to target each product when the keywords are all the same?   Amazon PPC is pretty confusing to use as it is. But when your products are similar, perhaps different variants of the same basic product, how can you differentiate within the PPC interface to drive traffic to a specific product? Scott’s got some suggestions for this sort of situation on this episode that you’ll want to hear. It’s not only helpful for driving the actual traffic to the place you want it to go, but his response will also enable you to use PPC to do some research on what people are actually searching for in your niche. Interested? Listen in to hear more!   At what point should I consider using freight forwarders or shipping agents?   Obviously, you want to keep your Amazon business as streamlined and simple as possible. That way you maintain control of timelines and other things that impact the availability and sales of your products. But as your business grows you may need to find other solutions to help you expedite the sheer volume of products you’re dealing with. Those solutions may include freight forwarding services or private shipping agents. At what point are these needed and how do you know if you’re at that point? Scott gives some tips about those decisions and offers some other helpful suggestions about shipping in general in answer to this question.   OUTLINE OF THIS Q&A EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER   [0:03] Welcome to Session #28 of Ask Scott! [0:18] How you can ask your own question: www.TheAmazingSeller.com/ask [0:56] What to expect on this episode. [1:14] A shout out to the TAS community on Facebook: www.TheAmazingSeller.com/FB [2:08] Scott’s shout out to community member Thomas! [4:10] QUESTION ONE: How can I improve my seller ranking and how should I handle negative reviews? [10:04] QUESTION TWO: What should be done if a competitor is slamming my product in their own listings by saying my products are not the legitimate original product? [14:07] QUESTION THREE: I have many products that all use the same basic keywords. How should I use Amazon PPC to help target people to see my various products? [18:44] QUESTION FOUR: How do you coordinate your shipping for products? There are many options, how do you know what to do in each situation? And what labeling and inserts are your suppliers willing to do? LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE   Scott’s follow up email sequence: www.TheAmazingSeller.com/email   Scott’s free workshop  - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/workshop   www.TheAmazingSeller.com/FB - the TAS Facebook Community   The Greg Mercer episode about using Jungle Scout - www.TheAmazingSeller.com/56   Podcast 32 -.Scott’s $1000 mistake: www.TheAmazingSeller.com/32

Welcome to this episode, the 27th “Ask Scott” session! Your questions are what make these Friday episodes the valuable resource that they are, so keep them coming. If you’ve never asked a question but would like to, you can submit your question very simply. Just go to www.TheAmazingSeller.com/ask and click the button to leave your own voicemail question. Who knows? You might be the next listener whose question is featured. Scott loves to field these questions. Not only does it help you, it also helps everyone listening, so go leave your question for Scott now!   I made a mistake, how can I increase my seller rating now?   A listener accidentally missed some customer emails (they landed in the SPAM folder on his email), so he didn’t respond to them in a timely way. Naturally, that dinged his seller ranking on Amazon and he’s struggling to get it boosted again. In this episode of Ask Scott, Scott gives this seller some tips on how he can go about increasing his seller rank after some negatives have occurred. There are some very logical, simple steps to take that over time, can increase that seller rank. Find out how on this episode.   I’m spending lots of money on a PPC campaign and can’t rank for my keyword!   Amazon PPC is a vital part of the Amazon business model and a listener asks Scott what he’s doing wrong. He’s got a campaign set up to rank for certain keywords, but he can’t even get one impression for his main keyword. He’s spent up to $50 per impression to try to get his product to rank, but no luck. What’s he doing wrong? In this episode Scott Voelker answers the question by giving some tips regarding PPC and he even suggests the seller call Amazon’s catalogue department to get some first-hand help. Hear the entire response by listening to this episode.   I’ve just launched my 2nd product but I can’t get it to rank higher than the 2nd page. Help!   An Amazon seller who’s already had some success with one product has just followed Scott’s product launch steps to put her second product in the Amazon catalogue. But try as she might, she can’t get her product to rise any higher than the second page of the Amazon search results. Is she doing something wrong? Does it have to do with how long the competing sellers have had their products listed on Amazon? Scott’s got some ideas of what might be going on, so be sure you listen to hear all the details.   I want to add variations (color, size) to an existing Amazon product listing. Can I do that?   Say you’ve got a T-shirt listed on Amazon. The first listing for the black shirt is selling well so now you want to include additional colors. What do you have to do in order to list your new shirts? Can you add them to the first listing as a variation? Do you have to create an entirely new product listing? What do you do with the old listing if you decide to create a new one with variations included? These are important questions and Scott dives into it on this episode, including some talk about using parent/child functions in the product dashboard to connect products to each other. It’s a great response that everyone can learn from.   OUTLINE OF THIS INTERVIEW EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER   [0:10] Welcome to this “Ask Scott” episode! [0:55] Shout out to Laura Tenns Gallagher from the TAS Facebook community! [2:34] Scott’s live workshops are free and available for you! Join the next one - www.TheAmazingSeller.com/workshop [3:00] Scott’s new 10-day Private Label Course is now available - www.FreePrivateLabelCoruse.com [3:38] QUESTION 1: Is there any way I can improve my seller rating after accidentally not replying to customer emails? [9:38] QUESTION 2: Why can’t I get impressions on keywords I’m bidding on? [15:24] QUESTION 3: I cannot get my second product to rank higher than the second page. Does it have to do with how long other products have been on Amazon? [21:22] QUESTION 4: Can current listings be modified to include modifications or do I need to set up new listings? Would you like to ask your question? www.TheAmazingSeller.com/ask LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE   www.TheAmazingSeller.com/FB - the TAS Facebook Community   Scott’s free workshop  - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/workshop   The new 10-day Private Label Course - www.FreePrivateLabelCourse.com   Scott’s email/feedback system - www.TheAmazingSeller.com/email  

Scott’s got another great edition of “Ask Scott” on tap for you today. This is YOUR opportunity to get your questions answered about Amazon FBA, Private Labeling, Product Launching, and a whole boatload of other stuff having to do with Amazon sales. And you’ll get answers from Scott Voelker, a guy who’s been there, done it, and is still doing it successfully every single day. Scott is not one of those guys who teases you in with a little bit of knowledge and then tries to sell you a course to fill in the blanks. He doesn’t hold anything back. If you have a question, he’ll answer it as fully as he can. So ask your question by going to www.TheAmazingSeller.com/ask and Scott will see what he can do to include your question in an upcoming edition of “Ask Scott.” A question from this episode about LeadPages and email follow up… Scott often refers to setting up a landing page and one of the services he uses to do that is called LeadPages. It’s a ready-made sales/landing page that you can direct people to in order to get them signed up on your customer mailing list. A listener asks Scott how he can go about setting up a LeadPage for his business when he doesn’t have a website. Scott’s got good news for him - you don’t have to have a website in order to use LeadPages. Find out the details and hear Scott’s advice on setting up an email follow-up sequence as well by listening to this episode. Why am I not winning the “buy box” when I’m the manufacturer of my product? One of Scott’s listeners is a bit confused because he’s a manufacturer and is putting his products on Amazon to test the waters. He’s doing merchant fulfillment instead of Amazon FBA (fulfilled by Amazon) and is NOT seeing his product in the “buy box.” Why is that? Could it have to do with the fact that he’s not using FBA? Could it be that a competitor is hijacking his product listing? Listen to Scott’s answer to get the full story. A product review was left as seller feedback. How should I handle that? A new Amazon seller asks Scott a question relating to seller feedback. Seller feedback is the place where purchasers of your products are able to leave comments and ratings about the service you gave them. This person’s customer left a pretty good product review (4 stars) but did it in the seller feedback area. Should the seller remove the comments? Should they contact the buyer and ask them to leave it in the Amazon Product Review section? Scott’s advice is spot on, as always. Find out what it is by listening to this episode. Amazon’s terms of service regarding product giveaways have changed. Is it worth me doing a giveaway at all? It’s true. Amazon has recently changed its terms of service regarding product giveaways. It’s a topic that’s getting lots of buzz and has many people worried that their giveaways to generate product reviews are going to earn them a slap by Amazon. Is this true? Scott’s not all that worried about it and is continuing to do his product giveaways as he always has. Can you guess why? Find out his thinking on this episode of The Amazing Seller! OUTLINE OF THIS INTERVIEW EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER [0:05] Welcome to this episode of Ask Scott. [0:28] If you’d like your question answered, submit it at www.TheAmazingSeller.com/ask [1:00] Shout out to Ben Grover who’s taking action in the Amazing Seller Facebook group! [2:33] An email Scott received from one of his Amazon customers that shows how a personal sounding email to a customer can have a huge impact! [6:06] QUESTION ONE: How can I set up a Lead Pages “landing page” for my email sequence without a website? [11:32] QUESTION TWO: We’re not winning the “buy box” so we can’t use Amazon advertising because we are doing merchant fulfilled shipping. [17:45] QUESTION THREE: How do I communicate with buyers who have left seller feedback? [25:40] QUESTION FOUR: Are product giveaways worth the risk given Amazon’s new terms of service?    [31:05] Scott’s summary of the episode and invitation to join him for one of his live workshops (see the link below). LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Scott’s free workshop  - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/workshop www.TheAmazingSeller.com/FB - the TAS Facebook Community Scott’s feedback/review email sequence - www.TheAmazingSeller.com/email The Episode about landing pages - www.TheAmazingSeller.com/24 The TAS resource page - www.TheAmazingSeller.com/resources

It’s always nice to have a trusted and experienced person to ask about questions that you have, in any area of life. That’s what Scott hopes these Friday “Ask Scott” episodes can be for you. He’s got 3 (actually 6) questions lined up today dealing with everything from customs fees to hijacked product listings. It’s a great show with some very practical, relevant content that should help you avoid some pitfalls and ramp up your business.   What is this I hear about a $2,500 limit on product costs to avoid customs fees?   There is a little bit of truth to the question, but it’s not that you avoid customs fees altogether. What happens is this: When you order products from China or other territories outside the United States, and the total product cost is over $2,500, your products are bumped into a different category where your order is processed by customs manually. That incurs additional customs fees that you will have to pay. Scott’s not sure if $2,500 is the exact limit, but received that information from a DHL representative. Listen to this episode to learn how Scott avoids that fee now.   Scott, help! My product listing has been hijacked!   It’s a very maddening thing when you go through the work to get your private label products purchased and sent in to Amazon and then someone else takes advantage of all your work by listing their product on your listing and works hard to get the “buy box.” What should you do? That’s the exact situation one caller is in and he asked Scott how to handle the situation. Scott’s response includes a “cease and desist” letter that one of the TAS community members uses to address those issues in her business. You can listen to hear how she uses the letter and what kind of response she gets.   When sourcing products through Alibaba, do you focus only on factories or manufacturers, or do you use any company?   The Alibaba listings can be confusing, especially when many companies have similar names. In today’s episode a listener asks Scott what to do when there’s an “XYZ wholesale company” and an “XYZ manufacturing company,” and an “XYZ Medical company” and they all offer the same or similar products.  Should he go with the one that seems like the actual manufacturer or does it make a difference? Scott’s answer is focused more on the terms of the deal than the type of company it is, and he goes into his thinking in detail, so listen in!   If you’d like to get your Amazon FBA or Private Label question answered…   All you have to do is ask! Go to www.TheAmazingSeller.com/ask and leave your own voice mail, asking your question. Scott would love to include your question on an upcoming episode and answer it at the same time! Don’t be shy… get over there right now and ask your question!   OUTLINE OF THIS INTERVIEW EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER   [0:05] Welcome to this episode of “Ask Scott.” [0:30] How you can submit your question to Scott. [1:10] Scott’s excitement about Periscope and how he’s using it to connect with listeners. [3:05] Sign up for one of Scott’s live workshops (free). Register at www.TheAmazingSeller.com/workshop [3:57] QUESTION 1: Isn’t there something about a $2,500 limit on customs to make sure you don’t have to pay too much for customs fees? [10:32] QUESTION 2: What should I do when my product listing was hijacked by somebody else? I’ve connected with Seller Central but am finding it difficult. [17:21] QUESTION 3: Do you only work with factories through Alibaba? Does your payment to DHL cover customs fees? Have you used E-Packet and how does it impact the duties and customs fees? You can ask your question by going to www.TheAmazingSeller.com/ask Your invite to Scott’s free seminar. www.TheAmazingSeller.com/workshop   LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE   Ask your question: www.TheAmazingSeller.com/Ask   Find Scott’s Periscope sessions www.TheAmazingSeller.com/Scope   The episode about avoiding a customs mistake - www.TheAmazingSeller.com/32 Scott’s free workshop  - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/workshop   www.TheAmazingSeller.com/FB - the TAS Facebook Community

It’s another great episode of “Ask Scott” where you get to ask your questions about Amazon FBA sales, private labeling, promotions, keyword and product research, and all the other things that go into building your own Amazon sales business through the amazing Amazon platform. In this episode Scott fields questions from 4 listeners - one all the way from Singapore! You won’t want to miss out hearing Scott’s responses to questions about pumping up slow sales, U.S. manufacturers or suppliers, optimization of search terms, and dealing with imitators of your product. All that on this episode of The Amazing Seller. You’ve followed all of Scott’s suggestions, but sales are very slow… now what? That’s the situation a listener finds himself in and on this episode he asks Scott if perhaps he missed a step or has not done something correctly. He’s getting a few sales a day, but is not even coming close to catching the top seller in his niche when it comes to product reviews. What should he do? It’s a hard question for Scott to answer without all the details, but he gives it his best shot, providing a handful of things to look at that could result in higher sales. Wouldn’t it be great to find a U.S. Manufacturer to source your products? There’s been a lot of chat on the Amazing Seller Facebook Group about this one: finding U.S. based product sources to keep the cash flowing within our own borders. Scott’s all for finding U.S. suppliers, but knows that in order to make a profit you have to spend as little as possible on the product side of things. That’s why this question is such a difficult one to answer definitively. In this episode Scott highlights some of the ways Amazon sellers might be able to find U.S. based suppliers, and invites anyone who HAS found a U.S. based source for their products to contact him to share their tips! How important is it to key in on the search terms and suggested customer profiles available in the product page setup? In every Seller Central product page there’s an option to give suggested categories of people that might be interested in the particular product you’re adding to the Amazon catalogue. A listener asks Scott how important those fields are and what might be done to optimize their use. Scott’s answer points to a previous episode where an expert on Amazon listings shared a wealth of fabulous tips about making your product listing the best it can be. You won’t want to miss Scott’s suggestions and that valuable resource, on this episode. Someone seems to be imitating my product, right down to the images, description, etc. What can I do? Here’s the scenario: A new seller of the same product I sell has shown up in the Amazon listings. His images are exactly the same as mine. His product descriptions are exactly the same as mine. The product is the same as mine. Should I patent my product? Should I contact Amazon? How can I keep this person from horning in on my sales by offering a product that is by all intents the exact same thing as mine? Scott’s answer on this one might surprise you. Listen in to find out the details. OUTLINE OF THIS INTERVIEW EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER [0:05] Welcome and introduction to this ASK SCOTT episode! [1:20] How to get your question answered on one of these episodes. [2:03] QUESTION #1: Very slow sales after doing promotions… what’s normal? What should I be considering? Did I miss any key factors? [8:42] QUESTION #2: Could you speak to the issue of finding manufacturers from the United States. [13:32] QUESTION #3: What are the best practices for optimizing search terms and the profiles on the seller central account? [18:58] QUESTION #4: What can I do when another person is imitating my products, including images, description, and packaging? [24:29] Scott’s free workshop for you to be a part of - www.TheAmazingSeller.com/workshop     LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Find Scott on www.Periscope.tv - @ScottVoelker Get your question answered - www.TheAmazingSeller.com/ask The episode about Amazon optimization - www.TheAmazingSeller.com/86 Scott’s free workshop  - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/workshop www.TheAmazingSeller.com/FB - the TAS Facebook Community

  One of the most powerful ways for you to learn about anything is to have the opportunity to ask a “nothing off limits” question from somebody who’s already doing what you are trying to do for the first time. That’s what this episode of The Amazing Seller is for - it’s an “Ask Scott” episode where you get to Ask Scott Voelker your own question about selling on Amazon, either through Retail Arbitrage, Wholesaling, or Private Label sales. In this episode you’ll hear questions about tax issues, private websites, and sending email to customers. Pull up a chair and get ready to learn as you hear from an experienced Amazon seller about the practical parts of building and running a successful FBA business. What percentage of sales profits should an Amazon seller set aside each month?   That’s a very important question, and it’s one asked by a listener on today’s episode of “Ask Scott.” Naturally, there are variables to consider for each situation including your state of residence and personal tax bracket. But most importantly, you want to base your decision off professional advice from a qualified accountant or tax attorney. Having said that, Scott tells what he does, including how he reinvests profits into his Amazon business so he can get additional tax write offs. It’s practical stuff you won’t want to miss… and you’ll only hear it on this episode of The Amazing Seller. Should you set up a website for your Amazon products?   Many Amazon sellers do set up a website for the products they sell on Amazon to give a greater sense of legitimacy to their business. But Scott’s not sure that the investment in a website is really all that important, especially as you first get your business rolling. He’d rather invest that time and money in things that will get his product more reviews and greater exposure in the Amazon system. Find out why he recommends that and how he goes about doing it on this episode of The Amazing Seller. Getting reviews on your products is vital. How can you do it most effectively?   There are many 3rd party software programs that enable you to track your Amazon sales and solicit feedback from your customers. But is there a way to use those programs to solicit feedback on particular products rather than on your seller account in general? Yes, there is, and in this episode of “Ask Scott,” Scott Voelker walks you through how to do so in a couple of different software programs so that you can make the most out of those Amazon sales reviews and get your product ranking higher in the Amazon search algorithm. Every State in the U.S. has its own sales tax rate? How can Amazon sellers make sure they’re paying the tax that is due? Even experienced Amazon sellers will tell you that sales tax is one of the most confusing, frustrating parts of running a successful Amazon Business. A listener asks Scott a question about collecting and paying State sales tax in this episode, and as always, Scott gives practical, common sense advice about how to play by the rules when it comes to sales tax, and how to make sure you’re not taking those payments from your profits. Listen in to find out how you can ensure that your business is dealing with this important issue wisely. OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER [0:05] Welcome to this “Ask Scott” episode! [0:47] Scott’s having fun on www.Persicope.tv - join him - @ScottVoelker - or recorded at www.TheAmazingSeller.com/scope [3:07] How you can ask Scott a question - www.TheAmazingSeller.com/ask [3:50] QUESTION #1: A tax question - what is the percentage you set aside for income tax each month? [11:12] QUESTION #2: What is the value of having a private website for my products? Do you have one? If so, when did you decide to make that part of your business? [16:30] QUESTION #3: Is there any way to filter out who gets emails through Feedback Genius so I can focus on particular products within my brand? [23:06] QUESTION #4: How do you go about collecting sales tax for the various states? [28:35] Figure out your inventory for the upcoming holiday rush! [30:35] Your invite to one of Scott’s live workshops.   LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Scott’s recorded Periscopes - www.TheAmazingSeller.com/scope www.TaxJar.com - One of Scott’s recommended resources for dealing with sales tax. Scott’s free workshop  - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/workshop  

This is another of Scott Voelker’s Friday “Ask Scott” sessions where he answers your questions about Amazon FBA Sales. In this episode Scott answers 4 questions from listeners just like you who are in the trenches, building their own Amazon sales business. You can be one of the voices you hear on these Q&A episodes by submitting your question for Scott to answer. Head on over to www.TheAmazingSeller.com/ask to submit your question via voicemail and listen to hear your own voice on an upcoming episode of The Amazing Seller.   Is there any benefit to placing 2 UPC codes on the same product?   This may sound like an odd question but there’s really some sophisticated thinking behind it. The idea is simple: If you have a potato peeler as one of your products, should you also create a second listing for the identical product and list it as a “CARROT peeler” instead? You’d have two products with two listings and two unique UPC codes. Scott’s not convinced it’s the best way to start but does think it could be advantageous after looking into the numbers a bit more. Find out the details of why Scott thinks this could be a good strategy as he answers the question on this episode.   Business accounting can be a nightmare, but it doesn’t have to be.   A listener asks Scott how he handles the accounting in his Amazon Private Label business. There are product costs, customs expenses, shipping, Amazon fees - it’s enough to make your head spin. But Scott’s convinced that keeping good records doesn’t have to be that hard. In fact, he started with everything in one spreadsheet and thinks that system could still work if he was inclined to use it. But he goes a bit deeper into the question to reveal what accounting software he’s using now as well as providing a few other options, both software packages you can buy and online free versions. Learn how to get your accounting headaches under control on this episode of The Amazing Seller.   What do you do day to day once your product is launched?   Product research, product sourcing, product listings, PPC, Facebook Ads - there’s a TON that goes into the process of getting a private label product to market on Amazon. But once all that hard work is done and your product is live on Amazon, what do you do day to day from there? A listener asks Scott what his daily, weekly, and monthly routines are now that he’s an established Amazon seller and Scott gives a transparent and simple answer, breaking it down into even the small tasks that he does every day. You won’t want to miss this practical answer as Scott responds to the listener’s question.   Is it possible for my multiple PPC campaigns to compete with each other?   PPC (pay per click advertising) is a very confusing and mysterious thing at times. It’s hard to know all the ins and outs of setting up campaigns correctly. In today’s episode of The Amazing Seller a listener asks a question that stems from some changes he made in his Amazon PPC account, and a change in results he observed. He wants to know: “If I use the same keywords in different Amazon PPC campaigns, will I wind up competing with myself for those keywords, thus decreasing the effectiveness of my investment in PPC?” It’s a great question and Scott has a great answer. Find out what he thinks about that issue on this episode. OUTLINE OF THIS INTERVIEW EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER   [0:05] Welcome to “Ask Scott!” [0:39] How you can ask your own question for an “Ask Scott” episode. [0:45] Scott’s recent business happenings, and some encouragement for you. [2:36] Your invitation to one of Scott’s live workshops (free). [3:23] A shout out to someone in the TAS Facebook group - Frankie, way to do! [5:38] Is it a good idea to put 2 UPC codes on the same product? [9:32] How do you handle your accounting? [15:24] What things do you work on daily, weekly, monthly, etc. to improve your Amazon business once a product is launched? [22:40] A quick question about PPC - Should I have my target keyword in multiple campaigns? [29:20] Your invite to the TAS Facebook Community. [30:00] How to subscribe on iTunes. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Scott’s free workshop  - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/workshop   Interview with Greg Mercer - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/35   Quickbooks - an accounting option. - http://quickbooks.intuit.com/   www.Freshbooks.com - an online accounting software option.   www.waveapps.com - the online accounting software Scott has been using. www.TheAmazingSeller.com/FB - the TAS Facebook Community

Do you know how to evaluate the results of your Amazon PPC campaign?   One of the listeners to TAS didn’t know… so he asked Scott what HE does to analyze the results of an Amazon PPC campaign. Scott’s answer is very enlightening, focusing on the value of PPC in the beginning to crank up your product’s ranking for its target keywords, which helps drive organic sales. It’s not about profit at the beginning, it’s about exposure. Once the organic sales start happening, there’s more than enough profit to be made. Scott goes into the details of how he goes about it in his response to this question, on this episode of the Amazing Seller podcast.   How does BSR related to possible sales?   A listener has heard Scott mention the BSR of a product (Best Seller Rank) and wonders how Scott knows that certain numbers in the BSR category will translate into a certain amount of sales. Scott’s answer focuses on the reality of each niche having a different set of BSR values and how those variables will impact the numbers on your particular target product. But at the heart of Scott’s recommendations is a piece of software that he’s found invaluable in doing the kind of product research needed to get numbers that give you confidence in introducing new products. That software? Jungle Scout. You can get a discount on JS by using Scott’s affiliate link - www.TheAmazingSeller.com/JS   What if your product is part of a “kit” or grouping that doesn’t seem to have one particular keyword to target?   It may be a bit frustrating at first to hone in on the right keywords to target when your product is part of a larger body of products or a “set” or “kit” that people may use. But in the end, it’s a good thing, and here’s why: Your product has the unique ability to target multiple keywords that may seem unrelated to the casual observer, and do so in a very relevant way. And the advantage to having your product as part of a kit (bundling products) is that people are often more prone to buy products that are part of a kit because it seems like a better value. And a bonus to you is that you are likely able to charge more for the kit than you would for the individual product. Hear Scott’s full explanation on this episode of The Amazing Seller.   Amazon may be encouraging you to sign up to be an international seller, but should you?   It’s a flattering feeling to have Amazon approach you via email about becoming an international seller. And it feels good to think of having a world-wide presence in your niche market. But doing so could be the worst thing you could do. Unless you’re already killing it in the U.S. marketplace, which is the largest Amazon Marketplace that exists, you’ll probably wind up distracting yourself from maximizing your sales in the U.S. Marketplace by becoming an international seller. Hear Scott’s reasoning for why you should carefully consider the step into international Amazon sales, in this episode.   Live workshops on Private Label Amazon Sales, complete with Live Q & A   One of Scott’s favorite things to do is host live workshops to help up and coming Amazon business people learn the ropes of Amazon Private Label sales. He holds these workshops once a week (most of the time) and would love for you to come be a part. You can reserve your spot on the next live workshop by going to www.TheAmazingSeller.com/workshop - and get ready to ramp up your knowledge and confidence for doing Amazon sales.   OUTLINE OF THIS Q & A EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER   [0:05] Welcome to this episode. [0:30] Update on Podcast Movement and the TAS meetup there. [3:20] Scott’s live workshop invite [4:11] QUESTION 1: How do you evaluate the results of a PPC campaign? [11:45] QUESTION 2: How do you know that a certain BSR will result in a certain amount of sales? [16:58] QUESTION 3: What is the best way to do keyword research on products that have many variations? [24:26] QUESTION 4: When is a good time to sign up for international selling through Amazon? [27:22] A short interview Danny Brewer did with a TAS listener who did a $500 start up on his private label business. [35:30] How to ask your question for possible inclusion in an Ask Scott episode.   LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE   Scott’s free workshop  - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/workshop   www.TheAmazingSeller.com/PPC - Scott’s system for doing PPC campaigns   www.JungleScout.com - The Jungle Scout app - Get a discount at www.TheAmazingSeller.com/JS   Interview with Greg Mercer, creator of Jungle Scout - www.TheAmazingSeller.com/56   Ask your own question - www.TheAmazingSeller.com/Ask

Questions about setting up or running an FBA Amazon sales business?   You’ve come to the right place! The Amazing Seller podcast, and these Friday episodes in particular, are one of the best ways for you to get your situation-specific questions answered. Each Friday Scott Voelker, a successful Amazon seller himself, answers your questions, submitted by you and played on the podcast in your own voice. He hopes to equip and educate you to make your Amazon FBA business your ticket out of the 9 to 5 rat race. You can ask your question anytime at http://TheAmazingSeller.com/ask   Should you sell electronic items or things “with a switch” in your Amazon business?   A listener asks Scott how hard-and-fast his “rule” is that Amazon sellers should not sell any items that have a switch. When Scott says, “has a switch” he means something with electronics or too many moving parts. Scott does see this as a rule but as a wise suggestion, mainly because offering products that have electronics involved puts you in a position that your products are more likely to be returned because of manufacturing defects, damage that happens during shipping, etc. That will cost you time and money, which you really don’t want to spend. Listen in to hear what Scott suggests to sellers who are considering electronic products.   Do you think it’s a good idea for me to sell apparel on Amazon before setting up my own website or Shopify store?   A listener asks that question and even though Scott doesn’t sell apparel on Amazon, he’s got plenty to say! Apparel sales on Amazon requires special approval due to the wear and tear that can happen to clothing. Amazon tries to safeguard the apparel category by making it more difficult to sell. But if you want to sell clothing and feel it’s a very good niche for you to be in, Scott’s got some suggestions for how you might go about it. Find out more in this episode of The Amazing Seller podcast.   One of the most time intensive parts of selling private label products on Amazon is the product research phase.   Thankfully there are many great software packages available that can help you get through that phase more quickly and with better results. On this episode a listener asks Scott for some tips in using one of those software solutions: Jungle Scout. Scott’s got some great suggestions for how the listener can find the best products and get started selling on Amazon sooner rather than later. Listen in to find out more about how you could do the same thing!   Feedback Genius, MailChimp, Awebber, and other email solutions. Which is best?   A listener says he’s a bit “fuzzy” on why Scott recommends using different software solutions for different parts of an Amazon FBA sales business. Scott does a great job clearing up the fuzz in this episode. Feedback Genius is used only to connect with Amazon’s systems and automate follow up with customers who have purchased your products. It does so without you ever seeing the customer’s email information, because Amazon does not allow sellers to have that information. But it still provides a powerful way for you to increase your feedback and reviews, thus lifting your product’s visibility and legitimacy. Software solutions like MailChimp and Abweber are for building your own private email list of previous customers? How can you do that if Amazon doesn’t allow you to see their email information? Find out how Scott does it on this episode of The Amazing Seller!   OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER   Welcome to this episode - an Ask Scott session! You can ask your question for Scott to answer on a future show - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/ask The new TAS T-shirt (all proceeds go to charity) is available - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/shirt Today’s questions: How hard and fast is your “rule” about not selling products that have switches or electronics involved? Is there a way I could get started on Amazon selling apparel products before trying to set up my own website to sell them? Can you provide me some tips for using Jungle Scout to research products more effectively. What are the reasons you use Feedback Genius for follow up systems regarding reviews, but you use something different (MailChimp or Aweber) to secure email lists for product registration, etc.? Your invite to one of Scott’s free workshops!   LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/FB   Scott’s free workshop  - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/workshop   Get your own Amazing Seller shirt - all proceeds go to charity - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/shirt   The Amazing Seller Episode featuring Greg Mercer, the creator of Jungle Scout - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/56   The Amazing Seller Episode covering SalesBacker - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/77 Scott’s live workshops - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/workshop

Do you have questions about selling on Amazon?   If you do, you’ve come across the best resource to teach you how to be an Amazon FBA seller in a profitable way that can get you out of the 9 to 5 rat race and into your own business that is legitimate and lasting. This episode is #19 of Scott’s Friday Q&A sessions where he answers your questions so that you can learn how to sell on Amazon profitably. If you’d like to have your own questions answered, you can ask them at http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/ask   Should you set up your Amazon Seller account without LLC or incorporation paperwork?   That was one of the questions asked on this episode of The Amazing Seller. While Scott is not an attorney or tax accountant (and suggests you contact one with your questions before you get rolling), he does have an opinion about the question. His view is that you should approach your Amazon sales as a business, and set it up that way from the start. You want the protection and security of the legal entity that LLC or incorporation can provide you. You also want to make sure you’re keeping your taxes separate from your personal income. Again, check with a tax accountant or lawyer for the full picture, and listen in to this episode to hear the other questions and Scott’s answers.   How can you estimate your product costs and profits accurately?   It’s a very important question because you need to stay on top of your costs so that you know that what you’re doing is truly profitable and not just wishful thinking. Costs include everything from the actual price you pay for your products, to shipping, to customs fees, to Amazon seller fees. How do you keep it all straight? That’s the question one listener asked in this episode and Scott gives his best answer, including some resources you can use to help you estimate things so that you’re not caught off guard. That’s on this episode of The Amazing Seller. Is Bundling products together worth it?   It all comes down to cost. Every step you take with your products, from shipping to packaging to branding, is going to add to the cost of your products. There are companies that can receive your products and package them together as you like, but again, it’s an increased cost to you. You can also package those products together yourself, but it will take time and you’ll need specialized packaging with your branding and logos on it. Either way, the cost is more by bundling products. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. Bundling can be a powerful way to expand your brand image on Amazon and provide more value to your customers. Listen to this episode to find out how Scott would approach bundling.   Are you eager to learn how to be a Private Label Amazon seller and want it in an all-in-one package?   If so, you need to get into Scott’s Private Label Classroom. It’s a resource packed with step by step videos, downloadable worksheets, and nuts and bolts descriptions and explanations of how the Amazon sales process works, how you should go about researching and buying products for sale on Amazon, and how you can set those products apart with your own private label and get your business rolling. You’ll go beyond that to learn how to drive traffic to your products and solicit reviews from your customers so that your products can go even higher in the Amazon search rankings. If you’re interested, check it out at www.PrivateLabelClassroom.com OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER   Welcome to this episode! iTunes reviews from The Amazing Seller listeners - escaping the 9 to 5 rat race! QUESTION 1: How do you go about calculating costs and profits? I don’t want to miss anything. QUESTION 2: Should I set up business checking accounts and LLC documents before I set up my Amazon seller account or can I just get going and change it later? QUESTION 3: I’m considering bundling some products to set myself apart. Is this a good idea? How should I go about it? QUESTION 4: I’ve already applied to sell in a variety of territories and don’t have products for sale yet. Now I’m getting all kinds of paperwork to fill out. What would you do in my situation? Your invitation to have your questions answered on the podcast - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/ask   LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE   Scott’s free workshop  - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/workshop The Amazon Cost Estimator - https://sellercentral.amazon.com/hz/fba/profitabilitycalculator/index?lang=en_US www.PrivateLabelClassroom.com - Scott’s videos and handouts guiding you through the Amazon sales wilderness. www.Uline.com www.SalesBacker.com

This is another one of Scott’s great Q&A episodes where he answers listener questions about specific issues when offering products on Amazon FBA or as a Private Label product. The reason Scott does these Q&A episodes is simple: There are lots of questions that come up AS you are doing the work of establishing your business. You need the ability to ask somebody who has been down the road to answer those specific questions, and Scott wants to be that person. In answering your questions it’s not only going to benefit you, it will help other listeners as well. So listen in and apply the answers you hear to your own business, and get started building your own Amazon FBA business.   Can I use existing traffic going to a website where I feature Amazon Affiliate products to feature my own products?   Scott was so excited to hear this question because it shows how smart the listeners to the Amazing Seller podcast are, and that this listener in particular was thinking outside the box to take advantage of an already existing traffic flow. This guy has established himself as an Amazon Affiliate, which pays 7% to him from each sale of an Amazon product he refers through his website. He’s got a substantial amount of traffic already and thought it would be a great idea to somehow feature his own product on that site to get even more profit for himself. Scott thought it was a great idea! You should listen in to hear how Scott advises him to go about it.   Patented products can be a tricky issue. How should you handle the possibility of selling a similar product?   This listener has found a wonderful opportunity in a certain product, but recognized that the product most like it in the Amazon marketplace is patented. Should that raise red flags? Should she take special steps to make sure her product does not infringe on the patent of the existing product that’s for sale? You might be surprised to hear Scott’s answer, so be sure you listen in to hear his answer to this perplexing question.   UPC codes to differentiate your product from others that aren’t selling so well   A listener has found a product that he believes will sell pretty well, but the other product that’s already listed on Amazon has very few reviews, a poorly formatted listing, and isn’t selling very well as a result. He’s wondering if he could get his own UPC for the product, create his own listing, begin soliciting reviews, and soon beat the existing product. Scott’s main concern on this one is not about the UPC code, but about the sales. Can you figure out why that’s his concern? Listen in to find out what this listener should be thinking about first.   Multiple products build a business, not just an income.   This listener knows that and asked Scott what to do when he wants to use a small amount of capital to launch many products within the same niche at the same time. He wants to get the sales flowing while the opportunity is hot and establish his brand with a number of items. Scott gives some solid advice on that approach to help the listener navigate the process of launching multiple products so he doesn’t make mistakes and waste his time and money. Listen in to find out how Scott advises him, on this episode of The Amazing Seller.   OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER   Welcome to this Q&A episode! One situation where Scott had the opportunity to meet with a TAS listener to discuss Amazon sales and the T-shirt design for the upcoming TAS T-shirt! If you have a question for one of these Q&A episodes, submit yours! Today’s questions: How can I use my Amazon Affiliate traffic to offer my own product? How do I deal with products that seem like great options but have a patent on them? How can I create my own UPC code so I can differentiate my product from others? What is the best way to launch multiple products at the same time? Is it too risky? LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE   Submit your question for a future Q&A podcast - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/ask   The Niche Pursuits Podcast with Spencer Haws - http://www.nichepursuits.com/category/podcasts/   The U.S. Government Patent Office website - http://www.USPTO.gov/patent   Jungle Scout - http://www.junglescout.com/   Episode 56 with Greg Mercer - http://theAmazingSeller.com/56   The Amazing Seller Facebook Community - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/FB Register for one of Scott’s workshops - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/workshop

Welcome to another episode of The Amazing Seller Podcast, where Scott Voelker coaches you on how to make your Amazon FBA business rock! This episode is the 17th edition of the “Ask Scott” format where listeners get to ask their questions about FBA Sales and Scott answers them from his experience. In today’s episode Scott answers 5 questions ranging from whether or not the Fulfilled By Amazon option is always the best option, to how to pay suppliers in the safest, most efficient way. Listen in to get all the details! Why should I use Fulfilled By Amazon? A listener who has been selling products on Ebay for a long time asked Scott about the differences between Seller Fulfillment and Fulfilled by Amazon. Scott’s answer is clearly in favor of the FBA model for a number of reasons. When using FBA, Amazon takes care of all shipping, no matter how many items are ordered. You may be able to handle shipping 5 products a day, but what happens when you get 20, or 50, or 100 items ordered each day? Then you’re doing a lot of work you don’t have to be doing. In addition, Amazon likely gives preference to FBA sellers in the search rankings and you won’t want to miss out on that. Plus, if a customer decides to return the item they purchased from you, you’ll have to deal with all that stuff yourself if you’re not using FBA, whereas Amazon will take care of it if you are doing FBA. Find out more reasons to use Amazon FBA on this edition of The Amazing Seller. How do I decide if it’s wise to sell a product with many variations, like color and size? This is a great question and one that Scott knows is an issue for many would be and veteran Amazon sellers. Variations do put a lot more issues on the table for an Amazon seller and Scott recommends that people new to selling on Amazon try to find products that have as few variations as possible, just to make the learning curve a bit easier. But if you’re dead set on selling a product with variations, focus first on the one that you believe sells the most. That way you can work out all the kinks on one product instead of multiple products. Find out more ways to work out the issues with variations on products as you listen to this episode. How should you pay product suppliers? Is Paypal the best option? What about bank transfers? Is there a way that protects you and the seller? A listener had this great question and Scott answers by sharing what he does and what he knows other sellers have done that seem to work. The best option is working through a channel that provides an escrow type account, where the payment is put “on hold” until the order is completed. Then when you, the purchaser are satisfied with the products, you can release the money from escrow. This is what Scott’s done through the Alibaba interface since he first started and has never had a problem with a supplier. He’s also worked with various suppliers to include escrow arrangements when they didn’t have one already in place. There are all kinds of options to pay your suppliers, and some are better than others. Hear all of Scott’s recommendations by listening to this episode! In order to expand your sales, should you add more products or move into other Amazon markets? A listener had this great question and Scott had to honestly answer, “I don’t know.” That’s because the answer depends a lot on what you’re wanting to accomplish. For now, Scott is focusing only on the U.S. market, simply because it has a broader customer base, thus there’s more demand for his products. But he readily admits that doesn’t mean he couldn’t be making money in some of the other markets. He feels like for now, he’s better off maximizing everything he can in his current U.S. based market before moving on to other things. What do you think? What markets are you currently seeing success in? Listen in to this episode of the podcast to find out more about what Scott thinks about expanding into additional markets. OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER Welcome to this Q&A episode! If you have a question, submit yours! Today’s questions: Should I ship products myself or make use of the Fulfilled By Amazon option? Should I launch products that have many variations (color, size, etc.)? If so, how do I go about doing it in a smart way? I’m getting confused with all the options for paying my suppliers. Can you walk me through how you go about paying suppliers? In order to expand my business, should I add more products or get into new markets/countries through Amazon? What are the best tools to use as I work on my Amazon FBA business? Scott will be attending the Podcast Movement event in Ft. Worth, TX and invites you to join him for a meetup! LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Submit your question for a future Q&A podcast - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/ask How to get started with Private Label sales - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/start Scott’s resource page - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/resources The Amazing Seller Facebook Community - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/FB ********************************************* NEW To The Blog and Podcast? I created a Page Just for You called…START HERE! If you enjoyed this episode share the love with your friends…Click To Tweet the show. SubsSpcribe To Be The First To Receive Updates and NEW Podcast Episodes

Our weekly “Ask Scott” episode is here and Scott’s going to take 5 questions from listeners just like you. You can ask your question by going to www.TheAmazingSeller.com/ask . Q1: Facebook groups and product promotion The first question covered in this episode of The Amazing Seller has to do with using a Facebook group to […]

You can get your questions answered by Scott – maybe they’re answered in this episode! Another powerful Q & A session is coming your way on this episode of the Amazing Seller, with Scott Voelker. Scott’s got 5 great questions today, ranging from an inquiry about optimizing sponsored ads for a product, all the way […]

In this episode of The Amazing Seller Podcast I will answer listener questions. The topics discussed are Packaging, PPC-Bundles, Variations Benefits,  Using Accessories, Product Demand . The Questions: 1. What Is Packaging Best Practices? 2. Should I Create Unique Bundles and Promote Using PPC? 3. What Are The Pros and Cons to Using Variations? 4. […]

In this episode of The Amazing Seller Podcast I answer your questions that were submitted by Voicemail about selling private label products on Amazon. If you have a question you want answered on the show…click here. The question asked and answered today were: 1. Should I Pay For an Amazon Pro Account? 2. How Should […]

In this episode of The Amazing Seller Podcast I answer your questions that were submitted by Voicemail about selling private label products on Amazon. If you have a question you want answered on the show…click here. The question asked and answered today were: 1. How to get reviews for products if I live in The […]

In this episode of The Amazing Seller Podcast Scott answers listener questions. The topics discussed are Product Selection, Conversion Rates, Best Seller Badges, Categories, Packaging and Keyword Ranking. Here’s the questions: 1. How To Find a Unique Product? 2. What if BIG Brands Are Selling The Product I Want To Sell? 3. What Is a […]

In this episode of The Amazing Seller Podcast Scott answers listener questions. The topics discussed are The Risks, Product Selection, Inspection, Family Partners and Amazon PPC. Here’s the questions: 1. What are The Specific Risks When Starting? 2. How Do I See How Many Units Are Selling Per Day? 3. What Is Your Inspection Process […]

In this episode of The Amazing Seller Podcast I will answer listener questions about Amazon FBA Selling. This is session #9 of “Ask Scott” and it covers Inventory, Spiking Sales, Gated Categories, Forming LLC, Trademarks, Tomoson and Amazon Training Courses. The questions asked were: How Do I Spike Sales After Running Out of Inventory? Should […]

In this episode of The Amazing Seller Podcast I will answer listener questions about Amazon FBA Selling. This is session #8 of Ask Scott and it covers Product Research, Subcategory BSR, Sales Tax Tips, Organization Research and Adding More Products. The questions asked were: Should I Sell Products If Amazon Already Sells Similar Products? What […]

In this episode of The Amazing Seller Podcast I will answer listener questions about Amazon FBA Selling. This is session #7 of Ask Scott and it covers the future of Amazon FBA, Shipping, Selling Branded Products, Listing Numbers and BSR Info. The questions asked were: What Is The Future Of Selling On Amazon? Should I […]

In this episode of The Amazing Seller Podcast I will answer listener questions about Amazon FBA Selling. This is session #6 of Ask Scott and it covers Amazon PPC, Conversions, Facebook Ads, Price Negotiating and Shipping Direct to FBA. The questions asked were: 1. What Should My Bid Be For Manual Keywords? 2. How Should […]

In this episode of The Amazing Seller Podcast I will answer listener questions about Amazon FBA Selling. This is session #5 of Ask Scott and it covers product selection, keywords, shipping, US based private label companies and videos used in listings. Plus, I give an update on what I’m currently doing to promote my 3 […]

In this episode of The Amazing Seller Podcast I will answer listener questions about Amazon FBA Selling. This is session #4 of Ask Scott and it covers Finding Agents, UPC Codes and FNSKU, Winning The Buy Box, Taxes, Ordering Samples and Minimum Orders. The questions answered are…. In this episode 1. How Do I Find […]

In this episode of The Amazing Seller Podcast I will answer listener questions about Amazon FBA Selling. This is session #3 of Ask Scott and it covers Reviews, Product Insurance, Keyword URL, Supplier Pricing, Shipping Boat vs Air and BSR Concerns. The questions answered are…. 1. Should We Focus on Quantity or Quality for Reviews? […]

In this episode of The Amazing Seller Podcast I will answer listener questions about Amazon FBA Selling. This is session #2 of Ask Scott and it covers Profit margins, Refunds, Investors, Product Images and How To Bundle Products. The questions answered are…. 1. How Do I Find Products That Have Higher Profit Margins? 2. What […]

In this episode of The Amazing Seller Podcast I will answer listener questions about Amazon FBA Selling. This is session #1 of Ask Scott it covers Reviews, Product Selection, Promotions, Brand Names and Shipping. The questions answered are…. 1. How To Find Good Bloggers Using Tomoson.com To Review Products? 2. Should I Launch Cheaper Product […]