Podcasts about fulfilled by amazon

In this eye-opening episode of the Health Coach Academy Podcast, we welcome Neil Twa, founder of Voltage Digital Marketing and a top expert in launching physical product businesses on Amazon. If you've ever wondered how to go beyond trading time for money as a health coach — this episode is your roadmap.

Many dropshippers think you need a large budget to start dropshipping on Amazon, but that's not true! While a budget can help with scaling, you can get started without any startup capital. In this episode, we'll show you how to begin your dropshipping journey on Amazon for free.What You'll Learn:Creating an Amazon Seller Account: Step-by-step guide to setting up your account.Amazon Product Research: Tips for finding the best products to sell.Winning The Buy Box: Strategies to make your products more visible and increase sales.Scaling with Automation: How to use automation tools to grow your business efficiently.Why Listen? If you're looking to start dropshipping on Amazon but are worried about the costs, this episode is for you. Learn how to kickstart your Amazon dropshipping business without needing a big budget and discover strategies to scale up over time.⭐ Start Your

Confused about which e-commerce model to choose? Dive into this episode where we break down Amazon FBA and dropshipping. Learn the nuts and bolts of each model, explore their pros and cons, and discover which could be the best fit for your business goals.What You'll Learn:Amazon FBA vs Dropshipping: A clear comparison to understand both models.How They Work: Insights into the operational mechanics of each system.Pros & Cons: Evaluating the advantages and challenges associated with Amazon FBA and dropshipping.Making Your Choice: Tips to help you decide which model aligns with your e-commerce aspirations.Why Listen?This episode is perfect for anyone standing at the crossroads of e-commerce, unsure which path to take. Get all the information you need to make an informed decision and potentially set the course for your success in the online business world.⭐ Start Your

Welcome back to the show, POD Pals!On this week's show, Travis is solo for another "POD Essentials" episode and shares all about the channel many think is too difficult to launch their POD products on - Amazon! Get ready to unlock the potential of the world's largest marketplace and catapult your sales! Travis is spilling the beans on how to tap into Amazon's 2.5 billion visits—a goldmine compared to Etsy's impressive but smaller reach.Navigating the Amazon landscape can seem like trekking through a dense jungle, but fear not, Travis is here with a machete to clear the path. He'll guide you through choosing between individual and professional seller accounts, leveraging "Fulfilled By Amazon" (FBA) for that Prime edge, and keeping your listings live indefinitely. Learn how to snag that coveted GTIN exemption and wield the power of Amazon's Brand Registry, which not only offers brand protection but also helps with a certain level of control over your listings. Whether you're a seasoned seller or just starting, Amazon just might be the rocket fuel for your print-on-demand dreams. Tune in an find out!Enjoy the show!https://printondemandcast.comhttps://printondemandcast.com/shophttps://printondemandcast.com/facebookhttps://printondemandcast.com/youtubehttps://printondemandcast.com/instagramhttps://printondemandcast.com/tiktok⁠⁠Sign up to get your FREE Annual Design Calendar!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://printondemandcast.com⁠⁠⁠/VIP⁠Other Links:Etsy vs Amazon Traffichttps://sell.amazon.com

E-commerce automation is always changing, which brings new opportunities to think about how you run your own business. But this doesn't always mean to jump in immediately and invest in the next big thing. It's important to understand the automation realities of the past and present to make the best decision for your future. On this episode of E-Comm to Everyone, Ignacio and Vlad bring the battle of Amazon Fulfillment versus Walmart Fulfillment to the public. The two talk about the pros and cons of each one and weigh in on which is the best in their expert opinion (spoiler alert: Amazon is still winning). Additionally, the two share e-commerce insights for prospective investors such as: How to spot false promises by Amazon Automation companies The benefits of generating a stable and consistent cash-flow business Why you should be wary of companies who promise large profits overnight Why Amazon is still the best automation option for e-commerce investors Ignacio and Vlad also talk about why they care so much about their client's financial wellbeing and why it is important for them to share their knowledge about e-commerce and Amazon Automation with the public. Stay Connected Instagram: @ecom.industry Facebook: @EcomIndustryLLC TikTok: @ecomindustry YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLBWffw2KfQJmAkTemcpUUQ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/ecom-industry/message --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/ecom-industry/message

My guest today is Timo Kostamo, an airline pilot turned entrepreneur who has reached the point of thinking about how to slow his sales DOWN in just a year. What happened a year ago? He ran across some great guys who helped him. Timo was in the travel industry for 15-20 years. After COVID shut down much of the industry and several tries in the online business, he became Voltage's client. We helped him start working by the numbers.In this episode, we're talking about his journey to success in sales. Tune in and find out why it's not important to be passionate about the product you sell - but you have to understand people who are.Let's dive right in!  Additional sources:If you're a passionate business builder yourself, visit http://voltageb2b.com to get in touch now.

My today's guest is Kevin Thompson, the co-founder of Tribe For Leaders, a community for high-level experts and CEOs. With this network, Kevin's mission is to ignite opportunities for accelerated growth and impact through strategic relationships. He is an expert at the most critical aspect of life and business: relationships. The Tribe For Leaders community brings established business leaders together at the right time for the right reasons to facilitate and support strategic growth and new-found revenue.Kevin is also the creator of The Partnership Playbook, a system that's helped countless entrepreneurs and professionals in completely different niches and markets to create hugely successful strategic partnerships worth millions of dollars. In addition, he is the Owner of Maximum Response Marketing, where he has collaborated on hundreds of joint ventures with the world's top leaders. Tune in for the new episode as he shares how to connect and partner with other entrepreneurs and CEOs to dramatically grow your business. Let's dive right in!Additional sources:If you're a passionate business builder yourself, visit http://voltageb2b.com to get in touch now.

Travis Manziani has been in both the Shopify space and now has several successful products out on FBA.  He is a thought leader with almost 400 videos on YouTube on the subject of selling on Amazon.His product is different than most, in that it is a Passion product, something he really personally enjoys. Travis has a system to share how to develop your own passion product and get it sold on Amazon.Having been in the space for well over 8 years Travis is one of the top mentors and coaches related to FBA. This "side hustle" could very easily replace your 9-5 grind.Michael and Travis talk all about FBA - why a passion product is important - why a coach is valuable - and lots of tips and info.Travis is available at: https://www.passionproductformula.com/

If you're just starting out on Amazon, or would like to, the first step to take is choosing the fulfilment method that's right for you and your goals.In this episode we highlight the key differences and benefits of both Fulfilled By Amazon and Fulfilled By Merchant.Analyse Your Deals More Efficiently With BBP:https://www.buybotpro.comhttps://www.instagram.com/buybotproReprice With Profit Protector Pro Now:https://www.profitprotectorpro.comhttps://www.instagram.com/profitprotectorproUnique Deal Sourcing Service:https://www.onlinearbitragedeals.comhttps://www.instagram.com/online.arbitrage.deals

37 - Mandeep Kaur is an e-commerce seller who successfully left her full-time (9-5) job duringCovid-19 to manage and expand her e-commerce business.Mandeep Kaur is a 42 year old mom of 3 who stumbled upon e-commerce in 2019 after feeling frustration from the lack of opportunities at her 9-5 job. After launching 2 failed products, her 3rd product took off.Did you know 50% of products sold on Amazon are by 3rd party sellers like her?Mandeep uses Amazon's FBA model (Fulfilled by Amazon) to manage and scale her e-commerce business.With no knowledge or experience in e-commerce prior to this, there was a huge learning curve, but her persistence paid off. She’s now expanding her reach to try to get more BIPOC into this space through her YouTube Channel. In this episode she provides advice to people interested in e-commerce and how to get into “non-traditional” careers.Find Mandeep on InstagramYouTube

Question from Amazon Seller: I hope you have enjoyed the holidays and wish you all the best in 2021. So as much as we tried, due to UPS's taking ONE week to deliver the goods from SLC to Phoenix by parking the goods in Cedar City Utah warehouse and Amazon not wanting to receive the goods until now. I got 7000 units delivered yet not received for over a week now. Which leads to 0 units in FBA. So I got FBM running which is obviously not converting as well and has shot my acos through the roof. I have 1700 units in FBA "transfer". But when you click on my fba it says goods in on Jan 11! which messes up conversion again. So my big question. Should I close my FBA listing for now and just run FBM until goods start showing up in FBA or have them both running even though it says expected Jan 11 when people click on FBA. #FBA #FBM #MFN #amazonselling #amazonseller #amazonfbaSupport the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/myamazonguy)

In this episode, I interview Renae Bunster, the Founder and Global President of Bunsters Hot Sauces. An ex Television journalist, Renae fell in love with hot sauces while in Mexico in 2011. She couldn’t find anything hot enough back in Australia so she started making her own at home in 2012 aged 34. She now sells her hot sauce all around Australia and in America through Amazon and is about to sell her chili vodka in Russia. The business’ sales started at $83,000 in the first year and then doubled every year to crack $1 Million in 2019. With one to five full-time employees, they made 35 tonnes in one week last year through a contract factory, which will double this year.  Initially self-funded, they started dipping into mortgage and did a KickStarter pre-sales crowdfunding in 2015 to sell $200,000 of hot sauce and last year took on angel investors who then suggested an equity crowdfund. In mid-2020, they raised $2 Million from the crowdfunding. She approached two great mentors who are very successful female business owners. She felt she had succeeded when she made a bottle of Vodka with “Shit the Bed” on it and raised $2 Million in crowdfunding. Renae believes the hardest thing in growing a small business is finding customers when you have no budget. She says the one she would tell herself on day one of starting out in business is, “This is going to be huge, but only if you have fun and laugh the whole time, and don’t take it too seriously” Ladies and gentlemen, Shit the Bed creator, Renae Bunster. Enjoy the episode. This Cast Covers: Building a hot sauce empire and making the lion’s share of their money from their flagship Shit the Bed Hot Sauce. The holiday to Mexico that brought it all about. Big markets in the US and Australia, and the ones coming up in the UK, Europe, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The huge role that Fulfilled By Amazon has played in their sales success. From $83,000 a year in 2014 to the current over $1 Million in global sales. The successful crowdfunding campaign that has seen them raise up to $2 Million in equity. Their wife+husband+VA team with an additional food technologist, IT person, and another support person. Creating the Shit the Bed Vodka and having nearly 2,000 people invest in her company. Using contract filling (Contract manufacturing) to cost-effectively and flexibly do and sustain their manufacturing. The power of social media and staying on top of the trends. How authentic influencers are the ones who are getting real returns. Self-funding the business every way they could until the point where they started crowdfunding. Where the crowdfunding idea came from and the effort they had to put into it to make it a success. How she got two very successful female businesswomen to mentor her. What it’s really like to make money from the food business. The role that everyone on her team plays to add value to the business. The strategies they use to get the best virtual team members. Why work/life balance does not exist for Renae and the value of having a great scheduling tool. Additional Resources: Bunsters Hot Sauces Losing My Virginity By Richard Branson Finding My Virginity By Richard Branson Small Business Big Marketing By Tim Reid   Music from https://filmmusic.io "Cold Funk" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com). License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Nate and Alysha Jackson are former teachers turned seven figure Amazon sellers who know what is like to start from nothing. They started their business selling on Amazon nearly four years ago flipping everyday things they found at Walmart and Target. After selling over $180,000 in their first year, they were hooked. They are commonly referred to as “the Bra People,” since they have sold more Kohls bras on Amazon than their house is worth. Their end goal was to be able to be stay at home foster parents. However, they never lost that teaching bug but now, instead of teaching in the classroom, they continue to build an online community and support group for those wanting to get rid of debt, quit their jobs, and be financially free. If you’ve ever shopped on Amazon, you’ve probably noticed that there are literally millions of sellers using this platform to make money. But how do they do it? It can seem really overwhelming. My guest today, Nate Jackson, is here to share all the details of how he and his wife built a seven figure business selling on Amazon. We’re talking about Amazon FBA. If you’ve heard the term but still have no idea what it means, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. First and foremost, FBA stands for Fulfilled By Amazon and what that means is that the products are bought and sold by sellers but are held at Amazon warehouses for distribution.  Now there are several ways to manage you’re FBA account but the two biggest are what’s known as “white labeling” and “retail arbitrage.” White labeling is when you purchase a new product from a supplier  and sell that product on Amazon. Retail arbitrage, on the other hand, is what today’s guest specializes in. That’s where you purchase merchandise from retail sellers at steep discounts and then sell them on Amazon for a profit.  Selling on Amazon with arbitrage, instead of being a brand who sells their items directly to consumers, requiring a high investment and high risk strategy, you buy something from point A and then sell it on point B, ideally yielding a profit vs what your cost was. This has a much lower risk factor as you are buying and selling 1 of 100 different things instead of buying 100 of 1 thing. Another great perk to mention of Amazon’s FBA program is the use of their warehouse space. When Nate began his journey as a seller, he and his wife lived in a very small apartment with no room to store items to box and sell himself. So instead of self storage, he would send everything he purchased to an Amazon warehouse and then as customers purchased the items from his seller account, Amazon would package and send those orders. Getting Started Selling On Amazon Getting started, Nate only used $100, which was going to be he and his wives date money for two months and was no small sum at the time, however, small enough to not truly dent their day to day should it not work out. Their small gamble was rewarded quickly when within a month they were able to double that money which they then used to go back and buy more product, sell that, double again, and so on, repeating the process for the first year before realizing they didn’t need to continue their day jobs and this side hustle on top of it. When picking products, Nate uses the Amazon Seller App, an app only available to those who created and made an Amazon seller account. Using the app, you can go to any store and scan labels to see their selling history on Amazon. Using the given data, you can see how well a product has sold, how long it took to sell, at what price it sold, and what fees are involved in selling the item in order to best estimate your possible ROI. This is how Nate continues to pick items he knows will sell. TIP: It’s not what you think people will want to buy, it’s what people are buying based on the data.  Kohls became a very profitable place to find merchandise, especially bras. Nate said when it comes to certain things, like undergarments, people likely already have the one they want and often times when ordering online, just want to find the exact same thing so they can have more of what they already like. This is how Nate and his wife went on to sell more than double the price of their house in bras alone. Further helping them bolster profit when using Kohls, as well as other retailers, they utilize stacking of discounts such as X-percent off, Kohls cash incentives, Kohls credit rewards, as well as $10 off of $40 promotions, bringing their cost even lower and their profits even higher. Nate went on to emphasize that though this job is not easy, it is simple. Within that first year, or the growth phase of their business, Nate was spending around two hours a night and around ten hours on the weekends buying and shipping products. He had his goal set on building a business, not just having a side income. Again, going to a store, scanning every item on clearance and using the apps data to determine if it was a worthy investment was a tedious task but it was simple work. Nate does advise against going into this business if you’re someone who needs money right now. There is a building period and it does take time. It is an inventory business, you have to have an initial investment, however little or much, and then inventory to sell in order to turn profit. If you’re looking for a side hustle where you can grow something over time, this could be the gig for you. If you have time, patience, and are able to roll your profits back into the business for a time, this could be a great set up.    If you are interested in selling on Amazon, Nate is offering an exclusive discount for the Side Hustle Teachers community. You can get 10% off of his most popular course on flipping items from Kohls by going to sidehustleteachers.com/nate and use the code SIDEHUSTLETEACHER10.  Connect with Website: hustlebuddies.com Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/hustlebuddies Youtube: Hustle Buddies Official

Most Ecommerce brands are starting to feel like they can’t beat Amazon and thus, they must join them. Ryan unpacks the benefits of joining Amazon and the things you need to watch out for if you do. TRANSCRIPT: Jon: So, Ryan, we've all heard the old adage, "If you can't beat them, join them." Right? Ryan Garrow: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Jon: So from what I hear on a daily basis in the conversion optimization world is that most eCommerce brands are starting to feel like they just can't beat Amazon, and thus, they must join them. If nothing else, they're looking to have a presence on Amazon so they can at least be found. It's becoming a huge search engine. I'm sure we'll talk about that. But I see a lot of good things that brands get from participating in the Amazon game, but there seemed to also be a lot of downfalls in doing so as well. So today, I'd like to pose the question, Amazon, fight or join? So Ryan, I think start just by breaking this down a little bit. What are the benefits to joining Amazon? Ryan Garrow: There are a lot. I mean, the easiest answer for that is volume, volume, volume. I mean, Amazon. There's no statistic that shows Amazon is not dominating the online ecosystem as far as volume of sales. They're over 50% every holiday season. They somehow made July into a shopping holiday because every retailer on the planet has low sales in July until Amazon comes along and says, "Well, I'll just put Prime Day out there." There are sales on Amazon. They have figured out how to remove friction from the purchase process better than any other retailer has so far in at least initially looking at it. The benefits of joining Amazon? There's a lot of volume. You can sell stuff. Jon: Okay. So what are the benefits to fighting Amazon? Ryan Garrow: Well, you enjoy pain. You like losing. The benefits of fighting it is you get to control a lot more of your brand. Amazon has been trying to do some things to improve that, but you get more control. You get customer data. It could increase your chances of having repeat purchases if they buy from your website. You get to personally handle that conversion optimization after the purchase, and you get to keep some additional margin. Amazon does charge for the platform when you sell. So there are some benefits to not selling on Amazon. Jon: If you were to choose to join Amazon, what would be your recommendations? Where should we start? Ryan Garrow: Whether you join or fight Amazon probably needs to start with what type of business are you. If you are a retailer selling other company's products through your website or even with a retail storefront as well, Amazon may not be the best place for you. Amazon, largely speaking, is the biggest retail. I mean, Walmart and Amazon are both massive retailers. Other people sell their own stuff on Amazon. Amazon also is a brand. They do have their own products that they sell as well. But as a retailer, it's probably less beneficial. Your margins are already smaller, and you're going to give another retailer some of that benefit. You race to the bottom when you're competing with the same exact product that other retailers are also selling on Amazon. If you're a manufacturer, I think there's a little more upside. You get to control your brand exposure on Amazon. As a manufacturer brand owner myself, I limit my retailers. I don't let them sell on Amazon. I want to own that and keep my cost as low as possible from an ad perspective. But the big key here too is you need to be able to protect your product. Hopefully, that's with some patents. Hopefully, it's a difficult thing for Amazon to maybe find your factory in China to have them make them cheaper for Amazon because they probably will. If you make or sell clothing, you better have a powerful brand. I mean, even Nike doesn't sell on Amazon right now. They went down that path and decided not to. I don't know the intricacies of their agreement and why Nike backed out, but Amazon is the biggest clothing manufacturer in the world. Most of the brands on Amazon for clothes are actually owned by Amazon, even if they don't say the Amazon name. It's just clothing would be difficult, but generally, most manufacturers should be considering it, at least in their process. Retailers, there's probably some different things you need to be looking at. Jon: Well, we've probably all heard the story about Allbirds, the shoe company, right? That Amazon went out and basically created a knockoff because Allbirds was selling so well on Amazon. As a consumer coming to the site, you really can't tell the difference. I've heard from numerous brands that the biggest downfall has been that they have a product that is easily reproduced or that Amazon... Maybe we should get into this a little bit, but I've even heard from people where they've done direct factory to Amazon shipping. So it's not Amazon Fulfillment Warehouse. Amazon then knows who's making the product, and then they contact those people and say, "Hey, we'll pay you a little bit more. Make it for us," or, "We'll do a much larger order if you make it for us," and then they lose their... The retailer loses the factory, and so it's something where Amazon is a double-edged sword for sure. That's why this is going to be such an interesting topic. Ryan Garrow: It is. Amazon basically is going to be frenemies with every company on the planet. They're a necessary evil for certain companies. Google and Amazon are very much frenemies. They both will say that, hey, their biggest competitor is... Google will say it's Amazon. Amazon will say it's Google. They're fighting over that search volume and that revenue from search traffic and paid ads, but Amazon is... I don't know this for sure, but I would argue probably the largest advertiser on Google and driving traffic to the apps into their website. So you have to go into Amazon with your eyes wide open, understanding that Amazon is aggressive. They are not your friend. They will stab you in the back. They will cut you if they get the chance. So you have to always be on your guard and looking at Amazon as, "How could Amazon steal this from me?" and just being operating as a paranoid brand owner or even a retailer. However you're operating on Amazon, protect yourself as often as possible, and look at it through the lens of, "If I was trying to steal this product from me or make money off of me, how would I do that? What would it look like?" Always use that lens on Amazon to see, "Does it make sense? Does it not make sense?" There's too much of a risk. There's a problem because even if you have a patent, which I'm sure Allbirds had some protectable intellectual property within their product. Amazon has more money than you, guaranteed, and they can fight you in court, and they can also probably have... They probably have enough smart lawyers on staff that they can say, "All right. Here's the patent. How can we get close enough to compete, but not necessarily actually break that product or break that patent?" It's probably going to get Amazon in trouble long-term, but in the short-term and where we're at right now, they are able to operate that way, and it's been very effective. I don't dislike Amazon, so don't hear me saying that Amazon is bad for what they're doing or how they're operating. You just as a retailer, or a brand, or a manufacturer have to understand what you're getting into in this relationship. Jon: Yeah, and I think that goes into why Nike left Amazon because Nike, I believe, originally joined on to fight counterfeits on the platform. The problem was is that it just wasn't effective. It actually made more counterfeits because they had more products on there that people could counterfeit, and then list and say it's a Nike product, and list it for cheaper than what Nike was willing to do. So then, it just became even worse for Nike. I think that's why they decided to pull out. That was my understanding. Okay. So if you choose to join, I'm hearing a couple things. Make sure you have a brand that you're selling that people know. Make sure that you have some type of protections in place not only for production of your product and manufacturing, but also on the legal or IP side with doing patents. What other things would you recommend if you choose to join into Amazon that brands do? Ryan Garrow: Based on my experience of selling multiple different ways with the same brand on Amazon, I would say utilize their FBA shipping. I don't necessarily think you need to go Vendor Central. So there's two ways you can go in there, Vendor Central or Seller Central. Jon: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Ryan Garrow: Most of the time, I advocate for Seller Central because you get to control your pricing. Whereas Vendor Central, as of now, Amazon is not great at protecting your MAP pricing. They have incentives, and they will undercut. They have some things in their agreement in the past that they've since eliminated where they have to be the lowest seller. But I think just for controlling a brand, Seller Central is good. I think a lot of Amazon is moving towards that. They've even removed a lot of people from Vendor Central that probably shouldn't have been there in the first place. In Vendor Central, you sell your product to Amazon at wholesale as a retailer, and they buy a large volume typically to get you excited. Jon: Okay. Ryan Garrow: In Seller Central, you put your own listings up and are responsible for all of the content and selling it, and you're going direct to the consumer in a way on Amazon's platform. But then, in Seller Central, you can actually do seller fulfilled shipping where you're shipping it from your warehouses or your location, or your third-party fulfillment center is sending it, or you can do FBA, which is Fulfilled By Amazon, where you send it into Amazon, and then they ship it for you. They make Prime very easy. For most companies, I'm going to advocate for FBA. Some companies want to own a little more of the packaging process, inserts, things like that, be able to communicate with the customer a little bit better direct to the consumer, and that's where maybe a third-party fulfillment or sending out on your own warehouses makes more sense. But what we've seen is that FBA seems to be getting a little bit better placements or your organic rankings are benefited a little more from having FBA on your products. As Amazon goes to one-day shipping, same-day shipping for a lot of products, it becomes a disadvantage to say, "Hey, yes. We have Seller Fulfilled Prime, but it's going to arrive in two, three, four, five days," because there's a dissatisfaction to the customer having to wait that long. Amazon is really using their competitive advantage of warehouses all over the country and a distribution network that is unrivaled probably on the planet, and that FBA allows it. Also, their shipping rates are just ridiculously good. It's just so cheap. Jon: As they became even more aware with a few presidential tweets complaining about the deal they have with the Post Office. Yeah, so what about advertising on the platform? What do you recommend there? I mean, because it seems like if you're going to join them, you might as well promote your products on the platform. Right? Ryan Garrow: Yes. I mean, there's so much search volume. There are so many people going there to buy that advertising makes sense, and Amazon is, as of now, not a great platform for product research. It is not an easy system to go start looking... If you're going to buy a coffee cup, it's not a great platform to start by searching coffee cup, and filter your way down, and try to figure out what you actually want. At this point, Google is still better at finding the products you're looking for, and so by advertising on Amazon, you do get better placement obviously and can compete for that. The conversion rates are crazy good. I mean, I don't know if I've told you, but one of my brands, my conversion rate is 25% to 35%, depending on the amount of traffic I'm driving. Jon: No. That's a good return on ad spend. Ryan Garrow: Yeah. Well, it's a $15 product and I am paying between $1.75 and $2 per click. Jon: Okay. Ryan Garrow: So you need a high conversion rate to make it work. But when you are a price point that makes sense, 15 bucks, most people in the planet won't blink at that. You click "Buy" like it's worth trying, and you trust Amazon's brand. They've built a huge amount of trust and one of the most trusted brands in the world. They know that if they don't like the product they're buying, they can easily return it with no questions asked and get their money back. So there's very low risk on Amazon to buying, which is another reason that it's nice to utilize Amazon because they send a product back, and it's resellable. It goes back in their inventory. It's not a huge issue on that part. So I would advertise for most companies at least covering your brand names, ensuring competitors aren't there. If your product page is on Amazon though, we'll have competitors on them, so that's a no, and there is some risk as well there to be considered. You might want to be bidding on your own product pages because some [inaudible 00:12:30] their products, and I would always own a trademark. It doesn't matter if you're a retailer, if you're a brand. Owning a trademark and being able to register that on Amazon gives you advantages that are not available to companies that don't have a trademark. You get a storefront. You can get specific ads that are available to you that aren't available to other companies without a trademark. Trademarks aren't that difficult to get. I went through the process myself just trying to see if I needed to pay a lawyer 2,500 bucks to get it, and I was able to get one, but just by spending about an hour of my time. Jon: Right. Ryan Garrow: So any trademark, whatsoever gives you the ability to get some benefits. Jon: So that's not a protection angle, right? If you own a trademark on a term, can other people run ads on Amazon for that same term that you own the trademark for? Ryan Garrow: As of now, yes, but you get some additional ad placements that are only available to brands, which a brand has a trademark and you get a store URL. Jon: I see. Ryan Garrow: So you get the "amazon.com/" your store, and you get to put your products on there and curate your own website, if you will. You get to put your A+ or enhanced brand content on your product pages, or we've been experimenting to see if that actually does impact conversion rates, our own... I would call it CRI for the improvement, not CRO, which Jon would correct me if I said it was CRO. But at least seeing if that has an impact. Honestly, as of now, having it as a benefit, there's not much optimization or changes you can do that will materially impact your conversion rate at least that we've seen. Jon: Okay. So this is really helpful. I feel like I have a much better understanding of why I should join in. Jon: Well, what if I choose to fight? Right? Obviously, I like the pain. Right? I like losing. Right? So I'm going to do it. Forget Amazon. I'm just going to go DTC all the way. What are your recommendations there? Ryan Garrow: You're going to need to advertise on Google and Bing through Microsoft ads to keep Amazon from taking your traffic. So both on brand and on your product searches or service searches. Don't forget Microsoft ads. So many companies forget that and Amazon is all over Bing searches. It's really cheap traffic, and too many companies overlook it, so don't forget about that one. But then, if you're going to fight Amazon and not be on there, you really have to be on brand building mode. You are not just selling products to consumers. You are building a brand, and you got to do it aggressively. So think Nordstrom, Sephora. Those are strong brands. They are just retailers. They have some of their own products, but they have a loyalty that is unparalleled in the market. If everything else is equal, my wife will buy from Sephora or Nordstrom because she wants the loyalty points and she trusts the brand more than the brand she's buying from them. So loyalty programs are going to be very important to ensuring that people come back and buy additional products from you. That lifetime value is huge, and that's whether or not you're on Amazon or not. You need to be doing these things, but it becomes more important when you're deciding that Amazon is not going to be an outlet for your product. Jon: Yeah. I was just going to say, so first of all, I know that Nordstrom notes loyalty very well. Right? Ryan Garrow: Those are dangerous. You spend a lot of money to get a glass of champagne. Jon: Yeah, yeah. The 10-point days and all these other things that Nordstrom does is a Harvard Business School case study on how to do loyalty, so that's great to hear. What else should brands be thinking about if they're going to fight Amazon? Ryan Garrow: I would consider what I call a destination retail. So my wife has been passionate about retail her entire life, and so we actually have a retail store even though in this world of eComm, and that's where I spend my entire day, I know that retail is not the best place, generally speaking, to be jumping into. Physical storefronts are struggling. Malls are closing. But if you are looking at retail, which I think there are still some significant advantages to having a physical retail presence, you need to be looking for your brand beyond just a retail store. One of the best examples I've seen of building the brand and creating an experience at retail that is not just simply going into a store and getting something off a shelf. If you've heard of Magnolia like Chip and Joanna Gaines in Waco, Texas, there's literally nothing in Waco, Texas. Other than Baylor, there's no reason that anybody would ever go to Waco. It's not easy to get to. You fly to Austin, drive a couple hours, and it's usually really hot and sweaty. No reason to go there, but they have a destination retail store that I've been dragged there, and it's a phenomenal store. There's a reason that people flock there. They just retail other people's stuff. They have some of their own brands, but my wife's retail store can buy a lot of the same things that are sold at Magnolia, but they've done a phenomenal job at building and curating their brand and causing people to want to go shop from them even if they can get the same product cheaper at a store down the street or on Amazon. Not everybody is going to be able to get their own TV show and do all the things they've done, but at least begin studying what they've done and try to emulate some of the ways they've built that crazy passion and loyalty that causes people over the country to fly and land in Waco, Texas. I went there in August. Jon: Yeah. Ryan Garrow: Ugh, it is hot, sweaty, sticky, and... Jon: Husband of the year right here. Ryan Garrow: My wife was literally in heaven. It was like the closest she's going to get to heaven on earth, and that was Waco, Texas. Jon: But I think that expresses the power of brand, one, right, and how if you've done all that other work to build the brand, then if they were to move on to Amazon at some point, I'm sure people are going on Amazon and searching Magnolia to find their products. Ryan Garrow: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Jon: They're not finding them, so then they have to go elsewhere. But I think that definitely speaks to the power of brand and why that's going to be massively important if you don't want Amazon to go after you. Ryan Garrow: Yeah, and I would say even if you're going on Amazon to sell, you need to be building a brand. So don't take that as, "Oh, I'm going on Amazon, so don't worry about brand." It's always going to be important if you want to grow and scale, but just the magnification needed to compete with the... just sales volume, and ease of conversion, and how we are training. Amazon is training us to just do nothing, but look on Amazon and click "Buy." Sometimes I don't even price check. How sad is that? I'm super cheap. I spend all day on a computer in eCommerce, and I know that there are always better deals or easier ways to get it, but it's like, "Okay. It's going to be $3 more expensive on Amazon. I probably don't even care. I just want to get it because it's going to show up tomorrow and I don't have to worry about it." Jon: Right. It's the convenience factor, right? Ryan Garrow: It is. They've done a great job. Bezos is the richest guy in the world for a reason. He's created a monster that is phenomenally successful and very good at getting people to purchase. Jon: So what have we not covered that you feel would be really important for folks to know about the Amazon fight or join question? If they're considering this, what else do you think they should know? Ryan Garrow: I mean, just be aware of customer data, what that looks like. How valuable are repeat purchases to your brand? Does everybody buy a product you have no margin on the first one and you need them to come back and buy another one or something different to actually make the brand work and the lifetime value work? Because Amazon owns your customer if you sell on Amazon, so you have to treat them as a retailer that owns the customer. So Nordstrom, if you sell at Nordstrom, Nordstrom is going to own the customer, and they don't care if they ever buy your brand again. Amazon doesn't care if they will buy your brand again. They want the customer. So treat it like a retailer and just always go with your eyes open. There's always risks to copycats no matter where you are. If you find success, people are going to copy you. So that's just one of the functions of success. You'll always have it, but it gets, again, magnified on Amazon. Even eBay sellers will take your Amazon listing, and start selling it on eBay, and shipped direct to the consumer off of eBay from Amazon. The order will come in on eBay, and they will go immediately, automatically, usually with bots, buy it on Amazon and have it shipped directly to consumer with a gift receipt. They don't even touch the product. I have some people selling my $15 product for $25 on eBay. We're going to be a registered brand on eBay eventually at this point. There's other things that are higher priority right now in our brand growth, but just know that people are going to take your stuff, and it's just part of... what comes with success. But I would also keep some of your products on your website. Don't give Amazon everything if you choose to go there. You want to have a reason for people to maybe get your gateway drug product like the thing that people always need to start with you and that create high lifetime value customers. But try to get those customers to come back to you through your website. Once they've experienced your brand, you always want your URL on the packaging if possible because Amazon can't control your packaging, like control what goes in the box and the smiley face that goes with it, but keep your website on the packaging. A lot of companies are printing their loyalty program on the packaging. So if somebody goes to Amazon and buys, they are able to still be a part of the loyalty program with that purchase. Again, that's a way of getting that customer data off of Amazon to you as the brand so you can communicate directly. But I think step one for most companies is at least test it. There's no reason not to test what's there, and how much volume, and how it operates, so at least you can better see. If you're going to fight Amazon, you'll have some of the insight into what goes on in Amazon, and you better be prepared internally to take it on. Jon: Which brings me to a really great question, I hope, if I do say so myself because I'm about to ask it, but I'm wondering. What kind of tools exist out there to help brands on Amazon? There's going to to be a whole ecosystem of these, right? Ryan Garrow: Oh, yeah. There are tons. There are repricing tools, which can be very powerful. As a retailer, price is a huge driver of the Buy Box and the whole algorithm behind. If there's 20 people selling that same product, they all get mapped together. There's one listing officially. There are sometimes rogue ones that Amazon eventually will catch. But then, only one of those 20 retailers gets when they click "Buy," and so there's part of the algorithm that's price. If you're cheaper, your chance to get in the Buy Box are much higher. So repricing is a big deal. There's a partner of both of ours. SellerActive here in Portland does a great job at that. There are companies that will help you with listings to make them appear better. So if you have A+ content, they'll get like photographs or images in there. Product images are huge. So make sure you have good product imaging because that will be a big part of the clicks you're going to get. I'm telling most retailers to be ready for 360 images. If you can put 360s on your website, do it now. Have those ready when Amazon does release that to everybody. Right now, it's been held back to some of the larger brands at this point. I think some of it is just a bandwidth issue. 360 images are large, and it's just a... If you put a few million products all at one to have 360 images, that's a lot of server space, but just be ready. Jon: Well, if anyone has that server space, it's Amazon. Right? Ryan Garrow: Yeah, it's probably... They have it. Whether or not they're going to use it for themselves or lease it to somebody else, it's there. I would also say there are some companies out there that will own your brand on Amazon for you, and they will do the advertising. They will act as a retailer and help control Amazon. If you're going to go directly on Amazon through Seller Central or Vendor Central, you have to have some time internally to dedicate to managing that and controlling it. So if you've got retailers who are selling on there and you don't want them violating your MAP, it's going to take some work on your end. Some of these companies who will take over your brand on Amazon will help you control that. So if you just don't have the time, there are some of those companies available. Most brands now can handle Amazon direct, but it still does take some investment of time. Jon: I feel very well educated at this point. I feel like there's so much to think about, but you've done an amazing job of breaking this down, so thank you. Any final thoughts on this before we head on our way? Ryan Garrow: Just don't be scared of Amazon. Yes, it can be dangerous, but it can also be really fun, and it can be very beneficial. But if you'd go in just scared of Amazon, I think you're going to trip up, and you're going to have more issues rather than if you look at them as a potential upside or partner. I think just be optimistic rather than pessimistic when you're looking at Amazon, and I think you'll do a lot better. Jon: That's a great perspective. If you do make the leap on Amazon, hit Ryan up, and he'll help you advertise on there as well. Ryan Garrow: Yeah, or even just set some strategies so you don't lose a bunch of money. Jon: There you go. Always has proved valuable for me, so thank you so much for sharing today, Ryan. I really appreciate it. Ryan Garrow: Thank you. Jon: You've made us all smarter about Amazon and deciding whether we want to fight or join the cause. So have a wonderful day. Thank you for the interview today. Ryan Garrow: Thank you.

As of today Amazon's 2 day shipping is back for FBA Sellers. Great Seller Central News. Coupons are also back. And shipping restrictions are gone.Quick update today just to share the news.Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/myamazonguy)

Subscribe to & Connect with The Host of This Podcast! Amazon has not only become commonplace for every American home, but in most cases, every single business on the planet. No matter where you are, what you’re looking for, and what you needed yesterday – there’s a chance that your needs can be fulfilled by […]

Subscribe to & Connect with The Host of This Podcast! Amazon has not only become commonplace for every American home, but in most cases, every single business on the planet. No matter where you are, what you’re looking for, and what you needed yesterday – there’s a chance that your needs can be fulfilled by […]

Welcome to our last episode in our inventory management series. We’re talking about using fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) versus fulfilled by merchant (FBM), plus we’ve got a great story of how they can work together. Ben Kingery and Trevor Feller, Shipica.com, grew their amazon business before FBA existed so they have built a lot of infrastructure to help their business grow and succeed.

Comparing Ways to sell on Amazon - 5 Amazon Business Models There are in fact multiple ways to sell on Amazon. But most Amazon sellers tend to fixate pretty early on a particular one of the ways to sell on Amazon. If you google "How to sell on Amazon", chances are high that in fact what you're going to be shown is how to private label products on Amazon (I know - I've looked!). Contents: What 'How to Sell on Amazon' Usually Means Model 1: Retail Arbitrage Model 2: Online Arbitrage Model 3: Wholesale Model 4: Private Label/Custom Product Model 5: Agency model Comparing the Models Do it YOUR Way What 'How to sell on Amazon' really means Most posts, videos or podcasts that come up in response to "How to sell on Amazon" really mean:  "How to do Private Label on Amazon". Private Label IS a great way to sell on Amazon - if it's the right model for you.  What is NOT usually made clear is that private label means doing a large amount of work, spending very considerable sums and being willing to take a considerable risk. I know because I've done it multiple times and helped others do the same for about 4 years now.  You have to know how to do product research on Amazon; pick or design products; get them ordered (probably in China)and imported, then how to do an aggressive launch. Each of these skill sets is quite big - but the biggest by far is product selection or design and working with a manufacturer. It's a great skillset to develop but not to be underestimated. The other main ways to sell on Amazon Leaving aside non-physical products, like Kindle books or other Media products, there are in fact many more ways to sell on Amazon than the ones you may have deep-dived into. Let's discuss each of these main ways to sell on Amazon in turn. Model 1: Retail Arbitrage Model 2: Online Arbitrage Model 3: Wholesale Model 4: Private Label/Custom Product Model 5: Agency model Model 1: Retail Arbitrage The most famous of all ways to sell on Amazon This is probably the most famous/well known of all ways to sell on Amazon. Made famous by Chris Green, one of the most popular ways to start Amazon is also one of the cheapest, simplest and quickest. No wonder it's popular. How Retail Arbitrage works You basically go round retail stores (for example Walmart) "scanning" the barcodes of established brand products using your trusty Amazon Seller app and your smartphone (or a barcode scanner for the more dedicated). If you can find a profitable difference between the price a product sells for on Amazon and the cost to you of buying it in-store (accounting for the costs of selling on Amazon, such as the Amazon sales commission and Amazon fulfilment costs), you've hit on a winner. You then buy as many units as you think you can sell/as you can afford. Then, when you get home, you will label the products if needed, put them in a carton and ship them into Amazon's warehouses (under the FBA or "Fulfilled By Amazon" programme). Amazon will then store the products and when a product is ordered, it will fulfil the order (pick it from the warehouse shelves, package it and deliver it).  The upsides of Retail Arbitrage It's very affordable indeed to start with - you can start with under $100. Plus your cash can turn over pretty swiftly, especially at peak sales times. You can probably get your cash back, multiplied, within a month to start with. That said, even RA will require you to keep a decent amount of capital tied up in stock (products) if you want to scale this up to a decent revenue. It's the simplest model in most way and thus requires the least training and setup. Retail Arbitrage Disadvantages RA is a simple system, but the downsides are many. Above all, it's a lot of manual labour/travelling around. The real issue is that once you find a product line that sells well, you generally find you can't restock that product. Certainly not consistently; often, not at all.

Most people shop online at Amazon these days. So it's tempting to list your products on Amazon and benefit from the billions of visitors and millions of buyers over there. It's even mor einteresting if "all you have to do" is list your product on amazon, send your inventory to Amazon, then Amazon will deal with all the inventory, logistics and customer care. But is this real deal for everybody Check out this episode. Want to check my preferred "Make Money Online" business model? Check it out here: https://bit.ly/OFAChangesLife

Justin sits down with Steven Black to discuss his life, how he is crushing it on Amazon, the typical problems sellers face and what is making his business thrive!

This week, UPS announced the launch of E-Fulfillment, which allows sellers to store products in UPS warehouses and ship them through 21 different platforms. How will this affect Fulfilled by Amazon? We’ll dig in at the end of the episode.

The simple answer is No. Most Prime buyers turn on the Prime filter, so when they do a search on Amazon, if an item isn’t prime, it won't even show up on their search. If you are competing for the “buy Box” (this means more than one seller on the listing) Amazon will award the buy box to the prime item, if the prices are the same. This means if 2 sellers are selling the same item for the same price, and only one is prime, he/she will get the sale when the buyer pressed the “add to cart” If an item is Fulfilled By Amazon, by default it will be Prime. But in some cases, if you live in the US you can do Seller fulfilled prime. To do so, you need to qualify and be able to deliver your products as quick as Amazon woud. Amazon is amazing at providing us all with the instant gratification, that we seem to all love and be addicted too. As a professional Amazon seller and a very big buyer, I will not sell anything that isn't prime, and will not by items that are not prime. (If I can wait 20 to 60 days for the item, I might as well get it from eBay lol) I hope this answer was useful. If it was please upvote and follow Quin Amorim Host of QA Selling Online Podcast

This is the story of how a lemonade stand became turned into a successful skincare line. In less than one year, today's guest began manufacturing all-natural soap, sold out of their first 5,000 units on Amazon, gained hundreds of positive reviews for their nine-item catalog, and launched a Shopify store. All while working full-time as an ER physician with kids. It's with those kids that our story starts. After raising $3,000 in the National Lemonade Day Program in Houston to help support an orphanage in India, they sought out to explore entrepreneurship as a family... Tune in for more details! Resources iHeart Nature iHeart Nature on Amazon Jump For Joy Lemonade Share your thoughts Ask a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Share this show on Twitter Never miss an episode Subscribe on iTunes Join Kurt's newsletter Help the show Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings & reviews help, and I read each one. Subscribe on iTunes What's Kurt up to? See our recent work at Ethercycle Take a ride with Kurt on YouTube Grow Your Store in 2018 Apply to work with Kurt to grow your store. Prefer to DIY? Read a free sample chapter of Kurt's book Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com Learn what's Shopify Plus got that regular Shopify doesn't?” Sponsors Try Bold Product Upsell free for 90 days Save 20% on Turbo, a blazing fast Shopify theme Improve your shop's search engine ranking with Venntov SEO Meta Manager

Have you ever wanted to start an Import Business? Wanted to launch an Amazon business but not sure what product to sell or even where to get it? Are you worried about scammers on Alibaba or Aliexpress and scared to get started?Well, all that's about to change! We at Import Export Coaching show everyday people how to launch an online business and find hot products in China and get them safely to your country with zero hassle. We GUARANTEE that all our students will be importing within 3 months or less from China and have found their product and be selling it online. Visit us here: http://www.ImportExportCoaching.comConnect with me personally here:https://m.me/2054906828156330Call our office on (02) 8003 7534 (Australia)Call our office on +1 323 521 5072 (USA)Call our office on +44 02 037649221 (UK)

Stranded Inventory Fulfilled By Amazon From now on, you will not be allowed to send in any new orders if that SKU has any stranded inventory at Amazon Warehouse (FBA)

Alex Lyon from Avask Tax Advisors works with over 2,000 eCommerce and FBA clients. Her role is to help them understand, register for, manage and comply with VAT registrations and payments. Did you know that when selling online in Europe the taxes (VAT) are included in the purchase price? Did you know if you don't increase your list price your margins shrink by the VAT amount? Did you know that if you have a UK company there is a minimum total revenue threshold amount you can reach before you have to collect VAT? Did you know the biggest mistake made by US companies is not registering for VAT, but that you can sell on Amazon prior to having the registration number? If you answered “no” to at least one of the above questions…and plan to expand to Europe, hearing Alex's explanation of the VAT process could be critical to your expansion success.   Episode Highlights: The biggest mistake Alex sees is not registering for VAT, and it is costly! You can sell before being registered, but it'll cost you if you don't increase your prices to account for VAT. You do not have to set up a foreign corporation to sell in Europe, regardless of your overseas location: i.e. US, Singapore, etc. You only collect in countries you are shipping from (there is a caveat). Amazon does not show VAT charges separately in your seller account. The PanEU program makes sense for some, most only register in the UK and Germany. If you don't pay VAT…your Amazon account will be suspended and/or closed (eventually). “Import VAT” is charged on the inventory shipped into the country and paid immediately. “Sales VAT” is charged on the retail price of your goods, and paid quarterly. The UK and Germany are the two largest markets for selling online in the EU. The UK is the easiest to expand to from the US because of language and the challenges of shipping to Germany. Wiring VAT payments can take 4-5 days and a currency account in Europe shortens the wire times. Using an intermediary bank, or currency account, can save 1-3% in exchange rate fees. With Avask, the costs to register for VAT in the UK is about $200 USD, and then about $1200 USD per year. Caveat to costs: “Distance Selling Thresholds”, if met, require more than $1200 per year because VAT is required in countries you do not store inventory in. Transcription: Mark: Good morning Joe. How are you? Joe: I'm good Mark. How are you? Mark: I'm hanging in there. I'm enjoying the weather lately and getting outdoors a little bit not working as hard but we're still recording podcasts. And you recorded one on an interesting topic and something that I think more and more people are having to face that have Amazon businesses and that's some of the tax implications going overseas. Joe: Yes. Actually, anybody who has a physical products business that wants to sell in Europe and it's on value added taxes, oh my God not exciting at all. But did you know real quickly that you know obviously here in the States you buy something and then the tax is added? When you buy something online, or in Europe, UK, Germany, France, Italy, etcetera the price is built into…I'm sorry the taxes are built into the price. So if it's 120$ the item might be 100 but the taxes are 20. And a lot of buyers that ex…by sellers that expand overseas don't quite understand that concept initially and they could immediately start losing margin by not increasing the prices for the value added taxes. A great conversation it was with Alex Lyon from AVASK Tax Advisors they have over 2,000 FBA clients and e-commerce clients throughout the world that sell and need value added tax compliance so really informative stuff. And anybody that's considering expanding overseas should absolutely listen to this because it's not that complicated once you listen to what she says. Mark: What are the consequences if somebody is not taking care of the value added tax? Do you know by any chance? Joe: Yeah absolutely. So they're very-very compliant over there. It's not gray like it is here in the States, its black and white. So the problem is that if you sell in let's say the UK and you're not registered, you're going to be determined. Amazon has to share the information with I think it's the HMRC. They have to by law; they share the details of everybody that sells on Amazon. So the HMRC has access to your sales information and therefore can force you to pay the value added taxes that you should have collected. If you didn't collect it you're going to pay for that out of your pocket simple as that. So you've got two choices: pay for it out of your pocket and lose that 15 to 20% margin and probably make no money at all or walk away and be banned from selling in in Europe on Amazon. Mark: That's significant. I think moving across the ocean to selling in different countries is a huge opportunity for anyone. Buying an e-commerce business that wants to ship overseas that you need to start taking advantage of that opportunity but you also have to go through some of the understanding of what sort of regulations are in play. I think this you know isn't…this is not exactly an exciting topic but you know and I think it's a really important topic for anyone to listen to, to possibly unlock an opportunity that your competitors are not taking advantage of. Joe: Yeah and before we say let's jump into it let me just say this that I've seen explosive growth with people moving and expanding their products to the EEO, explosive growth in particular France. I mean the UK and Germany. And the cost associated with it using someone like AVASK and they're not the only ones who do it, it's not all that expensive. You're looking at maybe 1500 $ to get the ball rolling and get it done right. And you can you can start selling immediately as long as you're registering and then you pay from the date you started selling. It's really not that complicated. There's a lot to it but it's really-really important that if you're going to sell overseas which I think everybody should if they have real growth plans that they listen to the whole podcast. Mark: All right with that I will say let's jump into it. Joe: Hey folks it's Joe from Quiet Light Brokerage and today I've got to Alex Lyon from AVASK Tax Advisors with me. She's an expert on VAT which I believe is value added tax. Something a lot of folks trying to expand their e-commerce businesses over to the UK and beyond really need some help on. So Alex welcome to the Quiet Light Podcast. Alex: Thank you. Thank you, Joe. Hi everyone. Yeah as Joe has mentioned my name is Alex. I am Indirect Tax Client Manager of AVASK. So I've been working here for three years now just helping e-commerce sellers expand over into Europe. So we've got over 2,000 Amazon sellers that we work with. UK companies also companies based all over the world as well. So yeah that's been us. Joe: That's fantastic. Are they all FBA clients (Fulfilled By Amazon) or do they you know sell off FBA as well (off Amazon) with their own e-commerce businesses? Alex: It varies so a high majority of people are FBA sellers just because it's a lot easier to hand everything over to Amazon and kind of let them do fulfillment. But there are quite a large number of Amazon Sellers as well such as shipment from your own country which obviously makes a lot of things easier in terms of the VAT because you don't have to actually declare the sales in Europe because you're not fulfilling from his countries. So yeah it's kind of a majority FBA but we do have MFM sellers as well. Joe: Okay, good. Good. Good. So let's talk about the basics, get things straight here for our listeners because a lot of people here in the states are expanding their Amazon.com accounts beyond Amazon into the European countries and seeing explosive growth. But the big mystery is how to set up the VAT's and how to find an agency like yours to handle it most of the costs associated with it are. So you can start am I getting it right is it Value Added Tax and tell us how it works? Alex: Correct. Yes, it's value added tax. It's the same principle across the European countries but they have different rights and different filing frequencies. The easiest way to explain it would be that it's similar to the sales tax you have in the US. But the main difference would be the way which you include it within the price of your product. So this is kind of the biggest hurdle where people fall over on where they don't actually include the VAT amount within the price of the product which means that you're not actually collecting the VAT from your customer but you still have to pay it to the revenue. So you're essentially paying it out from your pocket if you don't include it. So in the US for someone like myself when I come over I don't realize it works like this when I go to the checkout in sell sites because I didn't know and I'm kind of how…where is this amount coming from. Whereas in the UK you don't know that it's already there in the price of the product so yes its essentially the same as the sales tax but it's more hidden. Joe: So Amazon is collecting that 20% for units built into the purchase price of the product. So if it's 100 $ if the VAT is 20% for instance, 20% is something set aside to pay your VAT…your taxes? Alex: Yes. Joe: Okay. Alex: So you need to list in on Amazon for the straight 120. Amazon won't do that for you. Joe: Okay and do a lot of people make that mistake where they just list their business without bumping it for the value added tax? Alex: Yeah there's a large number of that do. Without getting kind of proper advice on how VAT actually works. So it is…see it's hard enough to in taxes in your own country let alone I'm kind of working out how to do it in a foreign country. So yeah that's a big hurdle where quite a lot of people fall over on. Joe: Okay. So you're located in the UK. AVASK is located in the UK. But I think I saw offices around in different parts of the world, is that right? Alex: Yes that's right. So we've got an office in London and I'm on based on in Winchester which is about an hour south of London. And then we've also got offices in Shenzhen and LA. We try to come over to the US as much as possible as well just because oversea it's kind of US sellers that we've [inaudible 00:08:19.0] work with. So yeah we try and get over to the events as much as possible as well and get that travelling. Joe: So the vast majority of clients as you said are US based clients and they start selling and Amazon.com and then expanded to the European countries? Alex: Yeah, definitely. Amazon is oversea, it's huge in America and it's just kind of been taking off here in Europe as well. So it's a massive market in Europe and I think if you're product is successful and you've been able to make it successive there in the US then there's absolutely no reason why you shouldn't also be able to do in Europe. Joe: Okay. So let's say I own an Amazon.com account, I want to reach out to you what…and I want to sell in the European countries, step one two three can you walk us through that? Alex: Yup sure. So step one is to work out where you're going to be shipping your products from. So most people go with the UK or Germany just because they're the biggest markets, UK is obviously a lot easier because you don't have to translate any of your products. So whichever country you decide you're going to fulfill from you then have to get a VAT number in that country and also an EORI number for all of your shipments. So those two numbers you have to have those before you make a shipment. If you make a shipment without those numbers you're going to get charged import VAT and then you won't necessarily be able to reclaim that back whereas you would if you have the numbers. So that's very important. In terms of the registration process, engaging a UK agent is really helpful because you've got someone who can communicate with tax authorities on your behalf. And that also means that we know exactly what documents are needed for each of the registration. We'll process all of that for you. Once the application has been submitted and you're waiting for the numbers to come through at that point you should start getting your listings up. Working out some shipping quotes and kind of working out all the details on actually how you're going to get your product there and what the listings are going to look like. Joe: Okay. And I just had a conversation with someone that is buying an Amazon business and they were confused about when the VAT was going to be applied. Is it to the amount of products being shipped into the country or is it the amount that's sold? Alex: It's both. So if you're doing FBA you're making a box shipment to an Amazon warehouse. That box shipment you're going to have to declare at customs. So any shipment that's out into a warehouse is going to have import VAT at UK customs charged on it that's assuming of course that your shipment has come from outside of Europe, so most people ship from China or from the US. So import VAT is going to be charged on the cost of your goods. When you put together a commercial invoice of that shipment, that's the amount of the import fees then we charge on also with freight charges and things. Joe: And then what time do they pay that import VAT, when it arrives? Alex: Yeah correct so usually depending on what shipping company you'll go for usually they'll pay it for you and invoice it back to you. But they still have to do your kind of clearance number to create a shipment. Joe: And then do they have to…then they collect that VAT when it sells and they keep it or is it a different…are we talking about two different things? The import VAT versus the VAT that's charged to the customer on the Amazon account is that two different things or it's the same? Alex: It's the same tax but it's computed in different ways. So import VAT is non-cost whereas VAT on your sales is on the retail price of your goods. And they're also kind of declared differently so with the VAT when you [inaudible 00:11:35.18] you pay that in your VAT within each quarter. You don't pay that immediately when you make the sale. Whereas the import VAT, you pay it immediately at customs. And the way that those kind of…they tie in together although they're separately you…it's within your VAT return. So you do your VAT filing every quarter. So every three months you declare the amount of sales you made and then obviously you're declaring the VAT that's due on your sales and then any import VAT that you pay you can get that refunded and it's used as a credit within your VAT return. Joe: And how easy is it within the Amazon seller account to see that money that you've collected and have it match up against what you're going to owe? Or is it not as black and white as I think it would be or is it really relatively easy? Alex: It's gotten a lot better, to be honest. And so Amazon have got a specific VAT report that you can now download so you can see the breakdown. But in terms of the actual…when your customer purchases an item they won't be able to see the breakdown of VAT and the amount that's going to the amount that's going to the revenue. Another kind of stumbling block where a few Amazon sellers fall over where they don't get the kind of proper…do the proper research before is that's that although Amazon take their fees from the money you receive in terms of your sales, the VAT is [inaudible 00:12:49.6] on the total sales price. You can't deduct Amazon fees and then the amount that you actually receive from Amazon is what you pay VAT on it's the total amount that you're costumer is paying you pay VAT on. Joe: Why is there any calculation at all that the seller does? Doesn't Amazon calculate it for you it seems like they would since they know the exact sales? Alex: Yes so, unfortunately, it doesn't work like that. You have to include it. You have to price your product you have to do your pricing matrix. If you're expecting to move due your pricing and then Amazon add the VAT on it…that's not going to happen. You have to make sure you're including them. Joe: Well then I was thinking in terms of Amazon that in your pricing you would say this is my price and then this is my VAT amount it's not done that way you just simply mark it up to 120$ if it's a 100$ item. Alex: Yeah, exactly. Mark out straight away. And you can tell Amazon with the VAT calculation service you can let them know if you've got any kind of reduce rated or zero rated items which will reflect on the actual sales report. But it's not going to affect what your actual retail price is on Amazon and what it's listed as. Joe: Okay. Let's talk about volume. Here in the States, there's a lot of question about when should I start collecting sales taxes and [inaudible 00:13:58.6] and all these different [inaudible 00:13:59.8] unfortunately not black and white yet. It's still very-very gray. I had a situation where I listed a business for sale and asked about collecting VAT and he said well I'm not…I haven't hit that threshold yet in the UK. And I think it was a UK corporation as well, can you talk about thresholds and when and if you have to collect. In different [inaudible 00:14:21.4] what if you're a UK corporation or a Hong Kong Corporation if you're someone at the LOC or corporation here in the States? Alex: Okay, so if you have a company that's incorporated anywhere apart from the UK then you have to register for VAT immediately so that's sale number one whether it's going to have 1$, 10$, or 100$ it's straight away so no threshold whatsoever, you have to be registered. If however, you have a UK company there's a threshold of 85,000 Pounds and that's in terms of a turnover over a 12 month loaning period. So if you hit that within three months you have to be registered if you hit that in 11 months you have to be registered but that's just for a UK company. So if you've got an overseas entity you have to register straight to it there's no threshold. Joe: As far as buyers go, when you and I talked about this and have conversations with buyers when they buy an Amazon account that has a European component to it there's always questions about TMI not going to be collecting during a certain period of time, how do we sign up, how do we get that registered, what kind of danger I'm going to be in. I think you said the other day in a call separately in preparation for this that you can start pricing your products right away while you register and you're not going to…you're not going to lose any grounds or sales while you're registering and then paying VAT down the road a bit. Can you talk about that again a little bit so that…and talk about it from a buyer for perspective. If say someone is buying an Amazon account and taking it over and would reach out to you to register how do they ensure that they're collecting from day one of ownership and that they're not going to…not get themselves in a little bit of trouble? Alex: Well, first of all, I want to make sure, well check whether the Amazon account has already previously been charging VAT. So what we've discussed in terms of the pricing, obviously if you're taking over an Amazon account you're buying that account. And if they haven't been including VAT in the prices, you obviously then need to…the first kind of goal is to straight away go ahead and increase everything by that 20%. Joe: Let me just jump in here for a sec. So that's a consideration when someone…this is for the buyers that are listening, correct me here Alex if I'm wrong but when someone's buying an account and the owner has UK corporation, if they're below that annual threshold of 85,000 Pounds in revenue they're not charging VAT. But if I buy it and I'm not a UK corporation I immediately have to increase the prices in order to collect VAT or leave it alone and I'm going to lose 20% of my sales to the VAT. Is that correct? Alex: That's correct. Yes, so you because you're an overseas company you have to charge VAT on your sales even though they haven't been charged previously. Joe: Okay really critical for buyers to understand that when it's a UK corporation. Okay sorry to interrupt please continue. Alex: Okay so once you have then kind of taken over the company you can actually back date a registration. So say I'm talking over…I'm buying an Amazon account under my US company from a UK company we'll stick to that example. From the 1st of May you know going through the whole process it's taken a couple weeks to actually get everything set up. When if it got to the 1st of June and you still hadn't registered you can then back date that to the 1st of May. So as soon as you know that you're going to be buying the Amazon Seller Central, I would make sure that you're charging VAT to your customers because although you may not be registered you can backdate the registration. And it means that you have to pay VAT in all sales you make previous even though at that actual moment in time you weren't registered but you're back dating registration. Joe: Okay just to summarize. Don't change a thing in terms of prices assuming it's a…let's go with back to the it's a non UK entity so that they're a US entity buying a US entity but they have a UK account to it. If they're charging 120$ now and they're collecting VAT you don't have to change prices at all. Alex: Correct. Joe: You're going to register with a firm like yours and then when it's time to pay for the first time you're already collecting those and you'll go back dating and calculate what's due. Alex: Yes, exactly. Yeah. Joe: And how often do you pay? I think you said was it quarterly? Alex: Yes quarterly so every three months yeah. Joe: And is it the same every three months? Is it the beginning of the 15th of the next quarter is when you have to pay the taxes or is it depends upon when you register? Alex: So you got one month and seven days to actually do the filing and make the payment. As you can fall into different stagger groups in VAT quarters so it's not necessarily you are January to March you can be February to April or March to May. So there's three kind of different groups of VAT filings you could fall into. Your VAT advisor should obviously let you know and would be contacting you when everything's due. In terms of the frequency yeah it is quarterly. Joe: Listen, Alex, as you can see I'm an old guy, got some gray hair here. I fell asleep in accounting class in college. I honest to God I did fell asleep, the next class came in and I think I've told the story again so I won't go to much detail. I don't like this stuff. I don't like this level of detail because of what I do for a living it's absolutely critical as an entrepreneur and know how important it is. Do I have to really…if I'm the guy that's buying an FBA business and it's got European components to it, how much do I have to really know or can I just rely on you guys to do the work for me? Alex: You can definitely rely on us to kind of advice you and let you know. But it is…I do think it's good to know kind of the basics of what you're doing. In terms of Amazon, you've got two different programs so European Fulfillment Network or Pan-European Program. Pan-European Program is great you get to move your stock around to seven different countries [inaudible 00:20:03.1] you're stock is close that your costumers time are positive reasons to do that. But if you just kind of turn that on on your Amazon Seller Central and you'd haven't done any prior research, you won't know that you then actually have to get [inaudible 00:20:17.6] registered in seven countries. You have to do filings maybe month in more than half of these countries. So everything that you do in terms of where your stock is located, where your sales are going will have an impact on your VAT registration, your VAT applications within Europe. So yes it's good you should have [inaudible 00:20:36.6] in there. We'd let you know but don't be completely ignorant to what you're doing and where your stock is going. Joe: Hey it sounds like you just touched on being able to shift from seven different countries in a penny you…there's a lot of potential savings in terms of the shipping costs and fulfillment costs that you're closer to the customer. But you talked earlier I think that if you've got your inventory in the UK or Germany in the two biggest centers that you register for VAT in those countries what if your inventory is spread around seven different countries so you're closer to the customers do you then have to register in all of those countries? Alex: You do. Yeah, as soon as your stock is in that country and you can sell in from there you have to be VAT registered in that country. So VAT is basically payable to the country and is being done close at supply. So if your stock is in a Czech Republic warehouse the place of supply VAT sale when it's going from the Czech Republic to the customer in Italy is going to be in Czech Republic. So being VAT registered in the UK is completely useless. Joe: Okay. Alex: So yeah- Joe: Very much like nexus here in the States if there's 15 Amazon centers theory is that if you have 15 different locations of inventory you have nexus in those states and that's where you collect sales taxes. Not as formal as where you are. Tell us about the biggest hurdles and biggest mistakes that you've seen people make…well that you have in been bringing people to the European countries and selling an FBA. What things are really obvious? What mistakes are really common that people can avoid? Alex: So first one is to not get registered at all. So with that threshold, quite a few people get confused that the 85,000 threshold is applicable to them; sounds really appealing and really lovely so they just don't register full stop. And then when you do get registered you just do it from today's date because [inaudible 00:22:27.3] realize but now I know that I'm going to do it from today. There's a huge amount of compliant checks going on with the revenue in the UK. They are hurdling through every single Amazon account and doing tax investigations. You know we've had to help clients where we're going all the way back to 2012 when the legislation came in that they have to register. So that's kind of six years of taxes you're going to have to go back and pay and if you don't your Amazon can get shut down. So the first kind of hurdle is actually getting registered. It's kind of what you'd think is the most simplest part just to do the application. Joe: Six years of VAT taxes you've had people in that situation? Alex: Yeah. Joe: I would think that in some situations people will just throw their hands up in the air, close the account, and walk away, and not pay the taxes. Alex: Yeah. Joe: Is that something where if you're a US resident where you're going to be found and have to pay those taxes in some way shape or form? Alex: Well you spent a nice six years building up your Amazon account. You've got all of your reviews you know you've built up that kind of brand in the UK so to kind of just throw your hands up and walk away is a big thing to do in the first place. Because even if you opened up a new Amazon account you're not going to have all of those reviews and obviously the name of you as a director of that company when you do a VAT application in the UK you have to state that information and you have to kind of give all of those details of yourself anyway and yeah so you'll have- Joe: So if you're going to walk away there walk in away forever. Alex: Yeah. Joe: Unless they cheat and get around the system somewhere. Alex: Exactly and unfortunately like in the US…so as not like in the US there's now amnesty in the UK so if you think that you're going to be negotiating and kind of say that oh I'll make sure to pay everything going forward so I'll pay a percentage you wouldn't get that and you also have to pay mass penalty as well so it do not kind of sound all that great if you haven't done the right thing to start with. Joe: Okay. So I've talked to a lot of Amazon sellers. I've seen their financials. Some people tell me you know I've done the analysis Joe and it's just not worth the effort for me to sell in Germany and Italy in France and in the UK. It's just not worth it. And I think they're completely and utterly wrong because I've seen the explosive growth. You've got 2,000 FBA clients. What country are you seeing people get the most bang for their buck? What's growing rapidly over there and what country should they pay attention to the most? Alex: UK and Germany definitely. They're just the two biggest markets. France is…does follow very closely but yeah 100% they're the biggest. Joe: Okay. And the easiest of those two might be the UK because you don't have to do translation? Alex: Yeah, exactly. And I'm shipping direct into the UK is a lot easier than it is shipping to Germany. Joe: Okay. Okay. There are a lot of concerns about money laundering. I've heard people talk about this and how complicated it is and on the German side and German FBA accounts. Am I just hearing people with sort of the chicken little mentality that the sky is falling and being really paranoid or is there something to that? Alex: I think sales in Germany in terms of my money laundering and everything is all going through Amazon. So amazon are collecting the funds and sending it to you. You don't need for some representation in Germany so payments go directly to the tax authorities whereas in France you've got to pay to your French advisor and then it goes to the tax authorities so yeah I'm not sure of what grounds. Joe: Do you even know who Chicken Little is or what that theory…okay, I see you just- Alex: No sorry. Joe: Okay. It's a cartoon character here in the States disguised- Alex: Okay [crosstalk 00:25:55.9] Joe: I used that terminology when there's so many people online talking about all the horrible things that can happen when you're own an Amazon seller account as opposed to the reality of how many great things are happening and it's changing people's lives. Alex: I think that's like when you go to a restaurant or you go anywhere, you're more likely to leave a bad review if you've had a bad experience whereas if you've had agood review you probably leave any review at all. I do notice that happen. Joe: A hundred percent, you're absolutely right. One of the things that I see often and I know you guys are AVASK tax advisor so I want to talk about that advisory part and the tax part. But one of the things that I see happen is that sometimes when sellers expand overseas they just take the easy route and they'd let Amazon handle making deposits directly to their US bank account. Whereas other people that take a little bit of time, do some research, still use World's First Bank or somebody else to be that intermediary and the money will go there at a lower exchange rate saving them tens in…tens of thousands of dollars annually. Do you find that to be the case, do you would advise folks to do that and if so what world banks do you suggest they use or look at or is that a service that you provide as well? Alex: Yeah, definitely. So if you kind of first of all from a VAT paying perspective there's…most people have to pay via wire transfer. And if you're getting kind of close to the payment deadline it can take for to five working days for that payment to clear with HMRC. They then if any payment is received late they will give you a surcharge with subtentiative liability and that can go up to 15 cents. So if you've got a currency account located here in Europe the time that it takes for the funds to actually clear and consider the payment to be made is a lot quicker. So that is a big benefit of getting a bank account over here even just a currency account. Joe: Can you define what a currency account is and how it differentiates from a bank account, please? Alex: So it has kind of all the benefits of a bank account and they're very similar but I don't think I mean don't 100% take my word for this. Obviously, it's better to speak to a currency account provider. But you can't hold large amounts of funds in that account. It's kind of like an intermediary way. You're basically doing a transfer and a transfer to your local account. You can't also do things like direct debits and buy out checks and things like that. Joe: Okay. And as I understand it just for people listening that currency account I think Amazon, for instance, may charge you if you are a…may charge you 4% currency exchange. Whereas the currency account you may only be charged 2%. And so you might be…and these are ballpark numbers so you're saving 2% on whatever amount of money is flowing through that. And if it's a million dollars, you do the math on that. If it's 10,000 $ you do the math on that. So I see a lot of people do that as well. That's what a currency account is right? Alex: Yeah. And especially with kind of making payments in Europe in terms of VAT you're going to be transferring your money from Amazon to the US and then back so the UK again so you're kind of transferring it a couple of times and to make that payment. So if you want to incorporate a UK company [inaudible 00:29:08.3] you could have get an actual high street UK bank account which is obviously a benefit of that UK company. You could just kind of grow the funds and leave it in a high street bank account in UK. Joe: Well, let's talk about that for a minute. Maybe I should have asked this at the very beginning and listeners I apologize because this is a question I get offset. You know I'm expanding to the UK, I'm expanding to Germany do I have to set up a UK business with a UK address or German company? Do I have to set those up or can I simply be a US based company selling products overseas? Can you explain, you've got 2,000 clients what are they doing? What do you recommend? Alex: You do not have to incorporate a UK company. It's the majority of people use their overseas company just because it is a lot easier and has less administration in terms of the accounts that you are drawing up each year. It's all just falling onto one company. You've got your CPA in the US. He's doing everything for you. You don't have to hire a CPA equivalent in the UK so ask accountants to do your [inaudible 00:30:03.9] paying your kind of all those tax due filings. In terms of what's actually best is really hard for me to say because it is on a case by case basis. It's you know do you want to build a brand, do you want a UK bank account, do you want to take advantage of the VAT threshold, there's so many factors. It's not one, it's one size fits all, unfortunately. Joe: Okay but the simple answer is for anybody listening if you're US based with a US bank account a US corporation, you do not have to set up a European company a UK company or in Germany that's misinformation. You don't have to do that. You can register for VAT and start collecting and paying and still have your one CPA here in the US. Is that correct? Alex: Yes. Joe: Good. Of your 2,000 plus or minus clients, what are their sizes? I mean you have you got people that are doing you know a million, two million dollars a month in revenue and those that are just doing five or 10,000 $ a month? How does it range and how does it flash out [inaudible 00:31:01.5] so we just know more about you guys. Alex: Yeah, exactly that range I don't [inaudible 00:31:05.4] information but- Joe: Maybe I should have said a half a million a month. Alex: Yeah there's a huge range there is. And that's for the UK companies and also overseas companies. You know we've got a lot of Chinese clients as well. We've got kind of a whole Chinese department [inaudible 00:31:20.6]. So yeah the range is massive. We can help you whatever size. Joe: Okay. Let's say that I'm doing a quarter of a million dollars a month here in the States and I decide I want to expand overseas and I'm going to start with UK and Germany. Aside from my inventory costs and getting the product there, what are my costs for someone like you in setting up VAT and getting registered and compliant and all that stuff? Alex: Well it depends which country you're going for. If it's just one if it's selling- Joe: Say I'm gonna start with two. I'm going to start with the UK, actually I'm just gonna go with one. Let's go with UK. Alex: Okay 150 Pound registration one up fee and then 870 Pounds a year annual compliance and that doesn't depend on turnover. So whatever your turnover is it's the same. Joe: That's pretty cheap, if I'm doing a quarter million a month, 150 Euros a couple of hundred bucks tops and then maybe a thousand US dollars a year simple as that. Who calculates what my VAT is owed each month? Is it me and my CPA or is that part of your 870 5,000- Alex: Yeah we do that. We calculate everything. And you can give us limited access to your seller central we'll go in and download all the reports directly. You don't have to be a part of that process. Your sole responsibility is to make the payment. Joe: Can I just have you make the payment for me if you have access to funds or you just tell me what to pay and I pay it? Alex: No we don't do that. We will tell you what to pay and then you have to make the payment yeah. Joe: This is…okay I'm a little [inaudible 00:32:47.2] I haven't talked to anybody about pricing but to me, this is so incredibly fair and reasonable. Are you guys…is this the standard fees? I mean this is normal cost or you're really expensive or really cheap? What's the situation? Alex: I think that's about average. We pride ourselves over the service that we give kind of in comparison to the actual fees to other providers and things. We don't get too hung up on what the actual charges are in terms of that. What I would say though, I don't want to be [inaudible 00:33:16.2] in terms of that 870. Because if your turnover was in the millions you will be breaching distance selling thresholds to all of the European countries. Joe: You'll be what? Say that again. Alex: Breaching distance selling thresholds, we haven't spoken about that so- Joe: Distance selling threshold. Alex: We'll go into that really quickly. So if you've got all of your stock in a UK company…country sorry company the UK country, UK warehouse and is going to customers in Germany. So UK from a warehouse going to a customer in Germany, if their sales go over a certain threshold to Germany you then have to register to VAT in Germany even though you're not fulfilling from that country. Joe: Okay. Alex: Makes sense? Joe: Yeah, all right. This is the part where Joe doesn't love this level of detail but thank you for that. Alex: It's just that I don't want to be misleading in terms of 870 Pounds you know whatever your turnover is because that's all UK fee. If your turnover is massive you will have an obligation to register in other countries as well. Joe: And if the turnover is massive to probably going to be shipping from those countries to save that fulfillment cost anyway. Alex: Yeah, yeah. Joe: And that's something that they would do the math on and you guys may help them with. Alex: Yeah. Joe: Okay we're running out of time. We're about 30 minutes in which is actually a bit long but this is a fascinating subject, a critical one, and I'm sure some people just they fell asleep because it's also not their favorite which is a shame. Because the number one thing people can do to make their business more valuable is get the books right. Get the details like this absolutely correct. It's going to help with the transition of the business as well as well as the value. Alex thank you so much. Any last thoughts that you can share with people listening? Whether they're buying and selling in terms of what they should do and how they should do it other than just do it and do it right. Alex: I honestly I would just say to speak to someone you know we do free consultations [inaudible 00:35:07.0] if you just give us a call then we can just run through everything with you. There's you know all though we've covered a lot in half an hour it's a lot of information, there are still some things that haven't been mentioned so yeah I would just speak so when I mention we've got all the information for before you completely just jump start in. Joe: Okay. Well, we'll make sure that all of your contact information is in the show notes. Alex: All right. Joe: But for those listening that can't see them there it's AVASK tax advisors that's A-V-A-S-K tax advisors and they do free consultations. I think it's really important as a buyer or seller if you're planning on selling over in the UK. Alex thanks so much for your time today I really appreciate it. Alex: Okay thanks. Thanks, everyone. Links: Alexandra Lyon Indirect Tax Client Manager Skype: alex.avask Email: alex@avaskgroup.com T: +1.213.330.4904; +1.213.256.0537 https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandragrant4/ https://www.avaskaccounting.co.uk/   James Shayler International VAT Technical Officer Skype: james.shayler16 Email: james@avasktax.com T: +1.213.330.4904; +1.213.256.053

Greg is the founder and CEO of Jungle Scout as well as a suite of other tools to empower Amazon sellers. When he's not working on the software side of things, he continues to manage and grow his physical product brands. Listen in as he explains what you need to do on Amazon in order to create the proper products, stay competitive and follow the trends in the fast-paced world of Fulfilled By Amazon e-commerce. Resources JungleScout: Amazon Product Research Tool (Website) Million Dollar Case Study: Watch Greg Launch a Product in Europe (Site) Greg Mercer (Twitter)

What would you do if there were no rules or set path to achieving success? In this podcast, Matt Ward explains his philosophy behind his theory that there are no rules. “In life and business, there are set patterns,” he explains,”but at the end of the day, you can do what you want to do.” And he would know -- Matt started out as an engineer but now runs an ecommerce company.”I was always the straight A student, really rules focused, a bit of a nerd. Great at math and science, not so great at English,” he admits. After becoming dissatisfied with the corporate world and discovering his love for crowdfunding and ecommerce, he began exploring the idea that rules should be abandoned. He happened upon the idea after reading Eckhart Tolle’s bestseller (and Oprah approved) “The Power of Now”. The book asserts that there is no past because it's over, and there is no future. Additionally, Tolle believes that most problems technically don’t exist because they’re in the future. This was a life changing revelation for Matt, who ended up on a completely different course than the one he started on. As the head of a Fulfilled By Amazon company, he breaks down how Amazon has broken the rules and subsequently changed history. While competing giant Ebay encouraged people to bid on items, Amazon allowed people to get the best product for the lowest cause. “Raw efficiency... makes things really easy for consumers and is one way Amazon is breaking the rules,” he says. Matt also believes that many entrepreneurs are victims of analysis paralysis, “You don’t have to be perfect to launch. Perfectionist syndrome keeps people on the beaten path. You [end up] holding yourself back. That’s the main difference between “wantrepreneurs” and “entrepreneurs.” He encourages entrepreneurs to change course if something isn’t working, a lesson he learned after stopping his crowdfunding story. He leaves budding entrepreneurs with this advice, “Go do something stupid so that you’ll learn incredible things from it. Set outlandishly large goals. Plan goals over the next 12 months while having this mind set. If you shoot for the moon and get 10% of the way there, you’re going to have a hell of a success story… assuming you have a rocket.” Check out the whole conversation.

Are you ready to jump into this week’s Ask Scott Session? Make sure you are ready for some awesome practical steps to get back on track - if you’ve had a hard time staying focused and on point lately this will be immensely helpful for you! Scott also tackles questions from TAS followers like you on topics ranging from competing with Amazon, running an e-commerce business from overseas, dealing with enhanced content and much more! Grab a pen and some paper to write down all the tips and insights you’ll get on this helpful episode of The Amazing Seller - don’t miss it! Steps To Get Back on Track Everyone gets sidetracked from time to time, there’s nothing unusual about that. But don’t allow yourself to STAY stuck when you should be on your journey toward success! On this episode of The Amazing Seller, Scott unpacks four steps to help business leaders like you get back up and push forward. Start. Commit. Take Action. Adjust along the way. So what are you waiting for? Don’t let difficulty or temporary setbacks stand in your way! Use Scott’s four step plan to get back in the direction that you want to be headed. To hear Scott go into depth with all four of these steps, make sure to listen to this episode! Is it worth it to compete against Amazon? When you are looking into product categories and you see that some of the top selling products are being SOLD by Amazon, not just Fulfilled By Amazon - is it even worth competing in that category? On this episode of The Amazing Seller, Scott explains why you shouldn’t run for the hills just because you see Amazon competing in that product category. Don’t let them off that easy! You can use the tools you’ve learned here with Scott and the TAS community to not only compete but dominate in categories where even Amazon is at the top! Find out how you can make the most of your efforts on this episode. Running an Ecommerce Business from Overseas Is it possible to run an e-commerce business when you live overseas? What obstacles and difficulties should you expect to run into? As you know, Scott isn’t a legal expert in any way but he does offer some helpful insight into how to navigate this complicated question. On this episode of The Amazing Seller, Scott shares some resources that will help you if you are in this similar scenario and things to consider when operating a business overseas. Take advantage of Scott’s years of experience and insight on this episode! Switching to Enhanced Content - is it worth the risk? You might be drawn to spending time building enhanced content on your product listing, but is it really worth it? Consider taking a hard look at what it entails to build up that enhanced content and know that most buyers won’t get that far in your listing. Focus on optimizing the portion of your listing that most buyers will be spending their time looking at. On this episode of The Amazing Seller, Scott goes over the pros and cons of taking the time to invest in the enhanced content aspects. If you are considering diverting your time and resources to this component of your listing - make sure to catch this episode! OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER [0:03] Scott’s introduction to this episode of the podcast! [3:30] Four steps to get back on track! [9:30] Question #1: Should I compete in a category where Amazon is my top competitor? [16:45] Question #2: What hurdles should I anticipate when running an ecommerce business from overseas? [21:50] Question #3: Should I be concerned about my ranking when switching over to enhanced content? RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Ask Scott a question - HERE Stay updated on all TAS Live events - HERE Catch all TAS PPC resources - HERE Catch the TAS episode featuring Michelle Love - HERE Catch all the info on TAS workshops - HERE Get the details on the TAS meetup in North Carolina - HERE Connect with the TAS Facebook Group - HERE Make sure to check out TAS Episode #189 - HERE Make sure to check out TAS Episode #360 - HERE Make sure to check out TAS Episode #294 - HERE JungleScout Sellers Summit 1kfasttrack.com

This is Part 2 of the “Money Maker Series”, where I explore my top 5 recommended ways of generating income online in a part-time or full-time capacity. Part 2 of this series is, as you can probably tell, selling physical products on Amazon via their fulfillment service called “Fulfilled By Amazon” or “FBA”. In this […]

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

All computers that you buy in a store comes with basic sound cards, be they a mac or a PC. In this episode we talked about replacing an internal sound card.

All computers that you buy in a store comes with basic sound cards, be they a mac or a PC. In this episode we talked about replacing an internal sound card.

Check out today's Robert Plank Show (podcast) where we talk about making money using Amazon... no, I'm not talking about Amazon's affiliate program, Kindle, CreateSpace, or WebStores... this is their Amazon Seller Central program or Fulfilled by Amazon where you can sell any item they have in their catalog (such as books or cookware) OR create your own "gadget" that you buy for pennies and sell for tens of dollars all day long... Productivity Corner Those four things you completed today, how much money did they make you? Don't compare your insides to the outsides of others (your "behind the scenes" vs. their "highlight reel") and beware of someone who never shares their struggles & roadblocks (the most interesting part) Have an abundance mindset, not scarcity (be careful about bitterness & jealousy) -- there's room for all of us to make money Cycle through 4DT, accountability partner, calendar, countdown timer, Camtasia babysitter Feature Presentation (Amazon FBA) Yes, private labeling with Amazon FBA still works if you live outside the United States because you can send your shipping label to your supplier and they can mail directly into Amazon's warehouse... Your first sale: list a $0.01 used book plus shipping as a Merchant Fulfilled item Scanning & thrifting: Visit Kmart, BigLots, Walmart, Costco with the special iPhone app and find something listed on Amazon for 3x what you pay, send shipments in (Fulfilled by Amazon) Sourcing/private labeling: find their supplier, get UPC code, samples, break even on sales while you grow the ads and reviews, then increase the price for a profit CLOSING THOUGHTS: If people are making things too complicated for you, they haven't achieved mastery Join Dropship CEO Right Now to Claim the Autopilot Amazon Income You've Always Wanted and Deserved

Check out today's Robert Plank Show (podcast) where we talk about making money using Amazon... no, I'm not talking about Amazon's affiliate program, Kindle, CreateSpace, or WebStores... this is their Amazon Seller Central program or Fulfilled by Amazon where you can sell any item they have in their catalog (such as books or cookware) OR create […]

Today I’m excited to have Jessica Larrew on the show. Now what’s unique about Jessica is that she got laid off from her job where her husband was actually her boss. But instead of wallowing in pity, she decided to start a business selling goods on Amazon and now manages to make a nice 6 figure income in doing so. Today, her husband quit his job as well and they both run their business together. A very inspiring story that you all should check out! What You’ll Learn How Fulfilled By Amazon works How Jessica makes 6 figures a year […] The post 017: How Jessica Larrew Created A 6 Figure Ecommerce Business Using Fulfilled By Amazon appeared first on MyWifeQuitHerJob.com.