Podcasts about meghla

Meghla Bhardwaj, the globe's leading expert on sourcing from India, joins us for an illuminating discussion on the current and emerging trends in India's e-commerce landscape. Discover how giants like Amazon and Flipkart are transforming the market and how tier-two cities are becoming key players. Meghla also gives a heartfelt account of her personal journey of moving back to India from Singapore, shedding light on the adjustments and opportunities she encountered along the way. We take a deep dive into the quick commerce revolution in India, where mobile apps deliver groceries to your door in mere minutes. From specialty e-commerce websites focused on categories like apparel and electronics to the impressive success stories of Indian sellers on Amazon.com, this episode covers it all. Learn how individual entrepreneurs and niche manufacturers in sectors like bedsheets and jewelry are thriving, and how Indian factories are evolving to meet the needs of Amazon sellers with improved packaging and labeling capabilities. Beyond India, Meghla shares insights on sourcing opportunities in Turkey, emphasizing the high-quality textiles and unique designs that set Turkish products apart. She also discusses the growing electronics manufacturing industry in India and the increasing competitiveness of Indian sectors like organic cotton babywear and wooden toys. With a focus on the booming handmade sector and the importance of India sourcing trips, this episode is packed with valuable tips and personal stories for anyone interested in the dynamic world of e-commerce and global sourcing. In episode 579 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Meghla discuss: 00:00 - State Of E-Commerce in India 03:34 - Rising Trends in Indian E-Commerce 06:14 - Success in Cross-Border E-Commerce 11:51 - Finding Suppliers in India - Tips 14:32 - Sourcing and Differentiation in E-Commerce 20:38 - Changing Sourcing Trends in India 20:48 - Growth of Electronics Manufacturing in China 25:04 - Utilizing Meghla's India Sourcing Services 31:58 - Exploring Turkey's Unique Products and Opportunities ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup  (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Transcript   Bradley Sutton: Today we've got the world's foremost expert on sourcing products from India, Meghla, back on the show and she's going to talk about a variety of topics, not just sourcing in India, but also e-commerce in India and even sourcing in other countries like Turkey. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Helium 10's got over 40 tools for e-commerce entrepreneurs. I know how overwhelming it might seem to try and figure out how you're going to learn how to use everything, or maybe even to know which ones you want to get started with, so for a completely free course that's going to guide you through learning everything you need in order to become a Helium 10 expert, visit the Helium 10 Academy that is h10.me forward slash academy. Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I'm your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show that's completely BS-free, unscripted and unrehearsed organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world, and we're going back on the opposite side of the world again. For the fourth time, Meghla 's here on the show. Meghla, welcome, welcome.   Meghla: Thank you so much, Bradley. So excited to be here for the first time, yeah, but it's been quite a while. I think the last time I was on was a couple of years ago, wasn't it?   Bradley Sutton: Yes, yeah, so just you know, if anybody wants to get Meghla's full backstory, I got a list here of all the episodes she's been on, so you guys can, you know, pause this one and go back if you guys want to, but she's been on the show since 2019. All right, that was her first time on the show, was episode all the way back in episode 84, then two, 10, then three, 31. And now we're in the 500. So, every couple hundred episodes she joins us here like clockwork, and so it's been a couple of years. I guess the last time was right towards the end of COVID there early 2022. First of all, what are you up to these days? Where do you live? Where are you calling in from today?   Meghla: Well, I'm calling in from India. So, as you know, I was previously based in Singapore and two years ago I moved back to India. To, you know, focus a lot more on the India sourcing business, India sourcing trip. So now I'm permanently based in India and it's been   Bradley Sutton: Whereabouts?   Meghla: in Delhi.   Bradley Sutton: How is it being back home?   Meghla: well, it's amazing, I mean, I really like it. My son had a bit of a problem adjusting.   Bradley Sutton: I was about to say like your son, never lived in India before or when he was little. Maybe or no, his whole life was in other countries.   Meghla: Yeah, his whole life was in other countries China and Singapore and so it was a bit of an adjustment for him as well. He couldn't even speak the language very fluently, but now he's like totally Desi. Desi is like a local person, that's the word that we use. So, yeah, he's, he's adjusted. I'm really glad I moved back because there's so much opportunity, you know, so much happening in terms of the economy, manufacturing, exports, so I think I made the right decision to move back.   Bradley Sutton: Okay, nice, nice. Now let's talk a little bit about, you know, the economy over there and I know, like you know, social commerce is big, and but what about just the traditional? You know that's been one of the larger Amazon marketplaces. How is Amazon doing, you know, versus Flipkart, etc. What's the e-commerce situation in a nutshell that's going on in India the last couple of years?   Meghla: Yeah, the e-commerce situation is very rosy. I mean, e-commerce is booming. There's, you know, increasingly the tier two cities are also getting on the e-commerce bandwagon and there are more sales from, you know, the smaller cities as well. It started with mostly the Metropolitans but now it's sort of you know, the tier two cities are also. A lot of people are shopping online over there.   What's really moving very fast is quick commerce. So that's something that is, you know, like for your groceries, for example, or daily use products. There are these apps and they're totally mobile based, right, there's no website that they have no browsers are only apps and you can basically order your groceries and they're delivered in minutes, like 10 minutes, 15 minutes, seven minutes. You know there's a race to like how fast the groceries can be delivered, so it's very convenient. Like since the time I've moved here, I've probably gone to the grocery store, maybe like twice or so. So, everything is ordered online by these websites or these apps basically.   Meghla: So, I think that's really booming, that whole quick commerce sector. Apart from that, there are a lot of these specialty e commerce websites that are coming up that. So, for example, you know, for apparel, there are specific websites only for women's apparel, for electronics, for toys, for all of these kinds of things. So that's another trend that's happening. But Amazon is still sort of the everything store, so if you can't find anything anywhere else, you'll definitely find it on Amazon. And then Flipkart as well is sort of number two, you know, to Amazon, but it is. I mean, both Amazon and Flipkart are sort of neck to neck and they're still dominating the domestic e-commerce sector over here.   Bradley Sutton: Are there more successful Amazon India sellers? You know, I remember when we first started like or around then, like in 2019, you know I was like, hey, I need some help with finding some, like, really successful sellers. And then you did come up with one, but that was about it. In those days there was, like you know, one main guy who was doing really well but uh, are you seeing more people have a lot of success over there, or is it still pretty kind of like just even like everybody's just doing okay and not many people have really made it big?   Meghla: No, so there are some people that have made it really big and you know, they're doing like seven figures, eight figures in terms of cross border e-commerce, in terms of, you know, like selling on amazon.com mostly amazon.com at Amazon Europe as well. So that is definitely happening. A lot of the larger manufacturers, you know, they have established their own brands and they have, you know, started selling on e-commerce directly. So that's a trend that's happening. But, by and large, most manufacturers prefer not to sell directly on e-commerce platforms, even though Amazon themselves have been encouraging manufacturers to sell directly. But typically, the small, mid-sized manufacturers they want to focus on their core strength, which is manufacturing. They want to do large orders. That's where they really make their money and a lot of manufacturers have tried selling cross water but they have not been successful because, you know, of course shipping rates are high and there are a lot of returns and things like that. So not able to manage it.   Meghla: But the people that are being really successful are entrepreneurs and individual sellers, you know, because they are good at marketing. So, they source products from different manufacturers and they sell those products cross-border. So, there are quite a few niches that are seeing a lot of successful sellers. So, for example, bedsheets. I know one manufacturer that's doing really well in terms of bedsheets being exported. They have their own factory and they're doing that. Then there's also things like marble products and jewelry. So, a lot of sellers, resellers and manufacturers doing jewelry from the city of Jaipur. So, there are niches where people have been successful.   Bradley Sutton: Now, you know, speaking of sourcing in India, you know that was something we've been talking about every time you've been on the show. Now, in the early days, you know, like before 2020, it could have been said that, hey, a lot of the manufacturers I believe we even talked about this a lot of the manufacturers, you know some of them didn't have that much experience, as far as sourcing or supplying. I should say Amazon sellers you know the new ones is that go on with that, like the manufacturing time and the quantities, and interfacing sending stuff directly to Amazon. Like you know, a lot of the Chinese factories are ones who have been doing this for 10, 15 years and they know all the ins and outs and the requirements of Amazon and it's like clockwork. But, you know, in the early days, you know, I remember you had said that, hey, you know, some of the factories might be a little bit green when it comes to that, but now I think you know I hear more and more sellers manufacturing, or even ones who were manufacturing in China, you know, moving their manufacturing to India. You know, due to tariffs or whatever the case is. What's the situation now? Do you find more and more factories are almost like on par with the Chinese ones as far as experience now with dealing directly with Amazon sellers?   Meghla: Yes, definitely. There are increasingly more factories that are familiar with the packaging requirements, the labeling and all of those things. In fact, I was visiting a couple of factories just last week in the city of Moradabad, where there's a lot of metal production that happens there metal and wooden production. So, I was visiting this factory that makes urns and they have a ton of Amazon sellers as their clients, and what they have started doing now like they're adapting to Amazon sellers' requirements. So, for example   Bradley Sutton: urns would be something good for my spooky coffin shelf friend, perhaps. Maybe you should think about adding that.   Meghla: Absolutely yeah, and they're beautiful, gorgeous urns, right. And so, they cater to Amazon sellers. And what they have started doing is because Amazon sellers require inventory very fast, very quickly. So, they have started keeping stock of just blanks, you know, because the basic shape of the urn is the same, it's just it comes in different sizes and it's basically the patterns, the designs and the finish that differentiates one earn from the other. So, they just keep blanks ready in stock and so whenever you know Amazon sellers have sort of an order, they're like okay, quickly send it into production. So, they save a lot of time. And they specifically told me this is for our Amazon sellers because they require, you know, products to be shipped really fast. So that's happening. A lot of small midsize companies, because more Amazon sellers are sourcing from India now, they are definitely getting more familiar. The one thing that I'm seeing is that there aren't too many still like freight forwarders that are familiar. Not everybody is familiar with how to ship to Amazon. So just a couple of days ago I was talking to a freight forwarder and they were like we have no idea how to ship to FBA, but the one that we work with, for example, they understand how to do it very, very well. So, I think for shipping you just have to be a little careful. But increasingly suppliers sort of understand Amazon.   Bradley Sutton: When sellers who are sourcing from China experience increases in shipping costs, kind of like. Now what's going on? Is it pretty much the same across the board for India, or sometimes they're kind of immune to those, or pretty much just hey, anybody who's going that direction over the Pacific Ocean is going to have the same changes.   Meghla: So, it depends. In some situations, India does face increases, just like China. So, for example, during COVID, both India and China, that was sort of a global phenomenon overall. So, even though, I mean, China's cost increased significantly they were up to, I think, like $25,000 per container at one point, but India's cost did not increase that much. I think they were maximum $12,000 or so. So currently India's costs are increasing, but for different reasons, because it's mostly because of the whole situation in the Suez Canal and you know, because of which the ships have to sort of take a longer route to the US. So that's what's mostly affecting, you know, the shipping costs from India currently, whereas in China, I think it's a different situation, where, you know, there is sort of increased demand for certain products as such. So, yeah, it's not always the same trend, but it can be.   Bradley Sutton: Obviously, you know, we'll talk a little bit about it later. You know, I think you know, one of the best ways to find factories is getting help from you and also, you know, maybe even visiting the factories on one of your sourcing trips or taking, you know, source. You know, maybe somebody can go on their own to visit certain factories. But what are you know, outside of that, what are some other ways that people can find the factories? Like, obviously, Indian factories have always been on Alibaba. Is that still a good way also, at least just to see what's out there? Or are there other websites that have emerged, maybe I don't know about, in the last few years?   Meghla: yeah, so Alibaba and global sources, those are the two key global marketplaces. There are some suppliers from India and other countries, so you've got to use the supplier location filter to find factories from India. Plus, you can also just do a google search. A lot of the websites are now ranked on Google because Google is not blocked in India as it is in China. So, you'll find, you know, suppliers have websites, but of course, they don't keep their websites up to date. Sometimes they don't reply to emails that are sent to. You know email addresses on the website. So, you know, that's something you just have to keep in mind. Avoid the website India Mart, because that's going to come up very often, but that website is very domestic focused, and so there are a lot of companies that you know might not have export licenses, for example. So, yeah, I mean, there's also export promotion councils that you can go to, so visit their websites. You can download the list of their members, all of whom are exporters, but again, you have to like call them or email them to actually find out what their capabilities are.   Meghla: In terms of other websites, I mean, I don't think there are any other supplier directories that have come up recently. There are some websites that have started, you know, selling products from India. For example, there's this website called expobazaar.com, which is basically they have stock in the US, which is basically they have stock in the US and so if you want to drop ship, for example, or if you want to buy very small quantities, like five, 10, 15 pieces, you can buy it from that website and then they can ship it directly. So, they have a lot of stock in the US and what they don't have in the US they can ship from India. So that concept is sort of picking up. Drop shipping is picking up for certain categories as well. Yeah, concept is sort of picking up Drop shipping is picking up for certain categories as well, and we have started offering sourcing services now like a sourcing agency. Previously we were just sort of connecting suppliers and buyers, but now we are managing the entire process because we found that a lot of people just stumble a lot. India is not easy to navigate, suppliers are not easy to manage sometimes, so we've started offering sort of end-to-end sourcing solutions  as well.   Bradley Sutton: Okay, all right. Yeah, speaking of that, you know, like a couple of years ago we were working on what was going to be kind of like a version of Project X, and then most of it we kind of just postponed, like we filmed a whole bunch of stuff, but then, you know, with COVID and different things going on, like we kind of paused it. But the one thing that we actually, or the only thing in that project that we saw all the way to the end, was something that we sourced. I remember, you know, I I told you about it. I was like all right, you know, we obviously know in project X how to source products. Uh, you know, from China, let's try to do a product, that would be, that would be good for India, and then it was this macrame, product, and so, um, conversations and stuff. You know, I believe Shivali went directly to you but, walk us through, kind of like what happened? Like she, she maybe, contacted you and told you kind of like the, the, the kind of product it was, and then, first of all, you had to make the decision is this good to source in India or not? And we'll talk a little bit about that. You know what is good and maybe what isn't good to do in India. But then then, how did you go about finding and vetting factories, like, did you have one exactly that went to mind, or did you, maybe you know, shop around a little bit, get some samples? Walk us through the process a little bit.   Meghla: Yeah. So, Shivali basically sent us a link and, I think, a couple of photos, and she had specific requirements. So, then what we did was we looked through our database, because we have a database of vetted suppliers and we do have quite a few suppliers that do macrame, because macrame is one of India's strong points. Like anything that is handmade, handcrafted, you'll find it is you know better in India, because labor is, of course, cheaper over here. So, what we did was we spoke to I don't remember the exact number of suppliers, but maybe like four or five suppliers we sent out the product to, we got quotes from them and then we basically went with the supplier that had the most competitive quote and also that had a good experience in macrame products, because a lot of the macrame products actually are done in homes by women, they're not done in factories and they're outsourced. So, it's very important for the supplier to be able to manage quality for such kind of products.   Meghla: So, you want to make sure that the supplier has control. So, we spoke to quite a few suppliers and with this supplier we've done some other products in the past and we know that he's got good control over the quality of products and he has somebody to go around and check what's happening in each of the households or the communities wherever these products are being manufactured. And I personally have visited his facility over here in Delhi, so I know that he has the you know facilities to process and he has a process of you know like a checking and cleaning and packing and processing the entire product after it comes in as well. So, then we decided to go with this supplier and we got a coat and the coat was very competitive. So, you know, we negotiated a little bit with this supplier and we went to Shivali with the coat and she was pretty happy with it. So, we didn't have to negotiate that further and the only issue that we had was for the hook. So, Shivali, wanted a specific kind of hook,   Bradley Sutton: That was me. I was the one who told her about that.   Meghla: yeah, you're the one causing all the trouble.   Bradley Sutton: Yep, yep, I remember that part of it. Yeah, I'm always thinking about how to differentiate, and the reason why was, you know, like already. But you know, by the time we started working on this, it started getting saturated. I was like, well that's fine, I want to show what happens when you do launch in a saturated niche. But I'm always thinking about how to differentiate. And one thing I learned about, you know, from my experience with the coffin shelves and things and I do a lot of other home decor products and I do a lot of other home decor products was that something that differentiates is how much you know how heavy you can, you know put something that's hanging on a wall and there's two, two factors there it's  not just how heavy, but how easy it is to install.   Bradley Sutton: You know, like me personally, I hate something you know that requires like a drill to use or you have that plastic piece and you put a screw through and through and it leaves like a humungous hole you know, I might have to have a drill in my house, which I know a lot of people don't have. So, and then, plus those just screws that go straight in. You know, those always aren't the strongest, you know, unless you're going directly into a stud or something, and then I think they're called, like, monkey hooks, but that was what we started using a while back for coffin shelves, and it just like you can just put it in with your hand and then, because of gravity and physics and everything, the way it works is like the strongest, and so I was like, no, we have to have this special hook because we'd be the only, we'd be the only macrame holder that has that, and so I think, if I'm not mistaken, we ended up actually sending it from China to India right?   Meghla: Yes, exactly. So, we tried sourcing those over here, but we couldn't find them. We could find all of the other types of hooks, but you know there are certain products that are just not made over here. Oh, there we go, that hook right here, yeah.   Bradley Sutton: So, yeah, here's one of the listings. Like I'm using this, you know skipping to the end, you know to the end, you know we ended up getting this product from India and then I'm using it for a couple of my launching case studies, where I'm just analyzing the different effects and it'll be it'll be like a permanent product on Amazon too, but already we've been using this whole product, and then there's those, those hooks and nice little bag here that they came up with.   Meghla: so, yeah, this is a real product, guys, that we are talking about here yeah, so the hooks came from China and that was a smooth process as well. We didn't have any issues. I mean our supplier over here. It was sent directly to his factory, so he was the importer. There were no duties or anything. It was very smooth process. So, yeah, that worked really well, and then the bag as well. So, the bag was also sourced from the same supplier, because he also does, cotton bags and things like that. So that was also one reason why we chose him, because he could do the bags too.   Bradley Sutton: Now, did Shivali organize the shipping, or did, did? did you also find the shipper for it?   Meghla: yeah, so we organized the shipping too and, because we used our shipper that you know, we're we've been using for a long time and they, they know how to ship out of India and also we used our shipper. Yeah, there was no issues with the shipping as far as I.   Bradley Sutton: Now that product in particular, you know, like I just happen to know, probably from previous conversations we've had, and then sometimes I'll watch your live streams on LinkedIn and stuff so I knew that you know that was a good one to source in India. But what are some other do's and dont's Like? In the past I believe you had said, hey, you know electronics, you know like consumer electronics maybe stick to China, you know they're very good at that, but you know textiles and things like that in India. What about nowadays? What would you say are the top three or top five to do in the top three or so that maybe another country is better?   Meghla: So, electronics, I would say, still China is better, especially if you want to do OEM of things like Bluetooth headsets and if you want small quantities. But that's changing. I think maybe when I'm on the podcast, like in episode nine or so, I'll probably have a different story in the next couple of years, but that's changing too. There are a lot of electronics manufacturers that are being set up over here and, in fact, a lot of the bigger brands like Apple, Xiaomi. They have set up their factories and the supply chain is growing. So, there are a lot of like Bluetooth headsets and those kinds of companies that are setting up that are supplying to the domestic market and gradually these companies are going to export as well. So, the situation is definitely changing very fast. For example, there's this brand called Boat. They make a lot of Bluetooth headsets and you know, headphones, a lot of the small accessories, and now they have started exporting under their own brand and, of course, they will start doing OEM as well and they have, like I don't know, like 10 000 or so employees and across you know, various factories. It's a really big setup that they have and the government has been promoting electronics, but anyway. So, unless you are a big large, many you know brand electronics is still in China.   Meghla: And then I would also say in terms of dont's, a lot of the very low value products. You know something like for example, recently somebody came to us with the you know these curtains, polyester curtains that are blackout curtains and they're selling for I don't know like ten dollars or something or $15 online and we were not getting them in India at a good price. So, something like that that is very mass produced and suppliers and manufacturers in China can sort of get you know scale by producing in high volumes. Those sorts of products are still better in China. A lot of the plastic type of products as well, I would say China is still better, although again, there is more manufacturing of plastic items happening here, bigger factories being set up, but still, by and large, China is better for plastic items as well. In terms of the items that are good, of course, textiles, any kind of fabric, especially cotton and organic cotton. So organic cotton is really a really high quality over here. We're seeing a lot of growth in baby wear, very high quality, organic cotton, kids and baby wear. That's a very fast-growing category. Also, toys so there's a lot of focus on the toy industry in India. Because what happened a couple of years ago, Bradley, that there was a bit of a tension between India and China at the border I'm sure you must have heard of it. It was probably around COVID times and so you know. China did a couple of things to you know, sort of in defense, and then India sort of retaliated and one of the things that India did at that time was impose very high import duties on toys being imported from China.   Bradley Sutton: A toy Cold War.   Meghla: Yes, a toy Cold War exactly, and so because there were these cheap toys that were flooding the market over here and of course, that was, you know, affecting the toy industry. But what that has done is that it's given a boost to the toy manufacturing. You know industry in India. So now, for example, a lot of wooden toys are coming up, and not only in, you know, like the traditional mango acacia wood, but like steam beach wood and pine wood, and very high quality and prices are very competitive. In many cases we've actually been able to beat China prices as well for you know wooden toys. Then there are a lot of factories being set up for you know regular like dolls and action figures and you know guns and sort of those types of things. Well, so that's a fast-growing category and a lot of local brands are also coming up and they are in fact exporting. So, there are a couple of local brands that do STEM toys, like India is really good with engineering and mathematics and all of those things. So, STEM toys is another huge category. There are some brands that in fact, we are helping launch them in the US and other markets, so that's another good category. Then I would also say, of course, all the entire handmade sector. So, there's wooden products, metal, ceramic, glass, all of those home decor items. That is still a very big category, especially for Amazon sellers and most sellers we know are finding a lot of success in those categories. Then there's leather, so a lot of beautiful, different types of leather. There are equestrian products, you know garments, shoes, accessories, bags, all of those things. And then I would also say, to add one more, eco-friendly products. So, if you're looking for anything that's made out of maybe cotton or jute or a lot of R&D is being done in alternative materials. So, for example, cactus material or banana fibers. Those are being converted to fabrics and they are used in bags and other kind of accessories, but of course they're not mass materials yet because there are niche and the prices are much higher than a normal material, but still that's an emerging category.   Bradley Sutton: Okay, interesting. Now, guys if you guys want to you know reach out to Megla to you know, perhaps you know, utilize her sourcing services, just like we did with success, as you saw. You know, one of the easy ways to remember is go to hubhelium10.com and then just type in India and then it'll come up right there, India sourcing network, and you could, you could connect her with her right from this page, right inside of Helium 10. Now I noticed also here on your Helium 10 hub page, it talks about India sourcing trips. So, are you still, have you still been doing, or did you start doing those again after COVID? Like what's the? What's the? You know? Like the cadence, is it once a year, twice a year, once every other year?   Meghla: Yes, we're still doing the trips there twice a year, and we started after restarted the trips after COVID, and the one that we did after COVID we had 70 people on the trip, so that was amazing, and since then we've continued to do. The next trip is coming up in October. So, you know for people who don't know much about the trip, it's basically an eight-day tour to India where we teach you all about sourcing from India. We take you to a trade show that has almost 4,000 export-focused manufacturers, and then we also do some cultural activities and, of course, there's a lot of networking. You get to meet all the different service providers. You can also do factory visits. We can customize the trip so that you are able to find the products that you're specifically looking for, and it's just a very fun experience. And, Bradley, what are you.   Bradley Sutton: What are some of the fun things that you that you do, because I still have been saying for a long time I'm going to go. What do I have in store for me the first time I go on one of these? For the fun side. Obviously, I know the work side, what's going to happen, but what about on the fun side and the food side that's very important to me, as you know.   Meghla: Yes, the food side is amazing because we choose the menus and the restaurants very carefully because India has so much variety in terms of you know, the different food, um sort of flavors and items, like each state of India has a different type of cuisine, so we try to mix and make sure that you get a flavor of all different types of Indian cuisines, we do a Bollywood night. I would say that's the most fun night on the trip. You can basically wear an Indian dress. For men it's the Kurta, which is like a long shirt. Women wear Saris. We buy Saris for everybody. We have a live dance troupe. They're singing and dancing on Bhangra tunes. Bhangra is a very fast-paced band.   Bradley Sutton: I love Bhangra. I have some Zumba routines for some Bhangra songs. Yes, indeed.   Meghla: Yes, amazing. So, we have that, and then we're just, yeah, dancing and singing and drinking and eating, so that's a very, very fun night. And then we also go to Taj Mahal. So, I think that's also very special, because that's one of the seven wonders of the world, and especially if you come with your partner, like your better half, or your spouse, then you can get a picture in front of the Taj Mahal, which is basically a monument that's dedicated to love and romance. So that's also very special.   Bradley Sutton: Okay, all right, interesting So, the next one, is in October, you said.   Meghla: Yes, October 14th to the 21st.   Bradley Sutton: Okay, excellent, excellent. I'll see there's a chance you know I might be going, or I am going, to Maldives, as they do every year, you know, to film one of my every 100 episodes of this podcast, and then this year, I'm actually going to be going from Turkey. I'm speaking at Turkey and I think I want to ask you a couple questions about that it's Segue, but I found one flight that potentially has like a like a set, like a seven-hour layover or something, on my way to the Maldives from Turkey, in India, I think, Mumbai, and so I had never even set foot on soil in India. So, I'm like, all right, maybe that'll be my, my first dip and then next step would be going on the India sourcing trip. So, speaking of Turkey, I believe you said you just spoke at an event there and actually you've expanded some of your sourcing to there. And, like I know, you know Carrie, who works with us here at Helium 10, she was telling me you know she went like on a sourcing trip to Turkey on her own, like last year, for her own Amazon and Walmart brands, and she actually moved some of her manufacturing from I'm not sure if it was in China or Korea, but to Turkey, and has had good success. What, what can you? How did you get you know? Linked with sourcing in Turkey?   Meghla: Yeah, so I was invited to this conference. I mean, we have been thinking about sourcing in Turkey. In fact, I got the domain name turkeysourcingtrip.com last year because we were, you know, sort of exploring that and that's the first thing you do, right, when you have an idea. So, you know, because Turkey is definitely coming up as an important production hub and in fact, somebody told me when I was there that Turkey is the China of Europe. So, if you're based in Europe, if you're sourcing in Europe, then Turkey is like the perfect destination for you. So, I was speaking there at the World Deaf Conference and, you know, I thought that, you know, while I'm going there, I would meet manufacturers and we already had had been having discussions with some sourcing agencies and some sourcing partners over there. So, yeah, I mean, in terms of the products, Turkey makes a very wide variety of products.   Meghla: So, first of all, textiles, like any type of towels, bedsheets, like Turkish cotton is very, very famous and I was, you know, some of the towels that I saw over there at the factories. They were so unique. I've never seen any towels like that. They had beautiful embroidery, some of them had like beads, embellishments, like very, very unique designs. Even the bedsheets were like very different from what you'd find in China or India. Then another thing is that they do a lot of cosmetics. So, there's in terms of cosmetics, it's also like skincare, or maybe shampoos, or you know, soaps, for example, things like that. So, there's a lot of R&D happening at that front as well. There are a lot of brands that I met that were doing vegan and organic. You know, like creams and body. You know body products as well. So that was another category.   Meghla: And then, of course, apparel. So, Turkey does a lot of different types of apparel, whether it's women's apparel, kids or even men's apparel. There are men's suits. They do a lot of linen fabric as well. That's very popular linen and cotton. Then they do things like carpets. In fact, Turkish carpets are very popular. Then there's some handicraft items as well metal and ceramic and those types of things. But I mean exports of those are very minimal. There are also some very good packaging companies that we found so like very high-quality boxes. If you are sourcing some kind of product from there, then you can get the packaging and all done in Turkey as well. Also, the domestic market in Turkey for e-commerce is pretty strong. It's growing pretty fast and in fact Amazon is one of the marketplaces there, but it's not very popular. The popular marketplace is called Trendyol. So that's a local domestic marketplace and you know there is an opportunity for you to also sell in the domestic market on Trendyol if you are sourcing in Turkey.   Meghla: I also saw quite a few like wooden products and very unique designs. I mean that's one thing that sort of differentiated you know Turkey from China or India. The designs are very unique. And then some toys, some very basic kind of toys, like puzzles, some, you know, board games and things like that. So, I mean at first, not a huge variety of products like China or maybe Vietnam, but very niche, very unique, very differentiated. And I mean, if you're in Europe you should definitely, definitely explore Turkey, because it's just in your backyard and you can save on logistics costs and of course, the deliveries can be faster and you can order in smaller quantities as well.   Bradley Sutton: Okay, cool, cool. So, another you know alternative place that not a lot of people yet are sourcing from. That I think sellers should, should look into and I'll be looking forward to when you actually launch that website, because it means you're going to have some events and I love Turkish food too and I so many places I want to visit in in in Turkey, you know Bible history, a lot of Bible history there in a lot of cities and a lot of like Maldives-ish kind of places even that people don't realize on some parts of Turkey. So, I know you'll arrange something good. Just to prove, I wasn't making it up, but I found one of my old videos here of some Bhangra dancing here. Look at the skinny me going and doing some fitness right there. That's me, that's me from like 10 years ago. and even you can see my kids in that in that video leading a fitness class doing some Bhangra dancing there. But, anyways how you know, I already gave you know I told people how they can find you from the Helium 10 hub, but if they want to find you, you elsewhere out there on the interwebs. What are some good ways that they can? They can reach you.   Meghla: Well, I'm on all of the social media platforms, so just search for me on either LinkedIn or Facebook and or Instagram and message me. You can also go to our website, Indiasourcingtrip.com or IndiaSourcing.net, and then Vietnamsourcingtrip.com as well.   Bradley Sutton: Vietnam sourcing too. Yeah, I know that's another hot place. I see a lot of people moving to. Maybe there was just a couple of kind of products, a specialty, but I know a lot of people who are not only moving sourcing there, but even some of their operations moving to Vietnam. I spent about a week last year there and the last couple of years really nice, really nice place to visit. So maybe next time we can talk a little bit more about that. Do you have like a 30 second tip or 60 second tip you can share with the audience? Could be about sourcing, could be about travel, could be about moving to a country your son has never been to. Whatever kind of tip you want to give, go ahead and hit us with it.   Meghla: Yeah, I would say be adventurous in your business. You have to explore different markets. China is not the only place where you can source products. Sometimes we get too comfortable sourcing in China and like, oh, we're sort of scared to go to these other markets. But there's a whole world out there, like whole different world, and people who are more adventurous and who are willing to take that risk will definitely reap rewards, because there are tons of unique products to be discovered in these alternative production hubs.   Bradley Sutton: Alright. Well, Meghla thank you so much for coming on here for the fourth time, we'll look forward next year for the fifth time and hopefully maybe by then we can say that I've been on one of your sourcing trips, like I've been planning for years to do So hopefully that happens within the next year or so. But thanks for joining us and we'll see you back here for sure.   Meghla: Thank you so much, Bradley Bye.

We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's Chief Brand Evangelist, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, interview someone you need to hear from and provide a training tip for the week. Amazon Hosted Record-Breaking Black Friday and Cyber Monday Holiday Shopping Event, and Announces Millions More Holiday Deals to Come https://press.aboutamazon.com/2023/11/amazon-hosted-record-breaking-black-friday-and-cyber-monday-holiday-shopping-event-and-announces-millions-more-holiday-deals-to-come They did it again! Shopify merchants break Black Friday record with $4.1 billion in sales https://news.shopify.com/they-did-it-again-shopify-merchants-break-black-friday-record-with-41-billion-in-sales Save the date for Amazon #unBoxed2024 in Austin, Texas. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7135687573812768768/ Focus: Walmart shifts to India, cuts China imports https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/walmart-shifts-india-china-cheaper-imports-2023-11-29/ Stay tuned as we explore Helium 10's newest features, including an exclusive AI-powered image generator for Amazon Sponsored Brand ads and the ability to generate custom images for Amazon ads and  Amazon Posts. We'll be sharing hands-on demonstrations on how to use these features and their potential benefits for third-party sellers. Plus, we have news on a monthly networking call in Spanish, designed to help Spanish-speaking sellers connect and share strategies. Join us for all this and more as we continue to provide you with innovative tools and updates that are transforming the Amazon and E-commerce landscape.   In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley talks about: 00:52 - Amazon 3D Images 02:32 - Amazon Black Friday 04:31 - Shopify Black Friday 05:17 - Amazon Unboxed 06:02 - Amazon Transparency 07:01 - Made In India 08:45 - Spanish Networking Call  09:50 - Helium 10 New Feature Alerts 16:54 - Pro Training: How To Instantly The Most Searched Word On Amazon   ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup  (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos   Transcript Bradley Sutton: Soon, you can upload 3D images for your products on Amazon. Results from Black Friday. Amazon Unbox Conference date and new location announced. Amazon transparency update these stories and more on today's episode of the Weekly Buzz. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think.   Bradley Sutton: Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the series sellers podcast by Helium 10. I am your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show that is our Helium 10 Weekly Buzz, where we give you a rundown of all the news stories that are going on in the Amazon Walmart e-commerce world. We also let you know on the brand new tools and feature updates that Helium 10 has, as well as a training tip of the week that'll give you serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. Let's see what's buzzing this week. All right, let's go ahead and hop right into the different news articles Now. The first one was an announcement this week from Seller Central itself, so you can see this in your dashboard, and it's entitled 3D models to replace 360 degree images starting December 14th. All right now. This is going to be for US, UK, Germany, Spain, France and Italy. All right now.   Bradley Sutton: In the past, you could supposedly it says here you could put 360 degree images. Now, project X products had it, project 5K products had it. We never requested it. It was like Amazon just choosing to do on your own. I never actually heard of many people, if any, who were able to request the 360 degree images where you can kind of like put your finger in the app and like drag it around and see the whole thing. I've never actually known somebody who outside of like vendor central who could request that. But regardless, 360 degree images are going to be a thing of the past. And what is replacing it are these view in 3D, different kind of like experiences, view in your room, virtual try-on and showroom? So this was announced a while back at, I believe it was Amazon Accelerate. There was some talk about this. Now, what Amazon is going to come out with, what they said is, hey, to make it easier if you do create 3D models. It's not like we have like imaging software, right, they're working on a tool that'll allow you to use your phone in order to scan your product and create a 3D model. So more news on that coming soon, they say. But that is a change that is pretty imminent, because it says, hey, this is going to happen in December 14th.   Bradley Sutton: All right, so next article is going to be also from Amazon. It was a press release that they did, and this is about Black Friday results, right? This article says Amazon hosted record breaking Black Friday and Cyber Monday holiday shopping event and announces millions more holiday deals to come. All right, now I don't know how they calculated this, but they said customer save 70% more on Amazon during its 11 days from November 17th through Cyber Monday compared to the same period last year. Now it also cited a recent independent study from Profitero and it said that Amazon had the lowest online prices entering the holiday season, by an average of 16% across 15 different categories, compared to other leading retailers in the US, and they're on pace to deliver fastest delivery speeds for Prime members in the company's 29 year history 29 year history I didn't even know Amazon's been around for 29 years. That's crazy. Anyways, just some random stats here that Amazon talked about says customers ordered more than 500 million items from third party sellers. All right, and so that's a lot. This is just again. During 11 day period, and also some new programs started getting the limelight with their first kind of Black Friday. It says for the first time, prime members purchased great deals directly from Buy With Prime merchants during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday holiday event. And it said merchants who participated in promotional activities experienced an aggregate more than a 300% increase in units purchased through Buy With Prime versus their daily average for the month of October.   Bradley Sutton: So let me know out there, what about you guys? Anybody have some good numbers to report? I heard some people say hey, you know, cyber Monday actually worked out better than Black Friday, but how is your whole Cyber Five altogether? You know how was it from Thursday all the way through Monday? Let me know in the comments below, speaking of Black Friday, how many of you guys have Shopify websites? An article from Shopify, similar press release, says they did it again. Shopify merchants break Black Friday record with $4.1 billion in sales. So it says hey, from the crack of dawn in New Zealand, which is where you know, it becomes Black Friday first through the final minutes in California. Well, that's not right. The final minutes of Black Friday is in Hawaii. It says our merchants drove a 22% increase in sales over last year Shopping peak, when collective sales reached 4.2 million dollars per minute At 12 pm Eastern on Friday. Uh, what about you guys out there who've got Shopify websites. How is your Shopify Black Friday and Cyber Monday? Uh?   Bradley Sutton: Going back to amazon now there's an announcement on amazon ads linked in Uh for amazon unboxed. You might remember amazon unboxed just a few weeks ago in New York, where it's been the last couple of years, you know, we did a podcast live there. They announced all kinds of cool stuff like sponsored tv and things like that. Well, uh, is amazon unboxed going to be in New York? Uh, in October next year? Well, it is going to still be in October, but guess what, guys? Uh, it is now moving to drumroll, please, Austin Texas. All right, so save the date, guys. If you miss this year's unboxed Uh marketing your calendars. Amazon unboxed 2024 for the first time Austin Texas, October 14th through 16th.   Bradley Sutton: Next article, going back to amazon seller central Uh, we announced this update a while back, where they kind of teased that this was coming, and now it's uh going to be in effect, and this is about amazon transparency. Amazon transparencies, a way to to help kind of uh dissuade counterfeit sales of your product. And they now announced amazon being that you can now have use your own serial numbers for transparency. All right, this is new, you know, you don't have to use theirs. You can use your own Uh serial numbers. And, again, you know, if you are uh active with your products in transparency, it means that they can't be listed or shipped to customers without valid codes. So if you have trouble, like with hijackers and things, basically this means that people you know, other sellers trying to like, list your or you know, add their uh the skew to your ASIN, it's not going to get accepted or shipped if it doesn't have these transparency uh codes. So for more information on that, check your uh dashboard.   Bradley Sutton: Now interesting article. This one is coming from Reuters and it was entitled Walmart Shifts to India Cuts China Imports. Now, this is interesting because, uh, it basically said that they're moving more for the Walmart products that they produce themselves. They're moving the production more and more to India. All right, the world's largest retailer, Walmart, this article says, shipped one quarter Of its us imports from India between January and august this year. All right, that compared with in 2018 2018, guess how much? 2% it went from 2% to 25% being produced in India in just the last five years. The data, according to those articles, shows that it only 60% of its shipment only quote, unquote, only came from China. Now, the reason why it's only 60% is because in 2018, it was 80% of all of Walmart's products were made in China. But China is obviously still Walmart's biggest country, but it talks about, you know, hey, there's a shift happening at Walmart, you know.   Bradley Sutton: Guess what guys? Project x, all of our products have been made in China. Until Two months ago, we produced our very first product in where? India? All right, so that is going to be coming. You're going to see a feature podcast where we talk about the development Of that product, and we'll have Meghla on here. She helped us source it.   Bradley Sutton: But big companies like Walmart, amazon, third-party sellers more and more are moving production outside of China. What about you? Are you still producing everything in China? Are you producing in India? You producing in Pakistan or other countries? Let me know in the comments below, all right, uh, one more thing before we get into some really cool feature announcements. We're not gonna some moss. I'll let spaniel.   Bradley Sutton: So one more thing Do you speak Spanish? We have our very first monthly networking call in the Spanish language starting next week. All right, this is going to be something that will be hosted by our Serious Sellers Podcast en Español host, Adriana Rangel, and this first one is going to be on December the 6th All right market calendars, December the 6th, at 4 pm Pacific time. And then, for those who speak Spanish, for everybody who speaks Spanish go to h10.me/llamadaconadriana. h10.me/llamadaconadriana. Go to that website and you'll be able to register for the zoom. So again, if you guys want a network with other Spanish speaking sellers, whether you're here in the States, in Latin America, in Europe, in Spain, wherever you are in the world, go ahead and sign up. This will be a monthly Networking call where you can, you know, talk about what's working, what's not working in your business, get some help and I might, you know, pop in there every now and then as well.   Bradley Sutton: All right, let's get into the helium 10 new feature alerts, and we've got some doozies today, guys. Whoo, the Helium 10 product team is been cooking with fire for sure. All right, the very first one is guess what, guys? Helium 10 kind of low-key now has an AI generating or an AI Powered image generator. All right, now, this is actually the Amazon Sponsored a brand ad image generator. But I'm gonna show you, guys, how you can use it for Amazon post. You can use it for you know, potentially lifestyle images or infographics, or getting you know other ideas for your, for your images. It's not perfect right now, but this is cool. The only place Outside of Amazon that you can get this tool is in helium 10. Why, cuz? Amazon chose helium 10 to be its exclusive partner, namely in atomic? Amazon chose helium 10 atomic to be the exclusive software for now. It'll open it up later to others, but we are the only ones that you can get this in. Let me show you how it works, all right.   Bradley Sutton: So basically, you go to your atomic and then you hit a new campaign. Once you get into your campaign builder, you're gonna want to hit single campaign. Once you get there, you're going to want to hit sponsored brand, the middle one. Once you hit sponsored brand, you're gonna hit next and then here you are going to go ahead and Put enter a couple of your products from the brand that you are trying to do. You know an image for, so I'm gonna go ahead and choose what up right here on my screen the helium 10, a coffin bookshelf and Coffin coffin egg tray here and then scroll down. Make sure under sponsor brand campaign, you select the actual brand that you're trying to do this actually kind of doesn't matter, because you're gonna be able to enter your own images yourself. But since I'm actually gonna do one for the coffin shelf, the coffin bookshelf, I'm gonna go ahead and choose Manny's mysterious oddities. Now, once you select that, you scroll down here to this new section called Creative.   Bradley Sutton: Now, the whole purpose of this is actually to create sponsored brand, so you can actually create the, the custom sponsored brand image right here. But I'm gonna show, I'm showing you guys, how to just create any image you want right now. The first thing I'm gonna do is I'm actually gonna first just do this coffin bookshelf and I'm gonna put a different background, all right. So right here, under custom image, you're going to hit AI generated image, all right. Now I'm gonna go ahead and since, like I said, I'm gonna use the coffin bookshelf, so I'm gonna go ahead and choose that again here.   Bradley Sutton: Now what I'm going to do is, in this prompt, I'm gonna say what I want I it to be like in the room. So I'm going to say put this coffin bookshelf hanging on a light colored wall and there are other bat themed decor items hanging on the wall, all right. So I mean that that's just a super, a super simple thing right here. I can actually choose theme here, so I'm not going to. I'm not going to choose a theme for this. Let's just see what happens. This usually takes about a minute to do, so I'll come back as soon as it generates and here we go.   Bradley Sutton: Now, you know, sometimes you're going to get some crazy stuff, like here it actually changed our coffin bookshelf a little bit, but take a look, you know, here it put. It did exactly what I said. I said, hey, put it on a light colored wall and you could see, here's the coffin bookshelf hanging on a wall and there's some like bat shape, like little decor items on the wall. Now I will. I did not give it a good prompt. You know, I only wrote about 121 characters. I can write up to 300. I didn't even include a theme, but you, you know you can get pretty specific.   Bradley Sutton: Now, is this AI going to be perfect? No, this is coming directly from Amazon, you know so. Helium 10 doesn't have control over this. So you know, like, if you're not getting good output, it's it's. You know that's because Amazon's AI is not great yet. But again, this is using connecting directly to the API, to the Amazon's AI generation, and what I can do here is I can actually, you know, choose some of these. I can zoom in and then I can actually save these. I can select them and save them right here, download it. I can save it to my creative assets. So it's kind of like a cool way to, you know, generate Amazon post images without ever even leaving helium 10. So that's the first thing that I wanted to talk about today. The second thing is also super, super cool, requested by a lot of our users, and this is wherever you see keywords in your insights dashboard and cerebro, in magnet.   Bradley Sutton: You know, sometimes you see a whole bunch of keywords and you know you can see the, the score there for how important the keyword is, you know, based on maybe it's search volume or or competitor performance score. But sometimes you're not quite sure how maybe what I call real world relevant the keyword is like, for example, you know, coffin shelf. I think you could understand that probably all the results are coffin shelf. That's the top 10 on page one. But what about other keywords like coffin decor? Maybe it's not coffin shelves, but just random coffin products, and so what, what have you always had to do before.   Bradley Sutton: If you just want to kind of take a quicker or a quick look at the results of, you know, keywords in cerebral magnet, well, you would click one by one on those keywords and take a look at them on Amazon. Well, now you know you're not going to have to do that anymore. Let me show you exactly what you can do. Anywhere where you have cerebral magnet, any keywords, you just have to put your mouse over it, like so, for example, if I want to say what is in coffin shelf, I just put my mouse over and I can see they're mostly coffin shelves here. But then maybe I'm like, all right, well, what about goth gifts? Are there any goth gifts that are showing up here in, you know, for coffin shelves? And I can just all I do, I'm not clicking on anything. I just put my mouse over here and I can see there's some Spooky looking slippers or some skulls, and I'm not actually seeing any coffin shelves in the top 10. So now I know you know what this, this keyword you know, probably might not be too too relevant here. I can look at a coffin box. I'm like, hey, what kind of things are coming up for coffin box? Okay, there is one coffin shelf, but the rest of these are just like maybe some jewelry boxes. So again, I am not clicking on anything, but now anywhere where there's a key where I can put my mouse over. So we're get an idea about the last time healing.   Bradley Sutton: Then 10 check the top 10 results Little thumbnails that show what products were ranking for these keywords. I could see their price, how many variations they have, how many reviews they have. You know, that can be cool, like instantly I might see a keyword was like wow, look at this. Out of the top 10, most everybody only had, like you know, 10 reviews or 20 reviews. So like it's a great way to do product research as well. So I hope you guys can enjoy these two new feature updates from helium 10. Make sure you use it and let me know what you think.   Bradley Sutton: All right, last up, today we have our training tip of the week, and this one is going to be courtesy of Carrie, and this is another keyword based strategy where, in seconds, if you want to find the Keywords that have the most search volume, that start with a word or two words or three words, within seconds. Again, this is one of those no click strategies like. This last one I gave you was a no click strategy. This strategy has zero clicks. How can you see what are the top searched keywords that start with any word or phrase? Carrie, take it away.   Carrie: I'm going to show you how to instantly find the most search terms that start with a specific Keyword. It's very easy and it's something that you can do for Low-key keyword research. If you're just kind of curious about something, maybe you found a product that you want to kind of look a little bit more into. You can see what the top phrases are that start with that particular keyword, and I'm going to show you how to do it. Right now. All you have to do is you just need to go to magnet and it's very, very simple. The next thing you're going to do is you're just going to start typing so we sell a coffin shell. So I'm just going to type in the word coffin and with this it's going to basically show me all the keywords that start with coffin. That in the order of the most searched to the least search. So we've got coffin nail tips. That is the most searched, and the next is coffin, and then the next coffin press on nails. So we can take it even further. We want to say I want to see all the keywords that start with coffin shelf from the most, you know, search to the least. So we've got coffin shelf, coffin shelf, large. So all these great keywords.   Carrie: Another thing you can maybe try like the most popular search term or search product is garlic press, so maybe we can look at garlic Okay, so we've got garlic, garlic press, garlic powder, so we can say garlic press here and see if there's any other keywords. It looks like garlic press stainless steel is the next most searched Garlic press. Oh, so, as you can see, this is a great way to find. You know, kind of do some low key keyword research and you can see all the keywords that start that exact keyword that you want to find, and In the order of the highest search volume to lowest. So I hope you check it out. It's very, very easy and really interesting to take a look at.   Bradley Sutton: All right, thank you very much, Carrie, and thank you guys all for tuning in this week. I will see you next week to see what's buzzing.

Imagine navigating the exciting landscape of launching an Amazon KDP business and entering the glitzy Miss Universe spectacle at the same time. That's precisely what our incredible guest, Shivali, has managed to do. In this episode of SSP, Shivali takes us on a fascinating journey that begins with the debut of her original beauty and personal care product in the electronics section of Amazon and ends with her unforgettable time competing in beauty pageants. Gain insights into the tactical maneuvers she employed to overcome the hurdles in the fiercely competitive Amazon landscape and enjoy the open discussion of her unique approach to launching an Amazon product. In the second half of our talk, we change topics and focus on the colorful realm of cosmetics and beauty, emphasizing the need to create styles that accentuate unique qualities. With her unique take on the process of creating digital products, Shivali shares the details of her next cosmetics training initiative. She also discusses her amazing book writing and publishing endeavors, as well as her first experience publishing KDP books on Amazon. In order to bring your private label endeavors to new heights, we conclude the episode by getting into the specifics of Amazon's KDP platform and providing insightful advice about quality control, marketing techniques, and pricing strategies. So, listen to this episode and take away some wisdom from Shivali's inspiring story. In episode 512 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Shivali discuss: 00:00 - Starting a KDP Business 05:19 - Passion and Celebrity in Product Success 11:07 - Versatile Looks and Digital Product Creation 16:43 - Promoting KDP Books on Tick Tock 21:52 - Effective Usage of AI Writing Tools 23:53 - KDP Book Publishing and Marketing Tactics 27:52 - Understanding Amazon Royalties and Profits 34:11 - Being Proactive in the KDP Market ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup  (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Transcript Bradley Sutton: Today we're sending Shivali to the other side of the microphone and she's going to talk about her advice for those wanting to start a KDP business, her super unique Amazon product launch that she's doing that would be impossible to copy, and much more. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Want to check estimated sales for products you see on Amazon? Or maybe you want to instantly see how many listings on page one of a search term result have the actual search keyword in the title? You can find all of these things out and more with the Helium 10 Chrome Extension tool, X-Ray. More than 1 million people have used this tool. Find out what it can do for you by downloading it for free at h10.me/xray. Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers podcast by Helium 10. I am your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show. That's a completely BS free, unscripted and unrehearsed organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. I'm not going too far away in the world. We're going to North Carolina right now. Shivali in the house. Welcome back to the show. How's it going? Shivali Patel: It's going good. How are you? Bradley Sutton: I'm doing all right. We're going to talk about KDP how Amazon sellers can do it. I'm going to talk about I know you're just going to be launching another Amazon product soon. We've got a lot of a business thing to talk about Before there. We were talking earlier that there was just recently Miss Universe. You said a couple of people that were in this Miss Universe pageant you were actually in the same pageant with them last year, the year before, right. Shivali Patel: Yes, correct. Miss Universe Thailand this year was actually our reigning international girl when I competed at Miss Super National in 2021. Then Miss Universe, Puerto Rico Carla, who also made top five at Miss Universe Miss Thailand, actually took first runner up. Carla was also, I believe she made top five. Yeah, really really strong group of girls. They're both wonderful. It definitely gives me the pageant itch as well. Bradley Sutton: Yes, I've joked with you before that, hey, I'll approve time off, but there's got to be like some. I put a Helium 10 logo on my basketball court. I think that on your gowns or your evening wear or talent competition, there's got to be like Helium 10 logos displayed somewhere. Then I'll go ahead and approve that time off if you go back to pageant life. Shivali Patel: Yeah, that would be a wild gown. Bradley Sutton: Yes, but hey, it will bring us lots of impressions to Helium 10 and then all of a sudden our site traffic will spike and then we can attribute it. We've got this metric that we go evangelism reach and that'll definitely help the evangelism reach. Anyways, here let's go to business. First of all, the last time we talked was a while back. I mean, you're definitely no stranger to show, you even host a few podcasts yourself or a few episodes yourself with the weekly buzz and tacos Tuesday and things like that. But as a guest you haven't been on here in about a year and I remember at the time you were looking for a new product to sell on Amazon, and now, as of today, you've got it all in Amazon. But you were having like, didn't they like? Put them all on reserve status or suspended or suppressed, or what was going on there? Shivali Patel: Yeah, so my product is actually. It's in the beauty and personal care category, but it was also an electronics item, which is very interesting because when I was getting started a few years ago, I remember telling myself you know what? I'm not going to touch electronic items with a stick. It's not for me. I don't know all the regulations. Bradley Sutton: And then I think you have a death with electronics. Shivali Patel: Yeah, that too. Let's forgot about that part too. But yeah, that was one additional reason that I didn't want to touch the electronics category. But I think the more time that I've spent in this space, it changes your mindset a lot, because then it becomes about well, which barriers are you willing to cross? Because problems are such an integral part to running any business system and it just comes down to what or how you're willing to overcome it. And so when I found this product, I was really, really interested in launching into it because I felt like I could deliver value into it. You're always thinking creatively well, what can I add to this product so that way it will sustain competitors regardless of when they're coming in? And with my first product, I had about nine months before I actually got that product to market because of some backend issues, and this for this particular product. You carry all those lessons that you learned through time with you, and so I really wanted to ensure that, regardless of when the product goes out, it actually sells. And it really came down to okay, yes, it's an electronics item, but I can learn it's a higher barrier to entry for my competitors. And then I did feel like I could add value to the space. So, yeah, that's really my mindset of going in. Bradley Sutton: But along those lines it ties in with what we were talking about with pageant, life and stuff. But people, I've always suggested to people, hey, you can't always go with what your passion is, because if there's no opportunity there you're not going to have success. But in a perfect world, if you can do a product that you're passionate about or leverage some kind of like off Amazon, you know, following, then I think you know people absolutely have to do that. Like you know, I always thought before like if I was still like really big in the Zumba world, like I was in the old days, that you know, like I could have had a lot easier way to launch some kind of Zumba fitness related product or something. So then you kind of, you know you said it's kind of like a beauty product, but then you're kind of taking your quote unquote celebrity status a little bit and offering like coaching or some kind of like digital service along with your product. Shivali Patel: Right, that is correct. So I wasn't entirely sure if I wanted to do this, but pretty much anybody I talked to, yourself included, said it was a good idea, and so, yes, I have chosen to represent myself as Miss Supernational USA 2021. And I, whenever somebody buys the product which it's actually I'm fine with sharing it. It's a makeup bag with LED mirror and three settings, but it comes with makeup lessons as well, and it's not just live group coaching calls, it's like a full blown course, because I wanted people to not just walk away with a product, but walk away with an experience where they can buy this one bag and learn how to use all of the tools that they'll be putting inside of that bag, where they can now go into their everyday life and actually carry themselves with confidence because they now know or have a skill, sets and techniques on how to use those products. So it really was a long game for me and that's how I approached it. Bradley Sutton: Yeah, but yeah, the reason why this is, I mean, nothing is guaranteed success. Guys in Amazon. You know like maybe something weird might happen and she has to like lower her price or something. But I know you're starting at a very high price and you actually have a chance of success. Like if I were to come in with an LED makeup bag and like, let's say, all of them were like 60 bucks and I'm trying to sell it for 120, I mean it's not. Not only is there not a guarantee of success, it's almost a guaranteed failure. Because why, you know, why would anybody pay 120 dollars? But with the fact that you're bundling this, this is now all of a sudden you actually have this ceiling, like it actually is possible for you to have success at that price, price point. Also, this is something that nobody can duplicate. Nobody can copy like any. You have some like super fancy water bottle, you know, that has like this really crazy design spout or whatever. So somebody can copy that. Eventually, can a can a you know Chinese factory or a factory from India just go and say, hey, let me get another country's miss super national or miss universe or whatever and offer coaching classes. You know that's like not going to happen. Bradley Sutton: So, again, this is not a guarantee for success, but this is the kind of thing guys those of you are selling on Amazon look for these kind of things that are hard to duplicate, whether it's on the product side, like something you have a patent for, or or it's on the you know the personal side, you know where you're offering digital courses or something like that with it, and then that just sets you apart. So that that was why I really liked that, that idea, and I think that other other people should think about. Not, not everybody has something you know, but, but sometimes we sell ourselves short A lot of people. We might have something that we don't even know. Maybe it's one of our relatives or something that we can offer as as part of a bundle. So how are you delivering? Like, is this course live? Is it like something you recorded and they get access to it once they opt in? Like, how does that work? Shivali Patel: I was actually listening to Alex Hermosi I'm not sure if I pronounced this last name correctly, but he talks a lot about the $100 million offer right, and something that is very principal to that is providing an offer. That is a no brainer, and when I was thinking about what I wanted to offer in terms of an experience and what would be most impactful, you want leveraged impact right. You want somebody to purchase this bag, transform their lives, and then they go and tell their friends and say, hey, oh my gosh, like I learned this incredible thing. I feel so much more confident, and I think that's a mixture of prerecorded lessons, but it's also live coaching, where people do have access to you. They do have the ability to ask you questions. Shivali Patel: Now, I would not consider myself a makeup guru by any, by any milestone, but I think you really only need to be a few steps ahead of somebody to be able to offer help, and with makeup, I have spent a considerable amount of years in the fashion and the beauty industry. I started very young and I grew up in that field, and so I do feel like I can say something to someone and help them with their confidence in applying makeup or even just in presentation, right. I think it takes a certain level of courage, or even foregoing some of the expectations other people might hold of you, to compete in something like a beauty pageant. And so I can take those and transfer them over to somebody else and hopefully that will allow them to be equipped with skills they can put into their day to day life, and so it's actually a mixture I'm sending them over into a funnel, right, and that funnel will set up the drip email campaign, which then leads them into this whole course. So it's a four module course as of right now. I plan to add to it. I want to update it consistently as new trends come out. Shivali Patel: As you know, there's so many versatile looks you could do. You could do a day look a glam look. Maybe you are somebody who's going day into glam, that sort of thing as well as just expression. So it talks a little bit about color psychology. We have what else? We have undertones, we have foundation matching just a lot of different broad ideas that are important when you are trying to figure out what's going to work on your face, because everybody's face is different. I can't actually go and give you the exact same things that I do, and it's not necessarily going to work for you, because you know you might have almond shaped eyes. Bradley Sutton: I think my beauty is a little bit different than yours, yeah. Shivali Patel: Exactly, Exactly. But for those of you that are listening, you know you might end up if you're a woman and your are planning to use the same exact makeup techniques that I am, well, it might not work, because you might have hooded eyes and I have almond eyes, that sort of thing. So we do have the four modules plus bonus lessons, where I'll have some of my pageant friends come on, some of the you know influencers that I can get on and they'll do lessons as well, and then I also have a group and they'll be promoting this product, like once you know, now that you see there goes again, guys, there's, it's not. Bradley Sutton: She's not just going off of what you know she has, but what you have is your network too, and so if you have people who are influential, you know, and who are down to down to promote, that's another great advantage. Like, like, I'm doing something different on the coffin shelf, you know, like I'm not making a community or anything but the coffin shelf market is very saturated. All of a sudden, you know, people come in low balling and I'm going to go a little bit more in depth in a future episode, but what I'm doing is I'm just experiencing again, again. I might fail at this, but I'll never know if I don't try. I'm actually raising my price and not going lower, like everybody's 20% lower than me. I'm going to go not only not lower, but I'm going to go 20% higher and I'm adding Products that almost double my cost of manufacturing. I'm giving, like, a coffin shaped box, like the box that it's gonna come in is literally coffin shaped and it can be reused as something else, like you know, a sock box or something like that, and I'm offering some other stuff. Bradley Sutton: So for me, that's what I think is gonna differentiate, because there's no way that any of these other cheap Coffin shelf makers are gonna go and spend two dollars and fifty cents like is what it's costing me to make this custom box for Shivali. There is no way any of her competitors are gonna go and have multiple pageant beauty queens From countries like you know offering courses. So, guys, again, the moral this part of the story is is do what you know, use your advantages, that you have to be unique and offer something that is that is not duplicatable and and that's kind of like along the lines of it doesn't always have to be a physical product. Mine, mine, is a physical product. I'm doing a box right and along those lines is a perfect segue. Your first entry into Amazon wasn't even in the physical product, wasn't didn't. Before you make physical products, you were doing digital products, namely KDP books correct. Shivali Patel: I got started by selling on KDP and I wrote books fairly fast. I had some ghosts written, but I also wrote some of my own and I knew that if I spent too much time on Writing them that I most likely would be disappointed in the results. Not trying to be a pessimist, just a realist, where if I spent, let's say, months preparing a book and I put it out into the world and people don't receive it well, or maybe it the field is changed by then, right, I would be so disappointed and so I worked on. I Just focused on putting it out there as opposed to perfection, just progress, not perfection sort of ideal. Shivali Patel: And yeah, it went okay. I wouldn't say it was. I became like a best-selling author or anything, but I sold copies and I continue to sell those copies actually from the books I wrote when I was I think I was 23 at the time- so those books you made years ago You're saying you're still getting, like you know, per like it's not, it's not free, you have to pay for it or you're free, so people are literally are still paying you for this book you wrote years ago. Shivali Patel: Yes, yeah, I mean, granted, my books are very, very cheap, because again I was like, okay, I wrote this in 24 hours. I think it was like 24 to 36 hours max, but I went through, wrote it pretty fast. One was on positive self-talk, the other one was on engineering powerful habits successfully. I've actually published way more than that. I just only tied those first two to my name and so those actually that are under my name, they're tagged to my socials and so I actually do end up going in and still seeing sales from those even today, and that's cool, because I don't actually actively promote them or anything. Shivali Patel: They just end up selling, and so I really, really love digital products because digital products cost you little to no money To actually set up right. You can go into Canva today and create something. In fact, last month I wrote four books and I need to actually get them published this month, hopefully this month. Hardcover paperback would be great. I wrote one on AI. I wrote one on what was my other one, even on, can you believe I like I struggle sometimes even in float Instagram, because I had done a case study with Instagram at some point where I quickly grew it from Zero to 10k followers in the span of like three to four weeks. Shivali Patel: Now, of course, that case study is a little bit old, but I learned a lot through it and I can still sell that information, and so it's really easy to go into Canva, build out a full fledged book and then it takes you maybe five minutes to upload into KDP. And KDP isn't even the only avenue you can use. There's many other platforms that allow you to do that. Now I specifically focus on KDP and I Was talking to Bradley not too long ago about potentially doing a case study about that for helium 10 content, which hopefully, if you guys stay tuned, you'll be able to see that. And that is just experimenting with tick tock, because tick tock is also growing. Tick tock shop just became a thing and. Shivali Patel: I'm really interested in seeing how you can kind of combine both of those landscapes into one Right now you can't actually add links, I believe, into the captions to promote your Amazon KDP books, but you can Send traffic using a link in bio to a funnel page or a landing page or even into those books via that route so you can attach your KDP link. I think as long as you have the link in bio. You can't actually do it inside of the Video that you're uploading, like the post that you're uploading. Shivali Patel: Okay and so there's so many things you can do there too, right, you can go in and do like a reading what is it? You read like an excerpt of your book and that's a reading. You could do Q&A. You could add Just some knowledge to the space. If you have something that is non fictional, you could do so many other promotional videos that can lend itself to traffic for your pages. Bradley Sutton: All right, so let me give you a couple scenarios. Scenario number one I am listening to this podcast and I'm not selling on Amazon yet, and the reason why I'm not is because, you know, I don't have $3,000 or maybe my product is like super expensive, it's $10,000 what I would need to invest. You know, $5,000, what have you? And I'm just like, hey, I'm not on any kind of like strict timeline. You know, I got a few months like I can build, you know, save for my day job, but I want to kind of like X, you know, start making some more money on the side Without investing. How, what would I? Where do I start? Like, like, what's my research? Like you know, maybe I don't have the time to do an Instagram Case, that you know you know. Whatever, whatever you do like, do I need to pick a topic that I know or you know? Do I do like product research and in helium 10 and find some kind of Subject that way that there are searches on like, like what's my step one, two and three? Shivali Patel: I think that's an excellent question, and it's when I can get very excited about sharing information on because you absolutely want to do product research. There's no point in you building a book and then set trying to sell it in a market that's super saturated, or maybe you don't know how to market and so use the helium 10 chrome extension. That's what I recommend is make sure you download it. You can go to helium 10 comm forward slash extension and once you add that to chrome, you can actually use x-ray to see a lot of back-end data. Go inside of Kindle, the Kindle store, go into categories, subcategories, use x-ray to see how people are doing and then from that, maybe, if you find a book that you Are interested in creating a book on, you feel like you could do something better, you can optimize that listing better. Then what I actually recommend that you do is open up Canva, open up ChatGPT and Open up quill bot. Okay, and what you can do is, first of all, use review insights which is also a part of our helium 10 chrome extension on your competitors inside of that niche. Figure out what's good, what are people talking about, what do they like about that book, what are the topics that you want to focus your book on and then go into chat GPT, provide a title, come up with a title. If you don't want to go directly into that, you really want to get granular. Go into Cerebro before you go into chat GPT, go and see what people are typing in and then from that Make a list of all the chapters you want to have for that book, all the keywords you want to rank for, and then you can use those keywords as chapter titles. Then you go to ChatGPT, you feed it inquiries and if you put in garbage if you put in garbage you're gonna get garbage out. So make sure you're very, very hyper specific about what you're inputting in. Shivali Patel: When you do that, you can start with an outline. You can say, hey, I'm writing a book for this, this is how long I want it to be. I'm going to, over time, over the next few prompts, feed you a set of Subject or chapter titles, chapter topics, and I'd like you to Draft a written response in the tone of XYZ. Maybe you have a favorite author, a favorite artist. Whatever the case may be, get very, very specific and, as you go through first, still provide you with the outline. So I would recommend really starting with the outline. Once you have the outline, the outline will present you with maybe two or three different markers for inside of each chapter. So even if you don't know the first thing about that niche, that is okay. You don't need to do a case study like I did. I've written plenty of books that are on topics I don't know anything about, and that is okay for you too. So go in to chat GPT, go into the outlines and then actually take each chapter Section, so maybe just the two or three. Copy and paste that and then you'll see I'll draft an entire thing for you. Shivali Patel: Now, the only thing that I don't love about ChatGPT is, yes, it has limits, but it also is quite redundant sometimes in its language. So you'll see some words pop up over and over again. You'll see vast, you'll see realm, you'll see Ecommerce landscape if I'm talking about something in E come and so you might want to go in and be specific, say, hey, don't use any sequential words or don't use these specific words, include these keywords, and it will actually go through and refine what you've written. The point, or the best way, rather, to use chat GPT is Start broad and get more and more granular, refining your results every single time, and so pretty soon actually even in the span of 30 minutes you can have a full book that you can then put into quill bot, which is a paraphrasing tool, and Actually change out those words. So now you have a Section of your book that is AI generated but it looks more human because you've gone in and actually changed out some of those words. Shivali Patel: Of course you want to add a little bit of personal touch, but can you imagine how hard it must have been to write books that are 500 600 pages back in the day, not to say you need to write 500 600 pages. Most of my books are somewhere between some are as low as 20 pages and others are I think my highest might be about no, actually 120 pages, I think is my highest. But you can go in and go as little or as Long as you really want to keep in mind that if you go and upload this to KDP, you will need to do some formatting beforehand, as well, as if you are making that book a paperback or hardcover book, you're gonna have certain associated printing costs because this is print-on-demand if you're using KDP. Anyways, I've gone completely into a whole splurge based off of this initial question of what the heck do you do if you're just getting started right, and so that was really to start with product research. Do the keyword research. Shivali Patel: If you want to figure out which chapters to create, use ChatGPT with Canva and I say Canva because you can actually transfer over, not transfer over with Canva. You can make the book title, book cover, page, and so you're. You now have a free book cover that you've created. You can create a really nice manuscript inside of honestly like word. I've done word before. I've done this inside of Google Docs before. I've also done this inside of canva before, where you can really make it nice with different fonts, and then you will want to throw it into KDP after that and make sure that the manuscript looks okay. Shivali Patel: That's really, really important because people who are Kindle readers read this on a handful of different Devices and you will want to make sure that they can actually read what you're writing, because the they want to consume the content. They don't want to be distracted by mistakes. When I was 23 and I published them on my first books, some of the feedback I got, I thought, okay, I'll just get feedback and refine it afterwards. Well, I did get some things that in in the reviews and oh, like the grammar was a little bit, you know, off for one of my fictional books and I was like, okay, it's fine. Whatever, you know, this was ghost written, I don't really care about it, I'm not gonna go in. I refined it as much as I could and I feel like the story still got across just fine. Shivali Patel: So once you have your book built, your book cover built inside a Canva, you've saved it, you're uploading to KDP. Create a KDP account, go in, upload all of it. It's pretty simple to follow. If not, we do have blogs on KDP. So I suggest that you go and you check out our blog section on Helium 10 to to figure out how to actually upload it, if you need some help, and then, from there, focus on marketing. I honestly, through mistakes, have learned that it's not enough just to build a high quality product. You will need to do the marketing side of things as well, and KDP is no different. If you want to stay low on costs let's say you really want to save for private label then go into existing blog forums, go into Facebook groups, create that TikTok account and do what we talked about earlier, where you're creating promotional videos, maybe you're doing reads Q and A's, you are getting on live, maybe, and talking about the book. I have seen some lives that are ridiculous. Bradley, do you remember the Chinese seller who made $18.7 million just by promoting products? Bradley Sutton: Yeah, like three seconds per product. It's kind of ridiculous. Shivali Patel: It's absurd and people still sell based off of those three seconds. You also have people who are doing the whole NPC trend, if you've seen it, and they make money on that. If they can make money on that, can you make money on a book that sells content? Absolutely, but will you have to put in the work to actually make the promotional videos? Yes, so you can go in and do stuff. The trade off is really going to be the time investment, so you will need to spend some time inside of Facebook groups. I've done this before. You find niches that are related to your book, go in, actually post that. Hey, you know what? Like I just released this book. I would love to get some feedback. I'd love if you guys could show some support and you're not telling anyone to buy, really, but they can go in and select or or, you know, purchase that product if they feel like it's up their alley and hopefully leave you an honest review, as long as you were very, very forthcoming with what you were hoping for in the beginning. Shivali Patel: Outside of that, I've also used blogging sites so you can go in, find niches where there's tons of readers subscribed to an email list and those email lists are really, really helpful too, because I've used those to launch books before, where you can go in and essentially maybe some of these sites are free, some are not. Some are like 20, $25 book beam there's. There's other ones that cost a lot more and they have millions of readers who are waiting for books to be published. So you can also tap into Kindle Unlimited. You can go in and actually end up promoting, let's say, even the book for free while they're doing these promos, so a lot of people can read them, you can garner those reviews and then hopefully start your PPC campaigns to sell really well. Bradley Sutton: All right, so that's, let's say, I do all that. I make a book about 60, 70 pages. What's about the target price? And then, at that price, what am I taking home? You know, based on you know what, what Amazon is charging me. Shivali Patel: So you can select from two different royalty options. With KDP, you can do 35% or 70% of royalty from your list price, and that's if you're based in I think it's UK. No, if it's based in Europe, then that's without the VAT tax. So it's just taking a look at your list price 35% or 70% and it really comes down to you on what you want to market at. Shivali Patel: You'll see books that are $40. You'll see books that are $2, which is what my book started with way in the beginning and so you can go in and choose and then base off of the royalty price that you select, you'll be able to figure out what sort of profits you're making. Then, of course, if you are saving for private label, you know maybe you'll want to focus on building really quality books, not not making too many, and then just work on marketing them. Or you could go wide right. You can make many, many books that are really really cheap and just focus on the launch side of things to garner that initial revenue or not revenue. Revenue, yes, but also the initial capital you need to get started with private label. Bradley Sutton: All right. Now, you know, that was a scenario that I gave, where it's like, all right, I'm just trying to get some extra revenue. Theoretically speaking, I could be already selling on Amazon and that's still you know, like I want to. You know, get more revenue so I can do that exact process. If I'm an existing Amazon seller, we would have nothing to do with my current Amazon business. It would just be, you know, me doing product research for something. But let's just you know. The other scenario, number two that was kind of like scenario one B, but you know. Now two is like all right, I sell coffin shelves and egg trays or what have you, and I want to leverage KDP in a different way. I'm not really necessarily making a revenue play, but maybe it's. It's something like I'm giving a free, you know, yeah, lead Magnet or add on what is a scenario? That I'm not necessarily making a revenue play, but as an existing Amazon seller, I could potentially leverage KDP and it'll benefit me. Shivali Patel: So I think a really good play for that is the leads generator, and that's just. You already have your product set. Maybe you want to tap into these Kindle users, because these are people that are already reading books. They're interested in that topic. Well, maybe they might be interested in a product in that setting, and so you can go in create a book using the process we just talked about right. Go into ChatGPT, go into Canva, into quill bot, and you can transfer those skills over and end up leading, putting in pages into your eBook that are for a leads generator. You tag that you can use portals inside of helium 10 to create a landing page and then actually end up taking that link and put it into your eBook, put it on KDP and then work on also ranking that book, so that way those readers end up hopefully navigating into your product and you end up capturing those emails as well through KDP. Bradley Sutton: Okay, so that's KDP. Now you know, one of your other specialties here at helium 10 is you work with our market tracker 360 program, something that I don't know too much about. It it's mainly for those who reach, like the eight, nine figure level. What's some new things that you can tell us about for those like, hey, I'm high, seven figure, eight figure seller, some new things that I can get excited about if I'm using market tracker 360. Shivali Patel: So the beauty about market tracker 360 is you can go as broad or as granular as you want, something we have been talking about today with this podcast. But what's really cool is now you can divvy out into how you want to build your market. So if you want to build your market, let's say, at a brand level, you can input up to 100 brands and focus on it simply at the brand level. If you want to put in keywords and asins, you can still do that, but you can go in and refine it based off of categories, subcategories as well, as something that is newer is being able to create markets based off of those subcategories too. So it takes a little bit of time to set up that market, but once you have it set up, you can always go in with filter presets and get an understanding for how your market is moving, not only from a year over your comparison standpoint, or a month over month or week over week. You can also just look at it from a competitor level, check out your market share, check out how your other competitors are doing year over year the historical comparison of your products versus their products, whether it be at a brand level or at a product level. You can also dive deep into your keywords, into their keywords, check out what strategies they're using and then how they're rising and falling in terms of a keyword heat map. And so it's really nice being able to not only set up the market as you want, you can go in at the. Shivali Patel: I've heard so many you know six, seven, eight, nine figure sellers talk about how important it is for them to be able to see their category or subcategory just at that level, and we're actually coming out with that. Now is before you could go in and get granular, do it as a filter preset. Now you can actually create the market based off of that. So that's something exciting that you guys can look forward to, and if you are on the diamond plan, I believe you have access to a market. So I highly encourage you to go in and make use of that single market you have. Okay, cool. Bradley Sutton: So I always forget about that. You know, like I even said right now, market tracker 360 is like, mainly on our supercharged plan, but if you're a diamond, you can actually, you know, go ahead and get one started. So, even if you're not a eight figure seller yet, go ahead and, you know, take advantage of that free one If you've got a diamond account, all right. So now we're at the end of this episode. Do you have our, our 60 second tip or 60 second strategy of the day you can share with the audience? Shivali Patel: I think my 60 second tip is going to be be proactive because, first of all, we are very close to new years and we talked a lot about KDP today, but you can absolutely tap into that market now because there are going to be so many people that are out there looking for goal setting things, for habit planners, and it's a really easy way for you to start with a no content to low content book. Maybe you don't need to do the whole ChatGPT thing just now. You can go in create something inside of Canva that is maybe template base, that you can go in, switch out the formatting, the colors and try to start working with the marketing side of things to get a feel for what it would be like if you posted a medium to high content book inside of KDP. So you can start really, really easy with low efforts and then also be proactive in terms of maybe you want to go out, maybe you want to check out some trade shows. You want to find a really good product for your FBA business. I know we didn't fully talk about product research for a FBA business, while I might have shared a little bit about my mindset about finding my latest product that I'm going to be selling. You absolutely can go in into trade shows, into stores even, and start thinking outside of box. What value could you bring to that niche with that? I hope you implement and you don't just listen to the podcast. Bradley Sutton: Awesome. All right Again. You're no stranger to the podcast. You'll be hosting some upcoming episodes of Weekly Buzz. And then also, you were definitely instrumental and part of our relaunch of Project X and you were handling one of these products that was actually sourced in India and so definitely have you back soon to talk with you and Meghla, who helped out with that project, to kind of see how it was. We've never had a Project X product sourced from India, so that one is going to be launched soon. So as soon as that launches we'll definitely have you back. But thank you for sharing your knowledge and we'll be seeing you soon. Shivali Patel: Sounds good. Thank you so much.

Mike and Dave recap going to India, where they mark the biggest differences that they've seen between Chinese Trade Shows and Indian Trade Shows.   The India Sourcing Trip finally took place earlier this October!   Dave and I, along with a few friends and loved ones, went to India for the first time to check out the India Ecomm Summit, visit a Manufacturing Factory and see the Taj Mahal.    Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction 0:44 - Jet Lag 2:37 - Key Differences Between Chinese and Indian Trade Shows 3:37 - Product Differences 9:09 - Lack of Variety 13:49 - Product Quality 16:32 - Questions You Should Ask In Trade Shows 22:20 - Lack of Pressure 29:15 - Communication Differences 32:21 - Country Differences: Traffic Culture 37:14 - Country Differences: Sightseeing Diversity 38:50 - Visiting a Manufacturing Factory in India 42:43 - India Sourcing Trip   Shoutout again to Meghla, for making everything possible for Dave and I and setting us up with this eye opening trip.    If you're interested in possibly joining the India Sourcing Trip next year, check out India Sourcing Trip which is managed by our friend, Meghla Bhardwaj. If you'd like to learn more about Meghla Bhardwaj, check her out on her LinkedIn page.   As always, if you have any questions or anything that you need help with, reach out to us at support@ecomcrew.com if you're interested.    Don't forget to leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoy our content. If you have any questions, send us an email at support@ecomcrew.com. We'd love to help you in any way we can.    Thanks for listening!   Until next time, happy selling! 

Welcome once again to our channel! In this special episode, we are honored to host Meghla Bhardwaj, a leading international sourcing expert and the Co-Founder of IndiaSourcing.net. Together, we will explore the exciting India Sourcing Trip event, a unique opportunity to discover distinctive products and strategically diversify your supply chain.As India's global exports continue to rise, there has never been a more opportune time to tap into this thriving market. Are you currently dependent on a single country for your supplies and looking to reduce costs while establishing direct connections with factories? Then the India Sourcing Trip has been designed specifically for you.In this video, Meghla will share her deep knowledge of the opportunities and advantages offered by the sourcing market in India. With decades of experience in the industry, her perspective is invaluable to those looking to optimize their operations and expand their business horizons.Get ready for an informative and insightful conversation on how to make the most of the India Sourcing Trip and transform your supply chain efficiently. Don't miss this opportunity to explore a constantly growing market and improve your sourcing strategies.If you are interested in diversifying your supply sources and maximizing efficiency in your supply chain, this video is a must. Don't forget to subscribe to stay up to date with more valuable content on international sourcing and business opportunities!#ecomcy #Amazon #amazonfba #amazonseller #amazonbusiness #amazonfbaseller #amazonppc #amazonadvertising #amazonsellercentral #amazonppctips #amazonprivatelabel #amazonselling #amazonseoe #AbastecimientoInternacional #IndiaSourcingTrip #MeghlaBhardwaj #IndiaSourcing #CadenaDeSuministro #OportunidadesDeNegocio #ExportacionesDeLaIndia

Welcome once again to our channel! In this special episode, we are honored to host Meghla Bhardwaj, a leading international sourcing expert and the Co-Founder of IndiaSourcing.net. Together, we will explore the exciting India Sourcing Trip event, a unique opportunity to discover distinctive products and strategically diversify your supply chain.As India's global exports continue to rise, there has never been a more opportune time to tap into this thriving market. Are you currently dependent on a single country for your supplies and looking to reduce costs while establishing direct connections with factories? Then the India Sourcing Trip has been designed specifically for you.In this video, Meghla will share her deep knowledge of the opportunities and advantages offered by the sourcing market in India. With decades of experience in the industry, her perspective is invaluable to those looking to optimize their operations and expand their business horizons.Get ready for an informative and insightful conversation on how to make the most of the India Sourcing Trip and transform your supply chain efficiently. Don't miss this opportunity to explore a constantly growing market and improve your sourcing strategies.If you are interested in diversifying your supply sources and maximizing efficiency in your supply chain, this video is a must. Don't forget to subscribe to stay up to date with more valuable content on international sourcing and business opportunities!#ecomcy #Amazon #amazonfba #amazonseller #amazonbusiness #amazonfbaseller #amazonppc #amazonadvertising #amazonsellercentral #amazonppctips #amazonprivatelabel #amazonselling #amazonseoe #AbastecimientoInternacional #IndiaSourcingTrip #MeghlaBhardwaj #IndiaSourcing #CadenaDeSuministro #OportunidadesDeNegocio #ExportacionesDeLaIndia

Next week I'll be in Delhi where I'll be speaking at the eComm India Summit before hanging with Meghla, Marg and Kevin for the India Sourcing Trip with scores of attendees. The Southern Seller Fest is coming up in November and Regina and I are holding a networking drinks party, Sponsored by World First. Stay […] The post TAS 147 – How Sharon Even has transitioned from selling product ‘opportunities' to building real brands. appeared first on The Australian Seller.

So much is going on right now. In a few short weeks I'll be in Delhi where I'll be speaking at the eComm India Summit before hanging out with Meghla, Marg and Kevin for the India Sourcing Trip with scores of attendees. Come and hang out with me! Head over to https://indiasourcingtrip.com to grab a […] The post TAS 146 – Australian-based Amazon wholesale seller Emma Cunningham shares her secrets to successful wholesaling appeared first on The Australian Seller.

GFA410. Explore the world of sourcing unique products from India with our latest podcast episode. Discover the advantages, eco-friendly options, and diverse product categories waiting for Amazon e-commerce sellers in this informative discussion. Tune in now and gain insights into this exciting sourcing opportunity! The post India Sourcing Masterclass: Best Practices when Sourcing from India with Meghla Bhardwaj and Margaret Jolly appeared first on Global From Asia.

For full show notes go to https://www.globalfromasia.com/india-sourcing/ The post GFATV 410 India Sourcing Masterclass: Best Practices when Sourcing from India with Meghla Bhardwaj and Margaret Jolly appeared first on Global From Asia.

In this episode, Meghla and Kevin share their insights on alternative sourcing outside China, walk us through what product sourcing looked like before 2006, and explore emerging manufacturing hotspots in India, Vietnam, and Mexico.

Just got back from Southern Seller Fest which what was undoubtedly the most amazing Amazon event I've ever been to, not just here in Australia, but in the world. It was an absolute credit to Michael and Jamie who pulled off an incredible event jammed packed with amazing speakers with incredible content. A really big […] The post TAS 131 – Southern Seller Fest interviews with Meghla Bhardwaj, Tim Jordan, Marg Jolly and Aleisha Goodall. appeared first on The Australian Seller.

Meghla has been working in the Asia sourcing industry for over 20 years. She is passionate about helping global Amazon and eCommerce sellers find unique products from India. Throughout her career, she has been interviewed on more than 100 podcasts and webinars discussing the advantages of importing made-in-India products. In addition, she runs The Asian Seller, a community that helps e-commerce sellers in Asia start and grow their businesses. Margaret is a successful and experienced Amazon seller, giving her first-hand knowledge of the daily challenges faced by online sellers. For over four years, she has been actively buying products from India with her partner, Kevin. Besides coaching India Sourcing Trips, she also offers one-on-one coaching to other sellers. Margaret has owned and managed many businesses over the years and has become a mentor to small businesses and e-commerce sellers in recent years. Making a reasonable profit is one of the most important business fundamentals for her.India Sourcing Network is a first-of-its-kind platform that provides global Amazon & e-commerce sellers everything they need to source private label products from India. In addition to information about best practices in sourcing and e-commerce, vetted India suppliers and service providers, and a supportive community, sellers can find useful and practical information on sourcing and e-commerce. =============Meghla Bhardwaj & Margaret Jolly

On Thursdays with Sharon Even, Sharon welcomes back Meghla Bhardwaj and Margaret Jolly to discuss the current updates when sourcing from India.   Since being last on the podcast, Meghla has relocated with her son (and dog) back to India, so she gives us an exact update of what manufacturing in India looks like now in 2020, and what industries are growing and have government backing too, Margaret gives an update on where shipping and supply chain in India is at, and together we discuss the importance of diversifying your sourcing in the current climate and why India can be a great option.   We also discuss the India Sourcing Trip coming up in October to learn more about it: https://www.indiasourcingtrip.com   About Meghla: Meghla Bhardwaj has over 20 years of experience in the Asia sourcing industry. She is passionate about helping global Amazon and eCommerce sellers discover unique products to source from India.   She has been interviewed on over a hundred podcasts and webinars about the benefits of importing made-in-India products.   She is the Co-Founder of India Sourcing Network, a first-of-its-kind platform that provides importers everything they need to build private label brands sourcing from India. Meghla also runs The Asian Seller, a community for e-commerce sellers in Asia to help them start and grow their businesses.   About Margaret Jolly: Margaret is a successful and experienced Amazon seller, giving her first-hand knowledge of the daily challenges faced by online sellers.   Together with her partner, Kevin, she has been actively buying products from India for over four years. She is also a coach on India Sourcing Trip and offers one-on-one coaching to other sellers.   After years of owning and managing many different businesses, Margaret became a mentor to small businesses and more recently, e-commerce sellers. She understands one of the most important business fundamentals is making sure you can make a reasonable profit.

Meghla has been in the sourcing industry for over 20 years and previously ran the Global Sources Summit for Amazon sellers in Hong Kong. She also runs the Asian Seller group and IndiaSourcing.netWe talk about the pros and cons of sourcing from India and the upcoming India Sourcing trip in October. 

Meghla Bhardwaj, Co-Founder, India Sourcing Network https://indiasourcing.netProduct sourcing for eCommerce in India Meghla has over 20 years of experience in the Asia sourcing industry. She is passionate about helping global Amazon and eCommerce sellers discover unique products to source from India. She has been interviewed on over a hundred podcasts and webinars about the benefits of importing made-in-India products. She is the Co-Founder of India Sourcing Network, a first-of-its-kind platform that provides importers everything they need to build private label brands sourcing from India. Meghla also runs The Asian Seller, a community for e-commerce sellers in Asia to help them start and grow their businesses. Find out more about marginbusiness: INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/marginbusiness/FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/marginthecompanyWEBPAGE https://https://marginbusiness.com/ #ecommerce are #responsive #digitalagency #socialmediastrategist #website #business #facebookshops #ecom #eccomerce #ecommercemarketing #ecommercebusiness

Meghla Bhardwaj is the Co-Founder of India Sourcing Network. She has over 20 years of experience in the Asia sourcing industry. She is passionate about helping global Amazon and eCommerce sellers discover unique products to source from India. She has been interviewed on over a hundred podcasts and webinars about the benefits of importing made-in-India products. She is the Co-Founder of India Sourcing Network, a first-of-its-kind platform that provides importers everything they need to build private label brands sourcing from India. Meghla also runs The Asian Seller, a community for e-commerce sellers in Asia to help them start and grow their businesses. https://indiasourcing.net Make sure to subscribe to the podcast so that you are notified of new episodes!

On this episode of The Asian Seller, Jason Tay, Meghla Bhardwaj and Margaret Jolly answer sellers questions about Amazon FBA, Ecommerce, Private Label, Sourcing, QC, Logistics and more. Jason is the first ever Singapore seller to be featured on Amazon's Seller Success Story series, and is regularly invited by Amazon and other institutions to talk about eCommerce. Episode highlights Does the PAC replens model work for amazon.sg? Keepa doesn't work on Amazon.sg, what's the alternative? I have some of my listings with search suppressed. I had tried file upload and edit but nothing helps. Any advise? Can you give an example of how you make your product page the more attractive to consumers? Is it possible to do the replens model in amazon.com from Singapore? What are the potential challenges? I have an Amazon AU account. I have two lots of products that I bought from AliExpress that I want to get rid of. Can I deliver them to the Amazon warehouse in Melbourne myself to sell on amazon.com.au FBA? Is bath bomb fallen under prohibited category ? if yes, how do we find out what type of licences we need? How to reach Jason Jason Tay Online: https://www.jasontayonline.com/ Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/jasontayonline/ Jason's Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MySilentTeamSG/  Jason's course Amazon Seller - Singapore Training: https://www.jasontayonline.com/singapore-training.html  Mention “The Asian Seller” when registering for the course to receive a bonus one-on-one session with Jason 

G'day, G'day everybody! It's been over a month since the last episode, so massive apologies! It's been a busy, busy few months. I've moved house, held the Amazon Collective with Regina, travelled to Sydney for an Amazon Australia event and last week was up on the Gold Coast for the Retail Global conference where I […] The post TAS 124 – India Sourcing Trip for 2022 is back on! Meghla and Marg explain. appeared first on The Australian Seller .

Not all Amazon sellers source from China! In today's episode, Ashley interviews Meghla Bhardwaj, Co-Founder of the India Sourcing Network. Ashley met Meghla at eComSellersSummit. Meghla is based in Singapore and helps connect Amazon sellers with suppliers in India through sourcing trips and other resources. If you're watching this episode, you may think you have to source from China to do PL and that's just not correct! Our clients have products sourced from around the world. Today's episode will open your eyes, ears and heart towards new ways of sourcing that have the potential to expand your business and source a whole new world of products to sell on Amazon FBA! SHOW LINKS: Are you ready to be successful selling on Amazon? No one else in the industry has worked with more 6 and 7-figure Amazon sellers than Ashley Kinkead and the Private Label Mastery team. You'll find hundreds of success stories in our free Facebook group for Amazon sellers using creative, simple and easy strategies from our program. FACEBOOK.COM/GROUPS/PRIVATELABELIN60DAYS – Our free Facebook group of 10,000 entrepreneurs where our students hang out and help each other succeed. Get a free Breakthrough Session with a business consultant on our team – plmastery.com/apply We're the invisible masterminds behind thousands of products on the Amazon.com marketplace. We help you become a Certified Seller™. We invented the Profitable Product Algorithm™. It's our unique system for launching products profitably in just 30 days on the Amazon.com platform. Grab a copy of Ashley's latest book, “Million Dollar e-Com Secrets” - ashleykinkead.com/ebook

On this episode of The Asian Seller Jason Tay and Meghla Bhardwaj answer sellers questions about Amazon FBA, Ecommerce, Private Label, Sourcing, QC, Logistics and more. Jason is the first ever Singapore seller to be featured on Amazon's Seller Success Story series, and is regularly invited by Amazon and other institutions to talk about eCommerce. Episode Highlights: Is it advisable to order large quantity and send to 3PL or smaller quantity and ship direct to Amazon? What should be the percentage set aside for the first 6 months and subsequent months for PPC Ads? For Prime Exclusive discount, is FBA fees based on original price or discounted price? How should I handle (1) Voice of Customer, (2) Cancelled order, (3) Returns? When we first start out, do you think we should try on our own or use a VA from the start? How to cope with increasing logistics costs? What's the appropriate way to identify product competition and demand in Amazon.sg ,since we're not using Helium10 in Singapore? How to reach Jason Jason Tay Online: https://www.jasontayonline.com/ Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/jasontayonline/ Jason's Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MySilentTeamSG/  Jason's course Amazon Seller - Singapore Training: https://www.jasontayonline.com/singapore-training.html  Mention “The Asian Seller” when registering for the course to receive a bonus one-on-one session with Jason  Join The Asian Seller community  Facebook Group YouTube Meetup Telegram

Sourcing Around the World - Amazon Seller Tips with Meghla Bhardwaj and Margaret Jolly - Part 2

Sourcing Around the World - Amazon Seller Tips with Meghla Bhardwaj and Margaret Jolly - Part 1

When we think of sourcing products, China generally comes to mind or possibly made in the USA.  However, there is a whole world out there with many options for manufacturing your products. India can be a potential option worth looking into, and I am excited to bring on Meghla Bhardwaj from India Sourcing Network to discuss options for sourcing from India.   Connect with Meghla India Sourcing Network LinkedIn   Connect with Kevin Facebook Group Instagram LinkedIn

On this episode of Link Up Leaders, Francois and Lisa are joined by Meghla Bhardwaj and Margaret Jolly, Co-Founders of the India Sourcing Network to learn all about the current supply chain trends in India! --

Join Gianmarco Meli with Meghla Bhardwaj to discuss finding suppliers in India as an alternative to sourcing from China. Meghla has over 20 years of experience in the Asia sourcing industry. She shares why India should be considered as a sourcing hub for Amazon sellers.Here's a breakdown of what to expect in this episode:- Why consider India as a source of products for you private label- Where to start when finding suppliers in India- Tricks to check the legitimacy of a supplier company- Sourcing agents as a viable option in India- Benefits of attending a trade show to find suppliers- And so much more!Download the "Ecommerce Seller's Guide to Sourcing from India" - to learn everything you need to find great factories in India and level up your sourcing game!https://pixelfy.me/sLj0eI-------------------------About Meghla Bhardwaj:Meghla Bhardwaj has over 20 years of experience in the Asia sourcing industry. She is passionate about helping global Amazon and e-commerce sellers discover unique products to source from India.She has been interviewed on over a hundred podcasts and webinars about the benefits of importing made-in-India products.She is the co-founder of India Sourcing Network, a first-of-its-kind platform that provides importers everything they need to build private label brands sourcing from India. Meghla also runs The Asian Seller, a community for e-commerce sellers in Asia to help them start and grow their businesses.Check out Meghla's directory of vetted Indian suppliers: https://indiasourcing.netTools & Useful Resources:- Helium 10 - Essential tool to perform most of the operations related to your product research before deciding where to source itGet 10% off a month for lifetime with code “THESELLERPROCESS10”: https://bit.ly/3ATFyHv- Sostocked - The tool I use to simplify inventory management and have more control over my logistics.https://www.sostocked.com/?via=thesellerprocessNote: these are affiliate links that will give you a discount if you decide to subscribe to the tool, and will give me a small commission to help to support the generation of free content like this episode. I personally use these tools in my own private label brand therefore I recommend sellers to take advantage of them to simplify and automate their operations.

Today's show delves deep into motherhood, how it's intergenerational and we are birthed from the mothers before us. Their love, their thoughts, their dreams live on in us. I am thrilled to have Nandana Dev Sen on my show. Nandana Dev Sen is an award-winning actor, writer, and child-rights activist. Daughter of the world renowned economist and philosopher Amartya Sen and the famous Indian poet, author, and academic Nabaneeta Dev Sen, Nandana was destined to pursue a career in the arts. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard University (where she won the John Harvard Scholarship and Elizabeth Agassiz Prize each year) and studying filmmaking at the USC School of Cinema-Television, she worked as a book editor, a screenwriter, a script doctor, a poetry translator, a short film maker, and just for fun, as Princess Jasmine in Disneyland. Nandana grew up in India, England, and America, and has acted in over 20 feature films from all three continents (and in multiple languages). She is the Ambassador for Child Protection for Save the Children India. Nandana has worked closely with children and grown-ups at UNICEF, RAHI (India's first organization for survivors of child sexual abuse), Apne Aap (ends sex-trafficking by providing education and preventing intergenerational prostitution), and Operation Smile (transforms lives of children with cranio-facial deformities), as an Ambassador and advocate for child protection. In 2019, Nandana was awarded the Last Girl Champion Award for her campaign against human trafficking and child abuse, and her tireless fight to empower marginalized girl children. Nandana is the author of six children's books, In My Heart (Penguin Random House, 2019), The Monkey Who Wanted to Fly (Italian: La scimmietta che voleva volare, Fetrinelli Kids, 2018), Talky Tumble of Jumble Farm (Penguin Random House, 2017), Not Yet! (Tulika Books, 2017), Kangaroo Kisses (Otter-Barry Books, 2016), and Mambi and the Forest Fire (Puffin, 2016), as well as Youthquake, a fiction series for young adults (published in The Wire, The Telegraph, and Youth Ki Awaaz). Nandana‘s first book Kangaroo Kisses was selected by 320+ UK nurseries as a “Book of Excellence”, and her interactive workshops have been loved by more than 30,000 young people, in person, across the world. She frequently writes for newspapers and journals, and has edited and co-authored a bilingual book of her translations of her mother Nabaneeta Dev Sen's Bengali poetry, Make Up Your Mind. Her latest book, Acrobat, is a collection of her mother's poems translated from Bengali by Nandana and is published by Archipelago Books. Nandana lives with her husband John Makinson and daughter Meghla with homes in New York, London, and Kolkata. She loves to eat, bike, rhyme, dance, and argue. Meet My Guest: WEBSITE: NandanaDevSen.com INSTAGRAM: @nandanadevsen TWITTER: @nandanadevsen LINKEDIN: Nandana Sen Press NANDANADEVSEN.COM: Latest Press

Join today's Lunch With Norm where Meghla Bhardwaj and Margaret Jolly to talk about India as a viable sourcing option, how to create a brand to stand out from the rest and Indiasourcing.net. Meghla Bhardwaj has been working in the sourcing industry in Asia for 20 years and is passionate about helping Amazon and eCommerce seller source effectively. Whether you are new to Amazon and require guidance listing your first product or a more experienced seller looking for help with listings, Margaret Jolly can help. This episode is brought to you by Global Wired Advisors Global Wired Advisors is a leading Digital Investment Bank focused on optimizing the business sale process. Our approach combines decades of merger and acquisition experience with online and e-commerce expertise to increase the transactional value of your greatest asset. Maximizing the value of your company in a business sale is achieved through the full expression of its future potential. Choosing the right representation to provide this vision to the right buyer, means putting your future in focus. For More information visit https://globalwiredadvisors.com/ This episode is also brought to you by .CLUB Domains .CLUB is the most used new top-level domain name and the perfect web address for your membership or subscription-based startup or business. Why? Because your customers are your CLUB! Grow your business with a domain name that instantly means membership and subscriptions. There are a lot of great domain name choices today, but if your business is about building a community of members around a product or service, there's no better URL than YourName.club. With 1.3 million registrations worldwide, there are already thousands of e-commerce sites using .CLUB. - great subscription businesses like Soap.club, Firstleaf.club and Coffee.club. You too can join the .CLUB today. Visit www.get.club.

G'day, G'day everybody! This episode we welcome back to the show Meghla Bhardwaj and Marg Jolly from the India Sourcing Network. They sent me a wonderful sampler package of handmade goodies all crafted in India. Their new venture, India Sourcing Network is open for business where you can find suppliers for Indian Made products. In […] The post TAS 113 : Amazon Product Research – Sourcing Handmade From India with Meghla and Marg – India Sourcing Network appeared first on The Australian Seller .

With an increased interest by US supply chains to move operations out of China, the question on everyone's mind is, "Who will be the plus one in China Plus One?" In this discussion with Meghla Bhardwaj, Founder of the India Sourcing Trip, Meghla, Francois, and Lisa discuss the nuances and benefits of sourcing products from India.  

The Asian Seller Founder Meghla Bhardwaj was interviewed by Payman Lorenzo. Meghla shared a bit about her journey from who she is and her transition from being a journalist to the business woman she is now. She also talks about her experience of Sourcing From India VS China, advantages & for what type of products it is best for. Meghla shared about her soon to be launched brand. Episode Highlights: Transition From Being A Journalist To The Business Woman She Is Now Sourcing From India VS China, Advantages and For What Type Of Products It Is Best For Personal Tragedy As The Root For The Inspiration To A More Fulfilling and Meaningful Life The Importance Of Legacy & The Power Of Impact Sponsoring Kids' Education In New Delhi For A Year In Her First India Sourcing Trip ​ The Unforgettable Experience Of Visiting These Kids At Their School ​ Education, The Key To Arising Above Poverty ​ Doing Good With Your Business Is Not Only The Right   Thing To Do As A Human Being But Also Very Good For     Business!  Most Impactful Lesson Learned Over The Past 12 Months  What Kept You Going In That Very Challenging Time? ​ Involving Her Son Into The Business At An Early Age ​ Best Way To Reach Meghla. ​ Tip For Someone Looking To Feel More Fulfilment In Their Business and Life By Adding A Cause To Their Business. Contact Meghla Join The Asian Seller community Facebook Group YouTube Meetup Telegram

On this week's The Asian Seller podcast, I share the story of my life on Seller Sessions with Danny McMillan. Life hasn't been easy for me, but the experiences have shaped me into who I am today. I had a not-so-fun childhood, but that's what instilled in me a strong desire to be independent, financially stable and strong. I've had a successful corporate career working for an amazing company, Global Sources for over 19 years in 4 countries. I moved up the corporate ladder quickly with my dedication and hard work. But then life gave me a big blow when my husband suddenly and unexpectedly passed away from a heart attack in 2017 leaving me to raise my then 6-year-old son. A year later, I was made redundant from my cushy corporate job, and had to search for a new path. I decided to venture into entrepreneurship in 2019, and I'm so glad I did!  I'm extremely lucky and thankful that I found my tribe in ecommerce and Amazon FBA. The Asian Seller, and India Sourcing communities are what drive me today.  My mission in life now is to build my own ecommerce business, and help others achieve their dreams of creating profitable, sustainable businesses.  Wishing you best of luck in your ecommerce endeavours, and hope our paths will cross someday. Contact:  Reach out to me if you want to connect: https://www.facebook.com/meghla.bhardwaj  Join The Asian Seller community Facebook Group YouTube Meetup Telegram

In this episode we welcome back to the show Meghla Bhardwaj from India Sourcing Trip and Steven Selikoff from Product Sourcing academy . On the 10-12th November 2020 Global Sources Summit is running the Global Sources Virtual Summit which is an event very close to my heart, as it was the first speaking gig I […] The post TAS 102 : Global Sources Virtual Summit – Sourcing, Freighting & Amazon Challenges with Meghla Bhardwaj and Steven Selikoff. appeared first on The Australian Seller .

With Amazon's new inventory limitations until the end of 2020, it has become essential for Amazon sellers to send in their shipments to a 3PL warehouse and drip feed to Amazon FBA. This is especially important for new SKUs as they are mostly limited to 200 units. In this replay of the Virtual India Sourcing Show, we talk to two 3PL service providers, both of whom are currently being used by the webinar hosts. Margaret and Kevin send their products to DSP, while Meghla utilizes Oregon BPS.  DSP Warehouse:  This company was established in 2007, and is located in the Raritan Center Business Park in Edison, New Jersey, in the heart of the New York/New Jersey Metro region. They ship to Amazon FBA and can do FBM orders as well. They manage all logistics information including receiving, storing, and the shipping of your products to your customers; they also provide information related to inventory, sales, returns, and other management data to enhance your profitability and business planning. Most processes are automated at this large-scale 3PL. Download their presentation here Contact: Simon Wei, Eric Lai Email: dspwarehouseinc@gmail.com, eric@dspwarehouseinc.com  Website: www.dspwarehouseinc.com Oregon BPS: Oregon BPS is situated in Oregon on the west coast. This is a smaller family-run business that specializes in Amazon FBA. The founder, Heather used to sell on Amazon previously and understand the pain points of sellers.   Services they offer include receiving, storage, quality control, staggered fulfillment to Amazon FBA, prep services for bundling or multi-packs, shipment creation in Seller Central, labeling with FNSKU (if required), fulfillment through eBay, Shopify, FBM, among others.  Download their presentation here Contact: Heather Jackson  Email: oregonbps@gmail.com   Website: www.oregonbps.com  Mention “Virtual India Sourcing Show” or “The Asian Seller” when reaching out to them.  Join The Asian Seller community Facebook Group YouTube Meetup Telegram

Episode #8 - Dealing with Loss and New Perspectives   In this podcast, Anna is with Meghla, an e-commerce coach, educator, and freedom builder, and they talked about her India sourcing inspiration, struggles, and unique experiences throughout the years. She also shared about her journey through single parenthood and being an entrepreneur at the same time.    We also covered:   02:59 - India sourcing 04:30 - Moving to China 05:20 - Relocating to Singapore 06:06 - Dealing with a loss 09:45 - Dating 12:27 - Changing business plans because of COVID 16:34 - Give yourself time 18:41 - Virtual events 20:23 - E-commerce and freedom 21:45 - The biggest success 25:07 - Recruiting for Singapore marketplace    Work with your resources and master your product and audience. Don't think twice, start your business and do it now.   To know more about Meghla Bhardwaj, joining the community at theasianseller.com and follow her on Instagram, @meghlabhardwaj   Join Tribe My Facebook Group Your Freedom Project   https://www.facebook.com/groups/YourFreedomProject2020/    You can also reach Anna on her socials: Instagram - @theannadavidson Facebook - Anna Davidson YouTube - @theannadavidson  

Today I welcome Meghla back to the show; you might remember her from The India Sourcing Trip, The Asian Seller Podcast and works at Global Sources. Meghla, Marg Jolly and Kevin Oldham have been running virtual sourcing webinars out of India, speaking to suppliers, manufacturers and Factory owners about the businesses, the products they make […] The post TAS 092 : Virtual Sourcing from India, eCommerce, much more with Meghla Bhardwaj appeared first on The Australian Seller .

In this episode, Meghla Bhardwaj talks about how you can find the right supplier for your Amazon and eCommerce business.  The first step is defining an ideal company based on your specific needs. Use 6 key criteria to decide what kind of supplier you want to work with depending on your requirements. This will save you time during the supplier selection process because you can very quickly eliminate candidates that don't meet your requirements. Episode highlights:  6 criteria to consider when defining your ideal supplier:  Supplier types Regulatory compliance Export markets Location Factory size Equipment, specialization  Where to search for suppliers  Narrowing down to 2-3 suppliers  Finalizing THE one and placing an order  How to reach Meghla:  Email: info@theasianseller.com   Join The Asian Seller community  Facebook Group YouTube Meetup Telegram

Online retail in South Africa is passed the R14 billion mark in 2018 as e-commerce begins to go mainstream. I speak to Singapore based sourcing expert Meghle Bardwaj, she tells us how to go about sourcing goods from India for resale in South Africa or the overseas market. Every South African women needs a side-hustle, and an online store is a great way to make money while you sleep, with low overheads. Click here to join the India Sourcing Group on Facebook Visit www.indiasourcingtrip.com to connect with Meghla.

Meghla Bhardwaj is the Head of Content Marketing at Global Sources and organizer of the Global Sources Summit. The summit is one that I really love, and for this year Dave and I will both be speaking at the event. Meghla has been on the podcast a couple of times talking about sourcing from China specifically through Global Sources, but this time our topic is different. Sourcing from India With the ongoing China trade war and the uncertainty of the future of tariffs for Chinese products, alternative sourcing countries have become more and more popular. One country that's been getting more attention is India. Compared with sourcing from China though, there is a void of information about sourcing from India. In this episode Meghla discusses the ins and outs of sourcing from India, more specifically: Advantages for Amazon sellers Products and categories India excels in Quality of the products compared to those made in China Payment terms and lead times Logistics India trade shows Navigating India with/without a guide If you want to know more about sourcing from India or Global Sources, you can reach out to Meghla at www.facebook.com/meghla.bhardwaj. Buy product samples instantly Meghla also introduces a new feature that lets buyers get product samples right on the Global Sources website. Skip the long email back-and-forth and low MOQ negotiation--buy your product samples instantly (price includes shipping) and test them before making a bulk order. Check out this new feature. Global Sources Summit discount This year's summit will be on April 27th to 29th in Hong Kong and Dave and I will be speaking there. Meghla was kind enough to hook us up with a  sweet discount for EcomCrew listeners. Just use the code ECC100 when you purchase your ticket to get $100 off. EcomCrew Mastermind We're organizing our 2nd annual mastermind right before the Global Sources summit so if you'll be in Hong Kong on April 26th, this will be the perfect opportunity to come hang out. Whether you're making a trip to the Canton Fair or Global Sources for the first time ever or you're a frequent visitor to China this mastermind will be of incredible value to you. We've designed this mastermind to be an intimate meeting of less than 30 people, so check it out before seats run out.   Thanks for listening to this episode! Until the next one, happy selling.

Today we welcome back Meghla from Global Sources to talk about sourcing from India. Obviously with the talk of China tariffs on everyone's mind, casting your eye further afield for product sourcing might help ‘hedge your bets'. We chat about the differences between China and India as well as Amazon India and what you need […] The post TAS 048 : Sourcing from India vs. China. Amazon India, Tarrifs and More – Meghla Bhardwaj, Global Sources appeared first on The Australian Seller .

In Bangladesh, 52% of girls are married by their 18th birthday. In more rural communities, the numbers are even worse, where 71% of girls are married before the age of 18. Meghla Akter was almost forced into marrying a 30 year old man at 13, when her mother threatened to kill herself if she didn't go through with the marriage. She managed to escape to a friend's house, where she took refuge. Her mother refused to talk to her for three months and restricted her education. With time, Meghla was able to return to school and about to start at university. At 18, she wants to help other girls and boys who are facing similar situations. Meghla currently serves as the vice-chairperson of the World Vision's Child Forum, where she works to prevent child marriage in Bangladesh. She was recently named in Ashoka Bangladesh Change Maker. Support the show (https://www.reprosfightback.com/take-action#donate)

In this episode of The Amazon Seller Podcast, we interview Meghla Bhardwaj of globalsources.com. Meghla shares valuable insight into China trade shows, the Canton Fair, sourcing from China and several other topics. Check out globalsources.com to connect with more suppliers and get your private label products made.

In this episode of The Amazon Seller Podcast, we interview Meghla Bhardwaj of globalsources.com. Meghla shares valuable insight into China trade shows, the Canton Fair, sourcing from China and several other topics. Check out globalsources.com to connect with more suppliers and get your private label products made.

Meghla Bhardwaj joins us today to help us navigate through the shark-infested waters of sourcing from China. I really love her tips on preparing for a tradeshow visit and how to maximise your opportunities, both sourcing at a tradeshow and online. As we discussed, I'll be speaking at the event this October (2018) and I'm thinking […] The post TAS 029 : Meghla Bhardwaj from Global Sources chats all things sourcing from China. appeared first on The Australian Seller .

Going to trade shows is by far our favorite method of sourcing. I can tell you so many reasons right now why we prefer it over everything else, but I'd be getting ahead of myself. Some of the trade shows I absolutely love going to are those hosted by Global Sources. Much like Alibaba, Global Sources is a frequented supplier directory on the internet. However, unlike Alibaba, Global Sources is usually thought of as having higher quality, vetted suppliers. Global Sources also runs a conference, the Global Sources Summit, which is one of the biggest events geared towards ecommerce sellers importing from China. Our guest for today's episode is Meghla Bhardwaj, Head of Content Marketing of Global Sources and organizer of the summit. Meghla is no stranger to the podcast; she has been a guest on Episode 63 and Dave interviewed her last year, which you can read about here. Our conversation revolves around two topics: results of a survey carried out by Global Sources on trade show attendees and tips and best practices on how to improve sourcing. Conversation points: Results of the survey carried out on two groups: traditional non-ecommerce sellers and ecommerce sellers (the goal of the survey is to learn the top challenges importers are facing so that the Global Sources team can address their needs better) How some importers don't have a set agenda when roaming trade shows--they look for inspiration and new ideas instead The advantages of attending a trade show over simply sourcing online Supplier selection criteria of ecommerce importers 3 things importers should do to improve sourcing What to do to ensure quality Global Sources summit event details Global Sources Summit The summit will run from April 18th-20th in Hong Kong, overlapping with the trade show that runs from the 18th to the 21st. You can reserve your spot here, and use the special EcomCrew discount code ECC100 to get $100 off your ticket price. The summit will also have the following events: Workshops - day before the summit, with topics such as Facebook marketing, Amazon PPC, and a beginners workshop Mastermind Break out sessions for beginners Dave and I will both be speaking at the Global Sources Summit and we are definitely looking forward to it. We'd love to see you there and connect; don't forget to use ECC100 when you purchase your ticket to get a $100 discount. We will also be hosting our very first EcomCrew mastermind in Hong Kong. If you'll be in Asia around this time, sign up for our mastermind here. We'd love to meet up and talk shop with you. Resources mentioned: MyEcomCrew Global Sources Summit Episode 63 Episode 86 Interview with Meghla Thanks for listening to this episode! Until next week, happy selling.