The Smartest Amazon Seller

Today I talk to John Ghiorso, host of the podcast called E-Commerce Deep Dive and founder and CEO of Orca Pacific. John started his agency in 2008 and has been able to see a lot of changes and see the whole business evolve over time and therefore has a lot of experience with Amazon. We talk a bit about rules that Amazon sets and that ultimately they make the calls, so we have to abide by their rules or deal with suspensions. John explains the differences between larger brands and smaller brands and how some brands can be undervalued, which is where he can come in to help the company grow to the value at which they ought to be. We talk about advertising and what videos should show, avoiding long dialogues that don’t get to the point. We also discuss product placement and the things you have to do in order to get your product ranked at the top of the competition. How John has felt with all the recent Amazon success 1:24 How he helps different sized clients 7:53 Two big issues that John sees with brands 11:37 His favorite advertising placements 14:33 “There’s no hack where you can spend this much and automatically get the first spot. You have to do everything else right, or as well as the competition. So you’re right, you need to have the same engagement rate, conversion rate, add to cart rate, amount of reviews. Amazon still factors all of that into the relevancy ranking, but then if you’re able to sufficiently bump up glance views via paid, assuming everything else is equal and all of the sudden you have more glance views than a competitor, that should put you above them.” 19:59 www.orcapac.com https://www.instagram.com/smartestseller/ https://www.buyboxer.com/ Send Scott an Email: scottneedham@buyboxer.com

In this episode we talk to Matt Wiklund, co-founder and COO of Ad Advance. We talk about how Ad Advance combats other companies coming in on your product page and leaching potential customers from your products by showing and only promoting the same brands for a specific product in order to increase their own sales. We discuss separating your different ad campaigns to test different strategies and see what works best. We talk about substitute products versus complement products, where substitutes are products that can replace the products people are searching for, and complements being products that can go with the product for which customers are looking. Matt tells about the strategy to show lower priced products first, and then to show similar/related products of a slightly higher price and quality to upsell customers. Listing Defense Strategy 2:38 Segmentation 6:10 Example 11:10 Ads vs targets 15:28 Get a hold of Matt or his team 24:24 “We have ads, and then we have targets. Our goal is to have ads for our products, or our other products, which show up on their product detail pages. Choosing which ads are going to be displayed on which product detail pages is an important part of this process. So there’s product grouping. That would be choosing products with similar attributes like the substitute model that I spoke about. And then the targets under a substitute model would be equivalent to your ads essentially. So you got 20 pairs of black sunglasses and you target your 20 pairs of black sunglasses. And they’re very similar, so you tend to see a really high conversion with that approach.” 15:32 https://www.reddit.com/r/FulfillmentByAmazon/comments/hjenkp/listing_defense_cross_promotion_using_product/ https://adadvance.com/ Social https://www.instagram.com/smartestseller/ https://www.buyboxer.com/ Send Scott an Email: scottneedham@buyboxer.com

Today I talk about some of the ideas that can really get the creative juices flowing and about some of the things that I’m implementing and never thought I would have done. There are certain times in business when we say “Wow, I should have been doing this a long time ago.” That’s something you want to be saying often. In past episodes, I go over many things that will help you in your business and one of the words I use is scale, which is something you should be focusing on often. I discuss the three categories for working smarter in your business. 1) Education 2) Technology 3) Delegation. Don’t stop learning and the fact that you’re taking the time to listen to this podcast is a step in that direction, but don’t stop there. Research, google things, watch Youtube, reach out and get connected by networking with people that are educated already in this space. I talk about the different technologies I use to help my business such as Perpetua. Getting the right technology and tools to market and run your business isn’t any less important than education because it can really make things run smoothly and help your business grow. I use a tool called Loom that helps me record and upload trainings for my employees, and I never have to give this training ever again because the recording will always be there. The bigger your company, the more your time is worth, making delegation crucial for the growth and scale of your company. Consider paying other people to do what they do best in order to make your company smarter, so that you can focus on the bigger tasks and portions of your business. 3 categories for working smarter 6:21 Technology 10:15 Delegating 12:01 “I don’t think anyone can argue that this isn’t a form of working smarter, which is doing these three things. Educating yourself, implementing technology, and then delegating. You’ll be able to avoid what I felt in 2014. A fatigue, a lack of focus, because at that time I wasn’t creating value.” 17:36 https://www.instagram.com/smartestseller/ https://www.buyboxer.com/ Send Scott an Email: scottneedham@buyboxer.com

Today I interview Joseph La Selva from Perpetua, an optimization and enablement tool for Amazon advertising. Perpetua tries to combine the power of human intelligence and always-on optimization to drive the best performance in advertisement campaigns. Joseph tells us a bit about how it works, starting with a goals based software, which first will identify some strategic parameters, outline a few constraints, and then allowing the ad engine of the software you’re using to work toward maximizing your sales within the parameters within which you have set. We talk about Perpetua figuring out how to ramp down on your ad campaign spend within the first 48 hours of creating new campaigns. It takes a lot of the pressure and stress off of you because you don’t have to worry about your ad campaign. We discuss bid adjustments and what Perpetua does to adapt and how it optimizes toward your customer base. This system is really algorithmic focused rather than formulaic, which reduces your bid price over time. We talk about keyword boosts allowing you to identify the keywords that are most strategic to you so that you can pluck them out of that broad 30% A-cost bubble and allows you to apply placement multipliers for those specific keywords that you’ve added to the keyword boost. Guest intro 1:06 Perpetua uses a goal oriented approach 3:43 Bid adjustments 11:12 One of the strongest features of Perpetua 16:19 Key word boosts 21:10 Coupon code for 50% off your first two months 24:49 “For the first time I get to stop worrying about the weeds of managing advertising. The idea of creating a new set of campaigns feels enjoyable, whereas with other tools it feels like work. It feels like something I have to check in on, or that when I do I see things that I have left.” 19:19 https://ca.linkedin.com/in/joseph-la-selva-73a12055 https://www.instagram.com/smartestseller/ https://www.buyboxer.com/ Send Scott an Email: scottneedham@buyboxer.com

Today I start off by discussing how important it is to educate yourself and that the purpose of this podcast is to help you learn and be prepared for your own business. I discuss what’s going on right now in our economy. Amazon fulfillment centers are overflowing and products are getting restrictions on what we can send in to Amazon. I talk about how much the centers have grown this year versus how much they have grown in the past. I talk over what you should be doing right now to react to this explosion of growth. I give advice on some things you should be doing, such as checking on your inventory frequently so that you don’t forget what you have and miss opportunities to sell. I discuss the pandemic and that it isn’t going to go away soon, but we at least have a few more months, meaning Amazon likely will continue to grow and E-commerce will continue to do really well. I talk about the buy box and how things have been changing in favor of larger companies. I bring up the issue of how much power Amazon has gained and equality in the marketplace. Recap of how we got where we are with restrictions 2:12 What you should be doing to react to the explosive growth of Amazon 5:12 Larger sellers with larger feedback scores get more of the buy box 10:15 Equal marketplace and the congressional hearing 12:10 “Understand that Amazon this last year has opened up 50% more fulfillment center space in just a year, and it’s already filled it up. I don’t know if that rings a bell to you, because it should. We’re talking about the best logistics network in the world grew by 50% percent in a single year.” 3:58 Social https://www.instagram.com/smartestseller/ https://www.buyboxer.com/ Send Scott an Email: scottneedham@buyboxer.com

Sometimes requesting for a refund can get you a lot of money. This is one of the things Scott has learned as he has been an Amazon seller. Amazonlit made their first million in 2015, which was all retail arbitrage. Trademark infringement has become a bigger issue over time. Now they pay more attention to this problem and they have drastically reduced those claims. 9 times out of 10, people you talk to over the phone will not be a jerk. If a certain brand complains, you can get them on the phone and sell the products back to them or work out a deal. Having a little bit of personality doesn’t hurt when trying to sell. Never take a no as a hard no. Brands can turn into your suppliers years down the road after having said no to you. Their sales have gone up as their inventory has increased. As companies have been growing online, they need more sellers, so keeping a positive communication with them has caused them to reach out down the line. Erik and Sebastian have created a mastermind group for Amazon sellers to provide the knowledge they need to become successful. Amazon is large enough that everyone can get a piece of the pie. Their mastermind group covers everything an Amazon seller will need to make their business as efficient and lucrative as possible. Their first million 2:53 Pivoting - the word of 2020 16:44 Sharing secrets doesn’t negatively impact your business 20:56 “We use keepa and we look at that third chart, the offer listings. And when we see that there’s a dramatic decrease that happens and the sales rank hasn’t decreased as well at the same time… if the sales ranks stays the same, or goes up and the offers slide down drastically, then that tells us an IP was filed at that time. Follow Eric Castellanos and Sebastian Quik: Instagram: @Amazon_lit amazonlit.com https://www.instagram.com/smartestseller/ https://www.buyboxer.com/ Send Scott an Email: scottneedham@buyboxer.com

You make money on the buying side. Scott has been profitable from the start. From day one, they have been making purchases that are more valuable on the streets than from where they bought it. Scott went to China and spent a lot of time with a Chinese supplier. This built a strong relationship and made them eager to do business with one another. Don’t give people an out, or an opportunity to say no by posing the wrong questions. Think about what they care about. If you can solve your suppliers’ problems, then there’s no reason they will say no. Invest in relationships with your suppliers if you want the best results. People like to think they’re unique, so let them prove it to you. Ask yourself how you’re adding value to their brand. Write yourself a script to help you hit your best points and help them talk about themselves. Get talking a lot on social media. People are often willing to share their suppliers. Go back and listen to previous episodes. They have proven very useful and lucrative for Scott’s listeners. Trip to China 2:38 Don’t make this mistake 6:35 How to get the best prices 8:08 Something to help improve your calls 14:51 Using Instagram to get suppliers’ names 16:36 “You should not forget this. If you are hungry for someone’s products and their business, you can prove to them that you will make their product pages better. You’ll invest in their brand, you’ll create bundles, and kits, and variations. And all of that to increase the exposure. The likelihood of shoppers purchasing that brand.” 11:31 https://www.instagram.com/smartestseller/ https://www.buyboxer.com/ Send Scott an Email: scottneedham@buyboxer.com

In today’s episode, we hype up our upcoming episodes and invite the listeners to stay tuned. We talk about how scaling and growing your business is made easier on Amazon. We talk about how we’ve scaled our own business. Scott announces a tour of BuyBoxer’s warehouses, facilities, and distributions teams in Logan, Utah and Indianapolis at the end of August (reach out to Scott at scottneedham@buyboxer.com, or find him on instagram). We’ll explain ways we cut our shipping costs, as well as explain our software and ordering systems. We then discuss scaling your business with Amazon FBA within 4 categories: sourcing, inventory management and ordering, Amazon marketing, and distribution. We explain how we have built custom software to scale our business from $2 million in sales to $60 million. We announce that we are going to start licensing that software out. We compare our software to the Bloomberg Terminal, and explain how useful it can be to anyone trying to scale within Amazon FBA. It works well for larger teams trying to save on time. We finish by sharing the features of the software, announcing that if you mention this podcast, you’ll receive 10% off the beta suite. Exciting Things To Come On This Podcast! 0:27 Scaling Your Business; Come Tour Our Warehouses! 1:31 Amazon FBA Announcement: We’re Licensing Our Software Suite!! 7:07 “Once you start to use it and see it in action, you will start to see these efficiencies, and how you can manage dozens, hundreds of skews across different suppliers and really see what’s going on. You can find out what’s your worst performing inventory and how you can improve it. How do you do reorders on a timely basis, and get inventory just in time?” 11:51“ Social https://www.instagram.com/smartestseller/ https://www.buyboxer.com/ Send Scott an Email: scottneedham@buyboxer.com

Today, Scott breaks the fourth wall and is completely transparent as he talks about his podcast. He tells us his reasons for starting the podcast, which includes greater visibility for his company and its investments. He shares how he realized its potential as a valuable marketing tool after he saw the attention he got from a Reddit post he made. He explains the value and insights he tries to share, and what his strategy is with his show, trying to cover topics and disclose secrets that will be impossible to ignore for any seller trying to get ahead with their business. Scott then answers the question, ‘Wholesale or Private Label?’ He explains the advantages, advanced strategies, and challenges involved in both. He shares how if you’re able to distill what happens on Amazon into the discoverability of a product, the click-through of a product, and your ability to convert them, then you will be prepared to dissect any tool out there, and it will change how you organize your business. He explains the value of coupons in increasing your click-through rate. He shares the news that NARF (Amazon’s North American Remote Fulfilment Program) is live and operating again. He finishes the episode by announcing that he is beefing up his Youtube content, and promises that the best is yet to come in valuable content designed to help increase your profits. Why This Podcast? 0:36 The Value We Offer With This Podcast 5:31 Wholesale or Private Label? 7:31 Breaking News: NARF is Live Again 14:28 “My company has gone in a lot of different directions -- I have a lot of insights. We have wholesale business. We have private label. We’re actually in the process of launching a new brand (I was looking at logos this morning). We have an agency with a marketing team and an account management team, we have a dev team, and now, we are pushing out content.” 4:15 Social https://www.instagram.com/smartestseller/ https://www.buyboxer.com/ Send Scott an Email: scottneedham@buyboxer.com

In today’s episode, we talk with Ken Kubec from Thrasio (https://www.thras.io/), a fast-growing acquirer of Amazon FBA businesses. He explains the growth and development of Thrasio, as well as its structure and operation. We talk about the advantages of acquiring businesses as opposed to starting them. We discuss the red flags when doing due diligence with suppliers. We explain how Thrasio will turn away brands employing black hat tactics such as review manipulation. We talk about hero skews as an ideal quality for businesses that Thrasio acquires, as well as acquiring brands working with brokers. We break down market multiples and earn-outs for the listeners, explaining how you can maximize these when you sell your business. We clarify that Thrasio works exclusively with private label products. Ken shares the strengths and expertise of his company’s team, and how that gives them confidence to be bold and decisive with growing businesses and dealing with risk. Origin and Future of Thrasio; How Thrasio Operates 1:47 Due Diligence With Suppliers; Which Brands Does Thrasio Look For? 5:57 Maximizing Your Market Multiples; Sellers, Post-acquisition 16:51 Dealing With Risk; Growing Businesses 22:13 “So that’s a normal market multiple, depending on your size, growth trajectory, recent trends, etc.” 17:52 Email Ken: ken@thras.io Social https://www.instagram.com/smartestseller/ https://www.buyboxer.com/ Send Scott an Email: scottneedham@buyboxer.com