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.

In this episode I host a panel live from E-Retail Fest disccussing all the topics that are hot right now in the space pertaining to what is happening in the world of aggregators. What to expect in the future and how everyone is dealing with everything since the multiples have come down and the rapid changes we are seeing in the last few months. From the current volume of quality Amazon businesses ready to buy verse 12 months ago to why pausing is a good thing and how to vet your buyer effectively. John Hefter Senior Vice President, Founder at Thras.io As a Founder of Thrasio, John has been lucky to witness their original team of four grow into a one thousand person, billion-dollar powerhouse.   At work and in life, he’s a savant with unrelenting energy and curiosity. He enjoys often deploying his experience in branding, creative, neuroscience marketing, business development, acquisitions, leadership, culture building, and product development across numerous sets of business domains. If there’s a challenge met, John can face it overtly with ability, humor, and persistence. David Mood Head of Investments, Olsam. Prior to Olsam, David was an Investment Director at Generation Investment Management, where he was part of the growth equity team focusing on high-growth disruptive consumer and technology companies accelerating the sustainability transition. David started his career at Barclays Capital in London working on cross-border European M&A transactions. He holds an MSc in Finance & Investments from Rotterdam School of Management and BSc in Business Administration from EBS University and is a CFA Charterholder.   Johan Hallenby CEO/Founder, Go North With +15 years of Entrepreneurial/investor experience, Johan started his Amazon journey as an FBA seller with one brand successfully launched. Founded Go North in late 2021 with already +10 acquired brands in the portfolio, 20 people on the team, and the ambition to acquire at least one new brand per week. Go North strives to be “Kings of operations”, a friendlier aggregator with the purpose of making sustainable consumption possible. Olivia Jones Director of Acquisitions at BRANDED Olivia spent a decade at Goldman Sachs, where she worked across M&A origination and execution, capital raising, and broader corporate strategy in the tech sector. At BRANDED, she is responsible for the end-to-end sourcing and integration of European-based brands and brands in the Beauty & Personal Care vertical globally.   Lorenzo Cerchi Investment Associate at SellerX MSc in Finance from Bocconi University, BSc in Economics and Management from Luiss University. Prior experience in investment banking at Citigroup in London, working with financial sponsors on transactions spanning several industries.   Aïda Aït-Ahmed Co-founder, COO, Nextoria   With a background in Consulting and Private Equity (Bain & Company), and experience scaling a Tech start-up across the EMEA region with a focus on product and data-driven operations, Aïda is one of the co-founders at Nextoria.   Nextoria is a global VC-backed M&A advisory firm and technology platform born out of a passion for entrepreneurship, and a drive to help business founders achieve their full potential. Nextoria’s mission is simple: find businesses that create and sell amazing products online, and give them the tools and support they need to achieve the best exit possible. With an approach that combines data-driven decision making and professional exit strategies and processes, Nextoria works with e-commerce business founders across the globe, acting as a trusted partner on their exit journey.  

In this session I sat down with conference promoter Augustas Kligys to discuss a new format that originated from Germany for sellers to interact, learn and network.   A barcamp is an event where the content is generated by attendees. Based on what topics you as an Amazon seller want to learn about, we will organize multiple breakout rooms throughout the day.   The topics will be chosen and decided by the participants (including you!) during the first hour of the event.   Rather than following a predetermined schedule that might not work for everyone, we will invite you, experienced sellers and experts, to share your expertise and insights, as well as to get advice on your current challenges.

In this episode I speak with 4 international Amazon sellers about product development, reviews and a bit around launches and visibility. All live from Band Camp put on by Orange Klik and Dragon Flip. This  is a new conference format that originally took off in Germany, whereby the content is determined by the delegates on a voting system and then rolled out on the day and delivered.    Joshua Asquith Joshua has achieved an 8-figure empire from the ground up. From the age of 13, Josh became a serial entrepreneur, currently operating 4 brands in 12 markets globally and employing a team of 25.   Roy Van Loon   Started as a one man show in 2013 selling porcelain coffee cups on eBay. He made a switch to Amazon in 2015 after he experienced the potential. Nowadays he runs an all FBM Amazon business with a team of 4 and is looking to expand to the USA.   Dietmar Luer Born in Germany and has been living in Portugal Since 2009. Dietmar is  a former athlete, coupled with working in the commercial sector. In 2011 he launched on Amazon and today is a 7 figure seller selling seeds and spices.

This week on Inspired With Bell... Holly Eve is the founder, CEO, and Creative Director of Madame Lemy, a natural and sustainable luxury body care brand. Synthesizing both of her passions, she speak regularly on entrepreneurship and mental health to a wide range of audiences and is a contributing writer for multiple publications including Forbes and Foundr. Holly is passionate about animal advocacy; she lives a vegan lifestyle and enjoy adventuring with my rescue dog, Violet. As a beauty influencer, she uses her platform to spread awareness and advocate an end to cosmetic animal testing. Prior to founding Madame Lemy, Holly worked as a celebrity and TV makeup artist in New York City and Los Angeles.

Prime shopping expands beyond Amazon.com with Amazon's new "Buy with Prime" button - Today on Thursdays with Sharon Even, Sharon Speaks about the Pro's & Con's of adding the "Buy with Prime" button and goes over the information provided by amazon about it.   To learn more about it: https://buywithprime.amazon.com/how-to-get-started

On the episode I bring in Dan Ashburn and Adam Heist to discuss some of our views and observations on the changes over the last few years. A lot of seller at the top of search have sold, whilst a good chunk come back as sellers, and some as service providers over time... And with the higher walls built around selling on Amazon, is there a shift in volume; of new people coming through? Sometimes, in our community we forget we are in an echo chamber. Of course, there will be plenty of sellers that do not engage directly within and some do not even know it is there as they do not listen to podcasts, Facebook groups or attend networking events. Adam Heist Adam "Heist" Runquist first discovered the Amazon marketplace 4 years ago after being on the executive team of a leading outdoor products brand. After taking that business from 8 to 9 figures - and discovering the power of marketplace channels and physical products brands in the process - Adam has since started, sold and invested in multiple Amazon native brands. In addition to leading and launching his own brands, Adam runs the YouTube Channel “Adam Heist” and is an investor and advisor to Amazon aggregator D1 Brands (who just raised $123M). Dan Ashburn Dan and his industry-leading team are responsible for delivering 8-figures in annual sales on Amazon. Operating in online marketing for 17 years, Dan is an international speaker, advisor and co-founder of Titan Network.

This week on Inspired with Bell... Daniela Bolzmann is the Founder of MindfulGoods.co, the one-stop-shop for Amazon listings done better. This female-led agency has had their work featured in a case study by Amazon and supports hundreds of passionate brand builders to step up their Amazon game with done-for-you creative that makes products stand out and sell.

Today I record live and direct from Estonia. I sit down with some of the key members of the community in a working space in the centre of Tallinn.  Egle Raadik Egle is a serial entrepreneur who has founded five different companies starting from furniture production to digital marketing before diving into Amazon entrepreneurship five years ago. Her latest company made the largest-ever Amazon company exit in Estonia in 2021. Today she is a management board member to three Estonian-Amarican companies that are developing products for Amazon customers all over the globe. Mihkel Moosel During his 6 years on Amazon, Mihkel has built 3 7-figure Amazon accounts which in combination have done over 10 million in yearly Amazon sales. He’s exited one Amazon brand and has built a small Amazon PPC & Marketing Agency to help skyrocket Amazon brands to 7-figures and beyond. Also on the show is Alvar Räägel, Neeme Rõõs and Ardo Huul   Tickets https://pood.aripaev.ee/kampaania/ambizion-amazon-conference/  

Following my recent gig at ASGTG in Brooklyn for Ed Rosenburg, I caught up with Many Hoffman to get an inside view of what makes Brooklyn a hot bed of turning out some of the most successful Amazon sellers on the planet. As a concentration point, Brooklyn is pretty much pound for pound the most successful place of collective sellers doing 10's of millions in revenue each year. Many Hoffman is the CEO and Founder of Ptex Group; an award winning marketing and business services agency headquartered in Brooklyn, NY. They specialise in helping businesses flourish amidst a rapidly evolving marketplace. Ptex Group has garnered critical acclaim for its work and been featured in Inc. Magazine, Crains Magazine, The Daily News, and the American Express OPEN Forum.