Serious Sellers Podcast: Learn How To Sell On Amazon FBA & Walmart

Erica Greenhalgh, once a mortician, has reinvented herself as a successful Amazon seller specializing in adult products. She shares her incredible journey from the funeral industry to e-commerce, highlighting the obstacles she overcame and the dedication involved. Erica discusses her strategies for boosting sales, including transforming poorly listed products and securing valuable wholesale deals. With her unique insights into the adult product market, she emphasizes the importance of supplier relationships and shares tips on navigating compliance challenges in the ever-evolving world of online selling.

Mansour Norouzi, a former civil engineer turned e-commerce advertising expert in Canada, shares his inspiring journey from managing construction projects to launching his own Amazon brand. He delves into the valuable insights from Amazon's Search Query Performance report and the Product Opportunity Explorer, emphasizing their role in ad testing and keyword trend monitoring. Mansour also discusses the nuances of optimizing advertising strategies across platforms like Walmart and highlights the importance of a data-driven approach for successful scaling in e-commerce.

Discover crucial updates impacting Amazon sellers, including new bullet point requirements and a federal ruling on accountability. Learn about Etsy's upcoming loyalty program for its top shoppers and the fallout from a significant AWS outage affecting multiple services. Explore Amazon's strategies to cut costs and enhance delivery, plus find out how fee reductions and new advertising features could benefit sellers. Stay informed with insights on evolving market trends and compliance challenges.

Join branding maven Emma Schermer Tamir and e-commerce expert Kevin King as they dive into the art of creating an unforgettable Amazon brand. They discuss how bold marketing, like the strategies used by Liquid Death, can set your product apart in competitive markets. Discover the power of AI in analyzing customer feedback and building detailed customer avatars. Emma emphasizes the need for an evolving brand identity that reflects consumer shifts while maintaining a strong connection through storytelling and shared values like sustainability.

In this episode, Carrie Miller, a former teacher turned multi-seven-figure seller on Amazon and Walmart, shares her inspiring journey from the classroom to e-commerce. She reflects on her unique experiences in global cultures, highlighting how teaching skills shaped her business acumen. Carrie discusses her growth in the skateboard and apparel markets, her strategic insights into Walmart's marketplace, and plans for TikTok Shop. Additionally, she sheds light on challenges like quality control issues and the importance of targeted niche markets for successful selling.

Discover the latest updates in e-commerce, from Amazon's revamped inventory reimbursement policy to TikTok's exciting in-app shopping expansion into Europe. Learn about Amazon's enhanced Voice of the Customer dashboard, now with new metrics and feedback capabilities. Explore the opportunity for brand-registered US sellers to create stunning free 3D product models. Plus, find out how new AI-powered features can optimize listings and improve customer segmentation. Tune in for essential insights and pro tips!

Explore the top ten new features of Helium 10 for 2024, from Amazon Brazil marketplace integration to AI image generator. Learn about the Product Launchpad tool, revamped Demand Analyzer, and Listing Builder Scoring System for Amazon sellers to boost their listing optimization.

Have you ever wondered how to conquer competitive markets without relying on PPC? In our latest episode, Melisa Vong, a Serial E-commerce Entrepreneur & Investor, returns after nearly three years to share her journey of exiting two successful brands in the beauty and supplement niches using innovative strategies. She dives into her unique approach of utilizing Reddit for Amazon sellers and stresses the importance of a diverse product catalog. Melisa also unveils her rapid product launch methodology, which employs extensive A/B split testing to constantly refine and improve her tactics. But Melisa's entrepreneurial flair doesn't stop there. She takes us on an exciting detour into the world of escape rooms, revealing how her Amazon-selling success funded this new venture. Melisa talks about why she chose to become a franchisee instead of starting from scratch, and the benefits of partnering with an established brand to manage logistics and technology. She opens up about the investment required and how a side hustle turned into an unexpected career opportunity at the franchise's head office. We also explore cutting-edge marketing strategies for e-commerce, including the use of Advite.ai to monitor Reddit threads for promotional opportunities. Melisa highlights how personalized branding can set you apart in crowded markets and discusses innovative tactics like Google redirects to drive external traffic to Amazon listings. Tune in for a wealth of practical tips and inspiring entrepreneurial insights, and find out how to connect with Melisa online to keep the conversation going. In episode 580 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Melisa discuss: 03:47 - Success in the Competitive Supplement Market on Amazon 10:12 - The Impact of Creative Marketing 11:37 - Franchise Escape Room Side Business Discussion 13:43 - Potential Partnership Opportunity With A Game Company 18:11 - Melisa's Passion Project 22:26 - Innovative Marketing Strategies for E-Commerce 22:30 - Reddit Strategy 26:23 - Label Variation for Product Packaging 28:21 - Enhancing Customer Engagement With AI 30:40 - Heat Maps Strategy 32:18 - Targeting Dog Breeds for Marketing 33:29 - Networking and Escape Room Fun ► 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 Melissa back on the show who's going to talk about how she's exited a couple of brands. She's had success in competitive niches without even using PPC. She's got a cool Reddit strategy for Amazon sellers and now how she's using her Amazon income to start an escape room business. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Bradley Sutton: 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. Serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. I just had somebody recently on the show. I forgot who it was, but I was like man. It's been like forever since you've been on the show. It might be a record. Well, whatever it was for him or her, you have broken that record because I'm looking at my notes from Mel here and the last time you were on the show was 2021. So almost three years in between I've been trying to get you back. Melissa, you're just so hard to get a hold of. You're such a busy, busy boss lady. Anyways, how's it been going? Melisa: I know. I'm so sorry it's been a while but I'm excited to be back and thank you for your persistence and your patience with me. You know what they say the fortune's in the follow-up. So there you nailed that. But I've been awesome, you know, keeping busy not just Amazon, but kind of just dabbling in different worlds, and it's been fun, yeah. Bradley Sutton: Yeah, we're definitely going to talk about some of that stuff. You know I follow you vicariously a little bit through Instagram. It's kind of interesting to see some of the things that are going on your side. We're definitely going to dive into that. But if anybody wants to get more of Melissa's backstory, we're not going to completely rehash it here. Check out episodes 111 and also episode 302. All right, so episode 111, episode 302, you could learn a lot about her history and actually, one of the, were you in the? I don't think you had exited at the time in 2021, had you exited that? Was it a supplement brand or a beauty brand that you were doing back then? Melisa: So I exited a beauty brand and then also the following year exited in a supplement category, so still currently selling in supplements. I think when we last spoke, we did close out our exit. Bradley Sutton: What kind of beauty products was it? Melisa: So it's like natural and organic skincare. So things like castor oil. I know we've talked about it a couple times in previous so it's like vitamin c serum skincare. You know, moisturizers. Bradley Sutton: I'm all into that kind of stuff. As I get older, you know, like I've been, I've been going like I got it here on my desk been going heavily into k-beauty products. I got these products called Be Wants and it's funny because I always talk about collagen peptides on my podcast and stuff right, this is like collagen lifting cream, collagen essence toner the secret to looking like I do when I have a 23 year old daughter. So there it is Korean beauty products. That's the secret. Bradley Sutton: Now that, you know, beauty products and supplements are cliché as far as the most difficult things to break into. And then, of course, oh, maybe you, you know, somebody might say, oh yeah, she had a beauty brand. Maybe she started when it wasn't so, it wasn't so competitive, way back when, and that's how she was able to exit. But right after that, you said you went into supplements and were so successful. What's some of your secrets? Melisa: Yeah, obviously everyone kind of thinks that supplements is this weird and uncharted territory and it really is. It's a whole different ballgame in terms of how competitive it is, but from not just a black hat, you know perspective, because there are a lot of things that people will do to try to bring you down and it's unfortunate. But sometimes it's just about having a very wide catalog and just having you know a number of different products rather than just relying on one cash cow because then if you only have like one, really you know one real cash cow product that's bringing in all the money, if it goes down, then you're kind of screwed. So we kind of had to move quickly when it came to launches. So it was just speed to market. Just every quarter we were launching you know three, four new products, just consistently. And that gave us a lot of practice on launches and figuring out okay, what's working, what's not working. So we were able to kind of figure out and do a lot of AB split testing and see, okay, now we have like an actual template that we can work off of. Melisa: And supplements is one of those easy things where really you don't have to reinvent the wheel, it's really just slapping on. You know a label on a bottle and branding does pay a big. You know it's a big part of it in how you can differentiate yourself. But one thing that we did even now because we're still in the supplement space, so even though we sold that company moved into a little bit more of a niche supplement space. So now we sell gummies in particular and I also sit on the board for another company, which is like pharmaceutical crafted supplements. So a little bit more niche where it's like multi-ingredient formulations, so you can no longer just launch single ingredient products anymore and think you're going to rank for those super high volume keywords now we're relying- Bradley Sutton: Let me launch a vitamin c or some vitamin d and crush it. Melisa: Yeah, no, like you always use the example of collagen right there you no one should ever go into the collagen market these days. Even you know, five years ago it was very, very hard to break into collagen. So rather than focusing on collagen, we focus on solutions. So things for hair growth, things for, you know, hair, skin nails is also another big keyword, things like that. You want to go after more of those long tail keywords, but ones that target specific problems that people are having. So that's kind of what we've kind of shifted into, and then also doing things that you know are kind of following a trend as well. Melisa: So, for example, you know, there was that whole big craze it still is a craze where people are taking semi-glutides which are like Ozempic, you know, Manjarono, things like that for weight loss, and obviously with that comes a lot of side effects. So we were able to create a custom formulation that targets and helps with a lot of those side effects. So that really helped us gain a lot of traction because no one else was doing it. So we're creating different solutions for these problems. That kind of became more popular and more in, you know, more searched. So if you pay attention to different trends, keywords, things like that, sometimes you can get ahead of the trends. So, rather than trying to arrive a wave that's already dying, you're almost positioning yourself for the wave before it happens, and that's what any good surfer knows. Bradley Sutton: Something crazy. I don't remember if it was your beauty brand or your supplement brand, but you were talking about. At one point you were doing like 400 K of sales a month and you were not using PPC. Now, was that for the beauty brand or also for the supplements? You weren't doing PPC. Melisa: For both. Yeah, we never really focused too much on PPC. We did have a little bit for the beauty brand, but for supplements in particular, we focused on velocity, because if you can sell at a slightly you know lower price point and remain competitive, still making a profit. Our goal was not you know the amount of profit we're making per product, it was how much we could actually sell, how many units could we actually get out the door. Because not only that, we get more exposure to the customers if someone buys a product once, it's easier to sell to someone again rather than trying to sell to a new person. So we make it very easy for people to purchase our products because they're affordable, right. So not only that, it's negotiating with your suppliers. Melisa: We now have brought on our supplier as a partner in one of our brands, so we have the best terms. We have net 90. We don't have to pay them and it's basically until most of our stock is already sold, which is it puts us at a huge advantage compared to some of our other competitors, right, where you have to pay for it upfront, before it even gets sent into Amazon. You know, Amazon takes like four weeks sometimes to check in your inventory, depending on the season. So things like that definitely make a difference in helping us remain competitive. But the reason why we weren't needing to spend on PPC was because we were riding the wave of other people spending big marketing dollars to educate our customers for us and we just had to make sure we were positioned next to them. Bradley Sutton: Like direct influencers, or just riding the wave of just like search terms that were generic and those people weren't even necessarily pushing you? Or is it a mixture of both? Melisa: Right. The search terms and then also the branded search terms as well. But you know the whole craze with apple cider vinegar gummies, right? So there was that big company that they launched apple cider vinegar gummies. They were the first to do it. They were spending so much money trying to get Ellen, you know, on the Ellen Degeneres show, all these different outlets like paying out the Kardashians to promote this product and they were educating people for us on, okay, this is what this product does. Melisa: We just had to make sure we were showing up for the right keywords and showing up for their brand keywords as a cheaper alternative. So even if we could just get like a small percentage of their market share, people are going to try us. Just because we were undercutting them a little bit. They were charging, you know, a pretty high price point at the time and now there's so many different players in the space, so obviously it's kind of like a price race to the bottom now. So we don't currently sell it because that was in our previous brand that we sold. Melisa: But that was one of the things where, like, we saw the trend, we're like, okay, they're already spending so much money on marketing, we don't have to spend it ourselves. We just have to make sure that we show up in the right places at the right time because that's what marketing is. It's all about. You know, being there when someone needs something and the more times you can be in front of someone when you know, the time kind of persists because not everyone's going to need to buy certain things at that exact moment, so the more times that you can actually position yourself so that when they are ready to buy and you're there, you're more likely to be able to convert. Melisa: Like the cool thing about marketing is not just about how you say something but like there's so many different ways that you can say something. So like if you walk down the street and you see two different coffee shops, for example, right, and both of them have a sign out, one maybe says, like you know, we sell hot liquid from brown beans, and then the other is like hey, our coffee is stronger than your Wi-Fi. By the way, we have free Wi-Fi, you know? Like which one are you going to go to? There's so many ways to say we sell coffee. So it's really cool, because it's such a fun game of finding the most creative ways to say something. 0:11:04 - Bradley Sutton: I like it. Now we're going to get back to your e-commerce strategies, but one thing, as I was mentioning, I live my life vicariously, sometimes through Instagram, and so I've noticed you know, you've done some side hustles and some other endeavors and investments, which I think is important that e-commerce sellers think about the next step too. It could be, for some, a hobby, like, hey, I've always wanted to do this, but now I have the means to do it because of my Amazon business, or they've exited and now they want to. You know, hey, what else can I get into? So I think it's something that a lot of Amazon sellers aren't thinking about. But maybe, talking about your experiences, you might stir some creative juices. Bradley Sutton: But one of the things that you decided to do and I'd like to just get into, like how you came to that was doing an escape room. So was like escape room something that you always like doing yourself, and you're like, oh, this is a passion project. Or were you like, oh man, there's in this area, there's a need for this. I think I can make some money off of it. How did you come? You know, land on that as your side hustle, kind of thing. Melisa: Yeah, I love escape rooms. I think, as entrepreneurs as well, we naturally are good problem solvers, so these are kind of like fun problems to solve, right. They put you in a situation where you need to complete all the puzzles and then you have to escape. But it's usually immersed in some sort of storyline, which makes it interesting. So essentially you become like the main character in a little video game and it's a lot of fun. So it's good for team building. We like doing it with family. Melisa: You know friends, other entrepreneurs I've met on my travels. I'll be like, hey, like I know we just met, but like, call me crazy, let's do an escape room together. I know it's crazy walking you know strangers in a room for an hour. Anything could go wrong. But some of like the strongest partnerships and I guess relationships I've had are, you know people I've done escape rooms with because you kind of see this different side of them and you work together. You're almost like you know how trauma bonds people. Well, this is like you're in a high stress environment where, like, you need to escape by a certain time and you know, naturally we're all competitive people, we're entrepreneurs, business owners, so it was like really cool seeing people work really well together to get towards a common goal. And then you know some of those people I still talk to today and it's really, really cool. Bradley Sutton: Now is this something that, like you, 100% did from scratch, or you bought into a franchise or something, or you just started your own brand and built it all yourself. Melisa: Yeah. So I am a franchisee, which is, I thought it was the best way to, you know, get into this space, because for me to learn everything from scratch, you know, like, how to program controllers, the logic flow, writing all the storylines. You know the prop building all that stuff. You know CNC, build it like printing 3D printing, all that stuff you know CNC building like printing 3D printing, all that stuff like that would be way too much for me to do as a single person. Sure, I could hire out teams, but it just made more sense to partner with an existing company. So I ended up doing some of their games. I was like you know what? These are really great. There's obviously some room for improvement, as well, which I would be able to take care of on my side for my specific location. Melisa: And then, you know, fast forward, they love what I did so much with my location that they actually offered me a job, which is crazy. Now I haven't accepted it yet, so it was like we're still kind of talking back and forth, but it would, you know, consist of some equity in the overall franchise, as well as, you know, a cushy paycheck. So it's it might be a cool thing for me to do or even as a consultant for them but they want to bring me on as part of the head office teams. I think that would be kind of cool and I really thought I'd, you know, have another job again after having a job for what? Eight years, eight-nine years now being self-employed. So yeah, it'd be definitely interesting, for sure. Bradley Sutton: Now, for this kind of thing. You know what kind of investment. Obviously there's a franchise, you know fee, and then there's, you know, construction and you know training new employees and getting everything together. So, like how much would I need? I mean, obviously you know I'm in California, it might be different than wherever you did yours, but you know we talking a hundred thousand, 200,000, $300,000 that somebody would need to be able to start an endeavor like this. Melisa: Right, so I mean out of pocket, you'd probably need at least $150,000, but it could be upwards of 500,000. Most of it would be covered by like SBA financing in your case in the States because it's an existing franchise. It's a lot easier to get you know that friend or that funding for a brick and mortar business, so that's also the appeal of it as well. So to be able to have you know outside sources or using other people's money we all know how great that is. Melisa: But in terms of like construction, that depends on the size of the space. So if you want to do you know, the bare minimum is you need at least 2,500 square feet of space. That's going to provide you with four different games. But if you want more space, obviously you can have a lot more space to work with, but it's going to cost you more in construction. So, depending on the space that you find, if there's already existing infrastructure like it has drywall, it has drop ceilings, the HVAC is already installed, it has bathrooms and you have very minimal to work with your costs are going to be much lower than if you were to work with an empty shell building. So for me, I literally moved into a building that was like completely empty. It was gutted they call it vanilla shell so I had freedom to do whatever I wanted with that space. Melisa: And it is very, very, very tall. It has like super tall ceilings. It's like 17 and a half feet tall. So obviously that's a lot more paint that I have to pay for, so it does get more costly, but it could run you, like I said, anywhere from 150 to 500,000. But in terms of like ROI, it just made so much sense because I went to a franchise show, checked out so many different business models the food space. You have all this overhead cost in terms of inventory. You have food costs. You have spoilage right. Food that doesn't get bought, or, like you mess up, you cook it improperly, so there's a lot that could go wrong, whereas this, you build it at once and then that's your main cost. The only thing you have is your rent and then the employees to run it, which really doesn't take that many people to run an escape room. Bradley Sutton: Yeah, that's something I noticed when I did my escape room with my family. It was like two people or one, you know, just the front desk person. There might have been somebody cleaning or something like that. Just thinking from an e-commerce seller's viewpoint, at what stage or what level of person should you say, hey, you know, I mean not necessarily escape room, but just anything you know like this, like what you know. Like hey, if you're making less than a million dollars a year and you're doing everything on your own a hundred percent, don't be trying to think about you know doing this. Or hey, once you get to the level where you've got two-three employees in your business on autopilot, or hey, you should not even think about this unless you hit this kind of you know revenue or profit, or like. What kind of guidelines would you suggest to people out there who might be like, hey, I've always wanted to do something on the side for some more steady income perhaps. How would you advise them? Melisa: The thing is there's so many ways to make money these days that don't require a lot of, I guess, startup capital. Especially when it comes to affiliate marketing or high ticket sales things like that. I always recommend, if you need to make some extra cash, get really, really good at sales. That's going to be, you know, the biggest skill build and investment that you can make into yourself. But also, if you just need to make cash, like sell for someone who has something really awesome to offer and you can make a big commission from that, right. But if you want to start like an actual, I guess for me this is very much like a passion project because I love escape rooms and it's kind of like I wouldn't say a side hustle at this point because it does require a lot of time and effort, just in the beginning at least. But once you have it up and running for about six months and your staff is trained, you have a manager, you know you could step away. That's why I was able to go to Hawaii. I was able to, you know, be in Hawaii with you for BDSS and take time off and not have to worry and like I'm not there right now, but I have staff there right now who are running it while I'm gone. I'll probably stop in later because we're doing a really cool collaboration with this local influencer. He has like 14 million subscribers on YouTube but we're getting him to do one of our escape rooms so I'm really excited for that but there's like so much opportunity for collaboration. Melisa: Anyways, in terms of how much you need comfortably to start something like an escape room or franchise, I guess in general it really depends on the franchise. You know McDonald's, it's going to require you at least a minimum one million dollars, right. Subway's a minimum 500, 000. This escape room very low entry compared to some of these bigger franchises. So, like I mentioned, 150 to 500, 000. But a lot of that is covered by the bank loan. So, as long as you have in excess capital, be able to float. Melisa: You know the time during construction. But there's ways to negotiate free rent during the construction period, which is pretty. It's often offered depending on you know the space that you're looking pretty. It's often offered depending on you know the space that you're looking at. If it's been empty for like a year and they want to put someone in it. They don't mind giving you four or five, six months free rent while you do construction, until you're up and running. So I'd say you know you would want probably half a million in assets before thinking about doing something like that, just because, in case something happens, it's always good to have a rainy day fund. Bradley Sutton: You know, I think it's funny because a lot of people obviously complain about Amazon and the problems that sometimes it has and new fees and this, you know, screw up by Amazon, or they lost my inventory, but they don't realize. Hey, businesses have trouble, too. So, like you just mentioned your fire thing, but then also, when you got started, did you like even get robbed, like right away, or something like that? Melisa: Yeah, we had a break in and, funny enough, a month ago we had another break in, but twice in one night. So it's just a different set of problems, right. Every business is going to have its own unique problems itself. Sometimes I joke, I'm like, oh, maybe I should just do an e-commerce. But I love what I do with the escape room. Obviously, it's very fulfilling. Melisa: I get to hire students. I have this amazing work culture. You know some of my employees they'll come to work even on their day off. Like it's so cool seeing that and to be able to provide that kind of and give back to my local community, providing a place of work where people can grow as individuals who can build these different skills. Just from customer service standpoint and, you know, learning the ins and outs of the business and being a key holder, things like that and being in proximity to me, because I have one girl that works for me and she's also kind of in the e-commerce world as well, so she's almost like my little pupil, little protege. So it's kind of cool just having that know mentor-mentee relationship as well. Bradley Sutton: Nice, nice, all right. Now, coming back to e-commerce, you know you won best speaker at Billion Dollar Seller Summit. You did some cool magic tricks. I remember too. But you know, obviously we're not going to rehash the whole entire Billion Dollar Seller Summit. You got to go to Billion Dollar Seller Summit, guys, if you want to get that good data. But I wanted know, like, maybe you can bring out one of the topics you did, maybe either the site map one or the Reddit one, your choice. But what do you think is relevant here in middle of 2024, that on one of those topics that you think that can help our sellers out there? Melisa: Yeah, I think that Reddit would be a cool topic of discussion just because it's such an underrated social media platform. Like cool topic of discussion just because it's such an underrated social media platform. Like when you think social media, you don't really Reddit is not at the top of your mind, but it's a really great place for people to do research. So most of your customers are still in their research phase, so you want to show up when they are doing their research. Right, and that's where, if you have all these different threads that you are consistently mentioned in, it's going to be so much easier when it comes time to them actually pulling the trigger to actually want to buy from you. Melisa: So there's this really cool tool called Advite that we use. That helps us A-D-V-I-T-E dot AI, I believe, and they use AI to basically scrape Reddit and all the different threads and it will actually ping you whenever there's a relevant thread that you should maybe comment on. It's almost like help a reporter out, but like, for you know people, just random people that need answers for questions, and it's usually very unique questions too, like whenever I have a specific problem unique to myself, I always like type in, like, okay, this is the problem I'm having and I put Reddit at the end because I know someone in the world has had this problem before. Maybe someone has a solution. So it's really cool because these threads they obviously live there as like a forever forum and once you've recommended your own product or whatever it is, or your own solution on it, it stays there. Melisa: So other people who might have that problem will end up coming back to that thread and you can hit people and it's very evergreen. It's like it's there. It's almost like you posted it once and it's going to be there forever for people to come back to. So that's definitely something you should keep in mind when trying to warm up your potential customers. And if you use Advite, it's going to ping you all of those different threads. Just be on top of posting, contributing, getting that good karma, those upvotes, things like that, and you can even get other people or higher VAs to comment on your behalf on different ghost accounts. And as long as you can show up multiple times, people are going to be like oh yeah, I remember that brand. I've seen it pop up a couple of times. That's the brand I'm probably going to choose because you know so many people have recommended it. Bradley Sutton: So now I see you active sometimes in the Helium 10 Elite Facebook group, you know. So obviously you're doing something on Amazon now, but you exited the other brand. Are you still working with that brand you exited, or you went and started another one? Or what exactly are you doing in the Amazon world these days? Melisa: No. So we've exited that brand and then started shortly after another supplement brand. Thankfully, we didn't have like a very strict non-compete, so we were able to get into that space and then also dabbling in pet supplements as well. So another cool thing is that we're kind of looking into is customization of packaging, because nowadays, like you, really do have to do things different. Amazon just announced that they're making it so much easier for Chinese sellers to be able to ship their products straight from China. So that's going to change the game a lot. And if you don't have a solid brand or you're not connecting personally with your customers, then you are going to have a very rough time once that starts kicking in and all of your the Chinese competitors are undercutting you. So things like the kitchen industry are going to get really disrupted, like things that don't really have a lot of branding. You know, like most people can't really brand a garlic press. People are just going to buy the cheapest one that they think is going to for them. Melisa: But in terms of like supplements, especially things for pets, like it's such a personal thing, like people will spend as much money as they can for their pet. They have the budget spread because it's like their second children really, especially for millennials, right, who can't afford children. Like pets are our new children. But yeah, in Hawaii, actually, Janelle page, she mentioned something in her presentation about Jones Soda Company, how they would let people vote on different photos to put on the bottles. So we kind of want to implement something similar where we actually have our customers, dogs, photos on the bottles of our products. So that's something that we're kind of logistically exploring right now and I think that everyone should be kind of forward thinking like that, if you can to personalize it, or even if you can't, you can, you know, do a lot more blanket. Like for this print run, we're going to feature one of your dogs, so get everyone to post selfies with their dogs, with your product, and that's a good way to generate more content for your company. So doing things like that aren't as difficult to implement, especially if you don't do the manufacturing yourself. Melisa: Difficult to implement, especially if you don't do the manufacturing yourself, but with labels nowadays, like it becomes a lot easier, as long as you can get them all printed on the same roll. We do have, I think, our manufacturer for labels. They allow you to have as many different variations of label as you want. Which I think is cool. So if we had even like a hundred different dogs that we like have on this bottle, so we had even like a hundred different dogs that we like have on this bottle, so it's not like a consistent one, but then at least when we do go to retail people are going to see oh, this is the same dog as my dog. Like I'm going to buy that just because my dog is on the product. Bradley Sutton: All right, yeah, I like that. I think I always wonder about you know how, when your listing goes down on Amazon, that there's a dog page, that, like I always wondered. It was like are those Amazon employees dogs? Or something like that. It was a similar vibe, I guess. Bradley Sutton: Okay. That's pretty cool. Now what? What's one thing new you're doing with this supplement brand that's working, and what's one thing that you're not doing? That you did with the other ones because, like you know, the Amazon world has changed off of. Melisa: So I guess something new that we've done is, I mean, it has been pretty consistent across all of our brands is just doing like variations of Supreme URLs I know Super URLs and that kind of graduated but we've been doing a lot of Google redirects, so making sure that we have a lot of external traffic coming into our pages because before we weren't doing any of that, it was just strictly. We were so Amazon focused. We were just like let's rank for keywords on Amazon, like let's just make sure that we're good here. But now you can't just rely on Amazon anymore. You have to be well-rounded in on different platforms. And we've been doing a lot more social media. It's obviously a lot more work but once you have the systems in play, it kind of makes it easier when you have VAS pumping out that content for you. But yeah, we've been doing a lot more content. Like content is king. You know how they say attention is the new currency, like that rings true and truer than ever. So one thing I am trying to do is become more comfortable in front of the camera and almost like pull things that I'm doing from the retail side of things, like from the, from brick and mortar into our e-commerce. Melisa: So like, for example, knowing the life cycle of your product is so important because then you know, okay, especially because we're in consumables we know when someone's going to run out of their product. Usually, it's either like a 30-day or a 60-day supply. So if you can, you know, send out an email to your customer a couple of days, or, if not, like a week, before they're about to run out, or even just like as they're about to run out. You're going to raise, you're going to have that top of mind awareness and you're going to be there at the right time. You're going to be there when you know your customer is going to need you and then it's going to, you know, trigger something in their brain. It's like oh yeah, I'm about to run out, I should probably order more. Melisa: So we've been sending out like emails or follow-ups for our customers, even with like review generation. What we do at like the escape room, for example, is we do have like a funnel, almost, where people would like leave us almost like feedback and then we convert it into a review but now we've been doing it as like more personal. I'm trying to find AI tools to help us automate it a little bit more. But basically we have like a selfie of us holding like a whiteboard and then we would just put like the person's name on it and be like thank you so much, like so and so, or whatever, and just thank them for their feedback. And then they're like, oh my God, like this is so personal, like of course, I'll leave you a review, you know. So, trying to do like more personalized things like that, and I think AI is going to make it so much easier. And yeah, that's the other thing, right, AI, implementing so much AI and everything in all aspects of our business has been so different because, like a couple of years ago. Bradley Sutton: Obviously you're probably doing 10 different things, but if you were to say the most impactful, what is the most impactful AI thing that you've implemented? Melisa: Using Midjourney has been a huge game changer for us as well, because now content creation for us is so much easier and so much cheaper, even product images. So before, if you wanted to get a really high quality product render with crazy you know, like crazy fruit in the background, things like that you'd have to pay someone a lot of money to just get one photo, like from a photographer. But now AI can literally generate it and it costs you pennies on the dollar. And then copywriting oh my gosh, copywriting is so much easier now. So that's why we're doing a lot more email marketing too. Bradley Sutton: Last couple of questions here. Favorite Helium 10 tool. Melisa: Favorite Helium 10 tool. Well, the one that I use on a daily basis is obviously the Keyword Tracker that helps me keep on top of everything, but also the map that shows you, you know- Bradley Sutton: Inventory heat map and sales heat map. Melisa: And seeing like the clusters of customers and where most of your inventory is and kind of tailoring to that, because we've been doing a lot more location targeting as well. So kind of what I mentioned earlier was knowing what to show someone at the right time. So taking a page out of like Tim Hortons book, for example, I don't know if you know Tim Hortons, but that's like a coffee company in Canada, Bradley Sutton: That's like Canada. Yeah, I know, I know about it, yep. Melisa: Yeah. So they have an app where they'll show you different deals based on your location, but also who you are as a person or as an individual shoppers like personalized coupons, things like that. So there's this one platform we were using, called Aviva, for the longest time, where we can on our website. If someone visits our website, we can show them different popups based on their location. Melisa: So we can show them like a very personalized experience when they arrive to the website. So knowing where our customers are super helpful, and I think the Helium Heat Map tool is cool for that just seeing where our inventory is as well, because then you're going to have, like that, faster shipping. So you know that. You know it's going to show up as prime or even same day shipping sometimes, so being able to focus on a specific area is also super cool. Bradley Sutton: When you look at the sales heat map and see, like, where your sales are concentrated, do you do anything based on that, like, do you actually run Google Ads or something that geolocated you know, to areas that you're not doing well, or you double down on the areas you are selling? What's the action that you take after looking at that? Melisa: Yeah, we usually double down on the areas that have high concentration of our customers because that's where they typically are and sometimes it surprises you where some of your customers are. Like, we do get a lot of customers in New York. Obviously, it's a big city, but I think a lot of people during COVID they were lonely in their condos but because it's very constricted you get a lot of small dogs. So we'll start like doing like when we do our targeting for Facebook ads and things like that, we'll actually show a lot more smaller dogs in New York versus, like you know, in Texas maybe they have bigger yards, things like that. We're going to show the bigger breeds so that way we can hit more of our demographic. Bradley Sutton: I used to have a great Pyrenees, because I have a big lot here and I would actually have. I had goats and pigs and stuff and that's like a livestock guardian. But yeah, somebody in New York City would not have a great Pyrenees, which is the gigantic dog. Okay, cool If I were to give you the keys to the Helium 10 product team, like, hey, you're our CTO for the day and you're like Helium 10 needs to have this feature in an existing tool or it needs to make this new tool that we don't have now. What would it be? Melisa: Yeah, you guys don't do that anymore, but if you can create your own Google redirect URL targeting keywords, that would be cool. Okay, because I use that regularly, especially for launches especially for launches. Bradley Sutton: All right, how can people find you on the interwebs out there if they want to follow you or maybe connect? 0:33:34 - Melisa: You can follow me on Instagram @melisa with one S, my mom's felt my name on a member certificate, so it's very fab of her. Or you can email me. Linkedin is also a good one. I'm starting to be a little bit more active on LinkedIn, but yeah. Bradley Sutton: Awesome, Melisa. Thank you so much for joining us and I'm going to have to go to your escape room. But don't judge me on how slow I am. Sometimes it takes me up until the very last deadline to try and get out and I sometimes have to have help from the guide in those things because I don't think well in those kind of high pressure situations. But I'm going to give it a try. Hope to hang out with you at an upcoming conference soon. Melisa: Yeah, absolutely. I can't wait to catch up with you somewhere in the world. We always see each other, you know, in our travels.

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, talk about Helium 10’s newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. Amazon Prime Day drives U.S. online sales to record $14.2 billion https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/18/amazon-prime-day-us-online-sales-climb-to-record-14point2-billion.html Shoppers spent $14.2 billion during Amazon's Prime Day: Here's what they bought https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/shopping/2024/07/18/amazon-prime-day-sales-record-14-billion/74457292007/ Prime Day 2024 drives record sales for overall US ecommerce https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/article/amazon-prime-day-sales/ Here’s some numbers that caught our eye when we looked at Pacvue data from Prime Day so far https://www.linkedin.com/posts/melissaburdick_amazonprimeday2024-primeday2024-activity-7219460602312708096-Tmdu/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop Amazon Prime Day 2024 is officially over, and once again, broke records. Adobe Analytics' initial data shows that spending surpassed forecast, totaling $14.2B over two days. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/pacvue_primeday-pacvue-commerceacceleration-activity-7219815051182919681-KIZw/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop Don't miss the introduction of the upcoming live monthly Freedom Ticket webinar on advanced branding techniques with guest expert Emma Schermer Tamir. Plus, get a sneak peek at new Helium 10 features, including the Adtomic Dayparting feature for Walmart advertising and an updated Keyword Tracker tool with enhanced functionalities. Lastly, discover how to effectively utilize the sales and traffic conversion tool to improve your e-commerce performance, and hear personal insights on tracking crucial metrics and making strategic adjustments throughout the year. Tune in next week for more invaluable tips and insights! In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers: 01:01 - Prime Day Stats 04:13 - More Prime Day 07:09 - Community's Prime Day 09:07 - Freedom Ticket Webinar July 10:00 - Helium 10 New Feature Alerts 14:56 - Pro Training Tip: Amazon Business Reports Inside Helium 10

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.