My Amazon Guy

Send us a textAmazon seller turned inspection company Movley.  Why do inspections make financial sense? - I can walk through the calculation, how just $3k of defective products can pay for 7 years worth of inspections!  How does fraud & bribery work when it comes to inspections? - Common misconception is that this is a zero-sum game. Inspectors routinely commit fraud with or without bribes. Great chance to talk about how to prevent it.Take aways:Make sure you test your products. Sell a paper cup? Put water in it.Inspections are not a one off thing.Supply chain comes down to the human element. Inspectors can often be "honest thieves."Bio: Sajag Agarwal previously lived in China, is a former 7-figure Amazon seller, and the current founder of Movley. In 2015, he founded and grew his first e-commerce brand to $2M/yr in less than 2 years. Plagued with quality control problems, Sajag moved to China for 6 months, opened an office in Shenzhen, and spent most of his time on the factory floor. While there, he watched his inspectors fraudulently pass his bad production orders and did his own inspections. Out of frustration, in 2018 he founded Movley to make manufacturing overseas easier and more controllable. Movley brings tech, data analytics, and better process to do inspections better & more efficiently. Sajag loves to share his knowledge with the community on everything manufacturing, with a side of entrepreneurship.Entrepreneurship & LifeMy story: from Minecraft and flipping electronics on eBay, to a $2M/yr e-commerce brand, moving to China, to starting MovleyWhat was it like to live in China? Funniest story? What was it like to meet factory owners in real life?What’s your motivation for being an entrepreneur? Has it changed since you started?What were some of the challenges you faced as an entrepreneur? (Failures & Growth)Product InspectionsWhy are inspections so important? Do you need to do them every order? Different types?Is it better to inspect products at the port, or at the factory?What makes an inspection effective? Product tests? Setup sample size? AQL?Is an inspection necessary if the supplier says they do their own inspections?What do you do when an inspection fails? What if the supplier refuses to work with you?MovleyHow do Movley’s inspection reports differ? What insights does Movley’s tech platform provide?The average cost of an inspection is $300/day, how do companies offer them for $100?How does Movley price inspections? Do your quotes improve with time?Movley has a back-office in the PhilippinesManufacturing in ChinaWhat do you see as the future of manufacturing in China? COVID? Trade war?What are some things to look for when vetting suppliers? When should I do a factory audit?Would you recommend listeners to visit China? How do you plan a trip like this?How can you negotiate better pricing and trade terms with your suppliers?Are supplier contracts enforceable or effective? What contracts do you use?What are the common mistakes you see people make when sourcing in China?Support the show

Send us a textAdam Heist runs a great YouTube channel for Amazon sellers. So today we bring him on to talk about his Amazon journey.  Adam owns 3 Amazon brands. "Amazon is not hard, it's just a lot of moving parts, graphics, copywriting, logistics. I was surprised how many papercuts had to be had."Mental game Mondays. "The game is 100% mental because it is a gauntlet." SHTF"Amazon has made sellers lazy. Because Amazon (solved) the fundamentals." Adam used a California data request to get 22 zip folders of data from his personal Amazon account. Amazon tracks your IP address, searches, purchases. They track and tag your searches that originate off Amazon.Fan of Google, Facebook, Pinterest ads, especially at launch.Do all the things B2C brands do off Amazon. List building, content generation, you name it.Have your "Amazon degree." Evaluations of Amazon businesses are undervalued. "I predict evaluations are going to go 3.5-6x earnins." 10 major players int he aggregators. 3 busineses have raises more than 100 mil each to buy Amazon brands. Adam helped a large  Fortune 300 Energy Company buy electrical companies across 13 states. He runs his Amazon businesses in similar fashion. Spreads his Amazon portfolio across both building and buying.  30% building, 70% acquire. For Adam it's all about unique deal flow.Professional Era.Support the show

Send us a textThe Netflix Effect is real. Queens Gambit debuts on Netflix October 23, 2020. Since then, massive demand for chess products and content has incresaed.62 million households have watched Queens GambitInquiries for "chess sets" are up 250% on eBay (and probably Amazon but we don't have data on this)Google search queries for "how to play chess' has hit an all-time high in 9 years.The original novel The Queens Gambit is now a New York Times bestseller 37 years after its release.The number of new players on chess.com has 5xSupport the show

Send us a textWe found this study from Deloitte interesting and wanted to share it with all of you as you wonder how your Amazon business is doing compared to others. It also discussed the current landscape of shopping at large.Find the full 29 page survey here:  https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/insights/us/articles/6890_holiday_retail/6907_2020-pre-thanksgiving-findings.pdfSupport the show

Send us a textToday should be the largest sales day of the year for most Amazon sellers. Watch your stock levels, monitor your ads, and buckle up!Support the show

Send us a textPortions of Seller Central went down Wednesday morning. I suspect system outages again on Black Friday or possibly Cyber Monday. Order reports will be delayed, not unusual. Lots and lots of glitches today. Affects reporting, shipments and more.Black Friday deals launched early this yearSeeing some FBA items lose buy box to MFN. This happened in May during peek buying on Amazon. FBA overwhelmed. Increase your MFN prices, or turn MFN off if you can’t handle a surge.Amazon has added 100 product type classifications and attributes. Some are auto classifying.Grocery is being standardized with sizing variations.Lot of parentages being broken up for color and size. Can’t make sense of it.Amazon added a “Growth” section on drop down in seller central, nothing of value in thereThe new brand drop down, however, is very valuable, check out weekly to monitor reviews and brand analytics.India Becomes Amazon’s Second Largest MarketplaceAmazon.com products auto translate to Spanish with customer preference settings.Still recommend putting in a couple of Spanish keywords peppered in on search terms and A+ content photos.Biggest question I have right now is what will the IPI requirements be in January and will the 90 day stock limitations go away. I think they will, but too early to tell.Brand registry pending trademark registration now done through regular brand registry portal. If you don’t have brand registry - a new section showed up yesterday to load videos for non brands in the video load section. This was supposed to be available 60 days ago but just seeing it for first time.Walmart back end has removed search termsThey might rely heavier upon titles and bullets as a resultEtsy uses “tags”Target’s ecommerce sales jump 154% in Q3 2020Walmart’s eCommerce sales jump 79% in fiscal Q3Amazon Pharmacy Business Adds Online Store, Free Delivery for Prime MembersGoogle “Amazon news” top result is “Will Amazon go bankrupt” and that’s pretty click baity but found it interestingAmazon will go bankrupt. If you look at large companies, their lifespans tend to be 30-plus years, not a hundred-plus years," he said. Bezos went on to say that it was his job to delay that date by as long as possible. Amazon turned 25 years old today, so it is fast approaching Bezos's 30-year benchmarkSelling tips for today - AB test A+ content and titlesRun video ads.Make sure campaigns don’t run out of budgetSupport the show

Send us a textMichael Erickson is the CEO of Ad Badger, easily the best podcast that is dedicated to Amazon PPC. I've listened to them test real case studies, doing things to prove them so to speak. When Amazon misleads or doesn't transparently share how things work, these guys know how to cut through the thick of it and figure it out. PPC, the most important thing on Amazon or the mostest important thing on Amazon?If you had to summarize your entire 100 podcasts into one soundbite, what have you learned about PPC?Right product with right message to right consumer at right time.People who master PPC - wield a weapon.  What they know to be true is that there are many ways to market your product. Lot of PPC dimensions. Not all keywords are treated equal.One keyword will be best.So what you're saying is, put my top 3 keywords on a manual campaign and an auto campaign and I will then have Amazon passive income? /sSimple and digestable - and giving the right advice. Step by step process is a disservice.Be helpful/accessible but too complex.How many ads is too many?Improvements someone can make today:View search term reportAdd new negativesNegative phrase and exact match.When would I want a high ACOS?More often than one would think.Amazon looks at conversions and orders.Pick between 10 orders at 10% acos, or 100 orders at 50% acos, most of the time it makes more sense to do 100 orders at 50% acos.More reviews creates more orders.What has changed on Amazon?Way more adsWhat will change in 2021?More ads.Higher complexity.Higher CPCCounter to this to make best listing for that keyword. If you bid less, if you convert better. Be the best result.More competitionMUST have brand registry.What use case was the most helpful to your cause? Most surprising? The higher you spend the lower your ACOS. Diminishing returns?Product market fit - spend more to hungrier market.Growing up played starcraft. Got a degree in biology. Taught high school biologySupport the show

Send us a textBill LaPierre |  Catalog Strategies, Catalog Survival, Catalog Trends I’m not going to recap Covid cases or report on the retail sales shifts – we already know that store traffic is down or non-existent, and as the virus cases grow, fewer consumers will venture out. Be glad you have a direct to consumer business.However, here is what I’m hearing from readers and clients about current catalog and ecommerce results: hard goods and food mailers are generally doing great. Some moved their Black Friday sales events forward by a week or two, simply because demand is so strong, they were afraid they would be unable to ship all their orders. Despite many Americans still being unemployed, many catalogs report difficulty in hiring enough staff for the warehouse.Backorders and out-of-stocks remain a massive problem, due to factories that were closed, shipping delays, and an overall increase in demand caused by the pandemic. Those of you selling anything for the home, or products that consumers use in a pandemic are simply struggling to get through the next six weeks. Several of our clients reduced circulation – even eliminating holiday mailings – simply to avoid customer service issues. Moreover, many clients have reported that they are reducing short-term digital advertising, simply because they can’t get orders out the door.Response to apparel offers however is mixed, with most mailers reporting soft response. Fortunately, most apparel mailers did not dramatically increase circulation in anticipation of picking up sales that would have ordinarily been done in retail stores, which they expected to be shunned due to the pandemic.The bottom line is that most of you are doing very well, but operational issues – which have not been part of the holiday season for years at the magnitude they are this year – are causing huge problems.What I Didn’t Hear:In years past, mailers always complained that they experienced soft sales the week before or the week of the election. However, despite all the other things that have gone wrong in 2020, no one has reported any hiccup in response related to the election, or its continued aftermath. And if consumers don’t go to the malls over Thanksgiving weekend, you should continue to reap a strong harvest into December, or until the shipping network grinds to a halt.Support the show

Send us a textJudson started his career as an actor. He met his wife Kelly Overton in Hollywood (she stars on Netflix series Van Helsing as Vanessa Van Helsing, a Syfy fantasy drama) but left Hollywood to become an Amazon seller.  Most important skill from being an actor to help as an Amazon seller: Storytelling. Make the visuals match the solution to the problem the consumer has.Listing we analyzed while on the podcast - MicroDerm Glo https://www.amazon.com/Microderm-GLO-Diamond-Microdermabrasion-System/dp/B078Z8LKB9/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=microderm+glo&qid=1605908957&sr=8-5Coolest thing behind the scenes fact about Van Helsing. What is the #1 most important piece of content for your amazon product page? - Split test main image it with PickFu. Showing product in use, like candle lit, will perform better. Test a wine glass with wine and without.Small guys optimize better on Amazon. Big guys lazily check it in because they are killing it off Amazon. How do sellers increase conversion rates in 2020/2021?Video. What is the #1 missed opportunity for Amazon PPC today?Video ads.Amazon mistakes: Launching a "cool" product. But I didn't vet it enough.butter.la - Judson runs an agency to do storytelling in photos and videos.Support the show

Send us a textJoe Shaw is a food Scientist with formulas on barbecue seasonings. Won the National BBQ Association contest 1st place. My favorite seasoning Joe has made is the Slap Apple Bourbon. As a current My Amazon Guy client, he joined us because he didn't know what he didn't know.Mike Mills is the LEGEND - won Memphis on Main 3 times. "Start with what your confident in, build up to what you're competent in."Joe first got started when going to school he became good at "Food math." How do you find your marketing demographic. Flying Swine: Targeting not just consumers of bbq but buyers who will prepare the food. We discuss how Joe got started, how he picked the food category, and why he contacted My Amazon Guy to take it to the next level.Flying Swine Seasonings are made for all your smoking and grilling needs. They are all purpose seasonings for all you can think to try. From meats like pork, beef, chicken or fish to side dishes ranging from chili to mac & cheese, and even popcorn, you will not find a better seasoning anywhere. Buy it on the Amazon store.Support the show