My Amazon Guy

Send us a textGood companies get bigger, or evolve. Great companies do both. Examples of companies that did not evolve Blockbuster, Kodak. Examples of companies that did not get bigger. our neighbor’s startup you never heard of. It should be obvious why a company needs to both evolve and get bigger, but this isn’t practiced by many. Amazon is probably the greatest example of a company that successfully did both. Amazon started out selling books. Today they are even opening up their own electrical car division, have their own supply chain, and have their hands on everything from unicorn meat to their own private labels and video streaming services.If you don’t evolve you won’t stay competitive, and one day it could put you out of business.If you don’t get bigger, you’re not relevant, you’re stagnant, and you may not ever become an industry leader.Don’t just grow for growth sake. You don’t want to go out and acquire a random competitor on a dime. That’s not the purpose of getting bigger. Why both grow and evolve?Market conditions change. Rinse and repeat of same playbook will result in less profit and stagnation.“If the CEO has an engineering background, loves the products, and knows the DNA of the company, that firm is going to be focused on internal innovation. A CEO with more of a financial or investment banking background will go after deals. Even a specific type of deal.” Build, Borrow, or Buy: Solving the Growth Dilemma.The concept of just in time supply chain management is dead. Companies need to have a year's supply of all stock moving forward. Minimum. In the states ready. That's where the company should be financing right now.Fastest way to grow on Amazon is to add more products, advertise, launch on more marketplaces, and more countries.#pain is a good teacher. But it is not a necessary one. If you want to be a daredevil 😈 that's cool. But when it comes to business you can avoid many bad situations by having a plan and focusing to it's execution with #perseverance.Sales can often decrease for a variety of reasons. Here are the most common reasons sales are down:Common Reasons Sales are DownSeasonality - Seasonality of your Product (Weather, time of year, holidays.)Stockouts - If your top items at FBA stockout, this has a massive impact.Decreased Advertising - If cost cutting was recently done, advertising was pulled back or paused, this will lead to immediate velocity loss.Increased Competition - Did a competitor undercut your price by 25% and take the market by storm?How to Improve Sales Right NowKeep products in stock - If this is the issue, send immediate replenishments to FBA.If a shipment is already on the way to FBA, what else can I do?Activate duplicate Fulfilled by Merchant skus if FBA is out of stock and you can ship direct to the consumer. Increase advertising -  The fastest way to increase top line sales. Add Video Content/Video Ads to the Listings - Video ads are hot right now. Please provide us all relevant video content and we can help get them loaded onto Amazon! Lower your prices - Decreasing your prices will increase conversion rates, and draw in more traffic. This can be a temporary measure, later reverted back up.Can be done through interactive promotionSupport the show

Send us a textThis is the first time Mitchell has been on a podcast, so you're getting an exclusive look at what it takes to run a large publicly traded company in eCommerce. We discuss Etail's journey, their new brand name, and how to compete with Amazon. Steven Pope also went onto the etailz podcast with  CEO Kunal Chopra.Discuss etailz's journeyMitchell has been with etailz since 2011 when it was around a single coffee table. Now at 60,000 square feet business.About Kaspien / etailzsFBA - 800-900 brands working withDrop ship business 50,000 skuHow to compete with AmazonDon’t outsource a core competencyInfrastructureAd managementSupply managementDemand forecastingHealthy inventory turnsChallenges/winsWhat challenges have you had to overcome?Supply chain disruptionRebrand that will be going public on 9/3.What makes your heart singHow to beat AmazonTarget, Walmart, Etsy, Shopify Walmart fulfillment centersHow to grow salesConsistencyPricingMessagingImageryContentReally defined strategyMore info about etailz.Support the show

Send us a textWhat's going with Amazon operations ahead of Q4? Today, we attended a virtual presentation by Amazon’s head of worldwide supply chain Devesh Mishra, who is a 15-year Amazon veteran, and provided perspective and information on how Amazon is managing operations ahead of the Q4 peak season, new investments in supply chains and operations, and support of FBA/3P sellers. Key highlights are included below.·        Key highlights from Amazon's keynote presentation/VP of WW Supply Chain Devesh Mishra. Bottom line, Amazon is working quickly to better handle the expected unprecedented seasonal demand in Q4, using advanced data/machine learning capabilities, as well as rapid new investments in infrastructure. We note these investments will weigh on margins and cash flow a bit in Q3/Q4, but should help the company adapt to changing supply/demand dynamics longer term. Per the keynote...o   Never seen as much disruption to worldwide supply chains as in last few months. This Q4 will be very different than any other he’s seen, and global supply remains uncertain, with lead times from shipment creation to delivery more than doubling.o   FC are backed up. Inbound volumes are higher than demand ahead of the holidays. However, due to process changes, they are now seeing improvements in receive times and delivery speeds. Amazon is piloting new incremental storage facilities upstream from FCs to add capacity and manage inventory flows.o   Data, data, data. Company is using feedback from customers and sellers, as well as AI/Machine learning, to make real-time changes to the supply chain. Specifically, machine learning is adapting Amazon’s inventory forecasting model, modifying for changing demand patterns, and local mobility data to adjust inventory. Amazon already predicts product-level demand for essentially any product worldwide. As such, they know what inventory to stock, and where to place that inventory close to customers.o   Amazon is adding 33 new FCs this year, and will have 35 million cubic feet of new capacity for holiday 2020, along with the additional employees.o   Amazon will also have 80 cargo planes in the fleet by next year. Amazon also purchased 20k delivery vehicles for the Delivery Service Partner program, and has 100k electric delivery vehicles on order.o   Amazon is expanding X-border logistics and transportation — to enable more sellers to sell globally; in addition, Amazon is managing the end-to-end supply chain from manufacturers through to end-customers. As such, 3P sellers can now book, manage, track, and pay for ocean and air cargo services directly from Amazon from China to U.S. and Europe.o   Introducing a new program, Amazon Inventory Manager — Amazon creates and manages shipping plans and inventory management on behalf of sellers, which in turn makes this inventory eligible for Prime 1-day or same day shipping.Get Amazon Consulting at https://myamazonguy.com/#amazonselling #amazonseller #amazonfbaSupport the show

Send us a textPaul's technology and Amazon app background is impressive. Not only did he start the first automated email software for Amazon called Feedback Genius, he spun off Snagshout and Massview. We sit down and talk about technology, external traffic on Amazon, Walmart, and his own fitness business he sells on Amazon.How are you launching Amazon products right now?Look at the highest keyword volumes, low reviews.Why use Mass View. What is Massview and why did you build it?Lower cost than Helium 10 or Jungle ScoutReverse ASIN data Aggregate review dataFacebook chat bot. Convert people for less than $1 per sale.Collect email addressHow is it possible to start a new brand on Amazon in todays competitive market?Larger platforms like Facebook can get bigger chunk of niche audiencePaul is an Amazon SellerPaul is in fitness category. Was sued after engineering around patent. How to get into Walmart?Find rep. Show them  your Amazon listing and reviews.Get into brick and mortarScaling a companyGIve people AutonomyPurposeWhat makes your heart sing?Love seeing new products come ot life.Cooking or making food.Reach out to Paul Johnson directly at paul@massview.comWhat type of sales should we plan for Q4.Support the show

Send us a textSo, one of Steven's clients sells sporting goods rope and tie-downs for like boats and kayaks BUT someone decided to use the rope for Japanese sexual bondage and then included a photo on their five-star Amazon review and because of this one review Amazon changed the product category from sporting goods to "Adult" and Steven's client is now freaking out 😅He's having his employees file tickets with Amazon seller support to adjust it. Amazon is like an evil overly powerful AI that can just suddenly ruin people's lives. This wasn't a person who changed the product category to adult from sporting goods, it was an algorithm. Like, how does a small business know how to deal with random crap like that without help from an agency like ours? A couple weeks, a single mom with a special needs son called Steven because her product was suddenly suspended from Amazon with no explanation. That was her entire income suddenly gone. It turned out she had one advertising keyword in violation. Steven had her back up in 24 hours.SupplementsShark CartilageMade with meat from ChinaSupport the show

Send us a textJosh Gilliam, Owner of Coletti Coffee, who is Army Chaplain in Germany selling on Amazon.com in the US sits down to talk about his experiences and how religions and business go together.So you are an army chaplain... Why did you go into business?What has religion taught you that you apply to business?Does moving around a lot in the army affect running your ecom business?Sizing up your day.Decide what I can tackle today to win, beat anxiety.Pray over things.So not only are you a family man, you hold a full time job, AND you side hustle an ecommerce business. How do you balance everything and would you recommend others attempt the same feat? Josh has 8 kids and one on the way (6 girls and 2 boys).What mistakes have you made that others can learn from?Over the last 5 years, there’s been a lot of times I’ve wanted to quit.Lost $25,000 bank theft.What decisions did you make that have paid off and you would recommend others to follow?Creating SOPsNetworkingListen to podcastsWhere do you want to take the business? Where do you hope to be in 5 years?Fund a commission, getting the good news of forgiveness around the world.Million dollars a year to that cause. Committed to giving all profit to charity.If you want to get in touch with Josh for any reason: josh @ coletticoffe.comSupport the show

Send us a textThis list of questions comes from Quiet Light Brokerage to help their audience learn how to better sell on Amazon.1. What you need to start an Amazon FBA business? (This is obviously pretty broad; I think it could be useful to break this down into different subsections — time commitment, business experience, etc.)2. How to find profitable Amazon FBA business ideas/products that won’t require a large budget to launch?3. How to allocate your budget? (e.g. what % of your budget should be dedicated to purchasing inventory, advertising, giveaways, etc.)4. How to get reviews? Are paid programs like Alpha Raven House risky or legit?5. Is there a “minimum” budget that people should have in order to start an Amazon business?6. Recommended resources for learning about Amazon FBA?7. How to advertise your Amazon FBA business inexpensively?8. Examples of successful Amazon businesses that were started with a small budget?9. How does Amazon FBA work? Get Amazon Consulting at https://myamazonguy.com/#QuietLightBrokerage #amazonseller #amazonfbaSupport the show

Send us a textAdam Wilkens owner of Dotcomreps and author of Selling on Amazon: How to Sell on Amazon for Beginners. He has 12 years of experience selling on Amazon.Current Events with Data Bugs:Case issuesCatalog team not accessibleHard to find a webcam in USABrand Registry fragmentedSeller support hanging up on you - going to voicemail after 20 min hold times.Trademarks and brand registries are case sensitive.Avoid generic brand namesPesticides (Pass the test with answer key here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRbsQvqV3t0)Can’t use wordsAntiBacteriaMoldMildewA+ ContentCan't use claims in itThe word "healthy" got banned Amazon asks for compliance they know nothing aboutBooksLinks to books: Selling on Amazon: How to Sell on Amazon for Beginners.Become a Best Seller on Amazon.Designs for brand ownerControl of content, pricing, reporting, stockHow to operate Seller CentralQuick tips:Fastest way to grow sales? AdsFavorite ad type: Video AdsSEO Hack: Redundancy of words, grammar, variant of same words helps SEODot Com Reps https://www.linkedin.com/company/dotcomreps-llc/https://www.dotcomreps.com/Support the show

Send us a textWhat are the secrets to sourcing products? Today we talk to an expert who will reveal his 7 secrets. Norman Farrar is a entrepreneur who provides online marketing and managed eCommerce solutions for brands. He has worked with Fortune 500 companies such as Coca-Cola, Mercedes-Benz and 20th Century Fox. Since the early 1990s, Norman has focused on helping entrepreneurs optimize their operations and unlock their business’s potential.Pay my tax - experience is key to sourcing.Inspection and broker nightmare story - liner on wipes was not in place. 4 containers wasted.Buy a factory if you can.Secret 1 Never contact online suppliersAlibaba is a broker.5 brokers are bad.30% tax foreignerNo manufacturer will talk to you directly for 1000 units MOQ.Brokers are good - but only for beginnersSecret 2 Do not pay or get quotes in USDIncreases 5-20% extra due to hedge due to RMB fluctuationSending money through bank - foreign exchange company like seller funding can be very beneficial and saves cost.Secret 3 Know when to negotiate your prices.Don’t negotiate packaging or insert.Negotiate the product pricing. Then talk packaging. Can bring packaging to manufacturer.Store extra packaging at manufacturer if needed.Tell them I’m shopping around and go silent.“I talked to my manager and they approved an extra 7 cents”Secret 4 EXW, I’ll take care of it, instead of FOBEXW works FOB costs 30% moreTalk to freight forwarder that’s what you want to pickup.Secret 5 - Supplier is not a ShipperThey will use their buddy.Never use a site for instant shipping quotesHidden feesSecret 6 - HTS CodeHarmonized tariff systemSave money with proper code. Example: Magnetic tape 4.9% + 25% in duty classification cost $2400 + $13,000. Reclassified 2.1% truthfully saving $14,500. Was classified under aluminum. We looked at it and reclassified as item displayed as warning.Secret 7  - Inspections - HAVE ONECost is low $300 or less.Inspect agent doesn’t know what to look for, give them instruction. Example: Skateboard - inspector had to test going left, right, pulling.Bonus Secret- Consolidate SamplesSave a couple hundred bucks in shipping costs.Packaging - wooden box can drastically increase value.BIGGEST Golden nugget - Think about how you communicate. In states we use Purchase Orders or POs. In China POs are paper. Pro forma protects you - molds being reused by manufacturer. .Acceptable defect rate in Pro forma for credit.Who owns the product?MoldsGet in contact with Norm for product development, sourcing, honuworldwide.comOr email Norm at norm@honuworldwide.comhttps://honuworldwide.com/product-sourcing/Future of manufacturing, coming to the states any time soon?Support the show

Send us a textVirtual Bundles - Out. Recommend ignoring.Video advertising - In, hottest thing to do right now.NARF - remote fulfillment, may be coming out of beta in next 2 weeks. Keep an eye out if you haven’t gotten access yet, you might soon. This is shipping out of USA FBA into Canada and Mexico for an easy 3% sales growth.Custom Brand Headline ads - still under tapped.Display ads - category targeting still a great under tapped area.Negative keywords - why do agencies still ignore this?Support the show