268 Growing Your eCommerce Team with Nadine Eich Part 2 of 2
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Last time on Amazing FBA we sat down with virtual assistant and entrepreneur Nadine Eich of Enida to talk about Finding Great Outsourcers. Today we're diving into part two of my interview with Nadine to speak about retaining outsourcers and growing an ecommerce team. Read More
267 Finding Great Outsourcers with Nadine Eich Part 1 of 2
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If you're a poor communicator like me, hiring a virtual assistant and maintaining a productive and happy relationship can be difficult. On this instalment of the podcast, we'll dive into tips and tricks for hiring along with some incredible strategies for interacting with VAs in a way that keeps them motivated, fulfilled, and employed. Read More
221 Why Amazon Product Criteria are unusable in real life
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I want to start off today by saying Amazon product criteria is bs. Read More
213 Outsourcing for Amazon Using FreeeUp with Conner Gillivan Part 2 of 2
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In this episode, we will be just talking to the experienced Amazon Seller making over $100,000 a month. Tune in to find out what exactly you should be outsourcing for Amazon and how to go about it.
Taking the right approach when outsourcing for Amazon
The best mental attitude that you need to approach when you’re getting to this point of running an Amazon business with outsourcing is making sure that you really are spending your time at the best level that’s continuing to grow the business.
About a month before Q4 starts you should sit down and start putting together how many people you need on your team and think about other possible situations. You want to make sure that you’re keeping up with your orders and your customer service. Set up a schedule of people working different hours so that people don’t get burnt out.
Outsourcing PPC and metrics to FreeeUp
A lot of Amazon sellers will hire PPC experts or PCC Freelancers to come into their team to manage their campaigns and start new ones. Or to just keep them running on a regular basis. A lot of sellers also come to us to outsource monitoring their metrics which is a part of Amazon that they take very seriously.
The win from Outsourcing
As a business owner, your biggest win is going to have more time and less pressure on yourself. Outsourcing helps you achieve that initial goal of having a passive income stream that`s going to be working. It’s going to have people that can handle business processes on a daily basis. That way, you will be focused on where you add the most value. It’s not going to be as stressful as if you’re just handling it on your own.
171 Selling in Amazon Germany with Nadine Eich – Part 2 of 2
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Back on the show today is Nadine Eich from Enida, the Amazon VA Agency for the German Marketplace. Read More
170 Amazon Germany Customer Service with Nadine Eich of Enida – Part 1 of 2
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Today we’ve got Nadine Eich from Germany. Nadine runs a virtual assistant agency for Amazon sellers called Enida and she’s here to share her tips for selling and Amazon Germany customer service. Read More
166 Fetcher and the Future of Amazon with Shane Stinemetz Part 3 of 3
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The Future of Amazon 2017
The future of Amazon is going to be challenging for Amazon sellers. Products are becoming more competitive and this making the Amazon space more congested than before. Therefore, people need to find a way that they can assert creativity in their sales by creating something original or by adding something original to the already existing products. Read More
165 Common Amazon Profit and Loss Mistakes with Shane Stinemetz Part 2 of 3
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Once again we are joined by Shane Stinemetz to discuss more ways to use Fetcher and improve your Amazon listing. Read More
164 Amazon Sales with Shane Stinemetz Part 1 of 3
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It is important for any business to measure its profit and loss as this helps in determining the direction of the business. It helps in understanding if the business is headed in the right direction or if there are changes that need to be implemented. Read More
3
#97 Adam Hudson on Selling on Amazon FBA Part 1 of 4
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Adam Hudson
You are selling on Amazon FBA now – but what was your start in entrepreneurship?
Adam has been an entrepreneur for over 20 years.
Adam got started right out of high school. He knew he didn’t want a boss and was captivated by the idea of entrepreneurship. He has had several businesses but not focuses solely on Amazon. He has had online and offline businesses including a flight simulator business, hair salon, and a finance company. He has a very diverse background, to say the least. Selling on Amazon FBA came more recently.
How did you come to be selling on Amazon FBA?
Adam got into selling on Amazon FBA part-time while he was running an animation business. He sold that business last year and moved away from service businesses in order to start a product business with Amazon. Part of the allure of products is that it gets away from the “selling your time” type job where you make more money the longer you work. With products, once you do the hard work and develop the product, you can sell it all over the world and get paid over and over.
His animation business was growing and financially successful but he had a lot of people and a lot of moving parts. With products, it so leveraged and you can get away from that.
What made you decide to sell things on Amazon FBA specifically?
As a business guy, Adam found Amazon very impressive. It’s a phenomenal company. In terms of their growth and numbers you know they are doing it right. He really loved that you didn’t have to build a website, that you didn’t have to find the customers because they were already there and that they handle fulfillment and shipping. FBA just changed the rules of product distribution. It was appealing to sell into the biggest markets in the world from wherever you were. To get more of Adam’s thoughts on the Amazon opportunity, CLICK HERE
Do you think it’s too late to get started with selling on Amazon FBA?
It definitely isn’t according to Adam. He did an experiment this year. He started with 6 products that launched in February or March to test what it would be like for a newcomer. They are currently around a million dollar a year products at this point. So it isn’t too late. There is a lot of opportunity to those with the necessary education.
Where do you think the opportunity is? Is it still in .com in the US, or has it shifted to somewhere else? How about selling on Amazon FBA UK?
It’s interesting because right now his European business is doing about 70% of his US business. What’s truly amazing is that his cost-per-customer (CPC) in Europe is about ⅓ of what it is in the US. Also, Europeans give more feedback than Americans. He has automated emails that go out and he gets about twice as many emails from UK residents than the US.
Are you only in the US and European markets or are you in others?
Adam is in .com and then Spain, Italy, Germany, France, and the UK.
What are the big pros and cons of the US market versus Amazon FBA UK and the other European markets?
The US is always appealing because it’s so big but because it’s so big means there is a lot more competition. Also, America is home many of the Amazon course gurus that have pumped out a lot of courses to those wanting to start an Amazon business. The challenge is that there are a lot of sellers that have been educated on the same strategy at the same time. So America is still a great opportunity if you have the right education and the right lens. You can’t beat the US market because it’s so big and broad.
However, if you live in the UK and feel more comfortable working there, Adam would recommend starting in the UK. It’s a fantastic market, much easier to access, much easier to rank, and a much more appreciative group of consumers. However, if you don’t live in the US or the UK Adam recommends starting in the US because it’s much easier to get started. The regulations for foreign sellers are a lot tougher in the UK and it’s a lot easier to get your account set up in the US.
Another issue is that not everyone is registered for VAT and many people won’t until Amazon requires it because it will add 20% to your prices and put those that register at a disadvantage.
You mentioned before how everyone was educated in the same flawed strategies for selling on Amazon. How were they flawed and what should be done differently?
One of the biggest promoters put out a course telling people to sell items for under $40 with high Best Seller Ranking. When they first launched they recommend being in the top 100 of any category. Once they began selling this idea they realized they needed to expand because they had 5000 people looking to be a top 100 in about 15 categories.
One of their flaws was the emphasis on BSR because it doesn’t really matter. That only measure who sells the most. But in business, it doesn’t matter how much you sell, rather how much margin you make. That’s the difference between turnover and leftover. Adam is looking for higher margin, less contested spaces. People don’t realize how massive Amazon is. Over 2 million sellers with hundreds of millions of products. There are a lot of unsophisticated sellers that have two images with ten reviews and are on page one. There are a lot of small sellers that looked for cheap products with high turnover where anyone can get into it. What Adam looks for is something that is difficult for people to compete and isn’t as obvious.
What are some things you would suggest in order to put a moat around things? If you have $5000, $10,000 and $20,000 to start.
Adam cover a lot of this in his course at reliable.education. His first product was $160 retail. But it was costing him $40 a unit. So there was an $80 margin which gave him options someone selling a $12 product just doesn’t have. He could spend more on advertising. Even if he spent $20 per sale he was still making $60. He was completely out of the top sellers and in his subcategory there was around 45,000 and he was nowhere near the top. He still came in and started making $15,000 a month in sales and $8,000 profit.
Differentiate your product to sell stuff on Amazon
The first thing people need to think about is that whenever you look at a market for anything, you need to think about it from a consumer’s point of view. Why will a consumer notice you? And why would a consumer buy from you and not someone else? It can’t be something they need to read about. Don’t expect them to read your copy and find some feature. Think of Amazon like Tinder. People put in a few details about what they are looking for, then go through the pictures and start dismissing them. You need to have good photographs, but you also need something good in the photograph. So try to get something that is visually different. Some key detail or feature that will grab the buyer’s attention.
For example, if you look up desktop calculators on Amazon, they are all black or grey except for one that is green. Now if you look at car covers, they are all black or grey or blue. But if someone came with a car cover that had a cool saying, or was bright pink, it’s going to stand out. The question is, how can you innovate, visually, at the core design level. It’s not about the best title or description, anyone can do that. The big thing is to think like a customer. Just follow Jeff Bezos advice, “Be in business for the customer.” In the end, the best products are going to win.
To get more advice or free training from Adam, just go to reliable.education