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Is Private Label still a viable business model in 2019?
It is still viable – if you can invent something, it does give you a major advantage.
PL still works but not in commodities.
And you need to differentiate. You can’t just put your logo on something from Alibaba.
Read the reviews and you’ll have to work with the manufacturer to fix that
You can differentiate with packaging, bundling, etc.
You have to put up a bit of a moat.
Kevin has done both PL –
He’s sold millions on Amazon – never had a counterfeiter or hijackers.
Strong imagery, packaging.
Always customized –
He had an idea for a product – got someone on Upwork in Argentina -did CAD for $400.
$3000 for a mold for each. It’s done really really well -nobody
Back in 2015 when iWatch came out – docks on amazon – bamboo – plastic etc.
They all looked like crap!
Nightlight – had cables in back etc.
sketched it out. – found a factory on Global Sources
$1000 – they said they would do ALL the design work.
Sent him 3D renderings – tweaked it –
would download file – took it to guy in Austin who did a 3D mockup
Made sure product worked
Went to apple store – checked the watch bands worked.
Did another round
Did 10 prototypes
Then went to production
$37K mould cost
$22 Landed – sell on Amazon for $89.95
At some point went down to $79.95 but still workable.
Xmas 2015 – $16,000 -18,000 a day in Sales!!
Product selection
It’s not just about the budget, you have to have the margin
Eg sells for $19.95 – landed cost of $12.
Or They say “$8” but they haven’t included freight etc.
You need a 4-5X markup if it’s under $100.
If it’s under that, chances of success go way down.
You have to differentiate
His Apple Watch thing This was in a saturated market – probably 10,000 results!
You have to get into the mind of Apple people -they will pay high!
For the word “apple doc” he kept getting bumped off page 1.
But he was on longer tail keywords
Big mistake – going after huge keywords
Find products that have lots of ways in!
50 windows in, back door, side door
At least 20 keywords in the top 1 million* –
in the USA at least 20 keywords with over 600 unique searches (“exact”)
If you have only one way in,
*Search Frequency Rank (SFR) – is like a total BSR for categories – similar to BSR for EVERYTHING on Amazon.
It’s easy to get to page 1
It’s easier with PPC
You can get a handful of reviews coming in.
You can fix issues with product or listing.
Then you can start targeting the higher keywords.
If you make sure you have said “Apple iWatch doc” in the title.
If the word “apple charging station” is also in the title
SO if you get 10 sales on the low-level keywords, you rank equivalent to 1 sale for the higher level keyword.
Helium10 – you can search on “Black Box” based on keywords
You used to look via products
- $x dollars
Now you can use the keyword search tool – gamechanger.
Most people don’t know how to use the tools well.
Like driving car – vs. F1 car on the track.
This is a numbers business!
If you’re not good with data analysis
Let’s say we have someone who has done some retail arbitrage or eBay selling but is new to Private Label products. Where should they start the process of product selection?
How important is it to care about the products?
Should you be a user of the products yourself?
There’s nothing wrong with that – if sees a product, he’ll type it into amazon – no tools, just BSR.
Found one or two products that way.
Should you start with numbers?
The majority of products have come from data analysis.
Based around keyword demand.
believes ”all product selection should start with keyword demand”
- Apple Watch on JS – not too many reviews; big demand.
But are they making their sales off “Apple Watch doc”
You need to figure out what is driving the sales.
That’s what 3rd party tools do like Helium10 Cerebro.
If you combine that with Brand Analytics data, you can
How do you get over analysis paralysis?
A lot of the time there is big fear of failure.
A lot of the time they take their life savings like $5-10K and they feel “I’ve got to make this work. “
Instead, you need to be willing to fail. His 1st product bombed. Learned a lot about the process that way. And the 2nd product was a great success.
People are also afraid of being ripped off.
Putting money in escrow makes you look like an amateur!
takes about 1-1 ½ hours to find a good product.
Weekend – 1 hour each for 10 products.
Then go into it – maybe go with 2-3 products. Then goes with them.
Will they all succeed? No, some will fail. But you can’t hit a home run if you don’t swing!
You need to have the confidence to do it. If it doesn’t work.
If you don’t have the money to do it twice, hire a consultant
A lot of people watch a webinar and do a course, only about 20% of people actually finish a c course.
And of those only about 5-10% actually, launch a product.
If you’re afraid of risk, you shouldn’t be an entrepreneur.
The bigger the risk, the bigger the reward.
“Successful without failure is luck.”
has made mistakes – had a bankruptcy in the past 20 years ago.
A lot of the time people have a vision of starting their own business – but they end up trading hours for money. It’s the same as when they were working for someone else. You’re better off keeping your job. Or change jobs in the new field.
If so, would you start with tools? (And if so, which ones?)
What’s the simplest process for finding products?
Helium10 is very good – Viral Launch is very good.
Jungle Scout is okay – it’s not ’s choice.
However, JS does have the supplier database – in the USA, all the bills of lading are public record.
With Helium10, uses Black box tool for keyword demand.
When he finds a product, find top 10 sellers of a product by UNITS (not revenue).
If search “mini spy camera” – you’ll get a bunch of spy cameras – some would be on outside of house (round);
Others look like nanny cam (for babies);
Others maybe are like little spy cams for looking at wife/husband – to hide in bookshelf.
wants to get in the mind of cus.
There is a different mindset – the little hidden ones are his real competition.
Find the top 10 best selling by units ones that look like that.
Then he’ll put that into cerebra
- Reverse ASIN – one big grid
- Apply additional filters
- 600 searches/ month
- Plus other
Result: 20-30 keywords driving most of the sales.
Some v. competitive.
Others – products 8/9 doing well with this. But others are not using this keyword.
So that’s the main target keyword.
Then repeat that
Result: 3-5 keywords of the 20 really target those.
To rank for those 3 – CPR method – how many do you need to give away over an 8 day period.
- Keyword 1 – give away 5 a day
- Keyword 2 – give away 3 a day
- Keyword 3 – give away 5 day
So budget to give away etc. 13 sales a day to rank on p. 1
8X13 =104 – so need 104 units to set aside to give away to launch.
Then if rank for 13 keywords
- Lead time 30 days to make
- 30 days to ship in
Wants min. 30 days’ inv. on Amazon
That’s 90 days
Add 10 extra days contingency
- Customs, strike, etc.
100X13 units= 1300 units order.
Not The manufacturers’ MOQ
Plus 104
Plus extra.
So probably order about 1500 units –
Is my budget enough to order more units?
If yes, go for it.
If no, either:
- Get more money
- Or find another product
That’s why there is a lot more options if you have more money.
Price point
likes to stay above $20
It’s too easy for someone else to copy – you may have 3-5 months
How do people find out more?
amzmarketer.com. -will redirect to FaceBook page
Course for beginners
Beginners
Intensive 3-day course – 22 speakers
Advanced sellers
$1 billion dollar summit
90 attendees may 2020 -average over $1 million sales
Over $25K/mo
Lead trainer for Helium10 Elite (was “Illuminati”)
Helium10 is a software company – $97 or 197
New level – $397 a month including all the software
Meetups, trainings,
For people looking for a competitive edge.
Eg selling business – 20 ways to improve it
If you go to masterminds – say spend $5k on mastermind and $5k on travelling etc.
That gets put back -it’s an “add back” when you sell a business.
You can add that back to the profits – if multiples of 2X – not only does the mastermind give you good connections, it made you $20K!!
Your credit card points – eg PPC.
You can add some of that back in – that’s the kind of stuff they teach
Watch my full interview with Kevin king
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