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

Helium 10 Buzz 2/8/24: Big Amazon Coupon Update | Save on FBA Fees | Target Prime Coming?

We’re back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10’s Brand Evangelist, Shivali Patel. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space and provide a training tip for the week.

Target considering paid membership program to compete with Amazon, Walmart: report
https://nypost.com/2024/02/07/business/target-considering-paid-membership-program-to-compete-with-amazon-walmart-report/

Sponsored Display | Geotargeting
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/destaney-wishon_sponsored-display-geotargeting-activity-7160694127251062785-gtD3/

Amazon announces Rufus, a new generative AI-powered conversational shopping experience
https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/amazon-rufus

The latest actions against fake review brokers: Amazon continues to see success in global efforts to stop fake reviews
https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/policy-news-views/amazons-latest-actions-against-fake-review-brokers

For sellers seeking to harness data with precision, Helium 10's latest features provide sellers with immediate sales data and a two-year historical view right from search results and product pages. And for sellers eyeing the Brazilian market, our Listing Builder AI now crafts listings in Portuguese, simplifying your international expansion efforts. Tune in for these insightful updates and more, tailor-made for serious sellers eager to stay ahead in the ever-evolving Amazon FBA landscape.

 

In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers:

• 00:43 - Big Amazon Coupon Update
• 01:40 - Save on FBA Fees
• 05:21 - Target Prime Coming?
• 06:00 - Sponsored Display Locations
• 07:05 - Clickable Tabs in A+
• 07:52 - Amazon's Rufus
• 09:20 - Fake Review Broker Industry
• 10:44 - Follow Helium 10 On TikTok
• 11:01 - Helium 10 New Feature Alerts

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Transcript

Shivali Patel:

An interesting Amazon coupon update lower fulfillment FBA fees with the Ship in Product Packaging program and geographically targeted sponsored display ads. This and more on this week's episode of the Weekly Buzz.

 

Bradley Sutton:

How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think.

 

Shivali Patel:

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers podcast by Helium 10. I'm your host, Shivali Patel, and this is the show that is our Helium 10 Weekly Buzz, where we give you all the latest news in the Amazon, Walmart and e-commerce space, and we also provide you with a training tip of the week that will give you insight into serious strategies for Serious Sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. Let's see what's buzzing this week. First up, we have a big Amazon coupon update this week. Bradley was setting up a new launch for a test coffin shelf and he saw this when setting up coupons. Basically, now you can create coupons for specific audiences, similar to what you see in brand tailored promotions, for example, having them show up only for customers who might have abandoned your product in their cart. Other alternatives, as you can see here, include things like people who have not purchased recently nor frequently, with varied spend, who are considered at risk, Brand followers who have clicked to follow the brand on Amazon, and so much more. If you just keep scrolling, note that you do need to be brand registered for this, and since they're in the process of rolling it out, you may or may not see it, but it's cool to play around with, especially since this lets you set it up at the ace in level compared to what you can do inside of brand tailored promotions, where promotions are for all the products in your brand.

 

Shivali Patel:

Next up, let's talk about the lower FBA fulfillment fees with Ships in Product Packaging. Amazon recently launched the Ships in Product Packaging program, otherwise known as SIPP, and this used to be known as SIPP in Own Container. The gist of it is it allows FBA sellers on Amazon to ship their products using their custom brand packaging without any additional materials added by Amazon. This initiative presents several advantages for FBA sellers, such as lower FBA fulfillment fees for products, an increased ability to connect with customers and the honorable contribution of environmental sustainability by reducing packaging, the latter being something that decreases the space needed on trucks and ultimately leads to a reduction in the number of trucks required, as well as carbon emissions. It's worth noting that products that are certified under SIPP prior to February 5th 2024, will automatically qualify for discounted FBA fulfillment fees starting from that date, and the program is currently available in seven stores the Canadian, American, Italian, Spanish, German, French and UK markets. There are no fees to enroll, but there may be costs associated with updating your packaging to be compliant with Ships in Product Packaging requirements, or if the product that you wish to enroll is fragile or contains sharp items, contains liquids, etc. Then it might have to be tested at a lab. The only time a product may be shipped with Amazon-added packaging is if a customer is shipping multiple items in the same order or if they've selected to have the Amazon-added packaging. Shipping requirements will remain the same and some products may have already actually began shipping without the Amazon-added packaging, because they're actually using machine learning to identify, test and then certify SIPP compliant products without needing you to take any action. Frustration fee packaging indicates that the package is compliant with SIPP guidelines and it has a series of other parameters, for example, 100% curbside, recyclable materials per applicable laws in the region of sale. It's easy to open and all content removable by the customer within 120 seconds with minimal use of scissors or box cutters, plus some other things.

 

Shivali Patel:

While there is no separate certification and it won't grant additional discounts, you can enroll those into the SIPP program. You can also enroll variations without having to enroll all of the variations. As for your first arrival date, that's going to be the date where all your units being shipped to the Amazon facilities are SIPP compliant. Meaning if your enrollment date is complete on March 1st but the SIPP compliant packaging is April 1st, then you should input April 1st. If after that date your packaging is not compliant, then you're going to risk decertification. However, your shipments don't need to be compliant when they're waiting for the enrollment approval. There are dimension regulations and discount rate depends on the size and weight of your product and you can always request to decertify later. If something changes. Customers are going to be notified. I think I mentioned this a little bit earlier, but they're going to have the option to add Amazon packaging at no additional cost. Now, I wouldn't want to do this for my own products. Putting a shipping label would take away from them as a gift item and just not protect the product that well. But let me know in the comments would you do this for your products and for more info? If you're interested in this, then you can visit the SIPP enrollment portal from your news page inside of Seller Central.

 

Shivali Patel:

In other news, have you guys heard about Project Trident? And no, I don't mean the gum brand. Target is actually coming out with a brand new paid membership program as soon as this year. Speaking at a personal level, there are barely any third party sellers that I know who sell on Target, as it's quite hard to sign up. But hey, maybe if this goes through that might change. Target might open up its platform and pave the way for more sellers. So what about you? Will you be keeping an eye out? I'm curious what do you think about the opportunity potential here, and will you get on it right away, or are you going to wait until it's a little bit more established? Switching gears? Sponsored display locations. We know that sponsored display ads give sellers the most customized ability for targeting and audiences in sponsored ads that regular sellers have access to outside of DSP. Amazon now has something new in beta that again brings DSP level functionality to any brand registered seller using sponsored display ads. Destiny from BTR Media started a conversation on this post of how some sellers who have access to the functionality in beta have the ability to target locations with their sponsored display ads. This should be cool because, say, you have a product specifically for the Alaskan market, you obviously wouldn't want that to show up in sunny Florida. You will now be able to geographically target those display ads Again. For now this is only sponsored display ads, so it's not something that's going to allow you to target certain keywords or regular sponsored product campaigns just yet, but it's still a pretty cool addition by Amazon. So do any of you guys see this inside of your account? Let me know when we have Amazon reporting.

 

Shivali Patel:

They've redesigned navigation carousel module so brands can access it within the A plus content manager and help you enhance your listings. Modules have been updated to include clickable tabs that are highlighted in a translucent overlay on the image. This is going to help you navigate elements in the carousel. Now, I'm not sure if this is it, but check out this listing from Uncar. There are actually a couple links in their content and, if I can just scroll down here and show it to you guys, this right here, check this out. When I click these three dots, it automatically changes over the tabs, so I go from business trips into Commute and back into outdoor cafe.

 

Shivali Patel:

Alright, just a couple more things. Here we have Amazon Rufus. Has anyone already heard about this? If you didn't know, rufus great name, by the way is a new expert shopping assistant powered by generative AI that is trained on Amazon's vast product catalog, customer reviews, community Q&As and web information to assist customers which shopping needs, product comparisons and recommendations. Rufus is presently launched in beta to a limited number of US customers via Amazon's mobile app, with a gradual rollout planned in the coming weeks. It aims to enhance the shopping experience by providing tailored assistance, from general product research to more specific inquiries about products or comparisons between categories. The assistant will enable customers to shop by occasion, by purpose, by specific needs, offering personalized suggestions and insights seamlessly integrated into the Amazon shopping experience, customers can interact with it by typing or speaking queries into the Amazon search bar, and then feedback mechanisms are already in place to continuously improve that performance. As Amazon continues to invest in generative AI technology, rufus represents a significant step towards enhancing customer engagement and satisfaction within that Amazon ecosystem.

 

Shivali Patel:

I want to know do you guys already have access to this as well? I don't yet. Then, finally, we have Amazon emphasizing the significance of the Amazon shopping experience in its shopping experience, but acknowledging the rise of a fraudulent fake review broker industry that exploits the value of reviews. I think we all know fake reviews are against TOS and Amazon has been quite proactive about stopping them globally, investing resources in combating those fake reviews, utilizing really sophisticated tools and legal action as well In 2023, legal actions targeted bad actors in US, in China, in Europe for instance, this case against Tao Hau-Vai in the US. Despite progress, amazon recognizes the ongoing threat and vows to continue its efforts to maintain the integrity of customer reviews and hold fraudsters accountable in 2024.

 

Shivali Patel:

If you want to dig deeper, Chris of e-commerce. Chris touched on this more recently, I believe it was in the AM/PM Podcast episode 379. All to say, look, we know there's a lot more bad players out there, but it's good to see Amazon taking steps to police this kind of thing. Remember, it's never worth it to try to take those illegal shortcuts, as much as you want to do them. So with that, that is it for this week's Weekly Buzz. Let me take this opportunity to encourage you to follow our new TikTok page for some cool, fun, educational content regularly. It's helium10_software. So just go to TikTok, open up the app, go to helium10_software in that search bar and click follow. Now for our new feature alerts. Carrie is going to be sharing with us what new tools Helium 10 has launched this week.

 

Carrie Miller:

Today I'm going to be talking with you about some new Helium 10 features updates. So I'll go ahead and get into it and share my screen. The first thing that we have here is when you actually go to a search. So, for example, in this search we searched coffin shelf and we have all of these great results. What we can do now is we can actually look here and where it says load a 30 day sales data on all of these, we can just click on those buttons and we can see the 30 day revenue and the 30 day unit sales for all of our competitors. So this means we don't have to open up the extension and look for all this information. It's actually just a pull down right there. So if you wanted to just quickly look at the revenue while you're browsing a page, you can see quickly what it is. And I think this is kind of cool because then you know, for certain searches where there's a lot of different types of products that are kind of different designs, it's really helpful to just be able to look at which one is selling the best, how much they're selling. So that is one feature update. I think it's really great. And then the next thing is on the detail pages themselves. We have this new data up at the top of the page. Now you can expand this and you can show more details. And we've got not only we have the revenue for this listing, but we have the ratings and reviews. We also can go down here. We can see, you know, the fulfillment dimensions, the, the stamp you know sized here, and all this information, that BA fee on the side. Here you can also go back and look at sales on different days of the year and you can change the timeframe to all the way back to two years so you can see kind of, the growth of each product. You can see, you know, the price and the best seller rank. You can see ratings and reviews right here. So this is some golden information that you can just see right there, especially if you find you know a big competitor and you want to just see what's going on with their product and how long they've been in the game. This is a great tool to be able to see all of that.

 

Carrie Miller:

The next thing now I know Bradley mentioned that we have some great tools for the Brazil market. We've got, you know, Cerebro, Magnet, lots of great stuff that he talked about last week in regards to starting to sell on Brazil, the Brazil marketplace on Amazon, and so now we also have our listing builder AI that can help you to create listings in Portuguese, especially if you do not know how to speak Portuguese. So the first thing you need to do is you're going to go under tools and then you're going to click on listing builder AI, and then what you're going to do is you're going to go up to the top right and click on add listing. Now I'm going to just go ahead and say get started from scratch, and then the most important thing is you need to choose the market of Brazil, which is at the very bottom. So I'm clicking on Brazil here and then I'll click on start building, and then I've actually already created some keywords from Cerebro in Portuguese for our Brazil garlic press, and I chose. I found those by just going to Amazon Brazil and doing a reverse asin search, and so I'm just going to add those to my bank, so they're going to show up here in the bank, and then the next thing I'm going to do is I'm going to click next, and on this part, this is really cool because you can input information in English and it's going to create the listing in Portuguese.

 

Carrie Miller:

For the, for example, we're going to put garlic product characteristics garlic press stainless steel, durable, high quality, perfect for home cooks, okay. So then the next thing is the brand name, which is optional. Okay, so I'm actually going to just put create my own brand name here and make it up Manny's garlic press, and then I'm going to have that at the end of the title. The product name is garlic press and you can choose the tone, whatever tone you want. I'm just going to put casual here. Target audience home cooks, chefs, the home cook chefs, anyone who wants to easily mince garlic, okay. So I'm just going to kind of put it like that. The more input that you put in here, the better. You want to put all your sales, your sales points, in the in the product characteristics, but you can put them all in English, which is really cool. If there's anything that you want to avoid in the listing, you can put that there, so you can have it avoid certain things. And all you have to do here for the title is click, write it for me, and it's going to use the keywords that I have in here plus the input that I gave it here to create an optimized title, which is really cool because you don't even have to know Portuguese. Now, obviously, you can check this and go to Google translate, translate it, make sure it works right. Or, if you know, you want to pay somebody to just kind of review your listings after you've created them to make sure that they're they make sense. That's probably a good idea, but I think this is pretty amazing to get your listings started. So I'm going to click on use suggestion and so, because that looks pretty good, and, again, just go to Google translate and have them translated. You can check it that way.

 

Carrie Miller:

The next thing is bullet points. You can click write it for me. It's going to write all those bullet points in Portuguese and you'll have an optimized listing with those keywords that you put, as well as the input. So we'll let that pop up here. And then at the bottom here you can also do this for a description and click on write it for me. So this all can be written in Portuguese at the click of a button by just putting in these simple inputs in English and it's going to spit out a an optimized listing in Portuguese. All right, so we have these little suggestions. You can click on use suggestions. You can discard it and have it rewrite it, but I'll just go ahead and hit use suggestions and you can see that it's crossing out the keywords that they've used in the bullet points here, and that is pretty amazing that we've been able to use all these keywords with just the click of a button. It's still writing the description here, and once the description is done, I'm sure all of these keywords will be all crossed out. So most of them are, and so we've got an optimized description there.

 

Carrie Miller:

You can again click use suggestion or you can discard it, and so that is the simple and easy way that you can optimize your listings on the Brazil marketplace. I know a lot of people are excited about the opportunity to sell it in Brazil, so go ahead and try this out. I think it's a great tool to help you to get started on other marketplaces in other languages. Really really helpful to use AI to get these all written with a click of a button. It's absolutely incredible. So if you haven't checked this out, go ahead and check it out and we'll see you again next week. Bye.

 

Shivali Patel:

Thank you for sharing, Carrie. That's a wrap. Hope you enjoy this week's episode. We will see you next week to see what's buzzing.

#533 - Finding Products To Sell On Amazon in 2024

Ever wonder how an Amazon seller jumps from zero to hero with a product that defies the odds? In our first-ever Seller’s Edge Series episode, let’s explore success stories, product journeys, and every tactic that will help you find your first or next E-commerce product. Special guest Shivali Patel, brand evangelist at Helium 10,  joins us bringing the heat with a story of how a $45,000 revenue bomb was dropped in just two weeks after launching in Q4, proving that with the right strategies, such as leveraging BlackBox for product research and adding unique value, anyone can stand out in the crowded Amazon marketplace.

Finally, for those ready to expand their horizons, our brand, Manny’s Mysterious Oddities, is branching out into the bat niche, where opportunities lurk in the shadows. Using Amazon’s Product Opportunity Explorer and Helium 10’s BlackBox, we dissect how to scout and validate new product extensions for your Amazon brand. This episode isn’t just about telling you what worked; it's about showing you how to pivot and roll with the punches, finding those hidden gems in the market, such as bat-shaped bath mats, that could become your next big win. And for the cherry on top, resources and podcast episodes are flagged to help you turn these insights into action. Join us to learn about these actionable strategies, and let's raise the stakes in your Amazon selling game.

 

In episode 533 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Shivali discuss:

• 00:00 - Sellers Edge Monthly
• 00:31 - Strategies for Finding Profitable Amazon Products
• 04:50 - Discover New Business Opportunities at Trade Shows
• 15:55 - Profit Margin and Sales Success 
• 19:16 - Discovering Product Opportunities on Amazon 
• 24:16 - Bat Niche Product Opportunities Exploration
• 30:47 - Launch New Product At A Higher Price
• 31:29 - Advanced Keyword Research and Product Opportunities
• 37:27 - Combining Amazon Brand Analytics and Helium 10 BlackBox Data
• 42:36 - Brand Analytics and Launch Strategies
• 43:38 - Accessing and Listening to Podcast Episodes

Transcript

Bradley Sutton:

Today is our first ever Sellers Edge Monthly Training. In this episode we're going to go over how I found a brand new product that I can come in at a price point twice as much as the competition, and how Shivali was able to sell $45,000 on her brand new product in only two weeks. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. One, two, three, four. 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. And, as mentioned, this is the first in a new series that we're going to do monthly where we go over a different topic in our sellers edge training webinar. I actually recorded this in front of a live audience, so this episode might have a little bit different sound than normally and there's definitely some interactions there, but we have here cut up the highlights from that training and basically I'm going to show you how Shivali took some steps to have a product that nobody can compete with her in and it was over $100 and she was able to get 40% profit and sell $45,000, even though she launched right after Black Friday Kind of crazy. And then how I am launching a product like in the next couple of weeks and I'm going through all the steps on exactly how I found it and how I can have a higher price point as well, and we go over some other product research strategies that I think will definitely be able to help you guys. So this is a new series. Hope you enjoy it.

Bradley Sutton:

This is 100% based on value that can help you find your first or next product to sell on Amazon. Here we go, welcome to our new monthly workshop. We call it Sellers Edge Monthly Series, and this one is entitled how to Find your First or Next Product to Sell in 2024. So we are going to start off with a real life experience. I'm going to interview somebody right now who launched a product and had a lot of success on Amazon, especially in Q4, which is kind of like when people say, oh, you should never launch a product during that time. So we're going to ask Shivali to come on the show right now. Shivali, you there?

Shivali Patel:

Yes, I am Awesome.

Bradley Sutton:

I want to talk to you about your product launch. We had you on the podcast a few months ago and you were talking about this long journey of getting it ready, but then you actually launched in December. But for those who maybe didn't hear that podcast, let's start on this. You were selling on Amazon years ago and then you've always been selling for years, like books, but you really wanted to have a physical product to sell. A lot of people here they're looking for their first product, so they might have been kind of like in a it wasn't your first product but you were restarting it, so there might be a similar situation to you. So how do you tackle it? First, like, were you like hey, I want to try to find a product that just there's a lot of demand for it. Or you like hey, I want to find a lot of demand, but it's got to be something that maybe I'm passionate about. What was your thought process when you first started?

Shivali Patel:

I was quite open to whatever opportunity I was finding. I was using Blackbox, which I love because I come my first brand I launched years ago. I did manually. I was inside of Amazon, going through best sellers list, looking at BSRs, trying to understand the reviews, figure out what I could do better, and that's great, it works. But it takes a long time, and so that's where software like Blackbox is really, really helpful, because the process is over 2 billion data points daily right, Something that you can't actually do. So going in I was pretty open. I did many, many searches inside of Blackbox and then from there, started narrowing things down based off of different parameters. So whether that was profitability I mean all these things are important but profitability, what I can add? Value creation, the price point, checking out the market, the competition, what sort of reviews there are yeah, and I also did go to trade shows as well, so I went. I actually flew out. At the time I was considering a cocktail smoker kit.

Bradley Sutton:

What is a cocktail smoker kit.

Shivali Patel:

It's those for anybody who drinks. I mean you don't have to necessarily have it be a cocktail but a mocktail or even smoking. Your food comes with a little blow torch and then a different oak piece.

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah, I see that.

Shivali Patel:

Yeah, it's really nice. But I was considering that and a supplier ended up saying, hey, I'm actually in the US, and so I flew out to meet that supplier in person, which is a really, really cool experience. There was many vendors there, people that have flown in from Indonesia, from China. I got to see actual products, field them, try to negotiate a price point, get a basic understanding. Cool Enough is I ended up meeting somebody who helped me design a brand new product which I'm hoping to launch eventually as well.

Bradley Sutton:

This was at the trade show that you went to.

Shivali Patel:

At the trade show. Yeah, so they designed in a completely new style of a product for me.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay, so that's the first thing that's probably interesting to. Maybe some of you guys haven't thought about that, but you know, maybe you think that, oh, the only place you can go to trade shows which is 100% accurate, like it's a great place to go, is like in China. But what she's always talking about, I believe, was in Chicago or somewhere in the United States. So sometimes you know a lot of Chinese factories, indian factories and other factories. They'll come to US based trade shows and it's also a place where you can go and meet a supplier. Maybe you've been talking to online, like she was doing, but also you might meet somebody else. That is completely not even why you went there. So in her situation, she met somebody who's helping her design another product. So then that original product, the Smoker Kit you went to that trade show. You kind of like I'm probably not going to do this. How did you land on this makeup bag that you ended up going with?

Shivali Patel:

I found it inside a black box and I saw many different keywords. Actually, I was using the keywords tab. I went through and I did a few other things. I did the regular products tab, I did the keywords tab, I went into product opportunity explorer inside of Amazon. I was looking at Etsy and Pinterest trends as well. Anytime I was scrolling on social media. I mean the list was massive. And then eventually I found, I think, five to six different keywords inside of the keywords tab that were all related to the bag, so obviously there was a growing demand for it. And then from there went into the product validation and I felt like I could actually contribute something to that space, because I grew up in fashion and in the beauty personal care sector. I guess is something that I've taken time to educate myself on and spent many hours with, and so when I started having conversations after that with you, I think we also had a very unique pitching point that I felt I could go onto the market with a premium price point, because anytime I'm selling something, the value of creation is important, but you also want to make it worth the person's while. So if I'm going in with a premium price, I want to over, deliver on it, and I think this bag really hit all those spots.

Bradley Sutton:

And this was a high. The current the market was kind of high, aren't most products there like 80, 100 bucks or so?

Shivali Patel:

Now. So when I was looking at this product, everything was 30 bucks and I wanted to sell it for 120. And I knew I wanted to sell it for somewhere between 120 and like 140. But by the time that I actually launched, there was a couple bags on the market that were selling for 160 with a lot less value. In my opinion, they're nice, but also, if you think about anything else in the world you have your cars, you have your coach bags there's always a market for something. So I suppose at that point it's just what you're planning to or who you're really getting.

Bradley Sutton:

So then you know a lot of people here in this room. You know they might not be able to afford a product that requires an investment, you know pretty high, because you know if you're having a 100, $120 product, you know your costs might be like 30 bucks or 40 bucks a unit. And then, if you're, what was your MOQ, by the way?

Shivali Patel:

My MOQ was 500.

Bradley Sutton:

500, all right. So, like, you guys can do the math, if you're buying a product that costs $30 and you have to order 500 or 1000, you know you're already talking about 15, $20, $30,000 before you even consider shipping. However, on the flip side is if you can afford that. This is just by itself a way that you can differentiate yourself from from these saturated niches, because not that many people can afford to go into a niche like that. So you're immediately kind of like disqualifying a lot of the potential people that you might that you might, you know, be going up again. So let's fast forward. You know, you took a few months. You started designing the product. You're looking at different, different needs and you actually built in like your own program. Since you're kind of like your own influencer, you're like, hey, I'm going to sell this product with also like this course, and so just, you know, briefly, like in a minute or so, can you talk about how that idea came? And then what's the deliverable? Like, like, are people getting this, this card inside the thing that says, hey, sign up for my beauty course, or how did that work?

Shivali Patel:

I have always sold physical and digital products separately, and I thought it would be interesting to combine the two, especially because a lot of the competitors inside of the makeup bag market were selling, essentially as the add-on, a 10x magnifier. It was like a bonus piece that people throw in for bundling options. And I know for me, while a magnifying mirror is helpful, I don't actually use one on a day-to-day basis, so it has no real value for me as a consumer, not to say that it doesn't for somebody else, but for me. Outside of that, they also had these little travel jewelry compartments, which is great, but again, what's something that would be more of an experience, right, that would justify $120 price point. And so I started looking at the intersection of a digital course or a live coaching element, which one increases your touch points with the customer you get to hopefully get with, of course, in like, I'm not saying anything, black hat, I'm just saying that you can get to know, maybe, your customer a little bit better and then you'll know their order number so you can ask them to request a review a little bit later on. But yeah, the delivery aspect of it for the actual course is the product insert, which I created a QR code using Helium 10s portals and then just put that in so they get access to exclusive course that pretty much no other competitors can replicate, right? Because it takes a significant amount of time to go through and film a bunch of videos and then also end up taking time to do live coaching as well.

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah, hold on. I want to pause you right there because this is important. I want to make sure people understood the main point here. We hear so much and maybe you who haven't started on Amazon yet you've probably heard oh my goodness, it's too late to sell on Amazon, or there's just too much competition, or no matter what I sell, everybody's going to copy me. And then everybody's going to do it and have a low price. And, guys, let me tell you that's, first of all, that's not true. Like in some, you know, like categories, maybe, okay, maybe that's true. Like, if you just have a generic product, could everybody copy you? There's not much room for differentiation? Sure, but there are so many opportunities out there where you as, like you know, if you're selling in Europe, you're Europe based. You're selling in America, you're US based. There's things that you can do, there's skills that you have, or maybe, utilizing the network you have, that you can kind of like competition proof what you're trying to make. So, Shivali, she was like what can I do that? You know, probably the bakeries that are trying to sell direct on Amazon can't do All right. And one of them was like, hey, she's like let me make an actual course that nobody you know no Chinese factory or Indian factory or any other country that makes this are going to take the time to find an American based influencer and film this whole course and have that be a threat.

Bradley Sutton:

Like literally nobody is going to do that. So this is something that she has like a 100% exclusivity on that she never has to worry about competing with other people and it's going to allow her to keep a higher price point as well, because there's this added bonus. So don't let people tell you, oh it's, it's impossible to compete on Amazon because of the competition. No, you, absolutely, you know, can do that. Now let's just fast forward. Now you launched on what doesn't have to be the exact date, but when did you actually launch your product? November 30th or right, wait, November 30th. Was that during Black Friday weekend or?

Shivali Patel:

Okay, I was trying to get ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but the issue was it's an electronics item and I had some sort of request that they asked for like an MSDS safety sheet, and then it got classified as a dangerous good. So all my inventory was at the facilities but it was in reserve. I couldn't access it, I couldn't sell it. And then eventually, when it finally happened, I pretty much didn't know when it like went live. I was checking but I couldn't tell because it was like some of the products looked okay and then I made the stupid blunder of trying to check if it was available by buying, but then it wouldn't let me buy because I'm a seller. I didn't process that. But finally, November 30th, I had my first sale. It went live and I had my first sale and then I actually discounted that product for I think it was like 20 bucks or not 20 bucks, 20%, and then I had like that nice strike through price so I dropped from 120 to $90 and then went back up because my end of the November.

Bradley Sutton:

You're doing all this which, by the way, guys, she's talking about like what we call the Maldives honeymoon strategy. I'll give you, guys, links to how to launch your product. You know, based on the Maldives honeymoon strategy. It has to do with PPC and putting a heavy discount on your product. Now some people in the chat are asking about if they can see the product. I can throw it up here. Is it out of stock right now? Like, did you sell out or is it actually live still?

Shivali Patel:

No, it's still live.

radley Sutton:

Fast forward guys. She kind of like was doing stuff that some people say, oh, you should never do, like never launch a product in Q4., don't launch a product during Black Friday weekend. But she did that and then, right away, what did you get your kind of like daily sales up to? 70 units a day 70 units a day at $100 price point. But, guys, this is the product that we're talking about. It's a live, real live product that was just launched on Amazon a couple months ago. Here we go, brand new. She doesn't even have the video on here yet, like she even didn't even do the brand registry at first, I remember, because she just like got this, got this up, but where does it? Man, these are some nice images. So here's the image that talked about her makeup lessons. Okay, there she is. She's her own influencer. Totally fine, you're not going to see me put my picture on a coffin shelf, which is the product.

Shivali Patel:

I sell. I don't know. I think a lot of people right now that are watching would buy things if you were the influencer.

Bradley Sutton:

I don't know, I don't know. That's not the way I roll, but you can see, like if you go back in her BSR like when she launched the product and look at these crazy BSRs that she was having. Now obviously the sales have gone down after Christmas. This was a heavy, heavy item in Christmas. But long story short, like how much money did you sell in December of this product? What was your gross sales at?

Shivali Patel:

$46,000.

Bradley Sutton:

$46,000.

Shivali Patel:

And what kind of profit margins?

Bradley Sutton:

did you have?

Shivali Patel:

So after all the time, I originally thought I had like a 57% profit margin, but after all the calculations I think it was closer to 45% profit margin 45.

Bradley Sutton:

Now, guys, we're not going to be here and say that, oh, everybody who sells on Amazon using her strategies and using Helium 10, it's going to be able to sell $45,000 in three weeks and 40% profit margins. She obviously worked really hard to do this, but it shows that what is possible. Because she didn't use any special hack because she's a Helium 10 employee or some backdoor into Amazon. She just used the same exact strategies that you could have it. And somebody asked hey, after ad spend, what was the margin? No, that is after everything, after her cost, after PPC, after everything, 40%. Yeah, Ron says she doesn't even have A plus content. Yeah, she didn't have brand registry. She got this out so fast. She didn't even have brand registry yet and she just sold out almost completely. All right, well, that's a cool story. I'm going to give one of mine. So let me give you guys one more story about something that hasn't even launched yet. But let me walk you through the process, and this has a. She talked about how she found her opportunity in helium 10.

Bradley Sutton:

Let me show you something where I found an opportunity, and originally it came not from black box, but another tool that's not even designed for product research? All right. So does anybody in here use the regular market tracker? All right, this is not market tracker. You know 360 regular market tracker. Let me show you guys, let me retrace, what I did a few months ago. This is the regular market tracker and, as you guys may or may not know, so if you're new to, if you're new to helium 10, you probably haven't seen Project X, but we launched this product called a, a coffin shelf. All right, and so I've been. I've sold hundreds of thousands of dollars of these coffin related items, and so I have this coffin shelf market and basically what it does is I'm tracking my market share, I'm tracking like where my market compared to the others, and actually I did so well in Q4. I sold out, until just like a week ago, of of coffin shelves.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay, now let me show you here what I was looking at, what the purpose of this tool is. It allows me to track what is going on with my direct coffin shelf competitors, right, but then it also suggests to me like, hey, there's a new coffin shelf or a new potential player that might be like coming into your niche, right, and so you can see here those of you watching this and if you're listening to this later, you might not see this visual here, but there's a button that says track or ignore. So it's saying like hey, here's a new player in this niche. Do you want to start tracking him to, to, to track how, how your market share is going, all right. And so I was scrolling on here and then look, do you guys see what this is? Let me know in the chat, do you guys? If you can see it, it's kind of hard. These two things that are not coffin shelves, what does it look like to you guys? Bats yes, exactly, these are bat shelves.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay, so now, all of a sudden, let me just explain how my thought process went. I'm like, wait a minute, this is kind of interesting. All right, like these people are not my direct competitors, but they must be ranking for similar keywords, and I'm like that makes sense. Like in in, coffin decor is like a bat shelf might be kind of like a kind of spooky thing, right? So I went into a, an Amazon tool. All right, that is the product opportunity explorer. Okay, this is another thing that anybody on this call should have access to. Whether or not you, whether or not you guys, have brand registry you should have product opportunity explorer. So I typed in the keyword coffin shelf because, again, that's what I was selling and I'm like all right, let's take a look at what are the top clicked products after coffin shelf. So after people search coffin shelf and the related search terms, what are people clicking on? Okay, now, this is. This is not helium 10. This is directly from Amazon. All right, I like to kind of validate to see a little bit deeper what's going on.

Bradley Sutton:

Once I saw that, initially inside of helium 10, and then, sure enough, look here in the top 10 products after my products. A lot of these are my products that I'm selling. I saw I start seeing these bat related products and so I'm like, okay, that's interesting, but I want to. I want to take it a step further, like I could launch a bat shelf and I still might do a bat shelf, but are there any other bat related items? Maybe I could start a line of bat related items.

Bradley Sutton:

So here's what I did, all right. So Shivali situation was kind of like hey, she was looking for her first product on a new brand. A lot of you guys haven't found your first product yet. You follow that technique, right? I'm talking about what, if you're ready, are selling a brand, how can you expand it out? And this is the kind of process for you guys.

Bradley Sutton:

All right, so I went back into helium 10 black box. Okay, let's go ahead and go into that tool. So now this is what I want you guys to do. We're literally retracing my steps. I'm going to try and remember what I did. I'm selling, you know, there's probably a lot of bat related products that maybe you might be in the pet niche, like people making bat houses and stuff like that. There's probably a lot of Batman stuff in the memorabilia, right. But I wanted to do stuff in my niche. So hit the category and subcategory, drop down in black box and select home and kitchen All right.

Bradley Sutton:

So I wanted to find products in the home and kitchen niche, all right, okay. The next thing I wanted to do was I wanted to make sure that you know we weren't going to have some like $5 products or, at the same time, products that cost, like you know, $60 or more. So I put in the sales price field minimum 10, maximum 60. I wanted to find products that we're selling already, like is there a product in this bat niche that is selling pretty decently already. So under monthly sales okay, under monthly sales I put minimum 100 per month. All right, that means, hey, here's a bat related product that is in the home and kitchen that's priced between 10 and $60. And it is 100, selling at least 100 units per month. I didn't want to have a bunch of variations, like a product that had a whole bunch of sizes. So what I put, I think again, I'm trying to retrace this, I'm doing this live here, guys, I think I put a maximum one under variation count.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay, now what else do I do? Okay, you might be wondering well, how in the world am I looking for bat related products? All right, well, what I did was, like, I figured if it's a bat related product, it's probably got bat in the title. Okay, and Nicole says variation yes, max should be in the max right here under one. This is the minimum. I don't put anything, max, I put one. Okay, that's why, that's why the, the, the min is blank, all right. So under title keywords I put bat. So like, that means that I'm trying to find a product that had the word bat in it. Because I like again, couple steps back, I saw in market tracker, there's bat related products showing up in my market. I looked and validated that in Amazon opportunity explore. There's bat related products and I'm just wondering is the only bat related products shelves, or are there other bat related products? Okay, I'm not sure if I, if I entered more things, I'll know by the number. Go ahead and hit search now, guys, and let's see how many, how many things come up. Let's see 14 items. Okay, this is probably it.

Bradley Sutton:

And then I started seeing some super interesting things. Now, of course, some things were completely unrelated, because obviously a baseball bat, you know, might, might show up. But take a look at this, guys, a bat, I don't know what. This is like a remote control holder or a decor box. Look at this one a bat shaped wine and beer opener. Now, all of a sudden, my like creative juices were flowing. Here is a bat shelf. And then, as I was scrolling down, boom, I was like, wow, look at this, a bat Bath mat or bath rug. I was like that is such a novel idea. And so I started looking at this. I'm like, hey, there is some opportunity here to make a bat bath mat. But here's the problem. When I looked on Amazon, I was like the price is a little bit low, all right, compared to my cost. So I was like, is there any way I can differentiate this? So let me just show you what I was looking at. Um, let's just go here to Amazon and let's type in bat bath mat.

Bradley Sutton:

Now, at the time the prices were actually higher. But let me just walk you through, kind of like my thought process here. Okay, so take a look here. I started seeing this and, by the way, when I was looking at this, I think it was kind of like around the Halloween time and there were like hundreds and hundreds of these being sold, like now there's only a couple, that there's like a hundred or so being sold, but I'm like this is a super cool product. What I like to see is like the number one product, like the one who, who is selling the most.

Bradley Sutton:

What can somebody in the chat tell me about? What is wrong with this? Like, what are they doing wrong that could get them literally suspended they're listening, suspended at any time. Yes, alexander says no white background. Everybody, a lot of you professional stuff. I was like I love to see this. We're the number one seller in the niche Probably doesn't even know how to sell on Amazon because they've got this ugly image of a tile floor and it. This literally could get suspended by Amazon at any time because it's not white background.

Bradley Sutton:

And then, as I scroll down here, this is what I love to see. I'm already like, not even halfway down the page. All right, these, these are organic results. What do you guys notice here about these organic results? Is this one a bath, a bat bath mat? No, it's unrelated results. Who said that? Jonathan says that unreal. I'm not even halfway down page one and I have completely different results, like, like, here is somebody who's advertising here with a stone bath mat has nothing to do with this. Here's some spider web bath mats. This is what I love to see. Now, guys, this is now four months later.

Bradley Sutton:

It was even more drastic when I was looking at this, where I like nobody had bath bath mats but at that time that all of these were like around 20 bucks and I'm like, ah, man, this is like this is. You know, I want to have some higher Profit margins. I'm like, look at, some of these guys are just blowing stuff out because, because you know, they probably had overstock. But I'm like, how am I gonna have a product that's gonna go for like 20 to 30 dollars when people have, at the time, like 16 17 dollars? So this is what I what I looked at. I was like, let me just look at regular bath mats. All right, bath mat. Okay, this is has nothing to do with bat shaped or coffin shaped or anything. And then this is what I saw, like a lot of people had it for cheap prices. I'm like, okay, fine, but you know, since I have a bat one, I I don't have that much competition.

Bradley Sutton:

But look at this, I didn't know much of Beth Matz at the time, but look at this. Do you guys anybody see the difference between these and those ones that were the bat, the bat ones? Anybody know about bath mats and like could see instantly I know I'm zooming in here the difference. So what the difference is is the material. Do you guys see how thick this is? This is what's called and I don't know if I'm pronouncing this right this is what's called chenille, if I, if I'm mispronouncing that, I apologize. I literally know nothing about this. This niche Chenille. This is a lot more expensive material than I thought it would be. This, this niche Chenille. This is a lot more expensive material and it is like it's kind of cool, like your foot sinks into it and your foot almost disappears into this material and it's much more absorbent and I'm like, okay, all right. So here's the thing I want to make some bat bath mats and that could launch some other products, like maybe some coffin bath mats and everything, but everybody's selling for this cheap price. So what I want to do is sell a bat shaped bath mat, and I'm going to be the only one that's going to make it Chenille. So let me show you.

Bradley Sutton:

I went to, I got the product made and then I went to AMZ One Step and paid them to go ahead and have a photo shoot done at their factory, and my product is not yet launched. Guys. I just got this. I'm gonna open up a Google Drive, guys. This is like real stuff. This is just a Google Drive that was sent to me two days ago. I got the images ready and take a look at the products that I was able to develop based on all of these steps that I went. Here's a same thing Chenille bat shaped Bath mat. Let me show some more images here. I did some research and I'm like all right, some of these are not machine washable. I'm going to make sure to have an image where people can clearly see that this is machine washable. That's another way that I can differentiate my myself with the other competitors.

Bradley Sutton:

What else did I put here? I made some detail about how the non-slip you know backing right. What else did I have in the images? I did like a really expensive photo shoot, guys. I really wanted to go out. Look at this, this is not 3D, this is like a real. This is a real Airbnb, not Airbnb. I don't know if it was Airbnb, but it might have been Airbnb. But they literally rented a house to have this that had like these kind of like minimalistic, gothic vibes and we did a photo shoot to really kind of like differentiate. Now take a look at some of these images and compare it to the images that we saw on the bath you know, bath mat over there. All right, completely different. Right, very high quality. So basically, guys, this is a product that I am going to launch either maybe this week or next week, and I'm going to launch at over $20, when everybody else was selling it for um for a lot cheaper. All right, so there's two different cases. Shivali will open up a brand new brand.

Bradley Sutton:

Here's me. I was selling coffin shelves and I wanted to open up a kind of new line of products that aren't coffin related but are from the same kind of like um customer profile. I guess you could say you know somebody who's weird enough to buy a coffin shaped thing, probably weird enough to buy a bat shaped thing. So those are a couple of techniques. Let me give you guys a couple more techniques that those are real life examples. Let's go back into black box, guys. All right, let's go back into black I can't even say that right back into black box. And then everybody, let me know in the chat if you're with me. We're going to do something together. We're going to pick a imaginary product research situation right now and somebody said will the US consumer buy this all year long? Absolutely, believe it or not, people buy coffin shelves all year round. They would absolutely buy this. The people who are into Gothic decor, they just love this kind of stuff. All right, everybody's ready.

Bradley Sutton:

Now I want you guys to click into keywords. This is the keywords tab. All right, now, everybody, give me some sample ideas of categories to choose. I'm going to give you kind of like an advanced technique and I'm going to do one more advanced technique and then we're going to open up to Q&A for about five minutes here. Somebody says kitchen, somebody says pet, a bunch of people saying pets. Okay, let's go with those. So everybody. Go ahead in your black box keywords select kitchen, kitchen and dining, home and kitchen just for kicks and giggles. And then what was the other thing that people started? Yeah, pet supplies. All right, select pet supplies. Now I'm on a tool that looks at keywords. So who can tell me in the chat what signifies demand for a keyword? Is it sales? What is the metric that signifies demand for keywords? All right, it is search volume, exactly. So I'm going to say, hey, let me see a keyword that has at least 2000 search volume, maybe a maximum of 10,000. And I might have to like, lessen these because I might be doing something a little bit too narrow here. All right, and let's go into a price range where the average product on the search results, on average of the top products, are between, let's say, 20 and 50 dollars. All right.

Bradley Sutton:

Now here's what I like to do. I'd like to go to the very bottom of black box keywords and, under competitor revenue, I'm going to do something that's opposite from logic. All right, this is opposite from the way that you might have learned how to do this tool. I'm going to say competitor revenue more than $5,000, a maximum of four and a minimum of one. Traditionally you might. And, by the way, guys, there's not a right way and a wrong way here. I'm just trying to show you that you can have an opposite technique and you could still get a good result. The traditional teaching here is you want to find a keyword where most of the products are selling at least $5,000. I'm trying to do something different, where maybe only a couple products are really doing well and the rest are just kind of like throwaways. Why do you think, guys, why do you think this could give me something that might be opportunity? Let me know what you think in the chat. Why would I want to see when a keyword where not that many products in the top 10 are making good sales?

Bradley Sutton:

Ritu says improvement opportunity. Max says bad listings yes. Kl says try to be in the top yes, very good. Louis says low PPC. Guess what, guys? Everybody's correct. These are all reasons on why I'm doing this. Now, it doesn't mean that the opposite way is not going to get me good results too, but this is what I'm doing for this one. Now, competitor reviews out of the top 10, what I'm going to say is hey, I want to see a minimum of, let's just say, six products have less than 150 reviews. So that's what I'm doing in black box keywords Again competitor reviews at less than 150, minimum six. Now there might be either a whole bunch or not enough.

Bradley Sutton:

I'm not sure what's going to come up here. Yeah, I have too much hair. Oh, my goodness gracious, I found a pretty cool product right away, guys. I've never looked at, I've never seen this keyword in my life Goat blankets for winter Search for 3,000 times a month. Like there are 3,000 people out there trying to find blankets for their goats. Or is it blankets made from goat fur? I don't know. We can take a look at that. What else do we see here? Oyster shells, cat collar, camera, wedding table numbers, tree wall art guys, these are all Good opportunity stuff. Pottery apron like I guess a pottery apron would be different than a regular apron. Like it maybe needs to be more thick. Alright, to Taylor Swift Betty, I'm not gonna do that one, because that's probably Branded there, trademarked, I should say. Bulldog storage decoration what the heck like storage that? Is that a brand name or is that, like people want storage with pictures of bulldogs on it? Table numbers for wedding reception here's a Vietnamese keyword that I don't know. A Heart-shaped charcuterie board.

Bradley Sutton:

Guys, I literally just came up with one search. I came up with about 15 product opportunity ideas that all of these are pretty good. Jonathan says these are blankets for goats. I used to have goats myself, believe it or not, like here in San Diego County. I have one acre here property. I used to raise goats. I I never bought them blankets. You know, I'm sorry, sorry to say, but I guess I was, you know. But but I'm in Southern California so it doesn't get too cold so I think my goats were doing fine. But anyways, guys, that was just one search I just did with you guys right here and we found 10 Opportunities that could be worth looking at.

Bradley Sutton:

One last quick one I wanted to do before we get five minutes of of Q&A. Another new tool here in black box. Now, those of you who have the diamond plan, you'll be able to see this. It's a BA top search terms. All right, this is combining Helium 10 data with what's we're called Amazon brand analytics. Okay, amazon brand analytics is something directly from Amazon and we could see in here what are the top three clicked items by any keyword. This is directly from Amazon. This is not a helium 10 metric. I mean you're looking at it in helium, but that's what this is. So, right here, guys.

Bradley Sutton:

Um, this is Gold because, like, for example, I could say, hey, show me something, let's say a keyword that has the word bat in it. Going back to my original example, but where? If I take a look at the top three clicked ASINs, okay, I want to see their total click share, maybe at least 50%, meaning that let's just let's just see if anything comes up. That might be nothing, might come up here, let's just take a look. But what that means is, if I take the three products that have the most clicks after this keyword, it makes up more than 50% of the clicks overall. Okay, so that's what I would want to do phrases containing bats and look at that. I might do the top three conversion share. That's another thing that I could look at as as well, but these are unique data points that somebody could use, where you combine Amazon data with helium 10 data to find something completely new and different.

Bradley Sutton:

Alright, I've got five minutes now, maybe less, for question and answer. Let me take a look in the Documents here in the chat, what you guys have sent in. Alright, here we go. This is from Frank what is better to use a coupon or discounted price? Great question, frank. So he's talking about when you launch a product, like she volley did, either. Or yeah, I personally use discounted price. I try and get a strike through and have a big discount and then sometimes it's like it'll put a little red symbol that says, like you know, 50% off. But then other times, if that doesn't happen, using a coupon might be better because it gives you that green bar in the search results.

Bradley Sutton:

Alexandra says what was the product photography company? Oh, the one that did the batch of that was AMZ One Step. So you can see them at. Go to hub.helium10.com, Alexandra. hub.helium10.com and you can contact them right inside helium 10. Just type in AMZ and then one step. And then Make sure that. Make sure that you say that helium. You know you learned or heard from a helium 10 or from Bradley on this workshop. Shivali, who can you let us know? Who made your images? Alright, so I think you. One step, Shivali. So James is wondering who? Who did you use? I?

Shivali Patel:

Used myself.

Bradley Sutton:

You actually took yourself for like your phone.

Shivali Patel:

I did my own images. I also made my own infographics. Wow, I did the only. I did the course on my own.

Bradley Sutton:

I you had to have outsourced something, though, like anything. I've outsourced nothing wait, you know how to do Photoshop and stuff like that. Yeah.

Shivali Patel:

I didn't even Know. I make all my own videos for TikTok, for Instagram. Anything I post, I do. I did my own product photography with a camera I have at home. Although I For social, I typically just I phone it and then use Canva for Infographics. So that's free, which contributes to the very high profit margins.

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah Well, yeah, that definitely helps. Like me, me, I have no Photoshop skills. Maybe a lot of you don't have Photoshop skills, so you've got an outsource.

Shivali Patel:

I Didn't use that much Photoshop, all I did like. If you wanted to do this yourself, they actually the same thing that you pay $1,000 for you can do on your own. All I did is take a white sheet, put it up on Like a wall at home, got a phone I ordered like a 20 or $30 circular thing, but that was for video, it wasn't even for just photography and then I put it on to like a white table and then threw it into a free app free iPhone app for background remover and then put everything into Canva. Okay, so canva Able to do a pretty, pretty impressive if you guys want to do this on your own, you can also. I believe we have a module in Freedom Ticket For making your own product images, so you guys can watch that too. I filmed that one.

Bradley Sutton:

If you are at all artistically inclined, it doesn't even take Photoshop to do this. But you could be like me and be completely Illiterate from artistic sense, and that's why I outsource my stuff to different companies who are the Professional. So there's not a right or a wrong way to go about it. Hosam asked how does brand analytics help you? Could you please explain with an example? So, brand analytics that the number one benefit of brand analytics is that Amazon is telling you, after the search of a keyword, which three products are click the most and of those three products, what kind of sales share do they have of the people who end up buying a product after that, after searching that keyword. Super, super valuable information that you can see inside of helium 10. That comes directly from brand analytics. Um Frank says I would like to some launch help, for example, vying coupons, giveaways what would you recommend these days? So if you're talking about, like the old school Giveaways, you know that that's against terms of service. Now, on Amazon, what Shivali did, what I'm gonna do is Fully within terms of service is mainly just using PPC, all right. So if you guys want to know the three episodes, you guys have some homework. You guys want to know how to launch a product in the same exact way that Shivali and I launch our product. This is what I'm gonna leave you guys with.

Bradley Sutton:

Right this time, everybody have a pen and paper ready. All right, right down these three episodes h10.me/466, all right. Or it's Serious Sellers Podcast, episode 466. You can look it up on your. I want everybody actually typing it in right now go into your Apple iPhone and go to Apple podcast and go into Serious sellers podcast and hit subscribe the three episodes you want to look at for how to launch your product, to get ready for it is 466 and 467, so you can go on your podcast. Or you can just type in h10.me forward, slash 466 or 467. The one to actually launch, it is 500, all right. So there's three episodes that you want you guys to listen to 466, 467 and 500. Thank you guys for joining and we'll see you later. Bye, now you.

#532 - $250K On TikTok Shop in 3 Weeks?!

Join us in this episode as we unfold the remarkable e-commerce tale of Josh and Jenna Coleman, a powerhouse couple who turned their online sales venture into a resounding success. They take us on a journey from their beginnings in marketing and finance to dominating Amazon and TikTok Shop, sharing the strategic decisions and personal pivots that propelled them into the limelight. Their story is a masterclass in leveraging life's twists – from raising kids to career transitions – to build a thriving business that resonates with the potential of passive income.

Listen in as the conversation turns to the nitty-gritty of starting with side gigs and progressing to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). Josh and Jenna provide valuable insights into using platforms like Helium 10 for market research and how they used their design acumen to create products that captivate both digital and physical markets. Discover how they utilized KDP as a testing ground for market interest, leading to a booming workbook series that soared in popularity, thanks to smart social media strategies.

Finally, our chat takes a deeper look at the couple's viral breakthroughs and how they utilized TikTok Shop and Shopify to amplify their business. They share the behind-the-scenes of managing a small business through the highs of viral sales spikes and the challenges of inventory and listing protection. The duo also reflects on the profound impact that Amazon and TikTok Shop have had on their lives and the lives of influencers who have joined them on this journey. Tune in for a dose of inspiration and practical advice that could set you on your own path to e-commerce success.

 

In episode 532 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley, Josh, and Jenna discuss:

• 00:00 - Married Couple's E-Commerce Success Story
• 05:05 - Transitioning to E-Commerce 
• 09:17 - Side Jobs to KDP and Amazon FBA
• 08:24 - Hooking With Software and Numbers
• 12:48 - Comparing Opportunities in FBA and KDP
• 17:40 - Transitioning to Full-Time E-commerce
• 20:53 - Viral Success on TikTok and Amazon
• 27:31 - Start Small Business With TikTok
• 31:50 - Learning in the Space
• 34:39 - Promoting Business With TikTok and Shopify
• 37:30 - Strategies for Promoting Products on TikTok
• 44:21 - The Importance of Branding in Strategy
• 45:19 - Amazon and TikTok's Impact on Lives

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Transcript

Bradley Sutton:

Today we've got a married couple with an incredible story. In not even their first full year on Amazon, they've grossed over half a million dollars. And in not even their first full month on TikTok Shop, they've grossed over a quarter of a million dollars. And they're going to share how it's possible to set up a TikTok Shop account in only 10 minutes. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Are you browsing a Shopify, Walmart, Esty, Alibaba or Pinterest page and maybe you see a cool product that you want to get some more data on? Well, while you're on those pages, you can actually use the Helium 10 Chrome extension Demand Analyzer to get instant data about what's happening on Amazon for those keywords on these other websites. Or maybe you want to then follow up and get an actual supplier quote from a company on Alibaba.com in order to see if you can get this product produced. You can do that also with the Helium 10 Demand Analyzer. Both of these are part of the Helium 10 Chrome extension, which you can download for free at h10.me/extension.

Bradley Sutton:

Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of the Series Sellers podcast by Helium 10. I'm your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show. It's a completely BS free, unscripted and unrehearsed organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. We've got a husband and wife dynamic, serious seller duo here for the first time on the show the double J crew, josh and Jenna. How's it going, guys?

Josh:

Good.

Jenna:

Pretty well Thanks for having us.

 Bradley Sutton:

Yeah, Awesome. Now where are you guys located?

Jenna:

We are right outside Philly.

0:01:45 - Bradley Sutton:

Okay, so you're on the East Coast, all right. So you guys were born and raised, or are you transplants from somewhere else?

Jenna:

So well, I'm a transplant. He is born and raised out here. I'm originally from the Midwest, the suburbs of Chicago.

Bradley Sutton:

In West Philadelphia born and raised. Oh sorry, probably back.

Josh:

Yes, yeah, oh she could sing it with you the whole thing.

Jenna:

Oh, yes, I could, yeah. We met in college out here and I kind of fell in love with the East Coast so we knew we wanted to raise our kids out here. So yeah, then we ended up out here.

Bradley Sutton:

You're supposed to say you fell in love with him and then you fell in love with the East Coast.

Jenna:

Right, yes.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay, in that order there. Exactly what college did you guys meet?

Jenna:

We went to Nova Villanova.

Bradley Sutton:

Villanova Okay, yes, I knew one of my favorite Clippers was Kerry Kittles way back in the 90s.

Jenna:

Yeah, 85 here they won yeah.

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah, so the reason I know him is funny. Here's just a really crazy story. You guys may or may not know. I used to be a Zumba fitness influencer and in my channel that I created on Zumba that had 30 million views. It was called CrazySockTV and I created that. It's kind of like a branding kind of thing. I wanted to be memorable so that people in memory is my brand, and just not to be some random person dancing Zumba, which was a million people. So what I would do is I would have a crazy like one sock on one leg and then one sock on an arm, and that was what I came up with. It was always a crazy sock, but where I originally got that idea was Kerry Kittles. He would just have one sock when he played with the Clippers, which is which is my team, and I'm like that is the most weirdest thing I've ever seen. I'm going to roll with that idea. And that went to tens of millions of Zumba video views and so, yeah, that's my Villanova tie right there. Anyways, all right. So you guys, what did each of you major in there?

Jenna:

My bachelor's was in marketing and he was finance. Math and finance yeah, I mean he took everything for fun math, he loves math. So like that, my fine classes were like astronomy and his were, I don't know, derivatives and anything he could with math.

Bradley Sutton:

What did you guys do after graduation then? Did you, either of you, enter into that world that you guys were studying?

Jenna:

We did. We did a little bit. So I did marketing for my dad's financial planning firm and then I decided I wanted to be a teacher. I got my master's of education, went down that route and then we were actually living in Chicago for the beginning of our first quarters. And then we had our twins and moved back out to the East coast and I definitely took a good break there for like the better part of a decade and didn't really jump back into anything until like until this. I mean not really fully into anything, until this.

Bradley Sutton:

And then, Josh, what were you doing all this, all this time? I'm assuming you were the income, then if she was taking a break, so what were you doing?

Josh:

Yep. All sorts of things in finance Consulting.

Jenna:

Yeah, so working too many hours a week

Josh:

Flying a hundred thousand miles a year, like domestically only, which you. You probably fly that in four trips, but around the world domestically, that's a harder target to hit.

Bradley Sutton:

So, yeah, this doesn't sound like an exciting job. So what? What was the thought process on, like how you guys ended up with e-commerce? Was it just like all right, I don't want to do this always? Or were you looking for a side hustle? Or how do you go from the finance and marketing world to and the stay at home you know world, to switch to e-commerce?

Jenna:

So I mean that was definitely part of it. The time constraints and I think the idea that there could be some passive component to e-commerce was interesting. But I really was. I mean, josh knows I would. I was admiring e-commerce for like the better part of a decade. I was that person that everything I looked at I was like, oh, I could create this, I can make it better, even with educational stuff and tools and resources. I was making my own and kind of like just admiring it from afar and saying, you know, when it's the right time, then then I'll go into it, cause we are not like the dip your toe in type of people. We are like the 50 foot cannonball jump ball in. It's not like we're just going to try, you know, like a product and see how it goes. When we I knew when we were going to go in it was going to be all in. So I was waiting for life to slow down and it was really like actually the craziest, the easiest time of our life and I kind of just had this like epiphany that life doesn't really slow down, no matter how old your kids get. So if I don't do it now, it's probably now or never.

Jenna:

I can remember I think it was like a month after we got out of the hospital with my son. So our oldest son has epilepsy and he had about a year of failed anti seizure meds and treatments and it was just in and out of the hospital and they eventually came up. So they have this all over the country but it's the medical ketogenic diet for epilepsy. So they put him on that and we had to go to the hospital and we had to learn all about it and I kind of had this moment of I was like this is more intense and exhausting than twins. This has been my dream forever. I'm like if I don't jump in now, I'm never going to do it.

Bradley Sutton:

Well, was there something that made you that's still not a natural thing to just like jump into, like, like? Did you get hit with an ad somewhere, or where you're searching how to make money at home? Or how did you land on Ecom?

Jenna:

So I definitely found a couple ads there, because there were. I did take a couple courses that were teaching you how you can sell on Amazon and I had already had ideas and I kind of thought selling an Amazon? I didn't understand the process of it. So I was like, all right, so I think I can figure this out. There's courses to do it. So I took the courses, I downloaded like a ton of podcasts and he knew I kind of like dug into this whole of like just learning and education and I didn't want to bring it to him until I was like I can do great. Yeah, you're like you're doing great, you're doing your own thing. Like I said, we're not like a dip your toe in type of person. I didn't want to bring it to him until I thought this is something he would like to. So I really just kind of like dug in on the courses and I already knew the things I wanted to create, but I didn't understand like the science, the research behind it and it's funny we were talking about this. I was like, okay, so I listened to your Serious Sellers Podcast before I could understand 10% of what you said and I remember like listening to one of your podcasts and a few others like it and I was like this is amazing, this part I don't understand creating design innovation. I understand the numbers.

Bradley Sutton:

We're here talking, by the way, about more or less 2019, 2020, 2021. Last year, fall of  2022.

Jenna:

Yeah, yeah. So I listened to one of your episodes and a couple others and I was like, oh, my goodness, josh would love this. There's software, there's research, there's numbers that can go into this. So basically I hooked him by showing him that kind of stuff. I was like, look, if you can do the product research and you can tell me the numbers and you can do this, I will design and create their products. And look, they have software like Helium 10, he was like lit up. He's like this is fantastic, I can play. I mean, he was playing around in it before we even had our first product like that. Yeah, like before we even really knew if we were going to do a product yet.

Josh:

And now I'm like now we're here. What happened yeah?

Jenna:

So I hooked him with that kind of stuff. We're very different, very different in terms of like, our interest and what we like, and I think it actually helps in this industry. So yeah, that's it. I knew I wanted to for a long time. I don't think he knew we wanted to until he saw that aspect of the business that I could kind of hook him in.

Bradley Sutton:

So at this time you still weren't working yourself. Only Josh was.

Jenna:

I've done a lot of things on the side, like I would just say side jobs and stuff. Like you know, I've done network marketing and coaching and stuff like that.

Josh:

Coaching sports yes.

Jenna:

Yeah.

Bradley Sutton:

What sport did you coach?

Jenna:

I coached volleyball. I played volleyball in college, so I just here whenever. I could camps and helped at schools and stuff.

Bradley Sutton:

But you had, you had the kind of bandwidth, but. But, but, josh, you know, you know traveling everything. If it was up to him it probably might not have gotten done because he was pretty busy then. So that's an important thing to know. Like, hey, maybe it's the husband, maybe it's a wife, but but you know you got to have somebody who's able to dedicate some time to this, or else you might never get started. So then you guys, you know, started dipping yourselves into Two courses and now the very first product that you launched, uh, are you still selling that product now?

Jenna:

Yeah, but well, I mean it's of our FBA product we have, yeah, we have. We launched our first ones for KDP books and then our first product we launched last summer.

Bradley Sutton:

Talk about that for a second. What made you go that route?

Jenna:

So KDP, I mean, well, it's inexpensive. And I already was creating designs and things like that and I knew that was something that we could do while we're learning, because we wanted to. When we wanted to launch products, we knew that we wanted to launch more than one at a time and we wanted to make sure we had the research into it and we knew they were going to take a while, especially, coming up to you know, the timing of the year that we were looking at sourcing products was a little tricky.

Josh:

It was January, right, yeah, it was a year ago, yeah a year ago was when we launched our first KDP book in February of last year and it was Really based on. She knew the audience that she wanted to serve, but we had to test the content and we felt like KDP was a good place to test the content of like a meal planner and fitness type Trackers and budget planner, and then on the education side, cursive workbooks and you know things of that nature. Because when you look at the you know audience that she wanted to serve, my Research coming out of it was trying to find you know products that interested or that, um, that Audience wanted at the time. And so that's why we used KDP is we got to kind of test content and then we also got to test PPC, play with it and learn it and in a in a real experimental way, instead of With an FBA product that was going to require a you know a large Upfront investment and inventory and all that kind of stuff and we had started that process. But it takes a while.

Bradley Sutton:

So, but basically you use a lot of the similar strategies, like using Helium 10 to see demand and, and that's how you like landed on what KDP thing you were going to uh, launch and how to optimize your listing things like that. at what point then Were you like hey, not a lot, I want to do physical products.

Jenna:

So some of our designs that went into the KDP books are actually used in our physical products. Um, we edited them, made them a little bit better. We were able to use some reviews. So, for example, we have a meal planner, fitness tracker, or I think we call that the advanced meal planner and fitness tracker in KDP, um, and then we were able to make some improvements on that to make it into one of our vegan leather planners, um, but yeah, so, like we, those designs took me A lot of time to focus on and creating those. So we just had to make some adjustments to make those doable and we were able to get samples and stuff as we put out that KDP book. We were getting samples because we knew we wanted to eventually make it in FBA. We knew that there was more money obviously in FBA than KDP.

Bradley Sutton:

Were you able to do things by going, you know, directly to somebody who actually physically produced this? That was not an option with KDP, like a certain kind of Cover or something like that that you just literally could not even do KDP Uh, what are some of those things?

Jenna:

the KDP books. You can only do paperback or hardcover. You can have limited size Um and, as you know, with FBA you can do anything you want, really. I mean, you can create any material, cover, um things in our meal planner, fitness tracker. One of the things that I wanted was that they could tear off their grocery list and take it with them. You can't have perforated pages in a KDP book, um, and that's also, I think, where you can get seen on KDP versus you're. You're shown everywhere on amazon right and isn't KDP, I believe it's just the books that you're shown in yeah, you, you're shown in.

Josh:

You're shown in search To an extent, but it's an ISPN Then identified a product, not an ASIN, not a traditional like ASIN Uh product. So, yeah, you're definitely Limited as to where you show up.

0:13:50 - Bradley Sutton:

Do you use it kind of like as a like an incubator almost for some of your FBA, like if it really takes off with KDP, then that's what you maybe double down on and make a physical uh copy.

Josh:

I will. I will say yes, and our most successful product, which we launched in December, that that most recently, um, fortunately exploded on like TikTok and such, is really a culmination of like a case study in that it's a handwriting set of handwriting workbooks that have disappearing ink and such and Most of that content you know. She built over time and we released in A variety of different like KDP workbooks while she was. You know, we kind of in always in mind had man, it would be great to do this one thing. The keyword always looked great, there were so many things about it that we felt like we could improve and we were so excited about it. But we knew it would take a lot of time and KDP's content kind of feeling and seeing how things worked was really a huge part of the design over like a nine month period before we released those in December.

Jenna:

And we're still using our KDP designs into new things. We have our newest product coming out, the bible verse mapping that. We're working on getting those out by spring and they were in KDP and now we're able to get those and a linen cover. A different thing for spring, for FBA products.

Bradley Sutton:

What's your, what's your average Retail price on the KDP side? And then, of those, how much do you take home?

Josh:

well, our average, every one of our products on KDP is 999, except for the homeschool planner, which is 1499, and on the, the Products that are nine, that call it ten dollars. On the products that are ten dollars, we take home about $2 and 60 cents A sale, and then on the homeschool planner, we take home about $3 and 80 cents, 90 cents give or take.

Bradley Sutton:

And then are you doing PBC for this at all, or it's just all organic?

Josh:

Yeah, we do. I think our total PBC spend on KDP is about $15 a day maybe. So it's small. Obviously it's all relative, but um, but that 1500 a month is net of you know PBC charges specifically. So it's a pretty low a cost Process. As long as you don't get sucked into chasing physical products, you stay in your lane, recognize that you're a KDP product and not try to go after FBA products not that I ever tried that then you can. You can do fine.

Bradley Sutton:

It's separate log on for KDP and you're a seller central, because that that's kind of like a different. It's not seller central, I know, but how different is the interface for advertising? I know Shavali you know probably knows this but I've never done Advertising for KDP Is it very similar, like you know, you can do, you know, phrase match and Sponsored and campaigns.

Josh:

Almost an hour,

Bradley Sutton:

Okay. Okay, cool. Were you selling the entirety of 2023, or did you start later, not January?

Josh:

KDP. Our first one was February, and then our second one was like April, and then our first FBA product was July 1.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay, so not a full year of KDP, not a full year, obviously, of FBA. What would you say if you were to combine the gross sales of both on Amazon, only For your planners and things? What? What would you say? It was total at the end of the end of the year in the past year, Since well we haven't been out of here, but yeah okay, yeah, so total 2023?

Josh:

About 400,000.

Bradley Sutton:

Are you still doing your day job or did you at some point last year that go all in on the Ecom?

Josh:

It took about like eight days to realize that there's no chance I was gonna not be able to To like go all in into this.

Jenna:

it was too much fun. Yeah, you and, and the hours you worked, and the time you worked, I mean, I mean not to say that you don't right now, where it has, we're starting everything up, but uh, yeah, I mean we're trying to launch a good amount of stuff.

Josh:

It's a lot different being on a plane a hundred thousand Miles a year than it is being, you know, up late at night talking with manufacturers or something, but still in your own house. It's a little different.

Bradley Sutton:

Was this your first year? In a few years that you're, you didn't make your high status on your travel?

Josh:

I absolutely it was a second year, but it was the first year I haven't been on an airplane in like my entire life.

Jenna:

Really amazing yeah, when was.  I mean I guess, so yeah, no, we've really.

Josh:

Because after COVID we actually started driving Everyone like if we went somewhere, love it to the kids, like it and and frankly it's fun for the two of us.

Jenna:

And the things we like to do. I mean we love to go to the mountains and snowboard. They're all close enough here the ocean, the beach, all that stuff is driving distance from here, which, growing up in the Midwest, that's not possible. So I love that we can just get to anything within a couple hours by the way, it was great, great story.

Josh:

We're in the Midwest and after school and she's like, oh, we, you can snowboard here. And I was like, awesome, where? And we she's like I'll take you this place. And we're driving and the nav you know those old Tom Tom. Things right is like this is when we live in Chicago over after we got married two miles you're at your destination and I'm like Jen, I can see about 15 miles in any direction right now there is nowhere to. Actually I don't believe. I like kind of I want to believe you. Yeah, I was like this is like a sled.

Jenna:

We found a hill somewhere that we turn into is yeah, so yeah, we like the mountains out here.

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah, well, don't got much of that here exactly in my town when I live, few miles from the beach here in California. But all right now, at what point did you guys discover TikTok shop?

Josh:

one of your serious seller podcasts in the. In the fall you had on a create some, a creator who did a video, a viral video that went viral for, I think, one of Lizzie's products, but I forget exactly which one it was might have been the body suit One of them, but you had someone on that was explaining, kind of somehow some of the worked and it was super intriguing. And then we went to the meeting in New York where Lizzie spoke and Jenna drove home and you set it up in New York City and I set up the. I set up our TikTok shop in the car on the hot spot.

Bradley Sutton:

Well, what they're talking about, guys, by the way, is we have their helium-10 elite members and we have a quarterly in-person workshop for Helium 10 members and we did one in New York and we brought somebody Elizabeth, who's been on the podcast before talking about TikTok shop, and she kind of broke down exactly what she did, and I remember you guys at that it was like light bulbs were going off in your head as you guys were watching. We're like wait, wait a minute, we've got a perfect Kind of product that would do well on TikTok shop. So then you got home or he said on the way home, not even you weren't even home yet, you're already setting it up on the way home in the car, yeah, I feel like in the car, because the kids are with my great, with their, my parents.

Jenna:

They're great kids for a couple days, but you draw like literally on the drive. I mean, what is it? That's less than three hours from New York, oh yeah it's a couple hours. He was done by the time we got back. He's like we're set up, let's go. I was like are you kidding me?

Bradley Sutton:

Now, at what point there were you like oh man, we're on to something like what was your first kind of like viral day, or?

Josh:

Frankly, Christmas was our first viral day. On Christmas Day, you know, I had Alerts on, like sale alerts on TikTok, because we didn't get too many before that. So we had sales, but not compared to Amazon. And so our phone. I'm like it's Christmas, leave me alone, who is bothering me? And I was like not that many family and friends are trying to say Merry Christmas. And so it was sales. And we had no idea what was going on. And it was a you know video that was about 10 seconds long, that someone had posted, that had picked up and had, you know, half a million views that day and a million by the next, and the following day, sold us out of our meal planners. I was about 500 on TikTok and about 800 on Amazon so at that point.

Bradley Sutton:

Sold out in like two days.

Josh:

Yeah, it generated more Amazon Sales than TikTok shop, even though it was from TikTok shop for that first product.

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah, as well as our website, so you didn't have like a link. It was just like it got sold out and then people were just trying to search for it on Amazon, you know, to try and get it, and they found your product through there.

Josh:

Yep and our website, yeah, and we found where they found it was be banner ads, like sponsored display ads, because they recognized the Products or if they would search for something meal planner or fitness or whatever. Our banner ads had like a you know 6% a cost. I remember we're looking at them and I was like, oh, that's what. Like they didn't necessarily know what to search because I didn't really think about it at the time. We just had the title as Grace will buy design meal planner or fitness tracker or something, whereas all the conversions, PPC were happening from there. And that's when we kind of realized you know, there's something to this, to your point about your question about when did we realize like this was a thing, when we realized how well these markets could play off each other and help each other. That was when that day, Christmas in the day after, is when I was like oh yeah, oh wow, like this is, this is a thing.

Jenna:

I think you were pretty excited about it pretty early though, yeah.

Josh:

I was excited.

Jenna:

I'm the pessimist, I was the one that was like I don't know. I mean, we're still. We just had our second product go viral, even more so, and I'm still like I don't know if we should we get the inventory. Is it gonna repeat?

Josh:

Yeah, it probably won't work. Yeah.

Bradley Sutton:

So now the planners on Amazon. This is not, this wasn't your KDP, this is a physical one. So what's the retail price on these? On Amazon?

Josh:

$19.99

Bradley Sutton:

$It was 19.99, and then so what? What kind of profit margin on Amazon?

Josh:

Actually before PPC about 50%. So they're 240 landed plus small stand. We we made sure that packaged their point seven, four inches thick so that we can fit in Small standard. So basically about a 50% or shade above 50% margin and then with PPC, with. PPC, like if you take launch and everything in the consideration. The first, you know Three, four months which was the end of last year, where you know we 20% net margins on, including launch.

Bradley Sutton:

So about 20%, probably more. You know if we're not considering launch in there now. I yeah. Now if, what kind of retail price did you have it on TikTok shop? Did you still keep it at 1999 or did you take advantage of how you can just add shipping and TikTok pays for it? Or at least they were before?

Josh:

So we did not do that where we lower the price, because so TikTok shop for Sellers who use seller shipping which is what we were doing, because we are fulfilling some of it from our Amazon inventory, for example, all of it from our Amazon inventory that if you spent $20 as a customer, they would pay for shipping, TikTok shop meaning so the the customer would get it for free for shipping and then TikTok shop would reimburse us and Basically, the $7.99 it's like for one item Quantity of one is what they would do. So we would make the product $20 and shipping $7.99 and as long as we do that, the customer doesn't pay shipping and we get the $20 and reimbursed for shipping at $7.99. So 27.

Bradley Sutton:

So on Amazon, let's say that you were taking home, you know, after PPC and stuff you know like, let's say, six bucks or something like that. You know maybe five, six dollars or so, which is which is pretty decent on Amazon. Not many people can say that. But then, for that same order, on TikTok shop, how much money were you taking due to TikTok, like subsidizing your, your fees and all this other stuff?

 Josh:

Yep. So basically, to break it down, so we would get the $20 Minus the 20% commission that went to that creator, right, so we would get $16 for the product Plus the $7.99 for the shipping reimbursement, so $23.99 that we would receive, and TikTok pays the influencer directly. We don't have to do all that accounting, thank goodness. So 2399 that we would receive, it's 240 landed and our MCF fee to like ship and deliver an item to a customer is $8 and change but eight, call it $8. So $23.99 in and Around $11 and 50 cents out, so double plus.

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah, double or more the profit margin for the exact same product on TikTok shop. Now what's this, Jenna? Are you doing some kind of Like? Are you the influencer for your own product to like? Are you doing like lives or videos or some? Or am I getting you guys Confused with somebody?

Jenna:

I mean I do it, I do it, um, it's you know, I really More so. I mean they had different promotions that they were running that you could get ad credits for doing lives. That's why I don't think I get a lot of traffic and that's really not, in my opinion, where we get a large amount of sales, the sales I mean especially with our group books. That's well, that was all because of videos and influencers. So it gave us ad credits, which was great, um, but personally I'm not. I do it for the business, but I'm not a fan of being in front of the camera any more than I need to. But I was all for, you know, starting up a small business. When they were like I think it was like $1500 in ad credits, I was like I'll do it, let's do it, you know that's what it was.

Josh:

No, you're right. During December, if you went live, you know a certain amount of time and Spent 1500, they would give you 1500 an ad credit. And so we basically did that, and the day the promotion ended, they deposited 15 like they were exactly as they Said it would be, and she was tortured every minute that she was live.

Jenna:

So I would never classify myself as an influencer. I that's what I love about take talk shop that you can use the professionals that that do that as your influencers.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay. So now you guys I mean technically, if you know Christmas was, was around. You know was around where you really started taking off. You know, by the time that we're recording this podcast, you know, maybe you, like you, can talk about your first full month of TikTok shop. What were the gross sales on that platform?

Josh:

Since, if you include Christmas in that time, there 250,000 dollars.

Bradley Sutton:

In one week in one, in one month, in one month in one month in one thirty 70-72 hour period.

Josh:

They were 180,000 dollars.

Jenna:

That was that group books viral video, which was crazy yeah and it's amazing to me still, because we had a few large influencers that were, like you know, half a million followers. That I'm like I was the optimist for those. I'm like this is gonna be the one, and they did great videos and the video that took off. That's what I like 9 million views, knowing I don't know, I mean she had, I think, just under 40,000 and which is still big, but it's not like the half million or, you know, near a million followers, that we had other people. So you just don't know and I mean the video was good.

Bradley Sutton:

So the fact that you guys did a 250 or quarter of a million, does that mean that your influencers took home like 50 grand themselves for doing videos, so that that influencers specifically.

Josh:

Generated, yeah, single mom she's like the nicest person and we were so happy because she sent a message. You know that the commission was like life-changing, she was ready to get to be done with this and it was 30,000 and change in commission income that she generated based on her post and that, just like that's again when further, it has furthered this point of like you don't have to be the influencer because you know Jenna can be Jenna and Talk to the influencers, which again we try to do like on it, like we write Cards to them when they make content, like all of those types of things, and then it's so much more natural and the creators love doing posts on Jenna's products because she can relate to them and she cares, like she genuinely cares, and it was so cool to see that from a couple of the moms that I've had really successful posts on our products, that you just sit there and you're like this is a great, great business model, that even though they're increasing TikTok shop, increasing their referral fees, no problem, worth every penny.

Bradley Sutton:

You know you guys have some hijackers on some. You must have be out of stock or something. You guys know about that. I'm just looking at your day, your story now.

Josh:

Yep all right, you guys need to take care of that.

Bradley Sutton:

do some tests we already those guys offers that, do you mind if I show people your product page here.?

Josh:

Yeah, all right, let me um they're the worst because the shipping is like weeks and weeks and weeks that we ordered it right. Yeah, it's killing.

Bradley Sutton:

I mean the fact you know that that's when you that, by the way, that that's when it's like you know, until you get it fixed, you know where you might want to like suppress your listing, where you take out the images and then nobody can sell on it. You know, so that you know your Every day that somebody has it active. You're like losing your, your keyword ranking, your conversion rate and stuff like that. So if you don't think you're gonna fix that right away, you know, try and get your listing suppressed somehow, you know taking out the image is doing something.

Josh:

I said that this is where you're always learning in this space because, yeah, these are problems that you didn't know would be problems. Inventory management didn't know that was a problem till all of a sudden it was a Problem. So it's been great to have resources and help from people like you know, Helium 10 folks and other folks in the space, which is Such a help because you're going through for the first time.

Bradley Sutton:

So then, going back to your main product, which is in stock here, this is the main one that you sell on TikTok as well, right, and the ones that that went viral before.

Josh:

It was the first one that went viral. It's not the largest selling of our products anymore, but it's the second, and it was the one that was here first. This product released in August yeah, august.

Bradley Sutton:

Did this originally start as KDP or this was a from scratch?

Josh:

Oh yeah, you may yep, no, we did a version of this via KDP, which, if yeah, Jenna’s author page is like amazon.com/author/jennacoleman, and that's where KDP stuff is and there's a there's a 11. It's called like the advanced meal, the advanced weekly meal planner Yep, but yeah, we reached a PSR of like two and then it all went out of stock.

Bradley Sutton:

All right. So then this you know, and then this is, this is what you also have on your TikTok page, and so doing some cool numbers, all right. So so you, you showed me the other day like there is a for anybody who has a, an Amazon account and a Shopify account. They can literally start TikTok shop. I Within like what? 20 minutes, would you say, or less, or?

Josh:

Yeah, I mean we've had some people that have taken Time to like if they have a sole prop, like where they don't have a business in some ways, like where they don't have an EIN or some things. There's been some people. That has taken some time. But TikTok's due diligence on you as a company, the Shopify system, seems to Serve as enough validation for TikTok shop that they're good to go and you get set up pretty quick with a shop and Then an ad account on the business side. Then it pulls from their Amazon inventory.

Bradley Sutton:

Then it pulls from their Amazon inventory. So I, you know, I, you guys, don't have a way to share your screen, but maybe you can just verbally Walk through those steps. So somebody has their Amazon account and then do they need to have the Shopify account already tied to their Amazon through, like by with Prime?

Josh:

Yeah, so okay. So good question, but not by with Prime. For fulfilling on TikTok shop by with Prime can be used on your actual Shopify website, like if you have your website on Shopify but you don't actually need a website to do the TikTok Shopify Amazon integration as long as you have the program Shopify. There's two sides to it. There's the TikTok side and there is a native app. In other words, TikTok shop has built an app that sits on Shopify's Interface so you can download on Shopify the TikTok app that allows you to create your shop and Create your business center and ads manager. Right. So all from Shopify to TikTok shop so it can push To TikTok and then, if you have like a personal TikTok account, it Can link that to your store and convert it to a business account basically.

Bradley Sutton:

In Shopify. What? Where do they go and Shopify if they have their Shopify account? They got their Amazon account. What's the? If they're not tied together, how do you do? They need to get it from the Amazon app store, the Shopify app from the Amazon app store, to tie it to the Shopify account?

Josh:

In the Shopify app store, there is a TikTok app and an Amazon MCF app. They need both.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay, so you do it through Shopify instead of Amazon. We do it in the middle.

Josh:

Yeah, and then the Amazon MCF app is what pulls from Amazon and all they do really there is they have to sync up to skew right to make sure that the skew and Shopify matches the one in Amazon, which the app will say you're good, and then that your shipping map. So if you say standard shipping defaults to MCF standard, if you've ever done an MCF, the person has done an MCF order. Then it will say okay, when an order comes in and you fulfill it, it's gonna fulfill via Whichever MCF option, standard option. So that way TikTok shop syncs immediately to Shopify. Shopify pulls the inventory and ships it and then Shopify gives the tracking number back to TikTok shop

Bradley Sutton:

And then when you, when you, you know, set up your TikTok shop From your Shopify and if your Shopify is already pulling in your Amazon, you know Images and things like that, the Shopify Site, it publishes all your images and description and stuff to TikTok shop, right?

Josh:

Yep.

Bradley Sutton:

Wow. So, guys, this is not rocket science where you have to know coding and a bunch of crazy things in order to get up and running, but, at the same time, it's not something that, hey, you just turn it on and you make a quarter of a million dollars, you know, in a month. It requires you know it's heavily on influencers. So what's your guys' best suggestions of somebody's just setting up? They do everything you just said until now. They've got their Amazon store. Now they've got their Shopify set up. Now they set up their TikTok shop. It's pulling. It's all tied to Shopify and tied to Amazon. How do I get eyeballs in front of my product?

Josh:

The two biggest recommendations we would say is that. So I'll let her say on our account what we should have, because there are some things that you should have on your account when an influencer looks you up, it's kind of like having a website if they go to your shop and you don't have any posts or anything. So I'll let her cover that. But on the flip side, on the affiliate side, you know, you can go into the affiliate dashboard right inside TikTok shop and you have immediate, direct access to creators and that is really where you can do 50 at a time where you can reach out to. You can create a message, select a product that you want to offer them a commission to promote, and they'll receive your DM right in their affiliate dashboard that invites them to promote that product. And so being able to get in there and send 50 of those a day to reach out to folks that are relevant to at least your audience and be careful not just going after huge creators. You're able to see how each creator does. You're able to see their sales, their engagement, all that kind of stuff, and you can go and directly reach out and just use the hard work method instead of the blast or spend money just throwing money to be there, money to build your awareness. You can do manual reach outs, but then on our page.

Jenna:

So I would say I think in the beginning, no matter what, it's hard to get influencers to talk to you because you haven't had any product sales right. They can see how much they can see, so I think it's really important to focus on connecting with them and I think a lot of influencers, when they're sharing a product, they don't just want to know what it is and how much it is, they want to know the story behind it. So a lot of the ones that we connected with especially some of the bigger influencers where they have plenty of options of what to share they kind of want to know the story behind your product and a lot of people love to know when there is a small business owner behind it. Why did you create it? Who are you? What went into this? And that helps in connecting in the story. So a lot of them use that I've connected with the fact that I'm a homeschool parent and a lot of them are homeschool parents in terms of some of the educational stuff or other ones I've connected with. I'm a former public school teacher too and they connected the fact that we you know that we were both educators. Some of it is mom life and connecting with you know busy meal planning and just connecting in different ways. So if you're just honest about your story, sometimes it's the things that surprised me that we had connections on that. They were like, wow, that's really cool, I also have a kid, you know one with allergies on a specific diet that you know. I saw you, you know you created a meal planner or something and so different ways to connect the making of your products and sharing in those Like.

Jenna:

I try to do reels a little bit on that and sometimes that will help because I think when they're considering they go through and see some of your reels that you've created not just your products they don't just go to your storefront. I will notice they'll sometimes like my reels and my reels don't have many views. A lot of them have, like you know, like a hundred, a couple hundred, but the influencers were go and check to see, you know like, and sometimes I'll talk about why I made the product the way I did or the features of it. So I really tried to push on that in the beginning because I think that helped connect with influencers. But then once you do have a product that goes viral and they see that you, you know you have a business that could help them as well then they come to you but it doesn't start that way, then they come to you, right. So now it's different, which is nice, but I would say in the beginning, the pessimist in me, I was like, oh my goodness, how are we ever going to like get them to come to us? Or like we're a small business that haven't proven that we can, but it really does, yeah. It does change.

Bradley Sutton:

When you go into that portal you know there's probably a hundred thousand influencers, a million influencers, whatever, in there. How are you picking and choosing those 50 that you want to reach out to first?

Jenna:

Really the same way that I think they're choosing us Like. I try to find people that connect with our brand. So when they're talking about educational stuff or their kids or I see that they have an interest in in recipes and cooking and things like that we try to find ways that are natural connections. So that's part of it.

Josh:

Because you can search by interest. Yes, so in the affiliate dashboard you can search by interest.

Jenna:

Right and then and then you know that's the really cool part about it To have that background view into people that that are going to be sharing your products. You can like go see what they're all about on their page. So it doesn't take long. But you know we usually spend time checking out their page before we even message someone.

Bradley Sutton:

All right Now, before we get into you know some, some just quick hitting strategies from you guys. If people want to reach out to you, I mean, they can obviously see your, your brand, and I just showed it. You know, graceful by design. But if people want to reach out to you guys for more questions or help with either TikTok or KDP or any of your specialties, how can they find you guys on the interwebs out there?

Josh:

The interwebs. I would say the best place is, you know, jenna. jenna@gracefulbydesigncom.

Jenna:

I do check on graceful by design for TikTok or Instagram. It's at graceful by design LLC, but either one of those. I do check the messaging in there, but yeah, it is.

Bradley Sutton:

Let's go ahead and get into your,  SST 60 second tip or 60 second strategy. You know, maybe, maybe one each gives us any strategy that you think will be beneficial to our listeners.

0:42:51 - Josh:

I'm going to do a quick strategy on folks who are newer or who are getting into, maybe wanting to get into the space, in case someone like that is watching. Um, cause, this has been, you know, a real thing for us over the past year from, you know, building this together, and I would say that the biggest thing in the e-com is that you have to remember is that cash flow timing and the business right, the real business aspects of any business, hold true in the Ecom right. So, cash flow timing, when you're thinking about getting into a business and you see, you know again some of the courses out there that just say you know, things are easy and things are this and you can make money quickly, and all those types of things, I just would say that, uh, from a cautionary perspective, that you know, remember, this is a business that costs money and when you sell more on something like Amazon or TikTok shop, you need more reserves that they hold and you have to spend more on inventory and so and so those. That's just like a fundamental business practice. That I wanted to make sure you know we said is that it's not a, you know, fairytale industry. It's a hard work. You know business, real business, and I feel like that gets blushed over a little bit with a lot of the things that are out there. So that that's just in general, a principle and uh, and then my less way, less than 60 second tip is that you know your. Your biggest strength still is your brand, and to build a strategy today without a brand, I think is just challenging, because then you can just be you. So when you're reaching out to influencers or you're designing product, you can really actually relate to it, in addition to it being good research and all that kind of stuff, because people know whether you care about what it is that you're selling or making.

Bradley Sutton:

Well, it's been really great to see your journey, you know, from just learning about TikTok shop at that conference. And then you know selling out and then, and then guys, they can hire me just out there. So I don't have any website or anything, but they're now my customers for my family running 3PLs Cause I have a warehouse here and I found out that they were, they were struggling with shipping. So I'm like, hey, let me take your planners here and let me have my family help you guys ship. So they're shipping. You know 20-30 of these planners all the time. So, like it's really cool to first hand see, see your growth and uh, and now you know you're putting a food on the table of that one influencer. Well, not, not now you're. You're employing my family as well. So, but yeah, you're changing lives here left and right. I'm sure you're changing lives with people who have listened to this episode learning about the potential uh on KDP um with uh TikTok shop as well. So we'll definitely want to, you know, reach back out to you guys next, uh, next year, and see how. You know, we just got with you on your first full month of TikTok shop. Let let's see what happens after a full year of Amazon and TikTok shop. You guys will be probably have some cool stories to share. So thank you so much for joining us.

Helium 10 Buzz 2/1/24: New Amazon Image Requirements | TikTok Shop Testing | Walmart Advertising Update

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, interview someone you need to hear from, and provide a training tip for the week.

TikTok Shop links could soon become a lot more common across the social media app.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/30/24055388/tiktok-shoppable-videos-automatic-product-discovery

Amazon continues to increase the speed with which it can get deliveries to customers.
https://www.geekwire.com/2024/amazon-delivery-gets-faster-with-65-jump-in-number-of-same-day-and-overnight-items-in-u-s/

Walmart plans to build or convert more than 150 large-format stores over the next five years.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/31/walmart-plans-to-add-150-more-stores-across-us.html

Etsy’s new Gift Mode is an interactive hub, powered by AI and human curation
https://www.retailtouchpoints.com/features/news-briefs/etsy-debuts-personalized-ai-powered-gift-mode

China’s Temu in US online ads blitz in challenge to Amazon
https://www.ft.com/content/7717fa78-a102-405f-83d5-b8750dc5b6c0

Consult-a-Friend is the latest feature to make shopping on Amazon more social and collaborative.
https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/amazon-introduces-consult-a-friend-mobile-shopping-experience

Walmart suppliers and Marketplace sellers can launch, manage and review performance across their Brand Shop and Shelf pages through the Walmart Ad Center using Shop Builder.
https://advertisinghelp.walmart.com/s/guides?channel=ShopBuilder&article=000011167

TikTok is reportedly planning to open studios
https://www.tubefilter.com/2024/01/30/tiktok-livestream-shopping-studios/

Beware of misleading discounts on Amazon products promoted in news articles with affiliate links
https://people.com/fykee-cordless-stick-vacuum-deal-january-2024-8553406

Lastly, Bradley shares how you can start with Amazon Brazil with just the click of a button and not having to send any inventory there. Also, Bradley shows you how can you use some of the Helium 10 tools in the said marketplace.

 

In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers:

• 01:00 - Easier to Hijack Listings?
• 03:47 - TikTok Expanding Shopping
• 06:04 - Faster Amazon Shipping
• 07:24 - New Walmart Stores
• 10:26 - Etsy Gift Mode
• 11:22 - Temu Ad Blitz
• 12:33 - Amazon Phone A Friend
• 13:59 - Walmart Shop & Shelf
• 14:27 - TikTok Studios
• 15:29 - Fake Deals
• 17:13 - Follow us on TikTok
• 17:52 - New Feature Alerts

#531 - Project X: Strategies For Winning Price Wars On Amazon

Listen in as Bradley shares the latest on Project X and how we're shaking up the game with our coffin shelf product. He tackles the challenge of fierce competition and relentless price wars not by slashing our prices, but by creatively enhancing our product's value. With the inclusion of quirky accessories like mini skulls and pumpkins, we've managed to not only raise our price by $10 but also to give our product a unique edge that customers love. Bradley also opens up about our strategy for listing optimization using Helium 10's tools, which could revolutionize the way you manage your Amazon listings.

This episode also takes you behind the scenes of our coffin shelf launch, revealing the thought process behind our unique packaging solution that has both charmed and intrigued our customers. Drawing inspiration from the concept of heart-shaped gift boxes, we introduced coffin-shaped gift boxes that serve a dual purpose, adding an innovative flair to the traditional storage functionality. As we unpack the hurdles of custom packaging and marketing tactics, you'll gain insights into how these elements contribute to our premium pricing model. Plus, don't miss out on the invaluable product validation and research techniques that could be the difference between success and failure in your Amazon ventures. Join us for a blend of practical advice, personal experiences, and strategic approaches to Amazon product differentiation and market success.

 

In episode 531 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley talks about:

• 00:00 - Revitalizing Project X With Product Differentiation
• 03:16 - Selling Out and Replacing Products
• 09:51 - Coffin Shelf Launch With Unique Packaging
• 10:54 - Two-in-One Coffin Product and Packaging Idea
• 17:47 - Watch Out For Future Episodes
• 20:43 - Recommendations for Beginners on Helium 10
• 21:42 - Product Validation and Research Techniques

Transcript

Bradley Sutton:

Today we've got an update to our Project X series where we show you step by step how, with our coffin shelf product, I'm trying to tackle the problem of having price wars and increased competition, and I found a way where, instead of lowering the price, I could actually raise my price by over $10. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Do you want to see how your listing or maybe competitors listing rates as to best practices for listing optimization? Or maybe you want to compare a group of ASINs or Amazon products to see how they compare to each other? Maybe you want to see within seconds the top keywords for a single listing or a group of listings? You can do that and more with the Helium 10 tool listing analyzer. For more information, go to h10.me/listinganalyzer.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of the series sellers podcast by Helium 10. I am your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show that is our monthly ask me anything training. This is something that we do every week for our series sellers club and elite members, and then, once a month, we open it up to everybody out there. Go ahead and have an opportunity to come on and ask questions, and I'm also going to give some cool training tips that will help you this time, especially with your product research, and I'm actually going to be going deep into Project X. That's why I'm wearing my Project X hat here. I'm going to show you some updates on what is going on with Project X and, like my thought process, on how I am revitalizing the original product. How many people don't know what Project X is Basically? Project X is a series that we did on YouTube a few years ago, where we found some products and then we basically took it from zero to here. As a matter of fact, it's here in my background.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Let me go pull this product. So this was one of the products that we had. It's a shelf shape like a coffin. So this was a product that we found using helium 10 techniques. We launched it and now we've sold hundreds of thousands of dollars of this product. And now I was like, hey, I need to let me explain what happened. My sales had gone way down on this coffin shelf and there's a couple of things I noticed. Has that ever happened to you guys, where maybe your keyword rank starts going down on your main keyword and now you're unable to make the sales that you used to be making before. Well, that was what was happening with our product. One of the reasons was that everybody started lowering their price. We used to sell this coffin shelf for over $30. Over $30, and people started coming at $26, $25, $23, even, like now, $20. They were selling a similar coffin shelf and so we were like all right, this something has got to go. Now, if we maintained our keyword rank, we still would have been doing okay, but our keyword rank just wouldn't go up above like 10 or 15 anymore.

 

Bradley Sutton:

So what I've been doing is I've been trying to sell out. We actually had run out of stock, but then Amazon miraculously found 25 units of our coffin shelf somewhere, and so the listing went live again. But I've been trying to sell out of this product over the last couple of weeks, and then a few months ago, I started development on something that would kind of replace this product. But let me explain my thought process here, and this is something that maybe one of you guys could do to one of your products. All right, so let me show you my thought process. All right, so you guys should be able to see our coffin shelf. This is our real product. It was out of stock for like a month and again, like I said, amazon just found it again, and so that's why you see a little bit of sales here.

 

Bradley Sutton:

But the first thing I thought about, like, regardless, if I relaunch this product or start a new one, I wanted to like do something to differentiate my product. Okay, and one of the things was I was like, can I add some accessories into this product? Like, is there something that won't add too much cost for me? But if I add it, it's going to differentiate my product. Okay, let's take a look here. Let me show you what I did. I went and I clicked on our reviews and I was like what are people using in this coffin shelf? Okay, so I hit the reviews and then I went to the reviews with images, all right. And then I hit see all photos. And then I started looking at what are people who are taking pictures of this product putting into the images that they're leaving with the reviews, right, and look how many a lot of people are using these pumpkins and looks like there's some light up pumpkins. And then I saw a bunch of people putting crystals and then I see tons of people putting these like miniature skulls. I don't know if you guys can see that here in the images more pumpkins, more skulls and so I'm like, okay, this is, this is something that, like, people are buying extra and then they're putting it in into this coffin shelf Right, what? If so that I thought you know, here's another one that's pumpkins and other things. I was like, what, what could I possibly do in order to maybe take advantage of this knowledge? I was like, okay, that's my product. What about some of my competitor products? All right, so here is a competitor product. All right, let's take a look at their images. All right, this is one of the guys who's just been been selling a lot of, you know, trying to sell super cheap, and I looked at what. What are his customers doing? And again, people with coffin shelves. I see, look at this, tons of miniature skulls everywhere. There's a miniature candle that shaped like a pumpkin. All right, so I'm like, okay, this is definitely what people are doing with these coffin shelves.

 

Bradley Sutton:

So the first thing that I started thinking about was I was like is there something I can buy that I could put in here that cost me maybe pennies, like less than 25 cents, and I could include it in my package without adding any size. So let me just show you guys. I'm going to open up a new window here and let's go to Alibaba, and I forgot what I typed in. I might have said mini, let's see mini LED pumpkin candle. I'm not sure if this is what I searched, but it's just going to give you guys a vibe of what I search for. And this is not it, because I don't see mini pumpkin. Did I type in mini pumpkin? All right, let me try mini LED pumpkin, let's see what happens there. Here we go. Okay, perfect, this is what I started seeing. All right, I was like, nah, $1 for a lot of these, no, that's too expensive $2. But basically I kept looking and then I found this kind of thing here. I was like, look at this, here are some little mini miniature pumpkins I can get for like 10 cents. So basically what I did was like all right, let me see if I can find a miniature pumpkin for about 10, 15 cents. And that's exactly what I did.

 

Bradley Sutton:

The other thing was I wanted to get like a mini skull, mini decorative skull, all right, and I was like can I get another skull for like 10 cents, or something like that. And sure enough there was a bunch of these that were super expensive, like $4. I'm like I'm not going to pay $4 for this miniature skull. So what I ended up doing was I actually found a miniature skull that was a candle, it had a wick right and it was only like 20 cents. But then I was like wait a minute, I am not going to have this candle like a real candle with a wick, and people put that in their coffin shelf and they're dumb enough to light it and then it burns their house down with the coffin shelf. Like that's not the kind of publicity I need. So I went to that factory and I was like all right, I want to buy this miniature skull that you have for like 15 cents, but I want to make it not a candle. So can you produce this to me, for me, for like 20 cents and have it? Not have a wick, candle, wick right. And they're like sure, no problem. So I'm like there's two things. But like, is this enough to really set me apart from the competition? And I was like no, it's not.

 

Bradley Sutton:

So then, all of a sudden, I just started doing some just general product research, and now this was around the time of you know, October, November, so giftable things started getting popular. So I'm like, all right, how can I take advantage of this maybe giftable theme and what I saw, some of the top selling products? They had these really kind of expensive looking gift boxes. Okay, let me see if I can actually find one that I was. That I'm talking about. That really inspired me. Hold on, let me show you. It was a heart shaped one, perfect, all right, this is. This is similar to what I found, all right. So I searched and I found these heart shaped gift boxes. I'm like these gift boxes don't even have anything in it, all right, they're just shaped like a heart, whatever. These are literally empty gift boxes and people are paying $20, $15, $25 for these things. And then I started looking at some of them and I noticed that they were advertising this as something that people could not only use as a gift box but then also kind of like for some, like trinket storage, like take a look at some of these images, like look at this, people were putting like roses in these gift boxes. So it's kind of like an evergreen product. This wasn't this gift box, wasn't just a product that you know is meant to put the real gift inside. But the gift box is almost the gift product in itself, because the person you're giving it to can use it for storage, for things like chocolates. They could use it for macaroons, like we see.

 

Bradley Sutton:

So then, now, all of a sudden, that got my creative juices working and I'm like all right, what if I launch this same exact coffin shelf? And not only did I now have this LED light, pumpkin light and a miniature skull figurine, but I also made a gift box with it. But then I thought what of what good use is like a shoebox shaped gift, you know, like that really doesn't go with the vibe. So then I started looking at packaging factories. I'm like, hey, who can make me a gift box that is kind of like with the vibe of those heart shaped gift boxes that I saw back in October. But check this, I want to make it in the shape of a. What do you guys think I did? In the shape of a coffin. So that means the coffin itself, which is again this product that you see right behind me here, is going to be inside of a coffin gift box that people could then use later for storing their socks or storing their chocolates or whatever. So it's kind of like people are buying two in one.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Now my cost it's expensive to make a custom box, guys. Let me just tell you, all right, this is not for the, the, the, the weary here. All right, this is not something that is easy to do. This box ended up costing me like two bucks, like almost as much as the coffin shelf itself, which costs like about three, four dollars or so. But I'm like, hey, this is worth it. So I've got my coffin shelf. That's normally like four bucks. I'm going to go ahead and pay $2 for this coffin bookshelf. I'm going to pay 40, 50 cents for these two miniature figurines and instead of having to sell my coffin shelf at $23, I'm going to go back in the market at like 33 or more dollars. So I'm adding $10 to my retail price. But I'm only adding like $2 and 50 cents. And in zero I'm adding to shipping because, remember, if anything, this box is smaller than the box I was having it in, okay, and since there's a hollow area of my coffin shelf that allows me to go ahead and put those little trinkets in there, so I'm adding zero to my shipping, zero to my transportation costs, very, very little to my taxes, you know, because it's these. This stuff only costs like $2, right. And now, all of a sudden, instead of playing this price war, I am going to go ahead and sell this product at a premium because nobody else who's selling coffin shelves is going to have this, and I'm not ready to launch it yet. I have it all here in my warehouse. It already delivered to me a couple of weeks ago.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Let me show you the images that AMZ one step did for me. Take a look at this. This is just from Google Drive. Right here, here is going to be the new listing product. All right, there's a. This is the exact little mini miniature skull that I put a LED pumpkin like light little candle here. All right, that's one of my infographics. Let's see what else we got here. Here's some new images I got that show the products that are coming with it. There's another one that shows the size of the product. Here's one example of a main image I could use, but hold on, you guys haven't seen the cool part. And then look at this box. This box is epic, guys. It's shaped exactly like my coffin shelf. And look, people are going to see this and be like oh wow, I can use this box as like another coffin shaped storage. It's literally like having two products in one Now where they can put like dead roses and things they can put a ribbon on it. Let me show you some other images I have here. There's my infographic of the size here. This is super cool, guys. Here is my new coffin shaped box, and then the coffin fits right in there. These are the images I'm going to be using for my new listing.

 

Bradley Sutton:

And again, now, all of a sudden, somebody types in coffin shelf into Amazon and sure, they're going to see a bunch of $23, $22 coffin shelves, but don't you think mine is going to stick out with a main image? You know, maybe that looks like this, where it shows I've got a coffin shelf, I've got a coffin storage box, I've got a miniature skull, I've got a miniature pumpkin LED light. It's going to be no competition. I'm going to be priced $10 or more than the other coffin shelves, but my click through rate is going to be pretty darn good, I think. All right. So this is something that I think is beneficial for anybody out there who are selling products in niches that get a little bit saturated. Okay, they get a little bit saturated and you're like I don't want to play the price war. And, guys, let me tell you I don't think you should play the price war. So this is again.

 

Bradley Sutton:

This is Project X, this is our product that you guys know and love from Project X, and it's been selling for like almost four years now. And on Amazon, you can't just keep things status quo. Sure, we were successful with this product a couple of years ago and it's still been successful, but it's fallen off because of the competition. That's what happens on Amazon. Does it mean I need to give up right away? No, if this doesn't work, should I close this product? If I'm not profitable, yeah, I probably should close it, but don't just give up just because there's a lot of competition or there's price wars. There's different steps you guys can take in order to try and get your market share back and where you don't have to play these price games. All right, do not do a race to the bottom, because that's where all your profit is going to go. So this will be. You know, this is going to be live on Amazon, like probably in a couple of weeks or so.

 

Bradley Sutton:

The other test I'm going to do on here, guys, is I'm going to test this as a separate product with a honeymoon period, or launching as a new variation on this existing listing, taking advantage of those 1800 reviews I have, and doing a test on what works better getting that new honeymoon period and launching on a brand new ASIN or launch or taking advantage of all the reviews. But there could be something weird going on on the Amazon algorithm. That kind of like shadow blocks me from getting past position 10. So that's. I just wanted to give you guys a little mini tutorial on a real life experience that I'm doing here for Project X and what I'm doing to relaunch this coffin shelf product. Another thing I'm going to be doing I'm going to talk about in a future episode is the egg trace. That was the other product that I was selling for Project X. It's so funny. We got a brand new shipment in and the factory confused my product with another customer, so they gave me egg trays. That's the wrong shape and the wrong finish. It's like a shiny finish and I'm going to get some money back from the factory, but I'm like I don't want to throw these products away. I don't want to go without selling coffin or without selling egg trays for months, while I have to get the right product in. When I launched this product as like a new variation, a new product for me, I'm going to show you guys how I'm going to do that. You know, next month, in next month's episode. And that was the other Project X product.

 

Bradley Sutton:

All right, now, guys, this is now your show, 100% of the rest of the time I want you guys to put in your questions. Violet says how do you find the supplier for the coffin box? So for me, I actually have a sourcing agent. Okay, so I think this is super important. My sourcing agent is boots on the ground in China. I just give her the parameters of what I'm looking for and she goes out and finds it herself for me. Rhonda says does the manufacturer design the new coffin shape box for you? No, I designed it. So I, I guess I just told my my sourcing agent. I was like hey, I want something that fits the exact shape of my coffin so that it doesn't add to my shipping dimensions, and make it happen. So she did. Oh, great question by Jonathan.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Once you find items to create differentiation, do you ship these to the main supplier who boxes it all together. Yes, so this is another way to kind of like foolproof yourself against. You know, like manufacturers doing shady things. So you can have, you can just send the products directly there, or you could send it to a third party. Like maybe you have a separate place that packages everything for you. Like maybe I can send everything to the where I get the package. Actually, I think that's what I did. Instead of having the coffin shelves packaged at the coffin shelf factory, I think I send it to the packaging company that has the coffin shaped box and that's where they put in the coffin shelf and they put in those little trinkets that come from. Now, three different factories, making it that much less likely that you know, somebody's just going to copy exactly what I'm doing, because I'm making it too difficult for them to copy me.

 

Bradley Sutton:

And David says do you have any reference for an agency that does a plus content? I've used a few myself. So the two I've used are both in hubhelium10.com. All right, go to hubhelium10.com. One of them is AMZ one step is has done it. And then the other one I've used is, uh, marketing by Emma. All right, marketing by Emma. So go into hubhealym10.com, look for both of those companies and you'll see how to contact them. Brenda says what videos do you recommend for beginners on HealyM10? If you're brand new on HealyM10, I recommend going through our Freedom Ticket Program. It's in the Learning Hub right there on your HealyM10 dashboard. That would be probably the best thing to do and then you know you could find the Project X videos in there as well, and the Project X videos are also on YouTube. Sergio says just launch what would you say is a good amount of sales per day to aim for. All depends on your keyword. All right, basically, if you want to get to page one of a keyword, you got to be selling probably through PPC for that keyword X number of products over 8 to 10 days in order to be able to get a good chance to get to page one. And if you're wondering how to find that number, that's inside of HealyM10. Just look at the CPR. So add your product to keyword tracker, your exact ASIN, and then look at the CPR number for your main keywords and that's kind of like how many units you need to sell over 8 days to give you the best chance to get to page one.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Ollie says let's go, bradley, these two sessions really lifted my spirits up in the process of launching my product was in doubts. How do you deal with the thought of whether the product will work or not? Well, I validate, validate, validate, all right, super important. We've been talking in the last. You know, you might have been in our Sellers Edge webinar where we're talking about how to find the product opportunity. But that's only half the journey. The next step is how to validate it. All right, you see something that looks good, but you just you don't just blindly say, all right, let's go with this, all right and let's make a million dollars. No, you've got to validate it All right. Now there's different steps that you have to do. So I take a look at you know, how strong are they on keywords? How strong are their listings? Is there enough demand for this product? Is there a must sales? Is there enough search for this? What's the seasonality? There are so many things that I look at to validate it. And then in Project X we talk about before, you might want to do a test listing. If there's not enough data, maybe you came up with some new idea that there's that doesn't have enough validation points on Amazon for you to make a rational decision. You might need to make a test listing to try and get those data points All right. So who knows, maybe that'll be the next Sellers Edge workshop that we do next month to talk about that.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Jacob says I've been using Opportunity Explorer on Sellers Central. Is there a good minimum for number of top clicks products? Excellent question. So for me this is how it can go either way. So for those who don't know in Product Opportunity Explorer the number of clicked products, it's the number of products that it takes in a niche to equal 90% of the clicks. So if there's only 10 products, that means that those 10 products have 90% of the clicks of that whole niche. If it's 1000 products, that means it takes 1000 products just to get to 90% of the clicks. Whether one is good and one is bad, you can go both ways on that, but that's how you look at that information. There's different circumstances where you might want to see different things. You might want to go into a niche where it's wide open, where there's no 10 products that are dominating, or on the flip side, you're like no, the 10 products that are dominating, they kind of suck. So I don't want to compete with 1000 products, I want to compete with only 10 products who suck. So that's another way you can look at it too.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Constance says what role does the first ASIN that I select play? When I select ASINs on X-ray to run them on Cerebro, you always say the first ASIN should be a random ASIN, not the top seller. Yes, so that sets the baseline product, the way that Cerebro is set up it's supposed to be. You have your product as the first one and then five or 10 other products that you're comparing it against. So then when you look at the competitor rank average, it's excluding that first one because that's the one that you're comparing to. But if you're just doing general product research, like on X-ray, you maybe don't have your product on there. So you don't want to select all the just top 10 good ones because, remember, it's going to exclude that first product. So you need to click on the first one something from the bottom of the page that's maybe irrelevant to your product, and that's the one that it isolates. And then the competitor rank average and the sponsored rank average of the competitors. It's going to be all of those subsequent nine 10 products you choose.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Good question, Constance Jonathan says when validating, do you order a smaller quantity than build up, or do you validate mostly with online data points? I validate mostly with online data points, but if I don't have enough, that's when I do a Tesla scene and I'll have like five or 10 units only for that. All right, guys, that's about it for all the time that we have today. So I hope you guys enjoyed this episode where we went over some Project X updates that you guys will actually see live on the website on Amazon, probably in two weeks, if you guys are watching this on YouTube or another place. This is what we do once a month, but every week anybody who is in our Serious Sellers Club or Helium 10 Elite actually gets this call. All right, every single week I'm on here answering every single question, but once a month we open it up to everybody. So make sure you sign up next month to take advantage of this episode, or sign up for Helium 10 Elite. Get on the waitlist h 10.me/elite and you can take advantage of getting asking me questions every single week. Thank you guys for joining us. We'll see you guys later. Have a great day, bye, bye now.

#530 - Walmart Launch Strategy, Ranking, and AMA

Ever wondered what it takes to get your product to the top of Walmart's search results? We've cracked the code and our host, Carrie Miller, is here to share every inside tip and strategy you need to make your Walmart listings shine. In this episode, we discuss everything from the importance of choosing the right product type to mastering the listing quality score without resorting to the pitfalls of title stuffing. Compliance with Walmart's guidelines is key, and we talk about the balance between PPC campaigns and organic search enhancements that could transform your rankings. Plus, we can't forget the tactical use of Walmart's SEM tool to harness the power of Google ads—a game-changer for driving traffic to your listings.

As we dive deeper into the ecosystem of Walmart's online presence, one thing is clear: the influence of digital word-of-mouth is not to be underestimated. We explore the emerging role of the Walmart Creator program and how influencers can catapult your products into the social media spotlight. Agencies like SellCord, Blue Ryse, and Ecom Creative Crew get a nod for their expertise in navigating listing challenges, and we remind sellers of the resources available through our Walmart.com tools inside Helium 10. Wrapping up, we send out an invitation to join the Winning with Walmart group—your go-to hub for community support and answers to all your Walmart-related queries. Remember, success at Walmart may be a podcast away, so tune in, get inspired, and let's make those sales numbers soar!

In episode 530 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Carrie talks about:

• 00:00 - Ranking Strategies For Walmart Listings
• 04:22 - Walmart's SEM Offers Growth Opportunities
• 12:37 - Walmart Listing Optimization Guide
• 13:40 - Walmart Traffic, Influencers, Branding, and Agencies
• 16:54 - Walmart Application and Brand Registry
• 22:43 - Ranking Strategies For Walmart Products
• 24:16 - Join The Winning With Walmart Group

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Transcript

Carrie Miller:

In today's episode we're going to be talking about how to rank on Walmart, some new tools that Walmart is offering to help you with your sales and ranking, and also just how Helium 10 tools can help you with your PPC and also your listing optimization.

Bradley Sutton:

How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think.

Carrie Miller:

Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of this Serious Sellers podcast by Helium 10. My name is Keri and I'm going to be your host. This is our winning with Walmart episode, where we go live and give you some Walmart information and answer all of your Walmart questions live, alright. Somebody asked this is a great question how do you rank organically in Walmart? Is it the same algorithm as Amazon? There's actually a few different components to ranking on Walmart. The first one is product type. Your product type is really important because the product type is connected to the keywords for your actual product. If you're in the wrong product type, it's going to make it hard for you to actually rank. The first thing you want to do is go to your growth opportunities tab and check your product type. You can click on the details for each product listing and it'll tell you a product type up at the top. If the product type is definitely wrong, then you're going to want to make sure to fix that. Sometimes, what you can do is you can A B test the product types, because some product types include a lot more keywords. That means you're going to be able to rank and show up and basically index for any of those keywords. If you aren't in the right product type though with the most keywords, then it's going to be hard to rank for this. For example, I know someone did for supplements. It was nutritional supplements and herbal supplements or something like that. They changed their product type to nutritional supplements and that encompassed a lot more keywords than herbal supplements. You want to really take a look at those product types. Make sure that you have the right product type. That's first for ranking. The second thing is you want to make sure that you have a high listing score. You want to make sure you're in the 90s at least for your listing quality score. Look on that dashboard and make sure you're doing that.

Carrie Miller:

Things like stuffing your title. If you use the same titles that you do on Amazon a lot of times they'll suppress you a bit, because Walmart does not like stuffing titles. You want to make sure to follow the guidelines for the titles and just the entire listing. Make sure that you write the keywords that you want to rank for into your listing. If there's a specific phrase, if there's some targeted phrases, you're going to want to write those phrases in the exact form. Maybe there's 15 to 20. You want to write those throughout. Obviously, your most important phrase should be in the title. Those are the first things that you're going to want to do. The next thing is you're going to want to get sales. It is important to get some clicks ads to carts and conversions. I know some people do some search find by. There's some people who do different coupons. Sometimes people send traffic from TikTok and people will search on Walmart. They'll just search for the actual product through the keyword. There's a few different ways to do it, but really you're going to want to click add to cart and conversion.

Carrie Miller:

That's how you're going to help to rank. PPC is really, really helpful. If you're doing PPC along with that, that is a great way to rank. You really get some good ranking juice with PPC. Definitely try all of those things. Those are all the best combination of things to rank because it all goes together. Make sure that you're also putting in as many attributes in the backend as possible so you can rank for those as well. Those are the basics for ranking, but it's not really the same as Amazon, because Amazon's really giving you a lot of ranking juice for outside traffic. Walmart does have some outside traffic things that they have going on, but it's not necessarily helping with rank. There is something that I wanted to talk about. It's called SEM and it's on your growth opportunities tab. It's the very last one and it's basically Google ads. They used to do this for free and now it's. Unfortunately, you have to pay for it. What they're doing is they're giving you the ability to drive Google ads directly to your Walmart listings. That is a great way to get some outside traffic. That could potentially also help your rank because of the conversions and things like that. Check out the SEM at the very end. Very easy to set up those Google shopping ads and you can start showing it for Google shopping and get more conversions that way.

Carrie Miller:

I think we have another question Does Walmart take care of the shipping to the client? Can I ship products from China directly to the Walmart warehouse? I've actually never shipped directly from the China warehouse. The thing about it is I don't believe they're going to be receiving large shipments for you as your first starting out. So the best thing would probably be to ship your products to a 3PL and then ship them into the Walmart warehouses. That's what I would recommend in general, and then, if you don't sell out on Walmart, you can use it for Amazon, you can use it for TikTok shop, so that way you have better control over your inventory. So I think someone else said, no, you can't. So yeah, I know you can with Amazon and or used to be able to. You know we were shipping containers directly to Amazon and it's this little harder now. But you know, it sounds like somebody else said you can't ship directly from China, so ship to a 3PL, then ship into WFS, and that is the best way to go.

Carrie Miller:

I think something else that I wanted to kind of point out to everyone is that we actually do have some tools with Helium 10. And I did have some. I've had some meetings recently with some sellers and they are. You know, I think we're all kind of forgetting some of these tools that Helium 10 has and I wanted to kind of bring it back to your attention. So I'm going to just show you some keyword research tools and like, for example, garlic press. Okay, so we always use the garlic press kind of example. But what we want to do is what we can do here is we can actually pull our x-ray extension. We have x-ray for Walmart here and what we can do is we can copy the product IDs and do a reverse search on Cerebro for keywords. Now I like to look for kind of the main. You know things. Actually, I was looking at decorative pillow. I want to look at decorative pillows, decorative pillows. So I'm going to search for that and we'll see if we can find some. A lot of times these are kind of interesting and diverse. So let's go ahead and pull the Helium 10 extension. So, for anyone who's listening, I'm just pulling our Chrome extension for Helium 10. This is going to show revenue for each product. It's going to show the product IDs, it's going to show reviews. It's going to show a lot of great information to help you kind of better make good decisions, for not only you know what products to start selling on here, but also how to kind of position your own products.

Carrie Miller:

So what I usually like to do is kind of look for things that are selling pretty well. So it looks like this snow leopard pillow is selling pretty well. So what we can do is we can just paste that into Walmart for Cerebro. Now you have to choose. You have to scroll all the way down to Walmart Marketplace in Cerebro to choose the Walmart Marketplace to do this, and it's basically this product ID. Now, if you don't have, you know, the X-ray pulled up, you can actually find it on the listing page itself in the URL. It's the last digits on the URL, so you can do that as well. So I'll go ahead and actually just do this one search. Let's look at the keywords for this decorative pillow. So we're going to hit, get keywords, and what it's doing is it's basically showing all of the keywords that that particular product is ranking for, sponsored in Organic. So if we take a look, we can see a lot of different, you know, keyword phrases. We've got snow leopard decorative pillows, their organic rank number five, if you wanted. So if there's a competitor that's doing some advertising, what you can also do is you can do this single search product ID and you can sort by sponsored rank. It doesn't look like this one is doing any advertising, but if they were, then you would be able to see all of the keywords that they're advertising for. And with Walmart, a lot of times there's, you know, kind of like a 15 to 20 keyword phrase focus, and so you might be able to see the exact keyword strategy that your competitors have. So that's something that's really cool about doing a single search ascent, but you can see all of the different kind of keywords in here. You can see the search volume and it's going to be compared to the search volume on Amazon. It's a little bit different on Amazon.

Carrie Miller:

Now, on Walmart, there are a lot of filters that customers do use, so they kind of filter down to find the products that they want. But this is an incredible tool for your, for your listing optimization. So you want to make sure to write all of your most important keywords into your listing. Then you also want to, you know, use this for your pay per click advertising, because I have noticed that there's a little bit different keywords and keyword phrases Then on Amazon. So I always do keyword research separately for Walmart so that I can make sure that my pay per click advertising and my actual listing is optimized for Walmart. So that is one way to do this. We can also search magnet. You can search phrases. So if I put decorative pillow in here, it'll search on Walmart. Actually, you know what? I think? I didn't change the marketplace. Let's go all the way down to the Walmart marketplace here. This is the Walmart marketplace. We're going to hit, get keywords under the Walmart marketplace on magnet and what this will do is it's going to show you similar keywords to you know decorative pillow that you could use and give you. It'll give you more ideas of you know what kinds of keywords to target so you can sort by.

Carrie Miller:

You know search volume amounts. You can search by search search volume there. You can see it compared to Amazon there, and there's a lot of great keywords that you can focus on. Now, even the lower search volume keywords I've still made sales on those, especially if they're very relevant. So I don't ignore those really low search volume keywords either. So if you are ignoring some of those, I would highly recommend, you know, creating some campaigns for those lower search volume keywords as well. All right, so we've got Cerebro when we've got magnet. We also have a profits tool and I know there are a lot of people who are using profits to maintain just their whole profits view of Walmart and it's been been very, very helpful for a lot of people. So if you haven't started using profits, you want to connect your Walmart token to helium 10, so it'll automatically pull in that data. You can add in your costs of goods, you can add in any other expenses that you have in there and you can get a pretty good overview of your profits on Walmart. So that is something else to think about. Now.

Carrie Miller:

I did notice that there was kind of an announcement recently about video ads. They're doing some different testing, maybe just on the look of video ads and sponsored brand ads on Walmart. So if you are doing those, you might see that a little bit. But something I did notice is that a lot of brands are not even doing video ads or any kind of sponsored brand ads. So if you, you know, are in a kind of competitive category, you should check on those keywords and see if you can start doing some advertising on those. You know you have to be a registered brand in order to do that, but video ads and sponsored sponsored brand ads are going to be a great way for you to, you know, really get going with some sales, especially because you'll be right at the top and it's not as expensive as it is on on Amazon at this point. So it's really good thing to do. Coupons are still in beta, so I have talked to some people who are using the beta program for coupons and they've had a really good conversion rates for coupons. So I'm really, really hoping to see those come out soon for everyone. Maybe some of you have them, so you might want to check your dashboards, your growth opportunities wherever, to see if something appears about coupons, but I have heard very good things about them. Also, subscribe and save has been in some beta programs, so that those are some things to kind of look forward to. Brand stores are available, so if you are a brand registered seller, go ahead and check it, check that out, get your brand store all registered and ready to go.

Carrie Miller:

Okay, it looks like we have another question in here. Are there any guides for SEO, titles, description. Is it good to have keyword stuffing in the title? No, so I did mention this at the beginning. There are guides for very, very good guides, actually on Walmart. So if you go to the help center, you can find and search different for different things, and optimization is one of them. You can look for how you should set up your title, how you should set up your description and your bullets, and it's all in there. Now keyword stuffing is going to get your listing suppressed a bit. You want to follow the guidelines that Walmart sets and then, when you actually create your title and your whole listing on your growth opportunities tab. It's going to give you a listing quality score and if your title isn't the way they want it, it'll show you what you need to do to fix it. So that's very, very helpful. So any mistakes that you make on your actual listing, you can go back and fix them on the growth opportunities tab, which is a really, really great thing to utilize. So that's a great question. So thank you for that question.

Carrie Miller:

Another thing is I just wanted to talk a little bit about traffic to Walmart. So where is the traffic coming from? There are some things again I wanted to reiterate. If you haven't started using the SEM tab on the very end of your growth opportunities tab where you can do those Google ads, that's going to be a great place for traffic. I think a lot of traffic can come from Google. So if you can just get that that advertising going, that would really help help you there. Another thing is I have seen a very large uptick in influencers. Now I follow a lot of kind of female, kind of clothing influencers and I know there's a lot of home decor influencers. There are a lot of influencers that are now promoting Walmart products because there's a Walmart Creator program. They get commissions. Some of them are Walmart partners, so they're finding products on Walmart and promoting them through their Instagram, through their TikToks. So what you can do is, if you wanted to kind of reach out to some of these, you can search you know, walmart partner, walmart sponsored ad, or just search hashtags to see what creators within your space are, you know, basically promoting your types of products, and a lot of times you'll find those. Or if you're just following, you know people in your space and a lot of times they are already promoting Walmart stuff. So I think that's a really good opportunity to help them to not to be successful by, you know, giving them your product and then seeing if they'll promote it on Instagram, tiktok, you know, everywhere on social media. So I highly recommend looking into that. I think it's a great way of getting more traffic there. I also have noticed that you know Walmart is still really pushing for Walmart plus memberships. A lot of credit cards you get it for free, like American Express, platinum, for sure you get. You get it for free for the year. So there's a lot of great credit card perks that you can get Walmart plus memberships for free, which you know will incentivize people to you know shop at Walmart, especially if they see something that's the same thing on Walmart, they're like, oh, I might as well just go to Walmart because I get free shipping anyway. So those are some things about Walmart traffic, all right. So another question Do you know any I think, maybe trustworthy agencies to fix my listing problem for me? Yes, I do know some agencies. There is Michael LaBar at SellCord.co. They do a great job at fixing listing issues. I think they're probably the best for kind of like solving issues. There's also Ryan King from Blue Rise and there's also McCall Chapnick from Ecom Creative Crew. So Ecom Crew so sorry, Ecom Creative Crew team and so you can reach out to all of them. I know McCall has a great Walmart group, so if you haven't joined her group, it's a Walmart Marketplace Sellers group. She's pretty active in there too, so you can you can, you know connect with her there. So there's a lot of great agencies that you could reach out to. Somebody has a very long one here, let's see here, let's see. It's a very long question here. Thank you, my G, michael Thomas, says sorry, I had to step off for a minute so I may have missed this.

Carrie Miller:

Concerning the application process. What is your experience or anyone that you know who has submitted an application? I've actually been talking to a new seller of business development and Matt Turner said the fiscal year starts at the end of this month, so I think Walmart will start approving applications at that time. Also, how do you get a brand page on Walmart? Okay, so you should be able to apply to Walmart anytime. So if you're, you know, ready to sell on Walmart, I would recommend that you just go ahead and apply. Make sure that you have, you know, make sure that there's a list of countries that are approved. Now, if you don't live in the US and maybe your country is not approved, usually an LLC works and I know Michael from Cell Court can help get around those kinds of issues. But you do just need to have kind of an established business. Make sure that you have all your ducks in a row, you know of all the qualifications that they have listed out for your application and you should be good to go for the application. It takes usually 48 hours. Sometimes it can take a little bit longer, but you should be able to get that application going. The next thing is going to be brand registry. So there is a brand registry portal, so it's brand portal, portalonemarkcom, and you just click on register. You need to have a you know a red, a trademark. It says it right here on this screen here you need to have registered trademark and so make sure that you have that. You know all that in a, all those ducks in a row, basically, before you apply for that, so that you have access, that'll give you access to video ads, sponsor brand ads, the brand stores. A lot of the perks that are coming are going to be basically related to to the brand portal. So hopefully that answers your question. Let's see.

Carrie Miller:

Another question is it seems like Walmart is looking more for brands. Do you agree? I actually don't agree. What they are looking for and I've actually talked to a lot of these kind of the managers on Walmart they're looking for products that really complement what's already on Walmartcom, so things like accessories to products that are already on Walmart, so things that are complimentary that maybe aren't already on Walmart. They're looking for a well-rounded catalog. So it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to have a big brand, they just want complimentary products. There is an assortment growth tab on the back end of your Walmart seller center and sometimes you get some good suggestions on how to kind of grow things that might not be available on Walmart, that they want you to sell. But that is a great way to just look for things that are not necessarily available on Walmart but would be good complimentary accessory products to things that they have, and that might be a great way to go. But, yeah, they are accepting third-party sellers. They're really investing a lot of money to get third-party sellers to start selling on Walmart, so they are definitely wanting third-party sellers to come.

Carrie Miller:

Another thing that I wanted to bring up is that there is some rich media that's available for free and that's kind of like A-plus content If you go to the help and then go to get support when you're logged in to seller center. So go help get support, then click on items and inventory, click on rich media and then you'll see instructions on how you can upload a video or a 365 image and that'll be basically for free. Otherwise you have to pay for each thing to get hosted through an agency. But those are some free modules. If you don't have a video up, that's a great thing to put up there and I highly recommend you do that if you haven't done that yet. So another thing somebody asked is where can we create a brand store? This is going to be when you are registered, a brand registered, you go to your brand portal and that should. That is the place where you're going to be able to see all of that to create your brand store. Another thing I wanted to bring up is the review accelerator program is still going on. You can go do up to 10 reviews and basically how this works is it's not like Vine on Amazon, it's basically your actual customers. So whatever sales you get within a certain amount of time, they will actually send a request to that customer for a review and they'll pay them $3. You pay $10 for the whole review, but it's a great way to get some verified reviews of customers who are actually looking for your product already, not just somebody who's reviewing products. So review accelerator program if you don't have any reviews, you can go up to 10. So once you pass 10, you're no longer eligible for the review accelerator program, but that is a great way to get some reviews going if you don't have them going as well.

Carrie Miller:

And let's see. Here we have another question. Bradley's asking me what was my December sales? I actually don't know the actual number. I think it was around the 12,000 to 15,000 for my one main product. And I have to go look, I have a few different brands on there, so the one that I've been really focusing on I did about 15,000 for that one product. So not bad, especially since it's only one product. You kind of multiply that by 10, you've got a million dollars a year on Walmart. So that's something to consider. That's the one that I use mostly to kind of test things out and I try to see what's going on with Walmart with that particular product. And I've had the Proseller badge. I've had that for quite a while now and they've actually been giving me refunds on my referral fees and so that's pretty cool. So a lot of great things coming with Walmart. I think the coupons are going to be a really big deal, that we're going to be able to sell a lot more on with those coupons, because people do like deals, and I think that's going to be great. So let's see here Bradley is asking how have you been getting to page one for your Walmart launches?

Carrie Miller:

Now, I did talk about this a little bit earlier, right at the beginning, because somebody was asking how to rank, and that is basically the first thing obviously is your product type. You have to be in the right product type. First of all, you have to make sure you're listing it has about a 90% or above, and sometimes you'll rank to the top just with that listing quality score. A lot of times we'll just help optimize listings and it goes straight to the top with just the listing quality score. Don't stuff your title, but it's really clicks, adds to carts, conversions. Those are going to help to really get your ranking up, and that includes PPC. So if you're combining doing a search, find by type strategy along with pay-per-click advertising, you're going to get some really good results from that. So I know we talked with Kostin from AZ Rank last I think it was last month that we did and they actually have a whole way to help you rank. So if you do want to use their services, they're doing a good job of helping people to rank to the top. So check them out as well, because they've got some great strategies for ranking on Walmart too.

Carrie Miller:

All right, another thing that I wanted to point out is WFS. Make sure you have your products in WFS. That's another thing that's going to help you with your listing quality score and your rank. So Walmart fulfillment services are even if you want to just send in like 20 to 30 products at a time just to see how much it's going to how much is going to go, and I would suggest at least trying out WFS, and it's going to help you quite a bit. So if you haven't enrolled in WFS, you should do that. But other than that, I think that is all that I have for today, unless there's any more questions. But thank you all for these questions and if you haven't joined our winning with Walmart group, make sure that you go and join our winning with Walmart group. We have a lot of great sellers in there and people answering questions, and so you can also tag me in any questions that you have. On Facebook. Some people have sent me messages and so I would love to help you with any Walmart issues. So I will see you all on the next episode Next month, we'll have a special guest, so I'm excited for that one, and so stay tuned. Every month, usually on Wednesday. We had to reschedule this week, but usually on Wednesdays we do Winning with Walmart Wednesday and I hope to see you all there again and have a great rest of the day. Bye everyone.

Helium 10 Buzz 1/25/24: TikTok Usage Slowing | Amazon AI for Listings | New Helium 10 BlackBox Tool

Listen in as we explore the latest buzzing news shifting the landscape of e-commerce, where we talk about TikTok’s slowing usage, Amazon’s AI integrations, and more!

We’re back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10’s Senior Brand Evangelist and Walmart Expert, Carrie Miller. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, interview someone you need to hear from and provide a training tip for the week.

TikTok Shop buyers will have to pay higher order minimums to get free shipping as the company cuts back
https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-shop-cutting-back-free-shipping-trims-costs-2024-1

Amazon aids seller listings with new generative AI partnership
https://chainstoreage.com/amazon-aids-seller-listings-new-generative-ai-partnership

Etsy targets gift shoppers with AI-based tool
https://techcrunch.com/2024/01/19/tiktok-usage-is-starting-to-slow-is-tiktok-shop-to-blame/

TikTok usage is starting to slow — is TikTok Shop to blame?
https://techcrunch.com/2024/01/19/tiktok-usage-is-starting-to-slow-is-tiktok-shop-to-blame/

Learn how to stay ahead of the curve as Carrie shows you the power of  Helium 10’s BlackBox tool together with Amazon’s Brand Analytics data. Your perspective is the missing piece so make sure to share them in the comments below or in the Helium 10 Users Facebook group as we dissect Amazon, Etsy, and TikTok shop’s evolving marketplaces and the power dynamics at play for sellers.

In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Carrie covers:

• 00:43 - TikTok Shipping
• 01:25 - Amazon Listing AI
• 03:32 - Etsy Gift Finder
• 04:23 - TikTok Usage Slowing
• 05:32 - Amazon Search Terms
• 07:14 - New BlackBox Tool
  
  

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► 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

 

#529 - Increase Amazon Profitability in 2024

Ever wondered how the savviest of e-commerce entrepreneurs keep their profit margins healthy amidst rising industry costs? Buckle up as Benjamin Webber, a true maverick in the Amazon FBA realm, rides through the podcast to share his unique tactics. He's not just playing the game; he's changing it by using his own truck as an Amazon carrier, slashing his shipping expenses, and keeping his company's financials robust. With a 10% hike in gross sales and an ever-expanding team, Ben breaks down the logistics of becoming an Amazon carrier, the operational efficiencies that keep his business ahead, and why sometimes the best move is to quite literally take the wheel of your product distribution.

The chessboard of global e-commerce is complex, but Ben is a grandmaster at maneuvering his pieces. He unveils his strategies for managing inventory across continents, discusses the art of optimizing check-in speeds, and serves wisdom on tackling geographic conversion issues. His narrative takes us through the meticulous dance of manufacturing diversification—from Asia to the Americas—and the savvy logistics of East Coast shipping. As Ben's company eyes a leap into Amazon's global marketplaces, he lays out his blueprint for facing the squeeze of shrinking margins, fortifying supplier relationships, and negotiating like a pro.

In a world increasingly driven by AI, Ben has mastered fusing technology with human creativity. This episode isn't just about listing optimization and tweaking ad strategies—it's a glimpse into an advertising revolution dictated by sponsored rank and AI's role in it. And when it comes to product development, Ben and his team are tapping into AI to conjure up innovative solutions to everyday problems. It's a thrilling ride through the intersection of data, technology, and human insight, where Ben exemplifies the adventurous spirit of online selling. Join us, and let your e-commerce curiosity be captured by his exceptional vision and trailblazing tactics.

 

In episode 529 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Ben discuss:

• 00:00 - Amazon Carrier Strategies and Profit Margins
• 06:45 - Optimizing Amazon Stock Check-in and Distribution
• 09:08 - Inventory, Manufacturing, and Global Expansion
• 10:52 - Product Warehouse Benefits 
• 15:43 - Amazon Advertising and Listing Optimization
• 16:52 - Analyzing Conversion Rates and Product Quality
• 24:31 - Factors for Retiring Products 
• 25:33 - Warehouse Efficiency and Competitor Analysis
• 31:50 - Using AI for Product Development
• 33:52 - 2024 Tips and Unique Strategies

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► 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 a popular guest back on the show, Ben, who's got very unique strategies, such as he made himself an Amazon carrier so that he can deliver with his own truck his FBA replenishment orders 15 minutes away from him for free. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Sellers have lost thousands of dollars by not knowing that they were hijacked, perhaps on their Amazon listing, or maybe somebody changed their main image, or Amazon changed their shipping dimensions so they had to pay extra money every order. Helium 10 can actually send you a text message or email if any of these things or other critical events happen to your Amazon account. For more information, go to h10.me/alerts. 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 completely BS free, unscripted and unrehearsed, organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. You've got a serious seller back for, I believe, the second time here on the show, Ben. How's it going, man?

 

Ben:

Good, how about yourself?

 

Bradley Sutton:

I'm doing just delightful. So I take your North Carolina, which is why I switched hats here at the last second rock in this Charlotte hat. Here Is Charlotte where you're at, or what part North Carolina are you on?

 

Ben:

Yeah, I'm in Charlotte.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Okay, been out there long yeah.

 

Ben:

I came here in 2002 and never left.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Okay, all right. So if you guys want to get more of his backstory, guys write this down episode 379. We went a little bit more into his background there, so we're not going to go too much. You know more into. You know how his superhero origin story, want to catch up and see what cool stuff he's been he's been working on. That was a great episode, by the way. In there he talked about how he had a three million dollars in retail arbitrage sales and he has his cult following now in the Amazon world on the speaker circuit. A lot of cool stuff we talked about in that episode, including you know how to hire for your Amazon businesses and whatnot. But let's just catch up. You know now we're in 2024. You know I think the last time you're on the show was like end of 2022 around there, so it's been, you know, full year. How was your 2023?

 

Ben:

It was good. Our big priority was expanding obviously expanding product lines, and then just figuring out the best ways to manage what we have so that we can grow and scale as efficiently as possible.

 

Bradley Sutton:

How many employees are you guys up to now?

 

Ben:

So we have the warehouse and then we have an international team. So collectively we're between 60 and 70.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Excellent. Now what was you know, just from a gross sales overall, all channels, if you were to compare 2023 with 2022, how did you guys do?

 

Ben:

We're up maybe 10%, so it didn't really push too hard this year.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Now, something that I think a lot of sellers might have said compared in 2023 to 2022, is profit margins were down due to increased cost, whether that be inflation or cost of goods, Amazon fees, PPC how was your profit margin?

 

Ben:

Yeah, it definitely went down a little bit, not as bad as I guess a lot of people have. That I've talked to have run into. But one of the big things that helps us and I think we talked about this before is just that because we are in Charlotte and there's a CL2, the CL22 warehouse is in Charlotte we're able to deliver a lot of our own inventory. So we're a last mile delivery driver or delivery provider for Amazon. So we don't have to pay to ship in to Amazon. We pay somebody $15 an hour to drive a truck with 12 pallets and they're 20 minutes from our warehouse. So as far as the inbound shipping costs and those expenses, those don't really hurt us too badly.

 

Bradley Sutton:

So that whole, so you ship everything then from your manufacturing to your warehouse and then so that that quote unquote landed cost that ends up being your cost to Amazon as well. Essentially, yeah, how did you even know that that was possible to do?

 

Ben:

Several years ago we were about to stock out of. As you know, we sell a lot of fourth quarter products and kind of joke toy products, and we're about to stock out of one that we sold between 800 to 1000 units a day, which is a fairly substantial issue. So we actually loaded up a cargo van and drove the cargo van to Amazon, talked to us our way through the front gates to deliver it and they took it and so we did that once. Then we did it again and we got through again the third time. They're like no, you can't do this and so like, okay, but somehow we have to be able to do this. So we looked into Carrier Central and figure out how we could become a last mile carotter, which is incredibly easy. It takes about 15 minutes to fill out a form and then you have to show that you can back in and out of a parking spot Incredibly easy. So in that January we bought a truck and the rest is history from there. But it was. It came about because we were about to stock out and panic and we're like well, what's the worst that can happen?

 

Bradley Sutton:

So then theoretically you can also do this service for other people, that you would be the carrier and then other people can just store their product here at warehouse and then you would deliver. But for now you just pretty much do it for yourself. Is there like was there any kind of minimums? Like, hey, you have to have a dock high truck, you have to, it has to be this size, it has to be order, you know, like it has to be at least X number of pallets, or what kind of requirements was it.

 

Ben:

So basically it had to be palletized and it required a dock high truck, and I forget there was. There's a code you have to send them that you get for just having a truck, so it doesn't really matter, you're going to have it anyway. But dock high and palletized products. And what we did was we looked up what the largest truck that we could buy without having to have a CDL was, which in North Carolina, is a 26 foot box truck, and so that holds 12 pallets.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Did you have to have, like a company that's a registered trucking company or something?

 

Ben:

Nope, I actually had a friend who was trying to do this for some of their products because they were just the same issue where they're about to stock out and Amazon wasn't checking them in fast enough. And one of the benefits of what we do is and this is I don't know how long this will stay that way, so I'm probably going to jinx myself by saying it, but our stuff gets checked in faster than anybody else's. So, like this year, we had stuff that we delivered in December that was checked in three days late.

 

Bradley Sutton:

We were able to pick that exact DC to get the stuff into when you're creating your transfer shipments.

 

Ben:

There are a number of softwares that you can use that let you pick and direct where you want it to go to.

 

Bradley Sutton:

But what is that? So that's not something that you can do on your own, just in seller central.

 

Ben:

It. Well, yes and no, it's not something that you can directly do, but typically if you're sending case packs in, they're going to try to send that to the largest distributor center nearest you or distribution center nearest to you. At least that's what we've seen Even before, like when we weren't using a software for it. We're sending about 65 to 70% of our case packs all went to Charlotte, so they're still trying to keep stuff. As far as the case packs that, they're just sending them to the nearest large distribution center. At least that's how it worked out for us.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Now, have you looked into, or do you know yet, how this change to their shipping program is going to affect you, if any at all, with this whole thing where people now have to pay if they're only sending it to one location? I mean, even if that's the case, it's still got to be better. I'm assuming that you'd still choose that.

 

Ben:

Yeah, it'll cost us more now, but it's still better to deliver to ourselves. The bigger issue, honestly, was the minimum stock levels. Because we're able to deliver so quickly and because we know that Amazon is checking in so quickly, we've been able to run very, very, very lean, and that's going to get.

 

Bradley Sutton:

They're going to punish you now, right?

 

Ben:

So now we're going to have to put. Over the last month we've been having to send way more inventory than we ever had before in because we have to meet the minimum stock requirements to not get charged, though I had the fees there, so that's honestly the bigger issue for us.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Have you ever taken a look at in Helium 10, at our inventory heat maps to see what they do with your inventory day by day and then how long it takes them to distribute? Because sure, you can get it checked in, but if everything just sits there in Charlotte for a week and then all of a sudden somebody's in Portland and their buy box says yeah, two weeks delivery date, then that might be conversion issue for certain geographic areas. Are they getting your inventory out to the country pretty fast?

 

Ben:

Usually within two weeks, but it is something where there's definitely some gaps, where we have been not fulfilling the West Coast, for example, is efficiently, as we probably could be.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Now, what about the fact that you're I mean I'm assuming you manufacture your stuff in China, India or where you?

 

Ben:

manufacture it. So we have manufacturing in China, Mexico, India, Canada, the US and I want to say Vietnam as well.

 

Bradley Sutton:

So what about the stuff coming from Asia, the fact that you're not, that you're sending it to you in the middle, not completely in the middle, but is it coming to the East Coast port first, or is it coming to California?

 

Ben:

We send a lot of it through Savannah Georgia.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah, okay, and so, even if it wasn't going to your warehouse, is that where you're routing it? In the old days, if you were going directly to Amazon, it would still go to the East Coast first.

 

Ben:

We always sent directly to our warehouse just for having the flexibility. For a lot of our products there are varying pack sizes and we'll repackage as needed in the warehouse to make sure that we're filling the ones that we need to. So we've always sent it to ourselves first For that reason. Then also just from a flexibility standpoint as far as inventory management, where if you send it from China you're basically going to have to send in 90 to 120 days to make sure that you're covered or just have constant orders going. If we send it to our warehouse first, we can keep the Amazon fees lower for storage by storing it. For what amounts to about? I think last time we calculated it we're paying like $6.50 a pallet or $7 a pallet, something like that, to store it at our warehouse. So the amount of money that we're saving off of the Amazon fees by storing it to ourselves and then sending in smaller shipments versus sending in the bulk ones that a lot of people do.

 

Bradley Sutton:

All right, makes sense. Yeah, I was worried a little bit at least. Like, wait a minute, you know like some of your savings might be gone if you're still having a bring things into the port and like California. And then you got to ship it all the way Right, stick it on trains or trucks to go all the way to North Carolina. But the fact that it's coming into already on the East Coast, that doesn't make it too bad. Okay, so that's pretty cool.

 

Ben:

Honestly, that's one of the things that we're looking into for 2024 is seeing if we want to find a 3PL out on the West Coast so we can send some inventory there for the heat map issues that you were bringing up, where we can send stuff to the West Coast DCs from there and then keep doing everything else from Charlotte so that we can make sure that we're covering the country. And also, if there's a way to bring stuff in and have it on the West Coast already, then it just makes things easier.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Now what other you know? We've been talking about Amazon USA. What other Amazon marketplaces are you selling on worldwide? And what about other domestic here in the USA marketplaces like Walmart, tik Tok, etc.

 

Ben:

Honestly, we haven't pushed that hard on the non-domestic Amazon sites just because our logic has kind of been well, the US is the largest market. If we're able to successfully sell something here, we're going to be more successful than selling something in another market. So we would rather come up with a new product to sell in the US versus taking the time and energy to push externally. But that is something that started to change over the last year. We are in Canada, we're in the UK and we're going to expand through Europe over the next year as far as Amazon, and then we have our own Shopify sites for all of our brands, and then we do a good bit through Walmart as well.

 

Bradley Sutton:

What's your strategy, like you know, going into 2024, now that margins are decreasing, I mean, are you raising? Are you planning to raise prices? Have you raised prices? Trying to cut costs in unique ways? Pull back on advertising? How does somebody you know, because it's not like you know, this is just something that you're facing, like we talked about earlier. A lot of people are facing it, and some worse. Why do you think, other than the shipping thing, you haven't been hit as hard as others. And what's the plan to you know? It's not like costs are going to go down anytime soon. So how are you going to? You know, stay above water.

 

Ben:

Yeah Well, I mean, one of the things is, before we started the podcast, you and I were discussing how you were just in China and like going and meeting with your manufacturers and actually having those conversations, you can get better rates, you can get better terms, you can get a lot of benefits. You can also see what they can and can't do and find a lot of products that you can make with the same manufacturer. And the more things you buy from one manufacturer, the better rates you're going to get on each of those orders. So going directly to your manufacturers and talking to them is a way that you can massively improve your, your costs and also the terms you have. Like, with some of our, some of our manufacturers, we don't pay until 90 days after the products has come to our warehouse.

 

Bradley Sutton:

How long have you been with those manufacturers?

 

Ben:

I like to ask for some Wow yeah.

 

Bradley Sutton:

And have you visited them there in where they're at and got out to meet and stuff like it?

 

Ben:

And met their family, took their kids presents like or we're very close with them. But it's something that you can like you, that's something that you can build. And again, even if it's somebody that you aren't close with, the more that you can, more you buy from them, the more likely they are to give you better rates, better terms etc. So that's one thing. As far as the advertising goes, one of the things we started really pushing over the last probably six months is just kind of figuring out what are where our product deserves to be ranked based off of price, quality, everything else compared to our competition on specific keywords, and adjusting our advertising based off of that. So if we look and we say like, okay, we're really the fourth best product on this keyword, we're not going to push heavily for our with our advertising to try and get to the number one spot, because eventually we're just going to drop back down to the number four or we're going to have to keep spending a ton of money. So we've adjusted our ad spend to match where we feel like we should be on that keyword and if we drop below that then we'll raise it. But if we're there we'll leave it basically where it is, and that's actually significantly improved our profitability, because we're not spending as much to rank up on something that we won't stick. Because you're not going to stick at the top, then why are you trying to get there? It's not going to, you're just wasting money.

 

Bradley Sutton:

So are you like you know? Obviously, like you said, you know, price is an easy, easy one to know. If you quote unquote deserve to be there. You're looking at, like conversion rates by keyword and search, career performance or things like that, or what are some other factors other than just strictly price?

 

Ben:

Yeah. So we'll buy every single product and bring it to our warehouse and do comparison tests so we'll look and see like okay, this one, like, let's say, we're selling a paper plate we can see like, okay, if we put sauce on this for an hour, it leaks through Ours doesn't. So for the sauce we rank better than them, or the size that it takes or the amount of weight they can hold. It can hold as far as food, things like that, where you're just testing to see the quality of your product versus theirs. So it's not just the quality of the listing and conversion, it's also the quality of what you're actually offering to the customer.

 

Bradley Sutton:

That's interesting. I've never heard of somebody doing that. Where it's like at the keyword level, how do we stack up so that we deserve you know to. You know like, like a product could do really well, like in that situation, for like a keyword like heavy duty plates, or you know big meals or some, or for you know watery foods or something like that, whereas maybe another one would be, you know, floral looking plates, where it's more aesthetic and you could rank or you could rate, I should say, differently for each keyword.

 

Ben:

Exactly and it also helps you figure out which way you want to direct your, the copy and photos and everything that you're putting out for the listing, as you see like, because I mean, everybody is doing competitor research before to figure out, okay, how can I say that I'm better than this one? But if you don't keep doing that throughout it, you're going to get passed off. But also, if you look at it on a keyword level, like we're doing, you're able to save a lot of money on advertising by not bidding on things you shouldn't.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Now, speaking of listing optimization, you know that was one thing that we focused on the last episode I remember. You know you talked about. You've got some listings that are 100% puns and a different, you know, and that helps with your conversion and stickiness of customers. What are you like? Are you guys using AI? That's something that's just kind of blown up, probably since the last time we talked. What other listing optimization strategies you're doing in the last year?

 

Ben:

Yeah, and, like you said, ai is massive. I mean the ability to identify a customer avatar immediately, to put the reviews in and pull whatever, extract whatever data you need to from it with like quickly, efficiently, and to have essentially a professional copywriter write your listings for you. One of the things that I enjoy doing, which has led to some good results and some terrible results is to pick like a few famous copywriters or famous advertisers that I find interesting and then have them have a conversation about the product. So if you say, like these four people discuss paper plates and why someone would buy them, and then they go through and the AI talks like those people and has a conversation, and you can see people who are way smarter than me discussing how they would sell it, why they would sell or what they think people would be directly interested in and how they would position it, and so I like doing that. Also for coming up with brand names If you have like the top branders in the world, you can just say have these people discuss what my brand should be if I'm selling X product. So kind of expanding outside of just saying write me a bullet point with the including these keywords with 250 characters or less and yada, yada, yada. Trying to like, think outside the box a bit more, to be more unique, because at this point anybody can use AI. It's trying to figure out ways to use it in ways that other people aren't yet and especially trying to get add to what the AI is doing, add emotional language to it, because AI is okay at emotional, but not great. So if you can put something in that appeals directly to the customer while still using the the pitches from the AI, we've had really good success with that.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Now what, if anything is, would you say, is the biggest difference when you're taking one product from Amazon and making a listing on Walmart, Like, have you seen something that definitely works and something that you always have to change because it's completely different on Walmart, or is the general structure always pretty much the same and you're just doing the little things that you know, the little requirements that Walmart has, in order to differentiate it?

 

0:21:40 -

Yeah, I mean we are trying to obviously match what Walmart says, but it just seems like on Walmart you want to be way more direct. Like, keyword stuffing doesn't work as well there. It seems like there, at least for us. It hasn't May for other people. But just being more readable and fluent with the way that we create the listings has led to better results versus just trying to stuff too many keywords into it as we possibly can.

 

Bradley Sutton:

What else are you doing differently Something we haven't talked about in this episode or the last one, I mean, you know to manufacturing in USA and keeping respectable profit margins. Having 70 employees, this is not something that, you know, like any Amazon seller can achieve. There's got to be some more other unique things that have helped you reach this level. What do you think those are?

 

Ben:

Now you're putting me on the spot. I think the you know that I have three main partners that I've worked with from the start and I think one of the things that we've done really well is division of labor and creating the SOPs and the backbone for everything that we need in order to run the business, so that we don't have to be involved in the day to day as much as we used to and had to at the start. So we are able to look into things like Amazon fee changes. Look into things like okay, how can we get to China and improve our costs and fees there. Like having the flexibility by building a powerful team to and like our team is. I mean, I would say our VA's are probably smarter than me, so they're better at the job that I am at this point. So like being able to get to that point where you're able to have the flexibility to scale mentally going forward has been massive and we actually like, from the start, the way that we kind of divided it was, we had one of my partners was focused on incoming products. The other was focused on running the warehouse. My role was mostly building the products on the marketing side, and then we had one person whose role was essentially figuring out how we're going forward. His job has always been to push things forward, to figure out what we need to do and then having him he is very, very good at systems so he'll be able to come in and look at what we've done and see the systems we built and say, no, you all are idiots, change these three things. That's going to be much better.

 

Ben:

So, like, being willing to constantly, always, constantly be improving on what you're doing Is one aspect of it, but also always looking forward. So figuring out, like, how do we dodge whatever the next big thing is and I mean, if you look at the and I know you know Steve Simonson, but like whenever he's talking, he's always talking about, okay, what's happening in China now and how is that going to impact things? A year for now, it's two years, or now five years or now.

 

Bradley Sutton:

So even just looking ahead at stuff like that, where You're able to make decisions that mean that you're not going to be Sure changing yourself in the long run for a bigger game, now, I think something that successful sellers also have to know how to do is when to pull the plug on on products and everybody and this is one of those things that there's not one size fits all, everybody has their own criteria. How do you guys decide what to what to retire as far as the product goes? Is it strictly just you know a profit margin? Is there a certain sales velocity that you need to to maintain? Is it you know? If the reviews dip below a certain you know point, what's your decision-making factors on it?

 

Ben:

Honestly, one of the the biggest things we care about is how annoying it is to deal with. So just just being perfectly honest, because we do have, we do have a very wide catalog at this point Counting our kind of variations. We have over a thousand skews. So when we're looking at things and figuring out what we want to do, if the way, if we're sending it to the warehouse and the warehouse has to touch it four times, even if it's making more money, we may want to cut that faster than something the warehouse doesn't have to touch. So we look into not just the profitability of the product but also the profitability of the product compared to the labor, how labor intensive it is. And Also, if the warehouse people don't like dealing with it, then and we're not making much money on it and why keep dealing? Why keep doing it? So that that is one of the big things. But beyond that it is Almost exclusively profit, profitability. Like I don't really care if I'm selling something a hundred, a hundred units a day, if I'm making $12 a day on it. I would rather sell one thing for $12 and a hundred things on the flip side, what is?

 

Bradley Sutton:

are the triggers where it's like, hey, we need to Launch this product, or we need to launch this you know new thing for this brand, or hey, we need to launch a new variation? Are you guys just? Do you have a department that's just constantly looking at new opportunities per brand, or or you're looking for certain signals in a market? How's that work?

 

Ben:

Yeah. So I mean we do look at every single review that we get and and. So if we see a lot of reviews come against saying I wish this were larger, I wish this were a different color, like the obvious things like that Are things that we that play into it, or we're getting negative feedback saying there are all these issues, then solving the issues is a very easy way to improve on that. But the the other aspects of it are Just. If we look and we see a competitor come in and they're doing something different and it looks better, it's doing better, it's taking sales away from us, then we figure out, okay, how do we beat that? What can we do differently? So a lot of it is competitor and customer driven, as opposed to Keyword or sales velocity driven you know you talked about.

 

Bradley Sutton:

You know you've Use helium 10 for years and your team has what. What is the number one thing you're using helium 10 now for? And if you were to Join our product team for a few days let's say you were to you were to be in charge of our product team what would be on your wish list on, like, how you would add something to helium-10 that we don't have right now. That would make your lives as on the Amazon side, yeah, easier the conversion rate trends for that keyword For each individual product.

 

Ben:

So if you're looking at it, you can see like, okay, this one is selling this number this month a day, but being able to go in and figure out if their conversion rate is moving up and down month over month, as opposed to just sales moving up and down month over month, because I think that the Conversion rate is just getting more and more important and at the keyword level, not just the overall conversion rate, but even at the keyword level.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah, yeah, I'm dead. That's definitely the top of my list as well. You know, once Amazon, you know, make search query performance available in the API, then then that's like yeah, to me that's like a must-have for sure. All right, so now I knew you. You know you were like a nationally ranked tennis player back in a. You still get on the courts every now and then. What were your main hobbies last year of? You know like, hey, you need to get away from the Amazon world and just, you know, enjoy yourself. Yeah, what were you doing?

 

Ben:

So the US National Whitewater Training Center is in Charlotte so I learned how to whitewater kayak so I got a membership there. It's a closed course that they controlled the the flow of the water, so it could be anywhere from a class 1 to a class 5, depending on the day that you're out there with the rappers they're going to be. So that was my kind of fun. It was a 10-minute drive from our warehouse. So go Do some kayaking and then they have Like. On Thursdays they had concerts and stuff so you can go Hang out and be around people.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Now Is that just a local hobby for you, but or or? Now that you know I knew you travel sometimes too, or have you know when you travel? Have you ever gone real like a whitewater kayaking?

 

Ben:

I have once and it's way more terrifying. That's what I was about to say.

 

Bradley Sutton:

That would be a little bit scary if you're just doing a controlled environment one thing, but then to Be out there Okay.

 

Ben:

Yeah, when it's big stuff of a controlled water flow, if you flip over it's like, okay, I can handle this. If it's not controlled, we're the rocks. I don't know what's happening. I'm about to die, so that's not quite as good. But one of the things I've tried to do Well traveling is trying to try and go fishing Everywhere I go.

 

Bradley Sutton:

What were some of your cool places you've been to in 2023?

 

Ben:

Yeah, so I went to Fiji for the first time, Wow did you stay in over water like a over? Sadly, no, that was. I was not on an island that was conducive to that, so I'll have to. They'll have to be added to my next trip.

 

Bradley Sutton:

That's on my bucket list, fiji I've never been there.

 

Ben:

Yeah, it's, it's a beautiful place. I went to Estonia To the ambition event there, which I'd never, never been to Really Eastern Europe before, so that was a lot of fun to get to go and meet a lot of the sellers there and get to explore An area in a culture that I'd never gotten to experience. So I always enjoy getting to do stuff like that. Try to think of one more. I started in Greece in college and I got to go back there this year, so I'm going to go back and see what I saw in college and appreciated a bit more as an adult, from a historical perspective. Yeah, as opposed to the 21 year old kid who's just like if alcohol here, I need all of it.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Yes, your priorities are a little bit different at that age, I think it's like getting to go on an adult trip there was.

 

Ben:

It was a nice change.

 

Bradley Sutton:

You know, before we get into your final strategy of the day, if people wanted to reach you or find you on the interwebs, how can they find you out there?

 

Ben:

Facebook is probably the easiest. It's just Benjamin Weber and I think I don't have a picture of myself there. I think it's a picture of the Frank Lloyd Wright falling waters house. So if you, if you see a Benjamin Weber with a house, that's probably me.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Now we're at the stage where we asked for your 30 or 60 second tip. You already gave us a doozy, you know, with that, looking at the how you rank at the keyword level as far as how you deserve to rank. So do you have another one for us?

 

Ben:

I mean, obviously everybody's talking about AI now, but using that within your product development to expand on what you're doing. So one of the things that we used to do with our Entire staff was, every day, as a kind of learning, mental strength, mental training exercise Say what are 10 things that you would pay $50 to never have to deal with again. Then we look to see if we can make products out of those, and so we had this massive list of Thousands of these. Now we do that with AI. So we're going into AI and saying what are problems like, let's say you're in the kitchen category. You would say what are 1020, however many things you want to say things that people would pay 30 dollar, 10, what are 10 problems that people would pay $30 to solve In the kitchen, so they don't have to deal with that every time they're doing it and then see what results come back from that and look at the products that come from it. So it's a way to get essentially consumer research via questions with AI, versus having to go in and look things up. So just using the, the AI as a creativity exercise can be Incredibly huge for coming up with new product ideas, and that's where the last, like seven products that we've made have come from us Just typing questions like that into AI, and there are things that no one is selling on the market right now.

 

Bradley Sutton:

All right. Well, ben, thank you so much for joining us Again. You've definitely given us some insightful tips and you've got some very unique things that nobody else is doing, you know, like being your own Amazon last mile carrier, and everything is less, less great, and so I'll love to see what you do in 2024, and then we'll bring you back in 2025 and see how things are going.

 

Ben:

It sounds good. Thanks for having me.

#528 - How To Revive Suspended Seller Accounts and Outmaneuver Online Sabotage

Navigating the unpredictable rapids of Amazon and Walmart marketplace selling, we had the pleasure of being joined by Lesley, a maestro with a flair for reviving online seller accounts from the depths of suspension. In our conversation, we uncover the labyrinth of issues that can snag unsuspecting sellers, from the snares set by underhanded competitors to the resurgence of 'inauthentic' item flags. Lesley, drawing on her rich tapestry of experience that spans from journalism to digital marketplaces, guides us through the complexities of maintaining a pristine account on platforms like Amazon and Walmart, while also sharing her own transition from traditional business consulting to the fast-paced e-commerce arena.

The episode takes a turn into the shadowy alleys of the online marketplace, exposing the black hat tactics of less scrupulous sellers who resort to fraudulent reviews and other deceptive maneuvers to gain an edge. Stories of sabotage and extortion unfold, revealing the lengths to which some will go to undermine their competition and the sophisticated strategies Amazon employs to counter these threats. Lesley's insights prove invaluable for those looking to safeguard their ventures in this cutthroat environment, ensuring your business not only survives but thrives among the giants of the digital retail world.

 

In episode 528 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Lesley discuss:

• 00:00 - Strategies for Amazon Account Reinstatement & Protection
• 05:00 - Common Suspensions and Appeals on Walmart 
• 07:59 - Amazon KDP Issues and IP Theft 
• 11:10 - Amazon Account Suspensions and Prevention Tips
• 17:18 - More On Account Suspensions on Amazon
• 23:25 - Amazon TOS Compliance, Fraud, Extortion, and Black Hat Tactics
• 23:45 - Fake Orders and Amazon Locker Strategy 
• 34:20 - Lesley's New Book And The Importance of SOPs in Business

Helium 10 Buzz 1/18/24: Amazon Shopping AI Live | New Walmart PPC Ads | Germany Helium 10 Event

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, interview someone you need to hear from and provide a training tip for the week.

Amazon launches generative AI tool to answer shoppers’ questions
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/16/amazon-launches-generative-ai-tool-to-answer-shoppers-questions.html

FedEx announces its own commerce platform for merchants
https://techcrunch.com/2024/01/15/fedex-announces-its-own-commerce-platform-for-merchants/

Amazon May Start Charging Users for Certain Alexa Services
https://www.mensjournal.com/news/amazon-alexa-plus-subscription-service

Helium 10 Elite / AVASK Plus Workshop: A Day of E-Commerce Mastery in Frankfurt, Germany
h10.me/avaskgermany

The discussion concludes with a dive into using Amazon’s brand analytics data together with Helium 10’s Black Box to unearth niche keywords and product opportunities, offering you three different sets of strategies for identifying market gaps and leveraging data to enhance your Amazon-selling game. Join us for an episode that's not just about the news, but about giving you the insights and strategies to level up your Amazon journey.

 

In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers:

• 00:48 - Amazon App AI Tool
• 03:21 - FedEx Marketplace?
• 05:02 - Alexa Plus
• 06:17 - Walmart Video Ads
• 07:08 - FBA Shipment Window
• 08:42 - Reduce Returns
• 10:32 - Europe Conference
• 11:33 - Pro Training Tip: Amazon Product Research Tools

► 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:

Amazon has started rolling out its consumer side generative AI shopping assistant. FedEx making an e-commerce marketplace. Walmart, sponsored brand ads and video ads, have a beta launch. A first-ever Helium 10 workshop in Germany next week. This and more on today's episode of the Weekly Buzz. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of the series sellers podcast by Helium 10. I'm your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show. That is our Helium 10 Weekly Buzz.

 

Bradley Sutton:

We give you a rundown of all the news stories and articles that's going on in the e-commerce world and we give you training tips of the week that will give you serious strategies For serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. Let's see what's buzzing. We've got a lot of articles today, so let's go ahead and hop right into it now. The first one here is actually from CNBC and it was an article Entitled Amazon launches generative AI tool to answer shoppers questions. Now, this is pretty interesting because you know we've been talking about this for over a year, about how amazon has been testing Different tools and they're going to be coming out with things that allow the consumers you know, like shoppers of amazon to perhaps have generative AI like Conversations when they are shopping. Now it hasn't gotten to that point yet. However, something new that has been spotted in the wild I haven't seen it in my app yet is that there's a prompt that asks customers questions about a specific item and then it returns an answer within a few seconds by summarizing information collected from product reviews and the listing itself. Now something to note again. Like I said, this is not some conversation like you can. You can do with ChatGPT. It says, unlike open-art ai's ChatGPT, amazon's new feature isn't equipped to carry out a conversation, but it can respond to creative prompts. It says on a listing for a woman's vest, it could write a haiku about the product.

 

Bradley Sutton:

How that Is going to help us sell products, I'm not sure. So take a look here. It says it was also able to describe the item in the style of Yoda from star wars. All right, and it actually had a screenshot of this. So I guess somebody who has this app they typed in Can you describe the product as if you are Yoda from star wars? And then the answer that this amazon app says Yoda why is jedi master would describe this product thusly. And it says crop puffer vest. Women wear zipper closure. Yes, okay, I'm sorry that was a bad Yoda impression, but literally I wasn't making that up. This is a screenshot from this article and it it answered about this product in this style of Yoda. Again, I am not sure how that is going to help us sell products. There's probably a lot of other things. I wish amazon might Maybe put a little effort into more than Allowing its ai app to respond in the or not in the voice, thank goodness, but in the tense of or the form of Yoda. But hey, it is what it is. Um, technology is getting kind of scary. Could this, you know, a future iteration of this actually help sales for us? Maybe it's too early to see so generative ai it. It's not coming anymore. It has come All right, so look out for this in your amazon app.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Next article is actually from tech crunch and it's entitled FedEx announces its own commerce platform for merchants. Now, right off the bat, let me just go ahead and say you know, I did a little clickbait. I said, oh, this might be a marketplace, no, FedEx says it's not a marketplace. it's this new commerce platform they're calling fdx, all right, and it's in private preview, with a wider launch schedule for fall of 2024. Now it's not really known what in the world it's going to be. You know, like they said, it's not going to be a marketplace. However, they did purchase this service called shop Uh runner a couple years ago, or a few years ago now, and it allows people to see estimated delivery time on websites, handle shopping carts, track packages, record carbon emissions for those who are interested in that managed returns, etc. You know, but they specifically says we are not in the business of the marketplace, we're trying to help businesses build the best possible experience From demand to post purchase.

 

Bradley Sutton:

So, like I'm just confused, like I have no idea what the heck this is. You know, since, since FedEx is not, you know, really being open with it, but you know, shots were fired Earlier this year or last year. Now when, when Amazon's like, hey, we're gonna be a shipping company. Now you know, like you don't have to be selling products on FBA, you can use Amazon as a shipping company, like that's like direct competition for FedEx and UPS. So FedEx is like I'm gonna clap back at you right and say, alright, well, let's get into the commerce game. How they're gonna do that? I'm not sure are they gonna be successful, who knows? But be interesting to watch out if there's a new player on the block.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Going back to the articles, men's journal comm had something Says Amazon may start charging users for certain Alexa services. They're gonna launch this thing called Alexa plus later this year and they're gonna be able to have exclusive Features and it's gonna be the revitalized, subscription based version of its voice assistant June 30th. Now this is another one I'm very skeptical about. I mean, alexa has not really improved in years, you know, and it's been struggling. I, if I were Amazon, I would not be trying to put a price tag on it Until it was proven to really really be better, because I'm just not sure that Alexa is worth any kind of money. Well, I know Alexa is not worth any money. You know nobody's gonna pay extra money for it now. Now Could they make something super cool again using generative AI? That would make it worth couple bucks a month potentially. But let's see. You know, the thing that affects Amazon sellers is Are more people gonna be shopping on Alexa because of some new features it might have? That's to be determined. Now that's gonna affect us, like not many people I know ever buy anything on Alexa, but if that changes, that would be very helpful to Amazon sellers.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Next article was actually an email I got from Walmart, so guys, check this out. If you got the email, you might be on this beta program where they say, hey, Walmart connect is it excited to inform me that we are testing sponsored brands and sponsored video inventory on browse and topic pages on Walmart site, starting last week actually, and it's gonna run a minimum of four weeks. All right, we have generated next Recommended next step, so check if you got this email and you can click on it. It says, hey, all self-serve sponsored search advertisers With scheduled live or net, new sponsored brand and sponsored video campaigns will automatically be updated and part of the test and they gave a couple of screenshots of how sponsored brand ads might look looks very similar to what we all know and love in Amazon Advertising. So check your email, whatever your Walmart email is, if you have that Next article is actually not article, but it's from the seller central dashboard and this is an update of something previously announced and it's Entitled automatic closure policy for shipments will be updated on February 1st.

 

Bradley Sutton:

All right, so this was announced before, but they clarified it a little bit. So let's say this is again Effective February 1st. Let's say you create a shipment, all right, using the send to Amazon workflow. So so you're trying to send inventory into Amazon from your let's just say, your own 3pl here in the United States or in Europe. Domestic shipment, in other words, from US addresses, if it has not arrived within 45 days After the shipment creation date, the Shipment will automatically be closed, all right. Or I mean, if it doesn't arrive within this, this time of the policy now for International shipments, that means you create a shipment that's going to be coming from your Chinese or Indian or Pakistani Factory. Well, you're gonna have 75 days from the shipment creation date. For most of you this doesn't have. You know this might not affect you, but but what if they're shipping delays? Or maybe you accidentally, you know, create your shipment too early and then you know Chinese New Year's came, you know, like what's happening right now, and then it delayed your shipment a month. You know, could you be pushing this time limit? It's, it's a possible. So just take a look at this in your dashboard if you have any questions. They clarified a couple of things, but you can't just create open-ended shipments anymore and, you know, expect five years later, or five years or five months later for Amazon to accept your package.

 

Bradley Sutton:

One last news article from the seller central dashboard this was from last week and it's something new on Amazon where it says reduce customer returns recommendation. This is in the growth opportunities tool and it's supposed to gonna tell you, like the financial impact of Money you could have gained over 90 days if you've done the recommended actions. This I can pretty much take with the tiniest grain of salt I have ever eaten, because I have never found value in these Estimations that that Amazon gives and I'm not trying to throw Amazon to the bus, I'm just keeping it real, guys but I haven't seen anything that gives me faith that this algorithm is gonna work. That being said, the reason why I'm bringing this up is because there's gonna be some recommendations that's gonna have. Now, this could be potentially, you know, beneficial. You know, forget the what's the potential impact. Just being able to see what the Amazon algorithm Thinks you should do will be interesting because it's supposedly, as this article says, it's gonna be based on Customers, customer issue trends and reviews and it's gonna compare your listing to other top-selling brands. Now that is something I could see that could be helpful where, hey, here's a brand that has a similar product and it's a really selling well and they've got, like this field filled out that you don't have filled out now. That could be Beneficial. The other thing that seemed interesting, but again I'm skeptical on, is it said hey, find out whether placing content in the title bullets or product description of your detail pages, we'll have the greatest impression on customers if they're just making this up, you know, like I'm pretty sure that us experience Amazon sellers probably no better than Amazon as far as how the algorithm works, as far as things like this. But again, if they've got some advanced new information that that is coming out, this could be a potential way to have insight into the Amazon algorithm. All right, so so look out for that on your, your dashboard as well.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Last thing, again, next week, a chevalier myself will be in Germany, Frankfurt, Germany. We are gonna be at our very first ever all-day event that Helium 10 is doing together with the VASC. So if you'd like to attend, go to h10.me/avaskgermany. It's only 75 euros to attend all day. We've got tons of speakers coming from multiple countries All over Europe. I'll be there myself. We're gonna have a networking social. We're providing food. It's gonna be in the Frankfurt airport, all right. So, like I don't care where you are in Europe, you're, you're like a Ryan air 30 dollar Ryan air flight away from Frankfurt. You don't even need to get an Uber. You just walk out of the terminal and you're right there. All right, guys. So again, h10.me forward slash a VASC Germany. Please come out. It would be great to see you all and meet you guys in person next week, on the 25th of January. All right, that's it for the news this week.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Next up, let's get into our training tip of the week, and actually it's multiple ones. I want to spend just a couple of times just showing you the power of the new Helium 10 tool that came out a few weeks ago in black box, called ABA, top search terms, which is for Amazon brand analytics. The possibilities are endless with the kind of research you can do, so I just picked a couple of scenarios here to show you. Let's pretend that you have a product or a factory that makes products made of bamboo. I actually have a brand that makes bamboo products and you're like hey, what are some trending bamboo Keywords, right, so. So then you go in and you go into black box, you go into the new tool, aba, top search terms, and then what you can do is you enter bamboo, just like you would in Amazon brand analytics inside of seller central. But then now I can enter in other things, like, for example, I'm gonna enter in the helium minimum, Helium 10 search volume of 500. I'm going to say, hey, I want to see where the top three clicked ASINs, okay, per brand analytics have a total of less than 200 reviews. Meaning, hey, these the top products in this keyword, they're not even, they don't even have that many reviews Overall. There might be some. You know room for me.

 

Bradley Sutton:

And take a look at the keywords that came up here. You know we've got like bamboo cool underwear here, bamboo boxer briefs. I'm already seeing like a you know some, some trends here. And then, as I scroll down here, this one jumped out to me bamboo lampshade. And right here in this brand analytics tool I can see, wow, okay, this has a thousand search volume. It's increased 35% this search volume over the previous week. And then I'm looking at these top three clicked and, yeah, these are products are fairly new. Look at this, the number one clicked item for this keyword only has five reviews. All right, so let's just go ahead and take a look at this on Amazon and I can see this Amazon page, like you know, the number one, page one, position one, only has 14 reviews. Position two, six reviews. Position three has a hundred reviews and it's sold a hundred units. So this is pretty interesting. You know, like I found a new niche, potentially for myself, if I'm selling bamboo products, just by using the brand analytics data together with Amazon or Helium 10 data allowed me to find this new niche. So guys, play around with that.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Option number two let's just say, hey, I'm doing some, some new research and I'm like, hey, I want to see a keyword that, per brand analytics, the total click share of the top three items are 70%, meaning that the top three click products. If you add up how much percent of the clicks they get, it's over 70%. But if you add up their conversion share, meaning what share of the sales of this keyword do these top three click products have, it's less than 35%. What does that mean? Think about that for a second. Theoretically speaking, if, if all products and listings were created equal, if there is a listing that or some listings that get 70% of the clicks, well, it should have 70% of the sales, right. But most, most keywords, most products are not created equal.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Sometimes people click into a product and they're like, wow, this is amazing, so it's conversion rates going to be super high. Other times, everybody's clicking into products and it's like, nah, we don't like this, this listing sucks, this product sucks, whatever right, and the conversion rates going to be lower. So that's what I'm looking for. Show me where there's a lot of buyer intent for three products. That means whatever they see in the search results, it looks good. So if they click it, it like 70, 70% of all the clicks for a keyword. That's a lot right, but everybody's clicking out of it and buying another product that wasn't even one of the top three click. So that's literally what I'm looking for here, using brand analytics. You know you can't do this in seller central unless you download stuff and make some pivot tables.

 

Bradley Sutton:

I'm also using some other Helium 10 data points like hey, I want these keywords to have 2000 search volume at least and at least three word count. I want these keywords. It not only has to match everything I just said, but I wanted to have a search volume trend that's going up. I want to see this going up 50% week over week. Search forms, like it's a trending keyword. And then take a look there's a hundred and 78 keywords that that had this like look at this one human dogbed that that's a crazy keyword. Human dog bed has a 500% increase in search volume. recently. All right, that that's kind of insane. there's other you know products here mini chainsaw, cordless. You know there's some, just random, one wagons cart, foldable. The heck is that cigar ass trays for men has a 1000% increase in search volume. And then take a look here the top three clicked products for this cigar ass trays. Look at this the number one click product for this keyword has 94% of the clicks but 0% of the conversion. So there's something fishy going on there. Everybody seems to love it in the search results but nobody likes it on the page. However, another product there had 0.6% of the clicks yet 11% of the purchases. So again, there's just so much valuable information in brand analytics that you guys can do for your product research. But now you have a completely new way to search for it using helium tens brand analytics tool.

 

Bradley Sutton:

One last scenario here. Let's say you're doing keyword research. Hey, you look up all the coffin shelves, let's just say, and you put all of the ASINs of the top selling coffin shelves into this tool and basically what you want to see is hey, where did any of these products show up as one of the top three clicked for any keyword? Well, boom goes the dynamite. You just put in the ASINs and within seconds you are going to get every single keyword where it was one of the top three clicked and you'll be able to see if it was one of the top three purchase. You can see it's click share Like here's a keyword I didn't even, you know, think about, for I might not even be focused on in for our project X coffin shelf, alternative decor. All right, that's a new keyword for me. I discovered it right here in brand analytics.

 

Bradley Sutton:

So, guys, if you haven't used this tool, make sure to use it. I believe for now it's open to diamond and up members. You know we always try and you know, give our tools first to elite, then to diamond and then it'll get down on platinum. But you know there's tons of you diamond users out there. So make sure you guys are getting the value out of this tool. Open up, play around with it. Let me know what you think. What other kind of filters would you like to see? All right, guys. That's it for our Weekly Buzz this week. Thank you so much for joining us. We'll see you next week to see what's buzzing.