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

#441 - An Amazon Seller Who 10X’d Her Sales!

Looking to take your Amazon sales to the next level? In this SSP episode, we got Kseniia Reidel back on the show, and she reveals how she 10X’d her 2021 sales in 2022! Thanks to free Amazon-selling learning resources like Project X and Freedom Ticket, she was able to start her own Amazon FBA business.

Kseniia also shared the tough challenges she had to face and the big wins she had along the way. Plus, you’ll get to hear about how she rewards herself and her family for growing her business to almost $1 Million in gross sales. Do you have the same goals of success for your Amazon FBA business? Make sure to tune in for some valuable advice and actionable strategies from a successful Amazon seller!

In episode 441 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Kseniia discuss:

• 01:39 – Did Kseniia Reach Her Goals For 2022?
• 03:07– A 3PL’s Mistake Gave Her Challenges
• 09:17– Bradley’s Solution If This Happens To You
• 11:11 – How Did Kseniia Reach 2x Her Original 2022 Goal
• 13:08 – Talking About Patents And IP
• 15:39 – Finding Product Ideas In Facebook Groups
• 17:02 – How To Combine Project X Strats With The FB Group Strategy
• 23:55 – From $250K To $1M, What Has Changed?
• 25:44 – How Did Kseniia Reward Herself?
• 26:40 – Kseniia’s Hobbies & Recretion Outside The Amazon Grind?
• 27:14 – “I Almost Got Eaten By A Lion”
• 29:59 – How The New Insights Dashboard Can Help Her Business
• 33:50 – Launch Strategies That She Is Currently Using
• 35:46 – Kseniia’s 60-Second Tips
• 37:41 – Her Business Goals This 2023

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Transcript

Bradley Sutton:

Today we’ve got a seller back on the show who was able to 10x what she did in 2021 last year. And that’s thanks to using some Project X strategies, but also combining that with looking in Facebook groups for new products. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think.

Bradley Sutton:

Wanna check estimated sales for products you see on Amazon? Or maybe you want to instantly see how many listings on page one of a search term result? Have the actual search keyword in the title. You can find all of these things out and more with the Helium 10 Chrome extension tool Xray. More than 1 million people have used this tool. Find out what it can do for you by downloading it for free at h10.me/xray, h10.me/xray. 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 we’ve got serious seller back with us on the show. So if you guys want to check out her full backstory about how she started on eBay and failed with her first product and learned from Project X and Freedom Ticket after that, make sure go to h10.me/320. But Kseniia, it’s great to have you back here. How’s it going?

Kseniia:

Hi. Good, how are you

Bradley Sutton:

Now we were just talking offline about your recent travels to Africa where you almost got eaten by a lion. I heard lions like Russian food a lot over there, but we’ll get back to that a little bit because we also talk on this show nowadays about like what people do in their spare time. And actually my thing is travel, which is why I always include my intro, something about travel for the videos and stuff. But anyways, let’s first just talk about business anyways. And you know, it was about, I wanna say like a year, year and a half the last time you were on the show. So catch me up. How did you end 2022? I think you had given me a goal. Hold on. You probably don’t remember what you told me. Let me look at my notes here. What Mel said you were you were, you had launched your first product, you were looking for a second one or another one, and you were looking to try and get to half a million dollars last year. So were you able to reach that goal?

Kseniia:

Yes, almost doubled it. I think it was like 960,000 by the end of the year

Bradley Sutton:

So that goal, that was too conservative of a goal, I guess. Doubled it. Almost a million dollars for the year. All right. Talk to me about it. So like, was the, the second product also in the same niche? Did it sell more than your first product? Walk me through your 2022.

Kseniia:

Yes. Well all my products are in the same niche and I think last time when I talked to you was at the Prosper show last year, and then I told you a story when the 3PL messed up the shipment.

Bradley Sutton:

Tell me about that again or tell everybody about that.

Kseniia:

Yeah, so what happened is that well so my first product was successful. I found the second one, I just launched it. And that was around March when I launched the second product. And like a couple of weeks after I launched the second product, that was reason 3PL cause, there were still issues with the storage limits. So they send my second product to the shipping plan of the first product. I don’t know how they did that because it’s totally different packagings. It’s not even a variation it’s a different product. And I already had another shipment ready in China for that first product and I was like, what am I supposed? And that’s why I came to you and I was like, what am I supposed to be doing right now? Because I have no idea.

Bradley Sutton:

How did you find it out again? Like how did you realize what had happened?

Kseniia:

They realized after they shifted, I think before I got to Amazon, they emailed me. It’s like, oh, I think we made a mistake. And I was like, what mistake?

Bradley Sutton:

Okay. So that’s kind of good. It was before it went live. Okay. And they’re like our bad. How did you end up? What did you end up doing?

Kseniia:

Well, I first closed all the listings cuz I was like, okay, let me think about it cuz I don’t wanna I don’t want ’em started receiving cause it’s not even a different color variation, it’s a different product. So I was like, let me see what’s happening with it. And then I started talking to different people and know I talked to you. And that was like a week after that happened and I talked to other people and nobody knew exactly what Amazon was gonna do cause it’s not like it’s happens often. And so I just decide to remove all the first product from Amazon I decided to remove, I think it was around a thousand units cuz I wasn’t sure if they’re just gonna relabel it and send the wrong product.

Bradley Sutton:

So all the first product and the second product you had to remove because you didn’t?

Kseniia:

No, I knew that they shipped second product for the shipment plan of the first product. So I knew that the second product is fine, it’s not messed up. But the first one was, and I didn’t know what Amazon was gonna do with it. I didn’t know if, if they’re gonna relabel it or if they’re just gonna, and what ended up happening is that when I removed everything, cuz I removed some to my house, so I removed some 3PL and it de it was depending on the warehouse, so some of them treated it so scanned it right and put it on a right shelf. But then some boxes I received when they relabeled it. So on one product there was a FNSKU of another product. So they relabeled it the wrong way. So it wouldn’t been a mess if I wouldn’t remove it all. I’m glad I did it.

Bradley Sutton:

And at that point, how much was that first one selling that, one like per day that you had to stop it?

Kseniia:

I think it was doing 40,000 a month. So what was it?

Bradley Sutton:

So basically every day you’re losing over a thousand dollars because of this?

Kseniia:

Yeah. And I already had a shipment in China, a little being inspected that week for that first product. And I was like, well how am I supposed to be shipping it now cuz I have to remove everything? So I ended up creating a new listing, but then I merged them. I did it as a variation so I don’t lose the reviews. At the same time when I’m removing the first one already, like relaunched under a new listing with the new shipment that I got from China. So I was a total mess. You know me? Having the first success with second product and being so happy and there’s this huge thing comes in that literally like stops everything.

Bradley Sutton:

So then how long did it take for everything to get all right? You sent back the inventory. They checked one by one, relabeled it, got it back to Amazon. Like how long from the time that you realized this problem had happened to now product one and product two are back in Amazon and everything is going again.

Kseniia:

I think three to four months probably. I don’t remember.

Bradley Sutton:

Oh my goodness. Wow. Yeah. That took a long time.

Kseniia:

Well cause they don’t remove it by batches. They removed it by sometimes they would get one unit in a box, sometimes they would get two units in a box. Yeah. So, and in 3PL ended up even charge. They didn’t wanna redo it for free. They were like, well, we’re gonna have to charge you because we get like 2000 boxes here or more in that or whatever. We’re gonna have to charge you.

Bradley Sutton:

I hope you fought that right since it was their problem at the first place?

Kseniia:

Well, I did. It was so stressful. It lasted with them. I’ve been discussing I was talking to an owner for, for a long time because I was like, guys, you did this, you know how much money I lost because of you. So, and then you want me to pay more? And their point was, they wanted me just to wait. They’re like, oh, just wait until we remove everything and then you can start selling. I was like, it’s gonna take three or four months for me to wait. I can’t wait. I need to do a new listing and relaunch with the same boxes but under different listing.

Bradley Sutton:

So basically what you did was that one SKU you kind of had to permanently, or not permanently, but at least a hundred percent close since you never know how many was still left. And then you started another SKU for the same listing so that it would had a different so that it had a different fnSKU, right?

Kseniia:

Yes. And I merged them, so I would have the reviews, so that way it will technically, it’s a different SKU aslo.

Bradley Sutton:

So you actually made a new ASIN, not just a new SKU?

Kseniia:

Yeah, so I made a new ASIN and I made them as variations. Like I put it in like a size variation, so that way it still keeps all the reviews and now actually, because then I had another issue with the same product and now I’m actually using the first listing for the actual variation. So I’m still keeping all the reviews.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay, interesting. Because I think another option for people who something like that might happen is you did, you know what you did was right, you closed the listing because you don’t want any of , don’t know which one was contaminated units or, or units that, that had the wrong sticker on it. But another thing that somebody could do is under the same ASIN, just create a new SKU and then send an inventory because when you create a new SKU, it, it creates a new fnSKU. And then you don’t have to worry about merging or reviews or anything like that. And then you also don’t have to worry about you know, ones of that original you know, FNSKU getting out. Right. You know, the theoretically speaking. But the way you did it is probably a little bit safer, but just a little bit harder. So three, four months, were you able to regain that momentum on the first product or being out of stock for so long and having the listing closed? Did you lose ground to competitors or what happened?

Kseniia:

Oh, I never used that listing from the one I had to close since I started selling a couple of weeks after it happened under a new ASIN, I was still fine because I still didn’t have too much competition. And when I started, I was a second person selling that product and by the time it happened I was still like, I was still the second, still nobody showed up. Couple of months later though, I got a lot of Chinese sellers that copied exactly what I was selling, but at that point it was fine. So.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay. Now how was it that you were able to pretty much like four x what you did the previous year and even double your original goal, like which product took off so well that exceeded your expectation? Was it that first one or was it the second one? Or did you launch a third one?

Kseniia:

Well in total right now have four products with variations. So it’s eight SKUs in total, but one actually launched this year. So I ended up last year with six SKUs. It was the second product that took off more. But also what happened when I launched the second product and after I had to relaunch the first product, I got a bunch of the Chinese copycats. I covered exactly the same of my first product and you know, they just dropped the price. And so I started losing a lot of sales because of that. So I had to redesign it, I had to redesign the first product that way it’s a bit different. And I was able to file the design patent on both of those products. So I still don’t know how long it’s gonna take to get it, but I file it that way.

Bradley Sutton:

So did you put patent pending on the listing?

Kseniia:

Yes I did. It didn’t stop though. Some people because on my second product that ended up being like the best seller of all my products, by the end of the year, like by the end of the summer, I would say I got like two or three people who copied exactly the same, the product, even the pictures. And I think they just copied my listing, like the bullet points and everything. So I, the first time I was able to remove them because I copyright the listing. So Amazon removed them the first time, but then the second time they relaunched a couple of months later, they were a little smarter, so they just rephrased my listing. They didn’t copy it word per word, so they rephrased it a little bit. So now I can’t do anything about them. They’re still there and until I get a patent I can’t remove them.

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah, yeah. Okay. Now how much did you pay for the patent? You said it’s two different patents you got or just one?

Kseniia:

Yeah, two.

Bradley Sutton:

Did you use Rich Goldstein or you had somebody else that you used for that?

Kseniia:

No, I had somebody else. My husband is a lawyer actually, and he recommended me an IP lawyer that he knew. So yeah, so we kind of knew him. I think the first one I did it actually had to do with before I launched the second product, so I was kind of a guess, I was hoping that it will be the main seller because you’re not allowed to file a patent if the product is already launched. So when I reached out to the lawyer, I’m glad, like it was already on Amazon, but I haven’t started selling it yet. And they told me, do not start selling it because you’re not allowed to until you file a patent. So I think the first patent was around I would say like 7,000, probably seven or eight, because they had to do search because the first product that they did, it was a bit like not too unique, I would say design. So they wanted to make sure that it’s, it will go through. So they had to pay an agency, couple of thousand for the search to make sure that there are no product, I knew there are no products like that with exact same design, but they just wanted to make sure for them

Bradley Sutton:

That. But then the way you calculated it was like, Hey, yeah, this is expensive, $7,000, but you know, you’re gonna make that up in more sales once you’re able to kick those other sellers off. Is that kind of like why you were okay with paying that much money?

Kseniia:

Yeah, well, because I already learned on my first product that three, four months later after I start selling in the Chinese copycats, they see that there are sales and they’re gonna show up with a price that almost 30-40% less than I’m selling. So that’s why I had to redesign the first product, because that would happen. Because at the same time, there’s like five sellers came in with exact the same product as I was selling. Yeah. That’s why I lost a lot of sales because of them. So I learned that before I launch a second product, I need to go and apply for a patent. Yeah. And I knew that it’s probably not gonna stop some people it’s not gonna stop a lot of people. There’s still gonna be some copycats, but it weren’t as many as with the first product because I put the patent pending on the listing.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay. Cool. Cool. Now, what are some other good things that happened? You know, like now we’ve been talking about copycat people and problems with your 3PL. So let’s give some people some, some good stories from, from last year. You know, some successes, something that worked out really well for you.

Kseniia:

Well, what worked out is going back to my favorite Facebook groups is we talked about it where I found the ideas because I used the Facebook groups and all my start from the first product and then to all the other product I launched, all the ideas I got from the Facebook groups. So what happened is that, because it’s a community of probably 20 or 30,000 people. It’s not my Facebook group, but it’s a Facebook group of the people who use the product, since I’m selling accessories as a product. So it’s like, oh, if I’m selling like a case for an iPhone, so that’s like an iPhone user group for example. And I see sometimes they talk to each other, oh, that would be so cool to have this product. And I was like, okay. And I constantly read the groups, I see what they’re talking about, what they wanna see, and I was like, okay.

Kseniia:

And I see like a hundred people wanting the same product and I go on Amazon, I don’t see it, and then, then I go to like Etsy or something like that and there is like a handmade version of that product. And I was like, well, I think that’s a pretty good idea. Even though there were no, like with, I think with my third product, there were no exactly search terms on Amazon for that, for that exact product. But I saw people in Facebook group that wanted that product. So I kind of risked a little bit with that. And but I knew, I saw people literally asking for it. And I was like, okay, let’s see.

Bradley Sutton:

So like almost all your products, you kind of did use the Project X strategy of searching off of Amazon for the demand. You just kind of enhanced it further because that’s not something that we did, we, we didn’t think about looking at Facebook groups. But let’s talk about that a little. Let’s talk about somebody else. You know, you already have your strategy down, but like, let’s say somebody else is out there, maybe they don’t have a product yet, they don’t have a niche. How would you suggest to them to find, first of all, Facebook groups around different niches? Or do they need to pick a niche first and then try to find the Facebook groups in order to, to see the ideas?

Kseniia:

Well, I picked the niche first cuz I knew I wanna be in a certain category just because I wanted to have something that I use. And I understand cuz I knew that I’m not gonna be able to tell, if this is a good product or a bad product if I don’t use it, or if I don’t know how to use it or if I don’t understand like, I don’t know sports, so I’m not gonna go in like sports category or something like that. So I found niche first. And when I started using the Project X strategies to find the first product, the keywords, not the product, the keywords. I started down with like two or three categories and when I found it. So when I found the category, then I started going to Facebook group. So like, I would say probably try to look by the things that you’re interested in, because you’re gonna have to spend a lot of time, like I spend a lot of time reading what people say, what they think. And if you’re totally not interested in that category, in that niche, you’re just not gonna do it.

Bradley Sutton:

Hold on a second though, because I mean I used to do Facebook groups like all day, every day, 10 years ago like in search. But I have, I literally now that I’m thinking about it, I literally have not like, looked for random Facebook groups in probably 10 years. So let’s pretend it’s the Project X I’m in the coffin shelf niche. How do I look for Facebook groups? What do I do? I just use the search bar and just type in like a general theme, like gothic decor and then use that filter for groups that, but like, will will just, does that mean the groups that come up it has to have the gothic decor in the title or related groups will also come up in that kind of search?

Kseniia:

Well, I would try with the, like a smaller group that like super oriented in what you’re doing. Like if it’s a goffin shop, go to a gothic decor and it’s, it might be small groups, like 10 or 20,000 people. It doesn’t need to be like a million. Cause the smallers are usually more active. And I think what also helped me is it needs to be, you open a group and you see is it active? Are people posting there every day? You know, there’s actually stuff going on or it’s just totally dead. And it also works with the things that people are very passionate about. So the product that I’m selling, the actual product, not my accessories, but the actual product people are like super passionate about the product. So they’re constantly discussing and with my product, what happened is that, so I’ll tell later I have a launch product now, but some people just buy it and they post it on the group. So every day I open, I see people, oh, we bought this of Amazon and I’m like, cool, that’s my product, so I don’t even need to do anything because people are passionate about that. And especially since they wanted like a certain product for a while and then they finally got it and they’re like, okay, oh cool, we’re waiting for this product for a long time. So like, they keep posting and then people, people in common start oh, where’d you get this? And they start sharing links and stuff. And

Bradley Sutton:

So, so then how you got the idea for your product was just from reading, like just going back and just sitting there and reading and then people just said, Hey, I wish somebody, or I wish there was a product like this, but I can’t find it, or something like that?

Kseniia:

Yes, exactly. Just like that.

Bradley Sutton:

And are you interacting at all? Like are you making posts in there or, or like asking questions or anything like that? Or what, what are you doing?

Kseniia:

Yeah, so what I started doing, well the first, what I started doing with the second product, I again, I saw it there, what people use. And I decided to add something to my product and add a QR code so I can start building the email list. And so I have something that cost me like 50 cents and I put a QR code and I was able, not too many people, but I think I have around seven or 800 subscribers right now. So what I do now when I launch is that I first do the email list email when I launch a new product saying like, oh, I launched this new product and I get, I mean maybe like I got a hundred sales out of 700 subscribers on the first couple of days of when I launched the product.

Kseniia:

So that was pretty good, I think. And also what I do, I make a post in the Facebook group. So I say, oh look what I got off Amazon and I post a product picture of course a good product picture showing how good the product is and, I guess I don’t say that I make this product, but since I’m also a user, I also generally use this product. I use my own products too. I use my own products too, so yeah. I made comments and it was funny because last product that I launched when I did that post about my product and the Facebook group, the guy who started the main, the Facebook group, and actually the c e o of the company that started the main product Yeah. That I’m selling accessories to, he commented from his personal Facebook account that, oh, you know what, we’re coming with the same product couple of months later he was like,

Bradley Sutton:

So he was one of your competitors?

Kseniia:

Well yeah, they started selling similar products to mine, yes.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay. Interesting. So what’s a big difference going like a quarter of a million to almost a million, what have you had to do differently? Like, have you hired help? You know, do you have virtual assistances working for you? You’re still handling everything by yourself is your husband helping what’s going on?

Kseniia:

Still me just a lot more hours now and a lot more I guess just the feeling of responsibility is totally different because in 2021 I did little bit over a hundred thousand.

Bradley Sutton:

Oh, I was saying a quarter of a million. So you’re almost 10x

Kseniia:

Now. It’s 10x. Yeah 10x. So I mean, the first time when I had actually placed an order for inventory for like 50,000, I was like I’ve never seen a 50,000 on my bank account before, like when I need, and I needed them one time to spend that much money. It’s just psychologically, I guess hard to manage that amount that was the hardest. Also, because it escalated very fast in a couple of months it went from being like five or $10,000 to like 50 or 60 or 70. That was like, cause I was scared at one point. I was like, what if something goes wrong? And I would get stuck with all this a hundred thousand dollars bill from the supplier.

Bradley Sutton:

Have you started taking money out or everything that you’re making, you’re still putting back into the business?

Kseniia:

No, I start paying myself. Actually, my biggest mistake that I made last year is, was with the bookkeeping because the beginning of the year I didn’t know what’s the amount will be of the how much I will sell. You know, I didn’t know I’m gonna end up with almost a million, so I didn’t have a bookkeeper. And by then, end of the year, by like November, okay, well it looks like my like 700,000 by November. So I think I need to hire someone. So the only person I had to hire is a bookkeeper that told me that I’m gonna end up paying a lot of taxes because I didn’t have the right structure of the company because I didn’t expect that I will make so much.

Bradley Sutton:

You’re profitable I’m assuming.

Kseniia:

Yes, yes.

Bradley Sutton:

What, what’s activities, what’s something that you’ve done to reward yourself with your newfound earnings? Did you buy yourself a car or something like that?

Kseniia:

No, no, I didn’t. I don’t pay myself too much. Well, when on pretty nice vacation, I guess in January. But rather than that, no, I like to travel. That’s the main, the main thing. We travel a lot, like we spend the whole summer in Latin America. We’re still working, but still working every day but at least we can because we both work from home so we can travel and that’s what we do. I think that’s the main thing. I don’t really care about like, buying cars or something like that.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay. Let’s talk about that. We’ll, we’ll get back to the Amazon strategies, but you know, I don’t know how much you’ve been keeping up with the podcast, but maybe you’ve noticed this year, I always ask the guests now, Hey, what are you doing for your mental health, physical health? And I talk about mine. What I do is I like traveling. That’s why we always have different intros here. But sounds like your thing for hobbies and recreation is also travel. Would that be your like, number one hobby, would you say?

Kseniia:

Yes. That’s definitely, I know my husband’s always laughing at me because usually, what I do is we’re on a trip and I already start booking another one while I’m not even back from the one that we’re on. And he’s always like, when is it gonna stop? And I was like, I don’t think it’s gonna stop, it’s not gonna stop. So used to that, well, sometimes I go alone, sometimes he wants to go and he doesn’t want to go. I go with friends or I go alone. So it doesn’t really matter.

Bradley Sutton:

Now speaking of that trip in January, tell us about what your life flashed before your eye. Thinking you’re gonna get eaten by lion king.

Kseniia:

Yeah, I was just telling you that we’re on a safari and we got very close to a lion that apparently was very hungry because it starts circling around our car and licking her lips and kind of looking at me like my dinner, my dinner is here, a couple of Americans here in the car. So yeah, that was scary,

Bradley Sutton:

But that’s the kind of experience that maybe you wouldn’t have had before Amazon or Maybe it would’ve happened to have a lot later. What else is on the bucket list for travel for you guys?

Kseniia:

Well, I’m going to Central Asia next month. And I think also to, I’m going to Istanbul and I mean the place I really wanna go to, it’s Antarctica, but I dunno when that’s gonna happen because a, you don’t really have a good internet connection and I can’t stop working it’s still, I’m not, I’m not gonna be mentally normal when I can’t control every day what’s happening cuz and even in Africa I still worked for several hours a day, but there like sometimes it might be, you don’t have internet connection, you don’t have wifi or something like that. So I was like, I can’t do that.

Bradley Sutton:

Well,  that’s a good segue to get back to Amazon. So thinking about that where you can’t since like you said, you’re trying to handle everything by yourself, you can’t really take a day off or, or take a few days off be. So have you thought about that? Like are you gonna try and maybe hire somebody remotely or something like that to help in the future?

Kseniia:

I don’t know. I mean, I, I think about it. I mean, it’s kind of easy right now since I have a bookkeeper, so at least I don’t need to handle that part. I have a lot of freelancers and I have a pretty good list of a checklist of how I launch products, how I prepare launching products. So I do exactly the same thing every time with have freelancers, the same people that I’ve worked with for like, over two years right now. So the same photographer, the same editor. So I kind of know what the result I’m gonna get, so I’m sure and what’s gonna happen. So that makes it easier. But yeah, I don’t know, I’m just, I guess I’m kind of used to not having days off like normal people.

Bradley Sutton:

But you do have freelancers and stuff, so, so that, that’s a start. That’s a start. Have you seen the new Insights dashboard on your Helium 10 dashboard when you log in, like a completely new interface?

Kseniia:

No, I think I had issues with logging in because of that because I think it was updating a couple of, like a week ago or so. Okay. I couldn’t log in and then I didn’t go back to it after that.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay. So I mean by the time this episode comes out, I’m sure you would’ve seen it, but basically what it is is kind of like this new dashboard that everybody has access to who has either the old diamond or the new scale, your business plan. But what it does is it’s a little bit, it’s almost like a virtual assistant because it’s, it’s bringing, it’s taking actions and like just giving you the results. So like some people check their keyword ranks every day, right? So instead of that, we’re gonna like, let you know like, hey, this keyword dropped in organic rank. Hey this, this product, this keyword dropped in sponsor rank. You know, some people are monitoring their PPC like once a week instead of that now all of a sudden you’re gonna get a message, Hey, did you know that you spent 60 clicks and $30 on this keyword and you didn’t get any sales we suggest pausing it.

Bradley Sutton:

So it’s kind of like taking actions that maybe you do normally or you hire somebody to do and then we kind of do it in the background and just deliver the results. So with that in mind, and I know you haven’t seen it yet, what would be on your wishlist? Like what is something that in Helium 10 or Seller Central you find that you are doing daily or weekly or biweekly that you would like to see automated? Like if you could just snap your finger in and boom, it’s gonna appear in this new Insights dashboard. Can you think of anything that comes to mind that would save you a lot of time?

Kseniia:

Well, the most I guess I struggle with is the inventory management. And I know there is a way to track it, but I don’t find it very easy to use I guess for me. I don’t know because it’s not, maybe I’m not putting a direct data in, I don’t know what’s happening, but I don’t see, it’s, don’t see it as like very reliable cause the sales changing months to months. But I think that’s the communications that I would like to get.

Bradley Sutton:

That one’s actually already there, but if you don’t have it set up, like you said, if you don’t have it set up right in the inventory management, then it’s not gonna give you the right information. Like we have different algorithms that can actually even track your seasonality if you’ve been selling for more than a year and then tell you like, oh yeah, hey, you’re probably gonna need to order more so you and I should schedule another call offline and then I’ll show you how to do that. But absolutely that, that’s one of the things in Inside Dashboard. What else are you doing regularly? Like something you just mentioned, something that, ah, man, you feel like you could do better on, but what is something that, hey, like this is just my routine, this is what I always do. Either in Seller Central or Helium 10.

Kseniia:

Well, I mean the PPC and I tried doing off Amazon advertising like Google ads didn’t really work for me. So I just do only PPC and since I launched a lot with the email lists and the Facebook groups, that’s makes it easier also. I, it’s not about like doing daily, but I guess it’s about just the way I launched and prepare for products. You know, it’s a list of things I do before I launch. You know, how to send the samples, do like a photographer make a list of the, the instruction, how to take pictures for the photographer. Cuz I usually send them the detailed list of how I want the pictures to be taken, what angles. Cuz I usually do pretty detailed research about what works, what doesn’t works in my niche. So they usually know what exactly to do when they’re taking pictures for my product.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay. Are you planning to launch anymore soon?

Kseniia:

Yeah, I have one that will be launched. They’re gonna start manufacturing it I think next week. So I mean hopefully in like two months that would be launched. And another one I’m working on right now.

Bradley Sutton:

What, what’s your current strategy that’s been working for like getting to page one on your main keywords and what you’re planning to do for this next product that’s about to come out?

Kseniia:

Well the first thing I that I do is the Vine reviews. That’s the first thing I do you, I usually give away around I think 30 units. That was the maximum that I could do. And I usually get about 15 reviews, 15 to 20 reviews probably from that. Then what I think works the best for me is, of course I do PPC start from start from where I launch. But what gives the most is when I do the email list and I get sales from the day one and usually it’s a lot of sales cuz people start clicking on the email and they start buying and Amazon sees this as like an outside traffic usually, I also use the fill links there to, so that way I get some sale on the, the fees when I do the my invoice.

Bradley Sutton:

What about Amazon attribution? I wonder if that would work.

Kseniia:

That’s what I’m talking about. So for Amazon it looks like, okay, this is this new product that’s been launched today and somehow people start buying it from day one without any reviews and it’s coming from outside of Amazon. So for them it looks like, oh wow and the same one I do when I post the link to the product and the Facebook group. I also use the Amazon the Amazon attribution. Yeah. I guess called. Cool.

Bradley Sutton:

All right. Well just like we did last time we have this the 60-second tip. So what’s a 60-second tip or strategy, something that you haven’t mentioned that you think that you’re doing that’s kind of unique that you think other sellers should do? I mean, you talk a lot about unique things today, Facebook groups and email lists and things like that, but what’s something else that you haven’t talked about today?

Kseniia:

Well I think I actually saw the tip here on a podcast, I think it was a couple of years ago and I started using it is about the travel hacking, the credit cards. I just, I think that a lot of people not using it and it just kinda like, I don’t understand why people not using it because when, so last year when I had to start buying a lot of inventory, I didn’t get any loans, but I had to use a lot of credit cards. And when I opened the right credit card I have three times points on the ad spend. I had to buy inventory with the credit cards because when I went from $10,000 to $70,000 sales a month, I need to get money from somewhere for sales not to stop. So I had to lose a lot of credit cards so that way I earned a lot of points. So when we went on a trip–

Bradley Sutton:

Hold on, hold on. Did your suppliers accept credit card or how, how did you know, cuz most suppliers need like wire transfers, but how did you use a different service or how did you use credit card to pay for your inventory?

Kseniia:

I just had to ask them to do the Alibaba, they just had it through Alibaba. So I had to pay for the inventory through Alibaba, but for the forwarder I had to pay with the just the wire transfer.

Bradley Sutton:

Ok, that makes sense.

Kseniia:

Separated and that was fine.

Bradley Sutton:

And then you said you got a lot of points because of that helped you to be able to get business class then?

Kseniia:

Yeah. Yeah. So our trip that we went to in January, that was fully business class and you know, for ticket going there, we paid like $5 and the rest was paid in miles for United first class flight of like 16 hours or something like that. So that was solely because of the points that I earned with my business

Bradley Sutton:

Now what’s, what’s 2023 gonna be do you have a goal of what you’re gonna hit and also are you gonna launch in any other marketplaces like Walmart or Shopify or anything like that?

Kseniia:

No, I’m not planning launch on new marketplaces. I think for now I’m just gonna stay on Amazon just because of product. I sell it not really for like the Walmart type of people who shop there, it’s more for Amazon. My goal is, what I’m really trying to work on right now is a brand, so I’m trying to add the brand story right now. The pictures I decided to take my pictures and tell the brand story of how the brand started. So I think that can separate me a lot from the Chinese copycat cuz they usually don’t do that and I think there’s gonna be more trust. Cuz a couple months ago I started recognizing that people started actually typing in the brand name on Amazon. So there started being a search for the brand name. So I was like, well that’s good. That means that’s where I need to go. Yeah. Because they started recognizing me in that niche.

Bradley Sutton:

Awesome. All right, well Kseniia it was has been great you know, catching up with you. You know, congrats on all your success and, and let’s see, who knows last time you doubled what your goal. So, so let’s see in 2024 when we bring you back on, let’s see how you’re doing. Remember guys, it all started, she learned completely from Project X and Freedom Ticket and now she’s flying business class to Africa to get eaten by lions and living her best life. So you know, you never know what you can get from free education out there. So we look forward to having you on the show again and wish you the best success for the rest of these year.

Kseniia:

Thank you. Thank you. Bye.

Helium 10 Buzz 4/5/23: Amazon Frequently Returned Badge, New Walmart Website, Image Issue Reporting, & Summer Amazon Conferences

Stay up to date on the latest news on Amazon and Walmart. This week, we cover the frequently returned badge, Walmart's new digital store, image issue reporting, and summer events. 

#440 - Advanced Amazon Market Tracking & Walmart Listings

In this exciting episode, Shivali Patel shares her personal Amazon-selling journey while working with Helium 10 and how she represented the USA at the Miss Supranational competition. She also shares valuable insights and tips on Amazon and Walmart selling. Learn how to sell books in Amazon KDP, her step-by-step product strategy, and how build your Walmart listings properly. Plus, she also walks us through Helium 10’s Market Tracker 360 tool and how it can be a big asset for large brands and agencies. Whether you’re an experienced seller or just starting out, this episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to succeed in this industry!

In episode 440 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Shivali discuss:

• 01:25 – Shivali’s Highlights While Working In Helium 10
• 02:20 – Talking About Her Amazon Selling Journey
• 04:45 – Selling Books On Amazon KDP
• 05:30– How To Find Freelance Writers For Your Books
• 07:45 – Step-By-Step Product Research Tips From Shivali
• 09:21 – Finding Chinese Suppliers Here In The US?
• 11:01 – Representing The USA On A World Class Beauty Pageant
• 13:00 – Starting To Sell On Walmart.com
• 15:12 – How To Build Your Walmart Listings Properly
• 17:11 – New Walmart-Selling Content Series: Project Expansion
• 19:00 – The Difference Between Market Tracker & MT360
• 22:00 – A Walkthrough With Helium 10’s Market Tracker 360 Tool
• 32:30 – How To Get A Free Demo For MT360
• 32:45 – Shivali’s Healthy Habits & Hobbies Outside The E-commerce Grind
• 34:15 – Listen To Shivali’s Podcast

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► 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:

Today Shivali’s back on to talk about her personal Amazon selling journey the last couple of years, what she learned working on a Walmart listing case study. Details on a cool tool that’s exclusively for very large brands and agencies, and even how she represented Helium 10 as Miss USA at an international beauty pageant. How cool is that? Pretty cool I think.

Bradley:

Are you an agency enterprise-level seller or an eight or nine-figure seller and need advanced analytics Market Tracker 360 might be the product for you to get a demo of Market Tracker 360, go to h10.me/360. That’s h10.me/360. 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 we’ve got somebody who’s been helping sellers around the world here for now, just two years, just past her two-year anniversary here at Helium 10. Shivali, how’s it going?

Shivali:

It’s going good. How are you?

Bradley:

I’m doing just delightful. Thank you. Now let’s just, first of all, before we hop into what we’re gonna talk about, which we got a wide variety of topics ranging from Walmart to advanced analytics for large brands and more let’s just catch up with you a little bit, two years you’ve been here. Like what are some highlights from your time here at Helium 10 now that you’ve been here A little bit?

Shivali:

It’s definitely hard to quantify my highlights, mostly because there’s been so many peak moments. I’ve had the opportunity to connect with amazing individuals in the industry, learn a lot about Helium 10 tools and then also just about scaling your business. So it’s been really neat to go from being somebody who was just getting into selling on Amazon all the way into connecting with really powerful people that have achieved incredible heights of their business or even exited.

Bradley:

Yeah, absolutely. Now, you yourself actually decided for a while at least to kind of like stop selling the product that you did have. So I think that’s important that some sellers are just like, Hey, I’m just gonna keep going even though it’s not working out this product got too competitive, but I’m just gonna go ahead and lose money. But what were some of your thoughts? Like what led you to say, you know what, I’m gonna stop selling this product or just sell out and then gonna regroup at a later time?

Shivali:

So when I was first getting into the product I was selling into the category I was selling, there was a really good profit margin. I think it was at about 40% to 45% profits. And that was with a gap kind of built-in case I needed to spend more on ads. And maybe there was some time for inventory storage because I wasn’t quite approved for Amazon selling on Amazon just yet at the time. But unfortunately for me, there were about nine or 10 months, and I think I had talked about this the last time I was on the podcast, but there were about nine or 10 months where I just had my inventory sitting in storage. And so by the time that I got into that field, it was a drastically different landscape. And so I had to make some business decisions of, okay, well, like, yes, I still have some profits left, but it’s not really as great as I want them to be.

Shivali:

And then the competitors, there were so many more competitors, and of course, that changes the entire outlook of your business. So looking at the numbers, and then by the time that I was really starting to sell out of that inventory, I decided that I didn’t want to stick in such a competitive field where I would be losing money day in and day out as much as I love the product, as much as I know it was a high-quality product. And of course, if I had continued throwing money at it, yes, maybe in the long run it would’ve become profitable. I have definitely talked to people in the industry that were like, oh, my product just became profitable and it’s been maybe two years that they’ve been in that season.

Bradley:

That season. Okay, now that’s a little extreme to wait to lose money for two years before profit.

Shivali:

I literally just heard this. Somebody was selling on Amazon and their product just became profitable after two years, which is a really long time. And for me, it’s just not what I wanted to do. So I made the executive decision to stop selling that product, not placing any more inventory for it, but I am in the process of relaunching and I’m quite excited about that.

Bradley:

Cool. You haven’t stopped selling books on Kindle this whole time. You’re still doing that, right?

Shivali:

Yes, correct. Yeah, so I do have a couple of books of my own, but I also publish Ghostwritten books, so books that I have hired writers to write because it’s very much similar to a physical product. Do you find a niche that you could do well in? You get a book written, you make it better, and then you of course get it posted, uploaded, and then advertise or drive traffic to it.

Bradley:

I don’t even know you did that. So like you have an idea of, of something that you think would be good, but since Bradley works you to death, then you don’t have enough time to write it yourself, I guess. So then you actually, like, what do you do? You find a writer and then you tell them your ideas and then they write it for you?

Shivali:

It’s very much like being an employer and finding somebody to do that job for you. So I usually post something on Upwork. You can use Fiverr, but Fiverr I typically use for maybe book covers. Upwork is where you make a job posting and you’ll have writers apply for it. You tell them what you’re looking for. Maybe you want a long-term relationship, which I definitely have had writers, I use time and time again. But also you can do maybe one-off projects and then just input in, you tell them what you want, maybe you provide an outline, you give them some milestones, say, Hey, like, I wanna check in with you after you’ve written X amount of numbers or X amount of pages, and then you’ll take a look, you’ll proofread it, or you can give them kind of input of what you wanna change and then work towards a second and the third milestone, depending on however many milestones you wanna have.

Shivali:

But yeah, that’s how you build out a book without necessarily taking all of your time. If you find someone who’s in a different country, of course, you can do it for a lot less and you’re still paying them the right amount for their work because they’re in a different country. So I do believe in the ethics of that business and making sure that these people are paid for the work that they’re doing. But it’s definitely a lot more affordable for us in the United States, maybe just to get that product out. It’s about the ROI, right? How fast you’re able to write that book and get it published

Bradley:

And impossible to lose money. Or at least I mean, in the production, cuz you’re not investing in any inventory.

Shivali:

Yeah. If it’s ghostwritten, yes, it will be maybe like $200-$300, depending on how long your book is really. But then after that, you can absolutely drive free traffic to it using Facebook groups. You can use websites that already exist. I’ve paid before like $25 just to have my book included in an email listing, or not an email listing, but an email forward that goes out all the time to readers that are constantly looking for new books and it pays off even more, especially if it’s a very niche audience. So maybe if I have a book that’s ins stress management, maybe somebody who caters directly to self-help to a self-help audience, it’s gonna pay off a lot better.

Bradley:

Okay. Now I remember you actually talking about your relaunch of products. You had actually shared some of your ideas with me. Now, what were some of the ways that you were doing your product research? Like how did you approach it? You’re like, Hey, I know I want to get restarted with some private label products on Amazon as well instead of just books. So how do you approach your product research?

Shivali:

One of the highlights at Helium 10 has been learning just how much, how many different ways you can do product research. We have a lot of various tools here at Helium 10. We have of course X-Ray, you have Black Box, you have your Pinterest Trends Finder, you have the reverse ASIN searches you can do on Etsy. Well, I kind of employed all of them, so I went in and it’s a really exciting part of your business, right? Trying to figure out what you really wanna build your foundation in. So I actually did go into Black Box, kind of played around with the filters, made a short list of items. I also went into Etsy, tried to find things that were unique that I think could have some demand on Amazon. I also went into Cerebro, tried to see related things based on what was really appearing inside Black Box.

Shivali:

Or maybe even if I had taken a word that I’d found on Etsy and put it inside Magnet. There was just, just a multitude of different things that I had employed. And as I went into the validation process, kind of took a look at what the competitors look like, how many reviews there were, are there actually ways to amplify or enhance the consumer experience. That’s when I started to really narrow things down. And then of course you have the profitability aspect where I was looking to see how much it would cost me to source and with all the customizations, would it actually end up being green in the long run? Not to mention I did also attend a show as well. So that was my first time ever going to a trade show and it was a really, really, really exciting experience for me. I remember I put you and Carrie in a group and I was texting you guys like photos of the event cuz I was so excited. But I got to meet a lot of the manufacturers. I actually got to meet one of the suppliers that I had placed a sample order with, which was really cool.

Bradley:

This was here in the United States. You didn’t have to go to China for this, huh?

Shivali:

No, no. Sorry for the lack of context there, but yes, this was in the United States. It was in Chicago. I ended up getting a message from a supplier I had placed in sample order with, and he was saying that their company was gonna be at this inspired home show in Chicago.

Bradley:

Oh, so that’s, that’s how you found out about it. Was from that supplier that you got. Oh, okay.

Shivali:

Yeah, so he mentioned he was gonna be there, and so I looked into it and I’ve been wanting to go to a Canton Fair in China, but I don’t believe that’s on the horizon for me at this moment. So the Inspired Home show was a little bit of a quicker trip for me where I could still experience what it might be like to be in the midst of a bunch of manufacturers and just really have that one-on-one contact. So it was an amazing experience to really sit down with my suppliers and just make that connection in person. I also got to find some additional factories that would be willing to work with me to build a brand new product. And that also comes with a lot of really exciting opportunities.

Bradley:

Okay. All right, cool. So people might think, Hey, to meet Chinese suppliers you have to go to China, but sometimes they come here at different shows and expos. So it’s to something to look into. Alright, now one last thing. You actually got to represent the United States in a world-class beauty pageant. So like, first of all, there’s like Miss Universe, there’s Miss World, and then there’s like, what are the Miss Supernational, which is the one you did, and there’s like one other, like

Shivali:

Miss Grand International,

Bradley:

Miss Grand International.

Shivali:

There are five. Yeah.

Bradley:

So what you did is kind of like Miss Universe, but it’s like a separate what group or something like that?

Shivali:

Separate organization. Yeah, it’s the same way. I always explain it with parallelism to banking systems. You have Wells Fargo, you have BB&T, you have all these different banking systems. They have sort of a similar intentions, but sometimes they’re just different organizations. So for Miss World, Miss Universe, Miss Supranational, Miss. Grant International, all do somewhat of a similar thing, which is to bring together, together really ambitious women and men and they can compete and be offered an assortment of different opportunities that you otherwise wouldn’t have access to. I mean, that’s a massive stage with a lot of eyes on it. So it’s really cool to take community work that maybe you’re doing a cause that you’re really inspired about or even just be maybe given modeling contracts if that’s what you choose to do, and just have that platform to really elevate you to the next place that you wanna go to. So yeah, I did Miss Supranational and their whole motto is to inspire and to aspire. And it was really neat. It wasn’t something that I had been working on. I really did wanna represent the United States at an international level, but I didn’t know when it was gonna happen.

Bradley:

It was actually cool. I saw one of your videos there, you had a shout-out to Helium 10. Now you didn’t end up winning, unfortunately, the competition. But anyways you did Helium 10 proudly. Now bringing it back to what we’re here to talk about today. I wanted to first talk about this project that you did with Carrie. We had there’s this hemp case study product that I’ve talked about on this podcast. And other times I’ve shown, I’ve used it as an example about listing optimization and things, but they had never sold on Walmart. And you yourself, your old product, correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t believe you ever sold that at Walmart. So this was like your first kind of entry into selling on Walmart, this little mini case study you and Carrie did, right?

Shivali:

Yes, it was, I was actually interested when I was taking a look at all the numbers on Amazon, on selling it on Walmart at the time, but they had a very different threshold for selling on Walmart at the time. They were looking for study revenue and you had to be selling for a certain amount of years. They were looking for experienced sellers and I think I was still getting started, so it wasn’t really something that was offered to me. Now that’s changed a little bit. They are a little bit more open with their application process and that’s why it was something that I kind of talked to Carrie about and she’s like, yeah, like you should start selling on Walmart. So I actually did apply myself and now with my new product, I’m hoping to send some inventory to Walmart and some to Amazon, which I think will be really, really good because Walmart is an expanding marketplace.

Shivali:

It’s the largest retailer in the world, but it’s also the second largest e-commerce marketplace that you can be on. And with that comes a lot of foot traffic. So with Amazon, you have I think about 1.9 million sellers, but on Walmart, you only have a hundred thousand sellers while the a number of consumers is still both in the triple-digit millions. So you have a lot more foot traffic per seller. And that of course affects your cost for PPC. It affects like how many people are really looking at your listing, and how many people you might be able to persuade with a great listing. And yeah, that’s one of the reasons why I considered selling on Walmart, but also we are doing this series because there’s so much potential for people who are already Amazon sellers to be on Walmart because they already know what to do. They already know how to create a great listing. So now it’s sort of just that transference of skills and expanding into a new marketplace to tap into a brand new consumer base.

Bradley:

Now you mentioned listings I would imagine that, was one of the main differences that you noticed like having experience making Amazon listings, making that first Walmart listing, like what are some of those differences? Because there are some people who mistakenly think, well, I’m just gonna copy bullet point for a bullet point, the title for title, description for description. I’m good to go, but that’s not the way they should do it on Walmart, right?

Shivali:

It’s not, of course, both of these platforms are very consumer-focused. They’re, they care about their customer experience. But as far as how you structure your listings, it is a little bit different. Walmart likes concise relevancy, which means that inside of their title, for example, they do want your brand name, they want your product name, but then also the attributes, but they do want it a little bit shorter. Their bullet points are a lot more concise. They don’t want keyword stuffing, which neither does Amazon, but sure with Walmart, you really have to pick and choose and then cater to the consumer’s understanding of that product. You have to encourage them to purchase. Whereas with Amazon, you do have a little bit more room to I have seen quite a few listings that do keyword stuff, and of course, you still want it to make sense, but Walmart is a lot more precise about it because they will kind of reduce your ranking for keyword stuffing.

Shivali:

So you’ll definitely wanna be more conscientious. They are similar in the sense of Walmart has Rich Media Content as opposed to A+ Content on Amazon, but you have to pay for the Rich Media Content, I believe. And as far as fees go, you do still have the referral fee, the fulfillment fee, and then whatever time you might end up spending to create that listing, and then the inventory you will want to send out to Walmart. So those are really the costs that are involved with Walmart. There are not really any monthly fees with Walmart outside of those, whereas Amazon still does have the 39.99 cents seller fee. Okay.

Bradley:

Alright guys, so if you guys are interested to learn like we highly recommend if you’re selling on Amazon already, you’ve got the product in the United States, it’s a no-brainer to give the Walmart platform a try. I remember Carrie I was talking numbers with Carrie the other day, and, and she’s got one product I, I believe that’s like outselling her Amazon product or the same product on Amazon like two to one. Now don’t expect that, but sometimes you never know. Not only will a product on Walmart sell well, but it might even outperform Amazon due to the level of competition. But at the very least in my experience I usually see like maybe 8 to 10 to 1 Amazon but, but hey, if you’re, if you’re selling a hundred thousand dollars a month on Amazon, it’s like, who doesn’t wanna sit sell another $10,000 a month on Walmart or $20,000.

Bradley:

So give it a try. By the time you guys are watching this, perhaps you’ll see the video series that Carrie and Shivali did go to the Helium 10 YouTube channel and you might see it, I think it is gonna be called like you just do a search for a Project Expansion, there you go. Project Expansion. Also on the last week of Freedom Ticket, we’re gonna have these videos in there. The last week of Freedom Ticket you’ll already notice is a whole bunch of videos from Carrie and different experts like Michael Lebhar talking about Walmart, but now she’s gonna add these videos there so you can see it in Freedom Ticket or YouTube check out project expansion where they took an Amazon product, made it live, send it to WFS, which is the Amazon or Walmart version of the FBA, and it showed the step-by-step process that you guys can follow so that that’s for newer sellers on Amazon, experienced sellers on Amazon.

Bradley:

But let’s talk, let’s switch gears. And you know, a few weeks ago we went to Prosper. I don’t know about you cuz you know, I wasn’t in your conversations with people, but for me this was the most I have ever seen. Kind of like one p very large companies we’re, we’re talking tens of millions of dollars of revenue just like come up to the booth like L’Oreal and like other huge brands usually, the prosperous show in the past, most of the people there, at least in my experience was like smaller sellers or you know, million dollar sellers maybe, but these are like a hundred million dollar brands and they were interested in like kind of like advanced marketplace analytics that then like the regular Helium 10 can offer. Did you talk to people like that as well?

Shivali:

I absolutely did. I mean, especially when you are a hundred-million-dollar brand, you have really big numbers kind of pumping through your business. You want to understand competitor performance at scale just so you can understand your market share, you can understand the individual ace and level performances, understand those benchmarks, and how they’re changing every single day, right? You have new competitors flowing in and outta your market and you need to stay on top of those things to make sure that you stay winning at the forefront of your field. And so we talked a lot about Market Tracker 360, which is our OG market tracker on steroids. That’s always what we’ve, what we’ve referenced it as. 

Bradley:

So you understand, what’s the main differences with the OG market tracker then?

Shivali:

Right. So the OG market tracker has more of a set-and-forget-it mentality. When you input, you can input, I believe it’s five keywords and then unlimited ASINs. But then after that you can’t really change those keywords and then you have to go through individually to mass mark products that you do or you don’t want inside of your market view. Now of course that’s great but there’s also not really access to the historical data or trends. If you have maybe fewer SKUs, then yes, it’s something that you absolutely can use and it’ll completely pay off cuz you can understand the competitor’s performance. You can maybe even use it to expand on your product line, find new products that would do well. There are a number of ways to use it. However, if you have a lot more SKUs kind of going through, then maybe something you’re interested in is dynamic tracking and then also a more granular view where maybe you can segment that information out into 1P and 3P sellers.

Shivali:

You can filter it down further into maybe the mid-tier price ranges that you’re interested in. Or even just seeing the revenue by brand year over year, the historical comparisons. You want access to two years worth of historical data and all of those things are possible with Market Tracker 360. So Market Tracker 360 really offers you the capability of mass marketing those products as they enter in automatically. And you can create your market view now with 15 keywords and unlimited ASIN so it’s a little bit more broader and then you could go narrower as you are really trying to figure out what you wanna look at inside of your niche, whether that’s subcategories categories if it’s filtered out by product title contains or does not contain it’s really up to you, but you now have the ability to apply really complex filters to hone in on what you are interested in, which is really, really cool and invaluable.

Bradley:

All right. Now, most of the people who are listening to this show are doing it without video. But you know, there are people who watch us on YouTube. So maybe if you can like, share your screen and give us a walkthrough of some of the differences and some of the insights you can get that are very unique with Market Tracker 360 again. And guys, if you’re newer sellers, don’t completely tune out. You know, this is something that you can set yourself as a goal. You know, there are sellers I know who are doing as small as two, 3 million a year on Amazon, who, who are using it. So this is a great goal so that you can understand the level of data that you’re gonna be able to see once you get a tool like this. But just Shivali keeps in mind that you gotta be a little bit more descriptive when you’re showing it even though you can see it on the video because there are a lot of people who might just be listening to this.

Shivali:

Absolutely. So when you’re inside of your Helium 10 account, you’re gonna go into tools and then click Market Tracker 360, which is the new and improved competitor intelligence tool. You can create a market in the top right-hand corner and when you do that, you’ll be directed to a page where you can like I said before, enter up to 15 keywords and as many ASINs as you want to define your market. Now we do have a threshold of a certain amount of search volume, so there might be a chance that you might click this and then some keywords will show up as red and that’s okay, you can just remove them and then simply kind of just modify that search. You can also select your products to add. So if you directly want to add some products that are already connected to your Helium 10 account, just click select my products to add and it’ll let you do that.

Shivali:

On the right-hand side you’ll see your market composition preview and it’s really just gonna help you kind of define your market at what you’re looking at based off what you’ve inputted. Now, anytime that you’ve already created the market and you go into Market Tracker 360, you’ll see a list of all the markets that you have and when you tap into one of these markets and our creation times are fairly fast, they’ll be created within 20 to 30 minutes of you actually inputting that data. I’m gonna click into a market I’ve already created, which is the puppy backpack carrier for small dogs. Right next to that initial market title, you’ll be able to select date ranges. So I’m taking a look at the last six months, that’s my preset, but this will apply to the entire page that you’re looking at. So up top you see the market performance.

Shivali:

This is based off those last six months cuz that’s what I have selected. I also have our insights board right underneath the area that shows you the top market share. So you see that these are the brands that really are dominating inside of the information that I inputted those keywords and the ASINs. I also have market unit sales and market revenue and how that’s changed from this set of six months to the last set of six months. Underneath that insights board I was talking about will show you brands, products, and categories. When you select one of those tabs, it will divide that information into top performing, fastest growing, and top declining. So maybe this is good for you just to make some broad overview conclusions. Maybe you see that for example you have my baby, the brand is ranked number five for revenue, but it’s also ranked number two for unit sales.

Shivali:

So that tells me a little bit of information about that price point compared to Amazon basics, which which is really dominating at the top of unit sales and revenue. If you go down a little bit further, you have your overall market. Now I will briefly kind of dive into this after I apply some complex filters, but just for now for those of you that are watching the video segment, you can take a look and see that this overall market chart really lets you break down all of this information that maybe you saw on the insights board or even that you have provided based off of the market you created. You can now go into revenue and then group it by let’s say your brand, your product, your me versus competitors or even your 1P versus 3P sellers. So you, this revenue grouped by none is really gonna give you that overall health trend line.

Shivali:

Maybe you’re an aggregator and you’re taking a look at whether or not this is a field that you are interested in exiting from or even just taking interest in. You can see that this is kind of going down a little bit, but overall it’s still up. You can also go into units and group that information by product brand, me versus competitors. Again, a lot of the same information, but what you’re really seeing is your revenue is on your y-axis, and your week, month, or year is on your x-axis. And then these values are are really your group by functions. So you’ll see that reflected in the products table right underneath. If you want to consume this information in a different way, you can digest it however you’d like. But I’m just gonna keep it here on a line graph.

Shivali:

You also have the stacked and bar chart I believe. You can also change that into a percentage if you would like, but I just have it set units grouped by-products and I’m scrolling down underneath that. You also have all your products. Now you’re taking a look at 17,080 products here, but this is the overall market view really with everything that’s dynamically tracking inside of it. So of course dog poop bags are not entirely the most relevant for the puppy backpack career carrier for small dogs. So let’s say I want to filter that out. All I would have to do is go into the filter right underneath the date range that we were looking at before and then you can input whatever you would like. If you want to click three p you can input a specific brand or exclude brands. You can divvy up into categories and subcategories.

Shivali:

Now I already have a filter preset and that filter preset is the dog carrier backpack, $25 to $50. And so the dog carrier backpack was the product title contains a segment of it. And then, of course, I inputted at price range to kind of hone in on the mid-tier market. And that changes my information. We went from Amazon basics being our number one for revenue and for unit sales that’s top performing into this brand. I don’t even know how to pronounce it, there’s always such interesting ones. I don’t know what that is. However, that’s your top performing. I can also take a look at maybe my top declining and you can see a completely different set of brands. Scrolling down, what I will kind of just jump into here because I really love talking about this and I think it’s so valuable for people that really wanna get those really granular competitor insights is going into these singular product analysis pages or even the multi-product analysis pages.

Shivali:

So what I can do here is I can actually select this product and click add to compare. And what it’ll do is it’ll take me to the singular product analysis page. Now this will tell you a little bit about the listing quality score. This listing here is killing it, the one that I’ve clicked into, which is the carrier backpack. And it has a 10 listing quality score. You have the sales insight chart right next to it, which you can pick and choose what information you wanna see between revenue pricing, BSR unit sales and stack it up right next to a secondary metric. Here we’re taking a look at revenue and you can see that there was a drop in revenue, but there was also a drop in pricing, which tells us maybe that it’s not so much the market itself and the demand, but it could just be the pricing itself.

Shivali:

If you go down a little further, you have your market average comparisons and of how that individual product that we selected stacks up to the market averages. And then of course I did when I was actually at the Prosper Show a few weeks ago, I did have some conversations where people were asking, is there a way for me to really track my subcategory BSRs all on one page without having to necessarily individually try to find those niches and look at them? Well, yes you can. You can now go into Market Tracker 360 and as long as you’re on an individual product analysis page, you’ll be able to track all those subcategory BSRs in one graph, which is really, really cool. You also have keywords. Now this is my highlight like I absolutely love this part of Market Tracker 360. I love it even more when there are multi-searches involved and I’ll show you what I mean by that in a second.

Shivali:

Again, if you’re watching the video, so if you’re listening to this on the podcast you will want to either go check this out for yourself on the YouTube page or even maybe you wanna get Market Tracker 360 and try it. But there are keywords here and for this specific product, it’s showing you the keywords that are organically and organically ranked as well as sponsored rank. And that is sorted by the search volume that are doing really well for this ASIN specifically you also have the top search volume trend. So these are the keywords that you will want to really pay attention to. These are increasing in search volume trends. So this is a great way for you to go in and get ahead and you can take these keywords as long as they are relevant to your product. Maybe it’s something you just wanna include in your listing as you are changing and retiming your listing posts.

Shivali:

You also have your top keyword sales and this is cool cuz you can go in, take a look at maybe there is a competitor that’s really dominating your market. You wanna figure out what that competitor is doing and you can do that by figuring out what are their top keyword sales and utilizing those keywords inside of your own listing. If you go down a little bit further from that keyword section, you also have the top keywords over time, which is really a heat map of how this ASIN is rising and falling for different keywords over time. And you can toggle between organic and sponsored for that as well as date ranges for that too. And that will apply to the whole market. So that’s just kind of a brief overview for Market Tracker 360, but there’s really a lot here that you can do with the tool and hopefully this gets you excited about what it can do for your business as well.

Bradley:

All right, so guys, remember if you’re just starting off on Amazon, probably making less than a million dollars a year I would say hold off on this. This is not, you might not be ready for it yet, but it’s definitely something you can have a goal to. But if you work for a larger company or you’re an agency, aggregator, big name Brand 1P, this is something I think that you’ll get a lot of benefit from a lot of companies already have. So if you’d like to get a free demo to see if it’s for you, just go to h10.me/mt360, MT as in Market Tracker 360, so h10.me/mt360. Now last part of this show, what we’ve been asking a lot of our guests this year is like, hey how do you, what kind of healthy habits do you guys have to stay mentally healthy, physically healthy? So what about you? Like, what are the things that you do to keep your body healthy but also your mind healthy?

Shivali:

So I absolutely love the gym. I think you know that, but I absolutely love just maintaining clean habits for eating and then going to the gym just to regulate and decompress. And then I’ve been trying, actually, one of my goals this year was to listen to more podcasts. So naturally, for those of you listening, you’ll want to listen to a lot more Serious Sellers Podcast episodes as well as anything that you feel like maybe there’s a sector of your life you really wanna do better in, find a great podcast, really form that association. You don’t necessarily have to know your role models all the time, but you can definitely get in touch with them through the content that you can zoom. So I love being able to read or listen to podcasts when I have time. Maybe that’s going to the gym. Sometimes what I do is I’ll get on the treadmill and I’ll just put in a podcast and listen while I walk. And it’s a great way to just stay healthy mind and body. I know, Bradley, you’ve been doing a standing treadmill. You’re, you’ve kind of inspired me. I wanna get one just hasn’t happened yet, but, but soon enough we’ll both be in the standing treadmill.

Bradley:

Yeah. Oh, Carrie was the first I think who did it and then I was the second then now. Yeah, you can complete the, the t now you, you actually on the side outside of Helium 10 hours, you have your own podcast now, don’t you? I

Shivali:

Do. I have my own podcast. It’s called Inspire Here and it’s really just about the journey of evolution. So all things that are growth related. I love having people on kind of talking about different things that maybe are philosophical in nature, maybe they’re just growth-oriented, maybe they’re personal. What they’ve done in their own life has really propelled them forward. And so it’s really neat. We closed off 10 episodes. We’re about to start season two, and I’m very excited for all the stories that we’ll share and hopefully all the impact we’ll have.

Bradley:

Awesome, awesome. All right, well thank you again for coming on the show and telling us about the new Walmart projects you’ve been doing your own projects, Market Tracker, 360 tons of great stuff. We’ll definitely be having you on. Now now you’re kind of hosting a show like once every other month for Tacos Tuesday, so we’ll have to bring you back more often. So thanks a lot and we’ll see you soon.

#439 - An Amazon Seller’s Guide To Building Your Credit

Are you an Amazon seller looking to improve or repair your credit score? In this episode, Lyann Nguyen shares her expert strategies, tips, and success stories for building both personal and business credit. From common mistakes to actionable tips you can do today, this is a must-listen for anyone looking to take control of their credit.
 
So why is credit important for Ecommerce entrepreneurs? As Lyann puts it, “dreams cost money.” Building a strong credit score can open up opportunities for funding and investment, allowing us to bring our dreams to life.
 
Whether you’re just starting out or looking to improve and repair your existing credit score, Lyann’s insights are sure to help. Tune in to this episode and start your journey to better credit.

In episode 439 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Lyann discuss:

• 01:20 – Lyann’s Backstory
• 02:50 – How She Got Into The Technology & Finance Space
• 04:25 – “A lot of my clients are E-commerce sellers”
• 04:30 – How Lyann Met Melisa Vong
• 06:40 – Is Credit Important For Entrepreneurs?
• 07:44 – “Dreams Cost Money”
• 09:05 – Will Your Corporation’s Credit Be Based On EIN Or SSN?
• 11:05 – Strategies To Build Your Personal Credit And Business Credit
• 14:50 – Common Credit Mistakes E-commerce Sellers Make
• 17:20 – Success Stories From Lyann’s Followers
• 20:45 – What Are The Different Types Of Credit?
• 29:35 – How Can You Repair Your Credit Score?
• 29:30 – Piggybacking On Someone’s Credit
• 31:11 – Negotiating With Lending Companies In The Amazon World
• 33:35 – Lyann’s 60-Second Tips
• 37:10 – How To Get In Touch With Lyann Nguyen

► 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:

Today we’ve got the Credit Ninja who has helped hundreds of e-commerce sellers, celebrities, and other professionals have the best credit that they can. How cool is that? Pretty cool I think.

Bradley Sutton:

Did you know that just because you have a keyword in your listing, that does not mean that you are automatically guaranteed to be searchable or as we say, indexed for that keyword? Well, how can you know what you are indexed for and not? You can actually use Helium 10’s Index Checker to check any keywords you want. For more information, go to h10.me/indexchecker. 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 we’ve got somebody very relevant to the e-commerce world here. First time on the show. Lyann, how’s it going?

Lyann:

It’s going great. Yeah. So nice to meet you at the sellers’ event.

Bradley Sutton:

Yes. Sell and Scale, I think where we first met Melissa introduced us. And don’t me just a little bit about what you do, but I wanna get your, your whole back story. You know, I haven’t asked this before, so like this is your first time in the show, so let’s, let’s get to know you. I just found out a few days ago you actually live in Vegas, right?

Lyann:

That’s right. Yeah.

Bradley Sutton:

Is that where you were born and raised, or?

Lyann:

No, I was born in Vietnam. I’m an immigrant. Moved to California, so the fall of Saigon, which is the biggest war of all the Vietnam War. We immigrated to the US in Irvine. And from there we lived there. And then I went to school there. I was actually pre-med in school and then decided not to go that path.

Bradley Sutton:

Where was this also in Irvine? UC Irvine?

Lyann:

UC Irvine. Yeah. How’d you know?

Bradley Sutton:

That’s an eater>

Lyann:

Isn’t your headquarters in Irvine?

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah, our headquarters in Irvine.

Lyann:

That’s awesome.

Bradley Sutton:

I work from home now though, so I don’t have to drive at all from San Diego. I don’t have to drive all the way up to Irvine anymore. But very familiar with that local college. I referee sumo tournaments. They rent out what do you call it? The, no, that’s Long Beach, the pyramid. No, that’s, see, I’m gonna get confused. That’s the pyramid is at Long Beach at Irvine. I’m not sure what you guys got for sports center, but anyways, I’m very familiar with the college. You said you went pre-med, but then what happened?

Lyann:

Yeah, so I decided not to go that path cuz it’s such a tedious career. I was cutting up cadavers those dead people and I couldn’t talk to them and I got so frustrated cuz I’m such a social person. I decided to–

Bradley Sutton:

You could talk to them, but they just won’t talk back to you.

Lyann:

That’s true, that’s true. And I can’t help them anymore cuz they’re kind of dead. So I decided to pack up my bags and travel the world and what I found was money rule the world. Learning about how powerful money and access to capital is really intrigued me. So that journey of self finding and searching brought me back to the United States and I decided to get into the finance world that led me into the technology side of finance. So my background is actually technology after I decided not to go into med. And that technology company is a data technology company. You like the word data, right? Data technology company located in Fountain Valley, which is not too far from Irvine.

Bradley Sutton:

I was born in Fountain Valley Hospital. Believe that or not.

Lyann:

No way. I know what that said. Right next to Miles Square Park. Right?

Bradley Sutton:

Well, I don’t remember cuz I was a little bit young at the time, but I assume so.

Lyann:

Oh my God. So we’re like neighbors growing up. And so it’s a credit technology company that, it was during the.com 1998 and during the.com crash of 2000, that led me out to Las Vegas where I started another tech company that handles money transfers. So debit and credit transactions. So I’m in the technology finance space. That’s how I ended up in Vegas.

Bradley Sutton:

Interesting. Interesting. Okay. Now have you ever sold on Amazon yourself?

Lyann:

I have not. I have been buying on Amazon.

Bradley Sutton:

I think we all buy on Amazon. Yeah.

Lyann:

We all buy on Amazon, but a lot of my clients are e-commerce sellers.

Bradley Sutton:

I was gonna ask like how did you meet, like Melissa who’s been on this podcast before? She’s the one who introduced us. Yeah. How did you meet her then? This

Lyann:

Is a very interesting story. So I’m a, I’m the co-founder of Penthouse Mastermind. Penthouse Mastermind is a mastermind event for all young entrepreneurs. So whether they’re an e-com, a YouTuber, a forex trading or a business entrepreneur. We used to do these events in Las Vegas, Arizona, Beverly Hills, and Miami. It’s all over the place. And Melissa was one of the speakers at my event, but I happened to not be at those ones that she spoke at. But when we finally were speaking at the same event in Arizona, we spoke on different days. So I didn’t meet her, I just heard about her. And then we communicated via Instagram, this is what great thing about social media. And I told her, we were supposed to meet, but I spoke and I left, and you came the next day at my event. So we just bonded in that way. And then finding out that she’s an Amazon product developer, I’m like, that’s really like our audience right there. So we kept asking her back for more speaking engagements. But when I met her, I met her at 10x Growth Con, which is, I don’t know if you know Grant Cardone.

Bradley Sutton:

Yes, yes. I mean, I don’t know him personally, but I know who he is.

Lyann:

Yeah. So if you look right here, I’m on an app called Clubhouse, and I’m standing right next to Grant. So we’re speakers on that app. So I’m big influencer on an app right there. So we’re actually speaking on stage right now. And so I met Melissa in Miami at the 10X event. And we just, we just bonded. We just spent time together. And from there she spoke at my other events in Park City, Utah. And anytime there’s a big event like Build Your Empire or any of Dan Fleischmann’s deals, we always spoke at those events. So we’re keynote speakers at these e-commerce entrepreneurial events. That’s how we bonded.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay. And then your specialty, because I think it was say like your Instagram handle everything is, they call you the Credit Ninja, is it?

Lyann:

Yeah, the Credit Ninja.

Bradley Sutton:

Credit Ninja. All right. So let’s talk a little bit about that because sometimes I think everybody understands what credit is, and why it’s important in the real world. But then now like, Hey, I need good credit to buy a car, to buy a house, this and that. But now as people transfer from like working for the mankind of jobs, and then now being their own boss and, and running their own e-commerce business, then the need for credit is a little bit different. So first of all, is it as important, more important or what, like somebody who’s becoming their own boss? What kind of credit score? Because I bet you there are people out there like, oh, who cares about credit anymore? Cause now I’m just employed myself.

Lyann:

Yeah. It’s more important. Okay. When you work for somebody else, you still need credit. Cuz if you’re trying to buy a house or a car, which you need to get to work, right? You need to have a roof over your head. You still have to have that personal credit. Now, when you’re building a business, that’s even more important because it’s all about access. Access is my favorite word in the world because it’s access to, number one, knowledge, right? Access to capital. And I’m gonna make a statement that’s gonna really hit a lot of your viewers, dreams cost money. Dreams cost money. When people think about it, I have an idea to sell this stuff, I have an idea to build this, I have a so, so idea. They don’t have the money behind it. So it becomes what’s called a pipe dream.

Lyann:

So having credit is one of the core components that everyone on this podcast has right now, we have one thing that is a lottery ticket. Do you know what that is? It’s just Social Security Number. Everyone that is in the US and in Canada has some type of Social Security Number. And that’s the number that describes your behavior on how you use money. How do you use credit? And that number can either approve you or deny you Sure. For access to capital. That’s as simple as that. If I could say how important it is. So when you’re trying to build a business, you gotta have that foundation to start building it correctly and being really laser focused. Otherwise, you can’t start a business, you can’t scale a business, you can’t sell your business because we all look for exits, right?

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah. Now I have a question then. This is just something that it might be a dumb question.

Lyann:

Not a dumb question.

Bradley Sutton:

So I think most of us understand that like, hey, we’ve got credit scores, right? And it’s tied to our Social Security Number, like you said. And you know, the higher the number, the more people will be willing to give you a credit card or low-interest car or whatever. Actually, I’ve applied for loans, for example, that Amazon gives or, or lenders give for my businesses, and with Amazon, it’s registered as a business. I think I have a corporation or something. I didn’t handle the details, but yeah, I know I’ve had to give my Social Security Number, but also registered for my corporation is like my EIN number. Now, I’m assuming a company can be based on similar credit, where it’s based on the EIN number? Or it’s always based on the principle owner’s Social Security credit history?

Lyann:

So it’s both. Okay. So when you start out a business, you’re building up your EIN, but EIN doesn’t have anything yet. So the banks are gonna rely on your Social Security Number first. So after you establish some relationship with that Bank of America or Chase or whatnot, then they start what’s called EIN only, which is no personal guarantee. When it’s a personal guarantee, it’s gonna tie to your social. But when you start a business relationship or corporate credit, they want us to see what you are all about. If they can trust you as an individual, after a period of time they start to go, oh, we know who Bradley is, he’s good to go. We’re just gonna put that truck or that box truck or those supply or that line solely on like training wheels. So your training wheels are like your Social Security Number. After a period of time they kick that training wheel out and you are just riding your bike without the training wheel. That’s your EIN or you’re done in Bradstreet. Or it could be your Experian and your Equifax Business Scores. And that’s where you want to go eventually, cuz you can scale bigger.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay. Yeah. All right. I’m starting my own business. Start of the business on Amazon. I’ve got my corporation set up. I’m my own boss now. What are some strategies on how I can build, or continue to build my personal credit and then start to build my business credit?

Lyann:

That’s a great question. So, with your personal end, what you wanna do is awareness. You wanna be able to track your credit. So the first thing is to get into a subscription credit reporting agency. So experian.com, it’s a paid service. Remember, you’re running a business you need to invest in. The most important thing is your file, your data, right? Your data on credit. So experian.com, you can get all three reports. It’s like $30 a month, but it’s worth it. Remember, it’s a write off for your business because it is for your business. Or you can go to Identity IQ and get a link. I have links there if you guys wanna hit me up, that’s fine. That way you can track all three credit reports. That’s the first step because you wanna see what’s on there. Is your address is correct, is your employment correct?

Lyann:

You wanna clean it all up. This one address, this one name. Don’t have like 10 million names. The more names you have. Now when they pull that, they’re gonna go, why is this person doing aliases? You know, it’s bad. Are they trying to be Jason Bourne one day? And you know, like Frank Abil there next day. So you gotta make sure it’s one name, okay? One address. You don’t have to have your phone number. The less information they have on there, the less mess up they could be. Okay, now you wanna look at all your account. Are there any collections on there? Are there any charge offs? Any late payment? You wanna make sure what does it look like now as I’m starting the business? Then from there you start getting the right credit cards. There’s, you gotta hit the right bank. So hit up Chase first.

Lyann:

Make sure you get all your Chase relationships outta the way cuz they are the most difficult ones. So make sure you sequence these cards right, then you build good history. You gotta make sure the pay on time. Why is this important? When your score is optimized, you can now start getting what’s called business credit cards. So the bank that you’re at, say you’re at Chase or Bank of America, they, you can get business credit cards with those banks, but because your credit score is optimized here, you can start getting business credit card. But here’s the beauty part. Beauty of this is that once this line comes like 20,000 and you start using some of these lines for your Amazon or Walmart automation business, whatever it is, it doesn’t report on your personal. So you can always maintain that optimal 740 plus score because now it’s reported on your business side that debt doesn’t show up. So even though you’re buying supplies or equipment or advertising and all that, it’s on this end. So this was always preserved, you always look optimal. And why I say that is, I just pulled my credit last week. What does that say?

Bradley Sutton:

850. Okay. I’ve never seen that number on mine. I’ll tell you that.

Lyann:

Okay. So this got pulled from my credit union, which is a FICO score. I always look for the FICO score. It’s a perfect credit score. So I’ve been doing this for 31 years from the data side to the consumer side. It’s a long time. I started when I was two years old. No, I’m just kidding. But understanding how the data works and how they report, you are gonna get a leg up above everybody else. So that’s my little tip is starting from the credit, personal credit to the business credit.

Bradley Sutton:

All right. Now I think people understand like the most common things that would negatively screw one over when, when they’re talking about their credit. Like, you know defaulting, just not paying, paying late, things like that. But just what are some other things that especially e-commerce sellers, I’m sure you talked to hundreds of them. What are some of the most common things that you’re like make you face palm? Like I can’t believe you did that. Or like, the most common things that you’re trying to help people to, to, to turn around and not do anymore.

Lyann:

Number one problem is missed payments. Because e-commerce entrepreneurs, YouTubers, I’m gonna do air quotes too busy cuz they’re flying around the world. They’re traveling, they’re digital nomads and they for some reason forgot to make that one little payment. And then it goes into 30 days in 60 days, this is gonna drop their score down anywhere from 150 to 200 points. That’s gonna make them unfundable. So having things on automatic pay is gonna be a tip that I’ll give at the very end, but missed payment is a big deal. Second thing is they’ve maxed out their card without realizing that they almost hit the limit that’s gonna drop their score down. And I’ll give you a tip at the very end when we round up our conversation and also you know, really not paying attention to offers. If they have a zero interest offer and they forget that it ends like in a month and then they forgot about it, then they start getting charged on the interest and they’re like, oh, I didn’t even pay attention.

Lyann:

Of course, we’ll round that up on the tips at the very end. The last thing is really having a reserve. Because when you’re an Amazon seller, a Walmart seller, an eBay sale, a Facebook market, I can go on and on cuz I’ve touched all these different clients. They don’t have reserves. They don’t have reserves because for some reason something unexpected happens, for example, their payment processor maybe Stripe or whatever it is, Cloak, PayPal, they shut them down for something where somebody did a refund or they did a chargeback, then now all that a hundred thousand dollars is held in that fund and they can’t pay their credit card because it’s due array cuz they bought such so many products and so many Facebook ad now they’re in default. So those are the most common problems that I’ve seen because these are the client problems that I see in the e-commerce space. Does that answer it?

Bradley Sutton:

Oh yeah. Okay, good. So those are the bad things. Let’s not make it all doom and gloom. Give me a success story. Something good that like, you haven’t seen yourself sold on Amazon, but, but you know, tons of Amazon or e-commerce people, but what’s an example of somebody who did the right things the opposite of what you just said and thus had some pretty good results based on that.

Lyann:

Yeah. So there’s so many success stories that actually over better than all the negative stuff. So it actually, a lot of people who start e-commerce, if they do it right, they get the right credit cards, they get the right scores, they get the right business credit card, then they’re building out their corporate. So I’m gonna give you one of the success stories is that they were able to scale their business. They were able to get Facebook ads because they have so many different credit cards and different relationships and a lot of them are zero interest. So if they were starting it right and they have a year worth of zero interest card and they only have to pay the minimum time is on their side, they now have the opportunity to scale quickly in a period of a year, instead of waiting for four to five years and with different relationships with different banks, now they can be their own bank and say, well I need Facebook ads.

Lyann:

I’m gonna grab it from this bank. I need to buy supplies. I can go to and get Chase. And that’s gonna be five times points and then on and on. And then they’re able to hire VAs. They’re able to get software like Helium 10 or they’re able to get convert kit that has the way to manage their emails or they can bring in people to do their graphics for their supplies. I mean like this they can buy thank you cards. Coupon cards graphics for their bottle. These are my products that Melissa is gonna be helping me put on Amazon. So it’s not like I haven’t had anything on Amazon. It’s a matter of yet. Okay. So those kind of things are all funded by a credit card, business credit cards, and then you have purchase protection.

Lyann:

So if anything goes wrong, you can call your bank and say, I’m not happy with that product. I bought that inventory. I’d like to be able to deal with it and have that credited and if you can contact them so you have all these insurances and all these points that come out of it. And instead of using money to travel, because a lot of these, they would have to go to China, well they could use the points to pay for their trip to go back to China and book a hotel. And it’s all because they use credit cards instead of cash, a wire or debit card because the side benefit outweighs just using a debit card or cash. So yeah, I mean we’ve had five figure owners go up to eight figure or nine figure because they have access to capital cuz they can scale at such a faster rate. And then they have cash flow through all these different credit cards, these lines of credit and so forth. So all in all, growth is there, access is there, and then being able to pull the trigger if they need a software or if they need a solution, they’re not held back by making that decision. I think that would be my success story for these sellers.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay. All right. Cool. Now I’m just getting started and there’s credit cards I know, but there’s lines of credit. Like what are all the different types of credit? Because you know, that C word is not just some people just think it’s credit cards. Some people just think it’s getting a loan from the bank. But, but what are, what are all the different kinds of credit that people should be taking advantage of when they’re starting their own businesses?

Lyann:

So first we have the revolving credit, which is your credit cards. You get a credit card by applying, you put in your information, you put in how much you make, and also your credit score would be computed. So you get a credit card and I could just show you visually, but it could be any of these credit cards, right? I have a whole book. There’s a hundred cards in here. Okay. I owe nothing

Bradley Sutton:

A hundred. Good grief.

Lyann:

I collect cards for a living but I owe zero on them. So when you get these credit card, each one of them will have an offer. You might have to spend 3000 and you get x amount of points, right? So those credit cards you could use, especially in the business credit cards, you can use it for all your businesses. Then when you build a relationship with these banks, they offer you what’s called a line of credit for your business. So it might be a purpose loan. So they might offer you $20,000 to put in your business to buy inventory or to hire staff or so forth. And those come with a fixed amount that you pay every month. So if you get a $35,000 loan, you may have to pay $800 or $900 a month.

Lyann:

And you have to ask them if I prepay, earliest there any penalty. Cuz you need to ask those questions. What have you opened your Walmart store and you did a killer month or two months and you are able to pay this down? Well you should have the option so you don’t have to pay these fees and early termination or whatever it is, early prepayment. So that’s another line. And another thing is these banks also give you equipment loans or American Express, what’s called vendor accounts. So when you have a good relationship with American Express, they give you all these different products and services. The key thing is calling them every month and finding out as a business relationship with you. I already used my credit cards, you gave me a line of credit. Do you have any vendor accounts there that I could use to buy all of my supplies or products that I wanna test? And they would say, well fill out this form and if they’re an approved vendor, you get $50,000 that you could just build directly and we’ll pay them directly and you could just pay us. And so there’s so many different products out there, you just have to build that relationship with the bank to find out what unique product it is. So it’s all relationship based that’s my little tip for everyone. Is that answered?

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Now let’s say it is what it is. A lot of us maybe haven’t had the best of credit. Yeah. And we want to turn that around. You know, our, our credit, our personal credit, we’re talking about like, like our and so some of these things we can’t get 30 credit cards cuz we get denied all the time. Yeah. Cuz we got something like I got something on mind. Like I unfortunately got in with a wrong crowd of people and then everything for the company got on some of my credit cards and I was the one on the hook and had to default on them and everything. And so I didn’t have to do bankruptcy or anything. But that stuff has been on my record for a while. You know, other people just maybe had a couple of late payments here or there. And then like you said their score went down 150 points or something. What are some ways that somebody can start building that score back up?

Lyann:

Well Bradley, just understand that you are not the only one. A lot of people are going through that. Whether it’s because of their business, the health, maybe their job got eliminated. So it’s never too late to start. So again, finding out what your credit score is the first step. And if for those people that say, well I can’t afford the $30 a month right now cuz I just barely am making, it’s okay, go to Credit Karma. It’s a free app. At least it doesn’t give you the accurate score because it gives you a vantage score. But you can actually see how many collections are on there. You can see how many late payment, it’s a free app so you can log in and find out and then you have to come up with a game plan.

Lyann:

Okay? First of all, contact these different collectors and find out if there’s a way that you can negotiate that down. But don’t call them unless you have a little bit of money. Other than that you can start disputing it. There’s different ways to dispute on these forms. You can contact the bureaus and actually dispute and let them know that you’re unsure about this or you don’t recognize it. Because how many people forget what they eat last week. If I asked you right now, what did you eat last week? You’d be like, I don’t remember. Well there’s so many credit cards and so many things. So the actually truth is that I don’t recall or I don’t recognize this or this is not me. And then force the bureaus to find out if it’s you or not. Because then it’s on them to figure it out and it’s a 50% chance that they’ll come back and say, oh, we didn’t find anything on it.

Lyann:

And then they delete it. But you have to be diligent on this because the more that you do this, things will start to slowly get off. If you do nothing about this, the score will either stay the same or get worse because you let it fester. Okay. So that’s my little tip for someone is get a free report just, or you can go to annual credit report. You get a free report from the bureaus and push put the box that says I got denied, which is kind of true. You’re not lying. They will send you a report, you’ll see the whole breakdown of all of them and then contact each of the bureaus. I mean, you don’t have any money right now, so you might as well have the time to contact them. And the more things that falls off now your score would get a little bit better. And then the second tip is go get a secure card. I know it’s probably gonna cost you a couple of hundred dollars, but you’re building trust with the bureau again and $200-$300 is nothing to pay.

Bradley Sutton:

Secure Card means that I have to pay up front for it.

Lyann:

So you can go to like, Discover has it you can go any of the major bank, bank of America has it. US Bank has it. Citibank has it go in there and say, I’d like to open a Secure Card so that I can build my credit again. You put two or $300 if you wanna ball out and put a thousand, that’s great cuz then you have a bigger limit. The cool part is you never lose that money. That is money that is secured and they’re building a trust with you over six months. If you have really good payment history, keep those. If you buy it like a pack of gum, pay it off right away. Keep that really low and now it triggers the algorithm. Now you’re gonna have stacking on their positive data and all that bad stuff. The late payment, now it’s gonna be in the background.

Lyann:

So over time those late payments will not affect you as much when you stack on some good stuff. It’s like putting makeup on. If I didn’t have makeup on, you’d probably see my little freckles and all that. Well those freckles are the late payments or the little scars or the little imperfections. It’s putting makeup on your credit report by doing these Secure Cards and showing the system that you are actually having good payment behavior. That’s, that’s the best tip I can have. And over time, when your score gets a little bit better, you can now start applying for those cards. And even if they give you a $500 limit, it doesn’t matter still, those will actually stack on it. Another tip is adding, well, we’re gonna do the tips at the end. So we’re gonna save that. I’m gonna give you some tips at the end. I just want to give you everything.

Bradley Sutton:

A little bit off the wall question. Yeah. go for it. Something I did. And okay, so like I said, I had some credit issues. And so like, I couldn’t even, I still don’t think I qualify for brand new credit cards. Like I’ve tried. I can get caught. Like I don’t have terrible, terrible credit. You know, I’ve bought cars and stuff like that. But for credit cards I would always get denied. So my dad has like, excellent credit. So like I would get him a credit card and then I would put myself as an authorized user. Usually, it would ask my Social Security Number too. Now I know the principal beneficiary or the negative side of it is my dad, like for that credit card cuz it’s under his name and his social. But me as a sub-user if they did ask my social whatever the activity is on that card, whether it’s me buying things or it’s my dad. Yeah. Does that help me build my personal credit back as well? Or it’s only affecting, my dad’s credit?

Lyann:

No, it’s gonna help you. And here’s the key part. If he has cards already in his own name, that’s more effective than opening a new one. Why? Because those cards would be older. So if dad had a Chase card, for example, that was 15 years old and he has great history on it, he adds Brad on there as an authorized user and make sure you call the bank to put the social on there. Okay. So it’s solid. You don’t have to have the card tell dad don’t give me a card at all. I don’t need the freaking card. Yeah. And that history now it’s called mirroring, it’s gonna piggyback on his card. Your data is gonna float from him to you. Your data never goes to him because it’s always one direction. It’s like donating blood. If I donate it blood to you and it’s really good blood, I don’t get the blood back.

Lyann:

You get my good blood. Do you see how it goes? I have to tell these stories so people understand. You don’t need the card and you still got the benefit. It’s called piggybacking on someone’s credit. Make sure you are with someone like your family or someone that you trust. And that dad doesn’t miss any payment because if dad miss a payment because he’s out in Mexico, wherever partying, you will get ding too because now that one month or two month of late goes onto you. See how it goes? That’s a trick though.

Bradley Sutton:

Interesting. Alright. I learned something. I was doing the first half, I was like, I know it get credit, I wish I would’ve known that a couple of years ago.

Lyann:

There’s a little tweak to it. It’s like software. You mean someone can download a software, but if they don’t know the little, little nuances Then how they’re gonna know how to really optimize, right?

Bradley Sutton:

Okay. Good. Good. All right. Now in the Amazon world, especially a lot of people, once they start get they get going. They, they qualify for, for different loans and things like that. Lines of credit. Because what a lot of these lending companies in the Amazon world they can actually connect to like your Amazon account and they could actually see like, oh yeah, this guy’s doing like $50,000 a month, et cetera. But whatever the case is, they might start getting offers or maybe I’m trying to seek out a line of credit or a loan, and all right, this company, this bank gives me an offer like, all right, hey, we’re going to this, this percentage rate and this is the time you have to pay it off. Do I need to accept pretty much whatever they offer? That’s it. Or do you think there’s wiggle room? And then if there is wiggle room, how do I negotiate to try and get some better rates?

Lyann:

Yeah. So what you wanna do is take down their information and then call them and tell them, I see that you’re offering this and this and this. The other company is offering me a better rate. Would you match it? Or I can go to the other company, always use one bank against another. It’s the only time I make the statement, it’s the only time that encourage polygamy in the banking world. You gotta have a lot of bank, and the reason for that is that you can always use one bank against the other.

Bradley Sutton:

Sister wives.

Lyann:

Sister wives. I like that. I like that. For sure.

Bradley Sutton:

Sister banks I guess you could say.

Lyann:

Yeah. I mean, interesting. It’s very competitive world and especially the statement that you made is they see what your flow is. They see how much volume you’re bringing in. So you’re like, you know how good my numbers are.

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah.

Lyann:

Do you want my business or it’s okay, I can go and compete. They want your business. So they’re gonna go, okay, well we’re, we’re, we’re charging 9%. We’ll we’ll make it seven. Would that be good? Okay, let me think. Let me call the other bank. Or do you want me to not call the other bank? You gotta be a really walking negotiator every time because it is your business. The lower you can get those rates, the more that you have cash flow. It’s all about cash flow. And it all boils down to access to capital. It all boils down to, you need to have time on your side because these payments come so fast. If you have time on your side to flip it, that’s when you’re able to make money.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay. Very interesting. All right. Yeah. Let’s do some maybe rapid fire. So some 60-second tips here. Atleast one I need, but let’s see if you can do some multiple ones and what’s some quick hitting strategies that people or our e-commerce listeners out there.

Lyann:

Let’s do it. Okay. Number one, you want me to start? We got 60-second tip. First, we talked about keeping track of your three scores. Get cr experian.com or Identity iq. And if you have zero money and you’re broke as no joke, go to Credit Karma, get that account, put it on your phone, monitor that and find out what needs to be done. Number two, fix all your personal information, your name, your address, your employment, your phone number. Clean it up till you have one of each. Don’t have a whole bunch of stuff that would actually help clear a lot of bad data.

Bradley Sutton:

Wait. Hold on. Yeah, on on number two. Where do I go to do that again? I know you mentioned it earlier, but I forgot to write it down myself.

Lyann:

No problem. You can go to experian.com or Identity IQ and the part where it says personal information, you can dispute a lot of that stuff. Or on Credit Karma, you’ll see all that information and then you’ll see like their name, address. The report doesn’t look right, you can contact the bureaus. You can just Google phone number.

Bradley Sutton:

So directly from like these experian.com and these.

Lyann:

So you call them and then they’re gonna say, can you can you send me a get, make sure you get your utility bill because or your bank statement that has your name and your address, you would have to send that to them and a driver license to make sure that that’s your one address. You are not living in 10 different places. That’s gonna actually bump your score anywhere from 20 points to 50 points. Just that one move because it’s data. Number three, spreadsheets get to love spreadsheets and everyone has access to free spreadsheet. It’s called Google. You can set up a Google email and in there they have Excel spread, it’s called Google Sheets, which is Excel. You can create Google Sheets on there. And I want you to put in there the name of the card or the loan, the due date, the reporting date.

Lyann:

That’s the date that re reports to the bureau. That’s really important to know that date. The limit of that credit card or that loan, the balance, how much do you owe on it? What is the monthly payment? And then the last section you wanna put notes. If there was an offer of I gotta hit $2,000 to get $50,000 points and the due date is gonna be six months from that date, that’s a drop debt date. And if you wanna get those benefits of those points, you gotta hit those dates. All the payment. Make sure you pay your payments on time, set it up call, you can log into your account and say, every month on the due date, I wanna take it out from this account. It’s automatic. And make sure the first few months, make sure that it works. So that way the banks talk to your bank. If you miss a payment, you’re gonna drop your score. If you are on time all the time, your score will go up to the 850. Okay? The last one is keep relationships with the bank. Contact them. Bid one bank against the next. Learn how to get notes. Take your notes down and talk to them. Cuz if you negotiate a really good rate, that’s more money that you’re saving to put back into your e-commerce business. 60 seconds. I’m done.

Bradley Sutton:

I love It. Hit it. All right. This is awesome. Now I’m sure we’ve just, you know. Scratched the surface here of, of all that can be talked about and I ask all my questions, but maybe there’s some customers or some listeners out there who have other questions. So how can they find you on the interwebs if they’d like to reach out.

Lyann:

Yeah. So you can go to lyannnguyen.com, which is my name. So it’s Lyann, it’s my first name. Last name is Nguyen. Or just follow me on Instagram. It would be @ninjalyann. I used to have Credit Ninja, but you know how Instagram is, they’re always hackers and stuff. So that’s my new Instagram. But follow me there for tips and DM me the word “list” on Instagram. And you’ll be part of my newsletter. And I’ll keep you posted on all the stuff relating to credit, e-commerce, YouTubeing, all that stuff that’s tied into credit and finance.

Bradley Sutton:

Well, Lyann, thank you so much for your time on this podcast. Definitely wanna reach out to you next year and I’m gonna give you an update on all that I’ve implemented from, from what you’ve what you’ve taught. And I know people will be reaching out to you as well because this is very important stuff. So appreciate your time.

Lyann:

Thank you so much. And I will see you again. Maybe in California, cuz I’m in San Diego a lot.

Bradley Sutton:

All right, let me know and then we’ll get some coffee or something.

Lyann:

All right. Thank you.

Bradley Sutton:

All right, we’ll see you.

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