Massive Scale Cross-Border Amazon Arbitrage

[msufan]

Today's Stats​

View attachment 52619

Weekly Goals​

1. DONE Renegotiate international logistics rates
2. WIP Get Amazon Ads account unblocked

Update​

I updated my pricing to reflect my lower costs on the international logistics, and it will take 2-3 days to finish updating all my listings. I think my final prices should be 10-15% lower, depending on the weight vs product cost of each item.

My automated rating requests are working well. I had zero ratings on my entire account up until I started this, and now I have three five star reviews, which should hopefully influence buyers to choose me over some competitors that have terrible reviews.

I'm thinking about improving the customer experience even more by automating shipping updates. Customers often don't understand why the item is not marked as shipped, even though they ordered it a week earlier. I can make this clear in the automated mail and also give them more accurate delivery estimates.

BIG TIME update right here. Automated shipping updates are huge, good ratings are huge, $500+ in a day is huge.

 

[msufan]

I knew this would be a good thread to watch. Keep going!

This is so different from the "I want money, I need ideas, I'm going to be rich, ME ME ME" threads out there. Just relentless tactical execution.

 

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[GoldFibre]

Today's Stats​

Weekly Goals​

• Open any third country

In the back of my head I am sure that the best way to multiply this business is to run my own online store. However I was worried about the integration work involved and kept hesitating to do anything.

So this morning I just went ahead and opened a store and realized there is probably a Shopify app that does most of what I need or can at least get me started quickly. I installed marketplace connect and connected it to my Amazon account. Then I waited a REALLY long time for my listings to fetch:


While waiting I configured the store with some basic setup. My goal was to launch something by today, regardless of how bad it is. It just has to have a domain, at least one product and a way to checkout and pay.

With that in mind, I kept the default theme for now and just filled in some placeholders. I registered my domain and connected it. It is tempting to work hard on the site design, but this is really not the most important thing to work on, and can suck up a lot of time. I think I just need to prove the concept with some sales and then I can invest in a professional design.

Since it was taking a long time to get my Amazon listings, I went ahead and manually created one product (something I sold today) and launched the store. So I got my MVP and now I can work to make it better.

The main thing is to populate the products. There is an API rate limit in Shopify that prevents you from creating too many product variants in a day, but I'm not sure if it applies to this app, which is developed by Shopify. If I do hit the limit I might be able to reach out to support and get the limit lifted temporarily.

Once the products are populated then I need to work in getting traffic and setting up a conversion funnel. I'm thinking that the primary traffic sources will be Google organic and Google Ads, but a friend of mine gave me an idea of starting a separate price comparison site that compares between my store and Amazon and maybe a few other stores. With this site even if I am not the lowest price and don't get the traffic, I can still earn money through Amazon's affiliate program. Creating this site would take some time, so I'll start out with the easy setup of the Google channels.

So next I set up Google Analytics and Google Ads. There was no point in running any ads until my products are populated though, so I worked on transactional things for the rest of the morning while waiting for the Amazon listings to load in Shopify.

And then I realized my way of importing the amazon products probably wasn't going to import the pictures. So I evaluated a bunch of other apps that offer that. Most of them had some charge that scaled with the number of products, which doesn't work for me. I need to keep looking to find something that will work and in the worst case figure out the automation myself.

 

[GoldFibre]

Today's Stats​

Update​

• Avoided watching YouTube - YES
• Avoided playing chess - YES
• Get lots of products on Shopify - IN PROGRESS
• Set up initial Google Ads campaigns - NO

By chance I woke up quite early at 4am and got to work.

I let the script run overnight, but it crashed due to some randomly appearing modal. I think this modal probably was asking for an app review. I added a fallback to reload the page and restart on any unanticipated crash to try to handle this.

Since I don't have a way to speed up the number of products I can upload per hour, I tried to think of another optimization to make. So I modified the script to prioritize uploading products that I've already sold on Amazon, rather than just anything that is in my catalog.

One thing about this import is that it is using the affiliate API and therefore it doesn't know which seller account is mine. This means that the price it imports is whichever one is winning the BuyBox, even if it isn't me, which has a risk of selling at a loss. So at some point I should have a script that automates the price/availability updates in Shopify, and maybe modify this script to immediately check and upload the correct prices after upload.

Also it isn't necessarily the case that I want the prices to be the same. When I sell on Amazon they are usually taking a 15% fee, but when I sell on Shopify I'm looking at maybe 3% for the credit card processor. On the other hand, I will have to cover the cost of whatever marketing I do.

A bigger issue is that there aren't any collections applied to the products after importing, and collections in Shopify are what drive the product categorization and navigation. Ideally I want a big nav menu with a bunch of product categories for the user to find what they are looking for. For now they can use search, so I can just make that the most prominent thing in the design.

I removed the main nav and used some custom liquid code to put the search bar front and center in the hero section. I'm roughly copying my main competitor's design here.

I needed a background image for my hero section, so I asked ChatGPT to make it for me. Here are some of the iterations:




This was a lot of fun, but I had to stop myself and settle on something to move forward with.

After that I set up Google Search Console and did some basic SEO work on the store.

 

[msufan]

Don't overthink it.

Get something setup with a $5/day budget. Then you're in motion.

MARKETING - The Shortest Google Ads Tutorial Ever

It took me HOURS to create this. Let me know if you have any feedback or suggestions. Hope it helps! View: https://youtu.be/7z7kx3kJC4M EDIT: Once you're running watch these two short videos to make sense of the metrics...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

GoldFibre -- definitely check out Andy's resources when it come to Google Ads

 

[msufan]

Also run dynamic search ads to each page. Let Google figure out keywords and ad headlines. Have a low budget and mine for search terms.

Do you find that letting Google figure out keywords and ad headlines works better than trying to do it manually? Is that good advice for beginners or even for experts like yourself?

 

[GoldFibre]

Weekly Update​

• Avoided watching YouTube - YES
• Avoided playing chess - YES
• Get lots of products on Shopify - YES
• Set up initial Google Ads campaigns - YES

I replaced watching YouTube and playing chess with listening to Unscripted and The Great Rat Race Escape . I find that listening while I work helps keep my mind on the goal and destroys any temptation to waste time.

I got a Shopify store up and running with about 2k products and many more variations. Google Ads/Analytics/Search Console is set up although the ads aren't spending yet.

Fulfillment has been really time consuming, maybe more so than usual because of the holidays.

I've also been pretty busy with administrative things outside of this venture and it is going to continue to be like that for a few weeks. So I have to manage my time well.

My bot ran out of 'safe' brands to upload so this is partially why growth the slowed down. This coming week I will find a new source of 'safe' brands, iterate on my Google Ads & Shopify store funnel, and try to launch my price comparison affiliate link website in some shape or form.

Essentially I need to make sure I'm milking my current revenue stream as much as possible, while also working towards diversification, as I'm 100% dependent on Amazon and 95% dependent on one Amazon marketplace.

 

[Andy Black]

I wasn't aware of the Search Exact Match IS column before.

Cool.

Did you know to divide impressions by impression share to get the estimated searches?

 

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[Andy Black]

Now I need to figure out how to adjust the approach for a store with millions of unrelated products.

Excel and Google Ads Editor.

 

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[GoldFibre]

Today's Stats​

Weekly Goals​

• MOST IMPORTANT Source more 'safe' brands to list: DONE
• Make at least 7 software improvements: 7 / 7
• Implement two process improvements with vendor: 2 / 2
• Figure out how to get documents approved for new marketplaces: NOT YET
• Get rates for other countries: NOT YET

I made improvements to the Shopify importer so that it got stuck less often and handled more cases.

My vendor implemented two more processes: one for handling returns at origin and another for received packages not found in our fulfillment sheet.

I also tracked down the local distributor for the products I wanted to buy wholesale. They told me they would connect me with someone that can give me a quote, but I have a feeling I am going to have to chase them.

 

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[Justinww11]

Today's Stats​

View attachment 53327

Weekly Goals​

• MOST IMPORTANT Source more 'safe' brands to list: DONE
• Make at least 7 software improvements: 9 / 7
• Implement two process improvements with vendor: 2 / 2
• Figure out how to get documents approved for new marketplaces: DONE
• Get rates for other countries: NOT YET

I called seller support to ask why my documents got rejected, and they gave me some more information than the last time I checked. I submitted a similar document and it got approved, and then I had to do some photo verification which is now under processing. They told me I could verify everything under my personal name, and then switch my account back to my legal entity afterwards, which makes one wonder what the point of the verification is.

I had a call with my supplier to help them with paid marketing and we scheduled a weekly recurring call. This is part of my deal to get lower rates and so I should be holding up my end of the bargain.

After a very long time without selling any products with the wrong voltage, today I had two such orders. When I checked the listing attributes via the SP API, they had neither the 'voltage' nor 'corded_electric' attributes that I was filtering. So I have broadened my filter now to also exclude anything with any value of 'wattage'. Then after a while I thought better of it and just blacklisted the two brands. After all it has been months since this has happened.

I also had someone order live caterpillars. There was nothing in the API that would have hinted at this, so I just blacklisted the brand and canceled the order.

Other miscellaneous improvements:

• I fixed my weekly performance page, because it didn't handle the carryover of weeks across years
• I added some conditional highlighting whenever order quantity is greater than one, to prevent the mistake of ordering the wrong quantity
• I added a chargeable weight column to the fulfillment sheet so I can get a handle on my actual costs much earlier in the process and also automate updating them in my job accounting system

I’m an Amazon Arbitrage seller myself, it’s super interesting to see all the different avenues there are to make money with Amazon. I look forward to more progress updates. Keep it up!

 

[GoldFibre]

Today's Stats​

Weekly Goals​

• MOST IMPORTANT Source more 'safe' brands to list: DONE
• Make at least 7 software improvements: 10 / 7
• Implement two process improvements with vendor: 2 / 2
• Figure out how to get documents approved for new marketplaces: DONE
• Get rates for other countries: NOT YET

Overnight my account got disabled for 'unauthorized distribution', which is a violation that I have not seen before. After some investigation I found that the ASINs concerned are on my Shopify store, and considering that only ~1% of my Amazon listings are on my Shopify store, I decided to play it safe. I put my store behind a password, effectively taking it down, and then I submitted an appeal and plan of action.

My biggest competitor lists millions of Amazon products on their own independent site but still are able to sell on Amazon without issue. I checked and their website copies the exact product names, descriptions and images from Amazon.

I contacted my account manager and the other people I know at Amazon, told them what happened and sent them the documents they asked for. I called them more than 10 times throughout the day but didn't get any material update.

However in the evening my POA was rejected. I will have to wait out the weekend with no sales until I can get more information about how to improve my POA.

With my sales suddenly at zero it was hard to keep my motivation up today. I'll take a little bit of time to feel sorry for myself and then jump back on the horse.

 

[Bounce Back]

What I'm doing is consolidation. We collect up all the orders for a fews days, then ship them at less than 1/10 of the cost of shipping back to back, then deconsolidate at destination and dispatch with a local courier.

One of the softwares I maintain as part of my business is a freight forwarding software which sounds very similar to this space. Am I getting the terminology mixed up here?

 

[Andy Black]

How many products have you got in your Shopify store and Google Merchant Center? Maybe restrict it to a handful and get approved? Maybe uploading too many too fast is making it hard on yourself to stay compliant, and maybe worries Google (staff and algorithms)?

 

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[freek]

Really excited to see how much progress you are going to make with comitting more time

 

[IceCreamAction]

This is my best try at a 10 year old child summary:

I have a robot that finds products in the US and puts them on Amazon sites in other countries.

The products aren't available in those countries, and some people are willing to pay more to get them.

I save money on shipping by combining small packages together into one big package.

Love the energy emanating from you and this current project.

Just wanted to add a 2cents on this aspect.

I live in the Caribbean and most people who shop on Amazon in this territory utilize a freight forwarder of sorts. (Web Source for me) where we just utilise a Miami address, the respective taxes shipping costs etc are all handled by this third party and the package arrives at my doorstep. Not sure if there is an overlap in these operations with your project but I figure it would be a good place for comparison

 

[Bounce Back]

I normally drink the equivalent of about 5 espressos every day. Yesterday I quit drinking coffee cold-turkey and had a monster headache and felt sleepy the entire day. Today I was much better although still a little groggy. I think I'll be fully through the withdrawal symptoms by tomorrow.

I personally gave up caffeine a few years back and it was a smart move. A couple times over the last few years I had even half a cup of coffee and instantly remembered why I stopped. It is hard for some weeks but it goes away - I've found starting the morning by chugging a glass of water helps.

Though I wasn't "5 espresso" tier - that is next level kinda stuff!

 

[theag]

make requests to the Indexing API on Google Cloud

I'd be careful with that. This API is only intended to be used for job postings and livestream announcements. So your service is most likely violating Google's TOS, which usually isn't a good foundation for a business.

I'm in some SEO groups and heard about recent manual penalties against sites that abuse this, so it seems like Google is starting to crack down.

 

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[Jemmalee]

Your daily updates inspired me to start doing the same (on LinkedIn). I'm enjoying it and it seems to be inspiring others to take action too judging from the replies.

More importantly, I think it's something I can do forever, and it forces me to summarise what's been done, the results, and what I should do next.

So thanks!

Told you I'd come back!
Now I've stopped posting on LI!

 

[Bounce Back]

Since he already has another related business he has the local knowledge and can source the manpower and vendor relationships. I would handle running the operations, the marketing, and the tech.

I know you don't seem to be seriously considering but if you did I sure hope your equity is much higher than his lol - that seems very lopsided.

 

[GoldFibre]

Since you mention logistics, I assume you will actually stock some products yourself instead of just dropshipping?

Roughly, phase two of the the business plan is to hold inventory on products that will move fast. So dropshipping gives me the data to focus my efforts on what to buy wholesale, which brands to negotiate exclusive distribution rights with, or maybe even what to white-label.

Did some quick research and found tools like PriceYak - the Original Dropshipping Automation Software. I assume that the competitors you mention probably use something prebuilt like that?

Yes, there are a number of automation softwares out there, but the ones my competitors are using are specialized to this particular scenario - cross-border (more complex logistics and costs) and massive scale (millions of SKUs).

Amazon also changed the rules around dropshipping recently and this has raised the barrier to entry. Now you have to relabel/repackage your shipments to make it clear that it is coming from your company. So the model that PriceYak has on their website (shipping direct from another store to the customer) will get you banned by Amazon.

Seems like a business model driven by efficiency and whoever can afford the smallest margin will win. So having your own software definitely helps. I'd guess that the auto-ordering will be the bottleneck at scale.

Building the software myself eliminates a lot of fixed cost initially. And I will do the manual procurement process myself until it becomes too burdensome, and then will automate it. Worst-case I can outsource it.

 

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[GoldFibre]

+1 new sale last night

Progress:

• Added UI for tracking my goal progress and inspecting the fast moving listings and winners
• Added UI for adding new search keywords, then used it to double the number of keywords that get automatically scanned
• Reached out to five different courier companies to try to get better pricing on the domestic leg and got about 12% lower cost
• Created a collaborative Google Sheet with my international logistics vendor to coordinate on order tracking
• Discussed with the vendor on SOPs and considerations for the next market

We went from 60 Fast-Mover Winners yesterday to 239 today, which puts me on pace for this week's goal. I'm not sure the exact reason it went up so much, especially since most of this happened before I made the changes listed in the progress section.

The order tracking Google Sheet is a temporary solution, and I'll build some custom UI for this once the order volume picks up. At this point it is a better use of my time just to do a spreadsheet in 10 minutes and then spend the rest of my time optimizing the listing automation.

 

[GoldFibre]

Gotta be honest. This thread is giving me big get rich quick vibes.

I love how honest you're being about the problems you're facing. I love even more how quickly and creatively you are solving them.

"Let me scrape a database of trademark and get region specific" said no one ever. Lol.

I'm curious a little bit more about you. Can you tell us about your background? How did you get so good at this?

Thanks for the feedback - I think this business is a good match for me, because I have a logistics tech background and I also have a strong personal network in the industry. So I can get valuable information directly from Amazon and can get preferential rates and setups from vendors that an unknown person might not.

In the past I've worked both as a developer and as a product manager, so maybe what makes me look 'good' at this is that I am always trying to focus on the most impactful thing to work on, in the most efficient way.

I've failed at a number of other businesses I've tried in the past, such as automated day trading and POD eCommerce. But this Amazon idea has a few more things going for it, so I think I have a better chance of success.

Hi @GoldFibre, awesome progress there! You're definitely onto something big if this works out.

I was wondering whether you use Keepa API to determine sales rank for listings you're analyzing? Plus I see that you haven't talked much about what criteria you go through to determine buybox winners? Perhaps I give you feedback on how to further refine your criteria? I haven't worked in amazon arbitrage but have a client working in wholesale FBA. Our biggest challenge yet has been to source the products from profitable and authentic sources with all the documentation and invoices. We have been traditional in our approach so far.

Pro tip:

If you're looking to gather a list of top 100 US Amazon sellers doing wholesale/arbitrage, consider investing in smartscout. They have a big list for every marketplace that you'd be interested in scraping.

Thank you for the tips and insights.

I'm not using any third party APIs or tools right now. They will most likely use the official SP API under the hood, which is what I'm using directly. After some initial struggle, now I'm working very efficiently with the API and can add features quickly.

The BuyBox winner is determined by Amazon and they return this information in their API. The criteria is not published, but it looks to be some combination of price, transit time and seller rating. Sales rank is also directly returned by the SP API. There are two ranks: display group sales rank and category sales rank. Amazon does not publish the actual number of sales though.

I'm only sourcing from one Amazon region to another, so I'm assuming that product authenticity shouldn't be a big issue.

 

[GoldFibre]

Some of my orders are arriving tonight, so I can start fulfilling and getting my account unblocked. Probably it will take until mid next week for the last order to be delivered.

I discovered an interesting problem - I cannot trust that the ASIN (Amazon's version of a UPC) represents the same product across Amazon marketplaces. It matches most of the time, but sometimes it is different. For instance, I found one ASIN that is a dog toy in both marketplaces, but in one it is a stuffed bull and in another it is a stuffed duck.

This weekend I'm going to look for solutions to this, because if someone orders a duck and receives a bull, they are likely to complain and my seller rating will go down. I saw a lot of complaints like this in my competitors' seller accounts, so I think that solving this can be a competitive advantage for me.

Progress:

• Reduced db load that was causing table locks and slowing down the bot
• Fixed logic in the updater that was skipping updates for some listings
• Spoke with my international logistics vendor to make absolutely sure that my orders are going to arrive in enough time to meet Amazon's SLAs

 

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[GoldFibre]

What are you writing this whole thing in? Would love to hear a bit about your tech stack and setup. That primary db table definitely blew up fast!

Getting around API limits through multiple legal entities sounds like a PITA, but creates a nice barrier of entry too.

I'm writing it in TypeScript on Node, because this is what I'm most productive with.

The DB is MySQL, because it's free. It's hosted on a spare laptop in my home right now, also because it is free.

This could be done in any language and with any DB. The challenge here is really with the SP API structure and rate limits, and trying to squeeze the most out of them.

 

[GoldFibre]

I got an order today for an item that was FBA in the US, but the estimated delivery date was September 2. I was using FBA to decide whether or not to put a short or long handling time, but it looks like there are other cases to handle.

To fulfill the order, I bought an extremely similar product that will ship sooner, so I hope that the customer won't notice the difference.

I also emailed Amazon to ask them about adding competing offer shipping times to the SP API.

To get a more competitive price, I lowered my weight buffer, but then to compensate on low competition items, I raised my maximum margin from 15 to 25 percent.

I started building an orders module for my software, so I can track the accuracy of my costs and find out when I need to make adjustments.

This coming week I will focus on building out this module. I don't have a numeric KPI to pursue this time around. Instead I'm looking to make features to reduce my level of effort in handling fulfillment and pricing.

Also, my computer monitor broke after 8+ years of good service to me. I ordered a new one from Amazon of course.

 

[GoldFibre]

​

Self-Talk​

Today's self-talk was all about focusing on getting sales up. My best day so far was only 478 USD and I need to get up around 5,500 USD per day. But revenue is an output - I need to focus on the input.

Do I know how to get the revenue up?

How can I figure out how to get the revenue up?

What useless crap am I doing that isn't taking me towards this goal?

I need to figure out the answers to these questions and then immediately take action.

Today is another 16 hour day.

Throttled​

This morning Amazon developer support replied to my issue in which I was requesting a rate limit increase. They asked for a detailed explanation of what my application does, so I explained it to them. I hope they consider my use case legitimate and understand the reason for the requested rate limit.

I reviewed my workflow and found another place where I was using the bottleneck call. I didn't think it was entirely necessary to make these calls, so I removed them and got my offers processed per minute up from 120 to 180.

I also tightened up the criteria for updating prices based on the push notifications, and now my SQS queue is shrinking rather than growing continuously.

Copyright Infringement​

I got an order today for a wallet that has the Pokemon logo on it. In the product pictures it has the logo blurred to avoid getting flagged by Amazon:


The word 'Pokemon' is nowhere in the title or the description, so I don't know how I would catch this. But I know Amazon will hold me accountable if they do catch me selling this.

Bizarrely, Amazon has labeled this product as 'Amazon's Choice' in the US. So I guess they face the same problem I do in trying to determine these types of copyright infringements.


I will fulfill the order, but I took down the listing as soon as I saw the logo. I also blocked any offers on items sold by this particular seller in the US.

Brand Approval​

Yesterday I thought I would make a flow to flag where I need to go through a manual brand approval application, but today I saw that this is already in the Amazon seller portal. There were over 1,000 ASINs in the list, with some multiples from the same brand, so I went through and submitted applications for a bunch of them.

But then I checked the products themselves, and for many of them my offer is showing in the BuyBox already, before I have approval. But for others my offer is not showing due to not having approval. So I kept going through them and submitting the applications.

I was previously filtering out brands that had any restrictions, but after seeing this process I realized I should be including them. So after removing that filter there were a lot more such products showing up in the list, and even though I was submitting approval applications for two hours straight, I had more products pending when I stopped than when I started.

Early Confirmation​

The last time Amazon restricted my account for too many orders I was at 15 open orders. It's possible they have raised my limit, but I don't have a way to know. So when I got up to 14 open orders today I started confirming some early that won't arrive until next week.

And despite confirming inbound orders early throughout the day, I had several orders come in at once, taking me to 15 open orders, but my account was not restricted. I guess my limit is probably at 20 now, which I am likely to hit by tomorrow.

Shipping Settings​

Another thing I have known about for a long time but didn't take a simple action. My shipping settings say I ship internationally, but actually the shipping as far as Amazon is concerned is domestic. The international part of my supply chain falls under 'handling'.

So I changed my shipping settings with a few clicks, which removed an ugly 'International Shipping' bar from all my offers. This bar is essentially a warning to customers and is reducing conversion, so removing it should improve sales some.

Priority Queue​

I already have some priority queues, but I added a new one today for anything with display group sales rank under 5,000 (what I call a 'fast-mover') and which doesn't have Amazon as a competitor. These items have lots of reviews and I'm hoping have a better chance of sales.

I also changed my SQS logic to focus only on price changes on fast-movers and to only do price updates if it's possible for me to have the lowest price.

 

[msufan]

View attachment 50505​

Weekly Goal​

Make my compliance bullet-proof

Daily Goals​

Again go through existing listings, delete any offenders and update blacklists
Brainstorm more ideas on how to improve compliance
Implement at least one new compliance improvement

Largest Order Ever​

I got my largest order ever - 12 rain ponchos. However, there were two problems: 1) they were military camo which might not pass customs and 2) the product has already been removed from Amazon US so I can't procure it anyway.

So I have to cancel it. I'm now at 30% cancelation rate when Amazon's target is 2.5%. This is so high BECAUSE I don't have featured offers, so the only products people buy from me are the ones that nobody else is bidding on.

This was a pretty big punch to the gut, and it took me a while to click that cancel button.

Check In On Old Side Hustle​

I have a small sweat equity stake in a retail/ecommerce business I helped start two years ago. They have a weekly meeting on Mondays that I almost never join since it conflicts with my full time job. But this week I moved some things around so that I could join.

Last week they had a record 100k USD in revenue. I spoke to the majority owner after the call and told him about my Amazon business. He's also looking to expand his business to Amazon, so I gave him some advice based on what I've learned so far. He told me he would be willing to invest and help secure exclusive distribution rights if I ever wanted to hold inventory here.

After I had a down mood over the weekend this interaction left me feeling pretty energized He sees opportunity everywhere and is always working on new solutions and new ideas.

Brainstorming​

I have been telling myself that I've done 'everything' to make my account compliant, but that is an excuse, another defense against action. So I thought I would go for a walk and get an ice cream.

The rule was that for me to walk and get the ice cream, I needed to have my phone out with the notepad app open. I was only allowed to think of compliance improvement ideas and I needed to write down as many as I can think of, with a goal of five.

Here is what I ended up writing in the app on that short trip:



That ice cream was worth it!

I'll use this for the next couple days or until I need a fresh batch of ideas.

Implementing One Improvement​

After checking the code it looks like I'm already doing this one:


So I did this one first:


I am thinking hard about the combination of these two, which are a bit like going nuclear:


I know that my current catalog of over 600k listings has problems in it that are going to keep on biting me. So maybe wiping it clean would be a good thing, even though I have to build back up again.

And if I only list what my main competitor or top 5 competitors are also listing, I can kind of piggy-back on whatever compliance they have done. At the same time I can keep all my existing blacklists in place.

To reduce the percentage of cancelled orders, could you have one product that you sell consistently? An ebook that goes for $0.99? A physical item that goes for the very minimum?

Also, if you nuke everything and start over, could it be on a fresh account, or is that impossible?

 

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[msufan]

Btw: Have you thought about selling the data as a SaaS solution instead of doing retail arbitrage. It kind of sounds like an "selling shovels in a gold rush" - opportunity the me.

THIS IS IT.

You sell the scraper tool and let others blacklist what they want, sort how they want, and do what they want with it.

 

[circleme]

Can u tell me/us a little bit more about your background and your status quo? It seems to me that you are working on something really promising with a lot of different opportunities but you don't have the time to push the project as fast as you might want to (just an assumption though). Are you currently working full time as an SWE?

If you don't mind, I would be curious.