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New Niche, New Brand - Amazon > eCommerce > Retail

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

Shades

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Hello DrkSide,

Congrats on your much deserved success--the process is working for you tremendously! :) I was curious what type of products you are selling. Can you give me the category and I can look it up and and amazon and Narrow it down? I understand if you don't feel comfortable doing that to or if that is against forum rules.

Thanks!

- Jesse

lol nice try
 
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DrkSide

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Thanks @Cparsons

So I decided this morning to not go ahead with the office. I am going to work the rest of the year at the house. With the holiday season coming up I know that I am going to need all of the capital that I have to push inventory levels high enough to make it through. It just didn't make sense to go ahead with it when the money could be used to produce income.

So, I may decide to do a little traveling towards the end of the year for a week or two just to get out of my comfort zone. However, at the start of the year I fully intend to move into an office (or even possibly purchase a commercial building....gears are turning).
 
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Congrats on your success DrkSide. Keep it coming

I will be following along as I'm looking to do something very similar
 
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J. van Driessen

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Are you working on this full time now?
I'm starting a similar adventure soon with a business partner, but we'll be doing it both on the side (to start) and we're trying to understand at what point it makes sense to do this full time.
 

DrkSide

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Are you working on this full time now?
I'm starting a similar adventure soon with a business partner, but we'll be doing it both on the side (to start) and we're trying to understand at what point it makes sense to do this full time.
Yes, I am doing this full time. There are a couple ways that you can look at it. You can wait until it takes up too much time and you simply have to quit your job or you can get it started and quit when you are making enough to cover expenses.

I choose to quit before it was making enough money to support me so I had to hustle to build. I did have quite a bit of savings from my previous job that has paid the bills for now and will do so for the rest of the year (probably) but at this point I am making enough to pay myself. That money is going back in to inventory for Q4 though.
 

DrkSide

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Finalized my holiday plans this morning. Currently I have one product in this niche that is selling and one in production that will be launched next week. Looking at estimates for holiday sales and needed inventory levels I came up with a plan.

For product 1 (current seller) I will keep inventory levels as high as possible. Based on conservative estimates I will not have the capital to keep it in stock until Christmas and I am working on how to manage that.

For product 2 (in production) based on estimated sales and conservative estimates I will be pushing to keep this one in stock but I think that it can happen. It may bomb or it may take off. There is a large range of BSRs for similar items but with my strategy I used on the first product I know I can get this one ranking well and selling. It also has a few improvements over the competition that will be in my price range.

I have samples for products 3-5 that are ready to be put in production and will be ready to pull the trigger when I have the available capital to properly launch one. These will be done one at a time and I may or may not get them launched in time for the holidays.
 
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exclusives88

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Hi @DrkSide When you are looking for a niche, what is your definition of "not saturated"? 5 sellers, 10 sellers, 100 sellers of the product...etc?

What type of changes are you making to your product? Is it just minor changes like color? Does your manufacture require a much larger order in order to make changes?

Also did you make any changes or private labeled for your test run for Product 1? How about the production run?
 
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DrkSide

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@exclusives88 I looked for a niche that I could add some value to. The one that I chose is a bit "saturated" by some definitions but I didn't care as I knew what I could do to be better than my main competition. I have two main types of competition right now. The first is larger brands that have their items made by the well known manufactures overseas. The second are the people who are just buying straight from the small manufactures/trading companies and just listing the product with details. There was a hole in the market for in the middle so that is what I choose.

Eventually I will look to have some high end product manufactured but that is a much harder market to get into and much more capital intensive.

I make some reliability changes in the product so it is not the "cheap" version. In fact some manufactures will have a good version and a cheap version that they produce. You would be amazed at the quality difference and how small the price difference is.

I have a manufacture/trading company that I do most of my work through. It is not ideal as I am not getting the lowest price on the products that they are not manufacturing but the trade off is I deal with only one company and they are reliable and honest. My MOQ can be as low as 50 but normal orders are 200+ units for customization if I don't want to pay a fee to have the printing done.
 

DrkSide

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Well, thanks to Prime Day I hit a record for sales yesterday at $1400 for the day. I did not do any special promotions or make any changes specifically for the day. Thanks to the boost in sales I also regained the #1 best seller in my category organically. I will be doing some more promotions but will hold off until I have more stock and to when/if I lose the best seller in the near future.

I have also burned through almost half of my inventory that I sent in last week. I already ordered the next shipment and it is due to ship on Monday. After the last delay I had a talk with my supplier about production times and hopefully they will accurately quote the time. I think is was more that they wanted me to think they were quick but I let them know I just need an accurate timeline so I know what to expect.

I approved the packaging for Product 2 today so that should be shipping next week as well.

Order for product 3 will be the following week after I see my payout from Amazon.

I did manage to get some more capital that will be used to build inventory for current selling products for the holidays. However, at this point I am probably not going to use it to finance new products until I know how much I will need for inventory.
 
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Hash

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@DrkSide your progress thread is very inspiring. Looking forward to learning more through your journey. Thanks for sharing.
 
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DrkSide

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Quick update. Product 1 is selling very well. I have kept the best seller badge only loosing it for a little while on Sunday but getting it back today. New inventory is on the way and I may get it to them by the time I run out. Another order has already been placed as well. Numbers for last week are below.

Sales - $4,318.92
Ad Spend - $95.89
Total Profit - ~$1321.11

Product 2 is en route as well and will be launched new week. There was a small issue with the packaging but I had them send it anyways as it was just a small cosmetic problem that will be fixed on second production run.

Details are done on product 3 just waiting for the payout and then the order will go through.
 

ShakeItUp

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Great progress thread and awesome progress so far!

Quick question @DrkSide, I'm just curious what your marketing / ad spend is on. Since you are selling only via Amazon currently, are you running google ads directly to your amazon listings?
 
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Mr_Maravish

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Hey DrkSide,

Great progress thread, very inspirational. I am in the process of starting out.

Did you brand your products, and if so do you put a logo for your products on the boxes to make it more presentable, or do you just send it in plain brown boxes.

Thanks for your help!
 

DrkSide

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Did you brand your products, and if so do you put a logo for your products on the boxes to make it more presentable, or do you just send it in plain brown boxes.

I have done unbranded products and branded products and I prefer the later. It makes it much easier to control the listing. As for the boxes I do have my brand name put on them. Some I have printed and some I just have a sticker put on with the brand name and model number. Since I am just selling online I am not worried about packaging as long as it is adequate to protect the product and looks presentable. When I start to go to retail I will probably upgrade the packaging on a couple of the products but it will still probably just be black print on a brown box.
 
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DrkSide

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Rant/

Why in the hell do people purchase an item knowing exactly what it is and then berate the product and company. I had a purchaser write a review stating that it is "made in china" crap and that he should have bought an american made product. The least they could have done would be to contact me or ask for a refund before posting a review.

The funny thing is that there is only 1 product like mine that is made in the US that I know of and it is over 10 times the price. A price that 99% are unwilling to pay, him included.

And of course thanks to Amazons new product review rankings his is the top critical review.
/Rant

Back to regular business now.
 

exclusives88

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I am beginning to look at sourcing agents. I've contacted two that are active in this forum.

Would you mind sharing the sourcing agent that you are working with? OR how you found your sourcing agent? Do you just tell them exactly what you are looking for and they will find it for you? How are the fees like for this type of service?
 

DrkSide

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I am beginning to look at sourcing agents. I've contacted two that are active in this forum.

Would you mind sharing the sourcing agent that you are working with? OR how you found your sourcing agent? Do you just tell them exactly what you are looking for and they will find it for you? How are the fees like for this type of service?
I will PM you the information....
 
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DrkSide

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Houston, we have a problem!

After ~16 successful shipments from my manufacture this last one was held up in customs. They are needing some documentation from the FDA about my product. Now, I know the FDA but I did not know that they had regulations on the items that I am importing.

The good - The manufacture (supposedly) has the certificate that I need and will be sending me a copy to submit with the paperwork.
The bad - After a quick google this manufacture has had items refused that fall under this regulation by customs. You can find this data online.

Had I known that this regulation would affect my product I would have had this information sooner. Alas I did not and it put me in the spot that I am in right now.

Will update when I have more information.

Edit Update: All paperwork has been submitted to get the shipment through customs. The manufacture had the report number filed with the FDA that I needed to get the packages cleared. Still sweating about this a little since it is my biggest selling product at the moment.

The show must go on with or without it so this is not going to slow my rollout of the new products. Product 2 got to me yesterday. I am working on pictures, putting the final touches on the copy for the listing, and waiting since it got flagged as Hazmat when I listed.

Product 3 has been ordered and is in production.
 
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DrkSide

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Time for an update.

The customs issue was sorted out and the shipments are now flowing through again. This is a huge relief since it would be like starting over from 0 if I had lost that product. Resupply hit Amazon the end of last week and another is en route now. Orders have already been placed for next months inventory as well as some extra to start building up for the holiday season.

Product 2 is en route to Amazon as well. After a quality check, labeling, and finally getting the Hazmat status cleared I was able to send it in. Photos were done yesterday (I do all my own with some post processing done by a guy on fiverr) and the first draft of copy was done yesterday. I have a landing page for this product set up and I will be running facebook ads to get the reviews started. I only had 100 of these made so I will probably only do ~25 for review samples so I can get most in the hands of customers. My end goal price is $39.99-$49.99 but I will be starting at 29.99 to get sales rolling in. Once that is done I will see how sales start to pick up and go from there.

Product 3 arrived yesterday and today I have the product page setup, photos done, and labeling done. I still need to write the copy but I will still have time once I get the shipment to UPS. I am also going to setup a landing page for this to get reviews just like the others. End price on this will be $23-$30 depending on what sales & pricing tells me. Just like the others I am going to start out at a lower price and work my way up. That way I can find the best medium between sales & price. I have only 1 competitor on this product and they are averaging around 550 sales a month from my research.

3productprofit.PNG
The graph above shows current sales figures for product 1 and conservative estimates for 2 & 3.

As of right now I am 1 sale away from reaching $50k in sales this year. I would have liked to see this sooner but sales have been growing each month as long as I kept inventory to supply. I am still not sure if I will be able to purchase enough inventory to make it through the holiday season with stock. I still have taken no money out of this venture but I will have to start paying myself by the end of the year.

Product 4 and 5 are on the drawing board. I will be looking at a timeline on when I can release them once I get the launches for 2 & 3 done.
 

The Irish Guy

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Time for an update.

The customs issue was sorted out and the shipments are now flowing through again. This is a huge relief since it would be like starting over from 0 if I had lost that product. Resupply hit Amazon the end of last week and another is en route now. Orders have already been placed for next months inventory as well as some extra to start building up for the holiday season.

Product 2 is en route to Amazon as well. After a quality check, labeling, and finally getting the Hazmat status cleared I was able to send it in. Photos were done yesterday (I do all my own with some post processing done by a guy on fiverr) and the first draft of copy was done yesterday. I have a landing page for this product set up and I will be running facebook ads to get the reviews started. I only had 100 of these made so I will probably only do ~25 for review samples so I can get most in the hands of customers. My end goal price is $39.99-$49.99 but I will be starting at 29.99 to get sales rolling in. Once that is done I will see how sales start to pick up and go from there.

Product 3 arrived yesterday and today I have the product page setup, photos done, and labeling done. I still need to write the copy but I will still have time once I get the shipment to UPS. I am also going to setup a landing page for this to get reviews just like the others. End price on this will be $23-$30 depending on what sales & pricing tells me. Just like the others I am going to start out at a lower price and work my way up. That way I can find the best medium between sales & price. I have only 1 competitor on this product and they are averaging around 550 sales a month from my research.

View attachment 10312
The graph above shows current sales figures for product 1 and conservative estimates for 2 & 3.

As of right now I am 1 sale away from reaching $50k in sales this year. I would have liked to see this sooner but sales have been growing each month as long as I kept inventory to supply. I am still not sure if I will be able to purchase enough inventory to make it through the holiday season with stock. I still have taken no money out of this venture but I will have to start paying myself by the end of the year.

Product 4 and 5 are on the drawing board. I will be looking at a timeline on when I can release them once I get the launches for 2 & 3 done.

Wow really fantastic job, you're getting close to life changing money, keep up the good work!
 
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DrkSide

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Time for an update and it is official. I have hit my first goal that I set a couple of months ago when I quit my job and started full time into this.
aug sales.PNG
This was due to finally getting ahead of my inventory issues and having enough stock to keep selling. You can see from last month on the 24th that I ran out of stock and just had a few sales from product that was in transit during that time. The end of the month was when I got back in stock and started selling again. This is just with 1 product as I have not launched the next two yet.

I am waiting on my stock of the next product to be fully checked in before launching. Since I realized with the landing page system that I have right now does not give me multiple email lists to add users to I can only do one launch at a time. I am looking for another plugin that offers the same functionality that my current one does but offers multiple lists.

I did get some bad news that the mold for my product broke on the last production batch. They are getting it fixed but said that it would be a week delay. That will once again probably put me out of stock but it is out of my control. Had the mold not had issues I would have had more stock in time. Currently have 95 units in stock and 600 in production.

This has been an incredible journey and the fact is it is just beginning. I have completely replaced the money that I was making from my last job. In fact this month I will make more than I ever have in a month. I am still not taking any money out of this until I get enough stock to make it through Q4.
 

DrkSide

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End of month update. Surpassed my 10k goal by quite a bit and would have been even more but I am out of stock on my best seller due to the mold problems. The issues have been resolved and I now have more product due the middle of the week and more the week after.
august sales.PNG
$100 of that is product giveaways for the new product launch but I was still over $15k with that factored in.

New product launch is on track and I have 1 review from the samples that I sent out already. I am expecting to get around 6-7 by the end of the week. I have not changed the way I am doing this with the Amazon TOS update. I can't see a reason that what I am doing will be labeled excessive. The reception from the reviewers that I have talked to via email has been unanimously great.

Product launch 3 is on the burner for the end of this week. They are taking quite some time to get the inventory checked in.
 
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DrkSide

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New product launch is going well. Gave away 10 units for review and have 2 in so far. My review solicitation emails are just starting to go out tomorrow for the rest.

4-5 sales a day so far sitting at #13 for the subcategory and #1 new release. Should be a slow climb to the top but I will get there.

Either I underestimated the size of the market or people looking for this product are click happy on ads. With my first product I would never reach my budget of $20 a day even when I was at the top of the category. Now I am out of budget by 5pm or so with the same $20 budget on this one. If conversions and cost look good I will raise the budget after the first week. However, I know with more reviews come more conversions.

Changed all of my follow up emails over to Feedbackz from feedback genius. I like the look of the emails from Feedbackz better, however the emails from FG were just plain text and looked a little more like personalized emails than automatically generated ones. Wondering what, if any conversion change there will be.

Shopify store is in the process of being configured. I already have one customer that is hounding me to let him know when it is setup as he wants to leave a review (product of awesome customer service, he broke a part on his product that he purchased 8 months ago and I sent him the replacement parts no questions asked)

Just looking into running a giveaway contest for the store launch with gleam io or another service. So far they seem very expensive with a monthly fee and I only want to do one giveaway right now.

Also working on a few tips and tricks that I have used. Will be making a post on the inside to detail some of these and offer a little payback to the forum members.
 

JonnyC

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Just looking into running a giveaway contest for the store launch with gleam io or another service. So far they seem very expensive with a monthly fee and I only want to do one giveaway right now.

Also working on a few tips and tricks that I have used. Will be making a post on the inside to detail some of these and offer a little payback to the forum members.

Awesome progress thread, congrats on taking so much action! I agree with you about it being too expensive to subscribe to, unless you want to run giveaways all the time. That's why I just used Gleam for a couple of months and then cancelled my subscription. It worked very well for my launch, got some good social engagement and followers.
 

DrkSide

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Thanks @JonnyC

Well crap.....got 2 five star reviews on the new product and someone dropped a 2 star. Apparently the product was malfunctioning out of the box but they did complement the fit and finish of it. I did spot check the shipment and all that I tested were working fine. Hoping that this gets buried with the round of reviews that should be coming in from the giveaways.

I followed up with the customer on the review as well as directly via email hoping to get a response so I can get them another unit for a true review.

Bums me out as I tested, and tested my samples to make sure that they were good to go and they all tested great.
 
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DrunkFish

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Excuse me if I missed this, but are you buying saying 200 units, shipping it to Amazon and having them do the packaging and shipping and selling out the inventory?
 

DrkSide

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Excuse me if I missed this, but are you buying saying 200 units, shipping it to Amazon and having them do the packaging and shipping and selling out the inventory?
I purchase the inventory, it gets sent to my house, I send it to Amazon.

The manufacture packages it in a box with my brand name on it and with the appropriate labels for Amazon. All I do once it gets to me is spot check for quality and ship it out to Amazon.
 

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