New Niche, New Brand - Amazon > eCommerce > Retail

[Jurffy]

Jurffy the only steps I took are to find a manufacture and get samples. Request changes that need to be made (if any) and get another sample. Then do a small test order and see if it sells. Repeat.

Don't worry about anything except for the next step that you need to take.

Start off by taking a look at the threads in HERE specifically THIS one and THIS one. Read first, digest what you read, and then put it into action.

Thank you, DrkSide. I'm slowly reading through those links, Walter's thread is full of knowledge! I'm going to start my own progress thread, or else this'll turn into a thread-bomb.

 

[Jesse Dallenbach]

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

 

[Jesse Dallenbach]

Thanks @brandonrush I like that Idea. That was sort of the way it was working in my mind but I couldn't put it as well as you did.

@Jesse Dallenbach Short answer is no. Long answer is HERE.

No worries DrkSide just curious is all...I find this thread very interesting. It's like reality TV for "Fastlaners In Training"!

- Jesse

 

[Guest24480]

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]

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]

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.

 

[exclusives88]

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?

 

[DrkSide]

@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.

 

[Hash]

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

 

[Mr_Maravish]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

 

[The Irish Guy]

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]

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]

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?

 

[Nrr]

Hi DrkSide

I will have my first 500 units ready in amazon, and I have a High capital to running promotion . Can you recommend me what was your marketing technique more effective ? I want bet hard in giveaway. What is % of reviews that you get ? Any type to improve that?

About the month of December , how you can estimate that inventory have ready to this month?

Regards
Nir

 

[Nrr]

@Nrr Thanks for asking. I think I covered the answers to your questions below but if you have any others please let me know.

Marketing/Promotion - I set up a landing page offering the product for $4.95 in exchange for a review. The page has information on the product and a place for them to give their email address. The last promotion run I got 50% reviews left (previous was 70%). The reviews that I get from this method are a much better quality than what you normally get from review groups or paid services. Instead of just getting people that want free stuff I am able to reach people that will actually test and evaluate the product. To get people to the page I use Facebook Ads.

Reviews - You need to be running some software to solicit product reviews when a customer buys a product. I have an email that is sent out 3 days after delivery to let the customer know that I am available to ask any questions and also asking for them to leave a review on the product. I use Feedbackz.com which is actually owned by a fellow board member.

December - Without having some historical data it is hard to guess what sales will be in December and the months leading up to it. Normally I have heard that sales will double each month from October to December. So October is 2x September, November is 2x October, etc. I have also spoken to a friend that is a buyer for Sams Club. He said that they will do more sales between Black Friday and Christmas than the entire rest of the year.

I was thinking in use a paid service .... and a software for the email too... But after search information the conversion buyer > Review is only 10 % ... in my opinion very low ... I need get around 20-25% of conversion here . About Feedbackz.com they have templates for the email ? or you write all the emails?

I have experience with FB ads but I would like know... what type of text you put in the ads to get the right people "for example you put that cost 4,95 USD to filter people"? I can target people with interest in my niche ... but know if they are buyers is difficult

 

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[prof]

I have decided that it is finally time to have a logo created. I want to add it to my products instead of just having the brand name printed on them. It will help me further protect the brand as well as create identity. At this point I am leaning towards 99designs to have it made but I am still open to other options.

Great thread! It's pretty much the first one I've read here on these forums and I'm thoroughly enjoying the depth and detail of your posts.

As an alternative to 99designs I can recommend you take a look at 48hourslogo.com. I have used these for a previous business logo and the quality of designs was excellent at a much more agreeable price point.

The only slight annoyance was having to pay an additional $30 or so after fact to turn my listing private. The business had a rather unique name so typically the logo contest would rank highly in search results which we didn't particularly like. Nice little upsell for them but still significantly cheaper than other sites.

Looking forward to your future instalments!

 

[Nrr]

@Nrr There are many different ways to launch a product on Amazon. Just try one way out and see what works and what doesn't.

Feedbackz does have built in templates. I have not tried them as I already had written email templates that are converting well.

You need to target your end customers with the facebook audience. I went broad with my first ads and then took a look at the metrics and tweaked them for the demographics that were converting more. Text can vary depending on who I am trying to target.

DrkSide , My inventory will be ready in amazon in 1 week.

Can you share your statistics of yours ads in fb? Budget , ctr,cpc,clicks in your ads and conversion of your squeeze page ? What type of message you write to the first message that your subscriber will get with the "coupon of amazon" ? How many message do you have to send to the buyers and after how many days ( only with 1 you get around 50 % - 70 %) ?

I have read a little about the new policy of amazon.. what happen if I offer a high number of free way (200-300 units ¿? ) is safe ?

 

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[DrkSide]

@Nrr - I don't track any stats on my facebook ads besides what the clicks cost. I am not running this to be profitable so I don't care about anything except for signups and what the clicks cost me. I probably should but I don't.

For the new Amazon policy. Take it as you wish. That is up to you to decide what will be excessive in Amazons eyes and what your threshold for risk is.

Both new products are sold out! Past 30 days I moved 100 of product 2 and 200 of product 3. I am trying to reorder but had some issues with my bank so I am trying to clear that up. Reviews on both are coming in and are mostly positive. Product 2 had a couple (roughly 2%) that were defective out of the box. I have talked to my manufacture and they are going to be testing the next batch better.

All I am doing at this point is trying to shore up inventory for Q4 as much as possible. I am placing a large order now and then will follow up with smaller orders as money comes in from Amazon. I did take a $10k loan out to be able to purchase more inventory that will be paid off in the next couple months.

 

[phenom4hire]

DrkSide,

Ive really enjoyed reading your thread and following along with your success. It seems you are seeing repeatable growth in a month to month basis which I think is fantastic. I have a feeling you are going to surpass your expectations for the holiday season, so congrats on your progress thus far. Can you share some info about your margins/profits without going into specific prices and why you felt that this niche looked like an opportunity with said margins. Also if its not to much detail, is this more of a one and one product for most customers or something that will need to be replaced/improved regularly. Thanks again for sharing your progress.

 

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[frankh]

Drkside, really appreciate the thread. Really inspires me and makes me believe that I can do do this.

I am looking to get my product up by next month, I am still talking to manufacturers.
The manufacturer has agreed to send me 20 samples.
My question is, how would you go about testing?
I understand you have created a brand, but is that as simple as putting your brand name in the title?

Thank you.

 

[BlakeIC]

Awesome to see you are still going strong!

Has the thought of pushing traffic to a website of your own occurred?

To get more reviews/traffic to your own website, you could through in a small flyer in each shipment

 

[Omni]

Wow, amazing progress @DrkSide! In your first post, you mentioned your product is not saturated and easier to transition off Amazon. What indicators do you look for to decide if a niche is not saturated? And what qualities would a product need to be easily transitioned off Amazon (I'd think any product can be transitioned off)?

 

[DrkSide]

Wow, amazing progress @DrkSide! In your first post, you mentioned your product is not saturated and easier to transition off Amazon. What indicators do you look for to decide if a niche is not saturated? And what qualities would a product need to be easily transitioned off Amazon (I'd think any product can be transitioned off)?

Omni, I was already familiar with the niche prior to entering it. While there were some people selling the product there were not 20+ listings for the same product available and the ones that were there had high sales. Most of them had high review numbers too but that didn't stop me from outselling them with 1/10th the reviews.

My products are sold in many online stores both by manufactures and stores such as Amazon (and other niche specific stores) so I knew that there are people buying. They are also something the people can't go down to Walmart and buy. In fact if they do have a store that specializes in this area they are still not likely to be able to buy them there.

 

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[BlakeIC]

Hit my goal that I set for myself at the beginning of the year. Still a month and a half to go.
View attachment 11016

Congrats, what percentage are you netting? If you dont mind me asking

And do you operate as sole proprietor or something else?

 

[DrkSide]

Congrats, what percentage are you netting? If you dont mind me asking

And do you operate as sole proprietor or something else?

I average around 30% give or take depending on a number of factors.

I incorporated earlier in the year to take advantage of taxes and other benefits.

 

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[DrkSide]

Are all your products related in some way or another? (as a brand) or are you just selling individual things?

Currently all of my products are related and fall under the same brand.

 

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