Eskil's Progress Thread: Starting a Supplement Business from Scratch

[HD_edacity]

remember to watch out for the regulations set by health Canada, much more strict then the u.s

 

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[youngtrep]

Yeah I've received samples from them before and almost used them last year.
However, now that I go through their online quote - looks like 3x7 labels are quite a bit more than $0.40. Which material and laminate have you used with them to get that low of a cost?

I'll try to find out the material, but mine are high gloss. The 40 cents per label could possibly be a discounted rate because my manufacturer orders a ton of labels from them.

 

[Eskil]

Last week I finally received my new batch of bottles. They're ready to get sent off to Amazon FBA, but I will keep some for self-fulfillment until I can fully automate the sales off of Amazon and especially the monthly rebilled-orders. The #1 goal going forward will be to convert every sale into a recurring customer.

 

[youngtrep]

Last week I finally received my new batch of bottles. They're ready to get sent off to Amazon FBA, but I will keep some for self-fulfillment until I can fully automate the sales off of Amazon and especially the monthly rebilled-orders. The #1 goal going forward will be to convert every sale into a recurring customer.

I know it is a bit late now, but for future reference my labels are 6.5" x 2.5" white bopp, high gloss and I pay 40 cents each.

 

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[camcam]

Any chance of seeing a link to the products? Wouldn't mind giving them a try myself.

 

[1milclub]

Deleted. It was not supposed to be be posted. Sorry Eskil - did not realize the access level to others.

 

[camcam]

Any updates on this @Eskil

 

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[ericj]

Last week I finally received my new batch of bottles. They're ready to get sent off to Amazon FBA, but I will keep some for self-fulfillment until I can fully automate the sales off of Amazon and especially the monthly rebilled-orders. The #1 goal going forward will be to convert every sale into a recurring customer.

I appreciate this thread, and I have tried to follow what your doing with supplement sales.

I bought a batch of private label supplements.
Cost me about 1k dollars. I had my own label created and installed, had my sku printed on the label, opened a FBA account, sent them all there, and I have not had one single sale. That was about 9 months ago that I did this.
I tried changing the listing a few times, lowered the price and still nothing. I dont really know what else to do to generate sales. I considered just lowering the price to the cheapest available, just to get rid of the stock (if it would sell that is). I was wondering if you or anyone else in this thread could take a look at it and see what I have wrong, maybe point me in the right direction?

Once again thanks for this thread and all the information you provided, as it led me to take action in a fastlane potential path. I have learned a lot from you, thanks!

 

[AllenCrawley]

I appreciate this thread, and I have tried to follow what your doing with supplement sales.

I bought a batch of private label supplements.
Cost me about 1k dollars. I had my own label created and installed, had my sku printed on the label, opened a FBA account, sent them all there, and I have not had one single sale. That was about 9 months ago that I did this.
I tried changing the listing a few times, lowered the price and still nothing. I dont really know what else to do to generate sales. I considered just lowering the price to the cheapest available, just to get rid of the stock (if it would sell that is). I was wondering if you or anyone else in this thread could take a look at it and see what I have wrong, maybe point me in the right direction?

Once again thanks for this thread and all the information you provided, as it led me to take action in a fastlane potential path. I have learned a lot from you, thanks!

Wondering... are you running amazon sponsored ads?

 

[camcam]

I bought a batch of private label supplements.

Here's your problem. Your product is the exact same as every other on the market.

 

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[ericj]

Wondering... are you running amazon sponsored ads?

I have not tried that, and was on the fence about buying them. Do you have any experience with buying the ad space? Thanks

 

[ericj]

Here's your problem. Your product is the exact same as every other on the market.

That is true, it is a saturated market. Though, I did pick a particular product that had just became available at the time, and it was a hot item for others! Not so much for me though..

 

[camcam]

That is true, it is a saturated market. Though, I did pick a particular product that had just became available at the time, and it was a hot item for others! Not so much for me though..

It's not that saturated. Best of making your own formula, private label in this industry = disaster

 

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[ericj]

It's not that saturated. Best of making your own formula, private label in this industry = disaster

That could be the problem then. I considered doing just this at first and discussed it with the nutrition company. They had the ability to do this, but it would include additional cost and product minimums.
Instead, I decided to take what I thought was a safer approach at my first attempt getting my feet wet with supplements. Maybe I should have tried my own formula.

 

[Eskil]

I appreciate this thread, and I have tried to follow what your doing with supplement sales.

I bought a batch of private label supplements.
Cost me about 1k dollars. I had my own label created and installed, had my sku printed on the label, opened a FBA account, sent them all there, and I have not had one single sale. That was about 9 months ago that I did this.
I tried changing the listing a few times, lowered the price and still nothing. I dont really know what else to do to generate sales. I considered just lowering the price to the cheapest available, just to get rid of the stock (if it would sell that is). I was wondering if you or anyone else in this thread could take a look at it and see what I have wrong, maybe point me in the right direction?

Once again thanks for this thread and all the information you provided, as it led me to take action in a fastlane potential path. I have learned a lot from you, thanks!

Saturated = Lots of money to be made, BUT also that much more challenging to break into.

The results from what you did sounds about right. Not trying to discourage you, but you're gonna have to work a little bit to see some sales among popular product categories. Just putting up a listing of a "me too" product, and hoping for the best will seldom lead to much.

I suggest you start pushing the listing with paid Amazon ads (like @AllenCrawley already suggested), as these can work quite well to build up initial sales. Give it some time, and your organic Amazon sales will begin to increase from the increased sales and exposure.

Also make sure that your listing can stand up on its own compared to your direct competitors. Everything from the image(s), title, bulletpoints, and description needs to be at least as good or better than the rest so that the random listing visitor will go "hmm... this looks pretty damn interesting...I'm gonna order one right now and try it out...".

Reviews are critical as well. They're not going to rank you, but they will directly affect your conversion rate.
Focus on your listing and how you promote it, and you will see results. Use a fire and forget tactic - and sales will forget about you

P.S. You can still pm me your listing if you want for me to take a look at it

 

[Eskil]

Any updates on this @Eskil

Thanks for checking in

I have my new stock sitting in FBA, but still have it set to self-fulfilled. Reason being that I want to do some things to the listing again before I switch the FBA on. The plan is to get the ppc ads going again too, but I just have been so swamped lately with the manufacturing of my main product (in my sig). I also want to train a VA to mostly take over and manage the supplement biz. I want to still grow it, but I can't let my own focus and time get too diverted into it at the moment.

Another goal is to bring all Amazon sales into my off-Amazon sales funnel, for subscription-based income (of the fully transparent, voluntary, NON-shady kind).

 

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[camcam]

Thanks for checking in

I have my new stock sitting in FBA, but still have it set to self-fulfilled. Reason being that I want to do some things to the listing again before I switch the FBA on. The plan is to get the ppc ads going again too, but I just have been so swamped lately with the manufacturing of my main product (in my sig). I also want to train a VA to mostly take over and manage the supplement biz. I want to still grow it, but I can't let my own focus and time get too diverted into it at the moment.

Another goal is to bring all Amazon sales into my off-Amazon sales funnel, for subscription-based income (of the fully transparent, voluntary, NON-shady kind).

Nice work man! I'm working on releasing a new pre workout into the market. Formula is all set - just got the branding to focus on now. If you want help your end, I'm happy to offer a hand. (By the sounds of it our products are wide apart) I'm staying focused on the energy side of things.

 

[MakeItHappen]

Another goal is to bring all Amazon sales into my off-Amazon sales funnel, for subscription-based income (of the fully transparent, voluntary, NON-shady kind).

I also think that this is key.
Do you have any strategy to maximize the conversion from amazon buyers to your own sales funnel?

I would think that one of the best ways to do it is, to ship a very good designed flyer promoting your subscription (maybe with a 50% or even 100% discount on the first shipping).
I wouldn't mind even shipping the first order for free because the increased customer lifetime value should easily make up for it.

However two concerns:
# If you ship via FBA you can't add a flyer / brochure to the shipping box and I can't see any other way of converting the amazon buyers into your own funnel
# I also think that it's bad timing to try to convert them into your own funnel right after they received their first shipping because they will first want to try the new product for some time and they are also not interested in buying again before the supplement isn't consumed

One strategy I thought of would be to create a little ebook with some tips for getting the most out of the supplement they bought. Than create a flyer with an URL to an email sing up form to get the ebook. The big advantage would be that 1. you can start promoting your subscription by the time the supplement will be consumed so that they have a way bigger interest for it and you can also promote mutiple times to them and 2. you could even build a little email sequence which will link to valueable content on your website so that they start to browse your website before selling them on the subscription

I think maximizing the convversion rate from amazon buyers into your own channel is absolute key because you will not only have more control but the customer lifetime value will also increase a decent amount which will give you a big edge vs. all the other sellers on amazon.


Feedback for my thoughts would be awesome, also any other ways you use/know?

 

[AllenCrawley]

I have not tried that, and was on the fence about buying them. Do you have any experience with buying the ad space? Thanks

I don't want to hijack Eskil's thread but yes I do. It's all Pay per click. However, I'd suggest getting some reviews first and to also optimize your listing as Eskil stated. Feel free to start another thread if you'd like further help.

 

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[Deon]

Hey @Eskil, I just checked your product on Amazon. I don't know how you got away with making those claims on the label without writing that whole "These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to treat, cure, etc, etc"

I would suggest you change that ASAP, or the FDA will come down on you hard. Can shut down your brand, and even cause some legal problems.

 

[Eskil]

Hey @Eskil, I just checked your product on Amazon. I don't know how you got away with making those claims on the label without writing that whole "These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to treat, cure, etc, etc"

I would suggest you change that ASAP, or the FDA will come down on you hard. Can shut down your brand, and even cause some legal problems.

Lol, no worries. My actual bottle label has that term on there, whereas the rendering in my listing does not (it was rendered quite some time ago). But thanks for the concern

 

[Deon]

Lol, no worries. My actual bottle label has that term on there, whereas the rendering in my listing does not (it was rendered quite some time ago). But thanks for the concern

Perfect man

As I'm starting my own supplement product soon too... That's one of the first things I learned!

 

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[mars]

@ericj Have you tried creating a FB page related to your market? I would create a page on the market you are getting into - weight loss, anti-aging, bodybuilding, etc...Promote the page with content (not your product) to get followers and run a few FB ads to get a community. After you have 500-1000 likes then introduce your product and give them a promo code to get the product for $1.

If you are selling on Amazon this will help boost your sellers ranking down the line, also boosting your organic sales. After the promo is over and people have received their order follow-up with them. Ask if they would like a discount for future orders (who says no to this) and if they would be willing to leave a review.

BOOM! Boosted sellers ranking and got a few reviews. If you do this with Amazon sells you should be able to move that product.

 

[ericj]

@ericj Have you tried creating a FB page related to your market? I would create a page on the market you are getting into - weight loss, anti-aging, bodybuilding, etc...Promote the page with content (not your product) to get followers and run a few FB ads to get a community. After you have 500-1000 likes then introduce your product and give them a promo code to get the product for $1.

If you are selling on Amazon this will help boost your sellers ranking down the line, also boosting your organic sales. After the promo is over and people have received their order follow-up with them. Ask if they would like a discount for future orders (who says no to this) and if they would be willing to leave a review.

BOOM! Boosted sellers ranking and got a few reviews. If you do this with Amazon sells you should be able to move that product.

I have not done this. I did create a FB page for the product itself, but did not try a community page which is a great idea. Im going to look into doing this now. Thanks!

 

[kadream]

# If you ship via FBA you can't add a flyer / brochure to the shipping box and I can't see any other way of converting the amazon buyers into your own funnel

Why do you say that ? Is it forbidden by Amazon ? I know it's forbidden to give your Website in the messages (email-like) communications between you and your customers on Amazon but adding a flyer to the item is not permitted ? Can you provide your information source ?

Thank you very much.

 

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[benhebert]

Amazon gangster-ism (that I don't do because I am scared of getting banned):

Each FBA shipment comes with a customer phone number.

Hire a VA to call each customer.

Ask if they want a free guide related to the product.

Send the guide by email.

Add customer to your list.

Profit.

 

[BeGreat]

@ericj Hey Eric. Are you still making moves in the supplement industry? Any valuable lessons learned along your way??

Best of luck.

 

[CrispySmurf]

Great write up! I thoroughly enjoyed reading through this! I hope all is well. I wouldn't mind an update though I realize you are laser focused on your other product.

 

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[Eskil]

I guess I should update this thread too, lol...

I have sold out a few times now, but yesterday received another shipment of bottles so i can restock yet again;

I have also decided to make the switch from UltraCart to Shopify. I really do like UltraCart, but it does require a bit more time to understand and maintain (configuring design for mobile, changing things on the fly, etc). Something to keep in mind too if/when having outsiders like VA's or coders do anything for the site. Way more people are familiar with customizing and managing Shopify sites, versus the bit more obscure UltraCart (which has a higher learning curve).

Since I have now become very familiar with Shopify for my other main business, I'm switching the supplement business over to this platform as well. This will also allow me to quickly test things like upsells, cart layouts, etc. etc.

I will be using the ReCharge:Recurring Billing app for Shopify, and every customer who buys a bottle of my supplement will get a chance to sign up, incentivized by getting their next bottle free. (This is part of my label, as it literally says "Want your next bottle FREE?"... then go to.... (URL)"

My other business still needs to have all of my focus though, so the purpose of this supplement business is to have it be an passive income stream that covers all of our living expenses. But I can still see a lot of potential for growth, so I will very likely hire out VA work to take over managing social media, promotions, and getting into wholesale. I will also be adding more and more relevant supplements into the brand (all focused around natural ingredients and no hype). The Shopify store will over time have categories of products.

The product is already on Amazon FBA so I will continue to use FBA fulfillment also for all website sales.

 

[Guest12120]

@Eskil how many products do you have right now? I was thinking about selling on Shopify but I feel you need a good number of products for this to make sense.
Do you do any media buying?


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