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Ask me anything about eCommerce (Ongoing)

biophase

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Amazon is bigger in the states. Have you done the research for the US market? You would need to register your business here and pay all associated taxes as well. I would launch it here if you knew it was going to be a hit, if not just start with Canada then add it to US later

I had a client launch in Amazon UK first then Amazon USA. In hindsight, we should have just launched in Amazon USA. There is more traffic and the prices are higher. Go for the big market first, then expand to the smaller ones.
 
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Castillo

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I had a client launch in Amazon UK first then Amazon USA. In hindsight, we should have just launched in Amazon USA. There is more traffic and the prices are higher. Go for the big market first, then expand to the smaller ones.

Thanks biophase! I will need to look into registering my sold proprietorship there.
 

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Hey biophase,

What are your thoughts on HKTDC? Would you consider it safer than Alibaba and other sourcing websites?

I know that Walter Hays recommend HKTDC because its certifications are more trust worthy.

Thanks in advance for your time!
 
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samuraijack

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  • rise in ACOS (30% to 70%)

So just a heads up to those using sponsored ads. Always report any suspicion of click fraud as soon as you get a hunch. Be detailed with the dates, amounts, and keywords. I noticed my acos change (above) and I knew something was up.

I just got refunded $3570.80 from my sponsored ad payments.

Athough if you avoid high competition products like biophase then you can avoid these problems all together :)
 
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Bishop

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@biophase, would it be unwise to launch a men's leather wallet or leather cardholder? I have a design that is unlike any other on Amazon that takes after luxury brands. There is really no functional value add, only style and quality. It's obviously a very competitive niche, so I am guessing it would be very difficult to rank.

I'm not biophase (not even close), but I can offer a little advice here since I was in this space, and i'm still unloading some of these on Amazon. A good rule of thumb is: If there is no value add, keep looking. I learned that lesson the hard way.
 

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Hi @biophase.

I'm struggling to receive reviews on my products and I would like to ask what kind of action you take to increase yours. I thought about sending a follow up email with a discount code for further purchases and raise the review subject while doing so. Do you have some tips regarding this matter?
 

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Gentlemen,

I have been exploring new opportunities for a long time to sell accessories and apparel. I had been thinking of Shopify and oberlo to dropship items. What do you guys suggest? Has anyone experienced this platform before?
 
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LeoistheSun

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I'm not a fan of ecom due to all the moving parts, however...

Two days ago I was looking at a product that recently was on the news and immediately thought of a new way of doing it that would add more value (humor) to something normally trivial and yucky.

I don't know anything about e-commerce other than making the numbers work and verifying the need.

So I plan on buying some with the new design and selling door to door to see if theirs a want/need.

The cost per item on Ali is less than $1.
 

secondhanddog

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@biophase, would it be unwise to launch a men's leather wallet or leather cardholder? I have a design that is unlike any other on Amazon that takes after luxury brands. There is really no functional value add, only style and quality. It's obviously a very competitive niche, so I am guessing it would be very difficult to rank.

Damn... are you me? Had a similar luxury wallet design samples made (from a few different manufacturers). European leather, slim design and great quality. ~$5 per item to make.

Setup a shopify store and created a product page (with product photos from the samples). Ran ads on facebook to validate the idea, but from $20 worth of ads - 2000 impressions, 45 links clicked there were zero "add to cart" buttons clicked.

Not sure if it's just worth moving on to another product or doing a round of google ads.
 

Christian McGhee

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Damn... are you me? Had a similar luxury wallet design samples made (from a few different manufacturers). European leather, slim design and great quality. ~$5 per item to make.

Setup a shopify store and created a product page (with product photos from the samples). Ran ads on facebook to validate the idea, but from $20 worth of ads - 2000 impressions, 45 links clicked there were zero "add to cart" buttons clicked.

Not sure if it's just worth moving on to another product or doing a round of google ads.

IMO 20 dollars isnt enough ad spend to see if you have a winner or not. Also like a previous member said, there are quite a few moving parts. Who are you targeting, does your presentation stand out? How much feedback do you have from potential customers, have you used other platforms (instagram, etsy, etc). You know sometimes value is defined in a psychological sense instead of a monetary sense. Untill you can get real feedback from real people, then you are just making moves based off assumptions.

I think throwing stuff up on fb ads and using those metrics solely to qualify a product is an easy way to lose money quick. I'd much rather pay a Instagram influencer to promote a contest for me, one that allows potential customers to give feedback.
 
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Christian McGhee

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Hi @biophase.

I'm struggling to receive reviews on my products and I would like to ask what kind of action you take to increase yours. I thought about sending a follow up email with a discount code for further purchases and raise the review subject while doing so. Do you have some tips regarding this matter?

Ask yourself this, what reason would they have to leave a review? If you can find a good enough reason for them, then they will leave reviews. When I first started dropshipping, I would handwrite short cards and send it via USPS. I knew they would be waiting a couple weeks for their product, and I wanted to build a personal connection so that they knew they were dealing with a real person. In that I card, I included that i I had created a UNIQUE promo code, that would be activated ONLY after they left a review on the website. I also included contact info in case they had anything they wanted to discuss.

Later on I began to use an app called stamped.io - its integrated with shopify reviews, and it is AUTOMATED. It sends out emails allowing them to leave reviews and upload pictures just by responding to the email.
 

secondhanddog

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IMO 20 dollars isnt enough ad spend to see if you have a winner or not. Also like a previous member said, there are quite a few moving parts. Who are you targeting, does your presentation stand out? How much feedback do you have from potential customers, have you used other platforms (instagram, etsy, etc). You know sometimes value is defined in a psychological sense instead of a monetary sense. Untill you can get real feedback from real people, then you are just making moves based off assumptions.

I think throwing stuff up on fb ads and using those metrics solely to qualify a product is an easy way to lose money quick. I'd much rather pay a Instagram influencer to promote a contest for me, one that allows potential customers to give feedback.

Instagram/facebook for the ads. While I enjoy feedback from real people, for me it's feedback of making a sale or not. If people aren't clicking the ad, well the ad sucks. If people aren't clicking the buy button after the ad... there's something not working with your landing page.

What are the costs on instagram influencers? That would be my push once you had a good validation around your product. Hugely mixed reviews on how effective they are. Personally I would feel a affiliate code deal with an influencer would be good, throw them 25%+ of the profit for each of their sales.
 

Christian McGhee

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Instagram/facebook for the ads. While I enjoy feedback from real people, for me it's feedback of making a sale or not. If people aren't clicking the ad, well the ad sucks. If people aren't clicking the buy button after the ad... there's something not working with your landing page.

What are the costs on instagram influencers? That would be my push once you had a good validation around your product. Hugely mixed reviews on how effective they are. Personally I would feel a affiliate code deal with an influencer would be good, throw them 25%+ of the profit for each of their sales.
Not going to disagree with you, but feedback is the only way you can know if you're creating real value or not. Think about your body, when you touch something hot you get feedback from your nervous system, it tells you that maybe you shouldnt be doing that.

The amount of sales IS feedback, but no sales is also feedback. The issue is without the RIGHT feedback from REAL customers you are left ASSUMING what you should change. Why not just ask them so you can take out the guess work? Your time spent in the "awkward phase" will be dramatically decreased, and your efficiency will rise exponentially.

There is a disconnect here, you want to create a product people want to buy but you don't want to ask the people what would make them buy it?

As far as the influencer, I've had successes, but my success at an early stage may not be inline with your definition of success. I created a promotion using an influencer that had 500k followers. I created an ad that went something like this: The picture showcased 4 products from my store. The user had to comment which item they HAD to have, they also had to tag a friend, and they had to follow my page in order to win. I spent 100 dollars for the promo, and 15 bucks for the item I sent out. Heres what happened. I gained zero sales directly from the promotion. That was not my goal. I was building a new page, my goal was traffic and awareness, so I didnt expect sales to come running in. The contest got over 5k likes, i received close to a 700 new REAL targeted followers,a nice chunk of email addresses, and people told me which products appealed to them the most. Using that data I built several ads around it, and recouped my initial investment many times over.
 
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Last edited:

secondhanddog

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There is a disconnect here, you want to create a product people want to buy but you don't want to ask the people what would make them buy it?

Sorry, I should say we did do feedback. Slim being the biggest (people not carrying cash any-more), which is also what we used in the ads.

Nice strategy on the influencer. Did they only charge you $100 for the promo?
 

gabeb1920

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Question from an ecom newb and honestly I haven't yet read this thread but I am working through it :)

Is it worth reselling products on Amazon without re-branding? Or is it more likely that the initial manufacturer will already be selling their products better than you could?

My father-in-law owns a B&M store which is seeing dropping sales. They are a stockist for engineering/hardware/tools supplies but don't actually have any of their own products.

They currently have zero online presence and I'm thinking if they could expand their customer base via online marketplaces then they would increase sales.

Forgive me if this question is really naive but I'm just exploring ideas :)

And thanks @biophase for this thread plus all the other awesome info you put out :)
 

Patrickg

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Biophase:

Background:
I sold my old Ecom business recently. And I am in process of getting a product from China. Well as you know They shut down soon. So I was able to get sample ordered. However, best case scenario I'm selling in late march.

Here is my question.

Should I put up Shopify store and build it out , which I plan on doing anyway. And fill it with dropship products for now? Is there any value there leverage the traffic / sales. For my own products later.
 
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Greg R

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@biophase and maybe @amp0193 can chime in.

TLDR: Do you think high-end/ affordable luxury sportswear for woman could succeed on Amazon?

If so, how?

***​
The closer I get to launch time the more I've been thinking about distribution.

In the thread https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/womens-activewear-my-fastlane.47614/

You continually give the OP valuable advice that he neglected to take and ultimately, he failed his business.

There seems to be a consumer perception that Amazon is the cheap and easy route for products. And that a luxury brand has no place here. Do you see it that way?

Because of this, I'm worried that positioning on Amazon could diminish the high-end/ modern luxury market brand image that we are going for.

Alternatively, Amazon could be the best platform to get our products in customer hands quicker and more effectively which allows us to serve them better.

The noticeable difference that I see between my product and the OP from the Activewear thread is that my product has a better value proposition (a problem solving aspect).

Curious to hear your thoughts on the high-end/ luxury Amazon market. Yay or nay?

EDIT: Amazon also allures me because there aren't many luxury brand on there and it's a way that we could stand out.
 
Last edited:

healthsupps

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@biophase and maybe @amp0193 can chime in.

TLDR: Do you think high-end/ affordable luxury sportswear for woman could succeed on Amazon?

If so, how?

***​
The closer I get to launch time the more I've been thinking about distribution.

In the thread https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/womens-activewear-my-fastlane.47614/

You continually give the OP valuable advice that he neglected to take and ultimately, he failed his business.

There seems to be a consumer perception that Amazon is the cheap and easy route for products. And that a luxury brand has no place here. Do you see it that way?

Because of this, I'm worried that positioning on Amazon could diminish the high-end/ modern luxury market brand image that we are going for.

Alternatively, Amazon could be the best platform to get our products in customer hands quicker and more effectively which allows us to serve them better.

The noticeable difference that I see between my product and the OP from the Activewear thread is that my product has a better value proposition (a problem solving aspect).

Curious to hear your thoughts on the high-end/ luxury Amazon market. Yay or nay?

EDIT: Amazon also allures me because there aren't many luxury brand on there and it's a way that we could stand out.

Amazon would be great for validation. The amount of traffic they have is insane, so you'll find out real quick if people are willing to buy it or not. If you end up feeling like it's cheapening your brand then you can always take it off.
 

MoneyDoc

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@biophase and maybe @amp0193 can chime in.

TLDR: Do you think high-end/ affordable luxury sportswear for woman could succeed on Amazon?

If so, how?

***​
The closer I get to launch time the more I've been thinking about distribution.

In the thread https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/womens-activewear-my-fastlane.47614/

You continually give the OP valuable advice that he neglected to take and ultimately, he failed his business.

There seems to be a consumer perception that Amazon is the cheap and easy route for products. And that a luxury brand has no place here. Do you see it that way?

Because of this, I'm worried that positioning on Amazon could diminish the high-end/ modern luxury market brand image that we are going for.

Alternatively, Amazon could be the best platform to get our products in customer hands quicker and more effectively which allows us to serve them better.

The noticeable difference that I see between my product and the OP from the Activewear thread is that my product has a better value proposition (a problem solving aspect).

Curious to hear your thoughts on the high-end/ luxury Amazon market. Yay or nay?

EDIT: Amazon also allures me because there aren't many luxury brand on there and it's a way that we could stand out.
One of my companies is a "luxury" beauty brand and we sell $50-80 skincare products extremely well on amazon. In fact, I think people would pay more on amazon for the same product than say on eBay.
 
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biophase

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@biophase and maybe @amp0193 can chime in.

TLDR: Do you think high-end/ affordable luxury sportswear for woman could succeed on Amazon?

If so, how?

***​
The closer I get to launch time the more I've been thinking about distribution.

In the thread https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/womens-activewear-my-fastlane.47614/

You continually give the OP valuable advice that he neglected to take and ultimately, he failed his business.

There seems to be a consumer perception that Amazon is the cheap and easy route for products. And that a luxury brand has no place here. Do you see it that way?

Because of this, I'm worried that positioning on Amazon could diminish the high-end/ modern luxury market brand image that we are going for.

Alternatively, Amazon could be the best platform to get our products in customer hands quicker and more effectively which allows us to serve them better.

The noticeable difference that I see between my product and the OP from the Activewear thread is that my product has a better value proposition (a problem solving aspect).

Curious to hear your thoughts on the high-end/ luxury Amazon market. Yay or nay?

EDIT: Amazon also allures me because there aren't many luxury brand on there and it's a way that we could stand out.

I think you can sell anything on Amazon, high end or low end. In the end it comes down to if your product is good and do people want it?

Just being a luxury brand doesn’t make it stand out. Just overpricing a product doesn’t make it a luxury brand.

I don’t know your value proposition but I’d really revisit it and get opinions from people to see if they see the value.

Would people buy an IPhone off of Amazon? Of course they would.
 

biophase

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Biophase:

Background:
I sold my old Ecom business recently. And I am in process of getting a product from China. Well as you know They shut down soon. So I was able to get sample ordered. However, best case scenario I'm selling in late march.

Here is my question.

Should I put up Shopify store and build it out , which I plan on doing anyway. And fill it with dropship products for now? Is there any value there leverage the traffic / sales. For my own products later.

I wouldn’t. Do you think that launching a month earlier would make any difference to you traffic or seo?
 

biophase

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Question from an ecom newb and honestly I haven't yet read this thread but I am working through it :)

Is it worth reselling products on Amazon without re-branding? Or is it more likely that the initial manufacturer will already be selling their products better than you could?

My father-in-law owns a B&M store which is seeing dropping sales. They are a stockist for engineering/hardware/tools supplies but don't actually have any of their own products.

They currently have zero online presence and I'm thinking if they could expand their customer base via online marketplaces then they would increase sales.

Forgive me if this question is really naive but I'm just exploring ideas :)

And thanks @biophase for this thread plus all the other awesome info you put out :)

If they already have the inventory, and all they have to do is lit’s the product on Amazon, it’s a no-brainer to go ahead and start selling the product on Amazon.
 
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Patrickg

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I wouldn’t. Do you think that launching a month earlier would make any difference to you traffic or seo?

Thanks Good point. I was thinking more to have my own store ready and built out with more products so it looks more like a company than a one product startup.

Or do you typically wait till you have multiple products you are selling in a new brand to start your own store?
 

healthsupps

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Thanks Good point. I was thinking more to have my own store ready and built out with more products so it looks more like a company than a one product startup.

Or do you typically wait till you have multiple products you are selling in a new brand to start your own store?
I had one product. It didn't do well on my own store, but did great on amazon. However in my niche usually people don't just get 1 product so maybe it was even worse having one product on my store (supplements).
 

Patrickg

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I had one product. It didn't do well on my own store, but did great on amazon. However in my niche usually people don't just get 1 product so maybe it was even worse having one product on my store (supplements).

That makes sense. I think my biggest stall point is understanding how to bridge to the online store from Amazon. Making your online store have a significant volume of sales. From what I read currently a big increaser for your multiple.

Do you start paying for traffic right away to send to your own store? For the one product?
 
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healthsupps

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That makes sense. I think my biggest stall point is understanding how to bridge to the online store from Amazon. Making your online store have a significant volume of sales. From what I read currently a big increaser for your multiple.

Do you start paying for traffic right away to send to your own store? For the one product?
I never found paid traffic campaigns to be profitable with only 1 product in a niche where people are taking a stack of products.
 

Patrickg

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I never found paid traffic campaigns to be profitable with only 1 product in a niche where people are taking a stack of products.

Makes sense. That's my theory here if I build out a website. That has supplemental products through dropshipping and even wholesale means. I can then bundle in my product. This would make paid traffic profitable.

I will try it and report back in few months, hopefully it will help someone else who was wondering the same thing.
 

MoneyDoc

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I think you need to just do it. Like I said, if your backseat organizer is 100% better than the current #1 on Amazon, why would you give a sh*t about the number of competitors? Why would you care if your product only does $8000 a month, profiting you $2500 a month? Is this number too low for you? I launch stuff that does $250 a month. That's a measly $5000 a month. I don't care that it does $250, I just launch 20 more. If you never launch you will never get anywhere.
Just wanted to bump this 2015 post by @biophase as it's still so relevant in 2018. I see a lot of ecommerce/private label/amazon questions on some threads, and this answers most if not all of them.
 
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Patrickg

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Just wanted to bump this 2015 post by @biophase as it's still so relevant in 2018. I see a lot of ecommerce/private label/amazon questions on some threads, and this answers most if not all of them.

Great quote, action.
 

NanoDrake

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One of my companies is a "luxury" beauty brand and we sell $50-80 skincare products extremely well on amazon. In fact, I think people would pay more on amazon for the same product than say on eBay.
Hey @MoneyDoc , glad to see a fellow beautypreneur here :D
can you define what do you mean luxury? you know, in skincare we have pretty much from 0,10c to 1000$ for a jar of gooo :D
 

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