Ask me anything about eCommerce (Ongoing)

[IGP]

Hi @biophase - first of all, I want to thank you for all the value you have provided this forum and for people like me who are just starting out. I've been really inspired by your ecommerce journey and am trying to build my own ecommerce / Amazon business using what you've done before as guidance.

I am running into a problem which I was hoping you could provide your thoughts on.

My situation is the I agreed to a production order price quote with my manufacturer a few weeks ago. This price quote includes the mold fee that I would need to pay for. I am currently now trying to get them to make a sample for me where they would use the new mold. They said that I would need to pay a couple hundred dollars for the mold fee and I am OK with this. The problem is that since the original quote already includes this mold fee, I would essentially be paying twice for this mold fee if I have to pay for it upfront now to get the sample made and again later when I pay for the production order.

I asked them to deduct the price of the mold fee from the production order since I'm essentially prepaying for it. What they came back with is that they will refund the mold fee after I've placed x number of units. "x" is a very large number of units and could take a couple of years to reach in the best case scenario. I don't even know if they will honor it at that point.

The other option they offered is that they can make the sample by hand (not using a new mold) and they won't charge the mold fee. The problem with this is that I think this defeats the whole purpose of ordering a sample if I can't see the updated final product with the new molded components in place.

What this manufacturer is trying to do does not seem right to me. I feel like they are taking an opportunity to charge me a few hundred dollars just because they can.

Am I looking at this correctly? Or is it that there's a lot of work involved in changing out the mold and their extra fee is justified? Have you dealt with something like this before and what you advise that I do? Or should I get a sample manually made not using a mold? I feel like we are pretty close to making a deal work so part of me doesn't want to jeopardize the deal after months of hard work and think that I should just agree to their terms and not expect to ever see that money back again. Any help is much appreciated.

PS - If I had joined INSIDERS just a few months sooner, I would have definitely signed up for your coaching. I think it would have been so valuable.

Tell them you are not going to pay the mold fee twice.

Tell them you order $XXXX from China every month and that every other supplier you have ever dealt with only charged you once to make a mold.

You need to stand your ground.

 

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[David4431]

Tell them you are not going to pay the mold fee twice.

Tell them you order $XXXX from China every month and that every other supplier you have ever dealt with only charged you once to make a mold.

You need to stand your ground.

Thanks @IGP . I think that kick from you was just what I needed. I sent them an email pushing back on them trying to charge me twice. Let's see what they say. I guess I was reluctant to stand my ground because I feel like we're pretty close to making a deal and I didn't want to jeopardize it. I've put almost two months of effort into this product already. Hopefully they come to their senses and we can move forward with this.

 

[mentalmillion]

Hey @biophase ,

I just got done listening to a podcast stating that the climate of the Amazon marketplace is shifting towards big players consolidating and that micro-niches are probably the way it's headed for smaller sellers. For example he mentioned that protein powder was a market that was huge a while back and has since dwindled forcing smaller players to sell to bigger players. However, he still seeing super micro brand powders catered to things like vegan, keto and gluten diets excelling.

So following what I just heard I wanted to ask, from your experience, how is the Amazon marketplace in 2018 for new sellers? Does the statement from the podcast actually ring true?

My plan was originally to find a market that I can improve and start on Amazon as I build a brand for an ecommerce store. I posted in my intro thread that I'm sort of in the analysis paralysis phase so I'm just trying to get as much information as I can.

Thanks!

 

[jramos02]

@biophase what are some "indirect" skills that you think are must have for eCommerce? i.e. Copywriting, marketing, SEO, etc.

 

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[LynetteP]

I'm using Shopify.

Biophase, thanks for this thread! Would established ecommerce people be interested in licensing products with a patent pending, or is everyone generally focused on first to market? I've got a ton of product innovations, and there's only so many hours in the day. Thanks for any insight!

 

[biophase]

Biophase, thanks for this thread! Would established ecommerce people be interested in licensing products with a patent pending, or is everyone generally focused on first to market? I've got a ton of product innovations, and there's only so many hours in the day. Thanks for any insight!

I'm sure people would be interested in anything that sells that fits within their store's niche or category.

 

[advancedyn]

Absolutely outstanding thread! Thank you very much for doing this. Just this one post alone is worth it's weight in gold. I really appreciate you doing this. Thank you.

Grant

BTW, A little rant and information about importing...

In my experience, the companies that ask ridiculous amounts for a sample always seem to end up being the shitty ones. I would venture that they are shitty so they only make money by asking high prices for samples.

I usually get samples from 2-4 different vendors. Some companies will charge a reasonable $10 for a sample and some will charge $50. Then some will charge $30 for shipping and others $50. Then on top of that, some will charge a 5% paypal fee.

So I usually get a sample from whoever I like in my email exchanges and I tend to ignore the high costs because in reality, I can spend $200-$300 getting samples, because I know that when I get the correct sample, I will make alot more later on.

However, after doing this a few years. I've noticed that the high sample priced companies never delivered on quality. I have never moved forward with a company that made me pay alot for a sample. I usually got the best samples from the companies that sent the sample for free or a low price and charged reasonably for shipping.

Because I am fairly experienced at this, I usually send all the information that they need in my first email. I send my quantity, all my artwork, logos, pantone colors, header card design, packaging information and even my ship to address. What I really expect is an email that just says, we can do this at XXX price shipped to your door.

But what I usually get back is a bunch of questions that I answered in the first email. However, there will always be that one vendor that read the whole email and quoted everything perfectly, or very close to it. I usually give these guys a shot at a sample no matter their price.

Just last night, I was in talks with 5 vendors on a new product. This is a fairly simple screen print onto polyester product costing between $.50-$2.00.

Vendor #1, I sent my artwork PDF and they literally printed it and sent me back a photo of a finished product within 1 hour! And it looked good. I was like holy sh*t, that was fast. I paypal'd them $30 and they are sending my the sample so I can see and feel it.

Vendor #2 game me excuses like they couldn't read my file, the artwork was the wrong size, and wanted me to resize my artwork. I told them I would not do it and also told them I had samples coming already. Then magically they could do it! They want $60 setup charge to make my sample and $30 to ship it. No thanks. Their prices are 60% the price of Vendor #1.

Vendor #3 could not understand my artwork, I told them I want a 2.5cm x 2.5cm logo in the corner and they sent my a proof with dimensions showing the logo at 5cm x 4cm. Not a good sign to start with. They were priced the same as Vendor #1.

Vendor #4 and #5, were out of the ballpark in pricing. My guess is that they were not a factory.

So in this case, I only ended up with one sample coming. If it matches my current offering, I'm going with them. Even if they aren't the cheapest.

 

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[LynetteP]

I'm sure people would be interested in anything that sells that fits within their store's niche or category.

Is there a good place for me to place an inquiry here on the forums? Thanks again!

 

[NickC]

Hey @biophase thanks for all the great information and taking your time to answer questions. I've been doing loads of research on products. I found what i believe is a product that has alot of potential. On amazon. About 90% of the products on page 1 of amazon all have very poor reviews between 2.5 and 3.5 stars. A few 4 and maybe one 4.5. I feel i can improve this product and there are many products related i can launch to create a brand. After doing further digging i found this same product on etsy is selling well aswell, but most have 5 star reviews and very little complaints. Do you think this is a red flag?

 

[Walter Hay]

Is there a good place for me to place an inquiry here on the forums? Thanks again!

Without any hint on the subject of your inquiry it's difficult to say where you should post.

It is not a good idea to be specific in a public place about your product or plans.

There are some long time contributors that you might trust with your question by way of PM if you think the subject is within their area of expertise, but if it is not confidential you should post it on the most relevant thread you can find.

Walter

 

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[Brett Beckwith]

This is an incredible thread. I've stumbled upon it recently and I'm trying to gather in all the information while I'm launching my first product.

 

[LynetteP]

Without any hint on the subject of your inquiry it's difficult to say where you should post.

It is not a good idea to be specific in a public place about your product or plans.

There are some long time contributors that you might trust with your question by way of PM if you think the subject is within their area of expertise, but if it is not confidential you should post it on the most relevant thread you can find.

Walter

Thanks Walter! Most of my stuff is housewares- things for cleaning, organization, kitchenware, etc. I would not want to post anything much more specific... I have a JV started and NDA with a manufacturing/engineering firm for a few items that have a patent pending, but don't want to put all of my eggs in one basket. Also, the level of engineering required is not high for most of my product innovations. Do you think any of the long time contributors would be interested in these type of household items? I have so many I am happy to share profits in exchange for speed to market. Thanks again!

 

[daicaviet]

@biophase thanks alot for value sharing all of us, By researching a lot I see Australia is a huge demand market here. amazon FBA just launching here, Have you sell here yet? And with your experient how do you think about Electronic and assessories market here ?

 

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[biophase]

Hey @biophase thanks for all the great information and taking your time to answer questions. I've been doing loads of research on products. I found what i believe is a product that has alot of potential. On amazon. About 90% of the products on page 1 of amazon all have very poor reviews between 2.5 and 3.5 stars. A few 4 and maybe one 4.5. I feel i can improve this product and there are many products related i can launch to create a brand. After doing further digging i found this same product on etsy is selling well aswell, but most have 5 star reviews and very little complaints. Do you think this is a red flag?

You need to figure why the reviews are so great on Etsy and so bad on Amazon. Are you sure it's the same product?

 

[biophase]

@biophase thanks alot for value sharing all of us, By researching a lot I see Australia is a huge demand market here. amazon FBA just launching here, Have you sell here yet? And with your experient how do you think about Electronic and assessories market here ?

I don't sell in Australia. I would not do electronics just because of the hassle of the electronic parts and the speed of improvement. If Australia is pretty young, you can probably start with easier products.

 

[WTF]

What about buying cheap, nonetheless durable t-shirts, and hand-pressing your personal designs onto the shirts?

My father has a hand-press I could use for free, and I'm reasonably decent at graphic design (it's what I wanted to be prior to wanting to go fastlane).

Sure I couldn't separate my time from my business, but I could definitely see how something like this could be profitable if I were to perhaps create different comical designs related to politics or different holidays/seasons/celebrated days and put them on the shirts.

Opinion?

 

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[Scot]

What about buying cheap, nonetheless durable t-shirts, and hand-pressing your personal designs onto the shirts?

My father has a hand-press I could use for free, and I'm reasonably decent at graphic design (it's what I wanted to be prior to wanting to go fastlane).

Sure I couldn't separate my time from my business, but I could definitely see how something like this could be profitable if I were to perhaps create different comical designs related to politics or different holidays/seasons/celebrated days and put them on the shirts.

Opinion?

What makes your shirts different than the other thousand sellers doing the exact same thing..?

 

[WTF]

What makes your shirts different than the other thousand sellers doing the exact same thing..?

Would having a custom comedic design (that isn't available on any other shirt) not separate them enough? :?

If not that, then you've got me stumped -- nothing.

 

[alexa0ne]

Which platform is the best way of promoting pet supplies product? My team has been doing marketing promotion, but there are some keywords that don't rank on search engine. The eCommerce has been up for a few years now but is struggling to get a spot on top of SERP. I don't know if it due to the fact that our competitor pays for advertising ad, or is it because of the website design. I believe that it needs to be redesign, my previous employer told me that it will only take 7secs to capture the attention of a potential customer. I remember the account that I used to handle before it doesn't rank at all, but after I propose for redesigning it ranks and be on top of the SERP.

 

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[WTF]

Which platform is the best way of promoting pet supplies product? My team has been doing marketing promotion, but there are some keywords that don't rank on search engine. The eCommerce has been up for a few years now but is struggling to get a spot on top of SERP. I don't know if it due to the fact that our competitor pays for advertising ad, or is it because of the website design. I believe that it needs to be redesign, my previous employer told me that it will only take 7secs to capture the attention of a potential customer. I remember the account that I used to handle before it doesn't rank at all, but after I propose for redesigning it ranks and be on top of the SERP.

No offense. But are you absolutely sure it's the SEO?

Just as Scot pointed out to me, there needs to be a USP (unique selling proposition). If you're selling the same re-hashed thing as your competitor, though they have more reviews/ranking/credibility, and they're selling a lower price than you are -- then what they're selling is always going to look better.

Sell something for cheaper, and that your target market finds better than what your competitors are selling. If you can manage that, and can do basic marketing, I'm under the belief that your product might just sell itself.

However I'm not rich yet, so don't heed what I say too strongly.

Best of luck.

 

[biophase]

What about buying cheap, nonetheless durable t-shirts, and hand-pressing your personal designs onto the shirts?

My father has a hand-press I could use for free, and I'm reasonably decent at graphic design (it's what I wanted to be prior to wanting to go fastlane).

Sure I couldn't separate my time from my business, but I could definitely see how something like this could be profitable if I were to perhaps create different comical designs related to politics or different holidays/seasons/celebrated days and put them on the shirts.

Opinion?

That's a no. Alot of labor. Alot of SKUs. Low profit margins. Just too much work for little profit.

 

[alexa0ne]

No offense. But are you absolutely sure it's the SEO?

Just as Scot pointed out to me, there needs to be a USP (unique selling proposition). If you're selling the same re-hashed thing as your competitor, though they have more reviews/ranking/credibility, and they're selling a lower price than you are -- then what they're selling is always going to look better.

Sell something for cheaper, and that your target market finds better than what your competitors are selling. If you can manage that, and can do basic marketing, I'm under the belief that your product might just sell itself.

However I'm not rich yet, so don't heed what I say too strongly.

Best of luck.

I would have to agree with you, I also want to work with some promotions as a lot of customers nowadays wanted some discount. I will try to create a marketing suggestion. Thanks for sharing your insights, I really appreciate it.

 

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[Bulgano]

@biophase

What is your general idea on drop shipping Amazon? If you have any experience with it, does it tend to not be worth it or can it be viable for people who are new and looking to get into the Amazon game?

Previously someone mentioned Amazon starting in Australia, and you said it might be better to start with easier products since it only just started. If you were in this situation, would you bother with drop shipping (and adhering to Amazon's rules for it) or would you just bite the bullet and buy stock for the product and send it to Amazon's warehouse?

On top of that, an additional question I have is with Amazon being so new in Australia, the most reviewed product I've seen is like 20 reviews, so would you perceive this as opportunity or is it perhaps a sign that consumers aren't interested?

Thanks!

 

[biophase]

@biophase

What is your general idea on drop shipping Amazon? If you have any experience with it, does it tend to not be worth it or can it be viable for people who are new and looking to get into the Amazon game?

Previously someone mentioned Amazon starting in Australia, and you said it might be better to start with easier products since it only just started. If you were in this situation, would you bother with drop shipping (and adhering to Amazon's rules for it) or would you just bite the bullet and buy stock for the product and send it to Amazon's warehouse?

On top of that, an additional question I have is with Amazon being so new in Australia, the most reviewed product I've seen is like 20 reviews, so would you perceive this as opportunity or is it perhaps a sign that consumers aren't interested?

Thanks!

Don't do it. I don't know how you'd even manage that. How would it work, you'd sell something on Amazon and then contact your dropshipper to ship it out? What happens if they run out of stock and you don't know, or they ship it out late?

In Australia, I'd probably be jumping on the bandwagon if I lived there. How fast is Amazon prime over there?

 

[Bulgano]

Don't do it. I don't know how you'd even manage that. How would it work, you'd sell something on Amazon and then contact your dropshipper to ship it out? What happens if they run out of stock and you don't know, or they ship it out late?

In Australia, I'd probably be jumping on the bandwagon if I lived there. How fast is Amazon prime over there?

For drop shipping Amazon I've seen 1 or 2 different ways, but you are right. They are all pretty janky and have the issues you listed.

Can't speak from experience but they state Prime is 2 days for 90% of Australians. So I'd say 2-4 days for prime delivery which is pretty fast for our standards.

I guess my main concern with it is I'm not sure if the demand is really here for Amazon. (If that makes sense.)
For example; On the US Amazon, on the best sellers page your review counters are pretty bonkers. 2-3k reviews on non-amazon owned products.

In AU we've had Amazon (not prime) for about 2-3 months and our highest reviews are roughly around 20-30. Not that I'm basing demand off of review counts, but it just seems like a bad sign to me.

However, I think I might still give it a try and just buy some small unit amounts of a few different products/niches and see if any of them sell.

Would you recommend still trying to come up with "unique" niches, or could it be viable to piggyback on some popular niches from the US Amazon? Since from what I've read recently, it would appear Amazon are only going to allow shipping to Australia via the Australian site and not the US site anymore.

 

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[jcvlds]

For drop shipping Amazon I've seen 1 or 2 different ways, but you are right. They are all pretty janky and have the issues you listed.

Can't speak from experience but they state Prime is 2 days for 90% of Australians. So I'd say 2-4 days for prime delivery which is pretty fast for our standards.

I guess my main concern with it is I'm not sure if the demand is really here for Amazon. (If that makes sense.)
For example; On the US Amazon, on the best sellers page your review counters are pretty bonkers. 2-3k reviews on non-amazon owned products.

In AU we've had Amazon (not prime) for about 2-3 months and our highest reviews are roughly around 20-30. Not that I'm basing demand off of review counts, but it just seems like a bad sign to me.

However, I think I might still give it a try and just buy some small unit amounts of a few different products/niches and see if any of them sell.

Would you recommend still trying to come up with "unique" niches, or could it be viable to piggyback on some popular niches from the US Amazon? Since from what I've read recently, it would appear Amazon are only going to allow shipping to Australia via the Australian site and not the US site anymore.

Bro. How do you expect reviews to be anywhere close to the amount of reviews the US has when Amazon has only been in AU for 2-3 months vs many years in the US?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Bulgano]

Bro. How do you expect reviews to be anywhere close to the amount of reviews the US has when Amazon has only been in AU for 2-3 months vs many years in the US?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well yeah of course. I agree with you on that. I don't expect the AU products to have 10k reviews in 2-3 months.

What I meant was for 2-3 months, the review numbers seem low in my opinion, but maybe that is just me since I'm inexperienced in this field.

 

[Walter Hay]

Would having a custom comedic design (that isn't available on any other shirt) not separate them enough? :?

If not that, then you've got me stumped -- nothing.

A single comedic design, just puts you at the end of a long line of people who think up a "clever" saying that sounds funny to them.

I went to the trouble of searching for the most popular T shirt designs, including Amazon's top 100 sellers. I couldn't stop yawning. Try "SURELY NOT EVERYBODY WAS KUNG FU FIGHTING", or "BEST ASSISTANT COACH EVER". Don't you just want to hit the BUY NOW button???

The T Shirt market sector is no different to other markets. Would you set up a business selling garlic presses and nothing else? When the garlic press business exhausts it's market potential of 20 buyers do you then offer egg whisks?

Trying to sell one-off T shirt designs with no theme, no story, no eager market wanting to see your next design, is just another garlic press enterprise.

If you want to make a profitable business out of T Shirts, you need to find a niche within that massive industry; preferably something that can become a must-have for a subculture or a special interest group. You need to create something that will get you repeat business, and for that you need a theme that appeals to your niche market.

In order to do that you must do your research. Look at subcultures (also known as Urban Tribes). Here's a good starting point: http://subcultureslist.com/ Do your own research, but don't limit your search to the lists you will find. Think outside the square and think which special interest groups might like T Shirts featuring something connected to their particular interest.

Above all, you need to have repeat business.

Walter

 

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[biophase]

Well yeah of course. I agree with you on that. I don't expect the AU products to have 10k reviews in 2-3 months.

What I meant was for 2-3 months, the review numbers seem low in my opinion, but maybe that is just me since I'm inexperienced in this field.

I'd be all in on Amazon based on how shitty the ecommerce is in Australia. I remember when I lived there a month that I couldn't get anything shipped within a week. They don't seem to have a good delivery infrastructure.

 

[Bulgano]

I'd be all in on Amazon based on how shitty the ecommerce is in Australia. I remember when I lived there a month that I couldn't get anything shipped within a week. They don't seem to have a good delivery infrastructure.

Hahah yeah you're telling me. Even when you order on Amazon if it's non prime it generally takes > 5 days.
Alright, I'll start looking into it then and see if I can find some relevant products.

What's your thoughts in regards to what I said about piggybacking on niches/products that are popular on the US Amazon? Do you think this is a wise move or do you think it would be better to do some research and figure out what sort of products people in AU are buying?

Speaking of research, for Amazon is it the same as any other eCommerce business? Look into Facebook / Google numbers, look at similar products and reviews, etc... Or is there additional variables to consider when looking into Amazon selling?