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Ask me anything about eCommerce (Ongoing)

LightHouse

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A bit on finding a product that will sell and modifying it, in the terms that Kenric is talking about.

I got a deal on a car trash can that clips to the head rest and is waterproof. For me this was a great product because I needed something like this, that was waterproof and washable since I have a child. The one i bought was just branded from a factory... looking at it... a few simple changes and it would be the best selling car trashcan besides graco.

#1 it is brown, no one wants a poop brown car accessory.

The logo is the companies name like "adv23", this is silly because it isn't a brand i'm going to associate with future car accessory purchases if i like the quality.

Since using it, there are things i found could be more useful, the biggest being the clasp could be moved to the end of the loop. Currently it is in the middle, well when it is between the headrest and seat, it has to be dug out and un-clipped from an uncomfortable position. This would be a simple change.

The metal around the top is a great idea, but it should be a flexible semi-har plastic, the metal already cut through the webbing. The velcro on the opening should be a button or something more secure since if you are clasping it to prevent spillage, it is full and velcro wont hold that tension.


These are just a few EASY changes that could be made to this PL type product. Marketed correctly and sold efficiently.

The difference between making $100 and making 10,000 is the effort and thought that goes into it. If you are lazy, you get lazy results.
 
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MoneyDoc

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Yes, I don't really launch products. In this specific case, I shared the new product in a couple FB groups that I was a part of. I gave the people in the groups a 50% off coupon code and sold about 20 products. Then I also gave a review group a 50% coupon code and sold about 20 more products. I did not require any one to leave a review. That is all I did.

Once I sold the initial 40, I began to get real sales. As of today I have sold 100 total.

I did some PPC, but clicks were about $.90 and my budget was $5/day, so that did not really do anything.

They way i get sales now is through word of mouth and FB shares.
Goes to show you, you don't need to give away 100-500 units each time you launch a new product as demonstrated by @biophase in a competitive niche. As long as your packaging is decent, product is good/better, price is fair; customers will find you.
 

RamEri475

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I have a great idea to make a niche product better but my problem is that I feel as though this niche is way to saturated. I know the kind of people that buy this product and the kind of things they are looking for. And what most want isn't really being fulfilled. So my question is can the uniqueness and improvements of the product be enough to compete in a saturated market?
 
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biophase

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A bit on finding a product that will sell and modifying it, in the terms that Kenric is talking about.

I got a deal on a car trash can that clips to the head rest and is waterproof. For me this was a great product because I needed something like this, that was waterproof and washable since I have a child. The one i bought was just branded from a factory... looking at it... a few simple changes and it would be the best selling car trashcan besides graco.

#1 it is brown, no one wants a poop brown car accessory.

The logo is the companies name like "adv23", this is silly because it isn't a brand i'm going to associate with future car accessory purchases if i like the quality.

Since using it, there are things i found could be more useful, the biggest being the clasp could be moved to the end of the loop. Currently it is in the middle, well when it is between the headrest and seat, it has to be dug out and un-clipped from an uncomfortable position. This would be a simple change.

The metal around the top is a great idea, but it should be a flexible semi-har plastic, the metal already cut through the webbing. The velcro on the opening should be a button or something more secure since if you are clasping it to prevent spillage, it is full and velcro wont hold that tension.


These are just a few EASY changes that could be made to this PL type product. Marketed correctly and sold efficiently.

The difference between making $100 and making 10,000 is the effort and thought that goes into it. If you are lazy, you get lazy results.

I'm looking at an outdoors product that every company only makes in green. I don't know why every company thinks that an outdoor product should be green. There are some things that don't need camouflage outdoors. How come coleman lanterns and stoves are only green? Why doesn't someone make a yellow or orange one? Hmm....

Why do car accessories only come in black? Hmm...
 
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biophase

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Goes to show you, you don't need to give away 100-500 units each time you launch a new product as demonstrated by @biophase in a competitive niche. As long as your packaging is decent, product is good/better, price is fair; customers will find you.

The product is better and get this... I sell 2 of them. So imagine there is a product for $15 which is decent. Then someone comes along and makes a better one, sells it in a 2 pack, and sells it for $14. Which one do you think will sell itself?
 

biophase

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I have a great idea to make a niche product better but my problem is that I feel as though this niche is way to saturated. I know the kind of people that buy this product and the kind of things they are looking for. And what most want isn't really being fulfilled. So my question is can the uniqueness and improvements of the product be enough to compete in a saturated market?

Yes, of course. If it is better, why wouldn't it sell? Assuming you are decent at brand building, packaging and marketing it.
 

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Hello Kenric,

I've read in another thread of you (Creating something from nothing) - the soap thing, that you bought UPC numbers for amazon.
Would you mind sharing the site where you buy the upc codes? I need them for amazon FBA.
I found a few sites on google but dont know which one is legit.
Thanks.
 
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biophase

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Hello Kenric,

I've read in another thread of you (Creating something from nothing) - the soap thing, that you bought UPC numbers for amazon.
Would you mind sharing the site where you buy the upc codes? I need them for amazon FBA.
I found a few sites on google but dont know which one is legit.
Thanks.

http://www.cheap-upc-barcode.com
 

barracuda100

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There is always an opportunity. Obviously if you just do what everyone else is doing, you will just be like everyone else. So if you just go on alibaba and import what everyone else is doing, then yes, you just get into a price war that will go down to the bottom.

It's still wide open if you have a good product. There's never a time where you can't sell a good product. Just because people have been selling shoes for 50+ years doesn't mean there isn't room for a better shoe. If that comes along, the guy making it isn't wondering if there are too many shoes already out there.

I'm launching new products every month on Amazon.

Hello everyone I'am new in the area so first wanted to thank you all for great information shared in the forum, specially Biophase for his remarkable work put up in this thread and previous ones. Regarding Amazon's market saturation with PL products imported from Alibaba and fullfilled via FBA model, It's been a while that I see that a lot of vendors are now turning into naming themselves Amazon sales gurus, then turning into magic Amazon related software providers and or Amazon sales guru Consultants, Isn't this another sign of Market saturation? most of them actually seem to know what they are talking about , they are somewhat consistent but to me, it just does not sound right that they all insist in bringing in more players to compete giving away their formula for a few bucks? What do you think?
 

biophase

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Hello everyone I'am new in the area so first wanted to thank you all for great information shared in the forum, specially Biophase for his remarkable work put up in this thread and previous ones. Regarding Amazon's market saturation with PL products imported from Alibaba and fullfilled via FBA model, It's been a while that I see that a lot of vendors are now turning into naming themselves Amazon sales gurus, then turning into magic Amazon related software providers and or Amazon sales guru Consultants, Isn't this another sign of Market saturation? most of them actually seem to know what they are talking about , they are somewhat consistent but to me, it just does not sound right that they all insist in bringing in more players to compete giving away their formula for a few bucks? What do you think?

They can make more money teaching how to be on Amazon so that's what they do. Just real the so called REI gurus have found that it is easier teaching how to make money in real estate that actually doing it.

I have no problem with those classes. However the students coming out of those classes do lack creativity and out of the box thinking. They go by the formula given in the classes and in my opinion build the business a lazy way. Trying to do the least amount of work possible. I don't see them as much competition. I almost feel like you can crush them on their first product by using brute force (product giveaways, lowered pricing) and they would quit and never come back.
 
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MarkNNelson

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Hey Bio,

I wanted to ask a question about something you said on @Valor's thread, but this seemed a more appropriate place to ask. You said

So you sacrifice under one month's profit to potential make a much better product...

If this were his only product, and he were living off of the profits, then it'd be a lot more difficult to plow that money back into an engineering effort, in comparison to someone with multiple product lines.

So my question is, back when you were starting on your first product, what criteria did you look at to determine when it was time to start living off of the profits as opposed to reinvesting them?
 
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biophase

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Hey Bio,

I wanted to ask a question about something you said on @Valor's thread, but this seemed a more appropriate place to ask. You said

If this were his only product, and he were living off of the profits, then it'd be a lot more difficult to plow that money back into an engineering effort, in comparison to someone with multiple product lines.

So my question is, back when you were starting on your first product, what criteria did you look at to determine when it was time to start living off of the profits as opposed to reinvesting them?

I don't think I ever made that determination. When I started my ebiz I did not need the income to survive. I had a decent amount of savings. I assume that @Valor was able to make a living before he sold his product on Amazon. So I don't know what has changed since that he can not go a month without this added income.

In fact, with my ecommerce business, I withdraw money from it once a year around March. Other than that, I don't use it to live on. Ecommerce is very capital intensive and you can go many years without withdrawing any money if you are looking to expand and get bigger.

If I spend $50k now to buy inventory, I don't see that original $50k until 5-6 months from today. Months 7-9 I make my profit from that $50k. If I am continuously expanding I will need more than $50k of inventory 6 months from today. So basically the profit from months 7-9 go into the inventory of a new product. So you can see how this cycles keeps going and going if you want to keep expanding and do not want to take out a loan.
 
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Mr_Maravish

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Hey keric,

Do you use a business entity for products that you decide to launch to test the market?, or do you just wait until you validate the product and then establish an LLC for that specific product/brand?
 
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biophase

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Hey keric,

Do you use a business entity for products that you decide to launch to test the market?, or do you just wait until you validate the product and then establish an LLC for that specific product/brand?

Well I'm a little different because I have a business running already so everything I launch is from the business.

If you don't have one, just launch using your SS number and then move to an Llc after it's profitable.
 

RamEri475

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Hey keric,

Do you use a business entity for products that you decide to launch to test the market?, or do you just wait until you validate the product and then establish an LLC for that specific product/brand?

I don't have a business yet. But I plan on starting one this month. I plan on setting up the LLC and just start launching all my products through the company. I am doing it this way because if things pickup I will be able to hire employees, it will make filling my taxes easier, I want to keep my business finances and my personal finances separate, and I like the idea of having "some" liability protection.
 
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biophase

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I don't have a business yet. But I plan on starting one this month. I plan on setting up the LLC and just start launching all my products through the company. I am doing it this way because if things pickup I will be able to hire employees, it will make filling my taxes easier, I want to keep my business finances and my personal finances separate, and I like the idea of having "some" liability protection.

I don't think you need to go through this step yet. But if you want to that's fine. It's just more busy work in the beginning vs. doing real work right away. Basically what you are doing is delaying your business by at least a month.
 
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RamEri475

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I don't think you need to go through this step yet. But if you want to that's fine. It's just more busy work in the beginning vs. doing real work right away. Basically what you are doing is delaying your business by at least a month.

Exactly those are my intentions. I am just trying to get everything put together before I start but I already have some designs getting made for my products that I am going to have to wait for at least a week for them to get done. While that is happening I will start my LLC, and I am currently looking for a manufacturer. I am also waiting for my first pay check to come in so I can start placing orders.

Also sorry if you already answered this but why don't you patent your products? Is it because your brand is so good nobody would ever think to get a knockoff? Or is it because it really isn't necessary or is too expensive?

Also do you know of a good way to find manufacturers? I can't really travel right now? And I am not really sure how to choose a manufacturer or even look for a manufacturer. I am just not really sure what to do in the manufacturing and importing stage.
 
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biophase

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Also sorry if you already answered this but why don't you patent your products? Is it because your brand is so good nobody would ever think to get a knockoff? Or is it because it really isn't necessary or is too expensive?

I already answered this.
 

BlahBlahBlah

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Great thread!
I am new to importing from China, I have started with my first product (non-branded) and sold the first sample order on eBay, now I am in the processed of forming an LTD company (it will be ready next week), open separate bank accounts, etc. etc. There are 2 products that I am currently targeting and will be my first time branding a product. I have prepared the logo, and now I need to find a good supplier. There is a big choice, so will take me several days before I pick the one I want to work with and get stated. I have a few question and would appreciate your advice:

1) You said Alibaba is not your favourite place to find a supplier - would you use any of these sites instead? If yes, are they more trustworthy?
http://www.globalsources.com/
http://www.made-in-china.com/

2) I guess the barcode is a requirement, you get it from the website mentioned in your previous post and then just share it with the manufactory and ask to stick it on the packaging, correct?

3) In terms of packaging, do you usually find difficulties getting exactly what you want? On Alibaba I often see the picture of the item for sale, but standard packaging is not shown. Is it actually usually included in the price at all?

4) I am setting up my own e-Commerce store but at the start I will only have very few products as I simply don't have more, would it make sense to add some well know brands to the shop and higher price than normal and if a customer buys them just buy them online from a competitor and send them to the customer breaking even on the sale or making a small profit, at least until I have a decent amount of my own branded products to make the shop look nicer? Maybe I could also contact some of these known-brands (Europe-based) and ask if they would drop-ship for me? I am not sure how to approach this, I just don't want to open a shop selling only 3-4 items, it wouldn't look great.
No problem obviously on Amazon or eBay.

5) Do you have any insurance? I guess some products could have some sort of risk. If you ever get sued, are you liable or you would refer to the manufacturer?

6) When branding a product if a fee is applied, is it usually an initial one-off or is a small extra fee per piece bought?

7) Before giving the go ahead to a supplier to brand a product, would you get a small sample of a generic product similar to the one you want to improve to validate the quality they can provide? Or you go straight into product enhancement/labeling/sending it to you?

8) Is any of your products related to cosmetics? Cream, oils, etc.? This seem a pretty high risk field as quality is very important and hard to validate, any comment?

9) When you ask for a product to be branded, does the MOQ increases even for the sample order?

10) What percentage of branded items on sale on eBay you think are fakes? and on Amazon?

Thank you so much for doing this! :)
 
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Wisith

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I know a few people in Australia who sell FBA on Amazon US so yes it is easily doable.

I think the whole start small, choose a profitable niche is the wrong way to go. By picking a niche based on your funds and what everyone else is doing, you are basically guaranteeing an unsustainable business. You have to find something that works for you. If I told you kitchen knives was a good niche, would you start there and jump into a crowded space with no value add?

You're almost guaranteed to lose your small investment because you can't compete against someone willing to give away their first $2000 order.
Bio, thanks for the taking the time to make the thread and answer the questions first of all.

To piggy back on this, do you suggest on anyone wanting to get in just save up money until they can find better products/niche?

If Mike only has $1,000 to spend on everything...he's probably going to not have enough money to customize features to add value like you mentioned. At this point, he'll be a new player in a crowded field (since entry barrier is low at $1,000).

I assume you probably meant Mike be better off to save up more money until he's able to add value or look at another niche market completely with less players?

I hope this isn't too personal, but how did you get your start? Did you just save up a bit of money and do it part time while working the typical 9-5? Personally I really enjoy hearing each individual's story. (Would've PM'd you this but I think it's disabled).

I have a friend jumping into the fashion field because he reads articles of how lucrative it can be and read of other companies who banked of it. I saw the prototype...a wrist wear item, and it looks nice, but it has no added value. How is he going to battle other companies with huge followings already since it doesn't do anything and all of their items look similar, and probably made in the same factories. I advised him to connect with the audience, like give a portion to a local charity (a la Toms shoes route), but he said it's only going to eat into his profit margin. Sigh.

By the way, spent the weekend couple of weeks ago from Scottsdale...an unreal place. I can see why a lot choose to do biz over there. Very different from SoCal! Would've loved to buy you a drink for dropping gems here :)

Edit: do you feel it's necessary to meet your suppliers at their factories? I know you've flown to China, but not Pakistan yet. Are you scared that they can just pack up shop one day and go away? I know Alibaba just got really big in the last couple years, but since you have been in the game for almost a decade now, how did you connect with manufacturers then?
 
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biophase

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Great thread!
I am new to importing from China, I have started with my first product (non-branded) and sold the first sample order on eBay, now I am in the processed of forming an LTD company (it will be ready next week), open separate bank accounts, etc. etc. There are 2 products that I am currently targeting and will be my first time branding a product. I have prepared the logo, and now I need to find a good supplier. There is a big choice, so will take me several days before I pick the one I want to work with and get stated. I have a few question and would appreciate your advice:

1) You said Alibaba is not your favourite place to find a supplier - would you use any of these sites instead? If yes, are they more trustworthy?
http://www.globalsources.com/
http://www.made-in-china.com/

I never said that. I think it was Walter who said that. I am comfortable using alibaba. What it comes down to is not the source of where you find the manufacturer, but the actual manufacturer. You just need to weed through the good and bad ones. There will be some on every site.

2) I guess the barcode is a requirement, you get it from the website mentioned in your previous post and then just share it with the manufactory and ask to stick it on the packaging, correct?
Yes, it's very simple.

3) In terms of packaging, do you usually find difficulties getting exactly what you want? On Alibaba I often see the picture of the item for sale, but standard packaging is not shown. Is it actually usually included in the price at all?
No, getting packaging is usually pretty easy. If they are a factory they should have many options for packaging and have been doing it for many years. Can you imagine owning a factory and having no way to deliver a final product ready for retail shelves?

4) I am setting up my own e-Commerce store but at the start I will only have very few products as I simply don't have more, would it make sense to add some well know brands to the shop and higher price than normal and if a customer buys them just buy them online from a competitor and send them to the customer breaking even on the sale or making a small profit, at least until I have a decent amount of my own branded products to make the shop look nicer? Maybe I could also contact some of these known-brands (Europe-based) and ask if they would drop-ship for me? I am not sure how to approach this, I just don't want to open a shop selling only 3-4 items, it wouldn't look great.
No problem obviously on Amazon or eBay.
I would do this if it's legal. I don't think you can just open up a store and sell Nike shoes. But I don't know. In any case it would make your brand look more legit. It would also drive more traffic to your site due to having more brand name keywords.

5) Do you have any insurance? I guess some products could have some sort of risk. If you ever get sued, are you liable or you would refer to the manufacturer?
I don't have product liability insurance. You are liable if you get sued, not the manufacture since you are making the product. Product liability insurance is fairly expensive.

6) When branding a product if a fee is applied, is it usually an initial one-off or is a small extra fee per piece bought?
It can be both. It's usually a one time fee to make a mold or a custom template, etc.... And then it usually costs a little more to get whatever your branding is onto that product.

7) Before giving the go ahead to a supplier to brand a product, would you get a small sample of a generic product similar to the one you want to improve to validate the quality they can provide? Or you go straight into product enhancement/labeling/sending it to you?
Yes, always get samples of the final product made first. You can get the generic's first from a few suppliers, but after that you choose a few to make the custom product and then go from there. I go straight to custom sample from many suppliers from the start now. It saves more time.

8) Is any of your products related to cosmetics? Cream, oils, etc.? This seem a pretty high risk field as quality is very important and hard to validate, any comment?
No

9) When you ask for a product to be branded, does the MOQ increases even for the sample order?
The sample should be just 1 or 2. There isn't an MOQ for the sample, it will just cost more. For sample, sometimes I'll pay $100 for a sample where the production product is $5/pc. Don't expect your custom sample to be $5, unless you order 50 of them.

10) What percentage of branded items on sale on eBay you think are fakes? and on Amazon?
I don't understand what you are asking here.
 

vaizbunas

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First of all,thank you for your time and effort to answer all the questions. If you don't mind me asking questions that troubles me the most. I have been importing goods for more than a year. It's all seemed well. But my supplier just keeps on messing up(recently) I have canceled one product, another is on the line also, did you experience quality drop in your products? What would you recommend?
From the info online I was able to gather it seems like they are factory. I have tried various different suppliers but they are even worse. It's a beauty niche.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk
 
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BlahBlahBlah

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I would do this if it's legal. I don't think you can just open up a store and sell Nike shoes. But I don't know. In any case it would make your brand look more legit. It would also drive more traffic to your site due to having more brand name keywords.

Thank you for all your help. I just wonder if I just buy a few branded products from UK Wholesalers site, assuming that they are original, would this automatically allow me to re-sell on my store? Until I will have enough items to sell only my brand it would help to have a few known brands in the mix.
 

vaizbunas

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Thank you for all your help. I just wonder if I just buy a few branded products from UK Wholesalers site, assuming that they are original, would this automatically allow me to re-sell on my store? Until I will have enough items to sell only my brand it would help to have a few known brands in the mix.
From my experience, if you buy branded items, you get contract where you are able to sell. You might want to open Nike store,but they might not allow it cause of the competition and agreement with other already open stores. You must ask your distributors about where you can sell. Usually they ask these type of questions
 

Wizard

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@biophase

How do you assess demand for a unknown or less competitive product? And do you have a general min. threshold of sales/day when researching a product? (ex. Greg Mercer aims at 10 sales/day min.) I am looking to target more less competitive niches but I'm not sure how many ppl want to buy a retractable bird leash (not srs).

Thank you in advance.
 
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Mr_Maravish

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Hey Kenric,

question regarding the UPC codes for an item.

Lets say I have 10 Pieces of a specific item in 5 different colors. Do I need a different UPC code for each piece, or just one for each color making it 5 codes in total?
 

CJC3392

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Hey Bio,

Thanks for doing this AMA!

A few pages back, you mentioned a hypothetical situation where you said something along the lines of "if you buy 500 units, and set 100 units aside for a giveaway to get to the middle of page 1, etc....."

I was wondering if you can expand on the giveaway part... Where do you go to find 100 people to give the product away to, and I'm assuming you're hoping they leave a review, right? Also, I'm guessing you make a discount code in Amazon for them to purchase for free or something (because you mentioned moving up the page rankings).

Can you just expand on this process a little more? I feel as if everyone is doing these giveaways to kick start a new product launch on Amazon with sales/reviews.
 

Vanessa Aranda

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Hi!
I am from Brazil and I work with affiliates market, but I would like to know how can I reach more market abroad and wich are the best way to launch it. Thank you in advance
 
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phenom4hire

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Bio-I have questions regarding shipping specifically. Is there an item size or weight limit that you set for the products you seek out? I see how the FBA benefits you in this area specifically, but I would also be interested in learning how you handle fulfillment from your own warehouse/webstore. Do you use one specific method for shipping your products? One specific company? How did you learn to appropriate/minimize cost in this area? Im aware of some of the stuff you sell specifically and I once bought a few items from your online store, so I have an idea about the size/weight/packing of those items although this was some time ago, so Im not sure if this still applies. Any insight you could provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 

biophase

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Bio, thanks for the taking the time to make the thread and answer the questions first of all.

To piggy back on this, do you suggest on anyone wanting to get in just save up money until they can find better products/niche?

If Mike only has $1,000 to spend on everything...he's probably going to not have enough money to customize features to add value like you mentioned. At this point, he'll be a new player in a crowded field (since entry barrier is low at $1,000).

I assume you probably meant Mike be better off to save up more money until he's able to add value or look at another niche market completely with less players?

I hope this isn't too personal, but how did you get your start? Did you just save up a bit of money and do it part time while working the typical 9-5? Personally I really enjoy hearing each individual's story. (Would've PM'd you this but I think it's disabled).

I have a friend jumping into the fashion field because he reads articles of how lucrative it can be and read of other companies who banked of it. I saw the prototype...a wrist wear item, and it looks nice, but it has no added value. How is he going to battle other companies with huge followings already since it doesn't do anything and all of their items look similar, and probably made in the same factories. I advised him to connect with the audience, like give a portion to a local charity (a la Toms shoes route), but he said it's only going to eat into his profit margin. Sigh.

By the way, spent the weekend couple of weeks ago from Scottsdale...an unreal place. I can see why a lot choose to do biz over there. Very different from SoCal! Would've loved to buy you a drink for dropping gems here :)

Edit: do you feel it's necessary to meet your suppliers at their factories? I know you've flown to China, but not Pakistan yet. Are you scared that they can just pack up shop one day and go away? I know Alibaba just got really big in the last couple years, but since you have been in the game for almost a decade now, how did you connect with manufacturers then?

Sorry, I must have missed this post.

Money can be a limiting factor, but the product is way more important than how much you can spend. If Mike has only $1000 total, he could get crushed right after he launches.

The core of your new business is the product. So if Mike is a crossfit guy and knows that he can make a better product for crossfitters, and this product is $20 with a MOQ of 200, so he needs $4000. It is better for Mike to do this product vs. getting into silicone pot holders for $1000.

Personally, I've used my credit cards to fund my new businesses. I don't use my cash from other businesses to start new ones. I usually open an LLC, get a credit card and they give me a nice huge credit limit. I feel like if I toss in $5000 cash into a business to start, I won't concentrate on making money as much. I don't want to be overfunded.

So I'd tell Mike to use a credit card (assuming he's responsible).

My story in told in 2 threads on this forum. I don't remember the names of the thread but I'm sure you can find it with a search. I started with $50 back in 2007. The $50 I needed to pay for my SSL cert. It was 100% dropship at the time.

Your friend is chasing money. He will probably get crushed by competition and slowly lose motivation. He's going to have a tough time getting traction.

I don't think it's necessary to see the factories. I only saw mine this year and I've been ordering from them since 2010. Alibaba was around back then also. But actually most of my factories found me. The saw what I was selling and sent me an email.
 

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