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jasontayonline Blog

Chapter 8: Selling On Amazon 101

24/9/2014

9 Comments

 
 The no.1 question I get asked about selling on Amazon is on private labeling (PL) from people who have never sold their first product on Amazon. This is not surprising considering the Amazing Selling Machine (ASM) is one of the most aggressively promoted affiliate products (again not surprising due to the huge commissions paid to affiliates who push it). I have no doubt the course does have good PL content, but I have personally met and spoken to members some of whom have had success and others who have experienced expensive disasters.

My advice to new Amazon sellers is always to start out simple. Learn the basics before jumping into the deep end. Here are the steps I would recommend:

Update March 2018: As the market has changed since 2014, I now recommend new sellers start with Private Label straightaway, whether you have $100,000 or $1,000 in capital to start with. A couple of reasons why:
  1. Many existing retail have applied to become brand restricted on Amazon. This means unauthorized sellers are not allowed to sell the brand's products on Amazon. If you sell something branded that you bought from Walmart or elsewhere (such as by Gillette, Nike, etc.), you might not know that it is brand restricted. Unfortunately, when you try to list a product, Amazon only occasionally  informs you that it's restricted! Other times, it the system allows you to list the product, then retroactively notifies you that you are in violation and suspends your account! I know a few people personally, who have experienced that happening in just the past 3 months.
  2. It is very possible to start your own private label on Amazon even on a very modest budget. In fact, my first private label started with an $80 investment with an order of just 10 units from a manufacturer and just that 1 brand sells 6-figures every year. Private Label can be easily overcomplicated. Or it can be made to look too difficult. But it does not have to be - you can start creating and selling your own brand of products fairly simply with a small or large investment.

In conclusion, take action with simple steps. For someone starting out, I recommend you start with the Proven Amazon Course, which costs just 7% of ASM and in my opinion has far better value with an amazing supportive community or consider coaching. If you are set on learning private label, I have just started going through Proven Private Label which together with the Proven Amazon Course is more than enough to get anyone going.

The below is my view from 2014, but it is no longer applicable as explained above.

1. Find somethings around the house, thrifting or retail/online arbitrage and sell those first. Preferably including arbitrage items. This is to learn how to calculate profits after cost of goods purchased, Amazon fees and other expenses.


2. Add at least 5-10 products (which could be just to piggyback on existing listings) into their Amazon inventory and send in at least 3 shipments. This is to learn the listing and prep requirements (product labeling, shipment creation and labeling, packaging, etc.).

3. Create at least 2 brand new, unique product listings with bundles or multi-packs. This is to learn the whole product listing process which is vital to creating effective PL listings which will rank well, draw Amazon search traffic and convert to sales. You could well also encounter things like Amazon hazmat reviews, restrictions, etc. which you want to learn about first before you buy a big order of a PL or wholesale product you are not allowed to sell.

I know someone who has $40k set aside for FBA and he's going through the above first before venturing into bigger things.

Launching a PL is not that easy especially if you have no background in Amazon PPC, SEO, etc. - for example with the promo for Freedom Soap (now rebranded as PremaTouch) at #ces2dallas with Jim Cockrum's endorsement and the support of many people, we have had a grand total of 30 orders in 3 weeks, which is not huge but not bad either! But realize I have put in $5,000 to develop it (paying the ladies rescued from trafficking, capital for raw materials & labels, shipping from India to the US, customs, etc.) and revenue is a grand total of $779 so far. That would be hard to swallow for many people, but I'm in this for the long haul with a far larger vision of societal transformation.

Anyone who thinks PL is a walk in the park to making $50k/month might be in for a surprise. If you have several thousand dollars to spare then fine. But I would be genuinely concerned for anyone who wants to start out with PL especially with no prior selling, marketing experience and a limited budget they cannot afford to lose.
9 Comments

Chapter 7: The Rising Tide

20/9/2014

12 Comments

 
If you've been following my sales summaries, you'll notice that there has been a pretty steady increase in sales since Feb 2014 (see Chapter 3 or the post dated July 22, 2014). Last month I sold 566 units for $12,475.05 in 30 days up to Aug 20, 2014. The last 30 days has seen a nice jump in sales despite my being away at ces2dallas for over a week. That's a 30 day sales increase of $4058.06 and 50 units.
Picture
Sep 22, 2014
So what are some key points that resulted in the growth?
  1. Outsource - NOT touching boxes and tape! Ironically, the week of CES2 was when I packed the most boxes at one time ever for FBA! A grand total of...wait for it...3 small boxes, weighing about 7 lb each. It was all stuff that I brought along with me from Singapore to Dallas. I'm so inexperienced at boxing that I even managed to cut my hand taping one of the boxes while in the hotel room at CES! But seriously, the lesson here is my sales continued and increased, and it did not matter that I was away because I outsource all my prep. In fact while I was at CES2, My Inventory Team packed and shipped 11 large boxes of my inventory to Amazon. Woohoo! Many people are not willing to pay to outsource various aspects of their business, however that mindset is one of the biggest roadblocks to growth. I talk to a couple over lunch in Dallas who spend over 35 hours a week on boxing and was struggling to grow. Therein lies the problem and key to change. If they outsourced the prep work, they would be able to free up over 30 hours a week to source! Imagine what that could do for their business! Now imagine you paid a VA $300/month to source online or wholesale...that could lead to an increase in sales of thousands or tens of thousands a month! The point? "Let it go!"
  2. Bundles and Multi-Packs - I have been creating more bundles and multi-packs to increase the average selling price of my units as well as beat the competition. In the 1st quater, my average sale price/order was $18. Yesterday it was just over $40. The advantage of higher selling prices is that Amazon fixed fees take up a smaller percentage.
Picture
I hope you take action from this chapter and look into outsourcing parts of your business as well as bundling/multipacking.
12 Comments

Chapter 6: CES2 Dallas

13/9/2014

1 Comment

 

Update: The videos from CES2Dallas (Update: Please don't buy the CES2 videos! Get the Proven Amazon Course instead as it includes the videos and cost less!) are finally out! It is a goldmine of inspiring testimonies and practical, information... just taking action on one tip from here can help you earn over and above the cost many, many times. Plus you get all the CES1 videos plus lifetime MST membership with the purchase. Oh, and by the way I'm featured in the first video of the conference :p
http://jimcockrumevents.com
CES stands for Consult, Expand, Sell. These 3 income streams are taught by Jim Cockrum the host of CES in his signature book Silent Sales Machine which is into it's 8th edition and has impacted numerous business owners for the last 10 years. Check out the book that has helped numerous people start real online businesses at SilenSaleMachine.com.

I had been looking forward to attending CES2 from Sep 4-6 in Dallas for months after hearing the tremendous feedback from those who were at CES1 last year. Having interacted extensively with many My Silent Team (MST) members on the MST facebook group and private forum (accessible only to Proven Amazon Course or MST members) for the last 10 months, I was eager to meet the people from the online community in person.
Jim Cockrum
Bumped in these amazing people in the lobby on the first evening and ended up talking over dinner till 2.30am! (From left to right: me, Nicole Klieff, John Bullard Sr, Jim Cockrum and Esther Bullard)
To be honest, the trip was a real stretch in terms of finances and time. Not only did it involve a plane ticket from Singapore to Dallas, there was also the hotel and other expenses. But the biggest challenge was that my daughter was sitting for Singapore's infamous Primary School Leaving Exam (PSLE), which is the national exam that determines a child's high school and "fate" - Singaporeans will know what that is about, at the end of the month. 

Anyway only 450 tickets were available and I'm grateful that I managed to get a ticket as after much deliberation I finally pulled the trigger almost 24 hours after they went on sale.  Tickets were sold out immediately after I purchased mine and I might well have bought the last one!

So was it worth the time and money? Definitely YES! In one word, the conference in Dallas was INCREDIBLE. 

For starters, I picked up a lot of actionable points from the sessions. In fact I spent today creating and editing at least 10 Amazon product listings based on what was shared by Skip McGrath and Debra Conrad (more on that later). Kat Simpsons and Danni Ackerman also convinced me to expand my sales channels with their insightful presentation about eBay and Etsy. In fact I connected with Danni on Skype at 1 am this morning and she helped tweak my new Etsy shop and get my first sale - from her! These people are all awesome and genuine.
Relationships
That last point illustrates the greatest thing about CES - relationships. While the info shared during sessions was great, the best part of CES is the opportunity to connect with and build relationships with like-minded people. This is not just business networking - to reduce it to networking would be a grave disservice to the community. The culture here has been carefully established on integrity and truly serving one another. The financial rewards are merely a result of building on those fundamentals. Fittingly, that was also the main theme of the keynote by Rabbi Daniel Lapin who insisted on giving CES a rare endorsement.

Rabbi Daniel Lapin's endorsement of CES

On the note of relationships, one of the highlights of the trip was meeting some members of the master mind I'm part of. Our group meets online through video conference weekly and they have been a source of inspiration and encouragement through the ups and downs of this adventure.
PictureSharing the Freedom Soap Story at CES2@Dallas. Photo credit: Nicole Klieff
 Freedom Soap
Another highlight was the opportunity to share about Freedom Soap with the community right after the keynote by Rabbi Daniel Lapin. Freedom Soap is the result of combining what I do in church planting and selling physical product online. The result being re-branding soap made by women who have been rescued from trafficking in India and opening up new international sales channels which will allow more women to be rescued and employed. You can join the cause at www.freedomsoap.org. (Update: Please go to www.PremaTouch.com instead. We had to change our brand name to avoid trademark issues)

Finally, back to relationships. From CES2, I am now connected with several key people who share the same heart to help catalyze a new movement of social entrepreneurship - to walk the walk together, document the process and lessons learnt; then inspire others and help them to do the same. Together we can change the world!

PS. If you miss or missed CES, you can get the CES2Dallas recordings. (As stated above, please do not buy the CES2 videos! Get the Proven Amazon Course instead as it now includes the videos and cost less!)

Also have a look at CESclassroom, which is the closest thing to a real 'live' CES. This virtual “classroom” will allow you to learn from, make deeper connections and interact on a regular basis with Jim Cockrum, MST's top tier leaders, successful students and other experts that have been hand selected to deliver their best ideas and advice in a small group. This ongoing classroom is not for everyone, but you want to be part of a smaller-group virtual experience with the most trusted partners, most successful students, and Jim & his closest staff, then check-out CESclassroom.com. (Update: CES Classroom is no longer operating.  Everything Amazon related is now under one roof in the Proven Amazon Course).

1 Comment

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  • About
  • Amazon FBA Guide
    • How to Register an Amazon Seller Account
    • Amazon FBA 101
    • Amazon Professional vs Individual Selling Plans
    • How to Sell On Amazon From Outside the US
    • Amazon FBA Prep Companies
    • Best Tools for Amazon Sellers
    • Code Confusion - Understanding GTIN, UPC and Amazon Barcodes
    • Amazon FBA Fees Explained
    • Amazon Coupons vs Prime Exclusive Discounts
    • How to Create Amazon Coupons
    • How to Increase Amazon Sales - Traffic, Click-throughs and Conversions
    • Optimizing FBA Inbound Shipping
    • Product Images and Photography
    • Amazon and Taxes - Income Tax, Sales Tax, and VAT
    • Amazon PPC Advertising
    • Insurance for Amazon Sellers
    • Amazon Seller FAQ
  • Reviews
    • Payoneer vs WorldFirst vs TransferWise vs OFX vs Airwallex
    • Helium 10 Review and Discount Codes
    • Proven Amazon Course Review
    • Amazing Selling Machine Review
    • Amazon Advantage Review - How to Optimize Copywriting for Amazon Listings
    • Amazon FBA Reimbursement Guide Review
    • Rebate Programs
  • Training
    • Amazon Seller Live Training
  • Blog
  • Newsletters
  • Q&A