I joined a like a closed group of sellers and I started learning about it and I
dedicated every day, 12 hours of work, how it works, how to find products
and this is how everything started.
It was not a side hustle, it was like, I needed to do something, I had nothing to
do, it was like my only opportunity, and this is also what made me very committed
to it, and this is also one of the lessons that I'm trying to bring to people
today, is that when you're going to start with something, take the time to do the
research and to think about it, but once you decided to get started, you have to go
all in, you have to decide, even if it's a side hustle, you need to count how many
hours you can put in, and then just, you know, be fully committed to this project.
Welcome to the e commerce podcast with me, your host, Matt Edmundson.
The e commerce podcast is a show that is all about helping
you to deliver e commerce wow.
And to help us do just that today, I'm chatting.
with Nahar Geva from Zik Analytics about the road to e commerce
independence mindset and strategies.
Oh yes, but before we dive into our conversation, let me share a
previous podcast pick, a previous episode that I think you will enjoy.
Well, maybe two actually.
Check out how long does it take to make money with your e commerce
Startup, uh, from Darwin Liu.
That was a great episode, actually.
I really, really enjoyed that, as was the one with Jesse Wragg, Should You
Sell on Multiple Online Marketplaces.
Two great podcast picks, uh, which you can access along with our
entire podcast archive for free on the website at ecommercepodcast.
net.
That's ecommercepodcast.
net.
Plus, if you're there, and you haven't done so already, you know
the drill, sign up to the newsletter and we will Send you out the links
to the pod pack podcast picks.
It's not easy to say, uh, along with the notes, uh, from our conversation,
they come straight to your inbox totally for free, uh, which is awesome.
So, uh, just sign up for that at the website.
Now, are you struggling to grow your e-commerce business?
Do you feel like you are constantly spinning your wheel?
Trying to figure out what to focus on next.
Well, let me tell you, I have been there and I know how frustrating it can be.
That's why e commerce cohort sponsors this show.
They take all of that away.
They help businesses like yours deliver an exceptional customer
experience that drives Results online and to get help, you get started.
There is a free resource which you can get access to called e commerce cycles.
It's actually a training that I've done.
It's a mini course, which walks you through the proven framework for building
a successful e commerce business.
That's right.
It's what we do.
At our own GCHQ.
Oh yes, I'll take you through the specific steps that we use on our own
e commerce companies so you can see exactly how to put those concepts into
practice in your own e com business.
And the good news, this mini training, it's all free.
You don't even need an email address.
You can find out more at ecommercecycles.
com.
That's www.
ecommercecycles.
com, uh, to get access to the free training and get started with it.
And let me know what you think, because we've put a lot of time and
energy into that training and I would genuinely love to know what you think.
It's the same sort of stuff I actually use when I do coaching with clients.
So if you ever want to know what that's like.
Go watch that video.
Oh yes.
Now let's talk about the trailblazing e commerce guru and entrepreneur who
has earned his stripes by identifying unique strategies for finding winning
products to sell on eBay way back in 2015.
Oh yes.
Nahar is the mastermind behind Zik Analytics, the game changing
suite of eBay tools that's taken the eCommerce world by storm.
With a powerhouse team of over 35 experts and a loyal global clientele,
Zik Analytics helps businesses supercharge their online selling success.
What a great bio that is.
Uh, Nahar, it's great to have you on the show, man.
All the way from very sunny Portugal, I have no doubt.
Uh, welcome to the e commerce podcast.
Great to have you on, man.
Thank you so much.
It's a pleasure to be here as well.
Pleasure to get the opportunity to speak to such a great audience.
Thank you for the warm words, for the kind words.
And I'm here to share value and to try to help as many people as possible.
Fantastic, fantastic.
So, you started out in 2015, which, let's be real, in digital terms is a
very long time ago, isn't it really?
Uh, it's, a lot has happened in the last seven years.
How did you get, why eBay, how did you get started on that?
Was that just, you were looking for a side hustle, or was there something more to it?
Mm
Actually, yeah, actually, it's a funny story.
So I, um, I've been, uh, in Israel before in 2015, the beginning of
2015 with my, uh, at the time, my girlfriend, now my wife.
And we decided, yeah, we decided to move back to Germany.
She wanted to complete her master's degree.
I decided to give up on real estate career in Israel.
And we moved to Germany, to cold Hamburg.
I was sure I'm going to do real estate in Germany.
You know, I came with a lot of confidence.
But very quickly I realized that with my language skills, my accents, there is no
chance to make real estate in Germany.
Okay.
so after one visit in Israel, I, I met, uh, uh, at the time he was the, um, the
owner of the real estate office in Israel, very, very experienced guy, um, with
over 40 years experience in real estate.
And he's a guy who knows to recognize opportunity.
And he told me like, look Nahar, I'll be honest with you, with
your accent, you have no chance to do real estate in Germany.
The only things you can do there is sell something online.
Well.
And, well, the guy didn't have any information about e commerce and anything
like this, it just made sense to him, and I was thinking about it, and I had
some experience with selling goods on eBay, physical goods, at the time, so I
went back to Germany, and I told to my wife, I, I must get a laptop, I must, you
know, dive into this world of e commerce.
of eBay dropshipping.
This is what I hear that I can start without investing.
My first impression actually was negative.
I searched about it on YouTube and I saw some videos calling it a scam.
Oh, well.
And then later on I, I, you know, I joined a like a closed group of sellers
and I started learning about it and I dedicated every day, 12 hours of work,
how it works, how to find products and this is how everything started.
It was not a side hustle, it was like, I needed to do something, I had nothing to
do, it was like my only opportunity, and this is also what made me very committed
to it, and this is also one of the lessons that I'm trying to bring to people
today, is that when you're going to start with something, take the time to do the
research and to think about it, but once you decided to get started, you have to go
all in, you have to decide, even if it's a side hustle, you need to count how many
hours you can put in, and then just, you know, be fully committed to this project.
Yeah.
No, it's very true.
I was listening to, uh, what's his name?
Ali Abdul on YouTube today and he was talking about how he gets asked a lot
because he's quite a well known YouTuber.
He makes a lot of money out of his YouTube channel.
And he's, you know, he was talking about how a lot of people come to
him and say, can I make 10 grand a month just from doing four hours
a month on my YouTube channel?
And he just goes, no, you can't.
What's wrong with you?
And it is interesting, isn't it?
I mean, you do, you read about, um, people on the web or you.
Uh, I, they seem to come up in my YouTube feed for some reason, um, you know,
the videos from people who are like, make 10 grand a month from selling this
on YouTube, it only takes one hour, you know, a week or something stupid.
I have yet, uh, hi, maybe you can speak to this, I have yet to find
any of those kind of things that actually work in the real life.
Uh, you can't.
It seems to me there may be one or two people in the world that look
out and can do it, but growing an online business is going to
require more than an hour a month.
This is what you're saying, right?
For sure, for sure.
You need to be dedicated, you need to also, you know, you also need to choose
your, uh, your, uh, uh, business wisely.
If you don't, if you have only two hours per day, or three hours per
day, you need to, you know, you need to choose, uh, the type of business
wisely that will fit this type.
And you also need to manage expectations correctly.
You know, if you, if you put ten hours per day, you have, you will progress.
Your progress will be much faster if you put only two hours per day.
You can, you can make something out of it, but it will be much
harder and it will take longer.
So, of course, there is no magic here, it requires a lot
of effort and, um, consistency.
Consistency I would say is the key.
Yeah, it's such an important word, consistency.
I think you're right.
And I think, um, one of the things that I've sort of realized is actually you
can, you can, you can actually do a lot with an hour a day or two hours a day.
If that is an hour a day or two hours every single day,
Yes,
it's, it's one of those where, um, you know, going to the gym
is a classic example, isn't it?
You go to the gym, you go to the gym once a month, it's not really
going to help you other than it's going to make you a little bit sore.
Yes.
Where is, um, if you're doing a little bit every day, it's that continual
little bit every day, isn't it?
That, that makes a big difference.
And I like what you're saying there about consistency.
So you started out then, um, 12 hours a day, just researching eBay,
figuring it all out, um, doing drop shipping on eBay, finding products.
How did you.
So, how did you determine, or how do you determine now, when you are researching,
what constitutes a good product?
What makes a product good and worthwhile to sort of chase?
Okay, this is the, this is the one million dollar question, and of
course I will be happy to answer it.
So I would say just, just before I answer it, when I started, no one
teached about product research much.
It was like, go to your supplier, copy all the best selling items of
your supplier, paste into your eBay store, and it will be okay, you know?
So just upload everything and it will be okay.
And I came with a background of doing business, I had like a retail business
before, different retail businesses.
And it makes no sense to me, you know, it's the basic thing in, in,
in trading is demand and supply.
There is like, this is the basic thing, no one's talking about it.
So first I try to figure out this, what, how, how can I figure out
demand and supply on eBay or on any other market, e commerce marketplace?
So um, And then I realized after figuring out, okay, I can see
the sales history on eBay, right?
I can see how many people are selling the same item and under
the specific keywords or title.
Now, what else is important?
Yeah, because in the end of the day, yes, it is similar to any retail business
on one way, On the other way, it's not like a shopping mall where you, you
know, you have your store and people get to the store and people walking
and they just decide where to go to the first store, first floor, second floor.
Here it's in a different way.
It's an algorithm, right?
It's a search engine algorithm.
So you need to take in consideration that if we compare it to the physical
world, right, where I rent a shop and this will always be my shop on
eBay, Amazon or any, any marketplace.
My ranking, my, where, where my store, where my product appear
depends on actions I take.
So it's actually much more, uh, uh, much more fair than a physical,
uh, shopping mall, you know?
So it's, what, if now answering to your question, so it's starting from demand.
Of course, this is the most important thing is validate demand.
You need to have demand to a product before you list it to your store.
Second, uh, research your competition.
And then, uh, determine whether it's a high competition or low competition.
Now, competition is not just about the number of people
who are selling the items.
It's also about how competitive I can be compared to my competitors.
So, what price am I going to use?
Do I offer a product with an extra value?
Maybe it's some sunglasses that come with a case, you know, or something like this.
And maybe it's a different color that does not exist.
And then I actually, I come into market with a lot of competition, but everyone
sells red, and I bring blue, for example.
So, so, we validate the demand by how many times the product sold
in the last 30 days, at least.
I would say this is the most important in the last 30 days, then we can go further.
Then, um, I look on the price, the average selling price, I
look at all my competitors.
How many feedbacks they have, how strong they are, my competitors.
Then I'm basically, after I validate this, I'm going to the supplier.
It can be wholesale supplier, it can be dropship supplier, it doesn't matter.
And then I'm trying to look for the same product or similar product.
If I can get it For low enough, so I can say it's for competitive price, great.
It's a bingo, right?
I have, I'm on the first stage of finding a winning product.
The next step is, okay, what my competitors are using, like what title,
keywords, images, item specifics.
Shipping policies, return policies, how I can be better than them.
Mm hmm.
Mm
I just logically try to be better than them in every aspect.
Now, it's not always possible to be better in every aspect, but if I
have better price, faster shipping, and I optimize my title better,
it's already a huge advantage,
hmm.
Or if I have amazing images, this is by the way, people don't give enough
attention to it, but in marketplaces like eBay or Amazon, but if all your
competitors with very bad images, It's actually an opportunity, even
if you're a bit more expensive.
Because today people buy, you know, they like to see what
they less read, they more look.
So if your images are much better, it's the way to kind of
like overcome your competitors.
So this is a winning product.
You need to put all these puzzle pieces together and try to just,
you know, make sure you have more pros than cons on your competitors.
Yeah, there's a lot there, right?
I'm not gonna lie.
There's, I've got a lot of notes, um, so we can jump into those.
So I love what you say, uh, right at the start, that you have to validate demand.
And this has always been one of the things that's intrigued me, uh,
whether it's eBay, whether it's...
E commerce, whether it's Amazon, is that people buy products
without ever validating demand to sell on their website.
And then they're always curious why they're not selling.
Uh, and it is the fundamental law of economics, demand and supply.
There has to be the demand, especially if you're selling
in a Western culture, right?
Uh, where...
The demand drives in effect the sales, so I've used the example before, the amount
of times I've seen people do things like go to AliExpress, buy cheap sunglasses,
and then put them on a website and charge 20 bucks for something they've
just gone and paid a dollar for, and they just don't sell, and they struggle
to understand why, and it's like, well, I No one actually wants to pay 20 bucks
for the sunglasses on your website.
That's your first fundamental problem, you've not validated demand, have you?
So, you talk about validating demand, like you look at how many sales...
Uh, so we'd call it maybe sales velocity in the last 30 days, um,
which is, is, uh, doable on eBay.
I'm guessing you can see the sales reports on eBay.
Is that right?
Yeah, so you can either go, if, now, it's, it's almost possible to the
other way, so with eBay you get the actual, like, the, the, the positive
side of eBay, you get the actual number of sales, the real number of sales.
It's not some formula or some prediction.
So uh, for instance, in Zip we collect this data, then we show you
this on, on different time frames.
You can also go to eBay, just go on the search result, you know, just search
for something, then go to completed listings, and then you just see.
You don't have the data collected, you still need to gather this
information manually by yourself, but you can see the item that sold.
You can go into this item, you can go and see how many times they sold.
On Amazon, it's a, it's a, you don't have this, uh, data
Mm hmm.
you know, you can't just grab this data.
But, there is today very accurate formulas, where they take reviews,
BSR, and different information from Amazon, and they come up with
formula that it's pretty close.
It's not 100% accurate, but it's enough to make decisions, it's
enough to validate the manuals.
And even on Shopify, uh, it's possible today to, to, with certain
tools, to, to, to do, to see.
Wow.
So we can hack Shopify to check out demand and sales.
Um, one of the things that you mentioned there with Amazon, and one
of the things I'm a big proponent of actually is, um, reading the reviews
on your competitors websites, right?
Um, and the reviews, so they sort of tell you so much, don't they?
It's unbelievable what you can gain from people's reviews.
So on Amazon.
can say, well, you, you can make all kinds of assumptions, can't you?
Which says, right, for every one review that is on Amazon,
maybe there was a hundred sales.
And so if we see that there's been seven reviews in the last seven
days, we can assume that there was about 700 sales of the product.
Yeah.
And this is what you mean in terms of there's accuracy now, which
you can use reviews and so on and so forth to try and predict.
But you can do a similar thing on your competitors websites.
You can go, well, when was this product last reviewed?
Um, and if you buy that product from your competitor, And understand
their review policy, like, did they email you asking you for a review?
Um,
Ah, okay.
Yeah, it's like, you can start to pick that out and go, well, in relation to
all the products on their website, I know their website does about a million a year.
This is like the fifth selling product and it's got a hundred reviews.
And so you can start to then build up sort of correlation models, can't you?
And start to, it's not accurate, like spot on balls accurate, but actually it gives
you some really interesting insights.
Just by looking at the reviews on, on various different people's websites.
Yeah.
And actually the best you can learn from the bad reviews, because if
you go on a product and you see like 100 bad reviews with similar...
With similar, uh, complaint, then you understand, okay, if I want to improve
this product, all I need to do is solve this problem everyone complained about.
Yeah,
So there's another way to use this information.
which comes back to what you were saying in terms of being
better than your competitors.
So you could be better on price, but actually what you can do, and
to be fair, we have done this.
We have gone through our competitors reviews, figured out what.
People didn't like about those products and then made a better
product because that's all customer data and research, right?
And so you can be better on price or you can actually be better because you
have a better product And that's uh, I mean it takes a little bit more You've
obviously got to get it manufactured or developed or whatever and but you
can do that and it's a really valid way I mean to be honest with you.
No, I'm just I'm Helping my kids build their own little online Hustle at the
moment, you know, they're at uni, they want to make some extra money on the side.
And so we've got a few product ideas and all we've done is we've
just literally gone through reviews of web on websites and on Amazon.
the first thing we did, validate demand and how can I make the
product better, you know, and it's, uh, it's really interesting some of
the results that come out of that.
So, um, now I'm loving that, loving that and, and what else, what other
tricks do you have up your sleeve?
So you validate demand, um, you try and be better than your competitors,
um, either in price and shipping and, and all of them, uh, what other
tricks do you have up your sleeve?
I, I would say, I wouldn't call it, what I'm going to show now is not a
trick, but it's something that, uh, it's a mindset thing that, that we
all have and we need to get rid of.
And you know, like sometimes.
We want something so much, you know, we want something people want something
so much and it's happening to all of us I'm sure we want something so
much that we are a we are a Blurring the truth, you know what I mean?
Like we want to so much get started So we like you say we go and we pick the first
item that we found And, and I think this is one, like, to practice this way of
being, like, honest with yourself or just, you know, look, look on the reality as
is, without to, you know, look, because there is, like, cold data there, the
data is not lying, the information is there, you know, the sales numbers are
there, the features of your competitors are there, and the numbers that you
get from your wholesalers are there, so just follow this, I would say this is
the most important thing, follow this.
And then it's become as simple as we just discussed, you know, but make
sure, and I'm saying to everyone, make sure you're, you stick to hard facts
and you're not blaring the truth.
You're not like overexciting yourself about something that
is not as good as you think.
So this, I would say, one of the main reasons people are failing.
This is in everything in life, you know, like I can tell about
myself in my business, I take it to a different direction.
When we, when we are hiring people, you know, and I can tell you how many times
in the beginning of my, of, of, in the first three years of the company, how many
times I've hired people, expect, hope that they will be much better than they can
actually can be, you know what I mean?
Like, they are not professional in something, and I hope they can become
professional in it, and I take them with this hope, but nothing has happened, you
know, so it's the same with products.
Just stick to hard facts.
Other tricks, um, I would say is...
This is, this is more technical, is when you go into a new niche, you want
to, you are going, you wanna go into new, like find a new products to sell.
So let's say you start with a niche, right?
So try to see who is the new, the, the new sellers who manage to rank high on
this niche or new sellers who manage to outperform results of, of, uh, Experience
sellers, because then it means, first, they just listed their items lately.
Second, they did something very right, because they come into a new market.
It's a very competitive market, right?
yeah,
are sellers with hundreds of thousands of feedbacks on their
store, or with products that sold.
With thousands of reviews, but they're still, just got started, just
said 100, 200 reviews, but they're still ranking on the first page.
How they do it.
I want to learn from them.
I don't want to learn from the one with the 100, 000 reviews
that are already in the market for 20 years or 10 years or 5 years.
He already built a very strong reputation, you know, the algorithm of the marketplace
is selling, whether it's Amazon or eBay.
Like him already, like them already.
But the new one who just list his item in the last 4 5 months and
he's already ranking to the top.
Why can't he be different?
yeah,
his work, you know.
And then see, maybe, like you say, he worked on a better product.
Maybe he had something different in the SEO.
And then when I'm going to bring a new product, I'm going to try to compete
him because he has less reputation.
It will be easier for me to compete.
Someone with less reputation.
So this is a trick that worked for me on eBay a lot, and this is about eBay.
About, if you want to touch also Shopify or selling on your own store, I would
say, where you need to drive traffic, I would say it's a bit different because
there is the wow element that on a marketplace you don't really need it.
On a marketplace you look for Products that people are searching for.
you sell on your own website, if you are not just using Google Shopping for
ads, but you also want to run video ads on Facebook or other platforms, your
product needs to have a wow effect.
It needs to make people stop the scroll and look.
It's a different environment.
And I see a lot of people that, uh, when they go, they start their own store.
And they, and they, doing research, they stick to the stats, they see,
yes, it has a lot of demand, but they're missing this important element,
yeah,
you can't sell on, on Facebook or Facebook ads or TikTok if
your product is not interesting, if you're not a scroll stalker.
yeah, no totally.
Well, again, a lot there, let's just rewind a little bit.
So let's go back to the mindset, the blurring of the
truth, which made me smile.
This idea of self awareness, because I think it's very true.
Or there's a truism which feels very true, and that is...
We lie mostly to ourselves as human beings, you know, where if
we're going to lie to anybody, it tends to be more to ourselves.
Um, and that's true in business.
That's true emotionally.
That's true.
Whatever it is, you know, that sort of that aha moment where you wake up and
go, actually, what I've been thinking and believing is entirely not true.
Yes.
Yeah.
Um, and one of the things that I've, I've noticed in, uh, with people that start
out is they start up with a product or an idea and they get one or two sales.
Um, which excites them, but that one or two sales tends to come from their mum.
you know what I mean?
And it's like, and so as you were talking, I was, I was writing down
and going, that's actually true.
It's like, how much do you listen to your mum?
Because your mum's always probably going to tell you you're amazing
and you can change the world because that's what mums do, right?
They're just amazing people.
Um, but I think one of the ways to.
Uh, shift that mindset to stop blurring the truth that I've found is actually
to go and get a good mentor, um, someone who is not, um, opposed to speaking the
truth in love, as we like to say, speak the truth in love, um, but someone who
is not opposed to speaking the truth.
And that's.
That's actually quite helpful.
So if you've, I don't know if you've done this in your career, but, but,
um, done that thing where you've had an idea where you've had a thought,
you're excited by it, do you sense check with people what you're thinking?
Or have you just, every time you've just gone for it and it's
either worked out or failed?
absolutely.
A mentor is very important.
I actually have a very personal story about it from my real estate career.
It would be great to share it, but I would say it's not just
having a mentor, it's also...
Once you decide for the mentor you want to go, it's following your
mentor blindly, you know, like trust him blindly because if we will doubt
everything and we will not follow what this experienced person tell us to do,
we will never be able to determine if his advice were good or not, you know.
Mm hmm.
in the beginning when we get started is just about like, I would say
the best ways to start with mentor.
I always share my, my ideas with other people.
And I can say that when I started my real estate career, I
joined this office in Tel Aviv.
In the first month, I was working like crazy, and I didn't make any results.
And the boss, he came to me and he told me like, Look, Nahar, you're
working very hard, I think your name, because you work with people,
your name is a bit problematic.
It's pretty unique, and it's sometimes hard for people to pronounce it.
I think you should work with the name Niro.
This is what he said, you call yourself Niro, from now on you work as Niro.
I looked at him like upset, like what?
Why did he want me to change my name?
Where is the connection?
I went back home.
I told him I would think about it.
The guy there, the guy I arrived in my building, there was an older guy walking
there on a, on a laundry, laundromat.
And he's telling me like, what happened?
Why you look upset?
And I'm telling him, yeah, my boss, after one month, I'm walking like crazy.
He's coming to me and he's telling me that I need to change my name.
What is the problem with my name?
He looked at me and he asked me, how many years this guy
is in real estate, your boss?
I told him like 30, 40 years.
He told me a guy with 40 years of experience, give you the advice.
And you doubt if to take this advice or not, you have nothing to lose.
This guy has 40 years of experience, you have one month's experience.
Try it out.
And I went back and I said, I'm going to do it, I'm going to be Niro from now.
And six months later I was one of the top agents in the office.
And I take this lesson for myself that I say, and I say to everyone else, if you
have a mentor with a lot of experience,
Mm hmm.
first of all, put the research, you know, put the effort to find a good mentor.
Second of all, trust this guy blindly.
Do everything he say.
Give it a, you know, you can give it like four months, five months, six
months, a period of test, testing period where you're trying out his advice.
Be fully committed to it because if you're not going to be fully committed,
you will never know if the advice is actually going to work or not.
Yeah.
yeah, powerful stuff, powerful, and, uh, uh, it's, it's interesting the,
the name change story, uh, that I'll, I'll remember that, that, that'll
stick with me, that'll stick with me.
So get a mentor, don't ask your mum, um, and avoid the blurring of the truth
mindset, which I, I, I still, you know, stop telling yourself lies, basically.
yes, yes, yes.
And then you talked about, uh, niching down and I, one of the things that you
mentioned here I want to come circle back on cause I thought it was fascinating.
You don't just want to look at the guys that have been successful for 20 years.
You really want to do a deep dive on the guys that have been successful in the
last few weeks or the last few months.
Because, they've not got the reputation to rely on, they've had
to do something tactical to get to quite a high place in the rankings or
in the sales numbers, haven't they?
Um, so how do you, I mean, and I think that's brilliant advice,
I think that's very top advice.
Um, I guess, how do you, um, How do you extrapolate that backwards?
How do you analyze the somebody that's just sort of appeared out of nowhere?
What sort of things are you looking for?
So I would, I, I always, in eBay's you can always filter by feedbacks,
how many feedbacks the store have.
If the, if the store have just 100 feedbacks is and is ranking on
the first page is pretty new, you know, so in eBay you can determine
by the feedbacks on Amazon.
You can also determine by reviews if the product have, if everyone else have like
20,000 reviews, 10,000 reviews, and this product have like one 500 reviews, 200
reviews, or even less, then it's, this is your, your sign, you know, so, So this
is what I'm doing first, then what I'm trying to do is I'm looking on this new
guy and I'm looking on those experienced guys and I try to see what difference.
Usually you find something that is different.
Maybe the images are better, the title is a bit, his target different
keyword in the title or um, I try to, like investigating, you know,
looking for clues, what's different.
And then you, most of the time you find something different.
Yeah.
of the time, I would say 95% of the time, you will find that they do something
different here, whether it is the price, the images, the product, the SEO.
Yeah.
No, very, very good.
I like that.
Uh, so find the new competitors and, and realize that they're your competition.
I thought that was also good.
You know, competing with somebody that's been around for, uh, for 20 years is much
more complicated than being competing with a guy that's doing well after
a couple of months and I like that.
Um, I think that's a really interesting, uh, statement.
Okay.
So we've got the mindset, we've got the niche.
We're going to come to the wow element you mentioned, because again,
I was smiling when you said this.
I'm going back to the guy that's selling sunglasses off
Aliexpress that no one's buying.
And it's because his website actually puts people off rather than makes
people go, Oh my goodness, I need to, but there's no wow aspects of that.
So how do you And you talked about having wow in product as a product
that actually stops on the, you know, stops the Facebook feed, is something
different, something unique, or it's marketed in a slightly interesting
way, or it's, the image is quite, it's just, it's going to help you stop.
What um, what sort of elements do you think we need to
look at to deliver that wow?
yeah.
So there, I will break it into two groups.
There is one group of problems, so there are some serious problems people have.
And if you solve their problem, I mean, this is the best, wow.
So, if you see a lot of very successful products on Facebook ads, are products
to solve back pain, or, or, uh, uh, clean ears, or do all these, uh, a bit
disgusting things, you know, because, you know, people have this problem sitting
all day on the computer, and that suddenly they sit, how, how they sit straight, or
people have some certain type of disease.
This is a very successful product as well.
This hand massager, you know, I was asking myself, why this
hand massager is so successful?
Like what's, and then I read through the descriptions of the ads and I see
like, it's solved, it's helping to like, there's like four or five different
diseases that this hand massager solved.
So it's, it's wow effect for these people with this, uh, disease because
they have huge pain in their hand and now they can relax this pain with some
nice massage, you know, for example.
Another thing is just like, um, um.
You know, like, uh, all the gadgets, uh, things that, like, just, like,
very, like, wow, I want to have this, uh, uh, color changing necklace, or
this, uh, amazing gadget that open beers or open wines, or, you know
what I mean, all these kind of things.
So these are the two things.
And I will add a third, third genre, third category, this is more seasonal.
So, you know, you use the demand in specific season to give people
what they want, and then it just...
Halloween is a great month for, for wow effect products because all, every
product, every costume can be wow, you know what I mean, like it's, this
is what it is, and then also people in need for it, so you use both, but
yeah, it's looking for things that just making people stop and look, basically.
Fantastic, very, very true, very true.
So, um, we've got somebody then who's got a product, uh, they're selling
because, you know, we've validated demand.
We're doing something different.
We've analyzed our competitors.
We we've done some, we're up there on the rankings.
We're growing, we're developing.
What are some of the problems that you have seen, some of the challenges,
maybe, that scaling businesses have found, so that, you know, you do get
these companies that hit a vein and it just starts to take off, doesn't
it, and they start to do well.
But that's only the first problem, now we've got to scale it, now
we've got to grow effectively.
What are some of the things that you've seen there, some of the obstacles,
maybe, that we need to overcome?
So yeah, it's a great topic as well, and I will talk about it in general
first, because this is something that we realized in the last six years, since
we started with Zik, and we started to look, you know, into how the users are
doing, who is becoming successful, who is not, who is able to move through
the first step of getting started to becoming profitable, from breaking even
to becoming profitable, and who has managed to scale from being profitable
to actually financial independence, to actually, you know, like, turn it into
full time business, making a lot of money.
And we realized that these are three key steps in the e commerce journey
when you first break even, cover your cost, then when you, you, uh,
become profitable, and then when you, uh, achieve financial independence.
So
Right.
the hardest part I would say is, is break even, it's covering your cost.
Why?
Because you come, you have no information, you have no knowledge, no experience, that
you are going through the learning curve.
Uh, there is, uh, online, e commerce, the first few months we don't see much result.
And sometimes it's hard to continue, right?
Without a series of, you don't get the feedback.
We used to get feedback from our mom, as you say, like, you do good,
you do bad, like, we get feedback.
Here, you don't have feedback.
Here, you don't make sales, right?
So, so, but we know, what we've seen is that 90% of the people who manage
to break even, also become profitable.
And then, the last part of scaling, and there is a lot of people who are
getting stuck in the profitable stage.
A lot of people.
They make 2, 000, 3, 000 per month, But they are not able to scale, like you say.
So what I, what, what, the way we approach it, the way today I see
it, and we realized it just in the last, like, one and a half, one year
after analyzing six years of data, is that every stage needs to have a
different strategy, different approach.
So it's, it's very technically, like, pricing strategy, um, uh, review,
uh, communication strategy with the, with the people, with the buyers, uh,
the type of products you start with.
Also aligned to how much you can invest.
And then when it comes to scaling, first you need to have the foundation,
that you are able to get enough stock, you have enough cash flow.
This is when you buy one stock.
So,
Yeah.
I would say a lot of people are not able to scale because they're stuck
on this, they're stuck on cash flow.
Other suppliers cannot provide them enough stock, or it's too complicated to
produce the quantity of items they need.
I can say about, for example, my sister has a dress, She's selling dresses, she
has a brand for women's dresses, and she has struggled with scaling the quantities
because of production, so this, so in advance you should pick product, you
shouldn't put effort into product, you're going to have problems with production.
This is number one.
Number two is about your profit margins, so if you have a very low profit
margins, it would be very hard to scale without taking a loan from the bank,
because how can you cover your costs?
Mm.
Oh, you need to get money out of your pocket, you know, the profit that you
generate is not enough to, to bring stock.
And the last one I would say is, um, is, it's coming from
where to focus your energy.
This is, again, we're going back to the same things with, you know, being honest
with yourself, like see the truth, see the facts, is we have this issue, like
people, everyone have this issue of I have to finish what I started with.
You know this?
Like, I started with, I launched this new product.
It's doing great.
I'm already profitable.
But I'm not going to give up until this product is going to sell 20, 000 times.
Or until I'm going to make 101 million.
And then they get stuck on this product.
All their energy goes to this product.
While with all their knowledge they have.
All the experience they have, they could go and launch another product
that have much more potential because of the niche, because of, you know,
like, many of these kind of things.
So, I think that in this stage, in this stage of profitability, when
you have one successful product, you need to really create a list.
I have the, I, I call this, I, we developed an algorithm in the, in the
company, a strategy of prioritization in the company, where you have, uh,
uh, impact, you have three columns.
So every, every idea, get three ideas, three, three columns,
Mm hmm.
time to impact, and effort.
So take, you know, take you, what I suggest to people that in this stage,
create a Google Sheet, put your first product that is already live.
It's live, right?
I want to scale it now.
The goal is to scale it to, uh, I don't know, 100, 000
revenue or 200, 000 revenue.
Yeah.
Can I do it?
Can this product get there?
Yes.
What is the time to impact?
Then you can say, like, what we do, we have, like, medium
levels, like high, medium, low.
So, uh, impact is high.
Yes, I theoretically can get this product to 100, 000, right?
Time to impact?
Then you're trying to understand, okay, I need enough stock, I need
enough for it to spend on PPC.
So, I need, let's say, the competition is XYZ, I need six
months to get there, right?
And effort, how much money I need to spend now, for on this product?
I need to buy more stock, uh, I need to spend more in PPC, or, uh, I need
to, uh, To, uh, also spend time on it.
Now, this is one.
Then you put more ideas.
You cannot have one idea.
It's, it's not possible to do this comparison with one.
Then you want to compare it to other products.
You want to see, okay, if I go and start new products, this product in
a niche that it can get to 2 million.
So I can put the same effort, the same money on this new product,
but the potential is 10 times more.
So why should I invest in, why should I fight my first product, try to scale
it, if the maximum of this niche is just 200, 000, while another one is 2 million.
Right.
And then it's just to be able to say, okay, this is generating great revenue for
me, but I'm going to test new products.
So I would say this is the main, this is where people get stuck
the most on their prioritization.
That's really, yeah, I can see what you're saying and I, I, I, and I, I
get how that would make, especially on platforms like Amazon and eBay.
You know, and, and that would, that would make an awful lot of sense to me.
And I like your impact, time to impact and effort, uh, model.
I think that's a really, three really interesting questions.
What's the impact, what's the time to impact and how much is
it going to take to get there?
Um, a really good questions.
Um, and yeah, I can see how that, so is that, is that if I'm, I'm just.
I'm thinking slightly sideways here, Nahar, I'm not gonna lie.
Um, but if I'm, uh, wanting to set up a business and focus on eBay as my
main sales channel, for example, is that a good winning strategy to take?
It's like, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna find some, I'm gonna find a product,
but I'm not gonna just focus on that one product I'm gonna learn and I'm
gonna be continually introducing, uh, uh, you know, products at
a, at a fairly reasonable pace.
Yeah.
I would say in eBay, it's the most important to list.
It's very important to list a lot of new products.
Not like on Amazon.
Amazon, you have huge sales velocity for one product.
Mm
huge demand.
eBay, even the top products.
Products are not, don't have, not close to how much Amazon can drive,
how much traffic Amazon can drive.
So you need to have a lot of products.
For Amazon, but if we look on Amazon in this scenario, I would say the
strategical decision I would take about products to list on Amazon is
products that have a lot of variations.
hmm.
Mm
if I get into products with a lot of variations, I get
in one product, ten products.
So, I increase the, the quantity, the traffic that I can get
into my listing, I increase the amount of sales that I can do.
It's much easier to scale because it's the same production line.
It's much easier to scale because it's the same supplier, you know, so I would
suggest to people to go, if it's Amazon, go on Variations, look for niches that,
um, uh, you can come with different smells, different taste, different
length, different quantities, you know.
Stuff like this.
Different colors.
And if it's about eBay, just try to have a store with a couple of thousands of items.
Wow.
And built up to a couple of thousand items on eBay.
Is it, um, I mean, let's just focus on eBay for a little minute here.
Is eBay still a good platform to start an online business with?
The reason I ask is...
Again, going back to what comes up on my Instagram feed and my YouTube feed, it
all is about start a business on Amazon.
That's the message that you, that seems to be pumping out at the moment.
And it's almost like people have forgotten about eBay.
Um, which I, I, I thinking it through, obviously doesn't make a whole great
deal of sense given eBay, but, um, Is eBay still a good, I appreciate the
obvious answer to this Nabil, but I feel like I want to ask, you know, is
eBay still a good platform to sort of charge, charge forward with?
So, definitely.
So, so, sticking to what we said in the beginning of being honest, you know,
and like looking in the reality as is.
Of course, that Amazon is the number one platform, no doubts, they
have the highest amount of traffic and the highest amount of demand.
And of course, selling on your own website, like Shopify or any other
platform, uh, is, it has a lot of advantages as well because, uh, you know,
you, you don't owe nothing to no one.
You can't get your account suspended or stuff like this.
And eBay, yes, is out of this tree, eBay is the smallest,
the lowest amount of demand.
But you need to ask yourself, again, what is the budgets I have?
Do I have a lot of money to start with?
I don't.
And how much time I have?
I would not go to start an Amazon business if I only have one hour per day.
You know, like, or two hours per day.
You're going to invest money in stock.
I also wouldn't go to start an Amazon business if I don't have like a...
Nice amount of capital, you know, like to be able to invest.
So, uh, eBay is good if you start with low amount of, um, capital,
if you don't have a lot of time, or if you want to have a quick start.
It's also good for a quick start because you don't have all this process of
shipping items to the warehouses and all these things that take time, you
know, getting verified and all this.
I would say that, of course, I think that everyone should aim to grow to the biggest
platforms or In another way is to build your own brand and sell a multi channel.
Also, I can say that about us as a company, about Zik Analytics,
we are expanding right now.
We are about to launch a rebrand and in the next three months, we're
about to launch Amazon and Shopify features because we understand, you
know, this is where the market goes.
Right.
the biggest, these are the biggest marketplaces, and we also committed,
you know, to the people to give them the best opportunities.
I cannot come here and say, yeah, you know, eBay is the best
because we are right now offering only analytics tools for eBay.
I would say to any person that have capital and have the time to go and
aim for the biggest marketplaces.
No, no questions allowed.
And just after you establish your brand on Amazon, sell multi channel,
sell also on eBay, be everywhere.
I think it's necessary.
But, of course, If you have the capital and the time, go to
Amazon or build your own store.
If you want a quick, easy start, low risk, or you don't have a
lot of money, start with eBay.
Yeah, that's very, very good advice.
And uh, some of the best companies that I've seen, actually multichannel
do all three, don't they?
They've got their own site, they're doing Amazon and they're doing eBay.
Not necessarily every single product and every single channel
they've thought it through.
But, um, for, for quite a few businesses, all three channels
seems to work quite well.
Um, which I is, is fascinating.
So, yeah, I, I like that.
Uh, bring back, let's bring back conversations about eBay.
'cause it just feels like we've not talked about eBay for a long time.
Um, Listen, uh, Zaha, it's been, uh, Zaha, Nahar, sorry, getting your name
wrong, it's going back to what your mentor was saying, I was thinking,
um, I was thinking of two things at the same time, so you know when two
words come out of your mouth at the same time, anyway, uh, Nahar, listen.
If people want to find out more about Zik Analytics, want to connect
with you, want to maybe have some questions for you, what's the
best way for them to reach out to
Absolutely.
So, of course, we have a very active YouTube channel.
You can find Zik Analytics' channel on YouTube.
You can go on the website on zikanalytics.
com, we have live chat support there with assistance.
If you want to contact me directly, you can find me on LinkedIn, send me
on LinkedIn or my Facebook profile.
All right.
I usually answer to personal messages, maybe it can take some time, but I answer.
I know a lot of people in this position are not answering at all, but I
think this is the things, these are the little things that keep me with
the feet on the ground, you know.
So I'm trying to stick to it.
And yeah, that's it.
This is where you can find us.
This is the main channels where we are active, where I am active.
you?
Fantastic.
We will of course link to all of those in the show notes, which you can also
get along for free, especially if you're signed up to the email newsletter,
they'll be coming to your inbox.
Don't panic about it.
Uh, but no, thank you, uh, mate for coming on.
Thanks for showing.
Uh, your, uh, strategy or sharing your insights.
Um, I just, it's just been great talking a little bit about eBay again.
I'm not going to lie where it all started, you know, and it's, um, it's great that
it's still going strong and, uh, I'm going to, I'm definitely going to check out.
Um, some of the things that you mentioned actually, uh, from my notes
and talk to my kids about it, especially with their little university stuff.
Uh, but listen, it's been an absolute pleasure, man.
Thank you so much for coming on the show.
Uh, really, really appreciate it.
Thank you so much, it's been a pleasure as well.
Thank you for the opportunity.
Oh, it's been great.
Great.
So a huge shout out to Nahar for joining me today.
Also a big shout out to today's show sponsor, the e commerce cohort.
Remember to check out their free training online at ecommercecycles.
com.
That's all one word, ecommercecycles.
com.
Also be sure to follow the e commerce podcast, wherever you get your
podcasts from, because we have got yet more great conversations lined
up and I don't want you to miss.
Any of them.
And in case no one has told you yet today, dear listener, you are awesome.
Yes, you are awesome.
Created awesome.
It's just a burden you have to bear.
Absolutely.
Nahar, I have to bear it.
I've got to bear it.
You've got to bear it as well.
Now, the e commerce podcast is produced by Aurion Media.
You can find our entire archive of episodes on your favorite podcast app.
The team that makes this show possible is Sadaf Beynon and Tanya Hutsuliak.
Our theme song was written by Josh Edmundson.
And as I mentioned, if you would like to read the transcript or show notes, head
over to the website, ecommercepodcast.
com.
That's it from me, that's it from Nahar, thank you so much for
joining us, have a fantastic week, wherever you are in the world, I'll
see you next time, bye for now.