1 00:00:11,640 --> 00:00:14,760 Matt Edmundson: Well, hello and welcome to the eCommerce podcast 2 00:00:14,760 --> 00:00:17,280 with me, your host, Matt Edmundson. 3 00:00:17,280 --> 00:00:22,470 This show is all about helping you deliver eCommerce wow. 4 00:00:22,470 --> 00:00:22,980 Yes, it is. 5 00:00:22,980 --> 00:00:26,439 Now I'm super excited with today's guest, who is Adam Shaffer. 6 00:00:26,700 --> 00:00:31,585 who's from Phelps United LLC uh, and we are gonna be chatting about how to decide 7 00:00:32,110 --> 00:00:34,950 if Amazon is right for you and your business. 8 00:00:35,050 --> 00:00:35,890 Yes, we are. 9 00:00:35,890 --> 00:00:40,030 We're gonna get into Amazon and all of those things to do with Amazon. 10 00:00:40,030 --> 00:00:43,060 But before we do that, Adam, one of the things I love to do is 11 00:00:43,065 --> 00:00:48,009 give a shout out to, uh, past guests and episodes on the show. 12 00:00:48,015 --> 00:00:50,920 And given that we're talking about Amazon today, I thought it would be great to 13 00:00:50,920 --> 00:00:56,420 mention John Tilly's podcast, uh, asking if Amazon is right for your business and 14 00:00:56,420 --> 00:01:00,490 also Chelsea Cohen on inventory management, 1 0 1. 15 00:01:00,490 --> 00:01:02,380 How to leverage the power of Amazon. 16 00:01:02,620 --> 00:01:06,630 And I dunno how you pronounce inventory or inventory, whatever it is. 17 00:01:07,120 --> 00:01:08,350 It's totally fine. 18 00:01:08,350 --> 00:01:10,060 And it's all acceptable here. 19 00:01:10,450 --> 00:01:17,170 Uh, now this episode is brought to you by the eCommerce cohort, which helps you 20 00:01:17,170 --> 00:01:19,410 deliver eCommerce well to your customers. 21 00:01:19,810 --> 00:01:25,300 Uh, the eCommerce cohort is a monthly, uh, membership. 22 00:01:25,300 --> 00:01:28,630 It's like a lightweight membership group with guided monthly sprints, 23 00:01:28,630 --> 00:01:34,270 that cycle through all the key areas of eCommerce, the sole purpose of which. 24 00:01:35,080 --> 00:01:37,840 Is to give you some clear and actionable jobs to be done. 25 00:01:38,050 --> 00:01:42,190 So you'll know what to work on and have the support to get it done. 26 00:01:42,190 --> 00:01:45,009 So whether you're starting out an eCommerce or whether like me, you've been 27 00:01:45,015 --> 00:01:51,160 around a little while, uh, I encourage you to check out eCommercecohort.com or 28 00:01:51,160 --> 00:01:55,300 email me at matt@ecommercepodcast.net with any questions. 29 00:01:55,440 --> 00:01:58,230 Because we are super proud of it. 30 00:01:58,500 --> 00:02:01,350 And then finally, the last thing to say is, make sure you stick around 31 00:02:01,350 --> 00:02:04,920 to the end is I will let you know what the insider's question's gonna 32 00:02:04,920 --> 00:02:07,199 be and how you can get free access. 33 00:02:07,410 --> 00:02:10,080 if you don't already have it. 34 00:02:10,680 --> 00:02:11,130 Whew. 35 00:02:11,735 --> 00:02:13,265 That's the intro done. 36 00:02:13,535 --> 00:02:15,305 Uh, let's talk about our guest. 37 00:02:15,455 --> 00:02:18,905 Adam is, uh, well, it's an absolute legend to be here. 38 00:02:19,115 --> 00:02:22,685 Uh, is great actually, Adam, that you are here, but you are a technology pioneer. 39 00:02:23,165 --> 00:02:29,075 Uh, you have it says here you have found success helping Amazon sellers through 40 00:02:29,075 --> 00:02:33,755 your company's proprietary technology services and distribution platform. 41 00:02:33,935 --> 00:02:37,535 Ultimately this has helped clients navigate the most complex 42 00:02:37,540 --> 00:02:39,365 waters of the largest eCommerce. 43 00:02:39,955 --> 00:02:45,775 In the world I E Amazon, uh, Adam is also a pioneer in direct marketing 44 00:02:45,805 --> 00:02:50,515 and digital eCommerce technology products and solutions to both 45 00:02:50,995 --> 00:02:53,215 consumer and commercial markets. 46 00:02:53,365 --> 00:02:57,415 And if that's not enough, if he actually gets any free time, uh, he, 47 00:02:57,420 --> 00:03:01,705 you will find it spending it with his wife and beautiful daughters. 48 00:03:01,945 --> 00:03:04,255 So, Adam, thank you for joining me. 49 00:03:04,255 --> 00:03:06,685 It's great to have you great to have you on the show. 50 00:03:06,985 --> 00:03:09,835 Uh, you look like you're in very sunny climates there, sir 51 00:03:10,765 --> 00:03:11,935 Adam Shaffer: well, yes, I am Matt. 52 00:03:11,935 --> 00:03:13,705 First of all, thank you for having that on your show. 53 00:03:13,705 --> 00:03:16,225 I love your show and I love what you do for the community. 54 00:03:16,525 --> 00:03:18,565 So thank you for making this happen. 55 00:03:18,655 --> 00:03:18,955 We really 56 00:03:19,285 --> 00:03:20,395 Matt Edmundson: oh, thank you, sir. 57 00:03:20,395 --> 00:03:22,135 This, this is best to share the love. 58 00:03:22,135 --> 00:03:23,335 Let's just share that love out. 59 00:03:24,475 --> 00:03:25,105 Adam Shaffer: uh, share that love. 60 00:03:25,105 --> 00:03:25,315 Right. 61 00:03:25,755 --> 00:03:28,915 And, and I am in, I am in sunny, Miami, Florida. 62 00:03:28,915 --> 00:03:30,835 So the weather is super hot. 63 00:03:30,835 --> 00:03:31,495 I'm in the shade. 64 00:03:31,495 --> 00:03:32,065 Thank God. 65 00:03:32,155 --> 00:03:35,845 Yeah, but, uh, it's pretty warm down here, but I love being outside. 66 00:03:35,845 --> 00:03:36,895 I love being with nature. 67 00:03:36,895 --> 00:03:38,455 So when I'm home and I'm not travel. 68 00:03:38,965 --> 00:03:40,795 I kind of set up the office out here. 69 00:03:41,095 --> 00:03:45,145 And if there's a hurricane, I do go inside, but I also have children and 70 00:03:45,205 --> 00:03:46,345 it makes it a little more difficult. 71 00:03:46,554 --> 00:03:47,035 Yeah. 72 00:03:47,040 --> 00:03:47,145 Yeah. 73 00:03:47,484 --> 00:03:48,715 Matt Edmundson: So that's your only criteria. 74 00:03:48,715 --> 00:03:49,554 Is there a hurricane? 75 00:03:49,560 --> 00:03:49,825 No. 76 00:03:49,885 --> 00:03:50,815 Well, I'm outside then. 77 00:03:51,205 --> 00:03:52,075 It's just the way it's gonna 78 00:03:52,075 --> 00:03:52,165 Adam Shaffer: be. 79 00:03:52,165 --> 00:03:52,525 No, that's not. 80 00:03:53,035 --> 00:03:56,345 Well, there are some giant AIS that make you think twice about being out here, but. 81 00:03:58,790 --> 00:03:59,750 Matt Edmundson: Yeah, I can imagine. 82 00:03:59,750 --> 00:04:03,150 I can absolutely imagine it's um, I mean, I'd be the same way to be fair. 83 00:04:03,240 --> 00:04:04,280 I lived in a sunny climate. 84 00:04:04,280 --> 00:04:08,330 I'd be out a lot more than I am, uh, when I'm in the UK, that's for sure. 85 00:04:08,989 --> 00:04:14,330 Uh, Adam Phelps United the company that you're involved with, what it does it do. 86 00:04:14,359 --> 00:04:15,259 Let's let's start there. 87 00:04:15,265 --> 00:04:17,239 How, what, what is Phelps United? 88 00:04:17,539 --> 00:04:20,634 Adam Shaffer: Well, well, Deep down. 89 00:04:20,634 --> 00:04:24,324 We're a third party seller, but big picture is we are an 90 00:04:24,414 --> 00:04:26,874 eCommerce brand accelerator. 91 00:04:26,934 --> 00:04:33,294 So we are an agency that helps brand brands navigate and grow on a very 92 00:04:33,294 --> 00:04:37,704 complicated, but potentially lucrative channel, which is the Amazon channel 93 00:04:37,884 --> 00:04:39,714 and also the other marketplaces. 94 00:04:39,714 --> 00:04:42,924 But Amazon is really by far the biggest we're talking. 95 00:04:43,719 --> 00:04:48,280 Of 620 billion dollars of merchandise gets sold through 96 00:04:48,549 --> 00:04:50,979 Amazon, uh, in the US for a year. 97 00:04:51,309 --> 00:04:51,460 Wow. 98 00:04:51,465 --> 00:04:53,739 And you know, that's just monstrous. 99 00:04:53,770 --> 00:04:53,830 Yeah. 100 00:04:53,949 --> 00:04:58,569 And when you talk to brands, in many cases, it's by far their number one 101 00:04:58,719 --> 00:05:00,849 channel, it used to not be that way. 102 00:05:00,849 --> 00:05:03,460 It's evolved quickly over the years, but it continues to. 103 00:05:04,299 --> 00:05:08,559 And it's a place where you could make it, or you could really tarnish your 104 00:05:08,559 --> 00:05:12,190 brand after all the years that you've been developing your brand to come to 105 00:05:12,190 --> 00:05:16,119 Amazon, to find others selling your products, maybe counterfeits in your 106 00:05:16,119 --> 00:05:19,479 products, products, uh, that you've been trying to sell through other 107 00:05:19,484 --> 00:05:24,190 channels appear now mysteriously on Amazon at prices that are unheard of. 108 00:05:24,460 --> 00:05:28,630 And so it could be a great channel or it could really. 109 00:05:29,005 --> 00:05:29,544 Be scary. 110 00:05:29,604 --> 00:05:33,594 So we're here to help take the scariness out for brands and help 111 00:05:33,594 --> 00:05:35,965 them grow and protect their brand on. 112 00:05:36,275 --> 00:05:36,955 Matt Edmundson: Amazon. 113 00:05:38,514 --> 00:05:41,544 Uh, it sounds like a bit of a task on its own. 114 00:05:41,544 --> 00:05:41,844 Right. 115 00:05:41,844 --> 00:05:42,715 Just doing that. 116 00:05:42,715 --> 00:05:43,044 Right. 117 00:05:43,044 --> 00:05:47,064 And so, I mean, we were talking before we hit the record button, um, you said 118 00:05:47,064 --> 00:05:51,204 Amazon, it, it can be your best friend and it can be your worst nightmare. 119 00:05:51,234 --> 00:05:51,684 Do you know what I mean? 120 00:05:51,684 --> 00:05:52,824 Your, your, your worst enemy. 121 00:05:53,364 --> 00:05:56,634 Um, and so, I mean, let's deal with that first Amazon, is 122 00:05:56,634 --> 00:05:57,875 it a friend or is it a foe? 123 00:05:57,984 --> 00:05:58,704 Is it both? 124 00:05:58,704 --> 00:06:01,374 And, and, and what have, I guess, what have you learned from 125 00:06:01,379 --> 00:06:03,144 dealing with Amazon on that basis? 126 00:06:04,254 --> 00:06:05,664 Adam Shaffer: Well, it takes a while to. 127 00:06:06,465 --> 00:06:09,615 Be able to understand how Amazon works. 128 00:06:09,615 --> 00:06:12,165 If you're your first time trying to sell on Amazon. 129 00:06:12,375 --> 00:06:16,005 So many things can happen that you'd say how in the world could that happen? 130 00:06:16,215 --> 00:06:19,275 How could my products that have just shipped to Amazon and put in their 131 00:06:19,275 --> 00:06:23,765 warehouse for them to ship to the customers have vanished their gone. 132 00:06:24,105 --> 00:06:27,555 Or how could my listing have been taken off of Amazon? 133 00:06:27,645 --> 00:06:29,145 I have my products up at Amazon. 134 00:06:29,145 --> 00:06:32,474 I spent money to have it there and I can't even sell it now. 135 00:06:32,474 --> 00:06:34,785 So, so many things could happen. 136 00:06:35,200 --> 00:06:37,929 Because you might not have set something upright or you might 137 00:06:37,929 --> 00:06:39,340 not have packaged something right. 138 00:06:39,419 --> 00:06:45,669 Mm-hmm . And so you need to be really good at everything on Amazon, if 139 00:06:45,669 --> 00:06:50,260 you want to succeed, because a, the rules do change from time to time. 140 00:06:50,260 --> 00:06:52,539 And it's not like these big announcements come out, you kind 141 00:06:52,544 --> 00:06:55,239 of have to walk your way and figure it out and you have to be on the 142 00:06:55,239 --> 00:06:56,619 platform every day to figure it out. 143 00:06:56,780 --> 00:06:57,070 Yeah. 144 00:06:57,075 --> 00:06:59,890 And, and the other is it's incredibly competitive. 145 00:06:59,890 --> 00:07:02,140 So there are so many sellers. 146 00:07:02,740 --> 00:07:04,750 Let's try to put that aside. 147 00:07:04,750 --> 00:07:09,940 So I said, there's say 620 million dollars of merchandise that get sold 148 00:07:10,210 --> 00:07:18,610 through Amazon of that 610, about 35% of that is Amazon buying from 149 00:07:18,670 --> 00:07:23,830 a manufacturer or the brand and selling it on the Amazon marketplace. 150 00:07:24,159 --> 00:07:24,250 Okay. 151 00:07:24,250 --> 00:07:30,505 So they're like, Retailer in that sense, they buy from a, a brand and they send 152 00:07:30,505 --> 00:07:33,775 them POs and they buy the stuff and sell it, make a markup, and they charge 153 00:07:33,780 --> 00:07:35,155 you some other fees along the way. 154 00:07:35,934 --> 00:07:40,734 But then the other 65%, which is really where people don't 155 00:07:40,974 --> 00:07:45,474 get it, they're like 65% of the merchandise they get sold on Amazon 156 00:07:45,534 --> 00:07:46,554 isn't from Amazon? 157 00:07:46,765 --> 00:07:47,424 No, it's not. 158 00:07:47,424 --> 00:07:48,835 It's from third parties. 159 00:07:49,015 --> 00:07:54,070 There's about two and a half million third parties on Amazon selling wow 160 00:07:54,550 --> 00:07:59,080 either their own brands or they're selling other people's brands. 161 00:07:59,770 --> 00:08:05,409 We sell other people's brands in conjunction, in cooperation 162 00:08:05,409 --> 00:08:06,550 with the brand itself. 163 00:08:06,700 --> 00:08:10,930 So instead of them selling it to Amazon, we have two models. 164 00:08:10,930 --> 00:08:14,740 One is that we'll buy it and sell it for them, but we don't 165 00:08:14,740 --> 00:08:15,909 want to compete with Amazon. 166 00:08:15,940 --> 00:08:19,910 So we don't want to be buying and selling the same stuff Amazon is 167 00:08:20,470 --> 00:08:25,674 um, you'll lose every, every time or we, we do it, we do it as a 168 00:08:25,674 --> 00:08:27,354 service where it's purely an agency. 169 00:08:27,655 --> 00:08:31,370 So in some cases we'll build a 3P store for a brand 170 00:08:31,970 --> 00:08:37,550 and then start helping them sell on Amazon from the product set up and the 171 00:08:38,050 --> 00:08:41,039 creative, which you gotta be really good at because you gotta tell your 172 00:08:41,060 --> 00:08:42,950 a brand story, your product story. 173 00:08:43,159 --> 00:08:47,000 You have to understand the intricacies of the category and the subcategory. 174 00:08:47,180 --> 00:08:50,420 So you could differentiate your product from the other products 175 00:08:50,420 --> 00:08:52,610 that are in your subcategory. 176 00:08:52,910 --> 00:08:58,670 And what you're trying to do is get people to notice you find you buy you and leave 177 00:08:58,670 --> 00:09:04,970 a great review and leaving a great review is not the same as in your Shopify world, 178 00:09:04,970 --> 00:09:10,130 where you send out a bunch of emails, you might incent them with some incentives 179 00:09:10,130 --> 00:09:12,710 to leave a better review on Amazon. 180 00:09:12,800 --> 00:09:14,480 You have to be very compliant. 181 00:09:14,780 --> 00:09:16,430 You cannot offer them anything. 182 00:09:16,460 --> 00:09:18,860 You cannot beg them to leave a great review. 183 00:09:19,160 --> 00:09:23,390 You have to say, you know, please leave a review. 184 00:09:23,630 --> 00:09:25,650 Whatever you choose to put is great with us. 185 00:09:26,120 --> 00:09:26,915 Something like that. 186 00:09:26,915 --> 00:09:30,214 So there's compliant words that you use and Amazon allows you use or not use. 187 00:09:30,395 --> 00:09:33,155 And if you use the wrong words, Amazon could easily 188 00:09:33,155 --> 00:09:35,165 just take you off the platform. 189 00:09:35,405 --> 00:09:40,175 So we help these brands with their Amazon strategy first and foremost, 190 00:09:40,354 --> 00:09:44,824 should they be selling it through their own 3P store through our 3P store? 191 00:09:44,854 --> 00:09:47,104 Should we be having an agency model for them? 192 00:09:47,104 --> 00:09:50,074 Is that better or is it better for us to buy and sell it? 193 00:09:50,734 --> 00:09:54,844 One thing is we do a quick analysis of the marketplace 194 00:09:55,160 --> 00:09:59,090 and find out is somebody already selling their stuff on the marketplace. 195 00:09:59,240 --> 00:10:04,790 And so many times the manufacturer is shocked to find tens or twenties or 196 00:10:04,790 --> 00:10:10,640 thirties sellers selling their products on Amazon, putting up their own content, 197 00:10:10,640 --> 00:10:14,480 having the wrong content up there, not telling the right story about the 198 00:10:14,480 --> 00:10:19,400 product, not helping it get good reviews and selling it well below what they 199 00:10:19,400 --> 00:10:21,280 prefer the street to be selling it for. 200 00:10:21,755 --> 00:10:26,135 So it winds up hurting their relationships with their regular retailers. 201 00:10:27,005 --> 00:10:31,564 And so we help clean that marketplace up for them. 202 00:10:31,564 --> 00:10:35,165 We try to help them call these non-authorized sellers off. 203 00:10:36,005 --> 00:10:41,285 We have a brand protection practice that helps identify sellers and work 204 00:10:41,285 --> 00:10:45,905 with the manufacturer wholesalers and the sellers to get them to 205 00:10:46,025 --> 00:10:48,095 either comply or get off the market. 206 00:10:48,785 --> 00:10:52,055 And we work on making sure that that content is just awesome and 207 00:10:52,055 --> 00:10:55,055 tells a great story, but then there's the logistics part of it. 208 00:10:55,325 --> 00:10:57,965 It's how many do I need at Amazon? 209 00:10:58,085 --> 00:11:00,275 Because you wanna ship your stuff to Amazon. 210 00:11:00,605 --> 00:11:06,665 Most of the time, because the freight rates from Amazon to the consumer is so 211 00:11:06,665 --> 00:11:10,025 much cheaper and it's usually faster. 212 00:11:10,145 --> 00:11:15,035 So when your products are sitting at Amazon you're in prime status. 213 00:11:15,275 --> 00:11:20,105 So your products will say prime on it, and you're supposed to get it in two days, 214 00:11:20,105 --> 00:11:26,615 sometimes one day, um, when you ship it from your own warehouse, uh, it could take 215 00:11:26,735 --> 00:11:28,535 a while and the dating is further out. 216 00:11:28,655 --> 00:11:32,349 And you'll see that when you ship something prime, you get sell 217 00:11:32,349 --> 00:11:36,519 probably 30 to 70% more depending on the category you're in and 218 00:11:36,519 --> 00:11:37,779 what the other sellers are doing. 219 00:11:37,779 --> 00:11:37,989 Wow. 220 00:11:38,050 --> 00:11:39,579 So you really do wanna be Prime.. 221 00:11:40,269 --> 00:11:46,435 The one benefit that we also bring to the table as a seller, is that because we've 222 00:11:46,435 --> 00:11:50,334 been doing this for a long time and we have a very good reputation on Amazon. 223 00:11:50,694 --> 00:11:55,645 We have a medallion called seller fulfilled prime and seller fulfilled 224 00:11:55,645 --> 00:12:00,925 prime allows us to sell things from our warehouse, which we have 225 00:12:00,925 --> 00:12:05,484 one in California, but it could be listed as prime on Amazon. 226 00:12:05,484 --> 00:12:09,250 So even though it's not shipping from Amazon we could still have 227 00:12:09,310 --> 00:12:13,180 a brand's product listed as prime and shipping in two days. 228 00:12:13,180 --> 00:12:16,930 Now we have to be spot on and make sure that we ship that product 229 00:12:16,930 --> 00:12:18,010 and it gets there in two days. 230 00:12:18,640 --> 00:12:23,500 It costs a little bit more, but it's a great backup strategy to have because 231 00:12:23,949 --> 00:12:28,449 it's not always the fastest and easiest thing to get your products to Amazon 232 00:12:28,750 --> 00:12:32,979 and in stock at Amazon, it could take two weeks, four weeks. 233 00:12:33,099 --> 00:12:35,079 I've seen eight weeks. 234 00:12:35,709 --> 00:12:39,879 I've seen when you ship a hundred up only 50, make it and 50 vanished and you have 235 00:12:39,879 --> 00:12:43,420 to put in a case, but you need to wait three months before you put in your case. 236 00:12:43,810 --> 00:12:48,670 So you need a backup strategy and we are kind of a hybrid in what we, you 237 00:12:48,670 --> 00:12:52,509 know, we, we kind of recommend to our partners and that is we'll ship 238 00:12:52,509 --> 00:12:54,040 a bunch of stuff to Amazon for you 239 00:12:54,924 --> 00:12:59,334 but we're gonna keep some here as a backup because if we run out or if 240 00:12:59,334 --> 00:13:02,634 it doesn't get up there fast enough, we're always shipping from a warehouse. 241 00:13:02,639 --> 00:13:07,374 So the second it's in stock in our warehouse, it's prime from there, we're 242 00:13:07,374 --> 00:13:10,384 shipping stuff up to Amazon and getting it there and benefiting from their freight. 243 00:13:12,274 --> 00:13:14,529 Matt Edmundson: Wow, there's a lot there, Adam. 244 00:13:14,589 --> 00:13:16,569 Uh, so let's dig into some of those things. 245 00:13:16,569 --> 00:13:20,799 Uh, if we can, um, let's start, uh, where you ended actually with 246 00:13:20,804 --> 00:13:24,159 the fulfillment and this seller fulfillment prime, which I've noticed 247 00:13:24,159 --> 00:13:25,569 actually here in the UK as well. 248 00:13:25,569 --> 00:13:28,389 I've seen it, uh, where you order things on, uh, with prime and 249 00:13:28,389 --> 00:13:29,559 actually doesn't come from Amazon. 250 00:13:29,559 --> 00:13:31,449 It comes direct from the, the manufacturer. 251 00:13:31,599 --> 00:13:32,079 Adam Shaffer: Yeah, you'll see. 252 00:13:32,079 --> 00:13:33,549 You'll see, Matt, Matt, it's gonna grow. 253 00:13:33,549 --> 00:13:36,399 It's gonna grow in the UK because the UK is, logistics is much 254 00:13:36,399 --> 00:13:39,609 more predictable because you could ship things very easily there. 255 00:13:39,819 --> 00:13:44,299 One in two days, it it's just the, the, the beast of UK. 256 00:13:44,619 --> 00:13:49,299 Most logistics that you use can get to places in two days where in 257 00:13:49,299 --> 00:13:50,709 the US, it's not like that at all. 258 00:13:51,039 --> 00:13:53,409 You're talking California, New York could take seven days. 259 00:13:54,709 --> 00:13:55,459 Matt Edmundson: Yeah, it's interesting. 260 00:13:55,549 --> 00:13:59,689 I mean, America's obviously a much bigger, uh, land mass isn't it than the UK. 261 00:13:59,689 --> 00:14:02,359 And so, uh, I've I think I've been slightly spoiled. 262 00:14:02,389 --> 00:14:04,969 Uh, Adam, if I'm honest with you, you living in the UK, you order stuff, 263 00:14:04,974 --> 00:14:06,139 it usually arrives the next day. 264 00:14:06,139 --> 00:14:08,389 And when it doesn't, you kinda like a little bit miffed now. 265 00:14:08,449 --> 00:14:08,629 Yeah. 266 00:14:09,019 --> 00:14:13,579 Um, and so do you think, right, because there seems to have been this 267 00:14:13,579 --> 00:14:17,569 pattern, doesn't it, where you sell stuff on Amazon and Amazon encouraged 268 00:14:17,569 --> 00:14:21,139 you to use prime, then they had, it seemed like a whole bunch of issues 269 00:14:21,139 --> 00:14:22,999 during lockdown with their warehouse. 270 00:14:23,604 --> 00:14:27,504 I dunno if this is why they've come up with, um, what was it seller 271 00:14:27,504 --> 00:14:31,014 fulfilled prime, uh, to kind of mitigate some of these problems they 272 00:14:31,014 --> 00:14:32,544 were having with their warehouses. 273 00:14:33,084 --> 00:14:39,804 But do you see in the states, the shipping companies like UPS, FedEx, uh, US postal 274 00:14:39,810 --> 00:14:45,384 service, are they catching up with Amazon who seemed to have shot ahead in terms 275 00:14:45,384 --> 00:14:48,624 of the speed and accuracy of deliveries? 276 00:14:50,045 --> 00:14:52,264 Adam Shaffer: Um, I think they all have warts. 277 00:14:52,264 --> 00:14:58,175 I think even Amazon was busting at the scenes, um, because the logistics in 278 00:14:58,175 --> 00:15:04,384 general, uh, in the US and, and, and the world, uh, you know, really, really hit 279 00:15:04,384 --> 00:15:11,074 its high point and didn't have the people and the transport to make it all happen. 280 00:15:11,435 --> 00:15:14,104 I, I think it's gotten a little bit better, but I still see 281 00:15:14,599 --> 00:15:18,259 you know, when you order things from FBA, you'll get a delay message from Amazon. 282 00:15:18,259 --> 00:15:19,759 It's gonna take an extra day to get to you. 283 00:15:19,989 --> 00:15:20,839 we're really sorry. 284 00:15:21,079 --> 00:15:24,709 I think that FedEx doesn't make, you know, the grade all the time. 285 00:15:24,709 --> 00:15:27,319 I think ups, I think they all have their issues. 286 00:15:27,379 --> 00:15:30,769 And the beauty of shipping it through Amazon is that if you 287 00:15:30,774 --> 00:15:34,879 ship it through Amazon, Amazon takes the responsibility for it. 288 00:15:35,209 --> 00:15:37,339 And also their rates are just cheaper. 289 00:15:37,549 --> 00:15:41,764 I don't care what your volume is as a, solo using FedEx or UPS, 290 00:15:41,794 --> 00:15:43,624 you cannot get Amazon rates. 291 00:15:43,624 --> 00:15:46,864 So even though we moan and cry at every penny, we have to pay them 292 00:15:47,194 --> 00:15:51,274 their rates are still better and they'll take the responsibility. 293 00:15:51,304 --> 00:15:54,574 If that product for somehow, for some reason, one of the Amazon trucks 294 00:15:54,574 --> 00:15:56,044 don't make it to your house in time 295 00:15:56,344 --> 00:16:00,454 and it goes to the next day, the burden goes on to Amazon. 296 00:16:00,454 --> 00:16:02,374 It doesn't affect your ratings. 297 00:16:02,494 --> 00:16:06,364 And that's what we're all always worried about is will it affect our score ratings? 298 00:16:06,369 --> 00:16:08,164 Will it affect our product to review rating? 299 00:16:08,464 --> 00:16:12,094 Sometimes you get a product review rating because the UPS guy dropped it in the mud. 300 00:16:12,305 --> 00:16:13,504 I mean, that's not fair. 301 00:16:13,504 --> 00:16:15,454 The product's fine guy dropped it in the mud. 302 00:16:15,454 --> 00:16:17,555 So then you gotta work, you gotta set it, you know, file 303 00:16:17,555 --> 00:16:18,904 a case to get that sorted out. 304 00:16:18,964 --> 00:16:23,165 Cause you don't want any blemish on any of your stores or on your product. 305 00:16:23,165 --> 00:16:29,134 So Amazon, um, is good about it, least, um, being, being the main 306 00:16:29,134 --> 00:16:30,394 culprit when there is an issue. 307 00:16:30,394 --> 00:16:31,854 So we kind of like that. 308 00:16:32,644 --> 00:16:37,114 Again, we'd like it, if they would ship everything, but it's impossible to get 309 00:16:37,114 --> 00:16:40,405 everything to them in stock all the time, because mm-hmm, , there's the 310 00:16:40,410 --> 00:16:44,284 logistics issues of products coming into the us, because so much of this 311 00:16:44,284 --> 00:16:48,874 stuff, whether it's British product or it's American product is being made 312 00:16:48,874 --> 00:16:53,164 in China or offshore somewhere, and it's gotta come in and be assembled, 313 00:16:53,164 --> 00:16:54,604 or maybe it's assembled already. 314 00:16:54,844 --> 00:16:56,584 And then it's gotta go up to Amazon. 315 00:16:56,584 --> 00:17:00,604 So you got the time in time off time to your facility where you. 316 00:17:01,234 --> 00:17:03,574 Organize it, and then you gotta get it up to Amazon. 317 00:17:03,814 --> 00:17:09,335 And depending on your store and your velocity in certain sizes, Amazon doesn't 318 00:17:09,339 --> 00:17:12,274 allow you the space that they used to. 319 00:17:12,665 --> 00:17:14,554 So they get to cull your space down. 320 00:17:14,944 --> 00:17:20,344 And so if you're selling very large products, which, you know, shipping large 321 00:17:20,344 --> 00:17:24,125 things is never a lot of fun, but there's definitely some demand for large products. 322 00:17:24,254 --> 00:17:24,415 Yeah. 323 00:17:24,420 --> 00:17:24,454 Yeah. 324 00:17:24,514 --> 00:17:27,335 You know, you, you ship it up to Amazon and Amazon will say, well, 325 00:17:27,454 --> 00:17:30,484 you can only have 200 of those, but. 326 00:17:31,355 --> 00:17:32,284 It's gonna be holiday. 327 00:17:32,315 --> 00:17:33,784 I'm gonna sell a thousand of them. 328 00:17:33,975 --> 00:17:35,975 I, I, I don't wanna send you a hundred or 200. 329 00:17:36,304 --> 00:17:39,215 Well, you know, we're only allowing you this much, man. 330 00:17:39,219 --> 00:17:42,395 And then when you grow, we'll start itching it up a little bit more. 331 00:17:42,755 --> 00:17:48,154 And, and so Amazon is very careful about the space they provide and it for 332 00:17:48,154 --> 00:17:51,875 small things too, you you're selling high velocity products and they're 333 00:17:51,875 --> 00:17:54,694 not gonna give you enough for tens of thousands that give you for a thousand. 334 00:17:55,775 --> 00:17:56,944 Matt Edmundson: Yeah, it's an interesting one. 335 00:17:56,944 --> 00:17:57,275 Isn't it? 336 00:17:57,275 --> 00:18:01,324 Because again, this is something that I've noticed over lockdown is Amazon's 337 00:18:01,324 --> 00:18:05,795 sort of closing in on the amount of space you can take in their warehouse. 338 00:18:05,884 --> 00:18:09,214 Um, maybe it happened before COVID maybe it was just part of the thing 339 00:18:09,214 --> 00:18:10,895 that I noticed during that time. 340 00:18:11,344 --> 00:18:11,764 Uh, well, 341 00:18:11,764 --> 00:18:12,844 Adam Shaffer: during closing for sure. 342 00:18:12,904 --> 00:18:13,565 It, it happened 343 00:18:13,565 --> 00:18:13,924 Matt Edmundson: for sure. 344 00:18:14,359 --> 00:18:14,540 Yeah. 345 00:18:14,540 --> 00:18:14,870 Yeah. 346 00:18:14,989 --> 00:18:16,069 Which is fascinating, isn't it? 347 00:18:16,069 --> 00:18:19,909 And so I think the lock lockdown changed a lot of the rules for a lot of people 348 00:18:19,909 --> 00:18:23,299 and Amazon included, and we're all sort of playing catch up still, even though I 349 00:18:23,299 --> 00:18:29,014 feel like we're through the other side of it, maybe now, um, so that's sort of, I 350 00:18:29,014 --> 00:18:33,335 mean, so logistics wise, if I'm selling on Amazon, I need to think about FBA. 351 00:18:33,335 --> 00:18:34,625 I need to think about prime. 352 00:18:34,625 --> 00:18:38,675 I need to get stuff into Amazon, but I need a solution which says actually 353 00:18:39,275 --> 00:18:43,415 be aware that this is not gonna be the ideal solution all of the time. 354 00:18:43,415 --> 00:18:44,824 You're not gonna be able to make that work. 355 00:18:44,824 --> 00:18:47,945 So you need a plan B to work alongside absolutely. 356 00:18:47,975 --> 00:18:49,775 Your plan a, is that what I'm hearing? 357 00:18:50,764 --> 00:18:52,025 Adam Shaffer: Absolutely positively. 358 00:18:52,025 --> 00:18:53,554 You should always have a plan B. 359 00:18:54,409 --> 00:18:59,480 Things happen along the way, and you might make that timing to Amazon, but 360 00:18:59,480 --> 00:19:04,969 they might misplace your product and it happens and you put a case in, and 361 00:19:04,969 --> 00:19:08,929 it, it could take a while for them to solve it or they just don't solve it. 362 00:19:09,139 --> 00:19:11,359 And then they'll reimburse you for the products that they lose. 363 00:19:11,364 --> 00:19:13,339 But what do you do during that three month period? 364 00:19:13,609 --> 00:19:13,909 Matt Edmundson: Yeah. 365 00:19:13,909 --> 00:19:14,779 Yeah, exactly. 366 00:19:15,020 --> 00:19:15,620 Exactly. 367 00:19:16,219 --> 00:19:22,850 Do you think, um, do you think the demands then from third party seller. 368 00:19:23,650 --> 00:19:27,800 Uh, so let's say I, you know, I, I have a brand, I, I sell supplements, 369 00:19:28,250 --> 00:19:29,719 um, and I decide to sell them on. 370 00:19:29,719 --> 00:19:33,550 Amazon are more and more people now trying to get on the Amazon platform. 371 00:19:34,159 --> 00:19:38,150 Um, and is that why it kind of feels like Amazon are tightening up all 372 00:19:38,150 --> 00:19:40,070 these sort of rules all over the place? 373 00:19:40,580 --> 00:19:42,889 Adam Shaffer: Well, I think the space rules are. 374 00:19:44,074 --> 00:19:47,764 People round up when they started, it was give us all your stuff. 375 00:19:47,945 --> 00:19:52,175 We wanna be your 3PL, we wanna be your, you know, your partner where you, 376 00:19:52,235 --> 00:19:55,655 you, you know, keep all your products because if we have your products, 377 00:19:55,655 --> 00:19:58,715 then you can't sell 'em under the channels and that's changed radically. 378 00:19:58,804 --> 00:20:02,165 So now they're send us what you, you know, what you're gonna sell. 379 00:20:02,165 --> 00:20:03,605 We want turn this a bit faster because. 380 00:20:04,114 --> 00:20:05,824 We have limited space. 381 00:20:06,005 --> 00:20:09,005 They over, they overbuilt space, believe it or not, but they're 382 00:20:09,005 --> 00:20:10,384 gonna cull that back down. 383 00:20:10,384 --> 00:20:11,795 They don't need all the space they built. 384 00:20:12,034 --> 00:20:13,654 They don't even have enough employees for that. 385 00:20:13,654 --> 00:20:17,554 So they're basically, you know, I think they, they, they built 13 extra 386 00:20:17,764 --> 00:20:22,775 humungo warehouses in the US that they're not gonna open and, uh, they 387 00:20:22,779 --> 00:20:24,654 don't have the people for it and right. 388 00:20:24,725 --> 00:20:25,895 They don't need that space. 389 00:20:26,045 --> 00:20:29,945 So they're trying to live within a more rational amount of space, 390 00:20:29,945 --> 00:20:31,905 which is still huge by any aspect. 391 00:20:31,905 --> 00:20:35,194 And they just are being very careful by how much you're allowed to put in 392 00:20:35,194 --> 00:20:39,124 there, because if you put stuff that doesn't sell and they can't get in 393 00:20:39,124 --> 00:20:40,834 other products itself, then they lose. 394 00:20:41,554 --> 00:20:45,754 And, and so it, it is just something that has to be measured 395 00:20:45,754 --> 00:20:47,495 on a daily, weekly basis. 396 00:20:47,674 --> 00:20:52,864 And you need to always be shifting product up to Amazon and don't run out of stock. 397 00:20:53,284 --> 00:20:55,024 You definitely don't wanna be overstocked. 398 00:20:55,024 --> 00:20:55,324 Right. 399 00:20:55,324 --> 00:20:58,824 You know, nobody wants to have too much inventory and not turning it enough. 400 00:20:58,824 --> 00:21:03,589 But if you work your heart out with all these competitors to get somewhere 401 00:21:03,589 --> 00:21:07,879 on the ranking that you know, the BSR to say, you're in the top 50 or the 402 00:21:07,884 --> 00:21:11,929 top hundred or the top 20, you don't wanna be out of stock on your product. 403 00:21:11,929 --> 00:21:13,370 And all of a sudden lose all that ground. 404 00:21:13,370 --> 00:21:17,629 You spent X dollars of advertising X dollars on your creative, and you've 405 00:21:17,629 --> 00:21:19,279 been making a great name for your brand. 406 00:21:19,279 --> 00:21:22,580 And all of a sudden you're gone because if it's not in stock, 407 00:21:22,580 --> 00:21:23,929 they can't sell it on Amazon. 408 00:21:24,439 --> 00:21:29,584 Um, to a, to a certain aspect they're starting to show some products 409 00:21:29,584 --> 00:21:32,824 that are on their way to Amazon as available to buy with far outputs. 410 00:21:33,185 --> 00:21:33,544 Okay. 411 00:21:33,605 --> 00:21:34,944 That's a fairly new concept. 412 00:21:35,214 --> 00:21:35,564 Yeah. 413 00:21:35,604 --> 00:21:37,504 You gotta sell it for the most part. 414 00:21:37,895 --> 00:21:38,284 Matt Edmundson: Yeah. 415 00:21:38,824 --> 00:21:40,145 Now it's a top tip actually. 416 00:21:40,145 --> 00:21:43,895 And inventory management or stock management becomes actually one of the 417 00:21:43,895 --> 00:21:48,154 crucial factors, doesn't it to long-term success on, on the Amazon platform. 418 00:21:49,475 --> 00:21:50,554 Adam Shaffer: Yes, for sure. 419 00:21:50,554 --> 00:21:53,774 And I think you mentioned somebody's name earlier that does the inventory 420 00:21:54,275 --> 00:21:56,404 um, has an inventory software program. 421 00:21:56,525 --> 00:21:58,264 Uh, Chelsea is that that's right. 422 00:21:58,264 --> 00:21:58,955 Chelsea Cohen. 423 00:21:58,955 --> 00:21:59,134 Yeah. 424 00:21:59,134 --> 00:21:59,645 Yeah, yeah. 425 00:21:59,804 --> 00:22:01,235 She, she, she has a great program. 426 00:22:01,295 --> 00:22:06,784 I mean, so she she's so focused on Amazon and she knows all the nits and, and her, 427 00:22:06,784 --> 00:22:08,525 her software really does address all this. 428 00:22:08,525 --> 00:22:10,955 So I do, I, we don't use it, but I'm a fan of them. 429 00:22:10,960 --> 00:22:14,674 I've looked at it a lot and it's only for, for internal reasons. 430 00:22:14,674 --> 00:22:16,034 We haven't adopted it, but we love it. 431 00:22:16,595 --> 00:22:16,875 Matt Edmundson: Sure. 432 00:22:16,945 --> 00:22:17,235 Nice. 433 00:22:17,255 --> 00:22:17,525 Great. 434 00:22:17,525 --> 00:22:20,945 Well, I'm sure Chelsea would love that little plug, um, 435 00:22:21,855 --> 00:22:22,014 Adam Shaffer: whatever. 436 00:22:23,945 --> 00:22:28,054 . Matt Edmundson: So back to your formula, uh, I dunno if you realized you gave 437 00:22:28,054 --> 00:22:31,625 me a formula, but I wrote it down as a formula, Adam, and, uh, basically 438 00:22:31,625 --> 00:22:35,645 it was this you've gotta be, uh, found then you've gotta be noticed, 439 00:22:35,645 --> 00:22:36,904 people have then gotta buy from. 440 00:22:37,520 --> 00:22:39,199 And then they're gonna leave a review. 441 00:22:39,199 --> 00:22:39,500 Right? 442 00:22:39,500 --> 00:22:41,839 These are sort of the key things that you kind of have to think about. 443 00:22:41,839 --> 00:22:43,699 And it's very clear journey in my head. 444 00:22:44,089 --> 00:22:46,549 And obviously we've talked about shipping and logistics 445 00:22:46,549 --> 00:22:47,569 and getting the product to them. 446 00:22:48,230 --> 00:22:52,040 Um, how do you get found on Amazon? 447 00:22:52,045 --> 00:22:57,560 Because if there are 2.3 million, third party sellers all competing for the same 448 00:22:58,279 --> 00:23:03,230 rankings, you know, Amazon feels more and more like its own search engine, uh, 449 00:23:03,259 --> 00:23:05,344 it's more and more taking the principles. 450 00:23:05,344 --> 00:23:09,514 It seems to me to be like, I've got to think about paid media on Amazon. 451 00:23:09,514 --> 00:23:12,304 It can't just be a case of I put it up and they come anymore. 452 00:23:12,904 --> 00:23:14,344 How do we, is that right? 453 00:23:14,344 --> 00:23:15,065 How do we get found? 454 00:23:15,065 --> 00:23:17,315 What are some of the strategies that we need to think about there? 455 00:23:18,275 --> 00:23:19,734 Adam Shaffer: Well, you know, you hit a bunch. 456 00:23:19,855 --> 00:23:21,995 I mean, it's not a freebie that's for sure. 457 00:23:22,475 --> 00:23:27,355 Um, you know, unless you have a brand that's offline, you know, off Amazon 458 00:23:27,935 --> 00:23:31,279 that everybody wants and they go to Amazon because they're shopping for it. 459 00:23:31,520 --> 00:23:34,520 And one day you appear, that's a different story. 460 00:23:34,549 --> 00:23:38,779 But if you are a, you know, a fairly new brand or new to Amazon and not 461 00:23:38,779 --> 00:23:42,290 everybody knows you, who you are, you gotta figure out how to get 462 00:23:42,290 --> 00:23:46,639 people, to find you and trust you enough so that they buy the product. 463 00:23:46,850 --> 00:23:50,089 Now they trust buying on Amazon they know they can return it, but do they wanna 464 00:23:50,089 --> 00:23:52,159 spend the time investing in your product? 465 00:23:52,489 --> 00:23:55,969 And then maybe it doesn't work for them and they have to return it. 466 00:23:55,969 --> 00:23:56,120 And we. 467 00:23:57,304 --> 00:23:59,794 Basically start with the content. 468 00:23:59,855 --> 00:24:03,904 And the content is you have a limited amount of real estate on Amazon to 469 00:24:03,904 --> 00:24:08,314 tell your story and you gotta tell a great story and you have to make sure 470 00:24:08,314 --> 00:24:13,504 that you answer and address as many potential questions that you're gonna get. 471 00:24:13,745 --> 00:24:18,455 So the first thing I would do is study everybody else in my category that's 472 00:24:18,455 --> 00:24:22,174 selling similar products and find out, Hey, what are they talking about? 473 00:24:22,174 --> 00:24:24,014 But what are the reviews that they're getting. 474 00:24:24,455 --> 00:24:27,605 And what are the complaints or the attaboys that they're 475 00:24:27,605 --> 00:24:28,714 getting for their products. 476 00:24:29,014 --> 00:24:32,404 And I would make sure that I'm incorporating that in my explanation, 477 00:24:32,404 --> 00:24:37,504 because if something doesn't work, when you do X, Y, or Z, 478 00:24:37,509 --> 00:24:39,935 let's say I'm gonna go to the UK 479 00:24:39,995 --> 00:24:44,734 and I need the thing that takes the power and steps it down from two 20 to one 10. 480 00:24:44,915 --> 00:24:46,774 So I don't blow up my hair dryer. 481 00:24:47,105 --> 00:24:51,214 Well, you could buy these things on Amazon and they're really important, but they 482 00:24:51,219 --> 00:24:55,654 don't work with every product and what I found is that the really good guys 483 00:24:55,654 --> 00:24:59,794 that are selling this on Amazon know, they put a big ax, although that sounds 484 00:25:00,514 --> 00:25:04,504 counterintuitive to marketing, but they say does not work with these things. 485 00:25:04,504 --> 00:25:08,134 Don't plug that air dryer in this, or you will have no air dryer. 486 00:25:08,464 --> 00:25:09,844 And that's cool. 487 00:25:09,875 --> 00:25:11,585 Like it's, it's not scary. 488 00:25:11,884 --> 00:25:15,455 It's preventing me from buying it, but if I bought it and I blew up my hair dryer, 489 00:25:15,665 --> 00:25:17,165 they're gonna get a horrible review. 490 00:25:17,614 --> 00:25:17,855 Exactly. 491 00:25:17,855 --> 00:25:21,304 So you gotta be really truthful and you gotta tell the story 492 00:25:21,304 --> 00:25:22,145 that people wanna hear. 493 00:25:22,264 --> 00:25:24,214 Does it work with this or does it not work? 494 00:25:24,694 --> 00:25:26,044 What does this work with? 495 00:25:26,254 --> 00:25:28,415 What is this gonna be good for? 496 00:25:28,685 --> 00:25:29,614 How does it work? 497 00:25:29,614 --> 00:25:30,784 How easy is it to. 498 00:25:31,344 --> 00:25:35,634 And the, the picture gallery and then the video you're not allowed. 499 00:25:35,634 --> 00:25:36,235 Just one video. 500 00:25:36,235 --> 00:25:39,295 You could put a couple of videos in there and tell a great story. 501 00:25:39,295 --> 00:25:43,315 So if you're not prepared to put a video about your product, say it's 502 00:25:43,315 --> 00:25:47,364 a networking product and maybe it's not just how great it is and how much 503 00:25:47,665 --> 00:25:49,105 bandwidth you're gonna get in your house 504 00:25:49,110 --> 00:25:51,594 but how easy is it for me to set up? 505 00:25:51,594 --> 00:25:55,134 Show me something that shows it's 1, 2, 3, because if it's beyond 506 00:25:55,134 --> 00:25:58,014 1, 2, 3, and I need to get an installer, then I wanna know that. 507 00:25:58,730 --> 00:26:04,400 And so you need to show these things in video, in words, in content. 508 00:26:04,580 --> 00:26:07,130 And there's plenty of space to provide this content. 509 00:26:07,340 --> 00:26:10,070 And you'll see that if you are shopping for something and there 510 00:26:10,070 --> 00:26:12,949 are several competitors, you definitely look at the pictures 511 00:26:12,955 --> 00:26:15,350 you look at the call outs, you look at the words, you look 512 00:26:15,355 --> 00:26:16,550 at what it doesn't doesn't do. 513 00:26:16,790 --> 00:26:18,170 And that's important. 514 00:26:18,170 --> 00:26:19,830 So start with your content. 515 00:26:20,359 --> 00:26:22,790 And that's the first and most important thing. 516 00:26:23,060 --> 00:26:27,319 The, the other is making sure you understand the keywords that people 517 00:26:27,319 --> 00:26:31,009 are gonna be looking for when they're looking for your kind of product. 518 00:26:31,310 --> 00:26:35,239 Now you might instinctively know what a bunch of them are, but you need to 519 00:26:35,239 --> 00:26:40,040 go take a look at what your competitors are doing and what they're spending 520 00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:44,029 their money on and what keywords they're using in their description of their 521 00:26:44,029 --> 00:26:48,529 products, so that they get found in the Amazon search engine and there's plenty 522 00:26:48,529 --> 00:26:52,880 of software, you know, like Helium 10 and Jungle Scout and others that go out 523 00:26:52,880 --> 00:26:55,310 there and they help you figure this out. 524 00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:58,759 And, um, it, I, I, you don't really need to be a rocket 525 00:26:58,764 --> 00:26:59,989 scientist to use the software. 526 00:26:59,989 --> 00:27:03,409 I mean, I used it and I'm definitely not a rocket scientist I figured it out. 527 00:27:03,679 --> 00:27:06,620 And, and so I think the common person figured out, but if not, 528 00:27:06,620 --> 00:27:09,839 there's places you can go to help you and where one place that would. 529 00:27:10,355 --> 00:27:12,094 But it's something that you need to know. 530 00:27:12,094 --> 00:27:12,695 You need to know. 531 00:27:12,695 --> 00:27:17,465 How do I organize the words to tell the story and use the right keywords so when 532 00:27:17,465 --> 00:27:22,534 people look me up, they find it and then there's the advertising and you can set 533 00:27:22,534 --> 00:27:26,045 these automated campaigns, or you can work with a company like ours or other 534 00:27:26,045 --> 00:27:30,545 ad agencies out there that can help create a, you know, a campaign for you. 535 00:27:30,545 --> 00:27:33,695 There's, you know, products, very product. 536 00:27:34,565 --> 00:27:35,585 Brand specific. 537 00:27:35,824 --> 00:27:36,545 It it's funny. 538 00:27:36,545 --> 00:27:39,094 I always go back to technology because I know it, the vast, 539 00:27:39,094 --> 00:27:42,215 because I grew up there, but you know, there's a brand called Epson. 540 00:27:42,215 --> 00:27:45,665 They make, they make, uh, a bunch of things printers and yeah, yeah. 541 00:27:45,725 --> 00:27:48,844 projectors, but they make, they make a label printer that, you know, you print, 542 00:27:49,054 --> 00:27:51,725 you go to somebody's store and you buy something and the receipt comes out. 543 00:27:51,725 --> 00:27:52,835 So like a receipt printer. 544 00:27:53,225 --> 00:27:59,404 And if the number one printer in the category, um, Breon Epson receipt printer, 545 00:27:59,764 --> 00:28:03,784 And five brands come out before you ever get to absence listing because Epsom's not 546 00:28:03,784 --> 00:28:08,074 spending any time thinking about Amazon, that way they're off somewhere else. 547 00:28:08,074 --> 00:28:12,154 And they're, they don't have really a solid Amazon strategy, but all these 548 00:28:12,154 --> 00:28:18,004 brands, brands you've never heard of, uh, are there using their keywords 549 00:28:18,094 --> 00:28:20,944 and they're using the words and it's the same, you know, you would do this 550 00:28:20,944 --> 00:28:24,544 on Google too, but people are doing it on Amazon and really getting to 551 00:28:24,549 --> 00:28:26,194 display their products well ahead. 552 00:28:26,705 --> 00:28:28,444 Um, so in, in addition to. 553 00:28:28,444 --> 00:28:32,284 brand and product there's videos that you do on Amazon. 554 00:28:32,554 --> 00:28:37,024 So when somebody punches in the search term on the results page, 555 00:28:37,174 --> 00:28:40,415 there's a cool little video in the middle of the page, and it's not like 556 00:28:40,415 --> 00:28:44,014 blaring, it's just movement and you could turn it on and listen to it, 557 00:28:44,014 --> 00:28:47,824 but it's not loud at the beginning, but it definitely catches your eye. 558 00:28:48,124 --> 00:28:51,784 And I always look at those because it's teaching me about the product 559 00:28:52,225 --> 00:28:55,759 and anything that's gonna show me how the product works or how it gets used. 560 00:28:55,940 --> 00:28:57,949 I want to know this, I wanna make sure I'm buying the right thing. 561 00:28:58,159 --> 00:29:03,889 So that video advertising has become high conversion rate and very important. 562 00:29:04,279 --> 00:29:09,290 But for new products, you also should be doing off Amazon advertising, 563 00:29:09,290 --> 00:29:12,919 which is not the highest conversion mm-hmm , but it's definitely important 564 00:29:12,919 --> 00:29:20,150 so I would still go back to Google and Yahoo my affiliates and I'd be 565 00:29:20,239 --> 00:29:25,219 advertising and pointing them to my, um, products on Amazon piece, outside 566 00:29:25,219 --> 00:29:27,710 traffic gets a benefit from Amazon. 567 00:29:27,859 --> 00:29:31,489 Amazon loves anybody that brings new traffic to their website. 568 00:29:31,489 --> 00:29:33,290 And you also get a discount these days, too. 569 00:29:33,290 --> 00:29:36,920 So Amazon will give you some money back or a discount off the advertising. 570 00:29:37,250 --> 00:29:39,199 Um, if you advertise offsite. 571 00:29:39,199 --> 00:29:42,290 So although the conversion's at is high, it's a bit more 572 00:29:42,290 --> 00:29:43,159 affordable than it used to be. 573 00:29:43,339 --> 00:29:44,420 Although nothing. 574 00:29:44,960 --> 00:29:45,830 Not affordable anymore. 575 00:29:46,100 --> 00:29:46,370 Yeah. 576 00:29:46,699 --> 00:29:47,560 Nothing stays the same. 577 00:29:48,110 --> 00:29:48,400 Yeah. 578 00:29:48,404 --> 00:29:48,860 Yeah, no. 579 00:29:48,920 --> 00:29:49,279 Right. 580 00:29:49,279 --> 00:29:51,320 And, and then, then there's social media. 581 00:29:51,320 --> 00:29:53,029 You gotta be in it, man. 582 00:29:53,029 --> 00:29:56,089 Like if you have a consumer product, You gotta go find a 583 00:29:56,089 --> 00:29:57,440 bunch of micro influencers. 584 00:29:57,440 --> 00:29:58,279 That's a lot of fun. 585 00:29:58,279 --> 00:29:59,569 That's new hard work. 586 00:29:59,600 --> 00:30:02,870 You gotta go find people to talk about your product and post your product. 587 00:30:02,900 --> 00:30:05,690 You need to get viral, even if you're not gonna get viral, you 588 00:30:05,690 --> 00:30:07,100 need to have your product seen. 589 00:30:07,100 --> 00:30:11,089 So when people search for it, whether it's on Amazon or on Google, something 590 00:30:11,089 --> 00:30:13,850 shows up and that's very important. 591 00:30:13,850 --> 00:30:17,239 So it's not super expensive, but it's another thing. 592 00:30:17,299 --> 00:30:18,139 If you're new in the BI. 593 00:30:18,874 --> 00:30:21,574 Or even if you've been in the eCommerce business, you might 594 00:30:21,574 --> 00:30:22,745 not be doing some of this stuff. 595 00:30:22,745 --> 00:30:25,324 Maybe you are, but it's really important on Amazon. 596 00:30:25,714 --> 00:30:29,705 And so you gotta be good at all this because the others are good at 597 00:30:29,705 --> 00:30:32,884 all this, some aren't, but the best of the best are good at all this. 598 00:30:33,755 --> 00:30:36,065 Matt Edmundson: It sounds like Adam, the way you're talking. 599 00:30:36,065 --> 00:30:38,705 I'm I'm listening to talking and you've gotta have great content. 600 00:30:38,705 --> 00:30:41,555 You've gotta think about the journey, the customer story, you know, the 601 00:30:41,555 --> 00:30:45,184 questions that they're asking, you've gotta think about paid media. 602 00:30:45,184 --> 00:30:46,865 You've gotta think about social media. 603 00:30:46,865 --> 00:30:52,564 You've gotta, this is all stuff you've got to think about for eCommerce anyway. 604 00:30:53,090 --> 00:30:53,479 Right. 605 00:30:53,479 --> 00:31:00,229 So the Amazon platform, I think, has been a bit kind of, um, uh, it's kind of had 606 00:31:00,229 --> 00:31:01,579 the, uh, what's the word I'm looking for? 607 00:31:01,584 --> 00:31:04,220 The, the sort of the, the black hole reputation. 608 00:31:04,220 --> 00:31:05,809 It's like, we, we don't get Amazon. 609 00:31:05,809 --> 00:31:07,039 We don't understand it. 610 00:31:07,370 --> 00:31:10,519 It's complex, but it sounds like the principles aren't too 611 00:31:10,519 --> 00:31:12,090 dissimilar from general ecommerce. 612 00:31:12,110 --> 00:31:15,140 Anyway, the same sort of things you have to think about here. 613 00:31:15,439 --> 00:31:17,300 You've gotta think about for Amazon, right? 614 00:31:17,300 --> 00:31:18,260 Adam Shaffer: AB absolutely. 615 00:31:18,260 --> 00:31:19,760 I think, I think it's a good discipl. 616 00:31:20,510 --> 00:31:24,979 If you're in the Google, you know, doing Google PPC and you're doing Facebook 617 00:31:24,979 --> 00:31:30,140 and, and, you know, paid, paid social to bring that discipline to Amazon because 618 00:31:30,350 --> 00:31:34,970 it's, it is the same principles, but it's in their machine using their tools. 619 00:31:35,269 --> 00:31:37,610 And some of the tools aren't as sophisticated as you'd 620 00:31:37,610 --> 00:31:38,780 find out in the Google world. 621 00:31:39,110 --> 00:31:42,050 And, and so you have to interpret some of this stuff, some tools that 622 00:31:42,050 --> 00:31:43,729 are out there to help you, but. 623 00:31:45,110 --> 00:31:46,610 It's still evolving. 624 00:31:46,760 --> 00:31:47,809 It's evolving quickly. 625 00:31:48,079 --> 00:31:50,689 And it's the fastest part of Amazon's growth is your advertising. 626 00:31:51,229 --> 00:31:54,409 And so where you used to be able to just go on and have great content, you 627 00:31:54,409 --> 00:31:55,970 gotta go on and spend some money now. 628 00:31:56,240 --> 00:32:01,249 And you know, if, if you wanna be at 8% of sales or 10% of sales, 629 00:32:01,254 --> 00:32:04,309 when you're launching a product, you're gonna be at 50, 60, 70% of 630 00:32:04,309 --> 00:32:05,689 sales, maybe more at the beginning. 631 00:32:05,869 --> 00:32:07,999 And when you're using micro influencers, you gotta give them 632 00:32:07,999 --> 00:32:09,769 product so they could review it. 633 00:32:09,769 --> 00:32:11,180 And you know, that's another cost. 634 00:32:11,419 --> 00:32:16,084 So you gotta invest if you're not gonna invest and you might not want to do 635 00:32:16,084 --> 00:32:22,175 it, but I do think that having your own Shopify site, um, or your own, I 636 00:32:22,175 --> 00:32:23,825 don't wanna say just Shopify in general. 637 00:32:26,615 --> 00:32:31,445 Uh, but your, your own, um, direct to consumer website is 638 00:32:31,445 --> 00:32:35,314 important because I might not wanna put all my products on Amazon. 639 00:32:35,314 --> 00:32:39,739 I might wanna have an assortment of my products on Amazon and then have some 640 00:32:39,739 --> 00:32:44,599 of the more complicated or interesting or harder to get stuff on my own site. 641 00:32:44,599 --> 00:32:47,929 And I do think that although Amazon would frown on it, I 642 00:32:47,934 --> 00:32:51,499 think that there's definitely spillover from Amazon to your site. 643 00:32:51,499 --> 00:32:55,340 So where people are afraid, oh, Amazon's gonna kill my direct to consumer business. 644 00:32:56,030 --> 00:33:00,769 I think that there's so much traffic on Amazon, people are gonna, if 645 00:33:00,769 --> 00:33:03,349 they like the brand, they're gonna wanna learn more about the brand. 646 00:33:03,349 --> 00:33:06,739 They're gonna wanna learn more about the brand by going to the brand's website. 647 00:33:06,979 --> 00:33:11,300 And the brand's website should have so much more and better 648 00:33:11,304 --> 00:33:14,059 content and the company story and what the company cares about. 649 00:33:14,239 --> 00:33:14,439 And. 650 00:33:14,639 --> 00:33:16,979 All the things that consumers think about on their side. 651 00:33:17,129 --> 00:33:20,309 So I think that this is a compliment and can help your direct consumer. 652 00:33:20,550 --> 00:33:23,579 I think there's so many who say, oh man, it's gonna kill my direct consumer. 653 00:33:24,059 --> 00:33:24,869 But I think not. 654 00:33:24,869 --> 00:33:28,530 I think that as long as you can control your pricing and make sure that there's 655 00:33:28,534 --> 00:33:32,429 not a bunch of other sellers lowering your price of the ground and you have 656 00:33:32,434 --> 00:33:36,449 fair pricing on both, it might say fair, consistent pricing with both. 657 00:33:36,869 --> 00:33:38,369 You're gonna wind up getting huge leak. 658 00:33:39,590 --> 00:33:40,430 Matt Edmundson: That's interesting. 659 00:33:40,760 --> 00:33:45,769 It's an interesting idea where you talk about, um, uh, selling stuff on Amazon. 660 00:33:45,769 --> 00:33:48,019 That's not on your website or selling stuff on your website. 661 00:33:48,019 --> 00:33:49,640 That's not on Amazon to create this cross. 662 00:33:49,640 --> 00:33:50,129 You need 663 00:33:50,129 --> 00:33:50,899 Adam Shaffer: to not be able to do that. 664 00:33:50,899 --> 00:33:53,990 There was a rule that Amazon said is you had to be in parity 665 00:33:54,050 --> 00:33:57,680 with your, your consumer website and that that rule is gone. 666 00:33:57,684 --> 00:33:58,789 Since that rule's gone. 667 00:33:59,209 --> 00:34:03,680 I see many brands that have a full assortment, some of the 668 00:34:03,680 --> 00:34:07,110 harder to get stuff, odd, lot stuff, specialty stuff on theirs. 669 00:34:07,519 --> 00:34:10,909 And they have the standard fair on Amazon. 670 00:34:11,840 --> 00:34:13,639 That's you know, if you're in fast fashion, you might 671 00:34:13,639 --> 00:34:14,929 not want it to be on Amazon. 672 00:34:14,929 --> 00:34:18,260 You might want it to be here's my 15 or 20 core skews. 673 00:34:18,529 --> 00:34:21,170 And then I have my 70 or a hundred skews on my site. 674 00:34:21,590 --> 00:34:25,279 And you know, if something becomes a core skew, I put it on Amazon. 675 00:34:25,760 --> 00:34:25,849 Yeah. 676 00:34:25,854 --> 00:34:29,059 If something is old and I wanna move it through, maybe I put it on Amazon, 677 00:34:29,510 --> 00:34:32,899 but there there's like a, um, oh, what's the name of this company? 678 00:34:32,899 --> 00:34:34,130 They it's called specs. 679 00:34:34,130 --> 00:34:35,620 I wish we sold it, but specs. 680 00:34:36,005 --> 00:34:40,534 Um, they make these fidget toys and you say what's a fidget toy, like kids, 681 00:34:40,534 --> 00:34:44,375 adults play with them in their hands, their magnets, their little balls mm-hmm 682 00:34:44,614 --> 00:34:47,375 . And we saw this and my kids wanted it. 683 00:34:47,375 --> 00:34:48,574 Like, I gotta have this thing. 684 00:34:48,995 --> 00:34:51,934 And I go to Amazon and they don't have the one that they want. 685 00:34:51,995 --> 00:34:55,324 The one that they want's on the spec site only they, you know, Amazon has 686 00:34:55,324 --> 00:34:58,714 the assortment, but not the cool one that the kids want that's really on. 687 00:34:58,714 --> 00:34:59,194 Right, right. 688 00:34:59,615 --> 00:35:04,115 And obviously a strategy that they didn't want it on Amazon maybe next year will 689 00:35:04,115 --> 00:35:05,674 be on Amazon, but not the first year. 690 00:35:06,964 --> 00:35:09,634 that's really, and I'm not saying that works for everything, but that, that's 691 00:35:09,634 --> 00:35:13,804 an interesting concept for these people that want major distribution, but 692 00:35:13,809 --> 00:35:16,144 don't also wanna over distribute new. 693 00:35:16,234 --> 00:35:16,524 Matt Edmundson: Yeah. 694 00:35:16,529 --> 00:35:16,625 Yeah. 695 00:35:16,654 --> 00:35:20,615 You know, it's something to test, isn't it, it's something to go actually, it 696 00:35:20,615 --> 00:35:22,684 doesn't have to be this straightforward. 697 00:35:23,194 --> 00:35:24,335 Everything has to be on Amazon. 698 00:35:24,335 --> 00:35:25,894 There's things that we can test here. 699 00:35:26,314 --> 00:35:30,094 Um, what works for Amazon, what works for our website and let's make that work. 700 00:35:30,785 --> 00:35:33,354 Um, one of the things that you mentioned which 701 00:35:33,955 --> 00:35:38,705 I was fascinated by, is this idea of using say Google ads or Facebook ads 702 00:35:38,705 --> 00:35:43,955 to send traffic to your Amazon page versus sending it to your Shopify site 703 00:35:43,955 --> 00:35:46,234 or whatever eCommerce platform you use. 704 00:35:46,745 --> 00:35:50,104 Um, why would I at first glance, Adam? 705 00:35:50,224 --> 00:35:54,665 Uh I'm and I'm just playing sort of the crazy advocate here in one sense. 706 00:35:54,904 --> 00:35:58,144 At first glance, if I'm gonna send someone who's ready to buy. 707 00:35:59,210 --> 00:36:02,450 I'm surely gonna want them to go to my website versus Amazon cause 708 00:36:02,450 --> 00:36:07,069 my margin is greater over here or, or is there other stuff here that I 709 00:36:07,069 --> 00:36:07,580 Adam Shaffer: need to think? 710 00:36:07,580 --> 00:36:09,139 There's there's there's other stuff. 711 00:36:09,139 --> 00:36:12,319 So, so with Google and I shouldn't say Google, but I think it's with 712 00:36:12,319 --> 00:36:16,670 most advertising off Amazon, Amazon will give you eight or 10% back. 713 00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:18,920 So you're gonna get a, you're gonna get a rebate. 714 00:36:18,950 --> 00:36:20,389 So you think about it. 715 00:36:20,389 --> 00:36:25,160 You're probably paying Amazon a commission of at the lowest eight at the highest. 716 00:36:25,429 --> 00:36:28,370 I think it's over 20, but let's say on average, it's 15 to 17. 717 00:36:28,729 --> 00:36:31,879 So you're gonna pay them a commission you're going to, and that's where 718 00:36:31,879 --> 00:36:34,460 you lose the margin that you would've gotten on your traffic 719 00:36:34,460 --> 00:36:36,169 file, your direct consumer site. 720 00:36:36,169 --> 00:36:39,200 So it's like, why would I want to give it to them when I could get it? 721 00:36:39,200 --> 00:36:41,509 And I own the customer by the way, where they own the 722 00:36:41,509 --> 00:36:42,469 customer when it goes to them. 723 00:36:42,469 --> 00:36:47,419 Mm-hmm . But I, I think when you have a new product on Amazon, you 724 00:36:47,419 --> 00:36:49,939 need to get traffic to that product. 725 00:36:50,089 --> 00:36:52,509 And anything you could do to get that traffic to the product 726 00:36:53,019 --> 00:36:56,359 at at the beginning, it's a huge help because the relevance that 727 00:36:56,359 --> 00:36:59,840 Amazon will give it will be based on the traffic and the conversion. 728 00:37:00,170 --> 00:37:05,960 So you wanna get traffic any way you can to that page on Amazon mm-hmm you 729 00:37:05,965 --> 00:37:09,740 might cut that Google out later, put it back to your side, but at the beginning 730 00:37:10,009 --> 00:37:11,899 I would push it on Amazon a bit. 731 00:37:12,290 --> 00:37:15,590 And you could, so, you know, you could still see what the diversions 732 00:37:15,590 --> 00:37:16,939 are from your Google analytics. 733 00:37:17,179 --> 00:37:21,979 I, I think it's definitely worth, um, doing launching or getting new skews. 734 00:37:22,955 --> 00:37:23,615 Matt Edmundson: That's interesting. 735 00:37:24,245 --> 00:37:25,594 And you could split test it as well. 736 00:37:25,594 --> 00:37:28,354 I guess the, the deeper you go down the line, it's like I'll 737 00:37:28,354 --> 00:37:31,234 spend a thousand books on Google ads and I can see on Amazon, it 738 00:37:31,234 --> 00:37:32,795 generates me two grand in sales. 739 00:37:32,795 --> 00:37:36,274 And if I spend a grand over here, it generates me to, and a bit grand 740 00:37:36,274 --> 00:37:39,424 in and I can change and I can test that and see what's working for 741 00:37:39,429 --> 00:37:40,594 different products at different times 742 00:37:40,599 --> 00:37:41,104 Adam Shaffer: of the season. 743 00:37:41,104 --> 00:37:43,325 What's interesting is think about the convenience level. 744 00:37:43,325 --> 00:37:45,844 So say is my conversion read on Amazon? 745 00:37:46,685 --> 00:37:47,765 20 times is good. 746 00:37:47,765 --> 00:37:49,955 You know, is it 20% better than on my own site? 747 00:37:50,135 --> 00:37:53,675 When they come to my site, maybe they haven't bought from me yet before. 748 00:37:53,944 --> 00:37:55,234 So maybe they're brand new. 749 00:37:55,295 --> 00:37:56,825 Now they gotta set up an account. 750 00:37:57,035 --> 00:37:59,154 Maybe they don't wanna, of course, there's probably a quick guest. 751 00:37:59,170 --> 00:37:59,705 Checkout. 752 00:38:00,064 --> 00:38:03,484 Do you have all the different pay methods that they want or they 753 00:38:03,484 --> 00:38:05,375 have their Amazon system set up. 754 00:38:05,375 --> 00:38:08,104 They click the button, they have their addresses in there already. 755 00:38:08,375 --> 00:38:11,585 You know, maybe they have the affirm going where they can pay monthly. 756 00:38:12,170 --> 00:38:14,870 But they have their Amazon cards, their Amazon account. 757 00:38:15,319 --> 00:38:16,160 It's so much easier. 758 00:38:16,189 --> 00:38:18,830 That's why pay, you know, pay with Amazon is a payment method you 759 00:38:18,830 --> 00:38:22,550 see on other sites because how many people are set up on Amazon? 760 00:38:22,550 --> 00:38:24,200 Like, you know, the majority of the universe. 761 00:38:24,200 --> 00:38:29,720 So maybe the US it is, but in England, I'm sure plenty of people have, but in, 762 00:38:29,720 --> 00:38:31,550 but in the US It's like most people do. 763 00:38:31,790 --> 00:38:34,250 So is it, is it gonna be that much easier? 764 00:38:34,250 --> 00:38:35,330 They trust Amazon. 765 00:38:35,450 --> 00:38:37,760 They know they can return it to Amazon, either set up there. 766 00:38:37,910 --> 00:38:39,889 Boom, I'm gonna have a higher conversion rate. 767 00:38:40,700 --> 00:38:42,019 I gotta go with these new guys. 768 00:38:42,019 --> 00:38:45,559 Now, there are plenty of new Shopify sites that I've been going to that I'm 769 00:38:45,559 --> 00:38:50,929 like, oh man, I wish I could just buy from Amazon, this press button, you know, 770 00:38:51,019 --> 00:38:54,019 and then, and then sometimes they're like, okay, you could get it in two 771 00:38:54,019 --> 00:38:56,389 days, but you do have to pay a lot more. 772 00:38:56,389 --> 00:39:01,040 Sometimes you'll get it in two days, but they take three days to ship it. 773 00:39:01,429 --> 00:39:04,729 And, and so with Amazon, it's kind of a known quantity. 774 00:39:04,790 --> 00:39:08,569 So I'm not saying you shouldn't wanna build your own site cuz you want those 775 00:39:08,569 --> 00:39:10,160 customers, you wanna own the customers. 776 00:39:10,309 --> 00:39:12,679 You want the relationship with the customers, but if you want to 777 00:39:12,679 --> 00:39:16,460 crank up a new skew, I, I would push it to Amazon and get it going. 778 00:39:17,120 --> 00:39:19,519 Matt Edmundson: That's top advice, top tip right there. 779 00:39:19,849 --> 00:39:23,599 What, um, what products do you think sell quickly on Amazon? 780 00:39:23,750 --> 00:39:27,529 Is there, are there some trends or is, is it a case of just saying every product. 781 00:39:28,430 --> 00:39:31,550 Adam Shaffer: I mean, it's, it's crazy because we look at all these sub sub 782 00:39:31,550 --> 00:39:35,090 sub sub subcategories, because it's really getting into the minutia to 783 00:39:35,090 --> 00:39:40,430 find out what sells because to be a top, top 25 on the BSR, it's, it's 784 00:39:40,430 --> 00:39:46,850 huge volume, but we, we sell, we, we sell replacement fingernail glue. 785 00:39:47,180 --> 00:39:50,809 Now, I don't know if you use it and I don't use it and my kids better 786 00:39:50,809 --> 00:39:54,620 not use it, but kids and, and, and. 787 00:39:55,535 --> 00:39:59,684 They, they have, uh, fake fingernails and they glue the fingernail, onto 788 00:39:59,705 --> 00:40:03,755 their finger, and we sell a two pack of glue that we probably sell 789 00:40:04,535 --> 00:40:10,204 10,000 a month, 10,000 a month at, you know, $5 and 99 cents. 790 00:40:10,205 --> 00:40:14,164 So selling things for 5.99 is not a lot of last because Amazon gets there 791 00:40:14,614 --> 00:40:17,254 15%, then you gotta ship it to Amazon. 792 00:40:17,284 --> 00:40:20,224 First, we gotta packet with the label on, get it up to Amazon. 793 00:40:20,914 --> 00:40:23,854 and then thank God it's in the small and light program. 794 00:40:23,854 --> 00:40:27,154 So the freight's a little bit cheaper, but you're talking, you know, you 795 00:40:27,154 --> 00:40:31,384 still gotta pay 2, 2.75 for shipping mm-hmm so, so how much is it? 796 00:40:31,384 --> 00:40:33,604 So we make a pop 30, right? 797 00:40:33,609 --> 00:40:35,044 So thank God we make a dollar 30. 798 00:40:35,224 --> 00:40:38,014 If you sell one or two a month, not a lot of funding. 799 00:40:38,164 --> 00:40:43,324 So 20,000, not bad, 10,000, you make some, you know, decent, 800 00:40:43,594 --> 00:40:44,494 gross market for the month. 801 00:40:44,494 --> 00:40:47,764 Mm-hmm so that's a, you know, that's in a, such an odd. 802 00:40:48,680 --> 00:40:49,850 But you name it. 803 00:40:49,850 --> 00:40:53,839 Like we sell files that you, you clip your fingernails with 804 00:40:53,839 --> 00:40:55,490 like, um, it's called trim. 805 00:40:55,970 --> 00:41:02,660 You clip your toenails, your fingernails 3, 4, 5.99 again, and sells like hotcakes. 806 00:41:03,169 --> 00:41:07,700 Uh, but what I, I would recommend is anything that is something you need to 807 00:41:07,700 --> 00:41:09,589 replace or need to add something to. 808 00:41:10,069 --> 00:41:11,299 What's a very big seller. 809 00:41:11,299 --> 00:41:14,419 That's not one of these little $5 AKIs would be. 810 00:41:15,859 --> 00:41:16,609 Air filters. 811 00:41:16,849 --> 00:41:20,450 We, we aren't selling them, but there's a, a breadth of different 812 00:41:20,450 --> 00:41:21,439 brands they're selling them. 813 00:41:21,740 --> 00:41:24,289 And they're cool because you're selling this piece of hardware. 814 00:41:24,439 --> 00:41:27,619 Maybe it's a hundred, 200, $300 depending on the size. 815 00:41:28,009 --> 00:41:31,069 But once every three months you gotta replace the filter, 816 00:41:31,069 --> 00:41:32,329 which is another 50 bucks. 817 00:41:32,809 --> 00:41:36,499 And, you know, most people replace a filter when the light comes 818 00:41:36,499 --> 00:41:39,379 on because they don't wanna have that horrible air in their house. 819 00:41:39,379 --> 00:41:41,180 So that's a pretty cool idea. 820 00:41:41,180 --> 00:41:47,104 Anything that is that you need to replace like batteries or, you 821 00:41:47,104 --> 00:41:50,344 know, food, although we don't do food, but it's a little complicated, 822 00:41:50,344 --> 00:41:53,374 especially if it's like something needs cold storage, but you know, 823 00:41:53,374 --> 00:41:55,024 food obviously is a pretty big thing. 824 00:41:55,564 --> 00:41:59,704 Things like toothpaste that people are using over and over again, if 825 00:41:59,709 --> 00:42:04,804 you can get into those categories, um, you know, people need it. 826 00:42:04,804 --> 00:42:06,394 It's not like you can sell one and done. 827 00:42:06,604 --> 00:42:10,264 You're gonna sell one every week or every month or every, you know, two months. 828 00:42:10,894 --> 00:42:13,084 And so the subscription business is a big deal. 829 00:42:14,284 --> 00:42:16,054 Matt Edmundson: That's a really interesting, I mean, we've had a couple 830 00:42:16,054 --> 00:42:22,744 of guests on recently talking about subscription models and, um, and it, and 831 00:42:22,744 --> 00:42:26,104 Amazon, again, seemed to have pioneered the way in this, the whole subscribe 832 00:42:26,104 --> 00:42:29,554 and save, you know, get it, get 5% off or whatever it is, you know, and you, 833 00:42:29,554 --> 00:42:31,324 and we'll send it to you on autopilot. 834 00:42:31,954 --> 00:42:34,804 Um, do a lot of people use that feature on Amazon. 835 00:42:36,124 --> 00:42:42,664 Adam Shaffer: They, they do because you save money from it, but then there's 60% 836 00:42:42,664 --> 00:42:46,114 or 70% that don't press the subscribe, but they still buy it off in anyway, 837 00:42:46,384 --> 00:42:48,694 thinking, oh, I'll never do it again. 838 00:42:48,964 --> 00:42:50,074 And I'll never do it again. 839 00:42:50,079 --> 00:42:51,904 And they press it and they buy it. 840 00:42:51,964 --> 00:42:55,744 I'm one of those guys, but I so many subscriptions, I can't figure out where 841 00:42:55,744 --> 00:42:58,834 they all are and record I have, and they're hitting everything all the time. 842 00:42:59,134 --> 00:43:01,174 And so I'll just buy it. 843 00:43:01,564 --> 00:43:02,194 I'll just buy it. 844 00:43:02,194 --> 00:43:04,714 And then Amazon will say, you bought this 14 times already. 845 00:43:04,714 --> 00:43:05,494 You should really say it. 846 00:43:05,494 --> 00:43:06,364 You should really save money. 847 00:43:06,364 --> 00:43:06,694 Yeah. 848 00:43:06,784 --> 00:43:07,294 And put it on a. 849 00:43:07,774 --> 00:43:07,834 Yeah. 850 00:43:08,254 --> 00:43:10,924 So, you know, I think they're great if you're gonna use it, 851 00:43:11,075 --> 00:43:14,674 think about coffee, we buy, I don't know what kind of coffee you use. 852 00:43:14,674 --> 00:43:19,234 I maybe you use tea there, but I think that's a big deal, but I do 853 00:43:19,234 --> 00:43:21,664 know Brits started drinking coffee when they put Starbucks there. 854 00:43:21,994 --> 00:43:22,084 Yeah. 855 00:43:22,084 --> 00:43:26,274 So, you know, coffee, coffee, beans, people buy, they have the grinder 856 00:43:26,274 --> 00:43:27,454 that grinds up makes the coffee. 857 00:43:27,454 --> 00:43:27,904 It's great. 858 00:43:29,285 --> 00:43:29,944 How much of it? 859 00:43:30,124 --> 00:43:31,684 You probably use a bag a month. 860 00:43:31,805 --> 00:43:34,325 And so that is like off the charts. 861 00:43:34,325 --> 00:43:36,544 Go to Amazon, look for coffee beans. 862 00:43:36,754 --> 00:43:42,499 And they have all local, you know, kind of beam and foreign beans and hub up. 863 00:43:42,619 --> 00:43:43,459 They're all subscription. 864 00:43:44,029 --> 00:43:44,299 Yeah, 865 00:43:44,659 --> 00:43:46,909 Matt Edmundson: no, it's just listen, Adam. 866 00:43:46,909 --> 00:43:53,059 I, I feel like we're just getting started, bud, uh, so many questions on, on how to 867 00:43:53,064 --> 00:43:56,240 do Amazon, but I'm aware of time and, uh, 868 00:43:56,240 --> 00:43:58,339 Adam Shaffer: well, I, I think, I think the big picture 869 00:43:58,339 --> 00:44:00,109 message is that it's awesome. 870 00:44:00,109 --> 00:44:02,060 Like, so Amazon friend of foe? 871 00:44:02,060 --> 00:44:03,409 You go back to your question you asked it. 872 00:44:04,264 --> 00:44:07,744 They're my friend, because who in the world could have created 873 00:44:07,744 --> 00:44:11,464 this platform that you can go and create your own business. 874 00:44:11,464 --> 00:44:15,844 Like you used to have to go down to some strip mall and rent a store and 875 00:44:15,934 --> 00:44:19,204 put all this money up and pile this inventory and hope people come to 876 00:44:19,204 --> 00:44:22,654 your store to advertise on the local papers and do all this crazy stuff. 877 00:44:22,654 --> 00:44:24,814 Now, the traffic's there. 878 00:44:25,234 --> 00:44:28,834 If you wanna create your own brand, the platform is there for 879 00:44:28,839 --> 00:44:30,814 you to go, go make it happen. 880 00:44:31,819 --> 00:44:32,509 I'm excited. 881 00:44:32,509 --> 00:44:35,990 Like if, if this was around, when I was first getting into the biz, 882 00:44:36,169 --> 00:44:37,159 I would've been all over this. 883 00:44:37,159 --> 00:44:40,069 We had to create our own customer base customer base. 884 00:44:40,069 --> 00:44:43,279 Is there now we just gotta figure how to stand out, not easy, but 885 00:44:43,279 --> 00:44:44,659 it's definitely a head start. 886 00:44:44,664 --> 00:44:45,559 The traffic is there. 887 00:44:45,889 --> 00:44:48,740 So, you know, you could fail all your on your own, but you can't say 888 00:44:48,744 --> 00:44:49,700 it's because the people aren't there. 889 00:44:49,700 --> 00:44:53,089 Mm-hmm , uh, you, you, you got the, you know, you got the best store and the 890 00:44:53,089 --> 00:44:57,439 best block with the best amount of people trafficking, you just gotta be found. 891 00:44:57,439 --> 00:45:00,919 So I think that they're, they, they give everybody a huge opportunity.. 892 00:45:01,069 --> 00:45:06,470 And think for, you know, the entrepreneurs 2.5 million, 3PL stores. 893 00:45:06,680 --> 00:45:09,709 Many of them have their own brands and invented their own stuff. 894 00:45:10,009 --> 00:45:13,609 And most of them just need a little help because they can't do it all. 895 00:45:13,615 --> 00:45:17,240 They're small mom and pops, or even if they're bigger than that, it's hard 896 00:45:17,240 --> 00:45:21,229 to scale in this business and we help the smaller brands scale and we help 897 00:45:21,229 --> 00:45:24,680 the bigger brands protect and preserve their brand and grow their brand. 898 00:45:24,830 --> 00:45:27,589 So they don't destroy a brand that's been around for a long. 899 00:45:28,294 --> 00:45:30,874 And get their, you know, their loyal base, angry at them. 900 00:45:31,204 --> 00:45:34,624 So, you know, on both sides of the coin, there's so much opportunity. 901 00:45:34,624 --> 00:45:38,524 And for small businesses, shoot, I mean, like you're, you're doing something, it 902 00:45:38,524 --> 00:45:40,024 sounds like on Amazon with supplements. 903 00:45:40,024 --> 00:45:43,564 I mean it's or maybe not on Amazon yet, you're doing it on your own, right? 904 00:45:43,954 --> 00:45:47,794 I, I think that if, if I could do it again, I would've come up with 905 00:45:47,794 --> 00:45:49,914 three or four different brands and I would've been all over the stuff. 906 00:45:50,299 --> 00:45:54,499 And you know, now, thank God we're helping these brands, as I grew up selling 907 00:45:54,529 --> 00:45:56,209 and working with brands all my life. 908 00:45:56,269 --> 00:46:00,649 And this is a great way of continuing that journey with helping brands not get 909 00:46:00,649 --> 00:46:03,394 caught in the, uh, the, the rabbit hole. 910 00:46:03,394 --> 00:46:03,716 Mm, 911 00:46:03,716 --> 00:46:06,079 Matt Edmundson: no, it's it's I, I mean, yes. 912 00:46:06,139 --> 00:46:09,919 Uh, we, uh, it's just worth being, I'm totally honest with people. 913 00:46:09,919 --> 00:46:13,549 We do sell supplements on our website and we sell them on, or we 914 00:46:13,549 --> 00:46:15,529 are starting to sell them on Amazon. 915 00:46:16,069 --> 00:46:20,749 Uh, and we made the decision when we were gonna sell on Amazon that we needed help. 916 00:46:20,869 --> 00:46:23,329 Uh, because you know, we knew eCommerce. 917 00:46:23,509 --> 00:46:25,909 We knew the principles of Amazon, but we did need some help. 918 00:46:25,909 --> 00:46:26,059 And. 919 00:46:26,934 --> 00:46:30,504 Um, I think, I think that's a fair comment and, uh, just reaching out to 920 00:46:30,504 --> 00:46:34,254 people that can help you saves you so much pain and heartache, uh, in the 921 00:46:34,254 --> 00:46:38,484 long run is my, uh, my experience here. 922 00:46:38,994 --> 00:46:40,774 Um, Adam. 923 00:46:40,954 --> 00:46:41,254 Right. 924 00:46:41,254 --> 00:46:44,884 As you know, this show is sponsored by the eCommerce cohort, which 925 00:46:44,884 --> 00:46:48,724 is all about coaching and peer mentoring to deliver eCommerce. 926 00:46:48,724 --> 00:46:50,794 Well, so I want you to imagine, right. 927 00:46:50,794 --> 00:46:56,584 You're stood in a room full of the cohort, and you've just done your, you 928 00:46:56,584 --> 00:46:59,644 know, your presentation, how to decide if Amazon's right for your business. 929 00:46:59,644 --> 00:47:01,264 And I think we probably have. 930 00:47:02,204 --> 00:47:06,314 The Crowd is going wild and you get a minute to thank those folks that 931 00:47:06,314 --> 00:47:08,324 have had a big impact on your life. 932 00:47:08,324 --> 00:47:12,704 You know, family mentors, author, software podcasts, the list can 933 00:47:12,704 --> 00:47:15,044 be endless, who is on your list? 934 00:47:15,044 --> 00:47:17,204 Who are you thanking and why? 935 00:47:18,194 --> 00:47:19,994 Adam Shaffer: Oh my God, there's one person. 936 00:47:20,924 --> 00:47:22,274 His name is Peter Godfrey. 937 00:47:22,274 --> 00:47:23,624 He's a Brit former Brit. 938 00:47:23,624 --> 00:47:23,654 Okay. 939 00:47:23,744 --> 00:47:25,454 Uh, American citizen these days. 940 00:47:25,844 --> 00:47:30,944 And you know, he was the real true pioneer of direct marketing. 941 00:47:30,944 --> 00:47:34,099 He was one of original Columbia records and tapes. 942 00:47:34,459 --> 00:47:40,189 Uh, folks, he, he, there was a, a series called part works in the, in 943 00:47:40,189 --> 00:47:43,369 the UK where they would create these magazines that was sold in newsstand. 944 00:47:43,549 --> 00:47:45,259 And it was a series that went off a while. 945 00:47:45,289 --> 00:47:50,569 He was the king of that in, in the UK, you know, back in the seventies mm-hmm and, 946 00:47:50,569 --> 00:47:57,769 um, he and a partner created a, a magazine called Mac user magazine, which, um be got 947 00:47:57,949 --> 00:48:03,379 our business in the us, but they also then created a magazine called max magazine, 948 00:48:03,379 --> 00:48:07,669 which was a big magazine in the UK and then came over to the us of mm-hmm , you 949 00:48:07,669 --> 00:48:08,669 know, I'm sure you've heard of Maxim. 950 00:48:08,749 --> 00:48:08,839 Yeah. 951 00:48:09,409 --> 00:48:11,659 Um, you know, it's still around. 952 00:48:11,659 --> 00:48:16,909 So, you know, a true, true entrepreneur that taught me everything about direct 953 00:48:16,909 --> 00:48:20,719 marketing, just magazines was new stand in subscriptions and, and, and 954 00:48:20,719 --> 00:48:24,439 understanding how that game worked was a big deal, but understanding how just 955 00:48:24,769 --> 00:48:29,059 catalogs work and sending catalogs and understanding direct response marketing. 956 00:48:29,389 --> 00:48:30,859 Um, it changed my world. 957 00:48:30,859 --> 00:48:34,729 Plus he was probably, you know, the, the most moral, upstanding 958 00:48:34,759 --> 00:48:35,989 ethical guy I ever met. 959 00:48:35,989 --> 00:48:38,899 So in a, in a world of, oh wow, just pure lunacy. 960 00:48:39,139 --> 00:48:40,819 This guy was, uh, A plus. 961 00:48:40,819 --> 00:48:41,299 He still is. 962 00:48:41,299 --> 00:48:43,459 So I, I still talk to him once a week. 963 00:48:43,759 --> 00:48:49,519 You know, he, he is my, my guy and I thank him every day for giving me, 964 00:48:49,549 --> 00:48:51,049 you know, all the tools I needed to. 965 00:48:51,964 --> 00:48:52,414 Matt Edmundson: Oh, wow. 966 00:48:52,474 --> 00:48:55,115 It, he sounds like a great guy to have on this show. 967 00:48:55,115 --> 00:48:56,974 I mean, that's, that's a big glowing 968 00:48:56,974 --> 00:48:57,394 Adam Shaffer: review. 969 00:48:58,624 --> 00:48:59,704 This guy's done it all. 970 00:48:59,744 --> 00:49:00,454 He'd be great on your 971 00:49:00,454 --> 00:49:00,694 Matt Edmundson: show. 972 00:49:01,194 --> 00:49:01,604 He'd be great. 973 00:49:01,609 --> 00:49:02,224 Oh, fantastic. 974 00:49:02,884 --> 00:49:06,754 So Peter Godfrey and I'll direct you to him. 975 00:49:06,964 --> 00:49:07,894 That sounds fantastic. 976 00:49:07,894 --> 00:49:08,014 Yeah. 977 00:49:08,014 --> 00:49:09,004 Yeah, no, I'd love to talk to him. 978 00:49:09,004 --> 00:49:09,814 Maybe get him on the show. 979 00:49:09,814 --> 00:49:10,534 That'd be amazing. 980 00:49:10,774 --> 00:49:11,074 Oh, 981 00:49:11,374 --> 00:49:13,234 Adam Shaffer: you know, his partner, Felix, Dennis was 982 00:49:13,234 --> 00:49:14,584 Dennis publishing in the UK. 983 00:49:14,584 --> 00:49:17,734 I don't know if you followed that stuff, but they did all the computer shopper 984 00:49:17,734 --> 00:49:22,384 Mac user, and then they had some car magazines, gaming magazines, but Maxim was 985 00:49:22,384 --> 00:49:26,974 the big head mm-hmm they also, it was a book called stuff, magazine called stuff. 986 00:49:27,154 --> 00:49:31,144 And in the US, they had that magazine also and ultimately sold it. 987 00:49:31,144 --> 00:49:34,704 But you know what arrived, that was by far the most. 988 00:49:35,240 --> 00:49:36,799 It was like Cosmo for guys. 989 00:49:36,950 --> 00:49:37,549 If you remember this 990 00:49:38,599 --> 00:49:41,809 Matt Edmundson: Cosmo for guys, it's such a phenomenal way to describe it. 991 00:49:41,809 --> 00:49:41,930 Yeah. 992 00:49:41,930 --> 00:49:42,079 Yeah. 993 00:49:42,079 --> 00:49:42,619 I remember. 994 00:49:43,039 --> 00:49:44,089 Uh, I remember. 995 00:49:44,160 --> 00:49:44,689 Yeah, yeah, no. 996 00:49:44,689 --> 00:49:45,319 Fantastic. 997 00:49:45,859 --> 00:49:48,049 Uh, Adam, listen, how do people reach you? 998 00:49:48,049 --> 00:49:49,189 How do they connect with you? 999 00:49:49,189 --> 00:49:50,689 If they would like to? 1000 00:49:51,829 --> 00:49:54,259 Adam Shaffer: Well, you could reach me at adam.shafer. 1001 00:49:55,289 --> 00:49:56,269 Hopefully you can see this. 1002 00:49:56,269 --> 00:49:56,720 If you don't. 1003 00:49:56,720 --> 00:50:03,549 It's adam.Shaffer@phelpsunited.com. 1004 00:50:03,649 --> 00:50:04,999 Um, always on email. 1005 00:50:05,269 --> 00:50:07,819 So Adam dot Schaeffer, Phelps united.com. 1006 00:50:08,089 --> 00:50:09,349 You could hit me at LinkedIn. 1007 00:50:09,379 --> 00:50:11,599 You just look up Adam Shaffer and you'll be able to find me. 1008 00:50:11,599 --> 00:50:15,769 I'm the only Adam with the spelling Shaffer, and you could 1009 00:50:15,769 --> 00:50:17,059 go to our website anytime. 1010 00:50:17,064 --> 00:50:18,799 Phelps united.com. 1011 00:50:18,799 --> 00:50:22,549 It's PhelpsUnited.com 1012 00:50:23,809 --> 00:50:24,709 Matt Edmundson: That's awesome. 1013 00:50:24,709 --> 00:50:30,889 And we will of course, link to Adam's, uh, information in the show notes as well. 1014 00:50:30,894 --> 00:50:33,169 His LinkedIn, his email will be there. 1015 00:50:33,469 --> 00:50:35,629 Uh, no problem at all. 1016 00:50:35,960 --> 00:50:39,620 Um, Adam, it's been great having you on the eCommerce podcast really 1017 00:50:39,620 --> 00:50:43,250 appreciate you being here, uh, and sharing with your wisdom on Amazon. 1018 00:50:43,255 --> 00:50:46,220 If you are thinking about selling on Amazon and you would like to know 1019 00:50:46,220 --> 00:50:52,940 more, do connect with Adam, I'm sure he would love, love, love to help you. 1020 00:50:53,270 --> 00:50:55,850 Uh, so huge thanks Mr. 1021 00:50:55,850 --> 00:50:57,260 Adam for being here. 1022 00:50:57,560 --> 00:51:01,640 Uh, don't forget to subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcast from. 1023 00:51:02,390 --> 00:51:06,110 We have great conversations like this with Adam every week. 1024 00:51:06,170 --> 00:51:07,070 Yes we do. 1025 00:51:07,070 --> 00:51:09,920 And I really don't want you to miss any of them. 1026 00:51:09,920 --> 00:51:12,140 So do come and join them. 1027 00:51:12,410 --> 00:51:17,660 And in case no one has told you yet today you, my friend are awesome. 1028 00:51:18,305 --> 00:51:19,714 So thank you for being with us. 1029 00:51:19,924 --> 00:51:21,694 Uh, the thank you very much. 1030 00:51:21,694 --> 00:51:22,565 Just love it. 1031 00:51:22,625 --> 00:51:23,194 Love it, love it. 1032 00:51:23,194 --> 00:51:23,495 Love it. 1033 00:51:23,855 --> 00:51:27,274 Uh, the eCommerce podcast is produced by Aurion Media. 1034 00:51:27,274 --> 00:51:31,865 You can find our entire archive of episodes on your favorite podcast app. 1035 00:51:32,134 --> 00:51:35,575 The team that makes this show possible is Sadaf Beynon, Josh Catchpole, 1036 00:51:35,795 --> 00:51:37,944 Estella, Robin, and Tim Johnson. 1037 00:51:38,194 --> 00:51:42,615 Our theme song is written by me and my son, Josh,. 1038 00:51:42,905 --> 00:51:44,840 So say nice things about it. 1039 00:51:45,500 --> 00:51:46,640 if you would like to read 1040 00:51:48,110 --> 00:51:48,920 Adam Shaffer: I on my playlist, man. 1041 00:51:49,240 --> 00:51:50,540 Matt Edmundson: Yeah, yeah, absolutely do man. 1042 00:51:51,440 --> 00:51:54,020 uh, if you would like to read the transcript or the show notes, 1043 00:51:54,020 --> 00:51:57,410 head on over to our website, eCommercepodcast.net, where you can 1044 00:51:57,415 --> 00:52:00,950 also sign up for, our, newsletter. 1045 00:52:01,250 --> 00:52:06,640 Uh, and we can also be reached at matt@ecommercepodcast.net, 1046 00:52:07,970 --> 00:52:09,470 uh, from myself from Adam. 1047 00:52:09,470 --> 00:52:10,759 Thank you so much for joining. 1048 00:52:11,375 --> 00:52:14,165 Uh, it's been great to be with you this week, uh, until next time. 1049 00:52:14,345 --> 00:52:14,525 Bye. 1050 00:52:14,525 --> 00:52:14,885 For now.