Serious Sellers Podcast: Learn How To Sell On Amazon FBA & Walmart

Discover the secrets of Amazon's seller tools, including the Product Opportunity Explorer and Brand Analytics. Learn how to analyze insights and metrics, create water-resistant products, and leverage customer reviews. Explore the unusual trend of coffin-shaped pet beds and strategies for brand positioning. Understand your target audience and explore different product research methods.

The podcast discusses rising shipping prices, Amazon AI changes, Walmart brand targeting, customer behavior insights, AI in e-commerce. Topics include Alibaba's campaign, Walmart's drone delivery, AI grocery replenishment, and boosting Amazon reviews with Helium 10's tool.

Yi Zhen, an Amazon Product Opportunity Explorer team member, shares secrets on mining hidden gems from Amazon's data. They discuss the Black Box tool by Helium 10, Seller Central's Category Insights, and product validation using the Product Opportunity Explorer. Listeners get a masterclass in making savvy decisions and identifying niches with high potential earnings.

Discover the best practices for Amazon product sourcing excellence as we welcome back Kian Golzari, the Amazon product sourcing sage, for his fifth appearance to impart his vast knowledge on mastering the Chinese manufacturing labyrinth. Kian's guidance takes you through the crucial steps from selecting the right manufacturers on Alibaba to conducting effective factory visits, ensuring you return home with more than just souvenirs – but strategies to boost your product quality and cost-efficiency. Venture with us into his secrets of product differentiation and learn how to stand out in a saturated market by uniquely combining various components and embracing innovative packaging solutions. We dissect the art of transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary, from deluxe packaging to strategic bundling. Furthermore, Kian reveals the underestimated power of packaging in offline sales, sharing insights on making a product pop on the Amazon website and attracting crucial impulse buys. To wrap up, we get into the strategic intricacies of forging long-lasting relationships with suppliers and the nuances of communication that can make or break a deal. We dissect how to scrutinize supplier profiles and the vital role that understanding your supplier's capabilities plays in aligning with your business goals. Kian and Bradley also uncover the best practices for sample evaluation, navigating the norms of sample payments, and why investing time in personalizing your interactions with suppliers can pay dividends in the long run. This episode isn't just about finding the right supplier; it's about creating partnerships that will sustain your Amazon business growth and success.   In episode 524 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Kian discuss: 00:00 - Guide to Factory Sourcing and Visiting  02:52 - Insights From Visiting a Factory  11:40 - Sourcing and Differentiating Products in Manufacturing 13:22 - Revamping Coffin Shelf Market Strategy 16:29 - Importance of Packaging in Offline Sales  18:20 - Clarity and Importance of Product Filters  18:44 - Finding & Evaluating Manufacturers on Alibaba 21:53 - Filtering for Top Factory Products 25:48 - Importance of Trade Background and Markets 28:31 - Selecting Suppliers and Communicating Effectively 31:40 - Price and Quality Selection Process  33:48 - Strategies for Sourcing and Product Defensibility 36:38 - Benefits of Attending the Canton Fair ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup  (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Transcript Bradley Sutton: Today we've got the world's foremost expert on sourcing, Kian, back on the show and he's going to give us step-by-step guides on how to source on Alibaba.com and an SOP for visiting factories in China. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Are you afraid of running out of inventory before your next shipment comes in? Or maybe you're on the other side and you worry about having too much inventory, which could cap you out at the Amazon warehouses or even cost you storage fees? Stay on top of your inventory by using our robust inventory management tool. You can take advantage of our advanced forecasting algorithms, manage your 3PL inventory, create PO's for your suppliers, create replenishment shipments and more all from inside inventory management by Helium 10. For more information, go to h10.me forward slash inventory management. And don't forget you can sign up for a free Helium 10 account from there, or you can get 10% off for life by using our special podcast code, SSP10.   Bradley Sutton: Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers podcast by Helium 10. I am your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show. That's a completely BS-free, unscripted and unrehearsed organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. We're going to the other side of the world to Dubai right now for a record breaking fifth time. That's how long this this, this show, has been out there. Guys, like we only have people on there, if they're really good, we'll invite them back. And if they are really good and we invite them back, it's only one time per year. The very first time ever in the history of Serious Sellers podcast, somebody's on the fifth time is the one and only Kian. Kian. How's it going? Welcome back.   Kian: Oh man, thanks so much. It's a great intro man. It's an honor to be the only speaker to be on here five times and wow, I mean that must mean you've done a lot of episodes as well. So congrats to you to be plugging away. Like, how many episodes have you put out now?   Bradley Sutton: We're like in the mid-500, like we're about 520 now, like we're in the mid the the five teens around there, yeah amazing, yeah, incredible man. Yeah great to be back and, yeah, really looking forward to sort of diving in and we're going to talk a lot about Alibaba, but before we get into that, I'm actually visiting, for the first time, Chinese factories. Like it's been years since I've even been to China and I've never visited the factories where we make the Project X, project 5K products. So what's some advice you can give me? You know like, hey, should I bring some gifts? You know like maybe some chocolates or something to the factory owners? Should I negotiate? Should I just, you know, talk away, ask about their family, like I usually deal with a sourcing agent? Yeah, and she's going to come with me, my sourcing agent who found these factories, and translate a little bit. But what should I do.   Kian: Yeah, I mean, first of all, I think your mind is going to be blown Like I think everyone experiences this like the first time you go into a factory and actually see how your goods are made, because you have this idea and you have this perception in your head of, like how you think goods are made. But once you go in and you see the production line and like you know, let's say this is for the, for the coffin items, right? So like you'll see, like the wood, like arriving, you'll see the wood getting dried. You'll see, like the woods, like the bad pieces getting rejected. You'll see it getting sanded and filed down. You'll see it getting sprayed and painted. You'll see it getting cut to size and you'll see it getting assembled. You'll see it getting screwed, like you'll just see in some of the different compartments, and then your head will be like, wow, here's like 20 different processes and steps that this product went through to get made, whereas when I just see it in a store, I just see it like in a shelf or, like you know, online. I didn't think about it in this way. But why that really helps you is that, like you know, if you've got cost challenges and you're like right, I've got this like $8 product and I need to get it down to 6.5, you've got like 20 different places you can go to in your head because you've seen it on the production line, right?   Kian: You're like well, was that spring really necessary? Are we cutting it in the most efficient way? Can we just do straight edges rather than these curved edges? Was it necessary to have that coating? Like? There's so many different things you can now think about. And then, on the reverse, if you want to improve the quality, you're like here's things that we could do better, based on what I saw and how this product is actually assembled. But you're going there for the first time, right? So, in terms of gifts, I would say it's nice. They'll probably provide a gift for you. If you've been doing business together for like a number of years, then by all means, maybe take something nice. I would say something that represents your hometown, so you could take them your favorite team, like a Lakers hat or something like that.   Bradley Sutton: Okay, those are fighting words. All right, guys. The fifth and last time that Keen will ever be on the podcast.   Kian: So you can always and, by the way, Bradley’s the clipper's friend for anyone who didn't catch that but yeah, like you know, anything that represents your hometown where it could be like a hot sauce, it could be like a local tea or whatever like that. Just it doesn't have to be anything expensive. Like for me, I always used to take like a personalized bottle of whiskey because I was coming from Scotland. Suppliers, like really, really appreciated that and just a nice gesture to do. And if you have, like a sales assistant that you've been working with, I would get one for the sales assistant that you talk to and then one for the factory boss as well. Very, very important to get a gift for the factory boss and also to get a photo with the factory boss, because there's always going to be time where you're going to need to ask for a favor, right, and there's going to be a time when, like you know, chinese New Year is coming up and, like you know, your, your goods are getting rushed out and maybe they won't make it shipment before Chinese New Year. And then you say like, hey, please, can you just ask the boss, please can you rush this, please can you push this to the front of the production schedule. Please can you get this out before Chinese New Year? And you're like, who's asking? Again? Bradley's asking which one's? Bradley again, oh, he's the guy that brought you that Lakers jersey. Oh, yeah, I love that jersey. Cool, all right, get the items to the front of the line. So it's always something to like for them to remember you if you get a nice little gift.   Kian: Now, talking about, like, actually arriving at the factory, I think a lot of people, maybe, if you're going to China for the first time, they have this like fear of like well, you know, google Maps doesn't work out there Like how do I get there? Like your factory will arrange everything for you in terms of transport, and like you've got a sourcing agent there. So so they'll definitely help you out, but you don't need to figure out anything by yourself. Like you can just tell your factory hey, I'm arriving at this airport, I'm flying into Hong Kong, I'm flying into Shanghai, I'll be there on the 19th of March. I'm going to come and visit you on the 20th. They'll just say, cool, what's your hotel? We'll come pick you up. Driver will be there outside 10 o'clock and, like, literally, driver comes out with your name, they'll have a Starbucks waiting for you. Like they really, really take care of you, right.   Kian: And if you're like, hey, I need to get a train to where you are, I don't quite know how to get there. Like they'll book the train ticket for you, like they're so hospitable, like if you have any issues of like how to get there, or even like you know, when I go visit a factory, I tend to visit like two or three at the same time, like of a similar competing product, similar competing category, and I say, hey, look after you. After a visit your factory, I'm going to see this other factory, can you help me get there? And they're like, yeah, no problem, give us the address, we'll drop you off. Like, even if it's a competitor, if there's there very, very, very hospitable. So, in terms of getting there nice and easy, in terms of like what you're, what you'll learn, in terms of their product development, it'll blow your mind. But in terms of being prepared for your factory visit, like I always before any China trip, whether I'm going to the Canton Fair, whether I'm going to visit a factory, I always have to have a plan for my visit Right, like what is the main outcome I want to achieve from this?   Kian: Right, do I want to learn how the goods are made? Cool, I'll spend a little bit of time on the production line. Do I need a better price? Because I'm getting price pressure? Well, I'm going to do my research in advance to see. Well, what were other suppliers pricing me? So, like you know, you could get a specification sheet for your product. You could but I'm sure we'll talk about this shortly reach out to the top three, top five suppliers on Alibaba.com, get pricing from them and you can go back to your existing supplier to say hey look, I don't want to move production, but just to let you know this is a pricing I'm getting offered somewhere else. I need you to match it. So, is it better pricing that we need? Are you getting a few too many returns? Or the quality concerns? Is there something? Is there chipping off the wood on the coffin box? Is that something we need to talk about? Then, like, we have the products right there in front of us, like here, let's address these quality concerns. Are you not doing the quality control? Let's check the end of the production line. Let's see who checks it. Let's see who boxes it. Let's see why they aren't picking up on these things.   Kian: So there's many, many different outcomes that you could have. It could also be we want to develop new products for 2024. Please prepare for us some additional new samples and we can review them together or let's discuss together. So I wouldn't necessarily go into a factory without knowing what I wanted to achieve and like no lie. I've been in factories where I've been there for 10 hours sitting opposite the boss and we're just negotiating, because I'm like I'm not leaving until we figure this out and like, literally Some of the factory bosses like to smoke and I remember like the guy went through two packs of cigarettes while we were talking it. Like I'm not saying that's going to be the case right For everyone, but I knew I had an outcome that I wanted to achieve on that trip, right.   Kian: Certain times I was doing production for the Olympics and they required certain certifications for the factory and I went to visit factories and didn't have those certificates. So I was training them. This is what this is. A certificate needs to comply with. This is what we need to fix. We were looking at, you know, lighting, fire extinguishers, dormitories, all that stuff. I was like you're the factory I want to work with. I need you to be compliant of this. I'm not leaving until I know you can do this. So there's so many different outcomes that we can have for visiting a factory and like. Those are just some of the things that we need to be prepared for, but, honestly, it's going to be so much fun for you. Like, I'm actually excited for you and I can't wait to see your stories on Instagram to see what it looks like.   Bradley Sutton: Thank you, thank you Now, right now, let's just say, you know, for that, a lot of people you definitely know suggest, hey, you should go visit the factory. But for a lot of other people you know, they might not have the way to go to China or they might not be able to go to Canton Fair or Iwu or other places, and so obviously the easiest place to to find suppliers would be Alibaba.com. So we're going to try something different today. I didn't 100 percent have this plan, but now I just like thought of it right now I just went to Alibaba, but or I went to Amazon and let's just, we're going to do a pretend thing where I'm which is halfway real, and that is, you know, one of the project X brands we do is not the coffin shell, but we also do egg trays. We have this brand called Geese Chicken Coops.   I just like threw in a keyword to Amazon right now egg storage for countertop. This actually used to be one of our main keywords, but now it's not anymore. And then I'm like trying to find something that looks interesting and these like this, this egg basket that has like a ceramic lid. Here let's just pretend that I'm like, hey, I want to have. I want to go source this from China. I want to look. So first step is what? Just go to Alibaba.com and try and figure out what keyword it might be like something similar to this. So you've got a couple of options here.   Kian: Right, because, like you have the traditional egg trays, which could be, you know, wood and plastic, acrylic, whatever, and you could just type in egg tray and you could find it right. But for that particular one, for those who aren't viewing, with like a video, like Bradley, how would you describe this? It's like the shape of a chicken.   Bradley Sutton: Yeah, it's really like the bottom part is this wire mesh like a basket looking thing. And then the like it has, this lid that shape like a, like a, like a chicken or rooster or something like that.   Kian: here this is a really good example because, like here's a classic example of if you type in like egg tray or whatever on Alibaba, like this product probably won't come up, like we can have a look, but it probably won't come up the way that we're looking at this one, right, but like for you to have more defensibility in your brand, which is really, really important for 2024, you might need to go to another manufacturer which doesn't make egg trays. So you're looking at eggs right now and we don't see that particular product. Right, there's nothing like that. Yep, we could type in like caged basket for you know, holding fruit or holding vegetables or whatever it may, be right, and we could find the bottom part, but for the top part it was like a toy chicken, like on the top right, which is kind of serving as like the protector or the top of the basket, right, and so for that I would go to a toy supplier to be like different materials, right, it could be silicone, it could be plastic, it could be rubber, like I would say like rubber chicken toy or rubber animal toys, right, and you might be able to find this for, let's just say, 50 cent or 30 cent or 75 cent, and we could buy those separately and we could send it to the egg tray suppliers, or we could send it to the basket suppliers, right, and anyone wanting to copy that product wouldn't necessarily be able to, because they didn't know that they have to go to two different suppliers. Right, they didn't know that you could, just because if they type it in, they won't find it and they're not thinking.   Kian: Right, I'm going to get an egg tray from a toy supplier. So this is something that gives you like, really, really good defensibility. And this is applicable to anyone like, not even people which are looking for egg trays, but, like, whenever I'm looking at a new product, I'm like, well, what other purpose does this product have? Like, for example, right now I'm using a podcast microphone, right With a boom arm or whatever, right, but like, I could also go to a supplier which makes selfie sticks and take the technology of the telescopic pole and use that right, and anyone who's looking to get like a microphone stand or a podcast mic stand is not looking at like telescopic poles. So there's so many different ways that we can look at other manufacturers to fit the purpose of the product that we want to manufacture.   Bradley Sutton: I like that and that's something that's similar to what I'm actually doing. That's what I'm going to be going to the factory and talking to or, you know, checking out one of the first orders. So, like, what happened with the coffin shelf was that it got kind of saturated. You know, like you know, because everybody watched Project X and everybody started launching, you know, coffin shelves and now there's a million coffin shelves and I didn't want to do, I didn't want to play the race to the bottom price wars. You know, like, there's people now I used to sell the coffin shelf for like 32 bucks and now there's people selling it for like 19. I'm not going to try and compete with that price. So I'm like I'm going to go opposite, I'm going to raise the price back. Like I was selling for like 25. Now I'm going to raise it back to 30. But what I'm going to do is two things. Number one I'm going to buy a really fancy box and it's a box shaped like a coffin, like. So somebody would actually gift it to somebody in this coffin shaped box, and the box itself is almost a product. You can use that as a sock storage or something like that, because it's a really high quality. I mean, it's crazy. It's like almost 60% of the cost of the coffin shelf, you know by itself, but we're still only talking like two bucks.   Bradley Sutton: And then I noticed in the customer reviews that a lot of people are putting like these little LED spooky little trinkets and figurines right. And so what I did was I also sourced like a pumpkin shaped LED candle and then a skull, like a, just a mini skull, because these are what people are using to display anyways. And so now I'm relaunching the coffin shelf at a higher price point with this box that's super hard to get custom made and from another, a third factory, these LED stuff. And so, like you know, these people who are just trying to make a quick buck and sell coffin shelves, you know, from China for $19, they're not going to take the time or effort to go and source three different things from three different factories. And so now I'm kind of like building this moat around and trying to dominate, redominate the coffin shelf market.   Kian: I guess you could say that's mega and I'm glad you mentioned that as well because, like so, I was at this show called like global sources, just like last month or wherever, and I was filming a YouTube video, actually just posted it yesterday on like the highlights of that show, and I walked, assembled, into this guy's booth. His name was like Matthew and he had like he was just doing packaging, like really, really deluxe packaging, right. And I go in and I'm like, hey and? But the packaging was like super nice, like it was like magnetic boxes that folded flat, like he was doing it for a Sephora. He was doing like Pokemon boxes, like just high end stuff, right.   Kian: And I was like picking up different bits of packaging and we were talking about like online versus offline and you know different styles of packaging and one color boxes. And then I was like you know how much is this box? And it was like a really small, flimsy one and he was like you know, less than 0.1. I was like, wait, less than 10 cents. He was like, yeah, it's around like 8 cents. I was like no way. And I was like, all right, what about this one? I picked up this like magnetic one. He's like that's around $1. I'm expecting the dude to say like three. He's like wow. I was like I was like these prices seem a little too good to be true. I was like where's your factory? He's like for Shan. I'm like okay, cool, so it's narrow way. I was like what are you doing this weekend? I was like I'm at the factory. I was like I'm going to come visit you this weekend. I was like cool, so rock up. And then I filmed a YouTube video in his factory. I showed the packaging process end to end, start to finish. All the like he had like machines which cost over a million dollars, like everything, like map finishing, gloss finishing, like everything. So the entire process, start to finish. And talking about like 2024 and differentiating and just what you just talked about. That's key. That's so key to being ahead.   Kian: Whether you're selling online or offline, you want to win the click. Online, sometimes you show your packaging in the main image, sometimes you don't. But if you're selling it in retail, it's on a shelf. You have to catch people's attention. So if you're selling offline, you really, really have to catch people's attention. If and that's through the packaging, that's the first touch point and it can be catch for attention by color. It can be by innovative design. So packaging is going to play a super, super important role. So I'll definitely connect you with Matthew.   Bradley Sutton: Awesome, Awesome Thanks, Appreciate it. All right. Going back to our olive oil, let's go to something more traditional, All right, so that's a great way for differentiation. Let's just say I picked something else while you were talking right now, Something that's kind of like all right, this is not something that you necessarily differentiate, Like we always. I think you should always differentiate, but maybe not let's not go to the effect where, like, hey, let's try and get stuff from three or two different factories and let's do fancy packages, Because you know, sometimes when people are just getting started, they want to get their feet wet. You know that might be a little bit too difficult. So then I pick again in the same niche. I hit this keyword egg dispenser on Alibaba, and so you know, for those watching on YouTube, you guys can see this. For those listening on podcast, we'll try and describe it here. But now let's just say that this, this kind of egg dispenser that has this like row, it looks like like a row on the top of eggs and it rolls down to the bottom row. I guess you just pick one and then it rolls down. So let's just say that, for whatever reason, this is the kind of product I'm getting. I just did my very first search on Alibaba. This is definitely the keyword. Next step would be so I start doing using some of these filters and then, if so, what would you suggest?   Kian: Yeah, yeah. So I'm so glad you're showing this visually online as well, right, because you can look at that image. Right, see the second image. This says $2.50. The second one says, yes, 88 cents. It's the same image, right? So, yeah, this is what. This is where we need to get really, really clear on the filters. Right, because it looks like the exact same product. One is well, the one's three X the price of the other one, and you could see that I'm like, oh, okay, well, I'll go for the cheapest one. But you haven't necessarily done the research to know what already different materials or different sizes or different specifications. Does one hold more eggs? Does one have deluxe packaging? So we don't really know that, right? So you went to Alibaba.com and you typed in egg dispenser, and this is the first thing that came up. So the first point right, I would select verified manufacturers. So that's the first point that you see in the list right. Why this is so important, is that, yeah, perfect. This is where we need to be. The purpose of using Alibaba.com correctly is not to find the cheapest price. It's to find the best manufacturers. Once we find the best manufacturers, then we can start to negotiate the price. So the purpose right now we're just looking for the best manufacturers.   Kian: So the first thing you did was you selected verified manufacturers. And what's that for? It means any information that they provide on their listing, whether it be number of years in business, how many staff they have, what certificates they have, what patents they have, what products they have, what does their production line look like, the images of videos in the factory. That's all been verified by a third party, meaning intertech, SGS, tuv. One of these very reputable companies have gone in and verified all the information is true, whereas if we didn't work with verified suppliers, then whatever information they want to put there, we just have to sort of take their word for it. So verified is the most important thing to search for first. Then on the left hand side of the page, you'll see trade assurance right. I would always click that as well, and trade assurance just means that your payment is protected. So if you've ordered an egg dispenser which holds 20 eggs and you do the production and you receive one which only holds 10 eggs, then the trade assurance will protect you and it will refund your order because you've selected that right. That's just a little bit of a safety net, important for, like you know, new sellers, right. And then as you scroll down on the left hand side of the page, you'll see something that says management certification, right. And if you scroll down a little bit more, yeah, so you see like BSEI, and you see sedx, you see ISO. I always like to select BSEI and ISO. So BSEI is your business social compliance initiative and ISO is just a really high quality standard and this just basically means these are factory certificates that they have. So BSEI will go in and they'll check, like you know, how many years have you been in business? Do you have, like, fire extinguishers? Do you have adequate lighting, do you have safety exits? Like we've checked the dormitories, we've checked like the canteen where the workers eat. So it's kind of like gives you confidence that you're working for a very, very good factory, right. So now, if we go back to the top of the list, right, we've now we've searched by manufacturers, we've got verified manufacturers, we've got trade assurance and we've got factories which have you know, bsei and ISO certification.   Kian: So now, as I'm scrolling down the list, like if you zoom in on the company names, like the first word in the company name is always the city or the province in which that factory is located. So sometimes, like the factories like electronics are made in Shenzhen, backpacks are normally made in like Chenzhou. Like furniture, like steel tubing for furniture, chairs is made like Yongkang. So I'm just trying to get familiar Is there an area which specializes in egg dispensers? Maybe not, because it's such a niche product, right, that maybe you could make it anywhere. But as I scroll down, I'm trying to see, like, is there one name that pops up more frequent than others and in that interesting, the area which specializes in that product? But I see Ningbo has probably popped up a few times, right? So yeah, but anyway, doesn't matter. If Ningbo had popped out like eight out of nine times, I would say, right, well, that's the region we need to be ordering from, interesting. Then, as you scroll down as well, I would be like looking at the images as well, to see, like, do I find something similar to what I was looking for, like when we search by products like your first look somebody is specializing in that one crazy basket, one that we looked up earlier, that's crazy.   Kian: But you know what's wild, though, right, I'm not surprised we found it because we had searched, like the highest level certification, so like that product would have required, like you know, some sort of standard. So it like the purpose of this filtering process is to align you with top factories, and top factories make top products right. And as you scroll down as well, I saw the main image. That was the one we were looking for the white one here, yeah, yeah, right here, that particular one, right. So now if you click on like view profile, we can just there's a couple of like boxes I need to tick of the supplier before deciding is this someone I want to work with? Right? So you see first on the left right Well, actually on the right where you were looking right, If you scroll through those like, you'll see videos of the factory. You'll see like images of the production line and you've seen the top left it says verified. So all these photos and videos have been verified. So like if you know that as the actual factory, because the third party has gone in and verified that's a factory, so you can actually see inside the factory and know that's them right. So we know exactly who we're dealing with.   Bradley Sutton: They didn't just pull this, you know, like video or something like from stock video or something like that.   Kian: Yeah exactly Right. So now, like before, without even going to China, I've got eyes and ears inside the factory that I can see what they actually look like. So if on their Alibaba listing they say, oh, we've got 200 workers in our factory, you're like, well, I can see the images that shows you've got 200 workers, right. Or if they said they had 200, but we see a production line with five workers and you're not verified, then we know that you know something isn't right there. So on the left side of that, you see where you have all those blue ticks. So it says, yes, all verified capabilities. So if you click on the bottom where it says, see all verified capabilities, this is everything the factory is verified for. So it says certifications, sedex, bsci. It will say, like you know, material trace. It says like quality traceability, things like that. So if you were like look, I need to know. Like, do these egg dispenser trays come from a sustainable source? We want to use like recycled materials, we want to use eco-friendly materials, then they can tell you yep, cool, we have traceability of our raw materials. We can find that out for you. So just by clicking that, we can find out what are the capabilities which are verified of this factory. And then, as we scroll down, like the main things which are really really important, see that where it says profile right, if you keep scrolling down, right, it's got right. See here so it says established yeah, years in industry 16. That means that they've got like 16 years worth of experience, right, so they've got the. See the audit there under certifications, where it says SMETA. That's part of the SEDEX audit and I know this so well because I was a board member for SEDEX in 2013,. After we did the production for the Olympics, every factory which made Olympic merchandise had to have a SMETA audit, right, and that was like they checked all the smallest details of the factory, right. So that's a really really good sign if they have that right. And then they've got the BSCI certificate. You can see that Now, as you scroll down, we're going to look at their production capabilities.   Kian: See there it says production lines. They've got three production lines and they've got 18 production machines right Now. This is so important. This is so, so important, right, Because you are, let's say, doing this product for the first time. So they have three production lines means they're like relatively small company, right, so that's good for you because that means that they'll probably do a low MOQ. Let's say you wanted to do 500 pieces trial order, but let's say that production line. Let's say it said they had 250 production lines. You're like this company would never want to work for me. Like, why would like? I just want to do a small order, 300 pieces. They've got 250 production lines. We're not a good fit for each other. But on the flip side, if you're a big brand, if you're doing, you know, 10,000 units a month, then you want that factory which has got 250 production lines. So this kind of sizes you up to be like am I aligning with the manufacturer which is fit for purpose, right?   Kian: And then the other really important thing to look at where it says trade background and main markets, it says North America 38%. Western Europe 35%. That is so crucial because 70% of their, more than 70% of their exports are going to the US market and it's going to the European market. And what does that mean? That means they're compliant with the latest FDA regulations in America, compliant with the latest like food standard regulations in Europe. Otherwise we wouldn't be able to sell to those markets if they weren't compliant with those standards. So if you're ordering this product for the first time and you know your factory has already got the certification or compliance needed to sell food products in the US market, because they're already selling in the US market. But if we looked at the trade background and it said, you know, 40% South America, 40% Africa and 20% domestic market, meaning China you're like well, you've never explored this product to America. So how do I know that you're capable of passing for FDA standards? So, but this factory, this is like one of the first ones we clicked on right, it's got everything we need right.   Kian: But it was because of that filtering process. It's because we selected verified, we selected trade assurance, we selected ISO, we selected BSCI, so like it was in touch with the top manufacturer and then, like I'm pretty sure that if you go to the other manufacturers on that list as well, we'll find similar information that is a good fit for us. So that was kind of like the initial research to be like right, let's find a good factory. That's part one, right. Part two is now how do you read, how do you talk to that factory for your first message? Right, Because this is where I feel like a lot of sellers like stumble. They're like right, found a good factory. We followed your process. But, like, right now, what do we say? Like, most sellers go, hey, what's your best price? What's your MLQ? Can? I just heard this podcast? Can I get customized packaging Right? And then, yeah, so, supplier, bear in mind these suppliers are probably getting 50 to 100 inquiries a week, probably more, right, and my purpose with the original message is how do I get my inquiry to jump out at the top? How do I get the supplier reads my message and be like oh, I want to work with this guy, right? So I kind of write my opening message as like a three part.   Kian: Like it first, introduction about myself hey, this is me. I'm passionate about eggs. I've been farming for 10 years and I want to start my own brand. Right, oh, cool, someone who really, really likes eggs. Right, they'll be a good person for this product. And then you can say, hey, we work with the biggest like influencers in the food space. Because I'm a beginner, right, I'm selling this, I'm ordering this product for the first time. So I don't want to say, hey, I'm a beginner. I want to say like, hey, I'm just ordering this, but here's my leverage. Like, I've got connections with the biggest influencers in the home and kitchen space. I've got connections with retailers that I've done business with before. I'm very, very skilled at selling on Amazon. I've exited a previous business before. I want to say something that gets them excited for them to work with me, not just, hey, what's your price, right?   Kian: Second, I want to say why I chose that supplier, because all the things we just looked at, like a number of production lines you know 70% exports going to Europe, right, you having this meta audit. So I would say, look, quality standards are very, very important for our company. It's great to see you have this meta audit. I'm so, so happy that you also place a high importance on quality standards. I see that 38% of your exports go to North America. That's amazing because we'll be selling in America as well, and I'm glad to know you're compliant with the latest certifications. That's just me telling the supplier. I've actually read your company profile and I've selected you based on these reasons. I've not just gone into Alibaba, I've not just typed in egg dispenser and just selected the first 10 companies and copy and pasted the same message. I've actually had to read your company listing and I've actually had to write a customized message to send you this so they'll understand that. And then then you're like okay, this is a product that we're looking at. Here's the picture, here's the specification sheet, this is the materials. What would be your best price for this product?   Kian: Suppliers now thinking I want to work with this customer because they have the ability to sell the product through their experience, through the influencers they have access to. They seem to understand quite a bit about manufacturing because they've told us what they've selected us. This is a customer which I think will go far because previously we've received messages asking for price in MLQ. We supply that and we never hear from those guys again. But this one seems serious. So we've gone through that process and we've found who are the top suppliers and then we've actually crafted a message that makes them want to reply to us. Because suppliers not thinking these are just egg-tracing, these are 80 cent. Maybe you order like a thousand pieces, right, a thousand dollar order. Suppliers not thinking they're going to get rich on this first order. They're thinking how much money am I going to make with this customer over the next three, five, ten years? So as long as you state look, business, partnership long term and this, together we want to grow this big business. You're saying the right things that get them interested to make your trial order first. Even at a break-even, they probably won't make money on the first order because of all the time and effort they have to put into sampling and things like that. They know that and they just want to work for you because you seem like a serious customer which you'll build with over the long term. So those are two really important things finding the best supplier and then communicating correctly with those suppliers as well.   Bradley Sutton: At what point are you submitting like a RFQ request for a quote?   Kian: So that's a really good point, right? So you can also do a request for a quotation. And I'm hesitating before I say this, right, because that process we just went through. We selected two of our best suppliers that we want to work with, right, we filtered out the bad ones. But when we go RFQ, we just submit our information one time and then the suppliers receive that request for a quotation and then they write to us. So now I have to do that filtering process again, but I have to filter the ones that write to us, right? So, because you might get an unverified supplier that writes to you or things like that. So you can also do RFQ because you think it saves you time, but realistically you have to go through all those applications of people which write back to you. And another thing I'd be cautious of as well and I'm not saying don't do it, I would just say that it might imply more work. It looks like it's going to save you time, but now you have to filter through every single manufacturer. But we just filtered through those suppliers really, really quickly.   Kian: But ultimately the main selection criteria that we have to decide is what's the price of the sample and what's the quality of the sample. So once we get that information back, we have to then decide right. Am I happy with the price, does it fit within my target? And am I happy with the quality of sample? Because, as we saw, we might get a price for 80 cent and we might get a price for $3. I have to see the sample right. But by doing this exercise we're going to get a good idea of what is the market price for this product, because we went through that selection process to identify the top manufacturers and now we've got pricing from who we think are the five top manufacturers. So if our pricing is 95 cent, $1.05, 88 cent, like 112, we're like okay, we know it's around that $1 mark. But if I get pricing of like $3.50, $0.62, $4, I'm like this pricing is all over the place.   Kian: Like I haven't. It's my fault I've not told them the specifications of which I require. I wouldn't just click on their image and say what's the price of that. I would send them a specification sheet of here's a picture of the product, here's the dimensions, here's the material, here's any testing that I need. And they like give me your best price. So they've all received the same information. So you're comparing apples with apples and then, once you see the price that you're happy with, you've compared it to the rest of the market. You see someone that you like communicating with. They have the right certification. You get maybe two or three samples from different suppliers. You compare them right. This is the one. Then here we go, let's place the order, let's go for it.   Bradley Sutton: Normally? What's the standard as these days as far as factories and samples Like do you always need to pay for the sample 50% of the time? Do you need to pay for the shipping? 50% of the time? 25% of the time? What's your?   Kian: experience lately? Yeah, so great question. And I would say that it depends on the leverage that you build, right. So, for example, that reach out message like if they think you're sort of wasting time, then they're like right, $100 for a sample, $100 for a freight, paid us $200 invoice and you'll get a sample, right. But if they're like I want to work for this guy, like I think he's capable of building a really, really big business and they'll do all right, cool, we'll just send a sample to you, no problem. Some people might say, right, we'll cover the cost of the sample, you just covered the cost of the freight. So, cool, right, fair. I always say, look, I've got no problem, I'll pay for the sample, but if I place the order, I'm going to deduct the sample cost from the first purchase order. That's always what I go with, right. And they're like fine, because I'm not trying to get free samples, right, that's something suppliers are fearful of. They're like but no one really wants a free sample of an egg tray, right. But if we took an example like a massage gun, you know, when massage guns got popular, everyone wrote to Alibaba manufacturers and said, hey, I want to order 10,000 massage guns, but I need a sample. They send the sample and then they never hear from them again. But that guy just got a free massage gun, right. So that's what they want to avoid. So I always offer to pay.   Kian: I say, look, I'll pay for the sample, but I'm going to deduct the sample and freight costs from the first purchase order. And that is music to their ears. They're happy to hear that because they know that first of all, you're paying for the sample up front and then if the supplier ends up having to pay for it, will they go and order as a result of it, which is what they wanted all along, right. So that's normally the way I go. Sometimes they just send it for free. I'm like cool, very nice of you, and sometimes, if they charge me, I just always have that in writing. That will deduct that from the first purchase order.   Bradley Sutton: Are you doing any like other website price matching or looking at like you know? Like maybe going to 1688 or something you know? That was a you know kind of like always suggested back in the day because there's a lot of price differences there and sometimes the Alibaba people, Alibaba factories, would be like, okay, yeah, we can probably go lower or that's not as much of a technique anymore and to be honest, I've always advised against that because, yes, you can.   Kian: So 1688, for anyone who doesn't know, is like the domestic. It also owned by Alibaba and it's the domestic Chinese website. It's where, like, Chinese businesses buy from Chinese factories, everything's in Chinese. And then I think some people announced that it was a hack, that you could go to 1688 and get cheaper prices. And yes, there are cheaper prices, but that's because those products aren't being exported. So you know the things that we just looked at in terms of like, okay, is this egg tray FDA approved? Well, it doesn't need to be FDA approved because that's not a regulation in China, so they can use it with a different chemical. Therefore, it's a cheaper price. So if you go to 1688 and look for your products, yeah, you probably will find them cheaper, but then if you need them to match regulations of your market, then that's when it's going to make it more expensive.   Kian: So I don't necessarily look at other websites, like I think you know you could go to globalsources.com, you can go to madeinchina.com. There's also sort of different websites as well, but generally enough, like, there's so many good factories on alibabacom and that definitely improved after COVID as well, because I never used to use alibabacom, like I was just used to go to China. I used to live in China. I used to go to the Canton Fair twice a year and that's where I'd find all my factories. And then, because Canton Fair was out for three years, that's when a lot of those factories started going online and Alibaba was like the first place that they would go. So I would suggest you're absolutely fine with alibaba.com. You can also, if you want to find the manufacturers of your competitors, you can look at importyeti.com, and I would say the best thing you can do for your business is really visit China as well. Go to the Canton Fair, and really because, yes, there's a cost in terms of a flight ticket in hotels to go to China, but I always say that cost more than pace for itself, because you are essentially fast tracking your product development.   Kian: You're seeing products there for the first time that you'll see them in real life before you see them online from other brands, and now you have to make your own version. You'll be able to negotiate better prices. You'll be able to get better quality products. You'll be able to build better relationships with your factory. You'll be able to get samples very quickly If you're like Bradley actually. So you're going to the factory. I guarantee you, if you ask for a new product and you wanted that sample, that sample will be ready in two or three days and you can take it home with you right? They'll send it to your hotel by the time you leave. But if you reach out to these guys online, you're like, hey, we're working on this new product, we're going to take them two weeks to make it. We can have to send it. It'll take a month. So you can massively and imagine you've got multiple products across multiple brands. You've got a month edge on anyone in the market just by being there. So I would highly recommend. But you know, canton Faire is only April and October every year, so you can visit China anytime you want, but all year round. I would be visiting websites like alibabacom to get an idea of right, who are the best suppliers and what are the best prices, and are there any new products that we just found as well? And then I'd be going to China as well, on top of that as well.   Bradley Sutton: All right, before we get into your last strategy of the day, how can people reach you if they want to, you know, see your videos or maybe reach out to you for some advice?   Kian: Yeah, sure, so I'm putting a lot of work into the YouTube stuff. So if you just type in Sourcing with Kian on YouTube, you'll see a lot of cool videos there. I started making a bunch of different videos on this China trip. I went into factories, I went into packaging factories, product factories and filmed videos of like. So actually, brad, I'll try and send one to you before you go as well, just so you could get a little bit of an insight. But, yeah, Instagram as well @kian_jg. I've got a Facebook group of the same name Sourcing with Kian and yeah, it's probably the best way to reach out to me. But I've got some cool stuff planned in the coming year in regards to, like, trips to China and stuff. So, yeah, definitely look out for that.   Bradley Sutton: All right, what's your last strategy of the day? Maybe a 60 second strategy or around there for that you can share with the audience.   Kian: I would say like, okay, 2024. Something you want to focus on would be product defensibility, right, Because you know, as you mentioned, with the shelf, like you know, a lot of people copied it. It raised at the bottom in terms of price and we have to innovate on top. So just like sort of three actionable tips. In terms of product defensibility, there's three main things you can focus on An act's getting exclusivity on your product, it's having a particular mold on your product and it's also getting patents on your product right. So exclusivity you can like if we go into a factory and we see a product that we like we didn't innovate it, factory did right, I can still order that product. But I can say, look, I want exclusivity on that. And you can get exclusivity by time. To be like, give me three months, we sell it to me and no one else. You can get exclusivity by region. To say, right, give me exclusivity for Germany or give me exclusivity for USA. Like we can pick a market, not just the whole world, and get exclusivity by that. Or we can also get exclusivity by quantity. To say, I've forecast I will order 10,000 units over the course of the year. If I don't order those 10,000 units, then you can sell it to everyone. So we just got exclusivity on a new product and I did this countless times at Alaska Anton Fair. That's a great form of defensibility.   Kian: Then, like patents, you know you can patent the product. Supplier might have a patent on the product, but the more. And then oh, by the way, this is such a sick hack, right, there was a particular product that we've been selling for a while. Factory has got the patent on it and then a lot of US brands were copying and infringing Chinese factory, trying to go after those US brands. They write to them and they're like hey, yeah, we're this company, we have the patent. The US brands just ignored it. They're like oh, it's a Chinese company, they're never going to sue us. I said to them look, make our company the co-patent, so we have our US brand. I was like make us the co-patent owner and then we'll go after them. Done Like, we now own the patent of that and then us, as a US brand, using US lawyers, are going after those US brands and are getting shut down left, right and center. So if you have a factory which is patented the product, that's a huge key if you can get co-patent on that as well. And then I mentioned molds as well. Like, molds are expensive. If you're developing a mold on a product, definitely get your logos embossed on the mold as well, so that they can't use that for anyone else as well. So, yeah, those are the key things defensibility, exclusivity, patents and molds.   Bradley Sutton: All right. Well, Kian, thank you so much for joining us. I'm sure 2024 will be great for you and hopefully we get to hang out at an event or here locally. I've got to get you on my Helium 10 basketball court here. We've been trying to do that for a while, so, hey, I'm ready, we'll anytime we'll settle at once and for all Lakers versus Clippers. I'll wear my Clippers jersey, you can wear your Lakers and we'll see. We'll see who comes out on top.   Kian: Let's do it, let's do it. Good to see you, bro, and thanks very much for having me and congrats on the 500 plus episodes.

What’s buzzing this week? Listen in as we explore TikTok's bold aspirations to skyrocket its e-commerce revenue, Amazon's innovative theme targeting for sponsored brand ads, and more! ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup  (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos We’re back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10’s Chief Brand Evangelist, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, interview someone you need to hear from and provide a training tip for the week. TikTok eyes US$17.5 billion shopping business on Amazon’s turf https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3247219/tiktok-eyes-us175-billion-shopping-business-amazons-turf Sponsored Brands introduces theme targeting to enhance goal-based campaigns https://advertising.amazon.com/en-us/resources/whats-new/sponsored-brands-introduces-theme-targeting/ Alexa is now available as a new supply source for Standard display and AAP-mobile app https://advertising.amazon.com/en-us/resources/whats-new/alexa-available-as-new-supply-source-for-standard-display-and-aap-mobile-app/ Sponsored Brands video introduces video-only creatives on the advertising console and Amazon Ads API https://advertising.amazon.com/en-us/resources/whats-new/sponsored-brands-video-introduces-video-only-creatives/ And for those looking to network and learn, Bradley extends an invitation to join upcoming events in Dubai, Pakistan, and Germany. Finally, our conversation leads us to Helium 10 new feature alerts emphasizing the importance of competitor monitoring, emphasizing the convenience and impact of setting up a comprehensive Insights Dashboard. Bradley guides you through automating competitor tracking to save precious time and demonstrates how to assess a niche market - with coffin shelves as our case study - using analytical tools to scrutinize competitor listings and keyword strategies. Additionally, he stresses the advantages of the Listing Analyzer tool, which transforms the arduous task of comparing listing images into a seamless, one-click operation. Stay tuned for next week's episode, where we'll continue to share invaluable insights for sellers looking to thrive in the fast-paced world of e-commerce. In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers: 00:57 - TikTok Shop 10X? 03:00 - Amazon Sponsored Brand Update 04:57 - Alexa Ads 06:18 - Brand Tailored Promotions 07:23 - New Video Ads 09:05 - Catch Bradley On The Following Events 12:18 - New Feature Alerts 17:00 - Pro Training: Using Listing Analyzer

Bradley Sutton, Amazon expert, discusses using Black Box Brand Analytics tool to optimize keywords and improve Amazon product rankings. He explains advanced techniques for keyword research and competition analysis, focusing on market saturation, search volume, and conversion rates. The episode reveals insights into identifying high-performing products and market gaps by dissecting Amazon's Best Sellers Rank and success factors driving traffic to listings.

Join us for a packed episode where we share the Serious Sellers Podcast’s cream of the crop e-commerce strategies this 2023, specifically curated for Amazon and Walmart sellers aiming to amp up their selling game. We kick things off by covering a slew of actionable tips, from the critical role of eye-catching main images to PPC campaign finesse and leveraging meta descriptions for Google indexing. Each insight is distilled to empower you, the serious seller, with tactics you can apply right away for real impact.  This episode doesn't stop there; we continue with the inside scoop on Walmart's Review Accelerator program and how it can significantly lift your Gross Merchandise Value by infusing your product listings with valuable customer feedback. We listen to the secret sauce behind crafting Amazon product titles that resonate with mobile users and discuss the art of bundling, showing you how to identify complementary items that could delight your customers and potentially lead to glowing reviews. The conversation shifts to strategic PPC advertising, underscoring the advantage of long-tail keywords to improve organic rankings without breaking the bank. It's a treasure trove of tips that will sharpen your competitive edge on platforms like Amazon. As we wrap up, we reflect on the top strategies shared and their potential to redefine your Amazon business in 2024. Your feedback is crucial; we urge you to select and implement your top three tactics and join the conversation by sharing your favorites in the comments. The excitement is palpable as we look forward to featuring some of you in future episodes to celebrate the strides made in your Amazon and Walmart selling journey. Here's to taking the wins from 2023 and charging towards an even more prosperous year ahead!   In episode 522 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley talks about: 01:44 - Top Strategies for Amazon, Walmart, and E-Commerce This Year 05:53 - Find Trending Products on Alibaba/Amazon 12:00 - Strategies for Obtaining Product Reviews  13:10 - Walmart Review Program and Bundling Tips 16:32 - Surprise in Customer Reviews 21:54 - Increase Amazon Productivity and Selling Strategies 25:32 - Maximizing Product Visibility and Differentiation ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup  (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Transcript   Bradley Sutton:   Today is our yearly episode where we give you my handpicked top 20 Amazon, Walmart and e-commerce strategies of the entire year. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Series Sellers podcast by Helium 10. I'm your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show. That's a completely BS free, unscripted, and unrehearsed organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. And we've come up at the end of this year and, as we do the last four years now we do a kind of recap episode where I handpicked some of the strategies. There's a bunch of people on my team, you know, from Mhel, Nikko, John, Ralph, Bill, Maia, Klaudine. They all worked like going through all the transcripts and like gave me what they thought were some of the top strategies and then, from those like I don't know, like 90 different ones that they submitted, I like whittled it down to like 20 that would fit into this episode. So we're going to give you some stuff that you might not have heard, you know, if you weren't listening to every single episode or you might have forgotten about good reminders. We got some actionable stuff that have to do with, you know, Shopify and keyword research, product launch, just a whole bunch of different subjects, most of these like 60 seconds to just two minutes long, and so I hope you guys take advantage of this.    Bradley Sutton: A lot of it was really great when it aired and they're just just right now also as much, if not even more, applicable. So again, whenever we do these strategy episodes, I implore everybody, don't just, you know, listen to these and think, oh, this is so great. Isn't this amazing how smart these people are? No, I want you guys to actually pick two or three of these and put it in practice, and then let me know what you do afterwards. I'm wearing my Dodgers jersey today because, you know, just like we had a great year of strategies. Dodgers had an incredible year at the end of this year, hiring some of my favorite, or getting some of my favorite baseball players in. Shohio, tani and Yamamoto. But anyway, we're not here to talk baseball. I could have a whole episode just about that. We're here to get into the top 20 strategies, so here you go.  Dr. Travis Zigler   Best thing you can do, I’m trying, I was going the brand route, but I’m gonna try to keep it on Amazon route. Main images are key. Your main image has to be different. Go look up silicone coaster on Amazon, just go do that right now and tell me which one’s your brand because every single one looks the same. So it doesn’t matter, like for all those plastic widgets from China, everything looks the same, but what can you do to differentiate it? And the unfortunate thing is if you sell something that everybody else sells with no differentiation, then you can make a change to your photos, that works, then everybody else will repeat it. And so what can you do to make your product better and differentiated? And then how can you show that on the main image? And if you can show that on the main image that’s gonna lead to a higher click-through rate, what can you do with your branding and your copywriting to make it a little different to make it stand out a little bit more?   Aaron Biner   And another tip is your meta description of your brand store. Like, actually it’s super powerful, but there’s still so many sellers are this opportunity, if you’re gonna, like every page of your brand store has this meta description that is indexable by Google. So it doesn’t have any impact on Amazon, but it has really huge impact how your brand store will show up in the search result with sample who will type your brand name. So just, it’s only 160 characters. Do not keyword stuff make it readable and sometimes it’ll, like your brand store will show up like in top one in a Google search result. So it really works and it also helps you not only for your brand, for your brand name, but also for keywords that you can include in this section. So it’s really powerful. Well,   Bradley Sutton:   Where do you edit your meta description for your   Yana Tatochko:   You just have to kind of every it’s you have this meta description for every single page. So if you have five pages, you can fill in five pages of meta description. Okay. You just have to go to the settings of your store and when you will kind of click on the page, like you will see this meta description.   Bradley Sutton:   So why this is important is sometimes we might get into the rut of like, oh, I can only use like Helium 10 Black Box, or I can only search for product opportunity actually on Amazon. But a lot of times you can find some unique things that are trending on other websites. Like here is one of my strategies, like let’s say I just happened to be searching for a batch shelf and I find it on alibaba.com. What I like to do, if I find a factory guys that has a lot of reviews, I’ll actually click on their factory link in their Alibaba page. And then what I want to do is I just wanna search through some of their other products and see is there anything interesting that maybe I could just do some quick research into maybe something that’s trending in China that’s not here in the States yet.   Bradley Sutton:   So if I’m looking on this, this particular one who, this guy was selling batch shelves, but I clicked on his other products and I see he’s got something wood wine rack. So if I click into there, I see a whole bunch of interesting products that I didn’t even know existed. And then I see these a few of them here that are pretty interesting. This looks like a wall mounted wine bottle rack. I see a few of these here. Wall mounted wine rack. So what I can do is I can just, on this page, I can actually click the Chrome extension and I’m gonna hit this tool called Analyze Product Demand on Amazon. And then I would type right there, wall mounted wine rack, I haven’t left alibaba.com. And then I hit see analysis.   Bradley Sutton:   And what shows up is it’s going to show me if that exact keyword has search volume on Amazon and some related keywords to it and some data on it. Now, this right here, as you guys can see, those of you watching this on YouTube, there’s nothing much here. Like this keyword that I entered only has 633 search volume. But take a look at the variations down below of what it says, wine rack wall mounted. So just sh shifting the keywords around that has 9,000 search volume on Amazon. Here’s something that five minutes ago I didn’t even know existed, or at least this exact keyword I didn’t know was a thing, and now I realize it is something that has almost 10,000 searches a month. So guys, this, this is a great technique to use when you’re just like, ah, you just can’t seem to find new product opportunity to expand your brand, especially if you’re on your own suppliers website probably a lot of the products, like if you’re making coffin shelves or a back shelf at a, at a factory there, other wooden products probably could potentially go in line with some of your existing brands.   Destaney Wishon:   Yeah, so one of the first things I’ve been doing when I’ve been auditing brands is relying on the targeting tab. So if you go into advertising console in the top left-hand corner, you’re gonna see targeting under your campaign manager, something around those and the targeting tab actually allows you to add a column for conversion rate. So if you have been in advertising console for a while, you know we’ve never been given access to conversion rate on the keyword level, well within the targeting tab we now have that. So that’s been super, super helpful for any brand owner. Even if you don’t manage ppc, even if you outsource it, go into add console, open up your targeting tab, filter top down by spend and look at where your spend is going. Your highest spending targets should be your highest converting targets and the most aligned keywords for your products. That is like the number one quickest way to audit your brand performance. If you see that the top of your targeting tab has auto campaigns category targeting or product targeting, you’re probably not optimizing your PPC the best way possible because it’s not actually gonna improve your organic rank that much.   Ryan King:   So there’s that way of identifying competitors to match against. AB test, what I’ll say here is, is someone might be thinking do, are you switching it like every four or five days? You’re probably not switching that often. This is probably like you’re testing it two or three product types max cuz there’s not that many out there, right? And again, another caveat would be you’re not looking at, okay, I’m in herbal supplements and my product type is an herbal supplement. Am I gonna do well in protein shakes as a product type? Right? And we just one that’s just gonna be manipulation. It’s not, it’s not serving the end shopper. But also you’re not for that purpose. You’re not gonna index for any of the keywords you really want. The example I’ve given before is using herbal supplements was we had a product that was in herbal supplements as a product type and they were in an herbal supplement.   Ryan King:   But we were banging our heads up against a wall because we were not indexing for what we thought were no-brainer search terms for that product. And the algorithm just wasn’t letting us index for those. So what we simply did is in growth opportunities, I know you’ve shown this before as well. You go into growth opportunities on Seller Center, you go to those details next year, your listing clicks on one of your listings, and there’s a widget right in the middle there. Walmart makes it really easy. There’s a widget in the middle, it says product type. You look at that and you can say report issues. I think it’s a reported issue or something like that right below it. It’ll give you a dropdown of a few suggested product types there. And the herbal supplements case, what we saw was, although herbal supplements seemed to be an exact match, the end result wasn’t what we thought was gonna provide the shoppers with the best experience.   Ryan King:   And so what we saw was if we went one level up vitamins and supplements, there’s, so it’s, it’s, it makes sense in that vertical broader, and we found that instantly. We were almost instantly within a few hours we were indexing for the keywords we needed. So that’s, that’s what I mean. So you’re probably gonna be able to figure out product type pretty easily of what general ones make sense right now. That’s the best solution I know of. So I think it’s one of those, it’s just a helpful point of data as long as it’s available. And so hopefully that’s a help to you. Hopefully, that answers the question.   Lyann Nguyen:   First, we talked about keeping track of your three scores. Get cr experian.com or Identity iq. And if you have zero money and you’re broke as no joke, go to Credit Karma, get that account, put it on your phone, monitor that and find out what needs to be done. Number two, fix all your personal information, your name, your address, your employment, your phone number. Clean it up till you have one of each. Don’t have a whole bunch of stuff that would actually help clear a lot of bad data.   Bradley Sutton:   Wait. Hold on. Yeah, on on number two. Where do I go to do that again? I know you mentioned it earlier, but I forgot to write it down myself.   Lyann Nguyen:   No problem. You can go to experian.com or Identity IQ and the part where it says personal information, you can dispute a lot of that stuff. Or on Credit Karma, you’ll see all that information and then you’ll see like their name, address. The report doesn’t look right, you can contact the bureaus. You can just Google phone number.   Bradley Sutton:   So directly from like these experian.com and these.   Lyann Nguyen:   So you call them and then they’re gonna say, can you can you send me a get, make sure you get your utility bill because or your bank statement that has your name and your address, you would have to send that to them and a driver license to make sure that that’s your one address. You are not living in 10 different places. That’s gonna actually bump your score anywhere from 20 points to 50 points. Just that one move because it’s data.   David Milstein:   Reviews is a huge strategy. You definitely, it’s gonna help you with your conversion rate. I just do wanna point out, unlike Amazon where sales volume is the number one driver of ranking on Walmart, it’s the conversion rate and there’s two conversion rates that reflects, it’s the impression to click and to click the sale. And aside from price and basic content, the best way to get that conversion is through reviews. Now, how do you get reviews on your product? I’m going to suggest two strategies. You have reviews syndication, which is a free program from Walmart that I don’t know why people are not as into finding it. Maybe they should probably run a promo, Hey, sign up for reviews, indication, maybe send emails. If you have reviews on your website, Walmart allows you to bring them to the program. Two platform for free. This is a free program.   David Milstein:   Now you have to make sure that it’s legit and you’re not bringing in only some of your five star reviews. You have to bring in all your reviews to the program. Additionally, you cannot have your Amazon reviews on Walmart illegal. Amazon is against terms of service. They technically own their reviews. Technically you shouldn’t even have them on your website in the first place, but that’s none of my business. But Walmart is not gonna let you take those reviews to Walmart. You could try and they’re gonna say, Hey, those are Amazon reviews, you can’t use those. But it’s a great way if you have reviews on your website, sign up for reviews syndication hopefully you’ll get accepted as long as you answer the case correctly. Don’t, don’t try a lie and try to cheat the system. They’re just gonna shut you down and potentially suspend your as a seller.   David Milstein:   No one wants that. And go ahead and bring in your reviews. Legitimately A second program, I would su strongly recommend, this is a new launch from Walmart, which is the review accelerator program. It allows, it’s similar to I guess the Amazon Vine, but I think it’s actually cheaper. It’s where you enroll certain listings. There is a bit of a restriction on what is allowed and there’s up to, you’re allowed to get up to five reviews per product and it doesn’t recommend, it’s not necessarily gonna get you a five star review. This is important to note, it’s just gonna get you a review. Walmart does claim that five reviews on a product increases the GMV by 75%, which I think is that’s pretty crazy. So there’s just two restrictions. You have to have a sale in the past x amount of time, I think potentially 30 days.   David Milstein:   And you have to have under five reviews and therefore that will make your item eligible for the program. And it costs you $10 per view that you get regardless of the rating. And the incentive to the seller, or to the customer rather the shopper is that they will get $3 credit towards their next purchase. So Walmart sends out an email to them, Hey ’em, hey some li review and you got $3 credit and you will get up to five reviews per product. It’s a great way, the only thing is it’s kind of a bit of a cash 22 cause you’re like, I need to get sales in order to get into the program, but I can’t get sales cause they don’t have reviews. Advertising is key folks. With advertising you’re guaranteed to get at least one sale as long as you’re not extremely priced. That’s as simple as it is.   Jana Krekic:   It’s basically bilingual show, so I support that. But when it comes to translations, but we know this is basically maximizing on the keywords in the first 60 characters of your title. A lot of people forget about the mobile version of the website on Amazon which only shows first 60 characters. And a lot of people go crazy and wild with the keywords, like at the end of the title, just don’t put enough of the most important ones in the first part of the title. And I say like, you should definitely do that, if not because of like the mobile version. Cause a lot of people also will purchase products on their phones and people forget about it. They tend to forget a lot. Especially if you have like a really, really long brand name, then you couldn’t really wanna think about if you’re gonna like play with it or not.   Jana Krekic:   There was the one brand that we did, it was eye patches and then it had like the wordplay eye, like your eyeball, like Eye love it cause it’s an eye patch. And that literally took the whole first 60 characters of their title. And in the mobile version, it didn’t show any of the keywords. So that had to be completely redundant. We completely dropped the, I love it because also like in German and for Germans, it did not sit well, like too much English never work, works amazingly well for the German audience. So that is my tip when it comes to the title. And just like the mobile versions for Amazon. Cause brands really do not think about it a lot.   Bradley Sutton:   Another thing I wanna talk about is explore bundling options, not just as something to add to your listing or to your product. I mean that, yes, that’s definitely something that you can do. You know, maybe you see that people are buying a coffin shelf and a skull together, right? So maybe you’ll be the first one to have a coffin shelf with skull together. Of course, that’s an option, right? But take it a step even easier. Use Black Box product targeting. Enter in your competitor’s ASINs and then filter for frequently bought together.   Bradley Sutton:   This is gonna show you what has been frequently bought together over the past, like 30 days or more that Helium 10 has detected. And sometimes you might find a product that’s like seven or $8 or even $6. And basically what this means is this, this could potentially be a product that you could source for like 30, 40 cents. Like one of the ones that was showing up here is, is spooky stickers. You know probably you could source some spooky stickers for like, what, you know, 25 cents or something like that. But if you have a history that your competitors are selling their product, and then the buyer at the same time is buying spooky stickers on their own, because you can see it in frequently bought together. Now what you should do if it’s really cheap, just go ahead and buy that product, maybe even in a smaller quantity if it’s a little bit more expensive, and then stick it into your product costing you 25 cents each.   Bradley Sutton:   If it’s really small, like stickers. And don’t advertise it. Don’t even advertise in the listing, right? I mean, you could advertise in your listing, but I prefer that for like, you know, more impressive bundling opportunities. But here’s what happens if you don’t advertise, and this is a strategy that, you know, Toma Rabinovich has, has been teaching for, for a while now. It’s part of his like six star method, and I’ve seen this myself out, out in the wild. But what happens is now your customer gets the product, they open it up expecting whatever they bought, say it’s a coffin shelf, but then all of a sudden they have these spooky stickers that customers like them, like, now what does that mean? That means it’s like a pleasant surprise, and it gives, it makes them like double 2x, 3x, maybe even 4x more likely to leave a positive review than if they were just happy with the product by itself.   Jocelyn Jeffries:   But if you want, if you’re in the natural toothpaste space, you need to be competing on those terms. You know you know, Toms of Maine, 12 pack natural toothpaste, blah, blah, blah, blah, is only gonna get you so far. That’s not really gonna improve your rank. You’re probably already solid there, but if you’re looking to improve your overall rank for a product, you need to be going after the keywords that are gonna keyword lead to that improvement. So it’s very much about understanding where you need to be spending and what terms you need to be spending and what’s actually gonna lead toward you know, improvement and rank. I think that’s the, the first step, and then it’s going and executing on that. So PPC is really the tool that you can use to influence specific pieces of search terms and customer behavior and whatnot. So that’s really how you start going after improving your organic rank.    Jocelyn Jeffries:   Yeah, so there’s a couple approaches you can take. I think the long tail keyword is a good way to look at it. You know, if you’re spending money on again, natural toothpaste that’s gonna be probably a waste of money to be honest with you. It’s gonna be so expensive for you to even try and compete in that, that it’s gonna be a waste of dollars. So starting to look at what are some of the longer tail keywords that I can win, you know, if it’s, you know, the most br you know, specific keyword ever, but if it applies to your product, going after that and starting to just chip away at some of that organic rank is gonna be a good way to start. And then, you know, if you have a similar product within your brand or you have competitors, you can start targeting their product detail pages.   Jocelyn Jeffries:   So if someone’s not specifically searching for you, but they see you on you know, another product detail page, that’s a good way to kind of start again, chipping your way in and kind of moving from the outside in to the, the kind of larger volume because again, it’s gonna be a waste of money if you’re trying to go after those high volumes and you don’t have the foundation of strong rank. So starting to chip away I think is the best method and mantra of having it, and this goes to new products as well of if you’re starting from zero, it’s gonna take some time. So long tail and product detail pages is what I would recommend.   Lailama Hasan:   Yeah. So a lot of sellers can get nervous about like, main image strategies, and we give a bunch of those strategies out right at the end. You wanna increase, increase your click through rates. So one way, one hack that I have for testing that out if you’re nervous about it, is upload the strategy that, you know, your agency or whoever’s come up with versus like a fully compliant image. And you know, what you wanna do is upload it on, manage your experiments, and if it gets through the Amazon bots, then you’re good to go and you can upload that image, actually, it will verify it for you, so it’ll automatically upload it for you. Because one thing I wanted to point out is a lot of people will be like, oh, this is not compliant, but you theoretically, 80 to 90% of the main images on Amazon are non-compliant with including props, you know, let’s say a fruit and fruit bowls or including a model in there, or, you know, adding an extra sticker onto your label. All of these are non-compliant. So this is just a hack that I have if you’re worried about it, and plus you get extra insights on which version works better.   Vincenzo Toscano:   Yeah, so when I, when it comes to strategy something that we’ve seen a a lot, I know maybe you have heard this tip before, but it’s focused on the second language of the country you’re selling on. So, for example something we having a lot of success lately with our US brands is using Spanish cures in Canada, we’re using French related cures. For example, in Germany there’s a big population of, of Turkish people Polish and all of that. So there’s a huge potential of using second secondary languages on all these markets. And on top of that, what I would advise as well as an extra plus tip on, on top of this tip in the US for example, you can request your translation to be updated the Spanish one because some of the translation that have been done if the listen is old is it was done with the old translation engine that Amazon had, the backend. So you can actually request Amazon to redo your translation. And this sometimes can help you a lot to reindex for some Spanish queue that you’re not indexing the first time and actually be more relevant for Spanish related keywords. So that would be my tip. Yeah. Cool.   Crystal Ren:   So one tip I learned to increase your productivity by the way is to color different activities you do. So put everything together on your calendar. Like, if you go take a shower, you put it on your calendar. If you go to do some paperwork, you go put it on your calendar, but you want to categorize them differently. So, for example, I categorize them based on, you know, deep work, shallow work. So deep work could be something like a drafting agreement, right? With a supplier. And that would probably take like two to three hours of uninterrupted time. And shallow work would be something like I don’t know, like you know, putting together expense report, you know, so that’s some kind of administrative work that you need to do. And you know, there’s other things, for example, like personal time you know, a shower.   Crystal Ren:   So you mark them differently to make sure that you have enough of deep work time a week so that you know how much, how many hours you spend on deep work, how many hours do you spend on shallow work, which is something that you wanna shrink as much as possible and how, how many hours do you spend on personal time, which maybe perhaps that’s something that you wanna protect right? And you also want to make sure that you have a balanced life so you’re not overworking. So by coloring them into different categories, you can see that visually whether you’re being productive and whether you are having like a balanced week. And that’s what I’ve been doing for now, like six, seven months now.   Bradley Sutton:   Hey, you’re doing great on sales, about to run out of stock. Do you slow sales by raising price and turning off ads and then that hurts your potentially keyword ranks before? Or do you just go hard and heavy, run out of stock and then just get back in and hopefully you still have your keyword ranks when you come back in the stock in a couple of weeks?   Liran Hirschkorn:   I think, from a ranking perspective, it’s better to run out of stock at a better BSR. I think that’s the better way to go. Sometimes you’re going to make a decision that, hey, I just want the profits Right, because that’s what’s more important to me at this point in my business. I’m going to focus more on the profits now, I’m going to reduce, I’m going to raise the price. Or sometimes you may be able to raise the price and there’s so much demand that you’re still driving pretty good sales and you can still raise the price someone and there’s a happy medium. But I would say, from a ranking perspective and coming back in stock at a better rank, it’s better to go out of stock with great sales than to slow down your sales.   Bradley Sutton:   And this is why I said that kind of like off the wall thing earlier where I’m now suggesting that you might want to always do a test listing. Now, all right, I didn’t say that before you know. I said do kind of test listing so you can, so that you can know what kind of exposure you’re going to get on PPC to validate some, some theories you have. When there’s not enough information from existing competitors, you know you might want to make sure that you validate your idea with a test listing. But now, guys, I’m saying, if you’re selling in a newer niche, especially and maybe sometimes, even if you’re an established niche, it might be worth it to spend you know 50 bucks and get another UPC code and just do a fulfill by merchant listing, send a couple of or have a couple of units available and have your listing that you want to go with and then see immediately what does Amazon think that you’re relevant for right. And then if you’re completely fine with this listing and you have the right keywords for Amazon recommended rank from day one, all right, well, you’re good to go. That means go ahead and launch your regular product once you’re ready and you can have that exact listing, knowing that from day one you might have that.   Mina Elias:   So for me, I think what I’ve seen is the sale, the selling points, like the USB, the selling point being visible and you showing that you’re better than everyone else just from the main image. And so when I, when I put a bunch of you know like products next to each other, my competitors versus me, like I know that I’m looking for a product, not a lot of people take advantage of the text on their, on their boxes or on their products. So, for example, let’s say you know you’re selling like flip flops, the cloud flip flops, so you can have the flip flops and, and you know, in an angle whatever. Or you can have the flip flops put on top of a box, a fake box, and on that box, you have two sides where you can write text and it says, like you know, the softest material on the market or whatever a hundred percent recyclable stuff like that, right, because you can have that text on the box that you couldn’t have actually have on your package, and that box probably doesn’t exist. You know you’re probably shipping it in a of the day, they’re going to get your slippers. They’re going to look this, you know they’re going to look like slippers.   Mina Elias:   So for me, my product, my electrolytes if you go look at it on Amazon, it’s like shinier. There’s text on the cap, there’s like some different logos that show that actually don’t exist on the bottle and when they do get the bottle it looks very, very similar. There’s just a few things, and those few things those are the differences that when someone types in a keyword and they’re looking, you know they’re browsing, I catch their eye because I have, like some elements outside of the product that are eye catching and I have some text on the product that, like they’re looking at all like this is an electrolyte powder, so this is an electrolyte powder with no sugar, with no carbs, and it has this and it’s made in America and it’s all of these things on the label and so they’re like they’re convinced to click on me without having to read like title or anything like that.   Ritu Java:   For example, just this morning I was preparing for a new product launch for one of our clients and I’d got all my data from Helium 10. I was at the stage where I have to come up with some keywords for broad match campaigns. I wanted to make sure that all the right keywords are in there, not just the long tail ones with high search volume, but I wanted to make sure that I’m capturing all the seed combinations of important words that make sense. So what I did was I exported the Helium 10 cerebral analysis and I fed it to ChatGPT and asked it to come up with two words and three word combinations of seed keywords that would perfectly describe this product. Now what I’m going to do next with that is basically convert that into broad match modifiers, which basically means you add a plus sign in front of all the seeds and then I’m going to create campaigns with it. So that’s something that I do at every launch. I generally don’t skip that step. It’s an important one for me. So, in addition to all the long tail keywords, I will come up with enough seed words that will run at a slightly lower bid but will be like a discovery campaign for me through the broad match modifier channel. So that’s kind of one thing that I do.   Ritu Java:   Then, like yesterday, I was doing another one for another client, where we have a list of keywords that we discovered from the search query performance report, which is kind of this new, very valuable piece of data that Amazon is giving us these days. So from there I was able to come up with a structure for sponsored brand headline ads and I didn’t have to do the work. I just fed that entire list to ChatGPT and said, hey, organize this into groups of very related words and then give me a headline ad which is less than 50 characters, because that’s the amount Amazon will give us. And then it did that for me. I also gave it one other important instruction, which is to make sure that one of the keywords or a very close variant of that keyword in the group must be included in the title, and that’s basically my way of saying, hey, I want this to be a lower funnel ad, not a generic kind of upper funnel ad, because my sponsored brand ads tend to be more focused on RoAS rather than brand discovery and brand awareness. So those are some of the ways that I’m using it almost on a daily basis. I had switched to ChatGPT plus a long time ago. I’ve been paying for it and it’s totally worth it.   Matt Altman: Yeah, so the great thing about Product Opportunity Explorer is it really shows you what keywords are driving the sales for those. So more than how many products are there we’re looking at, are there branded terms that are in the Product Opportunity Explorer.  So like an example that we were looking at this past week was for a floor cleaning product and we saw that of the 20 top like 50 keywords, bona was one of the main sales driving keywords. Like, even if there weren’t that many products in that category, we aren’t going to be able to overcome that branded search deficit. So it’s just not something that we would go into Um, but we definitely prefer to go into categories where those sales are spread across more Um. The main reason for that is we really like to do kind of um I would call it kind of like tailgating. We like to kind of stay behind everyone and we’ll pull like 10% of the sales from this person, from this person, and you can kind of pick off keywords from certain top products and they may not notice that you’re coming up and then you can really use that to catapult yourself to the top of the category before the rest of the products in the category realized what’s happening.   Marcus Mokros:   Amazon recently announced that they will look for title images that are not meeting the terms of service and they will use AI to change that. They will download your image, remove everything that doesn’t belong there in their opinion and upload it again, and that is something you don’t want. You don’t want an AI to touch your title image. Yeah, and Michael from AMZ Boost, a product photographer, he told me, just use your picture, space number nine. Nobody looks there. Put a title image there that will meet the terms of service and because what Amazon is doing first, they will scan your product photos and check if there is something that is compliant to the terms of service and they will put it to spot number one as your title image. And if they don’t find something, they will change it in their terms. So that’s an awesome hack.

Listen in as we explore the latest buzz around Amazon, starting with their new advertising push on Prime Video to their billionth same-day delivery package milestone. Plus, let’s look at the latest features inside Helium 10. We’re back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10’s Chief Brand Evangelist, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, interview someone you need to hear from and provide a training tip for the week. Amazon Prime Video viewers will have to pay an extra $2.99 monthly in January to avoid ads https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/amazon-prime-video-ads-commercials-when-does-it-start-how-to-avoid-rcna131369 Amazon customers have scored 1 billion packages from U.S. Same-Day sites https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/transportation/amazon-same-day-delivery-milestone Amazon.se: Three years in Sweden https://www.aboutamazon.eu/news/job-creation-and-investment/amazon-se-three-years-in-sweden Bringing electric cargo bike deliveries to Croydon, England https://www.aboutamazon.eu/news/sustainability/bringing-electric-cargo-bike-deliveries-to-croydon-england Meanwhile, Bradley is buzzing with excitement as he gears up to jet-set across Pakistan, Germany, and back to the US next year for multiple Amazon events. He’s excited to meet you in person! But before you think this episode is all about the hustle, he introduces you to slick additions and features to Helium 10: the product tag group, Chrome extension updates, and the new subscribe and save feature. It's all about giving you that competitive edge. And for a final flourish of wisdom, Shivali steps in with her training tip on using Inventory Heat Maps, ensuring you're never caught off guard by shipping delays again. This year might be winding down, but we're just getting started on setting you up for success! In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley talks about: 01:17 - Amazon Prime Video Ads 03:19 - Billion Same-Day Orders 05:04 - Amazon Sweden 06:07 - Vacation Settings 08:00 - Amazon Delivery Bikes 09:19 - Catch Bradley On The Following Events 14:52 - Helium 10 New Feature Alerts 21:18 - ProTraining Tip: Inventory Heat Maps   ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup  (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos   Transcript Bradley Sutton: Amazon sponsored TV ads are about to go into effect. Even more, amazon just delivered its billionth same-day delivery product the Amazon conferences you need to attend in Q1 of 2024. How to check which warehouse is your inventory is at in FBA All of these and more on today's weekly buzz. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I'm your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show. That is our Helium 10 weekly Buzz, where we give you a rundown of all the news stories that affect Amazon, Walmart and e-commerce sellers. We let you know what new tools and features Helium 10 has, and we also give you training tips of the week that will give you serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. Let's see what's buzzing. We've got a few articles that we're going to talk about some various topics that are actually not that much going on in the e-commerce world. For a change, it's the holiday week and not a lot of news reporters out there or Amazon press releases going on, so a little bit light, but make sure to stay to the end, because we have some cool training tips. I think that will help you. Let's go ahead and hop into the first article Bradley Sutton: Now. The first article is actually from Amazon, and this article I actually pulled from CNBC. But Amazon announced that Prime Video viewers are now going to have to pay an extra 299 monthly fee in January to avoid ads. So ads are now going to go ahead and start coming in. This was announced a while back. We talked about sponsored TV. That was announced at Amazon Accelerate or Amazon Unboxed. It was talked about, and so how people are going to consume these ads is basically everybody who's been watching Prime TV shows or Prime movies. They're going to start seeing these ads more unless they pay this $2.99 fee starting in late January. That's going to be in addition to the $139 cost of Amazon Prime I didn't remember that Amazon Prime cost that much or the $8.99 a month Amazon Prime subscription. Now this should come as no kind of surprise as far as Amazon always trying to find new advertising lanes. This article talks about how Amazon's advertising is now 8% of the company's total net sales and advertising incomes surpass income from subscription services last year. All right, so are you going to be trying these sponsored TV? It's different than pay per click where it's like, hey, somebody sees an ad of your product and they could purchase it right away. Now there are some versions of this where that can happen. We saw that in was it the Black Friday football game a few weeks ago but this is more of a brand play, like an awareness. I think that's going to be the benefit of this, and that's a little bit harder to measure if you're a smaller brand. This totally makes sense for a huge nine figure and above brands. What about you? How many of you are interested in trying out sponsored TV ads? Has it? Have any of you tried so far? Let me know in the comments below. Bradley Sutton: The next article is also having to do with Amazon, and it was entitled that Amazon customers have scored 1 billion packages from US same day sites. Now, they had this quarterback from some college I think he's from Washington or something, Michael Penix and he actually physically himself delivered the 1 billionth package. This article brought out that there's actually 90 different metro areas where same day delivery is possible and 55 different locations that's delivering, and this is all just big cities like the ones mentioned here, which are San Francisco, LA, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Orlando, Detroit and Miami. There's a lot of other places like I live in like a suburb of San Diego and you know this is a tiny, not tiny town, it's like 50. 50, 80, 90,000 people, but a lot of the stuff I get is same day delivery. So this is, you know, something that just I think, makes Amazon Prime more sticky for customers. And so the more inventory you put into Amazon, the likely, the more likely, that a portion of the population are going to have it available for same day delivery. Now, where you're, you know if you actually get a list of warehouses where Amazon does offer same day delivery service. Now, that would be something interesting for you guys to check and cross reference with where Amazon is storing your products to see if you know how big, how much of the country or how many of these 90 locations are getting same day delivery. And actually, the training tip of the week this week, you know, Shivali is going to talk about how you can actually see where in Amazon your inventory is stored. Bradley Sutton: Next article, also from Amazon, it was entitled Amazonse three years in Sweden. Believe it or not, guys, I mean it just seems like yesterday this was one of the new kids on the block in Amazon. Europe was Sweden, but, believe it or not, it began in late 2020. So now it's three years and there's 550 million products available on Amazon Sweden in 30 categories. I'll tell you right now I have not heard of one amazing success story from Amazon Sweden. Obviously, you know you can look at this article that's linked in the comments. But you know there's Amazon Sweden is moving some numbers, but I want to hear from those who are crushing on Amazon Sweden, because I haven't yet. You know, like, like, we always talk about the big five in Europe, you know being UK, France, Spain, Italy and Germany, but I don't hear too much about Amazon Netherlands and Sweden and Poland, about you know, some people crushing it. So if you are selling in that marketplace, let me know in the comments and let me know how it's going for you Speaking of Amazon there in your seller central dashboard. Bradley Sutton: There's just a reminder for those of you Maybe this is your first holiday season. Maybe you're going to go on vacation and you've got fulfilled by merchant listings. That would be me. I'm not going on vacation, but I have tons of everything I sell in Project X and in my own accounts is fulfilled by merchant and I also have another skew for FBA. Now what you need to do if you're not going to be able to fulfill. You know you have to be able to add tracking numbers right To orders. It's better to not close the listing one by one, especially if you have a lot, but set up vacation settings is what Amazon is reminding you to do. So you can actually do this by setting up vacation mode on the account. There's a link right on your dashboard to do that, and so just with a couple of clicks Now all of your fulfilled by merchant listings are going to be paused, so you're not going to be responsible for shipping anything. Bradley Sutton: Now, one of the things that this doesn't do is affect the time that you have to reply to customer service emails. Remember, you have 24 hours a day. Due to that, 365 days a year, seven days a week, you have to reply within 24 hours to customer service email. So I didn't know about this and I wouldn't pay for this. I'm just gonna always, you know, reply. But they say in this article hey, you should consider setting up customer service by Amazon. It's a paid program that's why I wouldn't do it but where Amazon will take care of customer service on, even on your self-fulfilled Orders, and they'll they'll take care of that by a phone, a chat and email. So, again, if you're going on vacation at any time of the year not not just here in the holidays and you've got fulfilled by merchant listings, amazon doesn't care that you're on vacation. You still have to deliver it within a certain time, so it's best to turn it off. Or if you've got a lot, go ahead and put that vacation settings on a last article of the day. It's just kind of like a funny article, you know, if you think of, you know FedEx trucks. You think of the white with the blue and red letters, right, if you think of, ups trucks is brown. You know those brown trucks. They all look the same and even now Amazon has mostly those like gray, amazon Prime kind of like electric looking trucks and other vans. Bradley Sutton: Amazon put out an article from Amazon Europe. They have got the coolest delivery out of everybody. I think, right, like I would rock this, like I would deliver pizza in this. But, guys, if you guys are watching this on YouTube or if you're watching this on the podcast, go watch us on YouTube. Take a look at this article. They've got these cool electric Cargo bikes, they call it. They're kind of like four wheelers, almost With no doors. It's kind of hard to describe if you're not, if you're not looking at this, but I would totally have rocked this when I was like in high school to go to school or something or you know, deliver pizzas on the side, but is this like what you guys in Europe, is this how you guys are getting your Amazon deliveries on these cool, these cool electric bikes? They even have like a windshield and a windshield wiper and it's just. It's kind of hard to describe here, but definitely take a look at it. If you're just listening to this on the podcast, I'm just curious is that what you guys are used to? As far as what's delivering your products? Let me know, all right. Bradley Sutton: Next up, I want to talk about the different Events I'm going to be at and all over the world. You know, you guys know I like to travel, but I like meeting helium to members in different parts of the world. Now, the very first event of the year that I'll be at will actually be back in for my third time in Lahore, Pakistan. All right, so that it's the reality check growth conference. Saddam from AMZ One Step is one of the ones who is putting it on. I'll be one of this speakers there, there'll be other speakers, you know, people I've met before and a lot of service providers and agencies Coming out. So if you are in the Lahore area or anywhere in Pakistan you're able to go. Go to h10.me/reality. It's January 14th in Lahore, Pakistan, you know, one of my favorite countries to visit because of the food, the hospitality. There goes my diet for my news years. If I had New Year's resolution in January, it's gone, because I cannot be on a diet in Pakistan with the Chicken Biryani and everything else I want. I want to eat. But anyways, January 14th, if you guys are in that area, make sure to come by. Bradley Sutton: The next event is going to be January 25th, all right, and I don't have a, a website for this yet. We'll announce it next week. It'll be in Frankfurt, Hermany, right in the airport. Like literally, you walk off the airplane and there's the airport and then it's a building that's attached to the airport. It's gonna be a co-hosted event with Avosk and this is gonna be the first half is gonna be an Elite workshop. So if you're a helium-10 elite member or serious sellers club member, go to the Facebook group and I'll give you guys a link to sign up for that. It'll be free for you and you can stay the whole day. For the afternoon it's gonna be open to the public. I believe it's gonna be 75 euros and there'll be tons of different speakers at the event, including myself. I'll be speaking at the event and there'll be other speakers from different countries around, including potentially speakers from who have worked at Companies like Lego, etc. So We'll be confirming the speakers and confirming the the how to sign up shortly. Bradley Sutton: But mark your calendars Frankfurt, germany, on January, the 25th, speaking of Germany, also going to be at AMZ Hacking live. That's gonna be in Berlin, germany, and that's gonna be on the 27th of January. So make sure to go to AMZ hacking line. You can go to the website by going to h10.me/germany to get tickets. I'm just one of many, many speakers who are gonna be at at this event. It's gonna be great. There's gonna be like VIP dinner the night before and then a social afterwards. So that's definitely one of the top events in for the entire year in Germany is the AMZ Hacking live, all right. Bradley Sutton: Another event this is actually a virtual one in February, all right. So after the Germany ones, the next one that I'll be doing is online wins the billion dollar seller summit. All right, this is gonna be an online event. You can go to h10.me/bdss, BDSS it's there's and then look for the online event, or it's called the virtual event, and that'll be February 21st and 22nd, put on by Kevin King. Tons of speakers there. I'm gonna be doing a presentation unlike anything I've ever done before, completely different than what you're used to when you're, when you're seeing my, my presentation, and we talk about stuff I've never talked about before. So make sure to go to that one, too. Bradley Sutton: Next up, there's going to be back here in the United States a Want pretty much usually the biggest conference In the United States outside of the ones that Amazon does every year, and that's the prosper show, and it's going to be in Vegas at Mandalay Bay, all right, from March 4th to March 6th, all right. So you know, I've been to probably every prosper Since like 2018, so I don't know how many. That is 6, 7 or something like that. Always a great show. I'll be speaking at that event too. If you guys want to get tickets, go to h10.me/prosper. And I'm not sure where this coupon code comes from, but there is a coupon code for this event that you can use to get a hundred dollars off, alright, and it is SANAR1100OFFSPEAK. So again, if you're, you know, just listening to this and you don't see the little ticker right here, write this down SANAR1100OFFSPEAK. And that should save you $100 off of the ticket. That again, that's in, that's in Las Vegas, and we'll probably do, like you know, maybe some, some mini socials or something that we can, you know, get together at that event. Now, shortly thereafter it hasn't been confirmed yet I might be going to do an Amazon event, like an event that's actually put on by Amazon in the Philippines, their first time Going to the Philippines. That'll probably be announced in the next couple weeks. All right, so that's it for all of the events in Q1 of 2024. A lot going on. I know there's other events too, but those are the ones that I'll be personally at, and others from my team might Be there as well, so you can meet us and hang out. We always love to do that. Bradley Sutton: All right, next up, let us go into the new feature alerts from Helium 10. This is something that we do every week, because literally every week, Helium 10 is launching either a new tool, a new feature, a new function, some kind of you know request that the customers have been asking for. The team is working year round. Here we are right after Christmas and there's stuff to announce, all right. So the first one I want to talk about is this again comes from the customers, because a lot of you guys were asking like, hey, yes, that's cool that in Helium 10, you know, in the profits and the insights dashboard, I can see products group by parent and things like that, and I could, you know, maybe even buy brand. But I want to have like full flexibility about Grouping products together so I can maybe see all of the sales of a certain you know like niche of products, or maybe it's not everything in a certain brand. Whatever the case is, you can now make custom groups and we call this tags. All right, so in your dashboard, your insights dashboard, I should say there will be a button that says tag, with a plus sign. So what you can do is hit that button and then you are going to go to this create tag. Like, let's say, I want to make a group of my products or a tag for all of my coffin shelves, all right, so I type in the name and then I add all the products that are coffin shelves, all right, and so I can just go ahead and do a search for coffin shelf. So what I can do is I can just go ahead and select, one by one, all of my coffin shelf products and then now I have this tag of coffin shelf and so I can just go ahead and hit this button uh, coffin shelves and then now in my insights dashboard, where it shows all of my product performance, I can just instantly see, like, all right, how's my keywords doing on on this? Um, how is my inventory doing? How many units have I sold in this timeframe? So a kind of cool feature there that you guys have been asking for is the ability to make groups of your products. Bradley Sutton: Next thing I want to talk about a couple uh updates to the Helium 10 Chrome Extension the most used Chrome Extension in the world for Amazon sellers, over one million active users and a couple of things you're going to uh, notice. First of all, this is just the beginning. You're going to start seeing widgets that are in other sponsored ad placement. So you guys know that in the uh, you know search results of Amazon when you run the chrome I mean, actually you don't even have to run the Chrome Extension It'll start showing up these little widgets that say where the seller is coming from, what the BSR is, how many sellers there are, et cetera, et cetera. But now, like, for example, in the sponsored brand headline ad you know that that you guys, hopefully, are running sponsored brand ads you're going to be able to go ahead and grab that ascent information right there, cause you know you can't really see what ascent it is unless you go ahead and click on the ad. So that's one update that has happened. Uh, another update is in this niche or keyword summary section that's at the top of any search result page, once you hit show full summary. Uh, something that a lot of customers were asking for was the ability to sort within the charts that come up here. So now, uh, if you hit the show full summary at this top little widget, any of these charts, you can go ahead and sort by organic rank, by the revenue by the market share, uh, things like that. Bradley Sutton: The last thing I want to talk about in the Chrome Extension is an Xray. All right, so when you run x-ray, first of all it's like loads, a lot faster than it did before and you can see tons and tons of rows. A lot of you guys were saying, hey, we want to see a design where there's a lot of rows showing up here. Now, something you're going to see at the very top right is this little section. Now you know there's no uh, more multi-factor success score. This is called the two-factor score that you can customize so it says top 10 products with revenue over $8,000 in mind and under 125 reviews. So what it's doing is instantly we just a click of the button on x-ray. You can take a look at the search results pages and now know from the top 10 organic positions how many have revenue over x and how many have reviews under y. Now everybody has different thresholds. Like, I put here $8,000 of revenue and so I can see six out of the 10. Top 10 organic ones have $8,000 revenue, but three out of the top 10 have under 125 reviews. Now if you want to customize, like, what thresholds you want to see with that quick access. Just hit your Chrome Extension button and go to the settings gear button and from there now you can go ahead and specify how you want your two-factor success score to work. So again you can. I put $8,000 revenue and 125 reviews because that's what I'm looking for in my top 10 products Last up. Bradley Sutton: Are you somebody who uses subscribe and save? Hopefully you are, if you have some kind of replenishable product, like in grocery or another category. One of the accounts I work on, as you guys know, is a hemp cream, and so this account definitely uses subscribe and save. So now you've got a way to quickly track, get some you know cool information on your subscribe and save in your dashboard. All right, so you're going to want to go to the very bottom of the page and then you're going to hit add chart. There's an add chart button and the chart that you're going to want to add is the subscribe and save chart. Once you go ahead and add that, it's now going to come up a new widget that will tell you exactly, in the timeframe that you have selected, what's going on with your subscribe and save. You'll be able to see your rate, the number of units that you've sold in, subscribe and save your sales, what kind of discount the customer got, and then your day by day chart. So this is just the beginning of this tool, but it's something that's going to allow you to just get a quick snapshot at how your subscribe and save is hopefully growing over time and then, if there's like any issues, watching this chart frequently is something that's going to help you out. All right, guys, that's it for the new feature alerts. Bradley Sutton: Last up, we've got Shivali with our training tip of the week. I talked earlier about you know understanding where your inventory is at in the United States, especially when you're launching that's important or when you're relaunching, coming back into stock, or you want to know how many people have access to you know same day service. So you have a list of those locations. Here is how you can see where your inventory is at in the United States. Shivali, take it away. Shivali Patel: Knowing where your inventory is located in warehouses across the country can really come in handy. After all, in the case that you were just launching, opening up your listing before your stock is nicely spread out means running the risk of having potential customers ditch your product for a competitors, all because your delivery time was two to three weeks compared to that gold standard two day shipping. Or perhaps you just want to see where the heck all of your inventory is because you're already selling, but waiting for a shipment to be checked in and save you from low stock or those incoming low inventory level fees that we discussed last week can be really beneficial. A great way to stay on top of both of those concerns is our inventory heat maps located inside of Profits. Think of it as the big brother of all of your Amazon FBA inventory, or a visual map that can help you see where everything is stored. For instance, I am looking at a product I recently launched this past month I actually had the shipment sent to a single Amazon facility a while ago and check out how you can see the inventory spread day by day across the whole country all the way going into December. The bigger the circle you have, the more product you've got there and it's updated every day, giving you the low down on sellable items, on damaged goods, defective items and the total count for each city. Shivali Patel: God forbid but say that there was a tornado that hit an Amazon warehouse or a worker strike, causing chaos. You need to be able to see if your product is affected. At the bottom, you can see how many units are available at every single facility that your shipment has been sent out to, and with heat maps. That is something within reach, because you always have a bird's eye view of your inventory. So go ahead and give it a try. Maybe you'll even get to make some correlations between where your inventory is situated and where it's being sold with the tab over, to help you make smarter decisions and ultimately keep your business on track. Cheers. Bradley Sutton: All right, thank you very much, Shivali, for that. So that's something you guys all have access to. Make sure to check that out in your Profits dashboard. All right, guys. That's it for the news and training of the week. Hope you enjoyed this episode. This is our last one of the year. I'll see you guys next year, next week, to see what's buzzing.  

Unlock the secrets to conquering the Middle Eastern e-commerce landscape as we team up with Krystel, our Dubai-based expert, to navigate the dynamic marketplaces of Amazon UAE, Amazon KSA, and Amazon Egypt. Our discussion peels back the layers of these culturally rich and diverse regions, showcasing strategic entry points for foreign sellers and the innovative AE2SA program that's revolutionizing logistics and cross-border commerce. Embrace the tales of triumph as we reveal how a local Prada sunglasses distributor and a savvy Polish pet treat enterprise struck gold in the desert by leveraging Amazon's robust platform. Crack the code on advertising strategies and product hijacking within Amazon's ecosystem, where we dissect the intricate dance between cost-effective marketing and the darker shades of competitive tactics. Our conversation extends beyond mere product listings, as we arm you with the know-how to refine your sales acumen and construct a resilient product framework. Plus, get an exclusive scoop on the upcoming seller meet-up in Dubai, a hotbed for networking and exchanging insights with fellow entrepreneurs. As the sun sets on our enlightening session, Krystel and I invite you to explore the vast opportunities ripening in the Middle Eastern sun. Whether you're a seasoned seller or just planting your flag, the region's e-commerce growth is a fertile ground, ready for you to sow your business dreams. So, tune in and prepare to be whisked away on a magic carpet ride of invaluable strategies and heartwarming success stories that await in the Middle East's online bazaar.   In episode 521 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Krystel discuss: 00:00 - Fastest Growing Marketplaces on Amazon  04:34 - Amazon Marketplaces In THe Middle East  12:09 - Amazon's Middle East Market Expansion  19:05 - Increase Sales With Prada Sunglasses 22:47 - The Viability of Reselling Products 28:19 - Comparing PPC Costs in Different Marketplaces  29:02 - Advertising and Hijacking on Amazon 34:17 - Building a Customer-Friendly Product Framework 35:30 - How To Contact Krystel Abi Assi ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup  (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Transcript Bradley Sutton: Today we've got somebody back on the show who is going to talk about some of the fastest growing marketplaces in the world for Amazon, amazon UAE and Amazon KSA. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Helium 10's got over 40 tools for e-commerce entrepreneurs. I know how overwhelming it might seem to try and figure out how you're going to learn how to use everything, or maybe even to know which ones you want to get started with, so for a completely free course that's going to guide you through learning everything you need in order to become a Helium 10 expert, visit the Helium 10 Academy. That is h10.me/academy. Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of the series sellers podcast by Helium 10. I am your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show. That's a completely BS free, unscripted and unrehearsed organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world, and we are going on the opposite side of the world today, coming to us live from, I believe, Dubai. We've got Krystel back on the show. How's it going? Krystel: Hey, Bradley, very good. Thank you so much for having me back. Very excited to talk Amazonian with you. Bradley Sutton: Yes, let's do it. Let's do it. You know I'm here in feeling the nostalgic vibes. I'm here in my I'm not going to call this the original serious sellers podcast studio because we, when we first started, we were in another. During the podcast we were in another small we work office way, way back in the day, but this was our second ever podcast studio. I'm here in Irvine, California, at our original Helium 10 office doing some meetings this week, so not in my regular studio, but you, you are. You've been in Dubai. How long now. Krystel: Since, well, I officially moved to Dubai in 2019 myself and the company we moved to Dubai in 2019. So not a very long time. Bradley Sutton: All right About the same time, since I've been in this, this office here. So if you're looking for a Krystel's backstory, we're not going to go too much into it today. You can go to episodes 304 and 376. She was on, so just h10.me/304 or 376. And you can, you know, see, you know a lot more of her backstory there. But today I wanted to, you know, catch up, because now it's it's, you know, pretty much, it's 2024. And we are, you know, in a new world where Amazon is opening up again to other market places. You know, there was a time where, where it seemed like it, wasn't really opening up to to new marketplaces and there was a time where there was just booming, you know, opening up in UAE and Saudi Arabia and other places. So I wanted to kind of like see what's going on in that region. So, first of all, in that area it's not just Amazon UAE, but what are the other main marketplaces in your region over there? Krystel: If you are a seller that's based or you know, you launch on Amazon in the UAE, you're not just serving the UAE customers, but you're serving UAE customers, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait and, most notably and recently, Qatar, which became quite a popular country because, you know, if you're, if you're soccer fans, or yeah, or World Cup fans, then that's a really cool country. So, yes, as a seller, now you could just send your products over to Amazon in the UAE and you'll be able to access all of those countries as well. Bradley Sutton: Okay, interesting, interesting. Now, which token is that connected to? Because I like, for example, if I'm selling in Amazon USA, that's like the North American token, but it actually also includes, you know, Mexico, Canada and Actually Brazil. You know, if I'm selling in in in Singapore, that's part of like the Asian token includes like Japan. And then there's Europe, which, just with the, you know, once I'm in one marketplace, I'm in all of the others. Now, is that, is that region connected to Europe? Is it connected to the Asian Marketplace where, as long as you're selling there, it's, it's pretty much just a few clicks? And then, of course, your business information, where I don't have to apply like from scratch, or is it its own separate entity? Krystel: It's really cool that you brought this up. So let me just clarify again Amazon doesn't have an Amazon like, unlike in Europe, where you have, for example, amazon Germany, amazon Spain, amazon France. Amazon still only has Operations in these three countries that I mentioned. However, they do. You as a seller, it'll be much easier for you because you can simply have your products warehouse in the UAE and sell them all across the rest of these countries that I just mentioned as well. Amazon has its own entity for the region, dubbed as Amazon Middle East, so it is part of your global marketplaces. For anyone that is currently an Amazon seller, you could just log in, add a new marketplace and you'll find the Middle East, and you'll find three countries under the Middle East KSA UAE and Egypt. You will not, unlike North America. You'll not be automatically, automatically. You know not. All three markets are gonna be automatically. You're not gonna be enrolled in them. You're gonna have to enroll in them separately. Bradley Sutton: Okay, interesting interest. All right now. I think as far as helium 10 is concerned, it's it's tied to one of them, if it's its own region or tied to another place. Krystel: I'm not a hundred percent sure you guys are tight counts, like when you're. Bradley Sutton: Yes, oh tight to Europe. Okay that's important for some customers like, or anybody who uses software like helium 10, everybody does it the same way. Like they count, like how many Marketplaces you're in, not necessarily by each marketplace, but by the token. So so like, for example, a certain level of helium 10, if it says you're allowed to connect to Tokens, it doesn't mean just like two marketplaces like US and Canada, that actually still counts for one, even Mexico and Brazil, and then if you're in Europe, that actually counts for two. So I think what you're saying is like, hey, if you, if you are selling in Europe, or whether you're not selling in Europe, it counts as all, as just one token. So you don't have to like, get another helium 10 account, guys you know, to be able to to access our tools for the UAE marketplace. Now, what, how's it been? You know UAE is now, you know, been there for a few years Amazon UAE. Is that the number one grossing marketplace from the ones that that you mentioned? Or Saudi Arabia, come up, or what would you say? Krystel: So let me give you some numbers which are quite interesting. I'm looking at my phone cuz I have, like these slide See, these pictures of us in the actual event, so that I just mentioned. So If you forget all of the stats coming out of the region, you'll find that you know the numbers are really promising. Just to just as a backstory as well, the region isn't that big. Population wise, like the whole of the Middle East, is probably the same population of just the US alone, so this is not a very big market. So these numbers, which you might not consider very big if you guys sell in the US, but based on the population, it's quite. Krystel: It's quite interesting seeing that Two of the strongest countries when it comes to e-commerce are really just the UAE and Saudi, because they have also the biggest population. But what's estimated to Sales and e-commerce are estimated to reach about 56 billion US dollars in 2025, which is a really good growth and a really big spike. Very interesting, but that's e-commerce sales in general. Now, amazon in the recent year. What they shared during the event was what they saw in 2023 was a 69% sales growth on Amazon UAE and a 65% sales growth on Amazon KSA, which is quite interesting the reason why I think KSA is Picking up. Bradley Sutton: I know what it means, but just let everybody know what you're referring to with KSA. Krystel: Oh, kingdom of Saudi Arabia, sorry. Yes, so it's Saudi Arabia. So the official, the official or the shorter version of saying Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or Saudi Arabia. Bradley Sutton: Yeah, I knew that, but, like you know, I think there's a popular youtuber with that name, so, like some, some people might have got a little bit confused, but yeah just make sure, we're all on the same page, but that's. Krystel: KSA. But yeah, you're right, You're right. Bradley Sutton: There you go, okay. Krystel: You're right. You're right, so it, so the sales growth, is quite significant. It's simply because Saudi Arabia started a little bit later than UAE Amazon wise, that's what I mean started. So Amazon launched in 2019 In the UAE and then at the end of 2020, early 2021, which is obviously not wasn't an easy time they launched in Saudi. So that's why, plus Saudi, Saudi Arabia, or KSA, is Bigger, like it has three times the population of UAE. So I think it's natural to see those growth. Another number that I think would be interesting to share is something that they call the new to brand, which is very much a Salesy type of platform type of metric that they follow. Will would would life to dissect it with you a little bit further, Bradley, but what they said was the UAE is experiencing about 38% increase in new to brand customer growth and Saudi Arabia is experiencing 67% in new to brand customer growth. Bradley Sutton: Interesting, interesting. So that's you know some promising, promising numbers. Yeah, um, there now, uh, there's every. You know, for somebody who's not familiar with the region, uh, and the operations there, is it very similar with how amazon operates everywhere else? You know like most customers will be able to get, you know, same day or one or two day delivery, and, and you know there's different. There's FBA warehouses all over the place and, and just like the, the, the system is exactly the same. Um, or are there some intricacies due to local laws or or the region? Krystel: That's a really good question. Actually, they are exactly the same and I have another number to share with you, if I can find it. Um, it's based on what amazon is trying, how amazon is trying to expand in the region, what they're trying to do and this is according to amazon's metrics, not to mine, okay, not my metrics uh, what they're what they've done is when it comes to storage. So let's, let's dissect the storage part of of your question. Yes, all fba, everything's there. Same day delivery, um, next day delivery, probably not two day delivery, even Quite quite good fulfillment centers and quite good uh logistic support. Uh, when asked, uh, a lot of customers say the reason why they like buying from amazon is primarily because of convenience and not because of price. So that's something to to be aware of. It's not a very price sensitive market, but obviously everybody likes to get a bargain. You know, um, amazon currently is it's increasing its capacity in the UAE by about 70%. So they do have about five fulfillment centers and they're opening up mega fulfillment centers in the UAE. I think they're positioning the UAE in particular to be the hub for the rest of the Middle East. Um, they obviously also do have uh lots of storage warehouses in Saudi Arabia. I don't have numbers for that. And what they're looking is they're looking to showcase and to, but they call it showcase, but obviously they want to onboard new sellers. They want to reach a hundred thousand sellers by 2026, all focused on SMEs and not necessarily large brands and retailers. So that's cool, okay. Bradley Sutton: All right. Now, you know, like, when you look on the amazon website and look up like, or Google like, amazon middle east, it mentions the two marketplaces we've been, we've been talking about um, which is, uh, you know, UAE and and KSA. Now what I don't see you know, their advertise at least is is amazon Egypt. But it but it mentions they like amazon Egypt was also something taken over from a Sukh website, like, like, is it fulfilled from amazon UAE? Is it completely separate or what's going on in Egypt? Krystel: You know, Egypt is one of the most interesting markets for me uh population wise. It has a hundred million people, so it is technically one of the biggest countries uh in the Middle East Um and it's a very promising market Uh. However, based on the logistics and how difficult it is for uh foreigners and foreign sellers to be able to import export products into uh Egypt, what amazon have done is they've just open, operating it as a local amazon market, meaning they're really focused on supporting uh manufacturers and sellers in the region sell on amazon as an additional sales channel and it's not really opened up to um to foreign sellers or to international sellers. Bradley Sutton: Interesting Okay. Krystel: Yeah. Bradley Sutton: So then, if I am a foreigner international seller, would you suggest, uh, I go at the same time in UAE and KSA, or is one a better starting point uh than the other? Krystel: That's a really good question. We get a lot of people reaching out to us for support, especially brands that want to, you know, really come into the market. Um, they're potentially already have feelers in the market. They know their product might work well. So we always tend to suggest that you get started in one market, which is probably the UAE. It is the most easiest market for you as an international seller to get into, launch your products in the UAE and then sell on amazon and KSA. What do I mean by that? So amazon did recently release a program which we are a part of and we support all sellers with that program called AE2SA, which basically means they want to support sellers. Krystel: Uh, try to expand from the UAE to KSA with support with things like logistics, shipment, product registration and also being able to immediately open your global account from UAE to Saudi. The reason for this is because the laws and regulations in Saudi are quite difficult when it comes to importing products, in particular, as opposed to the UAE. Um, I think the country is definitely making a lot of changes. I'm sure you guys have heard a lot of things that are happening nowadays in Saudi, so it's a really, really interesting country. But still, when it comes to business, there's still this problem. Amazon really recognized this and they saw that um SMEs, which are the majority of amazon sellers, aren't able to easily logistically get into Saudi, and that's why they thought the easiest way would be to just help and support them get from UAE over to Saudi with the help and support of Amazon. Bradley Sutton: Okay, now, uh, I know UAE is in mainly English marketplace as far as the language that you make your listings in. What about, uh, KSA? Is it also English? Krystel: Um, honestly. Honestly speaking, let's talk about the actual consumer first. Yes, amazon in the UAE is like you said, Bradley, because you have a lot of insights here. Uh, yes, primarily English. You do all of your cataloging in English. However, in UAE they did actually have to change the backend, the Amazon seller central, to be also in Arabic, because primarily, the main language spoken in well, the language in the region is Arabic, of course, but the UAE has about 80, or maybe a little bit more than 80% expats all English speaking, so the market itself is very heavy in English, whereas in Saudi Arabia it's it's the national, the actual language of the country, which is primarily Arabic. Bradley Sutton: So you can list your, so then you need to create your listings in Arabic for for KSA, as opposed to English. Krystel: You can. You have the option of creating it in both English and Arabic. You have the option of creating it in Arabic and getting Amazon to translate it to you in English Sorry, yeah, and getting Amazon to translate it in Arabic if you want to or you can log in and tweak the Arabic content as well. In the UAE we don't have that option, so we catalog all of our listings in English and the website automatically just translates the language into Arabic. We can't, we don't have any input as to if there's anything wrong with the, with the wording. Bradley Sutton: Got it, got it Okay, so not a lot of work for translation companies here in the region. Krystel: So it's going to be quite easy for you guys to be able to list your products for sure. Bradley Sutton: How about one success story each? You don't have to, you don't have to mention names or exact numbers, but one success story each from somebody that you know having success in UAE from outside of the country. You know could be somebody from Europe, somebody from North America who you know, maybe one of your clients, or just somebody in your network who said, hey, let's try UAE, and then they were here and now they're here, and then also somebody living in in UAE. Like I know, we had a one of somebody from your network last year on the podcast. I think he was originally from Serbia, if I'm not mistaken, but another kind of like success, or just to give people like an idea of like what the potential is of, you know, showing examples of real people. Krystel: Of course, I'm going to give you two examples of actual clients that we've worked with. Being an Amazon service provider, we work with a lot of key accounts from Amazon, so they send us a lot of great accounts that we can help, especially when it comes to strategies, which is what we love to do. What we see in the region here is that especially you know the numbers that I told you about earlier new to brand numbers. Those are primarily because larger brands in the Middle East, such as the recognized brands that you guys know and love, that we all buy, like Apple, samsung those types of brands don't really take Amazon seriously in the region. It's just just another sales channel for them. So that's why I think really savvy entrepreneurs are able to just come in soup in, and if you know how to sell to the Amazon customer these days because you know, you really know how to sell, you really need to know how to sell in this market then you'll you're able to pick up where these brands have left off. Krystel: We recently actually started working with Prada Prada sunglasses. We don't work directly with the Prada company, we work with the distributor of Prada right here in the UAE and they are a prime example of a retailer that was just. You know, they just have their products on Amazon because they need to. They don't have their team is amazing, but their team has no knowledge of Amazon. They're just an e-commerce like a couple of e-commerce people. They know a little bit about websites, they know a little bit about that, but they don't know a lot about the interest cases on Amazon. And because we made a lot of the changes to their listings, we were able to understand who their key client was. And, mind you, prada sunglasses are not cheap, of course. You know that. So we were able to actually increase their sales during definitely during Black Friday, without doing like a crazy discount, but we focused a lot on some of the viral Prada sunglasses that were, you know, viral now on TikTok. We were able to increase their sales by about 500%, and that's just during Black Friday. So the key takeaway of this story is to understand that sales are there, customers are there, but it's also very important to understand how the customer operates on Amazon, how they like to purchase products, what are their buyer personas and how to talk to those buyers. And still large brands like Prada still need to do the same thing. Krystel: Another story would be one of our brands that we recently well as of three or four months ago we started working with. They are a dog treat company. They sell natural dog treats. Based out of Poland, they are one of the largest they're really really popular brand on Amazon in Europe. We help them from start to finish, enter into Amazon in the UAE. It was quite difficult because they sell natural, raw dog treats for them to enter into KSA, so what we did was support them. You know, to get these products into the UAE is not really that complicated If I were to compare it to any other country. They do require registration. Things like makeup, things like supplements. Of course, these products do require registration, but the registration is quite simple. It takes about 15 days. It's very inexpensive to do, very easy to get done. So we did that. We launched the products. The pet industry here in the region is booming since 2020. Everybody now has pets. You see pets everywhere, but obviously pet stores sell the same exact products because it's the same distributors. So customers who are looking for things that are different, looking for things that are unique whether that be pet accessories or food or anything like that opt to search for them on marketplaces like Amazon, and that's where this company was able to, you know, really come into the region and be able to take a huge market share on Amazon, and now, from Amazon UAE, they've also launched NKSA through the program that we just discussed. Bradley Sutton: Are there other kinds of of selling that are having success in KSA and UAE, for example? Obviously we mainly talk about private label here, but there's people who do wholesale arbitrage. I'm not even sure if KDP is a thing over there, but our other forms of selling like maybe entry points for people or pretty much the way to go is private label in those marketplaces. Krystel: That's a great question. Thank you so much for bringing that up. I mainly work with private label. That's why I always have the private label lens on. I love private label as well, but, yes, for sure, other selling models, and obviously you don't need to pigeonhole yourself. If you are doing private label, you could also do reselling as well. Kdp doesn't exist in the region. I would say retail arbitrage is quite impossible. Amazon is making it very, very difficult for sellers to just sell just products that they buy from stores. But reselling is available and, yes, we don't deal with I don't have direct relations with anyone that does reselling, but I do. Obviously, in our community meetups I do meet a lot of people that are doing reselling and they're doing quite well. Krystel: The only thing that you would need to think about is you would just need a larger catalog. Because of the size of the market. You're not gonna have products that are selling thousands of units per day, so you would just need to think about expanding your catalog, and that's what you need to do also for private label. You just need to think about the strategy. You need to expand your catalog so that you can generate the revenue that you're used to generating in markets like the US as an example. But yeah, reselling very popular as well. A lot of people actually go to the local markets here in because we have a lot of wholesale Chinese local markets. They pick up just generic products and they resell them and a lot of people sell branded products. They go directly to the distributors, buy products or they even buy them from. Recently I met a great young lady. She started selling on Amazon. She buys all of her beauty products, everything from a distributor based in France and she sells them. She sells like very recognized brands on Amazon in the UAE and she's killing it and she just started. She's in university and she's doing really well. Bradley Sutton: Okay, excellent, excellent. Now something that's I think a lot of sellers might wonder is all right, this all sounds well and good. How do I get started? Well, a lot of your clients using Helium 10 to do product research and keyword research. And then what are they for KSA? Are they kind of just using like brand analytics and things, since Helium 10 is not, doesn't have the research tools yet over there. Krystel: You guys have left us hanging in KSA. But you are promising me, Bradley, that soon nobody knows when we're gonna have Helium 10. Not, promising. Not promising. Bradley Sutton: But hey, what I can promise is that if the demand is there, we'll make it. So, like if somebody's listening on the show or some of your network want to make sure that Helium 10 opens up for KSA, you guys need to, like, make your voices heard and send customer service messages to say, hey, please, we need these tools for KSA. Krystel: I think that's what everyone did for UAE. I think your customer service team was like help. So, yeah, happy to do it in KSA as well. Let's go. The population is bigger, so I'm sure you're gonna get three times the amount of requests. So, yeah, exactly, we, almost everyone because Helium 10 is a really popular tool. You guys are doing great and we love it as well. Helium 10 is primarily the tool that people use in UAE. Unfortunately, there are no tools currently for KSA. For us, yes, we use brand analytics and such, but unfortunately for new sellers, they try to piece together any type of information that they can find. They maybe use Helium 10 for UAE and try to. They're very similar markets, very, very similar type of customers. So, yeah, they just try to make do with what they have. Bradley Sutton: What for a foreign entity? What are the requirements? What is Amazon asking to set up the account? Like, if I'm a UK business, can I just use my UK corporation? If I have a USA LLC or I'm a private individual, do I just register that? Do I have to have like importer of record, like Japan has? What are the obstacles that I need to think of before going ahead and getting started over there? Krystel: Really cool. Obviously, like any region, I know I'm painting it as very positive, but I look at it as a great region. Of course, but of course, just like any endeavor you guys want to do, you need to research it. Expansion is great, growth is great, but growth comes with risk and being uncomfortable. So if you're happy with that, go ahead and do it. I think and I did say that with you on the earlier, maybe the first ever podcast, I think Amazon UAE is one of, or the Middle Eastern general is probably one of the easiest markets that Amazon have for you to set up as a seller. Absolutely yes. You can get started with your LTD if you're a UK based seller. You can get started with your LLC if you are a US based seller. Absolutely no problem at all, and you can also register a company here in the UAE, avoid paying taxes if you like, and set up on Amazon in the UAE as well. But it is very, very simple. You just need a business license. You can even open a professional account without a business license. You can just use your ID. You just either need your business license and a copy of your ID or you need your ID and a bank statement Very simple and you'll get it done. It's a very simple process to open an account, for sure. Bradley Sutton: PPC costs usually in, I mean, I think in America now people are like, oh my goodness, ppc is so expensive. But in my experience I've seen some of the other newer marketplaces it's usually lower. So is that your experience, comparing it to like US and Europe, where the per click fees in UAE and KSA are a lot less than what somebody might be used to paying in other marketplaces? Krystel: I wish you didn't ask me this question. That's the only negative thing. No, ppc is actually quite expensive here, which is very, very odd. Yes, it's very interesting, very odd. However, this is where it becomes really interesting. Sponsored, brand sponsored display ads are quite expensive. However, everything that you get as a trademark or a brand registered seller on Amazon, such as video ads, banner ads, are quite inexpensive. The reason is the majority of sellers on Amazon, especially the new sellers, are not brand registered here in the market, however, so that's why that part of ads is quite Cheap, dare I say. However, standard ads are somewhat expensive per click Mixture of things. Obviously, everybody wants to advertise these days you know how Amazon is but also potentially because there are a lot of new sellers in the region. So when a new seller launches, they just want to get started, they really want to test out the product. They are willing to sacrifice that product. So they start bidding more than they need to. Guys come on. So they start bidding a little bit higher than they should, which basically gets the PPC ads to be quite expensive. Well, based on how I think they should be, but yeah, it is somewhat high. It's not a cheap place to advertise, for sure. Bradley Sutton: OK, all right, sticking on the potentially negative kind of things. What are the like? Is the same kind of maybe black hat things happening over there, or is it maybe less? You know, like in American marketplaces, there's a lot of maybe listing getting hijacked or a lot of fake reviews that maybe don't get policed, or people trying to do shady things, like again, since that's a smaller marketplace, is that not happening as much, you think, like some of these shady practices, or is it just as prevalent over there as it is in other marketplaces? Krystel: That's an interesting question, I think. When it comes to reviews, no, not that much. When it comes to hijacking, yes. But listen, I get a lot of messages on Instagram. I got a lot of like. We get a lot of calls to the office, people just asking us for help and they say, oh, my listing got hijacked. And then I discover they're not brand registered, they're just selling a standard product. And I say, well, that's not hijacking, that's just another resender. So, yes, if I were to say are there hijackers? Yes, there are, but mostly it's not actually hijackers, it's just the standard business format of Amazon. Krystel: But some sellers don't actually know that that's the case. When they launch on Amazon, they think they own the product. They created the listing and nobody else is allowed to set it. And some hijackers that we have discovered don't do it because of black hat tactics or anything like that. They actually resell a product because they think they're allowed to. They think that's how it works. So we normally actually just communicate directly with the seller and we say, look, you're selling this product. We haven't permitted you to sell it. We don't even have to go through Amazon brand support, like. We could just talk directly to the seller and they're willing to just remove themselves. So it's not as prevalent and it's not as tough. It's quite easy to handle, for sure. Bradley Sutton: OK, cool. Before we get into your strategy of the day, a couple of things. So I'll be in Dubai on January night of January 11th, 12th. So we're going to be planning Krystel something. I maybe, either. I'll probably come in too late on the 11th, so it'll probably be like a seller breakfast or something like that the morning of the 12th. So if people want to first of all, just if they want to reach out to you at all to ask follow up questions or get help with UAE, or they want to reach out to you to find out details about whatever we're going to do on the January 12th, how can they find you out there? Krystel: First of all, I'm really happy. You've got really great loyal listeners, me being one of them, of course, but whenever we did our very first podcast, I got so many follow up questions and it's really, really exciting to see people excited about the potential of coming into the region. Please feel free to reach out to us. You know we're happy to help you in any question that you have, even if it's just a small question. The easiest way to reach out to us is through our official website, which is wwwasasamazonsellerssocietymiddleeastorg, or you could just simply find us on Instagram, amazon Sellers Society. Dm us and we'll be able to help you with anything that you need. Krystel: We will be, obviously, once we decide, bradley, what we're going to have for breakfast and where we're going to have it, we will be announcing it as well. So very excited to see a lot of people come to the breakfast. A lot of Helium 10, you know, a lot of Helium 10. People from the network also now live in Dubai, especially that, as you know, in January the weather is absolutely wonderful. So I hope maybe even people will fly in, who knows? Because the region is really quite close. So if you live anywhere close, you could just hop one hour and come to the breakfast. Bradley Sutton: Yeah, Awesome, awesome, all right now, what is your, you know closest, with a 30 or 60 second strategy of the episode. Go ahead and hit us with one. Krystel: So thank you First and foremost. I always hear from new sellers, especially in the region here, that Amazon is such a saturated market. I think we've been hearing about Amazon being a saturated market probably since the beginning of Amazon. Tools like Helium 10 can definitely help you find really cool products to sell, but nowadays the Amazon customer, the e-commerce customer, is no longer just build it and they will come type of customer. Krystel: You really need to hone in on your sales skills. You really need to know how to build a framework for a product that customers can buy. We see it all the time. Customers come to us and they say sellers come to us and they say I'm spending so much money on ads and I'm not generating any sales. Is it a platform problem? What is it? Is it a product problem? And 99% of the time, it's because they don't know who their buyer is. They don't know how to talk to their ideal customer, so they're just listing the product and hoping for the best. Nowadays, that's not something that you can do. Make sure that you work on your strategy and you'll be super successful on platforms like Amazon or anywhere you decide to sell. And good luck. Bradley Sutton: Awesome. All right, Krystel. Thank you for coming back on the show and it'll be great to see you in person again. So my first event I did an event with you a couple years ago in Dubai. That was great and I look forward to seeing you in person again and wish everybody the best of success if they're expanding to Amazon Middle East. See you guys later.

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