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This survey and inforamtion comes from Cleveland Research Company. 

1.  Business Performance & Profitability: Online channels continue to drive better than expected demand with 70% of respondents indicating their Amazon sales trended ahead of plan in 3Q. Profitability, however, is a growing concern for many manufacturers, with 46% citing they expect their profit margins to decline with their largest omnichannel customers next year.  As we covered throughout the Summit, the margin pressure at omnichannel customers is likely to result in a range of asks, including greater investment into media programs, higher co-ops, and funds to offset increased shipping costs. We expect this trend to be most evident with omnichannel customers as margins at pureplay eTailers have improved as a result of growing volume during the pandemic.  
2. Commerce Marketing Focus: Nearly every company polled indicated they are participating in advertising on Amazon, and there is growth occurring with the number of brands participating in similar digital activations on sites like Walmart.com and Target.com.  Almost two-thirds of brands, however, reported not having enough quality access to data and reporting to efficiently refine and optimize their commerce marketing efforts. 
3. Retailer Paid Search:  Manufacturers continue to be drawn to paid search advertising activations across different customers.  71% of those responding indicated they spend 75% or more of their ad budget on Amazon within paid search activations.  In addition, investing more and refining paid search strategies on Walmart.com was the top area of focus cited by brands selling on the site.  The Instacart panel discussion also highlighted that manufacturers are primarily focused on maximizing the paid search opportunity on that platform before moving onto other digital activations like coupons or delivery promotions. 
4. Retailer Programmatic:  Many companies are looking to layer in DSP spend on Amazon to help reach consumers across the sales funnel, citing the targeting improvements Amazon has developed as a key rationale for increased spend. 60% of manufacturers are looking to increase their investment in this area in 2021 (vs. 33% maintaining investment level and 6% reducing).  Amazon’s retail rivals do not yet appear to have as robust of offerings on the programmatic side and brands seem less focused on upper-funnel spend with these retailers.  
5. Analytics Focus:  Similar to what CRC presented in its opening session, the polling data suggests manufacturers have a major need to build out their analytics capabilities.  To do so will take a combination of headcount and technology, something which nearly half of respondents indicated characterize their investment plans for next year.  42% of companies indicated they currently lack the headcount needed to action eCommerce data, and only 13% indicated they actively leverage eCommerce data into their product development needs.
6. Marketplace Control: Approximately one-third of companies report having a distribution strategy that recognizes the dynamics around marketplaces, and nearly half report working on this initiative currently.  MAP policies can be one part of this strategy, although, only 19% reported having a MAP policy in place that they are actively enforcing.

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Nils Oldörp lives in China and has become an expert in sourcing. But he got off to a rocky start and shares his story with My Amazon Guy. 

• How was your experience sourcing in China when you started?
  • Cultural issues
    • China understands tough competition
  • Learning tax
• Have sourced 1000 items in past year
  • Only 10% of sellers do the 2nd order (reorder)
• Chinese going direct to consumer, from manufacturer straight to buyer. 
  • Jungle Scout advertising in China.
• How do you find new items?
  • Who cares about the reviews
  • Pick based on
    • Demand
    • Product size
    • Can we control supply
    • Profit margins
    • Lead times
• Chinese focus on "me too" products.
• Still focus on give away products, rebates
• How did you figure out how to solve your issues?
• Canton Fair still driving market.
• What does it take to source products for you now?
• Changing landscape?
  • Huge domestic market in China
  • Copyright isn't a thing. Others jump on it fast.
  • China has changed a lot - skyscrapers brand new in past 5 years.
  • People mentality has changed a lot. 
  • Haven't touched cash in 2 years.
    • QR code hanging around neck.
• Who do I want to serve vs how can I make a profit?
  • Brand build
• Get a mentor
  • Takes a decade out of the journey
• Same criteria can be used in the Jungle Scout and Helium 10 tools.

Check out Nils at:

• https://www.easypeasycall.com/pls?utm_source=steven
• https://www.easypeasysourcing.com/
• Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK8VkTw3mfZX2z5-NvZMamA

About Nils Oldoerp: "I am born in German and moved to China in 2013 as an intern. What started as an internship became a great job living in China and Vietnam for about 2 years before the corporate reality hit and I wanted to start my own business.

I quit and tried selling my own products on Amazon. After losing all my saving and gaining a ton of experience I started a small sourcing company, helping fellow sellers source products in China.

Sourcing was the one thing I struggled with the most so I wanted to improve it. I got frustrated with suppliers not responding, getting ripped off and samples looking nothing like the pictures. 

The next 5 years I spend expanding and growing my business and my team. I found multiple brands that sell 7 figures on and off amazon. This recent prime day we sold 4,300 units in 24hours on Amazon.com alone - more than my first 2 years combined. At the same time we created a sourcing business that helps export 1,000+ units a year, located in Shenzhen, China.

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Robyn, the co-founder of Marketplace Blueprint, a digital agency that specializes in listing optimization and advertising on Amazon joins My Amazon Guy for a podcast on black swan events.  She has over a decade of experience of selling online on Amazon, eBay, and other eCommerce venues. Exciting to have such a great expert on for our 100th podcast episode!

• What’s your story
  • Health near death experience, blood clot in lung, thyroid cancer. “When things are going well, you don’t think to take time to have backup and set up ready to go and network to rely upon for unexpected growth”
• Happy habits https://www.businessinsider.com/gretchen-rubin-the-four-tendencies-framework-2017-4
  • Upholders generally meet both inner and outer expectations, meaning they don't let others or themselves down.
  • Questioners meet only inner expectations. They push back against and question all expectations. Above all, they do something only if they think it makes sense — they hate anything arbitrary.
  • Obligers meet outer expectations but not always inner ones. In other words, they usually need some form of external accountability.
  • Rebels resist both inner and outer expectations. They value authenticity and self-determination.
• Growing business
  • Sometimes you need a year of plateau to get big growth.
  • 5% growth each year vs 0% one year and 50% the next
• What laptop are you using to get Amazon passive income?
• Rich dad poor dad 
  • https://www.amazon.com/Rich-Dad-Poor-Teach-Middle/dp/1612680194
  • https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharonlechter/
• What’s on your mind?
  • When Amazon makes a change, why are they trying to solve?
  • Q4
  • Ads
    • 
      
  • Logistics
    • Make sure cash flow in place
    • 3PL in place, MFN not just FBA
  • Profit
  • Can’t talk to someone at Amazon catalog team
• Management by abdication 
  • It’s also about 
• Rocket Fuel

 About Robyn Johnson:

Starting with only $100 taken from their emergency fund, she built a seven-figure business selling on Amazon and eBay in just a few short years. In the years since then, Robyn has not only continued to sell directly on Amazon but also to build a consulting and coaching business working with the most successful resellers in the space.

Robyn is a regular contributor for Search Engine Journal and speaks at some of the most prestigious Amazon and Ecommerce conferences in the US and abroad.  She has written a best selling book on Amazon called The Unlikely Entrepreneur about her journey starting her business. She has hosted multiple successful podcasts, including the Unstoppable Entrepreneur Show and the Marketplace Blueprint Podcast. 

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Intellectual property is NOT a sexy topic. But it’s a hot topic in 2020 as the landscape is changing. Amazon is making it easier to control IP and get on brand registry faster. Today we talk to Steven Forte with an IP law firm Smith Hopen to learn some of the latest and best practices. 

• Why should Amazon Sellers invest in intellectual property?
  • Amazon project zero. https://brandservices.amazon.com/projectzero
• How do you enroll your brand into Amazon's brand registry?
  • Faster way to get brand registry now https://brandservices.amazon.com/pending-trademark-request
• Common trademark mistakes
  • Name is too descriptive
  • File trademark in company name
• How do you renew a trademark?
  • Send in specimen and still used in commerce
• What is Amazon's Neutral Patent Evaluation?
  • https://www.ipwatchdog.com/2020/06/03/navigating-amazons-neutral-patent-evaluation-real-life-part-ii/id=122107/
  • “According to Amazon’s rules, an accused seller has 21 days in which to decide whether to sign Amazon’s agreement and participate in the Neutral Patent Evaluation Process. If the seller signs the agreement and agrees to the evaluation, its listings will remain active until the conclusion of the neutral evaluation process. However, if the seller does not agree to participate in the evaluation process, Amazon will remove the listings of the seller’s accused products from Amazon’s marketplace.”
• How do you fight a TM/Patent report against your own company?
  • It’s all about the claims and the law
  • Free consultation
    • https://smithhopen.com/
  • 
    

Steven Forte “This year, we have hosted several charitable events that directly benefit the National Pediatric Cancer Foundation (NPCF). In fact, we recently wrapped up our big CLE For Charity events and would like to do more to help the NPCF and give back.”

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I feel like the taxi driver of ecommerce. You get 100 economists in a room and 100 taxi drivers and ask them how they economy is doing and the taxi drivers will be far more accurate. Get Helium 10 to track suppressions https://www.helium10.com/?crsh_reqid=1296071&aid=427

• Prime day post mortem
  • Buy box percentages cut in half
  • Listings flipped from FBA to FBM in buy box
  • Sales lift very dependent on category
    • All accounts up at least 20%  but if that’s all you’re up that doesn’t make up for the 20% down leading up to prime day
    • Many categories like outdoor womens goods up 100%
    • Feels like about 35% lift when you average it all out
    • Exceptions may apply - especially if you ran a big promotion
• Proven right that discounting for Prime Day was just giving your margins away this year.
  • I told everyone to not run deals this year for Prime day and some people thought I was crazy.
  • I am predicting massive supply chain woes and stock outs first week in December. And discount didn’t even drive much for people on Prime Day.
  • Go ask 10 people, did you buy something for prime day, and that poll will give you a pretty good idea of how big prime day was this year.
• Ultimate question - will prime day kick off holiday buying season early this year?
  • No - I don’t think so.
• Amazon news
  • Internet explorer losing seller central support. Could be the thing that kills the IE web browser.
  • 9/25 algorithm update, massive keyword ranking shifts, and still no public word from Amazon
  • I am dubbing the past 30 days as the largest amount of Amazon catalog bugs that negatively impact sales of all time, worse than the past year combined.
• Face masks are the fidget spinners of 2020
• Who are Amazon sellers these days?
  • You can’t go on linkedin and see this clearly. Maybe 50% of Amazon accounts are side hustles. And most don’t advertise their involvement in their business publicly. 
  • The larger a business gets the more public they may want to be. But it’s not required to.
  • Manufacturers are increasingly flocking to Amazon but still sluggish to adopt the necessary agility to succeed.
  • Wholesalers are starting to take ownership of their own retail business, but often are better off staying as wholesellers.

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Expertise is hard to quantity and qualify. In our conversation today I want to talk about the varying differences between expertises. When you run an Amazon business, you need to be an expert in one of the following 3 areas. Then any niche area within each of these, you need to hire out tools and experts to get help.

• Finance
• Operations
• Marketing

List of 3rd party services we recommend.

Finance is the easiest to speak to, and the shortest conversation so we’ll start there. Either you have money, or you have to obtain money. How you finance is up to you. Use your own funds, raise the funds, you get the idea. 

Financial experts

• Quiet Light Brokerage - buying and selling businesses
• Certified Public accountant
• Tax expert 
• Obtaining finance, having funds on hand, raising capital businesses 

Operations

• Warehouse
  • Heavily rely upon FBA
  • 3 PL
• Logistics
• Manufacturing
  • Building
  • Making

Marketing

• Design
• Imagery
• Traffic
  • SEO
  • PPC
• Agencies

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Last second Prime Day preparations are underway. There was an algorithm update on 9/25 that has hurt sales on 90% of sellers. 

Get Amazon Consulting at https://myamazonguy.com/

#amazonselling #amazonseller #amazonfba

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Client of My Amazon Guy 1.5 Years. Wayne: 'Lowered ACOS and “saved my business.”' Lens Swap is a sunglasses lens replacement company. 

• Started on eBay. 
• Read a book Rich Dad Poor Dad (Endorsed by MAG too!)
• I was on a sales call, customer said “Like a Lens Swap?” And that’s how business was made.
• What makes you a serial entrepreneur?
  • My kids screaming
  • Misconception of money
• Name of game is making money
• Troubles & Mistakes
  • Have a mentor!
  • Taxes
  • Was working two jobs, 45 hours + 20 hours. Somehow have family time.
• Amazon is not passive income
  • Takes daily grind effort
• First love - motorcycles. Moved out at age 14 to buy a dirtbike and became a  young entrepreneur. 

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Link to setup NARF. Video on setting up Remote Fulfillment.  September 29, 2020
Selling in Canada and Mexico just got easier
To simplify cross-border selling, we’ve created a Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program that lets you fulfill orders in Canada and Mexico with your US FBA inventory. Remote Fulfillment with FBA saves you the trouble of managing multi-country inventory, cross-border logistics, and import duties.

After you create offers in Canada and Mexico, we make them Prime eligible and fulfill orders to customers in those countries.

Here’s how it works:


Any offer you create on Amazon.ca or Amazon.com.mx automatically pulls from your US inventory, unless the item is already in a fulfillment center in Canada or Mexico. We’ll let you know which ASINs are eligible.
Customers pay import duties as part of the purchase price.
Amazon ships your orders directly to customers in Canada and Mexico.
Don’t miss this great opportunity to expand internationally. To enroll in the program, go to Remote Fulfillment with FBA. For more information, including details on additional fees, visit our Help page.

If you are not an FBA seller, you can find information and sign up by visiting Help grow your business with Fulfillment by Amazon.

Get Amazon Consulting at https://myamazonguy.com/

#NARF #RemoteFulfillment #AmazonCanada

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Kickfurther talks about financing best practices and is giving away $250,000 in no-cost financing this month. https://grow.kickfurther.com/2020-giveaway

• What is Kickfurther? 
  • Get fast funding for up to $2M in inventory for a cost up to 30% cheaper than other financing options. Kickurther funds are available when you need to pay your suppliers. 
• How did you come up with the idea for Kickfurther?
  • Family business in supply chain. Started up physical goods business. Big retailer orders. Alternative cost of financing would have lost money.
• What are some different options/considerations for funding a growing amazon or CPG business?
  • SBA loans can be helpful.
• Common mistakes when financing?
  • Being too optimistic on sales projections. 
  • Better to under promise and over deliver. 
  • Financing to pay back too quickly can backfire.
• What are some best practices for managing supply chain and inventory financing to address cashflow constraints caused by fast growth?
  • Diversify distribution channels.
  • Build redundancies
• Fresher Products funded on KickFurther, an My Amazon Guy client - https://www.kickfurther.com/coop/holiday-bbq-tools
• Book club: Never split the difference.
• First deal financed $1,400. Funded by community never met.
• "Couldn't believe how quickly I got funded."

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