The Asian Seller

On this episode of The Asian Seller podcast, Melissa Simonson and Hai Mag from Eva join us to chat about a range of topics including dynamic pricing, Amazon India, Q4 trends and more. About Melissa: Down to her last $30 and with her power turned off, Melissa started her entrepreneurial journey out of necessity. She later shifted into eCommerce private label and is now proud to represent Eva.Guru as Head of Marketing. Melissa is honored to be on the Board of Directors for the nonprofit, member-owned Empowery eCommerce Cooperative to help other eCommerce entrepreneurs on their journey and has a special place in her heart for empowering women in eCommerce. Event host, international speaker, podcaster, community builder and people connector, she was the host of the first ever event in eCommerce with an all women speaker lineup and is the current host of the Amaze on Stream Podcast.

On this episode of The Asian Seller podcast, Gianmarco Meli from The Seller Process talks about creating SOPs for an Amazon business. Gianmarco is an Amazon seller who started his ecommerce journey in Shanghai where he launched an online platform backed by venture capital fund SOSV. He is the host of The Seller Process, a weekly podcast that aims to empower Amazon sellers and ecommerce entrepreneurs with the right systems and SOPs to accomplish more in their business with less time and effort. Download this free eBook about capturing systems and creating SOPs. Episode highlights

• What SOPs are and what are the benefits of implementing them in your business
• How to create SOPs
• Different types of SOPs
• In depth structure of an SOP
• What are the tools to generate and collect SOPs
• Running SOPs best practices
• Common mistakes with SOPs

Contact: The Seller Process: www.thesellerprocess.com LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/gianmarco-meli/

On this episode of The Asian Seller podcast, we're talking to McClain Warren of Movley about inspections and quality control when sourcing from China.

McClain Warren is a Colorado-native w/ a Communications and Marketing degree from American University, DC. She started in the Amazon space as a copywriter for listing optimizations and worked her way up the corporate ladder until she was the director of the keyword research and copywriting department of one of the larger Amazon-focused marketing companies. She now owns her own marketing and copywriting firm called The Write Buzz and is the Marketing and Content Manager at Movley – a US-based inspections company that provides clients with an entire quality control team for the price of an inspection.

Episode highlights

• Introduction
• Who can do inspections and what are the pros and cons of each
• What kind of tests should you have your inspection team perform
• What is the difference between a mid-production inspection and a pre-ship inspection
• How do you choose the right sample sizes
• Why is it recommended for online sellers to get a level III inspection done on your sample
• How do bad inspections affect your Amazon listing
• How do bad inspections impact the valuation of your company

Contact McClain: https://bit.ly/3hA7I1N

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On this week's Webinar Wednesday, we talk to Ivegen Ivanko, VP of Acquisitions at Rainforest, an aggregator of Amazon businesses. He will talk about structuring your business, and best practices to follow to maximise your company's valuation. About Yev: Yev moved to England when he was 16 without parents to take an opportunity to study A-Levels. Initially, things were "bumpy", but he managed to grow and learn quickly, graduating at the top of his year. Perseverance got him fully paid place at the London School of Economics where Yev majored in Mathematics. He worked hard and won a place on a graduate scheme at Citigroup Investment Bank before moving to Deutsche Bank with a two-grade promotion. After attempting to start a business in spare time, in 2012 Yev took a leap into the world of entrepreneurship full-time, e-commerce business model was a focus for him. Yev was an early investor into a unicorn D2C brand – Dollar Shave Club. Launched and scaled a number of profitable ecommerce businesses from $0 to seven figures and co-founded Nimble Seller, a borderless working capital solution for global Amazon Sellers. Currently Yev is spearheading acquisition efforts at Rainforest – Asia-based Amazon brand acquirer. About Rainforest: Rainforest is an aggregator of Amazon FBA and DTC brands, and they were incorporated in Singapore in Oct 2020. Till date, they have acquired a handful of brands and are actively looking into more brands to acquire in 2021. They specialize in developing microbrands globally through their inhouse domain capabilities and tech expertise. Through the payout, brand owners can fund their other business expansion or pursue their personal endeavors. They are open to brands globally.

On this week's podcast, we welcome Chris Shipferling, Managing Partner at Global Wired Advisors. Chris believes preparing your business for an exit is more in depth than what you may have been told. In this webinar, Chris will discuss the top three things to focus on today to help you begin to mold your company into a more sellable business and optimize your potential exit: 1. Financial organization 2. Know your data 3. Product road map About Chris: Chris offers invaluable insight to help sellers and buyers reach their full potential before, during and after the sale of their business. Chris is especially adept at finding client companies that are poised for sale, guiding them through the initial steps, and preparing them to make the best possible first impression. About Global Wired Advisors: Global Wired Advisors is a leading Digital Investment Bank focused on optimizing the business sale process. Their approach combines decades of merger and acquisition experience with online and e-commerce expertise to increase the transactional value of your greatest asset.

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The Asian Seller Founder Meghla Bhardwaj was interviewed by Payman Lorenzo. Meghla shared a bit about her journey from who she is and her transition from being a journalist to the business woman she is now.

She also talks about her experience of Sourcing From India VS China, advantages & for what type of products it is best for. Meghla shared about her soon to be launched brand.

Episode Highlights:

• Transition From Being A Journalist To The Business Woman She Is Now
• Sourcing From India VS China, Advantages and For What Type Of Products It Is Best For
• Personal Tragedy As The Root For The Inspiration To A More Fulfilling and Meaningful Life
• The Importance Of Legacy & The Power Of Impact
• Sponsoring Kids' Education In New Delhi For A Year In Her First India Sourcing Trip
• ​ The Unforgettable Experience Of Visiting These Kids At Their School
• ​ Education, The Key To Arising Above Poverty
• ​ Doing Good With Your Business Is Not Only The Right Thing To Do As A Human Being But Also Very Good For Business!
• Most Impactful Lesson Learned Over The Past 12 Months
• What Kept You Going In That Very Challenging Time?
• ​ Involving Her Son Into The Business At An Early Age
• ​ Best Way To Reach Meghla.
• ​ Tip For Someone Looking To Feel More Fulfilment In Their Business and Life By Adding A Cause To Their Business.

Contact Meghla

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This week's The Asian Seller podcast is about procrastination and mindset.

Do you put things off and keep yourself busy with meaningless tasks? Do you find it hard to commit to decisions and just go for it?

Well, there are deeper patterns within our mindset that play a role in why we move forward in life, and why we don't.

In under an hour, Cameron will show you exactly why procrastination is not really about putting things off, it is actually about something much deeper within you that is unresolved

On this podcast transformation coach Cameron Allen gives you 3 key takeaways that will allow you to identify and see where this pain point is coming from everytime, and move through it.

About Cameron Allen:

Life CAN be how you want it. But you need to want it enough. When you experience coaching with me, we will delve into the root causes of patterns holding you back. We clear out the limitations and re-wire your mind to inspire new ways of living.

I work with the subconscious mind to empower you to design the life you desire. Send me a message if you would like more information. I offer 1:1 VIP coaching, workshops, retreats, and the powerful Aligned Mastermind.

Contact Cameron:

www.cameronallen.com.au

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On this week's The Asian Seller podcast, we talk to Jelena Nuhanovic, founder of AmazoniaPPC about everything you need to know about Amazon Posts.

Jelena shares the basics of Posts, and gives best practices in 2021 to maximize Posts so you can get your brand and product in front of more shoppers on Amazon.

Apart from listening to / watching the podcast interview with Jelena, you can also read the article written by Jelena below to get an overview of Amazon Posts.

What are Amazon Posts

With the most recent pandemic event that has definitely acted as a catalyst for the development of ecommerce, Amazon has moved more in the direction of creating a more branded shopping experience for customers on the platform.

This new way of communicating with audiences has opened a door for brands to expand their brand discoverability in front of Amazon's shoppers and build a following in a similar way that they do on social networks.

Amazon Posts are an innovative new tool for sellers to expand their organic reach free of charge. In this article, we're going to give you full insights on what this tool is, and how to leverage all the advantages it's currently giving us.

What is interesting about this new format is that it is a shoppable format. Each post links to a product detail page, which is a valuable feature if you're looking to expand your brand presence on Amazon.

Why should I use Amazon Posts?

There are many reasons why you should start building your following on Amazon through Posts, and some of them are:

• You already have that content on your social media, just probably haven't reached Amazon's audiences with it yet. Since you already have the content it is very easy to repurpose it for Amazon
• This is a great way to generate additional organic clicks to your product detail pages and promote any special offers you might have
• This is currently free to join, but you will need to be Brand registered first

One of the most interesting things about Amazon posts is that their main format looks a lot like regular social media posts (very similar to Instagram posts and stories, or Facebook posts), but at the same time there is no option to interact with the brand other than signing up to follow their feed on Amazon. Other than that, you can click on the post to lead you either to the featured product's detail page, to brand feed, and to expand the caption on mobile devices.

How to get started with Amazon Posts?

This program is completely free (it is good to harvest its potential while it's still free) to join, but you will need to be brand registered before signing up for the program. If you need to get brand registered fast, you can speed up this process by signing up for the IP accelerator program. This program is a network of Amazon-vetted IP law firms that can help you speed up the process of trademark registration and they usually offer better pricing than independent law firms.

If you're already brand registered, then you can use the following steps to sign up:

1. Go to: https://posts.amazon.com/welcome
2. Create a new profile by using your regular Seller Central login credentials
3. Verify your brand name and add your brand logo

This simple, 3-step process will then enable you to start creating posts once you're approved.

How does it work?

Once you are signed up, you can use the interface to create interesting and engaging posts. It is important to stick to the creative guidelines given by Amazon, and respect the rules of posting. Similar to social media, there is no limit to how many Posts you can create, which is great for building a consistent brand presence on the platform.

Another great thing is that you can schedule posts in advance, similar to Scheduled Posts on Facebook.

Once it's approved to be published, Amazon will automatically start showing it in customer's feeds where applicable. After you create a post, you can either publish it right away, or schedule for later. After a while, you will have a good overview of each post's performance and easily understand what works and what doesn't.

Where will my Amazon Post appear?

Currently there is no option to choose where the post will display. Amazon chooses post placements automatically. They use feeds and product detail pages as placements for the posts, using relevancy as one of the ways to determine where it will place your post. So far, we've seen higher-than-average CTRs coming from Amazon Posts in our client's accounts, so our opinion is that they are making a good estimate where to place the posts.

In order to get your posts approved, there is an extensive list of creative policies you'll need to respect.

What does an Amazon Post look like?

The most interesting thing about this new format is that it looks like Instagram posts and sponsored products ads had a baby 😊 This new innovative format has already proven to generate much higher CTR rates than regular ads. We strongly suggest you read the creative policies carefully before testing different creatives.

Each Amazon Post is consisted of 5 creative elements:

1. Name and the logo of the brand – in the header of each post
2. Custom image – in the biggest part of the post there will be a custom image. Image types that are most typically used are lifestyle images but you can use any other format if you feel like it would resonate better with your own audience.
3. Show/hide button – this button will show what product is being featured in that specific post, and show some basic details about it, such as: price, reviews, Prime eligibility and similar.
4. Caption – piece of custom text that follows the post. Use this part to advertise product features, talk about your brand, or promote a lightning deal you are doing at the moment etc.
5. Category tags – Amazon will automatically attach different category tags to your post, and add a couple of the most similar categories. Once a customer clicks/taps on a category tag, they will be taken to the whole feed of different posts that fit in to that category.

The most effective way to create a high-quality post, is to split test a couple of different variants of copy and images. Coming from our experience there are a couple of general guidelines you can use to create a good post:

• Show your product being used: this is a great way to showcase your product's features and some additional functionalities your competitors might not have. Keep the white background image for the main image on the listing, and focus more on the lifestyle imagery when doing Amazon Posts.

• Don't use text within an image: this is a lesson learned from Facebook boosted posts. The main reason why Facebook limits the number of letters within an image in a post, is because additional text is distracting, it looks messy, and it lowers average CTRs.

• Use the right format and resolution: you want to avoid your images being stretched too wide or too tall due to the wrong resolution.

• Creative copy: this new format is now available to enable the customers to get closer to the brand and follow them on Amazon. Make sure to use this space to share a story with your customers like you would on social networks and engage your customers with interesting and fresh content.

How do I check the performance of Amazon Posts?

Seller central has a pretty nice set of metrics you can use to track your posts' performance over time. The report is downloadable and within the report you can easily click on any of the posts there and the link will take you to the post itself. The metrics that are currently available are: viewable impressions, total engagement, clicks to detail page, clicks to brand feed, clicks to related feed, clicks to show product, clicks to expand caption, and engagement rate.

Each of the specific metrics is good to understand how customers interact with your brand and what content moves the needle in terms of generating more following for the brand.

Additionally, if you're looking to learn more about your customer's behavior on Amazon, regardless of Amazon Posts, Brand Analytics reports are a good way to do that. In this set of reports you can easily learn what are currently the hottest search terms and their popularity, how many of your products have the potential for repeat purchases, what supplementing products from your arsenal would sell well together, what products are winning your market share and more interesting information.

The future of Amazon Posts

Unlike Amazon Spark, a similar program that was launched by Amazon in 2017, we believe that Amazon Posts are here to stay long-term. The timing this time is right, because the users worldwide are used to seeing similar content formats across social media. Considering how it currently works, the only thing Amazon has replicated from social media is the content format itself, with no implications of intent to socialize it a little bit.

The only interaction customers can have with Amazon posts is to click through to the product detail page or the brand page or to follow the brand. This is pretty limited so that is the main reason why posts are perceived more like a free ad-placement than a real content piece that can help you communicate better with your customers.

However, there are a wide array of advantages to using them, so we strongly encourage brands to try it for a little while and see what specifically works for their own brand.

About Jelena

This article is written by Jelena Nuhanovic, founder of AmazoniaPPC

Jelena started as an independent contractor in 2015. Her main area of expertise was always PPC campaign management. Over the last 6 years, she was able to scale a consultancy business into an agency and build a team of 9 people that is growing exponentially.

Their main agency focus is Amazon marketing services that include: PPC campaign management, Amazon listing copywriting, conversion rate optimization, A+ content creation, and programmatic advertising through the DSP platform.

Aside from being passionate about entrepreneurship, Jelena is also passionate about parenting, gardening, and vine making.

Contact Jelena:

Website

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On this week's The Asian Seller podcast, Habib Rkha Founder and Managing Director of QCADVISOR talks about his company's unique new service of virtual factory tours in China.

Habib shares why and how his company offers 360 views of factories in China, and how these can be beneficial to importers when they cannot visit factories in person.

Habib is a QC and manufacturing veteran, based in China.

He founded QCADVISOR in Shenzhen in 2018, and they currently serve over 150 clients. They specialize in offering customized QC solutions instead of offering QC services as a commodity.

Episode highlights:

• Introduction - About Habib and QCADVISOR
• Virtual factory tours
• 1. What are they
  2. How and why did Habib start doing these
  3. Are they used for factory audits or inspections as well
  4. How many have they done so far
  5. What has been buyers' feedback about these
  6. How do they create these 360 videos
• QC-related advice for someone just starting to source products from China
• Ways in which suppliers cut corners and compromise quality
• Habib's services and how to contact him

Contact Habib:

Website: QCADVISOR

Email: [email protected]

Schedule a 15-minute call: https://calendly.com/habib-qcadvisor/15min

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On this week's The Asian Seller podcast, Margaret Jolly and Meghla Bhardwaj share notes about the ups and downs of being an Amazon seller.

It's not always a smooth ride, and don't believe gurus who say you can make 7 figures by working only 4 hours a week!! This is a real business and takes time to start and grow. There are a lot of challenges and pitfalls to avoid along the way.

It is nonetheless a business that you can set up with the least amount of investment especially compared to other businesses such as retail.

Margaret is a business and Amazon coach, and has been selling on Amazon for about 4 years. She is a coach on India Sourcing Trip and sources all her products exclusively from India.

Contact Margaret on Messenger for coaching

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