The David Aladdin Show - Building Billion Dollar e-Commerce Companies, Amazon Private Label, FBA, Shopify, Woo, Retail Products - AmzSecrets

The David Aladdin Show - Building Billion Dollar e-Commerce Companies, Amazon Private Label, FBA, Shopify, Woo, Retail Products - AmzSecrets

By David Aladdin: A fan of The Amazing Seller, Amazon Private Label Podcast, FBA Seller, Amazon, Silent Sales Machine, Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Scott Voelker and you.Business
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The David Aladdin Show - Building Billion Dollar e-Commerce Companies, Amazon Private Label, FBA, Shopify, Woo, Retail Products - AmzSecrets episodes

  • AS 38: Going deep into Amazon Product Listing Keywords
    What’s up guys, grab that coffee out, this is the Amz Secrets show and your host, David Aladdin.We are live at the international command center outpost #183. I’ve built this show to jump past the basics, and into the real Amazon core. How’s everyone's businesses doing.

    Today’s a cool day. We’re going to talk in-depth, better backend keyword decriptions and how to take them to the next level. I was doing a lot of testing, experimenting, and most of all, OPTIMIZING.

    Follow me on this journey, join me with your expertise, your knowledge, and your ability to learn. Together, we’re stronger, wiser, more patient, kings overlooking battles. We need to be at the top of our game, if we want to not only survive, but take over. Let’s GOOO.

    But before we start, without further a-due, your quick, top of the morning Amazon News:

    News Flash: http://qz.com/738620/birkenstock-says-amazon-is-rife-with-counterfeits-how-to-avoid-getting-suckered-into-buying-them/

    Dave's Response:

    The interesting thing about this is that counterfeit products actually may be authentic products, but not authorized by the brand. Many brands to day use may be leveraging private label products. The only difference today is that the ability to for new sellers to connect with these manufacturers has gotten easier. The counterfeit part part is when a seller decides to use the same brand as the big brand due to their already marketing presence and to jump on an existing listings.

    For Birkenstock, the problem must be so bad, that they are leaving Amazon. I think this is a major mistake on Birkenstock’s CEO. Amazon is no longer a channel you can ignore. All of us existing sellers welcome any sellers to leave the channel, as there will be more buyers for us. Yes theres other brands selling sandals as your brand for $20 less, but your job is to improve your brand quality, rather than hide it from consumers. Your job is to continually innovate inside of the sandal market, rather than sell the same sandals for $20 more.

    The move by this CEO, is a weak move. It’s a move that in my opinion weakens their brand. Many customers today search on Amazon to see if the brand they are buying is of high quality, has reviews, and then they may go ahead and buy it in the stores. Oh wait…usually it’s the other way around. A user will go into a brick and motor store, only to then compare online and buy it.

    As for Amazon, lets not forget about them, as they are to blame for the influx of Chinese manufacturers selling on Amazon. I believe Amazon is starting to get negative press, as such from Quartz, and this negative sentiment will continue to grow. If this continues to happen, the questions moves from how will brands out-beat manufacturers brands. Will brands need to create their own factories in the future to survive. It’s not completely out of the question. If your pulling 10+ million a year, a miniature factory to create products might be considerable, where you design, develop and mass product your products. Tesla does this with cars…and that’s a much more complicated product than many of us are selling.

    Amazon is caught in a weird spot. They are forced to allow manufacturers to directly sell because aliexpress is undercutting them and gaining market share. A Roomba bot in the U.S costs $800, a knockoff from aliexpress costs $200. A Microsoft Surface Pro costs $1500…a knock-off look-alike and similar functionality on ali-express costs $300. That’s a $1200 savings…on one purchase.

    What Ali-express lacks is faster distribution to U.S customers. If they solve that issue, then Amazon could be in very big trouble, and I believe they see as a very big threat to their eco-system. Their reaction is thus a knee jerk, and a copy of what Ali-Express currently does. Offers direct access to manufacturers to sell directly to consumers.
    16 min
  • AS 37: How Scott Margolius got to the Top 10% of all Sellers on Amazon
    Scott Margolius comes on the show from FeedbackRepair.com and indbl.com, serving both Amazon & eBay sellers as well as brand owners and manufacturers looking to expand online.  He was in the top 25% of sellers for the holiday selling seasons of 2012-13 & top 10% 2014.

    What your'll learn in this episode:

    * All about Scott Margolius
    * Trade show recommendations from Scott
    * How to keep your Amazon Seller Feedback healthier
    * How to keep your Amazon review feedback healthier
    * Techniques he helps his clients with, and shares with AmzSecrets
    * Best way of addressing seller feedback
    * Best way to stay in the white hat - for product inserts
    * What sellers should not do on Amazon
    * How to avoid Amazon suspension?
    * How to avoid product suspension
    * Scott's beliefs, entrepreneurial journey
    * Strategies, secrets, and tips that Scott uses
    * Insights from a top seller

    And much more!

    Transcript coming soon

    Contact Scott
    feedbackrepair.com | indbl.com

    Contact David
    http://amzsecrets.com/contact/
    1 hr
  • AS 36: Jim Cockrum Pulls 25 Million per year Revenue selling on Amazon and Beyond
    In this podcast, full of golden nuggets, we talk about business strategy, Amazon strategy, entrepreneurship, life-style businesses, life, and how Jim built his businesses from zero 13 years ago, all the way to 25 million a year revenue.

    What you'll learn in this podcast:

    * How to quit your day job
    * How to scale your business to 25 Million
    * How to be ethical in business
    * How to build the highest quality of business
    * Making better decisions for long term businesses
    * How to sell more on eBay
    * The vision of Jim, aspirations, scaling the business
    * How family, and a wife, is the secret to building epic businesses
    * Why reputation is key for building successful businesses
    * How to scale and choose employees
    * How partnerships should be made
    * The oprah effect and what it can do for your business
    * Amazon strategies and secrets
    * Multi-channel building

    And much more!



    Contact Jim:
    Website: Jimcockrum.com | silentsalesmachine.com


    Contact David:
     http://amzsecrets.com/contact/

     
    1 hr 11 min
  • AS 35: Dealing with Manufacturing Delays with Your Amazon Business
    What’s up guys, grab that coffee out, it’s the AmzSecrets Show, with your host David Aladdin. When the tough gets going, you can’t back down. I look at Amazon as a massive battleground between sellers.

    You’ve got corporations with their calvary,  medium sized businesses with their artillery. We are the strategist, the Kings,. We strategize from above. We carefully plot decisions, and attack certain areas we deem as vulnerable. We take the high ground and get that extra advantage. Welcome to the show.

    Today’s sponsor is AmzSecrets.com VIP, a platform built of tools, run by top sellers, leveraging big data, the latest strategies, and our collective mind to make better decisions while building out our Amazon Businesses. I have already 1,2,3,4---5x; my Amazon business, And many others have too.

    Amazon News Summary: Amazon Launches "Interesting Find"

    So what does this all mean David?!
    I think this is a smart move for Amazon. If your product gets used as a “Intersting Find” expect your sales volume to skyrocket and BSR to jump thrroughhhh the roof. It can bring startups into stardom, but also give you a significant advantage amongst your competitors.

    That being said, its completely automatic I believe. I suspect this list is curated by A9, and probably involves a statistic related to how many customers “gift wrap” your item. If a large x amount of people gift wrap that item, it will likely show up. Just my guess though.

    In all, I think this is a pretty cool feature. Lightning deals does give extra exposure to sellers, but it really is tough to earn money via a lightning deal. Your essentially sacrificing your profit margin to increase your BSR. A tradeoff, only worth it for a non-moving product.

    Today’s podcast is episode 35, How to deal with manufacturer delays in your Amazon business.

    Mannnn… manufacturing delays suck. And it’s not even the China News Year. What the heck. I’m just messing. Instead of complaining, there’s a lot you can be doing.

    So in my current business, I’ve had really bad manufacturing delays with one of my manufacturers.

    Manufacturing delays can be caused by:

    * Defects on the product line
    * Holidays in China
    * Low staff at the factory
    * Lack of management
    * Lack of planning
    * Over capacity at the factory

    A delay in manufacturing with the have an adverse affect in your Amazon business. Okay David, so…you didn’t plan your order timing right!?

    Ha, well I thought I did but in a sense I guess your right. However, I put the order in about 3 months ago and it’s still not finished. My prediction was a 2 month production rate, and slowest 3 months, but we are now in the 3 months of production and it does put strain on the entire business.

    Okay David, what effects has this slow moving manufacturing process have on your business…and secondly, what are you doing to fix it?

    By having a slow manufacturer, it creates a lot of sitting cash. You have a 30% downpayment that has technically not “worked” for you. Your products will sell slower with higher price points, or you can just run out of stock, which will cause your BSR to go back down. And your likely sitting on a lot of cash on hand, due to the fact your waiting to pay for the other 70%.

    Slow manufuacturing, IS a very bad bad situation. Now to get to your second point, what am I doing to fix it?

    On the specific manufacturing side, this is a very challenging area. I am pressing the manufacturing as light as possible so it doesn’t come off as too pushy, but I’m also doing a neat strategic thing. I’ve placed my next order, but have refused to pay 30% of that order, until they complete the existing shipment. This gives them more incentive to collect on the current 70% ...
    12 min
  • AS 34: Amazon Seller Nathan Hirsch Pulls 5M+ Revenue a Year With His Virtual Assistant Army
    In this podcast, we focused on exploding our Amazon businesses using virtual armies both remote and outsourced abroad. Nathan shares some solid secrets and behind the scenes info on his own companies which sheds better practices on  managing VA's, a critical aspect to growing and succeeding in business.



    Nathan Hirsch is a business owner and serial entrepreneur. His first business an Amazon store does over 5 million in sales revenue a year. I’ve hired hundreds of workers and written an eBook on hiring workers. I consider myself a hiring expert and I created Freeeup.com and make hiring easier for people in eCommerce.

    You can go to different websites; upwork.com, freelancer.com; all these different sites and post jobs, get a 100 applicants, interview them one by one. At the end of the day, you ether make a good hire or a bad hire. If you make a bad hire it could get hurt your company and set you back. If you make a good hire and that worker quits you’re right at where you started, posting jobs and interviewing people one by one. That can stall and set back your company.

    In this podcast you'll learn:

    * How to grow virtual assistant armies
    * How to outsource or use remote agents
    * How to value time
    * VA and remote worker strategies
    * Taxes related to VA and remote workers
    * How VA's can take over support, graphic design, emails, and everything around eCommerce businesses
    * All about Nathan Hirsch FreeeUp platform and how it differs from freelancer and upwork.com
    * How Nathan builds his VA Army and organizes it to work effectively.
    * Using Project Manager VA's
    * How Nathan is growing his own Amazon & Job Hiring business
    * How to scale your Amazon Business, employees vs. remote employees

    Contact Nathan:
    [email protected]  413-250-0846
    Website: Freeeup.com
    https://calendly.com/freeeup-nathan

     

    Contact David:
     http://amzsecrets.com/contact/

     
    39 min
  • AS 33: Automating Your Amazon Business and Quitting Your Day Job
    What’s up guys, its’ the Amz Secrets Podcast, with your Host David Aladdin. This is the podcast that drives all our businesses through the roof, from zero, to hero, from ground to space station outpost 235834, from mach 1 to mach 10. I believe in a continual optimization of our businesses, from PPC, to social media, to design, branding, differentiation and education through knowledge and immersion.

    I recently heard someone say “There’s no such thing to secrets on selling on Amazon?”

    Lets just be clear. Anyone who ever says that is either 1. Lying to you, or 2, Naïve of either their own skill level, or 3, aren’t do well on Amazon.  Saying there are no secrets to selling on Amazon is like saying theirs no such thing as secrets to business or strategies or tools.  I think this type of guy is the old school put your head in the dirt and just work. I like that, but why not work, smart.

    If there were no secrets to businesses, or selling on Amazon, then everyone would have exactly the same businesses across all categories. Think about it. I would sell the same pencil as you, and the next guy. The fact is, there are 1000s of types of pencils. Some pencils sell better than others. Some sell vastly better than others, in the magnitude of millions.

    Why is that? Well that seller has deployed strategies, secrets, wisdom, tools that they have leveraged over time to get their brand and business to where they are at. They constantly optimized their automation, improved their business savyness, lowered manufacturer costs, improved distribution, the list goes on.

    I once sat down at a meeting with a guy across the table from me, wanting to buy a stake in my Amazon business as a partner. He said to me, “David, I see this completely different from you. I want to take this overseas, I want to put it in this retail chain, and sell it in mexico as well.” His mind was full of concepts, beliefs, ideas, secrets, strategies, that I did not possess. Even the way he said it made me wonder…what am I not doing in my business.

    I believe we need to constantly optimize our businsess, using each other, using techniques, strategies, tools, ideas, concepts, and education to further better our busineseses. That’s why AmzSecrets is here.

    WHEW, that was a long intro. And now for our 2 minute news flash briefing, to keep us up to date on all things Amazon:

    So what’s this all mean David? I think Amazon is going to vastly expand it Private Label brands across all categories, and this will only be a matter of time. It’s interesting to see that they are testing their prices and not just trying to be the lowest cost product. Low costs doesn’t nnecessarily mean successful. I recently heard a seller say, You don’t need to provide the lowest cost product, the best customer service, and the best product. You only need to provide 2 of the 3. As Amazon expands it’s reach across PL items, it could do serious damage to other PL brands, but I expect will allow PL grow for years to come. A single product or two into the category won’t destroy another brand, but it can definitely take some of the cash flow away with Amazon boosting it’s own products ahead of others artificially. I’m sure they give more weight to their own products in their search algo.

    Today’s podcast is sponsored by AmzSecrets VIP. It’s the spot where top sellers unite, amongst powerful tools, secrets, strategies for Amazon. We are killers. Check it out with a free 7 day trial to the community.

    Today’s podcast, EP 33: Automating Your Amazon Business, Quitting your Day Job

    I am a huge believer in automation. Everything I do I look to automate, simplify and create less work for me, my team, and my businesses.

    Automation is king, and for those of you who’ve had a quick taste of it, know exactly what I mean. Even at my house,
    22 min
  • AS 32: The State of The Amazon and Pushing Past Private Label
    Today’s podcast, The State of The Amazon, is on expanding your product lines and living past private label. Perhaps one of the biggest concerns I have is creating products that others can source, and my goal is actually to diversify into unique products that not only sell well, but aren’t like anything that exists.

    This AmzSecret, is called inventing. Inventing is a tricky endeavor. It’s complicated. It’s expensive. No one ever said it would be easy.

    Inventing for Amazon and your business per say, takes guts, creativity, and risk. But with risk, comes great reward.

    Lets go over the advantages of inventing. As always I push our community to create brands and not just one off products. With inventions, your adding another product to your brand, and to your line which should improve the health of your brand, and separate yourself from other brands.

    Yes, branding does take a lot of work and energy, but that’s your advantage. This energy and work is work that your competitors are not doing.

    For me, I’m working on 3 new inventions. It’s important to note not to just create products that don’t exist, but products that add value to customers that current do not exist. For example, lets say you are selling pencils. Is it possible to invent a pencil that never runs of lead. Or a pencil that holds 5 erasers. Or a pencil that is sharper than any other pencil and does not require sharpening. These are all viable inventions. Will they sell well… probably, and does it keep the competition off for at least a year yes.

    I’m not saying your competition will sell your newly patented product, but they may decide to invent themselves.

    Inventions fill the gaps of other products. They are also not available to private label sellers. They give you at least 1 year head start before anything even comes close to mimicking your functionality or design. And in 1 year, a lot can happen.

    So what does it take to create a new product..and not just a private label product.

    You have 4 options in this arena:

    You need to learn autocad, or some type of 3d modeling software. OR

    You can outsource on freelancer or odesk your pencil sketch drawing OR

    You can get a 3d printer and prototype

    And lastly, you can check with a related manufacturer in the USA or overseas with their design team, as some manufacturers have these.

    Once you have your idea, and sketch, you get it into the 3d model. Then you create prototypes. Adjust, readjust and ensure that it is to your standards before going into manufacturing.

    Now saying this is probably very easy to do. Having defects in the sample, can lead to a lot of wasteful money in manufacturing. Imagine creating 20,000 units only to find out the plastic is not strong enough, or the unit is too stiff. Whatever may be the issue, ensure you test like crazy during the sampling period.

    Sampling your unit is similar to sampling PL units, except, this unit your sampling does not have any PREVIOUS testing. I would say it is not safe to assume that the manufacturer will fully test your product for you.

    Okay david, I think I understand, how long do molds take and what are the costs? Well it really depends on how many units your making, as theres all various types of molds. Molds can create your units by the 1’s, or 10s per time, depending on your production rate needed. Also molds get worn out over time, so type of metal needed to make the mold varies based on usage. I believe you can get molds created for as low as 3000, all the way up to 50,000 to 100,000 depending on what you are trying to create.

    Okay, so that’s expensive david!? Wtf. Yes indeed, so get multiple quotes and see what works. I like to stick with numbers, and I personally have gotten mold quotes for 8000.
    18 min
  • AS 31: How William Tjernlund Sells Millions + Yearly Revenue on Amazon Private Label and Wholesale
    Today on the show we had Will Tjernlund, a 25 year old entrepreneur with roots in Minnesota. He's been at this game for a long time, so much so, that he had to wait till he was over 18 to qualify for a credit card and his own Amazon Account. In this interview, you'll get a ton of new AmzSecrets and questions answered regarding selling on Amazon, and Amazon Private Label, Amazon Wholesaling, and scaling the business:



    Questions answered:
    How to sell on Amazon while in college?
    How to source products via wholesale?
    How to scale your business as fast as possible?
    How to work with cash flow?
    How William built a leaner business without a manufacturer?
    How to have multiple partners selling on Amazon?
    How to travel to Asia, Europe, South America and Argentina while being successful seller?
    How to beat the competition?

    Insights gained:
    Shipping strategies related to Amazon Merchant Fulfilled and Amazon FBA
    Setting up smarter partnerships and separate businesses accounts
    The false fear around setting up multiple Amazon accounts
    Pareto's Principle and how it is deployed in Williams Businesses
    and lots more!

    AmzSecrets Platform:
    You can watch the full interview, in HD format, in addition to unlocking the secrets in this episode as well as HUNDREDS of other epic Amazon secrets, live mastermind, with AmzSecrets VIP, and AmzSecrets Product Hunter.

    Contact William:
    FB: https://www.facebook.com/tjernlund?fref=ts

    Contact David
    54 min
  • AS 30: Brian Burt aims for 1M+/Month Revenue Selling on Amazon Private Label


    In this action packed, golden nugget filled podcast/periscope with Brian Burt, who's 35, he discusses numerous private label strategies within his businesses, his agency, brands  and much more:

    Questions answered:

    * How to leverage partners to build bigger businesses
    * How to build multiple brands at the same time
    * How to build your business with Amazon
    * How to scaled down employees and scaled up operations
    * How to treat your manufacturers
    * How to expand marketing outside of Amazon
    * How to leverage and automate Instagram
    * How to gain key influencers around your business to explode it
    * How to deliver value and why its more important

    And much more

    Insights gained

    * Auto posting to Instagram
    * Upselling via eCommerce channels versus Amazon, pros and cons
    * BSR increases vs up-sell increases
    * Virtual assistants and work flow optimization
    * Building businesses and strategies for Amazon
    * Conferences that are useful and sellers who go to them
    * Negotiation hacks with manufacturers
    * Manufacturer diversification and strategic dependence on none
    * Manufacturer partnerships

     

    AmzSecrets Platform:
    You can watch the full interview, in HD format, in addition to unlocking the secrets in this episode as well as HUNDREDS of other epic Amazon secrets, live mastermind, with AmzSecrets VIP, and AmzSecrets Product Hunter.

    Contact Brian

     

    Contact David
    1 hr 6 min
  • AS 29: Better ACOS Optimization and PPC with Sean Smith


    Today we had Sean Smith on the show. Sean has more than 6 years of experience in several industries working in various capacities. He’s worked in strategy consulting, team management, and product development in different markets. A couple of years ago he taught himself SEO and was hired in-house as a professional SEO with an award-winning well-funded high growth tech startup in Chicago. During his time as an SEO Sean had to learn as much as possible about the Google search engine and how it uses calculations to try and generate the best search results for users based on keywords. In addition to learning search engines Sean started selling on Amazon as a hobby. He decided to leave his role and pursue selling full-time. He stumbled upon Amazon PPC consulting by using his internet marketing background to help sellers understand Sponsored Products. Now he manages more than $19k in monthly ad spend and has experience working in several markets and does PPC coaching for clients as well.

    We answer these questions in this podcast:
    How do search engines work and why is this important?
    How do you know if Amazon has indexed your content?
    How can I predict Sponsored Products ACoS for a private label product?
    What are common types of keywords that do well in Sponsored Products campaigns?
    How do I balance long tail keywords with keywords that produce more sales volume but have a higher ACoS?
    How do I use my market’s CPC to launch and scale campaigns?
    What is the future of Amazon PPC?
    When do I negative exact a keyword or decrease bid to $0.02?
    How do I use PPC for listing optimization?
    Why is relevancy the most important factor?
    How do high keywords bids perform compared to low keyword bids?

    Insights Gained:

    * Which professional tools are used by expert PPC sellers
    * Private Blog networks and marketing
    * Adspending high vs. lows
    * A9 is run as a separate company
    * Long tail keyword optimization strategies
    * Steady Eddy Techniques
    * Low ranking fruit
    * Profitable Keyword strategies
    * When to scale campaigns and when not to
    * And lots more.

    AmzSecrets Platform:
    You can watch the full interview, in HD format, in addition to unlocking the secrets in this episode as well as HUNDREDS of other epic Amazon secrets, live mastermind, with AmzSecrets VIP.

    Contact Sean:
    (773) 644-0375
    site: http://www.junglehustle.com/

    Contact David:
    http://amzsecrets.com/contact/
    56 min

About The David Aladdin Show - Building Billion Dollar e-Commerce Companies, Amazon Private Label, FBA, Shopify, Woo, Retail Products - AmzSecrets

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We interviews top notch guests on his quest to build a billion dollar e-commerce business, Amazon Fba, private label, Woocommerce, Shopify, retail, private label bus