How To Choose The Perfect Product To Sell On Amazon with Sam Fawahl
00:55 – Introduction & Sam’s Background
07:22 – How Sam Get Into Selling in Amazon
12:00 – Sams Criteria On What Product to Sell in Amazon
14:08 – Why You Need the Keyword Information on a Product
16:23 – Going Niche in Australia vs US Marketing
18:16 – Importance of Keyword Depth
18:54 – What’s Next After Finding Your Niche
20:37 – Watch Out For The BSR or Best Seller Reviews
22:46 – Minimum Search Volume Required for the Merchant Words
24:00 – Have A Point Of Difference in Launching a Product
25:33 – Seller’s experience when it comes to Amazon AUS vs other regions
28:31 – How To Get Reviews and Avoid Making This Mistakes In Launching Your Product
31:43 – Other Common Mistakes You Should Avoid as a Seller
34:27 – Where You Can Learn More About Sam
Choosing the right product to sell on Amazon is critical to being successful. So, in this episode, I chat with Sam Fawahl about the selection criteria when choosing a product to sell. It actually follows quite a simple formula and makes chooseing the right product much easier than most people think. Be sure to listen to this episode if you are thinking about launching a product and of course, before you make any final decisions.
Introduction & Sam’s Background
Ilana: Welcome back to another episode of Talking Web Marketing. I have a lovely gentleman who I’ve invited as a guest today, who’s called Sam Fawahl, I hope I didn’t put to that, Sam. My apologies if I have. And Sam, come to talk to us today about choosing the right product to sell and specifically sell on Amazon. I enlisted the help of some few months ago to help me choose a product to launch on Amazon and he was a wealth of knowledge. So I thought you know what, let’s spread Sam’s knowledge at far and wide. And let’s invite him on today’s show. So we can talk about really what it comes down to choosing a product, why you choose one over another and various criteria. So Sam, welcome to today’s show.
Sam: Awesome, thank you so much for having me. It’s a really great on it, it’s been fantastic. I’ll I’ll catch up so usually really good and and they really go in depth in regards to everything that we inside speak about. So yeah, it’s really awesome for having me on, thank you.
Ilana: The pleasure is mine. So why don’t we I’m always fascinated in part of people’s stories, how they’ve been ended up where they are, because I know I’ve got a long and convoluted story. So can you give us like just a high level kind of background to what what you do and how you ended up where you are?
Sam: Sure, absolutely. So probably about well, it’s been about six years since I’ve been doing Amazon. And before that, I really wasn’t too sure exactly what I wanted to do. So I left school at a young age and became an apprentice actually being a diesel mechanic, believe it or not, and the only last probably only about eight or nine months but I had no idea what I wanted to do. And that’s kind of the one thing they kind of just fell into. And then I remember I had someone there by the name of Nick, and he was kind of took me under his wing. And I remember he used to, he said, teach me all these really cool stuff, right? He’s like an older brother, and on the lunch break we used to use these money and play poker because that’s what he told me to do at 16 years old.
Ilana: It was very responsible of him isnt it? (Both laughs)
Sam: So, I ended up becoming a really great poker player actually, because of that. But basically what happened was, I remember we had a, we had a talk one day, and it’s like, Sam, you know, do you really want to go home to your future wife, with your, your greasy hands like that every night. And I kind of really strike a chord. And he always told me what you smarter, smarter than that, you know, go find something else. And, and I eventually did, I think the last there about eight or nine months and then I moved on from that. And a lot of have tried a lot of different things, to really just kind of, you know, try to make money, I guess or try to try to do something that I really wanted to do. And so for what ended up happening was I ended up doing what a lot of other people do when they’re looking for a home based businesses is get online and, and search for, you know, home based business or best work from home or whatever it was. And I couldn’t really find anything, I was very, very hard to find and anything like anything that looked credible. And I remember back when I was 18. I had I used to go to my local bakery nearly every day and you know, get a pie or a croissant or something. And, and I actually had a lady there named Mi. And she was actually Vietnamese, which ended up being very interesting. But she and she actually told me once and I remember going in there and I was quite a feeling quite down. She said, are you okay? And I said Yeah, I’m fine. Just you know, things work. And she’s looking to make some extra money. And I said, Yeah, I am actually and she said, Look, why don’t you come on Tuesday night to a meeting in North Melbourne. And I said, Okay, and she said, Look, you know, come here, we have a bit of meeting I’m not okay. So I ended up going there. And there was probably about four or 500 people. And inside that room, it was kind of like a little hall. And I’m thinking What is this? You know, what have I got myself into? And this was sort of going back about 17 years ago now. And basically what it was was actually a meeting for Amway.
So I was like, at that time, I mean, I had no idea what Amway was, right. So I ended up joining and after about seven months guess how much money I made from that.
Ilana: I have no idea…
Sam: Nothing, I didn’t make anything.
Ilana: (laughs) Give me one of those two options, nothing or you make something.
Sam: Exactly right. So I didn’t make anything. But one thing that I was extremely grateful for was the education and the financial education or teaching me and also the all of the offers are introducing me to so that really got the really good when it comes to education. And they introduced me to Robert Kiyosaki, which, yeah, which I started reading a lot of these books and Rich Dad, Poor Dad was one of them, and they’re really struggling over for me and, and, you know, I really, really appreciate it and I really decided to get on the other side of the quadrant, which is either a business owner or investor because that’s where Robert Kiyosaki said that 95% of the world’s wealth is created. And that’s where you’re going to have a lot more time if you, you know, make your money work for you. So, and he’s basically, he basically said, That’s why he recommends, you know, things like network marketing and multi level marketing was because of that reason, even though the extremely difficult to make a really good income with and when you do, because I found that the hard way, is I joined a lot of these multi level marketing and direct sales opportunities. And, but what had happened is, when I built a network, when I built a team, a lot of the times things change, either the companies are they are not there anymore, or the owners would change or the payment structure would change. And, and so you spent all this hard work to three years of building this huge organization. And the next thing you know, it’s all it’s all crumbled. And at one stage, when I was 24, actually I won an award, I won an award in LA so the flying to LA and I was actually there and I won an award for the third income earner for direct sales company I was he knows that about 3000 people. So that was really was really great, you know, and every 12 weeks we to go. And we still go to personal development conferences. So were going to Hawaii in the Bahamas and saw a lot of the top personal development speakers, which was really, really inspiring. I did that for a good three years or four years.
Ilana: And this is Amway is it?
How Sam Get Into Selling in Amazon
Sam: No, that was with another company. So Amway I ended up leaving after seven or eight months. And then another company’s not around anymore. And like I said, they just kind of come and they seem to leave really quickly. So basically, what ended up happening then was I was and I was at that Crossroads again, because the same thing that happened with this company, I built this huge organization done really well. And the next thing, you know, I’m gone. And so there was a period, probably when, I guess just before starting Amazon, where I was, again, wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. And I knew I didn’t want to get involved in anything like that, again, just because of the from experience. So what were my other options, and it was looking at things like maybe trading or doing something like that. But again, I wasn’t really sure about that. And then one day, I actually saw a post on Facebook, from a Facebook friend of mine, talking about Amazon, and this was about six years ago now. And he mentioned that as you go to product on Amazon. And he’s doing really well. for that. Well, that’s interesting. And so I started looking into it a little bit more. And I decided to basically get on board with Amazon and selling on Amazon. And it was a little bit tricky for us, I guess Australians to sign up to Amazon, when six years ago. And the reason being was because if you want to sell on Amazon.com, or not, because they weren’t in Australia, but basically, I was looking at selling Amazon.com. And you couldn’t actually sell on Amazon.com, if you’re an Australian, unless you had a US address, you had a US bank account, you had a US phone number. So it was very hard to actually start on Amazon.com. And it took me and it was a very small group of us Australian selling is probably only about five or 10 of us that on you at that time that was selling in Amazon, the US. And a lot of us were trying to figure out how to actually do it. So I ended up figuring it all out and go to US accounts and, and everything and, and then I started selling on Amazon at that same time, I actually started traveling the world and went to Vietnam was traveling, I guess a little bit more than what I used to before.
But this time I decided to live on the road. And so about six years ago about that same time, my partner and I, we basically left Melbourne and went for a little adventure to Asia, and we landed in Vietnam, and loved Vietnam so much. And we found ourselves there for a good five years just really was a great place for us. And it was a really good place for us to build an online business because of the costs in Vietnam was way cheaper than what they are in Australia, right. So you have a lot more leverage. And when it comes to that, so that was really good. I actually started selling a lot of handmade products in Vietnam, because affordable. So what I did was I used to go to a handmade stores. And a lot of a lot of I speak to store owners and I say look, how about if I get your products online, and what I’ll do is I’ll take a photo, I just want to take a photo of all your products on and get them online. And if I make a sale or coming back from you at whatever price you wanted, that you have on your on your shelf there, of course, and and and then all ship it off and they like it “no worries”, so that’s what I started doing. I started selling on Etsy also. And I started selling because they already had the inventory and was great product. So selling them, that them on Etsy, then I got into eBay as well. And I actually built a really good relationship with the Bed Bath and Beyond purchasing manager in the US, which was really, she was really great. And she really provided some really, really great value for me. So I was doing a lot of selling Drop Shipping, actually, for overstock, and Bed Bath and Beyond. I wouldn’t recommend that now. And I can go into more of a reason why Etsy was fantastic, really love that. But then, as Amazon started picking up, I decided to put my full attention on Amazon because that’s where I was building my brand. That’s where I was bringing my business. And I was getting the best results out of that. And I remember the first time I was looking at four products for my Amazon business, and I was thinking, Well, you know, what am I going to get into, I made a list of about 150 products. And I remember I want to do some really cool, you know, something really cool, something really sporty, I’m selling an emergency survival gear camping, and I had 150 products, and I only had three products that were in the kitchen niche, listed on a spreadsheet, and the product that ticked all the boxes was a potato masher. Right. Can you believe it?
Sam’s Criteria On What Product to Sell on Amazon
Ilana: Maybe on that, you know, it ticked all the boxes? What were those boxes?
Sam: Yeah, sure. So basically, what had happened was when I was looking at all the criteria, and this is something that I do when I’m looking at all the different criteria for a product, it’s very important to look at everything as a whole. So a lot of people make their choices based on one step that they see. So for example, one tool that we use is called merchant words for Amazon, and basically what that does is it brings up how many times people actually searching for that particular product on Amazon. And so what I do is I actually look at everything from doing coaching now with a lot of the guys. And sometimes I do one off calls where they want me to analyze their products. And I realized that they had only looked at that one stat. So it’s very important. And this is what I look at, I look at the merchant words volume. So I want to see a certain amount of people actually searching for that particular product. So that’s very, very important. Another thing that I actually look at is the Google volume. So I put in once I have a list of a lot of the different keywords that are be using to actually market that product, I actually have a look on Google to have a look at the demand there also. And that lets me know also, in advance whether or not I can actually do some type of Google campaign for that particular product. So I look at the merchant words, I look at the Google volume. Also look at the Google trend. The trend is very, very important to look at to see how your product is doing over the period of the last five years. So I usually like so I put my main keyword, it’s a Google Trends and see if it’s on an incline. So if some a decline, see if the product is fairly stable, See if it’s seasonal, because if it’s seasonal, you’ll see the spikes in summer. And then I’ll come back down again. So that’s another criteria that I’ll look at. Another thing that I look at is so once I’ve established that, yes, there is some type of demand for this particular product. And then what I do is I take it to the next step. And now I get onto Amazon, and start to have a look on Amazon to see if the product is actually selling.
Why You Need the Keyword Information on a Product
Ilana: Before we kind of get on to that. I would imagine that the reason keyword information and tapping into the tools like merchant words and the Google planner tool and trends is really kind of tapping into is this something that people already want, like is their existing search volume? versus you’ve invented something and no one knows that exists? And then you’ve got to do like a whole awareness campaign. It’s like, Well, imagine it’s tapping into where there’s existing demand. And really, you’re just putting your product in front of those people who are already looking for it.
Sam: Exactly. Yes, that’s, that’s the main thing. And like you touch base on them. And if you decide to create a product that no one’s heard of, well, you need a lot of marketing money for that, because you got to build a brand awareness campaign, and you gotta let everyone know it’s there. So what I do, and especially for Australia, when it comes to Australia, because we already have, I mean, we have what 24-25 million, regards to population, it’s, it’s, it’s a lot less than then the US has over 300 million. So what you want to be doing is you want to be tapping into a product. When you’re selecting for the Australian market, that’s already high demand. That’s very, very important. Because if you start to get your niche through Australia, you’ll find yourself not really making too many sales. And you’ll need to compensate with that with doing some external marketing, which can be a little bit costly. So I like to find mainstream products in Australia that have huge demands that are selling really well and then obviously come into there and then do a better job than my competition, whether it is or provide a product that is not listed yet on Amazon, in Australia. So for example, it’s we know that the demand that Australia’s for it, our competition is making money. Now I get onto Amazon, US and I find a product. So let’s say for example, it’s a it’s a, it’s a tablet stand, for your iPad, or for your phone, then what I would do is once I’ve identified yet there’s heaps demand for that product, and there is a demand for that product by the way, then I would go to the US or Germany or France, on Amazon, and I would see if I can find a tablet standard selling extremely well there. So it has really great reviews. It’s got really good sales volume. And and then I’ll just launch that in Australia and then just tap it into there
Going Niche in Australia vs US Marketing
Ilana: Yeah, right. So what about a super niche or niche for American listeners product on us? I would have my guess and you’ll be experts. And this is a question not a statement, does the same apply for the states like you know, to go after an iPad stand in America is like serious deep pocket stuff like would you go more specific or more niche in the US vs in Australia, purely on the population size?
Sam: Hundred percent, hundred percent. So with Australia because the population size a lot smaller, you want to go for product that’s not as niche more mainstream when it comes to the US you want to go as super niche as you can. So what I mean by that is this. So let’s say for example, if someone says to me in the US that they want to get into the pets category, that’s too broad. What’s what does that mean? The pets category? I mean, what are you exactly selling? It’s way too broad. So, but if someone said to me, okay, well, we want to get into the pets category, but we want to sell products related to birds. And we want to sell products related to birds. And we only want to focus on cages. So we want to sell bird cages, right, that’s our niche, that’s our brand. That’s what we want to do. We want to be known for selling bird cages, we’re gonna have 100 different variations, bird cages, and that’s all we want to be known for. So that’s very, very specific. Right? is someone that they know exactly what they want to do, and then build a brand around that. When it comes to the US market, you need to find a very specific niche, right? Because if you find a niche that’s too broad, the competition is already there. It’s very, very hard to outcompete. With those already established sellers, unless you have extremely deep pockets and even then it can become a little bit risky. So with the US market, I like to find specific pockets specific niches within that market and do a better job there.
Importance of Keyword Depth
Ilana: Yeah, cool. And lastly, just on the keyword, keyword selection type thing, what about such a thing as like called keyword depth? Like how many sort of variations of your keyword. Do you kind of you worried if there’s only really one type of keyword or doesn’t really factor in?
Sam: Depth is very, very important. So I don’t like to select products only have one main keyword or one keyword that people can type in for the actually find it. I look for a number of different keywords. So usually 3,4,5 The more the better, as long as they obviously specific to the actual product. So yes, depth is very important also.
What’s Next After Finding Your Niche
Ilana: yeah, cool. Awesome. Okay, so say we’ve found a good keyword. And what’s next in our investigation process?
Sam: Yep. Awesome. So after you’ve identified I guess, the niche, then it’s a matter of, like I said, probably the merchant words is the really good place to start in regards to finding the good volume for those keywords. And if they do have good depth, good volume, Google and then Trend and then after that, is to get onto Amazon putting that main keyword. And this is one of the very first things I look for, to identify whether or not that product is going to be suitable in the US market. So this is very first thing that I look forward to identify once I get onto Amazon is when you go to Amazon.com, if you type in the word, and let’s say you want to sell coffee grinder or manual coffee grinder, so you put the keywords in their manual coffee grinder, and then what you want to do is this will give you a really good indication on whether or not the product, you can actually get on to page one, which is where you want to be, which is where all the sales happen or not. So one thing that I teach my guys in my group is to get onto Amazon.com, put the main keyword in there and look for sellers, right. So look for sellers that have less than 50 reviews, right? So make a note of how many sellers have less than 50 reviews. So you might find account page one for the main keyword of manual coffee grinder, we have 12 sellers that have less than 50 reviews. Okay, that’s good. So basically what that does is it lets us know that okay, there’s a lot of new sellers that are on page one, if they have less than 50 reviews. And if that 10 reviews or five reviews, you know, they’re fairly new seller, right? So that’s a good sign. So and the reason why the….
Watch Out For The BSR or Best Sellers Rank
Ilana: So the reviews are like a proxy for how new of a seller they are?
Sam: Exactly, exactly how new of a seller they are and also how, how hard or how easy it is for you to get on to page one, right? So if there’s if there’s a lot of sellers that have very low reviews on page one, then that’s a good sign that shows you that you can actually do that too. Right? There’s there’s a lot of new sellers on it. But the second thing is that’s very, very important, is once you’ve identified that say this 12 sellers that have less than 50 reviews, then it’s important to get what’s called the BSR or the best sellers rank. And you can actually just click on on the product listing. And if you scroll down the product description, you’ll see it says Best Sellers Rank, it’s very, very important that that number is less than 10,000, for at least four or five of those sellers. Okay. And what that basically means is if that number is less than 10,000, that means they’re actually making a good volume of sales.
Ilana: So the BSR is a number, the lower the better?
Sam: exactly, the lower the better. We’re always looking at the very first number. So if when you go to Amazon.com, you click on the product, and then you go down to the product description. And you’ll see Best Sellers Rank, the very first number there, that’s the main category number. And basically what that means is if that number is 1000, that means that out of all the products in that main category, these products is ranked number 1000 for the most selling product. So I like to look for instantly I like to see if if the if there’s a number of cells that have listed 50 reviews. And also if there’s a number of sellers that have a rank, that the ones that do have listed reviews have a ranking less than 10,000. That will give me an indication that yes, there’s a lot of new sales and page one. And yes, they’re making a lot of money.
Ilana: Okay this BSR number, how often is that updated?
Sam: It’s updated almost live almost daily. But it doesn’t actually, it’s updated all the time. It’s updated all the time, but it doesn’t fluctuate too much. So you can actually use that as a metric.
Minimum Search Volume Required for the Merchant Words
Ilana: And sorry, one last question back on the search volume with the merchant words, is there a minimum search volume that you require? Or do you really just kind of go off the BSR numbers, that’s the proxy for the Search Volume?
Sam: Yeah, so basically, when it comes to merchant words, there isn’t a specific number that I require. Because I look at everything, kind of as a whole, I look at it to see what it’s doing everywhere. Because sometimes you’ll find you go to merchant words, and you’ll put in a specific search term. And you might find it only has 10,000 searches a month in the US market, which is extremely low. But then you might go to Amazon.com, and type in that same search term, and see that there’s a lot of volume, a lot of sales, there’s a lot of conversion, even though there’s a smaller amount of search volume is a lot of conversion, that’s still tells me that it could could be a good product. So in regards to the merchant words, I would say take it as try to get depth keyword, depth and not really worry too much in regards to the search volume, but it’s important to make sure you do the other checks also. So the answer is probably not.
Have A Point Of Difference in Launching a Product
Ilana: Okay, cool. So to circle back then to, when you said your first product, was the potato masher that ticked all the boxes, to these are the kinds of boxes that it was ticking that it says search volume, and BSR and reviews.
Sam: Exactly.
Ilana: So you launch your potato masher, and then what?
Sam: So it was fantastic. I mean, it was a really, really great product, my second month of the 17,000 in revenue, after launching in the US and, and it did really well. And one of the things that really determine whether or not your product as well also, and we’ve touched base on this before, also is the point of difference, it’s very, very important that you don’t launch the same product as everyone else. A lot of people launched the exact same product, and it’s very hard to stand out. And what happens is you end up competing on price, and it becomes very, very difficult. So it’s very important that if you’re looking to get a product into the market, once you’ve established there is demand there is sales, then to do something different to either bundle, bundling is usually the quickest way to have a point of difference. So bundling, meaning adding another product to it as a bonus. Another idea is to maybe add an E-book, or another idea is is to maybe do a small customization of the actual product with the manufacturers, or to get a completely new product that’s not in that market yet. So maybe find a product in Germany that’s not in the US, and then bring that over to the US and sell that. So there are a few different ways of having a point of difference. But it’s absolutely crucial to actually have that.
Seller’s experience when it comes to Amazon AUS vs other regions
Ilana: Yeah. Cool. So what are your thoughts on Amazon, Australia? And how it’s going? And kind of? Yeah, I guess you talked to so many other Amazon sellers. What are people’s experience selling on Amazon Australia versus Amazon in America, etc.
Sam: Sure. So Amazon, Australia, and the US are completely two different, I guess kettle of fish. And basically, with Australian market, it’s really about playing the medium term to long term strategy, it’s very easy to get a product into Amazon Australia at the moment, it’s not that it’s not that difficult to get on to page one in Amazon Australia. So that’s the kind of that’s kind of where you want to be in regards to building a long term or medium term business is you’re essentially going they’re getting these products, and you’re basically buying yourself or getting yourself some real estate space there in Amazon. So what ends up happening is we’ve seen Amazon pick up year to year or month to month now. And basically what that means is that you’re in prime position to take advantage of that without really doing too much extra work. I think expectation is a really big thing, also, because it’s very, very important that when you do go into straight, you know, you’re playing the medium to long term game with a lot of the products and one of the categories there. In saying that though, there are some I mean, we’re finding the best category, and I’m finding especially is electronics, the electronics category is fantastic.
And a lot of people they get scared of electronics, because they believe that that category requires special approval, or it’s gated, or it’s you know, it’s hard to get into. But as long as you stick to products that you don’t need to plug into the power, or do not take batteries that are in electronics, then you’ll be fine. So things like tripods, things like tablets stands, things that are USB charging, or okay. So a lot of those products actually do very, very high volume in Australia 10-15 sales a day, I have one of my guys is doing five or 10 sales a day, but also in electronics, just from one product. So imagine you got 20 of those products, now you’re doing you know, 500,000 sales a month at good margins. So there is room in Australia right now to be making money right now. But it’s very, very important that you choose a product that is very, very high demand. And if you don’t, and you go more niche, then you’re playing the medium to long term game. So that’s the way that the US market is, is the competition is the biggest thing that you need to worry about, and also how much money you have to spend in that market. Because you’re going to go for a bit more money to spend in regards to getting inventory and making sure that you have enough product to restock, etc. But the US market is a beast. Once you get on to page one pretty high for your keyword or for your product, you could be selling a lot. I mean, I have another one of my guys in the US doing about 600 or 700 units every couple of months. So yeah, it’s really two different markets. Two very different strategies. But they both work.
How To Get Reviews and Avoid Making This Mistakes In Launching Your Product
Ilana: Yeah. Interesting. And I would imagine since one of your criteria by which if you’re going to enter a market, is there a low reviews. Getting reviews for your listing is so important? I mean, do you have a couple of tips of the best ways that you can at least get some reviews because considering it hinges so much on kind of how your listing looks compared to others, etc. Like it’s such a review platform.
Sam: Yes. Also another thing, it’s very, very important that one mistake that I see a lot of people do when they launching the product on Amazon is they’ll get the inventory into Amazon. And let’s say there have been 300 units into Amazon, then what they’ll do is they’ll actually do a launch too early. And what that basically means is, as soon as your product into Amazon if you do a launch, and the launch meaning that you want to get ranked on page one, and the only way you get ranked on page one is if you sell a lot of product really quickly, right?
Ilana: High sales velocity.
Sam: Exactly. So you get a higher sales, velocity bus and lower price really quickly, that gets you on page one, then if you have a good enough product and your process, right, you should stay there. Right, that’s usually the logic behind it. But what a lot of people do is they’ll launch their product, and they have no reviews. So they launched it private, you don’t have paid one, right. But now they’re the only seller that has no reviews. So there’s no social proof, there’s no credibility, and a lot of people don’t end up purchasing their product. So what happens is they end up going to page 2 or page 3, right. So then this huge launch, they’ve got rid of maybe 30-40 units, end up on page one, then what happens is those 30 or 40 units start leaving reviews, and then after the launch again and get rid of another 30-40, when really the way they should have done launches, I break them all launches in two phases.
So I have phase one, where I’m trying to get at least five or 10 reviews before I even did the big launch. So I’m aiming to get those five or 10 reviews. And then once I have those five or 10 reviews, depending how competitive this space is, and then I’ll do a second launch to catapult on page one. Now when I get on page one, I’ve already got five to 10 reviews. So my conversion rate is a lot better, and it gives it a way better chance of actually staying on page one. In regards to getting your first five or 10 reviews, there are a few different strategies that I teach for sure. And one of those strategies is actually getting people to test your product. So I never, I never advise anyone to actually ask for anyone else for review or to hire people to leave them reviews. It’s actually against Amazon terms. But what you can do is I actually hire people to do some, I guess, answer some questions in regards to my product listing page. And what they do is they actually go through the processes if they’re a buyer, I get them to answer questions, but related to my product, related to my product page. And I actually still don’t ask them for review. I don’t do that. But what I do is they receive my autoresponders in Amazon, because from Amazon, after they’ve made the purchase, you’re allowed to ask them for review through Amazon. So that’s the way that I do it. And from that they end up leaving me review that I have not actually specifically asked for outside of Amazon. So it’s kind of a little bit of a hack. But that’s the way that I actually do that there. And hope that made sense.
Other Common Mistakes You Should Avoid as a Seller
Ilana: Yeah, no, it definitely did. So you sort of touched on one particular No, no. What is some other sort of mistakes that people make, so that I guess anyone listening to this can listen to these and make possibly avoid some of the mistakes, the common the one that you see people make?
Sam: Sure, first of all, being realistic in regards to their budget, it’s very, very important that when you get involved in Amazon, you don’t overstretch the amount of money that you have to put towards this business. So for example, if you have $2,000 to get started on Amazon, then you might not want to use the full 2,000 just on that one product. Right. So you might want to use only a portion of that for the for your first product. So most of the people the reason why even some successful people, where you’d say they’re successful, they get the product up, and they’re selling really well. But now they can’t afford to restock it because you know, they don’t have that extra cash flow. So I think the very first important thing is, is to be realistic in regards to how much money you have to put towards your business. So how much money are you not going to miss? Right? So if you, if you, if it disappears, you’re not going to miss it, it’s not gonna put any financial pressure on yourself and family or anything like that. So that’s very important.
That’s step one. Step two is launching in a marketplace with not enough inventory. So for example, in the US marketplace, you really need a minimum of 300 units, and it depends what you’re going to launch. But on average, probably round about 300 units at the absolute minimum, to make sure you do a launch for that particular product in the US market. So anything less than that, it’s gonna be very hard to get on to page one, without running out of inventory very quickly, and then needing to do everything all over again. And that can be can be a lot harder. The third mistake or find people doing is I’m going with the emotions, making decisions based on emotions as opposed to logic. So for example, or facts, I guess, you know, based on the criteria they actually find. So a lot of people would ask them, why do you select that product? They’ll say to me, I just I liked it, I follow a feeling it’ll do well. When I select the product, I know why it’s going to do well. I know how many searches it has on a different the keywords, I know that the trend is on an incline. I know know that I can compete with the price. My profit margins are there. So I already I can give you a really long answer in regards to why I choose my products and was selected by that. And so another thing is to make sure that you’ve done your homework in regards to what product you’re going to get and what the game plan is also. So they’re probably the key ones, I would say. And that’s probably about it I think from the top of my head.
Where You Can Learn More About Sam
Ilana: Yeah, that’s super helpful. You’ve been so interesting to talk to and I don’t want to take up too much of your time. So thank you so much for coming on to chat on today’s show. But before we go, where can people find out a bit more information about you and your services and what you offer people?
Sam: Sure. It’s been great to be on here, that’s for sure. Always, always look forward to these calls. They’re always heaps of fun. heaps of fun. That’s great. And I actually love listening to a lot of these soon as you get a lot the golden nuggets, which is cool. So thank thank you for providing this platform also. It’s brilliant. All right, so amzbullet.com we basically have a service there where we help out with Amazon listings and running up a listing and doing keyword research and competitor analysis and things like that. So that’s probably the best place to find me.
Ilana: Awesome. So amzbullet.com one word. And that sounds fantastic. Thank you so much, Sam. It’s been a pleasure as always talking to you. And yeah, for resources on today’s show. You can just download the show notes from our website, and thanks for listening.