Re-release – Should you sell your product on Amazon?

Hi, so today's episode is a re release of an episode that I

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and I'm re releasing it for two reasons.

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One is because we are right at the end,

it's the middle of the Christmas holidays

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and um, I didn't think it was a good

time to start creating new content.

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Lots of you might be away or busy and

you know, not be waiting necessarily

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for the latest episode to arrive.

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And also because I think it's really

timely for lots of businesses.

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The beginning of a year is a time

when they think about plans for the

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year, selling your products on Amazon

or improving your existing Amazon

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business might be on your list of goals.

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And if so, I think you'll find this re

released episode really, really useful.

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Everything I talk about in

here is still really relevant.

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So, um, it hasn't outdated itself

in a year, which is very good.

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Um, yeah.

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And so I hope you enjoy re

listening to this episode.

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Welcome to the Bring Your

Product Idea to Life podcast.

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This is the podcast for you if

you're getting started selling

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products, or if you'd like to

create your own product to sell.

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I'm Vicki Weinberg, a product

creation coach and Amazon expert.

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Every week I share friendly, practical

advice, as well as inspirational

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stories from small businesses.

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Let's get started.

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Hi, thank you for being here.

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So this is another episode

where it's just me again.

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And this episode was inspired by the

fact that every single day I hear from

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lots of people on small businesses

who want to start selling on Amazon.

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And as you'll probably know, I also help

and work with a lot of Amazon sellers

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every single day on either getting

started on Amazon or on improving

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their sales on their existing account.

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And I see a lot of people do really,

really well on Amazon, but I also see

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people who don't and what is worse I

think and what I really feel for is that

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some of these businesses have, you know,

there are reasons why they're not doing

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as well on Amazon as they might, but some

of this is actually out of their control.

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Um, and of course I will talk later

in this episode about the things that

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are within your control, but it might

be that they would have been better

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off focusing their time and effort

into another marketplace instead.

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Um, by the way, I'm not meaning to

be harsh at all when I say that you

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hopefully know by now that my goal is

to help as many people do, as possible,

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do as well as possible, whether that's

on Amazon or on another platform, but

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Amazon definitely isn't for everyone.

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And I'm not saying that those who

don't do well don't have a great

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product, although of course this

is essential wherever you sell.

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It could just be that there's

another marketplace that

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suits their product better.

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And I have actually recorded an

episode about the best places to

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sell your products and I'm going

to link to that in the show notes.

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So I guess what I'm saying here is that

there are sellers who I think if they'd

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realized how competitive the category

they're selling their products in, or,

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you know, maybe there's a really dominant

seller there already who's selling

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something very similar, who has maybe

a couple of thousand reviews, it can

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be really, really hard to get started.

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And that's not saying that

you shouldn't sell by the way.

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I just think it's better to go in knowing

that, okay, there's somebody else doing

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really well here or this niche is really

saturated, um, but I'm going to, you

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know, open eyes and I know that rather

than going and spending time and money

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on selling on Amazon, getting yourself

set up and just not having any clue

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really as to whether things might work,

um, whether you might sell your, you

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know, maybe you might make lots of sales

of your products or whether it's going

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to be tricky to make any sales at all.

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And on the other hand, um, I should

say that it might be that Amazon is

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not somewhere you've even considered

selling your product and maybe you're

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listening to this episode, um, because

you're considering that and I, you

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know, you think it could be a good fit.

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So do listen on whichever one of

these applies or maybe none of

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them applies, but do listen because

hopefully you'll find something useful

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and interesting that you can apply.

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So you have probably heard me say many

times by now that Amazon is a tricky

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place to get started even if you have

an amazing product and it is in fact

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so hard that I wrote a free guide

all about this which is called how to

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successfully launch a product on Amazon

or rescue one that's not selling.

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I'm going to link to that in the show

notes as well because whether you're

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on Amazon already and you're not seeing

the sales you'd expect or whether you're

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thinking actually I think maybe I'd

like to get set up I think this is all

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just really useful information to have.

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I'll touch on some of this today but

there's a lot that goes into getting

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started on Amazon, particularly if

you're going into a category where

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there's already a lot of competition

and other sellers doing well,

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you have to be able to compete.

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And when I say compete, I

don't really like that word.

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What I mean is you also, let's assume

these sellers are doing well, they're

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going to have really great listings.

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You need really great listings.

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They need really great images.

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You need really great images.

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They're going to be

well optimized for SEO.

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You need to be well optimized for SEO.

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Um, I do apologize if

some of this is obvious.

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But, um, do know that I say this

from a good place because lots of

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times when I see people and they

say, oh, I'm not doing very well.

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I've had my listing up for a couple

of months, but I'm not selling any.

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Um, sometimes, not all of the time, but

often I can pinpoint exactly why that is.

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And there were really practical things

they can do to make improvements, but

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obviously they might then have, you

know, they might have spent that first

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couple of months not making any sales.

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And that's not what I want for anybody.

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And, um.

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You know, even if it's, even if it is

only a month or two, that's a month or

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two you could have been making sales.

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So I think it's really good to

know a lot of this in the start.

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I want to talk a little bit

about why Amazon is an appealing

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place to sell your products.

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So whether, you know, whether you

find it appeals to you, maybe it's

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somewhere you want to sell, or

maybe you're just considering it

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and you want to hear my take on it.

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Well, I think there are lots of reasons.

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It's obviously a huge

well known marketplace.

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Um, I didn't have to tell you

what Amazon was, for example.

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I'm pretty sure, if you're listening

to this episode, you know what

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Amazon is, you've heard of them,

you've probably shopped there before.

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Lots of us do shop there,

so we're familiar with it.

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And there are lots of

customers there already.

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So if your product is what people are

looking for, it can be easier to convert

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them into customers than on Google, for

example, as they're usually there to shop.

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So if they're in the search bar and

they're typing, I don't know, shampoo

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for curly hair, if they're typing that

on Google, they might be doing a bit

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of research, trying to find out what

products are out there, or trying to

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find out, should you shampoo curly hair?

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But if they're typing shampoo for

curly hair into Amazon, chances

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are that customer is looking

to buy shampoo for curly hair.

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And, like with any marketplace, and

as I said, I have a podcast episode

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where I go into all of this in

more detail for all kinds of online

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marketplaces, there are good and bad

points about selling on Amazon too.

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So I'm going to start with the good.

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So as I said, Amazon is a

large recognizable marketplace,

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people know and trust.

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Um, and as well as knowing and trusting

them, they usually know and trust them

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enough to put their card details on there.

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So I don't know about you,

but I have my card details.

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I think I've even done probably more

than one card detail saved on Amazon.

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So if I want to buy something,

I can just do it with one click.

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It's really, really easy.

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So that's, you know, that's good for

you as a seller because it means there

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aren't that many barriers to someone

actually being able to buy your product.

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They're not worried about,

is this site secure?

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Can I put my card details in here?

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Do I even know where my card is?

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Except, you know, it's really,

really easy to buy from.

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And as I said, the customers are there

already, so you don't need to worry

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about getting them onto the site.

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You just need to focus on them

being able to find your product and

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then converting them into buyers.

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And there are lots of inbuilt

marketing tools you can use on Amazon

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to attract customers and these get

better and better all the time.

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So you can do advertising to your listing.

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You can advertise to your Amazon store.

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If you have an Amazon store, you

can target by keyword searches.

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You can choose to advertise

on other people's listings.

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You can do video ads.

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There's just so much that you can do

and it does get better and better and I

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have to say I wouldn't consider myself

an advertising expert but I have great

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results using Amazon advertising for my

clients and I actually think of all of the

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types of advertising I have tried, and I

have tried a few over the years, I feel

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like the Amazon advertising is actually

pretty good and pretty easy to use.

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And at some point, maybe

I'll do an episode all about

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that if there's any interest.

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Um, if you decide to use Fulfilled

by Amazon or Amazon FBA, then this

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means they handle the logistics.

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So that's the storage

and the shipping for you.

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Um, this can be expensive.

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So I definitely don't recommend

you thinking, oh, that's great,

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I'll send them hundreds of.

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units of my product because, you

know, as I said, it can get expensive,

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particularly if things aren't moving

as fast as you'd like them to.

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However, for a customer, if you use FBA,

it means they can benefit from Amazon

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Prime and which is often next day,

not always next day delivery, is it?

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But often it is, but anyway, it's

fast, it's free if you're a Prime

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customer, which lots of people are.

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Um, so that's another benefit really.

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Although I should also point out,

if you're thinking about selling on

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Amazon and you don't want to use FBA

for any reason, that is also fine.

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Especially as I just mentioned,

prime delivery for me anywhere, I

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don't know if it's just where I live,

it isn't always next day anymore.

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So as long as you can get your product

to customers within a few days, you know,

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reasonably quickly, I don't think that's

something that should worry you, so yeah,

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don't hold back and finally you have the

opportunity to sell globally if you want

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to as there are marketplaces all over

the world and so plenty of opportunities.

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At the time of recording there

are 19 marketplaces in total.

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The last time I looked there were 18

so it's grown even since then, and I

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can only imagine that number will grow.

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So you can sell in Europe,

the Americas, the UAE, Japan,

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Australia, all over the world.

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Um, and of course there are additional

logistics and things to think about when

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you're doing that, but it is possible.

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And I will also mention here, again

I'm not going to go into great detail,

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but selling into Europe, if you're

based in the UK, or you're selling you

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know, you're selling from the UK, is

actually much simpler now on Amazon.

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And if you ever want to know more

about that, just let me know,

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because I won't go into detail here.

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Um, but Amazon certainly are working

to try and make things a little

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bit easier in this aspect anyway,

because I'll come on to the things I

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think aren't so great about Amazon.

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And the first one I will say is that the

seller support isn't that supportive.

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And that's me being really, really polite.

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Lots of sellers struggle.

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Um, Because you might have an issue

when you get set up or with a listing

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and lots give up, which is such a

shame, but it is because dealing

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with them can be so difficult.

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Um, you need thick skin and

you need to be really tenacious

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to get anywhere with them.

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I will be honest, I have got, I think it's

about, at the time I'm recording this,

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which I think I've got about three clients

that I'm managing cases for with Amazon

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and I've literally spent, in all cases,

an hour, maybe three hours in one case,

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trying to get something sorted that you

would think would be relatively simple.

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That is the reality.

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Um, and I'm not sharing

that to put you off.

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I'm sharing it so you know what to

expect because often people are really

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surprised because obviously customer

service as a customer is pretty good.

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Um, but it genuinely can be

quite hard to get things sorted

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out if something goes wrong.

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Um, not to say anything will,

but based on my experience

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things can and do and it's hard.

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And I should also say that I did

record an episode all about this.

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Again, I'll link to it in the show notes.

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So I explain how to kind of avoid things

going wrong and if things do go wrong

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what to do and I'm hopefully, I mean,

I hope you're never in that situation.

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If you are, you want some help,

you know where to find me.

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Um, if you want to handle it by yourself,

which by the way, you absolutely can.

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Hopefully that episode

will really help you.

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As I alluded to earlier, another negative

is that there's a lot of competition.

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I can't remember.

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I don't think I know how many

product listings there are

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on Amazon, possibly millions.

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Um, and it gets harder

and harder to get started.

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So I like to tell people this

because something you've probably

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heard me talk about this before.

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Sometimes someone will contact me

and say, well, I put my listing on

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Amazon two months ago and I can't find

it myself and nobody's brought it.

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Um, yeah, that kind of the reality

is that unless you do something,

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even if you have an amazing product.

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And you have a great listing.

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You've done everything I suggest.

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The final piece of this is you need

to get people over to your listing.

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You need to do something

to get attention on it.

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In the guide I mentioned earlier, I've

got loads of ways you can do this.

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A lot of them are free.

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I'm not saying you have

to pay for advertising.

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You certainly don't.

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I know that that's, you know, that

definitely might not be in your budget.

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But you do have to get, do something

to get people over to your listing.

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Because in lots of categories there were

going to be other products and other

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sellers who've been on there for ages.

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They've got reviews, they've got sales

history, and they're going to come

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page one of the search results every

single time, along with the people

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that are paying to be there, of course.

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So it is really tricky, but, you know,

it is also possible, I should say.

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Um, there's, I hope I'm not

focusing on the negative too much,

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but I always like to be balanced

and I also like to be honest.

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So another thing to think about is there

isn't definitely an art to creating

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a great product listing on Amazon.

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And you need a great product

listing, as I've said lots of times.

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And there are also lots of rules to

adhere to, and breaking any one of

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them can get your listing closed.

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Um, which isn't as bad as it sounds,

you know, they just shut it down and

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then you fix it and then it goes live.

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It's honestly not a big deal.

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So this includes the wording you

can use, though, you know, be

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careful about claims that you make.

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You can't link to external websites.

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Um, your main photo has to

be on a white background.

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Do not, to be honest, it's nothing

that should cause you any problems,

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but it's just worth knowing about it.

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And then the final thing that I think

is a bit of a downside selling on Amazon

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is you don't get any customer details.

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Obviously, if you're fulfilling orders

yourself, then you'll get whatever

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you need for shipping, but that is it.

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You can communicate with customers,

but you have to be very careful

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about what you can and can't say.

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It's tricky.

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I mean, my advice really is, unless they

contact you, reaching out to customers

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via the Amazon email portal possibly

isn't a good idea because if you say

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something you're not meant to say

you're going to get yourself in trouble.

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So it's always better if you are selling

on Amazon to try and get customers

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on your email list another way.

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And um, so things for example having

something in the packaging maybe or

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having something on the packaging just

of your website So the customers can find

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you off Amazon and then hopefully, you

know, go to your website following your

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social media, whatever you want to do, but

ultimately get on your email list because

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if the worst did come to the worst and

suddenly you weren't on Amazon anymore

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for some reason and someone wanted to

buy from you again, it would be great

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if they could find you somewhere else.

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So, in terms of what kind of products

are Amazon good for, because I think

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that's definitely worth touching on,

you can sell most things on Amazon.

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I did have a look at things you can't sell

in Amazon in the UK and some of the things

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that came up with vehicles, new or used.

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Yep, I think that makes sense.

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Airbags, I didn't even know you

could buy an airbag separately.

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I mean a vehicle airbag that is.

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Um, used clothes, I

think we all knew that.

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Clothing made from animals.

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I think we hopefully knew that, um, this

isn't the full list and there are, there

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is a list of restrictions that you can

check for anything you want to sell.

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Um, hopefully whatever you want

to sell is something you can

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sell in most cases, whatever.

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There's been very few cases

someone's come to me and said,

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I want to sell this on Amazon.

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I've had to say sorry, you actually can't.

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Um, the only recent example I can

think of is a product that contains

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CBD oil that couldn't be sold.

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Um, you might need to request approval

for the product that you want to sell.

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That can take a little bit of time.

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And also remember that

requirements can and do change.

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So for example, there was a time when

Amazon were accepting sellers for CBD oil.

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So if you Google it, you will

see CBD oil products on Amazon.

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But they're not accepting

new sellers at the moment.

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So just because you see something

on Amazon, you think, oh, I

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definitely saw that there.

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They might have set that listing up

months ago, years ago, when that was okay.

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What Amazon very rarely

do is retrospectively,

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retrospectively remove anything.

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So just because you see something

on the live site, don't assume that

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you can sell something similar.

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Just check out the restrictions.

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And it also might be that you

can sell the product, but if you

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wanted to send in for FBA, you'd

have to submit a safety data sheet.

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Um, if you have a product that needs

a safety data sheet, you will know

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what safety data sheet is, I am sure.

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So I'm not going to go into details

about what that is, but you know, the

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kind of products you might need that for

are hand sanitizers, fragrances, food,

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cosmetics, um, and I guess the only issue

might be is if you are a handmade seller.

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So for example, if you're selling a

candle kit and it contains a fragrance

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oil, you might get asked for a safety

data sheet for that fragrance oil.

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Having said that, it very likely wouldn't

mean that you can't sell that product.

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It would just mean that you couldn't

use FBA and that's not necessarily a bad

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thing or a reason not to sell on Amazon.

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So I guess the next thing to

think about is how to know if

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there is demand for your product.

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Um, and if there, you know, and what

the market's like, and I definitely,

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definitely suggest doing some research

before listing your products on Amazon.

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If demand and competition for products

similar to yours are really high already,

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it can be really hard to stand out and

you will be competing with sellers who

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already have sales history and reviews,

as you know, as I've said plenty of times

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and they're going to be on page one.

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Equally, let's say your

product is really unique.

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So maybe people don't even know a

product like yours exists, or maybe

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it's something that people might

not necessarily go to Amazon for.

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Um, it can also be really

hard to get noticed.

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So you do want to do a

little bit of research.

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If you want to carry out your

own research yourself for free.

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tool is the Jungle Scout sales estimator

is a, as I said, it's a free tool and this

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will give you a rough idea of how many

sales a product makes on Amazon per month.

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I have a blog post and a video within

that blog post that explains how

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to use it, but I think it's pretty

intuitive, but I'll link to it in the

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show notes, both to the tool and to

the blog post explaining how to use it.

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And then what you can then do

is get an idea of what the fees

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would be, which is also important.

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Using an Amazon tool, which is

called the FBA Revenue Calculator.

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Again, this is a free tool and I'll

link to that in the show notes.

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And basically what you can then do is

work out based on what your product

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is and what you'll be selling it for,

what kind of fees you could expect

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if you're selling it on Amazon.

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And they really break it down.

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They'll say, okay, this would be

the, um, this would be the fee you'd

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pay for actually getting the sale.

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And this would be what the

shipping would cost you.

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This is what the storage will cost you.

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It is an estimate.

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You know, the tool is called an

estimator, but I think it's definitely

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worth taking a look at if you wanted

to invest in an Amazon research

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tool to do your own research.

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So if you actually wanted to pay for

something, I recommend Jungle Scout.

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It's probably the tool

that I use the most.

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I have the full tool and I also have the

Chrome extension and that allows me to see

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at a glance how well any product sells on

Amazon and what the monthly revenue is.

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So when I do a search on Amazon, which is

really weird by the way when I'm shopping,

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not working, um, when I type something in

the search bar and the results come up, I

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get to see when that product was listed,

how many sales they make, what their

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revenue is, all this extra information.

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And which is useful because

you can, you know, you can

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do that for your competitors.

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If you've got someone who you think, oh,

they're quite similar to me, let's see

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how many sales they're making on Amazon.

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You can find that out.

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Um, you can also search for products and

all for keywords, and you can see what

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the competition is like, what the demand's

like, how well optimized the listings are.

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I say competing again.

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Again, I don't like that word, but

other listings in your category are.

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Like if you were selling a bamboo baby

towel, let's use it as an example.

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You could search bamboo baby towel,

you could see what comes up, you

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could see how, what, you know,

which towels are selling the most.

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You could see what keywords they're using.

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You could see how, you know, how

many people are selling that product.

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It's all really useful.

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Um, and then there's a full tool and

that also has product ideas for sort

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of products with really good potential.

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It has Amazon specific

keyword tools, has analytics.

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You can look at your

sales margins and profits.

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That's if you do start selling on, selling

on Amazon, you can link your account

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up and you can also do some automated

emails to customers on jungle scout as

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well, which is something else that I did.

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So.

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Um, I used to have something where

every time somebody asked for a

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return, they'd get an automated

email seeing if I could help them.

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And that was a really good way of

cutting down on negative reviews as well.

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And if you're looking to build or

expand your business on Amazon,

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I personally think Jungle Scout

is well worth looking into.

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And I will provide a link for

that in the show notes as well.

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Um, I will be very honest and tell

you this is an affiliate link.

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However, as I say, this is a

product that I use so much, I'm

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happy to recommend it to anybody.

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Well, anybody selling on

Amazon, not just anybody.

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If you're not selling on Amazon and you're

not interested in selling on Amazon,

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it's probably not the thing for you.

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So, um If you, however, heard me say

all of this and you're just like,

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this sounds very complicated and

you want to avoid doing all of this

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yourself, I can actually help you.

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So I offer what I call mini strategy

sessions, where I can find out for you

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whether it's worth selling your product

on Amazon and then I can tell you what

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I think and why, plus all the steps

you need to take to make it happen.

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So basically everything that I've just

told you, you could do, I do instead.

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Um, so you find out whether there's

a market for a product like yours

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based on research that I'll do myself.

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So we would set up a call, but

before we have a call, I would do

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loads of research and I'd produce a

nice little report for you as well.

414

And I would give you my honest

opinion on whether or not you

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should sell your product on Amazon.

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And I'd be, as I said, very honest, I

would never say, absolutely go for it or

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absolutely don't, but I will say, I think

that you could, and this is why, or I

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think that maybe you shouldn't, or I might

say, I think that you could, however,

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you need to know this, you know, you

need to know this is a busy marketplace,

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or I've noticed that your product

has this feature that others don't.

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So if you do decide to sell on Amazon,

this is what I would sort of lead with.

422

And then I would talk about what's

involved in setting up and launching

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a product on Amazon, including you

know how much time you need, um, and

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what exactly is involved step by step.

425

So if you do this as well as a call

with me, you get a bespoke market

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research report, which includes

all the competitive analysis.

427

You get the Amazon sellers checklist,

which sets out the steps you need to

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take to get your product on Amazon.

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And you get my Amazon launch guide

to get you off to a great start.

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I honestly think this is an investment

worth making because you can find out

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whether there's actually potential

for your product on Amazon before

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you start thinking about spending any

time or any money on getting started.

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This can actually save you a lot of

money and time, not to mention all

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of the frustration and heartache.

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If you just jump in a few months

later, find out, actually, it's just

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not the right place for your products.

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I also take you through how to get

started, how to do it really well,

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because I've said in this episode,

there's a lot to know about how to

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get off to a great start on Amazon.

440

So you need the great

listing, high quality images.

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It's useful to know about all the

features available to sellers,

442

especially as many of these are free,

but often people don't know about them.

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And if you want to know more about

what's required right now, you

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can download the Amazon Launch

Guide right from the show notes.

445

So you have that to get you started.

446

So I really hope that

was a useful episode.

447

I hope that you've

taken something from it.

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Um, I probably haven't answered

your question of should you be

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selling your products on Amazon.

450

I'm really aware of that.

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Um, but, you know, for each and

every one of you, it's going to

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be a really different answer.

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Um, because it really depends on what

your product is and what category

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it's in and all kinds of things.

455

But hopefully I've given you

enough information that you can

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go away and at least think about

it, consider it and think what

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your next steps will be, if any.

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So as always, it's been

absolutely lovely talking to you.

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If you have any questions, you

can get me on Vicki, that's

460

V I C K I at vickiweinberg.

461

com.

462

You might want to go for, through the

show notes as well, actually, so you don't

463

need to look up how to spell Weinberg.

464

Um, um, but I genuinely,

genuinely love hearing from you.

465

So if you have any questions, feedback,

anything at all on this episode, then I

466

would really love you to get in touch.

467

Have a lovely rest of your day.

468

Thank you so much for listening

right to the end of this episode.

469

Do remember that you can get the

full back catalogue and lots of free

470

resources on my website, vickiweinberg.

471

com.

472

Please do remember to rate and review

this episode if you've enjoyed it

473

and also share it with a friend

who you think might find it useful.

474

Thank you again and see you next week.