#209: eCommerce Sellers Expanding to the EU

Episode: 209

Title: Norman Farrar Introduces Nick Penev – Digital Marketing and Business Development Expert

Subtitle: “Ecommerce Sellers Expanding to the EU”

Final Show Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b91aIpuXG4A&list=PLVIz0IewRSqDUVXG_IAXsVx9ZWE8_Vanz&index=6

Back on Lunch with Norm…On today’s show we have Co-founder and Advisor of Xtreme Power brands Nick Penev. We’ll be talking about why should sellers expand to Europe, what are the biggest hurdles they face when expanding and how to overcome those hurdles. Nick is the Partnership Manager with Hellotax, a company that offers everything when it comes to VAT compliance in Europe and helps reduce sellers workload.

If you are a new listener to Lunch With Norm… we would love to hear from you. Please visit our Facebook Page and join in on episode discussion or simply let us know what you think of the episode!

In this episode, we discuss:

• 0:00 Intro/Housekeeping
• 5:52 Welcome Nick Penev
• 9:26 Connecting with People for Partnership
• 14:22 Educating the Sellers About Taxes
• 15:46 Reasons Why US Sellers Go Over to Europe to Sell
• 18:58 The Obstacles of Amazon Marketing in Europe
• 21:55 Expanding the Sales in Small Markets 
• 28:50 Hurdles that Stopping People from Selling in Europe
• 31:15 Guide in Getting the Listing to Sell in Europe
• 34:31 Marketing Strategies to Succeed Selling in EU
• 40:36 Selling Outside Amazon and Increasing Sales
• 44:37 HelloTax Types of VAT Services 

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Explore these Resources

In this episode, we mentioned the following resources:

• for EVERYONE today you can receive a 15% off on HelloTax by using this link (we do not receive any commission for this) https://hellotax.com/?_get=norm
• eCom Holiday Growth Hack Summit https://cs980.isrefer.com/go/holidaysummit/amzclub/
• Miami Pow Wow Event https://www.eventbrite.com/e/amazon-powwow-miami-2021-tickets-170796445767

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Norman Ferrar   0:01  

Hey everyone, it’s Norman Farrar, aka the beard guy here and welcome to another lunch with Norm the Amazon FBA and E commerce podcast. 

Norman Ferrar  0:21  

Oh right, today we’ve got an interesting show. We’re going to be talking about expanding your business into the EU. And our guest is the partnership manager over at Hello tax. I’ve been talking to him about a variety of different things and Man, this guy. He is a networker. He knows everybody. So when he says he’s a partnership manager, he does a great job. Anyways, hello tax offers an online VAT registration and VAT filing, and a free VAT software to reduce workload. He has his own podcast, is the host of his own podcast, and advisor with extreme power brands since 2010. We’re going to be welcoming Nick penev in a second. But before we do that kind of exciting, well, not kind of very exciting, we have a new sponsor. So today, and this is really cool. Because we had Zeeco on just the other day, talking about some really great stuff like I think it was just a couple of episodes ago, so really excited that they reached out and wanted to become a sponsor. But let’s talk about their sponsorship. Are you a private label seller looking to expand into larger international markets, or need an experienced import partner to keep growing? Zee can help. Zee is your shipping partner. An easy solution to international importing Zee makes selling your Amazon products abroad easy with excellent import knowledge, door to door solutions, customer service and scalability. That’s right, you can sit back, relax, enjoy a cup of coffee, while listening to lunch with Norm and have the peace of mind that Zee will handle it. Ready to expand your EECOM empire. Take your Amazon business to the next level. Contact zee.co to learn more. That’s ZEE for us Canadians. ZEED.CO Oh, now where is that boy wonder?

Kelsey   2:30  

Hey, hey, hey,

Norman Ferrar 

How are you? 

Kelsey 

Nice to see you too.

Norman Ferrar  2:35  

It’s pretty cool that ZEE reached out after the podcast and asked to be a sponsor.

Kelsey 2:40  

Yeah, that’s really cool. Their grades. They’ve been very kind and generous to us. So yeah, we love to see. And yeah, welcome, everyone. And we’ve got Simon, Andy Rad. And Rosena joined us. If you’re watching, you can go and say hi in the comment section. We always love to connect with our audience and just see how everyone is doing. How is everyone’s Wednesday? I know some of us. I see. Some people watched our pony live today in the awful lobby. So it was good to see you guys there as well. But otherwise, lunch with Norm, smash those like buttons. share it out to your Amazon and Ecommerce buddies. You can join our community over lunch with Norm Amazon FBA and Ecommerce collective that is our Facebook group. That is our beard nation. So welcome. Andrew Smith is currently in Miami. That’s awesome. I’m over here in Toronto, and Norm is just a little north. But uh, yeah. Other than that, I think we can get into it. We do have two giveaways today. So I just want to quickly shut up Tony cigar who’s giving away a special pillow, and we’ll talk about it a little later. But thank you, Tony. We really appreciate it. And yeah, that’s awesome. We love it when the community goes back. That’s crazy. And we just Yeah, love it. But uh, that’s it for me.

Norman Ferrar  4:08  

And when you get whoever wins, check out how he brands his product. He sent me over one a few months back and he does a great job. One of the things I wanted to talk about, we have a couple of things going on and I noticed that Andrew was in Miami today, but anybody that is going to be in Miami during the second of November. We’ve got free tickets for you to attend the Amazon FBA powwow. And I think it’s going to be a great, a great one day event. So just let Kelsey know that you’ll be there. We’ve got a couple of tickets that we can provide. It’ll be basically first come first serve. So just let them know if you’ve got if you’re able to get into Miami. The other thing is today I’m going to be on the seller growth summit with Josh Marsden. And it’s going to be two hour long presentation. So, okay, I can talk for half hour, but most of the time or talk for an hour, but most of the time the guests are talking on this podcast, right? I just sit back, smile and wave, but two hours of talking as gonna be fun. So check out that Kelsey is going to post that in it is free, and is running throughout the until the 21st, I believe. And they’ve got some great speakers there. And it’s free. So normally, we don’t get into all of that, but it’s happening right now. So I thought that would be kind of cool. But now, let’s get into what you guys tuned in for. So Kelsey, get the heck off of the screen. We’re gonna bring in Nick, sit back, relax. Enjoy this podcast. Oh, yeah. Don’t forget your coffee. And welcome, Nick. Handle norm, Nick, I have a coffee.

Nick Penev  5:58  

No, honestly, I don’t drink coffee. Never. I need to be there to know, to drink coffee. You know,

Norman Ferrar  6:05  

one of the things you don’t say on this podcast? 

Nick Penev 6:07  

Okay. I drink coffee. No, good. I’ll do it. I’ll tell you a funny story from one client in he was saying, okay, Nick, you know, it’s 6am. You know, have the meeting. You know, I hope you had the coffee. I said, Oh, no, I don’t drink coffee. It’s no okay, man. I cannot imagine if you drink coffee. how active you So honestly, I guess it would be. It would not recommend I guess to myself to drink coffee. So, by the way, is z.com. They’re partners of mine. I hear the COVID that Daniel today? It was funny. No, we hit the call. He had some technical issues. You know, I joined the room. And they were just watching the view from his window in South Africa. So we didn’t talk but it was just watching the view for like two minutes. So anyways, I know that they’re good partners of mine as well.

Norman Ferrar  6:52  

Yeah, just and that’s a coincidence. So anyway, let’s talk a little bit about you. So for people who don’t know, you or your company, what do you do?

Nick Penev  7:03  

Oh, me. I mean, actually, it’s a long story. But let’s make the little shorts I’ve been selling in doing marketing from kindergarten, you know, in kindergarten, I was drawing pictures, you know, selling them to the other kids in the kindergarten. I was, I mean, Bolgheri. So it was communism back then. Into the 80s. So they called my parents in this document. What are you guys doing? You know, why are teaching your kids to this capitalist? No, bullshit. I mean, he’s not supposed to take money from another kid. So I’ve been doing that, I guess for a long time. So just to fast forward to No, I don’t I mean, School University, this is not important for me, you know, it’s good to take a scholarship otherwise, I mean, education is free. You’re the perfect example for that. If you want to learn something, you can watch Tom, you can watch a lot of educators in the industry in general. So you can learn you just need to have the, I guess the timing to be determined to do that. So let’s just talk for my was 10 years, I started the company selling private label, health supplements. That was like 11 years ago, when we we were one of the first companies doing that in Bulgaria, in Eastern Europe. So it was a huge, like return on investment. It was mean to other friends. We started with, like 5000 Euro, like joint, I guess, capital investment and we had like five millions in four years. Google ads, Facebook ads, you know, we didn’t have any idea what we’re doing. But we’re early no copyright, no trademarks. One of our biggest competitor just copied our product, change the name and just start selling everything so it was crazy time. But it was you know in your early when you really know I mean, your excuse to be dumping to not know what to do but I go I guess we were in a lot of stuff with I guess we got smarter. We started doing a lot of affiliates and partnership stuff to sell our brands but that’s what that was for like 10 years, you know, last year you know, I sold my brands, I hit around 20 Private Label supplement brands, awake way tools, muscle builders, male enhancement, all this vanity stuff for security reasons. So it was gathering which very saturated in I think I was I guess I was tired of doing that no like 10 years in the commerce it’s too much. So in the funny coincidence is that we used to do the vat for our own brands for health ducks in the new the co founders, Christian and crystal which also have a very interesting story. They met online they were Amazon sellers. They had issues with the VTX components and they decided to build the tool for ecommerce in other Amazon like for Amazon Ellery Kumar sellers to be with the component when expanding European since you know, I knew them I told them okay guys, I’m selling my brand my partner is going to take over so This Okay, Nick can always give an idea, you know, we know that you’re running partnership, partnerships on your sites for your brands, can you develop a partnership program for us? I mean, of course, I will do that it’s a brand new project, you guys are fully remote company, I’ve been fully remote for like, 11 years. So great. Let’s do that. In I started doing that for them, like a year ago, in the funny thing is that I saw something, you know, in the industry, there was a lot of companies, they were doing a lot of partnerships, but everybody was just getting nobody was giving. And I say, okay, man, this, we need to change them. And this is not good to know. And I said, No, if if I don’t have a partner on my site, or if I don’t offer a service, I would like to have a partner that they can recommend. And I started connecting people. And by doing that, you know, I get more and more companies who do it to the Partnership for them. But the long story short, I connect people to them for free. I like norm, I like what you’re doing. So whenever I find somebody who’s interesting, I send them to

Norman Ferrar   11:00  

my not my, I mean, my email box, I literally has somebody new every day from you. So I really appreciate that.

Nick Penev 11:10  

You’re and of course I mean, I do it because I Why care why courts were doing. I don’t and I don’t expect anything, you know, you know, to a funny story that happened to the NI clinic people all the time. Because now if I Q, why shouldn’t they help it? It takes me a few minutes not to do that. And by doing that, first they help you didn’t help my partner. And on top of that, I mean, I guess I guess I like to connect people. I’ve been doing that for a long time. So I guess I’m doing it in a larger scale right now. And one thing I spoke with a new company was was we you know, I worked during some wake a post content videos for Amazon. And they were, they just showed me what they do. And I was very impressed. And they wanted it. They just connected this company with other partners, because many partners or agencies, they work with, they need such stuff. So as simple as that. No, I was doing favor to everybody. And, you know, the partner was so happy. And today, he said, Okay, Nick, I have a have a gift for you. And he did like branded, like a post content video for my next webinar for free. Oh, no, I didn’t ask for that. So um, I mean, so sometimes No, you know, you don’t expect anything, but you get such like, good treating. I like him. Because I mean, it will be great. I’ll use it for the promotional gift my other partners, which I think you know, most of them, as well. So it’s good stuff. I mean, I like to connect people. And of course, I also have the same approach in regards to Hello tax in the VTX components. Because there is one thing, which all sailors have in common, and they have it from experience because they have been sailing in Europe. I have started from Bolgar. And you expand it to the whole Europe. So you’re always curious when you start sailing in the new market, not to mention the new continent. And what about the continent with 26 countries in the union with different veto rates, different languages, all kinds of stuff. So it’s very complicated and a lot of time. Most of the time people don’t do anything because they’re scared. Okay, what would happen if it didn’t work out? Okay. I may fail. And this is where is my favorite quote? It’s a country man, a few guys, I’m sure you know that you miss 100% of the shows that you don’t take. So if you don’t take a shot, you’ll miss for sure. You know? Yeah, I’m sure No, you did you know, who said that?

Norman Ferrar   13:34  

Of course, Canadian Wayne Gretzky.

Nick Penev  13:37  

Yeah, exactly, exactly. But I apply that all the time. I have calls with people all the time. And you know, I always show up for calls. I mean, if I don’t show up for call, I’m dead. That’s it. I don’t care if you’re like a big aggregators with 2 billion funding. Or if you’re a small guy with one company, for whoever co I need to show up, we’ll have a chat. If, if we have a much we’ll do something if not more, but I mean, I’m accountable. And I’ve been remote for 11 years. So for me, online or offline, you’re the same person. If you’re an accountable online, you’ll be an accountable, unreliable, offline. So this is the only thing that they expect from partners. We do stuff, we promise something each other and we execute, so I don’t care what to promise or to deliver. So in regards to the taxes, I mean, we’re doing a lot of educational content. Because if you don’t educate the sailors, if you if you don’t educate the sailors, I mean, they’re not going to do anything. I mean, we did that during Brexit. And the funny thing is, we did webinars, we tell them okay, guys, you need to separate to restock. You establish a storage in the UK. He said the second storage in Europe between Germany like the best solution, you need separate them and they say, Okay, no, we’ll wait and see, you know, they might delay Brexit, okay, they didn’t delay Brexit, so it won’t happen. Okay, Nick Why not? My stock is in the customs? No. Okay, why? Why there is due to okay, we told you guys, I mean, we have a saying for that info year, we can take the course to the river, but you cannot make a drink. So, like norm is doing, you can give as much information as possible. This is what we do on our say to the webinars, but it’s your decision, you need to make the next step you need to be active, if you’re not active. Your competitors will do that, and they overtake you. So make decision, execute them quickly. If they’re not good. Do some testing change and optimize? No, nobody’s gonna wait for you. So you need to be productive, you know? And of course, if you fail, you weren’t more, you know, nobody’s winning. Nobody’s learning from the wins, you always were from more from the failures. So

Norman Ferrar  15:44  

yeah, that’s, that’s true. So let’s, let’s talk about the US seller. So we’ve got a lot of us seller, I know, I can see a few European sellers here too. But the US sellers, what can they gain? Or why should they go over to Europe sell?

Nick Penev 16:05  

Okay, I mean, they’ll give you a free I mean, through very strong Christians first European, I mean, the population, your Europe is 700 Millions put us, which is double the population in the States out of this country’s nor giveaway high buying power meaning, and they’re not as versed in selling like buying online, meaning that there is a huge potential. So you can whatever you’re doing in the states you have, you can double the target audience for quiet. So that’s the first main point. The second reason for doing that is why it is too early. You know, this is not amazon.com Or like the US marketplaces. Now it’s too early. Meaning that if you have a competitor’s doing selling water drink, if you expand in establish yourself in Europe, you know, you have an advantage, you know, you’ll be the first, of course, is not easy, because multiple languages, multiple jurisdictions and all this stuff, but the one one thing I know from partners, because many of my partners are agencies. Indeed, they’re saying that the phone Okay, Nick, we help our clients to start selling in Europe we do guys, because once we establish themselves in Europe, is not is not that competitive, meaning that it’s a long term revenue stream. I mean, you can, once you establish yourself, we can start telling for a long period in, in for for this exact reason, we have even the package which makes it easier for your servers to start sending in European. The funny thing is that a lot of us sailors don’t know. But from all the countries around the world, the USA sellers give the biggest advantage. Because in Germany, for example, which is the main ecommerce market in Europe, they can get a VAT in four weeks. From the German tax authorities, they have a purity compared to Chinese or any new sellers, even Brexit. I’m in the UK guys, core parts of Europe, they take three months, if they wait for three months, so users have an advantage because there is a specific tax authority in Germany, which is dealing only with US based companies, meaning that you you collect your documents from you get some information from the IRS, you prepare the documents, and then you start the registration process in in four more weeks, you can start selling in Europe. So as simple as that. And this is one part in the Wasp Wasp, which is very important is in Germany, for example, you can apply with English documents, you don’t need to do translations, meaning that I mean, they’ve done that on purpose to I guess get more and more US companies selling in Europe. And of course, the worst reason is, is the biggest market after amazon.com central location in Europe. So it could be like your dispatch, a home base for the whole European Union.

Norman Ferrar   18:58  

Yeah, one of the other things I like to add is competition. So I’ve talked to a lot of American sellers. Well, just being in the market. I know how competitive it is, I know what the like working with pay per click seeing how the costs are rising and rising and rising. In Europe, you don’t have as much competition is easier to sell. When I talk to my European friends who are selling, they’re telling me how easy it is. And a lot of them won’t even come over to.com Because why have all that, you know, competition, I was gonna say something else. But why have you know all the competition there when you can get more sales over there if you’re making money and you’re making a good living, but that’s something that I’ve seen, that’s something that I’ve heard of, and that’s probably a big factor as well. You said something and I just want to clarify this so Amazon’s making it easier. It’s you can you can just use or just apply In English, you don’t have to get involved with multiple languages to get selling on to Amazon is,

Nick Penev  20:07  

yeah, now actually, this is for Germany, this is for Germany, this is for the German tax authority. And obviously Germany’s like location number one, when you start expanding in Europe, so obviously, and I mean, there is no fiscal representation, which is like an additional obstacle, like a challenge, because in some markets, they require that but Germany, they don’t require fiscal representation in you can apply it with English documents. Obviously know, if you’re selling on Amazon, I mean, it’s really easy. You just set up the VTX. In you can do deliveries from Germany to the rest of Europe, you don’t need to set up multiple markets. And this is something that we recommend, because I’ll give you an example from my company, my supplements we started selling, a lot of marketing will always test it. Okay, how does it work on this market? We set we set we’re setting in UK Scandinavians, which were more competitive. So if it didn’t work, we skip that we started, actually, we expanded the water markets, which are not that competitive. And they were very strong for us. Because why should we just sell on amazon.com or waikem? Like in the UK, in the market, when we can say on let’s say toll free, more smaller markets with less competition, and we get even more profitability. So why should we just burn cash, you know, in markets, which are not competitive, so you should always look for markets, which you can take advantage of, because if you’re successful in the US market, which is the most competitive one, you can easily do that on any European market. Just you need to have like the VAT, you need to be have the translation partner, but we all have that I have that non case that so you just need to do a little more work at the beginning. But then you need to worry less for the competition after you establish yourself.

Norman Ferrar  21:55  

You know, it’s funny, this is kind of straying away from the EU. But I was talking to a sub, this is kind of hit me when he said supplements. But I was talking to a supplement seller in India. So the seller I was talking to said, Yeah, you know, they’re doing pretty good. They’re trying to expand, but they’re selling, you know, 10,000 units. I thought, Wow, 10,000 units first supplement. That’s not bad. Until he said, he was selling 10,000 units a day. And I just went, Oh my gosh, like, so people who think that? Oh, yeah, you know, there’s not that many sales in India. If you’ve got the right product, like 10,000 units a day. That was crazy. And I’ve never heard those kinds of numbers after that, you know, but this is this one guy that told me that and you know what, he could have just been hanging, you know, stringing me along. Yeah, I’m going

Nick Penev  22:58  

oh, no, no, no, I’ll tell I’ll tell you a real story. Notice what we did with the supplements. That was no like, like 2013 Okay, we started expanding to like, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Estonia, in Estonia and all the I believe they have like, 2 million population. Czech Czech Republic, they have like 10. So these are small markets, right? So in what what happens, you know, we started doing quick ads on Facebook. And we’re getting quite 500 sales per day on these markets. Wow. And you know, we were spending quite $500 per market for advertising can irrigating like, like 25,000 revenue, nine. And, and these are small markets, so you wouldn’t care for them. But why actually, it is the same way. If you’re early. You can you can make a killing just to give an example for the supplements on our site. We’re not selling supplements, for example, in August, when the summer season was in the peak in Europe, sales were going down. So what we did, we stopped everything. Everybody went on vacation. We’re just holding the stock. And we started selling quake in September. Then one once it was Christmas, we stopped selling for two weeks, no sales from mid December to New Year. And then on January 1, we start a full company everywhere and we’re getting like 5000 sales per day. For the for the exact same reason because we were early. And this This was not in the States. It was not in the UK, it was in smaller markets. But why because it were early. Everybody was saturating in the UK and other markets. So now like I said, I mean, India is a great example one of my closest partners are expanding to India right now, by the way, and it’s there is a huge potential. I mean, there are so many people they’re so Australia another good market. I mean, like so honestly mean the the potential it’s it’s enormous. I mean, but of course I mean Use it is good, of course. But if you don’t make money doesn’t make sense. I mean, right? You need to make profit. Otherwise, I mean, you’re just burning cash. If it’s not your money, of course, we don’t care. But most of the time you spend your own money, so you need to make profit. So it makes sense to do all this tricks and spend all this time.

Norman Ferrar  25:19  

Well, I’d be interested to hear any of the listeners that are in Europe, you know, what are their experiences? Um, selling in Europe? You know, just throw it into the comments section. Is it? Is it good, bad or ugly? Okay, a couple of things. I forgot to mention this at the beginning. We do have that giveaway. We have two. One is going to be with for Tony cigars. Pillow. Kelsey, can you chime in here? And what’s that hashtag?

Kelsey  25:50  

Okay, so yeah, for Tony’s pillow, it is going to be a new hush hybrid pillow, I touched the link, you can check it out. And Stephen was saying that he checked the link and he loves it. So that unfortunately is only available for Canada and US. So to our international viewers.

Norman Ferrar   26:08  

Before we get into that, let’s just already tell Simon not to comment. Well, we’ll hear it already. I can just hear his comments. Okay. So North American neck, yep.

Kelsey  26:19  

Alright, so that’s hashtag Tony’s pillow. Alright, so just comment that in the box. And then yeah, Nick, you want to explain the giveaway today?

Nick Penev  26:29  

I mean, my giveaway I was just saying the Tony should give some tools to Europeans know. Otherwise, we need to put some key in the pure case. Yeah, another is okay. Tony, expand to Europe, you know.

Norman Ferrar  26:46  

Okay, so with with the Hello tax giveaway today, what does that include?

Nick Penev   26:52  

All the giveaways fairly simple, you know, the base giveaway that we do is we do consult free consultation with all the sellers, because taxes are are an auto established, you go and buy on the website. So you always get like a free consultation, because we need to know where your based water plants were, are pointing to sale and who advise. So once we identify the process with your, okay, this is how long it will take, this is what you will need to do. And after we do that, of course, we can waive the frequent user registration for you and we can give away 15% discount for everybody who is listening because they are he’s in the audience of norm. But of course, pricing is important. But the I guess the consultancy in the information we provide is much much better, because like I said, the cofounders used to be Amazon sellers. They build the tool to be tailored for Amazon sellers. So we’re just not like a regular accounting or VAT compliance of.

Norman Ferrar  27:51  

Okay, so just so I’m clear. For the we’ll have Kelsey today what what is the giveaway? Do you know?

Kelsey  28:03  

It’s a free VAT registration value of 300 euros, and it’s very good one lucky viewer.

Norman Ferrar   28:10  

So that’s it. Yeah, so that’s a 300 Euro What’s that $500 Probably a million dollars in in US funds. But that’s great. So if you were looking for that it’s hashtag we’ll have Kelsey, if you want to enter twice, it’s going to be just tagged to people. And thank you very much and also that discount we’ve worked out a special discount there’s there’s no fees coming back to us at all. We’ve said that we would rather have a higher discount for anybody who’s listener of our podcast so they’re going to be giving 15% off which is fantastic so thank you so much. Let’s get into the next question. And what are some of the blockers are there hurdles challenges stopping people from selling in the UK or in UK

Nick Penev  29:00  

Okay, so I’m in the first one is yourself your most of them people are stopping themselves being I guess passive So be proactive make the decision. The second one is obviously customs in VT we cover that you know, we have a partner who is helping co our sellers to set up the to import your stock and we help them with the VT. So this is why number one in two in the first one are like languages translations, obviously. I mean, a lot of companies are claiming Okay, we have an AI solution which can translate I mean, this is bullshit. You need to hear like people who who are dealing with white listing optimization in translations for Amazon ecommerce, because you need the native speaker speaker so we don’t or so people will get the message. I know that from experience where we’re expanding. We’re gateway translation agencies, translating our products and landing pages in different languages and all the time we get partners in the market and they’re saying the economy Hey, Nick, who did you translation? I mean, this is dopamine. Did you pay money for that? Oh, man, we paid money. But so translations are the key. And I’ll give an example. I think it was December or January, actually, January, I think this year, Amazon expanded to Sweden. And their translation was terrible. In in Swedish people mean they, they’re very like, didn’t like it at all. So they had like a huge big question this Amazon, so you need to have proper translations. Norm his partners, they have partners for that. And we can help you with that. But don’t try to go cheap. I mean, because if if you’re like copy sacks, I mean, they’re not gonna buy what you buy from somebody walk or and you would like to expand. So you need to play like the walkers, you know, play by the rules. So this way, customs VAT, which we cover, in turn translations translation, the next. I mean, if you’re like, you’re the result of companies doing quite PPC agency stuff, so they can help you out. But you need somebody Walco for the customs, the VT in the translation. So that’s, that’s the meat, the main challenges. And of course, now we can help you out with that.

Norman Ferrar   31:15  

One of the other challenges, and I think you just touched on it, what is mindset? People are that people think the system is complicated. And you know, it’s so tough to do. So they leave it how simple or tough is it to get a listing into into Europe?

Nick Penev  31:36  

I mean, by say, like a listing, I mean to get the visa, so you can start selling? Is that your question? Correct? It depends. I mean, I mean, if you go for Spain, it might take four months, and they will do it quite original documents. So it’s it’s more complicated. And this is why we’re here for package, which is probably expansion for them. It’s all like this is it for the economy, and I disappeared for some reason, which is from

Norman Ferrar   32:20  

Kelsey, is that me? Or is Nick going a little funky?

Kelsey  32:26  

Yeah, I think we’re having a bit of Wi Fi issues.

Norman Ferrar  32:35  

Can you sing the Jeopardy tune while this is happening? Or some interpretive dance? You know, all those interpretive dance lessons that I paid for? Can you do that for me right now?

Kelsey  32:46  

Yeah, everyone wondering where the Patreon money goes to. This is where it goes to. Nick, are you back?

Nick Penev  32:54  

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I’m here. Do you guys see me?

Norman Ferrar   32:57  

Okay, we’re back. Okay, good. So you’re we’re lucky. We spared you, Kelsey. He’s interpretive dance. Okay.

Nick Penev  33:05  

Yeah, I got the new artists router was weak for this exact reason, you know, probably I need to go and complain to them that that’s not supposed to happen. But anyway, so we’re talking about the challenges salt, right? This is, you know, why we have this free advisories with all coins? Because, I mean, you don’t just sign up and get the VTX tomorrow? I mean, always you need the consultation? We do we okay. Where based, you’re based in the States, okay. Germany, okay, great. Well, this, how long it will take this what we need to do. And this is what we need to how I mean, how much time it will take. So the idea is to give the proper expectations, you know, is not easy, but by meaning not easy is that you need to collect documents, you need to provide the documents, we check them out, we establish your VAT, and you can start selling. So you need to be prepared that you might wait like two or three months to start selling. But that’s normal. I mean, German tax authorities or any European tester, they don’t care, you know, if you’re gonna sell or anything, you know, this is just bureaucratic stuff, and you cannot do anything for that. So the one thing that we do on our site is that to have account managers and tax advisers who are welcome, meaning that we check all the documents or once we apply, we will know that we’ll get the documents at the, I guess the regular time. So there is no delay, this is the one thing that you can do in this, this, how it how it works.

Norman Ferrar   34:31  

So you you said the word expectations and I I think that’s important. And actually I’d like to probably create a list of expectations for this whole process. But in the real realistically, you’re not going to just going to be up, click a button and you’re up and selling Nonso is different for every person. You know, it’s not something that you could just say, you know, it’s this way it’s It’s how long is a piece of string, you know, everything is different. And that’s one of the things not pushing your service, but a service like yours, where you can sit down talk, you’re not expected to sign up or anything, but you at least can understand what it is how long it’s going to take. And maybe the low hanging fruit were to attack first. I’m, although I rarely say this, but I’m really interested to hear from Simon. You know, what is his experience been? I know, he sells a lot in Europe. And if he can chime in, that would be fantastic. But anyways, mindset, and just being able to be that early adopter. If nobody else is doing it, then you know, you’ve got that you’ve got that lead, you’ll be able to take advantage of it. And again, the competitiveness, it’s just getting over the hump. And in doing it, I think that’s probably the key. All these small markets, you were talking about Czechoslovakia, Slovenia, they’re small markets, like until they add up, you know, you add them all up, and they make one big market. And exactly, if you spend the time and you just give it a bit of time, and maybe do some outside things like for me, you know, sending a geo targeted press release, that might help out. But there’s all sorts of external marketing. And everybody talks about Facebook advertising and how expensive it is. Well, if you’re in different countries, and you’re targeting specific regions, it’d be a lot less like you spent 500 to get 25,000 back. That’s not bad. You know, that’s yeah, you’re not gonna get that, you know, selling supplements here in North America, guaranteed. Anyway, I’m not sure if there’s any other hurdles that you want to add to that. Did I miss any?

Nick Penev  36:55  

Oh, not actually. I mean, I guess the mindset is the biggest one, because if you give up tour, too easy, no, it will not work out. But why you set them in, like, in another great, great quote, you know, you cannot do the same stuff over and over again and expect different results. So you cannot just start continue selling conducing to get like, some niche or Sammy that would Jim pop up overnight. They need you need to try new stuff. And I think another great quote from another US alter No, I mean, I mean, you should, you should never put your eggs in one basket. But of course, Mark Twain said, Okay, put them in one basket in guarded will a lot of people were putting overthinker on Amazon in trying to guard their tail. But what happens? Sometimes they might suspend your account nightmare. I have a partner who is all the time he’s getting like rigid. Okay, can you fix my account? Okay, why are we only selling on Amazon? Oh, golly, then why are we only selling on Amazon? Yes. Why don’t you diversify? Like Norm said, You should split test, and obviously have like, multiple points of failure. Because if you just rely on one source of revenue, you know, you might be trouble. And I’ve experienced that myself. We used to say when you used to do a Facebook ads course, why expanding it one point why CalHFA million per month in vague the no norm just to give an idea? Like is it for the new markets? When we started selling in like Estonian Czech Republic, we’re paying quite two cents per click. Wow. So you can imagine we were early Wykes it nobody was using that. So it was early. And this is another reason? No. In when you wake Norm said if you add up, like 15 markets in Europe, you might be making more profit than selling on one market. Of course, you diversify. There is a lot of local marketplaces that you can take advantage of which are buying only I guess, are active in a certain set of countries. So you just need to test. Of course, Amazon is the biggest one. So is the big is the big boy in the plague playground. So you need to be there. But my advice is diversify. And this exactly what we’re doing with Hill docks, the first thing that they did with them is we were official partners of Amazon, we have Amazon integration and said, Okay, that’s great. We need to diversify. So I said the partnership with Cdiscount, which is like the biggest marketplace in France, Shopify. kalff. Want wishing everybody because I mean, the one thing in common with all companies is that they have servers. They, and they need education, you know, if you’re expanding in Europe, you know, in the only thing that you need to do with marketplace and partners is educate their sailors. You tell them you know, this is how you should do it. You show them like set the wall hanging fruit in the steps. And of course, it just needs to make a decision. But if you don’t tell them anything, they there is no information on what I mean, especially for VAT tax. I mean, honestly, no, it’s hard. So we need somebody to tell you how to do this way. Otherwise, I mean, I know from experience, we hit the tax advisor who’s on overcharging us so much that we’re, we realized that eventually, they made some filing penalties who make, we paid some fees. And then, you know, we found we found his tax. So it’s always good to hear why somebody who is helping you out and not talking about, Okay, give me my nail orange doc, it doesn’t work without I mean, you need to know what is expected for you. You need to know how it works. And then of course, we can help you out. But in general, if somebody is telling you okay, oh, I’ll hook you up, he will start sending in European way to this mean, there. It’s coming. It doesn’t happen later.

Norman Ferrar  40:36  

I really like what you talked about, you know, not selling just on Amazon. We’re preaching that more and more and more over here. Two years ago, you probably wouldn’t hear that. But you know, why be that one legged stool, kind of like what you said. And I liked the idea that you’re selling. It sounds like anyways, not only online, you’re selling into bricks and mortar? That’s correct.

Nick Penev   40:59  

No, actually, and never were actually considering that at a certain point. But the issue there was because you know, the requirements to order too much stock in the one thing that they hate it on my site, the stock, I never actually source from Asia, we did our our products were actually manufacturers in the UK in the USA, for the exact reason that we never want to wait for like too much from China. And the funny thing is, that was like, like few years ago, and we never envisioned that they will have such supply shocks. So honestly, if you can find like a Walco. supplier, sometimes no, it might they might make it a little more expensive. Because in our case, it we’re getting into like probably want to euro more expensive than if you’re ordering from China. But we’re making up by like quicker deliveries, no other stuff in diversifying. But that was after we realized that he shouldn’t I guess, rely on one source because I started this. They was thinking about Facebook, we’re selling on Facebook, and supplements. They’re shady business, no, sometimes no. They might suspend your account, say, Well, they did. This has been their accounting overnight, or from hero to zero. Nor even in the author wherever you know, then okay, then we started just redoing all websites, all landing pages everything to meet your gut and guidelines. We did that. And we started and then one week later, okay, we suspend your account. We don’t care if you’re spending half a million per month. So in in we were in the reason we never never, I guess put your your eggs in one basket. So always diversify.

Norman Ferrar   42:40  

Yeah, we had a tailor offer on the other day, and he was talking about retails trying to get into bricks and mortar. And I mean, you could try to get into these larger stores. And it can be I’ve sold into the CVS is the accuracy, the Walmart’s the targets. And it, it’s a different play than going after the smaller mom and pop shops. And he was talking about he goes after I think he’s got a database of about 200 300,000 of them. And just targeting those. Now. I don’t think there, he does any work in Europe. But if you can target those types of stores as well, where they pay up front, then you don’t have to have a lot of inventory. It’s just another again, it’s just diversification. But before we get on to the next topic, I just want to once again say that if you’re interested in getting the free consult and the waving of the fees, we have Hello tax is providing a $300 value. That’s all waived. And all that is is hashtag Willa, Kelsey, also Tony cigar is got a really beautiful product that he’s gonna give away today. And I think that’s hashtag something Donnie Kelsey, Tony’s pillow. Tony’s pillow. Well, that’s yeah. And like I said, he sent me one of these and it’s awesome. And even if you just take a look at how he packages, how he’s branding, oh my gosh, you guys will be so impressed. So anyways, hashtag Tony’s pillow and you’ll be entered tag two people, you get another entry. Now one other thing. Just wanted to give a big shout out to global wired Advisors, a leading digital investment bank focused on optimizing the business sales process. For more information, contact Chris and his team over at global wired advisors. Alright, so now let’s talk a bit more about just another question then we’ll get into some of the questions but the service or a company like yours, what would a seller expect that you’d be the types of services that you would provide?

Nick Penev   44:56  

Okay, I mean, I guess the main service wax is the first is the consultation. And we do that with everybody. Because this is my mindset, I do that with partners with clients, you need to know how it works and what to expect. So we do that with everybody. Then the second thing is no, we have a free software, meaning that if we’re selling in Europe, right now we can go, you can use our software, and you can monitor all your sales. And you can if you don’t pay for them, it simply is that the software is free. And the software is used to monitor your I mean, your sales in Europe, you can and then of course, if required you can we get the data from Amazon, we found the report, you just log in, you just see the return and you pay that we also have like a translation tool in the dashboard. So we get the communication from the different tax authorities in the different languages. And we translate that in English in German. So we have the SAS solution on the front end with the manage service on the backend to make the process like as easy as possible because tax authorities are not fully automated. So as simple as that.

Norman Ferrar   46:05  

Okay, you know, translation is so important. We’ve had yen on for from JLT. And, you know, just some of the horror stories that people have because they go to Google Translate. And they they think that, well, just a quick example. We had a trucking company, I was doing Christmas cards for them. Anyways, they sent it up. I asked them if they needed anybody to prove the Spanish translation. They said no, we went ahead, and we printed all these Christmas cards sent them out to a ton of people. Anyways, they complained because instead of saying Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, it said Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Happy new ass. Yo, just

Nick Penev  46:52  

poor translation. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I heard some such stores White from Amazon, Sweden. So Oh, yeah.

Norman Ferrar 47:02  

Okay, so, again, working with that. What actually, what are some more countries that are opening up? Are there any new opportunities in Europe or Asia that you’ve heard of?

Nick Penev   47:14  

Asia? I mean, besides Australia, I know. And I seem to have a very good partner in in the Middle East. She’s like, I think it connected you guys kills. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And she’s like the influencer in their work queue. So she’s helping a lot of companies again, the same reason people, okay, it’s Middle East talk is too hard. No, we’re not going to go there. I mean, so I mean, always, like, I think South America has a big potential. I have some partners, we’re doing stuff there. So honestly, I mean, you can I have a very good partner who is helping companies expand in sailmakers marketplace at once. So there is a water, a water, you know, marketplace that you haven’t heard of. But you know, you should take advantage. So obviously, USA is the biggest one. So no matter what we’re talking about, people will go there, then you should start with Europe, for the same reason that probably the quota that you can get to the US is Europe, I mean, even though different languages, you know, in terms of like Amazon ever thinking, Oh, this your next stage, so then of course, Australia, India, I mean, any other market that is new, or has a big potential, because I mean, this is the way to go. And of course, like we discussed diversify. There is a waterfall marketplaces that you haven’t heard of, but they might be a very good revenue stream for you guys.

Norman Ferrar  48:38  

Very good kills. Let’s look at some of the questions that have come in or comments. Oh, by the way, I gotta tell you, I really did do this, because I couldn’t believe it. I have taken a screenshot of Simon’s saying, I have nothing to say. That’s a first so we’re gonna post that in the lunch with norm group. So we can just have it there to go back and look at because I don’t believe that will ever happen again. Just saying.

Kelsey   49:10  

All right, so we do have lots of questions. I know Nick, you have to get going soon. So

Nick Penev   49:16  

honestly, we have four minutes we can do lots of stuff. I was reading something for Wyke stripper poles in

Kelsey  49:27  

places and yeah, I guess she thinks I should have a stripper pole so

Norman Ferrar   49:36  

we got a classy podcast.

Nick Penev  49:38  

Yeah, it sounds is are you selling stripper poles on Amazon? We need to check that it might be working it might be nice product.

Norman Ferrar   49:49  

Okay, any questions counts?

Kelsey  49:51  

How would you deal with IO R and VAT if you import into another lens and then sell into Germany?

Nick Penev   49:58  

Okay, I mean for this exact reason Okay, with a customs partner, we have several partners who actually help you with that. And if you hold stock, this is the one one thing which is important for your imports talk to the Netherlands. And if you have storage there, you need to have the VT neither ones. And then from Netherlands, you can start delivering directly to Germany and the rest of Europe without the need for any additional visa restrictions, if you’re selling on Amazon, and if we’re talking for a non EU company, because Amazon is collecting the VAT on on behalf of the seller, and you can make sales across Europe. This only if you sell on Amazon. If you’re if you’re using quick a free PL, then you need to give the VT in Netherlands and you need to use the so called One Stop Shop, which is why the new v2 regime from July 1, which allows you to have like a single storage location and do b2c deliveries to the rest of Europe. So that would be the case in the option but of course Amazon for non US you just need VAT and if you’re storing another marketplace, which is not why Khadim support like Amazon you need VAT post option. So this is how it works.

Norman Ferrar   51:13  

Yeah, and just to be clear, IR is importer of record exactly exactly

Nick Penev  51:17  

importer of record. So for that you need the customs partner. Why? Because the agency that we have that covered so we can import the stock to Europe.

Norman Ferrar   51:26  

Let’s have one more question Kels I think

Kelsey  51:29  

Alright, from Rosalyn for USA, sellers. Which EU countries in order of priority should you expand to and why?

Nick Penev  51:37  

Okay, so I mean, eu is let’s let’s keep even UK in the EU even they’re not so you should should this should be your starter package. UK, Germany, UK because I assume if we’re talking for English speakers, it’s natural you go there, Germany, for the reasons that we mentioned earlier. No translation is needed. Biggest Amazon market after amazon.com central location across Europe. Meaning that you can use that as a home base and deliver to the rest of Europe. So this should be your goal to play if you want one. Germany.

Norman Ferrar  52:14  

Very good. Okay, I think it’s about that time. Also, I didn’t I don’t know if you saw that comment by near near is saying, Nick, I see my eyes. I’m not kidding.

Kelsey   52:26  

I’ll read it. I’ll read it. Nick is the go to person with EU regulations understanding I always ask them questions, even if I think that I know the answer just to be sure. So

Norman Ferrar  52:38  

yeah, I thought near knew everything. But I guess he doesn’t have to ask questions once in a while.

Nick Penev   52:44  

Yeah, it’s always asking, oh, you can go to Rome by asking you know, so yeah, as always ask questions.

Norman Ferrar  52:51  

And what I like to just before I know you got to get going but I love not only you but a ton of the people that are on here like near it’s a gift to get mentality. You know, you share your share your knowledge, just like the consultations, I know I’ve I’ve worked a lot with near just back and forth. And never ask anything in return. It’s just give, give, give. And it just comes all the way around like you were talking about, which I’m really happy about. And you’re you’re one of those top guys. So, Kelsey, let’s go over to the wheel now.

Kelsey  53:23  

Okay, so we have two wheels today. So, of course we need the song first ever to go are you gonna sing it with the wheel of Kelsey?

Kelsey   53:47  

This is for the wheel of Kelsey. This is the VAT registration. If you are the winner, please contact me at K at lunch with Norm calm. I’ll just make sure there’s no people. Okay, we’re good to go. Here we go. 321. We’ll have Kelsey today is

Norman Ferrar   54:10  

rad. Oh, very good read. Congrats.

Kelsey  54:18  

And then we have one more. This is where the pillow screen. Okay. All right. What’s up? 321 All right, and the winner is Jessica Rabbit. It looks like

Norman Ferrar   54:38  

there we go. Jessica, you’re gonna love that. And once again, thank you, Tony. Okay, and just in case you don’t know, to claim these prices, just send an email over to K at lunch with norb.com. Nick, you got to get going. Thanks for coming on today. How can people get a hold of you or Hello tax?

Nick Penev   55:01  

I know this how he’ll tax I mean you get in touch with Norman he will connect you you know we always do it personally you know taxes Sir You don’t go and buy tax on the website so if you need something go to norm he’ll connect connect up with our guys is simple is that

Norman Ferrar   55:17  

okay? Yes Simon I don’t mean to give you abuse but anyways, thank you sir you can you can leave now and go on your call I think yeah I can’t wait we’re one minute

Nick Penev   55:31  

Yeah, I told I told them I’ll be fine you know have a pre COVID Zangara and some other partners that you know so today is like the show preco webinars podcasts when the when is that time for So So Thanks, Norm it was really nice. Probably the best podcast I have been a never been to real show like, we will fortune like discussion. So I’m sure we probably will keep talking more if you didn’t have a goal. So you

Norman Ferrar   55:56  

definitely could have. Alright, Nick. Well, we will see you later. And thanks again. So

Nick Penev  56:00  

thanks again,

Norman Ferrar   56:01  

no problem. All right, everybody. So hopefully, well, not hopefully, hopefully you got a couple of nuggets out of that. It’s interesting. Different marketplaces. Don’t just think of Europe, but you can think all over the world globally. I’m going to ask Nick for the contact for that person he was talking to that expands to over 100 Different marketplaces. On Friday. We’re going to have Cassandra Craven back and we’re going to be talking about growing or growing your social media team. I think it’s so important social media. Not only is is helping you build your community, your own community, but it can also help you build posts for Amazon posts. And if you have not seen, Amazon is now putting your carousel on your product listing page. The only trick is you have to have 10 posts to be enabled. So it’s there. You’ve probably seen it over the last few days. So just check it out. Alright, seller eyes, just another shout out solarize is a comprehensive solution for your everyday business needs. It’s everything you need to grow your and scale your Amazon business. Just one click away. For more information com Contact demon this team over at cellar eyes calm. That’s just with one hour. Kelsey, anything else left?

Kelsey   57:29  

Okay, so like Norman said at the beginning of the podcast, we are giving away some Miami Paulo tickets. So if you are interested, just email me Kay at lunch with Lauren calm. And it’s going to be first come first serve. So if you’re interested, it’s November 2.

Norman Ferrar  57:45  

Yeah. Right. November 2 Full Day event. jam packed with a ton of speakers.

Kelsey  57:51  

Yep. So if you’re in the Miami area on November 2, email me Kay at lunch with Norm calm. And we’ll get that over to you. And we’ll, we’ll see. Who gets it. Also the EECOM holiday growth hack that I’m speaking on. I just posted the link across all platforms. So visit there. And yeah, don’t forget, even if you aren’t the winner today, and Nick did offer everyone 15% of the VAT registration and compliance. And that is just if you use this link, if you look through the comments and find this again, yes, like not

Norman Ferrar   58:28  

an affiliate link, we actually turned it away and put it towards the discount for you guys.

Kelsey   58:33  

Yeah, so yeah, there’s no commission on this, just click on this link and you’ll be able to getting 50% off. And I think that’s it’s yeah. Okay, that’s it for me.

Norman Ferrar   58:48  

I can’t believe it. But anyway, here we go. And he left me with my lines. So I can say this fairly confidently now. So tune in every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at noon, Eastern Standard Time. And thank you for watching. Thank you for being part of the community. It’s growing every day. And we really just couldn’t do this without you. So thank you and enjoy the rest of your day.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai