#120: Talkin' Shop March - Amazon Q and A

Norman Ferrar  0:02  

Hey everyone is Norman Farrar aka the beard guy here and welcome to another lunch with Norm, the rise of the micro brands. All right, so first of all, today we have a returning guest, Mr. Kevin King, the king of Amazon. And we’re going to be just talking about anything going on in Amazon. So before we do that, where are you Kells?

Kelsy

 Hey, how are you? 

Norman Ferrar

I’m doing fine. How are you?

Kelsey

Pretty good. Pretty good.

Norman Ferrar

 I’m almost getting this new setup. Almost. It’s a little unique. That’s right.

Kelsey

 We’ll get it sometime. I but uh, yeah. Welcome everyone. Yep.

Norman Ferrar

 Be careful. Be careful.

Kelsey  1:01  

All right. Welcome, everyone. We got a good turnout already. Wow. Already up to 20 people. Welcome to the show everyone. If you haven’t already, please smash those buttons and share with any friends. You know, anyone that is interested in some Amazon content and needs help with their listing. If you want to share it in a group, go ahead and do that. Also, our beer nation. Facebook groups are always available if you haven’t joined yet, lunch with norm Amazon FBA and e-commerce collective. I’ll put the link in the comments. We also have a really great price today that I just want to get out there. Right now. It’s from Tony sago. He is giving away to let me see, it was to European down, feather debase. And they retail at about $150 each. So we’ve given up two of them. So this is only for us and Canadians only. Yep, sorry everyone.

Norman Ferrar  2:00  

any complaints about that? Give to Kelsey directly K@LUNCHWITHNORM.COM

Kelsey  2:05  

Thank you. Thank you. And yeah, like and subscribe. We have our clubhouse next week. We start to make the link and everything but that’ll be up shortly. But yeah, welcome everyone. Welcome, Simon. So he knew. Alright, so

Norman Ferrar 2:19  

How did we get into this contest for today?

Kelsey

 Alright, so I don’t know what you think?

Norman Ferrar

 I’m thinking I just, well, you know what it should be? I love Tony. But, you know, because Kevin’s on, let’s just put it, and I’m gonna say this because I know he’s gonna just kind of roll his eyes. I love Kevin hashtag I love Kevin.

Kelsey  2:44  

Okay, perfect. Alright, so I love Kevin. It’s love not want love. Yeah, I love Kevin. Put in the comment section if you’re from the US or if you’re a Canadian, and then we can send that prize to you. It’s to feather debase. But yeah, Welcome, everyone. Welcome all like to Ray, Andrew, Mark, rad Tony. And thank you, Tony so much. We really appreciate

Norman Ferrar  3:08  

it that you know, Tony, you’re awesome. And he’s got a great product. And he doesn’t know just just like Alan, he doesn’t mind sharing the name and the brand of the product. So that’s that that’s also

Kelsey  3:19  

I’ll put the link the the comment section and Yep, please check out his website. And yeah,

Norman Ferrar  3:27  

I think that’s a very good now move. There. Good. He’s off. Kevin. was, hey, all I got to say sit back, relax, grab your coffee, coffee and enjoy. But for us it should be grab that cigar. That’s right. Now one of these days. One of these days, we’ll have to sit on the balcony. I’ll sit on mine. And we’ll have a cigar together while we’re doing this. Oh, yeah, sure. For sure. Because way things are going we’re never gonna see each other. Just like this. Just we’ll just like watch together once a month. You know, I want to see hologram Kevin hologram. So he can sit across from me and we you know, you know, a hologram. Yeah, yeah.

Kevin King 4:12  

I can create that. It’s called the shape scale. Have you seen that? The way it’s called, it was a Kickstarter about three or four years ago, I’m getting ready to go on to lose some weight and stuff. So I’m buying all these little gadgets and everything. And one of them’s called the shapes scale. They stand on the scale, and it’s kind of like an arm that rotates all the way around you. And it makes like a 3d image of your entire body. And so it makes that hologram. And then then you can actually actually monitor all your, you know, everything that you do if you do certain exercises or do certain things they’ll actually show you, you know, your gut went in this much this module. In this module, I’ll show you the whole progression of everything, how much how much fat around your heart, how much you know, everything. It’s called the shape scale. It’s not out yet. It’s coming out. This this in about three or four months. But yeah, if you google shape scale, it’ll make a hologram. So that’s what I’m saying is I can create a hologram for you.

Norman Ferrar  5:11  

Oh, I’m getting so big that I might have to put one on one foot one on the other. So in case anybody doesn’t know who you are and what you do, can you just give us a little bit of information?

Kevin King   5:27  

Sure, yeah. My name is Kevin King. And I’m an Amazon Holic. I saw I yeah, I’ve been selling on Amazon since 2001. So what’s that 20 years now? Doing FBA since 2015, I run both five different Amazon businesses that focus on Amazon, we sell offline and off Amazon as well. But primarily, most of sales are coming through Amazon. I do a product sourcing company without products or bonds with Steve Simon’s and I have a calendar business that’s a partially on Amazon, but mostly off Amazon, where we do a lot of stuff in direct mail and still sell catalog through the postal service. And then I do a bunch of training for helium 10. So I lead, I create a freedom, I create the freedom ticket course, which is a course they offer for free to anybody who has helium 10 membership, and then I lead their advanced training called helium 10. Elite, which is a monthly, but for our three ask for our training. And then I run the billion dollar seller summit a couple times a year, which you spoke at the last one, we had to do it virtually because of the pandemic. But the last ones about three weeks ago when you came on and delivered some awesome, awesome nuggets of advice and some cool strategies about some things that how to use Google that most people don’t understand. They don’t know. Which is really cool. So yeah, that’s that’s basically what I do. Just a little you’re not too busy. No, no, not not. I don’t have too much to do. No, no, no.

Norman Ferrar  7:02  

All right. So I heard some really crazy things about Amazon that we’re going to get into or even Google, we can get into it later on in the show. But what about right now? What are your thoughts on you know, we’re going into April? What’s going on anything that we should be aware of?

Kevin King  7:21  

Well, Amazon’s seems like they’re constantly making changes, you know, they just added the deal where you can actually add an instruction manuals and stuff like that. Some people had that ability before, but they just really opened it up to pretty much any brand owner, which I think that’ll help cut down on some of the returns and help help sometimes before somebody wants to buy something, they want to know, How hard is this thing to put together? And so I think that’s gonna help. You’re seeing more on the advertising side. They’re doing more stuff there. Some of the restrictions, it seems to be are coming off of the 200. I’ve heard, I have not seen this exactly myself. But a couple people have told me that on a brand new product, they were actually allowed to ship in like 370 instead of 200 on a first time shipment. So I’m seeing there may be there may be in beta, there may be a test. I’m not sure. But they seem to be opening that up a little bit. You can either. Yeah. What’s that

Norman Ferrar  8:20  

with that 200 restriction? I don’t know. I heard it through the grapevine. But I heard that they’re thinking about removing it and putting it up to 1000. Have you heard anything about that?

Kevin King   8:32  

Yeah, I’ve heard Yeah, I think they’re on or somebody was saying something about that, or posted something like that a while back. But I I’ve not seen that myself, I’m still on my accounts is still has restrictions on it. But I think what they may be doing is maybe basing it on your past inventory management, I have a feeling that you know, this person that told me they could send a 377 200 they sell a lot of stuff. And so there may be some sort of algorithm that’s like, Okay, you’ve been pretty good at managing inventory in the past. So we’re gonna let you send in 370, it’s at 200. So I don’t see them raising that to 1000. Not Not until not anytime soon, and until they get a lot more warehouse space online, and once they get a lot more warehouse space online. Maybe that’ll go up, but I just I don’t, I don’t know, I think I think they’re gonna keep it the other guy writes it from 200, up to 500 or something. But for new product. I just don’t see them opening the floodgates back up. They don’t they don’t want to become a warehouse again. Right? And so, but if you have a history, or your existing seller, I can see them making some dramatic differences where maybe they’ll let you go to 1000 or maybe even more if you have some sort of history.

Norman Ferrar  9:49  

Let’s go back to that instruction book. What are the restrictions on that? So I’ll give you an example. Let’s say that I have a beverage, but the beverage and I’m thinking Have one in particular non alcoholic spirit. Okay, it has to be mixed with something. You can’t drink it straight, it has to be mixed. The instruction manual is basically a recipe book. Could you put that up as a recipe book? Or as a manual?

Kevin King   10:19  

I suppose I suppose you could do it. Does Amazon? Is that the intended purpose? I don’t think so. Yeah. But could you do that? I don’t think they’re going to be checking this stuff. I think it’s just going to go up. And maybe some algorithm looking through it and making sure. But yeah, I don’t know. That’s, that’s, you know, I’m sure people, there’s always people going to beat the system. So I think I think some people will abuse that and use it for other things.

Norman Ferrar  10:48  

Yeah. And I’m not looking at it so much as abuse. I’m looking at it because it really is. if let’s say I take a look at most of the most of the products in this category. People don’t read the instructions. So they drink it direct instead of mixing it with, you know, a mocktail. And so the all of the negative reviews are because people drink it straight. So if the instruction book was out there, then they would know how to do it properly.

Kevin King   11:22  

Yeah, that would. I don’t think that would be okay. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that’s that’s basically how to, I mean, it would be just like, if there’s a little pamphlet attached to the side of the bottle or something. Yeah, yeah, that no, I think that would be okay. Yeah. Now, we got to think other ways to do it. Nobody, is it? No. That’s instructions on how to mix the product, how to properly enjoy it, I think that would be totally okay. And probably wise to do I. But then your bullet points are somewhere, see the instruction booklet below? Now,

Norman Ferrar  11:54  

I’m kind of curious about your PP product. You’re not gonna get into the brand and everything. But how are you finding that? Are you have you got a backup? Because I know you’ve had you were having all sorts of problems with Amazon, you’d be answering in providing game plans and doing everything according to the book. And they’d suspend you.

Kevin King   12:17  

Yeah, we had a lot of problems last year, we knock on wood, we haven’t had any oil, you had one this year, but it just got classified as a pesticide. And then another one is randomly a case quantity of it can be classified as not allowed on Amazon. And you know, we because we went through all this rigmarole we’re down for sometimes a couple of weeks last year on things. We have all the documents from Amazon. So when that happens, now, I can just upload a screenshot of like from Amazon legal and like from a couple other screenshots I have from inside Amazon, you know, with name of the person and everything on there, say, look, we’re authorized, put it back up, but I put that screenshot. And you know, originally that used to be, they would get one of those canned responses back saying Okay, thanks for the by the Thanks for the info, we’re gonna check with the concern gene or whatever. But now, it’s pretty much as soon as I put that within hours, it’s back. Really? Oh, yeah. So but so that’s, that’s definitely helped. But and in all of that we’ve lost because all of this is products that we’re doing 40 $50,000 a day, last year, single single products, and they’re nowhere close to that now. Because all the history, all the momentum was lost. And you got a bunch of zeros in there on sales days, and just it’s just a mess. So those are nowhere near that plus the DB market is completely saturated. Yeah. And, you know, I was just in a store yesterday and a convenience store gained some gas and they had like hand sanitizer, little two ounce bottles of hand sanitizer clearance for for $1 you know, 25 cents each. And I know that’s basically below the cost of what most people are manufacturing something like that for I know, I know, the cost on all the different things and so how do you compete against that? You know, when you’re going on Amazon, there’s people selling two ounce bottles for 499 or a pack of five for 10 bucks or whatever. Yeah, it’s a very, very, that markets way. oversaturated and not not everything. Masks show your face shield sanitizer. There’s so much of it out there that you can’t, it’s hard to even give it away. So

Norman Ferrar  14:38  

you live in a you live in Austin. So it’s the foodie area, right? Yeah, and I saw this the other day and I was just wondering if you’d be either getting into this market, or if you’ve already bought one. The nose mask, the nose mask? Have you seen it? No, I haven’t seen so another product. So But while you’re in a restaurant, you have a mask across your nose. It looks completely ridiculous. But anyways, I was just wondering if you might need using those masks.

Kevin King   15:13  

Now, I guess I get my second shot of Madonna on Sunday. So, Oh, you’ve got a nose mask. So so but I, I still wear a mask, you know, this is what’s been be with us for a while you know that I know a lot of different schools of thought out there. Depending on no matter which side of the of this year on this is with us till 2023 2024 is with us forever, actually, this is not going to go away anytime in the next 10 or 20 years. But the pandemic side will will subside. But before things are back to somewhat fairly normal for everybody, it’s gonna probably be 20.3 or later, and then then I just that’s based on, you know, more variants are showing up that mess up stuff. But people are tired of it so that it’s not going to be the same as what it was last year, you know, people are gonna go about their business in some ways, but this is not going away. And like you guys had are way behind us in the US even on way behind. I mean, us is one of the top five or six or so in the world right now as far as percentage of people. And we still have a lot of issues and you look at what’s happening in Europe. So yeah, so hopefully there’s the PBE stuff, you know, people people are still buying it. People still need it. And I yeah, hopefully we can we can settle it with me.

Norman Ferrrar 16:34  

Yeah, you know, it’s important, but when you start looking at it, like the nose mask, okay, I guarantee you, they’ll try to put it on to Amazon, or whatever it is, pp is a really, it’s beyond competitive. I mean, you know, people think supplements are tough, but trying to stay on the PP market for hand sanitizer, or for masks or for anything. So anybody that’s new out there that thinks that they can go to China or go to an American company, and just get hand sanitizer and put it on Amazon. It’s, it’s a pretty tough go.

Kevin King  17:11  

Don’t do it. Yeah, there’s that helmet called the microclimate that we actually, my wife bought one of those and it’s a looks like a little space helmet. Basically, it’s actually pretty cool. It’s black. It’s sleek, and like, not really bulky. But that’s a doctor actually recommended it to us. And we have a concierge doctor, he actually said, Hey, check out this thing. We’re using some of the hospitals now called microclimate and it goes right over your head. And it’s really cool. Check it out if you just Google it. And we have a couple of those that, that come in handy. If you’re me, send me a picture. Yeah, I guess

Norman Ferrar  17:51  

it’d be good. I’ll wear my nose mask, you wear your client. There we go. Alright, so getting back to Amazon. Anything on the horizon right now that you’re excited about?

Kevin King   18:06  

Anything on the horizon? Yeah, I know, I just, I just think the opportunity is still grid. Good on Amazon. Yeah, yeah. We’re, I’m in the process of launching a new company. And we we started actually, last incorporated last March a year ago and haven’t launched the product yet. You know, we get all the funding, hundreds of 1000s of dollars at the bank accounts, and funding and it’s just been sitting as we’ve been developing the product. And that’s coming up first ones coming out in June. And I’m excited about that. I think the opportunity is great out there. Still in the space in e commerce in general. You know, some of the stuff that Amazon’s doing, I think a lot Amazon live, right now, it’s still coming, a little niche play. But I think that’s going to become more and more important over the next few years. And I think you’re gonna see Amazon becoming more of a pay to play platform it already is, but even more so than it is now. And the organic stuff is going to become less and less and everything else. It’s gonna be more positioning, paper papers, propositioning and more brand oriented type of stuff. So, I mean, I don’t anything that Amazon’s got cookin that I’m excited about, you know, they have the drone delivery and all that kind of stuff. You know, I don’t see that as being anything significant anytime soon. I just wanted to have gadget, maybe a New York City or some new, concentrated area, but I don’t see that as being anything that’s going to happen anytime soon. But But yeah, there’s something you had in mind.

Norman Ferrar 19:45  

No, I do know that April six. Amazon’s going to be eliminating all information from the buyer. So I don’t know if you’ve heard about that. No, I didn’t hear that. All On all information will be eliminated. I think they’ve they’ve come up with APR six being that date? I haven’t seen that. Did they post that somewhere? Or is that? Yeah, I was going to talk about it in the group. But yeah, I’ve got a an email that states that.

Kevin King   20:18  

Oh, yeah, no, I have not seen that. So that’s just for fbm, or FBA, or every but I can’t do it for them. They gotta give it to Sega fulfill an order. I don’t know what the heck they’re

Norman Ferrar  20:27  

gonna do. But I can show you what I got. And I’m sure it said April, the fifth or sixth. The other thing, which is kind of interesting. I don’t know if you know about this has been out for a while. But Google, announcing that they’re getting rid of cookies we had somebody on, I’m not sure if I’m gonna say the name, and it’s gonna be the wrong guy. So anyways, it was just last week talking about Google. And they’re doing away with cookies. Well, what does that mean? affiliate marketers are gonna be gone.

Kevin King   21:03  

Are you sure that’s Google period? Or is that because of stuff but because of Apple, Apple iOS, that’s really screwing around with them pissing off Facebook and Google and all these marketers that are not going to be able to do a lot of things that they’ve been able to do.

Norman Ferrar  21:18  

Yeah, so it was really interesting. We came on, he was talking about this, I had no idea it was gonna get to that extent. So I can’t give you detailed information about it. But Kelsey, who was who was it that said at that? Tom McNamara. Yes, it was Tom. Last last podcast. So they’re completely getting rid of the pixel. They’re getting rid of cookies, or cookies or cookies? Because the pixel still exists? a pixel will still exist.

Kevin King   21:45  

Yeah, most. Okay. Cookies. Yeah, the cookie cookies is more use the Okay, that cookie is an older technology. So that one I’m not so worried about my cookie that’ll affect you, on your browser, you know, maybe remembering your password and some things like that on between sites or whatever. But I don’t think that one’s as big as if they definitely marketers, they’re gonna feel it. Yeah, affiliate marketers, you’re gonna feel it sound, but a lot of them are still using pixels. But yeah, on serving up ads on some of these ad networks and stuff, they still use a lot of a cookie based stuff on what to show you. Yeah, that that? Uh, oh, that’s interesting. Yeah.

Norman Ferrar  22:29  

So one other thing. And I know you’re really data driven. I’m curious about 2021. When you’re looking for a product opportunity, he and I don’t I know this can take a day for to answer but any quick insight on what you’re looking for when you’re picking a product.

Kevin King   22:50  

I mean, like for phonics advice, for example, when I’m picking products for that, my process right now, and this is always evolving. And so and is I use Brian analytics, I start with Brian Alex. And so for products of arts, I’m looking for existing things I’m not paying for that we don’t actually come up with brand new ideas, you know, we’re not going to reinvent some new thing that’s got to be patented, and you got developed from scratch. That’s not the goal of that company. I think that’s where more and more where Amazon is going. Just as an aside, I think in the future, you know, the next few years, the people that are able to not just go to Alibaba and find something and stick their label on it or find something and maybe modified or bundle in a different way, you’re going to have to create something from new new IP, I think that’s going to be the next big opportunity on Amazon. So someone comes out with a course that says here’s, you know, a tizzy on how to, to create brand new products and launch them on Amazon from you know, from scratch from an idea, but it can’t just be the thing with Amazon is creating something that’s brand new, you got to make sure the keyword demand is still there. Otherwise, you have to spend a lot of money educating people and getting it out there. So but there’s still plenty of opportunities where you can see that there’s a key what people are searching for. Slow dog feed, slow dog eating bowls, or whatever. And there’s a ton of products there, but versus going and just finding one that’s already existing. Or even finding one that maybe doesn’t exist and design but coming up with some sort of new thing. I don’t know. I don’t know what it is, but it itself cleans itself or something. I don’t know. It developed. There we go. Yeah, developing that from scratch. And putting that out with some IP behind it. I think it’s gonna be where the big money’s gonna be made in the future. And you gotta have a little moat around you and in licensing too. I think there’s a big opportunity still on licensing on on Amazon hasn’t been exploited. You know, if you had a, you know, slowly dog ball and you could go get a license from the US Army. Hey, I’m a dog boy. And camouflage colors or something, and it says US Army on the side of it, you know that that creates some sort of little bit of a moat. So there’s those kinds of things for product development. But back on the the other one brain analytics with so if I’m looking for something that already exists, and it’s a little bit easier where people do want to do the traditional model, go to global sources or Alibaba, find something, modify a little bit and launch it, I take brand analytics, I download the last month’s data, I like to do it in quarter. So if I can, but it just depends if it’s too far out. Like if, if Amazon only lets you good, so it’s the middle of March, usually the last quarter available is the fourth quarter of last year. So that that’s, that’s a two and a half month gap of data. So I won’t do that I’ll use the last month I’ll use February. But if it but if it’s not pulling the data, January 5, or 10th, or whatever, then I’ll use the last quarter. So download that data, which is what one point something million round a million plus, you know, I think it’s actually showed like 1.6 million, but lets you download like a million of them. I’ll download an Excel file. And then I’ll run through that Excel file. And I personally delete everything that’s below 500,000 SFR. Now you don’t have to do that there’s still plenty of opportunity. Down below 500,000, I’m just looking for things I want things that sell $10,000 a month or more. And typically, the demand for that is is something below 500,000 so far, on on the keywords. And so I’ll delete that. And then I’ll go in and I’ll actually add a column that

Kevin King   26:38  

a fourth column on the spreadsheet. And I’ll take the clicks that a conversion share. So the three columns, AC, one AC, two A’s, and three, the conversion chairs, and I’ll sum those up in that call. And in my personal cut off is 40%. So anything that were that the first three aces have more than 40% of the buy share or the you know the conversion share, that tells me that that market that only 60% is left for everybody else. And to me, I want more than 60% love, that tells me it’s it’s, you know, the top three guys basically have half the market and the other half the market is still big enough. And you if you get a piece of that, you’re still gonna be happy. But I’m just saying this is how I eliminate it down to find a better opportunity. So you could change these parameters however you want. And so then that eliminates those 500,000 down to, I don’t know, 100,000 200,000, something like that. And then I go through and anything that has high click sure, but zero or less than 1% conversion share. All those keywords get unlimited, as well, because that tells me there’s no relation going on. Anything where you have you see those zeros and conversion share? There’s some sort of funny business going on where people don’t add to carts or there’s something going on, because why would you have a 20% click share and 0% conversion share. I mean, not all, it’s not always funny business, there could be legitimate reasons for that. But those are ones I eliminate too, then, and so then you’re left with, I don’t know, 50,000 keywords or something. And then I start going through with my eyes and scrolling down and looking for you know, obviously, I’ve been doing this long enough. So I know to skip over garlic presses and, and obvious stuff that just looks competitive. I already know it’s competitive, and then I’ll stumble across something that I’ll take out also seasonal stuff. So the word Christmas, I’ll filter out Christmas or Easter or Halloween, all those seasonal things out. I’m looking for year round stuff. And then then I’ll go through and just look at them one by one and, and punch them into Google I mean, sorry, Google into Amazon and run the x helium 10x Ray tool on it and see what the markets doing. See how the competitors are see how how much depth there is in that keyword see the look at look at the reviews, you have some criteria look for there. And, and then it’s like, if that passes muster, that keyword passes muster, then I’ll take that keyword and then I’ll go back to the foreground analytics with past 500,000 and see how many other related keywords are there around this. And then I’ll see if I can find two or three other keywords that have similar metrics to this first one, have you know that the conversion share is 40% or less for the top three. And and if there if there is then that’s a good opportunity product, and then they’ll take that and I know for products of mine. So I give that to Steve’s team. They go on they source it, and they come back to us with all the sourcing and the tariffs and the duties and everything and about probably a half or two thirds of the products get eliminated at that point because just the math doesn’t work and what’s left at our good product opportunities.

Norman Ferrar  29:53  

Wow. So Kelsey Yes, you’re gonna have to Listen to this and go through these action steps. But, you know, and and that’s why it’s so successful, you know, because you do take the time to go through and do all of this work. There’s lots of ways of doing it out there, you know, but this is a different, this is a different way. I don’t think a lot of people are talking about what the style that you’re just doing, the strategy that you’re doing. And, you know, it’s interesting, because you’re talking about product innovation, excuse me, and I talk about, I talk a lot. But I don’t want that to go to your head. But the way that you have already done product and innovation years ago, when you took the bully sticks, a typical bully stick, and the way that you created that bully stick, and you did, you know completely different, you created a different market for it, and a different price point. And then when you took that charger, you know, the holder, and you completely re innovated that innovated this new product, and it killed it. And these steps I got the lobby was on the other day, and we were talking about product innovation and the importance of it. And I used you as an example. You know, you did it. You did it years ago, way before I knew you. And you know what, what you’re what you did back then, is current today, if you can do that, and you can do it? Well, you can dominate on Amazon.

Kevin King   31:33  

Yeah, I mean, there’s still risk. But, but yeah, that and I think there’s that’s the future of people that I mean, that’s the future of the big companies. Yeah, you have, you have CEOs and all those guys right now buying up, you know, there’s 40 5060 of these aggregators that are buying up these Amazon businesses have done it the old way. But there’s gonna reach a point where there’s gonna be less and less of those, and they’re gonna be looking for these others that have more of a moat around them, and more. And that’s the people that are doing that the innovative, innovative products. And you know, Amazon has the launchpad for this, they have a program where they did Kickstarter and Indiegogo stuff and help them kind of get going. But, you know, when you put something on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, you’re telling the world what you’re doing. And you’ve given them a head start, because you haven’t even got the thing made yet. And so you’re telling them and you know, a lot of times, these guys are showing the whole process of making it pictures and everything. So it’s super easy to copy. Anything that’s on Indiegogo or Kickstarter, not not moving up super easily not the right word. But if you have the money and the capacity, it’s super easy to copy anything there. And so by the time a Kickstarter thing gets launched, and most of these people don’t kick starters that are innovating stuff are, are not good at forecasting how long it’s going to take them to do this. And they end up having delays or even never coming out with the product. And then other people are using Kickstarter, and the big companies are using it just as a marketing tool to that already have everything behind them. But so you got to be careful. So of putting something out there like that, that can just be imitated by time you get to market somewhat more money and a bigger product, or bigger pocket book and more capacity can can can squash you.

Norman Ferrar  33:21  

So this leads to another question about costs. The average the white label seller going out and just finding a plastic shoe stretcher and throwing their their name on it, and then coming up with product development. How much cash flow Do you need for the plastic shoe stretch or whatever it is, and I know it’d be a huge range. But you know, on average, and then on the product innovation side, what kind of cash should you have put aside for it and I and again, that’s a huge range as well.

Kevin King r  33:55  

It’s, it’s more probably time than it is cash. I mean, that depends on the product to create a more like I did slowly doubles, those molds are $3,000 each. So that’s my additional cost on that versus just going to a factory and saying give me a one off the shelf and stick my logo on it was three grand, but also had to design it. So I had to actually go through that, you know, I can’t draw with a dam but I just sketch it or find something and I went on Upwork found a guy and he happened to be in Argentina that could do the CAD stuff for me, I said hey, I want to I want to bolt lips in some shape of bone and has this and it’s this Hi, I’m giving you the basic specs and he created a CAD drawing of it so that to me a 3d word in a little program, we could spin it around and you can pack a pretty good idea what’s gonna look like made some changes a few changes to it. And then I had to do 3d printing, which is not expensive either, but because I want to test it and I had some different dogs stick their nose in between the little grooves to make sure a bowl of the flat Bulldog face could get in there with his tongue versus a dog with a long spout or long nose Get in there, and then had to make some additional changes. You know, that hope that wasn’t expensive, you know, 400 bucks for this designer, I think to do all his work. And finally, the Thomas said 950 bucks $200 in 3d printing. So that’s, that’s not super expensive. And then $3,000 for a mold. So you know, it’s four grams or so roughly there. But that took a few months to do that process. And then that had the moles made took a little bit longer, and then the manufacturing and then the first time you manufacture something, there was problems. Because we had silicone and plastic on top of each other, I made it look really pretty. And it actually wouldn’t slide on the floor and a bunch of stuff. And there’s some issues with bubbling in the mat. So we had to work that stuff out. So the whole thing to come to market probably took about 878 months from concept to actually be in for sale. And so that’s longer than if you just found something on Alibaba and stuck your name on it or made a slight modification. So it’s more time than it is money. So the fourth of $4,000 is was not that much. I mean, maybe that’s a lot for someone with a $10,000 budget. That’s a lot of money. But for where I was doing it was and then we sold those and you know, chewy, calm took them. Amazon, so sold on Amazon, we sold, we still I still have I’m not making them right now. Because the factory that I was using, that ended up having an issue. And then I couldn’t get the molds back out. They wouldn’t release the mold. And so I had to I just got so busy. I was like I screw it right now. But these were making me. Yeah, these are 24, nine goals for 25 bucks, versus most of them on Amazon or six $7. But this was a nice good looking bolts. It’s on your floor by dog still. They just ate them this morning. I have two here. And they just ate their food on this morning. I still use them. And I’m probably going to bring them back. We’re looking at bringing them back. But yeah, I just I got away from but they were making five $6,000 a month profit on two different sizes smaller, a large, not not earth shattering but good. And they said they sold well. And I still get people today. Still email. Hey, I saw this in my neighbor’s house. You know, how can I get some?

Norman Ferrar  37:28  

Oh, cool. Very cool. So I think we’ve probably got a ton of questions, Kelsey.

Kelsey 37:36  

Oh, yeah. I thought so. So whenever, whenever you guys want to jump into them like Well,

Norman Ferrar  37:42  

yeah. So first, today’s giveaway is from Tony cigar. And he’s giving away to feather down comforters or do vaes right kills.

Kelsey  37:54  

days, two days. This is only through US and Canada only. So if you entered before, and you didn’t realize that just let me know. And then I’ll take your name off. By the way.

Norman Ferrar  38:07  

When you receive Tony’s durveys you’ll see what branding is all about. This guy does it right. He I know his product. I’ve seen how he’s packaging it. I’ve seen the brand. He does it up, right. He spent the time the money, put the energy in and it’s got a great product. So whoever gets this, you’re gonna love it.

Kelsey  38:28  

Yep. So hashtag I love Tony or hashtag. I love Kevin, and then we’ll get you in. Do you want to? Alright, so we’re gonna do the first question. Yep, let’s do it. Oh, my gosh, I’m reading a book. Okay, we were selling a product on retail arbitrage. We ran out of the product for a month the listing was inactive. We got the product and we listed it again. I was our sales are not good. We found out that the reviews are for a different product. But the category is the same. How can we read this this product?

Kevin King  39:00  

So usually on arbitrage someone else is selling the product. So So is this something you’re buying? I mean, I guess retail arbitrage is usually there’s already a demand for the product on Amazon. There’s already a listing and you’re jumping on it and being one of the sellers. But if you’re maybe you know, I know, when I first started doing FBA, one of the things I did is I tested barbecue sauce here in Austin, there’s a company called the Salt Lake barbecue. That’s, you know, it’s not one I’ve tested and Yeah, good. Very, very good. But by Austin standards, it’s it’s the lower half of the top 10 there’s much better barbecue in Austin, but it’s the it’s the famous one. It’s one of the originals. And it’s very good. I mean anywhere any other city in the world it would be number one, but Austin is known for its barbecue so it’s not number one but people know it and they have a barbecue sauce and that sauce I would go out and get that I would buy that we’re down to there. Their facility, there’s the big restaurant, a little gift shop. And I said how much for a case of this stuff and they sold me a case of it, I threw it up on Amazon as a, as a seller. Basically, I know without their permission or anything, I don’t buy it wholesale. I just bought a case of it, it was at a discount and then put it up on Amazon and sold it I need to get on gated and grocery. And so I use that to get on gated and grocery ended up selling it. But I didn’t, it was just a test. So but that I didn’t consider that really arbitrage. I consider that it’s not really private label. It’s just basically selling. So back on the eyes question. So you’re down for a month and you want to get back up? What was it? Can you bring the question back up there, Kelsey again?

Kelsey  40:45  

Yep, just give me a second. Okay. So how can we relist this product? I’ve noticed understanding because

Kevin King   40:58  

if you listed it again, did you list it from scratch, then there should be no reviews on it. But if you just throw it up on another product, the reviews for different products. So it sounds like you’re jumping on somebody else’s listing. That’s what that sounds like. It sounds like someone might be using that listing for different things. And you want to relist the product, you probably have to relist it as a standalone product, you probably have just created a new AC, I know that the problem there is you have a UPC code on that product probably and that UPC code may not match. So you would have to try to get a GTI an exemption or you have to game the system and use a different UPC code but you have for your company, you need to get the more from GS one. I mean, Amazon doesn’t like you doing this. But get one from GS one, you have to use that I’ve used it probably with GTI and exemption. And you’d have to put fn ski label on that and send that in. And how do they go about getting a GT i n exemption, if they’re requested. And that’s not always easy to do, especially on existing products. But what I would do in this case, one request, I say we’re trying to sell this product, but the one that’s on Amazon is not associated with this UPC is actually for a different product reviews are all for something else. And Amazon may fix that problem. Or they may give each branch the exemption. Got it.

Kelsey  42:30  

Alright, kills next. Okay, next one. Hit King, when you start your day with is the first hour of work look like a regiment for daily Amazon King seller? Well, I’m

Kevin King   42:41  

a late riser. So norm does these, these calls, it’s 11am. For me, 1212 noon on the East Coast, but I’m an hour behind over and Austin, I usually don’t roll out of bed to about 1030 or 11. That’s why I actually have to set an alarm, I don’t wake up to an alarm. Number one, I set unless I have to come on lunch with norm and then I’ll wake up to an alarm. And I can’t comb my hair. But yeah, the first hour is when I get up, it’s usually I feed my dogs, it the head, take a shower, and get something eat. And then I go through my email and messages that have come in over the night. But I I’m up until about three o’clock every night to three o’clock every night. Some of that’s just chilling. Because I like that hour, there’s no phones ringing, no emails coming in, nothing bothered me. I’m one of these that I hate my inbox to have unread messages, you know, you’ll see somebody, some people have their phone, it’s got all these little dots that you know, they get always thing that drives me crazy. Even if I’ve read the message, it has to get it I guess it’s the add on or something that has to be followed or has to be dealt with. So I stay on top of all my social media. I don’t participate in LinkedIn for that reason. I mean, I just I think there was a profile on LinkedIn. And people used to be eye contact, you know, got back to me like I don’t use LinkedIn. So if you ever go to LinkedIn, you see me it’s not me. And I don’t answer so I fine tune when I want to use the four or five different ones. And you know, sometimes it might take me a few hours to get back to somebody, but I go through everything within 24 hours, either file it to be answered or answered. And they get moved off into the little organized places. So that’s the first thing I do in the morning. I check all my bank accounts, log into everything, like 15 different bank accounts, actually log in every single bank account just to make sure there’s no funny business going on. You know, make sure no massive chargeback that came on one of them or something or make sure you know, Amazon deposits actually hit when they’re supposed to. So I need to deal with Amazon and then filter out the emails and then then whatever the tasks are, but most most of my creative stuff is done in the evenings. So create creative work. busy work is done during the day during normal daytime hours, and the creative stuff is done at night.

Kelsey  45:08  

Very good. Okay. All right. from Darwin, is it possible to move one listing to another Amazon account, I have a listing that works better with another brand under another account and a company altogether?

Kevin King   45:21  

Yeah, you can do that with Amazon’s permission, you just got to make sure you can’t sell the same thing on two different accounts. So you would have to get their permission and probably write a letter and say, Hey, I’d like to move this a sign to this other accounts, you might have to show that that company bought it. But as long as it’s a totally different company with totally different bank accounts, totally different een all that stuff, you should be able to do that. But you are going to have to work whichever one you remove it from, you’re gonna have to eliminate selling it there. But yeah, it’s similar to someone buying your business. That’s basically what they do. If they bought one Exactly. Watch your company, or bought your essence. That’s what they would do. So yeah, it’s definitely possible.

Kelsey 46:03  

Okay, from Simon, if you’re going to launch a new winter product in preparation to rank well, for q4 spike, when would the ideal time to activate the listing be

Kevin King   46:13  

probably July, July or August and start getting sales, that sales are not going to be much but start the ranking process. Like I have, for example, I have a winter product calendars, let’s face it, the winter product is people buy those at the end of the year for the next year. The bulk buying time that is between Thanksgiving in the US and the January, so about two month period, basically mid November to mid January is when 90% of sales occur. But I start selling those like this last year we start selling in July, we put them on Amazon activated the listing in July, that’s for a couple reasons. One is we can only send them 200. So we started getting that algorithm going. And then we start ranking. Now in July, people buying it. July 2020 people by the 2021 calendar was not very many is the one or two a day. But but I wasn’t worried about that because I rode the wave. So I got ranked on keywords. And as the demand goes up, we ride that wave. It’s like catching, catching a wave out at sea and just riding it all the way to the shore where it gets bigger and bigger and bigger. And that’s what you want to do. And know,

Norman Ferrar  47:23  

knowing that you said July. And you if you’re having the product manufactured in China, you really got to look around me to get your ducks in a row. Yeah. Would you agree?

Kevin King   47:36  

Yeah, our calendars for example, that season like this week, we make them in South Korea. And so we actually, we actually, they go off that the actual files go off in April to the printer in South Korea. And they typically, you know, come back by the end of April, they may we’re looking at proofs and June, early June. They’re shipping their their printing and shipping to us. And they arrive mid July timeframe. But yeah, you you have to back that up. And it’s kind of weird to be in March or something thinking about 2022 already, but it’s what you got to do. And if you go to the big if you look at some of the big companies like calendar club, for example, that has all these kiosks in the malls, and they have calendars comm they actually asked for 2022 calendars. They asked for all the details January 3 of 2021. So they actually sent me a spreadsheet that you fill out all this information on by January 3 of the preceding year. So they could start forecasting and issuing POS and everything. So it’s it’s a different way of thinking it’s just like Halloween, you know, Halloween stuff for this coming season was actually the shows were last fall. It’s it’s a you have to be constantly thinking of the future. So that’s what on that those winter winter clothing. I will be July or August launching that. Okay. Thank you for

Kelsey  49:11  

your questions. Also just want to say if you haven’t yet if you can just please hit the like button or share this out to your friends. We’d really appreciate it as well. Okay, next question is from Steven. Hey, Kevin. Not sure if you know the answer to my question, but how do you successfully get unguided from baby furniture? Is it hard to get approval?

Kevin King   49:32  

I’ve never done baby furniture so I don’t have a clue on how hard how easy or hard it is on baby furniture unfortunately. Um Yeah, I don’t know. Sorry. I can’t help you on that one either.

Kelsey  49:46  

Alright, from Daniel. Kevin, how many percentages more does your landing costs? Do you sell your products on Amazon FBA? What is the cutline to launch or not?

Kevin King r  49:57  

So product that retails for less than $100 The suggested price is under $100. I want a minimum 3x markup, ideally four or five or higher I, the higher the better. I mean, like my calendars that I was talking about a second ago, the landed cost and those $1.52. And we’re selling for 20. Amazon’s fees are about 550. And so you can see that on a $20 product, there’s about a $12 margin on every single one. It’s pure profit, because we don’t do any PPC, or anything else. And there’s a little bit called 50 cents to ship from an FBA. So it’s a little bit extra cost, it’s not much. So that a minimum 3x off the land cost. And that’s what a lot of people forget, is they get a price out of China, for example, and the price is $5. And I could sell this for 15. Kevin said three exits. So 15, that’s not good enough, because I $5 actually, is probably more like $9. Because the $5 is most likely going to have a 25% trunk terrifying. So you got to add a buck and a quarter right there, this may have another duty on it, then you get your freight in. And if it’s going to a three PL you have your freight from China to the three PL and all the fees associated with that. And then you got from the threepio into Amazon. And so by the time you’re saying done, it’s probably eight or nine bucks, by Tommy, you your total landed cost. So that product needs to be selling for bare minimum 2497, probably more like 26 or 2997, to actually have a chance. And the more competitive categories that we get spend more on advertising, you probably need more like a four or 5x to make sure you’re doing you have enough margin there. That’s a big problem. I’ve seen the freedom ticket people. back a couple years ago, I would do calls and there was an option where you could actually pay to speak with me, I don’t do that anymore. And I’m too busy. But people will pay an upgraded option and speak with me, I’ll get on the phone while these times with this guy, guys and gals and they’d be like, I just don’t know why I’m not making any money. It’s like, well, what are you selling your product for? 1197? What’s your landed cost? Which which factor cost four bucks, which which lanica. So I’m not sure? Well, let’s just call it six bucks, and you’re selling it for 1197. Yeah, but everybody else, I can’t sell anything, if I put it at 1297, they don’t sell, I gotta sell 1197. Otherwise, I’m not selling or I’ll lose my BSR. And like 11, eight, seven, after Amazon fees, you’re not making any money, you can’t have a room for advertising. There’s no margin there. So you’re just donating to Amazon. And that’s a common common problem. People just don’t know the numbers and don’t know the math and you got to know that you have to and you have to have room to work. And that’s why I said earlier, you know, half to two thirds of the products that I find we eliminate after doing the sourcing on it. Because there’s not enough margin, the money a lot of times on Amazon’s main the sourcing and the selling. And so being able to source and engineer a product at a really good a good product at a good price and get it that price gives you more room to work on the other side, when competition comes in.

Norman Ferrar  53:07  

I can give you a good example of that I made this mistake. So I took a look when I was getting on to Amazon in the earlier days. And I thought I had a great product about a buck with packaging and everything was about a buck 10 to a buck 40. So I thought wow, I can sell this, you know 1099 no problem. I didn’t think about because it was such a low dollar value. Amazon’s gonna hit me with 465 right off the top. That was my first mistake not knowing those numbers. And all of a sudden, we will Sorry, I was trying to get them out there at 799 to 999. Then it turned into an add on product to the add on product yet at 24 bucks. So I made a major mistake when I first got into Amazon by not understanding the process. So and the the extra FBA costs and like you just said, knowing the numbers but all of the numbers.

Kevin King  54:08  

And it’s too many people don’t don’t know it. It’s sad, and that’s why probably 95% of people that try to sell on Amazon, they fail, but most of most, most don’t work don’t see. I mean, what’s there I saw. I think Miron posted this yesterday when Facebook groups a link to an article at marketplace pulse that saying there’s what 6 million, 6 million accounts or something worldwide on Amazon seller accounts. But something like that I’ll get the numbers wrong, but it was a fraction of that. That actually actually had a single seller feedback in the last year that I indicate that you actually made a sale. And then a fraction of that are the ones that are hitting a million dollars in sales or more. So it’s it’s Most people selling on Amazon, it’s either a part time hustle or a side gig that they’re making some money on. Or they’re not the vast majority don’t succeed that Amazon makes money and they don’t. But that doesn’t mean this is a bad opportunity, or you got to go look for something else. The opportunity is still there. Yes, there’s a lot of bad information out there. And a lot of bad advice. And a lot of people that might not have business experience or entrepreneurial experience and aren’t thinking through everything properly. They’re they’re watching a webinar somewhere where they show you I bought this for five bucks and sell it for 20, I made a $15 profit on everyone, I leave out a bunch of the costs to make it look really good. And so people get excited. And don’t do the math. Or don’t come into it with enough money. And they come in with and they wipe out their their initial investment or, and don’t have the money to sustain it. Maybe they’re successful, but they screw up and run out of stock, and are basically a constant start over mode.

Norman Ferrar  56:00  

Did I ever tell you this story about you know, how I got into one of your products, you know, the product. And the way that I came about it was a home run. When we got into the marketplace, it was a home run, we were making a ton it just went we ordered it three times. And each time it was doubling, tripling doubling tripling, the guy ran out of money I couldn’t afford, even though it was successful. He couldn’t afford it. So I bought it. But he he ended up Yeah, just selling it off selling the inventory. And it was so unfortunate, because, you know, it was a great product and it and he was being like it was a successful product. Yeah, yeah. But you got to have your money, you got to have that capital, you

Kevin King  56:45  

got to have a source of it, you have to get it and sometimes it’s hard, you’re successful, that quick, you know, seller’s funding or alter some of those will help you. But you have to have a history or you have to go to someone like approve me. Or you have to have a rich uncle or you got to be willing to put some of your own money on the line. And, and I would never recommend anyway but their house or anything that’s gonna affect their their way of living on the line. To do this. Always only use money you can afford to lose. And that’s not gonna change your family or your lifestyle or anything. And always be careful borrow money from friends. You know, a lot of times it’s which one you can’t have them both. You can’t have money in the friend you either have the money or the friend but not both times. So be careful with that as well. So that means I can’t go to Uncle Kevin for my next project. No, probably not. All right, girls

Kelsey  57:42  

are at the top of the top of the hour at one o’clock. So anytime you need to go Kevin just let us know.

Norman Ferrar  57:51  

There we go. That’s how much time you have you got another 15 Yeah, I can do 15 Okay, yeah, we got a bunch. Got a jump on the clubhouse. Ronnie clubhouse. Yeah, yeah. It’s just getting going right now. So

Kelsey  58:05  

it’s fine. Okay. Okay, from Simon. We see a bunch of aggregators and brokers. Now, however, there are a zillion exit focus sellers. Do you think there’s ever going to be a point of saturation of Exeter’s?

Kevin King   58:18  

I personally? I don’t know. I mean, I asked this question of the rasio. And they seem to think there’s not as this of their the board when they were having a clubhouse coffee about a month ago or so? And they said no, they think there’s going to be there’s not, there’s not going to be a saturation of people exiting. And there’s enough people buying right now that can cover that. So, but I think there will be at some point. But I think it’s actually the reverse of that I think there’s not going to be enough companies to buy that makes sense to buy or willing to sell. So I think yeah, it’s gonna be interesting. I think this is the the golden period this this year and probably in the next year is there’s going to be a shakeout, some of these aggregators are going to fold or consolidate. Because a lot of them don’t know what the hell they’re doing. They’re getting into it and don’t realize how hard this actually is. And so they’re going to fail. And so if you’re looking to exit, I would highly recommends you check out whoever it is that’s buying you, and especially if you have some sort of profit sharing on the backside, where you’re not getting all your money up front, be careful. And whatever deal you do, assume you’re never gonna see any of that money. And, and just consider that as a bonus. If you’re happy with a deal without ever seeing any of that money, then it’s probably a good deal, but I think a lot of people are gonna get screwed. And so now is it brassier gonna screw Probably not. I mean, that’s pretty well funded. They got a big team, but you just never know. But I think they’re less likely than some of these other startups that are bought their first Three or four businesses, those would be a little, you know, that would be checked, you might do your due diligence on who’s running these things. And the problem is with a lot of these companies is, yeah, I saw this with one on one commerce, they were one of the first ones to do this, like three years ago, Richard, who started that he came to me, he talked to norm, he talked to a bunch of people out there, you know, he did his homework upfront. And then he started, he was trying to hire us. And he’s like, Kevin, yeah, I’ll buy your company, and you come work for me, then you get paid twice. And like, I don’t want to work for you. You know, you’re a nice guy. But I’m doing this because of the freedom, I don’t want to go work a corporate job and work for somebody else, even if you’re going to pay me nicely, I can do better on my own. And so a lot of these guys are finding that to be a problem, you know, SEO has been able to hire a couple of sellers that they they, they bought their business, and that’s helped them immensely. A couple of good people that have actually have a clue. But a lot of us Amazon selling is guerilla marketing, and it’s being able to fly by the seat of your pants and move quickly. And these big cop companies can’t do that. And you get this infrastructures and bureaucracies and layers of management stuff that makes it difficult to do. And it can crush crush it, crush businesses and hiring good people that know what they’re doing is hard. And there’s only so many of those to go around. And so that’s that’s the challenge that a lot of these guys have. So it’s going to be interesting to see, I mean, if you’re in a position to sell right now, I would seriously be looking at doing it. Because I think now could be better. Just because there’s so many of them out there, you’re gonna get most likely more offers than you would get a couple years from now. Right. But one of the reasons to not sell right now to an aggregator is if you’re truly building a brand, if you’re truly building a true brand, you might not want to sell to an Amazon only aggregator you might want to hold off if a Procter and Gamble or one of these big you know, Unilever, or one of these big you know, type of companies like that might be interested in your business at some point. Because you’re truly a brand, not just an Amazon play, you might not want to sell maybe you want to go through the motions to see what your worth right now, and then they’ll give you an idea and get some of your ducks in a row. But you might not want to sell until if because those guys could pay more than any of these aggregators will now give you a better multiple, it’ll be a better strategic play long term, most likely. So it depends. Very good.

Kelsey  1:02:27  

Okay, next is from Matthew adding variations versus new listings, it’s a different length on a home improvement product, existing sellers is 5050. Top to have variations. Part Two, how do I add a variation to an existing listing, which was not set up as a parent,

Kevin King   1:02:45  

you can add that by using a flat file. So you can go in and use a flat file, do what’s called a partial update, you can probably Google this, there’s probably people that have screenshots, I’ll walk you through it, or go and look on the seller forums on Amazon, I’m sure there’s someone’s link to the SLP or something and how to do it. But it’s, you’re gonna have to use a flat file, which is like a Excel file that you download. And so as far as doing it or not doing it, that’s something you just got to test size difference, I would probably make it as a variation. But some people, there’s the argument that you have, if you can get them both ranked on page one, you know, it’s more real estate, you’re taking up, let’s have a Starbucks on on two corners of the four corner street instead of just one corner. But sometimes one corner is good enough. And you can focus your energy on keeping one of them ranked so that the other one follows it. Otherwise, you’re going to have to have keep both of them right. To keep them both there. So it’s a testing thing.

Norman Ferrar  1:03:44  

I got a question. How are you setting up your titles right now? How am I setting up my titles? Yeah, well, everybody’s doing things differently. I’m just curious on how you’re setting up your title, short, long, keyword up front keyword in the back,

Kevin King   1:04:01  

I put the 90 I don’t follow the Amazon guidelines, but your brand first, unless they forced me to write. So I don’t do that I put the main keywords up front. And when I first launched a new product, I tried to make the title fairly long, you know, try to get up to about 200 characters or so. And then over time, I’ll cut that back. Within that first month, I’ll usually cut that maybe maybe in half. And cut that down to just after I see what’s working, what’s not working. Because I think a shorter title. Probably long term is better. If you look at a lot of the top sellers. A lot of them have shorter titles, you know, take away the fact that someone’s doing a launch or whatever you can see can’t see that when you’re looking at some of the trends in the graphs. You can kind of figure out this person must be doing launched takeaway those with a consistent long top selling people often have shorter titles. And so that’s, that’s what I do. I start long, Mike Morrison the front. I try to get as many keywords in there as I can I think might be relevant for my ranking. And then I pare it down over time you use single keywords or phrases. Do you duplicate? Well, I did. I do duplicate if I need if necessary. I try to, I try to put things back to back or bottom up to each other. So you can have nesting and stuff. I try to do that. But I tried to get my top three phrases and phrase order. All right, very good.

Kelsey 1:05:28  

for tea, her Amazon sells competing products to me which they Buy Wholesale. But there are basic listing with a very simple cheap product. Do you think we have an advantage disadvantage going against Amazon? Or does it really not matter?

Kevin King   1:05:42  

No, I mean, no, I, if Amazon if you create a new listing, and Amazon’s got on has their own listing, and you’re you’re creating a new if you’re on the same same listing, that you have a disadvantage, but if you’re separate listings, you can easily beat Amazon. I mean, they might have a pricing advantage, because they might be willing to go lower than you. But a lot of times you can beat them the one place where I don’t like to compete. Because if when I’m looking at a keyword if if most of the page one is all Amazon bought and sold by Amazon, not just bought and shipped by Amazon, or sold Sorry, I can’t speak sold and shipped by Amazon. That one might be a little competitive. But to have Amazon as a seller doesn’t worry me too much. Because what they don’t know what they’re doing. Honestly, they don’t I mean, the only thing they have they have a price advantage. Or they might they don’t care sometimes. That would be the biggest one, but I can easily out market them.

Kelsey  1:06:44  

Okay, great. From check, do you follow other FBA sellers beside said,

Kevin King   1:06:51  

why there’s no need to I mean, normally, he’s got the words on he’s got everything you know, he’s from the great white north, so and it’s difficult. So why? Why do I need to follow Anybody else? I’ll give you a follow to my already.

Kevin King   1:07:15  

everything I know.

Kelsey  1:07:19  

I’m not sure who this is from actually. But my question is, if I’m going to run out of stock, should it be with high velocity and then close until I get stuck in? I am a newbie would appreciate your thoughts? Should I turn off PVC to reduce sales?

Kevin King   1:07:32  

No, do not turn off PPC to reduce sales go out high velocity as you can. I’ll give you a point on this. Velocity matters and sales matter. I have one of my aspects, I keep going back to these calendar examples. But it’s it’s fresh in my mind. But I have a calendar that was selling this last year and in December. It’s in the office supply Office products category. It’s BSR was it got up to a BSR about 500. In the in the office supply category, which was selling a lot of units a day I ran out of stock at this products. Forget exactly when but somewhere right around Christmas time, probably right before Christmas, completely ran out of stock had no more than a warehouse completely out of stock, I have five calendars. So the other four were still there. I left that listing live because people were still finding it. And it had down at the bottom frequently bought together. Customers who bought this also bought a lot of those are my other four calendars. So people were coming in and using that as a gateway to find my other ones. Oh, this one’s out. Let me go get Kevin’s other calendar. But the point of this is going out with velocity that count that calendar has not been in stock since before Christmas. So three months ago, three months has been out of stock. I was just in my account the other day checking, you know, wiping out some of the last little cash from last season. And just checking on making sure the accounts in good shape. That calendar, despite me not being in stock for three months still had a BSR in office products like 88,000 still not had not been in stock. And it’s sold from July of last year, one or two units a day. And it started snowing a lot in November and December, but still have an 88,000 BSR three months after completely being out of stock says something about velocity. And that velocity freakin matters. And that’s your pre your past sales history. Your older sales history is very important in the algorithm. Now, if I go back and stuff on that, if I suddenly magically, March 15, got some more in stock and put it back up. That BSR probably would have gone from 88,000 to 60,000 to 50,000 or whatever it could have, it would have gone back it probably would never go back to 500 they would have gone back to something reasonable, much much faster because it’s they’re still using that past sales history and there’s like this thing sold really well in the past. So let’s give it another shot again. And let’s let’s let’s Moving up. So always, always go out with velocity always, never reduce your price to slow say a rep. Sorry, raise your price to slow sales. Never cut off your PPC go out with velocity. Yeah, I hear that all the time. Oh, raise your sales and I’m Oh, what are they doing? Yeah. No, no, don’t don’t do it.

Kelsey  1:10:24  

Let’s do from BB Do you sell on other platforms like Walmart.

Kevin King 1:10:29  

So I’ve Shopify stores, I have some on some other platforms, I do some eBay, I have done Walmart in the past I’m not currently doing Walmart right now but we we will be with one of our this new brand is coming out to the first product in June, we will be doing some Walmart’s and some actual National Retail other national retailers. But that the first product actually has a licensing component to it. So we actually have a licensing deal with a pretty big, well known brand. And we’re doing their stuff in the pet space. So we and they have distribution already and sporting goods stores and pet stores and Macy’s and Nordstrom and stuff. So we’ll be tagging along into into some of that plus they have influencers, some of their their athletes and stuff have like two 3 million followings on Instagram. So they’ll be pushing the product there. And when it first comes out and using it with their pets and stuff, and it’s showing into place saying go get it on Amazon. So I think it’s going to be a screaming interesting, Sir, my first time doing it pure licensing deal, you know, we had to pay a good guarantees on you know, they get 7% of the gross. So as a licensing, and you have to pay upfront fees, we had to pay the first year $10,000 guarantee upfront, the second year is like a $50,000 guarantee. And then it goes up. But they gave us a runway to wrap up as we say, you know, first year is gonna be like two products. But what we’re doing on this is a little bit different. They’re like, Oh, why don’t you do a on a leash? You know, and I’m like, know what we’re doing? Because we don’t know if your brand how well, we don’t know yet. If your brand is gonna make that big of difference on Amazon. We want to see. So we’re finding products that we know will sell on Amazon no matter whose brands on it. So it could be Kevin’s unknown brand. And do I think that can sell well. But yes, I do. But now let’s take their name and stick it on it and help him and see what a difference it makes. And it’s a kind of a test. And that way we know that at least the first couple products if this doesn’t work, at least we know we can sell the thing no matter what name is on it. And then later on once we build an audience around this and then then we can maybe you know Okay, now we’ll do a lease. You and Alicia’s are super competitive and I would never do that otherwise, but now maybe we have enough people that are following this will do a lease. Okay, let’s do one more question.

Kevin King  1:13:01  

Okay, do you want to segue into this one? This is a good one to leave off. Which clubhouse room are you going to go into? Yeah, it’s a it’s one. What’s the actual name of it? That’s this guy from Canada norm knows. Well, he does a room called up every other Friday. It’s called the Amazon mastermind. It’s in the Amazon FBA club. But Amazon mastermind advanced strategies and techniques. And what he does, you know, a lot of clubhouse rooms are our q&a, where people bring up different they have a group of people on the stage. And then they let people from the audience come up kind of like what Kelsey is doing here and ask questions. But this particular one he does every other Friday is a mastermind. So you can be in the audience. You can ask questions, you just sit back and listen and he brings up like I’m looking right now at the list of people that are in the room. There’s a pretty good people on stage and he has some topics. He throws them out there and you’re like a fly on the wall listening to all these really smart people talk about different things regarding Amazon and e commerce, so I’d recommend it. It’s Amazon. If you go to clubhouse, just search for Amazon mastermind. advanced strategies, techniques mindset. It’s Ronna Singh. Yeah, Ra. Ra na, si n g h.

Kelsey  1:14:18  

I think Ron was actually in watching today, too. He was commenting on it was Oh, yeah. See that? Yeah. But yeah, it is a 117 here. Okay.

Norman Ferrar 1:14:31  

So I think that was the last question. Wise when I’m with you guys, man, what, six hours or something? How long does it take to get to two cigars? That’s that’s hell. Yeah, that’s right. Big 60 gauge cigars. Alright, so it is time you haven’t seen this Kevin. This is brand new, but watch this.

Kelsey  1:14:59  

Okay. Here we go. That of course is courtesy of my older brother Hayden. graphics. And yeah. Thank you for that Hayden. Shout out to him. So I think I’ve got everyone this is for one of two delays from Tony cigar. And here we go. Three to give it a shuffle three to one. leg. Very good leg is the first one given another shuffle 321. Day Matthew Matthew.

Norman Ferrar  1:16:04  

All right, so we got our two winners and what do they have to do to claim their giveaway?

Kelsey  1:16:09  

Alright, so they can email me at ke at lunch with norm calm. But I’ll also be reaching out on messenger. So just check your messages. And you can always message me too, but a K at lunch with norm comm that’s where you can email me just send over your bedding size and your address so I can hook you up with Tony.

Norman Ferrar  1:16:33  

Alright, and once again, thanks a lot, Tony, for donating those two prizes. That’s awesome. I’m sure everybody’s gonna enjoy that. All right, Kevin. So I guess I’ll be seeing you over in the clubhouse room in a few. I’m going to go eat. I’m starved. It’s lunch for norm.

 Kevin King  1:16:53  

I’ll see. I’ll see you there. All right. Thank you, Kevin. Next month as well. We’ll have to do this again. Absolutely. Yeah, I’ll send you over to it. And since you’re the only guy I follow on, you know, I gotta

Norman Ferrar 1:17:06  

be here. Alright. Right, you know, right back atcha.

Norman Ferrar  1:17:12  

Alright, so thank you, everybody for joining us today. It was a great session. Hope you learned something. Kelsey, what is coming up?

Kelsey  1:17:23  

Okay, we have Taylor Boone. Next weekend. Yep. are on Monday. She’s going to be going over product photography. She is an amazing photographer. recommended by Marsha and yeah, we’re going to dive into that. as well. We have a YouTube, a pretty big YouTube star coming on seminar, Hobart. He’s coming on with his wife. And they’re going to be talking about their experience living abroad. And working with a husband, wife team as well. And yeah, so we got a pretty good lineup next week. And hope you guys tune in for that as well. Follow our beer nation. just searched lunch with norm Amazon FBA and e commerce collective in the Facebook group, and you’ll find it that’s where all the good stuff is. I’m sure I’ll be making a meme of the mythical norm in the page soon. So look out for that. But yeah, thank you everyone for watching. I know we got to get going. So really appreciate everyone’s views. You guys are the best. We love the beard nation. And yeah.

Norman Ferrar 1:18:23  

Okay, so just remember to join us every Monday, Wednesday and Friday noon Eastern Standard Time. Thank you for joining us today. And thank you, we couldn’t do this without you Without this community. We growing this community every day. So by the way, enjoy the rest of your day. We’ll see you later. mantra mantra

Transcribed by https://otter.ai