PODCAST – Ecommerce Brief Galyna Parker

Please note that the transcription below is automated and may contain errors. Please listen to the audio episode for correct text.








Hey, what's up? This is Carlos from Bluebird Marketing Solutions and the Wizards of Amazon and my tip for you today is has to do with tools and how you decide whether you can afford that tool. I think a lot of sellers make a mistake in saying that they are paying x amount per month or they're going to buy this tool because in reality when you look at it like that, it just seems like money going out.




















And what I like to do is I like to refer to this as hiring tools and when you do that, it changes your mindset. So, let's say that you were looking at a tool and you were saying and I pay $100 a month for this tool. I don't know that seems like a lot. Well let's figure that out. I would run that through my thought process, I'm hiring this tool and it forces me to actually itemize all of the things that this tool does and then I'll go beside those things and put, okay, how much would this cost per hour? How much would this require me in time and other resources to train and create SOPs? What's the skill set that would be required here to do this? And when I do that, I realize that in most cases of that $100 had I hired it would actually be six or seven hundred percent more on the low end if I needed to hire it and then when I look at it that way I'm like wow, you know you paying $100 a month for this tool is actually not bad at all. Because if I had to hire it it would be significantly more expensive. I hope that tip really helped it helps me do an audit all the time on the tools that I have and it's something that I encourage my team to do anytime there in the thick of it and they want to recommend a tool to me. Before they recommended, I always ask them to run right through that filter and say approached me and say I want to hire a tool to do blank and then we have the conversation based on that. So, hope that's it helps.

Here is some insighful data about consumers and online grocery shopping. Coresight Research released its “US Online Grocery Survey 2019”, finding that 36.8 % of United States consumers bought groceries online over the year, which is a jump of 23.1 percent from 2018 survey. This is an increase of roughly 35 million more consumers buying groceries online. When consumers are buying groceries online, Amazon.com is their first choice to shop. 62.5 % of who bought groceries online did so through Amazon, which leaves their competition like Target and Walmart behind

Did you know that you can get shipping supplies for free? The tip I am about to share with you will be especially helpful to small size businesses. Not many ecommerce entrepreneurs know that many shipping supplies like envelopes, boxes, shipping labels and packing materials you can get for free. Let's start with USPS who offers free Priority service supplies, and they will also deliver them to you for free. To order you need to create an account with USPS and go to usps.com/shop The are a lot of supplies available including my favorite Flat Rade padded envelope which allows you to ship anything that fits for about $7. UPS also offers a variety of free supplies including free thermal shippig labels. You can even get a thermal labels Zebra LP 2844 printer, also for free or for a nominal charge. You will need to create new UPS ID account and call UPS customer service center. eBay offers eBay-branded shipping supplies too! For example, every quarter Basic shop subscribers get $25 of free credit to spend on shipping supplies such as polymailers, boxes, shipping tape. Head to Manage my Store / Subscriber discount and see if you have a coupon code waiting for you to buy the supplies.

Online spending represented 16.0% of total retail sales for the year, according to the United States Commerce Department retail data. Amazon.com accounted for more than 1/3 of all ecommerce in the United States.Consumers spent $601.75 billion online with U.S. merchants in 2019, up 14.9% from $523.64 billion the prior year. That was a higher growth rate than 2018, when reported online sales rose 13.6% year over year.

Hello my name is Ramon Gonzalez, and I'm an amazon seller who has been selling since 2015. the main business model I follow is the wholesale model. For those of you that dont know what the wholesale model is, I essentially buy branded products at wholesale prices, and I sell in Amazon at retail prices. Think buying Barbies and adidas shoes at wholesale pricing, and sellign them in amazon at full price.




















The main advantages of the wholesale model is that it is a very scalable model. Unlike private label, you can start with small purchase orders and scale up to huge ones with the right supplier. Another advantage would be that you dont necessarily have to learn marketing when comparing to private label.Some of the disadvantages of the wholesale model would be that your margins are usually less than both private label and retail arbitrage.If you spoke with many wholesale sellers, the vast majority would tell you that the most important thing about this model is buying right to guarantee a profit, and that you make your profit when you buy, not when you sell. Although I dont disagree this is important, I would say the most important thing is establishing long term relationships with the right suppliers.Finding the right suppliers will absolutely guarantee success or failure in this business model, and when it comes to finding suppliers, by far the most effective way of closing a supplier and having them approve you as a seller would be to meet them face to face in a conference or expo. Far too many sellers try and fail to open accounts by email only, and most good suppliers receive dozens of cookie cutter emails that they automatically disregard. Although we still email suppliers to try and get more product to purchase, the best ones we have are the ones we have met in expos and got our foot in the door by talking to them there.There are many expos all over the United States you can attend if you have an established business. The main tips I can give you in terms of attending expos would be:1) come prepared. Dont just show up to roam the isles. Do your due diligence beforehand. Go to the expo website and download the exhibitor list. Most suppliers in an expo will not work in Amazon. Only visit those that you know will work for you2) be personable and flexible when talking to suppliers. Listen to them talk about their product line. Make small talk with them and appear comfortable. Be willing to offer advice and ideas on how to sell their products, such as fixing their amazon listings or creating bundle ideas.3) dont be afraid of rejection. Most sellers that fail in this model fail because they're too afraid to strike up a conversation with a stranger, and quit before they even get a chance to fail. Understand that there is no success without failure, and if you avoid failure, you also avoid success.I hope these tips will get you on your way to a successful year with the amazon wholesale model.

Here are some interesting stats about Facebook messengers and why Ecommerce sellers need to pay close attention to them. Did you know that Facebook is the most popular mobile app? Well, do you know what is the second most popular app? Facebook messenger. There are 1.3 billion people / month who are actively using their Facebook Messenger. Facebook Messenger users send 8 billion messages a day. In fact, 11% of the world’s population use Facebook Messenger every month. Every day, there are 260 million new conversations launched over Messenger. Why else messenger is so important for ecommerce professionals? Average conversion rate for marketing emails these days is usually 15-33%. However open rate of messages sent using Messenger is 84%. That makes Facebook messenger is the ultimate conversion winner of marketing communications. The data according to several sources including Techcrunch, Statista and others. For the full list of sources please visit sellertoolset.com