Creating your own product is a key to e-commerce business success. But it can be a long and complex process. In this multi-part episode Michael shares a 6-step process for creating your first unique product.   What you’ll learn * The 6 steps to creating a custom product

Eugene Terk is the vice president of business development at AlignToday, a business management software that focuses on detailed daily projects workload and helps manage higher-level strategic goals of your company. Eugene will be teaching us how to scale up business through strategy and execution based on his knowledge and experience. You’ll Learn About: The methodology of AlignToday The highlights of the Scaling Up Structure The importance of knowing your foundational principles The foundation core of the Rockefeller habits How to move from strategy to implementation Specific action steps to achieve goals How AlignToday organize their meetings The importance of tracking your metrics   Related topics about Scaling Up a Business: * Scaling an Amazon Business to 8 Figures with Fernando Cruz of Marketplace Ops * Scaling up – Private Label Strategy (Step 9 of 10) * Scaling a business on Amazon with Ashley Pearce Part 2 * Scaling your Business Accounting with Penny Lowe Part 2 * Grow Amazon Business with Jenna Lieber   Resources: amazingfba.com/align Aligntoday.com   Watch Scaling Up Principles Through Strategy and Execution

Running an agency can be an interesting adventure! It’s how you navigate the highs and the lows that can help you build a long-lasting business. John Cavendish an Amazon seller with a 7 figure FBA business and co-founder of SellerCandy with his business partner Brian Patterson will show us the best way to run an agency. You’ll learn about:  How John became very good at selling $100k a month The best practices of Sales The importance of the Sales Process The significance of having a Sales system John’s process in the Sales system Next Steps: To work with John just go to sellercandy.com or email [email protected] Mention “Amazing FBA” - pro package $100 discount amazingfba.com/sellercandy   Other interviews with John: Amazon Account Management Coronavirus for Amazon Sellers Translate Your Amazon Listing How to Access Amazon Europe The SellerCandy Services   Resources Mentioned: * www.massconversionmarketing.com  * sellercandy.com Watch Running an Agency with John Cavendish of SellerCandy

This is part 3 of the interview with Joshua Price of www.SuspensionExperts.com regarding Amazon account suspension and how to prevent that happening in the first place. In part 2 of this interview, Joshua covered some of the performance violation details, and now he’s explaining policy violations that lead to a suspended Amazon account. The Risks of Mistakes leading to Policy Violation Amazon has over 100 pages of different policies, rules, and regulations that you have to follow. That’s a lot of different areas and you can make lots of mistakes. Nobody can remember all of those things and even small little things can exaggerate out to bigger problems quite easily. Most larger sellers will have more products and more orders. The more things that are happening, the more chance there is for errors to occur. This is especially true if you start bringing in staff and other people into your organization because it increases the risk of someone making a mistake that leads to a suspended Amazon account. We might not be aware of the requirement to have white backgrounds on images, for example. It only takes one member of staff uploading the wrong image or an image incorrectly and you could be suspended for that reason. Another example is to do with product variations, which has often been a system that has been abused. For people who use it, it’s quite complicated and for an account with 1000 linked listings, it’s almost impossible for a seller to keep track and make sure that products are a true variation as per Amazon’s definitions. All it takes is one small issue, such as accidentally linking products that are not variations of each other, for the account to be suspended. The more volume, the more products, the more staff involved with your account, the more room there is for issues and mistakes to shut down accounts. So whilst in some online worlds expanding fast and cleaning up the details later can be a viable approach, when interacting with Amazon systems you must have strong internal business systems and be very careful who you let loose on your Amazon account. Intellectual Property Rights and Complaints A common policy violation is intellectual property rights and complaints. The topic is governed by the laws of the country that you’re selling in, so Amazon tries to be as general and vague as possible. Essentially, this is when you’re selling Brand A and buying it from your supplier. If the manufacturer of Brand A doesn’t really like what you’re doing, they tell Amazon and say there is a problem. Now, because it’s a legal issue about whether you can sell the product—for example, whether you’re infringing on a trademark, design rights, copyright, etc.—you now have a suspended Amazon account until you have sorted out the issue. Amazon doesn’t want to be involved so they back away until you fix the problem. It’s a fine system; it means Amazon won’t get sued and you have the opportunity to resolve it without Amazon giving you too bad of a penalty. The problem is that Amazon doesn’t vet any complaints. Which means that anyone can make a complaint and you still have to take it seriously because you get suspended for it. The abuse of this infringement system at the moment is causing havoc for sellers because people who are competing with you are making these complaints so that you get kicked off Amazon. Responding to Intellectual Property Rights Suspensions The first step is to work out if it’s genuine or not. The email address the complaint came from is always a good indicator of that. If it’s from a legitimate company the email address will include the domain name of the business. Obviously then it’s something you do need to take seriously. Large companies will also have lawyers first to represent them in these issues. You also need to consult a lawyer if it gets serious.

Welcome back to Part 2 of this interview with Joshua Price of SuspensionExperts.com to talk about how to write your Amazon appeal letter. Getting your Amazon account suspended is the elephant in the room that most people either ignore or run scared from. But the truth is, of course, like any good business you have to look at the reality and deal with it. The best way to do that is to work with an expert to help write your Amazon appeal letter. The Size of Your Business Lends Itself to Different Problems There are various different grounds for suspension, which Joshua covers in Part 1 of this interview. The two broad areas to cause your account to get suspended are performance and policy. The performance side is about customer-facing operations, which Amazon monitors with customer metrics and data. The policy side is about Amazon’s rules and regulations, and keeping to them. Joshua deals mainly with inauthentic suspensions and intellectual property rights and complaints. Those are the most common for larger sellers and they are policy issues. For small sellers, it’s always going to be your Order Defect Rate (ODR) because you just can’t avoid those suspensions if you’re doing lower volumes of orders. Language Leaves Clues Amazon will tell you the reason for the suspension which will help you write your Amazon appeal letter. They may not be entirely clear but they do tell you and it’s in the first line of the notification. It will say something like “we’ve removed your Amazon selling privileges because of…” and for Order Defect Rate it will say “…because your order defect rate is above the 1% target.” For most performance suspensions, it’s quite plain language in the notification. Amazon will use the terminology that will be reflected in your account health dashboard. E.g. late dispatch, cancellation rate etc. For most sellers, you’ll be familiar with these if you’re familiar with the account health side of Seller Central. In that regard, it’s easy to work out why you have been suspended, and you can log into your account and see. On the policy side, they tend to use technical language and terminology, which won’t explain for most people what’s actually happened. For example, inauthentic complaints, intellectual property rights, owner complaint and a myriad of other more small and complicated policy issues as well. They’ll often use the language in the policies which is very legal and complicated language. Order Defect Rates The first step for any seller is to make sure you’re familiar with the numbers and targets that Amazon is tracking in the Account Health part of Seller Central. You must do your research and know your exact numbers. The Order Defect Rate (ODR) is the amount of negative and neutral feedback you get, which is the number of people that leave 1, 2 and 3-star reviews about your service. It’s not about the product, it’s about you as a seller. Then Amazon adds the number of A to Z claims in, which is Amazon’s guarantee program for dissatisfied customers. They also add chargeback claims, which is chargebacks from credit card companies, although that’s fairly uncommon. Amazon adds all those up and divides it by the number of orders you have taken in a 30 and 90 day period, which gives them the ODR percentage. For both 30 and 90 day periods, the target is to be under the 1% order defect rate. Often, January and February are key times for suspension due to order defect rates. This is due to the large influx of orders over Christmas and the higher number of complaints over that period. Diving Deeper into the Cause of the Problem Once you understand the pieces of data that Amazon is using to calculate it, we need to look at why those customers have had those complaints.

On the show today is Joshua Price from SuspensionExperts.com. Amazon suspended account is the elephant in the room and can become a very technical issue. Which is why you need an expert like Joshua. Joshua’s Background Joshua started his career in eCommerce working with larger organizations on multiple platforms. This included Amazon and a range of other international marketplaces. Eventually, an Amazon suspended account occurred and almost by chance, he was the guy assigned to fix the problem and work it out. From there, he ended up in the world of suspensions and it became clear that it was something most people don’t know enough about. Soon enough, he had queues of people asking him for help with their account suspension because it was a massive need not being addressed. Now, 3 years later Joshua has helped over 700 sellers. The Risk of Amazon Suspended Account Amazon does not give data on this. But from his interactions, Joshua believes that Amazon suspended account is a risk for every seller. He estimates that 10,000 sellers a day get suspended and that most sellers making between $10,000-50,000 per month will get suspended once every 2 years. There is less risk if you do fewer sales simply because you’re not interacting with as many customers. However, smaller sellers are often less aware and less experienced, so they can fall into a number of other pitfalls. Getting Your Amazon Suspended Account Reinstated Getting your account reinstated depends on lots of factors. Essentially, a first offense is generally something that can be excused. Depending on the reason for the suspension, you could be offline for maybe 2 weeks. Generally, every seller can get back on the platform after their first suspension. Amazon does want you on the platform so they will give you the opportunity as long as you correctly handle the appeal. It’s not guaranteed, You do have to do the right things, but they’re open to it. Getting reinstated on your 2nd, 3rd or 4th offense becomes much more technical. The reason that a lot of people need help with the 2nd suspension is that their case is instantly complicated by the previous suspension. Performance Suspension vs. Policy Suspension There are 2 types of suspension categories: performance and policy. Policy is the rules, and performance is your way of serving customers and running the account. Multiple suspensions in performance over a long period of time is much more understandable because it’s about your operations. We all make mistakes. Customers complain about little things, The Royal Mail may be running late etc. Amazon will be lenient for that and therefore it takes less time to get your account back for the 2nd suspension in the performance area. Perhaps a week to a month. For policy suspensions, it’s easy to break the rules but Amazon is slightly tougher for allowing people to be reinstated. It can be very quick to get reinstated for policy suspension if handled correctly. However most people, especially if they are appealing on their own, could be looking at a couple of months to be reinstated. If they are reinstated at all. The First Steps in Case of Amazon Suspended Account Joshua says the first thing you should do the moment you see that notification email is to take at least 24 hours before responding. Our businesses mean a lot to us, they’re important and we’re emotionally involved. He says it’s the emotion ruins most people’s appeals because they send an instant response without doing their research or considering the bigger picture. They appeal too quickly and it fails. This is a problem because the first appeal is the most crucial appeal. It’s the best opportunity to get reinstated. Take 24 hours to work out your plan in detail, and if it’s suitable for you,

Today we will be delving further and looking at Amazon Europe. In Part 1 we spoke with Gil Lang of Private Label Journey, a German Amazon seller about the mindset of German consumers and the challenges and opportunities of building an Amazon business in Germany. Strategize Your Expansion into the Amazon Europe For an American or English seller who is looking to branch out into the German market, Gil does have a process he steps through to help set you up. If you’re an American seller, the logical second step would be to set up in England, and vice versa for English sellers. Once you’ve done that and you’re at the point where you have 10-20 products selling well in the English and/or American market, then it’s time. You need to strategize which market in Amazon Europe is interesting for your some of your products. Gil says it would probably be Germany, but afterward start looking at France, Spain, and Italy. He recommends looking at it as a whole picture. It’s already hard to set up so you might as well go for all the markets. However, don’t think you can slap everything you have in America on the German market. You have to have a good look at the products and the market. Use BSR knowledge and professional help to get the listings translated and do the marketing. Gil uses a tool called Amalyze, which helps him monitor his PPC. Right now it only works in Germany. This is one area where he suggests getting professional help. It’s surprising to see how many American sellers have only American words in their PPC, which doesn’t help them with German consumers. If you’re going to make the effort to go somewhere, you might as well make the whole effort. It’s going to be an effort for the American seller to sell as a whole, so you might as well consider all of the marketplaces, go to town and do it properly when selling on Amazon Europe. Things to be Aware of for Americans Selling on Amazon Europe Some of the things American needs to think about from the start are how they structure their company, where they pay their taxes and whether they will use the Pan-European FBA program or not. In Europe, even though there are different countries and different marketplaces, they’re all part of the European Union (at the time of recording.) If you’re looking to start selling in Europe, get somebody to tell you about the Pan-Eu program and how it works with VAT tax before you set up shop. After that is done, and you’re registered, get somebody to help translate and do the listings, customer support and marketing efforts in their language. If you are selling 5 or more products, you are really selling a brand. Don’t destroy your brand image by selling in Germany with weird translations and getting bad reviews. Apply the Pareto Principle to your Portfolio Gil helps people navigate the difficulties with branching out into the German marketplace. So far he has worked with people who were already registered in Germany, had their account going there and also in the rest of Europe. They started by looking at their whole portfolio of what they were selling in America and, based on the 80-20 rule, figured out which would be the best 20% of products to start selling in Europe. They followed the process that was discussed in Part 1 of this interview: get it translated, put the keywords in, launch and start PPC. After doing this with just the top 20% of products, they added more and more products to the European market for them. However, they didn’t do this for their whole portfolio because not all the products make sense. Tailor Your Listings to the Consumers

Today’s guest on the show is Gil Lang of Private Label Journey. Gil is from Germany, which is an important area that we need to investigate more and he’s here to share his insights into the Amazon Germany market. He is also a private label seller and runs the podcast Private Label Journey. Gil’s Background Gil started selling on Amazon nearly 3 years ago now, with a sports brand. He learned about Amazon selling on America podcasts while he was looking for different ways to make money online to give him the freedom to travel. Gil started blogging, YouTubing and podcasting on the topic with his partner Thomas, because there was no content for the German market. He now has the biggest Amazon Germany FBA community there is, with over 10,000 members. Gil has 2 brands with 2 seller accounts of his own on Amazon, has partnered up with 3 other companies and also runs an agency helping English speaking sellers to sell in Europe. Germany is an Interesting and Important Amazon Market Amazon Germany is interesting from the size alone. It’s the 2nd biggest Amazon market there is. Most importantly, compared to the American market, Germany’s is not that saturated. In America, you have to have either a big budget or niche right down. In Europe, that’s not the case. You can go for a more broad niche. Which is the biggest reason why anybody should think about entering this market. Even though the Amazon Germany market perhaps isn’t going to grow much from here, European markets are all linked. Gil predicts that Spain, Italy, and France are all going to have growing Amazon markets in the next few years, so there’s still a lot of opportunities there. Gil started with one product in the sports niche: jump ropes. Three years ago when he started with that in America it was already saturated, whereas in Germany it wasn’t a problem. Nowadays even in Germany, there are a lot of people playing in that field. If you look at products selling well in America, you can still jump in that market over in Germany. You do have to look a bit broader because, being a smaller market, there are no super small niches. You also have to get used to the difference in size of the market as it can feel quite boring selling 1 unit a day if you started out in America and are used to selling 20-100 units per day! The Biggest Opportunities and the Biggest Challenges of Amazon Germany Firstly, as discussed, the German market is not saturated, which is a huge upside. Secondly, the marketing services also not as used. So there is lots of opportunity with the AMS platforms you could use. Thirdly, the sellers are not as aggressive in Germany as they would be in America. The review game has changed. In America, you have products with thousands of reviews. That’s not the case in Germany. As for challenges, the language barrier is going to be a problem. You can’t have just a generic listing or get a random person to translate your English listing who doesn’t understand Amazon. You need to get a combination of people who know about Amazon and also know the language. The language barrier is not just about translation, it’s about rewriting listings. Secondly, you must strategize if the product makes sense in Germany. Not everything will sell in Germany like it does in America. It’s just a different market so be prepared for that. The third challenge is all the regulations you have in Germany that you have to take care of. In each European company, there are different regulations, you have to keep them in mind. There’s also somewhat of a cultural barrier too: the reason things are more aggressive in America is that the consumers need you to scream in a place where everyone else is shout...

Antoni Watts got into the Amazon business after running his own sourcing company in China. Today he’s going to teach us about how to import Chinese products. Dos and Don’ts when Considering a Supplier You may contact hundreds of suppliers, maybe even 1000. However, only a percentage of those will reply to your email. Out of those responses, you’ll be able to weed out others based on how well they answer your questions. The most knowledgeable suppliers will have follow-up questions for you based on the information you requested. It’s a strong indication that they know the product. Here are other things you want to know from the supplier before you import Chinese products: * Ask for a list of past customers they have worked with * Find out if they’ve ever exported to your market (geographic location) Within a few days, you will have your list down to 4-5 suppliers you’re interested in. Go with your gut! Steps to Take Once Your Ready to Order You’ve received your samples. Now you’re ready to order. You can do it a couple of ways: 1. If you already have a relationship with the factory, you can simply send an email and let them know you’re ready to order. They will send an invoice and ship your products. Some factories may require you to pay a deposit upfront. Once you do that, your products will be on the way. 2. If you’re establishing a relationship with a new factory, they may ask you to submit a Purchase Order. Regardless of whether you’re ordering via email or a purchase order, make sure every detail is listed regarding the item, the packing order, and the quality assurance standards. Send pictures of specific improvements if need be. Everything should be listed as you hope to receive it. It helps you to catch any mistakes or any missing details before receiving your shipment. Information on How to Export and Import Chinese Products You think you’re ready to order. You’ve been in contact with the supplier. You’ve received your sample and even talked about how many units you need. But wait… You need to get clear about a few more things before your product leaves the factory. * Check the freight costs * Contact the freight forwarder (Who will be handling the shipment? Exactly how will the package be handled?) * Find out if there are any product regulations * Shop your product around to 1-3 freight forwarders. It allows you to cross-reference pricing and to learn about various processes or regulations * Make sure the factory packing is secure (item to box, box to carton, carton to outer carton/crate) * Ask for examples of other customer shipments to learn about any differences * Drop test (optional) * Vibration test (optional) Know exactly what all of this looks like prior to placing your order. Watch How to Import Chinese Products with Antoni Watts of Cashcow Pro Part 4 of 4

Antoni Watts got into the Amazon business after running his own sourcing company in China. He’s here to teach us how to find Chinese manufacturers for our Amazon products. The Top Mistakes FBA Sellers Make when Sourcing from Chinese Manufacturers Rushing to Find Chinese Manufacturers The most common mistake sellers make when sourcing from China is rushing to choose manufacturers. It’s important to vet multiple suppliers before making a decision. This will: ensure superior products, allow you to get the best pricing possible, and it will greatly increase your knowledge of the product and the manufacturing process. Antoni warns that choosing the wrong factory can become a nightmare. Do your due diligence. If you don’t, it can get expensive rather quickly in money and time. This can eat into your profits. Learn How to Import from China here.   Here’s a checklist as a safeguard: * Make a list of every supplier possible who makes the type of product you sale (via GlobalSources, Ali Baba, etc.) * Ask for a sample of the product * Talk to the manufacturers * Inspect the product for quality assurance and offer feedback on improvements Make a Trip to China We’ve covered the importance of choosing a supplier wisely. However, it’s even better if you, a business partner, or a liaison can talk to manufacturers in person and actually walk through the factory. What are the key benefits of traveling to China? * Build a better relationship with the manufacturer * Weed out much of your competition as the low-price leader * See many more product variations available than those viewed online * Superior quality assurance (see and feel the product) * Allows you to see products they are making for the competition and receive firsthand tips about other items they are selling Mistakes to Avoid when Searching for Chinese Manufacturers Those who complete the checklist above won’t have to worry about this one. However, there are still some unwise sellers who fail to inspect goods before shipment. Avoid this common mistake to prevent: * Bad reviews * Having your account shut down by Amazon (for too many items shipped back) * Too many refunds * Massive profit loss Have a conversation with the manufacturer to troubleshoot problems prior to shipment. No one wants to have to ship a faulty product back overseas. Improve Communications with Chinese Manufacturers 1. When you’re first starting out, be patient. There’s a lot to learn about products and processes. So, your communication with the supplier will likely be much more frequent 2. Create a generous timeline to allow for learning, mistakes, manufacturing, and potential problems It bears repeating that rushing is the worst possible thing you could do when first entering a market. After you’ve sold products for a while, you’ll become familiar with the ordering process and will be able to circumvent problems faster. It simply takes time. Sometimes it takes 6 weeks for product development. A good rule of thumb is to plan for a product launch to take 3 months. Prepare for that months in advance. 3. Set up a separate email account for sourcing to combat SPAM 4. Ask for photos of other products competitors are ordering Quality Control * Ask for a list of the major and minor defects that...