✔ 7 Figure Amazon Seller Success Story

Tomer [00:00:00] A couple of days ago, had a great interview with a friend of mine, Sharon Even, she is an Amazon FBA seller. She’s hosting one of the podcasts.

One of the biggest podcasts in the Amazon FBA space called Seller Sessions. It was a great video where we talked how I became a seven-figure seller or how I got to a seven-figure in revenue in 18 months.

So it’s a very interesting video for you to watch and hopefully give you some motivation and inspiration.

Now, before we’re getting into it, into the video, make sure that you subscribe to the channel and you leave a comment with any questions that you have.

So I can personally reply to your comments and also subscribe to the newsletter by going to Sourcing-Monster.com, because I do share there are a couple of great tips and techniques that I don’t share here on the YouTube channel or anywhere else.

And last thing, if you’re interested in booking a call with me, a coaching call with any questions that you want to ask and get to where you want to be faster, you can book it all with me with the link that you will put down below. And let’s start with a video and this great interview.

Sharon Even [00:01:24] Welcome to Seller Sessions. My name is Sharon Even, and today I have with me the one and only Tomer David, Tomer

Sharon Even [00:01:34] Thank you so much for being here today.

Tomer [00:01:36] Of course. Thank you for having me, Sharon. It’s really a pleasure.

Sharon Even [00:01:40] Tomer is the founder also of Sourcing Monsters, which is also his YouTube channel. And apart from that, he has built his seven figure Amazon business.

You’ve been selling online on Amazon for two years, but you’ve built your business to seven figures in 18 months. Correct. So that’s what we’re going to we’re going to speak about today.

But can you just give us a brief intro about your time out and who you are and what you do?

Tomer [00:02:08] Yeah, sure. So my name is Tomer, I’m Amazon, FBA seller, full time seller. I quit my job my day job six months ago to do Amazon fulltime. I live in Florida in the United States. I moved to the States eight years ago. And marketing, it’s something that I’m passionate about and I do for I would say last 12 years now.

Sharon Even [00:02:33] Cool. So you and I are both also from the same country, you’re also Israeli like. Well, I’m a Kiwi that moved his or whatever, but and I love saying that because it just shows how from anywhere in the world you can draw anything even though you’re an American now and you’re officially American.

But anyway, can you tell me and tell us how you started to get into Amazon? Because I know that you already had an online business before you got into Amazon. So let’s start off with that.

Tomer [00:03:09] So to be honest, I don’t know where I saw, like, all these videos and people that make money on Amazon. It came to a point where I felt that whatever I’m doing, the other business, which was ecommerce business, we were selling jewelry manufacturing our own items. It was very demanding.

The money was good and everything was fine, but it was really demanding. I had to be at the office, couldn’t go for vacations. It was really stress, stress me out. I would work crazy hours. And at that point I felt that I need to to make a change.

I try to have like a side gig or side jobs before. I think six or seven years ago I started to buy and sell websites, but I didn’t really take it seriously. I just would go with them, sell them for like five or ten K profit and just move on.

But it wasn’t something scalable or with the system that I would really take. And to the next level, plus you add to the fact that this is something that take a long time, if you start a website, content website, you see the results after like a year or eight months after putting all this work with Amazon, eBay, from what I saw, it’s opportunity to make money relatively quicker than other making online gigs or options for you.

But I saw the opportunity. And I remember that, so it was like one day that they said to us that it and I’m going to change what I do and then decide on just, you know, create my own freedom and have another job again, not because the money, because of the stressful business model and the situation that of that business.

But I really stumbled upon I don’t remember one video of guy like selling Amazon on YouTube, like most of the people, and I decided to give it a shot. I watched a YouTube video like YouTube videos about how to source, how to do everything.

I felt kind of comfortable doing this, like even if it was completely new, because I spent time on computers in something like 10 years old, like it’s very natural to me.

I would also say I started my own hosting company, like when I was 12. So I had, like, experience. When you think so, I felt comfortable doing so, but I had the wrong really advice.

I follow the wrong advice. And I basically entered into a market that was very saturated and competitive. And I lost on the first product. I did a removal order, brought it to me, and then I found a guy that helped me, mentored me, and I took it and started the business.

Tomer [00:05:56] I mean, that started my own brand in January 2018. So that’s how I started briefly.

Sharon Even [00:06:04] So you’ve heard about it randomly online, and then that’s how you decided to to get into it. So you said that your first product ad was what, too saturated.

Tomer [00:06:15] With, like, party decorations kit

Tomer [00:06:17] And it was like, you know, I try to differentiate myself. I went into like a smaller niche, like a mean party decoration.

Tomer [00:06:25] But still, I didn’t really know what I’m doing if I’m looking like this back. But yeah, definitely I didn’t really know what I’m doing.

Tomer [00:06:36] And that’s why I failed. But I at one point after this failure, I remember talking to my wife and I told her, look, I know I see all these people that are making money because I know to really see the difference between all these scammers to the real people.

And I saw some real people that making money and they look legit. And, you know, I thought to myself, I’m doing something wrong, so maybe I should give it another try.

But it was hard. And I remember people told me, you want you want to lose another five or six thousand. And, you know, everyone I asked for advice told me, no, don’t do it.

But I knew something inside that people make money and just have to adjust and do something differently. And there is a good chance that I can make it. I didn’t know if I would make it or not, but I remember at one point it was either the Amazon FBA or doing what I did before content websites.

And I remember doing your research for like two or three weeks just to decide on where I want to go, because when I go after something, I go all in. So I wanted to make sure that I go all in on something that makes sense, you know, with my time when something that might not work. But, yeah, that was the plan.

And then I remember like setting very clear goals on what I’m going to do for the next year without really without letting the results really take me down or demotivate me from keep going. Keep going.

So I just told myself, let’s work three hours a day on that business because I had my other stuff from four a.m. to seven a.m. every day in the morning, because that’s the only time that I had.

And then just keep keep pushing and see what’s going on after a year, even if I’m not going to reach my goals, let’s give it the full full tenth year of doing the work put into the work.

And if I’m not going to see results, then I’m going to quit or decide not to continue with that. But always did work. And, you know, with everything now, I feel that with everything that I’m going to do, if I have the right thing, I’m going to stick to it, be consistent, can achieve anything.

Tomer [00:08:45] So that’s a great feeling.

Sharon Even [00:08:47] I love that. I think goal setting is something that is very, very important, something I’ve been working on a lot more lately as well.

So if we I’d like to sort of talk through your journey from zero Amazon on Amazon zero because you were brand new to Amazon and how you were able to scale to seven figures in revenue in eighteen months.

So we’ll start off with the first the first product that you not your first failed product that the first product that you like. How did you decide the one after you started having mentoring?

How did you decide on your very first product? And leading up to that question, my next question after that is going to be, did you then stick on brand what that product and did you build a brand around that or did you just find a product and then from there decide to bring in random products where you saw opportunities?

Tomer [00:09:42] Yeah, great. Great question. So I started with a product that was related to jewelry. I feel that I have experience with jewelry. That’s what I was doing and it works well.

It worked very well after one month of product research, three hours everyday, just product research, because I want to I wanted to make sure that I’m going after the right product with everyone thinking this is still relevant today.

If you want to have a good product, doesn’t matter what you do or the other way. If you have a good product, like even if you are not expert at PPC or your listing is not that great or whatever, you still have a chance to sell. So it’s all about the product that you choose.

But to your question, no, the next product that I launched wasn’t really related to the first item. Right now, this year, actually minimizing the categories that I’m doing because it has I realized after trying to sell the business right now we’re negotiating with a couple of buyers and and it’s important for them to have one niche.

But, you know, that’s what I did. I launched many, many products in different categories and it worked well. But because I didn’t really limit myself, for example, now I have a second in the brand, which is around toys. It’s all about toys.

And that’s what I do. But, you know, sometimes you have opportunity that you think you can sell on other niche and it’s kind of blocking you. So I wouldn’t say it’s a bad thing to diversify and have like all these niches, but if I would give advice to someone.

new who just start. Yeah, try to stick to it. The same product, same niche, because it would be easier for you to source and manage the business that’s really just managing everything.

And sourcing new product is much easier when you work with the same suppliers and niche, you know, rather than just exploring new niches all the time.

Sharon Even [00:11:42] So I didn’t know that I don’t think I knew maybe you told me. I forgot. I didn’t know that you were in the middle of negotiations.

It’s interesting how you said that right now the buyers are more interested in when you’re actually dominate or are in the same niche, which I didn’t even know that you were in that.

First of all, congratulations for getting to to that in such a short amount of time. Now, out of curiosity, your new toy brand that you just said that you have is that did you have a second account for that, or did you do it on your same account of it?

Tomer [00:12:15] Because I already had that mind that I’m going to sell. I don’t want to sell a hundred percent. I strongly believe in my brand and where I can take it.

So I want to sell like 40 or 50 percent just so I can see some of the profits, because as you know, it’s all about the paper. I can see like the previous day, like three or four thousand dollars in profit a day.

But I don’t see that the money, though, because it’s all reinvested in order to grow, you have to invest in the back. So I want to see some of the profits, you know, and just not not sell the whole brand because I strongly believe I can take it to the next level.

I don’t want to have someone else enjoy the fruits of my labor, you know?

Sharon Even [00:12:56] So someone here just put up the question asked. How do you come up with a random product, sir? I think what they mean is because my question was how how are you finding your next products?

Was it on brand or were you just selling? When I said random products? What I mean by that is if it’s not on brand, then I call it random because it’s just a product.

We’ve seen an opportunity in. So I think the question that free speech is OK here is asking is how do you come up with just like finding those random opportunities? What’s your system, for example?

Tomer [00:13:34] Because I didn’t really have a system I saw as the first product, and then I saw the competitors look at what other products they were selling.

Tomer [00:13:41] And I found the opportunity there as well and just kept launching new products like that because I saw, you know, this is a thing.

Tomer [00:13:50] But when you source a product based on someone else, like you saw their product, then you you think you can make a better job and you actually source it.

Then you you are successful selling it successfully. And you look at the other items that give you confidence that of, oh, if you see these things and you already have these validations that you already beat them on one product gives you confidence to beat them on the other products as well, because you kind of already build your own formula for the listing and photos and things like that.

Sharon Even [00:14:24] Tomer sorry, lost it for a second, so you said you’ve already built your own formula for building for the having the bit of listing and etc..

So, just to to to clarify your strategy at the time was basically to look at the competitors in the niche that you’d already gotten into to see what they were selling. And and that’s how now because I know you and I know that today you have amazing systems in place like you have, which I’d love for you to share with everyone as well.

I know that today you do have a system for when you choose new products. I know that you also today have a team that works for you. So, if we go from it’s from zero free speech, just to David said hello and all free speech said that if we go from zero to a million in 18 months, first of all, you need a lot of cash flow for that.

Right. You need to to be able to not only bring in new stuff, but also when you bring in your your new products, but also when it comes to building systems in place for someone who’s not been in this specific business before.

I know that you’re used to working with inventory because you had your jewelry business, but on Amazon, everything’s very, very different. So can you share with us what types of systems you have today in place for someone who grew so quickly?

In my opinion, getting to seven figures in 18 months? Where else can you do it? So in my opinion, you grow very fast. So can you share with us what kind of systems you have in place today, for example, for product research? But if you want to share the systems, you can as well for sure.

Tomer [00:16:07] So the first couple of months and products, I didn’t really have a system. Just try to figure out everything. And then once I got an idea on how things work, I started to systemize and hire my first VA.

As far as I know, you can have systems or checklists or procedures in place, even if you don’t have a team. Like, for example, when I launch a new product, they have like a list of checklists, like a checklist of things that I do like.

OK, did I edit the product to the Vine program to the earlier review program? See, they launched like four or five campaigns.

Did I just couple of things to make sure that everything is done because sometimes you can forget about it, but once you have everything organized with a checklist, you can make sure that you do everything for that is the same for the next product that you launch for product research.

The same thing. I build my own criteria’s, my own columns that I think are good or can give you an idea where their product going to make it or not, and then created like an Excel file that is going through these steps because sometimes if you don’t work in an organized way, you can skip steps. For example, that happened to me.

That’s why I built those systems. I would source a product. And then I wouldn’t check if it’s bad intent because I didn’t have the checklist or I would forget to check like that, to get samples or to to order competitor’s products or these are everything.

So I wouldn’t forget. But I’m talking about things that you might forget or skip because you are not organized. So get your first product. Yeah, you’re on top of things. You want everything to be like to work and you’re like checking everything, the second product as well.

But once you have more products, you can lose this track. And that’s why it’s so important to have these checklist or a system. I like to connect it with a Google forum. So whenever you enter a new product, you put it with the Google form that connects to the Google ship.

And by doing that, it’s like forcing you to choose the exact like there is a form validation. So it will not allow you to edit before you add all the details.

So that’s what product research. But I do have a system pretty much where everything I would say for inventory you mentioned and said that I was doing the jewelry, so I didn’t really I wasn’t in charge of the inventory. So for me it was new.

I still struggle with it. Actually, the goal for 2021 is to hire. And I already hired a new employee just going to focus on logistics and inventory management.

I figure out that I lost a lot of money due to that. I didn’t had enough time to really check everything. And due to that, I know many items were out of stock in 2020 and not just because of that, obviously the stuff of that.

But I figured that this hiring will return a lot, that they are right. And that will be sort of.

Sharon Even [00:19:09] OK, well, we have a question here by Mario saying, hey, do you analyze the number of reviews when you decide to sell a product? Do you use a maximum threshold of four reviews when deciding go or no go to sell a product?

Tomer [00:19:24] Great question. So the second product that I launched, my mentor told me, look, it’s too competitive because the items that we’re selling them, the listings where anything like one thousand five thousand seven hundred.

But I feel that I’m bringing something unique to the market. My USP was so good that I felt confident launching even if they have 20 thousand reviews. So it’s something that I look at, but it’s not really something that I pay attention to much.

Yes, of course, if I see that the first page listing, they are all having more than ten thousand reviews and you can’t really see anyone new. We’d like a hundred or 200 reviews that actually make money. It’s it’s a red flag alert for myself.

And I do look at it, but again, not really giving it like full attention. What’s important is your USP, your listing, and if you can bring a good value to the market, you can. That’s the beauty of Amazon. You can be someone that is there for five years.

Sharon Even [00:20:27] Just so those don’t know what the USPS is about, the unique selling point for differentiation. Yeah, the the it’s interesting because you said about your mentor and how your mentor said that there’s a lot of reviews, etc.

So I remember that I once had a client which I’d love to bring on one day in the future here. And he may be watching us if he is high Ash. And basically he showed me this product that him and his wife had designed, which was like, let’s just use like one of these as an example.

This is like, what do you call this? Having a blackout, like a like an organizer. Let’s just pretend it’s an organizer like this, an organizer for people on the podcast, listening and organize it to put on your on your desk to put all sorts of different things.

And it’s not that. But let’s just say it’s a similar product to that. And basically it was such a saturated niche. And I was like, I don’t think this is going to work.

But what I did not know was that he had done his research on a very specific type of buyer avatar that likes a very specific design of something that I didn’t even know was a thing.

Right. Because you have to you have to really know it in order to understand that it’s a thing. And I was also focusing very much in the reviews and I was like, I don’t think it’s going to do that well. And he was the biggest person to prove me wrong.

And he’s kicking us like he is even looking to to sell his brand at some point. And it’s because of the fact that even though many people had reviews etcetera, he found that niche within that category that that I didn’t even know was a thing until he did it to me.

So I think that reviews matter to a certain to a certain point. And like you said about differentiation, it’s it’s extremely important as well. But you’re very right. And I think enough people say that. But you can definitely come in and take out people that have been on there for like five years. Right.

Tomer [00:22:32] So if you want the best seller badge, this will take you a long time because they’re established, the rankings and all of that.

But you can take like a nice piece of the pie, you know, or it could go up and just like, you know, look at it from that point of view, maybe you’re not going to be the leader like the first year or two.

But, you know, it’s it’s fine, you know, with that product, only now I got the best seller, but after two years, so but now it’s skyrocketing like like it’s double the sales, not double, but like 50 or 60 percent increase in sales just because of the best seller badge.

Tomer [00:23:09] So this is really amazing.

Sharon Even [00:23:12] Congratulations for getting the best seller badge as well. So how many products do you have in today for people to. Well, not for today, but to get how many products did it take you?

Let me rephrase the question. To get to one million in revenue. Was it like one or two products or was it like ten products?

Tomer [00:23:31] It was actually twenty. So I’ll explain about how I got there the little more. So the first year I told myself I want to make ten thousand dollars profit every month.

So, you know, that’s also a big part of how if you want to get to a seven figure or eight figure quick, you have to really set yourself very, very high goals because that will push you and your actions will be divided from the goal.

You know, so when I had this in mind, I knew that I have to launch X amount of products or I have enough revenue to reach that goal. And it happened after exactly like I think eleven months. I got to a point where I make ten thousand. It was like four or five products.

Sharon Even [00:24:18] So I’m not sure if I’m profits and profits or in revenue. Profit.

Tomer [00:24:25] I’m sorry, say it again.

Sharon Even [00:24:27] With a ten thousand dollars in profits are in revenue.

Tomer [00:24:30] In profit, so it was about like 40 or 50 K in revenue. And then when the year ends and I reach the goal, I was sitting and trying to set new goals. I saw what is possible.

I told myself I want to I didn’t have, like in mind that I want to become a seven figure. I just looked at the profit. I don’t care if I’m a six figure, but I make this amount or 70. This doesn’t matter. I look at the bottom line of profit.

So I say to myself, I want to make fifty thousand a month profit. And in order to achieve that, I have to. Back then I thought that I need to launch more and more products and that’s what I did. I launched in 2020 more products and many failed.

To be honest, I would be very open. I would say at least 10 failed. When I say failed means that some of them I would reorder and just try to find and get it to rank and be profitable and didn’t work.

Or from the get go just from the beginning, like you see, it’s not selling. I would do a mobile order. So I lost a lot of money on those then. But I’m very happy that I lost a lot of money and I learned so many new things. So, you know, don’t be afraid to fail.

All of the every failure makes you better, makes you smarter. So I learned from that that I should focus on two thousand twenty one or more like a monster products. I call them those products and make like two hundred a month. Three hundred.

Because to launch of this product compared to a regular product that make when I say regular, a lower revenue product makes, let’s say 30 or 40 or ten, it’s the same effort. You still have to do all this work, whether it’s listing or it’s contacting suppliers.

So I figure out I will choose where I want to focus and just launch more of those monster products, but to your original question, I think at the point where I like around 20 products, I got to this point.

But you have to understand, when you launch so many products, you don’t really see the revenue and results that it takes a couple of months. So I would say, both, the seven figures is attributed to maybe seven or eight products.

Sharon Even [00:26:42] Interesting. I didn’t know the 20 products in 2020 out of all the years. Right. It’s it’s a tough it’s a tough one. But it also means that you tried many different things, which which is what was the biggest thing that you learned from launching so many products, apart from the monster product thing that you learned after?

Tomer [00:27:04] It was a focus for me. I was like, you know, just deal with fires and stuff like that. And which applies to many products. And you can’t really back then I didn’t I wasn’t really prepared enough with, you know, like enough employees or VCs to the end of the things.

And I had to really do the work instead of looking on it from the top, you know, on how can I grow the profit on the things that I should really focus on. But because I handle everything myself, I had to deal with many products, logistics and inventory and paying all the suppliers.

Tomer [00:27:45] And it took a lot of a lot of focus for me. So that’s that’s the lesson that I learned. And I’m trying to implement it, trying to launch less products but go after bigger fishes.

Sharon Even [00:27:56] So just for me, out of curiosity, when you say and then we’ll take some questions, because there’s actually a lot of questions here when you say that you’re now working on monster products. Right. So I.

You’re sorry. Are you trying to then use it like the products where the big guys are making two hundred thousand, etc.? Are you then trying to take a smaller piece of that pie? So like, what is your end goal or are you trying to be at the top?

No one trying to take away from those guys with the 20. So try that huld quite a large amount and have quite a large amount of market share.

Tomer [00:28:36] So great question. I mean, not just, you know, entering into a market to plan to take over, you know. So, yeah, I want to really control dominate the niche. I think that that’s I don’t know if it’s bad or good, but that’s how I look at things.

If I do something, I want to be the best, you know. So it’s a totally different tactic when you launch twenty thousand two or three hundred thousand, when you launch those products, you need to prepare that. You’re going to lose a lot of money at the beginning.

I’m not going, you know, until you get the ranking, until you you start to see any profits. One of my current mentors. Yeah. The product, those monster products that it was trying to get into and it was losing sixty thousand dollars until you see.

So any profit. But then within one year, but then towards the end of the year he made one hundred and twenty thousand dollars in profits of total in that year. One hundred and twenty thousand. But he lost 60 K in profit. I mean before he saw anything.

Most people will quit after twenty or thirty. But when do you have this in mind and you are really willing to push and lose money? There is a good chance that you can make it. I can’t really say, but because I don’t have any product that’s three hundred a month at this point.

Sharon Even [00:29:59] So cash flow wise because a lot of cash flow for inventory in order to be able to handle that. I you’re going to like basically what I’m asking is how are you going to handle the cash flow for these monster products, which suits your sourcing monster branding?

How are you going to handle the cash flow on it? Are you going to go and get funding or cetera?

Tomer [00:30:26] Yeah, I’ll explain about the beginning, how I had the cash flow, because it’s a little different than the situation that they have. And I think the good thing I didn’t take any, like, salary.

So everything was reinvested that helped me launch more products and get inventory. So that was a big deal. The other thing is, was I really never was scared to use credit cards and I had like six still six or seven credit cards.

And I used, like, utilized the whole credit line that they had there, which is the first Q4 that they had. It was, I think, 100k in debt. And I was like, so terrified, like, what’s going on. Oh. And it came to the credit cards. My father always told me when I was like, never think that. Don’t ever use credit cards and.

That’s why I had that feeling inside. OK, what’s going on? But deep inside, I knew. And that this is a working product, everything is working. So, yeah, you risking anything, but it’s a calculated risk. Worst case, I don’t know myself. I have an apartment.

I have assets. Worst case, I’m not going to be starving for food. So I took that risk and it was paying off and the same thing for 2020. I was using credit cards more heavily, but taking mine that also all this cash flow that I didn’t take any salary was invested back. So that was also a big part of the success. These days.

What I’m doing is also I’m using the cash flow of of the profit putting pumping it back. And another reason I’m negotiating for so is to get more cash funding for it. Plus, I invested some money that I then decide back to the business, back for the new rent that they launched.

So, you know, people say, oh, I don’t have cash flow and all of that. But if you are serious enough, if you wanted that bad, you can get funded. You can get two credit cards, too. You know, I hear that a lot of people that take from friends and family personally, I don’t like doing it.

I had opportunities of people asking, let me invest in your company and your brand, but I didn’t really need it that much. And I feel that I don’t like to mix things up.

Sharon Even [00:32:44] Could we have a few questions here before I ask my own questions, let’s have a look. So free speech you can love. Said if you have a product such as, say, shampoo or something like that with many ingredients, do I need a peasant or can I make it and start selling?

Tomer [00:33:02] OK, so I sell creams, which has many ingredients. You don’t really need a pet and I don’t think you can make it better than that too. So I mean, like it’s food. You can make it patent for a recipe that you make at home. I don’t think so.

Tomer [00:33:19] I agree with Coca-Cola. I don’t know enough.

Sharon Even [00:33:22] I think that you I don’t think that you need specifically a patent in order to sell it. I don’t have any patents on on things with ingredients in them.

But one thing that I that I just really said was something like that with many ingredients, do I need patent or can I just make it and start selling, I hope. Free speech.

Free speech. OK, that you’re talking about using like an actual lab to make these things, because in order to sell specifically on Amazon, you’re going to need specific certifications, et cetera, in place. And lab tests are just make sure to also look into that as well. Mario asks, just how do you protect your products? Listing’s against highjackers.

Tomer [00:34:06] OK, so good for the brand registry. I was like bombing them. So if someone decided to go and you would regret it.

So I would just send them. 20, 30 messages from each account of myself, my friends, my family, like 10 or 15 accounts a day because they have to reply within twenty four hours, otherwise it’s really heard their account.

They will just and I would put a message, send me my money back, and I would never like order these products, but I would put words that will maybe trigger Amazon system and put his account at risk. Most sellers. Ninety nine percent. They just left after twenty four hours because they so. Oh, is this crazy guy. I don’t want to do it for you.

Sharon Even [00:34:53] So you didn’t actually do cease and decaese letters. You just sit them messages.

Tomer [00:34:57] Yeah I did. This will send them a letter. But I think what worth is that they send them like spam them how many messages. And they said like you know, you have to know no response required if you don’t want to reply within the system.

And, you know, if you have to do it like a hundred times, it would say, just remove this. But I cannot deal with them. You know, that’s what I think. Then when the industry and to be honest, by this time.

Tomer [00:35:25] I never had any idea what a hijackers.

More tips on becoming a 7 Figure Amazon Seller

Sharon Even [00:35:28] Yeah, same same here. When you see it, Brand registry, just I mean, brand registry does not protect you from getting highjackers, but also it makes it a lot easier dealing with highjackers.

And obviously, again, when we say brand registry, ideally is and you want to have the trademark within the country that you sell in so that you’re actually protected.

Tomer [00:35:46] Another thing I want to add here about protecting your product, you have sometimes all these Chinese sellers that take part of your photo of your or your your bullets and they just copy it.

So if you see something like that, just, you know, you can remove them very easily. You just contact, like brand registry copyrighting. You put the claim and they remove it and they will just take their listing immediately.

Like up to me that I did like four or five competitors that just steal bullets and descriptions from it and just remove them like that.

Sharon Even [00:36:19] You actually don’t have to be brand registered in order to to file copyright infringement on Amazon. You can also not be brand registered to vote.

But yeah, the copyright infringement I even have a free template on it in the group and Alpha Group. But it’s it’s something that it’s it’s great when you’re on the seller side.

Right. And it’s a start. It’s great when it’s being done to you because Amazon takes him down straight away. But it sucks when someone’s using it against you wrongfully because Amazon will first of all, be on the persons who’s filing it side. Right. And then start. Yeah.

Tomer [00:36:58] Before that, someone filed against me like I had. But, you know, I hear it from people that, you know, it’s not like before where it was much easier to do it.

Today, they take it more seriously. They actually check the details. But if someone really wants to take you down, they they can I can find a way.

Sharon Even [00:37:18] Yeah, that’s true. Morris walks, said hi Tomer and Sharon. Love both of you. And thanks for the great contact. Tomer After doing all the after doing all this journey, how strong would you recommend for others to use the strategy of running in full force with so many items?

Tomer [00:37:38] It really depends, it really depends, I wouldn’t say it’s bad or good, because if you have the right system in place and you have enough people to dedicated work so you can focus on the things that matter, you can do it, you can run.

You know, you have these companies, the Chinese center, they on 200 products a month, I don’t know, like crazy amount of ideas. So it’s possible. You just you need to make sure that you’re prepared for that. I wasn’t prepared.

And I still I don’t want to have, like, a crazy team. That’s not my goal. I had, like, many employees under me. And, you know, the more people you add, the more responsibility that you get. So it’s not for me, it’s not something that I would like to be like a crazy team.

So I want to keep everything clean, some shifting from launching many products to launching less products, but bigger ones.

Sharon Even [00:38:26] Mm hmm. I want to just add on to is that there is no right or wrong for it and like you’ve done, what I love about you is that you do a lot of experimenting. You you do a lot of experiment and you try a lot of new things.

And then you see what’s going to work for you specifically. So there isn’t a right or wrong because you you can make money and a lot of it from building a brand.

So knowing who your buyer avatar is and find them products around that, and you can also make a lot of money from selling random things. The question is, in my opinion, and I’d love to hear what you have to say about it and also from your experience is when you sell a random product.

And what I mean, again, by random, as you see an opportunity, you do the calculations, you see that it works out and you bring it out is in many, many times those nations will get saturated quite quickly.

And when they do, if all you have as a differentiation is your price point, you know, there’s like a shelf life for those types of random products.

Where else when you’ve done a built brand and you’re bringing out products that are basically like upselling one another as well and they complement one another, in my experience, in my opinion, it’s it’s easier to. What do you think about that?

Tomer [00:39:46] From my experience, I didn’t really see that. When I launch a random product there, it’s becoming more saturated because it’s going to happen on anywhere.

Yeah, I sell toys. So if I like a new toy and I have like six other toys, I don’t know if this specific product will be saturated in the future or not.

Sharon Even [00:40:06] What I meant was, let’s just say you sell one toy and then you sell one cream and then you sell an umbrella and then you’re like totally random things because you selling lots of different toys. You can still say you’ve built a toy brand.

Right. The buyer at the time may change because one toy may be for like a 10 year old and another toy maybe for a three year old, and one may be for Montessori products and one may be whatever.

Right. But what I mean is when everything that you sell is totally random and many you’ll continuously need at some point to keep bringing out products forever. That’s what I meant, because at some point when that happens, rather than brand building as well. That was my point.

Tomer [00:40:46] Yeah, I would say that I launched the products, but not that wide range like. So let’s say I would say in the tools category and then gardening.

So I would put the next product would be the same niche like gardening and then the other, which is so not like totally random but like random categories I would say. So I didn’t much like every time like in a different category.

But I think that the big downside is focus. And another thing is that you cannot really upscale and cross sell If you build your audience off Amazon, that’s a big thing.

Tomer [00:41:22] And I said on Etsy and on eBay, Shopify, all these when you enter a.

Sharon Even [00:41:28] You have a chingching in the background and eBay and chingching just before I think I heard the word shopkeeper.

Tomer [00:41:33] Shopkeeper. OK, got it. I’m sorry. I love it. Here it is. Yeah. So um.

Tomer [00:41:42] Yeah, you know, and again, it’s not like you said, there is no one way. There are millions of there are millions of ways to make a million dollars, not just Amazon. I am also involved with some other like the content websites.

You have people making crazy amounts of money and they are at home from nowhere, really. So there is no right way. You have to really listen to everyone.

Like I said, the second product they didn’t listen to the minute I went to that product. So you have to listen to everyone but takes what relevance to you and what you believe.

Tomer [00:42:11] So I don’t really think there is one right way.

Sharon Even [00:42:15] Like I agree with you there we all and we all will have also one thing that may have worked for me, may not work for you. And one thing that worked for you, may not work for the other person, etc.. So we all know no one way.

But I love the fact that you’re continuously experimenting as asked how great content what is your strategy launching new products? Are you using rebate key or similar services, Facebook, etc.? So I’m guessing you also talking about are you also using search by methods, etc.?

Tomer [00:42:48] So so the first product launch, I did use giveaways and then I think a month or two months after they started to suspend accounts for giveaways and all of this stuff.

And I was like scared. And I knew that they want to build something that is really long term. And I decided that I’m going to use only like white hat tactics, tactics. And since then, I just launched with PPC on.

And it’s also scalable, you know, all these giveaways, so much energy and managing that. I told myself, like, it doesn’t make sense for me to put on this time, like giving away sending money to people on PayPal or doing all this stuff.

And it’s key like you have to pay them. And it’s not really the power of it didn’t really work for me. So I don’t do any of those. Just lunch with PPC with zero views.

Tomer [00:43:43] I don’t even get reviews like before I launch.

Sharon Even [00:43:46] You know that I do the same thing. I don’t I’ve said this many times and it’s arguable because and this is a thing, you know, especially once you mingle so much in the industry, there is like there are so many different ways to launch and everything.

And there are people that only do search, find by and there are people that only do PPC and there were people that only work with influencers. And I think that we’re all different.

And my logic behind PPC launch is the same way that you do it is that the buyers on Amazon are hot, they’re hot buyers. They’re not typing, they’re not just scrolling through Facebook. They’re they’re not they’re hot buyers.

Sharon Even [00:44:24] They’re ready to buy the product using the key word that describes your your product. All you need to do is persuade them is important. Yeah. Yeah. The buyer intent is exactly that.

Sharon Even [00:44:34] So all you need to do is persuade them to buy your specific product. And that’s when it comes down to how well did you do with your product, research, differentiation point, etc..

And that’s why I believe personally. Only myself and I’m from what you’re saying, you as well, and it’s not that I believe I nor that search time by works, but I personally don’t think that I need to give away any of my products to free because I’ll be able to launch it with PPC.

So I’m happy that we’re on the same page with that data.

Tomer [00:45:00] People don’t realize the giveaways you pay for the products here, even if you’re losing on PPC and your Ákos is on two percent. You have data, you have keywords, things that you actually assess that you get with the giveaways, goes to the garbage.

Sharon Even [00:45:16] You know, I agree with you. All right. Well, we’re getting a lot of questions about what type of products do you recommend to start with?

Sharon Even [00:45:27] the ones that make sense.

Tomer [00:45:30] What like like we said, whatever, like, makes sense to you or use your opportunity.

Sharon Even [00:45:36] How much budget do you allocate towards marketing?

Tomer [00:45:40] Towards marketing? I don’t really have it like in place. I just flow with it and see the results. So, for example, let’s say I launch a new product. I don’t set myself OK. We are limited with one thousand. It really depends on the results.

So if I’m profitable and some products profitable with zero reviews from day one, I will pump like ten thousand dollars.

But some products there, there are starting slow, so maybe I will limit the budget, then try to do some external traffic or be like get more reviews before I pump more advertisement.

Sharon Even [00:46:15] So when are you doing product research and you’re doing your profitability calculations. Right. So you’re calculating your potential profits. Do you put in some numbers or percentage in your in your head or in your system for marketing or marketing?

Tomer [00:46:31] I mean, I think I do the calculation and based on the margin, I said myself enough room for advertisement. So that’s how I look at it. But I don’t look and predict, OK, I’m going to make a profit of X amount.

Tomer [00:46:44] I just look at the margins that that’s for me what’s important, you know.

Sharon Even [00:46:49] I usually allocate when I’m doing the profitability, I always not allocate. I always calculate at least 20 percent of my sale price just towards the PPC or the marketing of it, because usually it balances out from your launch and usually you’re losing money on PPC in the beginning when you’re launching, etc..

Tomer [00:47:12] Will it make sense? Actually, it’s another thing that, you know, if you systemize it, you put it as a checklist, it’s going to, you know, make sense. And yeah, I do it in a way that just in my head. But I will take your advice and I will systemize this editor.

Sharon Even [00:47:31] You should check what what you’re more or less marketing percentages are as well. And you’ll be able to to calculate that. Mohammed, ask what is your strategy to get the best sourcing as it’s also one of the key profitability?

Tomer [00:47:46] Yeah, that’s a really good question that I really think that it makes a difference the way that you approach to suppliers. You can cut down with the the you know, the prices a lot and that would make a big difference.

So I like to really get as many quotes as possible and then I’m getting very close to the real price they’re sending it. So I do have a sourcing agent in China, which I don’t really work with too much, but I do it to validate prices.

So, for example, I will give them like one to launch. They didn’t get me the best price that you get. And then at one time, the price the Chinese seller a Chinese guy in China can get. I compare that with the quotes that I got from the suppliers.

Now they can mind price is not the only thing that we look at production time like this, the quality of the quality, their location, because they have many rendered products, some of them look like all over China. And it’s it it’s a little problem for me.

If someone is located so far from my freight forwader, there is going to, you know, effect the the what you call it, the times you can get it, you know, the production time, the buffering time.

So but to get prices, the best prices I have like a template that I kept testing. You said that test things, but I really did my previous marketing role. That’s what I did. I was like a CRO conversion rate optimization, so I would take a page.

Tomer [00:49:16] We change one element there and one there and see the results. So I really believe that with with data and and testing, you can constantly improve yourself.

So I got really a template that gave me good results and saves time, because when you do, you talk with your suppliers, it’s something something that takes a lot of time.

So read the message that you send the initial message, make sure that you put everything up front so you don’t get back and forth. So from the moment.

He sent the message the next day, I have a quote now I get like 10 quotes and then I start to filter those that are not serious, didn’t answer in time. I also want people communicate fast with me because if they communicate slow with me now, what happens if I do business with them, you know, so it doesn’t make sense.

So I filter those away and stay with a solid list of quotes. And out of those, I think the best quote, let’s say for the unit and I come to the other supplier that was closer and I tell him, look, the other factor, you give it to me for three dollars, can you do two and a half dollars?

So I, like, take them very down. And then based on their communication, I see where I can push more or less.

Tomer [00:50:22] I don’t want to get to a point that I stretch it too much because it will affect the quality. So you have to really like figure out how to do it, like negotiating with them.

Sharon Even [00:50:35] Alison, thank you so much for your answer. One more one more question, please. What is your practice for quality control for manufacturers in China? And how do you that the manufacturers. Thank you, Tom and Sharon.

Tomer [00:50:47] Good question. That I need to improve its area with. I need to improve with the quality control. I do random inspections, but I could do a better job with that.

So I don’t do for every single shipment that I did. And I don’t have I mean, I trust them with the supplier that you work, of course, for new products. Yes. But for products that you keep reordering and you’re kind of trusting them.

But and you do random checks, I think it’s enough and it’s working for me. I never had any, like, you know, crazy issues with quality, something that was like, wow, we need to do a removal order or anything like that.

But still, I feel that, you know, I’m working on a very thin line and I need to improve it before something bad happened.

Sharon Even [00:51:34] You know, I am personally doing an inspection on every single order, no matter how small or big, always and forever.

And I also trust my suppliers as much as I Sharon, even as I am able to trust someone, because I don’t really we all know I have trust issues, especially with with when I have no control being on the other side of the world. But I personally do an inspection every single time.

And the thing is, it has nothing to do with trust. Sometimes things can happen that is out of the suppliers. Hence basically and for me specifically for quality control, I always have a specification sheet in hand.

I will pass my specification sheet to the obviously to to the suppliers. And I will also have my own quality control checklist that I will give to my supplier to do before I even bring in my inspection company.

So I have a quality control checklist. I ask and this is one of the things that I also make sure the factory actually has is do they have a quality control system in place because that will do . So personally, I have an inspection on on every single one.

Tomer [00:52:51] Yeah, great job with it then. Like I said, that’s something I should improve on. And one of the reasons why I want to focus on less products so I can take care of those things.

You know, I was so busy launching so many products, they missed inspections, missed those stuff. So that’s what I said. Focus.

Tomer [00:53:09] That’s one of the results when you can’t really focus and have enough time to deal with important things, which could hurt.

Sharon Even [00:53:17] You to also remember that today you have a team in place, but you are doing this as a one man show, which is not easy.

There’s only so much one person can do it. You I think it was you actually said this to me the other day. You were like, yeah, but you’re husband and wife team like you’re not alone.

You’ve got you’ve always known, which is true. I’ve always had my husband with me from day one. So we’ve been able to split things quite easily. And that way it makes it easier.

Right, when you’re so. Yeah, that’s also true. This isn’t a question. It’s been ask you something, but something that I would like to to ask, because scaling ten million in eighteen months is not to be taken for granted.

The products that you did bring out do or the products that you sell, do you bring in like do highly differentiate. When you think about your you Espin, you think about your differentiation, how like what kind of things that you thinking about when it comes into play because it’s something that is really important. So that was what I think my mind a lot.

Tomer [00:54:16] So you could hear me doing one thing today and then in three months I would say something else. Why? Because the best thing and for this relevant point, that’s what I think about.

Things are constantly changing and I’m changing my mind. I’m not really going with with what I said. Or so at the beginning, I was really launching products with unique selling point or proposition and improving the product.

But then with 20/20, because I learned so many products, I kind of didn’t really focus on that and focusing more on bundles. So I would bring that is in the market and just create this value this year through bundling and adding some related items.

That was the strategy that they had, which I still think it’s a great strategy, but I’m going to mix it with more of improving the product. So I think like a killer USP, which improving the main product and also giving bundles, that’s where I’m going to focus on in 2021.

And how did the bundles strategy work for you, so was it working well, but, you know, I because I launched too many products, I didn’t really focus too much on the part. It was like, you know, like a production line, just not giving enough attention, not giving enough time for everything.

And that’s why I said focus because I didn’t I maybe give like 70, 60 percent on each product and that was doomed to failure.

Tomer [00:55:51] You know, it doesn’t work like 500 percent of each product. Tiffany said, well, I have trust issues to share. We will love Tiffany the way we remember that.

Tomer [00:56:05] I can really I don’t not trust, but I’m not really expecting anything from people. And because I burned a lot in the past, so I would never be surprised from someone that will say betting on me and or like leave a job or position or something like that.

Sharon Even [00:56:26] My specifically we’re talking about here because I was to say that even when and it’s not it’s not about Chinese, whether I have a Polish supplier or a Chinese supplier, it doesn’t matter. It’s suppliers in general.

Sharon Even [00:56:38] But Joanne is no matter how good they are, mistakes happen and can be corrected during inspections, which I agree. It’s why it’s so important to bring on inspections.

And we have a lot of questions here. But before we wrap it up, we and guys, Tomer and I would not mind answering your questions later in groups, whatever you’ve asked them, but we need to start wrapping it up.

Sharon Even [00:57:01] I’d like to ask you, as someone who has seen that this works child very many, many different things and continuously grinding every single day.

What is your biggest tip for people today that are a thinking about getting into Amazon and B, that are in your situation now and looking to to scale to questions that something that is not really related to how to do things and technical support?

Tomer [00:57:35] It’s more about the approach, the attitude and the mindset to make sure that you prepare enough before you enter through it. So when I say prepare, make sure that your goals are very, very clear. It’s all about the clarity.

That’s one second that you have a plan. The goal itself, it’s just one part of it. But you need to have the plan on how to get there. Of course, it could change, you know, during the journey. But you need to know what you are going to do to make it happen and work on your fundamentals.

So if someone is not really organized or not really have enough discipline, I don’t think that they could really succeed on the high levels. Maybe they can have successful to some degree, but not to a point there that are really killing it. Why?

Because it requires discipline. It requires you to really tell yourself, do the work and really don’t look on some shiny object. And it’s all about the fundamentals.

I think that will after you do the research and you started to do the product research, stick to what works, stick to one people, listen to one advice, don’t confuse yourself and just stick to the fundamentals that would work.

Product research is still the product research and everything is kind of the same. So, yeah, every year and every month you have this new video in, say, new way to launch your products. Crazy stuff. It’s all simple. Stick to the fundamentals and really with the work and you’ll see the result.

Sharon Even [00:59:04] Great, great advice right now Tomer. Thank you so much for coming on. And first of all, I want to wish you good luck with your selling of the of the company.

I hope that it works out. And good luck with one thing that we didn’t say that I did want to say. And I’m just reminded so. Well, say, just before we wrap it up, what is that you don’t sell just in the US market. It took you how long until you got into the European market as well?

Tomer [00:59:29] Yeah. So it took me like nine months to just have all these applications. Yes, it was twenty twenty with the Corona, the covid and it took a little longer than what it will take in normal times, but it’s definitely worth it because it’s easy profits.

You just plug your listings are integrated with all the reviews. So this is amazing. You don’t have to go through these like launching phase blast. You is going to launch and immigrate only the listings that are the best so that you know already that they were making money in the US.

Most agencies, they’re going to succeed in Europe as well. And it’s really something that’s worth yeah, it’s high entry barrier. People say, oh, I don’t want to set up the VAT.

Yeah, it’s a headache, but it’s definitely worth it because it’s just sending stock there during on PPC and you start seeing sales but only. Two or three months of time, like I think you for when I actually started to sell there and have they also have limitations?

So they treat this like a new SKU, not a new scrims immigrated SKU as a new SKU. So you can you can do this in the more than 200 units. So I definitely recommend to anyone that they have a lot more than five or six products to just launch there and start the process.

Tomer [01:00:48] It’s really untapped opportunity.

Sharon Even [01:00:52] How much would you like of of your end of the European market, would you say now contributes to like percentage wise contributes towards your neighbors?

Tomer [01:01:02] As I just started to sell in Q4 and there are these limitations now, they’re allowing me to send more stock. So it’s getting better. But that’s why I don’t want to sell like 100 percent of my company.

I want to sell 40 or 50 percent because I strongly believe I can take it to a whole different levels. And I believe in that brand and what I.

Sharon Even [01:01:26] We’re going to have one last question and then we’ll wrap it up, because there’s so many questions here. So ask what is the price range of your products?

Tomer [01:01:32] Good question. It’s very like the cheap yellower and we’re like 20, 30 dollars, something like that. I don’t go after, like, expensive items, something that I might change this year because it’s a it’s also an opportunity.

Most people don’t launch expensive products. But you do. Your question is around twenty, thirty dollars next.

Tomer [01:01:57] Now, tell me if anyone wants to find you and get a hold of you or what your content where they are if they find you yet, so I don’t really promote anything special.

Tomer [01:02:07] But you can check the YouTube channel, which I created to a couple of reasons. But the main reason is just to give back and share like quality content for free, which you can check it sourcing-monster.com

The website is sourcing-monster.com and the YouTube channel is just sourcing monster you can check it out.

Sharon Even [01:02:28] Well, some great stuff, thank you for coming on and thank you all for listening and I’ll see you guys next Thursday. Thanks for having me

Tomer [01:02:36] Thank you. Sharon.