Shownotes
Can you compete with Amazon and have your own buybox? Can you take the significant changes made with Amazon and Ebay and start today on your own path? Learn some skills that are truly transferable across all marketplaces and web sites.
Mentioned:
Sponsors
Gaye’s Million Dollar Arbitrage List
Transcript: (note- this is a new tool I am trying out so it is not perfect- it does seem to be getting better)
Stephen: [00:00] Wanted to take a second and recognize my sponsors this week, you know, [inaudible] million dollar arbitrage as edge and list group. That’s a mouthful. It is. But guess what? It’s a great opportunity. You can build a big Amazon business. You don’t need a lot of capital when you start. I mean we all started, you know, um, most of it started selling books and then you move into retail arbitrage that is the place that you can turn your money the fastest and online arbitrage. And so by having that skill set, by learning those skill sets, you can get the best bang for your buck. And so gaze group will help you learn online arbitrage. It’s, it’s more than just a list service. They’re going to give you a whole bunch of actionable inventory every single day. Write Monday through Friday. However, there’s also a mentorship that goes on and that mentorship is so important because sometimes it’s great to know what to buy, but it’s more important to understand why to buy it.
Stephen: [01:02] But yeah, that’s that. You know, learning the fish are just getting fit. You really want to learn because ultimately you want to strike it on your own and this is a great way to do it. So how about seven days free trial. About a free trial, right? Very, very cool. So it’s amazing. Freedom Dot com. Forward slash is the mouthful. The word momentum. You’ve got to use a hyphen and you put in the word arbitrage. So it’s amazing. Freedom Dot [inaudible], forward slash momentum dash arbitrage, and you’re going to get a free trial in gaze group. You got to tell her I sent you, right? I also have the link in the episode, but it’s such a great opportunity. So she has amazing, amazing. I’m in that group so you’ll see me there and amazing, amazing person who’s there to answer your questions, who’s there to help lead you and help guide you.
Stephen: [01:50] And that’s what gay does. She does it every single day. The testimonials are real. Go take a look. You will be blown away and again, it’s a free trial. I have the link on this episode to reach in your seller labs, Jeff Cohen and the team. They have blown me away with this scope project. We use this all the time for our business. We do a lot of private label. We also do a lot of wholesale and wholesale bundles or multi-packs, that kind of thing, which a lot of people do, but we use a scope to help us figure out what are the key words and so it’s really simple. You basically figure out where you’re going to sell, what you’re going to sell, what category, find that lake product, find the top couple sellers and find their keywords. Boom magic. There you go. You copy the best because it’s working.
Stephen: [02:39] And guess what? That’s a proof of concept and scope allows you to do that. So it’s seller labs.com, forward slash scope, seller labs.com, forward slash scope. Use the code word momentum and you’re going to get a couple of days free trial and you’re going to save a little bit of money and you’re going to get some free keywords. It’s worth every penny. I’m in that group. Come and check me out. So our labs.com, forward slash scope. Again, use the word momentum solutions for e-commerce. Karen Lunker, great, great, great group. I’ve been using them for a long time and I guess it’s over two years and I’m in there and I pay just like everybody else. Yeah, she’s a sponsor my show, but she makes me pay and I got the same $50 discount that you can get. Oh, by the way, you’re going to get that through my link and my link only.
Stephen: [03:25] Oh, and you’re also going to get the free inventory health analysis. Great Way to start 2018, get your inventory in line and Karen will help you do that. We use them for everything basically, uh, you know, long-term storage fees coming up. Guess what, show evaluate. She’ll make some recommendations and I’ll say, yeah, check, check, check, check these out, this return, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And magically it’s done. I love it, love it, love it. I love the fact that they take and get rid of stranded inventory for me. I see it in there. And then next time I go in and it’s gone. Love it. Love it, love it. Got An ip infringement, she’s going to help you work your way through that. This is the kind of service that you get from Karen Locker, that’s solutions for the number for e-commerce solutions for e-commerce dot com forward slash momentum, right? So you’ve got a forward slash momentum and you’re going to save $50 a month, 600 bucks a year by just clicking that link. She pays me. I don’t want to hide that, I never do. I’m always upfront about that, but it doesn’t cost you anything additional and you’re going to get that inventory health report. The only way you get that is through mind link the solutions, the number for e-commerce dot com, forward slash momentum.
Speaker 2: [04:39] Welcome to the e-commerce momentum podcast where we focus on the people, the products, and the process of e-commerce selling. Today. Here’s your host, Steven Peterson.
Stephen: [04:53] Welcome back to the e-commerce momentum podcast. This is episode 200 and eighty four, greg jefferies. Greg is an internet marketer, warned you up front. What’s cool is he’s an internet marketer and that’s the opportunity because the marketplace is changing, right? Those of us listening right now, and this is very current, big changes, announced an Amazon is last week or two big changes at Ebay to if you’re an Ebay seller and I’m therefore I’m going to take a reach and say, well, guess what, this is going to mean that they’re going to be big changes in Walmart and jet and new egg and sears. If it’s still out there and and all the rest of them, there’s going to be big changes and so what do you do when you’re sitting here saying, Whoa, I built my business. I used to import everything from China, send it all to Amazon and let it sit there and I have to buy a container because it lasts me a year.
Stephen: [05:43] Well now you’re sitting there saying, Whoa, on that in the next six months I might not make money. What other options do I have? Is now the time to do your website? Well, if you do, how are you going to get traffic? And that’s the reason I brought [inaudible] on because you know, you’ll hear I get approached a bunch of PR companies and what I liked what he said and I liked, I liked his answers because I think he’s got some experience in econ world and I think it’s very relevant. Worked for a company that didn’t make it and I think it’s very relevant. I think the, the, the conversation that we should be having is, hey, you know, the sky isn’t falling, you know, this is not a, the end, this is a pivot point. This is an opportunity and if you don’t pivot, your competitor will.
Stephen: [06:25] So therefore pivot. Figured this out, work your way through, take this opportunity and invest in some other things. And I think greg does a great job. I think it’s going to qualify this too. He sells a course. I don’t benefit in any way and I’m not, you know, and an affiliate or anything like that. So I let them pitch course. I’m warning you up front, but I think it’s fair. I think if you can buy time, you know, I bought a lot of courses over time. If you can buy time and take advantage of something and his knowledge and he transfers that knowledge, it’s where some money and so therefore you know he should be able to offer it. So let’s get into the podcast. Let’s get started on pivoting our businesses. Welcome back to the e-commerce momentum podcast. Very excited about today’s guest because he is going to help us figure out how to market our products better, how to drive traffic, how to create our own, I guess kind of our own future.
Stephen: [07:18] I mean it’s one of the big topics that’s out there, especially with all these changes out in the marketplace that are outside of our control and they will never be in your control. Amazon will never give you control. Ebay will never give you control. Nobody’s giving you control unless you do it yourself. And then you’re limited to because some of the techniques Greg’s going to talk about are limited by Google today and they changed their algorithm and then that changes. So you do have to evolve. These aren’t set in stone, but these skills, and it’s interesting. In our pre interview we started talking about the common things we’re seeing marketplaces and starting to use these concepts and I just think it’s fascinating. I think Greg’s going to teach us something, something that we haven’t been thinking about. Welcome Greg. Thank you for having me. Greg, Jefferies, uh, is, has his own company, has his own thing and I’m going to let them pitch his stuff and Steve does not benefit.
Stephen: [08:08] So I’m going to let him pitch. He’s going to pitches a ceo a domination stuff and that’s when I get approached by, and I’m not bragging, but I get approached by PR companies everyday and there’s always got the best thing in the world. Oh, this is the new. It’s dynamic and usually I blow him off, but this one intrigued me because when, when I was talking with a PR company, I’m like, these are the things that are going on in our industry. These are the things that we’re seeing. Can he help? Can he offer some advice? And some back and forth went back and forth and I think you have a couple of things. I think you’re describing some things that I’ve not heard before or not thought enough about and some people are going to be like, dusty, this is old news, this is easy.
Stephen: [08:49] Um, but you know, Steve’s not that bright so he has to be told a few times. So, you know, Greg, one of the things that we see in our world, and I want to relate this to how you got to where you are, because I think this is interesting. You were in, you know, you’ve got a whole myriad of education. You’ve got graphics background, um, sales background and uh, some e-commerce working for some e-commerce company. So I think it’s all relevant. But the thing that happened back then was you saw drastic change, fair. And today, this week, both Ebay and Amazon less two weeks, three weeks have made significant changes that impact my wife and my business, my friends who are listening business, my listeners, businesses, large, massive, giant sellers, businesses that change. Is that ever going to go? I’m kind of joking that it’s never going to go away, but really is it ever gonna go away?
Speaker 3: [09:51] I don’t think so. It’s only gonna get, um, not to sound like negative or anything, but it’s only going to get worse and worse for the vendor.
Stephen: [09:58] It’s. So how do you adapt? I mean, when you look back at your old company, I mean, how did they adapt to this expanding marketplace right now? How many marketplaces where they up to,
Speaker 3: [10:09] I don’t know the exact amount, but probably somewhere around 20 or more.
Stephen: [10:12] OK. So, so everybody tells us, all right, this is, uh, this is lesson number [inaudible] Greg, we need to be everywhere. I remember sitting with Gary Vaynerchuk, Gary V, and literally I’m six feet from him and I remember asking them that question like, you know, how do I tell the marketplace? Because he’s always got people telling you, oh, you gotta go here. He’s like, Steve, you gotta be on every marketplace. That was his advice. That works sometimes, but sometimes it can be a problem, right?
Speaker 3: [10:39] Absolutely. And it’s a, it’s kind of a massive, a can a headache if you don’t have the right tools and softwares. That was the previous company I worked at. Um, these marketplaces are popping up so quickly that a lot of times there isn’t a software suite to manage them all as quickly, so like they, they aren’t able to integrate them as quickly as they’re popping up cause you know, we’re all familiar with Amazon, Ebay, but there’s the, the jet dot coms, there’s the real zoo Lilly, new egg, Rattan, like, and those are just a handful of those are the ones that maybe people on this call are familiar with, but then there’s like 20, 30, 40 other ones and you know, they, they sometimes those come and go, but there’s so many. So it’s a, it’s a lot to manage. Um, so I would definitely say you need some sort of software, but even the software that exists, um, it’s a little bit limited like bit there. It’s challenging for even like, I know one of the bigger ones is like channel advisor advisory, challenging for even softwares like channel advisor to keep up with how quickly these marketplaces are popping up.
Stephen: [11:49] So the, the lesson because that company didn’t do well, your company fare well, not you or anything. You worked here that they didn’t fare well because they spread themselves too. I mean, that’s really what it is and I agree with you because I’m expanding us into poshmark for example, and this I have not come across the software to manage that, that would link our inventory with these other systems and it’s like, Whoa, I’m, that’s an issue because that means, you know, if I only have to have this particular item and I put it on both marketplaces, it’s unrealistic that they both would sell, but it happens and then all of a sudden you start to try to scale that out to six or 8,000 skews and then you have variations of those skews. You’re talking nightmares. I mean, it’s, it’s unmanageable at that point. Right? And then you have to throw so much resources out at your margins are now gone. You’re, it’s really a circle.
Speaker 3: [12:42] And here, I don’t know if we want to address this here, but each market place has their own terms, um, both in just percentages and when they pay you and stuff on the fees that they take out. So that each one is completely different.
Stephen: [12:58] Yeah, I mean that’s a real issue. I mean, those are real issues that most people don’t think about. It’s like, well, you know, um, I’ve not found out how poshmark pays to be honest with you, but you know, for Amazon for example, we’ve been fortunate. We’ve been selling for so long. We have daily pants. Literally we can sell a product today and get pickup our money tomorrow and that we’re very, very fortunate now. It’s, I think it’s two weeks for any new seller or I’ve seen people then go and finance that and can get daily payouts, but they have to pay a third party company a vague, a percentage. Um, and that really puts a burden long-term. Again, you know, to me your stack in your stack of dimes. And I just think that that is not the long-term play that Steve’s opinion. So let’s talk about this because I think that this pattern that, you know, it’s funny how you get into, you know, seo is because you started to notice, I mean, it sounded to me like the way you like had this Aha moment, the lights open, the, the, the clouds opened in that light shining down on you when you saw all these marketplaces. Liken that to today. Uh, in the Seo world.
Speaker 3: [14:13] Yeah. So my big a tiffany with since, uh, when I was working with this E-com, converting my last job and I had a, my big epiphany was um, in the, in the day I worked there. And then, and then nights and weekends I worked on Internet marketing, affiliate marketing stuff, and I kind of made this connection of like, I saw all these marketplaces we’re selling home. I was like, man, this is, this is the exact same thing that’s happening with, um, basically all these other major sites out there. Like there’s each of these little categories. E-Commerce is just one kind of category. These marketplaces. Then you’ve got things like course marketplaces like Udemy and skillshare. You’ve got within e-commerce, you’ve got other e-com marketplaces that like for print on demand stuff like red bubble, Zazzle, café press, um, and then, you know, there’s just marketplaces for everything.
Speaker 3: [15:10] And the reason why the or the advantage I saw there is, is you don’t have to be like, you don’t have to create all this unique content or sell tons of unique con, uh, products like for um, for, for us, for instance, on the E-commerce, we represented a dyson vacuum. So we’re able to luckily, you know, each marketplace is different, you know, Amazon, Ebay, you can sell anything, but some of these other marketplaces are a little more niche. So not every product is something that you can list on that marketplace or it would be a good fit. Um, luckily vacuums was...