Shownotes
Is it too late to change? Too late to reset in this fast pace ecommerce world? Theresa is proof you can. Not only can you, you must. Omni-channel (selling on all channels) is the future. Your customers have their favorite platforms and you need to be on them. The challenge is how. Theresa helps us with real examples, real processes.
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Transcript:
Theresa: [00:00] Does. It’s more for running your business. And there’s a lot of things that you know, I’ve wanted eBay to do for a long time, but it’s just harder for eBay being the big ship that it is to turn things around. And so, um, one of the things that I, you know, really miss on eBay is the ability to download a report that tells me here’s your listings and here’s all the weights that you have on them. Because I realized that a lot of my listings don’t have weights. A lot of them have the wrong weight. And I have no way of
Cool voice guy: [00:27] welcome to the e-commerce momentum podcast where we focus on the people, the products, and the process of eCommerce selling. Today. Here’s your host, Steven Peterson.
Stephen: [00:41] Hey, just jumping in. I’m talking about 2019. What a great year. It’s been a great year for our business and pivots that we’ve done. Um, and if you’re thinking about pivoting your business, you might want to check out some of the sponsors that I have in the podcast. I’m just come out into e-commerce, momentum.com and take a look at this episode. Uh, there’ll be a link with a whole bunch of different, uh, deals and, and, you know, be fair. They do pay me, so don’t want to hide that, but, um, shouldn’t cost you any more than what you would pay any other way. Uh, but you benefit me and you sponsor the show and, and help pay offset some of our costs. But, uh, some of the great things, you know, um, Gaye Lisby and Gary Ray’s group, um, unbelievable. You know, I can’t believe the number of million dollar sellers that credit the group for getting them pushed past that point.
Stephen: [01:27] That’s the key. Okay. Um, I’ve got a great interview coming up where the network talk again, where that’s really what drives a lot of what your decisions are. Look back, listen to Kate Rolo talk about what, what that group of people has done for their business. You know, just sounding boards, people to help test your ideas and stuff. So I’ve got a lot of those kinds of links. Uh, tactical arbitrage. Um, you know, lots of them come with a longer trial periods of very fortunate that way. And I want you to try them. But the key is to get in the group, be active, don’t be a wallflower, and then see if it’s a good fit. If it’s not a good fit, get out of them. I understand that, you know, you want to be around people that are going to build you up, not tear you down.
Stephen: [02:06] So find a group that’s right for you. And then pivot, change your new year. If it’s not working, if it’s working, do more of it. Don’t get rid of everything else and do more of that. But if it’s not, there’s nothing wrong with pivoting. We’ve done it. Uh, you know, I think, you know, we’ve been FBA since 2011 we’ve pivoted so many times, um, as the market changes. And again, they never call and say, Steve, what do you think? So the market’s going to change without your input and guess what? You could react or you could ProAct and, um, even in midst of change, you can ProAct and try something different. So again, reach out in any way if I can help you, um, but check out the links and, and hopefully you’ll find something that’ll help you grow your business. Um, and I credit, you know, Gaye, Andy Sammons, Karen locker, um, um, Alex Moss from tactical arbitrage, all those companies helping us.
Stephen: [02:58] Um, I think that they could help you too. Um, and, uh, again, reach out if I can help you in any way. Thanks and welcome back to the e-commerce woman and podcast. This is episode 421. Theresa Cox. Um, look at the headline, look at the title that I use for this and this title gets developed as I’m talking to the person and the depth of knowledge. Um, you know, a, she’s, she’ll even say it in here. She’s been a long time seller, right? So that’s cool. But what, to me, what she’s been able to do in resetting and readjusting and just changing, um, over time as the marketplaces change, you know, the marketplace is going to change with or without you. So you’d rather be on the, you know, right with it or ride the wave or in her case, sometimes ahead of the wave and she got to be part of something pretty cool.
Stephen: [03:47] And I think it’s a, it’s a great story. Um, very, very cool lady who just knows what she’s doing and loves it. That’s what you want. That love. She still loves what she’s doing 20 something years later. Don’t you want that for yourself? Let’s get into the podcast and welcome back to the eCommerce momentum podcast. Excited about today’s guest. Uh, we had talked years ago about getting together and we just never have because both of our schedules are a little bit too busy and I don’t think either one of us would say now is a great time cause it’s Q4. Um, although I think our Christmas rush is over. Teresa Cox. Welcome Theresa.
Theresa: [04:22] Well, hi there. Yes, you’re right. Q4 we’re on the downhill slide and I’m excited about that. I’m exhausted already.
Stephen: [04:29] Are you pleased with this Q for?
Theresa: [04:33] I am. I, I changed some things up. Um, this Q4 I implemented some new strategies and, uh, yes, it’s, it’s been very successful for me. [inaudible]
Stephen: [04:42] I did not expect it to be as strong because of all the changes and challenges. Um, and just historically, and we are very pleasantly surprised to, um, every one of the places we sell is really doing well, including eBay, which was a struggle for us for awhile because of whatever happened, uh, with the category. But even that was a big surprise for us. And I see others posting that it’s not been so good for you. What’s been your experience?
Theresa: [05:09] Yeah. Um, eBay, eBay’s my, uh, go-to top first platform. I love eBay. I love the community. I also sell on Amazon and I stopped selling on Amazon in February. Uh, you know, just a little here and there, but for the most part stopped because I was selling shoes and I was sourcing, she’s didn’t have boxes. And so when they made that change, I had to rethink my whole idea about what to sell and if I wanted to continue to sell on that platform. And so in, um, you know, it’s hard to walk away from cash selling. Q4 I decided that I was going to start over and I implemented some different strategies for what I was buying. Um, and I implemented a couple of new tools and has been hugely successful in I’m tracking, I don’t like to track things on a micro level on any of the platforms, but I decided that to go back into Amazon, I wanted to track things on a micro level. And so I am pleasantly surprised at my average ROI at my sell through rate at all those numbers. And basically it tells me, Hey, I still kind of know what I’m doing.
Stephen: [06:19] Well, you know, I, I think, I think what you said there is very fair that, you know, frustration changes, they’re gonna, they’re gonna make all those things right, but you, that doesn’t mean you can’t reset. And what you did was reset. And the other smart thing I heard in there was that you took advantage of some tools, so you didn’t just go back to the way you were doing it. You reset and made maybe took away some of the hassles? Is that a fair way to say it?
Theresa: [06:46] Yeah, some of the hassles where, um, you know, I was doing things manually just because I, I started using a repricing tool and I was doing it manually because when I first started on Amazon and I tried to figure out pricing software, it was way over my head. And so, um, I decided that, you know, definitely was the way to go. And, um, you know, the other thing that I did was I joined a paid Facebook group, which I had been part of before. And, um, you know, initially I joined the Facebook group to, uh, you know, to get ideas of what to sell and I don’t need that information anymore. I’ve got my scanner, I’ve got my software app, and now what I use it for is the, um, knowledge, uh, you know, Hey, this happened. How would you handle it? Or, um, you know, I’ve got somebody that I met in the group that has walked me through how to set up, uh, some very specific things on, uh, the repricing app. And has helped me through some of the areas that I knew I was struggling with process on. And I know that my process, uh, for so many Amazon orders is ridiculously time intensive and it doesn’t need to be. So, uh, I just talked to him today and I’m going over to his place on Monday and he’s gonna show me how he does it and that’s going to be a huge, huge difference in what I do next year
Stephen: [08:10] that’s so valuable. Um, and again, it’s also nice that you have somebody who’s gone through the same challenges as you are. Right? Um, so in that group, and I, I see this for me, so it says you’re going to be like dusty. You of course you’re going to see people having challenges that you might not be having, but you could have. You just been fortunate it didn’t happen to you. You’re, and you go and check in, you’re like, Oh crap, I better change that to before that happens to me. I have that happen to you.
Theresa: [08:39] Yeah, I will. I will tell you that I’m in this, I was in the group, you know, a year ago, um, and I, uh, one of the things that they were doing was they were taking pictures of their items and um, with the receipts and stuff to ward off against, you know, um, uh, what’s the claim that you get on Amazon
Stephen: [08:58] P claim and this is for those that are don’t have receipts without the UPC numbers that happens on particular stores like a Marshall’s or TJ max or whatever. They don’t put the UPC on the receipt, so therefore you can’t
Theresa: [09:10] show it’s real. Correct. Correct. Okay. And so I was, you know, a year ago, I’m like, yeah, that, you know, whatever. I’m like, that’s too much. That’s a time intensive step that I don’t want to take. Well, this year when I decided to revamp, I’m like, I haven’t had an IP complaint yet, but it’s inevitable. And, um, so let me add this process to my, um, let me have this step to my process and just, you know, be ready for when it does happen. Cause it’s not if it’s when
Stephen: [09:41] and the smart thing there, right know what you just said is genius. The way you got to look at it. And this isn’t a criticism you were cheating before, right? You were, you were running a risk, you were taking a gamble because it could have happened. But now to have a real business, you’re saying, okay, I can’t cheat on this process. This is part of the process now if the hassle factor outweighs the profit on those things because you have all those extra steps that you must do every single time. Isn’t that better than wearing at night about losing your business every night?
Theresa: [10:16] Exactly. Uh, you know, and I, it tend to be, um, a more risk taker than a lot of people. Um, and so that was exact, my exact thought process before was that the time that it took to do this was not worth the risk of having one IP claim. Well, that’s because they didn’t understand IP claims fully. And you know, you don’t know what you don’t know. And just, you know, being in groups in, in, in, in fairness, Amazon I believe has become a much more, much stricter, harder marketplace in the last year. And, um, I just decided that, that, that the risk did not outweigh the reward this time. And so that was one step that I, you know, re looked at and said, okay, it’s going to take me 20 minutes to do this. Let me figure out my process. And I just added it in
Stephen: [11:09] and did, is it, did it, I mean, I’m sure it took you 20 minutes in the start. [inaudible] when do you get good at it? Does it take you 20 minutes if you really look at it now?
Theresa: