Shownotes
I brought Mark back to talk us through what really happens when you grow a business on multiple channels. And it is magical. Well that is when it goes right. And no surprise it doesn’t always go right. Mark walks us through with real numbers to help understand what can be. Great story from a great guy.
Mentioned:
Marks previous interviews 14 , 130
Mark’s Telephone # 877-599-SHIP
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] Want to jump in here and just bring back up episode 250 Toys for Tots campaign put together by Sellar lambs. It is such a great opportunity. I was with the seller on Friday. Their team is working on it. I’m very very excited. This is a chance for you to use the skills that you personally have developed. You’ve got sourcing muscles not many other people have it. And this is a chance where we can take and use our skills to help those less fortunate. All the information is on episode 250 such a great cause. Kick back give back give back this time of year thanks hope your Q4 is going good. It’s
Stephen: [00:40] a great time to be selling and sell a lot. Watch your repressors. I just got whacked on one last$15 a unit. I didn’t lose I lost in profit because I should have blocked one wasn’t paying attention so please do me tell you about a couple sponsors you know scope from solar labs. If you’re not using it to even just to take your wholesale accounts of course you got to use a for private label. Right. You need to understand the keyword you want to understand a key word go look at your competitors get their keywords and then use them. That’s smart business right because they already have proven that proof of concept but take the same approach to your wholesale accounts make sure that those key words are in there. If not upload those changes many times you can but many times you can take advantage sculped from Sellar labs go to several labs dot com slash scope used the code word momentum save a few bucks get a few key words get your listings found.
Stephen: [01:35] Got to find that keyword and scope will be the product that will help you. There are solutions for e-commerce Charron logger. You know again you hear me talk about her because she is my account manager she has been doing a great job. Again I had some stranded listings and I notice them down there on the bottom right hand corner. They’re gone. I look back and they’re gone and I see stuff submitted. I see stuff return. It’s such a great process because I don’t have to pay attention. I can pay attention to the other parts of our business solutions for e-commerce slash momentum. I’ll save you 50 bucks.
Stephen: [02:07] Lowest price she offers. And you still get the amatory Health Report. Take a look at it set up for 2018. Now tell Karen I sent you. When you think about Q4 lists and hope you don’t use them just Q4 for Hope you use them all year long again you want to learn how to fish right. And so the best thing to do when you’re buying the list is look at what they’re doing and how they’re doing it and then figure that out on your own. That’s the approach that gay lesbian uses and a million dollar arbitrage list. It is closed for the rest of this year. However I have asked them and they have said they would do it if there’s an opening. They will pull from the waitlist. OK so I have the link out on my site on this episode that will have a link that will take you right onto the waitlist.
Stephen: [02:55] So get on the waitlist if there’s something that your interest maybe she’s going to give you a 7 day free trial so there’s nothing to lose. But then once you get in there take advantage learn how to fish right sharpen your tool you know sharpen your skills I guess is the right phrase I should use. OK so again I have that link out on this episode. So jump out there and get on that list. You know go daddy and grasshopper are both national sponsors of the show. I’m very fortunate. I have a third one coming on in February very excited about that. But go daddy. I use them. This was somebody who had a great idea for and for a domain and I’m like.
Stephen: [03:32] Use my link. Save 30 percent 30 percent yes they pay me. We all know that. However 30 presents real I use it myself because I want to save the 30 percent. So let’s try. Go Daddy dot com slash momentum right try Go Daddy dot com slash momentum and you’re going to save 30 percent grasshopper’s the same deal. Try grasshopper com slash momentum and you’re going to save 50 bucks. I saw somebody else just signed up for it. The service makes you a pro.. All of a sudden your business has a phone number has a vanity phone number you can kind of create your own one if it’s available but you don’t need a second phone. And I think that’s the big thing it’s not Google Voice which is choppy Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t. This is professional stuff. Press one for customer service press two for my Amazon account manager which we go to Karen’s team. I mean this is a great opportunity. So it’s Try grasshopper dot com slash momentum. Say fifty bucks. Welcome
Cool voice guy: [04:29] to the e-commerce momentum. Good. We focus on the people the products and the process of Commerce selling today.
Stephen: [04:37] Your host Stephen Peters and welcome back to the e-commerce supplement upon cast. This is episode [2:51]. Mark Levine Yes the bubble first guy is back. And I brought him back for a specific purpose because I’ve been seeing a lot of people talking about getting back out on multiple channels. The time is now and I know it’s fourth quarter and everything is going crazy but you’ve got to be planning for 2018. And I think bubble fest is a perfect example. And Mark has such a great story it helped tell it are a way to tell it about getting and developing and selling on other channels according to him. He could add another channel in seconds now because of the systems that they put in place. Man I just hope you hear this. I really think it’s so powerful. I’ve seen some other people talking about struggling and blocked on Amazon. This is another option. And Mark has a plan and has done it and it can tell you how.
Stephen: [05:35] Going into the podcast. All right welcome back to the e-commerce moment a podcast excited about today’s guest repeat guest episode number 14 and actually I’ve had him on number 130 and this will be the third time and I think it’s the timeliness is the reason that I asked Mark Levine from bubble fast to come on back on. Welcome back Mark.
Mark: [05:54] Thanks for having me again.
Stephen: [05:56] I appreciate you coming on. And it well it is I learn something every single time. But for me this issue about multiple channels is hot again. I mean it’s really becoming hot again. It seems like it keeps coming and going in waves and it was like oh you’ve got to get on the air you got to get on Amazon. And in our show we were talking a little bit. My experience with Chicago which you and your wife and Marken are rich and nicely put on was fabulous. And you know I have no problem talking about it it was awesome because a couple of hundred people and it’s such an easy place to get to Chicago from. Pretty much most of the U.S. I told Rich this story as I was leaving I was literally checking out. There was a gentleman there and he recognized me.
Stephen: [06:42] I forget his name. I apologize but he was from California. I’m like oh wow I’m thinking wow that’s a pretty long way to go and I said why did you come. So when I heard him on your podcast and I knew it would be a place I can go meet people I said well did it live up to its expectations. He said Steve it was like the clouds opened. There was something that he learned. I don’t know what it was. We didn’t get a detail because I was leaving but he said it was like it’s going to move my business forward and I’m like oh my god that’s so powerful for me to think that I introduced him to your little world and then you guys blew his mind. Isn’t that cool.
Stephen: [07:15] That’s awesome. And the fact that it wasn’t the right area. I guess every year and this year the biggest number in 50 forgets are either for 56 percent of the people there were not.
Stephen: [07:31] So the perspectives they come right that get expanded right. Your perspective gets expanded and so that’s very exciting. And you had some unbelievable speakers there. I mean really talent. I mean real depth of talent and so it was so inexpensive it’s so convenient. The hotel was very inexpensive relative to the places that we all travel right. I mean I had a great experience. And
Stephen: [07:53] again you know here’s the thing and this again one of the reasons I asked you to come on was my observation that there were a lot of long term larger and largest relative ebay sellers there. That’s what I noticed quite a few and a whole bunch him. We’re trying to figure out this thing called Amazon. Is that fair.
Stephen: [08:15] It’s it’s it is it is fair not complete but it is fair. Right. So there is a lot there is. These conferences have been springing up art every year there’s just more and more conferences to go to. And most of them have the word e-commerce in their title. But for the most part it’s all about Amazon true and e-commerce Chicago truly is about e-commerce across the board. We talk about Amazon and we talk about eBay. We talk about Wal-Mart we talk about jet we had somebody there talking about Shopify right. Try to get somebody to talk about actually. But you know we’ll try that again for next year. But it’s the one place where you can truly go and hear about all of the different diversifications in e-commerce that you can go to examine all of your different possibilities. So yeah it’s there are a lot of people are looking for alternatives.
Mark: [09:15] This group that counter-counter group comes from a Amida group in Alko village called the Chicago area eBay and e-commerce meet sellers meet up group. And it does come from a base of eBay sellers starting like 10 12 years ago. So there is an eBay base in the group itself and that’s why you find a lot of the attendees. There have been longtime ebay sellers and every year they come to look for alternatives and Amazon has used to be the wild west where anybody could just jump in and you know sell on Amazon and make a lot of money. Amazon no longer is the wild west. It’s very controlled is very over controls right now. And so the pendulum has actually began to swing a little bit the other way where people are starting to reconsider coming back to e-bay or going to ebay for the first time or even better you know looking at Wal-Mart injera and Shopify as alternatives to e-commerce and you’ve got to get as much exposure to the different platforms as possible because Amazon is so tough. You
Mark: [10:28] never know when you’re going to get the listing suspended your account suspended. You have all your eggs in one basket and if you don’t have diversification you’re out of business.
Stephen: [10:39] So let me let me suggest this now and I think I’m right. Haven’t been a long time large ebay seller for a long time. All the changes up until maybe last year haven’t been that material. Now listing on ebay is a thousand times easier than what it used to be. Right. My opinion used to be very complicated. All the third party hosting all the third party software you had to have. It was very complicated and they’ve definitely made it a tremendous amount easier it’s a database right so they’ve definitely worked hard on it up until I’d say the last year though.
Mark: [11:14] All the changes in the systems statement all the changes on eBay have not affected our business that much. That’s significant because I got stuff that I’ve been selling for that many years where I bought 100 of them or whatever and it’s just a vending machine type of thing. However on Amazon one month could be maybe too much maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit but a couple months. The volume of changes on Amazon equal all the changes on eBay. Up until this point up until with the like it said the last year or so when they changed leadership or what have you. And so this is where I was going that’s why I wanted to have you on bubble fast cells on multiple platforms and has for a long long time. And to me that’s a very big accomplishment and I think more people want that.
Mark: [12:02] However you know I’m thinking about those big eBay sellers and they’re trying to figure it Amazon put it you know just when they start to dial it in. It changes exponentially again. And then you got down again. And and as you said it’s it’s controlled it’s almost overcontrolled at this point again. So that’s where I wanted to go with the conversation was thinking about is that no matter what you need to be on multiple platforms. And I think bubble fast is a good example of someone who’s been on a team that’s been successful for a long time. And if you’re comfortable would you share. What percent of your sales are sold by each platform. If that’s if it’s too personal you don’t have to.
Mark: [12:42] But if it’s fine. We are we’re actually it’s the numbers are a little bit convoluted because we’re actually running two separate businesses power fast. We’re shipping supplier business and doing sort of shipping supplies on Amazon and so on e-bay and then we have a whole separate business that grew out of doing FBA. So one business is directly on Amazon that’s what it was intended for. With a lot of new roles and a lot of the new restrictions we’re not doing 100 percent Amazon anymore.
Mark: [13:14] Maybe we’re doing 85 percent of Amazon and maybe trackers on e-bay and we’re And there are five or whatever in that Wal-Mart Jadick things that we’ve just brought in to that side of the business.
Stephen: [13:28] So you know 80 to 85 percent will say is there’s amazon.de right now for a company that was specifically created to be 100 percent FBA and let’s stop for a second because I don’t want to lose that.
Stephen: [13:41] So the that’s the newer business that was going to be 100 percent FBA because you didn’t want to add more stress on your warehouse. Is that why. What was the thinking.
Mark: [13:51] Well the real reason for making a separate corporation for the MPAA business is sales tax nexus. So anything gets in Natters warehouse or Amazon if we just sell one item to that state anything that we share in eyeballs has only as one warehouse area in Illinois. And if we were doing FBA for all the other type of goods and we had nexus with Amazon and any any ball fast that was shipped to that state would be subject to sales tax rules of that state. So to avoid doing that we created two separate court rules that we created new corporation just to deal with the was outside. So that nexus one was on business does not affect sales tax Well okay.
Stephen: [14:41] And so. So that makes perfect sense. However now you’re suggesting that you’ve moved back on that direction just a little bit 15 percent but still 15 percent is 15 percent right. Almost 2 out of 10 they’re backing off of that. Why to first Sify that business too. I mean I know the answer is going to be dusty but I just want to get to that.
Mark: [15:03] There’s a lot of reasons you know the obvious ones are vast. So there is there is there is gaming there is brand restriction.
Mark: [15:13] There is you know intellectual property issues. You go out and you buy something from a wholesaler and then your tools tell you it’s ok it’s on Amazon you sell it on Amazon and it shuts down that listing because it’s an IP intellectual property of my location. Now you can do all of this inventory the Amazon has created the environment for us to go out and sell it to the marketplace. So we’ve started to sell our Wal-Mart and Jet and and we’ve been selling on ebay since the...