Shownotes
I could talk to Barbara all day. She is a wealth of knowledge and confidence. Her confidence comes from doing the work, the hard work. A life in corporate America gives her the push to be successful. Love how she tackles problems, like no interface for Jet- let’s just create one! Great conversation with a great seller who offers some real options to grow out your business.
Mentioned:
Barbara’s previous episode #104
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] He just wanted to offer you a chance to get to the resonate conference that’s sold out that’s coming up in May. It’s May fifteenth and sixteenth in Atlanta. I bought an extra ticket and I’m going to give it away to someone who subscribes to my newsletter. Yes, you’re going to have to subscribe. You can text the word resonate to [inaudible] the word resonate to four, four to two. It’s gonna ask you for your email and that’s what it’s going to take to get entered into the drawing. It’s one ticket. I paid for it personally. Um, you get to hang out with me. Is Monday the 14th and includes a cocktail party. It includes lunch both on Tuesday and Wednesday in an. Includes an incredible dinner Tuesday night and I just can’t wait because I think it’s one of the best conferences. What I described it last year, [inaudible] bunch of people asked me, hey, what was it like, very technical and the attendees were younger.
Stephen: [00:53] Now I’m an old dude and compare to that. They were definitely younger, but they were so technical. Ah, one of the guys I was talking to is selling on 16 different channels. The details and the intimacy because you’re so close to the speakers, you get to talk to them, you get to ask and go deeper and it’s just really, really a valuable conference put on by seller labs. Yes, they’re one of my sponsors of the show, but I bought the ticket so you know, to be fair it is sold out. They didn’t give it to me, but I want to help them because I think it helps you and so for me to get a chance to see Ezra firestone speak, I’ve not seen him speak personally face to face. I’m dying. Bret Bartlett a. When you see James Thompson, I’m from prosper show, Peter Kerns. I’m. They’ve got this expert coming in who’s doing a talking about instagram and she is talking about instagram influencers and how to use them for your products.
Stephen: [01:48] I mean this is really, really intense stuff. It’s held in an amazing place. This was a new venue in Atlanta, so you’re responsible for your own hotel, your own flight, your own transportation to the event, but the ticket itself is paid for. I paid for it because I’d like to hang out with you, so if you’re interested in it, all you have to do is text resonate to for, for [inaudible], and it’ll ask you for your email. That’s the cost and you’re going to get subscribed to my newsletter, which I think is a valuable newsletter. But then again, maybe I’m biased, but if you want to come and hang out with me in Atlanta, it’s going to be in May, coming up quick. So I’ll probably choose the, uh, the person pretty quickly. So any questions, just send me a note at Stephen and e-commerce. Momentum [inaudible] steven and e-commerce momentum.com
Cool voice guy: [02:34] to the e-commerce momentum podcast will focus on the people, the products, and the process of e-commerce selling today. Here’s your host, Steven Peterson.
Stephen: [02:47] Welcome back to the e-commerce momentum podcast. This is episode 292. Barbara Bush and Barbara was a back episode [inaudible]. So if you want to go hear her backstory, well know for is a great place to go and listen and it’s a cool story. A lot of people will relate to corporate America coming out of that and then, you know, kind of starting over again and trying to figure it out. And even in this episode we get into a bunch of that because I think it’s so cool when you look back and you start looking at the signs and you look and you see that it’s coming, you know, either by your choice or their choice. And I think it’s cool that you get there. Uh, the key is not to get there too fast, put it off as long as you can and if you can kind of not take advantage of it.
Stephen: [03:31] But if you can make it the best for both of you, you all win. And I think barb is a good example, that the thing that I take away from this conversation, and you’ll see it in the headline, the title is using variations and variations. You’re like, oh, big deal Steve. You know, we do that all the time. Now, not just variations of products, how about variations of channels, about variations of vendors. That’s where Barbara gets me into this conversation and it was like, wow, I mean really deep when we start thinking of the possibility of taking advantage of all those different things with a few products because that’s really a lot of stuff when you build it out and it’s a great conversation. Let’s get into the podcast. All right. Welcome back to the e-commerce movement and podcast. We’re excited to have my gas to back from episode one of four. That blows me away. That was two years ago, almost two years ago. Is that incredible?
Speaker 3: [04:25] That is amazing.
Stephen: [04:26] I did not. I thought it was a. We see each other so much and I thought, oh yeah, it’s been recent and then I looked back and it’s not [inaudible] back from June of 2016 and back then we were talking about this I, you know, I guess it was relatively new platform, new to most of us. Jet And you were the queen of jet. That was your thing. You’re the jet girl. You were on it early. You were definitely an early adopter and it seemed, what was it that made it so attractive to you? Because there’s so many other things you can do. Why jet?
Speaker 3: [05:01] Well, I think at the time, um, we were looking, um, to get some diversification and that’s like my new nickname now I’m the lady. Oh, diversification where we’re trying to find another platform that looks worth the effort, like what had legs, um, you know, at that time in E-bay was there, but there were a lot of other, um, smaller platforms and which one was going to have any chance of taking on Amazon and they had such a good story with, uh, you know, they, Wal Mart ultimately bought them for three point billion dollars and they had all this good um, platform technology and we really felt like, you know, these guys are going to, they’re going to get there.
Stephen: [05:46] And, and quite honestly, that’s why Walmart bottom right is the leadership and the technology, right? That’s what they wanted, right?
Speaker 3: [05:53] Yeah. They basically wanted to by Marc Lore,
Stephen: [05:56] pay a pretty good book. And so the, the premise of chat is pretty low prices for most merchandise, right? Or is it specific merchandise? I’m not as clear.
Speaker 3: [06:08] I never bought it. They’re trying to do the best price thing and they’re also trying to do so. I think what’s like the most compelling thing for me as a seller with jet is their ability to tee up and cross out. So very. My average selling price on Amazon is like $25. Um, but on jet I can do a $300 order pretty regularly, even a 50 or a hundred dollar order because what they’re doing is they’re saying if you buy one, you know it’s this price. If you buy two, it’s a little bit of a discount. If you buy three, it’s a little bit of a discount. If you get this other product, we’ll take another discount out. Oh, and by the way, did you know it came in this color and you’re like, OK, by the time you’re done, your basket is just getting more and more full.
Speaker 3: [06:51] It’s something that I struggle with every day when I look at my Amazon sales as to why they don’t do this kind of dynamic pricing engine. I mean obviously they’ve got a lot of technology to change to be that dynamic and that fleet of foot, but I just frustrates me because I’m like, it’s so nice to have these very large orders of multiple units and multiple products and yet I go on Amazon and I just don’t have so many. You know, I think the statistic is one point, one units per order on Amazon to one and a half on, on jet
Stephen: [07:25] and when you multiply by the millions of transactions a day, right? Tens of millions probably. So. So walk me through that. So what, give me an example. Is it a bag of potato chips? Is that A. is that an example? Because on Amazon you would have a single unit or you can have multiple, you know, bundles, right? A two pack or four pack because the pack or whatever on Jed, it’s one. Or if you buy a second bag of chips who gets. How much cheaper?
Speaker 3: [07:53] Depends on. I mean there’s a lot of things going on behind the scenes, um, for one jet will use you pay 15 percent commission on, on chat or on Amazon. Jet Uses 10 points of that to drive their prices down.
Stephen: [08:08] So they’re, they’re willing to give up 10 points lower so there’s taking the same 15 but they’ll discount. So I was going to ask you. So if somebody buys a second bag of potato chips to I get to, I have to pay in that discount. Me As a seller, you’re saying no,
Speaker 3: [08:25] not while you’re paying for it out of your commission, but no you don’t,
Stephen: [08:28] but it’s still this flat 15 percent. It’s not an additional commission on top of it.
Speaker 3: [08:32] No, it’s still the flap 15. And in fact on grocery it’s only eight percent.
Stephen: [08:37] So the chips sell for $10 and they take [inaudible] the chip sell for $9. They take eight percent. Is that how it works? [inaudible]? They discounted it a dollar. So you actually get a little bit of a benefit there,
Speaker 3: [08:51] right? Exactly. And then you can actually offer them incentives as well that if someone buys, um, and it’s like a really inverted way to look at the buy box, but when you’re trying to do as a seller is give jet additional tools besides using your commission to get people to put more in the basket. And they don’t have any. I don’t know how many ppc don’t have anything like that, but what they have is you can say, all right, if you buy two bags of chips from me, I’ll give you another two percent off. If you buy, if the order gets $200, I’ll give you another percent off. If you waive your right to return, I’ll give you another 10 percent off. And you know, and we’re talking one percent, one and a half, but we’re not talking big numbers on hundred dollars order. You might say, I’ll give you a dollar or $2 off.
Speaker 3: [09:37] And that, you know, your margin can certainly sustain that. Um, if you’re getting multiple units in there. And you know, another thing they’ll do is if you use a debit card. So they’ve got all these different tools. Um, if you’re a merchant fulfilled vendor, you can even use your locational, right, because if you’re in New Jersey and you’re shipping to New York, you can charge less for that order then if you’re shipping to California, all these little things, all these little levers that you can put in there to sort of win the buy box and then also get more units for sale.
Stephen: [10:09] Now I did see a chart recently, recent for me, I’m getting older, so it’s all relative, right? It’s true. It’s like, oh, I remember back when we walked uphill both ways, but it was, I was thinking about this where it was, uh, the um, the marketplace out there. It’s like eighty or eighty five percent Amazon. And then number two was jet, I believe. And then nothing. There was like nothingness. There was nobody else. So it really was. I think maybe Ebay was in there, but it was really nothing. Maybe 80, eighty five percent. Where is, do you have different numbers in that? Do you remember anything? Because this was recent.
Speaker 3: [10:47] Yeah, I think you’re probably going to throw walmart in there. Um, for sure they’ve got, if you want to call that Walmart jet, maybe if you want to look at it that way I think is very strong to. I mean obviously nothing is as strong as Amazon and so two points on that. Um, one e commerce itself is small compared to general commerce, right? So that whole number, all that eighty five percent and everything is really only started a conference recently. Ten percent of all commerce is, is e-commerce, so that means there’s 90 percent out there that a large portion of which will ultimately migrate into the e-commerce space. So, you know, the growth is huge and one of the things I ask everybody when I speak is do they think that the average listing on Amazon is good? And most people will say no because really if you think about where that can evolve to, you know, the listings are just going to get more complex, they’re going to have more and more depths, etc. And that’ll be across all the marketplaces. And what’s interesting, back to the original question, I sort digress there, sorry I’m, is that, yeah, so most of commerce is not e-commerce and secondly, um, while amazon is hugely dominant, um, that may not be the case in five years, right?
Stephen: [12:10] Something’s going to change today and tomorrow. so. Yeah, that’s, that’s fair.
Speaker 3: [12:16] Yeah. So who’s going to be taking a little bit of their lunch? Is it alibaba? I don’t know. Is it the social media? Is it walmart? There’s all these different players and you know, I guess from my perspective as a software vendor and a seller, but as my perspective is that I want to have my feet in a lot of different places, so I’m well positioned to leap forward as those things start to transpire.
Stephen: [12:43] Well, thAt, that was gary’s advice to make every visa advice, you know, I’m dropping a name like, like sat in a room with them and I asked that question, now how do I know what the next channel was? Like? My big question, right? Ebay guy or whatever you call me, I literally call me that. He’s like, you gotta be on a more. However, now I sit back and I think, do you put that much energy and effort into all these small little things when quite frankly the risk reward, right? The even the upside is just not going to be very good. So what you’re saying though, now that jet and walmart have merged in some way or merging combined, right? If they’re, you know, because it sounds like eventually they’re going to have to be some way that they take advantage of each other completely. And so if they each have [inaudible] now all of a sudden they have four percent and so they are the dominant player. Right. And so you’re saying, hey, if you’re going to bet on a horse on ebay and then bet on walmart jet.
Speaker 3: [13:44] I say that on one side of my mouth when the other side of my mouth, but product, you go to amazon, there’s tons and tons of stuff and it’s really not well done by the sephora or ulta. It’s really well done and a lot of those niche sites, whether it’s for automotive parts or beauty products or whatever your specific interest in are exceptionally well done. Which is why I always ask when I speak, like, do you think an amazon listing is a good listing by and large and you know, when you compare it to some of those spaces that are much more unified and codified now they’re horrible and you know, the thing is, is that I don’t know what’s going to be next. So all I know is I’ve got to find a way and efficient way to take the work that I’ve done in sourcing, in building, um, a good listing or optimization in advertising.
Speaker 3: [14:39] All these things that I’ve done at step one say for amazon because that is the big kahuna and I’ve got to take the phone and efficient way to leverage all that, know how and all that knowledge and all that work my, my warehouse into other channels simply easily with very minimal effort. And the way to do that has to be, um, quite finding, you know, leveraging other people’s tools. V a is using software to read, disseminate the information, just fInd a way. Because you’re right, you can’t be everywhere if it takes as much time as the first time.
Stephen: [15:15] Yeah. That that’s a kind of a challenge for, you know, on jet now for,...