#652 - Strategies from 10 E-Commerce Pros!

#652 - Strategies from 10 E-Commerce Pros! Bradley Sutton: Today, we are interviewing people live here at the Prosper Show that's going to give their best strategies, tips, and you're going to even learn about a marketplace maybe you never thought that you would sell on. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I'm your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show that's a completely BS-free, unscripted, and unrehearsed organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. And for those listening just on the radio or on your podcast player radio, nobody listens to radios anymore, your car radio, but We're here at the Prosper Show. That's why I might sound a little bit different. We are recording a live episode. We haven't done this before where we're going around to different booths and different just Amazon sellers out there, and we're just interviewing them, asking them what their best tips and strategies are, what they think of the Prosper Show. And I really hope you like this kind of like collection of interviews here. It's kind of like maybe 10 little mini podcasts in one. So hope you enjoy this episode. All right. So next up, we've got Michael here. Michael, how long have you been selling on Amazon? Michael Shaffa: For about three years. Bradley Sutton: How did you get your start? Michael Shaffa: We had someone in our office who was working in our Amazon division who was working with a lot of like third party articles and wasn't really sure like what they were doing. Didn't really dive into a lot of the research. And when we noticed some of those things were failing or like that there was inconsistencies, we took over and I wanted to really understand Amazon from the ground up. Joining Helium 10 was like the first really big resource and especially like the podcast was a really big resource for us. Bradley Sutton: Okay, so you were working at a company that sold products but didn't really, I mean, like offline, I'm assuming, and then they're just like, hey, we need to get our Amazon game up or is that how you got it? Michael Shaffa: Yeah, exactly. So we had had listings because we represented brands for our other customers. And from there, it was just that our sales were so low and we really couldn't get a single ASIN as it was to move over like three to five pieces in a month. So it was really kind of difficult. So then we wanted to try to focus on optimizing and learning what that was, learning what indexing was, like We're pushing our ASINs up because we have really great products, but they just weren't being seen. Bradley Sutton: Awesome. Awesome. So what were some of the strategies you learned and what were the results? Like you said, you were selling most of the ASINs, three pieces a month. What did you get up to after getting some of these strategies implemented? Michael Shaffa: So one of the biggest first strategies that we really got into was learning what keywords we're indexing on the first page and learning how we could push those products up. So we were getting into, just for example, we work with stuffed animals. So a lot of things of specifics for stuffed animals, we had assumed at first that our customer base would be moms, grandmas, grandpas, stuff like that. And the competition has We're more cuddly looking, lower price products and those are being bought a lot. Those have high conversion rates. But when we use things like X-Rite to find out how they were selling in the day, then we started to learn that our niche market should be more into a specialized market. So we started to put on those keywords. We started indexing those keywords and then we really pushed up. The second thing that really changed for us was the Maldives Honeymoon that you guys talked about on the podcast. We launched a product and it's We've gotten to a point where this product is, the factory has to just keep making it and keeping it on standby so that we don't have to worry about lead time because we constantly run out of stock on it. And it was the first product that I used using the Maldives honeymoon theory and really pushing it higher and higher. And it's just been a really big success for us. And now we model every new product that we launch after that. Bradley Sutton: I love it. Love it. Now, fast forward to last year, 2024. What was your total sales on Amazon? Michael Shaffa: Our total revenue on Amazon was $1.2 million. Bradley Sutton: Alright, $1.2 million from selling three units a month on SKUs to $1.2 million. Awesome. What's one unique strategy you guys have? It doesn't have to be about launch. It could be about advertising. It could be about your packaging. It could be about anything, your social media. What's something you think you're doing that's kind of unique that you can share with our audience? Michael Shaffa: I think for us is we really focus on, because I'm an ex-graphic designer, I have a full team of graphic designers, so we really focus on trying to put content out constantly. We really try to add a lot of videos to our ASINs. We try to do a lot of like meta advertising and a lot of like video ads to really push that stuff up because showing off the product in different angles and showing it especially like in someone's hands has been a really big tool for us because it gets to show the buyer that it's an authentic product, that it's not like it, you know, it's not faked up or it's Photoshopped to look like something's different, that when they get it, they're disappointed. Bradley Sutton: How many conferences like this have you been to? Michael Shaffa: This is actually my first. Bradley Sutton: What do you think? Michael Shaffa: I think it's great. I was supposed to leave yesterday and then in the middle of walking through here, I kind of panicked and booked another room and now I'm leaving later today. Bradley Sutton: So you definitely recommend like, hey, Amazon sellers and experts or Amazon sellers and service providers, hey, like come to conferences like this. Do you find more of the value or what's the breakdown between like networking as opposed to talking to people at booths as opposed to going to the sessions? Michael Shaffa: Realistically, for me, it was a lot of the sessions that I was learning, a lot of things, tips and tricks that I didn't know that you learn from. You do the webinars that we do every week. We listen to podcasts. We get a lot of great stuff from that, but it's different in person to see that there's really a lot of results that can be made. A lot of the networking that we've done here has been really, really good for us. Bradley Sutton: Outside of the Maldives honeymoon episodes that we've done in podcasts, any special or favorite episodes, like guests, like certain guests that we had on that you're like, oh man, I really learned a lot from this person? Michael Shaffa: Typically, whenever you do an episode with Shivali, I always really, I have like three, four pages of notes. So I really kind of treat it more like a class and just like a side listen. Bradley Sutton: Love it. Love it. All right. Well, guys, you heard it here. Go to conferences, you get to network, and you get to learn from really amazing sessions, kind of like having the best podcast episodes like back to back to back to back to back that you can take notes from. And I'll be seeing you at a future conference then. Thank you. All right. Now, you might not recognize him because he doesn't have the blue shirt on today, but he's got the pink shirt. This is still Kevin King. Kevin King: My non-Helium 10 speaking shirt. I'm speaking today. Bradley Sutton: What are you talking about? Kevin King: What do you think I'm talking about? Bradley Sutton: Ninja hacks, to be exact. Kevin King: Yeah, actually, they're tactics. Actually, I'm getting away from the word hacks because hacks are short-lived. So I'm switching it to more tactics. And even at BDSS now, you probably noticed, or maybe you did, we don't call it the hack contest anymore. It's the smart showdown. So I'm trying to get away from the hacks and more towards legitimate, long-term, lasting content versus something that just works right now. Bradley Sutton: All right. So for those who aren't here at Prosper, tell us one of the tactics that you are talking about, the non-hacks. Kevin King: I'm going to show you, you know, everybody's always like, how do I do product inserts to actually get people on my list? And maybe they do a warranty or they do some sort of offer. So I'm from a BAP club or whatever it may be. And those response rates are super low. I'm going to show you a way to get 70 to 80% of your buyers on Amazon. Actually, to get their email address and their phone number and their mailing address without them even giving it to you, but based on your insert card. Bradley Sutton: I love it. I love it. What about at Billion Dollar Seller Summit? What's one of the things you'll be talking about? Kevin King: My presentation is going to be on the psychology of marketing, similar to the version of what I did at Helium 10 Elite. So if you're a Helium 10 Elite member, you've got a sneak peek of this. In fact, the Helium 10 Elite members, last week we did my monthly roundtable, which is like a little mastermind that we do with me once a month. Bradley does one. Shivali does one and Kerry does one and once a month I do one. They got a sneak peek of two of the hacks that I'm doing today last Thursday before anybody here at Prosper. So all those people that didn't even make it out to Prosper, they got to see a couple of those hacks on that call. So that's why you want to be a Helium 10 Elite member. Back to your question, I'm doing a psychology of marketing as my talk because most of BDSS people haven't seen that. Only a few Helium 10 people that were in Seattle have seen it. I've since modified it and added a lot of cool stuff to it. I'm going to be talking about how AI and agents and all that kind of stuff is going to be impacting everybody in the next couple of years as well. Bradley Sutton: Let's say there's somebody who wants to do their first AI agent. What aspect of an Amazon seller's business do you think can be helped most once this whole AI agent thing is a little bit more hashed out? What would you design it to do? What aspect is the most replaceable by an AI agent? Kevin King: Customer service is the most replaceable. That's the easiest one right away. That's the most replaceable. A lot of PPC agency stuff, the monitoring, the report building, the VA type of stuff where they're doing all kinds of spreadsheets and everything, that's easily replaceable. The product sourcing, the product opportunity, I think those are going to be big. I think there's eight big agents that you're going to see. Right now, we're kind of in that middle ground. It's make.com automations or N8n. They're the two big softwares that a lot of people are using. But there's still kind of that if-then-else, that old programming way. But they're good. But you're going to get to where these are totally autonomous. And when you do that, you're going to have a Helium 10 agent that mimics you. You're going to have a Helium 10 agent that mimics Alibaba and there's this new language, I think it's called MFQ or MQF or something. It's basically like opens up an API so all these different systems can talk to each other. So Alibaba sourcing can talk to an agent that you develop that does product sourcing. So the product agent will go out, it'll use Helium 10 data, look for opportunities, it'll go read all the reviews, it'll go read, do all kinds of market analysis, avatar analysis and it'll come back and say, hey, we need to make this spatula with a green handle and I don't know, a wider hole or whatever it is at the top, that will automatically go to Alibaba agent and Alibaba agent will say, okay, oh, we have these seven factories that can do it. What changes do you want to make? And the other agents, the AI agent will do, oh, we need the design to look like this. And they'll use, you know, kind of like the mid-journey kind of thing and say, we need to look like this. The other agents say, okay, this is what we can do. Here's the pricing. Here's the materials, blah, blah, blah. All that's without human. And they'll come back and they'll come to you and say, do you want to do this or you want to make any changes? And you say, yes, I want to do it. Then another agent will take it over. We'll go out and do all the PPC. It'll set up all the launches, all that kind of stuff. I think you see all these agents working together. Now, this is not this year. There's crude versions of it this year and little stand-ons, but I think in the next five years, Prosper 2020, uh, 2020, uh, 2030 is going to be a whole different animal. I just saw Abe talking about, uh, I just saw a brief talk. He's talking about how to make the most of Prosper and he showed something from 2017. So look at all the sponsors at Prosper in 2017. There's not a single software company, no helium tens, no PPC agencies. He said, I'm looking at in 2025, there's like 19 of them sponsoring. Same thing's going to happen. You can see the shift and you can see the shift in the whole industry. And I think Helium 10, you guys are on some of the cutting edges of some of that and staying on top of it. So I think it's going to be interesting times as a seller. Bradley Sutton: Yeah, absolutely. This episode is going out Saturday. Any spots left in Billion Dollar Seller Summit in Iceland? Kevin King: I've got a few spots, but it's last minute, you know, to make that kind of trip and to get all the way to Iceland. A lot of people are like, oh, I'd love to be there, but I can't. You're welcome to come. BillionDollarSellerSummit.com. But here's the cool thing. I'm live streaming it. And this is not just like some Zoom call live stream. I have a team coming in from Europe, professional live streamers, television guys that are actually going to live stream both Elevate360 and BDSS. So if you can't make it, you'll actually be able to live stream it. And here's the cool part. I know you haven't been able to make it to a market masters yet. So if you buy, you can buy just BDSS, you can buy just Elevate360, but I've got like Daryl Ives, the guy that made Mr. Beast famous, showing the algorithm how to do everything on YouTube and crush it with your Amazon sales, just as an example. You can buy that one or you can buy them both together and save like $500 and then you get all 34 of these videos that I've done at Market Masters of the experts there. They've gone into a room. Nobody's really seen these videos. They go into a room. They record a 10-minute actionable video, almost like an in-depth hack, for lack of a better word. Those have not been released. Nobody saw them at Market Masters. You get those for free, and there's some really cool stuff in there. You can do that at BillionDollarSellers.Live, L-I-V-E, BillionDollarSellers.Live, L-I-V-E. Bradley Sutton: Awesome, awesome. All right. Well, I'll be seeing you in a few days in Iceland, and maybe you guys Now, next up, we've got a marketplace maybe you haven't sold on or don't know too much about other than buying. Now, first of all, what is the correct pronunciation? Is it Shein? Shein. Speaker 4: Shein. Bradley Sutton: Shein. Okay, guys. It's almost like a little two-syllable thing there. I like it. What's your name and what department do you work in? Speaker 4: So, I'm Vivian. I'm the head of business development of our Shein Marketplace. Bradley Sutton: Now, you are here at the Prosper Show. The Prosper Show is not just Amazon. We have a lot of different marketplaces here. But what inspired you guys to have such a really nice, cool booth here at the show that maybe predominantly has been about for Amazon sellers? Speaker 4: Since we're Shein Marketplace, a lot of people know Shein, we're a D2C brand, selling clothing. But since two years ago, we're starting to launch our marketplace to inviting the local business, local sellers, to join on the marketplace to sell the product that Shein does not make. That's the main purpose we're here, talking to the sellers who want to open up different channels. Getting like more brand awareness to their brand because definitely Shein, we have all the younger generation on our website. If people knowing like a majority of our customer are from like Gen Z and the millennial, so it's kind of quite different demographic compared to Amazon. So that's why we're here. Bradley Sutton: Okay. Now, I think, you know, I've never bought from Shein, but I know, like, it'll come up in search a lot and mainly for, like, you know, clothing category. Is that the main thing you guys do or you have all categories that pretty much any other marketplace would have or do you just have, like, you're trying to just focus on a few? Speaker 4: We actually have all the categories right now. We actually opened up our supplement last year, and then we recently opened our food and beverage as well. So Shein, we're popular for fashion apparel, but that's for our own first-party business. But for our Shein Marketplace, we're inviting all categories sellers to sell on Shein, including beauty, personal care, home living, including 3C electronic, automotive, pet supplies, everything. Also like a fashion apparel seller, they also can sell on Shein as well. Speaker 5: Okay. Bradley Sutton: How does like the referral system work? Like, you know, like, you know, on Amazon, there's like 15%, every platform has, you know, TikTok has certain percentage. Is there a set percentage that's like the, I don't know what you call it, commission referral fee for if I'm selling on Shein and making, make a sale, how much do I give to Shein? Speaker 4: Got it. Yeah. So currently Shein, we only charge 10% flat rate for all categories. And then for the 3C electronic, we charge 8%. Bradley Sutton: And then do I have to ship it myself or can I use programs like, you know, multi-channel fulfillment from if I have inventory in Amazon, can I fulfill my Shein orders with that or I have to ship everything by myself? Speaker 4: Actually both, so this model is self-fulfillment so basically the seller is gonna do the drop ship and also the seller can partner with 3PL fulfillment partners or MCF from Amazon as well. Bradley Sutton: There's currently no like Shein fulfillment? Speaker 4: We do have but right now like since we're also having a lot of like inventory to our warehouse so we're kind of like a How's it like, you know, not having that many capacity for additional sellers to, you know, putting their inventory to our warehouse, but we do have our Shein fulfillment service. Once that ready, we will invite all our sellers to join our program as well. Bradley Sutton: Okay. And so if someone of our listeners is kind of like, Hey, this like seems like a platform I want to sell on, how can they sign up? Speaker 4: So basically, that's my team. So if they're interested, they can definitely reach out to, first of all, we have a Shein website, Shein Marketplace website, so they can register through the Shein Marketplace website, or they can connect with one of our BD person, you know, on LinkedIn or, or just connect directly with me. So I can allocate those sellers based on their categories to the correct team. Bradley Sutton: Is the best way to reach out to you email or LinkedIn or? Speaker 4: Both ways. My LinkedIn is Wenjia, W-E-N-J-I-A. And the last name is Sun, S-U-N. Bradley Sutton: Perfect. Perfect. All right. So I might have to consider moving some of my products just to test out this platform. But if you guys are interested in more information, now you have the contact information. And let's see, maybe by next year, you guys will be selling on this platform too. Speaker 4: Thank you. Bradley Sutton: BlackBox by Helium 10 houses the largest database of Amazon products and keywords in the world outside of Amazon itself. We have over 2 billion products and many millions more keywords from different Amazon marketplaces from USA to Australia to Germany and more. Use our powerful filters to search through this database for pockets of opportunity that you might want to get into with your first or next product to sell on Amazon. For more information, go to h10.me forward slash black box. Don't forget you can save 10% off for life on Helium 10 by using our special code SSP 10. Back here, and now we got a familiar face from all older videos at Helium 10. We got Lem in the house. Lem, what are you doing these days in the Amazon world? Unknown Speaker: Right now, I'm just a private label seller working for myself. My brother's working with me right now, but living a life being an Amazon seller. We're looking to expand to other channels, and that's the big focus right now. Bradley Sutton: Is Amazon still like your main income? You got other side jobs? Unknown Speaker: Yeah, Amazon's still the main income, but looking to expand into Walmart, thanks to Carrie and her amazing presentation. We're getting a little bit more into TikTok shop as well. Bradley Sutton: Awesome, awesome. Now, what has been, you know, like when you were working in the industry more, like you had your Amazon maybe take a little bit to the backseat to the point where probably it couldn't have sustained you as a main income, especially now that you're a family of three now? Oh, yeah, yeah. Family of three. So then, what do you do in the last couple of years to kind of like revitalize your Amazon business to get to the point that it is like your sole income now? Unknown Speaker: It is time management and prioritization for sure, but also trying to think of creative ways to bring in extra capital to try to dedicate that towards the business. I did have a job at an agency for a little bit, so that helped me for sure bring in extra capital to dedicate towards the business to a point to where the side hustle has to become the main hustle because it takes too much time away from my hands, which is a good problem to have. Bradley Sutton: Now, back in the day, a lot of your big successes with Amazon, kind of like in the wholesale slash arbitrage model, are you doing like a private label now mainly? Unknown Speaker: Yeah, just private label now. But I still think retail arbitrage wholesale is a great way to get started in the Amazon space with little capital, less than private label. Speaker 5: Okay. Bradley Sutton: Now, what is a unique strategy you think you're doing either for launch or for optimization? Because again, you're not a new seller per se, but the fact that you were able to grow fast Basically, your own brand, which you hadn't done before, is almost like the same path a new seller would do, so you're kind of like in the same boat. There's this kind of narrative sometimes that goes out there like, oh my goodness, it's too late to start a brand on Amazon. You obviously have in the last couple of years. What's one or two strategies that are somewhat unique, not just, oh, I manage my A-costs, but something that's the reason for the secret sauce here, some of your success? Unknown Speaker: It's definitely understanding consumer behavior and matching buyer intent. I think buyer intent is very underrated. And so if somebody is looking for, let's say, ball jars for a wedding, then I'm only showing wedding-specific creative in my ads. If they're looking for a big red wagon for multiple kids, you want to have multiple kids in your creative. So matching your creative to the specific keywords and having very specific campaigns for that. So instead of having 30 keywords in one campaign, maybe have three very specific keywords in one specific campaign and matching that with your sponsor products, sponsor brands, and sponsor display advertising. Bradley Sutton: Love it. All right. Well, there you have it, guys. It's not too late. I mean, Lem just has created a sustaining job for himself with Amazon Brands Private Label 2025. You guys can still do it out there. Thanks a lot, Lem. Yeah, no problem. Alright, so next up, somebody I've known from one of the very first events. I think I went to like ASGTG. We might have met and see you at pretty much probably like about 15 events right now. How did you get your start in e-commerce? Unknown Speaker: I started selling on Amazon, I would say, in the gold rush that was around 2015. Then I saw the need for a white glove PPC agency. Our specialty is that we have US-based account managers. So we started the agency around 2019. But I think I was one of the very first Helium 10 users. Still listen to Manny Co to the AM PM podcast. Yeah, that was great times. Bradley Sutton: Awesome, man. And you, when did you start in e-commerce? Michael Shaffa: I got my start in e-commerce back in 2016 doing agency work. Then around COVID, I made the leap over into the aggregator space where I was head of advertising for Perch. Bradley Sutton: Things have come full circle. Obviously, things in 20... I can't believe we're saying it. That's 10 years ago. Things from 2015 are very different than 2025. And of course, there's this sentiment sometimes that's out there that, hey, new brands, it's a lot harder to get started on Amazon, which is true. But What I would push back on is like some people are saying, Oh, it's kind of impossible unless you've got, you know, humongous budgets and stuff like that. But I still see people having success as new brands, even like the mom and pops out there. What about you? Like 2025? Yes, it's more difficult than 2015. But do you think it's like impossible to start as a Am I in pop brand on Amazon now? Unknown Speaker: I love the question because I get this question a lot. 100%. In 2015, things were way easier, but we have a client that started selling on Amazon around a year ago. They will be doing over $1.5 million in sales this year. As you said, it's definitely harder, but it's doable. With the right strategy, you do need to have some kind of funds. I don't think it's possible to start a real legitimate Amazon business with $5,000 anymore. I started my business with $5,000. You cannot do it in 2025, but you're going to need to have crazy funding, I think with $50,000 to $100,000, you can start an Amazon business today and be very successful, but it's harder and you have to be way more sophisticated. Bradley Sutton: Yeah, absolutely agreed. Now, to close it out, what's a 60-second strategy, something unique that you think in your businesses or at your agency you do that you feel comfortable sharing with our audience out there? Unknown Speaker: I'm not sure about something unique, but what we do a lot is we use brand analytics and search query performance to track market share of specific keywords. I think it's one of the most underutilized tools. Amazon gives us first-party data and you can see on a keyword how you're converting, how your competitors are doing on that specific keyword, what's your market share, and we use that a lot specifically when it comes to should we spend more on this keyword or we're maxed out and we can't have more market share on this specific keyword. So I would say make sure to utilize search query performance to your best. We do that at IGPPC. Michael Shaffa: I'll piggyback off of this. Bradley Sutton: From my perspective, you need to know when not to spend. I think most agencies are probably going to tell you, oh, you just always have to spend more money. Michael Shaffa: From my perspective, you need to understand how competitive you are in your market. So again, using the brand analytics data, we like to understand what is your conversion rate relative to the market? What is your revenue per click relative to the market? And if you're not winning in either of those capabilities, we need to actually go back to the drawing board. Don't spend more money on advertising and see, can we reinvest that into the product itself? Bradley Sutton: Awesome, awesome. So if people want to, you know, reach out more questions to Isaac, you can see his, he has his initials in his brand name here, IGPPC. I need to do that something. We couldn't do that with Helium 10 because then it would be BS Helium 10. My initials are not good for that. But if you see him at a conference and you don't say hi, he'll kick you in the shins. As you can see here, this is what happened right here. So make sure to say hi to Isaac when you see him at the conferences. All right, we'll see you guys next time. All right, we are here at Prosper. And yesterday, I had the occasion to meet Gabriel here. Gabriel, how long have you been selling on Amazon? Unknown Speaker: I'd say about seven years. Bradley Sutton: Seven years. How did you get your start? Unknown Speaker: Helium 10. So I did essentially use Helium 10 a lot to get started, but I started with private label. My first product was the iPhone 10 screen protector. And I learned the whole business from start to finish. So Helium 10 was a part of that journey when I started. Bradley Sutton: Awesome. Unknown Speaker: Were you like a Freedom Ticket, Project X or just basically the tools? So I definitely had a subscription. It was just the cheapest one because I was extremely bootstrapped. But I would watch like podcasts. I don't know at that time if it was like how big it was or it was in 2017. But I would just watch you, your content, whatever y'all are putting out, just understanding what I call Amazon theory, just understanding how to live and survive. You are definitely a pivotal part of that. Bradley Sutton: Awesome. Awesome. Now, are you still selling on Amazon? Are you just a consultant now, agency, or are you doing both? Unknown Speaker: Yeah, so as you can probably assume, if you start a screen protector as your first product, that's a terrible product. So eventually I ended up consulting and that's where I found my success. So I worked for the largest advertising agency in America or private advertising agency in America and then recently left to plant a church. So now I actually work for myself and all of the tools I've learned and all of the whole journey has made me such a great advertiser now. So now I just focus on advertising. Bradley Sutton: Okay, what's the best advertising strategy that you implement in your business when you help other businesses that you can maybe share with our listeners out there? Unknown Speaker: Yeah, I would say something I still do not see enough are nickel autos. So essentially, if you do an auto campaign and you run them on nickel, so every single targeting, there's four of them in there, run them as a nickel. Don't just do that because it's going to get very low impressions. And it's going to show very seldomly. But what happens is eventually you do get some clicks. It only really works when your category is not very popular or not very crowded. So for example, I'm with Omega brand right now and that does not work with them. But however, I was in a brand that was very expensive. It was actually with home improvement tools like leaf blowers, string trimmers, edgers. It worked. For them very well, they had row as of like a hundred most of the time. So don't just run a nickel run a regular auto as well But I got what kind of I steal out a little bit or For the second one, if you wanna like just do a nickel and then do suggested bid and do a high bid, but that's very just up to you. It's not really, it's a very creative process. So I'm not gonna say don't do, but I would say the nickel is very, very like, why would you not do a nickel? It's almost like if your brand is okay with brand awareness, why would you not do branding campaigns? Those are the absolute easiest to win. Bradley Sutton: The nickel- And by nickel, he means five cents, I believe, for all you guys out there who might not be from this country, don't know what that means. Unknown Speaker: Yeah, so Bradley has international presence, so I'm not as cultured. I'm sorry. But yes, Nichols, I would say, you know, that's my number one. You know, I'll leave it at that unless you want to go deeper. Bradley Sutton: All right. That sounds good. Kevin King: All right. Bradley Sutton: Well, have a safe flight back to the home. How was this prosper for you, though? Like, did you learn a few things? Unknown Speaker: Yeah, I would say that for me, being in the business for seven, eight years now, it's kind of a golden nugget mentality. Like, I feel like most of the talk is very kind of, for me, I know a lot, but I try to find those golden nuggets and I think I got a lot. So overall, I think I'd come back next year to find more golden nuggets. Bradley Sutton: Awesome. Awesome. Well, it was nice to meet you and we'll see you later. Kevin King: Thank you. Bradley Sutton: All right. So now we've got no stranger to the show, former CEO and CTO of Helium 10, now CEO of us. We've got Bojan. Bojan, how many prospers is this for you? Unknown Speaker: Six. I started in 2018. There's one or two that we missed, right? We were supposed to be here in 2020, and then COVID happened, so we missed that one. But it's been quite a ride, like a string of events. Bradley Sutton: Most memorable Prosper moment? Is it hugging Mark McGrath and introducing him on stage at the house? Unknown Speaker: I think that was, what, like 2021, 2022? Man, people are still talking about that. That was awesome. I would say amazing, but then there's another brand out there. No, it was wonderful. Yeah, so there are a lot of things that happened here. Bradley Sutton: Awesome. Awesome. So, we're going to have something really cool in the next few weeks that's going to come out for all you Freedom Ticket members. It's something called Expansion Ticket. Now, this was an idea that mainly Bojan's, but I also had some tips into it. But why was this necessary? Why is it important to make this Expansion Ticket? What did you see as the need of now in 2025? Why sellers need this kind of education? Unknown Speaker: To grow your business, once you get past the proof of concept, you found a product, you found your category, you found your niche, now you want to expand. We can spend more money on advertising. There's only so much money you can afford to spend there. You'll continue your product innovation. You'll go multi-channels. You go to Walmart. You go to, I don't know, like a Sephora if you're in duty, whatever it is, but inevitably you get to the point where you need to expand your total addressable market. You need more eyeballs. You need more people buying your stuff, so you go across border, expanding across border. It's a clear opportunity. Speaker 5: The U.S. Unknown Speaker: is a really competitive market. Yes, there's 300 million people. There's a lot of purchasing power, highly competitive market. When you look at adjacent markets, you have an opportunity to sort of leverage expertise, leverage what you already achieved, repackage it and find new margins and new opportunities internationally. You know Amazon, you know human psychology, you know what works, what doesn't work. Now you just need to find a way to bring it to a new market in a localized fashion. So the whole idea of expansion ticket is like, here's your SOP, here's the blueprint. You ideated, you went to Freedom Ticket, you learned how to do things in domestic market, probably .com, but now where do you go next? Yeah, you could go out and try to figure it out on your own, but why Helium 10 exists, why Avast exists, why are we in this business is to help you be successful because with you being successful, We get more successful, so it's selfish, but it's a win-win. That's the whole point. Bradley Sutton: Awesome. Yeah, I think people understand the importance where it's not like 2016, 2017, you just sell on .com or you're in Germany, you're just selling in Germany, you're good to go. You got to diversify where you're selling in different marketplaces, even within Amazon. It's not just about expanding to Walmart and TikTok, which I think everybody understands is a good thing, but the most no-brainer expansion is within Amazon's own ecosystem. You use the same ASINs and everything, but In each marketplace, there are different things. There are different compliance issues and that's where Avast comes in and they help with that and they also help with this course so that you guys can do as much of it you can on your own until you need a company's help like Avast. Now, a lot of people from your booth were wearing these superhero capes, but this is your superhero. You're one of those superheroes that doesn't need the cape. Unknown Speaker: Yes, springtime. So, Avast The tagline is approachable authority, and I guess marketing team went overboard. They thought superheroes and cartoons would be fun and approachable. So, they made us approachable. I'm not sure how much authoritative we look in those caves, but no, it's like we are in the business. We are part of the community. We live and breathe with people that we support and service. We also want to make it fun. Bradley Sutton: Absolutely. And that's definitely what Amazon is all about. It's not just a boring accounting job. Oh, no, wait, wait, wait. I'm talking about accounting job. I'm sorry. Sorry about that. Anyways. All right, guys. So thank you very much, boy. I'll be looking out for expansion ticket coming to Freedom Ticket in the next few months. And we'll bring you back later and some of your team maybe to talk more about the program. Kevin King: Sure. Bradley Sutton: Love that. Good luck. So we're here now walking the floor and I came to Kevin's Billion Dollar Summit booth and somebody I met in where do we meet Korea? Speaker 4: South Korea. Bradley Sutton: Yeah, and now you're helping Kevin out with a billion dollars. Unknown Speaker: Exactly. Yeah, just showcasing the events and letting everybody know about the newsletter. Bradley Sutton: Awesome. Now, are you selling on Amazon yourself? Kevin King: I am. Speaker 4: I'm a seller. Bradley Sutton: When did you start? Speaker 4: Two years now. Bradley Sutton: How did you learn how to sell? Like how did you discover the opportunity to get into e-commerce? Unknown Speaker: I'm through friends really that were already in the industry and I needed something for myself so. It kind of just happened. Bradley Sutton: Are you still selling your very first product? Unknown Speaker: I'm still selling my very first product, yeah. Bradley Sutton: Well, that's good. I mean, like most people fail with their first product, but that means that you must have had success with your first launch. Unknown Speaker: Yeah. I guess I've been blessed, but my first product is my best-selling one. Bradley Sutton: For you, is Amazon like your main source of income? Is it a side source of income? What does selling on Amazon mean to you? Unknown Speaker: It's becoming my main source more and more, of course. I'm still two years in, so I can't take money out of the company as much, so I have stuff, but mostly I'm putting more and more energy into Amazon every day. I'm not. Bradley Sutton: See, we don't interview just people who just use Helium 10. Now, the fact that she says she's not, that means nobody's perfect. That's all right. But what is something that you think you need help with on Amazon, just in general? Speaker 4: You know what? Now that you say it, my agency does use Helium 10. And they're doing stuff on your account? Unknown Speaker: So my agency is using you guys. I don't have the means to because I'm not running the PPCs and the account, but. Bradley Sutton: We'll find somebody who's not using Helium 10 somewhere out here, but what kind of sales are you doing yearly these days? Unknown Speaker: We just hit around 35 a month. Bradley Sutton: What are some strategies that you're using that you think is something unique? It doesn't have to be necessarily even about Amazon. It could be maybe if you're doing social media or you're packaging or how you pick products to sell. Unknown Speaker: Picking products, I really just create my own products. So I try to do some market research and Put few products into one that way the customer is getting more. And then another thing that I guess I've been doing. Bradley Sutton: So kind of like bundling different products. Unknown Speaker: Bundling different products in one product. So recreating and also I become the face of my brand and I try to showcase the product in a very casual, not so much pushy salesy method, but yeah, that way. Speaker 5: Okay. Bradley Sutton: I love it. I love it. All right. So you're not sure if you're going to be at Billion Dollar Summit next week, but I'm sure I'll be seeing you somewhere in the world. Are you sure? Speaker 4: I will be. Unknown Speaker: Actually, I will be in Iceland at Billion Dollar Summit. Speaker 4: Yeah. Bradley Sutton: All right. Well, guys, if you want to find out more about her journey, go to Billion Dollar Summit next week in Iceland. Speaker 4: Yeah. Or come to Iceland. Bradley Sutton: Now we're here at the AZRank booth. We've had various ones from AZRank on our podcast before, you know, like Colston, Alina, and now their other partner who I've met before in Singapore and other places. We've got Bogdan here. How's it going? Speaker 5: It's going great. Thank you for having me. Bradley Sutton: What is something, you know, like some people, the way that AZRank used to be, you know, back in the day, like I used AZRank too for launches and search find buys and rebates when those things were allowed by Amazon, right? But obviously, you know, since not 2025, but even back in 2023, you know, like those things, you know, you can't do anymore. So how is a company like a how did you guys adapt? And like, what, how are you managing launching products now in a world where you're not supposed to do rebates and search find buy two step URL, things like that? Speaker 5: Well, right now we have many services. Right now, we are doing a lot of surveys, meaning for keywords for, for the buyers, we have a photo live and we have also press release. So we improve a little bit and have much more services. Bradley Sutton: How do these specifically help with launch then? Like what, what is what you're doing affecting launch more than just like, Oh, Hey, I'm just optimizing my listing. Like how does it boost somebody up from just not using those services? Speaker 5: So, um, let's say from the survey part, uh, The sellers will receive very valuable information, so one of the best questions the buyers will respond is, if you see this product, on what keyword you search for, for example. The information comes from the real buyers. You will receive photos and videos from the real buyers and also you will have the press release that you will have presence in different magazines, articles in magazines, and from that part you will receive an external traffic. Bradley Sutton: So that's an interesting point because it's still you can get people to search for a product and find but you're not like going against the terms because you're not trying to manipulate the rank. It's just something that naturally happens like you do a questionnaire and say, hey, what keyword would you search to find this? It's probably going to be one of your main keywords and if it's not You got a problem. You learned about a problem. You were maybe focusing on the wrong keyword, but it's going to have also effects, especially in the honeymoon period, potentially on your relevancy and your rank for that keyword. So that's interesting. I like about the UGC too. So guys, they're still around. Just because rebates and search find buy is gone, AZRank is still helping people to launch and we'll have Alina back on the show sometime this year to talk more, but thanks Bojan for helping us out. Speaker 5: Thank you so much for having me and good luck to all of us. Bradley Sutton: Awesome, awesome.