hey everyone this is stefan from
projectlifemastery.com and I'm here at
cellar con in Orlando which is a live
event put on by the amazing selling
machine and I'm being joined right now
by Jeff Cohen who is been in the
e-commerce side of business for over 15
years now he is actually a partner and
the CMO from cellar labs which is an
amazing company that has different tools
for Amazon sellers one of my favorite
that you guys offers feedback genius so
if you guys I think I've heard me share
feedback genius before I think it's an
essential software tool to have for your
Amazon business but we're just here to
discuss the the opportunity on Amazon in
general and I want to thank you for
taking the time today yeah no problem
thanks for having me I'm happy to share
with your audience yeah so what's what's
your story how did you get into you know
the whole Amazon ecommerce ID and then
getting into seller loves yeah I kind of
I mean I kind of got into this space on
accident I was looking for a job and one
of the companies that was hiring in the
small little town that I lived in was a
textbook wholesaler back in the mid
early 2000s and you know when I started
working for them I ran their corporate
advertising department kind of a
corporate day job
we all remember back when we had those
and you know one of the kind of the side
hustles that we did with our extra
when I really traced like my roots of
like selling on Amazon back it goes back
to like 2004 2005 and anyone that you
met that goes that far back was involved
in the book business started an
e-commerce operation for that company
called texbooks com built out a
full-blown ecommerce website that was
you know multi million eight figured out
eight for your site of selling college
textbooks I always like to thank people
for pain so much for their college
textbooks because it helped us run our
business and after I left there I went
into the affiliate world ran a web site
called campus books calm I was back in
the day of price aggregation and price
you know where they would aggregate
prices of all the different sites they
were actually textbooks coms biggest
affiliate and I met a guy there who
worked for us
after he left he started going to USPS
auctions and if you've never were
involved in USPS auctions what would
happen was they would take all the stuff
that fell off a truck literally not
literally figuratively right and it
would end up in this warehouse in
Atlanta Georgia and you'd walk into this
warehouse and there were just boxes and
boxes and boxes all over the place and
you just walk by and you'd look at the
box and you'd say okay I mean you'd go
into an auction
they'd be like lot 405 and we started
off buying books and buying textbooks we
had a 1,500 members in the basement
1,500 square foot storage shed 4,000
square foot warehouse built it up to a
15,000 square foot warehouse with the
15,000 square foot warehouse we were
writing all of our own software so in
back in 2011 12 13 there wasn't a lot of
software in the space for the stuff that
we were doing so we built a lot of our
own software and that's really where
feedback genius was created we had a lot
of people who were we would list the
book as torn cover people would buy the
book with a torn cover and then they
would complain that it had a torn cover
so we're like well well maybe we could
just send the emails to people that
bought really good books and then we can
kind of reduce the bad and increase the
good and so that was how feedback genius
was really created realized that we
liked software more than we liked
selling I kind of started to pivot our
company so in 2000 actually in April of
2013 that's when like feedback genius
became like a public tool in the space
today we run four different tools we
work with 50,000 Amazon sellers we'll
send over a million emails a day we'll
manage over 10 million dollars in Amazon
advertising on our platform yeah amazing
now you've been involved with the Amazon
in the early days what have you seen
change like how obviously Amazon's
huge now but I guess you've been kind of
a part of seeing that journey in that
evolution so what do you what do you see
as I guess just that the changes of
Amazon over the last 10 or 15 years and
what do you see as the opportunity with
Amazon
looking for yeah that's a great question
I think that the biggest change over the
last ten to fifteen years is that Amazon
was a book site and now it really is in
everything store and if you if you
studied Jeff Bezos and many of us who
have been in the space for a long time
we've realized we have to study him
because if we don't understand him we
don't understand where things are going
that was always his vision right the
biggest change that I think that's
occurred in the last three years that
affects most of the people who probably
watch these type of videos is that
Amazon was always created with a
first-party side the vendor central and
a third-party side the seller central
seller central was initially created
really to be a reseller platform and so
that's why if you talk to people that
have even been in this business for five
years they probably started off doing
arbitrage online arbitrage retail well I
guess not online five years ago but
retail arbitrage and that platform is
shifting and so that's why most of the
people you see getting and being
successful in Amazon today or over the
last year over the next couple of years
it's around building a brand and and the
platform is shifting and it's becoming
more agnostic for people that have
followed it historically there's used to
be things you could only do on vendor
central that you couldn't do on seller
central or seller central well now you
can do almost everything on both
platforms and so for the opportunity
hasn't changed
the opportunity in this space is still
very large but what has changed is how
you need to take advantage of the
opportunity and so I don't ever tell
anybody that retail arbitrage is dead I
don't tell anybody that online arbitrage
is dead it's definitely more difficult
than it was two years ago but private
label FBA building a brand on Amazon
that is where this marketplace is going
and the growth that we're seeing in the
number of sellers the number of sellers
who are being successful
is growing so Amazon released numbers
back in 2016 that they had and Amazon's
always weird how they release numbers
right so they said we have over 100,000
sellers who sell over a hundred thousand
dollars I was the first time any of us
had gotten numbers yeah they came out
with new numbers in 2017 and said it was
a hundred and forty thousand so there is
opportunity for growth
there's opportunity for more people to
have bigger businesses it's just that
what it takes to do that is different
than what it was yeah I mean there's
more opportunity there's also more
competition I think it's all about how
you approach it the mindset I guess you
have with it because another big
opportunity right now is just the global
and international side of things with
Amazon I mean they open up in Australia
you know all over Europe and whatnot so
do you you know what do you what's
what's kind of your mindset around that
around the competitive side because
there's a lot of people they're fearful
they see different products and they're
intimidated by how many reviews that
these other products have in this market
or under this keyword you know what kind
of mindset maybe for someone watching
this that's just getting started what
how should they think about starting
their business - yeah I think the
easiest way to say it is the days of
finding a product and just bringing it
over and having success are gone it's
just it's just not as easy to do you've
got to come into this with the mentality
of this being a long play and and you
know what FBA offers are all the things
you just talked about I can find a
product I can work with the manufacturer
to improve that product I can build a
brand around that product and then I can
stick it into this global system that
will deliver it to all of my customers
when acquisitions occur that's pretty
cool but it requires that you actually
have to bring products in that innovate
right so there's a there's a concept of
I know you're familiar with it maybe not
all of your audience called blue ocean I
mean that you always want to be seeking
a blue ocean
you don't want to be doing what other
people are doing and so that's what you
have to be looking for when you're when
you're looking for a product is does
this fit a blue ocean am I just being
everything that everybody else is doing
and sometimes it's as simple as coming
out with a color that nobody else has so
it's not necessarily like you have to
invent a brand new product but you know
maybe there's a product that never came
out in pink but it's really good for
females and there should be a pink
version of it so that could be your blue
ocean but listen there's gonna be
competition and anyone who's out there
trying to tell you that this is easy and
there's no competition is is lying to
you it's just a matter of how you attack
that competition and the strategies that
you use yeah now I know you guys that
seller labs have I think four different
products I think you guys have one
what's the name of the one that's four
key to the research one scope scopes
okay so I know that's a really important
part of this process is finding the
right product the right niche keywords
whatever it might be is in that you can
get started and yeah there might be
competition but it might just give you
the easiest path for success for you
what are what are some tips that you
guys that you can offer for people that
are in that phase right now that are
just getting started they're trying to
find a product maybe they're using
something like scope to help find the
right product for them so I'm gonna say
if you've never selected a product
before just take action and select a
product right so many people get stuck
in what I call per analysis paralysis
right there they're looking at scope
they're looking at jungle scout they're
looking at viral launch they're looking
at all these different tools that are
out there and they're and they're
literally debating over whose numbers
are right yeah and listen I'm not going
to tell you that their numbers are right
and mine are wrong or mine or item there
are wrong all of our numbers are
relative based off of an algorithm that
we're individually using they're all
relative and so you have to look at
whether you're using merchant words or
jumbo scout or scope you have to look at
that data as a piece of information that
you're going to use to take
next step it's not this end all be all
of you know I love the people who post
online a screenshot from scope and is
like this is my information like should
I buy this product yeah well there's so
much more to it what are the reviews say
can i improve the product have I
contacted a manufacturer that can
manufacture the product for less or a
better quality than somebody else and so
you can't just get hung up on numbers
you have to look at this whole piece of
it can I build a community around the
product because if I can build a
community around the product I know
you're into Fitness right if I can build
a community around fitness I can launch
almost any fitness product that I want
no matter how competitive it is because
if I have a bunch of people who are
following me because of fitness and then
I release a yoga mat don't do yoga mats
disclaimer right asterisks my audience
is going to buy it because they're
already following me so all of those
things become intangible that a that
even a tool can't give you the answer to
and ultimately as a as a seller on the
platform what you need to be looking for
is kind of what what does your what does
your criteria look like and don't try to
follow somebody else's yeah and I think
looking at the bigger picture too
because I think a lot of people just
look at it is oh I'm just gonna sell
this one product on Amazon but they're
not thinking about the brand right so it
might be it might be a product that has
low competition some good demand for it
and everything but they're not thinking
big enough picture two am I gonna launch
more products under this brand they're
gonna complement that or am I gonna
build the website am I gonna build my
social media and actually turn it into
something more than just a product
because I you know I think as you said
it you know if you're just kind of
there's there's kind of the approach if
I'm just gonna put out a bunch of random
products out there and sell them but
oftentimes that's not going to lead you
to the most success versus picking the
the overall big picture of that brand
that you want to build it then having
the products fit underneath that brand
that goes back to the history we were
talking about before right three years
ago you could do that three years ago
you could pick
product a product Z and product F and
they didn't have to have anything to
them but today that doesn't work because
you need external community and external
traffic to win on Amazon and I think you
you hit it on the head if you're a
first-time seller don't get hung up on
building the brand the community and all
those other things because you add this
massive amount of complexity to what
you're trying to do but consider it when
you're picking your product consider
does this have a community of people
that socialize around it that you know
because I like to use tailgating it's a
great example but like let's say I have
a beer a beer bottle opener I actually
want to go after people who are into
tailgating build a community around
tailgating and then I can sell them my
beer bottle opener but if I actually am
successful in building that community
there's fifty other product ideas I can
come up with to sell to that community
and then people think well if I'm doing
that why wouldn't I send them to my own
website and the answer is is that quite
simply what you want to do is you want
to harness your own group to take the
sales velocity and get ranked on Amazon
now might be confusing for people who
are newer but that's how you win on
Amazon is through sales rank and I love
what you said too about than analysis
paralysis I'm going to touch on that
because I know a lot of people they've
maybe used jungle scout or scope or one
of these tools and they've done the
research but they still haven't gotten
started yeah and they're they're almost
waiting like for all the numbers to be
perfect and it's it's never really gonna
be perfect at a certain point you've
just got to decide this is the product
that I'm gonna pursue and it might not
be the one forever it might just be the
one that you just go to the learning
curve with and make some money from like
I know for myself and for Tatiana and
most sellers you know that first product
they started with isn't the one maybe
they're doing today because they just
maybe learn some things and then they
realize you know there's another product
out there better profit margins or a
better potential but they got started
you want to cut some faucets
process you have to learn yes right and
so I talked a little bit about this on
stage earlier today but it's like you
have to identify a product you have to
find a manufacturer you have to go
through the inspection process
you have to and I'm not trying to make
it seem insurmountable I'm just saying
that there is a lot of steps of what you
have to do and so if you pick the right
product the first time you probably
still aren't gonna make money on it
right I like to tell people to set a
level expectation breaking even on your
first purchase is a win then you can
decide whether you want to take that to
the next level because you you do all
this analysis you identify all this
information but then when you come in
and you actually hit the market the
market might tell you something
different the market might have changed
in two months and but that shouldn't
stop you like I know that I know I know
that you can hear that and then you can
be like well that's all the reasons why
I don't want to do it but sitting there
and looking at the data for two months
isn't gonna help you either you've gotta
get it in you've got to experience the
market you have to understand how to do
a shipping label for FBA how to create
an inbound shipment
get all of that done then figure out
what you did right what you did wrong
and adjust and move forward so it's not
to say you're gonna lose money but I
think the reasonable expectation is is
that your first product isn't going to
hit and make you a millionaire yeah I
want to transition to talking about
feedback genius and and the follow up
process because I think you mentioned
that was the first product that you guys
had developed for your suite of tools
that you guys have but I think that's
such an important software because you
know as you know and others might know
Amazon limits your ability to reach out
to the customers and have that
communication of whatnot and the ability
to get reviews is a very important part
of selling on Amazon and you guys have
feedback genius which helps sellers be
able to do that you want to share with
people a little bit about the the follow
up process and what feedback genius can
do for people yes so I guess quite
simply what feedback genius can do is
automate that follow-up process for you
we tie directly into the Amazon buyer
messaging system so
that when actions occur on your account
we send messages as part of that
follow-up sequence so that's kind of the
the technical side of it how you do that
successfully as a seller is I think the
second part that you asked about it has
gotten harder just like everything we
talked about is more difficult to do
today than it was just like your parents
had to walk uphill both ways to go to
school right what has happened in the
Amazon ecosystem is that the value of
the review has become more important yes
so while less messages are getting
through to your customers the ones that
get through and give you the feedback
becomes that much more important and a
lot of this has been caused by sellers
themselves right we sent too many
messages to people we we had these
incentivized review groups and Amazon's
trying to clean up the system which
explains why so what I tell people is
this check your subject line if you read
the subject line of your message and
it's not something you would open your
customers won't open it
second is tell your brand's story so
it's about taking the story of your
brand that you're trying to sell within
your product or your group of products
and bringing that into the story you're
telling your customers three is you need
to have a community outside of Amazon
that you're conversing with your
customers because those are going to be
the ones who become most loyal to you to
leave those reviews and so you can't be
solely dependent on Amazon and getting
the reviews from Amazon and you're gonna
get less reviews but those reviews are
significantly more valuable one last
thing to add when your customers give
you reviews listen to them so many
sellers get reviews and they're like I
got a one-star review he said my product
stinks my product doesn't well maybe
your product stinks Yeah right like
listen to the reviews of what you're
getting from people and use that as an
opportunity to prepare your product for
reorder or find a new product or a way
to innovate your product
I am shocked at how many sellers have
been selling in
this space for a long period of time and
they just keep reordering the same
product over and over and over again and
the best analogy I use for that is you
know when I was younger we used to shop
with this thing's called department
stores right these these big boxes that
we'd go to any time you walk into a
retail operation there's something new
right I don't go to them all that often
anymore I don't think many people do but
when you go there the store has
something new they have something new in
the window there's the jeans don't fit
the same way that jeans fit the last
time they've got a new cut they've got a
new shade right everything's changing
evolving over time well even if you have
a garlic press right something really
simple like a garlic press like think
about how you need to be improving your
product each time maybe you make it a
little bit of a nicer package maybe you
make it maybe you add an extra little
feature maybe you throw in a bonus piece
to it you have to be evolving your
product otherwise your product lifecycle
shrinks it around again and I'm just
going to touch on that point too I think
it's important to actually engage with
your customers if they leave a bad
review actually respond to it because
you might have a review that was from
two years ago and that one-star review
might not even be relevant maybe you've
improved the product since then or maybe
you can address that and that helps
other customers that might see that to
actually show that you care that are
actually being proactive about improving
you the customer experience and whatnot
and maybe it's trying to make it right
for that one customer because there are
some cases where you can actually you
know fix that situation or maybe get rid
of that one-star review or turn it into
a five-star review so there's a lot that
you can do I think it's an opportunity
when you do get a bad review because
it's valuable feedback that you can use
as you said to make the product well and
in the end I'll add to that and say
under your product listing you have a QA
respond to the QA the easiest way to say
it is like somebody comes up to you and
says oh nice shirt it's like looking at
them and being like blank-faced you know
if somebody asks you a question respond
with an answer if somebody leaves you a
review and it's a positive review just
say thank you like that's all you have
to do is just say thank you it it goes
to demonstrate that you're a product
that you're a brand
you communicate with your customers that
you care about your customers and all
the other things and I I do completely
agree with that so for the follow up
process so I know there's a few things
that feedback genius can help you with
and just to follow up in general one is
the reviews I you know I like in terms
of maybe someone mapping out a sequence
you know you can with with your guyses
tool you can send a follow-up just thank
you so much just you know before they
actually get received the product you
can get seller feedback in your seller
central as possible let's talk about
that because Amazon's changing okay
right in the seller community when
Amazon makes a change what do we like to
do we like to freak out right and we
don't always know like what the change
is or why it happened
Amazon has always had really defined
rules around messaging buyers they
haven't always enforced those rules and
so what we've seen lately is that Amazon
is doing stricter enforcement of those
rules so they're not new rules they're
just enforcement of the rules so what
does Amazon say you can do and you can't
do you're not supposed to do it let's
talk about what you can't do alright at
the time of this video actually these
are them what you cannot do for a long
time all right you can't do any type of
marketing or promotion outside of Amazon
or can you direct people back to Amazon
so you can direct people to your product
okay but you you're not even supposed to
say like I sell shampoo come by my
conditioner okay okay so you're not
supposed to do any promotion anything
outside of your product that they bought
from correct the conversation is
supposed to be around the product that
they purchased from you and you giving
them some type of value that's what
Amazon's looking for that's the easiest
way so no links to your website no
coupons for future purchases don't even
try to be sneaky and put in a PDF that
has a coupon on it right Amazon's
catching on to all these things the
biggest thing that I think is kind of
still up in the air is how many messages
can you send to a customer we have been
recommending to customers that unless
there's a really good reason get it down
to one
think about how many times you get
emails for things that you buy and are
they actually adding value so if you
have a product that requires somebody to
be home to sign for it somebody to take
it off of the doorstep because it's
gonna spoil if it sits outside send a
message before it arrives and tell them
otherwise message them after they get it
provide them some level of value that
over and beyond what they were expecting
and then ask them for a review the the
days of the multi email sequences are
really ending you you just Amazon
doesn't want their buyers getting five
messages I bought a product the other
day it was a firefly lights these little
tiny lights I got five emails from the
guy five emails four Firefly lights I
just
even in my business of what I do I'm
looking at it and going he was just
really searching to try to give her
their unnecessary emails for the most
part right yeah and you listen I think
it's really simple how many emails do
you want to open what emails excite you
to open and again if you're not a
consumer of your own product that would
react to what you're sending then don't
send it to other people and is that
mainly because that if you send too many
it's the deliverability an issue just
getting those emails open from those
customers so Amazon has not come Emma's
this this is kind of debatable Amazon
technically states that you can send a
message to ask for a product review you
can send a message for seller feedback
so if you look at like the very strict
terminology it doesn't say you are
limited to sending one message to your
customer and so that's where it's still
a little ambiguous and and we don't like
that in our world like we would rather
Emma's on just tell us give it one two
three just give me a number and I'll
follow the rules but ultimately that's
kind of like where things are at today
is that that part of it there are parts
that are not in big US right no
marketing no promotion no coupons no
links that's not it's black and white
and the
the rules the number of emails that you
can send gets a little ambiguous as to
as to what's out there that's why we're
kind of saying from a best practice
right a really good email and work on
your subject line so many people feel
like if I can get five emails then I'll
get them to open I'll get them to open
it I'll get them to reply work on that
subject line because if that subject
line is interesting then they'll read
the rest of your message is there any
type of testing that you can do around
that with feedback genius yes so
feedback genius does have an a/b testing
functionality where you can test your
subject line and then you can look to
see which one has a better open rate
pool and the main priority for using
would be to review the review more
important than sort of feedback or
probably almost anything I would almost
say the main priority for using the main
priority for using a tool like feedback
genius is customer service
the byproduct of that is getting the
review I'll give you an example we had a
customer who is using our product and
they they started getting replies via
email saying the expiration date on the
product had passed and what they
realized was they had stickered all
these products in December and they
forgot to turn the year so none of them
were actually expired but they were all
looking like they were expired because
they were looking like they were a year
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