Merry Christmas everybody!
We just want to thank you guys for an awesome year, it never would have been possible without you. We did a lot of things that are new to us this year (insert shameless plug for our course) and you've stuck with us through the hiccups, providing us feedback along the way which helped us improve immensely. We can't thank you enough for that.
Since everyone will be on holiday mode for the next couple of days, we figured we'd do the same and take a break on the podcast. This is not a long term break, we're just going to skip 3 episodes and resume on the 4th of January, kicking off the new year with a goal planning episode.
We hope you have a blast during the holidays, and see you again next year!
As 2017 comes to a close, it's only fitting to devote our last episode of the year to 2018 ecommerce predictions. Dave and I listed what we think will happen in the ecommerce world next year, from sales tax to Bitcoin. It's always fun to make these predictions and then revisit them by the end of 2018 to see how many of them actually happened.
It would've been great to have Dave on the episode as well, but he is still in China as of recording this, so I will just cover his predictions here. This will also be our last full-length episode for the year and we will resume with new episodes twice a week next year. I also recorded a short special for Christmas Day next week, stay tuned for that!
Here are our predictions for ecommerce next year:
Many of these predictions bring terror to us sellers--especially Amazon FBA fee increases and sales tax--but ecommerce in general is expected to grow over the next few years and we are hoping to ride along on that growth.
Resources mentioned:
Stamped.io
AsiaInspection
Amazon FBA's Largest Ever Fee Increase Coming in 2018 - How Will it Affect You?
2-Hour EcomCrew Q&A Webinar
Registration for our first-ever webinar is still open. You can ask us anything under the sun about ecommerce for 2 hours for FREE. Go here for more details.
Thanks as always for listening. Until next year, happy selling!
I just did a podcast about my 2017 biggest struggles in our last episode and today I will cover the biggest news to ever explode in the ecommerce world this year. It definitely seems like 2017 flew us by but not without leaving news bombs that left a lot of people in ecommerce amused, worried, hopeful and wondering what's going to happen next.
We compiled a list of the biggest news in ecommerce this year, ranging from the Bitcoin explosion to the ever-so-perplexing sales tax. The items on this list are not written in any particular order. Listen to the podcast for my discussion of each.
Resources mentioned:
Stamped.io
AsiaInspection
Free 2 hour webinar
How to Hire Virtual Assistants and Open an Overseas Office in the Philippines
As part of our goal to get more reviews on iTunes, we are hosting our first-ever 2-hour Webinar on December 21st where we will answer any ecommerce questions you have and give you tips you need. I usually charge $500/hr for consulting but this webinar is free, the only thing we ask in return is for you to leave us an honest review on iTunes. Check out how to join the webinar here.
We hope you enjoy this episode and as always, happy selling!
"In general, I think that people spend too much time talking about their wins, and gloating, and how well things are going and never talk about the disarray or things that are going on behind the scenes, or things that they're struggling with. I think it's important to talk about this stuff; I think everyone goes through these types of things." - Mike Jackness on the business and life struggles he faced this year
This is that time of the year when people talk about "best-of", "top 10 of the year", and all those things that highlight the most significant things that happened to them this year. It's a great way to look back on the successes and lessons of the year that is about to end and to get ready for the year that is about to come.
In this podcast I will not do a "best of". Instead, I will talk about the struggles and the challenges I faced. Too many people talk about the glory of being an entrepreneur and sweep the mess under the rug. Being in ecommerce is not all roses and the bigger your business grows, the more problems you encounter. So in this episode, I will talk about the hardships, the confusions, the worry and all the uncertainties that we faced head on this year, and what we did to get overcome them.
I elaborate the following challenges my company and I faced head on:
It definitely has not been an easy year but with all the struggles came the fruits of our labor: explosive business growth, a great team, and happy customers. We don't expect problems to let up anytime soon since we are gearing for more growth next year, but we do know that we will be giving it all we've got. And you should, too.
Resources mentioned:
Stamped.io
AsiaInspection
Our Amazon Product Launch Strategy for 2018
Free 2-hour Webinar
If you enjoyed listening to our podcast, please leave us an honest review on iTunes. We badly need reviews to help us get discovered by other ecommerce entrepreneurs out there looking for our content and we need your help.
In connection, we are having a 2-hour coaching webinar on December 21st and attendees can ask anything under the sun and we will give our honest unbridled advice that will be really helpful for your business. Normally I charge $500/hr of my consulting time but this webinar will be for free. The only thing we ask in return is that you leave us an honest review of the podcast. You can check out the details here.
Thanks as always for tuning in. Until next episode, happy selling!
"If you put no effort into your stuff, like if you're really not contributing any value to whatever community you're in--you have crappy packaging, crappy products, crappy support--you're not going to get anywhere. So you have to make yourself stand out." - Nat Arem of Hookgrip
Here at EcomCrew we put emphasis into how important it is to build a brand and not just sell a bunch of products. It's fine if you're just starting, but building your brand needs to be a part of your long-term strategy. Having a brand makes it easier to move off of Amazon if you decide to, or if, God forbid, Amazon suspends your account.
Having a brand also makes it easier to establish a following of loyal customers. Today's guest, Nat Arem of Hookgrip, talks about how he built a brand around in a niche that is full of die-hard followers: CrossFit and weightlifting.
Nat has been a friend of mine for 10 years now and has been around when I was still neck-deep in the online poker world. We both got out of that and went separate ways but surprisingly both found ourselves in ecommerce.
In this episode Nat and I talk about our online poker days and how he turned his passion--weightlifting--into a solid brand with a loyal fanbase.
Conversation points:
Resources mentioned:
Stamped.io
AsiaInspection
Under The Hood
Hookgrip
We hope you enjoy this episode, and if you did, please leave us an honest review on iTunes. And as a thank you for leaving a review, you are welcome to join our 2 hour webinar on December 21st. Click here for more details.
Have you heard of Under The Hood? Starting next year, we will be featuring a segment where selected listeners get an hour (up to 1.5 hrs) of FREE coaching with Mike and Dave. In exchange, the coaching session will be recorded and turned into a podcast episode. Sign up at ecomcrew.com/UnderTheHood if you’re interested.
Once again thanks for listening, and until next episode, happy selling!
"If you're never been an entrepreneur before, I would suggest starting a business. If you have done it once, I would strongly advice buying a business. It's just a lot easier." - Bill D'Alessandro of Elements Brands
If you've been listening to the podcast for a while now you might have noticed I that when I talk about my speaking engagements, I always give credit to someone who told me--back when I was unwilling to speak in front of a large crowd and would rather get a root canal--that I needed to do something that makes me uncomfortable to further my career and life. That someone is my guest in today's episode.
Bill D'Alessandro is the founder of Elements Brands, a company that acquires and scales consumer products brands. He has been buying businesses for 7 years now and currently owns 9 brands with over 130 products. We invited him to be one of the special guests of our 100th episode and if you haven't listened to that, absolutely do so--you will find nuggets of advice you won't get anywhere.
In this episode we discuss why he prefers buying businesses over starting one from scratch and when you can do the same.
Here's an overview of what we discussed:
If you want to explore the possibility of selling your business, you can reach out to Bill on Twitter or shoot him an email at bill@elementsbrands.com.
Resources mentioned:
AsiaInspection
Stamped.io
Elements Brands
Under the Hood
We have a new segment on the show! Starting next year, we will be featuring a segment called Under the Hood, where selected listeners get an hour (up to 1.5 hrs) of FREE coaching with Mike and Dave. In exchange, the coaching session will be recorded and turned into a podcast episode.
If you want to ask Mike and Dave for ANY advice about your business absolutely for FREE and want to help put out good content for the podcast as well, we need you. Sign up at ecomcrew.com/UnderTheHood if you're interested.
Thanks as always for listening, and until next week, happy selling!
"Seeing all these things that other people ... are doing, especially the black hat sellers, and not being able to beat them by using my white hat tactics--it's a very brutal position to be in. But the thing is, one day, I want to be left with a chair when the music stops and they won't." - Mike Jackness on his long-term Amazon launch strategy
Earlier this year we came upon a chilling situation--more and more sellers are employing black hat tactics to try to win more sales on newly launched products. With so much competition on Amazon it's very tempting to do the same, even though we all know it's against Amazon's TOS and doing so is very much like playing with fire.
And we all know what happens when Amazon finds out. I haven't been suspended before, but I know what it's like to suddenly lose so much money overnight because the platform you depend on decided to basically kick you out. I've heard of so many dreadful stories of Amazon killing accounts and leaving sellers in the dumpster. I don't want this to happen to me--I certainly don't want to be stuck with a million dollar's worth of gel pens I can't pay bills with.
So I got to thinking, what does amazon really want? If I need to win in this without risking my account, I need to think of a long-term strategy that plays by Amazon's rules.
That's how I came up with the strategy that we've been using to launch our newer products. We've started to get some real traction, and with this success, we decided we will be using this strategy moving forward to 2018.
In this episode I talk about exactly how we plan to launch products next year, step by step. A word of warning though: this does not involve fast and easy tricks and gimmicks--this strategy takes longer, but is every bit worth it.
Here's the breakdown of what I discuss:
If you decide to try out ClickFunnels and want a copy of our landing pages, send us an email to let us know. ClickFunnels has made it really easy to share pages, so sign up here if you haven't done so.
Resources mentioned:
AsiaInspection
Stamped.io
ClickFunnels
If you found this episode useful, let us know by leaving a review on iTunes or by leaving a comment below. Thanks so much for listening, and until next episode, happy selling!