E-Commerce Business Guide to Alibaba for eBay & Amazon

• Whats required:-
• How much to get started (if you dont have anything then start selling)
• Reality Check - Lots of work, creativity, determination, tenacity, you are going to get stuck so be ready to ask for help.... Which is always there- myself, the community, Maximism.
• This isnt a quick buck or everyone would be doing it. This is a skill and is going to take time to learn and master, but once you do the rewards are amazing.
• Potential growth
• The life style

In this lecture we will be covering what is involved in being an importer and what the procedure is.

This lecture will provide an overview of the sheer potential in how much money can be made with this course. Alibaba is one of the biggest websites in the world and has hundreds of millions of factories and supplier listed, ready to distribute their products.

We will cover some of the products available and look into the profit margins that you will easily be able to take advantage of once you get your teeth into this course.

In this video I will give you a very quick overview of the Source Ship Sell Website and what it can do to better you knowledge and education in general and whilst studying my courses. 

Please sign up for the email list as ill be sending out loads of free bonus stuff and discounts.

This is a link to the private Facebook community that compliments this course. Our Facebook community unites all students to achieve their goals, push them forward and solve common issues and questions.

"You are only as good as the people you stand with."

Here is an introduction to product research and why its so important to get right.

Alibaba is the worlds biggest wholesale and supplier directory. If you are importing products then you will need to be well acquainted with it and how to use it. 

We will be using Alibaba throughout this course starting with product research all the way though to sourcing and private labeling. 

To sell a product and have success, or at least maximize your success, you need to stick to a certain criteria during your research. 

In the next two videos we will cover everything you need to know and look for when doing product research.

The second part of things to check when researching products.

We will cover what this section is all about and what is involved in paid product research. 

Please check out the links below for additional an additional FREE guide to accompany this section.

Please make sure you head straight to the course workbook linked below as I often have discounts for Jungle Scout. This is not guaranteed as they come and go but I do my best. 

This lecture goes over the process for signing to to Jungle Scout and some of its key features.

The Jungle Scout Chrome Extension is an extremely powerful tool that can be used at anytime when browsing Amazon. It is also an integral part of our Paid Product Research Process. 

In this lecture we will cover all of its functions and how to use it on any Amazon page. 

In this lecture we will cover the Jungle Scout Product Database. 

This lecture is a bit of beast and I apologize for that, feel free to bookmark. But it is very important that you have a good understanding of this tool and how it works with our process.  

Once you have finished searching and sorting your products, The Jungle Scout Product Tracker will be where you can see how the chosen few perform. 

In this lecture I will go over the Tracker and all of its features so that you are in the know for when we cover the actual research method.

In the first part of this method we will be using the Product Database with a predefined search criteria to scan Amazon and find potential products that can be shortlisted for further analysis. 

Here we will be using the Jungle Scout Chrome Extension to examine our selections and cherry pick the best ones for the Product Tracker.

To finish up we will examine the products and how they perform over time. This will not only show us how the product performs but how out competition does too. 

From here you will be able to make you final selection and then add it to our Cost Calculator spreadsheet. You can download the Calculator from the workbook linked below.

For this method we will be looking for products that are selling on Amazon with issues or faults that can be easily fixed either by yourself or by the factory in production.

Capitalize on other Amazon sellers success with this legitimate product research method.

In this lecture we will cover what the Free Product Research Method is and how to add a cool shortcut to your tool bar for easy access to the course workbook.

This lecture will squash any of the concerns or queries you might have with product research in general and get you prepared for whats ahead.

Recording your findings is essential but you need to do it in an accurate and speedy manner. We will be covering all aspects of the spreadsheet and how to use it in this lecture. 

You can find the spreadsheet download in the link below.

The good people at Jungle Scout have created and provide this tool for free. It will give you a rough estimate as to how many sales a product listing is making a month. This is very handy when making that all important decision. 

Camel Camel Camel may have a very weird name but is an excellent tool for checking the pricing and sales rank history of a product.  I think that Keepa does a better job of tracking the sales rank but the Camels win when it comes to price history. 

It is always good to check the price history as that will tell you that the product has always been profitable or if the seller upped the price last week as that would ruin your profit margin.

This is a free tool from Amazon that will calculate how much your product is going to cost with the Amazon fees included and more importantly what your net profit will be.

When looking for products on Alibaba it is important to take a few things into consideration about the potential suppliers and their listings. 

Here is the moment of truth! By now you should have your final product chosen, received some samples and tested the market with them. If that's all looking good then its time to proceed onto this section where we will be making some "Large Small Orders" I call them these because they are larger than sample orders but often under what the factory wants provide as a MOQ. There are a few techniques to doing this and its now time to get the ball rolling.

Lets Do This!!!

Depending on the product you have selected and the supplier the MOQ will vary. Some MOQ's will be quite high for a first order and that can be quite a commitment in terms of space to put the order and financially. Often be ready to negotiate with your suppliers to make an order that is less than the MOQ. I will show you some ways to do this in the next lecture. Having an order of a couple of hundred as opposed to thousands has the following benefits:-

• The financial commitment isn't too high.
• You are able to see on a smaller scale what is involved.
• The quality of the product.
• Build your eBay score and general credibility
• Get much valued customer feedback and make any adjustments needed before you next bigger order.
• Build your bank balance.
• Save costs by operating from home.

1. Tell your supplier that your boss (you are never the boss) that he loved the samples and wants to move forward with the product. Explain that you have sales staff around the country and would like to send them each a couple of samples to test the market and see how they sell. You have 30 members of your sales team and you would like to send approx 10 units to each of them so if our next order could be 300 units... etc
2. Ask you supplier directly for a order under the MOQ. Explain that you need to test the market further and your boss doesn't want to pay the amount required to meet the MOQ until he has more confidence in the product and that it sells well.
3. Order through Aliexpress. Most of the factories are on Aliexpress and if you cant find the factory you got the product with then you will proabaly find the product. See what the price is for ordering a couple of hundred and then use this as leverage with the factory that you got the samples from that is resisting.

Rememeber this is all about fake it till you make it! Once you get the hang of it it is actually quite fun and the rewards can sometimes be very surprising. Your hustling for the best deal and you not going to give up till you get it! ;)

There are many different methods of shipping and getting you products to your door. Do not worry as they are all pretty straight forward and so long as you know whats involved and how much its going to cost it will be fine. Here are some options and ideas:-

• Find out the size of the shipment you have ordered from your supplier. Explain that you want to calculate shipping rates, they are usually happy to do this and sometimes it is displayed on their Alibaba page. Then head over to freightrates.com and put that data in.
• Ask the factory you are ordering with to take care of it. This is very common and a lot of factory's get excellent rates from shipping companies.
• Get a DHL shipping account. I would recommend only doing this is if your package is small DHL are quite expensive but they provide a good service and all that is involved your end is to send the factory your personal DHL number which they will supply you.
• Hire a shipping agent. A shipping agent is definitely an option to look into as your orders get bigger because they are in touch with multiple shipping companys and savvy with all transportation methods that combined will get you the best deal. Shipping large quantitys around the word can serve up multiple complications but with a good agent most can be avoided or quickly sorted.
• Be aware that you could well be in line to pay some customs and duty tax fee that will be billed to you at a later date. This vary s from country to country so be sure to check with our local authority.
• If you have followed my product criteria we are always shipping by air.

Maybe split shipping up into separate lessons??

So you have hustled and haggled your way into making a large small order and it is on route you right now! Woohoo! Nice Work! Now you have to prepare you work area on and offline. Here are a few things to take ito consideration before the big delivery:-

• Where are you going to store your order?
• Is there any preparation needed upon its arrival (packing it with bonus product, putting it in new packaging..etc)
• Do you have space for this preparation? If not what is the plan?
• How much is the postage going to cost?
• Prepare packing materials for shipping to customers
• Where are you going to sell your product and do you need to open new accounts? eBay, Etsy, Gumtree, Craigslist, notonthehighstreet, locally, local shops, Facebook, Twitter.
• I recommend using online postage and printing the labels, its way quicker the queuing in the post office and looks more professional too. The Royal Mail have an online facility in the UK and I believe Stamps(dot)com is the go to for the US.
  

Once you have got your products up for sale in any form then it is important to plot your route carefully and not start running before you can walk. One of the mistakes I made was rushing head first into branding my product and modifying it before i had really made any sales. It is very easy to start looking at the big shiny options that are now available to you and that I will address even more in this course but please take things one step at a time. Your number one goal is to SELL SELL SELL!

Another common problem is that people tend to get overwhelmed and start to freak out a bit about what they are supposed to do once there orders start coming in. CHILL! You have got this far in the course and have already achieved things that most will never, problems always seem worse than what they are and they just barriers that you will smash through.

In the start its very much a DIY effort, you will probably be fulfilling the orders from your home so its important to have as much set up as possible. Relax, its not going to be as frantic as you think but it will still be fun and you are going to learn loads.

• Always start out small
• Be ready to negotiate with suppliers for an order under the MOQ.
• Research the best shipping option for you and your product.
• Get your work space prepared and order any packing or equipment you think you might need
• Take a deep breath and chill!! Your sole goal at the moment is to sell sell sell.
• It is only a problem when it becomes a problem and when it becomes a problem you will realize that dealing with actually isnt that bad. Problem just become barriers that you will smash through with ease.
• HAVE FUN!

With your order on the way it is very important to have as much ready as possible so once it arrives you can get it out to market ASAP. With the sample that you have left for your records we are going to take some super sweet product photos for all you listings. If you have sold your sample then dont worry you can just use one of the products when they arrive.

Taking photos of your products that look great is easy and cheap. If you have a bit of spare cash then the there are more options available to you. In this lesson we are going to cover it all.

Use the Gimp method.

removethebackground(dot)com

fiverr(dot)com

I remember when I got my first delivery of products and all of a sudden my house seemed very small. There were boxes everywhere and to say I was overwhelmed would have been an understatement. I was FREAKING OUT! Only for a while though.

When your delivery arrives take it all out of the boxes and check all of it. Make sure it is all intact, the right colour, size and anything else that might be relevant. Also count all of it an make sure the supplier hasn't sold you short. If it is all looking good then awesome, looks like you might have a good supplier. If its not then assess the situation and see what can be done to make good. Getting your money back is very unlikely. If the product is still sellable then you must keep moving forward.

My suggestion would be to notify the supplier that the order is wrong and that you are not happy with the situation. Then play it by ear. I would probably try to sell what I had and then use the mistake as leverage to get a discount from them next time or get them to cover the delivery charges. This kind of stuff does happen and unfortunately there is not much that can be done other than to move forward get the product to market ASAP and try to make the best of it.

If your factory is under Alibabas Trade Assurance Agreement then it will be a lot easier to get your money back. I would still communicate with the facory first and see what can be done as you are building a relationship with these guys so if a mistake has been made and can be resolved then that should be your first option.

Remove all the products from their boxes but don't throw the boxes away (unless their are hundreds of them), boxes are expensive and if you don't use them for shipping stuff in then you can cut them up and use them for packing.

Once everything is unpacked (hopefully it will look a little less daunting) it times to get evrything sorted and shelved/put away so that it easy to find once the orders start coming in. If you have a bonus product with your main order then they will need to be paired and ready for shipping. The idea is to make it as quick as possible to get the order ready to ship once the order comes in.

This can be accomplished with by haveing a storing area for the stock, a packing area and dispatch area orders that are ready to post.

Other tips:-

• Having loads of positive reviews and feedback is essential for online selling. Even though your product is excellent and your service was flawless people still need to be reminded to leave a review. I have little square business cards printed with a big THANK YOU! and then directly asking the customer to leave me some feedback on the respective website they bought it.
• I purchased an ink stamp which also says 'Thank You' which I stamp onto the back of the box/envelope so the customer can see it. This may seem like unecessary work but its the little things that make the big difference.

80% of amazon descriptions are terrible. Fact!

When a customer makes it to your listing, wherever it is, they have liked the title, they have then looked at the images and where impressed at what they have seen then they will do one of two things: The first is that they will buy the product there and then this happens about 40 percent of the time and I know I am one of those people that has seen what he likes and buys.

The second are the remaining 60% of people who scroll down and look at the description, these are people who are very interested in your product and are close to buying ‘half-sold’ but want a bit more information. The product description provides this and can be crucial in sealing the deal in a lot of your sales.

Product descriptions are also a help with how Amazon, eBay and other market places show your site with their algorithms and having a detailed and helpful description will do no harm in your rankings on marketplaces and search engines like Google.

Use the description to display your product to the customer in as much detail as possible. Give unique selling points, product dimensions, as well as a killer description, which we going to cover in this section. Tell the customer why they should buy your product and not the competitions. The description should be written like a sales copy which engages, entertsins and closes the sale.

The first thing to remember when writing a product description is that it is all about the customer and the product and not about you. Learning how customer feels and what they are thinking at the exact time they are reading your description is an art. An art which you will learn in the following lectures;)

Having a description that is one line long or even non existent is extremely lazy, if you are not inspired enough to write a description why would your customers be inspired to buy from you? I have seen other product descriptions that hardly describe the product but instead talk about the company or brand that is selling the item. ZZZZZZZZZ! A customer is on that page and about to read that text because they want to know 1/ More information on the product they are going to buy. And 2/ What the product is going to do for them and better their life. Thats it!

NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOU, THEY ONLY CARE ABOUT THEMSELVES

This formula is used by companies the world over and brings in millions of dollars of sales every year. Once you learn the concepts of AIDA then you will start to see it everywhere in marketing.
When you write your product descriptions, or any type of selling for that matter you NEED TO REMEMBER THIS:
Attention - Interest - Desire - Action
Now with a combination of good titles and the respective marketplace positioning our product in view we have got our customers attention and they have clicked to view our listing.

Its now up to the bullet points (Amazon), images and description to keep them interested with interesting facts about the product and how it can better their lives.
This will make them want to buy it as they can visualize themselves using it and what a good idea it would be to purchase..... Desire.

All this on a highly optimized sales page like the ones we will operating on will lead the customer to taking action and clicking the Buy Button.

So we have a customer who has just clicked onto our product listing. We have their Attention. We now need to spark their interest. This will normally be done with good images and if your on Amazon then utilising the bullet points is crucial to make the customer either buy there and then or scroll down to your super awesome description. Either way once your customer has been wowed by your attention grabbing title and professional looking images then their interest juices should already be starting to flow as they scroll down to the description.

**We Always Start Our Descriptions With a Headline**
in bold front and centre. This tells the customer that there is more very relevant and cool information on the product you are looking at and very interested in.

The headline needs to be completely focused on the product and what it can do to better the customers life (very important).

Version A: Sports jump rope for sale!
———-vs———
Version B: Reach Insane New Levels Of Fitness! Used By Instructors, Professionals and Enthusiasts All Over The World!

The point of a good headline is to get people reading more of your description. If you were to use headline Version A then it would be easy for a customer to skip over the description and move on. By having a description like Version B you are enticing the customer to read more as it generates interest. You will also notice in Version B that there is no mention of the product anywhere. Your customer already knows what they looking at, all they care about is what it can do for them.

Write down a minimum of 5 different headlines for your product and have read through them, this gets the brain into gear and can be quite fun. You will usually see one that jumps out at you, this is the winner and you try that first.

If you are having trouble with getting to grips with headlines then then the formula below will help. The ROT Formula is a popular way of getting a headline that grabs the readers attention.

Headline Conclusion
** The customer on cares about themselves! Not you! Not even the product! Its all about how the product can better their lives and what it can do for them.
** Never trick or mislead people with your headlines. Its ok to make your product seem bigger than it is or tell people that its the best. But if you say it comes with a built in stereo system that uses space shuttle technology then it had better. Having confidence in your product is a must but don't sell something the customer is not going to get.
** Always write your headline first as this will make you super focused for the description.
** Once you have wrote out multiple headlines then ask some friends/family which one stands out for them. Ask your Facebook friends and see what they think.

If you are having trouble with getting to grips with headlines then then the formula below will help. The ROT Formula is a popular way of getting a headline that grabs the readers attention.

Headline Conclusion
** The customer on cares about themselves! Not you! Not even the product! Its all about how the product can better their lives and what it can do for them.
** Never trick or mislead people with your headlines. Its ok to make your product seem bigger than it is or tell people that its the best. But if you say it comes with a built in stereo system that uses space shuttle technology then it had better. Having confidence in your product is a must but don't sell something the customer is not going to get.
** Always write your headline first as this will make you super focused for the description.
** Once you have wrote out multiple headlines then ask some friends/family which one stands out for them. Ask your Facebook friends and see what they think.

Something you don’t see too much and is a very popular method of selling is telling a story that is related to your product. This can be a true story, or semi true story that you have bended to fit with your product or you can completely make it up. This might not be for all products or all sellers as some people are just not good story tellers but if you are or know someone who is then it is recommended.
I know this is a bit hypocritical as I said earlier that customers only care about them selves, which is true, but I can’t argue that the story method does work well as it get customers to relate to the product more and if you can add humor to the story then all the better.

The story formula that I use is:
[Story that happened]+[how the product could help]+[how to buy product]

Jump Rope: I have been going to the gym with my friend Steve for about 3 years, we have pretty much the same training routine so like to help each other with the weights etc. When it comes to the cardio and general agility Steve is by far better than me. This frustrated me know end until my wife and I had dinner at Steves one evening and I noticed in his conservatory the K19 Jump Rope. He had been cheating!! I promptly ordered one when I got home and within a week of using it I noticed the results…

The whole reason you have wrote this is to get the customer to hit the ‘Buy Now’ button. If your customer is heading towards the end of your description then they are ready to buy. So finish by sating something like:

So if you are ready to take you fitness to the next level and enjoy free next day delivery hurry whilst stocks last.

We only have a limited amount of stock so buy now and also enjoy our 30 day money back guarantee.

Finishing like this gives them a sense of urgency to take action now and also offers one final incentive/reassurance to help push them the right way.

Once you have got a few reviews then add these to the bottom of the description too. This gives a the customer a sense of reassurance that you are credible and people love to read a good review.

1/ Get into the right mindset. No one cares about you (apart from when you are telling a story;) or your business or the brand you are trying to pump. Focus on what is in it for them. |What they are going to get. How is going to improve their life? How are they going to feel after buying.

2/ Make an interesting headline that is going grab you customers attention. Remember the ROT Formula and start making headlines using it.

3/ Master AIDA! it is one of the most powerful things you can learn to turn your descriptions into super powerful scripts.
Attention - Interest - Desire - Action

4/ Tell a story about your product and how it saved the day or changed the way you do things.
[Story that happened] + [how the product helped] + [how to buy product].

5/ Try and get some credibility going. You can start with quotes from successful people in your products field and once you start getting some 5 star reviews then add them to the bottom of your description too.

6/ Remember to close the sale. Add a sense of urgency to the close and reminding them that the delivery is free (if it is) and/or there is a 30 day money back guarantee.

7/ Add two sets of bullet points to your description. The first is a list of benefits of what the product can do for the customer and how the customer will benefit from them.
The second is a list of product specs that you feel would benefit the customer to know i.e. weight, size, spare parts…
Do not put these lists together but break them up with some text.

8/ Make sure that the description is well broken up and spaced out. If customers see great big paragraphs of text they are not going to read it. Ensure there are bullet points of the best bits/specs, anything important or you think should stand out should be in bold. A nice spaced out description is easy and quick to read and very customer friendly.