Q&A Session: Should I Pay Amazon To Label My Products & How To Expand A Product Line – EP34

AM/PM Podcast

MANNY: Let’s get to the Q&A’s.

GUI: The first one is from our Facebook group – “I started listening to your podcasts a few weeks ago and it’s really helpful. I’m placing my first order with a supplier from Chin and I’m having a few disagreements with them. As it is our first order, the quantity is low, 500 units, but we have two different sizes and five different collars so 10 different FNSKU’s. they want to charge me a lot for it because they say they have to put in 1000 stickers for each barcode. Do you think, in this case, it would be better to ask Amazon to label it for me? About the supplier – is it normal, this kind of charge for barcodes?”.

MANNY: I’ve never been in that situation where I have 500 units but there’s 10 products. There’s only 50 units per barcode, so you have to do barcodes for all these products. Barcodes really isn’t that expensive. You can let Amazon label it and do your FNSKU’s for 50 cents each. That sounds expensive as I can imagine that you can get these from China for probably 5 cents each. When I do it with my guys in China, it’s less than 3 cents. Gui, do they have to do a large run? Can’t they just to a small print run?

GUI: They’ll have to do everything light scale so it’s probably a hassle for them and will discourage people ordering smaller quantities so they just put that 1000 sticker minimum. I don’t see any other technical limitations other than the hassle for them.

MANNY: We are talking about 500 units so even if you sent it to Amazon, you’re talking about a $100 cost, it’s almost not worth the extra time to find a printer in China who could print these things up and send them over to your factory. It gets to the point on such low volume that the scale of things just doesn’t make sense.

GUI: What do you think of her starting out with 10 different variations? Is that something you would recommend?

MANNY: No, I wouldn’t. she said she was starting out and this is her first product so its difficult. The good thing is that there’s variations so if she gets a review on one of the products, the review will show on all of her products. It’s such a small amount of units, she’s going to run out quickly. If you did your research, you should maybe bring it down to two or three specific products, colors and sizes that are popular and from there you can expand to the smaller volume variations.

GUI: Here’s a ninja secret – look at the reviews, it will actually tell you which variation the review is for and if there’s a good number of reviews, you’ll quickly figure out which one is the most common variation and that will narrow it down for you.

MANNY: Go to the reviews, sort it from oldest to newest and quickly go through it and you’ll have a good indication of what size and color is selling the most. Amazon list things by which one is selling the most so if the xl black male shirt is selling the most, that’s the picture they will show so it’s more likely that the clicks that come in to that image, will buy that size. I don’t think it’s a big variation, but it’s something to consider.

MANNY: Let’s go to question number two.

GUI: We’ve got a voicemail that was posted on our website. If you want to leave us a voice mail you can go to the AM/PM podcast and click on the right where it says “Ask Manny a question” and we’ll be able to answer it on the show.

“I’ve been sitting for the last three years, in a highly competitive market. I had a 50% profit margin, probably being the most expensive one now. It’s a highly saturated market, highly competitive to expand a product line. Most of the products seem to be saturated – BBQ tools. Is it worth to expand that or should I move on to something else?”

MANNY: Gui, you’ll have to help me with this one. The guy has a 50% profit margin. He’s in a very crowded market, he has the most expensive product and he’s selling very well. It’s an overcrowded market but he wants to know if he should expand into the market. I would say, based on what he’s telling us, that he’s in a very crowded market and he’s doing really well with the most expensive product. He’s good some very good preceded value with his product. If he’s got the magic, why not expand into that market to a related product? Just use the same stuff that you do with the current product, to dominate the market. If you go into a saturated market with something unique, you can dominate. Kevin King spoke about the same situation in an interview I just did with him.

GUI: It’s very important that he finds out what it is that separates his product from the pack and if he can pin point what he’s doing different, he can just replicate that with the new product. It depends on how creative you can be and what inventory you can float. If it’s a high selling product, there’s going to be many units. If you’ve considered this, go for it.

MANNY: Just because you’re in one product, it doesn’t mean your new product is going to work – it’s not always a perfect transition from one product to another. You still have to do your research to see who’s selling there. Different sellers can play a whole different game.

If you have any questions, go to the AM/PM website and join us at our Facebook group, Amazon FBA High rollers. Follow me on periscope @mannycoats.

00:40 – Episode introduction

02: 10 – The Gui question: do you think Zac Efron is really nice in real life or does he just walk around with his abs out, telling people to fetch him vegetables?

03:21 – first Q & A question: I’m placing my first order with a supplier from Chin and I’m having a few disagreements with them. As it is our first order, the quantity is low, 500 units, but we have two different sizes and five different collars so 10 different FNSKU’s. they want to charge me a lot for it because they say they have to put in 1000 stickers for each barcode. Do you think, in this case, it would be better to ask Amazon to label it for me? About the supplier – is it normal, this kind of charge for barcodes?

09:46 – Manny’s second question to Gui: Would you rather lose your hearing for one month, or your internet connection? Global internet loss…

10:58 – Q&A question number two: It’s a highly saturated market, highly competitive to expand a product line. Most of the products seem to be saturated – BBQ tools. Is it worth to expand that or should I move on to something else?

16:40 – Question three: “Dear Manny, I was wondering if you’re single and ready to mingle?”

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