419 : Kathy Terrill – Utilize ebay’s Global Shipping to test your Amazon Products overseas
Very smart option that Kathy points out. You can test your products in the UK, Europe, Asia, etc.. by selling your Amazon items on eBay and offering Global shipping. If you see demand in Germany for example it can tell you where to put in the time setting up a new Amazon marketplace. Great advice, breadth of experience and a very helpful interview.
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Transcript:
Kathy: [00:00:00] yUBC is extraordinary because I’ve always thought about this for online selling, you’re selling something that people cannot touch, so you’re selling something. You have to completely demonstrate it and explain it visually.
Cool voice guy: [00:00:17] Welcome to the e-commerce momentum podcast where we focus on the people, the products, and the process of eCommerce selling. Today. Here’s your host Steven Peterson.
Stephen: [00:00:31] Hey, I’m jumping in. I’m not hitting you with any commercials or whatever. I do have a whole bunch of sponsors out on my website. If you go to your commerce momentum.com, this episode, just the newest episode, you’ll see a bunch of sponsors, um, from the seller tribe to do away, um, from, Oh man, there’s just so many of them, uh, tactical arbitrage, um, from a whole bunch of them. And you can actually get some free trials and stuff like that. But that’s not what the pitch is about. Pitches about changes I’m making in the podcast for the new year. I’m really excited. Uh, I think you’ve heard me mention a couple episodes ago about my son coming into business full time. And another, a friend of his who is a writer college graduate writer and they have a million ideas. They’re YouTube guys. So we’re adding YouTube in and just some other things.
Stephen: [00:01:14] I’m building a new studio in our studio. We’re updating it. If you see Andy Slamon’s of amazing freedom, go check out their podcast. Amazing his studio. Um, him and I were going to redo the one in the warehouse too, so we can use it for different things. So a whole bunch of cool things. I just hope you, uh, um, stay with this and um, hopefully do some more questions. Uh, some travel stuff that we’re doing. Um, we’re going to add more. I’m not going to take away, but we’re going to add more and I’ve got some amazing sellers lined up. So, uh, just want to say a, as we close out this year, get excited for next year. I am, I am so optimistic about your future along with mine and I know, um, the sellers are just going to help you advance as much as they’ve helped me.
Stephen: [00:01:56] Um, so look forward to it. Just wanna say thank you. Um, love and, uh, happy holidays. Merry Christmas. In my case for our, our, our family from my wife and I and my son Nicholas to my wife Donna and I take care. Welcome back to the e-commerce momentum podcast. This is episode 419. Kathy Terrell. Um, Kathy is, you know, most people would think of her as an eBay only speaker, but she’s not, she’s omnichannel, multichannel, um, brand, uh, developer, kind of a person now really saying, you know, add eBay, uh, because you’re missing, um, sales. She lays out a great case. Um, some very good examples of why eBay right now is so important for, uh, private label sellers on Amazon. So important. Um, some of the things I’ve never ever thought about, but when she says it, it’s just like the light bulb went on and it’s just some really great stuff.
Stephen: [00:02:51] Um, a lot of experience. Uh, she’s in New York city, so we of course the, uh, contractors and, uh, you know, all the, all those people pulled up in front of her house as soon as we started to hammer away. So you’ll hear a little hammering. We did not hear any sirens. Almost every time I talked to in New York person, you hear sirens. There were not any incidents during this other than those trades, uh, people, uh, fixing something or doing whatever. Um, but a lot of great information, a lot of great stuff and she’s a podcaster and her podcast is, I love to be selling. Um, Kathy Tarell, I love to be selling. Um, uh, you can, you can check that out on her website. I love to be selling.com forward slash podcast and you’ll have to find it there. But look, this information is valuable and she’s available.
Stephen: [00:03:31] You can reach out to her. She is, uh, approachable. Um, and is that a lot of conferences, speaking of very approachable and just ask for help and she’s the type of person to help you. Great stuff. Let’s get into the podcast and we’ll come back to the e-commerce [inaudible] podcast. This is take two on an interview that I’m trying to do with somebody who we’ve been talking for years about getting together and neither one of our schedules allow it until now. And we’re forcing it to happen because I think, you know, it’s funny, I get to think about the first time I’ve talked with her that nobody else heard. And it builds. This is a life that is built upon the previous period and I think there’s so many examples in your, whoever’s listening’s personal life. I think Kathy Tarell is going to help you figure out how you could use this to help in this e-commerce space. Not only eBay. She is not. While she does ambassador eBay, she’s any commerce ambassador. Welcome Cathy.
Kathy: [00:04:25] Hi. How are you Steven? Good to be here. I will.
Stephen: [00:04:28] And you know, I don’t know if you thought about our conversation at all, uh, um, last week, but I thought about it and I thought about, you know, and we’re going to go through how you got to where you are, but you, you are really somebody who has embraced, uh, and, and, and just really taken advantage of the things that you’ve learned. I mean, is that, is that fair? I mean, I know it’s a weird place to start, but it’s, do you, do you realize that, I mean, do you notice that?
Kathy: [00:04:54] Yeah, I have noticed that Steven and I think a lot of sellers may be doing it or entrepreneurs that are listening, but they may not be aware they’re doing it. Um, because we’re just so busy moving forward, which is how many skills that we use as sellers, um, that we’ve developed from previous jobs, previous experiences, and now we’re bringing it into the online world.
Stephen: [00:05:20] You know, um, who is, uh, just ups is here yesterday, my sales rep and he was giving me all the excuses why they can’t get here and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Their business is booming. Um, because of e-commerce. Now I think I’m accurate in my statement. You are not just an eBay. I mean, that’s what you’re known for is, uh, talking about eBay and, and, and speaking at eBay events and representing eBay from time to time. But you’re an eCommerce seller, correct?
Kathy: [00:05:45] I am Steven by specialty though, and this is what I’m finding has really changed now that we’re in two 19. I’m highly suspicious of people when they say they’re an expert on, I’m just going to start to pick sites not to, you know, pick one above another, but Oh yes, I’m an eBay expert and an Amazon expert and a Walmart expert and a Shopify apps. Like if you are a very large corporation or a very large group and you have the teams so that within your team you have specialties. Then I understand it, but I find for consultants, and that’s what I am besides being micellar is you’re far better to go with somebody who’s really strongly niched. Now, my niche is eBay, but I work with Amazon sellers. I work with Walmart sellers. I work with Shopify sellers and Etsy and Poshmark that are coming onto eBay and because of that, Steven, which I’m sure you know, I mean you’re a multichannel seller, is I’m familiar with what goes on on Amazon, on Walmart, art on Poshmark because it helps me to be able to speak to my clients and help them as they’re coming on to eBay.
Stephen: [00:06:54] I think it’s just so smart being well versed. You don’t have to be an expert, but well-versed to know what’s going on in those other marketplaces. It does give you the ability because I, and that gives them confidence that they’ve got the right person. So I agree with that. All right, well let’s go back. Let’s go back and Tom, I’m going to take you back a time. Kathy, let’s go back. You know, Tina, you were three weeks old. What happened now? So take us back. I mean, what, what was, what, what were you going to do with your life? I mean, did you ever, did you ever think about what you were going to do with your life as a kid? And then
Kathy: [00:07:23] absolutely. I mean, I went through a couple of different things. Um, when I was a kid of things that I really love to do and what I landed in was theater because I just loved it. Um, junior high and high school, I was in Princeton, New Jersey and McCarter theater was there and McCarter at the time was regional, I mean, was repertory. So it means like every month there was a different play. And I actually got to work at the theater, being front of house, um, which means I was taking tickets and things like that. But because of that, I got to watch rehearsals and we had wonderful actors. John Lithgow was actually an actor at McCarter when I was there, so I got to watch the likes of him. And rehearsal caught the theater bug, ended up going to Northwestern university, was a theater major there. And then when I graduated for theater majors and I was very much for theater rather than TV or film, it was pretty much, it was Chicago, which at the time had very strong theater with second city and things like that.
Kathy: [00:08:25] The Goodman or New York. And my family was in the New York area. So I chose New York. I figured it would just be an easier transition to make. And did, came to New York and did off-Broadway, theater. I did regional theater, which means you’re going to various States, you know, outside of New York to do theater. I did that for years. Um, I did do soap operas. I was on, um, all my children, I was on another world. I was on guiding light cause there used to be a lot of soap operas out in New York. Um, I did TV, I was on long order special victims. I was unregular law and order, cause people may not realize it, but a lot of the law and orders at that time were shot in New York. Um, so that was great. And then from that I ended up landing on QVC. Um, really because I was doing a day job theater is great and TV and film, but it’s very sporadic work.
Kathy: [00:09:17] So you’re paid very well, but you may only work a week out of the month and it’s not enough to pay the bills. It would be like only getting one sale a week. It’s like you can’t pay your belts on that bright. Right. And um, so I had always had side jobs and one of them was doing merchandising and detailing in large department stores. So I always had retail experience, but I never thought of it as retail experience because my focus was on my theater. My focus was not on Macy’s or bed bath or JC penny or um, gosh, where else was I working? It’s like you forget because there’s so many stores you’re going in and out of all crate and barrel. So from doing the display work, I actually had a company approached me because they knew I had theater background and say, would you like to go on QVC for our product?
Kathy: [00:10:10] I was like, sure, go on live TV. Sure. Um, and there’s a whole procedure you go through. So if somebody wants to put you on QVC, it’s great, but QVC has to approve you. So there’s a whole protocol you go through, there’s a training that you go through. Um, that’s quite extensive and I got approved to go on and I was on QVC for different products for over six years, which was great fun. A ton of work. And Steven, I got to tell you want to talk about learning retail from the bottom up. QBC is extraordinary because I’ve always thought about this for online selling, you’re selling something that people cannot touch. So you’re selling something. You have to completely demonstrate it. And explain it visually no matter what the product is. And it could be food. Um, I remember watching Tova Borgnine Ernest Borgnine, his wife sell perfume.
Kathy: [00:11:08] So you’re selling a scent on TV and she would sell tons. I watched Joan Rivers sell who was brilliant. Um, she actually had a nickname of the million dollar baby because she could sell $1 million an hour. And she was fun to watch. I mean, she just, all that stuff that looks like it’s just off the cuff is well thought through well-rehearsed. Um, she’s a very savvy business lady and super nice. Steven, I got to tell you, just really, really nice stuff. I’m surrounded by these wonderful sellers, these wonderful entrepreneurs. And when you present on QBC, you have to be there hours before you go on. So if you’re going on a, you gotta be there like at 12, cause you have to meet with the host, you have to prep your product. They also want to make sure that you’re there so that when they go live that they’re not looking around for you.
Kathy: [00:12:03] So once you’ve done all that, you do hair and makeup, you’re sitting around for like an hour, an hour and a half. Well you sit in the green room area, which is the holding area for the guests and you’re watching all the presenters. And additionally, it’s sort of like watching your data on Amazon or eBay. There’s screens, there’s like TV screens in the green room and you’re watching the sales live. I mean, you can see the graphs going up and down, which is also very interesting. So you see, Oh, when they talk about this, wow, the sales spike, but when they talk about this, the sales go down. So again, word, right? That’s key. It’s totally, it’s the features and benefits, which is, ah, this one they really care about maybe saving time, but this the color they don’t really care about. So it was really, really interesting.
Stephen: [00:13:00] Did it, you know, let me stop you cause I, I’m picking up, I’m writing myself some notes because I’m hearing four or five things that you’ve been able to do with the, all these different experiences. So, um, by just even the merchandising, you’re paying attention to where you are watching, uh, watching these things and then seeing the results. That is again, a lesson, right? That’s, you know, I always say watch the outliers, right? The outliers. I mean, they’re outliers, but they’re doing something right and you want to emulate them, right? Um, the, um, the sales skills that you developed by, you know, just getting comfortable in front of crowds or front of cameras, especially, right? Especially these lights that move and all that stuff and being fluid like that, you develop that over time. That’s going to be really super beneficial to speaking to brands, which we’ll get into also.
Stephen: [00:13:49] But what I want people to hear this is that Kathy sitting there saying, Hey, wait a second. I, uh, went to theater cause I loved it. I took a work because I needed to do work in addition to what I wanted to act. And I was able to take advantage of that. And now think about this, this all carries forward into your current life. I mean, to me that’s a perfect example, but, and you correct me if I’m wrong, you mean a ton of people too. Doesn’t everyone have the same opportunity? You know, the person to waitress pouring your coffee, paying attention to, watching how the business people do things or watching the way people dress. I mean, isn’t there something to be found in anything that you’re doing if you’re attentive?
Kathy: [00:14:29] I totally agree. I’m in is one thing I always talk about with my sellers is I don’t, you know, cause people say, Oh well I’m just to this or I’m just to that you know, I was a student or I was a parent or, or I only worked at a little small store in my town. Or you know, whatever it is is, yeah, but you know what you learned a lot. You may not realize it, but if you sort of go back in your mind like what did people like, what did they talk about when they picked certain things? Did they talk about why they were picking it? Was it the texture? Was it the color was at the price? I’m always telling people when you go into brick and mortar ratio, and I was just down at Macy’s Herald square, I also went to target, um, because it’s fascinating.
Kathy: [00:15:13] First of all, I love to look at the splice, but it’s fascinating to watch people, what are they gravitating to? Is it the name brands? Is it colors? Is it the display? Listen to what people are talking about because it tells you trends and it also tells you what is engaging them on because you can take that and translate that to online. So again, if you were awake for an example, yes, a lot with the waitress where people more interested in speed, like I need to get in and out of here. Were they interested in your opinion? Which is customer service about okay, what’s best today, where they are extremely detail oriented, like they wanted to know ingredients of things. All of that. You can take that to the online selling, which is customer service, detail oriented. That’s your description, your item specifics, um, how you’re describing. That’s your key words. All of that. You do have experience in it, but you may not realize it because you haven’t sort of translated a to B, but it’s all translatable and we all shop. Whether you shop in a store or whether you shop online, um, we all shop. So it’s like even watch your own behavior as you’re shopping. What are you looking for? What is most important to you? And just realize that you’ve got shoppers coming to you online that are exactly the same.
Stephen: [00:16:41] I just had Amy Fearman on from mommy income and she talked about when she’s in a group of people, she’s listening and paying attention to what they are. What exactly what you’re saying, what’s engaging them. Because she’s smelling that opportunity, right? It becomes a scent. A sense, like a sixth sense. It almost does where you’re listening and you’re like, Oh, that’s a great idea. I never heard of [inaudible]. I can’t even say it. Right. And then all of a sudden, you know, my grandkids are talking about it and everybody, Whoa. And then everybody sells that merchandise. The other thing I think that’s important too is that you can see what else they bought. Again, just like on Amazon or whatever, people also bought, you’re watching that in those stores, right? You see them buying that perfume and they’re also buying a scar for a pair of glove, whatever.
Stephen: [00:17:25] You know, it’s something that that is another skill set that can be developed because then it’s like, okay, I can increase my sale or bundle, right? I mean so Don if opportunities, so again, back to you building on all these different skillsets, it allows you to now as you say, to go out and pitch brands, your seller. So you earn that, those stripes, you learn the system but can then go out and say, Hey, okay, I see that you’re selling on your own website. I see you’re selling on Amazon. Why not eBay too, right? Cause it is a different marketplace.
Kathy: [00:17:57] Exactly right. And what eBay offers them. Um, and one of the things that eBay offers is they reach more international countries right now than any site. I believe it’s over 160 and you can plug into that almost immediately. Cross border trade is, as I’m sure most people listening, um, has a lot of challenges, particularly if you’re somebody shipping internationally, let’s say like from a Shopify store and you can get up and running an eBay and under an hour, um, and plug into, um, exposure globally and you can start shipping globally if you don’t want to ship yourself. Um, because of having to deal with customs and things like that, you can plug into eBay’s global shipping program and they will block you from countries where your item for some reason would not be allowed. And there’s some strange, you know, there’s some strange rules in certain countries, like it’d be super like, okay, this is allowed, but this isn’t allowed.
Kathy: [00:18:55] I mean, something like fur can be restricted. Um, knives can be restricted and if you do something on global shipping, you don’t have to worry about it. And for most sellers, and this is true for my Amazon sellers that will come onto eBay, they may not be shipping international because they’re, they’re not doing the, um, you know, the Amazon warehouse system where they’re in different countries. They’re just in the United States and they’re only using FBA is that they can come onto eBay and plug into the system. Um, and you can be shipping internationally through eBay’s global shipping in minutes. And I’ve got knowers that 20, 30, 35% of their sales on eBay. These are my Amazon sellers are through eBay’s global shipping.
Stephen: [00:19:37] Wait, you think about, uh, in, in what you described as perfect example, you still don’t have to touch the product and what Kathy’s explaining cause you could do multichannel fulfillment. But here’s the beautiful thing, and this is all the private label sellers. Anybody who’s listening, who has a private label product, and you see this all the time, Hey, somebody’s selling my product, my Steve’s water bottle on eBay for a higher price. Kathy, what’s going on? And what people don’t realize is that, Hey, first off, Amazon will ship a tomb for free. So they’re getting rid of the shipping thing and they’re content making four or 5%. But as you say, how many of us have shipped to that company in California? The Japan, I can’t even think of their name. Uh, it’s an airline kind of thing. There are so many overseas companies selling your products already. You don’t even realize, right?
Kathy: [00:20:25] So just to get clear, just to list a product from Amazon that is not mine. Okay. So I’m not using multichannel fulfillment. So Kelly’s myself. Kathy is taking Steve’s Amazon product and putting it on eBay under Kathy store. And then when she sells, she’s going on to and buying it and she’s having Amazon shipped to our customer. I’m in effect drop shipping off of Amazon and it’s all automated too. There’s software that goes every piece to let you know that is now illegal on eBay. And that’s been illegal for about a year. It’s against terms of service. I don’t know. Libra is the right rate, right? Illegal. Excuse me. It’s against terms of service. So you are jeopardizing your account if you do that. However, if it’s Kathy’s products on Amazon and Kathy comes onto eBay, and this is actually one that, again, I do with some of my Amazon sellers.
Kathy: [00:21:21] Let’s say you’re not sure if you want to do Amazon’s warehouse in the U K or Amazon’s warehouse in other countries because of the cost involved. You could come on to eBay, opt into eBay’s global shipping because you can fulfill through FBA and do global shipping because it’s going to a U S shipping address. And from there eBay ships it around the world is and then chart, cause you’ll know where it’s going to, I mean you’ll see the address, it’s goes to Kentucky is the hub, but you’ll see the end destination. So you’ll know whether it’s going to Germany or Hong Kong or Japan or South America or U K and you can track and see what countries love your stuff. So let’s say UK loves your stuff. It’s like, okay, great. Now I know what’s going to probably be a good bet if I go into the Amazon UK warehouse.
Kathy: [00:22:15] But let’s say no UK is not buying your stuff. Korea is buying your stuff. Or Australia’s buying your stuff. It’s very helpful to see for your products without really any money upfront. What countries like your stuff off a proof of concept. Oh, that’s so smart. Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. And all you’re doing is you’re, you’re fulfilling it yourself off Amazon shoes. I mean it’s, I it and it’s fascinating what countries like what stuff. So it’s, it’s fun to discover. I think you just gave a, that’s a really good point is that you could do proof of concept before you go and invest in ABA. So in Europe, Kathy, I’m going to sell in France, Amazon for it. And well, wait, let’s see what happens. So let me make sure I’m clear on this because you know, the terms of service, um, if I want to sell Steve’s water bottle and Steve wants to sell his own water in my private label product, no, there’s no, uh, that’s not against terms of service because I’m doing everything above boards.
Kathy: [00:23:11] It’s my eBay account, my product, my Amazon account. However, totally acceptable because you’re doing the multichannel fulfillment through Amazon or you’re fulfilling it yourself if you’re merchant fulfilled. So am I allowed to sell my Mentos pack that’s sitting on my desk? Yes. I know there’s carpet it Dan Wentworth. There’ll be like Steve, there’s a carbon, each one of those Mentos. Um, so that pack of Mentos that I’m selling on Amazon, am I allowed to merchant or tip to global ship fulfill on eBay? On my eBay store. So it’s my product. I bought the Mentos, I’m selling them legit, you know, all you do it on Amazon. Am I allowed to sell
Stephen: [00:23:46] that product on my eBay global shipping? Yeah. Okay. So,
Kathy: [00:23:51] and it will automatically block out because again, and I don’t want to say stuff because I honestly can’t remember what are the rules for what country, but there are, um, there are some restrictions and every countries is quite different. So rather than have to learn that, which I’ve gone to cross channel conferences where all they’re doing is talking global shipping. Well it’s people with, with like Shopify stores, their own websites. They have a lot of these events in New York, Steven, and um, the stories from people, I mean it’s, it’s an absolute nightmare with some of the customs things that you deal with. It’s just unbelievable. So I’m always there. I actually attended one as an eBay ambassador saying, you know, absolutely have a Shopify store. Absolutely do what you’re doing. But you might want to consider doing an eBay store just because of the global shipping program because it just takes all those headaches off your plate and you expand your customer base. It’s like you’re shipping around the world.
Stephen: [00:24:51] Again, it takes away that uncertainty, right? Or I don’t have to follow, I have enough rules to follow Kathy in the U S let alone trying to find those others. That’s what you pay eBay for. You know, and it’s funny when you look at eBay fees versus Amazon, they’re lower. They are lower. Um, so, and I love global shipping because again, they take responsibility for shipping. You’re responsible to get it to Kentucky. They handle the rest of it. They handle the, um, uh, all the taxes and all the rest of that stuff that are, do, you don’t have to get involved in any of that stuff. It’s a wonderful that and now that eBay handles sales tax, it even makes it easier. I mean, it just makes it all easier. Okay. So, so you’re out there talking about eBay and eBay has taken its lumps for challenges in the marketplace.
Stephen: [00:25:37] Um, and I just looked because I, I knew this was going to come up, but I want to make sure our sales for December and now it’s early in December, are up 16.6% year over year. Now I’m assuming we’re an anomaly because of what I’ve heard out there, but we had trouble when they have glitches and all that kind of jazz. But I will tell you, we have glitches in our Amazon business. We have glitches in our Etsy business. We have glitches in our own website because, or my podcast website. So I think part of it is that, you know, eBay is so much easier to list than what it used to be. It’s so much easier to ship than what it used to be. It’s so much easier to put photos on. You and I both remember all that nightmare. What it used to be that you’ve got to look at comes at a cost and that technology cost is a challenge from time to time and you just have to have perspective. Um, what are you telling your, cause I’m sure you hear some of these complaints. What are you telling your, your students and clients about, you know, don’t pay attention to the news in a pay attention to your own account. What do you, what are you talking about?
Kathy: [00:26:39] I find, and it’s the same with Amazon, is the same with Walmart. It’s the same with Poshmark. If you’re going in and out of forums, by and large, the people that post are people that are having problems. People in the forums don’t post coming in saying, Hey, my sales are up 80% my sales are up 50% those people are too busy growing their businesses and shipping and expanding onto other platforms. So what I say to people is look at your business. If you are seeing a drop in sales for any reason, and that’s you know this one. Do people come to consultants, they come to consultants when they’re in trouble, they come to consultants usually because their sales are down. And when I go and I look at their accounts and I look to see what’s going on is the first thing always is the same thing on Amazon is you got to check your prices.
Kathy: [00:27:30] Are you competitive, are you competitive? And if you checked your price, you know, six months ago, that’s not good enough. You need to check regularly, particularly reselling on commodity. And even if your private label, there are other products that are similar to yours. So you really need to be aware of what is the price on the marketplace. And you know this. It’s also what is the price on the web where you could be the best price on eBay. Let’s say I’m selling the purple widget and let’s say there’s 10 people selling widgets similar to mine. I’m the best price. I’m a top rated seller. Let’s assume it’s an optimized listing. Let’s assume I know when I’m doing. Yeah, but if on Amazon there’s a very similar purple widget and it’s $5 less, people know how to use Google. They’re going to be Googling purple widget.
Kathy: [00:28:22] They’re going to see yours on eBay, and then they’re going to see the other one on Amazon is $5 less. Where do you think they’re going to shop? What incentive do they have to buy yours on eBay? So you need to be competitive on eBay, just like on Amazon. If your price is five or $10 more, but on eBay it’s less, you’re going to see sales on eBay. Now the the thing is, we were talking about international shipping. The thing that’s interesting is sometimes your price can be a little higher on eBay. This is like my bonus tip, but because you ship internationally and this is you shipping yourself or using global shipping, you can command a higher price because your competition is not shipping internationally. Your competition is only shipping in the United States. That’s always an end. You happen to just hit on an item or maybe you researched and discovered it where they just love it in Germany. So you may not be selling that much in the United States. Maybe you’re only selling a couple a month, but ma’am you have dozens of non hundreds of orders going out the door because Germany loves you and you are one of the only sellers, the ship internationally. And that’s fun when you discover things like that. So you could make really good money on eBay and be shipping 50 80% of your items out of the country.
Stephen: [00:29:44] And again, I will still come back to and say this, if you don’t put your products on eBay, somebody else will. And that market, you know, and you could sit there and say, Hey, well this is awesome. Somebody else is selling it. They’re handling all the responsibility. Well yeah, I guess that’s true. But why not take into it yourself? I mean to me it’s just a miss that you can’t make that additional money yourself. I taste it today especially. So it’s so easy. It is easy
Kathy: [00:30:08] stream. There’s so many systems that’ll sync up. I mean, yes there’s some very expensive softwares out there but there’s more moderate price ones out there. You do need to optimize your listings. I always say Amazon and eBay are like different countries in Europe. You know Amazon is England and eBay is France. They speak different languages to just straight import your listing from or reverse, you know to take your eBay listing and throw it onto Amazon is not wise. Just like to just take your Amazon listing and throw it on. eBay is not wise. Yes there are key words that will be the same on both sites but it works differently to optimize your page on Amazon than it does on eBay. eBay has seller tools that are unique to eBay that are not on Amazon and this is a huge mistake my Amazon sellers make. Again cause they just import their listings and they don’t do anything is there’s half a dozen tools they could be using the don’t take a ton of time in maintenance but can really dramatically increase your search results on eBay.
Stephen: [00:31:17] Well let’s talk about a couple. I mean, let’s give some you’re given value. Let’s get some real value.
Kathy: [00:31:20] Sure. Go for it. So when you’re coming onto eBay, one of the biggest differences between eBay and Amazon is the length of the title. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, I believe it’s 200 characters on Amazon. Is that still the case? I don’t think so. I think it’s one 50 but yeah, so let’s just say, and I’m going to date this, this is December, 2019 because we know all things are subject to change, but so let’s say it is 150 or let’s say it’s over a hundred eBay is 80 characters or less. Um, and it’s recommended that you go over 75. There’s actually data showing that you get a higher sale price and better sales results if you can get over the 75 character limit, which for most Amazon sellers is not a problem because they’re importing listings from Amazon. So they’ve got titles with a hundred, 150 characters.
Kathy: [00:32:14] But this is the problem when you use importers, unless they’re highly sophisticated and you pull your listing from Amazon and pull it onto eBay, you’re losing about a third of your child title. Oftentimes it just looks really weird cause it’ll chop a word off in the middle. The other thing, depending on how you’ve set up your Amazon title, sometimes a key word that’s very important to eBay is on the end of your Amazon title. So you’re losing that in as far as your title goes on eBay. And you don’t want to do that. So for instance, you know, let’s say it’s the color or let’s say it’s the size or a measurement that’s important and will help you to get clicks. That’s why when you imported, it’s worth it to have a VA or a consult or somebody to come in and quickly take a look at your titles and just see what’s getting chomped off and if it is an important key word or not.
Kathy: [00:33:13] Um, because it does impact search. And the big thing, Steven, is what the titles on eBay on mobile is when you pull a listing up, pretty much what you’re seeing now is the title, the picture, the item condition, the price, and that’s it. And then you’ll see the return, you’ll see the return information. So you’ll see the seller’s return policy. Okay? That’ll all show on the listing. But the title is perhaps one of the most important things you see is pretty much title, picture, price. Um, so if the title’s wonky, like if it’s chopped in half of the, doesn’t really make sense. If I’m not a hundred percent sure of what I’m looking at, I’ll keep going right by it. And you’re losing a click. Um, I don’t know if you’ve heard this term. It’s one that I’m actually, some of the eBay gang taught me, um, some of the eBay staff, which is that you want to be thumb stoppable when people are scrolling, you know this, you’re pretty much usually scrolling with your thumb or your, your second finger.
Kathy: [00:34:12] And what you want is that you’re lusting, which is going to be your picture. And I know my Amazon sellers know how important pictures are. It’s going to be your picture, your title, your price. That’s what’s going to stop them. And it’s usually the picture in the title are the two things that really jump out even more so than price. Yeah. If I’m looking at the title and it’s like, um, I’m just gonna make something out like Ralph Lauren, red hat and I, and it has a picture, you know, it’s, and sometimes you can’t tell if it’s a man or a woman. You don’t know if it’s unisex, you don’t know what’s going on. Maybe the fabric’s important because some people are allergic to some fabrics. So for instance, you’d want to have 100% wool or a hundred percent cotton or whatever towards the front. Cause maybe on Amazon it’s not so important.
Kathy: [00:34:59] You’d have a towards the end because of the fact that it’s on your page, all this kind of thing. I mean, fabric matters, color or matters. Pattern matters. Matters on brand matters and size matters. Yeah. Yes. On eBay. It’s what’s called items specific’s, but you want it in the title because a lot of times they’re not even going to scroll down and look at your item specifics or look at your description. Like we said, they’re looking at the title, they’re looking at the picture, does it engage them? If it doesn’t, you already lost them and then they would do dig prices. Let me just make sure this, I make this clarity
Stephen: [00:35:38] about Amazon. So Amazon allows uncertain categories. They do allow 200 characters still on the title, but other, most of them, they’re 50 characters. Now they’ve reduced it down. Um, the, I keep hearing different things. I’m just reading what it says. It says, Amazon allows 50 characters in most product titles. Some categories, however, allow up to 200 characters, which is what you thought. Um, and it’s search results. So Amazon shows 50 characters and title tags. Those Amazon’s 50 character limit is good enough to ensure a good title using keywords strategically. Um,
Kathy: [00:36:09] let’s say you have 50 characters. So let’s say you’re not in 150 character category and you’ll know if you are. So, um, but let’s say you’re in a 50 character category and you’re bringing that onto eBay. eBay optimized title is 75 or more. So that’s 25 characters more you can do on eBay and keywords. Again, brand color, it depends on what the item is. It could be period, like Victorian or mid century modern. Um, it could be your size, it could be country of manufacturer, you know, that made in USA or made in Italy or made in France is what matters. Um, but again, you’re either getting your title chopped if you’re in a 200 character category or you’re under optimized.
Stephen: [00:36:58] So what tool do you recommend to get your eBay title optimized?
Kathy: [00:37:05] Good question.
Stephen: [00:37:07] So a lot of it, I mean, we use Amazon. I mean, it’s funny, we become so dependent in my warehouse about using Amazon for almost all that stuff. You know, we’re like, well, if it’s good on Amazon, it must be good for everywhere else. Right? You’re right, we’re missing.
Kathy: [00:37:20] Yeah, I honestly, when you have an eBay store, if you’re basic level or higher, which most of my bigger Amazon and Walmart sellers coming on are, they usually start at the basic store is you now get a free subscription to Terapeak. And Terapeak used to be, if people don’t realize that Terapeak was the research tool for eBay sellers and it was a paid tool. And Steven, I forget cause I had a subscription. It was like 40 bucks a month, 50 a month.
Stephen: [00:37:54] It was probably right, it was years ago. I had to, it’s been a long time.
Kathy: [00:37:57] Right. And that was the research tool on eBay for sales. Because if people aren’t aware of this, when you search souls on eBay and you can just search with eBay, search solds, the data only goes back for a very short period of time, around 30 days or less with Terapeak data, which is why people subscribe to Terapeak. You could go back three years, which was fantastic, but you can also search like terms. You can search, um, key words. There’s a bunch of different search filters you can use in Terapeak. Um, now the, they’re giving you with your store subscription is one year. And my understanding is as, and they’re just unfolding this, it’s all in eBay seller hub that as a Progress’s they are planning on giving more data. And that’s where I would go to look at the item, just start searching. And in Terapeak they’ll show you all the listings and see what keywords other sellers were using. And then you can go on eBay and search within the category. You see what search words are showing up. And the other thing is that you use Google, you use Google ad words and NC it was being searched. What’s coming up
Stephen: [00:39:11] and trends. Yeah. Yes. Trends. So when you’re talking to groups about selling on eBay, what’s the reaction? What’s the, their perception versus reality? I mean, cause that’s still, it used to be, and you and I know this, that eBay was the garage sale market, right? That was it. That was the place it was at. But if I remember hearing this, I think I heard an EBASE a rep say this, that 90% of what’s sold on eBay now is not used junk that we used to sell. Right. Do you know any of those stats?
Kathy: [00:39:44] Yeah, I mean, years ago was called auction web. Everything was on auctions. There weren’t even eBay stores. eBay stores were added later on. 80% of what is on eBay is new. Um, 80%, uh, in additionally 80% are what is called fixed price. There’s actually a minimum amount of auctions going on now. Um, and people may not even realize, I mean like Amazon years ago, all it was, was used books. Right? Right. I mean, all of e-commerce has changed so much. I think for smaller sellers, it depends on the size of the seller and what their background is. If it’s a smaller seller, it’s the challenge of learning a new platform because every platform is different. It is different to sell on Etsy, you know this than it is to sell on eBay than it is to sell on Amazon. So coming on, it’s like you’re learning something new.
Kathy: [00:40:36] So they need to learn title, length, pictures, items, specific’s description and then the different promotional tools for the Amazon sellers coming onto eBay. Um, oftentimes people will say, well, you know, I have my stuff on eBay but I don’t see the results that I think I should be getting. And that’s when I will say to them, okay, do you have you optimized any of your listings? I don’t think I’ve had one person say yes to me. All they’re doing is they’re importing. They got talked into using some kind of importing tool. They put the listings up on eBay and that is all they have done with their eBay listing. So then I always say to them, cause they’re usually my bigger sellers, I’ll say, okay, have you optimized your Amazon listing for this product? Yes. Are you running Amazon ads for this product? Yes. And I go and gee, you get results on Amazon? Yes. Okay. So then you’re coming onto eBay, you’re just throwing the listing up. I sort of say it’s like having spaghetti and throwing it against the wall and you haven’t optimized your listing and you’re not taking advantage of eBay advertising. What makes you think you’re going to get results and they get it,
Stephen: [00:41:57] you’re disappointed with no effort and you’re thinking, Hmm, it isn’t easy, but it is simple.
Kathy: [00:42:03] Correct. That is true. And the other thing, Steven is I think years ago, and I’m saying maybe even five years ago, I think the Holy commerce world was much smaller and it’s still small compared to all of retail. So just to say that to everybody, we are still in the infant stages of online. As much as everything has changed, as much as we sometimes get overwhelmed with all the apps and things that are available and data and just everything is, we are still in the infant stage of eCommerce, but even five years ago, truly you could pretty much just sort of throw listings up on eBay just like you could just throw listings up on Amazon and sell. If it was something mildly in demand, you know, semi-good price, pretty good pictures you would sell. It is now so different because of search engines, because of social media, because of paid ads.
Kathy: [00:43:02] Um, and because of the complexity of the search engines now with artificial intelligence and other things like that is that it is more work. You need to learn the language of each platform, but it’s doable. Um, and also learn as much as you need to know, right? I don’t need to know every last detail on Amazon because I’m working with sellers and I’m bringing them on to eBay. But I know eBay very, very, very wow. Even if you’re an Amazon seller, let’s see, you’re killing on Amazon. Let’s say you’re over $1 million gross a year is, and let’s say you’re not selling as much on eBay, but even if you do 20% of what you do on Amazon, on eBay, and it’s the same inventory and you can fulfill it with your warehouse or fulfill it with FBA, why are you going to say no to 20% increase in revenue? And it’s the same inventory, your era, you’re, you’re moving your inventory faster, you’re getting a return on your investment quicker. Why wouldn’t you want that?
Stephen: [00:44:14] I was in your city in New York a couple of years ago and it’s with Gary V and he’s like, Steve, you have to have your, you want to be on every platform. You don’t want to be just on one place. You want to be on every platform. That way if it takes off, you’re in a position to take advantage of it. You know, and I think there’s so much sense to what you’re saying. Again, this is, uh, it is so easy to optimize the little piece of eBay that you really are required to do when you’re moving stuff from an Amazon or from a Walmart. There’s very little of tweaking you have to do. So that’s the effort right there. Have you used, um, have you, are you familiar with Suzanne? You know, Suzanne woke from a cell hound. Have you, have you used that?
Kathy: [00:44:51] I do. I love Susan. She’s wonderful. But quickly about Gary V cause I do love to reveal is yes to being everywhere but be as many places as you can manage. Yeah. I’m Steve and I know we both know this, which is you’ll have people and they go too broad too fast. So the on eBay for two minutes then and then three minutes later they’re on Amazon, then they’re on Walmart and then all of a sudden they’re getting their accounts shut down because they have not built the foundation and the infrastructure to support all of it. So I always say to people is learn one marketplace at a time. Again, unless you have a staff, let’s say you’re a brick and mortar or you are rather large online retailer and you already have a certain amount of staff in place, that’s going to be different.
Kathy: [00:45:38] But even then is I really encourage people to learn one platform at a time and I would learn it for a good three to four months and then expand and expand to one. So maybe start on Amazon, then you add eBay, then you add Walmart and look at what it’s costing you to maintain on the different channels. Look at what the sales revenues are and as you’re testing different platforms, like for instance, you may test Walmart and find it’s not getting the returns that you’re want. So then you’re going to pull back is so yes, expand but make sure that you’re building the foundation to support it. I always like Marcus Limonus from the profit show cause he talks people, process and profit. Make sure you have the people and the process in place or the whole thing’s going to implode on you and you don’t want that to happen.
Stephen: [00:46:33] It’s Sage advice. I would think you’re, you’re absolutely right. And, and as you said, you said this earlier, you know, when you do come over to eBay, learn the rules, fine tune all that stuff and get that process right. Cause it is different
Kathy: [00:46:45] as thankfully with Amazon. I mean we all know people where um, and it’s sad and it happens on eBay too where um, they get account warnings and they ignore it. Then we all know what happens when you ignore.
Stephen: [00:46:58] I’ve been in eBay jail before where you can’t list and you can’t do this, you know, because you weren’t pending. And I always say that it’s my responsibility. Even when my guys making money, it’s my responsibility. I mean, you know, we’re supposed to know. So we, uh, I just had Susanna on and uh, we tried sell hound. Um, and so my point is this, this technology and this is where I think there’s a huge opportunity upcoming. All those eBay, there were so many eBay, uh, auto listing tools that we’ll take from either Walmart. Uh, Bonanza still is out there, believe it or not, but um, uh, Amazon of course, although there are tools that will do that automation with so hound, uh, in the fashion area, they were able to list, we started using them two days ago I would say. And we had our first sale already.
Stephen: [00:47:43] And it’s shocking to me. It is shocking to me and I’m going to be pitching her stuff. I sent her a note this morning how good their listing is versus Steve’s listing. And I’m owning up to it. They fill in everything. I know I should, but I don’t because I’m busy and I’ve got 5,000, 612 listings right now. So I’ve got a million things going on and it’s hard to manage and I want to get another 4,000 up by the end of the, uh, next year, whatever. Um, I don’t fill all that in. They filled in everything and boom, magically something sold. But that tech, my point is that technology is available to you. You don’t have to hire a whole listing team when you have this opportunity here and there’s going to be more correct.
Kathy: [00:48:26] Exactly. And also to give Suzanne and Silvana plug, cause they’re, they’re a great tool is Suzanne is an eBay seller. She knows it, have a tool that is, creates your listing for you and then sends it to you for you to approve before it goes live. And the tool is created by an eBay seller. So she knows what sellers need was sellers are looking for. And that is a huge benefit. Not that we don’t love everybody who develops tools, but some people, they might have a great knowledge of retail or they might have a great knowledge of AI, but they don’t have a great knowledge of eBay selling or Amazon selling for people that are developing Amazon tools. And it makes a big difference.
Stephen: [00:49:08] Huge difference. And I am, uh, I will be, uh, one of their biggest champions because w what the light bulb went on and we sell on Amazon. We sell shoes and clothing and stuff like that. It’s like, Oh my gosh, that stuff we’ll get to, we’re going to get to it. Um, can you relate, Kathy? We’ll get to that. We’re going to list it now. It’s just like the guys takes the photos, boom. It’s gone and it’s out of our hair. And then magically while we’re out doing whatever we’re doing, we get notified that technology is coming. What, what, what would you say, you know, with eBay when you look forward? Um, as we get towards the end here, I want to make sure that people understand because you’ll hear, Oh, they’re going to go out of business, blah, blah, blah, nonsense. It’s nonsense. So when you look at it, what do you, what do you see?
Stephen: [00:49:50] Where do you see eBay going? I think maybe that’s a good point. Where do you see it going? And, and I think we have to say within the next couple of years because who knows what technology is coming realistically, we can look at the next couple of years. So for sellers who have a business and they want to grow their business, both Kathy and I are, are both saying, Hey, sell on eBay. No question. Right? It’s a wonderful place. If you’re not selling anybody, you should be selling on eBay. What do you see? Uh, eBay? Well, where do you see eBay going? I think, I think you have some insight.
Kathy: [00:50:20] That’s such a good question. Especially because right now they’re looking for a new CEO is, he base has several great strengths. Number one is the diversity of its offerings more than any other site. I can think of everything from soup to nuts can be sold on eBay. It has a greater diversity than Amazon, than Walmart, than any of them. I mean one thing we haven’t even talked about like eBay motors is huge and really awesome and then things like antiques and collectibles and then titch toy. So not only is it all the modern new new it tags items, but the vintage things, the period things that you just cannot find anywhere else and additional joy really helps the smaller brick and mortars, which probably isn’t most of our listeners, but think of people that are wonderful, wonderful sellers that are in small towns all around the United States and all around the world.
Kathy: [00:51:20] They can only generate a certain amount of income from their town because there just so many people there. By going online with something like eBay, which is far easier to do than to build your own website as you write it, literally within hours if you just sort of follow and put your stuff up and everything, you are exposed not only all around the United States, but you’re exposed all around the world. I mean I’ve had sellers say to me literally the reason they have two and three employees or four or five employees is because of the income they generate from eBay and that impacts their community. That means those three or four or five or six people have jobs because of the revenue from eBay and it’s not just in the United States, it’s around the world. So the global impact is huge and I think that is eBay’s great strength is to all of these sellers is that they can grow in scale, in a place that is extremely seller friendly.
Kathy: [00:52:22] I think more than other sites right now eBay is very seller friendly, very much reaching out to sellers, dialoguing with sellers, listening to sellers, making policy that certainly take care of the buyer because without buyers, you know, none of us have a business but that are very seller friendly. So that I like for instance, if you do have something go on with your account, there are people that you can reach out to, you can talk to them. It’s not just, I don’t know anybody that literally just gets shut down unless like if you were selling a fraudulent product that I could see immediately, you know, is if you’re selling fake Apple, yeah, you could probably get shut down in two seconds flat. But if there’s other things going on, you might have difficulty with late shipping or just a lot of different things that can happen is there’s a place for you to dialogue, um, a place for you to send all sellers.
Kathy: [00:53:16] They get a huge, do they get a U S rep every time? Is that all sellers? No. No, but if you are anchor store or higher, you will have what’s called concierge customer service, which means, Oh, I love it other on Utah, they take your call, they listen, they know what they’re talking about. They help you. They almost older, single time they fix the problem. They’re Utah or Texas are the two big call centers for us customer service. And not to knock the offshore, but it’s just, it tends to go much, much faster. But if people are listening and if they, um, are an eBay seller in the United States or Canada, if you go on Facebook, if you find the Facebook business page called eBay for business, that’s the page for sellers, but only us and UK can, um, look at it. So if you’re out of that, you’re going to have to go to the page for your country.
Kathy: [00:54:09] But that is staffed, that page is staffed by customer service in the United States. So oftentimes, cause I just don’t want to jump on the phone, I’ll just message them with whatever my issue is. You do need to ID yourself. Um, they’re going to ask you to ID yourself, which is you’re giving information about your accounts so they can verify. And I’ll just post a screenshot or ask a question, you know, whatever I need and I’ll get an answer from them in writing within two to three business days. And so you could kind of get that off your plate, move on, let them do the research. You know, it’s funny, I’m sitting here thinking about this, how many Amazon sellers would pay? You know, what do I pay 250 bucks from my anchor store or something like that. But it’s reduced other fees. So it’s not, it’s not like it costs us a lot by the time you’re done, you pay lower fees, blah, blah, blah.
Kathy: [00:54:57] There’s math out there anyway. How many would pay for that to have an Amazon person actually helped them? I mean, like literally answer their question and a U S rep and be able to make a decision and almost always they can be like, wow, I can do this. I’m not allowed to do this. Let me, or let me put you on hold. Let me see what I can do. And it’s like, sometimes you’re on there for 20 minutes. And I’m like, do you have to go? Well, no, I’m here helping you. And I’m like, yes. Oh, okay. Yeah. How many Amazon sellers would pay for that service? All of us. 100%. And the other thing is, for instance, like the name. So you can like, I always, um, when I talked to them on the phone is I have a long, so I know who I talked to.
Kathy: [00:55:35] Um, and I’ll put the time. So in case I need to call back, it’s like, okay, I spoke to cause it’s written on your account. So I spoke to a blonde blog. This is the time. And if you’re messaging eBay for business, they always sign their name. So it’s like, okay, you know, Brittany answered and here’s a screenshot of what she said that I love because sometimes Steve and I want it in writing because when I hear it, sometimes you miss here. If it’s in writing, I can read exactly what they said. The other experience that I’ve had, and I call him, uh, you know, once a month maybe, you know, a little bit, is that most of the time they’re sellers. Uh, which is interesting. It seems like they must encourage them to sell. I mean, I don’t know. Okay. Yeah. Which is pretty cool because then you, again, we’re back to ed. Like talking about Suzanne woke from a Soho. They understand
Stephen: [00:56:24] the challenges and they’re trying to fix those problems. And I, I just think that that’s very helpful. All right, so you’re out there making these pitch to brands, to brick and boarders to say, Hey, add this to your business. You made a very compelling case so far. So let’s add the rest of them. Well, let’s talk about this. First off, you’re a podcaster man
Kathy: [00:56:45] out there.
Stephen: [00:56:46] You got a voice you want to be heard and you’re out there. So let’s talk about your podcast. Um, the name is,
Kathy: [00:56:52] it’s Kathy Terrell. I love to be selling
Stephen: [00:56:56] and now that’s on, um, all the [inaudible].
Kathy: [00:57:01] Yeah, favorite podcast is we’ll play everything and if people can’t figure it out, if you go to my website, I love to be selling just like what it sounds like, you’ll see a tab podcast, just click it and it has the links for Apple, Google play and Spotify are right there. And you can just click them.
Stephen: [00:57:20] Okay. And that’s a good place to communicate with you. Is there another place that if somebody has a question they can ask you?
Kathy: [00:57:26] Right on my website it says contact, I think it says contact Cathy or something like that. And it just immediately you’ll just send an email to me.
Stephen: [00:57:34] So, you know, I always have this closing question and I want to get there, but I just want to remind people again, go back and listen to the beginning of this. Kathy’s life, her training, she’s gotten to, to take advantage of it. And now she can go out and comfortably talk to brands. She can talk about all the different things because all this stuff, she paid attention to her whole life and now it allows her to do this. You are no different. You just have to get the right mindset. And I think a, Kathy’s a great example of somebody who’s got the right mindset and is taking advantage, taking full advantage of it. I mean, pull advantage. So that is awesome. Um, uh, the other thing that you can do is you can hear Kathy speaks. She speaks at a lot of events, almost every eBay event, so, so check that out. Okay. So what I usually leave with Kathy is I like to ask people, um, how they got past stuck. I can’t imagine life has been unicorns and rainbows for you always, right? Especially somebody who’s been turned down probably thousands of times to get that one. Yes. Being an actor, right? I mean, that’s the real, right? You just go on a million additions and you get that one right. Um, how do you get, what’s the advice you give to people to get past the point of stuck?
Kathy: [00:58:44] Uh, first of all, if you’re really stuck is walk away. Just stop it. Because sometimes you just sort of pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing. And it’s like, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s a mess. So just leave it alone. Walk away, go for whatever it is that clears your head. So go for a walk, go to the gym, go watch a movie. Go hang out with people that are not sellers. Just walk away. That’s a good advice for half a day or a day, whatever it takes, and then go back and look at it. One, do you really want it? Because it may be that you don’t, so you can just walk away. It’s like, you know what, I don’t really want this. So walk away, but walk away because you’re choosing to walk away rather than, um, it’s a way to, um, protect yourself because you don’t want to deal with failure.
Kathy: [00:59:30] You don’t want to have to deal with pressing through because if you walk away because you don’t want to press through, you’re going to be in the same circumstance again in five months or six months and have to go through the whole thing all over again. Um, so if you go back and you go, okay, I don’t want this, then you walk away or you go, you know what? No, I do want this. So it’s an, okay, so what happened? Is it wrong place? Wrong time? Is it like, let’s say it’s a product that fell flat, like just this product is not selling. Okay, you made a mistake. So is it the price? Is that the product? Did you not do your research? You’ve got to sort of break it down and figure out where did it get broken along the way. And if it’s like okay did do my research, everything was fine but the problem is now the market’s flooded.
Kathy: [01:00:15] It’s like, cause I had a client where that happened. Um, then it’s like okay, can I bundle it? It’s interesting you brought up bundles cause a lot of times if you’ve got a product that you’re having a problem with is can I bundle it? Can I do something to this to make it different? And I think this is the big challenge Steven, is because it’s such a glut on everything right now is how can I reconfigure this so I can stand out. I just had a customer cause I saw on eBay and they bought two of these items. They bundled it themselves. eBay has in case people don’t know, eBay has um, a promotional tool called promotions manager. What promotions manager does is it gives them a discount. One of the ways you can use it is to give a discount if they buy more than a certain dollar amount from you and increases the shopping cart size.
Kathy: [01:01:04] So this customer had taken advantage of a promotion that I had on a category and had bought these two items and I went, huh, interesting. And I looked at him and I went, Oh, I bet other people would do that because not everybody can figure out to put two things on a shopping cart to get a discount. As easy as that seems, not everybody can figure out how to do that. So I went, I’ll create a bundle. So I mean literally in five minutes to products that I already have that I have on hand. Um, you know, I figure out what a good price is and now I’ve got a new product listing. Why? Because I paid attention to my customer. What’s the worst case? It won’t sell. It will only sell a single items. Okay, great. But you know what? What if the bundle, I mean right now it’s the holidays again, we’re talking in December is it might catch on fire as a gift thing.
Kathy: [01:01:55] It literally took me five minutes of looking at it and it was like, Oh and Annelie that the way the person checked out too, they checked out a two separate transactions. So I’m like, okay, I want to make sure it’s the same person that they’re shipping to the same address. Cause you know this at the holidays people can check out separately cause one items going to Steven, one items going to Cathy know both of them were going to this one person and I went, Oh okay. And now I’ve got a bundle. I’ve got a way to stand out in my category. Worst. What’s the worst thing that’ll happen in one cell? Okay, fine.
Stephen: [01:02:30] Took a product. I mean, and again we’re talking, getting stuck. You took a product that you described as stuck and you enhanced it, you had value. Um, because again, back to this, you’re paying attention. You’re a noticer. Um Hmm. Very interesting.
Kathy: [01:02:44] And also the key words. So, for instance, if you are creating a bundle, is it a giftable bundle and is it a specific sort of bundle? I could be something that would be good for a man or for a woman. You’ve got to make sure to go in and use those key words to help yourself stand out and search. Because you know this, people will Google and they will search on Amazon and they will search on eBay man’s gift, man’s gift, um, turtleneck. You know, I mean, it’s hard. You’re probably like me, which is, I’m very specific. When I go on sites, I know what I’m looking for. But not everybody is there. Just sort of looking, stocking stuffer secret Santa gift, you know, for a man is you’ve got to give the search engines enough keywords that they will find your product, particularly when it’s a bundle.
Stephen: [01:03:39] Well, okay, here’s a good example. Ugly sweater, right? Nobody’s going and saying, I’m looking for an angry cat wearing pajamas, uh, in the rain on the port. Right? They’re looking for the ugly sweater. Right? And so,
Kathy: [01:03:53] or funny cat sweater or, um, yeah,
Stephen: [01:03:58] yeah. Interesting. It’s funny, I’m sitting here listening to you and I’m like, Oh, the wisdom, uh, that’s coming. And again, this is all built on everything. It’s paying attention, being that merchandiser, watching people merchandise, getting on QVC, listening, watching those people, watching Joan Rivers sell and seeing her gift. And what is she doing? That’s a keyword. That’s a feature that’s a benefit. Again, all this is stuff that every single person, I don’t care what you’re doing, you’re driving. You should pay attention, right. Popular cars, right. What, what’s the people, what are people doing? What are the music really listening to? These are all opportunities we all have. And so if you want to hear more about this, I assume this is what we talk about on, I love to be selling every week. Is that correct?
Kathy: [01:04:40] It is. How much I asked. Yep. And it’s on my website too. And also every time you and I get together,
Stephen: [01:04:46] Oh yeah. Yeah. We do a tend to travel the same circles. Well, Kathy, I thank you so much. Uh, I’m very appreciative of you being patient with me as we get the technical stuff worked out. But, um, I’m really glad we got to do this and I wish you nothing but success
Kathy: [01:05:00] and the same to you. Steven has been a pleasure.
Stephen: [01:05:03] Smart lady, smart seller. Um, that breadth of experience. I’m telling you, you gotta think back in your life, what have you done that you can build on if you were back to my waitress or waiter? Don’t mean to exclude. Pay attention. You see people, you see clothing, right? If you work in a nice fancy restaurant, you see people wearing, God forbid the bow tie comes back. But if it did that, you could take advantage of that. Look at the colors. Okay, there’s an opportunity every, if you work at a gas station, what kind of cars are people driving? Well, guess what? They need stuff for those cars. And what trends are people doing? You know, it’s a matter of changing your frame, right? Looking at things differently and saying, huh, what are they doing? And look a couple of times and you start to see a pattern that’s an opportunity. Well, why can’t you do that? Take advantage of that particular, you could, of course, you can. And is a perfect example. Somebody who’s done it, and now she’s out there talking to brands. Why? Because she’s put in the work. Um, so check it out. I love to be selling.com. Check out e-commerce momentum.com. Got lots of cool things coming up in the new year. Take care.
Cool voice guy: [01:06:07] Thanks for listening to the e-commerce momentum podcast. All the links mentioned today can be found@incomersmomentum.com under this episode number, please remember to subscribe and like us on iTunes.
Stephen: [01:06:21] [inaudible].
