301 : Andy Slamans – Ecommerce is still in its infancy & what savings can you expect from having your own warehouse
By now I am sure everyone who listens to this show knows that Andy and I share a warehouse. But it is so much more, it deepens the relationship. You see he can fill in where I fall short and vice-versa. If you are interested in having someone fill in your warehouse, choose wisely, but choose. You will be richer for it.
Mentioned:
Andy’s FB messenger contact
Amazing Freedom
Andy’s previous episodes: #1, 101, 201
Sponsors
Gaye’s Million Dollar Arbitrage List
Transcript: (note- this is a new tool I am trying out so it is not perfect- it does seem to be getting better)
Stephen: [00:00] I’m excited to talk about my sponsors today, Gaye Lisby’s million dollar arbitrage group. Amazing, amazing group. This is a teacher. This is a Gaye, was a teacher. She is a teacher. Still. You need to learn. This is the type of environment you want to be in because she’s going to help you understand why, and I think that’s the hardest part of this business is understanding why. Why is the red one popular one? The green one isn’t? Well, there’s usually a reason and what gay does is probably parsed that better than anybody and she’ll explain the reasons for those things. I think that’s really powerful. Yeah. She puts out a list. You’re going to get a get use of that list if you get in the group. Now here’s the deal. The group isn’t always open, right? So you get on the waiting list and you can join the waiting list through my link.
Stephen: [00:46] Doesn’t cost anything to get on a waiting list and if you like her service, which I find that most people do that. That’s why there’s not so many openings and you’ll be with her for a long time and so it’s amazing. Freedom [inaudible], she’s part of Andy’s Slamon’s group. Amazing freedom.com. Forward slash momentum, and you’re going to get in the waiting list. That’s all I can get you on right now. You can use my name and see if that gets anywhere, but what I like about it, what I like about what they teach in that group or the things that are going on, you know the current things. I’ve seen a lot of stuff going on about stores going out of business. While here’s where an opportunity is, here’s why you want to do this. Hey, be cautious about this, you know, toys r us coming out, you’ve got to think about this and that’s the learning that you need to do and gay is better than anybody else I’ve seen.
Stephen: [01:31] So amazing. Freedom Dot com. Forward slash momentum will get you to the waiting list. Then hopefully it can get you in the group and then you’re going to see me in there and we can chat anytime you’re ready. Karen lockers. Group solutions. The number for e-commerce solutions for e-commerce dot com forward slash momentum. It’s going to save you 50 bucks. Karen’s our account manager. We recommend her to everyone because she’s done so well for us. I mean that’s quite frankly the reason we’ve been paying her for the last few years, but she’s become an important part of our team. Her and her team are so involved in our account. I just see the emails coming back and forth, hey, we did this for you. I just saw two listings today. I’m like, wait a second. Why did they show up? I didn’t put any listings up. They got a.
Stephen: [02:13] They got set off to the side by Amazon and they reactivate them for me. You know what I mean? That’s the stuff that just happens when you have a strong team and I can’t recommend Karen enough if you use my code momentum. Karen pays me. I don’t want to hide that. Of course we all know that, but you’re going to say $50 and it’s a great opportunity to really, really build out your team with somebody you can trust. That’s why I recommend them. So solutions for ecommerce solutions, the number for e-commerce dot com, forward slash momentum. It’s going to save you $50. Oh, and by the way, she’s going to do an inventory health report. Why is that important? Well, guess what fees are going up. Is your inventory health number declining like ours is? Well, here’s why and what they can do. What I like is I get a spreadsheet from them and it says, Hey, here’s a bunch of inventory.
Stephen: [03:05] Here’s what we recommend. And I’m like, Yep, re refund. I mean delete a return to us, blah blah blah, whatever it is, and it’s are destroyed and it just happens. That’s what I like. The other thing that I have Karen helped me with a lot is creating new listings. You know, we do. A lot of the researchers solves, we upload our images and then boom, magically the listing goes live and I don’t have to worry about it. Those are the services that run offers. Can’t recommend her enough solutions for e-commerce dot com, forward slash momentum. Save 50 bucks. Use My code. You save $50 a month every single month and it’s a great service. Plus you get that free inventory health report. I think it’s a really powerful way, so I can’t. I’m so excited how many people have been joining here because I see it and I’m excited because the messages I get from people saying, hey, this is great.
Stephen: [03:52] I finally feel like I can focus on something else because Karen and her team are watching this for me and I highly recommend her. Next up is scale solar lamps and scope. We’ll sit it wrong. It’s amazing. I mean, it really is amazing when you sit back and think about, hey, I want to get this product up and it’s similar to this product and that’s what that product does well, well therefore, if that product does well, they have the right keywords, they’ve chosen things correctly, so guess what? You scope and you could see all that stuff and that’s what the most powerful thing in the world is to copy somebody who’s done it right. That’s what you want to. You want to take advantage of that, right? I mean it’s, it’s fair to see and so therefore you can take and apply it to your listing and immediately get that same benefit.
Stephen: [04:39] That’s what scope does for me. Sellerlabs dot [inaudible] forward slash momentum. It’s going to save you $50 on service. Oh, by the way, it’s free to try. So sign up, try it and say, oh, this is how it’s done. Boom. And then you’re going to get the lights going to go on and you’re going to be like, man, I can get my products out there. I just can’t wait. Can’t wait. So are labs dot [inaudible] forward slash momentum. The other day I bought another domain. Yes, I bought another domain. It’s almost like I’m admitting guilt, but it’s because I had an idea and it was something that was a pretty good idea. I think it’s going to go pretty far and so what do I do? I go to try go daddy.com forward slash momentum and save 30 percent. So domains aren’t very expensive. You get a few services, it adds up a little bit and I usually buy it three years.
Stephen: [05:31] I usually buy privacy by the way, I recommend that to buy that. It’s not that much money, but when you can save 30 percent it makes it that much sweeter and it makes it easier when you’re buying domains and especially if you buy a bunch of domains. I am a domain collector and so I do tend to do that, but that 30 percent makes it a lot easier and I used to go down because what I like is I can pop in an address I’m thinking and it’ll say nope, nope, could try this version or try this extension and then boom, there it is. Hey, you better hurry before it goes away and the right, you know. And so try go daddy.com forward slash momentum save 30 percent. Also want to mention about grasshopper. Was that just talking to somebody the other day? And they were like, Oh yeah, use this company called grasshopper.
Stephen: [06:13] I’m like, dude, did you buy through my link and save 30 percent? Hello? Know they missed that. So save 30 percentage, try grasshopper.com forward slash momentum. No surprise there, but you’re going to save 30 percent and what the real cool part about that is they’re using it for their private label business and it gives them virtually a second phone on their current phone without having to get another number. They can make up a vanity number. They don’t have to go and do all the grief and sign loan contracts. Pretty easy stuff, and so if you’re creating a brand that you want to identify, you want to look professional, you want to look like a real company, grasshoppers, a great tool. It’s an app you put on your existing phone and boom, you now have a customer service to. You now have a sales department, didn’t have a manufacturing division. You could forward it to somebody else. You can have it go to different voicemails, different departments, and it’s all included. So try grasshopper.com. Forward slash momentum. Save 30 percent.
Stephen: [07:13] Welcome back to the e-commerce momentum podcast. This is episode the Rio one, Andy Slamon’s. Yes, I have andy back and this time it’s kind of interesting. We’re actually a live in the warehouse and we’re just chatting as to friends do in the warehouse talking about opportunities and futures and it’s so funny because I think him and I both are exactly on the same page that there is nothing but opportunity everywhere I look. There’s so much opportunity and the challenge is how do you say no to it? How do you know which is the right one for you? And I think those are some of the challenges we all face. We talk about life in the warehouse and what it’s done for us and what it’s done collectively, what, what it could do for you, you know, this world is evolving and changing very quickly and I’m the network that you build, the friends that you build those relationships are what really allows you to advance your business. And in my case, it’s absolutely a hundred percent because of. And so, um, let’s get to the podcast and really enjoy listening to his thought process about the future of e-commerce.
Stephen: [08:17] Welcome to the e-commerce momentum podcast where we focus on the people, the products, and the process of e-commerce selling today. Here’s your host, Steven Peterson.
Stephen: [08:31] Hi and welcome back to the podcast for excited about today’s guest sits and so therefore it’s time for Andy Slavitt. So welcome back and thanks Steven. I’m excited to be here again. I’m excited to have you. You know, one of the things that we’ve seen in this business in this world, we’ve been together probably four years. We’ve been friends now and it’s evolved, right? I mean, back in those days you and I were trying some raw together and back. It was taboo to
Andy: [08:55] kind of show each other what are you going to buy? I remember somebody commenting like, what happens if there were three who got the other one? And it was like, I don’t care, you can have it and you were the same way. And so that’s when I knew kind of that we were both cut from the same mold in that way. We weren’t looking for the quick, the quick hits. It was really a long game. You think it’s still a long game? I still think that we’re just getting started. Uh, I think that the rocket ship is taking off still. It’s less than 10 percent of all products are purchased online and that’s here in the USA. And think about the global market, which is the largest marketplace, us a pales in comparison to all these other countries that are not even online yet or, or are just getting in the game, you know exactly what you’re saying.
Andy: [09:45] I’m thinking this is the opportunity to learn and we have such an opportunity to learn here in the US, make all the mistakes, figure it out, then go global worldwide with what you know. I mean, we don’t, we don’t credit ourselves for how much we know how much we’ve learned. If you’ve been selling even six months in this world. So Steve, did you, I don’t know if you got it or not, but Amazon just send out a email recruiting sellers to sell on Amazon. China. Think about that, you know, the, the Chinese marketplace over 1,000,000,000 people. Uh, I, I remember, um, it was probably only 20 or 25 years ago, someone would hold up a quarter and they would say that represents China. They were 25 percent of the world’s population. Now it’s a little less than that now, but Chinese, their wages have increased their growing middle class and their appetite for purchases is going to be strong and it’s going to be a lot stronger than what it is in the US.
Andy: [10:44] So think about that over the next 10 to 15 years. How much opportunity you and I have to enter the Chinese market place with us. A manufactured products. OK, yeah, I was going to qualify that because one of the things I’ve heard from some people was like, wait a second. All my stuff is made in China so I’m going to get it made in China and bring it over to the US and then send it back to China and that’s going to make financial sense. Why isn’t that manufacturer just going to sell it themselves? In China, they. They want a USA based products on you and I know that we know sellers who absolutely crush it and Europe with products that they shipped from the USA that are made in the USA and so there are certain niches that you can absolutely dominate and those goods are desired worldwide in China is going to be no different.
Andy: [11:34] It makes perfect sense. Sorry as as they in matter of fact, you’re going to see it accelerate. I think back to the Japanese with jeans, right? Remember they all wanted American jeans and they would sell at such a premium because they wanted anything that that Kinda stood out as American because there’s a, there’s a, a, a positive stigma to having American clothes and, and have an American style and American sunglasses and things. So you’re suggesting that the right model now, if you’re going to expand, is to find a source in the US or assembled in the US, right? That qualifies to. Is that fair? You’re going to have to, you know, really dig and find those unique niches that I’m worldwide customers are looking for and specifically Chinese costumers. And so we know that, you know, there are a number of, um, Chinese immigrants and the USA and so, you know, when they bring their families over here to visit, you know, they discover goods, they discover products, we know that a lot of those, um, Chinese immigrants in the USA ship USA products to their families.
Andy: [12:40] And so, you know, you need to do your research, dig in, find out what those folks that are living here now from China are really interested in what they’re shipping back to their families and then, uh, and then scale it. Yeah, I think it makes sense as a brands grow more global. Um, that opportunity exists. It exists for a small seller like yourself to be a brand that never existed before. And that to me is the most exciting part. So I’m working right now on a new brand and I fully believe that we can grow this brand to $10,000,000 a year revenue within three to four years. Uh, and we can actually probably grow beyond that. But, uh, but I mean, where else, you know, could you do that without a platform like Amazon? And I was thinking about this too, you built, you can build that now because you’ve been building successful businesses or brands, you know, let’s call it the light brands right there, not full brands that anybody would recognize a black and decker or a Yeti, um, or anything like that.
Andy: [13:50] But it is these minuscule brands that you are building. Each one builds on the next, the next one is easier to get to, right? Isn’t it like you hit that first milestone, you break that five minute mile, then you can get into the four minute and 32nd mile, whatever it is, right? That’s what you’re seeing. So when you sit there and say, I can build this other brand into $10,000,000, it’s like, yeah, I’ve already got that three and a half million dollar one, but what’s $10,000,000? I’ve already know how to accelerate that. You’re, that’s the exciting part about staying in the game long term. You know, I just saw an info graphic the other day and it was a gentleman that was building a stairway and each step represented a failure. And so a lot of people will see failure as basically an elevator, you know, to unsuccessful business, uh, but this, this infographic had the gentlemen building the stair way and each stairway said failure.
Andy: [14:43] And so, you know, when you’re in the game for a long time and you, you believe in what we do, like you and I both do, we just see the upside of the ecommerce then, you know, as I’ve been building brands I’ve had, I’ve experienced success, I’ve also experienced some failures, but it just, you grow and you learn from those failures and you get better to then be able to see the big opportunity, which, you know, you will not discuss this one that, that w I’m specifically talking about. And uh, and it’s absolutely doable with execution. How do you know when to walk away? Because you, you, uh, I think of you and Lee, Ron and I know, you know all you guys stuff and I’ve seen a whole bunch of things that you guys have walked away from. How do you know when to fold them as Kenny Rogers would say?
Andy: [15:28] How do you know? Let me. Because it’s an emotional thing, you put your life in it, you build this baby, you created it, you, you got it there, and then to walk away, that seems like a tough one for me. Well, you know, like they always say you never fall in love with the product, fall in love with the process. And so you know, part of the game, part of being a business you need, you have to take swings and sometimes you’re going to hit singles, sometimes you’re going to hit doubles, sometimes you may strike out and so you know, as the market evolves and as the particular niche that you’re selling end starts to change or maybe becomes more competitive. You just have to make good business decisions, which obviously is always based on numbers and data. And if the numbers don’t add up then it’s time to move on.
Andy: [16:14] And so what you just said was really powerful though. You built this alone. You didn’t. It’s not an all or nothing. You learn a process, you’ve learned all these different steps. Now you can just wash, rinse, repeat on. The next item is it is with, I don’t know how many millions and hundreds of millions of products or an Amazon isn’t, aren’t they saturated? I hear that a lot too. What’s your thought on that? Yeah. So that’s, that’s really a common concern that a lot of sellers, um, you know, we’ll come up with, but we both know my partner Lee Ron, and he often says that question is really an excuse. And so, you know, from the beginning of time there have been markets, you know, Margaret places maybe they weren’t using, um, you know, Fiat currency to purchase goods, but they were bartering. And so there’s always going to be markets. There’s always going to be opportunities.
Andy: [17:07] It really just falls upon us to be swifter, to be smarter and like you said, to have those systems and processes that are going to limit the air’s, how, how strong our operating procedure, standard operating procedures that you have to have that. Every business, right? That is successful. Uh, as they grow, they establish those. So peace. Um, now the thing is a lot of, again, I’ll hear a lot of people will make, I call them excuses because they want a step one through step 10 to success when it comes to building your brand on Amazon and um, and there’s a little bit of art and a little bit of science which are good friend Kelly and shared with us at our private label retreat. And so there’s really not a full proof blueprint, you know, that you can say look, do step one through step 10 and you’re going to be a florist or they’re out in these extenuating circumstances.
Andy: [18:06] A seasonality. I mean, what else? I mean, are those the kinds of things that can impact it? Well, it’s Kinda like, you know, just like she said, it’s a, it’s a little bit of an art and so, you know, there are some people that are gifted at sourcing and so, and, and they have kind of a pulse on the market, a pulse on the niche and they go with a gut feeling in addition to the data that Amazon is going to provide us or that market provide us. And so you have to have both in the sellers that I see that are successful, they absolutely have both. They have that gut intuition, the art, if you want to call it. And uh, and then they also have the scientific data approach. Yeah, data is king and it’s, there’s no excuse anymore. It’s available for anybody, right?
Andy: [18:52] You can pay $100 a month and get an unbelievable piece of software that goes through millions of lines of code and pulls out data that’s actionable, really actionable data that didn’t exist even three years ago, almost 40 years ago. Right? Yeah. Uh, you know, one of the reasons why you and I love Amazon, uh, the platform as much as we do is they are probably the most transparent platform as far as providing data that helps us as sellers. Now, the purpose they provided is for the customers. Like, you know, we talk about a lot, the BSR, Amazon’s best seller rank, uh, it was actually created by bees votes when he first started Amazon. And it was to help consumers recognize which books were the top sellers, uh, because when Amazon started, they were a book selling business, so he came up with that Bsr, which no other platform to this day has a Bsr, you know, isn’t that interesting?
Andy: [19:47] You would think they would copy that immediately because that’s their secret sauces that they shelved right in your face. It must not be easy to get either that or other companies are just not as transparent and as vulnerable as Amazon picking winners. And then they’re afraid they’re going to offend somebody. Right. Which again, why, why you and I love bees. We think, you know, that he’s a genius. Obviously these things have right now the wealthiest man in the world, number one or number two because every so often. But yeah, I mean, just the fact that he is, um, opened up his platform. The way has. I just saw some statistic the other day that Amazon, half 50 percent of the goods now purchased on Amazon are owned by third party sellers. Like you and I, I mean, again, we talk about this. Does Walmart, do they, are they that vulnerable or they that opened, they allow their api like that.
Andy: [20:44] They’re just starting to, but you know, from almost from the beginning has allowed small sellers like you and I to share in the, uh, amazing, uh, platform that they built. It’s definitely a different approach because Walmart still wants to control everything. Now. Amazon’s got million rules. We all know it. Um, one of the is Amazon employees I interviewed, described it. Basically they’d launch something and then they’d, they’d go back and fill in the details later, but to get it to launch, get it 80 percent of whatever in launch to Walmart wants to control every little thing and part of that control comes at a cost and that’s one of the reasons they’re losing seller. So I see so many people start out at Walmart and then keep hitting these walls and they haven’t been able to push through it because they’re just not ready to loo, to, to give up that control.
Andy: [21:35] I hope Walmart figures it out and I hope it becomes less painful because I would love to be able to sell on Walmart right now and I have products I think that will do really well on Wal-mart, but right now it is just too painful of an experience for me to dedicate time to throw my products on their plate and it’s not like you’ve maxed out on Amazon and you know, quite frankly, right. That 80 20 rule you got to put on your chips where the, where the beds are. How about this? Um, I saw recently Amazon surpassed 100,000,000 prime members, hundred million. I did a little research that’s more than the Democratic Party registered voters in the United States. Hundred million. I think that audience is going to continue to grow or they plateauing. Do you think they’ve, they’ve hit the saturation point A. I think it’s going to continue to grow.
Andy: [22:26] And really it comes down to their fulfillment capabilities. When you talk to other folks, you know, in your neighborhood, um, who are prime numbers, they’ll tell you that their purchases on Amazon are not decreasing. Now they’re grown and so you talked to anybody you know who’s a prime member and it’ll become a joke because of how many boxes show up on their doorstep and again, it’s because if I have to buy a screwdriver, why am I going to waste two hours of my day having to drive to home depot, fight traffic when I can get that same screwdriver, w in two days, in many times in one day, and it doesn’t cost me any extra money. Now if I’m pressed on time, I needed one day. Usually I only have to pay $4 and ninety nine cents more and then it’s going to show up on my doorstep and I trust that it’s going to show up on time.
Andy: [23:24] That’s where they’ve absolutely crushed. It had just had this conversation with Chris Green and he was describing he had to go to best buy to buy something and he’s like, Steve, I haven’t been to one in years, but I had to go buy it because I kind of needed it and I thought and I suggested this to him. It’s part of his lifestyle because Chris is an entrepreneur so he has the ability to drop things and go do a, but if you’re like a lot of people that work Monday through Friday your projects or on the weekends, so you’re planning them. So the beauty of this is I can buy on Amazon on a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and that stuff is there for Saturday when I’m ready to do my project. That is huge, right? That is huge. It write it like you describe how much of your life do you get back because of that.
Andy: [24:08] And so understanding that that’s what Amazon delivers. They don’t deliver a screw driver, they live deliver time back to you and if you understand that you’re going to excel in this business. Absolutely. And you know, going back to your question, is the market too saturated? This is related to what we’re talking about. So on the one hand you can ask people who you know, understand Amazon and shop from Amazon and they’ll agree and nod their head and you know, those are the same kind of lines that they’re addicted to buying on Amazon. But then if you also turn the conversation to what you and I do selling on Amazon, they will look at you perplexed and they have no idea really what you’re talking about. So you know, if you’re a seller, ask your neighbor two doors down, they, they have no idea. So that to me again shows that we are still in the infancy of starting and selling on Amazon because the majority of people like you and I have no, they have no idea, no clue what we do know, no clue.
Andy: [25:07] And when, when those conversations start, when I’m in those social circles, first off, most of the time their eyes roll back in the back of their head. They’re like, Oh God, here he goes. He’s talking about his business again, but it’s the truth. They have no clue. They were like, wait, you’re selling that? Yes. That very sexy and not really, but it’s like people are blown away like wheat. You can buy and China or India or Pakistan case and bring it to the United States and you’re not some big import. Export her. Right? That was the old term. Remember those guys that were in the import export business and you can bring it in and send it in and you could sell it and I could have bought for. I had somebody the other day, I was showing him something that I sell and he’s like, I bought them on my dude.
Andy: [25:50] You bought them from me. I the, I’m the only one selling them. I know you bought them from me and it was just so cool, like a connection. All of a sudden we’re like, Whoa, our little worlds interwove again at that place. How cool is that? So what do you think’s next? If you’re thinking about another brand, you’re thinking about expanding a brand. You now have a warehouse, your wife’s in the business. Um, what’s next for you? It’s exciting times. You know, we, we’re getting in, uh, on the ground level of an industry that I think is just taking off the warehouse that we’re sitting in right now. Super excited about, uh, you know, you had a great picture the other day on facebook. Have you eating lunch outside with your son, you know, in the sunshine. And I believe your post was about how you’ve, um, traditionally I’ve never have never been able to eat outside my whole life, you know, [inaudible] well be 53 and I’ve sat behind a desk over a keyboard my whole career at blew my mind to be.
Andy: [26:51] And it pause, I pause because I’m looking now I’m like, wow, this is what the sun looks like. This is really cool, you know, especially with my son, it was a better. Yeah. And so, you know, that to me is just so exciting. Amazon just came out for the first time with a detailed article about their platform and about third party sellers on the platform and the fact that now there are over 20,000 sellers like you and I who are selling over a million dollars a year on Amazon. So I mean those numbers are kind of mind boggling. So think about that again, 20,000 sellers like you and I that are selling over a million dollars a year on Amazon. Why that’s exciting for me is as we sit here in this warehouse right now, I see the opportunity there are going to continue to be a sellers just like you and I who have many warehouses.
Andy: [27:45] When I say many, you know, 12,000 to 30,000 square feet warehouses that are going to become the new Walmart’s. So just as Walmart put out all the mom and pop stores were in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Right now if you go downtown, it’s really depressed and that’s because Walmart really, um, you know, put a lot on those mom and pop stores out of business. So what’s happening now? Well, I have a tendency to believe that sellers like you and I, that own mini warehouses are going to become the new Walmart’s. We’re going to become the ones supplying goods to the majority of customers, not only in the USA but worldwide. And it’s going to be shipping out of locations just like you and I are in. And we’re not putting these small businesses out of business. We’re now supplanting, I don’t know if that’s the right word.
Andy: [28:36] We’re now replacing them as they disappeared. They were disappearing anyway, like that toys r us example. So we ended up pre call. We were talking to or pre talk now call. We’re here together. Um, we were talking about toys r us so that they’re going out of business. And I thought to myself the other day, I’m like, I wonder, um, you know, one of the big challenges that toys r us had is that was not a destination you wanted to go. Your kids didn’t want to go hang out. There wasn’t a place to hang, right? I wonder if the neighbourhood toy store in scale is going to come back. Is it, is it the opportunity to come back, but then add into it that e-commerce, um, a model, right? So, so people could come and try the toys and this and that and they can order different things.
Andy: [29:16] I wonder if that opportunity is coming back and if so, are we involved in that because we’re now replacing all those stores downtown that have gone away. I have a tendency to think that we are the new neighborhood store because not only are customers going to be able to get their products, you know, through Amazon within two days, but when you and I start seller fulfilled prime, we’re going to be able to ship locally probably within two to three hours. So Amazon is going to continue to refine their fulfillment. And here’s the great thing about this. So we’re supporting our families right by what we do. We’re going to employ local people, right to run our warehouse just like those local downtown stores did. And then on top of that, Amazon’s gonna employ drivers just like Uber does. In fact, they’ll probably be uber drivers who are going to be pulling up to our warehouse in there personally own car and they’re going to be delivering the products, the toys that we sell out of our warehouse within one to two hours of folks that live, you know, within a 10 mile radius.
Andy: [30:25] That to me is the exciting opportunity. You know, the other thing I saw that Amazon is coming to companies that have warehouses and saying, hey, would you like to be a fulfillment? I forget the term that they’re using, but they’re actually creating many fulfillment centers around the country to fill in the gaps for their giant. Is We in Carlisle? If you don’t know this, there are four Amazon warehouses on our town, millions of square feet, but they’re monsters. They’re building these. They’re not building. Sorry. They’re going to you who’ve already built your warehouse in saying, Hey, would you also want to be fulfilled and be fulfilled in addition to seller fulfilled model? That is exciting to me to. The other thing that throws me about that is that that’s a company that’s pivoting and Nimble and willing to not take one. One approach. I think that’s what’s killed.
Andy: [31:14] The toys are us model. It was a one approach one and done right, try to buy anything online at toys R us. Good luck, right? They were shipping out of the store. It was a terrible system. Amazon seems to adapt very well to the market conditions. Look, they’ve already crushed it with their two day delivery and prime now is available in many locations. You and I were in Las Vegas, we were in Las Vegas and we were hosting. I’m a little get together at our hotel if you been in Las Vegas, you know, those hotels are huge and to be able to go purchase a case of bottled water it is a trip. And so we actually did it and it took us like an hour and a half when we were sweating. It was hot out so we use prime now and we’re able to um, you know, order it.
Andy: [31:59] And we had two cases of bottled water that showed up in the lobby of the hotel within one hour and it was a guy in his own personal vehicle, which blew my mind because I have never seen it before. And it was labeled, it was ready to go. I don’t know where he picked it up from an Amazon warehouse or from a fulfillment center. Somehow we, we still don’t know how it worked, but he was there an hour. You said it was absolutely an hour. And, and Steve, I fully believe that, you know, 85, 90 percent of goods are going that way and so you’re going to be able to order and it’ll show up on your doorstep. And we all know the joke about drones, I don’t think it’s a joke, it’s a real, but you’re going to be able to order and it’s going to show up within an hour or two hours.
Andy: [32:44] The other thing to think about, remember when we used to sell a, a serial, you know, and you sell cereal and you sell it for, you know, a box of a franken berry. Right? Or when we were, everybody was selling chocolate and stuff and they were selling it and it was selling for $20 a box and be like, who the heck is going to pay $20 a box? Well, if you live out in the middle of nowhere and you don’t have to now drive to the store, are those opportunities still out there? You get what I’m saying? Where, where there are people that just don’t have access to east coast stores. So they want those products. So they want them on the west coast or those opportunities still out there is, are a dead, no. The, again, those opportunities have been in existence since the beginning of time.
Andy: [33:28] You know, if you were in Rome and you wanted something that was made in Greece and you had a. If you’re wealthy enough, you are going to get it somehow. And uh, and so the same occurs today. So back to where [inaudible] going. I know he’s excited. I’m. How about from your family now your wife is working in the business, your nephews in the business, um, where, where do you encourage your kids for the future? I mean, do you, do you think that this is a potential opportunity for them? So my daughter has been working at a café in downtown Hershey. I live in Hershey, Pennsylvania and she’s been working there for a year. She’s like a bar Barrista I think they call it and it’s a great little café right downtown and she’s done a really good job at it. But my wife was like, you know what?
Andy: [34:18] I’m corey. That’s my daughter’s name. Why don’t you think about this summer? I’m giving, giving the, the Catholic a two week notice and come work with me as an internship. My wife runs a number of services that we offer to help e-commerce sellers and she’s, you know, she said you’re gonna. Learn how to, uh, support yourself online so you know, basically how to support yourself using a laptop and location independent. Absolutely. And, uh, and so I, I high five my wife for that because at the end of the day, what she’s doing at the café is important and you know, we need people that are waiters and waitresses. But what I want my daughter to gain is I want her to gain skills that she’s going to be able to utilize whatever she goes, transferable skills. OK. So, so let’s do this. Let’s, uh, close out with advice you, I saw you recently gave a talk about pillars and I think there were 10 pillars, right?
Andy: [35:17] To private label. And you have that available. Actually, I think it’s an amazing freedom for free. I think you’ve done it there. Can you narrow it down to the top two or three for somebody? So they’re in this business or they want to get in this business. We’ve already described that it’s not dead. There’s still opportunity here where, where do they start? Because I think that’s the hardest part, right? I think it’s just getting that motion going. Give me that beginning part of that talk that would get them started. So I think two things. The first thing is you have to network and so when I, when I first jumped into work, is your net worth, right? Absolutely. When I first jumped in and was a neighbor who lived behind me who understood what Amazon was about, understood the opportunity and really coached me and taught me about the business.
Andy: [36:05] And so I leaned on her heavily when I first started. And so you know, if you’re just getting started, that’s what you need to do. If you’re already selling and you’re successful, then you know this already to become more successful, you start to hang out with sellers. If you’re doing 5,000,000 a year, you want to hang out with some others that are doing 10,000,000, 15,000,000, 20,000,000 a year because you’re going to learn their systems and their processes in order to increase your revenue to where they’re at. And so again, that’s networking and networking isn’t just sitting there sponging off of everybody. It’s giving back, right in ways that you have because even if you’re selling $5,000,000 or if you’re new to the business, you have something to contribute and so you have to give back. It can’t be just one-sided. Absolutely. I tell everybody that, uh, my personality type is like a golden retriever.
Andy: [36:54] And so I thrive on encouragement and, uh, when somebody on even just on facebook, you know, sends a message to me and just, there’s an encouraging word. Look, I eat that up and I, I remember that person. I’m not. Everybody operates that way. Some people are more emotional and database, which is great because we need those personality types. But there are others, you know, who are like me, who are probably a little more emotional and um, and feed off of words of encouragement. And so something as simple as that, right, is a way that you give back and it doesn’t cost you anything. And so absolutely, it’s a two way street. OK. So I want two more points that I want to talk about. Um, I’m a close. We got work to do today. Everybody’s working today, um, about the warehouse. You know, one of the big visions about having us together is a, we feed off of each other, right?
Andy: [37:51] So I could fill in where you are or you can fill alarm. Not here, that’s perfect. But we’ve offered, we’re considering offering some opportunity. We’ve already offered it to two people and we’re considering some other opportunities once we talk about that. Sure. So W we’ve been able to actually host a number of people that have come to our warehouse, this kind of see our operation. They basically messaged d’ivoire I on, on facebook and uh, and that’s been great. But unfortunately, um, it’s interrupted our workflow a little bit. And so we’re considering hosting a group meet up a two or three times a year and when we want to do that for a couple of reasons, number one, we’ve both been to similar meetups that have helped our business tremendously. And so we’re excited about, we’re excited to be able to share our processes, our experience in selling on Amazon and Ebay.
Andy: [38:42] And then the second thing is we both love helping people. And so steve and I are both 100 percent of people, persons, if you’ve ever seen us at events, uh, you know, that, uh, we love talking, we love listening to other sellers. And so it’s exciting for us to be able to have a space now that we can invite people into our house and to really be able to share and we’re thinking we’ll probably do like a one day workshop type environment where we’ll be able to lift the curtain back and share how we’ve been able to experience a really massive success, I think on Amazon and Ebay. OK. And then the other thing that we should talk about is we have two clients in the warehouse right now. So we’ve actually allowed to people who we respect, um, the one pretty large private label seller to move their product into our warehouse and we kind of kind of handle it for them.
Andy: [39:38] I mean it’s pre labeled, we’re not a prep center, don’t want to be in the prep center business, but we have space and so we’re considering letting other sellers in wanting to talk about that for a second. One of the major changes Amazon is implementing over the last five to seven months are there storage fees are going up. And so, you know, we’re able to offer a basically storage services as well as sending in products by pallet or by ups drip feeding inventory which will reduce other costs, storage cost by half. And so we can basically cut a sellers Amazon storage fees and half. I’ve been able to do that with my own products that I store here and drip beat in. And uh, and we’re excited to be able to work with a few sellers. We’re not gonna open it up to everyone, but we’re gonna work with a limited number of sellers to be able to help them. Cut Their Amazon storage fees in half as well. And so somebody who’s interested in that, again, it’s private labeling them.
Stephen: [40:37] It’s prepped already, it’s labeled already. Um, reach out to andy and um, talk with him to see if there would be a good fit. We’re looking for some larger sellers specifically. Um, our location on the east coast is really great for products and a lot of our stuff just goes to Hazelton, Pennsylvania, which is about an hour from here. So we’ve been able to have stuff check in the same day. It’s been a really good experience to it. I’m very excited about where we’re going. I’m, I’m, I’m thankful that I get to take the ride with you and the rest of the bar group. It’s been very, very exciting. It’s really changed my world. I’m assuming it’s the same for you. Um, and it just feels like to. It’s very exciting to be part of something in a positive way. I don’t see the negativity because I see nothing but opportunity in front of us.
Andy: [41:26] Absolutely. I, you know, my tagline is the best time to start selling on Amazon was 15 years ago. The second time is
Stephen: [41:33] today. Hey, take care. What a great interview. A great opportunity. Again, if somebody is interested in coming into our warehouse, we’re very selective and you could understand why you could respect it. Um, we, we take it very serious. All this stuff. We care deeply for people and we want to help people, but I don’t want to hinder people. I don’t want to be a burden in your life, but I don’t want you to be a burden to my life. You know, that’s fair. And I think that’s reasonable. So if there is some level of interest, your private label seller and you have the right product and want to be on the east coast, we might even look at seller fulfilled prime for the right products. If it makes sense. Um, reach out to andy. I’m, they’ll handle that conversation. OK, e-commerce, momentum, [inaudible] e-commerce momentum. Take care.
Cool voice guy: [42:16] 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.
