Our guest on the 4th of January, 2021, on the sellerboard show was Peter Lazea. Peter is a PL seller on Amazon and co-founder of thecultureofachievement.com
We spoke about:
- Product selection in 2021
- The importance of branding
- How the supplements niche works
- The effectiveness of packaging inserts
Watch the full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMh9ONDi6VA
0:07
What’s up everybody, welcome to the next episode of the sellerboard show. My name is Vladi Gordon and my today’s guest is Peter Lazea. And we talked about his experience as a seller, he’s a seller since 2014. Selling on Amazon com private label, he shared his views on product picking and how to find a scalable niche in 2021, where you can start where you have a chance to start your product, but also to scale. This is a very interesting approach. So if you’re looking for a product, then make sure you watch this short delay. And we also talked about branding and how important branding is in supplements. Peter was a seller in the supplements niche and shared his experience, why he entered this niche, how he entered, and why he ultimately stopped selling supplements, and whether you should try or no in 2021. Last but not least, we talked about product inserts and basically how you can leverage product inserts to generate feedback and reviews and to increase your engagement with the customer. So stay tuned, this is going to be interesting. If you’re not a sellerboard user yet, then make sure you check out our software sellerboard.com sellerboard is a profit analytics service for Amazon sellers. It’s constantly $19 a month. And we have a free trial and our vision is to be the world’s most accurate profit analytics service. So yeah, make sure you know your numbers. And there’s a demo on the website. So you can just basically see how the software looks like without creating an account.
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Also, we have a whole bunch of bonus tools included like a follow-up tool, which sends feedback and review requests to customers. We have an inventory manager which tracks your stock levels and reminds you if you need to place another order. We have a PPC dashboard, which helps you optimize your PPC cost and a cost in a lot of other tools. So make sure you check out our website. Now let’s start the show.
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Peter. Thanks for joining us. Thank you. Thank you. Hi.
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How are you man?
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Yes, yes. Good. Good. I’m at home with kids with family like everyone and time working.
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Sounds nice.
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So, Peter, why don’t you introduce yourself to our listeners and viewers? For those who don’t know you? Yes. Yes. So I’m Peter Lazia. I’m from Romania. But I grew up in Germany. And I stayed there almost my entire life, 20 years. And I decided to move back to Romania to do something on my own. And to start a business things was not like a dream journey. But I was going to Romania and I worked first two years in a company. And it was not easy because I worked for very small salary. And in comparison to Germany, it was like six times lower salary, but I just told myself I need to work for a small salary. So my brain is working and find a solution to do on my own something. And the Amazon business was
4:05
coming to me I attracted the business and me and Dina we started my wife at dinner. We started to just do course at that time and we just started our first product and yes, it was going not good in normal case, but we insist and we did it after eight months I was I quit my job and I just Amazon and until now I do just Amazon. Well so tell me when was it like when did you start in Amazon?
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I started we started in 2014
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in October.
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We did the course for three months. I was traveling to the USA
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Vegas because I had the visa with a German passport. I could go. And from there, everything is changing mentality.
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vision and it was working very interesting. And it was amazing journey. So it’s
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a very cool. So did you like did you start with a private label or a wholesaler? Yes. with private label. So we did
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we just
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buy both from China, put our brand name on it and sell it on Amazon. So private label yet.
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In So tell us about your business today? Is it still private label? And like do you have multiple brands or just one brand on the house? Yes, it’s still private label, it’s the private label. So I like it because private label has to one advantage more because you have also the brand, not just the business, people are knowing you and do an image.
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Image. Yes, we started first with one brand.
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And then we tested a lot of other products. We from one product we were having six products from the same category. And then we wanted to extend on other products for sports products or, and we created another brand. And it was a lot of testing
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phases and brands and I also launched supplement products. We had success with it. But
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the competition was so high and I just decided not now. I put it on pause and restarted to my end refreshed my old print from the beginning. And this is what we did. Right now we just launched 10 new products and
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rebrand everything. So we had three brands. Now we go back to one brand to have one focus. So like this, we do now. So this is what we
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Yeah, so tell me like, how important is it to have a brand today versus just finding good products that fit the niche and where you can like, heck the rating.
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Yes, it’s very important because it exists so many products on Amazon, and people are not.
7:48
And also come competitors. So many competitors now on Amazon and you need to be different a little bit. And how you can be different not if a normal brand or normal name like from China, there is no brand name. This is what everyone does. They go to China, take a product, bring it on Amazon. But now it’s more important than ever to have your branding because then you have a face. And even if it’s competition so many customers will also pick you because you have good images, you have very good graphics. And then you have also today a chance to make it work in five or six years was much easier. Because people are not focusing necessarily just on branding. But now it’s more important than ever. I saw it also in my niche. And a lot of competitors are also presenting the products and designs and it means it’s getting more important. So I think it’s very important. And so tell me, like, Is it even possible to launch new products and like to be profitable? And let’s say in 2021, we’re almost in 21
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or, nor is the market saturated?
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No, it’s not saturated. It’s it what I did the calculation.
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Amazon is was growing. I don’t know how much five times or something like that. In the last one year or two years or so with the pandemic it was growing a lot. But the competition was growing just double or something like that. So that place is a lot it’s more potential than before. So it’s more potential than before because customers are more competitors.
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Less, even if it’s a lot of other competitors like Chinese or something like that, we can bring new products, but what is very important is to do it from the beginning the right day.
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So branding, trademark Brand Registry, also maybe protect your brand directly with transparency codes or
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like this, and then you have a chance and yeah, so let’s talk about the category and product selection, like how do you pick products now is it like, same as always, by criteria, it should fit in a shoebox and small one? In, you know, not too many reviews? Or what would be your idea on that? Yes, my strategy of checking product selection is first to check if it’s
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if you can enter the market, you need to check if you have two or three competitors from certain of levels of revenue. For example, if you have 234 competitors that are doing two k per month,
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more than 100 days and less than 100 reviews, it’s easier to enter but you need also to have a vision are growing.
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So you need to find another two or three or four better competitors, that’s doing also 10 k revenue per month, also over 100 days, and under 300 reviews, and then you have a chance to enter the market. If you want very good product, then you find
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another three or four competitors doing also 50 K
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and less than 1000 reviews. And then you have like a way you can this is the first step. This is the first the second step.
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The second step is to analyze
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the exact product, what you want to launch, for example, if you want to launch I don’t know,
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like this for glasses, okay, you find this, maybe it’s a very general keyword. But you need to find your competitors that has the same color.
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So you need to find not
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the main keyword, you defend the main keyword with the color together, and with the size or the shape. And then from there, you find this competitor, two, three, and three from them. And then you see, hey, I can enter exactly this niche, this product this color. And then you have exactly in detail where you can enter this
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very important detail because I saw so many people that doing this mistake finding their niche, researching the market, but don’t.
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They have so many shapes, there are so many things and they go in a jungle of products and nobody fix them. You know, because they don’t research the exact market.
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Like to start specifically like with a very specific case for eyeglasses, and then and then you can expand and maybe add more cases and add more shapes and so on and making like the main keyword,
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as probably a lot of sales, but the specific keyword as few sales, but this way you can scale up. I like this. This is very cool. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So tell me about you mentioned the supplements. And this is a very interesting market. And can you talk to us about this? What are your like thoughts about this market and basically, your periods?
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Our experience was, so we talk like this, we Hey, we love dogs. We love something for dogs. And it’s something what we also like, and even if we sell just five units per day First, we can work to build a customer audience and this five customers will come after two months again, and we need just five customers and again next in two months come the same customers we don’t need each time new customers. So this was the idea and this is a good thing. And because you have if you have 1000 customers that buys every two months, you don’t need any more the potential of Amazon of growing and then you have a stable business.
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Yeah, and that was our idea. But when we entered the market, we checked the competition, we could enter the market it was like I should call you three competitors from then 333. We saw that it was working.
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But because I think of this, it’s so people want to dominate these niches and competitors. We had so much experience with PPC our ad spent in the other brand is in was 60 k per month. So a lot. So he was a position one everywhere. He was
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like all come keywords and we do the same thing also with this supplements. But the problem was the PPC, then I guess the competition,
15:59
had some robots that just spent our PPC money and we was not indicated.
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just spent one impression, one click. And that’s it and no saying you know, 20 impression on the budget. And we get our money back from Amazon. But we was not. He was not there. You weren’t shown up? Okay, interesting here. But I heard now, this was one year ago. I heard now Amazon solved this problem with Pete the fraud clicks. And it could work now. And it’s okay. Yeah, well, yeah. And we had to go to we had already repeat buyers. A lot of it to be buying also people that bought seven times from us and it was amazing. But I guess you can try. Maybe what is a good advantage, the mo q for supplements in USA. So if you do supplements, your suppliers should be in USA, it’s easier to they have very small MQ 5100 units, you can test you can test 50 units, and see if it’s working, if the PPC if it’s working go in and don’t be the best but be
17:23
because if you’re the best, and maybe everyone is attacking you, but you can do a business against Oh, well. That’s very interesting. I didn’t know that. So, look, Peter, you have another topic that I know you’re talking about at conferences.
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And it’s about product inserts. So um, yeah, let’s talk about that.
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What
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what our product inserts? Yes, we have product inserts is
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is something that customers are receiving when the product arriving at home. So it’s like something that they
18:06
I don’t know, it could be different in sets, it can be an instruction insert.
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How do you show how to use the product, you can give a gift card or something like that. So I think everyone knows in what is an insert, but we want to do something as if this insert we want to make sure that interacting with us and our into the customers are getting also our customers and yes, this is our goal. And we have some inserts and techniques that are working good. And I think yes, we can talk about this. Yes, sure. So so basically printer, some instruction print some text on a cart and put this card inside of the packaging of the product. Right. Exactly. I got it. And
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yes, so is it something you’re doing your supplier is doing for you? Or how does this work? Technically? Yes, yes. So the supplier is printing the inserts and putting inside the do it yourself. And it’s easy. So
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yes, the whole idea is to make a customer list and to launch new products in the future or complementary products or, or the second product or third product and also getting reviews.
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Okay, so
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Let’s talk about this actually, I once bought something from Amazon calm and
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because I live in Germany seldomly buy from the USA, but I bought something and there was this insert and said, basically, leave us a review. And there was a link Amazon com slash our wipey, I guess rate your product
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I thought, okay, it’s probably it’s a good way to generate reviews, right? So, but you mentioned also creating the list what, what’s the main purpose? Is it more about reviews? Or does it depend on the face? How do you decide what to put on the Insert?
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Yes, so first
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of all, I will not ask directly for the view.
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If it’s like you go to a restaurant,
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and order a pizza, and then someone comes to you, hey, give me a feedback before you eat, you know.
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So this is not so good. But a lot of sellers are doing this. Because people incentives and not caring about customers. And I want to make sure people in between sellers
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are caring of the customers. So what you can do is you need to do it indirectly. So you first you give them an advantage. So
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you tell them, hey, protect your purchase, you have an insert, and you can write them there, protect your purchase, and activate your warranty. or protect your purchase if something is wrong or something like that, just
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send us a SMS or, or email. This is better. It’s
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and
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what is very important is you have more techniques, one technique is to activate the warranty, you give them a activate you want to do this just text warranty 244222 okay for him is very easy because they put with the phone and then it’s and on the confirmation. They sent to you this and you sent him the link in the SMS automatically. And they go maybe too many chat or also email and they get an email or an SMS or a message from you. And you tell him
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almost done. Just type your order number. And that’s it. And they put order number and you know exactly what client it is in Amazon. That’s why this order number is important. So what about their email? Or the name? or?
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Yeah, you.
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You get also the email. Yeah, you get the email because this technique, I use the digit before this, or you can use also text the full one. Okay, we’ll put the links in the description. Yeah, takes the full day, right? The customer is writing warranty, 24422 they get the message. And this message is sent to him just answered with your email, and they put the email inside and you tell them okay, step two, put your order number now send me your order number two, activate your warranty. And then step three, go to this link. And I don’t know, something like that, you know, I have four. So the steps are written? Yes. And then you have the email, you have the order number because you request the order number so I can match you can match the client. And then you can write to him maybe after a couple hours or something like that, hey, how you like how do you like the product? I want to know if everything is working well, just this and then
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procedure. And then from the conversation you if he is if he likes it, Hey, could you give us a feedback and you give him the link of the feedback? You can automatize this to many chat, or
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I guess also with email, you can automatize this.
24:49
Okay, so But would you recommend, like manychat or
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what Yes, anything else?
24:56
I recommend manychat. I use the messenger reference URL to put in this text the full tool, put the link inside by I make it to look better with the bitly link. So I rent my link with Bitly and put this link the brand new beginning redirected to messenger in the text the full tool, and people are going on step three directly to my
25:32
messenger file. And automatically and in messenger, you can ask about the order number. And then you can tell him Hey, Congratulation, your purchases protected, your warranty is activated, this is one thing you can if your product is not so
25:51
interesting for activating warranty, you can use also another type of insert it this type that like free product, people are getting your product at home.
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Let’s say this is the product, they open the packaging. And inside this the
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the insert. And the insert is very important with the insert it needs to be looking very nice, very nice and not much text. If it’s
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very easy steps. Step one, three-point nothing else not more things and very good graphics clear. So it’s not full. It’s not given, never give him two things given one thing. If you tell him one free product, don’t tell him about the warranty and free product. Or you can do this, you can go to the club? No. Just one thing with one instant is clear for the client. So you can Yeah. So how does it work with a free product? basically, give them a free product and other free product for or is it the digital product? Or? Like is it the
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promo code? Or how does it work? Yes, it’s, it’s it could be also a digital product. But
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I this case, I mean,
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it can be both it depends also on the product, if the digital product is very attractive, it the whole point is it needs to be very attractive to capture his interest.
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So you just put the insert and there you have right.
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Act.
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Do you want, we want to give you a free product? This is the product you need to show them or tell him what’s the product. Because nobody wants a free product, if it will, I don’t know they say next time or yes, I do it later, or something like that, and they forget you. But if you tell them, Hey, I give you another product from the same product, what they ordered
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for free, because I want to make sure you have another one or something like that you’re right there. And then just again, text, free product 2442. You give them two options, one text or email, maybe some of them don’t have this. It’s easy for them to email and very clear. And then you can capture easy the contact details and the same thing you do Oh, you have to pay this and then you can ask for a review. Indirectly indirectly. So Peter, tell us where can people find you?
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Yes, you can find me
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directly you can find me on Facebook, Peter Lazea. And also on our website the cultureofachievement.com you can contact us or email
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us.
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So tell me what’s, what’s this website about?
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We are doing once or two times a year physical events and bringing the sellers together and like masterminding and doing a couple of days together. So everything is included. It’s It’s amazing.
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Yes and two we hoping we do it in June. If not, we do another virtual event and we do it when it’s possible. The physical one. So nice. Okay, so we’ll put the link in the description. Peter thought thanks so much. You’re sharing a lot of interesting stuff today and about your journey and the supplements market and inserts. Thanks so much for coming. It was very interesting and very full of information and motivating. So
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Well, yeah, I wish you all of the best for 2021 Merry Christmas. Bye Bye Take care. Okay, thank you.
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Thanks for watching guys. If you liked this show, then press the like button and let us know what you think in the comments. We would really appreciate your feedback.
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Take care and happy selling bye bye
