Selling on Amazon (Ashley Pearce 1 of 2) - a podcast by Michael Veazey

I'm delighted today to welcome 10k Collective member Ashley Pearce. Ashley is one of the most active members of the 10k Collective mastermind, and he's here to talk about selling on Amazon; specifically, the first 18 months.  He's not a billionaire Amazon seller or revolutionary startup software company CEO. Ashley is merely a guy who heard about the Fulfilment by Amazon program on the Entrepreneur on Fire Podcast, cobbled together about £8,000, and jumped into selling on Amazon.





Implementing at the Speed of Thought

After hearing John Lee Dumas and Scott Voelker talk on the Entrepreneur on Fire podcast, Ashley was ready to hit the ground running. Software like Jungle Scout was about, but essentially Ashley crunched the numbers and analyzed the data the old fashioned way on a spreadsheet. He scoured Alibaba and Amazon.com collecting best sellers rank data and Chinese pricing, crunched the numbers and decided to move forward and place an order with a supplier. Nine months later, after a lot of hard work and a few stumbles related to the Chinese New Year, Ashley was selling in the Amazon Marketplace.

The Hidden Factors Ashley Wished he'd Known Before Jumping into Selling on Amazon.

The world of the Amazon marketplace is everchanging. This idea has been a common theme on Amazing FBA since getting off the ground in July 2015. The best strategies for making money by selling on Amazon in 2015 weren't the best strategies for 2016, 2016's strategies didn't work in 2017, and 2017's strategies won't be effective in 2018. From 2013 to 2015 the sentiment was that a seller could buy almost anything wholesale from China and turn a profit selling it on Amazon. In 2016 the market changed. Competition had driven down prices and no longer could sellers easily find a vacuum and fill a product void with ready-made products from Chinese wholesalers. The focus for successful Amazon retailers had shifted from merely getting products on the marketplace to building brands. SEO had become more critical than ever.

The X-Factor That Put Ashley Ahead of the Game

In my conversation with Chris Rawlings earlier this month we learned that the X-Factor for him when it came to getting his Amazon business off the ground was his ability to design differentiated spinal health products using CAD. The factor that drove Ashley's early success was his background in engineering; aerospace, automotive, pharmaceutical, oil & gas, if it can kill you without proper engineering, he's had his hands in it. So when it came to the product development cycle, things like CE marking and third-party safety checks were second nature. In fact, Ashley had experience in contractual, commercial, sourcing, purchasing, design and running small businesses as he had done with his families' car repair garage in Barry South Wales. There was no learning curve. Everyone with a future in this business has an unfair market advantage that they can gain. The key to entrepreneurial success is identifying and exploiting the abilities or resources available to you that can give you an unfair advantage as well.

Advantages we can all Gain Based on Ashley's Experience

The business that Ashley was in the process of setting up when he discovered FBA was called Manufacturing Network. The closest analogy he could give was to say Manufacturing Network ...

Further episodes of Amazing FBA Amazon and ECommerce Podcast, for Amazon Private Label Sellers, Shopify, Magento or Woocommerce business owners, and other e-commerce sellers and digital entrepreneurs.

Further podcasts by Michael Veazey

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