Shipping to International Marketplaces - Amazon Seller Tips with Pearl Ausch - Part 2

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Things we discussed in this session:

A. Part 1

B. Part 2

Things we mention in this session of Seller Round Table:

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Transcription in this episode:
[00:00:01] spk_1: Welcome to the seller roundtable e commerce coaching and business strategies with and er, not and amy Wiis, [00:00:10] spk_0: great question, you know, and, and to your question, basically just to prove how easy it is. It's, it's literally the same exact process. So you can literally have that same ups driver that's picking up your boxes to go domestically here in the US. So let's say, I don't know, Illinois or to California, that same driver can take boxes to go to the UK or to, or to Canadian marketplaces. So it's literally just slapping on an FDA label and a shipping label. That's, that's how straightforward and simple it is. Yeah, it doesn't need any special, you know, packaging or whatever. Um, if it's good enough to go domestically here, it's going to go that way as well. It's going by air. It's super fast. It's there in 23 days. So it's not like it's going to be banging around for like a while. So it's, it's, you know, the way you're packing in here would be sufficient enough [00:01:02] spk_1: awesome. So the other thing that a lot of people probably don't know about, a certain marketplaces have these kind of like bonuses or, or like, uh, from the government's, these, like, you know how to lure you into their market. So I think it's like Japan is, uh, like a year or two years, uh, $80,000 before you pay any taxes, something like that, can you go over like maybe a few of the, I think Australia might be similar. Some of the marketplaces that maybe have this like added bonus that people may not know about. [00:01:28] spk_0: Yeah, you're right. The threshold is around $80, for both of the marketplaces, I believe, very similar for the UAE marketplace where you don't have to file taxes. I'm not a tax professionals, I'll be honest. So like I can't advise the exact numbers. But yes, they do make it very enticing where you don't have to be fully fully that set up. Or even if you are set up, let's say with a basic that number, let's say to ship in, you don't need to file for Canada the numbers around 30,000. So it's very, very fast that you're going to get there. I mean, that's what I wish for everybody anyway. So they would have to file fairly quickly. But to get started, it's just about setting up the right number for, let's say Canada or that number, let's say for for the UK, but a market place like Singapore, they could actually start chipping tomorrow. There's no setup needed. And the same for you. E um, so yeah, it's so easy there. Most sellers get reached out to by, by amazon reps and they reach a certain threshold and they'll push you and try to get you to get started and we actually have a very close working relationship with those reps because they'll send those clients that they introduce or try to get them to expand to us and then we'll take over. Um So the point is that there is such a streamlined process for all this, it's just about knowing what to do. So like if I'm going to list it for you, it's going to be number one compliance, making sure you got that done. And if not making sure you get the right licensing the right labeling done. You know, every country has its thing. And then of course they get sure it's affordable to shipping and figuring out how you want to get it shipped in ultimately. And of course that shipping purse to make sure they can act as your importer and do the customs clearance [00:03:18] spk_1: Awesome. Do you think it's still is there still enough time to expand into some of these marketplaces, you know, kind of all since we're already in Q. four. [00:03:27] spk_0: Yes. Yes. The short answer is yes. Absolutely Singapore. They could do that tomorrow. As long as the listings are up. It's an english marketplace. And just let me mention they're extremely wealthy there. So they're buying things that people are selling in the US for half the price, literally. So people are looking for another alternative where it's not so saturated. They could sell it with less competition. And also the markups, the margins are we we hire. So when I'm telling you that someone's doing, let's say 30% of what they're doing in the US and Canada have a mind. His margins might be very similar to what he's doing in the US, he's not competing with hundreds and hundreds of other sellers in this category, might I say thousands. I don't know you guys are the amazon people but there's way more people than just hundreds. But there's but there's yeah there's there's just so much more opportunity in a marketplace where there's less competition. [00:04:21] spk_1: Yeah. And something kind of a little hack, you know, simple hack is um you know the search bar, right? You can pull up all these various marketplaces and put in maybe your top three keywords and see how many results pop out, right? And that's a really good way to gauge. You know, if if you're selling horse shampoo, you know, and that might be that's pretty niche. You know, the United arab Emirates, like you said, people that have tons of money. Um you know Australia people are you know, fairly wealthy country. So you know like you said, you might be selling that poor shampoo for 50 bucks here but there you can maybe triple or even more because nobody else offers it. Or maybe five people offered and they don't know what they're doing and you know, I always laugh, I just pick on the brand Stanley tools, right. Like if you ever go to their, I don't know if I haven't looked at him lately but if you ever go to their amazon page, it's like four in one screwdriver or like you know it's like the most basic, you're like, okay, like somebody who's not an amazon person put all of these things up and like, they just pretty much like walked away from it, right? Like it's like they could care less. [00:05:20] spk_0: So that's where [00:05:22] spk_1: the smaller sellers have an advantage against those big brands is to kind of be a little more nimble and, And more focused, more 80, 20, right? Like just taking a few products that you can make some good money on and and tackling that. Maybe once you get a foothold in that marketplace, get a little brand recognition, then you can start bringing in more of your catalog or expand at different types of products. So I think that that's a, that's a great, great point. What what are some of the biggest mistakes that you see, you kind of mentioned a little bit about like, you know, trying to maybe do too many marketplaces that wants to many products that wants any other, uh, kind of, uh, you know, major mistakes that people make when expanding into these other marketplaces. [00:05:59] spk_0: Yeah, great, great questions. So, um, the reason why we're in business is because amazon actually does not provide shitty internationally to these marketplaces. Um, the reason being, is because there are certain, certain parts of it, there's certain red tape that they don't want to get involved with, um, some of those things are customs and some of those things that are acting as importer of records and things like that. So the mistakes you want to avoid. Number one I would say is making sure when you're shipping into amazon you're actually building all the duties and taxes to yourself. Us the shipper or if you're using a freight forwarder make sure it gets built to them. Whatever agreement you make up whatever it is, make sure it's not built to the receiver which is amazon in this case. Um The reason why people make this mistake is because typically that's that's how shipping is done when you're shipping to someone internationally. Usually they are the ones that are going to be paying for the taxes when it arrives to their doors. So I don't know if you ever received something internationally. You got a call from DHL or UPS and say hi I have a package for you. There's this one that's due before delivery. You want to pay with a credit card or you want to pay the check by the door. I don't wear but they still take check by the door. But the bottom line is they won't deliver it without that. Now if amazon is going to get such a phone call, look we have some packages to deliver to your Fc and the number for us delivery you need to pay your shipments going to get refused. So that's the biggest mistake you want to avoid, you want to make sure that all the taxes are built to yourself. Another thing you want to make sure is that you're the importer on record or importer of record, everybody is going to call it something else. But basically it's the person that's responsible for the security and the clearance of your shipment. So the shipping carrier or customs wants to make sure that whatever is in this package, I could call somebody up and say, hey amy, hey Andy, what's in this package? We just want to make sure that you're not taking drugs or explosives. Obviously it's not so wolfram that they'll pull you up, but if the importer is listed as amazon, that's a red flag for them. And again, it's usually always the receiver that's the importer because it needs to be something that's in the forwarding country that is being delivered to. So these are very, very basic things that a lot a lot of sellers mess up with with the first shipment they do and then they end up giving up. The reason why they end up messing up is because nobody's advising them. Otherwise when you pull ups or DHL or Fedex, they are just a shipping company, they're not congress based or amazon base, they're not savvy with these rules, they don't know know how to advise you on these things and every rep that you're going to school is going to tell you something else. So you're gonna end up, they're going to tell you the way normally it works and you know, the receivers should be all these things. Um So that's what you want to make sure using somebody that's familiar with these things knows how to advise you. But if you are working with the carriers directly make sure that you know this in advance and you don't make any of these mistakes. I should mention one more thing. You do want to plan on returns returns amazon the same way they don't provide shipping internationally. They're not going to provide you with an international returns action because normally returns is shipped back domestically in the country that you're in. So you want to make sure you're working with a provider that has a warehouse location that you can ship it to in the country that you're selling in and then they can ship it back to you at work work out some other arrangement. And the actual for that service as well. [00:09:27] spk_1: That's awesome advice. Um the other great advice there could be, you know, and this could work, you know, both ways is, you know, find somebody in the UK on on a facebook group for amazon or something and say, hey, you know, do you want to be my person in the UK to to help me with my business and I'll return the favor in the U. S. You know that I've seen people do that and [00:09:46] spk_0: that's uh, [00:09:47] spk_1: you know, that that helps a lot. So that's something to think about. Um something else I'm curious about is, you know what level, you know, if somebody is just starting out, this may not be right for them. So kind of what at what level of sales do you think people should really start thinking about expanding into these other marketplaces? Or do you think, you know if your new off the, you know if you're just starting today, you know if you were starting today, would you just do you know us and one other, would you just do us to get it down? Like kind of what what would be your guidance there in terms of uh expanding globally? Um you know, for a minimum, you know, amount of of sales or experience. [00:10:23] spk_0: So if I were starting out today I definitely would not go internationally right away. You know, I do want to feel like I did everything in every single way or I met every channel that I can within the opportunity of, let's say the U. S. And then I could take a step back and say, okay, I feel like I'm ready. Um I would say based on, you know, everything that you could possibly do, you know, you're the professional, let's say with PPC PPC pictures, everything you could possibly think of. I've done that if you feel like you've done all that and you're ready to move on um then so be it, but typically it would be a seller that has done, you know at least a million dollars a year in sales that would look at the international market unless, you know, they're in a very very small niche will be here in the U. S. Or a very saturated niche. And they're like, it's not working here, let me look at other marketplaces or it could be somebody that's sending sending things that are very seasonal into amazon and they can send it into Australia, for example where the seasons are in the opposite way and you know, they missed the season here and they can say, okay great, now let's take the opportunity and send it down to Australia where we might be able to sell out and we might have a successful season in the end. So there's there's a couple ways of looking at it, but you know, overall I would definitely advise somebody that feels like they maximize their full potential. And let's say the first market that they've gone into to them take the next step and otherwise they're gonna repeat the same mistakes and the other marketplace, that's that's usually what we see. [00:11:57] spk_1: I love it. So kind of on that same note, um you know, any processes or anything, anything else that people should have in place before they start going to the international markets. [00:12:08] spk_0: Any processes, you know, they have to have their inventory fully fully solid. They need to have inventory to be able to send, otherwise they're going to run out in the U. S. And then what's what do they have to get if there's one marketplace that has the one that doesn't you want to make sure you have enough inventory that every marketplace you have exactly what they need. That's the whole point of going internationally to sell more and not just like one marketplace gets special attention over the other unless their profit margins are better in another marketplace and they might choose to do that. Like you know, there are a lot of people that are low in inventory now. So definitely I would say that you want to make sure your inventory is fully fully in check. Sorry, it was muted [00:12:57] spk_1: like [00:12:58] spk_0: where's the meat button [00:13:00] spk_1: going on? I mean that was like one of that's like you just did what I normally do. So I'm happy to see that I'm not the only [00:13:06] spk_0: one zoom ISMs. I feel like I feel like zoom is very soon going to have a lot of their own kind of words, just like some of these other platforms do. Um So what about when, when it comes to shipping, is there any benefit? Like for example in Canada, is there any benefit to starting with F. B. M. Instead of doing F. B. A Good question. So when you are doing F. B. M. We we do find the conversion between F. B. M. And F. B. A. Is about 80%. So it's a great way to start. And if you want to do F. B. M. I would highly recommend doing the North program and the north program was clearly designed for people just to get like a little taste of what the international marketplace could do for you. And then what amazon will do is they'll try to push you as much as possible to get into F. B. A. Again, if you're eligible, you know, if you reach a certain markets usually 11 million or 1.5 million a year in sales that they'll reach out to you. Um But that was the whole point of the north program to try to get you to do F. B. Because clearly we've seen sellers that the minute they convert are doing Close to 80% better. So there is, there is something to be said if you want to try it out definitely a safer, safer approach. But it's usually more closely and remember the duties and taxes you're responsible to pay for that. So if you're sending is something that's very high value, right? A 70 80 $100 items, you are responsible for the taxes and you're paying taxes based off what the customer purchased before because it's a soul sold item versus if you're doing F. B. A. You're sending it into amazon and the product is not considered sold yet, you could put on the customs invoice whatever your, your cost is and taxes are significantly lower based on that. Right? So you have to do the math and figure out what works for you. But it's usually just like a safe play to say, let's do F. B. M. Let's figure it out. And if you want to do the bolt and you want to see the really really good results, that's usually what happens when when you're doing F. B. A. It's just how their algorithm is set up. Um so yeah I mean it makes more, it makes more sense to send products in bulk to another country instead of sending them one by one. As you mentioned the taxes and everything else. I mean I can send, I was looking to ship one of my products to Australia because somebody wanted it there and it was like $60 to ship one product to Australia. Versus if I shipped in bulk to F. B. A. Australia right then I'm going to pay a lot less, especially if I'm shipping from my supplier. I think where you can get in trouble is if you are shipping it to the U. S. And then you're paying again to ship it to the next country. You know, you're you're paying those fees over and over again. So I think just we've we've had other folks on the show talking about shipping from you know into international marketplaces as well and I think one of the main things to keep in mind. Like you said people is just streamlining that. Like how can you make sure that you're minimizing your costs and making it worth it but to just get your dip your toe and see if that other marketplace, if you're going to make any sales there. It's like me, I know there's demand in other countries for my products because I'm always getting messages on facebook and stuff of people living in other countries saying do you ship here, you know? Um So that's that's a good indicator that my products are needed in other countries. Um And I only sell them in the U. S. Right now. So baby I know my yeah I'm looking out for you but it's the best feeling when these people reach out to you internationally. Do you offer like you know shipping or do you sell your. Probably do actually I love website we now shipped to Canada and a few other countries but it's very expensive comparatively to if we had those logistics set up. So yeah it's it would be a good thing to expand but it's a lot of extra overhead so people have to really think about overhead. You know you're you're now managing PPC and all these different countries, you're now managing your listings and all these different countries. So for us it just hasn't made enough sense. We just don't have the bandwidth to you know to expand yet. But something even might have learned a lot today listening to you talk about shipping into these other countries. So that's awesome, awesome. Well we usually shift over to the business side of our guests and uh you know we like to talk about um what is the toughest barrier that you've had to overcome being a leader in this business and how did you do it? Right. Ooh, that's a good question. It's like a fully loaded question when we think about that being a leader, let me tell you it's not easy. You know people, people look at it and say oh it must be you know the best feeling. It's so great and so you know, well all the right all the right adjectives to that. But the really but the reality is though that it's it's a lot of pressure to always come in with with a smile. You know business is not always as great. You know we've been hit very, very hard during the whole restock limiting our business went down considerably when we weren't able to ship in and we weren't going to let go of people, we didn't want to do that. We love our employees and you know we, we know how much is on the line for them just as much as us. So you know coming in with a smile every day because you know the way you are ends up trickling down to everybody else is something that I've learned, you know very, very early on, you know the fact that I was able to start from entry entry level literally to where I am right now has taught me so much about people, you know and how it feels to feel appreciated and to hear a good word and even that smile on the face and I never realized how it affects people and I just walked in and I didn't say good morning because I might have been on the phone or just busy or again, you know, it's been a hard day and people take it personally. So we have to be so mindful when we are in a leadership position of how many people's lives we actually affect every single day and you know that's something that I've learned and then you know more technical aspect is different processes. So we actually implemented a process in our business for the OS system. I don't know if you're familiar with that, If you can look it up, you're familiar, you're nodding your head cool. The entrepreneurial operating system and that has been a game changer for us. So basically the way it essentially works is that we, we have a structure, the way we have meetings, we have a structure on how we do, let's say reporting, basically we have something called a square card sounds so elementary but it's literally the best thing, you know, so many things if you don't talk about, it goes like unseen, nobody knows what you actually did right? So we have a square card were literally, we have let's say 5-10 things listed and we of our responsibilities, let's say for myself that I meet every single person on my team every single week and I would have to square myself from one through time and or if I know let's say I have eight people, my executive team, I would have to score myself from one through eight. How many people that I need or for example, um, one like, like I mentioned the whole greeting thing, right, I wanted to fix that. So I entered that onto my scorecard percentage that I did. I greet everybody every single day and by what percentage. So we end up scoring each other and guess what we actually are in a meeting once a week and we call the level 10 meeting where there's also a format and how that goes. So we start off with state of mind, we share how we're feeling everything out of the way in case you had a bad night's sleep or something happened that morning with one of your kids. Everybody knows this is what's happening and this is why I'm behaving the way I'm behaving and that's it. It's out there. So we start off with that and then we share our scorecards and it's not about okay, you were good, you were not good. It was just for yourself to share with everybody else. Head of my we go, this is where I want to improve. This is what I want to get better at or this is where I was super ad and everybody's gonna yell, cheer me on. So that's, you know, something that we do and that really, really helped our business because what ended up happening is too many people were sitting on everybody else seats or just was a mumble jumble. So right now we're going through the system, everybody has their seat, their capacity and everybody's happier than they ever were. So yeah, the OS system, everybody should check it out and if anybody has any questions they could be, they can feel free to reach out to me because I am in love with that system, it's working really well for us. I love it. That's so cool. So our next question is what books podcasts, et cetera are you reading? Or what's keeping you motivated? Um and maybe you can recommend the book that you're looking at my bookshelf right now books. Okay, so you ever going to patch Patrick lynch peony? Okay, you sure? Patrick lynch peony? I think I'm pronouncing his name right? Um basically he writes business books, but every business book that he writes is based on a fable. So it's not like this boring thing, we keep nodding off because like, okay, I'll take notes and I'm just gonna keep rereading the same page again and again because like it's so boring, I literally read his books in one standing. So he has, he's actually a coach for businesses and he writes these books based on different business practices that he's teaching you and instead of giving you a checklist of like do this and this and this, he bases it on a company and how they learned different things based on the situation they were in. It's fascinating. She has books on meetings, books on you know five rules of let's say leadership. Um Yeah he's got a bunch, [00:23:57] spk_1: yeah I just I just dropped the link in the chat [00:23:59] spk_0: he's got here. [00:24:01] spk_1: So [00:24:01] spk_0: he has like a ton of books. The guy is incredible podcast. I love Oprah Winfrey. It's so not related to business really, but it is related to business because she teaches you so much about people and how people are and how people react to different situations. That's what I'm listening to right now. Actually. The book that I'm reading now, this very moment is Barack Obama's book. I I find the guy fascinating. You know, just he made it through quite a quite a bit of challenges to where he got to. So that's what I'm reading right now. Very good. I love it. Okay, well last but not [00:24:40] spk_1: least [00:24:40] spk_0: how can people get in contact with you so they can reach out to me by email. P A. F first choice ship dot com or Pearl at first choice ship dot com. And I would love to help them expand their businesses or talk E. O. S. or talk about patrick lynch reality because is there some of the best things that I love love it. Well, thank you so much Pearl for being here and thank you everyone for being here as well. We're about to hit stop on the livestream and stop on the recording and we're going to hang out here and see if anybody has any other questions before we head out for the week. But I just want to thank everyone that's out there for listening every week. I want to thank our regulars who come in here every week in the zoom chat and they're here with us in the zoom meeting. I love it. We love it. And thank you everyone for rating, reviewing, subscribing to our podcast. This is my and I know Andy's favorite thing to do every week. It's our chance to just number one, give back number to learn great things and number three meet great people of like our guests and all of you who who come along for the ride. So thank you all so much and we will see you guys next week on the seller roundtable. [00:26:03] spk_1: Thanks guys, We'll see you next time. [00:26:05] spk_0: Thanks for tuning [00:26:06] spk_1: in, join us every Tuesday at one PM pacific standard time for live Q and A and bonus content after the recording at cellar round table dot com, sponsored by the ultimate software tool for amazon sales and growth seller? S C. O dot com and Amazing at Home dot com.