The Ideal Platform for Emerging Entrepreneurs with Amazon Expert Adam Hudson-EP047

Many aspiring entrepreneurs get overwhelmed in the face of a very long to-do list that includes designing a website, building a customer base, and establishing trust in order to draw traffic to your site. If your business involves the sale of a product, the logistics of manufacturing and distribution get thrown into the mix as well. What if there was a platform that would take care of the majority of those things for you? 

Adam Hudson is the founder of Reliable Education, a resource for entrepreneurs that teaches its clients how to establish reliable online income streams via the Amazon platform. Adam developed these strategies in the conception of his own homewares brand; its products are sold exclusively through Amazon in more than 30 countries. A serial entrepreneur who has built a number of multi-million dollar companies, Adam also leads an Amazon marketing services firm. He has been featured in countless national publications, including USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and Newsweek.

Adam’s interest in online entrepreneurship began when he was running an animation studio in California. He realized that selling his time was not the optimal business model, so he started looking for opportunities to generate reliable income through product development. He discovered the Amazon platform and realized its potential as the go-to site for consumers. Today he outlines the reasons why Amazon is a good fit for new entrepreneurs, how to choose a product for sale, and the process of selecting a manufacturer. Listen and learn how to make your product stand out on the site and generate reliable income!

 

Key Takeaways

Why Amazon is a good fit for new entrepreneurs

• $1 of every $2 spent in online retail is through Amazon
• Revenues expected to grow from $300B to $1.5T in next decade
• Builds website for you and takes care of logistics, distribution
• Trust already established with enormous customer base

 

How to choose a potential product

• Open Amazon, Alibaba and ZonGuru
• Compare prices
• Research demand (# of units sold/day)

 

How to differentiate your product and avoid oversaturation

• Consumers judge based on quality and content of picture
• Compete based on design to stand out visually (i.e.: brightly-colored car cover)

 

Adam’s advice around choosing an industry

• Avoid beauty, supplements
• Consider an industry you understand, have a passion for
• Ask yourself what’s missing
• Look for areas with unsophisticated sellers who aren’t doing anything to stand out

 

The next steps once you’ve selected a product

• Research demand
• Be sure ranked in top 20,000 on Amazon
• Make use of tools like Google AdWords and Google Trends
• Reach out to suppliers via a Request For Quote

 

The process of packaging and shipping

• Usually packaged and prepared completely by manufacturer
• Entrepreneur establishes Amazon Seller Account
• Amazon provides seller with PDF to place on box
• Seller emails PDF to supplier
• Freight forwarder ships boxes directly to Amazon warehouse

 

Common mistakes made by novice sellers

• Negotiate cheaper price and receive poor quality product
• Adam recommends spending more for product, selling at 5X what paid

 

Adam’s best advice for potential Amazon sellers

• Don’t overthink and never start
• Learn the fundamentals by opening free account, investing $100 in one or two AliExpress products to sell through Amazon

 

Resources

Amazon

Alibaba

ZonGuru

Google AdWords

Google Trends

“The Lazy Seller” Interview on WebRetailer

AliExpress

 

Connect with Adam Hudson

ReliableEducation