Video of the episode at the bottom
Are you looking to take your Amazon FBA merchantry to the next level? Our latest SSP episode features an Amazon employee and a successful seller who share valuable tips, stories, and programs to help you succeed. Join us as we yack with Patricia Arty Sr. Program Manager, Small Merchantry Empowerment from Amazon, and Tracey Richardson, the founder of Lillies of Charleston. In this episode, we discuss how to get started on Amazon, self-ruling learning resources, the Black Merchantry Accelerator Program, selling strategies, and more. Tracey shares her inspiring backstory and how she built her merchantry with the help of Amazon’s Woebegone Merchantry Smatter Program. You won’t want to miss this heady and informative episode so tune in now!
Amazon’s Woebegone Merchantry Smatter provides wangle to capital, merchantry guidance, mentorship, and marketing support to help Black-owned businesses succeed as sellers in Amazon’s store. They launched the Woebegone Merchantry Smatter (BBA) program to help build sustainable probity and growth for Black-owned businesses.
In episode 434 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley, Patricia, and Tracey discuss:
- 02:00 SSP Historic Moment: Someone From Amazon Joins The Show
- 02:30 Getting To Know Patricia Arty From Amazon
- 04:02 Traceys Backstory And How She Got Started Selling Online
- 06:30 “We Knew Amazon Has A National Platform And Requite Us Largest Exposure”
- 07:25 Is It Still A Good Time To Get Started On Amazon?
- 08:00 Self-ruling Learning Resources To Get Started Selling On Amazon
- 09:15 Quick Checklist Surpassing You Start Selling
- 10:45 Sign Up For An Amazon Seller Central Account
- 11:40 Talking Well-nigh Tracey Richardson’s Trademark And Products
- 14:50 The Woebegone Merchantry Smatter Program
- 18:30 Here’s How To Join Amazon’s BBA Program
- 20:35 How Tracey Benefited From The BBA Program
- 21:29 Selling Strategies And Translating From Tracey
- 25:00 Lillies Of Charleston’s Trademark Recognition Equal To Helium 10
- 26:05 Other Benefits Include Increased Discoverability And A Defended Storefront
- 28:30 How To Learn More Well-nigh This Program
- 29:00 Tracey’s Goals And Inspiration For Building Her Merchantry On Amazon
- 29:45 Manufacturing Her Products In The USA
- 31:15 Traceys 60-Second Tip
- 32:45 Healthy Habits & Hobbies Outside E-commerce Business/Career Grind
Transcript
Bradley Sutton:
Today for the first time on an outside podcast, someone from Amazon is unquestionably on as a guest, and they, withal with flipside seller, are gonna be talking well-nigh tips for newer sellers and deep diving into programs that you might not know much about, like the Woebegone Merchantry accelerator. How tomfool is that? Pretty tomfool I think.
Bradley Sutton:
Are you looking to learn how to sell on Amazon? The Freedom Ticket Undertow made by Kevin King is one of the most popular courses overly created for Amazon sellers. It’s got over 90 modules and 40 hours of details, step-by-step training to help get you started on your entrepreneurial journey. Now, this undertow financing $997, but Helium 10 unquestionably covers the forfeit of the undertow for any Helium 10 member. Find out why tens of thousands of students love this program by going to h10.me/freedomticket. Don’t forget that if you do, sign up for a Helium 10 account. Don’t pay full price. Use our podcast unbelieve lawmaking SSP10 to save 10% off for life. Hello everybody and welcome to flipside episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I am your host, Bradley Sutton. And this is the show thats a completely BS free, unscripted, and unrehearsed organic conversation well-nigh serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. And we’ve got a first, I believe this is the first time I think overly we’re unquestionably having somebody from Amazon on any podcast out there. So this is kind of a historic moment here. We’ve got somebody from Amazon and moreover a seller that we’re gonna get inspired from. So first of all, warm welcome to Patricia and to Tracey. How are you guys doing?
Tracey:
Good. How are you? Thank you for having us.
Patricia:
Yeah, I’m doing well as well. Thank you then for having us today. Really excited to talk to you all.
Bradley Sutton:
Awesome. Awesome. Now let’s start with Patricia, where are you? Are you in Washington now? Where are you located exactly?
Patricia:
Yeah, I’m here in the Washington DC area. I’m unquestionably based out of HQ2 in Arlington, Virginia. So it’s superstitious to be a part of the East Coast team of Amazon.
Bradley Sutton:
Cool. Cool. I was thinking for some reason you were in Washington state, so I’ve once learned something new here. Now is that where you were born and raised, or where do you come from?
Patricia:
Yeah, unquestionably I was born and raised in Miami, Florida. So total opposite corner of the United States from Seattle, Washington. But I’ve been in Washington, DC for 12-plus years. So I would say DC’s definitely my home.
Bradley Sutton:
Okay. And did you go to university out that way or in Florida, or where?
Patricia:
Actually, I went to university out in California. I went to Stanford University in Palo Alto. I’m definitely–
Bradley Sutton:
A cardinal, thats why you are wearing the red sweater today. Okay, I see.
Patricia:
Unintentional, but yeah, you’ve read it.
Bradley Sutton:
How long have you been at Amazon now?
Patricia:
I’ve been at Amazon now for scrutinizingly two years. You know, I was really fortunate to join the Woebegone Merchantry Smatter team just as we were launching. And so I’m one of the original team members virtually BBA.
Bradley Sutton:
Okay. Well, were you working at all with anything regarding e-commerce before? This is kind of like your first entry into this wondrous world of e-commerce.
Patricia:
Yeah, unquestionably this is my first entry into e-commerce. In my previous life, I worked on public-private partnerships, really supporting nonprofit organizations to scale and grow their impact. And so I’m really excited to be here at Amazon working with Black-Owned Businesses, helping them scale and grow their impact.
Bradley Sutton:
Cool. Cool. Alright. Let’s invite now Tracey to introduce herself. Tracey, I think this is the first time I’ve been talking to you. Where are you located in the world?
Tracey:
So I’m in Charleston, South Carolina.
Bradley Sutton:
Excellent. Excellent. A lot of people know who listen to the podcast. I used to be a Zumba fitness instructor. Like I know it’s kind of nonflexible to believe my current weight, but I was like 70 pounds less before. But anyway, one time I did like this travel, I got in a van with my kids and I traveled to like scrutinizingly every state, on a tour doing classes, but I don’t think I made it to South Carolina and is that where you’re born and raised, or you moved there later?
Tracey:
Well, this is where all of my family is from. I wasn’t born here. I was born in Philadelphia and raised for half the time in New Jersey cuz my dad was in the service. So we were up in the increasingly northeast but moved when to Charleston probably like in the early ’80s. Cuz that’s where everybody in our family is from Charleston. If you haven’t been here, you have to get here. It’s a really unconfined city.
Bradley Sutton:
It’s on my skillet list. That’s a guarantee for sure. Did you shepherd university anywhere out that way?
Tracey:
I went to a university unquestionably closer to DC I went to Hampton University in Virginia.
Bradley Sutton:
Ah, man. You see, like every time I unchangingly ask this question, 95% of the time I know the mascot of it. That’s why I ask one of the little personal games I play, but I do not know the mascot there. What’s the mascot there?
Tracey:
A pirate. It’s one of Hampton’s, one of the HBCUs, a historically woebegone college.
Bradley Sutton:
Hampton Pirates. Yes. I do know of some of those colleges, but mainly the ones who have like, storied football and basketball programs.
Tracey:
Yeah. We have a good basketball team.
Bradley Sutton:
I don’t know why I didn’t hear well-nigh them. They must not be that good considering I do know well-nigh a lot of those. Anyways, how long have you been now as an Amazon seller here in the e-commerce world?
Tracey:
Oh, we’ve been in on Amazon for probably 6 years, well-nigh 5-6 years.
Bradley Sutton:
Even longer than me. I like it. I like it. Was Amazon your first entry into e-commerce or did you have any like websites or sold on eBay or anything like that before?
Tracey:
Amazon was our first official, I mean, we sold on our own and it got to be too much. And so we switched over to Amazon cuz we knew Amazon could have a increasingly national platform and it was gonna requite us largest exposure.
Bradley Sutton:
Yeah, for sure. So, have you made your own website or something before?
Tracey:
Right.
Bradley Sutton:
Yeah. Like, like it probably was nonflexible trying to momentum traffic there and stuff like that. That’s what we don’t have to worry well-nigh Amazon. Speaking of which, let’s go when to Patricia. But you know, like a lot of the people who listen to us, they’ve once experienced Amazon sellers. Maybe they’ve reached some level of success, but we moreover have some people listening, they come wideness this podcast considering they’re not completely sure. It’s a good move. You know, I think you could have said a hundred out of a hundred times somebody in Tracey’s position like 5 years ago, 6 years ago. It’s like a no-brainer. But then now all of a sudden you hear some people saying, “oh man, maybe it’s too saturated or it’s not a good opportunity. It’s too nonflexible to sign up for Amazon.” But like if one of our listeners out there is on the fence, what would be your pitch to them well-nigh why this is still a unconfined time to get started on Amazon?
Patricia:
Yeah. You know I would say one of the biggest things, and Tracey kind of touched a little bit upon it, is definitely exposure to a number of customers wideness the United States. One of the other things is just like Amazon provides a lot of variegated support systems for sellers who are just starting to get selling on Amazon. And a lot of those support programs are will be specialized based on your needs. So if you’re thinking well-nigh selling on Amazon one of the first places I would recommend that, that you take a squint at is Amazon Small Merchantry Academy. It’s unquestionably designed for early-stage entrepreneurs who haven’t started selling on Amazon but are thinking well-nigh it. They’re on the verge of really launching their online venture, and there are variegated pathways and courses that you can take that are specific to your need and allows you to know, like “Hey, am I ready right now to uncork selling?”
Bradley Sutton:
Excellent. Excellent. Yeah, I think here at Helium 10 we’re all well-nigh education for sure. We’ve made a lot of programs for newer sellers like Freedom Ticket and our Helium 10 Academy. But guys, that’s not all that’s out there. These things that Patricia mentioned this is not all you have to pay per video or something. This is all a hundred percent self-ruling learning resource for those who want to get started selling on Amazon. Now, what would be your suggestion to newer people? Like, Hey, I’m thinking well-nigh doing it. What kind of timeline should I be looking at? Like what kind of duck should I have in a row surpassing I go jump all in?
Patricia:
Yeah, I mean, definitely. Surpassing you jump all in you should make sure that you have a product that you’re ready to sell on Amazon. Moreover having some inventory in place so that when you start selling on Amazon and customers uncork ownership you once have, have those products ready to really meet their needs. Then from there, really we will help provide you like, with variegated suites of resources so that you can really understand all the variegated mechanisms and processes virtually selling on Amazon. Including understanding Amazon Seller Central. That’s where you really manage your merchantry and how to do quality listings for your products. Getting started with Amazon Trademark Registry and the Amazon IP Accelerator.
Bradley Sutton:
Yeah, that’s good. Like a few years ago when Trademark Registry came out, it was like kind of nonflexible to get it, like if you were a newer seller considering you would have to wait until you had the full trademark registered and it would take months and months and months. But now things are changed. Like plane surpassing day one of your selling, you could once have Trademark Registry considering they winnow the registration process or the registered number plane if you just unromantic from USPTO. So guys those are definitely you know, things that you guys should take in mind. So if you’re on the fence just go superiority and sign up for your Seller Central Account. Get started, guys. We have a special forwarding link. It goes to h10.me/amazonstart.
Bradley Sutton:
That’ll take you directly to Amazon to sign up for a Seller Central Account. So again, h10.me/amazonstart. If you have not gotten your Seller Central Worth yet, now is the time to do it. Guys, go trammels my episode a couple of weeks ago on the Weekly Buzz, I had talked well-nigh a new seller incentive program. So there are some interesting details. Once you sign up for your Seller Central Account, you’ll be worldly-wise to see some of those details there. There are some incentives for those of you newer sellers. Some of you wits ones like maybe Tracey might get a little jealous. We didn’t have these things when we started selling on Amazon, but Amazon is really trying to make sure everybody knows now is the weightier time to get started selling on Amazon. So get started there.
Bradley Sutton:
Now going when to Tracey tell me well-nigh your brand, considering there’s a name in your brand, but it’s not your name, right? So how did the trademark name come about? And then how did you come up with this concept then talk a little bit well-nigh it. But first, let me just preempt that too by saying I love people who come on the show and are willing to share their brand. Like Amazon sellers for some reason, they think they’re part of the CIA or something. They don’t want everyone to know well-nigh the product they sell or their brand. Like, “I sell on Amazon.” What category? “In the products category.” Like, they don’t wanna requite any answers. Crazy. So it’s so refreshing to have somebody willing to share some details well-nigh their journey. So go superiority and tell us a little bit well-nigh that.
Tracey:
Thanks, Bradley. Yeah, I’m happy to tell you everything we know well-nigh our product. It’s tabbed Lilies of Charleston, and obviously considering we’re from Charleston, South Carolina and it’s named without my great-aunt. So this is my dad’s mother’s sister. And how that came well-nigh is really considering when dad was growing up, he spent a lot of time with Aunt Lily cooking in the kitchen and just kind of camaraderie, family, and camaraderie. And so when he was in the service cuz she had moved from Charleston when she got married to Philadelphia. We spent a lot of Sunday dinners with her and we decided that the second generation spending time, cooking, eating, it was just kind of a revolving door of people coming in on Sundays. Family members, friends, and denomination members. That’s how we got the slogan. Our slogan is tabbed “May You Never Finger Unwanted, Unloved, or Hungry.” And all of the recipes are my dad’s recipes. So we produce hot sauces, picnic sauces, and seasoning mixes. And now we’re going to be doing seasoned popcorn that has our seasonings on it.
Bradley Sutton:
So you’re causing me problems, Tracey. Three days ago was day one of my new diet. I have a mentor paying a lot of money for it. Health is a big thing for me for those who don’t know, I had a heart wade last year, so I’ve been trying to focus on my health and stuff, but I’m looking on Amazon right now, and oh my goodness, like my mouth is watering here. I’m looking at your product here. This Hot Sauce. I love Hot Sauce and these are unconfined product names, Ho-Latta All-purpose spice, and then Hissy Fit All-purpose Hot Spice. Are you the brainchild overdue this or others in your family? Like who’s coming up with these names? This is classic. I love it.
Tracey:
Thank you. Yeah, so a lot of the names, I came up with some, my husband came up with some so it’s all a kind of a family effort and I promise you, you won’t have to unravel your nutrition considering all of our products are a hundred percent natural. Those two spices that you showed are very low in sodium. But they have a lot of flavors and then they’re named without the Gullah culture. So cuz of the Gullah culture, we wanna pay homage to that. And that’s what some of the names come up with like our hot mustard picnic is tabbed Hab Mussy
Bradley Sutton:
I love it. I love it. This is great. This is great. Now let’s get when to Patricia, let’s talk well-nigh the Woebegone Merchantry Smatter program. I didn’t realize that from day one, that’s what you’ve been working on for the last two years. So you probably are one of the most knowledgeable people in the world on this program. So can you talk a little bit well-nigh this program and what it does and some of its benefits?
Patricia:
Yeah, definitely. Amazon in 2021 made a transferral of 150 million over four years to launch a woebegone merchantry accelerator. What we’re really focused on is helping build sustainable growth for Black-Owned Businesses specifically product-based businesses. And what we really do is focus on how do we provide them with the wanted merchantry guidance, mentorship, and marketing support that they need to unzip their goals. I think the thing that I’ve loved well-nigh this program is the fact that we really work closely with the sellers within the Woebegone Merchantry Smatter to diamond the program and make updates to it constantly. So we offer like a number of resources. I was really fortunate during my first couple of months at Amazon getting to engage with Tracey here, who has been a member of the Woebegone Merchantry Smatter and probably who has experienced a lot of the variegated resources that we do offer.
Patricia:
But some examples of resources as a seller, if you’re a Black-Owned Merchantry you can wangle to strategic newsy services. You know, if you are starting to sell on Amazon, you’re within Woebegone Merchantry Accelerator, you’re worldly-wise to access, Amazon specialists that are worldly-wise to wordplay some on-demand questions as well as individuals that will support you in really designing a plan for your growth on Amazon. So really providing personalized insights and recommendations to help you succeed. We provide a lot of self-ruling training and educational support. So this is happening through Monthly Connects we have worked really closely with Amazon’s Small Merchantry Academy, moreover like in-person live events that we’ve washed-up for the woebegone businesses in there. You know, flipside thing that we’re really excited well-nigh is the fact that we provide over 3000 promotional-like click credits for sellers who are selling on Amazon through the Woebegone Merchantry Accelerator.
Patricia:
Sellers are worldly-wise to unlock these credits by rhadamanthine Trademark Registered. So just what Bradley was talking well-nigh through IP Smatter you can definitely submit your trademark and then that unlocks some credits by rhadamanthine razzmatazz ready launching your first product wayfarers and then joining Fulfillment by Amazon helps you unlock over 3000 click credits to help you with any of your razzmatazz needs. Sellers can moreover if they’re trademark registered wangle with Prime and so that’s like our worthiness to add a widget on your direct-to-consumer website and get some of the benefits of stuff an Amazon merchant with FBA, and your customers are worldly-wise to like just purchase through your D2C, but you still get the fast shipping from Amazon. We moreover provide a lot of variegated grant opportunities throughout the year. We recognize that wangle to wanted is something that a lot of entrepreneurs in businesses are thinking about, so we offer variegated grant programs for businesses within BBA.
Bradley Sutton:
Now, how if somebody’s interested, like what are the qualifications? What kind of documentation would you need to squint at if somebody’s interested to join this program?
Patricia:
Yeah, definitely. So one of the first thing that if you’re interested in joining BBA, one of the first things we say is like, Hey on amazon.com/bba fill out our intake form. In there we’ll ask you to make sure that you have an Amazon Professional Selling Account. And then we’ll moreover ask, Hey, are you selling a physical product? The Woebegone Merchantry Smatter is designed for Black-Owned Businesses that have a product that is ready to sell. Last but not least is that we do ask that all the businesses upload a valid minority-owned certification, and there are a number of variegated agencies that provide support with this. So you can squint at the US system for ribbon management. US Small Merchantry Administration moreover does it, the National Minority Supplier Development Council moreover offers these certifications. And then SupplierGATEWAY is flipside option for SupplierGATEWAY. If any merchantry needs support in getting this certification, we do provide subsidies for woebegone businesses to get their certification through SupplierGATEWAY. So that forfeit isn’t an issue for you to be worldly-wise to get it.
Bradley Sutton:
Okay, interesting. Now let me just show, I was looking at looks like this is flipside goody here, but as I was browsing one of the Lilies of Charleston Peppers here, or spices, let me just share my screen here. I could see that right here on the product page. You have it in a very prominent space that it is a Black-Owned Merchantry here. So that, and that’s like right whilom the ads and everything, so that that’s kind of a prominent, whereas a lot of the comp competition might not have that. When to you Tracey for a second here, how long have you been part of this program and how has it benefited you?
Tracey:
So we’ve been a part of the program, I wanna say maybe like three years. We were one of the initial classes when they first started BBA. And so it was an honor to be a part of that matriculation to kind of launch such a really stellar program. They’ve been like, oh, I mean, I can’t plane get emotional. It’s been like a tremendous, tremendous uplift for our business.
Bradley Sutton:
Excellent, excellent. Now that’s obviously one program, but you know, I’m sure you’re using others I can once tell you that you’re definitely using sponsored ads considering I just ran helium 10 Cerebro on your listing and I could see that I could plane see which keywords that you’re targeting. So what other programs are, are using through Amazon like sponsored ads and advertising, et cetera?
Tracey:
Yeah, like you said. Well, we obviously use helium 10 as well, and we do like you said, sponsored ads. We do coupons we do SEO search engine so that we–
Bradley Sutton:
I’m just curious what’s your coupon strategy? You know, like is it like evergreen, just so you can unchangingly have that untried sticker that comes up in the search results? Or do you only do it like when you’re trying to do a promo or virtually special ownership days or, how are you utilizing that?
Tracey:
We do a couple of ways. So yeah, we do it mostly we don’t do it all the time. So what we do is when we’re trying to push, say a new product, we definitely do launch coupons. Sometimes we do a coupon, sometimes we do dollars off. It just depends on the translating unquestionably are Amazon representative gives us, he usually will say, yeah, during football season or during the holidays, people like to see a dollar off considering they’re looking for that dollar value to be reduced when they trammels out or if you wanna do a coupon that’s gonna track increasingly sustentation when we do like your ads. So it’s a combination of like going when and withal of how we do time, do money off. And we do it, we try to do it strategically virtually either like picnic season or football tailgate season, Father’s Day, flipside big day. And maybe sometimes, like at the whence of the year, some of that is increasingly health conscious, like our hot sauce is 45 milligrams of sodium, so we might do something cuz that’s the time when people are like, oh gotta get when on the nutrition so we’ll do it just depends on what time of year it is.
Bradley Sutton:
Okay. how well-nigh what, what’s your way of gaining reviews? You got some good reviews. I was looking at your products.
Tracey:
Yeah, unquestionably most of our reviews are really organic. We don’t do a lot of push for reviews considering we want the product to kind of speak for itself and a lot of customers considering our picnic sauce is unique. You know, South Carolina is known for mustard picnic and we do a lot of social media.
Bradley Sutton:
You don’t understand every time you talk well-nigh that. My mouth is over here. I have back-to-back meetings for well-nigh four hours. I cannot get to any kind of supplies for a while, but, oh, you’re killing me here. Sorry, go ahead.
Tracey:
So a lot of it is organic and a lot of it is based on the search engine optimization that we use.
Bradley Sutton:
Are you using Helium 10 Follow-up at all to
Tracey:
Yes, we do.
Bradley Sutton:
Automate Amazon. That’s a unconfined full-length from Amazon that requests reviews I don’t know when that came, like maybe two years ago or something, but yes. But that’s like super, super good. How well-nigh did you do a Vine on any of your newer products when you first launched?
Tracey:
We didn’t do Vine. No. No. Most unquestionably I should say, most of the stuff we do is all pretty much all Helium 10.
Bradley Sutton:
Hey, that’s music to my ears. I didn’t plane realize you were a Helium 10 user. That’s not a requirement to be on this show, but that’s just widow bonus right there.
Tracey:
Yes, exactly.
Bradley Sutton:
I love it. Now one thing that’s super cool, I’m sure since you’re using Helium 10, you probably have seen this at variegated weeks, but I think of a really fun thing for any third-party seller, expressly whether they’re starting out or whether they’ve been in merchantry for a few years is like, get some trademark recognition out there and your trademark name Lilies of Charleston last week the search volume equal to Helium waterworks was 1000. And then if you squint at the Amazon Trademark Analytics you know, it was one of the tops like million keywords that was searched. So, so you’ve got 1000 people out there per month who know your trademark now, and they’re going directly to Amazon to search for your brand. And I think that’s tomfool too considering plane if you started off of Amazon like if you have a kind of like pursuit out there, people might see your website, they might see your commercial or whatever, they wanna go to Amazon to buy your product just rationalization they trust Amazon and they won’t get it within two days and stuff. And you could see there are 1000 people a month doing that for your brand. Right. So that’s, that’s pretty cool. When to Patricia now. Anything increasingly that you haven’t talked well-nigh well-nigh the BBA program?
Patricia:
Yeah, you know you know, Tracey kind of just touched upon this well-nigh increasing discoverability of the Black-wned Businesses within BBA is like utmost importance to us. So all year long, we have a defended storefront that is just focused on promoting variegated products from Black-Owned Businesses within BBA.
Bradley Sutton:
Let me see you here. I’m on just Amazon.com just literally the landing page Is that this up here on the top right? The Shop Black-Owned and Popular Brands?
Patricia:
Correct.
Bradley Sutton:
And there it is. Okay. So then if you’re in this program, you can get on this, this page that has a pretty prominent position there on the first page.
Patricia:
Correct. Yeah. And you know something else that’s like new this year and you touched a little bit upon it when you shared.
Bradley Sutton:
Wait a minute. Guys, I swear I’d never clicked on this until right now. I had no idea. I’m like, I recognize this person right here. Okay, I like it. I need to get your autograph. Now you’re on Amazon’s homepage. Squint at this. Okay, sorry well-nigh that. But like, see that’s on my skillet list trying to get on Amazon’s homepage, a picture of me, but Tracey’s got that, but not me.
Patricia:
Yeah, no, I mean, we’re constantly looking for variegated discoverability opportunities for the Black-Owned Businesses that are within BBA. And you know, one of the initiatives well-nigh increasing discoverability, and you touched a little bit upon this when you were going through Tracey’s page but this past year we did launch the Black-Owned Merchantry Badge, which really helps customers increasingly hands discover, shop and support Black-Owned Businesses that are selling an Amazon store. So it’s, it’s really heady and like this is just the beginning. We’re constantly, like I said, listening to the businesses in our program saying, Hey, like what do you need? What are the challenges that you’re facing? And then exploring variegated ways of how we can offer spare resources, benefits, and tools to really help them unzip their goals.
Bradley Sutton:
So just in case, they miss it the first part, can you requite that page where people can get increasingly information on this program again?
Patricia:
Yeah, definitely. If you’re interested in learning increasingly well-nigh the Woebegone Merchantry Accelerator, I encourage you to go to amazon.com/bba. So amazon.com/bba. There you’ll get information well-nigh the program and the variegated benefits and resources that we offer, as well as there’s a link at the top for you to well-constructed an intake form saying that “Hey, I’m interested in stuff part of this program. I wanna learn more.”
Bradley Sutton:
Okay. Excellent. Excellent. Now, Tracey what’s been your goals of selling online? There’s no right or wrong wordplay here. Everybody has their own reason for what they do, but is this like a hobby for you? Is it something that’s like, you want this to be your main income, this is something to supplement, this is something you’re doing for kids higher fund? I mean, what was your inspiration to be selling on Amazon?
Tracey:
No, this is a full-time job. And our goal is really just which Amazon’s helped us unzip this is to wilt nationwide. We wanna be on everybody’s table at dinnertime. And so that’s what we’re working to achieve.
Bradley Sutton:
Your product is this made in usa? Did you find a place in manufacture here? Do you guys do it at one of your own facilities or how do you produce your sauces and powders?
Tracey:
Yes. We have it all made in the US and we have several manufacturers that, or co-packers is what, what they’re known as co-packers that do ours, some do our spices, some do our retai,l others do like supplies service. And we’re now just working with our popcorn manufacturer that’s local here in Charleston.
Bradley Sutton:
More and increasingly people I think are thinking about, hey, how I wanna find a US manufacturer, expressly if you’re in the supplies merchantry or grocery or supplements made in USA is kinda like what you need to squint at. So like how do you go well-nigh finding somebody who could do this for you?
Tracey:
Yeah, a lot of research and talking to your state Department of Agriculture, and Department of Commerce considering there are co-packers all over the country, but there are specialties that they do. And then there are some that work with only large quantities, so you really have to squint for some that are gonna do like a smaller batch, smaller quantities until you can ramp up. But a lot of it’s kind of Googling and talking to your state representatives to kind of help.
Bradley Sutton:
Okay. Now I’m putting you on the spot here, but something we do on this show, I’m not sure if you listen to other episodes, is we have a 30-second tip. We undeniability it either the SST or the TST. Sometimes people go longer than 30 seconds, so we gotta take it to 60 seconds. That’s why it’s S sometimes. But is there something it could be well-nigh you know, how you’re running your business, how you use Helium 10, how you manufacture, how you do your R&D well-nigh any possible thing you could think of, some kind of tip or strategy that you can requite our listeners out there?
Tracey:
I think the weightier strategy I would say is to have like a compelling story. Patricia touched on this. When you’re developing a product, you really wanna have like the weightier squint and finger for your product and do your research I can’t stress unbearable how much time I spend in the grocery store, just walking up and lanugo the aisles, looking at the packaging, looking at who’s new and looking at what flavors are coming out and what’s on trend and getting newsletters or eblast it that kind of target my category and target other categories just to see like, “Ooh, that’s a good idea. We should do that for our product.” It’s a lot of research, I would say. And coming up with a strategy and a diamond withal with a compelling story. Cuz people, that’s one of the things people say well-nigh our product. Oh, I love the story. And then we when it up with flavor.
Bradley Sutton:
Love it. Love it. Last question for you, and I’m gonna, I’m gonna, I’m giving this one to Patricia in a second here. But as I said on the podcast is here, one of the things I focus on is like health and I’m trying to get my health in order, but mental health and physical health, so number one, like what’s your hobby or something you do to like, take your mind off of e-commerce this is your maybe full-time thing, but like, what do you do when you wanna like, take a little mental break? And then number two, what kind of healthy habits do you have, whether we’re talking well-nigh physical health or mental health, like do you go to the gym, do you meditate, whatever. So those two questions for you first Tracey.
Tracey:
Okay. Ooh, that’s a difficult one considering you know, as an entrepreneur you worked 24/7 365.
Bradley Sutton:
Which is exactly why I ask everybody this cuz important people know that you gotta be worldly-wise to pull away. So, perfect. Go ahead.
Tracey:
So like, my top hobby is probably trying to reservation some sleep. That’s the first thing. And then the next thing is, I really like movies, so I love to when I get a few moments probably late at night is turn on the TV kind of veg out, and watch a really good movie.
Bradley Sutton:
I like it. I like it. Patricia, what well-nigh you? What’s your hobby and then what do you do to alimony your physical or mental health up to par?
Patricia:
Yeah, definitely. I think my hobby is I love exploring. So during the weekends, one of the things that I love doing is either with my husband or with my friend, finding an zone in Washington DC that I haven’t had a really good endangerment to know. So it’s scrutinizingly like little vita every weekend. And so that is something that’s like a hobby for me. And then just for my mental health and overall health, I make sure that every morning I’m dedicating at least 45 minutes to myself. So either doing cycling, going to a bar matriculation walking outside it’s really well-nigh having that time to yourself. Rationalization I think once the workday starts, it’s really easy for you to lose yourself and protract to immerse yourself just like in the work like I said, I’m super lucky to work on Amazon’s Woebegone Merchantry Accelerator. I’m so passionate well-nigh the work that we do every day. So it’s really easy for me just to like constantly be thinking well-nigh this 24/7. So making sure I have like defended 45 minutes to myself is important for me.
Bradley Sutton:
Love it. Love it. I said it was the last question, but I have one increasingly for Tracey, just cuz I’m wondering like, do you overly just sit there and think well-nigh over the last five years, all of the hundreds or maybe thousands of units of your products? Oh yeah, definitely thousands that you have sold, and just like think like there are thousands of households in America right now. You know, like maybe it’s seven o’clock at night and they’re literally using this product that I created to enhance their lives and enhance their flavor. Like is that overly just like, kinda like wrack-up your mind or have you overly seen it and thought well-nigh that?
Tracey:
Oh yeah, all the time. I think I’m unchangingly trying to icon out, okay, how can we get this into increasingly people’s pans? And when people come up to me and say, oh I have your hot sauce in my refrigerator right now, that never, never gets old. I love to hear that and how it’s their favorite cuz it tastes so different. So no, it never gets old and that’s something as you said, keeps you up at night cuz you’re trying to icon out, okay, how can we get increasingly people?
Bradley Sutton:
Yep. Yep. All right, so guys if you’re not selling Amazon yet, you want to have those kinds of feelings, you know again, h10.me/amazonstart to get started. And if you’re interested to find increasingly information on the Woebegone Merchantry Smatter program, go to amazon.com/bba. Thank you, guys, so much for coming on here. A historic moment, like I said, Amazon coming on our podcast. I love it. Love it. Thank you for doing that and thank you Tracey for coming on here I wish you the weightier of success going forward with your brand. And I’m gonna have to touch wiring with you offline to get some samples or something.
Tracey:
For sure.
Bradley Sutton:
I’m like kind of only eating yellow these days considering of my health, and like, it’s too smooth for me. So I need some spice in my life to cook. So I’m gonna use some Lilies of Charleston.
Tracey:
Nice. Thank you.
Bradley Sutton:
Alright, we’ll see you guys later.
Patricia:
Thank you so much for having us.
Tracey:
Thank you.
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