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This was a REALLY fun episode, because I didn’t know this business model existed. You can think of a product, find a manufacturer to make it for you, brand it, and sell it on Amazon without carrying a warehouse full of inventory and shipping it yourself. This was a really interesting, informative show.
- 6:08 May 2015, Brian was signing the paperwork to leave his corporate gig
- 7:06 Brian had the dubious task of making concrete look good
- 9:19 When you have an industry that is woefully behind you can innovate in the space like no other
- 10:12 Meeting Chris Ducker and the catalyst to becoming a full-time entrepreneur
- 11:12 23 Years incorporate – somebody wants what you know, and how private labeling came about
- 12:59 What an air conditioning company private label and ultimately focusing on the branding
- 14:29 Born and raised in Pennsylvania and moved to Atlanta in mid-2000’s
- 14:50 What the catalyst was to start selling private label goods and selling them on Amazon
- 17:13 Locking down a product from an intellectual standpoint. You need to find out if that brand of product is available to be used (i.e., Trademarks and Patons)
- 19:45 Krieger + Söhne® hair care products – How Brian came to this brand
- 22:22 Description for Krieger + söhne® 99Designs project
- 24:02 The day the sample bottles came through
- 25:28 Shooting the products – Not using stock photography was important
- 26:16 The whole day shooting the product with the suite and the models cost $5000!
- 26:55 Typical start up costs for a project like this, Brian’s for this for inventory order was $30,000. You don’t want to cut corners on the packaging design, photography, presentation and copywriting.
- 28:51 How Amazon works for someone who does private labeling. A traffic platform in addition to a sales platform and using FBA – Fulfilled By Amazon. Brian’s products also qualify for Amazon Prime as his company is a 3P Seller (3rd Party)
- 31:13 Images are the single biggest impact on a conversion rate for a listing
- 31:44 Taking your products live on Amazon and steps for new sellers to get traction. Everything we do to generate sales is designed to impact either traffic or conversion.
- 32:29 Conversion Rate: A really bad listing would convert under 20%, Unt Session Percentage (USP – An Amazon term), The number of units you sell has a factor to the number of sessions (A session is a unique visitor with a 24hr period). This is the Amazon measure of conversion rate, not page views. You want a conversion rate over 20%. Anything under means your listing is not optimized (maximize your images). Images, headline and reviews all factor into your conversion rates.
- 33:47 Bullet points are important to conversion. This is where the power of copywriting and storytelling come in. People want to buy a story.
- 34:09 The story around the Krieger + söhne® brand
- 34:32 How to get reviews when starting out, using follow-up emails to ask consumer feedback
- 36:28 The first 48-72hours – Getting traffic, using PPC (Pay Per Click) optimizing for keywords
- 38:23 It had taken six months before Brian knew he had a successful product, in that time Bryan was making income that would replace his income at his corporate job
- 39:22 Entrepreneurial mindset – Business changes, what you have to do, the activities you have to undertake to be successful changes. Business changes. You need to adapt. What you need to a major faith in and not give up on is your business model. Whatever that maybe.
- 41:33 Going retail at the right time
- 43:05 Not knowing a thing about men’s hair care products, how Brian went about finding a manufacturer. Your supplier can make or break your business.
- 44:36 Trying to sell on a smaller budget, what to do
- 46:30 Following trends
- 47:28 Finding the whitespace on Amazon. Look for the BSR (best seller rank) from that you extrapolate the monthly sales volumes in units/dollars are.
- 48:22 If you already have a community or a list, creating a product that is relevant to that list is a great way to get into that space, you are short-circuiting a lot of that product launch mentioned earlier about ranking for keywords.
- 49:56 Testing your market before any significant investment
- 51:43 Some great resources
Links & Resources
- bryancreager.com
- Odesk
- Virtualstafffinder.com
- Amazon.com
- 99designs
- kit.com/solohour
- modelmayhem.com
- Junglescout
- Freedom Journal
- Shopify
- The Private Label Podcast
People Mentioned
- Chris Ducker
- John Lee Dumas
- Kevin Rizer
- JJ Collier
