Selling Consumable Products on Amazon

[et_bloom_inline optin_id=optin_3]

Will Tjernlund talks selling consumable products

Packaging and Branding

Will knew they needed good packaging and branding for selling consumable products
A lot of the customers were schools and colleges
If the packaging looked good and they got a good product they could be long-term customers
Knew they needed a good website too
They could buy thousands of spools over time if they kept coming back

Bought a bunch of spools and tested them out on their 3D printer in the office
They first went with some big stickers rather than the greatest packaging to start with
They needed to know which styles sold
A lifetime customer is worth so much more a one time customer

Dealing with food, temperature, safety and paperwork
It’s a gated product as well
You have disposable stock that perishes
The un-gating process is not that difficult in reality
You put your hand in your pocket and go buy some grocery products from a wholesaler and go sell them on Amazon
Amazon phoned Danny’s manufacturer and cleared the gating with them on the phone
Buy a few cases and sell them on Amazon and put some PPC on it, list them as Bulk on Amazon and sell at a really desirable price and get them sold
Might cost you £100-150 which is not a big number in the grand scheme of things

Driving enough traffic to make it worthwhile and cost effective even at breakeven
If you’re selling off Shopify, ideally you don’t want to keep shelling out for new custoemrs
By selling a consumable and getting repeat buyers then you have an advantage over the Amazon seller who’s selling a one-off purchase of the one-off Spatula product
Start to build a moat around your product strategy
Don’t be afraid of the unknown

High powered sellers that had sold for $20m
Had beauty and supplements products
They had to hire people to fill out ‘plans of actions’ for Amazon even-though they were selling £1,000s a day
Amazon took them down and they needed the plans of actions to be up and running again quickly

You have more control over the product
Made exclusively in the US or UK is a bonus
Easier to get through the hoops Amazon makes you jump through as they are 100% Legitimate
You can go and visit the facility and see, touch and taste the product
Buyers trust you more as you’re in the US, so you can charge a little more for this

Normal people never really think about these rules
Study the rules and be on top of the regulations
You can be the fastest up there with these products that met the standards and legislation
Brock Johnson with the eclipse glasses was a great case of someone keeping up with the legislation and smashing it on amazon

Danny did a Bill of Materials (BOM) and brought them all to his supplier himself
Danny’s found a manufacturer of a particualr bottle and the MoQ was 66k
So he went to their distributors and asked them if they carried this bottle, if they run out he goes to the next distibutor and the next
By building up the BOM and going to each supplier of the components in turn and shaved a little off of each one cost-wise which is important when selling consumable products
Gives more resilience in the supply-chain and a better price overall giving increased margin
And every hurdle is another part of building your moat to secure your business
And this then makes the business more attractive to the investor that buys your business because you’ve built in these moats and gives you a premium valuation for your business

Build your business with a recurring customer base built off of selling consumable products
Having your business built with these engines means recurring income coming to you each month
Will used to be anti-consumables and any products that required all the paperwork hurdles
But now hearing all these people with 8-figure exits and going to different conferences
His views are being changed

Look for regulation where you can solve the problem selling consumable products
Look for barriers to entry or perceived barriers
Seek out products like grocery with sell by dates
Look at specialised packaging
Going domestic, look for local suppliers and it will be grind but keep going
If MoQ is too high ask for their distributors and get 2-3 in case one runs out of stock
Look for moats and walled garden products and you’ll be on a winner
Build a product that you could go to an Amazon conference nad tell people what you product and brand is showing them the listing in confidence that the moats you have built make it safe