#654 – Sourcing & Tariff Tips for Amazon Sellers

Audio Version Above. Video Version Below.

World-renowned expert Kian Golzari makes history with his sixth appearance on our show, bringing unparalleled insights into the world of product sourcing and development. Discover his journey of delivering custom gold iPhones to Real Madrid’s soccer icons, and explore innovative strategies to navigate the tariffs landscape in 2025. Kian offers a rare glimpse into the Canton Fair’s pivotal role in global supply chains and extends a special opportunity for our listeners to connect with his personal sourcing agent in China, alongside a complimentary one-on-one call with him.

Listeners are in for a treat as we explore the importance of self-care amid the entrepreneurial hustle. Kian shares his commitment to fitness through cold baths and workouts. We dive into the world of functional strength and endurance with events like Hyrox and embark on travel tales from the scenic landscapes of Wales to the cultural vibrancy of Scotland.
Navigating the complexities of global sourcing and evolving tariffs becomes a breeze with our comprehensive guide, spotlighting platforms like Alibaba and the strategic “China plus one” approach. Kian shares his wisdom on building strong supplier relationships and leveraging the Canton Fair for direct connections with industry leaders. Embrace the future of product development as we discuss the role of AI, while reminding listeners of the irreplaceable value of human judgment in selecting the right factories. This episode promises a wealth of knowledge and inspiration for anyone in the e-commerce landscape.

In episode 654 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Kian discuss:

• 00:00 – Expert on Product Sourcing and Development
• 01:56 – Connections With Global Superstars in Sports
• 06:01 – Discussing Hobbies, Travel, and Tariffs
• 16:35 – Navigating Global Sourcing and Tariffs
• 19:34 – Strategies for Beating Tariffs in 2025
• 20:45 – Navigating Canton Fair and Sourcing Strategies
• 24:09 – Traveling to China on a Budget
• 26:32 – Product Sourcing with AI Innovation
• 31:15 – Issues and Innovations in Product Development
• 32:30 – Amazon Conference, Summit Collaboration, Sourcing

Transcript

Bradley Sutton:

For a record-breaking sixth time, we’ve got the world’s foremost expert on product sourcing and development, Kian, back on the show, and we’re going to talk about a wide variety of topics, from how he’s personally been delivering custom iPhones to Real Madrid soccer superstars to what you can do to help offset tariffs in 2025. We’re going to talk about the Canton Fair and make sure to listen all the way through, because we’re going to have somewhere in this episode, a way for you to be able to get my personal sourcing agent in China and also a one-on-one call with Kian for free. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think.

Bradley Sutton:

Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I am your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show that’s a completely BS-free, unscripted and unrehearsed organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world.

Bradley Sutton:

And back for a record time. Hold on, I’m going to check my notes. Mhel left me some notes here. If you guys want to get more of Kian’s backstory, you can actually go back to the very first episode he was in, which was 61. Like we’re in the like the 600s or something now. He was also on episode 179, 309, 412, and now 524. And now another one. So one, two, three, four, five, yeah, six times, because this podcast has been around for six years and he’s the only one of the first ones, is the first one to be on here six times. So welcome back to the show, Kian.

Kian:

Thanks very much. That’s quite an intro. I feel like you know, like when they introduced, like a football player, it’s like six times Super Bowl champion or like six time WWE champion holder. You know what I mean. That’s an honor, thank you.

Bradley Sutton:

Awesome. So, speaking of football, you know Europeans what they call football. I’m wearing my LA Galaxy shirt. I might have to change my allegiance soon. I’m really excited about this new professional team that’s in San Diego, and Galaxy haven’t done much for me, but, you know, anybody who’s been watching your Instagram lately has been even seeing you like backstage, you know, with Real Madrid and stuff. So first of all, let’s just talk about that before we get to get into business. How are you hanging out with global superstars in the locker room of Real Madrid and what’s taking private jets to see them? What’s going on?

Kian:

That was really interesting. You know, it’s kind of similar, like the same way, like doing a lot of expertise and like product development and supply chain got me to work with the NBA and meet a lot of players and go to the games and stuff like that. I kind of like applied similar principles to do the same with, like football players. Or you guys say football, you guys say soccer, I say football. I can’t help it. I’m from the UK but obviously, like I love Real Madrid, Bar Barcelona, arsenal’s my favorite team.

Kian:

But a friend of mine here in Dubai has a company called IDG which stands for iDesign Gold and they make customized gold iPhones, not just like a case, it’s actually a gold iPhone. You buy a brand new iPhone from the store, remove the back cover, laser, engrave the player’s name, number, club, etc. And then they would sell it like individual, one-off pieces to the players. But what we decided to do was gift it to the entire team and what we would do is we would get a sponsor on board and the sponsor’s logo would go on the phone. So Real Madrid and Barcelona had games in Saudi against each other in the Spanish cup. So then we arranged the delivery. We got a sponsor on board, contacted the club, contacted the captains, arranged the delivery of all the phone and if you go on Instagram account IDG, you can see like all the gold phones that they’ve done for a lot of other like teams and players and stuff like that as well.

Kian:

So the players were very much excited about it and so I just helped coordinate that, arrange the delivery. But that gets you in the door and, as all entrepreneurs know, like, once you get in the door somewhere, that can lead to a lot of other things as well. So I started to meet for the players, meet with the agents, meet with their managers. Then they requested, like, more products, and I went to Madrid and Barcelona, met with the head of partnerships there, met with the vice president, met with the agents again, went to more games and then you know they all represent different players and they say you know my players interested in this and we’d like this. So it’s opened up a lot of doors and it’s kept me very, very busy, over the start of 2025. It’s just very, very exciting and, yeah, blessed to be a part of it.

Bradley Sutton:

Awesome, awesome. And then another thing that is not new to your Instagram but I think always people can see you who’s been following is you’re into a lot of I don’t know what the word is but like self-care kind of things, like health things. Like you’re always jumping into cold baths and things like that, but hey, like you’re always jumping into a cold baths and and things like that. Um, but hey, like, like you know, you’re working out always you’re very fit. So you know, that’s something that you know.

Bradley Sutton:

For the last couple of years, I’ve been trying to thematically talk about here and there, about you know, entrepreneurs sometimes don’t really take care of themselves, mind and body. I know that’s important to you, so you know, we could probably have a whole episode just talking about those kinds of things. But if we were to talk about, like, the highlights of what you do or what you would suggest, that other entrepreneurs you know, maybe you know some things to pick up and what kind of effects it’s had on you, what, what would the main, the main things be?

Kian:

Yeah, you know, I’m so glad you brought this up. It’s such an important point and, as entrepreneurs which are so focused on our business, it’s often something that we like really, really neglect, right, because the most important thing is like growing and scaling and building our business, and that comes with all sorts of stresses, and those stresses make us sleep terrible, eat bad foods. But the healthier you are, the stronger you are, the more longevity you have in the game and the more focused that you are when you’re playing the game and I feel the first and most important thing that any entrepreneur can focus on is your sleep, like you can’t cheat sleep, you can’t hack sleep, you can’t do four hours a night and think that everything’s going to be okay. So I would suggest, like the first thing you do is get a whoop band and that really monitors your sleep, and then you can start to see, like how much you’re getting and where you need to improve and things like that.

Kian:

And then, on top of that, it’s just eating very, very healthy foods, and there’s all sorts of people which talk about diet, right, but the one tip I would say is just eat like whole foods, meaning like one ingredient. So just have a steak, don’t have it processed with all this other stuff as well, and the energy that you get from that is incredible and it works like for so many different people, like whether you fast or whatever. So I would just say, stay on top of your sleep, stay on top of your diet and have like one exercise that you really really enjoy. For me, I do a wide variety of different things. I’m training for an event called high rocks, it’s hit the states. I don’t know how popular it is on your side yet, but that’s Hyrox and it’s very like functional strength, endurance, uh training, and I just find it like so much fun. So, yeah, I would say it was very, very important to find something that you really really enjoy, just to stay in shape so you can play the game better and you can play the game longer.

Bradley Sutton:

The cold baths. That thing scares me like. I can barely even have a shower that that’s cold for like a few seconds. How long does that take to get used to like a? Is it pretty jolting the first time, but then gradually you get a little bit more used to it.

Kian:

Yeah, yeah, exactly, that is more so being in control of your breathing, right, because when you first get into an ice bath it’s like a shock to the system and you’re just like you can’t breathe, you panic, you start doing like deep, deep breaths. But once you can control your breathing meaning like four seconds in through the nose and eight seconds out through the mouth then you’re in a very, very calm state so you can deal with that sort of like panic mode and that helps you in all walks of life. So, for example, if you ever get into a stressful situation in your relationship, in your business or whatever, and as long as you can control your breathing, then you’re not going to react in a bad way, you’re going to react in a calm way and fix everything. So ice baths really just control your breathing and control your mental focus, and then that helps in a lot of other aspects of life.

Bradley Sutton:

Awesome. Awesome, all right. Last thing before non-work thing but I think hobbies are important for all and trying to enjoy yourself. And one of mine is travel and that’s why, for those who watch this, this podcast on YouTube, you’ll see every episode I open with like a video of me like in a different country. You know, actually a lot of it is for work, but you know, even if I’m traveling for work, I try and travel for pleasure and I had the pleasure of going for the first time to Wales recently. This year on my bucket list, or next year at the very latest, I plan on going to Scotland for the first time, which is where you’re from.

Bradley Sutton:

So, first of all, let’s say I only have like a four or five day itinerary in Scotland. Like, I was five days in Wales but I couldn’t go to all the Wales. I stayed more in the southern part, partly because it was too cold in the northern part. There’s just a lot of things to see. Now that I’ve been watching. Welcome, welcome to Wrexham. Now I’m like, oh man, I wish I would have gone to Wrexham, but let’s say I had a similar four or five day itinerary in Scotland. First of all, what’s the best time of year to go. And then what are like maybe two cities. I mean obviously I would stay in the in Edinburgh but you know, to see the castle and stuff, but other than Edinburgh is there like one or two more cities you think I should? I should take like one or two nights in.

Kian:

yeah for sure. So best time of year is definitely August, because in August we have like daylight savings. So because Scotland’s very, very far north, we actually it stays light until about maybe 11:30 at night, and then it gets, then it goes dark and then it gets light again about four o’clock in the morning. So you get about 20 hours of daylight, which is just insane because like, yeah, if you go to like a nightclub, you come outside and it’s like light and you’re like, oh, this is insane. But we also have what’s called the Edinburgh festival, which is like the largest arts and comedy festival in the world and that’s for the entire month of August. And they also have something called the military tattoo where they invite a lot of military armies from around the world and then it’s in Edinburgh Castle and we have like marches from every single military. It’s got bagpipes, it’s got fireworks. It’s something like really, really special. You should definitely see.

Kian:

But Edinburgh is also very, very. It’s a very historic city, right. JK Rowling’s from there, Harry Potter stories were sort of began from there. But there’s so much to see at that time. But then if you want to venture out as well, like Glasgow, it’s a bigger city than Edinburgh but it’s not a capital and that’s worth seeing. It’s very like hipster vibe. You would love it. Actually it’s all like where the trendsetters are and that’s really cool.

Kian:

But I’d also suggest going up to the Highlands if you want to get some good like hikes in as well, like some of the freshest air, and some you’ll ever witness is up there. And if you’re into whiskey, you’ve got all your whiskey distilleries there. There’s a lot of golf lovers which love going to Scotland because you’ve got the old course where golf originated from in St. Andrews. But because Scotland’s so small, you can probably do all of that in like one car drive. I can definitely help set up a little itinerary for you, but there’s loads of cool things to do in Edinburgh, Glasgow and then up north as well, and, depending on when you go, I might join you as well, because I’m planning to go back to Edinburgh for the summer because it gets a little bit hot in Dubai, so I’ll see you there.

Bradley Sutton:

All right. Well, we’ll make plans now on to work related things here. You know, I think 2025, one of the biggest things people are worried about is tariffs. Some are new, some have been around already for years and just now are coming kind of like to the forefront. Now other countries are being tariffed, not just, you know, China. So for entrepreneurs, companies that are selling products online in America, whether it’s on Amazon or other places, I’m sure you are hit up more than anybody else you know, either on your YouTube channel or with your own network.

Bradley Sutton:

What are some of the hot topics? Misconceptions, if any, and things that people need to worry about, because you know now some people who might not have started. They’re just hearing these horror stories and like, oh my goodness, I can’t sell online anymore because these tariffs are making it impossible. That’s not necessarily, you know, the case. So let’s just talk about what’s going on in the tariff world these days.

Bradley Sutton:

Want to keep up to date with trending topics in the e-commerce world? Make sure to subscribe to our blog. We regularly release articles that talk about things such as shipping and logistics, e-commerce in other countries, the latest changes to Amazon Seller Central, how to get set up on new platforms like Newegg, how to write and publish a book on Amazon, KDP and much, much more. Check these articles out at h10.me/blog.

Kian:

Sure, yeah, I think you addressed it very, very well, because there have been a lot of misconceptions. A lot of people assume oh, tariffs on my goods, the price has gone up. Therefore it’s not really workable to do it anymore. But first of all, like, if we zoom out, a tariff is basically a tax on a good that comes from another country, right, and it’s basically a percentage of the value. Percentage of the value, and it’s Trump is using it as, like, negotiation tactics. So he first put tariffs on in 2018, in July, and that on China, and that was around 25, and that was to protect against Chinese companies infringing on American IP. Then the Biden administration kept that in, and when Trump came back in then he initially proposed an additional 10 tariffs, and that was to tackle the issue of, like, fentanyl coming into the US, and then he moved it up to 20% as well. So the tariffs are just used as a negotiation tool for him to get what he wants, you know, within government, right? But then how that affects us is that, first of all, I would say, in the long term, these tariffs aren’t sustainable, because if a tariff goes on your product, right. Then the price goes up, then you pass that cost onto your customer and then you sell less products and then, as a result, selling less products, you’re less profitable. You let some employees go, unemployment rate goes up. So it really impacts the wider economy as well, not just like your goods becoming more expensive right, and they know that. And China also needs lower tariffs to export more goods, which really fuels their economy as well. So this is hurting both sides, which is why, like, I feel like an agreement or a deal will be reached quite soon.

Kian:

But everyone’s like first instinct is right let me move outside of China, let me go to another country. Maybe I’ll try Mexico, maybe I’ll try Turkey, maybe I’ll try India. The first thing I would say and we can look at that but the first thing I would say is don’t burn bridges with your current factory. Right, try to resolve it with your current factory first, because your factory is also seeing all of this information in the news, right, so they know your cost of goods growing up, and then they know you’re going to get less sales and then you’re going to place less orders to them as a result. So the first thing I would do is you can say to the suppliers look, as you know what’s going on with tariffs, our import costs are becoming more expensive. Therefore, can you reduce the cost of goods by five percent, ten percent, whatever it is right? And if you’ve never negotiated your product’s cost before, chances are you’ll get something off and then maybe, okay, now that’s workable.

Kian:

The second thing you should do is actually know exactly how profitable you are and what your margins are, because you might be able to absorb that tariff. Right, because there will be a lot of competitors which will drop off. But if you can absorb that and stay in the game in the short to medium term and then when the tariffs go down, then at least you’ve stayed in the game so you can benefit from everyone else which dropped off. Right, the other thing you can do as well is to work with your manufacturer to see that I can reduce the cost of my goods without jeopardizing the quality of the goods? Right, so your product’s got lots of different materials. If you don’t know exactly what the materials are in your products, ask your manufacturer for a BOM, what’s called a bill of materials, and that will sort of break down all the materials and fabrics and accessories that you’ve got in your product right, and you might see that on your product if you’ve got like an outdoor camping chair that you’ve been using aluminum but you could use steel, and steel would maybe be a 20% cost saving. Or you might see the fabric of a backpack you’ve been using nylon but you could be using polyester, which is about a 30% saving. So I would now start to really analyze all the components of your product and see can I make any changes to the product without jeopardizing the quality, and work with your manufacturer on that right then the next thing is that every time I go to the canton fair or I talk to suppliers, they’re always working. They know that China is becoming more expensive, not because of the tariffs but because of, like the growing middle class there and the labor costs and the raw material costs.

Kian:

So Chinese factories have been actively working to set up production in other countries. Right, and I don’t know if you can see my video right, but I’ve got a conversation which I had with, like one supplier and I was having a meeting with him and then he asked to reschedule the meeting. I was like, yeah, no problem, of course, yeah, we can do it later I was like, what’s up? And he was like, oh, I’m setting up a factory there. I was like, oh, amazing.

Kian:

So, like a lot of your factories are working with other countries and they are setting up production in other cities and other countries to avoid the tariffs, right, and what they’re doing is they’re setting up production lines I was looking through the messages trying to find it, but I couldn’t find it anyway and what they are doing is they’re taking their production line managers from China, setting up production lines in other countries in Vietnam, in Cambodia, in Bangladesh and then they’re importing all the materials themselves and they’re like running the production themselves. So you could actually export from other countries which have a lot less tariffs but still run by your own manufacturer. So you can ask the manufacturer are you setting up in any other countries? So, to summarize, let’s work with our existing suppliers first. Let’s see if we can get a discount on the cost of goods, let’s see if we can do some alterations to the product to get the costs down, and let’s see if they’re setting up production in any other countries as well, because they’re actively working on it as well.

Kian:

Right, then next, now let’s look outside of China, and I always say it’s important, regardless of the tariffs or not, it’s important to have a China plus one strategy, and that’s meaning, like, for 90 of the people, probably China is the best place to manufacture your products. But if we’re not going to China, what is the next best country? Right, and everyone’s a lot of people don’t really know like, okay, where do I go next? To just pick a random country and start looking. But where you should be sourcing your products from is dependent on the raw materials that go into your product, and whichever country is abundant in that raw material is where you should be going. So, for example, India is very, very strong for cotton, canvas, woods, handcraft leather. So if it’s any of those components, you know to go there. But if you’re doing like bluetooth headphones, you probably shouldn’t be going to India, right.

Kian:

And a way for you to find this out? There’s multiple methods. But you can go to alibaba.com. You can search for a product on the left. If you search by products on the left-hand side of the page, it brings up all the results per country and you can actually see which country brings up. Can type in Nike. You can type in all these different brands, right, and it will bring up the suppliers which make for that particular brand.

Kian:

Because any bill of lading document, which is basically what’s in a container, is public information in the US. So it just skims that information from customs and puts it on this website totally free and from there you can see not only who the suppliers are, but from which country and which HTS codes that they’re using as well. And that was another thing as well. That you can do is that you can go on the HTS code website to see that could I be importing this product under another code, which is slightly better for me as well? Right, so now we’re able to see other countries and then we’re able to compare it to China.

Kian:

But this is where the critical decision making is done. Right, because let’s say, you get like a similar price. Or let’s say, you get slightly cheaper price. Now, because you aren’t hit with the tariffs from another country. But don’t just look at the price. Right, it’s very important to analyze.

Kian:

Okay, China’s got a fantastic infrastructure, it’s got a very large workforce, but that large workforce is also a really skilled workforce, right? So another country like Bangladesh might actually have like cheaper labor, but the labor isn’t skilled, so the quality of your goods could deteriorate, right? China’s also got a massive ability to scale production, right. So if you’re starting with an MOQ of 300 pieces, well, if you need to go to 5,000 pieces, 10,000 pieces, very quickly, well, they can still do that. But can this new country also match that output as well?

Kian:

And bear in mind that China’s also got like 24/7 customer service where you can send them a message on WeChat on a Sunday night and they’ll reply to you, or like 18 hours of the day. They’re online, right. Whereas if you work for factory in the US, sometimes we don’t get a reply to your email for a few days. You know not only that as well. So you get payment protection from China, you know, if you do it through Alibaba, trade assurance and there’s all sort of payment protection things you can set up. Whereas if you find a factory, let’s say, in like Latin America, South America, and you know they say, okay, wire it to this account, like now, you start to get nervous. So what happens if I just, you know, send this money in and I don’t hear from them?

Kian:

So whichever country you decide to go to, or whichever country you decide to trial, don’t just look at the price, but get a sample for your product right and then compare the sample to the sample you got from China. Make sure you’re happy with the quality. Compare the price to what you got from China. Make sure you’re happy with that. And then let’s say, everything works out and you find it from another country and the price is good, the quality is good.

Kian:

Start with a trial order first. Just do a few hundred pieces and assess not only the production but assess the supplier. Make sure they deliver on time. Make sure that it gets the passes appreciate an inspection okay. Make sure the goods clear through customs okay. Make sure you don’t get hit with any additional tariffs from them. Analyze to see if you get many returns from your customers. If they do, where was a supplier like willing to work with you? So there’s a lot of things to analyze and consider there, but definitely have a China plus one strategy and then analyze those factors as well. Tariffs are always going to go up and down, regardless of who’s in power, so it’s always important to stick to the fundamentals and know exactly how profitable you are, what margins you have, have suppliers in other countries sample it up and then, yeah, look very, very carefully at the HTS code as well.

Bradley Sutton:

I think one thing that people might not realize is that when they’re negotiating directly or have a better relationship with the factory, sometimes they’ll be able to negotiate savings that could even, you know, offset some of these tariffs. And you know, one thing that you mentioned is coming up that allows people to meet suppliers or maybe even meet new ones, would be the Canton Fair. So can you give a quick overview for somebody who’s never been to the Canton Fair, like, how do they get there? How long is it? You know what’s some best tips and practices, but this is another way to kind of like beat tariffs in 2025 is to, you know, negotiate pricing or maybe even, you know, have new suppliers that offset whatever increase in tariffs that people are having to pay. Yeah, absolutely.

Kian:

I think if you have any issues with your supply chain, the number one secret weapon you can do is go to the Canton Fair and for anyone who doesn’t know it, it’s the largest import export exhibition in the world. It happens twice a year, in April and October. It’s over three phases. It’s got over 26,000 exhibitors in there and these are the top factories in china, not like sort of Alibaba middlemen. It’s very hard to get into the canton fair. They’re very, very like they’re checked very carefully in terms of their documents or certification, how long they’ve been established for, and things like that. But take any category of product, whether it’s pets, home, kitchen, medical, sport, travel, outdoor, footwear, fashion, machinery, electronics, like every category of product you can imagine. There is over three phases, but for most e-commerce guys, guys and gals, phase two and phase three is the is the most important one. Yeah, phase two and phase three is the most important and you can go to cantonfairorgcn and that basically showcases, like all the categories of product which are there.

Kian:

But I would say that there’s like three levels to sourcing from China. Number one is online. You know your Alibaba, your global sources and all that. Number two is Canton Fair and number three is visiting the factory directly. And you know to your point in terms of, you know, being able to get better pricing and stuff like that. It’s almost like a respect thing, that like they take you very, very seriously as a serious buyer if you go to China. It’s like when you talk to someone online. You know, you don’t know if it’s like a 16 year old in a basement doing a side hustle.

Kian:

But when you come to the Canton Fair and you come, like, with your samples and you’re like, look, here’s the samples of our competition and here’s our new product, here’s our ideas, and you talk to not only like you talk directly to the best factories, but you talk to the decision maker in the factory as well, because the bosses of the companies tend to go to the canton fair as well. Right, so when I go, I have all my meetings. I have it with, like the decision makers, the general managers, the production line managers, the CEOs of the companies, whatever. But if I message a company on Alibaba, I’m getting sally19 at shanghaiprofit.com, which is, like you know, a new sales assistant. So like they’re going to check with their people and like it just basically takes a long time to reach any sort of conclusion, but you can really fast track your product development because when you go to the Canton Fair, while we develop new products, so do the suppliers as well. So you’re going to see all the new products that they’ve been working on and they’ll have it for you. If you know, if they realize that you’re a serious buyer, then then they’ll share that information with you.

Kian:

Plus, it’s the best place to negotiate prices because you can. If you’re looking at like an outdoor camping furniture chair, right, you’ll see a hall full of those suppliers. So you can go to one supplier, get the price. Go to the next supplier, get the price. Go to the next supplier, get the price. So it’s not like online if the real price is $5 and they quote you you know seven that well they know you can just go next door and find out the real price. So you’re getting much better pricing and you’re able to then negotiate from a place of knowledge and a place of leverage, because you’ve got access to so many different suppliers at the show as well.

Kian:

So, we can get a lot of new product, product ideas, we can get better prices, we can get better credit terms and just really, really fast track our supply chain as well and walk away from that show with samples ready to launch and launch new products which have been worked on that the rest of the world won’t get to see until it’s on your listing. So I would highly highly recommend. I do have a bunch of videos on the Canton Fair on my YouTube channel, sourcing of Kian, so if anyone wants to find out more about the Canton Fair, just check that out, and there’s a whole bunch of videos there and, yeah, it’s so much fun, I’ll be there as well. And then, yeah, if you want to meet up there, say hello, say what’s up, just send me a DM on Instagram kian_jg. Just say hey, thinking about a Canton fair, and I’ll organize a meetup over there.

Bradley Sutton:

Obviously, if somebody speaks Chinese, they’re going to have the easiest time. It’s a no-brainer. I’d be telling them hey, why haven’t you gone? Why haven’t you gone yet? And then also, obviously I would say, is like, if they don’t speak Chinese, you know, one of the easier ways to be able to get benefit out of it is to go with like a group. You know, like I know, you’ve organized and been part of some groups in the past where the itinerary set and they got translators and stuff. But let’s say I’m balling on a budget over here and I don’t speak Chinese. I can’t afford to do one of those groups probably not the best just to like say, hey, let me go get my China visa, let me go over there and have no idea how to communicate or do anything. So if I have a limited budget, what is the best way to be able to go there and still get some value without being completely lost and, like you know, stranded in the middle of a foreign country? I don’t know how to speak the language.

Kian:

That’s a great question. Yeah, the first thing I wouldn’t worry about, like translators, anything like that, like everyone over there, like you know, speaks good English, or if the bosses don’t speak English, they’ve brought people from their company, which do speak good English. The next thing is, like, as I said about the YouTube channel, like there’s a lot of like things to do before you go, in terms of like you know what apps to get, like VPNs, and like you know your shoes and all that sort of stuff. But in terms of like, okay, I’ve never been to China before and like I want to make sure that I succeed on a low budget on this trip, right? It’s really interesting because, like, because I’ve gone to Canton Fair so many times, it’s just like natural. It’s normal for me.

Kian:

But sometimes I can see, like the fear in people’s faces, like you know what if I said the wrong thing? Or you know what if I make a fool of myself or what you know what if the supplier doesn’t take me seriously, and it’s like, well, first of all, just by you being there, the supplier is going to take you seriously, but if you’re a little bit nervous, or if you’re a little bit shy, or if you don’t know what to say, I would always start in another category of product which is not yours to do your warm-up right. So let’s say, for example, if you’re into like fashion products, I would just go to pets, right, and just look at a product. You’d be like, oh, this is really cool. You know what’s the cost of this product? Oh, you know it’s five dollars. Oh, interesting. What’s the breakdown of that? How much of it is the material cost and how much of it is the labor cost? They’re like well, you know, we’ve got this, this and this like, oh, interesting. And how many years have you been in business? Oh, about 20. Oh, cool, so you must have like certification. Then you know, on this product, like, what are the legal standards that you have to comply with? Oh, we have the CE certificate, all this sort of stuff, interesting. And what is the main market you supply? It’s like 70 US, 20 Europe, oh, interesting. Yeah, I’m also in the US market. Who’s your biggest customer in the US? Oh, we work with Costco, uh, Walmart, all these guys, oh, very cool.

Kian:

So, like, now I feel comfortable, I can get a feel for, like, you know what type of questions to ask and stuff like that. And then now I’m going to go to the category of product which I am interested in, I’m going to ask those questions, right, so that that’s one thing. And then when you’re walking through the halls, you might see, okay, like there’s the three suppliers that I really want to work with. They’re the ones I really really like. But then I would go to three that maybe you’ve disqualified and you’re like I don’t want to work with them for whatever reason. Maybe, like you know, they don’t have the right certification, or their products don’t look too nice, or this guy’s asleep in the booth, he’s not taking this too seriously, which happens right.

Kian:

So I would go to them and I would say that you know what’s the material of this product? Uh, like, oh, this is like polyester, but we could also do it in nylon. Oh, what’s the difference between polyester nylon? Well, nylon’s a little bit more expensive, but it’s also more lightweight and more durable, and we can add the waterproof coating. Oh, like, how many layers of waterproof coating do you put on it? Well, you know, three if it’s really tough climate, but two if it’s if you want it to be lightweight. Oh, interesting.

Kian:

So I’ve just asked those questions to a supplier I’m not going to work with to learn more about the product. And then when I go to the suppliers I do want to work with, I would say, hey, I need that nylon material and I need the two times coating. And then that’s going to be like, oh okay, this guy, he really knows about the product. And then now they’re not going to mess the product, if you know what I mean. So it’s just putting the reps in right. The same way, like you don’t get strong by reading how to do pushups, you get strong by doing pushups right. So it’s the same in the Canton Fair go to a category which you’re not interested in and then go to suppliers that you don’t want to work with and just build up your confidence, build up your knowledge and then be quick. But let’s just see.

Bradley Sutton:

I think the other topic in 2025 that a lot of people are talking about is AI. You know, in pretty much every aspect of business, but then you know one aspect of it is, you know, something that you’re very familiar with. You know, obviously, if you have an AI agent, you know, sometimes that might be okay for sourcing or negotiating, sometimes not. But the more active thing that I hear out there is like people using AI to help develop products, to think of new product lines, to think of new products. You know that they haven’t made before new avenues from sourcing, from product development. What should and shouldn’t people do?

Bradley Sutton:

AI, you know, I think that shouldn’t is the thing that people need to talk about more, because some people are just going crazy with it and they’re like, oh yeah, I’m going to just go ahead and use AI to make a listing and while it can make a very compelling listing, if you don’t put the, you know if you don’t input the right data, you know, like, be it from Amazon, be it from Helium 10 or whatever, it’s going to be limited, whatever the output is, because it’s not going to have the right keywords. Conversely, like in other aspects of Amazon selling, if you’re not putting in the right inputs, maybe even on the product development or product sourcing side, it’s not going to be necessarily giving you the best output. So what are some things that people should and should not be doing as far as sourcing and development with AI?

Kian:

Yeah, it’s a great question and, just as a disclaimer, I don’t use AI for anything within product development or supply chain. But if I was to do it, the way I would do it is, as you said, in product development. So you know, using AI to scrape, you know negative and positive reviews of, you know your markets and your competition to see, like you know, how can I improve on this product, may be helping with a sort of design aspect to the product as well. But where, like, AI isn’t really suitable in supply chain is I’ve seen some tools to try and like pair you and match you with the right supplier, but, like you can’t. Like this is like a relationship with a supplier is a relationship, right. You don’t work with a certain supplier because of, like, the number of years you’ve been in business or how many workers they have. It’s the relationship that you develop with that supplier business or how many workers they have. It’s the relationship that you develop with that supplier. And suppliers change so much over time, month to month, year to year. Sometimes it can be very good suppliers, sometimes it can be very bad suppliers, depending on how busy that they are.

Kian:

So it’s almost like an art you get a feel for who believes in your values like, let’s say, for example, you’re a brand all about, you know sustainability and you know recycled products and eco-friendly packaging and stuff like that. Well, you have to figure that out and talk to people in the company that they’re also capable of doing those things and they also believe in your vision as well, and then they’re going to be a very, very good fit for you. So I would say, with supply chain, it’s not like keyword research, where it can give you like a very analytical analysis of the category as a whole and now you know sort of which sort of keywords to target pairing yourself with a supplier. It might be able to do the ground level work, but you should be based, you should be making your decisions like narrowing your suppliers down from a top 10 to a top 5 to a top 3, to your chosen one based on the quality of their communication, their samples.

Kian:

You know who they’ve worked with, like their speeds and their ability to scale, and there’s so many different like criteria that we need to arrange there. But I believe that AI can be really useful in the product development aspect of things and for launching new products quickly, because, at the end of the day, the best products in the world are the ones that solve problems, and if you can use AI, it can solve a problem for your customer. So, if you say that I want to develop the next best tripod for cameras, what are the top five issues that people have when using tripods? You know they might say, well, you know, the telescopic thing doesn’t click into place sometimes, or it’s like easy to get damaged, okay, well, what materials can help enhance that? Okay, we use carbon fiber rather than aluminum. Okay, cool, so, like, that’s something that you could use to like improve products, but not with, like, choosing your suppliers. So, yeah, that’s the way I would look at and that might change, but for now that’s the way it is.

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah, I’m kind of in your boat. There’s definitely some things I use AI for, like this podcast is saving hours of work, and there are some things, even in Helium 10, that I use Helium 10’s AIs for, but I don’t know if I want to say I’m behind the curve, but I’m kind of like waiting until some things are perfected before fully going all in, not just doing it just because it’s the next cool thing to do. All right, well, back to personal things. Well, what’s exciting things on the horizon for you? Like, I know you’re working more with Founder and different things. Talk a little bit about that and, as you know, funny, like I got, you need to tell or get me connected with is it Nate from Founder?

Kian:

Yeah, Nathan, yeah. Nate, Doug Nathan.

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah, small, small world stories. Like you know, people have heard about my first ever Amazon conference I went to. That kind of like changed my trajectory, where I was so poor I could only sleep in a rental car. I couldn’t even do it in hotels in Chicago. A rental car couldn’t even do in a hotel was in Chicago and it was. It was like in 2016, I think, in and it was called the. What was it called? Uh, Zon Squad live and Nathan before he was super, super big. He was actually he was already pretty big, otherwise he wouldn’t have been at the conference, but he was one of the only speakers I remember from that very first conference. I went to and then I saw I was like wait a minute, this guy looks familiar and I talked to him there. I forgot what we talked about, but the whole conference kind of just like changed my whole uh trajectory. Now, he’s a giant in the industry, but what kind of things you’re doing with them and what’s going on there?

Kian:

Yeah, he’s a really, really nice guy. He’s become one of my really good friends, so I’ll definitely connect you. We went on holiday together recently. We went to Japan, went to Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, which is a lot of fun. He also comes to Dubai quite a bit, so we hang out out here.

Kian:

But it was interesting because in 2020, I think, when I started my YouTube channel, founder hit me up and they were like, can you come in and do a product development and supply chain course for us? So I did that quite a number of years ago and then went to Melbourne, went to the studio, did a couple of podcast episodes with founder, with Nathan, and then I interviewed him for my channel and then from there, we just kind of like hit it off, became cool and I had this idea to put on a sourcing and supply chain product development summit, which I felt like I’ve not seen in the industry yet and I want to tackle a lot of different topics in terms of like, how to get the best price, how to find the right suppliers, you know Trump tariffs, AI, you know a lot of things that we talked about. And he was like, okay, cool, well, founder, put on summits all the time. So why don’t Founder like host it? Well, let’s co-host it. Like you, you do the content and you help the speakers and all that sort of stuff. And then we’ve got the big email list, we’ve got the, the Instagram handle and all that sort of stuff, so we’ll like promote it on our side and we’ll collaborate.

Kian:

It’s like cool. So we just put it on about a month ago or a few weeks ago, just as like a test, and we’re gonna do another one and we’re gonna make it bigger and better. So, yeah, founder, are really really cool. They’re very, very credible organization. The Founder Podcast is incredible. They’ve interviewed everyone from Tony Robbins to Gary Vee to Hor Mosey to Ray Dalio all the big names and they’re very, very selective of who they invite on in the podcast as well. I think Nathan has interviewed over 100 billionaires. So it’s all like they only interview founders. Like you have to be a founder of a company to get on the podcast and the value on there incredible so, yeah, it’s such a cool company  to be a part of and also to to be friends with Nathan as well.

Bradley Sutton:

 Love it, love it. How can people find you on the interwebs out there?

Kian:

Like you mentioned your YouTube channel, so I’ll mention it again and and your email for sure, yeah, so Instagram is probably the best place to get to me if you want to just write me a DM. It’s kian_jg. I also got a YouTube channel, Sourcing with Kian. There’s a lot of really cool videos on there and I’m going to record a lot more of this upcoming channel trip. I’m going back out to the Canton Fair soon and I’m developing a lot of resources. I’m also doing something that I’ve never done before, which I haven’t announced yet, for this upcoming Canton Fair, which is going to involve helping a lot of sellers out there. So if you’re interested in that, just hit me up of people’s results in their supply chain. So hopefully I’ll see you out there in the Canton Fair.

Bradley Sutton:

Awesome man and I’m going to go ahead and do something right now. That’s kind of like incentivize bribe. You know, somebody’s funny. For Amazon sellers we can’t incentivize reviews, but I’m trying to do a big push for getting reviews on the podcast. So if you guys might be watching this on YouTube, great, make sure to subscribe and like and things.

Bradley Sutton:

But if you’re not, or you are, go to the Apple podcast player, go to the Spotify and find the place where you leave a review. Just look up Serious Sellers Podcast and this has to do with sourcing, all right, so guys, find, leave a review, take a screenshot and then DM it to me on Instagram. Serious Sellers Podcast say hey, I left a review, like you said, and I will DM you my China sourcing agent. She might be able to help organize things with Canton Fair, but right now that’s illegal to do. On Amazon you can’t be incentivizing reviews, but on Apple and Spotify that should be fine. I’m not trying to pay you, but hey, I’ll just connect you with somebody who can help you in sourcing. But you got to show me you left a review because I want to do this experiment to see what happens when we increase the reviews on the podcast.

Kian:

Bradley, I’ll help you out there as well, right? So I think, anyone who’s got value from this episode, like Bradley said, if you go to Spotify, hit five star if you screenshot that and if you’ve listened to this episode, if you DM me on Instagram and say, like, what you thought of the episode. For everyone that DMs me, I’ll pick one person at random, I’ll give you a free one-on-one 30-minute console and go over your supply chain as well. So make sure you leave a five-star review for the podcast and then DM me what you thought of this episode and we’ll do a one-on-one call.

Bradley Sutton:

Oh, that’s awesome. Thank you so much, Kian, for that, and let’s definitely connect and hopefully maybe when I go to Scotland this year and next year we can hang. Can’t wait, can’t wait awesome.

---

Enjoy this episode? Be sure to check out our previous episodes for even more content to propel you to Amazon FBA Seller success! And don’t forget to “Like” our Facebook page and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you listen to our podcast.

Get snippets from all episodes by following us on Instagram at @SeriousSellersPodcast

Want to absolutely start crushing it on Amazon? Here are few carefully curated resources to get you started:

• Freedom Ticket: Taught by Amazon thought leader Kevin King, get A-Z Amazon strategies and techniques for establishing and solidifying your business.
• Helium 10: 30+ software tools to boost your entire sales pipeline from product research to customer communication and Amazon refund automation. Make running a successful Amazon or Walmart business easier with better data and insights. See what our customers have to say.
• Helium 10 Chrome Extension: Verify your Amazon product idea and validate how lucrative it can be with over a dozen data metrics and profitability estimation.
• SellerTrademarks.com: Trademarks are vital for protecting your Amazon brand from hijackers, and sellertrademarks.com provides a streamlined process for helping you get one.