#652 – Strategies from 10 E-Commerce Pros!

Join us as we bring you a special podcast recording from the Prosper Show in Las Vegas, where we sit down with multiple guests starting with Michael Shaffa, an accomplished Amazon seller who has transformed his company’s e-commerce strategy. Michael shares his journey from selling only a few units per month to achieving $1.2 million in annual sales. Learn how his team harnessed tools like Helium 10 and strategies such as keyword indexing and the Maldives Honeymoon launch strategy to find success. Michael’s story underscores the significance of understanding your target market and adapting your strategies, shifting focus from a general audience to a specialized niche, and leveraging graphic design to create engaging authentic content.

We also explore the role of AI in revolutionizing various aspects of Amazon selling with Kevin King. Discover how AI agents transform customer service, PPC, and product sourcing, potentially automating significant portions of an Amazon seller’s business. As the industry evolves, these technologies promise significant advancements. Additionally, the episode touches on the psychology of marketing and its impact on sales strategies.

At the Prosper Show, we spoke with Vivian Sun, head of business development at Shein Marketplace, about their expanding platform. While Shein is widely known as a D2C fashion brand, it has been developing a marketplace over the past two years, inviting local sellers to offer products beyond clothing. Shein Marketplace now supports a wide range of categories, including beauty, home goods, electronics, and even food and supplements. With a flat 10% fees and flexible fulfillment options, including self-shipping and Amazon MCF, sellers have multiple ways to operate. Interested sellers can sign up through the Shein Marketplace website or connect with Vivian (Wenjia Sun) and her team via LinkedIn.

Finally, we explore effective bidding strategies and the importance of brand awareness in advertising campaigns. With insights from industry veterans, including Bojan Gajic, former CEO and CTO of Helium 10 and now CEO at Avask. You’ll learn the benefits of low bids and branding campaigns. The episode also introduces an upcoming initiative called “Expansion Ticket,” designed to guide sellers in expanding their businesses internationally. As we navigate these strategies and innovations, we emphasize the importance of leveraging expertise and existing knowledge to grow in the competitive e-commerce landscape.

In episode 652 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and his guests discuss:

• 00:00 – Amazon Seller Strategies at Prosper Show
• 05:53 – Smart Showdown
• 06:27 – AI Agents and Shein Marketplace Expansion
• 17:28 – Amazon Success Strategies With Lem Turner
• 17:59 – Amazon Brand Strategies and Advertising Success
• 25:28 – Amazon Expansion Strategies for Growth
• 30:35 – Amazon Seller Success Story
• 35:35 – Keyword Research and UGC Impact

Transcript

 Bradley Sutton:

Today we are interviewing people live here at the Prosper Show. That’s going to give their best strategies, tips, and you’re going to even learn about a marketplace maybe you never thought that you would sell on. 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’m your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show that’s completely BS-free, unscripted and unrehearsed organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world and for those listening just on the radio or on your podcast player, radio. Nobody listens to radios anymore your car radio. But we’re here at the Prosper Show. That’s why I might sound a little bit different. We are recording a live episode. We haven’t done this before. We’re going around to different booths and different just Amazon sellers out there and we’re just interviewing them, asking them what their best tips and strategies are, what they think of their Prosper Show, and I really hope you like this kind of like collection of interviews here. It’s kind of like maybe 10 little mini podcasts in one. So hope you enjoy this episode.

Bradley Sutton:

All right. So next up, we’ve got Michael here. Michael, how long you’ve been selling on Amazon?

Michael Shaffa:

For about three years, three years.

Bradley Sutton:

How did you get your start?

Michael Shaffa:

We had someone in our office who was working in our Amazon division, who was working with a lot of like third party articles and wasn’t really sure like what they were doing, didn’t really dive into a lot of the research and when we noticed some of those things were failing or like that, there was inconsistencies. We took over and I wanted to really understand Amazon from the ground up. So joining Helium 10 was like the first really big resource and especially like the podcast was a really big resource for us.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay, so you were working at a company that sold products, but didn’t really, I mean like offline, I’m assuming, and then, and then they’re just like hey, we need to like get our Amazon game up, or is that how you got it?

Michael Shaffa:

Yeah, exactly. So we had had listings because we represented brands for our other customers and from there it was just that our sales were so low and we really couldn’t get a single ASIN, as it was to move over like three to five pieces in a month, so it was really kind of difficult. So then we wanted to try to focus on optimizing and learning what that was. Learning what indexing was like, pushing our ASINs up because we had really great products but they just weren’t being seen.

Bradley Sutton:

Awesome, awesome. So what were some of the strategies you learned and what were the results? Like you said, you were selling most of the ASINs three pieces a month. What did you get up to after getting some of these strategies implemented?

Michael Shaffa:

So one of the biggest first strategies that we really got into was learning what keywords we’re indexing on the first page and learning how we could push those products up. So we were getting into just, for example, we work with stuffed animals, so a lot of things of specifics for stuffed animals. We had assumed at first that our customer base would be moms, grandmas, grandpas, stuff like that, and the competition has more cuddly looking, lower price products and those are being bought a lot. Those are high conversion rates, but when we use things like X-Ray to find out like how they were selling in the day, then we started to learn that our niche market should be more into like a specialized market. So we started to put on those keywords, we started indexing those keywords and then we really pushed up market. So we started to put on those keywords, we started indexing those keywords and then we really pushed up.

Michael Shaffa:

The second thing that really that really changed for us was the Maldives Honeymoon that you guys talked about on the podcast and it’s. We launched a product and it’s gotten to a point where this product is the factory has to just keep making it and keeping it on standby so that we don’t have to worry about lead time because we constantly run out of stock on it, and it was the first product that I used, using the Maldives Honeymoon Theory and really pushing it higher and higher, and it’s just been a really big success for us. So now we model every new product that we launch after that.

Bradley Sutton:

I love it. Love it. Now fast forward to last year, 2024. What was your total sales on Amazon?

Michael Shaffa:

Our total revenue on Amazon was $1.2 million.

Bradley Sutton:

All right, $1.2 million from selling three units a month on SKUs to 1.2 million Awesome. What’s one unique strategy you guys have? It doesn’t have to be about launch, it could be about advertising, it could be about your packaging, it could be about anything your social media what’s something you think you’re doing that’s kind of unique that you can share with our audience?

Michael Shaffa:

I think for us is we really focus on, because I’m an ex graphic designer, I have a full team of graphic designers, so we really focus on trying to put content out constantly. We really try to add a lot of videos to our ASINs. We try to do a lot of like meta advertising and a lot of like video ads to really push that stuff up. Because showing off the product in different angles and showing it especially like in someone’s hands has been a really big tool for us because it gets to show the buyer that it’s an authentic product, that it’s not like it you know it’s not faked up or it’s Photoshopped to look like something’s different that when they get it they’re disappointed.

Bradley Sutton:

How many conferences like this have you been to?

Michael Shaffa:

This is actually my first.

Bradley Sutton:

What do you think?

Michael Shaffa:

I think it’s great. I was supposed to leave yesterday and then in the middle of walking through here I kind of panicked and booked another room, and now I’m leaving later today.

Bradley Sutton:

So you definitely recommend like hey, Amazon sellers and experts. And or Amazon sellers and service providers, hey, like, come to conferences like this. Do you find more of the value, or what’s the breakdown between, like networking as opposed to talking to people at booths, as opposed to going to the sessions?

Michael Shaffa:

Realistically. For me, it was a lot of the sessions that I was learning a lot of things tips and tricks that I didn’t know, that you learn from. You do the webinars that we do every week, we listen to the podcast and it was like we get a lot of great stuff from that. But it’s different in person to see that there’s really a lot of results that can be made and a lot of the networking that we’ve done here has been really really good for us.

Bradley Sutton:

Outside of the Maldives honeymoon episodes, that that we’ve done podcasts, any special or favorite episodes, like guests, like certain guests that we had, on that you’re like, oh man, I really learned a lot from this person.

Michael Shaffa:

Typically, whenever you do an episode with Shivali, I always really I have like three, four pages of notes, so I really kind of treat it more like a class than just like a side. Listen, love it, love it.

Bradley Sutton:

All right. Well, guys, you heard it here go to conferences, conferences. You get to network and you get to, you know, learn from a really amazing session. It’s kind of like having the best podcast episodes, like back to back to back to back to back that you can take notes from and I’ll be seeing you at a future conference then. Thank you all. Right now you might not recognize him because he doesn’t have the blue shirt on today, but he’s got the pink shirt. This is still Kevin King shirt.

Kevin King:

My speaking, my non-Helium 10 speaking shirt. I’m speaking today.

Bradley Sutton:

What are you talking about?

Kevin King:

What do you think I’m talking about?

Bradley Sutton:

 Ninja hacks, to be exact.

Kevin King:

Ninja hacks, to be exact. Yeah, actually they’re tactics. Actually I’m getting away from the word hacks because hacks are short-lived, so I’m switching it to more tactics, and even at BDSS now you probably noticed, or maybe you did, but don’t call it the hack contest anymore, it’s the smart showdown. So I’m trying to get away from the hacks and more towards legitimate, long-term, lasting content, versus something that just works right now.

Bradley Sutton:

All right. So for those who aren’t here at Prosper, tell us one of the tactics that you are talking about the non-hacks.

Kevin King:

I’m going to show you. Everybody’s always like how do I do product inserts to actually get people on my list? And maybe they do a warranty or they do some sort of offer, so I’m from a VIP club or whatever it may be, and those response rates are super low. I’m going to show you a way to get 70% to 80% of your buyers on Amazon actually to get their email address and their phone number and their mailing address without them even giving it to you, based on your insert card.

Bradley Sutton:

Love it. What about at Billion Dollar Seller Summit? What’s one of the things you’ll be talking about?

Kevin King:

Billion Dollar Seller Summit. My presentation is going to be on the psychology of marketing, similar to the version of what I did at Helium 10 Elite. So if you’re a Helium 10 Elite member, you got a sneak peek of this and, in fact, the Helium 10 Elite members. On the last week we did my monthly roundtable, which is like a little mastermind that we do with me once a month. Bradley does one, Shivali does one and Carrie does one, then once a month I do one.

Kevin King:

They got a sneak peek of two of the hacks that I’m doing today last Thursday before anybody here at Prosper. So all those people that didn’t even make it out to Prosper, they got to see a couple of those hacks on that call. So that’s why you want to be a Helium 10 Elite member. And back to your question. I’m doing the psychology of marketing as my talk, as most of the BDSS people haven’t seen that. Only a few Helium 10 people that were in Seattle have seen it and I’ve since modified it and added a lot of cool stuff to it and I’m going to be talking about how AI and agents and all that kind of stuff is going to be impacting everybody in the next couple of years as well.

Bradley Sutton:

What do you think is like? Let’s say, there’s somebody who wants to do their first AI agent. What aspect of an Amazon seller’s business do you think can be helped most? Once this whole AI agent thing is kind of like a little bit more hashed out, what would you design it to do? What aspect is the most replaceable by an AI agent?

Kevin King:

Customer service is the most replaceable, that’s the easiest one right away. That’s the most replaceable. A lot of PPC agency stuff, the monitoring and the report building, the VA type of stuff where they’re doing all kinds of spreadsheets and everything that’s easily replaceable. The product sourcing, the product opportunity I think those are going to be big. I think there’s eight big agents that you’re going to see. Right now we’re kind of in that middle ground. It’s Makecom, automations or N8N. They’re the two big softwares that a lot of people are using. But there’s still kind of that if-then-else, that old programming way. But they’re good. But you’re going to get to where these are totally autonomous and when you do that, you’re going to have a Helium 10 agent that mimics you. You’re going to have a Helium 10 agent that mimics Alibaba. And there’s this new language I think it’s called MFQ or MQF or something that basically opens up an API so all these different systems can talk to an agent that you develop that does product sourcing. So the product agent will go out, it’ll use Helium 10 data, look for opportunities. They’ll go read all the reviews or go read. I’ll do all kinds of market analysis, avatar analysis, and I’ll come back and say we need to make this spatula with a green handle and I don’t know, a wider hole or whatever it is, it’s hot. That will automatically go to Alibaba agent and I’ll buy a bitch will. Oh, we have these seven factories that can do it. What changes do you want to make? And the other agent said AI agent will do oh, we need the design to look like this. And it’ll use, you know, kind of like the mid journey kind of thing and say we need to look like this. The other agent will say okay, this is what we’re doing. Here’s the pricing, here’s the materials. Yes, I want to do it. Then another agent will take it over. It will go out and do all the PPC, it’ll set up all the launches, all that kind of stuff.

Kevin King:

I think you see all these agents working together and this is not this year. There’s crude versions of it this year and little stand-ons, but I think in the next five years Prosper 2030, there’s going to be a whole different animal. I just saw Abe talking about. I just saw a brief talk. He’s talking about how to make the most of Prosper and he showed something from 2017. He said look at all the sponsors at Prosper in 2017. There’s not a single software company. No Helium 10s, no PPC agencies he said I’m looking at it in 2025, there’s like 19 of them sponsoring. Same thing’s going to happen. You can see this shift. You can see the shift in the whole industry and I think Helium 10, you know, you guys are on some of the cutting edge of some of that and staying on top of it. So I think it’s going to be interesting times as a seller?

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah, absolutely, this episode’s going out Saturday. Any spots left in Billion Dollar Seller Summit in Iceland?

Kevin King:

I’ve got a few spots, but it’s last minute, you know, to make that kind of trip and to get all the way to Iceland. A lot of people are like, oh, I’d love to be there but I can’t. You’re welcome to come, billiondollarsellersummit.com. But here’s the cool thing I’m live streaming it and this is not just like some Zoom call live stream. I have a team coming in from Europe, professional live streamers, television guys that are actually going to live stream both Elevate. Here’s the cool part. I know you haven’t been able to make it to a Market Masters yet, but so if you buy, you can buy just BDSS, you can buy just Elevate 360, but I’ve got like Daryl Ives, the guy that made Mr. Beast famous, showing the algorithm how to do everything on YouTube and crush it with your Amazon sales, just as an example. You can do buy that one or you can buy them both together and save like $500.

Kevin King:

And then you get all 34 of these videos that I’ve done at Market Masters of the experts there. They’ve gone into a room. Nobody’s really seen these videos. They go into a room. They record a 10-minute actionable video, almost like an in-depth hack, for lack of a better word. Those have not been released. Nobody saw them. At Market Masters you get those for free and there’s some really cool stuff in there, so you can. You can do that at billiondollarsellerslive L-I-V-E billiondollarsellerslive L-I-V-E.

Bradley Sutton:

Awesome. Awesome. All right. Well, I’ll be seeing you a few days in Iceland and maybe you guys. Now next up we’ve got a marketplace maybe you haven’t sold on or don’t know too much about other than buying. It’s wait. Now, first of all, what is the correct pronunciation? Is it Shein, Shein, Shein, Shein? Okay, guys, it’s almost like a little two-syllable thing there. I like it. What’s your name and what department do you work in?

Wenjia Sun:

So I’m Vivian, I’m the head of business development of our Shein Marketplace.

Bradley Sutton:

Now you are here at the Prosper Show. You know the Prosper Show is not just Amazon. You know we have a lot of different marketplaces here, but what inspired you guys to have such a really nice, cool booth here at a show that maybe predominantly has been about for Amazon sellers?

Wenjia Sun:

Well, since we’re a Shein marketplace, right, so we also because a lot of people know in Shein we’re a D2C brand right, like selling clothing right, but, like since two years ago, we’re starting to launch our marketplace to inviting the local business, local sellers, to join on the marketplace to sell the product that Shein does not make. So that’s the main purpose we’re here to, you know, talking to the sellers who want to open up different channels, you know, gaining like more brand awareness to their brand because, definitely, Shein, we have all the younger generation on our website. If people knowing, like a majority of our customer, are from like Gen Z and the millennial, so it’s kind of like quite different demographic compared to Amazon. So that’s why we’re here.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay, now I think you know I’ve never bought from Shein but I know like it’ll come up in search a lot, and mainly for, like you know, clothing category. Is that the main thing you guys do, or you have all categories that pretty much any other marketplace would have, or do you just have like you’re trying to just focus on a few?

Wenjia Sun:

We actually have all the categories right now. Yeah, we actually opened up our supplement last year and then we recently opened our food and beverage as well. So Shein, we’re popular for fashion apparel, but that’s for our own first party business. But for our Shein marketplace, we’re inviting, like all categories sellers to sell on Shein, including beauty, personal care, home living, you know, home living including like sweet, you know, like a 3C, electronic, automotive, pet supplies, everything, yeah, and also like a fashion apparel seller, they also can sell on Shein as well.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay. How does like the referral system work? Like you know, like you know, Amazon, there’s like 15%. Every platform has TikTok has certain percentage. Is there a set percentage? That’s like the I don’t know what you call it commission referral fee. For if I’m selling on Shein and making a sale, how much do I give to Shein?

Wenjia Sun:

Got it? Yeah, so currently Shein, we only charge 10% flat rate for all categories, and then for the 3C electronic, we charge 8%.

Bradley Sutton:

And then do I have to ship it myself, or can I use programs like you know, multi-channel fulfillment from? If I have inventory in Amazon, can I fulfill my Shein orders with that, or I have to ship everything by myself.

Wenjia Sun:

Well, actually both. So this model is self-fulfillment. So basically, the seller is going to do the dropship and also the seller can partner with 3PL fulfillment partners or MCF from Amazon as well.

Bradley Sutton:

There’s currently no like Shein fulfillment.

Wenjia Sun:

We do have, but right now, since we’re also having a lot of inventory to our warehouse, so we’re kind of like a how to say like not having that many capacity for additional sellers to putting their inventory to our warehouse, but we do have our machine fulfillment service. Once that’s ready, we will invite all our sellers to join our program as well.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay, and so if one of our listeners is kind of like, hey, this seems like a platform I want to sell on, how can they sign up?

Wenjia Sun:

So basically that’s my team. So if they are interested they can definitely reach out to. First of all, we have a Shein Marketplace website so they can register through the Shein Marketplace website or they can connect with one of our BD person, you know, on LinkedIn or just connect directly with me so I can allocate those sellers, based on their categories, to the correct team.

Bradley Sutton:

Is the best way to reach out to you email or LinkedIn, or-

Wenjia Sun:

Both way. My LinkedIn is Wenjia W-E-N-J-I-A and the last name is Sun S-U-N.

Bradley Sutton:

Perfect, perfect. All right, so I might have to consider moving my some of my products is just to test out this platform. But if you guys are interested in more information, now you have the contact information and let’s see, maybe by next year you guys will be selling on this platform too.

Wenjia Sun:

Thank you.

Bradley Sutton:

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Bradley Sutton:

Back here and now we’ve got a familiar face from older videos at Helium, so we got Lem in the house. Lem, what are you doing these days in the Amazon world?

Lem Turner:

Right now, I’m just a private label seller working for myself. My brother’s working with me right now but living a life being an Amazon seller, but looking to expand to other channels and that’s a big focus right now.

Bradley Sutton:

Is Amazon still like your main income? You got other side jobs.

Lem Turner:

Yeah, Amazon’s still the main income, but looking to expand into Walmart. Thanks to Carrie and her amazing presentation, I’m getting a little bit more into TikTok shop as well.

Bradley Sutton:

Awesome, awesome. Now what has been? You know like, when you were working in the industry, more like, you had to kind of like had your Amazon, maybe take a little bit to the backseat. So we’re to the point where probably it couldn’t have sustained you as a main income, especially now that you’re your family of three now, yeah, family three. So then what do you do in the last couple of years to kind of like revitalize your Amazon business to get to the point that it is like your sole income? Now it is like your sole income.

Lem Turner:

It is time management and prioritization, for sure, but also trying to think of creative ways to bring in extra capital to try to dedicate that towards the business. I did have a job at an agency for a little bit, so that helped me for sure. Bring in extra capital to dedicate towards the business to a point to where the side hustle has to become the main hustle, because it takes too much time away from my hands, which is a good problem to have.

Bradley Sutton:

Now back in the day, a lot of your big successes with Amazon, kind of like in the wholesale slash arbitrage model. Are you doing a private label now, mainly?

Lem Turner:

Yeah, just private label now. But I still think retail arbitrage wholesale is a great way to get started in the Amazon space with little capital, less than private label.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay, now, what is a unique strategy you think you’re doing, either for launch or for optimization, because, again, you’re not a new seller per se, but the fact that you were able to grow fast, basically your own brand, which you hadn’t done before, it’s almost like the same path a new seller would do, so you were kind of like in the same boat. So there’s this kind of narrative sometimes that goes out there like, oh my goodness, it’s too late to start a brand on Amazon. You obviously have, you know, in the last couple years. So what’s a couple store, one or two strategies that somewhat unique, not just, oh, I manage my ACOS, but something that is something that that’s the reason for the secret sauce here some of your success it’s definitely understanding consumer behavior and matching buyer intent.

Lem Turner:

I think buyer intent is very underrated and so if somebody’s looking for, let’s’s say, ball jars for a wedding, then I’m only showing wedding-specific creative in my ads. If they’re looking for big red wagon for multiple kids, you want to have multiple kids in your creative. So matching your creative to the specific keywords and having very specific campaigns for that. So instead of having like 30 keywords in one campaign, maybe have three very specific keywords in one specific campaign and matching that with your sponsor products, sponsor brands and sponsor display advertising.

Bradley Sutton:

Love it, all right. Well, there you have it, guys. It’s not too late. I mean, Lem has created a sustaining job for himself with the Amazon brands private label 2025. You guys can still do it out there. Thanks a lot, Lem.

Lem Turner:

Yeah, no problem.

Bradley Sutton:

All right, so next up, somebody I’ve known from the very one of the very first events I think I went to, like ASGTG. We might have met and see you pretty much probably like about 15 events right now. How did you get your start in e-commerce?

Isaac Gross:

So I started selling on Amazon I would say in the gold rush. That was around 2015. Then I saw the need for a white glove PPC agency. Our specialty is that we have US-based account managers, so we started the agency around 2019. But I think I was one of the very first. Helium 10 users Still listen to many codes of the AMPM podcast. Yeah, that was great times, Awesome, and you when did you start in e-commerce?

Mike Frekey:

I got my start in e-commerce back in 2016, doing agency work. Then, around COVID, I made the leap over into the aggregator space, where I was head of advertising for Perch.

Bradley Sutton:

Things have come full circle. Obviously, things in 20, that’s hard to I can’t believe we’re saying it, that’s 10 years ago Things that, from 2015, are very different than 2025. And of course, you know there’s this sentiment sometimes that’s out there that, hey, new brands, it’s a lot harder to, you know, get started on Amazon, which is true. But what I would push back on is, like some people are saying, oh, it’s kind of impossible unless you’ve got, you know, humongous budgets and stuff like that. But I still see people having success as new brands, even like the mom-and-pops out there. What about you like 2025? Yes, it’s more difficult than 2015, but do you think it’s like impossible to just start as a mom-and-pop brand on Amazon now?

Isaac Gross:

So I love the question because I get this question a lot. So, hundred percent 2015. Things were way easier, but we have a client that started selling on Amazon around the year ago. They will be doing over $1.5 million on sales this year. So, as you said, it’s definitely harder but it’s doable and with the right strategy, you do need to have some kind of funds. I don’t think it’s possible to start a real legitimate Amazon business with $5,000 anymore. I started my business with $5,000. You cannot do it in 2025, but you don’t need to have crazy funding. I think with $50,000 to $100,000, you can start an Amazon business today and be very successful, but it’s harder and you have to be way more sophisticated.

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah, absolutely agreed. Now to close it out what’s a 60-second strategy? Something unique that you think in your businesses or at your agency you do, that you feel comfortable sharing with our audience out there.

Isaac Gross:

So I’m not sure about something unique, but what we do a lot is we use brand analytics and search query performance to track market share of specific keywords. I think it’s one of the most underutilized tools. Amazon gives us first-party data and you can see on a keyword, how you’re converting, how your competitor is doing on that specific keyword, what’s your market share, and we use that a lot, specifically when it comes to should we spend more on this keyword or we’re max, we’re maxed out and there’s no much. We can’t have more market share on this specific keyword. So I would say, make sure to utilize first grade performance to your best. We do that at IGPBC.

Mike Frekey:

All right, 60 seconds stretch. I’ll piggyback off of this. From my perspective, you need to know when not to spend. I think most agencies are probably going to tell you oh, you just always understand how competitive you are in your market. So, again, using the brand analytics data, we like to understand what is your conversion rate relative to the market, what is your revenue per click relative to the market? And if you’re not winning in either of those capabilities, we need to actually go back to the drawing board. Don’t spend more money on advertising and see can we reinvest that into the product itself.

Bradley Sutton:

Awesome, awesome. So if people want to reach out for more questions to Isaac, you can see his. So if people want to reach out for more questions to Isaac, you can see. He has his initials in his brand name here IGPBC. I need to do that something. We couldn’t do that with Helium 10, because then it would be BS, helium 10. My initials are not good for that, but if you see him at a conference and you don’t say hi, he’ll kick you in the shins, as you can see here. This is what happened right here. So make sure to say hi to Isaac. Make sure to say hi to Isaac when you see him at conferences. Alright, we’ll see you guys next time.

 Bradley Sutton:

Alright, we’re here at Prosper and yesterday I had the occasion to meet Gabriel here. Gabriel, how long have you been selling on Amazon?

Gabriel Thornton:

I’d say about seven years. Seven years. How did you get your start? Helium 10. So I did essentially use Helium 10 a lot to get started, but I started with private label. My first product was the iPhone 10 screen protector and I learned the whole business from start to finish. So Helium 10 was a part of that journey. When I started, Awesome.

Bradley Sutton:

Were you like a freedom ticket, project X or just basically the?

Gabriel Thornton:

tools. So I definitely had a subscription. It was just the cheapest one because I was extremely bootstrapped, but I would watch podcasts I don’t know at that time if it was how big it was or it was in 2017, but I would just watch you, your content, whatever y’all were putting out. Just understanding what I call Amazon theory, just understanding how to live, and Amazon theory like just understanding how to live and survive, like you were definitely a pivotal part of that.

Bradley Sutton:

Awesome, awesome. Now are you still selling on Amazon. Are you just a consultant now agency, or are you doing both?

Gabriel Thornton:

Yeah. So, as you could probably assume, if you start a screen protector as your first product, that’s a terrible product. So eventually I ended up and that’s where I found my success. So I worked for the largest advertising agency in America or private advertising agency in America and then recently left to plant a church. So now I actually work for myself and you know all of the, all the tools I’ve learned and all of the whole journey has made me such a great advertiser now. So now I just focus on advertising.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay, what’s the best advertising strategy that you implement in your business when you help other businesses that you can maybe share with our listeners out there?

Gabriel Thornton:

Yeah, I would say something I still do not see enough are nickel autos. So, essentially, if you do an auto campaign and you run them on nickel, so every single targeting there’s four of them in there run them as a nickel. Don’t just do that, because it’s going to get very low impressions and it’s going to show very seldomly. But what happens is eventually you do get some clicks. It only really works when your category is not very popular or not very crowded. So, for example, I’m with Omega brand right now and that does not work with them. But, however, I was in a brand that was very expensive. It was actually with home improvement tools like leaf blowers, string trimmers, edgers. It worked for them very well. They had ROAS of like 100 most of the time. So don’t just run a nickel, run a regular auto as well.

Bradley Sutton:

Like what kind of, still at a low bid, or-

Gabriel Thornton:

Or for the second one, if you want to like, just do a nickel and then do suggested bid and do a high bid. But that’s very just up to you. It’s not really. It’s a very creative process. So I’m not going to say don’t do, but I would say the nickel is very, very like. Why would you not do a nickel? It’s almost like if your brand is okay with brand awareness, why would you not do branding campaigns? Those are the absolute easiest to win.

Bradley Sutton:

And by nickel he means five cents, I believe, for all you guys out there who might not be from this country don’t know what that means.

Gabriel Thornton:

Yeah, so Bradley has international presence, so I’m not as cultured, I’m sorry. But yes, nickels, I would say you know that’s my number one. You know I’ll leave it at that, unless you want to go deeper.

Bradley Sutton:

All right, that sounds good. All right, well, have a safe flight back to the home. How was this prosper for you, though? Like did you learn a few things?

Gabriel Thornton:

Yeah, I would say that for me, being in the business for seven to eight years now, it’s kind of a golden. I know a lot but I try to find those golden nuggets and I think I got a lot. So overall I think I’d come back next year to find more golden nuggets. 

Bradley Sutton:

Awesome, awesome. It was nice to meet you and we’ll see you later

Gabriel Thornton:

Thank you. All right.

Bradley Sutton:

So now we’ve got uh, no stranger to the show, uh, former ceo and cto of helium 10, now ceo of us, we’ve got Bojan. Bojan, how many Prospers is this for you?

Bojan Gajic:

Six. I started 2018. There’s one or two that we missed. Right, we were supposed to be here at 2020 and then call it happened, so we missed that one, but it’s been, it’s been, it’s been. Quite a ride, like a string of events.

Bradley Sutton:

Most memorable prosper moment? Is it hugging Mark MMcGrath and introducing him on stage at the house.

Bojan Gajic:

That was what like 2021, 2022. Man, people are still talking about that. That was awesome. I would say amazing, but then there’s another brand out there. No, it was wonderful. Yeah, so there were a lot of things that happened here. 

Bradley Sutton:

Awesome, awesome. So now we’re gonna have something really cool in the next few weeks that’s gonna come out for all you Freedom Ticket members, something called expansion ticket. Now, this was an idea that mainly Boyan’s, but I also had some tips into it. But why was this necessary? Why is it important to make this expansion ticket? What did you see as the need of now, in 2025, why sellers need this kind of education?

Bojan Gajic:

But to grow your business once you get past the proof of concept. You found a product, you found your category, you found your niche. Now you want to expand. You can spend more money on advertising. There’s only so much money you can afford to spend there. You’ll continue your product innovation. You’ll go multi-channels. You go to Walmart, you go to I don’t know like Sephora if you’re in duty, whatever it is but inevitably you get to the point where you need to expand your total addressable market. You need more eyeballs, you need more people buying your stuff. So you go across border. Expanding across border is a clear opportunity. The US is really competitive market. Yes, there is 300 million people. There’s a lot of purchasing power, highly competitive market.

Bojan Gajic:

So when you look at adjacent markets, you have an opportunity to sort of leverage expertise leverage what you already achieved, repackage it and find new margins and new opportunities internationally. You know Amazon, you know human psychology, you know what works, what doesn’t work. Now you just need to find a way to bring it to a new market in a localized fashion. So the whole idea of expansion ticket is like here’s your SOP, here’s the blueprint you ideated. You went to Freedom Ticket. You learned how to do things in domestic market, probably dot com. But now like, where do you go next? Yeah, you could go out and try to figure it out on your own. But why Helium 10 exists, why Avask exists, why are we in this business? Is to help you be successful, because with you being successful we get more successful. So it’s our selfish but it’s our win-win. That’s the whole point.

Bradley Sutton:

Awesome. Yeah, I think people understand the importance where it’s not like 2016, 2017, you just sell on com or you’re in Germany. You’re just selling in Germany, you’re good to go. You got to diversify where you’re selling in different marketplaces, even within Amazon. It’s not just about expanding to Walmart and TikTok, which I think everybody understands is a good thing, but the most no-brainer expansion is within Amazon’s own ecosystem Use the same ASINs and everything, but in each marketplace there’s different things, there’s different compliance issues, and that’s where Avask comes in and they help with that and they also help with this course, so that you guys can do as much of it you can on your own until you need a company’s help, like Avask. Now, a lot of people from your booth were wearing these superhero capes, but this is your superhero all day. You’re one of those superheroes that doesn’t need the cape.

Bojan Gajic:

It’s spring, springtime, so Avask. The tagline is approachable authority. And then, I guess, marketing team went overboard. They thought superheroes and cartoons would be fun and approachable, so they made us approachable. Not sure how much authorityitative we look in those caves, but no, it’s like we are in the business. We are part of the community. We live and breathe with people that we support and service. We also want to make it fun.

Bradley Sutton:

Absolutely, and that’s definitely what Amazon is all about. You know, it’s not just a boring accounting job. Oh, no, wait, wait, wait, a wait, wait. I’m talking about accounting job. I’m sorry, sorry about that. Anyways, all right, guys. So, thank you very much, boy, and be looking out for expansion ticket coming to Freedom Ticket in the next uh few months and we’ll bring you back uh later, and some of your team maybe, to talk more about the program.

Bojan Gajic:

Sure. Love that. Good luck.

Bradley Sutton:

So we’re here now, walking the floor, and I came to Kevin’s Billion Dollar Summit ooth and somebody I met in. Where did we meet Korea originally?

Nafiseh Razavi:

South Korea, yeah.

Bradley Sutton:

And now you’re helping Kevin out with the Billion Dollar Summit.

Nafiseh Razavi:

Exactly yeah, Just showcasing the events and letting everybody know about the newsletter.

Bradley Sutton:

Awesome. Now are you selling on Amazon yourself?

Nafiseh Razavi:

I am. I’m a seller.

Bradley Sutton:

When did you start?

Nafiseh Razavi:

Two years now.

Bradley Sutton:

How did you learn how to sell? How did you discover the opportunity to get into e-commerce?

Nafiseh Razavi:

Through friends, really, that were already in the industry and I needed something for myself, so it’s kind of just happened.

Bradley Sutton:

Are you still selling your very first product?

Nafiseh Razavi:

I’m still selling my very first product, yeah.

Bradley Sutton:

Well that’s good. I mean, I mean, like most people fail with their first product, but that means that you must have had success with your first launch.

Nafiseh Razavi:

Yeah, I guess I’ve been blessed, but my first product is my best-selling one.

Bradley Sutton:

For you, is Amazon like your main source of income? Is it a side source of income? What does selling on Amazon mean to you?

Nafiseh Razavi:

It’s becoming my main source more and more. Of course, I’m still two years in, so I can’t take money out of the company as much, so I have stuff, but mostly I’m putting more and more energy into amazon every day.

Bradley Sutton:

Are you using Helium 10 yet?

Nafiseh Razavi:

I’m not.

Bradley Sutton:

See. We don’t interview just people who just use Helium 10. Now, the fact she says she’s not that means nobody’s perfect. That’s all right, but what is something that you think you need help with on Amazon, just in general?

Nafiseh Razavi:

You know what, now that you say it, my, my agency does use Helium 10.

Bradley Sutton:

And they’re doing stuff on your account.

Nafiseh Razavi:

So my agency is using you guys. I don’t have the means to because I’m not running the PPCs and the account.

Bradley Sutton:

We’ll find somebody who’s not using Helium 10 somewhere out here. But what kind of sales are you doing yearly these days?

Nafiseh Razavi:

We just hit around 35 a month.

Bradley Sutton:

Well, you know $300,000 to $500,000 a year. That’s pretty good.

Nafiseh Razavi:

That’s a good hire, of course.

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah, excellent, excellent. What’s some strategies that you’re using that you think is something unique? It doesn’t have to be necessarily even about Amazon. It could be maybe if you’re doing social media, or your packaging, or how you pick products to sell.

Nafiseh Razavi:

Picking products. I really just I create my own products. So I try to do some market research and put few products into one. That way the customer is getting more. And then another thing that I guess I’ve been doing, so kind of like bundling different products. Bundling different products in one product, so recreating and also I become the face of my brand and I’m I try to showcase the product in a very casual, not so much pushy, salesy method.

Bradley Sutton:

But yeah, that way okay, I love it, I love it. All right. So you’re not sure if you’re going to be a billion dollar summit next, next week, but I’m sure I’ll be seeing you somewhere in the world, are you sure?

Nafiseh Razavi:

I will be. Actually I will be in Iceland at Billion Dollar Summit.

Bradley Sutton:

All right. Well, guys, if you want to find out more about her journey, go to Billion Dollar Summit next week in Iceland.

Nafiseh Razavi:

Yeah, or come to Iceland.

Bradley Sutton:

Now we’re here at the AZ Rank. We’ve had various ones from AZRank on our podcast before, like Koston, Alina and now the other partner I’ve met before in Singapore and other places. We’ve got Bogdan here. How’s it going?

Bogdan Costache:

It’s going great. Thank you for having me. What is something like some people, the way that AZRank used to be. Back in the day, I used AZRank, too, for launches and search, find, buys and rebates when those things were allowed by Amazon right, but obviously since not 2025, but even back in 2023, those things you can’t do anymore. So how is a company like, how did you guys adapt and how are you managing launching products now in a world where you’re not supposed to do rebates and search, find, buy, two-step URL, things like that?

Bogdan Costache:

Well, right now we have many services. Right now we are doing a lot of surveys, meaning for keywords, for the buyers, we have a photo live and we have also press release. So we improve a little bit and have much more services.

Bradley Sutton:

How do these specifically help with launch? Then? What is what you’re doing affecting launch more than just like oh hey, I’m just optimizing my list. How does it boost somebody up from just not using those services? So?

Bogdan Costache:

Let’s say, from the survey part, the sellers will receive very valuable information. So one of the best questions the buyers will respond if you see this product, on what keyword you search for, for example. So the information comes from the real buyers. Photo. You will receive photo and videos from the real buyers and also you will have the press release that you will have presence in different magazines, articles in magazines and from that part you will receive an external traffic.

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah, so that’s an interesting point because it’s still you can get people to search for a product and find. But you’re not like going against the terms, because you’re not trying to manipulate the rank, it’s just something that naturally happens. Like you do a questionnaire and say, hey, what keyword would you search to find this? It’s probably wouldn’t be one of your main keywords and if it’s not, you got a problem. You learned about a problem, like you were maybe focusing on the wrong keyword, but it’s going to have also effects, especially in the honeymoon period, potentially on your relevancy and your rank for that keyword. So that’s interesting. I like about the UGC too. So, guys, they’re still around, just because rebates and search, find, buy is gone. Az Rank is still helping people to launch and we’ll have Alina back on the show, you know, sometime this year. Talk more. But thanks, bogdan, for helping us out.

Bogdan Costache:

Thank you so much for having me and good luck to all of us.

Bradley Sutton:

Awesome, awesome.

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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.