It’s been a while between blog posts for me, my sincere apologies for being so quiet on the blogging front, but I’ve been super busy working on my own products and brands, but I decided its time to provide a marketing update and share some of the things I’ve been learning and hopefully help in some way.
I started making my own brands via private labeling about 18 months ago now, when Google started causing all sorts of problems for SEO websites, and all I can say is boy am I glad I did, as the results are incredible and the scope is huge for online ecommerce, and this is what I want to cover in this post
I’ve discussed this in a few previous, post here: Private Label Products and also here Creating Your Own Brand. However in this post I want to discuss the opportunity there is right now for ecommerce, and why it’s somewhat wide open for physical product marketing online compared to saturated business models like ebooks.
Surely Ecommerce is Saturated Right?
The short answer is HECK NO! Most people have a false assumption that ecommerce must be flooded by now and too late to get into, and to be honest I don’t care so much when I hear people say that, as they clearly have no idea what they’re talking about and it means there’s more money for me to be made while they miss out.
This year ecommerce sales topped 1.2 TRILLION dollars, which is a massive 19% increase from 2012. If that figure doesn’t shock you then you might want to read that again. But here’s where it gets interesting, did you know that despite all this growth online, that figure still only represents approximately 10% of total retail, in some markets it is actually less. Simply put, the vast majority of retail is still done offline!!
(Image from CaptureCommerce.com)
What does this mean for online entrepreneurs like you and I? It means we are at the start of the ecommerce wave, we’re only getting warmed up.
Are you too late? I don’t think so, quite the opposite, there’s plenty of room for great ecommerce businesses. In fact due to the growth of the entire online shopping market, you could have an ecommerce business, and once making money, you could potentially do nothing and still grow each year by a minimum of 10%.
It’s Only Going to Get Easier
As technology gets better and more accessible for more folks, and mobile devices improve, online shopping is only going to get easier which will further drive the growth.
Furthermore operational costs for online retail are also coming down as new and more efficient systems for couriers, inventory management and distribution develop. The brick and mortar style business will continue to experience more and more pounding from online retail and it’s not going to stop anytime soon.
The way I see it folks is if you don’t get into ecommerce now your children and grand children will be wanting to know why you missed the online ecommerce gold rush, so grab your slice now I say!
What’s the Best Way to Get into Ecommerce?
In my opinion there are a few great ways to get into this ecommerce boom. The first is dropshipping, the second is selling on Amazon via private labeling or on your own store too.
Dropshipping
I discussed dropshipping before in previous posts here: For Those Who Don’t Like Stock, but to give you a quick overview, this is where you set up an ecommerce store but you don’t buy any stock that to warehouse yourself or do any of the shipping and handling. Instead you list products for sale on your store and when you make sales you send the orders over to your supplier and they ship direct to your customer for you. You obviously pay the supplier, but at wholesale prices and the customer who bought the product off your site paid retail.
Dropshipping has many benefits, the main ones being no stock, no shipping, no capitol investment, easy to scale fast and best of all 100% digital, so you can work from anywhere in the world, even if you need a phone line as you can redirect these via skype or to a mobile phone, or take all support via email or a ticketing system instead.
Private Labeling
I’ve talked about this a lot recently so you might want to read a previous post on the topic here: Private Label Products. I’ve experiencing considerable success doing this now, and am focusing on this even more moving forward. Private Labeling is brilliant as you can have your own product to market, and not have any of the restrictions that selling another companies brand sometimes comes with. You set the price, you design the brand, you call the shots!!
You can sell your own private label products on Amazon, which is a huge buzz right now, and for good reason as its works incredibly well. I got my own younger brother into this and after 6 months from starting from scratch and while working a full time day job he’s now doing on average 40-50 sales a day!! Needless to say he’s pretty happy with that result!
When selling on Amazon you really are crazy not to take advantage of the Amazon FBA (fulfillment by Amazon) service, as its world class and means you can scale fast and effortlessly. You can, and I do, sell my own private label brand on my own online ecommerce store also, and it works well, especially if you use 3rd party logistics.
To summarize folks, physical product selling via ecommerce is only at the beginning of the boom phase and there is plenty of room for everyone currently. There will come a day when things saturate out, but that day is still a long way off yet!
I will be blogging more about physical product selling moving forward as it is now where I heavily focus, so plenty to come.
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Actually Matt, it’s so incredibly lucrative, and so many ways for IMers to unearth new ways/avenues of revenue with physical products. Mind boggling.
I guess while we follow blindly, stumbling around the IM space,
we don’t often see what’s right under our noses!!
It’s simple yet brilliant all in one, I for one will be following your posts closely on this subject – thanks a mill..
Great, Matt!
I’m also trying with Amazon FBA.
When you do something for first time, it’s hard to take decisions related on spending money (this is my case).
So, I’m about to purchase my first inventory, but I’m struggling a lot with finding the right supplier for my private labelled product.
In your opinion, which of these 2 options is better:
1). Purchasing low number of items –> 0 to low profit, but I will learn more before purchase higher amount of inventory.
2). Purchasing higher amount of items and ship them to Amazon’s FBA centers and then just trying to focus on increasing the sales with time – risk is a bit higher, but there are higher margins and profits.
Thank you!
Matt Carter Reply:
November 6th, 2013 at 10:42 am
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Hi Mitko, nothing wrong with delaying profit will you test things out, I have done that, but I would say use FBA as soon as you can.
keep it coming Matt ,can you blog more about the 3rd party logistics,would like to know more andabout the plr where do we get this done can you gives us some clues,thanks Matt ,Mal
Matt Carter Reply:
November 6th, 2013 at 10:41 am
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sure I can do a post of 3rd party logistics, I will note that down, any other topics just let me know. As for sourcing I use lots of means, Alibaba being one main one
Hey Matt,
Another Crazy article! yea I’m also looking forward to make my own PLR products. But I’m little bit confused while researching the products. Which product should work better? What do you think. I’m moving for little in size and low cost products. But while researching them got tons of product which are already popular with their brand name. That’s why I’m confused. Can you explain how do you research yourself? You do you minimize the competition level ? Cheers Matt!!
Matt Carter Reply:
November 6th, 2013 at 10:40 am
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Its too hard to answer in a blog post reply, but I look for opportunities where I know I can compete and I aim for repeat sales potential if possible and price point of $15-30
Hi Steve,
I noticed in Amazon FBA program you need to have a USA bank account otherwise you can not get paid. Is there a way around this for people not in US or the small list of other countries they allow? I am in New Zealand.
Thanks
Matt Carter Reply:
November 6th, 2013 at 10:39 am
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Payoneer solves that
Thanks for this very informative article, Matt! I have thought about an e-commerce site but put it on the back burner while completing other projects. Your article today helped to remind me of why I got interested in it before and I’m committed to getting my site up ASAP! Thanks again for this awesome post and I look forward to the next one!
I always enjoy reading your blogs. Thanks for the information on Amazon private label products. I have been selling in Amazon for almost 6 years now. Never heard of Private labels before. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I really appreciate all the things you do!
Hey Matt,
will you be having a course to show what you are actually doing?
I know you were promoting another course weeks back but that was just way over budget for a lot of us.
Thanks
What do you think about Amazon Web Store as a platform for your ecommerce? And then either fulfil yourself, or let them.
Great post Matt! Posts like this is why you are one of the three IM lists I still subscribe to.
I also recently got involved with private labeling and FBA, and had my best sales day just on this past Friday. Still no where near the big leagues, but none the less incredibly encouraging!
On another note, are you going to the ASM live event in January? I just booked the trip and am looking forward to it!
Matt
Hey Matt
Thanks for sharing what your up to these days. Are you having any troubles ranking your eCommerce sites in Google? Your an SEO whizz so any advice would be helpful. Whats the difference between ranking these type of sites as opposed to ranking affiliate sites?
Ive got a few eCommerce sites but Google’s not showing me any love. Maybe your next blog post could be on SEOing eCommerce websites.
Thanks
Naaman
Matt Carter Reply:
November 6th, 2013 at 8:34 pm
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Hi Naaman, put it this way, I don’t bother do any SEO these days on Affiliate websites.
Hi Matt,
I also have started into e-commerce with some webshops. I would like to tip your readers about mixing up the business models, selling your products as a dropshipper together with keeping (some) stock of items with good margens.
Have a nice day,
Ewald.
Hi Matt
I have just ordered my first consignment to go to FBA its not private label but it is a toy and I’m trialing this method for Christmas
Matt, I have followed you for years and bought several of your products over those years but like you, I am so excited about FBA and white-labeling your own products.
I am so sick of Google’s constantly changing everything, and usually not for the good.
As a local SEO company I am also tired of trying to convince clueless business owners of what our services could mean to their businesses bottom-line.
This new Amazon FBA private-labeling opportunity is amazingly refreshing to know that it’s possible for me to be rid of all that BS once and for all.
The only thing you need to do with this is, let Amazon be YOUR affiliate through FBA and private-labeling, and make sure YOUR product is always in inventory, brilliant, I love it!
My wife and I are having our first shipment sent to FBA as I write, needless to say we are pumped.
She has been after me for years to get in front of the people who are already spending millions everyday online buying stuff.
I wish I would have listened to her years ago, but at least we are on the right track now, and we are extremely excited about our new opportunity.
Also another thing that gives me total confidence about doing this is the fact that, with all that you have done and gone through also in your previous years, that you would not be changing ships unless you truly felt that this is such a golden opportunity.
Thanks for you valued endorsement of this opportunity.
The future is so bright, I’m going to need to wear shades.
Rick
Matt Carter Reply:
November 7th, 2013 at 6:27 am
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Great stuff Rick
Thank you Matt for the information as usual you are very informative and more than willing to share.
Hello Matt.
I wholeheartedly agree with you.
It seems that the internet and e-commerce will explode
and its up to us if we want to get a piece of the action.
I look forward to more information from you.
Thanks again.
Hi Matt,
Enjoyed your post.
A couple of months ago you mentioned you were working on a course involving drop-shipping (if I remember right).
But soon after that came Matt and Jason’s big Amazon launch. I am hoping, as someone else mentioned above, that you are planning to come out with that product in the near future, as I think it might be a good way for me to start getting into the physical products world.
Thanks,
Jim
Matt Carter Reply:
November 12th, 2013 at 9:39 am
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Hi JIm
The dropshipping course is on hold right now, due to a few complications but hopefully be back on track with it soon
Matt, how should I choose my brand? Should I choose one generic brand (ala Virgin) or a brand specific to each niche I choose?
Note: Presuming that I should choose a niche (e.g. yoga) or product line (e.g. survival knives) BEFORE I choose my brand?
Matt Carter Reply:
November 12th, 2013 at 9:39 am
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Hi Louise
I would say to choose specific brand and focus on that, if you go too broad it is a lot harder, so pick a niche you want to enter and then develop your brand.
Hello Matt.
I’m sure that e-commerce growth will still be coming for
plenty of years.
Does the FBA have any requirements?
Thanks.
Matt Carter Reply:
November 12th, 2013 at 9:38 am
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Hi Christian, yes FBA has requirements, there is a procedure to learn with FBA, but once you know how it works its brilliant
Great Post Matt
Been doing this for four years now and things are just getting better every year. Your always full of a lot of great information. I always stop buy to see what’s new.
Cheers
Brooks
Matt Carter Reply:
November 12th, 2013 at 9:37 am
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Thanks Brooks
Hey Matt – Are you currently doing anything with YouTube vids? I’ve moved away from trying to rank my sites as they seem much harder to rank in the SERP’s in comparison. Really have mixed feelings about SEO – some are still having great success while others, like you, are turning away. Is Mark Ling still preaching the same sort of stuff? The internet is continually changing and its hard to know which way to go. Thanks for any insight. Cheers, Jon.
Matt Carter Reply:
November 12th, 2013 at 9:37 am
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Hi Jon, I still use Youtube videos for traffic and yes do SEO on them, but not websites… not sure what Mark is doing in regards to SEO
Jon Reply:
November 12th, 2013 at 6:53 pm
Hey Matt – thanks for getting back to me. Glad to hear you’re still doing videos. Is there any particular reason you’re happy to still SEO video’s but not sites – are they simply more volatile? Do you also currently have any course related to YouTube-specific SEO? I’m looking into launch-jacking and doing video reviews for clickbank products – I think, at least from what I can see, that’s one of the best/easiest ways, in addition to drop-shipping like you mention. Again thanks for any help. Cheers, Jon.
Matt really great content. I do still think that there is a lot of opportunity in affiliate marketing with information products but I have definitely also realized the power of ecommerce. It really is a fantastic opportunity to develop a lucrative online business. Thanks for the great content.