Online entrepreneur Manny Coats decided that he would dive head first into the world of Amazon. While he was optimistic about his chances on the site, he estimated that he would earn 11% of what he would actually bring in his first month.
Manny saw $75,762.35 come in during his first month on Amazon – he expected to bring in just $25,000 during his first 90 days.
That’s almost a 10x difference between his expectations and what he earned in reality.
Some may see this $75,762 figure and feel skeptical. How much of that is actually profit?
After expenses, Manny’s Amazon venture brought $57,033 in profit. Not bad.
Before you learn more about Manny's successful Amazon campaign, see how you can build a profitable business with digital products, not physical…
Manny stresses the fact that his success on Amazon wasn’t some easy, overnight millionaire type story. His results took a lot of hard work and research.
This a message that can be extended to every kind of business; there is no such thing as a get rich quick button. If you want to make it in the world of Amazon, or in any entrepreneurial space, you’re going to have to invest a lot of time, energy, and often money.
Amazon isn’t for people who are looking to spend their days sipping mai tais by the pool, it takes hard work.
He says that his brother helped him research the product. He enlisted the help of his brother because his brother is great at product analytics.
Manny says this teamwork was a big part of what made him successful. If you can enlist the help of somebody close to you, DO IT. Teams perform better than solo entrepreneurs.
Overall, Manny tested 10 products, but they all didn’t have the same level of success…
The first product he tested was a failure. The existing competitors in the market drove the price down to only half of what Manny was expecting to sell…
The second product was discovered by his brother – that one was an explosive success. He used some data analytics tools to find a winning product. That product ended up selling out.
Keep in mind this venture was made during the holiday season, where the ecommerce economy explodes and it’s a lot easier to sell than the rest of the year.
One key to success that Manny explained was that they looked for products with minimal competition. The products that failed were the ones that had too many competitors on Amazon.
He says to go for the more expensive products, at least $25 at the bare minimum. While the more expensive products have lower volume typically, they have less competition and the margins are a lot higher, resulting in more profit overall.
Margin is important. Don’t list a product on Amazon unless you’re confident you can sell it for at least a 2x markup.
Like mentioned earlier, Manny says this was no easy task. He often worked 10+ hour days for 7 days a week – an exhausting schedule for most people. But, that is usually what it takes to make it in any industry, not just Amazon.
Pay per click advertising was an important part of the campaign, they would often spend $500 a day on Amazon ads. But, this is standard for most successful Amazon ventures. PPC is essential.
While the campaign was successful overall, it didn’t succeed without running into a few issues:
• The suppliers didn’t securely package the products. The boxes they came in would open very easily, so Manny had to take the time to secure them before shipping them off to Amazon’s warehouse.
• The rapid influx of sales caused one of his bank accounts to get closed because the bank thought there was something suspicious going on.
• Amazon lost one of his shipments! He shipped an entire batch of products to their warehouse and they managed to lose it.
Manny warns that you must communicate thoroughly and effectively with your supplier. If you don’t mention something to your supplier, they will forget it.
He says that if he were to do anything differently, he would have mentioned to his supplier to more securely package the products into the boxes.
Amazon has a test called the 3-foot drop test, where employees pick random packages to drop from 3 feet. If they maintain structural integrity and stay intact, they pass this test, if not they fail. Manny’s boxes failed, which is why he had to seal the boxes again before sending them to Amazon.
Photography was an important aspect of the listings. Manny says that he and his brother got top notch photos of their product, this allowed them to stand out from the crowd.
If you have ever thought about selling on Amazon, take the time to consider it seriously. Amazon has amazing potential for growth, profit, and prosperity. It’s a business model that anybody can do and can be started at any level of investment.
If Manny’s case study leaves us with just one message, that message would be: JUST DO IT. Instead of pondering, daydreaming about the Amazon business model, go out, set your shop up, and get to it.
While there are many success stories on physical product ecommerce, there are many more with digital products. You can have a successful launch just like Manny's in under a month, but with digital products in lieu of physical products. See how you can do this.
If you want to listen to Manny's full 40 minute podcast on his story, click here.
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