Written in Partnership with Amir Bakian
Today, E-Com Dave is one of the most sought-after Amazon FBA coaches. So, it might be difficult to imagine that Dave plopped down in front of his computer just four years ago and Googled: “How to make money online.”
At the time, E-Com Dave was 27-year-old Bartender Dave. Sure, he was making six figures working from midnight to morning, so things were pretty good. But it just wasn’t sustainable. He couldn’t enter his 30s still working insane hours in bars. So, he decided to explore other ways to make money. He stumbled upon dropshipping and learned for the first time that 56% of products sold on Amazon were from third-party sellers.
Over the next four years, E-Com Dave would learn hundreds of other lessons on how to build a successful Amazon business. Some lessons he learned from hours of research and self-study, but others he had to learn the hard way. Here, Dave shares three of the most important lessons he learned from his mistakes so you won’t make them yourself.
1. Don’t compete on prices.
“My first product that didn’t work out tanked because I sold the same thing my competition was making,” says Dave. “My plan to compete on price alone was completely wrong because the other store just had to lower their prices. And since they had more reviews than I did, I couldn’t sell my inventory.”
This mistake cost Dave $9,000. Even by today’s standards, he admits it’s a lot of money to lose. If you plan to sell the exact thing that others are selling, Dave’s advice is to find an angle that would add value to the product. One way he suggests doing this would be to offer freebies related to the product you want to sell.
2. Find or build better products than the competition.
E-Com Dave says the biggest lesson he learned from the $9,000 mistake was to sell a better product than the competition. “Most people don’t make money on their first product, and they give up because they think a thousand dollars is as far as they’re going to earn in the business,” says Dave. “But if more people just took the time to research and build better products than the competition, then the success rate of Amazon sellers would blow up.”
3. Always, always test a product before buying in bulk
“When I launched my first product, I purchased 1,000 units without testing it,” says Dave. “All I could think about was the profit margins I’d be making from getting the products a lot cheaper by buying in bulk. But I could only watch in horror as my capital dissolved when I couldn’t sell even half of my inventory.”
Dave recommends getting no more than 300 pieces for your first order to test the market for it. He says it pays to be patient and check first what’s selling and what’s not before placing a bulk order. Plus, you’ve got to make sure your product works!
Now, E-Com Dave says these three lessons, vital as they are for any newbie Amazon seller, barely scratch the surface of everything he can impart from his years of experience growing his six-figure Amazon business. “There’s plenty to go around,” says E-Com Dave. “I love helping others. My courses are just my way of paying it forward.”
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