Chinese infringers - you don't have to take it anymore

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🇨🇳  CHINESE INFRINGERS → You Don’t Have to Take It Anymore

Despite American tech giants' public efforts to distance themselves from China, they're economically entangled.

While companies like Meta and Amazon have made disclosures about their significant revenue from China, efforts to shift manufacturing from China to countries like India and Vietnam have not diminished the overall dependency.

This situation is further complicated by political pressures and the strategic importance of Chinese markets and supply chains, underscoring the intricate and enduring relationship between American tech and China.

Amazon recently publicly acknowledged its significant reliance on Chinese sellers within its marketplace, a move that underscores the deepening ties between American retail and Chinese manufacturing and e-commerce.

Nearly half of Amazon's top U.S. sellers are based in China, a figure that has steadily increased since 2016.

Some of them do not play fair, and those that do are often granted “white hat” advantages Western sellers are not privy of, as Eve Chen will point out this week in her presentation at the Virtual BDSS event.

The growing presence of Chinese sellers across Amazon's international marketplaces signals a shift in global retail dynamics, where Chinese factories are increasingly bypassing traditional retailers to sell directly to Western consumers through platforms like Amazon, Shein and Temu.

BDSS Dream 100 member Paul Rafelson is the founding attorney of Rafelson Law, PLLC. The firm is dedicated to serving the needs of eCommerce Companies.

In a informative piece he prepared exclusively for BDSN subscribers, he outlines the challenges Amazon sellers face due to intellectual property (IP) infringement by overseas competitors, particularly from China, and the legal avenues available to combat these issues.

He highlights the limitations of Amazon's internal mechanisms, such as the brand registry and APEX program, in effectively protecting sellers' IP rights, pointing out the inadequacies in dealing with copyright and patent infringements

Rafelson discusses the process and potential outcomes of pursuing legal action, including obtaining court orders that compel platforms like Amazon to remove infringing listings and freeze funds related to product sales.

Rafelson notes the positive temperament of courts towards protecting IP rights against overseas infringers and the non-adversarial stance of Amazon when faced with court orders.

The costs associated with litigation are acknowledged, with contingency-based approaches suggested as a means to mitigate financial risks for sellers.

📷 GAME CHANGING AI TOOL for E-COM SELLERS

The unveiling of OpenAI's Sora last week represents a monumental shift in the digital landscape, particularly for online sellers and content creators.

This innovative AI tool, capable of generating videos from simple text prompts, is set to redefine the boundaries of visual content creation.

Sora, named after the Japanese word for "sky," symbolizes the vast creative potential it brings to the table. With the ability to produce videos up to 60 seconds in length, Sora significantly surpasses the capabilities of existing AI video generators, which are limited to producing shorter, less detailed clips.

This leap forward enables the creation of content that is not only longer but also of a higher quality, akin to what one might expect from a Hollywood production. Sora's capabilities extend far beyond those of its predecessors and competitors, such as Google's Lumiere and the newer Gemini 1.5 Pro model.

The implications for e-commerce are profound. Sellers can now craft detailed and immersive product videos, narrative advertisements, and engaging content with an ease and speed previously unimaginable.

The realism of the videos generated by Sora makes it increasingly difficult to distinguish between what is real and what is AI-generated, posing risks not only in the realm of e-commerce but across the digital information ecosystem.

Recognizing these dangers, OpenAI has embarked on a "red teaming" process with Sora, engaging academics and researchers to identify and mitigate potential misuse of the technology before public release.

The potential benefits of Sora for e-commerce and beyond are undeniable in opening up new avenues for creativity and innovation in online marketing and content creation.

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🏦 SHOW ME the MONEY

When I first started selling under the FBA model in 2015, there were no lending options. My local bank said selling on Amazon is not a legit biz back then. So I had to use MCA loans and other predatory lending to scale.

Now there are tons of better e-com and Amazon specialized financing options: SellersFi, Amazon Lending, Accrueme, Payability, 8fig and a host of other options.

If you have been selling for at least 6 months and have $10K or more in monthly sales, you might be able to get funding from Uncapped.

Their HQ is in the UK, but they fund in several markets worldwide. You just need to connect your Amazon store to their API for them to make an offer.

• Working Capital for brands, sellers and retailers

• Loans of 100k - 5M

• Terms of 6-18 months (fixed term or lines of credit)

• Flat fee of ~1% per month

• Offers in 24 hours

• Top-ups 30-50% into term, 3-4x per year

• No dilution, warrants or personal guarantees

• Options for secured or unsecured loans

🧮  FREE PPC PLACEMENT BID CALCULATOR

When you refer 5 or more people to this newsletter, you get an invite to join the private BDSN Whatsapp group (use your unique referral link).

There are hundreds of members in the group sharing tips, strategies and helping each other.

One recent share was by Jamshed. He created a Google Sheet that helps you do optimal placement bid calculations based on your PPC goals.

Normally these types of things are reserved for the private group, but he said it was OK if I share it with you here.

IMPORTANT: You will want to make a copy of the sheet to remove the view-only restriction to enter data, then change the currency fields to dollars, pounds or euros.

Access the Placement Bid Calculator here.

🖥️ CREATE and TEST PRODUCT IMAGES FAST

Trained on over one billion marketing images, iFoto understands how to highlight selling points to boost conversions on physical products.

You can create lifestyle and product pages super fast and test them out instantly on tools like PickFu, then upload winners to your listing.

iFoto has customized designs for every e-commerce category, ensuring that the unique features and needs of each category are taken into account.

You can remove backgrounds, do face swaps of models, change clothing, choose a model to be in your photos and a lot more.

🫱🏽‍🫲🏻 NETWORK LIKE it’s 2024 at PROSPER in VEGAS

Even though the content is usually pretty bad and not worth the price of admission, the Prosper Show next month does still draw 1,000+ Amazon Sellers & Service Providers to Lost Wages.

The networking and evening events hosted by the likes of Rich Goldstein, Brandon Young and the Million Dollar Sellers group are worth going to. There is also a Walmart-seller party at the Omnia Nightclub & some more.

To be “in the know” for all the satellite events happening around Prosper this year, hit up Chad Rubin for his Google Doc link listing them all.

Follow Chad on Linkedin, then DM him or comment “Prosper - BDSN” and he will send you the full rundown of what’s happening when & where March 3-6.

🪨 YOU PAID WHAT? PET ROCK of the INTERNET

Last week the biggest NFT sale so far in 2024 happened.

An NFT sold for 279 ETH (that’s $739,000 to you & me).

It wasn’t an ape, dog, penguin, kitty cat or a punk.

It was a ROCK.

Yep, a f*cking digital rock just sold for the price of a mansion in Mississippi.

The NFT was created in 2017 as the digital version of the physical collectible Pet Rock (over 1.5 million sold in 1976).

Lucky for the buyer, only 100 Ether Rocks were minted as one of the first NFT projects to debut on Ethereum.

✌🏼 PROGRAMMING NOTE: There will not be a newsletter this Thursday since the virtual Billion Dollar Seller Summit will be in full swing with presentations, the hack contest and winner announcements.

Hopefully you are joining us for BDSS 9 Virtual!

If not, see you next week (or consider getting the replays - they are good!).

The answer to today’s STUMP BEZOS is
$226 per user in 2023 (US & Canada)