🧃 Human Pee #1 Best Selling Energy Drink on Amazon

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💰 BILLION DOLLAR STRATEGIES
→ what you need to know to make moolah

Every week, the newsletter Ariyh summarizes scientific studies for marketers. Recently they broke down a study that analyzed when is the optimal time to request a review.

When encouraging customers to leave a review of your product, don’t send a reminder to write the review too early. If they were already planning on leaving one, your reminder will backfire and put them off.

Give them some space to enjoy the product and at least 10 days (varies by product) to leave one of their own initiative.

• People are more likely to leave a review if you wait some time before reminding them, compared to asking them immediately or too soon.

  • In two experiments with 298,000 customers, researchers sent in-app push notifications asking for a review at different timings (vs no reminder). They found that:

    • For experiential products (a trip):

      • 1 day reduced the number of reviews by 48%

      • 5 days reduced reviews 43%

      • 13 days increased reviews by 68%

    • For physical products:

      • Asking within the first 40 hours had no impact on the number of reviews

      • 7 days increased reviews 12%

      • 14 days increased reviews 39%

  • The timing of review reminders does not affect the content, rating, or length of reviews.

  • The negative effect of too early review reminders is strongest for younger customers.

🏢 TOUR of AMAZON’S VERY FIRST OFFICE

Check out this video from 1994 as Jeff Bezos gives a tour of the very first Amazon office. Things have changed a little since then!

🏴 STRIKES MAY AFFECT BLACK FRIDAY

Workers at Amazon are gearing up for a global strike on Black Friday in a push for better working conditions and fair pay. The international protest, set for November 24, was announced at a summit in Manchester, UK where trade unionists and political figures, including US Senator Bernie Sanders, rallied support.

The "Make Amazon Pay" movement, which saw over 135 strikes last year, is planning an even larger impact this year, following Amazon's profit surge to $9.9 billion. Critics, like Sanders, point to the stark contrast between the wealth of Amazon's founder, Jeff Bezos, and the treatment of the company's workers. The action aims to highlight the disparity and pressure the retail giant for change.

🪝 DIFFERENCES in AMAZON & WALMART SELLING

Walmart's online marketplace is rapidly becoming a viable alternative to Amazon for brands looking to expand their e-commerce presence says Kiki Masters in a recent blog post for Acadia. Walmart is attracting sellers despite having lower online gross merchandise volume (GMV) and site visits compared to Amazon.

The Walmart platform recently celebrated a milestone of 100,000 active sellers, a fraction of Amazon's estimated 2 million active sellers, indicating a less saturated and potentially more lucrative environment for new entrants.

Some key differences between selling on Walmart vs. Amazon:

• Seller Saturation: Walmart Marketplace hosts only 5% of the number of active sellers on Amazon, suggesting less competition.

• Selling Models: Walmart invites brands with in-store wholesale relationships to sell online, while new brands can join as Marketplace Sellers.

• Fulfillment Options: 3P sellers on Walmart are limited to shipping to home, while 1P items can also offer in-store pickup and same-day delivery.

• Cross-Platform Potential: Walmart hints at the possibility of Marketplace Sellers being stocked in physical stores, a transition that is rare but incentivized.

• Category Management: Walmart Category Managers oversee both in-store and online platforms, potentially giving successful online sellers more visibility.

• Advertising and Reviews: Walmart's advertising platform and product review capabilities differ from Amazon's, requiring a unique approach for success.

• Organic visibility: Organic visibility on Walmart is largely driven by the listing quality score

• Getting Reviews: Walmart has a more robust product review capability, which for brands who have hit their heads against a wall trying to get compliant Amazon reviews.

🚢 SKIP THE SHIP & UNLOCK CASHFLOW

Increase your margins by 30% or more and stop worrying about stock outs. Your inventory can be available for sale worldwide just 2 days after manufacturing.

After a decade of operating a direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand with annual revenues surpassing $50 million, Portless established a fulfillment center in Shenzhen, China to enable just-in-time inventory purchases and swift global shipping in 4-6 days that mimicked local delivery services.

This move significantly cut inventory waste and boosted cash flow. They've now expanded their services to empower other brands to have efficient supply chain solutions.

🗣️ COMMUNITY SHOUT-OUTS
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🇦🇺 PARTY & NETWORK DOWN UNDER

Australia has around 25,000 Amazon sellers, and a lot of them will be gathering in Sydney later this week.

This weekend, Southern Seller Fest, the largest Amazon seller conference in the Southern Hemisphere, is happening in Sydney, Australia. I’ll be there and am speaking on Sunday.

If you are planning on being in Sydney, don’t miss this event happening Friday evening:

Seller System Networking Party

November 9th from 7pm-10pm at Lucky B & Sons. Drinks, snacks and unlimited arcade games.

Register here

🇺🇸 PARTY & NETWORK in the BIG APPLE

Million Dollar Sellers Networking Party

If you are looking for the top two communities of 7+ figure sellers on Amazon, you need look no further than the Billion Dollar Seller Summit and Million Dollar Sellers. In fact, Ian and Franky, 2 of the 3 co-founders of MDS, will be in Hawaii next May for BDSS 10.

But before that, you can hang with them and a lot of other very successful sellers at two MDS networking parties in Manhattan next week.

If you are headed to AMZ Innovate Nov 13 & 14 in New York City, MDS is hosting a cocktail hour the night before and the first evening. Please note only sellers are invited - no service providers.

November 12th from 6pm-7:30pm at Bathtub Gin and November 13th from 10pm to 11:30pm at The Tippler.

Register for MDS cocktail hour

Want to be featured in this section? Use your referral link in this email to refer at least 10 active subscribers to get your event, course, webinar or tool “Shouted-Out” free to 6,000+ subscribers.

🛒  MONEY NEVER SLEEPS
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🧃 TURNING BOTTLES of PEE into a #1 AMAZON SELLER

Amazon doesn’t care about their workers’ bladders, but do you know what they do care about? Selling stuff, as this story demonstrates.

When it comes to playing pranks, and I mean big, large-scale pranks, the UK’s Oobah Butler may be one of the best. The Great Amazon Heist recently featured Butler as he managed a hilarious and risky take on hacking into Amazon’s system (non-UK readers here is how to watch).

In a nutshell, a curious person outside an Amazon fulfillment center in California discovers several bottles of urine discarded by the roadside. This unsavory find leads to a revelation about the harsh realities faced by Amazon delivery drivers, who, under immense pressure to meet delivery targets, often resort to urinating in bottles.

Seeking to highlight this issue, Butler concocts a plan to turn these urine bottles into a statement-making product. Back in the UK, they collect more bottles and, with the help of a friend, create a faux energy drink brand named "Release Energy." They cleverly market it as the world's first "fully reusable" energy drink with "infinite refills."

The product is sneakily listed on Amazon, and due to a loophole in Amazon's algorithm, it gets categorized as an actual energy drink. Butler then orchestrates a campaign to inflate sales and push "Release Energy" to the top of Amazon's charts, exploiting the platform's algorithmic vulnerabilities.

Despite initial setbacks, the product astonishingly reaches the #1 spot, beating out legitimate beverages. This stunt exposes the absurdity and potential oversight within Amazon's marketplace.

The story ends with a reflection on the power and flaws of Amazon's marketplace and a statement from Amazon emphasizing their commitment to safety and regulation compliance.

🗣️ LATEST READER COMMENTS

“I enjoy very much the newsletter. I usually never subscribe as normally all newsletters are selling something, but yours is loaded with useful information. Thank you for all the effort.” - Jorge

✌🏼 I’m on a jet airliner en route to Australia for SSF (18.5 hours flying time from Austin via LAX). Luckily I’m in first class on a Boeing 777-300 😃

Holler at you again on Thursday from Oz …

The answer to today’s STUMP BEZOS is
per Amazon: 28% < 3 min, 50% < 15 min