🩻 X-Ray vision for your listing photos

In last Thursday’s newsletter a link to get on the wailing list for Kevin’s free NEWSLETTER BRAND SECRETS webinar went dead when we made a DNS change shortly after sending the newsletter.

Here is the corrected link for the FREE webinar registration

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

CANTON FAIR NOT BEST USE of TIME & MONEY?

A lot of e-commerce sellers are heading off this week or next to attend the Canton Fair in Guangzhou, China. It’s divided into three phases from Oct 15 - Nov 4, each focusing on different product categories.

Canton is one of the largest and most prestigious trade fairs in the world. Held biannually in April and October, it’s been a significant event for international trade since its inception in 1957.

Canton can be vast and time-consuming. Depending on your goals, the fair itself may not be the best use of your time and money when it comes to sourcing.

I have personally been twice, and have never actually ended up selling a product I discovered openly on the expo floor. But I have gotten great value by being in China visiting factories, networking and masterminding.

Supply chain experts say the Canton Fair is a legacy fair from the early days of sourcing pre-internet and before the vast array of targeted trade shows and internet sourcing platforms available today.

Gary Huang, the founder of 80/20 Sourcing and a seasoned China sourcing expert says he, as well as most supply chain and sourcing geniuses he knows don't even have the Canton Fair on their radar.

He wrote in his weekly newsletter that maybe it should not be on yours either.

Gary’s reasons:

1. Canton Fair is too broad: It's vast and not laser-focused, making it inefficient to spend 1-2 weeks there when more specific industry trade shows can provide better results.

2. Infrequency: The Canton Fair happens only twice a year, which may not align with a business's sourcing needs.

3. Hidden gems: Innovative products are often kept away from the fair's floor, as exhibitors fear competitors copying their innovations.

4. Top suppliers often absent: Many premium suppliers prefer niche, industry-specific shows over the Canton Fair, where they can meet serious buyers.

He recommends instead finding a knowledgeable sourcing agent with a network of contacts who can access top suppliers throughout the year. 80/20 is a good choice. Gembah and Zignify are also ones to consider.

You should also attend industry-specific trade shows, visit factories, and use local boots on the ground to negotiate effectively.

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🎁  SNEAK PREVIEW of VIP TIP 🎁

I’M GONNA LET YOU SEE IT TODAY - but in future Monday newsletters, you will need to be VIP to see this yellow box. Earn VIP free by referring just 2 or more ACTIVE subscribers with your unique link below the yellow box.

🥇 SECRET BILLION DOLLAR TIP for VIPs

Amazon is testing computer vision and semantic segmentation to analyze listing photos and determine relevance. Sometimes they get it right, and other times they really mess it up.

Today’s BILLION DOLLAR TIP for VIPs shows you how to test your listing and advertising photos. I also show you an easy method to help guide computer vision analysis so you can rank better and don’t lose relevance.

 🔥 PRIME PICKS
→ Amazon’s sandbox

AMAZON ENCOURAGES YOU TO BUY IT AGAIN

Amazon is testing a new feature called "Buy Again" on its app to encourage existing customers to make repeated purchases.

The feature offers tailored product recommendations leveraging customer buying history through a dedicated tab on the app's homepage. Amazon is implementing this initiative in response to data showing declines in average spending.

According to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, there has been a decrease in average annual spending by Prime members from $1,400 in 2018 to $1,100 last year. Non-Prime members have also reduced their average spending from $600 to $500 annually.

MORE PROTECTION for “GENERIC” BRANDS

Amazon has introduced a new policy that now allows sellers to create product listings with the brand name "Generic" or its local equivalent and gain exclusive control over editing the product detail page. To qualify as a generic product, there should be no brand name or logo on the product or its packaging.

Sellers have expressed concern that the policy may be misused, with some sellers listing their branded products as generic to gain a monopoly on a listing. This could potentially lead to confusion for customers with multiple identical products listed under "Generic."

Amazon is trying to improve the seller experience by extending product detail page protections to sellers of generic products, previously granted only to 1P and brand-registered sellers.

If you try to edit or add offers to another seller's generic product, you will receive an error message and be guided to create a new product listing.

💰 SPARE CHANGE
→ immediate impact tips

HOW TO CREATE KNOLLING IMAGES

Knolling is a style of photography you see a lot on social media. It is an overhead perspective of products or items arranged on a flat surface at parallel or 90-degree angles in a symmetrical order.

Here’s how to generate knolling style images using Dalle-3:

IMAGES BEING SCANNED for RANKING & TARGETING

Meta is using AI to scan images to help them determine relevance and rank.

Alen Sultanic recently noticed that Facebook targeted audiences based on content in his ad's image.

Facebook thought it was an e-com product for saunas and massage chairs, and then allocated audiences who wanted to buy those things but did not necessarily want to sell them. Great ads -> but wrong audience. 

It led to a significant drop in performance, with add-to-cart rates decreasing by about 70%.

Be mindful of your creatives, as they might unintentionally influence audience targeting.

Amazon is now testing this on some listings. See the BILLION DOLLAR TIP for VIPs section above on ways to test photos and help guide image analysis.

🛠️ FEATURED TOOLS and RESOURCES
 → all the kool kids use these

📶 EASILY BACKUP + PROTECT AMAZON LISTINGS

Compared to using the inventory file spreadsheets amazon provides, FlatFilePro makes editing your listings 17x faster.

• Bulk upload or edit product listings, and fix listing errors from one easy-to-use interface, without the need to train employees.

• Make seasonal changes and revert to previous drafts with ease to give you a promotional bump or in the event of employee errors or malicious activity.

• Use Flat File Pro to make bulk edits to multiple listings at once, and see the changes take effect on Amazon in minutes.

🖥️ CRAFT AMAZON LISTINGS with CHATGPT PROMPTS

Tina Striker, an e-com seller and coach, has put together a detailed 7-page PDF guide showing you how to use ChatGPT pre-conditioning and prompts to find your customer avatar, bullet points, title, A+ content and image ideation.

With Dalle 3 now connected to ChatGPT, you could take the example below from her PDF one-step further and have it create a series of mock-up image ideas too.

Act as if you are the brand director for a brand that sells “PRODUCT X”. Pretend you are talking to the customer avatar you described above.

Write a list of shots for a set of images to be loaded onto the Amazon listing for PRODUCT X.

{ wait for output }

I will give you my demands for copy. 

You will give me a copy for the whole list of shots using the principles of Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz. 

This copy will be later inserted in each of the images by a designer.

My demands for a copy:
1) Copy is talking to the above-defined customer avatar.
2) The image should include the following text: title, focus text or short bullet points and
text in the badge.
3) The copy should be coherent with the copy from bullet points, using the same tone of
voice and language structure.
4) Copy should be short and on the point.
5) Titles should be full of emotions and appealing to a customer avatar. It could include a
hook.

{ wait for output }


Please restructure the above copy for images in a way that the main topic for each of the images is the following:

- Image #1; shot: {topic}
- Image #2; shot: {topic}
- Image #3; shot: {topic}
- Image #4; shot: {topic}
- Image #5; shot: {topic}
- Image #6; shot: {topic}
- Image #7; shot: {topic}

🗣️ COMMUNITY SHOUT-OUTS
 → Tidbits from readers who share the newsletter

😥 AMAZON SUSPENSIONS GOT YOU DOWN?

Frustrated by ASIN suspensions? ecommerceChris has your back. His ASIN reinstatement service is led by former Amazon Seller Performance investigators who know the system inside and out.

Get your listings back quickly and boost your Q4 sales now! 

🐎 CREATE CUSTOM SOPs FAST for your E-COM BUSINESS

Discover SOPbox, a tool empowered by OpenAI GPT-4 to simplify your business documentation process.

Just input a title, and within a minute, get a draft SOP outlining detailed steps for operational procedures.

Overcome the daunting blank page and tailor the SOPs and checklists to your business needs with ease.

Example video: create a detailed step-by-step HR process with SOPbox.

Want to be featured in this section? Use your referral link in this email to refer at least 10 active subscribers, then email me to get your event, course, webinar or tool “Shouted-Out” free to 5,000+ subscribers.

✌🏼 That’s all I got for today.

See you again on Thursday …

The answer to today’s STUMP BEZOS is
FALSE - SB ads do not stop running