With all that’s going on in the world right now during the spread of Coronavirus and the resulting COVID-19, we at Full-Time FBA want to take a moment to check in with our listeners and let you know how we are handling this worldwide emergency as it relates to our Amazon FBA business.
Usually we focus our podcast episodes on ways you can improve your FBA business and increase your profits, but right now we want to expand our focus to cover the broader impact your actions can have on both your business and the world in general. Not everything in life is about making money, especially during a time of unprecedented public health emergency unlike anything seen in our lifetime – but at the same time, we need to keep our FBA businesses going and feed our families and pay our bills. So how should we respond? Here are 7 ways we are responding to the Coronavirus pandemic in our Amazon FBA business:
Listen on the podcast player below.
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Key points from episode 22:
It might be time to adjust or pivot your sourcing strategies.- Why now might be a great time to learn something new.
- How to avoid doing the worst thing you could possibly do right now.
- How you might accidentally be breaking the rules (and the law) right now.
- And much more!
Links and resources mentioned in this episode:
- The Libby app
- The Full-Time FBA Bookclub list of books
- eBay
- Poshmark
- How to use Poshmark to Sell Your Amazon Returns
- Requesting Reimbursements
- How to open an Amazon support ticket
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Episode Transcript:
Announcer:
Welcome to The Full-Time FBA Show. In each episode it’s our goal to help you turn part time hours into a full time income, selling almost anything on Amazon. And now your hosts of the show, Stephen and Rebecca Smotherman.
Stephen Smotherman:
Welcome to The Full-Time FBA Show. This is episode number 21 and a half. Why 21 and a half? Well, on Monday we dropped episode number 21 and next week on Monday we’re going to drop episode number 22. But we record these podcasts about a month in advance, but things have been going on recently that just require us to interrupt our normal podcasting rhythm to bring you a podcast in between our normal scheduled podcast. So this is episode number 21 and a half. Who knows? We might have episode number 21 and a half part two that drops a few days later. Who knows? There’s so much going on and so much to talk to you about right now, and so that’s why this episode is 21 and a half.
Stephen Smotherman:
And we’re actually filming this also via video to put up on our YouTube page because we feel like this topic that we’re going to talk about is very important. And what is that, that we’re going to talk about, how you and I can respond and be a successful Amazon seller immense the whole COVID-19 virus, the Coronavirus and everything that’s going on in the news with that and in our lives. In all the changes, how can we respond and still be a successful Amazon sellers through this?
Rebecca Smotherman:
And successful human beings?
Stephen Smotherman:
Absolutely.
Rebecca Smotherman:
This isn’t just about making money, this is about being a successful human being right now.
Stephen Smotherman:
Right. We want to be an all around successful person. And that was my wife, Rebecca, my cohost, and I’m really glad that she’s here to talk about this. We all have a lot to say about this. We’re going to try to put it together for you in a quick podcast episode, but we’re talking about how we should respond as Amazon sellers and as humans. We’re being told to do some social distancing and that is a good idea for us to help stop the spread of any type of virus. But how does that impact your Amazon business? We’re going to talk about that today. So everyone’s talking about it. The coronavirus, COVID-19, and I want for us to talk about today how we can successfully respond as Amazon sellers, as human beings, to be able to navigate this tricky time. It is a time like we’ve never experienced before and we’re being told social distancing is a good idea. Well, how can we do that as Amazon sellers? And we just want to talk about that today.
Rebecca Smotherman:
Yeah, that part about this is something we’ve never experienced before, that’s something that we really want to focus on. This is unprecedented in our lifetime that we have just never experienced anything like this as people or as people who are trying to make a living selling on Amazon. And so there’s a lot of uncertainties and a lot of doubts as to what’s coming next. How do we handle this? And so we just want to spend a little bit of time today talking about ways that we can respond that are healthy and that are good for the world around us.
Stephen Smotherman:
And there are seven things that we want to focus on today. And the very first one is a suggestion that we strongly recommend for everyone is to stop doing retail arbitrage. And this is would be a temporary thing until things get back to normal, but it’s so good for us to social distance ourselves. And even though you might be thinking, hey, with retail arbitrage, I’m kind of by myself anyway. I’m by myself sourcing. I don’t talk to anybody. I don’t… But you’re still interacting with people, you’re still walking next to people, you’re still in line next to people when you’re checking out, you’re still touching things that might be infected and so.
Rebecca Smotherman:
Interacting with the cashier and other employees.
Stephen Smotherman:
A lot of different possibilities where you can either become infected and then you go on with your life and you might infect other people as well. And so just pausing your RA for a short time is a really good idea.
Rebecca Smotherman:
And we know that, that’s hard. None of the things that we’re going to be talking about today are things that necessarily what you would just do because they’re easy or because it’s going to lead to just instant success. A lot of videos that you see about Amazon FBA are about how can I take this principle and apply it to my business and make money in the short term or the long-term? This is not a video about how can I make money or a podcast, whichever. I don’t know what are we doing here. Anyway, this is not about how can I make profits right now, this is about what’s good for the world. And social distancing has been talked about by experts as the number one way that we’re going to prevent this from causing more deaths. And if that is what it takes is to stop doing RA for a period of time, then we need to do that. We need to do that out of love for the people who are working in the stores that we usually source at, and out of love for just the community in general.
Stephen Smotherman:
Yeah. To make things better, everyone in their own way is going to have to sacrifice something. And so one of the things that we’re recommending sacrificing for now putting on the side burner for now is retail arbitrage.
Rebecca Smotherman:
That’s not something we’re just saying for everybody out there. Stephen was planning to do… We make our calendar month by month. We had an RA day scheduled for Stephen for Wednesday of this week and for Wednesday of next week. And both of those are scratched off the calendar. And I don’t know when we’ll be able to add it back to the calendar, but for the time being he’s not going out to do RA. This isn’t just something we’re talking about on a podcast or video, this is something we’re actually putting into practice ourselves.
Stephen Smotherman:
Yeah, absolutely. And so what am I going to do instead on those days? Well, that leads us into our next point. The next point that we wanted to make sure that you understand is that multiple income streams are a good idea. So, and that’s not just Amazon has an income stream, and then finding eBay as an income stream, and then Etsy as an income stream and Poshmark. That’s not what it would mean. That is partially what we mean, but also in regards to the strategies that we use within Amazon reselling. And so if you’re taking a step away from retail arbitrage for a time, then what are you going to do instead? There’s online arbitrage, there’s wholesale where you can both just sit at home, look on your computer, find things to source so that you can sell to Amazon and then be able to focus on that. There’s much by Amazon, there’s a whole bunch of different things. I’m mostly focusing on online arbitrage and wholesale.
Rebecca Smotherman:
And I know for me, we were talking about eBay, Poshmark, those other types of sourcing. This is an opportunity that not only are we going to be focusing on different types of sourcing for Amazon, but I can get caught up on all of the shoes that I’ve got sitting here that I need to list on Poshmark. There are things that we can find around our house, even our office, wherever it is that you have your inventory, there are things that you can find to do that will make you money that we tend to put off because it’s not as attractive and as easily successful sometimes as going and sourcing more inventory to put on Amazon and get those sales right away. There’s money that’s sitting around our office that we just need to take care of whatever it is and get it done so that, that can make us back some money too.
Stephen Smotherman:
And there’s other issues that might be sitting around. Have you just been letting a damaged inventory item that was returned to you go without asking for a reimbursement from seller central? There’s shoes that we’ve had that have been sent back to us and the shoe box was damaged, and it was an overstock item that we returned so it wasn’t customer damaged or customer defective. And so that’s something that I’ll have time now to kind of ask for reimbursements. So what else are you doing with your Amazon business that you’ve been putting off, that you can spend time doing now? Trying to go through your feedback and getting that fixed? A lot of different possibilities that you can spend your time on that can be productive for you.
Rebecca Smotherman:
And so the next thing that we want to mention is please do not spread misinformation. And this applies both to the world in general and also to the FBA world. There’s a lot of information that’s floating around out there right now. Everybody is looking to find information about what’s going on, how can we best handle this, who do we look to as an authoritative source? And so we just want to join in the chorus of people who are trying to just reach out to our fellow human beings and say, “Please don’t spread information that’s not true.” And that goes for anything related to COVID-19, but also it goes to anything related to selling on Amazon. Always really you should do that. But in particular right now as we’re in this time of just unprecedented uncertainty, if you don’t know where that information came from, don’t share it.
Rebecca Smotherman:
Don’t make a post that says, I heard that such and such is going to happen with Amazon FBA warehouses. If you don’t know where that information came from, and if it’s not from a source, if you can’t quote the media outlet that has proven that, who has done the research, who has the journalism ethics behind it to know that it’s verified as true, if it’s not coming from a verifiable source on social media, please just stop spreading misinformation, especially as it relates to the virus. And also just as it relates to the world in general and to eCommerce in particular as it relates to how you run your business.
Stephen Smotherman:
Yeah, I totally agree. It’s one of my biggest pet peeves out there to see something, a meme that has a picture and text on it and people just believe it’s true because it looks professionally put together when it’s not true at all. And so yeah, be sure you check the source before you share something at all. And that would help the world in so many ways.
Rebecca Smotherman:
And it reminds me of what we were talking about yesterday, Stephen, our children, our teenage children, our 14 year old, they can make a really nice looking meme. It doesn’t take a lot these days, there’s so many ways to just put a nice graphic with, believe it or not, nice graphic and text together. It can look pretty amateurish and then pass it off as, “Oh, because this has text and a picture together, somebody must have… it must be true.” But that’s just not the case. You don’t know where that information came from, stop spreading it please.
Stephen Smotherman:
Please, please. So the next thing we want to talk about, this is our fourth thing, is to prepare for adjusted expectations. There’s going to be some things that are going to be a little bit different moving forward. Some of them might work out for you, some of them might be a negative for you, but just be prepared for the unexpected. Really, some people might experience more sales because people are online shopping more often than going out to retail stores. So you might have increased sales.
Rebecca Smotherman:
Like I’m thinking about if you sell groceries, you’re probably getting to see an increase in sales for something like that.
Stephen Smotherman:
Yeah, absolutely.
Rebecca Smotherman:
As opposed to what?
Stephen Smotherman:
As opposed to maybe a hot toy, people might not be buying the hot toys because their priorities are changed, they’re a little bit different right now.
Rebecca Smotherman:
But we don’t know, that might not be the case. We just have no idea what to expect right now.
Stephen Smotherman:
Yeah. And so expect more sales if a possibility, but it’s also possible to have less sales because maybe some of the items in your inventory just aren’t as important as they were before, and people aren’t going to be shopping for them until after this time period has passed. They wouldn’t be shopping for them as often. Other expectations to be prepared for, Amazon is making sure that if anyone working in their warehouses is not feeling well, that they stay home so there’s less workers in the warehouse. That means slower check-ins, slower response times from seller central, and because some of the seller central they’re working in the US, some of them are working worldwide. And a lot of people are taking precautions and being careful. So you might have slow responses from that, customers might have slower shipping. A lot of different things to just be prepared for and to be okay with and not take it as a personal offense because seller central didn’t get back to you fast enough, or your items getting stuck in a warehouse for too long.
Rebecca Smotherman:
We’re all dealing with inconvenience and worse than inconvenience right now. And so we just need to keep a good perspective about how things are going.
Stephen Smotherman:
Absolutely. The fifth thing we want to talk about is to make sure you’re not accidentally price gouging. If you’re using automatic repricer, go in and double check to make sure that your prices are not too high on medical supplies, sanitizers, wipes.
Rebecca Smotherman:
Anything resembling cleaning supplies, anything that could resemble a medical supply.
Stephen Smotherman:
Exactly. Anything that people are going to be in need during this time, toilet paper, whatever, make sure that you do your best to double check. A lot of times when we set up an automatic repricer and we set our max price, we sometimes set that max crazy high. Well, guess what? Those prices might be going up and you do not want Amazon to suspend your account, shut down your account, which will hold your inventory, which will hold the money that Amazon is going to disperse to you until this thing passes over.
Rebecca Smotherman:
You also don’t want to be prosecuted, which is another possibility. It’s not just that it’s unethical and against Amazon policy, it’s illegal to price gouge in time of an emergency. So don’t be a jerk. And also just follow the law. Don’t intentionally be a jerk, but also make sure you’ve checked your repricer so that you’re not accidentally breaking any rules or being a jerk either.
Stephen Smotherman:
Yeah. So the sixth thing that we want to talk about today is that if you’re spending more time at home, maybe you work a full time job or a part time job and you’re having to stay home, now is a really great time to learn.
Rebecca Smotherman:
And not just if you’re having to stay home, but also if all of your social activities have been canceled because we’re going to have a lot time in the evenings when we wouldn’t have been working, but we would have been out doing stuff with friends, family at your church, with your kid’s, ball team, whatever. All of that’s canceled. So we have a lot of time on our hands.
Stephen Smotherman:
Yeah. And I see people on Facebook saying, “Hey, I have all this extra time now, what are some TV shows I need to watch and binge?” And while doing that somewhat is not a bad idea, don’t totally fill up your extra time with watching TV. Spend that time investing in yourself, investing in your mind, something new that you want to learn, whether it’s learning online arbitrage, whether it’s learning in wholesale, whether it’s learning a new category, something like that. Whether it’s learning how to use a repricer, there’s tons of free training and stuff like that, that’s out there that you can take action on and learn to improve yourself. And that’s totally recommended by us to invest in yourself
Rebecca Smotherman:
Or even beyond FBA resources and courses that you could be taking, just books in general about business and marketing and branding, any type. Just this is the time to start looking at your Amazon wishlist and if you do Kindle or use the Libby app or anything from your public library, this is the time to start getting as many online resources as you can to catch up on some of that reading you’ve been wanting to do as well. Because it’s not just about FBA in general that you can be learning and improving yourself and educating yourself right now. I know I have a stack of books that I want to read that aren’t really Amazon related, but they definitely are going to help me with self improvement and development of myself as a business person.
Stephen Smotherman:
Yeah, absolutely. Then it will help you become an overall better person as well. The more you learn, the more you can earn. I’ve heard that said many times.
Rebecca Smotherman:
And readers are leaders.
Stephen Smotherman:
Absolutely. And the final thing we want to leave you with today, please take care of yourself. Wash your hands, make sure that you social distance yourselves from others. Do not go out unless it’s absolutely necessary. You might be thinking it’s going overboard to take these precautions, but really the more people who protect themselves then the more people are going to be able to protect the community, to protect our country, to protect this world and just take good care of yourself.
Rebecca Smotherman:
And even beyond just taking care of yourself in preventing the spread of this disease, take care of yourself emotionally and with your own mental health, your own health apart from not catching the virus. Get good sleep right now. Make sure that you are spending quality time with the people that you’re socially distancing with. If you’re quarantined in your house or with your friends, or I don’t know, maybe you are quarantined with your friends, but quarantined with your family, make sure that you’re taking the time to do some fun things and make some memories. So that this isn’t all just a bad time, but that we can help our kids to have memories of playing board games and spending time together or going out on walks. Stephen and I have been trying to, every day we’re planning to go out for a walk just to get out of the house.
Rebecca Smotherman:
We work from home anyway, so this isn’t like a huge leap for us to work at home now. But we do get out a lot more regularly for social activities and whatnot than we’re going to be able to. And so getting out of the house, we can’t go to the gym like we normally do, but we can go walk outside and run outside and do things like that. And that’s really going to be important to not just for your physical health, but also your emotional and mental health, which are really important. And you’re not going to be able to take care of the people around you or get through this time period with any measure of success if you’re not noticing, “Hey, this is an area where I need to just practice some self care right now.”
Stephen Smotherman:
Absolutely. And just like we talked about before, make sure that you stay in contact with your loved ones. The world that we live in, we have FaceTime conversations, we’ve got social media, we’ve got a lot of different ways to stay connected. Call your parents, call your kids, call people that you love, keep in contact with them that way. Don’t become a hermit. So there’s plenty of ways to still interact while still distancing yourself from everybody.
Rebecca Smotherman:
Well, that’s all we have for this episode. And we want to make sure that you check out the show notes because we’ll have a copy of the transcript. We’re also going to have the links to anything we’ve mentioned in this podcast. For instance, the Libby app I think is a good one that we can, if you’re not familiar with that one, we want to make sure that you know how to use that. We’ll also put a link on The Full-Time FBA website, we’ve got a list of recommended books. Some of them are books that we’ve done in the past. Like a few years ago some of you may remember that we had a Full-Time FBA book club, and so we’ll talk about, we’ll have a link to some of those books like The Mindset Book, and The ONE Thing by Gary Keller. And books like that, that are really helpful that you could be reading right now in your sudden free time.
Stephen Smotherman:
Yeah. And you can find all those, fulltimefba.com/22 for our show notes.
Rebecca Smotherman:
Well, thank you all for listening and for watching, whichever way you’re consuming this content. And we just want you to know that we love all of you. We are very concerned that all of you take care of yourselves, that we take care of each other and we just really hope for the best for everyone. Please be safe and please know that we’re here for you if you need anything.
Stephen Smotherman:
Yeah. And next week on the show we have an interview with Kim Coghlin, and we’re talking with her about dealing with inauthentic claims and how to best respond to that. So, that will drop next Monday. Thanks for joining us today. Have a great day. Bye.
Announcer:
That’s all for this episode of The Full-Time FBA Show. So head over to fulltimefba.com/podcast, where you’ll find the show notes and links from this episode. While you’re there, subscribe to our newsletter where you’ll get several free downloads of our popular and helpful Amazon FBA resources, including a free ebook. Now, take action on what you’ve learned today so you can find success at turning part time hours into a full time income with Amazon FBA.
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