12 CommentsIn this episode, we cover the following topics:
- An update of our Jungle Slider product launch on Amazon FBA’s platform
- A look at our current listing
- Our launch sales numbers
- Our top three launch techniques
- Missed an episode? See them all here.
We’re covering all of this today in our 15th episode of the Million Dollar Case Study. Watch the video, keep reading and don’t forget to subscribe to our Million Dollar Case Study email list, so you never miss an episode!
Before you get started, if you’re not already using Jungle Scout, you will need to get a Jungle Scout subscription to follow along with us and complete your product research.
Welcome Back to the Million Dollar Case Study!
This is episode 15 of the Million Dollar Case Study, and we’re excited to be back! We’ve been on a little bit of a break, waiting for our product to be shipped from China. But it finally arrived at Amazon’s warehouse, and we’ve since gotten our first sales.
I will say, it’s been a bit of a headache though:
- First, we ran into some manufacturing delays with our supplier. However, we worked that out, since the problem was fairly minor.
- Then Chinese New Year rolled around, which led to further delays.
- And to top it all off, we dealt with a US Government shutdown!
Needless to say, our start wasn’t ideal, but we got through it.
Being an entrepreneur isn’t all sunshine and rainbows.
The truth is, launching a product is hard work.
A lot of educational material online will paint the Amazon FBA thing as a get-rich-quick opportunity, or that it’s super easy. The reality, though, is that you’re creating a business. And with any business, you’re going to hit some bumps along the way.
In the end, we managed to work through the obstacles we encountered, and now our product is finally for sale on Amazon’s website! Woohoo!
“Never give up. Today is hard, tomorrow will be worse, but the day after tomorrow will be sunshine.” – Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba
So let’s take a look at our listing.
Pricing
Pictured below is the Jungle Slider keyboard tray listing. As you can see, we designed two different variants. One is made of MDF (medium density fiberboard) and is jet black. Right now that variant is priced at $59.95. Our second variant is made of natural bamboo, and is priced at $69.95.
Listing text copy
One of the main tools I used to create our listing was Keyword Scout. This tool helped me find the best keywords to use on our listing. In addition, I tested the title, the bullet points, and the back-end keywords. I created a nice keyword-rich description for the slider too.
All of the above is part of the optimization process. Going through and making sure I’m ranking for laser-targeted keywords means the product can start ranking organically on Amazon. Otherwise, no one would ever find our product!
And along with maximizing the effectiveness of our keywords, I also deployed a PPC (pay per click) strategy to get our product on page one from day one.
Product photography
For version 1.0 of our listing, our products’ pictures were taken by a fellow co-worker here at Jungle Scout (huge shout out to Patrick for his hard work!). Right off the bat we were very scrappy, bootstrapping our photography.
In case you missed it, in episode 10 we covered how to take your own photos. And by following our own advice and doing the photography ourselves, we incurred zero costs for those images. It was a great way to get free pictures up on our listing!
However, while those images were perfect for our launch, I think we can definitely improve that section of our listing moving forward.
Photos have a huge impact on your conversion rate and, ultimately, the success of your product. It’s definitely worth it to spend a couple of hundred bucks to find and hire a professional photographer on the Jungle Scout Market. We want someone who can produce those high-quality images we’re looking for.
Start selling on Amazon today.
Your Amazon success starts with Jungle Scout.
Show me the money!
So I pulled up the sales for our product, and this is what I saw when I looked at the black Jungle Slider keyboard tray:
It’s been selling for about three weeks now, though we didn’t get many sales during the first two weeks. They were coming in sporadically, with just one, two, or maybe three per day. But then it started to pick up. Over the past week, we’ve been averaging six or eight sales per day, and that’s for the black color alone.
Looking at the bamboo Jungle Slider keyboard tray, its first two weeks of sales were similar to those of the black slider. On average, we only had about one sale each day. However, this past week it really started to take off. This one’s sales are now averaging 12 to 14 units per day!
So if you add the sales of the bamboo and black variants together, we’re getting close to 20 sales per day. That’s pretty darn good! Initially, our goal was to move 10 units per day, so we’re doing about twice as well as we had hoped.
Why is the bamboo Jungle Slider selling more than the MDF black variation?
I think it comes down to the material. The bamboo is distinct, with nothing similar out there in the market right now.
We actually talked about this early on, when we were doing our product research. To identify key differentiators that would make our product stand out from our competitors, we utilized a process called Customer-Driven Innovation ™ and I think it helped… a lot!
Plus, one of the chief customer complaints about one of our competitor’s products was around the material used. The perception across the board was that it was a low-quality, hard-plastic material that left customers wanting more.
So we decided to try bamboo and, thankfully, it’s a decision that’s paying off.
How did my sales increase?
I started off with a very conservative approach, focusing on ranking organically. Frankly, that’s why you see low numbers in the early days. I was testing out different keywords, to see which ones would be the best performers.
But then, when the sales were just trickling in, I used a combination of PPC campaigns and product giveaways through Jump Send. That’s when our sales started to increase.
With respect to the giveaways, I started with a 50% discount. But early on we got a one-star review, and I realized that I needed to be more aggressive. In order to combat that negative review, I bumped up the discount to 80% off. That move also boosted our sales’ momentum.
So here are our product giveaway recommendations:
- Start out with a conservative discount. Test that out. See how that works out for you before you increase your percentage-off.
- If you’re not getting enough sales with the lower discount, though, then get more aggressive with the discount percentage. But do it incrementally so that you don’t give a bigger discount than need be.
My top three launch techniques.
This product launch had several moving parts, which is why we saw that rapid uptick beginning in week three. In order to get those sales, I did a combination of three things:
- I distributed deeply discounted coupons on Jump Send (roughly 80% off) in order to get sales.
- I’ve been offering an on-site, or on-listing, coupon through Amazon for about 10% off. That has worked as an incentive for organic traffic to purchase the product.
- I’ve been aggressively bidding on PPC terms that are relevant for our particular product.
Not to mention, as we collect more data, our PPC results are going to improve. And as I optimize my campaigns, our sales numbers will likely increase (we’ll be covering PPC optimization in-depth in a later episode).
Closing thoughts.
Something I want to make clear is that we haven’t made any money with the launch of the Jungle Slider yet. In fact, we’ve actually been losing money. And while this happens to many sellers in the beginning, not making a profit is scary.
New Amazon sellers, unaware that losing money at the start is not unusual, question themselves, thinking, “Hey, this is only the first few weeks of me ever selling a product and I’m losing a lot of money. I’m not profitable!”
Some think the answer is to pull the plug on their product.
However, in order to get those initial sales on Amazon, to start ranking better, to start getting reviews, you have to be okay with investing additional capital. You need to use some of the tactics I mentioned earlier.
But don’t think of it as a bad thing; think about it as an upfront marketing cost.
The bottom line is that we’re in this for the long haul. We plan on selling this product for years to come, so we’re willing to lose some money upfront. We may not be profitable in the first month, or maybe even the first two months, but as we build this listing we know we’ll get sales in the long run.
So remember: you have to stick with your launch plan to get those initial sales, and don’t be concerned about your profits in the beginning.
Stay tuned…
In next week’s episode, we will be covering how to optimize your listing in-depth, with split testing and how to set up Enhanced Brand Content.
In the meantime, keep crushing it, Freedom Builders!
Start selling on Amazon today
Your Amazon success starts with Jungle Scout.
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