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Anonymous user The development of e-commerce has now reached a saturation level of 95%, and the remaining 5% is undoubtedly like looking for a needle in a haystack. I just resigned from my previous company recently, and it is difficult to find a job now, so I planned to start working on my own. However, I found that working on my own is not as easy as operating in a company. I encountered many problems, such as what products to sell on my own. I originally planned to sell the same category as the company, but found that if I go to 88 to find goods, I can't compete at all, because the original company has its own cooperative factory and has advantages in all aspects.
When deciding on a product to make, we always analyze its market first. After the analysis, we choose the specific style to sell.
My current thoughts:
1: First, find a spot on 88. (This method reduces certain risks, but will encounter serious homogeneity later)
2: Keep looking for products in the market to see if you can find differentiation or slight changes. (Large funds, high risks, and fear that the product selection ability is limited and the product will be unsalable)
3: Find goods from offline wholesale markets, and then put them on the shelves to test the styles.
I would like to ask you, which of these ideas is better? I can only take out about 500,000 yuan of funds at present. I would like to hear your opinions to reduce certain risks.
"Wonderful Reply"
Sellers wear sea Agree with: Flash Wolf, Happy Pirate D, nyx9527, HowsonK, Go for it More » Statistics tell us that the success rate of entrepreneurship is about 1%-5%, and the failure rate is 95%-99%. This means that students with average resources have a very low tolerance for error.
They should strive for survival before development, but many sellers have big appetites and always think they are the chosen ones. They start making molds and creating things right away, trying to engage in "disruptive innovation" in order to get rich quickly and revolutionize the industry.
The result is predictable. More than a decade has passed since Amazon first allowed Chinese sellers to enter. Countless pioneers have devoted energy and costs, hard work and sweat, and after repeated practice, they have finally found the categories, products and profit models suitable for small sellers to survive.
Therefore, I think the first step you should take when entering the industry with 500,000 yuan is not to look for a hit product or to dream of getting rich, but to survive on Amazon.
The strategy with the highest chance of survival is the one that countless commercial companies use to vote with their feet - "cross the river by feeling the way your opponent does."
In other words, the most important thing for small sellers on Amazon is to choose the right seller and learn and imitate him in all aspects.
On the Amazon platform, a considerable number of sellers have business strategies that are strikingly similar to the long-tail theory. They are well aware that competition at the top of the category is too fierce, and due to limited resources, it is difficult to directly participate in the competition at the top. Therefore, they have chosen a more flexible and practical survival strategy, which is to survive by relying on products with less competition, such as the tail of the category. This type of seller can be summarized as "long-tail sellers."
Amazon's US site alone has more than 20,000 subcategories, each of which has several market segments, and each market segment can accommodate several similar products. In other words, Amazon's market capacity is quite large, and all kinds of profit models have a place. It's just that hot-selling products are the most eye-catching, can attract the most traffic, and are discussed the most by self-media, but it doesn't mean that other models don't exist or don't make money.
Many long-tail sellers' products are not ranked very high, and the profits generated by a single product are also relatively average. Therefore, they are not exposed to the spotlight, and most people even ignore their existence. (Currently, most product selection articles and tutorials are aimed at creating hot products, after all, everyone yearns for the stars and the sea.) Indeed, the profits that their stores can create are not worth mentioning compared to Damai. But compared to working, a net profit of 30,000 to 50,000 yuan a month, the body and mind are much freer than working, and it is no problem to support a well-off life for a small family. I believe this is also the most real and practical wish of the majority of wheat.
As for what you said about finding spot goods on a certain 88 website, there is no problem at all.
Many sellers lose because of blindly believing in private models. If you open a private model product, it means that you have the "original right" to this product. If you register an intellectual property right to protect it in the future, then you can happily enjoy this category alone.
However, before making private molds, you must consider clearly: How great is the practical significance of private mold development? Is this practical significance worthwhile compared with the mold fees you have invested?
For some products on the market, private models have been very successful and are now monopolizing a certain traffic structure in the category.
However, some private models only make design changes to the product, which is just a change of name. Such private models are actually meaningless, because others can choose other cheaper products. Functional innovation and scarcity in certain aspects are the key to the success of private models.
Therefore, it is not recommended for novice vendors to blindly open private models right away. Start with general goods first, and then think about other things when you can make stable profits.
Is there any future in selling general merchandise?
The answer is yes.
For any category, no matter how big or small, it is not easy to become familiar with it, open up the supply chain, and meet user needs, and the same is true for Damai.
When the investment of energy, capital and resources is relatively similar, capital will always choose the project with the highest return on investment, and Damaiya also chooses categories in the same way. Many categories or products are tasteless to Damaiya; with the same cost, you can always find a more cost-effective category, and this is the opportunity for Damaiya.
Finally, let’s talk about the selection of small items.
Whenever we talk about product selection, there are a few groups of people who have the loudest voices:
Those who engage in mold making and customization in an attempt to build a product moat;
Looking for factories and the source of the industrial chain to try to create the lowest cost advantage;
Large items, extremely high gross margins and other extremely high entry barriers;
To create high-quality products and brands and have sufficient capital to prepare for listing;
Those who have supply chain advantages, R&D advantages, and other means to invent and create to disrupt the industry;
Frankly speaking, it is very meaningful to discuss product selection from the above aspects: the writers reveal the process of creating high-end products, which has won clicks and praise; the upstream and downstream industrial chains of products have been exposed, and long-term development has been guaranteed; bosses who have funds and resources but lack projects have seen the direction of development; the media themselves also like these contents because they are full of eye-catching words such as moat, brand, financing, money-making, listing, and getting rich quickly. With traffic, everything is possible. Only the majority of sellers - the small sellers, are often ignored because of the lack of traffic value.
What is even more outrageous is that many young vendors who are not well-versed in the world mistakenly believe that what the media often says is correct and that high-end things are the correct answer, so they blindly follow suit. In the end, they waste several years of their youth and hard work.
The problem with those bankrupt vendors is that they don't distinguish between dreams and reality. You can dream of getting rich overnight, but in reality you still have to take things step by step. According to a survey, most vendors only need to make 30,000 to 50,000 yuan a month, and they will be happy if they can be relaxed and free, which is better than working part-time.
Players who have just entered the Novice Village should not think about fighting the BOSS, and do not fantasize about developing a phenomenal product to take you to the peak of your life. With limited funds and resources, and almost no trial and error costs, you should first make a few products to make ends meet, and maintaining a balance between income and expenditure is the most important thing in entrepreneurship. Wilc yfor • Fuzhou • 2024-09-02 09:08 Yes, I would be very satisfied if I could earn 20,000-30,000 yuan a month working alone, I dare not even think about 30,000-50,000 yuan
Coconut lady • Shenzhen • 2024-09-02 11:51 What the boss said is so right. It is really good for a small seller to have a net profit of 30,000 to 50,000 per month. Don't think about getting rich overnight. Amazon still has a chance. It's better than working.
Addicted to Knives • Shanghai • 2024-09-02 15:49 I used to look down on 88 currency. In fact, for small vendors, with limited funds, they really have to consider survival first.
A rookie operator • Dongguan • 2024-09-03 11:37 Well said. It is too risky to start with private models. Private models often require thousands of units. If the sales volume is not as expected, it will be a huge loss. Small sellers cannot afford it.
Anonymous user Agree with: What is the real Job, Crayfish Hotpot, Wilcyfor Friends, let’s get started! I still prefer a life of hardship before sweetness. I will work hard for a few more years while I am still young.
I am 31 years old now, and I feel exhausted every day because I manage all the big and small things of the company by myself, and I cannot afford to make a single mistake. The cost of a single mistake could be tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Although the road to entrepreneurship is very tiring, I think the rewards are proportional. After deducting company, family and personal expenses, I have saved about one million yuan a year. My goal is to retire in another 10 years.
If you work, even if you are paid 20,000 yuan, I think many people can't save 100,000 yuan a year. So, saving a few million yuan by working is basically the ceiling for working. If you want to buy a house, a car, or support your parents and children, these millions will be gone in a flash.
If young people do not shoulder the burden of making money, when they are old, they will either suffer the consequences of their youth or their children will suffer for them.
I have to sigh that the world is indeed realistic but fair. Fight on, my friend! What is the difference between real and fake Jobs • Shenzhen • 2024-09-05 17:20 We also have to consider inflation. I wonder if a few million dollars will still be enough to buy a house in 20 years.
Just like the hundreds of thousands of dollars in 2004 may not be enough to buy a house now;
Therefore, a stable and continuous money-making mechanism is our goal, rather than a fixed salary figure.
Heroes of the Sui and Tang Dynasties • Shijiazhuang • 2024-09-09 09:33 @真假乔布什么: If you consider inflation, you can buy several houses in a few decades. Houses gradually depreciate. You should consider gold or something like that.
What is the real Job? 1. For any business model, the process of product transaction is a path: product → seller → channel → buyer.
2. Sometimes you don’t have to just focus on the product, you can also think about building product advantages
3. You can definitely build advantages from two other aspects. The first is the seller, that is, what advantages you have; the second is the channel, that is, you can build advantages in that channel. (Here I would like to mention that buyers are not the aspect where you build advantages. Compared with sellers, buyers have more initiative. Generally, buyers choose sellers, and this is not the aspect that sellers can control.)
4. For example, everyone says that the blue ocean is easy to do business. In fact, it is based on the selection of products from the two levels of channels and sellers. Everyone’s products are actually similar, and they are all currency. The blue ocean means that the sales channels of this product are concentrated in such a small category, and the strength of competing sellers is relatively weak. Even if it is the same product, as long as it enters this channel, and everyone’s operating methods are comparable, everyone will get a certain amount of orders. If one party’s operating strength is a little stronger, it will definitely be able to defeat the other party and win in such a small arena. This is a long process. Only by winning in such small arenas one by one and constantly accumulating victories, you will have the opportunity to stand on the big arena.
5. Summary: As an Amazon seller, you are actually standing on the Amazon platform, using your own strength (operational strength) and weapons (products) to compete with other sellers. Before going on the field, you must know yourself and your opponent, not only the product, but also your own operational strength, and the strength of your opponent. You must also choose the arena (category) well, preferably a arena that you know clearly, where there are pitfalls in the arena, where there are blind spots, etc.
(PS: The recommended ratio of funds is 3:3:3:1. That is, 3/10 is used for goods in Amazon warehouses, 3/10 is used for goods shipped by sea, 3/10 is used for goods pre-purchased by factories, and 1/10 is used for some spare expenses. Don't run out of stock!!!)
YYDragon Agree with: rainco, mnemonic, zt0000 Now, to make standard products, you have to compete with the supply chain. If you go to a certain 88 website to purchase, the purchase cost will be about 20% higher than that of the suppliers they have cooperated with. Then, the sea freight volume is small, and the freight forwarder will give you a high quotation. Your first leg is 5% higher than others. In terms of cost alone, you are 25% higher than others. If you are good at promoting products and make the top sellers feel threatened, the top sellers will directly reduce the price, add continuous flash sales, and continue to use various methods to deal with you. You can either reduce the price and lose money; or accept the sharp drop in the number of orders, and then the low conversion rate, resulting in a high advertising fee loss. The 500,000 yuan in your hand is not enough for you to burn.
If you have 500,000 yuan and have good product selection ability, it is recommended to start private modeling and differentiate your products; if you are not sure about product selection, it is not recommended to make a large investment. It is better to keep the 500,000 yuan for your own living.
Anonymous user Agree from: yrl111, rayman, I'm really sorry I also started my side business on my own in the second half of the year before last, starting with 100,000 US dollars, and currently only have more than 30,000 US dollars. Although the performance is small, at least I have extra income. With a profit of 30,000 to 40,000 yuan and a return of about 150,000 yuan every month, I can still support myself. It mainly depends on the product selection and performance scale, which requires specific planning. If you have 500,000 yuan, don't think about copying the products and performance of the previous company, it will definitely not be enough. So it is better to choose good products. You don't have to be the leader, but each product can have a stable monthly sales of 50-100 orders, and launch multiple such products. In fact, it is achievable for a person with a capital of 500,000 to work alone, and you can also squeeze in whenever you can.
Anonymous user Agree from: FeiFeizz, Acesmida, XJX123 1: Use spot goods, set goals, and control inventory. There is still room for this, and it is the most reliable distribution model (it depends on the specific category)
2: Differentiation and minor changes are still difficult, and are not suitable in the early stage. I would rather make 10 models with 10,000 yuan than 1 model with 10,000 yuan, that's what I said. (If you are very confident, just ignore what I said.)
3: Look for it offline. If there are resources nearby, this is pretty good.
For small workers like us, distributing goods is still the first choice (in my opinion). You can refer to the company's selection of categories, but you have to find a relatively good strategy, otherwise you can't last long with just a little savings. When you succeed, I will learn from you.
Lin Gengxin Agree from: Kevin398, FeiFeizz, Jay Zhou Five hundred thousand is a lot, you should start as soon as possible. I would have started even if I had 100 thousand. The main thing is the payment for the goods, so product selection is very important. When the funds are insufficient, choose products with low value. Also, don’t worry about the higher cost than the big companies. Your advantage is that you don’t have to share the cost. Big companies make 10% which means they lose money, but you are different. Be brave and do it, come on! Butterfly Dream • Tianjin • 2024-08-30 15:38 100,000 is a big deal. . At the time when the long-term and short-term debts are inverted? I really admire the mentality of the southerners.
Dongdong Weird Dongdong • Beijing • 2024-08-30 16:33 @蝴蝶晓梦: What is the time for the long-short debt inversion to be resolved?
Don't doubt that you are right • Shenzhen • 2024-08-30 16:48 @叮叮怪叮叮叮: As market investors are pessimistic about the short- and medium-term market economy, a large amount of funds have poured into the long-term bond market. As the market demand for long-term bonds increases, the interest rates of long-term bonds have gradually declined, resulting in an inverted situation where the interest rates of long-term government bonds are lower than those of short- and medium-term government bonds.
Flying ice is sweet and milky • Guangdong • 2024-09-01 11:32 @蝴蝶晓梦: In fact, the overall environment and whether you can make money are two different things. If you don't have more than 5 million in your pocket, I suggest you pay less attention to national affairs. Money earned below 5 million has nothing to do with national affairs. If you have more than 5 million, just ignore what I said.
Butterfly Dream • United States • 2024-09-04 09:19 @飞冰走甜多奶: If you don't look at the macro, there are too few points to look at in the micro. If there are special advantages in the micro, it's OK. Otherwise, 5 million is nothing, not enough for one dive
Flying ice is sweet and milky • Shenzhen • 2024-09-10 09:09 @蝴蝶晓梦: Well, they are talking about an investment of about 500,000 yuan. Even with this amount of money, we still have to consider the macro-economic situation to invest. This is a bit of an overkill. To put it bluntly, people who earn a few thousand yuan a month love to care about macro-economic issues the most (I'm not saying you earn a few thousand yuan a month, big man). I also work alone, although I don't have as much as 5 million. I have about 3 million yuan in liquid capital and capital, and a monthly net profit of 60,000 to 80,000 yuan. I have a close friend who started his own business at the same time. He has made an annual profit of more than 10 million yuan. When they go out for dinner, they never discuss macro-economics, the Federal Reserve or national affairs. They focus on the company's product development, research and development, employee management and other aspects. In addition, Amazon has similar key merchant groups, which are formed by operations managers. The sellers in them must be the top ones. I have never seen anyone who cares about the macro-economic situation. Instead, those free water groups created by service providers are all concerned about national affairs, worrying about whether there will be a war or whether their money will be wasted. The above are all personal prejudices. If you don't like it, just criticize me.
Butterfly Dream • Zhejiang • 2024-09-25 17:14 @飞冰走甜多奶: This perspective is too narrow. So many successful people don't talk about the macro when they meet you. Does that mean they are blind and only focus on the micro? Or do you think it is unnecessary to talk about it when you meet? The interest rate has fluctuated by more than ten points recently, and all these are pure profits. You don't even look at this? Whether the Amazon market has grown or declined in the past two years, people in the industry have their own judgment. There were too many "entrepreneurs" who started their business by selecting products on 1688 before 21 years. Are there any more in the past two years? How many are there?
Flying ice is sweet and milky • Guangdong • 2024-09-27 11:12 @蝴蝶晓梦: Exchange rate fluctuations are fair. Is it that only your exchange rate falls, and others will not? I want to ask you that the exchange rate of the US dollar against the RMB has fallen recently. Have you seen that everyone has followed suit and raised their prices? Or has BS also raised its price? In addition, the fluctuation of the exchange rate has little impact on big sellers. The big sellers listed companies I met before all signed exchange rate lock agreements. I am not saying that they do not look at the macro situation, but that their macro situation does not affect their decision-making. Even if the media says that China and the United States will go to war tomorrow, their cabinets will still be shipped to the United States today.
Little R slippers Agree from: Cross-border wheat home First, take a small amount to immerse yourself in one product. The standard products of 1688 are basically worn out, unless you can find something completely new.
First spend a few weeks or months to select a category, analyze the data of competitors frame by frame, pricing and so on, and slowly find a breakthrough from it. If you can't find it, or if the category is monopolized, don't bother, just change the category.
In short, my opinion is that it is best to spend most of the time selecting products when making molds, and then start when you are sure. This can not only save costs, but also improve your confidence. After all, the most important thing is to have confidence in your products.
Flash Wolves Agree with: Aurorao, durchatmen, Zhang Langyang Five hundred thousand, ah, you should keep it for now. The market is not good right now, don't make a decision in a hurry, find a wife first. Seekers • Shenzhen • 2024-09-20 17:47 First, use public models to test the data of the category, and then open a private model after you have enough confidence. If you want to rely on private models to make money, it is very hard to make money. You never know that someone will have a lower price than you, and you have to keep improving the quality and launching new products. I strongly agree that the so-called private model must be an innovation in function or solving certain pain points. It is meaningless to simply use a different appearance and create a private model for the sake of private modeling.
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