Selling From the Beach Newsletter

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Writer

Selling From The Beach

Finding your FBA "Blind Spots" through practical guidance, coaching, and easy to understand training.

Independent Consultant

We help Amazon Sellers Audit their ASINs, find their blind spots, and make more money.

Trapped in a windowless classroom, I made one decision that changed everything.
In 2018, I was a high school social studies teacher.

Good students, terrible system.
No control over my time. No freedom to leave. No chance of real financial upside.
(Can I have the day off? This was a question I actually had to ask my boss)

My classroom didn’t even have a window. Just fake skylight stickers on the ceiling (like that was supposed to make me feel free).

I felt like a prisoner.
So I started selling on Amazon.

Fast forward:
I work from a laptop, anywhere I want.
I make more when I do more.
And I don’t dream of an “exit.” Why would I? I already won.

But here's the thing no one tells you:

Most of the Amazon advice out there is either outdated, regurgitated, or straight-up nonsense from people who haven’t sold in years.

I’m in the trenches every single day. Still testing. Still learning. Still screwing things up and fixing them — then turning that into value for other sellers.

That’s what Selling From the Beach is all about.

It’s a newsletter for real Amazon operators.
The ones who are actually doing the work.
The ones who want to grow smarter, faster — without the B.S.

Every week, I drop sharp insights, hard lessons, and behind-the-scenes breakdowns from real Amazon businesses (mine and others). No fluff. No recycled Medium posts. Just stuff that actually helps you sell more.

👉 Want to see what that looks like?
Subscribe here: sellingfromthebeach.com

Or join the private community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sellingfromthebeach

Amazon’s New Prompt Ads: What Sellers Need to Do Now

In this week's Selling From the Beach Newsletter, Andri Sadlak shared a tip on how to optimize for Amazon's newest ad placement: AI PROMPTS from Rufus.

I couldn't write out his entire guide in the newsletter. Too long. 
So here it is.

Inside:

• What these prompts are
• Why they matter
• How to capitalize on them (before everyone else does)
  
Want the link? 💡

1. Like this post
2. Connect with me
3. Comment “ANDRI”
4. I’ll DM you the entire thing

P.S. Sign up for the next Selling from the Beach Newsletter (Monday, December 8): https://lnkd.in/gbgawdKQ

Max Sigurdson-Scott

The ASIN Audit Guy | The Only Mission: Make Amazon FBA sellers like you more money & find your blind spots

Nobody’s reading your title.
Nobody’s reading your bullets.
Nobody’s reading your A+.
Nobody’s watching your video.

They look at one thing: your images.

Stop wasting time on stuff that doesn’t matter. Images get the click. Everything else isn't worth your time. 

Here's a brand that is absolutely DELETING. This one made me stop in my tracks. 

What they nailed:

• Fake packaging
• Heavy drop shadow so the product jumps off the SERP
• Ziploc pouch to trick the bots
• Six callouts
• Filled the whole square so it slaps on mobile

No packaging? Invent it.
No designer? DM me.
No creative team? DM me.
No energy? Drink a Red Bull.

Inspired by Oliver Bradley's post here: https://lnkd.in/gMGAUGm7 where he shows eye-tracking software of a customer only looking at main images in a mobile SERP

This is the sobering face of Amazon Seller Support

Here's an almost ~4 hour call to fix a catalog issue they themselves created.

Super reps are dead (see my post last Friday)
Support has never been worse.

Everyone has needs "trick" or "hack" to get to actually talk to someone with empathy.

"Call the Captive Team"
"Call the Costa Rica Team"
"Put in Chinese characters into your case log"
"Email a VP directly"

Meanwhile the bots auto flag your listings for random keywords and frontline support either can’t help or won’t help.

I know they’re trying. How could they not?
They keep saying they’ve eliminated millions of "root causes."

Great. Thanks. Why does it still suck?

And here’s the part nobody wants to hear. This is the cost of doing business on Amazon.

We grew Amazon Business buyers to nearly 20% of total sales (the green section of this bar graph).

Most sellers ignore Amazon Business. We didn’t.

We did the basics.
Got the 889 certification. Filled out the business profile. Set business pricing. Added quantity discounts. Those helped a bit.

But the real growth came from updating our Amazon Business placements inside PPC.

(Yes, you CAN target Business only buyers)

We started adjusting our business bid multipliers based on a target ACOS. You pick your target ACOS, check your current Business ACOS, and update the multiplier once a week to stay aligned.

Since doing this, Business orders have grown to nearly 20% of total revenue. It really all boils down to us just running more targeted ads directly at them.

And those buyers are worth a lot more then regular buyers.

• Lifetime value of $169 vs $28
• Repurchase rate of 30% vs 10%
• Units per order of 2.1 vs 1.2
• Fewer returns

No new campaigns. No tricks. Just better Business visibility and consistent optimization that compounds over time.

Want a tool to automate this?

Here's how to get it: 👻

1. Like this post
2. Connect with me
3. Comment "BIZ"
4. I will DM you in 10 mins or less

Enjoy!

Alex Hormozi told a story that nails why most people never see real results >>>

He once printed 300 flyers for his gym and got zero leads. Frustrated, he asked his mentor what he did wrong.

His mentor said, “Nothing. You just didn’t do enough. I test with 5,000 flyers and we hand out 100,000 in a month.”

That hit him. The problem wasn’t the idea. It was the volume.

You're likely A/B testing (I hope). 
You’re trying creative angles. 
You’re just not running enough tests to learn anything.

That’s where the super smart hack from my friend Kamaljit Singh in this week’s newsletter comes in. He broke down how to seriously scale your A/B testing so you stop guessing and start compounding results.

It’s a video you’ll actually use.

Want the link? 💡

1. Like this post
2. Connect with me
3. Comment “KAMAL”
4. I’ll DM you the video.

P.S. Sign up for the next Selling from the Beach Newsletter (Monday, November 24): https://lnkd.in/gbgawdKQ

I spend $6K/y USD to be in a damn Facebook group (that's like $1,000,000 CAD 😆)

Read that again. A Facebook group.

And it has the highest ROI in my entire Amazon business. And it's not even close.
The fastest way to grow on Amazon is NOT a tactic. 

It is proximity. 

Sit in a room full of people who are doing what you’re trying to do. People who already solved your exact problem. People who think bigger. People who make you raise your bar.

Asking stupid questions and seeing how others do what you want to do is the key to success.

There is a quote that hits this perfectly: "You need to find a group of people who are doing what you want to do. It is unreasonable to fail when you surround yourself with people who are doing the exact thing you want."

That is why I pay for this group. So many major breakthroughs have come from it. Not a webinar. Not a guru. Not from reading a newsletter every week.

Picture 700+ Amazon operators swapping playbooks every single day. People selling companies. People helping each other untangle messes. People hiring. The amount of money that group has generated...

If you’re stuck, guessing, or grinding alone, you don’t need another strategy. You need a better room of Amazon sellers.

Find it & Pay for it.
(and don't whine about the price)

"Canada Showcase" is live on Amazon Canada (I just found out about this one today).

If your product is made in Canada, you now get a clean little badge on the SERPs. It stands out. You can’t miss it.

Americans have been begging for a USA-made badge for years, and Amazon kept shrugging. Meanwhile this is the second country-specific badge I’ve seen in Canada. The first was an Italian-made one.

So what’s going on here?

Is Amazon leaning into the current Canada vs. US tension and pushing Canadian shoppers to choose local? Or is Amazon testing small markets before rolling out something bigger in the US?

Either way, this changes the landscape for Canadian brands.
If you manufacture here, you just got an advantage. If you import, you’re now competing against a giant “Made in Canada” stamp sitting right beside you.

Good change? Bad? Depends who you ask.

If you’ve got a Canadian-made product, DM me. Let’s talk about how to use this before everyone else figures it out.

I'll take "How to Torch Money" for $300, Alex.

We tested our Subscribe & Save coupons. I always assumed a bigger discount would lead to a much higher subscription rate. So we tried a $1 coupon, then a 20% off discount ($4.35 coupon)

The $1 coupon increased new subs by 135.1%. 
The $4.35 coupon increased them by 198.4%.

Sounds like the bigger coupon wins, right? Not exactly.

When you compare efficiency, the $1 coupon drove almost 3 times more subscriptions per percentage of discount. I gave away 4.35 times more money for only 1.47 times more results.

It confirmed what I’d always feared. The size of the coupon isn’t what moves the needle. Just having one at all is what matters.

If you’re running SnS coupons, don’t overthink the amount. Start with the lowest possible discount, usually $1. My MAIN goal isn’t to give away more margin at the cost of subscriptions. I want both (profitably).

Once they subscribe, retention and repeat orders handle the rest.

Data is what keeps you honest here. It’s easy to assume your bigger offers are driving better results, but the numbers don’t lie.

Run your own test. Look at your data. You’ll probably find the same thing we did.

And usually, having a SnS coupon beats not having one at all (but look at your own data, too!)

"Super Reps" I.E. Connect with a Specialist is officially dead. 

My single favorite program ever launched by Amazon is now as garbage as the rest of seller support. 
It now contains the exact same confused, unhelpful, and uncaring reps that DGAF about you. 

Up until a few weeks ago, this button gave you a helpful, empathetic rep (usually English as a first language) who really went to bat for you, would follow up with phone calls, and not rest until your issue was solved.

Now?

"I need to transfer that to the concerned team"
"Here's a copy/paste of an Amazon help page"
"Are we still connected?"

They're about as helpful as a screen door on a submarine.

I had written a post talking about how great this program was last year. See here: https://lnkd.in/gr2Syaw4

I don't know what Jenna Owens did, but it looks like she gutted it.
(Perhaps giving everyone access to it at Accelerate was a bad idea?)

Anyway -- got an Amazon issue? You're on your f-in own again.

No, I'm not getting sick of doing ASIN Audits (and I've done a lot).

Most Amazon sellers trust their listing way too much. They stare at it every day, so of course it looks fine. They already know what everything means. They remember why they made each decision. Their brain fills in the gaps and smooths over the rough edges.
 
Buyers don’t do that. They see the listing once. Cold. No context. No backstory. They judge it on what’s in front of them right now.
 
Ruh-roh.
  
Here’s what’s needed: someone outside their bubble who sees the problems they stopped noticing. That person catches the sloppy parts. The claims that don’t land. The dead images. And if they can’t understand what your product is right away, that’s just the tip of the iceberg (The iceberg of death).
 
You cannot run your business and act as your own strategist, designer, and analyst. When you try, you stall. When you get outside eyes, things move.
 
If you want direct feedback, real direction, and a clear plan to fix what’s holding you back, book an ASIN audit. 

Get the perspective you cannot give yourself.

The sad state of Amazon seller support, Scroll-stopping main images, Huge credit card bonuses & more

The next SFTB newsletter will land @ 10AM on November 24

https://lnkd.in/g9RrWizG

Inside:
• The Pareto principle in practice
• The longest Amazon Support call ever
• We're giving away Marsha's book (It's really good)
• A main image you absolutely can't miss
  
Plus…
• A ridiculous credit card bonus
• RIP Super Reps
• Andri Sadlak's super hack
• The Costa Rican update
  
See you at the Beach!

Sign up: https://lnkd.in/g9RrWizG

Do your VAs take way too long to finish simple tasks? 
I figured out why (by mistake).

(Most of my best discoveries come by mistake, I am not a smart man)

But first, a story:
 
My wonderful VA (virtual assistant) recorded a Loom to show me an issue with images on an Amazon listing. While she walked was going through the issue, she did something interesting to get to the image manager for the listing.

Here's the path she used:
 
1. Manage Inventory  
2. Click the SKU name
3. Click "Edit listing"
4. Click the Images tab

I’ve never seen anyone do it that way.
 
Here’s the fastest path:
 
1. Manage Inventory  
2. Find the 3 dots next to the SKU and click Manage Images
 
That’s it. This got me thinking: When you run repeatable tasks every day, this stuff matters. 
One tiny detour multiplied by 100 tasks turns into wasted hours. 
Have your team record their process and do a quick micro-audit. You’ll probably find time leaking everywhere.

One of my absolute favorite AI productivity tools just secured 81m in funding.

Wispr Flow is the best voice to text tool I have used. I use it on both PC and iOS and it saves me a ridiculous amount of time.

(Someone much smarter than me put me onto it)
 
My main use for it? I talk to LLMs.
 
LLMs do not care if your thoughts are messy or out of order. I just start talking to ChatGPT through Wispr Flow and it understands what I want right away.
 
It is also great on my phone when I am out and about. I talk. It gets the words, the context, and the spelling right. The accuracy is wild.
 
Wispr Flow has made it easier for me to capture my real thoughts fast and actually use them. It has made me more productive in a very obvious way.

Sorry if this sounds salesy, but how the F--- am I supposed to tell you guys when something is awesome?
 
If you are curious, sign up with my link and try it:  https://lnkd.in/gPAFKXZR
If you end up regretting the purchase, I'll personally pay you back.

The biggest mistake with Brand Tailored Promotions? Treating all shoppers the same.

The real power is in segmenting your offers so each group gets a discount that actually makes sense for their behavior. You are not giving money away. You are spending margin to drive specific actions.

Put another way: Pay MORE to acquire harder-to-get customers, and LESS to acquire easier-to-get customers.

Here is how I structure it:

30% - 50% OFF – New or Warm Prospects 
This is where you invest the most. These people have not bought yet but they are close.

Includes:
• High potential new customers
• High intent customers
• Browse cart abandoners (last 90 days)
• Complementary product remarketing audiences
  You are buying that first conversion, the same way you would pay a high ACoS to acquire a new customer.

20-30% OFF – Returning or At-Risk Customers
These are people who bought before but have not come back. They already know your brand but need a push.

Includes:
• Promising customers
• Declining promising customers
• At-risk customers
• Declining top-tier customers
  The goal here is to reactivate them without burning margin.

10% OFF – Existing Customers
These are your loyal buyers. They already purchase or follow your brand. You do not need to bribe them, just reward them.

Includes:

• Top-tier customers
• High spend customers
• Repeat customers
• Recent customers
• Brand followers

Brand Tailored Promotions let you match the right discount to the right audience. Do not treat every shopper the same. Instead, spend the most where it changes behavior (or keep it lean when it doesn't).

(As always, look at the data - DM Me and I'll tell you the tool I use)

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