Personal advice needed with new online business

Hello everyone,
My name is Brandon Flanagan and I just started to learn more about selling online. Selling has always been a side
activity that I really enjoy. I started to buy and sell motorcycles and bikes from craigslist as a hobby. After getting hurt working at my last job I realized I want to sell products online and move this to the next level. Im reaching out to everyone with some tips for selling on Ebay and amazon. I have been doing extensive research on youtube,google, and salehoo. I would like to get some personal advice to get me on my feet. Please email at Link hidden: Login to view or reply back to me. Thank you all very much and thank you for taking the time to read this.

Hi Brandon,

You're in the right place, no shortage of advice and information regarding online selling on SaleHoo. I'm sure you will find plenty helpful info throughout the forum, but is there anything specific you would like advice on?

Cheers

Hey Brandom!

Welcome to Salehoo, if you're going to sell on amazon or ebay the first advice I would give you is to check and follow the competition of the product you are selling. Watch them, to see how they are sold and what strategies your competitors use. Also, you have to grasp the concept of profit and fees. In the link below you can read some advices and take them to lunch your business! Have a great sale!

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Hey everyone

I am also new to online selling and will soon begin selling on Amazon. I have done extensive product research and narrowed my first items to sell down to just a couple. I am in Australia and to be able to order from overseas or local suppliers, I have a nationally recognized business name. I have recently gotten a logo made for my business name from Fivver.com. I have just discovered however after googling my business name in many different ways that it comes up in a .net domain for a blog. Not sure why I never saw this before, but now I am worried about putting a logo with the same name (minus the .net) on products I will sell or affiliated with my Amazon sellers account. Has anyone been caught by this or do you have any advice?

I am in Australia, will be looking for valuable suppliers in Asia and selling on Amazon in America.

Thanks a lot for your help

Simone

Hi Simone and welcome to the forum,

Can I just clarify your concern, is it legal or branding issues with the similar name?

Hi Mark

Thanks for your reply.

I guess I am concerned with both of these factors.

Branding may already exist with my business name but I am yet to see it or find it.

Legally - although at this stage I am not looking to trademark my business name or logo (unless I do very well and want to secure the logo and/or name in future), I fear that because the blog was up and operating before me that they may potentially come after me for some type of Copyright or similar Issue.

I own a similar domain name to the one I found today which had my registered business name in it plus the word shop after it followed by .com. I may not even use it yet. Amazon selling first but because I paid to register my business name it seemed smart to secure a domain name at the same time for future use.

Certainly not my intention to ever put myself in any of these situations or step on any ties. I assume it must happen unknowingly to other people and businesses but now I'm a little unsure of what to do.

Thanks
Simone

Digital independence is very important in e-commerce business, What happened in my country is that the Business name or Brand registration is territorial. I mean that legally, if your business and your brand is registered in your country is legal for your territory.

If you want to start selling on amazon or ebay I think there isn't a problem since your store name is like your user name, and it can't be repeated by ebay or amazon policy.

I tell you a story that happened here in my country. There was a very old hamburguer restaurant with a big M similar to the Big M and the clown we all know. When the original enterprise wanted to open its fast food restaurants here there was a big problem since the BIG M was registered as the brand of a national hamburguer restaurant that have had many years in business in my country and was known for everybody here. Finally, the owner of the brand in my country had to sold the brand for a lot of money, but he was acting completely legal since the brand registration is territorial.

I hope this can help you a little.

Hi Luis

Thanks for sharing your advice and opinion and also for sharing your Big M story. Appreciate it.

I don't think I am in any trouble at this point and likely will not run into any with branding, legal or Copyright issues. I guess it's something to be aware of however as if not taken seriously it can make a business go bankrupt.

The blog I spotted with my brand and logo is in Italy so if I ever start selling over there also, I can always get another logo or brand name if necessary.

Thanks heaps

There are no serious issues legal wise. In this case that Luis has highlighted, and this stands in most countries (if not all) that I am aware of, a registered trademark takes precedence over any other local for of registration. So for example, if you had a registered business name with your local authority that in some way breached the registered trademark of a company, then they could pass on a cease and desist notification to you, requesting you not continue using that name.

If you chose to ignore it, then legal action could follow to enforce the trademark. You do hear of it happening, but it's usually when someone is trying to sail a little close to the wind in trying to gain mileage from a very well known product/service. It can be quite an effective marketing trick, but you have to be very careful not to step over the line or that's when they start taking notice of you.

So legally, I can't see any issue at all. Especially given that we are talking about a blog here, not some international fire breathing dragon. From a marketing/branding aspect, not great unfortunately. Individually as what can make you heard over all the other shouting voices and when your voice sounds like someone else's, then that can get confusing for customers.

That said, the worst that could happen is that someone Google searches your name and finds the blog or miss-types your name and hits the blog. So ensuring that you clearly identify your domain name is going to be super important to keep the traffic going to where it's supposed to. That said, the world of domain names is getting smaller every day and finding one that is completely unique from some one else is becoming a bit of a task.

So it's not something I would sweat about personally. Just be aware of it, make sure you concentrate on marketing your domain effectively and you should have clear winds ahead. Might be worth while remembering, it plays both well as well, if that blog is popular, then you may well end up with some miss-guided traffic hitting your site as well and who cares how they get there, so long as they buy something while they're there :)

Hey Mark

I hear you loud and clear. Thanks for the advice. If ever (touch wood) a company came after me for branding or Copyright issues and I didnt care enough about it, that is if I wasn't making significant money off of it on Amazon then I would just give it up and start again with another brand on Amazon. I am already thinking however that once I have made some money on Amazon with the name and found my true niche that I may end up ditching the current domain name I have and choosing a completely unique domain name with my niche title in it rather than a brand.

My brand/logo was more for Amazon. Once I am ready for an online store i think I will make some changes to be safe rather than sorry.

Thanks a lot for the advice guys.

May we all make loads of money online :)

Hey everyone I have another query actually regarding Inspectors.

I am in the process of looking for suppliers to source my product of choice and put my brand/logo on it to sell on Amazon. I have heard of people living in America having their Asian supplier sending a 'test' batch to their home so that they can see if the product and branding is decent what they expected. If so then they place a larger order with the same supplier and have it shipped to Amazon to take advantage of FBA.

Being in Australia however my situation is a little different. The costs not to mention additional waiting times and importing hassles of getting each test batch sent to my home here in Australia before ordering an actual order and getting it send to Amazon in America to sell seems like it could get a little daunting and time consuming. Thus I am interested in sourcing a qualified inspector. This way the inspector can go to my chosen manufacturer/supplier's site once my order is complete and make sure my order is exactly how I asked it eg: logo is accurate and clearly placed, barcodes are clear and individual and packaging is of Amazon's FBA standards.

Does anyone have any inspectors they can recommend in various Asian countries and locations? Also, is it possible to also pay inspectors to take pictures for you (quality images with their phones may do the trick)?

I am not sure the best place to source good inspectors without getting ripped off and having an inside job done (someone from my manufacturer ends up being the inspector and all my customers get dodgy products).

Thanks a lot for any advice

Simone

Have a word to Marie from Imex Simone, they are a Chinese sourcing agent. So they can validate suppliers for you.

One word of advice I would say in relation to test batches is to not be all your confidence in one batch. Try to keep your MOQ (initial minimum order quantity) as low as possible, even if you're happy with a test batch. You need to see how the product stacks up over multiple sales to really identify any issues.

What, if any are the problems being reported. How many, if any, need returning for replacement or refund and how well the supplier responds to you concerns about and products. These are things that will never show up in a test batch. Yes, you might get 6 good units and then make a large purchase and find that you're getting a return per every 3 sold.

Yes, getting a test batch is always a good idea, but it's also a good idea to remain cautious until you know the product and service inside out yourself and that only comes from longer term sales, not from any test batch.

Cheers

Thanks Mark.

Very true what your saying. Although I am yet to experience what you say I am very aware and concerned with it and thus will keep any initial orders small.

I will be sure to contact Marie too.

Thanks a lot for your help

Welcome Simone,

You can PM Marie here Link hidden: Login to view, I'm sure she will be happy to assist.