The E-commerce Leader

[00:00:00] Jason: if you want to start an e-commerce business and you don’t know anything about it, and you hear about retail arbitrage, it is a pathway
[00:00:06]
[00:00:37]
[00:01:07] Michael: Today’s topic is a behind the scenes tour of a new opportunity. Jason and Kyle are launching the sourcing school with Danny stock. So all about retail arbitrage. Jason, tell us what you’re up to here. What is this sourcing school with Dani Stockholm.
[00:01:20] Jason: Hey, buddy. Yeah, really excited to share news and details about this new membership program we’re putting together. Many of you will know, of course, Danny stock, he’s a legend in the, the sourcing and retail arbitrage world. If you’re not familiar with him, he, created legendary sourcing app, which is now called Omnia.
[00:01:38] Sourcing app. We purchased the software from him couple of years ago and rebranded it. And, Danny’s just a fantastic guy. He’s a co-founder of the legends group with Ryan rager. Ryan runs that now, on his own. And, but they had, 2, 3, 4 years or something like that, that they ran it together.
[00:01:53] And, He’s also the author of a book become an Amazon selling legend using retail arbitrage. And, what else? He coined the phrase and came up with the concept of Replens sourcing. So many people have popularized that now and built businesses, teaching it and software and other tools and supportive.
[00:02:13] Strategies, but he was the one who conceptualized and shared and trained people on that original work. So Danny’s is a fantastic guy. And he talked to us, I don’t know, probably four or five months ago about the idea of doing something that’s a little different and that would be, a membership group or a school you could call it that he’s going to just do, a lot of.
[00:02:33] A lot of, sourcing in real life. And he’ll actually, he’s going to go into stores and show his decisions and he’s going to use the Omni rocket pro tools, including the sourcing app and show how to do it. Literally like over the shoulder, Hey, look at this, here’s what I’m sourcing. He, cause a lot of this arbitrage game is that there’s a mystery to it where people don’t want to tell you what they’re doing, because then if you do it, there’s price challenges.
[00:03:00] And quantity challenges on Amazon. He’s just going to blast through all that and say, here’s a look at this, here’s an item, here’s the cost that I get for it. And, and walk through the details. So really excited about it. What else can I say? He really was hoping that this would be something that was an entry level, opportunity for folk.
[00:03:17] And so it’s going to be more, monthly recurring subscription amount. That’s very affordable. I think we’re settled on $20. For the cost or investment, you could call it. But hopefully that makes it, that’s, three frappuccinos a month that you’d save, and not spin and you can join the sourcing school, something like that.
[00:03:33] Yeah, it’s going to be very practical, very affordable, and it’s going to be an opportunity for him to really teach you what he knows. And we’re just really excited about it. It’s going to be the kind of thing where. If you don’t know what to do, and you’re not sure how to get in the game of e-commerce, it’s going to be a fantastic opportunity for you to learn from a real legit, honest guy who is very down to earth and practical.
[00:03:57] Yeah, we’re we’re thrilled about it. So there you have, it
[00:04:00] Michael: sounds really good. I have to say that, in a private chat when you’re preparing for this podcast, I said, oh let me know about it because I’ve got a couple of people who I think I should pass on to you, who, would benefit from it.
[00:04:08] And I thought what, I’m going to hear all about it online anyway. But, I’ve got people that come to me to do what they think they want to do private label. And then I say to them, what’s involved and. The winds can be big and the sustainability defensibility and, I know plenty of people who sold those businesses for six and seven figures.
[00:04:23] It’s a very real thing, but you’re not going to do it overnight. And for a lot of people, it really isn’t the right first step. I’m always really glad to know have good quality retail arbitrage training. Cause I just think it’s such a good obvious entry point, but people don’t hear about it a lot.
[00:04:37] I didn’t hear about the business model existing. Yeah, I’ve been selling on Amazon for three or four years. It sounds crazy to be now, but that was just a fight. So you don’t know about it. So why take us to 30,000 foot for a minute? Why are you actually doing this? And obviously Dan is a great guy.
[00:04:51] I understand why you’re partnering with him. What is what’s behind? What is the problem that you’re trying to solve that you feel isn’t already being solved elsewhere out there? Yeah,
[00:04:59] Jason: I think it’s a great question. I think there’s two or three things that are weaving together here that make it really interesting for us.
[00:05:05] When we, talked to Danny originally about buying the software that he had built, the reason I was passionate about. The remains, the reason I’m passionate about it today, which is in my own e-commerce journey. It literally was a full 10 years that I call my decade of dreaming, where I heard about online selling.
[00:05:24] I heard about a guy who had a website. It was a traffic school website. He had set up and he was making a thousand dollars a day. And that was in 1998. And I just was mesmerized and captivated. And. Literally, and I know people it’s hard to believe now, but I literally tried to figure out. Honestly with Lee with integrity, I was trying to figure out for 10 years how to sell online and I couldn’t come up with a product and I kept this loop, this endless loop of what about this product, waste six months on it.
[00:06:01] And it was a bad idea. And then, and I know I never even got to launch. I never even got to the market cause I just didn’t know. And, and that was missing. And I look back at that full decade of dreaming. And I just was like such a bomber. So when I heard Danny talk about retail arbitrage, and when I heard, when he, had said, Hey, the software thing was getting outside of his scope and his area of interest.
[00:06:29] It just, to me, resonated so deeply with the idea of being able to help people do an entry-level. E-commerce operation or our business model that is legitimate. That is achievable. That is not a big upfront investment. And the software that sourcing app does, the bulk of the analysis for you.
[00:06:50] And, and so that to me was the reason I’m passionate about it. Reason we continue to be passionate about helping people get into e-commerce with a retailer. But I’ll mention two other bits here that I think might peak your interest as well. One is, we’ve just recorded this last week with Chris green, the episode on the, the call in app and the episode we titled it was how would you spend a hundred dollars to start an e-commerce business?
[00:07:17] I don’t remember if it was you or Kyle, but maybe somebody’s first comment was, I do retail arbitrage, and then we went on to talk about other sophisticated and different things, but we just glossed right over the, I do retail arbitrage. Yes, of course you would. And so what I, and everybody would, if you want to start an e-commerce business and you don’t know anything about it, and you hear about retail arbitrage, it is a pathway.
[00:07:39] And, And so that’s, a second point is it is a foundational piece. The third point I’ll just mention is I was in a conversation with one of our partners and, people we work, we do e-commerce work for, we do run their Shopify sites and, and this person is a seven-figure, very successful seller.
[00:07:59] And the comment that he made. Was because of all the market volatility in pricing and in, these changes in cost of goods, businesses going out. He said in the next, season of, the economy, it’s going to be a better retail arbitrage opportunity than has ever existed because. Changes are going to what we’ve already talked about in this conversation.
[00:08:28] Price changes the radically going under a radical redo. What, like what’s the appropriate price we don’t know. And that means the opportunity for retail arbitrage is going to be just ripe low-hanging fruit. And I was really interested by his comment there, and I hadn’t put those pieces together, but it just made me realize, oh, if the economy really tanked.
[00:08:51] And stores are going out of business and, different things are happening like that. Retail arbitrage is going to be a great game to play and a business model that really you really can do well finding items locally and selling them online. So there you have it. Those are three reasons that I think I’m really excited about this opportunity and really looking forward to launching the sourcing school.
[00:09:11] Yeah.
[00:09:13] Michael: Like it, and I think there’s also bigger picture lessons to be learned from all these things that people get very locked into specific business models. And I think operationally, I day-to-day how to actually make it work. And as you say, not waste a decade in dreaming and getting caught up.
[00:09:27] Ineffective ways of doing things it’s critical to be specific, of course, but I think what can happen now is that people miss the bigger picture, I’m an arbitrage of one of some kind, using, on to, we say electronic means has been a very big thing for some top wall street people sometimes to the detriment of the economy.
[00:09:46] I think that some people back in the 1997, was it. I can’t remember who they were called miles and scholars or something that they were basically advertising tiny differences between things with a massive amount of leverage. But I guess the point I’m trying to make is, as a generic way of looking at the world and possibly as a specific business model, it is something worth revisiting.
[00:10:02] If you’re, have the prejudice item of hat sometimes have had, which is if you private label on creating a brand is a better business model quotes and quotes. And it really depends on the environment. Doesn’t it? Because if you’re a better business model, suddenly it has untreated. Economics, you might have to pivot quite quickly and you may have to think in a broader way about how to make a living as an e-commerce operator of the next couple of years.
[00:10:25] Jason: What you just described. I’m pulling in this other quote I heard recently, which is, I think it was this guy named Bernstein, who was the head of the American psychological association. And he said that practitioners, and this was in the context of clinical counseling and stuff like that. He said, practitioners, get in this thing called method, a lot methodology, methodological, fixation method, methodological fixation method.
[00:10:43] And, and and right when I heard that phrase, I was like, oh, that happens all the time. And that happens in my nonprofit management and leadership work that I do with our charity. It happens in business operators as you get your business model method fixation. And what they said is you get in your mind that this is the right way to do something.
[00:11:00] And then you work to optimize, improve and enhance. And we all do this. We w we lean into what we think is working and find that works and get feedback. And we can get this method fixation. And, to the extent retail arbitrage is not your current method. Do you need to go try it out?
[00:11:18] I don’t know. You’ll have to decide, but I can tell you one thing that, the people who do, lean into retail arbitrage and really learn it correctly. And invest time in it. They can make it work. My friend, Ron, I was talking about the man who’s packets conversation. He is the guy who, he was doing retail arbitrage, doing garage sailing.
[00:11:36] And then he’s his story is he was looking on Craigslist for garage sales. And then he, saw a listing for a business that was going out of business. Or this guy had two storage units full of action. And he went, he wrote, the check for buying all of it. And, it was an $80,000 profit that he got from that deal because he was looking for re for garage sales.
[00:11:57] So he could do retail arbitrage and he leaned into this deal and he had the money to make it happen and all that, to buy the inventory. But I just say that to say that, this methodology method, fixation thing is something for us to think about and really, be careful about because we can lose the forest for the trees.
[00:12:14] Too frequently,
[00:12:15] Michael: Yeah. I think this methodological fixation is very prevalent in a lot of e-commerce I guess, because you we’ve talked about this before, buy into some way of doing things. The other one is platform fixation that again, if Amazon works best and it’s certainly a very good starting point, and I know that’s what you guys probably focus on.
[00:12:30] Great. But just because I’m, as it’s been a great place to work, as eBay was years ago, it doesn’t mean something more suitable isn’t going to come along or that it won’t stop working as well. So yeah. So that’s a bit more about the specific thing that your specific problems you’re trying to solve, with Omni rockets or saying, you’ve got the sourcing app and then you’ve got the training.
[00:12:48] So what is it you’re particularly trying to do for people that, do better than the existing training out there? Cause it’s not like there’s a shortage of YouTube videos on retail. What is it you’re trying to do this, not well-served in your opinion.
[00:12:59] Jason: Yeah. Two different questions, for one thing for the sourcing school is the opportunity to learn from Danny on specific.
[00:13:06] With a specific examples. The training that happens out on YouTube and different places is, is to some degree, what’s the right word, generalized, because people don’t want to share their real examples of, re retail, arbitrage, product opportunities and, or it’s dated information. And that kind of thing.
[00:13:25] So the opportunity to join someone, who’s doing these things. In real time, like here’s today’s video, that kind of thing is an opportunity to, in the business raise to open the kimono was the phrase. I’m not sure I liked that phrase, but it’s the opportunity to say, what’s actually really happening.
[00:13:40] What is the specific thing you’re looking at right now today? How many did you buy? What did you pay? What is it selling for on Amazon? How much money are you going to make? How long will it take you all? All the actual detailed questions. Now the basics of retail arbitrage are so simple to some degree.
[00:13:58] It’s like golf, you hit the ball with a stick, to some degree it’s a simple concept, but the execution of it is where you get all of the success. And so that’s the reason why we’re excited in what we’re trying to accomplish now on the software side, the sourcing app itself, if you were users of.
[00:14:12] Your rocket sourcing app, we’d love your highest and best review on, the app stores, Google play store and apple app store, by the way. And, but if you use it, many people do over 10,000 people in the community now using the sourcing app or thrilled by that. It solves a lot of problems. It answers the question is this opera an opportunity to buy an item and sell it on Amazon.
[00:14:37] And it gives you the tools analysis and that kind of detail, many people, if you go read the reviews on an apple, in particular will say, this is the best sourcing app in existence. This is the best tool. This is the app that, you know it, we all use independent and we made that out. This last year, it’s now free to use.
[00:14:55] And, and the whole suite of tools, there’s four tools in the AMI. Rocket pro suite is the only $29. So we’re trying to make it affordable for the entry level e-commerce operator basically is what we’re trying to solve for and make these tools. Non-expensive many other tools that are out there. You end up getting into a lot of constantly, monthly investment.
[00:15:17] And that just wasn’t the way we wanted to approach it. So will that. Proved to be correct in the marketplace. I guess we’ll find out over time. We’re working hard to build a company, a couple reviews. I saw this last year that our negative reviews was, or your customer service. Isn’t good, but we’ve resolved that Christie and Abby, our customer service team now, and they’re making sure everybody’s happy.
[00:15:38] Everybody gets things sorted supported on the rocket dot, dot com is the way to get support. So anyway, those are the things we’re trying to solve.
[00:15:47] Michael: All right. And specifically then, is it the sort of thing that you would take with you on a trip to Walmart or something and, with out of your pocket and what sort of specific things would it, cause as you said, the devil is in the detail with execution, what kind of specific things would it do for people that it does, but then it’s obviously got a big fan base there.
[00:16:04] They must have a. Some concrete reasons
[00:16:05] Jason: why? Yeah. Two, so yes, it’s an app that you can pull up Google play or a iPhone app. So Android or iPhone, and you use it in real time in the stores evaluating specific product opportunities. And there’s a whole collection of data points that it gives you as you look at a specific product.
[00:16:24] And it lets, in essence, the details related to the Amazon side now, Sourcing app that many, when we did survey, where can we said, what app do you use for sourcing? The app that was used more than, the legendary sourcing app was, was the actual Amazon seller app. You can just, use the Amazon seller app.
[00:16:45] And it’s free. So we were like, okay, most people use the free one. And so we were like, how do you compete with free? You make yourself, you make your out free, first of all. And then you have a lot of benefits and additional, actionable, intelligent components in your tool that Amazon doesn’t have.
[00:17:00] And that’s basically what it is. It’s a full suite. So you can go to Amir, rocket.com and see the full list of. Software components that are in the tool. But that’s in essence, the, the gist of it. And it gives you an opportunity to literally take your phone in and start looking for products that have a, a big variant or a retail arbitrage opportunity between what you’re seeing in the store price and what you would see in the, the Amazon price or eBay, that kind of thing.
[00:17:30] And, so there you have it. So yeah, so that’s the way it works.
[00:17:34] Michael: Nice. But she wants to take this, I guess we’ve talked about, and it’s pretty defined really. So it’s retail arbitrage, it’s a sourcing school and an app. So I guess for those who are ready to get outsourcing, they need to get on the store and download the app.
[00:17:46] I was just literally doing that while you were talking on, I want to see what this thing is and get my hands on the detail. Yeah. As you said, that’s always where it’s. The difference, as I said, I love you all. We’d actually dissuasive golf. Hit the ball. Okay. That’s it. You’re done probably a hundred dollars, please.
[00:18:00] Yet. Obviously tiger woods had seven golf coaches, right? They’ve got a bit more to it than
[00:18:06] Jason: that. It’s harder than that.
[00:18:09] Michael: I wouldn’t know. The way I play golf, it doesn’t really advertise that it looks easy. Horrendously bad. Yeah, you’re right. The devil is in the detail and I think you’re, I can totally see why getting the flavor of, that, that tone texture and nuance of it would be really helpful.
[00:18:24] So this feels to me, like we were done on that. Are there any other things you want to talk about with retail opportunities with.
[00:18:30] Jason: Yeah, a couple of details. The, the waiting list is being populated with people’s names right now. So I’ll have a link. There’s a link on our email that I just sent this morning.
[00:18:40] Many people have seen probably, there’s also a link in the show notes here. I’ll add a link under this video in the lives where we’re, broadcasting and, Yeah. Get you on the list. The registration for sourcing school will open on June 1st, 2022. So if you’re listening this in the future, then, go check it out.
[00:18:59] The sourcing school.com will be populated, on June 1st as a top level domain until then we have a waitlist, that you can sign up for, if you are listening to this. And you’re like, I want to be on the wait list, but I don’t see the link anywhere. Just email support at AAMI, rocket dot. We’ll get you on the wait list.
[00:19:15] And then if it’s after June 1st, just go to the sourcing school.com and, you’ll see details about how to, sign up for the sourcing school. And we have some goodies of bonuses and give away some additional, pieces of value. And I think Danny’s book will probably be one of those and a few other things.
[00:19:33] So yeah, there you have it. I think that’s the basics. And, I don’t think I’m forgetting anything else, so yeah.
[00:19:39] Michael: Nice. All I would say to anyone listening, who thinks that they should be doing something very complicated and expensive is why not try something simpler and cheaper first actually selling anything on Amazon is not a common outcome for people talking about doing it or even taking a course in my experience.
[00:19:55] Because as you said, I’ve seen that so many times that I did that myself for a long time. That last decade of yours, where you go in circles starting to be perfectionist, because it’s such a big. Deal. If you get it wrong. I think what you need to do is remove the big deal to get it wrong piece.
[00:20:09] So if you buy some stuff and you sell it and it doesn’t, or you put it in Amazon and it doesn’t sell, but you’ve only got $50 in it. That’s no big deal. You just do it again and get it right the next time. So I think the low barrier to entry is deceptively important for actually starting with.
[00:20:24] Too,
[00:20:24] Jason: right? Yeah. Totally agreement. One for conversation. I’m glad we were able to talk about a good number of topics today, including the sourcing school, the Manet’s topic, Elan Musk, and all, but, fun times. Yeah.
[00:20:35] Michael: Yeah. That’s fine. Good conversation.
[00:20:38] Jason: All right. Thanks everybody for hanging out with us today.
[00:20:41] If you’re listening to this, on the podcast player. Then we’d love to have you give us a highest and best review. That’s how we know the show is working well for you. Give us that kind of pack and we really appreciate it. We want to bring you the hot topics and, the best e-commerce conversations we can, bring in and wrap our minds around for your success.
[00:21:02] And that’s the whole gist of the whole reason we’re doing the podcast. So as always, Michael, thanks, man. Really appreciate it. Thanks, Jason. Likewise.
[00:21:10]