199: Selling a New Product Successfully on Amazon

With Tim Angel, Founder of Zugu Case

Hosted by Kevin Mako, President of MAKO Design + Invent

Tim Angel is the founder of Zugu, an Amazon eCommerce iPad case that sold millions of units online. They have been perfecting the craft of direct-to-consumer selling on Amazon over the past 13 years, achieving over $30 Million Dollars in sales per year. Today Tim is going to share some valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on the power of Amazon, how to get started in selling a new consumer product on Amazon, and best practices for growing sales quickly and effectively soon after launch.

Here are the key takeaways from the episode:

• When he got the opportunity to build an invention business, he went all in.
• The only way you can fail is if you stop trying
• Amazon is an amazing platform for getting the best products a good chance in the market
• If you’re coming up with one product, it is hard to succeed on your own website, but it is much easier to utilize the Amazon platform
• Scale, conversion rates, and marketing are key!
• There are a lot of 4-star products on Amazon, so if you can be a 5-star product, you get a major advantage.
• Buy products from your competitors and see how to improve on them to make the best version of the product.
• Look at competitor reviews, and find out what people dislike about competitors and what they do like.
• Make a small order early on and then slowly make more and more progress.
• On Amazon if you are competing on price, there is a lot of competition, if you are competing on quality, there is little competition right now.
• Posting your personal story is a huge differentiator.
• Don’t do advertising until you have reviews.
• There are lots of ways to get early reviews, use those methods.
• Use your ads to let people know that you have a premium product.
• Learn the advertising system yourself on Amazon.
• A low-cost product is harder to sell because of shipping, advertising, etc.
• Focus on one product category and do it well. Don’t do a bunch of things okay, do one or a few great.

Tim Angel Links:

LinkedIn | Zugu Case

The Product Startup Podcast Links:

https://www.ProductStartup.com/

Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | YouTube

MAKO Design Links:

https://www.makodesign.com

YouTube | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter

Kevin Mako Links:

Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter

Producer: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories.