TAS 153 – Expat Australian Ash Rex on Amazon Japan and leveraging video to sell.

Today I'm delighted to welcome to the microphone, Ash Rex. We've spoken a few times about you, you're an expat living in a sucker I think in Japan is that right.

03:51.76
Ash Rex
Very good Chris thanks for inviting me.

04:03.80
Ash Rex
Yeah, yeah, well I lived in a cycle for eight years I did Tokyo for 8 years but um I'm originally from Sydney I can speak enough. No one can ever speak fluently. But I can speak enough.

04:06.20
christof66
Yeah, can you speak japanese.

04:15.58
christof66
You know it's great to have you on the show. We've had a few chats you've spoken to me a lot about how you're using video how to sell in Japan. Ah, particularly using Amazon so they're the topics that I would love to explore with you today if that's all right? does that sound. Okay brilliant. All right? Um, let's get straight to it look let's have an intro like yeah I know you've given us a quick intro but what led you to this point.

04:32.97
Ash Rex
Yeah, sure sure I love to talk about Japan. It's great.

04:44.95
Ash Rex
Well I was working in finances Sydney and and one of my best friends moved to Japan and he strongly recommended come over so that's when the currency was really good so you can make a lot of money in Japan I moved over I was only planning to go here for 1 year but I ended up staying 17 So.

04:56.18
christof66
Um, yeah.

05:01.81
christof66
Held it.

05:03.80
Ash Rex
I got in early because ah the japanese invented mobile phone internet on I mode and that was making a fortune you could. It was a subscription model. We could charge $3 a month subscription. So I built out a travel phrase book with about 280000 phrases in Japanese and english.

05:17.73
christof66
Wow! yeah.

05:21.30
Ash Rex
And I also licensed the Oxford dictionary for the imode in Japan but it all got killed I came in at the tail end and it all got killed by um, smartphones on the iphone. So I got in a bit late on that and then then I made a tv show with my partner for Reebok and Fox.

05:28.67
christof66
M.

05:38.96
Ash Rex
Sports so we made a 20 episode yoga tv show that went across ah 11 countries into 20000000 homes then we then we build out a big Youtube channel this is before you can actually make money on youtube so they built a creator space in Tokyo we we filmed about 700 yoga poses for that. We launched all that but that was before.

05:39.73
christof66
No. Where yeah. Jesus.

05:56.70
Ash Rex
Before videos were monetized that Google didn't pay you money back then so we kind of went oh what's next. So then we made ah a video subscription app. We filmed our own yoga Tv shows and content. We licensed a Tv 20 episode Tv show to nagua tv for 2 years in a row and then we we create a subscription app.

05:59.70
christof66
Yeah.

06:16.10
Ash Rex
So you could download the app watch all the yoga shows in the app and we got up to about 1000 videos I think and then Amazon launched Amazon Channels in Japan now a lot of people don't know what Amazon channels are but when you're an Amazon prime member in America you can pay an extra $5 or $10 a month.

06:20.65
christof66
Wow.

06:33.19
Ash Rex
And and subscribe to a specific channel and they've got 150 channels for example, like Hbo Channel Discovery channel bbc channel there's all these different channels and I think they had 6 fitness channels now they're only lot you can only subscribe to it in that country. So if you're not in America with a.

06:33.93
christof66
Um, right.

06:49.31
Ash Rex
amazon.com account you can't watch it even if you're in Australia you can't watch it. You have to be in America so in Japan they launched 30 of those and um I got the fitness channel because I had all this content and more importantly because I'd made Tv great content because people watch Amazon channels on their big tv on their $5000 tv so it's not you can't put Youtube quality on there. You have to.

06:51.69
christof66
Yeah, yeah.

07:04.17
christof66
No. Yeah.

07:08.61
Ash Rex
Filmment in tv quality and because I started off making a tv show I I always focused on Tv quality content I never I didnt never did Youtube quality content so that allowed me to have my own Amazon channel thankfully and so I have ah I have a one thousand yoga episode yoga tv channel on Amazon.

07:16.30
christof66
Um, yeah, aha.

07:25.41
christof66
Serious man. Amazing.

07:28.50
Ash Rex
So I'm probably one of the only individuals on the planet with his own Tv channel and Amazon it's it's quite amazing actually and and then because of yeah and then because of covert everyone stayed home and started doing more yoga. Alright so so kind of went gang buses and then.

07:34.19
christof66
Ah, that's fantastic just in Japan.

07:39.11
christof66
Um, yeah going.

07:43.97
Ash Rex
I always had the goal of selling products under my brand name. So I trademarked my name five years ago for many categories and then I started launching my own products and then during covid um I was introduced I got stuck in Australia actually I was down in the gold coast and I got introduced through a friend of mine in New Zealand to this company called Swift point.

07:49.69
christof66
Yep.

08:02.28
christof66
Um, yeah.

08:03.65
Ash Rex
They Ah they make computer mice and they wanted to they wanted to end their relationship with their Japanese distributor who wasn't really innovative in the way they're marketing it and then they asked me to do it and um and we got the trademark registered and then I went I just went to town on video. So.

08:18.76
christof66
Yeah, yeah.

08:20.84
Ash Rex
What was exciting was about a year and a half ago Amazon completely changed and they went all out video and because I'd done about 8 years of video. It was really exciting for me. So I've been testing out every single aspect of video on Amazon to the extreme. Every single thing you can do with video I've tried it.

08:27.60
christof66
Um, yeah.

08:37.56
Ash Rex
And it's been quite a journey actually and from what I've seen I've reviewed a lot of Youtube channels I've I've looked at what everyone else is saying no one's talking about it. No one actually knows so a lot of the people out there on on Youtube and stuff who are giving advice in all these places they just don't have the video background and they haven't tested it all out because.

08:53.70
christof66
No.

08:56.77
Ash Rex
To test it all out is quite expensive right? If you actually had to make videos for Amazon ads. Yeah um, your brand store your product listing all the you know people can't test it out but I've already tested out Amazon with 1000 videos which list alongside products and more importantly I have my own production capacity. So.

08:57.41
christof66
Yeah, yeah.

09:13.30
christof66
Yeah.

09:15.14
Ash Rex
I've been able to produce a ah vast amount of video content for the brands I'm selling and test everything out to the extreme. So if I wanted to test something new out. Yeah I know exactly what works and I know how powerful it is and from what I've seen I've been reviewing lots of big brands on Amazon no one is doing video anywhere near.

09:18.34
christof66
So now now what? what? what works? Yeah yeah.

09:33.14
christof66
Yeah, well let's dive in let's dive into that but I want to start with your pair like why.

09:33.70
Ash Rex
What they should be doing and they could triple quadriple who knows times 10 their sales and you can give you a very strong comparative advantage. Yeah, let's dive in there. You go.

09:47.15
christof66
Would we as an Amazon seller. Maybe we set up in America or Australia or a few other marketplace. Perhaps even Europe but why would we want to go and start selling in Japan give me some good reasons. Um, yeah.

09:53.31
Ash Rex
Well, the most important thing is a very sophisticated mature market. It's probably 1 of the most competitive retail markets on earth Amazon japans about 10% of the market. There's one hundred and thirty five million people here in some accounts japanese are probably the richest people on earth maybe not the e economy is a big anymore. But just remember japanese and Net investors in other countries so that doesn't show the japanese gdp. So if you actually look at their net investment in other countries. They're probably some of the richest people in the world. They got one of the highest densities of millionaires on the planet Amazon has a very very very deep penetration in the japanese market I mean when I say deep I'm talking deep I think.

10:12.71
christof66
Um.

10:21.63
christof66
Yep.

10:29.16
christof66
Yep.

10:31.52
Ash Rex
You know prime members in America something like 40000000 or something I don't know what it is exactly but globally it's one hundred million probably thirty five forty fifty million in America which you know out of 350000000 people but in Japan there's only 135000000 people and they're probably easily 25 to 30000000 Amazon prime members now if each household has.

10:32.77
christof66
M.

10:39.70
christof66
Yeah.

10:49.13
christof66
That's huge me. Yeah.

10:50.82
Ash Rex
2 or 3 3 or 4 people that's literally every householder in the whole of Japan and they had some big competitors here but they've pretty much in the last five ten years crushed them and the main reason is and and this is the Amazon model is they have their warehouses out of the city where the rent the land is cheap and the rent is cheap.

10:56.00
christof66
There are.

11:07.18
christof66
Yeah.

11:09.70
Ash Rex
And therefore the rental cost is next to nothing compared to the the price. The products you can offer a disc a cheaper value whereas the retail the rental price in the big cities like Tokyo is just astronomical. So the retailers just can't compete um, the other thing is you got ridiculously fuss delivery times because you know.

11:15.59
christof66
Um, yeah.

11:20.52
christof66
Um, yeah, no.

11:27.19
Ash Rex
Ah, something like thirty forty percent of japanese live in Tokyo and and so all their delivery centers in Tokyo I mean some products you can get delivering 1 hour you can you can order a bag of rice and someone will go to a factory a go to a warehouse take out a bag of rice hop in a car drive to your house and hand you the bag of rice.

11:36.57
christof66
That's amazing. Yeah, ah ah.

11:46.28
Ash Rex
In 1 hour he's unbelievable and and the other thing is the other big thing is japanese absolutely love foreign products. They got a love affair they you know japanese um, it's 1 of the contradictions of Japan they've got a very very rich deep history and tradition and culture. But on the other hand they embrace every single foreign product on earth.

11:47.22
christof66
Yeah.

11:57.23
christof66
He.

12:06.28
Ash Rex
I mean they they love testing out foreign products. That's one of the reasons why they're so successful in innovating new products. They love everything and so the biggest brands you can actually Google it you can list the biggest brands in Japan and in terms of customer awareness and love affair. You know with brands you know some of the 3 biggest brands is Disney Ritz -carlton louis viton.

12:10.12
christof66
M. M.

12:25.57
Ash Rex
I mean they worship this I mean Louis Viton they were shocked how many people were buying their handbags. They couldn't believe it they had they had I met the head of Louis Viton Japan and he said they had no idea why japanese were buying it. They were the biggest buyers of louisu viton products on earth and they had no idea what they did to have had that success. They were completely dumbmfounded.

12:25.70
christof66
That'll dig a.

12:32.86
christof66
E.

12:43.45
christof66
Well we love we love their japanese well we love japanese products too right we love their cars we love their knives and there's a bunch of different things I've sold japanese products wholesaling some like toy squishies in the past year and my daughter picked them out. It's probably something I was spoken about in the show before. But yeah, my daughter was watching a video once on Youtube and.

12:44.30
Ash Rex
They went gangbusters. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah I have you.

13:02.16
christof66
She was running into squishy. She was about Eight or nine years old and um, just know these little squishy toys I had no idea what they were because I'm like my fifty s yeah so yeah, so I ended up finding out the the name of the company that was supplying well was selling these squishies and yeah, got in touch and started selling them and made about seventy thousand bucks in my first like six weeks or something.

13:20.17
Ash Rex
Well, that's amazing. Well, that's that's the thing see this is 1 thing Japan's unique compared to everyone else. Most people are the western people. They want the highest quality at the lowest price japanese don't think like that they actually want to pay a high price for quality.

13:21.71
christof66
Amazing in America.

13:30.64
christof66
M. Yeah.

13:37.15
Ash Rex
They're willing but you know why because they respect your artisanship they respect your skill. They respect your production quality and they're proud to pay you a high price for quality. So that's something unique about Japan people don't know I had a friend of mine and his cousin they had a a billion dollar nut nut company in America.

13:41.19
christof66
Um, yeah.

13:52.87
christof66
Yeah, yeah.

13:54.81
Ash Rex
And they told me that um they were selling premium grade nuts in Japan at 3 times higher than any other country on earth and I also um, met 1 of the biggest chocolate chefs on the world and he researched every chocolate market on the planet and he said the best market on the entire planet for chocolate was Japan.

14:08.60
christof66
Yep.

14:14.28
Ash Rex
They would pay 2 or 3 times more for premium grade chocolate than any other country in the world. So japanese pay for quality. So if you're selling a high quality product on Amazon look at the japanese market you might be able to get some abnormal returns and because japanese appreciate perfection. They want it to be perfect if it's not perfect. They will return it and give you one start.

14:19.68
christof66
Um, yeah.

14:31.84
christof66
Yeah, ouch.

14:34.10
Ash Rex
When I say perfect I mean if you're selling clothing and you got 1 little bit of stitching out of place. They're gonna return it.

14:39.63
christof66
Ouch, Okay, that's very very top tip right? there What about things like packaging because I know that the Japanese just go completely over the top with the packaging that they expect and and retailers provide.

14:47.52
Ash Rex
Well japanese yeah japanese probably had the most sophisticated packaging on earth I met once I met a guy to who was it I met this japanese guy years and years ago he made $200000000 making boxes for rolex watches. But he was making boxes for fake rolexboxes. Anyway, you made $200000000 I couldn't believe it. Yeah and their packaging is ah on another on another world. Seriously yeah, you got to get your packaging right? if you want to make money in japan you got to get your packaging right? You can't you can't half hard it you got to go all out.

15:09.32
christof66
Ah, come I got.

15:14.60
christof66
No, not a level isn't it. Yeah I've got to get to Japan.

15:23.50
christof66
Um, yeah.

15:25.37
Ash Rex
To the extreme on the other hand if you got a product and you're selling globally Japan's a great place to sort packaging I mean they got tin cans I mean for example I came across a company in Tokyo that sold tin cans for tea and stuff like that they were just full on artistisans they're like a hundred and fifty year old company. Just.

15:27.58
christof66
M.

15:34.85
christof66
Yeah. Um, beautiful.

15:44.97
Ash Rex
Specializing in Tin Cans for fatigue. It was out of this world. The quality their tins were just on another planet. You know the tin alone could be a product.

15:49.38
christof66
Ah, yeah, there's a lot of people sort of say that about Apple products aren't they you know and they they tend to hang on to the to the packaging to the box. You know the product comes in I tend to do that as well and I don't know why it's just it's just too good to throw away. It's beautiful, um all right? So we've we've talked about.

15:57.71
Ash Rex
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

16:08.11
christof66
Why we should be selling in Japan because it does it does sound incredibly attractive. But um, how the hell did we do it like what? how do you start selling there if you're you know if you don't live there.

16:14.72
Ash Rex
Okay, well this this is the most important thing. Okay, um, basically traditionally you had to have a company in Japan or you had to go through a japanese distributor and and either way your your margins are going to get cut down.

16:26.90
christof66
Right.

16:31.50
Ash Rex
You probably can't set up your company in Japan unless you're a big company like Guinness I know they did it and they had huge success. But unless you're really big. You just won't make sales entering retail is next to impossible unless you go through a japanese distributor the big japanese retailers. They will not buy from you because they want to have a.

16:34.74
christof66
Yeah, yeah, we're not going there. Yep.

16:51.00
Ash Rex
Ah Japanese presence and they want a company that they can trust will look after repairs returns warranties and stuff like that and and the the Japanese government wants. You know to pay tax properly So you basically if you want to go into retail. It's really hard to do deals that are going to make your abnormal returns.

16:55.82
christof66
Yeah, yep.

17:08.29
christof66
Um, yeah.

17:10.16
Ash Rex
However, with Amazon now you don't need a company in Japan and you don't need to have a bank account in Japan and and bank account in Japan that's another story but you don't want to go there but um, so basically now you can have a company anywhere in the world and sell through Amazon Japan right? You don't need a company and you don't need a bank account. But.

17:24.15
christof66
M.

17:29.41
Ash Rex
I strongly recommend a trademark and I'll tell you why every market in on Amazon the world is different. You don't know what people are searching for you. Don't know how people make purcha decisions. You don't know who your competitors are you don't know what their problems are and their needs are all right? So with a trademark. Um.

17:30.15
christof66
Um, yeah, um.

17:39.16
christof66
M.

17:47.89
Ash Rex
You can test out 20 units run some ads for one month and at the end of one month you get that search query performance data and that search query performance data from Brand Analytics will tell you exactly what people are searching for in that country for your product 1000 keywords and then.

17:48.30
christof66
Yeah. Now. Yes.

18:01.49
christof66
Um, no.

18:06.46
Ash Rex
Once you understand exactly what people are searching for for your product then you build your offer keyword backwards you can and then you can build out all your marketing content. You can build out your your bullet points your description. You can you know is it you doing onepack 3 pack fivepack black blue red you want to see what people are searching for.

18:12.48
christof66
That makes sense.

18:24.30
christof66
Cho.

18:26.11
Ash Rex
Right? I mean I saw what product um it was a fitness product and they had 8 colors and this was in America and then when I actually looked at search results. People were only searching for one color the other eight colors weren't selling and I was like well why we've been stocking it just stoping one color. Yes, we've done it and the other thing is you' got to do a competitor analysis. So.

18:32.20
christof66
Yep.

18:36.19
christof66
I Just reundant yet.

18:43.35
Ash Rex
What I do when I sell in Japan is the first thing I do is identify all the competitors and I buy all their products and I go through the purchasing process for that product I see what it looks like I see how it comes to me package and then I take very very careful notice of their packaging.

18:47.86
christof66
Nice.

18:59.39
christof66
Yep.

18:59.40
Ash Rex
And look at all the words they have and think okay well what what words on here. Do I need and that's because you know every kind of yeah on no on the actual packaging of the product. Yeah because you know every country has different laws and Japan's laws are quite onerous if you're in the food market or cosmetics market you have to go through a special importer.

19:02.40
christof66
You meet on the listing packaging or the listing all right I can yep. Oh okay.

19:17.81
Ash Rex
Who specializes in food or cosmetics. For example I think to get a cosmetics import license. You have to have a laboratory in Japan with 2 scientists you know stuff like that. So um, ah and so each industry is different. For example, you know if you're going and in cosmetics you're up against shoettta which is the biggest ah cosmetis managed fracture on earth.

19:20.52
christof66
Yep.

19:24.81
christof66
No Wow No I can.

19:37.72
Ash Rex
Your odds are very slim but having said that they do pay premiums for foreign brands I saw a cosmetic product just yesterday that had the big label on it made in Norway but that might be ah they might have just licensed their product to a japanese company and they put it on there for marketing. So the other thing is you got to have an import or a record.

19:39.37
christof66
Yep.

19:45.51
christof66
Um, yeah.

19:50.10
christof66
Yeah, that makes it yeah drop.

19:55.66
Ash Rex
Which means what you have is you have these companies in Japan and that they are liable for your tax and compliance to the japanese government and you have that that you have to ship to them. They have to sign that you have to have a power of attorney and then then you can ship it into Amazon.

20:10.61
christof66
Yeah, that makes sense too. Yeah.

20:14.83
Ash Rex
Bit of a pain now there's 2 kinds of and there's this's japanese ones and there's foreign ones. So I strongly recommend using a foreigner one with western people because it just your communication wise is infinitely easier but you know you just got to shop around on that. The other thing is you've got to localize in Japanese so.

20:26.79
christof66
Yep.

20:31.76
Ash Rex
I mean you got a lot of products in the market here that are in english and japanese actually don't mind that ah you'll actually see a lot of marketing Japan that has english slogans english words english packaging a lot of japanese don't care about that so you might not actually need to change your packaging. You might just just put a sticker on.

20:34.76
christof66
Um, like ah and.

20:45.50
christof66
Um, okay.

20:46.95
Ash Rex
Right? You can just put a sticker on over your your ingredients or something like that. That's quite top normal as well and that's the cheapest way of doing it. So don't think you got to have Japanese packaging if you get any bigger do it. But if you're starting out and testing you don't need to do it right? um.

20:53.60
christof66
That's a good idea.

20:59.31
christof66
So what about what about what does all these costs to get an import of record to somebody to act on your behalf to receive your items is that expensive.

21:07.57
Ash Rex
It all depends on whether you have to go through compliance now years ago I got the the exclusive rights to blackmail supplements for online sales they had like ah yeah, they had thirty forty products there's online sales not retail retail was with a big company called shinogi.

21:12.17
christof66
Um, and Wow yeah.

21:23.54
Ash Rex
And they never launched their products in 4 years they they told me that every single one of their supplements was blocked in Japan except for the fish oil that got approved. Even then we went through it took 1 year to get it approved 1 year to get the fish oil approved. It was not easy and then.

21:42.12
christof66
That's crazy. Yeah.

21:43.37
Ash Rex
And then then then something happened with the board of directors and they fired all the top manager and including the guys I were working with in Hong Kong and then the new guys just said we're not even going to do Japan at all by and that was that they werere gonna ship and then ironically.

21:49.70
christof66
No.

21:56.80
christof66
Ah.

21:59.11
Ash Rex
A big japanese company bought black mulls for fifteen billion or twenty billion or something it's crazy. They bought them out. So so so you know they got blocked from importing in Japan for 11 years and then a japanese company bought it. You know, go figure but get.

22:02.56
christof66
Crazy is right? but.

22:12.26
christof66
At the end of the day. How crazy is that.

22:16.72
Ash Rex
So the other thing you need to do for entering the japanese market and this is something I strongly strongly recommend is localize everything in japanese if you can, but more importantly, make video content because video's images. You don't have to have text on it. So you don't have to worry so much about getting the japanese wording right? and the sales pitch 80 I think 82% or something people on on Amazon now are buying from video so video is a very easy way for you to make sales the japanese without having to get the language right.

22:46.98
christof66
M.

22:48.77
Ash Rex
Because you can actually show people using your product you can show it in someone's hand you can show them eating it. You can show them on their plate. You can show it on their body wearing clothes. You can actually show it and you can show it in so many innovative and and creative ways that that's how you can make your sale in the Japanese Market The the only big downside. So.

23:04.21
christof66
1 1 of the things I just going to say one of the things that you spoke about earlier though was the fact that you've got this studio level camera equipment and you know four k kind of resolution thinking like is this something that we could be doing using our telephone or something like that like just kind of more cheap.

23:08.13
Ash Rex
Yeah.

23:17.69
Ash Rex
Yeah, so what I do is I break up my videos into 2 2 2 types I break up into the the conversion videos the video that that's on your product listing the video that's on your brand store your number one conversion video I try and film that as.

23:35.94
christof66
Right.

23:36.29
Ash Rex
High quality is possible because like I said japanese pay for quality and and what's their first test of your quality is a quality of your video. So for the for the converting video I film it in premium grade cameras cinema grade camera cinema grade lenses fully edited properly color graded properly. You know, just.

23:41.21
christof66
E.

23:53.58
Ash Rex
Blow them away with without video because that's where that's where they're gonna watch at and click by all my other videos I started filming on the iphone 14 or iphone 15 in what you call a native format and because a lot of people watching ah your listing now on on their mobile. So if you use the Iphone. It's already optimized for Iphone right.

23:55.91
christof66
Yeah.

24:09.63
christof66
Um, yeah up.

24:13.00
Ash Rex
And Iphone dominates Japan so you've already got a video completely optimized for iphone for people watching your listing on the Iphone. So it's already optimized for it. So you don't need to optimize it. Yeah.

24:16.70
christof66
Yeah.

24:22.50
christof66
You did you? You showed me some really cool videos as well that you'd use with some of the settings which you you spoke about on iphone 14 and 15 which I think was a cinematic mode as well. Which when we spoke a couple days ago. Yeah, ah.

24:30.57
Ash Rex
Okay, well I'll go into the video in a minute I just want to say 1 thing about Japan and then we can finish up on on how to enter Japan one of the biggest problems is and this is only a new law about a month or two ago I mean it was already in place but they're they're really cracked down in this and this is a real big downside to Japan now.

24:38.33
christof66
Yeah, let's finish off. Yeah.

24:45.45
christof66
No.

24:50.42
Ash Rex
You have to pay. Okay, you got to I don't know every country is different england it's vat. It's called v Australia's good services tax in Japan now you have to pay your 10% tax on the sale price of your product at point of import. So if.

24:54.26
christof66
That job.

25:08.29
Ash Rex
If if you're selling a thousand products at $10 each right? You've got to pay a dollar for each one of your products at point of import. So if you're in it's a killer. It's a killer and it's non-refundable and that means if you discount your price later. You're paying more tax.

25:11.70
christof66
Any and that's a killer.

25:27.30
christof66
That's right.

25:27.54
Ash Rex
You've already paid a debt the air. So basically I see it as a shot across the bow I see the japanese trying to crash Amazon that's the I see but what happened is what happened I'll tell you what's happened half of Amazon Japan now is chinese manufacturers and they've just dumped a whole lot of crap on there.

25:35.29
christof66
Um, well yeah, yeah, yes, yeah, that's right now.

25:47.22
Ash Rex
And a lot of them are just shipping straight from China and none of them are paying that tax and and they just like yeah.

25:52.59
christof66
But I mean hey can it can it work the other way though. Ash um, can you can you say that I'm going to sell these things for like a dollar each and only pay ten bucks for your thousand widgets or and then put the price up 10 Yeah and foot them and it's annoying. Okay, yeah.

26:00.62
Ash Rex
No, but if they ordered it if they ordered it later and then they find out they'll just block you from every importing again, you're banned but I need your business is over so you have to do you have to you have to ship some more samples so you got to get your shipping rights so you really you know you got to really know what you're doing in Japan now.

26:11.52
christof66
Ah, figured they thought it that.

26:19.50
Ash Rex
Now if you have a company in Japan you don't have to pay that 10% tax a point of import because your company in Japan has to pay the tax and your company in Japan has to pay a tax. Ah, it depends on how big your company is and it depends on your sale price and it depends on how flexible whether you need to discount or not.

26:19.68
christof66
Okay, so maybe there in.

26:32.30
christof66
Yep.

26:37.61
Ash Rex
And you know if you got a premium grade quality product. You probably don't need to discount ever. So it depends if you're using a global price if your price is the same in every country in the whole world. No matter what? well then you know and say you really got to know this you really really you gotta test it and you go to really know what you're doing otherwise that tax will just you'll quip your business So you.

26:40.79
christof66
Um.

26:47.50
christof66
Um, yeah, yeah.

26:54.11
christof66
Yet. Yep.

26:56.14
Ash Rex
Yeah I suggest going into Japan's small with small sample sets of maybe 50 units one hundred units getting the costing right? figuring out exactly how it works to the dollar finding all the pitho up holes you know and and your pitfalls and and just you know getting getting ah your logistics perfect.

27:06.62
christof66
Yeah, pitfalls.

27:14.66
Ash Rex
And once you got that right? then you can start scaling. Okay, sure.

27:17.72
christof66
Yeahp. Okay, I've got more questions for you actually I've got just quick one on the bank account. Um, that you mentioned right at the beginning of how to sell in Japan. In fact, you don't need one can be useful though to use so one of our sponsors for the upcoming. Um Amazon collective event in March is world first and they do have a japanese. Currency so you can get your payments received in Jpy which you can convert through the world First your world first account into your domestic currency so you can pay yourself or you can put it in us dollars so you can pay supplies a lot cheaper than allowing Amazon to handle a conversion. Yeah, the currency conversion that's number 1 number 2.

27:47.72
Ash Rex
Ah, right? That's very interesting. Okay I want to look into that. Thanks for that I use I use. Um I use wise myself and they pay me out in us dollars but the but you can't You can't get a virtual Japanese bank account. Unfortunately so you can only yeah, you can only get ah a us bank account. But.

27:52.15
christof66
Yeah, these these virtual. Yeah yeah, wise is is another another? Yeah, that's right? Ah yeah, yeah, check out welfare say they're really good. Good service. Um, 2

28:07.28
Ash Rex
Yes I have a look at that.

28:11.35
christof66
Ah, the other question I had just as well around selling on Japan we've got to create listings right now. The listings I'm assuming must but should be in japanese language. What are you recommending in terms of translation getting someone on the ground in Japan to translate your your english listings into into japanese or you know something as simple as jttpt or Google translate like what? what.

28:30.40
Ash Rex
Yeah, yeah, you see I've done this to death because my first business was a um, ah a travel phrase book with 280000 sentences right? I've translated japanese stuff to death and I know it's not about translation I wouldn't use the word translation I would use the word localization.

28:30.25
christof66
Which way should we go.

28:37.00
christof66
The.

28:46.10
christof66
Um, okay, okay.

28:47.46
Ash Rex
Now here's the biggest problem I'll tell you the biggest problem when you hire Japanese to do this stuff. They do exactly what you tell them to do not what you need to do and it's not about translating your English text into Japanese No, it's not is to figure out exactly how a Japanese person's buying.

28:52.84
christof66
Right.

29:06.98
Ash Rex
And then telling them what they want to hear to make the purchase. That's not translation that's localization. So you really have to get in the mind of a Japanese consumer and to do that You need a Japanese person who understands what people buy and then write it that way and that's why what? I would do is I would do.

29:11.18
christof66
Um, okay.

29:18.98
christof66
So.

29:25.30
Ash Rex
Like I said 20 units on Amazon run it for a month. Get your search query performance data get your top search terms. Get your keywords from your ads you know run ads ah ah across category and see what ah see what people click on look at your competitor, get your top 50 competitors.

29:38.36
christof66
Yeah.

29:43.78
Ash Rex
Analyze all their titles look at all their keywords look at all their bullet points just look at the whole holistic marketplace for your brand and then write out your title and bullet points to be competitive to have you know that sales solution if you go in there thinking? Oh just translate it now you're gonna fail 100% you'll fail because.

29:56.56
christof66
Um, yeah, yeah up. Yeah.

30:03.75
Ash Rex
You use the wrong word I mean often what the word translated is actually not the word japanese search for because japanese have you know 3 languages they got hitaganner footoggannna they got the japanese chinese characters then they got a japanese reading of the chinese character and then they got a chinese reading the chinese character. Yeah.

30:11.78
christof66
Camera.

30:20.31
Ash Rex
Unless you know exactly how they think and what they're searching for you. You get it wrong and and what I've seen is with Trans Yeah, the translators. Yeah.

30:24.37
christof66
That's probably what I well what I was when I was selling on Amazon Japan a few years but many years ago now and I didn't exactly what you said I put in ah, an order of 50 units just to give it a try and I just failed music really mainly because I use Google translate to to translate the listings because I'm slack.

30:38.98
Ash Rex
Yeah, just I just want to emphasize one point if you just put 50 units in there without the trademark. You don't get the data. So bottom line if you're going in Japan you're going to have to spend a thousand a thousand five hundred dollars paying for the trademark I mean if you're not willing to spend that. Yeah I wouldn't yeah.

30:40.16
christof66
It it Just't work. Yeah, and you need to try back.

30:54.27
christof66
Well well quick.

30:58.41
Ash Rex
If you're to see here I Just test that where you can you can, but you won't get any of the data and without the data you can't localize anything I mean you could analyze it competit to titles. Yeah.

31:01.52
christof66
Look You can you? you can now I was just going to say ma that you can apply your foreign trademark into the through brand registry onto the Japanese Marketplace So and you know you can You can.

31:14.37
Ash Rex
Oh I didn't know that Well, that's great if you can do that. Definitely do that.

31:20.50
christof66
Yeah've I've released videos about this but you can um, you can get a trademark self-service from ah ip Australia here in Australia which costs 250 Australian dollars which includes the Gst which is nothing I mean it's about 180 us bucks or probably even less now. Um. And I've used my australian trademarks to get brain registry not only in the us but also the Uk and I can't imagine it be any different for Japan's a yeah, it's fine top to yeah, yeah, totally actually upfront cost. Yeah.

31:38.74
Ash Rex
Wow oh that's fantastic. Well if you can do that. Definitely do that anything that reduces your cost of entry to test it. Yeah, do it because yeah, the last thing you want to do the last thing you want to do is spend 5 10 grand. Testing out Japan to find. It's not worth it and you scale well I just b blet 5 10 grand for nothing. You know I mean Japan if you get it right? It can be just a breeze if you get it wrong if if you don't know what you're doing. It's a quagmire you get stuck and you just you'll do your head in seriously if you really know exactly what you're doing you can you can just go in there.

31:54.71
christof66
Yeah.

32:04.57
christof66
Yeah.

32:12.90
Ash Rex
Nice and fast tested that. Okay this is good. This is bad. You know it all depends on what your competitors are doing but look I strongly recommend testing it with video and getting that trademark. But if you don't know the trademark you can still look at all you competit to titles or you compare it to bullet points. You can still look at the top search terms. That's that's a goldmine right? there top search terms because that has every single.

32:15.35
christof66
Nothing Yeah I was good.

32:23.86
christof66
No.

32:32.82
Ash Rex
Keyword that anyone's ever searched for so you can do that and and you can use the Google translate on the search terms and that's very accurate I did that all the time so you can do that. So if you at a minimum I'd be looking at your competitor lineup and looking at at and and how they present and sell their product I do that.

32:33.10
christof66
Yes.

32:44.24
christof66
Yeah, yeah, quick question as well. Just on. Ah, what was my question going to be I have to chop this bit out.

32:50.74
Ash Rex
That's very valuable information.

32:58.29
christof66
Um, ah yeah tools. So yeah I should know the answer to this but does helium 10 work. You know those sort of tools like helium tens on guru jungle scout. Do they work? are they useful for the japanese market. The ones that we're kind of used to and other marketplaces.

33:10.90
Ash Rex
Well I when I first started out I tested them loud and none of them did having said that I know they're getting more advanced on all the time I haven't tested them out the last couple of years maybe they do I'm a little bit skeptical but.

33:19.30
christof66
Yeah.

33:27.68
Ash Rex
You know I don't want to speak on their behalf and I don't want to say they're a bad product or anything like that. They're probably amazing. They probably do work I have seen on some foreigns that people do say they work I personally for Japan because the language is so unique and the search they don't use. Ah the alphabet.

33:30.50
christof66
Me.

33:43.70
christof66
Yeah.

33:45.64
Ash Rex
This search they use japanese characters I I feel a lot safer just ah, analyzing the data that Amazon gives me so you know the search query performance. The top search terms the ad the ad search terms the competitor titles all those oh yeah, yeah.

33:53.25
christof66
Yeah, fair enough? Yeah, um.

34:02.56
Ash Rex
Um, this this another really valuable one. The suggested search terms of of um the suggested search terms and those 5 big ones they should give you enough to know you got to understand the the american market has 300000000 products or something the japanese market doesn't right? so.

34:04.85
christof66
Yes, yeah.

34:19.82
christof66
Um, yeah, yeah.

34:20.73
Ash Rex
It's a lot smaller so you can actually manually search it analyze it a lot better right? and you only and and you'll probably find the top 10 products make all the so anyway. So you're not, you're not having to search study the mice so I give an example so I got the computer mouse. There's 830 mice for salon on names on Japan but.

34:30.20
christof66
Yep.

34:39.12
christof66
Um, yeah.

34:39.66
Ash Rex
There's only you know 5 or 10 brand names right? So then the other thing I'd look at the other thing I'd actually the first thing I'd ever always look at is I look at the brand stores make a list of all the brand stores in your category and look at how they've presented their brand stores and just look at that and think have they done a good job or is it a joke if it's a joke I can crash them and compete with them.

34:49.12
christof66
Yeah.

34:57.44
christof66
Yeah.

34:59.41
Ash Rex
If it's like you know Sony's brand store and it's like all the bells and whistles will then you know good luck. Good good luck going against ah you know good luck going against the titans of of japanese commerce I wouldn't I wouldn't recommend that I wouldn't recommend going up against she said I makeup you're not gonna win. They're gonna annihilate right.

35:02.80
christof66
Ah, it's gonna be tough. That's great tough. Yeah, that's ah.

35:13.73
christof66
Now you don't come. Yeah, fair enough. Yeah.

35:17.74
Ash Rex
If you got something a niche product and it's a high value product and you and you think the demand is there all right? I'll give you examples so with with a mouse. It's a travel mouse and in the west they were marketing it as a travel mouse. It's a very small mouse and and all their're packaging everywhere the travel mouse when I actually looked at the search crew performance and on Japan for travel mouse.

35:27.40
christof66
And yeah.

35:33.38
christof66
And.

35:35.99
Ash Rex
There were 16 people searching travel mouse that month so I had to well for my product. It was ergonomic mouse it was yes oh small mouse small mouse and ergonomic mouses and my big ones and mine's also a presentation clicking present presentationally so you know.

35:39.78
christof66
That's not much so what were they searching for what other Japanese searching for when in relaxing small man. Yeah, they get yeah.

35:55.12
Ash Rex
But the first six months I was like oh yeah, it's a travel mouse. Yeah and I was doing ah and then I finally looked it went on. You know why did I translate why did I translate travel mouse see. It's not translation. It's localization. What a build. Okay I'm going to leave you with one last sentence in this build your offer keyword.

35:58.22
christof66
Ah, yeah, actually yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, not that mental the experience all right? yeah.

36:15.13
Ash Rex
Backwards Go backwards give people exactly what they want and that goes for every country in the world. Okay, let's move on.

36:17.13
christof66
Okay, was good point well made. Yeah, perfect all right. Let's talk about video because I know you're champing at the bit to talk about this.

36:28.60
Ash Rex
Yeah, well I'm gonna keep it really concise I wanna give people a lot of value and just ah, tell you how it is and and what's possible I mean that's the question. What's possible. That's what everyone needs to know and so I said to you before design your design your offer keyword backwards. It goes the same with video design your video.

36:38.10
christof66
Um, drop.

36:43.25
christof66
Um, yeah.

36:45.77
Ash Rex
Keyword backwards what? you'd need to do is look at all your keywords break it into keyword groups. So if I take the mouse I can have a presenter mouse an ergonomic mouse a small mouse I can have ah an ipad mouse. That's 4 categories of of keywords I can have a different video for each category right? so.

36:55.66
christof66
Yep.

37:00.33
christof66
Yeah, ah.

37:03.76
Ash Rex
Design your video keyword backwards right? because at the end of the day you're trying to visually convince someone to buy your product based on exactly what they want or need right? so.

37:14.65
christof66
That's right? So you don't want to shotgun it right? You don't want to try and be everything to everybody.

37:17.10
Ash Rex
No, no, no the biggest mistake I see is everyone just has one video I looked up Mr. Beast the biggest Youtube on earth he he's probably the most sophisticated guy making video on the planet right? He's may he's got 230000000 followers and he's made I think he posted yes a couple of days ago he made $50000000 in a year

37:20.20
christof66
In.

37:29.77
christof66
Um.

37:36.35
Ash Rex
Right? He's got his feastables chocolate on Amazon amazon.com and if you search for you know, dark milk chocolate or something like that. He's got one video ad film on his phone. Oh like why don't you have a hundred video ads like who I won so what I do is is.

37:36.63
christof66
Jabe.

37:46.10
christof66
Um, it.

37:51.10
christof66
Yeah, or.

37:55.59
Ash Rex
The the way it all works is this the algorithm on Amazon will test out all your video for you. So don't make the the fatal assumption of making one video everyone tries to just make one video. You don't know what customers are goingnna gel with you don't know what what's going to resonate with them. You don't know what they're going to click on why have one video.

38:08.68
christof66
Yep.

38:15.16
Ash Rex
And even if you do have one video right? There could be 10 different ways. You edit that one video so you could edit the shots in 10 different ways. So that one video is actually 10 videos so you can test out 10 versions of 1 video right? So don't just have one video. Don't be a sharp. Don't do that. You're missing out on. Yeah, you're missing out on the goldmine of video.

38:23.19
christof66
Um, yeah, that's my yeah jump that drop.

38:34.89
Ash Rex
Right? And and I've I've glled down to this simple Slogan create video assets that generate cash if your video doesn't generate cash. It doesn't make the sales to get rid of it create video as its to generate cash and that requires a lot of testing. Okay.

38:47.61
christof66
Um, yeah.

38:53.44
Ash Rex
So let let me just quickly break it down. There's some different types and videos for Amazon you got the sales conversion video. That's the one I like to make ultra high quality. That's the one I film in cinema grade cameras. That's the one I use the top lenses and the proper color um color grading and all that the sales conversion video right? Then you got lifestyle videos.

38:53.46
christof66
Yeah.

39:09.44
christof66
Filters and things. Yep.

39:12.88
Ash Rex
I usually don't put any text on these just have people using your product see when when someone buys something on Amazon they want to know how they're going to use it and and I showed this to a few people and one of my friends said to me, you know you're the first videos I've seen with actual product in the hand and you're showing up close how I'm actually using it.

39:16.65
christof66
Yep.

39:20.37
christof66
M.

39:28.88
christof66
Yeah.

39:30.90
Ash Rex
So with your lifestyle videos I like to break it up into 2 styles. You got the closeups and you got the wide shots so I try and alternate wide shot close up wide shop close up wide shots. So I sell the lifestyle but I also demonstrate the product at the same time. The third one is yaa it's clever. You don't just focus on one or the other don't just do the close-ups.

39:44.52
christof66
That's clever. Yeah.

39:50.29
Ash Rex
Without the lifestyle. Don't just do the low lifestyle without the closeups I've seen people do that they do the lifestyle and then I'm like well what's your product I can't see it right? So you know let people see it being used and then the third one is instructional videos and troubleshooting. So I typically put those into the premium a plus content or in the brand store.

39:54.44
christof66
Um, got.

39:56.48
christof66
Yeah, yeah, makes it yeah right. Yeah, fair enough you know.

40:08.54
Ash Rex
So you don't want people having to go oh what's my problem or how do I connect with Bluetooth or how do I do this or how do I change the battery. You don't want them to go into your website and stuff or having to go to Google and search it. No let them watch the video before they even buy the product. But.

40:13.86
christof66
Yeah.

40:21.92
christof66
Yeah, that's right? yeah.

40:25.15
Ash Rex
And so your instructional videos are a type of sales video as well. So you know make them. but but I'll give you one piece of advice with instruction troubleshooting be really concise. Do not waste. People's time. Don't don't make a two meter video for what you can show people in 30 or 20 seconds just be.

40:30.80
christof66
Um, you know.

40:41.61
christof66
Yeah, ah, ah, just let me jump in for a second because I it reminds me of a story I used to have a client when I was in the Seo world which we were talked about earlier. Um that was crumplerbags.com

40:41.85
Ash Rex
Just straight to the point Kakaka Kaka this is how I use it.

40:53.71
Ash Rex
Yeah.

40:54.75
christof66
Okay, so they sell the famous couple of bags I I think they originally started in Melbourne um, they hired a new general manager. This guy called Sam forgot me sir I'm sorry Sam if you're listening probably not and he was one of the head of head of he was a head of marketing at Apple.com so I used to work alongside jobs and. And at that era when they released the first iphones and when the iphone was released before the iphone was released. They did a lot of demonstrations. So these demonstration videos that you're talking about how to use it how to swipe how to pinch how to do all the yeah, the usual kind of screen things. When everybody was lining up at the stores when the day of the launch came you know the buzz was huge. They actually had an internal Amazon Amazon team Apple team with videos ah videographers that were walking up and down the queue asking people and interviewing people in the queue that were ready to buy the phone How do you zoom in on something and they were actually visually kind of pretending. They had the phone and zooming and swiping and doing like stuff so they actually trained their consumers or the you know people about how the product was to be used before they even released it but just to to that point. Yeah, interesting story.

41:51.36
Ash Rex
That's right.

41:59.80
Ash Rex
Yeah, that's right, that's right and this this goes back to costs you know, reducing cost to increase increase your profit line every time that you're doing customer support. You're spending money and time and the whole point of doing your Amazon business is not to spend any time on customer support. Get it right at the start.

42:15.78
christof66
Um, actually as you got.

42:17.46
Ash Rex
So what I do is every single time you get a question a new a new troubleshooting or instructional question and you don't have a video for it. Answer it make a video for it. Put it on your listing and then you can just say when someone emails it here's a video right? and and so that's a work in process because you don't know what problems are going to have people are going to have and what questions are going to have.

42:21.87
christof66
Um, yeah, yeah, absolutely yeah, yeah, that is a great.

42:35.86
Ash Rex
The next one is ah yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no, it's fine. Nice. It's fine.

42:37.50
christof66
Hey all right? That's a really good point i' keep interrupting you I don't mean to but um, it just I got a strike while it's it's in my mind one of the things that we encourage our clients to do as well is you know the Q and a section on every single listing people ask questions about your product that is a perfect opportunity for you to shoot a video and get more video content onto your.

42:48.71
Ash Rex
Yeah.

42:56.75
christof66
Um, onto your listing number 1 but you can also get friends and family to ask questions. Um, and that's perhaps not t os friendly or approved. But you know like you can do it? Um, perhaps if you're listening in 5 years time don't do it I don't know. But so and then you can shoot the videos and just get more content on that way too.

43:00.76
Ash Rex
Yeah.

43:11.45
Ash Rex
Yeah, well, that's the next one the next type of video is testimonial and that's um, where people actually talk about using the product now this is ah is a fine line between fake and real right? How do you make it as real and authentic as possible because.

43:16.40
christof66
Oh.

43:21.67
christof66
And yeah.

43:27.49
Ash Rex
Ultimately Social proof is the number one way to make any sale and how do you make the most authentic social proof videos you can get and the only way to do that is to have authentic social proof videos get people to use your product and be honest and if the video is great use it if it's not they use it right.

43:29.57
christof66
You.

43:36.16
christof66
Yeah, yeah, can if I could.

43:44.29
christof66
That's single. Yeah.

43:44.62
Ash Rex
But make your product so good that people actually genuinely like it and then and you know don't kid yourself because you know this is the delusion. Some people have oh my product is what people want? No, it's not my product quality is great. No, it's not and I'm gonna keep selling it and pumping in money in time and effort to sell this when actually I'm just not good enough improve your product.

43:53.62
christof66
You.

44:00.76
christof66
Yeah, yeah.

44:03.94
Ash Rex
If you got a 1 star fix your product make it so that people give you 5 stars and then you'll get the best testimonials right now I looked at the company called smarts suiteite. They sold their gummy candy for three hundred and eighty million dollars the company and I went to their brand store and I went to their best selling product. It's actually not there now they removed it I don't know when.

44:10.92
christof66
Um.

44:16.39
christof66
Better me.

44:23.57
Ash Rex
About eight weeks ago and I looked at the best selling product and on their product listing. They had 6 videos. The first video was their sales conversion video the next 5 videos were testimonial videos on their product listing I didn't even think it was possible. Maybe it's not because it's all been removed now. But I saw it there and I was like wow.

44:37.54
christof66
Yeah, it.

44:41.65
Ash Rex
So you know here's a company that sold for sold their business for $380000000 you know as sophisticated as you can get into America they probably had all the biggest ad agencies in the whole of America help on them and on their product listing. The first video was a sales conversion video high end sales conversion advertisement the next 5 videos were testimonials.

44:46.41
christof66
Yep.

44:50.15
christof66
A.

45:00.28
Ash Rex
They probably went out and made 3 or 400 testimonials and then choose the best 5 converting ones they're actually called native ads native ads are filmed on your phone. The lighting can be bad. The audio can be bad. Everything can be a bit off, but it looks as authentic as possible because it is so the the next type of video is you upsell video.

45:00.60
christof66
Yep. Yeah, most convincing and yes.

45:13.96
christof66
Um, yeah, yeah, let's do.

45:19.24
Ash Rex
Now upsell videos can go on your brand store and at the bottom probably the last line of your premium a plus content in your upsell video. That's where you sell your bundle pack. That's where you sell that's where you see your multipack. That's where you sell you all your bills and whistles and add-ons. So yeah, the upsell video is where you make your mega bucks so instead of getting $20 a year and a hundred dollars

45:23.80
christof66
That.

45:33.39
christof66
Um, yeah, yeah.

45:36.65
christof66
Yeah, that's that's right.

45:38.71
Ash Rex
You know because if you upsell videos on your product listing and you're advertising your product listing if you spen $2 for a clickque and they go to your product listing and instead of saying a $20 sale you're making $100 sale you've spent $2 in an ad on a ad click to make $100 sale instead of a $20 sale same as Mcdonald's you walk into Mcdonald's.

45:44.25
christof66
Yeah, yeah.

45:53.22
christof66
Yeah, yeah, sure yeah would you like for us. Yeah yeah.

45:57.21
Ash Rex
They say hey do you want to upgrade to a big coke you know or big fries and that's how they make all their money. Mcdonald's makes all their money. So you know I think like if don't think you're better than Mcdonald's join them right to have your upsell have your upsell and that's where virtual bundles are so good now if you have your virtual bundles.

46:06.93
christof66
Yeah, that's right, join That's right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're done right? Yeah, it's been fantastic. Yeah, love it. Let's go to.

46:16.60
Ash Rex
Um, listed and then at the bottom you have your upsell video selling those virtual bundles. That's how you want to do it. Okay and then the last one is reviews This is one I think a lot of people miss. So everyone else goes out and they use vine and all that stuff to get reviews. But here's the thing you can have a thousand reviews.

46:28.12
christof66
Yeah, we do.

46:34.83
Ash Rex
No, one's going to read a thousand of views. They're going to. They're going to read a couple of ones star reviews and they're going to read a couple of 5 star reviews. However, above the reviews it posts all the video reviews and the video reviews can only be 15 seconds so you can only just quickly hold it now if you have 10 video reviews.

46:43.75
christof66
Videos and images. Yeah.

46:53.36
Ash Rex
People are gonna go oh here's a customer who's bought it and they liked it so much that they posted a video I'm gonna just play those and they're gonna believe that video over any single video that you post. So if you can get video reviews man even tool 3 man people gonna watch it right? And that's it. That's a breakdown of the videos you can do.

46:58.66
christof66
Yeah, yeah, yeah, a hundred percent ah yeah yeah, they do? yeah.

47:13.90
Ash Rex
Bottom line is this video is a big journey and it's a different beast especially for a lot of Amazon sellers. They might know ever. They don't know where to start, but the way to the way to approach it is is ask yourself where do you want to be one year later okay it's not gonna do. You're not Goingnna make a video tomorrow and you have it absolutely perfect and it's gonna make you million dollars

47:19.20
christof66
The.

47:26.90
christof66
Um.

47:30.30
christof66
No.

47:31.96
Ash Rex
It's a testing process where do you want to be one year later from now all right? So if you make one video a week for fifty week if you make one forty second video a week for fifty weeks at the end of the year you've got 50 videos right? And then you've got a product with 50 videos.

47:43.57
christof66
Which you can chop up and turn into more videos. That's right, Yeah gosh.

47:48.00
Ash Rex
And each video can be chopped up into 10 versions. You got actually 500 videos. Okay, so the way to approach it is to view your brand store as a kind of de facto Youtube channel and and where you you're controlling the narrative people aren't going to you. You don't want people going to Youtube to Google your product because you know you got all these influences out there. And if you're not paying them. They get a vested interest to slag your product off. Why would you buy this crappy product. You know I pay me and I'll remove my video or boost you right? see you can be. You can be kind of blackmailed I've seen that I've seen that so you want to control the narrative. So with your brand store. You can have infinite of pages you can have 1 page for every product.

48:10.35
christof66
That's try.

48:15.61
christof66
Um, like no yeah as.

48:24.60
christof66
Um, if.

48:25.54
Ash Rex
Each page can be 20 lines deep you can fill it with 10 twenty thirty videos you can have unboxing videos. You can have testimony videos instruction where you can have everything on there right? and um, and then you know don't assume you know what video is going to resonate with your customers I mean for this mouse I made I made up 40 different videos.

48:41.77
christof66
Um.

48:44.66
Ash Rex
And I showed a bunch of my friends I said what's your favorite. What's your worst and I had about 3 or 4 friends point out that this one video was a video. They liked the least and it actually turned out that video made 90% of my sales. So don't assume don't assume you know what they want don't assume you know what already don't you don't assume you know what the first shot should be if you like it. You know.

48:56.66
christof66
Um, say a.

49:01.20
christof66
And.

49:04.45
Ash Rex
You got to test out the first five seconds content so if you got if you got 13 shots you got to test out all 13 shots as you first shot see which one they click on. Yeah.

49:06.74
christof66
M.

49:13.11
christof66
That's right I was just going to say um one of the things that we do is we use you were talking about storefront landing pages um or using storefront pages as landing pages and we do that a lot for our advertising so we deliver ads from our sponsored brand ads strain them to the storefront.

49:28.46
Ash Rex
Yeah, that's right.

49:30.35
christof66
Um, us particular on the storefront um to to really sell the product and the advantage of that. Um, so I'm kind of giving. It's not even a secret but it's sort of the stuff that we talk about at the collective but the advantage is that you've got a storefront page where there is no. There are no other links to any other products. There are no sponsored. Um, it's all you. It's all your content.

49:43.67
Ash Rex
Yes, that's correct. Yeah, that's right.

49:49.98
christof66
So and they convert extremely well and now instead of going to the product page. You can actually add to cart directly from the storefront page right? Those buttons now exist. Yeah, go.

49:56.58
Ash Rex
I want to add to that about eight weeks ago or three months ago or something they've made it much much easier now to get premium made plus content. You only have to make 5 changes to your a plus content now to get premium a plus content and then you get 7 carousels and then they've added a new one now.

50:05.78
christof66
Yeah, that's right.

50:15.73
Ash Rex
1 of those carousels one of those lines you can have um, you can have a carousole of 6 videos so you got you got 7 lines. Yeah, you got 7 lines and each line can have 6 videos. So what you can do now is this is what I recommend you have your brand pay your brand store page for your product.

50:18.77
christof66
Um, yeah, ah now I did I haven't noticed that get out. Yes.

50:32.94
christof66
No.

50:34.80
Ash Rex
Which is 20 lines deep and you have it very video rich but then you duplicate your brand store page on your premium a plus content and then when you run ads fifty fifty it send fifty fifty percent of ads to that brand store page and 50% ads to your product listing with the same and then test which one converts better.

50:41.46
christof66
Who.

50:47.36
christof66
Yes, yes, great I Don't you Yeah, this is great I I didn't realize yeah.

50:54.19
Ash Rex
That's what I'm doing now that only changed in the last three weeks you got really got to be on the ball with this stuff but but then you can test out which one converts better because just remember there's a bit more. There's a bit more customer purchasing. Yeah a bit more pain going to the brand store because they got to leave the brand store and go to the product listing to buy so there's just more clicks.

51:05.81
christof66
And.

51:12.55
Ash Rex
And that's resistance to sales. So what I'm trying to say is if you got a high converting product. You know it's already converting. Yeah, you just send them to the product lististic. But if if you're trying to build your brand you get in the brand store. Yeah.

51:13.10
christof66
Um, well that yeah.

51:19.20
christof66
Well this is true. Well, but this is a thing like in the brand store now when you add a product you can actually add a product and instead of clicking when you click the product that takes you to the detail page of which you were talking about you can now actually add to cart from within the storefront without even bypassing.

51:33.61
Ash Rex
All while I didn't know that that's fantastic. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

51:38.61
christof66
Yeah, straight in the cart and you just check out. You're done so that's a huge huge new thing as well. Reasonably new I think it's a few months old now. But um, yeah, we've been using that lot working really well give it well whether it's available in Japan or not for their store for us I know but um, certainly is in the u and that's cool.

51:47.10
Ash Rex
That's amazing and I have to check that out straight away. Thanks for that. That's awesome. Yeah, might not be who knows I'll tell you 1 thing though japanese don't buy products japanese buy brands. That's that that's a golden rule of Japan that I buy products they buy brands. You know what I've had so many japanese go.

52:00.94
christof66
Right? Everybody yeah main in Australia yeah, it's hot. Yeah, that's right? Yeah yeah, smart idea.

52:04.72
Ash Rex
Ah, if it says made in China I'm not by because they don't trust the they yeah stra is is is gold. Um, and so you know if if you got a pum with that. It's just say designed in Australia or designed like some of like that and so look look. Let's ah, let's go a little bit more into video.

52:20.31
christof66
It's rapies. Yeah.

52:21.36
Ash Rex
Um, so you got the locations you got the brand store which has twenty lines per page. You got your product listing which has 6 videos you got your Amazon video ads which which are are up to 45 seconds which you can have unlimited Amazon video ads which I highly recommend you lean into you got your premium made plus content which has 7 lines. But you can have a carousel 1 line can have 6 videos so that that you can have about you can have 40 videos in your premium a plus content now forty imagine forty videos in your premium a plus content and you've got Amazon reviews which are 15 seconds long so you know you've really got to sit down if you want to massively scale your business and you want to escalate or.

52:39.83
christof66
No. Okay. Yeah, yeah.

52:58.24
Ash Rex
Or escalate your sales look at video and and look at and and and take baby steps start off with ah just some video ads right? because no one has to see that a if a video ad is bad Amazon won't won't show it so you you can avoid the risk of putting a bad video on your product listing or your brand store and destroying your own brand right.

53:04.50
christof66
Yeah.

53:17.47
Ash Rex
Tested in in there. Okay so imagine this if you film twenty Forty second Amazon video ads on your phone and each video has 15 3 second shots right? So that's about 45 seconds long and then you edit each video 5 different ways. You know you you change the order of the shots.

53:27.82
christof66
Um, yep.

53:35.65
Ash Rex
You now have a hundred video ads at 45 seconds each and then you test these 100 video ads that across every one of your keyword groups category and your competitor asym right? So you you just make twenty forty five second videos and you are saturating.

53:37.36
christof66
And.

53:44.87
christof66
Sounds coffee better bit yet. Yeah everywhere that your testing Love it. Ash State is amazing. Ma.

53:53.31
Ash Rex
All your different keywords a category your competitor asins this is how you dominate Amazon today.

54:04.80
christof66
Ah, you are the king of video for sure and Japan too. By the way you're doing very well there. So I don't know if you had a chance to catch up with Gary H Huang who's who's in Japan I believe and yeah, you need to get in touch with email I'll hook you guys up in an email but um, ash.

54:11.37
Ash Rex
Um, not yet and that would be great.

54:20.73
christof66
Seriously, you've just been dropping Gold Nugget after good old nugget. So it's been an amazing episode quite a long one but hopefully well worth a listen all the way through and really lovely to meet you over the the last couple of weeks and um, yeah, hopefully our pars will cross in person at some point in the not too distant future.

54:34.99
Ash Rex
That will be fantastic I'm on Linkedin a Linkedin Slash as h r rex you can find me on Linkedin that's the best way to contact me I look at it every day.

54:36.89
christof66
Thanks for coming on this show buddy. How do how do we get in touch with you if we wanted to do that.

54:43.92
christof66
Good on you mike sounds good assh thanks again for coming on the show. Thanks Mike.

54:51.19
Ash Rex
All right take care Chris have a great day.