Episode #29: How Gary Sold Out His 'Test Batch' Of 50 Products in 15 days

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Hey, how's it going? It's Ollie here. Very warm welcome to another episode of Ecommerce Freedom Podcast. So today I've got something kind of special for you. It's a quick phone conversation I just had with someone who'd just been through my 30 day test batch program. His name's Gary and I'm just really proud of the results he managed to get. Long story short, sort of too long, didn't read version of this episode is basically, he achieved 42 sales of his test batch within two weeks of it going live on Amazon.

So.

So 42 sales within two weeks. So really, really impressive result. And so what I wanted to do was just call him up and just ask him a few questions about his experience, about some of the stumbling blocks he encountered, how we got over them, and really just to give you a bit of inspiration as to why I believe test batches are just so powerful, to give you that confidence to move forward with your private label import. So without further ado, I'm going to play you the recording of the call and take it away. Gary.

I think it was August, early August, I came across, I think it might have been your, your book. I applied for it, got interested, I thought, okay. Then I thought, oh, for a long time I'm thinking if I have three elements in place, I will do something. Those three elements was an idea, the money and the time. I think I found an idea, I could make this work. But I'm going money, right? So the job I was at, I thought, well, okay, there's some overtime available. So I worked for four months straight, seven days a week, 12 to 10 hours, 10 to 12 hours a day to get the money together. And the plan was to at Christmas, take about two weeks holiday and get it all running. As it happens, just before Christmas, I lost a job. Okay, I've got it, I've got, I've got the idea. Got a couple of quid here, I've got the time. Now is the time. Yeah, and you go for it. And then about a week later, I think I saw your 30 day thing. I thought, whoa, that made me sit up straight in the chair. That is because I had tried the product research and I thought, oh my God, oh my God, I don't know what I'm doing here. This is a nightmare. And Then your cost came out. I thought, hang on a minute. Offering a product and so we can move forward. I thought I was on board straight away. So I'm having some of that straight away. So two weeks I had to wait. You know, the day before it started, you sent me. I think Steve sent me some information and all that. Information that had the. The infusible things. Yeah. And I instantly thought that was the product, all right.

Because I gave you a couple videos. Videos. And you thought the example I used was your pr. I remember that. Did it freak you out?

Oh, my head. It just hit the desk hard. Oh, my. No. My God, what have I done? Not another grand down the drain. I contacted Steve. He's gone. No, chill out, bro. Chill out. No, it's coming tomorrow. Oh, Complete that night. I'm easily waiting for it. Yeah.

Did you have.

Sorry to ramble on. No, no.

It's really interesting, man, to hear your side of things and how things went, but did you have any hesitations in your mind? Like, obviously you joined an online course before this, you know, it didn't work out too well. Did you have any hesitations in your mind before joining mine? Before, you know, going ahead with the test batch and all this stuff?

Yeah. Right. Until I got the product. Because I don't. I don't know you or anything. It's all. It's all a gamble up until that point. Yeah.

So what were you worried about?

Everything. It being a con. It's not working. Telling me that product. Everything. Yeah. So then when it arrived, I'm like, oh, my God, you know what the part. Obviously, you know what the product is. Of course. What am I going to do with three rolly rags? What am I going to do with three ollie racks? Oh, my God. Oh, my God. It's happened again. And I must sat there, stared at it for about 20 minutes and I brought stuff up on Amazon and I stared. I've got two screens. I stared at that about 20 minutes and then it slowly started to unfold the stats.

He looked at the revenue, Looked at it. Yeah.

Well, no, not even that. Not even that. It was, how am I going to add value to this?

Right, right.

Do you know what I mean? I thought and I looked and I looked and I realized everyone's doing threes. I thought, why is everyone only doing three and they're all doing similar sizes? Like they're all copying each other. It's like there's a standard. I thought, aha, why don't I just break the standard? And then it all just Started unfolding.

So walk me through. Walk me through exactly what's happened up till now. How many units you ordered initially, how the results that you've got and. And was. We're only a few weeks into the program. Right. How many weeks ago did you start?

Yeah, I started on. I received the product. So that's when I considered. We started on November 20, I think it was. Right. And exactly a month after, I think I made my first sale on Amazon, which was the timescale basically, of the course, 30 days. So awesome. I followed it to the T, and I think it produced to the T. Wow. So I was super impressed.

So you got your first sale a month after and then. And then what happened after that?

Every day just started. Right. I think. I think I got it on the 18th, actually. Into the warehouse. Yeah. And nothing sold for two days. And of course, like, knowing me, I'm like, oh, my God, me. I think I told Roxy, like, I was already slightly bald, but the top of my head is completely shiny now. I've rubbed it so much. So it's like, for two days, nothing sold. So I did the PPC campaign and then it started telling. And then it just started. It's just ramping up. And the last two days, I think was I sold six a day, and the last day was seven. It was ramping, ramping, ramping.

I'm like, wow, so you ordered how many units in total? 40. Did you say 47?

50. No, I ordered 50.

Right.

And I kept three back. Wanted to use myself as a. As a, you know, to see what the perks all about. And then two for product photos, one to keep pristine and one to news to wrap up and fold up for my photographer. Yeah, he still got them too. So I didn't send three in, and I got one back today as a refund. Someone must have sent it back. Nothing wrong with it. We're not gonna repackage it and resend it. So I didn't sell four, and I think I bought two. Two for people. So it was about six that didn't sell.

Right.

I sold all 47 that I sent in, and I think I sold 42 in 15 days.

42 sales within 15 days. That's amazing. So what would you say was, like, you know, something that helped you kind of get that result because, you know, a lot of people might, you know, try and import stuff from China or it might not work. What would you say perhaps you did differently?

Well, the biggest thing I think helped me get that was. Was a guy called Oliver Denier.

I've heard of him.

He's wonderful. Yeah. He's doing this fantastic, fantastic thing whereby it gives you product whereas all the other muppets are just chatting. He's actually put his product where his mouth is in. He's. You've just proven you've done master stroke here, I must say, because all I did was followed what you said to do and because you, you've done it that way, I could forget about everything else and focus on the one to one task. So you just do it task by task and you made it sort of seem quite easy. And looking back, it was kind of. I'm not gonna say it was easy, but it's not. It's undoable as I thought, first thought it was. I know I still got to go back and learn the product research part of it, but what you've done, you've enabled me to just get on with it and experience all the things I'm going to experience and go through. And then hopefully, if I can get running nicely, then I can relax when I look for my second product. Because I would be panicking like a madman, to be honest with you. I definitely wouldn't be this far along if you hadn't done that.

Awesome. So just having the product chosen for you was like, enable you to hit the ground running and just move forward.

Yeah. Because it ables you to just crack on and do, do, do the process. Do the process and see, it gives me confidence that it will work. I'm sitting in like, I've got calculator in one hand, motion time calculating different permutations. And from what I've witnessed so far, I could see how it can be ramped up. Yeah. Reasonably quickly, I think. Yeah. And we've chosen a good market. There's only five pages of searches for this product. Do you know what I mean? And there's about four. Oh, I think so. I think so. There's four. There's four big players. But across five, they've got more than one listing across the five pages. So that kind of narrows it down to like probably about three pages, which is like, whoa, when you look at other products, they've got like 100, 250 pages. It's like got five pages, you know what I mean? I thought, wow, what's somebody down here? Who is this guy? Who is this guy wearing a cape?

Well, that's the thing. That's the thing a lot of people worry about. You know, how Amazon's getting so competitive, how there's more and more sellers going in. But there are niches, there's pockets, areas within the marketplace where there's room to compete and if you just have to find a niche like that and there's potential, so. And you're proof of that, right? If you sold, say 40, 40 odd units within a couple of weeks and ramp it up and it's time to just get more into the warehouse, I guess. So let me know, what stumbling blocks did you have on the way? Did you have any moments where you were like, oh, this is a bit of a pain, or did you, you know, over the past sort of month, like. Yeah, did you have any stumbling blocks?

Yeah, the, the sourcing manufactures was, was a big one and in the beginning it's like you don't have enough screens. You know, you could have 10 screens and it won't be enough to try and display everything. So you can sort of see it. So then I made up a spreadsheet and I think I contacted 12 suppliers, right. And I broke it down into a spreadsheet. So I do a column for 50 units, hundred units and then put all their prices in and with shipping as well. And then from that you can see who replied to you, who didn't. And out of the 12 were here in front of me. Out of the 12, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 replied.

Right, so 50%.

50%. And then about another 50% of that had like decent information. Well, when I say most of them reply, but some of them just didn't answer the questions. It was like, oh, yeah, we do that. Yeah, yeah, just let us know what you want. Well, I already have, but there's one in particular, the one that I use now came up with the most detail and the best price. So to me feels like they take it the most serious. And so, so, but, but just trying to fathom all those different figures out. You need to do a spreadsheet and put your columns in so you can reference it fast. Oh, they do the hundred book. Yeah, that's it, yeah. How much is their shipping? And then because, again, because you just said, just do that, don't carry on, just do that. I could spend all my time doing it and fathom it out. So now I've got things in a nice order.

So you contacted people. Was it from Alibaba, AliExpress and DXGate? Do you go for all three or did you just focus on one website?

Alibaba.

Just Alibaba.

Because I looked at the other one. Yeah, the other ones. And I could instantly see the best price was going to be Alibaba and the biggest, the biggest selection.

And what was manufactured, what was the MOQ for? For the, the order for the supplier. Do they have a whole.

Yeah, if I put it here on the spreadsheet.

This is something a lot of people worry about. It's like, yeah, you know, they're saying I have to order 500 units. You know, how am I supposed to order 50?

So how did you get again? Like I said, I follow, I followed it. I followed your advice to the letter. I said to them I'm interested in a thousand five hundred, one hundred and fifty test patch. So, so I always, I always said to them the 50 was a test batch and then following on from there would be maybe a hundred and we may, we may not get to branded until maybe the 500 mark. We test the market.

So you were just straight up with them and just said I just want 50 and then after that I'm going to order more. Is that right? Is that how you approached it?

Well, yeah, I, yeah, I did. I asked in my first email, I asked for quotes right up to a thousand five hundred and one hundred. And what would the price be for a test batch of 50? So they always, from the get go, they knew I was looking at doing a bigger order. So they were totally on board with the 50 batch. Anyway. I think if I'd have gone into office 50. Yeah, they took. Seriously. Yeah. And she gave me good prices. And then every time I've ordered, just before I make the payment, I say, is there anything you can do me on the price? I don't go too heavy, I just go, just a little gentle squeeze here. And every time it's worked. Right, so just a little fifty to the hundred.

Just save a little gentle stroke.

Yeah, yeah. Just a general. Is there anything you could do? Just because on the 50 Test batch, margins and all that, is there anything you could do? So from the 50 to the 100 you dropped it another 30 cents. And from an original price, I think I probably got a center a dollar and a half of the original price. And obviously the bigger the moq, the lower that goes. And on the other end I'm hoping I could just creep that up as well. So at the moment my profit is somewhere between five and six quid per unit and I'm looking to. Yeah, yeah. And I did actually make a profit even after photographs, advertising and the ones that didn't sell probably made like, you know, 20 quid or something like that. But if I. Without the advertising, not the advertising, without the photos, and without the ones I kind of gave away, I would have made like just under 300 pound profit. Wow. On my test badge.

How much did you spend on photography then?

100 pound.

Okay, so you just got someone local who just got a camera and just hired them.

Well, he's actually the photographer, but he just happened to live around the corner. Yeah. Which is very handy. I sort of googled it and found out that's around the corner from me. Literally around was that two, three minute walk. And yeah, he took some snaps for me. But since I bought a new phone with a good camera on it and I might try and investigate maybe supplementing the photos, see what I could do myself. Really?

Yes.

Is it any savings, is it saving, you know.

Any other orders you've already paid for the photography so you know it's an investment.

Yep, exactly that. So. And it was selling off the photos that are there. I've optimized my listing. Not, not before I sold out. So then when the next comes, I've, I've improved that, I think on that. So I'm ready to go. I'm gonna, when I finish speaking to you, I will send the email to, to Nancy over in China, my girl. And so yeah, 15th, I've, I think what am I going to put my email? I, with the help of my, my colleague who was doing my job previously, we've managed to persuade my boss that the 15th is okay. I just want to know that I'm under, I'm under pressure here, you know, I mean, so, and anything she does to me, she's helping me out and I'm truly grateful. So keep up your good work, Nancy. And so far she's brought that down to the fifth six days, which is, I think it's probably the best I can hope for. Isn't it here?

Awesome. So let's talk about the next step. So you're obviously placing an order, right? You've positioned yourself as the employee of the company to convince them to give you a little bit more leeway. So what are the next steps for you then? You're going to reorder and what's the next plan? How many units?

As I finish the interview, I shall say to her, the 15th is excellent and she take the purchase order through. So I will, I will make that payment today of 100 units. I was actually waiting for, hoping for 50 of two different designs, but I said to her if the other design is not ready, just to send the original design. So I may have two designs in there. Is that two listings Do I have to do variation listing or just one listing but have a variation?

Yeah, you can put two variations in one listing.

Yeah, yeah. Cool. So that's my next move. As soon as they arrive, I'm having them sent to me because at this point I don't, I don't really want to advertise the fact that I'm sending them exclusively on Amazon because as time goes by, I won't try and I want to try and get some said to Amazon and some said to me, send them into Amazon when the stock goes down, just to give the impression that I sell. I have other outlets for selling. You. Yeah, you know, I mean, so that's my next step. Once the order comes in, I'll get it into Amazon and then optimize my, my, my listing even more people TPC advertising. And then I'll be looking to gather enough money together to continue on with yourself because obviously I need more guidance and telling you what to do next. Really. I was just sitting here watching, looking at the screen. I must admit, I did do a lot of that when, when the stuff went, I just. Watching the numbers go up, I saw the number one, I saw the number two. Oh my God, I've got the four in one day. I can't believe it. Do you mean. So I need to, I just want to. My, my aim obviously is, is to earn enough. Earn a wage, basically at income. Yeah, yeah. I'm not looking at the millions or the hundred thousands. Yeah. I just want to earn an income at the moment because I absolutely am already all that because I'm absolutely sick of working hard for other people. So I thought, I thought, hang on a minute, if I work as hard as I do for myself, surely something's going to happen. So that's exactly what I did for a month. And it looks like that could be the case, you know.

So finally, is there anything you would say to other people who were thinking about maybe importing a test batch of products and they were thinking, you know, this could be a way to go, but I'm a bit freaked out, you know, I don't know if it's the right thing to do. Does Amazon even work? What would you have to say to them?

Well, I would say coming from a complete hustle point of view, if someone's working and they're doing it, I say just push the button. It's not messed about. Push the bum. Even if it doesn't work, you'll know why does. You'll learn. Yeah, you'll learn. And if you're working. You. You don't have to worry about the money so much because, you know, worst case scenario, you might break even. You don't really have to worry. If you're hustling like me, it's just, push the button, get with it. Yeah. Especially if. Yeah, if they're on the course that you can and you give them a product, you know, you've given that product. Stop procrastinating, Just get on with it. Push the button. Yeah, because, you know, two months might go past, you haven't pushed a button, and you'll be wondering, what if I push that button a month ago or two months ago, I'd be that much further on, or I know now I wouldn't be wondering. I'd know on my Vinor out. So my advice would be, is just push the button, get on with it. If that makes sense. That's awesome because I did a lot of that. My head rubbing, I did a lot of that. And then one day I just thought, what are you doing? Your head is totally shiny now. Push the button. And I pushed a button, and I'm glad I did it. Yeah. I don't know if that makes sense, but it's just get on with it.

That makes a lot of sense. Yeah. Because a lot of people, you know, bogged down with information overload, they're looking at YouTube videos constantly and just learning more and more information. But the information doesn't really make you any cash. It just gets you more and more confused. It's about just knowing to take week after week.

Exactly. Exactly. And the way. The way you laid it down, I found the most helpful. Like I say with. I came across the Brock Johnson course for a dollar. Who can resist a dollar? So I bought that, compared it to Kevin Davies, and it completely knocked spots off of Kevin David. I can't believe what this guy has given for a dollar. But even with that, even with that, I'm thinking, no, I still need Ollie. I'm gonna stick with Ollie because he has. He has put his product where his mouth is and he. I believe in you more than anybody else, to be honest. A dollar, although the dollar one is. Is good. And I will be following that until I can afford to get back with you. But my aim is to get back with you as soon as possible because you produced a good mate. Love it. No question.

Well, loved hearing about your story, Gary, and can't wait to hear you get some more results.