Amazon is a huge enterprise that makes billions of dollars every year and grew 84% in 2020. Some scammers have capitalized on its success and have found ways to deceive Amazon's customers for their own gain.
Today's guest is Shaahin Cheyene. Shaahin is an award-winning entrepreneur, investor, speaker, podcaster, writer, and filmmaker currently based in Los Angeles, California. He is the CEO and chairman of Accelerated Intelligence which is an Amazon marketing and advertising agency. He shares his passion for Amazon in his course Amazon Mastery and is also a featured mentor at the Founder Institute. Shaahin has been highlighted in many publications including Newsweek, The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and The New York Post.
Show Notes:
- [1:10] - Shaahin began in physical products while he was 16 years old. By the time he was 18, the company he was working with hit $1 billion.
- [2:17] - Shaahin explains the importance of distribution and compares it to the film industry.
- [3:59] - During the pandemic, Amazon increased revenue. Every time a company is "crushing it," the scammers come out with something new.
- [4:58] - One of the interesting things about the Amazon platform is that anybody can sell on Amazon. Shaahin explains how the "buy box" works.
- [6:17] - Because any third party seller can sell on Amazon, some sellers will sell counterfeit or similar products to what is actually listed thinking that buyers won't care.
- [8:01] - If it is under $10, most consumers will not return it and although they received an inferior product than they thought they would get, the third party seller still earns the revenue.
- [8:28] - Shaahin always recommends reading reviews on a product before buying and explains that it is about more than reading what people think of it.
- [9:54] - Outside buying from brick and mortar stores or from recognizable name brands online, Shaahin also advises to Google the name of the seller.
- [10:46] - One of the great things about Amazon is their return policy. Amazon will take any product back 99% of the time. You should always return something that does not meet expectations so Amazon gets the feedback.
- [11:40] - Chris shares an experience in which he bought a product that stopped working a year later and when talking to customer service discovered that the serial number did not match their company.
- [12:53] - Shaahin explains one of the Amazon buying hacks that can save buyers money.
- [14:02] - As a consumer, price is a big factor. You want to try to buy when you can from Amazon themselves for that return policy and register for your warranty immediately on high ticket items.
- [14:57] - Sometimes Amazon will refund you your money for your return without even requiring you to send the product back.
- [15:12] - Unfortunately there are a lot of savvy scammers that are onto scamming third party sellers. Shaahin describes what they do.
- [16:29] - If your return rate exceeds the amount of money Amazon will make, they will fire you as a customer.
- [17:22] - Shaahin explains how a refund on a product for one of his clients wound up at his house with a fake returned product inside the box.
- [19:11] - Chris and Shaahin agree that if a customer's problem was fixed, they are more likely to not only buy again but to spread the word of a great experience than simply a satisfied customer.
- [20:00] - Shaahin's company changed the smoking industry. He explains how a buyer with extended warranties was trying to scam the company. Shaahin flipped the issue into an opportunity.
- [22:57] - There's a high cost to low price.
- [23:51] - The terms of service on Amazon says that you cannot do anything to solicit reviews for your products. In the early days, people would leave fake reviews.
- [25:21] - Over time, Amazon has installed super sophisticated security measures to clamp down on this issue.
- [26:37] - Shaahin explains how third party sellers can get reviews.
- [28:29] - There are a lot of companies that will sell consumers discounted products in exchange for honest reviews. This can be done through discount clubs.
- [30:26] - The problem in these online marketplaces is that unless everyone follows every single rule, sellers will need to do what others are doing in order to build a business.
- [32:11] - There's so little incentive to leave organic reviews. Shaahin explains that a lot of the reviews are likely from resellers.
- [33:36] - Chris explains how he was able to do some digging to find out how a specific scam works.
- [36:03] - Shaahin and Chris discuss criminal activity and how people are out there who willingly take advantage of others and a lot have the mentality of people vs. corporations.
- [38:36] - Shaahin was recently featured on the cover of a magazine and he shares the story of the interview.
- [43:49] - There are scammers who claim to help you start your business on Amazon but can't follow through. Shaahin offers an Amazon course where he hand picks his students and has a 100% success rate.
- [44:50] - eCommerce is a form of real estate and investing in it can create a stream of residual income.
- [47:01] - The difference between Shaahin's course and Mastermind group and the courses of others is that Shaahin makes his money on Amazon. Other course creators are making their money on the course themselves.
- [49:46] - You can trace success trajectory and their past just by searching it nowadays. If you are unsure about the claims of a course creator or an Amazon seller, do some research on Google.
Thanks for joining us on Easy Prey. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes and leave a nice review.
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