A post-95 investment banking professional with “0 experience” breaks into Amazon: 15,000 units sold right away, and ¥80 million in sales in one year?!

A post-95 investment banker with “zero experience” breaks into Amazon: 15,000 units sold right out of the gate, and RMB 80 million in annual sales?!

09/01/2024

Table of Contents
01/ A post-95s investment banker with “0 experience” started a business and had a hit product right away!
02/ First reveal of a unique product selection methodology
03/ Make the most of your Golden 90-day guide as a new seller

In a popular cross-border track that leaves newcomers full of doubts, he was able to uncover hidden business opportunities: 3 major product category directions, 11 niche product selection tracks, and an investment banking professional with 0 entrepreneurial experience who switched to cross-border e-commerce. In just two years after starting out, he achieved multiple milestones, with annual revenue exceeding 80 million RMB, and his first product became a Best Seller.

This entrepreneur born after 1995 is the star of our story today—Mr. Jia, founder of Shenzhen Chenzhi E-Commerce Co., Ltd. Unlike the conventional thinking of focusing on a single niche category, Mr. Jia, who entered with zero foundation and zero experience, took an unconventional approach from the start, dedicating himself to finding promising products in popular sectors and expanding into multiple subcategories to create one best-selling hit after another!

Today, we invited Mr. Jia and the company's partner, Mr. Tang, to share their distinctive product selection methods and help more new sellers entering cross-border e-commerce broaden their product selection ideas and replicate successful experience. At the same time, they will also break down how to seize the critical period of launching new products during the Golden 90-day guide, achieve an efficient cold start through refined operations across listings, advertising, and promotions, and steadily grow into major cross-border sellers by winning every step of the way!

In 2021, while working at an investment bank, Mr. Jia learned that the export orders at a family friend’s factory had declined sharply, so he decided to quit his job and start his own business to help the factory transition to B2C. It was this decision that led Mr. Jia to Amazon for the first time, where he also saw the huge business opportunities and growth potential in cross-border e-commerce. But for Mr. Jia, who had “zero knowledge and zero experience,” one question he had to face was whether a first-time entrepreneur could still catch the wave of cross-border e-commerce?

🏷️ Is today's cross-border e-commerce still suitable for newbies to start a business?

President Jia

Although the market is now mostly saturated, if I create a product that even I want to use myself, there is definitely a potential market for it. The key issue is whether effective iteration can be done on core needs. From this perspective, I think Amazon has hundreds of millions of high-net-worth customers worldwide who are willing to pay for good products. So for new sellers going global, Amazon is still a channel well worth trying.

🏷️ What should beginner entrepreneurs do if they lack startup resources?

President Jia

It’s not easy to iterate products well, and beginner sellers don’t have enough funding, talent, or supply chain support at the start to sustain high-investment R&D. So, at first, we did not choose the asset-heavy path of “technology-based entrepreneurship”; instead, we chose “resource-based entrepreneurship,” leveraging the advantages of the industrial chain to identify overseas consumers’ unmet needs and precisely enter promising niche segments.

🏷️ With no experience, how can you find the right supply chain?

President Jia

At present, beginner entrepreneurs can’t simply “resell” or “flood the market with listings”; instead, they need to find factories with R&D and production capabilities. But it's not easy to find such a factory. Considering that in the early stages of starting a business, we may not focus on just one track, so we need to find a large number of partner factories. How do you find them?Our approach is to find upstream factories that manufacture industrial equipment, such as EDM machines. Through them, we can find a large number of supply chain companies in industries such as 3C and home goods, making it easier to identify high-quality contract manufacturers.

One of Chenzhi’s partner factories

After gradually resolving issues such as factories, funding, and the team, Mr. Jia started selling on Amazon in 2021, choosing the high-potential North America marketplace as his first site. Mr. Jia said he chose the North America marketplace because Amazon is more widely accepted in North America, local consumers have stronger purchasing power, it is easier to verify product quality in this kind of mature marketplace, and it also makes it easier to build brand presence later.

Unexpectedly, Mr. Jia made a splash on Amazon. As the first product, the integrated phone cleaning tool became a Best Seller within four or five months of launch, reaching maximum monthly sales of 15,000 units and earning him his first pot of gold.

So here’s the question: how can such a young startup team create a hit product right out of the gate?

Compared with many sellers who lack product selection experience, Mr. Jia’s outstanding results can be attributed, on the one hand, to his unique product selection methodology—finding promising niche products in red ocean categories<1>; on the other hand, they also stem from his unique insights into logistics, listing creation, advertising, promotions, and more, enabling him to make good use of various tools as early as the initial launch stage of product selection and drive sales for new products within the “Golden 90-day guide.”
Today, Mr. Jia also shared his unique insights on product selection with us:

🏷️ If you’re new to choosing a category, do you have to avoid highly competitive markets?

President Jia

I don’t think there are any truly blue ocean products. Instead, we look for unresolved pain points in red ocean categories and focus on niche demands in niche to develop products. In practice, this means making accessories for popular products, such as cleaning tools for cell phones, hanging racks for Christmas lights, and stands for monitors.

The advantage of doing this is that popular categories are easier to research, and there is a large amount of data available to clearly calculate the total sales volume online and offline, because the overall market size is not limited to sales on Amazon. On this basis, we have clear goals and direction for product breakthroughs and to drive business growth.

Even now, we still use this method for product selection. For example, short videos, live streaming, and other forms of entertainment have been very popular in the US this year, and the demand for related live streaming equipment will definitely increase, so we moved early into live streaming-related categories.

Christmas string lights (image sourced from the internet)

🏷️ After identifying the right product category, how should you iterate your product?

President Jia

Launching new products follows two paths: one is function optimization and product iteration, which tests your supply chain integration capabilities; the other is developing brand-new products, finding innovative features through user research to meet consumers’ scenario-specific needs. However, regardless of the approach, the product must always be iterated around consumers’ core needs and the realities of the local market. For example, a toilet brush is for cleaning; the core is the cleaning effect, so the direction of change must be to increase its rotation speed rather than adding a light to it.

To identify this core need, you must pay close attention to research and reviews. For example, we can add or optimize product features based on pain points mentioned on social media or in Amazon reviews, or look at negative reviews to identify areas where the product needs iterative improvement.

Case study
Target the 3C accessories category
Use micro-iterations to create a Best Seller
The previously highly successful phone cleaning tool is one of the best examples proving Mr. Jia’s methodology. Based on early market observations, the team found that the markets for 3C products such as data cables and power banks were too competitive, with no significant advantage, and also found that Americans place a high value on organization and cleaning, while integrated cleaning products were lacking. Therefore, Jia’s team improved the functionality of the phone cleaning tool and, leveraging its supply chain capabilities, designed a 7-in-1 integrated cleaning tool that quickly climbed the Best Seller rankings, with sales surging.

Christmas string lights (image sourced from the internet)

🏷️ Once you’ve stabilized, do you necessarily need to do R&D?

President Jia

After moving beyond the initial stage of resource-based entrepreneurship, we also realized that only by strengthening our R&D capabilities can we build true core competitiveness and increase product premiums.
Now, we have gradually completed the shift to technology-driven product selection, relying on the latest and most mature technologies from ourselves or our supply chain to develop scenario-based products. Currently, we are focusing our R&D efforts on electrical products, adding new features and improving ease of use through electrification; after one electrical product was launched, its return rate was under 2%, making it the Top 1 in its category!

In addition, beyond the mature product selection process, Mr. Jia has also drawn on his many years of successful experience to summarize four practical takeaways for new sellers:

President Jia

1️⃣ Try to avoid common-mold products, as they can easily lead to problems and require highly standardized, process-driven operations. But don’t try private-label products that are too difficult either, because they can easily lead to setbacks.

2️⃣ When financial pressure is low and sales are performing well, try to choose products with a high average selling price; combined with your own iterative innovation, you’ll have a greater chance of success.

3️⃣ Product selection should always come from everyday life, and you should plan your product selection only after gaining a deeper understanding of the atmosphere, customs, and culture of overseas marketplaces.

4️⃣ Try to focus on technically driven product selection, combining your supply chain’s technical expertise with your own development capabilities, but never take on anything beyond your abilities.

When they first started operating on Amazon, Mr. Jia’s team did not have a smooth start either. From managing the pace of promotions, to balancing logistics shipments, to choosing overseas warehouses, they had to keep learning and drawing conclusions through trial and error.

To help beginner sellers make the most of this key stage for selecting and launching products, Amazon introduced the concept of “Golden 90-day guide” and prepared comprehensive guidance for sellers covering logistics, Listings, advertising, promotions, and more, to help sellers achieve a successful new product launch and quickly boost sales.

🏷️ How can beginner sellers quickly ramp up in 90 days?

Mr. Tang

The initial stage of a new ASIN launch is critical and largely determines the subsequent sales trajectory. Our company places great emphasis on the Golden 90-day guide. Before launching a new product, we create a detailed new product promotion plan that covers everything for the full 90 days. After that, our most important job is to strictly follow the plan and carry out the tasks for each stage.

Stage 1: Laying the foundation
Improve your logistics layout and optimize your listing

01 Use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) | 0–20 days

President Tang

Our company mainly sells proprietary products, so the supply chain minimum order quantity is very high, and the cost of failure is significant. This means we have to choose FBA, because using FBA gives us the Prime badge and helps us improve delivery speed and optimize the logistics experience, making it easier to gain consumer trust and increase visibility and sales.

02 Optimize listing | 0–30 days

President Tang

Complete, rich Listing content can significantly increase traffic to a product and drive conversions, laying the groundwork for building a successful product later on. We think you need to get these details right:

01 title and images
Images should be clear and visually appealing, and highlight the product’s features and selling points. The title should be concise, and the content should be as detailed and persuasive as possible, with precise and relevant keywords.

02 Make good use of A+ Premium
Try to get the product into A+ Premium, and use a traffic loop to drive sales of other products in your store. For example, after using A+ Premium, we can display all related products in the store and direct traffic from popular products to products with average traffic.

03 Use the Amazon Vine program
This tool can help you get more high-quality, compliant reviews. For any seller, if you strictly control product quality and optimize the product experience early on, customers will naturally leave high-quality reviews after using the product.

Phase 2: think strategically
Use Amazon Advertising to build awareness and uncover bigger business opportunities

01 Use Amazon Advertising tools | 15–35 days

President Tang

Advertising is an effective way to increase product visibility and sales, and we use Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and other methods to attract more potential customers and increase conversions. Specifically, we also have our own operational insights.

01 How should the advertising budget be allocated?
When the product or brand is not yet well known, we may initially spend 80% of our budget on Sponsored Products, but after the brand has been established for a period of time and has gained a certain level of customer loyalty and brand awareness, we will allocate more budget to Sponsored Brands, at an approximate ratio of 6:4.

02 How to get more exposure?
For specific ad placements, we divide the keywords collected in the early stage into different match types for automatic campaigns. First, we set negative keywords in advance, then we use broad match to increase traffic and relevance, and then we use exact match to increase the listing’s weight.

After achieving satisfactory exposure and conversions, we use Sponsored Display to compare with competing products and gain doubled exposure and conversions. Only after two months do we launch Sponsored Brands video ads: first, to increase exposure, and second, to build brand awareness.

Stage 3: Show your strength
Promotions and brand protection work together to drive steady progress

01 Use promotional tools | 20-40 days

Mr. Tang

Major promotional events are a great time for sellers to get reviews for new products and build traffic, and we’ll work with influencers on external social media to drive traffic.

When it comes to major promotional events, such as Prime Day and Black Friday/Cyber Monday, we’ll do more preparation. We’ll start building momentum one to two weeks in advance by increasing the advertising budget and promotional efforts, and we’ll also publish Posts on Amazon to drive traffic. At the same time, we’ll also focus on getting some basic work right, such as Listing checks, inventory checks, and image optimization, and use A+ to make the images better fit the holiday theme.

02 Use brand protection tools | 0–60 days

Mr. Tang

Once your store has successfully moved past the initial stage and started to stand out, brand protection can help new sellers protect their brand rights and avoid issues such as counterfeit products.

When we first started selling cross-border, we also ran into some malicious competition, and we only resolved it by filing an appeal. Fortunately, Amazon also provides sellers with brand protection tools. For example, Transparency can help address malicious piggybacking and build consumer trust.

Stage 4
Grow globally (days 60–90)

Mr. Tang

The scale of a single marketplace is limited, and after gaining a foothold in the United States marketplace, we’re also considering expanding into the Japan marketplace.

We chose this new marketplace because we’ve seen Amazon growing very quickly there, and based on the data we’ve reviewed, Japan is a marketplace well worth trying. At the same time, Amazon has also prepared tools such as “one-click global listing” for sellers. You only need to upload a listing once to sync it to other marketplaces and unlock greater global growth.

🏷️ What other perks can new entrepreneurs take advantage of?

To help more beginner sellers take their first step toward selling globally, Amazon has also prepared a series of benefits, such as the “Starter Pack” for new sellers. Mr. Tang also mentioned, “When we promote new products, we usually do it with very slim margins, or even at zero profit. The Starter Pack for new sellers helps us reduce costs and build confidence in early product and brand promotion, giving us a very smooth transition period. 」

In 2024, new sellers can enjoy substantial incentives, such as a 10% rebate on their first $50,000 in branded sales, with up to $52,500 back per marketplace, helping reduce the cost of trial and error and accelerate business growth.

New seller registration guide video

Before you register to sell on Amazon, watch the registration guide video, prepare the required registration documents in advance, and learn the registration process to help you get started smoothly!