[vc_column][vc_column_text]
E-COMMERCE
Selling in the USA? You need to read this. Plus, what’s going on with e-commerce in India
Because of the seemingly never ending stream of tariffs, it’s getting more and more difficult to sell in the USA if your products come from China. That said, we look into what is actually affected and how you can prepare for the next set of hikes coming up.
Plus, we remind you that the USA is not the only geo with potential for e-commerce by having a peek at India. Maybe there’s something to take advantage of there, right?
New tariffs on Chinese goods for USA businesses
New month, new… tariffs. They’ve been announced before and now it’s official: President Trump imposed a new 15% tariff on over 40% of all consumer products imported from China.
Why does this matter?
The term ‘consumer goods’ is key here, because it is likely to have a direct impact on prices for consumers. This also means that, if you are doing e-commerce and selling in the USA, you are very likely to be affected by this.
Whether you are dropshipping, doing FBA or anything in between, the next time you import any items from the list below into the USA from China, you will be hit with the new tariffs:
- Clothing and footwear such as sneakers, sweaters and baby clothes.
- Electronics such as TVs, monitors, and audio equipment.
- Machinery such as printers, desktop computers, hand tools, and air-conditioner parts.
- Plastic products such as tableware, buckets, and school supplies.
- Leisure products such as NordicTrack fitness machines.
- Furniture such as bedding.
If you’ve been keeping track of this and doing your homework, you’ll likely have already stockpiled some of your products in preparation. However, if you haven’t, bear in mind that even more tariffs will come into play on December 15th.
Nick Peroni: “COD+India so hot right now!” Numbers revealed
OK, so tariffs aren’t usually good news for e-commerce businesses, but thankfully we have something to balance it out. This is thanks s to Nick Peroni, who posted this in the Ecom Empires FB group.
With a population of over 1.3B, it goes without saying that there’s a lot of potential for scaling in India. However, what some of you might not know is that COD (cash-on-delivery) is an important payment method there.
And it’s getting hotter and hotter…
Nick shared a case study with 3 products in India where he reveals:
- Selling price on Shopify.
- Product cost.
- Lead cost through media buying.
- Logistics costs.
- Support costs.
- … and more!
The numbers certainly look good, with the best product generating over $4 net per sale. Yeah, we know $4 doesn’t sound that impressive at first, but this is for first-time customers on a single product in a market with over 1B people. There’s potential, that’s all we can say!
Check out the details straight from Nick right here.
WORDPRESS
Updates to how WordPress blocks indexing
We’ll keep this short. WordPress 5.3 will truly prevent indexing of your selected blocked pages.
What’s the change? Well, instead of using robots.txt, WordPress will switch to the more reliable Robots Meta Tag method of preventing indexing.
What’s the difference? Simple: The robots.txt approach was just recommending that crawlers not index the page. Google followed this recommendation by not indexing the content, but the URL was still indexed by the search engine.
On the other hand, the Meta Tag approach actually prevent indexing. So, from WP 5.3 your blocked pages will actually be blocked.
SPONSORED
💵 Where is the money in the dating vertical? Geos, offers and traffic sources revealed!
Everyone says “dating is an evergreen vertical” but that doesn’t mean it’s not changing. So the team at Online Dating Kings dug through their data to bring us some exclusive insider info on what is working in this vertical.
First off, there’s something to be said about the sub-verticals of “dating”. Is there a clear best?
“Our current focus and growth is concentrated in the sub-vertical of casual dating, which is the primary market for Online Dating Kings.”
In which countries is this showing the most promise? Where is the growth happening?
“The three countries that grew the most recently in terms of ROI are Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia. Germany has seen a positive trend during the past year and substantial increases in returns, though the market is much more competitive.”
OK, what about traffic type? Many people buy ads on they want to buy the type of ads that work with this vertical.
“The top sources are, in no particular order: email, media buyers (especially native ads, display), display (publisher). Native ads have seen great results recently. We’re also working on an in-house solution for push traffic coming up soon.”
Can you give us a few examples of high-converting own offers you have at Online Dating Kings, that affiliates reading this could run?
“Sure! Before you click the links, keep in mind they are casual dating landers, so there are some flirty pictures there. Not more but we thought we’d give you a heads-up!
- For Germany this has been doing well. Although it’s more competitive, there’s been some good trends in Germany, plus the volume is much higher given the country’s size!
- In Czech Republic, it’s the same brand, but we saw this more flirty lander does much better.
- Last but not least, Slovakia is also doing well as we said, and you can find the offer here.
These are definitely the best landers/offers based on the stats but we are always
testing more to make sure our conversion rate is as high as it can be. We also know white-labels are preferred by our top affiliates and we can provide you with that, of course.”
Last question: Why should an affiliate test out your offers?
“It’s the key question, isn’t it? Well, we’ve been able to grow our affiliates’ average ROI by 43% in 2018 and 2019 is looking great too. We have in-house offers that nobody else has and only we can give you the best deal (70% rev-share and CPA and CPL models also are available).
Some other things that our affiliates find helpful:
- White label solution.
- Deep links to profiles.
- Advanced tracking.
- Dedicated account managers, of course.
- Extensive, localized billing infrastructure to make sure payment options are on point for all offers.
We have the experience, we have the results and we’re still hungry to grow with more successful affiliates. If you want to join us, sign up now!”
Want to meet the Online Dating Kings? The team will be at TES Prague between 13th and 16th September at booth P5 and P6. Schedule a meeting here!
Does it make sense to say that FB will copy Instagram?
It probably doesn’t make sense, but it turns out that Facebook is testing hiding the Like counter too.
Instagram started this test a few months ago in 7 countries, and now it looks like Facebook could start to follow the same route. This likely means that tests on Instagram are going well, so FB will implement the same option.
The idea is to prevent users from comparing themselves to others, which can lead to them feeling inadequate when their posts don’t get as many Likes.
So, hiding the Like counter could potentially push users to share more or be more spontaneous. However, on the other hand, the Like counter has been one of the distinguishing features of Facebook, so it’s not clear how users will react.
From a media buyers standpoint, it would mean less social proof on your ads (when you manage to get likes).
Yet, if Facebook is still testing it, it means the consequences are still unclear. Let’s wait to see how this evolves.
FUNNEL
$500K/year info product funnel revealed
Do you know your numbers? Or… Do you know your funnel’s number?
You know, those numbers you should aim for to stay ROI positive: CTRs, CVRs, open rates, etc.
Well, if you don’t, Jason How shared an entire funnel that generated $500k in 1 year for an info products business. Numbers included. The funnel was crafted to sell 2 products, priced at $267 and $997 respectively.
Just a note: Do not take the numbers as a benchmark for your funnel, ‘cos every product and funnel is different. Still, this is a good one to take some inspiration from and compare.
Should we move to it?
The funnel is made up like this: Ad -> Lead magnet landing page (LM LP) -> One-time offer (OTO) -> Nurturing sequence -> Waitlist -> Evergreen monthly product launch.
Here are the numbers behind the funnel.
Stage 1: Ad to lead magnet.
- Landing page conversion rate = 62%.
- Average CPL = $0.98.
Jason says that if your lead magnet conversion rate tends to be around 50-70% and cost per leads range between $0.50 and $3, it’s definitely possible to stay ROI-positive.
Stage 2: Lead Magnet to One-Time Offer
- OTO conversion rate = 0.5%.
- Average CPP (cost per purchase) = $196.
In this case, the OTO CVR isn’t fantastic, but it’s still acceptable. Each purchase is worth $267. A $196 CPP means the business can still acquire upfront customers and stay positive before the funnel heavy work even comes into play.
In fact, they are getting a consistent 2-2.5x ROAS on the front end.
Stage 3: Leads to Waitlist
- Ads conversion rate = 2%.
- Average cost per waitlist signup from ads = $6.
There isn’t the overall CVR because email is the main driver of waitlist signups. Once they’re in the list, ads usually play second fiddle to emails.
Stage 4: Waitlist to Evergreen monthly product launch
- 43% of sales came from the same month.
- The other 57% of sales came from previous months.
This shows the importance of always nurturing old leads that didn’t actually buy during the first product launch after joining the list.
Additionally, of the 57% sales that came from the past months:
- 63% came from leads generated in the past 6 months.
- The remaining 37% came from leads generated before 2019.
So, what’s the catch?
If you keep nurturing your leads, you can add an easy 20% revenue to your biz. Especially if you sell products in this sort of price range, with people taking longer to decide before making the purchase.
Looks like a solid breakdown. Hopefully it can up your funnel game!
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things affiliates like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
When server maintenance locks you out of your car…
Smart watches. Smart fridges. Smart homes. Smart cars… The Internet of Things! It all sounds great, but there’s a problem: If people forget their backup option, any lack of connection can lead to trouble.
That’s what happened to a bunch of Tesla owners, who were locked out of their cars when the Tesla App got hit by a server outage.
What happened? Uhm, the car owners like using the app to unlock their car. So when it didn’t work, they were locked out.
We know what you’re thinking: “Why not just use the keys (card, fob, etc.)?”
The answer is “convenience”. The level of connectivity we have leads to many people getting complacent and forgetting to always keep a backup. That’s exactly what happened in this case, and many owners took their complaints about Tesla’s lack of support to Twitter.
The Crew’s thoughts: Tesla should have better communicated that you can use the app in offline mode too, and also reminded users to keep their keys as a backup. Most users logged out of the app, then couldn’t log in again.
Then, Tesla’s support was lacking as people waited for over an hour on the phone. No bueno!
If you own a Tesla or any car with a similar system, make sure to keep a key around and don’t log out of the app when it doesn’t connect. Use it in offline mode!
This sounds like the equivalent of “locking your keys in the car” 20 years ago… We wonder what other modern problems will come our way in the next 20 years.
While we ponder that, why not prepare your friends for the future by sharing WHAT THE AFF with them? They become smarter marketers and you get incredible rewards:
- Early release of breakings news and interviews in WHAT THE AFF Insiders.
- Stickers, T-shirts and other swag.
- Free conference tickets from Affiliate World, Affiliate Summit or PerformanceIN Live!
- Last but not least, you could get an all-expenses paid trip to visit us in Vienna, Austria.
Click here to get your unique link and share it with your marketer friends!