Is Private Label still a viable business model in 2019?
It is still viable - if you can invent something, it does give you a major advantage.

PL still works but not in commodities.

And you need to differentiate. You can’t just put your logo on something from Alibaba.

Read the reviews and you’ll have to work with the manufacturer to fix that

You can differentiate with packaging, bundling, etc.

You have to put up a bit of a moat.

Kevin has done both PL -

He’s sold millions on Amazon - never had a counterfeiter or hijackers.

Strong imagery, packaging.

Always customized -

He had an idea for a product - got someone on Upwork in Argentina -did CAD for $400.

$3000 for a mold for each. It’s done really really well -nobody

Back in 2015 when iWatch came out - docks on amazon - bamboo - plastic etc.

They all looked like crap!

Nightlight - had cables in back etc.

sketched it out. - found a factory on Global Sources

$1000 - they said they would do ALL the design work.

Sent him 3D renderings -  tweaked it -

would download file - took it to guy in Austin who did a 3D mockup

Made sure product worked

Went to apple store - checked the watch bands worked.

 

Did another round

Did 10 prototypes

Then went to production

$37K mould cost

$22 Landed - sell on Amazon for $89.95

At some point went down to $79.95 but still workable.

Xmas 2015 - $16,000 -18,000 a day in Sales!!
Product selection
It’s not just about the budget, you have to have the margin

Eg sells for $19.95 - landed cost of $12.

Or They say “$8” but they haven’t included freight etc.

You need a 4-5X markup if it’s under $100.

If it’s under that, chances of success go way down.
You have to differentiate
His Apple Watch thing This was in a saturated market - probably 10,000 results!

You have to get into the mind of Apple people -they will pay high!

For the word “apple doc” he kept getting bumped off page 1.

But he was on longer tail keywords
Big mistake - going after huge keywords
Find products that have lots of ways in!

50 windows in, back door, side door

At least 20 keywords in the top 1 million* -

in the USA at least 20 keywords  with over 600 unique searches (“exact”)

If you have only one way in,

*Search Frequency Rank (SFR) - is like a total BSR for categories - similar to BSR for EVERYTHING on Amazon.

It’s easy to get to page 1

It’s easier with PPC

You can get a handful of reviews coming in.

You can fix issues with product or listing.

Then you can start targeting the higher keywords.

If you make sure you have said “Apple iWatch doc” in the title.

If the word “apple charging station” is also in the title

SO if you get 10 sales on the low-level keywords, you rank equivalent to 1 sale for the higher level keyword.
Helium10 - you can search on “Black Box” based on keywords 
You used to look via products

* $x dollars

Now you can use the keyword search tool - gamechanger.

Most people don’t know how to use the tools well.

Like driving car - vs. F1 car on the track.

This is a numbers business!

If you’re not good with data analysis

Let’s say we have someone who has done some retail arbitrage or eBa...