The Preparation: Point of departure
Daniel has been working on his expansion with SPACEGOATS since May 2021. Having exploited the local marketplace and already launched SPACEGOATS on all pan-European marketplaces, Daniel wanted to go even further and even higher. As a SPACEGOATS ‘alpha customer’ he signed up for our pilot project and took the plunge into the USA.
Since he had already been a customer for a long time and understood the internal processes and the GALAXY very well, all he had to do was sign an additional agreement and off he went.
Many things were still unclear for Daniel, but also for SPACEGOATS. Especially with the import, everyone had a few teething problems. Daniel says: “It was tricky with the import, but that was because “I was the ‘alpha customer’ and had to test the waters first, so there was a lot of back and forth about who was going to do the import – it was a bit confusing.”
In the end, we figured out a way to do the importing and were all surprised by how easy and cheap it ended up being. All Daniel had to do was give his agent in China the US shipping address and pay about 400€ for the first shipment of 25 packages.
The take-off: Needs and aspirations
Daniel wanted to sell in the USA – without directly registering for taxes in all states or opening a USA account and dealing with the requirements for selling in the USA.
SPACEGOATS was simply the right solution.
The American Amazon market is almost six times larger than the German market. There is so much potential there.
Of course, the competition is also significantly larger, which at the end of the day has an impact on PPC costs.
Daniel’s strategy here was “clearly 80/20 Pareto principle, just put the most important keywords into a sponsored products campaign and avoid sponsored brands, video etc. for the launch”. Those are all things you can tackle later, since there is such a large volume being converted in the U.S. that all of that isn’t even necessary for the beginning.”
So the CPC (cost per clicks) are much more expensive in the US. Despite this, Daniel was already profitable after the first month with his niche product.
After Chinese New Year (Lunar New Year) 2023, he plans to scale further with his other listings.
The space (goat) travel: Development at SPACEGOATS
Daniel has now been selling with SPACEGOATS in the US since November. And more sellers are already waiting in the wings to take this step.
Not every product is suitable for this market, which is why SPACEGOATS does not miss the opportunity to do a potential and margin analysis for every seller who wants to sell in the USA like Daniel.
Through SPACEGOATS and its partners, a launch into the great unknown is then also possible. As with the Pan-EU program, BidX can be used throughout and an initial analysis of keywords, the market and competitors can be made with Helium10.
With a local partner in the USA, who takes care of the logistics for Pre-FBA and whose Amazon account SPACEGOATS manages operationally, it is then possible, after successful product selection and compliance check, to sell in the USA.
So what is important to know for all those who want to go down this path?
Daniel can provide valuable tips & tricks:
No.1 Reviews and ratings will be taken from the German listing and displayed as global ratings. This helps tremendously with the launch because you don’t have to start from scratch.
No.2 Says Daniel: “Don’t worry so much about the import. For many Chinese manufacturers this is daily business and with SPACEGOATS it will be even easier. If I had known it was so easy, so fast and so cheap, I would have sent more directly to the USA.”
No.3 Compliance is also an important issue in the U.S. and products need to be prepared for the marketplace. Other labels, other certificates or lab tests need to be in place. Of course, monitoring is not as strict as in Europe but insurance should still be in place in case something does happen. This can also be prepared on a German level. However, SPACEGOATS will analyze any product to be sold in the States.
No.4 If you don’t have an amazon.com account (no necessity with SPACEGOATS), use the American images as your main listing images. Then, adjust the images for your German listings to prevent them from appearing on the American marketplace.
No.5 The beta phase at SPACEGOATS is in full swing and everyone is still learning, while many things are already being implemented. It is normal that not everything runs smoothly from the beginning. Therefore, in the future, every seller who sells with SPACEGOATS in the US will have their own Slack channel to improve communication.
The Experience: Satisfaction with SPACEGOATS
“Because I was able to go through the process once as an Aplha customer, it naturally bumped a bit at the beginning, but the communication of everyone involved was great and every feedback was also always implemented directly. The logistics were surprisingly fast, cheap and uncomplicated and the guys in America are fast and super uncomplicated, it’s just fun to work with them and SPACEGOATS.”