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Can You Do Business In China Without Knowing Chinese?

Because of COVID, almost no foreigners have been allowed in China for two years. While exceptions have been made for business and health professionals (plus of course Winter Olympians), the government still requires a lengthy quarantine period of 14 to 21 days upon landing. Most people have understandably chosen to conduct their business on Zoom […]

Why You Should Optimize Your Instruction Manual

The goal of every online seller, just like the goal of every brick-and-mortar seller, is to drive sales. This is why loads of marketing dollars are spent each day perfecting emails, copyediting social media posts, and optimizing listings. Sellers on Amazon and Walmart.com take an “omni-channel” approach to make sure their products look attractive anywhere […]

Selling On Amazon v. Walmart: Pros & Cons

Why am I writing this So, you are thinking of starting an online business. You want to sell products on either Amazon or Walmart.com—either your own products or as a third party seller—but you don’t know which platform you should start with.  While there may not be a one-size-fits-all answer for every company, we have […]

Why Did Amazon Let Chinese Sellers Cheat? (Part 2)

In our last blog, I addressed the issue of how Amazon came to be dominated by black-hat Chinese sellers. I think I did an adequate job of tracing the steps that turned Amazon into China’s bazaar, but perhaps I concluded before really diving into the initial question: Why are so many Chinese sellers bad actors? […]

Why Did Amazon Let Chinese Sellers Cheat For So Long?

With recent developments in the standing of prominent Chinese companies on Amazon, it is only natural to ask: How did we get here? How did it come to be that some of the biggest sellers on Amazon, such as Aukey and Mpow, thought they could game the system with impunity? When did fake reviews become […]

No One Should Be Surprised That RAVPower Fakes Reviews

Add RAVPower to the list of Amazon-native brands to be removed from the site due to black hat tactics. Major brands like Aukey and Mpow faced the same fate a month ago, reportedly due to a data leak revealing the lengths they went to in order to secure fake product reviews. Similarly, RAVPower’s punishment comes […]

What Makes Anker & DJI Different From Other Chinese Brands

Out of the thousands of brands you can buy on Amazon, how many Chinese brands can you name? Perhaps you know Aukey and Mpow, especially after they became international news last month. But unless you are an e-commerce professional, even the very largest Chinese brands—brands like Tribit and TaoTronics, for example—remain anonymous. (Having worked with […]

How Long Do PR Press Releases Stay Up?

View Post Congratulations! Your press release got picked up by 100+ outlets. Local TV outlets in places like Lubbock, TX and Youngstown, OH feature it on their websites. This is great for your Google search cred! Best of all, it appears on Yahoo Finance, an online news source visited daily by serious business professionals. Seeing […]

Does Branding Matter?

When we talk to prospective clients, we always hear the same thing: After finding a market gap and building up a consumer base, Amazon sellers are finally ready to turn to branding. Though costs need to be kept to a minimum when a seller first starts out, the story goes, investing in branding is a […]

Aukey, Mpow, and Others Punished on Amazon for Fake Reviews

Whenever you consider buying a product on Amazon, you likely rely on two things to make your decision, customer reviews and what Amazon places at the top of the search page.  Nowadays, consumers rarely go to the store to try out a product firsthand before purchasing, so they listen to the opinions of those who […]

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