Global Sources Summit October 2018 wrap up

The 6^th Global Sources Summit for online sellers was held from October 27-29, 2018 at AsiaWorld-Expo in Hong Kong.

More than 100 eCommerce sellers from 22 countries attended the conference and heard seasoned Amazon practitioners give advice and guidance on how to flourish and grow their business.

Here is a quick recap of some of the key topics that were discussed at the Summit.

If you missed this Summit, fret not, the next one is happening April 27-29, 2019.

Pre-conference Workshops

1. Beginners Workshop: How to Build a Million Dollar Brand on Amazon – Liran Hirschkorn & Andy Slamans

Liran and Andy conducted a crash course workshop for beginners where they presented a proven 3-step formula they’ve used to build their own million-dollar eCommerce business.

2. Advanced Facebook Strategies to Supercharge Your eCommerce – Zack Franklin

Selling on Amazon has its challenges such as not being able to grow your own customer base and these are the challenges Zack tackled in his workshop.

He taught workshop attendees how to have a dependable source of customers outside of Amazon. He gave examples of good Facebook marketing strategies. He also gave guidance on how someone new to using Facebook would go about getting information about their competitors and their ad campaigns, how to effectively place adverts and keywords to get more conversions.

3. Advanced Strategies for Quality Control – Habib Rkha

Habib Rkha went through the do-s and don’ts of the quality control process. He had 3 main takeaways for attendees namely; learning why quality starts at inception, creating inspection checklists, and learning about product inspection

Notable Presentations

1. The Relationship Hack: Scale Your Business Using the Power of Relationships – Liran Hirschkorn

Liran discussed the importance of relationships with suppliers, Amazon, and employees. He shared real life examples about how he was able to leverage these relationships to get better deals, better terms, and better motivated employees. Liran strongly advises that those in the eCommerce and online marketing sphere should re-evaluate their current relationships and understand the power they hold.

2. Using Messenger and Chatbots to Grow Your Amazon Business – Michelle Barnum Smith

Facebook Messenger has a 90% open rate as compared to emails where a 20% open rate is considered good. The benefits of using Messenger are obvious to begin with but Michelle walked attendees through the do-s & don’ts and best practices for effective Messenger marketing. Michelle gave actionable content on how to create your first Messenger bot and shared a wide range of strategies for different types of businesses.

3. Dirty Seller Tricks on Amazon – Cynthia Stine

Having been a consultant specializing in crisis management for more than 25 years of business, Cynthia talked about possible tricks sellers could use to get your account suspended. She also offered up advice that could help sellers overcome the tricks including how to report to Amazon, legal advice, and other channels that can be used to protect your brand and business even before getting attacked.

4. 7 Hacks Every Advanced Seller Must Know, Plus a Magical Eighth One – Kevin King

Kevin spoke about the frequent mistakes Amazon sellers make that cost them a lot and how to avoid them. He also gave 8 uncommon strategies that help Amazon sellers succeed including tips for inventory management, finding the right supplier, handling competitors, keyword research and much more.

5. KOL Marketing for Amazon Sellers: Top Practices & Strategies – Davide Nicolucci

In his presentation, Davide revealed the most useful hacks on how to get relevant influencers, bloggers and YouTubers to talk about products, drive traffic to and increase conversion rates for Amazon listings, and how to maintain a great relationship with influencers. He broke down the content to the very basic by explaining what exactly a KOL is with examples, and why they’re important.

6. Amazon Australia: Everything you Need to Know About Selling on Amazon’s Newest Marketplace – Chris Thomas

Amazon Australia is a relatively new market, barely a year old. Chris Thomas, having experienced both Amazon Australia and US, shed some light on the benefits and challenges sellers could face. He mentioned various parties to take into consideration when selling on Amazon including but not limited to Australian buyers, competitors of Amazon such as eBay, Kogan, Costco etc, and Amazon Australia itself. Chris also touched base on Amazon Australia’s current limitations but possibilities for growth.

7. Preparing for Future eCommerce Success: Panel Discussion

Moderated by Chris Thomas, the panellists, Kevin King, Bernie Thompson, Cynthia Stine, and Chris Rawlings gave advice and insight on opportunities and threats they foresee in 2019 and beyond including the issues of technology and regulation.

Networking sessions

The objective of Global Sources Summit is to go beyond just learning from speakers in a one-to-many learning environment. With 13 networking sessions throughout the day, attendees, speakers, and sponsors alike were able to mingle and network with each other as they exchanged stories, strategies, and more.