Take-off Thursday — 24 August 2017

Greg Mercer
Jungle Scout
Published in
5 min readAug 24, 2017

Welcome to Take-off Thursdays, your one-stop shop for the latest news and updates about all things ecommerce and Amazon.

Join me each Thursday in pondering the present and the future of commerce in 2017 and beyond!

If you’ve been reading any of the other digest posts and you have enjoyed them, I’d love it if you could give us some likes and shares!

Already in Budapest for Jungle Camp

This week I am writing to you from sunny Budapest, where I am ensuring everything is ready to go for the rest of the Jungle Scout team arriving tomorrow, for our team retreat, Jungle Camp. I am so excited to see everyone get together. It’s going to be a fantastic week of work and enjoying ourselves during the evenings and weekends.

Speaking of which ….

Come and Join Us In Budapest 🎉

We are hosting a get-together for any of our followers, fellow ecommerce business owners and entrepreneurs to join, on September 1st in Budapest.

So if you are in Hungary or close by, feel free to join us. Just do me a favor and fill in this form so we know who is coming!

RSVP — Jungle Scout Party

Share Your Seller Story 💪

Can’t join us in Budapest but want to tell us all about your incredible journey to launching a product, or running an Amazon business?

We’ve got an open call out right now for you where you can share your story and potentially get exposure on our website and on social media. There’s also a prize with a free month of Jungle Scout!

Enter Your Story

Sales Tax Amnesty Continues

It’s a commonly known fact that many Amazon sellers do not correctly pay their sales taxes in the United States. Recently, there has been a lot of conversation about this in the press, with many sellers owing millions in sales taxes.

Since this “sales tax amnesty” program has been announced, where sellers will be given the opportunity to participate and wipe the slate clean, if they promise to start doing things by the book in future, things have started to get very interesting. With speculation on whether sellers will have to change how they do business, what impact is this going to have?

My colleague and Director of Fetcher, Shane Stinemetz, recently participated in a webinar about Sales Tax Amnesty and why you should potentially think twice before entering, alongside an experienced tax attorney. I would highly advise you give it a listen or read his post about it before deciding on your move.

This is a topic I am keeping a close eye on as a seller, as the landscape of how sales tax works for online sellers in the US could definitely shift in the future.

→ Read More — Fetcher

Eclipse Glasses Recall

Did you catch the Solar Eclipse that was all over the news? I certainly caught the news that Amazon recalled lots of glasses that were being sold for the event, and sellers were up in arms.

I suspect that many sellers jumped on the solar eclipse bandwagon and that some of them weren’t legitimately safe, causing Amazon to pull this knee-jerk move. After all, wearing glasses to look directly at the sun could cause some serious legal issues if they indeed are not certified and safe.

Personally, I figure that selling a product of this nature is too high risk and extremely seasonal. I can see why people try and cash in whilst they can, but I prefer to play the long game, do my product research right and sell products that have consistent demand over a long period of time.

But hey, we’re all different and if nothing else this has shown that when it comes to Amazon, we really do need to be careful as they call the shots.

→ Read more — WBIR.com

How To Create A Life Of Freedom

Check out this new video we put together showcasing the lifestyle of FBA seller, Jessica, living in Chiang Mai.

She had no prior business experience and talks about where she came from to where she is now. Really inspiring stuff, check it out:

View on YouTube

Million Dollar Case Study: Europe — Updates

If you haven’t already checked out our MDCS where we are finding and launching products on Amazon and sharing every step of the journey, then you won’t know that we’ve now moved on to launching in Europe.

We have a lofty target to build our business to $1 Million in revenue with all of the proceeds going to charity. This time, my coworker Kym is joining me and I am mentoring her in the process as a new seller. We also invite relevant experts to join us along the way.

Check out Kym’s latest homework update video

It’s one hell of a journey and if you want to join make sure you sign up here!

You can also catch up with all past sessions in the same place, and watch out for Kym’s vlog updates on YouTube!

→ Join The Fun — MDCS:Europe

Quote Of The Week

“Set a goal so big that you can’t achieve it until you grow into the person who can” — Will Smith

Podcast Of The Week

This week (a little self promotion) as I was featured on Mixergy and gave a snap shot into Jungle Scout, and my journey as entrepreneur, catch it here.

Have an amazing weekend and see you next week!

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Greg Mercer
Jungle Scout

Amazon product research made easy. Save hours uncovering profitable physical products to sell on Amazon.