Day 9: “Tactical Arbitrage Part II”
Yesterday, we looked at running product searches in TA. Today, we will look at the second popular function of Tactical Arbitrage; the Reverse Search!
What is Reverse Searching?
While the Product Search looks at online retailers and returns the stats on the ASINs it finds, the Reverse Search lets you input giant lists of ASINs and get you those valuable details on products you already know about.
Recall our lesson on reverse sourcing. Reverse search is much the same, except the scale is much larger and the means of running those searches has been automated thanks to the power of Tactical Arbitrage!
Reverse Search
This program lets us throw ASINs at the wall and see what sticks. It is a very similar format to the product search page. It can be used to find ASINs through Category, sub-category, and more.
Where you are running a search of ASINs from a source category/brand, you are doing the opposite with Reverse Search. I believe that it is one of the most valuable things TA offers you.
I recommend setting the cache filter to 10 days. Keep the switch titled “Also show Title / Image Matches” on. Otherwise, you will only see UPC matches and you will have a harder time finding those hidden gems. Keep in mind that reverse search really isn’t helpful if you are doing international sourcing.
The easiest way to do that is to import the bulk ASINs through the “Use Bulk Product Codes” feature in Reverse Search.
Import Bulk Product Codes
You can use this function to upload files to help set the parameters for our reverse search. You can upload data from multiple sources from Google Drive, Keepa, and More!
This software is limited to accepting a maximum of 25,000 ASINs in a CSV or Spreadsheet, so keep that in mind. You can also use Rubies to increase your capacity from just 25,000 ASINs.
Once you upload your CSV, you’ll be able to add a few more parameters to your reverse search through the filters section.
Filters
Next, let’s see how the filter section has changed in this tool as opposed to product search.
This Filters section is incredibly similar to Product Search, if you remember yesterday's lesson. This lets you set parameters of your scan in basically the same way as you did for Reverse Search.
Source Price Adjustments
This is where we declare any store price changes. In this case, there is no need to worry about Store Price Reductions.
For this one, you will only need to put sales tax in if your state or province has a sales tax.
Note: You should also declare the sales tax of where your distribution center is located.
If you work from Florida, but your Distributor is stationed in Ohio, you need to declare Ohio’s Sales Tax. Again, declaring the tax info can only help you in the calculations of things like ROI and Profit.
Remove
Remove allows you to quickly filter out ASINs according to set parameters.
Be pretty Conservative with this one. Unlike Product Search, Reverse Searching is about casting as wide of a net as possible. That means that we should minimize our removal parameters. Be sure to activate the filter “Remove 3rd Party Sellers From Results”, though.
Costs/Fees
It is important that you thoroughly fill out Costs/Fees. You also need to know what your warehouse fees are exactly going to be.
These metrics are very Important for calculating things like estimated Profit and ROI. If you work in wholesale and/or have a prep center, get in touch with them and figure out what your exact shipping and prep costs will look like.
Profit & ROI
The Profit & ROI section sets up parameters so you can find the Profit and ROI you're looking for. Again, I like to set a wide range, so that means lowballing this portion.
I typically look for at least 1$ profit and at least 10% ROI.
There is also a new feature where you can determine which metric you want to compare those margins with; Buy Box Price, 30 Day Avg., and 90 Day Avg.
Others
Just like we did in Product search, make sure that you show out of stock items.
Those Items that aren’t in stock have great potential; there is a vacancy in the supply line
that you can fill if you’re quick enough.
Quick Keyword Search
This Lets you look up categories by just manually typing in a keyword (i.e. “mashed potatoes”). This allows you to create very small, specialized searches. However, the lists are so small it is kind of a waste of TA’s hardware
This is a pretty cool feature since it will show you everything related to that keyword that could make you a profit. Within your filters
Seller ID Search
Seller ID Search lets you find ASINs attached to a given seller ID. Find a seller ID while scanning the internet, then paste that seller ID into the box.
Note:You can only perform 6 Seller ID Scans every 24 hours. You get 1 ID search added to your queue every 4 hours, so make sure you use them wisely. Also, these will add a lot of time to your scans since it is a global feature, since it relies on Amazon’s API.
Scan Bestsellers
We can use this to scan the best sellers in a category of up to 3 levels of separation. By levels of separation, I mean it takes you down to at most 2 subcategories of a given category.
It is able to go much deeper than Amazon will let us. I typically don’t get too granular with it and only use the 1st level.
Scan Most Wished
You can use this feature to scan the most items in a given category that get wish listed the most on Amazon.
It is a good feature when you are having a hard time finding hot items.
Scan Movers and Shakers
Movers and Shakers are the bestselling items according to Amazon over the last 24 hrs.
Search Brand Page
Search brand page is my personal favorite, you can use it to reverse search a Brand’s Amazon storefront.
Reverse Search Domain
Reverse Search Domain lets you enable or disable possible retailers where the ASINs may be sold, making it another great way to consolidate your ASINs and organize scans.
Just above that, you will see a box that will allow you to filter according to three levels of specificity.
This is a super handy feature, whether you want to find bestsellers, the most saved ASINs, or even movers and shakers. It is a really good idea to use this feature if you already know what category that you want to sell in and don’t wanna be bothered with analyzing other categories that you can’t be bothered with.
It will return any ASINs that are positioned at or below 100,000 in the sales rank, so you know that you are looking at good products.
View Reverse Search
For all intents and Purposes, View Reverse Search is the view data page equivalent for reverse searches.
Again, this section is incredibly similar to the Product Search view. It lets us analyze data gathered from the reverse search. Once you find a product to look at, we can take it to the page Product Variations.
Product Variation
This page lets us compare the profits and ROI of items that are similar to the item you wanted to analyze. This is useful when finding the best flip and/or sales opportunities from your scan, especially when trying to find the best variation of a product.
Sometimes, you won’t just have to find a good ASIN, but also the best child ASIN (Variation).
Reverse search with TA is not hard, but it is profitable. The most important thing that you can do to master TA is to start throwing scans at the wall, see what works for you, and practice as much as you can!
Day 9 Q+A
Should I be nervous about TA stealing my XPaths?
No, for software companies, trust and reputation are everything. If word got out that TA was selling user information, they would be out of business within a year, if not months.
How do you get more rubies?
You will earn a set amount of rubies for every month you use TA. It is an incentive structure for TA to reward loyal users.
Why can’t I find Quick Keyword search?
It should be there if you have access to Reverse Search
If you are doing your own prep, shouldn’t we declare that cost?
No, because no money is leaving your pocket to do that so it is more of a fixed cost.
How do you get rid of practice searches?
You can delete them in the search manager.
How can you apply reverse searches to wholesale?
If you are trying to build towards wholesale, I would keep track of your frequent sellers and manually search for those wholesalers, and that is as easy as using google and a cellphone.
Why aren’t you interested in Zulily?
They dropship most things, so things take forever to reach you.
Do you mark mismatches?
No, I just delete them and move on. Marked mismatches are local to you.
What do you prefer?
I am a huge fan of reverse searches, but that is just because It’s what I am most comfortable with. Other sellers thrive using only product search, so that’s really a question you need to answer for yourself.
How do you un-exclude brands?
Go to settings → searching → search filters → brand exclusion manager → X out the desired brand → click save.
How much should I pay for in-house help?
Probably somewhere around $12-$15 per hour. However, I would worry about getting trainable people.
How does one get a Keepa Shirt w/o going to Germany?
I’ll find them and share a link with the group.
What is a reliable source to find a VA?
We actually have a service where we hire a VA for you and walk them through the OA Challenge for you.
Are there any VA’s taking the course currently?
Yes, but a lot of them just get access to the replays as they get hired.