Winning the E-commerce Game with Strategic Patience with Abe Chomali

So what's the solution?

Oh boy, the solution is keep asking questions. I don't know how philosophical you want to get, but there is a theory called Playing the Losing Game.

So tell us what your name is and what you do in this crazy world of Amazon.

So my name is Abe Chomali. I currently manage ads for Amazon sellers. I help them grow their accounts, I help them get more profitable. It's what I've been doing since 2018. And before that, lots of experience selling on every platform from 1991 till very recently.

And moments ago, you just won the competition for Best AI Hack at the Prosper Show.

Oh, yes.

Congratulations.

All right, so looking at the landscape of Amazon, and all the sellers you work with, what do you see the biggest challenge for Amazon sellers in the next 12 months being?

The biggest challenge is really the fees that keep changing. Amazon is rolling them out. People don't understand the scope of the fees that are changing, they don't understand the impact, and they really have no idea how to adapt to it.

So what's the solution?

Oh boy, the solution is keep asking questions. Watch your reports and watch what's happening with your money really, really carefully and push back hard when something is not right.

And you're in the PPC world, you're into growth. As growth is a topic, a lot of people are talking about expansion to other marketplaces on Amazon, and maybe other marketplaces in general. What is your advice when people maybe ask you what other platforms or marketplaces they should be looking at and taking seriously?

So this is interesting, I don't know how philosophical you want to get, but there is a theory called Playing the Losing Game. So if anybody plays tennis, you know that when we play tennis, the way you win is by just lasting long enough until the other person makes a mistake. But you've just got to stay in the game and that's how you win.

When it comes to marketplaces, it's sort of the same thing. You have to be in it and just not make a mistake and you give yourself the opportunity to win. So what I recommend to everybody is, try to be in every marketplace. Be in every Amazon marketplace if you can manage it, try to be on other platforms like TikTok, and Walmart, and Temu, and Shein, and whatever you can manage. Be in there while these are still getting figured out. And if you have a first-mover advantage, even if you're not doing everything right, you have the opportunity to have something really take off.

Wow.

If you could go back to the beginning of your entrepreneurial journey, what's the one piece of advice you'd give yourself then that you know now?

Get more sleep. I don't know if it sounds dumb, but there is a reality when we're kids, because my entrepreneurial journey started when I was 24, and I very, very frequently slept three hours a night and then caught up on the weekends. And I realize now that I left a lot of energy that I should have been using during the day, it just got spread out and spread too thin, and you start making bad decisions that catch up over time.

I agree.

If you weren't doing e-commerce stuff, what would you be doing?

I love law. When I went to college, I was on the pre-law track. I love the poking at complex things and trying to find the angle that works for you. I love looking at agreements and situations, and trying to find a way to make it work for us.

That's a good answer. I've heard some weird answers, that was unexpected.

Yeah, the law thing is like - I have a bunch of kids that are moving their way through life, and when I try to give them guidance I say, guys, if it resonates with you, get into law, because law will take you everywhere. Anything you want to do in life, being able to read a contract will put you very far ahead of the other person that can't.

Love that.

Can you give a specific example of how community has impacted your ability to work in the e-commerce world, or your e-commerce businesses yourselves, or how you interact with and serve the community in general?

So within the Amazon space specifically, and really not at all in all of the other places of commerce, that's really just within the Amazon community, there is very much a spirit of sharing and giving. And I haven't seen it anywhere else. If you can find it in you to share the thing you're having a challenge with, people are happy to help. It can be tough to show that you're having a weakness or having a hard time, but it's almost a guarantee that one, if not many other people have gone through exactly the same thing. People want the best for others and they will help. And that's it. Time and time again. I don't even have specific examples, just because there's so many.

If you could stand up on a stage right now and give three or four sentences to every Amazon seller in the world, what would those three or four sentences be?

Whoa, this requires thinking.

Okay, number one, be very clear on whether your account is profitable or not. It's not at all obvious. That's number one.

Number two, make sure you are clear about why somebody should buy from you as opposed to somebody else. No matter what business model you're in, there needs to be a reason to buy from you, and it can't just be that you exist.

Number three is marketing really is important. I know that my business is advertising, but it really is often as fundamental as getting your product in front of the shopper and investing in being at the top of a page. Investing in being next to your competition intentionally leads to great results over time. You've got to do it.

You have sold e-commerce products yourself, you've also helped other people sell a lot of products. What's the most ludicrous, ridiculous, embarrassing, or stupid product you've ever sold or helped sell?

I'm scared to say because inevitably that person might hear me talk about it.

I don't remember the flavor, but there -

I love how you started off on the flavor.

So I don't remember the flavor, but I have a client that sells Southeast Asian snacks. And at one point I had to help them with photography, and we had to open up the packages of snacks to take out the snack and flatten out the package to take a photo properly. One of the flavors was like some kind of seafood that I hope I never encounter again, because once I opened it up, me and the photographer, we recoiled and their studio smelled for a week afterwards.

That's a good one.

What has been the single most exciting moment for you in your entrepreneurial history?

There's a couple, but the one that often comes to mind is the one time I preached restraint, so this is an interesting story. I used to sell lots and lots and lots of electronic bundles, bundles of electronic products, way before anybody ever did it. Way before Amazon made it a thing. Way before people were doing multi-packs on Amazon, I used to sell enormous numbers of bundles and it was my competitive advantage.

One Monday morning I come into work, my partner was super upset because he realized that one of our competitors copied every single one of our bundles. He wanted to go break their windows because he knew who it was. He goes, Abe, you have to call the lawyer. Go call them. Fight with that. This requires a response and a strong one. And it didn't feel right.

It took me a while. I said, don't do anything just yet. And I figured out what was itching my brain, and I told my partner, listen, we are very on top of our prices and we are always tweaking the prices. If there's seven components in this bundle and any price changes, we adjust 70 bundles. I don't think they have any idea what's going to be involved in staying on top of the prices. Let's stay cool, bring our prices down over time. I bet they won't notice.

He gave me two weeks. He gave me two weeks to see if that would bear out. Within one week, sales were up, and within 10 months the competitor was out of business. And thinking back, what happened was, I was right that they didn't stay on top of the prices. But the benefit that we didn't realize, is when we were the only ones offering bundles, we were unique and a lot of shoppers didn't know what to make of it. Once the second competitor came in, we were validated by two different offers of those things, and shoppers felt more comfortable that it's a way to buy products. So we were validated and we were cheaper.

Amazing.

All right, the most important question of the entire interview, is a hot dog a sandwich?

No, because a hot dog bun is a single piece of bread folded over. You need two pieces of bread to make a sandwich.

What if it splits? Does it morph into a sandwich at that point or is it just a broken hot dog?

It's a broken hot dog.

Good answer.

And if people want to find you, Abe, where can they find you?

All over the social media places, AbeChomali.com, Abe Chomali on LinkedIn, on Facebook, you find the place where you can type my name in and I'll come up there.

Including OnlyFans?

Let's leave that for a different podcast.

All right, thanks Abe.

Thanks for having me.