Internet Merchants Association

The Association for E-Commerce Merchants

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Communicate, Educate, and Network your way to e-commerce success

Join the conversation on Facebook!

IMA is now on Facebook. We welcome anyone that is involved in e-commerce to join our Facebook Group and take part in the active community there.

Upcoming education for e-commerce sellers

IMA will once again be participating in the educational sessions at the ASD show in July 2019. We are excited to welcome some new speakers and new business members!

All sessions will be held at the Las Vegas Convention Center on the show floor at Booth #C3133. Here are the descriptions for our upcoming sessions:

Session Start Time Session Title Session Description Speaker(s)
  SUNDAY    
9:00 AM Amazon 101: Getting Started on the Amazon Marketplace Are you interested in getting started selling on Amazon? If so, this is the presentation you don’t want to miss. You’ll learn how to setup an Amazon selling account, how Amazon FBA works, how to start sourcing inventory, and all the rules and best practices that will keep you selling and lead you to success. Tyler Nelson
10:00 AM Your Amazon Listing Content – It’s not what you say, but how you say it In the early days of Amazon, you could throw a product listing together with one image and some sparse bullets and it would sell, sell, sell. Those days are quickly fading away in the rear-view mirror. Today’s successful listing goes to a new level by creating a relevant and valuable experience for the potential buyer. Infographics, diagrams, motivating and experience driven copywriting all work together to create a scenario the buyer can engage with. Adding to this broadened messaging with vehicles like Enhanced Brand Content, store pages, social media presence and post-purchase marketing and you not only get more sales, but a customer who feels they are part of the product, message and brand. Establishing your marketing along this messaging roadmap is crucial to maintain and grow your business. With over ten years of ecommerce retail experience managing a growing seven figure business, Barbara Boschen will share lessons learned that will help you understand how marketing is different than selling and how you can up your game to create an offer your competitors can not begin match. Barbara Boschen
11:00 AM The eCommerce Business Model Experts Panel “Which Is Best…Private Label, Wholesale, Arbitrage, or Liquidation?” Are you conflicted on which eCommerce business model to start or grow? It’s the great debate in eCommerce…which business is the right one? Is any model truly a safe or easy model these days? Join our experts who together bring expertise from each of the most common approaches found amongst sellers today. From Arbitrage to Liquidation….Wholesale to Private Label…our panelists have been through it all, and have plenty of information to share with you. Entrepreneurs are natural alphas who lead by example and believe heavily in what they do. It’s bound to get a little heated with 5 industry experts all on one stage! Don’t miss it! Panelists: Perry Coghlan, Kim Coghlan, Mark Le Vine, Jing Gao / Moderated By: Eddie Levine
  LUNCH BREAK    
1:00 PM So you think you can trade show? How to properly plan for and work the show floor for eCommerce sellers! Calling all eCommerce sellers! You’ve heard it 1,000 times, right? “Get yourself to a trade show! Meet vendors, buy products, build relationships!” After all, you’re at ASD right? But HOW exactly should you do it? “What kinds of things should you accomplish BEFORE you travel to the show floor? What is the most effective way to manage time at the show? How should I pitch vendors?” Are these things at the top of your mind? Have you tried a method that just didn’t work as well as you hoped it would? Are you nervous about building relationships in person? If so, this is the session you won’t want to miss! Eddie Levine, a seasoned trade show veteran and 8 figure wholesale eCommerce expert, will break down all the do’s and do not’s so you are sure to make the most of your trade show visit! All levels welcome, there will be something valuable for everyone! Eddie Levine
2:00 PM How to develop a full Private Label line and why it’s better than just one product In 2018, Amazon brought over 8 million new products to market in January alone. Those who tried to sell garlic presses or fidget spinners commonly found they were unsuccessful and were stuck with excess inventory. In order to effectively compete in this highly competitive space, sellers must pivot away from white labeling, or calling a generic product their own. They must also focus on creating a line of products…an entire brand as opposed to a single product. Think about if you need a reliable portable charger for your phone. Does the name Anker come to mind? This is what an effective brand is all about. Sellers are fighting to bring new products to market every day, what are you doing to rise above all the competition and ensue your name sticks? Ask yourself, do you want to be a product seller or a brand owner? A product seller will always be on the lookout for the next hot commodity, while a brand owner is planning to maximize customer engagement and create the next products (plural) for an existing audience. With over ten years of ecommerce retail experience, Jing Gao will share her story about how she was able to accomplish seven figures in private label sales in one year, and why she believes that having a brand image in mind from day one is crucial for anyone who wants to successfully build a private label business. Jing Gao
3:00 PM Running Your Business…An Inside Look Above and Beyond the Numbers Running your business takes much more than just buying merchandise and selling it for a profit. Someone who knows that all too well is Mark Levine. He wears many hats himself: business professional, rapidly growing Amazon seller, owner of Bubblefast LLC, and organizer of the eCom Chicago conference. He’s here to provide you with an insider’s look on what it takes to run a successful business, protect your assets, and plan for what comes next. Mark Le Vine
  MONDAY    
9:00 AM Amazon Brand Registry, Project Zero, and IP issues…what they mean for brand owners and resellers World renowned eCommerce lawyer CJ Rosenbaum will discuss the Amazon Brand Registry, Project Zero, and Intellectual Property issues for BOTH brands AND resellers! Brand Registry and Project Zero offers private label sellers the ability to obtain & effectively use Brand Registry & Project Zero to protect their sales. Resellers CAN AVOID problems when selling brand registered goods even as Project Zero gains momentum. Intellectual property law ensures brands can protect their sales via IP Laws, while resellers can successfully sell branded goods if they are prepared. Don’t miss out on this important session covering all these newly developed programs on the Amazon marketplace. CJ Rosenbaum
10:00 AM How to Effortlessly Setup and Optimize Your Amazon PPC for Success Does Amazon PPC feel like another language? Are you not sure what metrics you should be looking at or tracking? Learn how to effortlessly setup and optimize your Amazon PPC step by step from keyword research to optimization. Decipher your Sponsored Products Search Term Report, understand key metrics, and learn how to conquer Amazon PPC from an Amazon PPC specialist who manages 1000s of products and 6 figures of ad spend for 7 figure Amazon sellers. Youn Jung Chung
11:00 AM How to Drive Sales & Keyword Ranking on Amazon in 2019 Without Giveaways Casey Gauss, CEO of Viral Launch, will show you step-by-step the best strategy for driving significant keyword ranking and sales on Amazon. Casey and his Viral Launch team have helped sellers just like you make over $7 Billion on Amazon. In This Workshop You Will Learn: Amazon’s new cheapest source of traffic, best way to drive sales for a brand new product, how to use keyword ranking to bolster organic sales, how to get your first few reviews (within Amazon’s TOS), how to achieve sponsored ad rank position #1, advanced listing optimization techniques for SEO, how to aggressively improve organic keyword ranking, and how to drive ranking for new products (no giveaways). Casey Gauss
  LUNCH BREAK    
1:00 PM How to Work With Your Family Without Killing Each Other Perry & Kim Coghlan are famous in the Amazon space, but it’s not only their sales and numbers that are impressive. They have not 1, not 2, not 3…but 13 kids! In this session, they will talk about how their kids worked for them within their business, quit, and came back! Through it all, they all live happily ever after…most of the time. Perry & Kim will also touch on everything related to the personal side of running an eCommerce business including marriage, family dynamics, and staying sane. Perry & Kim Coghlan
2:00 PM How To Save Hundreds To Thousands On Logistics For Amazon & eCommerce Sellers, A Panel Discussion So you’ve located your vendors, picked your products, and now you’re ready to sell…or are you? Have you ever experienced a headache trying to arrange your inbound freight from China? Are you constantly struggling with how to efficiently move your domestic orders from your suppliers to your location? Are you fed up with the Amazon inbound receiving process? Join us for a brand new session to ASD focusing on logistics for eCommerce. Our experts are a mix of current and former high-volume sellers and are ready to field your questions. Don’t let logistics eat into your time or profits! Learn how to get ahead of the curve once and for all! Dale Lenz, Ephraim Ausch, Eddie Levine
3:00 PM Amazon Giveaways – A Marketers Dream Chris Green, one of the original Amazon marketplace experts and Merch on Amazon aficionado, returns to the Las Vegas ASD stage to talk to you all about Amazon giveaways and promotional programs available for your business. In this talk, he will cover how to get clicks on your page, reviews on your product, and even talk about how YouTube subscribers can greatly influence your business. Chris Green
  TUESDAY    
9:00 AM The 4 Pillars of Online Brand Protection The Internet is a rapidly changing ecosystem which often results in a lack of control for brands and resellers alike. In our time together, we’ll cover the latest trends in the legal foundation which give manufacturers control over their distribution channels as well and the low hanging fruit which enable the best brands to reward value added resale partners and drive cross-channel growth. Andrew Schydlowsky & Michael Murphy JD
10:00 AM 7 sales channels you can’t afford to be missing out on Whether you’re new to e-commerce or you’re a long-time seller, there are 7 sales channels you shouldn’t neglect…after all, your goal should be to sell as much as possible. It’s good practice to branch out to multiple selling channels to increase the amount of product page impressions you receive. When you expand your sales outlets, you also gain access to cheaper advertising, sometimes even free, which leads to more buyers seeing your products. Every sales channel has its strengths and weaknesses, but it never hurts to expand and try out additional options which may help your bottom line. 7 sales channels may sound like a lot, but there are plenty of tools out there to assist you in making a seamless duplication of your products from one platform to another. Join Mike Perillo as he discusses these 7 channels, how to leverage your products within them, and how to succeed through additional brand exposure. Mike Perillo
11:00 AM Profitability: Modeling the Driving Forces During this session we will look at factors that impact profitability in your Ecommerce business. We will present a case study of a successful business and then model the impact of tariffs, increased fees, decreased production costs, shipping methods and lightning deals on the gross margin of case study business. We will examine the impact of using loans on cash flow and model the change in free cash in the case study business when loans are used. Finally we will highlight how to use the Profit First Cash Flow method to ensure you pay yourself and create positive cash flow in your business. Cyndi Thomason
  LUNCH BREAK    
1:00 PM The Ecommerce Experts AMA (Ask Me Anything) Panel, An Open Forum Q&A Whats better than learning from one expert? How about learning from four of them! With 50+ years of combined experience, these eCommerce sellers & industry titans are here to share their knowledge with you. They will take your questions and talk about their experiences of selling online and launching products effectively. They each have a unique perspective and different experiences which make this a great opportunity to learn! Bring your questions and your notebooks as this panel is a great one for anyone that needs a helping hand with anything eCommerce. Panelists: Barbara Boschen, Mike Perillo, Casey Gauss, Chris Green / Moderated By: Eddie Levine
2:00 PM 5 Lessons From Over $500 Million in Business Acquisitions, Why Sellers Need To Think About An Exit Strategy Since 2010, Thomas and his company FE International have worked with hundreds of business owners to successfully exit their business. This talk will focus on 5 key lessons he has learned. In that time, he has seen what makes a company valuable and what does not. Whether you are thinking about selling your business now or in many years to come, decisions you make today will be critical to the eventual valuation and salability of your company. Regardless of what your role is in the business – everyone must exit one day. Thomas’ aim is to make sure that is with a successful sale. Thomas Smale
3:00 PM What I Learned At Summer Camp (eBay Open) Every year, the roadshow comes to Las Vegas in July. No, we’re not talking about the Antiques Roadshow…it’s eBay Open! The show is part party and part “Here’s What’s New”. From the fine details of the spring update to what is coming down the road for eBay sellers, there is much to learn. eBay sellers need to stay on top of any changes, and Jason will be teaching you everything you need to stay current and compliant. He will let you know how to navigate the new shipping methods, how to use the new eBay selling tools to generate more sales, as well as cover any other surprises announced during eBay Open (which happens just before ASD) There will be Q&A time to ask all your eBay questions as well! Jason T Smith