1915 – Elevating E-commerce Brands with Omer Riaz

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1:06With us right now, Omar Riaz. Omar, you are the CEO and co-founder at Your Tasker. Your Tasker is URTasker, so the letters URTasker.com. Omar, it's great to have you. Thank you so much, Josh. Yeah, well, please give us an overview of the work you do, who you serve and the impact you have in the world? I serve e-commerce business community. I would call e-commerce sellers who are selling on Amazon, off Amazon. So we manage their marketing, we manage their listing optimization, SEO, everything which has to do with e-commerce. Majority of our clients are on Amazon, I would say 90%. So that's basically it is we manage from a startup to a manufacturer, everything.

1:56Yeah. Yeah. Well, for someone that's obviously this is the world that you obsess on and, you know, an area that you keep eyes and ears on, you got your ears to the track, you know, what's coming up likely, you certainly can kind of give us, I'm wondering if you could just kind of give us some of the headlines over the past six to nine months. And maybe for those of us who are not watching the world of, you know, Amazon, e-commerce, the Amazon beyond e-commerce world. What have you been seeing? What's been going on? And what are you most excited about in the road ahead? Yes. Great question. So I would basically take a step back and there is a era which I divide COVID before COVID and after COVID.

2:41And obviously COVID was a different thing. So for past one year, what is happening that Amazon is changing a lot of stuff and they always do like every year they're making changes but the recent updates which they did it has impacted a lot especially e-commerce community and on the amazon side if i look at it they are facing competition from timu from many other seller channels which are obviously coming from china and kind of selling their products so they have to kind of make adjustments, which I would say that they are not Amazon sellers friendly. So I believe Amazon seller expect a lot more around decreasing fees.

3:30The space has become very competitive in terms of advertising, in terms of the complexity. So these are some of the challenges. And obviously, when there is a challenge, there is opportunity as well. So there is obviously opportunity for sellers to be more sophisticated around their advertising, how they can run advertising and being, you know, helping a lot of Amazon seller. I say that right now in this space, there are other opportunities as well. Like, you know, there is a recent conversation going on around TikTok shop. Hopefully that's going to be solved. But I think there is alternative channels which e-commerce sellers or business owners can consider along with their when they are considering diversifying their D2C approach.

4:27So there are a lot of exciting things like that. Yeah. And I know that this isn't necessary. Sourcing is not necessarily your world, but I'm curious if you've heard anything from the clients you work with about just the world of sourcing. Obviously, China has got their place in this world. But I've seen and I've talked with experts that are talking about other global opportunities for sourcing, India, South America, Mexico. Have you seen any movements from your world on that side of things? Yes. I think after COVID, when there was a crisis of supply chain, a lot of our clients have started looking at other sources, other countries.

5:11So they are exploring India. They are exploring, you know, other countries in Asia. I have seen clients going to Mexico, you know, wherever they can go and find. So obviously that is going on. But the pace, I think it's still like it has to pick up. So a lot of sellers still kind of dependent on China right now. So, yeah, I mean, you know, sourcing has been an issue. And I think smart sellers are kind of diversifying on their supply chain. What do you know about the reality of e-commerce success that many brand new sellers may not be aware of? Like maybe about what it takes, or I don't know if you find yourself commonly providing some education around some certain areas?

6:04I can definitely share. I think many people have talked about that. And that will come from my personal experience. So I started this agency as an Amazon seller. I was an Amazon seller. So I converted this to an agency. And, you know, whenever there is an experience of e-commerce, it goes back to my experience. My first product, which I kind of, you know, I was rushing into launching this. So it was a complete disaster, you know. Because I didn't spend much time on looking at the market. I didn't spend much time on customizing my audience because that's going to later on help you in customizing your advertising because you really know which audience you have to target.

6:53For example, the example is like there is a water bottle. If you're selling water bottle, that is a complete different word as compared to if you're selling a water bottle which has lights. Now you're targeting to people who are maybe walking during the night. They have a walk, so they want to have this water bottle with lights so it's visible. So you really know your audience and you could target that. So I think the product selection is a key component. In fact, I was talking to one of the product developers recently and I asked him like, you know, what is your typical process of product development?

7:34And like, I extremely care about this guy who has come with plenty of experience of product development. And he kind of shared the traditional way of product development. And I said, well, the way I kind of look at product development is that, you know, there are maybe like four products people are selling. I kind of take those four products and I read their negative reviews. Like what people are exactly putting and kind of take that negative feedback and see if there is a pattern. And once I identify a pattern, I kind of try to fix it in the sample which I'm building. And I try to provide value.

8:15So the competition is not just on pricing, it's based on value. So when people are using my products, they can feel the difference. They can compare with existing sellers. So I think the product selection and research is the major, major part of it. If you mess up this, then you could spend like almost everything on advertising. It's not going to work. So I think the product selection and your advertising approach, right, start with identifying your custom audience, whom you're going to target, whom you're going to get, who would be your potential customers. And if you happen to talk to them and get their feedback initially, I think that will be great.

8:58So product selection is the first thing. I think that's a basic component in e-commerce. And a lot of, like we have over one of the service where we talk to manufacturers. And one of the issue which I have seen with a lot of manufacturers is, I wouldn't say a lot, some of the manufacturers, they have this traditional mind that they're going to build this product. And once they have this bulk of products, now they're going to try to sell. And I tell them like, okay, I see things differently. I kind of reverse engineer. I kind of see like, what is trending? You know, what is going on? What are some of the trends?

9:38And kind of take that and kind of reverse engineer to produce a product which can sell. So I think a lot of people, even a manufacturer, have to think in this way that, you know, this is a new approach, which is kind of appearing. So product development, I think product research is the top, top, which, I mean, the thing which you can't avoid. Let's, Omar, let's say that you had like a cousin or a family member and maybe they're in their young 20s and they say, you know, I would really love to get started in e-commerce. if you were to recommend maybe the best way or place for them to get started today, any ideas on what you might tell them?

10:18You know, this is the question which I get every day from my family and friends. And I tell them that, hey, I can give you category. But if you ask me like a specific product, you know, it's very hard. It's not which I can tell you like, you know. So first thing, which I tell a lot of people who are young, is find something where you are very passionate about it. And you don't find this as a work. You find this as a hobby. So identify that. That should be something which is not generic, something very specific. because there are a lot of untapped categories still on e-commerce, you know, which people are exploring.

11:03So find something which is your hobby and find something which it's kind of untapped. And if you really want to, you know, kind of customize it or make it better or offer something which no one is offering, you know. So a lot of people which they go is kind of, they kind of look at the trends and kind of reverse engineer that. But there is one approach. The second approach is like, you know, find something that you are passionate about, like, you know, and then kind of start building products, start looking into some of the trending products which are related to that and start work on that. So you don't feel that you are actually working.

11:42You are passionate about that. You know, you are building this. You feel free to get feedback. Feedback is very important. I have seen a lot of young people when they create product and they are emotionally so attached to this product that they don't want to get user feedback. I know a young guy who has built something and he actually took this to Staples. And he stood there and he actually asked people that this is the product right here and this is my product. You know, what is going to make you buy my product? What are some of the features you would like to see? So actual feedback from users who will be your potential customers.

12:31And you will be surprised with that feedback from real human being, I would say, you know, and they might change your perception, like, you know, and how much they're going to pay for this product, which you are carrying in your hand. So, you know, things around those lines, I think if you do it, you know, these could be some of the basic steps which you can follow in order to, you know, kind of build something if you are in early 20s. So I get this question a lot. Yeah, yeah. Omar, who would be an ideal connection for you or an ideal client where it's like, talk about great alignment. And I don't know if that's maybe just, obviously, they need to be well positioned and that sort of thing.

13:15but also from a values perspective, like who is kind of your ideal kind of client to work with? My ideal client is basically who has built few products, few SKUs, and now they are running advertising and they really want to delegate to someone so they could focus on something else like product development, maybe taking care of the business, maybe some of the other important aspects of the business. That is my ideal client. And one of the scenarios could be that they are facing a lot of issues with advertising. So we can take care of that. And there are basically three parts. The third part is like any manufacturer who is really looking to sell to D2C.

14:03And they have products and that those products have market. And they are looking at a partner who could basically take care of everything. So we have this revenue share model where we said, okay, no retainers. We're going to work as a partner. We're going to do an audit. We're going to see if there is a potential for this product. And if we see, we're going to offer you a partnership and we're going to work with you. So these are three different angles which kind of fit our potential client or customers. Yeah. Your website is yourtasker, youartasker.com. To our friend that's been listening to our conversation, what would you recommend they do?

14:46Like they're excited. They certainly, you know, if you have a partner model as well, where do they go from here? They can go to our website, schedule a call with one of the account rep. And in that call, we're going to obviously, you know, cover some of the basic stuff, kind of learn about their business. And if we decide to move forward, it makes sense, then we're going to do a complete audit. So audit is basically our requirement, which we do just to learn about how the business is doing, what exactly we can bring to their plate. And it also helps us to build a plan for future. So these are some of the steps, which once you visit our website, schedule a call and move to the next step.

15:33I noticed you have quite a roster of trusted partners as well, which is really nice. And you hope that someone that's going to come in in the role that you do has connections. Because again, if you're working with a fast growing e-commerce company, you're going to need a team of heroes to kind of keep you going and keep things moving along. I actually episode 1718 of The Thoughtful Entrepreneur interviewed one of your partners Mario Semenyan from Esco. But great, great conversation. I actually found a photo of you guys recently on LinkedIn together. I'm like, I know Mario. Mario is an excellent guy.

16:13Yeah. One of my friends, yeah. True, truly. Well, Omar Riaz, again, CEO and co-founder of Your Tasker, your website, yourtasker.com. Yourtasker.com. It's been a great conversation, Omar. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much, Josh, for having me.

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