Hey there!

Apologies for missing last week, but the family and I were on vacation in Florida.

After getting the bare minimum amount of work in, namely the weekend lead lists, the temptation to swim with the kids and spend time with good friends proved too strong.

Quote of the Week

Speaking of fleeting motivation, this quote surfaced in my Readwise account recently.

This is a struggle for me. For a long time, I had it in my head that I'm better off doing tasks when I feel motivated.

The problem was I couldn't count on motivation striking in regular intervals enough to be as productive as I needed to be.

I highlighted this to remind myself to just do the work, whether inspiration is present or not.

Let's check out the back pages of ecommerce news that you might have missed:

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What's the Matter?

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📰 Amazon Makes Something Easier for Sellers??

Starting November 1, 2024, Amazon is making it easier for FBA sellers by automatically reimbursing for items lost in fulfillment centers.

Why it matters: At face value, this should save us time and/or money dealing with our lost inventory.

Looks like it's a bad time to be in the reimbursements business. And maybe that's the point.

What's the catch?

Call me cynical, but I don't think the C-Suite spends a whole lot of time thinking about what they can do to improve the seller experience.

My guess is they did the math and the labor cost savings of not dealing with mountains of lost inventory claims was greater than the amount of revenue saved from denied claims.

If there is a catch, it will likely be in the clawback process when the automation is too proactive.

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📰 Revenge Spending Slowing Down

Americans earning $100,000 or more are cutting back on discretionary spending.

Categories like luxury goods and technology (think phones, TVs, and tablets) are seeing the biggest declines.

Why it matters: 'Slowing down' doesn't mean stopping completely.

We brought this up on last week's live show when talking about LVMH's exploration of purchasing toy brand Mattel.

Many of those discretionary dollars that almost went to a Louis Vuitton bag will be diverted to products we can source and stock in our Amazon stores.

Keeping an eye on collectible trends could prove lucrative.

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📰 Cyber Schmoozing

There's so much talk about the value of networking, but so little talk about how and where to do it.

Why it matters: The benefits of networking cannot be understated. Your network provides support, advice, growth, opportunities, and collaborations.

H/t to SellerBites for putting the article on my radar.

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📰 Copy & Paste an Extra 8 Days Per Year

A study by Brainscape found that most people lose an average of two seconds per minute of work by using their mouse instead of keyboard shortcuts.

No bid deal, right? Wrong!

Two seconds per minute of an average work day over the course of a year works out to 64 hours!

Does it matter? Online arbitrage and administrative tasks can have us sitting at a computer for long periods of time.

Two seconds at a time sounds insignificant, but any James Clear reader knows that the cumulative effect can have a big impact.

Becoming more efficient completing our tasks means we become more productive.

What's the Latest on the Clear The Shelf with Chris & Chris Podcast?

The next episode is recorded and being edited. Look for it later this week.

Our interview with Eli Gluckowsky was released last week. He's a multi-million dollar seller and owner of OA Leads Pro.

It's proving to be a popular episode and the feedback has been great so far.

Also, the live Q&A show airs every Wednesday at 5pm est.

Last week we covered luxury toys, side hustle data, and answered some live questions. Here's the replay.

Join us live tomorrow and cut it up with us a little.

​ Listen to Clear the Shelf with Chris & Chris on your favorite podcast player: ​YouTube​ ​Apple​ ​Spotify​

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Alpha Weekend Lead List

Here are the numbers from Sunday's Alpha lead list that was sent to subscribers:

That's just Sunday. Saturday's list added over $400 in projected profit buying five of each lead.

Subscribers of the Alpha Weekend List are receiving these lists every Saturday & Sunday in the inbox.

New spots just opened up.

You can check availability here. But the cart will close once the spots are filled.

Sometimes I Think I'm Funny

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Have a great week! Talk to you soon.

Chris