E456: Back to Basics - Costs and Profitability Q&A (With EcomCrew's Ben)

Mike is back with EcomCrew's podcast manager Ben for a light yet informative Q&A session on keeping profits high and costs low amid inflation.   After recording this episode, I thought it would be nice to have Ben be in front of the camera more often and be a regular on the podcast.   In this new Q&A series, Ben will be asking me a bunch of questions on how to run a successful ecommerce business and I will do my best to answer them as exhaustively as I can.   This episode is all about costs and profitability. With Covid-related challenges to consider and inflation in full swing, we thought this was a highly important subject to kick things off.    Here are the highlights of this episode.   Timestamps:  Intro - 0:00 Getting to know Ben - 2:13 What are the several costs that eat into a ecommerce business' monthly net profit? - 3:58 How Amazon fees affect profit margins - 6:46 The struggle of maintaining profit in ecommerce - 11:00 Will Amazon fees stop increasing eventually? - 14:23 Raising prices to keep up with inflation - 16:04  Helpful tools to gauge costs and profitability - 18:43 Finding opportunities in ecommerce - 23:10 Which one should you consider first, product or profit margin? - 24:08 Affiliate marketing vs ecommerce from Mike's POV - 26:14 What to expect in the next Q&A episodes - 31:32   If you listened all the way to the end, then you know we have some exciting topics to discuss in upcoming episodes of this series, so make sure to tune in to the podcast.   As always, don't forget to leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoy our content. Happy selling and we'll see you in the next one!