[ BDSN ] 🏴‍☠️ Are your Amazon products safe? High-stakes hijacking exposed

🏴‍☠️ NEW THREAT to SUPPLY CHAINS: HIJACKERS

In recent years, the trend of nearshoring has seen a significant rise, with many U.S. companies moving their manufacturing and supply chain operations closer to home.

This shift has particularly benefited Mexico, which has emerged as a top destination for American firms seeking to mitigate the risks and costs associated with long-distance supply chains from Asia.

Companies like Walmart, Audi, Ford, DHL, Samsung, Amazon, and FedEx have established significant operations in Mexico, capitalizing on the country's geographical proximity, established industrial base, and the benefits of the USMCA trade agreement.

The growth in Mexico's manufacturing sector is reflected in the sharp increase in imports and foreign investments. In 2023, the U.S. imported nearly $500 billion worth of goods and services from Mexico, surpassing imports from China.

The number of trucks crossing the U.S. border has also surged, from 5.7 million in 2019 to 7.4 million in 2023.

The Hijacking Threat: A Shadow Over Growth

Despite these economic advancements, the nearshoring boom is shadowed by serious security threats, particularly cargo truck hijackings, which have become a critical issue on Mexican highways.

Mexico is currently the highest-risk country in the world for cargo truck hijacking. In 2023 alone, estimates suggest there were around 7,800 truck hijackings, though some experts believe the actual number could be as high as 21,000, equating to about 50 incidents every day.

These hijackings are predominantly carried out by small, organized gangs rather than large cartels. The most affected regions include Mexico State, which encompasses Mexico City, and other central and southern states such as Puebla and Michoacán.

Drivers face immense pressure, with nearly 90% of hijackings involving kidnappings of the drivers. Tragically, 150 drivers were murdered in 2023 due to these criminal activities. These crimes often occur at fake checkpoints set up by criminals dressed in military gear, who stop trucks to inspect cargo under the guise of official authority.

The Impact on Nearshoring and Manufacturing Development

The persistent security risks pose a significant challenge to Mexico's aspirations to fully capitalize on the nearshoring trend, particularly in the underdeveloped southern regions of the country.

Concentration in the North: A Safer Bet

Many companies are concentrating their manufacturing and distribution operations in Mexico's northern states, where security conditions are relatively better.

Future Prospects and Challenges

The nearshoring trend has the potential to transform Mexico's economy, but the country's ability to fully leverage this opportunity will depend on its success in addressing the security challenges that plague its logistics and supply chain networks.

LISTEN to the BDSN NEWSLETTER PODCAST

Walmart Marketplace Accelerates Growth
Launches Category Expansion, Multichannel Solutions and Omnichannel Innovations for Sellers

Walmart leaders unveiled several initiatives recently to thousands of sellers attending the Let’s Grow! 2024 Walmart Marketplace Seller Summit.

Notable announcements from the summit include category expansion, multichannel fulfillment and new features that simplify selling across markets.

Walmart Marketplace, one of the fastest-growing eCommerce platforms, continues to invest in capabilities and solutions to fuel seller success and offer customers an endless aisle of items they need, want and love. 

• Premium Beauty, pre-owned and collectibles

• Supercenters and super sellers: Unmatched omnichannel experiences

• Unboxing new fulfillment solutions

  • Multichannel Logistics

  • Cross Border Fulfillment

• Heading into Holiday with new seller solutions

  • A reimagined Global Seller Center and new app provide seamless onboarding for eligible sellers in any market, so they can cross borders and go global by selling in the U.S, Mexico, Chile and Canada. 

  • Walmart is waiving peak season storage fees for sellers who inbound their inventory to WFS fulfillment centers through Sept. 30. 

  • To help sellers scale their Holiday business, Walmart Marketplace Capital is expanding to offer qualified sellers access to cash advances. 

  • Walmart is now rolling out a new Deals Dashboard that makes it easy for sellers to enroll items in Walmart’s popular deals events.

Learn more about the event and announcements.

Sign up for Walmart Marketplace today.

🤓 QUICKLY IDENTIFY YOUR TOP COMPETITORS

Now you can quickly identify your closest competitors for any product using Helium 10's Black Box, so you know exactly who to monitor within your niche.

Click here to watch Shivali explain it, plus discover how to find the best products for a reverse ASIN search in Cerebro to uncover the keywords your competitors are targeting.

✍️ HOW MANY KEYWORDS in an AD GROUP?

Ad Badger is warning against the practice of “keyword dumping” that many sellers often mistakenly do.

Keyword dumping refers to the practice of adding an excessive number of keywords (sometimes hundreds) to a single ad group.

This approach is often mistakenly used by sellers who believe that the most successful keywords will naturally rise to the top.

Key Points to Keep in Mind

1. Optimal keyword count: The ideal number of keywords per ad group is typically between 35 and 60, depending on the match type.
   

2. Negative impacts of keyword dumping:

   • Mixes different match types, complicating negative keyword management and bidding strategies

   • Combines various keyword strategies, reducing effectiveness

   • Starves keywords and products of impressions

   • Drains budget quickly

   • Causes disconnect between ads and keywords

   • Makes ad group naming and organization difficult
     

3. Budget considerations: Testing too many keywords simultaneously can quickly deplete your ad budget without providing actionable results
   

4. Keyword relevance: It's crucial to ensure that keywords are relevant to the products in your ad group

Common Misconceptions

1. More keywords equal better performance: This is false. Having too many keywords can actually hinder performance and make optimization difficult.
   

2. Keyword research tools should be used directly: These tools are meant for idea generation, not for direct implementation into ad groups
   

3. All keywords perform equally: In overstuffed ad groups, only a small percentage of keywords receive enough impressions to provide meaningful data

Implementation Strategy

1. Organize keywords: Group related keywords into separate ad groups, keeping the count between 35-60 per group
   

2. Remove low performers: If you have too many keywords, remove the lowest-performing ones and place them in a separate research ad group
   

3. Be intentional: Carefully select keywords that are relevant to your products, rather than dumping large lists into your campaigns
   

4. Match types: Separate different match types (broad, phrase, exact) into different ad groups or campaigns
   

5. Budget alignment: Ensure your keyword count aligns with your budget. Smaller budgets require fewer keywords and products
   

6. Regular review: Continuously monitor and optimize your ad groups, ensuring each keyword serves a purpose and contributes to your campaign goals

🖥️ HOW to MAKE YOUR PHOTOS TALK

Hedra is a new AI platform that allows users to generate expressive and controllable human characters in videos.

The Character-1 model enables users to:

• Create video content from text and images

• Generate characters that can speak, sing, or rap

• Allows generation of up to 30-second videos for free

• Transform static images into dynamic videos with realistic facial expressions and body movements

📖 ACCELERATE is the PLACE to BE NEXT WEEK

If you are one of the 4,000+ expected at Amazon’s Accelerate official seller conference next week in Seattle, then you are in the right place (you can also attend virtually, but it’s nowhere near the same as being there).

While many of the talks at the event are fully scripted corporate rah-rah pep rally and new product announcement type stuff, there are some talks and workshops definitely worth getting to the room early for: Dream 100 members Destaney Wishon’s and Bradley Sutton’s for example.

But the three MAJOR benefits of being there in person and not skipping it or watching the live stream are the ability to walk the trade show floor, network with other sellers from all over the world, and get your frustrating seller central issues immediately solved in the Seller Cafe.

If you have been going round and round with Seller Support on an issue, the Seller Cafe has Amazon employees with a brain, power and connections to fix your issues on the spot.

Some sellers call them miracle workers and cry after their meeting. This alone is worth the trip. You need to make an appointment or chance it as a “virtual walk-up.”

The other reason to be in Seattle is for the massive networking opportunities with fellow sellers. It used to be the Prosper Show was the king of satellite events, but Accelerate has Prosper beat this year.

Here’s some of what’s happening on the periphery:

Sept 16 (day before):

• Brandon Young Seller Systems Workshop

• Helium 10 Elite Workshop (I’m speaking + Destaney)

Sept 17:

• Temu Happy Hour (by private invitation only - email me if you want one)

• DON’T MISS: Titan Dinner: Connect & Conquer (I’m speaking)

• Seattle Seller Soiree

Sept 18:

• Amazon Block Party at Museum of Pop Culture

• MDS Ping Pong Social at Spin

• Circus in Seattle

Sept 19:

• Steve Simonson’s Private Beach Party (find Steve at the show for invite)

📻 AMAZON SELLER PODCAST GOLD

I trained a battalion of AI robots to listen to 52 Amazon-related podcasts every week and share the best nuggets with you. Here are a couple:

✌🏼 See you again on Thursday …

The answer to today’s STUMP BEZOS is
30% of mobile phone worldwide are iPhones