What’s the latest Whatnot News? Episode 85

https://linktr.ee/KarriKennedy

Back with an overdue catch-up on everything happening at Whatnot right now —  From the first-ever Seller Summit in Austin to the new Shopify integration bringing bigger brands onto the platform, there’s a lot! 

#WhyNotWhatnot #KarriKennedy #WhatnotSeller #LiveSelling #WhatnotSellerTips #SellerSummit #WhatnotUpdate #LiveSellingTips #ResellCommunity #WhatnotCommunity #SmallBusinessSeller #OnlineSeller #StateOfThePlatform #WhatnotNews #SellerTalk

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey there guys. I hope everybody is doing really well. I have not been on here a lot because I am dealing with all kinds of personal stuff. Um, but that being said, I'm really going to work hard to try to bring it. I have canceled like three shows. I've just been really struggling to emotionally be ready and be on. And while I can fake it and you know bring it with the best of them, I yeah, I haven't even been up to that level. So um I'm going to try to bring in an episode. Gosh, today is Wednesday, and I haven't been on since Saturday. When I was on Saturday, it was for like seven minutes. So I've got I've got stuff to say. Um, but here we go, guys. This is, I'm gonna go pretty fast though. This isn't gonna be one of those long episodes. So basically, what I'm gonna talk about is the state of the platform, right? Like the state of the union, the kind of thing, what you need to know. Um, and I'm just gonna kind of go through all the different things, what's happened, um, what what people are saying about the platform itself, what whatnot is doing. Not an individual category or person or you know, anything like that, but the whole of whatnot is what we're gonna be talking about. Okay, so where is the platform heading? Is it good? Is it bad? I remember this one guy, he used to come on all the um whatnot groups, you know, and stuff, and he'd go, Whatnot's dead, what's not dead, just to like stir the pot. And I just thought it, I thought it was funny. Everybody else hated his guts and they were really quick to respond and say, You don't know what you're talking about, you know. Of course, he doesn't know what he's talking about. I I honestly personally I think the guy was like some big guy or something, and just I didn't look him up or anything, but that's my guess. Um, anyways, I think that a lot of stuff has happened. Personally, I think it happened once Mr. Beast came on, and I actually have an episode on that. You guys can go back and check that and listen to that. I don't know which number it is, but you can go check that out. Um, I don't think that was very good, personally, overall. I mean, I guess it's good for the platform, I guess it's good for them making more money, but I think it was too many. It's like if I had adopted, you know, 40,000 kids all at once, it would just be insane. And I think that's what happened. We had the shipping problems, we had too much riffraff, we had people who didn't know what was doing. There wasn't uh, there's no program, you know, like a mentor program where you know you get on the platform and you get under this mentor or you go to this or whatever. Um, I don't even know if they're still doing, I guess I should look into that, but they used to do these like upboard onboarding things. I don't know if they're still doing that or not. Um, but yeah, it there's a lot of misinformation out there, there's a lot of crazy stories, and it just it is what it is. All of us who went through that, the before Mr. Beast and the after Mr. Beast, I think the majority of us would high-five each other and say, Yeah, I agree with you. It's definitely it was a change, it was a shift, right? And I think what happened, well, what's been happening is more shifts, and and that's that's pretty, you know. I mean, and and I think here's here's the thing. I I'm trying to be positive as I do this, but there's a lot of me, and maybe it's just my mental and life state right now, but there's a lot of me that's like, oh, this isn't gonna be good. I'm trying to like go, woo-hoo, woo-hoo, but some of it really does concern me. And uh, you know, that's kind of where we're at. Okay, so here's the big picture on whatnot, okay, and where we're going, the big picture, just the numbers, okay. Um, and I know some of this stuff you might have heard here and there because I just keep all my notes together and I didn't put when I published it, and I probably should do a better job on that. But hey, you're gonna if you heard it before, I'm sure you did not memorize it. So it's always okay to review, okay? Review time if I if I say anything I've said before. Okay, so according to Whatnot's 2026 uh state of the live selling report. You guys can go Google that up. Maybe I'll put it in the notes. I'm not sure. Um, the live shopping market across North America and Europe has now reached. Are you ready? Drumroll, $22 billion with a B billion dollars. And uh that's 2026. And I have mentioned this before. I told you guys this was gonna happen. I'm not saying I'm a prophet, but I am definitely a soothsayer or a predictable person because there are so many things that I have said this is gonna happen. Watch and see, and sure enough, and so I back in the day in these podcasts, you've heard me say these things, I don't know exactly where they are, but I said it's just gonna get even bigger in 2026, and I don't remember what the number was for 2025. Um, I don't have that, but that's huge. 22 billion dollars. Okay, now this is the freakiest part about that to me. I just when I heard this, I was like, what? Say what? I what you talking about, Willis? Um, the market for whatnot is 60 of that. That be basically means that 60 of live selling across all the different platforms. We're talking, we're talking about Europe too, America and Europe. 22 billion dollars. What's 60 of that? Somebody quick, do the math. Okay. Well, half of that would be 11. I mean 11 billion dollars. Add 10 to that. I'm not gonna do it all. You guys got the idea. It's a frickin' lot of money. Um, it's not a tiny little app that started with Pokemon cards, it's not some little niche that nobody knows about. It really did get a lot more popularity with Mr. Beast. It really did. And I think those people who got on and started making money, they told somebody else, and they told somebody else. I've always wondered why whatnot doesn't go do commercials or something. And I'm like, oh, thank goodness. After Mr. Beast happened, I was like, thank goodness they don't go do commercials. It's it's insane how fast it's growing. Um, okay, here I did put this in here in 2025, it was eight billion dollars on on sales, so we went from eight billion to over like around 12 or 13. So it's like doubling more the year than the year before. Like it's just it's growing and growing exponentially. So, um, anyways, you think about that, that's never happened in the retail business, guys. I mean, even like Sax Fifth or Barney's of New York or whatever, no retail store has ever like doubled their revenue in in 12 months. That I mean, like constantly, like, okay, here we're at two, now we're at four, now we're at six. It's just unheard of. They they plateau out, they have issues, they have problems. That's not happening here. So it's it's really exploding and it's crazy. Okay, here's another number that's insane. 20 million new accounts were created last year. Now I look at this and I'm like, is this true? These are stats that I pulled up. I honestly don't remember where I pulled that up for it. You guys can look it up yourself, but it's saying 20 million new accounts. And I'm like, who are these accounts? Are all these real accounts? Are these bought accounts? I personally I'm kind of iffy on this one. I think that there's misinformation. I think that I'm not sure where I wrote that, but that is a stat that they're saying happened. Now, do I believe everything that every single business says? Do I believe every stat that is produced in the world? No, no, I don't. But that's what they're saying, you know, that more than 20 million new accounts were created, more than. And so they're thinking, you know, hey, that means if you're if you're a seller on there, that also means you're a buyer, it's all great, blah, blah, blah. But um, yeah, okay. Next number is 46. I've told I think I've told you guys this one before. That's 46 minutes a day on whatnot that people actually come and they they are on there buying, talking, visiting, whatever. 46 minutes a day. I will tell you there's some people who stay on here all day, every day. I mean, like, it's it's a really addictive app. So I, you know, I think if there's if that's the average, I don't, I don't know. I I wonder how they're getting. I mean, I've got I'm sure they've got all the data and analytics and stuff, but also I wonder like how many people are watching it when they fall asleep. They don't have that info, you know, like how many people you know, I don't know. Um I don't know what that looks like. Um, okay, so I had a fuzzy in my mouth. Okay, here's something that I definitely think is really crazy, and it really when I heard about whatnot, I was like, what the heck's whatnot? And I I mean I got on and I was like, oh, this is pretty cool, and it's like Poshmark and it's a little bit different. The longer you're in it, the longer you've been here, you know it's a whole culture, it's a whole world that you've got a lot of feelings, you've got a lot of drama, you've got a lot of uh different categories and people and personalities, and uh a lot, a lot, a lot. It's just so much information that I don't think I'll ever run out of uh podcast material. But a lot of people don't realize how much whatnot is in the volume of it and just how big it's growing. But two days ago, Bloomberg, which is like the biggest financial news, you know, whatever, the internet everywhere, um they are that's where people go to find out about financial news. I my husband has a um Mark has a cousin, and she is into all of that. She's one of those high rollers, speaks different languages, all that kind of thing. I'm sure she probably has Bloomberg and knows all about it and reads it, you know. Um, but here's the thing white not was featured in an article in Bloomberg. So yeah, not some tiny little thing, like the world's biggest, you know, outlet for financial news in all of the world. So that's a pretty big deal. Um and and it it said that it's the second most downloaded shopping app in the Apple App Store. Okay. I don't know what it is, like Google, wherever, but that's what it said that it's the second most downloaded shopping app in the Apple store. So that passes Amazon, that passes eBay. So I'm mind blown. Like I am even and I I'm on it regularly, guys. I sell not as regular. Well, I'll get to that in a minute, but I'm on there. Like I'll check out a friend, I'll I'll get on in the morning, I'll pop on here, I'll pop on there five minutes, 15 minutes, whatever. It's not like I'm not paying attention, right? I'm there. I have seen this. I have seen since I got on probably like two years. I really need to go look this up. I'm terrible with time. I'm guessing it's been like two years, three, four months. I'm gonna get info on this eventually, but it's been a while, and I have seen the changes. I have seen it and I felt it. When I scroll through now, I see so many new people, so many new people. And it it's just it's crazy. But they're even Bloomberg, biggest financial outlet in all of the world, not America, not Nebraska, uh, the world, guys. This is huge. It passed Amazon and eBay's uh on the Apple Store app. So that's I mean, that's just mind blown. I I honestly I knew and I predicted it would grow and it would get bigger. I knew that because the social science is in there, the psych psychology is in there, the addiction, uh the ease, the convenience, the relational, like there's so many great elements in there. Hello, why wouldn't you? Right? Why not, what not? But um people who have never heard of it, just like me back in the day, just like you back in the day, they're now for sure hearing it because they saw it in Bloomberg, or you know, somebody was talking about it at the water cooler at work, or you know, um their kids' taekwondo class, whatever. People are hearing about it. And um, even though they're not doing commercials, it's kind of spreading, it's it's really growing. Um, and here's here's the good thing though for us people who have been here for a while. No offense to the little guys that are new coming on, but that gives us an upper advantage because we know where things are, we have figured out stuff, we know the culture, we know how to run things, we know timers, we know people, we have relationships, you know, we have schedules, we figured out things already. So for us, it's a little bit better. I mean, honestly. Um, these new people, the newbies that are coming in, not only do they have to learn everything like we did, but they have way more competition than we did. And I I knew that coming in, you know, two plus years ago and looking at the people who were two or two or three years ahead of me. I was like, damn, you people who got in here at the beginning, they're killing it. I mean, they're killing it. And it wasn't that they were so amazing or they were so awesome or whatever. It's just a matter of time. They've just been there longer. I mean, you go to the old per people's place. My mom lives at one of those retirement places, you know, and uh where all the people are 55 and over. Although she says you can get under the radar, and there's people as young as like in their 40s living there because they're helping their mom or you know, they're staying there for a while. I'm like, I don't know who would want to do that. My point in this is they revere the oldest people, even the old people in the old homes, they look up to the people who are in their you know 80s or 90s or whatever. They have a higher standing because they've been there longer, they've just had more exposure, more time, whatever. So if you're new, don't go, oh well, I think within two months I'm gonna be. I mean, I don't know what your product is, I don't know what category you're in, but for most of us, that doesn't happen, right? For most of us, it doesn't happen. It is a road and it takes time and it takes perseverance and tenacity and effort and energy, and you gotta bring it in a lot of ways. And I've got lots of episodes you guys can go back and look at. But the thing is, that is finally for us, when there's 20 million new accounts, and you're somebody who's been on here for two, three years, four or five for some of these people, it gives us the upper hand advantage for sure, for sure. And I I like that aspect, I really do. I am here to help you newbies, too. You know, I I'm here to do that, but I am thankful that I'm not in the newbie situation. I think it's it's going to be hard. I think it's it's going to be a little bit harder, more difficult, I should say. Okay. Um, so people who show up and they're consistent, they show things clearly, they explain things, they're you know, organized, they can find their items, they you know, engage, they read their text, you know, the messages. I hate calling it a chat, that's part of the thing. As they're reading it and talking to people and having fun and laughing, bringing the energy, they're gonna do fine. But there's a lot of people who are really, really struggling because they don't even know this podcast is here, they don't know that Blazing Bunny has a YouTube channel and some other people here and there. They they don't go and they don't learn, they just jump on and think, oh, and I I hate that. I'm just gonna say the incentives that you know, hey, get $400 if you do this by this, and there's a few people who can hold their own and do it. Dog Diggs is a new seller. I talked about them in one of my previous, like two episodes back or something. They came into the estate sale. I've been talking to her, she's super sweet, like the main lady. I don't know their names, but she she messaged me and she's like, Yeah, we had to make like $400, so we stayed on for five hours and we we sold. I don't I can't remember what she told me, but they did it. They, you know, and some people can do that and they have enough inventory and they know how to run it and they just work at it. They had three people in that room helping and they did it. But I think a lot of people come in here thinking that they can do that by themselves without somebody helping them, without you know, it and that that's harder. It just is harder to do it by yourself and have these incentives. And then I have people calling me doing consults, going, Well, I got on because there was this pressure and the stress, and they didn't pay me, and this is happening, and we were on, and all these issues, you know. So I I don't know how I feel. I'm very mixed reviews on these incentives. I'm happy you guys make the money if you make the incentive, but for some people, it's just like I wish you knew before you went on that you should have done this, this, and this. There's nothing I can do to prevent it except do shows like this and try to reach out and help people, but it makes me sad when people do that. Anyways, okay, next thing the seller summit. Okay, this is big about two weeks ago or something like that, April 25th, whatnot, um, went to Austin, Texas, and they had what they call um the Seller Summit. I think this is terrific. It's the first one they've ever done. It's sold out. I live in Texas, guys. I could have done this. I wasn't interested. Honestly, my my personal life is a hot mess right now, and uh, I just was like that, it wasn't even on my radar. But a lot of people, especially people in Texas, went there. A lot of people flew in from all over the states. It was a big deal. I don't know how many people came and and what the numbers were. I'm sure that's gotta be somewhere I did not look that up. Um, but basically it started at eight o'clock in the morning. It went uh through dinner, they had barbecue somewhere. Um, but you know, breakfast, lunch, dinner, they all hung out. And then I guess it was kind of like a conference slash seminar. They had, you know, um two different avenues. You could go this way or you could go that way, right? Um, but I think that this is good because and maybe someday they'll listen to me because I don't think that they're good in certain areas and they need to work towards that. I I'm hoping they know that and they see where holes are, but I also think that companies and human beings have blind spots and they might not know. They might just be thinking, eh, it's not a big deal. But I I think that they need to work really on seller support. I think seller support is an area that they're shooting themselves in the feet. I think eventually it's gonna backfire on them unless they can support sellers more, because it seems like they're giving us one hoop after another hoop or one thing after another, and they're making it more difficult for us, not easier. Just because they have incentives for newbies to come on doesn't mean those people want to stay on if they can't consistently, you know, grow and and develop and things get too hard or difficult or whatever. A lot of people, just because people come on, they're not giving us the stats of how many people get off either. Let's point that out. You know, how many people come on? I've I've talked to these people, guys. Uh, how many people come on and they're on for two shows or five shows, or they are on for five months or six months and then they just completely drop off. And like I said, I'm saying just because it's an account, does it really mean it's a real human being? Does it mean that, you know, like Johnny is in the basement and he just created six accounts with his friend's name? I don't know. I credit cards, you know, they're all high, and I don't know. I just I I question things. I'm a conspiracy theorist, whatever. Anyways, um, I think that the the big thing here is they wanted the sellers engaged, so they did networking and like breakout uh seminars. I'm guessing that's like some hotel or something, and then you could go listen to this seller talk or this VP talk or whatever, and you got to, you know, trade business cards and meet new people and follow new people. I'm sure it was just like a big social event kind of type thing. Um, but the thing is, whatnot has never done this before, and so I think it's really good that they're doing that. I'm a huge podcast junkie, huge podcast junkie. That's why I'm doing a podcast. But I listen to podcasts, and in podcast world, when you get to a certain style size, you go on tour. You like you're like a rock star in the podcasting world, and you go on tour and you go from city to city and you meet your people, you meet your groupies, you sign the book, you show the autographs, you know, the pictures, whatever. You have a little conference, you talk, it's great. And whatnot hasn't done that in all the you know what, six years. So I think. It's really wonderful that they're actually not just digital and more human because that the human element is truly what I think makes whatnot and Poshmark and those kind of places work and do good is because of the human element. Anyways, um, so they're doing these in-person community building things, and I think that's good. Um, I think that they tried to talk about uh you know the different tracks of things and goals. The sessions were things like um buying, you know, um going and getting, oh gosh, what's the word? Um buying products, sourcing, you know, things like where to source your stuff and buyer retention, scaling operations, uh, marketing strategy, that type of stuff. And they had, I know um House of Coop was there. That's the only people I have heard talk about it. I was in the room, they were talking about it for all of I don't know how long. I only watched for like five minutes, honestly, guys. I just felt like it was taking a long time to get into any actual stats and data, which is what I wanted. And so I just tuned out. But I guess other people are like them that after they had the show, they probably went on whatnot and they talked about it, you know. So I think that's good. But what they said is they were speakers and they get part they got partnered up with some other guy in a totally different category and whatever. Personally, I think it'd be great if somehow whatnot divided into subgroups, and you know, this was it. I don't know. Here's the games, Pokemon, whatever, somehow divide it up and divide and conquer instead of it just growing to this. To me, I don't know if you guys have ever watched Stranger Things, but it's like just growing to that level that that you know the demogorgon, it's just it's just huge. It's just growing and growing and growing. And it's like at some point, you know, what are you gonna do? I I don't know. But um, their chief product officer talked, the VP talked, uh, I mean, the VP of marketing talked. I don't know if everybody was there, I don't know if like the owners were there or any of that. I'm guessing not because nobody mentioned it. Um, but they bring the the high roller, the big dogs, the top sellers, they didn't bring in any newbies. They only want people with, you know, some clout and some numbers and some some proof of the pudding, right? That they did good, right? Um uh they had, I mean, one somebody said they had uh one discussion with a panel and it was a bunch of different people. I don't know how many people, I don't know what categories, I don't know all this because they're not all there. Um, but it was mistakes that made us and learning from your mistakes. Um, so but after that, whatnot went ahead on May 5th, which is just recently, um, and they shared shared advice from the top performers, right? And so here's it really is nothing earth-shattering, to be quite honestly. I've it's nothing I haven't said already in I don't even know how many episodes, but like they had to come up with something. So, hey, here's our information, stuff that a lot of us already know, but here we go again. Um, number one, start your show like the room is already full. This is what they said March 5th, okay? This is what advice from top performers. So start your show like the room is already full. Don't wait for a few minutes for people to join thing. They say go, go, go. And the reason is because the algorithm is paying attention to you more than people are. The algorithm is seeing people are coming in, they're sharing, they're you know, hitting the hearts, they're talking, whatever. Get it going. Don't uh some people do giveaways and they sit around and wait for five minutes. Now let's run another giveaway and wait another 10 minutes. And you're just like, dude, I wanted to buy stuff when I'm waiting for 10 minutes for you to get the ball rolling. Don't don't get going, be strong, do quick introductions, share your story, you know, shout out, you know, you know, what you're doing, what your sales are, any pertinent information, express gratitude for them, be in there, ask questions, get the ball rolling, right? Um, and then you have to do that. And I'm terrible about this, guys. I I need I need to work on this, and it's funny, this is hypocritical of me for sure. I tell my when I do consulting, I'm like, guys, if you're with somebody, set a timer for like 20 minutes so that you can once again, after like 20 minutes, go, hey guys, once again, my name is Carrie, and I sell in these categories, and this is when I go on, and just give some information about yourself. Always put your show notes in, but I think you have to constantly, it's it's hard, it's almost like your show notes are there. So, what I say, instead of going through the whole spiel constantly, guys, please go check out the show notes, or I ask my mod to do that, so I'm not stopping and reintroducing myself over and over and over again, but at least every 20 to 30 minutes, I think you should stop and say, Hey guys, if you don't have a mod, introduce yourself again because you're getting new buyers in all the time. Um, so they're joining like on a regular basis, and if they come in, they want they want to know what's going on sometimes. So if you don't have show notes, you can't point them there. I just gosh, can I say it any louder? I say it all the time, anyways. The number two, go live and more often, duh. I've said this, I don't know how many times, saying it again, they're saying the same thing. Don't go on for these five-minute shows or 15-minute shows or 30-minute shows, even if I mean, I don't know how that it's doing it with a raid train. I guess it's probably the algorithm does it differently, but unless it's a raid train, don't do it. Some people have just, I think it's dumb. I'm just gonna call it out. If you're one of those people, I'm sorry, but I think it was totally dumb for people to do, you know, these things where they were like, I'm going to do my own challenge for 30 days, and there was this one girl, I kid you not, she was doing it for five minutes. I was like, what are you gonna sell in five minutes? That's absurd. People don't even have time to get in, introduce, buy, see your stuff. That's just dumb, guys. Don't do it if you don't have the time to invest in being there and be in there for at least I think two hours. I say two hours. They actually said roughly 45 minutes to two hours several times a week. Now, to me, the word several when we taught this in school, it was three to four. It's not two, two is a couple, so several is three or four or more. So you don't need to go on for 20 minutes here, 30 minutes here. If you're a newbie, just don't do it. You need to sit there for a while. You're showing the algorithm that you can hang with the big boys, you got it. Tenacity, reliability, consistency, all that crap. Okay, I'm moving on. Um, so that's that's it. We we've talked about that ad nauseum, I think, in these shows. Okay, um what else? Do do do do do okay. Um I'm not gonna talk about I'm not gonna talk about all I will. I will for a hot second. They're saying very short promoted shows, especially 10 to 15 minute shows, tend to underperform. This is talking about promotions, giving them money. I've talked about this, I don't necessarily think it's great. You've got some people who I swear they're like plants for whatnot going on to groups, going, everybody should give money to whatnot. Everybody should jump on and and and promote, promote, promote. I disagree. I do not think that's true. I definitely we could have a whole conversation. Maybe I'll do a whole episode on promoting, whether it's worth it or not. Um, but they're saying if you do spend the money, spend more money, basically. They're like, don't just promote at the beginning, promote your whole show. So to me, it's just another way for whatnot to get more money. I personally, instead of giving it to whatnot, would much rather give it in giveaways or you know, competition, that that kind of thing, than just giving it to whatnot. Personally, if if I saw a big change or differences when I promoted um myself, I'm talking about you promoting yourself, not somebody coming in your room and promoting you, but I'm talking about like you before your show promoting it. That's what I'm talking about. If I saw major changes and whatever, I would agree with some of the stuff. But according to them, according to their internal data, roughly a 2.6 times return on an ad spend. Okay, I'm not buying it, I think it's only in certain categories, and I haven't seen it myself. I've talked to too many people on this platform, I've had too many consultations, I'm not buying it. If you could really show me the stats that in this category and this category, and it's this percentage, they're not gonna do that. And I think it's because I'm right, I'm right. Anyways, okay. Um, also, um last things we're going through. So that's it. Not a lot of information that we've heard about. I'm sure it was fun hearing people's different stories of how they got started and this and that and this and that. Um, we do interviews here. I have my next one with Blazian Bunny on the 13th, I think it is. And um, so I I'm trying to keep up with podcast, home, divorce, life. It's a lot. So um right now I I'm just you know, I I'm not real consistent, and I wish I was, but real life demands, and I pay $125 for this podcast, and it's free, and I don't get any money. So there's that too. Um, I think if I was getting money for doing this, I definitely would be uh spending more time. Okay, uh last things. Um tools and platform changes. This is really the biggest thing. So they have something now. Um, they did a beta testing or whatever, and it's it's the second, I mean, the second, the seven-second timer, seven-second timer. So basically, in a nutshell, we had the 10 and we had the five, and some people were really good at 10. I don't know who's doing five, honestly. I think five is insane, but according to them, talking about whatnot, um, they now have a seven-second auction timer. And the reason is because according to them, they analyzed auction data across millions of sales, and they found that nearly half of the sellers are already running auctions at 10 seconds or less. I'm also, once again, I sound so sus, guys, but I'm being honest here. I'm a little sus on this because uh, you know, half of all the sellers, really, who the hell is running it at 10 seconds or less? Half? I go to places all the time, like all the time. I see 15 seconds, I see 10, but I don't see that being half. I think there's still people who are actually running it at 20 or 30 seconds. So I constantly, when I go into shows and it's a newbie and they're doing 30 seconds, I'm like, you know, you'll do better if you go 15 seconds. I always tell them that, you know, like, hey, if you make it faster, we'll well everything will be easier. But you know, they can take my advice or not. But I'm not buying this. Millions of sales. Here's what it says analyzed auction data across millions of sales and found that nearly half of all sellers are already, yeah. I'm just not sorry, guys. I this is their data. I'm I'm reporting the news with suspicion, I guess. Um, the data shows that shorter auctions generate higher sales per hour. Well, duh. I mean, if you're going quicker, you can sell more. Everybody knows that. And I really want to talk about a certain seller on here, but I'm gonna get more info. But I'll I'll tell you what she's done. She sells in clothing. Somebody's gonna figure this out. She sells in clothing. I think she's amazing. Uh, she's a great seller, she has great products, she's been doing wonderful on here, and I mentioned her before. Anyways, she went to like this video format, which I am not a fan of. I guess it's so that she can run like 24-7, kind of like um daily. Um, oh gosh, guys, what's the word? Daily. I'm having one of those old lady moments. I'll remember it daily. Oh, it somebody helped me. Uh, if I remember it, I'll put it in the notes. But he's he's a big seller, he's on YouTube, he does all these great shows about reselling. He's on whatnot. He started with one channel, he went 24 hours, then did another channel, and then 24 hours. So there's these people who are like, Well, heck, if we're sleeping, we might as well be making money. So now this girl, who I'm not gonna mention her name, she just went to this video format thing. Have you guys seen this yet? And it's like this these videos, and it sells one item so she can sleep and the video's going. And it's not a non-active account because there's a video. I'm not a fan, guys. I don't want to sit here and watch your commercials. I don't think that should be taken up platform. I don't want to be going into that room. I feel like that should be a toggle on or toggle off. I regress. This was gonna be like 25 minutes and I'm at 35 minutes. Squirrel. Anyways, um, so here we go. Um, obviously, if you go faster, you make more money. Duh. Um, five second auctions are supposedly performing the fastest, like the strongest. Well, the only time I really see that is in those major competition raid trains, right? You're in the estate sales, storage, war units, you know, that kind of thing, garage sales, and they're going super fast. Everything's on the table, and they're like, here's this, here's this, da da da da da da da da. And I'm like, oh my gosh, what are we doing to our psyches and our brains to watch it at that level? It's fine every once in a while, but I just feel like it's too fast. I've talked about this before. Your brain processes differently when you see different things. So let's say we're watching the movie Old Yeller, for example, you know, the or lone um the Lone Ranger, something to that level that's way slower, you know. Uh Barney Fife uh on you, you get what I'm saying, those older shows, and then you go to the movies and you watch the you know Transformer, the second Transformer movie where you've got the AI and everything coming at you, and it's just it's so much. So for me, I don't really go to those type of shows. I'm wondering who is. And if they're at five seconds, I mean, half the time you're swiping up against yourself. I feel like that's just it's it's crazy. We'll see how that takes off. But this uh second, the 10-second one or is behind the five-second one, and so they're just I think honestly, this is my my take. I think they just want you to buy and sell things faster so that they can make more money faster. Duh. I mean, if if money was raining down from one little hole and it was dollar bills from just one little hole, dollar, dollar, dollar, dollar, and then you had 20 million of those holes with dollar, dollar, dollar, and it was going faster and faster, you're gonna generate more money. I mean, I I feel like do we really know this is true? Is are they just telling us this stuff to make us go faster, stay on longer, do bigger deals, do this, you know, rate? I don't know. I mean, honestly, guys, I feel like this whole episode has been conspiracy theory. Carrie doesn't know. Well, I'm telling you what they said, I'm still reporting it, but I'm also telling you my thoughts. Um, so basically, the seven-second option creates a uh between five and ten, duh. And um, it's fast enough to keep the momentum and um, you know, get buyers a second or two more than the five, but it's not as long as ten. So they're trying new things. I think it's good that they're trying new things, supposedly looking at the data and trying new things. I really wish that they would, you know, talk to people like me and Blazian and you know, some people who are not maybe people that are making a money, money, money, but just an average person. When are they gonna have that little conversation? You know, like when are they gonna pull the average Joe to sit and talk about we think this could be better and that could be better? I mean, I just throwing it out. This has been my biggest frustration today. I've been listing, right? I only listed like, I don't know, 15, 20 things today. I'm trying to list more stuff. It's instead of it being like a little, oh, what is it called? Like a bar on the side where you could scroll up and down real quick with your finger. You have to pan through all of your inventory to figure out your numbers if you lose your place. So, like today I was like, was it 154 or was it 156? Ah, crap. And so I'm like scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. I'm thinking putting a little bar that toggles back and forth with your little finger up or down could get you to the bottom. You know, if you're like at 200, there's people who have like a thousand things listed. That's a nightmare. You toggle, toggle to try to find your numbers or to figure out where it was or whatever. I just want a simple bar. It's not a lot. Just one of my many brilliant ideas on how the app can improve and be better. But alas, once again, I regress. I feel like I'm getting tired, and that's where I'm going. Okay. Um, let me see, what else do I have? Um, so they did say that during the first week alone, during their beta testing, and I know some people did have this, I did see the seven second. I don't know exactly who it was, but it generated $14 million in sales. Well, compared to what? I mean, I guess the first week, I guess, $14 million in sales, but how do they prove that those sales wouldn't have been? I I don't know how they figured that out, but that's what they're saying. So um they adopted it. I don't know when we're getting it, but I guess pretty soon. Um, so it says um sellers who list it, okay. Here's the other thing. Sellers who list at least three things in the buy it now items during the live show reportedly earn about two times more revenue per hour, with roughly 40% of total sales coming from those listings. Once again, not buying it for every category. I think this is they're doing these things that are way broad. I feel like it needs to be tighter, it needs to be this is the estate sales, this is clothing, this is makeup. It needs to divide it up because all these categories have different numbers. And instead of them going, here's how the vintage category is doing, you know, here's how Pokemon's doing, they're just clumping us all together. And I don't think that's right. I don't think that's fair. I don't think it's it's um as detailed as it probably should be. And I think that that would help us better to know because when they say, Oh, you know, these what are you putting over there? What items are selling? What are the dollar amounts that are selling? Are those small uh dollar items because they're adding on? I tell my clients, here I'm giving away all my secrets. I tell my clients, it's like ordering at Whater. You order your burger and you they say, Would you like to combo that? Would you like fries and a drink with it? So, my newbies, I say, you guys put good items in your auction so you can hold them up and see them. Because people aren't going to go over and spend, you know, $8,000 and something in the buy it now, right? You got to do something that they're actually seeing. But then to get your fries and coke, put some some $2, $5, $10 items over in your buy it now. And because what people are doing, and they've seen this too. Um, oh, I didn't give you the stat on that. Hold on. The stat says they're earning about two times more revenue per hour. Did I say that? With 40% of total sales coming from those listings. See 40%? No. I I in what cat I just I think they're lumping us together. I can't, I it's hard for me. Um, anyways, it's like a storefront, and what people are doing, and we know this, I've mentioned this before. When people come to your show, sure they might like you, sure they might see you, but they're gonna start looking. It's like if I walk into TJ Maxx, this is always the home goods or TJ Maxx, we all have our places that we go. You're either going right to the pets area or the back to the linens or you're going to the food section. Most people take a left and go through the aisles and and you know they go here and there. When people are going into these shows, they are automatically going to your shop. They are scrolling, they don't want to just sit there and watch you unless you're doing something amazing. Um, they they're going and looking at your listings during your live show. And I tell my people, hey, it's fully loaded, go look at it. So they might hear you as they're scrolling and be listening, but they're maybe clicking on that and seeing your pictures and reading your descriptions and whatever. That's helping them decide whether they want to stay and hang out with you or not. You know, and I I think that you some girl came on to um she came on to one of the groups, the Facebook groups, whatnot, resellers group or something, and she said, How many things do I list? And I used the example. I was like, Come on, it's like TJ Maxx. How would you feel if you had everything shut down and it was all you know like murder scene tape everywhere and all you could go look at was men's underwears and ties, you would be so ticked off. The reason that you should have things in your auction and in your bin, I know there's high dollar sales, and they're like, you don't have to do that. No, the reason you do that is social science. People want to see, they want to know. Nobody goes, oh my gosh, don't show me, don't show me. When I I I I go into these shows and they literally have nothing listed, like nothing listed. They have one post and it's like, we're selling all items at eight to eleven ounces, you know, like you know, this certain person won't say his name, um, you know, or whatever, they're just doing everything at eight to eleven ounces, and that's their only thing. You don't know what's coming up. You're completely blind, you don't know what they're selling, you don't you know none of it. So I definitely think you guys need to be listing stuff in the auction, but they're saying now that you also should be putting items in your buy it now because you will make more money. I think once again, this is whatnot, just going, put more on there, give us more sales, give us more money. I I really, you know, I it's like duh, of course, that a company who wants to make money, they're gonna say that. Of course they are. Um, but anyways, yes, you should add stuff, you should put it in there. Okay, last thing I think Shopify on April 29th, whatnot officially launched uh a direct with Shopify integration. Now, this I've got mixed, I feel like this is such an episode. I have mixed feelings on this too. So merchants can now sync their Spotify, um Spotify, Shopify, okay. If you didn't know, Shopify is kind of like you have your own website, right? But it's all integrated with shopping and like your MasterCard and people getting it and everything. Actually, I've talked to the guy at Shopify in the past. Very, very nice. They work really well with customers, it's a great thing, okay? But now it's it's synced, so all of their products and their inventory can quickly like be listed in the whatnot, your whatnot shop. So all those people who were over there in Shopify, listen to what happened April 29th. Who came over here? Well, they were like, Why wouldn't they? It's integrated. Why wouldn't you take your stuff from one platform and have it in another? That's like all these cross-listing things, you know, these different places where you can cross-list to eBay and Poshmark and Macari and eBay, um, not eBay, whatnot, and spot all of them, you know. I keep saying Spotify, I mean Shopify. So now they're integrated. And um, it said that during beta testing, roughly 30 million generated uh third, wait, no, 30 businesses. Sorry, 30 different businesses that they chose off of their. I don't know how they decided this. And I don't know what categories, we don't know everything, right? Behind the the Wizard of Oz curtain, but 10 million dollars in sales across 20 categories. So they took 30 businesses in 20 categories and they got 10 million dollars. Let me say that again. 30 businesses, 20 different categories, 10 million dollars. Okay, I have no idea who these people are. I don't know, but um, I guess they think it was wonderful and awesome and whatever. So what does that mean? More people coming. I'm I'm mixed on this, guys. I love whatnot. I want people to be involved with whatnot, but I really do almost feel like it's like the demagorgan and it's just getting so big. I just don't I I'm trying to wrap my head around it all. Like the things that I've said, if you've been paying attention, it's huge. Bloomberg, you know, the the seller summit, the seven seconds, the okay, all the algorithm and the data and all of it, and all these people coming over after Mr. Beast, and now even more people are gonna come because of Shopify. How I mean, I don't know. And I know that there is chit-chat and and concern and worry from a lot of different people, a lot of different sellers. Like, I'm just a little, you know, you're a minnow in, you know, sh you know, swimming in there with the sharks, and you're just gonna get eaten up. And I I get that. I get that if you're a small seller, that's you know, it can be stressful. Um so how do we make sure, you know, whatnot takes care of its little sellers, you know? How do we how do they give us incentives? You know, when they I definitely think they could divide it up. I mentioned this when they had the um, oh, what is the day when they do oh sorry guys, not sleeping a lot lately. When they do those um days where you zero commission day. There I go. Woohoo! At least I thought of that. Daily refinement. Oh my gosh. All right, it's daily refinement is who the big big kahuna is on YouTube and whatnot. Um, that I was saying that girl um in fashion is getting like, um, where the hell was I now? I that I had the stroke of genius and remembered something. Um I truly have no idea where I was. Oh my gosh, how do you guys put up with me? Um, anyways, I I think that at the end of the day, more people are coming over, spot Shopify is coming over, and little guys are getting scared. I think that's where I was. Little guys are getting scared. So there's gonna be bigger brands, larger businesses, higher volume people who have, you know, warehouses and and inventory, and you know, tons of people who can work for you know $15, $20 an hour or that are cute, or what you know what I mean? Like they're the big dogs. Oh, here's where I was going. I got it. Zero commission day. When zero commission day, I was like, everybody was like, are the little guys gonna make any money? Because the big guys were doing these huge, like, you know, giveaways or whatever. I did zero, zero dollars in shipping, literally, and one dollar sales. And I still you can go back and look it up, it's a it's an episode, but it I didn't do as good. Yes, I screwed up in the beginning because I didn't have my settings right. That's a whole mess up. It's I think it's a whole episode that's talking about how my biggest screw-ups or my biggest mistakes or something. But if they, if they, meaning whatnot, would divide it up and say, hey, if you have less than a thousand people or followers or sales, for you guys, we're gonna have so-and-so day, you know, kind of like Mother's Day is coming up, Father's Day is coming up, there's grandparents' day. Break it up, you know. Hey, this is vintage week or this is newbie, you know, day or whatever. You get the idea. Give us sellers and in different categories and different levels some incentives instead of doing everything for everybody. And I mean, I I was joke, I I I've joked around with my kids forever, and they can take it however they want. But today I had two kids in the house. One kid was upstairs, he hadn't done his dishes, he hadn't done his laundry, he didn't put the Skittles in the freezer, like he just wasn't doing anything, he was just kind of like a lump. He was Mr. Lump today, and the other kid was doing stuff, and I said, Right now, you're my favorite kid. Right now, uh, so it's not hard to live up to the ask that I have a coming, but my point is that we have we have favorites in and I totally am losing my thoughts. Sorry, guys. I'm I was saying we have favorites, and I think that's where we're going with this. Even though all these newbies are coming on, even though they are you know have all this, we do have the people like me who've been on here two, three, four, six years, whatever. We still, even with the these higher volume operations coming in, we have clients, customers, I should say. We know the the situation. I think we can still hold our own, but it is getting scary because when they do these things, the little guy feels like we're not getting anything. I think that's basically where I'm at. Okay, um, last thing, consistency stat. I've said this before, but I'm gonna say it one more time. Sellers who go live three to four times per week earn roughly 40 to 70 times more than sellers who only go live once or twice per month. Well, this is such a stupid stat. I'm just gonna be honest. I mean, it this is horrible. Once or twice per month versus three to four times, obviously they're making more. They're going on more often, they're they're working harder. I mean, this is not brain surgery, guys, but the way that they they phrase this stat and and give it, I just I don't think it's a good stat. I don't think it's good info. I think they could do better on these stats and this information to make it better for the different category, for the different seller, for the different times, whatever. Um, the daily sellers earn about 100 to 250 times more than people who are only coming on, you know, here and there. Obviously, this is not hard, guys. The more you go on, the more you sell, the more you make. Period. Point blank done. It's not that big of a deal. Um, but they're saying basically that live selling is more like TV than a garage sale. Um, people get habits, you build your habits around what you're doing, you follow these certain people, you like their certain shows, you go back. Consistency matters. You gotta go on, you've gotta be regular. That being said, I'm going to tell you what I'm doing. Um, I am what did I call it? I don't even remember what I called it, but I think it's like 30 days divorce lawyer challenge. I can't even remember. It's been a while, it's been a rough day. Like I said, I haven't been sleeping, anyways. Um, it's consistency, and I'm going to try to do it, and I'm really honestly scared about it because I've got so much going on, but at the same time, if I don't get money, I'm in a horrible situation. And so I am trying to go on every day for 30 days and sell stuff. And I've never done that before. I've never even tried or thought of it before. And it's gonna be hard. I'm gonna try to do 7:45 in the morning. Um, most of the oh, the dogs, most of the weekdays and then on weekends go on at like 4:30 or something. So I'm giving myself a 30-day challenge. I'll try to stay on at least an hour, hour and 15 minutes or something. A lot of it's working with my assistant Sarah and figuring out our schedule and how we're gonna do this. Um, because I still have kids and house and all this other stuff going on, but I'm going to try. I I, you know, I have so much respect and admiration for those of you who do this regularly because it is a lot of hard work. You're not only sourcing, you're not only taking the pictures, you're not only showing up for the show, but then you got to ship it all out. It's a lot of work. And if you don't have help and you're by yourself, which my is my situation, except I'm paying my paid assistant, you know, um, it's it's hard. And so I've got to be able to make enough money, still be able to keep her and keep up. And so we will see how it goes. But I am really gonna focus on repetition, consistency, visibility, trying, trying, trying. I have flyers that I'm now putting in every order so people can go to my shop, they can come here, whatever. So, anyways, I'm working on it. I I think that's it. I'm I'm gonna scroll through these notes just real quick to tell you what we went through. Um, basically, let me see, whatnot stats. I kind of went through that. Um basically, it's not a little app anymore. 20 million new accounts were created. It was on Bloomberg. Um, it's past Amazon and eBay. What else do I got? There was the Seller Summit that we talked about in Austin and how all the people went and talked and convened and learned and whatever. Um, the biggest mistakes that they say is start your show, like everybody is already in the room, get going, you know, do quick introductions, um, share your stuff, you know, do show notes, express gratitude, ask questions, get the chat going, sell your stuff, go, go, go, go. Um, stay on longer, sell shorter period of time. Um, stay on for at least 45 minutes to an hour, several. That means three to four times a three to four times per week. Um, make sure that you get to know your audience and that you're you know promoting your shows and social media. I didn't talk about that at all, but obviously that's one guys I'm working on too. Add it to the list of stuff you're supposed to do and try to keep up with, whether it's on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, whatever. Show your show in advance to tell people and get them excited. That's another way to get people in. Um, and then uh the seven-second timer we talked about. What else? I'm going through it really fast. Um, and then, you know, Shopify. We talked about Shopify for a bit, and we talked about consistency, and yeah, I think that's it. I think I covered everything. And we talked about me trying to go on and doing my 30 day. So tomorrow, I'm gonna actually go over to whatnot right now so I can tell you the truth and not not be making it up in my profile. I'm gonna go to sleep soon because I'm exhausted. I have a 7:45 a.m. show, and then I have a how to pack a box show. I'm only gonna go on for like 30 minutes, and then I have a books and records show. So I I'm really doing like three things tomorrow. 745 divorce fund, that's what I called it. 30-day divorce fund challenge. Day one is starting tomorrow morning at 7:45. How to pack a box at one o'clock, and the record show uh tomorrow. So, guys, please go bookmark them. Please come help. I've I've been loading, I have so much stuff. I'm just gonna show tell you some of the I have 226 listings. I'm trying so hard, but I have everything from oh, glass and brass and crystal and antiques and oh my gosh, I have ducks and copper and a beer. I have a beer making kit. Nobody has bought my dang beer making kit. I've got candlesticks, I've got um Fitz and Floyd stuff. I I've I I can go on and on and on, but oh, I have a um amber sticking. I have an amber hen on the nest. I have a cast iron trick dog bank that's pretty damn cool. I have a copper cauldron, I've got some really cool stuff. I'm like scrolling through here. I'm like, I've got some MCM cups, I've got a lot of stuff that I have not listed. I kind of hit the jackpot on a source. Um, so lots of stuff there, guys. Please check it out. I would love to see you. Also, um, last thing before I forget, um, if you want to do a consultation with me when I'm not as tired as I've been tonight, or I'm starting to get goofy and forgetting names and things, um, you can call me at 832-607-1526. Best to text me and say, hey, let's can we get a time to talk and we'll schedule it. Honestly, I I have like a bunch, but they're like weeks out because I'm so far behind on things. I'm I'm doing things. So if you call to schedule right now, it's probably about two weeks out, um, is where I'm at. I haven't always been like that. I've been like, oh, I got next tomorrow, or I've got a day or two from now. But right now I've got so many things on and consultations. So it's $20 for 30 minutes. If you want a consultation, you want me to look at your show, you have questions about shipping, whatever. So you guys feel free to do that. Also, if you would be so kind as to give me a five-star rating and a good review, probably around the 15th, I'll I'll do a $25 gift card for somebody who's drawn, you know, and when I draw the name uh from somebody who's taken the time and the consideration to give me a good review. What is so funny to me is I have a 4.5, which I really am like, you know, you people who are giving me a one, why don't you go ahead and leave a review? Tell us who you are and why you don't like me. And my thought is, why? I mean, and if you don't have any room for improvement, if you're not actually going to be giving constructive, as they say, criticism or you know, telling me how I can improve, what's the point of leaving a one star? It's only a few people, but I really am reaching out to you. Please think before you do that. Please think. Um, you can message me. You don't have to make my rating bad. You could just tell me. I I get fan mail, so I'm I'm more than happy to listen. Um, I'm I'm not a spring chicken, I'm almost 55, and so I can I can take it. I can take it. You can post it, but please try to be nice. I'm I'm going through a lot. Life is rough for me right now. Just be nice. Give me a five-star rating. Um, even though I'm not perfect, and even though it might not be your cup of tea, just you know, if you stayed this long, give me a five star rating. And that's it, guys. I hope you guys have a wonderful night, a wonderful week. I hope you're doing well buying and selling on the app. And um, I guess that is it. Have a great night. We'll talk to you later. Obviously, I apologize. This was gonna be like a 30 minute and it went an hour again. Squirrel. All right, talk to you later. Bye bye, guys.