Episode Summary
In this Prime Talk Podcast Video Sponsored by GETIDA, Omar Angri, the founder and Managing Director of Margin Business, a global e-commerce consulting firm that focuses on helping brands grow internationally on Amazon, shares his journey into e-commerce.
Being in the e-commerce world is full of ups and downs. Knowing when to quit and knowing when to forge ahead can be difficult decisions to make. But ultimately every experience you have in your business journey can prepare you for the next step. Those failures can help you succeed the next time around if you use them as learning opportunities. Yoni Mazor of Prime Talk discusses the journey of starting your own e-commerce business and using experiences to help guide you through your next stations.
In today’s episode, Prime Talk has teamed up with Omar Angri, the founder and Managing Director of Margin Business, a global e-commerce consulting firm that helps Amazon brands grow internationally. Margin Business can help you scale your business in international waters by helping you with listing optimization for Amazon EU. They offer a full range of services like translation, sales copy, keyword research, and detailed competitor analysis.
Omar Angri takes us on his journey around the world as he looks for the best opportunities to optimize his own e-commerce business and then uses his experiences to create Margin Business. So if you are a North American Amazon seller looking to expand into the EU or beyond, then this episode is for you!
Learn more about Margin Business!
Learn about GETIDA’s Amazon FBA reimbursement solutions.
Find the Full Transcript Below
Yoni Mazor 0:06
Hi everybody, welcome to another episode of Prime Talk. Today I’m really excited to have a special guest. I’m having Omar Angri. He is the founder and Managing Director of Margin Business, which is a global e-commerce consulting firm. Omar, welcome to the show.
Omar Angri 0:20
Thank you for having me.
Yoni Mazor 0:22
Our pleasure. Where are you located right now?
Omar Angri 0:24
Right now at the moment, yeah, we’re located in Morocco. So yeah, because of the lockdown, everything was very quick. So we usually go in and out. You know, we’re not permanently here. But you know, the last four months this is where we are, but it’s all good. It’s fine. You know, we have great weather over here. So
Yoni Mazor 0:44
I’m sure I can see. If anybody is watching this video recording. You’ll see it’s nice and sunny. He told me a moment ago he’s on a rooftop in Morocco. Which town, which city in Morocco?
Omar Angri 0:53
Tangier, nice, Tangier, nice breezy town in the middle of the Strait of Gibraltar.
Yoni Mazor 1:00
Amazing. So it’s right by the Mediterranean. Right?
Omar Angri 1:04
We can see Spain, so near.
Yoni Mazor 1:05
Amazing. Wow. Okay, so today, this episode is mainly going to be about you. You’re going to share with us your story. You know, tell us who you are, where you from? Where did you go to school? How’d you begin your professional career? So without further ado, let’s get right into it.
Omar Angri 1:21
Okay, perfect. So yeah, originally, I am from Germany. So I was born and raised in the northern part of Germany, Northern Hemisphere, very cold. Very typical northern, I guess it’s the same as North America…
Yoni Mazor 1:37
North America, but which town over there in Germany?
Omar Angri 1:40
Hamburg, Hamburg, straight, like a few kilometers away from Denmark. So you can compare it with England, the weather in London. So, very dark, very rainy. But it was lots of fun. You know, I was brought up over there is a good time. And it was a perfect time over there really. I really enjoyed it. So yeah, this is…There I went to school there. I was born there. I was raised up to a certain age. But let’s go over there a little bit. My humble beginnings. It’s this way. So yeah, normal school, went up to high school, went, you know, into jobs, which are not really related to e-commerce today. But my first like, I am originally a graphic designer. So everything I learned was…
Yoni Mazor 2:34
Is that something you took a school or you just naturally developed into that?
Omar Angri 2:38
Yes, yes. I took one year to school for that. I didn’t go to university but was one year school. So yeah, I really enjoyed this. And…
Yoni Mazor 2:46
So this one year was after high school? So you’re 18 so you took a year after high school? Or was there during high school? OK, so it was after high school, you take a year, you dive into the world of graphic design?
Omar Angri 2:57
Exactly. No, before I went to business school, I didn’t finish it, though. You know, they’re still you were still fresh in your mind. So I wasn’t wasn’t really, you know, I only took the good things out of there and went on. It was…I will tell you later on it was because I was focused on really on other things. I’m very good with languages. So I think
Yoni Mazor 3:17
How many languages do you speak? Which ones? Let’s have a quick count.
Omar Angri 3:22
First, it’s German. Second, English, third, French, fourth, Arabic and Spanish. So yeah, then from there, one year of business school and one year of graphic design. So from there straight, straight in I had the chance that somebody took me on and showed me the real graphic design, old school graphic design, you know, with the old Mac computers. And
Yoni Mazor 3:51
What year? We’re talking about what year roughly?
Omar Angri 3:53
Roughly about 2001.
Yoni Mazor 3:57
So 2001 you’re dabbling into the world of graphic design with the old, what you call old school only 19 years ago. But you had a Mac and you’re designing…What were you designing for example?
Omar Angri 4:07
Yeah, it was, you know, it was for a company for it was un…first it was an under company from Philips. So it might, I mean before it was like it’s a few months in a row but
Yoni Mazor 4:20
So you’re saying Philips from the Netherlands, it’s a big company and most of us know it from the medical products they see in the hospitals or also if you brush your teeth, I believe today they own the sonic toothbrush right?
Omar Angri 4:36
The Ultrasonic, yeah yeah. So at this time, I was actually on a project where the 3D television…where they had the first pictures in the internet where the 3D flat screen was shown, okay. So the flat screen was not out yet. And we could you know, we kind of prepare with a 36 frames we need to shot every single picture and it was around you know, so it was
Yoni Mazor 4:55
Like the matrix right in a way?
Omar Angri 4:57
Exactly. So this is…it was the old time. Yeah, a project like this for I was going on for a while and that company and at a later stage, I felt like I need to try my own business. So I tried, first attempt to graphic design, but I failed. I think it was because I didn’t take it serious yet, you know?
Yoni Mazor 5:20
Hold on, hold on. So we’re talking about something that I consider important for the show, you turn to do your own business. And so what year was this? This was 2001? Or a few years later?
Omar Angri 5:30
This is about this time, everything was been very short timeframe, you know?
Yoni Mazor 5:33
So 2001, you dabble into working for, you know, a company that’s related to Philips, you’re getting some real business experience. You said, Let me do a side hustle. And try my luck, but it didn’t go through because you’re saying at that point, you know, you were not…you’re not taking it seriously enough?
Omar Angri 5:53
I was taking, let’s say, I was taking it seriously, but I didn’t really see the impact behind it because if you know, in other countries, they take a lot of taxes. So, the first few invoices burned me as well. There are some 1000 2000 Euros of taxes as well. So
Yoni Mazor 6:10
So one thing that was…so you’re saying one thing that was an issue for your taxes, you know, income. It wasn’t, you know, we’re not able to make enough income, which makes total sense. Yeah.
Omar Angri 6:21
I mean, obviously, I would have been able to do enough income because I worked 12-15 hours. Yeah, you know, I mean, like a really good income, you can always survive, but for me, it’s not about surviving. For me is to make the real, the real money was already before. So I said, yeah, whatever, I don’t work. So I throw it away very quickly, which is obviously a mistake. So what I said was okay, let’s try not try. I wanted always to learn languages. I knew if I don’t get thrown in the water, I will not learn languages. So at that point, I only spoke two languages, let’s say three. I spoke German, obviously, because I was born in Germany. Yeah. English and Moroccan, Arabic.
Yoni Mazor 7:01
So one thing I want to ask, I have to ask because you mentioned you’re very close to Denmark, so no, Danish, yeah?
Omar Angri 7:06
No, no Danish, but you can kind of understand them. You know? Okay. That’s okay. So yeah. And then I jumped directly, I jumped from Germany to Paris. That was my first move, because, you know, with no plan, I just said, okay, tomorrow? Yeah, let’s go.
Yoni Mazor 7:23
And what year was that?
Omar Angri 7:25
That was about 2002-2003.
Yoni Mazor 7:29
Got it, you say, you know, I’m packing my suitcase, and I’m out to Paris. You know? Try fresh. And what do you do there? What happened there?
Omar Angri 7:37
I just worked for a corporate company, trying to, you know, to move on, because it was very fresh. There was
Yonia Mazor 7:45
But what were you doing for that corporate company? Same thing? Graphic Design?
Omar Angri 7:49
No, it was a company called Pixmania, nowadays it’s very big, you know?
Yoni Mazor 7:53
Mmm hmm Pixmania. But what were you doing for them effectively?
Omar Angri 7:56
Customer Service. It was a normal entry job, which I, you know, which was very easy for us. As I say, people who are moved in that timeframe to other countries, they could really quickly get a job for and work for anything. That’s why it’s so easy then to move on to other spots, you know?
Yoni Mazor 8:14
Got it. So 2002 to 2003 you were in customer service in a big corporation. Take us next… what’s the next station?
Omar Angri 8:22
The next stage was 2006-2007. I was about to get really into…ah sorry, in between there was 2005. I had another attempt of e-commerce business. This was already very serious. So what I was doing is because I’m very into sports, I’m a sports fanatic and I really like boxing, kickboxing.
Yoni Mazor 8:45
Kickboxing? So no soccer? Kickboxing? No football, like soccer?
Omar Angri 8:49
I didn’t like soccer at all. I stay away from soccer.
Yoni Mazor 8:53
Yeah, I thought in Germany it’s like a religion? They have a lot of pride in their national team in Germany.
Omar Angri 8:58
Yes, it is. Yes, it is. But you know, I was never into all that.
Yoni Mazor 9:02
Got it. Kickboxing. Alright, good.
Omar Angri 9:04
So yeah. So from there, I flew out to Thailand. Bought the best gloves I can buy, brought them back. I had the first issue again with taxes because obviously because I was running around with two bags. They were asking me what are you gonna do with it in France? Yeah, yeah. So I told them to listen, I tried to build my business. So they were so nice to me. And they let me go, you know, with two full bags of equipment. And he said next time you pay. I said, Okay.
Yoni Mazor 9:29
Well, kudos to the French customs, shout out. You let Omar get a break. You’re saying this is our investment in you. You start doing the startup hopefully it makes some money, pay taxes later, but the next time also you’ll pay.
Omar Angri 9:43
Really, I think that was really good, you know, because they’ve seen it and, you know, I was really serious about it. So I built up my webpage. Obviously, I had no clue of Amazon at this time, which was as well a very big mistake. I would not, you know it would be…everything would have gone differently. But we don’t say would we just you know We take it like this. So next time, afterward I was like, I put my own website up, I worked for five days in a row, 24 hours or like, you know, just fill up everything. Put the, I mean, I could have it easier if I would have bought a webshop, but I was not that far at the moment, you know, so I built really everything from scratch, put my stuff in there, and began to sell.
Yoni Mazor 10:25
That’s 2005 right? This is 2005. And how did you bring traffic as soon as the website was ready to go? How’d you bring the traffic?
Omar Angri 10:32
Good question. I didn’t have any traffic. So I was going crazy into forums, blog posting everywhere I could and got shut down very quickly as well because it was you know, it wasn’t very close to time. So I…most of the time I was selling for people outside of the website so they get traction, they get a little traction and then you sell outside.
Yoni Mazor 10:54
So basically, it’s almost like a business card?
Omar Angri 10:58
Yes. Well, I sold the stuff on site then then came over again, as well as critical time where it was personal stuff going on. And I stopped. I stopped selling this. Yeah? At this time at this time. I knew very good people, they have a very big brand right now. They’re selling shorts, Thai boxing shorts, Wicked One they’re called. It’s a very big brand. They have clothing brand all over the world now. So yeah, there was….I missed this one as well. So yeah, okay, so we move on from Paris, because I’ve seen many opportunities going out. I was about to go to Singapore. So yeah, because yeah, I was getting a bit. Yeah, let’s say I get picky because the pay, you know, the salary was not what I was thinking of, you know, and I really, I knew I knew what I could do. So I didn’t want to just to settle for something what I don’t like it. You know what will get me in trouble afterwards because I cannot move anYonia Mazorore. Yeah, then I had another job offer came out of Gibraltar. Gibraltar is not far from here actually. It is beautiful rock in the southern hemisphere that belongs to the United Kingdom. And yeah, I was flown down there. There was a really nice flight and everything you know? So yeah, I began my, my corporate and other corporate job over there in this company.
Yoni Mazor 12:19
And what year was that? So? You move, you transferred from Paris to Gibraltar? What year?
Omar Angri 12:25
So this was about 2006-2007.
Yoni Mazor 12:28
Got it. Okay. What do you do for the corporation now?
Omar Angri 12:33
Yeah, I was first…I was handling as well the customer service because I came off the customer service environment. And I quickly went up the ladder. Because I really liked what I do. And yeah, when I went up to a VIP account manager, country manager, sorry, where I was handling the highest population of that company.
Yoni Mazor 12:54
What was this company doing? What kind of business?
Omar Angri 12:57
They were involved in gaming. It was a gaming company. Um, it was something
Yoni Mazor 13:04
Was this Playtecha? Was this Playtecha by any chance?
Omar Angri 13:08
There was Playtech involved, yes.
Yoni Mazor 13:10
Yeah. Playtecha. It’s a big gaming company based out of Europe. I mean, I believe in the UK, which may be Gibraltar is part of the UK. I thought maybe it makes a
Omar Angri 13:18
What is the name? Playtech yeah?
Yoni Mazor 13:19
Playtecha. I think Playtecha. And right now at least 2020. They’re big in the online gaming world?
Omar Angri 13:25
Yeah, I think so. I think so I’m not sure. I’m not sure whether we were…this was a company that was very strong on their own already. And also they had not many partners. So yeah, I’m not into gaming, you know, I’m not really and by the time I was working there, I realized this as well. So I really just distanced myself. And I knew I needed to go out of there. I could not do this for longer, as it wasn’t going well with my inner self, you know? So I didn’t feel good by doing this. But it was a super great experience. Don’t get me wrong. And the people I met there as well were very, very good people, which opened my mind a lot. And I’m some, I think six months before, like, they sent me traveling, I went to Canada, I’ve been to many places in Europe, flying around every weekend. And I said no, I cannot do it. Because I had a family and it was too much. You know, so I said and I could do this for myself, you know? So I knew what I was capable of. And in order…instead of making money for a company, I said, I can make this for myself, you know? So I work on my own there. I begin again to start to wanted to start my business. What is today Margin Business? So…
Yoni Mazor 14:40
And this is early 2007-2008?
Omar Angri 14:43
Exactly. So no, it’s not sorry. This was into 2012.
Yoni Mazor 14:48
Okay, so three, four years, you’re already, you’re settling into this job in Gibraltar, the gaming industry. You’re getting tons of experience working with the high end people, high end talents. In 2012, you say, you know, I’m gonna make my footsteps into, I guess the e-commerce world slash Amazon. There we go.
Omar Angri 15:08
Exactly. So this was the third attempt after my missing out on the kickboxing one. I went…it was the equipment, sorry. I went for the third time. So it was like six months before I quit the actual job. Before I was thinking about quitting. I was already getting in and trying to, you know, trying to make my way in there. So we began with working with a company, my wife at that time was already working from home, working with an Amazon seller, which was very small, you know, it was selling small stuff here and there from China importing, exporting, you know? So we were beginning to take all that they do, from, customer service, to translations, to reviews, to account health, everything that you can think of yeah? So after six months, I had a few other clients as well, they were selling not through Amazon, but they’re selling through in the States and Canada. One big one was selling shoes. Like little by little, we had more clients. And after six months, I felt like no, I cannot do this anYonia Mazorore. I cannot go to work, sleep three hours, work at home eight hours, you know? It was too much. And by the time I had already the balanced out. So the money was coming in. The money from the company was there as well. So I said okay, I cut it. So on the 31st of December 2012, I believe…Yeah, I stopped everything. 2013 2013.
Yoni Mazor 16:38
So the beginning of 2013, or the end of 2013?
Omar Angri 16:42
I’m not sure Mazorore…I think at the end, I think at the end. Yeah.
Yoni Mazor 16:45
So it’s practically 2014, about six years ago?
Omar Angri 16:48
Yeah, let’s….no. It’s 13. It was 13. Yeah.
Yoni Mazor 16:52
Okay, got it. So the beginning of 2014. It’s a fresh new world. This time now, this is a third attempt for you to dabble in business. And you know, there’s a classic saying that says, Third time’s a charm. And that job is actually an Amazon charm, which was the right place at the right time. Because from 2013 and now it’s been pretty much a revolution, what’s going on the growth has been tremendous. So I think your timing was perfect. And those failures that you experienced along the way had to happen. And they were in preparation for that big moment. You know, those cylinders, you picked up what you needed because there was a better opportunity for you much greater, much more powerful waiting for you ahead, you didn’t know what at the time. But looking back, I think it’s fair to say that pretty much it was there was part of the journey that you had to experience to get to this moment, or 2013, where the here what I can see that little bit of a change is that, you know, before you had an idea for a solution, okay, and then you had to go out and get business here, the business was already knocking on your door says, We need your solutions. We need your expertise, we need your knowledge, we need your know-how, and another one another, all of a sudden you’re in business. And that I think made a lot of impacts and a lot of difference because now you’re carrying yourself on your shoulder since then. So let’s take us now into the journey where you pretty much are right now. You know, you call that Margin Business right away, talk and talk to us about, you know, take us from 2013. To now, you know the evolution of you know, your current business.
Omar Angri 18:21
Okay, so yeah, afterward, like I said, we were already working with the lab and we lost the first smaller client because when sometimes it’s better to lose one and to get the next one because when you do too much for them, it makes no sense. So we stayed with the main client that we have from the beginning, we had the other client on the way we had, I think a third client which was coming and going. And making all the account management for them happen. And as we moved on, we moved as well because at the time I was living in Spain, so we made the first step and I said okay, now or never, we’re gonna go do a world tour.
Yoni Mazor 18:57
So what does that mean? Were you saying, basically, you’re gonna become a digital nomad?
Omar Angri 19:01
I don’t like the word, digital nomad. I like rather digital…at that time may be a digital nomad, you’re right. But today I like the word digital entrepreneur, you know?
Yoni Mazor 19:11
Yeah yeah, I like that also. I was about to swing it on my tongue and to correct to a digital entrepreneur like that. I’m gonna carry that. You know, the fact that you’re online, you have clients all over the world, you work globally. It doesn’t matter where you are physical. You’re a digital entrepreneur. It’s pretty awesome.
Omar Angri 19:25
From there, we went to…the World Tour means…well normally I was fixed on Asia because I really wanted to go to Asia. So we flew off to Thailand. Stayed there for two months. It’s very difficult for the visa. So we went in and out and in and out, flew to Japan, flew to Malaysia and stayed there for three months as well. So in total it was about 12 months and then we said okay, we have to go back, set a little bit. See everyone so we flew back. This was the first time actually we flew into Morocco. And we said okay, because it was a good way. We have everything here. Well, we had what we needed. Germany as well, but we want to anyway to stay with the warmer, we came back here. We build the business more, more focus because here we, you know, when you’re traveling, it’s a bit hard. You need at least three months to stay everywhere. And we knew we love Malaysia. So there was already the first…Sorry, I forgot the part where we created Margin Business actually. It was somehow somewhere in January.
Yoni Mazor 20:29
Which year?
Omar Angri 20:31
At the beginning of…the end 2014 beginning 2015.
Yoni Mazor 20:36
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