Facebook & Social Media Hacks for Pre-Selling Products Without Inventory with Alex Tran

Welcome to the GFA Podcast! Host Michael Michelini sits down with e-commerce veteran and AI innovator Alex Tran, Co-Founder and CEO of Intellext. Alex shares his radical strategy—the Digital Twin Method—showing Amazon and e-commerce sellers exactly how to leverage Facebook and social media to validate product demand, build a high-value customer list, and significantly reduce launch risk before they commit to buying any inventory.

• Alex’s VIP Page
• Intellext AI: https://intellextai.com/
• Product Rocket: https://www.productrocket.com/
• Cross Border Summit: https://2025.crossbordersummit.com/ (Chiang Mai, Nov 3 – 5)

Thank you Alex for being on the show, and thank you everybody for listening in.

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(00:00) Episode 472 of Global from Asia. Ever wonder how to test a product before risking thousands on inventory? Today we’re diving into the digital twin method with Alex TR, co-founder of Intellect. He’s got 15 years in e-commerce and a patented tool under his belt. Stay tuned for game-changing hacks to pre-ell products and build a customer list you actually own.
(00:25) Welcome to the Global from Asia podcast, where the daunting process of running an international business is broken down into straight up actionable advice. Today, we’re diving into a topic every Amazon seller needs to hear. How to pre-ell products without risking inventory. My guest is Alex Tran, co-founder and CEO of Intellect.
(00:48) He’s been in e-commerce for 15 years. One of his brands just turned 10. And he even built an early supplier negotiation platform that earned a patent and served the government of Canada. Today, he’s here to share the digital twin method, a system that helps Amazon sellers test new products without the inventory gamble and start building customers they actually own.
(01:10) Hey, GFA community. Lisa Yusen here, your community manager. I’m super excited about today’s episode because Alex is also speaking at the Crossber Summit 2025 in Chiong Mai November 3rd to 5th. Mark your calendars. Plus, we’ve got a listener question from Sarah in Seattle about managing rising ad costs on Amazon.
(01:36) We’ll tackle that later, so stick around. Mike, what’s the vibe for today? It’s all about reducing risk and owning your business. Alex is bringing some serious insights to help our listeners break free from the Amazon grind. Let’s get to it. Want to connect with global e-commerce leaders? Join us at the Crossber Summit 2025 in Mai, Thailand, November 3rd to 5th.
(02:02) Network with experts like Alex Tran. Attend workshops and level up your crossber game. Get your tickets at crossquartersummit.com. Don’t miss out. All right, thanks everybody for choosing to listen to or maybe watch us. We’re here in the shade on a Friday afternoon here in Chiang Mai, Thailand with my friend and an expert today sharing, Alex Chen. Nice to connect with you, Alex.
(02:29) Good to be here. Yeah, nice day. It’s an amazing day. It’s really nice Friday, no rain. I know you recently, it’s not been so recent now, but you moved up here from Bangkok. Bangkok. Yep. How long? Six months. Okay. Okay. I wouldn’t go back. I enjoy it here. Okay. Yeah. Great. And today we have a really good treat. I’m have some my paper notes.
(02:52) So, Alex is the CEO and co-founder of Intellects, which is a AI company. And you made AI products before open AI. You’re helping with supplier negotiation tools and you’re passionate to help entrepreneurs to reduce risk and and do business better. You’ve been doing e-commerce for 15 years. You’ve had a brand successfully running for 10 years, which anybody watching this or listening knows that’s a that’s a amazing thing in itself.
(03:22) I mean the the game the game the game I call it the gladiator the arena. So that’s amazing. And and you’re also you have a family here and I’ve gotten pleasure to know your your family. I’m with my family and it’s been fun. And and you’re going to be sharing today about the digital twin method, which is something new for me and helping Amazon sellers or or sellers in general reduce risk by launching products smartly and without inventory risk.
(03:47) Without inventory risk. So I hope I got it all. It’s a lot in there. And thanks for being here, Alex. Yeah, I appreciate you getting me on your podcast. You’re the man up here in Chiang Mai in Bangkok, too. You’re the the connector, I would say, the super connector. So, so awesome. Thank you for that. My pleasure. My pleasure.
(04:07) So, so how did you get into into the game? How did 15 years ago? What’s what’s the origin story? Yeah, eBay, right? Yeah, of course. Also e I started on eBay. Right. Right. So, that’s that’s the origin story. I was one of the first to sell digital products on eBay. Okay. So, what we did back in the day was we we created a digital product that solved a problem and then eBay doesn’t allow you to sell digital products.
(04:31) I was going to say I was like, how did you do that? So, we we printed the digital product on a CD. M. Okay. And we shipped it out. Okay. I didn’t think it would sell, but it does. Well, it did. It did. Fast forward to today, and I’m going to cover this in in the digital twin method. It works again. it works again not on eBay but on your own platform.
(04:54) Okay. I’m excited to hear I mean I’m I’m a student as well on this this topic. So maybe before we dive into that like your AI experiences and you have a patent on what you’ve done and it was before open AI. Open AAI was like late at least I remember 2022. Yeah. Late 2022. Late 2022 is when I first heard or saw it.
(05:15) Yeah. Yeah. So you had this supplier negotiation tool, AI tool. Yeah. So we we dealt a lot with vendors because I I came from from corporate B2B. So we dealt a lot with suppliers, contracts, and contracts rule the world. They still do more so for companies than you and I. But believe it or not, when you deal with China, when you deal with Thailand, when you deal with another vendor, the contract rules, right? So part of the problem with contract is that there’s a lot of back and forth.
(05:45) It takes a long time. Lawyers get involved, okay, and the language changes. So this the cycle gets prolonged. It’s okay sort of for a bigger company, but for small businesses like ours, it could kill us. We can miss a window. We can miss a window. So we kept put our thinking hat caps on and there were a few of us came up with oh what if there was a way to create AI to create the contracts but also to manage and negotiate the contracts when it comes due.
(06:17) So that was the genesis of it. This was definitely before open AI. We had no idea. Nobody had any idea right. So we wrote our own language model from scratch and then we were able to get into the contracting standards. We’re still there. So that’s how we get we get our notoriety, our leads. Yeah, it’s amazing.
(06:39) Yeah, I mean I it’s true like OpenAI I just feel like it just came it was one of the fastest growing from launch or at least when they opened it amount of users. You’re absolutely right. And it’s evolved. I mean it’s all I think it’s also give me some tips on vibe coding like AI coding. Exactly. Right. I mean things you couldn’t do two years ago.
(06:57) It’s mind-blowing. Yeah, it’s really mind-blowing. So, let’s let’s get into it. You you have 400 SKS you sell yourself now and and you’re doing like like a hundred a year and how does that that sounds pretty overwhelming to me. So, it is overwhelming to be truthful. We have to have that many SKs because we have several brands, but also we’re in the fashion.
(07:19) Yeah. So, in fashion you need to keep blowing up new stuff, right? Because people get sick of it. They want to see new stuff. And if you ever go to the mall, you’ll see the beginning of the season, fresh products come in, three months later, they’re clearing almost all of it. Okay, that’s our problem, too.
(07:40) Same problems online. So, we had to to mitigate that risk somehow. That’s when we started to try strategies where we pre-launch. Yeah. And then we do the notify me and then we created social channels to give us social signals and it works but it wasn’t methodical. It wasn’t methodical. So about a year ago I I got sick of it honestly.
(08:05) I got I got sick of the cycles cuz who wants to guess wrong? Mhm. The risk is very high when you launch a product. I’m Yeah. I mean even we had a nice barbecue with friends and David I share some of my failures. I’m dealing with some some overstock. Yeah, it’s pain. It’s painful. Especially within if inside Amazon, you’re like dead. Yeah. You’re dead.
(08:25) You’re dead. It’s it’s dead stock. It’s dead money. They charge you money to get rid of it. They just Yeah. The screw the screw is like Yeah. Grinding into you. Yeah. Exactly. I like to say that when you launch a product on Amazon, you face two major risk factors. Number one is product risk.
(08:44) The product could be wrong. You can do all the great research and jungle scout all the tools or whatever, but it’s wrong. And number two, it’s on risk. Yeah. Who knows what they’re going to do with it, if anything, right? So, we put on our thinking hats and then we looked back in the archives and discovered that what if there’s a way to solve a problem first to validate the product with the problem because after all, most products solve a problem, a painoint something like that.
(09:13) So, so that was the genesis of it. We we tried it out last year officially. We’ve actually done this for for our consulting clients. Okay. For years. For years. And we systematized just last year only because we can do it now with OpenAI or Claude or whatever LLM you have. And it’s been successful. Great. And this is the digital twin. The digital twin method.
(09:35) So it’s a framework. It’s a framework. Yeah. The the idea is that every physical product can have a proxy in a digital world. Okay? For example, let’s say that you’re you’re selling supplements, right? In the old model when it was easier, you would just launch supplements on Amazon and you you you rotate the SKS, you rank.
(10:00) Remember those days? Yeah. I miss those days. And then you rank harder, right? Yeah. Yeah. Impossible, actually. So especially for things like supplements where it’s like hyper competitive. It’s really hard. Yeah, it’s hyper competitive. So So rather than do that, we look at okay, what is the problem? Why are they taking the supplements? What is the exact pain points? We validate that on sites like Reddit or or Quorum and we have a formula for that too.
(10:28) Then we create a product to solve one problem. Okay. So for example, let’s say you’re intermittent fasting. I’ve been doing that for years. where you intermittent fast, you’re gonna ask, okay, what is the protocol? It seems simple. Don’t eat, right? But if you’re a woman, there’s a protocol because it messes with your hormones.
(10:44) So, we solve a problem with the port with a protocol. Get them to pay for that problem. When you get to the thank you page, we introduced a physical product for the first time. So, let’s let’s stick with fasting. You’ll need vitamins, right? Because you’re you’re cutting down on food. So, of course, you’ll need the vitamins to supplement the food that you’re cutting down on.
(11:06) So, we have it on the thank you page, then we have it on the follow-up sequence. Okay, we’re still solving the problem, but we’re not going off script, which is, hey, by the way, you might need this B complex. Okay, and if the uptake is a certain amount, then you potentially have a lower a higher chance of getting a winner and a lower risk of ordering MOQ 500.
(11:30) Yeah. Yeah. Plus the artwork that plus the artwork, the shipping, the storage, the packaging. If it goes wrong, the disposal and the new tariffs, the new the new tariffs. Thank you. How can I forget? Yeah, we’re reminded. Yeah. Okay. So, that’s the idea. And I think it’s it’s paid ads for Facebook and socials to a landing page.
(11:53) So, digital twin phys digital product solving the pain point that you’re trying to solve and it’s also matching the physical product. Yeah. So, I’ve been on Amazon for a long time, just like you. And u most people that that we talk to say that they want to get off Amazon. They know that it’s Amazon’s sandbox.
(12:12) Yeah. Yeah. We talk they know that it’s Amazon’s algorithm and if you battle one horse and a horse breaks his leg, you’re screwed, right? So, they know logically that they should be on Shopify, on Etsy, on their own platform, all that. But it’s hard. You you you get used to being a cage fighter and you’re always a cage fighter.
(12:32) Glad I call it gladiator. Gladiator. Right. Right. The PPC, the organic ranking, the buy box. So So there’s there’s inertia, right? And there’s risk of course because when you leave Amazon, you need to worry about paid traffic all the time. You need to worry about SEO optimization. You need to worry about fulfillment in a little bit different way. So I get that.
(12:54) I get that. I think the digital twin method is a nice easy bridge for people because they can start going off of Amazon, get a product, and then not a product, but a digital product. They don’t have to worry about shipping, whatever. And then if they’re going to test a product, test it as an affiliate.
(13:12) There are tons of supplements back there. If you don’t want to be an affiliate, test it as a notify me button. That works really well for Shopify, right? So when you launch, you have a bump right away. Okay. Yeah. So the other thing that is very risky about Amazon and we know this. I’m not saying anything we don’t know is that they own the customers.
(13:31) Yeah. We rent the customers every single time. I don’t care how long they on Amazon. You have to gain the customers over and over yet. I remember the day when we used to be able to mail the customers. Remember that? Yeah. There was all these strategies some shows about follow-up sequences and Yeah. You could download the list.
(13:51) They masked the email though, but it still would go through. There was that like like it was like an Amazon email. There was Amazon email, but it would go to the customer. It would go to the customer when they stopped. You can have the email sequence. Remember those days? Yeah. Yeah. And followup. I think they even have that now, but most people unsubscribe.
(14:06) Yeah. They don’t It goes into spam and you send one message, right? Yeah. So, so you don’t have the customer. And to me, without the customer, I don’t think I really don’t think of a business. I mean I I generally agree but at the same time you people know your brand even I mean stores I mean even before Amazon there’s retail stores they had the customer the brand didn’t have the customer you would have to sell through these chain stores and they didn’t give so I never did I don’t really do that but you don’t get
(14:37) the customer that’s their customer and then you have the brand so they still buy your brand even though you don’t get the customer information of course but I want the customer information but in my brain. I justify it by like, well, they know my brand and I’m kind of like an authority.
(14:54) I still have to bridge it honestly for mostly I’m still all Amazon. Oh, Amazon. Yeah. Yeah. And a lot of people are. If you’re Amazon, you’re Amazon. If you’re Shopify, two groups. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So, so there’s no doubt that owning a customer is easier because you can retarget them, you can mail to them again.
(15:16) When Christmas come, it’s easier to do a drop, right? And even you need instant money. It really is easier to just say, “Hey, by the way, I have a sale. Oh, by the way, I have this product and we’re clearing it, right?” To say, “Boom.” And then somebody will take it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I guess the other reason though for Amazon seller, it’s a different it’s like right brain, left brain.
(15:39) and they still need to learn how to do these kind of like the digital marketing, the email sequence, the digital product. It’s a little bit of a different skill. Yeah, absolutely. It’s a different skill set. I I think I think that’s a good conversation because there there are two skills, right? There’s the product creator, the tinkerer I want to call it, and then there are the people who actually market it, the marketer.
(16:05) And I think that’s why most companies the ones I’m talking about the ones we we’re familiar with Apple right Steve Jobs was the marketer and then Steve Waznjak was a tinkerer right and then Facebook right Zuckerberg is the marketer and Sally San sandberg sandberg yes she’s the yeah she joined earlier on as she was like the b the mom almost I think yeah the cooact so I I think you need two skill sets and unfortunately for for us entrepreneurs sometimes we’re solarreneurs we we’re wearing one hat the hat that we’re comfortable with right but honestly if
(16:42) you can get two hats maybe use AI to get the other hat going much better off okay okay this has been insights so the digital twin then you also have you so you’re helping with the launching as a service like there’s I forget the name we chatted before but there’s a product product rocket Product Rocket. Yes. Yes.
(17:05) What’s What’s So Product Rocket is Intellect has OG products. So Product Rocket is our first product to help SMBs or solarreneurs launch their product fast. So rather than than dealing with with the infrastructure, the funnels, the uptake, all that kind of thing, Product Rocket with AI technology can help you validate the product, get you the funnel going, test it, measure the stats, and if the stats are good, you’re good.
(17:36) Yeah. Okay. So, what are some KPIs we should look for? Like when you’re when you’re doing this digital twin, is there some kind of metrics we should be like measuring or looking for to decide decide and then when to take inventory? So you’re like an affiliate of one or you have to notify me when it gets to it.
(17:58) Is there some kind of triggers that we you look for? Absolutely. That’s a great question. I love KPIs because KPI rules marketing, right? I love it. Seems like data driven. Exactly. Be data. Honestly, I’m not good at it, but I know it’s needed. Yeah. Well, again, two hats, right? Yeah. You’re good at one hat. I’m more the creat creative side, right? Exactly.
(18:16) Exactly. So, the KPIs are really important here because you’re spending money that that is has a direct correlation to your success. I know it in Amazon, you spend money because you got to do samples, shipping, product, but it’s months away. Right here, it’s like, oh, okay, I need to shift a little bit because you see the result.
(18:33) So, the KPI is this. We run paid ads and then we look for a positive rorowass return on ad spend. So if we see oneish that means that we’re breaking even our ad spend. We’re acquiring a buying customer list for free. Now how do we decide when to pull the trigger on a product? Let’s say we’re gung-ho on a product.
(18:55) We got to have a physical product. Well on the thank you page you actually measure the click-through rate. So, let’s say that you put a supplement on the thank you page and then the click clickthrough rates between 15 20% something like that. That’s another sign of potential success. Okay, but we don’t stop there. Another KPI we look at is the actually the buy rate the at after they click through. So, we we measure all that.
(19:22) And from what we’ve seen, if you see a 5% or so, you’re good to go. Okay, you’re good to go. The success margin is very high. We had a client who’s who’s mega now. She she started with supplement and then pulled out a supplement and went just the digital method, never went back to the physical product again.
(19:44) And all the better for her because she doesn’t have to deal with inventory and when she needs to sell physical product, her her affiliate sales is a lot more than what she ever did on a physical product. Okay. Yeah. But but we measured again. So the first time we went through that that measurement, it was a no-go. Then we did it again.
(20:05) And for her, we kind of tweaked it just right. The second time was a charm. Okay. Yeah. So that makes me wonder like she doesn’t have a physical product. Is is her landing page? It’s a information product. Information product. A PDF. Yeah. Okay. Absolutely. And it wouldn’t be the So say we have an Amazon brand and we want to do this. Would would we make a info product style landing page? You would okay you would would it be the from the brand or we make like a third party looking affiliate? There’s a certain type of landing page that works really well and those are
(20:37) they they look like informational kind of landing pages like an infomercial and that’s in product rocket too so that you don’t have to just run it right. Okay. Yeah. But but th those work really well because the psychology when you run a paid ads especially on Facebook is not I’m looking for a bird feeder.
(20:56) They’re not doing that. We’re introducing bird feeders them when they’re looking at a funny cartoon. So the psychology is different. You need you need to stick with that psychology. Makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. I’m still like I’m still like I still like the oldfashioned like Google or Amazon. They’re searching for the product. I have the product.
(21:15) They buy the product. Yeah. I think on socials they have maybe a problem or they’re a different, you know, like you said a different mindset at the time they’re they’re on that platform. Exactly. So you can’t Yeah. Cuz it’s true. Like how do you get them to buy a product directly from scrolling on a social feed? Exactly. Exactly.
(21:33) It seems complicated and then if you look at influencers on YouTube, they say you got to post 100,000 posts and do this and it’s complicated, right? M but the the honest answer is that if you have a little bit of test budget, it’s not complicated. Okay. There’s a formula you follow and then there are metrics that you look at and when to go for it or you you pull the trigger.
(21:54) Yeah. I guess just back on the brand, should it be from my product brand domain or maybe people don’t even pay attention to the domain name or should I get like another domain name that’s like moreformational product name? Absolutely. That’s a great question. Brands we find don’t work that well. So, we would split as a brand versus how to restore your hormones when you’re fasting.com.
(22:15) Exactly. Yeah. Because on the ad there’s very limited real estate and they’ll see that subliminally. They’ll see the the the ad and they’ll see the domain how torestoyyous.com and they go, “Yeah.” So, so Facebook actually today makes it a ton easier than it was even 5 years ago because of AI. Really? I I’m like 5 years ago Facebook I haven’t been on it.
(22:42) I haven’t done it since 5 years now. So they they advance in AI too. Okay. So it’s really helped us. They might get to a point where they actually create the ads for us. I don’t trust them because in that case I don’t I don’t either. In that case they’ll insert their own product, right? Which is like what Amazon does. They have the Amazon basics.
(23:03) Once you once they prove that this this pair of slippers work, boom, Amazon Basic slots in. They’ll ask for the invoice from your factory and they’ll contact the factory. They’ll contact the factory. I don’t know. I can’t believe they do that, but they do that. They do that. They only care about number one, which is themselves.
(23:18) It’s unbelievable. Yeah. Yeah. No, it’s true. We have to keep some separation. Anybody listening, don’t just give invoices and try to keep I know these big platforms are trying to kill us, but don’t make it too easy for them. Please don’t make it easy. Yeah. Awesome. So, yeah, I’m excited you you were at the summit last year. Thanks.
(23:37) And we met we met in Bangkok and this year you’re speaking about similar this this child and I’m excited for it. I was just checking the agenda with the team before this call and before this podcast and you want to share some some of what you’re going to be Yeah. So, I’m going to go into a lot more detail about this method, share some of the pain points, how we got around it, share some of the tricks, whatever.
(24:02) I I can guarantee you that what you’ll hear here is is new. You won’t hear on YouTube, whatever, because we tested it ourselves. But I can also guarantee you that if you don’t if it makes sense and you don’t implement in 6 months, that window is gone. It’s just the way things is going fast now. Everything is going fast. People AI, they see your ads, they see what you’re doing, they copy your funnel, and then you have a competitor.
(24:29) But in that time frame, if you have your the right positioning, the right list built up, the right systems built up and duplicated, gosh, it’s hard to go against an 800 lb gorilla that is you. That’s awesome. Super excited for the session and it’s been fun to have you today. And also for those what about your the services or some of these websites? So we’re I’m going to teach a master class on the digital twin method in October.
(24:59) That’s also in the same time we relaunch our product rocket. Great. Just to be transparent, I’m going to teach the method using manual methods and I’m going to teach the method using a tool. Just to show you that you can do it by hand or you can use a tool which will make things faster. Great. All right. And we’ll we’ll put these different links on our show notes on Glo from Asia.
(25:19) Thanks again for coming on. Awesome. Thank you. Great to learn more from you and I can’t wait to see you at the summit. I’m glad that we’re outside, too. Yeah, it’s nice to get excuse. It’s real. It’s not AI. Sometimes I got to maybe I’ll bring the It’s not AI. Yeah. So, this is the nice pond here in Chiang Mai. Some pigeons there.
(25:37) And All right. Thanks everybody for watching. Thanks, Alex. Have a good day. Thanks, Mike. Cheers. Wow, what an episode. Huge thanks to Alex TR for breaking down the digital twin method. Such a smart way to test products without the inventory risk. Let’s recap. Validate pain points on platforms like Reddit.
(25:57) Create a PDF guide, show a product on the thank you page, follow up with emails, and measure results, hitting a 5% conversion rate, and breaking even on ads. That’s a free buyer list and a green light to launch. Lisa, any final thoughts? My big takeaway, you don’t have to gamble on inventory anymore. Test smart, build your own list, and launch with confidence.
(26:23) Let’s hear from our GFA community. Sarah from Seattle asked, “With Amazon ad costs skyrocketing in 2025, how do I stay competitive?” Mike, what’s your take? Great question, Sarah. The digital twin method helps here, too. By testing demand with lowcost digital proxies, you can optimize ad spend before committing to inventory.
(26:47) Focus on niche forums to find high intent audiences and keep your ROAS above one. It’s about working smarter, not just spending more. Solid advice, Mike. And for our listeners, we love hearing from you. Lisa, what’s coming up? The Crossber Summit 2025 is just around the corner, November 3rd to 5th in Mai. Alex will be there along with other e-commerce rock stars.
(27:14) Keep forging your own path GFA community. Absolutely, Lisa. Thanks for joining us, Alex. And to our listeners, keep scaling those crossborder ventures. This is Global from Asia, where we break down the daunting to doable. See you next week. To get more info about running an international business, please visit our website at ww.globalfroasia.com.
(27:39) That’s ww.globalasia.com. Also, be sure to subscribe to our iTunes feed. Thanks for tuning in.