Yacht Version: Future Trends & Software in E-Commerce with Danan Coleman

Mike Michelini records live from a yacht in Phuket, Thailand with first-time Cross Border Mastermind attendee and e-commerce systems expert Danan Coleman of eCom Triage. They discuss emerging software tools, AI automation strategies, 2026 e-commerce trends, and the game-changing platforms that are quietly transforming how 7- and 8-figure Amazon sellers operate.

• • Danan’s VIP Page
  • eCom Triage – ecomtriage.com (Danan Coleman’s Amazon review management and catalog services)
  • Source Ready – Next-generation sourcing platform with expanded manufacturer database
  • Swapped – Amazon-compliant QR code system for increasing organic reviews
  • Cross Border Summit 2026 – November 3-5, Chiang Mai –2026.crossbordersummit.com

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

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[00:00:00] Episode 478 of Global from Asia, future Trends and Software and e-Commerce with Danan Coleman.

Welcome to the Global from Asia podcast, where the daunting process of running an international business is broken down into straight up actionable advice.

Welcome everyone to the Global from Asia podcast. Happy holidays and year end wrap up season. Mike, how are you holding up?

I’m good, Lisa, but honestly, every December I feel this same pressure wave hit me. My coach Alex called me out. He said, Mike, this is your annual recurring theme. So I’m working on giving myself and the team more grace. We’re actually doing incredible things.

Exactly. It’s easy to zoom in on the mistakes, but we forget the wins and hey, I’m sitting here co-hosting with you. That’s a win. Right.

100% you, the team, the community, huge wins. And we have some really fun episodes coming in 2026, so stay [00:01:00] tuned for that. But today’s episode is extra special. Lisa, I recorded this one literally on a yacht in Phuket, Thailand during the Cross-Border Mastermind.

A yacht. That’s next level. Who’s the guest?

First time attendee and absolute Software and Systems wizard Danan Coleman. We went deep on 2026 trends. New tools blowing up right now. AI automation that’s actually profitable tariff strategies and what eight figure sellers are quietly building behind the scenes.

Okay, I’m jealous. Let’s roll the interview and stick around after, because we’ll show some video footage from the Phuket Villa Mastermind and Cross-Border Summit 2025.

[00:02:00] All right. We’re here at the Cross Border Mastermind of Phuket 2025 with Danan Coleman. Woo eCom Triage. This is a cool podcast on a yacht, so—

It’s epic. How you doing? Good, man. Thanks for having me here, especially here. And if you guys could see the round, the other side, what we’re seeing. Can you switch it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is where we’re podcasting from right now.

Yeah, so we just went to Banana Island in Phuket an hour to go fishing. So between fishing and island, we’re gonna do a podcast. Yeah. Great. And, uh, so yeah, it was a really pleasure to have you come out to Thailand from the US and share with us at the cross border Summit. Yep. And then to hear at the mastermind.

[00:03:00] Yeah. It was my first time legitimately going up on stage with a presentation and speaking, and that was—I was a little nervous to begin with, but you know, then I got a lot more comfortable with it. I engaged with the crowd a lot more and it became a lot easier for me, you know?

Yeah. No, we all were, I mean, you had said it was your first time and we were, it definitely didn’t feel like it, it was really, really cool. You were talking about, you know, catalog management and dealing with review management and things like that. So it was really practical. People were taking good notes and getting insights for their businesses and their Amazon.

Yeah. And I got some good questions too, which was nice. Like, I always like to have whoever I’m talking to engage with me, you know? Okay. Um, I didn’t see what the end result was, but when you were doing the poll for Best speaker, I was in fourth at one. Yeah. Fourth place. Yeah. Is that where I ended?

[00:04:00] I think we could double check, but yeah, it was fourth, fifth in that range. Yeah. I think people like the practicality, you know, you kept it real.

Yeah, yeah. I really wanted to bring value, you know? ‘Cause there’s a lot of people that just can give data, but I wanted mine to be actionable, so I really tried to give enough data for the action to be important, you know, so, we’ll see. I, it’s like I said, it’s my first time and I’m hoping I deliver that.

No, we’ve, like I said, it was one of the top rated speeches and. So what are some things you’re seeing in the space now?

Well, I’m actually seeing quite a few new agencies and softwares coming into the space. There’s a couple that, you know, there’s ones coming into the space that are delivering the same results, but a little better. Or the, I mean, the same service or software, but a little better with AI attached. And that’s gonna be good, but the things that I’ve got my eye out for are like game changers. And there’s a couple that I’ve found. [00:05:00] Uh, one of them is Source Ready. Uh, there’s actually—the guy that started this, freaking genius. It’s the chat GPT of sourcing. Oh, got it. And you can literally go, Hey, I want whoever manufactured the iPhone to manufacture something else for me. And because like, um, Import Yeti and what’s—I forget—Import Genius is one I think of, but basically all the bill of ladings and the records and yeah, imported into the system. Oh, it’s all of the manufacturers from like thomas.net and Alibaba and India Mart, and as well as—you told me 40% of the manufacturers that are in there are nowhere to be found on any of these platforms because he’s third generation manufacturing and sourcing.

Oh, nice. Yeah. So he built this to solve his own problems and build his own database. That’s, yeah. So see the value of that. Yeah. So anyhow, he built a page just for Amazon sellers and, [00:06:00] uh, another one is called Swapped, S-W-A-P-T. Where he’s doing a unique QR code, uh, you know, with transparency, you have to have a serial number for every single item, right? This is a QR code for every single item, and it puts the customer onto a flow that you can track that specific client, that product, and the long and the short of it is, without going into the details, is that it results in roughly a doubling of your organic reviews on Amazon. Okay? So it’s completely compliant. He’s got documentation from Amazon saying, yep, this is totally fine to do. And he even gives you exactly the steps—if someone signs up with him, he gives you exactly what steps and what to send Amazon to get a written communication from them connected to your seller central account. This system that is being used is completely compliant. Okay. So those are the things that I’m looking out for. And so those two guys, I’m just helping them push out. [00:07:00] Yeah. I have no affiliation with them. I’m just like, this is amazing. But anyhow, so that’s what I’m seeing in the market is kind of an AI version of the same old, but a couple of really shining stars coming up.

Yeah, I agree. I mean, yeah. We’re wrapping up 2025, right? The summit. This mastermind we’re getting into, uh, you know, Q4’s wrapping up. I mean, I think, is it Amazon next year? I mean, we are, I heard a lot about TikTok shops, you know, I’m still Amazon only mostly, but—

Yeah, I mean, I’m a hundred percent Amazon. TikTok shop is—my observation is that they’re going so hard that I don’t think they’re gonna fail. Others have failed like Walmart, like they did really—for as big as they are, as many people that they could have and have gotten connected to in the Amazon space, they did an atrocious job, you know?

[00:08:00] Yeah. I had calls with them too. Yeah.

Yeah. And I sat down with them a couple of, on a couple of occasions. They’re like, yeah, we want this, that, and the other. I’m like, you can’t produce for us, so like you—Yeah. Anyhow, it’s unfortunate because they are a behemoth, you know?

Yeah. But yeah. I haven’t seen much on the .com and I guess if you get into retail, that’s a different story, but the online seems to not be—yeah, not to be worth the juice worth the squeeze.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Decades ago, I actually used to go door to door to Walmart and sell them glitter on the screen. I would—yeah, I would bring a—I’d call ’em up, I’d set an appointment with the manager over the swimwear space. I would bring a display, I’d set it up, I’d say, this is what you get, this is what you do. This is what the sales are in other, these other stores. And they go, yeah, cool. I’ll buy it. Nice. And so they buy it on the spot and then we’d get the repeat purchases.

[00:09:00] Yeah. I mean, it seems like a lot of people dream to sell to Walmart retail.

Uh, yeah. I mean, there’s Walmart, there’s Costco, there’s Sam’s Club. Um, in Europe, there’s Tesco’s. I think that you have to be prepared for contractually what to expect with those big retailers.

I’ve heard the complaints, like they can send back inventory. Like, I don’t know, like months, months later they can just send it right back to you. Yeah. If they want to.

Yeah. Or yeah. I think also on returns. Like, all right, well, we’re not paying you for a return. That’s what, that was one of them. Eat it on returns as well. I don’t know for sure. I’ve not seen a contract, but that’s what I’ve heard from some people.

So you’re making me think. Maybe it’s TikTok and Amazon. It seems like the two, right?

[00:10:00] Yeah. TikTok, Amazon and Shein and Temu are going. Really? Yeah. There’s always some Temu contact talking to me. Yeah. I was just, uh, saw them and, oh, we are rocking here. Yeah, you didn’t say anything about a podcast or seasickness, but you know, you’ve got these two that are going hardcore trying to attract sellers, you know, offering super low fees and stuff like that. I don’t know, like the Chinese do business in such a different way than the rest of us.

There were some protests with Temu’s Chinese sellers rating Temu because they had a huge flooding of returns. I think it was like a year ago. But they would just not pay them. They just netted it off, like you said, like Walmart. They just netted off returns and then the smaller sellers were really upset.

I bet. Yeah. Yeah. And if they tried to pull that with the American markets or the European markets, it wouldn’t work. You know what I mean? So anyhow, I am cautiously optimistic that we will find more networks that offer a 15% increase on sales. [00:11:00] You know, like, I don’t know if you’ve heard of Rivoli, have you heard of Rivoli? No. They’re—so a couple of former Amazon sellers, well, they’re still actually Amazon sellers. They’re trying to solve the problems that Amazon gives to sellers today. And, um, you know, their review system is like, uh, can’t remember exactly how it is, and they changed it a couple of times, but you get benefits by leaving reviews, like well-written reviews. It’s kinda like Google’s system with Google Local Guides. Yeah. So it’s a system like that where you get benefits by leaving well-written reviews and stuff like that. So, you know, that’s like, uh—I think that’s what ruined Amazon was the review manipulation system. And that’s what they were trying to—

[00:12:00] Sort around. And I remember, I remember launching, used to be like giveaway tons of free products. Yeah. Like 2016, 2017. Yes. Snagshout. Yeah. But then that got wiped out in, I don’t know, 2017, 18, maybe. 2018. Yeah. But, uh, yeah, we have fishing going on here, so. Awesome.

Anyhow. Yeah, I think that’s—you know, like maybe we can get to, uh, we’re gonna get to some fishing here, but it was a pleasure to have you here in Thailand. Absolutely. It was fun. We will put some, also some highlights from the summit and also some things we’ve learned after this. But it would be cool to get a little, you know, catch you in person before you go back to the States on the show. Maybe this will end up being a podcast travel video where you can overlay—

The audio to some of our posts, some clips. Yeah, let’s put some clips on this. Okay. That sounds like a plan. We’ll, it’s lifestyle, right? I think the other point is, we have to enjoy, like, [00:13:00] we work so hard, you gotta do these kind of team building, you know, networking and action together. So let’s, we’ll add some footage after this so you can watch some of this. So thanks everybody for tuning in today. We’re gonna try to catch some fish for dinner. Cheers. Bye everyone.

All right. We’re at the, well the end of the trip, but the beginning of his, what, one of five flights now?

Yeah. So yeah, five flights, about 51 hours to get home. I, well, I hope it was worth it. We loved having you here. Yeah. It was a real pleasure.

Yeah, it was awesome, man. One, it’s a community I’ve never had any access to before, so that’s awesome. It’s real close knit, basically a bunch of expats in one location that are, you know, a community. Yeah. Um, and then two, I got to see Thailand too, and during Loy Krathong as well, which was really, really cool.

[00:14:00] Awesome man. Well, uh, yeah, well we have the first clip on the yacht and then we’ll put some footage. We have some footage now of some of the experiences and, uh, yeah, really, again, we couldn’t believe it was your first time speaking. Definitely. If you’re an event organizer, have Danan come to your event. It was awesome to have you there. And your presence and your approachability and friendliness was really, really cool.

Yeah, thanks. I really try to just be there to help. Whoever, whatever, doesn’t matter to me. Awesome. As long as I can help you. If I can’t help you, then I’ll try to help you by passing you off to somebody else that I think can, but yeah, it’s, that’s my thing. I like to help people.

Great. And you, yeah, definitely see it. Feel it. And ecomtriage.com, right? Yeah. And reach out to Danan and his team for review help, catalog management. Also, you’re starting to help other softwares, like we mentioned on the interview.

[00:15:00] Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, a couple of softwares and services have come my way that I think are going to be game changers for the e-com community. So, uh, I’ll wait to—I brought it up in our meeting, but, uh, yeah, I think that one of them is gonna help double the, well help increase the number of organic reviews that you get. And then the other one is like the chat GPT of sourcing products. Freaking incredible tool. Yeah. So I’m really excited, but I need a little bit of social proof from my network first before I really go out there and push it. Sure, sure. I’m excited—

Excited to hear more. Yeah, absolutely. Alright, take care everybody. Peace.

Wow. Recording on a yacht. I think we’ve officially peaked. Huge thanks to Danan Coleman for joining Mike out on the water.

Absolutely it is fire.

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