Newbie E-Commerce

[MoneyDoc]

Hey guys,

So I've got some bad news, I don't think this business is going to work out. I was very naive in thinking I could compete with the big guys. So it's time to close up shop, it's better to move on quickly then to try to make it work and waste more money. And for those wondering my product was mini fridges. I think this thread will still serve as a great starting point for those looking to start ecommerce. I know I've already inspired a couple people and I hope it keeps on inspiring people; learn from my mistakes.

Here's what I've learned from this business:
-Don't compete with the big guys (walmart, bestbuy)
-Research your product immensely before starting, don't get lured in by the thought of how much money you can be making
-Have a kick-a$$ USP, provide REAL value.
-Adwords is a good way to test if people will buy
-Just because you get leads doesn't mean people will buy
- Me-too dropshipping is dead
-What matters most to people is PRICE
-Don't give up if your first business fails

Now it's back to the drawing board, I'm also going to read the book again just to refresh my memory.

That's the spirit.

Keep it up Ben!

 

[dochustle]

Hey guys,

So I've got some bad news, I don't think this business is going to work out. I was very naive in thinking I could compete with the big guys. So it's time to close up shop, it's better to move on quickly then to try to make it work and waste more money. I think this thread will still serve as a great starting point for those looking to start ecommerce. I know I've already inspired a couple people and I hope it keeps on inspiring people; learn from my mistakes.

Here's what I've learned from this business:
-Don't compete with the big guys (walmart, bestbuy): Compete with them, just find a differentiator. Walmart's not going to give the customer the personal touch you can, for example. Everyone starts small.. expand from there.
-Research your product immensely before starting, don't get lured in by the thought of how much money you can be making: Do this by taking to customers and validating your business before doing anything. Sitting down for coffee with 15-20 potential customers before you build anything will save you time and money in the long run
-Have a kick-a$$ USP, provide REAL value.
-Adwords is a good way to test if people will buy: Know where your customer is now. Where do they hang out? Where can you find them? Go to these places and get feedback.
-Just because you get leads doesn't mean people will buy
- Me-too dropshipping is dead
-What matters most to people is PRICE: Not if you provide enough value. Solve a real pain point in their life and price becomes a non-issue
-Don't give up if your first business fails

Now it's back to the drawing board, I'm also going to read the book again just to refresh my memory.

Learn from your mistakes and apply it to your next venture. Best of luck.

 

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[early riser]

My reason for saying price was because when there are a bunch of similar products competing against each other, people will normally pick the one with the lowest price.

That is true and they may shop accordingly, however even when deciding on the lowest price item, it still comes down to they think that what they are buying is worth more than what they are paying.

Interestingly enough convenience store type items sometimes have the highest margin and they are able to get away with it. Even though it may just be pennies here and there they make it off of volume.
That is because you put way less thought into that when buying over a major purchase.

 

[AlterJoule]

@Silverhawk851 has several great resource posts.
Here is one, https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...-250-sites-to-help-you-make-more-money.52034/

I also believe I have some Adword and Bing advertising credits. Let me look for those and I'll shoot them your way so you can continue tweaking. I don't think you're anywhere near finished testing this out. Keep going. I'll be in touch.

 

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[Deleted2BB3x9]

I just submitted my certification of incorporation with Corporations Canada, I should hear back soon if it gets approved.

 

[Vick]

Do you have your product ?

 

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[Deleted2BB3x9]

Well I just received my certification of incorporation so now all I have to get is a business number, then i'm going to contact the distributors, they're are a lot of brands though, how many samples should I request?

Edit: Unless you meant do I have my product in my niche? My niche is actually just a product with many different models.

 

[Deleted2BB3x9]

It's already done lol, but I get what you're saying, I just wanted to get my corp registered in case the distributors asked, but I guess I could have contacted them before, anyway that's what i'm doing right now.

When you say get the product what do you mean? Is it so I can start taking pictures and making product videos? The only problem I see so far with my product is the massive amount of models available.They're are over 50 distributors and most of them have about 20+ models.

 

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[Deleted2BB3x9]

Thanks for the tip, after I finish emailing the distributors I'll have some margins, and my cpc is 0.76¢.

It does have competition but no site is dedicated specifically to this one product, the competition is mostly big box stores (walmart, bestbuy, etc.) they're are also some niche sites (big store with many types of products) who sell them but they don't rank very high.

I'm confident it will sell, i've also done some research on ebay by just watching some auctions, most of the products were sold in under a week, so there is demand.

 

[Deleted2BB3x9]

The only things i'm worried about so far are the margins and the vast amount of models.

 

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[Deleted2BB3x9]

Anyway, so I just sent some emails to the big companies in my niche using biophase's email script. There's a lot of distributors so I just contacted the main companies and if they say no, I have an entire list of alternatives.

 

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[Bowden]

Why incorporate when you don't even know how to get samples?

Not trying to be harsh, just trying to understand your process here.

 

[Deleted2BB3x9]

Well in Canada you can't get an llc so the only limited liability structure is a corporation, and I just figured I would go ahead and get all the legal stuff done first.

In bio's thread he says you need a business license, so I wanted to get one before contacting the distributors, instead of contacting them then finding out I need one.

Everything is taken care of, now I just need to wait for a distributor to reply to me.

Edit : Just wanted to mention I haven't registered for an HST permit yet or an import/export license, I'll get those taken care of later.

You only need a tax permit once your store is making more than 30,000$ a year.

 

[Deleted2BB3x9]

If anybody else has any questions, feel free to ask.

 

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[Deleted2BB3x9]

I just got my first reply from a distributor, and guess what he asked for? More specific company information.

Looks like registering the business first paid off.

 

[AlterJoule]

What exactly did you do to verify limited quality competition and yet high customer desire? What analytics have you used to validate an actual need? Also does Canada REQUIRE all of this paperwork just to get your hands on a product in order to try and sell and validate a need?

 

[Deleted2BB3x9]

Well for checking competition I just did a google search for my keywords, there is competition but there is no site specifically tailored to this product. (I actually did find a competitor later on but it was while searching for distributors, it also has very low links and a pagerank of 0, so I'm not worried about it.)

I found the desire by using google's keyword planner, there's 100,000+ searches a month but that's not really enough to verify so I checked out ebay to see if people were actually buying. I would just watch the auctions (see how many auctions there are) and see how fast they would sell (most models sold in under a week).

I haven't really done much analytics yet but it's a real need. I don't want to say too much as it could compromise my niche but it's useful for people with apartments.

And about the paperwork, I'm not really sure, you don't need one if you want to start an online business but distributors require it so you'll probably end up having to register.

 

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[Deleted2BB3x9]

So I like your idea, I should do a real validation before fully investing into this. But how would I setup the pop up?

 

[Deleted2BB3x9]

I know getting the legal stuff done first was very "Wantrepreneurish" but I think I had a valid reason. I anticipated that distributors would ask for company info, and they did.

I am making progress, and still learning at the same time. Tommorow I'm going to call a distributor who contacted me, first thing in the morning. I'm already starting to see a change in my mindset, I've still got a long way to go, but I am dedicated.

 

[Deleted2BB3x9]

I just figured out why my landing page wasn't converting so well, I changed the name of my wufoo form so the link for the button was redirecting to a missing page. Instapage said I have 120 vists and 115 clicked on the button! That's a 95.8% conversion! But wufoo was only saying 20 people had visited the form so I figured something was up. I'm gonna give it a few more days so I can actually get some good data. Also as I type this I already got another lead!

 

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[Deleted2BB3x9]

Yeah I know, I was mainly trying to get beginners hyped up, but after I fixed my stupid error I started getting leads up the wazoo! I got 10 leads already and 69 pageviews for my form, so my conversion rate so far is 14.49%. What's an average conversion rate for lead generation?

If I would have found my mistake sooner I would have probably had another 15 leads by now. But anyway, i'll see what happens if I switch the text on the button to "Buy now". Also how many leads do you require before you consider a niche profitable?

Edit: So after switching the text on the button I got another lead, so I believe people are interested in buying.

 

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[Deleted2BB3x9]

Another update : Do you remember that first business call I made today? Well, I chickened out. The first time I was put on hold then got so nervous that I hung up, so then I called again and spoke to a "gatekeeper", it was pretty aukward but I managed to get the number for a representative for Ontario.

I still haven't called him, just because I don't really know what to say. So I started googling a bunch of stuff and came across some GREAT videos about calling on the phone, the guy is from warrior forum. I know a lot of beginners struggle with making business calls ( like me ) so I decided to post this, he says it's natural to feel that way, calling is a skill and can be learned just like any other skill.

Cold Calling:

Cold Calling Scripts:

I also wrote down my own script that i'm gonna use for all my calls. It goes like this :

Hey (name), is this a bad time to talk? (Name) I appreciate that, let me take a quick minute and tell you why I called. I'm Ben, from blablabla.com, my store will specifically sell blabla. I believe my customers would love your products and your brand. Would you be interested in expanding your distribution channels?

Then i'm going to follow up with the questions I posted earlier. And I AM gonna call tomorrow, tomorrow is the day I man up! I hope some of you find this post useful [emoji1].

 

[Deleted2BB3x9]

So I just made the call, but he didn't even pick up, so I left a message. Hopefully I hear back from him soon.

I'm also starting to get a lot of emails back from distributors, however some of the ones I contacted do not dropship to Canada. Also it looks like I'm going to need to register for more stuff like a business bank account and a DUNS number.

 

[Deleted2BB3x9]

Also an update about my landing page : It looks like most of my leads are coming from foreign countries, mainly india. I haven't got a lead from Canada yet and only one from the US.

And about my stats, my conversion rate just keeps climbing, I'm up to 15.87% right now, I have 20 leads and 126 pageviews for my form.

 

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[Deleted2BB3x9]

Yes I do, I'm setting up a fedex account right now. I have also contacted a distributor who will allow me to import without any minimums, and that will dropship in the US.

Now I'm just waiting for them to provide me with their product/pricing and sign up forms. I'm probably gonna import from this distributor, as they don't offer shipping to Canada or internationally.

For my landing page, I'll let it go a few more days internationally then target Canada and US to make sure my sales don't all come from india.

 

[Deleted2BB3x9]

I just finished signing up for a dropshipping program with one of my distributors! Now I just need to upload my products and write my descriptions, then I can start selling. However this distributor only dropships to the US. Should I launch my store with only one brand?

 

[Deleted2BB3x9]

I've decided switch the targeting for my landing page from international to US and Canada. That way I can see if it would be worth starting in the US and Canada or if I should just start exporting to India.

My stats for international are 48 leads and 310 pageviews for my wufoo form. (15.48%) This costs me about 140$ so I believe that this product could sustain paid advertising, if one of my leads makes a purchase then the cost of advertising will be covered.

So far I've got 2 leads from Canada and 1 from the US.

 

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[DKNJ]

So I got my pricing list from my distributor, the margins are looking good! I can double my money on almost every model! But after calculating shipping, I don't think it's worth importing, I would only be left with a 200$ profit.

I'm going to see if I can find a distributor from Canada instead, or one that dropships to Canada. That way my overhead won't be so expensive.

$200 profit per drop ship transaction doesn't sound bad at all. Lol.

 

[Deleted2BB3x9]

Not per transaction, per 10 transactions. I forgot to mention that. I would have had 200$ profit after shipping. That would have been if I were importing though. I've decided to just contact manufactuers from India directly instead. (My biggest market.) As recommended by AlterJoule. Thanks man!

I also received another email from a manufactuer, I scheduled a follow up call with him tomorrow at 3:30. I'm going to use AlterJoule's script instead of my previous one.
So far I've been in contact with 9 manufactuers, and I've signed up for a dropshipping program with 3.

The reason I haven't been posting a lot is because I've been pretty busy, I've been reading a lot on copywriting lately. To try and figure out how to write some good descriptions for my products. I've also got a question : How would I write descriptions for various models of basically the same product? Do all my descriptions have to be different?

 

[Deleted2BB3x9]

I just got another reply back! This manufactuer doesn't dropship to Canada but they are offering to ship me samples. The samples are the same price as my dealer cost. I'll probably only order one. For those experienced : How many samples do you normally get from each manufactuer?

 

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