Taking multi-million dollar jewelry business to the next level

[MrSeth]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post on the forum. It has been a wealth of knowledge for me!

This is my first time putting our business plan in front of others. Though I am pretty confident about what we are doing, I also know that there is a ton that I don’t know. This is only a very general overview of our plan. If you want to know any specifics, feel free to ask.

My wife and I have a jewelry business. I have a plan for the next stage of our business, and I wanted to put it out there for critiques/advice. Though we have seen some success, we aren’t even close to tapping the true potential of our product in the target market.

I will be a bit vague about our markets/product, for obvious reasons.

Our Business
We sell high-end jewelry, ranging from $500 to $500,000+. In 2014 our revenues were about $3,500,000. We have been building the business for about 5 years. None of this revenue has come via the internet. It is all from doing private shows, trade shows, visiting clients, selling from out office, etc.

Almost every piece that we sell is one-of-a-kind. We don’t buy from manufacturers. We buy from auctions, estate sales, wholesalers, public, etc. We also have access to dozens of wholesalers who will give us any amount of jewelry to broker, and basically sell as our own. We have built a lot of of trust in the industry. This would allow us to have hundreds of unique items online.

The Next Step
Currently almost all of our business is done in a foreign market. My wife was born in the region and speaks the language, which has been a major advantage. We travel there regularly and do various shows, and through that we have amassed a strong following of customers there.

There is a huge opportunity for us in this foreign market. There is a growing interest in the type of jewelry we deal in. The competition is very sparse. There are basically no online sites that sell this jewelry in the native language of the market.

My plan is to build an e-commerce site in the native language, selling our jewelry. I have a lot of background in Wordpress, and plan on setting up a WP site with WooCommerce. One of the reasons I want to use Wordpress is because I plan on having a ton of content on the site, and I know that WP is great for that. Also, I know WP inside out, which is a plus. I plan on hiring a developer to customize and clean up the site after it has grown. One of the sites I am referencing a lot is TheRealReal. They have been hugely successful for a number of reasons. I am working on analyzing their operations in detail.

With a little effort in content generation in the native language, it will be very easy to get a decent amount of organic traffic. I will also do a lot of PPC advertising, and the rest of the gamut. I am also going to pay a firm to run our SEO and SEM, and a lot of the social media.

One of the biggest obstacles is establishing trust. I have a whole plan around that.


Here is our N-E-C-S-T analysis. (I found this very helpful to write out)

NEED What need am I solving?

Providing xxxxx markets a trusted way to conveniently discover, learn about, and purchase xxxx type of jewelry. Trust is one of the major issues we have to solve.


ENTRY How crowded is this market? How high is the entry barrier?

It is very difficult to enter this market with this type of jewelry, for many reasons. It isn't a very crowded market at all.


CONTROL Are we in control of our business?

We own our business and make 100% of the decisions.


SCALE What is the scale & magnitude?

The scale and magnitude are both exceptional. The market is massive, and if we are successful online we can reach a lot of customers. The magnetite is also limitless. A lot of our customers start with buying a smaller piece from us (less than 20k), but start to buy bigger items. As an example of magnitude, we could sell a ring for $500k, with a profit of $80k. The more customers we reach, the more often we will make these types of sales.


TIME How much time do we need to put into the business on a daily basis? Can the business run itself at some point?

This is one of the sticking points, as we both need to work on sourcing the jewelry. Because we aren’t buying from a manufacturer, it is hard to have this be automated. However, because of our location and relationships, it is very easy to get merchandise. If we start to see real success, we will have people actively giving us items to sell.



Here are a few of my questions:

What are your general thoughts about the plan?
Are there any people on here with an expertise in selling luxury items online?
I am planning on using a woo commerce on wp for the reasons above. Any thoughts on this?
Any tips for establishing trust online, especially with such high ticket price items?


Thanks again for anyone who spends the time to read this and respond. And a big thanks to MJ!

 

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[Unknown]

You're way out of my league, but I just wanted to wish you luck.

I believe it will be hard to scale unless you can trust others to source the jewelry for you. I believe that will be the hardest part for you. The other difficult part is that I can't imagine someone paying $500k for a piece of jewelry without coming and seeing it first. Even a billionaire.

Both of these could be solved if you could train good employees though.

 

[MrSeth]

Good points Unknown. At some point, we would be able to hire others to source jewelry for us. We work very closely with a lot of people that are very knowledgable. We would only do this if we want very little daily work to do. At this point, it is quite enjoyable for us to be involved in sourcing inventory. As for the other comment, that is a good point as well. For those bigger pieces, the site serves as a marketing tool to connect us with buyers. For those types of sales, we often meet people in person.

Thanks!

 

[ZCP]

Build an email list of 'INSIDERS' clients. Target / retarget using email / FB / IG when a new piece arrives. Use video to 'show' the piece of jewelry in a 360 movie style flyby. Then link them to a landing page with description, price, and buy now button. Get the funnel up and going. Then worry about setting up the store as it only gets to the store after the INSIDERS have had a shot at buying / bidding on it.

Scarcity of product and a select group of buyers via online / email would be a great way to start. Then use that trust and cashflow to turn into Zales for your market.

 

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[csalvato]

You've done an awesome job. Truly inspiring!

I am not sure of the exact challenges you are facing. Maybe you can put them in a quick numbered list? That would help you get better feedback on the exact problems you need to overcome.

One thing I saw in your post was this: you have a hard time detaching your time - particularly from purchasing.

I highly recommend you start documenting the processes...particularly the ones you feel you can "never automate" or "never outsource". There IS someone else out there who loves X part of your business (say, purchasing or fulfillment) and they CAN do it even BETTER than you....for a "secure" salary and no risk.

When you document this process, you will see where the key decisions come in. Be as explicit as possible to make inclusion/exclusion criteria on the purchase. Then find someone who would LOVE to buy jewelry and is PASSIONATE about it and KNOWS A GOOD DEAL. I think many people can be trained on this -- I know this is something my wife would love to do.

When you have that level of detail and an impassioned employee, give them freedom to improve the process and the inclusion/exclusion criteria. Soon, you will BE IN THE WAY of this process, instead of be in control of it. Then you step aside.

You also seem to be tackling eCommerce. I would recommend you dive head first into ecommerce communities, including Amazing Selling Machine and Ecommerce Fuel. I haven't participated in these communities, but have heard good things about them.

 

[MrSeth]

Build an email list of 'INSIDERS' clients. Target / retarget using email / FB / IG when a new piece arrives. Use video to 'show' the piece of jewelry in a 360 movie style flyby. Then link them to a landing page with description, price, and buy now button. Get the funnel up and going. Then worry about setting up the store as it only gets to the store after the INSIDERS have had a shot at buying / bidding on it.

Scarcity of product and a select group of buyers via online / email would be a great way to start. Then use that trust and cashflow to turn into Zales for your market.

ZCP, thanks for the GREAT advice!

I think I can really leverage the scarcity/INSIDERS opportunity. That is one of the great things that TheRealReal has done. All of their items are also one of a kind, and they have an INSIDERS program that gives you access to the deals before everyone else does. I am also going to look into various ways of showing the jewelry, such as 3d views & video. Especially for the higher ticket price items, this is crucial. I love the idea of "Zales for our Market."

Actually it is interesting, about 4 years ago when we were just starting, we were talking with one of the biggest wholesalers in the world for our type of jewelry. He has always been an inspiration for us. He said, "You two can become a major bridge between x and y markets. Eventually you'll be doing 50 million in sales per year." When he said that, I had no idea how it could be done (though I liked the idea!). It wasn't until reading MJ's book that I changed my thinking. Now I see how it can be done.

Thanks again for the comment ZCP.

 

[MrSeth]

You've done an awesome job. Truly inspiring!

I am not sure of the exact challenges you are facing. Maybe you can put them in a quick numbered list? That would help you get better feedback on the exact problems you need to overcome.

One thing I saw in your post was this: you have a hard time detaching your time - particularly from purchasing.

I highly recommend you start documenting the processes...particularly the ones you feel you can "never automate" or "never outsource". There IS someone else out there who loves X part of your business (say, purchasing or fulfillment) and they CAN do it even BETTER than you....for a "secure" salary and no risk.

When you document this process, you will see where the key decisions come in. Be as explicit as possible to make inclusion/exclusion criteria on the purchase. Then find someone who would LOVE to buy jewelry and is PASSIONATE about it and KNOWS A GOOD DEAL. I think many people can be trained on this -- I know this is something my wife would love to do.

When you have that level of detail and an impassioned employee, give them freedom to improve the process and the inclusion/exclusion criteria. Soon, you will BE IN THE WAY of this process, instead of be in control of it. Then you step aside.

You also seem to be tackling eCommerce. I would recommend you dive head first into ecommerce communities, including Amazing Selling Machine and Ecommerce Fuel. I haven't participated in these communities, but have heard good things about them.

Thanks CSalvato for the kind words.

I will work on a list of all of the challenges we are facing. I've already got it in bits and pieces. As for the purchasing time, there are some good options for us. There are a handful of people I already know who we could hire. Many of them have a lot more experience than us. It is more the matter of growing the business enough to support their salary, which wouldn't be small. We could also offer them a commission on everything sold, which would be a massive motivator for them.

I am actively searching for information about eCommerce. I will definitely check out what you mentioned.

On a side note, I had a great conversation last night with an SEO/Online marketing firm that operates in the market/language we are targeting. They understand the consumers very well, and know the social media habits of them very well too. They have a lot of expertise in SEO. Many of their employees used to work for the major search engines, or ran the online marketing for major corporations.

Here is how their pricing works. They work on a monthly retainer.
SEO: $550 (includes all of the set up, key word research, competition research, etc.)
SMM: $500 (for the few major social media platforms the consumers use)
PPC: $1250 + 10% of spend

Their pricing seems very fair to me. I will probably start with them for SEO for a few months to get the site up and solid, and then start the SMM, and lastly PPC once we have a lot of inventory up, and the site is ironed out.

Thanks again for the feedback!!

 

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[csalvato]

Their pricing seems very fair to me.

Their pricing is very fair.

Many PPC agencies take 10% - 25% and their setup fees range from $500-$2000. If they know what they are doing, it will be worth it.

 

[nzerinto]

Here is how their pricing works. They work on a monthly retainer.
SEO: $550 (includes all of the set up, key word research, competition research, etc.)
SMM: $500 (for the few major social media platforms the consumers use)
PPC: $1250 + 10% of spend

(Disclaimer - I'm an SEO)

Make sure you get full details about exactly what work the company is doing on the SEO side of things. Cheaper outfits often can provide those rates because they are still doing SEO tactics that worked in 2009. If worse comes to worse, you want to be able to know exactly which links you should be removing....

 

[Unknown]

(Disclaimer - I'm an SEO)

Make sure you get full details about exactly what work the company is doing on the SEO side of things. Cheaper outfits often can provide those rates because they are still doing SEO tactics that worked in 2009. If worse comes to worse, you want to be able to know exactly which links you should be removing....

Do you think SEO is worth it for him nzerinto? I would think PPC and Social Media would be better outlets.

 

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[csalvato]

Do you think SEO is worth it for him nzerinto? I would think PPC and Social Media would be better outlets.

At $3.5M in sales I would say SEO should be a part of the strategy.

It's relatively cheap and a long term play that is ideal for established companies to supplement inbound traffic strategies.

 

[MrSeth]

Do you think SEO is worth it for him nzerinto? I would think PPC and Social Media would be better outlets.

I will definitely go heavy with PPC and Social. I do think there is a major opportunity with SEO and content marketing.

Here is the way I look at it: Imagine if tennis was starting to be popular in France, but there wasn't much online to read about tennis in the French language. If you had a tennis e-commerce store with a ton of great tennis content, all in French, with good SEO you could very easily get a lot of traffic. Especially as the sport got more popular in France.

That is the best way to describe it. I believe we have somewhat of a similar opportunity with our product/market.

 

[MrSeth]

(Disclaimer - I'm an SEO)

Make sure you get full details about exactly what work the company is doing on the SEO side of things. Cheaper outfits often can provide those rates because they are still doing SEO tactics that worked in 2009. If worse comes to worse, you want to be able to know exactly which links you should be removing....

Thanks for the advice. I will make sure to get those details. I do think that the price is lower than you would expect in the states, but primarily because that $500 is worth a lot more in their country than it is here in the states.

 

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[nzerinto]

Do you think SEO is worth it for him nzerinto? I would think PPC and Social Media would be better outlets.

SEO definitely should be in the mix, simply because the longer you disregard it, the longer it'll take to benefit from it. At the very least the site should be audited and setup correctly - saves a lot of time and hassle further down the track when things are more "entrenched".

Thanks for the advice. I will make sure to get those details. I do think that the price is lower than you would expect in the states, but primarily because that $500 is worth a lot more in their country than it is here in the states.

All the more reason to get specifics. If you are hiring from India/Pakistan/Sri Lanka/Philippines, the bulk of them are still offering services that are short term oriented, irrespective of the perceived high dollar value to their currency.

Feel free to PM me with their proposal/plan etc (you can remove specifics about your company/niche) and I can give you some comments or followup questions.

 

[MrSeth]

SEO definitely should be in the mix, simply because the longer you disregard it, the longer it'll take to benefit from it. At the very least the site should be audited and setup correctly - saves a lot of time and hassle further down the track when things are more "entrenched".



All the more reason to get specifics. If you are hiring from India/Pakistan/Sri Lanka/Philippines, the bulk of them are still offering services that are short term oriented, irrespective of the perceived high dollar value to their currency.

Feel free to PM me with their proposal/plan etc (you can remove specifics about your company/niche) and I can give you some comments or followup questions.

Hey I sent you a PM.

I definitely am not going the route of a cheap Indian company that does dodgy work. I've had bad experiences with Indian tech companies.

For this site, I really want to do things properly. The main thing I am saving cost on is setting up the WP/Woo, only because I can do that myself, and like having control over that aspect of it. At some point I will probably hire a developer to help clean up the site, reduce plugins, etc. once there is a lot more on the site and load time becomes an issue.

 

[Growth & Learn]

(Disclaimer - I'm an SEO)

Make sure you get full details about exactly what work the company is doing on the SEO side of things. Cheaper outfits often can provide those rates because they are still doing SEO tactics that worked in 2009. If worse comes to worse, you want to be able to know exactly which links you should be removing....

Yes, to everything @nzertino just said. There's a huge range of quality in the SEO industry. You have to be very careful who you hire because if you hire somebody who does what I call 'short term' SEO you're putting your future search engine rankings at risk.

Most SEO agencies are incentivized to create short term results so you'll keep hiring them. They want to quickly prove 'they've made a difference'. They'll take short cuts that may help now but severely hurt later. Quality SEO is a long game.

 

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[csalvato]

Most SEO agencies are incentivized to create short term results so you'll keep hiring them. They want to quickly prove 'they've made a difference'. They'll take short cuts that may help now but severely hurt later. Quality SEO is a long game.

Here are some things bad SEO companies will do that will completely destroy the value of your domain:

(I have seen high priced SEO consultants and SEO recovery consultants charge $10K+ for this info to big corporate companies, *so pay attention*)

1. Create 1000s of backlinks to your site on "low quality sites"
   1. This technique worked up until about 2012, but many SEO companies still do it. It can have a short term effect (rankings within 3 days to 30 days), but usually doesn't. It usually the opposite effect - making your site get deindexed and possibly never appearing on search again.
   2. It's possible to "fix" this in the future. But if they literally created hundreds of thousands of backlinks on thousands of domains (not an uncommon technique), this can be virtually impossible. These links take a day to create, and months to recover from.
2. Buy or create targeted links on "Private Blog Networks" (PBNs)
   1. A PBN is a series of expired domains that have been purchased by an SEO company and "repurposed" to look like they contain content about your niche.
   2. When done properly, 5-15 high quality PBN links can get you fast rankings...and you have control of the links.
   3. This can work in the short term. The site I just sold for well into 5 figures was ranked with PBNs.
   4. The problem is Google doesn't like it and has been taking steps to eradicate their use. Several of the bigger PBNs have been destroyed, and their algorithm is being improved CONSTANTLY to find new ways to detect PBNs and deindex sites that use them.
   5. If your SEO company is using PBNs, they should let you know. As soon as your site gets penalized for using a PBN (because it's just a matter of time), you should delete all backlinks on the PBN domains and disavow the links on Google. This takes about an hour, and will instantly help your site recover...not back to where it was, but at least to a good SEO position (since the time in high rankings has given you exposure, and hopefully more backlinks and social signals).

If you're hiring an SEO company, you should make sure they are operating more as a PR firm with key SEO related skills. They should do things like:

1. Restructure your site to be in the best possible structure for Google. This is currently believed to be Silo'd sites.
2. Make a convincing argument why your company is one that should be recognized by Wikipedia, so you can get an article on the site about your company, which will include links back to your site.
3. Go into a backlinking detection tool, like the Open Site Explorer, Majestic SEO or SEMRush and find where your competitors get backlinks. A good SEO company will contact the best links that your competitors are on (say, a page that lists all similar jewelry companies) and try to convince them to put a link to your site on their page.
4. Create press releases that will get picked up by media and include a link to your site. If you get picked up by CNN or NBC, for example, this will have a massive effect. Even if you only get picked up by small jewelry blogs, you will have an effect, as well.
5. Reach out to blogs, journalists and other influences in your niche (who can be found on BuzzSumo. They will try to convince the bloggers you deserve a guest post or to be featured. This includes the small guys (like Joe Blow's Jewelry Blog) and the big guys (like The GQ Eye)

Links generated by these techniques will ALWAYS be viewed as a positive thing by the Googles, and you will never experience penalties.

These are all techniques I have personally used, and a lot of the smaller companies in India, Pakistan, etc. can't do them effectively. There are language barrier issues, and usually issues with work ethic that prevent them from doing numbers 2, 4 and 5. That's also because #2, #4, and #5 all cost more than $500 to even implement.

IMHO, don't take your $3.5M in revenue and use it to get a shitty SEO company. You can use a company like that to implement numbers 1 and 3, but not 2, 4 and 5.

Use someone who has done all this stuff before and can print money for you...but it will be a longer game.

 

[nzerinto]

If you're hiring an SEO company, you should make sure they are operating more as a PR firm with key SEO related skills.

Use someone who has done all this stuff before and can print money for you...but it will be a longer game.

Solid info here. I've just highlighted what I think are the "utmost" crucial parts that can't be repeated often enough. Too many SEOs focus on quick return (because most clients demand it) - unfortunately the result is often a shoddy job. Kinda like with anything in life actually....

The best SEOs will look outside the box, and rather than "build" links, they'll be looking at ways to generate massive interest or engagement to the audience they are targeting. Can take days/weeks/months of planning, preparing and executing , but payoff can be equally massive.

 

[JasonR]

I skimmed your first post - congrats on the sales and success so far.

I'd suggest building your commerce site on something other than wordpress. For your sort of volume, I'm guessing there are a couple of better commerce solutions. You can always install Wordpress in a subdomain and run it that way.

Also, I would say screw the content marketing for now - your primary goal should be making sales from the website. I highly encourage you to explore paid traffic FIRST, and scale that, before diving into Content marketing (which can be a waste of time).

If you do have EXCELLENT content, I'd suggest working on that after you have paid traffic sales rolling - and see if you still have the desire to go that route. (In other words, F*ck SEO).

 

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[Andy Black]

screw the content marketing for now - your primary goal should be making sales from the website. I highly encourage you to explore paid traffic FIRST, and scale that, before diving into Content marketing (which can be a waste of time).

^^^ This.

... and I'd start with paid search.


What's better than low hanging fruit?

Apples that are already falling out of the tree!

Think of paid search as putting the basket under the tree to catch the apples already falling out of the tree.

If you shake the tree so more apples fall out of the tree (via all other marketing channels), it seems sensible to ALREADY have your baskets waiting under the tree doesn't it?


Plus you're also "buying data".


Your simplest first step into paid search would be to bid on your brand name.

 

[MrSeth]

You've done an awesome job. Truly inspiring!

I am not sure of the exact challenges you are facing. Maybe you can put them in a quick numbered list? That would help you get better feedback on the exact problems you need to overcome.

One thing I saw in your post was this: you have a hard time detaching your time - particularly from purchasing.

I highly recommend you start documenting the processes...particularly the ones you feel you can "never automate" or "never outsource". There IS someone else out there who loves X part of your business (say, purchasing or fulfillment) and they CAN do it even BETTER than you....for a "secure" salary and no risk.

When you document this process, you will see where the key decisions come in. Be as explicit as possible to make inclusion/exclusion criteria on the purchase. Then find someone who would LOVE to buy jewelry and is PASSIONATE about it and KNOWS A GOOD DEAL. I think many people can be trained on this -- I know this is something my wife would love to do.

When you have that level of detail and an impassioned employee, give them freedom to improve the process and the inclusion/exclusion criteria. Soon, you will BE IN THE WAY of this process, instead of be in control of it. Then you step aside.

You also seem to be tackling eCommerce. I would recommend you dive head first into ecommerce communities, including Amazing Selling Machine and Ecommerce Fuel. I haven't participated in these communities, but have heard good things about them.

You had asked about my challenges.

Here is a list of my biggest challenges.

• I need to better understand retail. I know there is a lot of strategy around sales, memberships, etc. It would be helpful to find some online resources where I can learn more.
• I also need to learn more about e-commerce sales strategy, all aspects of it.
• I need to understand the online shopping habits of the consumers in the market we are targeting. I found a firm that does very thorough consumer/market research. I am considering hiring them to do a report on the online shopping habits, what our major competition is, etc. This report would probably cost 5-10k.
• It would be helpful to find a mentor that understands e-commerce, especially as it relates to selling luxury items online.

 

[MrSeth]

Here are some things bad SEO companies will do that will completely destroy the value of your domain:

(I have seen high priced SEO consultants and SEO recovery consultants charge $10K+ for this info to big corporate companies, *so pay attention*)

1. Create 1000s of backlinks to your site on "low quality sites"
   1. This technique worked up until about 2012, but many SEO companies still do it. It can have a short term effect (rankings within 3 days to 30 days), but usually doesn't. It usually the opposite effect - making your site get deindexed and possibly never appearing on search again.
   2. It's possible to "fix" this in the future. But if they literally created hundreds of thousands of backlinks on thousands of domains (not an uncommon technique), this can be virtually impossible. These links take a day to create, and months to recover from.
2. Buy or create targeted links on "Private Blog Networks" (PBNs)
   1. A PBN is a series of expired domains that have been purchased by an SEO company and "repurposed" to look like they contain content about your niche.
   2. When done properly, 5-15 high quality PBN links can get you fast rankings...and you have control of the links.
   3. This can work in the short term. The site I just sold for well into 5 figures was ranked with PBNs.
   4. The problem is Google doesn't like it and has been taking steps to eradicate their use. Several of the bigger PBNs have been destroyed, and their algorithm is being improved CONSTANTLY to find new ways to detect PBNs and deindex sites that use them.
   5. If your SEO company is using PBNs, they should let you know. As soon as your site gets penalized for using a PBN (because it's just a matter of time), you should delete all backlinks on the PBN domains and disavow the links on Google. This takes about an hour, and will instantly help your site recover...not back to where it was, but at least to a good SEO position (since the time in high rankings has given you exposure, and hopefully more backlinks and social signals).

If you're hiring an SEO company, you should make sure they are operating more as a PR firm with key SEO related skills. They should do things like:

1. Restructure your site to be in the best possible structure for Google. This is currently believed to be Silo'd sites.
2. Make a convincing argument why your company is one that should be recognized by Wikipedia, so you can get an article on the site about your company, which will include links back to your site.
3. Go into a backlinking detection tool, like the Open Site Explorer, Majestic SEO or SEMRush and find where your competitors get backlinks. A good SEO company will contact the best links that your competitors are on (say, a page that lists all similar jewelry companies) and try to convince them to put a link to your site on their page.
4. Create press releases that will get picked up by media and include a link to your site. If you get picked up by CNN or NBC, for example, this will have a massive effect. Even if you only get picked up by small jewelry blogs, you will have an effect, as well.
5. Reach out to blogs, journalists and other influences in your niche (who can be found on BuzzSumo. They will try to convince the bloggers you deserve a guest post or to be featured. This includes the small guys (like Joe Blow's Jewelry Blog) and the big guys (like The GQ Eye)

Links generated by these techniques will ALWAYS be viewed as a positive thing by the Googles, and you will never experience penalties.

These are all techniques I have personally used, and a lot of the smaller companies in India, Pakistan, etc. can't do them effectively. There are language barrier issues, and usually issues with work ethic that prevent them from doing numbers 2, 4 and 5. That's also because #2, #4, and #5 all cost more than $500 to even implement.

IMHO, don't take your $3.5M in revenue and use it to get a shitty SEO company. You can use a company like that to implement numbers 1 and 3, but not 2, 4 and 5.

Use someone who has done all this stuff before and can print money for you...but it will be a longer game.

Thank you A LOT for all of that information. It is very helpful. I am evaluating a few different online marketing firms. I am definitely wanting to do this in a way that is long term. This isn't something that I don't want to skimp on. This is our long term business.

Thanks again for such a thorough post. I really appreciate the time you spent writing that all.

 

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[MrSeth]

I skimmed your first post - congrats on the sales and success so far.

I'd suggest building your commerce site on something other than wordpress. For your sort of volume, I'm guessing there are a couple of better commerce solutions. You can always install Wordpress in a subdomain and run it that way.

Also, I would say screw the content marketing for now - your primary goal should be making sales from the website. I highly encourage you to explore paid traffic FIRST, and scale that, before diving into Content marketing (which can be a waste of time).

If you do have EXCELLENT content, I'd suggest working on that after you have paid traffic sales rolling - and see if you still have the desire to go that route. (In other words, F*ck SEO).

Thanks for the advice Jason. Are there any other commerce solutions you can recommend? What aspect of Wordpress wouldn't be suitable. You mentioned volume, are you referring to raw traffic numbers? A media site I helped design, which runs on Wordpress, gets 10 million plus visitors per month. Aside from volume, are there any other ways to shy away from Wordpress/WooCommerce?

As for the marketing, I will probably try things simultaneously. Doing some paid search as well as growing a good pool of content. The paid search will allow me to get some traffic to the site and start seeing how the conversions work, etc.

Thanks!
Seth

 

[theag]

Thanks for the advice Jason. Are there any other commerce solutions you can recommend? What aspect of Wordpress wouldn't be suitable. You mentioned volume, are you referring to raw traffic numbers? A media site I helped design, which runs on Wordpress, gets 10 million plus visitors per month. Aside from volume, are there any other ways to shy away from Wordpress/WooCommerce?

As for the marketing, I will probably try things simultaneously. Doing some paid search as well as growing a good pool of content. The paid search will allow me to get some traffic to the site and start seeing how the conversions work, etc.

Thanks!
Seth

Wordpress isnt an ecommerce platform. A media site on wordpress can handle 10 million+ A DAY, but thats because its cached static content. With ecommerce you have more load on the server and wordpress simply isnt built for ecommerce.

That said, your business doesnt sound like it will do crazy high traffic volumes, but instead low but high quality traffic. So I think WordPress is decent place to start if you want to be able to customize. But I would also look at some "real" ecommerce platforms. I'm personally a big fan of Magento, but the learning curve is steep. The future of ecommerce platforms is most likely API-driven, so you might also look at tools like that. Something like http://www.commercetools.com/en/ But thats even more technical than Magento.

 

[Bila]

I have no technical knowledge to help you with but : a friend of mine owns 03 jewlery stores in Doha ( Qatar ) giving your volume and the price of items,my guess is that you share the same market.
1- He relies a lot on social media and celebrity endorsements.... The influence of social media is sooo big in this market ( If you can get Haifa Wahbe to wear one of your pieces, do it
2- E-commerce is a tool to go global and yes it works very well .....especially in the region, a lot of his high end costumers are from Jordan, Dubai, Abu-Dhabi ...thanks to his neat site ...my advice is to not go cheap with wordpress or whatever.

 

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[MrSeth]

I have no technical knowledge to help you with but : a friend of mine owns 03 jewlery stores in Doha ( Qatar ) giving your volume and the price of items,my guess is that you share the same market.
1- He relies a lot on social media and celebrity endorsements.... The influence of social media is sooo big in this market ( If you can get Haifa Wahbe to wear one of your pieces, do it
2- E-commerce is a tool to go global and yes it works very well .....especially in the region, a lot of his high end costumers are from Jordan, Dubai, Abu-Dhabi ...thanks to his neat site ...my advice is to not go cheap with wordpress or whatever.

Hi Bila,

Great information to read. Would you mind if I PM'ed you with some more specific questions? Actually, I am in a different market. Though similar!

Thanks!
Seth

 

[Bila]

Sure