Ask me about Ecommerce

**Luke12321** · Apr 26th, 2012, 09:26 PM

Originally Posted by biophase

I would look up the names of the furniture that you want to include and email or call them up. I would stick with US based companies. Aren't most of them based in North Carolina?

Most are based around the area of High Point, NC. I really don't know much about them, but just driving in this area, they are a ton of outlet stores, ect. It may be the best place to get a factory direct connection within the US though. I do know that over the past decade or so, this industry as taken a serious beating as China has taken over the furniture game for the most part.

**Qjet50** · Apr 30th, 2012, 12:04 AM

Originally Posted by biophase

Starting An Online Business When Your Wife Wants To Stay At Home With The Kids | MyWifeQuitHerJob.com

I've read his stuff and it's pretty good. In fact, his story is exactly like mine but he is probably a year behind me. I'm sure he will be moving to an office soon for his business.

Steve Chou of that website is interviewed here. He talks about starting his website and some of the issues he has faced as a start-up business.

**Joehenny** · Apr 30th, 2012, 03:26 AM

I'd love to start ecommerce as a side income. I have experience with ebay, but no clue where o start with e-commerce. Any books or sites I could be linked to would be greatly appreciated.

**Dan Da Man** · Apr 30th, 2012, 11:50 PM

Originally Posted by Joehenny

I'd love to start ecommerce as a side income. I have experience with ebay, but no clue where o start with e-commerce. Any books or sites I could be linked to would be greatly appreciated.

I know there is some stuff from Andy Jenkins but its pretty outdated. Its really basic stuff though too.

Most of the stuff I learned has been 2 years, 12 hours a day 7 days a week and many many failures.

Really, as long as you know some basic stuff which this thread kind of gives you what you need to get going, your gna just have to start researching and start creating a site and start learning SEO.

**biophase** · May 2nd, 2012, 05:00 PM

Thought this might help you guys out also.

How to make your shopping cart suck less - The Oatmeal

**Fisherman** · May 2nd, 2012, 05:11 PM

Do you think it is better focus one one store and put everything in to it or open 100 little stores or something in between.

Also regarding cost of advertising for your stores... if you do spend money on advertising campaigns that is. when you spend a dollar what do you expect to see in return. I am not asking for your methods but just like to know if advertising costs turn an actual profit or do you depend on repeat business.

**Pinnacle** · May 2nd, 2012, 05:18 PM

Originally Posted by biophase

Thought this might help you guys out also.

How to make your shopping cart suck less - The Oatmeal

Wow.

Straight from the koala's mouth.

**biophase** · May 2nd, 2012, 05:39 PM

Originally Posted by Fisherman

Do you think it is better focus one one store and put everything in to it or open 100 little stores or something in between.

If you focus on a razor sharp niche you can get sales faster. The downside is that you have a limited ceiling.

If you go with one big store, you will be more diluted in the beginning and it will be harder to rank for everything, but your upside is greater.

Logistically, managing 100 little stores is alot harder than managing one big store.

I think that if you look into the future, you will always wish that you had one big store instead of a ton of tiny ones. However, if you look at now to 6 months from now, you will wish you had a tighter niched stores.

**biophase** · May 2nd, 2012, 05:40 PM

Originally Posted by Fisherman

Also regarding cost of advertising for your stores... if you do spend money on advertising campaigns that is. when you spend a dollar what do you expect to see in return. I am not asking for your methods but just like to know if advertising costs turn an actual profit or do you depend on repeat business.

I don't calculate my return on my ads. If fact I don't find them super profitable. But they do make money, but they just don't convert like my organic traffic does for the same keyword. I think that as long as you see a return, you should keep them running. I'm sure I could tweak my ads, but I generally run the same ads for months and months.

**NJDonny89** · May 3rd, 2012, 08:22 PM

Hey Biophase,

I really appreciate this topic, (I haven't been as active in the last few months due to university studies) but I was wondering what do you do to get suppliers. Like my strategy was to put a bunch of products on my website and then call the supplier and show them my site. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

**biophase** · May 5th, 2012, 11:36 AM

Originally Posted by NJDonny89

Hey Biophase,

I really appreciate this topic, (I haven't been as active in the last few months due to university studies) but I was wondering what do you do to get suppliers. Like my strategy was to put a bunch of products on my website and then call the supplier and show them my site. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

IMO getting suppliers should not really by a strategy. Remember it's all about creating value. If you are targeting a niche where your supplier has an online retail store and ranks on the first page they have no incentive to supply you. All you are going to do is dilute their retail sales. It will be tough to get a supplier like this to dropship for you.

You would have to offer a new channel to them, maybe you also sell on ebay or amazon or increase their brand awareness.

But if you can find someone who has a shitty online store or no retail presence, then you can provide value by offering them a ton of new sales. Sometimes a supplier like this will be reluctant to supply you. But if you just began your store and began ordering things from them every week they will probably come around. Everyone likes money.

**GlobalWealth** · May 5th, 2012, 12:07 PM

Originally Posted by biophase

Thought this might help you guys out also.

I laughed for a solid 10 minutes reading this.

**mrbusines** · May 8th, 2012, 05:11 PM

Biophase in your opinion is it better to have multiple sites under one holding llc , or creating a separate llc for each site.

**evanwebb** · May 9th, 2012, 10:13 AM

Originally Posted by biophase

I make over $100k per month running Drop-Ship product websites (proof inside).. AMAA : IAmA

Was this someone on this forum? Anybody know?

Just curious.

**Dan Da Man** · May 9th, 2012, 12:17 PM

Hey Biophase. If you get a chance to hit me up I would greatly appreciate it. I own about 5 stores and just seeing if I could run some things off you..

One of my main issues is finding the right products to sell. Some stores the products sell so good and while others just don't sell so great. Haven't really figured it out.

**biophase** · May 9th, 2012, 02:43 PM

Originally Posted by mrbusines

Biophase in your opinion is it better to have multiple sites under one holding llc , or creating a separate llc for each site.

I don't see the need for multiple LLCs unless you think you have some liability in some of the products that you sell. If you sold knives and blankets, you might want to separate them into separate LLCs.

**biophase** · May 9th, 2012, 02:47 PM

Originally Posted by Dan Da Man

Hey Biophase. If you get a chance to hit me up I would greatly appreciate it. I own about 5 stores and just seeing if I could run some things off you..

One of my main issues is finding the right products to sell. Some stores the products sell so good and while others just don't sell so great. Haven't really figured it out.

Hi Dan, unfortunately right now I don't have much time to answer individual personal questions, which is why I created this thread. You never know how a product will perform until you try it out. Even if you have search numbers, they don't always correlate with how a store performs.

I think that once you get good at putting up stores and basic SEO and even PPC, you can easily put up trial stores in many niches and get an idea fast on which ones will do well. Then you close up the crappy ones and really work on the good ones.

**Dan Da Man** · May 9th, 2012, 11:32 PM

Yeah thats what I am thinking.

Another question I had was how do you do your phone system. Do you use one common number for all stores or do you use a call forwarding type system?

And I have been thinking of adding my products to shopping engines. Have you ever done this and if you have, any tips on how this works?

Thanks for answering my initial question

**GlobalWealth** · May 11th, 2012, 07:32 AM

Originally Posted by mrbusines

Biophase in your opinion is it better to have multiple sites under one holding llc , or creating a separate llc for each site.

You can use a series LLC if you really want to segregate.

**Stayer** · May 13th, 2012, 08:38 PM

biophase, what content management system do you use for your stores? I like it how every product has its own url with keywords in it and how simple the design is.