Ask me anything about eCommerce (2012)

[mrbusines]

Probably wont affect him much as I dont think he uses google shopping, there making alot of changes to google shopping, over the next few weeks there converting it to adds that we have to pay for instead of it being a free service.

 

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[Dan Da Man]

There are always exceptions to every rule...

Well yes that is true. But you have to look at the psychology behind it. It's simple selling. Having your call to actions, visitors view sites in segments meaning they like to look at small chunks of text, etc.. Psychology should play a huge part in every e commerce site or any site that sells something.

Then again what works for one site mite not work for another because of different target market, different product, different everything. You should be testing 24/7 to figure out what is converting for you. I learned the hard way spending 6k on my first E-com site and realized that the best looks matter least

 

[biophase]

biophase,

I just came across this article - Google Shopping Censors All Gun, Ammo & Accessories Results and wondered how it will affect your business if at all?

Yes, Mr Busines is right. I don't use Google Shopping that much. It is also going to become like paid adwords in a few months so it doesn't affect me at all.

 

[wade1mil]

That sure as he!l looks like a Porsche Boxster to me...

Ouch. Add an additional digit in the hundred-thousand column. Ferrari 360

 

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[wade1mil]

Learning SEO is the best investment you can make if you’re going to be in the e-commerce business. 1000 keywords getting 25 hits each is usually better than five keywords getting 5000 hits each. Keep your PPC ads running as long as they’re profitable. Use eBay/Amazon for marketing. Offer high prices in hopes for brand awareness. Use Google keyword tool to find search volume, then look and see what the websites selling the stuff looks like. Start marketing from day 1. Do some web 2.0 link wheels, forum sigs and blog comments to get it started. The maybe some high PR blog posts or just high PR links, then some .edu.

Buy a domain and start a store, worry about LLC later on. Get a license if a supplier asks you for one. Stay out of saturated markets. First site will cost ~ $1k, $100 each additional. Must have toll-free number (forward to same number), SSL seal and clean looking site. Your domain should have your keyword in it with these specific sites. Make a store with a free BigCommerce 15-day trial and put some products in there if they require to see your store first.

Rather than having a selection of related products, just offer a single product per website. It will allow you to target specific keywords better. Manufacture and import products from Asia. Margins for dropshippers are usually 10% for medium store and 5% for large stores. Charging for shipping typically converts better than free shipping. Roughly 20% of checkouts use PayPal, 80% use credit cards through merchant account. Take your own photos and create your own descriptions for products. If you dropship and warehouse, keep a couple of each item in stock in case they order two products and pay for overnight shipping. Otherwise you may have to pay to ship two packages overnight.

Is that about right? I just wanted to say thank you.

 

[biophase]

Buy a domain and start a store, worry about LLC later on. Get a license if a supplier asks you for one. Stay out of saturated markets. First site will cost ~ $1k, $100 each additional. Must have toll-free number (forward to same number), SSL seal and clean looking site. Your domain should have your keyword in it with these specific sites. Make a store with a free BigCommerce 15-day trial and put some products in there if they require to see your store first.

Rather than having a selection of related products, just offer a single product per website. It will allow you to target specific keywords better. Manufacture and import products from Asia. Margins for dropshippers are usually 10% for medium store and 5% for large stores. Charging for shipping typically converts better than free shipping. Roughly 20% of checkouts use PayPal, 80% use credit cards through merchant account. Take your own photos and create your own descriptions for products. If you dropship and warehouse, keep a couple of each item in stock in case they order two products and pay for overnight shipping. Otherwise you may have to pay to ship two packages overnight.

Is that about right? I just wanted to say thank you.

That's a pretty damn good summary of the thread!

Except that margins for dropshippers are more like 20%. I'm not sure what you mean by medium or large stores and why the margins would be different if they were all dropshipping.

 

[wade1mil]

I'm not sure what you mean by medium or large stores and why the margins would be different if they were all dropshipping.

My mistake. You were referring to warehousing, when talking about how large companies typically have 1% margins but move a ton of product. Thanks again.

 

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[evanwebb]

Biophase,

Do you see a benefit to offering a sidebar or pop-up or landing page of some sort that makes recommendations to new visitors based on how they got to your site? Kind of like Amazon does with "viewers of this product also viewed..." Except the application to the e-commerce site would be, "Welcome from [site through which they clicked to get to your site] other people who came from that site liked these items, maybe you will too..."

Thanks,
EW

 

[JasonR]

I'm about to jump head first into a relatively small niche (still have thousands of products that serve that niche). The niche is underserved (only one somewhat major player in the game)...but there are hang ups to the niche. I'm not sure if I should jump head first or continue to do more research on it. Several manufacturers ONLY sell to pro shops (similar to high end golf shops), and all of the "widgets" need to be set up/tuned for the customer. I'm not sure where to go at this point....jump in...or look for something else...

 

[Dan Da Man]

Margins for dropshippers are usually 10% for medium store and 5% for large stores.

10% margins?? Damn, what kind of products are you selling? Almost all my stores have a 30%-35% margins with the IMAP.

But your statement about SEO is completely true as it is so much more cost effective if you know how to do it. I can do SEO on each site for less than 100 bucks a month. And easily get 6k hits within 3 months. That kind of traffic doing PPC would easily cost me a few grand.

However, your strategy for doing SEO was very simplified and if you think you are going to rank your stores with some forum sigs than I wish you good luck!

 

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[Amail]

Almost all my stores have a 30%-35% margins with the IMAP.

[Noob Alert]

What's "IMAP"?

[/Noob Alert]

 

[JasonR]

[Noob Alert]

What's "IMAP"?

[/Noob Alert]

I think he means MAP - Minimum Advertised Price.

 

[mrbusines]

(Imap) Internet Minimum Advertised Price

 

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[biophase]

Biophase,

Do you see a benefit to offering a sidebar or pop-up or landing page of some sort that makes recommendations to new visitors based on how they got to your site? Kind of like Amazon does with "viewers of this product also viewed..." Except the application to the e-commerce site would be, "Welcome from [site through which they clicked to get to your site] other people who came from that site liked these items, maybe you will too..."

Thanks,
EW

I wouldn't do this. I find those annoying and I wouldn't do that to potential customers. Plus, you have no idea what they are looking for to even suggest any products. Even in a niche they will land on your page with very specific search terms. Your store would look horrible if you suggest general stuff.

 

[biophase]

I'm about to jump head first into a relatively small niche (still have thousands of products that serve that niche). The niche is underserved (only one somewhat major player in the game)...but there are hang ups to the niche. I'm not sure if I should jump head first or continue to do more research on it. Several manufacturers ONLY sell to pro shops (similar to high end golf shops), and all of the "widgets" need to be set up/tuned for the customer. I'm not sure where to go at this point....jump in...or look for something else...

What does jump head first mean?

 

[The-J]

What does jump head first mean?

Jump head first = take action now

 

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[wade1mil]

Simple question with a possibly not so simple answer. In researching a niche/product/market, if you feel that you can compete and the market is not saturated, how many monthly Google searches is your minimum? Or do you think about this differently?

 

[JasonR]

What does jump head first mean?

Meaning setting up a store, start dropshipping, etc. I haven't spent any money on the idea yet, and want to be as reasonably certain this can work before I do so. A few people think it's not a bad idea, and a few people have shot holes in my idea. The niche has challenges (such as some manufacturer's not wanting to sell their products online). At this point I'm not sure if I should go for it, or find something else.

 

[biophase]

Jump head first = take action now

Well that doesn't mean much.

He asked "I'm not sure if I should jump head first or continue to do more research on it. Several manufacturers ONLY sell to pro shops (similar to high end golf shops), and all of the "widgets" need to be set up/tuned for the customer."

Taking action now could mean, "I'm going to call a manufacturer" or "it could mean I'm going to order a bunch of stuff from China".

I just don't know why you would even ask this question at all. You are implying that one should either go 100% or do nothing. Why don't you just walk up to the edge and stick your toe in and see if the water is freezing or warm?

So my answer would be, why not just start the business slowly and take it from there.

 

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[biophase]

Meaning setting up a store, start dropshipping, etc. I haven't spent any money on the idea yet, and want to be as reasonably certain this can work before I do so. A few people think it's not a bad idea, and a few people have shot holes in my idea. The niche has challenges (such as some manufacturer's not wanting to sell their products online). At this point I'm not sure if I should go for it, or find something else.

Well, the first big hole I see is that you said that manufacturers won't dropship for you without a retail store. You can't even go for it if you drop have suppliers. You can't even set up a store if you don't have that.

Why don't you get your suppliers first? Without that part there is no store.

I'm still not sure why you keep saying go for it, because let's say I say to you "YES, go for it 100%!" Then you call a bunch of suppliers and you can't get any. Now your idea is dead.

You don't have anything to go for yet.

 

[biophase]

Simple question with a possibly not so simple answer. In researching a niche/product/market, if you feel that you can compete and the market is not saturated, how many monthly Google searches is your minimum? Or do you think about this differently?

I don't have a minimum number. But I would think that you would at least need a few thousand searches. It's hard to say because markets do grow over time and you could be positioned as the #1 store in that niche 4 years later when it's huge.

 

[Skys]

So my answer would be, why not just start the business slowly and take it from there.

Hmm.. I see the 'why does everybody wants to get their so fast' ;-)

That might be the only problem with naming your book "fastlane". Rather today, then tomorrow.

 

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[BeingChewsie]

I just don't know why you would even ask this question at all. You are implying that one should either go 100% or do nothing. Why don't you just walk up to the edge and stick your toe in and see if the water is freezing or warm?

So my answer would be, why not just start the business slowly and take it from there.

Agreed. I see this all or nothing issue a lot. It seems to also manifest in the "have to launch in a week and it has to be HUGE!" mentality too...I don't know if much of this is fear driven or not. I think it may be a fear that if you don't get in to whatever you want into "now" and make money "now", all of the opportunity vaporizes or something. This is of course not true, and more importantly, the more steps required, the more time it takes, the harder to replicate, the greater the barrier to entry. Most of us mere mortals have to start slow, we lack either the capital or knowledge or both to proceed any faster. I also think that "all or nothing can't start slow" is a symptom of chasing money, not an attempt to just solve a problem or fill a need for other people. Most of the time success comes from doing that which feels counter-intuitive to the nature of selfish humans, you have to be significantly less selfish, you have to put the needs of others before your own needs. It is all tied together, the main things people need to solve are their fear and their selfishness, those are the main drags on their success.

Sue

 

[andviv]

I see this all or nothing issue a lot

Part of it is the influence that big media has in our culture, I think.

We only see the "twenty-something created facebook and is a gazillionaire just two years later" news.

But the guy that sells hunting gear, or the one that runs limos.com, rarely make the news.

We are getting used to this "billionaire in a year" mentality and ignore all the other paths to riches.

 

[JasonR]

Well, the first big hole I see is that you said that manufacturers won't dropship for you without a retail store. You can't even go for it if you drop have suppliers. You can't even set up a store if you don't have that.

Why don't you get your suppliers first? Without that part there is no store.

I'm still not sure why you keep saying go for it, because let's say I say to you "YES, go for it 100%!" Then you call a bunch of suppliers and you can't get any. Now your idea is dead.

You don't have anything to go for yet.

Sorry, I should clarify. I have found a distributor who will drop shop for me, but the actual manufacturer's won't. I should be able to get most of the products through the distributor. There are also several thousand products in the niche itself, but the industry itself is a pretty tight niche. There are few PPC advertisers and not many people ranking well for industry key words. However, the main product itself may lend itself to be difficult to sell online. It will cost me about $1500-3000 to get a store up and running (I can design the site, but need someone to integrate it into Big Commerce).

I would post the actual niche, however I'm afraid if I do someone here might snatch it up and run with it. Of course, it's all about the execution over the idea. One more problem is that I would have some competition from Amazon and eBay sales (not that I could list products from my store on eBay and Amazon as well).

Actually, the niche I'm looking at is complementary to the niche you're in, Biophase.

 

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[andviv]

It will cost me about $1500-3000 to get a store up and running (I can design the site, but need someone to integrate it into Big Commerce).

What if you use something like shopify to test the waters?

I think that runs like $30/mo for the basic one, enough to give it a try and find out what works... no?


Shopify Pricing - The Best Ecommerce Platform, Now Free for 30 Days

 

[biophase]

It will cost me about $1500-3000 to get a store up and running (I can design the site, but need someone to integrate it into Big Commerce).

Why would it cost you so much? Isn't your site going to be BC, what are you integrating it with?

 

[JasonR]

Why would it cost you so much? Isn't your site going to be BC, what are you integrating it with?

I'm guessing. I don't want to use the default Big Commerce skins, and I can design the site myself. However, as I only know HTML/CSS, I can't integrate my design into Big Commerce. There a several companies that specialize in designing/coding Big Commerce projects. There are also some SEO tweaks that Big Commerce needs out of the box.

Unless I'm missing something. If I can integrate my own design into Big Commerce, I wouldn't need much money to start at all.

Biophase: I'd be happy to discuss the niche with you in private, if you'd like.

Edit: And the end goal is to use profits to develop a full blown Magento site at some point (probably a $10-20k project, but that's later on down the road).

 

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[wade1mil]

It will cost me about $1500-3000 to get a store up and running

I opened a BigCommerce account because Biophase recommended it. Started with the 15 day free trial and have never even seen BC and I has a custom store full of items in 4 hours. It cost me nothing.

 

[JasonR]

I opened a BigCommerce account because Biophase recommended it. Started with the 15 day free trial and have never even seen BC and I has a custom store full of items in 4 hours. It cost me nothing.

I'm very familiar with Big Commerce (and Magento Go, etc.). I opened accounts with all of them to determine which cart was best, and Big Commerce came out on top (it has its drawbacks, but has a solid SEO framework which is way more important than the other features of other carts). In fact, I like Magento Go, but it adds a whole host of SEO issues if you used the layered navigation. Anyways, I could write a 20 page article on the subject.

What are you selling?