Ecommerce Selling Branded Products on Shopify Compete?

[MakeMoreMoves]

So I have a small shopify store selling branded products. Obviously can't offer the free two day shipping. With Walmart, Amazon, and Jet.com. Is a small shopify shop selling branded products on his/her own website essentially screwed?

My prices are cheaper or even on par with them. I say price because if you are selling branded a lot of variables are held constant.

Bulk of sales is through eBay. Hard to convert eBay customers to Shopsite. Only thing I do is add a package insert why they should buy on my website.

 

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[Under-Dog]

Only thing I do is add a package insert why they should buy on my website.

Do you give them an incentive for shopping on your site instead of ebay? IE... $10 off

When I was doing this I would include a discount code to get them to my site, after that I'd get them to my newsletter and market them like that.

 

[MakeMoreMoves]

Do you give them an incentive for shopping on your site instead of ebay? IE... $10 off

When I was doing this I would include a discount code to get them to my site, after that I'd get them to my newsletter and market them like that.

The bulk of my sales is eBay. You know how eBay restricts you from generating leads to your own website. I was going to use their paypal email address for marketing, but they didn't opt in. One customer could report me and I'd be done. All I got is the package insert that states: lower prices (they are much lower), free shipping over $50, and exclusive items. It blows my mind how people still purchase on eBay from me even if I show them my website. My eBay prices are sometimes double.

 

[DrkSide]

The bulk of my sales is eBay. You know how eBay restricts you from generating leads to your own website. I was going to use their paypal email address for marketing, but they didn't opt in. One customer could report me and I'd be done. All I got is the package insert that states: lower prices (they are much lower), free shipping over $50, and exclusive items. It blows my mind how people still purchase on eBay from me even if I show them my website. My eBay prices are sometimes double.

People trust eBay/Amazon more than they do your site. Take a step back and look at it from a customers point of view. They can purchase via eBay/Amazon and they know they are covered in the event something goes wrong. Does your site message convey this? Also, if you just ordered an item from ebay and you got a little card in the package that says "Psst, Hey, come over to my site and this thing is cheaper" doesn't instill confidence.

Take a look at what you can provide your customers that the third party marketplaces can't. Personalize the service, give them add ons, run a giveaway and have them enter with an email signup to boost up your mailing list.

Stop trying to compete on price and figure out a way to value add to their orders. Give them a reason to buy from your site.

 

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[MakeMoreMoves]

People trust eBay/Amazon more than they do your site. Take a step back and look at it from a customers point of view. They can purchase via eBay/Amazon and they know they are covered in the event something goes wrong. Does your site message convey this? Also, if you just ordered an item from ebay and you got a little card in the package that says "Psst, Hey, come over to my site and this thing is cheaper" doesn't instill confidence.

Take a look at what you can provide your customers that the third party marketplaces can't. Personalize the service, give them add ons, run a giveaway and have them enter with an email signup to boost up your mailing list.

Stop trying to compete on price and figure out a way to value add to their orders. Give them a reason to buy from your site.

I know that competing on price is one dimensional thinking but the other options are more costly. I don't have a choice, I guess... I should increase my prices a bit then and do something else. Can't afford these "extra add ons" really. Been running in red for a while (website wise).

 

[MakeMoreMoves]

Been checking shopify forums just to research. Depressing as hell, every old post shows the persons domain. They literally all are expired domains. Place is a graveyard of failed ecommerce businesses.

 

[Ecom man]

Do you include a card in every single eBay sale? Are the cards just handwritten note or have you made up some cards with your logo and offer on them? You can make a postcard size card on vista print for super cheap and include it in each package. If your website is substantially cheaper than your eBay prices than bump your website prices up by a certain amount per item and give them that $ amount off. You can also do % off your order. I would also raise your prices up so you can start offering free shipping on every order. Customers love free shipping!

Have you done any advertising for your website at all? Adwords and bing are great places to start to bring in some customers.

 

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[MakeMoreMoves]

Do you include a card in every single eBay sale? Are the cards just handwritten note or have you made up some cards with your logo and offer on them? You can make a postcard size card on vista print for super cheap and include it in each package. If your website is substantially cheaper than your eBay prices than bump your website prices up by a certain amount per item and give them that $ amount off. You can also do % off your order. I would also raise your prices up so you can start offering free shipping on every order. Customers love free shipping!

Have you done any advertising for your website at all? Adwords and bing are great places to start to bring in some customers.

Thanks for following up to all my responses. Really appreciate it. The package inserts are my logo on and website and reasons to buy on website next time. Yeah its a postcard. My catalog will soon have items that are very different weights to them. I could lose out a ton on the heaver item. The heavier item, I have not gotten good pricing on. So, I have to mark up substantially compared to other retailers to make profit. I would then have to "super mark up." I don't like this because I am trying to be a retailer not a scalper. Thats for the secondary market.

Ads yeah, when my website was very new with a small catalog, but it was just losing money and high bounce rate. Started off with Google Adwords and then Facebook Ads. High bounce rate, even though from my research I felt like I targeted well. The dumb thing I find with facebook is that if a specific interest is too small, it won't even appear on targeting. Another thing with facebook, is that meter. They say things like you ads are too specific and won't let me run my ad. I mean isn't that what I want? Spend money on a really targeted market instead of a broad one?

Made a niche (not business page) for website. Paid for likes and it has 580 likes. So, I tried to promote my business on this but got one sale. And the organic reach is just so bad nowadays.

So I started trying free options. Reddit. Best targeted traffic and low bounce rate, based on analytics. Saw one guy trying to add things, but abandoned cart because he didn't hit the $50 free shipping. If I give free shipping, my pricing won't be as good as the others. In constant debate of whether to roll shipping prices in or not.

Next up is pinterest, its free to pin and it gets lots of views. Still haven't had conversion though from this.


I have a total of 11 sales on this site. Tried some MailCheat(Chimp) email marketing on those that purchased, no conversions.

Either I trade time or money for traffic, but to get one sale on the website. I have to spend weeks.

 

[Ecom man]

Thanks for following up to all my responses. Really appreciate it. The package inserts are my logo on and website and reasons to buy on website next time. Yeah its a postcard. My catalog will soon have items that are very different weights to them. I could lose out a ton on the heaver item. The heavier item, I have not gotten good pricing on. So, I have to mark up substantially compared to other retailers to make profit. I would then have to "super mark up." I don't like this because I am trying to be a retailer not a scalper. Thats for the secondary market.

Ads yeah, when my website was very new with a small catalog, but it was just losing money and high bounce rate. Started off with Google Adwords and then Facebook Ads. High bounce rate, even though from my research I felt like I targeted well. The dumb thing I find with facebook is that if a specific interest is too small, it won't even appear on targeting. Another thing with facebook, is that meter. They say things like you ads are too specific and won't let me run my ad. I mean isn't that what I want? Spend money on a really targeted market instead of a broad one?

Made a niche (not business page) for website. Paid for likes and it has 580 likes. So, I tried to promote my business on this but got one sale. And the organic reach is just so bad nowadays.

So I started trying free options. Reddit. Best targeted traffic and low bounce rate, based on analytics. Saw one guy trying to add things, but abandoned cart because he didn't hit the $50 free shipping. If I give free shipping, my pricing won't be as good as the others. In constant debate of whether to roll shipping prices in or not.

Next up is pinterest, its free to pin and it gets lots of views. Still haven't had conversion though from this.


I have a total of 11 sales on this site. Tried some MailCheat(Chimp) email marketing on those that purchased, no conversions.

Either I trade time or money for traffic, but to get one sale on the website. I have to spend weeks.

Learning how to properly set up no run Adwords is well worth the time and hassle. It is an invaluable tool that you can use in any business that you start. You can be super specific on keywords and use exact match so you don't have a lot of wasted money. In regards to the "free shipping debate" the only debate is among business people. There is no debate that consumers love having free shipping. Heck I have Amazon prime for one reason... 2 day free shipping. If you decide you don't want to offer free shipping IMO the next best thing is to offer a flat shipping cost per order. Customers don't like uncertainty. They want to know how much they are actually going to be paying for the item and how much for shipping.

If your eBay prices are so much higher than your website prices I don't understand all the excuses why you can't do free shipping, discounts etc. or raise the prices to the same as on eBay and use the additional funds to start advertising your website. If you raise the price by $10 an item you then have $10 per sale to spend on marketing that item.

 

[million$$$smile]

Ebay is a marketplace. Many customers shop on Ebay or Amazon because they have more than one choice AND usually a larger assortment/price for the products.

Why do you think the masses go to shopping malls or Walmart instead of a store that only carries that one specific item?

Consumers love to SHOP, be it just window shopping or purchasing an item. If you are having a hard time getting customers to purchase from your website, ENLARGE YOUR PRODUCT LINE, with your own branded products or someone else's.

You mentioned that a potential customer did not purchase because he couldn't meet the minimum $50 free shipping. What does that tell you?


Either add more ancillary products or create more value by adding a 'free gift' to a purchase. Personally, I would add more products as it would most likely create more revenue.

 

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[MakeMoreMoves]

Ebay is a marketplace. Many customers shop on Ebay or Amazon because they have more than one choice AND usually a larger assortment/price for the products.

Why do you think the masses go to shopping malls or Walmart instead of a store that only carries that one specific item?

Consumers love to SHOP, be it just window shopping or purchasing an item. If you are having a hard time getting customers to purchase from your website, ENLARGE YOUR PRODUCT LINE, with your own branded products or someone else's.

You mentioned that a potential customer did not purchase because he couldn't meet the minimum $50 free shipping. What does that tell you?


Either add more ancillary products or create more value by adding a 'free gift' to a purchase. Personally, I would add more products as it would most likely create more revenue.

I'm not rich by any means, obviously. I have about $2500 in inventory just sitting. For a somewhat startup ecommerce store, should I dump like 10k in inventory. Pretty illogical. I am not selling fast enough to reinvest profits and constantly expand. I am still struggling to meet my bottom line. Not enough cash flow, expenses eat everything up. When I say the bulk of my sales is from eBay that means a good week is like 5 sales...Is increasing SKUs really the answer? I invested $2500 and they aren't turning over. What happens if I invest 10k products and it gets stuck. Then I'm really screwed.

How much do startup ecommerce websites usually start with inventory?

 

[MakeMoreMoves]

Learning how to properly set up no run Adwords is well worth the time and hassle. It is an invaluable tool that you can use in any business that you start. You can be super specific on keywords and use exact match so you don't have a lot of wasted money. In regards to the "free shipping debate" the only debate is among business people. There is no debate that consumers love having free shipping. Heck I have Amazon prime for one reason... 2 day free shipping. If you decide you don't want to offer free shipping IMO the next best thing is to offer a flat shipping cost per order. Customers don't like uncertainty. They want to know how much they are actually going to be paying for the item and how much for shipping.

If your eBay prices are so much higher than your website prices I don't understand all the excuses why you can't do free shipping, discounts etc. or raise the prices to the same as on eBay and use the additional funds to start advertising your website. If you raise the price by $10 an item you then have $10 per sale to spend on marketing that item.

But the $10 I spend on marketing, I never get my return. I have had a lot of bad experiences with adwords and Facebook. Like I said with the high bounce rate.

I forgot to mention I did the google shopping ad, where it shows a picture of the product. I'm like, ok these ads are so easy not to mess up. They clearly cater to those ready to buy. Used keyword planner to develop keywords. But just like adwords, they clicked and then they bounced. Like wut the hell. Adwords and Facebook was literally burning money in my experience.

 

[Tiago Ladeia]

Hey,

I believe this is a tough question based on several variables. It mostly depends on how much you have to invest in this business, how is your cashflow situation and so on.

However, in my humble opinion, it is always good to learn from scratch. Besides saving money, you'll learn skills that may be valuable in the future (like using it in another business or talking to employees regarding the topic. So, if you are in a rush and wants to test it right away, go on and hire a 3rd party.

Yet, I believe you should try to learn anyway.

Cheers!

 

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[million$$$smile]

When I say the bulk of my sales is from eBay that means a good week is like 5 sales

If you are only selling about 5 a week and your product has been on one of the marketplaces for awhile, I personally would just dump the sku and recoup what you have in it and try another. It seems to me the market is telling you that they are not that interested. It will be hard to aquire as many potential customers to your own website without considerable investment compared to the amount of potentials on Ebay for 'free'. I think there are other products out there that will potentially be more lucrative. But then again, that is only my opinion.

Good luck!

 

[Ecom man]

But the $10 I spend on marketing, I never get my return. I have had a lot of bad experiences with adwords and Facebook. Like I said with the high bounce rate.

I forgot to mention I did the google shopping ad, where it shows a picture of the product. I'm like, ok these ads are so easy not to mess up. They clearly cater to those ready to buy. Used keyword planner to develop keywords. But just like adwords, they clicked and then they bounced. Like wut the hell. Adwords and Facebook was literally burning money in my experience.

You spent $10 and that is burning your money? Sorry, you are not going to get anywhere in business if you pull the plug on something after spending $10 on it.

 

[MakeMoreMoves]

You spent $10 and that is burning your money? Sorry, you are not going to get anywhere in business if you pull the plug on something after spending $10 on it.

Misunderstanding me. I was just using your example from the extra $10. Plus, I'm not giving you the whole story on the amount I've spent on ads. This is my situation. Got $2500 in mostly still inventory. I have not even begun to count the amount of money I spent on ads in the past. I'm in red.

This is what has been happening to me:
Lets say I purchase an item for $10. My plan is to sell it for $20. Eventually the amount the I spend on ads hits $10. I break even, but wait I haven't taken into consideration shipping cost, paypal fee or credit card fee. I am straight negative. So it is illogical to keep paying for ads at this point. This has happened for nearly all my products. I mean people only spend money on ads to make money. Spend $10 ads and profit $20, that makes sense if it works out.

Nobody ever seems to talk about what happens if you blow money on ads and nothing happens. Burn, Invest, Blast ads, repeat...
When I invest in a product I obviously have confidence that it will sell, me being optimistic. But after invest again and again in new product and it doesn't sell. From a logical standpoint, how can anyone stay optimistic.

Also, my profit margin for these $20 items end up being between $1.00-$2.00. My Shopify subscription is $30. I have to sell about 30 items ($1.00) profit to even pay that back. I am slowly losing all my money. EDIT: actually quickly

I would be happy to spend $1000 to get a return of $2000.
But I would be mad about spending $10 and getting no return.
The absolute value does not matter to me, just the return and relative cost

 

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[Striver]

Did you ever do any better with your problems? Selling 5 a week on ebay is a waste of time, if you're wanting to make some real money.

Sounds like you didn't do the proper research before purchasing your items...

 

[mosdef]

If you are only selling about 5 a week and your product has been on one of the marketplaces for awhile, I personally would just dump the sku and recoup what you have in it and try another. It seems to me the market is telling you that they are not that interested. It will be hard to aquire as many potential customers to your own website without considerable investment compared to the amount of potentials on Ebay for 'free'. I think there are other products out there that will potentially be more lucrative. But then again, that is only my opinion.

Good luck!

@Ecom man correct me if im wrong but i think you mentioned that the majority of your products sells like once a week or something? But then again you have around 80-100 products?

 

[tristano]

I think you should begin to sell items with higher margins. You say you sell branded products...that's the point, you can't leverage on prices on those items, many people sell same products, there is little barrier to access that market. You need to diverify the items you sell with something new.

 

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[Ecom man]

@Ecom man correct me if im wrong but i think you mentioned that the majority of your products sells like once a week or something? But then again you have around 80-100 products?

I have some that sell 75-100 a week but a decent number of my products only sell a few a week yes. My margins on the other hand average $20-$30 an item. If I was making $2 per item I would not carry anything that had low volume.

 

[MakeMoreMoves]

Did you ever do any better with your problems? Selling 5 a week on ebay is a waste of time, if you're wanting to make some real money.

Sounds like you didn't do the proper research before purchasing your items...

Hi, thanks for the response. I am in the process of doing my taxes for March. I got a total of 110 sales this time. I mean this is the risk of the business I guess, I just have to keep increasing SKUs which increase the probability of getting sales everyday. I did do research on these products. Branded Products are kind of a double edge sword in the sense that if you buy popular products that are so called "guaranteed to sell" everyone else is selling them too.