Taking action in E-Commerce

[Ruak]

You can read my introduction to the forum HERE.

I've gotten fed up with just gathering general information. I'm struggling with taking action because of lack of capital, fear of failure, fear of disappointment, lack of knowledge, and the list goes on. Making this thread will give me the push to actually take action, add value through my process and, you know, even if I do not succeed, I won't be as scared in my future endeavours.

I have enough capital to start.
I have enough willpower to start.
I have enough time to start.
I have enough commitment to start.
I have enough thrive to start.
I am so young and have the ability to fail.
I will start.

Goals
• Have my product or niche already figured out when TMF and Unscriped books arrive (mid-sept)
• Set up an official business and complete the Shopify page (beginning of oct)
• Test my product or niche (after the store is launched)
• Keep doing jobs on Upwork to keep enough capital (means- improving on graphical design, don't have to outsource for design needs)

Things to think about
• Do I want to establish the store based in my home country or nationwide?
• Do I need to go to the gym 5-6 times a week, is it too time consuming?
• How do I get influencers to promote my product or niche for free/low-pay
• How can I find the ideal wholesaler?

If you have any suggestions, don't hesitate.

 

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[Walter Hay]

In answer to your last question: Forget wholesalers, buy where the wholesalers buy. That is, direct from the manufacturers.

Wholesalers buy from the manufacturers, add a big margin, then sell to you. They might buy a little cheaper than you can, but by going direct you can still make a much higher margin than you would if you buy "wholesale".

Walter

 

[Nathan F]

The gym isn't not too time consuming, it will help you achieve confidence and long term health with is the most important of all.

 

[Esoteric Wealth]

In answer to your last question: Forget wholesalers, buy where the wholesalers buy. That is, direct from the manufacturers.

Wholesalers buy from the manufacturers, add a big margin, then sell to you. They might buy a little cheaper than you can, but by going direct you can still make a much higher margin than you would if you buy "wholesale".

Walter

What about the benefits of dealing with a wholesaler rather than direct?

Shorter shipping times, better communication, less headache, etc. Do those count for anything?

 

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[Merging Left]

Goals
• Have my product or niche already figured out when TMF and Unscriped books arrive (mid-sept)
• Set up an official business and complete the Shopify page (beginning of oct)
• Test my product or niche (after the store is launched)
• Keep doing jobs on Upwork to keep enough capital (means- improving on graphical design, don't have to outsource for design needs)

Curious - why do you need the official business and the Shopify page BEFORE you test your product or niche? I think you should really consider testing the product/niche BEFORE spending money setting up the business and your store. Why spend time setting up a store before you even have a product? That's just playing business.

Find a product, try to sell it. You don't need a website for that. Make a very basic landing page on a free website builder (don't spend time/money on Shopify) and run some cheap advertisements to the page and see if people will click the "Buy" button. Collect e-mails.

(Alternatively, find your product on Amazon or AliExpress and throw it up on eBay. If it sells, buy it from AliExpress/Amazon and send it to the customer. Even if you lose a little bit of money, you've validated the demand for that product.)

These actions will get you closer to your first real sale. They might even get you that first sale. Setting up Shopify will not.

Once you have a product that you KNOW people want, and/or you have a list of people who want to buy it (which you obtained from the landing page), then by all means, get your Shopify up and running and get those people what they want!

The web store facilitates your sale - it does not create it. The product is what creates your sale. Find your product first.

 

[alan3wilson]

Curious - why do you need the official business and the Shopify page BEFORE you test your product or niche? I think you should really consider testing the product/niche BEFORE spending money setting up the business and your store. Why spend time setting up a store before you even have a product? That's just playing business.

Find a product, try to sell it. You don't need a website for that. Make a very basic landing page on a free website builder (don't spend time/money on Shopify) and run some cheap advertisements to the page and see if people will click the "Buy" button. Collect e-mails.

(Alternatively, find your product on Amazon or AliExpress and throw it up on eBay. If it sells, buy it from AliExpress/Amazon and send it to the customer. Even if you lose a little bit of money, you've validated the demand for that product.)

These actions will get you closer to your first real sale. They might even get you that first sale. Setting up Shopify will not.

Once you have a product that you KNOW people want, and/or you have a list of people who want to buy it (which you obtained from the landing page), then by all means, get your Shopify up and running and get those people what they want!

The web store facilitates your sale - it does not create it. The product is what creates your sale. Find your product first.

great idea! for basic landing page you mean :

find the product you want to sell, people click on the product to buy and they get a discount if they insert their email ? or something like that ?

 

[Merging Left]

find the product you want to sell, people click on the product to buy and they get a discount if they insert their email ? or something like that ?

For a landing page, it depends. One option is to, like you said, find a real product and list it as for sale and sell it at whatever price you want. Although if you're going to do that, just use eBay. If you're trying to sell a product that already exists, and you have not made any changes to it, be sure to ask yourself what value are you offering to the buyer? Maybe you can use Photoshop to make it look like you offer different colors or something like that, if it makes sense.

A landing page lends itself very well for a product that doesn't exist or you're going to make significant variations to. For this, hire a designer/graphic artist on UpWork to make a 3D render of your concept, and try to "sell" that on the landing page. You can either say "Coming Soon, enter you e-mail to be notified..." or have a "Buy Now!" button that, when clicked, has a pop-up that says "We're out of stock but will be getting new inventory soon, enter your e-mail to be notified..." It might cost you a couple hundred for the design, but it's a lot cheaper than trying to get an actual product custom made before you know it'll sell.

You could certainly incorporate a discount code into that, but the primary purpose of a landing page is to gauge interest, real interest (as measured by people who are ready to actually give you money), and collect their information.

There's a lot of really great information about effective landing pages online - do some searching around on Google. There are online tutorials, case studies, etc. There are even entire businesses designed around helping people create effective landing pages.

 

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[Walter Hay]

What about the benefits of dealing with a wholesaler rather than direct?

Shorter shipping times, better communication, less headache, etc. Do those count for anything?

I don't think you will find any of those benefits in reality.

Many suppliers identifying themselves as wholesalers don't carry inventory. They get a deposit from you, then order from the manufacturer, so shipping time can be longer as a result.

Manufacturers wanting to export will all have English speaking staff, and they want your business at least as much as wholesalers do.

Wholesalers will have to consult with the manufacturers for answers to questions you ask about the product, lead time, etc.,, so there are likely to be more headaches. With the guidance you will find in my book most if not all the real headaches will be removed.

By buying direct from manufacturers you will save a lot of money.

Walter

 

[Ruak]

welp. things have changed. going to start manufacturing.

set up an official business.
put a team together.
working on prototypes at the moment.
after that it's time to look for clients and (maybe) start selling e-com
probably going to start manufacturing next month, as we still have shit to figure out.


oh and yeah, read tmf , currently reading unscripted

 

[Ruak]

F*ck it really hits me hard when i find myself believing that i shouldn't focus so much on my future cuz i'm so young.
i'm so dumb

i set a goal to learn to use adobe illustrator so i can add more value to my future clients

 

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