Bought 2 new websites from Shopify Exchange

[MythOfSisyphus]

Ok so quick update. Site number 1 is now mine. I’m going to try and be halfway detailed on what I’m doing to fix it/change it to try and increase sales/conversions. Starting conversion rate is .3%. My goal is to be converting at 1-2% within 90 days.

What have I done so far?
1. Added PayPal as a payment method
2. Added an 800 number and email address from the domain (no gmail crap here)
3. Installed a new theme. I use a free one from Shopify on my other store and it converts decently so I will be using that one on this site.
4. Installed abandoned cart emails and flows to help catch those people that drop off.
5. Changed the site to entirely free USA shipping.
Things I still have to do.
1. Finish tweaking the theme.
2. Rewrite product titles and descriptions (will take a while or hire someone haven’t decided which yet).
3. Set up new ads with remarketing on google/Facebook
4. Redesign the site navigation as it’s currently pretty convoluted.
5. Add new products from the new supplier I got for the site as well as make sure all current products are still in stock/ available from current supplier.
6. Profit!!! Lol

Nice work. I'll be following this thread with interest.

I'm in a similar situation where I have an existing business that's doing well and I would love to branch out into something new but it isn't the right time. In the mean time I'll live vicariously through you.

I've always loved the idea of finding existing, profitable businesses with room for major improvement. Can't wait to see how it goes.

 

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[BlokeInProgress]

@Ecom man wow! Congrats! I'm wishing you more success.

May I just ask, I'm just beginning my online selling journey but I course mine through Amazon, buy from Big box retailers (those products on sale, sends it to a Prep Center) and then do the FBA. Say I find a wholesaler, does drop-shipping cost less than how I do it?

Sorry, I've never done DS before. I'm just weighing the opportunities and the channels that I can take.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Ecom man]

@Ecom man wow! Congrats! I'm wishing you more success.

May I just ask, I'm just beginning my online selling journey but I course mine through Amazon, buy from Big box retailers (those products on sale, sends it to a Prep Center) and then do the FBA. Say I find a wholesaler, does drop-shipping cost less than how I do it?

Sorry, I've never done DS before. I'm just weighing the opportunities and the channels that I can take.

Thanks in advance.

The margins can be similar for retail arbitrage (what you are doing) and dropshipping or even carrying your own inventory.
My current websites (others that I have not these 2 yet) normally have a 30% margin so if I make a sale for $100 I make around 30 bucks on it.

The biggest difference is the amount of work you are required to do to keep it going. Let’s say you get deathly ill and end up in the hospital for 3 months. Your family is entirely broke as RA requires you personally to get out and pound the pavement to find those deals and make the money. With dropshipping or having your own inventory you can hire someone to run the mostly the entire site and still make good profit even when you aren’t there every day.

Don’t get me wrong RA is a great way to get your feet wet and learn the ropes but long term you are essentially just working a higher paying job where you set your own hours.

 

[BlokeInProgress]

Don’t get me wrong RA is a great way to get your feet wet and learn the ropes but long term you are essentially just working a higher paying job where you set your own hours.

Thanks for the reply. Gonna be following the thread and reading more about you and how you built your company.

By the way, you said you're on a super competitive niche, are the 2 companies you bought servicing a different niche?

 

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[Shri Kanase]

Awesome work brother.

I'm in shopify myself and have done $600k since last year. I'm having the same trouble as you but hopefully we can hop ideas off of each other and help each other grow. To gross that much per year, are you constantly testing new products or sticking to one?

My niche is also competitive and I have a few winning products I focus in instead of trying anything new. Would love to hear from you

 

[RazorCut]

What have I done so far?
1. Added PayPal as a payment method
2. Added an 800 number and email address from the domain (no gmail crap here)
3. Installed a new theme. I use a free one from Shopify on my other store and it converts decently so I will be using that one on this site.
4. Installed abandoned cart emails and flows to help catch those people that drop off.
5. Changed the site to entirely free USA shipping.
Things I still have to do.
1. Finish tweaking the theme.
2. Rewrite product titles and descriptions (will take a while or hire someone haven’t decided which yet).
3. Set up new ads with remarketing on google/Facebook
4. Redesign the site navigation as it’s currently pretty convoluted.
5. Add new products from the new supplier I got for the site as well as make sure all current products are still in stock/ available from current supplier.
6. Profit!!! Lol

It is also worth taking all your top sellers and moving them to the main landing page above the fold. Just that alone can have a big impact on conversion rates.

 

[Ecom man]

Thanks for the reply. Gonna be following the thread and reading more about you and how you built your company.

By the way, you said you're on a super competitive niche, are the 2 companies you bought servicing a different niche?

Both new sites are in completely different niches than what I currently have and different from each other.

 

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[Ecom man]

Awesome work brother.

I'm in shopify myself and have done $600k since last year. I'm having the same trouble as you but hopefully we can hop ideas off of each other and help each other grow. To gross that much per year, are you constantly testing new products or sticking to one?

My niche is also competitive and I have a few winning products I focus in instead of trying anything new. Would love to hear from you

I add new products in the same niche about once or twice a year.

 

[Shri Kanase]

So most of the time, you're advertising just one or several products? Also, what company do you use to ship your items from the US?

 

[DougeFreshAK]

How do you go about finding a reliable drop shipper? I don't want to use AliExpress. Searching the internet do you use companies like DOBA or SaleHoo to find the initial suppliers?

 

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[Ecom man]

How do you go about finding a reliable drop shipper? I don't want to use AliExpress. Searching the internet do you use companies like DOBA or SaleHoo to find the initial suppliers?

I bought the sites so they came with suppliers for the items.

 

[Ecom man]

So trying to update relatively frequently while things are happening.

I got the theme where I want it for now and all the descriptions are good enough to start ads. Last thing to do before starting ads is to go through and correct all the inventory levels and make sure they are correct on all the products. I got about 25% of the products done today and will get the rest down tomorrow then I’m going to put ads live for the weekend. I’m planning on starting the budget about $100 a day for google shopping. I’ll get other search campaigns set up most likely Monday or Tuesday.

Second site is almost ready to be transferred over. Just have to get one of the suppliers straightened out and then I will have that one ready to start fixing as well. I’m going to focus on the first site until it is done then move on to this one but it has 50-100 visitors a day without any ads so I’m hopeful that it will bring in some sales before I even change it.

 

[Ecom man]

Update time.
Site that is live spent $200 over the last 2 days with no sales. Did some digging and 90% of the visitors/spend was from mobile with zero add to carts. The 4 add to carts were from the 30 desktop visitors. Did a drastic mobile negative bid adjustment in AdWords so that should rectify the massive spend with no results issue. This is the first time I’m doing higher dollar items (my other sites average $70 per order and this one will be $300ish) so I’m assuming people are less likely to even add to cart at that price range on mobile.

I paid someone to write/ rewrite the product descriptions for the current products. That should help sell the products as well.

I am going to get abandoned cart emails, messages, and texts rewritten and set up properly so I can hit people on multiple fronts. I will also get discount codes created and in those systems.

I also need to get retargeting set up as the items on both stores I bought are high dollar items so probably won’t buy the first time on the site and will need some follow up/nurturing.

Site number 2 is closed on and just waiting for Shopify exchange to finish the transfer. Once it is transferred then I will go through and put it live. Not going to do tons of changes on number 2 until site 1 is humming and getting sales so it will probably be a couple of months before I start working on this site. The deal was really good IMO so I bought it knowing I probably wouldn’t get to it immediately.

 

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[Deleted50669]

One of the things I've wondered with retargeting is if there is a more intentional way to go about it. Most ways I've observed it being done is for the site to send a passive follow-up on a timer. Would it make sense to give the user an option like "Would you like more time to consider this purchase? We can check back in when you're ready." Then give them an option to select when to receive the follow-up. For me as the consumer, I'd associate the brand with giving a shit about me after experiencing that. Of course, I'm not a sales expert. But just offering that perspective. Wouldn't be hard to implement with javascript.

 

[Lucious]

What plugin do you use for your abandoned cart emails ?

 

[MitchC]

Have you got hotjar or lucky orange?

It sounds like there could actually be an issue with your your site functions on mobile, it could be the layout too but to get no ad to carts would suggest maybe it actually doesn’t work

 

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[Shri Kanase]

I

Update time.
Site that is live spent $200 over the last 2 days with no sales. Did some digging and 90% of the visitors/spend was from mobile with zero add to carts. The 4 add to carts were from the 30 desktop visitors. Did a drastic mobile negative bid adjustment in AdWords so that should rectify the massive spend with no results issue. This is the first time I’m doing higher dollar items (my other sites average $70 per order and this one will be $300ish) so I’m assuming people are less likely to even add to cart at that price range on mobile.

I paid someone to write/ rewrite the product descriptions for the current products. That should help sell the products as well.

I am going to get abandoned cart emails, messages, and texts rewritten and set up properly so I can hit people on multiple fronts. I will also get discount codes created and in those systems.

I also need to get retargeting set up as the items on both stores I bought are high dollar items so probably won’t buy the first time on the site and will need some follow up/nurturing.

Site number 2 is closed on and just waiting for Shopify exchange to finish the transfer. Once it is transferred then I will go through and put it live. Not going to do tons of changes on number 2 until site 1 is humming and getting sales so it will probably be a couple of months before I start working on this site. The deal was really good IMO so I bought it knowing I probably wouldn’t get to it immediately.

Are you open to networking regarding Shopify? I'm a Youtuber on dropshipping and would love to share ideas. Let me know.

 

[FreakyThomas]

Update time.
Site that is live spent $200 over the last 2 days with no sales. Did some digging and 90% of the visitors/spend was from mobile with zero add to carts. The 4 add to carts were from the 30 desktop visitors. Did a drastic mobile negative bid adjustment in AdWords so that should rectify the massive spend with no results issue. This is the first time I’m doing higher dollar items (my other sites average $70 per order and this one will be $300ish) so I’m assuming people are less likely to even add to cart at that price range on mobile.

I paid someone to write/ rewrite the product descriptions for the current products. That should help sell the products as well.

I am going to get abandoned cart emails, messages, and texts rewritten and set up properly so I can hit people on multiple fronts. I will also get discount codes created and in those systems.

I also need to get retargeting set up as the items on both stores I bought are high dollar items so probably won’t buy the first time on the site and will need some follow up/nurturing.

Site number 2 is closed on and just waiting for Shopify exchange to finish the transfer. Once it is transferred then I will go through and put it live. Not going to do tons of changes on number 2 until site 1 is humming and getting sales so it will probably be a couple of months before I start working on this site. The deal was really good IMO so I bought it knowing I probably wouldn’t get to it immediately.

Thank you man, inspiring to see you take action. Any news ?

Envoyé de mon SM-G955F en utilisant Tapatalk

 

[Ecom man]

What plugin do you use for your abandoned cart emails ?

I use carts guru for text message and email for abandoned cart on this store. Other stores I use Klaviyo

 

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[Ecom man]

Have you got hotjar or lucky orange?

It sounds like there could actually be an issue with your your site functions on mobile, it could be the layout too but to get no ad to carts would suggest maybe it actually doesn’t work

Not yet. Will do that hopefully in the next couple of weeks. Kinda bit off more than I can chew a little bit with both sites while also tweaking current sites so been pretty busy. Will do lucky orange once I get the rest of my to do list accomplished for the site.

 

[Ecom man]

I

Are you open to networking regarding Shopify? I'm a Youtuber on dropshipping and would love to share ideas. Let me know.

Nope.

 

[Ecom man]

Thank you man, inspiring to see you take action. Any news ?

Envoyé de mon SM-G955F en utilisant Tapatalk

Still dialing in site number 1. Ran ads for a couple of days but no sales so greatly decreased bids yesterday. Have about 15 things that need done on the site then will ramp ads back up again.

 

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[andviv]

Are you running the same ads the previous owner had, or are you going with something new?

 

[Ecom man]

Are you running the same ads the previous owner had, or are you going with something new?

All new ads

 

[Ecom man]

So site number 1 just had its first sale yesterday. Ad spend for the day Was $50 an profit on that order is in the vacinity of $75 so it made me “profitable” for the day, however still significantly in the red with ad spend vs sales overall.

Still have some final things to tweak/add to the site which should be done by the end of the week.

I added a bunch of negative keywords to the campaigns since launch as well which should help bring ad costs down as not showing for irrelevant terms or super broad terms as well.

I also set up a separate shopping campaign for mobile and for desktop so I can control bids for those more exactly and see if there is anything that can be done to bring mobile visitors in that convert.

 

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[Ecom man]

Alright so time for another update. Site number 2 hasn’t had any sales since taking it over which surprised me as it has a decent amount of organic traffic but I haven’t spent any time on getting it tweaked and am not running ads currently so not a huge loss. Should have time to start working on that one by the middle of next month.

Site number 1 is starting to pick up a bit. I’ve got ads dialed in pretty good so not showing for a bunch of irrelevant search terms anymore and the lower bids have helped lower my costs as well (obviously).

That being said I’ve had $980 in sales in the last 4 days on $70 in ad spend. After product costs/shipping I had $300 in profit so minus the $70 in ads and other expenses I should have around $200 in “profit” in the last 4 days.

Total ad spend since I started is $700 so still about $300 in the red on ads alone since starting but ad costs seem to be under control and running at a good rate.

Still have some tweaks that need done on the site and apps/code tweaks that need done but in general the site seems to be turning the corner.

 

[FreakyThomas]

Alright so time for another update. Site number 2 hasn’t had any sales since taking it over which surprised me as it has a decent amount of organic traffic but I haven’t spent any time on getting it tweaked and am not running ads currently so not a huge loss. Should have time to start working on that one by the middle of next month.

Site number 1 is starting to pick up a bit. I’ve got ads dialed in pretty good so not showing for a bunch of irrelevant search terms anymore and the lower bids have helped lower my costs as well (obviously).

That being said I’ve had $980 in sales in the last 4 days on $70 in ad spend. After product costs/shipping I had $300 in profit so minus the $70 in ads and other expenses I should have around $200 in “profit” in the last 4 days.

Total ad spend since I started is $700 so still about $300 in the red on ads alone since starting but ad costs seem to be under control and running at a good rate.

Still have some tweaks that need done on the site and apps/code tweaks that need done but in general the site seems to be turning the corner.

Nice ! Well done !

How did you manage to lower your ad cost ?

Envoyé de mon SM-G955F en utilisant Tapatalk

 

[Ecom man]

Nice ! Well done !

How did you manage to lower your ad cost ?

Envoyé de mon SM-G955F en utilisant Tapatalk

Separated mobile and desktop into separate campaigns and adjusted bids accordingly.

Lowered bids significantly and then slowly started bumping them back up. My average cpc across all campaigns was .64 when I started. It’s currently running .21 per click in the last 7 days

I added a bunch of negative keywords to all the campaigns based on irrelevant search terms or not specific enough search terms. For example let’s say I’m selling a dresser. I most likely wouldn’t want my site to come up when a person just searches the word “dresser” instead I want to come up when someone search’s a far more specific term which means they are further down the buying tunnel. So in that scenario I would exclude the exact match [dresser] so my ads don’t show for someone who only types that single word.

 

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[TomasGara]

Interesting business, buying from Shopify Exchange. Always use some logic - is there anyone willing to sell their business, if it still produces money? Would you sell your chicken laying golden eggs? I once bought a website through flippa - and got burned. It was my first and last buy on flippa. Anyway, good luck with those sites.

 

[Xavier X]

Interesting business, buying from Shopify Exchange. Always use some logic - is there anyone willing to sell their business, if it still produces money? Would you sell your chicken laying golden eggs? I once bought a website through flippa - and got burned. It was my first and last buy on flippa. Anyway, good luck with those sites.

Yes, if it enables me buy an ostrich laying silver eggs, which I can feed to the point it lays golden eggs.