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$5000 to $30,000 per month - eCommerce Progress

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

SparksCW

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I'm from England and I have a part time e-commerce business which has grown from a bedroom operation to what it is now in a short space of time.

I also have another monthly subscription business start up and I work full time for the family businesses (for now) I do okay. But the family business isn't my dream so I'm working on the fast lane businesses.

What Happened In 2015?

In 2015 my business went from just me in my spare bedroom to a commercial unit and a part time employee dealing with all orders, enquiries, fulfilment etc. As it stands now I deal with the website, new products etc etc. All the orders, product adding, fulfilment is handled by my employee and a lot of our products are sent by distributors so we can scale quite large before needing more staff.

We went from $5000 per month to $30,000 per month (turnover) mostly organically, with a bit of help from eBay and Amazon.

This happened between October and December 2015, and only because I stepped outside of my comfort zone.

2016 Targets

To pay for my current lifestyle (without my slow lane job) we need to maintain (or improve) our margins and turn over approximately $45,000 per month. So our target is currently $75,000 per month (turnover).

What I'm Doing?

I'll keep it simple here, and post in more detail as I get them done.

Add value - guides, blog, pictures, reviews, advice, knowledge centre, e-book (already written)

Add interaction - more social, instagram, ability for customers to add their own pictures, generate more reviews, case studies, get more content on the website

Be More Proactive - this year we're going to be going out looking for customers... trade, installers, home builders, etc etc. Maybe do some exhibitions again (tried before with no luck)

Site Improvements - a few extra features, fix duplicate content issues, improve SEO, write bespoke product descriptions for all important products, improve speed and continue to improve search rankings.

PPC - I really struggle with PPC, I read stories that people can put an add up and make sales in minutes, I seem to drink money. Need to learn more on PPC and keep trying to make it work.

That's it for now. I'll post as and when things get done and let you know what affect they have on the business.

Any advice welcome.
 
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SparksCW

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Late last year and the beginning of this we were in a pretty poor situation, we were stagnant and actually decreasing monthly revenue not growing, made some mistakes with website platforms and fell behind.

Then C0VlD-19 came along and I thought it was game over! I was in survival mode trying to figure out how to still be in business when it was "over". We sell luxuries, nothing that'll protect you from COVID so we were very, very worried.

But my landlord, who sold his company for many millions, took it upon himself to give me a weekly mentoring call. We made some changes and improvements. We cut a lot of zero margin products (that was scary!) and put a lot more focus into the brands and product sets that do make us margin.

Last month was our best month ever. Not just for revenue, but in actual spendable profit after buying stock.

So far this month, we've beat last month! And we still have a week to go.

In fact, the last two months we've made more net profit that the last two years put together! (which wasn't hard to be fair, but it shows we're on the up finally)

We've cleared our company credit card, paid off a working capital loan in full and refinanced a bank loan saving thousands per month.

Personally I've cleared a credit card (noted as a previous goal) and built a buffer for the first time in years. Long way to go but we're catching up. Also set my standard wages to more than my living costs for the first time in 3 years.

We are continually working away on the websites, improving, narrowing, cutting products with no margin instead of wasting our time fulfilling orders for no profit.

I've identified numerous sub-niches that are untapped and we're working on building them out now to widen our customer base. We're working harder on customer experience, speed, stock management. You name it.

We've created our own brand name and designed our own product lines. Not sure how we will fund it yet but that's a problem for later! We can replace 50% of what we are already selling for this product set and make a LOT more margin, customers also get a better quality product for the price so it's WIN WIN! These will also give us a chance on Amazon.

So instead of trying to survive we're now in full on growth planning mode.

Coming soon.. warehouse operative, marketing apprentice, freelance PPC expert, real time stock system and own brands.

We're currently just breaching $100k / month but this time next year I want to be doubling that.

Lots of work to be done!

The BIGGEST TAKE AWAY FROM THE PAST 2 MONTHS?

We will not grow if I try to do everything.

We need more staff to do the day to day, I need to just do business owner stuff.

I know what I'm doing, and when I do it we grow.

When I stop, we stop growing.

Don't get caught up in doing. Plan, strategise, theorise, design and utilise a team to implement and maintain.
 
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SparksCW

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About $8000-$10,000 of the sales are down to a very niche USA product that we have the UK domain for, we're top 3 results for every product in Google and we have a trade following so that helps. It's not a very mainstream product but we will be trying to increase sales throughout this year, I doubt monthly sales will get much higher for this particular range, but who knows.. there's always Europe to sell to!

We are currently selling quite a bit on eBay/Amazon so that does make up a good part of the figures, however we only have a small amount of items listed so we will be exploiting eBay further soon. I have nothing against eBay, I just don't want to rely on it.

Our other niche site is starting to do quite well but it's no where near it's limits, the products are quite specific so we're racing up the search engine results. It's a slow game, but I'm sure someday soon sales will go through the roof when we hit page 1 for the key searches. Most of my focus will be on this website throughout this thread, but at the minute this particular site on it's own isn't generating the majority of the sales.

We are doing some PPC and am getting some sales from it, but I'm not very good at it, they're costing a bit much and I need to really work on it.

I'm netting about 20% after paying all bills, staff etc however we're focusing on certain products now that have a higher gross margin so I'm hoping to increase that net margin. All money so far is tied up in stock and then I have loads of website updates to pay for so I'm not going to be buying an R8 any time soon, however I don't need to buy this much stock normally, I just got a good deal on something.

Todays Updates

I managed to get an appointment with the MD of one of my big suppliers ($22 million t/o year) and have a meeting booked for 2 weeks time to see how we can do more with them. Could lead to increased sales!

Found some more features for the site which will prove useful.

Last night I worked till late improving category layout, category descriptions, editing some titles and improving some product descriptions etc.
 
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SparksCW

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Another month, another post...

So last month closed at $25,000

However, a lot of those sales were of an item we have in stock from a large acquisition which is great as it's meant the company has caught up significantly with some debt.

What have I done last month?

Not much if I'm honest, I've been a bit busy with my main business and life in general.

however this month is going great, it's the first working day, we had an epic weekend of sales and 2 large quotes I've been working on have turned into paid orders, so as of the first working day of the month we've already done $20,000!! This month is shaping up to be great.

May To Do List

  • I've been talking to a local niche related company about a small link up, using their photos and some social media stuff to promote each other.
  • the blog is going to progress this month, if it doesn't then i want someone to PM me calling me useless and to sort it out!!
  • continue adding questions and answers to the products on site
  • continue improving product descriptions

It's getting exciting now as when I've caught up some personal moneys (i need to pay myself now as i have a wedding to pay for) once thats out of the way I'm going to dedicate 6 months to pure growth, no money taken out, just reinvest in marketing, advertising, videos, pictures, everything!! I'm going to use a marketing company, on the list is Facebook advertising, google re-marketing, email marketing and more. I may consider consumer shows as well to get in front of potential buyers. The aim is to get more eyes on the website, more conversions and more phone call orders.

Things I've Learnt

it's all about the knawledge!! the more i teach my customers the more they trust me and my company, the easier they buy. $3000 order in the bag today because I could advise him on everything he needed and best value for money way of achieving what he wanted. Didn't even need to talk him into buying it. So my advice is to make your product as easy to understand as possible, answer every question, do as much as you can on - site with blog posts, related questions on product pages etc. Be the place that people research your product.
 
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SparksCW

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So we're in 2023 and time for a quick update! 8 years since I started this thread.

I've re-read the entire thread and it's a bit of a roller coaster.

When I started the thread my goal was $75,000 / month but we're now almost doing that per week with 2 staff and I'm chasing $500k / month.

The business isn't where I want it to be, but after re-reading the thread it's a significantly different business to when we first started so key takeaway number 1 is to look back at where you were as you don't notice how far you've come when you're in the thick of it.

The business will never be "where you want it to be" so it's important to understand where you were, and where you are going.

Back in 2016 I i quit my job when we were doing $20k / month. I had a wife, kid and house to pay for.

Now, despite not being where I want to be, I have a fairly sturdy, consistent business that's seeing stable growth. I live in a nice house in a nice area, my kids want for nothing, I'm making 6 figures and pretty much debt free.

I may not have the Lamborghini yet but I'm not doing too badly.

Key learnings (haven't mastered them all yet but believe them to be key!)

  1. You can do anything, but you can't do everything - double down on what works and delete the rest.
  2. Simple, fast, easy.
  3. Less is more.
  4. Avoid distractions at all costs. Shiny Object Syndrome is the dream killer.
  5. Go deep before you go wide.
  6. Your business will never "be where you want it to be" so...
  7. Find a way to enjoy the process or be consumed by it.
  8. Plan downtime and holidays etc or time will simply fly by and you will miss out. For instance, your kids are only young once.
  9. Every $ you pay yourself, or waste, has a growth opportunity cost. (one less $ for stock, staff, advertising) - doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, just be aware of it.
  10. Teamwork makes the dream work. Literally.
  11. Patience. Good things take time. It often takes 10 years of hard work and sacrifice to become an overnight success.
  12. Consistency is key. Small, consistent gains, win. (process over event.)
  13. Figure out where you're going or get lost. What does the business look like in a year? five years? ten years?

What I'm working on:

  1. Own branded goods for greater control, better margin, more value to the overall business.
  2. SEO - more blogs, more guides, more helping, more value.
  3. Value add - more bundles, more solutions
  4. Easier & less. Less categories, less products, less complications. MORE content. MORE solutions. MORE sales.
  5. Exit planning - not looking to sell just yet, but want to start planning for it and working towards it.
 
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nomeus

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I have a theory...

I see that you have made a lot of bold statements before, and tried to put a lot of information out there. But how much have you been making last couple months?

Your progress thread https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/from-1-to-10-100-1000-5000-10000-and-beyond.63909/ have not been updated since the day you posted it. So technically you have not made any money since then.

On september you were ready to jump off a cliff - https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...t-to-run-jump-off-a-cliff-leave-it-all.62996/

Then you state that you have 764k that someone owes you. https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/collecting-762k-in-x-months.64818/

You have to be a millionaire, but you clearly do not know how to make a single $ ("1$ is my goal to make first"). 764k in two years is 382k a year in debt. Either you have a lot of money or you don't have any clue to what you are doing.

AN IDEA IS GARBAGE UNLESS ACTION IS TAKEN, BY THE OWNER TOWARDS A SPECIFIC GOAL, TO INCREASE SALES! NOT TO FIX A SITE

Are you dumb or just pretending to be dumb?

How is not fixing site, therefore increasing conversion rates, not increasing sales? Did You know that 3% conversion rate is better than 2% conversion rate? Do you know what conversion rate is? From your progress thread, its clear that you didn't even got that far. 1000 visitors with 2% CR is 20 sales, same visitors with 3% CR is 30 sales. That means increasing sales.
Engaging in social media is getting more traffic, therefore MORE SALES.

SparksCW just increased the revenue by 270%, and you, someone who doesn't know how fixing site might help increasing sales, say that SparksCW will not increase his sales? WTF?
 
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SparksCW

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How has the month being going for you?

Hi, pretty good this month really. I've been on vacation for the past week or so which means we've not done much "new" stuff. However the hard work appears to be paying off.

This month we're at $40,000 so far. But more importantly, direct website sales are significantly up!! That's what I've been working towards and it's only this month that I've started to see it happen! We're still a long way off but this months direct website sales are 100% on the previous two months.

Now I'm back from my holiday we'll be pushing on with more products (solutions) and continuing to make it easier to buy things.

Whilst on holiday I have;
  • Sourced a new product which fills a gap, hoping these will sell well as there isn't much competition online. They've already been added so I just have to create the categories, structure, some content and bundle deals to make it easy to choose a solution.
  • Lined up a developer to fix some website bugs and other improvements.
  • Found some new products in one of my categories, nice to have another option for customers as it was looking a bit bare before.
  • Got a new bundles feature ready to implement, this will offer a small discount on upsales items, most of my manufacturers won't let me do discounts on the main product so I'm going to offer a discount on add on's instead just to encourage larger baskets to try and maximise value from every customer.

On the list;

  • The unique product videos are looking more and more important, so these will be pushed on soon.
  • More content, guides, how to's, advice. The blog will be the key to this.
  • I'm going to be working on a new website, it encompasses my existing niche, but is much broader so I can go for many other applications for the same products as well as adding a lot more. I am going to phase out our existing "master" site as it's too broad and we don't offer any value compared to our competitors so I don't see the point in running it any longer, it would take a lot of work to get up to standard and I feel the broader site in my current niche is a much more viable concept.
  • Improve up sells and cross sells with low value basket stage add ons to try and maximise value of each basket.
  • Buy in stock of best selling items rather than relying on distributors to ship out... we have no problem with the distributors sending but we can save $5 a unit shipping ourselves, we will know what is or isn't in stock and we can easily add extra items etc to the packages. We already stock a large amount of items in other ranges so it's not a big issue.

Years of hard work meant I could go on holiday with my family and the business ticks over in the back ground, the holiday was paid for by the time I got home, I had orders coming in on the plane. The "laptop lifestyle" is a lot harder than the youtube gurus tell you, but it's not until you're getting paid when you're doing something fun with your family that you realise what you're working for. Makes me want to work harder to get a more reliable and much larger income to let me do even more things with my family and not worry about money so much.

This month is the first month I've ever earnt a five figure income, (well, i could have, I chose to pay off most of the companies debt instead but still able to pay myself a decent sum this month).

I would also like to add that getting an employee, even if part time, was the best move I've made. It does cost money, but it allows me to make money even when I'm not around, or if I'm working on something else. I know my orders, phone calls and emails are being dealt with and I'd go hungry before I got rid of my staff.

You can only work so many hours, don't waste them doing the menial bits unless you just want a job.
 

SparksCW

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Been a while with no updates again so here's an end of 2017 update.

Hit the dizzy heights of $95000 in one month! Still a long way off where I want to be but I've learnt a lot of very important things about the process this year.

We're 120% up on last years turnover, gross profit margin is a little bit down as to be expected but it's still relatively consistent. All of the profit + more has been re-invested, and I've been paid a basic amount each month so all in all a successful year I guess.

Business

  • Increasing order volume is hard
  • When you manage to increase order volume, everything gets even harder
  • Cash flow is king. Ironically when you're selling a lot it gets harder to manage.
  • More orders = more risk of fraud, we've taken quite a hit in the last couple of months.. had to implement new procedures to reduce the risk.
  • Need to build a team - seriously, this is the most important and also the hardest part. I still feel like we can't afford the right person, but at the same time we're struggling and not progressing as much as I'd like to. On the flip side, the right person could increase orders by who knows what? They could transform the company in a matter of months, I have two roles to fulfil but it's chicken & egg here!! what comes first?? May consider taking a leap and getting someone in part time for one of the roles and full time for the other.
  • Keeping up with the competition is pretty hard. A lot of them in my industry have deep pockets and are buying up complete stock ranges (like 700+ items at $100 each per product line) then the supplier ships them to Amazon in batches. It's almost impossible to compete, when we do sell something it's often "out of stock" and we end up refunding our customer.
  • Whilst I'm trying to maintain a set GP margin, a lot of the competition are happy to work on much lower margins for the box-shifting products. I don't want to get too caught up in that, but I think maybe we do need to find some faster selling lines - less profit but could aid cash flow.
  • Stock is becoming key. Almost to the point now where we're moving towards only selling what we physically have in stock. It's impossible to control a third party, they might have 100 today and 0 tomorrow (probably because they've sold it to the big pocketed companies) no stock = lost sales.
  • Don't think too much... i.e it's hard to do things when you're already busy. I was going to implement some new stock and order management software, for some reason I decided against it, then we got really busy and I could have really done with the software, but was too busy to implement it.... now we're quiet I'm re-looking at it, trying to get over the $200 / mo costs but I know it'll bring value so for some things you kind of just need to take a leap of faith and not think about it too much.
  • Too many avenues - there are so many ways to do business, so many options, marketplaces, ideas, sub-sites, niches etc etc.. I'm sure you can make millions in any of them, but if you're dabbling in all of them you're just going to struggle unless you have deep pockets and lots of staff. I'm finding it real hard to focus on the avenues with the most realistic potential. Too many ideas!

Personal

  • Need to find a work-life balance. Working too much really does affect everything negatively. Next year I really need to find some hobbies and improve my health. I'm always tired and achey and have a few health issues that I need to get resolved next year.
  • It's really hard to hit personal financial goals when you're growing a business. Therefore it's important to have non-financial goals otherwise you'll feel like you're standing still, which is how I feel right now. I'm not much better off personally (in my opinion) however my business has doubled. Another year and I'll no doubt benefit personally big style. To be fair I certainly haven't got backwards personally and my family aren't doing without. So it's not all bad!

What's planned for 2018?

Well obviously need to keep increasing, keep pushing. Want to make it to the 6 figure / month mark. But consistently, not just a one off.

Need to buy more stock, especially on the common selling items, why worry about buying loads of stock if it consistently sells? Can save an extra 5-10% and less hassle booking in stock etc. Suppliers are happier too as it's easier for them to deal with. Just need to not think about it and send that purchase order...

Trust my instincts on software, a few hundred a month can save lots of time which can be better spent elsewhere. Plus it's systems that help the company run without me.

Going to watch the 1%... as the turnover grows then every 1% of gross profit margin saved now equates to quite a few thousand dollars of additional profit each year. This year we'll be buying in bulk to save 5-10% on some stock lines, some lines we'll be buying into stock instead of drop shipping just to save 1% margin on that line, we're going to be a bit more frugal on quotes to customers and try to offer a free product instead of a general discount, simple things to still offer value but save the 1%...

PPC - paid search is significant. Next year we'll be increasing our ad ranges and our spends. I've noticed that shopping campaigns seem to work best. Looking at our 2017 to 2016 annual advertising spend our turnover has more than doubled and our advertising spend has also just more than doubled. So it's very, very consistent (so far).... sometimes you can get wrapped up in looking at 7 days of data and it might not have been a good week, but over 60 days it could have been very good overall... looking at the year, it was good.

Next year we need to spend more if we want to grow.

That's all for now, so much going on in my head!

Happy new year!
 

SparksCW

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Finding the day job a real issue lately, I work for my dad and am "in line for the throne" and all that, but my heart isn't in it and we don't really see eye to eye on anything. I'm having an authority issue too, not happy being an employee. Past couple of years I've only really been there because I want to help him get back on his feet, he doesn't seem to help himself though so I'm almost at the point of giving up. He's a true sidewalker through and through.

Wow just saw my post from a couple of years ago.

Can I just say to anyone who can relate to the above post...

1. You will land on your feet and eventually thrive.
2. You don't owe anyone, anything. (in that situation)
3. Your employer won't fall apart without you, they will simply replace you and carry on as if you were never there.
4. You will never look back.

If I knew then what I know now, I would have left that job many years before!
 
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SparksCW

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Just hit $170,000 for November with a few days left to go.

Even better considering we’ve been out of stock for most of the month on all our top sellers. Would have cleared $200k easy if we had stock!

We now have 5 in house staff, 1 remote and planning to move to larger premises next year.

Long way to go yet but finally seeing some growth, profit and gaining a longer term vision.

Things I’ve learnt this month;
  • Forecast sales and make sure you actually have stock for Black Friday
  • Don’t expect to sell something tomorrow. It works out to buy lots more stock, list, it will sell if research and testing has been done correctly. As you grow you need to start thinking 2-3 months ahead not 2-3 weeks. Also things are really hard to sell if you don’t have them. Drop shipping is ok for small sidelines but when you get serious it can really hinder growth.

  • Diversify. The sheer fact we’re now selling lots more product lines has saved us from the stock outs on our top 10 niche products. More products, more niches, more security and consistency. I’m worried about Dec-Feb as these are usually quiet months but we will get through it.
  • Planning is important. The bigger we get the more important planning, strategy, management, shared vision and leadership become.
 

SparksCW

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What have you done to protect yourself from competition? $45k/mth just to live seems pretty bloated and it looks like someone could come and undercut you.
Could you lower costs to increase your margin?

Competition is always fierce. At the minute I'm the jack Russell biting at the top dogs feet for my main site so at the minute I am the competition. I do get annoyed with my main products being sold on eBay cheaper by random people who aren't even properly in this market. My main competitors stick to a mutually agreed price so we don't compete on pricing, purely on value. Which is why it's harder to catch up.

The single range site has some really bad competition last year and lots of price undercutting. Thankfully in December we got all the bad sellers removed and secured an OEM deal to ensure we can always get product.

Truthfully my bills are quite low even with the car. We only need to turn over about $22,000 a month (at the target margin) to continue my existing lifestyle. (That's to cover all my business costs, staff member and my personal home bills etc.) I've just set higher goals to motivate more. I still think $45k month is a reasonable goal to aim for. High, but achievable.

If you set a low goal you work towards it.

If you set a much higher goal you have to sit down and really work out what products/services will get you that amount each month, how many sales do I need per day, per week? How will I get those sales? Which products will get me there quickest? Is there a big enough market to get me there? What link ups and partnerships can I do to assist this target and to keep some continuity in sales month on month. Etc...
 
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SparksCW

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Haven't posted here for a while, last month was $36,000 so starting to increase but still far slower than I'd hoped, it was also ironically one of my most stressful months yet. It's only been two months since I quit my day job and the world has changed a lot in that time (Brexit for example!) but it's all too easy to blame outside influences, the trick is to learn to adapt and change so that those issues no longer become a problem.

Things I've Learnt After A Really Stressfully Hard Month


1) Amazon and eBay are hard to compete with.

2) But Amazon & eBay don't add value, so whilst products may be there and cheaper, it doesn't mean you won't sell via your own website.

3) Control is important. One of my smaller brand websites has had a 24% price increase due to the current exchange rate. My supplier put my costs up significantly, now I have to raise all my prices and risk losing sales, but more importantly I can no longer offer my trade account margin and a lot of my customers are trade. Not able to gain product direct, lesson learnt. Unsure how to make the most of this situation now. I can only think of adding more content, more value and more accessories. It's unfortunate, but my other niche site far outperforms this so it's not going to ruin me.

4) Scaling costs money. Lots of money.

5) Three good, properly made, value adding niche websites beat 1 "mega store" that has no USP or purpose.

Spent the whole of Oct-Nov getting stressed over suppliers, eBay & Amazon competition, only to be punched in the face by the reality that (in my opinion) there are only three types of direct product sales ecommerce websites these days.

A)
the quality niche store that answers all the right questions about a product that you can't easily buy from down the road.

B)
the big money mega stores with advertising budgets to suit, all the big brands want these guys to sell their stuff and their TV ads will generate the trust required to make a mega store work.

C)
the wannabes in the middle who don't really know what they are or what they're doing, wondering why they have no traffic and no sales.

I have 2 stores in band A and 1 store in band C. This thread has mostly been about a band A site but I've been working a lot on the band C site this past month or two, only to realise that I'm working pointlessly on something I don't have the money or connections to make it work. I have seen the light and this site can easily be transformed into a Band A site by following the blueprint of my other sites. They are all closely inter-connected but all serve a very different audience.

6) Business isn't easy. Working for yourself is tough. BUT there are no ups without downs. Working for someone else is like sitting on the kids caterpillar rollercoaster at Disney Land. You're pretty safe but you're not really going to have much fun.


My Niche Store 101


1) close matching domain names do help, I am not an SEO expert but I'm very confident that they help. Even if just a little. I know lots of people say otherwise. I don't know if I'm right. But I've had far more success with them than others. I have the same niche product on two sites, the domain name matching site far outperforms the generic site in the serps.

2) Your products need to be something that people need and want (even if they don't know it yet), but they can't just go to the local Tesco/WalMart/Currys/Best Buy and pick one up after work or buy from their websites. Why would someone buy a generic product from you over a big name? Or if it can be picked up easily then it needs to be something that really needs a lot more questions answering that the big stores can't/won't do.

3) You CAN beat Amazon. But you'll only beat them with lots of very useful content. Not just a bit, I'm talking proper descriptions, FAQ's, knowledge base, blog, videos, pictures, guides, how-to's. Go deep! Good content is ever-green, promotes conversions, promotes links and reduces phone calls and emails asking about your products.

4) Build a niche, and when it starts selling well start working in your own-branded or re-branded products. It makes it harder for people to compare you to competition, if your re-branded product is spot on for pricing, quality and meeting customers requirements then you stand a good chance of selling it over the other brands on your site.

5) Niche stores can make it BIG. think ao.com they sell white goods and closely related things you'd expect to see in that type of shop, their USP is low prices due to no showrooms and they play HEAVILY on the FREE timed delivery, who wants to lug a new washing machine home in their car? And vice versa, who wants to pay $60 for delivery? no one, so AO.com removed both those issues and are now a big name in white goods. (in the UK at least) I hear it was started by some bloke who was in a pub with his friends moaning about white goods deliveries and thought he could do better. (not sure if that's true or just internet hear-say) A lot of the success stories I see for people making decent money online all seem to be from smaller niche stores.

6) Don't under-estimate the importance of reviews.

Next month I'll be taking some of Andy Black's advice by spending some more time and money on "Coffee & Diesel"!
 

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I've not updated for a while but we have been busy.

Last month was nearly $70,000 t/o. This month not so good at $40,000 so far but still good enough and a few days left yet....

Things I've learnt.

  1. Sometimes it's lucrative to get off your fat a$$ and go find business in the real world. Ring people, e-mail people, go see people, network, shows etc.
  2. Paid search is key. You can work hard for months to increase SEO and it should be done as it does definitely help. But likewise you can get hundreds of visitors to your site instantly via paid search. The trick is to LEARN IT so you don't waste all your money without conversions. With the help of reading @andyblack threads and help I've managed to double my daily budgets and actually become profitable. It still needs more tweaking as it's not super profitable, but I guess this is where the element of scale comes in - increase ads exponentially and that "smaller" profit margin becomes a large pot of money. I'd highly recommend you read them, then read them again then watch the videos and of course in the words of andy himself, launch and learn!!
  3. As you grow your debtors amount gets bigger, it gets a bit scarier and you need to be careful with what you do with your CASH money. Cash is king!
  4. Keep good stocks, if you sell something regularly, keep it in stock! Else when the manufacturer says they can't get any for a month you still have stuff to sell!
  5. Stay healthy, being tired and in constant pain isn't the key to success. Exercise, lots of water and a bit of down time is required.
  6. To coin a Gary Vaynerchuk phrase... ALWAYS BE ON THE OFFENCE. Your competitors are not sitting around twiddling their thumbs. They're planning to attack you. Be ready/get in there before they can attack you. They will never give up, just like you won't.

TL: DR

Business is hard, there's more to business than the internet, learn PPC, stock what you sell, do some stretching before you ATTACK!!!
 
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So January is over, almost a month since I last posted.

This month ended at just under $23,000 t/o so not too bad considering it is January, it's 270% on last year though which is the main thing!

This month we've;

  • improved some product descriptions (more to go)
  • written buying guides and added to site
  • added some more products
  • put a lot of effort into our other site in an attempt to start building this up in a broader niche. all new banners, products, better category structure etc.
  • done some mail shots
  • got Hootsuite and started to do social media (too soon to say if this will work out but hoot suite certainly makes it easier)

Offline however I'm working on some really good deals and partnership agreements, if this comes off then it'll be extremely good for us. Watch this space.

February we will be;

  • continuing to improve product pages
  • continuing SEO on category pages, descriptions etc
  • more content, need to get this blog going!!
  • working offline on deals and trying to get our company visible in the "real world"
  • increasing eBay and amazon sales with other products to increase sales, we can be a bit broader with this as the products won't show on the main sites.
  • looking for more ways to add value
 

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It's the 5th of June and the website that I'm focusing on in this thread has now (already!) directly sold more $$ than it did in jan, feb, mar, april, may (not combined, just beat the previous months individually with exception of May)

This is telling me that the subtle and the not so subtle design/layout changes are working, the product info is good and the site is working well. The changes were made at the beginning of May and the conversion rate for May was 0.75% and for June so far is 1.33% (for comparison, apr 0.46%, mar 0.58%, feb 0.59%, jan 0.40%) at present overall traffic has barely changed, it's still low at approx 3k sessions and that seems to be pretty steady so at present I'm just converting more people.

3k p.m traffic (sessions) sounds awfully low, I am excited to think what sales will be like if I can get the traffic to 3k a week!!!

This particular site, lets call it Site X for ease.. is now becoming the biggest single source of income out of all the channels as it appears to be (almost) overtaking eBay and Amazon. (average order value is about $300-$400)

Aside from some new products and general on going improvements I think I'm going to back off working on the website and now work on MARKETING. I was working on a "master niche" site but I've put it on hold again as I think I still have so much to learn and do with Site X that starting anything else, even in the same niche, will just be a distraction, Site X's niche is plenty big enough and I don't think I've scraped the surface of it yet.

Said it before, but I have a new sense of motivation right now.

TO DO

1. unique product pictures
2. unique product videos
3. case studies and more content
4. blogging
5. Found an email marketing automation software which I'm going to give a go, seems really clever and I'm going to look at ways to sell more to existing customers as well as sign up people who haven't purchased yet then send them a series of helpful emails to hopefully convert them.
6. I am in talks with a marketing company, I'm reluctant to spend the money but I really want re-marketing banners set up and I've not had much luck with PPC so may need some professional help.
 
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Why would you use Magento? Do you see any specific advantages? I use opencart right now for my site, its free, with lots of resources and easy to create custom modules for it.

I started with magento, but even the basic install on (poorly configured) VPS was quite slow, so I looked for something else.

Good question.

My top ranked store is actually on Opencart. The other sites were originally on Opencart as well.

The new sites are on Magento hosted by a specialist Magento company.

Why Did I Move To Magento?

I wanted certain features and capabilities, mostly revolving around multi-store as my admin backend actually feeds three stores, I know full well that Opencart can do anything, but the multi store is a bit rubbish in my opinion.

The problem is, I'm doing it all myself. I've learnt a lot and my sites do look good (honest) but I hit problems if a module isn't available, and with Opencarts multi store I'd have needed custom themes installed for each shop to look different as the themes I had (Oxy) had a control panel and as such you can't change settings between stores. I know if they were custom templates I could have a different look to everyone, but that means a developer.

I played with Magento loads before I moved and gave up a few times, but when I sussed how it works it just seems to be really good, I think the interface and multi store is 100 times better, there's a lot more features and almost everything I need/want is available as a module, in fact my theme and 90% of my modules I have/want are all from one company which makes me a bit more confident with compatibility etc. There are some features I don't like as well though, you can't mark an order as "processed" it's just "processing" then "shipped".. not ideal (but I'm sure fixable)

I have nothing against Opencart, but for me to move back I'd need a 100% custom template made and multiple features developed to give me everything I want. No doubt an easy task for a developer, but until I'm doing £50k + a month with money to spare it's not really been high on my list.

That Said

Magento is a pain in the backside. I've had numerous speed issues which resulted in moving to a specialist, if it breaks or crashed I'm lost, whereas Opencart I stand a slightly better chance with. I could edit some basic code in Opencart and add/move things on templates (easy stuff) whereas with Magento I don't even know where the template files are.

I will soon need to get a Magento developer onboard to make the changes I want that I can't do and just simply to maintain it, especially when we start seeing more sales.

Opencart is a lot faster and less resources required.

Magento I find easier to navigate and use, it's a lot more intuitive with attributes etc.

All in all I quite like Magento, if I get to the stage where we can design and make a site from the ground up I would certainly be getting quotes on Opencart as well.

If You're Reading This & Thinking Of Starting In e-Commerce

Opencart or Magento?

NEITHER - choose a hosted one like Shopify, get the site running, get the products on, content on etc, focus on selling. Mess around with sites when you know your site sells.

Honestly, if I could go back, I'd have stopped messing around with sites trying to save £30 a month from Shopify and focused on selling things first - then made an all singing all dancing move to a better site when there was money in the bank.
 

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Hey,

Nice thread you got going on here.
I don't know your product and I have limited experience with e-commerce industry wise but hey, your conversion rate sounds pretty good!! On the other hand, (again don't know the product etc. ) 1.6k unique/mo sounds like nothing.

I'd seriously go bonanza on traffic increasing activities.

I've had a proper look and the conversion rate is actually 0.6% not 1.6% so it's not as good as I thought, but it's a bit more realistic now. I consider the traffic to be really low on this site so you're right that I need traffic really. Most of my sales are still coming from third party (eBay and Amazon) and from my other niche site but this site is growing in direct sales so it's getting there, but I would really like the site itself to be doing a lot more sales.

I need to drastically increase quality traffic.

I also agree that your tasks make sense (blog, case studies, faq etc.) but sounds limited on the marketing side. Did you check affiliate marketing, fb ads, google ads, cps or cpc, what about partnership with bloggers, product review programs and maybe even more spammy approachs that are not straight away illegal but on the gray side?

I don't know your profit ratios either but with that revenue and conversion rate with that traffic I think you might have a big catch here.

This is really where I'm struggling, I do a bit of adwords but it's not working that well if I'm honest. The products on this particular site require installation at the right time when someone is remodelling their kitchen so I think a lot of people do a lot of researching before buying. The average product price is around $450 so it's not an impulse buy.

Which is why I think you are right in that partnerships with bloggers, product reviews etc are a good way forward but I struggle to find these types of link ups. I need more exposure from relevant blogs and websites. I need more non-paid exposure.

I wouldn't do anything that's gray side really as I don't want to risk Google penalties etc. I would rather try to think outside the box and target different audiences for the same products but in different situations. I have a few ideas, but again struggling to get out to people. This is easily my biggest downfall, sales and marketing, this is what I need to work on the most. I'm currently reading "Cashvertising".

We closed March at $28,000 t/o so not a bad month, I'm trying to make April a bumper month, I'd like to hit around $35000 and ideally want to be averaging that or more every month by the end of the year.

My net margin after all bills and staff seems to be fairly steady at 20%, we're still paying off some debt so I'm not paying myself and haven't been for a few months, really desperately want to get caught up so I can start paying myself again! My day to day involvement in the company is zero. I have a staff member who deals with all order fulfilment, telephone and email enquiries and she lists lots of new stuff, so my job is to improve the site, marketing etc and once we get to a more steady level then I can do as much or as little as i want. So I'm happy that we're heading in the right direction all round.
 

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I too want to get into the e-commerce world, i find it fascinating and really fun. I would love to start with amazon since its such a huge site and it has alot of visitors every month so i know my product would be seen by some people.

Right now im waiting on some samples from china but just testing the waters, thankfully i found about a guru of this stuff that can mentor me and knows alot of stuff about amazon.

I do love it, but it's not always fun and games, some days, like today you just wish you didn't bother getting out of bed!

$600 worth of returns requests over the weekend.

Had an enquiry for some products to value of about $2000, nice order! he agrees to buy so we call to take payment but for some reason our card processor fails his card repeatedly, he gives up and says he'll call the bank. He's a bit unsure at this stage so it takes an email from me to convince him that we are a legit company and his money is safe with us. He seems happy with that now but is waiting to ensure no money is taken from his account before placing the order directly on our shop (uses a different card processor so should be problem free, hopefully!!) I'm just hoping he comes back and the order goes through okay! Problem lays with our card processor, sometimes it just doesn't like someone!!!

Then less than an hour later we get a negative review (first ever) left from a customer who wants to return an item claiming its faulty, however from his description it clearly isn't, he just isn't connecting it correctly, before we even get the product back he's left a horrible review saying how bad we are and that the returns isn't really "no hassle" - all because we asked him a couple of questions to try and help him get it working...! he forgot to mention that he received the product in less than 20 hours from purchase. He left his review only a couple of hours after he initially emailed us asking to return it!

So there is a down side to e-commerce, but the upsides do make it all worthwhile!!
 
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Finding the day job a real issue lately, I work for my dad and am "in line for the throne" and all that, but my heart isn't in it and we don't really see eye to eye on anything. I'm having an authority issue too, not happy being an employee. Past couple of years I've only really been there because I want to help him get back on his feet, he doesn't seem to help himself though so I'm almost at the point of giving up. He's a true sidewalker through and through.

Might be taking this full time soon, intrigued to see how well we can do if the majority of my focus is on this! Even as part time, by the end of this year I'll be debt free and I'm already paying my own bills!

Favourite thing this week... I import a product from the USA and today I sold one to someone in... the USA! strange when it's readily available out there.

Anyway, keep working and progressing.
 
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So this month has been a real change for me. I've been guided by someone who's run much larger shops in the same industry and I've learnt a considerable amount already. (action has been taken on my site, and seeing results already)

I'm not here to take part, I'm here to take over - Connor McGregor

Little Details

Every single last thing on a website matters. If you want to be the best it matters anyway.

I've been tracking keywords for a long time, and I see them rise and fall and I add a few words into the page to try and boost it. Had some success over time sure.

BUT

I've often wondered why we're in top 5 for a relevant keyword which appears to have reasonable monthly traffic, but we don't seem to get considerable traffic onto the site. And here's why..

When you click on that link and look at the page...

what does it say to you?
does it answer your question?
does it solve your problem?
does it make you want it?
does the meta title and description shown on Google draw you into clicking the link?
does the page relate to the above meta title and description?
does the category description fit?
is there enough products to fulfil the customers needs and desires, people tend not to want 1 solution, they want to compare otherwise they have a nagging doubt about "what else is there?"

Most important thing with SEO (my opinion)

If someone is searching for calculators.. and you're on the first page, top 5 results somehow, but your meta description says computers. Will people still click? if they do and your page mentions computers, will they convert? or will they just disappear off to the next link?

What if you're in the top 5 and your page is relevant, but the description isn't good enough? there aren't enough products to choose from? the page doesn't adequately answer questions?

The SERP ranking isn't the only key factor here.

Your Google result needs to say

Buy Calculators
Make adding up easy. Get your calculators here, all types sizes and colours available next day.

and the page needs to be

"Heres a calculator, want a black one? here you go! calculator with a printer? here you go! calculator that doubles as a coffee machine?!! We have that too because we're the best damn place to buy a calculator oh and heres some pretty pictures of calculators!!!"

So this month we've been going through everything with a fine tooth comb and it's hard work, it's boring and it'll take a lot more time. Every time you think you're getting close you realise there are still so many questions un-answered or bits missing. And let me say that the details weren't alarmingly bad, they just weren't good enough to be the best.

We've been re-writing META descriptions and titles, keeping them within lengths. I recommend using www.seomofo.com SERP tool as you can see what it will look like on Google.

Long Term

This is all long term, it takes time to make changes and it takes more time for them to have results in Google.. however it does make a better product/category page which will improve Google Adwords quality scores etc and hopefully convert more paid traffic whilst building on the organic.

So yeah, attention to detail is where it's at.

(all above being tracked via analytics, judging by conversion, bounce rate improvements and general traffic improvements - small results so far, but we're only a couple weeks into the ongoing changes - I still believe eCommerce is about finding and perfecting the formula, and once the formula is perfected you'll turn the tap on full power and become an "overnight success").
 

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July update, back on track now, last two months were very poor, this month has been OK.

I've deleted ALL sub-sites, we now only have our main two websites and a smaller brand site (no involvement required). I've moved one of the main sites from Magento to Shopify and re-built it from the ground up. Everything we've learnt is going into this site, hoping this will become our primary site within the next 12 months.

We now have full-on enhanced analytics, instragram product tagging and more things we were struggling with on Magento. Site is faster, easier, better.

But all of this has caused loads of problems, certain staff can't get their heads around the changes in platform, the new order management system etc. so having to document everything in SOP's (standard operating procedures) which is good, but time consuming.

I don't like stressing people out but our business needs to evolve and it will evolve, regardless of who or what stands in our way.

Have a meeting with a big supplier tomorrow to tell them we're replacing their range with a better brand, not looking forward to it but their stuff is hard to sell, friends or not, it's holding our business back.

Ordered more packing benches, going to build a work station for processing orders then we can pack on the new bench. Ordered a specialist rack for some of our products as they were stressing our packer out. This should make things easier.

Focusing more on content, guides, category descriptions etc.

Adding more products, websites looking good, but still lots to do before we turn ads on and hopefully start scaling.

The small brand website we run moved from Magento to WooCommerce and the conversion rate went from 0.19% to 2.99% - significant uplift in sales and enquiries. It's only a small site but it's still revenue, and we don't need to advertise or do much work, just process the order. I don't like WooCommerce as an ecomm platform though, it fits the need for this small niche site, but otherwise I'd avoid WooCommerce.

Now have weekly staff meetings, have set KPI's and got a dashboard in the office with our BEST month vs CURRENT month. Previously I set a target of X but it made no sense, what does the target mean? now we put our BEST month and then always try to beat the best month. If we did X once we can do it again + some!

Planning office revisions now to allow for more staff. Staff are stressful, but vital. I think a lot of stress is relieved if you have detailed SOP's and a clear mission. Something we don't have yet, but are getting closer every day.

Cash is running low, going to have to start stocking more lines now to get the margin we need to scale. Haven't ran out of cash yet but we'll see what happens.

Starting to feel in control, still learning and still have a long way to go.

Remember - Consistent forward motion. Day by day.
 

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So tip 1. Don't use working capital finance for anything but stock purchases and make sure your repayment percentage falls well within your profit margin!!

1) Print out in big letters and tape to the wall: NO MORE DEBT

2) You have a weekly cash flow for the next few months? Do you know when you run out of money completely? If not, you need to know. That knowledge will prompt action and help you prioritize. You can't operate in the dark.

3) Then figure out what you can do to not run out of cash. Re-finance with a bank. Work out a payment furlough with Paypal (I got a 30 or 60 day reprieve... don't remember, just by calling and asking).

4) Time to take outside investment?


It is not worth losing family/kids/everything/health. Your #1 job as CEO is do not let the business run out of money.

You may feel like giving up. Don't. Every successful business person goes through a time like this. Those that make it didn't give up.

You got this brother.
 
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$400k+ in November. (profitable!)

$165k in the last 7 days. (also profitable!)

Now have 5 staff + me and have just made an offer to another potential new team member. Hopeful.

Outgrown our warehouse + need another warehouse operative.

About to delete two more product categories and disposing of a sub-brand that doesn't generate much profit so our focus will be narrowed once again.

Just a year ago I thought that a $1m month was unrealistic, now though, not only is it my new goal but I know how to do it.

2024 Goals:
  1. More content, guides, videos (new hire already in progress)
  2. Warehouse move
  3. Own branded product range (in progress already)

  1. Plan downtime and holidays etc or time will simply fly by and you will miss out. For instance, your kids are only young once.

This.

I've run myself into the ground this year. Not happening next year.
 

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I'm going to add little "completed" lists and notes, even if just for my own purposes of remembering when I did things.

Thursday 7th Jan 2016


Wrote buying guide for primary product range no. 1
Wrote buying guide for primary product range no. 2
Built "info center" page with some guides and links to the buying guides
Added more info pages to site footer including FAQ's, Technical Glossary etc and also compiled all links in the "info center" page.
Added compiled videos page to footer (shows all product videos from product page, on one page)
Added link to blog

Notes

Sold a high value product that we've not sold before today, relating to niche, more work required on those pages now that we got our first sale. Needs a few more products, better descriptions, category pages, etc.

Sales this week $6500 so far with another $1200 pending awaiting payment (phone orders)
 

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I have a theory...

People who are successful do not really go about looking for "how to make money" or "how to grow an eCommerce site" or "business forum for entrepreneurs" or ....ANYTHING in my opinion, that would lead you to join The Fastlane Forum... But perhaps it just happened, and I can understand that.

So... there you have it, I don't believe it. Anyone could post anything...but who cares what I think, you know what I mean?

I wasn't looking for how to make money or anything like that. I was looking for a place where other people, successful or trying, talk about business and business related things. Just like I'm on car forums for car interests etc... but you're right I don't consider myself "successful" yet, I'm not doing too bad though.

I get your post, it's all valid, but that's what this post is about and what I'm already doing this.

Product page improvements for SEO = more visitors = more conversions = more $$
Adwords improvements = more visitors = more conversions = more $$
Offline partnerships = more contacts (scale) = more sales = more $$ = higher margins (magnitude) and more products = more $$
More content = more visitors = more conversions = more $$
More value = more visitors = more conversions = more $$

I spent a lot of time previously changing themes and playing around with which web system I wanted to be on, however everything I've been doing since late last year is to generate more sales, and as the monthly $$ is increasing it's obviously working. The sites aren't perfect, but they work, they look good enough and the work has been on getting more people on the site and getting more sales offline.
 
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OK so I missed posting at the end of last month. I'm still doing this thread to keep myself accountable more than anything so here's a quick overview of the past month and 14 days.

February was a bit disappointing at only $20,000 t/o if I'm honest, not as good as January. This month we're currently up to $13,000 so I'm aiming to finish the month at around $25-30k. I'm not 100% convinced we're "growing" at the minute, but we're not going back wards which is positive.

What have I done?

  • Added new features to site including a knowledge base, quick view feature, some better browsing features, layered navigation + more searchable attributes (useful, not just pointless ones)
  • Tagged all products, should be good for SEO and does help when browsing
  • Narrowed my product range slightly
  • Generally improving some products and categories as I go. Still lots of work to do. Need to write lots more unique descriptions.
  • Added a "downloads" section to products where I'm adding manuals, guides, info etc.
  • Added another range of relevant products
  • Using Hootsuite to post twice daily on Facebook

What I've identified.

The site is pretty good, it looks nice, looks trustworthy enough in my opinion and is generally pretty easy to choose a solution. But there just isn't enough eyes on the site! I'm getting around 1800 unique UK visitors per month. The site itself is converting about 1.6% at most. Most of our sales are still coming from third party and our other niche product range.

I feel the site is pretty much at the point where I don't want to add too much more, just need to work on content and marketing now, otherwise I fear the site will become too cluttered and will make niche customers trying to find a specific solution struggle and go elsewhere.

Moving Forward

There are still some site and product improvements to be done but my focus is now on

  • Building a decent active blog on the site
  • improving product descriptions (unique)
  • adding content in way of knowledge base, answering questions etc
  • adding plenty of supplementary information such as manuals, guides, info, case studies etc.
It's been a bit depressing lately as I don't feel it's moving fast enough but I'm trying to stay positive as it's not going backwards! I still feel that all the work will soon "turn a tap on" and the orders will come pouring in.
 

SparksCW

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Hey man, nice thread. I'm also from the UK, so it's good to see another British person making something happen on this side of the pond.

How did you start off in e-commerce & what would you advise for a beginner with a few £k to risk?

One of my suppliers in my day job suggested I started a web shop and sold some bits and it was "easy money".. so I did, and barely got any sales! However I didn't give up, I found a niche product which started selling, then I got the manufacturers domain name for UK and that site started growing, then I tried a broader niche with a different product which is the site I'm trying to grow and that I refer to on this thread. We also sell on eBay and Amazon as well as direct trade sales.

My advice would be to find a niche, it can be anything, there are still opportunities, if there are a couple of existing sites then that isn't necessarily a bad thing as it shows there is a market for the product. Then it's quite simple really, build a decent looking, fast website that answers everyones questions as well as things they didn't even know they wanted to ask. Then get people on the site. The key part really is adding the value, answering questions and removing barriers to buy. Look at your competitors and try to do it different/better. Or target their same products at a different audience.

The hard part is getting people on the site ;)
 

DrkSide

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So there is a down side to e-commerce, but the upsides do make it all worthwhile!!
The downside isn't talked about nearly as much on here but it is inevitable that you will have days/weeks/months like this. What defines you is how you deal with this and keep pushing forward.

This lifestyle isn't for the faint of heart. The highs are high and the lows are very low.

Good work so far and keep pushing!
 

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