Ask me anything about eCommerce (2012)

[bmarone]

The process is basically:
buy a domain
get hosting
set up a storefront
get merchant account/payment processor
get traffic (PPC, SEO, Ads, etc...)
process orders

That's pretty much all I needed to know. Thanks. By platform, I meant a base/website where this ecommerce/trading could happen. It won't just be me selling items but others on the site, sort of like ebay, with products of a specific type to sell and trade it in with money.

 

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[paradox]

Learning a lot from this! How do you manage product catalogs? Do you create product skus, pics, categories/hierarchies manually? Some of the niches I am looking into (resale of specific parts) have over 5,000 skus, not really sure if i can manage and create product listings effectively without automation or some sort. I am concerned it will become really complex to operate with large amount of data increasing possibility of error. Are there any tools that manage large sku catalogs? My understanding is that effective SEO is largely dependent on good catalog as well.

 

[biophase]

ok so I looked at Amazon and they seem to have an entire set up. Including the shopping cart. So what are the positive and negatives for using Amazon. If I can get an entire e commerce store and have them fulfill my orders. This seems like a great one stop shop.

Amazon charges about $40 a month and takes 15% if you use their site as a store. I'm not sure if they would fulfill for you without one of their stores. I don't have any recommendations for fulfillment companies, but there are tons of them everywhere.

 

[biophase]

Learning a lot from this! How do you manage product catalogs? Do you create product skus, pics, categories/hierarchies manually? Some of the niches I am looking into (resale of specific parts) have over 5,000 skus, not really sure if i can manage and create product listings effectively without automation or some sort. I am concerned it will become really complex to operate with large amount of data increasing possibility of error. Are there any tools that manage large sku catalogs? My understanding is that effective SEO is largely dependent on good catalog as well.

I have niche stores which don't have that many products. I take my own photos and write my own descriptions for my products. I don't want a cookie cutter ecommerce store. I am sure there are many tools out there to help you manage skus. I just don't use them. I run a pretty simple shop.

 

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[Iqen]

This is a niche dependent question but for the sake of discussion I'll still ask: what are your thoughts on offering retailer-side warranties?

My industry dosen't have many products at high risk of wear or damage (like say electronics or car parts) so I'm thinking of adding warranty options for between 10-15% of the product price as an option in the cart. That extra margin would go a long way if the warranties are priced right.

 

[Joehenny]

I'm curious to know what made you get into e-commerce and how did you start?

Also what's the best option to learn SEO. I have a friend who does it as a job but was telling me it would cost like 500 a month if I searched for a company to coach me.

 

[biophase]

This is a niche dependent question but for the sake of discussion I'll still ask: what are your thoughts on offering retailer-side warranties?

My industry dosen't have many products at high risk of wear or damage (like say electronics or car parts) so I'm thinking of adding warranty options for between 10-15% of the product price as an option in the cart. That extra margin would go a long way if the warranties are priced right.

I would love to add warranties onto products that I sell. I think it would be a great revenue generator. My products don't really need warranties as they get dirty and are used outdoors. I think if you have product that you can get 10-15% of it's cost for a warranty it could be worth looking into.

Better yet, I'd rather have a monthly subscription to a warranty which would be good for anything they buy.

 

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[biophase]

I'm curious to know what made you get into e-commerce and how did you start?

Also what's the best option to learn SEO. I have a friend who does it as a job but was telling me it would cost like 500 a month if I searched for a company to coach me.

I wanted a business that I could run from anywhere. Ecommerce seemed like the simplest way so I tried to buy a store and ended up starting my own.

The best way to learn SEO is to start a website (any one page site will do), target a keyword, read about SEO and then try to rank your website.

 

[Antonio.]

How do you feel about Shopify and volusion I'm currently in demo mode between BIG, shopify and volusion.

 

[danoodle]

What is your opinion about SSL certificates? Seems interspire won't even let you use their checkout platform without having a "secure" site...

 

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[biophase]

What is your opinion about SSL certificates? Seems interspire won't even let you use their checkout platform without having a "secure" site...

You NEED one! You can't use a checkout system without one. No payment processor would let you use their system without SSL.

 

[biophase]

How do you feel about Shopify and volusion I'm currently in demo mode between BIG, shopify and volusion.

I haven't looked at Shopify lately. I think Volusion is ok. Why don't you compare those 3 to bigcommerce. You can do a trial there too.

 

[Antonio.]

Actually I am. V is the cheapest out the bunch. I'm probably going to use shopify or big.

 

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[danoodle]

Edit: Just realized that someone posted this question a couple pages back...

I would just like to comment, it's funny how I didn't realize until recently "ecommerce" is basically just affiliate marketing if you are only doing dropshipping. Eventually I would like to get into wholesaling and whatnot but want to see if I can get any sales before storing product and shipping myself, etc.

PS Thanks for all the info! It is all so helpful and I am one of the people actually setting something up and am constantly on the lookout for a good niche as well

 

[Joehenny]

I wanted a business that I could run from anywhere. Ecommerce seemed like the simplest way so I tried to buy a store and ended up starting my own.

The best way to learn SEO is to start a website (any one page site will do), target a keyword, read about SEO and then try to rank your website.

Hmm okay. I think I'll use ebay as a training ground for now until I get SEO down then.

 

[KCErnest]

I have a question about shipping and customs.

I've got a prototype of a product being shipped to me from China. I've asked for the first real order container sizes and how far they will handle shipping assuming I need to take over once it hits my designated port. They've responded with a cost of $159 by sea and $1859 by air from them to New York for an example. This is for 9 total cartons at about 2'x2'x3' each with a combined total weight of 350kg.

My question is; once it's here, what other costs and logistics are neccessary to move it? I've heard of needing a customs broker and paying duties and taxes and all kinds of things but haven't found much solid info.

Thanks for this thread, it is very inspiring and crazy informative.

 

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[bernieshawn]

Quick question, Biophase, if you don't mind:

What do you look for SEO-wise when researching a niche? Is there a good range for the number of searches the main keyword gets?

I've been thinking about trying to set up a dropship site to get a little bit of income, not trying to hit a home run yet, but just get something going. I found 3 possible products/niches to build sites around, and the search volumes (exact match) are 18,100; 14,800; and 22,000. Are those good search volumes (not too competitive, but enough to be worth targeting)?

 

[Stayer]

Quick question, Biophase, if you don't mind:

What do you look for SEO-wise when researching a niche? Is there a good range for the number of searches the main keyword gets?

I've been thinking about trying to set up a dropship site to get a little bit of income, not trying to hit a home run yet, but just get something going. I found 3 possible products/niches to build sites around, and the search volumes (exact match) are 18,100; 14,800; and 22,000. Are those good search volumes (not too competitive, but enough to be worth targeting)?

Are those numbers from SEMRush? If yes, here's the breakdown for a keyword with 14800 (US) hits since I worked on one before -

14800/monthly searches = 493/daily hits
#1 receives 40% of this = 197/daily hits
#2 receives 12% of this = 59/daily hits

mine was #6 and getting 70 daily hits, but those include hits from other countries and related keywords also.

 

[MrPink]

What are you seeing for bounce rate and average time on site?

Are you seeing any trends between your different sites?

 

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[JasonR]

Has anyone mentioned Magento Go? In my opinion, a solid platform to start with albeit a steep learning curve.

 

[snowman]

Hi biophase, I read previously that you recommended a platform that could just sit idle if need be and not rack up costs like the monthly subscriptions.
Now that BigCommerce is a monthly subscription what are you using yourself for future stores?

Cheers

 

[biophase]

I would just like to comment, it's funny how I didn't realize until recently "ecommerce" is basically just affiliate marketing if you are only doing dropshipping.

Actually it isn't. With affiliate marketing the customer is not buying from you, they are buying from someone else. You are not building any presence or brand with affiliate marketing. If someone goes from you website to amazon and buys a product, guess what, they aren't coming back to your site when they need the same product. They go directly to amazon.

With a real ecommerce store, they are buying from you. They don't know you are dropshipping.

 

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[biophase]

Hi biophase, I read previously that you recommended a platform that could just sit idle if need be and not rack up costs like the monthly subscriptions.
Now that BigCommerce is a monthly subscription what are you using yourself for future stores?

Cheers

I am still on Interspire, but that is being discontinued in July 2012. I will probably stay with Interspire until I absolutely have to switch.

I think Magento is free and/or not subscription based.

BC was always a monthly subscription.

 

[biophase]

What are you seeing for bounce rate and average time on site?

Are you seeing any trends between your different sites?

I will have to look at my analytics before I answer this. What trends do you mean?

 

[biophase]

I have a question about shipping and customs.

I've got a prototype of a product being shipped to me from China. I've asked for the first real order container sizes and how far they will handle shipping assuming I need to take over once it hits my designated port. They've responded with a cost of $159 by sea and $1859 by air from them to New York for an example. This is for 9 total cartons at about 2'x2'x3' each with a combined total weight of 350kg.

My question is; once it's here, what other costs and logistics are neccessary to move it? I've heard of needing a customs broker and paying duties and taxes and all kinds of things but haven't found much solid info.

Thanks for this thread, it is very inspiring and crazy informative.

You will have to get a forwarder to handle customs and shipping. So let's say you pay $159 to get it to New York. Then you need to pay the following:

duties/taxes depending on what you are importing
some fees that they charge at the dock, like unloading, storage, paperwork, etc...
transport from New York to your city
delivering from your city to your home or business

A forwarding company should be able to just give you a quote for the whole thing. They make all the payments and then you pay them.

The $159 price seems too cheap. Are you sure that the $159 is not the price for them to get it from the mainland city to a port city in China?

If so, then you will also have to pay the ocean freight to get the containers to New York.

I think your most likely scenario is to pay:
mainland city to port city in China
Ocean Freight to LA
Duties and Taxes
Warehouse and Port Fees
LA to New York truck transport
New York warehouse to home delivery

 

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[PatrickP]

Hey Bio, I didn't want to do it as maybe you didn't want it here,

but I would suggest you post up a link here to your thread that you gave all the great info about what you do specifically.

It STILL is a wonder to me what you were willing to put out there. That thread alone is worth the price of admission

 

[friduita]

Hey everyone, I've been getting alot of PMs lately about my ecommerce stores so I thought I'd just start a thread where you can post questions abouy anything ecommerce (suppliers, platforms, credit card processors, SEO, dropshipping, etc...) and I will try to answer them here.

Great! Thank you in advance!

I have a question regarding subscription e-commerce. Have you thought about selling in that model? Nowadays it seems like subscription shops are poping up everywhere. The model ensures steady income but I am wondering how is the churn?

I would be grateful for your opinion!

 

[JasonR]

I think Magento is free and/or not subscription based.

Magento Community is Free, while Magento Go is subscription based. We are developing a site on Magento Community right now, and it's going to cost us in the neighborhood of $40,000. Standard Magento projects (without much customization) will run in the $12k-15k range from a reputable developer. Keep in mind Magento pushes it's Enterprise Version ($14k a year) as much as it can.

For full discretion, this is the company I work for. While I think Magento is a great platform, it certainly has its own issues and development is not cheap. Using a subscription based, hosted cart is usually easiest to start a newly emerging business. However, if you need some killer feature or custom coding that a subscription based cart can't offer, you almost have to look at something like Magento.

I'm planning on launching my business on a subscription based cart, then migrating over to Magento when money permits.

I hope that helps!

 

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[Fisherman]

I remember reading 97 percent of eCommerce sites make 0 dollars in their first 3 years. I am assuming after 3 years they go out of business. If you guys are doing this you will need to bust your ballz to make money.. just a reality check

 

[jilla82]

I remember reading 97 percent of eCommerce sites make 0 dollars in their first 3 years. I am assuming after 3 years they go out of business. If you guys are doing this you will need to bust your ballz to make money.. just a reality check

its funny that when I did a quick search about this, all I kept seeing was

"97% of e-commerce websites (shopping websites) make $0 profits in their first 3 years online. Such is the steep learning curve and skill set..."

Seems whomever wrote that is selling a book.
Though it is true in general most businesses fail...but that shouldn't deter anyone. Is there anything in business that has favorable odds for everyone?