Building Products and Sell Them via E-Commerce [Progress Thread]

[amp0193]

For those who cannot afford web development

More and more 100M+ brands are moving from their custom built solutions to Shopify. They can afford web development.

Your opinion is a minority one, and I will persist that Shopify is the best option for just about anyone and is the best advice for pretty much anyone reading this thread

Not brought up yet, but the discounts Shopify gives on payment processing completely covers my subscription cost, vs switching elsewhere and then having to pay more to process credit cards.

I am effectively paying $0 for Shopify.

 

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[NIK4658]

the discounts Shopify gives on payment processing completely covers my subscription cost, vs switching elsewhere and then having to pay more to process credit cards.

LITERALLY.

I don't know how I didn't realize this before. But until this week I was convinced that Shopify's processing fees were higher than WooCommerce's, until I saw that I pay almost 5% per transaction.

This was another thing in Shopify's favor.

 

[NervesOfSteel]

More and more 100M+ brands are moving from their custom built solutions to Shopify.

yeah, i trust you bro!

Your opinion is a minority one, and I will persist that Shopify is the best option for just about anyone and is the best advice for pretty much anyone reading this thread

Not brought up yet, but the discounts Shopify gives on payment processing completely covers my subscription cost, vs switching elsewhere and then having to pay more to process credit cards.

I am effectively paying $0 for Shopify.

The Control of one's online store and the sales data in exchange for chump change discounts and dirt-cheap service! No wonder the majority loves this opinion!

I pay almost 5% per transaction.

It is max 2% for national payments via any gateway here and 4-5% for international credit cards. The gateway enabled by my national bank is free!

 

[NIK4658]

@NervesOfSteel

Let's simply agree that we disagree with each other

 

[NervesOfSteel]

@NervesOfSteel

Let's simply agree that we disagree with each other

It's a difference of opinion.

 

[NIK4658]

Weekly Progress Post #20​

Big news guys!

Restarted using Facebook and Instagram Ads​

I wanted to change the situation I was in, the lack of traffic to my website.
I wanted to test Facebook and Instagram ads again, but this time in a better way.

The last (and first) time I tried running some ads, I ended up spending $200 to get a single order and getting an overall ROAS of 0.5.
The problem was both not having a really good offer and a product focused ad rather than an entertainment/issue focused video.

I researched that, to get a highly performing ad, the ad should not look and be recognized as an ad, but as authentic content published on the platform.
So what did I do? I simply edited the video that the influencer made for me and posted to his accounts.

I took the 2 minute video and cut it down to 30 seconds and tried to SHOW the product and make the viewer feel like the video was an actual video and not an ad.
I simply added a hook line (with text-to-speech) at the beginning of the video and a CTA at the end, again with TTS.

Nothing else, set up an Advantage+ campaign, enable only some EU countries and start advertising with 20 euros a day to see what might happen.

Orders.. Orders.. Orders!​

Wow guys, this week has been wild.

The day after I started advertising I received THREE orders.
This has never happened to me, it felt so good. I almost couldn't believe it.

The best part? Two of them weren't even from ads, probably from Influencer videos.

The orders are international orders, one from damn KOREA and the other from Canada and for this they were charged 30 euros shipping.

When I saw it I said WHAT?!?!
This is great.
The potential of the product is very high.

I also received two other orders during the week, both from Facebook Ads.
At this moment I have spent around €120 to receive three orders of €80 each (gross).

I am very happy even if the advertising spent on the product is not yet "excellent".
Of course, 40 euros for an order of 80 euros (or more) is better than 200 euros for a 95 euro order like the last one.

I created the packing and set up everyone's shipping during the week.
I admit this part needs some improvement, it takes too long to pack and create the shipping label.

Finished components stock, made a big order for the new batch​

This week I've been working on building some of the main products.
I ran out of components so I only have a couple left (also because I received "many" orders).

Also thanks to the funds from the new orders, I placed a very large order for the new components.

I purchased everything I need (aside from the new version of the PCBs, I'll wait a while for those) to build ONE HUNDRED pieces of the main product, the one I'm trying to sell the most.

I also got some things to improve the business, like a solid label printer to make packing and shipping tasks much faster.

Time to change over Shopify​

I also spent a lot of time researching Shopify this week as I've never had the curiosity to see what Shopify's ecommerce backend looks like.
I can't believe this is potential compared to my current situation with woocommerce.

It's over, I've decided that I will switch to Shopify as soon as possible, I don't want to spend even a second of my precious time on stupid tasks on woocommerce that can be done with just one click (or automatically) with Shopify.
Furthermore, with Shopify my e-commerce will certainly be better.

 

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[amp0193]

The Control of one's online store and the sales data in exchange for chump change discounts and dirt-cheap service! No wonder the majority loves this opinion!

Sales data is easily exported and backed up. Not sure what the concern is there?

They don't have control of my online store. If they shut me down for some reason, I'd be up and running in 24 hours on some other platform. I have all the copy / images etc.

It's like saying Canva has control of my ability to create ad creatives.
Or Klaviyo has control of my ability to send emails to people.

They are tools to make my job easier. And make my life easier, shopify does.

 

[NIK4658]

Weekly Progress Post #21​

Worked a lot on new Shopify website​

Over the course of the week I spent a lot of time working on the initial Shopify setup.
This time I want to make the website as clean as possible, because my current Woocommerce website is full of junk and disorganized.
Designed almost all website pages, the design is based on the current website, only much cleaner.
I just have some issues with the videos displaying correctly on desktop (even though 99% of sales will be on the mobile version of the site), I'll fix them this week.
The plan is to integrate everything I need into Shopify, take advantage of Shopify's automation, and make the actual switch (bringing the live Shopify website to the official domain) this week.

Stopped ads, stopped traffic and sales, but sold one item trough Etsy​

I expected this lack of sales, since I don't have any source of organic traffic.
But I sold an item through Etsy! Sold for 20% more than the current official website.

Worked a lot on the software part for the main product​

Since I plan to change the MCU that drives the main product, I had to test and modify the firmware that runs on it to make it compatible with the software needed for it to work.
Because of this I "wasted" a couple days of my time, because I had to reverse engineer an entire third-party software.
But I finally got it, so I had confirmation that the MCU I wanted to use is compatible, and I'm ready to pull the trigger on the new PCBs

Improved and completed the new design of the main product PCBs​

After making sure the MCU I wanted to use was compatible, I worked on some final updates for the PCBs I wanted produced.
I updated the design further and purchased 25 pieces to test and see if they work properly.
I will probably receive them in 7-10 days.

Got an "unexpected" great Review​

A customer who purchased the product last week wrote a HUGE positive review on my official website.
This was very unexpected. Not only was the review SUPER DETAILED, but he also took the time to explain HOW HE FELT and WHAT IMPROVEMENTS CAN BE MADE!
And the funny thing is, I WASN'T EVEN THINKING about what he was suggesting!
This blew my mind, this is actually the feedback loop that makes further improvements to the products. I LOVE THIS.

Will work on updating the main product as suggested​

The customer was right, the idea he had was fantastic, I don't know how I didn't think of it before.
I will try to implement this feature as soon as possible, but it requires some custom production pieces that I need to design and let be made. I will try to do my best.

Waiting before restarting Paid Ads​

Since I don't have any products ready and I have to wait for the components to arrive, I'm waiting to start paid advertising again.
In the meantime I will be working on the website, product development and also creative to test in the future.

 

[amp0193]

This blew my mind, this is actually the feedback loop that makes further improvements to the products. I LOVE THIS.

Excellent! It's fun to make products that people love and rave about.

And they are an endless source of inspriation.

Every time I see customers in our facebook group modding their product, we go ahead and come out with our own (better) version of that mod. And the average order values keep climbing.

 

[NIK4658]

Weekly Progress Post #22​

Kept working on the Shopify Website, almost finished it​

Unfortunately I haven't finished it yet, also because I had to do a LOT of unexpected research on taxes and laws since I don't have a registered business yet and I didn't know if I could use Shopify or not.
However, I continued working on it and managed to find a solution to the problem of displaying videos correctly using my programming skills
I just need to replicate the product pages like the ones currently on the live website and organize the images and videos properly to have a clean workspace to work with in the future.
Then I'll set up some automations, the download page and that's it, I'll go from the wordpress site to the Shopify site.

Improved the main product after listening to the customer feedback​

I'm proud to say this week I've already updated the main product design adding the improvement I received thanks to the intelligent feedback I received from the latest customer review.

I was able to get in touch with a manufacturer who can make me custom CNC parts in a ton of materials.
I have already ordered 100 custom pieces to improve the overall design.

Since this new manufacturer is also able to work with carbon fiber, I asked him to produce a couple of my parts (which I usually 3D print) to test their quality.
This will be more expensive (carbon fiber cutting vs 3D printer) but will improve the overall skew value A LOT.

I'm really happy to be able to use this manufacturer for my projects, the product development potential is much higher now.

I also improved the product inside by modeling some proper mounting holes for the new PCBs coming soon.

PCBs have been manufactured​

New versions of the PCBs were produced this week and are on the way.
Shipped today, will probably get them this next week.

Completed Instruction manual for the Main product​

I have started and completed a proper instruction manual for the main product I want to sell the most.
I wrote it on Latex trying to design and write it as cleanly as possible AND explaining all the necessary steps trying to resolve every single doubt I've ever heard from customers.

I've also implemented a quick troubleshooting guide with some of the most common setup issues I've discovered/heard about.

I will insert this PDF into a special "Download" page on the new site and perhaps even send it via email once the product has been purchased.

Researched for custom foam cutting for custom packaging​

In addition to building the actual products, the activity that wastes my most time is packaging.

I've been trying to find a solution to this problem and have come across a manufacturer who can produce custom cut foam that I can then put in my packages.

Thanks to this the overall packaging will be MUCH better, both aesthetically and in terms of protection during shipping

(Again, +1 for skew value)

The foam pieces will be extremely cheap and can save me from spending so much time packaging each individual product, as I can easily just pop the foam into the package and then pop the product in, that's it.
Much better than me simply covering the product in bubble wrap and taping it manually.

I haven't placed the order yet, but I'll probably give it a try.

It will basically be something like this:
(Material is EPE)

Received the components & the Label Printer​

I have received all the components from the "large" order of components needed for the next batch.
There are components for a quantity of 100 pieces, only the PCBs and the new customized pieces that I had made in CNC are missing.

I also received a label printer which will help speed up packing and shipping.

Zero sales​

Since traffic has returned to almost zero, I haven't received any sales this week either.

 

[NIK4658]

Weekly Progress Post #23​

Steady progress, a bit slowed down for UNI assignments.

Completed the Shopify Website and published it in the official domain​

I finally got the Shopify website done, everything is set up.
Images, videos, reviews, product pages, homepages, policies, cart, checkout, email automations, backorders, etc.
A couple of days ago I also made the switch. Bye bye Wordpress, welcome Shopify.

The only thing I could (and should) add is an Upsell plugin to increase AOV since I have a lot of products to sell.

Updated PCBs delivered, they are perfect.​

They have arrived! THEY ARE AMAZING and 100% WORKING! God, I'm so happy with this improvement, 6 months ago I never would have thought I could do what I personally designed and had manufactured.

I tested them briefly, haven't created a product with them yet.

Waiting for the CNC Pieces​

I'm currently waiting for the parts I ordered so I can assemble the products with the new update. I want to build them all with this functionality to start marketing them with this new update and also with greater value for customers. (and also higher price).

Next moves: Marketing​

After I am able to assemble the products, the next step will be to start working hard on marketing again.
I will be working with Meta Ads, this time using A/B testing correctly to create a profitable AD / ad set with high ROI, testing many things and learning through the process.
In the meantime I will use the money from the sales to organize the next batches if everything goes as planned.

 

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[NIK4658]

Weekly Progress Post #24​

Had to work on the UNI assignment for most of the week.

Redesigned the Interior pieces of the Main product​

With the new PCBs and new CNC parts coming in, I had to change the internal design of the 3D printed parts for my main product, it looks more complete than ever, I'm making some changes to be able to fit everything perfectly.
I'm very happy with this.

Create a improved variation, or just sell only the improved product​

Since I am now improving the product with new CNC parts and the improvement is only aesthetic, I am thinking whether I should let the customer choose between two versions or just improve the overall product and sell only the improved one, at a higher price than Before.
Selling just one variant would mean building and preparing only one version of the product, but having two versions that could be sold at two different prices could be of interest to different customers.

CNC Parts Delivery​

Tomorrow the first batch of CNC parts will be delivered, then I will check that everything I have designed is as expected and I will start building the first products. Then I will HAVE to start marketing them properly again.

 

[NervesOfSteel]

Selling just one variant would mean building and preparing only one version of the product, but having two versions that could be sold at two different prices could be of interest to different customers.

Be the "Apple" of your monopolistic market! That's where the highest profit percentage lies!

 

[NIK4658]

Be the "Apple" of your monopolistic market!

So what do you mean exactly?

 

[NervesOfSteel]

So what do you mean exactly?

I would focus on making a high-grade product and then selling it at a higher price. Be a brand!

 

[NIK4658]

Weekly Progress Post #25​

I've been super productive and I've so many updates this week

Completed the new product iteration, it looks so good​

The CNC pieces have been delivered on Monday, and the same day I worked on building the first prototype with them.
Thanks to the new internal design AND for the new PCBs, building one of them is way easier.
But since there is also this CNC part that also requires a vinyl wrap on it, some more manual work is necessary.
I struggled a bit the first time, but the end results is something incredibly nice looking.
I'm super excited, this new update really put everything to another level in my opinion and I showed the images to some of my friends (that has the previous version) and they agree with me.

As @NervesOfSteel suggested, I will only offer the updated product, at a higher price.

I want to minimise the amount of effort to build and prepare each product, that's why I'm doing this many iterations.
The next "issue" to solve is that I have to manually cut and place a vinyl wrap on the CNC parts.
I asked to the CNC parts manufacturer if they were able to do so, but unfortunately they can't.
Since the main issue is to cut the vinyl properly from it's roll, I bought a machine that should solve me this issue.
I didn't need very big pieces, so I bought one of this at a relatively low cost to see if this could help me with the process.

Placed a Custom Foam Packaging Order​

To improve the overall packaging, spend less time with the single packaging and to learn and test how to design a proper packaging foam, I wanted to explore this little word of foam packaging.
Last week I got in contact with some Foam Manufacturer on Alibaba, and I designed some nice looking foam pieces that could fit perfectly on the boxes I've got and also that can precisely contain my products.
Thanks to my 3D Modeling skills, the design of this pieces didn't took me so much time.
Then I pulled the trigger, ordered pieces worth 100 orders, for just a couple dollar each in total.
The Shipping is the thing that cost me so much, basically half the cost was the shipping. I'm still happy because this means that everything is more scalable when I will need more of them in the future.
This is an image showing an example of how the foams will look like.

Already Recorded and edited all the Images and videos for the updated product​

Since I've improved the main product a lot, I had to record and create again all the media for the product page.
I recorded many videos, one SHOWING the product and also one for each value skew that it offers.
Plus, I also created all the images for the product page.

All the media are way better in quality than the last ones.

Designed and had Stickers and Thank You "Flyers" made​

Thanks to a local shop that can produce this type of things, I had sticker and Thank You "Fliers" made.
Stickers are just some little things to add to each package to improve the brand identity.
The purpose of the Fliers are to place one them in each product package.
This flier has a "THANK YOU" sentence, a "REVIEW US" sentence (to improve the review rates) and a QR Code where the customer can download the User Manual of the product.

Upsell Shopify App​

Found and installed a very nice Upsell APP for Shopify since I think that It's so much important to have one, since I will ultimately improve the general LTV also because I've many products available on my store.
I've done the app setup, but didn't setup each single upsell option yet.

Got another Idea to improve even again the product, very easy to Implement​

Had another interesting idea to improve the product.
Since the main product has a red piece used to improve its aestethic look, I thought that I can simply offer customizable color to the product, so each customer can choose their preferred colour to match their preferences.
I am already working on this implementation.

Still didn't record the actual videos for the Meta Ads​

Even if I have made a lot of progress this week, I didn't record any videos that I can use to market the product on Meta Ads. Will work on them in the very near future, since restart marketing again them is crucial.

 

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[MitchC]

Cool thread! Nice to see the obsession with improving your product based on feedback and just overcoming each challenge and getting more efficient.

I would just have 1 colour personally. There should only be one decision, buy it or not buy it, not which colour.

Then you can do limited edition colour drops to your email list and sell them another one.

Send the new model to the influencer who's video you used as ads.

Make sure the upsells don't interfere with and lower conversion rate.

I like post purchase upsells for this reason. Reconvert is a good app for this.

 

[NIK4658]

Cool thread! Nice to see the obsession with improving your product based on feedback and just overcoming each challenge and getting more efficient.

Thank you very much❤️

I would just have 1 colour personally. There should only be one decision, buy it or not buy it, not which colour.

Really? I didn’t think about this.. I thought that having multiple colour option could be a little value skew to add to the sum. But I think you could be right.

Then you can do limited edition colour drops to your email list and sell them another one.

Yes.. but it’s very unlikely to work with my product..
Think about a gaming computer keyboard. I don’t think there is many people that wants to buy again the same expensive keyboard just because of the new colour.
Limiting belief?

Send the new model to the influencer who's video you used as ads.

Mhh nah, I don’t feel to work again with him.. atleast not at this stage

Make sure the upsells don't interfere with and lower conversion rate.

I like post purchase upsells for this reason. Reconvert is a good app for this.

Oh, you are right.. I should be careful about this. I will let you know.
I actually installed Selleasy since it has a free plan with all the functionalities if your store has less than 50 orders / month.

Really grateful for your opinion and help!!!

 

[Spenny]

Really? I didn’t think about this.. I thought that having multiple colour option could be a little value skew to add to the sum. But I think you could be right.

I have the same predicament and I agree with @MitchC. You're going to capture the majority of people with a universal colour. The only exception is to make it very easy to exchange the colour in some type of way but bear in mind it might take more storage & add more complications to manufacturing.

That said, the limited edition or exclusive addition for a collaboration sounds interesting. Maybe you could have some designs with a certain logo of a creator for a promotion.

Yes.. but it’s very unlikely to work with my product..
Think about a gaming computer keyboard. I don’t think there is many people that wants to buy again the same expensive keyboard just because of the new colour.

Mhh nah, I don’t feel to work again with him.. atleast not at this stage

Why not? It may be worth a try.

 

[NIK4658]

That said, the limited edition or exclusive addition for a collaboration sounds interesting.

Probably going to note this approach for a future use,
thank you guys @MitchC @Spenny

Why not? It may be worth a try.

He's been ghosting me for a while, the first video he made did really well in terms of exposure, but not so much in terms of actual results for me.
Also, it's not in the right niche where I should be marketing my products.

 

[MitchC]

Probably going to note this approach for a future use,
thank you guys @MitchC @Spenny



He's been ghosting me for a while, the first video he made did really well in terms of exposure, but not so much in terms of actual results for me.
Also, it's not in the right niche where I should be marketing my products.

Didn’t it do well on ads?

I wouldn’t rely on influencers for sales

Try to use them for content you can run in ads and social proof on your website

 

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[NIK4658]

Didn’t it do well on ads?

Exactly, already working to start testing some campaigns with the new version of the product

 

[NIK4658]

Weekly Progress Post #26​

Seven days of pure focus and progress

Found issues with the new upgrade, but managed to improve the situation​

The new upgrade I made for the main product is a trade-off.
It's very nice looking and improve a lot the product, but it's not easy to produce it and it take me more time for each product since I'm the only one to build them.

I know that later in the future I will be able to delegate my work to other people, but this is not the situation I'm in right now. Also, If I will be able to improve the situation now, I will eventually get benefits also when I will be able to delegate to other people because of the less time necessary to build them.

As I wrote in the last progress thread, I bought one plotter to cut the vinyl rolls preciselly and faster, rather than by hand.
Unfortunately it didn't work as expected, or atleast I'm not as skilled as it should be to operate that maschine properly so I can cut multiple pieces automatically.
After many tests I stopped to work with this machine for now.

The first test I've made manually was pretty bad, I admit.
I "exercised" multiple time and with time, I got better and better.
I was able to build multiple pieces with Vinyl to be able to build multiple products.
Some of them have still a couple issues (bubbles, etc), but they are very very small and I think the quality is ok to be able to sell them.

I asked the manufacturer of the CNC pieces about their material, I found one of them a bit close to the colour of the vinyl. I ordered 50 pcs of them to test them even if I know that probably the result will not be the same at all, and will not use them.

Improved the product page with the new upgrade​

I switched all the images and videos of the main product page from the old version the new, improved one.
Now the product page is even better:

• Images are way better rendered
• Product images now have some version with the product in action
• New, High quality video have been imported and applied to the body of the product page, they look very very nice

Foam packaging has been manufactured and ready to be shipped​

The manufacturer sent me images of the foam packaging I ordered and they look pretty nice!
They prepared the packages to ship them to me, it will take around one months to arrive since the shipping method is via sea.

Build multiple products from scratch with the new upgrade​

As soon as I was able to build the new improved pieces, I worked in order to build new products to be able to sell them shortly, with the new ads I'm going to start.

I build around 8 of them, all of them are high quality, nice looking and fully working.
It took me a couple days to build them but only because I'm still at the testing stage.
Once I know that this new version does not have major flaws (which now I know it doesn't), I will organise myself with multiple batches.

(Just a reminder, I just have left around 15 PCBs before they will be out of stock again)

I also tested the multi-colour option with them just to know how they could look like.
The product is nice as expected, but for now I'm now going to implement this feature also as suggested by other forum members here.

Finally started working on Video Ads​

I recorded multiple videos of the product using it in multiple situation.
I have around +1 hour of RAW video to use for marketing purposes.
I also aready started to work on the editing part, I setup the project and made a sketch of a final result.
I'm not going to produce many variations.. for now. To restart marketing, just one simple video I think will do the trick.

Got A HUGE new order in the weekend AND EVEN AN UPSELL​

This is huge guys, trust me.
This weekend I got my first official organic order from Shopify.
A +200 EURO order! The customer bought me 6 items in total.
I couldn't believe it!
I was not expecting this at all, becasue I don't have traffic to my website.
I was really speechless.

I checked the order, Shopify didn't tag the order as High Risk, but it was strange..
The order was made from a country that was not the final shipping address AND the address was not a residential one, but rather a company building.
I was a bit skeptical about this order.

I was able to contact the customer via WhatsApp, he said that he lives in another country and use that company to ship items where he lives. So everything was perfect!!

He also asked me when one item will go back in stock (I set it as backorder becauseI don't have any of them ready).
I said to him that if he wanted one he could wait a couple days more so I can build one of them for him and HE SAID YES AND MADE ANOTHER 40 EURO ORDER! WOW

This definitely made my day.
I finally see the light at the end of the tunnel guys.


Let me know what do you think!

 

[NIK4658]

Weekly Progress Post #27​

Keep pushing hard.

Shipped the First Shopify Order​

As I wrote in the last post, I got a "big" order last week and in the first days of this one I worked on preparing each product, packaging and shipping them to the customer.

Worked a lot on building many products for have them ready in stock​

I spent some hours each day to work on preparing my products to be able to sell them, since I was planning to restart marketing them.
I prepared the PCBs, worked on the CNC pieces and prepared the 3D prints.
I have "prepared" all my remaining PCBs, so I have around 20 main product ready to sell them.

Setup Upsells​

As @MitchC suggested, I implemented some upsells that didn't interfere with the first sale, so I setup post-purchase upsell and Thank You page Upsell.

I also implemented a better automation email to be able to convert abandoned carts, giving them a 5% discount code.

Restarted PAID Marketing​

Finally I was able to work on the creatives and to be able to restart PAID Marketing.
I worked on a single video creative where it shows me using the product in many ways.
I edited the video with cuts, music and captions and created TWO different variations of this single video.
Both of the videos are the same, but the first one is done in english, the second one in italian.

I created two different AD+ Campaigns in Meta Ads, one for each video.
The english one run on some countries of EU, the second one runs only in Italy.
Total budget: 20 euro/day. I set 10/euro for each Campaign.

Here are the stats:

Campaign #1 (EU) (10 euro/day)

• Spent: €33.24
• Impressions: 3952
• CPM: €8.41
• Coverage: 3118
• Frequency: 1.27
• CTR: 4.18%
• Clicks: 119
• CPC: €0.2
• Sales: 1 (€99.94)

Campaign #2 (IT) (10 euro/day)

• Spent: €25.29
• Impressions: 4369
• CPM: €5.79
• Coverage: 3468
• Frequency: 1.26
• CTR: 3.46%
• Clicks: 100
• CPC: €0.17
• Sales: 0

What do you think?
Should I only focus on ONE single Campaign and set it to 20euro/day?

I also got another Checkout Initiated but abandoned, I was not able to recover that with the email automation.

Completed the Shopify Order​

I got the single order today but I was able to prepare the product, the package and everything else to be able to ship that tomorrow.

Started the design of another High Ticket Product and it already looks so great​

This is one type of product that is very "popular" in my niche and I HAVE to design one of them eventually.
I know how to design one of this be different from the other competitors and I don't know why I waited so long to start working on this.
At the end of the week I started working on this new project that will be a great addition to my Shop.
I will have to complete the 3D model work, design a custom PCB and test some prototypes.
Many and many of my "friends" or past customers that I know are already in love by the images of some mockups I've made.
I will be able to sell some preorders one that will fund me the cost of the first prototypes / products.
I started working on the 3D model and I can't believe how fast I was able to produce insane results.
I'm insanely fast with this skills in comparison to many months ago and this is a very nice sign of improvement.
The Price range should be around 400 euro.
I will also be able to model an exact same product, but a little smaller and cheaper to get many other customers.

 

[NIK4658]

It's not time for the weekly update yet, but I want to show you THIS:​

Long story short, one of my customers who purchased one of my devices left a HUGE review a few weeks ago.
In this review he said that the product was very nice, he helped me with some ideas to improve it (and I actually implemented them) and he also said that he was missing a small washer from his order, but that didn't bother him because sure... it was just a small washer.


I always try to do everything perfectly, but obviously humans can make mistakes.
I immediately thanked him for his help and sent him a 10% discount code for the "problem" with the washer.

Here's the thing: I didn't limit myself to just that...
I write him a letter, BY HAND, with the missing washer and sent it to him.

I thought it was a nice thing to do because it was an incredible and "unnecessary" message that clearly showed how much I care about this.

After a few weeks of "nothing", yesterday I got notified of this:
(I personally shaded some information in red, everything is clear in the original post)








THIS is what makes you rich in life.
THIS is what makes me proud.

 

[aidanoffline]

It's not time for the weekly update yet, but I want to show you THIS:​

Long story short, one of my customers who purchased one of my devices left a HUGE review a few weeks ago.
In this review he said that the product was very nice, he helped me with some ideas to improve it (and I actually implemented them) and he also said that he was missing a small washer from his order, but that didn't bother him because sure... it was just a small washer.


I always try to do everything perfectly, but obviously humans can make mistakes.
I immediately thanked him for his help and sent him a 10% discount code for the "problem" with the washer.

Here's the thing: I didn't limit myself to just that...
I write him a letter, BY HAND, with the missing washer and sent it to him.

I thought it was a nice thing to do because it was an incredible and "unnecessary" message that clearly showed how much I care about this.

After a few weeks of "nothing", yesterday I got notified of this:
(I personally shaded some information in red, everything is clear in the original post)


View attachment 56286

View attachment 56287



THIS is what makes you rich in life.
THIS is what makes me proud.

REAL SHIT.

 

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[NIK4658]

Weekly Progress Post #28​

This week was fire.

FINALLY GOT MANY ORDERS​

Yes guys, YES.
I finally started gaining traction with sales.
As I started campaigns on Facebook, more traffic and sales started coming in.
I was very happy because finally, after a lot of time and effort, the results started to arrive.

I got a total of 6 sales for a total of 614 Euros, basically sold my main product six time for around 100 euros each (a very good price point for me, last time I was selling basically the same product for 79).

I have always been "unsure" about my prices, also because there were people who told me that my prices were too high... this led me to doubt myself and my projects... Now that I see that there are they are people willing to buy this product at the current price I am much more confident.

One little thing to say before going into precise data of the Facebook Campaigns:
The EU campaign was going quite well, but in the middle of the week I had some problems with the product stock and rather than having to risk delaying the shipment of future orders, I preferred to stop the campaign until I solved the problem.
The campaign was suspended for about 24 hours, then I resumed it.
But I feel like it's not going as well as it was in the beginning.

This are the precise data and modifications of the campaign I used to drive the sales:

Campaign #1 (EU(No IT) -> EU+IT) (10 euro/day -> 20 euro/day)

• Spent: €172,23
• Impressions: 24.358
• CPM: €7,07
• Coverage: 14.810
• Frequency: 1,64
• CTR: 4,39%
• Clicks: 655
• CPC: €0,16
• Sales: 3 (€99.94 x 3) (More probably 5)
• ROAS: 1,74 (?)
• Unfortunately in the last 2-3 days I stopped receiving sales and I don't know why, I am worried that I could have made some mistakes pausing and then resuming the ad for that short stock issue. I will see if it's worth to keep running that ad.
• Also, I noticed that some time Facebook say that I got more clicks than Shopify sessions and this is weird, especially when I pay for that single clicks.

Campaign #2 (IT) (10 euro/day -> STOPPED)

• Spent: €57.49
• Impressions: 12.657
• CPM: €4,54
• Coverage: 7825
• Frequency: 1,62
• CTR: 3,74%
• Clicks: 281
• CPC: € 0,12
• Sales: 1
• ROAS: 1.74
• CPA: €57.49
• Stopped because it was not as good as the EU one, also Facebook told me that it was not converting well enough

This is the store data (from June 2 to 10 June):

Sessions: 516
Add to cart: 11 sessions ( 2.13%)
Checkouts: 8 sessions ( 1.55%)
Conversion Rate (Sales): 1.16% (6)

Great progress for the new project​

The new project I've started is looking very good, I've made super progress and I can't wait to see the first products ready.
I've worked hard on the 3D model and also on the PCB, got all the necessary quotes.
The only "bad" thing about this is that one competitor of mine (which I know personally) told me that they are working on basically the same project and that it will be ready in around two month.. This is not a good thing since I know that all their products are high quality and they have much more traffic than me, but this will not stop me from working hard.

Mood hardly affected by results​

It's the first time this happened to me and it's strange.
As I get new orders, I get a happiness spike, life feels great and I'm super motivated to work hard...
But if one or more days I didn't get anything and "spend ad money for nothing" I start to feel bad about it, my mood and life gets affected a lot.
I started noticing this in the last 2-3 days where I stopped getting sales..
I'm grateful that I noticed this and will work on my mental health in order to be more stoic and solve this little issue.

Received GREAT 5-Star Reviews​

The first one is the one I posted in the previous post.
Later in the week I got this one and I'm proud to be able to show this kind words in my store:

Finally Received new CNC Pieces​

The delivery got delayed and I only received them a few hours ago, I will speak about them in the next progress post.
For now I can't say that they are basically near perfect.
The end result is not the exact same as the previous solution (if the actual product now is a 10/10, the new pieces makes it 9.5/10).
But the effort that I have to do in order to build the current version of the product is too much and not reliable at all.
I will make the change this week.

 

[NIK4658]

Weekly Progress Post #29​

Unable to work very hard on the business because I had to do one UNI exam and also had to work on a "job" the entire day on Fri, Sat and Sun. Still produced results.

Stopped Paid ads​

The single Campaign that got me sales last week started to be absolutely not profitable.
With 20 eur/day, I didn't get even a single sale for almost 6 days, where previously I was getting on average 1-2 orders per day.
I didn't change absolutely nothing on the offer and on the website.
I think that I caused damage when I pausing the Campaign last week when I had some stock issue.
I stopped the ad and because of this, traffic has come back to zero again and didn't get any orders this week.

The new CNC pieces are basically perfect​

I'm super happy to say this, the new CNC pieces are perfect.
There is a slight difference between the two version, but the old solution took me 30 mins per piece, this one... 30 seconds.
I managed to build many products super fast thanks to this new solution, I've built ten of them in a matter of a couple hours.
The product is still super nice, but there is a little difference especially when turned off.
I don't want any type of issues so I will have to render / record again all the medias of the product page after this product change.

Low Review rate, but the one i've got is great​

Out of 7 orders I've only got two reviews. (The first one is posted in the previous post)
I have automations that send emails requesting reviews and I also put a little depliant on the box asking user feedbacks, but I see that I will need more in order to increase the review rate from my orders. (Maybe an automatic coupon discount or something similar)

The last review I've got is great.
The customer said that the product is fantastic, high quality, that it's totally satisfied about his purchase (at €99.94, so the pricepoint is confirmed as good) and he recommend this product.
He also spent time explaining how to improve the product and even this time, I got a super intelligent advise.
I can see that the new improvement will deliver value and I decided to start work on it, it will not be hard at all.
The user also took one photo to show the product mounted and I'm super happy.

Already worked towards improving the main product after the customer Feedback​

As I said before, I started working on the improvement of the main product as the customer suggested, this didn't took me a lot of time since I've implemented the same solution on the new product I'm working on.
It's a PCB improvement and I already completed the design of it, this week I will order them.

Completed the first iteration of the new project​

I am proud to say that I've completed a first version of the new product design.
I have everything ready to be ordered.

• Completed the PCBs design and they are ready to be purchased
• Completed the design of the custom CNC components and got quotes, they are ready to be purchased.

I've done multiple tests with 3D printed parts to check that everything is good

I think it will take me 2 weeks before everything will be delivered and I will be able to build my first official product.
In the meantime I think I could set a "preorder" option for people that i know to have direct feedbacks and to be able to sell the first pieces.

 

[NIK4658]

Weekly Progress Post #30​

Built "many" pieces for the main product​

Since now the process of building each product it's way shorter in terms of time than before, I managed to build every product that I could based on the current PCBs stock.
Right now I have 15 in stock ready to be shipped, I will try to sell most of them before ordering a new PCB batch.

Updated slightly the product page​

Since I've changed the CNC pieces of the main product, I had to make some little changes in the main product page to be sure there was consistency.

Placed the order for new components​

The new product design is ready, I've pulled the trigger on some component stock for the first pieces:

• PCBs
  
  • Bought 10 PCBs for the new product to test the design and to be able to build them
• Custom CNC pieces
  
  • The new project need some custom CNC pieces to be assembled like carbon fiber and plexiglass parts so I contacted the manufacturer and ordered some of them (I also bought different versions to test them)

I also bough a PCB module that will enable me to implement the improvement and to update the main product as the customer feedback asked.
This will be effortless once the PCBs will arrive.

Rendered final images for the new product​

After completing the design of the new product, I rendered some "final" images in order to show it to old / new people.

Opened the preorders for the new project (only for people that i know)​

The first iteration is ready and the components will be delivered in 1-2 weeks time, so I have opened the preorders for the people that I know to get maybe the first sales and the first feedbacks about the new product

I "feel" like I'm action faking towards marketing​

I am working and working on improving my products or building new ones, but not on marketing at all.
I've tested some Ads that were kinda profitable, but besides that, nothing else.
While using Paid ads I didn't even work with the "best pratices" like A/B testing (finding the winners and shutting off the others, producing more creatives like the winner and keep testing like that, until eventually I will be able to scale)

At the end of the day It's "useless" to have great products if no one knows you and not having constant sales / reviews / cash flow is also bad for the feedback loop.

I've started this business almost 1.5 years ago "without expectations" and "just for fun" but this does not mean I should not have constant cashflow and not be profitable, I've the potential to do so, I've got many positive feedbacks about this.

I have to do it, but I feel a bit stuck and I can't take a clear direction on marketing (paid ads, content creation, seo, etc) in order to unstuck myself for this situation.

 

[MitchC]

How many have you sold over all time?

How big has each production run/order been?

I feel like you are ordering the same amount every time and then running out and then ordering again

I did the same for a long time as I was also trying to get my product right so I wouldn’t say you are doing the wrong thing

But something to think about

Maybe it’s time to make a large order so you have stock and can then focus on ads

Maybe it’s not, in which case I guess you are doing the right thing until it is time

My guess is though it’s a lack of stock not a lack of ads that’s preventing the business from growing

Your product is good enough

Future orders can still be improved

The product is selling

No reason to keep ordering such small production runs

I hate it when people use Apple as an example because most people’s businesses are so far removed from it it just doesn’t apply, but in this case consider Apple, the first iPhone shipped and was terrible, they’ve improved it every year since. Nothing stopping you from doing the same.