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Dominating Online Ecom. Starting A New Store From 0

GrabThe

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I just got back from Thailand and there is so much junk there I stopped looking, but I did find one item but I contacted the manufacture and I am waiting for a response !
Last time I was in Thailand I was overwhelmed with the amount of stuff there. I was looking for a clothing line and had great success but then the company flopped after 3 years due to his supplier not being able to get the fabric. I didn't make a ton of money so I let it go.
 

hughjasle

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I got a new product and I know it will be fire
Nice!!
Any ideas on starting a new web base business . Any help will be good
lol, yea. Just keep reading this thread or any of the others like it. If you are already doing Ebay, get your new product up and running there then move to Amazon since they are very similar. Then move onto figuring out how to work with shopify (or whatever store system you use) and grow it
I just got back from Thailand and there is so much junk there I stopped looking
Can't ever stop. At least you did end up with a good product you think. If you don't have any direction its hard to get started. Never gets easier. Just have to keep pushing through.

But one good product can profit you enough to retire. It also becomes much easier to find new additional products to go along with the first product than it is to find something brand new.

Good luck!
 

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Looking forward to your progress @hughjasle. Your other thread was great, thanks for sharing! I'm going to be jumping back into ecommerce after being sidelined from my supplement business. You've motivated me to get back in the game. This time I'm going to focus on much simpler products.

Would you mind sharing the website you came across that showed how many people liked the viral products? Here's a few I came across that might be useful as well:

Canopy.co - A Curated Shop for Amazon
https://thieve.co/
Popular Right Now on Storenvy



 
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hughjasle

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Would you mind sharing the website you came across that showed how many people liked the viral products?
I got a few PM's and messages on skype asking this same question so I'll answer here. No I won't give out my sources.

It wasn't the site that gave me the ideas. It was just that something I saw finally sparked an idea to life that wasn't even listed, which lead to another and other. Sometimes things just need that little spark to get the creative juices flowing.

As for the sites, I check everything I can find including amazon, ebay, jane, wish, etc. Check for completed listings, numbers of items sold, number of reviews etc. The goal is to get an idea of things that are currently selling a lot. After a while you should hopefully be able to get a better idea of what can sell a lot and what might be a good product, but sales will be smaller. Those good products that sell less are still good, but better for amazon.
 

DCDeuce

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I got a few PM's and messages on skype asking this same question so I'll answer here. No I won't give out my sources.

It wasn't the site that gave me the ideas. It was just that something I saw finally sparked an idea to life that wasn't even listed, which lead to another and other. Sometimes things just need that little spark to get the creative juices flowing.

As for the sites, I check everything I can find including amazon, ebay, jane, wish, etc. Check for completed listings, numbers of items sold, number of reviews etc. The goal is to get an idea of things that are currently selling a lot. After a while you should hopefully be able to get a better idea of what can sell a lot and what might be a good product, but sales will be smaller. Those good products that sell less are still good, but better for amazon.

Haha!! It never ceases to amaze me at how many people want the answer instead of taking the time to do the work, research, and due dilligence to get to the end result.

@hughjasle Glad you did not give your sources to anyone!
 

hughjasle

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When using shopify what subscription are you using?
usually the third tier so I get the indepth reporting. but that's not needed to start. For me the extra % off the transactional fee is great enough that it pays for itself many times over. But while your small and just getting started, it doesn't matter IMO which you get. Just know you'll eventually work up to the more expensive stuff.
 

FreedomforEarl

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Nice!!
lol, yea. Just keep reading this thread or any of the others like it. If you are already doing Ebay, get your new product up and running there then move to Amazon since they are very similar. Then move onto figuring out how to work with shopify (or whatever store system you use) and grow it

Can't ever stop. At least you did end up with a good product you think. If you don't have any direction its hard to get started. Never gets easier. Just have to keep pushing through.

But one good product can profit you enough to retire. It also becomes much easier to find new additional products to go along with the first product than it is to find something brand new.

Good luck!
Question, on Amazon do you ship yourself or do you send to them to ship ! I think it is called FBA.
So You said , Post on Ebay then Amazon then Shopify , How about marketing on Facebook ? Thank you !
 

hughjasle

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Question, on Amazon do you ship yourself or do you send to them to ship
Both, at the moment I'd like to get all my Amazon products on FBA as I believe it helps with sales. I know I pick prime products over others...


So You said , Post on Ebay then Amazon then Shopify
Yes because you said you have experience in Ebay. Start with what you are most comfortable with and get the momentum rolling.
How about marketing on Facebook ?
I wouldn't mess with Facebook marketing until you have Amazon and your Shopify store set up. You can do with with just Amazon, but I have never done it. I have looked into it, but haven't done it yet.
 
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mosdef

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what price range are you guys looking for? What price to sell to customers? I really struggle to find products with good margins...
 

hughjasle

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what price range are you guys looking for? What price to sell to customers?

I don't have a price range that I stay in. Just make sure there is enough margin to work with for that product. A really popular phone case might sell all day long and give a good ROI at just $9.99 sells price. Likewise, a custom gadget that costs you $25 and you sell for $300 might not make any sales even with all that room for margin. Another gadget with the same cost and selling point might kill it. You don't know till you test it.

BTW - I'm wrong more than I'm right. I just keep testing. I have fully custom products that I thought would be killer awesome, not sell at all. Mega bummer.
 

AdamMaxum

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Hi hugh, thanks for posting your process, will be sure to follow along.

Question..

What systems/3rd parties/plugins are you using for the website funnels on your shopify store? Can you take me through a typical funnel you have in place? Do you setup automatic follow up emails? I know some of this won't happen till' you get traffic/sales but curious on what you implement from the start in regards to the funnels for an ecomm store.
 
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hughjasle

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What systems/3rd parties/plugins are you using for the website funnels on your shopify store? Can you take me through a typical funnel you have in place?
Currently using Shopify, so..at the moment my funnels basically just consist of sending traffic from facebook directly to the product page. So not really any apps for that. None needed. If you want to go full funnel build you can set up clickfunnels as a subdomain and run your traffic there, or use apps such as Linear or One Click Upsell. I have done all three methods. Not sure which I really prefer. I'm looking to lock that down this time around with proper testing to see which method really works best.
Do you setup automatic follow up emails
Of course! Follow up post sale, follow up if they add to cart and bounce, etc.

If I have their email, I follow up.
 

100speed

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I'll try and update this when I can, but really there isn't much to report on at this point. Most of my time and days are spent hunting for new products, fine tuning the layout or flow of the site, funnels, etc.

I just spent 5 hours looking for products and only came out with ideas for 2-3 products. Lots of rubbish out there. I don't want things that everyone else can get. I like looking at existing products and seeing how I can put my own twist on it.

Sometimes ideas will flow to you left and right, sometimes it can take weeks to come up with just 1 good idea.

Really looking forward to seeing how this develops, I am currently heading down the same path - I have a site, that is based on a loyalty and passionate community of sorts - and am in the process of setting up a new set of sites to add to my network.
One way of advertising you may want to seriously consider as a stream of consistent income is Social Media, currently my entire sites revenue is based purely off of Instagram - if you can leverage it in certain ways, it can basically act as Facebook but with no charge. (On a new Instagram account, the first post received 64k organic likes with the help of a few techniques I use and thousands of visitors to my store - so it is not something to underestimate and is easily replicable if you know how.)
I am currently in the process of setting up another store which is less niche than my first and am interested in expanding into Facebook ads - if you are interested, perhaps we could skill share?
Looking forward to hearing from you.
 

LPPC

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@hughjasle

I was wondering how you are handling the page speed of your Shopify landing page? If I've read the right material, desktop loading time should be 2 seconds or less and mobile loading time should be 5 seconds or less. I think webpage speed is very important for the conversion rate, even when only testing products. Am I right?

Many of the webpage speed test tools available give very different outcomes. For example these tools give 3 seconds, 6 seconds and 20 seconds as loading speed for the exact same page. I don't know what to believe anymore.

Have you hired someone that costumizes the available shopify themes in order to make it fast?

Thank you!
 
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ZeroTo100

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Couple of questions...

I get what you're doing and I understand how you're doing it but what doesn't make sense to me is why you're doing it?

Is there a customer pain point in the market for these products? Before you import, don't you think it's smart to test just a few out and be sure the market even wants them?

I commend you on taking action but I recommend you do some hardcore research on your competitors. Find a gap in the market or a weakness in your competitors. Adding products to a Shopify site and driving traffic is something anyone can do. Find a way be different - best of luck!
 

BStaff95

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(On a new Instagram account, the first post received 64k organic likes with the help of a few techniques I use and thousands of visitors to my store - so it is not something to underestimate and is easily replicable if you know how.)
Would you be willing to share how you went about doing that? Currently using IG to drive traffic so it would obviously be extremely useful. Those numbers are insane.
 
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pds

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Really looking forward to seeing how this develops, I am currently heading down the same path - I have a site, that is based on a loyalty and passionate community of sorts - and am in the process of setting up a new set of sites to add to my network.
One way of advertising you may want to seriously consider as a stream of consistent income is Social Media, currently my entire sites revenue is based purely off of Instagram - if you can leverage it in certain ways, it can basically act as Facebook but with no charge. (On a new Instagram account, the first post received 64k organic likes with the help of a few techniques I use and thousands of visitors to my store - so it is not something to underestimate and is easily replicable if you know how.)
I am currently in the process of setting up another store which is less niche than my first and am interested in expanding into Facebook ads - if you are interested, perhaps we could skill share?
Looking forward to hearing from you.

That's impressive. Can you share how you do this with Instagram? My guess is that you pay several influencers for a sponsored post that all drive their fans back to your IG page with a call to action in your bio.
 

YoungBroward

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since you are selling multiple products on your site will you be dropshipping or will you be buying in bulk for every item?
 

100speed

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Would you be willing to share how you went about doing that? Currently using IG to drive traffic so it would obviously be extremely useful. Those numbers are insane.
I am willing but obviously I cant disclose publicly what I am doing and I normally offer a mentorship whereby I teach you what to do, although I don't have time to do this at the moment - if you PM me and you have something that might be relevant to me like FB ads - then Ill happily skill share :)
 
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100speed

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That's impressive. Can you share how you do this with Instagram? My guess is that you pay several influencers for a sponsored post that all drive their fans back to your IG page with a call to action in your bio.
Nope, nothing to do with getting influencers to share any posts or anything :p
 

hughjasle

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Have you hired someone that costumizes the available shopify themes in order to make it fast?
I have not. Speed is important, and shopify can be slow. It's one of the lack of control things you just have to deal with to a point in exchange for not having to build out a full custom site i guess.
 

hughjasle

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Is there a customer pain point in the market for these products? Before you import, don't you think it's smart to test just a few out and be sure the market even wants them?
I'll answer the second question first as that is easier to simply answer, yes I do test before I go out and import almost anything.

I say almost because sometimes manufactures just send me sample products etc. Otherwise I'd never import in bulk something untested. Way too much risk.

The first question now, it all totally depends on the product. I'm not sure what products you think I'm running so it's hard for me to guess what you are guessing lol. But IMO not all products are purchased due to a pain point. Sometimes ppl consume for pleasure as well. Guess you could argue that the pain point in those cases are "not enough pleasure, fashion, etc in my life".

I'd like to find the people who's pain points are "too much money in my bank, must buy something over and over"

I commend you on taking action but I recommend you do some hardcore research on your competitors. Find a gap in the market or a weakness in your competitors. Adding products to a Shopify site and driving traffic is something anyone can do. Find a way be different - best of luck!
noted ;)

I guess I should clarify for any future readers. I'm not building your typical BS Shopify site that sells the latest and greatest trending/trademarked/patented/knockoff crap from aliexpress and dropships it etc. Those are a dime a dozen. I'm building something that I can sell off that has happy customers that RETURN and buy more.
 
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hughjasle

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since you are selling multiple products on your site will you be dropshipping or will you be buying in bulk for every item?

At this point just bulk buying/importing. I have a few personal issues with drop shipping. However, I haven't completely disregarded it. I do see why so many like it, but the pro's haven't outweighed the con's in my eyes yet. Maybe it's because I haven't found the "right" product for that model yet.
 

ZeroTo100

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I'll answer the second question first as that is easier to simply answer, yes I do test before I go out and import almost anything.

I say almost because sometimes manufactures just send me sample products etc. Otherwise I'd never import in bulk something untested. Way too much risk.

The first question now, it all totally depends on the product. I'm not sure what products you think I'm running so it's hard for me to guess what you are guessing lol. But IMO not all products are purchased due to a pain point. Sometimes ppl consume for pleasure as well. Guess you could argue that the pain point in those cases are "not enough pleasure, fashion, etc in my life".

I'd like to find the people who's pain points are "too much money in my bank, must buy something over and over"


noted ;)

I guess I should clarify for any future readers. I'm not building your typical BS Shopify site that sells the latest and greatest trending/trademarked/patented/knockoff crap from aliexpress and dropships it etc. Those are a dime a dozen. I'm building something that I can sell off that has happy customers that RETURN and buy more.

Ah now I got ya. Thanks for clearifying that. I actually got nervous for you thinking about the risk in importing all that product without testing but I can tell (after reading a lot of your threads and following you) that you're a lot smarter than that.

You're right in selling to people that aside from having a pain point may just want to buy for pleasure. My last startup I did we created the demand for the product. We sold in beta on limited supply - first come/first serve basis and people lined up for them. People didn't actually need it but they wanted it. We did such a good job marketing it that after we sold, our customers were bragging that they were able to get in on beta and shared it all over social media. We blew it up and the blogosphere followed.

When your launch is that strong that people share the product for you, you're doing something right at least from a marketing perspective.

After about 1400 sign-ups at launch, I shut the company down haha. Broke even but too many variables and moving parts to deal with.

Anyway, I like the content you put out. Very helpful to me and I can relate to a lot of your stuff.

Thanks bud
 

hughjasle

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My last startup I did we created the demand for the product. We sold in beta on limited supply - first come/first serve basis and people lined up for them. People didn't actually need it but they wanted it. We did such a good job marketing it that after we sold, our customers were bragging that they were able to get in on beta and shared it all over social media. We blew it up and the blogosphere followed.
Nice job here man. Have you done a thread about it? Would make an insightful read
 
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LPPC

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I have not. Speed is important, and shopify can be slow. It's one of the lack of control things you just have to deal with to a point in exchange for not having to build out a full custom site i guess.

Got it. I guess I'll have to leave it the way it is for now. Thank you!
 

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