Hi
I launched a product and it “failed”.
I have a 2 years old thread following my progress you can check here. It starts with shitty POD/dropshipping and finishes with me creating my own products.
I mainly wrote this for myself to get clarity and step back a bit, but I figured it could also help others.
Now, you might not agree with my definition of “failure”
For me, the purpose was to get product/market fit. While this pre-launch is break-even, and I sold enough units to justify production, I did not get the results I was aiming for: Stability and profitability/break-even with ads
1) What I thought was very encouraging market research was actually a big fluff.
I’m working on this project since January after noticing one of the products I added to my store was selling without advertising it in October. I then decided to make an improved version and started a waitlist + a survey in December.
The project had 1800 waitlist signup for less than $2000 spent on ads, some iterations, lots of samples and what looked like lots of enthusiasm from potential customers.
4 months later, only 5 sales when the pre-orders actually launched to my 1800 person-waitlist.
Then, I sent another email to my whole list (60,000 persons) and made only 9 sales.
Now, since iOS15, emails aren't tracked properly, so there might be more than that. However, it's still very bad.
Ads are poorly performing, even after different tests (barely break-even). Obviously, I’m sure I can optimize them a lot, but that just reveals a more important problem: People aren’t that interested in the base offer.
You can add a nice painting to an old house, but you’ll still have the same crumbling walls. That’s the same here.
In my opinion, the main problem (excluding the product itself) is the price, as I had to raise it compared to the previous version that was doing ok (but not profitable). That’s also the return I had from a few feedback emails I received.
2) The numbers:
$2200 spend on ads for pre-orders
$1900 spend on ads for the waitlist leads (in December)
$1400 of product costs
Other various costs
$6,000 of sales
So, in the end, I’m actually not even profitable if we also count the waitlist ads I’ve been running in December. I suspect most of the sales are actually from the emails and not from ads, making the whole operation not sustainable in the long term.
3) My realization:
For eCommerce, the rise of manufacturing costs, advertising costs and shipping costs make it almost impossible to make any profit anymore unless you have a truly exceptional perceived value or truly exceptional profit system.
Most people I know who were making a killing with eCom in general (drop shipping or not) a few years ago are either struggling or completely stopped now.
4) What’s next:
Once I will have this first batch of products done, I will see what is the feedback from customers. But even if it’s positive, that doesn’t change the fact that people aren’t willing to pay that much for it.
Unless ads start to perform really well, I’ll move to something else. I have other products with better value skews that are designed, but it will take time to sample and produce them.
On one side, I learned so many skills that it would be a waste to stop everything now. Especially since I’ve only launched one “real” product (all the previous projects were shitty drop-shipping stuff).
On the other, I feel like it’s almost pointless to keep going this way with the current e-commerce ecosystem. However, it also means the barrier to entry is way higher for other people too now.
The two options I have:
I’m living in Indonesia, so offline business is unfortunately not possible in my case (I left France because of the climate and cost of living).
I am currently getting all my income from my freelance activity with a single client, which is a dangerously unstable position, even if it pays pretty well (usually between 4000€ and 5000€ depending on the months)
I could start to learn to program, as it could open many doors and that’s something I’m already a bit familiar with. But it would take at least 8 months for me to be operational, and probably a whole year after that to get anything usable.
Target Situation:
I want to build something that creates enough value to be self-sustainable and growing, as I don’t really need extra revenues. The end goal is to have something worth selling in a few years.
Lessons I learned:
Test faster, test the price.
I didn’t display any price. Because of that, I got more people on my waitlist, but probably not the good ones. If I had put a price directly, I could have qualified people from the start and also gotten feedback.
What YOU think people like doesn’t matter.
Do your research, even if it doesn’t make sense to you. For my product, I thought it would be obvious people would prefer the first design I had, but during a survey, they preferred the second one by far.
People won’t give a shit about you early.
Suppliers, partners… Unless you can show what you can bring to the table, you’re a moron to them. Get leverage asap by getting other options, or try to come to them with at least some volume.
People WILL F*cks you up.
Hope for the best, plan for the worst. Once again, the more options you have, the more leverage you have. Don’t rely on one supplier, get 3 backup plans ready if the first one F*cks you up. Don’t contact 5 people, contact 15 to get a global picture.
Don’t wait until people get back to you.
Be active. I wasted too long waiting for people to get back to me. I could probably have launched 2 months earlier if I didn’t wait for them and had more suppliers. You can always improve later if the original isn’t perfect.
Money like speed and perfection is the enemy of action.
Similar to the above, I think I waited too long between the moment I started the waitlist (December) and the moment I launched (April). People forget. Get to the market as soon as possible to see if it’s sustainable, even if it means you don’t have the perfect version yet. What you’re looking for is proof of traction. If you have it, it usually means you can invest more $ and time into this project.
I launched a product and it “failed”.
I have a 2 years old thread following my progress you can check here. It starts with shitty POD/dropshipping and finishes with me creating my own products.
I mainly wrote this for myself to get clarity and step back a bit, but I figured it could also help others.
Now, you might not agree with my definition of “failure”
For me, the purpose was to get product/market fit. While this pre-launch is break-even, and I sold enough units to justify production, I did not get the results I was aiming for: Stability and profitability/break-even with ads
1) What I thought was very encouraging market research was actually a big fluff.
I’m working on this project since January after noticing one of the products I added to my store was selling without advertising it in October. I then decided to make an improved version and started a waitlist + a survey in December.
The project had 1800 waitlist signup for less than $2000 spent on ads, some iterations, lots of samples and what looked like lots of enthusiasm from potential customers.
4 months later, only 5 sales when the pre-orders actually launched to my 1800 person-waitlist.
Then, I sent another email to my whole list (60,000 persons) and made only 9 sales.
Now, since iOS15, emails aren't tracked properly, so there might be more than that. However, it's still very bad.
Ads are poorly performing, even after different tests (barely break-even). Obviously, I’m sure I can optimize them a lot, but that just reveals a more important problem: People aren’t that interested in the base offer.
You can add a nice painting to an old house, but you’ll still have the same crumbling walls. That’s the same here.
In my opinion, the main problem (excluding the product itself) is the price, as I had to raise it compared to the previous version that was doing ok (but not profitable). That’s also the return I had from a few feedback emails I received.
2) The numbers:
$2200 spend on ads for pre-orders
$1900 spend on ads for the waitlist leads (in December)
$1400 of product costs
Other various costs
$6,000 of sales
So, in the end, I’m actually not even profitable if we also count the waitlist ads I’ve been running in December. I suspect most of the sales are actually from the emails and not from ads, making the whole operation not sustainable in the long term.
3) My realization:
For eCommerce, the rise of manufacturing costs, advertising costs and shipping costs make it almost impossible to make any profit anymore unless you have a truly exceptional perceived value or truly exceptional profit system.
Most people I know who were making a killing with eCom in general (drop shipping or not) a few years ago are either struggling or completely stopped now.
4) What’s next:
Once I will have this first batch of products done, I will see what is the feedback from customers. But even if it’s positive, that doesn’t change the fact that people aren’t willing to pay that much for it.
Unless ads start to perform really well, I’ll move to something else. I have other products with better value skews that are designed, but it will take time to sample and produce them.
- I know the process to create a product from design to physical product, logistics, import/export etc…
- I know how to make very good e-commerce stores and all systems associated (Total sales have x10 for my main client since I started working with him 4 years ago)
- What I lack to succeed in my opinion is a proper product/market fit.
On one side, I learned so many skills that it would be a waste to stop everything now. Especially since I’ve only launched one “real” product (all the previous projects were shitty drop-shipping stuff).
On the other, I feel like it’s almost pointless to keep going this way with the current e-commerce ecosystem. However, it also means the barrier to entry is way higher for other people too now.
The two options I have:
- Continue trying other eCommerce products (I have some products ready for prototyping). Would cost me between $2000 and $5000 per new product to launch.
- Stop eCommerce, learn new skills and focus on other things (don’t know what yet). Would cost me a lot of time.
I’m living in Indonesia, so offline business is unfortunately not possible in my case (I left France because of the climate and cost of living).
I am currently getting all my income from my freelance activity with a single client, which is a dangerously unstable position, even if it pays pretty well (usually between 4000€ and 5000€ depending on the months)
I could start to learn to program, as it could open many doors and that’s something I’m already a bit familiar with. But it would take at least 8 months for me to be operational, and probably a whole year after that to get anything usable.
Target Situation:
I want to build something that creates enough value to be self-sustainable and growing, as I don’t really need extra revenues. The end goal is to have something worth selling in a few years.
Lessons I learned:
Test faster, test the price.
I didn’t display any price. Because of that, I got more people on my waitlist, but probably not the good ones. If I had put a price directly, I could have qualified people from the start and also gotten feedback.
What YOU think people like doesn’t matter.
Do your research, even if it doesn’t make sense to you. For my product, I thought it would be obvious people would prefer the first design I had, but during a survey, they preferred the second one by far.
People won’t give a shit about you early.
Suppliers, partners… Unless you can show what you can bring to the table, you’re a moron to them. Get leverage asap by getting other options, or try to come to them with at least some volume.
People WILL F*cks you up.
Hope for the best, plan for the worst. Once again, the more options you have, the more leverage you have. Don’t rely on one supplier, get 3 backup plans ready if the first one F*cks you up. Don’t contact 5 people, contact 15 to get a global picture.
Don’t wait until people get back to you.
Be active. I wasted too long waiting for people to get back to me. I could probably have launched 2 months earlier if I didn’t wait for them and had more suppliers. You can always improve later if the original isn’t perfect.
Money like speed and perfection is the enemy of action.
Similar to the above, I think I waited too long between the moment I started the waitlist (December) and the moment I launched (April). People forget. Get to the market as soon as possible to see if it’s sustainable, even if it means you don’t have the perfect version yet. What you’re looking for is proof of traction. If you have it, it usually means you can invest more $ and time into this project.
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum:
Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
