eCommerce Success - Three Years on the Fastlane Forum

[Jamie T]

Reading through their contract and this looks like a nightmare.

Basically, any "offers" I make to my existing customers via email or to new customers on the site I also have to make to Walmart customers.

That's ludicrous... I can't even email my current list with a customer appreciation 50% off email or BOGO without offering on the Walmart site as well to people I have no relationship with.

Yes, some of their terms seem extreme / annoying.

Not recommending this, but I question how often will Walmart actually monitor everything a seller is doing on their website vs on Walmart?

Is there a certain amount of sales that you'd have to generate to make the extra effort of matching your "offers" worth it?

If being on Walmart adds 10%, 20%, or more to your overall sales, then that could justify the inconvenience. It's tough because no one really knows how it'll work until after you get your products up there and selling.

*I mention the adding to your overall sales because when I launched only 20 of my products on Amazon.ca, it added between 10%-15% to my overall sales per month. The extra work put into getting my products over to Canada is definitely worth it.


In my case, I wouldn't have much of an issue with this because I rarely do promotional offers.

Thinking about bailing on this altogether.

I think it might be worth getting some of your top selling products on Walmart.com. You'll know within a short time if it's worth the trouble.


I'm currently working with GeekSeller to get all of my products submitted to Walmart & Jet at the same time. I imported all of my products into their software and now I'm editing them in bulk in a spreadsheet. After that, I'll import them into Walmart/Jet.

I've been super busy with tons of other things in my business too. The walmart/jet has been pushed to the side a bit, but each day I'm doing a little bit to keep the progress moving. I'll keep you guys updated whenever my products are live.

 

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[IGP]

Couple of other gems:

Retailer will within one (1) hour of receipt on a 24/7 basis, confirm every Order file received by Walmart.com

Retailer shall answer at least 60% of all Customer calls within sixty (60) seconds of the end of Retailer’s customer service interactive voice response (the “IVR”). For purposes of clarification, time spent by the Customer on hold waiting for a customer service representative shall not be considered part of the IVR and shall be included as part of the sixty-second period described above.

No more than four percent (4%) of all Customer calls received by Retailer shall be
Abandoned Calls. “Abandoned Calls” means the number of Customer calls offered to Retailer’s customer service representatives after the IVR ends, less the number of calls picked up and completed by Retailer’s customer service representatives; provided that if a Customer hangs up before the Customer leaves the IVR, the call shall not be considered an Abandoned Call. For purposes of clarification, if a Customer hangs up after leaving the IVR and
while on hold waiting for a customer service representative, such call shall be considered an Abandoned Call;

Ninety percent (90%) of emails received from Customers shall be answered by Retailerwithin twenty four (24) hours of receipt.

 

[Jamie T]

Retailer will within one (1) hour of receipt on a 24/7 basis, confirm every Order file received by Walmart.com

This one is a very interesting one. I remember reading this and thinking.. "whaaa...?"

The other ones are really annoying too. haha

I'm still going to continue with this as planned. I wonder if reality is different from all the "rules."

The main one that I'm worried about is the one hour confirmation 24/7. Time will tell. Or, if there's anyone else out there already using Walmart/Jet, it'd be awesome if you can chime in here.

 

[biophase]

Jumping in late on this thread.

First of all.. to be afraid to sell on Amazon because they might close your account down is to me an excuse to not start. Yes it could happen. Just deal with it.

Second, selling on Walmart is a nightmare. First, they have no notification method to tell you that you got an order. You have to literally log into your account everyday to see if you got an order. I use Shipstation and it pulls orders from Walmart.

BTW, I don't know how you even confirm an order. I've never done that for Walmart. I just see the order and ship it the next day. No complaints.

They keep shutting down my listings due to price. They want your price to be the lowest possible. They expect you to compete against yourself on Amazon and your website. So if you sell a product for $40 on your website and Amazon, it must be $40 on Walmart. However, they don't seem to understand that they are taking 15% and providing absolutely no service at all.

With Amazon they provide the box and shipping for let's say $8. With Walmart, I need to provide the box and labor and pay $8 shipping. So why should I be the same price as Amazon?

Also, the onboarding on Walmart is so bad, you have to make 2 samples orders to make sure that your account works. Then you cancel them. Guess what, a month later I get my report and the 2 cancelled orders went against my account. WTF?

I don't get many sales on Walmart, but I don't even try. I'm going to stop selling on there after the holidays.

 

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[Jamie T]

Second, selling on Walmart is a nightmare. First, they have no notification method to tell you that you got an order. You have to literally log into your account everyday to see if you got an order. I use Shipstation and it pulls orders from Walmart.

BTW, I don't know how you even confirm an order. I've never done that for Walmart. I just see the order and ship it the next day. No complaints.

They keep shutting down my listings due to price. They want your price to be the lowest possible. They expect you to compete against yourself on Amazon and your website. So if you sell a product for $40 on your website and Amazon, it must be $40 on Walmart. However, they don't seem to understand that they are taking 15% and providing absolutely no service at all.

With Amazon they provide the box and shipping for let's say $8. With Walmart, I need to provide the box and labor and pay $8 shipping. So why should I be the same price as Amazon?

Thank you for your insights!

Everything you said makes a lot of sense. I wouldn't have known any of that.

That sucks. I really thought Walmart had potential.

Also, the onboarding on Walmart is so bad, you have to make 2 samples orders to make sure that your account works. Then you cancel them. Guess what, a month later I get my report and the 2 cancelled orders went against my account. WTF?

I agree from my own experience onboarding. I haven't done the 2 sample orders.

But, there was an unnecessarily long back and forth just to get them to confirm my business's street address before being allowed to open an account.

I literally sent them my sales tax certificate, multiple bank statements, and invoices with all of my business info for them to confirm that I'm a real business. After 3 months of that, they decided that they needed some outside company call my business during hours so they could confirm a bunch of information related to my business.

It did take about 7 months from the time I submitted my application to the time I was able to register my online account.

So yes, it's definitely a headache dealing with them.

@biophase Do you have any experience with selling on Jet.com?

 

[IGP]

Jumping in late on this thread.

First of all.. to be afraid to sell on Amazon because they might close your account down is to me an excuse to not start. Yes it could happen. Just deal with it.

Second, selling on Walmart is a nightmare. First, they have no notification method to tell you that you got an order. You have to literally log into your account everyday to see if you got an order. I use Shipstation and it pulls orders from Walmart.

BTW, I don't know how you even confirm an order. I've never done that for Walmart. I just see the order and ship it the next day. No complaints.

They keep shutting down my listings due to price. They want your price to be the lowest possible. They expect you to compete against yourself on Amazon and your website. So if you sell a product for $40 on your website and Amazon, it must be $40 on Walmart. However, they don't seem to understand that they are taking 15% and providing absolutely no service at all.

With Amazon they provide the box and shipping for let's say $8. With Walmart, I need to provide the box and labor and pay $8 shipping. So why should I be the same price as Amazon?

Also, the onboarding on Walmart is so bad, you have to make 2 samples orders to make sure that your account works. Then you cancel them. Guess what, a month later I get my report and the 2 cancelled orders went against my account. WTF?

I don't get many sales on Walmart, but I don't even try. I'm going to stop selling on there after the holidays.

Thanks @biophase This pretty much confirms what my gut was telling me.

You saved me a bunch of time and headaches as far as I can tell. I'm going to bow out.

 

[Jamie T]

Today I want to talk about creating a team for your business and how I use Upwork to expand my time.

There's a lot of threads talking about using Upwork to work for others, and that's great to earn some additional income. But, the flip side is using Upwork to have others work for you.

This allows more time spent "working ON" the business instead of "working IN" the business.


My Upwork team:

I just logged into my Upwork account to communicate with some of my team members. I currently have 8 people, around the world, who I hire for various tasks within my business.

• 3/8 people work 20-30 hours each every week.
  • One is dedicated to my website's SEO.
    
  • One is dedicated to data entry and online research.
    
  • One is an all around personal assistant who helps with various tasks that I can easily provide instructions to complete.
• 5/8 people are on standby for specific short-term projects based on what I need done. Below is a list of different projects.
  • Photo edits and enhancements before launching a new product. Also, to make sure the photo requirements meet the standards of each sales channel.
  • Custom database/software needs.
  • Bookkeeping/QuickBooks maintenance.
  • SEO consultant/advice.
  • Graphic designs for more advanced graphics, such as product packaging, logos, website graphics.
  • Pretty much anything else that I find isn't the best use of my own time, but can be hired out to someone skilled in that area.

I'm constantly looking for ways to free up my own time so I can focus on what really matters: increasing sales.


Hiring on Upwork:

Whenever I post a job on Upwork, I always take the time to "invite" freelancers to my job. I use the filter system to start with a good base of freelancers. Here is a screenshot with some info on it showing the filters I use:



This makes it pretty easy to go through, look at some of the freelancer's profiles, and decide whether or not you want to hire them for your job.

I then wait a day or two, then I'll go through the proposals to see who I'd like to interview. I always send a message to each of the candidates who I think are a good fit for the job. After going back and forth with them to determine if I think they're good enough, I'll narrow my selection and hire the one I think is best.


Provide Instructions:

After I hire someone, I usually create a video where I explain the process of the job so the freelancer's learning curve doesn't take too long.

I use the software, OBS to record my computer's screen while I talk through my headset's microphone.

I'll show the freelancer what documents they need to use, the recommended process on getting the job done, and the end result of what I need (usually this is an example if I don't already have a final result).

I like to go into detail too and explain "why" they are doing the job. Sometimes that helps them connect the reasoning for doing certain things during the process to the end result.

After they watch the video, I'll have them ask any questions so I can explain it better to them. Then, I'll have them start.

In Upwork there's a "work diary" (hourly jobs only) which allows you to see screenshots of what they're doing as they work. I monitor the work diary in the beginning to make sure they're moving in the right direction.

Or, I'll have them send me parts of the task along the way before it's done so I can confirm that they are doing everything correctly. It just depends.


Expanding Your Time to Grow Your Business:

I look at the time spent on growing the business as a collective whole. So, if I personally work 60 hours this week on my business and three freelancers are working 30 hours each, then that's 150 hours of work that just went into growing my business during a single week.

The more time put toward growing the business, the faster I can reach my business goals. *Of course, the time put forth needs to be used on tasks that actually move the business in a positive forward moving direction.

I like what Elon Musk talks about here and how putting more time per week in will help you get things done in a shorter amount of time compared to someone else doing the same things, but putting in less time per week. 1:20 into the video is his explanation.

Start Hiring ASAP:

If you guys have any specific questions about hiring on Upwork or using it to build your team, then I'll do my best to answer them. I recommend hiring out tasks sooner than later. This will help open your mind to the possibilities of stuff you don't have to spend time doing.

When I first started out, it took me over an hour to edit each one of my product photos myself. I decided that it was taking too much time, so I went to Elance (at the time) and posted a job to do the edits. I hired someone years ago, who still does all of my photo edits, and he charges $0.50 for basic white background edits and $3.00 for more advanced edits per photo.

If I send him 100 photos at $0.50 a photo, then that's $50.00. But, more importantly, I just saved 100 hours of time for myself because it would take me about an hour per photo. My time is worth more than $0.50 an hour. I could probably learn to do it faster, but I'd rather pay someone else.

**Later on I'll post about how I've been creating documented processes for all of the tasks within my business. I'm working on having a binder with all the details because this will make hiring these tasks out easier in the long run.

I want to be able to hire someone and already have a clear "step-by-step" document/video that he/she can reference as he/she works. Plus, it'll add more to the asset value of the business if everything is well documented.

 

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[Mr_Maravish]

Do you have an recommendations for a good SEO/Copy freelancer? I need to get my website reviewed to improve the copy.

 

[Jamie T]

Do you have an recommendations for a good SEO/Copy freelancer? I need to get my website reviewed to improve the copy.

I do all of the copy myself so I don't have anyone I can recommend. I'm pretty sure there's copywriting threads that might have people with more experience hiring out copywriting. @SinisterLex might be able to give a good recommendation.

I'll PM you the guy I use as a consultant/advisor for SEO. I used to do all of the SEO myself too.

Just recently I decided to hire the SEO out because I re-launched my website using Shopify (I was using WooCommerce before). I can't recommend the new hire yet because we're still in the beginning stages with the new website and I'm not fully confident in recommending him yet until I see more of his work. He seems to be doing well so far though.

 

[NewManRising]

Great thread. Thanks for sharing. Keep posting your progress! It is inspiring!

 

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[Mr_Maravish]

I do all of the copy myself so I don't have anyone I can recommend. I'm pretty sure there's copywriting threads that might have people with more experience hiring out copywriting. @SinisterLex might be able to give a good recommendation.

I'll PM you the guy I use as a consultant/advisor for SEO. I used to do all of the SEO myself too.

Just recently I decided to hire the SEO out because I re-launched my website using Shopify (I was using WooCommerce before). I can't recommend the new hire yet because we're still in the beginning stages with the new website and I'm not fully confident in recommending him yet until I see more of his work. He seems to be doing well so far though.

Thanks, I'll check him out, curious, why did you switch to Shopify? I was considering switching to woocommerce because you get so much more control over the website.

 

[Jamie T]

why did you switch to Shopify? I was considering switching to woocommerce because you get so much more control over the website.

It's funny because I originally started with WooCommerce to have that control. But after a while, I wanted something simpler and easier to make changes.

Dealing with WordPress and WooCommerce wasn't too fun of an experience. I figured that Shopify with a simple template would work better for the next chapter of my business.

It's also easier to work in Google Shopping (Adwords) with Shopify. They have an app that makes it quick and easy to get the products up and running.

 

[Mr_Maravish]

It's funny because I originally started with WooCommerce to have that control. But after a while, I wanted something simpler and easier to make changes.

Dealing with WordPress and WooCommerce wasn't too fun of an experience. I figured that Shopify with a simple template would work better for the next chapter of my business.

It's also easier to work in Google Shopping (Adwords) with Shopify. They have an app that makes it quick and easy to get the products up and running.

Hehe I just feel that the design I want can be accomplished so much easier. But you’re right, shopify does have the advantage that it allows you to simplify merging everything, like AdWords, different sales channels and so forth, out of curiosity what theme do you use?

 

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[Jamie T]

Hehe I just feel that the design I want can be accomplished so much easier.

It might be a good move for you haha.

out of curiosity what theme do you use?

I bought a theme from Themeforest and customized it quite a bit. The new design is a huge improvement from what I had in WooCoommerce too.

Look up Famiza on Themeforest.

 

[Jamie T]

I've been looking at launching some new SKUs recently.

I thought of some different products that'd go well with my current ones. The kinds of products that customers might buy them at the same time as buying the other products I currently sell.

I decided on some and contacted around a dozen manufacturers asking for their catalogs.

I ordered samples from five different manufacturers.

A few days ago, the first box of samples arrived!



The others will probably get here throughout the week.

Now I'll be able to: test a few, sell a few, decide what changes could be done on them, and then what manufacture seemed the best (product quality, shipping time, ease of communication, and if their company seems legit or not).

Then, I'll contact the "winning" manufacture to see if they can make the changes I want.

Assuming they can, I'll work out my first purchase order with them.

 

[Xeon]

Regarding selling on amazon, do you have to play the keywords game to get your listings to be visible?
Sort of like selling on Etsy, where you need to constantly game the system (like SEO) and tweak the keywords so that when visitors search for <keyword>, your product will show on the 1st - 3rd page?

Otherwise, in an ocean of countless products of the same type, your products may show up on page 48927.
E.g, I search for "baby toys" and I see "365,306" results

(unless amazon randomizes the product results each time so every seller has about the same amt of exposure)

 

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[Jamie T]

egarding selling on amazon, do you have to play the keywords game to get your listings to be visible?
Sort of like selling on Etsy, where you need to constantly game the system (like SEO) and tweak the keywords so that when visitors search for <keyword>, your product will show on the 1st - 3rd page?

I'm not familiar with gaming the system. The keywords on my products are the same keywords I put on when I first made the listings.

Most of my products are on the first page. I dominate some of the categories so it's not much of a concern.

(unless amazon randomizes the product results each time so every seller has about the same amt of exposure)

No idea.

 

[Jamie T]

Got some more shipments in today. I'm posting this to show what "taking action" really is.

I had the FedEx driver meet me at my garage to drop them off. Then, I carried them up to the third floor (two boxes at a time). Sometimes you have to put a little sweat into your business.



Here's after I got them up to my apartment.

A few more shipments should arrive tomorrow or the next day too.

Keep grinding!

 

[Daytraderz]

Tomorrow I'll be making my second guest speaking appearance for a college class. As I wrote the outline for what I'm going to talk about, I realized that there are many lessons, good and bad, that others can learn from here at the forum too.

On October 25th, it'll be my three year anniversary here at the Fastlane forum. I've learned a lot over the years and am still learning every single day.

The Fastlane is a real thing and if you keep working at it, you'll get where you want to go.


Just over a year ago, I was standing on the pier of a beach in sunny in Florida. I looked out over the sea and had the vision of where my life is now. The next day, I'd start my drive across the US to relocate to, even sunnier, Phoenix, Arizona.

Back then, I could see where I'd be living, the view I'd have from my apartment (mountains), and the life I'd be living. All of which I decided.

It's been just over two years since my last 9-5 job. And no, there's no going back.


My primary income source is my eCommerce business that I started with $160 back in June 2015.

After following the advice given in the thread, "Addicted to Passive Income Deposits," on the Inside, I imported my first sample of 10 products from China. More than doubled my money. And, scaled from there.

Here's a quick list of some of the things I've already done:

• I built a brand.
• I currently have just under 70 active SKUs.
  
• I sell primarily through my website, eBay, and Amazon (US and CA)
• September was my best month in sales since I started. I even had a record day in sales while I was vacationing in Florida. The business runs no matter where I am.
  
• I outsource some of the workload to two freelancers I hired in the Philippines (combined weekly hours range from 40-60 hours a week).
  
• I just recently applied for a trademark in the US. It should be approved soon. I'm considering doing the same in Canada soon.
• I just accepted a $20,000 loan from Amazon lending to grow my business. This is the first time that I'm taking on debt to expand, but believe it is necessary at this point. Previously, growth was funded by business profits only.
  
• I just got accepted on Walmart.com (I submitted my application back in March. It took 7 months before getting approved) and Jet.com. I'm working on setting up a partner account to get my products uploaded to those two sites. I decided to go with GeekSeller.

I plan on posting my thoughts, accomplishments, and failures here in the thread. I'll probably jump around from past to present. There's a lot to cover.

If you have any questions, then feel free to ask. I'll do my best to explain things from my experience.

I'll definitely add different things I do in the business to give you an idea of what works for me...and what doesn't.

Congrats on your accomplishments, friend! I was wondering if you could assist me in siphering through some things. I am looking to create my eCommerce website through square space and was wondering if you could give me some pointers or a rundown of how proccessing payments works. I understand that I need a shopping cart, a paypal account, but what else? This is somewhat stunting my development at the moment and need all the help I can get.

 

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[Jamie T]

Congrats on your accomplishments, friend! I was wondering if you could assist me in siphering through some things. I am looking to create my eCommerce website through square space and was wondering if you could give me some pointers or a rundown of how proccessing payments works. I understand that I need a shopping cart, a paypal account, but what else? This is somewhat stunting my development at the moment and need all the help I can get.

I'm not too familiar with Square Space, but it's possible that they already have payment processing built into it.

I use Shopify and it has everything already built into it. All I have to do is add the products, then people can add to shopping cart and check out whenever they want. It's pretty straight forward.

I think you'll find that it's not that big of a deal. You'll pay a few per transaction and the company (shopify in my case, maybe square space if they have this feature in your case) will transfer the money to your bank account.

These platforms make it pretty easy to get started in eCommerce these days.

 

[Guest06196]

I found a mother lode of gold!

A small finder's fee of 100 Rep is due upon the marking of this thread.
Thank you

@MJ DeMarco @Vigilante @AllenCrawley @Andy Black

 

[Jamie T]

I found a mother lode of gold!

Thanks man!

This thread definitely needs an update too. A lot has happened over the past few months.

I'll start with:

• January was my best month ever in sales.
• The Fastlane Summit was AMAZING!
• I started using hotjar and realized the freelancer I hired for some SEO work was using a script to log time on Upwork.
• I'm almost done launching some more SKUs.
• Walmart/GeekSeller are going well (not sure about Jet yet).
• I've been creating much more efficient processes.
• I partnered with two other Fastlaner's in a new business (more on this at a later date).
• And more.

A more in depth update will be coming soon..

 

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[Andy Black]

Great thread. Great progress and really well documented. Thanks for sharing and taking time to answer people’s questions.

There’s a Google shopping thread on the inside btw.

 

[amp0193]

• I started using hotjar and realized the freelancer I hired for some SEO work was using a script to log time on Upwork.

hahaha what a shitbag!

Clever way to catch him in the act though!


I haven’t been following this thread but it looks like you’re kicking a$$. Following now, have a great 2019!

 

[Striver]

You're right!

That completely slipped my mind earlier. Thanks for bringing that up.

That'll be a fun project to figure out the details of using another fulfillment center.

In the coming months, I'll look into other fulfillment options. I plan to do some traveling this coming summer/fall.

In case I missed it... how did the search go?

 

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[Jamie T]

There’s a Google shopping thread on the inside btw.

Awesome, thanks! I'll check it out. I think there's a lot of room to grow with Google Shopping, at least for my market.

Clever way to catch him in the act though!

Haha, I wasn't planning on catching him in the act. He did decent work so I can't complain too much.

But, when I see the same mouse movements over and over again coming from the same location (where he's located), it kind of rubbed me the wrong way. Makes me wonder how much time he actually spent working vs using the script/bot.

So, I can only think that I wasn't getting enough value for how much I was paying him. I decided to fire him a few weeks after I continued to monitor hotjar.

Hotjar has definitely given me some insight on how people use my website too. I actually a list of various things to update now. I'm working on finding another freelancer to do some edits on the website. Normally I'd do it, but my time is limited.

In case I missed it... how did the search go?

Funny that you brought this up! I actually just confirmed last night who I'll be using as another fulfillment center.

However, I did decide to stay located in Arizona for at least another year.

A few reasons on this:

1) I'm working on getting dual citizenship in Italy. Might take a year or so to get all the paperwork together.
2) I mentioned in an earlier post that I started another business with two other fastlaners who are also based in Arizona. We'll be giving more details/potential progress thread in the coming months. So stay tuned for that.

So, right now it makes sense to stay put and focus on growing some more. I do enjoy living in Arizona A LOT.

Walmart orders are trickling in little by little too. I'd say it was worth setting up.

No sales on Jet yet. There's some technical issues surrounding Jet that I've been pushing to the side (again, limited time).


A lot of my time recently has been on creating better processes for this business. Re-organized some of my freelancer's work and have been making tons of new training videos to make things more efficient.

Here's a perfect example: there were some tasks that I've been putting off for months just because they weren't exactly the highest priority compared to everything else. But, I started making training videos to then hand off to my freelancers. Almost all of that stuff got done within the first few weeks of doing this.

Many people say to hire as soon as you can. And, that you need to create processes (whether through software or people) to get your hands off of doing everything yourself. I'm now seeing how true that is.

Creating well written processes and high quality training videos that I can hand off to others have been a HUGE help as I focus on getting to the next level.

 

[Striver]

Funny that you brought this up! I actually just confirmed last night who I'll be using as another fulfillment center.

However, I did decide to stay located in Arizona for at least another year.

A few reasons on this:

1) I'm working on getting dual citizenship in Italy. Might take a year or so to get all the paperwork together.
2) I mentioned in an earlier post that I started another business with two other fastlaners who are also based in Arizona. We'll be giving more details/potential progress thread in the coming months. So stay tuned for that.

So, right now it makes sense to stay put and focus on growing some more. I do enjoy living in Arizona A LOT.

Great timing! haha

 

[Duane]

Awesome to see one of the guys I met in the beginning of my journey killing it.

Looking forward to seeing your future posts, lots of good info here.

 

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