Escape the Borg! - My Journey to Freedom, Ecommerce

[PTP]

I decided to make this eCommerce/importing progress thread after a spur of the moment decision. My goal for this thread is to not only be able to look back and see the progress I have made, but to absorb the advice that others have been so gracious to bestow upon me.

I would first like to take a second to thank @Ecom man and @Walter Hay. I know i'm not the first to say this, and definitely wont be the last, but you both really helped me to get motivated and learn a lot before jumping into the world of eCommerce.

Starting an eCommerce business is less about the money for me as it is about the learning and experience. Don't get me wrong, I like making money. But I really want to learn as many skills as I can now to set myself up for the future.

Now for the progress (as of 3/26/16)...

I started with this whole eCommerce thing in late January. After about a month of searching for a product to sell, I finally found my niche. I decided to sell on eBay because I didn't want to make a rookie mistake on Amazon and forever be banned.

• I created a brand name and logo.
• With my first product I am about to order my first shipment of 100 units. I have progressed from order sizes of 15 to 30 to 60. They are selling well. On average I sell 4.5 a day at $16-$19 profit per unit.
• My second product is a little more expensive and sells about one a day. I have ordered a second order of 25 units more of this item. My profit margin is again $16-$19 depending on where it is shipping to.
• I have 4 other products all in the same niche that i'm going to sell once I have the money to do so.
• I created a killer template for my listings. I found an amazing picture to aid my company image and tracked down the photographer. He was a super nice guy and allowed licensing rights at a price that I saw fit to pay him.
• Started the process of getting a domain name. The one that I want is owned by someone who is holding it to sell. I should have control of it soon enough.
• So far I have over $3000 in sales. I could have sold more but there has been a few week layover between each new shipment.

What I need to get done

The overall consumer perception of eBay, that is that it is a cheap place for deals, really hurts my company sales. My products require a sense of quality which is not achieved on ebay. As a result I need to move to my own website and build a brand through there.

• While my niche is not illegal, It is definitely frowned upon by eBay and Amazon alike. As a result I know my days on eBay are limited and that I need to make my own website.
  
• I need to improve my ability to write copy.
• This summer im thinking of, in addition to my eCommerce business, working in the sales department of a company. I would like to overcome my fear of putting myself out there and learn the art of selling.
  
• Also ive heard a lot of good things about toastmaster. Can anyone support this? Id like to learn how to talk in public.

I have not decided if I want to go the @Ecom man route of many products on ebay/personal web sight or the @biophase of changing products for resale on Amazon. What I do know for right now is that i'm going to build a website around my niche and build my company image and brand. Once that has been established I will figure out where to go next.

If you've made it through my rambling so far, thank you. I understand that I have a lot to learn and am open to any advice that you can provide me with. I look forward to reading your responses.

 

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[PTP]

Long Update Ahead - The Bad And The Good.

There's no way around it. Sales this month suck. Its my lowest month in a long time and super disheartening. Literally looking at my stats I had a .47% purchase rate today and a 1% purchase rate yesterday. Pitiful.

Looking at my analytics sales were going well until I released my new products and wiped my reviews. Then I basically hit a wall. Had a couple good days where things were looking up but those dwindled down.

To make matters worse, the past few days have seen a rise in a lot of people adding to the cart/get to check out, only to leave. Its not like I changed anything on my website because I had a pretty good day about 6 days ago, and an ok almost good day 4 days ago.

Its frustrating because I know my products are amazing, its just a matter of people getting them in their hands. Slowly building my reviews. One product is now at 3 5-stars with another at 2 5-stars and 2 more at 1 5-star apiece. Gotta build up from ground zero.

Despite this i'm super excited. Why?

Because my favorite model is about to finish up its production run! The aesthetics on this one are absolute killer and I have all the added features that i've wanted for a long time. I am guaranteed this will be my best seller. The writing is already on the wall for it to be a major success.

I put up a "pre-order" email sign up link where people could put in their email address to be notified when the product is available for sale. So far in the past 3 days I have had over 25+ sign ups for this model (I think this may be why there is a larger than normal cart abandonment rate). Obviously not everyone is going to buy when the time comes, but it is indicative of what is in store for the future.

Significantly stepped up my social media game. Get great engagement on Facebook and decent to not so good engagement on insta. Making social one of my main focuses. Everyone that sees this new product on Instagram and Facebook loves it and are always asking where they can buy it.

I decided to use Instagram influencers as one of my main advertising strategies. I have begun contacting Instagram influencers to see if they would like to rep my products. Almost all of them so far have chosen this model to be sent when it is released instead of the one I have now. Once they start testing this product out and posting pictures, sales will increase. The effect will only compound as I get more and more influencers.

Plan to also send this products to blogs and reviewers once its has a chance to be tested in the market.

My biggest issue right now is patience. I can taste what is coming in the future, but get disheartened by my current day to day sales. I forget that I essentially hit the restart button and that it will take some time to build reviews back up.

What keeps me going is that I know that by essentially "restarting" my company, I have exponentially increased my upside potential down the road. It is about sacrificing the short term for the long term. Once the ball finally starts rolling again, I know its going to be an exciting ride. Its just a matter of waiting it out.

On a side note, I graduate from high school on Saturday!

 

[PTP]

A more positive Update:

Began taking pre-orders for my new product launch. The only incentive I offered was that those who pre-ordered would have their order shipped to them before the release date.

I sent out an email to my 35+ person list of people who wanted to be notified and..... 2 people bought. Yes, 2.

Wasn't a problem though because since then, around 25 people have pre-ordered. My shipment comes in on Tuesday and I will begin fulfilling. This will also be the product I send out to influencers, youtubers, bloggers etc...

I have a couple influencers lined up that are waiting for me to send them a product to review once I have it available. FINALLY after nearly 1.5 years, I will begin heavily advertising and begin getting the name of my brand out to the public. It's about to get fun

Sales have gone up back to old levels since I set up pre-orders. I'm expecting them to rise more once I have all the variations of this new product in stock and up on the website.

Reviews are finally starting to come in. Of the 6 variations I have available now, I have a total of 21 reviews. 20 5-star and 1 4-star. The funny part of it is that a lot of people thank my company in their reviews for my products. It's a humbling validation for why I run my company.

A helpful tip to getting the first couple of reviews:

A lot of my first reviews came from me going and asking people I interacted with on social media. I would reach out and ask them if the order arrived and if there was anything they needed help with.

The key is to word it so that the customer responds with more than a 1 word answer. Then I would interact with them and answer their questions/help them (aka provide value). After everything had been resolved and all their questions had been answered (it usually took a few days) I would ask them to leave a review.

Nearly everyone I asked said yes. However, not everyone wrote one right away. That's OK. It usually took them a few days to leave one but they eventually did. Its important though not to keep bothering them about it. If they said they would leave a review just trust them that they would leave one.

A couple of people left a review on Facebook (the platform I talked to them on). When this happened I thanked them for the review and asked them if I could copy and paste it to my website. Every time they said yes and I was able to get both a Facebook review AND a website review.

So to sum it up, help answer questions and THEN ask for a review. Not the other way around.

My next steps:

Currently looking for a blogger to write for my blog. This will give me SEO content as well as content for email marketing. There was one guy I reached out to who would have been an amazing fit. However, he said he was too busy to for the job. It will take some time but I will eventually find someone.

Also working on launching my 2nd and 3rd new models. Once I have those launched I will be back up to my full product line up. Then I can focus on more products and different avenues for expansion etc...

Lastly, I recently read this thread by @G_Alexander. Definitely read it if you haven't already. He is KILLING it and his progress really served as motivation to step up my game. There is always going to be someone out there that is doing better than you, and that is a great reminder to stay humble.

 

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[PTP]

After 2 week vacation i'm finally back with an update.

Hired a friend to ship out labels while I was gone. Sales picked up and now I average 6-7+ sales to my site per day.

Discovered location targeting with adwords and turned it on yesterday heavily attacking certain areas.

The results...



Visitor high, sales high (13), revenue high.

Instagram almost 10k.

Starting to grow my email list with popups yesterday. Thanks to @AllenCrawley for his guide on the inside! I definitely suggest you check it out if given the opportunity

Added an extra 25 people to my list in 2 days. I know I need to start sending out emails but to be honest im a little daunted by the task and have been procrastinating.

Got AZ product samples/prototype.

They are really nice but dont have all the improvements I want. The final will though.

Instagram 450ish people.

Reading up on shipping by freight. A little daunting but I will figure it out.

Downloading a bunch of social media platforms to learn how to use and then apply to business.

Will start a separate AZ thread on the inside tomorrow.

Edit: A lot happened in 1 hour.

2 new sales.

Negative review trying to work out.

Maybe break $1000 revenue in a day?

 

[PTP]

Update:

I'm about to break my all time sales high for a single month with 5 days left in June so things are definitely chugging along!

I've been out of stock of 2 of my main sellers for the past week or so (I still allow back orders). Those will get restocked this week but I'm about to run out of another item.

There is a 3rd item that I designed that I was holding back on ordering until the cash flow numbers would allow it. In the next few days I will get those shipped over and will finally be back up and running at a 100% product lineup (if I can keep from running out of stock).

Reached out to a bunch of US manufacturers looking to see if they offer private labeling. Let me tell you, trying to find products in the USA to private label is nowhere near as easy as it is to do in China.

If the method i'm developing works, I will definitely share it in another thread. Hopefully most of the manufactures will reply this week and I will be able to order some samples to increase the amount of SKUs on my website.

Right now i'm looking to test my hypothesis about applying my USP to peripheral niches. I'm not sure if my offering will translate well in the eyes of the consumer though.

My goal is to order some products from these US manufactures that relates to my broader niche but are not immediately connected to what i'm selling. If they sell despite my concerns, It will be a really good sign.

If they don't sell well, I will triple down in my current niche. Then I will begin the process of building up what I have now with the goal of selling it down the road.

I also decided to skip either a semester or year off from starting college (i'm leaning towards a year) to focus 100% on my business. In all honesty though I think this is the start of skipping college completely.

The funny thing is that the idea of skipping college scares the people I tell more than it scares me. I'm super pumped to go all in on my business and don't regret my decision at all!

The only thing I will likely miss is social interaction. So I'm going to be looking around for places with like minded people I can talk to face to face every week or so.

 

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[PTP]

Update (Long post ahead):

Sorry for the hiatus. It has been rough month+.

Sales almost all of October had been extremely slow. A few intermittent decent days but generally not very good to say the least.

My number one product is still out of stock. Looking back at sales data, whenever this product was in stock all my other products sold better. Just having it in stock caused people to buy more of my other stuff.

Ive been adding more products to my website in order to increase variety and upsells. It seems to be working because whenever people do buy, they buy more items which is a step in the right direction.

My supplier has been pissing me off. Been telling me they will have more in stock of my #1 item for months now. He keeps saying its still "in production." Did something to make me lose complete trust today. I will get back to that.

Found another supplier on Alibaba supplying my #1 product for $15 cheaper. I ordered 25 to test the quality. Stupidly added stock to my website 1 day before it was supposed to arrive(10/26/16) to presell them. All around website sales skyrocketed. Hadnt seen sales like that in a while and was stoked! Continued to sell them for a few days. Sales numbers were steadily high.

Was getting concerned that my order wasnt moving. Stopped preselling. Called DHL and they told me customs pulled it aside to check it over. Its now (11/6/16) and havent heard a thing. Im calling customs in the morning. Anyone dealt with anything like this?

In order to fulfill the orders, I had to buy from an ebay seller who sold them at a reduced price of $60. I sell them for $80 with about $10 shipping. Not accounting for adspend which means im going to be breaking even/loosing money on these orders.

A lot of customers were concerned with the delays and ive been reassuring them. The extremely concerned ones I gave 10% off their order.

I dont know whats going on with my supplier. Really made me angry today. Lets say there are 2 material types called A and B. B is the preferred material quality . My items are made from material A, the less preferred type. I wanted them made from B but my supplier said they could not be treated a certain way if made from material B. This was a few months ago.

Earlier today I asked If he made a product I wanted to sell. He said yes, and he said it was made from material B. I asked if it had the treatment I wanted and he said it did. Then I confronted him and said that I thought B couldnt be treated in that way.

He then said the product didnt have the treatment after all. Told me not to worry about the quality and quickly changed the subject to my most recent order which he initially told me was shipped out last Friday but isnt going to be sent out until this Monday.

Next he tries to get me to increase my order size( he will send 90 pieces and we pay as we go initially putting down $ for 30 pieces), starts saying hes going to be in Texas next week and wants to meet, asks how much of the new product I want to buy, and finishes it up by saying hes going on vacation for 2 months and I should order a lot. This was all in less than 5 mins.

I cant trust him anymore.

Last time he was on vacation I was out of stock for a month. Needless to say Im looking for a new supplier ASAP. Problem is, it appears he is the only one to have the products and variations that I am selling. His products account for over 50% of all my products, and almost 90% of my sales.

So now im frantically looking for someone to supply products heading into my first Christmas season.

Lesson learned: Control is one important SOB.

For the immediate future my first thought is to get someone to reverse engineer my current products and give me the cads. Then I will have control over my supplier.

Instagram: 15.9k

Az product slowly coming together. Got samples sent over and have decided on my suppliers. Now its a matter of getting the products made to my specs.

If anyone can provide any guidance at all with customs as well as my supplier situation I would be extremely appreciative.

To everyone that made it this far, thanks for taking to read the post

 

[PTP]

Update:

So I finished off June with sales 35% better than my previous best month. The funny thing is, nearly half my store it out of stock. Despite items being out a stock for multiple days/weeks, people are still back ordering, however, this obviously deters people.

I'm excited to see what happens when I have full inventory! Also, I will be launching a third product in about 1-2 weeks. It has been ready to go for a while, but I didn't have enough cash to order more inventory and then launch this model.

Its going to be fun to have 3 products selling like in the past.

Remember all those manufactures I reached out to? All them were busts except one of them who turned out to be a potential gold mine!

While they don't personally manufacture what i'm looking for, they know people that do. They would help me to design/test new products (which is what I need!), and their partner manufacture would produce them. I talked to the CEO about our business ideology, what we're looking for and what we're about.

He seemed very interested and really liked our business model and how we plan on shaking up the industry etc... They are meeting with the manufacturing company to discuss some questions I prepared for them in a few days.
If all goes well I will be able to significantly increase my product offerings within my niche and continue to move the brand forward.

I also asked the CEO if he knew any other companies that manufacture items that while not 100% in my niche, are related enough to it to sell in the same store. He said he does and we are going to discuss it further after he talks with the manufacturer.

This would allow me to source US made products in different niches and diversify my brand further which would be awesome!

The reviewers I sent my product to with 30,000 subscribers launched the video and they loved it. It got a few thousand views and the response was very positive. I then went ahead and added their video to my website to increase conversions.

I sent out another product to a reviewer with 20k subs. They are going to be making multiple videos talking about the items in the coming days.

As soon as I get more inventory, I will ship out 3 more products to 3 Youtubers each with 60k. Then I will begin to move up the line and get items in the hands of even larger Youtubers. Almost everyone I talk to seems interested in testing out my products because they aren't used to seeing the value I offer.

Have had two logo designers designing a logo for the past we months but they weren't really coming up with anything I was looking for. Yesterday I said screw it! And spent the day designing one. Its almost done but my family and friends really like it!

Its one with where if you look at it one way, you see one thing, but if you look the other way you see something else.

Once the logo is finalized I will make some branded hats and swag for people that have been asking me for them. I'm not expecting to make a ton of money off the gear, but it will hopefully help with marketing/getting the name out there.

There's a lot more that I am currently planning to expand the brand, but i'll save that for another day once I have some more progress to show. Thank you for reading this far and Happy 4th of July!

Edit: Almost forgot to add this:

 

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[PTP]

Update:

Been reaching out to a lot of Instagram influencers and YouTubers.

So far, a channel with 30,000 followers and one with 60,000 followers have agreed to make videos reviewing my products. Obviously I don't expect their entire subscriber count to view my video, but even 10% would be awesome!

While there should be a bump in sales when the videos air (if its reviewed in a positive light), my main play is establishing credibility from 3rd parties. There has been chatter on a few forums with people hesitant to buy because they've never heard of me and haven't seen any reviews outside my website.

Seeing a YouTube review of the product from multiple sources that aren't my brand are key to establishing this trust. The first thing I do when looking to buy something is search YouTube for a video of it. I feel like a lot of other people are the same way.

Once I have more videos from these smaller YouTubers, I will then reach out to larger ones with 200,000 - 500,000 to get their reviews as well.

The guy with 60k subs is apparently a blogger also. I'm going to ask him a few questions about SEO and picture taking and maybe give him a trial run. I really want the blogger that said no to me a few weeks ago so i'm doing my best to change his mind (reached out again offering him free stuff. Hopefully he responds and we can start building a relationship).

Website and Facebook review counts are continuing to grow and I added 4 new variations of the products I just launched to my website.

Sales are trending in the right direction. Some days have been really good, others aggressively mediocre and a few doozys. However, overall they seem to be going up albeit slowly.

Also, saw this on the bottom of my Shopify store and thought it was pretty cool!

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I'm about to break my all time sales high for a single month with 5 days left in June so things are definitely chugging along!

Thread updated to GOLD.

Maybe @LordPhenny will read this thread and listen to someone younger than him, he certainly hasn't listened to the wisdom of his elders.

 

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[PTP]

New website unit sales high (6 in 1 day) and total sales high $400+. I contribute this to my new product launch.



Ordered 100 more units of the product I just order because I only have 4 left. A little nerve racking b/c this is the most money I have ever spent on anything in my life.

Launched a new product. I hyped it up on Instagram and emphasized the limited quantity. Launched at midnight and when I woke up 4 people bought, and another person bought later because he asked me to reserve him one up front. (1 other item still on reserve for another potential customer)

Even though I have 10 remaining, I cut the sale and said that the item was sold out. I wanted to have a little bit of fun and play with buyer psychology. Its fun to experiment and play around by creating hype and demand etc...

Hopefully next time I launch people feel the need to buy RIGHT NOW because they think "last time they ran out so I need it now."

Finally got a picture of my mold from my AZ product manufacture. It looks awesome! My logo is in it and everything.

HOWEVER, due to a mix up, it is going to cost more than double what I had originally planned. Despite this, im taking it as a blessing because it only increases the barrier to entry.

Just did my first icebreaker speech at Toastmasters. It was extremely nerve wracking at first but got a lot better as I got going. Public speaking is just one of those skills every entrepreneur MUST be proficient at.

First learned about toastmasters from @Envision in his thread here. I really appreciate it man

 

[PTP]

Talk about a crazy month!

Sales spiked after the YouTuber's video and have stayed fairly consistent since then. Did more sales this month than all of last year combined - 75% increase over last month.

It was also one of the most stressful to date. The reason? Inventory issues. Early in the month my manufacture experienced and issue with the material they were using. They initially gave me a heads up on the issue and it didnt seem like a big deal. In reality though, it was a big deal and affected 100% of incoming inventory as opposed to just "some" of the inventory they had initially thought.

While the issue was only cosmetic and most people in reality wouldn't notice it, I felt it was not in the best interest of my brand to send out a sub-par product. So I emailed the 200-300 customers who had ordered, by hand, personalized with their name.

In the email I outlined the problem we were having, gave them multiple options we could take to fix it, apologized and took full responsibility for what happened. And you know what? Nearly everyone that responded told me it was OK and were thrilled to be kept in the loop. Some were so impressed that they screenshotted the email and posted it online.

I also put out a post on Facebook telling people that if they had received a defective item by mistake, we would replace it or offer them a refund. Again, my community reacted insanely positively and were extremely impressed.

I think it's important realize that customers are people too. They understand that things happen and will work with you IF you keep them updated ahead of time. If you wait until THEY contact YOU for an update, it's too late. If something goes wrong, be proactive and let your customers know first. Own up to your mistake and fix it. So few companies are willing to individually email every customer to update them, that the ones that do will make an incredible first impression.

Another thing I learned this month was that almost all of my sales are organic/referrals and not coming from PPC as I had initially thought. The majority of my PPC conversions are coming from my brand name.

A few more quick things that happened:

• Making a slight improvement to my products. When I asked my Facebook page their thoughts on the new vs old, hundreds of people commented that they wanted the new change. The adjustment will make my products look MUCH classier, and will allow me to charge a higher price over time.

• Increased price on all products by 3%-6%. Had no effect on conversions/sales at all. Over time I will be able to raise prices 15%-20% or more and still be a great deal for buyers. However, right now I care more about market share/getting the brand name out there as opposed to money in my pocket.

• Custom packaging is finishing up. Another thing that improves the overall perception and quality of my product which will allow me to charge more in the future.

• AZ auto-responder has helped bring in more reviews. Products are now at a 4-star and 4.6-star rating. Will be launching 2 more items to AZ soon.

• Working on a new product with my manufacture that will hopefully become a big part of my business. Should be easier to ship and have higher margins although it's still in the design phase and has a long way to go (post Christmas launch).

• Looking around and getting quotes from different manufactures to use as a backup just in case something happens in the future.

• Setting up sponsorship with YouTuber's I have worked with in the past.

Thanks for reading and Happy Halloween everyone!

 

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[PTP]

So today I got angry at my AdWords account because the budget had been constantly running out. I was like "screw it lets ramp this baby up!" Set it to $140 and...hit new highs again in daily website sales with 8. (My budget ran out again)



I basically broke even on this daily spend (in terms of revenue generated by PPC) but am learning a ton in the process.

The campaign is slowly being optimized, but it definitely is a learning process. Recently I tried adding a ton of negative keywords based on queries with high bounce rates but my traffic dried up.

Also, i'm finding keywords with higher bid prices (about $2-$3) which i'm thrilled about. This means i'm getting closer to better traffic.

Instagram 7.3k.

Talked with my supplier because there were some potential issues with the products we're selling. Basically said i'm unhappy with the issues and do not feel comfortable selling those products if they're not changed.

We're now working on improvements to the entire product line which could potentially make them as good as the higher quality brands that sell for $175+. And because we have a good relationship, and the issue is in both our best interests to fix, I dont think i'm going to have to pay for the improvements.

AZ product is slowly chugging along. Im finishing up the label with Amazons FNSKU # added. The manufacture is finishing up the product. Finally decided on a "theme" for this brands Instagram.

Going to generate buzz a few months in advance so I can have a nice launch/pre orders. Its a very unique product and people instantly think/say that its a pretty neat idea when they see it. (I didnt invent the product, only improved it)

*** I hate how "me me me" centric these posts/thread seem(s). While i'm not in any ways an expert, please ask questions if you feel inclined. I want to help! ***

 

[PTP]

Just got this under my shopify store. I thought it was pretty neat!

 

[PTP]

Its about time for an update. This one will be quick, Ill follow up with a more detailed one later.

• CAD that the designer made was trash. Lost some time and money but learned not everyone knows what theyre doing.

• Random American manufacture reached out to me out of the blue. Offered products I could private label. Didnt want to private label. Wanted my own designs. Got samples and asked if they could send me blank CADs. They did.

• Brother is helping to redesign my products using blank CADs. 1/3 CAD variations are done. Received prototypes currently testing. They are GORGEOUS imho.

• Ordering small production run from USA manufacture to get US products on my store. Lead time 3-4 weeks. Lots of work to do for the product launch. Will be removing most other products from my store. Expecting a temporary sales hit.

• Better for the long term success of my brand.

• Working on getting custom packaging. Want to bring an "apple like" unboxing experience to a niche where that is not the norm. Will be expensive per box but emotional appeal from unboxing cannot be understated.

• Figured out a way to grow Facebook a lot.

• Went from 1200-1300 pages likes to 1750-1800 in about 3 days. The method will only work better as I get larger.

• Getting more active on social media. Instagram stories and Facebook growth specifically.

• Plan to hit advertising hard with these new American products. Personally expecting brand to explode.

Lots of work to do in terms of finally getting the brand name out there. Excited and ready for growth.

 

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[PTP]

Update:

• Launched new product and subsequently removed all my old products despite the fact that many of them had over 60+ reviews - mostly 5 star.
• Changed website URL for new branding.

Effects of these changes:

• Lost nearly all search rankings in google. Organic traffic is nearly non existent now.
• My website doesn't even show up first for the new word i'm branding my business as. I also no longer have any site links.
• Because my products dont have many or any reviews now, sales have been absolutely terrible. Probably due to loss of trust and loss of google rankings.

Despite this, the people that have received the new product this far absolutely love it. I already have 3 new 5 star reviews since launch.

I know my products are incredible and that people will love them. I wasnt anticipating to take this large of a sales hit but you live and learn.

What I need to do now is:

• Re-rank in search
• Get more people to see the incredible value i'm offering
• Get more reviews

Once I do that I know this thing will explode. It may be 1-2 months, it may be 6+ months. As soon as people start finding me, it will be a snowball effect.

 

[PTP]

So I've had some time to see how being removed from the platform affected sales and the results are not *that* bad. I will be breaking last months sales either tomorrow or the day after and I'm pretty sure that would have happened regardless of using the platform or not albeit a little slower.

With that being said, it's time to start a new venture.

There a numerous reasons for my decision which I'm more than happy to detail if anyone is interested, but the main one is lack of control.

By continuing this business I feel as though I am constructing a house of cards and at any moment it could all come crumbling down. I wouldn't be worried if being removed from sales platforms was a one time thing. Unfortunately though it has already happened on numerous occasions and I have a feeling its just the start.

The writing's on the wall and I need to be smart enough to heed its warning. Instead of constantly worrying and complaining about the lack of control, I plan to do something about it.

Does this suck? 100% absolutely without a doubt.

But... and this is a big but, I'm not angry or upset at all. I actually cannot begin to tell you how excited I am to start something new!

Why? Because I can FINALLY use all sales channels (Amazon, Amazon PPC, google shopping, facebook ads, instagram ads etc...)

Everything I built so far was done without any of these platforms (Although, I did have access to a few for 2 weeks or so).

I'm ready to combine my current tactics along with these more mainstream platforms and see what I can come up with. I'm incredibly scared to start over but also ready for the challenges ahead.

My plan is to find ways to improve products on the market and sell something unique - there's no room for commodities. I really think its amazing what @Vick created and find his process fascinating. Definitely like the idea of a product that's hard to imitate and extremely unique.

Also @biophase & @ddall have done incredible things as well and I really like their ideologies.

Whatever path I decide to go down i'm ready to add some value to the world create a long term sustainable brand!

Until then its product research and problem hunting for me

 

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[PTP]

Update:

Record high selling month in July. Sales were 2/3 of entire last year combined although I'm expecting that to come down a little bit this month.

Started looking for a new business to start about a month ago and have essentially been in an analysis paralysis state for that entire time. After talking to my dad yesterday he helped me put everything into perspective and i'm finally moving forward again

Today I picked a niche I wanted to sell in and chose a product within that niche. Then I sent a simple email to about a dozen suppliers and will likely hear back from them this evening. From there I will choose the specific variation product I want to start with and then will order samples, make improvements, etc...

My plan moving forward:

Over the next few weeks, my goal is to find about 5-6 different products to test the demand for. Ill order samples and check for quality. While i'm waiting for things to arrive I will test for demand as follows:

1) Create a simple Shopify store/landing page.
2) Scrape pictures from other Amazon sellers and create a listing on my temporary shop.
3) Run Facebooks ads to my store to see if anyone will go through the checkout process.
4) At the end of the checkout process they will get a message saying something like "this item is out of stock but add your email to be notified when it is in stock." I will consider this a "conversion".
5) From there I will be able to analyze if anyone would want to buy as well as the hypothetical CPA.

I'll then improve/modify the winners and drop the losers.

My goal is to start this business on my own store first, and use Amazon as a platform and not as the main show. I believe there is a ton of opportunity out there for people who build up there own online stores - even in niches that would be considered too competitive on Amazon. That's something I will be testing and we will soon figure out if that is the case

 

[PTP]

Remember that guy on Instagram with 30k followers that I sent an item to? He gave me a shout out today. Hit new highs again.

New website sales high (for 1 day): 7



Im trying something new with my adwords campaign. Only focusing on one product that is my "cash cow". This way I can optimize that product and the others will be easy because they are just variations of that main one.

 

[PTP]

Finally bought that product from the US manufacture. Bought over the phone which was a new experience.

Briefly talked to another company (over the phone) about licensing their patent. Sounded like a complete buffoon. That was fun.

Its a freely licensed thing but I just need to make sure I limit any potential liabilities if I accidentally violate the terms. (More concerned about my Chinese manufacture breaking terms.)

Trying to make my adwords campaign profitable.

Slowly overcoming my aversion to talking on the phone. But not without a few hiccups first.

Edit: Also got a new shipment in.

 

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[PTP]

And so it begins...

I dropped the product off at the guys house and will get the CADs back on Wednesday.

If the design works out im going to find a manufacture and get an idea of what the costs of USA manufacturing are going to look like.

There is a different style of this product that one of the bigger players in the industry makes that looks absolutely gorgeous. They're selling it for about $250. It comes with a proprietary component that is patent pending which while looks cool, does not function as it should.

People were saying how they liked the look of it but functionally it sucks. If the guy with the CADs comes through, Im going to design a new product with the appealing aesthetics to this product from the large player. If I can get the design right AND sell it at a my current product price range...

My mind is literally racing with ideas for new products. I really hope the designer works out!

Also, earlier I said I received licensing from another larger company to use their patented system. I will be able get the designer to add this attachment to my current products and essentially double the product line.

I was looking at the industry data and the patented attachment sells 2-4x more than the current one that I am selling! This could be huge.

Being made in the USA will give my brand a lot more legitimacy. Right now people on forums have been bashing my brand because of the fact that it is made in China. As a result I have been hesitant to reach out to influencers/youtubers/bloggers in my market. Once I get everything made in the USA I will start heavily adverting and do everything to get my company name out there.

Instagram 16.5k.

 

[PTP]

What are you sell

what are you selling that is "not illegal", but "frowned upon"?

Read the thread but you don't say what your item is? I'd like to know and definitely know more about ecommerce. If you don't mind, can your provide links, videos, authors etc so I can learn more about ecommerce? You motivated me to follow your path. Thank you.

For the love of God please tell me you arent being serious.

 

[PTP]

Had some help from someone I know with getting a CAD design made. I got the manufacture to sign an NDA for design and sent them over to him.

Hes now working on getting the design spec'd out and then will give me a price quote. This same manufacture is going to help connect me with a smaller facility that he knows. This smaller facility does the order sizes I am looking for, which is going make the starting cost a lot cheaper.

Instagram: 19.6k

 

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[PTP]

Update(4/6/16)

So its been a few days since my last post and I have jumped head first into creating a website for myself.

Needless to say I am daunted by the magnitude of everything I need to accomplish, and I am not sure exactly where to start. I have been researching things that need to get done before you launch a website and I underestimated the simplicity of the task. However, im going to be exposed to many different aspects of business and I am excited to tackle this new project.

What I have done so far...

• After some research I decided on an eCommerce platform. I am going to use shopify as it seems to have the most user friendly interface in addition to it having some nice templates. I began my trial and have played around with designing a website.
• I began creating a business plan as well as identifying my selling proposition, customer group, and I bought one of my domain names.
• I also started retaking product photos to have a white background so they can appear more professional.

Recent drawbacks...

• In order to get rid of a scratched product, I set up an auction on eBay using the EXACT same template of the main product I am selling now. That auction got flagged by eBay and was removed. This is my 2nd strike with eBay and my next slip up will result in a ban. Since it was the same template of the product I am selling now, I know it is only a matter of time before that item is flagged as well.
• My solution
  • I want to create another eBay account to sell my product. My thinking is that I can keep making new eBay accounts if the listing is removed while preventing myself from being banned permanently. My concern is that eBay will notice that the accounts are linked and ban them both regardless. Has anyone had any experience with this? I would really appreciate any help/insight.

• Also, a customer contacted me today saying the item I sent him wasn't working properly. Im going to work things out with him and likely give him a full refund. However, I truly want people to be happy with the products I am selling and it sucks that he got a defective one. Other than that though I haven't had any problems. So 1/100+ isn't bad.

My next step...

• I am going to continue and plan and prepare for launching my website, while find out a way to sell and not be banned on eBay. I understand the whole "paralysis by analysis" thing, however, I need to have some direction and organization before I move on.I dont want to launch and start running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to fix problems that could have been avoided with some initial insight.

In addition, I surpassed $5000 in sales which is very exciting. If I can avoid having eBay kick me off the island, I will be able to have some starting money to expand my product line.

Final Note...

To those of you who read this, please let me know what your thoughts are on the direction I am taking. If you have eCommerce experience I would love to talk and listen to advice you may have. Anything feedback will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time and have a great day!

(Proof of my sales)

 

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[PTP]

A person complimented my website saying it was better than the "big guys". Music to my ears .

Ordered a new product. If it sells I will expand to 2 more sizes. That would be 3 new products. Also, my manufacture is making another variation that will have 2 more variants to it.

A potential of 5 new items to sell within the next month (not to mention my AZ product in a new niche that im making).

Ive decided to take @ZCP advice of having "Zappos like customer service". (Thanks for that by the way)

I offer a 1 year money back no questions asked. Whenever people have an issue I respond quickly and try to provide assistance. Then I follow up a few days later to see how my advice worked. If it doesn't fix the problem I send them a replacement right away.

I truly believe this is the only way to run a business. Screwing over a customer after they've bought from you is an extremely stupid business model to have.

Up to almost 5k followers on insta. Am going to run a giveaway to get my brand out there.

Also, Im going to pay larger accounts for shoutouts.

Google ads have been bringing in some sales. My budget is $15 a day and it brings in about 1 sale.

My next step is to get better at AdWords and improve these numbers. I need to make it cheaper to bring in customers.

 

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[PTP]

One of my products ran out of stock but I still allowed people to buy it. This is about 3 days worth of sales that I shipped this morning.



Sales are increasing. Before I was only getting 1 sale to my site per day. Now im up to 3-4. Not accounting for eBay selling.

Instagram 21 away from 6k.

My new shipment came in but I had already pre sold over half of the products. Im going to order 75-100 on this next order.

About to launch a new product that I got in this shipment.

Trying to source another product from America for my site. Ran into a ton of legal stuff that im working out now.
Im going to get a picture of my AZ product mold on Monday. The manufacture also agreed to my ordering plan. Im going to order first 5 to test. Next 100 to test again. Then larger scale orders.

Having to deal with the occasional return. However, adding a guide has drastically reduced returns (so far).

Attempting to source in the US really opened my eyes to the fact that I need to do a lot of the paperwork/license side of business.

 

[Walter Hay]

Good deal. How long does it take to ship average orders to you from overseas?
I'm ordering samples from a couple sources on aliexpress. Takes 12-20 days via epacket. Then if the product is in demand, i'll order more in bulk, so another 12-20 days.

If you are buying from a supplier on Aliexpress you are paying retail. Even if the price seems low, it's nowhere near as low as you can get if you buy from the manufacturer.

Walter

 

[PTP]

If this is such a good seller and the supply chain is so problematic, why not design your own version and have it made at the supplier of your choosing? You really don't need to have the current product "reverse engineered" if you can find some technical talent on a freelance website. You can make the improvements you want and improve your control over the production...sounds like it might have potential!

Great idea! Im going to take your advice and do something very similar to that. Theres a kid at my school who is really good at CAD design. Ive been talking to him and im going to hire him to take my current product and put it into CAD. Weve set up this Sunday to meet and well go over everything.

From there im going to 3D print the design and make sure everything is working properly. Then ill find a manufacture and see if they can produce it. Depending on how well the product turns out, I will get this guy to convert the rest of my products into CAD. And then I will have control over my supply chain.

My next step after that will be to start innovating my product line. I will start making improvements to the base products that I know will add value and that ive been wanting to implement for a while now. Also, I would like to get the products made in the USA which will add more credibility to my brand.

Instagram 16.1k

Decided on the majority of suppliers for my AZ product after checking through their samples. Still waiting on samples from a few of them.

Finishing up the designs for the products. Then I will get them produced.

For black Friday/cyber monday, has anyone ever tried to increase your prices a few weeks before so that you can claim a larger discount on those days?

 

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[PTP]

Promising Update:

So sales have definitely picked up to around past levels. I still only have 2/3 product variations available and 2 of my best sellers are out of stock which is a promising sign!

From past trends of my old products, whenever there were 3 variations available, overall sales increased. However, whenever one of the variations was out of stock, sales suffered. So i'm excited to see where sales go once I give customers all 3 product variations to choose from.

I began running Facebook traffic to my website. Daily visits essentially tippled. However, the frustrating thing to see is that a TON of people are adding the item to their carts, but only a few are converting.

Looking at "Add to cart/Purchase" data before Facebook was around 3.3%/2.2%. After Facebook traffic "Add to cart/Purchase" went to 2.75%/1.35%.

This leads me to believe that the traffic coming from Facebook, although plentiful, is not targeted well enough. These numbers will improve as I begin to figure out the platform. Although, it is extremely frustrating seeing SO many people add to cart and not progress though the conversion funnel.

The low conversion rate data has also led me to take a much more involved approach into analytics and optimization. I always knew it was important, but now I'm really starting to get my hands dirty.

I've installed HotJar and have started creating heatmaps as well as polls asking customer questions about their fears/hesitations about purchasing etc...

I will also begin A/B testing once i've collected enough data back from these heatmaps and customer polls.

Seeing how my sales are almost as good as the pre-USA made days with only 2/3 products and untargeted Facebook traffic, i'm excited for the MASSIVE opportunity that there is to grow this thing! It just requires a lot of work learning new platforms and optimizing which is where it starts to get fun

 

[PTP]

Time for an update:

• Finished September with record sales high month (beat last month by a few K)

• Youtuber with 500k+ subs posted a glowing review of the product. I plan to use his review as a way of getting in touch with more reviewers within the space. Planning on doing more collaborations with him.

• Finalized my new logo. It looks awesome!

• Food product survey had about 120+ responses in a 24 hour period. Since then I have been looking for a food scientist to help formulate my product. After calling tons of companies, I have a few promising leads. One in particular looks to be exactly what I am looking for. The second time calling I got in touch with someone and now I sent them an email with the details. Hope to hear back soon and get a price quote for their services.

• Amazon.... I have a new found respect for you Amazon sellers out there. Let me tell you, it seems like Amazon customers are negative review trigger happy. I managed to go about 1 year on my shopify store before my first one star review. How many days on Amazon you ask? 18 days. And from what I can tell it's because the customer didn't know what they were ordering. I'm expecting more reviews to help offset the now 3.5 star rating. But if not i'll just get a new UPC and create a new listing.

Other than that i'm just spending the majority of my time calling food scientists and bringing this food company to life.

I was told by food broker in this space that my niche is very competitive and that most business she works with fail. Honestly it kind of pumped me up and i'm ready for the challenge. Until next time, have a great day!

 

[PTP]

Cranked up my AdWords budget from $17 to $40. New high in website visitors, sales, and products sold.

Unfortunately, i'm currently out of one of my products to sell but have a new shipment coming in soon. If it doesn't arrive tomorrow I will email my customers and give them a heads up.



Started chatting with a person on instagram who has 30k ish followers. Super nice guy and I ended up sending him one of my products to test out.

Still have an extremely high bounce rate for my PPC campaign that I need to fix. Slowly learning but not afraid to admit that I have an extremely long way to go.

The person who was going to help me get product action shots fell through so i'm still looking. No worries though I will find someone.

Bing ads have potential for my target demographic. Will start those when I get a knack for AdWords.

Still waiting on my AZ product mold.

@biophase Can I PM you and run my AZ product by you?