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I start my idea today (eCommerce + POD)

Jeannen

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Hey !

So, I was wandering online, searching for a business idea for weeks, when I found a cool ad this morning. Basically, it's some kind of POD (Print on Demand), with additional value.
The ad was in english, the website too, and in USD. Since I'm French, I quickly checked if there was any existing business like this one in France, and found none.
For obvious reason, I'm not disclosing anything about it yet, but once it will be implemented (if it works), I guess talking about it won't be a problem

I really flashed on this idea because:
1) It's working well in the US
2) It provides genuine value and exitement to peoples who receive it (either for them or as a gift)
3) It's for a group of passionated peoples who could potentially buy multiple time, meaning there is a potential for some customers retention

So, I decided to give a try.

I spent the afternoon calculating margins, and to be honest, there is nothing amazing here (3€ to 10€ of margin per product) , but hey, it's worth a try !
It doesn't fully respect the CENTS (My control is limited as I depend of an external supplier) but over time I guess it might improve, since I'll be able to negociate with other suppliers or whatever.

So, here is the things I need to do in the upcoming week:
- Find suppliers (mostly done)
- Calculate profits (mostly done, even tho they are pretty low)
- Find & contact designers (I'll check UpWork & Fiverr soon)
- Find a name & logo (Work in progress)
- Grab a domain name
- Create a store (should take me 4-5h to get it fully done)
- Start a marketing strategy, either organically or trough advertising. I'd prefer advertising, but my margin are pretty bad, and I don't wana burn everything

I have 2000€ available for this project.

I'll use this post as a "follow up" guide. I might post my "background" later, since I'm not starting ecommerce from scratch, I already have good knowledge and some "okay" experienc in the field.

Goal of the project: Create my 1st activity that is not a "Time --> Money" converter and not dropshipping. I'm freelance so I earn some cash, but it depends of the time I spend working.
 
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Jeannen

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Good luck! Looking forward to see your progress.
Thanks ! :)

I'll try to post everytime a make some progress.

Right now I'm trying to find a name who is not taken by one one those pesky "domain hostage taker", which is becoming harder every year, damn, at some point paying 1k for a domain will be normal
 

Sethamus

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Doesn't Amazon have a free POD service where you can input your design and if it sells you get a percentage? Maybe sell on your own platforms and link to your Amazon design store or fullfill through their POD if possible .
 
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Jeannen

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Doesn't Amazon have a free POD service where you can input your design and if it sells you get a percentage? Maybe sell on your own platforms and link to your Amazon design store or fullfill through their POD if possible .

Every design will be different, so I'll hire a designer (that's why the entry barrier is higher than classical POD)
Amazon POD won't be really the best here, since Tshirts and apparels probably won't be my main offer
 

Jeannen

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Update: 10/04/2020

Okay, so, I test-hired 7 designer and gave them a test order, from there, I'll be able to pick the one with the best quality (since they all charge the same price).

✔ Find suppliers - DONE (I'll start with 4-5 products)
✔ Calculate profits - DONE
✔ Find & contact designers - DONE
✔ Find a name & logo - DONE
✔ Grab a domain name - DONE
- Create a store - Today's goal
- Start a marketing strategy - Today & tomorrow's goal

The designer will cost a bit more than expected, which should lower my margins. VAT is a real issue, since it F*ck up 20% of my margin. Anyway, I'll make a try and see how things goes

So, quick background, I might go more into details later if it interest peoples (Since again, I'm not starting "from nothing" without knowledge).

Been in eCommerce for 3 years now, I started with dropshipping, didn't made profit but sold 2 stores, and from there I've been able to find freelance job with clients. For one client, I manage their ads and give general advice on marketing. It's a fashion brand, both retail & eCommerce. I also give courses online to beginer entrepreneurs, I teach them the basics.

I've been doing this for more than 1 year (Since October 2018), and it earn okay cash (~3k to 5k/month).
Problem is it's time-dependant, and that's annoying. I like doing it, but I want to create real companies now.

If I manage to grow this eCommerce and then sell with profit, it will be a win !
 

mve0991

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Update: 10/04/2020

Okay, so, I test-hired 7 designer and gave them a test order, from there, I'll be able to pick the one with the best quality (since they all charge the same price).

✔ Find suppliers - DONE (I'll start with 4-5 products)
✔ Calculate profits - DONE
✔ Find & contact designers - DONE
✔ Find a name & logo - DONE
✔ Grab a domain name - DONE
- Create a store - Today's goal
- Start a marketing strategy - Today & tomorrow's goal

The designer will cost a bit more than expected, which should lower my margins. VAT is a real issue, since it F*ck up 20% of my margin. Anyway, I'll make a try and see how things goes

So, quick background, I might go more into details later if it interest peoples (Since again, I'm not starting "from nothing" without knowledge).

Been in eCommerce for 3 years now, I started with dropshipping, didn't made profit but sold 2 stores, and from there I've been able to find freelance job with clients. For one client, I manage their ads and give general advice on marketing. It's a fashion brand, both retail & eCommerce. I also give courses online to beginer entrepreneurs, I teach them the basics.

I've been doing this for more than 1 year (Since October 2018), and it earn okay cash (~3k to 5k/month).
Problem is it's time-dependant, and that's annoying. I like doing it, but I want to create real companies now.

If I manage to grow this eCommerce and then sell with profit, it will be a win !

Good job! What will be the e-commerce system that you will use for creating the online store?
 
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Jeannen

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Good job! What will be the e-commerce system that you will use for creating the online store?

Shopify, I use it since day one in ecommerce and it's by far the best and most versatile platform out there (at least without coding knowledge)
 

mve0991

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Shopify, I use it since day one in ecommerce and it's by far the best and most versatile platform out there (at least without coding knowledge)

I know Shopify by name because I'm active in the e-commerce branch myself but I have never worked with it. Did you already managed to setup the online store and think about the marketing strategy?
 

Jeannen

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I know Shopify by name because I'm active in the e-commerce branch myself but I have never worked with it. Did you already managed to setup the online store and think about the marketing strategy?

I can only highly recommand it to you ! There is 90 days trial at the moment, so you can try it easily !

Update 12/03/2020
My GF took me more time than I expected yesterday so I didn't finished the store. It's created but I need to add essentials pages, design etc...

In the meantime, most of my designers sent me back the designs, and I'm very pleased. I transfered them to my print supplier (Printful in this case) and ordered some samples, they should be home within 7-10 days. It's amazing to see everything you can create with Printful, they really improved over the years !

I'll then offer the samples to my setp family to see how they react (they could potentially be the typical target).

I haven't fully thought about the strategy, I'll probably start organically with a form or something like that. I'm used to ads, never done organic before, but it will probably be better to get customers feedback quickly




(Btw, if I do grammar / wording mistakes, feel free to report them, feedback is always apreaciated since I'm not native)
 
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Jeannen

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Update 14/04/2020

I worked on the website yesterday, the design and the upload system are pretty much done, I'll add a few tweaks later. I now need to add content: Product, Pages, etc...

In the meantime, I started to plan my strategy. I could go straight to FB ads, but I feel like I need to validate the idea before.

So I'm going to post into FB groups to find beta tester and send them a typeform, it might be better to begin with.

Then, if I see that my post is working, I'll make an ad from it and try to scale from there.

I have 2 main angle. I have written the post text for the first one (which is soft) and I start thinking about the 2nd one (who is really strong emotionally speaking, but it could also offense a lot of peoples lol)




It could also be a good product for some of my family members, so I migth pitch them the project.

My goal today is to post at least in 1 group.

I'm mostly a brain-fart idea guy and a huge introvert, so posting in groups instead of hiding behind ads is something I've never done before, but F*ck that, I need to do it anyway.
 
Last edited:

Jeannen

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Some doubts are emerging. My prices are very high and my margin are lows due to the nature of the product. I don't know if peoples will be willing to pay that much. They do in US market, but in France, peoples are willing to pay waaaay less.

I can't know unless I try I guess
 

Lionhearted

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Some doubts are emerging. My prices are very high and my margin are lows due to the nature of the product. I don't know if peoples will be willing to pay that much. They do in US market, but in France, peoples are willing to pay waaaay less.

I can't know unless I try I guess
"There is no try. Do or do not." Yoda
 
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Jeannen

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Let us know how it goes. I'm interested to learn from your success (and challenges), as someone still trading time for money.

Biggest challenge so far is the lack of a clear roadmap. I'm used to ads, never done organic before. I was thinking about making first orders trough typeform, but I'll do it trough store, so, I have to add all the products before posting in FB groups.

I'll do: Facebook group post --> DM --> Store link
 

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Hey !

So, I was wandering online, searching for a business idea for weeks, when I found a cool ad this morning. Basically, it's some kind of POD (Print on Demand), with additional value.
The ad was in english, the website too, and in USD. Since I'm French, I quickly checked if there was any existing business like this one in France, and found none.
For obvious reason, I'm not disclosing anything about it yet, but once it will be implemented (if it works), I guess talking about it won't be a problem

I really flashed on this idea because:
1) It's working well in the US
2) It provides genuine value and exitement to peoples who receive it (either for them or as a gift)
3) It's for a group of passionated peoples who could potentially buy multiple time, meaning there is a potential for some customers retention

So, I decided to give a try.

I spent the afternoon calculating margins, and to be honest, there is nothing amazing here (3€ to 10€ of margin per product) , but hey, it's worth a try !
It doesn't fully respect the CENTS (My control is limited as I depend of an external supplier) but over time I guess it might improve, since I'll be able to negociate with other suppliers or whatever.

So, here is the things I need to do in the upcoming week:
- Find suppliers (mostly done)
- Calculate profits (mostly done, even tho they are pretty low)
- Find & contact designers (I'll check UpWork & Fiverr soon)
- Find a name & logo (Work in progress)
- Grab a domain name
- Create a store (should take me 4-5h to get it fully done)
- Start a marketing strategy, either organically or trough advertising. I'd prefer advertising, but my margin are pretty bad, and I don't wana burn everything

I have 2000€ available for this project.

I'll use this post as a "follow up" guide. I might post my "background" later, since I'm not starting ecommerce from scratch, I already have good knowledge and some "okay" experienc in the field.

Goal of the project: Create my 1st activity that is not a "Time --> Money" converter and not dropshipping. I'm freelance so I earn some cash, but it depends of the time I spend working.
Build and flex. Generate some results. Congrats. Journey begins.
 

Jeannen

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Update 16/04/2020

So, I decided to hide all products except one, it will make things simpler to launch. It's the "cheapest" product (25€), so it would probably be the easiest to sell.
Website is fully done.

I'll start from there, promoting the concept around a single product, and will see how it go from there.

As you can see, I didn't progress much in the last few days. My FB post is ready to go, but it seems like I'm finding excuses to not hit the "publish" button.

I watched this video to help me overcome this, but I realized that there was very little risk. I'm just crippled by social anxiety. That sounds stupid af, but that's something causing me real issues in general.

Anyway, I just published the post in a FB group while writting. Since it's a promotional post, it will probably not be approved since posts need to have admin approval, but I'm glad I did it.
 
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Jeannen

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Update 16/04/2020 - 17:00

FIRST SALE

I posted in 3 others groups in the meantime, 2 need admin aprobation, but in the last group, the post have been accepted.

7 peoples commented saying they were interested

I added all of them, and one of them converted into a sales, yay !

Going out of my confort zone was worth it !
 
Last edited:

FrYo

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Bonjour
Implémente ce projet! le plus tôt sera le mieux, nous avons tous hâte de voir les premiers challenges auxquels tu vas te confronter !
Keep going Bro! and leave us feedbacks .
 

Jeannen

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Bonjour
Implémente ce projet! le plus tôt sera le mieux, nous avons tous hâte de voir les premiers challenges auxquels tu vas te confronter !
Keep going Bro! and leave us feedbacks .

Merci ! :D
 
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Kid

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Interesting approach. And nice read.
 

Jeannen

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Update 16/04/2020

Second sale !


I kept posting in groups and got messages, luckily there is a shitton of them

So, at this point, 45€ of sale

Not much, but good starting !
 
Last edited:

ciprianm

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Update 16803/2020

Second sale !


I kept posting in groups and got messages, luckily there is a shitton of them

So, at this point, 45€ of sale

Not much, but good starting !
Great to follow your new entrepreneurial quest and to see how you’re overcoming the problems that arise.

Keep up the great work, would like to see you succeed in one or two years with a big exit by selling the company.
 
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Jeannen

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Update 20/04/2020

One of the group I had the most traction in removed my post. That was kinda expected.
(Still 2 sales at this point, and I'm speaking with several potential customers)

The designers sent me the first designs, one of them wasn't fully as I was expected, so I had to spend some time on Photoshop to make it looks good, even tho I'm no designer at all (Youtube & Google are my friends)

Customers satisfaction before all.

Now, I think it looks good, but ultimately the clients will be the judge.
Until the product is delivered and they are satisfied, I'm borrowing them their money. Once I deliver the promised value, and only then, the money is mine.

I think that's a good mindset to start in eCommerce. Of course, once you are established, you can considere the money as yours as soon as you get the payment, since you know your satisfaction/return rate, and tho can include it in your maths.
 

DropshipGodx

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Hey !

So, I was wandering online, searching for a business idea for weeks, when I found a cool ad this morning. Basically, it's some kind of POD (Print on Demand), with additional value.
The ad was in english, the website too, and in USD. Since I'm French, I quickly checked if there was any existing business like this one in France, and found none.
For obvious reason, I'm not disclosing anything about it yet, but once it will be implemented (if it works), I guess talking about it won't be a problem

I really flashed on this idea because:
1) It's working well in the US
2) It provides genuine value and exitement to peoples who receive it (either for them or as a gift)
3) It's for a group of passionated peoples who could potentially buy multiple time, meaning there is a potential for some customers retention

So, I decided to give a try.

I spent the afternoon calculating margins, and to be honest, there is nothing amazing here (3€ to 10€ of margin per product) , but hey, it's worth a try !
It doesn't fully respect the CENTS (My control is limited as I depend of an external supplier) but over time I guess it might improve, since I'll be able to negociate with other suppliers or whatever.

So, here is the things I need to do in the upcoming week:
- Find suppliers (mostly done)
- Calculate profits (mostly done, even tho they are pretty low)
- Find & contact designers (I'll check UpWork & Fiverr soon)
- Find a name & logo (Work in progress)
- Grab a domain name
- Create a store (should take me 4-5h to get it fully done)
- Start a marketing strategy, either organically or trough advertising. I'd prefer advertising, but my margin are pretty bad, and I don't wana burn everything

I have 2000€ available for this project.

I'll use this post as a "follow up" guide. I might post my "background" later, since I'm not starting ecommerce from scratch, I already have good knowledge and some "okay" experienc in the field.

Goal of the project: Create my 1st activity that is not a "Time --> Money" converter and not dropshipping. I'm freelance so I earn some cash, but it depends of the time I spend working.
The biggest problem with POD is slim profits try to keep your profits upto 35% even when scaling. POD can make you money but can cut your profits!

For Marketing get few shootouts build pixel and then start with retargeting and cold campaigns
 

Jeannen

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The biggest problem with POD is slim profits try to keep your profits upto 35% even when scaling. POD can make you money but can cut your profits!

For Marketing get few shootouts build pixel and then start with retargeting and cold campaigns

Yeah, especially in my case, since every design is different

Unfortunately, the profit isn't that much, but I'll try to make it work trough LTV and Upsell, I want to try organic before going to ads

I'll see how it goes


Edit 20/04/2020 - 20:10: 3rd sale !
Edit 21/04/2020 - 15:24: 4th sale !
 
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Last edited:

Jeannen

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Edit 23/04/2020

So, since I kinda validated the idea trough my posts & sales, so I launched some ads yesterday. I tried to mimic & automate the pattern that generated me sales trough groups:

Post + Comment CTA, then private message with link

So I did

Ad (Optimization for messenger msg) with message CTA + Chatbot with link

I didn't let the ad run a lot, because I got trash result instantly. I tried to engage with them, but most of them didn't said anything, and the comment made me thought it is spam traffic (peoples who have no idea what they are doing, missclicks etc)

I'll launch another ad with a purchase conversion, same funnel, so see if the audience is better
 

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Any updates? :)

Following this thread with interest.
 

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