Is E-Commerce still Alive for 2022 / 2023 and How To Make it a Fastlane Success !!!

[fastlane_dad]

November 2022: Is e-commerce a viable business to start today?

We need a definitive explanation and answer as a new thread. I’m nominating @NeoDialectic , @fastlane_dad duo to start, and then every INSIDERS who’s in this line of business. I’ll chip in with my own thoughts as a complete outsider.

The question was brought up if 'e-commerce' is a viable business to start today.

I'm sure my take on this will be slightly different then even @NeoDialectic but I'll try to sum up my perceptions of where it is today.

IMHO - e-commerce as a business is still just as great and viable as it was a decade ago or more.

@NeoDialectic and I have been around it for the past 20+ years in one way or another. We created and sold several businesses based on that model.

I have always loved e-commerce, and in many ways have been fascinated with it since it's beginnings. I will never forget my start - when eBay was born and I was able to make my first several online bucks flipping baseball cards for profit at the age of 14. Back then people used to send you checks in the mail (who remembers those days?) - after which they would count on you to mail their product to them promptly.

To me the world was a sea of online opportunity waiting to be unleashed with my mark on it.

Looking back over our sales of prior, @NeoDialectic and I sold around 1 MILLION e-COM GOODS total. Our total revenue during that time has neared the $50 MILLION dollar mark combined.

@MJ DeMarco coined the phrase 'affect millions to make millions' - does not ring any more true to me then in the e-com world.

I still LOVE everything about it, particularly how easy it is to mold e-com to the CENTS framework.

Sure - some of those variables might come easier or harder then others (especially need and control). Some you will have to work harder for to separate yourself (entry) - but on the overall it is just incredible to me how many opportunities there still are within e-commerce and how it can take an average 'joe' and provide them with a highly scalable business in a few short years.

I'll point out some of my other immediate 'pros'

-- How easily e-commerce is disconnected from your time (it exists online, 24/7 and does work while you sleep)

-- Depending on the niche you can have a consumable product that gets reordered month after month (cha-ching!)

-- You will have easy access to create a productocracy - as long as your product solves a need or a want, and people have access to talk about it (so let's say not a very sensitive subject overall)

-- The availability today to source anything from anywhere, and get it designed and manufactured with ease. Gone are the days when you actually had to leave your house and travel to China to draft up some contracts and tour plants (which brings me into my next point)

-- You can literally run the entire operation today out of your bedroom if you choose. The distribution, production and software networks are so ingrained with the e-commerce model today
that you can setup and run a ten figure business without ever seeing your product or owning a single employee, office space, pallet or warehouse. That is just INCREDIBLE to me. As long as you have an internet connection - you can make this business work from any corner of the globe.

-- It is fairly easy to 'test the market' (depending on what your product is as well)

-- The availability of platforms and ease of listing your products and storefront now is just incredible as well. You have your obvious heavy hitters (Amazon, Shopify, Walmart.com, Etsy, Ebay, etc.) as well as hundreds of smaller retailers that are more niche depending on what you are selling.

-- Best of all - e-commerce also disconnects the world from you 'personally' - so as long as you are providing VALUE and what people WANT - the world doesn't care who you are, who you know, where you went to school, how charming or suave you are, how many girlfriends you have or how well you know calculus. That is incredibly liberating, that almost removes any barrier of a personal excuse someone has to start up this line of business.

I can go on and on about the pros all day. To me , especially for a novice, it is still ONE of the best if not THE best ways to enter or have a shot at the FASTLANE life and earnings.

NOW for the CONS as I see them in 2022 - 2023

-- Let's get the elephant out the room - the marketplace is INCREDIBLY flooded. Many of the easy solutions have been done and tackled. Amazon, as well as the other major online retailers have no shortage of product virtually in every industry you can think of. What does that mean to you? Well for starters - is that your value SKEW just needs to be that much stronger. Instead of having one value skew you might need 3. Or 5. You might need to NICHE down your product even more (i.e. pressure reducing hiking bags for seniors with back issues) so in essence limiting the total market potential). So the work you put in will be MORE today, for potentially LESS profit. But don't let that stop you!

-- Ads are getting incredibly expensive all around. Whether you set up on adwords, amazon ad platform or many other channels - ads today will COST you. All that means is you can't fully rely on ads alone to carry you. You will need to be ingenious in your approach to marketing - and will have to look outside of the traditional / typical paths. You will have to look to see where the attention is going today (tik tok? instagram ? youtube ? ) Maybe you can make tutorials on how to use your product and post it to youtube. Maybe you can contact new moms on tik tok to help spread the message of your new baby carrier. Maybe you will have to start and grow a podcast to help sell your 5-in-1 business planner to help get the word out on that. There are countless options, more so than before to do creative advertising that doesn't need to break the bank.

-- You do need the ability to spot and try out new platforms, ways of distribution and continually trying new ways of advertising (as nothing lasts forever). This is not new - but an integral part of being setup at the 'right place at the right time'. At respective points in the last several decades @NeoDialectic and I have used google/shopify, ebay, amazon, and social media platforms all as respective channels to market and promote products. They all had their time to shine, and when things were per say 'easier'. What's the next thing out there? Well that's the million dollar fastlane question - and surely something will always be. It will be on you to position yourself correctly to be able to give you the best leverage towards helping your products succeed.

-- You need to be more resilient then ever. Moving into the future, you might need to try a few product, or ideas then in the past to see what will work. Ultimately the market decides what it needs, but it's your job to put it in front of them.

I hope this helps anyone thinking or debating going into e-commerce. There is still tons of untapped opportunity in this world. The shopping and commerce is still moving to and migrating online at a very rapid pace. Infrastructure will only be further improved to setup and improve this business model and everything surround it.

ALSO - if you are STUCK for ideas, @NeoDialectic wrote up an EXCELLENT thread on idea generation not to be missed. This will get you kicked off in the right direction, and honestly, was the plan behind us coming up on dozens of ideas that turned into very successful products.

If you have any other question, please feel free to ask and @NeoDialectic and I will be happy to provide our thoughts below!!

 

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[Antifragile]

Question: are you concerned with Amazon being large enough to remove the “C” in CENTS framework? It is possible to find your way back to some control in E-commerce?

 

[fastlane_dad]

Question: are you concerned with Amazon being large enough to remove the “C” in CENTS framework? It is possible to find your way back to some control in E-commerce?

The bigger amazon gets, the less C (control) they will permit you.

That comes with the pro of exposing your products to a worldwide audience of hundreds of millions (billions?) of customers.

Can amazon be a standalone e-commerce solution still moving forward ? Yes - BUT I won't recommend it.

You now have zero access to customer data. They take down stores / products without so much of a notice, and in your best interests to try and claw back in. You are featured side by side with countless other competitors, making your ability to stand out and show your value skews even more difficult.

Amazon heavily restricts you now on what and how you can say about your product in the listing. They will prohibit you now from including common promotion and marketing language and phrases such as 'achieve your best self today' - because you are insinuating that somehow they (the customer) is LESS THAN that today.

As even would apply before - I'd do everything I can to setup / control the business off the amazon platform, with my own platform, website and email lists.

Amazon alone IS a big risk - one that can pay off handsomely OR destroy your entire palace in a heartbeat.

More so than ever relying on them is building your properties on someone else's playground which is a big no-no in CENTS. But with that said, it can still be a great channel for promotion, visibility and sales if played right.

Yes - you can have control in e-commerce, but you will have to work a bit harder today then before.

 

[NeoDialectic]

I agree with everything @fastlane_dad posted and just wanted to chime in to show an example of it working RIGHT NOW.

As mentioned in my intro thread:

We started a few small eCommerce projects. We no longer feel any pressure on making sure these projects grow or accomplish anything special. But we saw market gaps and old habits die hard!

One of the projects we started last year was addressing a gap we noticed in the health & personal care field. The niches that the products belong to are extremely saturated, but we found sub-niches that no one addressed using the idea generation framework. The products costs us around $6 a piece and the sale price varies between $55-$80.

Here is the YTD view of sales for 3 products we released all at once:

No one is buying Lamborghini's from this project, yet, but as you can see new things still sell on Amazon! E-commerce is alive and well!

You can see that in Jul/Aug of 2021 is when we did the very initial test and sold a few. If we couldn't sell a few at this point, we would have scrapped the project. But since we did, we restocked with a healthier supply to do a longer test.

We are very indifferent to this project and are reluctant to spend time on it. So we are still in the testing phase from my thread. We have spent no more than a few hours a month on this during the testing phase and it's primarily just conversation of where we can take it and whether we are willing to do it. The reality is that by January we had a strong enough signal to get out of the testing phase and move onto improving the product, buying a larger stock, ramping up ads, expanding marketing outreach, optimize the page, take better media, add more products to the line and pushing the products more widely and on other platforms. But it's been on the back burner for us while WE decide whether it's worth us investing more time into it. The primary problem with these products is that the fields we entered are insanely saturated, so regardless of it being a good product or not, we will have to do some pushing to get more visibility and gain some momentum.

At this stage of our career we get to be more choosy and since it's not a field we are passionate about we aren't sure we want to invest the time into growing it. However, the best part of putting something together ASAP and letting it fly ASAP is that while we take our time deciding; The products are out there working for us! Even better is that there is always a chance they just start gaining steam on their own. There are already happy customers subscribed to monthly subscriptions, which just eventually snowballs.

Remember, being an entrepreneur isn't about your decades of experience in some field. We have experience on Amazon itself, but this project that we started is in a niche we have zero experience in. @fastlane_dad and I didn't do a decade of research and product development to bless the world with some perfect product that no one wants. We went from idea to revenue in months time, not a decade. So don't wait. Let go of your FEAR and start TODAY. You could have something of your own in someone else's hands within weeks/months!

 

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[NeoDialectic]

Question: are you concerned with Amazon being large enough to remove the “C” in CENTS framework? It is possible to find your way back to some control in E-commerce?

At this stage, we would recommend using Amazon's market dominance to your advantage but then branching off. They have gathered 100s of millions of active customers all in one spot for you to do your testing on. You can't beat that. But as soon as you pass the testing phase I would recommend diversification be one of your priorities from the start. Sales should still be #1, so don't spend a ton of time on it (let's say 5% of your time).

So that means starting to sell on Walrmart, Shopify, eBay, Etsy, etc... Then you would also have to think of ways to get your Amazon customer to become YOUR customer. I'm sure you have seen the inserts from something you bought off Amazon that say email us for warranty on your product. We haven't done that exactly, but it's a great method of making that customer YOURS. You now have their information forever to provide free value to build trust and loyalty, upsell, cross sell, and do whatever else you see fit.

 

[Antifragile]

great information and I hope young members who need help starting will reap benefits from reading here.

Another question:
His does e-commerce stack up against other “easy” to launch businesses like copywriting or web design? If you were 20 again, what are the pros and cons of each? Which do you recommend to new forum members who are interested in starting their first business?

 

[MoneyDoc]

Much needed thread!

Will share some thoughts shortly. Tagging @biophase as well.

 

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[fastlane_dad]

great information and I hope young members who need help starting will reap benefits from reading here.

Another question:
His does e-commerce stack up against other “easy” to launch businesses like copywriting or web design?

While we have never 'ran' either of these businesses, and you are correct - 'easy' to launch - my mind doesn't frame either of these opportunities as a 'fastlane' path (especially from the time and scale part of CENTS). Will these work from a 'gig' perspective for some supplemental income? Certainly. And with a proper setup SYSTEM, I'm sure this can turn into more.

And sure - you do encounter 'content' websites becoming successful over a decade or longer (as evidenced by 'for sale' sites around the web) --- BUT to me it's a no contest between the semi-immediate feedback and results of e-commerce.

If you were 20 again, what are the pros and cons of each? Which do you recommend to new forum members who are interested in starting their first business?

Same advice as before still holds. @NeoDialectic and I are huge fans of e-commerce.

Here are just some of my general thoughts for anyone starting off at 20 years old.

E-commerce still works (as evidenced in the post above).

It is still the same age-old trusted formula of making $5 before you make $10.

To our (logical) brains everything about this system makes sense - especially when you talk about starting TODAY, not needing years to develop or put together team / ideas / development.

One other KEY ASPECT of e-commerce I failed to mention - is how it's one of the few businesses you can easily bootstrap. We have bootstrapped every business. We never needed or saw a reason to take on investors. The business profits have funded all of our expansion.

Yes with more money now we can be more 'reckless' in spending, trying, speeding up the process etc -- BUT we are still VERY VERY prudent on making decisions, and have started our current e-comm business shown above with UNDER $1000! That's less than the LATEST IPHONE.

That includes all inventory of products, logos created, websites, etc. It will revenue over $20K this year and headed for larger growth next year. We have zero employees working on this (all tasks contracted out). This again portrays what process looks like. We aren't looking for cheat codes, 'expedited' results or sinking in enormous sums of money to get something off the ground.

There is nothing that prevents this business from FASTLANING in the future once again, but it's nowhere near getting the dedicated full time focus or dedication our previous business held.

 

[MoneyDoc]

Going to echo the thoughts already posted. It's definitely alive and growing each year. You have 7,8,9 figure exits almost monthly. Large CPG companies like Proctor & Gamble are actively scouting for consumer product brands after years of being dormant. IMO it's because these smaller niche brands (compared to P&G) resonate with consumers on a more personal level than P&G will ever be able to and often move faster with trends than these large corporations can due to in-house politics, approvals, etc. Now with amazon aggregators becoming more and more dominant, it just creates more opportunities, especially for brands with a big footprint on amazon. The reason these brands are so popular from an acquisition standpoint is because they're literally cash flow gold mines. The hard part is getting to that level. But, there's opportunities that arise frequently. There's always a new diet, there's always a new trend, there's always a consumer need.

Even though the space is getting competitive, I would still always launch a new brand entirely on amazon first. They've done the marketing for you. They have ready-to-pay customers waiting one keyword search away. Why would you not leverage that?

For me personally, I like to go into niches where start-up costs would prevent most from joining. This would generally be a custom product. For example, a custom formulation for a niche supplement. No manufacturer would custom formulate a supplement for you at a 50 bottle quantity (if you know one, let me know, LOL!). Same goes with other consumables like protein bars, candy, cereal, chips, etc. These are cost heavy niches and you must know what you're doing in terms of regulations, compliance, packaging requirements, approvals, etc. I also love niches that are regulated, like supplements are in Canada. This cuts out the "spatula sellers" very quickly. Essentially, higher barrier to entry niches are my favourites right now

 

[fastlane_dad]

Going to echo the thoughts already posted. It's definitely alive and growing each year. You have 7,8,9 figure exits almost monthly. Large CPG companies like Proctor & Gamble are actively scouting for consumer product brands after years of being dormant. IMO it's because these smaller niche brands (compared to P&G) resonate with consumers on a more personal level than P&G will ever be able to and often move faster with trends than these large corporations can due to in-house politics, approvals, etc. Now with amazon aggregators becoming more and more dominant, it just creates more opportunities, especially for brands with a big footprint on amazon.

Exactly correct - and another huge pro of going e-com route. It's an understandable model, with TONS of demand right now for a cash flowing business.

Within 1-3 years if you can build up a brand, show growth month after month and have solid profit, you can easily walk about with about 40x monthly profits, just by having amazon FBA. It will only grow from there with additional assets in that portfolio.

The math works out crazy fast, yielding you almost a half million dollars INTO YOUR POCKET upon exit, when you've achieved roughly 10-13k a month profit. At a $65 product that's roughly 14 products a day you got to sell (assuming roughly a 50% profit margin). Not all that incredibly hard!

The reason these brands are so popular from an acquisition standpoint is because they're literally cash flow gold mines. The hard part is getting to that level. But, there's opportunities that arise frequently. There's always a new diet, there's always a new trend, there's always a consumer need.

Yes - there are limitless 'niches' that can be filled as well. You can tailor your products to almost any subgroup - and as long as you demonstrate that value skew successfully you've got a sale.

Even though the space is getting competitive, I would still always launch a new brand entirely on amazon first. They've done the marketing for you. They have ready-to-pay customers waiting one keyword search away. Why would you not leverage that?

Starting off absolutely. You have 'nothing to lose' at first. It's when you are at 100s of sales a day , especially if that's concentrated in 1-5 top products that you really should start to worry.

For me personally, I like to go into niches where start-up costs would prevent most from joining. This would generally be a custom product. For example, a custom formulation for a niche supplement. No manufacturer would custom formulate a supplement for you at a 50 bottle quantity (if you know one, let me know, LOL!).

Yep - that always helps where barrier to entry is at least thousands of dollars, months of waiting, etc (and again you can demonstrate that skew successfully' to separate yourself from the rest.

Same goes with other consumables like protein bars, candy, cereal, chips, etc. These are cost heavy niches and you must know what you're doing in terms of regulations, compliance, packaging requirements, approvals, etc. I also love niches that are regulated, like supplements are in Canada. This cuts out the "spatula sellers" very quickly. Essentially, higher barrier to entry niches are my favourites right now

Perfect examples all around. Yes - you want barrier of entry high enough to keep away every random sidewalker, but not TOO high as to derail your efforts or prevent you from giving it a shot.

 

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[jdm667]

Thanks for the thread @fastlane_dad and @NeoDialectic

If you guys had a content website with a decent audience (>100k visits per month), how would you go about deciding what type of product to sell if you wanted to get into ecommerce? (or would you even bother?)

e.g. would you look at what products are already advertised on the site, or what the top pages are, or the top products on Amazon in that niche/industry, or something else? In other words, does it make sense to try to fit a product to an audience, or should you pick the product and then find the audience?

Also, do you think it would make sense to acquire such a website to achieve synergy with an ecommerce business, to get access to an audience (and maybe an email list), possibly at a discount to current high ad rates?

 

[Jobless]

Excellent thread.

IMO, best money to be made in e-commerce is by servicing the industry itself, not owning an ecommerce store. Digital things such as: ecommerce platform, customer service platform, online marketplace, online marketing, payment processing, POS, inventory system, freight/shipping system,

On the physical side: 3PL warehouse, warehouse space, distribution/supply to ecommerce stores, custom manufacture of ecom products, wholesale import/export, white labeling / product branding, packaging products, freight forwarding

Less risk, competition, and probably better margins and stability. I am involved with some things mentioned above and I prefer it. It is B2B, which makes for a different type of selling and higher value per customer.

 

[ygtrhos]

I can't express how grateful I am to have found this thread. Likes are not enough.

Thanks @fastlane_dad @NeoDialectic and all the other veteran contributors!

 

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[Gabbe18]

The availability today to source anything from anywhere, and get it designed and manufactured with ease. Gone are the days when you actually had to leave your house and travel to China to draft up some contracts and tour plants (which brings me into my next point)

I currently have my own web design and SEO business with some success.

My plan is to use the web design, SEO, marketing and other business skills to start a fastlane business.

And I am leaning towards Ecommerce. I have almost no experience with Ecommerce except that I have built a few websites for some ecom businesses.

My question is, is there a place/website where you can find suppliers/manufacturers? Or where would you recommend to look when it comes to suppliers/manufacturers?

Awesome post btw!

 

[NeoDialectic]

For me personally, I like to go into niches where start-up costs would prevent most from joining. This would generally be a custom product. For example, a custom formulation for a niche supplement. No manufacturer would custom formulate a supplement for you at a 50 bottle quantity (if you know one, let me know, LOL!).

We are 100% onboard that the final product should be a custom formulation. The only thing I wanted to comment on is that while I agree no one will do 50 bottle custom formulations, creativity can help you get around these speedbumps. Especially when you are just a beginner. There are unlimited things you can do, so as a beginner with alot of time but not alot of money to invest, it may be wise to choose something that you could get creative on. For example in my Idea thread, my sample product through the thread is a sunscreen that won't stain people with blonde/colored hair. While the end product should be a custom formulation, you could use zinc based white label sunscreens to test the market. It does the job and you can order very low quantities. Or at the end of the day, you may be able to make your own sunscreen and sell it. Similar options are available for many niche supplements that you otherwise wouldn't be able to order at low quantities.

Thanks for the thread @fastlane_dad and @NeoDialectic

If you guys had a content website with a decent audience (>100k visits per month), how would you go about deciding what type of product to sell if you wanted to get into ecommerce? (or would you even bother?)

e.g. would you look at what products are already advertised on the site, or what the top pages are, or the top products on Amazon in that niche/industry, or something else? In other words, does it make sense to try to fit a product to an audience, or should you pick the product and then find the audience?

Also, do you think it would make sense to acquire such a website to achieve synergy with an ecommerce business, to get access to an audience (and maybe an email list), possibly at a discount to current high ad rates?

If you already have an audience, you should definitely think about adding some kind of product to your offering. It's basically free money at that point. You do have to be careful to not make the audience feel alienated and being squeezed for cash. It could damage your main business. But if you choose something that fits and actually helps your audience, it's a win win.

For example, if your content website was about organization and planning. You should create your own organizer that facilitates the exact type of advice that you preach. Then it is natural to say to your readers "Hey, you can get organized yourself, but if you want to buy a planner that shortcuts that step here is one I made". Win/Win.

As for your other questions, you are thinking in the right direction. All those things can be done, but as usual, effectiveness will be based on your execution. If you sell widgets, it's not difficult to see the enormous opportunity you could have by buying a website that shows up #1 on google ranking/reviewing widgets. In fact, something similar has been a method of advertisement for a while now for product companies. They don't run google ads on their actual product page. They create a review and ranking website for the category, put their product as number one surrounded by bad reviews on their competitors, and then advertise that review website. A bit of slimy thing to do, but it works.

 

[DavidePaco00]

Excellent thread.

IMO, best money to be made in e-commerce is by servicing the industry itself, not owning an ecommerce store. Digital things such as: ecommerce platform, customer service platform, online marketplace, online marketing, payment processing, POS, inventory system, freight/shipping system,

On the physical side: 3PL warehouse, warehouse space, distribution/supply to ecommerce stores, custom manufacture of ecom products, wholesale import/export, white labeling / product branding, packaging products, freight forwarding

Less risk, competition, and probably better margins and stability. I am involved with some things mentioned above and I prefer it. It is B2B, which makes for a different type of selling and higher value per customer.

I completely agree with you. In this way , one will pass from being the puppet to bring the puppeteer. Of course, this is a project that i have but it requires a lot more tecnical knowledge than building an e-commerce, which , technically ( not strategically) , speaking , has become quite easy at this point.

Cheers

 

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[Albert KOUADJA]

It IS an excellent thread. Thanks to everybody who participated .

 

[David4431]

This is a great answer to the question of whether it is viable to start an ecommerce business in 2022 by @fastlane_dad. I especially like that he points out the cons and takes the time to explain how it is harder now today than it was in the past. This is true from what I have seen over the last 5 years. The easy money is long gone so in order to succeed you need to work hard to deliver value with your product.

The only point that I differ a little on is the amount of capital for starting an ecommerce business. I know @fastlane_dad was able to start a new business for under $1000. While this is certainly possible, I think that in general you need more than this. My personal opinion is that you need at least $5-10k to make a real go at it. People have asked me before in real life how much I think they need to start and I have always tried to give them an accurate sense of the amount of capital required from my own experience.

 

[NeoDialectic]

Excellent thread.

IMO, best money to be made in e-commerce is by servicing the industry itself, not owning an ecommerce store. Digital things such as: ecommerce platform, customer service platform, online marketplace, online marketing, payment processing, POS, inventory system, freight/shipping system,

On the physical side: 3PL warehouse, warehouse space, distribution/supply to ecommerce stores, custom manufacture of ecom products, wholesale import/export, white labeling / product branding, packaging products, freight forwarding

Less risk, competition, and probably better margins and stability. I am involved with some things mentioned above and I prefer it. It is B2B, which makes for a different type of selling and higher value per customer.

I wonder if there are some real numbers on this to confirm if this is true or not.

I have no doubt in my mind that servicing the industry is extremely lucrative and may be just as lucrative or more. But at the same time, I bet it's a very different distribution of income as well. I think there is probably more opportunity for the starting entrepreneur to make a good living selling products than SAAS or some other service to the industry. I think that there is so much more turnover in retail. Today consumers want X and tomorrow they want Y. While the services for the industry changes as industry changes, those changes are probably much slower.

So I'm not at all saying that it's a worse things to go into. I'm just trying to say I think that eCommerce has a higher probability of you making anything at all. Does anyyne have any hard numbers on something like this?

 

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[Antifragile]

IMHO - e-commerce as a business is still just as great and viable as it was a decade ago or more.

As the original instigator for the creation of this thread, I'll live by my own promise and contribute. Mind you, my comments are from a real estate angle...

E-commerce changed retail real estate as people are finding they love shopping on their phones.

The birth of the department store​

One of the most important innovations in retail real estate was the invention of the department store. These stores stocked all kinds of products or services under one roof, making shopping easier.

This new kind of establishment changed how we shop because it lowered transaction costs for customers and vendors alike. Economist Michael C. Munger defines transaction costs by three categories:

– “Triangulation” is how potential buyers and sellers find one another.

– “Transfer” implies getting the goods from the seller to the buyer; and

– “Trust” means buyer and seller are both assured they will receive what they expect.

Successful innovations of the 1890s department store also included laying out merchandise and allowing shoppers to browse, aggregating different categories of products in the same space, spending on advertising and paying commissions. Today we take these ideas for granted, but back then they were new and inventive.


Sidebar story...

These new innovations in the retail space, however, also led to an unexpected problem – shoplifting by white middle-class women.

In December 1898 at the Siegel-Cooper department store in New York City, two women entered and picked up an umbrella and perfume and walked out without paying.

They were arrested but were not charged with a crime. Their defence was that it wasn’t their fault they committed a crime – rather it was the enticing setting of merchandise, which made people want things, that led to the thefts.

New way of shopping, but an old problem​

The Internet has again revolutionized the way people buy and sell goods. The innovation of e-commerce has been a massive success. Like the invention of department stores, it created a new level of convenience and consumerism and lowered the cost of transacting.

“Triangulation” is accomplished with the Internet connecting millions of vendors to millions of buyers with the click of a button.

“Transfer” occurs often with one-day shipping.

‘Trust’ has been growing through experience. We trust customer reviews (often more than brands), we trust that browsers are secure and that our credit cards are safe. We trust Amazon will stand behind its products (even if those products aren’t actually theirs!).

Yet not so long ago, there were videos on YouTube of thieves taking packages delivered by Amazon from our doorsteps. These thefts diminished the trust that goods would be received. New way of shopping, but same old problem?

Theft stories aside, I agree with @fastlane_dad @NeoDialectic and @MoneyDoc : the future for e-commerce is bright. With AI, IoT, and VR technology driving down transaction costs, we will also see a merging of physical and online shopping.

 

[Strm]

IMO, best money to be made in e-commerce is by servicing the industry itself, not owning an ecommerce store.

I think its also possible to combine both sides - own a store and if your product is unique or part of a bigger niche, it is possible to contact a lot of nearby stores from nearby countries in that particular niche to offer them the chance to add it to their stores and provide a dropshipping service for them or sell wholesale etc. This popped up my mind just recently and haven't tried yet but will do in the future. Any thoughts?

 

[Goodfella999]

It for sure adds to my frustration for dicking around all of my 20's at the club etc when if I started Ecom or even started investing In real estate 5-10 years ago when it all was a little easier, id have a successful business by now.

 

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[MitchC]

It for sure adds to my frustration for dicking around all of my 20's at the club etc when if I started Ecom or even started investing In real estate 5-10 years ago when it all was a little easier, id have a successful business by now.

Start now

It wasn’t easier back then. It was harder. That just meant less competition though which made it easier in other ways.

It’s way easier now in so many ways.

 

[sanas915]

thank you, it's so helpful , i just started e_comm and really the ads so expensive and the marketing is the most important more than the product i think!!!

 

[Edgar King]

The question was brought up if 'e-commerce' is a viable business to start today.

I'm sure my take on this will be slightly different then even @NeoDialectic but I'll try to sum up my perceptions of where it is today.

IMHO - e-commerce as a business is still just as great and viable as it was a decade ago or more.

@NeoDialectic and I have been around it for the past 20+ years in one way or another. We created and sold several businesses based on that model.

I have always loved e-commerce, and in many ways have been fascinated with it since it's beginnings. I will never forget my start - when eBay was born and I was able to make my first several online bucks flipping baseball cards for profit at the age of 14. Back then people used to send you checks in the mail (who remembers those days?) - after which they would count on you to mail their product to them promptly.

To me the world was a sea of online opportunity waiting to be unleashed with my mark on it.

Looking back over our sales of prior, @NeoDialectic and I sold around 1 MILLION e-COM GOODS total. Our total revenue during that time has neared the $50 MILLION dollar mark combined.

@MJ DeMarco coined the phrase 'affect millions to make millions' - does not ring any more true to me then in the e-com world.

I still LOVE everything about it, particularly how easy it is to mold e-com to the CENTS framework.

Sure - some of those variables might come easier or harder then others (especially need and control). Some you will have to work harder for to separate yourself (entry) - but on the overall it is just incredible to me how many opportunities there still are within e-commerce and how it can take an average 'joe' and provide them with a highly scalable business in a few short years.

I'll point out some of my other immediate 'pros'

-- How easily e-commerce is disconnected from your time (it exists online, 24/7 and does work while you sleep)

-- Depending on the niche you can have a consumable product that gets reordered month after month (cha-ching!)

-- You will have easy access to create a productocracy - as long as your product solves a need or a want, and people have access to talk about it (so let's say not a very sensitive subject overall)

-- The availability today to source anything from anywhere, and get it designed and manufactured with ease. Gone are the days when you actually had to leave your house and travel to China to draft up some contracts and tour plants (which brings me into my next point)

-- You can literally run the entire operation today out of your bedroom if you choose. The distribution, production and software networks are so ingrained with the e-commerce model today
that you can setup and run a ten figure business without ever seeing your product or owning a single employee, office space, pallet or warehouse. That is just INCREDIBLE to me. As long as you have an internet connection - you can make this business work from any corner of the globe.

-- It is fairly easy to 'test the market' (depending on what your product is as well)

-- The availability of platforms and ease of listing your products and storefront now is just incredible as well. You have your obvious heavy hitters (Amazon, Shopify, Walmart.com, Etsy, Ebay, etc.) as well as hundreds of smaller retailers that are more niche depending on what you are selling.

-- Best of all - e-commerce also disconnects the world from you 'personally' - so as long as you are providing VALUE and what people WANT - the world doesn't care who you are, who you know, where you went to school, how charming or suave you are, how many girlfriends you have or how well you know calculus. That is incredibly liberating, that almost removes any barrier of a personal excuse someone has to start up this line of business.

I can go on and on about the pros all day. To me , especially for a novice, it is still ONE of the best if not THE best ways to enter or have a shot at the FASTLANE life and earnings.

NOW for the CONS as I see them in 2022 - 2023

-- Let's get the elephant out the room - the marketplace is INCREDIBLY flooded. Many of the easy solutions have been done and tackled. Amazon, as well as the other major online retailers have no shortage of product virtually in every industry you can think of. What does that mean to you? Well for starters - is that your value SKEW just needs to be that much stronger. Instead of having one value skew you might need 3. Or 5. You might need to NICHE down your product even more (i.e. pressure reducing hiking bags for seniors with back issues) so in essence limiting the total market potential). So the work you put in will be MORE today, for potentially LESS profit. But don't let that stop you!

-- Ads are getting incredibly expensive all around. Whether you set up on adwords, amazon ad platform or many other channels - ads today will COST you. All that means is you can't fully rely on ads alone to carry you. You will need to be ingenious in your approach to marketing - and will have to look outside of the traditional / typical paths. You will have to look to see where the attention is going today (tik tok? instagram ? youtube ? ) Maybe you can make tutorials on how to use your product and post it to youtube. Maybe you can contact new moms on tik tok to help spread the message of your new baby carrier. Maybe you will have to start and grow a podcast to help sell your 5-in-1 business planner to help get the word out on that. There are countless options, more so than before to do creative advertising that doesn't need to break the bank.

-- You do need the ability to spot and try out new platforms, ways of distribution and continually trying new ways of advertising (as nothing lasts forever). This is not new - but an integral part of being setup at the 'right place at the right time'. At respective points in the last several decades @NeoDialectic and I have used google/shopify, ebay, amazon, and social media platforms all as respective channels to market and promote products. They all had their time to shine, and when things were per say 'easier'. What's the next thing out there? Well that's the million dollar fastlane question - and surely something will always be. It will be on you to position yourself correctly to be able to give you the best leverage towards helping your products succeed.

-- You need to be more resilient then ever. Moving into the future, you might need to try a few product, or ideas then in the past to see what will work. Ultimately the market decides what it needs, but it's your job to put it in front of them.

I hope this helps anyone thinking or debating going into e-commerce. There is still tons of untapped opportunity in this world. The shopping and commerce is still moving to and migrating online at a very rapid pace. Infrastructure will only be further improved to setup and improve this business model and everything surround it.

ALSO - if you are STUCK for ideas, @NeoDialectic wrote up an EXCELLENT thread on idea generation not to be missed. This will get you kicked off in the right direction, and honestly, was the plan behind us coming up on dozens of ideas that turned into very successful products.

If you have any other question, please feel free to ask and @NeoDialectic and I will be happy to provide our thoughts below!!

Thank you so much for this thread!

 

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[fastlane_dad]

The only point that I differ a little on is the amount of capital for starting an ecommerce business. I know @fastlane_dad was able to start a new business for under $1000. While this is certainly possible, I think that in general you need more than this. My personal opinion is that you need at least $5-10k to make a real go at it. People have asked me before in real life how much I think they need to start and I have always tried to give them an accurate sense of the amount of capital required from my own experience.

You aren't wrong. For somebody new starting out they might 'churn' through a few $1Ks just to land a set of products that returns a return on the investment. We def burned through some money on certain products or niches that went nowhere as well.

Part of my point - is you can start where it makes sense for 'you'.

Money shouldn't be an excuse to not start. You might need to dial it back a bit and start by flipping items. $100-$200 dollar products at a time. Save up a $1000. Then scale into your first line of products to test online. And on and on. Will it take more than $1000 to find your way to something sustainable that will go? Absolutely.

But don't let the lack of money, or having that $5-10K saved up be the reason you don't do anything.

 

[NeoDialectic]

It for sure adds to my frustration for dicking around all of my 20's at the club etc when if I started Ecom or even started investing In real estate 5-10 years ago when it all was a little easier, id have a successful business by now.

Start now

It wasn’t easier back then. It was harder. That just meant less competition though which made it easier in other ways.

It’s way easier now in so many ways.

Goodfella,

I think MitchC's response is dead on. You may have to try and adjust your attitude about it. On the other hand, you did inspire me to write a post on it HERE. Hope it helps.

 

[Abrahamadesanya]

If you already have an audience, you should definitely think about adding some kind of product to your offering. It's basically free money at that point. You do have to be careful to not make the audience feel alienated and being squeezed for cash. It could damage your main business. But if you choose something that fits and actually helps your audience, it's a win win.

For example, if your content website was about organization and planning. You should create your own organizer that facilitates the exact type of advice that you preach. Then it is natural to say to your readers "Hey, you can get organized yourself, but if you want to buy a planner that shortcuts that step here is one I made". Win/Win.

Thank you for this, @NeoDialectic

Please as regards this.

I am a sewing machine specialist and I have an audience of sewing machine users of around 1000 on WhatsApp. They are mostly women.

So recently, I thought I could start importing some valuable kitchen stuffs and accessories at cheap price from China to Nigeria, and sell it to them. I'm thinking, since they're women, it'll be easier to sell kitchen or beauty stuffs to them.

Do you think it's a good idea pls?

 

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[DCG]

The bigger amazon gets, the less C (control) they will permit you.

That comes with the pro of exposing your products to a worldwide audience of hundreds of millions (billions?) of customers.

Can amazon be a standalone e-commerce solution still moving forward ? Yes - BUT I won't recommend it.

You now have zero access to customer data. They take down stores / products without so much of a notice, and in your best interests to try and claw back in. You are featured side by side with countless other competitors, making your ability to stand out and show your value skews even more difficult.

Amazon heavily restricts you now on what and how you can say about your product in the listing. They will prohibit you now from including common promotion and marketing language and phrases such as 'achieve your best self today' - because you are insinuating that somehow they (the customer) is LESS THAN that today.

As even would apply before - I'd do everything I can to setup / control the business off the amazon platform, with my own platform, website and email lists.

Amazon alone IS a big risk - one that can pay off handsomely OR destroy your entire palace in a heartbeat.

More so than ever relying on them is building your properties on someone else's playground which is a big no-no in CENTS. But with that said, it can still be a great channel for promotion, visibility and sales if played right.

Yes - you can have control in e-commerce, but you will have to work a bit harder today then before.

Would someting like WooCommerce violate Control or is that okay

 

[amp0193]

Would someting like WooCommerce violate Control or is that okay

No, you own the domain, so could just install another host or platform (Shopify, etc.). Could be up and running on something else in under 24 hours.


Do you own Amazon.com/yourbrand/yourproduct?

18 months after I sold my first business, Amazon banned the entire product category. Amazon was 85% of the revenue in that business.


That’s why no C on Amazon.