My latest venture - The business of changing dogs lives

[Lrd_Gaz]

We rescued our family dog, Cody, from an animal shelter when he was just 14 months old. He’s now 3 and a great family pet, loved by us and our kids. It breaks my heart hearing that reportedly in the UK 21 dogs are euthanised every day because they couldn’t be rehomed.

Enter us.

How our business works:
Cody and I are partnering on our latest business idea and have been working away since last November. The business? E-commerce dog accessories. But with a twist - 25% of the profits made from sales are shared with organisations in the UK that help dogs in need every single year. I got this idea from Toms, a fashion brand that started by giving a pair of shoes to those in need for every pair bought. They now use 1/3 of their profits to help in many other ways.

I knew I wanted to create an e-commerce business as this is where my primary skills lie. Web development & hosting, graphic & media design, and to a lesser extent digital marketing (I've dabbled but never really had any success).

Our Brand and products are all themed around the same type of activity and sourced from China. I started by going through Alibaba but eventually found a manufacturer via their website who also recommended manufacturers for our other products. We've worked with 3 of them ever since.

We sell on both Amazon and our own website. So far our sales look like this:

Amazon units sold: 29
Website units sold: 4

While these numbers might not seem amazing (though they are to us!!), I feel they prove that there is an appetite for our products. Also a major challenge (and a mistake of mine) was not ordering additional stock sooner, so we've been 'out of stock' on popular products for almost 3 months now. Our lead time can be over 8 weeks from placing the order to arriving at our door, which makes stock management in the early days a nightmare.

I've only just received our second order since March as I delayed pulling the trigger over the fear of people not buying and admittedly life got in the way (we had another kid!). I also have another order currently crossing the ocean.

In regards to advertising, I've only used Amazon PPC and google shopping ads so far. Currently finding customers is at the forefront of my efforts and I am expanding beyond the PPC campaigns. I am working on a plan to launch a series of TikTok videos to promote our products, brand and values, as this seems to be a pretty popular platform at the moment for small businesses.

All in all, this has been a massive learning curve, one I am enjoying and I hope pays off. I just need to understand out how to properly scale and keep the stock rolling in at the same tempo as acquiring customers.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Hong_Kong]

We rescued our family dog, Cody, from an animal shelter when he was just 14 months old. He’s now 3 and a great family pet, loved by us and our kids. It breaks my heart hearing that reportedly in the UK 21 dogs are euthanised every day because they couldn’t be rehomed.

Enter us.

How our business works:
Cody and I are partnering on our latest business idea and have been working away since last November. The business? E-commerce dog accessories. But with a twist - 25% of the profits made from sales are shared with organisations in the UK that help dogs in need every single year. I got this idea from Toms, a fashion brand that started by giving a pair of shoes to those in need for every pair bought. They now use 1/3 of their profits to help in many other ways.

I knew I wanted to create an e-commerce business as this is where my primary skills lie. Web development & hosting, graphic & media design, and to a lesser extent digital marketing (I've dabbled but never really had any success).

Our Brand and products are all themed around the same type of activity and sourced from China. I started by going through Alibaba but eventually found a manufacturer via their website who also recommended manufacturers for our other products. We've worked with 3 of them ever since.

We sell on both Amazon and our own website. So far our sales look like this:

Amazon units sold: 29
Website units sold: 4

While these numbers might not seem amazing (though they are to us!!), I feel they prove that there is an appetite for our products. Also a major challenge (and a mistake of mine) was not ordering additional stock sooner, so we've been 'out of stock' on popular products for almost 3 months now. Our lead time can be over 8 weeks from placing the order to arriving at our door, which makes stock management in the early days a nightmare.

I've only just received our second order since March as I delayed pulling the trigger over the fear of people not buying and admittedly life got in the way (we had another kid!). I also have another order currently crossing the ocean.

In regards to advertising, I've only used Amazon PPC and google shopping ads so far. Currently finding customers is at the forefront of my efforts and I am expanding beyond the PPC campaigns. I am working on a plan to launch a series of TikTok videos to promote our products, brand and values, as this seems to be a pretty popular platform at the moment for small businesses.

All in all, this has been a massive learning curve, one I am enjoying and I hope pays off. I just need to understand out how to properly scale and keep the stock rolling in at the same tempo as acquiring customers.

Very cool. I always thought adding a charity component isn't enough of a value skew, I'm sure people buy Toms shoes for reasons other than the charity (look, branding, affordability, etc. ). Is there something that makes your products unique other than the fact that part of it goes to charity?

 

[Lrd_Gaz]

Very cool. I always thought adding a charity component isn't enough of a value skew, I'm sure people buy Toms shoes for reasons other than the charity (look, branding, affordability, etc. ). Is there something that makes your products unique other than the fact that part of it goes to charity?

I spent a while looking for the right products to tie it all together. I found a line that were selling well in other countries, but where relatively unknown in the UK. There were others who were selling these products here, but nobody has really taken the bull by the horns and the quality was average at best. I saw an opportunity to do it better. I didn’t want a race to the bottom with price so created a premium brand. Better website, better images, better packaging, better quality, better customer service.

The issue I have with a lot of pet products is that they are cheap and are only sold to fulfill a function. Especially if bought through Amazon. We take that function and offer a product that looks great and lasts a lifetime.

 

[Lrd_Gaz]

Ok so time I posted an update.

Things continue to grow. We are receiving positive customer validation through reviews and feedback. People really seem to love our products and our cause, which is great.

Year to date:
Units sold: 71 (+38 since last update)
NET profit: £563.25

September and October have seen a continuous uplift in sales.

Actions taken since August:

• Reached out to niche relevant review websites and got our first 'third party' review blog posted. Also included as #2 on their 'Best products' post which ranks on page 1 of google for it's each term and confirmed to be included on their 'Best Christmas gifts' blog post.
• Improved website SEO through information and guide blog posts.
• New enhanced product imagery and description artwork included on marketplace listings/website.
• Reduced unit cost by working with Freight forwarder rather than letting our supplier ship DDP.
• New inserts in products (all by the book) helped our Amazon listing get to 5/5 stars with now over 10 reviews.

Next up (broadly speaking):

• Expand variations of existing products.
• Find an alternative supplier to keep unit price competitive.
• Automate repetitive tasks.
• Add more value to our product proposition.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.