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Where to Begin With eCommerce?

by Grimbo
18 replies
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Hey all,

I've been doing IM for a year or so now and made some $$ off affiliate sites and offline marketing. I've heard a lot about eCommerce and it seems like something that could be use to make a very good profit if I really get into it. I was posting this to ask for some advice from you guys.

First I need to pick a product. I was thinking of any of the possible niches:

- Tablet Laptops

- iPads

- Brazillian Jiu Jitsu Gis


After this, it seems like a simple process if getting the domain, hosting and installing wordpress + shopify, then adding some coding of my own to make things look good.

If there is anyone who can clarify or point me to a good thread, I'd love you forever.
#begin #ecommerce
  • Profile picture of the author pressreleaseagency
    Marketing is the most important for any eCommerce.
    You can have a good time on building sites and uploading products, but 90% time should be used on marketing.
    Make sure you are an authorized dealer for apple products.
    For shipping, if you are doing B2C, it is easy, but if you are doing B2B or wholesale, you may need consult a shipping company to handle tax and shipping.
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  • Profile picture of the author Grimbo
    Ok. I can look up how to become an authorized apple dealer - but what is B2C shipping or B2B?

    There are so many different options everywhere. Is this the same thing with an ebay store? Sell items on ebay for a large markup, then order products from a drop shipper/other site to mail to them?
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  • Profile picture of the author SerpKing
    Originally Posted by Grimbo View Post

    Hey all,

    I've been doing IM for a year or so now and made some $$ off affiliate sites and offline marketing. I've heard a lot about eCommerce and it seems like something that could be use to make a very good profit if I really get into it. I was posting this to ask for some advice from you guys.

    First I need to pick a product. I was thinking of any of the possible niches:

    - Tablet Laptops

    - iPads

    - Brazillian Jiu Jitsu Gis


    After this, it seems like a simple process if getting the domain, hosting and installing wordpress + shopify, then adding some coding of my own to make things look good.

    If there is anyone who can clarify or point me to a good thread, I'd love you forever.
    I would definitely avoid diving into Tablet Laptops and Ipads
    - Competition is high
    - Requires many more $$ to compete

    You are on the right track when you're thinking "Brazillian Jiu Jitsu Gis" - It's a more isolated niche. Here are the steps I would/do follow

    1) Find a niche
    2) Find product/supplier (Alibaba.com, etc.) One method I use is simply go on a competitors site, make a list of all the brands that they carry, look-up those brands and contact them requesting contact information for their distributor (Many distribute direct, many do not, and it depends on where you're located).
    3) Don't order any product
    4) Buy domain, sign up with a cart
    5) Get a basic design done (Save $$ where you can - you're just testing)
    6) Add products to store
    7) Either set up paypal as your gateway or don't (I don't even go that far when testing)
    8) Drive some PPC traffic to the site, make adjustments where you can to increase conversion.
    9) Track and see how many people go to the final check out (Or if you have integrated your gateway, allow them to check out and simply refund them after)

    You should know by then if you have a winner or a loser. Ditch the losers fast, optimize the winners for maximum conversion.

    Hope this helped
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    • Profile picture of the author Grimbo
      Originally Posted by SerpKing View Post

      I would definitely avoid diving into Tablet Laptops and Ipads
      - Competition is high
      - Requires many more $$ to compete

      You are on the right track when you're thinking "Brazillian Jiu Jitsu Gis" - It's a more isolated niche. Here are the steps I would/do follow

      1) Find a niche
      2) Find product/supplier (Alibaba.com, etc.) One method I use is simply go on a competitors site, make a list of all the brands that they carry, look-up those brands and contact them requesting contact information for their distributor (Many distribute direct, many do not, and it depends on where you're located).
      3) Don't order any product
      4) Buy domain, sign up with a cart
      5) Get a basic design done (Save $$ where you can - you're just testing)
      6) Add products to store
      7) Either set up paypal as your gateway or don't (I don't even go that far when testing)
      8) Drive some PPC traffic to the site, make adjustments where you can to increase conversion.
      9) Track and see how many people go to the final check out (Or if you have integrated your gateway, allow them to check out and simply refund them after)

      You should know by then if you have a winner or a loser. Ditch the losers fast, optimize the winners for maximum conversion.

      Hope this helped
      Awesome, thanks mate! I was thinking of just purchasing shopyify and hooking it up to my paypal account.

      If I chose a gi for example, I'd call a major gi company and talk to them about drop shipping? I'm a bit confused about what you mean by distribution.

      Once again, thanks for the help. I'll be happy to name all my illegitimate children after you.
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      • Profile picture of the author SerpKing
        Originally Posted by Grimbo View Post

        Awesome, thanks mate! I was thinking of just purchasing shopyify and hooking it up to my paypal account.

        If I chose a gi for example, I'd call a major gi company and talk to them about drop shipping? I'm a bit confused about what you mean by distribution.

        Once again, thanks for the help. I'll be happy to name all my illegitimate children after you.
        It depends, I mean, if you want to do your own order processing you could do that to. Personally I handle my own order processing whenever possible.

        By distribution I simply mean that, lets say Company X is a brand of gi that you want to sell. You call up Company X requesting contact information for there "insert country here" distributor - They may handle their own distribution and if that's the case you request information on how to set up an account, if they dropship, etc. Each situation is different and most times you will need a business registered in order to move forward. Your first inventory order will also usually have to be pre-paid. Most companies also like to see a live site.

        I personally don't like drop shipping and avoid it where I can, but if you can still make a solid margin give it a shot.
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        • Profile picture of the author Grimbo
          It depends, I mean, if you want to do your own order processing you could do that to. Personally I handle my own order processing whenever possible.
          What do you mean by "processing"? Remember, I'm a noob

          By distribution I simply mean that, lets say Company X is a brand of gi that you want to sell. You call up Company X requesting contact information for there "insert country here" distributor - They may handle their own distribution and if that's the case you request information on how to set up an account, if they dropship, etc. Each situation is different and most times you will need a business registered in order to move forward. Your first inventory order will also usually have to be pre-paid. Most companies also like to see a live site.
          I'm wrapping my mind around this. Essentially I call the company, find out how they get their product that they sell. If they sell it - I talk to them about getting products at the 40% retailers discount, or I talk to their distributor about it.



          I personally don't like drop shipping and avoid it where I can, but if you can still make a solid margin give it a shot.
          Why do you avoid it? I thought it was best to do this so you can avoid the risk of buying inventory and having nobody buy it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Grimbo
    One thing I forgot to add to above - I want to live a very mobile lifestyle (Travel two months out of the year if possible, and live in style). Drop shipping would probably be the most conducive to this I think, as my address will be changing a lot.
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  • Profile picture of the author Robert Domino
    Good process Serpking.

    I'll do it your way to test a niche I thought would be popular.

    I only have one question though, what do you guys do about manufacturer's / distributors that want you to send a picture of your storefront? Or do they usually not care as much as they make it seem?
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    • Profile picture of the author SerpKing
      Originally Posted by Robert Domino View Post

      Good process Serpking.

      I'll do it your way to test a niche I thought would be popular.

      I only have one question though, what do you guys do about manufacturer's / distributors that want you to send a picture of your storefront? Or do they usually not care as much as they make it seem?
      Usually if I'm going to spend the time to follow through on the process I'm fairly confident that the store will make at least SOME profit. So I don't mind dropping the original $$ on design and what not.

      Sure there are busts but good research beforehand will help the good outweigh the bad.

      For example I pay my guy $500 USD to design a storefront for me, my absolute worst store profits around $300/month at the moment - I don't spend any time on it anymore really, I consider it a bust - But I still made my original investment back in 2 months. The only real loss is the time that I put into it, which gets put in the "lesson learned" category.
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  • Profile picture of the author twinkenterprises
    There are sites that you can use to set up a free online store. You just have to put in your products and you get paid by paypal. They look pretty decent for just getting started. Then you can just worry about promoting it.
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  • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
    There's a mixture of some "really good" advice and some "not so good" advice here!

    First, if you are serious about making good money in ecommerce, do not expect an open source shopping cart platform + PayPal to be your long-term solution! Sites that only accept PayPal for payments will max out at 60-70% the conversion rate they would otherwise get by also accepting all major credit cards on-site. Open source solutions are generally not PCI compliant, so if you plan to take on-site credit cards you are far better off using a hosted solution that's already PCI compliant (like BigCommerce or AmeriCommerce).

    Secondly, take SerpKing's advice here and avoid trying to sell well known products like laptops and iPads. If fortune 500 companies like Staples struggle to become Apple authorized retailers, it is highly unlikely that a 1-man shop like yourself is going to be able to convince Apple to sign them up. That said, even if you could become an Apple authorized dealer, you probably wouldn't want to! That market is extremely over-saturated, and nearly impossible to compete within. The key to succeeding with your own online stores is building specialty shops in markets that are being overlooked by the big retailers! This is why you will hear people that know what they're talking about preach about "niches" so much!

    If you want to have the flexibility to travel for weeks on end you will certainly need to use the dropship model to fulfill orders. Customers will NOT be understanding about you being unable to ship for weeks on end because you are away from your inventory.

    Not that it matters if you aren't handling your own inventory, but here's what robertgreen meant by B2B and B2C shipping:

    B2B = business to business
    B2C = business to consumer

    Listen to this advice or wish later that you had because I certainly know what I'm talking about when it comes to ecommerce. I've had nearly 60 successful stores since 2005 and several that have made over $100k in annual profit. I've been featured in the NY Times and on Fox Business News for my success.
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    We help sellers get the MAXIMUM amount for their websites and all buyers know that these sites are 100% vetted.
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    • Profile picture of the author wgn_white
      Originally Posted by dave_hermansen View Post

      There's a mixture of some "really good" advice and some "not so good" advice here!

      First, if you are serious about making good money in ecommerce, do not expect an open source shopping cart platform + PayPal to be your long-term solution! Sites that only accept PayPal for payments will max out at 60-70% the conversion rate they would otherwise get by also accepting all major credit cards on-site. Open source solutions are generally not PCI compliant, so if you plan to take on-site credit cards you are far better off using a hosted solution that's already PCI compliant (like BigCommerce or AmeriCommerce).

      Secondly, take SerpKing's advice here and avoid trying to sell well known products like laptops and iPads. If fortune 500 companies like Staples struggle to become Apple authorized retailers, it is highly unlikely that a 1-man shop like yourself is going to be able to convince Apple to sign them up. That said, even if you could become an Apple authorized dealer, you probably wouldn't want to! That market is extremely over-saturated, and nearly impossible to compete within. The key to succeeding with your own online stores is building specialty shops in markets that are being overlooked by the big retailers! This is why you will hear people that know what they're talking about preach about "niches" so much!

      If you want to have the flexibility to travel for weeks on end you will certainly need to use the dropship model to fulfill orders. Customers will NOT be understanding about you being unable to ship for weeks on end because you are away from your inventory.

      Not that it matters if you aren't handling your own inventory, but here's what robertgreen meant by B2B and B2C shipping:

      B2B = business to business
      B2C = business to consumer

      Listen to this advice or wish later that you had because I certainly know what I'm talking about when it comes to ecommerce. I've had nearly 60 successful stores since 2005 and several that have made over $100k in annual profit. I've been featured in the NY Times and on Fox Business News for my success.
      I was interested in what you offer, but I think you should fix this?

      It says video is private.
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      • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
        YouTube decided to pause our account today until we approved our display name!? The issue is now resolved, but thanks for the heads up!
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        BizSellers.com - The #1 place to buy & sell websites!
        We help sellers get the MAXIMUM amount for their websites and all buyers know that these sites are 100% vetted.
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        • Profile picture of the author avajo71
          Originally Posted by dave_hermansen View Post

          There's a mixture of some "really good" advice and some "not so good" advice here!

          First, if you are serious about making good money in ecommerce, do not expect an open source shopping cart platform + PayPal to be your long-term solution! Sites that only accept PayPal for payments will max out at 60-70% the conversion rate they would otherwise get by also accepting all major credit cards on-site. Open source solutions are generally not PCI compliant, so if you plan to take on-site credit cards you are far better off using a hosted solution that's already PCI compliant (like BigCommerce or AmeriCommerce).

          Secondly, take SerpKing's advice here and avoid trying to sell well known products like laptops and iPads. If fortune 500 companies like Staples struggle to become Apple authorized retailers, it is highly unlikely that a 1-man shop like yourself is going to be able to convince Apple to sign them up. That said, even if you could become an Apple authorized dealer, you probably wouldn't want to! That market is extremely over-saturated, and nearly impossible to compete within. The key to succeeding with your own online stores is building specialty shops in markets that are being overlooked by the big retailers! This is why you will hear people that know what they're talking about preach about "niches" so much!

          If you want to have the flexibility to travel for weeks on end you will certainly need to use the dropship model to fulfill orders. Customers will NOT be understanding about you being unable to ship for weeks on end because you are away from your inventory.

          Not that it matters if you aren't handling your own inventory, but here's what robertgreen meant by B2B and B2C shipping:

          B2B = business to business
          B2C = business to consumer

          Listen to this advice or wish later that you had because I certainly know what I'm talking about when it comes to ecommerce. I've had nearly 60 successful stores since 2005 and several that have made over $100k in annual profit. I've been featured in the NY Times and on Fox Business News for my success.
          Would you like to give a detailed course about how to build and run a successful ecommerce website?
          Signature
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          • Profile picture of the author SerpKing
            Originally Posted by avajo71 View Post

            Would you like to give a detailed course about how to build and run a successful ecommerce website?
            Dig in and search, try something. Read forums, blogs, reverse engineer E-commerce stores that are successful. If you are too lazy to do that, then no course is going to help you.
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            • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
              Originally Posted by avajo71 View Post

              Would you like to give a detailed course about how to build and run a successful ecommerce website?
              Yes, I already have this course completed and available. However, SerpKing makes a good point; the course is only half the battle. You need to be willing to learn, test and persist if you really want to make it work!
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              We help sellers get the MAXIMUM amount for their websites and all buyers know that these sites are 100% vetted.
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              • Profile picture of the author Grimbo
                Currently fixing the squeeze page here, then adding the "pay" button. After that is testing . I have a basic paypal button there for the PPC testing. If its profitable, I'll add Ameritrade or a similar option. Thanks!
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  • Profile picture of the author jaintechnosoft
    The online landscape changes daily; with new search engine algorithms changing the first page results for your targeted keywords, to competitors driving up your PPC bid costs.
    Try these:
    pay paer click (PPC)
    search Engine Optimization
    Email Marketing
    shopping comparision.
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    SEO Agency in Bangalore | SEO Experts in Hyderabad | Digital Marketing Consultant
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