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What's your eCommerce experience been like so far?

by ReferralCandy
7 replies
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I notice we spend most of our time here discussing tactics, strategies and fixes... I'm really curious about your personal journeys. You don't have to be specific about what you're selling in case you're worried about competition, but I'm sure you could talk about how you got started, what you learnt along the way?

For me- my personal experience with eCommerce is/was pretty blunt. I started accidentally, buy putting up MS Paint versions of t-shirt ideas I had been kicking around in my head for a long time. On Facebook. I got a bunch of Likes and "I'd buy that!" comments from my friends. A friend approached me via PM to tell me that he really liked the idea and wanted to help me with it.

So I set up a Facebook Page and got everybody to Like it. I took orders via PM and all marketing was entirely word of mouth. In time we got local media attention, lots more orders... we've sold almost a thousand t-shirts now. Pretty sweet experience. Learned quite a lot. Do most of our sales through 3rd parties (resellers), so we don't actually worry about having our own shopping cart. We get less profit, but we're not interested in making money nearly as much as we want to build our brand.

What's YOUR experience been? What sort of market are you in? What mistakes have you made, what challenges have you faced? Also, feel free to ask me anything. Here to share and learn.
#ecommerce #experience
  • Profile picture of the author alksense
    I got started with eCommerce about seven years ago after reading the 4-Hour Workweek and learning what's possible with this business model.

    I started by going on Alibaba and importing directly from China. I pre-sold inventory before bringing in my first container of goods through my own online store. I did this for two reasons; 1: to raise capital and 2: to test my niche. I took a HUGE risk but it paid off big time.

    I put up a Yahoo Store (fyi I don't recommend them) with a very basic free template and started syphoning traffic off of eBay to my store. I got a sale the first night that my store was live and they continued to roll in.

    After a year or so in business I started being contacted by brands who offering drop shipping programs that wanted me to sell their goods on my site. They warehouse the items, I get the sales, I buy wholesale, they ship to my customer, I keep the difference between retail and wholesale. I didn't even know what drop shipping was at this point but it sounded good to me.

    I began selling for these brands who offer drop shipping and my business skyrocketed in the second year. Somewhere in year 2 or 3 I completely stopped importing because it was no longer worth my time.

    This was 4 or 5 years ago and since then I've expanded into dozens of different niches and flipped many of these businesses in the process.

    I've built up a pretty nice bankroll over the years so now I basically build to hold instead of build to sell but for anyone just getting started make sure to keep excellent accounting records because these businesses can become HUGE assets.

    - Anton
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    • Profile picture of the author MarginMetrics
      Originally Posted by alksense View Post

      I got started with eCommerce about seven years ago after reading the 4-Hour Workweek and learning what's possible with this business model.

      I started by going on Alibaba and importing directly from China. I pre-sold inventory before bringing in my first container of goods through my own online store. I did this for two reasons; 1: to raise capital and 2: to test my niche. I took a HUGE risk but it paid off big time.

      I put up a Yahoo Store (fyi I don't recommend them) with a very basic free template and started syphoning traffic off of eBay to my store. I got a sale the first night that my store was live and they continued to roll in.

      After a year or so in business I started being contacted by brands who offering drop shipping programs that wanted me to sell their goods on my site. They warehouse the items, I get the sales, I buy wholesale, they ship to my customer, I keep the difference between retail and wholesale. I didn't even know what drop shipping was at this point but it sounded good to me.

      I began selling for these brands who offer drop shipping and my business skyrocketed in the second year. Somewhere in year 2 or 3 I completely stopped importing because it was no longer worth my time.

      This was 4 or 5 years ago and since then I've expanded into dozens of different niches and flipped many of these businesses in the process.

      I've built up a pretty nice bankroll over the years so now I basically build to hold instead of build to sell but for anyone just getting started make sure to keep excellent accounting records because these businesses can become HUGE assets.

      - Anton
      That's awesome about reading the 4HWW and doing something about it. I have a similar story. I read the book a few years back and have been doing my best to live it ever since.

      My girlfriend and I just got back from a 4 month mini-retirement / working while traveling south america.

      It's hard to think about ever doing anything else.

      Congrats on your trip to Thailand!
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      • Profile picture of the author alksense
        Originally Posted by ReferralCandy View Post

        Wow Anton, you STARTED by importing stuff from China? That's a pretty ballsy leap! Respect. I doubt I'd have had the guts to do that. Though maybe it boils down to what you can afford to risk.
        haha, yep. If I knew what drop shipping was back then I probably would not have taken such a leap but at the same time I was 21, right out of college and looking to dive into eCommerce head first.

        The crazy thing is I didn't even go to China or speak to my supplier on the phone. I had my first container show up at the port in New Jersey and I drove out to a local warehouse from my place in NY to literally put shipping labels on every package myself and then had them shipped to my customers from the warehouse. It was MADNESS at first but after that I started have my containers shipped to a fulfillment center in California.

        Originally Posted by MarginMetrics View Post

        That's awesome about reading the 4HWW and doing something about it. I have a similar story. I read the book a few years back and have been doing my best to live it ever since.

        My girlfriend and I just got back from a 4 month mini-retirement / working while traveling south america.

        It's hard to think about ever doing anything else.

        Congrats on your trip to Thailand!
        That's awesome! I'm actually sitting in a coffee shop in Ho Chi Minh City now (visa run). I'm heading back to Thailand on Sunday, staying until Christmas, going back to NY for the holidays and then heading down to Columbia. I'm on the Duolingo app everyday now working on my Espanol.
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        • Profile picture of the author MarginMetrics
          Originally Posted by alksense View Post

          That's awesome! I'm actually sitting in a coffee shop in Ho Chi Minh City now (visa run). I'm heading back to Thailand on Sunday, staying until Christmas, going back to NY for the holidays and then heading down to Columbia. I'm on the Duolingo app everyday now working on my Espanol.
          Nice. I had never heard of that app. Do you like it?

          Next time you are in NYC PM me and maybe we can grab a coffee. Sounds like we have a similar background and I always enjoy meeting like minded people.

          Enjoy your travels!
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  • Profile picture of the author ReferralCandy
    Wow Anton, you STARTED by importing stuff from China? That's a pretty ballsy leap! Respect. I doubt I'd have had the guts to do that. Though maybe it boils down to what you can afford to risk.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jelanib
    Originally Posted by BonusSEO View Post

    I just launched my first entirely online store (I dabbled before) so not much to report really but said I was chime in. It is up and running about 10 days and I have gotten 3 orders only so far . I imported some stock and shipping myself as I want to provide next day delivery. Working very hard on SEO and hope that this pays off in the next 4 -6 weeks really.

    Until then I am not sure what to do as I am on a low budget. I have an advertisement on a local new website that get 80,000 hits per month so hopefully that will do something. I also listed my products on a classifieds ad site but no joy through that yet. I have been told my products are a really really good price and my shipping is as close to free as I can have it.

    Advice appreciated for getting traffic .
    Nice, what's your url?
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