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Sustainable e-commece stores in the future?

by Xelaetaks
9 replies
  • SEO
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This may be partly a theoretical question but I want to make sure I'm not losing the plot.

Do you think going forward small business niche sites can still be sustainable even with sites like Amazon selling everything and having high trust online?

Do you think small business e-commerce stores can stll be sustainable going forward?

Thanks
#ecommece #future #stores #sustainable
  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Originally Posted by Xelaetaks View Post

    This may be partly a theoretical question but I want to make sure I'm not losing the plot.

    Do you think going forward small business niche sites can still be sustainable even with sites like Amazon selling everything and having high trust online?

    Do you think small business e-commerce stores can stll be sustainable going forward?

    Thanks
    You ever buy anything outside of Amazon? So has everyone else...
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  • Profile picture of the author Icematikx
    Depends what small business we're talking about.

    I think a lot of people forget about innovation. Innovation is at the heart of success, whichever way you look at it. I recently dropped SERPFOX and signed up with ACCURANKER, because it offers a BETTER way to track keywords. It integrates with GAnalytics, updates in real-time on the fly and a whole lot more. They innovated their product and provided it at a cheap price point - and I signed up immediately!

    Give consumers what they want - either new products they need, or reduced products in comparison to Amazon etc, and they'll flock to you.
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  • Profile picture of the author serpyre
    Originally Posted by Xelaetaks View Post

    This may be partly a theoretical question but I want to make sure I'm not losing the plot.

    Do you think going forward small business niche sites can still be sustainable even with sites like Amazon selling everything and having high trust online?

    Do you think small business e-commerce stores can stll be sustainable going forward?

    Thanks
    Yes - it will progressively move to niche and corporate sites - fat-tails - everything in the middle will be squeezed. There will be a race to the bottom - it's just kicking off now - you need to be first and press. We gravitate to coporate style but that is a completely different set of dynamics. For reference, Amazon have mid-trust not high-trust - but they have volume, diversity and cost on their side with ~5% net profit margins!!!
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  • Profile picture of the author Hydraman
    I really do think there will always be a place for smaller eCommerce websites on the internet. Amazon can sell everything but they can not fully optimize every sales page they have.
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    This is my true story of how I make money selling books and media items on Amazon.
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  • Profile picture of the author TheAdsenseGuy
    Your best shot is if you have an oddball niche site. Like selling something that isn't commonly found at Walmart down the block. Like maybe model trains or surfboards. People are much more willing to buy outside a well known online store like Amazon for stuff like that.

    But if you're selling well known items that are sold everywhere it's going to get harder and harder.
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    • Profile picture of the author yukon
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      Originally Posted by TheAdsenseGuy View Post

      Your best shot is if you have an oddball niche site. Like selling something that isn't commonly found at Walmart down the block. Like maybe model trains or surfboards. People are much more willing to buy outside a well known online store like Amazon for stuff like that.

      But if you're selling well known items that are sold everywhere it's going to get harder and harder.
      The same holds true for offline businesses when it comes to Walmart (example).

      My local Walmart (small town) no longer sells much of anything related to pet supplies, besides dog/cat food, which means since they stopped selling fish/aquariums there's a gap to be filled for anyone looking to start up a pet store.

      It's kind of crazy Walmart went full circle with pet supplies (example). There was a time when they ran small mom & pop stores out of business, now Walmart is cutting back in some niches.
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  • Profile picture of the author ronrule
    Build a brand. What makes sites like Zappos and ThinkGeek, who sell the same products you can buy anywhere, successful? Because people know and trust their brand.

    Which instills more trust, those names or "website-that-sells-shoes.com" or "fun-little-gadgets.com" ?

    The reason the little guy is failing with eCommerce is because he doesn't understand what makes a customer pull out their credit cards and buy something - he tries to compete on price alone, which is self-defeating. Even if you win the sale, you're still losing. Treat it like a real business. Don't use some stupid long tail domain, build a brand and make your name mean something to buyers.
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    • Profile picture of the author yukon
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      Originally Posted by ronrule View Post

      Build a brand. What makes sites like Zappos and ThinkGeek, who sell the same products you can buy anywhere, successful? Because people know and trust their brand.

      Which instills more trust, those names or "website-that-sells-shoes.com" or "fun-little-gadgets.com" ?

      The reason the little guy is failing with eCommerce is because he doesn't understand what makes a customer pull out their credit cards and buy something - he tries to compete on price alone, which is self-defeating. Even if you win the sale, you're still losing. Treat it like a real business. Don't use some stupid long tail domain, build a brand and make your name mean something to buyers.
      Zappos started out on day one with a $2 million investment & eventually had an investment of $35 million from Sequoia Capital.

      Thinkgeek happened out of pure luck considering it was sold off to a business that was shortly bought out by VA Linux Systems, so it changed hands 3 times in a very short time frame before it landed in the lap of a multi-million dollar business.

      My point is those businesses had millions of dollars pumped into them to get them started.

      Don't get me wrong, branding works on a much smaller scale. I have 2 branded money sites where I started out with literally nothing besides being interested in the niche. Where I succeeded was being very active in the same niche both online & offline (9-5 job).

      I was promoting myself as a brand before I even knew I wanted to build a website. The way that happened, I was steadily helping other people in the same niche & it just snowballed from there without even realizing it was happening. After I figured out what was going on & other people were making money from my efforts that's when I decided to build a site & monetize the same traffic.

      Nowadays I look at new niches differently, I've figured out how to test new niche traffic sources without even having a product. Nothing bad or illegal just testing traffic volume to see how responsive traffic is to different types of advertising before committing time/money to doing the work for building a site/product. The cool part is it works over every niche I've tested so far. Having real proven traffic data before starting a business is like gold.
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  • Profile picture of the author AndresNWD
    I think every niche has an opportunity to become huge if they take care of things Amazon doesn't: customer service. Do you know Thomann? They sell musical instruments and have built a huge brand based in trust and facilities for their customers.
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