E Commerce store success stories?

[steve70]

Hi

I was wondering if there were members on here who run their own successful e Commerce stores which have given you the ability to earn a living and have a good monthly and yearly turnover ?

What have been your biggest challenges and what do you enjoy the most? Is there still scope for people to be successful in e Commerce store even at a small scale?

It would be very inspirational and encouraging to read from members on here.

 

[Jason L]

I used to run my own e-commerce business which I sold after 6 years (mobile phone and MP3 accessories).

My advice would be to specialise and try and dominate your niche. Having said that niches are very hard to find these days - plus, you have to bring a lot of things together to be successful - technical (web build, on site SEO considerations, payment facilities), design, marketing (a huge field in itself), analytics, product, fulfilment, dealing with fraud etc. I don't think you can afford to be a 'me too' business anymore (if you ever could?).

Also, I would definitely try and develop your own product range/branding. If you are selling the same brand product as everyone else, you may end up just competing on price which is really not where you want to be.

So, I would say yes - there are definite opportunities - but you have to know what you are getting yourself into. Also, I think a lot of businesses just have too little start-up capital - unless you have a lot of the expertise yourself you will need to buy in - plus, there are quite a few overheads even online - so you need capital to get things moving and stay in the game long enough to make it work. One thing is for sure though, it won't be boring

 

[silvermusic]

The golden age of selling the same stuff as everyone else on the internet and making good money has long gone. Don't go down that path, reselling commodity products only works if you're the cheapest on the race to the bottom. Having you're own unique product and being the manufacturer of it is the way to go, and by that I don't mean buy the same generic product as everyone else and sticking your brand name on it.

 

[jack44]

'silvermusic' is right, you want to be looking for 'Google proof' products. I started an eBay/Etsy business back in July 2014, we sell anything that's old/vintage basically. We had a panic just before Xmas that we didn't have any Christmassy type products, or products that people might be looking to buy for their kids. I went to a liquidation auction and spend £900 on One Direction merchandise, it was a disaster in terms of profit, we sold it all but at less than what we paid for it.

These sellers with massive eBay stores appear to be turning over huge amounts, but the profits are tiny, everyone is selling the same thing so the competition is fierce, everyone wants to be selling so they undercut each other to the point where no one is making a profit on many of the products. They only win out by making a tiny profit on each of their thousands of products.

We started from home in July 2014, we're now in a unit and the future is looking bright. We're making a decent profit, our only issue is supply, we have a few solid supply lines that are consistently producing decent stuff, but in order to push forward I basically need someone who has my knowledge and can emulate exactly what i do but in a different area.

As Jason says you need to find a niche, it helps if you're passionate about it too. I know the feeling of not being able to find something decent, for years i went from one dead end job to another, in the end I just got fed up of working for someone else's dream, It seems like a daunting prospect when you first start, but as long as you give it your all every day, you should be ok!

 

[Pish_Pash]

Whilst I'm not a 'success' story yet (well, certainly not in the wider view of the term - but I meet your modest criteria!), I lost my job a couple of years ago, I couldn't get another job, so started up a company in Feb 2013, just finished Y2 trading....£205k turnover (not bad turnover from a standing start after 2 years), approximately £70k pre tax profits ...and still growing fairly well.

i'm still 'small' based out of in my dining room (which now looks like something like the flat in only fools & horses), but I'm starting to outgrow it...just waiting until that point where it's totally clear that I have to move into proper premises (I'm very reluctant due to the extra cost ...& security worries)

The secret (IMHO) is to find a niche/under-represented area, then throw your heart & soul into it...build sales up to a level where you can gain a supplier's trust ....and ultimately hopefully supplier exclusivity (which I now have). This isn't going to work for those products that you can already buy here in the UK (via Ebay/Amazon overseas sellers), you have to find a niche & go with it.

the biggest challenge? Well aside from finding something that sells that nobody else sells(!), the biggest challenge is working out which 'software tools' you need, & then of the tools you need, which are the best for the way you work ...then once you've decided on the best tools, then working out how to glue them all together to make a slick operation ...e-commerce in 2015 is still very fragmented from a 'systems' point of view.

Also everybody wants a piece of you ...so dodging all the burdensome monthly subscriptions is quite a challenge (for example - everyone bigs up cloud accounting packages ...such offerings are spawn of satan in my books, buy last year's desktop version on ebay for £80 & you're good for a few years with that, etc.)

 

[antropy]

i'm still 'small' based out of in my dining room (which now looks like something like the flat in only fools & horses), but I'm starting to outgrow it...just waiting until that point where it's totally clear that I have to move into proper premises (I'm very reluctant due to the extra cost ...& security worries)

It sounds to me like your next step might be at a self-storage company like Easistore. Some of our clients used that as a transition from home-based to warehouse. You can often work from there with free WiFi and expand/contract your square footage as your stock levels change. They also generally offer short term contracts on a rolling month basis.

 

[Tech4Homes]

At the minute my sites could just about pay all my bills inc. Mortgage, but excluding my expensive car PCP. Arguably going from a few hours a week to full time would hopefully lead to more sales though as my sites are semi-automated and don't take much work unless building new things/messing around. I have (don't own but am heavily involved with) another business which takes up most of my time and stops me from growing the online shops.

Here's my biggest piece of advice....

From the start...from day 1! Choose your ecommerce platform carefully, choose your accounts package, your payment processor carefully. Integrate everything. Pay someone to make it look pretty/work and convert well.

Then leave it alone and focus on building quality content, building customer email lists, promoting the site and products and most importantly selling.

I've wasted too much time messing with websites when I could have been focusing on selling. I wish I had just paid someone to set everything up from day 1 then started as I mean to go on. I've been driven mad over multi channel selling and features, and themes. It's all a nightmare you don't want to waste your time over too much!

 

[Paul Norman]

Soleheaven, which sells 90% online, currently supports 3 people full time, and we are still growing.

Some key inputs to that success where:

1. Focus on what you are trying to achieve - building a retail brand with strong relationships with trainer brands.
2. Invest in getting sites built. Do not faff about learning how to do it yourself. Pay a LOT, and insist on good outcomes.
3. Carry a LOT of stock early on, so that the depth of choice in your store is strong.
4. Do immense amounts of on and offline marketing.

 

[japancool]

Soleheaven, which sells 90% online, currently supports 3 people full time, and we are still growing.

Some key inputs to that success where:

1. Focus on what you are trying to achieve - building a retail brand with strong relationships with trainer brands.
2. Invest in getting sites built. Do not faff about learning how to do it yourself. Pay a LOT, and insist on good outcomes.
3. Carry a LOT of stock early on, so that the depth of choice in your store is strong.
4. Do immense amounts of on and offline marketing.

I don't necessarily agree with point 2. I'd say pay what you have to pay - not more, but not less either.

 

[Paul Norman]

Most people, I suspect, would disagree with my point 2. I am always happy when most people disagree, because it is then that I am most likely to be correct.

Of course, and I suspect this may be your point, do not be ripped off. But do not look for a cheap website solution.

 

[japancool]

Most people, I suspect, would disagree with my point 2. I am always happy when most people disagree, because it is then that I am most likely to be correct.

Of course, and I suspect this may be your point, do not be ripped off. But do not look for a cheap website solution.

Indeed, don't skimp where you need to spend money, but don't pay more than you have to. Expensive is not necessarily better, and in this game, there are plenty of people out there who will charge you through the nose for not very much, and try to sell you things you don't need.

 

[Simply Business]

You've had a lot of great advice already! Will just add my twopence that online retail and e-commerce is one of the small business industries that continues to grow and flourish - if you can get it right.

Research to the max and follow the top advice you've been given and you'll do well

Good luck!

 

[Chris34]

and above all else, go with what's working. If you build a new website and it doesn't do as well as the old one, bring back the old one. If you sell more of one type of item than others, seek out more items similar to that one item. Don't be afraid to go against the grain of what everybody else is advising / doing, go in the direction that the money is coming from.

Point 3 from Paul is sound advice. The more products you have the more traffic you are likely to get. This then makes it much more likely you get a sale.


Chris.

 

[Jason L]

Carry a LOT of stock early on, so that the depth of choice in your store is strong.

I don't necessarily disagree with this. However, a word of caution - make sure your systems and resources can handle this too. More products = more stock to hold and more of your money tied up (depending on how you operate - drop-shipping or buying and reselling stock), more admin (stock management, working out margins, adding product to the site), more marketing (promoting individual product lines through AdWords, managing larger product feeds etc). If most of your sales come from a core range of product, then diluting the offering with stuff that is really slow to sell isn't great (unless you are working a long-tail model and you have good margins) - the game is figuring out which products sell!

In the past, I've grown my product range too much - looking back, I would have consolidated and focused more.

 

[steve70]

Thank you so much guys for taking the time out to provide such excellent advice I really appreciate it. I feel that I now know what I need to focus on . Thanks.

 

[Simply Business]

Good luck Steve, let us know how you get on

 

[apricot]

Whilst I'm not a 'success' story yet (well, certainly not in the wider view of the term - but I meet your modest criteria!), I lost my job a couple of years ago, I couldn't get another job, so started up a company in Feb 2013, just finished Y2 trading....£205k turnover (not bad turnover from a standing start after 2 years), approximately £70k pre tax profits ...and still growing fairly well.

i'm still 'small' based out of in my dining room (which now looks like something like the flat in only fools & horses), but I'm starting to outgrow it...just waiting until that point where it's totally clear that I have to move into proper premises (I'm very reluctant due to the extra cost ...& security worries)

The secret (IMHO) is to find a niche/under-represented area, then throw your heart & soul into it...build sales up to a level where you can gain a supplier's trust ....and ultimately hopefully supplier exclusivity (which I now have). This isn't going to work for those products that you can already buy here in the UK (via Ebay/Amazon overseas sellers), you have to find a niche & go with it.

the biggest challenge? Well aside from finding something that sells that nobody else sells(!), the biggest challenge is working out which 'software tools' you need, & then of the tools you need, which are the best for the way you work ...then once you've decided on the best tools, then working out how to glue them all together to make a slick operation ...e-commerce in 2015 is still very fragmented from a 'systems' point of view.

Also everybody wants a piece of you ...so dodging all the burdensome monthly subscriptions is quite a challenge (for example - everyone bigs up cloud accounting packages ...such offerings are spawn of satan in my books, buy last year's desktop version on ebay for £80 & you're good for a few years with that, etc.)

I would call this a 'success story'. I did guess you are a 'hearted' business person I now understand why. You are picking the business from scratch. Well done!.