How did you start your eCommerce Business ? Did it work

[2012]

Hi Im setting up a small online business and im looking for help and info,
I want to know if things went well and what you did.

How did you start your eCommerce Business ?

1.What did you do to start your eCommerce business ?
2.Was it a good start-up ?
3.How did you market it ?
4.What were your costs ?
5.How do you market your site now ?
6.What do you do to keep your site known ?
7.What have you changed since then ?
8.Do you get good sales numbers ?
9.Do you or did you have a brick-and-mortar store ?
10.What would you change ?

 

[internetspaceships]

And you are?

 

[2012]

And you are?

Im someone setting up a business looking for help and info,
I dont want to know you personal information, Just want to know if thinks went well and what you did.

 

[internetspaceships]

Excuse the tone of my original post. As you can imagine the kind of OP you made there doesn't engender a warm snuggly "let's all pitch in and reply" kinda feeling.

 

[2012]

Excuse the tone of my original post. As you can imagine the kind of OP you made there doesn't engender a warm snuggly "let's all pitch in and reply" kinda feeling.

Sorry about that, I was doing something else at the same time so I must have missed it ill ad it now.

 

[RevaxMedia]

1.What did you do to start your eCommerce business ?
2.Was it a good start-up ?
3.How did you market it ?
4.What were your costs ?
5.How do you market your site now ?
6.What do you do to keep your site known ?
7.What have you changed since then ?
8.Do you get good sales numbers ?
9.Do you or did you have a brick-and-mortar store ?
10.What would you change ?

11. Bank Sort Code
12. Account Number
13. Credit Card Number...

Anyways... We do alot of marketing for eCommerce websites and we are now at the point were we have our own, So I will answer what I can...

1.What did you do to start your eCommerce business ?

Niche research, supplier research, suitable software, hosting and domain. We also looked into market saturation.

2.Was it a good start-up ?

Yes, the product was not new, we simply took the business model of our competitors and improved it.

3.How did you market it ?

We used social networking and organic SEO as long term and Pay Per Click as short term.

4.What were your costs ?

Hosting, Software, supplies, domain name, whois protection, email accounts and some directory listings,

5.How do you market your site now ?
Mainly through aggressive SEO marketing

8.Do you get good sales numbers ?

We can range from £800-£2,500 per month depending on time constraints.

Hope that helps, if you need more information I can pass this over to the developer who created our website he is internal.

 

[Sophia Myles]

What did you do to start your eCommerce business ? - That's a big question... Generally it should be: The idea / Marketing research & analysis / Business Plan / Financial support / Staff / Website & products / Marketing...
Was it a good start-up ? - Well, that depends on how you look at it. Financially no so good, but spiritually wonderful.
How did you market it ? - Online advertisement at the very beginning, following SEM, SNS & SEO
What were your costs ? - High at first and went down later. Finally controlled by monthly plans
How do you market your site now ? - SNS & SEO mainly
What do you do to keep your site known ? - Google rank & good relationships with existing customers I guess
What have you changed since then ? - Since...when?
Do you get good sales numbers ? - OK with me.
Do you or did you have a brick-and-mortar store ? - No
What would you change ? - No idea at the moment

Hope helpful~

 

[BenP]

How did you start your eCommerce Business ?

1.What did you do to start your eCommerce business ?

Found a product, set up website, marketing, SEO ect.

2.Was it a good start-up ?

Very much so

3.How did you market it ?

Forums, Facebook, twitter.

4.What were your costs ?

Ruffly £500 investment.

5.How do you market your site now ?

Facebook, twitter, SEO, forums.

6.What do you do to keep your site known ?

Stay active on the forums, twitter and Facebook, as well as staying high in the search engine rankings ( notice a trend here )

7.What have you changed since then ?

Nothing.

8.Do you get good sales numbers ?

Around 200 - 230k a month.

9.Do you or did you have a brick-and-mortar store ?

Nope

10.What would you change ?

Nothing

 

[2012]

How did you start your eCommerce Business ?

1.What did you do to start your eCommerce business ?

Found a product, set up website, marketing, SEO ect.

2.Was it a good start-up ?

Very much so

3.How did you market it ?

Forums, Facebook, twitter.

4.What were your costs ?

Ruffly £500 investment.

5.How do you market your site now ?

Facebook, twitter, SEO, forums.

6.What do you do to keep your site known ?

Stay active on the forums, twitter and Facebook, as well as staying high in the search engine rankings ( notice a trend here )

7.What have you changed since then ?

Nothing.

8.Do you get good sales numbers ?

Around 200 - 230k a month.

9.Do you or did you have a brick-and-mortar store ?

Nope

10.What would you change ?

Nothing

That's good to hear, Thanks for all the input everyone.

 

[Price-Tracking]

2.Was it a good start-up ?
Very much so

8.Do you get good sales numbers ?
Around 200 - 230k a month.

It's interesting that you claim to be making £200-230k per month with a successful ecommerce site... when I looked at some of your other posts (to try and figure out what type of products you were selling to get such good sales figures) all I found were a bunch of posts asking really basic questions such as (only 16 days ago)

I am hoping someone can shed some light onto how you would go about predicting a volumes/sales/costs/profits forecast.

Being a new start up with no previous sales. How would you go about predicting volumes and sales?

Or

Can anyone enlighten me on how I would go about contacting distributors to get my product into stores?

and "how do I import from China", and so on.

So, which is it - are you a start up? Or a successful ecommerce merchant making £200-230k/month?

 

[BenP]

It's interesting that you claim to be making £200-230k per month with a successful ecommerce site... when I looked at some of your other posts (to try and figure out what type of products you were selling to get such good sales figures) all I found were a bunch of posts asking really basic questions such as (only 16 days ago)

Or


and "how do I import from China", and so on.

So, which is it - are you a start up? Or a successful ecommerce merchant making £200-230k/month?

Think you will find those posts were made in 2010 and early 2011. Not sure were you got 16 days ago from.

But anyway, I WAS a startup like everyone was, and I had questions, as many do.

I am now happily sitting on the healthy figures quoted.

So yes, a successful ecommerce merchant in less than a year

It's all about the product.

 

[Price-Tracking]

Think you will find those posts were made in 2010 and early 2011. Not sure were you got 16 days ago from.

It's all about the product.

ah yes, that explains it. Interesting product it is too...

 

[Chunkford]

Think you will find those posts were made in 2010 and early 2011. Not sure were you got 16 days ago from.

But anyway, I WAS a startup like everyone was, and I had questions, as many do.

I am now happily sitting on the healthy figures quoted.

So yes, a successful ecommerce merchant in less than a year

It's all about the product.

Lol, it's a small world. I must of spoken to you at Tamworth as its something I'm looking at

 

[BenP]

Lol, it's a small world. I must of spoken to you at Tamworth as its something I'm looking at

Holy cow lol!

 

[Barnie]

Ben you got any decent menthol liquid in yet, the choc menthol is not the nicest and the Minnesota menthol tastes like choc menthol lol

 

[BenP]

Haha, blimy, there is no escape!

Next week hopefully

 

[Fred_the_frog]

Haha, blimy, there is no escape!

Next week hopefully

What is your website URL?
Or what should I Google to find your website on the first page? (Gets your round the 'Don't advertise your website' rules )

 

[BenP]

What is your website URL?
Or what should I Google to find your website on the first page? (Gets your round the 'Don't advertise your website' rules )

It's top secret :O hehe

 

[Fred_the_frog]

It's top secret :O hehe

So you're making £200k per month in less than a year, and you won't even tell us the URL.

 

[BenP]

So you're making £200k per month in less than a year, and you won't even tell us the URL.

I'm not going to go out of my way to show buisness men a niche product.

 

[Chunkford]

Judging by your response Ben I have sent you a PM. I hope you don't mind.

 

[Fred_the_frog]

I'm not going to go out of my way to show buisness men a niche product.

Ooof, Fighting talk ;D

 

[popo00]

200k per month in online shop after one year starting from scratch ... hard to belive:|


so I see you are selling electronic ciggarettes

 

[scm5436]

200k per month in online shop after one year starting from scratch ... hard to belive:|

Looking at your product prices you must be shifting around 600-1000 items a day to make that much. Good news for you, but it must be a logistical nightmare given all the different flavours etc (plus think of all the customer queries, the number that get lost in the post etc). How many employees do you have now?

 

[BenP]

Shift around 30k items a month.

Currently 8 employees, soon to be 10.

 

[scm5436]

Shift around 30k items a month.

Currently 8 employees, soon to be 10.

Nice. I'm sure you can afford it though!

 

[Fred_the_frog]

Electronic Cigarettes? :| What do you do, light it and it plays a song? :|:|:|

 

[popo00]

so now everybody should start selling those cigarettes and make millions in one year

product is extremely popular....

 

[scm5436]

yeah, then as everyone piles in the prices get slashed and no-one makes any money. And have you any idea the logistical set up required to shift 1000 items per day - not something you can run from your kitchen table - you'd need premises (add in utility bills, insurance, business rates), staff (with all the headaches that go with them), and have to deal with potentially 100,000's of consumers - I can think of nothing worse, what a nightmare!

Better to sell higher value items in lower quantities, than low value in large quantities...

 

[internetspaceships]

The margin is already screwed because of the competition. 30k items per month is good and I would be out of order to suggest anything otherwise however a site selling these products also ships refills etc that cost a fraction of the initial outlay.

Still, even averaging a gross margin of £1 per unit still amounts to a healthy sum.

If I had that site I would also be looking to expand into other things too before the bubble completely bursts.

 

[BenP]

We have around 3000 square foot of premesis.

I wouldn't bother trying to join the Market now, the government are going to be adding some sort of regulation on the eliquid in 2013.

Without a doubt the main regulations put into place will be regular testing of the Eliquid and clean rooms / labs.

We have and are investing thousands into that area.

To put it into perspective a GCMS machine costs around 15k then a fume cupboard around 7k.. Then a full time pharmacist, then lifting out the rest of the lab.

Looking at minimum 40k..

Also, let's not forget Nicotine is extremely poisonous and deadly when handled/ mixed wrong.

One drop of pure nicotine on your skin is a guaranteed funeral.

Because of the nature of the product there is a lot of rules to follow on packaging, batch control ect.

It is defiantly not a Market for anyone to get into unless you can put the measures mentioned above in place, or your simply risking people's lives.

Granted I didn't have all of that to start with, but the Market has moved on a lot in the past year, and is now standard practice across the industry.

P.S. The profit margins are huge..

 

[spice]

look, I dont see why you noobs are having a go at BenP.

There are multi-billion pound businesses online, and many of them were making millions within months, so 250k in 1 year isnt as hard as it sounds

better to open your eyes and see the bigger picture and realise that there are many successful and established people browsing these forums as well as n00bs

 

[internetspaceships]

I'm not having a go at him. If he's made the move fom reselling a product to manufacturing the product in 12 months then he gets my vote.

 

[scm5436]

look, I dont see why you noobs are having a go at BenP.

There are multi-billion pound businesses online, and many of them were making millions within months, so 250k in 1 year isnt as hard as it sounds

better to open your eyes and see the bigger picture and realise that there are many successful and established people browsing these forums as well as n00bs

I don't see many posts having a go at him? Just people interest in ideas for e-commerce businesses that can make a lot of money fast.

Most of the main areas (electronics, computers, office supplies, printer consumables etc) are saturated with n00bs using their distributor's 'reseller' websites to drop-ship at stupidly low margins. So any market where a self confessed n00b can go from knowing very little to £200k per month with a high margin product in just 1 year has got to be interesting.

And if you want to give us a few examples of successful business making millions from e-commerce after starting from scratch I'm sure we'd be all interested to hear about them too. (large companies starting e-commerce site with huge marketing budgets aren't quite as interesting - we want to know what it's possible for the little guy to achieve)

We could have a go at your adding up skills though, he was suggesting annualized sales of £2.4-2.7m not £250k...

 

[internetspaceships]

There are quite a lot of people on here who profess to run their own businesses for "the lifestyle" over the money they can make.

I wonder how many would change their tune if presented with an achievable opportunity to actually turn over millions within a year.

What do you think?

 

[popo00]

There are multi-billion pound businesses online, and many of them were making millions within months,

for example on line store selling party accesories, that is run by Royal familly, The Middletons

 

[emmylou74]

There are quite a lot of people on here who profess to run their own businesses for "the lifestyle" over the money they can make.

I wonder how many would change their tune if presented with an achievable opportunity to actually turn over millions within a year.

What do you think?

That would be me, I'm one of those running a small lifestyle business and am geniunely happy - honest! But if I were given an achievable oppurtunity to turn over millions within a year.........well it would be hard to say no lol.

BTW totally impressed with BenP on your business success, I love hearing these kind of stories of people who come up with a great business idea, go for it and make it a success - well done!

 

[Stovin]

How did you start your eCommerce Business ?

I developed an ecommerce website that a client didn't pay for, so I found a competitor supplier and did myself.


1.What did you do to start your eCommerce business ?

Built my website, then found supplier, then started a pay per click campaign.

2.Was it a good start-up ?

Getting prices I can compete with others on is a nightmare and I find other larger companies are cheaper.

3.How did you market it ?
Website, amazon, ebay

4.What were your costs ?

Website, hosting, adwords, accountant,
5.How do you market your site now ?
SEO , email marketing, ppc, social media
6.What do you do to keep your site known ?

7.What have you changed since then ?
8.Do you get good sales numbers ?
9.Do you or did you have a brick-and-mortar store ?
10.What would you change ? I would stick to doing online marketing and let other companies look after the other side of things