Before You Set Up Your Ecommerce Site – Do This.

September 22, 2023

Start an online store, they said… 

It’ll be easy, they said…

You’ll make tons of money, they said…

Starting an online store can sound like heaps of fun. 

Heck, I’ve thought about starting one myself…on repeat…like at least twice a week. 

And here I am, a web designer. So what exactly is holding me back? 

Not the tech. That’s for sure. 

I built my first e-commerce site in 2006 (shout out Millie’s Unique Boutique!). Heck, we built an e-commerce site that helped our local nonprofits raise almost $2M last year. I can BUILD a shopping cart.

Surprisingly, it’s not the tech that holds most businesses back from running a successful e-commerce site. 

It’s the running of the business. 

The proof of concept. The lack of planning and marketing of the online store that makes them go **poof** and snuffs them out into web oblivion. And that sucks.

Because the LAST thing I want to do in my business is build shopping carts people don’t end up using that die a slow and painful death because they didn’t realize that they had to run a business to be successful with their online store.

But you’re not going to be like those peoples. 

You, my friend, are here and getting informed. And we will begin your mission for success by defining where you need to start. 

#1: Build your audience.

So let’s get one thing straight here…

Your e-commerce website is not the Field of Dreams.

Customers will not manifest from the ether just because you built your cart. They won’t. And that is very, very sad. 

You’re going to need to do something first to be successful. And it’s called building an audience. (Or have low sales goals for your business to start with and build it as you go, that’s an option too. But certainly not for the faint of heart.)

Do you have access to people who will buy what you’re selling?

On an email list? Social media? Heck even a good old fashioned phone number or mailing list? 

If somebody came to me, and they were like, “Hey, I’ve got a thriving bookstore, and I want to put our books online.”  

That would make perfect sense. Of course they do. Because they already have an audience. 

If you come to me, and tell me you’re a crafter. And you go to events all the time, set up a booth and sell your crafts. It would make perfect sense to bridge into e-commerce  because you already have an audience that you can sell to. 

In these examples customers can’t buy the businesses products unless they go back to the store or events again, and they can’t always do that.So an ecommerce site would give these businesses flexibility and allow them to serve their audience all year round. 

WINNING!

But what if you don’t have an audience, then what?

Well, then setting up a custom e-commerce website is probably not a good starter project for you. But don’t get discouraged, I have some ideas to get you moving towards building your audience and testing your products so you can, in time, confidently build that awesome online store your heart desires.

#2: Start where people already are.

Start with what you already have.

If you have a good Facebook following…

Heck just post your items for sale in your Facebook feed. Or go one more step and put them on Facebook Marketplace. That’s a very low barrier of entry, low cost way to see if people will buy what you have. Show people what you’re doing and what you’re making. Make little videos of you doing your craft or unpacking boxes from your shipment.  Make people want what you’ve got.

If you have an email list…

Pitch the store idea to your list. Offer just one or two products. See if they bite. Let them email you back with their orders or set up a simple form to collect payment. I’m getting a little ahead of myself here, but stick with me, I’ll explain this simple concept further in #3.

You have nothing…

I want you to think to yourself, how can I borrow the audience of another place that might allow me to start selling my product and build my audience?

I made and sold jewelry in my 20s. Now, I didn’t actually sell it online. But I went to the local salons in town and asked if, for a commission, I could sell my jewelry in their salon. I built my audience through their salons.

Fast forward 20 ish years, my daughter, chip off the old block, wants to start a business selling Perler bead earrings. And I told her, the same thing I’m tellin you…we need an audiece. So to kick off her business we’re going to do a fundraiser for her school. Make a flier to pass around with the web address to fill out a form and order school color earrings. We won’t make any money on that gig BUT she’ll meet a lot of people by doing this school fundraiser. And they’ll see there’s this really cool girl who makes cute earrings and we’ll hit ‘em up via email to buy Christmas presents for their friends.

Consider setting up an Etsy store. Heck, sell on ebay. Even though you don’t know them, PEOPLE ARE THERE. And they went there to buy things. So even if you don’t have an audience you can borrow one from Etsy or Ebay (really you’re paying for one because you’ll pay royalties) and test out your product ideas there before investing in a whole site of your own.

#3: KISS baby. (AKA Keep it Stupid Simple)

If you can’t task my 12 year old with setting it up. It might be too complicated.

Example 1: Slingin’ T-shirts

For example, let’s say you’re a nonprofit. You have an idea to raise extra funds selling T-shirts. I love it. Because when nonprofits have a side hustle, you’re generating awareness for your cause, especially when it’s apparel based, because then people wearing it are your own personal walking billboards. That’s a powerful thing. 

Most people with this idea tell me:

“We want to set up an online store and have all orders drop shipped because we can’t afford to do a big run of t-shirts.”

Alright. That statement is not KISS. 

First things first, before you do ANYTHING, you need to test the waters. And go all KISS with it. Just ask your audience, “If we had t-shirts, would you order them?” 

Boom! That’s easy, right?

If the answer is yes then keep on KISSin’:

• Offer just ONE t-shirt (not like 15)
• Send a group order form, go all back to school style and have them fill out the form by a deadline then send it to them later. You can even tell them if you don’t get enough orders you’ll refund their money and quit the project.
• Ask at a time they’re likely to buy, maybe you could pitch it as a Christmas present or around a time of year people naturally rally around your cause.
• Don’t set up an elaborate check out system. You could use a Google form, or just take orders via email reply and send them a link to PayPal, Venmo or Stripe to pay.  

Keep it simple. Because what you’re doing is you’re testing the waters. You’re trying to see, is this idea viable before you invest a bunch of money to snazz it up? Right? 

Example 2: Shop considering online expansion.

One of my nonprofit clients has a gift shop inside of their museum. They’ve been thinking for years about having an online store to sell their wares. Here’s how they might get started KISS style:

Pick something cool they think people would like.

Could be a best seller or something they already have plenty of on hand or can order and package easily.

• Could be a bi-monthly book club where they send subscribers a book every other month from the shop. Think about how much simpler that will be to fulfill those orders than it is to fulfill different books each day.
• A locally themed ornament.
• The perfect mother’s or father’s day gift.

Send an email and ask if people want it…does anybody respond? 

If yes, then just like the t-shirt, don’t over complicate it. 

Take payments, pack, fill, mail everything all at once. Don’t overcomplicate things. If the initiative is successful then we can automate the crap out of it and make it run itself…but that’s not always the best way to start. 

Unless you have a heap of money. Then by all means hit me up. Let’s make it sing!

Rah Rah Wrap Up

I’m still pumped about the idea of your store. Heck I’m excited about helping my daughter sell earrings.

Aaaand really the best place to put that energy is to start by having conversations and gathering information. And then when you’re ready, take a step, whatever step that is. Even if you completely fail. And nobody decides to buy those Perler bead earrings from that school fundraiser, that’s okay.

Because now you understand you need to adjust and you didn’t spend a heap of cash to get that information. You can move forward with more knowledge than what you started with to begin with, right? 

Because every decision you make allows you to make the next decision with even more information so you can continue to grow your business and feed your dreams. 

All right. Hopefully, I did not scare you away from selling things online. But I gave you some things to think about, right? Because that’s what this was all about. Get those wheels turning and get you taking that next step. And if that’s happening to you, then I have done my job. Thanks for hanging’ out. And until next time, go forth and mark it with purpose.