Every person, before embarking on e-commerce activities, surely wondered whether it is worth operating in this industry and whether it is a good idea for an online business. How to achieve success in the e-commerce industry? The next question that arises is how to succeed in selling one’s own or other products through an online store. So, how to succeed in the e-commerce industry? Grzegorz Ciupek answered this question in a conversation with Jerzy Zientkowski on Clubhouse.
Clubhouse is primarily a brilliant place for substantive discussions, sharing knowledge, and meeting new people and building relationships. It is one of the fastest-growing social platforms where conversations are conducted only in voice form. The key is the “here and now” because there is no possibility of recording them.
Jerzy Zientkowski. Author, mentor, professional speaker. With over 20 years of business experience and a surprisingly precise approach to public speaking, he has worked on communication and presentations for the largest companies in the global market and individual clients. He engages in conversations with students, corporate employees, managers, board members, and business owners
Jerzy Zientkowski (J.Z.): What is e-commerce?
Grzegorz Ciupek: (G.C.) It is all the purchases we make online. Starting from Allegro, eBay, powerful online stores to small online shops that are just developing. Everything we call the e-commerce industry today. Today, we can sell on popular auction sites or create our own brand and independent business. In 2020, online sales significantly accelerated due to Covid-19. The pandemic has caused more and more companies to move their business online. Consequently, more and more people declare that they shop online and do not intend to give it up.
The world of e-commerce is constantly changing. New opportunities arise every day. To keep up with it, you have to get into it and observe it carefully. Observe and draw conclusions. These are crucial issues to find your place in this industry and achieve your dream success.
J.Z.: Can anyone enter the e-commerce industry? Can an online store be combined with a full-time job?
G.C.: Every person, regardless of the industry they are in today, can start their own online store. The most important thing is to assess one’s strengths and skills. What can we do ourselves, and what might we need help with? Currently, on the market, we can find many solutions where we can build an online store from A to Z independently or choose a ready-made solution. You can run an online store while working full-time. I even encourage you to try it without immediately diving in too deep. Not everyone wants to give up a steady job overnight and build their own brand from scratch. All of this takes time and a lot of work.
My actions in this industry did not look like they do now from the beginning. I was a trader in the marketplace, then I sold watermelons at stalls. I started with one watermelon stand until, after two years, I managed to have 11! And all of this at the age of less than 17 back then. After the watermelon business, I opened a clothing store. At that time, still brick-and-mortar. Only in 2011 did I open my first online bedding store. Try opening a store and set a goal where you will spend at least an hour or two a day working on it, and see how you feel in this business. You can start with dropshipping, not investing in inventory.
J.Z.: How to start your own e-commerce business? How to achieve success?
G.C.: You have to start by choosing the industry you want to operate in; that’s the most important. You just have to feel the industry you want to work in. Before you start, you have to answer one fundamental question: what to sell? And with a ready step-by-step strategy, build your business. There’s no time, it’s a waste of time for mistakes that can be avoided right from the start.
J.Z.: What are entrepreneurs currently struggling with?
G.C.: Today, primarily with a lack of time, and every entrepreneur aims to scale the business they run. Every entrepreneur knows, they must know, why they are starting a business. Primarily for stability. Running a business, we must take into account the costs associated with accounting, logistics, employees, product storage, in the case of running an online store. But, of course, it depends on the choice of the form of online sales. In every business, there are things we can see that can be scaled.
J.Z.: How to start promoting your store and products?
G.C.: First and foremost, with a strategic approach and without burning your budget right at the beginning. I always advise everyone to conduct an audit of the store, both technically and visually. Only when everything is functioning correctly and you have that certainty can you start with promotions. Facebook Ads, Google Ads. In the case of store promotions, we have a multitude of possibilities. In e-commerce, we don’t need to create demand. 2.5 million products are sold every day. Does anyone tell someone to buy a dishwasher or nail polish? No, they don’t. The consumer already knows they need that product. Your task is to present the ad to them. You must find a person actively looking for that product, someone who needs it and is ready to buy it.
J.Z.: When does an online store start becoming profitable? When does it start making money?
G.C.: In the first few months, it won’t generate mega revenues. There’s no need to expect windfalls during this time. Most people are dismayed because they wanted to make money right away. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. From 3 to 6 months is the time when you invest in advertising, then you have to cover costs, so ultimately, in the second month of activities, you break even. After another, the third month, you start making a profit and achieving profitability in the online store. Always answer three questions: What do you want to achieve, with what budget, and when do you want to achieve these results, your sales goal.
J.Z.: Why are product descriptions so crucial?
G.C.: Yes, descriptions are incredibly important. If you are into dropshipping, product descriptions are automatically imported from the wholesaler. Many people think the matter is resolved in this case; they have descriptions, so there’s no need to do anything more. Unfortunately, this is flawed thinking. Each description needs to be edited and modified. First and foremost, we position the product in terms of keywords, and then we start marketing and promotional activities. Referring back to the previous question, there are two ways to go: either we focus on SEO, or we allocate the budget to product ads and create paid campaigns. First, we improve and take care of the store; only then do we move on to advertising. It’s worth remembering that many elements influence this positioning, such as the site’s positioning and server performance.
J.Z.: What is the difference between dropshipping and full dropshipping?
G.C.: Dropshipping is a model where the store owner does not stock the product. The entrepreneur places an order with the wholesaler, and the wholesaler ships the product to the customer. It acts as an intermediary between the wholesaler and the customer. Currently, full dropshipping is only created at ecat. It simply takes over placing orders with the wholesaler on behalf of the store operator. Imagine this situation: you return from work, and an order has come into your store. Someone bought a backpack. What do you need to do? At this point, you send the order to the wholesaler with whom you had to sign an agreement earlier. You send money to the wholesaler for the goods, and only then does it send it to the customer.
Full dropshipping is outsourcing – so let’s go back to the order and see the difference.
You come back from your job, and you check your account. Wow, another $150 has come in. You’ve sold another product. Someone did a job – handled your customer, ordered the product from the wholesaler, and sent them the invoice. And you? You didn’t have to sign an agreement with the wholesaler or pay for shipping the product.
Outsourcing is a business opportunity that allows you to delegate certain business processes to an external company that will handle them professionally and comprehensively.
Another difference? Dropshipping is an option for those who are just starting in e-commerce. However, your customer has decided that they don’t want the backpack, changed their mind. In dropshipping, you have to handle the return or complaint. In the full dropshipping model, the company takes care of it on your behalf. You hire a company that provides services to your advantage. A company that cares about your results. In the case of dropshipping, you have thousands of invoices and have to add monthly costs to your business expenses, such as accounting costs in this case.
J.Z.: How to promote yourself on Facebook?
G.C.: It’s a very general question, but I’ll present you with a scheme I’ve been using for several years. I’ll sell you my method of breaking Facebook’s algorithm.
Each of us has encountered a situation where they posted on Facebook, thousands of viewers saw the post, but there were only a few reactions, no comments, and zero shares. Nothing but disappointment, right? There is one method for this, where we publish posts 4-5 times a week. After 24 hours, we promote the post by advertising it to people who like our page and their friends.
It’s important to do this using the promote post button, not from the manager’s position. Set the ad for 7 days with a budget of $20. The ad targeting this target group aims to warm up the post for cold traffic that will flow in the next action that needs to be taken. First and foremost, people who have liked your fan page earlier and their friends, who see that someone among their acquaintances has reacted to such information, to such a post, so there must be something valuable in it.
After 7 days, i.e., after the first promotion is finished, you rerun the ad, but this time, you target it to the right target group using the same button under the post, i.e., Promote. You set the ad again for 7 days and a budget of $20 for the entire time. Such a post reaches people who, with your person or your business, probably had nothing to do with it, but the number of likes under the post within 100 will already make a big impression on them, causing them to spend a few moments getting acquainted with the content of that particular entry. You need to publish a lot of such posts to create a so-called viral effect.
You can listen to how I broke the Facebook algorithm in my podcast >>
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