Running an e-commerce business is not easy. Yes, it can be very financially and emotionally rewarding. But, you typically don’t reach that stage until you have experienced some pain and failure. We have worked with a lot of e-commerce brands, so we decided to share some of the most common mistakes made by brands when they are first getting started with their ecommerce operations.
This one will hurt to hear for the solopreneurs trying to create a product for under $10k. Yes, it is possible to develop a product for under $10k. But, your sales will come very slowly, and you might be unable to survive the inevitable cash flow crunch. To develop a well-researched and marketable product, you will want a budget of at least $50K. Let me explain:
First, you will have to pay someone to manufacture your product. The minimum order quantity an outsourced manufacturing company will accept is typically 100-150 units. However, due to economies of scale and a one-time tooling fee, those orders are significantly more expensive per unit than regular-sized orders. It is important to keep this in mind when testing your ecommerce operations, you will need to work hard to move these products quickly to cover these costs.
Next, you need to test your product to ensure that it looks, feels, and operates as intended. If you are lucky, it will. But most of the time, you will have to make multiple alterations and adjustments to your product before you have something you can sell.
Many entrepreneurs forget to include marketing costs in their product development budget. This is crucial for your ecommerce operations. The thinking goes that marketing should pay for itself with product sales. However, you need a large sample size of traffic before you can get accurate conversion rates. Spending a couple of hundred bucks here and there will not get you the necessary traffic to determine if your conversion rate is sustainable or not. Your first marketing campaign should cost at least $5,000 per month so you can get adequate traffic and tweak the effectiveness of your ads.
People are always looking for validation from their friends and family. You may want to hear them say things like: “wow that is genius” or, “I would definitely buy that.” However, one of two things usually happens:
The only place you should be looking for validation is the market. If your product is selling, you don’t need validation from your friends or family. If your product isn’t selling, look at what your competitors are doing, what your customers are saying about your product and how they are running their ecommerce operations.
We like to call this the “spray and pray” strategy, and we see it far too often. Effective marketing starts with identifying who your target demographic is. Next, you need to find out what social media platform your target audience is hanging out on. We created an in-depth look into social media platform demographics on last month’s e-commerce update.
Blindly throwing money at advertisements will just lose you more money and erode your budget. Instead, it is best to focus on one or two platforms so you can refine your copy and call to action specifically for your targeted audience.
You should not pay money to develop a product until you have tested its demand. As the old saying goes, “measure twice and cut once.” Testing demand is a simple three-step process:
Following this process will save you a lot of time and money in developing a product that does not have any demand. Alternatively, you can accept pre-orders and use that money to fund your product development and get started with ecommerce operations.
If you can avoid these four common mistakes in your ecommerce operations, you will save a lot of money and headaches in your journey. Ultimately, these mistakes all boil down to a lack of good planning. You will be well on your way to profitability If you can (1) prove that there is demand for your product and (2) have a large, flexible budget for development and marketing.
At HiroCFO, we specialize in helping e-commerce brands grow their revenue and lower their taxes. If you need help reaching your business goals in optimizing your ecommerce operations, click the button below to speak with a CPA today!
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