Hey it’s Opossum here! Welcome to my free monthly Q/A Roundup. Today’s post is on some of the best questions in the last month. Each week I write about a new topic or analyze a new digital business. If you’re not a subscriber, here’s what you missed this month:
Turn capture payment to "manual". They check out but you don't capture their payment. You have to click a button to capture the payment. Don't click the button and just cancel the order with a good cancelation email explaining that you're out of stock and will notify them when you're back in stock.
Once you're in stock, send them a back in stock email with a coupon to incentivize them to purchase again.
Thanks for the roundup! I just had a friend start a car detail website, and he got 400 clicks in the first week! We use the same guy who helped set up our websites, and he mentioned that using google business reviews may have been the key since he got a lot of people to write up reviews. Thoughts on google business reviews?
High level, the biggest local SEO ranking factors are:
- Reviews (on GMB)
- Links (local links and local citations)
- Content
You can switch links and content in order of importance but from my experience, reviews are the biggest driver. It's more than just the number of reviews, it's also the text in the reviews, review velocity, etc.
This assumes you're filling out the categories and all of the GMB info out correctly.
How much money should I have in the bank before building an ecom brand? I have $10k saved and can prob get to $30k in the next few months. Should I go ahead with testing demand anyway, then buy as much inventory/paid ads I can afford or better off building a service business until I have enough saved?
Depends on your risk tolerance and the demand for your skills (job). Whether you have family, loans, other obligations, etc.
I personally would be paralized building anything that didn't have a guaranteed return within 3 months if I didn't have at least 6 months living expenses stashed away. (I have a couple kids, SAH wife, mortgage, etc)
If you're a 24 y/o with a comp sci degree and 2 years of experience, with no responsibilities...Full risk on.
Yeah I have basically 0 obligations, comp sci degree and 2 WFH jobs paying well every friday so I'm good. I guess ecom risk on it is.
So, when it comes to picking a product, I know we must test demand, but what would constitute a good/bad product idea? I currently have 10-20 products I've found on Alibaba I could make for the niche I choose. Some are popular on tik tok currently, some used to be popular on tik tok, and others I don't see competition for on tik tok. What kind of ideas/products would be more likely to work than others? I just want to isolate my demand test with the best 2-3 products
Thank you. On a different note, when would you justify quitting a brand?
I built a sportswear/clothing brand for a niche that passed initial demand, but later on the margins become really slim from FB ads after 6 months or so building it up. I stopped working on it a month ago to focus on something new, but not sure if I'm messing up going from idea to idea instead of just sticking with one thing for years.
On the other hand I don't want to lose out years brute forcing something with high competition during a recession for what's sort of a commodity (workout clothes with niche specific designs on hoodies, joggers etc)
Could you explain how to do e-commerce demand testing before launch/real orders? Ideally on shopify. Trying to do this without going to jail lol.
Turn capture payment to "manual". They check out but you don't capture their payment. You have to click a button to capture the payment. Don't click the button and just cancel the order with a good cancelation email explaining that you're out of stock and will notify them when you're back in stock.
Once you're in stock, send them a back in stock email with a coupon to incentivize them to purchase again.
Thanks for the roundup! I just had a friend start a car detail website, and he got 400 clicks in the first week! We use the same guy who helped set up our websites, and he mentioned that using google business reviews may have been the key since he got a lot of people to write up reviews. Thoughts on google business reviews?
High level, the biggest SEO ranking factors are:
- Links
- Content
High level, the biggest local SEO ranking factors are:
- Reviews (on GMB)
- Links (local links and local citations)
- Content
You can switch links and content in order of importance but from my experience, reviews are the biggest driver. It's more than just the number of reviews, it's also the text in the reviews, review velocity, etc.
This assumes you're filling out the categories and all of the GMB info out correctly.
Ok, this makes sense since his site/business is local focused. Thanks!
How much money should I have in the bank before building an ecom brand? I have $10k saved and can prob get to $30k in the next few months. Should I go ahead with testing demand anyway, then buy as much inventory/paid ads I can afford or better off building a service business until I have enough saved?
Depends on your risk tolerance and the demand for your skills (job). Whether you have family, loans, other obligations, etc.
I personally would be paralized building anything that didn't have a guaranteed return within 3 months if I didn't have at least 6 months living expenses stashed away. (I have a couple kids, SAH wife, mortgage, etc)
If you're a 24 y/o with a comp sci degree and 2 years of experience, with no responsibilities...Full risk on.
Yeah I have basically 0 obligations, comp sci degree and 2 WFH jobs paying well every friday so I'm good. I guess ecom risk on it is.
So, when it comes to picking a product, I know we must test demand, but what would constitute a good/bad product idea? I currently have 10-20 products I've found on Alibaba I could make for the niche I choose. Some are popular on tik tok currently, some used to be popular on tik tok, and others I don't see competition for on tik tok. What kind of ideas/products would be more likely to work than others? I just want to isolate my demand test with the best 2-3 products
- High margin
- Cheap shipping (light)
- Repeat purchases (ideally)
- Customer base that can afford your product and not haggle on price
- Not a commodity (can build a brand around it with a loyal base)
- Crappy competition
Thank you. On a different note, when would you justify quitting a brand?
I built a sportswear/clothing brand for a niche that passed initial demand, but later on the margins become really slim from FB ads after 6 months or so building it up. I stopped working on it a month ago to focus on something new, but not sure if I'm messing up going from idea to idea instead of just sticking with one thing for years.
On the other hand I don't want to lose out years brute forcing something with high competition during a recession for what's sort of a commodity (workout clothes with niche specific designs on hoodies, joggers etc)
Completely depends on your opportunity cost.
But if you've been building/selling for years, you probably didn't build the "brand". You sold a commodity with a logo.
It may be a brand but low end brands aren't "brands". Real brands allow you to sell at a premium.
If it's still profitable, either outsource the work or find better ways to grow than FB ads.