Take Responsibility For Your Ecommerce Success
How To Succeed In Ecommerce was written to help guide you to see the bigger picture. There is so much more than the one horse & pony show depicted by webinar sellers and amazon.
The post below is an excerpt from a response I posted today in a closed Facebook sellers group. My friend Michael Russo gets the credit for giving me the idea that this needed to be a post all on its' own.
I have 19 years of experience selling on every major eCommerce platform and marketplace out there. I've seen a lot of sellers, techniques, platforms and hacks come and go. The post below was written in response to a post that only said "I lost 9000€ in 2017 nice job with Amazon PL"
What is the Problem?
If you only hear the Amazon propaganda, you will never get past Amazon as a seller. Most sellers do not know if their demographic even shops on Amazon or only use it for the final purchase.
FB has 7x the amount of users that Amazon does. 87% of Pinterest users purchase based on a pin they have followed. Google will index a well SEO'd video for the keywords in under 2 weeks. Amazon only reaches 10% of the world's internet users. Where are the other 90% buying?
If you have no clue how to sell, rank your products, or market them, what the heck are you doing starting with pl in the first place?
There are multiple different business models that you can start with to choose from. Don't let anyone tell you one is better than the other unless they have actually done it. You can succeed in Ecommerce using any of them.
Send the right people, the right message with the right offer for the right product and you will get the right response!
The Truth About Ecommerce Success on Amazon
The plain truth is that the failure rate for new sellers is at its point highest ever. In and of itself, that should serve as proof that the current popular methods taught do not work. Giveaways, rebates, review manipulation does not work. If it did, 95 out of every 100 new sellers wouldnt be failing within 12 months.
If you have a mentor or are in a group prescribing these methods ask them why so many sellers are failing if their methods are so good. Ask how many sellers they have trained in the last 3 years. After they tell you a number, ask where they all are. I don't mean to scare you off at all. There is more than enough business for everyone. It is the popular methods that need to change.
The absolute worst thing that you can do as a new seller is put all of your eggs in one basket. If a seller gets suspended on Amazon and they sell nowhere else, they have no businerss left because Amazon doesnt allow the builduing of a mailing list
Principles That You Need to Grasp and Understand
It is too easy to lose touch with what is important. Understand the pitfalls in front of you. do not get yourself caught up in them. Follow these key principles and you will give yourself a much higher chance of not only succeeding, but also creating a lasting eCommerce powerhouse.
Competition
Everyone complains about competition on the marketplaces. The true competition is who can be the laziest, have the worst listings and maintain. Long-time, successful sellers see no competition except between themselves and other power sellers.
They see all of the lazy sellers with terrible listings as market research. You spend the money, identify the great categories and when they are ready they move in and optimize you right out.
Your success is in your hands and no one elses. You have to put forward the effort to learn and move youe business forward. It really comes down to 5 things. Send the right people, the right message with the right offer for the right product and you will get the right response!
Over-simplified? Yes it is. My point is that you must master the basics before you overcome the complex. Every once of effort that you can put into learning how thinfgs work and how to source, list, sell and manage with be that much less to learn when you are too busy to take the time.
Knowledge plus action equals power. Turn off the television, turn off Facebook, one night a week and read industry related blogs and best practice guides, implementing one major thing per week. Keep track of the what and when so you can look back and know what worked. Every little improvement helps.
When you have done this for months, all of those little improvements add up to solid progress that produces consistent, lasting results. Little initiatives, done consistently is part of what I consider one of the major keys that has led to my own and my clients success resulting in solid, comnsistant performance over the years.
Final Thoughts
This is not intended towards any one person, comment or thread in particular. So dont feel like Im calling you out. if you are thinking to yourself, I mind as well give up, then you should because you missed the entire point. Stop blaming or looking to blame listing and planning issues on your perceived disadvantages.
You are responsible for your own Ecommerce success. Part of owning a business is doing things and making decisions that you do not want to do. Are you willing to do whatever it takes? Are you willing to make an honest effort to do the right thing without trying to manipulate your way to the top? Ive been doing this for 20 years, no one that manipulates lasts very long.
Get off your butt, learn your trade inside, outside and upside down. Become a listing specialist for your products. Turn your listings into well oiled, well researched, highly targeted listings that speak to the needs of the buyer. Present them with the ultimate solution to their issue. You owe it to yourself to give it 110% of your time and effort.
If this all seems a bit harsh to you, I am not sorry. If it helps you see through the bs quicker, then I've done what I have set out to do. Start with, and focus on the basics. Listing basics, optimization basics, keyword research basics. Master those subjects and you are ahead of the majority of your competition.
Go Make Your Own Luck!
If this post is useful and or you have gained any value or knowledge from it, please share it with others that can also gain value from it. At Ecommerce Optimizer, we have a reputation of being very knowledgable about Amazon since we have been selling and involved with the platform for over 15 years.
For additional Amazon tips and strategy, check out our Dominate Amazon Products Series. This includes articles on Product Sourcing, Listing Optimization, Launching Optimization along with many other great articles.
We have just as much experience off of Amazon, on the web and with many other Ecommerce platforms as well. We focus on helping sellers grow their businesses to incorporate more than just Amazon reducing your dependence on any 1 platform while exponentially growing their audience.
In addition, we also have our Free Pinterest Traffic Domination Workshop, a Pinterest Launching Service, 1 on 1 Coaching and several other workshops as well. Let us help you make 2022 your best year ever!
