What is the best niche that you can go into, that people will actually take out their credit card and immediately buy your product?

In the past year since I started my own eCommerce store and taking courses to learn all about ecom, I realised that the wrong way to do it is to sit down and brainstorm endlessly about the winning product.

The right way however was to sell a product that was already selling. In other words, never reinvent the wheel. This is one of the lessons that I wrote about in my recent article 10 Marketing Lessons I Learnt In My First Year Of Affiliate Marketing.

You see someone has already done the research for you. Someone has already tested the product and have proven that it sells.

So when you have those three criteria – the product is researched, the product is tested and the product is proven to sell – it becomes easy for you as the observer to simply source the same product, set up your own website and begin marketing the product.

So where do you actually go to find these proven products? Keep reading.

What You Will Learn

• How to choose your niche
• How to use Amazon to find winning products
• How to use Ebay to find winning products
• How to use Google to find winning products
• How to use Facebook to find winning products
• Where to source your products
• How To Choose Your Niche

The mistake that eCom store beginners make when starting an online store, is they become passionate about one product, build a store around that idea then start marketing it.

What happens next is they find out that the market is not receptive of their idea. No one buys their product so essentially they wasted a lot of time setting up a store that is not responding well.

With any business idea, it is a pitfall to allow your personal perception and preference to influence your decision.

Just like with blogging, it is a bad idea to blog about yourself, your dog or your cat. No one really cares about that.

Rather you should blog about things that your audience wants to read.

The same goes for eCommerce. You should sell things that people want to buy and you can do that by looking at the data and letting the data guide you to help you understand what your audience wants.

My advice therefore is to stop thinking about a specific niche for a moment. Find four to eight great products and split test them all. Then use the data that you get from your test and focus on selling that one product or several products that go well with your winner. That is how you create a niche store.

The thing about marketing a product, is that you never know how it is going to perform. So rather than spending all your resources on one idea in the beginning, take the time to work with many different ideas, then simply run with the one that has started making you money.

This is the exact formula that I used to create a successful Shopify store in one month where I was able to generate over $7000 in sales.

So in summary, when doing eCommerce, start with a general store selling just about anything, then once you have a product that is selling well, niche down the store and start selling products around that one thing.

How To Use Amazon To Find Winning Products

Why start with Amazon?

Well it is becoming a household name and most people go there to buy just about anything that they want, that they cannot get in your traditional brick and mortar stores.

To start understanding a product’s selling potential, there are two things that I would look at. The customer reviews and the best selling rank.

Starting with the best selling rank, Amazon gives you several products in different niches that you can work with.

Looking at the pet niche I see that one of the best selling products is a training pad. When I look closely at the product I see that it is the number one selling product in pet supplies compared to other products.

Amazon’s best selling rank is an indication of the number of units sold compared to other products in a given time frame.

Therefore using this data you can find a list of products that are in a high demand and popularity. Next to the BSR you will also see the top 100 list. Browse that list for other ideas.

If you go back to the Best Sellers home page and look to the left, Amazon gives you a list of sub categories which breaks down your main niche into sub niches.

So in this case the pet niche is broken down into different animals. This tells me that people interested in pets are interested in things primarily for their dogs, cats, fishes, birds, horses, etc.

Maybe you might want to get a few products from each sub niche and test each product against each other.

Let’s go a little further. If you click on each sub category, you get other sub sub categories.

Going through the list and repeating the steps outlined above to identify the best sellers, you can get an idea for those products that are popular and selling well by looking at the BSR and customer reviews.

How To Use Ebay To Find Winning Products

If people are not buying products on Amazon, they’re getting it on Ebay.

The internet also has tools that you can use to determine whether a product you want to sell, is popular on this platform.

Chances are, if you have used Amazon and have established that there is demand there and the same product is in demand on Ebay, then you can set up your own online store and sell the product easily.

What this does is eliminate the seller fees associated with Amazon and Ebay.

To find popular products, I like using a website called Watch Count. Watch Count tells me the most popular items on Ebay by the number of watchers in real time.

Using the same example above, I typed in dog training pad and found that on average there were 494 watchers of this product.

This suggests to me that the product is in good demand.

If we go directly to Ebay and search for the same product you can see the past sales of the product. Sales in the tens or hundreds are good, but if you get a product in the thousands or tens of thousands it is even better.

Let’s take a closer look at the product on Ebay.

When I click on the product with the highest number sold, there is a bit more data that Ebay gives to me. I can see how many were sold in an hour. The higher the number the better.

It would be even better if Ebay reported on the number of items sold per day to get an idea of how popular it was on a day by day basis.

Once you have found a potential product that you feel will have a high selling success you don’t want to stop there.

Look at the seller’s other products for more ideas in the same niche.

Are there products with high sales and watch counts? Repeat the above process if you find a product that interests you.

Make sure to carefully scrutinise the product by watching for how many are watched or sold in the last hour or day if the data is there.

If there is no data then it is likely that the products are not best sellers on Ebay so you can move on to the next.

How To Use Google To Find Winning Products 

Sometimes people prefer to use search engines to shop outside of Amazon and Ebay and this is where you can find out whether there is a lot of demand using Google.

You can find this data using the Google Keyword Planner tool and also Google Trends.

Both give you an indication of whether people in high numbers are searching for your product idea, what they are searching for and whether there is high or low competition in the marketplace.

If you have a stellar idea but the data says that no one is really searching for it, then that is not a good idea.

Which is why it is always a good thing to spend some time using this research process to find ideas that are likely to work.

To start you will need the Google Keyword Planner tool. I am interested in finding data on the product idea dog training pad so I type that into the field that says Your Product Or Service.

Based on Google data the product dog training pads got 1000 to ten thousand searches. This tells me that it is a highly searched for item but the competition rate indicates that the keyword dog training pads is highly competitive amongst marketers.

Google Trends also tells me whether this item is of a high interest over a period of time.

How To Use Facebook To Find Winning Products

Conducting Facebook research has always been my go-to way of finding products that people are interested in on Facebook.

Especially since I use Facebook Ads predominantly for eCommerce traffic, it is a good idea to go directly to this platform to see exactly what the marketplace has to say about any particular niche idea or product idea.

What you will be looking for is the number of shares, likes and comments that any product received.

When doing research with this platform, the keywords that you use is related to the words that most sellers use when advertising on Facebook. For example:

Niche/product + grab yours here

Niche/product + free shipping

Niche/product + get yours here

Niche/product + order yours here

Niche/product + order now

Using the above and the product keyword dog training pad I will look for any post that has a high engagement, preferably in the thousands.

So far I have found nothing so I will assume that no marketer has tested this product. That’s not to say that it wouldn’t sell well but I do not want to be the first to try. I prefer to find a product that already works so I know that it has been tried and tested.

Let’s try searching for the dog niche and see what we come up with.

One search gives me a few ideas to work with. It’s not a dog training pad but it would appear that the audience on this platform like playful items like this one.

Or practical items like this one. To help me understand the popularity I look at the engagement.

Before deciding on an idea that has gained a lot of engagement, it is a good idea to take it further and see what kind of engagement the product gets.

Some product ideas may have a high engagement but negative remarks. Others may have high engagement but positive remarks. You want to stick to those that have more positive than negative remarks.

Where To Source Your Products

Once you have decided on the product that you want to test and sell, you now need to find out where to source your product.

There are many suppliers that can probably provide your desired product to you but there are a few things that you need to consider:

Do you want a local or international supplier? This is important when import factors are considered. With international suppliers there is the issue of importing and paying import duties. Of course you can factor this into your price but you must also consider how much the customer is prepared to pay and whether your item is of a high perceived value to mark it up to account for the expenses you have made.

Do you want inexpensive products or are you willing to spend a bit more? To source inexpensive products the best avenue is relying on international providers from countries like China or the Phillipines. If you are sourcing products from the US be prepared to spend a little bit more which may in turn affect the profit margins that you can generate.

Do you want to hold inventory or drop ship? A lot of suppliers both internationally and locally do offer drop shipping services. You need to decide which Ecommerce model you will use and whether the supplier accepts drop shipping, has terms and conditions associated with drop shipping or do not offer it at all.

To find products for your online store you can use online directories like Alibaba or Aliexpress which is a Chinese Wholesale marketplace.

You can also attend wholesale tradeshows which is more personal since you get to meet wholesalers in person and examine their stock.

If you prefer to skip attending these fairs feel free to download my wholesaler’s list where I have compiled over twenty different wholesalers in different niches that you can research and contact.

Whatever method you use be sure to research the vendor as much as possible to avoid any deception especially with online vendors.

Wrapping Up

Before you put pen to paper and embark on creating an online store or buying a web domain, before you even spend a dime, I urge you to spend a day or two doing as much research as possible into the type of products that would sell well.

Take some time reaching out to vendors once you have an idea of what product you would like to sell.

Even before you sign any supplier contract or order in bulk be sure to set up a trial store and test whether your products will sell.

This is important to avoid wasting any money, time and getting frustrated in the process.

If you are really considering starting your own online store, be sure to check out the following related articles to help you get started and be on the right track.

Related Articles:

• The Ultimate Ecommerce Startup Guide
• The 8 Best Ecommerce Training Courses 
• How To Increase Conversions In Your Ecommerce Store 
• 4 Proven Ways To Increase Traffic To Your Online Store 

Cheers

The post How To Choose A Winning Ecommerce Product To Sell appeared first on I Am Dawn-Marie.

Not really? Read my article How To Do Affiliate Marketing Without A Blog Or Website, where I break down for you how to start affiliate marketing without a blog or website.

Do you really need a huge eCommerce site to do eCommerce? Nope.

Some people get overwhelmed by the idea of having to buy webhosting, build a website menu, design a website and all of that.

There are easier ways to build a website to promote a product and the good news is that you don’t have to hire a web designer or spend hours trying to put a website together.

In this article I am going to speak about a handy tool called LeadPages that I use as my marketing arsenal.

I use it to create one page blog posts, design landing pages, lead capture pages, sales pages, eCommerce one product pages. The sky’s pretty much the limit but you need to know how to be a little creative with it so that you can get what you want out of it.

What You Will Learn

• What is LeadPages
• Why LeadPages
• How to build a lead capture page
• How to build a one-page blog post
• LeadPages for eCommerce
• How to add affiliate links to your pages
• How to use it for lead boxes
• How to analyse your pages
• How to automate everything
• Other features of LeadPages

What is LeadPages?

LeadPages is a landing page builder. So it builds one page at a time although you can interlink to several pages all within the LeadPages platform.

Unlike your conventional websites, like this one you’re reading, you don’t need to set up webhosting yourself or spend a lot of time designing your website.

If you were interested in doing that then check out this article here.

LeadPages has its own hosting so if you were to create a landing page here, you will be given a LeadPages subdomain like yourname.leadpages.net.

Although it is possible to have your own custom domain where you can mask that subdomain using your own domain.

LeadPages is not only a landing page builder.

It also allows you to generate leads with a lead capture page builder. It helps you to generate sales with their sales page and checkout functions.

If you have a website or blog you can include pop up lead boxes inline with your text as well to capture leads.

You can also build out a complete sales funnel from opt in page, to bridge page to sales page.

If you want to do a webinar, yup! That’s something that you can customise as well as they have the features to help you create one.

Why LeadPages?  

I’ve been working online and I have tried so many landing page builders like Clickfunnels, GetResponse, Aweber, BuilderAll.

But I keep coming back to LeadPages because it is so easy to use and its design templates are stunning.

They look insanely professional and for anyone who does not have a creative bone in their body, the templates that they provide make it easy for you to change the text, drag and drop your own images and you’re done.

The price point is also amazing.

When I started with Clickfunnels, I was not able to maintain my payments because it was quite pricey at $97 a month.

I needed to find an alternative builder and was put onto GetResponse but this did not have the feature to allow me to build a sales funnel. Neither did Aweber. Although both are superb for email marketing.

Then I was introduced to BuilderAll and whilst that is the marketer’s ultimate tool as it has everything a marketer dreams of at a really nice price of $29.99 a month, I still was not happy because the drag and drop elements were sloppy.

LeadPages is perfect because it has everything that you need that Clickfunnels, BuilderAll, GetResponse and Aweber has all in one and the price point is ideal at $35 a month.

How To Build A Lead Capture Page

Building a lead capture page is quite easy when you don’t need to worry about coding or design.

The great thing about LeadPages is that they have over 130 mobile responsive templates that allow you to choose which one fits your brand or your style.

Once you have selected your template you can either preview it or work on it to make it yours.

In preview, you get to see how the page responds. It also offers you inspiration for your own page so creativity is not really necessary.

After selecting your template to work on, the editor makes it easy to edit the elements of the lead capture page so you can add or takeaway from it as you like.

The editor also has widgets that you can drag and drop onto your lead page to customise it. So if you want to add a headline, text, image or video, simply drag the widget and position it where you want it to go.

What I love about LeadPages are the helpful automatic guides that show up to assist you in dropping your widget so it snaps into place and creates a neat outline of what you want.

Other features for your lead page include the countdown timer, social share buttons and a calendar.

You can also customise the sections of your lead pages by adding background images, changing the default colour, increasing or decreasing margins and adding or taking away borders.

For marketers who love tracking, LeadPages allows you to easily put in place your pixels so you do not have to worry about source codes.

The one thing I despise about webpages is those that do not help you in adding pixel codes to your sites. If you are not tech savvy like I am, LeadPages makes it easy for you to add tracking pixels or other meta data to your web page by giving you a box to complete.

If you are using Facebook to promote your page and you want to make sure that Facebook pulls the right information for your page when it is shared, LeadPages also ensures that this is done correctly by having a Facebook Open Graph platform where you can add whatever text you want to appear on Facebook.

How To Build A One Page Blog Post

So this part is probably going to be the most exciting for wannabe bloggers who really don’t want to go through the hassle of designing a blog but want a website to write a blog.

Kind of ironic right but I hope you get my drift.

With a little bit of improvisation LeadPages helps you to create one page blog posts where you can add content for a product that you want to promote.

To do that you can use their blank templates, their letter templates or one of their sales templates.

To make it blog-like it will require you to add a few links here and there but that’s about it.

You can transform these pages into a blog-like post and promote any affiliate links that you want.

Here is an example page that I created into a blog-like post.

I could have gone on to add a comments section to finish it off but I did not want to do that.

You can see how the links at the top of the page lead to my actual website and blog, giving the impression that the page forms part of a wider website.

If you wanted to optimise the page for SEO, LeadPages allows you to add meta data to your page with their SEO platform.

Simply enter the data in the fields provided and save.

By completing these fields will help Google index your page and rank it in the search engines.

LeadPages For Ecommerce

Sometimes you don’t want to create a huge eCommerce store like I taught in my tutorial on How To Build An Online Store using Shopify.

You may only want to sell one product.

Well thankfully LeadPages helps you to create a one page eCommerce page to promote a single product with an eCommerce channel.

There are four eCommerce page templates and one thank you page template that you can use.

Once you have created your page using the available templates you can integrate your payment processor such as Stripe to collect payments from your customers using their checkout feature.

You can also build your email list at the same time with an opt in form before the visitor purchases or after they purchase.

How To Add Affiliate Links To Your Pages

Another great thing about LeadPages is that it is easy to add affiliate links and secure them so they do not cause link juice to be carried over to the affiliate page.

You may have known that Google penalises web pages that have too many affiliate links on them, referring to them as non valuable pages.

Google advises affiliate marketers to use nofollow tags at the end of their affiliate links to avoid this.

LeadPages conveniently allows you to add nofollow tags at the end of all your affiliate links.

To add your affiliate link simply grab your affiliate link and highlight the text that you want to hyperlink. Select External URL then paste your affiliate link in the pop up.

Select Save then tick the box Use NoFollow. This will automatically add the no follow tag to the end of the affiliate link so that your link juice does not pass to the affiliate offer.

You can then customise your link by changing the colour or making the text bold. All links are automatically underlined.

How To Use It For Lead Boxes

LeadPages have opt in boxes that you can embed into your website using a bit of code that LeadPages gives to you.

Instead of taking your visitors to another page, these leadboxes pop over the website allowing them to enter their details without having to navigate away from the page.

It’s very simple and streamlined to add these boxes to your website and you can even change the colour of the boxes so it suits your brand or style.

If you want your box to pop up at a certain time or pop up on exit as someone tries to leave your website, LeadPages takes care of that by giving you the option to configure how you want your box to perform.

Personally I use lead boxes as part of my blog and include them where it makes sense to invite my visitors to sign up for my content upgrade or courses.

Once the visitor enters their details, I can then direct them to a customised thank you page or take them back to the content that they were viewing so they are not distracted.

I found this feature of LeadPages to be exceptional.

The only other piece of software that has this feature which I have used before is Aweber although Aweber’s forms need some serious updating so that it looks more modern.

I have yet to see this feature on Clickfunnels or Builderall. I suppose because they are not blog friendly.

How To Analyse Your Pages

What good is your web page if you don’t know how well it is performing or what your visitors think about it?

Every marketer knows the importance of tracking and optimising your webpages for better conversions.

LeadPages offers on page tracking allowing you to see how many people visit your page and perform a desired action on it such as opting in.

You can even split test pages allowing you to test the performance of pages against each other.

Their simple to use split test feature allows you to create two pages. Their analytics then tell you which version gave more conversions.

The split test feature is only available on the Pro and Advanced plans starting from $48/month.

If you prefer not to get the Pro or Advanced plans you can always use a rotator tool from Clickmagick which allows you to rotate your links sending equal amounts of traffic to the link.

Clickmagick has a free 14 day trial then is $12 per month after.

How To Automate Everything

Ok so you have created your blog post or have your lead page created and you are ready to get some sales.

Once you have put everything together you can either use LeadPages Facebook Ads integration to drive traffic to your pages.

LeadPages tracks everything for you on page and you get to track your ads’ performance on the Facebook Ads platform.

If you do not want to use LeadPages Facebook Ads feature then you can create a Facebook ad directly on the Facebook platform and direct traffic to the LeadPages webpage.

If using a blog post make sure that all your affiliate links are working properly.

If using a lead capture page to generate leads, make sure that your opt in forms work properly and that your leads are directed to the correct email list via the LeadPages email service provider integration.

If you do not want to build an email list using a third party software, LeadPages allows lead magnet deliveries. They capture your leads’ email addresses and then send the lead magnet what you want your lead to receive.

They also have their own email marketing software called Drip.

This is how you  can automate an entire business model if you want to generate sales.

Even if you have a product to sell or are doing eCommerce you can use the same set up of sending traffic to your web page via Facebook Ads or whatever advertising mechanism you want to use. Then allow LeadPages to take all payments for you via the integrated checkout feature.

Other Features Of LeadPages

So I have outlined the main features of LeadPages that I use and love.

Other features that you may want to know about include:

• Drip LeadPages own email marketing software
• ConvertedU LeadPages training platform where you can learn all about marketing
• Webinar integration You can integrate webinar software with LeadPages. So if you are promoting a webinar you can have your lead opt into a lead capture page, then direct them to a webinar that you host directly on LeadPages.
• WordPress Plugin LeadPages integrates with WordPress so if you have a website or blog and you want a lead page to pop up automatically on visitor arrival or exit, you can add code to your WordPress website using the LeadPages plugin.
• LeadLinks you can have your leads opt in to different lists or webinar schedules with links added to emails. All the user has to do is click on a link for the function to work. LeadLinks is only available on the Pro and Advanced plans starting from $48/month.
• LeadDigits if you aren’t online you can also capture leads via a mobile device. Text messages capture email addresses and automatically add the lead to an email list or webinar. LeadDigits is only available on the Pro and Advanced plans starting from $48/month.

Wrapping Up

Well that’s all folks. If you want to do affiliate marketing and want a simple platform to host your links, you really do not have to build a complicated website.

You can use LeadPages as a webpage builder to promote a single or several products on a single web page. You can use it to capture leads on a lead capture page  and even generate sales with their sales pages.

I feel like LeadPages is an all inclusive marketing tool that every marketer and semi-blogger should have.

At a price of $35 per month the features that you get are incredible.

Were there any features that you have in your builder that you think LeadPages might need? Leave them in the comments. LeadPages has a suggestions menu that I frequent to make useful suggestions.

Cheers

The post How I Use LeadPages And Why You Don’t Need A Real Website appeared first on I Am Dawn-Marie.

Related Articles:

• The Best Ecommerce Solution for Small Businesses 
• How To Increase Ecommerce Sales 
• The 8 Best Ecommerce Training Courses 

Today I decided to wind things back a little bit and give you a checklist of things that you should be doing to start your own eCommerce store.

This checklist acts as a guide to getting your own eCommerce store set up, from choosing a business name, to loading your store with products, to selling and shipping your products to customer service and outsourcing.

This guide is for you, if you know nothing or a little about eCommerce and want a definitive guide to getting started with eCommerce.

Remember that whilst this article seeks to guide you, eCommerce is a skill set that you need to learn and so you should make an investment in an eCommerce course to teach you how to grow a profitable eCommerce business.

What You Will Learn:     

• How to choose a business and store name
• Select web hosting and a domain name
• Decide on the platform that you want to build your store on
• Where to get wholesale products
• What eCommerce model is best to use
• How to choose your target audience
• How to apply a markup to your products
• How to advertise your products
• Are you ready for outsourcing?
• How to remain profitable. Metrics to look at.

How To Choose A Business And Store Name

The name of your store and business really is not that important to the customer. The customer is only interested in whether your store is legitimate, trustworthy and provides excellent customer service.

Therefore when choosing a business and store name, do not spend too much time here.

You may wish to name your store after some event that is special in your life or it can be a composition of the names of the owners of your store.

For example when I started my first eCommerce store it was named Winton Lane Marketplace. Winton Lane was actually the place where I grew up.

When deciding on your store and business name, I would recommend that you create a name where the social media handles are also available.

You do not want to create a name and then realise that someone else already has a Facebook or Twitter account with the same name.

To check whether this is the case I use a website called Namecheckr which verifies whether a potential business or store name is available across most social media platforms and whether the domain name is free.

If you want ideas for store and business names then you can use Shopify’s free business name generator for ideas.

Select Web Hosting and a Domain Name

Webhosting

Some eCommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce have all-inclusive web hosting with their packages so deciding on where to host your eCommerce store is unnecessary.

If however you have selected an eCommerce site builder like Woocommerce for WordPress where you need to set up your own web hosting, then you will find that the process is not entirely daunting.

Web hosting is provided by sites like SiteGround or Bluehost. I particularly like Bluehost because of the ease of setting up the webhosting with one click and their customer service.

Also if you have decided to use Woocommerce for WordPress, Bluehost is actually their recommended webhost provider making this the number one choice for your eCommerce webhosting needs.

Bluehost has a really great offer where you can get webhosting and a domain name for only $3.95 per month using my referral link. This special offer is available to all my readers.

If you do not want to use Woocommerce for WordPress and prefer all-inclusive webhosting packages then the following platforms are great options:

• Shopify starts at $29 a month. See my comprehensive review of Shopify here.
• BigCommerce starts at $29.95 a month
• Wix starts at $17 a month and perfect for smaller eCommerce stores
• Volusion starts at $15 a month
• 3DCart starts at $19.99 a month

Whilst these platforms allow you to host your eCommerce store, you may still be required to purchase your domain name either directly from the platform or transfer an already purchased domain name to the platform.

Domains

Domain names can be purchased from any domain name provider like Bluehost or Namecheap.

Just like a store name, your domain name is of little relevance however here are a few key things you should consider when choosing a domain name:

• It should not be too long
• It should be something that is easy to remember
• It should be easy to type and spell
• Avoid using dashes within your domain name
• It should represent you and your brand

The .com domain name is still the most popular and easily recognised domain extension for eCommerce stores although this does not directly reflect the success of your eCommerce stores.

It is important to note however that if you have an international domain extension like .co.uk or .de and you are selling products worldwide, that the recognition of these domain extension can cause some resistance from buyers especially when they consider that the product may be sourced in a country that is not local to them.

For example having a .co.uk extension may cause buyers from the US or Canada to panic that the goods is being shipped internationally. Therefore be mindful of this.

Decide On The Platform That You Want To Build Your Store On

There are many eCommerce store builders in the marketplace. With so many options it is difficult to size up all of them when you don’t know what to look for.

When selecting an eCommerce store builder I like to consider the following:

Price

Look at how the platform’s price compares to their competitors. Consider exactly what you are getting for the price and what are the core components of the package.

When selecting packages be sure to look at the cost of transaction fees as these will factor into your expenses when you start making sales.

Features

What features are you getting for the price you pay? Some crucial features that are paramount to the successful running of an eCommerce store include a shopping cart, payment gateways, number of products that you can upload to your store, data storage, customer support, security.

Are there any additional features that one platform provides that another doesn’t? Would a lack of features hamper the success of your store?

Support

Depending on the package that you select, be sure to check out the type of support you can get. When running an eCommerce store and considering that there is the potential to make ongoing sales every minute, I prefer to use an eCommerce platform that can provide ongoing customer support in the event that there is an emergency.

I have done a bit of research and here is how some of the top brand eCommerce platforms do when it comes to customer support.

Shopify provides 24/7 customer support by email, live chat or phone. They also have a huge resource of video tutorials, webinar and a Shopify community.

BigCommerce provides 24/7 customer support as well by email, live chat or phone. You can also search helpful articles and review their common questions if you have a problem.

Wix’s library of information will help you solve most problems with your online store. If you are unable to find the problem in the library then you can connect with a Wix support staff via email only. Premium plans which start from $4 a month do however get premium customer support. Their website does not say whether this premium support is via phone or live chat.

Volusion provides customer support via their library of articles written by Volusion experts. If you prefer to speak with a support staff then there is a chat facility however expect a response within a few hours from the time you lodge your question.

3DCart offers live customer support and you can also access their forums where you can ask questions about your eCommerce store and receive answers from other users of the facility. If that is not enough you can submit a support ticket with any problem that you may have.

Woocommerce for WordPress as an eCommerce WordPress theme provides support for their customers via support tickets and contact forms. You can also access their FAQs via a library of questions.

Ease Of Use

It is always best to look for other customer’s reviews to see how easy it is to sign up for and use the platform.

If you prefer most eCommerce platforms offer a free trial allowing you to test the usability of the program before you commit to a purchase.

During the trial process check and see how easy it is to set up the store, upload products to your store, connect any payment gateways. Look at how quickly customer support responds to your needs. Is it easy to build your store? Do you foresee any technical problems that make running the store demanding.

Performance 

Is there any trouble with glitches? What if you have a lot of traffic to your store? Can they accommodate you with reliable site speed?

I suppose trying to understand the performance of an eCommerce platform will take time to ascertain as you will need to have used the platform for sometime before making a decision on this point.

Furthermore once you have made the decision about the performance of the platform it may be difficult to move to other platforms if there is any trouble.

Be sure to consider eCommerce platform reviews before settling with one. To get a comprehensive review of the Shopify eCommerce platform be sure to read my article here.

Where To Get Wholesale Products

There are tons of places on the internet where you can find wholesale products for resell. If you want the cheapest wholesale products I would recommend sourcing them from Aliexpress or DHGate which are Chinese suppliers.

If you do not mind paying a little extra then local wholesale suppliers will be ideal.

I have created a massive list of over 60 wholesalers from the US, Canada and China which you can download here.

Whilst these wholesalers have been compiled from my own knowledge of running an eCommerce site, it is still up to you to verify how reliable the suppliers are by doing your own research.

What Ecommerce Model Is Best To Use 

When it comes to selling physical products, before you set up your store you need to decide what model you are going to use to deliver products to your customer. In this section I am going to discuss three models that you can use, the benefits and the disadvantages of each model so you know what to expect and can decide which one is best for you.

Dropshipping

Dropshipping is the process of fulfilling a retail product via a wholesale supplier.

So when a product is sold, rather than the owner of the store sending the product directly to the customer, the owner purchases the product from the supplier and has it shipped directly to the customer via the supplier.

There are some advantages and disadvantages to the dropshipping model that you should be aware of though.

|Advantages

There is no requirement to hold on to inventory.

Start up costs are kept to a minimum as you would not have to worry about purchasing products upfront for your store.

As you do not hold inventory as a store owner you can operate a dropshipping eCommerce store from anywhere with an internet connection. All that is required is to maintain a close relationship with your wholesale supplier which can easily be done via WiFi, Skype or a messenger service.

It is so much easier to get started as you do not have to worry about where to store physical products, packing or shipping your orders, tracking inventory for accounting purposes, dealing with returns or managing stock levels.

Overhead expenses remain very low. There is no need to keep up with warehouse expenses or inventory expenses. Some people can actually run a drop shipping eCommerce store from a home office.

You have access to a wide selection of products. Depending on the wholesale supplier you have selected, access to products in any niche is widely available. This is particularly true of Chinese wholesale suppliers like Aliexpress or DHGate.

|Disadvantages

You have no control over the quality of product that is shipped to your customer if you have not received samples beforehand. This can cause trouble if you receive negative feedback from customers who are not happy with their orders when they receive them.

You also have no control over when items are shipped to your customers. Certainly with dropshipping you can agree with your suppliers that products are shipped within a certain time frame however unless you have a close relationship with your supplier, usually you must abide by the supplier’s own shipping terms.

If you are using international suppliers, a major disadvantage is the length of time that customers must wait to receive their items. Sometimes this can be over a period of weeks or months. For customers who are not accustomed to lengthy delivery periods, this can lead to negative reviews which can tarnish your brand.

Supplier errors can happen often resulting in a poor customer experience. Even though this is not your fault you still have to accept responsibility as the customer has purchased the item from your brand in good faith that they will receive the item that they purchased. Whilst errors can always be remedied with good customer service, having too many errors can lead to negative feedback resulting in your brand being tarnished.

Shipping complexities may arise if you are using more than one supplier to provide stock for your store. For example you may have product A and B provided by different suppliers. However when the customer purchases both items they are likely to receive their orders separately resulting in confusion.

Another problem that can arise is the issue of shipping costs and how they are to be calculated. If a customer purchases products A, B and C and they all come from different suppliers, you need to decide whether the additional shipping costs associated with each supplier will be passed to the customer.

Fulfilment Centre

Instead of using the dropshipping model you can use a fulfilment centre or third party warehouse to store your products locally.

Fulfilment centres are places that have been established to assist eCommerce store owners in fulfilling their products. Fulfilment centres receive your products, store them and ship them to the customer on your behalf. Some even go as far to deal with any returns that you may have.

Now dealing with a fulfilment centre may be intimidating especially if you are a startup company. If you are just getting started with eCommerce I would recommend that you start with dropshipping.

However once you have successful with dropshipping, your ultimate goal as your business expands should be to either hire a fulfilment centre to do the work for you, or fulfil your products yourself with a team on board.

When moving onto the option of using fulfilment centres here are a few things to consider:

Many fulfilment centres do offer flexible pricing. In some cases the cost of using fulfilment centres is widely dependent on the number of products that you have to fulfil as is with Dollar Fulfilment where you only pay $1 for every product that you need to fulfil.

Using a fulfilment centre allows you to concentrate on the more important aspects of your business. By outsourcing the storing, packing, shipping and returns process to a fulfilment centre, makes your business more streamlined and you are able to devote more time and efficiency to ensuring that your customers get good service.

You also get to save a lot of time and money with fulfilment centres. Chances are, as your business grows, you need more manpower to handle various tasks. Instead of hiring staff to help you, it may be more cost effective to use a fulfilment centre.

Fulfil Yourself  

If neither dropshipping or fulfilment centres appeal to you and you simply like to have full control over your store, then fulfilling all your orders still remains a suitable option for you.

Of course when deciding to fulfil your own orders you must consider whether you will have enough people to help at a time when your business is growing.

If you have the funds, then hiring staff to deal with the packaging, shipping and returns process may not be a problem.

Always be conscious of the fact that as a business owner you cannot do everything. There comes a time when you need to automate your business and outsourcing certain tasks would be the wisest thing to do as you will be able to devote more time to the marketing of your business so you can get more sales.

How To Choose Your Target Audience 

Deciding on your target audience is dependent on where you would like to sell your products.

With a dropshipping eCommerce store it is easy to sell your products in any country depending on whether there is a high demand for the product in the country.

As long as the supplier ships internationally, then all you need to do is to consider whether it is appropriate for you to ship your item to a particular country.

Be careful however of countries that have problems with shipping regulations, theft and fraudulent activities. You may want to avoid these countries all together.

How To Apply A Markup To Your Products 

Your markup will determine how much profitability you get from your store. Deciding what to price your products at does not have to be a challenge.

All it requires is some research skills and knowing what your numbers are.

When I say “knowing what your numbers are” I mean, if you know how much your cost of goods are, the amount you are spending in advertisements, plus any transaction fees and additional costs, then you can markup your price well enough to make a decent profit.

If you price your products too low be careful that when you calculate your expenses you may find yourself actually making a loss.

A good way to consider the markup of prices is to look at your competitors. What is a similar product like the one you’re selling being sold for elsewhere?

For example if you see a store selling a similar product for $30.99 then it will be safe to price that product for $28.99 if you want to undercut your competitor or $35.99 if you know that the quality of your product warrants such a price.

Another way to apply a markup is based on a percentage. Some stores add a 50% markup on the wholesale price. Others apply a 25% markup.

Whatever markup you decide to apply to your store, make sure that it is enough to cover all expenses. If you find that during the sales process you are making a loss, do not be afraid to increase your product prices.

You can always test prices to see whether your customers will be attracted to them.

How To Advertise Your Products

When you launch your eCommerce store you must also have sufficient funds for advertising. There are many ways to advertise your store but the best way I have found is to use Facebook Ads.

Facebook Ads

I will commit to writing a detailed post on eCommerce and Facebook Ads very soon. If you would like to be notified when that post comes out then be sure to subscribe to my blog here.

Facebook Ads is a great way to find a larger target audience for your eCommerce store.

The reason why I love Facebook Ads is because it allows you to specifically reach your ideal customer using detailed targeting.

So for example, if you are selling unicorn printed leggings and want to reach an audience that likes unicorns then you can easily target that audience using Facebook Interests.

Facebook Ads is also a powerful advertising platform as it collects a massive amount of data about its users that you can use to form successful advertising campaigns.

Whilst I would recommend Facebook ads as a choice for advertising, you should always invest in educating yourself about how to use this platform before spending money with Facebook.

Facebook experts, Jon Penberthy and Jubril Agoro actually have a brilliant free webinar which you can access here to learn more about using Facebook Ads for your business.

Pinterest

Another great platform for advertising is Pinterest. Believe it or not but Pinterest is a high performer when it comes to driving sales in the digital market.

The reason why Pinterest does so well is because it is a visual platform that inspires audiences to take action. Pinterest eCommerce users actually reported that they received 20% more sales in the week with Pinterest than any other platform.

This is because Pinterest, through its analytics allows you to understand Pinterest audience’s shopping behaviours so you can adapt your content accordingly.

If you have never used Pinterest before and would like to consider this as a traffic source then I would recommend that you start by taking the Pinterest Traffic Avalanche course by Lauren MacManus and Alex Nerney which helps you learn more about driving traffic to your website.

Are you ready for outsourcing?

Remember that as your business grows your main focus should be on improving sales and marketing for your business.

Therefore if you started as a one man band, think about how you can build a team to help you with certain tasks like customer service, upkeep of your store’s inventory, packaging and shipping.

You may wish to outsource tasks like customer service and store upkeep to Virtual Assistants who you can find on places like Upwork, Freelancer or Fiverr.

You can outsource tasks like packaging and shipping to a team that you hire yourself or you can pay a fulfilment and logistics company to handle this for you.

Whatever you decide, it’s all about if your store has grown sufficiently to extend the budget to these additional expenses.     

How to remain profitable. Metrics to look at.

Finally and most importantly always monitor your numbers. Know how much you are making in the front end and what your expenses are.

Nothing is worse than making $10k a month in revenue but when you calculate your expenses you find that you actually have expenses totalling $11k. A similar scenario happened to me when I first started my store which is why I am a firm believer in knowing your numbers through spreadsheets.

Some things to pay attention to are:

• Gross revenue how much money is coming into your store
• Advertising cost how much you are spending on advertising.
• Cost of goods how much you are paying for the products
• Payment gateway fees depending on your preferred payment gateway, you are likely to have transaction fees with each incoming sale.
• Ecommerce platform fee depending on your preferred eCommerce platform you will have a monthly fee to pay
• Net revenue (profit) your gross revenue minus all expenses.

Wrapping Up

Well that’s all folks. I hope this comprehensive guide helps you start your ecommerce store and understand what things you need to consider. Whilst my list is comprehensive it is not exhaustive and sometimes you learn things as you go along.

This is why it is always best to just start and take action.

If you want a detailed guide in running an eCommerce store be sure to check out my article on the 8 Best Ecommerce Courses Compiled And Reviewed to help you get started. Anyone of these courses will help you start on the right track and get optimal results if you put in the work.

Also feel free to sign up to my newsletter here for more awesome eCommerce tips and tutorials.

Recommended Resources

• Shopify grab a free 14 day trial when starting your very own eCommerce store with Shopify. Click here to get started with Shopify.
• Bluehost grab webhosting for any Woocommerce store for only $3.95 per month.

Related Articles: 

• Best Ecommerce Solution For Small Businesses
• How To Increase Ecommerce Sales (18 Actionable Steps You Can Take)
• 8 Best Ecommerce Training Courses Compiled And Reviewed
• How To Start An Online Store

The post The Ultimate Ecommerce Startup Guide: Beginning, Middle To End appeared first on I Am Dawn-Marie.

I had very low sales conversions. Most people do not realise that the problem is not so much that people do not want to buy from you. It’s simply a matter that they do not trust your store.

When I studied other people’s stores and got advice from a few other Shopifiers, I realised what I was doing wrong. So I am writing this post to help other eCommerce store owners understand what they need to do to improve their store and start getting sales.

When I did a total revamp of my store I went from $0 in sales to $7.5k in sales in just one month. You can read my success story here. 

This is exactly what I changed and what you can look out for or add to your store to make it better.

18 Actionable Steps To Increase Ecommerce Sales In Your Online Store

#1 About Us Page

Your About Us page does not have to be personal. It does not have to show the person running the store if you do not want to. But a paragraph or two about what your store represents, the history of the store and where it’s going is a good place to start.

#2 Contact Us Page

If your store is just getting on the scene you want to offer a way for people to contact you in the event that there is a complaint. One of the things that boosted my conversions by 27.5% was including a telephone number and an email address.

Make sure that the email address is a professional email address, so not Hotmail or Gmail. I used Namecheap to buy a domain and then added the private email feature as an add on.

For my phone number I purchased an internet number from Grasshopper.com. Whilst I did not have that many calls on the number, I did have a few which went to voicemail. I never answered phone calls but screened every call and then returned each one at a later time during the day.

#3 A Refund Policy

This is mandatory if you want to have a professional-looking store and to gain trust from your visitors. Customers are more inclined to make a purchase if they know that they are protected in the event that they are not satisfied with their purchase. A refund policy also sets out your store’s terms and makes it clear when you will accept a refund so there is no dispute if anything goes wrong.

#4 A Shipping Policy

Make it clear when customers are likely to expect their purchase. Most customers abandon a purchase when there is doubt as to when an item is to be shipped and delivered.

You may also want to consider offering many items with free shipping. If customers have added an item to cart and then abandoned their purchase at the checkout it is more than likely that the shipping cost was an issue. To solve this problem of having too many abandoned carts I removed the shipping cost completely or reduced the price of my shipping. Most eCommerce store owners, compensate for the free shipping by increasing the price of the item. So you can offer an item for $24.99 with free shipping or $20 + $4.99 shipping.    

#5 An FAQ page

It is important to make your store look as trustworthy as possible. Including an FAQ tab to my store helped improve my conversions by 13%. Sometimes a customer may have a question about an item that can be addressed immediately with an FAQ section.

I realised that this was important when I sought feedback from a customer who did not immediately purchase an item. She said “I was not sure what rolled canvas meant as opposed to framed so I changed my mind”. I therefore immediately added an FAQ section addressing any possible questions that my customers could have. I also saw from my Google Analytics that the FAQ section was most frequented immediately before the customer proceeded to checkout so I know this was an ideal step to take.

#6 Trust Badges

There is a perceived sense of security when you see a trust badge on a store. I tested placing the trust badge on the footer of my store page but found a greater effect when I included it under the Add to Cart button on my product page.

Trust badges and seals, build trust with your customers. It acts as a stamp of approval that your store is secure or the product is of a high quality. This is what IiGears trust badge and seals look like.

Some companies like Norton AntiVirus, McAfee offer trust badges when your site is tested with their systems. You can also download trust badges from Google Images.

#7 Product Descriptions

I found that simple product descriptions worked better with my store. It is important to test whether long or short product descriptions have any effect on add to cart conversions.

A good way to test this is to have two ads running to two different product descriptions for the same item and see which one gives you better conversions.  When tested I found that precise product descriptions won. The objective I wanted to achieve was to have the customer spend as little time on the product page as possible. I wanted as few distractions as I could have the customer subject to, so they could make up their mind, add the item to cart and then checkout. Everyone’s store is different so make sure and test with your store.

#8 High Quality Images

If you have stock of your products it is a good idea to take high quality pictures of the image. Make sure that the image is large and clearly displays the product. If you are dropshipping and using images from AliExpress or Alibaba as in the below imagery, remove any Chinese symbols or branding from the image.

Too many images on the product description can act as a distraction to the customer so try to portray the product carefully in as few images as possible.   

#9 Customer Reviews

Having customer reviews added a huge boost to my ecommerce sales. I found that my sales improved by 19% with customer reviews having tested a product page with no reviews against one with reviews.

Customer reviews acts as social proof and to the customer it simply means that people do buy from the store so it can be trusted. Secondly they get to see the opinions of other people before they purchase the product. As a new store owner it may be difficult for you to get reviews in the first place. A work around is to add a few reviews yourself until you start getting reviews from your customers. When customers do purchase make sure and follow up with them to ask for a review.  

#10 Remove Social Share Buttons

As an eCommerce store owner the main goal for your customer is that they visit your store, see the product that they want and make a decision to buy or leave the store. Therefore avoid anything on the product description page that distracts the customer. Social share buttons were one of those things that I removed. I wanted for my customers to remain in my store as opposed to being taken away from it by a request asking them to share the product with their friends.

#11 Check The Color And Size Of Your Add To Cart Button

In my old store my add to cart button was small and blue. In my new store it was large and green. I wanted the call to action to be bold and clearly visible. I also wanted a colour that represented the will to move forward such as with a green traffic light.

I am not sure whether the change in the colour of the button had any impact on sales but it was one of the things I did differently for my store. The colour of call to action buttons sometimes have an effect on our buying intent. According to The Amasty Blog, “colour does mean something” as they scrutinised dozens of eCommerce stores to see what other owners were using.

If you are starting your own eCommerce store, do not assume that the colour green or blue button will work well. It is important to test button colours to see which one works on your product page and with your audience.

#12 More Than One Payment Option

I used Stripe as my payment processor for my eCommerce store however you may find it beneficial to have more than one payment option. Some customers feel that a transaction is more secure when they use PayPal because of PayPal’s Buyer Protection. If you find that customers are adding items to their basket but not completing checkout then it may be because they do not prefer to use your chosen payment processor. Therefore you may wish to consider adding more payment variations if conversions from add to cart to checkout are low.

#13 Product Options

I limited my product options to just 5 variations. There were so many things that I learnt when I did over my store and one of them was that I should never offer the customer too many options. Too many options mean confusion and overwhelm for the customer. This is true when it comes to the colour of items. With too many options they may not be able to make up their mind. So to avoid this keep variations in small quantities. I would not recommend having more than 5 variations.

#14 A Logo

Adding a logo to my store displayed professionalism and gave a finished touch. A logo does not need to be fancy. It can be created using PicMonkey or Canva and can be as simple as including acronyms to represent your store’s brand.

#15 Discount Code on The Checkout Page

I offered an additional 5% off on the checkout page by providing my customers who reached the checkout page with a discount code. This increased my ecommerce sales conversions by 6% and is a nice little way to seal the deal with the customer.

#16 Scarcity or Urgency Apps

There are apps on the market that you can install on your store as a strategy to increase a sense of urgency. For example, apps that show that an item will be sold out or that the price will increase.

I found that by including the Hurrify Countdown timer from Shopify  to my store, caused people to complete their purchase straight away instead of going away and thinking about it.

For example I had a bracelet on sale in five different colours. The customer only bought one even though she could have purchased all five for the price of four. I contacted the customer later on to offer her the five for four deal and asked why had she not chosen this option just to get her feedback. She replied that “I really wanted to get the bracelet for my granddaughter and had to make a quick decision because the timer was going down”. If you are using Shopify check their app store to look for apps that add this feature.

#17 Abandoned Cart Follow Up

Shopify has a feature where you can send an email to a customer fifteen minutes after they have abandoned their cart reminding them to return and finish their purchase. Using this feature I found that 32% of my customers came back to complete their purchase.

Never assume that a customer has not completed their purchase because of the price.

To recover abandoned carts I decided to request telephone numbers from my customers at checkout. This helped me contact the customer in the event there was a query I had before I shipped the item. I also took advantage of this and contacted any customer who did not complete their purchase to find out why. I was actually surprised to find out that three in five customers did not complete their purchase because their phone rang. One in five did not complete their purchase because they got distracted by the television.

#18 Simple Store

Finally, in my first store I had a carousel slider on my front page and was so focused on making it perfect and pretty. In my second store I realised that none of that mattered. I created a super simple storefront where all the products were listed so that the customer could easily view the product of their choice and got better conversions. My advice, keep your stores simple. You do not need any fancy designs or to spend a decade trying to perfect your store.

That’s It!

If you are having trouble converting your visitors into sales then it is more than likely there is an issue with your store, your product description page or your check out process. Hopefully the mistakes and changes I made to my store can help you identify what needs improvement so you can drive more sales into your store. Good luck!

Cheers,

The post How To Increase Ecommerce Sales (18 Actionable Steps You Can Take) appeared first on I Am Dawn-Marie.

Naturally you would want to take your product online and go where the demand is right?

You probably have tons of questions about how to start, what products are best to sell, where to buy your products and a whole other heap of mind boggling tasks that you need to figure out.

Well the best place to start when venturing into something new is to invest in a course.

And not just any old course. You want to invest in an e commerce course that is worth your time and money. At the end of the day you want to use the resources provided within the course to achieve a decent return on investment (ROI).

This is why I have compiled this online guide to help you determine which course is more bang for your buck. You know, the crème de la crème.

These courses are based on reviews of the population and even personal trials. Hopefully  one of them will give you the goodies that you need to expand and grow your eCommerce business.

If you are serious about eCommerce see it as a valuable investment and don’t forget you can also write these off as business expenses.

Now keep reading to find out the 8 best eCommerce training courses online.

The 8 Best Ecommerce Training Courses Online

1| Build A Shopify Dropshipping Business From Scratch

Creator: Adam Reed

Profile: A 22 year old graduate who launched his first online business at the age of 17. Now at the age of 22 his speciality is dropshipping.

Cost: Originally $200. Now $15

Who is this eCommerce training course for:

• Anyone who wants to start an online business
• Anyone who has no experience in online business
• Anyone who wants to start a business with little start up costs
• Ideal for digital nomads

What you will learn:

• How to build an eCommerce store using the dropshipping model. You will learn how to do this from scratch.
• How to do niche, product, theme research and selection
• How to create a store with Shopify. Shopify offers a 14 day free trial to my readers so be sure to claim your trial by clicking this link.
• How to use Oberlo to add thousands of products to your store easily and effortlessly
• How to set up your store for Shopify SEO
• How to link social media fan pages to your Shopify store
• Tips and tricks to increase your sales conversions
• A walk-through of getting traffic to your Shopify store
• Plus a lot more

Pros:

• The creator of this e commerce course provides as much information as possible to start a Shopify store and use the dropshipping model. Therefore in my opinion, any new beginner who wants to start an eCommerce career can use this course to help them get started.
• The course over delivers on extra tips and tricks to help give you a head start over other Shopify users (who do not take the course obviously ;-)).
• It reveals the different apps that the creator uses to make the process of setting up your store more streamlined.
• The eCommerce training course does not hold much back and his delivery of the course is in a step by step fashion allowing you to do everything that he shows to get you from A to Z.

Cons:

• As with all courses I am of the belief that many eCommerce course providers, set you up to believe that running an eCommerce store is simple. Adam has many great credentials and his eCommerce history is outstanding but as a beginner one’s expectations should be met from the start.
• Running an eCommerce store is no easy feat.
• In fact it is a lot of hard work like any business. You must be prepared to put the effort in to get great results. You must also be prepared for the bumps that will come a long the way.
• No business is easy otherwise we would all be doing it and getting rich in the process. However if you have patience, determination and a strong will to succeed you can be successful with this course to get your first few sales.
• Aside from the hype attached to this course, it is a little disjointed. For example, he may touch on a topic in one video series but not give a complete overview leaving you to guess how it is finished. Then he may pick up that same topic in another video series. So organisation of the course is a little out of whack.
• There are a few broken videos in the course as well making the video and audio quality poor.

Summary:

This eCommerce training course is useful if you want to set up a Shopify store and start making your first sales. Whilst it does touch on Facebook Ads, it was not very detailed to help you understand exactly the metrics you need to look for to be successful with Facebook ads.

Ideally this course is suitable for beginners only. If you want to be more intermediate or advanced then you may have to invest in other eCommerce courses to truly be successful and generate a healthy income with eCommerce.

Start the course by clicking here.

2| Shopify Tyrant: How To Start An Ecommerce Biz From Scratch

Creator: Niche Tyrant

Profile: Niche Tyrant is a brand. They are internet entrepreneurs and trainers who offer courses to help those who are struggling in the internet marketing space.

Cost: Originally $95. Now $15

Who is this eCommerce training course for:

• Only for beginners who are interested in starting an eCommerce store

What you will learn:

• How to start a profitable Shopify store. Shopify offers a 14 day free trial to my readers so be sure to claim your trial by clicking this link.
• How to research high converting products
• How to create successful Facebook ads
• How to use Instagram to drive traffic to your Shopify store
• How to scale your business and automate the process
• Which apps you must have to run your store

Pros:

• If you are new to eCommerce you can use this step by step course to get you started with Shopify. It is an easy to understand course and very informative for those users who have no understanding of what Shopify is and how to use it.
• It explains how to research your niche, find products and target your audience.

Cons:

• This course is not for advanced users of eCommerce. The course really touches the surface of eCommerce but does not go in depth on marketing the store and the best ways to do that.
• Whilst the course touches on Instagram and Facebook marketing, more detail is required for the user to fully understand how to use Facebook and Instagram ads, what metrics are important to consider when running the ads, how to scale the ads, how to achieve a great return on investment to ensure that the store is profitable, how to write ad copy.
• The course is therefore not detailed enough. In some cases the student may have to figure things out on their own or use another course to help them hone in on specifics that they need answered.
• You may be able to find much of the information in this course on eCommerce blogs (like this one ;-)) or YouTube channels. So you must decide whether you wish to spend money first on this course or whether you should spend a bit of time in blogs or YouTube to find the information you need.

Summary:

This eCommerce training course is ideal for beginners only. I would not recommend this course for advanced students.

The course is very simple so you will not find as much in depth analysis to get your store progressing to a profitable and successful business.

Much of the information found in this e commerce course can also be found on blogs or YouTube but if you want everything in one place without having to figure things out then this may be an ideal course for you.

Start the course by clicking here. 

3| Ecommerce Training Academy

Creator: Alaa Hassan

Profile: An eCommerce pioneer with over sixteen years under his belt. He is currently the Director of Digital Marketing at Canada’s leading home fashion retailer. His purpose with the Ecommerce Training Academy is to help other eCommerce professionals like him grow a profitable eCommerce business.

Cost: unknown

Who is this eCommerce training course for:

• This course is for eCommerce and digital marketing professionals
• For anyone who is new to the online eCommerce space and wants help getting started

What you will learn:

• Ecommerce basics how to launch an online store
• How to increase online store traffic and profit from it
• How to convert shoppers into customers
• How to retain customers
• How to get more email subscribers

Pros:

• The material on this website can be accessed for free. Therefore I will consider this a free demonstration of how to get started with eCommerce.

Cons:

• This e commerce training course has not yet launched and you must sign up to get notified when they do so.
• If you are prepared to wait for the Academy to launch, that is your choice. If you would like to start right away then it is better to utilise the other courses that I have recommended in this post.
• Whilst you can use the content on Academy website for guidance, it does also point you in the direction of other resources to follow to solve an eCommerce problem.
• The content on this website is not ideal for beginners. There is no step by step instruction on the site on how to get started with eCommerce. Rather the site directs you to other content elsewhere on the internet where you can learn how to get started.
• If you have some knowledge of eCommerce and merely want extra tips for better results then this site is a useful source of information.

Summary:

This course has not yet launched and you will merely be directed to a blog like platform where information on eCommerce is given for free.

I would not recommend this site for beginners as there are no step by step guides on how to start an eCommerce store. In fact the website makes it clear that the content was created for professionals. It therefore is useful for anyone who wants a bit more insight into eCommerce.

You may wish to get your name on the email list to find out when the Academy has officially launched. More than likely when it has launched you will be required to pay for the course.

Click here to put your name on the email list

4| How To Make An Online Store With WordPress eCommerce Website

Creator: Hoku Ho

Profile: A website developer who teaches others how to create beautiful websites from scratch using WordPress. Hoku got started by designing wire frames and mock ups in Adobe Illustrator for an Iphone App company he co-founded. He then learnt about HTML, CSS and WordPress and now teaches many others how to use WordPress as well.

Cost: Free

Who is this eCommerce training course for:

• Anyone who wants to learn how to create an eCommerce website using WordPress and Woocommerce

What you will learn:

• How to build an eCommerce website step by step using WordPress
• How to register for a domain name, set up web hosting and WordPress so you can go live on the internet
• How to customise WordPress with the Woocommerce plugin and the Storefront theme

Pros:

• This eCommerce course is a very short course lasting one hour and 12 minutes. It is free to access. It is like a crash course to get you set up and running in no time if you are ready to start your eCommerce career.
• The course is straight to the point, clear and easy to understand.
• There is no hype surrounding this course which is great in my eyes.
• It is not intended to mislead the reader into thinking that ecommerce will make them rich. In fact there is no mention of all that fluff that you usually get when someone is trying to sell a product. This was probably eliminated because the course was free.
• The instructor for this e commerce course was very easy to understand, engaging and informative. There were no issues with audio or video quality.

Cons:

• This course only teaches you how to set up an online store with Woocommerce. If you need extra guidance on store content, product description, how to make your store convertible, how to get sales, how to drive traffic to your store, then this course is not for you.
• Similar courses like this can be found on YouTube. The course is however free so there is no problem here.
• It is an introduction however to a paid course. Like everything on the internet there must come a point where you will need to pay for things to get better results. This eCommerce course is a precursor to a paid course.

Summary:

This eCommerce training course is not fine tuned. It merely shows you how to create an eCommerce website using WordPress so will not teach you how to get sales etc. If you need to find out how to build a profitable store then you must go to other courses for help.

Only use this course to find out how to get started with WordPress and Woocommerce.

Start this course by clicking here. 

5| Ecom Entrepreneur

Creator: Vick Strizheus and Shubham Singh

Profile: Vick Strizheus is an entrepreneur, author, speaker, business strategist, and has coached over 3 million students from over 180 countries. Many of those students have already created success stories for themselves.

He is the creator of the Four Percent Group and has partnered with Shubham Singh to create the eCommerce training web class Ecom Entrepreneur.

Shubham Singh is an ecom entrepreneur who started his business at the age of 17 by selling electric scooters. He does not promote the dropshipping model like everyone else but has a unique way of building profitable eCommerce stores.

His actual first store involved arranging a distribution deal with the manufacturers of the electric scooters, rebranding it under his own name and then promoting it online through eCommerce. He has replicated this process for many other eCommerce businesses and is today teaching students how to do this through the Ecom Entrepreneur course.

Cost: Originally $6997. Now $1997

Who is this eCommerce training course for:

• Anyone who wants to start an eCommerce business
• Anyone who does not want to use the drop shipping model. In most cases courses that teach the drop shipping model require you to ship from places like China. Therefore if you prefer not to ship from China markets then this course is for you.

What you will learn:

• How to find the right product for your store
• Finding a manufacturer to get products from
• How to create your company name and domain
• How to set up your brand
• How to create content
• Must use apps for your store
• How to create an eCommerce account with Shopify. Shopify offers a 14 day free trial to my readers so be sure to claim your trial by clicking this link.
• How to set up your store with Shopify
• Using a prelaunch checklist to make sure your store is in order before launching
• How to set up an email list
• How to integrate a newsletter feature on your store
• How to prevent fraud on your store
• How to set up live chat on your store
• How to manage inventory on your store
• How to launch your store
• How to scale your store

Pros:

• This in-depth e commerce course has a precursor to it, which is a free four part video series. From the video series you will learn more about the man behind the Ecom Entrepreneur course, Shubham Singh.
• He tells his story of his start up and how he has deviated away from the drop shipping model, to build hugely profitable eCommerce businesses for himself.
• One of the things that I like about the four part video series is that they make it absolutely clear, that drop shipping is a dying model and that it is unacceptable if you are using Stripe or PayPal to receive payments from customers. In fact drop shipping as a business model is forbidden by Stripe and PayPal and is clearly set out in their terms and conditions. You can therefore have your business collapse if you use drop shipping.
• Therefore the Ecom Entrepreneur teaches you an alternative way which ensures that your business is stable and does not have any risk of falling under in the event PayPal and Stripe discontinue their services with you.

Cons:

• This course is not complete.
• At present the free video series is only accessible. Although it is in its early launch, having launched September 2017, there is still a lot of work to be done with the Ecom Entrpreneur course.
• You can still access the free course if you want whilst you wait for the official paid course to be started.

Summary:

It is difficult at this point to give a detailed synopsis of this eCommerce training course as it is not yet finished. You can however get some value from the free training series where Shubham speaks about his success as an ecom entrepreneur without using the drop shipping method.

If you decide to start a drop shipping store, eventually you will want to get to the point where you are importing in bulk and managing inventory from local fulfilment centres. When Ecom Entrepreneur releases all of its training videos it will teach you how to do so.

6| Shopify Power: Build An Ecommerce Website Using Shopify

Creator: Jason Miles

Profile: Jason Miles is the co founder of Liberty Jane Clothing which started as a brand being sold on eBay. They were soon able to scale up their business and grew from strength to strength launching other online stores, blogs and book deals. Miles’ passion is for business start ups, branding and social media.

Cost: Originally $145. Now $15

Who is this eCommerce training course for:

• Anyone who wants to build an online store using Shopify and is ready to work hard
• You should already have a product, product idea or product plan in place
• You are an artist, crafter or seller of items and need to know how to set up a fully functional eCommerce website
• This course is suitable for entrepreneurs, marketers, small business owners and people. It is not suitable for web developers.

What you will learn:

• How to set up a Shopify website quickly and easily. Shopify offers a 14 day free trial to my readers so be sure to claim your trial by clicking this link.
• How to integrate Shopify with Amazon, Etsy and other selling sites
• How to integrate social media into shopify
• How to understand the Shopify eCommerce platform
• How to collect money from your customers via Shopify
• How to use apps to maximise your eCommerce profit

Pros:

• This course is all about Shopify. If you want to learn how to start an eCommerce store using Shopify, then this is for you.
• It is an easy to implement e commerce course for beginners who want step by step instructions on how to start Shopify. It also delivers the power and possibilities for using Shopify as your eCommerce platform.

Cons:

• This course is very basic. It is not for the user who already has a store set up and is ready to take it to the next level.
• There is no level of detail to this course. As I mentioned before it is very basic and really gives an overview of Shopify.
• The instructor for this course uses Power Point slides rather than walk throughs of how to set things up with Shopify. Therefore this is more or less a what to do, rather than a how to do it course.
• I think that most people prefer to have practical steps when they take online courses. They want a bit of hand holding and a detailed guide on how to do something. Sadly this course does not deliver on that.
• It will not teach you about niche selection, product research or traffic strategies.

Summary:

You may find this eCommerce course useful if you are very, very new to eCommerce and want to learn how to begin by using Shopify.

Other than that, if you are more intermediate then I would not recommend this course. Perhaps the Ecom Entrepreneur course will be better suited for you.   

Start this course by clicking here.

Ecommerce Marketing And Lead Generation Courses

7| Social Traffic Blueprint Facebook Ads Course

Creator: Jon Penberthy & Jubril Agoro

Profile: Jon Penberthy is a full time online entrepreneur who originally achieved success with YouTube Ads. He then catapulted his success from YouTube to Facebook and created the Facebook Ads course for people who want to use Facebook but do not know where to start.

Jubril Agoro is a full time traveller who has been using Facebook Ads to market his products. He is well versed in how to set up and scale a Facebook ad and is ready to help other marketers use this marketing tool to grow their business by thinking outside of the box.

Cost: $997

Who is this marketing course for:

• For anyone who already has a fully functional eCommerce store set up and wants to learn marketing using Facebook Ads
• For any eCommerce website owner who is struggling to get traffic to their online store and wants to learn how to use Facebook to drive traffic to get more sales

What you will learn:

• How to set up a Facebook fan page
• How to create story ads
• How to define and research your target audience
• How to place your first Facebook ad
• Which type of ad is best for your product
• The metrics to look for when running a Facebook ad
• How to read your ads data
• How to troubleshoot ads
• How to reverse engineer your income
• How to retarget your audience to increase sales conversions

Pros:

• This is a very detailed course that first gets into why you need to do things in a particular way in order to get a desired result.
• There is a lot of theory given upfront to help beginners understand why they write ads the way they do so as to attract the right audience.
• This course gives step by step instructions on how to place your first ad and also gives walkthroughs of what to look for to determine whether an ad is profitable or not
• There is a Facebook support group where the creators of this course jump in and answer all the questions posted by the students.
• You can tell that the creators want you to win and are willing to help you as best as they could to get great results.
• They also offer group coaching once a week, so you can take action on your ads and then have them ready to be critiqued.
• People who took this course have seen really great results when they implemented the teachings of the creators
• 30 day money back guarantee

Cons:

• Sometimes you may have your Facebook Ad account disabled however in my opinion not enough help is provided on how to recover your ad account.
• If you are new to eCommerce then you must know that Facebook likes certain legal policies on landing pages that they direct their audience to. The course however does not cover this and this is critical to an ad being approved. More information should be provided on this to help the beginner understand everything that is needed to be known about using Facebook ads.
• Coaching calls are sometimes interrupted by poor internet connection

Summary:

This is a great course for getting to know about Facebook Ads. Most eCommerce store owners use Facebook ads to drive traffic to their stores.

Therefore it is a must have resource to go to, to learn more about how driving traffic if you want to increase sales.

At the price, I love the fact that there are group coaching calls and ongoing support.

The details that need work such as poor internet connection during the coaching calls and covering the legal policies are tiny in comparison to the value that is delivered on this course.

Start this course by clicking here.

8| Pinterest Traffic Avalanche

Creator: Lauren McManus & Alex Nerney

Profile: Co-founders of the Create and Go blogging community and the Avocadu weight loss website. They successfully used Pinterest, a search engine, to drive tons of free traffic to their blogs and create a six figure income in doing so. They are now teaching other people how to use Pinterest as a marketing tool to build your brand.

Cost: $197

Who is this marketing course for:

• For anyone who already has a fully functional eCommerce store set up and wants to learn marketing using Pinterest
• For any eCommerce website owner who is struggling to get traffic to their online store and wants to learn how to use Pinterest to drive traffic
• For any eCommerce blogger who wants to use Pinterest to drive traffic to their blog

What you will learn:

• How to set up your Pinterest account for success
• Pinterest SEO
• How to design your Pinterest profile and boards
• How to create viral content on Pinterest
• How to create pins
• How to avoid Pinterest jail
• How to find and join Pinterest group boards
• How to automate Pinterest traffic using Tailwind. Tailwind is Pinterest’s approved scheduler. They offer a free trial where you can schedule 100 pins for free.
• What plugins to use for a better Pinterest experience
• How to track your progress with Pinterest analytics
• Pinterest ninja secrets

Pros:

• This course is a detailed course on how to get started with Pinterest.
• Pinterest is a search engine and so search engine optimisation is critical to winning with Pinterest. The course gives a detailed review of how to master Pinterest SEO to ensure that you get the most traffic .
• Usually with courses you are given a lot of fluff with Power Point presentations on what to do rather than how to do it. The creators actually show their own dashboard so you can get a behind the scene look at all their content and analytics to see what is working for them and implement it in your own business.
• I also like the fact that they are very transparent about their pinning schedule so you will know how to do the same.
• They do have a Facebook group where they are helpful in answering questions and posting things that are working for them. It’s like they are on the same playing field as their clients.

Cons:

Some of the statements made in the course by the creator gave the idea that it is best to avoid other traffic sources.

Whilst Pinterest is attributed as one of the driving factors behind the creator’s success, I do not think it is acceptable to advise ruling out other traffic sources.

If you have an eCommerce blog and use Shopify then you will know that Shopify allows you to optimise your store for Google SEO. The creators also rule out Facebook. However Facebook is a gold mine for eCommerce store owners and should never be casted out.

At the end of the day it is their opinion but if you were to take this course then you may not agree with their statements when it comes to other traffic sources.

Summary:

This course is useful if you have an eCommerce store and want to try Pinterest traffic for sales. 87% of Pinterest users bought something because of what they saw on Pinterest. 93% of pinners use Pinterest to plan purchases.

Plus you can actually get massive amounts of traffic from Pinterest for free whereas you will have to use Facebook ads to get any comparable numbers.

The course is a detailed step by step course to help anyone who has never used Pinterest get started.

The only thing that you should be wary of is the creator’s own comments regarding other traffic sources. It is an opinion so it is up to you whether you want to give it high regard or let it pass over your head.

Start this course by clicking here. 

Final Thoughts

The courses listed here all bring to the table some type of value which you may get out of it when used. If you are serious about starting eCommerce as a career then I would strongly recommend that you use the best course to become knowledgeable about the topic and master it.

If you are a beginner to eCommerce then the courses on setting up an online store may be suitable for you but you can also find such information on eCommerce blogs or YouTube channels for free.

(I have posted a few of my own blog posts which help in setting up an online store below)

If you want more strategies and tips on building a profitable eCommerce store and potentially growing it to six figures or more, with ongoing support and hand held coaching then an investment is needed for the best courses.

There are three out of the eight courses that I would recommend that you make this investment:

Build a Shopify Dropshipping Business From Scratch. Click here to start

Social Traffic Blueprint Facebook Ads Course. Click here to start Social Traffic Blueprint

Pinterest Traffic Avalanche Course. Click here to start Pinterest Traffic Avalanche 

Cheers

Related Articles: 

• How I Made $7.5k In One Month With My First Online Store 
• 4 Proven Ways To Increase Traffic To Your Online Store
• How To Start An Online Store

P.S Have you taken any courses that has helped you successfully create an online store? Let’s get the discussion rolling. Mention it in the comments below.  

The post The 8 Best Ecommerce Training Courses Compiled And Reviewed appeared first on I Am Dawn-Marie.

How Did Ebay Begin

After operating for two years with lots of success, AuctionWeb changed its name to eBay (short for Echo Bay, a name which was already being used).

Over the years, eBay has gone from strength-to-strength acquiring all sorts of other businesses and organisations primarily operating within the e-commerce industry, such as Gumtree.

Ebay Now

Ebay now operates in all corners of the globe and turns over billions of dollars in revenue each year.

In 2017, they made $8.7 billion! eBay currently employs over 12,600 employees and has buyers and sellers operating on the platform from over 190 different countries.

With 168 million active users, eBay is home to some one billion items, 81% of which are brand new and sold by 6.7 million sellers. Each second, $2,000 worth of transactions take place on eBay.

Buyers flock to the e-commerce platform because of the regular discounts and promotions eBay has, which can lead to huge savings!

Selling on Ebay: Mistakes to Avoid

• price – how much are your competitors selling it for? Does your price beat sites such as Amazon?
• availability – how commonly is your item sold? The more common an item is, the higher the competition and the harder the sale
• unique – what’s unique about your item? Think of a unique selling point and use it to make your listing stand out against competitors.

• title – the name of your item, simple!
• condition – be honest here and list your item properly. Is it new or used? It’s not rocket science! Don’t list a ‘new’ item and then send a ‘used’ one or you’ll get bad feedback.
• photos – you can add 12 photos for free so add as many as possible. Show the item from every angle and show any defects clearly, exaggerate them so the buyer can’t say they weren’t aware of them.
• details – this is your main sales pitch. Create a well written, honest and straight to the point description which describes the item as it is. Use short sentences and keep the description simple; buyers don’t want to read long paragraphs.

Here is a step by step walk-through of your first listing on eBay. To start go to Ebay.com then click on Sell.

Next enter the keyword for the item that you would like to sell. In this case I will enter vintage table furniture.

Ebay will highlight the relevant category for your listing. Once you see the relevant category select it then press the blue Sell It button.

Next eBay will provide you with other listings similar to yours to help you get started. You can either select one of the existing listings which are similar to yours or if you cannot see it select the link Create A New Listing.

Ebay recommends item specifics to help you describe your item in detail.

This helps the viewer understand exactly what they are purchasing so complete as many of the points here. Also when writing your item description be clear and precise and provide as much helpful information to educate the buyer.

Should eBay’s listings not have the information you require then you have the option to enter your own.

Selling Details

Shipping Details 

Fees

Finally eBay will let you know how much it will cost to list your item depending on the information you provided in the listing.

Why Sell on eBay?

eBay is a great platform, especially if you’re a creator who sells very unique or handcrafted items. Plus, eBay’s branding ability beats out competitors such as Amazon.

On Amazon, you can’t have a real presence like you can on eBay. On eBay you can create your very own store and brand it with your business niceties.

On Amazon, customers interact with Amazon – not you – and they get no personality or get exposed to your brand identity.

eBay is very flexible and provides a lot of control to sellers. You can promote your listings with text and images which you choose, and eBay goods are sold with minimal confusion. The same cannot be said about Amazon, who dictate everything on the item’s listing.

Plus, eBay’s returns policy is a 14-day window and you can choose to not accept returns if you so choose.

On Amazon, their returns policy is site-wide and applies to all sellers; a buyer can return an item within 30 days for any reason.

eBay also gives you instant access to revenue because sales are paid through PayPal. As soon as the buyers pay you, that money is available and can be withdrawn to your bank account.

On Amazon, sellers wait 14 days for their funds to be released to their Amazon Payments account, then a further week to transfer it to their bank; it’s a no brainer!

Amazon does not have the same global reach which eBay does, in terms of sellers anyway. At the moment, you can only sell to customers on Amazon in countries which it supports (Western Europe, China, Japan and the US.)

If you’re big on international sales, then you’re better off selling on eBay which has a global reach.

eBay is also so much easier to get started with. With eBay, you can get started within minutes so long as you have a PayPal account and an item to sell, of course! It truly is the better platform for sellers at the moment.

Want to learn more about eBay? There’s a lot of history to this e-commerce giant!

Below, you can find our beautifully designed infographic which is full of interesting eBay-related facts, figures and history and plenty of tips for first-time sellers finding their feet on the platform. Check it out!

Josh Wardini, Editorial Contributor and Community Manager at www.16best.net. With a preliminary background in communication and expertise in community development, Josh works day-to-day to reshape the human resource management of digitally based companies. When his focus trails outside of community engagement, Josh enjoys the indulgences of writing amidst the nature conservations of Portland, Oregon.

The post A Guide To Ebay For New Sellers appeared first on I Am Dawn-Marie.