$513.88, that’s our gross sales for today. Like I said…killer day! We’ve been averaging $200 per day so far this year, which is not bad. However, $500 is a whole new world.
Are we going to be able to keep this up?
Of course not, at least not right now. This does show that it is possible. We have had larger days, over $1000. Those days were all produced by one big order. The $513.88 was produced by 8 or 9 normal orders. Order volume is going up. That’s a great sign, you can never count on that huge order coming in when you need it. Even if it does come in, it might not be in stock.
Just thought this was a great thing to post about…kind of a milestone.
Until next time,
JBSlife
I know my customers very well, I know that most of them are not computer geeks. I know that sometimes they just want to talk to a real person. I’ve gone beyond just listing our ecommerce phone number, it’s part of our title.
People will get used to seeing your phone number in the upper left hand corner of the screen. If they ever have a question, they know they can pick up the phone and call. However, the real reason is a little more brilliant.
When someone searches for one of my terms, I’m not always in the #1 spot where I’d like to be. However, the phone number in my search engine listings makes me stand apart from everyone else. Searchers immediately know they can give us a call and get the answers that they need.
How Do I Add My Number To My Title?
All you have to do is edit your “title” tags. I have included a snapshot of my the first bit of my source. Depending on how your site is built, it can be done in different ways. Some store software has ways to edit the title within the program, others you will have to do it manually.
Warning: Don’t do this if you are not prepared to provide phone support…you will get calls.
Later,
JBSlife
Most internet junkies find themselves unable to stop at just one website (especially if the first one is not very successful). I have created several sites, somewhere in the range of 25-30. It’s an addiction. The only problem is that I now have a successful ecommerce site, but I want another one.
If I put all of my efforts into my first ecommerce site, it would grow even faster than it is right now. My first store is making real money and putting more work into it could mean $10K to $20K in increased sales. It seems like a no brainer, forget about the new site and work on the successful one. However, I am a risk taker.
Why Start Another eCommerce Site?
- Shipping Policy - Keeping your shipping policy simple is something that encourages sales. Offering FREE shipping encourages orders even more. Offering free shipping on some products and not on others is rough on everyone. Why not have one store that sells only the lighter items (the FREE shipping store) and another store that carries all those items plus heavier items (no FREE shipping on any product)?
- Store Theme - Marketing has great power. I sell many men’s products on a teal and pink website. I could gear the second store to men or at least a little more unisex than teal and pink. Would a different theme draw in a different crowd…YES.
- Different Product Line - If you have more than one hobbie or your wife has a hobbie, you may want to sell two completely different product lines. Starting a second store for this reason makes perfect sense, just make sure your first store is well established first. Starting a second site for a whole new product is like starting a whole new business. Be careful, this can be a lot of work.
Will I Start Another Site?
Probably, but not yet. Web stores are usually not built by a great idea and luck. They are real businesses that are built by real blood, sweat, and tears.
Later,
JBSlife
Moving the physical location of your ecommerce store is tough. I did it today and I will do it again in a couple of months. This was just a short move (about 20 miles), so there was no downtime. The only real problem was trying to find a place to store everything.
Why is it hard to find a place for everything? For the first time, the headquarters of Leotard Crazy will be in my home. Moving a business from a dedicated location to your house provides many benefits, but also few problems.
Benefits
- Closer to family
- No travel time
- Work the hours you wish
- Wear what you want
- Whatever your idea of an “at home” job is, you can create it
Problems
- Space (inventory is stored all over the house)
- Personal and work time blur together if you’re not careful
- Residential shipping rates are more expensive
- Must purchase a P.O. Box or something similar unless you want your home address exposed
- No physical retail space (usually only a problem if you started as a physical retail shop first)
For me, the concept of being closer to family is the main focus. Leotard Crazy doesn’t have too many products and all of them are small. The Leotard Crazy inventory, computer, and shipping supplies will easily fit into one bedroom. This made the decision to move the business to the house very easy.
Towards the end of May Leotard Crazy will move from California to Wisconsin, a much bigger move. While downtime could turn out to be a problem, I am looking forward to this move. My family’s new home will be picked out with the intent of having an in home business. In other words, it will be bigger. Being in the center of the US is a great place to be in terms of shipping, more people can get their orders quicker. Once the move is complete, I will post some pictures.
Inventory control is something that most companies struggle with at one point or another. Actually, it’s something that some major companies struggle with on a daily basis. Inventory control is an ever changing beast that must be tamed to maximize profits. Without efficient inventory control, your online store will fail.
When I first opened Leotard Crazy, I was prepared to succeed. I had plenty of everything, but I had no idea what our sales would be. If I had purchased the inventory correctly, I would have had enough for the entire first year of business. As it worked out, I didn’t purchase correctly. I hadn’t thought about hot products.
I had one very hot product. I sold out of that product within two weeks, other products I still had after a year. Four years later, that product is still accounts for over half of our sales. The point is that only $500 worth of my $10K inventory was turning on a monthly basis. I had a lot of inventory sitting around not selling. My inventory was way too big, but I couldn’t make it any smaller as I didn’t know our selling trends. I had to be ready for anything.
Fine tuning that $10K inventory was a great thing for us. We started off with a $10K inventory doing $500 a month in sales. Four years later we are still running a $10K inventory, but we are doing $5K a month in sales. We are now looking to increase our inventory to $20K.
By having enough working capital to learn through the “school of hard knocks”, Leotard Crazy has been able to take risks and new products and expand at an outstanding rate. The business has grown from under $10K in annual sales to $50K in annual sales in four years. Showing no signs of stopping, Leotard Crazy is working proof that inventory control in crutial.
Being a small, niche ecommerce site (around $50,000 in gross sales last year), customer service is very important. We can’t afford to lose a customer because of miscommunication. With that being said, “Is email always the medium of choice to talk to your customers?”
Leotard Crazy is a gymnastics pro shop. Our customers are not buying our products online because they are net junkies; they just can’t find the products anywhere else. Our customers are not gymnasts, they are the mothers and grandmothers of gymnasts. Our customers are NOT computer literate…are yours?
We know our customers and we know what works for us. We send emails each and every communication that we make with a customer, but that is not enough. There are certain messages that require a personal touch.
Any time there is a problem with an order on either side (ours or customers) we give them a phone call. If an item is on backorder, we give them a phone call. If we are no longer stocking a specific product, we give them a phone call. Credit card issues, we give them a phone call. Some of our customers do NOT check their email and we know it’s our responsibility to keep them informed.
Keep your customers order after order, give them a phone call! Many of our customers know us by name.
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