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It was middle of 2014, where I purchased a e-commerce website through flippa.com . I read through the book and wanted to start somewhere. I purchased a website called www.silkyflowerstore.com. It is a drop ship website that sells artificial flower arrangements, wreaths, and various accessories.
I was very new to the whole thing. I thought that I was able to buy an existing website and let it sit, and collect cash. Boy was I wrong! During the time I've owned it, I've sold $3,130. Not bad at all, but with my fixed cost being around $100 a month with very slim profit margin, it didn't seem that good after all.
Here are the things I've learned:
1. Drop Shipping gives you no control - You really have to watch out for the smaller suppliers. If you are a small fish in the ocean, they will make you the last priority. I like to ship my products within the next or two business days. If your suppliers ships a week later, cut them out!
2. When you are getting returns, there is a problem! - Since this year, I've only completed 6 sales. Out of the 6 sales, I had 3 returns!! Some were because the vase in the picture did not look like what was shipped, or they found a better wreath else where. These returns were all from the same suppliers so, cut them out!
3. Get your logistics right - One of my larger supplier has good logistics planned out for their sellers. Every Friday, they will send me their inventory and any price adjustments so I can adjust my website. This was in excel format so it was easy for me to upload them in bigcommerce. For the smaller suppliers, there was countless times when I had an order and I was not able to fulfill them because they were either out of stock or no longer producing them. This was a big problem for me. I once had an order of $700 and I wasn't able to fulfill it.
4. E-commerce is not easy - I thought that this website was passive where I can just sit down and relax. I created instagram accounts, pinterest, facebook, used facebook ads (without much success), changed some of the websites, update inventory. I felt like I could of done more - blog posting, contacting large instagram accounts, e-mailed every restaurants and officers to get a sale. You need to know every pieces in a business from advertising, customer service, making changes to the websites...etc
5. Focus on one business - While running this business, I had my mind on other ideas. At the time, I wanted to create a hair accessory product. I also wanted to start a blog on Accounting (sounds boring right?). To focus, you need to put your blood, sweat and tears in it, and I didn't do this.
So why am I calling quits?
As some of you might know, I'm in the process of creating my own brand and my own product. Drop shipping isn't something I will ever do again. I know some of you had success @G_Alexander . I also didn't have much passion in the flower arrangement business. It is time to close this chapter and start a new chapter.
I was very new to the whole thing. I thought that I was able to buy an existing website and let it sit, and collect cash. Boy was I wrong! During the time I've owned it, I've sold $3,130. Not bad at all, but with my fixed cost being around $100 a month with very slim profit margin, it didn't seem that good after all.
Here are the things I've learned:
1. Drop Shipping gives you no control - You really have to watch out for the smaller suppliers. If you are a small fish in the ocean, they will make you the last priority. I like to ship my products within the next or two business days. If your suppliers ships a week later, cut them out!
2. When you are getting returns, there is a problem! - Since this year, I've only completed 6 sales. Out of the 6 sales, I had 3 returns!! Some were because the vase in the picture did not look like what was shipped, or they found a better wreath else where. These returns were all from the same suppliers so, cut them out!
3. Get your logistics right - One of my larger supplier has good logistics planned out for their sellers. Every Friday, they will send me their inventory and any price adjustments so I can adjust my website. This was in excel format so it was easy for me to upload them in bigcommerce. For the smaller suppliers, there was countless times when I had an order and I was not able to fulfill them because they were either out of stock or no longer producing them. This was a big problem for me. I once had an order of $700 and I wasn't able to fulfill it.
4. E-commerce is not easy - I thought that this website was passive where I can just sit down and relax. I created instagram accounts, pinterest, facebook, used facebook ads (without much success), changed some of the websites, update inventory. I felt like I could of done more - blog posting, contacting large instagram accounts, e-mailed every restaurants and officers to get a sale. You need to know every pieces in a business from advertising, customer service, making changes to the websites...etc
5. Focus on one business - While running this business, I had my mind on other ideas. At the time, I wanted to create a hair accessory product. I also wanted to start a blog on Accounting (sounds boring right?). To focus, you need to put your blood, sweat and tears in it, and I didn't do this.
So why am I calling quits?
As some of you might know, I'm in the process of creating my own brand and my own product. Drop shipping isn't something I will ever do again. I know some of you had success @G_Alexander . I also didn't have much passion in the flower arrangement business. It is time to close this chapter and start a new chapter.
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