Is this investment too much…?

[Keushei]

Will keep this short and to the point.

I’m launching an e-commerce brand and have got the initials designs for my product all developed in china. I’ve tested the product myself and works exactly as intended and believe there’s a real market for it.

Thing is, I know I have to to test the waters before buying in bulk. Moq is 300 pieces and will be around 2k dollars to ship over. I estimated my profit will be somewhere between 3-5k from selling all 300 units… it’s just untested.

Do you think I should get my site launched now and just have the item as out of stock and take pre orders/emails for when it’s back in stock?

Just fishing for ideas

 

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[MichelleWood]

Do you think I should get my site launched now and just have the item as out of stock and take pre orders/emails for when it’s back in stock?

Hey @Keushei !

First of all congratulations on actually taking action on your product development.

I don't think $2k is too much to invest. However would 100% go with the pre-sale model. I'm not a marketing expert but maybe something along the lines of 'pre-order now', rather than 'sold out'. People love to be the first to get a new item, it's a bit of FOMO and ego combined. You only need to look at the queue when a new iPhone comes out.

 

[StrikingViper69]

You can test it and see if people click through to the order page. Or have pre-sales.

 

[Ali B]

Build a fake landing page with no checkout, advertise it and see how many get to the "Buy now" page.

Try doing it in a more ethical way though

You'll learn a few more skills that way (building a landing page, marketing, and testing analysis).

If it doesn't go well, you've saved yourself 2k, if it does, you win 3-5k(assuming they sell).

Win-win.

 

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[Keushei]

Build a fake landing page with no checkout, advertise it and see how many get to the "Buy now" page.

Try doing it in a more ethical way though

You'll learn a few more skills that way (building a landing page, marketing, and testing analysis).

If it doesn't go well, you've saved yourself 2k, if it does, you win 3-5k(assuming they sell).

Win-win.

Do you think landing page or shopify store?

I’ve half built a basic store but might be worth doing just a landing page.

 

[Ali B]

I think a landing page would be quicker. That way you save time on building a store too

 

[MitchC]

Post the rest of your numbers, sale price, shipping costs, taxes etc

I’d build a store, you’re going to have to build one either way

You say you have the product and it works as you intended, you made it, or it was a sample?

If moneys tight just pay more per unit and order 100 as a test

I’d be giving it the best chance of success as possible otherwise you’ll end up dragging it out, what if I do this, what if I did that better etc, or worse, not trying properly and giving up thinking it doesn’t work when it would have

I’d probably order 100, send some to creators photographers and influencers, and aim to break even rather than profit. Worst case you sell them on marketplace

Also ads are expensive, doing a test and not taking their money would not give you much info, and probably result in you losing more money than if you broke even on a smaller order.

 

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[Keushei]

Post the rest of your numbers, sale price, shipping costs, taxes etc

I’d build a store, you’re going to have to build one either way

You say you have the product and it works as you intended, you made it, or it was a sample?

If moneys tight just pay more per unit and order 100 as a test

I’d be giving it the best chance of success as possible otherwise you’ll end up dragging it out, what if I do this, what if I did that better etc, or worse, not trying properly and giving up thinking it doesn’t work when it would have

I’d probably order 100, send some to creators photographers and influencers, and aim to break even rather than profit. Worst case you sell them on marketplace

Also ads are expensive, doing a test and not taking their money would not give you much info, and probably result in you losing more money than if you broke even on a smaller order.

Sale price I’m testing in the 25-40 range. My guess is sales would happen at 32 but have to see.

I have a sample that works as intended. I have branding set up to be added but that’ll be on the first order, I don’t have a sample with branding on yet.

Moneys not tight, just don’t want to be forking out thousands unnecessarily. It’s my first time in e-commerce and don’t know the ropes well enough to be chucking money left right and centre. I’ll negotiate a 100 moq deal for a higher price though.

I’ll get the store built. Im a web dev too so should be done this weekend. Im using shopify which is painful when you know how to code. But I hear it’s good for back end etc.

My plan was to run some fb ads and tik tok ads as cheap as possible to test waters. I don’t plan to profit on this but a break even would be a win.

I feel like preorder/order 100 units is the way.

 

[Keushei]

Post the rest of your numbers, sale price, shipping costs, taxes etc

I’d build a store, you’re going to have to build one either way

You say you have the product and it works as you intended, you made it, or it was a sample?

If moneys tight just pay more per unit and order 100 as a test

I’d be giving it the best chance of success as possible otherwise you’ll end up dragging it out, what if I do this, what if I did that better etc, or worse, not trying properly and giving up thinking it doesn’t work when it would have

I’d probably order 100, send some to creators photographers and influencers, and aim to break even rather than profit. Worst case you sell them on marketplace

Also ads are expensive, doing a test and not taking their money would not give you much info, and probably result in you losing more money than if you broke even on a smaller order.

Do you do you e-commerce? You sound like you know the game pretty well

 

[MitchC]

Do you do you e-commerce? You sound like you know the game pretty well

Yeah I do

And yeah I think with 100 you can minimise the downside, worst case the remaining units sell on marketplace over time

Can you share all the numbers?
Tax, shipping, landed unit costs, packaging etc.

$32 is a very low price but can be done

Do people buy 1 of these or multiple? Will they reorder?

 

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[Keushei]

Yeah I do

And yeah I think with 100 you can minimise the downside, worst case the remaining units sell on marketplace over time

Can you share all the numbers?
Tax, shipping, landed unit costs, packaging etc.

$32 is a very low price but can be done

Do people buy 1 of these or multiple? Will they reorder?

Yeah I do

And yeah I think with 100 you can minimise the downside, worst case the remaining units sell on marketplace over time

Can you share all the numbers?
Tax, shipping, landed unit costs, packaging etc.

$32 is a very low price but can be done

Do people buy 1 of these or multiple? Will they reorder?

I don’t have all the costs worked out yet, but here’s a few:

Shipping stock from China is baked into the quote. Quoted 325 dollars but mentions the shipping time could be 50-60 days.. which seems excessive?

Production time is about a month but that’s fine.

The price would be 32ish pounds so more like 40 dollars,

The shipping price will be as cheap as I can get, possibly through Royal Mail to begin with. The package size and weight about size of a sports bottle so not huge.

Packaging is free from supplier. It comes in premium brown boxes and plan to stamp branding on the outer box rather than pay for branded boxes.

They may order a couple but one should be fine. My plan was to release supporting products down the road that would 100% benefit the customer too.these are consumables.

 

[Keushei]

I don’t have all the costs worked out yet, but here’s a few:

Shipping stock from China is baked into the quote. Quoted 325 dollars but mentions the shipping time could be 50-60 days.. which seems excessive?

Production time is about a month but that’s fine.

The price would be 32ish pounds so more like 40 dollars,

The shipping price will be as cheap as I can get, possibly through Royal Mail to begin with. The package size and weight about size of a sports bottle so not huge.

Packaging is free from supplier. It comes in premium brown boxes and plan to stamp branding on the outer box rather than pay for branded boxes.

They may order a couple but one should be fine. My plan was to release supporting products down the road that would 100% benefit the customer too.these are consumables.

To be honest, i Am getting another 1750 this weekend when this website is signed off that I’m building. So could just use that cash as the starting capital.

 

[MitchC]

I don’t have all the costs worked out yet, but here’s a few:

Shipping stock from China is baked into the quote. Quoted 325 dollars but mentions the shipping time could be 50-60 days.. which seems excessive?

Production time is about a month but that’s fine.

The price would be 32ish pounds so more like 40 dollars,

The shipping price will be as cheap as I can get, possibly through Royal Mail to begin with. The package size and weight about size of a sports bottle so not huge.

Packaging is free from supplier. It comes in premium brown boxes and plan to stamp branding on the outer box rather than pay for branded boxes.

They may order a couple but one should be fine. My plan was to release supporting products down the road that would 100% benefit the customer too.these are consumables.

50-60 days, is it DDU or DDP? I’m in Australia so it might be different but if it’s DDU you’ll have to pay customs fees and taxes which where I live it would be cheaper and faster just to do DDP. DDP sea is usually much faster because they process everything straight away at the port.

If you do 100 units maybe even just do ddp air

 

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[Keushei]

50-60 days, is it DDU or DDP? I’m in Australia so it might be different but if it’s DDU you’ll have to pay customs fees and taxes which where I live it would be cheaper and faster just to do DDP. DDP sea is usually much faster because they process everything straight away at the port.

If you do 100 units maybe even just do ddp air

Oh okay, yeah I figured there was likely a better way to transport. Would ddp still be 50 days as that seems so long. Maybe I’m just naive.

I’ll take a look at transport options tonight.

 

[Frances Kelleher]

Will keep this short and to the point.

I’m launching an e-commerce brand and have got the initials designs for my product all developed in china. I’ve tested the product myself and works exactly as intended and believe there’s a real market for it.

Thing is, I know I have to to test the waters before buying in bulk. Moq is 300 pieces and will be around 2k dollars to ship over. I estimated my profit will be somewhere between 3-5k from selling all 300 units… it’s just untested.

Do you think I should get my site launched now and just have the item as out of stock and take pre orders/emails for when it’s back in stock?

Just fishing for ideas

I agree with I

Will keep this short and to the point.

I’m launching an e-commerce brand and have got the initials designs for my product all developed in china. I’ve tested the product myself and works exactly as intended and believe there’s a real market for it.

Thing is, I know I have to to test the waters before buying in bulk. Moq is 300 pieces and will be around 2k dollars to ship over. I estimated my profit will be somewhere between 3-5k from selling all 300 units… it’s just untested.

Do you think I should get my site launched now and just have the item as out of stock and take pre orders/emails for when it’s back in stock?

Just fishing for ideas

I agree with Michelle.

 

[MitchC]

Oh okay, yeah I figured there was likely a better way to transport. Would ddp still be 50 days as that seems so long. Maybe I’m just naive.

I’ll take a look at transport options tonight.

I’m in Australia so might be different

Ddu usually 50-60
Ddp usually 20-45
Ddp air 8-12
Ddu air (fedex dhl etc) 3-5

DDU will be a cheaper quote but keep in mind you have to pay the customs fees

Yes you claim the tax back but usually the broker will charge $150 and there’ll be other fees too, you don’t get these back

So small orders are usually cheaper just to do ddp even though you don’t get the tax refund

Plus they’re faster

Also there’s usually like a base fee for small orders so air might not be much more expensive as you might think, sounds like your products are small

This is all just my experience in Australia, I’m sure someone in the shipping industry is shaking their head right now at this amateur advice/summary

 

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[Nishimura Sho]

Do you think landing page or shopify store?

I’ve half built a basic store but might be worth doing just a landing page

Yes. It will be comfortable on Shopify.
Because WP is too slow for installing the woocommerce for landing page.
I am ecommerce developer. So I suggest Shopify platform for the landing page.

 

[Keushei]

Yes. It will be comfortable on Shopify.
Because WP is too slow for installing the woocommerce for landing page.
I am ecommerce developer. So I suggest Shopify platform for the landing page.

Orders being placed tomorrow. I’m paying 3 times the shipping for ddp air. The cost of waiting 60 days is too expensive.

Designs all mocked and sending payment tomorrow when some cash comes in.

I’m launching on Amazon and will do the shopify store too with some ads and organic marketing.

Still need to purchase barcodes, stamp for branding the packaging, leaflet supplier and I think that’s should be it for launch.

 

[Keushei]

Orders being placed tomorrow. I’m paying 3 times the shipping for ddp air. The cost of waiting 60 days is too expensive.

Designs all mocked and sending payment tomorrow when some cash comes in.

I’m launching on Amazon and will do the shopify store too with some ads and organic marketing.

Still need to purchase barcodes, stamp for branding the packaging, leaflet supplier and I think that’s should be it for launch.

I also code websites, so if any of you lovely people need a low cost website, let me know.

Would be wonderful if we could do business.. helps with my cash flow and you get a cheaper than normal website as always give discounts to fastlaners

 

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[Bounce Back]

Orders being placed tomorrow. I’m paying 3 times the shipping for ddp air. The cost of waiting 60 days is too expensive.

Designs all mocked and sending payment tomorrow when some cash comes in.

I’m launching on Amazon and will do the shopify store too with some ads and organic marketing.

Still need to purchase barcodes, stamp for branding the packaging, leaflet supplier and I think that’s should be it for launch.

So are you going to inspect/stamp them and then ship them to Amazon distribution? Or are you handling shipping them out?

 

[Keushei]

So are you going to inspect/stamp them and then ship them to Amazon distribution? Or are you handling shipping them out?

At this point I’ll be sending them out. Once things pick up, fba could be used in future.

The only thing I haven’t done is hire an inspector to check my order quality before shipping. They are sending a sample of finished product before they go ahead and mass produce though.

You think it’s worth hiring an inspector?

 

[Bounce Back]

At this point I’ll be sending them out. Once things pick up, fba could be used in future.

The only thing I haven’t done is hire an inspector to check my order quality before shipping. They are sending a sample of finished product before they go ahead and mass produce though.

You think it’s worth hiring an inspector?

For your order size/price point I've seen in the other messages I wouldn't personally but that's just me (maybe future larger orders or if you switch the product up).

 

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[Keushei]

Orders all finalised and payments sent.

Still need to sort out a stamp for branding the packaging; barcodes; setting up LTD (will get some sales before I do this step)
Sort out Amazon listings when I get the finished sample, take product photos, grow insta following.

Still a fair few things to whilst order is being produced. As soon as I get some traction I’ll place the next order as don’t want to run out of stock.

A part of me feels like I should be all in on this.. but I’m half doing web design and finding clients, half doing the e-commerce.

Stand by though that leaving my job was the best idea. It was such a time sink and now I’m free to per-sue business full time.

 

[Bounce Back]

Orders all finalised and payments sent.

Still need to sort out a stamp for branding the packaging; barcodes; setting up LTD (will get some sales before I do this step)
Sort out Amazon listings when I get the finished sample, take product photos, grow insta following.

Still a fair few things to whilst order is being produced. As soon as I get some traction I’ll place the next order as don’t want to run out of stock.

A part of me feels like I should be all in on this.. but I’m half doing web design and finding clients, half doing the e-commerce.

Stand by though that leaving my job was the best idea. It was such a time sink and now I’m free to per-sue business full time.

Rooting for you man. Try to find creative ways to get high rated reviews asap.

 

[MitchC]

Orders all finalised and payments sent.

Still need to sort out a stamp for branding the packaging; barcodes; setting up LTD (will get some sales before I do this step)
Sort out Amazon listings when I get the finished sample, take product photos, grow insta following.

Still a fair few things to whilst order is being produced. As soon as I get some traction I’ll place the next order as don’t want to run out of stock.

A part of me feels like I should be all in on this.. but I’m half doing web design and finding clients, half doing the e-commerce.

Stand by though that leaving my job was the best idea. It was such a time sink and now I’m free to per-sue business full time.

ecommerce is slow and expensive and has low margins

I’d keep doing as much web design as you can until you have enough profit from ecommerce

 

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[Keushei]

Rooting for you man. Try to find creative ways to get high rated reviews asap.

Thanks! And yeah will do. I have a friend who runs a successful Amazon ads agency who said he’d help set up the products on there. I know i can figure it out but he may know a few things that you can only learn through launching a shit tonne of products for people.

 

[Keushei]

ecommerce is slow and expensive and has low margins

I’d keep doing as much web design as you can until you have enough profit from ecommerce

Thanks for the advice, I’m current building my new site for website stuff and planning to run seo on it. Should be done by the weekend.

Need to get better with lead gen as that’s the part I’m struggling with. Sales and designing I’m fine with.. just not so much lead gen.