This blog highlights the inspiring journeys of entrepreneurs who transformed small startups into thriving e-commerce businesses.
We all start a new one. Remember the day when a child is born. He seems like such a helpless little thing, incapable of surviving the harshness of the world. But with a little external support, love, care, and a will to grow. He not only learns to walk, think, and speak but eventually becomes independent without anyone teaching him. This is how the cycle of life runs on!
The same happens with online ventures. Entrepreneurs around the world do have the opportunity to venture out into the field of their interest. However, an increasing number of people are putting their bets on online businesses. It isn’t simply because of its burgeoning popularity. But because the online realm is ripe for the picking, unfolding a world of opportunities that they could cultivate in the future.
In the digital lines of businesses, an e-commerce website is a prominent and lucrative choice for business owners to start with. Not only does an e-commerce website liquidate quickly. However, the product range continues to swell with the expansion of the parent brand itself. As the business owner continues to learn new techniques of online marketing and embarks on a never-ending journey of evolution. The brand grows too with a prominent and more loyal customer base.
However, not all e-commerce website projects are fortunate enough to sustain through the first year of their birth. Many fail and fall somewhere in the middle and get wiped out, but, the internet is replete with success stories that can boost the morale of a prospective e-commerce website owner and also communicate some business vitals that can be helpful in the future.
$170,000 Sales in 10 Months, How?
Bushwick Kitchen is an online retailer of hot sauces, hailing from Brooklyn New York. They created tantalizing recipes for their piquant range of hot sauces by leveraging simple ingredients found in an everyday kitchen. Their top-selling item is the hot sriracha sauce concocted from an exotic blend of chilies, garlic, and vinegar, kicking up the heat in anything it is added to.
However, things weren’t as lucrative for Bushwick at the onset, as they appear now. What they focused on was a 3 step formula that helped them succeed. It was:
- Recognition of a problem with the target audience
- A Competitor analysis
- Formulating a solution that was better than their competitors.
By effectively branding their product “MixedMade”, they managed to bag a whopping sales of $170,000 within the first 10 months of their launch. How did they manage to score growth of almost 2,200% in such a startlingly short time?
One bounding reason that pushed the product out in front of a vast audience was the extensive press coverage it received. The co-founders were determined not to leave any stone unturned when it came to achieving their press targets.
Two major hurdles to their immediate growth were the lack of supplies and PayPal temporarily suspending their online accounts after witnessing the abnormal payment figures. Not only did the cofounders persevere in the face of adversity, but they also made sure to diversify their payment mechanisms. So that in the event of one authority suspending their payments, their cash flow could follow other channels. Now, this is what you call smart business.
Bridge the Gap and Make a Fortune
“Threadless” is the brainchild of innovative thinking and the adaptive mindset of a new-age entrepreneur, Jake Nickell.
It all started when Nickell and his partner Jacob started pushing out T-shirt design contests on a website called Dreamless.org, in an attempt to introduce crowdsourcing to the otherwise humdrum realm of T-shirt design. Aspiring designers would post their designs to the website and visitors were asked to vote on their favorite designs.
The best entries from the contest were printed on t-shirts and then sold for profit. Soon after the first batch of t-shirts were printed, they launched their very own venture “Threadless” and independent artists started sending them their original creations, for a hefty commission upon the selection of their designs. The company has been growing at double-digit percentage rates annually and sells millions of tees every year.
The reason behind the thriving success of Threadless lies in its community service. The e-commerce store moved miles ahead of the typical brick-and-mortar e-commerce business models and actually made an effort to bridge the gap between customers and the creators. By crafting an opportunity that revolves around a rudimentary customer behavior; a yearning to be different. By staying vigilant about the new trends, the business created a fortune. While concurrently providing a platform for design hobbyists to showcase their creations and receive appreciation in the form of online print orders.
By giving a voice to their customers, Threadless made customers feel like an indispensable part of their business by giving them the option to decide what they want the company to manufacture. Not every e-commerce business can manage to do it. Thankfully, the founders have an eye for realizing the gap that exists in the market, and in an attempt to bridge that chasm. They also created an equally rewarding opportunity for designers along the way.
Exploring New Channels to Soar Sales
Say hello to Raw Generation. A pure-organic juice company based in Middletown NJ. The venture is owned by the 30 year old Jessica Geier who is also a certified health coach.
While the business had its ups and downs in the beginning, thanks to the proactive approach of the founder, their sales grew to $96,000 from $8,000 in just ONE month. Here’s how?
Deal sites are a common online phenomenon now and many entrepreneurial ventures take their help to increase their sales. Raw Generation was no exception. They also solicited help from Lifebooker which is a relatively smaller deal site than its counterparts. The good thing was that the business only had to pay for actual sales to the online seller.
Since the entrepreneur was operating on a shoestring budget, she decided to explore one avenue that could increase sales instead of whiling away her meager finances. Deal sites proved a fluke of luck for her. Instead of getting her hands dirty in online paid advertising or social media boosts. She opted for deal sites and focused completely on them, resulting in creating multiple deals in just over 2 weeks. The catch for any budding business owner is the tenacity that Jessica harbored, helping her create deals that translated to a multi-figure increase in sales for her brand.
Conclusion
Things tend to appear easier and simpler from afar, but once you step into the realm of entrepreneurship yourself. Your path is ridden with snakes that threaten to throw you to the bottom. Paying attention to details, and putting together an extensive competitor analysis. And creating a value proposition for the target audience are only a few check pointers that should be achieved before embarking on the strenuous journey of entrepreneurship.
Another point that should never be compromised upon is the design of your e-commerce website. Since it’s the first point of contact with your potential customers. It should be appealing and user-friendly to help attract more visitors and keep them riveted.
We suggest that you leave the hassle of designing to credible e-commerce website design services in the United States to avoid bounce rates and garner a professional-looking, aesthetically pleasing web presence. A professionally created design that is fine-tuned to minimize flaws only gets better with time. In addition, the business acumen that you strive to develop further translates into the success of your online venture down the lane.
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