what to know before starting shopify

hey guys Greta here and today I'm going,to be covering five things that you need,to know before you start an e-commerce,business over the last six years I,founded for multi-million dollar,ecommerce brands including skinny meaty,v and drop model and scaled these brands,into the eight figures I've also made,some huge mistakes along the way these,are mistakes I see new ecommerce,entrepreneurs making again and again now,I've also taught a course alongside,found are called start and Scalia online,store to thousands of students so I've,not only learnt from my own mistakes but,also send thousands of e-commerce,entrepreneurs just starting out make,their own the best thing about making a,mistake are the lessons that you learn,in doing so so today I'm not only going,to identify five things that you need to,know before you start an e-commerce,business but also give you some,actionable tips around them where I can,so let's list them quickly now so that,you know what the agenda is for today,number one your product is the solution,to a problem number two your product,needs to be viable for e-commerce number,three you need to be able to communicate,how you're different,number four your customer is not,everyone and number five you can build,your audience before you have a product,so I'm going to take you through all of,these with an example of a new,e-commerce brand and how you'd apply,each of these learnings to that brand,like I said this is going to be very,actionable then I'm going to let you,know how you can get started today so,let's dive straight into it number one,your product is the solution to a,problem so the first thing that you need,to know when starting an e-commerce,business is that you're not just,creating a product you're solving a,problem the world does not need more,products what it does need is better,solutions to existing problems one of,the most common mistakes I see new,entrepreneurs making again and again is,creating a solution before identifying,the problem so before thinking what,product can I sell first think about,what problem can I solve so what we need,to do is find a problem that you know,exists or better yet you've experienced,yourself ideally this will be a niche,that you're truly passionate about as,this is going to be something that you,want to be able to do day in day out for,the foreseeable future,so let's use an example I'm interested,in protecting our shared environment for,future generations this might be because,my mom was a bit of a hippie and also,like a lot of mums the person I look up,to most in this world so a huge,environmental issue is waste both,landfill and recyclable for different,reasons my mum has taken to doing things,like lighting have been with old,newspaper instead of plastic bags and,she religiously takes her own reusable,bags to the supermarket including the,ones that you put your fruit and veggies,in to be weighed so the problem I'd like,my brand to solve is decreasing waste,from everyday disposable items so a good,way to come up with your product type,here is by turning your problem into a,question and your product type over the,answer to that question so the question,would be how can i decrease waste from,everyday disposable items and one answer,would be to make those items reusable so,now let's start to think of some items,that use daily that are disposable that,you could make reusable so the first few,things that come to mind just off the,top of my head of razors toothbrushes,takeaway coffee cups and straws so now,you want to begin to have a think and do,some research around each potential,product idea and which you think has the,biggest market potential and which isn't,being done as well as the others so,let's fast forward and go for the item,of those which has the least market,saturation which is disposable straws,then we want to focus in and start to do,some additional research around our,problem and solution so we want to look,into some of the facts and figures that,you can focus on to highlight the,problem of disposable strollers,apparently an estimated 500 million,straws are used everyday in the US alone,this is a powerful number and will help,your potential customer instantly,understand the importance of making a,change then you want to highlight the,fact that plastic straws can not be,recycled and that they sit in landfill,for years or pollute our waterways so,you're starting to create a compelling,reason for your prospective customers to,switch to a reusable straw by getting to,the,to understand and even empathize with,the problem now your customer just needs,to understand how your product is,different to every other reusable straw,on the market which we'll cover in point,number three but first we need to make,sure our product is viable for,e-commerce so moving on to point number,two not all products are viable for,e-commerce now that you've come up with,the problem in it you're solving and the,solution your product you need to make,sure that your product is viable to,e-commerce so the number one thing,that's going to determine whether your,product is going to be viable for,e-commerce or not is whether it's able,to be shipped worldwide so it needs to,not be too heavy or your shipping will,cost a lot it needs to not be too,breakable or you'll be issuing a lot of,refunds so let's take our product idea,into account here is it like to ship yes,it's reusable so you'll only me needing,to send one or two items at a time,rather than items of bulk and is it,breakable this is going to depend on,what the straw is made of there are two,main kinds of reusable straws glass and,plastic the e-commerce viability let's,stay away from glass as it's far more,breakable plus it could be quite a,dangerous product if it was to break in,somebody's mouth for example so a metal,reusable straw is a viable ecommerce,option it's also a financially viable,option as it's relatively cheap to,produce and has a high perceived value,so you might be thinking there are,already very usable straws on the market,how is my product different this takes,us onto topic 3 so topic number three is,that you need to differentiate yourself,for your competition the next thing that,you need to do is be able to communicate,how you're different from other brands,or products on the market what we're,looking to do here is to create your,unique value proposition a unique value,proposition is a single clear compelling,message that states why you're different,and worth buying a common misconception,in e-commerce is that you need a crazy,new product idea to be successful this,is not true at all and actually the most,successful e-commerce brands are the,ones that have taken existing problems,and sold them in a new way so what's,important to note here is that you don't,need to reinvent,the wheel you just need to find a point,of difference the way that I do this is,by taking my product and considering how,I could make it different by changing a,single dimension only the dimensions,that I take into account a design,function price and time so let's take a,look at how we could make our reusable,straw different to others on the market,starting with design an option to change,the design of our metal reusable straw,could be making it in a different,colorway especially a trending colorway,like rose gold or Chrome but again these,may already exist another more,specialized design option could be,playing on the design trend of,personalization and each straw could be,engraved with your customer's initials,for example this makes the product feel,more like their own and is a great way,not to get your straws mixed up and in,this way it could encourage bulk orders,from families and offices etc so moving,on to a way that we could change our,products function the best way to go,about changing a products functionality,is to take a pain point into account so,again off the top of my head I can,imagine that a straw floating around in,a bag or day might get quite dirty or,that you might not even be carrying a,bag and you might not want to take a,long awkward straw with you everywhere,that you go so a functional way to help,solve these pain points could be by,designing a straw that's retractable and,able to be folded down to fit in a small,case maybe around the size of a matchbox,and in turn this case would help protect,your straw off and dirt so maybe even,making the case from an antibacterial,substance like copper the next dimension,that you want to consider as a point of,difference is the price of the straw and,it kind of surprising you want to,consider whether you're going for a,lower direct-to-consumer price point,which is more accessible to the masses,or a more exclusive price point for,higher exclusivity I generally go for,the lower direct-to-consumer price point,for a product like this and you can,always bring out a more expensive,limited-edition version of your product,later for example a solid metal rather,than a Polish metal straw and finally,the last dimension that I consider is,time in particular the amount of time,that your product is available for sale,at my company the fifth watches we were,able to differentiate ourselves from the,highly saturated watch market by,changing this single variable only the,amount of time that our watches were,available for we decided to only sell,our watches on the fifth of each month,for five days the scarcity of this,created demand and the exclusivity,increased the saved value other,companies have done this through limited,edition models like jay-z's or the flash,sale model like gilt with this,particular product I think it wouldn't,lend itself to only being available for,a certain amount of time except like we,discussed for maybe a limited edition,version so there you have it some ideas,around how to differentiate your product,from others already on the market so we,have our product now we have to consider,our market which brings us to point,number four your customer is not,everyone so you know the problem you are,solving you know how your product can,serve as a solution to that problem and,how to differentiate yourself from your,competition now it's time to start,thinking about who you're going to be,selling your product to something that I,hear again and again is that because a,new entrepreneur thinks that their,product is so amazing and as it'll,appeal to anyone therefore their target,market is everyone but the thing is that,nobody can afford to market to everybody,so to get more ROI out of your marketing,you need to find the group of people who,your offer is the most compelling for,this is your target market one way to,think about this is in an ideal world,who would love your product and want to,tell all of their friends family and,followers about it this is the group,we're looking for first so there are a,lot of different ways about going to,find your target market you can create,customer personas you can do research on,your competitors and who they're,actively targeting or speaking to but,before you launch the easiest way will,be by reverse analyzing your product,from your audience's point of view you,can do this by ever taking an audience,centric or product centric approach so,for an audience centric approach the,main things that you're going to be,considering are your audience's,demographics so things like their age,location gender income level ethnicity,etc and your audiences psychographic so,things like their personality values and,interests and for a product centric,approach you want to take apart your,product and its core offerings again,this could be in turn,design time function and price and,determine who these would appeal to most,either way as a starting point before,you've launched and have any data about,who your customers actually are we just,want to come up with a few basics so,maybe one or two demographic based,factors and one or two psychographic,factors so let's say for our reusable,metal straw that were wanting to target,people predominantly based in the US due,to our initial messaging around 500,million straws being used daily in the,US aged between 25 to 34 as these could,be young adults wanting to take more,responsibility for maintaining our,shared environment for future,generations,so they'd value the environment and,fillers that they can make a difference,together this is definitely enough,information about our target audience to,get started with so let's go find them,which brings us to the fifth thing that,we need to know before starting an,e-commerce business you need to build,your audience before you launch your,product one of the biggest myths in,e-commerce and with any business really,is the idea that if you build it they,will come,this is that if you have the right,products a beautiful website and great,product photography that people will not,only find you but actually follow,through and make a purchase in reality,this could not be further from the truth,and it's a reason that a lot of brands,do fail so creating a product and,waiting for your market isn't the right,way to go about it but what if we flip,this on its head and focused on building,an audience before we launched a product,and this is where my concept of market,product fit as opposed to product market,fit comes in this concept highlights the,importance of building an audience or a,market before you launch your product,rather than the other way around so I,did this with my brand drop bottle I had,a really big Instagram account with,around eight or nine hundred thousand,followers at the time called app detox,water which featured fruit infused,waters,so I created a product for this audience,which is a double world glass fruit,infuser drink bottle that product was,chosen as one of Oprah's Favorite Things,a couple of years ago and was featured,on the front page of Amazon at,Christmastime and as a result we saw,sales skyrocket so building an audience,before you launch your product is a,great way to get started and where I've,started with all of my brands has been,Instagram,Instagram is still a very powerful,marketing platform where you can build,an audience for free or with a very,minimal budget if you're using,techniques like shoutouts or Instagram,influences over the last six years I've,grown my combined Instagram following to,over 16 million followers across 25,different accounts including app vines,with 5.7 million followers but the most,important question is how do you go,about growing your social following to,grow your social following you need to,focus on what I call the three C's of,community the first C is content the,content that you post is greatly going,to determine the type of followers that,you attract to your account so you want,your content to be both relevant and,valuable to your target audience,so take a look at what other brands you,aspire to be like a posting these don't,necessarily have to be a direct,competition just other brands within,your niche the second C is collaboration,and I'd suggest collaborating with,influencers other accounts in your niche,for shoutouts or another branding your,niche to host a giveaway and the third C,is consistency posting consistently,doesn't only help to establish front,Emine positioning for your brand through,repetition but is also favored within,the Instagram algorithm in other words,accounts that post consistently will,receive more organic reach on their post,meaning Instagram will show their posts,to more people so keep the three C's,content collaboration and consistency in,mind here founder actually runs the best,Instagram course on the market that,teaches you step by step how to grow,your Instagram following called,Instagram domination so if you'd like to,find out more about that I'll put the,link in the description as well and for,the record I'm in no way associated with,the course and I'm not an employee of,founders I just strongly recommend this,course so when thinking about building,an audience on Instagram for example,before we launch our reusable straw we,want to keep what we know about our,nation target audience in mind so we,want to be engaging with environmentally,conscious people from the US aged,between 18 and 34 first we need to find,a theme for our Instagram page we don't,want to create a product page yet as we,don't have our product and we don't want,to be posting other brands so to pick,the theme via page a good,idea is to go back to the problem you're,solving this is so that when we,introduce our product to this page it'll,be relevant and seem like a good,solution to our followers so for us it,was decreasing waste from everyday,disposable items first when thinking,about content we might want to begin by,Bri searching other environmentally,focused pages on Instagram within the,niche and also active hashtags within,the niche both to use in our posts and,to identify viral trending content we,can repost to our page with credit so,after doing a little research I found a,whole Instagram movement around,minimizing waste and there are all kinds,of hashtags for this movement like,hashtag zero waste with over 1.5 million,tagged posts hashtag zero waste home,hashtag zero waste life the list goes on,so the content on my account would be,centered around promoting reusable,substitutions to everyday disposable,products so I'd begin posting,consistently around this theme and in,terms of collaboration I could do a mini,tag to win competition around some of,the items that I feature that wouldn't,cost me much I could also buy some shout,outs or influencer posts from some of,the larger pages in my niche or even get,them to run a competition on my behalf,in this way you'll be able to slowly but,surely start to build an audience that,you can then introduce your product to,later when you're ready,if you switch this account to a business,account on Instagram this will also help,to validate your target audience as you,might end up with analytics that show,that your audience is predominantly,based in the US aged between 25 to 34,and predominantly female for example,then what you want to do is start,getting this audience to sign up to the,wait list for your product which you,might not even have in stock yet this,way you'll have an engaged group from,within your target audience to email out,to come launch day so there you have it,a way to begin building your audience,before you launch your product so those,are the five things that from my,experience you need to know before,starting an e-commerce store if you like,being guided through today is step by,step with an idea in mind then you'll,love my color start and scale with,founder start and scale your online,store will take you through everything,that you need to know to launch and grow,your,own successful e-commerce business from,scratch from finding a trending product,to how to brand and validate your idea,manufacturing your product creating a,store using Shopify building an audience,before you launch your store all the way,through to launching and scaling your,e-commerce brand start and scale we'll,take you through step by step with,actionable advice along the way so we'll,put a link below where you can find out,more about starting scale so thanks for,watching guys and if you want more,content from myself and the founder team,be sure to hit subscribe below the,founder mission is to help you create an,ass-kickin business and help you learn,straight from the mouths of world-class,founders get your free printed edition,of founder magazine featuring Sir,Richard Branson just cover shipping and,handling at founder com Ford / Branson

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