just started dropshipping and stucked in most important step

hello ,
First post ,
first website business experience ,


i heard of dropshipping after i tried to start a business in exporting goods that only sold in my town and after seeing tourists going crazy about this stuff , BUT shipping and exporting was nearly impossible with my budget and also i didn't have much experience in running an eCommerce store , then a friend added me to an fb group where i discovered dropshipping + fb ads .

i started a small store and choose to sell hanbags and this is my store : bankofbags.com .

i tried fb ads and got some traffic but no sales targeting the right audience for my niche is little hard than a dog or cat niche ...

i went to instagram influencers after i saw a post about it here in the forum i selected up to ten women fashion influencers and contacted theme but no feedback !

i'm really stucked and don't know what to do , should i go to adwords , bing ads ... and try it out ? or should i change my niche and try something else !



thank you for all the valuable information you sharing in this great forum ,

 

Branding at some point can take on a life of it own...
Would you ever visit a site called Bank of Bags?
What does that mean? Barf bags, grocery bags, golf bags...?

Yea, I know, like everyone else (mouse to the cheeze) you saw
some youtube video that some ecom site was making hand over
first using ecom + fb ads, and you jumped right on the boat thinking
it was going to be the solution to all your woes, right?

These people that are making money hand over fist did not start running
ads just yesterday, and most likely spent a lot of money on ad testing....
you started one ad, it made no money, now you are completely lost, right?

some people get plain ass stupid lucky, they run one or two ads, then they
are making money overnight, for the rest of us, we are completely unlucky,
we run one or two ads, then do not know what to do the next day....

know what you doing before you do it...
what does your data/research telling you?
or are you doing it just because everyone else is?

Brand yourself by coming up with a brandable name
that people can remember you without doing some
type of search "I cant remember that site I was on last week..."

Have $1k-$2k ready for ad testing....
Be prepared to run many, many ads....
out of many, you may get lucky with 1-2 ads that work.

or jump to another ad-network and face more losses....

Do not set yourself up for failure by choosing a single niche that you know nothing about.
setup a flex store, and test various ads and products; If a particular ad/product does not
convert, then remove it from FB, and the store, then set up another....

It is just fool hardy to pick a random niche, run one or two ads, and think
some type of miracle will happen, and it does for a few, not for most.

 

hello dscurlock ,
thank you very much for replying

i can't explain my situation more than you did !

the idea grew in my head more than it should , my expectation was very high just from watching and reading others experiences . that's before i started digging in and realizing how much time and efforts it really needs .

thank you very much again i rally appreciate your advice

 

I absolutely agree with dscurlock.
You probably already understand that ecommerce business is something more than just setting up a store and running few fb ads.
What I would suggest you is to think what are the areas in your life where you are the most experienced. You probably can add value to your customers in those areas. Let me explain.
Here is my example. I have been struggling with my oily skin for years. I tried a lot of products, consulted with several dermatologists. I finally came to the solution of my problem. So I can help other people with similar problems. One of my ecommerce businesses is built around skin care products. I know how to talk to people with skin problems and what products can help them. So my business is both selling the products and adding value to people.
Now. Think about your life. What problems have you sold in your life that you can help others to solve? Where you can add value to your customers? That's a good niche to jump into.
Don't go where you think you can make money. Go where you can add value. And money will come. And you will have great margins because of your established brand and your experience in the niche.
That's how real business is built.

 

Hello simedino,

I feel your pain buddy, I have to say dscurlock and Oleksandr have given you some great advice, a lot of tough love from oleksandr but sometimes we need that.

That is ok don't get down on yourself though because you have actually created something and got it up and running, where most people wish and dream or procrastinate and 10 years later look back and say they wish they had done this or that. That shows real determination and tenacity, it's not easy getting a store up live and running like you have.

I would also say that you have major issues with your store, The logo, the color scheme, and the slider right away will kill any chances of you making sales even if people actually click on your FB Ads.
One thing that I will say to any newbie is that you really need to approach this like a real business.

Think of how you would approach creating a real live brick and mortar business, would the site you have be something you were proud of as your store front?

As an example your color scheme is not going to work, and i'll tell you why every single successfull company uses colors and color schemes strategically for their branding and to create emotional responses in their customers. Look at every company you have purchased from and they all have a color scheme that works, these things you must know about and implement because the modern human mind is conditioned to see these things as signals of quality I like to call it. If you look at successful ecommerce sites they all have signals of quality that are very similar to others. Your color scheme and logo are one of them.

Now because of the Internet age every person can replicate this very easily and FREE.

For color schemes I use Adobe Palette creator
HERE:https://color.adobe.com/explore/newest/

Research branding colors and how they can affect your business
here is a nice article overviewing it.
HERE:http://mashable.com/2013/06/09/color-schemes-business/#CzvLTO9yIEq9

This is just an example but you it shows you the kind of thought process you need to be in when starting something like an e-commerce store. You really need to be prepared and do some due diligence beforehand or you will lose your shirt. There are over 21,000 Shopify stores alone, let alone the others that are out there just in the niche you picked.

Also the Internet just like the real world does not suffer newbies or fools, so if you don't educate yourself and plan wisely the internet will take your money. Some fancy guru will be happy to take your money, Facebook and Google will be happy to take your money. So you really need to think about what you are doing and what your approach will be to stand out.

And on the Guru note dscurlock is also correct in that the ones who have made big money were either very lucky or just stumbled upon an angle that nobody else had done before because the Shopify thing was so new. Most of these either got crazy rich off one or two lucky products and then immediatly created a course to sell to others, but what you don't know is how did they achieve their success, is their information still valid, is it sustainable will it work for me?

And yes you will need to test, test, and test again to be successful if you don't have 2-3 dollars a month to test you won't be able to make large profits using facebook.
at mininum you need 1500 a month budget to test 10 products per day 5$ Budget everymonth.

Oleksandr made an excellent point about Value what kind of Value are you offering over everyone else. If you do it just because you think you will make money your shirt will be removed I can guarantee you that.

So be careful and plan wisely

Cheers

 

For my little experience, the crucial aspects of your ecommerce site is the marketing strategy and how to stand out from the crowd...technical aspects like site creation, CMS, themes, plugins, payment gateway...are just implementation details...
Try to make sure that your suggested business model is adding some value to people..

 

The main things are just having a clean website and the right traffic. If you have those two, then you're set