What’s this about? • Share some lessons learnt from starting a business from scratch • How selling a physical product is different to making a website • Testing ideas in a real world environment • Understanding clients better by becoming one @welcomebrand Thursday, 19 September
Building a small business • Find and research a product we could sell • Invested £7,000 in stock • 3 weeks to design, build and populate an ecommerce site in Umbraco @welcomebrand Thursday, 19 September
What have we actually tried? A lot of stuff we just assumed would just work and bring visitors and orders. @welcomebrand Icons: adamwhitcroft.com/batch Thursday, 19 September
What have we actually tried? A lot of stuff we just assumed would just work and bring visitors and orders. High Cost, Low Reward @welcomebrand Icons: adamwhitcroft.com/batch Thursday, 19 September
What have we actually tried? A lot of stuff we just assumed would just work and bring visitors and orders. Google Adwords Full page magazine ads Food show leaflets Facebook ads High Cost, Low Reward @welcomebrand Icons: adamwhitcroft.com/batch Thursday, 19 September
What have we actually tried? A lot of stuff we just assumed would just work and bring visitors and orders. Google Adwords Full page magazine ads Food show leaflets Facebook ads High Cost, Low Reward Low Cost, High Reward @welcomebrand Icons: adamwhitcroft.com/batch Thursday, 19 September
What have we actually tried? A lot of stuff we just assumed would just work and bring visitors and orders. Google Adwords Full page magazine ads Food show leaflets Facebook ads High Cost, Low Reward Low Cost, High Reward Creating original content Giving stuff away to influencers Newsletters & social engagement Landing page and basket optimisation @welcomebrand Icons: adamwhitcroft.com/batch Thursday, 19 September
Selling & Optimisation @welcomebrand We use a mix of front end messages, reporting tools, and little tips we've picked up over time. 1 http://www.welcomebrand.co.uk/thoughts/a-guide-to-ecommerce-postage/ Thursday, 19 September
Selling & Optimisation • Stock and sales reporting tools • Super long basket timeouts • Genuine Free postage 1 • A useful money back guarantee • Remove reasons for basket abandonment @welcomebrand We use a mix of front end messages, reporting tools, and little tips we've picked up over time. 1 http://www.welcomebrand.co.uk/thoughts/a-guide-to-ecommerce-postage/ Thursday, 19 September
Other problems we’ve faced • It can take months to restock • Lots of out of stock items • Users take time and several visits to make a purchase • Clearing UK Customs quickly @welcomebrand It’s not just design and code that cause you problems when you’re selling a product. Thursday, 19 September
What can you take home from this? • Back-office improvements can reap massive rewards • Build tools and reports and use them • Out of stock notifications have 50-60% conversion rate • Automate where possible - stock checks, label printing, it all saves time • Build “battle tested” tools you can use on other projects • Backing yourself gives you demonstrable power @welcomebrand Thursday, 19 September
What else? • Fun factor • Our MP bosses around UK customs for us • We’re going to Japan to visit suppliers • I’m in Macclesfield on a Wednesday night.... • Make money • Enables us to have some “20% time” • Or pay a salary • You can help “Accelerate serendipity” in your life 2 @welcomebrand 2 https://medium.com/makeshift-thoughts/1d03b0d4da2b Thursday, 19 September
Thanks for listening @welcomebrand We sell lovely kitchen knives - cuttingedgeknives.co.uk We also make websites - offroadcode.com Thursday, 19 September
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