Anyone with E-commerce experience? Amazon / Shopify

[NinjaX5]

I have been thinking about getting into E-commerce but I'm not sure which way to go.

Amazon or Shopify?

For anyone who has already started, with failures or successes. Please give me some details about your personal experiences and thoughts.

How much is the least, a person can invest into either or?

And what is a good amount to invest in, to see any profits?

[jagsweb67]

Your questions are very vague and open ended. Im an ecommerce consultant with almost 20yrs experience. Ive seen millions of listings over the years, right now have direct influence on about 60k skus on amazon alone and my clients also sell on a variety of other platforms and sites. There are a million different answers to your questions as you have no stated product or goals. Different sites work better for different niches.

the right amount to invest is between zero and all the money in the world. there is no answer to that due to no product info. I can make a website selling products being dropshipped from the manufacturers for under 10$ and/or spend a million on inventory that sits on the shelf waiting to sell. Its all relative.

This is an excellent site to learn how to develop a product.

The best advice I can give you is do your research. What are you good at? What are you passionate about. Its easiest to start there. It is always easy to sell and stand behind something you know and understand.

Secondly, learn, learn a lot and dont ever stop. This business changes in so many ways every year, yet in so many ways it doesnt. Be brilliant at the basics, they never change, yet everyday I see listings and sites with no onpage SEO, optimized titles, descriptions, keywords, alt tags, maximized use of back end entries to aid in search. Amazon and every other platform is full of amateurs that stumbled into a little success with no clue how they got there. I specifically target them for my clients because it is sooo simple. I out maneuver them because they will trip soon and then take the buy box or their edge away from them. It is easier than taking candy from a baby because babies cry and you are stuck listening to it.

Diversify across categories and platforms. Do not just sell in one category on one platform. That is the only way to insulate yourself. Dont put all of your eggs in one basket.

Amazon is not your brother, father, protector or business partner. Amazon will crush you like a pimple given the chance. But on the flip side of that, you cannot buy the marketing power that comes with being on the big platforms. 186 million people visited amazon august 2016. Money cant buy that kind of traffic.

Most important though! Always have a backup plan in place and ready to put in place at a moments notice. When all breaks loose, the person with a thought out backup plan is the one that calmly steps forward, takes control and conquers all.

Now go figure out what your niche or product is and kill it.

[NinjaX5]

(11-13-2016 04:25 PM)jagsweb67 Wrote:  Your questions are very vague and open ended. Im an ecommerce consultant with almost 20yrs experience. Ive seen millions of listings over the years, right now have direct influence on about 60k skus on amazon alone and my clients also sell on a variety of other platforms and sites. There are a million different answers to your questions as you have no stated product or goals. Different sites work better for different niches.

the right amount to invest is between zero and all the money in the world. there is no answer to that due to no product info. I can make a website selling products being dropshipped from the manufacturers for under 10$ and/or spend a million on inventory that sits on the shelf waiting to sell. Its all relative.

This is an excellent site to learn how to develop a product.

The best advice I can give you is do your research. What are you good at? What are you passionate about. Its easiest to start there. It is always easy to sell and stand behind something you know and understand.

Secondly, learn, learn a lot and dont ever stop. This business changes in so many ways every year, yet in so many ways it doesnt. Be brilliant at the basics, they never change, yet everyday I see listings and sites with no onpage SEO, optimized titles, descriptions, keywords, alt tags, maximized use of back end entries to aid in search. Amazon and every other platform is full of amateurs that stumbled into a little success with no clue how they got there. I specifically target them for my clients because it is sooo simple. I out maneuver them because they will trip soon and then take the buy box or their edge away from them. It is easier than taking candy from a baby because babies cry and you are stuck listening to it.

Diversify across categories and platforms. Do not just sell in one category on one platform. That is the only way to insulate yourself. Dont put all of your eggs in one basket.

Amazon is not your brother, father, protector or business partner. Amazon will crush you like a pimple given the chance. But on the flip side of that, you cannot buy the marketing power that comes with being on the big platforms. 186 million people visited amazon august 2016. Money cant buy that kind of traffic.

Most important though! Always have a backup plan in place and ready to put in place at a moments notice. When all breaks loose, the person with a thought out backup plan is the one that calmly steps forward, takes control and conquers all.

Now go figure out what your niche or product is and kill it.

I know mate, I know nothing. Just been watching lectures on both shopify and amazon.

That's the thing I like most about amazon, is the traffic. And with shopify, you have to spend money on the traffic, but I like the dropshipping model when it comes to shopify. Not having to deal with products or inventory...

I enjoy making money. When it comes to niche and product, I was just going to see what sells the most and just replicate other peoples stores. No reinventing the wheel here. Most definitely, I agree that you always have to keep learning... I will probably decide after a few weeks of watching lectures and weighing out my pros and cons.
I appreciate your comment though mate.

[celx]

shopify is a great place to start, usually promo codes out for 1 or two months free. start by finding a niche that has passionate buyers and ideally has some interest to you. ideally a few hundred dollars in working capital to buy and test out some products products, add a few products to the store and test one a time by adding them to social networks, get samples, get feedback, try either free pay just shipping method or offer free shipping on all products for promotion, free always converts better. u will get paid in 2-7 to days with shopify, with amazon u will need to have the capital to pay the inventory a few weeks in advance and also has their own seller fees. ideally with the new store capital u can branch out to amazon easier, at least that's been my experience so far.

[BiiggMike23]

(11-13-2016 04:25 PM)jagsweb67 Wrote:  Your questions are very vague and open ended. Im an ecommerce consultant with almost 20yrs experience. Ive seen millions of listings over the years, right now have direct influence on about 60k skus on amazon alone and my clients also sell on a variety of other platforms and sites. There are a million different answers to your questions as you have no stated product or goals. Different sites work better for different niches.

the right amount to invest is between zero and all the money in the world. there is no answer to that due to no product info. I can make a website selling products being dropshipped from the manufacturers for under 10$ and/or spend a million on inventory that sits on the shelf waiting to sell. Its all relative.

This is an excellent site to learn how to develop a product.

The best advice I can give you is do your research. What are you good at? What are you passionate about. Its easiest to start there. It is always easy to sell and stand behind something you know and understand.

Secondly, learn, learn a lot and dont ever stop. This business changes in so many ways every year, yet in so many ways it doesnt. Be brilliant at the basics, they never change, yet everyday I see listings and sites with no onpage SEO, optimized titles, descriptions, keywords, alt tags, maximized use of back end entries to aid in search. Amazon and every other platform is full of amateurs that stumbled into a little success with no clue how they got there. I specifically target them for my clients because it is sooo simple. I out maneuver them because they will trip soon and then take the buy box or their edge away from them. It is easier than taking candy from a baby because babies cry and you are stuck listening to it.

Diversify across categories and platforms. Do not just sell in one category on one platform. That is the only way to insulate yourself. Dont put all of your eggs in one basket.

Amazon is not your brother, father, protector or business partner. Amazon will crush you like a pimple given the chance. But on the flip side of that, you cannot buy the marketing power that comes with being on the big platforms. 186 million people visited amazon august 2016. Money cant buy that kind of traffic.

Most important though! Always have a backup plan in place and ready to put in place at a moments notice. When all breaks loose, the person with a thought out backup plan is the one that calmly steps forward, takes control and conquers all.

Now go figure out what your niche or product is and kill it.

M@otherfreaking #BOSSTALK BABY