Can't Seem To Make First Sale -Ecommerce

[Aidanforsyth0]

How long did it take you to make your first sale online?

How'd you market your website to make that first sale?

What was your marketing budget?

[DavidL]

I would work from building the foundation first and then start from there. Its a combination of things that creates a strong brand.

Check if you can get a business grant.

Few things to think about (may be things missing)

Manufacture:

First are you able to produce the item 100 times and make it the same way nearly every time 1 or 2 redos is okay.

Are you able to manufacture different styles of wallets or zippers ect. You don't have to master them but at least be able to manufacture enough if you get a few sales. Also if you need to sell different styles of leather goods you may not be able to because you need time to learn

Business plan:

Set up the frame work of your business. Using the business plan your company will have a path to takes and also a foundation. Find a template online and add as much detail as you think is necessary and don't worry if its not professionally written, just need the important info. Is your products profitable - did you find the cost of a single wallet and the cost to run your business.

Marketing:

Contact whoever is willing to listen. Write up a short who you are, what your selling and send it to as many people as you can. Local news, newspaper, online sites.. Id imagine on a website people will come up from 2 main sources - from google/google images or from seeing you in the paper, on a website, youtube, a blog ect.

Do keep in mind the easier it is to get into the market the more competitors you will have. Compare your product to the brands that are selling and see what they have that you don't, what can you do that they don't have. VERY important - Why will they buy from me vs my competitors.

What is your brand identity - Are you selling mass market goods, premium goods, luxury goods, what does your brand mean to people - does your brand fit into a certain culture of people or groups? Take a look at brands like roots, hollister, american apparel and they are selling you a lifestyle first, clothing second.

Basically put in the work in your business before expecting steady sales. Sounds boring but do the homework and if you don't know how look to free online courses or free locally funded mentorship.

[SteelcityK9Cop]

The tough thing with e-commerce is SEO.... Search Engine Optimization, There are BOOKS upon BOOKS about it. I have read a munch and am still scratching my head trying to figure out how exactly it works and how to maximize my site's potential.

Oh... and two other keys.. Facebook and Etsty. Etsy hase actually brought more people to my site for sales than the Etsy page itself.

Edited November 24, 2014 by SteelcityK9Cop

[Aidanforsyth0]

  On 11/24/2014 at 11:17 AM, nstarleather said:

Let us know your site, we might be able to give a little more constructive advise.

SEO is great, and that's all we do now, but in the beginning, Pay-Per-Click can get some traffic to your site and let people see you until you get more established.

Also if you're selling on Etsy or Ebay, make sure you have your name placed in such a way that people who are willing to look can go around Etsy and Ebay and find you directly (be careful your not too direct because those sites discourage you from doing sales outside them).

The sales trickle in at first but if you do things right, it comes along.

Another thing- you'll notice lots of folks have their website on their signatures here (an any other forum they post on), that can help as well.

Thanks for all of your responses so far. The site is http://www.lopaloleather.com . I'm currently running some pay per click advertising with facebook and Google. Small campaigns

[Chain]

An east option right now is to put your website URL in your signature.

Google places a lot of importance on "similiar" sites linking back to you.

[Ingrid H]

I wasn't even ready to make my first sale when it was made. I just showed a few photos of some stuff I made for my own dogs on another forum and people were throwing money at me. Of course I was an active member and had online relationships with these customers, but they were willing to shell out some big bucks for collars.

I never wanted to turn my hobby into a business, so I never did a real website or marketing. I didn't want to create my own little sweat shop and ruin a perfectly good hobby.

[snubbyfan]

  On 11/25/2014 at 12:15 AM, Ingrid H said:

I wasn't even ready to make my first sale when it was made. I just showed a few photos of some stuff I made for my own dogs on another forum and people were throwing money at me. Of course I was an active member and had online relationships with these customers, but they were willing to shell out some big bucks for collars.

I never wanted to turn my hobby into a business, so I never did a real website or marketing. I didn't want to create my own little sweat shop and ruin a perfectly good hobby.

Same thing here. After I made my first wet molded pouch and showed it to people at work, they started throwing money at me to make leather multi-tool pouches for them.

Now I'm on gun related forums and I get orders for holsters, knife sheaths and belts.

I don't advertise but I'm thinking of making some things to sell on etsy.

I do set up a vendor's booth at fairs and festivals in the area and get orders from that.

Edited November 25, 2014 by snubbyfan

[Jess Jones]

Go On Youtube and have customers of yours do reviews of your products.

Get an attractive logo (worth every penny) on 99designs.com

Post custom work on your personal facebook and try to attract friends to buy from you. More people than you might think want to support you and see you succeed.

I think your site needs some life to it. Looks very plain. Work on logo asap.

Consider SEO person if you can afford it. You need to rank for the key terms you are trying to attract.

Last but not least, just give it time...The sale will come. Try etsy if you'd like.

Hope this helps you!

[Jess Jones]

Look at my site and that will give you a good idea as to the life you should bring to the site. http://www.thompsontacticalbelts.com post your number, logo, you already hae nice pics and write a blog post every day for the next 30 days. This will increase your seo presenec but make sure you have all your keywords. Also look to do a giveaway to increase awareness to your facebook page. Focus, focus, focus on youtube even if you have to give products away for free so that someone will talk about it. Then post those reviews on your site. If you look on my site at the very bottom-I have a video of me making belts. Video is very powerful. Do a home video of you making the wallets. Does NOT have to be fancy. This will connect customers with you. Also, tell a story. paint a picture of what they are buying. Think of adding free shipping and posting a video fo you talking about yourself and how you got started in leathercraft. People want to connect with who they are buying from. I have that on my site under "About the owner"

[NVLeatherWorx]

I use my regular website as a "teaching and information" tool and conduct all of my online sales through Etsy with the remainder coming from face-to-face sales that I get at local/regional events and fairs. My Etsy Shop is linked to my main website (it actually has its own page there) and my Etsy Shop has links to my Facebook page and standard website. I use Etsy as my online outlet because it is so much easier than having to try and setup all of the various elements that go into creating an actual e-Commerce website or an internal module for it within a standard website.

Between my face-to-face orders (which are the bulk of what I get) and everything else I am quite satisfied with how it all comes out. Just a heads up though, it may take a little bit of time to get your first sale on a site like Etsy but you will get it much faster than if you were to have a full e-Commerce site setup. The key is how you use each element (website, Etsy, Facebook, etc.) that you attach to your name/brand and how they are linked together.

[DavidL]

I would advise against using 99designs.ca. Mostly high school graphic designers trying to make a few dollars and they tend to copy other peoples designs in the contest and other existing companies (The reviews on google some even have been sued). In the graphic design forums that was one thing they all were in agreement on, that no real designer would work for that contest because they keep getting copied by the other designers in the contest. So only the inexperienced graphic designers are building your logo. You also lose that designer to business communication.

[barehandcustoms]

How long did it take you to make your first sale online?

Within the first week of going online I had sold several items and got a few custom orders. You just have to put yourself out there and if you do good work the people will buy it.

Keep in mind that Etsy doesn't work for everyone including myself. I started out by listing my items on multiple market places. I went several months managing the multiple store fronts before I finally pulled my Etsy account. I had sold over 40 items on Ebay and not a single item was sold on my Etsy account. Exact same items with the exact same prices. Nothing against Etsy but I just couldn't sell my product there for some reason.

So I wouldn't gauge success by how much you sell on Etsy. It is a hit or miss for most people.....try another market place.

How'd you market your website to make that first sale?

I didn't advertise at all so I guess I was lucky. Business just seemed to slowly roll in as I listed more items for sale. More work rolled in as customers reviewed my products and verified everything for future customers.

Honestly I wouldn't pay to advertise unless you have enough product on hand to justify it. What if you get a swarm of customers? Let's say 150 people come to you tonight and want a wallet....Could you even handle that volume of customers? If not then you just pissed off around 130 of them and potentially ruined your business.

Go slow man....let it grow at it's own pace.

What was your marketing budget?

I spent maybe $4 on a pay per click campaign.

Edited November 25, 2014 by barehandcustoms

[RoosterShooter]

I'm with Bare Hand Customs with the exception of the 'Pay per Click'. I wasted a lot of needless funds in the beginning by throwing money at 'Window Shoppers' who had no intention of buying in the first place. I learned to pin down my customer base, corner the local market on a few certain items, and post .... post ... post ... on social media sites.

It's not going to happen overnight unless you buy an advertising package with a local radio station ... preferably A.M. since they tend to be cheaper. I spent $800 out of the gate, and had my local media group advertise me in 2 - 20 second time slots during both the Glenn Beck Program and Rush Limbaugh on our local AM Affiliate. That trickled in a little business, but the real business was the nationwide ads that I placed!!!

Start small! You don't want to wake up one morning and have 100 orders sitting in your Account Dashboard! That will be a surefire way to send you to the loony bin. You want to grow small, take baby steps, and be grateful for the free time you have right now. Believe me ... it will get to the point where there aren't enough hours in the day! I probably grew a little too fast for most people's liking, but I tend to work better in a 'Fast Paced' environment, so it worked for me.

Whatever you do ... when you do get busy ... set limits on your time. In other words ... make your computer off limits until 6 PM. That way everytime you hear your order notification go off ... you won't spend the next 15 minutes printing orders, shipping labels, and customer packing lists. That eats in to your valuable work time. Also, don't be afraid to let the machine pick up THAT call!

[Aidanforsyth0]

I have since made my first sale. Last night got 2 orders out of nowhere. I also recently struck a deal with a store for a large order so at the moment I am fairly busy. @roostershooter

What do you mean "nationwide ads"? And also did you make your $800 running your ad on the radio?

[DavidL]

Thats good news. If you are selling on consignment do right up a contract so you have a solid guarantee.

[Aidanforsyth0]

  On 11/30/2014 at 10:15 PM, nstarleather said:

Another thing to keep in mind when spending money on marketing- think of what's possible before shelling out big money for keywords. For years I was number #2 when people searched "Leather pouch" or "Leather Pouches" (still in the top 10)- it's great but it doesn't mean I sell thousands of pouches a week, it translates to less than 100 in a typical week. Therefore there isn't much point to spend big on SEO to get an item like that to #1, you'll have to look at the potential on each item you sell not just getting to number #1

What did it take you to get ranked so well? (money keywords etc. please do tell). I also know there is no one straight forward answer

[Aidanforsyth0]

Are you sure?? I just searched it and I'm on page 6 and still don't see myself...

[Aidanforsyth0]

Oh wow I found myself on page two under horween leather bi fold. Pretty cool!

[jk215]

Guys this is 2015 and you need to advertise like its 2015. No radio, paper, or tv ads. Thats a giant waste of money in this niche. You NEED to be on any social network you can provide content for. Instagram is essential. Facebook business page is essential. Pinterest and Twitter are highly recommended. You need photos of your products where everyone eyes are right now.

[tossik]

  On 1/27/2015 at 10:17 PM, jk215 said:

Guys this is 2015 and you need to advertise like its 2015. No radio, paper, or tv ads. Thats a giant waste of money in this niche. You NEED to be on any social network you can provide content for. Instagram is essential. Facebook business page is essential. Pinterest and Twitter are highly recommended. You need photos of your products where everyone eyes are right now.

Now now here. Don't say traditional media is useless. I do marketing and advertising for a living and online media is no where near as good or popular as traditional media. I see myself a a very tech savvy individual, and even though I do this for a living, I would not spend a dime personally right now on online advertisement. It is a complete waste of money, and a lot of where you would spend money on, one can do for free. Networking is most important in my opinion, so yes, join all kinds of social media outlets and network, put out YOUR OWN content, interact. Then you will see that search engine algorithms will pick you up as a leader in your topic/area. Then you will eventually gain more exposure which in theory should get you more sales.

I can go on and on, but lets not bore people here

[JerrickT]

  On 2/20/2015 at 12:45 AM, tossik said:

Now now here. Don't say traditional media is useless. I do marketing and advertising for a living and online media is no where near as good or popular as traditional media. I see myself a a very tech savvy individual, and even though I do this for a living, I would not spend a dime personally right now on online advertisement. It is a complete waste of money, and a lot of where you would spend money on, one can do for free. Networking is most important in my opinion, so yes, join all kinds of social media outlets and network, put out YOUR OWN content, interact. Then you will see that search engine algorithms will pick you up as a leader in your topic/area. Then you will eventually gain more exposure which in theory should get you more sales.

I can go on and on, but lets not bore people here

I agree, traditional media gets you out to the masses, but the cost is pretty high and the sales orders that you receive may be more than you can take. I'm pretty new to leather craft as a hobby btw, so I might be wrong.. My experience is that online media especially for the handicraft can help small businesses (or workshops) grow slowly, because the amount of exposure you have at that point in time usually translates to the amount sales you can handle. But of course, it still takes a considerable amount of time to accumulate enough content to make your first few sales.

On a side note, (I am very new here), is there any marketplace that specializes in trading leather crafts and/or leather related goods?

Thanks!

[Aidanforsyth0]

The only one I can think of is etsy. Since this post I have made many sales. I can say my presence on YouTube (just from one video) has brought me in the majority of my sales. I'm definitely marketing on Instagram / a little bit on facebook which has helped me with a couple of sales. The real money to me seems to be in the wholesale side of things.

[MonicaJacobson]

Jerrick, I've seen people trading and selling items on leatherworking facebook pages. There are all sorts. I'm only a member of one or two.

[JerrickT]

  On 2/22/2015 at 4:00 AM, MonicaJacobson said:

Jerrick, I've seen people trading and selling items on leatherworking facebook pages. There are all sorts. I'm only a member of one or two.

Hey Monica, thanks for the response! I'll definitely check them out too while I'm still honing my craftsmanship.

Cheers!

[Aidanforsyth0]

It didn't do much in terms of sales, but I get a few people that trickle in from it each day.