Why Shopify did not work
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 มิ.ย. 2024
- In case you're wondering, I broke my thumb trying to jump over a fence.
I think where having your own website can work well is if you already have a huge following of people who believe in you and your channel. However, if you don’t have tons of subscribers and no marketing plan I think a marketplace like Amazon, Etsy or eBay is the way to go. - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
The problem isn't with your website, but rather with putting all your eggs in one basket. It's important to always have multiple revenue streams, so if one of them has a problem the others are still there. I can understand that it's tempting to redirect everyone to your webssite so you don't have to deal with the fees of Amazon or Etsy, but these platforms bring trust for customers and a visibility. Keeping all 3 is definitely the best option. You just have to accept that they won't all pay the same.
The problems are manifold. All the eggs in one basket just being one. But these are common mistakes. Especially when there is no business plan from jump street. The name of the business is also a problem. One could never tell what it is that the business does. In business school it is never recommended one use your name for one. The to with the advent of Google it is hard to optimize your listing and stay within Googles rules. For example if his business is going to be 3D printing that should be in the business name. This step alone can get you to the top of Google search. But he has done a great job of teaching a masters class on what not to do. So he realizes the problem. Now to focus and fix them. He is in a great position though because he is honest with himself and others. Now to focus on the problems and fix them. Being a one truck pony is a great place to start.
And he could use the glow forge in the name of just one of his business entities e.g “ GlowForge Exhaust Solutions “. But if I were him I would stick w/ Amazon to eliminate that problem until he can come up with a better channel to sell.
@iSkeam Sage advice. My thoughts as well. Takes time to build any channel for sales. He is doing a great job and I wish him much success. So refreshing to see someone who is not claiming he made 100k.
yeah the benifit to amazon is they have their own delivery network. You cant compete with that. I know for myself, i buy consumables thru amazon based on how fast they will get to me. Last night at almost midnight, i found some filament and thought hmm its pricier but its sam day delivery. Thats what sells.
Your honesty is super refreshing in the sea of “How I made a bajillion dollars in 1 month” videos. Thank you for sharing all this with others and I wish you the best getting back on top!
Well said.
Thank you for sharing this. Please remember the quote, "There are no mistakes in life, only lessons." We all have gained a lot of lessons in our businesses. The key is to adapt and keep going.
Next, do a video explaining the ins and outs of selling on Amazon
Just went from having a great month to having a horrible month in terms of sales and it really crushes your soul.
3D printing is tricky because it looks like the easiest way in the world to make money but once you really get into it you notice just how hard it is to turn a profit from it.
Anyways, stay strong everybody and lets keep moving forward!
It's important to note that there's nothing specific about Shopify here. It could have been any other order processing service and it would have been the same result because your marketing needs to be more extensive if you're using an indie site. Amazon spends a lot on marketing and so of course you're going to get worse results in a scenario where you're competing with them without doing anything different. Lots of indie sites do take their own orders and do better than amazon sellers but it takes a lot more CRM than just switching order processing systems and hoping for the best. If anything the real lesson here is you can't throw money at a marketing firm and hope they fix all the problems. You need to develop your own funnel and track every step of the conversion process. Don't outsource that.
This is fire right here. Really great stuff. Thank you for sharing.
I hated paying for marketing! I learned how to do everything myself. I've made mistakes but now I have it dialed up, my money goes a a lot further doing my own marketing. There's lots of information on TH-cam. Great video, I love hearing the honesty in your story.
Always appreciate your honest perspective about doing things. It's a shame that Amazon has such a captive market in such a wide variety of products. Self-published authors, for example, are almost entirely reliant on Amazon to sell books, even though it means giving up 30%+, because Amazon is just where 90% of the customers are.
Joe - this is SUCH a good video that so many people need to see! I did something similar with Etsy and 100% agree with you on your points about leaving a large established marketplace. It can work for someone who has a huge following of very specific niche non-need based products! Your point about small biz is why I’m starting a membership to teach other people from my many many hours of learning and mistakes!
Thanks Katie! I see that you’re ramping up with TH-cam videos lately and I love the consistent theme. What are your goals for TH-cam? Feel free to email reply: martinsonmanufacturing@gmail.com
Fantastic transparency! Wish you nothing but the best luck moving forward.
So, no to Shopify and no to jumping fences. Got it. ;-)
It is kind of frustrating that Amazon has such power in the marketplace, but at the same time it is incredible that someone can go from zero to a full-time manufacturing business so easily. In the past you would spend your days calling dealers, begging them to carry your products and shipping stock to them to sell on consignment.
Thank you for sharing your experiences! Though it was humbling, learning through it is invaluable, not just for you but for us as well. I’m happy to hear you’re going to keep moving forward 🙂
Learning from other's mistakes is one of the most valuable things in my opinion. My favorite youtube channels are those that are fully willing to show all the roadblocks and failures in the journey. Seeing a finished product and a build montage is great when you want to see a finished product, but it is a terrible way to build anything. Whether that be a business like this or how to 3d print / design / mold dice, whatever! Great video!
I tried to edit one thing in my big long comment and the whole thing seems to have disappeared. Long story short, thank you so much for sharing your hard lesson. I hate that it happened, but am grateful that you shared. I'm starting out, have had some success and am trying to figure out the best direction to go next. I'm glad I found your channel! (I will also be ordering one of your vent panels. Great idea!)
Really appreciate you sharing these videos and how candid you are about your experience(s). The value / perspective your content contains really can't be understated; you provide the rare perspective of someone who's a designer/engineer/manufacturer 1ST and a youtuber/content-creator 2ND. Please consider making a Patreon- a deeper dive into the technical aspects of running a small-scale manufacturing business like book-keeping, workflow optimization, outsourcing, etc. would be well worth it to me.
I cant tell you how much I appreciate your candor, it takes a huge amount of bravery to be so open and honest to the public like this. Great job. I would follow you more but the content seems a bit all over the place, not judging in anyway mine is way worse, just giving you a new viewers input for what its worth which is likely not much lol.
Thanks for the vid. I’ve just started and you’ve really given me some good encouragement to just jump right in!
Hey, second video of yours that I have seen and I just want to say that I really enjoy your attitude and the fact that you are willing to share this kind of information. I know this video is a year old, I will catch up, but I hope that when I do I find that in 2023 you are thriving. See you there I guess...
Oh yea, and amazon, or scamazon, or whatever, it has had a massive effect on how we all think about buying stuff. And the part that you created that others copied and are outselling you - got to feel like wtf!!! But hopefully that only serves to motivate and inspire you to press on and win. Cheers.
Thanks so much for the vid. I really appreciate all that you’re doing for everyone who’s on the same road.
the practical Amazon's monopoly it's pretty scary, even more taking in consideration everything you said in your last video, but it's so refreshing to watch someone so honest in this (as many others pointed in the comments), I really appreciate it, thank you.
Thank you! I am on the exact same path and am learning a lot from this. Please keep sharing.
Hey that’s great to hear your honesty. There were some parts where I literally cringed since I knew it was going to end up bad or really wasn’t how’d I’d approach something. But that got me thinking and that’s exactly what you set out to do when you shared your story.
Thank you For your great honest story of your journey. Wish you the best moving forward with your business!
Thank you for your valuable insight. As someone who is thinking about starting their own business this is so super valuable.
Really appreciate your candid comments.
I think the best parts of this video and a few others that you've done is sharing how you've thought through your business over time. Both positive and negative aspects.
Really enjoy the business side of your videos.
It helps a lot if you build long term rapport with the customers using email autoresponders if you're using an independent site. That goes a long way toward getting over the perception that you're fly-by night if they've been reading useful content from you for several weeks.
Thank you for your honest experience. Really great to hear honest business experiences, and not trying to sell me on your new "thing"
This is one of the best videos that ever seen cuz you reflects a lot a lot of us that wants to start a bussines only dreams and not a lot of money
Great video, thanks for sharing. Although nothing could be funnier than a Shopify commercial starting up when I clicked on this video!
Thanks for sharing! My story is very similar to your but I am a year or two behind you. I am glad that you shared this. I had very similar thoughts about getting off of Etsy.
I am working on getting on Amazon now. But like you said we are good at making things not always good at this business stuff. I hate all the process of setting everything up. I just want to design my stuff. Maybe one day I will have the money to pay someone else to do all this stuff I don’t like about running a business.
Thank you for sharing your experience so others can learn. It takes a lot of humility to openly talk about your mistakes.
Thanks Joe for the video and thanks again for sharing your experience, you have lit a lamp for me to start thinking more about my Amazon account and try to grow it up thanks bro
I appreciate you Joe for sharing all this information, and I actually watch the amazon video first and was surprised that the Shopify move didn't work out, but you explained very well why it didn't work out. I am in the phase of figuring out what kind of business I want to do. I am an artist I love to create or make things. It can be music, videos, paintings, or other crafts and I like how you say just start. I think I am looking for validation to start and not want to fuck up, but you've proven that mistakes will be made as an entrepreneur.
And the comments below are very helpful thank you all
Thanks for sharing this. It’s encouraging to hear that the video was helpful.
keep it up king, learn from your failure and dont forget that big challenges mean you just can get greater!
Thank you for sharing this lesson you learned in life with your audience.
wow! heavy info. thank you for sharing!
Videos like this set your channel apart.
My take away is that's its best to sell at as many retailers as possible?
Excellent video and valuable information. Thanks man.
Oh, and BTW good luck with you thumb!
This was helpful. Hope you are still going strong
Thanks for sharing this! I love it!
I found this video to be very helpful- my husband and I are starting a laser engraving/manufacturing (for now) small business and investing heavily into our idea with an abundance of materials and supplies to allow for a change in direction and experimentation if one path works better than another. Similar to you- we have skills we CAN market but very little business experience. We have looked into many options for our shop- and haven’t figured out exactly where we want to go.
I also wanted to encourage you to continue with this very honest, simple, straightforward video format of just being you and sharing your experiences. This is the reason I have subscribed. I have returned to your channel several times for informative content and I find your input to be invaluable. Every little angle helps when considering our path forward.
The primary reason we have started this business is to find a way to cope with our mutual desire to be self sustaining after years of, literally not figuratively, traumatic work environments. To us this isn’t a side project- it is our future- and you are a resource that makes figuring that all out just a little bit easier. You are making a small but significant impact on the lives of a couple of people, a veteran and a former 911 operator who both have C-PTSD and who could really use a break.
I try to make sure that people know about the positive impressions they give off when that is due- because people deserve to be complimented and hear good things about themselves, and sometimes they need it more than we know- So truly- thank you!
Wow, thank you so much for the encouraging comment. It means a lot more than to know so I appreciate that.
Thanks for sharing a little about your journey and aspirations. I’m on this business journey for similar reasons and for similar goals.
What kind of equipment do you guys have?
What kind of products do you guys want to make? Feel free to email back if you want: joe@martinsonmanufacturing.com
@@MartinsonManufacturing sorry I didn't respond sooner! I still work full time (11 hours straight friday without a break ☹) and I have ADHD and typically use TH-cam signed out- so it is a struggle for me to remember to respond. Right now as we are just starting out we are completely in the learning process. I'd like to incorporate some sort of electronic components into our work- mostly art based ideas at the moment but struggling with practicality when it comes to cost/time/minimal risk of needing to replace parts due to scratches or flaws. Things like light up shadow boxes/art scenes. Of course we also took the time to design some ornaments since it's that season. As for tools, I've got the majority of a basic workshop when it comes to woodworking/standard tools already- but I could use a few more for larger or more refined projects like a table saw for big cuts, router, dremel- even though I know you JUST advised against unnecessary purchases- I already had a problem with impulse buying tools!😅 I'm currently trying to design some small storage compartments for small items that are difficult to organize- and interactive educational kits for kids to build small toys or learn about different sciences. After we've tried different paths for a while- we'll see what we enjoy the most that is also profitable and go from there. My husband also has experience with blender, substance designer, and inkscape so he is incorporating very detailed 3d engraving into his ideas straight from his 3d modeling and learning how to configure the laser power and speeds to create the best clarity- and which materials actual engrave properly. And I'm rambling now! but I saw the new video so I wanted to make sure to respond before I forget again! Also- ADHD meant trying to e-mail you resulted in me organizing my e-mails and going through my junk mail for 20 minutes and forgetting why I logged into my e-mail so I'm responding here- otherwise I'd typically send something this long through e-mail.... I fail sometimes, forgive me!😬😂.
Yep. I know what you mean. I have a path in front of me. I have some talent and 3D printing has a lot to do with it but not in the same aspect as it is for you. Just trying to figure out how to even start. Good luck!
Your video is great!!.... I have been in Manufacturing for 25 years.. I have NO marketing or sales experience.. Amazon provides me the salesman that people interface with.... ecommerce.
Joe, do you add a thank you card in your product mailer that shows they may be able to buy it cheaper on your website?
Maybe you don't offer next day shipping, or if you do it equals the price on Amazon (or slightly less if your storage and other cost comps are less)? Im not sure of any non-compete clauses, etc.
Thank you for sharing!
Oh No! I was hoping you didn't have to make this video. The online marketplace is a crazy place, i am riding a mini viral wave with one of my products now but i know it will end soon. Hoping to squeeze all i can from it and save money for slow times.
Good learning experience. Thanks for sharing your story Joe. How were monthly costs on Shopify vs. maintaining a store on Amazon or Etsy?
Monthly fees were about the same. Shopify is great you just have to have a lot more marketing to make it work.
You often refer to it as a journey. A good analogy to use. But think of it as a real journey from point A to point B. Say going from San Francisco to New York. A pretty difficult task if you have no map, no know. Method of going, no timeline on how long it will take nor how much it would cost. What are the methods of travel available, walk, swim, bicycle, car , plan etc.
excellent info!
What is the bounceback like when you come back to Amazon? Does having the gap in presence hurt you going forward?
Oof this was depressing lol. I am trying to start my own 3dp business as well. I was going to go the website route instead of Etsy but man, now I'm not so sure.
There's also the question of security. If you buy from amazon, no matter the seller, you know they'll hang them by the balls if they don't deliver. And as a customer you know you'll get your money back with them if anything's out of order.
lol, I did a big boo boo as well, I bought some used printers and now Im having to do massive upgrade to get them to where I need them. My first Customer I went out of pocket to buy a resin printer. So now I have 3 printers that work and 3 that do not. Soon I will have some VZbot printers but I think I need to put more focus on getting another customer. Have no idea how to start that part. Also need to get the LLC started so I can atleast get filament and resin. 0of..
Great Video and typical story of someone who did not research what you going into. Shopify is the 2nd biggest e-commerce after Amazon and before Etsy and there stores they make millions on sales every months, but it has to be done right.
You should have never left Amazon, but instead add Shopify AND Etsy stores and Shopify has so called Sales channels and Apps that allow you to handle all orders ( including Amazon and Etsy orders ) directly in your Shopify Admin and offers Sales channel to easy get products onto Facebook, Google, Tiktok, Twitter, eBay etc.
Utilizing all 3 or at least 2 ( Amazon and Shopify ) can be very powerful and increases your visibility ( especially on Google and Facebook ) over time by a lot, but your Marketing Company should have advised you on that accordingly instead of blasting your budget into useless Ads without the proper infrastructure in place.
Thanks for sharing! Shopify ad comes up on your channel. :-/
"Flying by the seat of my pants the whole time" as I call it.
What are you doing about insurance? How is ANz going? Do you think there's anything you could have done to prevent knockoffs?? Copyright? Patent?
Great video. What not to do is as valuable as what to do. Quick question. What was it that Amazon do that you didn’t like and convinced you to try the move ?
I felt controlled. You don't have complete freedom to do as you wish with your products and listings. In the end, i'd rather follow their standards and have great sales then no sales at all. Maybe when I get big enough I'll try my own site again.
I’m a new follower and new small Laser Cutting business owner. So new, I’ll be calling for accessories, however I own a xTool. Don’t hate please! Lol.
My question is, were you bullied into changing your products you already designed and ready for sale? Meaning, you had a solid concept you loved,but some corporate jackstick wanted you to “tweak” it to show value that week??? Know what I mean?
I work 40+ for corporate vs living my creative dream job so you are definitely an inspiration!!!
Exist in the US something except costly patent? If no you have only short period before competitors copy and sell your very good ideas.
Would you recommend ender for the printer farm? Or better go for a prusa ?
I think you are on the right track though, keep selling on Amazon and Etsy and come up with more products and grow the farm
I’ve never used a Prusa, but from what I can see it doesn’t appear to be any faster or produce any better quality parts which are the only variables that I care about as a business owner. For me quantity of printers is really helpful. I’d rather buy 3 Enders than have 1 Prusa.
@@MartinsonManufacturing the main advantage of the prusa would be reliability, less tinkering, less repairing etc
Do you spend much time with repairs of your enders ?
@@padel24x7 yes and no. Sometimes I go 3-6 months with no issues. Other times there’s issues every week. Usually nozzle/hotend related like oozing and getting stringy underextruded prints. Random power loses here and there too.
But because I have so many if one goes down it’s not too big of a deal.
@@MartinsonManufacturing I have an ender 5 and a prusa i bought assembled. Prusa always works. Ender gave me issues. I tinker with ender, prusa i would never touch. Prusa pays the bills when ender acts up.
Could you run both your Amazon and Shopify or Is it too confusing to keep up with inventory and taxes on the business side?
I just got a Shopify ad before this video played lmao
You said in a previous video that Amazon was requiring you to have a 1 million in insurance. Did you end up finding an affordable option to keep compliance with Amazon?
I did! Great question. I must have been severely misquoted originally, but I was able to get a policy for $500 a year. Very affordable.
I need help bad. I want to get started.
Got an ad for shopify on this video :p
I love how I'm receiving Shoppify ads on this video! 😂
i buy everything on amazon and i've never heard of shopify
Irony, shopify add before the start of your video
You went from a heavily trafficked site to a personal site. The issue is marketing and traffic. You can’t build a site up in a short time.
Thank you for sharing. I’ve learned a lot from your other videos.
Have you ever read The E Myth Revisited? Highly recommend it.
I did many years so before starting this business. I’d probably be great to read through it again.
Appreciate you for making this video. I think @iskean makes a good point about using all 3 options.
Great video, love the honesty. I manage Amazon ppc for my clients and started typing this comment while the video was finishing to tell you at the end of the day, ask for advice, which you just mentioned you should have. Besides asking for advice, “Test”. Test everything you can beforehand so you have data in order to make informed decisions rather than assumptions. Test your amazon listing titles, descriptions, photos, categories. There are simple software automations that will change your pricing every 24 hours and give you answer as to what price is more profitable. Same thing with titles, photos. Ideally you should be sending your YT traffic to Shopify. It’s free advertising and your margins are drastically better without amazon fees, and those are YOUR customers, customers you can then market to directly forever. The question you need answers to is what is causing friction with purchasing from your website. Is it convenience because people have prime and the price was the same? Because you have better margins on shopify can you lower the price as an incentive? Free shipping? Is there an issue with the Shopify site, when you get visitors where in the checkout process are they dropping out? If they leave the site can you trap that event hit them with a pop up and provide a discount? I don’t think it’s wise to just say amazon spent millions and has a better infrastructure. The truth is you don’t know why your conversions dropped, just that they did. Killing the golden goose wasn’t wise and most certainly not for 6 months and any honest marketing agency should have warned you from the beginning to test first and should have figured out what the problem was and adjusted or provided sound advice. But as was often repeated in the comments selling on multiple channels is ideal, but Selling on your website should be your top priority for the long term health of your business “over time” and let the marketplaces eventually be a safety net. Feel free to reach out if you have marketing questions in the future 😊
Thank you for sharing. It's really insightful. Since, I'm currently selling on Amazon and contemplating to move from it.