The Same eCommerce Mistake That Seemingly Even Experienced Entrepreneurs Make

We lurk and sometimes comment on Reddit Ecommerce and other subreddits and forums.

Most are about people and their website with very similar issues:

1. I have a product, should I use SEO or PPC
2. I put up a website last month and have got 10 people on the site, what am I doing wrong
3. I am a marketing manager. I have been tasked to get more people to use our product.

Some of these are people trying to get article content, or figuring out where to start (with slightly iffy questions- if you are a marketing manager then surely you will know how to attract customers?). Some of the questions seem quite genuine and we love to help and offer some kind of advice wherever we can.

Anyway. We see a main theme running through.

Most people have created a product or website then they are trying to figure out how to sell this item.

Ecommerce is not that difficult.

It is very easy to say. But breaking down eCommerce, you either:

• Sell a product that is needed
• Try and balance the income and outgoings

There are multiple amounts of ways to sell- specific social sites, email, PPC, articles, SEO for example and each one has their own little specific ways to sell.

And creating a product before you found a market is very difficult, time consuming and expensive

Most of the top companies first found a customer and then gave them the product.

Amazon. First the found online was taking off. Then they realised that you can have an infinite number of books compared to 100k that can be found in the largest book retailers. Staff bought online. Staff told people about it. Then they contacted customers and asked questions on their ecommerce experience. From there they found customers wanted different products and more product categories were added.

Apple. The Apple I was created because Woz created the computer from bits. A local store hired Woz/Apple to create more and they sold- people didn't want to put together a computer from literally scratch

Being online has made the playing field very level. A small company can look like a large one very quickly. The Internet is also very quick in response time. You can go to market quickly. You can spread the word cheaply if you needed.

But because it is quick and a level playing field. A lot of people are doing the same thing. The are all:

• Doing SEO, 
• Creating articles through themselves/ freelancers or AI
• Finding the same backlinks

There's not a huge amount of differentiation. Because of this, people choose what they know. They know that a known brand is selling so they use that. When all the products are the same then it doesn't matter who the customer picks on the first page of Search.

I was talking to someone who sold food online. Those food items can be bought at a local store. Those food items are not different from the other websites that are selling the same food. So now it is a price war- who can race to the bottom with the lowest price? Or the customer will buy from the most "known" or the ones with the better confidence boosters/ signals- like higher reviews, more Likes.

Ecommerce and social

When starting, the easiest method is to ask people who like the niche that you are wanting to go into. Setting up social groups, going out to groups and hanging out with people in that niche is a sure fire way to find out what they are looking for. If you can gel with them, talk about products and what is missing then you can start to build products that people want. But first you need rapport.

When you create the product you can actually tell people what you are creating and show them the process of creation. It will make them feel special and also show them that you are open to questions and tweaks.

When you start to wrap up and come close to finishing people are now wanting to see the end product.

Guess what, now you have an audience that is building and is going to be more receptive to the product you have. They are also going to be the ones that are going to buy and give you feedback. They are also the ones that are going to spread your word.

Now you might already have an idea for a product but it can be run past your group for validation. They might give you pointers on improvements or even state products already in the marketplace that do the same job.

But even this is not a bad thing. You can then research the product and see what it offers. More importantly, find out what it doesn't offer or what people have issues with. This can now be used in your own product- to an audience who has already bought something similar.

Remember customer first then product.

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