Starting Again
Discussion
Anyone on here made use of a super blogger ? Circa 500k plus ? We have considered this for the cosmetics joint venture.
Personally I am looking forward to promoting the drop ship website, we have no budget to promote it and we are not dependent on it for income it's the sprinkles on the cake not the cake.
Promoting a website when your not sucking every customer through the checkout will be a luxury for me.
Personally I am looking forward to promoting the drop ship website, we have no budget to promote it and we are not dependent on it for income it's the sprinkles on the cake not the cake.
Promoting a website when your not sucking every customer through the checkout will be a luxury for me.
This week I witnessed the slaughter of a poor guy via a hosted e-commerce platform which sounds very like spotify. He done 40k in sales in 2 weeks using their branded payment system , they told him to keep going and although they messed up the name they were sending payments (which were received then returned) they promised that their system would update and payment would be made the next day.
Today he was told he is to successful and they put a 60 day hold on his funds INCLUDING the first money they had already sent after days of saying he would be paid the next day.
He asked them to pay his suppliers direct and the fulfilment house so he could keep trading but they said no then told him to find a new payment processor.
All his start up capital went on stock, shipping and ads. He has nothing left, it was horrible to see him crying his eyes out.
Today he was told he is to successful and they put a 60 day hold on his funds INCLUDING the first money they had already sent after days of saying he would be paid the next day.
He asked them to pay his suppliers direct and the fulfilment house so he could keep trading but they said no then told him to find a new payment processor.
All his start up capital went on stock, shipping and ads. He has nothing left, it was horrible to see him crying his eyes out.
uber said:
This week I witnessed the slaughter of a poor guy via a hosted e-commerce platform which sounds very like spotify. He done 40k in sales in 2 weeks using their branded payment system , they told him to keep going and although they messed up the name they were sending payments (which were received then returned) they promised that their system would update and payment would be made the next day.
Today he was told he is to successful and they put a 60 day hold on his funds INCLUDING the first money they had already sent after days of saying he would be paid the next day.
He asked them to pay his suppliers direct and the fulfilment house so he could keep trading but they said no then told him to find a new payment processor.
All his start up capital went on stock, shipping and ads. He has nothing left, it was horrible to see him crying his eyes out.
This is a sharp wake up call to people using such platforms. Get a proper website and a proper payment processor
Today he was told he is to successful and they put a 60 day hold on his funds INCLUDING the first money they had already sent after days of saying he would be paid the next day.
He asked them to pay his suppliers direct and the fulfilment house so he could keep trading but they said no then told him to find a new payment processor.
All his start up capital went on stock, shipping and ads. He has nothing left, it was horrible to see him crying his eyes out.
This is a sharp wake up call to people using such platforms. Get a proper website and a proper payment processor
uber said:
This week I witnessed the slaughter of a poor guy via a hosted e-commerce platform which sounds very like spotify. He done 40k in sales in 2 weeks using their branded payment system , they told him to keep going and although they messed up the name they were sending payments (which were received then returned) they promised that their system would update and payment would be made the next day.
Today he was told he is to successful and they put a 60 day hold on his funds INCLUDING the first money they had already sent after days of saying he would be paid the next day.
He asked them to pay his suppliers direct and the fulfilment house so he could keep trading but they said no then told him to find a new payment processor.
All his start up capital went on stock, shipping and ads. He has nothing left, it was horrible to see him crying his eyes out.
Lee "someone" should have warned him to precondition his account prior to launch. Personally I would not use a faceless generic gateway for that sort of take off value. Today he was told he is to successful and they put a 60 day hold on his funds INCLUDING the first money they had already sent after days of saying he would be paid the next day.
He asked them to pay his suppliers direct and the fulfilment house so he could keep trading but they said no then told him to find a new payment processor.
All his start up capital went on stock, shipping and ads. He has nothing left, it was horrible to see him crying his eyes out.
Using say worldpay he could have gone through deep security prior to launching.
This scenario seldom happens now as people ramp up but say a big Magento shop went to shopify doing circa £50k a week I would not advise using the shopify gateway initially.
We have just set up on Amazon and eBay as Velstar, I have done all the PayPal checks but still have a £10k limit and Amazon have stated I can trade TO £15k before they want passports etc.
Let's face it money moving laws are tight and going to get tighter.
PPC - £2k a day - typo ?
snobetter said:
Why would a platform do that? Suspected him of money laundering?
Also, previous page someone said they were spending £2k a day on PPC I think, is that getting a high rank on Google?
It's risk assessment should he go down. They make it very easy to get the account so you sign up then do the maths later Also, previous page someone said they were spending £2k a day on PPC I think, is that getting a high rank on Google?
DSLiverpool said:
Lee "someone" should have warned him to precondition his account prior to launch. Personally I would not use a faceless generic gateway for that sort of take off value.
Using say worldpay he could have gone through deep security prior to launching.
This scenario seldom happens now as people ramp up but say a big Magento shop went to shopify doing circa £50k a week I would not advise using the shopify gateway initially.
We have just set up on Amazon and eBay as Velstar, I have done all the PayPal checks but still have a £10k limit and Amazon have stated I can trade TO £15k before they want passports etc.
Let's face it money moving laws are tight and going to get tighter.
PPC - £2k a day - typo ?
Paypal had actually taken him through full security but put a 21 day hold on funds right away so he never used it. It does seem SP / Stripe are getting more strict, last year I seen a number of new accounts do 100k a week and not be limited.Using say worldpay he could have gone through deep security prior to launching.
This scenario seldom happens now as people ramp up but say a big Magento shop went to shopify doing circa £50k a week I would not advise using the shopify gateway initially.
We have just set up on Amazon and eBay as Velstar, I have done all the PayPal checks but still have a £10k limit and Amazon have stated I can trade TO £15k before they want passports etc.
Let's face it money moving laws are tight and going to get tighter.
PPC - £2k a day - typo ?
uber said:
This week I witnessed the slaughter of a poor guy via a hosted e-commerce platform which sounds very like spotify. He done 40k in sales in 2 weeks using their branded payment system , they told him to keep going and although they messed up the name they were sending payments (which were received then returned) they promised that their system would update and payment would be made the next day.
Today he was told he is to successful and they put a 60 day hold on his funds INCLUDING the first money they had already sent after days of saying he would be paid the next day.
He asked them to pay his suppliers direct and the fulfilment house so he could keep trading but they said no then told him to find a new payment processor.
All his start up capital went on stock, shipping and ads. He has nothing left, it was horrible to see him crying his eyes out.
Nightmare. What was the product? As said Stripe don't do any risk assessment until numbers build, and many payment processors have a strange concept of what may be high risk in their opinion. The risk is not just in the their view of the seller, but their view of the risk inherent in the product also. Some years ago I managed to have an insurance product sold using Streamline. When the numbers built and the manager found out exactly what was being sold she had kittens, though thankfully turned a blind eye until I sold on the site.Today he was told he is to successful and they put a 60 day hold on his funds INCLUDING the first money they had already sent after days of saying he would be paid the next day.
He asked them to pay his suppliers direct and the fulfilment house so he could keep trading but they said no then told him to find a new payment processor.
All his start up capital went on stock, shipping and ads. He has nothing left, it was horrible to see him crying his eyes out.
RM said:
Nightmare. What was the product? As said Stripe don't do any risk assessment until numbers build, and many payment processors have a strange concept of what may be high risk in their opinion. The risk is not just in the their view of the seller, but their view of the risk inherent in the product also. Some years ago I managed to have an insurance product sold using Streamline. When the numbers built and the manager found out exactly what was being sold she had kittens, though thankfully turned a blind eye until I sold on the site.
It was a woman's body scub type product shipped via a fulfilment house.Streamline seem to be a bit of a law into themselves, we had a customer doing 8 million + a year and we moved them on to the new API system like stripe so they could do subscription billing. 2 days after integration they were asked for a 350k bond due to risk. We managed to argue our way out it as they had been trading 6 years with no issue!
£2k a day on PPC is not a typo. In the grand scheme of things it's a relatively small budget compared to some spenders with Google. The business I worked in prior to starting my own was spending in the region of £9k.
It's the bid amounts on keywords (over simplification, there are many other factors) that affect your search rankings. Our sites generally sit in the top 4 of a Google search for terms in our sector.
It's the bid amounts on keywords (over simplification, there are many other factors) that affect your search rankings. Our sites generally sit in the top 4 of a Google search for terms in our sector.
janesmith1950 said:
£2k a day on PPC is not a typo. In the grand scheme of things it's a relatively small budget compared to some spenders with Google. The business I worked in prior to starting my own was spending in the region of £9k.
It's the bid amounts on keywords (over simplification, there are many other factors) that affect your search rankings. Our sites generally sit in the top 4 of a Google search for terms in our sector.
Your cost to acquire must be sky high but I assume more than covered by the margin on the service? ( I am guessing service but I am prepared to be corrected if a product) It's the bid amounts on keywords (over simplification, there are many other factors) that affect your search rankings. Our sites generally sit in the top 4 of a Google search for terms in our sector.
You have an exciting model if it has such a high ebb and flow so early in its life.
fellatthefirst said:
I'm in online retail and £2k a day on PPC is fair a reasonable. Im sure some sites could easily spend more. It's the balance in trying to actually make a profit after you have spent that money.
We find our basket value is much higher on our own website than that of eBay or Amazon.
Clothing?We find our basket value is much higher on our own website than that of eBay or Amazon.
MrSparks said:
I'm in online retail and spend £20 a day on Adwords, maybe that's why I haven't got my R8 yet if I need to be spending £2k a day! eek!
Good luck DSLiverpool, looking forward to reading more about your ventures.
Cheers - we have the all important window in a really cool complex - we are in our way.Good luck DSLiverpool, looking forward to reading more about your ventures.
Our next instalment will be how we get on with the cosmetics joint venture and shortly after that the clothing relaunch. One of us is a online clothing ecommerce guru - it's not me ;-)
DSLiverpool said:
Your cost to acquire must be sky high but I assume more than covered by the margin on the service? ( I am guessing service but I am prepared to be corrected if a product)
You have an exciting model if it has such a high ebb and flow so early in its life.
CPA ranges from £10-£50 depending on terms used. There's margin in it, but also several conversion points downstream from landing page so we have to remain on the ball. Our clients' margins are considerable so they're able to pay a reasonable amount for our product.You have an exciting model if it has such a high ebb and flow so early in its life.
We're experimenting with revenue share in our business, however our clients' lead time in getting paid is about 100 days and our cash flow wouldn't withstand that on a big scale at present.
Two monthly update and a few lessons have been learnt:
1, Fancy LA based web designers come up with stuff you might not like. (who knew - not me)
2, In the year I have been out of ecommerce a whole new type of "make nothing but do it very big" type sellers have appeared - I understand loss leaders and feedback builders but on every line !!! it can only be a database builder across 1000+ skus.
3, Its easy to get your head turned by this weeks idea / client / proposition
4, The £ diving has made our Polski Ukrainian engine room 25% more than 3 months ago.
5, Stock and order handling systems on the whole NONE of them do a proper job just 80% of the job and the type you use varies the 80%. NONE of them can handle bundles on Google shopping - anyone ?
So our websites 95% up, it needs a little finishing but has already attracted one client and paid for itself - we should be Shopify EXPERT approved shortly thats when we start the PR we will be the only expert level in Merseyside - adwords and good old PR on a limited budget is the plan.
Our own ecommerce is about to launch I`ll put the link in my profile once up, its linked to ebay via InkFrog and we have a couple of issues but once sussed we will be well qualified to advise etc - the two queries they said they hadnt had before so were not being stupid but maybe we are operating differently, the idea is that site and ebay orders are taken - over £x they need approval (a tick) then they send themselves to the shipping agent. This is ok with the site not so much with ebay yet plus ebay import on variations needs too much manual intervention for my liking - if we cant automate the virgin feed for variations its off to India to be done I think.
The sites held up because it looks ugly, Its a cross between RS components, Maplin and CPC and I think it needs to be a Maplin / ebuyer type interface - easy to change on Shopify but the UX process etc takes time.
Strategy for this first site is machine gun not sniper - selling anything from aerial fixings through PA to guitars !!! 3000 skus at a fixed 50% on cost.
Clients wise we have small ones as a new agency expects but we have (via my partners contacts) 2 very huge rag traders we are in discussion with to replatform (both on Magento) and manage going forward - we need one of these to land as income is inconsistent and not enough after 6 months.
Personally I think once we get Shopify expert status and do some PR we can challenge wemakewebsites who seem to have left the meter on bank holiday mode they are seriously expensive for Shopify and I think we can take work from them once we have some credibility. Should be 10 sites built by November.
If one of the big ones lands I`ll update sooner, if I was relying on this to pay for anything even now it cant! I see the potential but its been 6 months! My 2 partners have had slim pickings but enough to get by on, they are the main talent hence I have no issue with this scenario.
1, Fancy LA based web designers come up with stuff you might not like. (who knew - not me)
2, In the year I have been out of ecommerce a whole new type of "make nothing but do it very big" type sellers have appeared - I understand loss leaders and feedback builders but on every line !!! it can only be a database builder across 1000+ skus.
3, Its easy to get your head turned by this weeks idea / client / proposition
4, The £ diving has made our Polski Ukrainian engine room 25% more than 3 months ago.
5, Stock and order handling systems on the whole NONE of them do a proper job just 80% of the job and the type you use varies the 80%. NONE of them can handle bundles on Google shopping - anyone ?
So our websites 95% up, it needs a little finishing but has already attracted one client and paid for itself - we should be Shopify EXPERT approved shortly thats when we start the PR we will be the only expert level in Merseyside - adwords and good old PR on a limited budget is the plan.
Our own ecommerce is about to launch I`ll put the link in my profile once up, its linked to ebay via InkFrog and we have a couple of issues but once sussed we will be well qualified to advise etc - the two queries they said they hadnt had before so were not being stupid but maybe we are operating differently, the idea is that site and ebay orders are taken - over £x they need approval (a tick) then they send themselves to the shipping agent. This is ok with the site not so much with ebay yet plus ebay import on variations needs too much manual intervention for my liking - if we cant automate the virgin feed for variations its off to India to be done I think.
The sites held up because it looks ugly, Its a cross between RS components, Maplin and CPC and I think it needs to be a Maplin / ebuyer type interface - easy to change on Shopify but the UX process etc takes time.
Strategy for this first site is machine gun not sniper - selling anything from aerial fixings through PA to guitars !!! 3000 skus at a fixed 50% on cost.
Clients wise we have small ones as a new agency expects but we have (via my partners contacts) 2 very huge rag traders we are in discussion with to replatform (both on Magento) and manage going forward - we need one of these to land as income is inconsistent and not enough after 6 months.
Personally I think once we get Shopify expert status and do some PR we can challenge wemakewebsites who seem to have left the meter on bank holiday mode they are seriously expensive for Shopify and I think we can take work from them once we have some credibility. Should be 10 sites built by November.
If one of the big ones lands I`ll update sooner, if I was relying on this to pay for anything even now it cant! I see the potential but its been 6 months! My 2 partners have had slim pickings but enough to get by on, they are the main talent hence I have no issue with this scenario.
Gassing Station | Business | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff